//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: The Wrong Enemy // Story: Legacy of Kain: Harmony's Rise // by Time Reaper //------------------------------// To: Princess Celestia From: The Manehattan Science Expedition Location: Everfree Forest Subject: The Ursa Minor Greetings, the following letter is being sent to you as a report regarding the murdered Ursa Minor located in the Everfree Forest. It will be mentioned our thanks for providing the necessary funds to the research team, this gave us much needed security to make the investigations with the proper time required to do the analysis on a proper way. With that said, it will be notified that we made the following autopsy and the gathering of evidence according to your orders and the procedure went exactly as you asked, step by step. We first used magic scans to be sure that the place where the battle took place didn't had any special magic spell protecting the place or hiding anything of importance. We were surprised to figure out that no such thing was located in there. This is both good and bad. good because there was no tampering on the scene but bad because it also worries us that an Everfree animal could have affected the place between the moment of the discovery to the moment we got there. After that, we started to investigate the place itself, trying to search for any evidence that could indicate us what fought the ursa minor and what kind of spells it used. After some visual, magic and forensic analysis was made, we managed to come to the conclusion that, whatever fought the ursa minor, it had enough strength to grab heavy rocks and throw them at the ursa and that it was capable to use fire: A) The rocks, after using the proper spells, were discovered to be rather big and heavy. The amount of pieces each rock broke into were very numerous, for this rocks to break on this level, they must have been thrown at very high speed. Considering that no tree was broken or shown signs of getting rocks hurled at, we can assume that all the rocks hit the ursa minor, which also tells us a lot of the creature's aim. B) The fire was only found on small quantities on the scene, this isn't because there wasn't much but because it was very controlled. The scorch marks found on certain trees and in the ground are very low. As if they were burn by heat rather then being burned directly by the fire. After making the investigations on the scene, we proceeded to investigate the ursa minor itself, here is where we found the biggest amount of problems because it shown signs of being eaten by animals, decomposition and tampering by external forces. This made it very hard for us to discover what damaged was caused by our mysterious creature. Regardless, we managed to find out some evidence after finding hints that could lead us to the murderer of the ursa, also taking into account your warn that one of the uras's teeth was taken by a unicorn mare that could have been a witness to the fight. Once we're done with this investigation we'll try to question her to have more determining information about it. A) The bones of the ursa where shattered in some places, mainly its extremities and in the skull. We'll also explain that we came to the conclusion that the shattered bones in the extremities and in the skull was caused by the hurled rocks because of the way the bones were fractured. If the bones were shattered by an animal, they would have gotten cracks from both sides of the bones but the cracks in the extremities and the skull were started on a very specific place and the more to the center of the fractures we go, the more cracks we found. This kind of cracks are formed through hitting the bones with a blunt weapon with either an amazing strength or with an amazing speed, which also lead us to the conclusion that the murderer of the ursa had a really good aim and strength. B) The flesh was in a very problematic condition because of the parts that was decomposed along the parts bitten by the animals but we managed to analyze the parts burned by fire. The burns were very concentrated, this were third degree burns, meant to destroy the skin and reduce them to char. Considering that the places that were burned were the same places where the rocks were thrown plus our previous knowledge on ursas having very thick skins to avoid superficial damages. We can conclude that, whatever caused this first burned the ursa minor to weaken its skin and then used the rocks to destroy its extremities. Then, after immobilizing it, it hurled a last rock at the head to kill it once and for all. The Manehattan Science Team isn't aware of any creature with such capabilities, there's no creature or animal in Equestria with enough cognitive skills to kill an ursa minor in such a way. The only possibility we can think off is a dragon, but a dragon doesn't require said methods to kill the ursa, we would like to ask for help to the History Team located in Canterlot and to the Academics of your school to see if you can provide us of more information on this subject. That was all we could gather and, as I write this to you, your Highness, I'm receiving your request to go immediately into the cave located on the mountain close to Ponyville and research the dead dragon found by your pupil not too long ago. We're also thankful for the information provided by her, it will help us a lot on our future research once the team is ready to move. We'll also add that we cannot be sure if the Soul was