//------------------------------//
// Idle Extermination 
// Story: The Ballad of Sir Spike de Draco 
// by Zay-el 
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They say the Everfree Forest contains probably the largest amount of creatures and environmental hazards that had ever tried to take a bite or more out of a pony. This assumption is most definitely correct in at least some regards, especially when one takes the time to observe the correlation between accounts of lost ponies and a particularly foalish game of bravery, which involves the unfortunate 'adventurer' having to venture deep into the Forest and return with a particular plant, or item.

Of course, this is all speculation, as the official explanation is still that they had found inner peace and had chosen to live in solitude for the rest of their lives. Going by that logic however, there should be an entire nation of ponies dwelling in those woods. The arrival of their ambassador is pending...and has been, for the past couple centuries now.

If going by cynical views though, the Everfree Forest is definitely not the place any pony with a reasonably sound mind would want to go to, unless suffering from a terminal death wish. Even the best of warriors would think twice, before venturing into this dangerous cove of monsters and even then, only with at least a battalion of troops to serve as valuable cannon fodder, in the eventual case of a strategic withdrawal.

As such, the idea that six ponies and a single dragon knight should attempt to reach an old ruin nestled uncomfortably deep inside the Forest, would normally be regarded as sound as waking Princess Celestia with a bucket of water on any given morning. It might make out to be a great story to tell, but would be made difficult by the lack of a mouth.



Rarity had been walking back and forth for several minutes now, getting somewhat worried. They had all agreed to led their guardian knight scout ahead, but has not yet returned, nor given any signs of still being alive at all, except for the occasional creature randomly flying from once corner of the Forest, into the other.

"Are you certain this is where we'll find those Elements?" she asked, making extra sure to avoid a small puddle of mud, possibly left about by some diabolical maniac bent on ruining her lovely coat.

"I'm afraid yes." Twilight remarked, looking somewhat less worried than the white unicorn. She was certain her knight would return unharmed as a measly forest like the Everfree was nowhere near dangerous enough to warrant being anxious about. "The book was very vague, but the Elements should still be in the old castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. I just hope they hadn't been moved since."

Although every fiber of her being insisted against it, there was indeed a slight possibility that since the book was visibly quite old, the information stored inside of it was no completely up-to-date. As such, the Element might have been moved several times and then all their time searching for them would be for naught.

"Ah dun think so." Applejack joined in on the conversation. She tried to keep herself busy in the meantime, mostly by repeatedly quelling Rainbow Dash's far too over energetic impulses. It wasn't an overly difficult task, but at least it kept her on edge, while they were waiting. "Nopony ever goes 'ere."

"They're just too chicken." the cyan pegasus grunted, held on a tight leash with Applejack's lasso, after she had attempted to follow Sir Spike for the third time already.

"No, it's just much too dangerous." Fluttershy spoke up as well, her voice soft as silk and very obviously trembling with fear.

Twilight didn't let her guard down though, the memory of the broken bird all-too-vivid in her mind. Even if she was wholly different right now, she could try and beguile Sir Spike at any given occasion, something the squire was not about to let her have. Nonetheless, she did seem genuinely scared of the Forest and their situation altogether.

"You don't need to do this, you know." Twilight said, somewhat hoping there was some chance she could reason with them, one way or another. "If Everfree is really that dangerous, you should all just stay home, where it's safe."

"No can do, sugarcube." Applejack shook her head, confirming the unicorn's fears. There was literally no way to get this group of misfit crazies off her back. "We sure ain't lettin' any friend of ours go into that creepy place alone!"

Twilight could do little but softly groan to that, resisting the urge to rub her forehead with a hoof. She honestly had little to no clue why these ponies kept insisting to accompany her on this mission. Not that there was no need for extra help, but why them? Her whole day seemed firmly centered around weirdness with them around and now they were clinging to her like particularly stubborn leeches.

"Has anyone seen Pinkie Pie?" she called, having noticed the distinct lack of pink in the atmosphere.

"I've last seen her there, right behind those rocks." Fluttershy pointed over to a rather large collection of rocks nearby, arranged probably by some dragon that happened to have a penchant for playing catapult from inside the Forest.

Although the unicorn wasn't exactly the most thrilled about it, considering her past run-ins with the rather perplexing earth pony, she walked over to check if she was alright. While she had been somewhat concerned for her safety, the notion of looking for the pink bundle was much rather due to the fact that dragon knight or not, a casualty this early into a mission would have looked bad on Sir Spike's resume. As squire, she couldn't let that happen.

