//------------------------------//
// 12 Reunion 
// Story: My Little Exalt 
// by Lithl 
//------------------------------//


My Little Exalt
REUNION

by:	Lithl

special thanks:
Rhanite
LordofRansei


With everypony hale and hearty, the group reached the Tear Eater camp and the site of their battle in just four days... rather, what was left of the camp. It seemed that the barbarians that fled had not returned, as their possessions and tents remained. However, something else had found the campsite in the barbarians' absence.

"Whoo-ee!" Applejack whistled as she scanned the wreckage. "Something sure did a number on this place!" The portable huts the barbarians had been using were all completely flattened. Campfire ashes were scattered, chests were smashed open and their contents strewn across the ground, food was left out to be spoil or be eaten by scavengers.

"But what was the point?" asked Twilight. "It looks like random vandalism, perpetrated upon a people with no apparent intent to return. The design of their dwellings implies a semi-nomadic nature, so it's not like leaving in a hurry should have been difficult for them. I just don't understand it."

"Well, maybe it was a thief that was looking for something?" Rainbow suggested.

Applejack turned back to Rainbow, "Why would a thief need to completely flatten somepony's house?" Rainbow had no response other than a shrug.

"Oh!" Rainbow cried. "What about my leg? That would be a sick souvenir!"

Despite several cries of disgust from her friends, Rainbow galloped onwards to the area where she and Applejack had fought against the humans. The ground remained scorched by Pinkie's cannon, along with gouges in the soft turf created by the struggle. Large areas of the ground were stained a very specific color of brown, but no corpses remained.

"Hey Fluttershy, you didn't do that 'burn the corpse to ash' thing, did you?" Fluttershy shook her head as she caught up to the cyan pegasus. "Huh. Where'd the bodies go, then?"

"I'm sure it was just a carrion feeder, Rainbow. Probably a large one, capable of dragging the body away, which is why there aren't any bones."

Rainbow Dash frowned. "Does that mean my leg won't be here?" She scanned the ground around the battle site anyway.

The rest of the Bearers finally caught up to the two pegasi. Twilight answered Rainbow's question before Fluttershy could respond, "If there was a carrion feeder large enough to remove adult humans, it's highly unlikely it would have left your leg, unless for some reason it knew that it wouldn't like pony flesh. Ugh." Twilight stuck out her tongue in disgust. Rainbow folded her ears back and resigned herself to missing out on her morbid souvenir. Thanks to Fluttershy's ministrations and magic, she didn't even have a battle scar; what was she going to use as a prop when telling her war stories?

"Come on, everypony," Pinkie waved the group over to the base of the hill. "It's getting late, and this hill makes for a great wind breaker. We should set up camp for the night."


"Hey," Rainbow approached Pinkie one night, a few days before they were scheduled to arrive back at The Spark.

"Hiya, Dashie!" Pinkie beamed. She sat a short distance from the campfire, sipping on a mug of hot chocolate – Where did she get the marshmallows?

"So, Pinks, I've been thinking—"

"Good for you!"

"I've been thinking about this whole 'exaltation' thing. You've been like this since before any of us met you. Now the rest of the girls have all exalted in quick succession, too. It's just... I dunno..." Rainbow scratched the back of her head, at a loss for words.

Pinkie's expression softened. "You're wondering why the super-ultra-extreme-awesomazing Rainbow Dash hasn't gotten the same treatment, almost two months after arriving in Creation? But you don't want to admit that you're jealous of your friends?"

Rainbow looked down and poked at the ground for a bit before replying, "Yeah, I guess. I mean, Twilight inherited that cool manse that's sheltering everypony and making travel a whole lot easier. Rarity got us in to talk with The Lover like it was nothing. If it weren't for Fluttershy I'd probably be dead twice over, and AJ's always got my back. I just wish I had something to contribute."

"Aww," Pinkie crooned as she draped a leg over Rainbow's shoulder, "you always have something to contribute, Dashie. That's why you're our friend!" Rainbow looked away and didn't respond. "If it makes you feel better, I could try my hoof at some lesser divination; maybe we can see what Fate has in store for you?"