gone or not, mainly because that's not our field and because the ursa has many days deceased, so it would be even harder to determine if the ursa actually lost its inner magic or not. Signed: - Leader of the investigation team: Clever Find. P.S.: As I prepare to send you this, the team has started to feel watched. Neither us or your guards have managed to find whatever was watching us, we're not sure if it were the animals of the Everfree or if it was the murderer of the ursa minor but it cannot be denied the sensation that something started to observe us. Ponyville Library This was the third time Twilight has read the letter and she was just as scared as the first time she read it. Now she understood what worried so much Princess Celestia. Whatever killed the ursa minor not only was strong, but also intelligent. Twilight's suspicions of the ursa minor's murderer being the same one as the dragon's only made it more worrisome. This also explained why Trixie was so afraid on the Everfree, had she felt the presence of the "beast of the Everfree"? The more Twilight thought about it, the more she tried to think of a plan to warn the town of Ponyville and make the proper preparations against this creature. As Twilight entered into her own machinations, she tried to search in any book inside her Library, she wanted to see if she had a book that could help her on this new danger facing Equestria, and as Twilight was starting to lost herself in her own world of books, she heard a voice that brought her back to reality: "Twilight, are you ok?" Twilight turned around to find Spike with a curious face. She knew what he was going to ask about the letter, so Twilight quickly went to change the conversation into something that could take away his attention. "Huh, I was..." - In that moment she quickly took a random green colored book and put with her while offering a very forced smile, - "wondering what this book was about" -. Spike gave her an skeptic eye, - "really?" - It was here that the, very awful liar, purple unicorn decided to see if there was something she could distract Spike with, - "yeah, and it remembered me that I have to go outside and check on my friends, would you like to come with me? We can see if I can buy you some gems" -. And with those magic words, the very gem-lover dragon decided to go with her and speak about the wonderful weather that Rainbow Dash made that day. Everfree Forest, an Hour Earlier Somewhere inside the Everfree Forest, there's a lone, carved, tree that has been used as a house for a mysterious amount of time. Its resident is a being as mysterious as the house itself, for it was not a pony, a dragon or a griffon, common creatures to find on Equestria, but rather, a Zebra. This Zebra has been living on the Everfree Forest, away from her home country for a time she would never tell to anyone and she, proving her great skills of adaptation, managed to adapt her life inside the forest so she didn't have to worry too much about the dangerous creatures that delves inside the chaotic forest. She lived alone, but always having her homeland on her heart, showing in with all the traditional decorations on her house and bringing with her the traditional books and knowledge that her ancestors passed down her family. While it was a mystery how long she lived inside the Everfree, all we could tell so far was that she managed to adapt to her stay on her new house. Until a few days ago. When the new creature started to house the Everfree, the Zebra couldn't stop feeling how wrong this creature was. Its presence was always noticeable through the dreading feeling of the dead among the living, its corpse looked as if it was being forced to walk around the living while it actually desired death, it consumed the most sacred part of a being but it didn't seem to enjoy it, it had magic beyond her comprehension and its powers made it unable to be murdered. She has been trying to find anything about the creature, but she never heard anything like it on the stories told by her family or on any culture around the world, its disconnection to the world made it in a fearsome mystery that she was willing to figure out, and by figuring out its origin then she would figure out a way to defeat it, so she decided to make an attempt and go to Ponyville on the hopes of finding the herbs she needed to make a potion that, hopefully, would give her some kind of insight on the creature. As the Zebra went on to Ponyville, she weighted her options: On one hoof, Ponyville's work hours were a mystery to her, they were never open when she got there; on the other hoof, she hadn't found any type of lead on her search for a method to defend herself against the creature, she had no other choice but to try with the Equestrians. The Zebra couldn't stop noticing the changes done to the forest ever since the creature came to it, before it, the beasts of the Everfree were always on the move and there was no safe hour. Now, as much as the Zebra disliked to admitted, it was very safe to go around the Everfree whenever the creature left its residence on the cursed castle because the carnivorous and most dangerous beasts of the Everfree would hide form its presence. This didn't meant that the creature made things better when, in fact, everything has become worse; the Zebra could feel how the delicate balance of the Everfree Forest was being disturbed as all the animals were being hunted left and right, this was causing a migration that would