//------------------------------//
// Terra's Limbo 
// Story: Diprosopus 
// by WritingSpirit 
//------------------------------//

	"Here, Rarity..."

Twilight watched as the white mare reached out with her shivering hooves, graciously accepting the cup of water she offered for her shaken friend. It was still clear, the events of the morning, when the ringing gunfire jostled her awake, galloping to find Rarity and Spike trembling on the floor, embracing each other amid torn cloth, splintered wood and shattered glass. The sight of a lifeless body dangling from tangled sheets nearly made her gag, her horror outmatched only by her agitation.
Along with the two victims of the attack in the royal lounge, there were the rest of her friends, save Rainbow Dash and Soarin', who had already set off with Spitfire towards Cloudsdale earlier to find their rainmaker. Sweetie Belle was already cuddling up next to her sister, unable to think of any words of comfort for her. All they could hear were her thick sobs, which had been lasting the same way since the break of dawn: tumultuous, fractured and quivering.

Spike was as sullen as her, though his meager flow of tears had already halted, his embrace with Rarity softening only by a little. There was primal rage instead of trauma stirring from him, growing simultaneously with Twilight's concern. His face was bruised and slightly battered, with a noticeable bruise slashed across his neck, his bandaged arm stained a patch of dark red from his gunshot wound.
"Can't believe this happened..." Applejack grumbled softly.
"If we ain't safe in the palace, where in tarnation are we going to go?"

"Maybe the pony's just... lucky to get inside here..."

"It just ain't right, Fluttersh'ah," the farmpony replied her sister-in-law, her voice rigid.
"We're in probably the most fortified place of all of central Equestria, 'nd there's already been two dead ponies since we got 'ere! Now, Rarity and Spike nearly got killed, and by sheer darn luck they're lucky to be alive! What if the next one might be one of us?"

"The Princess would never let that happen," Twilight assured.
"She would never see us, and I do mean any of us, get hurt. We're the Elements of Harmony, and she wouldn't intend to lose any of us to Janus if she wanted to win.

"So ya think Pinkie's just some part of a plan now? Ditch her in that be-damned forsaken place and get mare-handled by the Princesses--"

"I knew with all my heart that Pinkie's safe, Applejack!"
Both farmpony and scholar exchanged grudging stares, their harsh tones refusing to recoil. It was rare to see the specific two going against each other; usually Twilight would trust Applejack's headstrong logic, and Applejack would do the same to her wisdom. Pinkie's demise, however, proved differently.
"We did not have a chance to save Pinkie back then," the violet mare affirmed strictly, "but if I can find her now, I would do everything in my power to make it happen, even if it means losing my head to some crazed assassin hellbent on murdering us in our sleep. Understood?"

Applejack just grumbled, crossing her hooves and settling next to Apple Bloom.
"It might be too late..." she mumbled underneath her breath.

The door opened suddenly, revealing the prestigious quartet of Canterlot trotting inside: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Shining Armor and Fancypants. Immediately, the ponies in the room all bowed at the presence of the alicorn sisters, some albeit reluctantly in doing so.
Their expressions were anything but light-hearted, their sights set upon the couple grieving from their experience. The older alicorn was first to tend to Rarity, prompting the said mare to look up with distressed eyes that asked one simple question:

Why...?

The rest watched with dismal concern as Princess Celestia placed her wings around the shaken mare, beckoning her to have another drink, to which Rarity obliged. It was somewhat a little more soothing to have a drink in her presence, and both unicorn and alicorn knew that.
Spike was less grateful of her company, however, his spite evident from tense, crossed arms and a look of frustration to the frown curving on his lips, slipping out quiet, inaudible grumbles that would've rang louder in the absence of the alicorn sisters. Twilight couldn't help but notice it, her instincts already nudging her to tell off the dragon about it, yet she held herself back at the last minute.

"Checked the body of their assailant," Fancypants said, snapping her from her thoughts.
"Was a perfect match to the plumber responsible for assassinating Professor Page. I would recognize his scarred eye anywhere."

The violet mare's face darkened. So it seems the professor's killer decided to strike again, with no success and ultimately costing his life. Was it still from Janus's orders, and if so, why Rarity and Spike? Why not the Princesses or the high society ponies, like Fancypants himself? What did both dragon and mare have that Janus was so determined to murder for?
"I'll try to get some ponies to check into his background," the stallion continued.
"It might help us shed some light on how he's acquainted with Janus. Perhaps we can fish out the identities of his associates from there. I have a certain number of friends in the Canterlot Elite that I know would surely be glad to help."