"You can do that?" When Rainbow looked back up, Pinkie was wearing a purple scarf and turban. The turban was decorated with a lavender gemstone holding some sort of feather in place, and golden crescent-moon earrings stuck out from underneath the cloth. Her leg had never left Rainbow's shoulders.

"Sure can!" Pinkie stood and trotted over to her saddlebags, sticking her head in. When she pulled out a few moments later, she held an opaque black orb in her mouth. Pinkie trotted back to Rainbow's side as the pegasus stared on in apprehension. Pinkie dropped the orb on the ground in front of Rainbow, and sat down with the orb between them. The top of the orb was marked with a white circle, and within the circle was a black infinity symbol.

"Go ahead, ask your question," Pinkie waved at Rainbow, urging her on.

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow, but followed her friend's instructions and leaned in close to the orb. "Uh... will I ever become an exalt like my friends?"

Silently, Pinkie shooed Rainbow away from the orb. The pink fortune-teller traced a few lines in the dirt around the orb, connecting them in a circle.

"Hey, Pin—" without looking away from the orb, Pinkie shushed Rainbow with a hoof stuffed in the pegasus' mouth. She completed her drawings, then squatted on all fours and stared intently at the orb for several moments, the silence only broken by wood cracking in the fire.

Finally, Pinkie sat down once again and swept up the orb in two hooves, erasing the drawings at the same time. With her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth in concentration, she violently shook the orb for several seconds, before turning it upside down. Opposite the white circle on the top of the orb was a glass circle on the bottom. Words began to appear in the glass, as Pinkie read them aloud: "It says, 'Better not tell you now,' Dashie, sorry."

Rainbow threw up her hooves in frustration. "What the hay is that supposed to mean?!"

Pinkie shrugged, once again bereft of scarf, turban, and infinity orb. "Divining the future isn't easy, and I don't pretend to be super good at it. It could mean that you will exalt, but the events surrounding your exaltation won't be any fun. Or maybe you won't exalt and the universe doesn't want to make you sadder. Ooh! Or maybe telling you yes or no would influence the answer, so you can't have an answer if the answer is going to be right!"

"Pinkie, could you keep it to a dull roar, please?" Twilight walked out of her tent with several books in tow. "I'm pretty sure Rarity and Fluttershy are trying to sleep. Applejack, too, but I doubt even the return of Discord could wake her up at the moment."

Rainbow stifled a snicker at Applejack's expense. "So what are you up to, Twilight? Did you decide reading by lamp light in a cozy tent was no good, so you'd come out here to read by fire light in the cold?"

Twilight gave a thin smile. "Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike that, Rainbow, yeah."

While Rainbow and Pinkie both scrunched up their noses trying to parse Twilight's comment, Twilight walked past them towards the fire, levitating both Erymanthoi, Erymanthoi, What Do You See? and Daric's Laws of Magic at her side. She stopped just a span away from the fire that had begun to die down, closed her eyes, and took a slow, deliberate breath.

When Twilight opened her eyes, she used her levitation to dump both books into the fire, one at a time. For several seconds, nothing happened. The two books sat atop what remained of the wood used for the fire – it was mostly charcoal by now – as the orange flames licked at the edges of the covers while the books remained undamaged.

"Twilight, what are you—" Pinkie began to speak, but she was cut off when the two books began to burn with brilliant green flame. The fire grew. First, the orange of burning wood was replaced entirely by the green from the burning books. Then, the fire continued to grow beyond what its current fuel should have been capable of. Pinkie and Rainbow could both feel the heat of the eerie green flames from their position several steps back from Twilight. For her part, Twilight seemed completely unaffected by the fire, even as tongues of flame danced mere inches from her face.

"Twilight, dear, what's going on?!" Rarity called out from the flap of her tent, Fluttershy at her side. The newly roaring flames and drastic change in lighting had woken both mares.

Twilight didn't respond. She didn't move a muscle or bat an eye as the fire climbed higher and expanded beyond the circle of stones meant to contain it. "I don't know what's going on!" Rainbow called back to Rarity, moving closer so that she could be heard better while shielding her eyes from the intense light and heat with an outstretched wing. "She came out, complained about Pinkie being loud, and then pitched her books in the fire!"

