Through the Well of Pirene

by Ether Echoes

Chapter 10: The Chase

Chapter 10: The Chase

"Resentment seems to have been given us by nature for a defense, and for a defense only. It is the safeguard of justice and the security of innocence." Adam Smith.

Amelia

Up until that point, I had always wanted to try white water rafting. It was one item on a fairly exhaustive list kept in a drawer back in the house. Sadly, like so many things in life, being roped to a screaming baby sapped all of the enjoyment that might have been derived from the experience.

“We’re going to die!” Wire screamed. Her hooves scrambled for purchase on me in an effort to stay afloat in the raging water—a task she was failing at badly.

Moments before we would have careened into a sizable rock, I managed to push away from it after prying one of Wire’s hooves off. I got a lungful of water and a hoof to the face for my trouble, which caused me to gasp and sputter. Another rock slammed into Wire’s back, and she yelped and screamed some more.

“Help! Plea—!” The river dragged her under, and she dragged me along with her, so we tumbled together beneath the white wash, narrowly avoiding another pair of rocks. I fought to keep my head above water, which was becoming ever more of a challenge, until the river mercifully calmed from a raging torrent to merely a brisk flow.

We clung to one another, each of us gasping for air, as something buoyed us from below. I felt at it with my hind legs, wondering what could be holding us up, but my ears perked as a distant roaring became audible.

I grimaced. “Uhm. Wasn’t there a waterfall near the castle?”

Wire shook her white mane out of her face and tried to catch her breath as she spoke. “Y-yes, there’s one right down…” Her eyes widened. “Right down the river.”

The nearby canyon walls were honeycombed with pipes and sluices from the goblin city, pouring water into the river, but the edges looked calm. “We have to get to the si—Hey! Whoa!” I yelped as Wire desperately tried to flap her wings and escape. The two of us were too weighed down, however, and she only succeeded in splashing around and losing buoyancy in the process. We tilted over the waterfall and out over empty space, and both of us screamed.

Wire’s panicked flapping slowed us enough that, when the river rose up to meet us again, the resulting slap of water only left us bruised and battered instead of broken. With stars in my eyes and increasingly waterlogged lungs, I clung to my bag and discovered that it had somehow become a flotation device. This came as a bit of a shock, considering I expected it to be a burden on the river.

Falling off a waterfall had not been part of the plan, but it could have ended much worse if Wire hadn’t been with me. Even if I had successfully managed to escape into the city, it would have left me very near to the Wand King’s goons, which would have probably resulted in me pitching myself over the waterfall and meeting a very messy end, either way. For an accidental hostage and generally being dead weight, Wire had proven herself unexpectedly useful. We were already quite a ways from the castle. The river split once, then twice, carrying us down a tributary.

Thanks to Wire, we had survived getting thoroughly lost.

She was also nowhere to be found.

I searched around frantically before looking down, where Wire floated limply just beneath the surface of the river, one hoof caught in my bag’s shoulder strap. Shocked, I took a breath and dunked my head under water, biting her mane and pulling her up. The blow from hitting the river must have knocked her senseless, for her head lolled uselessly as I hauled her on top of my bag. A very real panic began to seep in—even with her nose and mouth clear, she wasn’t breathing.

Wire had never hurt me. She had just tried to get clear. All she wanted to do was go on a nice lunch break where she could eat in peace for a few minutes before being forced back to work in a dreary mine, making thunderstones.

“Come on!” I shouted at her, giving her withers a solid smack. “Breathe!”

Wire began to heave, coughing weakly. I almost sobbed in relief, and held her tight in case her grip weakened.

The river turned, and the Morgwyn pulled itself out of the water ahead of us. It didn’t shake itself dry, but then it didn’t need to—steam was already rising from its fur as it trotted out to plant itself on a rock and clean its paws. I paddled to the river bank, hooking Wire with a foreleg and hauling her up with me while I pulled the bag with my teeth.

Inelegantly, Wire spat up water and immediately began to hyperventilate. She tried to speak, to sit up, to move her wings, but all she succeeded in doing was drive herself into a greater panic. Finally, she passed out in a lump, her eyes rolling back. I poked her once with my hoof and she stirred fitfully.

“Are you going to be okay?” I asked. Pulling one of her eyelids up proved that she was in Neverland—hopefully she had just fainted. Not that I knew anything about medicine or fainting or how bad that might be in context, but it certainly was better than dying.

The Morgwyn stretched languidly, its blue eyes fixing on me. “The little goblin is quite tried by her ordeal. It seems to the Morgwyn that this is an acceptable result—when you leave here, she will not see your passing, and she will not be able to tell the wee bairn’s pursuers how best to find her.”

I frowned at that, staring up at the sky and then back at the river. Goblins like Wire could fly, so it stood to reason that, if there could be aerial goblins, there might be aquatic goblins, as well. For now, everything seemed clear, but staying here was not a long term option. Not if I wanted to remain free.

My bag still lay at my feet, the water sliding from it as readily as from a duck’s feathers. Indeed, rather than soak in, the water beaded upon the surface of the fabric. I picked the floppy-eared backpack up and inspected it closer. The once-tattered article had been completely restitched, and it didn’t take much imagination to guess who was responsible.

“Rarity,” I said in a breath.

For a moment, that left me feeling conflicted. On the one hoof, the bag was better than new, had quite possibly saved me from drowning, and held all of my meager supplies. On the other hoof, it had been made by a pony—goblin, whatever—who had tried to trick me into being a pawn in some evil king’s chess game. I hated pawns even more than I hated kings—give me a decent queen or bishop any day.With a look upriver, I scowled as I remembered how Rarity had called out to me before Wire and I plunged into the drink, her eyes holding unfeigned worry.

The pack was slid over my head and under one foreleg, its strap cinched up tight so the bag rested over my back, as I started toward the trees. My resolute pace slowed as I turned to look at Wire. “No,” I said. “I want to make sure she’s okay.”

The Morgwyn flicked its tail in a slow pattern as it watched her. “This goblin is not your friend, wee bairn. She is kin to those who trapped you in the castle.”

“Maybe not, but I’m…” I licked my lips. “I’m responsible for getting her into this mess.” Wire began to stir as I considered her limp form, and my eyes narrowed. “Besides,” I said to the Morgwyn, “I have an idea. If I just leave her here, she might show the other goblins where she woke up. They’d be able to narrow their search, and then I’d be in big trouble.”

“She will only burden you.”

“We’ll see.” I trotted back to Wire’s side and helped her up. “Hey, hey, can you hear me?” I waved a hoof in front of her face. “How many fingers do you see?”

Wire blinked at it blearily. “None…?” she slurred.

“Good! Come on, we’ve got to get going.”

“G-going?” She wobbled on all four hooves as she glanced around. Her bushy white tail was already beginning to puff as it dried, but mud matted down the soft, downy feathers on her chest. “Wh-where are… we…” Her eyes grew wide as she turned a slow circle, nearly falling over herself as she took in our surroundings. Her pupils shrank, and her legs grew stock still as she stared around. “Th-th-the Ev-Everfree F-f-f-f-f-orest? Oh, no, oh no, oh no.”

“Yup,” I agreed without the faintest idea of what she was talking about, unable to understand what was so terrifying about a state park. It wasn’t like a bear was going to steal her picnic basket. “The Everfree Forest, which means we need to get a move on.” I reached for her, taking her hoof.

“N-no!” She leapt back from my touch. “I… I’ve gotta get back! Th-they’re… You’re a wanted filly!” She pointed a leg at me. “Th-they’re going to th-think I had so-somethin’ to do with it! I’ve gotta go back, I-I—”

I narrowed my gaze at her and stepped forward, Wire shying from my every step until she backed into a tree. Even then she tried to press herself back further as if I were a snake, and, when I pushed my nose up at her, she flinched. “Yeah? What makes you think you’re not already an accomplice?”

“Wh-what?” she asked as her eyes widened further—which was pretty neat. I didn’t know they could still do that.

I gave her a spot of relief, pulling back and shaking my head. “Look, I know you had nothing to do with it; I understand that you were just yanked into this unwillingly… but let’s take a glance at this from their perspective.” I scraped a line in the mud for each item as I spoke. “First, you’re seen on the elevator with me when I make my escape from the mines—I wouldn’t be surprised if they assumed that the timing was pre-planned. Then, when the guards surround us, you’re seen covering me in what could really be seen as a protective way. Not only that, but anyone looking out their window twenty minutes ago saw you trying to carry me off of that waterfall.”

Wire looked down at the three lines, her face growing red, then white, under her coat. “I… I didn’…”

“I’ll try to explain things if I’m caught. Really, I will.” I probably would have, too, but she didn’t need to know that I was telling the truth. “But… I think you can see what I mean when I say that, from their perspective, you’re already my partner in crime.” I fixed her with a steady look. “Do you honestly think they’re going to believe either of us when we say you weren’t instrumental to my escape?”

That apparently was too much for her. Wire’s eyes watered and she covered her face. She didn’t cry out loud, but it was such a raw expression of terror that I very nearly took it all back.

To let her go would have been tantamount to delivering myself right back into the waiting hooves of the Phony Villains, though. Somehow, I didn’t think it would be ice cream and pleasant picnics by the pond the second time around.

I reached up, putting my hoof on her side. “Come on, Wire. They’ll be looking for us.” She flinched back, but I kept at it. “I’m sorry for getting you into this. It was an accident. We can get out of it together, though.”

“I’ll ne-never see my folks a-again,” she whimpered. “I-I’m be ju-just like Flash—a disgrace.”

“Don’t be like that. Your parents love you.” Well, hopefully goblins loved their kids. If not, she was crying over nothing anyway. “You definitely won’t get to see them again or not be a disgrace if you’re shoved into a jail cell with me.” I shot another glance up at the sky to check for goblins and gave her a little nudge with my head. “Please, Wire? I don’t want you to get caught, either.”

Wire lowered her hooves, looking down at me with her bloodshot, pale blue eyes.

“It’s more than that. I’m lost here—I don’t know how to get around, and I can’t fly up to get a better look like you can.” I stepped back, looking forlornly off into the green-canopied caverns of the wood beyond. “Please. I’m not a bad pony… they stole me away from home, and I need to find my way back. I need your help.”

That did it. Wire swallowed and nodded her head once. “All… all right. I mean, I don’t really know how much help I can be, but… okay.”

“Thank you.” I gave her a smile. “Now, let’s go! They could be on us any moment now!”

By that time, the Morgwyn had gone again, leaving only a wet patch on the rock it had reclined upon. I chose to ignore it—like a real cat, the Morgwyn came and went as it wished. If I had need of it, I knew it would appear.

“Wouldn’t it be better to, uhm, continue down the river?” Wire asked as she looked into the woods ahead and shivered.