harm Equestria as a whole, something had to be done to stop it. As the Zebra was getting close to Ponyville, she saw on the depths of the forest a big shadow. She wondered what it could be, but the closer and closer she got to the shadow, the more the Zebra recognized the shadow as the creature. The Zebra became worried on the possibility of it discovering her so she started to move as stealthy as possible and, as she was sneaking around, she started to notice something odd about the creature that was quite interesting, it wasn't moving. Indeed, as she got close enough to the creature, she managed to see that it wasn't moving at all, it was stationary on a very specific position: aiming one of its arms at a specific direction on the ground, with its torso slightly moved backwards in a attempt to make a better aim while its leg were positioned as a normal stance; and once the Zebra got face to face, she saw the reason why the creature wasn't moving: it was a statue. As the Zebra saw perplexed how the creature she was fearing so much was now a statue, she also started to weight her new set of options: She could leave the statue there and let the creature become a part of the Everfree; she could destroy the statue on the hopes that it would destroy the creature once and for all or she could continue on her way to Ponyville and see what she could get to fight it off in case none of her previous options could work. Seeing that, no matter how much she thought about it, she still needed to go to Ponyville, she decided to break the statue anyways, after all, the responsible of this was still out there and it could petrify the creature on another moment. So the Zebra gazed at the statue, searched for its weak spots and, in a very graceful move, gave a powerful kick that pulverized the statue and dissolved it to pieces. As the Zebra gazed at the statue being reduced to crumbles, she started to feel a chill filling her spine and moving around her. As the time seemed to slow down, the Zebra could feel how the chill moved around her and then disappeared into the forest. This message was quickly received by the Zebra and decided to move on towards Ponyville. This journey would prove to be ineffective as she would find all the shops closed and nopony in sight to receive her, so she would have to return to her house alone and, being followed by the least expected pony. Ponyville, road to the Everfree Forest Applebloom was having a hard time trying to approach Zecora, she didn't want the Zebra to realize how close she was to her and it really scared her the idea that she could do something to her. But it was better than hearing her sister going paranoid and shutting her off whenever she tried to say her opinion. She would admit that she was a little reckless for going alone but she was sure that nothing wrong could happen to her as long as she stayed on a safe place but those ideas started to dwindle as she started to get close to the Everfree Forest. As Applebloom saw the Forest getting closer to her, she started to remember all the things said about it. What happened to Trixie, the monsters that lurks in there and, the worst of them all, the Everfree Beast. Just thinking about that creature made Applebloom shiver and, for a moment, she wondered if it was worth all of this following, she then got on the entrance of the Everfree Forest and saw the looming shadow of danger separating her from the deathly place that was the forest, a forest that housed a mysterious Zebra and a dangerous beast. Applebloom doubted for a moment if she could do it, but the brave filly decided to swallow her fears and follow the Zebra, after all, if she could live so close to the Beast and stay alive, then so could she. Applebloom started to move very slowly as she followed Zecora on the Everfree, she was very sure that staying away from the path would lead her into a dangerous creature which meant that she had nowhere to hide now. It was very clear that Applebloom was scared of this, but she was sure that nothing wrong could happen to her so far, all she had to do in case of something dangerous getting close was to follow the Zebra or speed through the Everfree back into Ponyville but, she did wondered, what sign could Applebloom get that it was becoming too dangerous for her. In that moment a series of events happened at the same time that would have been hard to notice by Applebloom but they still should be mentioned nonetheless. The First Event was that, both Applebloom and Zecora passed through a patch of blue flowers but, because Zecora avoided them and Applebloom was copying her step by step, they didn't touch them. The Second Event was that Applebloom's sister, Applejack, found her and, by calling her, discovered her to the Zebra (who started to mumble something weird about the flowers) and ruined her plans of sneaking in to discover the Zebra's house. The Third Event was that a chill started to get closer to them, easily confused by the mist embracing all of them. This chill was followed by a mysterious creature rising from the ground just in time to hear the Zebra's warning regarding the flowers and see the meeting between the ponies and the Zebra unfold. Regarding this third event, Applebloom didn't notice the creature rising from the ground, but she did notice (as she was leaving the forest) a pair of blue eyes appearing out of nowhere and seeing her leave. Applebloom was sure that this was a beast from the Everfree that could try to kill