"Do what you have to," Princess Celestia replied.
"We need what we can get to stop Janus before he causes harm once more. Fortify the defenses of Canterlot, and send this as an order to the remaining cities: that all Solar and Lunar Guards must be on duty at their prevalent times. In the meantime, Shining Armor, get an army ready to face the opposing forces, and notify Cadance of preparing an evacuation for the Crystal Empire, just in case."

Shining Armor gave a firm nod, being the involuntary first to march out of the room just as the alabaster alicorn rose from Rarity's side, having finished relieving her of her nightmarish ordeal and strutting towards her sister. The younger princess was leafing through photographs of the crime scene, a little distraught at the attack.
"What should we do now, sister?"

"If we can trace Janus from this pony alone, it's wise we prepare a reconnaissance unit and find out what we can. As for preparations, we'll have to station all available battalions around the Equestrian border, but if the situation goes beyond that..."
The older alicorn cut herself off with a sigh, the only pony that visibly knew of her intentions being Princess Luna herself, whose ears drooped suddenly. Twilight resisted the urge to ask about it, knowing the answer will come in due time.

Someday.

"In the meantime, we'll have to keep Canterlot safe," she continued.
"We'll have to do anything we can to make sure that none of Janus's subordinates have infiltrated the city--"

"Like watching us suffer..."

All eyes turned in disbelief at the direction of the voice, with eyes staring down in the fiercest glare, claws starting to rip into the cushions of his seat. Spike stood up and, much to the unimaginable shock of everyone else, including Rarity, marched defiantly up towards Princess Celestia, jabbing the tip of his claw into his chest with such provoking blasphemy, it surprised, not to mention angered, even the two alicorns as well.
"You said we would be safe in this palace. You promised in your speech that you would make sure none of us would be in danger."

"Spike," Twilight deadpanned.
"You know the Princess can't fully guarantee that--"

"They're all just false promises, aren't they?" the dragon continued, not caring of the violet mare's words.
"They're just stupid lies invented to think we would be safe, right? So when Janus comes, you're just going to welcome him inside and watch all of us die? Is that what you want?"

"S-Spike," Rarity tried to cut in. "Please--"

"What if this whole time, we're brought here just to lure Janus in; that Pinkie was never alive at all and it was just some darn excuse to bring us here?! What if Janus was right the whole time? That you were just a LIAR?!"

The universally-known rage of a dragon stirred in the room, yet Spike's... Twilight felt something, beneath his heaving chest and raging eyes... a dominant presence rising from him. It quivered in his scales and out to her horn, tingling it with a spark of... magic? Hatred?
Spike had already descended on all fours, tongue slithering before she had discarded her piqued curiosity. The alicorn sisters stood firm, staring down as he advanced to them. He raised his claws; the ones built to tear and destroy, the ponies all gritting their teeth as he lunged towards the Princesses...

"SPIKE!!"

Rarity's scream severed him from his fury, halting him and leaving him panting. He gazed down in shock at his claws, before withdrawing them hesitantly, instead slowly striding backwards with his head hanging low to the mare that snapped him back into his senses; the mare that Twilight claimed would be the only one he would listen to these days.
"I-I..." he stammered ruefully and breathlessly, briefly stopping in his tracks.
"Y-Your Highnesses... I... I'm..."

"It's alright, Spike," Princess Celestia cut in.
"I understand your frustration, but it seems Janus is one step ahead of us. We'll have to be as cunning and careful as him if we were to keep all of you safe. That includes you and Rarity even."

Spike gave a small, flimsy nod, settling right next to his marefriend. Rarity just held his claws, a part of her wishing to question his sudden plunge into anger. She too sensed something was off with his rage, her gut feeling telling her that the Princesses knew about it somehow.
"In the meantime, we'll assign all of you to a safer section of the palace; one I'm certain Janus would never dare to enter. My sister and I will make sure that our guards monitor every corridor there is."

Confidence sprung in those words like a seedling, the flowers of persistence stemming from it prompting a nod from all ponies and the dragon. It was one of the many things, Twilight knew and admired, that would take even the toughest of ponies to muster, and to possess the endurance of not even flinching from the rage of a dragon, it only raised her hopes higher for her teacher.
Despite that, Spike's words held a screeching, disturbing truth somewhere. She couldn't help but question the Princess's rule over Equestria, much less Canterlot itself. Was the dragon right in some way? She let out a tired sigh.

Such conflicting thoughts.

"Twilight Sparkle?'

The mare turned to her side, watching as Fancypants marched up to her, carrying some sort of book. He soon held it up to her hooves, his face steeled with determination at the acceptance of his 'gift', that is, if it were his.
"These are...?" she asked.

