“And you say that you found the banner nailed to the door when you arrived?” Princess Celestia inquired.
“Yes, Princess,” Trixie replied with an instinctive incline of her head towards the solar monarch. Upon seeing the strange and ancient-feeling banner on the door of Carousel Boutique and feeling the concentrated Void radiating from inside, she’d immediately headed towards where she’d last seen the princess, Berry Punch in tow.
To her surprise, Celestia was still in Ponyville, wearing a very grave expression as she conversed in low tones with an unusually solidly-built white unicorn in a uniform that indicated that he was much higher-ranked than ordinary Royal Guards; based on the decorations, Trixie guessed that he was the Captain of the Guard, or at least somepony of similar rank. Apparently, Trixie’s arrival was a signal to end their conversation because the unicorn had given her a polite nod before turning away and trotting in the direction of several guards. Celestia had listened to Trixie’s explanation, her expression showing real concern, before closing her eyes and lighting her horn, reaching out with magical senses that Trixie suspected could encompass the entire small town.
“This is… very worrisome,” the princess said after a moment, her eyes opening and her horn dimming. “Four Royal Guard disappear with the two ponies they’re escorting, my captain of the guard reports many more incidents like this from as far away as Stalliongrad, and now you bring me news that in the short time since the colt fell ill, the creature that poisoned the carrots did something to the Boutique and yet another, about which we know nothing, nailed a magic-soaked banner to the front door.”
“So it is magical,” Trixie confirmed, feeling slightly proud of herself for having noticed something different about the cloth. “It also struck me as very… old.”
“It did?” Celestia tilted her head, giving Trixie an expectant and interested look. “How does it do that?”
The truth was, Trixie wasn’t quite sure what about the tattered banner felt so old to her. It was worn, frayed, and faded but none of those things made it quite ancient even though she was as sure of it as she’d been of anything. “I… I’m not sure,” she admitted. “It’s faded and worn but it’s also… it feels like…”
“…it’s seen thousands of year and expects to see thousands more?” Celestia filled in with a smile.
“Well… yes, but I don’t think it’s…”
“I don’t think it’s intelligent either,” the solar diarch responded. “That you could feel the weight of its magic and intuited that the weight indicated immense age tells me that my daughter was right, and that some of her rubbed off on you. Granted, she isn’t as willing to trust her feelings and intuition, but intuition would be second nature to a showmare.”
Trixie blushed very lightly. “Thank you, Princess.”
“You’re welcome,” Celestia said kindly. “I wish that the rest of what I must say would be so pleasant. It’s becoming quite clear that whatever Carrot Top saw meddling with her fields has extended its reach all across Equestria. Now, more than ever, Equestria needs her princess to be a visible and consoling presence, especially far from Canterlot… and Ponyville is quite close.”
Trixie felt her heart sink. “You’re leaving.”
“I am.” Celestia smiled. “But I’ve not forgotten that my daughters came to you to keep watch while the Elements are gone. I’ll have my captain of the guard stay in Ponyville with a contingent of Royal Guards, and I’ve already arranged for other help to come to you. I have no intention of abandoning you, Trixie.”
“Other help, Your Majesty?” Berry Punch asked. “Beyond the Royal Guard?”
Celestia dipped her head regally in affirmation. “The Guard are absolutely dedicated and zealously brave, but Captain Armor is one of the very rare unicorns among their number… and I could not ask them or you to confront this Evil without the benefit of powerful magical aid.”
“What about whoever put the banner on the door?” Trixie suggested.
“Whatever they mean by nailing a banner to the door of the Boutique, I can’t blindly trust that they have good intentions,” Celestia sighed. “The situation is just too hazardous to simply believe that this other is a servant of the right side, and wishes to help us.”
“I hope they mean well then,” Trixie sighed. “This problem with the crops is already… what the word Pinkie Pie uses? A doozy?”
“Yes,” Berry agreed. “But cheer up, Trixie: unlike a year ago, you’ve got all of Ponyville on your side.
Trixie smiled a little. “Better yet, I have Macintosh on my side.”
“And the entire Apple family,” Berry agreed with an answering smile. “I doubt you are, but don’t underestimate how important it is to have Ponyville’s founding family behind you.”
“If nothing else, they can keep up the town’s spirits with those melt-in-your-mouth flapjacks,” Trixie licked her lips in memory of the delicious pancakes. “So, Princess Celestia, what do you suggest we do…?” Turning, she abruptly realized that in the short moment she’d been focused on Berry, Princess Celestia had quietly disappeared.
“I think the Princess believes you have the situation in hoof,” Berry offered.
“I wish I could be that confident,” Trixie sighed. “Now the question is, what do we do now?”
“Go looking for the creature that put up the flag,” the earth pony suggested.
“I don’t know,” Trixie frowned. “At least one of the creatures at work is so strong and malicious that it’s hurting ponies on the other side of Equestria. If whatever’s involved with it, even just to fight it, is anywhere as strong…”
“…we’ll be trotting into a battle of titans,” Berry finished. “But what else can we do? Cleanse Carrot’s fields and hope for the best?”
“Ya could try talking to the captain of the guard.” Both mares jumped a little as the white unicorn trotted up. His voice was far younger than Trixie would have expected, and with a strong hint of the accent deployed by those annoying younger ponies that liked to call everyone ‘dude’, a term that didn’t seem to mean anything (which, Trixie supposed, was the entire point). He also had a streak of electric blue in his otherwise plain blue mane that reminded Trixie vividly of Twilight Sparkle’s streaks of different colors.
“Hello Captain Armor,” Trixie said politely. “We were just deciding on a course of action.”
“I’d be glad to help with that, Miss Lulamoon,” he offered. “The Royal Guard, at least those of us that’re here, are at your service. If you want to start looking for the creature that’s doing all this evil, it’d be nice. We do enough standing around and being useless to fill a dozen lifetimes; it’s been a while since there was an enemy to fight that we could fight.”
Trixie detected the slightest trace of bitterness in the last comment. “The Guardian?”
“Yes.” The sheer amount of anger and frustration packed into that single word pretty much said everything there was to say. “First we miss a cultist sneaking into the Princess’ very chambers to…” He suddenly swallowed. “…m… murder Her Majesty’s beloved personal student. Then we follow the Princess along like automatons when the nightmare seizes her mind, then enforce her increasingly mad rulings without hesitation, then are completely useless when the time comes to actually confront the enemy.”
“I’m sorry,” Trixie said sincerely, reaching a hoof up to pat the stallion on the shoulder.
“Thanks.” He sighed heavily. “It’s been a hard six months, trying to get over all that, keeping the Guard together, keeping their morale up. Twiley coming back helped a lot, especially since somepony finally noticed the obvious.”