"Why would Twilight burn her books?!"

"I just said, I don't—Twilight!" The expanding column of fire had halted its advance, and the peak of the flames bent over towards their creator before beginning their descent. As though in slow motion, several things happened at once:

First, the pillar of fire became an arch, descending upon Twilight much more quickly than it had risen in the first place. When the flames above Twilight reached the midway point between the arch's zenith and the ground, the flames in the campfire ceased completely, following the arch up and over.

Second, Rainbow Dash noticed the change in the fire's movement and deduced the flames' trajectory. She began to charge at Twilight, intending to knock her friend out of the path of destruction even if that would result in her own injury.

Finally, Pinkie spied Rainbow's movement, and began moving to intercept the cyan pegasus. While Pinkie did not know what the fire was, she did know that it was no normal fire, and Twilight had been confident in her actions when burning the books. Whatever was happening, Twilight had caused it intentionally.

All this happened in the span of less than a second, and Twilight had still barely twitched an ear. Before Rainbow could reach her, the flames engulfed the unicorn, the entirety of the fiery arch falling upon her like a waterfall. Rainbow could not halt her charge quickly enough, and Pinkie arrived just in time to create a three-way collision sending Laughter, Loyalty, and Magic tumbling across the campsite into Applejack and Pinkie's tent. The three bowled the tent over, leaving the still-sleeping orange mare exposed to the cold autumn evening. Applejack rolled over onto her other side.

The campfire was completely cold, and the night was illuminated only by the waxing gibbous moon high in the sky. The ground where Twilight had been standing had become a perfect circle of obsidian, save for four hoof-shaped circles that remained dirt.

Rainbow was the first to recover from the collision. Once she was sure that she hadn't been seriously injured herself, she checked on her two friends. Pinkie was unharmed, and bounced to her hooves easily. To Rainbow's shock, Twilight also appeared to be okay, without a single bruise – or the massive patches of burned flesh one would expect for somepony who had just been in the middle of her own private inferno.

Twilight shook her head to clear away the fog as Rainbow helped her up. Rainbow asked, "What the hay was that all about, Twilight? How did you survive that?"

They say a pony's eyes are the windows to her soul. Rainbow would later swear that when Twilight looked her in the eyes that night, she could see those same green flames deep within Twilight's eyes, as though they had become a part of the unicorn, in body and in spirit.

"Remember when I told you about passing through several 'stations' to become a sorceress, Rainbow?" Twilight was exceptionally chipper for a pony who by all rights should be dead. "I finally figured out the whole 'stations' thing. That was the last one."

Rainbow was dubious. "The last station to becoming a sorceress... is throwing books in a fire?"

"It's the Station of Sacrifice, sometimes called the Station of the Phoenix. A Phoenix is only born after it dies; do you remember Philomena? In order to become a sorceress, you have to give up something that's meaningful to you, and you become a new person – or a new pony, as the case may be. In my case, I gave up the two books I've found most vital since arriving here: the one teaching me how to read all over again, and the one teaching me how to access an entirely new brand of magic."

"But if that was the last station," Rainbow cocked her head to the side, "then what about the others? You haven't been consumed by freaky green fire before."

Twilight shook her head. "Mostly, the stations are about realizing something important, either something relating to yourself, or something relating to the world around you. It's like how we learn something important about friendship before sending a letter to Celestia. The Station of the Sword, for example, requires broadening your horizons through travel. I'd say all of us have passed through that station several times over!"

Rainbow did her best to follow along with the explanation, but it wasn't exactly easy. "Hey Twilight!" Pinkie interposed herself between the pegasus and the unicorn-cum-sorcery. "So now that you're a sorceress, what new tricks can you show us, huh?" The pink mare dipped low and wiggled her butt, acting like a puppy ready to play.

"None, Pinkie," Twilight said calmly, trying to encourage Pinkie Pie to come off her high. "I may have completed my initiation, but that just means I'm capable of the spells. It doesn't mean I've learned any yet."

"Awww..."

"Why don't we help you put your tent back up, and we can all get some sleep?"


