//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty Two: Arrival // Story: The Equestrian Venture // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// THE EQUESTRIAN VENTURE Chapter Twenty Two: Arival Written by TheCrimsonDM “So who’s this Trixie that were going to meet?” Rita asked as she walked down the center of town alongside Twilight Sparkle. “She’s one of my old classmates, and kind of my rival. I’m actually surprised that Celestia has made her into her apprentice,” replied the young princess. A few friendly ponies waved at the two and Rita returned the gesture before asking, “So is Trixie incompetent or something?” “Well I wouldn’t go that far. She’s very determined, and confident, but she’s also very… egotistical,” Twilight admitted. “So she’s just like Rainbow Dash?” Rita asked. “Yeah, only she’s a unicorn, and Rainbow Dash has us to rain her in when she gets out of hoof.” Rita thought about it for a moment before asking, “Doesn’t Trixie have any friends to temper her personality though?” “I don’t think that she has any friends at all,” Twilight said. Rita walked alongside her in silence for a few minutes as they neared the edge of town. Rita finally said, “I guess I can relate to that.” “Relate to what?” Twilight asked as they began walking up hill. “Nothing,” Rita replied. “Looks like we’re here.” “Good, now hurry and get your things, I don’t want to keep the train waiting any longer then we need to,” Twilight said. Rita took in a deep breath and really hoped that Fluttershy would take this information well, after all she was about to go on leave for a few days, and Fluttershy might not like that. She reached out a hand and grabbed the handle, she peaked inside the door and after not seeing Fluttershy she walked in. She just needed to get her stuff, and leave a note for the kind mare explaining as to where she went; that plan would work, wouldn’t it? *** “You’re going where?” Fluttershy asked her voice a little louder than usual. Rita crossed her arms and reclined in her chair with her legs propped up on the table. “I said I’m going south with Twilight Sparkle for a few days.“ “And who exactly is going to take care of you while you’re there?” “I don’t need anyone to take care of me, I can take care of myself!” Rita said while looking away. Rita had already set up her backpack, and filled it with everything that she was going to need for the trip. Just as she had begun heading down the stairs Fluttershy walked in and after telling Fluttershy what was going on things took a turn for the worse. When Twilight attempted to solve the situation Fluttershy had actually asked Twilight to leave very kindly, but an act like that from a quiet pony like Fluttershy spoke volumes about her feelings towards this situation. Rita actually had an increasing sense of worry about this situation the longer she talked to Fluttershy. “Look Fluttershy, I want to do thi-“ Rita started. “I don’t care if this is what you want to do. Have you ever thought about what would happen to me if you left for that long? I would worry myself to death over you, and I can’t simply trust Twilight to take care of you,” Fluttershy said, her voice rising in volume. Rita looked back at Fluttershy and stared deeply into the yellow pony’s blue eyes. “I screwed up and caused a mess, I need to fix it.” “What could you have possibly done?” “I unleashed a dragon golem onto Equestria’s citizens, the thing flew south looking for its old home or something and now it’s back and hurting ponies. Please understand that I have to-“ Rita said just before getting interrupted again. “A DRAGON!” Fluttershy shouted in surprise. After a short nod from a completely stunned Rita Fluttershy added in a frantic tone, “No, you cannot go and fight a dragon. You are not allowed to go, do you understand me? I won’t let you go anywhere near one. That’s the end of that!” “But I’ve fought them before.” “I don’t care, I am putting my hoof down,” Fluttershy said while simultaneously stamping her hoof into the floor. Something was off about the way Fluttershy was acting. Yes it was true that Rita generally had to argue a little when it came to her adventures in the Everfree Forest, but Fluttershy was acting worse than Rita had ever seen her before. And there was something about the way Fluttershy was staring into Rita’s eyes, something that worried Rita beyond measure. Rita wanted nothing more than to hide away and cry herself to sleep at the moment, but she fought the urge to run with every fiber of her being. It took all the strength that Rita could muster as she stared into Fluttershy’s eyes to simply move her legs off the table and sit up straight. Rita then tried to speak but a heavy invisible force kept her heart pinned down so that all she could do was whisper, “I just want to help.” Fluttershy’s stare for a moment became more intense as a frown formed on her face. Fluttershy then said in the most authoritative tone that Rita had ever heard the pony use, “I’m sorry, but no. You are not allowed to go.” Rita’s heart shattered and she felt herself beginning to shake as she simply nodded. There was no fight left in Rita, the only thing she could feel was fear, she wasn’t even sure what she was scared of, but she felt it so strongly that she could