In the short time since Twilight Sparkle had come to Ponyville, she had seen Nightmare Moon return and plunge the land into eternal night. She had seen Discord, the Spirit of Disharmony and Chaos, turn most of Equestria into what could only be described as a five year old's attempt at abstract art, and simultaneously turn her and her friends into their polar opposites (an act which led to Twilight attending therapy for three months so she'd stop freaking out whenever she saw cotton candy or chocolate milk). She had seen her brother's wedding crashed by an invasion of shapeshifting monsters that looked like the love children of a pony and an insect. And the most recent one was the return of the Crystal Empire (which was more of a city-state since most of the empire's former land was still a snow covered tundra but eh, semantics) that had been ruled by a tyrannical king made out of shadows and smoke. All of those situations had been a combination of weird and sometimes terrifying.
All of that paled in comparison to what she was seeing now.
The storm had already given the town a dark, shadowy look that gave an ominous feeling of fear and dread; but that paled in comparison to the creatures now running amok. The Shadows from Twilight's dream now ran free in the real world, looking slightly more terrifying now due to the sheer number of them. They chased after and tried to attack any Pony or living thing they saw, leading to many of the town's residents taking shelter in their homes and no doubt barricading their doors and windows.
One of the Shadows noticed them and started to hobble to them, no doubt planning to attack them. Acting quickly, Twilight fired a Magic Shot at it. Her aim was true, striking it square in the face...
...only to see that it had done nothing save for make it stumble a bit. Undeterred, it continued to move towards them. Standing in front of Spike, she charged up her magic before unleashing a much more powerful Magic Blast that nailed it and sent it flying into a wall. But once again, it simply got back up and started advancing on them.
And this time several of its brethren had decided to join in.
Thinking quickly Twilight grabbed Spike in her magic and teleported the two of them away, landing on the roof of a nearby house. Seeing they were safe for a moment Twilight muttered "This doesn't make sense. Why isn't my magic doing more damage to them than just stunning them?"
"I think we should worry about that later," Spike replied, looking down and seeing the Shadows moving around. "Preferably when these things are all gone."
She nodded. "Okay. We need to find the girls and get the Elements of Harmony. Hopefully they'll be able to send these things back to where they came from."
"Uh, that might be a problem," Spike said, pointing at the path to the Golden Oaks library. Twilight immediately saw what Spike meant; the entire path was flooded with Shadows, with barely a square inch of dirt or cobblestone uncovered. Add to that was the random lightning strikes (which Twilight now noticed were an odd metallic purple color. As if the ponies need further proof that this storm was unnatural.) all seemed to strike down on the path with alarming frequency.
So much for lightning never striking the same place twice. "Yeah, I can see that Spike," she muttered. "But that's where the Elements of Harmony are, and we need them." Picking him up and placing him on her back, she smiled and added "Besides, I can teleport. Remember?"
Spike quickly grabbed a hold of her mane, just as Twilight took a running start and leaped from the roof they were on, her horn flaring as she did so. In a flash of purple magic, they disappeared before they could touch the ground...
...and instantly reappeared inside the main room of the Golden Oaks library, right in front of the glass case holding the Elements of Harmony. Opening it, she immediately put the necklaces holding the Elements of Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, and Laughter into her saddlebag. Picking up the tiara with her own element, the Element of Magic, she said "Okay, we have them. Now we just need the girls." Sliding it into the saddlebag with the others she looked to Spike and asked "Did you message the girls?"
Spike nodded. "I also sent a message to Princess Celestia. Maybe we might get lucky and she'll come help us." Looking out the window, he noticed the Heartless were still milling around but for some reason hadn't come into their house yet. Quickly closing the blinds he asked "Do you really think the girls are going to be able to get here, with all those things out there?"
"I don't know, Spike," she replied. "But I seriously hope so."
Almost immediately after she said that the front doors were thrown open as Fluttershy zoomed in, quickly followed by Pinkie Pie and Rarity. Applejack ran in and grabbed the door, quickly slamming it shut as soon as Rainbow Dash shot into the room. Once that was done, the ponies immediately began barricading the door with Twilight's desk, several wooden boards, the dresser and the bed from Twilight's room, and just about everything but the kitchen sink (Which only escaped the chaos because Pinkie Pie couldn't find the monkey wrench.)