I walked into the woods without a second thought. “Sure would! We’d also be in plain sight for anyone watching from above.”

Wire gave one last look over her shoulder towards the river before following. We were two unfortunate, dripping-wet creatures diving into a dark and terrible forest neither of us understood.

* * *

“Uhm, Miss Runaway?” Wire asked sometime later. “Can we not stop to stare at every bug on the way?”

Her hair was standing on end—well, more than it usually did—as she backed away from a fallen, rotting log which served as a nest to quite a few many-legged specimens. Its dark, rich, interior shadows were an ideal home for mushrooms and insects alike. The soil under it would be positively alive, and in a few years it would decay and give way to new plant life that would rise in its place. Nature’s beautiful cycle.

“I am not stopping to stare at them,” I scoffed as I lifted my head to glower at her. “I just saw some I didn’t recognize is all.” Still, I hopped over the log and continued west, keeping a healthy distance between myself and them. Some of those critters had most definitely been poisonous, and I had no real urge to find out how poisonous the others were just then. “Kinda wish I had my entomology book with me, though. I’m positive there were some insects that aren’t in there.”

Wire gagged and took flight, rather higher than strictly necessary to avoid the log. “I’d rather not recognize them at all. I don’t even like seeing them squished by boots or cooked by my lightning jars.” She landed beside me, her ears swiveling at every noise. The canopy captured her attention so entirely it was a wonder she didn’t trip and break her nose.

I gave her a sideways glance as we walked on. For all that she was a few years older, she certainly didn’t act like it. It seemed incredible that someone could be so sheltered, living among the other rough-and-tumble goblins as she did.

The forest, for its part, certainly bore little, if any, resemblance to the park behind the house. Class nature walks and camping trips had embedded in me a fairly good picture of what that place looked like, and this certainly wasn’t it. Everything from the moss to the wildlife was subtly or blatantly different. There were no pines to be seen, and, though I was far from a bird expert, I was pretty sure there weren’t very many toucans in New England.

It all boded fairly poorly for a return trip home. None of this looked familiar from the trip Fetter had taken me on in the stagecoach, and I was pretty sure Wire and I would have had to double back to come anywhere near it. That was unlikely to end well. Already, the two of us had spotted formations of small, black shapes in the sky through gaps in the trees several times over the course of the journey.

Eventually, it got to the point where I couldn’t ignore the burning in my hooves any longer, nor the rumbling in my stomach. The slices of Pinkie Pie’s cakes that I’d swiped hadn’t exactly made for great marathon chow, so Wire and I found a hollow and settled down to share a meal of the seasoned hay packed away in my bag. I didn’t really pay it much mind—food was just something that got in the way of an adventure, and my adventure had just gotten started.

Of course, there was the tiny little problem of having not the faintest clue where to go from there. This Everfree Forest was completely overgrown, without a trail in sight. The only thing that kept us moving in a consistent direction was the sun.

Wire shifted away from a line of ants, holding her wing tight against her body.

“Oh, stop cringing,” I said, rolling my eyes. “They won’t hurt you. Haven’t you ever been camping before?”

As though she’d been hit, Wire flinched and shrank away from me. “N-no.” She bit her lip, ears lowered, and I stared at her for a moment. That downcast expression, the way she held herself delicately—all of a sudden I was put in mind of the girls who got picked on at school by the older, prettier, more popular ones. The clique girls were never very fond of me, either, but I at least knew how to bite back.

“Hey,” I said. “It’s okay. I didn’t mean to snap or anything.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. Never did understand that—why do people apologize for things that they didn’t do? There was a disturbing quality about it. I could almost see a scenario playing out in my head—two beefy goblin women pressing down on Wire as she tried to eat in peace, making her apologize for troubling them. It was just a fancy, but it made the damp hollow feel a lot more clammy and a lot less comforting.

I shook my head. “No big deal. How, uhm… how are you holding up?”

She scrunched down even further, forming a tight, mustard yellow ball with a tuft of white mane sticking out the top.

“Oh.” I blushed and rubbed the back of my head. “Guess you’re kinda freaking out over the whole ‘I’m now a criminal on the run from my own kind’ thing.”

Wire whimpered softly. “I wish my Ma were here.”

This only made things feel even more uncomfortable. It wasn’t really my fault, though—I had to protect myself, and, after all, I could have been right about them assuming she was associated with me. That’s what villains did all the time in cartoons and movies.

“I’m sure they’re missing you, too,” I said.

“No. They probably aren’t,” Wire said with a tinge of bitterness. “It’s just like when Flash scarpered off. At first they were worried, on account of her not leavin’ anyone a note or a ‘how do you do,’ but then when she refused the call they threw her stuff out and that was that.” Wire sniffled. “Th-then Ma cried all week. She still cries. If Pa even hears the word ‘Flash,’ he breaks whatever he was holdin’. S’why we got the unbreakable plates.”

She rambled, and I frowned as a thought niggled the back of my mind. The capture of it sent a bolt of lightning through me—I had gone quite a long time without so much as a single thought paid to my own parents. They’d probably be home by now, of course, along with Daphne. After that first night, they definitely would have called the police. No, probably within the first hour that they discovered I hadn’t come home with Daphne.

I stared at the ground for a while, wondering if Mom was at work, or if she’d be sitting at the table, waiting for me to come back through the door. It was all so strangely detached—like the sadness and longing I should have felt belonged to someone else entirely. After all, I was coming back. Sure, I had a new set of hooves, but we could work with that.

At least Daphne was probably being punished. That thought cheered me right up. Perhaps they’d start by hanging her by her ankles and progress up from there.

More sniffling drew my attention back to Wire. “Not like I really cared. She doesn’t want to say ‘goodbye’ to me, goin’ to go on a big adventure without me? Well, that’s tidy for her.” She rubbed at her face, smearing her tears. “I didn’ need her. So what if I can’t act? I’ve got plenty goin’ for me.”

“Who’s this ‘Flash’ you keep talking about?” I asked. “Is she your sister or something?”

Wire nodded. “Aye. She was our big sister, me and the others.” She stared ahead at a tree root, heedless of the ants crawling up her leg. “I n-never really c-cared for her. You know how it is. Apple of Da’s eye, Ma’s favorite. Proper goblin hero she was supposed to be.”

My ears pricked forward. “A hero? How do you mean?”

“It was stupid,” Wire spat. She brushed at her leg absently and fished around for more of the hay to chew. “Fetter chose her, one out of a thousand auditions, for some big, stupid role. She never had time for any of us after that.” She stared down at the hay. “I was only like three or four anyway, just a wee nip. Hardly noticed her.”

“What role was that?” I asked.

“Oh. It was some big production—the Wand King himself commissioned it, see.” Wire looked back at me. “There was a whole cast of extras, and she was gonna work with five costars. They didn’t start it though, not for a while, so she went to trainin’ for a few years. Perfectin’ the art of transformation and illusion.”

“Not for a while? When did…” I paused and my brows creased.

Wire went on regardless. “Oh, aye. They finally kicked it off just a week or so ago. Had us work overtime to pull the big stage outta storage.” She beamed. “I even got to help hook up the fake sun. It was a beaut, lemme tell you—biggest light I ever did work with. Proper tidy it was.” Then her face fell. “Not that Flash ever saw it. She left a bit over a year ago. If she had, she woulda seen. But, no, I guess the part of Rainbow Dash was just too small for her.”

There was something that wasn’t adding up. This entire operation had become enormously fishy. Fetter had indicated they had been waiting for me for a long time, but if they started when Wire was nearly a toddler, then it would have been years in advance. Cord had mentioned something about the Wand King having a prophecy, and this certainly fit the part about Fetter needing to find a replacement for Rainbow Dash and finding the “real” one instead.

This opened up all sorts of strange possibilities. After all, if there was a real Rainbow Dash to blunder into her own role, did that mean there was a real Twilight Sparkle, a real Rarity, and the rest? Maybe there was even a real Ponyville out there, and I had been suckered into some strange pod pony world.

Maybe Wire knew more.

Distracted by my thoughts, though, I wasn’t really paying much attention to what I was saying. “She used to look out for you, didn’t she?” I blurted out.

Wire looked at me, stricken. “H-how…?”

I decided to keep rolling with it. It was hard to tell what I might dig up. “Wire, you’re the most timid goblin I’ve ever met. If you went to my school, I’d have told you to get a grip on yourself already.” I pointed back the way we had come. “Are you telling me that those goblins, people who happily fight over the silliest thing and then go on like nothing happened, didn’t have something to do with that?”

Wire wibbled. That’s really the best word for it. She mumbled something incoherent and held her tail close to her, stroking it.

“Hey.” I put my hoof on my shoulder. “You don’t need to put up with that kinda junk. You don’t need Flash, either—you can’t rely on big sisters. Even if they don’t leave you stuck in a forest alone, they’re just going to leave some day to do what they want. You’ve gotta look out for yourself.” Wire looked up to me, her already watery blue eyes still wet from tears. I gave her a smile. “And, you know, I’ll look out for you while we’re out here, I—oof!”

Wire wrapped her legs and wings about me, latching on like a hungry jellyfish—or at least I assume that’s what jellyfish do. If anything, she snuffled louder than before. “Th-thank you. Sorry for being a right bag of nerves; you’re tidy, you.” She squeezed more tightly still, and I made a noise not unlike a squeaky toy.

“Duhmension it,” I rasped. I managed to wriggle free when her grip slackened, and straightened my coat. “We’d better get going. Lots of daylight left and all.”

“Oh, right.” Wire ran a hoof through her mane, though she only managed to make it pop more as she loosened tangles in it. “I’ll go scout up, okay?” She spread her wings and launched up into the air.

“Now, why couldn’t I have become a pegasus?” I muttered, watching her flight. “If only this silly horn worked,” I continued to myself, my eyes crossing at the spire above them, “then maybe being a unicorn would be super cool.” I reached into my pack while waiting for Wire’s return and pulled out a set of steel rings.

So what if everyone thinks you’re only good for one thing? Twilight’s voice bubbled up, another one of her lessons. I’ve seen actors complain about being typecast, but a clever actor knows this can be an incomparable advantage, if she can turn it into one. People will expect you to play that role, so when you break type it stuns them into insensibility.

“Great advice, Twi. Real helpful right now, thanks,” I grumbled. “You would think I’d remember your lessons when they were actually, I dunno, relevant.” I tugged at the rings, testing their strength. Unlike a magician’s rings back on earth, these had no trick—all of them were completely solid. Indeed, despite their lightness, they were almost completely unbendable. Evidently, Rarity had made this set especially for me, and I could see a maker’s mark on each. I felt a pit settle in my gut, staring at the symbol. Unlike her cutie mark, it was a set of rings arranged in a sheet, like chainmail. I kept staring at it for a while, with my eyes tensing.