only give up. The longer Rita stared into Fluttershy’s intense stare the more she shook. A few warm tears crawled their way down Rita’s face and she muttered, “I’m sorry.” Fluttershy smiled and her eyes softened and in that very moment the heavy weight over Rita’s heart disappeared and she let out of a breath that she hadn’t realized she had been holding. Rita however continued staring fearfully at Fluttershy for a few seconds before closing her eyes tightly and trying to remain as still as possible, although that didn’t work so well. The fear that she felt was still on her, and she couldn’t get rid of it no matter how hard she tried. “Rita?” Fluttershy suddenly exclaimed, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to… I thought the stare didn’t work on humans. A-a-are you okay?” Still shaking Rita tried to answer but found herself unable to, she just sat there in complete silence for the longest time. Finally at great length Fluttershy whispered, “Thas was an accident, I didn’t mean to do that to you. I-I-I’ll never do it again, I promise.” It might have helped if Rita knew what Fluttershy was talking about, but she was completely clueless as to the nature of Fluttershy’s rambling. Either way Rita couldn’t think about that right now, all she knew was that Fluttershy was mad at her and she was scared more scared then she had been in years. Rita just sat as still as she could, which was hard from all her trembling, and listened to the sound of her own heart beating a thousand miles a minute. Three knocks at the door called both Fluttershy’s and Rita’s attention and suddenly the fear that Rita had been feeling began to disperse. Rita glanced at Fluttershy but looked away quickly, she was still scared to look at Fluttershy. Rita used the sleeves of her jacket to dry her wet cheeks and wipe the tears out of her eyes. “You should probably get that,” Rita said with a shaky voice. Fluttershy didn’t respond but Rita caught a glimpse of Fluttershy’s guilt ridden expression. Rita couldn’t blame Fluttershy for getting upset so badly, after all fighting a dragon was a scary thing and Fluttershy had no way of knowing how sensitive Rita was. Heck even Rita didn’t realize that all it would take was a little attitude from her best friend to make her break down like this, it was actually a little embarrassing now that she thought about it; maybe living in Equestria had softened her more then she realized. Fluttershy walked to the door and opened it quietly. Rita listened in as Fluttershy greeted the pony at the door, “Princess Celestia, what brings you here?” “I came down for a cup of tea with a dear friend, unless this is a bad time of course,” Princess Celestia replied. “Oh no, everything is… okay. I’m so glad that you came over, I know that we missed our last tea time,” Fluttershy said nervously. Rita watched as Fluttershy opened the door all the way and allowed the giant pony inside. Rita had to admit that as scarily tall as Celestia was, seeing her barely fit inside a pony’s home, with her head almost bumping the ceiling was a humorous sight. A small giggle escaped Rita’s lips as Celestia noticed her sitting in the kitchen. “Oh, Rita, I’m so glad to see you again. I would have thought that you and Twilight would have already left on the task that I sent you on,” Princess Celestia said. Rita opened her mouth to speak but another wave of sudden fear plunged through her heart and she looked away from Celestia. On Celestia’s approach that wave of fear took a nose dive into the depths of terror as the giant horse was suddenly turned from being somewhat comical inside this small house, into something much worse. Rita stood suddenly and backed away keeping as much distance as she could from the princess, although logically speaking, if Celestia really wanted to hurt Rita, she could just lash out with her magic, but although Rita knew this she couldn’t help but feel terror as she looked upon the princess. “You asked Rita to go fight a dragon?” Fluttershy asked timidly. “I did not ask her to fight the dragon, I only asked her to stop it. There is no reason that this should have to end in unnecessary bloodshed,” Princess Celestia said. “I believe that her and Twilight can handle this.” Fluttershy looked down at her own two hooves for a moment before saying, “Rita, take your backpack and go. I’m sure that Twilight is still waiting for you at the station… and I’m sorry about earlier.” With Rita’s heart being lifted up to hear that apology and the permission being given to go out for this, Rita picked up her backpack from the floor and said, “Thanks, Fluttershy. By the way, I think it’s cool how you two are friends.” “Please don’t tell Twilight,” Fluttershy asked quietly. “She doesn’t seem to understand that it’s possible to be friends with Celestia, and she might get mad, or jealous of me. I wouldn’t want this to get between us.” Princess Celestia smiled softly at Rita and agreed, “Yes, it is true that Twilight has a hard time seeing me as a person. I’ve always found it a little difficult to deal with her enthusiasm over me. Although, knowing you, you will probably find the bluntest way possible of telling Twilight, and then you’ll somehow make it even more direct.” Rita turned her head, crossed her arms, and