//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Dungeons and Dragons 
// Story: Prey 
// by Kkat 
//------------------------------//


"A runaway train is bearing down on five people who are tied to the track. You can cause the train to switch tracks, but there is one person tied to the second track."






Ocellus stops trying to control her flight, staring up at the terrifying behemoth that her friend has become. Her receptors are open wide.

"Who actually puts a gigantic dragon in a dungeon?" Gallus quips, catching up. "This isn't Ogres & Oubliettes! And dragons aren't monsters. One of..."

"It's Smolder!" Ocellus whimpers, her voice barely audible.

Smolder turns towards the changeling, the dragon's snout four times her size. Her eyes glow a hungry gold. She opens her mouth, showing teeth as big as Ocellus' head, and declares:

"MINE!"

Regardless of her feelings towards her dear friend, Ocellus knows with electric clarity that she doesn't want to be Smolders' in whatever sense that meant for her afflicted roommate right now. There is no love coming from the dragon at all. 

The sense of nothing seeps into her like poison, slowing her down, stealing her breath. With a flurry of wingbeats, Ocellus begins moving sluggishly upwards, the thin air mocking her effort to change direction. Smolder's claws swipe towards her and she tries in vain to dodge. The colossal dragon snatches Ocellus out of the air.

For a moment, Ocellus feels herself compressed between claws and palm, completely engulfed. Smolder's scales radiate with the furnace inside her, not enough to burn but enough to make breathing difficult. 

A tidal wave of nausea hits Ocellus as Smolder swings her arm around and downward. The heat of the dragon's grip abruptly gives way to the freezing cold. Ocellus curls up, folding her wings defensively under her elytra, a breath before hitting the floor. Hard. Pain explodes through her left shoulder as she bounces. Once. Twice. Then thumps to a stop against a cracked wall.

Ocellus uncurls, eyes opening. The thoughts Smolder just attacked me! and I'm alive! compete for dominance in her mind. Alive wins; she absolutely would not have survived if Smolder had intended to kill her.

The changeling nymph looks up, taking in the small room and the doorway -- Smolder tossed her into one of the dungeon cells that circle the central arena of the colosseum. One whose cell door lies among the debris. 

Ocellus gets up, her elytra parting to allow her to spread her wings.

Smolder slams a portcullis -- torn from another part of the building -- over the exit.

Ocellus stares. Smolder just caged her. Like a pet songbird.

She rushes to the gate, her mind conjuring half a dozen forms that can get her through the bars. The fact Smolder thinks this can hold her exposes how impaired her roommate is. Smolder told her this draconic malady is not like growing up, but she failed to convey its regressiveness.

Golden light shines down through the portcullis, illuminating Ocellus in gridwork of shadows. Smolder is watching.

"Hate to say it, Smolder," shouts the voice of Gallus, "But you're pretty much redefining 'possessive girlfriend' right now. Not cool!"

The griffon jumps from the ragged edge of the dome, spreading his wings as he soars past Smolder's eyes, catching the enormous dragon's attention.

Ocellus jolts like twittermites zapped her. What did Gallus just say? The lovebug sputters haplessly. "Wha-?! We're not...! Gallus, she's not..." Ocellus' protest crashes as Gallus just rolls his eyes, angling his wings and giving two hard flaps to turn. 

Ocellus briefly ignores just how much better Gallus is handling moon flight. Time has stopped and she is locked in place. Why is he rolling his eyes?!?
 
Smolder glares at the griffon flying around her like an insect. The dragon's expression changes, eyes widening, her mouth pulling into a predatory grin.

"DINNER!"

Gallus squawks, "whut?"

The dragons roars, the sound battering the broken walls of the dungeon colosseum. Debris falls as the structure threatens to further collapse.

"SMOLDER HUNGRY!"

Ocellus's attention snaps back to the metal grid of the portcullis. She briefly considers taking the form of a cockatrice again. It would be a tight squeeze, but turning Smolder to stone might...

Might what? She couldn't leave Smolder like that. And Smolder would still be afflicted when Ocellus un-stoned her. At best, it would give them a moment to catch their breath and try to figure out how to save their friend. Ocellus cannot -- will not -- leave Smolder like this. 

Gallus swoops back around, flying across Smolder's belly. Smolder grabs at him, her claws swiping the air so close behind the griffon that Gallus is able to somersault and land on one of Smolder's claws.

Gallus stares up into the angry, hungry face of his friend, his eyes widening and his pupils dilating until they are almost lost in seas of white. "Uh... this might be a bad time to ask, but we're looking for this gemstone..." 