"Professor Page's journal," was the answer. That explained the frayed pages and windswept cover, she thought to herself. Carefully, her magic enveloped it, hovering it slowly to her side, the smell of imported Saddle Arabian dust making her cough lightly.
"He handed this to me before his...... untimely demise. He would've wanted you to have it."

Fancypants soon gave her a broad smile, all the while looking at her alternating gazes between the book and the stallion that presented it to her. Sure enough came the confident nod of Princess Celestia's protege, and as scholarly and studious as she made herself to be, she was excited already to just snap open the cover, pop out a magnifying glass and look at whatever Arabian hieroglyphs filled its pages.
"This might help us," she mumbled absentmindedly, trotting back to the somber chatting of her friends, some of them still comforting Rarity and Spike. It was certainly an eventful morning, albeit unwanted, and she will make sure it wouldn't happen again.

And it will all begin with this book.




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Branch after branch did Pinkie duck under, pink hooves treading onto grass and fallen leaves in her trek deeper into the shrine, climbing over and underneath plummeted granite columns. She was slightly surprised she hadn't reached the other end of the mountain yet, which only made her wonder how large the shrine actually is.
Her spiritual guide was ahead, zipping around the shrine like a ball in an arcade pinball machine. The pink mare figured if she has hooves, she would've crossed them and tap impatiently, urging for her to move onward. There were a few painless swats from her comet-tail; a result of distractions coming in the shape of butterflies and hummingbirds wandering over her snout, and boredom soon overtake her like the fatigue in her hooves, the mare gasping out like a small filly:

"Are we there yet?"

"It'll just be a moment," the hobby-lantern replied.
"I think she said we will meet her somewhere... in the main room? She always loved to have conferences in the main throne room."

A small groan escaped her lips, and with one hefty heave of her breath, Pinkie marched forward. Unsheathing her sword, she used it as a trekking pole; a third leg to carry her through the shrine after spending almost forever wandering about the granite confines of the shrine. The sunrise was gloomy, what with a small drizzle already starting, the humid air conceiving a few ribbons of (natural) fog. The only cover she could get from the harmless onslaught of pinprick droplets were the grown trees around; the shrine did not possess a roof, probably due to the princess she was about to meet being fond of everything natural like, per say, a shower.
The spirit didn't seem to mind, despite its seemingly fiery nature. It was a cheerful little spirit, she found out, and they both eventually got to know each other better as they hid in the grove the night before for a little rest. It explained how hobby-lanterns were born: from the purest dust of pollen sent away from the most vivid of flowers. It also said Princess Terra had more than one messenger, acting in all different parts of the world to notify pilgrimages of starting their journey to the closest shrine and giving them her blessing, and whatever immediate responses were sent back to their leading hobby-lantern; the same one that, much to her surprise, was guiding her to the alicorn right now!

"It ain't hard once ya got the hang of it!" it said when asked about her job as 'leader of the wisps'.
"You just need to form some channel with Princess Terra and just show her all the info, but of course, you had to do this cloud-channeling thing and gather all the info from the others first! Pretty high-tech for some nature spirits such as us, eh?"

"So how did you become leader?" Pinkie remembered herself asking next.

"Working hard, I guess. Knowing what the game gives and what you have to dish out. Basically, you have to train all these advanced wisp stuff. Something I think ponies would never understand with their... what do you guys call it? Sense? Scenes? Wait, wait! I got it at the back of my head....... Um... Science! That's right!!"

Pinkie never expected the leading hobby-lantern (who called itself Luster) of an unimaginably divergent network of messages would be such a chatterbox like herself. Sure, Luster was a little annoyed when they first started out, even turning her lamp's hue a beet red when facing with the pink mare's endless rapid-fire of words, but they got along just fine.
"So... I was just wondering," the mare began to ask, anticipation crawling up her neck.
"How's Princess Terra like? Is she really, really nice? Or a little..." she gulped, "fierce and strict?"

"She's an alicorn!" was the answer.
"You know how alicorns are! Almighty and kind, full of wisdom, that kind of pish-posh? All the princes and princesses watch over their subjects, blah-blah-blah, and most importantly, they care for the world around them!"

"But what about the other countries? Like dragons and minotaurs and gryphons? Who takes care of their own land?"

"Hmm...... if there's one thing I know about alicorns," the spirit replied thoughtfully, "it's that they go way long back to the early lords, so you've got some 'Pilgrims of Terra' that are dragons, minotaurs, gryphons and such. Their lords are treated the same way we treat the princesses, and they too have some pony followers as well, like dragon priests, for example. Then again, there was a time before alicorns came into existence..."

