This Platinum Crown

by Capn_Chryssalid

Chapter Thirty One : Escape

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(31)

Escape

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The sky was overcast as the sun began to set, pregnant clouds spreading dark tendrils on wild northern winds. The curtain on high began shedding a slow but steady trickle of flurries; Chalice, second daughter of the proud Terre Rare family, wrapped her cloak tight with a stray hoof, mindful not to dirty the soft black trim of the warm garment. It was of griffin make, tough and fit for use on the road and well-made to protect against winter chill. Leather and leather-worked products were one of the great exports from the griffin people into Equestria, where so much of the wildlife had been ‘tamed’ and thus made unsuitable for… well… that sort of enterprise.

For those who lived in colder climes, it was a comfort born of necessity. Not everypony could be a magically insulated Pegasus. Chalice’s constitution had always been more delicate than her sisters’ – Polished Jewel, despite appearing the very picture of a svelte and delicate noble mare, had no problem braving the biting cold that could settle over much of Prance and Germaney. Antimony, too, though only a young mare out of fillyhood, had a proper constitution: their father’s constitution. The two sisters Rare were like bears, but the middle daughter was not so blessed. She shivered and caught cold too easily.

It was just one weakness of many to plague her, it seemed.

Her hooves made soft crunching sounds as she and her escort rounded one of the castle turrets. The stone provided a bulwark against the wind, and Chalice’s ears prickled at the sound of excitable barks and yips. She glanced to her side for a moment, reassured by the presence of her companion, Virga.

Good, proud, Virga, her personal bodyguard and closest friend.

As far back as Chalice could remember, Virga had always been by her side and always would be. Just as Antimony had Gewitter, Polished Jewel had Marin, and Alpha Brass had Sirocco. All four were bound mares in service to the Terre Rare dynasty and her father, the Great Duke, Lord Cruciger. They were bodyguards for his children, to serve and protect them at all times and in all things: stalwart companions that could always be relied on. They were, perhaps, the greatest gift the noble Lord had ever given his progeny.

Virga was a large, muscular pegasus mare of mixed Germane and Marabian-Equestrian stock, with a short snout – more square-ish than rounded – and coal black eyes. Her mane and tail were a close-cropped yellow-gold and her coat a muted dark-blue. She was not wearing armor today, only the distinctive crimson dolmen that was common among those who served the Terre Rare house. Virga, like her three sisters, would not be winning many Equestrian beauty contests, but she was as well trained as any guardpony in Equestria or beyond.

Chalice recalled, as a young filly, watching her playmate train under the claws of griffins and the iron-shod hooves of veteran ponies. While she and her sisters learned court politics, geography, economics and etiquette, Virga had learned to fight and kill. Yet she had always been gentle and kind towards Chalice. The two had been friends and companions since their mutual youth. She had to think hard to remember a time when Virga was not a part of her life. Virga’s mother had guarded Cruciger himself, and she had given birth to her daughters at the same time Chalice’s mother, Twinkling Star Light, had foaled her own children. Jewel had sometimes whispered that their bodyguards were their half-sisters, and it was possible. Their mother seemed content with the arrangement, no matter how it came about.

Chalice returned to the present as she saw her brother and Sirocco by the pens.

“Brother!” Chalice greeted him, raising a hoof.

“Chalice!” Alpha Brass replied, motioning her closer. “Come. Come!”

Her brother was still a handsome stallion, though in the twilight of his teenage years and already married to Lady Olive Branch. He wore no cloak, unlike her, though a brown scarf was wrapped around his neck and shoulders. It lacked his usual flair for finery, gold in particular, the better to match his coat and mane. He looked up at her and smiled, though the expression didn’t quite reach his turquoise eyes.

He was seated on the hardpacked ground, running a hoof along the back of one of the barking dogs that surrounded him. It turned a large, black and gray head to lick him affectionately, and Alpha Brass chuckled. When he stood, he was only a hoof or less taller at the withers than the dogs around him. Equestrians were ‘little ponies’ as it was said, and these were good sized dogs. They weren’t the largest Chalice had seen – her father had a pair of guard dogs taller at the shoulder than most all of his subjects – but they were close, and there were five of them.

At least they seemed friendly.

“Chalice,” Brass said again, beckoning to her. “Don’t be afraid. These are my girls,” he explained, tousling the head of each dog in turn. “This is Pride. And Fearless.” He patted two of the dogs, ruffling the cropped ears of the latter one. “Pursuit and Harrier,” he continued, turning around to indicate two more of the dogs. “And that one over there, the lazy one, is Tigress.” Tigress, a large mastiff with the lightest gray coat and white tipped stripes along her sides, perked up at the sound of her name, though she still remained reclined by a large wooden crate.

“You’re Fearless, right?” Chalice asked, as one of the dogs sniffed her, front and back. Chalice gently patted the big black hound from shoulder to flank. Her coat was short, furry, not quite like a pony’s. She was a little surprised that they didn’t seem to mind the cold.

Fearless appeared to finish her inspection and moved quickly to Virga. The pegasus bodyguard raised an eyebrow at the canine inquisition but remained silent and cooperative. The other dogs soon approached to smell their master’s new guest.

“Looks like you passed the test,” Brass said, cryptically, his smile widening slightly. “I’m glad.”

“Test?” Chalice asked.

“Nothing you need concern yourself with,” he assured her and motioned to the fourth pony present. “Sirocco?”

“Yes, sir?” Sirocco was, like Virga, another of the family’s hoof-picked bodyguards. Her coat was a dark blue, like Virga’s, but her mane and tail were a platinum-blonde and her eyes an alert, inquisitive shade of green. She was a little smaller in pure body mass than her sisters Gewitter and Virga. Marin, Polished Jewel’s personal guard, being the largest of the four, as befitted the oldest sister guarding the oldest child of the Terre Rare.

“I wish to take a short walk with my little sister,” he informed her. “Why don’t you and Virga catch up a short distance behind us?”

“My lady?” Virga asked Chalice’s permission.

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” Chalice asked, still enjoying the attention of her brother’s hunting dogs. She giggled when one, Pride she thought, licked her chin. “Brother and I won’t be far ahead of you.”

“Yes, my Lady,” Virga replied with a nod, and smiled to her sister at last. “Sirocco.”

“Virga,” Sirocco answered, also grinning happily, relaxed.

Alpha Brass whistled, three quick notes, and the dogs hurried to follow him. Chalice tightened her cloak around her and followed as well, quickly catching up to her older brother. Three of the dogs quickly fanned out as they entered the woods adjacent to the castle, sniffing and searching for anything potentially interesting.

“They’re handsome dogs,” Chalice said, eyeing one that remained nearby, protective of her master. “They don’t seem like one of fathers’ breeds?”

“No,” Brass replied, his smile faded but still present. “All five are hunting dogs from Whinnychester. Mastiffs. Specially trained. Very loyal and more pack oriented than the big dogs father prefers.”

“Were they a gift?”

Nobles would often make gifts of dog breeds native to their domains, especially hunting and tracking dogs. Their own father, Lord Cruciger, had occasionally given one of his prize dogs to allies or exceptionally loyal or accomplished subordinates. It was a token of great affection. Many nobles, especially stallions, loved their dogs and hawks almost like children. Quite a few never went a day without a loyal hound by their side.

“I had to purchase them, actually.” Brass didn’t frown, but there was a note in his voice that Chalice recognized. “For a rather exorbitant fee.”

So, they weren’t a gift. Making another noble pay for a dog, or a litter of dogs, implied that the other party did not wish to make an enemy, but also that he or she did not consider the other pony a friend or ally. It was a step up from a rejection, though.

“It was worth the price,” Brass told her, and his smile briefly seemed to become a smirk. “They have keen noses, strong legs, and stronger jaws.”

“I wasn’t aware there was sanctioned game to hunt here? Aren’t all the animals tamed?”

“Some of the most dangerous game these days is indoors, in plain sight, not in some deep forest,” Brass said it with a growl, but then he sighed and shrugged. “I keep them mostly for company, of course, but they can intimidate potential troublemakers as well.”

“I suppose I could see that, yes.” Chalice was not a big pony, herself. Any one of her brother’s dogs would be frightening, growling and bearing all those sharp teeth. Five would be frightening, indeed.

“I’m glad you came, Chalice,” Brass said, flashing that smile of his: the sort that seemed so confident, like he knew things nopony else did, hinting at just a little bit of mischief and mystery.