Gallus jumps away as Smolder claps the claw hard enough to sting. Crazily, Ocellus' mind flashes to Pharynx telling stories about how he would get his brother, now King Thorax, to hit himself.

Smolder roars in frustration. 

Ocellus sees a large chunk of the remaining dome tear away and collapse heavily into the dungeon below, smashing through two cells identical to hers, crushing them to rubble.

Ocellus concentrates. A turquoise flash. Bat-Ocellus flies between the bars, escaping her prison. 

No wonder Luna favored bat-winged ponies, Ocellus thinks as she feels her (comparatively) larger and slower wings perform in the thin, frigid air. It is so much easier to fly on the moon like this.

"It's about yay big, gold, glowing," Gallus persists, illustrating with his talons as he dodges another swipe. "Have you seen it?"

"Yes. Delicious!"

Ocellus squeaks. With a flash, she is a nymph again. "You ate it!?"

Gallus's face falls. "Oh crap."

Smolder grabs the charred mass of the dead moonshark and swings it at Gallus. The griffon flaps hard, the gigantic mega-eel brushing his tail before slamming into the remaining colosseum wall, pulverizing pillars. The entire wall crumbles apart under the impact. Architectural debris, including the last chunk of dome, avalanche down, pounding into the dungeon below.

Ocellus changes into a rock as a hunk of column twice her size hurls towards her. The impact sends her flying into the wreckage of the colosseum entrance. Rock-Ocellus slams into a damaged, canted column with enough force to break every bone or shatter every plate of chitin she would have in any other form.

Ocellus slides down onto a marble floor cracked and dusted with regolith. Turquoise flame spirals about her, and Ocellus is a nymph again, her ears ringing.

"I think we know what happened to the palace's back wing!" Gallus calls out, leaping out of the colosseum. "Smolder did! I can't believe she ate Greed!" The griffon lands on the freestanding ruin of a flying buttress. "What do we do now?"

Ocellus looks around. To either side is rubble and wreckage. A few dungeon cells still ring the nearly demolished arena. Behind her, little more than the canted azure pillar remains of the pointed arch that once framed the entrance into the dungeon colosseum. The hallway beyond has collapsed in, although there are a few holes that might be big enough to crawl through.

Ocellus spots something hidden in the fluting of the column, tucked behind the sculptural bat that holds the scroll of the capital.

"YOU DESSERT!"

Smolder swings the dead moonshark again. Gallus leaps back into the colosseum as the body of the mega-eel demolishes the buttress. Smolder turns back towards him, opening her jaw, dragonfire crackling in her gullet.

Gallus stares up. "Oh fuck me!"

A comet of turquoise slams Gallus out of the way as dragonfire blasts the arena floor, spreading across it and engulfing several cells.

The two friends slam into the barred door of a remaining cell hard enough that Ocellus hears one of the griffon's ribs crack. Ocellus stumbles away, dazed. Gallus is a heap at the base of the cell door, but at least he is alive and not cooked. Her ears perk up as she hears Gallus moan, thankful she didn't knock him unconscious like she did those drones who pretended to be doors.

Gallus pushes himself up, groaning. "When Smolder told me about Greed Induced Bigness, I thought she was just making it up!"

Smolder turns, trying to spot where her prey has gone.

Ocellus opens her mouth, meaning to ask Gallus if he is okay. Instead, what comes out is, "Gallus! You swore!"

Gallus turns to stare at her. "... Seriously!? An overgrown, magically-influenced friend is trying to eat me and that's the concern here?"

He's right. They are in a life-and-death fight with her dearest friend, and a voice in her head is telling her that she's worrying about All the Wrong Things!

The golden light cascading from Smolder's eyes pins them. Ocellus again focuses on her receptors, trying to find love. For her. For Gallus. But there is nothing that she can taste coming from Smolder. Not even lust.

Somehow, that makes her feel far, far worse than the fact they are fighting their friend. That poison bites deeper. 

"OCELLUS! MINE! STAY!"

The dragon points to another cell with one of her huge claws.

The griffon cringes back, wheezing. Smolder turns her hungry attention to him.

Ocellus grabs Gallus. "Hold on!" She feels the griffon wrap his arms around her. This time, she will carry him to safety. Ocellus transforms.

For the second time today -- for the second time ever -- she becomes a hippogriff. This time, she knows, it is a purely utilitarian transformation. She needs the larger size and non-insectoid wings. Gripping Gallus in both arms, she beats those wings, propelling herself back the way she came.

She hears Smolder's fist smash down, cracking stonework and mangling the cell door.