With a cry, I pulled.

Wire yelped, dodging the center ring before it could clip her, then darted back for it and caught it in her hoof. She landed next to me, blinking as she examined the rings in my possession and the one in her own grip. “Did you just perform a Penetration with a scream of frustration?”

“Kinda, yeah,” I said as I took it back. I tapped the rings against one another. It took a couple tries, but eventually I was able to coax them back together, the steel passing seamlessly through its counterpart.

Wire watched, tilting her head. “You’re not bad at that. Did you have a teacher?”

“Yeah.” I packed the rings away and stood, starting west again. We pushed our way through the brush at first, but Wire pointed out a clearer path that might have been a deer trail or some other form of game animal. Maybe the deer were smart in this world, too.

“I wish I could find a master.” Wire huffed a sigh. “The really good ones are always in demand, you know? And then they make you go through hoops to learn the simplest trick.”

I gave her a narrow look. “Like having to paint their fences.”

“Exactly!” She stamped a hoof. “Oh, sure, I can pick up cheap tricks from any random goblin, but if I want to learn the real stuff, it’s like I have to go and become their personal slave, beholden to their every whim. You wanna be all there in the magician gig, you gotta do it, though.”

“Sure,” I said noncommittally, gazing off into the woods. My attention was elsewhere—back in a staged town under a false sun, sitting at a cafe.

Had it all really been for my benefit?

“They played me,” I muttered.

“Sorry?” Wire asked, glancing my way.

I shook my head. “Nothing. It’s not important. I’m over it.” I looked at her. “Say, were there any murder holes in the castle?”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.”

“Oh.” Wire tucked her wings up at her side, continuing in silence for a while. “Say, I never did get your name.”

Smiling, I offered my hoof. “Amelia.”

Taking it, she gave me a small smile in turn. “Wire.” She blushed. “Well, you already know that.”

“You goblins don’t have, like, last names or clan names or anything like that, do you?” I asked.

She flicked an ear. “Well, I’m Wire of the Wand, if you want to get technical about it.”

“Of the Wand—?” A branch snapped and I dove to the ground at once. Wire flopped beside me, covering her eyes with her hooves and quivering like a block of jelly.

Ahead, something large moved through the trees. It was tall—tall enough that leaves from the higher trees rustled in its passage. There was a suggestion of scaly black skin, a long, whipping tail, and a shiny crest of feathers. Very carefully, I began to crawl forward. A hoof on my shin stopped me, and Wire shook her head violently, pointing a trembling leg ahead.

There, I saw a pair of jay birds—or what had been jays at one point. Instead of flesh, I saw flaky, greenish soapstone that appeared as if it had been worked into the shape of feathers. She silently mouthed, “Basilisk!”

Petrification? That was just ridiculous, everyone knew basilisks killed with a glance. What was the use of a magical faerie kingdom that couldn’t get its mythology right?

This blatant offense to all things accurate, however, both had the power to turn us to stone and weighed many times more than us, so still we remained until its heavy footsteps took it elsewhere. Wire uncovered her eyes, glanced around quickly, and then buried her eyes in her hooves again. After this, she leapt to her feet and galloped across the open clearing it had occupied. I joined her, though only after picking up the jays and tucking them into my bags.

With Wire as badly shaken up as she was, it was a fair amount of time before I could talk to her again. She broached a subject first, while we were hopping over a small stream. “Say, Amelia—why do you carry a bag?”

“Huh?” I glanced back at her from my perch on a river stone.

Wire fluttered her wings a bit and pawed at the ground. “Well, I thought the first thing real magicians did was Vanish all of their possessions for travel so they can Produce them when needed.”

“Oh. I haven’t really gotten the trick down, yet.” I frowned. “Honestly, I only had a few days’ worth of practice. Can a magician really do that?”

“Oh, sure, though not all do, to be fair.” Wire giggled. “I suppose it wouldn’t be very tidy at all if they forgot they’d put something away. Actually, I know a fair few keep bags on hand anyway, so they can put the item ‘in’ the bag and make it easier to pull it out later.”

I hopped across to the shore to join her. “Kind of Mary Poppins, huh? Just put a whole coatrack in there.”

“Who?”

“No one. This bag is magic, actually.” I patted it. “It saved our lives back at the river.”

“Oh.” She rubbed her chin. “You mean crafted.”

“Huh?” I blinked at her. “Well, I’d imagine it was machine-stitched originally, but one of the goblins I knew at the castle fixed it up.”

“I’m sorry, I suppose you don’t know, then?” She pointed a hoof at it. “That’s goblin-crafted it is. Well, faecrafted. It’s an ancient art, older than even the courts. We’ve preserved it since the original folks as used it are long gone.” She fished around her tool belt and pulled a set of pliers from a pouch. On one side, it bore the same mark as my rings. “See? I noticed you had some work done from Maille. I was lucky to get this as a gift from the master electrician at the castle; you don’t find a goblin as skilled as her any day.”

“Maille?” I repeated, frowning. “So, uh… Maille’s a smith of some sort? Is she also an actress?”

“Aye, both.” Wire nodded. “She and Flash were chosen at around the same time. She went to apprentice with one of the great faecrafters in Mag Mell before comin’ back here.”

Mulling over that information for a moment, I asked, “What about the others? There’s four other actresses who worked with her, right?”

“Well, sure.” She ticked off by scraping her hoof on the ground. “Maille plays Rarity, of course, and then there’s Pinion—she’s a distant cousin of mine, actually, bit of an odd duck—who plays Pinkie Pie. Dunno how she stands not having wings.”

I blanched. “Holy cats, she has wings, too?” Immediately, I checked the surroundings. My nightmares for the next few days were set.

Wire nodded and grinned. “Oh, aye. Not the greatest flier, but she gets by. Where was—ah yes! And then there’s Rose, she’s a right sweetheart. Rather prickly, though.”

“Fluttershy, I’m guessing,” I said. It was hard to forget her outbursts, Fluttershy—Rose—had quite a set of lungs.

“Then there’s Maille—no, wait, already mentioned her. Who was… right, right.” Wire rubbed her chin, and then punched the air. “Oh! And there’s Applejack’s actress—Kiln.” She narrowed her eyes. “Never did like her, actually. She was one of Fetter’s underlings before he got himself banished, and she led one of the scouting gangs. Real rough bunch, they were. I dunno, I always thought she was overcompensating for not being born a goblin.”

“Wait, she wasn’t born a goblin? Applejack—err, I mean, Kiln—wasn’t always a goblin?”

“Well, sure. She was young, just a filly, when they brought her in. Took right to it, though.” Wire waved her hoof back and forth. “Once she goblinized, it was like she was a whole new girl. When folk hit her, she hit back.”

“What’s Twilight’s real name, then?”

“Twig. One of the best young magicians we’ve had in awhile.” Wire beamed. “I met her, once. She’s the Queen’s favorite, she is, though I haven’t seen the Queen in a goodly while.”

“Twilight and her friends… who are these mares?” I asked, knitting my brows. “Who are they playing?”

Wire blinked at me a few times. “Why… I don’t rightly know. I figured they were just made up stories to terrify goblins. You know, like ’watch out, or Celestia will fry you with her breath of fire!’ Or, ‘you better eat up all your grubs and porridge or the Elements will snatch you away and make you their slave! See if I care!’” She shivered and shook her head. “Always hated that one. Fie, last thing I want to do is cross paths with one of them Elements of Harmony.”

A nervous laugh escaped me at that as I remembered how the Wand King had reacted to Rainbow Dash’s presence. I chewed my cheek for a time. Now there were names for the Phony Villains. Even Flash deserved some degree of ire for abandoning Wire. There must have been some sort of sense to it all, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure it out. I perked my ears and turned back towards Wire. “Say, reminds me. I wanted to ask you a few questions about—”

The trees across the stream exploded as a hulking, black reptile with burning green eyes burst from cover. It screamed a high, piercing cry and flared red plumage before charging across the stream at us. Wire’s scream was even higher, a shriek that presaged her leaping several yards into the air and refusing to stop. Immediately, I averted my eyes and ran, but the thing was fast. Its leg clipped me, and even that glancing blow was enough to send me rolling across the ground.

I tried to get back to my feet, but the blow had left me dazed. The beast’s head lowered toward mine. I yelped and tried to squirm away only to find my back against a tree. Those horrible green eyes swept down towards my own, and I slammed my eyelids shut. There was a drawn out hiss and a wretched gurgling, and I could only imagine the basilisk’s jaws slowly craning open, rows of vicious white teeth presenting themselves to me, dripping venom or saliva or some other disgusting substance.

I wished very desperately to be somewhere else.

Gnashing teeth and splintering wood shot my eyes open again, and I stared, dumbfounded, as a very confused lizard monster chomped down into the tree I had just been pressed against. I turned and ran, trying to scramble for safety within the underbrush as the basilisk roared and charged after me. Its huge legs covered ground far faster than my own little ones could gallop.

The Morgwyn intervened at that point.

It could have been hiding in the brush, or maybe it simply came as soon as I was in trouble. Either way, just as the basilisk began to snap its jaws over my back, a black blur smashed into it and sent both flying. Though the basilisk was larger by far, the Morgwyn moved as if it were made of black smoke, twisting and writhing with incredible speed. Each of its gleaming white claws left deep rents in the beast’s scales, as if they were made of butter. The basilisk snarled in pain and twisted its head completely around, locking its gaze with that of the Morgwyn. I averted my eyes and ran. I couldn’t bear to watch my protector turned into a statue.

Coarse, barking laughter made me stop and turn my head. Rather than being turned to stone, the Morgwyn lifted a paw and swiped contemptuously. The basilisk’s shriek nearly deafened me, and I slammed my ears over my skull with my hooves while birds fled the nearby trees. The Morgwyn was thrown free before its quarry ran off into the trees, whooping and stumbling as it covered half of its face with a claw.

The Morgwyn looked down at its own paw. I couldn’t see it, but Morg gave a scornful flick of its wrist and something wet splashed into the stream, sinking in short order. Galloping back, I skidded to a halt and grinned. “Morg! You’re back!”

“This one is never far, wee bairn,” it said, turning its smoldering gaze on me. “The child must learn to be wary. You make too much noise, and leave too much scent. The Morgwyn cannot always spare you misfortune if you blunder so willingly into its lair.” It chuckled, the crest on its back rustling. “As you are so wont to do.”

“I’m wont to hug you; that was awesome!” I bounded around in mime of the scene. “That basilisk was like, ‘rowr!’ And you were like, ‘have at thee, foul beast!’”

“Quite.”