“I am, too,” she replied, but her ears folded back at the context of her statement. “I wish it was under better circumstances, big brother.”

“Yes, that business I heard of.”

“Before I get into my problems, though, you – Brass, is there something wrong?” she asked and he raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Wrong?” he wondered.

“Well, I… I don’t mean to pry,” Chalice muttered, even though she very much did mean to pry. It was one of the reasons she had come to visit him. “But shouldn’t you be with Lady Olive Branch? You said she isn’t here, and… and um… father… father, I assume, is probably wondering…”

She took little steps as she stammered, hooves touching nervously.

“He’s wondering when I’ll get Olive Branch pregnant,” Brass finished for her, and Chalice nodded meekly, embarrassed.

“She’s mother’s age, you know; it isn’t quite so easy as he thinks,” he explained, his eyes taking on a hard edge. “Mother knows I’m not sterile. I’ve been through the tests and the genealogists. We all have. But Olive…? Olive is a special case. No. I’m afraid I would not expect nieces or nephews any time soon if I were you.”

“Why not?” Chalice asked, not quite following. “We’ll need an heir to replace… um… not ‘replace,’ but… to succeed Lady Olive Branch. And you always said you wanted children…”

“Euporie and Eunomie are my step-daughters,” he reminded her. “They will be my only children for the foreseeable future. It hardly matters,” Brass assured her, and his smile was gone, replaced by a serious, neutral look. “I will have control of the borders, the colonies, the seas and the reach. Children would make it easier to solidify my claim, but I have other ways of making ponies bend the knee and the neck.”

It was her father’s look, then, on her brother’s face: the smile was gone, replaced by edged steel. Cruciger was like iron, hard and brittle, uncompromising. Brass was softer, more pliable, at least at first. But he was not brittle, and he did not break. Instead, where Cruciger would snap and rage, his son would bend and then, without warning, snap right back into place. It was little surprise; he took after his mother more than his father in many respects.

“Do not concern yourself over me, Chalice. I have things well in hoof,” he promised her, facing forward. One of his hunting dogs growled and sprinted off into the bush, kicking up a frosting of snow that had settled on the forest floor. “Tell me: what happened with Lady Slatestone?”

“Oh! That? That awful, good-for-nothing mare!” Chalice growled, though it came out as more of a callow huff. “You know about how she promised a title to anypony who could deal with those griffins and diamond dog bandits along the border? I know news of it must have traveled far and wide by now.”

Brass nodded but let her continue.

“Father has us in this… this accursed race to ‘earn’ a Barony and become his successor. Lady Slatestone must have heard of it. I’m sure, now, that she baited me from the very start, that cruel… nasty mare.” Chalice shook her head, angry but poorly equipped to properly vent it. She settled for kicking a rock, and it rolled lazily a few hoof lengths. “It makes me oh so angry.”

“So I see: you are a veritable paroxysm of rage.” Chalice frowned at him, and he smirked in the effort of making good cheer.

“I hadn’t had any luck at all until then,” Chalice continued her tale, rolling her eyes. “So I thought this business with Lady Slatestone could be just the break I needed. Once I had some land under my hooves again… I… I could do something! It would be a step in the right direction. So I took Virga and all the ponies I took from father when I left, plus those I managed to pick up over the last year and a half. These were ponies who believed in me. I even hired a small free company, out of what little I had.”

Chalice sighed, sadly, hating having to retell her failure.

“We had success, at first. More due to Virga than anything I did,” she admitted, hanging her head. “She was the one who really led them. She fought with them and she coordinated the scouts and the searching. She was the one who found where the thieves were hiding: in an old gem mine. It made sense, too, since – you know – diamond dogs, and we learned that one of them was running things. Most of the griffins roosted outside.”

“I mostly watched,” Chalice said, still ashamed. “I’m no good in a fight. You know that. Virga did everything. We captured the griffins and ransomed a few of them. Two had bounties that helped offset the cost of things, but it was just a few drops in the bucket. There was nopony to pay for the diamond dogs, and most of the griffins had no family or clan to pay for them. I tried to negotiate with Slatestone, but she said she would have to charge me to hold them! I did the job for her, to get a title, and she just kept writing me letters about… I don’t know! It didn’t even make sense.”

Chalice looked up, and her eyes narrowed in a scowl. It was hardly a very dark look. Mostly, she was just upset and sad at how things had turned out: that she had been betrayed by a pony she had trusted and believed in.

“I didn’t know what to do, and the longer I held onto them, the more gold I lost. The free company ponies all left as soon as their contracts ended and as soon as they realized there wasn’t any more ransom bits coming in. They wouldn’t even hear my offers. I finally told Slatestone that I’d hold the prisoners myself, to keep the lands safe, for a castle or a keep and some lands. Like she promised!”

“And?”

“And she lied!” Chalice cried, turning to her brother for help or advice or just some sort of explanation. “She lied to me! She said the job wasn’t done! That there were more bandits somewhere else and that I had to cross the border to catch them, too! I can’t believe she used me like that!”

Alpha Brass nodded, slowly, letting out a breath that turned visible in the cold air. “Our family has a long memory. Slatestone and her daughters and her daughter’s daughters will be punished for her deception, in ten years or a hundred.”

“That doesn’t help me now, though,” Chalice cried and groaned as she walked apace with him. “I’m almost out of bits. My ponies are still loyal, but I can see that they’re tired and hungry. I can’t even treat them to good food and drink anymore. What kind of a leader am I? Polished Jewel and Antimony must be laughing at me, even now.”

“I just,” she stuttered. “I just can’t fathom why Slatestone would do this to me? What did I ever do to her to deserve this? I helped her! She looked me in the eye and she lied to me.”

Brass was quiet for a moment, stepping carefully over a small stream.

“Chalice,” he finally replied, glancing back at her as he helped her over the water. “You are my little sister. I love you. You are kind and caring and gentle, all very worthy traits, but you offset them by being…” Alpha Brass sighed softly and shook his head. “By being weak, Chalice.”

“I know,” Chalice said, bitter. “I know…”

“Knowing you, you very likely marched those prisoners of yours off to some far off location and set them free.”

“I sent them on a train to Bitaly. The diamond dogs there agreed to take them and put them in the mines.”

“Yes, and who paid for that?”

“…I did.”

“And do you know what Antimony or Jewel would have done?” Brass asked, though the question was entirely rhetorical. They both knew, because Antimony and Polished Jewel were their father’s daughters. Everypony knew what Lord Cruciger did to bandits.

“They’d have worked out a deal beforehoof to transfer the prisoners to the deepest pits in the darkest mines,” he said, his voice hard even though his hoof was gentle in helping her over the stream, like a true gentlecolt. “Probably in the griffin lands. It would be a short life of hard labor. The ring leaders would have been executed to make a point.”

“In fact,” Brass continued, thinking again on it. “Jewel would have done that. Antimony, on the other hoof, would probably have had all of them killed on the spot, pickled the bodies and string them up just outside the Equestrian border. She does seem fond of making examples of those who threaten her.”

“And is that what you would have done?” Chalice asked, looking him in the eye. “They were bandits and thieves. A few of the Diamond Dogs even tried to trade in pony slaves. Would you have killed them, big brother?”

Brass offered her one of his knowing smiles. “No.”

Chalice smiled back at his response, as if vindicated.

“I’d have released them in Lady Slatestone’s keep, to deal with as she pleased.”

“You wouldn’t!” Chalice argued, as the two laughed. “The small ponies could be hurt.”

It was the universal rule all nobles knew to abide by: no matter what they did to each other, none were to disturb the peace and harmony of the common pony. To do so would be to incur the wrath of the Princesses themselves. The two nobles passed by one of Brass’s dogs, barking at some critter cornered under a tree stump. One dog was barking and digging to get at it while a second was sniffing around behind the stump for another way in. Alpha Brass whistled to them, and they immediately abandoned their prey to attend to their master.

“You’re right, of course,” Brass said, affectionately patting one of the dogs with a stray hoof. “You put yourself in a bad situation, but were I in your horseshoes, I would likely have magnanimously handed the bandits you caught over to those they victimized. Perhaps even whipped them into a little frenzy with a few choice words. If the small ponies kill them, then the problem is solved. If the small ponies lock them up, then they pay for it themselves. If they let them go, and the raids continue, then the fault is theirs and not yours. No matter what, your duties are fulfilled, your name known, and the blame shifts from you to others, especially Slatestone, who would be forced to intervene. There is advantage to be had in any situation, no matter how dire.”