Wait. Ocellus thinks as she pours on the speed. The oddness of her mental acknowledgement is sinking in. It wasn't purely utilitarian before? Then why did I?

Ocellus reaches the canted azure pillar that once helped frame the entrance. She sets Gallus down in the hallway just beyond. "This way!"

Gallus starts forward then stops. "This is a dead end. Emphasis on dead." His eyes latch on one of the holes in the rubble, and he visibly withers at the thought of squeezing through it. "Oh come on."

Backing away from the griffon with a flap of her wings, Hippogriff-Ocellus admits, "That's the backup plan." She flies to the pillar's capital.

Gallus turns in time to see her reach behind the capital's bat sculpture and press the moon-shaped button.

A barrier of pure void seals the entrance. The void spills through the broken arch like a knocked over cup of water. Like black blood. 

Hippogriff-Ocellus ducks away as Smolder's claws strike the barrier, scraping over it soundlessly. The dragon roars in rage at the denial of her prey.

Ocellus lands, changing back to her natural form. "Okay, Smolder. Now that it's just you and the creature you don't want to eat, I need you to listen to me."

Her receptors are open. Ocellus hopes for the taste of love, but finds only a painful, gutting nothing. Intellectually, she knows Smolder's emotions have been completely consumed by greed. And greed isn't something she can taste. But emotionally, sensing nothing from Smolder towards her where there should be love feels like something is pulling out her insides, leaving her hollow. Threatening to paralyze her. It is painfully reminiscent of staring in the mirror and having no reflection. Like she is nothing.

Shaking, Ocellus closes her eyes. Her thoughts flicker back to the day Starlight and Thorax invaded the old hive. She remembers Queen Chrysalis boasting: "By replacing the most beloved figures in Equestria, my drones will be able to store all the love meant for them and return it here to me."

Twice since she woke up last morning, she tasted Smolder's love for her. She recalls that, uses that to remind herself of Smolder's true feelings -- she knows that is true; when it comes to love, you can't fool a changeling. She took some of that love -- not eaten but stored -- saved to be treasured. She summons the love she felt when they were alone in the Treehouse, wrapping herself with it to ward off the hollowness so it cannot paralyze her.

Ocellus opens her eyes, looking up at her gigantic, Greed-transformed friend. Tasting the love that Smolder should be feeling. 

Smolder glares at Ocellus, the golden light of her eyes shining with a burst of absolute rage at being denied her dinner. She opens her mouth, a rising inferno lighting her hellishly from within.

"Smolder, stop! This isn't you!"

Smolder lets loose a horrendous roar, pouring out a holocaust of dragonfire. Ocellus is consumed in the raging torrent of draconic flame that consumes the entire area in a blinding conflagration.

The flames wash away, and Ocellus is standing there -- not as Ocellus, but in the form of her Smolder. 

"This is the real you!" Smolder-Ocellus insists, staring up, arms out wide.

Again, she feels Smolder's claws close around her. Her afflicted friend snatches up Smolder-Ocellus, shaking her hard enough to threaten whiplash, then brings the tiny vision of herself up to her face

"NO!! CHANGE BACK! WANT OCELLUS!"

Back at the Treehouse, Ocellus worried about whether Smolder's feelings for her were for herself or her dragon form. Those worries are burned away by the tone in Smolder's voice. Ocellus changes back into Ocellus, releasing the bulwark of saved love and trying to sense anything from the Smolder staring at her. Her heart leaps as she tastes a splash of jalapeno -- the tiniest spark of love within the greed-obsessed Dragon.

"I'm sorry for this, Smolder."

The colosseum erupts in a flurry of tentacles. 

Giant Squid-Ocellus wraps tentacles around the giant Smolder, binding her. Then Ocellus shoves a tentacle down her throat. Triggering her gag reflex...

Ocellus pulls her tentacle out, releasing Smolder. She falls away, hitting the floor as she turns into Ocellus again. She is screaming, her arm burning with acid. She rolls out of the way as the giant dragon throws up everything in her stomach. Including the pieces of Greed. Glowing chunks of golden gemstone splash to the broken marble floor in a gush of acidic vomit.

Ocellus holds her arm out, trying to fight back the agony. A shadow passes over her as Gallus arrives. He uses a tapestry torn from the wall to try to wipe away the acid. She notices his occasional flinch of pain. Neither is focused on the giant dragon shrinking back to the familiar size and shape of their friend. 

Smolder curls up on the floor, making unhappy dragon noises.