her, like a Timberwolf, but after seeing it standing in place and not doing anything (maybe recognizing that it couldn't win on a fight against 7 ponies) she decided to stay quiet. She would later suffer a few nags from her sister after getting back to their house. Royal Castle, Canterlot Celestia was prepared for this night, she was going to ask her sister what happened while she was Nightmare Moon. It had been too long for Celestia's like, she wanted to regain her connection with her sister and she has given her enough time already to think on what she did, well actually, Celestia was just getting impatient and now wanted to see her dear sister, and she would try to help her in whatever it was troubling her. This wasn't just for Luna, Celestia herself has been taking all of this time to prepare herself for this moment and to start rebuilding her connections with her beloved sister, this was just as important to Celestia and she would treat it with respect. That is why Celestia decided to spend 10 minutes watching the doors to Luna's Chamber instead of knocking the door, she was just preparing herself and not being nervous. Celestia saw the majestic doors that acted as an entrance to the place Luna would reside with her for a long time. Celestia prepared this room for centuries and was glad to see it being used at last, after so many years of preparation, she was now getting closer to recover the sister she lost so many eons ago and as Celestia's "readyness" were drowning her, she knocked the door that housed her nightly and moon lover sister. As Celestia's hoof started to let Luna know that somebody was calling her outside, The Sun Princess decided to continue on this: "Luna" -. She said with a bit of nervousness, - "it's me, Celestia" -. The white princess waited a bit and, after hearing no response, decided to knock the door once again. - "Sister, I've been waiting for all this time to talk to you again, please, I want to see the sister I missed for so long". - As much as Celestia waited, there was no response. - "Sister, please, I've missed you a lot and I want to reconnect with you to recover all the thousand years lost while you where away" -. For a moment, Celestia thought that she heard a faint gasp, but all she could hear was silence. Celestia started to get impatient and knocked again. - "Sister, if something happened while you were Nightmare Moon, its ok. We can talk it out, there's nothing a good talk cannot fix" -. Then, she finally heard something. Something that, luckily, was behind a door and didn't destroyed her ears. "Dearest sister! While we appreciate thou attempts to reconnect with us, We feel it's not the most opportune moment to discuss of such a things! I pledge you to wait for tomorrow night and we'll talk to thou about the events of the despicable night We feel so ashamed off!". Celetia meditated on the words and gave them a thought, that was the same response she gave her last night and the night before that. She was avoiding the issue and it was starting to get annoying. "Sister, you said that yesterday and the day before that. Stop postponing this and let me in" -, she then held her breath as she tried to hide her anxiety, - "please". It was a big silence what came next and, for a moment, Celestia thought that this night would be as unproductive as all the previous ones but then the door started to open, albeit slowly, and a small dark blue alicorn came out from the door looking at her sister with a slight hint of fear. "Dearest Sister! We hope thou can forgive us for this inconvenience begun by us! We hope that this meeting enters into thou expectations!" Celestia took a moment to check if her ears were fine and a second moment to think on what kind of help she could bring to her sister. After thinking for a while, she knew how to start the conversation: "Luna, I'm so glad of seeing you after all these years, I thought I would never see you again. I now this must be hard for you, especially because of all the changes done on the last thousand years but I assure you that I'll do my best to help you adapt to this new age and, as a proof of that, I'll tell you that the Canterlot Voice was dropped a long time ago because it were making the ponies deaf". Luna thought on this words and quickly blushed when she realized Celestia's message, she then moved out of the door to let her sister enter into her room and show that she also wanted to make amendments with Celestia. As Celestia entered into Luna's room, she couldn't stop noticing how some things in the room were already being changed, the dark blue curtains that were covering the windows were thinner, which allowed the sunlight to enter and bring a dark blue coloring to her room, very different from the thick curtains she brought that wouldn't have let any type of light entering into the room. She also noticed how all the mirrors she put in the room were covered or turned around, making it impossible for any pony to see their reflections. This were the first things Celestia noticed on Luna's room, but she was sure there were more changes that she hadn't noticed, but that wasn't her reason here, she was here to talk to her sister, so she turned to the second most comfortable place on the room, she sit there and waited for Luna to get comfortable as well. As Luna got close to a good spot to sit on, she saw her sister and noticed (to her happiness) the lack of hatred and resentment she feared so much and tried to make a conversation: "Dearest Sister, it make us glad that thee have found somepony worth taking the responsibility of wearing the Elements of Harmony. It brings calm to our minds that such powerful artifacts have managed to find a wearer capable of keeping harmony on Equestria in the same way as we did back then. Tell me, where did thou found her?" As Celestia gave a thought to her wording, she decided to respond very carefully to her sister. "Oh, Luna, I'm also glad that the Elements of Harmony found suitable bearers that can help us to keep Harmony in Equestria, it also makes me glad that my personal apprentice, Twilight Sparkle, managed to figure how to use them and bring you back. It always worried me that it could've been too late for you. As of where did I found her, well, I found her on a test exam. She had a surge on the middle of her exam and was throwing spells everywhere until I calmed her down. By the time she was calm, I noticed that she found her Cutie Mark and it was the same as the Element of Magic. I hope that satisfy your question and now I'll make one of my own and ask how do you feel? Are you happy to return to Equestria?" Celestia and Luna looked at each other, trying to not hide their emotions as they spoke, and as the Sun's light shone on the Moon, all the Moon could do was to receive the light and reflect it for the Sun's light was always stronger than the Moon's shadow. "Sister, We also feel happiness for our return, We have always wanted to be accepted for others and your apprentice did an outstanding job in recovering the Elements, We are sure that she will help us to bring a great time for Equestria but it worries Us that she could have been damaged for our last encounter" -. Celestia raised her eyebrows and only moved her head to let her sister know that she could continue, - "As We were saying, while We were corrupted by the Nightmare, Nightmare Moon would give it all to try and stop Twilight Sparkle from defeating us but She and her friends prevailed and even had their friendship strengthen. So We tried to stop her on our old Castle by taking her into a lone chamber and that's when we found it". At this point, Luna stopped, Celestia wondered what did they found but, before she could interrupt Luna, the Lunar Princess decided to proceed. "It was a nightmarish creature, not even Nightmare Moon would've been capable of creating such a ghastly monster. It's destroyed wings, it lacks of organs and flesh, it had all the marks of being a demon but, when We confronted it, it told us that he was a fighter for justice and that he was here to help Twilight. The Nightmare confronted it but to no avail, its magic (as weak as it may be) was used in such crafty ways that he always managed to take us unguarded. We were so afraid of it from defeating us that we decided to... Eliminate it" -. Once again, Luna made a big pause and lowered her eyes from her sister. Celestia could see how this was damaging her sister and she wanted to hug her and tell her that everything was fine, but she had to wait until Luna decided to allow it. - "The Night- We were so afraid of being defeated by this creatures that We decided to use a cheap tactic to extinguish it from the realm of the living. We were so glad of its defeat, We thought that there was nothing that could've stop us now, but your faithful student proved Us wrong. Now, as We're free from the Nightmare's corruption, We can only feel sorrow, regret and fear over our monstrous acts and for how deeply we could've scar Twilight" -. Luna then looked up again, with water on her eyes, and proceded, - "We will understand if thou don't want to speak to Us anylonger dearest sister. Please, just let us stay here and let me have this room as our new jail. It would be an appropriate prison for such a creature like me". Luna closed her eyes and waited for Celestia's judgement but all she could feel was the warmth of Celestia's embrace and how her back was feeling tears that didn't belonged to her. "Luna, I know you must feel terrible for what you did, please, don't let it trouble you. We'll figure out what to do and we'll talk with Twilight about it but understand that I forgive you for what you did and I'll do my best to help you here. You're my sister, my only sister and I will not judge you for doing something you had no control over". Luna stopped holding her emotions and started to cry with her sister. The rest of the night would be about Celestia having more information about this creature she misjudged and Luna learning about what changes came to Equestria in the last Millennium. Everfree Forest, The Following Day Applebloom was starting to doubt if it was a good idea to leave her sister on that branch. Not because she feared the possibility of her being attacked by a monster but rather because Applebloom was really wanting some company, she wanted to find Zecora but she didn't have a clue of where to find her neither how to defend herself if the Everfree creatures decided to attack her. Applebloom trotted more and more into the Everfree and saw the trees, she saw the shadows and feared for the creatures that may be waiting for her to drop her defenses, she was so afraid of being captured right now. She was a big filly, but that didn't made her immune to fear or worry. As she trotted more and more into the woods, she wondered how good of an idea was for her to enter into the forest, not because she wanted to find an answer about what was going on with Applejack and her