The Bearers of the Elements of Harmony arrived back at The Spark to joyful tears. Each had family or friends to welcome them back from their journey, and the girls spent the evening reconnecting with their loved ones. Pinkie Pie managed to hold an ice cream party with the assistance of the Cakes. The Apple clan members held a quiet dinner, alone but for each other. Rarity met with Sweetie Belle and their parents Magnum and Pearl (although after suffering through Pearl's cooking, Rarity swung by the ice cream party for desert). Rainbow Dash began an inflated retelling of the trip for her fan club, and Fluttershy disappeared with some of her animal friends that had come from Ponyville.

Twilight and Spike attended the ice cream party for a short time, before retreating to Servant's chamber. Twilight examined the relief map still on the wall, while Spike continued to devour the sarsaparilla float he'd grabbed on the way out from the party.

Greetings, pony master. Greetings, master's assistant.

"That's number one assistant to you, bub!"

Greetings, number one assistant. Did you complete your objective, pony master?

"Yes, Servant. We did manage to meet with The Lover and get some information on the whereabouts of an artifact that might be able to get everypony home. There's a price to pay, but it wasn't too exorbitant."

"Afmphf?" Spike tried to ask with his mouth full of ice cream. He swallowed and tried again, "A price? What sort of price? We only have the bits everypony had on them when the jump thing happened."

Twilight stroked a hoof along Spike's sinuous back, ruffling his spines. She smiled and said, "The artifact is located in a manse, which has become a tomb for several exalts like the girls and me. The Lover wants us to bring back two specific corpses that are also there."

"T-tomb? Will there be g-ghosts there?" Spike would surely blame his stuttering on brain freeze if questioned about it, but Twilight took pity on the poor dragon.

"You can still send messages by dragonfire, right?" Spike nodded the affirmative. "Good, I'm going to need you to stay here at the Spark as a message relay." Spike cocked his head in confusion; while he could certainly send letters to Twilight at vast distances, Twilight would have no means of replying. Twilight saw his reaction and smirked. "Watch this."

The air around Twilight began to glow violet, and her caste mark appeared. Twilight closed her eyes, sat back on her haunches, and waved her hooves in strictly defined patterns. She added motions with her horn as arcane figures formed in the air. She began muttering in a voice that was not her own when suddenly all of the light and symbols vanished. A cherub appeared a span in front of her face, and she leaned forward to whisper into its ear. When she was done, she leaned back and nodded.

The cherub floated up near the ceiling of Servant's chamber, then practically teleported in front of Spike, the only indication of movement a streak of color in the intervening distance. The cherub began to echo Twilight's words in a perfect imitation of her voice, "This is a new spell I've learned; the cherub will find its target and deliver my message anywhere in the world. There are a couple of limitations, but it will work perfectly well for communicating with you while you hold down the fort here. If there are any ghosts, you won't have to worry about any of them." Its job complete, the cherub vanished.

Twilight turned back to the map on the wall. "Now, apparently Pinkie didn't bring Zecora back here when we sent her out; something about Lunar training. Do you know anything about that?"

Negative, pony master. None of my data on Lunar exalted indicates any sort of standard training exists.

Twilight shrugged. "Anyway, we need to get Zecora back. I'll take the Spark back to where we found it, here," Twilight pointed to the map location where they had originally found the manse, "and I'll head out with Pinkie tomorrow morning to find her. Once we've got Zecora, we need to find our way to the Invisible Fortress."

Twilight traced a line across the map from the location of The Lover's domain to the east, trying to follow the Deathlord's instructions. One thousand miles east to a river, then south to another river. The map on Servant's wall had no marking for the town of Wrangler's Knob, but according to The Lover, it would be there. Northeast through lake, forest, mountain, and plain for three hundred miles should be the location of the manse. From there, it was a matter of finding the closest location for the Spark to shift to.

The easternmost of the two rivers intersecting at Wrangler's Knob traced a line north and east around the region that the Invisible Fortress was supposed to be in. North of the manse's supposed location, along the river, lay another shift point for the Spark – lucky! A journey that would have otherwise been nearly two thousand miles on hoof was cut down to a hundred. Twilight concentrated on shifting the manse back to the south, where they'd left Yu-Shan, and bid Servant good-night. The dragon-shaped construct returned the sentiment and coiled himself around the pedestal still holding three hearthstone amulets, and his glow dimmed, leaving the chamber in darkness.