Looking to Twilight, the girls all asked the same question "What in Tartarus are those things?!"
"I have no idea," she replied, pulling out the Elements of Harmony and handing them to their respective bearers: Honesty to Applejack, Kindness to Fluttershy, Laughter to Pinkie Pie, Generosity to Rarity, and Loyalty to Rainbow Dash. "All I know is that these are the same creatures from my dream."
"Dream? You mean the one with the stained glass platforms and the giant evil alicorn monster you had to fight with that magic shield," Pinkie Pie asked.
Rolling her eyes, Rainbow replied "No Pinkie. The dream where she had a picnic with these things and played Frisbee with the shield. What do you think?!" Seeing Pinkie's hurt face and the disapproving glares from the others she quickly said "Sorry, Pinkie. I'm just-"
"Scared," Pinkie asked.
"I was gonna go with 'worried about my friends and family' but sure, scared works."
"I don't blame ya, Rainbow," Applejack stated. "Those things are just freaky looking."
Fluttershy nodded. "I-I've never seen any animal like them," she stuttered.
"Well whatever they are, they don't seem to be that affected by my magic," Twilight quickly said. "Which is why we're using the Elements of Harmony."
"Aw, yeah!" Rainbow Dash quickly clasped her Element around her neck and said "Bringing out the big guns!"
"Um, darling," Rarity cut in, looking at Twilight. "Not to question your strategy, as the 'giant rainbow laser of friendship' is our usual plan of attack, but do you really think it will work against these things?"
Twilight paused for a moment, thinking about the answer. Finally she replied "Honestly, I don't know. I checked the Canterlot Library but I couldn't find anything on them. And we already sent word to Princess Celestia, but she hasn't sent a reply and I'm not seeing a battalion of the Royal Guard attacking these things."
"Which is weird because usually she replies to you in like five to ten minutes," Spike added, looking at the clock. "It's been FIFTEEN minutes and so far there's been nothing."
"You reckon maybe these 'ere things made it to Canterlot," Applejack asked, sounding slightly fearful.
"Again, I don't know," Twilight replied. "But I don't really think we'd have much to worry about if there was. Aside from the thousands of Royal Guard soldiers, Princess Celestia is there. Incident with Queen Chrysalis aside, Princess Celestia is still one of the most powerful ponies in existence."
"What about Princess Luna," Fluttershy asked.
"She's not in Equestria at the moment. We were planning on talking to her after we talked to Princess Celestia, but she told us Princess Luna was on a diplomatic visit to Griffonstone." Making sure her Element was safely snug on her head, she continued "Anyway, I do have a plan beyond the 'Rainbow Laser of Friendship.'"
"And that would be," Rarity asked.
"Back when I was fighting the Shadows in my dream, they'd sometimes spawn from pools of shadows. Assuming the same rule applies, we find the shadow pool-"
"-we cut them off at the source," Pinkie finished, smiling.
Twilight nodded. "Hopefully, it works."
Spike cleared his throat. "Slight problem; how are you going to find where they're coming from?"
There was a pause, before Twilight sweatdropped. "Okay, admittedly I did not think that through."
"I might have an idea on that," Rainbow stated.
"What would that be?"
Motioning them to the window, she pointed her hoof right above the Everfree Forest.
Specifically, she was pointing at a large ring of clouds surrounding a patch of oddly purple sky. "That my friends, is what we in the Weather Business call the Eye of the Storm. And I'll bet you guys my next three paychecks that's where these things are coming from."
"It makes sense," Twilight admitted. "The storm shows up, and one week later it finally hits and these things come out en masse."
Applejack looked out the window and noticed the amount of Shadows between the treehouse and the Forest. "And how the hay are we supposed to get there without getting attacked?"
Twilight had to admit that was a problem. The Shadows were doing their level best to cover every inch of ground between the Everfree Forest and Ponyville, some even climbing up on the rooftops. Trying to run through there would be suicide. And they couldn't have Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy trying to fly them over wasn't much better because of all the lightning, as that could also kill them.
Finally she came to the only option she could think of. "I'll have to teleport us to the entrance of the forest." Seeing the incredulous looks on their faces she said "It's the only way we'll be able to get there without getting zapped or torn apart."