Pinkie turned to Luster in surprise. A time before alicorns? Before all these different cults and religions pop out of nowhere, when ponies followed only the law of their ruling lord?
"Really?" she wanted to clarify, to which the spirit blinked once: a yes.
"How was it like?"

"Can't tell really, cause I'm not exactly... there, to begin with," the spirit admitted.
"However, Princess Terra told me a teensy-weensy bit of the days back then. One minute it might be world peace, the next you'll have gryphon fleets raiding the skies, the eastern cervine stampedes raiding the farms, the zebras storming through the towns and the dragons taking over the palace. Stuff like that happened, and chaos ruled the lands, until the alicorns came in and settle with it. It all really matters on exactly how and where did the princes and princesses today come from. That's a mind-boggler to me."

"Why?" the mare asked, confused.
"Can't they just be born like other ponies?"

"Well, simply put, it's impossible for Earth pony, pegasus and unicorn to conceive an alicorn child."
Luster twirled around Pinkie's curious expression, the mare's eyes almost as if glued to the light vibrantly shimmering from the small orb of light. "The only way for a pony to be an alicorn," she explained, "is either being granted wings or a horn - both if you're an Earth pony - by an alicorn, or if both of your parents were alicorns themselves!"

"Didcha ask Princess Terra about it?"

"Would love to, but she has problems as of late," the spirit replied somberly.
"Duilliúr Shrine has become more of a bpríosún: a prison, as she would call it. Those pegasi had tainted the shrine with darkness so deep, it basically trapped her and rendered her in a state of Eclipsis, meaning her powers are unable to function and her strength is being fed on by these pegasi. Heck, I don't think they even know this was a shrine of Terra. Did you see all those cigarettes they threw? Wouldn't pay a single bit for their lungs, that's for sure!"

Pinkie couldn't help but agree. She herself would be outraged if somepony throws waste like that around her shrine, not that she would ever have anypony worship her or whatsoever. Yet, this shrine is home to Princess Terra, the mother of nature, and to blemish it with cigarettes, it would be heresy in itself!
"Well, we just have to find the Princess and have that chit-chat!" she said.
"Maybe she wants us to get those meanies out of here! Right?"

"So that's what you call us..."

She yelped as her mane was suddenly yanked backwards, staring straight into a pair of familiar, venomous green eyes. Before she could even gasp, something struck her at the side of her head, disrupting her vision with a shot of pain breaching into her skull. Falling forward, Pinkie tried to crawl away, voices faint and distant clouding her head...

"You seemed to have awaken at the wrong time though."

The further she crawled, the more painful it gets. The blur of the shrine and the sight of Luster being forced into a cage was warping, instead revealing... trees? A cliff? Tables and chairs made from bamboo and straw? Then it mixed with another scene; a darker one, with wood, water and... thunder? The voices start to blur out, yet grow in number as they come crashing in like a tidal wave, even as she was starting to black out.
"No," she recognized the voice from the present, feeling a cold ring pressed against her head leaving from it. Yet something didn't make sense. The voices were coming together, playing out in unison like a morbid jigsaw puzzle for her to solve. "Our Lord would want her alive," her captor said, before she felt herself overwhelmed in words she desperately tried to grip, yet always slipped loose into the static in her aching head.

"You could say the economy is like a gamble in my casino: profoundly a huge gain if successful, destructively a heavy loss if you fail..."

"-forgot my logbook!"

"The Pariah..."

"Along the way, there are some ponies that try to ruin your reputation. They venture too far into conspiracies, some true, some false, stirred by the community we tycoons reside in..."

"She... -erves the right to..."

"I've checked through the Telr..... journals, alright? It seems that he had something to do with..."

"Envious in their own kind, they will go at any lengths to stop our fruitful harvest that we have endured with unwavering patience to gain."

"Please!" she heard herself scream, feeling herself being dragged in the dirt. It was distant; unreal even, and despite her waning condition, she knew it was not from her mouth, but in her head, playing like a fractured record that she would've let out in her current situation.
"Let me go! Let me go and I won't tell anypony! Just let me go!"

Pinkie soon found herself thrashing in a vessel of wood, with faint glimpses of flashing light from a hole, the sound of pattering rain jolting her senses. Water was filling it up, trapping her with her hooves... bound? Why were her hooves bound? Wasn't she in the shrine? Did those ponies placed her here?
She tried to push again, yet her energy... it just drained, even without her doing anything. Muffled gunshots filled her ringing ears, followed by a frantic banging of the shovel. Suddenly, she felt herself hoisted into the air, with the lid consequently blasting open, water flushing her out and freeing her from her binds. The chaos of noises fell into silence, and she hesitantly opened her eyes to see...