"Why are you helping me, Willow?" Zecora asked. She was back in Crane's small boat once again, using Crane's magic to fly at great speeds back to her pony friends.

"I made an oath to that pink one, remember? What did you say her name was?"

"Pinkie Pie."

Willow giggled, "How appropriate! I even had Crane teach me Old Realm while Morning was teaching you Claw-Speak."

Zecora's eyes turned cold as she contemplated her hooves. A language taught to me based on the assumption that I would consume an animal with claws or talons. She looked up to Crane. "And you? Why have you offered your services to speed Willow and myself on our journey?"

Crane averted his eyes from the two women in the small boat – for he knew that despite her form, Zecora was as much a woman as any Lunar in an animal shape. "Um. Willow asked me if I would fly her somewhere... and I saw no reason not to." The man coughed, embarrassed.

Zecora let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in. "Thank you," she sighed. Willow cocked her head, asking the silent question. Zecora looked the deformed human straight in the eye and repeated, "Thank you, for honoring your Pinkie Promise. I admit distaste for your Sacred Hunt, and I know that you have performed it yourself, but you're returning me to my friends. So... thank you." Zecora leaned in and pulled Willow into a gentle hug.

Willow accepted the show of affection, but pulled away sooner than Zecora expected. "Actually, Zecora, I haven't performed a Sacred Hunt." Willow's eyes were downcast. "I'm unblooded, like you. I mean, I would do it, given the opportunity, but..." Willow waved a hand in front of her face, "no depth perception. It's difficult."

Zecora grinned, as if greeting an old friend. "It's okay. I will forgive you when the time comes."

"Speaking of time, ladies, we're almost there." Crane directed the winged spirit towards a landing in the river that he knew was below. With a soft splash, the boat landed, and Crane dismissed the spell.

As soon as the trio could see out from their boat, they were greeted with the sight of a powerful dust devil headed directly for them. Willow shrieked and Zecora shouted something in her native tongue, but Crane remained calm. He crossed his arms over his chest and twisted his hands into a gesture of defiance directed towards the cyclone.

The circling winds flew apart as though torn by unseen hands. The dissipating winds pulled violently at Willow's clothing and Zecora's mane, but left Crane untouched. Two equine shapes tumbled from the center of the vortex, one giggling with glee and the other shouting with surprise. Both ponies rolled head over hocks before coming to a stop in the mud on the river bank.

"Ow..." Twilight moaned.

"That was fun! Let's do it again!" Pinkie was back on her hooves in an instant, though her coat and mane were substantially dirtier than the last time Zecora saw her; landing hard on a muddy river bank tended to achieve that result.

Zecora looked to Twilight, struggling to unstick herself from the mud. Something about the scene simply clicked. Twilight and Applebloom were jointly responsible for getting Ponyville to accept Zecora, but looking back on things, Twilight had also begun to form a strong friendship with Zecora as well. Twilight understood that there were things Zecora knew that Twilight did not, and outside of Princess Celestia, Zecora was the first pony Twilight would turn to for assistance of a scholarly nature.

And here Twilight was, once again accepting Zecora for who she had become, ready to bring her home. Home, Zecora thought, Ponyville really has become my home, moreso than Thunder Drum Mountain, any more. All because of Twilight Sparkle.

Zecora hopped out of the boat and onto the river bank, offering a hoof to help Twilight up. "It is good to see you again, Twilight. I've missed you."

Twilight accepted the assistance, and gave Zecora a once-over. The dzilla rings were all gone, and silver tattoos had taken their place. What's more, Zecora's greeting did not rhyme, not even remotely. "Are you okay, Zecora?"

The zebra smiled, "I'm better than okay, Twilight. My fillyhood injury has been cured, the side effects of the potion that saved my life have been removed, and I'm returned to my friends. And yourself? What have you been up to while I've been away?"