"Ocellus, that was stupid and crazy!" Gallus scolds, trying to save her leg. "Also, cool."

Ocellus smiles weakly, tears running down her cheeks. "You said Greed-Induced Bigness. I thought: get rid of the Greed, get rid of the bigness."

They both look over as they hear Smolder's weak voice. "...smart thinking..."





Ocellus winces as both Smolder and Gallus tend to her.

"Ocellus! Your leg! I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry!" The dragon is flooding the air between them with love-laced worry, guilt and horror.

Ocellus winces and beams Smolder the best smile she can. "Chitin doesn't... dissolve... easily.... owowowow!"

Gallus gives her a flat look. "Dragon stomach acid's made to digest gemstones. You're lucky you didn't lose your leg!" He stops as he sees the devastated look on Smolder's face. "Right. Not helping. Sorry."

"D-Don't worry. I'll be okay. We just need to get back to the ghost-medical-wallpaper-thing." Ocellus cringes, really needing a better name for that. But she sees the relief on Gallus' face and the look of hope in Smolder's eyes. 

"Y-yeah. Right." Gallus' voice grows confident. "That's not too far. Especially if we can cut back through the hallway. You get to ride on my back. I'm not carrying the vomit cannon anymore."

Smolder gives Gallus a bewildered and somewhat hurt look.

"He doesn't mean you," Ocellus quickly tells her. "We'll explain on the way." She turns to Gallus, her voice soaked in concern. "Are you sure? Your rib..."

"Cracked. Not broken," Gallus insists. "I can carry you. Just lay side-saddle to keep from kicking it."

The nymph winces and quickly tries to change the topic. "How did you get out?"

Gallus scoffs. "How did I get out of the half-collapsed hallway full of holes, sealed by an unstable barrier you used to take me out of the fight?" His tone suggests she shouldn't be asking. "Thank you for the save, by the way."

Ocellus gets shakily to three legs, not wanting to put pressure on the acid-burned foreleg. 

The griffon turns towards the massive, steaming pool of draconic sick-up. "Sooo, is that game-over then? With Greed chewed to bits, nobody can open the portal. To get home or to destroy it..."

Gallus' voice trails off, his eyes widening as the bits of Greed slide together through the sick and reform into the anti-Element in a flash of golden light.

"Or not. Because of course it does that."

The changeling looks at the golden gemstone, cut in the semi-circle shape of a half moon. "...ugh." Ocellus sighs heavily. "Back to it then."

Smolder looks between the two of them, catching on. "So... who picks it up?"

The three look at each other.

Smolder and Gallus immediately call out, "Not it!"

With another heavy sigh, Ocellus pulls off her saddlebags and hobbles over to the vomit lake. She opens the bag that Envy is in, picking up the bag by her teeth and flying over the pool.

As Ocellus collects Greed, Smolder watches furtively. Gallus begins to explain their whole situation, or at least as much as they know. The young dragon swallows hard.

Smolder is staring at Ocellus with an unfathomable expression as she returns from her gross chore.

"So..." Smolder asks tentatively, tapping her index clawtips together.

Ocellus lands, wincing as her wounded leg briefly touches the floor. She looks up at Smolder and feels a pang in her heart at the vulnerable, frightened look in her dearest friend's eyes.

"Ocellus, did you just risk all of Equestria to save me?"

Ocellus frowns. The threat of Queen Elytra had been neutralized. She hadn't been thinking of it like that at all. But that's exactly what she had done. Still, she can't feel bad about the decision. She can hear the fear in Smolder's voice, but stronger is the love she feels and tastes coming from her dragon friend. Maybe it's horrible... should she feel horrible about it?

Ocellus turns and looks at Smolder. And smiles that little smile she knows the dragon likes seeing on her at tea parties. "Let's get going."

Would you sacrifice your friend to save a hundred strangers? If nothing else, she now knows the answer: NO. For better or worse.

They begin walking together. Back into the hallway as Gallus flies up and deactivates the void barrier. Back towards Nightmare Moon's Throne Room. 

Gallus lands next to Ocellus, lowering himself for the changeling nymph to climb onto his back.

Ocellus stops. "Wait, is this the test?"

Gallus freezes. Smolder turns and looks at her questioningly.

"What test?" Gallus asks, a note of suspicion creeping into his voice.

It takes Smolder a moment to remember. "Wait, do you mean Rarity's test? The one Discord gave you the questions to?"

Gallus blinks. "Discord did what?" he asks flatly.

"Why would you think that?" Smolder asks. "I really don't think Professor Rarity would create a test that puts us in harm's way. That would be completely unlike her." The dragon frowns. "Really, is there something about any of this that is anything like that test?"

