//------------------------------//
// Endless Possibilities 
// Story: Demons Are Forever 
// by Metool Bard 
//------------------------------//

	"Bon-Bon?  Yo, Earth to Bon-Bon!"

Bon-Bon felt a firm hoof prod her shoulder, snapping her out of her trance.  She quickly shook herself, trying to get her bearings as the familiar click-clack of train wheels reached her ears.  Once she got herself settled, she noticed that her friends were all sitting around her, giving her concerned looks.

"Glad to see you're still with us, Bons," said Lyra. "You haven't said a word since we left Minnie's place.  Are you okay?"

"Mmm?  Oh, I-I'm fine," Bon-Bon said, looking out the window. "I-I was just mentally preparing myself for the mission, that's all.  Th-this is just a lot to take in all at once, y'know?"

"I understand how you feel, Ms. Bon-Bon," said Moondancer, adjusting her glasses. "Even now, I'm having quite a bit of difficulty comprehending all this."

Bon-Bon blinked in confusion. "But, didn't Minuette brief you on everything?"

"Well, yes.  At least, she told us as much as she could given the situation," Moondancer sighed. "Still, it's quite overwhelming.  I mean, I've read about the Ars Goetia in several anthologies of foreign myths, but I never thought they were real."

Minuette shrugged. "Well, not too long ago, almost everypony thought Nightmare Moon wasn't real.  And we all know how that turned out, amiright?"

Fleur's face darkened. "Whatever the case may be, we don't have much time left to prepare," she said, staring out and the snowy countryside rolling past. "We should be arriving at Stalliongrad shortly."

"Next stop: Stalliongrad station!  Please make sure you have all of your belongings before leaving the train!"

Minuette snickered. "Perfect timing, Lady de Lis."

"I choose not to dignify that," said Fleur haughtily. "Come, we should get ready to disembark."

Bon-Bon nodded and stood up, grabbing a metal suitcase from the overhead bin.  She then turned to Lyra and sighed.

"Lyra, it's not too late," she said, her eyes pleading. "I'll pay for your ticket back to Ponyville.  You don't have to do this."

Lyra shook her head. "No dice, Bons.  I can be just as stubborn as you.  If you want to go on this crazy mission, then I'm going with you.  End of story."

"Bold words, Ms. Heartstrings," said Fleur. "Though I do hope you and Ms. Moondancer can take care of yourselves should things become, difficult.  There's no telling what we'll be facing in those mountains."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Lady de Lis," said Moondancer, pressing her glasses against the bridge of her nose. "I've brushed up on many self-defense spells throughout my studies."

"And I can handle myself just fine," Lyra added with a sneer. "Maybe we should be more concerned about you chipping a hoof or something."

Fleur scoffed. "I'll have you know that I was knighted for my outstanding services to the Royal Guard.  I'm not as delicate as I appear."

"Well, neither am I," Lyra retorted. "I won't underestimate you if you don't underestimate me.  So there."  She punctuated her statement with a raspberry.

Fleur snorted angrily. "Why you little—"

She was interrupted by the screech of the train wheels as the train came to a stop.

"Stalliongrad station!  Stalliongrad station!" the conductor called out. "Please watch your step!"

"Whoop!  That's us," said Minuette hastily, jumping to her feet. "Let's get going, fillies!"

"Y-yes.  R-right," said Fleur, clearing her throat and composing herself.  As the five of them got off the train, Bon-Bon pulled Lyra aside.

"Lyra, I've got enough to worry about without you picking fights with Lady de Lis," she scolded. "Cut it out, or I'm forcing you to take the next train back to Ponyville."

"Hey, she's the one pissing me off with her snobbery!" Lyra hissed. "Go yell at her!"

Bon-Bon sighed. "She's just stressed out about the mission, Lyra.  I'm sure we all are."

"Doesn't mean she should be a prick about it," Lyra grumbled.

"The same goes for you," Bon-Bon countered.

Lyra opened her mouth to retort, but found that she had none. "Alright, alright.  I'll try to get along with Ms. Prissy Pants.  But I'm doing this for you."

Bon-Bon smiled. "I know," she cooed, brushing Lyra's cheek with her hoof. "Just, be sure to watch yourself, okay?  This is still very dangerous, and you don't have my training when it comes to this sort of thing."

Lyra gave Bon-Bon a coy smile. "As long as you're by my side, there's nothing I can't handle."

Bon-Bon deadpanned. "Knock off the schmaltzy talk, Lyra.  This is really not the time."

Lyra stopped for a moment and watched as Bon-Bon stepped off the train and joined the others.  She hung her head and sighed.

"Whatever you say, Special Agent Sweetie Drops," she muttered under her breath.


***


As soon as they got off the train, the five mares headed straight for the forest leading out of Stalliongrad.  For a while, the only sounds they heard was the rustling of the wind and the crunch of the snow beneath their hooves.  Once they were a good distance away from civilization, Minuette raised her hoof.

"Alright, I don't think anypony is watching us," said Minuette, taking a quick look around. "Bon-Bon, you should probably suit up while I assess our situation."

Bon-Bon nodded and opened up her suitcase.  Inside was her typical array of gadgets, including her compass, her grappling hook, her ankle-mounted crossbow, and a miniature quiver fully stocked with sleep bolts.  As she got her gear in order, Minuette stared vacantly at the sky.

"Um, Minuette?  What exactly did you mean by 'assess our situation?'" inquired Moondancer.