Grass crunched underfoot as I bounced around the Morgwyn, giggling. “So, hey, can you tell me how to get out of this stupid forest? I swear, I’ve been walking east, I mean, west, forever, and there’s still no sight of anything interesting.” I tilted my head. “Well, unless you count a basilisk, but you don’t because you smacked it around like it was nothing! Did I mention that was hella sweet?”

“Once or twice.”

Wire drifted down from above in an awkward spiral, clinging to a high branch and staring down at the two of us with huge eyes.

I waved a hoof up at her. “Come on, you big chicken! The monster’s gone!”

“I-I-I’m not s-so sure about th-that,” Wire answered as she covered her eyes with her hooves.

“Morg? Don’t be a scaredy cat. The Morg’s on our side.” I grinned and glanced back at my savior, who was nonchalantly licking its paw of glistening blood.

Wire only paled further, shaking her head.

Well, that wouldn’t do at all. “The searchers are gonna search you if you stay up there.”

“Let them search me, then!” She tightened her legs about the branch. “I mean, find!”

“Come on, Wire,” I said. “I still need your help, and you need to stay away from the other goblins for now.” I gave her a weighing look as I stepped over towards the Morgwyn, placing a hoof against it. Its fur was thick and bristly and radiated so much heat it was a wonder that the grass wasn’t smoldering around it.

A moment passed, and Wire at last dared to peek between her hooves. Slowly, reluctantly, she unlatched herself from the cypress and flapped down to settle on the ground nearly ten yards away. The Morgwyn gave a disdainful twitch of its barbed tail.

“One suggests the wee bairn and its hanger-on be on their way,” it said as it rose. “The skies fill with watchers.”

“Right, time to go! Thanks again, Morg,” I said and went to give Wire a push with my head.

When I glanced back, the Morgwyn had gone again, just as swiftly and silently as it had appeared. My mysterious protector surely waited somewhere nearby, however. Monsters beware.

* * *

It was hard to say how far we had gone by the time the sun began to set. My emergency rations kept either of us from feeling particularly hungry, though thirst was settling in rapidly. Neither of us found the streams particularly trustworthy—they were all slow and a little brackish in this part of the woods, as if the source originated from the ocean rather than a mountain.

The character of the forest changed again as we descended into lower elevations. Even in the cool evening light, the lowlands were hot and humid. Insects rose in swarms to harass us, getting into our hair and clinging to our sides—my tail got a real workout swatting them all aside. Wire eventually gave up and reached into one of her bags for a thunderstone, running it through her coat so that it puffed with static. Little hissing pops signaled the untimely demise of several mosquitoes, each falling limply from her side as she gave a little shake. After a quick treatment to my own coat—during which time I strongly resembled a cotton ball—we pressed on.

Massive trees gloomed the space even further as the sun sank in its bed. Heavy-bottomed baldcypress trees swarmed with fireflies, and frogs belched out beneath the shade of drooping willows. Wire once again saved the day, twining a filament around her thunderstone and creating a dim light bulb to light our way. We navigated around pitfalls and oozing puddles of muck until, quite unexpectedly, we face-planted right on a loose packed dirt path.

I grabbed the light from Wire and held it up in my teeth to look. Several sets of hooves had pressed into the dirt recently, and I stared at Wire for a moment. “Ponies?” I asked past gritted teeth.

“Looks like it,” she said and gave a shudder. “Let’s hide somewhere else. I don’t want to get caught.” Her wide eyes scanned around the darkening swamp, as if expecting to see something in the murk. “I hear there’s an awful witch ’round here. She boils people for stew.”

“That’s stup—” I said, forgetting I had the line to the bulb in my mouth. I snatched it up before it hit the ground, but my tongue touched the thunderstone. I suppressed a yelp, numbness spreading through as I let the bulb hang by its line again. “Abluh. I mean—we shou’b go inbestigabe.”

Rolling her eyes, Wire snatched the contraption back and hooked it to her harness, affixing it so that the light shone forward and down. “I don’ think this is a good idea, Amelia.”

I grinned. “Have I led you wrong yet?”

“Yes.”

Each direction held my consideration as I tapped my chin. The southerly direction led further into the swamp, while the north curved west and towards what seemed to be higher ground. I bent down and nearly pressed my eye into the dirt. There was a set of smaller feet that looked to be bearing horseshoes which seemed deeper and more recent than the others. They were headed south into the swamp. “All right. This way,” I said, putting a measure of confidence into the pronouncement—more than I felt.

But there were a lot of things Wire didn't need to know.

After a few minutes of walking, voices began to drift over the swamp, along with the shuffling of dirt. Immediately, Wire and I dove behind the huge roots of a baldcypress. We peeked out carefully to track the source of the sound.

A little ways off the path, one light bobbed while another stood stationary. Wire repacked her light, and the two of us crept closer towards what appeared to be a pair of lanterns.

“There,” a girl’s voice said. It was coarse and graveled, but still obviously young. “Ugh. Six feet even, and this spot isn’t filling with water. Finally.”

“All right,” another said, her voice deeper, but still young, and containing more than a hint of twang. “Help me push it in.”

“I swear,” the first girl spoke up again, “if we get our cutie marks from this, I’m going to tattoo over it. I’ll tell everypony it’s an ink blot.”

“Come on, girls, hurry!” a third, lighter, higher-pitched voice said. The lantern bobbed fitfully, like a firefly hopped up on caffeine. “Don't you realize how late it is?”

“One, two…” The other two voices grunted, and something shuffled and plopped heavily. Once again, the sound of dirt shuffling filled the air.

Wire and I peeked over a fungus-ridden log and beheld a trio of fillies on a dry stretch of land, elevated over the swamp we'd just crossed. It was the first time seeing proper ponies my age before, and it was pretty much what I expected to see. They were all in different colors—an orange pegasus with a fuchsia mane, a red-headed earth pony with a yellow coat, and a white unicorn with a two-toned pink and lavender mane. The unicorn was dancing on all fours, holding a lantern filled with fireflies in her mouth while another rested on a tree branch nearby, its lights dim compared to the other. Both the earth pony and the pegasus filly were digging into a pile of dirt with their shovels, moving it into a large hole.

“Okay,” Wire whispered, “they look really busy, so I think we can go around them and—”

“Hey!” I hopped over the log and waved a hoof. “Whatcha girls doin’?”

All three of them screamed and scrambled. “Plan G! Plan G!” the redhead shouted, dropping her shovel to kick bottles of clear fluid into the pit.

The white unicorn lit a match and chucked it in. “Sweetie Belle, wait! Not yet!” the redhead said, but it was too late. An impressive conflagration belched out of the ground, tickled the tree tops, and kept going. Immediately, the young pegasus bodily shoved the remaining dirt in and snuffed the fire. All three singed fillies leapt onto the top of the mound and stomped it flat before collapsing into a heaving pile.

“Check… my flank…” the redhead panted.

The unicorn—Sweetie Belle—turned her head and checked her friend’s yellow side. “Bare.”

“Oh, thank Celestia. I don’ even wanna think about what sorta cutie mark that would'a netted me.”

I blinked. “Uh.”

There had been very few expectations for the eventual meeting with actual members of ponykind, and all of them had been thoroughly detonated. These three children were proving every bit as odd as any of the goblins in the castle had been. At least the language was the same—the archaic books in my bag were almost illegible with how tortured the wording could be.

The twangy redhead got up to her feet, dusting her singed coat. Like mine, her mane fell long across her back. A pink ribbon holding it into a ponytail still smoldered. She rounded on me, and a thin trail of smoke followed her head.

“Just what do you think y'er doin’, pouncin’ on unsuspectin’ ponies like that?” she demanded, poking me in the chest.

Sweetie Belle climbed to her feet as well, swishing her curly tail. “We thought you were an ad—uhm…”

“A monster!” the pegasus supplied as she joined her friends—just a little too loudly.

“Yeah, yeah! A monster, from the Everfree Forest! Which we’re in!” Sweetie Belle went along with it. “Not an adult or officer of the peace or anything like that.”

I lifted a hoof, waving it in a placating fashion between us. “I’m just passing through. Honest; nothing to do with… whatever it is you were doing. I’ve been lost in the woods for a long time now. Do you guys know which way it is to the river?”

“River?” Sweetie Belle asked. “You mean, like… the river through Ponyville?”

My ears twitched at the name. That certainly settled the earlier question about whether or not it existed. “I don’t know, it’s through the Everfree Forest somewhere. It’s very sparkly.”

Sweetie Belle frowned and looked at the redhead. “Do you remember any other rivers, Apple Bloom?”

“Uh.” Apple Bloom rubbed her chin. “I seem to remember Cheerilee naming a bunch on a map of Equestria. I think I was dozin’ off again, though. Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo—now there’s a name for the ages—grinned. “Sure, I studied that thing backwards and upside-down when I was planning our balloon trip. No thanks to Fire Belle over here.”

“It was an accident!” Sweetie Bell groused, her voice peaking. “How was I suppose to know that paint fumes were flammable?”

“So as I was saying,” Scootaloo said as she turned to look at me. “There’s a river running into Ghastly Gorge around here, and another that leads all the way to Dodge City, but neither of those are really all that sparkly.”

Apple Bloom tilted her head, the smoldering trail of smoke following it. “Where are you from, anyway?” she asked of me.

“Uh…” I considered the names of places in the books I had read. The name of the capital would do in a pinch. “Cantyr Lotte.”

“Canterlot?” Apple Bloom gaped. “Gosh, you’ve sure come a long way. That's like... a whole day away by train. What’re you doin’ all the way out here?”

“Getting lost, apparently,” I muttered.

“Well!” Scootaloo hopped forward. “Maybe we can help, huh? We’re kind of local celebrities.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Yeah, all of the emergency responders in the area know us by name.”

There wasn't a hint of sarcasm in Sweetie Belle's voice. In fact, she seemed rather... proud of it.

“We’re great at finding lost things, including ponies.” Scootaloo beamed, bouncing on her hooves as her wings fluttered frantically. “You just wait, we’ll hook you back up with your folks in no time! We might even get our cutie marks for it.”

“Wait.” I held up a hoof. “You can get cutie marks for helping people find things? Why would you even want that?”

The three of them exchanged glances, then turned towards me with bright eyes. “Kinda surprised you haven’t heard of us,” Scootaloo said. “We’re already kinda huge in Manehattan.”

“Even if you haven’t, you ought to!” Sweetie Belle said. “A pony your age, you’ve probably heard all of the jokes already. Well, we have, too, and we’re tired of being just regular old blank flanks!” She reached into a set of saddlebags and tossed a set of capes into the air. As one, the three fillies leapt up and donned them. The hems flared dramatically in the firefly light as they landed with hooves outspread.

“Because we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” Apple Bloom announced. “And we'll never stop our journey, not until we have our cutie marks. We’ll go to the ends of Equestria and beyond!”