Ocellus thinks about the three questions. Four, part of her mind whispers, but you're blocking out the last one because it hurts.

"A little," she admits. "Yes."

Smolder shakes her head. "That's probably a coincidence. Our professors just wouldn't do this."

Gallus nods in agreement, but his expression is sour. "They wouldn't. But we know something that would." 

Ocellus looks from Gallus to Smolder, knowing her griffon friend is thinking of the Tree of Harmony's test again. But the burning pain in her leg decries that. Yes, they were at the Treehouse, but... "The Treehouse is a safe place for us. That is what the Tree made it to be." 

And this is the opposite of safe.

"Yeah, I'm with Ocellus," Smolder says. "The Tree is all about friendship. It wouldn't poison me against my friends. That's more Cozy Glow's schtick."

Ocellus breaths with relief. She can see Gallus relaxing too. 

"But..." Smolder says, bringing the tension back, "There is someone else who might." She looks at Ocellus. "We didn't get that test from Rarity."

Ocellus feels like she is sinking. "You think... Discord is doing this to us? Even after everything, you think he'd still pull something like this?" The whole idea was disturbingly in line with Discord's past actions. But she believed those were actions he was trying to atone for, not repeat.

Smolder nods. "Remember that line about storming the palace? He knew where we were headed."

"It makes sense he would know," Gallus counters, "The Headmare and Counselor Trixie would have known where Luna was taking us."

Ocellus shakes her head. "I-I don't think Discord is doing this." Deep down, she knows she just needs to believe that Discord is truly making amends this time. But isn't that the kind of hope and kindness that the School of Friendship is about?

Smolder raises a claw to protest, but Ocellus cuts her off. "But I do think that Discord knew something was going to go wrong. I think... I think the test was him trying to help." She adds, "For a Discord definition of helping."

"Okay, we need to stop now," Gallus says, stepping between his friends. "I know I'm not the poster griffon for not being paranoid, but pretty soon we're going to start questioning reality, and that road leads to crazy. We're trapped in Nightmare Moon's Palace. Going crazy gets us killed."

Ocellus and Smolder both nod. Then, with an attempt at levity, Ocellus retorts, "We're not trapped in the palace." She holds up Nightmare Moon's Seal. "Technically, we're just trapped on the moon."





Trying to go back through the hallway is harder than they expected. Gallus repeatedly has to crawl through tight spaces, much to the griffon's dismay. And moving though those gaps forces Ocellus to use her acid-burned foreleg. They stop for long minutes after each effort, allowing Gallus to bleed off his anxiety and Ocellus to fight down the pain. 

Smolder's expression becomes more and more morose every time.

"On the other talon," Gallus quips as they sit in the burned-out husk of what could have been a study after the third such crawl, "At least we aren't battling moonsharks."

Ocellus groans. Fighting Smolder was awful, and she would rather deal by not thinking about anything. Just forging ahead, saying nothing (or, if possible, less). But she can tell Gallus is even more shaken than she is, and is trying to relieve his stress through humor.

The griffon brushes soot from his wings and looks to Smolder. "Let me get this straight. Greed was like: Want me! Need me! And you were like: Sure, I'm peckish. Om nom nom?"

Smolder glares at Gallus, her face devoid of amusement.

Gallus turns to Ocellus. "Score one for the 'anti-Elements are not intelligent' theory. Or have the best survival instincts."

Smolder raises a claw, but Ocellus whispers, "It's probably better to let him get it out of his system."

Recovering, Gallus lowers himself again, letting Ocellus onto his back.

"I'm imagining a mommy dragon wagging her claw and saying: Now, now, Smolder. Eat all your anti-Elements. They'll help you grow big and strong."

Smolder huffs. "I hate you right now."

The dragon doesn't, and their friends both know it. Ocellus gives Smolder a sympathetic look as she climbs onto the griffon's back. "Do you want me to change into something lighter?"

Gallus shakes his head. "No, but next time we have to crawl, do yourself a favor and turn into a bat. Keep yourself off that leg."

"I could just turn into a bat now," she replies.

"Yeah," Smolder notes. "But then we couldn't talk to you."

"You're not doing much talking," Ocellus observes.

Smolder looks down, then back at her. "Yeah, but right now it's really nice to hear your voice."

The trio begins moving again, exiting the charred study. The fire-ravaged hall beyond looks vaguely familiar.

Gallus moves forward, eyeing everything. Almost all of it is burned. "I think this is where we encountered the fire'ling."