"Well, we fought some zombies, we talked with some gods, then we fought some humans, Rainbow Dash lost a leg then grew it back, and we made a deal with an evil sex ghost to help us find a way to get everypony back home." Twilight smirked, "It's hard to believe this has become our life, huh?"

"So, Mister Crane! Did you have a great big birthday party? Huh? Didja?" Pinkie bounced along the river bank, chittering at the elder Lunar excitedly.

Crane opened his mouth to say that at this point in his life, celebrating the anniversary of his birth was not something that he bothered with. However, before any words could escape his mouth, he caught sight of Zecora miming for his attention and mouthing silently, 'Say yes!' Crane recalled Pinkie's first appearance, impossibly crawling out of a bag at the mention of a party, and he wisely changed his answer. "Yes, Vizier, I had an excellent party with both my kith and my kin."

Willow reached under a seat in the boat, lifting something wrapped in sackcloth. She climbed out and approached Zecora. "This is a gift, from both of us to you, Zecora. I know your experience with the Silver Pact may be soured, but I hope that you can someday come to accept individuals."

"Thank you, Willow." Zecora accepted the hefty package and lifted aside a fold of cloth to reveal a new set of dzilla rings and a pair of earrings, all made of the same moonsilver etched into Zecora's skin.

Willow scuffed the ground shyly with one foot. "I heard about your Stewardship. The earrings will let you hear the voices of the flora – well, not voices per se, but plants have a connection to one another, and the earrings will let you interpret that connection. The rings will help protect you from any poison, toxin, or venom you run across in the future. And if you're ever in a form that can't eat plants, they'll let you digest plants just like you do now." Willow wiped a hand across her eye and sniffed. "This isn't a 'goodbye' present, okay? This is a 'see you later' present!"

Zecora set the gift on the ground and stood on her hind legs to reach Willow's shoulders, wrapping the mutilated human in a hug. "Right. See you later, Virtuous Willow."

"Here's to being found again, Thrice Found Ora."

Willow climbed back into the boat with Crane, who pushed it out into the river and began directing it upstream; the pair would take the long route home. Zecora gathered up her gift in the sackcloth and turned to Twilight. "So, we're to have an adventure, then, is it?"


The Bearers of the Elements of Harmony stepped out of the Spark compound along with Zecora. This far north, the snow was already thick on the ground, despite still being two weeks out from actual winter. Zecora was the only member of the group truly accustomed to wild weather, but she had never lived in a climate that became so cold so early in the year.

"You don't have to come with us, Zecora, if you don't want to. You're not obligated to come just because you've exalted." Twilight had been surprised when Zecora had met the rest of the party at the entrance to the Spark, packed and ready to go. Applebloom had shown Zecora the greenhouse, and Twilight wouldn't have been shocked to hear of Zecora putting down a bed and using it as living quarters.

"On the contrary, Twilight! From what I hear, you're going to need all the help you can get on this quest. Besides, you can't expect me to leave one of my truest friends out to dry in her time of need."

Rainbow looked to the south, towards their ultimate destination. "Girls, I think we've got a problem."

"What is it, dear?" Rarity asked.

Rainbow pointed south. "We've got huge mountains, about eighty miles due south. They'll be super difficult to cross, and we've already got bad weather here at ground level."

Rarity squinted, trying to clear her vision, but to no avail. "I don't see any mountains that way, Rainbow. I'm sure we'll be fine."

Fluttershy shook her head and spoke up, "Rainbow's right. There are mountains over there. I can see them, too."

"We should concede to the superior eyesight of the pegasi," Zecora suggested. "What are our other options?"

Twilight pulled a map out of her pack, a copy she'd made of the map on Servant's wall (sans shift locations, just in case). "We can follow this river southwest until we hit the forest. If we follow the edge of the forest southeast, we should eventually hit a pass between two mountain ranges, and that will put us on the path that The Lover recommended."

Applejack frowned. "Ah'm not so sure Ah like goin' on the route that Lover person suggested. Ah mean, Ah know Rarity bound her to the agreement an' all, and she seemed to be tellin' the truth about stuff, but it just don't sit right, y'know? She's s'posed t'be evil, and Ah'd like to avoid doin' what she says as much as we kin get away with."