She hopped onto the largest rock and with only slight difficulties, managed to climb on top of it. Even in the dark, it wasn't difficult to spot Pinkie nearby, hunched over a small pile of pebbles she had arranged into a makeshift circle. She seemed deep in thought for an earth pony, slowly and methodically arranging the leftover pebbles inside the circle.

"I know you're there." she spoke up suddenly, though without even looking in the unicorn's general direction. "You might as well come down here, if you wish to speak with me."

Twilight found herself wobble for a moment, much to her dismay. There was something about Pinkie that continued to unnerve her with almost every word she had spoken. Still, as squire of a draic warrior, she had to have at least enough courage to face her, regardless the enormous amounts of creepy emanating from the straight-maned party-master.

"Isn't it funny?" Pinkie mused, once Twilight had finally approached her. "The Elements of Harmony, regarded by fables as the most powerful artifacts of tranquility, also happen to be located in the Everfree Forest. The greatest force of stability, in a place that is chaos incarnate. There's a sort of grand irony in this, don't you agree?"

"It's certainly the unfunny kind of irony though." the unicorn replied, raising a brow. Although comparing her to Applejack wasn't fair, Pinkie's speech was much more refined than one would have expected from a common earth pony, even without the common stereotypes. "You seem pretty well-versed in poetic studies..." she tried a light compliment, wondering whether she would strike upon the chance to tell more about herself.

"Have you ever been to a rock farm, by any chance?" she asked after a short pause, adjusting another few pebbles. "Or by extension, do people in Canterlot even know what a rock farm is?" she smirked slightly as Twilight shook her head a bit.

"It's quite simple, really. You see, most things in this world go by some measure of order. Such is true for rocks, stones and even jewels. " she explained, though the unicorn noticed her motions were becoming somewhat harsh, the more she kept talking. "We earth ponies are closely attuned to the dirt and the soil; the very magical essence of land itself."

"This connection allows us to shape and alter just about anything that comes from the ground. Have you noticed, for instance, how the best sculptors are always earth ponies? We draw magic from the land itself and subconsciously transfer it into our crops, or even rocks themselves, causing them to grow in ways we desire."

Twilight tilted her head slightly, becoming more and more confused. These were academic level studies, a far cry from what she expected Ponyville's education system would provide. The inner workings of magic were difficult to understand, even for her. How did Pinkie know of all this?

"This is all very oversimplified though, of course." she continued, shaking her head slightly. "Let it be enough that whatever the earth provides, we have a certain amount of influence to it. Yet at the same time, here's the Everfree Forest, which is a living testament to how things can function when you get your hooves shoved off of it. It's terrifying, because it works in ways we're not used to...but at the same time, there's something fascinating about it as well."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Twilight found her tongue in knots, regardless her best attempts at keeping calm.

Pinkie slowly turned her head to face the unicorn finally, the smirk on her face surfacing once more. It deeply disturbed her how anypony could grin in such a way and not be run out of town for being possessed by every single malevolent spirit that might exist in storybooks. Better yet, it was impossible for her to comprehend how she didn't just turn around and run straight into the Forest. Anywhere would have been better, than here, facing that horrible smile.

"Why?" the earth pony mused, leaning slightly closer to Twilight. She seemed rather satisfied to see her almost take a step back. "No particular reason. Smalltalk to pass the time, idle banter silly."

Her explanation did not calm her the least bit, but she couldn't find herself to speak as of yet. Pinkie just flashed that smirk once more and walked straight past her towards the others. Twilight sighed and tensed once more as she actually looked at the rock-formation the earth pony had left behind. She would have bet her horn that the strange collection of pebbles in the middle formed an arcane symbol. Her mind screamed at her that it couldn't be one, but her gut told her otherwise.

For once, she was almost willing to trust it, too.



This forest has quite the pest-problem, Spike thought to himself, casually sending yet another large beast flying across the clearing. He no longer really paid attention to whatever beast it might have been, as almost anyone would have gone tired of counting past the first several dozen. All that really mattered was the fact that it had fur, was somewhat larger than a pony and has just relinquished just about half of its teeth.