friends, but because she wanted to prove how big she was. Applebloom could feel the woods mocking her decisions and was now preparing to attack her, she heard a sound coming from the distance, probably a Timberwolf, and her heart skipped a beat. They were coming. Applebloom could feel the presence of the Everfree getting closer and closer to her, she could feel the air squeezing her body and suffocating her more and more, a chill came to her coat and she prepared for the worse, her ears could hear it so close to her as the branches were being broken more and more. By this point Applebloom just closed her eyes and waited for the attack, trapped by her own fear against the imminent danger. "What are you doing here in this dangerous forest, young filly?" The (apparently male) voice surprised Applebloom and made her turn around to the place were the voice originated, she tried her best to see the shape of the pony that was talking to her (she hoped it was a pony) but all she could see where shadows, bushes and trees that were so close together that made it impossible to see anything. "Up here, young filly". Applebloom looked up on the trees and managed to see a figure, the darkness and lack of sunlight didn't helped a lot, but Applebloom managed to see a very thin and tall creature with only two bright dark blue eyes looking at her. Applebloom was now trying to wonder in how much troubles she was, but the voice interrupted her train of thought. "Little filly, why are you in the dangerous Everfree Forest? Aren't you aware that any of the creatures living in these place could kill you?" This words angered Applebloom. "I'm not a little filly! I'm a grown mare capable of doing grown up stuff." She said with a hint of pride while raising her chest. The creature didn't show any signs of annoyance at this silly retort, but it did gave a simple reply that made Applebloom feel embarrassed. "A grown mare wouldn't have ventured into this dangerous forest alone or without any type of self defense." While Applebloom understood that he was right, she still wanted to retort him. "Oh yeah? Then why are you here so alone and unprotected?" Before Applebloom could even make a smug smile, a magic blast passed right beside her and blasted the road. Applebloom saw the road and noticed how black the ground got, she could even feel the heat of the blast and, then, the voice responded. "I already have my protection. And you?" Applebloom was now hoping this was a nice stallion, if stallions could get that high because, otherwise, she could be in a lot of troubles. "Uhm, no. I don't have that type of protection mr..." - Applebloom looked back a the figure and realized she didn't knew his name yet, - "excuse me but, what is your name?" - The creature remained silent for a while before giving her an answer. "Raziel is how you can refer to me as." Applebloom could only raise her Eyebrow. "Raziel? Well, that's a very weird name Mr." Raziel didn't give any hints of problems at this, he just accepted her comment. "Indeed it is, for its a foreign name that doesn't belong to Equestria". This brought new questions to Applebloom. "You're not from here? Like Zecora?" Applebloom quickly got her answer from Raziel but not on the way she expected. "Zecora? Who that could be young filly?" Applebloom got very confused and tried to explain herself. "Zecora, you know? The Zebra? A Pony but with white and black stripes? Haven't you seen her?" Applebloom waited a bit for an answer and, to her delight, Raziel gave her a positive answer. "Oh, yes, I am aware of her. She tends to journey through the Everfree from time to time. Sadly, I have never interacted with her because we tend to avoid each other's presence. Why are you searching for her?" Applebloom got sad at this but she responded nonetheless. "I've wanted to talk to her because mah sister and her friends were having a weird disease and Twilight couldn't find any cure, so I thought that perhaps Zecora could have it". Applebloom was wondering what she could do, she didn't knew where Zecora lived but she needed her help, she was now starting to think this was a bad idea but, before she could do anything, Raziel gave her an answer that cheered her up. "So, your sister and her friends are struggling with a strange illness. If that is the case, while I do not have any type of direct contact with the Zebra, I can escort you to her house so, hopefully, a solution of some sort can be produced." Applebloom got really happy at this new turn and got excited to get the help she needed, - "really? Thank you very much Mr. Raziel." "Just Raziel will suffice little Applebloom, just follow my voice and you'll get there." On that moment, Applebloom saw Raziel's eyes moving on the direction she hoped would take her to Zecora and quickly followed him. As the two figures were walking together, Applebloom heard Raziel asking her: "So, Applebloom, what's going on to Miss Twilight and her friends that requires you to come here?" Applebloom decided to keep the conversation and responded. "Oh! Well, something wrong happened to them last night and now they have some weird affliction: My sister Applejack is very small, Rarity is all hairy, Fluttershy has something weird on her voice, Pinkie Pie cannot speak, Rainbow Dash has her wings upside down and Twilight has her horn floppy." Raziel's glowing eyes stopped and turned around to look directly at Applebloom. "Floppy horn?" - Asked Raziel to Applebloom, - "yeah, floppy, its all