huffed. “I’m not that bad, and I’ll try and keep this secret.” With that Rita turned away and walked towards the door trying her best not to let the princess’s words get to her, after all the princess only had two meetings, and hearsay to go on. It’s not like she was really that blunt now, was she? *** After hurrying as fast as her legs would carry her she darted across town and managed to make it to the train stop just in time to find Twilight Sparkle standing next to a purple dragon that was almost her size with green spikes along his back. The dragon stood on his hind legs and waved a friendly hello to Rita as she slid to a stop in front of the two. If forced to choose between giant horses and pony sized dragons, she would choose dragons every time. “Um… hello,” Rita greeted with a little nervousness. “Were you crying?” the dragon asked sympathetically. Rita hadn’t realized it was so obvious that even a dragon could guess that she had been crying. Rita quickly gave a fake laugh and said, “Nah, I just had a hard time getting here is all. So who are you?” The dragon blinked in surprise for a moment then he looked down at his body and smiled before saying, “Oh, you haven’t seen me since I grew up have you? It’s me Spike.” Rita cocked her head to the side and wondered how he got so big so fast? Maybe he started to horde things, suddenly her mind raced back to those gems that Rarity was collecting, could it be possible that Rarity helped Spike create a dragon horde to increase his size? It would make sense if the two of them were actually serious about their relationship, maybe Rita would be seeing a few baby dragon ponies in the future. Hopefully Rarity enjoyed eggs, because that was all Rarity was going to have after getting with a dragon. A familiar voice called out from behind Rita saying, “Spiky Wiky!” Rarity ran past Rita and up to Spike. The two of them stared longingly into one another’s eyes for a moment before Spike asked confused, “Rarity, I already said good bye, why are you here?” “I’m here to see you off silly. What kind of ‘friend’ would I be if I didn’t do at least that?” Rarity responded. Tears began to pool up in the corner of the dragon’s eyes as a smile grew across his lips. Finally he sniffed and said, “Thank you, I’ll be home soon.” “And then you can help me with my new clothing line. The work will take all night though, so I hope that Twilight doesn’t mind,” Rarity said, as her cheeks began turning a light shade of pink. Rarity looked at Twilight and asked, “You don’t mind do you, darling, if I take him away from you for a night?” Twilight rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah, sure. That will give me time to find out where he hid that horde of his.” She focused on Spike and said, “I swear that when I find out where you hid it, I’m going to burn it down. You know that you can’t handle a horde.” Spike coughed nervously and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe this is just natural for Dragons.” Ponies finally began walking onto the train and Twilight walked in first saying, “Come on everypony, we need to leave.” Rita followed Twilight but just as Twilight disappeared inside, and Rita stepped on, she took one last look back and saw Spike and Rarity hug. A warm feeling filled Rita’s heart and she knew just how much those two loved each other, some part of Rita’s mind wondered if she could ever have that kind of relationship with someone? She had Pinkie Pie but she didn’t know how she actually felt about her yet. After getting inside Rita followed Twilight, Spike was close behind them. Twilight led them to a private booth and there they found seats and waited for the train to start. Rita looked out the window and saw Rarity waving at them. After the train started to move Spike let out a sigh, and Rita tried to find a relaxing position. This train ride was going to take all night and she was determined to get some good sleep at very least. *** A silence filled the darkening landscape, the ridges of this barren desolate land rose up like claws trying to scratch out the heavens, with the only evidence of light being the setting sun just past them. The air was thick and tasted like dirt and the ground was sharp and uneven. Every now and again a small pool of stagnate water was found as they journeyed across this ruined landscape. The only thing that stood out for miles in any direction was a single towering object, as it reached high into the sky, higher than anything Rita had ever seen. The Tower of Torment, its outer walls red as though drenched in blood, and the top of it sparkling as it caught what little light was allowed to enter this valley. Rita looked to her left and saw the six foot giant of a man with long red hair, and crimson armor to match, a long sword rested at his side. She then looked to her left and saw the old man with long gray hair that touched his shoulders, the purple cloak he wore over his black leather armor had the symbol of a crow. The red haired man spoke with a strong powerful voice, one that could lead entire armies to march against the very heavens themselves, “Rita, Crow, we have almost arrived at the tower. No matter what, we will rescue her.” Crow, the old man to Rita’s left said, “It’ll be dangerous, and the