“That she was Celestia’s foal?” Berry grinned.
“Yup,” Armor agreed. “Saw it coming from a mile away, although part of me didn’t want to believe that my little sister wasn’t actually…”
“Twilight Sparkle has a brother?” Trixie interrupted. “I thought her only living family was her sister, Dawn.”
Armor grimaced a little. “Yeah, it’s… been quite a few years since I got to really see Twiley as, yanno, just big brother and little sister. Caught glances of her in the corridors, heard snatches of the Princess reading her ‘Friendship Reports’ aloud and laughing at some of the odd things that’ve happened to her and her friends, stuff like that.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t mention you.” Berry said skeptically.
He shrugged. “Twiley doesn’t do very good with stress, and missing your big bro is stressful. I think she worked to put me out of her mind to make the waiting easier. And of course, I couldn’t go to her because of work, and I kept getting promoted and kept getting busier…”
“I know what that’s like,” Trixie said, thinking of her family and especially her little sister in Canterlot. “So, Captain Armor…”
“Shining, please,” he smiled. “And not to interrupt, but you’re a friend of Twiley’s, right?”
“Yes,” Trxie beamed proudly. “I am Twilight Sparkle’s friend.”
Shining Armor’s smile got even brighter. “I’ve got one hay of a little sister, don’t I? In fact, both of the mares in my life are wonderful ponies.” He gestured suggestively in the general direction of the Boutique with a hoof and started in the direction, flanked by Berry and Trixie. He glanced back at the unicorn as he went. “I’m sure you can relate, Miss Lulamoon. Having a wonderful pony in your life.”
“I can,” Trixie confirmed happily. “So who’s the other mare in your life?”
“My fiancé, Cadence,” Shining told them. “The most beautiful mare I’ve ever met, extremely warm and kind, loves to be around other ponies and make friends with them, and she and Twiley were like two peas in a pod when Cadence foalsat her.”
“So you fell in love with the foalsitter, huh?” Berry grinned.
“Hey, we waited until after Twilight got into Celestia’s School.” But Shining grinned back. “Besides, it’s great having a marefriend that your parents are already crazy about before she becomes your marefriend. Wish Mom and Dad were still around but at least Twiley’s mom can come.”
“She’s not your mom?”
“Well, I’d sorta like to think so, yanno? But it seems like something I should ask about before I start to call her ‘Mom’.” Shining smiled a little. “It’d be great if she said yes, although it’d make things really awkward. What would all the stuffy nobles say if Celestia’s adopted son was the Captain of the Guard?”
“Lots of things, none of them very good,” Trixie said wryly; she remembered the prickly nature of the nobility far too well from her shows in Canterlot and Manehattan. “But they’re all brag, no bite; trust me, I know the type uncomfortably well.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Shining chuckled. “I can’t imagine how you do it, interacting with the high society types all the time. I just gotta be good furniture.”
“You feed their egos and project yours,” Trixie shrugged. “More than that is a few minor details. The accent, the attitude towards servants and the commoners, the angle of the head and the curl of the lip, and most importantly of all, the right kind of distinctiveness.” She sighed heavily. “It became… far too easy to act like a noblemare and show off for the discerning crowd. I’m not sure what might have happened if I hadn’t hit rock bottom in Ponyville, then been embraced by an earnestly good mare.”
“Like I said, hay of a little sister,” Shining said fondly. “So, tell me what you can about the creature we’re trying to catch.”
“Well, it appears to be a large strange bird with a pony-sized body and…”
“No, miss Lulamoon,” the captain of the guard interrupted. “I meant, tell me about it. Appearance is useful later, habits and tendencies are useful now.”
“It seems to really like disease,” Berry commented. “Infected a carrot field strongly enough to make a pony physically ill to step on the ground, from what Trixie says.”
“That’s… Void, I think,” Trixie corrected her. “Some kind of magic that’s poisonous to living things. Based on how Spite…”
“Excuse me, Spite?” Shining Armor stopped and looked askance at her. “Who’s this ‘Spite’? And how can magic itself be poisonous? I thought it was just… energy.”
“I wish I knew,” Trixie sighed. “The Elements trust Spite but I don’t know much about her. And I don’t know much about this Void except that walking on ground that’s been tainted by it makes you extremely ill. Well, that, and the fact that the light from a unicorn horn can make it dissolve like water under a hot sun.”
“So it makes you violently sick, but is so fragile that simple magic dissolves it?” Shining frowned. “That’s… I dunno, sounds like something out of Twiley’s books, the really old ones that you have to be a total bookworm to read.”
“Speaking of books, didn’t we send Spike to the library to collect as many books on plant…?” Trixie trailed off as Berry’s expression turned slightly strange, looking passed her and over her shoulder. “What?”
“I... uhh… think he found all those books,” the winemaker said, pointing.
“What do you mean?” But when Trixie turned around, she found that she didn’t need Berry to answer anymore. Walking their way was a stack of books taller than Princess Celestia with a pair of stubby dragon legs sticking out from the bottom. What was most astonishing was that Spike was walking normally under the crushing weight and as he reached them, he peered around the side.
“Hi Trixie,” he said, grinning. “I got the books you needed. Oh, hey Shiny. Gimmie a sec, just gotta put these down.”
“Um… thanks Spike but I don’t think we need books on plant…”
“Well, yeah,” he interrupted as he carefully put the towering pile down. “That’s why I brought a bunch on magical diseases, studies on permanent disease-like magical tainting, a couple field journals from Clover the Clever when she was journeying in the dragon lands and encountered…” He trailed off as the three ponies treated him to dumbfounded looks and he sighed. “Seriously? You’re surprised that the dragon Twilight Sparkle calls her ‘number one assistant’ since he was hatched, who lives with her in a library picked up a few things from her?”
“No,” Trixie replied, her cheeks coloring as she had sort of been taken aback. “I’m just wondering how much she’ll go nuts when she finds out you put her books on the ground.”
There was a pregnant pause as Spike blinked and looked at the pile sitting on the grass. After a moment of contemplation, he shrugged. “If you don’t figure this out, ponies die. Exigent circumstances, some things more important than books, etcetera.”
Trixie snorted at this. “Fine, but you get to tell Twilight.” She picked up one of the books at random with her magic and cracked it open; it turned out to be the one about permanent disease-like magical tainting (which she could tell only because it was titled “Disease-Resembling Magical Corruption in Living Tissues”). “How does the Golden Oaks Library even have books like these?”
“Twi sends bi-weekly requests to other libraries, both in Equestria and other places,” Spike said, plopping himself down and opening one of the frail-looking journals with the casual delicacy of the well-practiced. “Always returns them relatively quickly, so I guess the librarians are pretty happy to help her.”