A mare. Shadowed by light; a silhouette in white. Somehow, Pinkie knew she was smiling, and her heart tingled abuzz, almost as if she was a good friend. Taking a step closer, she held her breath as the mare before her reached out a caramel-colored hoof, bright yellow eyes like small fireflies flickering in the immense white with a grin of buttery warmth welcoming her in.
"Pinkie..." came a small whisper, igniting a spark in her mind. A singular syllable soon slipped from her in a gasp, and although Pinkie didn't know what it meant, it somehow seemed fitting and made the other pony's small grow wider with jubilant glee; the last thing she saw before fading back into darkness.

"P-Prim?"




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"Standard & Dale..."

"Is a numbskull of a wreck," Stellar grumbled.

A pony wouldn't hail from Pendant Lakes if he or she have no idea of the district of Standard & Dale. It was famed for what he would call beauty in simplicity, where houses have actual backyards and gardens, unlike those in the main towns stacked together like books. Trees replaced the lampposts instead, and which pony would ever forget the dazzling sight of the sunflower fields? Anypony staying here would be considered lucky back then.
Now... it only seemed the darkness had engulfed it and regurgitated it twice. Whatever stately homes here had become shanty and crooked, with trees bent and bark plagued in some sort of underground moss. Instead of sunflowers in the fields, there were colossal archways of giant stalks instead, their slender, cacti-like thorns resembling a furry caterpillar tunneling through the broken ground.

Calling it a wreck seemed more of an understatement.

"Who would expect Standard becoming such a hellhole," Caduceus said with a laugh.
"It's by the devil's luck Cleptius didn't come to see this. He would basically rip this whole place apart and make it some secret coven of his or something."

"Nah, it'll be worse."

Teasing an old friend was a habit, Stellar surmised, that he would never get rid of, especially when it comes to Cleptius Arrowfaith, the doctor that was once in charge of the asylum. Nopony still understood how he landed that job in the first place, and how he had maintained his sanity the whole time. Whatever the reason, has it been high school when they, the Crux Four, teased him?
"You haven't told me how he was doing yet," the old colt said suddenly.
"What did happen to Cleptius anyway?"

"Resigned from his post as psychiatrist preceding May," his friend replied.
"Wasn't sure why. I assumed he deemed himself unfit for the job, but recently he told me he was having a rather good time somewhere in the Ponytail Peninsula."

"Dastardly little colt he is, eh? Trying to duck out of trouble every time he could!"

"Cleptius Arrowfaith the sod-off."

Jovern just raised an eyebrow at the two old colts giggling creakily like they were ten times younger, blinking a few times at the sight. Of course, all thoughts of that were soon trashed when they settled upon, much to their displeasure...
"A barricade," Stellar grumbled, tapping the fallen mound of rock with the side of the Patriarch's rapier.
"Of all the obstacles that could come across our path..."

"Jovern?" Caduceus said with a nudge at the dragon.
"Ready to do the honors?"

"I'm afraid I can't."
The reptile approached the wall of rock, cautiously trailing his claw through the fragile pyramid of stone, before scratching his chin at the sight. Both ponies at his feet just watched as he did so, unsure of whatever calculations or observations he was performing, though he suddenly turned to them with a troubled sigh.
"If I take this wall down," he explained, "you'll have to expect the whole ceiling to collapse upon us. We'll need an alternative route, Caduceus."

"Hold on..." the doctor murmured, clenching his eyes shut as he forced himself into the domain of his mind.
"Um... Standard & Dale... we can cut through to the nearest road, Harbor Street."

"And how are we going to do that?"

"There's one building that leads out to Harbor Street."
Stellar's answer to Jovern's question peeled away the fresh skin over old scars as both doctor and once-butler gazed at said building, with the slate roof was crumbling, the cement between the brick walls weak as glass, and its doorway already hanging at its hinges. The sign beside it had became a porcupine of splinters, with slops of faded paint forming out a familiar word.


FOSTER


"Rest in peace, Persimmon."

It was a prayer not necessary, albeit a fitting prayer all the same. At least to Caduceus.
While Jovern traipsed at the walls, both stallions marched into the crushed interior of Foster Grande Orphanage. Giggles of children became whispers of shadows; pictures of friendship became shattered glass, and all life that once lived here had already aborted the jagged facade. Already the beams were creaking when they took their first step in, cautiously treading through the floorboards as they glanced about the wooden boards of the orphanage, wandering deeper into familiar territory vastly different from change.