"I agree, Applejack," Rarity nodded, "but if the mountains to the south are as difficult to cross as Rainbow says, then we may have no choice."

"Then it's settled!" Pinkie said as she bounced across the top of the snow. "To the river, everypony!" While Pinkie hopped along the surface of the snow, the rest of the traveling party traded turns acting as the wedge to the plow traveling through it.

"Sometimes," Applejack muttered, "sometimes Ah feel like Ah've just had it with that mare."

Fortuitously, for both Applejack's sanity and Pinkie's security, it did not take long to reach the river bank, where the snow was not deep enough to impede the pony procession.


After a day of travel along the river, the group finally found the forest indicated on Twilight's map. The pine trees looked ready for Hearth's Warming, and walking into the forest was like walking into another world.

The trees grew tall enough and close enough together that the ponies could walk beneath the lowest boughs of most of the trees, and the snow was largely kept off the forest floor. The trees also acted as a baffle to the icy winds, making the area noticeably warmer than outside, though it was still quite cold.

As the sun began to dip below the horizon and the group began searching for a place to stay for the night, everypony's ears twitched at the sound of a howling creature. The call was answered by several more, and as the creatures communicated, the cries crept steadily closer to the group of ponies.

"What are they?" Twilight asked.

"Canine," was Fluttershy's response.

"Gee, that's a real big help, sugarcube." Applejack reached back into her pack of gear and pulled out her sword. As much as Fluttershy would prefer to talk her way out of a confrontation with a woodland creature, timberwolves couldn't be bargained with. Applejack doubted whatever creatures these were would be much different.

The howls ceased, but the creatures were now close enough to see in the wan light of the early evening. As tall as each of the ponies, ten of the creatures crept though the surrounding forest. They looked almost like any domestic dog a pony might keep for a pet, save for their size, smaller ears, broader chests and backs, and proportionally larger paws.

"Pack hunters," Twilight whispered, "they'll do what they can to try and separate us. They'll pull back if enough of them are sufficiently wounded, though. Stick togeth—"

"'Sufficiently wound' a few of them? Now you're speakin' my language!" Rainbow Dash charged forward to the nearest dog.

"I said we need to stick together! Girls, don't let Rainbow out of our sight!" In order to protect the group with the power of numbers, the rest of the ponies were forced to charge forward with Rainbow. The dog saw the rush of the seven ponies, and wisely turned to flee.

"Yeah, you better run!" Rainbow called after the beast. "Hey AJ, did you see how that thing ran away from me? Hah!"

"It ran because it knew it couldn't win a seven-to-one fight, Dash," Applejack said flatly.

"Hey everypony! The other dogs are gone, too!"

"No, Pinkie. Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt." At the attentive silence, Fluttershy gathered the courage to continue. "They're not going to just give up, if they're anything like timberwolves. They may have backed down, but they'll still follow us and harry us throughout the night. If we settle down without proper protection, they'll happily take us in our sleep."

"Wow, talk about a downer," Rainbow said. "What are we gonna do?"

"Just stay on your toes, everypony. Fluttershy and Zecora, you two have the most experience in this arena. Take point and keep your eyes peeled for somewhere that might serve as adequate shelter." Twilight kept the group in working order, and the group pressed on.

For a few hours, everypony was jumpy, seeing glowing eyes in the dark or hearing a snapping twig in the distance. Eventually, though, Zecora called for a stop. "There are humans up ahead. What do you suggest we do, Twilight?"

"Are you sure it's humans?"

Fluttershy added confirmation. "I can smell burning wood, but I can't see a forest fire. Something's made camp ahead of us, and considering the world we're in now, 'humans' is the best guess."

Twilight thought for a moment. "We ought to warn them about the dogs. Depending on who they are, we may be able to share their camp for security in numbers. Pinkie, take the lead, since you're most likely to be able to communicate with them."

A few minutes later, Zecora was proven right. A camp of seven humans lay ahead, with small fires burning inside each tent to shelter them from the wind and snow.