“I guess it pays to be Celestia’s protégé and her daughter and a librarian and a Bearer of an Element of Harmony,” Trixie smiled a little as she used her horn to flip a page, frowning as she tried to make sense of the extremely jargon-dense writing. “I don’t know how much this is going to help, Spike. I’m not Twilight, I don’t have has background in technical magical study. I do more… improvision.”
“I could tell you what it says,” the dragon offered. From anyone other than Spike or Twilight, the offer would have sounded condescending; somehow, both made it sound entirely sincere, enough so that Trixie floated the book over to him without a second thought.
“I know you’ve been helpin’ Twiley out your entire life, Spike, but how the hay do you have a knowledge base like hers?” Shining asked him as he returned the book he’d been looking at to the stack. “I mean, she’s great shakes as a researcher—the absolute best—but she’s never been great at being able to explain the really technical stuff to ponies that aren’t colleagues.”
“Ask Twi,” Spike shrugged as he put the large volume down and began paging through it. “If she can understand it, I can understand it. The entire ‘Guardian’ thing interrupted her from trying to figure out why, and she’s been too busy to get back to it. I’m pretty glad, though… I’d die if I had to spend all day every day cooped up in a library with your sis if I didn’t understand what she was on about.”
“I can’t see why that’d be so bad,” Berry commented with a wry look. “It’d put you at the level of everypony else in Ponyville, her friends included.”
“Her friends don’t share a room with an obsessive-compulsive unicorn who occasionally forgets what the word ‘sleep’ means,” Spike retorted dryly. “OK, here’s something useful.” He cleared his throat. “‘When commingled with certain inert magically-adherent bases, magic can be distilled into a physical and liquid form which can be then infused with a particular effect that constitutes an emergent property of the inert substance and the magic combined into it. There are no records of this being used for beneficial purposes, and it is most common to infuse the amalgamated liquid with the properties of a disease immune to the ordinary measures of containment, mitigation, and cure typically utilized for…’”
“Um… can you summarize it?” Trixie asked.
“Yeah, sorry.” He gave her an apologetic grin. “Big deal is, the disease stuff is magic combined with something else and the usual ways you fight disease, like quarantine and medicines, don’t help. Yanno, assuming that this ‘Pen Belle’ that wrote the book is right.”
“Great,” Berry sighed. “OK, does it say anything about the magic stuff being able to infect a place?”
Spike looked over at her, frowning. “A place? Like, Carrot Top’s fields?
“Well, them but a… building, say.”
“A build…” Spike stopped and his face went blank; having had plenty of experience with Twilight, Trixie recognized the distinct look of gears turning in somepony’s head and sure enough, after a full minute the young dragon sighed. “Boutique?”
“Sorry to say,” Trixie patted him on the shoulder. “Probably means more to you than other buildings, because of who lives and works there.”
The implicit mention of Rarity brought the expected coltish grin. “Yeah. So’s there anything we can do?”
“Considering how much of the ‘Void’ is leaking out, I don’t think we can do much,” Trixie told him. “Horn light seems to be able to burn it away a little but the closer you get to the Boutique, the less it works.” She frowned as something occurred to her. “It makes me wonder how that banner got there.”
“Banner?”
“Come on, I’ll show you,” Trixie replied. “You too, Captain.”
“I’m good with being called ‘Shiny’, Trixie,” Shining told her as he used his horn to help Spike pile the books back up. “Hey, you need any help with those, Spike?”
“Naw, I’ve got ‘em,” the little dragon assured him, stooping and hoisting the stack easily into the air. “Though I should probably get these back to the library before…”
A piercing shriek from ahead of them interrupted Spike. Trixie was surprised to find that, without any prompting, she was already galloping towards the sound without so much as a “what was that?” Almost immediately, she ran straight into a herd of ponies that seemed to have much the same idea as she did: investigate the clear sound of fear and alarm. Trixie didn’t even hesitate, forming a tapering barrier in front of her and using it like wedge through wood, shoving ponies aside as she went with Shining and Berry following in her wake.
The sight that greeted her as she pushed the last ponies aside was both alarming and bizarre. Well within the radius of the Void leaking from the Boutique were five creatures that Trixie momentarily mistook for diamond dogs, but these were uniformly taller than the canines, their muzzles narrower and limbs more proportional to their size. They were also dressed in clothes fully as intricate and well-crafted as anything Trixie had ever seen Rarity make. The clothing, however, didn’t draw her attention nearly as much as the fact that the one nearest her was even then lifting a metal-studded wooden club above its head and in the path of that club was a frantic-looking Sweetie Belle, sparks shooting from her horn in droves as she attempted to empower a spell.
Trixie didn’t even need to look at Shining; without communication, the same thought apparently went through both of their minds because the club was wrapped in alternating layers of blue and pink telekinetic magic and ripped out of the creature’s hands. The reaction was eerily uniform: as one, all five creatures lifted their heads and looked straight at Trixie and Shining Armor.
“Daswir nikt notwen,” one of them said in a tone of voice that was irritated-sounding.
Trixie blinked and looked at Shining Armor who seemed just as taken-aback by the calm reaction, the fact that the creatures didn’t seem to notice the crowd at all, and the fact that Sweetie Belle looked more puzzled than relieved.
“Wir wurdeen nidis unshuldi verletzi,” he continued. “Das kleinema batoomm helbeim lernen. Ich wür niktsi geschulag heer.”
“I… don’t understand…” Trixie confessed, far too confused by the very foreign language to dedicate much time to wondering how the five creatures and Sweetie were standing in the midst of the Void without ill effect.
“Das hubscponn verssnicht unseer prasche brutter,” another remarked to the first, smiling. “Wald, erhallen lhreflock ruuk hiern und uversezen.”
The one standing furthest to the rear of the party heaved a sigh and stepped forward. “Hallen sielhe hossen un,” she retorted to the female before turning to look at Trixie. “Our apologies, little pony,” she said with an accent that seemed stuck between Trottingham and Germane. “We’re still working on a bit of magic to smooth out the…”
“You’re the translator?” Shining interrupted her.
“I’ve been made such, yes.”
“Good. Then tell your friend with the club that he’s lucky we don’t give it back to him as hard as we can,” the captain growled. “And you five are under arrest.”
“Arrest.” The translator stared at him in genuine astonishment and, Trixie noted with trepidation, the disbelieving tone of a lion that’s just been challenged to a fight by a mouse.
“Yes arrest,” Shining repeated. “You’ve disturbed the peace, vandalized an establishment, kidnapped at least one filly and publicly threatened her…”
“No they didn’t!” Sweetie Belle protested.