"Gods..." Stellar growled, opening the door at the other end to see a wall of earth staring back at him, with only a few greens slithering out from above. His friend, upon noticing it, turned back and headed towards the stairs, the banisters swaying as they trotted up into the second floor.

"......visitorssss..."

The colts stopped with a creak, blades and guns clicking, eyes darting about the darkness.
"Did you hear that?" Caduceus asked first.

Jovern too had stopped outside, noticeable through the broken window. He was already glancing around the dark, underground expanse, his fangs erected from his lips with an echoing growl. Stellar raised his gun, hoof gesturing over his mouth as he shuffled to the front, finally reaching the platform before scanning the room.
His face paled when he saw, at the other end of the upstairs hallway, door swinging violently behind it (her?) and curtains fluttering at full velocity, wanting to rip itself off the windows. It was a mare, standing on two hind hooves, stained an ink black with only its face left a mask of white. In place of its eyes were pinholes, its snout somewhat sawed off with no traces of scars, and its mouth sewn up into a curled grin. Its mane dangled over its face, hiding only lines of its grotesque features, before it suddenly raised its hooves up, stitched jaws snapping open to reveal ridged, rotting teeth, blood dripping from between its cracks and forming small puddles on the floor.

Two screams erupted. One from an old colt, and the other unrecognizable; the shriek of a banshee wailing throughout the town. Stellar fell backwards as the... thing zoomed towards it, leaving a trail of black smoke and his senses tossed around. It passed through his chest, yet somehow... it felt like it grabbed a part of his soul, the energy sapped from all hooves with the warped face ringing into mind.
Another yell came, this time from Caduceus, followed by crunch after crunch of wood. Hurriedly, Stellar rose to check at his friend, his instincts kicking him back up to his hooves once he saw the sight of his friend cringing in agony on the floor.

Without anymore time to spare, he quickly galloped down the stairs, hearing mocking laughter ringing from all the corridors. He glanced to the living room when he reached his friend's side, his horror returning once he saw the face again, this time disappearing into the fog of black smoke it was formed from.
"Goddamit!!" Caduceus cried, face a mix of white and red; sheer horror and pain, waking his friend from his traumatic daze.

Stellar soon lifted him up, heaving him up the stairs and tossing him out the window and onto the plateau, where Jovern was waiting with utmost concern. The doctor himself soon dragged himself up, though he soon doubled over, clutching his hoof in agony as his friend searched through the backpack.
"What the heck happened in there?" the dragon asked just as the butler ripped off a bandage with his teeth, cold sweat still running down his hooves.

"You meant to ask-- hnngh!!" Caduceus flinched once Stellar lifted his hoof, looping a bandage around as pain seared towards his head.
"What the heck is in there?"

"Whatever it was..." the butler said, shivering lightly, his voice rising in volume. None of them could fathom what just happened, but that face... that crazed face... it was too... too... disturbing for it to be real. "I have no intentions of meeting it again. None. At. All!!" he yelled suddenly with a scowl, as if wanting that monster to heed his curses. "Bucking... piece of buck...!"
There was no doubt about it, his mind screamed. Pendant Lakes has certainly changed, and that... thing was living(?) proof that there's something that doesn't want them here. Stellar clenched his quivering hooves together, mouth trembling with prayers to the Princess with cold sweat crawling down the edge of his spine, its drip onto stone an echo in the darkness; the darkness that he believed it will always be watching.

And perhaps - he gritted his teeth forcefully - some other monstrosities as well.

Patiently and eagerly, awaiting their forsaken arrival.




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"There's that chump."

By chump, Soarin' meant his previous place of work before stumbling upon his old high school friend known as Spitfire one day on the street in that blasted white uniform and helmet they had to wear. It was what he would call a sordid job (especially when placed in the rain division) and he sure as hell was relieved that his old friend signed him up to the Wonderbolts all those years ago.
The sight of Cloudsdale's Weather Factory at the other end of the narrow bridge of clouds was like gold at the end of the rainbow, except the rainbows were spewed out from the 'pot' itself. Ravaging nimbostratus and nimbus clouds roam the skies, lightning and precipitations of water and ice already warning them of the coming storm they scheduled.

No doubt the culprit would be inside as well.

"Have to find the manager of the rain division," Spitfire began, ushering expectant husband and wife through the doors. Of course, they were quickly handed the factory's trademark white suits; the ones that Soarin' himself had loathed at the sight, making Rainbow giggle lightly.

"Never thought I would have to wear this again," he remarked, helping his wife button up.
"These suits really brings back all the memories... not many good ones I can really think off, however."