"The what?" Smolder asks.

Gallus looks back at her. "You would not believe some of the changelings we have encountered here. Even the normal ones..." Gallus shudders.

Ocellus suspects he is remembering stained-glass chainsaw teeth. Part of her wants to scold him (gently), but she feels her wings vibrate in sympathetic horror.

Gallus looks at Smolder. "If you ever thought of changelings as harmless..."

Smolder interrupts, stepping around in front of him with an incredulous expression. "Who in their right mind would think changelings are harmless?"

"Uh..."

Smolder's eyes widen as she realizes. Then narrow. "Do you think dragons are harmless?"

Gallus balks. "Of-of course not." He steps back, withering a little under Smolder's stare. He quickly pads his answer, "Dragons are mighty and fierce." 

Then just as Smolder is looking mollified, he adds, "And I don't need one to swing the carcass of her kills at me to prove it."

Oh ouch.

Ocellus sees Smolder flinch back. "Um..."

But Smolder recovers faster than Ocellus can think of anything to say. "I deserved that." Her stare is back. "Gallus, are you aware that the first time I met a changeling, the very first thing she did was become a dragon?"

Ocellus blinks. Really? Oh. Oh that was me. That's not exactly how that happened. Except, I guess, it kind of is.

Gallus' face falls. He takes a moment to process that, then buries his face in his talons. "I am really just an idiot."

Smolder nods, then gives Ocellus a smile and a wink.

The trio pass beneath the toppled column, Ocellus transforming into a bat as her friend suggested. Without the royal jelly sprayer, Gallus has no trouble crawling under the column this time. Just beyond is the stained glass doors leading into the wine cellar -- the doors on the opposite side from the ones that Gallus sealed shut.

"Crap," Gallus says, remembering. "We might not be able to go this way. I sealed the doors on the other side of this room with changeling vomit."

"I'm going to hit you," Ocellus threatens emptily.

Smolder holds out a sharp claw and presses it against the stained glass. The young dragon cuts a circle in the glass and looks through. 

Then pulls back, blinking. "Uh..."

"Any sign of the fire'ling?" Ocellus asks. She doubts it. They would see the light though the door.

"No... but..." Smolder backs up. "Look for yourself."

Gallus leans down, letting Ocellus slide off his back. The griffon takes a peak and pales visibly under his feathers. He backs slowly away from the door.

Ocellus moves to the cut circle and peers in. The far wall is largely gone. The far half of the room is ash and softly glowing embers. Between that and the near corner, only a quarter of the wine cellar retains any visage of the room's original purpose. There are only five unburned shelves of wine bottles remaining where the room originally had at least two dozen.

All the remaining bottles of wine now have notes attached to them. Scores of them. Each with perfectly duplicated script in Gallus' writing: Not a changeling.

Ocellus twitches. "Gallus!" she hisses, "I told you to stop doing that. How many of those notes did you make?" Even as she says it, she realizes he couldn't possibly have done this.

"Only the two."

Ocellus pales and backs away from the room. "Let's go back outside and around. We are not going into that room."





Smolder stares at the bat-winged smoke apparition that bubbled out from the decaying stain in the wallpaper. "This place is terrible. Why would Luna want to take us on a field trip here anyway?"

Ocellus sighs, feeling the burning hurt in her leg fade under the light of the spectre's eyes. "Maybe she was planning on taking us someplace else?" She didn't really believe that. But Luna couldn't remember planning the trip, so it was possible.

Smolder counts on her claws. "Multi-day field trip. Opening the portal at the Treehouse. That talk about how far we were going."

"Oh... yeah...," she gives up. "It was here."

Gallus shrugs, returning from the next room. "A field trip to the moon would be cool. What I don't get is why Luna wouldn't have checked the place out first to make sure it was safe."

Smolder offers, "After spending a thousand years here, maybe Luna just figured she knew everything there is to know about the moon?"

Ocellus frowns, not saying anything, mentally filing the conversation in her growing list of questions with insufficient answers.

"Thank. You. For. Letting. Me. Aid. You. Mistress."

Smolder blinks repeatedly at the spectre's words. Ocellus and Gallus pay it no attention. They've heard it before. 

Gallus comments, "They call everyone that. Even me."

Smolder blinks, then snorts a laugh. "So that's why you insisted we leave the room while that... thing... played doctor with you."

Gallus doesn't deny it. "Knowing what it said is one thing, but letting you hear it call me that? I'd rather run around Nightmare Moon's Palace with a cracked rib. If Ocellus hadn't insisted I go first..."