Being the only other unicorn in the room, Rarity quickly looked at her in concern. "Twilight, are you sure that's a good idea?"
Her horn lit up as she began charging her spell, focusing a massive amount of magic that began to cover her, Spike, and the rest of the girls. Just before she cast it she answered "I don't really think we've got any other options. Hang on."
Before they all disappeared in a flash of purple light, Spike asked "To what?!"
And then they were gone without a trace.
A few seconds later there was a large flash of purple light, and six ponies and one dragon appeared out of thin air, landing a tad bit roughly on the soft ground. Taking a few deep breaths, Rainbow said "I will never get used to that. Everytime we teleport it feels like-"
"-were milkshakes getting sucked through the world's thinnest bendy straw," Pinkie Pie finished, looking a little green around the gills.
Running a brush through her mane (nopony asked where she pulled it from) Rarity replied "Sadly, I have to agree with both of you on this one. This is why I never bothered to learn the Teleportation Spell. That and-"
She was cut off when Twilight's legs suddenly gave out on her and she began to fall, only to be caught by Fluttershy and Applejack. Seeing this, Rarity sighed and finished "-and the amount of magic required could leave unicorns who overuse it with a bad case of Magic Exhaustion. Like Twilight did just now."
Twilight would've argued, but honestly she was too tired at this point. "I just...need a moment...to catch my breath," she said between breathes.
Spike sighed. "You know, I seem to remember Princess Celestia telling you to take it easy and not strain your magic too much."
"Well it was either that... or we tried running through all those monsters back there. Figured this route had less chances of us getting torn apart by their claws. Plus, if I took the time to teleport you all one at a time, I'd actually use up more magic." She tried to stand up, only to stumble because her legs still felt kinda numb, so she ended up leaning on Applejack again.
Seeing this, Applejack said "Easy Sugarcube. You done tuckered yourself out with that spell. You need to rest."
Shaking her head, Twilight replied "We have to keep moving. If we don't stop those things soon, all of Equestria could be overrun."
"Well you're not gonna be much use when you can barely stand, Twi," Rainbow stated. "If we get swarmed by these things, you'll be too weak to run away. And if you really did use all your magic back there, you won't be able to teleport."
"Not without seriously injuring herself. Or worse." Seeing the looks everypony gave her Rarity explained "It's one of the first things they teach young unicorns when they start using their magic. Know your limits and try not to strain yourself, otherwise you could end up permanently damaging your magic."
"Girls, I'm fine," Twilight stubbornly refuted. "I'm nowhere near empty. By the time we get to where these things are coming from, my magic and stamina should be right where they need to be."
None of the girls bothered to argue with her, knowing that she could be just as stubborn as Rainbow Dash and Applejack combined. So instead Applejack hoisted her up and draped her over her shoulders, barely noticing the added weight. "Well until you get more of your stamina back, you'll just have to piggyback on me."
Twilight sighed, seeing as how she had no choice but to go along with it (Even if it did make her feel like a filly.) "Alright. Let's just go before things get worse."
With that, the seven of them set off into the Everfree Forest, hoping to find the source of these strange creatures.
If only they knew that what they had seen in Ponyville was just the opening act.
Now the main event was about to begin...
The trip through the Everfree was a lot faster than the first one they took back during Nightmare Moon's return, something all the girls took notice of. Pinkie Pie even mentioned that it felt like it was only yesterday the six of them went into the forest to find the Elements of Harmony, with Spike saying he wished he had been there. Twilight quickly stated how funny it was that a year and a half had gone by so fast. [1]
Another thing the seven of them noticed was that throughout the entire trip, none of the Shadows had shown up to stop or attack them. It was simultaneously relieving, but also concerning. As such Rarity made sure to keep her horn lit to illuminate the path, while the other mares kept an eye out for those creatures, praying they wouldn't trot right into an ambush.
About halfway they stopped to take a rest, and Twilight found that she had regained enough stamina and energy to walk on her own. Sadly, she didn't have enough magic to do anything beyond lighting her horn up.
Once they rested for a little they all set off again, following the sky when Twilight noticed something. "Is it just me, or does it look like the eye of the storm is right above the Castle of the Two Sisters?"
Flying as high as she dared, which was only slightly above the canopy of treetops, Rainbow nodded. "Yeah. It is."