"So you were...pfft... showered, with work?"

Spitfire let out a laugh at Rainbow's pun, much to the stallion's annoyance.
"Who knows? Maybe he might've ended up being successful! Like our Princesses rain-ing over her subjects!"

"But he obviously failed, right? Perhaps he stormed out of the factory after that!"

"Nice! Ooh, I got one! To him, working here suddenly seems to be a... pour choice!!"

Soarin' rolled his eyes at the two mares guffawing with laughter, wondering how on Equestria did one small conversation became an uproar of puns. With a sigh, he hastily prodded them forward, sheepishly smiling at all the watching workers around them.
"Move along now, you two hotshots," he murmured.
"We got a criminal to hunt. I'm sure he would really love to hear your rain puns as well."

"R-Right," Spitfire stammered from her laughter, wiping a small tear away.
"Maybe we'll... flood him with 'em!"

A groan escaped the colt's mouth once the two mares burst out in spasms of laughter again, albeit shorter ones as they finally reached the rain section of the factory. Everywhere, pegasi are on the move, kicking and battering clouds until they're black, literally. Some turned in surprise at the visit of the two Wonderbolts, and they would've rushed forward for their autograph if not for their duties at hoof.
"You guys wait here," Spitfire said suddenly, stopping them at a cloud bench.
"I'll try to find the manager. Don't want Rainbow to work an extra load, right?"

"Yeah..." Soarin' muttered, his wife remaining silent.
Settling on the bench, the couple watched as their friend strode away. The colt huddled up next to her wife as she tucked her hooves in, waving at all the passersby that returned it with warm smiles of their own, some even heading up and congratulating them on their foal. Rainbow just smiled, not even bothering to brag about it like she usually would. But of course, they didn't bother to ask her about it.
Sure enough, the pegasi resumed working, with booms of thunderclouds rippling through the atmosphere of the factory. All that Soarin' could do then was watch them like the manager; the same pony that they were waiting for along with Spitfire's return.

"Soar?"

"Hmm?" he replied, turning to Rainbow. His face fell immediately when he saw her darkened expression. Did her hormones fire back up again? Was she about to go full Sonic-Rainboom screaming into his face? These outbursts would never end well, and he had a fair share of bruises to prove it.
"What is it, Rainbow?"

"Just thinking 'bout... what I said yesterday..."
There was a crack in her voice. Unlike her usual rasp, it was scarred deeper and broken, almost on the verge of sobbing. However relieved that it was something other than being told off for a 'crime' he didn't commit, Soarin's heart started to sink; she was his wife, after all.
In response, he placed a hoof around her shoulder, hearing a light sniffle underneath the factory sounds. She stooped her head low, raising her hoof only to wipe a single tear, all the while trying to chase the rest back in.

"When I said that," her voice began in a shiver, "do you... do you think I'm a terrible pony...?"

"You?" Soarin' exclaimed out of ridiculousness, quieting when he noticed a few confused stares from the other ponies around the room.
"Now why in the world would anypony think of that? You're a great flyer, superstar athlete, an adoring wife and a mother-to-be, of all things!"

"What kind of mother would say she'd rather sign up for an abortion?"

The colt opened his mouth, though the words jammed in his throat at Rainbow's last comment. She gave him a deadpanned stare, before slumping back down into her hooves, fishing out a quiet sigh.
"I'm an Element of Loyalty, Soarin'," she mumbled, loud enough for only her husband to hear.
"I stick to my friends and never leave them hanging. That's why I said I wanted to help, cause I don't think I've done enough. But when I said about... well... that... to abandon my own daughter for my friends..."

"I believed it at first."
Soarin's reply was surprising, if not shocking, for Rainbow, who immediately sprung up from her seat, her jaw dropping instantly. The Wonderbolt just chuckled, albeit his voice was crisp and cold, his frown firm as concrete.
"It's pretty believable, though I wouldn't expect it from you, of course. As your husband, I would respect your choice. You want to abandon her for the sake of saving lives, it's fine. But as a father, not to mention an expectant one, you know I can never let you do that."

Rainbow just turned away, though Soarin's hoof gently pushed her face back. His frown curled up into a sad smile, the sight of which was irresistible to smile along as well.
"I know, deep in your heart, you never meant what you said. You were just upset and angry at everything happening around you, you just wished you could step in and help out. But right now, what matters most to me is seeing me and you cradling our daughter for the first time. Remember how excited you were when you felt her kick four months ago?"