"{Hello!}" Pinkie called out in Low Realm. Several men leaned out of their tents to see the source of the voice. The men wore clothing that had once been fine, but was now dirty and ratted. They had been on the road for a long time. "{We just wanted to warn you that there are some dogs in the area, so you should be careful, maybe post a watch tonight, or... um... can any of you understand me?}"

One of the men flopped onto the forest floor, cross-legged and slack-jawed. He stared intently at the bottle in his hand, and then chucked it as far as he could throw it. "{I never dreamt that I'd be warned about a pack of omen dogs by a herd of colorful ponies.}"

"{Oh, goody, you can understand me!}"

The sitting man rubbed his face with one hand, while the others gathered to one side of the conversation, murmuring to one another. "{I suppose I should thank you... whatever you are... for the warning.}" He turned to the group of men murmuring to the side, "{Erikson! Jakobson! Put up a guard for the omen dogs.}" Two of the men returned to their respective tents before exiting with blades and a determined expression, standing watch outside the circle of tents.

"{Oh, we also had a request!}"

"{I make no guarantees about satisfying it, but continue.}"

"{Could we share your campsite tonight? Big numbers will help against the omen dogs, right? We don't want to be eaten, and we don't want you to be eaten, and I don't think you want to be eaten either...}"

The man held up a hand to forestall Pinkie's yammering. "{You may set up your camp with ours for the night. We will be leaving in the early morning to return to the Knobb, but security in the night is a fine proposition.}"

"Well, Pinks? What'd he say?" Rainbow asked.

"He says thanks for the warning about the 'omen dogs' and that we can stay the night."

"Then let's raise these tents, y'all!"


Applejack insisted on helping out with the omen dog watch, and Rainbow volunteered as well, to ensure that she wouldn't be shown up by Applejack. Pinkie tried her hoof at a watch shift to see if it would be fun (it wasn't), but the rest of the ponies simply slept the night through. Facing a group of fourteen with no intent to separate, the omen dogs never made a second attempt, opting for easier prey instead.

When the ponies woke the following morning, however, they did not expect to find what they saw.

They had expected that the humans would have packed up and left. They might have said goodbye, and based on some knowledge of humans relayed by Zecora via the Lunars that had trained her, there was the possibility that the humans might have stolen some of the ponies' supplies.

Instead, they found the humans' tents still standing. Inside, each human lay dead, apparently strangled judging by their contorted expression and purple complexion. A piece of parchment had been stuffed inside of the mouth of the leader; the one Pinkie had conversed with the night before. Scrawled onto the parchment was some text that Pinkie translated as, "servant of the dark."

Fluttershy used her powers to cremate the corpses, ash drifting on the cold morning breeze. Zecora, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash convinced the others that it would be smart to loot the provisions of the humans for things that the ponies could use; there was still a long road ahead, and the humans no longer had use for it. Applejack made the compromise of constructing cairns for the humans, burying their equipment that the ponies didn't take under small piles of rocks.

As the party continued through the forest for the second day, everypony except Rainbow began to notice a faint pull in their chests.

"The Lover said that something in the region draws in the exalted. This must be what she was talking about." Twilight kept some healthy suspicion, but as the journey continued, the tug became stronger. In the early afternoon, Fluttershy nearly fainted, as the tugging sensation began to blot out her vision. Rainbow and Rarity helped to support the yellow pegasus, but as the group neared the mountain pass, the effects grew and all of the exalted started to feel similar effects. Only Rainbow Dash remained unaffected.

By early evening, Twilight declared that it was time to leave the forest; nopony argued, as the sensation they had first felt had been mostly ahead of them, while the tugging was now directly to their left.

As the ponies stepped out of the boundaries of the forest, their vision cleared. Before them was a cleft between two mountains, opening into a barren snow-covered plain. High in the sky, a brilliant golden flare of energy arced up and over the mountain range at the other end of the snowy wasteland before falling back down to earth. "It's beautiful," Rarity sighed as she stepped over to let Fluttershy walk on her own.

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow as she stepped away from her pegasus companion as well. "I guess it's kinda nice; tabula rasa geography and all that, but 'beautiful'? I wouldn't expect you to say that about a wasteland, Rarity."

Rarity clicked her tongue at Rainbow. "I'm not talking about the ground; I'm talking about the fire in the sky."

"What fire in the sky...?"