Chalice pursed her lips in thought. “Give them to…? I guess… but wouldn’t--”

“More importantly,” Brass interrupted. “The prisoners were not even the real issue at hoof. The moment Slatestone turned on you, you should have crushed her. Hers is not a name to fear. Hers is not a great house. You must understand, sister, that one’s image is a weapon as great as any magic.”

“You think I should have dueled with Lady Slatestone?” Chalice asked. “But she’d beat me.”

“Even if you lost, you would have defended your honor. It wouldn’t have helped you this time, but it would have made later betrayals less likely.”

The timid mare shook her head. “Slatestone wouldn’t have done what she did to me to Antimony. Or Jewel. Or you.”

“Of course not,” Brass replied, and he reached out to lift his sister’s chin. “Jewel has a legion of ponies chomping at the bit to defend her name and honor. Our baby sister Antimony terrifies grown stallions with her eyes. It is one of the reasons why they work well together… one is the carrot and the other the stick.”

Chalice frowned, knowing there was no place for her in that dynamic. Soon after the contest between sisters began, Antimony and Polished Jewel had struck up some sort of arrangement. Jewel already had a small keep of her own, and Antimony to act as her enforcer. The youngest daughter of the family was still a filly, just barely in her teens, but she was said to have a reputation… nopony crossed her. The free company ponies that had abandoned Chalice would have fought each other to work under Antimony.

“Don’t fret,” Brass said, kissing her on the forehead, just to the left of her horn. “It is only a matter of time before they rip into each other.”

“How do you know?” Chalice asked, blinking.

“I know, because I have made arrangements,” he replied, returning to his walk. His hunting dogs hung around him, huffing and looking up to the golden pony. “I suspect Polished Jewel was the one who put Slatestone up to this scheme. You see, she wasn’t betraying you, so much as she was currying favor with our older sister.”

“What!” Chalice snapped out of her momentary daze, running up to him. “Are you sure?”

“Certainty is rarely a sure thing, but I would place money on it being her doing,” Brass answered, shrugging as if it was just business as usual. “Antimony is a possibility, too, but so far everyone expects Jewel to be father’s successor. She is the oldest.”

Chalice followed her brother in silence until they began heading back to the castle. Everypony thought Polished Jewel would be the successor – that she would be the one to take Canterlot for the family. Chalice could see why. Jewel was the pretty one. She was sophisticated and beautiful and stallions who heard her voice were enchanted by it. She was gregarious and outgoing and ponies loved her, great and small. It didn’t hurt her that, traditionally, it was the eldest who inherited. Her magic wasn’t weak, either. It was all just so much… so much in her favor… it seemed too unfair.

“Brother?”

“Hm?”

“Do you think Polished Jewel will win?” Chalice asked, though she trailed a few steps behind him.

He craned his neck slightly, and glanced back at her. “No. I don’t think so.”

“Really?” Chalice asked, hopeful.

“She is the obvious choice,” he admitted, facing forward again as he spoke. “Like the racer who emerges first out of the gate to take an early lead, exhausting herself in the process. What she has done is make herself a target. She has gathered a great many small favors and, in doing so, she’s become confident. Too confident. Small favors will not earn loyalty. Loyalty comes from taking risks with others. When other ponies risk much to ally with those who oppose her, gambling their future on the long odds, those will be the ponies who will decide the succession. They will fight because they cannot afford to fail.”

“I don’t understand,” Chalice admitted. “So, um… a few allies, who can’t afford to let you down... that’s better?”

“You’ve seen it yourself. The ponies who came with you from the start are still with you, while the ones you paid for with mere bits have left. Fair-weather friends have their uses, but friendship… the kind that develops out of necessity and mutual interest and opportunity… that friendship is magic, and it can move heaven and earth.”

“But,” he hastened to add, glancing back at her and motioning her forward. “I know you didn’t come all the way out here to listen to your big brother lecture you. You want help. If the choice is between you, Antimony, and Jewel, then there is no choice at all. It was always my intention to support you as heir.”

Chalice smiled broadly and hastened to walk alongside her brother again. “What should I do?”

“You don’t have the sort of forceful personality that works for duels,” he said and she retreated into her shoulders a bit. “That isn’t a bad thing. You are kind, Chalice, but timidity will not earn you favor with father.”

“But you can help?”

“I can help,” he promised. “I recently acquired a certain artifact.”

“An artifact?” Chalice asked, intrigued but a little cautious. “Where--”

“Mother restored it, actually. It is part of your inheritance.” Brass chuckled and explained, “No doubt you’re thinking: if mother restored it, then why do you have it? I anticipated you coming to me and arranged for it to disappear.”

“You stole it?” Chalice was scandalized, and deep down, a little afraid. “From mother!?”

Lady Twinkling Star Light was, first and foremost, a researcher and arcanist. She had never been all that close to her three daughters. Cruciger raised his girls, and Star Light raised her son. Not that Chalice ever remembered her mother being cruel. Chalice had fond memories of her mother… but, most of the time, she was isolated and distant. Not emotionally distant, really, just physically. For most of Chalice’s foalhood, she had only really spent one day out of the week with her mother in any real way. Her father had been the one who taught her and raised her and saw to her education.

“The torc was always meant to be used by you, Chalice. After the heir was determined,” Brass said, snorting dismissively. “Mother restored three in total. One for each of you.”

“What about you?” Chalice asked him. “Don’t you get… one of these… what was it?”

“Mother dubbed it a ‘star key,’ and no. It isn’t meant for me.” His expression was carved from steel again, his eyes fixed forward. “They are meant for Princesses.”

“Oh.” Chalice wasn’t sure whether that fact upset him or not. It was hard to tell, with stallions… even with her big brother. Her big brother and best friend. She had always been closer to him than to her sisters, and the same in reverse. Yet, lately…

“Is it a weapon?” she guessed.

A tiny pull at the corner of his mouth drew out a smile, but only for a moment. “It is a… means of communion.”

“Communion?”

“Yes,” he replied, moving ahead. “Chalice, you never really grasped this… but I’ll tell you again: you are the strongest of us. Your potential is greater than Polished Jewel’s, greater than Antimony’s, despite her eyes. There may be only one mare in the world who is your equal. The problem lies in drawing out your power and fashioning it into something productive.”

“This… communion will draw out my power?” Chalice still didn’t quite understand.

The wind blew, revealing the cutie mark beneath her cloak: a golden cage.

An empty cage.

“Chalice, my sweet sister.” Alpha Brass chuckled again. “It will make you into something this world has not seen… in an age or more.”

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“Now, little sister… open the bars of your golden cage.”

- - -

It was terrifying.

Fluttershy didn’t have any other word to describe it.

She’d been hesitant about following Chalice from the start. She probably wouldn’t have dared to at all if not for Angel Bunny’s insistent poking and prodding and her promise to Rarity. A gendarme, her, of all ponies? It was just silly. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were the right ponies for this sort of thing. Fluttershy knew she had only been included because it would be rude to exclude her. Rarity was their friend and they were all happy to support her, even if it meant taking a small title and a little more responsibility around town.

No pony had said anything about this!

Fluttershy whimpered as the air rippled, sending chills along her back and down her wings. It wasn’t a normal cold, like from a chilly wind or a high altitude. This wind set her hair on end and made her eyes water. Hiding her head under her hooves, squeezing her eyes shut tight enough to clamp in the tears, Fluttershy tried her level best to melt away and disappear into the foliage and forest detritus.

‘Like a chameleon! I’m just a chameleon! Please don’t see me! Please don’t see me! Please don’t see me!’

She’d been so - SO tempted to follow Ritterkreuz instead.

It was probably what Chalice thought she would do. Instead - Fluttershy, you silly pony - she had foalishly decided it was safer to keep an eye on her new friend instead of her half-sister. After all, Ritterkreuz was flying to meet up with Rainbow Dash and Soarin, and Chalice was all alone. Fluttershy had been convinced she had made the right decision when she cautiously discovered her friend entering the Everfree Forest. It was a dangerous forest, after all!