“Wow,” I said, “is this how adults usually find their special talent?”

“Well, no,” Apple Bloom said, lowering her hooves, “but we’re gonna find ’em anyway.”

Scootaloo nodded. “We basically spend all day, every day, finding cool new ideas to try. One of them will have to work eventually, and—” Her eyes widened as she shot a look over my shoulder.

Wire stepped out onto the open clearing, covering her light with a hoof. “Uhm… we really should…”

“Monster!” all three girls shouted at once. “Cutie Mark Crusader Creature Catchers! Go!”

I dove to the earth as the girls sprang over my head, pouncing on poor Wire as she stepped out from behind the brush, tumbling her across the dark earth. Wire whimpered as they pinned her down, immediately going limp. Before I could intervene, Apple Bloom peered more closely at their captive and groaned. “Nevermind, everypony.”

“You three are insane,” I said breathlessly. A beat passed, and I added, “I love it! Though you should really let up on Wire there.”

“We’re sorry,” Sweetie Belle said as she helped the older girl up. She dusted twigs and leaves out of Wire’s frizzy hair. “It’s just, you know, we’ve been staying at Zecora’s, and you have to be alert. I don’t want to run into a cockatrice more than once in my life.”

“Which is why you immediately chose to charge?” I asked.

“Hey.” Scootaloo stamped the earth. “They can’t turn you to stone if you clobber them first!” She glanced between the two of us. “So, hey, who are you two, anyway?”

“Uhm… I-I…” Wire shrank back from their sudden interest. It sounded like she was trying to force words out. “W-we sh-should…” Never in my life had I ever met anyone who wibbled half as much as she did.

Figuring I might as well cover for her, I stepped forward. “Oh, that’s my friend… Live Wire. She’s great with electrical stuff. And I'm—”

It never occurred to me for a second to tell the girls my real name. “Amelia” was just not a pony name, and I had no intention of revealing my full backstory to them from the very start. After all, that would lead to a lot of uncomfortable questions about how I’d managed to get tricked into Phonyville. Moreover, if some goblins in disguise asked them where someone named “Amelia” had gone, they weren’t likely to peg me.

Well, they might find out anyway if they asked where someone named “Wire” had gone, but the goblins had been pretty dumb so far.

For some reason, my thoughts drifted back to Twilight Sparkle—or Twig as she was more properly known—and her lessons.

Your greatest tool is knowledge. Magic and illusion does you a lot less good if people know the trick—they know where to look. Oh, you can still pull it off, if you’re good, but why hand people more ammunition than they need. Twig had smiled then—she was probably reflecting on the fact that she had me fooled pretty well. If you control information, if you let other people reveal things before you do, you’ll always have the advantage.

All in all, it took me only a moment to decide what my name should be. “—Moonlight Glimmer.”

Wire stared at me. I gave her a grin.

Apple Bloom took my hoof and shook it. “Pleasure to meetcha! Say, you should come join our club!”

“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle said. “Neither of you have your cutie marks yet, either! It would be great to have a Canterlot branch.”

Before I could ask what in the heck that might entail, Wire found her voice. “We should go, now!”

The four of us blinked at her as Wire stood panting. Her pupils had shrunk. “What? Why?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Th-th-that fuh-fire,” she stammered, pointing at the disturbed earth. “Th-they cuh-could probably see it for m-miles.”

My mouth went dry, and I looked up at the sky. By now, I could see stars, but, if anything stalked us in the dark, it was invisible to my eyes. I turned to look at the confused fillies. “Yeah, we have to go. All of us.”

“Huh?” Scootaloo tilted her head. “What’s up?”

“There’s no time to explain, we—” All our ears perked as a strange, warbling cry touched the air.

“Too late,” Wire moaned. “Oh, thunderbolts. Run!”

Even as the two of us bolted for the trees, the branches all around us came alive with thrashing, winged, armored figures. Large and powerful, they swooped in through the night like fierce owls with long, taloned feet snatching every which way. Our only saving grace in that first attack was that they clearly couldn’t see us well enough to pick us out, and the Crusaders’ equipment was the first victim. A rolled-up tent and heavy backpack atop a red wagon were snatched up as the girls wildly swung their lanterns. Their screams—my screams—filled the air and teemed with the flapping, snarling shadows of goblins.

I dove to avoid a talon and sprang for the side of the rise towards the swamp, preparing to roll off to safety, when Sweetie Belle’s truly piercing shrieks cut into me. I turned. Sweetie Belle was being hauled into the air, her tenuous grip on a bush failing her as her captor flapped his powerful wings.

She was just a pale, vulnerable figure in the grip of some monstrous, unknowable shape.

To leap to safety would have taken less than a second. The Crusaders had unwittingly bought me time to escape from the situation they themselves had put me in. A quick jump and it would all be over.

“Hey, birdbrain!” I snatched the thunderstone out of my bag—the one Cord had given me—the quick bite tingling my lips. With a snap of my head, I sent it sailing towards the goblin, who turned his kettlepot helmet my way.

The little arrowhead stone missed his nose, but when it struck against the side of his helmet there was a sharp crack. Incandescence filled the air like the flash of a bulb. Several of the goblins shrieked, disoriented enough in flight to smack their heads and limbs against nearby trunks and branches. The one who I had struck fell like a stone, twitching, and a terrified Sweetie Belle ran to join me. Together, we skidded down the side of the rise, but one of the more coordinated goblins veered after us and held his talons out.

A strange, buzzing noise was all the warning he had before a heavy scooter flew out of the dark and clipped his wing. There was a snap of delicate cartilage, and the goblin howled, falling in a tumble of feathers and clank of heavy iron. Scootaloo, her wings humming like an engine, landed beside us. Apple Bloom ran up, a red wagon at her heels with a cowering Wire stuffed into it.

“Wire!” I shouted. “Thunderstones!”

The crack of my voice snapped Wire up, her ears trembling. Like a puppet on strings, she shakily extracted arrowheads from her belt and cast them around. While we could turn our eyes away, the poor goblins had too little warning. The resulting chain of explosive pops left sparks in our vision but probably half-blinded them.

“Everyone in!” Scootaloo shouted as she hooked her scooter up to the back of the wagon.

“You can’t possibly carry all of us,” I said, staring at her, but then yelped as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle yanked me up by the tail and stuffed me in next to them.

“Just you watch, Moonlight. Yeehaw!” Apple Bloom shouted.

Scootaloo’s wings beat a furious rhythm, and we shot off at incredible speed. I shrieked and covered my eyes as we careened towards a trunk, but felt myself flung to the side as Scootaloo turned sharply. Despite the fact that we were speeding through the woods in the dark of night, our driver seemed to have an almost preternatural gift for coming within a hair’s breadth of disaster only to make a startling recovery, using only the bare light of one of the firefly lanterns to guide her.

Wire, naturally, went back to whimpering and covering her face.

Our pursuers, however, were not deterred for long. Under the light of the half-moon on the horizon, the goblins chased us. Their armor gleamed dully as they maneuvered to position themselves along our path. Scootaloo did everything she could. She dove through a huge fallen log, forcing us all to duck our heads, only for them to zero in on us shortly after. She veered through dense trees, only to find the goblins patient enough to wait for us to expose ourselves again. I grabbed one of Wire’s thunderstones, but, outside of a confined area, the snap and pop was little more than a curious light show.

I held no fear, though. I had one more card up my sleeve.

“Morgwyn! Help!”

We may have been dogged by shadows, but a deeper darkness stalked the night. One bold goblin spread his wings and swooped across our path—and a flicker of black and white snatched him from sight in an instant. The crunch of metal echoed behind us.

The cart slowed. “Go, go!” I shouted at Scootaloo as she hesitated, and she beat her wings harder. The goblins swooped again, two at once, but a twisting shadow hauled one from the sky to slam it into a stream. The other gaped, turning its head to look, and met the darkness itself when it swarmed up and took it.

Now in disarray, the shrieking goblin pursuers scattered. All but one. This one had a different shape, long and equine instead of bulky and manlike, and its armor was bright enough that it seemed to shine all on its own. It darted among the moonbeams like quicksilver, keeping on our tail. When the shadow leapt from the darkness, it dove and spun—the Morgwyn’s claws shot sparks off the maille on its chest.

“Nya nya! Nice try, kitty cat!” the silver pursuer taunted. She righted herself with the elegant flap of a feathery wing. “You gotta get up way early in the mornin’ to catch this birdy, and it don’t count if’n it’s before midnight!”

“Oh no,” I moaned. The voice was different—deeper, with a thick accent—but it was still unmistakable. Pinkie Pie, or rather, “Pinion.”

“What in the hay is going on?” Apple Bloom demanded. She pulled a heavy pot off her bag and chucked it when Pinion flew closer, only for the goblin to turn sharply to the side and dodge. She flew alongside us, a dart of red and silver, thin stalks of bamboo flashing between our separate courses. Her face, partly obscured by a gleaming helmet, split in a wide grin. The helm she wore was plumed with her vivid, electric blue mane, laced with pink highlights, and her passage was marked by the contrail of her matching tail.

“This is great!” Pinion said. “Like a real adventure! We really should get back home now, though! Everyone’s super worried for you.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” I shouted back. As she reached for me with her hooves, I called, “Scootaloo, hard left!”

We spun about and shot under thick brambles. For a moment, it seemed as if Pinion might fail to pull up in time, but she was simply too fast. She snapped up at incredible speed and soared over the sharp thorns. With a snap of her red-tinged wings, she raced ahead and flicked her hooves, casting a glittering net in front of us.

To Scootaloo’s credit, she managed to dodge the net herself with a great show of agility by ducking so low she almost touched the ground. Nonetheless, when the rope became tangled in the wheels of the wagon, the whole lot of us ground to a halt. Scootaloo squeaked as the scooter yawed to the side abruptly, clinging for dear life as we skidded along gravel.

I tried to leap clear, but the net coiled about me. Its cords weren’t sharp, but they were far stronger than I was and had an almost uncanny ability to snare about my limbs. I had gone no more than three feet before I collapsed in a hopeless tangle. It had somehow come off the wheels, too, seeking me with keen interest while the three fillies sprawled, dazed, where they had fallen.

“Morgwyn,” I said, trying to shout, though my muzzle had been clamped down in my struggles.

Pinion alighted upon the ground beside me. “Shh, shh, everything’s tidy,” she whispered, patting my mane. “The big mean kitty ain’ gonna get between you and us ever again.” She bent down and took the trailing ends of her net in her mouth. With a few flaps, she carried me up into the air.

I tried to squirm a hoof free. When that failed, I shut my eyes and willed myself to pass through the netting, just as I had made the rings pass through one another.

Nothing.