"What? Me? I w-wasn't excited! I was just... happy to know she's healthy and safe!"
Soarin' raised an eyebrow, wearing his I-know-you-can-never-lie-to-me expression. She soon sighed in defeat, blowing her mane to the side before lying back down onto her hooves.
"F-Fine..." she stammered, scrunching her lips.
"I was a little excited... okay, maybe a lot..."

"That's why I want our daughter to be safe and sound," he continued, cupping her hooves into his. Rainbow just glanced upwards, her head remaining low as it was before.
"One day, we'll teach Firefly how to fly, then we watch her go to school, make some new friends and hang out with other fillies. Who knows? Maybe she and Amber could be flying buddies, like Spitfire and I."

"Yeah..." the mare said, staring dreamily away with thoughts preoccupied by her daughter.
"She's going to be a great mare, Soarin' Glorytail. She has the awesomest mother and, of course, the coolest and best father and husband anypony could ask for."

With that, she nuzzled Soarin's snout, her husband quietly laughing underneath his breath before the two gave a hug, one more tighter than the other, who whispered:
"Rainbow Dash, you flatterer."

"Having fun chatting yet, you two lovebirds?"

Soarin' and Rainbow perked up immediately, smiling in sheepish relief when Spitfire finally returned, beside him an old pegasus, judging from the graying locks in between his deep purple mane. He coughed lightly, covering his mouth with his cerulean hoof, his wings twitching with a need to fly.
"This is the manager, Weather Watcher, in charge of precipitation division."

"Pleasure to meet you both," he said, reaching out a wrinkled hoof, to which husband and wife shook.
"I've heard of the tragedy in Canterlot. It's a disgusting shame for one of our employees to be involved in this, and I do hope you ponies can catch him."

"He doesn't seem to be here," Soarin' remarked, glancing at the picture of one Torrent Mist. It looked more like a mugshot than an employee photograph, seeing how it was taken from the front and sides. Contrary to his name, the pony looked like an incarnation of a tree, what with his dark gamboge coat and leaf green mane, and would've represented nature well if not for his disgruntled expression.
"It says here he's suspended twice for tardiness."

"Colleagues say he never arrived on time," the manager spoke.
"Beats me on what the hay he's been doing every morning. Never knew he would be involved in such a conspiratorial murder such as this. From my experiences with him, he should be in here any minute now."

True to his words, the door opened suddenly, revealing the pony known as Torrent Mist stepping in. As soon as he spotted them, however, he suddenly backed away, before zooming back out of the door, knocking over a few ponies in the process.
"HEY!!" Soarin' yelled, being the first of the trio to take off.
"GET BACK HERE!!"

Spitfire started to unfurl her wings, ready to join her companion in his pursuit, though she was suddenly pulled backwards, a loud grunt snapping into her vision. Her face paled once she saw Rainbow collapsing onto the ground, her pants becoming groans of pain as she clutched her stomach suddenly, her face a wheezing red.
"S-Spitfire!" she yelled, hissing out in pain.
"F-F-Firefly!! She's-- ah... AHH!!!"

"Somepony call the doctor!!" the veteran Wonderbolt yelled immediately, trying to help the mare up as ponies scurry to search for help. Of all the places that Rainbow could go in labor to, adding the absence of Soarin'...
"Just breathe, RD. Take long, deep breaths," she hurriedly said, unsure of what to do.
"You're going to be just fine. Help is on the way."

"But... but it's so... it hurts like-- ahh!!"
Rainbow gritted her teeth, the agony forcing out tears from her eyes as she gripped tighter on her friend's hoof, squeezing the blood in its veins. Spitfire gently placed a hoof on her friend's stomach, feeling the frantic kicks that made the mare elicit a frightened whinny and harrumph, before reducing back to gasps, the sight already making her grinding her teeth with a million doubts filling her head.

"S-Spits..." she stammered, the other mare nodding hurriedly as a response.
"I... I'm scared...!"

"It's gonna be over soon. OVER HERE!!"
Within moments and a friend's wave, Rainbow soon found herself lifted onto a stretcher, the pain shooting out from beneath her stomach growing and growing with each second. Sure enough, Spitfire quickly followed the two ponies, all the while trying to calm the mare, wiping away the cold sweat off her head.
The mare huffed and heaved, clenching her eyes, jaws and hooves as pain shot through her, worrying Spitfire even more. The sight of Cloudsdale Hospital soon came into view, and the Wonderbolt soon stopped at the entrance, biting her lip as she watch her comrade entering the flapping doors, praying with all her hammering heart that she would be safe.
"Come on, Soarin'..." she muttered, glancing around the airborne town and tapping her hoof impatiently and nervously.

"The baby should be here any minute..."