possibility of us dying here is fairly high. The Lord of Chaos wouldn’t allow us to simply take her back without some kind of desperate fight, it wouldn’t be entertaining otherwise. Are you sure that we can’t just go home?” The red haired man laughed before saying, “I know you don’t mean that, Crow. Even if me and Rita left right now, you would still go on by yourself to save one of your friends.” “We’ll I do have admit that I would do almost anything for a lady as beautiful as our Estella. Her eyes are like lilac’s of the deepest shade, her grace like that of a swan dancing across the water, and her butt is like-“ Crow started. Rita quickly kicked him in the knee and said, “Me and Lamont do not need to hear your perversion right now.” Lamont laughed again before placing a hand on the hilt of his sword and saying, “It’s going to be rough, but once we get to Estella everything will be fine. All that we need to do is hurry, before they use her power to change the world.” Rita looked up at him, way up, and a smile spread across her face. With friends like these, even a little kid like her was capable of surviving the worst of the world and still come out on top. The three of them looked once more at the tower ahead of them and knowing that within minutes the fighting would start all over again they decided to do one thing before hand. “We’re doing this for friendship,” Said Lamont. “For family,” Said Crow as he looked down at Rita with a kind smile, the kind a father always held for their daughter. “For the world,” Said Rita her heart beat becoming rapid. She then added in a whisper, “And for love.” Suddenly as though on cue with their newly formed vows the ground began shaking violently. The rocky terrain ahead of them began shattering as a giant black claw broke out of the earth followed by another. Rita watched in horror as a giant black scorpion bigger than a house crawled its way out of the earth and stared down menacingly at the trio. Suddenly Lamont pulled his sword free from its sheath and Rita watched as the blade lit on fire. Lamont charged forward while wielding the sword in both hands and saying, “Feel the fire of our friendship!” Although it was the cheesiest thing that Rita had ever heard come out of his mouth, and Lamont had a tendency to say horribly cheesy things, she still found it invigorating. She activated her wind boots and began gliding a few inches above the ground, she then charged towards her target, while pulling electricity in both of her hands. Crow pulled out his bow and notched a diamond tipped arrow, none of them had spared any expense in this plan to save their friend, and now that they were here, the fight was on. *** Rita opened her eyes only to see the metal ceiling of the train cart. The dark sky outside was turning purple indicating that the sun was rising soon. The window had been left open a crack and the cool air breezed through, Rita cuddled into her blanket thankful for the fact that she had one. She listened to the sounds of snoring coming from her friends, and she felt the vibrations of the train as it rolled right along the track. “New Slate,” Rita whispered to herself while wondering what the town was going to look like. Hopefully it wouldn’t be anything at all like Ponyville. Ponyville was a nice place, but it was far too quiet and really dull most of the time. She wanted action, danger, and excitement. Rita rolled over and stared down from her bunk at the sleeping form of Twilight Sparkle. Rita smiled at the peaceful scene of the princess sleeping. “Rita,” Twilight mumbled in her sleep before kicking her hind leg a few times. Rita couldn’t help but wonder what Twilight was dreaming about, especially after hearing the lavender pony say her name. Maybe Twilight was dreaming of adventure, much like what Rita enjoyed dreaming about? Or perhaps Twilight was dreaming about arguing with Rita? Either way Rita found it amusing. Rita carefully climbed out of bed and walked unsteadily to the window. The terrain the train was driving through now was a desert wasteland, filled with dull gray land. Off in the distance Rita caught the first rays of sunlight creeping over the horizon and the jagged mountain edges reaching towards the sky. An unsettling familiarity set over Rita. “Rita?” Spike said slowly. “Oops sorry, did I wake you?” Rita whispered. “No, actually I’m surprised that you didn’t. My hearing has gotten better since I’ve grown,” Spike said. “Maybe that’s because I’m quiet as a mouse when I want to be, stealth is a very important part of the arcane ops after all,” Rita whispered back. Spike let out a small laugh reminding Rita that although his voice was a little deeper now, it still sounded very much like him. “Well Twilight could sleep through almost anything, she never gets any sleep so when she does crash, she crashes hard. She slept for three days in a row once, the town caught fire while she was sleeping and she didn’t wake up at all. It was a little scary.” “Wow, so how does she take care of herself when she sleeps like that?” Twilight let out a particularly loud snore grabbing the attention of both Rita and Spike. After that the two of them giggled quietly before Spike answered, “If it wasn’t for me I don’t think she would be in good shape. Half