Angel Bunny had pushed her, forcing her to keep going, to keep watching. He had jumped on her head and stamped, pointing, when she noticed how all the wild animals in the forest fled from Chalice. The noblemare hadn’t even batted an eye as she carelessly wandered close to Marty the Manticore’s nest, some sort of black magic leading her through the forest. She had made no attempts to tread lightly. Marty wasn’t the most foul tempered of the forest’s manticores – he lived the closest to the border, and Fluttershy had met up with him a few times – so she had expected him to at least make a few warning growls. That was enough to scare anypony out of his territory and avoid a confrontation. Marty was such a nice kitty like that.

Marty had abandoned his lair at the first whiff of Chalice getting close.

‘Oh, Fluttershy, why didn’t you listen?’ she thought to herself as the forest surged with an earth pony’s desperate power. A root ripped up from near Fluttershy’s left front leg and she had to clamp a hoof over her mouth to keep from mewling in terror. ‘Why didn’t you listen to Angel Bunny? Or Mittens the Mouse? Or Tabby? Or Penny Porcupine? Or any of the other critters? Was this what scared them? What…’

Fluttershy heard a crash and squeaked, debris raining down on her, a shard of it sharp enough to cut painfully into her flank, scoring a thin red line across the butterflies of her cutie mark. She winced, instinctively, and perked her head up enough to see for herself how bad the cut was. It was only skin deep, or so it looked and felt, but--

‘What is this?’ she wondered, and her eyes already wide again, she turned towards the battle she had become an unwitting spectator to. ‘What am I seeing? Just what on Equestria am I seeing?!’

Chalice.

“I only have a single arrow.”

With her own eyes, Fluttershy had seen Chalice turn into something monstrous. She had confronted two ponies Fluttershy didn’t know and, with the same voice she had used to talk about her paintings or her love of birds or her determination to keep Fluttershy’s secret about Ritterkreuz… with that same voice, she had apologized for having to kill the two ponies in the forest.

“And I’m really sorry, but… I’m not here to talk to you,” she had said, in a voice all the more terrible for how soft it was. “By Lord Blueblood’s command, I’m here to kill you both.”

It was nothing like the Chalice Fluttershy knew.

“It always returns, and it never misses.”

The voice now was like her friend’s, still, but warped and distorted and amplified, and then replayed over the original. The source was not a petite unicorn mare with a pink coat, shy and reserved except when she had to scare off too-inquisitive guards from poking around her friend’s house. What stood in her place was a giant of a pegasus pony, the size of a barn…

‘The size of an Ursa Minor,’ she thought, with sudden realization. ‘Maybe bigger.’

Fluttershy had heard about the creature Twilight had fought with, but it wasn’t an animal of the forest, and she had never dared to try and seek it out for a chat or some tea. Ursa Minors were Star Beasts. They did not keep company or make conversation with mortal fauna. They ate and slept and, occasionally, they raged through the countryside, and there was little anypony or anycreature could do about it.

Like an Ursa Minor, Chalice’s new body was a star-strewn, semi-transparent black, tinted slightly purple and blue, twinkling with lights that appeared to be recessed deep within. There was no hint of anything else. Chalice’s body was gone, and Fluttershy didn’t see any place for it in this otherworldly Pegasus’s almost transparent form. Fluttershy’s eye was drawn to the right front leg, and the strange… bow and arrow… there.

“Return to Dust.”

The ethereal giant slowly shifted aim towards the two exhausted earth ponies. Fluttershy could see them clearly: the older one was still trying to stand, to desperately interpose himself between this threat and the younger mare with the white coat and dark black mane. His gray mane was unkempt and messy as it fell around his withers and his blue eyes were both frightened and fearless. It was a look Fluttershy had seen before, in wounded animals defending their mates… or children.

The two ponies were going to die.

“By Lord Blueblood’s command, I’m here to kill you both.”

Chalice was going to kill them.

Fluttershy’s vision turned blurry, and it took a moment to realize the tears from before were back, and not just because of the frightful magical cold emanating from the giant star spawned Pegasus. She wanted to run. She wanted to turn away. She wanted anything but to have to watch this – to even be here for this. Chalice’s words echoed in Fluttershy’s ears. Whatever monster had taken her place now, Chalice had been party to this. She had wanted this. She had come here to do this. It didn’t make sense.

Fluttershy could hardly believe it when her legs started to move.

It was like her body had suddenly taken leave of its senses and made up a mind of its own, separate from the indecisive and frightened mass behind her eyes and between her ears. Her body was running. That was probably smart. It was smart to run from this.

Which did nothing to explain why she was getting closer to it.

Her body was clearly insane or maybe suicidal. It must have some serious problems at home to want to throw itself in the way of … of whatever this was! Fluttershy fought herself for control, tried to get a grip on what was happening to her. Just her luck. Just her terrible, terrible luck! By the time she had control again, her knees shaking almost as much as her spread wings were trembling, she was in front of the two earth ponies.

“s-ss..s…”

“W-who?” the older earth pony muttered, forcing himself onto his back hooves with a pained grunt.

Fluttershy glanced back at him, momentarily interrupting her stuttering and stammering. Collapsed on the forest floor, the young mare the stallion had been protesting wasn’t unconscious like Fluttershy had assumed. Her forest green eyes were open and staring upward, wide and shocked and afraid. Something about them set Fluttershy’s trembling to pause. She didn’t know this mare or this stallion.

But she sure as Tartarus wasn’t going to watch somepony or anypony or anything murder them in cold blood.

“STOP THIS!” Fluttershy yelled, turning back to the star strewn titan. “Leave them alone!”

For a long moment, her words seemed to give the entity pause.

Then it answered, in that terrifying, distorted voice. A single word was its reply.

“NO.”

“No?” Fluttershy asked, and the world trembled where once her legs and resolve had seemed so steady. It was just the blink of an eye. Yet, that moment saw the world turn. Where once there had been blasted but still standing forest, now, there was nothing but fire and white hot light everywhere. It filled Fluttershy’s front and left, right and up. It was everywhere. It surrounded her.

Her skin and hair prickled.

Fluttershy’s heart skipped a beat, and in that instant, she was sure – beyond a shadow of doubt – that she was about to die and that the light was poised to swallow her whole and pass through her as easily as Pinkie Pie would devour a line of cupcakes. Then, as quickly as it appeared, the star brought to Equestria moved, sharply, to her side. Faster than it took to think about it, Fluttershy turned her head to try and keep it in sight.

She could see, just a bit more clearly…

It was curving around her.

It was curving around her to hit the ponies behind her!! How could it DO that?!

“NO!” Fluttershy cried, seeing the glowing white streak slip past her. It headed straight for the prone mare, and would have hit her, if another body hadn’t interceded at the last possible second.

The old stallion placed himself, kneeling, in front of the mare.

The beam of light pierced his chest with a thunderous, deafening sound: like a huge iron bell being struck with enough force to crack. The ‘clong’ reverberated through the forest and the ground underhoof shook and kicked upwards, knocking the prone mare away and bowling Fluttershy over to fall to her side. The stallion reached a hoof up to the light, now jammed into his chest, flickering with the faint outline of a spear or arrow shaft.

“Shigure!” the fallen mare cried, reaching up to him.

The old pony forced himself back up and then onto two legs. The molten bolt of star forged fire inched deeper into his chest, and Fluttershy gaped as she saw the burning tip emerge from his back.

“Yumi… hime,” the stallion said, glancing first to the mare on the ground, and then to the pegasus who had tried to protect them. He grimaced and instead of blood, a cloud of dust left his mouth. A trickle of it mixed with spit to run down his chin. “Both of you… get away…”

With a thunderous step, the bow wielding pegasus giant advanced on them. It had no face, but two recesses were the eyes would be shifted and formed into a twinkling sea of stars, like in the rest of the body but condensed. A white light, brighter than the rest, seemed to approximate a pupil within the eye. Both, in this case, were narrowed dangerously.

“No pony, mortal or immortal, can survive being struck by my arrow,” the titan declared.

“I am no pony,” the old pony - Shigure - replied, clutching the shaft of the arrow with both hooves. He still wasn’t bleeding, and Fluttershy saw why: the area around his chest was more like stone than flesh.

“I AM A MOUNTAIN!” the old earth pony roared, and fell forward, still trapping the arrow in his own body. “And I will… protect…”

“No.” The celestial pegasus raised her bow, and it thrummed with power. “You are mortal. All you will do… is die.”