Although at first he was quite excited to venture into these woods alone, armed only with his sharp wits and blunt fists, the magic had worn out a long time ago. He could see why this place was dangerous to ponykind, but to him, the endless waves of desperate and hungry creatures hardly served more than bore him to bitter tears.

He tensed all of a sudden though, picking up something entirely different in the atmosphere. Being a dragon, he possessed extra senses designed to pick up and decipher magic signals, effectively rendering a magical ambush about as possible as Twilight burning down the library. There was a bit of a possibility to it, but it seemed more likely that the universe itself would suddenly and irreversibly implode.

This bit of energy he had just picked up could also be filed mostly under 'peculiar'. It was pony magic, that he was sure of, but it felt much more grand than what his squire could have been able to summon. Sure, she was gifted, but it still would have been rather shocking. Slowly and cautiously, he began to look around a bit, trying to find the source of this strange, almost familiar power.

His tail twitched slightly, the slight touch of magic immediately sending bright flashing signs of great big danger lurking nearby. Most normally would have reacted the traditional, yet often most successful method, which involved a complex string of activities, usually beginning with a debilitating cry of terror, though only distraction purpose, of course. Going straight against the norm though, the knight grabbed the edge of his cape and did a rapid turnaround, pulling his cape along in a sweeping motion, the moment he felt the slightest twinge of cold touching his scales.

The air itself twisted to the force of the move, the ornate draic symbol almost coming alive with a mighty roar for the fraction of second. Dragon capes had long been suspected of being magical beings in itself, as only the unicorns most skilled in the art of both magic and sewing could make one and only one in their entire lifetime. A gust of wind erupted forwards, ridding nearby trees of some of their hard-earned leaves. He felt a smile creep on his face though as he noticed a large dark-blue mist being blow aside as well.

The cloud of what seemed to be the very essence of the night solidified itself before his eyes mere moments later, forming into the dark exile he had already seen before. She landed gracefully on the ground, with little to no hint of annoyance, nor anger. It was almost as if she had expected this, even before creeping up on him.

"You have an acute sense of awareness, Sir Knight. I'm truly impressed." she said. Her voice was deep and beguiling, dangerous but charming.

"I shall take that as a compliment, Lady Nightmare." he lowered himself down to a knee, bowing respectfully before the alicorn. Exiled or not, she was still not just a powerful mare, but also royalty of the finest kind as well.

"I see formalities are far from dead, even after a thousand years." she just about purred, her starry mane flowing around her like as if it had its own will. "Apparently, my sister has mysteriously lost her disapproval towards the founding of a Royal Order of Knights. Alas, coming up with ideas of her own has never been her forte."

Nightmare Moon paused for a short while, waiting for him to reply something. He just kept his gaze on the ground though, still kneeling before her as a honorable knight should have. Her eyes narrowed slightly to the continued silence, only for the mare to eventually burst into a brief fit of laughter from the sheer awkwardness of the situation.

"Very well then, you win this round." she mused without mockery this time around. "Rise, Sir Knight. Your education of etiquette has been a fine one."

With that, Spike rose to his feet once again, smiling rather calmly at the alicorn he was supposed to be fighting as of this very moment. His liege had been banished to the sun, which normally would have prompted just about any self-respecting dragon to burn the face off of whoever managed to pull off such a feat, even at the risk of self-annihilation. For now though, he was still biding his time.

"Is there a reason why you've chosen to see me, Lady Nightmare?" he asked, making sure to be as respectful as possible. Not that it wouldn't have been sort of amusing to anger her, but beings such as the alicorn had a tendency to reveal far too much of their plans, when prompted to speak. He wasn't about to let that chance slide.

"Indeed there is." she said with a knowing smile. "You see, while enjoying the spoils of my victory, I had found myself wondering as to why in the Moon would half a dozen ponies and a dragon knight of all things be interested in an excursion to these woods. It wasn't quite hard to figure it out though, I assure you. All it took was to acknowledge that my sister is still as dumb as a sack of hay and seems to have gone senile as well ."

"The Elements of Harmony...you can't even begin to imagine how much power lies within them." she continued, watching Spike's every reaction. Whether he was shocked to hear she knew about their plans or not, he was adept at keeping his emotions at bay. "The last time they had been utilized, their combined power had been enough to imprison me for a thousand years and at that time, my sister had used them all by herself. Imagine what they could do if were used properly..."