the time she has spent sleeping, I’ve spent with Rarity, and it wasn’t until after our first… well a special moment happened during a Ponyville festival one day, and I think that’s when we started our little secret. I remember that day so clearly, the crusaders stole a bunch of fireworks and a wagon, Big Mac was running around town like crazy, and even Princess Luna and Celestia were in town. It was a fun day.” Rita scratched her chin for a moment and considered Spike’s words before saying, “You know what, I think what you have with Rarity is pretty awesome. Can you keep a secret for me?” “Hello, my name is Spike and I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle’s emotional dumping ground. I have more secrets kept away then you could ever imagine, and I’ve only broken my oath of silence a few times. So I’m pretty good at keeping secrets,” Spike said. Rita sat down next to Spike’s bed and stared at the sleeping Twilight. Rita was tempted to wake Twilight up after noticing the trail of slobber running down the alicorn’s face, and hearing Twilight’s breathing increase, followed by Twilight’s cheeks becoming a light shade of pink. Rita didn’t do that however, instead she whispered quietly, “I bucked up and broke Pinkie Pie’s heart a few days ago. After that I tried to make it up to her by becoming her marefriend, but even so it doesn’t exactly feel right. You’re the only one that I know who is in an interspecies relationship with somepony else, how do you deal with this?” Spike looked up at the roof above him which was actually the bunk bed that Rita had used, and he whistled. “That’s an interesting problem. I don’t even know if a normal pony would be okay in a relationship with Pinkie Pie. She’s one big bag of crazy you know, but if you’re already in this spot I can see where it could get tough. The big difference here is that Rarity actually had time to get used to the idea of being with a dragon over a long period of time, sadly with you and Pinkie it doesn’t seem like you had as much time.” “But I don’t even know if I love her, I like her a lot, but love? I don’t know if that’s actually possible between a human and a pony,” Rita admitted while hugging her knees to her chest. “Love goes beyond physical limitations, Rita. Even Princess Celestia was in love with a pony from another dimension, another world, once,” Spike explained. Rita considered this for a moment and smiled, it was true that she enjoyed Pinkie’s company and maybe Spike was right, love could transcend physical bodies, it used to happen in her world all the time with Dragons and humans. “Thank you, Spike. I needed to hear that, I just hope this doesn’t end in heart break for her.” “I’m sure it will all work out,” Spike reassured her. *** The train came to a slow stop at the station and everypony got off, or more specifically about six ponies got off. Two of which were actually just delivering supplies to the small town of New Slate. The landscape was dull and gray dotted and with large rocks. A single long dirt road could be seen heading down to the small town. Rita couldn’t see very many buildings, and only a few farm houses dotted the landscape although it didn’t look like they had many crops. “Welcome to New Slate,” said a sarcastic sounding mare, “The liveliest place in Equestria!” A light blue pony walked out from behind a sign, the mare in question had a light blue and silver striped mane, and wore a purple cloak with a golden star pattern sewn in, she also had a magician’s hat to match her cloak. Twilight gave a small smile to the pony and said, “Hello, Trixie. How have things been here?” “Horrible,” replied the blue mare, Trixie. “Aside from the dragon attacking at random intervals, there has been a rise in monsters, but the worst part so far has been the close proximity to the Pie family rock farm… Also it’s really boring here, can we please leave?” “I’m afraid we can’t leave just yet. We need to stop the dragon first, then you can come back home to Ponyville if you want?” Twilight said kindly. “Great, so either way Trixie is stuck somewhere that she’s ostracized, oh woe is Trixie,” Trixie replied with a dramatic fake fainting. “Oh you’ll be just fine,” Twilight replied while walking towards the town. “The sooner you show us around, the sooner you get home.” “Trixie will be pleased to get home and sleep. She does not enjoy being the backup Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie said while following. Rita and Spike followed alongside the two quietly. Twilight however was not quiet. “You are not the backup me.” “Oh yes Trixie is. Celestia has Trixie doing all kinds of tasks when you are busy. Do you even know the perils that Trixie has faced because you were busy doing some kind of research, or off in the crystal empire?” Twilight ignored Trixie and asked, “So what has the dragon been targeting in its attacks, and how exactly is it attacking?” Trixie let out a low growl before saying, “Trixie was not done lamenting yet.” “I know that.” “Fine,” Trixie replied. “Trixie will tell you what you need to know miss busy pony. The dragon has been targeting random buildings, but it was always putting on such a performance and making a show of things. Only a few ponies have been hurt so far, and only one