"Jeez. Major Deja Vu," Pinkie Pie remarked.
Everypony nodded, except Spike. "Kinda hard to have that when you weren't there the first time."
"Not your fault you needed to sleep, Spike," Fluttershy said. "Plenty of baby animals need more sleep than older animals."
"Yeah. Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake usually sleep a good chunk of the day," Pinkie added.
"Yeah. Except Pumpkin Cake and Pound Cake are both almost a year old," Spike replied. "I did the math. While in pony years I'm six years old, in dragon years I'm actually 12."[2]
"Actually in a week you'll be 13," Twilight added, noticing Pinkie Pie quickly jotting down a note on a notepad. Looking to the girls she added "And it's true. Turns out dragons age twice as fast as ponies. But because of how long they can live, they grow a lot slower.[2]
Everypony was surprised by that, but decided not to comment on it and resumed their trek to the castle.
But as they continued, Twilight asked "You guys ever wonder what might've happened if we never met? If Nightmare Moon never came back? If we never became the bearers of the Elements of Harmony? If I-"
"-never came to Ponyville and became our friend," Pinkie Pie finished. She then promptly shook her head (everyone hearing a sound similar to a cowbell) and added "Nope!"
"Not really, sugarcube," Applejack said.
Rarity smiled. "I have to agree."
"I don't even wanna think about what life could've been like without you around, Twi," Rainbow added.
Fluttershy nodded, before hugging Twilight. "You're our friend. That's all that matters." She then messed with the spines on Spike's head and added "And you too, Spike."
"Hey! Quit messing with my spines," he whined.
Everyone laughed, even Spike once Fluttershy stopped, and they continued on.
Eventually the Castle of the Two Sisters came into view, and everyone noticed the slight break in the sky and the storm. While it still looked as dark as the rest of the storm, the area under the eye didn't seem to have much wind and was untouched by the lightning (which the group had been fortunate enough to miss.) But none of that managed to take away the feeling of eeriness, or the fear that the whole place could be infested with the Shadows.
"It's too quiet," Rainbow stated. Getting confused looks from everyone she explained "I mean, this castle is always quiet but you'd at least hear an owl or something. This is just-"
"-creepy," Fluttershy finished, shivering slightly.
Twilight was about to reassure them that it was probably nothing, but then there was a loud POP! and the sound of a balloon deflating. Everyone turned to see Pinkie Pie, whose mane had deflated. And then she promptly started shuddering like she was having a "doozy." "Pinkie, what's going on," Twilight asked.
"I don't know," Pinkie replied, sounding scared. "My Pinkie-Sense never acted like this before. But... I have a bad feeling. Like something really-super-ultra BAD! is going to happen!"
"Then ah' guess we outta get a move on," Applejack said.
Twilight nodded, walking over to the rope bridge. She was about to cross when she heard something, like claws scraping on stone. She peeked over the edge into the gorge-
-and her jaw dropped at what she saw. "Uh, girls?" She motioned for them to join her and look down, which they did in a heartbeat.
And they severely wished they hadn't.
The gorge was filled to the brim with shadows, looking like nothing but a writhing mass of black with yellow dots interspersed among them. None of them seemed to have noticed the six ponies and one dragon above, so they continued to shamble on aimlessly. "Sweet Celestia on a pogostick," Spike muttered. "There's gotta be thousands of them down there."
"Well they haven't seen us yet," Rarity whispered.
"Let's not change that. These things hear or see us and they'll be on us like Rainbow Dash on apple cider," Twilight replied.
"No comment," Rainbow said.
Seeing the condition the rope bridge was in, Twilight added "Let's go one at a time. Watch out for cracked or damaged boards, and go slow so you don't make too much noise." Seeing them all nod she asked "Who's first?"
Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash raised their hooves, but Applejack's was just a fraction of a second faster. "Too slow, Rainbow," she snickered.
"Yeah yeah, just get moving," she grumbled.
Applejack nodded, before crouching down low and slowly walking across the bridge. The bridge swayed and creaked once or twice, but none of the Shadows below gave notice. Once she was on the other side, she signaled to the others.
Rarity went next, carefully putting her hooves on each board in front of her with very precise hoofsteps. As it were she barely made a sound before she reached the other side.