falling down and she can't do magic with it." As Applebloom said this, she saw Raziel's eyes turning around and going forward once again, she tried to follow Raziel's eyes, but he was far ahead and she couldn't see his figure well and this prompted her to make the nesxt question. "Say, why are you hiding on the trees? It would be easier to follow you if I could see your whole body." At this question, Applebloom only got silence as an answer, but before she could ask again Raziel changed the conversation. "Applebloom, why did your sister sent you here on this dangerous forest? Even on her current conditions, Twilight and her friends are more than capable to defend themselves compared to you." Applebloom's eyes shrunk at the dangerous question and, feeling cornered by a mysterious creature capable of either leaving or killing her at the spot, she decided to answer with the truth: "To be honest, they didn't" -. Then Applebloom lowered her head in shame, - "Ah' was tired of being called a small pony and decided to come here on my own. Ah' now it sounds silly but Ah' just want to prove everypony that Ah' can do grown up stuff." Applebloom turned her head up and stopped right when she saw Raziel's eyes looking straight at her, with his answer making her flinch right away. "What you just did was very immature. Brave, but immature, I'll aide you out here to reunite with Zecora but don't make this travels into the Everfree a common thing. There'll come a time where I won't be here to defend you or the other ponies and the Everfree is filled of dangerous creatures that could murder you. Understood?" Applebloom nodded, feeling ashamed, and proceeded with Raziel and, not too long after that, they found the house of the Zebra. As Applebloom started to get happy for finding Zecora's house, she started to wonder how dangerous she could actually be and hoped all those rumors about her weren't true. "Mister Raziel" -, said Applebloom, - "could you please stay here until Ah' finish talking with Zecora? It's not that I'm afraid, its just that ah' want to make sure she'll have the answer ah' need." She looked at the place Raziel should be and saw his eyes looking at her and Raziel's voice quickly responding her. "Applebloom, I know what the citizens of Ponyville thinks of her. I know you must fear that the rumors about her are true but you'll never know what is true and what isn't until you go and search for the truth. Perhaps then you could realize who's the wrong enemy and who's the right one." Before Applebloom could ask what he meant with that, he told her once again to move to Zecora's house and ask. Applebloom moved forward and knocked the door of the infamous Zebra and looked back once again just to realize that Raziel's eyes were nowhere to be seen, Applebloom was about to ask Raziel where he was but the Zebra opened the door and invited her in. Once inside the house of the Zebra, Applebloom learned the truth of what caused the illness on her friends, the poison joke flowers, and helped Zecora produce the potion that would help Applejack and her friends. A few hours, and a big explanation, later Applebloom went back to her house with her sister and friends to have a proper bath and recover from the Poison joke's curse. It was during this little trip from Zecora's to the Library that the mares would talk to Applebloom about her most recent victory. "I'm very proud of you Applebloom" -. Said a very happy and still cursed Twilight, - "you overcame fear and rumors, came here and asked Zecora for help." A very small and concerned Applejack decided to continue on the conversation with an important reminder, - "yeah, but don't think Ah' forgotten about how you left me on that branch. You'll be on troubles once we come back Applebloom." Applebloom sighted at this and tried to escape from punishment. "Aw, come Applejack. Nothing happened to me." The big, but now small, sister riding Applebloom rebutted the argument. "Ah'll get none of that Applebloom. There are many dangerous creatures on the Everfree and you could have been attacked by something like a Timberwolf." "No, Ah' wouldn't. I was protected by Raziel this whole time". Everypony stopped in the moment Raziel was mentioned and looked at Applebloom with very concerned eyes. All of them except two ponies, one of them being Pinkie Pie and the other being: "Who?" - Asked a curious Rainbow Dash, being the only one not aware of the Soul Reaver's presence all of this time, with Twilight Sparkle ignoring her question. "Applebloom, what do you mean with Raziel?" Applebloom started to worry but responded nonetheless. "Raziel, somepony I met in the Forest, he helped me to reach Zecora while protecting me from anything dangerous." Twilight looked at Applejack and Rarity. "Girls, who's this 'Raziel' you're talking about?" - asked once again an ignored Rainbow Dash while Twilight continued her interrogation to Applebloom. "Applebloom, did you saw his figure? How did he looked like?" Applebloom tried to remember but she couldn't answer that because she never saw Raziel's appearance, - "sorry Twilight, but I never saw him well. He hid behind the trees and Ah could only look at his glowing blue eyes." Fluttershy quickly came into the scene and reprimanded the little filly. "Applebloom, you can't trust somebody like that. He's not trustworthy and he's dangerous. You cannot be in contact with him again." "Hey!" - Interrupted an angry Applejack. - "That's mah sister you're talking to, Ah'll be