Wisdom was walking around in the middle of a desert filled with pure white sand and a crescent moon hanging permanently in the direct center of the sky. He did not recall how he came to be in what could have been the center of a barren place, not the reason for why he was even walking. He could have been flying, but his mind told him that if he did that then he could kick sand up into his eyes without time to shield them. His wings rested by his side, waiting to be used while he scanned the bare sands again and again.
He honestly had no idea why he was walking through the desert.
Then he heard the monstrous howl of a monster he had heard only one other time in his entire life, the one howl that mixed the vocals of the vampire and the werewolf. But that was impossible; there was no way in Tartarus that he could be hearing the creature's howl where he was...unless the beast had somehow found him. In essence the hunter had become the hunted, only he didn't have any of his gadgets that he had brought with him to the vampires lair.
"I see that he's already on his way."
Wisdom turned around and found his friend Peachy, in all her vampiric glory, standing almost right behind him and staring off into the distance. Next to her stood their friend Tick, who looked more like a wolf than a pony thanks to the werewolf blood coursing through his veins. Standing next to them was Copper and Dynamo, the two of them already armed to the teeth with the gadgets Wisdom had insisted they bring with them. He even spotted Sunset Shimmer and the silent Tonto approaching them, which brought a smile to Wisdom's face for once. To complete the group, much to his surprise, was Princess Luna, who almost seemed out of place with her nightmarish armor she often wore.
"You see what will eventually come to pass," Princess Luna continued, nodding in the direction that was in front of Wisdom, making him turn in time to see the werepyre land before the group, "You and your companions will eventually find the location of the werepyre, that you can see right now. But what you don't know is that the beast is already awake, that he is already roaming around in the wilderness and disguising himself as he sees fit. Be warned Wisdom, the beast will be disguised as somepony you will least expect."
"How can he disguise himself?" Wisdom asked, wondering if the beast had acquired another power in the three years he had been tracking it.
"The blood of the Changelings runs strong in their king," Princess Luna answered, the air shimmering slightly, "Find Queen Viscarias. She will be the key in locating the beast you seek, but where she is even I do not know."
Before Wisdom could respond the air broke and he found himself staring up at the barely lit ceiling of what appeared to be a cave room. His body was soaked, which meant that he had been sweating throughout the entire dream he had just awoken from. That was all it could have been. Princess Luna had traversed the dream world to find him and had delivered to him the clue he needed to find the beast he had been hunting for three years. And then he noticed something lurking over a sleeping Copper Sprocket, holding what looked like a filled water bucket.
"What in the circuits?" Copper shouted, the vampire dumping the entire bucket over her, "Whose the unmechanical bozo that drenched me in this rancid water?"
Wisdom felt sorry for the poor vampire. If somepony drenched Peachy in water they were getting a bunch of nightmares when they went to sleep next, but with Copper it was a completely different story. Her entire front left limp was made completely out of metal, grafted into her body when she had lost the original leg and it had several different functions. With all the things her metallic limp could do Wisdom knew the vampire was going to regret drenching her in the vile water.
"I see your awake," Peachy said, appearing out of the shadows behind Wisdom and circling around so they could talk face to face, "I trust you had a pleasant dream?"
"I wouldn't call it a dream Peachy," Wisdom replied, shaking his head as he looked at the mare, "more like a vision that could have told me something about finding our target."
"That's awesome," Peachy exclaimed, shocking Wisdom more then it should have, "I'm going to gather my vampires and we'll meet you outside Appleloosa. From what I've heard that was the last known location that Tick was supposed to have visited. Plus Princess Cadence promised that we could take a look at her latest findings on the possible locations that Eclipse flew off to."
She was referring to their missing friend, a unicorn whose magic had made him a prince and then, through marriage, a full blown king. His wife, the lovely Changeling Queen Viscarias, was missing, but when the changelings were involved it meant something was afoot. To find Eclipse they needed to find the Queen, so maybe their luck would be good and Princess Cadence would know where she went.
"I will see you in Appleloosa then," Wisdom said, noticing a black cat staring at him, "When did you get a black cat?"
"Oh, you mean Shadow?" Peachy innocently asked, turning tail on Wisdom as his two friends joined him, "I visited Fluttershy a few weeks ago to pick up some supplies for the animals that live here and found this little guy waiting for me. He's like a good luck charm, though he has a tendency to disappear for long periods of time and come back with something interesting."
Wisdom sighed, sometimes he could never understand what Peachy, the first of his divided allies and one of his closest friends, was thinking at times. Adventure, it seemed, was indeed upon them once again.