Fluttershy followed, surprisingly using her wings to hold herself up so that she barely put any weight on the boards. Compared to the other two, she made no sound whatsoever.
Three down, four to go Twilight thought, hoping their luck would hold.
Pinkie Pie slowly made her way across, but her walk was far less quiet. Part of the reason could be that Earth Ponies tended to weight a bit more compared to Unicorns and Pegasi, which probably wasn't helped by the fact that Pinkie Pie's diet consisted of 60% sugary sweets and 40% healthy fruits and vegetables (She wasn't overweight since she exercised, but she did weight the most out of the Mane 6.) Or it could be that because Pinkie Pie's new Sense combo it might've made her heavier (Honestly the effects of her Pinkie Sense were so random that Twilight wouldn't have a problem believing that.) So during her walk the bridge creaked three times, but if the Heartless heard or took notice they didn't show it.
Rainbow walked across, mimicking Fluttershy's idea with her wings, and managed to make it across just fine. Though hers was a few seconds faster and got one creak from a particular board, but again the Shadows gave no notice.
Twilight pushed Spike up and whispered "Be careful."
Spike nodded. "See you on the other side."
He began slowly walking over, and Twilight's breath hitched in her throat. She had been hoping their luck would hold as they all crossed the bridge before. Now that her Little Dragon Brother (LDB) was in a very dangerous position, forget hoping. She was downright praying nothing bad would happen.
Sadly her prayers would not be answered this time.
About halfway across the bridge, the board Spike was standing on suddenly broke loose, and Spike suddenly found himself falling through. Luckily he managed to grab onto a board that held firm.
Unfortunately, the board that had broken loose had continued to fall into the gorge. And just so happened to nail a Shadow right on the head.
And all of them looked up to see the young dragon hanging on to a board for dear life.
Oh come on! Can't something go right for one day?!
Knowing she didn't have enough magic to teleport, Twilight instead broke into a run across the bridge, thankfully not breaking anymore boards. Not that it mattered at that point, since she saw the Heartless starting to climb up on top of each other like a bunch of ants, trying to make a tower high enough to reach the bridge. She managed to make it to Spike and lift him up with her magic, but she saw that the Shadows had already started climbing onto the bridge behind them. It was a rather horrifying sight that almost froze her in place, until she heard her friends on the other side scream for her to run.
Which she did, tearing her gaze away from them and sprinting towards the castle. When they were close enough to the other side, she threw Spike the rest of the way with her magic. She breathed a sigh of relief when he was safely caught by Fluttershy-
-only for that relief to quickly leave her when she felt the bridge violently dip downwards, along with a few small snap! sounds. She quickly saw why that was, as due to the combined weight of her and the many Shadows climbing on behind her, the support ropes holding up the bridge were starting to fall apart. "Oh no."
She tried to run, but it was too late.
And with the loudest SNAP! anyone had ever heard, the ropes broke and the bridge collapsed.
Time seemed to stop for a few seconds as Twilight felt all four of her hooves suddenly feeling nothing but air.
But of course, gravity was still a thing (even though Pinkie Pie constantly told it to get lost on a regular basis.) and Twilight began to fall, barely registering the screams from Spike and her friends as she fell closer and closer to the Shadows. Right before she could make contact she poured what little magic she had into a force field spell, creating a bubble of purple magic around her body.
And it worked, repelling the monsters as her shield touched them, allowing her to sink down to the bottom of the canyon unharmed.
Which was both a good and a bad thing, since she was alive... but now at the bottom of the gorge and surrounded by several thousand Shadows who looked about ready to tear Twilight apart and... eat her? Honestly these ones didn't have mouths so it was hard to tell.
As the Shadows started attacking her shield bubble with either their claws or by ramming into it, she could feel two things; her magic starting to fail her (which was evident by her shield bubble losing its glow) and the fear gripping her heart. Is this really how I'm going to die? At the bottom of a gorge, getting mauled to death and possibly eaten by these things? Never being able to see my friends and family again?
Her mind suddenly went into a montage of moments with her friends and family. Every moment flew through her mind in the span of a second: hatching Spike at the entrance exam for Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, meeting the girls in Ponyville, defeating Nightmare Moon with the Elements of Harmony, removing Discord's corruption from her friends by reminding them just how much they mean to each other (via a memory restoration spell) and turning Discord to stone, fighting the Changelings when they crashed Cadance and Shining's wedding, seeing King Sombra vaporized by the Crystal Heart, and all the little moments in between. All of those memories reminded Twilight of just how much she cared about her friends, and how she hoped that they would all be friends until the end of their days.