Shigure turned to Fluttershy, dust flaking away from his mane and shoulders. “Miss. Please. Run.”

“Shigure?” On the forest floor, the mare’s voice was quavering, almost a whisper, but she yelped when Fluttershy grabbed her and started to run away. For an earth pony, she was fortunately lighter than Pinkie Pie or Applejack. It wasn’t hard for Fluttershy to grab hold of her and start to fly. Not with adrenalin and fear for her own life driving her flight instincts into high gear.

Watching her go, Shigure smirked. The pressure on his chest intensified again and an inarticulate scream escaped his lips as his hind legs sunk into the earth, until finally, inevitably, it gave way and crumbled. His connection with the ground - with the earth - broke, and there was only the peal of screaming air, the heat of the celestial arrow piercing his chest.

When he hit the hillside, the hillside cracked, cleaved, and melted into a parting sea of liquefied rock. A wave of it rushed up over the lips of the ravine created in his wake, spilling out into forest and copse, instantly igniting trees and disintegrating low-hanging foliage, brush and scrub and forest floor. Black ash clouds split as a bright light circled up and around.

The arrow returned to the hoof that had fired it, still burning like the heart of a star.

- - -

Bushes and branches slapped and slashed at Fluttershy’s face and franticly beating wings, but she dove deeper into the forest she could’ve sworn she could hear cracks and peals of thunder. It was only a moment later she realized what the sound had to be.

Hoofsteps.

That thing was chasing them. It hadn’t moved before, standing still and letting them make an escape as the bright light flew off, taking that poor old stallion with it. Whatever had caused it to remain in place was no longer a factor. It was chasing them, but the pause had brought them time. Fluttershy had a head start, and she knew the forest.

The hoofsteps were slow, increasingly distant, and the Everfree Forest soon swallowed up the two mares.

- - -

It was a dark and lightless place.

Chalice curled up, alone, naked, her eyes closed. She was not a big pony, even for a mare, and the seat of the throne she used like a bed easily accommodated her. It was alive with her magic, unlike the others next to it: the thrones of the sea-goat and the eagle were empty and so were the dolphin and the fish next to them. There was nopony nearby she could feel. Not even Antimony.

She hated sitting on the too-huge throne; she hated being in this place.

It wasn’t a place for living ponies.

The Empyrean Vault was so empty and alone. It was always so cold and it was hard and even painful to breathe, like there was almost no air at all. Chalice’s legs shifted, but she could barely move, even with all the room she had. She was bound tightly by the throne she sat on, just as the throne was bound to her will. Nopony else looked as uncomfortable on their thrones. Why was it so hard for her?

It didn’t matter.

She deserved to suffer for this, anyway. How could she complain about it, when she had just taken a pony’s life? It was for Brother. For the family. It was to bring an end to Equestria’s enemies. She had accepted that, but doing greater good did not absolve evil deed. Brother had said that, hadn’t he? Chalice thought she would worry for her soul, if she didn’t already know what would happen to it when she died.

‘They fled,’ she thought, directing her second body. ‘Chase them, please.’

- - -

Fluttershy felt a true love-hate relationship towards the Everfree Forest.

As long as she had lived in Ponyville, the Everfree had been a constant source of new natural wonders, a challenge in the sheer numbers of wild fauna it boasted, and because so many tame animals wandered inside, prompting their untamed relatives or children to stream back out. Fluttershy knew many animals that had moved out of the Everfree and many more than still lived inside it, crossing the pony-made border with little concern for the trouble ponies had in maintaining it. It was an invigorating and fascinating challenge, in that respect.

It was also terrifying and threatening and a never-ending source of stress and fear! There were predator species - untamed predators - that lived in the Everfree. These had to be gently coaxed into not sneaking into the lands around Ponyville for an easy meal. Fluttershy was not the type to enjoy exploring dark and forbidding forests, but she had done so anyway. Few ponies knew the wild and frightening forest like she did, or at least, the outskirts of it. No pony was insane enough to venture too deeply inside the Everfree and certainly not alone.

“Oh, oh no, oh no, oh my…” Fluttershy clamped a hoof over her mouth to cut short her nervous chattering. “We really - we really, really, really shouldn’t go any deeper than this…!”

Still holding onto the nearly insensate mare – Yumi, was her name – Fluttershy groaned as she tried to figure out what to do. Her every fiber and feather was screaming for her to head back or find a way to circle around. Her nose twitched, taking in the smell, and her eyes scanned the forest floor, noting the broken twigs and trampled flat brush.

This was not a good place.

This was really not a good place to be!

The sound of approaching thunder elicited a worried whimper from the pegasus as she forged onward, regardless. Glancing back, terrified of seeing a star-strewn pony the size of a house smashing through the trees, Fluttershy found herself thankful she could barely hear the hoofsteps of the behemoth. It had to be tearing a swath through the forest as it moved - exactly why Fluttershy had tried to escape from it by going into the thickest part of the backwoods.

There was no way she could face down that… that thing… and there was no flying away, not when it could just shoot down somepony with that bow and arrow it had. Fluttershy certainly couldn’t risk it while carrying somepony. Tightening her hold on the stranger she had risked her life to save, the Element of Kindness carefully circled around and past a large dung heap. She could tell by the composition and the smell what had left it: a jaculus. A large one, too. There was only one that large in the Everfree.

Yumi, drifting in and out of consciousness after her fight, smelt it, too.

“Awwh,” she groaned. “What in the Princess’ green pastures IS that reek?”

“You probably don’t want to know,” Fluttershy whispered, landing and pulling the mare down. “I can’t fly anymore,” she stated, but it wasn’t because of fatigue. Flying here would be dangerous.

“Shigure…” she heard the foreign mare mutter sorrowfully, before asking, a little more loudly, “Who are you? Why… why are you helping me? Where are we going?”

“Oh! Sorry! I didn’t introduce… myself. I’m, um, Fluttershy…” she spoke her name softly, but luckily the other mare heard it well enough that she didn’t have to repeat herself.

“Fluttershy,” Yumi repeated. “I thank you, sincerely, for your assistance. My name is Yumi, of the Duchy of Neighpon, I…”

Fluttershy held her hoof up to her lips, motioning for silence.

Yumi blinked in mild distress as being cut short, but she nodded, not having forgotten that they were running and hiding, not exchanging introductions over tea. Crawling through the bush, Fluttershy held up her hoof again - stop - giving her a chance to test the ground up ahead. It was dry, dusty. She quickly rolled over it, turning her back and the upper expanse of her wings a brownish butter yellow. She sniffed the air again, craned her neck up to look around for a second, and then motioned forward again.

Feeling the need to explain, given Yumi’s curious look, she said, “There should be a muscaliet den somewhere close by.”

“A what?”

Fluttershy paused, pointing up ahead. “There.”

Not waiting for a response, she crawled forward, inching along and through the thick groundcover. A rustle in the branches well above them prompted the two mares to glance up. A few stray leaves fluttered down from on high.

“We need to go faster.” Fluttershy felt the tremor in her voice and the little bit of urgency seemed to be enough to get the two to scramble through a pair of particularly thorny bushes. Fluttershy could feel her fear mix with a real sense of impending danger as she hurried forward, mindful of the fact that she had to keep low to the ground. Standing up now would be unwise – she wouldn’t even have a chance to try and explain herself before the jaculus struck at her. For all the noise it could make, it wasn’t a very talkative species… probably because it had no ears.

Reaching forward, she pulled herself into a concealed burrow in the base of a tree, turned, and grabbed Yumi’s hooves. Pulling hard, she yanked the mare inside the cramped sanctuary as quickly as she could. The lair was empty, vacated by the original inhabitant, but still warm. From the ambient temperature alone, Fluttershy was confident it was a muscaliet den. At this season, most would be living further south, but the den itself would still provide refuge.

“Oh!” Yumi gasped, and Fluttershy turned her head to see what had caught the mare’s attention.

The Neighponese pony was glaring at a black dot fixed to her front leg.

“A - a tick!” she hissed, outraged as much as she was disgusted.

“You should probably just ignore it,” Fluttershy whispered, blushing a bit at the revolted look shot her way. “We’re probably covered in them.”

“My imperial blood is not meant to be sucked by vile insects,” Yumi growled, glaring harder at the tick. Parasites didn’t exist in tamed Equestrian areas, only wild lands. That went for mosquitos, too, though they could often fly from a protected wetland to bit the occasional pony a few miles away.