"You carried me," Ocellus protests. 

Smolder takes a step back as the spectre dissipates, the vapor dispersing too close to her for the dragon's comfort.

"Is everything in this place that creepy?" she asks.

"Yes," Gallus answers immediately.

Ocellus climbs back onto her hooves. She tests her leg, putting extra weight on it, smiling as she feels no pain or weakness.

Smolder watches, that morose look returning. Her eyes dart between Ocellus and Gallus before she finally lets it out. "Look... I'm really, really sorry..."

"No big," Gallus replies. "We're just glad you're all right."

"No big!? Gallus, I tried to eat you!"

Gallus glances away, and makes a dismissive twirl with one claw. "We live in Equestria. Who hasn't done something bizarre and out-of-character while under the influence of a magical artifact?"

Ocellus can tell it really is bothering him. But he's downplaying it. Not to put on a brave face or act tough, but because he thinks that's what Smolder needs right now. And Ocellus figures he is probably right. After what happened, Smolder probably really needs her friends to still be okay with her. She needs compassion and understanding.

Smolder turns to her. "Ocellus, I... I tried to hoard you. That's... that's so wrong."

Ocellus gives her friend a reassuring smile. "It's okay, Smolder. I understand."

Smolder seems taken aback. There is worry and a little resentment in her voice. "What? Because I'm a dragon? Dragons hoard?"

Ocellus shakes her head. "No. Because I hoard too."

Smolder blinks. Her voice grows soft. "What? ...really? ...what?"

Ocellus nods with a small smile. She slips up next to Smolder and whispers into the dragon's ear, "We make it through this, and I'll tell you at our next tea party."

Smolder blushes under her scales. "I'll hold you to that," she whispers back.

As Smolder and Ocellus are whispering, there is a soft, somehow cheap-sounding clack from behind them.

"Hey, Smolder!" Gallus calls out.

Smolder turns. Her eyes go wide as something softly smacks her right between them, bouncing off harmlessly with a squeaking sound.

"That's for trying to eat me."

Smolder blinks. She sees Gallus holding a pink and blue toy weapon. "...wut?"

Gallus grins smugly. "My class project for Professor Pie's Make Something Not Fun into Something Fun lesson. Crossbows are a griffon weapon from the time before King Grover." He shows off the toy. "I redesigned it to shoot sponge bolts. Make a bunch and give them to your friends and it's like a pillow fight at range!"

A smile slowly spreads across Smolder's face. "That's... that's really cool!"

Ocellus feels warmth spread through her as her friend regains her usual spirit.

The dragon flies over to Gallus, flapping about him as she inspects the crossbow."How'd you make it?"

Gallus gestures behind him with a thumb-talon. "Oh, there's a thing back in the next room that just makes stuff if you have a design for it."

Smolder lands, staring at him. Trying to figure out if she's being teased. "Seriously?"

Ocellus speaks up. "Kind of. Nightmare Moon made servants and things out of blue smoke-like essence using it." She explains, "If you dump in a bunch of dark essence and give it a design, the artifact will turn the essence into what you want."

The trio of friends begin moving again, now all of them traveling side-by-side.

With a frown, she adds, "The queen's drones have been using one to make needles filled with essence that they can inject themselves with to give them new powers."

Smolder is taken aback. "You're kidding."

Gallus backs Ocellus up. "Through their eye!"

Smolder shudders. "You're kidding!"

Ocellus and Gallus shake their heads, eliciting a wave of shudders all around.

Gallus says, "We're right there with you."

As they approach the hole in the wall that leads into the armoire, Ocellus notes, "There's one in the Throne Room. Luna gave me a design for modifying my saddlebag with a protective lining. That's how I'm able to carry the anti-Elements around without being overwhelmed by them."

Teenk. Tunk.

Smolder pauses. "Wait... there are several of these thing-makers? There was only one Nightmare Moon. Why did she need a bunch of them?"

"She was here for a thousand years," Gallus comments, climbing through first. "My bet: she got bored."

Teenk. Tunk.

Ocellus follows. 

As Smolder climbs out of the armoire and into the next room, she stops to stare at the wall dividing the room from what's left of the wine cells. The glass of the doors is slag. The metal framework is twisted from extreme heat. The wall around it is reduced to charred kindling.

"Whoa," she whistles, impressed.

Teenk. Tunk.

Smolder turns to see her two friends transfixed by the clock. "Uh, are you guys okay?"

Gallus points. "The clock..."

Ocellus almost whispers, "...it's ticking."

Teenk. Tunk.