reported causality. Um… the dragon also uses claws.” Twilight quickly said, “So it’s basically not doing anything serious yet. That’s good to hear, maybe that means it will be easy to stop. I feel bad about the causality though; tell me who it was?” Trixie suddenly took an odd step and stumbled before catching herself and saying, “Walk slower, Trixie cannot keep up with an Alicorn’s long legs.” Rita hadn’t noticed Twilight walking any faster than normal, though now that Rita was examining Trixie’s movement she noticed something wrong with the way Trixie walked. She couldn’t quite place what was off about it though. Twilight slowed down her pace a little and said, “Sorry, I hadn’t noticed. So tell me who is… gone.” Spike leaned over and whispered into Rita’s ear, “I didn’t notice Twilight walking any faster than normal.” “She wasn’t,” Rita whispered back, “But something is wrong with the way Trixie is walking.” Trixie was quiet for a moment but she finally said in a quiet voice, “Miss Direction.” “What did you say?” Twilight asked. “Her name was Miss Direction,” Trixie replied quietly. Twilight let out a sigh of relief and said, “I’m glad, for a moment I was worried that it was one of Pinkie’s relatives. Did Miss Direction have any family here?” “One sister,” Trixie answered. “I’ll see about doing something for her, I’m not sure what Celestia would do, maybe I’ll ask for some advice on the subject,” Twilight said. The rest of the trip was oddly quiet until they reached the town, and then Trixie lead the group over to the small inn that was to be their base of operations while they stayed here. Along the way Rita noticed that there was a large number of guards patrolling around, all of them wearing the same golden armor. Most of the guards seemed to be stallions, Rita had wondered where all the stallions were before, and now she knew. Most of the stallions in Equestria were probably soldiers. The guards gave Rita odd looks but stayed quiet. The second that Rita entered the inn she noticed a large presence of guards, including ponies who were higher up in rank. The tables were covered in maps, documents, and various plans. A group of pegasi sat in the corner talking very quietly with each other, they all wore blue uniforms with yellow bellies, the costumes barely exposed their muzzles, eyes, mane and tails. They glanced over at Rita’s direction for a moment before returning to their task. Rita was a little shocked that nopony here had actually tried talking to her. At most she received a few long and nervous stares from obviously new recruits. After going upstairs and into the room they were sharing with Trixie while they stayed. Rita looked around, two large beds, a table with a few chairs and a single bathroom were what they got to enjoy. Rita sat down on one of the chairs and said, “So why didn’t anypony downstairs bother asking me, what I was?” “What are you talking about?” Trixie asked. “I’m a human, shouldn’t that bring out their curiosity?” Rita asked feeling concerned. Trixie looked at Twilight and Spike before staring back at Rita and asking her, “What do you mean, human? Aren’t you just one of The Hidden?” “The what?” Rita asked. Twilight interjected, “That’s a race of dog’s from southern Equestria, they tend to wear a lot of clothing, usually covering all of their bodies except their eyes, tails and sometimes fingers. They have a religious fear of showing ponies what they really look like, although Equestrian scientists have discovered that they are actually upright dogs related to the diamond dogs.” “That’s a wonderful explanation Twilight, now does that explain why nopony really consider me a monster here?” Rita asked. “The Hidden people have worked with us in defense of our borders for a few hundred years. It’s not odd to have a few of them working with our soldiers this far south. They proved exceptionally useful during the changeling war,” Twilight explained. “Lovely, so they all think I’m some kind of giant dog. Yay me,” Rita replied sarcastically. Trixie looked out the window and said, “Trixie doesn’t care. Trixie just wants to go home, can we please get this done and leave?” “Yeah, yeah, we’ll work on this tonight, and stop the dragon tomorrow. It’s been attacking daily right?” Twilight asked. “Yes, but it was only the first assault that did any harm… that’s when the most severe injuries were caused,” Trixie explained. A sudden knocking at the door made everyone stop talking suddenly. Trixie walked over and using her magic opened the door. A brown unicorn stood at the door, his mane was a darker shade of brown and he looked like a train wreck. He looked at Trixie with serious eyes and said, “There’s been a change, you need to come with me right away.” Trixie nodded and said, “Of course Doctor.” She turned to Twilight and said, “Trixie will be back later tonight, she trusts that you are competent enough to handle this on your own.” “Wow, thanks for the support,” Spike said. And with that Trixie left the three in that little room to discuss the plan. They were going to fight a dragon and that required a plan, and if monsters were involved, this could become a bloody mess. At least they had soldiers to protect them for now. Rita let out a sigh, and said, “Okay let’s get to work.”