Yumi reached out to rip off the offending arthropod.

Fluttershy gently batted away her hoof and used both free hooves to squeeze the arachnid. It took a little physical coaxing to get the head out, but it was something she had done many times on herself and her animal friends. Ticks and mites were common in the Everfree. Animals moving out of the forest needed tick baths and careful grooming. Holding the parasite up, its little legs kicking as it tried to find something else to latch onto and bite, Fluttershy narrowed her eyes.

“I don’t suppose you’d listen if I asked you nicely not to suck my blood?” she asked, quietly. The tick didn’t seem to notice or pay much heed to her words. Not only was it wild, it was a wild blood-drinker and disease carrier. It wasn’t like a butterfly or an inchworm. Wardens and animal Caretakers were supposed to kill them. She should probably just squish it.

Fluttershy reached outside and flicked the tick away, hopefully far enough that they’d not bump into it again.

“You’re an animal speaker,” Yumi said.

“I take care of animals around Ponyville,” Fluttershy replied, retreating back into the den and trying to keep from shivering.

“I’ve never seen a pegasus animal speaker before,” the earth pony blurted out, regretting her words a moment later. “Not to disparage you…”

“I, um, I don’t mind. I don’t know any other pegasus ponies who do this either.” Then again, she didn’t know any other pegasus ponies who were afraid of heights. It wasn’t something to be all that proud of.

“Are we safe here?” Yumi asked, diplomatically switching topics. She had a justifiably worried look to her, and coupled with her exhaustion, it softened what were probably severe and strict features on a young mare her age.

“Mostly, for now,” Fluttershy replied, and felt a question of her own rise up in need to addressing. Normally, she wasn’t one to pry or make demands, but - but--

“What happened to Chalice?” she asked, turning down her eyes and worrying away at a long strand of dirty pink mane with her hoof. “I overheard some… and it sounded like you two knew one another…”

Yumi frowned, but replied after a moment’s hesitation and thought. “I knew her through her brother, Alpha Brass. He provided some assistance to me in reaching Ponyville. I only ever met Chalice at his Hanging Gardens.”

“His what?”

“It is…” Yumi opened her mouth and just as quickly closed it. “It is difficult to describe. It is a place one can only reach with a teleportation spell of some sort. It is like a circle of buildings – two concentric circles, I believe – some of them hanging upside down above the main level. The ponies there said it was a floating palace in the sky somewhere, but… I could not say for sure. There was a magical shield around it that projected an illusion of sky above and ground below. It could even be underground, I suppose.”

Fluttershy tried to imagine such a strange place. Why would anypony want to live there? In the sky or underground there weren’t any animals or even any plants. It seemed totally disconnected from nature. Even if it was a garden, it didn’t sound all that nice.

“What happened to Chalice?” she asked again, sensing that the other mare knew something.

“I cannot begin to fathom how, but what tried to kill me… what she turned into…” Yumi shook her head in dismay. “That weapon was the Bow of Sagittarius. Did you notice the wings? Sagittarius is often depicted as a pegasus though Chalice herself is a unicorn. It is not merely her wielding a divine weapon. Somehow, she is… something like a font for Sagittarius. A star god himself.”

Fluttershy thought back to what she had heart about the Ursa Minor that had briefly rampaged through Ponyville. “Why would a… thing like that want to hurt us?”

“Chalice said the Prince” – Yumi spat the title – “wants me dead. I was running from him when she ran into me, and you ran into us. Chalice clearly had some means of controlling her new form. Maybe… maybe she’s taking the powers from the stars, or - or maybe she has some sort of magical contract with Sagittarius? I don’t know!” the Nighponese mare admitted with a frustrated snarl, slamming a hoof down onto the packed ground of the animal den. “This is the oldest and vilest of unicorn magic, the very same my ancestors fled from a thousand years ago. I never actually thought any of this was even possible!”

As if on cue, both mares quickly hunkered down and turned deathly quiet as a thundering sound heralded the approach of the threat itself. It was followed by a few tense seconds of silence. Then the peals of hoofsteps came closer, more slowly, more cautiously… more inquisitively.

“Fluttershy!” A discordant voice boomed, and the mare in question tried to hide her face under her hooves. “I mean you no harm, Fluttershy. The mare you protect now is a criminal and a murderer. She made attempt on both the Prince’s life and the life of your friend, Rarity. Give her to me.”

Another thunderous hoofstep, closer than before.

“My patience is not limitless. She is a traitor. Give her up. NOW!”

The final word, roared, shook the boughs and trunk of the tree above them.

“It is a lie,” Yumi hissed, afraid of being overhead, but afraid even more of saying nothing in her own defense. “You must believe me! I - I would never…!”

“No matter what it says,” Fluttershy whispered back. “That can’t be the pony I know. That isn’t how she speaks.” She gave a relieved sigh. “Thank goodness.”

“Thank goodness for what? We--”

The hoofsteps paused, and a second later, something huge crashed to the ground. The shocks of it could be felt in the ground and through their bodies, pressed in fear to the sides of the sturdy muscaliet den. The otherworldly voice from before, turned to an enraged roar, was met with an ear-splitting shriek. The ground rumbled a second time, and from outside, both mares could hear the sound of trees snapping like dry firewood.

“If that isn’t really Chalice, then I don’t feel so bad about leading her into a jaculus lodge,” Fluttershy explained, grabbing one of Yumi’s hooves in her own. “Be ready to run.”

“What is this jaculus? I have never heard of such a cre--”

Fluttershy abruptly pressed her face down into the ground, as a whoosh of air kicked through the mare’s mane. Snorting out of her nose, intending to at least finish her sentence, Yumi gaped as she realized the tree they had been hiding beneath had been uprooted right over their heads. It was still pirouetting through the air, even then, shedding leaves and branches, before finally disappearing into a copse of other trees that made vain attempt to catch their somersaulting cohort.

Overhead, too, she caught sight of what had to be the jaculus.

A great muscular tail whipped through the air, snapping back from the pass that had uprooted and dislocated the tree before. At the end was a spade shaped tip, bristling with hooked spines that tapered in length further up the tail. Dark feathered wings concealed part of the body of the giant reptile, if it had a body that was distinct from its tail at all, and a horned serpentine head roared as a huge, hinged jaw snapped wildly at the Sagittarian avatar’s raised foreleg.

Teeth as half as long as a pony’s leg broke against unyielding aether, but this was one of the few creatures in the Everfree that did not flee at the mere smell of the foreign interloper. The jaculus instead attacked with an even more savage fury, coiling and thrashing to defend its territory. The pair of gladiators spun around as one the giant pony’s hooves smashed into the mouth of the colossal serpent, the tail of the aether-born avatar briefly forming a canopy over the heads of the two mares.

Fluttershy and Yumi made a break the moment their pursuer put them to her back, jumping over a fallen tree and through the twisted netting of broken branches and leaves it had attached to it, like a fence keeping them from freedom. Pushing through, nearly stumbling on the uneven ground, the pair weaved around another tree, this one upright. Yumi had to follow, having no idea how far into the forest Fluttershy had lead her. Behind them, another ear splitting howl filled the air.

Yumi chanced to turn around, and immediately threw herself at Fluttershy, tacking her to the floor.

Four and a half tons of slithering predator flew overhead, crashing to the ground ahead of them. A wall of muscle and bone and scales writhed, only stunned from the impact, and a huge wing furiously slapped the ground where they had almost been standing. Each primitive, scale-like feather was the size of a pegasus pony’s entire wing, and the two mares cringed as the enraged jaculus let loose another cry, along with a torrent of corrosive, digestive spittle from its fangs. Gleaming yellow eyes set into armored pits beneath the horns went momentarily dark as a huge pony charged right into and through the toxic stream, grabbing hold of the toothy mouth and twisting, like it was trying to open a particularly stubborn jar.

The massive body of the winged snake whipped about, not so easily broken, but proving more than capable of breaking darn near everything around it. The end of the monster’s tail, the very one studded with massive flesh-rending spines, clapped against the ground nearby. Yumi and Fluttershy had no choice but to give it a wide berth as they galloped for their lives.

“Wretched VERMIN!”

A flash of light and a wave of heat nearly kicked the ground out from under them.