It was so unfair. Here I was, trussed up like a Christmas turkey, ready to be delivered back into the hooves of my captors, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

“Hey!”

Below, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stood with Scootaloo between them. “Let her go!” Scootaloo shouted, and then the two flung their pegasus friend. Scootaloo’s wings buzzed, and she shot like a bullet up at the two of us.

Pinion, being impressively swift, simply flapped her wings and darted to the side in a blur of red motion. “Hah! Cute, kids, but—oops.”

Of course, to say that, she had to let the net go.

I screamed and hit the earth with a thud and a grunt. Before Pinion could dive down and retrieve me, a heavy paw settled on my side. The Morgwyn glared up at my captor balefully, its tail flicking like a whip as it watched her.

Circling for a bit, Pinion scowled down at me. After a moment’s hesitation, she beat her wings and shot off over the trees.

The Morgwyn freed me from my confinement with a few quick snips of its claws. Tossing the snarled remains of the net on the ground, I rose to all fours and grinned. “Wow, nice moves, guys. How’d you know she’d let me go?” I rubbed my shoulder where I had landed, nursing the bruise.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle exchanged glances. “Uh…” Apple Bloom said. “Yeah! Exactly as planned. What in the hay is goin’ on, anyway, Moonlight?”

“It’s a long story that involves me being chased by horrible monsters who want to steal me away. Oh, this is the Morgwyn,” I said as I pointed at the cat creature. “It’s my awesome protector.”

Sweetie Belle looked at the Morgwyn apprehensively. “Are you sure he’s friendly…?”

“Morg saved us!” I frowned, glancing around. “We’d probably better get going, though. Those monsters are going to be after us again.”

“I dunno, seems you’re pretty well covered from here,” Apple Bloom murmured, eying the Morgwyn as well.

The Morgwyn examined its claw, seemingly indifferent to the surrounds. “The wee bairn best not take chances. They will come again, more prepared this time.” Its voice was, as ever, unhurried and unconcerned.

Apple Bloom perked. “I know! You can come to Ponyville! My big sister and her friends can protect you, no problem.”

“Yeah! They’re great at fighting monsters,” Sweetie Belle said, bouncing in place. “They do it nearly every week!”

Ponyville. Now there was a name I hadn’t expected to hear again so soon. The fear the goblins expressed towards the pony race left me a little wary—if those freaks were frightened of Princess Celestia and her gang, there had to be some truth to it. Still, as far as they knew, I was a pony myself.

“Sure.” I glanced into the trees. “We should probably fish Scootaloo out so we can get going. Wire, you okay?”

Wire curled herself into a tight ball and sobbed. “Go ’way.”

“Great! Don’t go anywhere.”

After a quick scour of the nearby terrain, we pried Scootaloo out of the stump she had been wedged in and trotted back. Scootaloo, though her eyes were slightly glazed under the lid of her helmet, reattached her scooter and set herself atop it, with her hooves on the handles. The Morgwyn, of course, was nowhere to be found when we returned.

“Monsters?” she slurred. “Okay. Cutie Mark Crusader Getaway Vehicle is a go. Just, uh… one teensy little problem.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

Scootaloo glanced up at the dark trees, casting her gaze around. She finally threw her hooves up. “Where in the hay are we?”

* * *

“For the fifth time, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo growled, “I said I’m sorry.” The three of us walked alongside her as she gently buzzed her wings, hauling the nearly catatonic Wire along in the wagon behind us. “It got really confusing, and I had to dodge all of those owl… thingies!”

Sweetie Belle hopped forward and put her lantern down. “Look! We don’t even have that much light left!” She tapped the glass with a hoof. The fireflies inside stirred and brightened, but moved sluggishly. “They’re getting tired, and so are we! And we’re lost in the—” Sweetie flattened her ears to her skull and stared around at the looming trees. “—the Ev-Everfree F-Forest.” The hoot of an owl sent a shiver up her back.

“We’re fine.” Scootaloo waved it off. “Look at me! I got head trauma and I’m still moving.” She gestured a hoof to the slow-moving river beside us. “As long as we keep following the river, we’ve got to end up somewhere.”

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. “That’s because there ain’t nothin’ in your head except rocks, Scoot.” She nudged me as we walked along. “So what were those creatures anyhow, Moonlight?”

“Well, uh…” I flicked my eyes to Wire. None of the girls had noticed anything odd about her appearance thus far, even though her wings were certainly unlike any pegasus I had ever seen. Admittedly, all the pegasi I had ever seen were goblins pretending to be ones, aside from Rainbow Dash, and now Scootaloo. “They’re called goblins.”

“Goblins? I’ve heard of those,” Scootaloo said. “We had a book about them!”

“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle said. “They cheat and steal everything that isn’t nailed down, including furniture. Apparently.”

Wire twitched from the wagon.

“Sure.” Apple Bloom nodded. “According to the book, they have tar for blood and live in holes in the ground.”

“That all seems rather unlikely,” I said, quirking my brow at them.

“Hey, it was in a book, so it’s gotta be true,” Scootaloo said.

I shook my head. “I’m not really sure what their deal is, honestly, but they took me from my home and brought me to their castle. It was huge and full of awful machines of death and chaos and stuff, but Wire and I escaped together and flushed out into the forest.”

“Castle?” Scootaloo asked. “I don’t think there are any castles out here, are there? I mean, pegasi have flown over the Everfree before, and castles are kind of easy to spot.”

“Ponies don’t know about it because it’s hidden with special magic.” I didn’t actually know that for certain, but it seemed a reasonable enough assumption. “I had a teacher there who taught me a little bit of it. Want to see?”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes widened. “You can do magic, already? No fair!” She stamped a hoof, and sparks shot from her horn. She flushed and glanced away. “Ah, heh, sorry.”

“Not that kinda magic. I don’t know the first thing about unicorn stuff.” I glanced around and picked up a nice round pebble. “I’ll make this rock disappear! One, two…” I slapped my other hoof down on it. “Three-ow!” I yelped as my hoof bounced off the stone harmlessly.

I was really starting to hate that trick.

The three fillies exchanged glances. “Aww, come on,” Scootaloo said. “That’s just stage magic stuff. We tried that out, it, uh…”

Sweetie Belle rubbed her chin. “Well, Twilight said it was… unique.”

Apple Bloom kicked the fallen pebble into the grass. “Well, her feathers grew back, so it can’t have been that bad, right?”

“I swear, it’s more than that,” I protested. “My teacher, Twig, could walk through a solid door and hide in… plain… sight…” I glanced around suspiciously at the dark boughs around us. Catching my manner, the other girls glanced around as well. Grinning, I picked a branch up and tapped Sweetie Belle’s rump with it.

Proving her namesake, she squealed like a siren and leapt into the wagon, squirming herself under one of the remaining blankets with Wire and becoming a shivering lump.

“Hey, that wasn’t nice,” Apple Bloom said, poking my ribs.

Scootaloo sniggered. “I thought it was kinda hilarious, actually.” She recoiled from Apple Bloom’s withering glare and coughed. “Well, uh,” she said insincerely, “yeah, bad on you, Moonlight, after we helped you out and everything.”

“It’s okay, I’ll apologize.” I stepped over to the wagon, poking the smaller bump. “Sweetie Belle? I’m sorry. I just wanted to give you a little scare is all.”

Sweetie Belle poked her head out, looking at me with the largest eyes I had ever seen.

“Besides, you’re a lot braver than Wire here,” I poked the larger ball of blankets. “She’s kind of a wuss.”

“I am not,” came the muffled reply. Wire poked her own head out, giving me a sullen look. Her already sallow complexion had been further mottled by her embarrassed flush. Red skin and pale yellow hair were not a good combination. “I’m… I just don’t want to be turned to stone or dragged back in chains or anything like that.” She fixed her eyes on me. “You could be more grateful. I did help.”

That had me shrinking back a bit, and I frowned. Wire had indeed defended us, but only at my spurring. I opened my mouth to protest that very fact, then closed it. Technically, I was responsible for getting her into the mess we were in, dragging her away from everything she knew and loved.

Did I really have a choice, though? She grabbed on to me. I had to escape that castle, no matter what the consequences were. What was I supposed to do, peel her off and let the goblins catch me while I tried?

The fact remained, though, that it was a long way home for both of us.

“I’m sorry, Wire,” I said at last. “You did good, really.”

Wire blushed more brightly, if anything, and ducked her head back down to hide it under her wing.

“Hey, guys, I think I see something ahead.” Scootaloo said. She had gone a bit further to get a better look. The light provided by a half moon wasn’t even close to that provided by a full one, but some shapes could be discerned. “Looks kinda like a little house.”

“Nope, I think I see wheels,” Apple Bloom said. “Maybe one of those covered wagon-type things? It’s got a lantern hanging off one side.”

Wire pulled her head out again, blinking. “Can I have a look?” She hopped off the little red wagon and went over to join them, and was followed shortly thereafter by myself and Sweetie Belle. Together, we peered out into the darkness until our eyes adjusted.

The tall, boxy wagon stood on the bank of the stream, which, along with the light it carried, was likely the only reason we had noticed it at all. Four giant wheels jutted from either side, and elaborately carved cornices encircled the top. A lantern and a sign hung from the back in the same script the goblins had used. I frowned, figuring it must be more of our enemy, but Wire’s eyes brightened.

“What is it?” I asked. My voice stayed low, so as not to alert anyone who might be listening.

“It’s a peddler,” she whispered. “They’re not affiliated with any of the courts, usually—wanderin’ salesgoblins. I ain’t heard of any comin’ to Equestria in years, not since the Wand King ordered the Ways cleared. They’re always trying to smuggle across borders like that, though—big profits in that line of work.”

“So he travels the Forest? He might even know how to get me back?” I whispered back. The Crusaders were looking at the two of us curiously.

Wire nodded. “Probably! He won’t want to send us away, either, because we might run and tell the Court he’s here.”

“Uh, not to interrupt your conversation,” Apple Bloom said, doing exactly that, “but isn’t it a little convenient that we just happened to run into this after fleeing from those things back there?” She nodding her head back the way we had come.

“I don’t think so.” Wire shook her head. “This is the only obvious source of freshwater, and we’ve been walkin’ for like two hours. Look at the lantern, too—it’s shaded from above, so searchers in the sky wouldn’t notice the glow.” She pointed around. “If they wanted to ambush us, I bet they’d just set watchers along the river and pounce on us when we’re least expectin’ it, all tidy like.”

“Like when we’re investigating a supposed peddler’s wagon?” Scootaloo pointed out.

Wire’s ears dropped. “Aye, suppose it might.” She turned to regard the wagon, and then squared her shoulders. “I’ll check it out, then.”

“Whoa,” I said, grabbing her leg. “Are you sure? I mean… we can just go around.”