This visibly brought Shining up short. “They… didn’t?”
“Nah, they’re… nice… folks…” Applebloom blinked at the circle of ponies standing around and staring at her as she and Scootaloo emerged from behind the broad frame of one of the creatures standing near the rear. “Oh, uh, hi ya’ll.”
There was a long and pregnant pause while the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked at all the staring ponies, the translator looked amused, Shining looked stunned, and the four other creatures stared back stoically. Trixie looked around and sighed. “Everypony, I think that if the fillies aren’t afraid of these… people, there’s nothing to worry about.”
There was another long and pregnant pause. “Miss Lulamoon, you do know who those three fillies are, right?” a voice from the crowd pointed out.
“I know Applebloom is practically my sister in law,” Trixie retorted. “Besides, wouldn’t someone who wants to hurt us be a little more angry about having their weapon taken away forcibly? And react with something other than disbelief when threatened with arrest? And wouldn’t fillies as normally heedless as the Crusaders react a little differently to a person threatening them with a weapon being disarmed?”
“We mean you ponies no ill,” the translator interjected. “Nor have we done any harm to these innocents, nor will we.”
Shining visibly hesitated then trotted out and turned to the crowd. “And if persuasion doesn’t move you, the captain of Celestia’s Royal Guard commands you to disperse. Please, allow myself and Miss Lulamoon to handle this.”
The intervention of Shining Armor seemed to make the difference; after looking at one another and muttering a little, the crowd began to thin and drift away. When he was satisfied that they were going to do as they were told, Shining turned on the translator. “You’d better have one bucking good explanation for this.”
“Actually, cap’n sir, Ah think we owe ya an explanation first,” Applebloom offered, her ears laying down timidly. “We invited ‘em ta town, after all.”
Trixie turned to face the bow-clad filly fully. “You… what?”
Scootaloo looked at her abruptly speechless-rendered friend and patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Bloom,” she assured her friend. “It’s cool, I’ve totally got this.”
“Oh! Uh… thanks a heap then,” Applebloom smiled with visible relief as Scootaloo turned to Trixie.
“Well, see, it was right after that thing happened with that colt and we thought…”
><><><
“…and we can try to get our cutie marks in rescuing!” Scootaloo declared enthusiastically to the other two Crusaders as she pushed herself along in her trademark scooter, her friends trotting alongside.
“Didn’t we already try that once?” Applebloom asked doubtfully. “An’ we ended up getting’ told off fer harrassin’ ponies an’…”
“Well, this’ll be totally different!” Scootaloo interrupted before Applebloom could get too far into a description of their previous cutie mark crusading mishaps. “This time, we know who need rescuing!”
“Scoots, Princess Celestia is looking for them,” Sweetie pointed out. “Do you really think we can find them better than Princess Celestia?”
“Well, no, but we can still help,” Scootaloo insisted. “Besides, most of the looking is being done by the Royal Guard, not Princess Celestia. Betcha a few fillies that’ve lived on the edge of the Everfree all our lives can do at least as good as a bunch of guards from Canterlot.”
Her two friends looked at one another. “Well… sure, why the hay not?” Applebloom said with a grin after a moment. “Put ‘em in.”
Scootaloo pulled her scooter to a stop and turned so that all three fillies could put their hooves in to the center. “Cutie Mark Crusader Rescuers! Yay!” they declared.
“I vote we start at the poison joke fields and move in towards Zecora’s hut,” Scootaloo said as she resumed cruising on her scooter. “Zecora still is cool as ever, Bloom?”
“Ayep,” the farmfilly asserted as they veered onto the path leading towards the Everfree. “Having me help ‘er out with some of ‘er potions an’ the like, makin’ an effort ta do less confusin’ rhymin’, stuff like that. Wish she’d let us borrow some of her masks for the clubhouse.”
Sweetie Belle gave a shudder. “Bloom, I think Zecora’s pretty neat too but those masks are creepy.”
“Yeah, but ain’t that the point?” Applebloom gave her friends a sly look. “Bet Snooty Spoon an’ Diamond Tiara ain’t gonna go near the clubhouse with them masks hung outside. Scare th’ horseapples right outta ‘em.”
Scootaloo twisted around on her scooter and offered the bow-clad filly a hoof-bump. “Way to think, Bloom,” she grinned. “Speakin’ of those two, am I the only one who’s getting a bit bored with being bullied by them? I don’t mean tired or anything but… yanno, bored.”
“Every heroic club needs their archenemies,” Sweetie Belle shrugged. “Why not archenemies who’re all talk and no walk?”
“Cuz they’re stupid archenemies to have,” Scootaloo groused. “You’d think after this long, they’d try something other than sneering.”
“I’m glad they haven’t,” Sweetie grimaced. “They already hurt enough with mean words, and they’d be much worse if they were hurting with mean actions.”
“Ayup,” Applebloom agreed. “‘Course, might do them fancy fillies a bit o’ good if bein’ all snooty and mean bucked ‘em in the face now and again.”
It said something about the trio of fillies that they didn’t even pause in their conversation about their tormentors to take note of the gloomy shade of the Everfree Forest closing in around them. Increasingly used to recklessly wandering into the forest in search of their special talents, its ominous atmosphere had ceased to occasion more than a glance from any of them.
Even so, silence fell on the three friends as they skirted the edge of the Poison Joke field and wound deeper into the forest along a path that had become well-trod, although more by zebra than Equestrian hooves. Part of the reason the Everfree had ceased to be quite so frightening to the fillies was that there was always at least one safe place in the Forest: a circular hut built into a tree that always seemed to radiate warmth, life, and an aura of welcoming.
Except for this time.
“Y’all, hold up a second,” Applebloom said as they drew near to the hut. “Ya smell that?”
Scootaloo stopped and sniffed. “Unless ya mean that funny smell from the Poison Joke… nope. Why?”
Sweetie got it, visibly tensing. “Doesn’t Zecora’s hut usually smell of… well, whatever she brews there?”
“That’d be mah point,” Applebloom nodded.
“Well, maybe she’s just gone for a bit, nothing to worry about,” Scootaloo asserted with as much bravado as she could fit into the sentences. “C’mon, she’s never minded when we poke our heads in to see if she’s around.”
“Mostly cuz she’s given up trying ta stop us,” Bloom pointed out wryly as the three crept cautiously towards the darkened hut. The sight of the door yawning open stopped them again and as one, they took a step backwards.
“Bloom I hope you can tell us that Zecora’s sometimes absentminded about her door…” Sweetie Belle said in a small voice.
“Eenope,” Bloom gulped. “Ah ain’t ever known Zecora to head off and leave her door open.”