"But I digress." she shook her head briefly, her ethereal mane dancing wildly about in the air. She was undoubtedly a majestic creature of beauty, wholly different from Celestia, but in no ways less. "As I've said, I'm aware that you're seek the Elements of Harmony, which opens up a rather interesting debate whether I should go the easy way and kill them all right now, or let them find the Elements and kill them just before their expected victory?"

"To me, it seems like both options carry the same end results." the knight spoke up, carefully choosing his words.

He had somewhat expected the discussion to take such a turn and was ready to gamble for the lives of the ponies waiting for him. The idea of bargaining with an ancient and all-powerful being usually would have earned a swift kick to the head in Tactics class, but he had been pushed into a corner by the alicorn. As such, the only possible way out was to bust through the wall behind him.

"You're very confident they wouldn't be able to defeat you even with the Elements. Is there a reason for that, or are you just that sure of yourself?" he continued, dropping the bait for her to bite into. Riling up an alicorn would have been considered outright suicide, but having been around Celestia for quite some time now, he had certain ideas on how much he could get away with.

"The Elements require ponies who not only represent a particular element, but are also mostly pure of heart. Nopony is perfect, but the Elements require the cream of the crop." the mare explained in a casual, yet deeply menacing manner, all the while flashing a wicked smirk. "I had not seen a single pony since I've returned, who might fit the ticket. Better yet, if those team of misfits you've assembled could actually use the Elements, I would eat this helmet without a second thought."

"You never know, there might be a lot more to them." the draic knight remarked, taking note of the increasing volume of growls nearby. Either she had brought company, or the creatures of the Forest were starting to eavesdrop on them. "Their strength of character may surface when the time comes."

"I'm going to call that wishful thinking, if you don't mind." she chuckled. "But your faith in them is indeed rather touching. I may just humor your little adventure and allow you to continue. However, if you're so sure they are worthy of the Elements, I'm sure you won't mind if I see fit to put them to a test."

"If their lives are at stake, I will interfere." he stated. He wasn't about to let any harm come to the ponies, especially not his dear squire.

"By all means, please do." she let out another hearty chuckle, her eyes glinting with malice and amusement. "They'll just stay as weak as they are now that way."

She seemed to downright ignore a rather large wolf-like creature creeping up behind her, the same kind Sir Spike's been running into since he had entered this forest. The knight made no move until the beast was about to lunge at Nightmare Moon, only to spring forwards that instant. The alicorn moved not a single muscle and just smiled to herself as the warrior swooped past her, his fist immediately rearranging the delicate pattern of the wolf's nose, mouth, teeth and face altogether.

"Such a valiant young knight." she commended his efforts, turning to face him once more. Her horn flared up with the power of the knight itself, watching calmly as another few of these wild creatures emerged from the dark woods, advancing on the two. "By chance, would you be up for a little dance?" she offered.

"It would be an honor, Lady Nightmare." he assured, grinning in anticipation.

"Then let us waste no time then." the alicorn remarked, her body tensing up already from the upcoming battle.

As if on cue, a dozen different creatures assaulted the clearing, hungering for soft flesh. Nightmare Moon reacted immediately by stomping the ground with one hoof, her eyes glowing in otherworldly white. Her wings extended and raised her several feet into the air, the winds around them gaining enough strength to unbalance the lighter beasts trying to ambush them. She pointed at an incoming cockatrice, her gaze sharpening into a glare. Sir Spike turned his head to the sudden noise, only to see a bright flash of lightning just about cooking the unfortunate reptilian-fowl hybrid.

Nightmare Moon began to laugh in earnest as her spread her front hooves, sparks flying around her fetlocks as she collected energy for yet another lightning strike. Although some of the beasts were indeed terrified of this attacked, the rest of them were merely pushed into a state of frenzy, which only doubled their efforts to tear the princess of the night to tiny, delectable morsels.

The dragon knight was locked in a much more traditional style of combat in the meantime, albeit as to how traditional it could have been to beat a hydra to death with its own head, was up to debate. Beings such as this were amongst the most well-researched though, which handed him a sure hand of victory from the get go. It did bother him why this particular hydra seemed to have wondered off from its normal, swampy home, but that was a question for later.

Most wannabe fighters usually fell into the trap of cutting off a hydra's heads one by one, but unless these wounds were burnt immediately, they simply would have spawned even more nasty, tooth-filled maws of uncomfortable death. Instead, he merely proceeded to tie the heads together, before shoving the whole bundle aside, tearing down a couple trees on the way.