Wire fixed me with a vexed expression, her brow knit and her lips pressed into a thin line. “I… I can do stuff myself, you know… Besides, we’re low on food, and your folks are probably worried close to dyin’ for your safety. We need to do something.”

I bit my lip, objecting no further as she trotted off towards the wagon. The four of us huddled together behind the brush as she went up to the wagon and called, “Eye-ah, there!”

From inside came a rattling, and a furry figure poked out of the back near the steps. It was a chubby raccoon with lidded yellow eyes. He wore a bright blue cap that clashed horribly with his orange vest, and he squinted down at Wire sharply. “What? Who’s a callin’?” he asked in a scratchy voice.

“Just a weary traveler lookin’ for a place to settle her sore wings for a spell. You a peddler, then, eh?”

“Aye, might be as I am. Howbe?”

“I just came off a shandivang up at the Wand Keep earlier, thought I’d hitch a ride out before things got hot.” Wire took a few steps up to the wagon, kicking its tires thoughtfully. “You wouldn’t be happenin’ to be headin’ into ponylands, would you?”

“What the hay is a shandivang?” Scootaloo whispered.

I shrugged. “Heck if I know.”

“Bone and blood, it’s more than my skin is worth to take you that way.” The peddler growled. “The Wand King’s folk are as thick as stoneflies on a rotten steak. I’ve burnt out five different enchantments just getting back this far.” He eyed the young mare suspiciously. “You want to be gettin’ out of here, you best go the same way. Mag Mell, mark me.”

“Tidy. Don’t suppose you can guide me on the right way, can you?”

The peddler crouched on the edge of the step. “Seems as I don’t know why I would, seein’ as how you’re Wand.”

“You sound like you’ve got a bit of the old world in you yourself,” Wire countered.

The peddler scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Well, me grandmother was a Wand. One of the Queen’s picked few.”

“See? That makes us near kin,” Wire said with a grin, cupping her ears forward. She rummaged about in her pouches. “Besides, I’ve got trade. Fully charged thunderstones, good copper wire, insulation, tools…”

The peddler waved her down. “Fine, fine. Let’s make it two charged thunderstones and hustle it up. I’ve got to get going before midnight anyhow.”

“Deal.” Wire lifted her head, calling to us, “Girls! Let’s go!”

The peddler whipped his head about. “Whoa, you didn’t say nothin’ about no others!”

“You didn’t ask, didja?” Wire giggled. The Crusaders darted forward, probably more than a little curious to see what this was all about, while I hung back for a moment.

It was all just a little too convenient. Running into the “Cutie Mark Crusaders” when we had was a stroke of luck by itself, but finding a peddler who just happened to be able to smuggle us across a watched border? That was bordering on conspiracy.

On a sudden thought, I glanced around and fixed on a pair of blue specks in the darkness. A grin spread across my face.

“The wee bairn has become perceptive. One is not sure this is a good thing,” the Morgwyn said. Like the Cheshire Cat, the rest of its body resolved out of the darkness as it shifted to let the moonlight touch it.

“Fool me twice,” I piped, sitting on my haunches to take in the sight. The Crusaders darted about the wagon, poking their heads inside, while Wire chatted up the befuddled peddler. “This whole journey has gotten strange, though. It’s so hard to see where I’m going, Morg.”

“It began strange, bairn.”

I frowned at the Morgwyn. “I have to ask something, though. Why were you helping me? You were the one who brought me to Fetter, and yet you also helped me escape.”

“Tsk.” The Morgwyn flicked its tail disdainfully. “You already ruin your progress by making false assumptions. Fetter sought the Morgwyn’s aid when he was banished, and the Morgwyn provided, but you were the one who opted to leave. The Morgwyn simply did not permit harm to befall you.”

“So,” I said slowly, “it’s my choice, but you’ll enable that choice?”

“Is it not the way of mortals to seek freedom?”

“I guess.” I watched as the raccoon went berserk after Scootaloo accidentally pried off a bronze hubcap.

The Morgwyn bent close, whispering into my ear. “Beware, my little spark. This one may be here to protect you, but you already know that you must be willing to fight for yourself. Keep your wits and cunning about you, and remember…” I turned my head, but, like a ghost, it had already gone. Its last words hung in the air. “Trust only yourself.”

* * *

The night air hung thick with mist as the wagon rattled north. Sweetie Belle and Wire huddled together as wolves howled in the dark, while Scootaloo and Apple Bloom hung off the front, staring at the wagon’s passage.

“Where’s the engine on this thing?” Apple Bloom asked, waving a hoof in front of the wagon. She glanced back at the rest of us.

The raccoon peddler reached down and yanked the two of them back further into the wagon. “The last thing I want is to scrape guts out of the axles, watch it.”

“It’s enchanted,” Wire said from where she and Sweetie Belle were tucked under the peddler’s quilted bed, built into one side.

Scootaloo flopped back next to where I was examining bins of the peddler’s wares. “You’ve got unicorns out there, huh?”

“What? Blood and bone, no!” He snorted. “Only place to buy decent unicorn goods is Equestria, everygob knows that. Nah, these are yaksha made. Had it done the last time I was in Cup lands. They charge a heckuva lot less than the skinflint sorcerers in Mag Mell.”

“What’s this Mag Mell place like, anyway?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Oh, now, if’n you haven’t seen it, I daren’t ruin the surprise,” the peddler said. His voice turned wistful as he turned a bronze tiller to guide the wagon, turning it aside from a tree before we could crash into it, his tail swaying. “Always takes me breath away, with the mists blowin’ in from Niflheim every evenin’ only to be burned off when the firestar crests the boughs.”

Apple Bloom tilted her head. “I thought you said you weren’t gonna spoil it.”

I stepped to the front to get a better look, wobbling on all fours. Ahead, a wide silvery river sliced across an open field. Campfires burned on either side, heavy-set figures clustered about them. None of them looked up at our approach, and indeed didn’t seem to notice the rapidly approaching vehicle at all. The peddler stuck out his tongue and turned the wagon in a hard right, sending us flashing past tents bearing banners with staves picked out in dark green against blue backgrounds. A rope snapped under a wheel, and a goblin voice cursed the wind.

When we hit the water, the wheels kicked up great sprays of white water, only for the mist to cover them with a hazy image of calm.

“Wooee! Old Veil ain’ what it used to be, huh?” The peddler slapped me on the back. “The spell’s holdin’!”

“You didn’t know if we could make it?” Wire demanded in a voice that rose into a squeak as high as Sweetie Belle’s.

“Can’t win profit without a little risk, kid!” He laughed and tapped the driver’s board again. We exploded out of the water on the other side, clearing a group of sentries even as the mist fell away. They ran after us a short distance, cursing and spitting, but followed no further as the wagon sped down a long road.

We moved from the river plain to a light forest, where sinkholes gaped to reveal limestone caverns beneath the sod. The girls and I dozed off for a time in a fluffy pile before a bump roused us. Groggily, we clustered at the front of the wagon.

Though it was now little more than packed earth, there were ancient, overgrown stones embedded into the topsoil, with moss-covered statues of horses and men littering the hills. The moonlight had more than quadrupled, and I peeked up to see the same great full moon I had witnessed over a week ago. I frowned. “Shouldn’t that, be, like, a totally different moon phase by now?”

“Eh? Why? We ain’ in Equestria no more, kid.” The peddler stroked the board a few times and the wagon slowed to a less frenetic pace. “We’re almost right in time to see the winds coming off Niflheim trunkward, and if you look heavenway you’ll see the Great Tree’s branches.”

I frowned more deeply, but Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle were climbing up the wagon to get a better look. After a moment, I joined them, flopping next to Apple Bloom after she pulled me the rest of the way up.

Spread out before us were rolling hills scattered with trees. The impossibly bright moon lit an enormous front of clouds coming from ahead with starlight as it swept towards the lights of a city. A white stone statue of a tall and proud man bearing a round shield in hand, standing as high as a skyscraper, towered beside another that had tumbled, a broken sword lying on its own set of mossy hills. Together, they flanked a worn gate and a great plaza, from which radiated out a dozen more roads, just like the one we were on.

I squinted at the sky and gaped. Now that I was looking more closely, I could see that the stars were clustered into gnarled rivers across the sky. It was as if there were a half-dozen milky ways, all of them crowned with a jewel-like star so bright that they had to be planets.

“Welcome to Mag Mell, the Gate of Midgard, and the hub of three worlds,” the peddler announced. The wagon rattled on, carrying us to the great goblin city.

* * * * * * *

Author's Note:

Ah, this chapter was fun to write. A simple chase scene, the introduction of new characters, and the revelation of an important setting elements. I've been stringing you guys along for a hundred thousand words, feeding you little tidbits here and there.

I'd be tempted to commission a landscape of that sight at the end. There's so much there that to really give it justice would probably require its own book. As it is, I'll have to make do painting it with Amelia as my brush.

This is the chapter where Wire really comes into her own as a supporting character. She is Amelia's foil in a lot of ways – she is at once her friend, her minion, and her conscience. Speaking of, isn't it great how Amelia kicks off her latest relationship with deception?

Stay tuned next time, to see Daphne's time in Ponyville.

Since I'm not going to be able to finish the short story that explains it, you can read about What Were the Crusaders Doing in the Forest...? if you like.

Comment below! I devour comments with passion!

Comments

[MerlosTheMad]

3382885

ol' Mark needs to settle himself down with a mare.

[Ether Echoes]

3398057
Marcus and Mare Daphne 4ever

[MerlosTheMad]

3398064

Nuuuu, not Daphne.

No Centaurs. ;P

[Ether Echoes]

3398081
Oh? Pick your mare, then!

[MerlosTheMad]

3398082

I'm still on chptr 8 where I last left off. Has Mark met anypony yet? Leit maybe?

*Wizardly cackle.*

[MerlosTheMad]

Knowing her, she’d insist on paying back rent once she got a job, and we’d be able to live together as we’d always dreamed.

I know I typed it into the comments quite often on gdocs, but here it is again for fimfiction.

Ahem. Bow-chica-wow-wow!

Seriously, so much tension in Leit's monologue and narrative. Every other paragraph has a line that can be misconstrued! Or is my old wizard mind just that dirty?

Either way, good job as always, Ether.

[Gordon_Freemane]

Wait, why are they going to that Mag Mell place when Wire asked to go to "the ponylands"?

[Ranakastrasz]

So, there are portals, probably fully spherical, massive areas of non-ecludian space, connecting both everfree forests, other locations on Earth, and the third world as well.

Also, I need to re-read, since I am no longer certain as to what goblins are. I thought, based on the deformed human shape, that they were more or less generic goblins, but considering that ponies, with unknown, but minor cosmetic differences, are called goblins, I am no longer certain. Nor on whether or not they are shapeshifters. (Pinion as Pinkie Pie didn't wear any clothing afaik, but hid her wings.....)