The three looked at one another for several long moments before Sweetie Belle stomped her hoof in the dirt. “Fillies, this seems like a really good time to go get a grown-up. There’s not many things out here that would break into Zecora’s hut, not after she established her territory with the creatures here, and all of them are way outside what we can handle.”
“Ah second that motion,” Applebloom said immediately.
“Me three,” Scootaloo agreed unhesitatingly.
It was, of course, that precise moment that the growls came from the bushes, behind and in front of them, coinciding with the sounds of things moving towards them.
“Well, ponyfeathers,” Applebloom said.
“Horseapples,” Scootaloo agreed as the rustling bushes gave way to the slinking form of the things making the rustling.
The creature was about as tall as Big Mac and had a vaguely pony shape with what almost looked like a mane and tail, and its four legs. But it was covered from head to toe in and odd black shell like an insect with scything claws protruding from its joints, its feet, several points of its back, and under its jaw. A faint luminous blue smoke seemed to leak from its glowing blue eyes and it bared pointed teeth in a menacing canine growl as it crouched low, waiting for them to make a move and give it an excuse to pounce.
Scootaloo noticed that Sweetie Belle tensed, but in an odd way, like she was waiting for the creature to pounce so she could react to it, her horn starting to glimmer faintly with gathered magic. Scootaloo didn’t have time to try to figure out what her friend was doing because the lone creature was joined by others, first by two on its flanks and then more spreading out behind them; Scootaloo risked a quick look back and counted four more sets of glowing eyes.
“N…n… nice doggies…” Applebloom said lowly. “We ain’t… we ain’t fixin’ to hurt ya…”
“Bloom, I think we should be a little more worried about them hurting us,” Sweetie hissed.
“Can’t blame a gal fer tryin’,” the farm filly hissed back. “Besides, Ah don’t hear any ideas from you.”
“Running like hay seems pretty good right now,” Sweetie huffed, her eyes jumping from one creature to the next warily. “Of course we could always simply wait and…”
“Ssh!” Applebloom interrupted.
“Excuse me?” Sweetie asked with an amazingly good imitation of her older sister’s air of offended dignity.
“Just hush,” Applebloom said. “Am Ah the only one who hears that?”
“Hears what?” Scootaloo asked lowly, watching as the creatures started shifting and looking around as if they too had heard something they couldn’t identify. After a long moment of mutual silence, she could barely hear it: the sound of brush being crushed underfoot with a faint undertone of rapidly-clinking metal.
The creatures began to turn towards the sound and brace themselves to pounce on whatever was approaching, at which point several things all happened at once. The creature nearest to the underbrush abruptly jerked back as a metal spike abruptly appeared protruding from its back at such an angle that it was clear that it’d struck in its chest and gone all the way through.
The first creature they saw collapsed on its side, yelping and snarling as a chain attached to a pair of heavy metal balls wrapped itself several times around its legs; at the same time, its other companion collapsed in place as it was a puppet with cut strings, an axe with a head as big as its own buried nearly to the shaft precisely where head met neck.
And then she saw it.
It didn’t stand very tall, maybe a head taller than Big Mac, perhaps even slightly taller than Princess Celestia, but it stood upright on its hind feet like a diamond dog… if the crude and poorly-spoken creatures dressed in long flowing robes with hoods and carried hatchets, one of which it had clearly just thrown to kill one of the creatures. Scootaloo had a brief impression of fine clothing under the long robe as the thing strode out of the underbrush, stooping smoothly to grab the hatchet and wretch it free without visible effort. It then smoothly twirled the two weapons before turning to face them fully. The only thing visible under the hood were two brightly-glowing eyes shining white with enough power that Scootaloo could dimly see a long lupine muzzle.
“Feil sichsi gut, unshuuldi?” It asked with a female voice, the tone one of very clear concern.
“Uh…” She couldn’t make any sense of the question, having never heard anything like the language it spoke before. “Huh?”
“Ichba, binseil wol,” the creature replied. “Veresteh nikt se?”
“Siel kön unsererache verseteh nikt, seistar,” another voice, male this time, said from behind them. Scootaloo turned to find that without making a sound, four other creatures had appeared behind them and were standing between them and what she had a disquieting feeling were four other bodies. “Bat danken sieldem Weber, sielsind nikt verlez.”
“Danken Weber,” the female agreed, reaching a hand that was still gripping an axe up and drawing back her hood. The face was vaguely like that of a timber wolf, canine but more slender and expressive. Although her eyes kept glowing in that strange way, she was clearly smiling and looked relieved.
“Who… who’re y’all?” Applebloom stuttered out after a surprised moment.
“Aid,” another female voice said in an odd accent, one of the creatures stepping out of the group of four and sweeping her hood back off her face. Her muzzle was narrower still and her face had bright orange fur with areas of white and unlike her companions, her eyes were normal and seemed full of warmth. “We were sent here to render you aid, little one. I’m sorry if we frightened you, and I’m sorry that you cannot understand what my companions say to you.”
“Y’all seem ta speak just fine,” Applebloom noted. “And what are ya anyway?”
“I have a special talent with very intricate magic, such as a spell that allows me to speak and understand a language I’ve never heard before,” she replied with a slight bow. “And I am a creature called a ‘kitsune’, and my companions are a mix of jeikitsu and jei. We’re allies of Einspithiana, and…”
“The dragon that came here with Twilight Sparkle?” Sweetie asked in such a calm voice that Scootaloo couldn’t help but give her a surprised look. The white filly was watching the kitsune with a focused expression that Scoots couldn’t remember having ever seen on her face before, a cool and analytical regard that was very slightly chilling.
“Wald öffnen ein bittire,” the male said in an exasperated tone.
“Only with their permission, my lord,” the translator replied chidingly. “Little ones, will you permit me to use magic on you so you can understand our language?”
“Well, that all depends,” Sweetie said coolly, again causing Scootaloo’s skin to prickle very slightly. “Is the magic dangerous?”
“I’ve never met a creature that it could harm, and I’ve come across hundreds of different creatures,” she replied.
“Then certainly,” Sweetie smiled.
“Well, if it ain’t gonna hurt, Ah don’t mind,” Applebloom said.
“It’s cool,” Scootaloo agreed. “Lay it on us.”
“With pleasure.” The translator extended a hand and moved some fingers slightly in what was apparently a magical pattern, because a light glowing mist flowed out of her hand and split into six sparkling plumes, each drifting over and looking like it flowed into their ears with a slightly tickling feel.
“Is it done, Forheest?” Now she could understand, the female’s voice in front of them turned out to be very young-sounding with the same odd accent that ‘Forheest’ had.