Smolder stares at them, confused. "Yeah. Pony clocks do that."





"So..." Smolder asks hesitantly, "How long...?"

"Not long," Gallus says before the orange dragon can finish. "I found Ocellus a few hours ago, I think. It's hard to tell time here. None of the clocks have faces."

Well, technically they do, Ocellus thinks. They're just blank.

After a dramatic pause, the griffon continues, "I think I woke up an hour or two before that. We've been gone less than a night."

Ocellus nods. She suspects Gallus pounced the question to keep her from mentioning the vines. Or maybe the duct he had to crawl through. Not that she would tell Smolder either without some sort of approval. It might be seen as poking fun, and that wouldn't be nice.

"So I didn't miss much?"

Gallus smirks, "You missed a supreme Ocellus freak-out earlier."

Ocellus shoots the blue griffin a look. Urge. To tell. Rising.

"It was at the fire'ling," Gallus continues with a smirk. "We encountered one of those changelings who had stuck itself in the eye, and it had become a creature of fire!"

Smolder stops. She looks back in the direction of the dungeon wing and the wine cellar, clearly remembering the wall. Her voice lowers, her tone oddly soft. "Like a phoenix?"

Ocellus sees the mirth on Gallus' face falter.

Their dragon friend has always been a bit strange about the magical firebirds. Ocellus remembers Smolder nervously asking Twilight if Celestia was going to bring her pet when the day alicorn decided to join the little play they put on. Spike intervened when Ocellus attempted to ask Smolder about it, pulling the nymph aside with a whispered "Ix-nay on the enix-fay!"

The warning only made Ocellus more worried about her friend. So with a sigh, Spike made her promise to say nothing in return for telling her a secret.

The horrible story Twilight's dragon told Ocellus drove her to cry much of that night. Yona had been a good friend and roommate, not prying but staying up with her and making yak-tea to help her feel better.

(Yak-tea, it turns out, is really good. Thankfully, Yona was enthusiastic to make more of the mix so Ocellus could brew some for herself later. Which Yona did without asking questions. Despite how terribly suspicious Ocellus knows she sounded while asking. Not to mention, the yak never asked Ocellus about how she liked the tea, or even mentioned it, while Smolder was in the same room.)

Spike insisted the tactically unnamed dragons in his story were all teenagers -- way older than Smolder would have been -- but it still left Ocellus with worrisome suspicions. Ones she couldn't really ask about without breaking her promise.

In her heart, she knows Smolder would never engage in such behavior. She was probably just embarrassed or ashamed of what some other dragons did. And if it was more?... well, she has ugly in her own past. And it was Smolder who showed her that they have truly changed.

Ocellus' mind returns to the present as Gallus waves his talons, insisting, "Oh, no no no. This thing was actually made of fire. Like, nothing but flames! We ran away. Ocellus was too busy yelling how it 'wasn't scientifically possible' to fight it."

Smolder gives a nasally snort of mirth.





Tension begins to ebb as the trio reaches the Grand Hall. No patrols of changelings this time. Gallus greets that with relief, but Ocellus views it with concern. Queen Elytra must be changing tactics. She wonders if this is related to what Luna tried to investigate.

Her friends return to their conversation once the way is judged clear. The discussion has turned to the anti-Elements, and from there to the concept of the vices that the stones represent. Just before reaching the Grand Hall, Ocellus mentioned that there were others, naming a few that Luna had told her about.

"Okay, some of those I get," Gallus says. "I mean, hatred is obvious. But lust? Since when is that a bad thing?"

Smolder nods in agreement. "Yeah, and wrath? That's just anger, right? Wasn't there a whole friendship lesson on how that's not inherently bad?"

Ocellus considers. "Well... I don't think vices have to be always bad. Virtues can become bad if taken to extremes. Like being honest in a way that's just mean. Or remember Fluttershy and the Breezies?"
 
Smolder nods, recalling the lesson. "Then what's the difference? I mean, I can imagine some righteous wrath."

Ocellus thinks on that. "Maybe it's that, unlike virtues, vices don't really have much positive to offer? I mean, changelings can eat all sorts of love: romantic, platonic, true love and even lust. But while lust is really tasty, it's not very nourishing. Like a super rich cake."

Gallus freezes. "Wait. Does that mean you can sense lust?" He stares at Ocellus. Then quickly looks absolutely anywhere else. "I really did not want to know that."

Ocellus finds herself smiling.

Two anti-Elements down. Two to go. The changeling nymph shoves down any thought of what she will do once they have the four stones and open the portal. Right now, she just wants to bask in the company of her friends.