Minuette didn't answer.  She simply closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.  Her horn suddenly pulsed with magic, generating more and more energy by the second.  Moondancer couldn't help but become entranced by the display, while Lyra also looked on with interest.  Fleur and Bon-Bon, however, were completely unfazed.  Once Minuette's horn was completely obscured by her magic aura, her eyes snapped open, revealing nothing but blank pupils.  A golden shockwave rippled from her horn, although it didn't appear to affect their surroundings one iota.  Moondancer stumbled over from surprise, her eyes glistening in amazement.  After a few seconds, Minuette's eyes returned to normal, and her horn powered down.  She knitted her brow and nodded before turning to face the others.  Before she could say anything, Moondancer got up and approached her.

"Th-that was amazing," she said. "I-I don't know what you did, but I can honestly say I've never seen you wield so much magic before."

Minuette shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, it's not a big deal.  I usually don't have to use that spell outside of my job."

Moondancer tilted her head. "Your, job?  But, I thought you were a dentist."

Minuette stared blankly at Moondancer before letting out a hearty guffaw. "Seriously, Moondancer?  Does this look like a dentist's Cutie Mark to you?" she asked, pointing at her flank.

Moondancer blushed. "I-I'm sorry, Minuette.  I-it's just that I always hear you talking about dental hygiene and such.  I-I thought your Cutie Mark was some sort of abstract metaphor.  I-I probably shouldn't have made that assumption about a friend."

Minuette smiled. "Don't sweat it, Moondancer.  I know you were occupied with other things.  Besides, you're not exactly the first pony to make that mistake," she said, shaking her head. "No, dentistry is just a hobby of mine.  A very expensive hobby considering how much I invest in it, but a hobby nonetheless.  My real field of study is in theoretical physics; the study of space-time specifically."

Moondancer recoiled, her glasses nearly falling off her face. "Y-you're a theoretical physicist?!"

"Yep," said Minuette with a nod. "See, most ponies perceive time as a series of events with causes and effects.  My special talent kinda lets me see beyond that, and I use that power to study the mechanics of time and find out what makes it tick."  She laughed at her own joke. "Get it?  Time?  Tick?"

"We get it, Minnie," groaned Lyra, rolling her eyes.

"No no, wait.  I've got a better one," said Minuette, clearing her throat. "My coworkers say that if everypony could perceive time the way I can perceive time, grammar professors would have no reason to get out of bed in the morning."

Her joke was met with a collection of blank stares.  After a few seconds, Moondancer broke out into a fit of giggles.

"Thank you, Moondancer," said Minuette with a bow. "Jokes are funny when you know things."

"Yes, quite humorous, Dr. Colgate.  I am bereft of ribs," said Fleur sardonically. "Now, let's try and get back to the mission, shall we?"

"H-hang on, hang on," said Moondancer, collecting herself. "I-I still want to know what that spell was."

"Again, it's nothing special.  Just my special talent at work," Minuette explained. "See, right now, this very scenario is playing out in various different ways over an infinite number of parallel universes.  Some of these universes only have slight differences from ours, such as everything is just a millimeter to the left; others are vastly different, such as we're all bipeds instead of quadrupeds.  That spell I cast gives me a direct link into the time stream, allowing me to see these possibilities."

Moondancer's eyes sparkled. "All of them?!"

"Well, not all," said Minuette sheepishly. "The pony mind cannot fully grasp the concept of infinity, and if I tried, my brain would probably implode and then implode again."

Lyra arched an eyebrow. "I dunno, Minnie.  Could something really implode twice?"

"I have no idea, but I also have no desire to find out," said Minuette. "Anyway, while I can't see every single scenario, I can see enough of them.  And using that data, I narrow down what our reality could be should we make certain choices."

Moondancer blinked. "Wow.  I-I never knew that about you, Minuette."

"Meh, it's mainly 'cause I try not to mix business with pleasure," said Minuette with a shrug. "There's a lot of science-y technobabble I deal with in my job, and it doesn't really make for good conversation.  I mean, I wouldn't exactly call it boring, but it can be very confusing if you're not well-versed in the field of theoretical physics.  And I really don't like tying my friends' brains into knots during a relaxing chat over donuts, know what I mean?"

"Yeah, we know, Minnie," said Lyra with a sly smirk and a bow. "And for that, we are all incredibly grateful."

Minuette didn't react to Lyra's jab, but instead cleared her throat. "Alright.  So, from my understanding, we should probably stick together.  If we split up, that just increases our chances of getting lost, and nopony wants to be lost in those mountains."

"A wise stratagem," said Fleur with a nod. "But where should we start?  We don't know if the secret library is still standing."

"According to my calculations, there's a fair chance that it is," said Minuette, furrowing her brow. "But there's also a fair chance that it's being protected.  Our best bet is to look for any caves and explore them.  There might be a secret passageway leading to the library."

"Well, no time like the present," said Bon-Bon, swinging her grappling hook over her shoulder. "Let's get moving.  Minuette, you lead the way."

Minuette nodded and ventured towards the forest's timberline with the other ponies right at her heels.  Fleur sighed and shook her head.

"I really do hope Dr. Colgate is right about bringing you two along," she said, looking over at Lyra and Moondancer. "This is not a task for ordinary ponies."

"Hey, I said I can handle myself," Lyra huffed. "I might not be a super special secret agent or whatever, but I'm pretty tough."

"That may be true, Lyra," said Bon-Bon, staring up at the massive mountain before them. "But you never had to scale the mountains of Coltlat.  I have."

Gradually, the wind around her picked up, battering her eyelashes with snow.  A sharp whistle echoed in her ear as she marched onward.  As the brisk sensation struck a familiar chord deep within her psyche, her mind began to wander once more...