“It is done, Lady Elena,” Forheest replied, smiling.
“Good.” As the three fillies turned back towards her, Elena walked over and knelt to put her eyes at their level, placing her weapons on the ground. For having a face slightly like a timber wolf and having killed right in front of them, her smile made her seem completely unthreatening. “Are you alright, children? No harm done?”
“Jus a bit scared ma’am,” Applebloom told her. “What are those things?”
“Animals,” the male said before Elena could answer. “Animals that would have hurt you if we’d not intervened.”
Elena sighed. “Yes, I suppose,” she said, standing again and retrieving her weapons. “What were you doing walking alone in this forest, young ones?”
“Visitin’ our friend, Zecora,” Applebloom replied, gesturing towards the darkened hut with a hoof. “Y’all seen her? She’s ‘bout yay high, a zebra, likes ta wear her mane all funny, rhymes all the time.”
“We haven’t,” Elena told them. “But if she’d been attacked, we’d have certainly known of it.”
“If your friend is an adult horse, she probably had the good sense to stay away from danger,” the male said wryly as he stepped around them, joined by his three companions, to stand next to Elena. With all of them standing in front, Scootaloo realized that they were all carrying some kind of weapon—except Forheest, who apparently had magic. “May we be introduced to you, little ones?”
“We ain’t that young,” Applebloom groused. “But sure. Ah’m Applebloom.”
“Scootaloo.”
“Sweetie Belle.”
“I am Ersari,” the male said, tapping his chest. “This is my sister, Elena, and the two accompanying us are our closest and most trusted servants. This is Forheest Sadow…”
“…but most call me ‘Forest Shadow’ or just ‘Forest’,” the kitsune interjected with a smile. “I’m also a servant of Lord Ersari but a… different sort.”
“You’re a lord?” Sweetie Belle looked at him. “A lord of what?”
“Of a vast fortress-estate near the Goddenheimheer Falls, south of Tempesthaven,” Ersari smirked. “But that wouldn’t mean a thing to you. Forest persists in calling me ‘lord’, but I have no noble status in the land of Equestria, so you needn’t use it.”
“Great,” Scootaloo said brightly. “So where’re ya goin’? It’s gotta be somewhere near here if you were close enough to stop by and help.”
“We’re looking for one of the prominent settlements of this land,” Elena replied. “A village called… Ponyville, I believe. Such a strange name, like calling one of our villages Jeiville or Kitsuneville, but distinct.”
“Ya ain’t far from it,” Applebloom said. “Just a few minutes back the way we came, actually. If ya’ll would like, ya could follows us back.”
><><><
“…and so we ended up in front of the Boutique,” Scootaloo finished. “See? They didn’t do anything to us.”
“And the… club?” Trixie asked, gesturing at the weapon that Shining still kept suspended in his magic without any noticeable strain.
“What I was attempting to teach her is a private matter between myself and the child.” Trixie jumped a little as the cultured mix of Germane and Trottingham accent came from the male, whom Scootaloo had indicated was Ersari. Trixie hadn’t noticed any spells being cast, raising the question of how she could suddenly understand what he was saying. “But she was in no danger.”
“So… how’re you able to stand so close to the Boutique with the Void energy leaking out of it?” She asked next, mentally filing the matter away for a more private discussion.
He blinked. “Ah, so you’re aware of what it is.”
“A little hard not to be aware when I’m getting violently ill from being touched by it,” the showmare retorted wryly. “So how’re you doing that? How’re the fillies unharmed?”
“Radiant void energy has a disease-like effect in proportion to your personal magical prowess,” Elena replied calmly. “These fillies are yet young and their abilities too undeveloped to give them much more than a slight lack of energy, and a little bit of aid from us can deflect that. You are brimming over with power, so you become violently ill. It might cripple a pony of truly immense power, such as your Princesses.”
“So it’s a weapon that increases in power the more powerful its target is?” Shining asked.
“You surmise correctly, Captain,” Elena confirmed. “But since we’re here and you’ve found us, we need to have a grave discussion with either Princess or the member of the royal family that lives here, a unicorn named… mmm…”
“…Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie supplied.
“Yes,” she nodded. “Do you know where we might find her?”
“Far in the east,” Trixie told her. “She and several of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony went east to follow the trail of something called ‘Lashaal’ and left me in charge.”
“And you are…?”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie,” Trixie announced with her most winning showmare grin.
The five of them stared at her. “A performer?” One of the unnamed servants said. “Twilight Sparkle gave responsibility to a Weaver-damned performer?”
“A performer with such magical strength that the resonant Void attacks her violently,” Ersari retorted coolly. “When there is no war, the finest and most cunning of mages returns to their stage; why would it be different in this place?”
“My lord, I sincerely doubt that she’s a…”
“That doesn’t matter, and keep your tongue between your teeth,” Elena interrupted harshly before turning back to Trixie, looking quite embarrassed. “I beg your pardon for my servant’s loose tongue, milady Trixie. We certainly expected and hoped to be able to consult with Twilight Sparkle, but if she entrusted you in this, we can trust your ability as well.”
“Thanks,” Trixie gave her a grateful smile. “So… um…”
“You owe us a bucking good explanation for all of this,” Shining interjected.
“We do, and it will be forthcoming,” Elena assured him. “But first, I think it best to send these young ones home and I think we could find a more… appropriate setting for our discussion.”
“How about the library?” Spike suggested, causing Trixie to start a little from having forgotten that he’d been standing there with his stack of tomes the entire time.
“A library?” Forest beamed. “That would be a perfect place to discuss this! Shelves full of the written word would lend our consultations an appropriate spirit of truth-seeking, and such can be very important in matters such as these.”
“My servant is correct,” Ersari said. “As is my sister. Little ones, I’m certain that your parents are concerned for you. You should go home and relieve their worries.”
“Aww!” The three fillies responded simultaneously.
“We ain’t that young, that ya need ta send us off while all the grown-ups talk,” Applebloom added.
“You’re still young enough to be largely innocent of the knowledge of the worst things in life, Applebloom,” Elena replied, looking between all three. “No good can come of burdening you with the knowledge we need to share with Trixie and the Captain, children. Either you will attempt to help and endanger yourselves because you don’t understand what’s happening, or the knowledge will haunt and wound you in a thousand tiny ways. In either case, we would feel responsible and the harming of the innocent, even accidentally, is a very grave sin.”
“Sin?”
Elena appeared momentarily off-guard. “Yes, err… wrongdoing.”
The Crusaders looked at one another. “Well… OK,” Scootaloo said, appearing to speak for the trio. “We wouldn’t want ya to sin or anything.”