Stealing a look back, just before she escaped into the thick fastness of the forest, Yumi saw the great winged star-pony pinning the head of the serpent with one hoof, the other slamming the head of it into a pillar of white-yellow light, spearing it over and over, the ground thrumming with every resounding blow. The body of the beast was still wrapped tight around its would-be prey, even as the head turned to a bloody, burned pulp, a ragged mass of flesh and flying teeth. The last thing she bore witness to were a hundred smaller forms, like worms, erupting from the corpse’s wounds.

She faced forward, trying not to think about what she had seen. “I knew this vile forest was ugly, but I had no idea--”

“But isn’t nature fascinating? A jaculus is only born when the mother dies,” Fluttershy explained, daring to take to the air again, though not to go above tree level. Instead, she kept to just over the ground. “It was the only animal that wouldn’t run away.”

“Fascinating,” Yumi repeated, as if trying to convince herself. “Yes, very,” she agreed, “Now, if we can get to the edge of the forest again…”

“Oh dear!” Fluttershy gasped, suddenly landing. She shied backwards, seeing something emerging from the forest up ahead. “Oh no! I didn’t…! Who?”

“A pony?” Yumi asked. It was, and it wasn’t. No pony had stripes.

Zecora motioned them to follow her. “A fright I did not mean to give, but come with me.” She smirked. “If you want to live.”

It didn’t take much coaxing; they followed her.

- - -

“Did you see that?” Soarin circled wide over the forest, mindful not to get anywhere near the ominous sea of dark trees below.

A second later and Rainbow Dash came to hovering stop close by. She was clearly still worn out by her fight with Ritterkreuz. She could fly, and she put up a brave front, but she had collapsed onto his back before, and probably not just because it was comfortable. It wasn’t, was it? No, it couldn’t be. Soarin shook his head, knowing that was the last thing to be thinking about. He could see how tired she was. There was no way he was about to let her dive down, exhausted, to investigate whatever monsters were ripping up the Everfree Forest.

“I thought I saw somepony down there,” she told him, reaching for one of the wild clouds and having a little trouble coaxing it into solidity. After a few seconds of it doing little more than making her hooves wet, she kicked it with an angry grunt and concentrated on just hovering in place and not building a spot to rest.

“Well, there was some-thing down there, if not some-pony,” Soarin reasoned, dipping a little lower in case she did want to collapse onto him again. They were supposed to be heading back to the Wonderbolts Mobile HQ.

“I don’t know any Everfree monster that can do what we saw back there,” Dash reminded him, crossing her forelegs and frowning. “Whatever did that… if it had hit Ponyville…”

She let the statement hang, but he knew full well what that ‘what if’ would result in. Ponyville was not a large town. The gash blasted into the hillside - still half molten when the pair of pegasus ponies left it - was as long as the town was wide. Nopony would survive being near something like that. Right down the middle of it, a fifth of the town maybe, would just be gone.

“Whatever it is, it’s made a new friend,” Soarin said, looking down at the smashed and bloody battlefield they had caught up to. There had been an on again and off again trail through the forest, made by something big moving beneath the canopy of the trees.

The trail ended in carnage: some sort of huge dead snake with wings.

By the Princess Celestia’s faultless feathers, if that monster could fly, and if those huge wings weren’t just for show, then what did it say for a pair of pegasus ponies loitering overhead? There looked to be small ones down there, too, squirming around and out of the body. This forest was definitely not going to make it onto many summer catalogues for family friendly vacations.

“What need to find out what did this,” Dash insisted. “And if there was somepony down there!”

“Are you sure you don’t want to leave me to--”

“I can fly! I just need a second to…” Dash trailed off as Soarin zipped off to corral the remains of the wild cloud she had snuffed before. It took some doing, but he was soon able to fashion out a rough albeit serviceable cloud from the wild water vapor. It wouldn’t win many awards in Cloudsdale, but a pony could at least stand on it without falling through or getting soaked to the bone.

He then flew under it and snagged part of it with his tail to drag behind him.

“I’m not tired,” she insisted, landing on the cloud.

“And I’m not your chauffeur,” Soarin joked. “But here we are. Keep an eye out for any town-destroying monsters that will probably blast us to bits.”

“Yeah, okay, if you insist! I’ll do all the work,” Rainbow Dash collapsed with a relieved sigh onto the cloud, the ends of her forehooves sticking over the edge. “Thanks.”

“Hang on.”

- - -

“Z-Zecora? Not to sound ungrateful or… um… anything… but…”

Fluttershy gently drifted down from one stony ledge to the next, following Zecora while Yumi followed her in turn. The thundering hoofsteps were gone, and there was no sign of Chalice, or the thing Chalice had given her body and magic to. Zecora had led the two mares in silence since their run-in with the zebra, saying little more than to keep quiet and keep close. After all they had seen and been through, neither complained.

Until now, anyway.

“I, umm… don’t recognize this place at all,” Fluttershy admitted, chewing her lip at having to so rudely ask, “If you don’t mind me asking, where are we going? I thought, maybe, that we’d… sort of… try to go around and then out of the forest…?”

“There no need to worry, so long as we hurry,” Zecora replied in cheerful sing-song. “Just a little further and you’ll find some rest, away from the monster you fear to contest.”

Fluttershy felt a word of protest touch her lips, but she bit it back. Zecora had to know what she was doing, and it was a relief to be able to just tag along and follow. It was frightening enough trying to imagine how she could get herself out of this mess. It was just too much to have the added burden of leading somepony else to safety, too. Zecora would be able to take things from here, and Fluttershy could wash her hooves of the whole nightmare and fly home.

Angel Bunny had run off, but he was probably back home by now. He was familiar with the outer parts of the Everfree, and there was no rabbit savvier; none of the other critters would dare to waylay him. If she was a lucky pony, and if he was in a good mood, Angel could even have some tea on for her when she got back, to help calm her frayed nerves. On top of everything else, she still didn’t know what had happened to Rainbow Dash and Ritterkreuz.

‘One crisis at a time, Fluttershy,’ she thought to herself, flying over a tangled knot of roots, bulging out of the forest floor.

Yumi was close behind, dirty and miserable, but probably much less distraught about her own suffering than what she and Fluttershy had seen before: that old stallion, the one they had called Shigure. Was he this mare’s father? He looked too old to be her brother or anything, and he had - he had died protecting her. Fluttershy wished she could have met him and talked to him before. He had to have been a good pony.

‘But if he was a good pony, when would he really die to protect Yumi, if Yumi had really tried to hurt Rarity and Prince Blueblood? Maybe he didn’t know? But they seemed so close. There was no hesitation in it for him; I’ve never seen a pony move that fast. Maybe… maybe Chalice is the one who is wrong. Maybe somepony lied to her to get her to attack Yumi? But who would do that? She said Blueblood sent her.’

Fluttershy shook her head: that didn’t make sense either.

“He wouldn’t do that,” she whispered to herself. ‘He wouldn’t lie to send some poor mare to hurt another one.’

She still remembered how he had caught her setting traps for the animals at the Gala, and how instead of being outraged or calling for the guards to arrest her, he had calmly talked to her and helped her. He had explained why the animals were so flighty, encouraged her to be patient with them, and promised she could come back any time and visit them. He had been true to his word, too! Time and perseverance had won her new friends among the skittish palace animals, and, just as important, she had learned some important lessons about friendship and about herself.

Blueblood had been kind and soft spoken and gentle and nice, and he was the only other pony she knew who was into falconry, too. Even though he himself wasn’t cuddly like a bear or a marmot, she liked him. He was a nice pony. Fluttershy was sure of it. He wouldn’t do something horrible like… like what Yumi and Chalice were implying.

They had to both be wrong.

That just had to be it.

A rustle in the bushes brought the trio short, Zecora in particular motioning for the two to stay still while she investigated. She never left their sight, and, after taking a few seconds to indulge her caution, continued leading them. The problem was, she was leading them in the wrong direction. They were going deeper and deeper into the Everfree. Did Zecora think to take them clear through the forest? What good would that do?

Catching sight of some of the markings on the nearby trees, she recognized them. They were territorial rubbings - a parandrus was nearby. Nothing to be worried about, thank goodness, but it was one familiar sight in a sea of frightful unknowns. Fluttershy wondered, for just a moment, if Zecora knew some of the animals around here? Maybe she could call up some giant eagles to take them to safety?

Or would that be too convenient to hope for?