He looked back to see Nightmare Moon shocking a wolf into submission with morbid glee, unaware of a rather angry-looking manticore about to ambush her from behind. Without a second to spare, the drake lunged right into the air, grasping onto the back of the creature just as it was about to strike the princess down with a swipe of its tail.

The manticore roared and tried to shake the knight off, who merely scowled at its attempts. Moving quickly, he grabbed the scorpion-like tail with one hand and its bushy mane with the other, ignoring the pained cry of the creature. Careful to avoid its tip of the tail, which he knew hosted a vast array of deadly poisons, he used it as leverage and downright stood up straight on the back of the beast, turning what was normally a fearsome predator, into a winged board of flying draconic manliness.

With this new and highly inventive steed at his disposal, Sir Spike swooped down upon the invading beasts and let loose the inferno boiling inside of him, flames of fiery fury erupting from his mouth. The new ruler of Equestria seemed highly pleased of the knight's performance and assisted with her own power, managing to make death by fire even worse, by changing it into death by electric fire.

The alicorn's eyes soon gained back their color, just the the brewing lightning story around them had dwindled as well. Her almost reptilian eyes narrowed as she let herself drop from the sky, landing gracefully on top of a particularly noisy wolf, placing it firmly where she believe it belonged: under her iron hooves. Their assailants had been just about purged from the clearing by now.

Sir Spike took it upon himself to hand down a final roasting to those still eager to fight, driving them off finally. He adjusted his flight, before disembarking his vehicle by jumping off, allowing it to find itself a suitable launchpad upon the bark of a a nearby three. He landed close to Nightmare Moon, who just seemed to be finishing a final, all-too-courageous and quite lost Diamond Dog.

"Such admirable fighting skills. I'd love to spar with you, once this is all over." the alicorn remarked, slowly climbing off the Diamond Dog, making sure to put pressure into each of her steps, relishing in the pained whines of the lowly mutt.

"I'm afraid Princess Celestia would resent me releasing you from your cell, Lady Nightmare, even for something as simple as that." he said, rebutting her thinly veiled hint.

"Ever optimistic. A fine quality, if somewhat idealistic for a knight." she commended his efforts nonetheless, finding herself thoroughly amused. This brief little scuffle send delightful shivers through her body, reinvigorating her after a thousand years of passivity.

"I'd prefer to be called realistic, but I guess you might protest to that." he swept a stray leaf off his shoulder nonchalantly, watching her as she seemed almost restless after just this tiny bit of fighting. "You have a warrior's spirit burning inside of you. It's quite the shame it gets squandered in the midst of all the bickering you seem to have had with Princess Celestia."

"Bickering? Oh please, Sir Knight, you seem to be under the assumption that I might go far as to dislike my own sister." the empress of the night dismissed the claim with a chuckle. "In all honesty, I don't dislike her at all. I hate her. I loathe her to the last bit of fiber. I despise every single solitary hair of her bleached coat. What I feel for her is not a measly little resentment, but an unending, unrelenting, unforgiving, all-consuming, all-powerful, destructive, really big bucking burning hatred!"

"I will rend asunder every single precious book and painting she has and scribble their remains full with the blackest, most stubborn ink ever devised by ponykind. I will first disorganize her vast array of sickeningly colorful socks, then incinerate them one by one over a fire that's fueled by her dresses."

"If I had an enchanted hammer, a chisel and enough patience, I'd go right back to that Moon and carve the words of my hatred into every tiny speck of moon-dust, twice. Then I'd direct it to spin around the Sun for all eternity, just so my sister can see it every single solitary moment of the day. And this, all this is just the tiniest little inch of a fraction of how much I truly hate her."

"I...think I understand." the knight stated after a brief pause. He'd seen a couple of sibling rivalries before, but this seemed to be slightly over the top in comparison. Then again, he'd never seen a squabble between godlike beings before either.

"Good." her tone was harsh and slightly snappy, obviously worked up. "...go back to your precious ponies now. They'll be wondering where you've disappeared to." she added before turning away from him, dissolving into the same mist-form she'd exhibited before. Sir Spike watched her leave, soon left alone in the wilderness once again.

"Mares..." he sighed tiredly, raising his fist as he heard a low growl behind him.