When the flashback montage was over, the spark in Twilight's heart became a flame. "No. It's not. I've survived a jealous moon princess, the physical incarnation of pure chaos, an army of shapeshifting bug-ponies, and a thousand year old tyrant unicorn who practiced the dark arts." She felt a surge of strength in her, and her force field bubble began to glow brightly, like a star. "I am not going to be killed here by a bunch of glorified shadow puppets!"
The feeling in Twilight's heart climbed even higher, going from a strong flame to a raging fire. Her horn and eyes lit up bright white, and when she unleashed the magic bubble around her as a radial shockwave that filled almost the entirety of the gorge, the Shadows weren't just knocked back. If they were right up against the force field or a few feet away from it, they were straight up vaporized.
Once she felt the surge of power end, Twilight became aware of three things.
The majority of the Shadows were gone, save for ten to thirty on each side of the gorge.
Her magic was now fully restored, a fact she was very thankful for.
And lastly, she was holding a strange looking object in her magic.
It looked like a sword, but if it was it was the weirdest looking sword she'd ever seen. From the pommel to the tip it was almost as tall as she was. The handguards around the leather-wrapped handle were a dark purple. The shaft of the blade was a very light purple, while along the one side of the blade were... "teeth" she guessed, that were shaped like half of Twilight's Cutie Mark. Attached to the bottom of the pommel was a small keychain, with a small purple stone that looked like almost an exact replica of the actual Element of Magic.[3]
Awed at the object, she asked aloud "What is this thing?"
In the back of her mind, she heard one word: Keyblade.
She rolled her eyes. "Great. Mysterious Dream Voice is back. Oh how I wish this were still a dream because then-"
Before she could finish that sentence, several screams rang out through the night from the castle entrance. Snapping into action, she held her Keyblade tight in her magic before teleporting up to the top of the cliff, just in time to see several Shadows surrounding Spike and the rest of her friends. One of them leaped at Fluttershy, claws outstretched-
And then something happened. Something that no one in Equestria or beyond would ever think was possible. Something that if it were ever suggested would be laughed off as being so unlikely to ever happen that it may as well not exist.
Twilight Sparkle, at the top of her lungs no less... swore.
"GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BITCH!"[4]
She teleported right up to the Shadow, swinging her Keyblade and cutting it clean in half across its stomach. Both halves of the Shadow faded away, and for a brief second everyone could see a crystalline pink heart float away before vanishing.
Before any of them could ask Twilight anything, she had already teleported to another Shadow and stabbed it through the chest, causing it to fade and another heart to vanish. She repeated the process; teleporting, stabbing and slashing until all of the Shadows were gone. Taking a few breathes, Twilight said "We should be okay for now." Looking to her friends she asked "Everyone alright?"
Everyone nodded and Spike asked "Where'd you get that... what is that thing?"
Knowing what he was referring to, Twilight replied "In order? I have no idea and I think it's called a Keyblade."
"Since when did you learn to fight like that," Rainbow asked.
"Since I saw you guys about to become monster chow. Now come on! The Eye's right over the castle, so odds are the source of these things is somewhere inside. We need to stop them before-"
At that moment, pools of shadow began to appear along the ground, with more Shadows crawling out of them.
"-before that happens," Twilight grumbled.
"What do we do," Fluttershy asked, the fear evident on her face.
Seeing that there were no Shadows between them and the castle, Twilight floated her Element of Magic off of her head and gave it to Spike. "Get in the castle and find where these things are coming from?"
"Darling, what about you," Rarity inquired.
Lifting it up and giving her Keyblade a twirl, Twilight coolly replied "I'll finish these guys off and meet you inside. That way we hopefully won't be chased the whole time we're in there.
"Since when did you become an action girl," Pinkie asked.
"Since right now, apparently. Now get going! I'll meet you all inside."
They all nodded, and as they ran through the door Twilight added "And be careful!"
Once they were out of sight, she turned to the Shadows. Casually leaning her Keyblade on her shoulder she asked "So, who dies first?"
To Be Continued...