The creature (a jei? Jeikitsu? Trixie wasn’t sure) smiled warmly. “Thank you, girls. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.”
“Consider it a fair exchange for saving our lives,” Sweetie informed her in the spitting image of her sister’s affected-nobility mannerisms.
The five strangers chuckled at this as the three Crusaders turned and started off. Applebloom stopped briefly and looked up at Trixie. “Should Ah tell Granny ta wait supper on ya?”
“No, Bloom, I think I might be a while,” Trixie replied, smiling. “Please tell Macintosh not to worry.”
Applebloom giggled. “If ya wanted a coltfriend that don’t love ya and worry about ya, Trixie, ya shouldn’ta gone for an Apple.”
Trixie’s smile became broader. “Well, tell him to try not to worry too much. Our guests don’t seem to wish us harm.”
“We don’t,” Forest asserted. “You are no enemy of ours, Trixie Lulamoon, and neither is the captain despite his previous statement that he wishes to arrest us.”
“Honestly, that option is still open,” Shinning Armor growled. “You’re not from anywhere in Equestria or even this world and you go about armed and armored. As Captain of the Royal Guard, I should restrain you until Princess Celestia can decide what to do.”
“But you won’t,” Ersari stated bluntly.
“No,” Shining sighed. “You haven’t technically broken any laws and I suspect you know what’s happening here.”
“We do,” the lupine replied. “And if you’ll lead us to the library, we can discuss it. And, if you would, I’d like my weapon back.”
Shining eyed him before sighing and floating the weapon back into his grasp. “Right this way!” Spike said cheerfully, starting down the road to the library, tottering slightly under his literary load. After looking at one another a moment, Shining, Trixie, and the visitors followed the baby dragon, ignoring the stares of the many ponies that caught sight of them.
“You were playing them, weren’t you?” Berry Punch asked after a minute. “Telling them you just happened to be near and that you needed help getting to Ponyville.”
“Sadly, the minor deception was needed,” Elena admitted. “How’d you know?”
“I’m a pretty good winemaker,” the earth mare replied. “Enough so that I get businessponies coming to offer me a market for my wines. Most of them are honest, but I’ve gotten played enough by a silver-tongued scam artist to pick up on it pretty well.”
“So you’re the ones that put that banner on the door of the Boutique?” Trixie asked them.
“The Quarantine Flag, yes,” Elena confirmed. “While you were gathered to that poor child that had fallen to the wickedness of the atermors…”
“Atermors?” Shining interrupted.
“That’s the name that they use for themselves,” Forest replied. “It roughly means ‘black death’, although they’re also called ‘plagues’ and ‘black spots’. They are a wicked and terrible Evil, the very blackest and worst of the Evils that can be found in the Void. They are drawn by the energy of life and so…”
“…they can be deceived and drawn into a trap if we can find a structure or place with such a powerful concentration of creative energies that they mistake it for the energy of life,” Ersari said, picking up the explanation. “That shop radiates creative energy like a sun and the atermor we were following rushed upon it only to be trapped when we pinned the Flag to the door and closed it.”
“A flag did that?” Shining asked doubtfully.
“Well, it’d make sense, Shiny,” Spike said from ahead. “Objects collect magic from events all the time. Twi thinks that the Elements of Harmony got the way they are because they spent so much time around stuff like Loyalty and Magic and other things. I bet this Flag’s been used in so many quarantines that it stops the atermor from leaving cuz it’s like a living disease.”
Elena gave the dragon a surprised look. “That is… very insightful, drakeling. Who was your mentor?”
“Twilight Sparkle,” Spike replied proudly. “I’ve been her live-in research assistant ever since I was hatched, and I live with her in the library.”
“I’d heard that her intellect was exceptional,” Elena smiled. “I’m pleased that she is as good a mentor as she is a scholar. But while your insight is truly remarkable, it’s… not quite accurate. There’s quite a story behind the Flag but suffice it to say, it harms and repels atermors because they’re atermors, not because of anything else.”
“So like a… specialized magical weapon against them?” He asked.
“The Flag operates on a level much deeper than that of a mere weapon,” she replied solemnly. “But there’s little need to explain; you need only know that the atermor we trapped in that Boutique is helpless to escape or even wreck the shop in a fit of pique.”
“That’s why it’s radiating Void energy, isn’t it?” Trixie asked. “Because you shut one of those things inside.” She paused and swallowed. “They’re… quite strong, aren’t they?”
“They are.” Ersari nodded. “And the taint they spread is strong as well, practically incurable and has been known to require a full-scale culling to save the many at the cost of the few.”
“You’re not gonna perform a culling here,” Shining said, his tone more of a command than a question.
“If we must, we must and you’re too weak to oppose us in it,” Ersari replied, firmly but without any particular heat. “A culling will kill hundreds, the taint tens of thousands. The mathematics are horrifying and brutal, but…”
“Enough, brother,” Elena interrupted him. “Tormenting them with a possibility is pointless and cruel.” She looked at Shining. “It is an option, Captain, but by the time it becomes necessary, the situation will be so terrible that you might even be the one to ask it of us. It’s that much of a last resort.”
“But why is it an option?” Shining demanded. “It’s just an illness, and you’re trying to tell me that one of the ways to deal with it is to kill everypony who’s sick?”
“It’s not just an illness,” Ersari and, to her own surprise, Trixie said at the same time. With a small smile, the canine creature ceded the floor to the showmare with a nod and a gesture.
She turned to look at Shining. “When I was trying to purge the taint off some carrots, I could feel the spell and it felt… like a transformation spell, not a disease. It felt like the spell that Twilight uses to gives a pony temporary wings but… malevolent.”
“Yes, it’s a form of corruption manipulated and woven with and by the Void to spread as if it was an illness, but impervious to non-magical means of containment,” Ersari said. “Except, of course, for the method of killing those corrupted and burning the bodies. Even fire that hasn’t been infused with magic will destroy the corruption, which makes it a grimly effective last resort.”
“How often have you resorted to this last resort?” Shining asked, his voice a little more subdued than before.
“Not since before I was born, and I’m hundreds of years old,” Elena replied. “In our last confrontation with atermors, we had to use fire against corrupted land but the atermors were never able to afflict the people. I say again, Captain: it’s a rare thing and there’re a great many possibilities that come into play long before a culling is resorted to.”
Just then, they rounded the last set of buildings before the town square where the distinct shape of the Golden Oak Library could be seen across from the town hall. Parked in front of the library was a royal chariot with two Royal Guards who looked… wrong somehow. Trixie wasn’t sure why she had that impression; they were dressed the same with the same coloration and impassive expressions as any other of the Guard. But there was a certain life and energy about them that didn’t seem to fit the humorless and lifeless ponies that made up Celestia’s personal soldiers. Their reaction to seeing the group just confirmed this for Trixie: the cool, indifferent regard of the ordinary Guard was replaced by expressions of wary surprise as their eyes fell on the guests and subtle happiness at seeing Shining.