A couple more minutes passed, before all eyes turned towards those haunted, cursed and all-around malignant woods once more. A figure appeared in partial obscurity, though its outlines suggested more than just the drake in the flesh, especially once they noticed a rather large shadow along his arms as well.

As Sir Spike de Draco finally emerged from the Everfree Forest, a couple of things became readily apparent to the group of ponies. First of all, the place was still far from safe. This hunch was immediately backed up by the large, dog-like creature dangling from his right arm. It had obviously sunk its teeth into the dragon, but could neither tear the arm off, nor free itself after it and had pretty much been around for the past hour or so.

Secondly, Sir Spike seemed to have some rather strange priorities sometimes, evidenced by the fact that he actually managed to retrieve something as well, namely the signpost warning people not to into the Forest. It would no longer be of much help, as after something had taken several bites out of it, the letters hardly read more than 'verfr', but that did little in discouraging the knight from putting it back in its rightful place anyway.

"Well, the good news is, I cleared out most of the bigger nasties on the way." he announced, only to flinch from the growling coming from downstairs. "Oh, you're still here?" he remarked in a very casual manner, even petting the most-probably highly dangerous animal. "Now, run home to Mama, little puppy."

He shifted his weight and threw his arms out, making the wolf-like creature whimper instead, ready to reconcile and leave on friendly terms. Spike no longer wished to have any of that thought and merely spun around his axis several times, gaining speed rapidly. The moment he became a blur to the eye, the creature could no longer hold on and was shot right back into the depths of the Forest. Wherever his lair was, the knight made sure to deliver him via improvised air-mail.

"The bad news is that the castle ruins are too deep. By the time I'd clear the way to it, the monsters would just flood the starting point again. It's best if we go through the Forest together." he advised, all the while hammering the signpost back in its place with his bare fist.

"Good idea. More eyes, less trouble." Applejack nodded, finally letting Rainbow Dash loose. The pegasus flew a few rounds in the air, enjoying her freedom once more. Her wings had grown almost numb by now. "Come on everypony, let's move!"

"Go ahead, the outskirts should be clear. I'll be with you in a minute." Sir Spike stated, adjusting the sign a bit, before hammering it further into the ground.

The group slowly entered the forest in the meantime, Applejack leading them for now, followed closely by bubbly Pinkie Pie, a nervous Rarity and a just about terrified Fluttershy. However one looked at it, this was definitely not the kind of epic fighting force one would have expected to combat Nightmare Moon.

"Is everything alright, Sir?" Twilight briefly stopped by the knight, tilting her head.

"Of course, squire. What makes you think there's something wrong?"

"I...I'm not really sure. You've been away for a long time." she paused, tapping her hoof to the ground nervously, before speaking up again. "She approached you, hadn't she?" she asked. Although she would have followed Spike to the end of Equestria if needed, she would have felt incredibly conflicted, if he suddenly chose to stand by Nightmare Moon instead.

"Yes." the dragon sighed. "I've spoken to her. She's not about to make this trip easy for us."

"I should have known." the squire grumbled, but felt relieved her master's heart was still in the right place. "Did you two fight?"

"No, surprisingly not." he said, finishing up with the signpost, all the while watching Rainbow perform one final brief aerial trick, before she would head into the forest, after the others. He hadn't let any harm come to them yet and wasn't about to change that anytime soon.

"Listen up, squire." he called, getting her attention right away. "I need you to watch the others as closely as possible. Nightmare Moon will try and disrupt our mission at every turn and she'll go through each and every one of them to do so. Be my eyes and we'll make it through this by morning."

"Will do, Sir!" she nodded and tried to look fierce, earning a chuckle from the dragon.

"That's the spirit. Now go ahead, I need to speak to Rainbow for a moment." he said, smiling as she bowed and ran into the forest. Her loyalty knew no bounds and her enthusiasm was refreshing as always. He knew he couldn't have chosen a better squire. "You can stop listening in now, I want to talk to you."

"The pegasus swooped down just a moment later, bearing a spunky grin that held little promise of innocence. "It was an accident that I've heard anything, I swear." she assured.

"I have no doubts about that." the drake remarked, raising a brow at her. "There's something I need to know."

"Shoot." she replied quickly as they both began to walk towards the dark woods. There was something in the dragon's growing smirk though that eventually began to unnerve her more than the prospect of having to trot through this highly dangerous area.

"...since when have you and Nightmare Moon been on speaking terms with each other?