[morning_angles]

3398268

You have no idea. The scene between Leit and Daphne when they were first reunited was lush with suggestive phrasing. I had it significantly paired down.

3398432

The peddler refused to head toward ponylands because the Wand is out in force in that direction. The only place to hide is Mag Mell.

3398445

The goblins of the Wand come in many different shapes and sizes, and what Pinion used to resemble Pinkie Pie—and the other actors their own respective roles—is a glamour. From what I understand, it's something withing the purview of the true magician's magic that Twig—that is, the phony Twilight—has taught Amy.

And yes, the Everfree is a veritable Grand Central Station of multidimensional travel. Equestria, Earth, and mow Midgard are just the tip of the iceberg. Again, from what I understand.

I am just the editor.

[Ether Echoes]

3398268
I swear, it's platonic! Just, you know, very platonic.

3398432
3398504
Morning Angles has the way of it here. The Peddler already tried to leave the Everfree Forest and found his way blocked at every turn.
Also, something keeps destroying his enchantments. Wonder who that could be

3398445
Exactly what goblins are will be explained, but you'll find they come in many shapes and sizes, aye. Some of them are as tall as old trees (the pair at the castle gate when Rainbow Dash tried to get through are huge), and others are the size of rodents. Some are equine, others are humanoid—and many other forms to come.
Remember that giant garbage machine Amelia spoke to in the bowels of the castle? Froggy-noid.

As Morning Angles reminds us, Twig (fake Twilight) in Chapter 4 introduced Amelia to Illusion magic, which she's used to escape a few scrapes already as you can see. Pinion's birth form has wings, but she can assume the form of Pinkie Pie on top of that.

Twig is a young master of the art, and can assume a plethora of forms, which is how she was able to keep up with Twilight in assuming both wings and a horn.

As for what's going on with the cosmology, well, I might refer you to...
fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/301/3/8/yggdrasil_by_mandioca-d2w4hq5.jpg

[Gordon_Freemane]

3398569
I see, kay.
Also, brownie points for that Terranigma avatar.

[Parametric Ponymorphism]

Stay tuned next time, to see Daphne's time in Ponyville.

In earlier chapters I felt annoyed whenever the narration was about to switch from Daphne to Amelia.
Now it's happening both ways!

At least Daphne was probably being punished. That thought cheered me right up. Perhaps they’d start by hanging her by her ankles and progress up from there.

And here I thought Amelia was done with the whole hating on Daphne thing. Wonder if she'll have a crushing but hilarious mental breakdown when she realizes that her shallow, boring big sister had totally outunicorned her.

Hm, this could even happen soon. Maybe. Amelia spent a week with the goblins and Daphne's adventuring party arrived in Ponyville two days after the beginning so it's plausible that one of the CMC remarks how Amelia resembles that weird Daphne filly (also from Canterlot!) who's friends with the snarky ogre guy and the psycho ogre lady.

Flash is Lightning Dust, isn't she?
And if Midgard isn't Earth then were the Vikings aliens?

[Ether Echoes]

3398718
Eeeee~! You identified my avatar!

3398719

In earlier chapters I felt annoyed whenever the narration was about to switch from Daphne to Amelia.
Now it's happening both ways!

Muwaahahaha! I knew it! I predict that every time.
"Oh, man, I really don't want to switch to this other character."
*chapter later*
"Oh no, please don't switch back!"
It's like a cliffhanger every week.

Morning Angles had it slightly off. It's not really a spoiler at this point – Midgard encompasses Equestria, Earth, and Mag Mell.

[HamHamJ]

So... were they going for Cutie Mark Crusader Bootleggers or something? Because that's all I can come up with for why the CMC are burying flammable chemicals in the middle of the Everfree Forest.

[morning_angles]

The way it makes sense to me is that Midgard is a bubble that contains the bubbles of Earth, Mag Mell, and Equestria. Midgard is further contained within a bubble of (what I assume is) Yggdrasil.

(My face when not Yggdrasil. )

[Ether Echoes]

3399211
That was lighter fluid Apple Bloom dumped into the pit.

As for what they were burying, well, that's on a Crusaders Need To Know Basis.

[HamHamJ]

3399351

Was it pony transmutation?!

Is Apple Bloom going to need automail limbs now?!

[Zman537]

More damn you........ MORE! MORE STORIES FOR THE STORY GOD!!

[Zman537]

3399351 I'm assuming that the buried object was a failed experiment

[morning_angles]

3399682

A sharp observation. Could be Ether has an explanation for that.

We may never know.

[Ranakastrasz]

3398569

Hmm, so Goblin is not a species, but an Organization. And, by Organization, I include Warhammer 40k Chaos as one. Not sure what kind, but it includes a bunch of species, able to shape-shift (or at least being poly-morphed, seemingly expected) and ability to transform others (via wand?)

The question is whether they are interrelated, or converted from non-goblins.

[MD Webster]

Dang it, for the moment when the CMC are brought into the picture, they could make it to Ponyville by now.
But, oh ho, Imagine AJ and Rarity's faces when they find that their sister are gone missing.

More or less like these.

So each update is in two weeks?

[Ether Echoes]

3400273

But, oh ho, Imagine AJ and Rarity's faces when they find that their sister are gone missing.

You can bet they won't be happy! They'll have a very direct sympathy with Daphne.

So each update is in two weeks?

Unless Morning Angles develops super-speed soon, yup.

[websterhamster]

Morg totally sounds like Brynjolf to me.

[Ether Echoes]

3400327
Hilariously Riften is one of the few places I haven't been yet.

[MD Webster]

3400317
Morning Angles?

[Ether Echoes]

3400392
Check my author comments. He's the editor.

[websterhamster]

3400336 You'll like Brynjolf.

[MD Webster]

3400395 Oh, I see.

[MrRidley]

Three worlds, I knew it!
Also

“Kinda wish I had my etymology book with me, though. I’m positive there were some insects that aren’t in there.”

imgs.xkcd.com/comics/wrong_superhero.png
Etymology man to the rescue!

[Ether Echoes]

3400481
I swear I wrote entomology. Oh well! Fixing.

[MrRidley]

3400484
Cool.
I'm not normally a grammar nazi, but this just lined up too perfectly for me to resist.

[Firebirdbtops]

A bit of fortune, good or ill, finding one of the most dangerous forces in Equestria. After all the crusaders did nearly doom the world a few times.

[Fluttersyke]

I'm not going to lie, I squeed like a little girl when this updated. Pirene is currently vying for the Number One slot on my 'Favorite Story of All Time' list, though only time and future chapters will tell if your epic makes it there! This segment also marks the point where I am now as happy to read through Amelia's eyes as I was through Daphne's. Your characters are magnificent people, and Amy in cahoots with the CMC is absolutely beautiful! You hooked me with Daphne's epic imaginary troll fight versus filly Leit; drew me in with the Goblins, Wand King Tirac?, and general mesh of Greek Myth and ponies in a really believable way; and now I'm running with behind you as you build this awesomeness into an incredibly well thought out plot line! Please, continue this masterful tale. If there is anything the audience of your literary symphony can do to assist you, let us know!
Even more incredibly, I now know that 'Scarpered' is a word!

[Ether Echoes]

3400546
Pst, TV Tropes page~

[Verequus]

Shandivang/Shandibang
In a dreadful mess; "When he had finished wilmuntin in my chest of drawers, it was all shandivang!"

You are using Welsh as one of the languages? That's so tidy! (Had to look that up, along with two other words. Ether Echoes, the expander of vocabularies, strikes again!)

[Law]

I'm absolutely adding this to me top five favorite fics when I get back from work tonight, this story is amazing.

And kudos to your editor, I haven't noticed any errors that caused me to break immersion while reading.

[ultra8]

Looks like the CMC have learned the age-old knowledge of disposing of the evidence. This is going to get alot more fun(read crazy) with them joining the cast.
We learn more about the goblins, more about the Morgwyn and that we can now add the Norse to the growing influence list.

[Always Breakfast]

I'd wondered for a second if the peddler just took the foals to Earth. Though it does make sense that the outlying goblins wouldn't be operating there or Equestria if at all possible.

So we've got a third world, complete with its own fauna. Poor Amelia's entomology book will never be the same. Also, loving the blending of Irish and Norse mythology. Whole lot of syncretism there ripe for the digging.

[Sirflysalot]

i bestow upon you ...author food

[Parametric Ponymorphism]

3399539

Maybe it was Diamond Tiara.

And Ponyville school's Student Council will need a new accountant.

[Ether Echoes]

3401036
Proper tidy, it is~!

3401113
"We're going to need lots of garbage bags."

3401116
Fun thing about Mag Mell, too, is you'll notice that it reveals more about the cosmology than either of the worlds we've left behind. Sort of a... branching off point.

[Verequus]

One of my theories is that the goblinized pony "Kiln" was probably the filly which vanished from Ponyville years ago.

[Breaking News]

Well we finally got an explaination for Phonyville, cool. Seems Pinion was probably in character way, way too long.

Interesting that they took the steps with most of them to train for the Elements' personal talents. No wonder they once only seemed "a little" off.

I was actually hoping once they hooked up with the CMC they'd get back to Ponyville for the "happy reunion" but it looks like that will have to wait a few chapters. It'll really get AJ and Rarity fired up for the eventual rescue.

[Ether Echoes]

3401861
I'd call that a good guess.

3401980
Buwahaha
Buwahahahaahahaha
BUWAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

[Verequus]

I'm still a bit confused on the timeline. We know that Leit Motive was just a filly when she followed the Sonic Rainboom into the Everfree. This tells us that the elements were all fillies, too. Yet the goblin king decided at that time to create the trap for Daphne, using the knowledge of the personality and names of the bearers which haven't even met all of each other yet.

How could the king have known? Or do I misinterpret something?

[Solitair]

Yeah, I'm one of the folks who wasn't too keen on the switch to Amelia and is now coming around to like her as a character. I was bothered by her thoughts about Daphne since Daphne has a bunch of stuff going on already, but I'm starting to understand why this is happening, plus she isn't acting like a brat at all here.

And you almost got my hopes up again for having Amelia show up in Ponyville, but I'm not falling for that again!

[Willmar]

3400327 Morg in my headcanon has always sounded like the Cheshire Cat from American McGee's Alice (and Madness Returns), personally - the similarities Morg has with him kinda made it stick. Here's a vid of various cutscenes from the first game, for reference.

[Jdts7]

Mag Mell........isn't that from/mentioned in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles?

[morning_angles]

3403025

We could explain that, but it's out there in the story. You just need to read between the lines a little bit or ask your fellow readers~