Shining’s reaction to them was the exact same, although not nearly so subdued. “Good day, sirs!” He exclaimed, breaking away from the group and trotting over to the pair.
“Captain Armor,” the two replied simultaneously, and Trixie was taken aback when she realized that despite an identical appearance, one of the two was a mare.
“Oh, hang the Captain bit! Is she…?”
“Of course she is, Shining,” the mare replied with a very not-Royal-Guard chuckle. “We would not leave her side any more than we’d permit her to come to harm.”
With that, Shining Armor’s horn flared and the door swung open hard, the Captain of the Royal Guard disappearing through it at a change of pace; after looking at each other, Berry and Trixie followed. When they got into the library, they found Shining hugging a pink-coated mare tightly, nuzzling at her and being nuzzled in turn.
“I’m glad to see you too, Shiny,” the mare said in a beautifully pleasant voice, a long mane of canary yellow, a rich fuchsia, and a deep violet spilling over his shoulders as they held one another. “It’s been far too long.”
“Yeah… a whole month…” the stallion sighed happily.
The mare laughed softly and let him go, touching her lips to his in a light kiss. “Which is far too long,” she said fondly.
Shining beamed at her before turning to a taken-aback Trixie and Berry. “Trixie Lulamoon, Berry Punch, I’d like you to meet my fiancé: Mi Amore Cadenza.”
She laughed again, with a little more vigor, then turned towards them fully. Kind violet eyes looked out from a slim and beautiful face adorned with a warm smile that seemed to fit there naturally. She didn’t have the crown and regalia that Princess Celestia went around with but like Celestia, she didn’t really need it: from a slim, tapering horn to a pair of expansive wings folded against her sides, she projected a regal loveliness that proclaimed her royalty far better than any adornments could.
“I prefer Cadance,” she said with a smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
“The honor is all ours, your…”
“I prefer Cadance,” she repeated, slightly more firmly but with the same warm smile. “This business of ‘your majesty’ and ‘princess’ is for when I’m not in a library with my fiancé and some company.”
“Hey guys, what’s with the guards outside?” Spike asked as he came toddling in, swaying under his stack of books. “I thought Princess Celestia already left.”
Cadance grinned and lit her horn, effortlessly lifting the pile of books out of Spike’s hands and beaming at him. “You must be Spike.”
“And you must be Shiny’s fiancé,” the baby dragon responded without missing a beat. “Wow.”
The pink alicorn blushed very slightly. “Yes, I’m Shiny’s fiancé,” she confirmed, giving him a playful look. “I thought I was the only one allowed to call you ‘Shiny’, love.”
He coughed and shifted from hoof to hoof bashfully. “Um… sorry?”
“Don’t think ‘sorry’ will save you, mister.” But she gave him a wink before turning to Trixie. “So you’re the Great and Powerful Trixie.”
“Mare of Mystery, Enchantment, and Awe-Inspiring Magical Mysticism,” Trixie confirmed with a smile to match Cadance’s, feeling very at-ease around this princess, far more than she could remember feeling around Celestia even when the solar diarch was being exceptionally warm.
“Yes, I saw the wagon.” Cadance chuckled. “I love your shows, when I can sneak away and watch them. That trick you do with the rope and the audience plant is always funny; you have a real gift for precise and showy magic.”
The mention of the rope trick made Trixie shift uncomfortably, remembering just how she’d come up with it and feeling a renewed rush of gratitude towards Applejack for being so forgiving that she helped Trixie come up with a version that was more comic than mean. “Thank you,” she replied simply. “I don’t mean to be rude, Cadance, but...”
“…why am I here?” Cadance smiled still but there was a slight edge to it. “Maybe I just missed my beloved Shining Armor and felt a need to spend time with him.”
“And maybe it’s a total coincidence that after Princess Celestia promises help beyond the Royal Guard, an alicorn with a regal presence and an exotic name shows up at the town library,” Berry commented wryly. “But the timing is almost too perfect to believe.”
Cadance dropped the smile and gave Berry a shrewd look. “Well-spotted,” she said after a moment before acknowledging the mare’s observation with a slight bow of her head. “Yes, Aunt Celestia sent for me since she needed to be elsewhere and the affliction seems to have started here.”
“Aunt Celestia?” Trixie and Berry both gaped. “You’re family?”
“Adopted, the details don’t matter at the moment,” Cadance replied shortly, albeit still somehow pleasantly. “Have there been any more developments?”
“We… well, three fillies that live in Ponyville, came across a group of beings from…” Trixie paused, abruptly realizing that the five canines hadn’t actually said where they were from. “Well, we don’t know that either, actually…”
“Five creatures of some kind trapped one of the things that did this in the Carousel Boutique in town and sealed it in with something they call ‘The Quarantine Flag’,” Shining Armor said. “They just recently revealed themselves, told us that the things are called ‘atermors’, and offered to help us deal with them. We were bringing them back to the library here to discuss how.”
“Well, why are they not in here?” Cadance asked with a real smile. “Ask them in.”
“Cady…”
Cadance kissed him on the forehead. “Love, you know I’m as gentle and loving with you as any mare would be with their stallion but Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna are very nice ponies too… and it took nearly eight hundred years after Aunt Luna was banished before anyone felt brave enough to challenge Equestria to a fight.”
Shining smiled and nuzzled at her.
“Good point,” said a familiar voice in that odd Germane-and-Trottingham mix as Ersari ducked under the slightly short-for-him door, followed by his entourage. “And we have no intention of breaking that record, your highness.”
“I’m happy to hear that,” Cadance replied cheerfully. “So, please come in and make yourselves comfortable. Spike, is it?”
“Yessum.”
“Does Twilight keep any teas on hoof in case of distinguished guests?”
Spike snorted. “Princess, do you know Twilight?”
Cadance laughed softly. “Actually, I used to foalsit her, and I know her very well. Something simple then, perhaps a chamomile, if it’s not too much trouble?”
“Sure thing,” Spike said cheerfully. “Hey Trixie, Berry, I’ve got a couple kettles if you want something else.”
“Chamomile is fine,” Trixie assured him.
“Same for me,” Berry added. “Thanks Spike.”
“Don’t mention it,” the little dragon replied as he disappeared in the direction of the small kitchen. “It’ll be ready in a few.”
Cadance looked after him with a warm smile before turning her attention back to the visitors. “Now if you please, tell us all about these… atermors.”