the one to decide who she can or cannot see!" - Fluttershy quickly apologized and before the situation could blow out of proportions, Twilight simply told them that this conversation would be hold until they were cured from the Poison Joke. "Aw, come on, I want to know who is this 'Raziel'." "Dashy, calm down. This chapter isn't focused on you, you'll have your answers when it becomes your turn". And just like that, everypony moved forward to Ponyville but not before finding the place that held the poison joke flowers now burned and with only ashes left from them. They all got concerned and decided that this issue would be talked about later on another day, leaving Applebloom very confused on how could Twilight and Fluttershy, apparently, knew about Raziel. It has been a long day for Twilight, all she wanted to do now was to rest on her bed and she wondered how she would talk about Raziel to the girls tomorrow and that wasn't even talking about how Fluttershy apparently knew him or if this 'Raziel' even was the one she knew about (it could be an impostor for all she knew) but that would be tomorrow. Today was a busy day, she sent her friendship letter to Celestia and was now going to rest, that was, until Spike came to her and gave her a letter from the princess. Twilight didn't know what this could be about and all Spike said about it was that "he wasn't allowed to see", but Twilight knew Celestia very well and she was sure that it must have been important. As she read the letter, Twilight's worries started to grow once again: To: Princess Celestia From: The Manehattan Science Expedition Location: The Mountain Path north of Ponyville Subject: The Dragon Greetings, the following letter is being sent to your majesty as a response to our research regarding the Dragon mentioned by your apprentice Twilight Sparkle. Once again, we thank you for all the help you've brought us and the economic relief to make a proper research on this place, we now send you the results of the dragon's autopsy. Once the Team entered into the cave, we used scan spells to make sure that the cave was safe and to detect any type of lingering spells. We found the spells used by your student that kept the Dragon conserved for our analysis, we want to thank her for making our work easier considering that none of the spells used by her endangered the scene. Putting aside the spells used by your student, we managed to find some answers. A) The whole cave was burnt, this made it hard for us to detect what was lying around the cave but we managed to trail the fire's origin towards the dragon. Considering how much was everything burnt and even the gold was melted, we can conclude that the dragon was desperately trying to burn something and, to not care about his own loot, this something must have been very dangerous to keep alive. B) The Dragon was on a very critical condition, we managed to scan its body and we discovered that it's internal organs were severely damaged. Its bones were fine thanks to the scales protecting it from the boulders falling but that didn't stopped the kinetic energy and the pressure made by the rockfall from harming them, if the dragon hadn't been frozen, then definitely the damaged organs would have killed it. We also noticed that one of its arms was cut from its body before the rockfall, which means that the battle lasted a bit more than we actually thought, and from what we could analyze, the arm was severed through freezing and then smashing said arm, which also tell us a lot of the strength of our mysterious assassin. C) Magic was used, we can asses that because there's still magic leftovers here. This allowed us to analyze and record the Magic Print of whoever/whatever did this. Sadly, since the ursa minor had no magic leftovers we couldn't get any magic print there so we cannot determine a 100% that the one behind the ursa minor and the dragon are the same one. But we did detected what Twilight Sparkle mentioned, the dragon's body is on the same condition as the ursa minor regarding its internal magic: there isn't a single piece in there. From this results, we manage to reach to a very solid conclusion: We can deduce that the creature behind the murder of both the ursa minor and the dragon, even if we're not 100% sure, because the one thing both scenes share is the lack of internal magic, had this been a different culprit then the dragon would have retained its internal magic (dragons tend to retain it for a longer time) but this isn't the case here. We can also verify that said culprit is capable of using both fire and ice magic (which means that this isn't a simple animal), have a great strength and is capable of sucking magic. After this investigation is over, we'll head back to Manehattan and wait if the Academic teams of Canterlot can bring us more information regarding the Soul and how it works. Signed - Leader of the Investigation Team: Clever Find After reading the letter with much fear, Twilight found a second note with the letter. This one had Princess Celestia's writing style and was very specific with its content. Luna told me about her moment with you and the entity that was murdered. We need to talk, it will be better if we talk with the elements considering they're your friends, and we must determine what kind of creature we're dealing with. Princess Celestia As things started to get more complicated, Twilight was wondering what to think. Was the creature she remembered so well the bad guy or not?