Down another long incline and over a broken ridge, the trio finally came to a slowed trot, and then a complete halt. There was somepony up ahead waiting for them. Somepony Fluttershy recognized!

“Twilight!” she cried, actually raising her voice in surprise and joy as she started running towards the unicorn mare. “What are you--” She slowed, realizing her question was actually sort of a pressing one, and not just the first thing to come to mind. “What are you doing out here? Not…that I’m not happy to see you… but… um…”

“I teleported out here, of course!” Twilight replied with a disarming smile. “Anyway, I was hoping I could talk to you in private.” She raised her voice, to make sure Yumi could hear, too. “Don’t worry, I know what happened back at the villa. We’re going to get you back to Neighpon, I promise. I just need to talk to Fluttershy for a minute.”

Yumi, who had been trotting along to keep close to her pegasus rescuer, frowned in obvious reluctance. She gave Zecora a wary look and sent one Twilight’s way as well. Fluttershy smiled, silently reassuring the mare.

“Don’t worry,” she said, confidently. “Everything’s going to be fine. Zecora and Twilight are good ponies. They’ll help us set things right.”

Yumi nodded, slowly, and backed away. “Don’t go far.”

Zecora’s smile widened and Twilight signaled with a bob of her head for Fluttershy to follow. They came up to a babbling brook, dotted with black stones and creeping moss, like a patchwork carpet on the ground. The thick, dark canopy overhead only let a few dappled rays of light through to the forest floor. Even then, it was darker than it should have been. Fluttershy wondered what time it was and how long she had been running and creeping through the Everfree.

“I’m so relieved to see you, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, breaking the silence. “I was so frightened! You won’t believe what… what I saw… I still can’t believe it.”

“Mhm,” Twilight muttered.

“Not just that… I - I saw a pony die… he was, he was…” She struggled to put it in words. “Twilight, something’s very wrong with - with, well… Chalice said things, and - and Yumi, too. I think somepony’s been lying to them.”

“You’re thinking too much,” Twilight grumbled, leading her further from Zecora and Yumi.

Fluttershy’s hooves paused, unable to keep going. “I’m what?”

Twilight stopped, too, her back to the Element of Kindness. Her tail flicked to the left, anxiously, and abruptly she spun around. Smiling. Her smile was so wide, really, it was downright unnatural. Twilight didn’t smile that wide without showing her teeth, and usually that was a bad sign, too, given how eccentric the bookish unicorn could be. Skittish by nature, Fluttershy ducked her head and shied back a step as Twilight approached her.

“Fluttershy, relax. It’s me, Twilight. You must’ve seen some very strange and scary things.” Close enough, now, she placed a comforting hoof on Fluttershy’s left shoulder. “But that’s all over now. No more scary things. I promise.”

She lied.

Twilight’s mouth opened, a sibilant hiss parting her smile and revealing fangs. Fluttershy squeaked, falling backwards in a panic, as he friend lunged towards her--

And then the face was gone, replaced by a placid white and charcoal wooden mask. The hissing Twilight Sparkle came up instantly short, falling onto her front hooves and then onto her knees. All the energy seemed to ebb quietly out of her, and Fluttershy opened her mouth to try and scream – to call for help, despite the vice-like grip her fear had on her throat – when she noticed the thing on Twilight’s back, helping to bring her down.

As ‘Twilight’s’ body hit the leaf strewn forest floor, a black-tipped hoof slipped off the wooden mask that had so quickly subdued her.

“For those a deep sleep does elude, I have a solution both potent and crude,” Zecora stated, holding up the wooden mask before slipping it back into her brown traveling cloak. “A sleeping mask that clears up snoring; this is also market I’ve been exploring.”

Nudging over the sleeping unicorn, the lavender coat began to fade, gradually replaced by plates of ink-black chitin and green membrane. Before the eyes of the two mares, the form of their friend fell away, leaving behind an insect-like creature in the form of a pony.

Zecora raised an eyebrow at the sight, otherwise unruffled.

Fluttershy fainted.

Zecora sighed, reaching back into her cloak. “Luckily for you, I have a brew for that, too.”

- - -

Gale Force snickered under her breath as she watched her prey. Yumi was still frustratingly cautious, and, though the day’s events must have lead the Neighponese mare to a state of near exhaustion and stripped her of all her protectors, she was still dangerous. She was quite possibly the most dangerous earth pony in the world. Taking her, holding her, replacing her fully… it would have to be done carefully, at least until they got the poison in her veins.

A unicorn could be subdued by blocking or even handling the horn, and a pegasus was nothing once the wings were webbed up. An earth pony, though? That could be more difficult. Yumi was still on edge. She wasn’t letting ‘Zecora’ near her.

That only meant a little patience was required.

Once Arrow Head came back wearing the skin of that little pegasus, the one Yumi did appear to trust, then they’d have one changeling at her back and one at her front. They’d both lunge, sink their teeth in, and there would be no stopping both of them. Gale Force only hoped her sister didn’t waste all her poison on the pegasus. Just knocking her out with hooves would do it. Yumi was the more dangerous one.

How fortunate they were! Everything was turning out splendidly! Thanks to that butter yellow pegaus, Yumi had managed to escape from Chalice and gallop right into their web, tired and nearly helpless. It was perfect. Just perfect!

The heiress to Neighpon and the Element of Kindness would both vanish in the Everfree, far from prying eyes, along with the tragic loss of the two Royal Guards Gale Force and Arrow Head. It was a true tragedy, no doubt. The ponies probably would rejoice when, a few days later, both mares miraculously re-emerged from the dangerous forest. A miracle indeed!

Gale Force felt another contented chuckle almost break past her lips.

The only question was which one of them would replace the Element of Harmony and which the Neighponese Princess? Both were prestigious skins to wear. Both would mean being directly under the command and eye of the Queen herself. Replacing the pegasus would mean infiltrating that group of six mares and staying here in Ponyville. That could be amusing, but not particularly empowering.

Replacing the earth pony would mean being under confinement for a time and playing along with the scheme to blackmail Alpha Brass. The masquerade would be more fun with the skin returned to Neighpon, to keep it from helping Canterlot when the invasion began. It would be the more uncomfortable job, certainly, at least at first. In the long run, however, the changeling who took Yumi’s skin would have her power as well. It was a job the Queen would give to a breeding changeling and not a mere drone. So: it would difficult at first, but potentially very rewarding.

Gale Force just wasn’t sure just how to settle which changeling would get which job. What was the fairest way to divide things up? Maybe a game of ‘Stinger-Pincer-Mandible’ would settle things amiably? Best two of three. Yes, that was the fair thing to do! Winner takes earth pony.

A rustle in the bushes preceded Arrow Head’s return in the form of the timid little pegasus mare.

“Oh, um, hi,” Arrow Head muttered in a soft voice. “I mean, um. I’m back.”

She was really playing her part to the hilt.

“What of Twilight, our friend?” Gale asked, “I assume there was business she had to attend?”

Damned clunky rhyming; how did that crazy zebra manage it?

Fluttershy scraped her hoof against the ground. “Umm. I guess so. I mean, yes.”

“Lady Yumi still seems most distressed; you should provide company and see her worries addressed,” Gale Force said, licking the inside her mouth, her black tongue tracing along the curve of her fangs in anticipation.

“Fluttershy,” Yumi said, still plainly wary of some treachery in the shadows. It was foalish paranoia, of course. It was also rather justified, though she had no way to know that fact.

Perhaps the Neighponese noblemare would feel some vindication in being so cautious, once they bit down on her and as her body turned numb and unresponsive. There was always something so delightful in the eyes of ponies once they were rendered helpless: that flavor of fear that they produced, topped with the whipped cream of shock and realization and regret.

Stupid, stupid ponies.

Gale Force turned her back on Arrow Head and stalked towards Yumi. It was time.

“S-sorry… about this!”

The sound of hoofsteps galloping forward warranted a moment of confusion from the changeling. Was Arrow Head running past her? She turned her head slightly only to feel a weight land on her back. She caught sight of a yellow wing and realized it was Arrow Head. The other changeling had jumped onto her back. What was she doing?!

Then the mask covered Gale Force’s face.

Only in the split second before she fell asleep did Gale Force realize her error. “You… tricked…?!”

Hitting the forest floor, face-first, the changeling in the guise of Gale Force never appreciated the irony of just how she had been felled. She never felt the hooves grab onto her and drag her away or the ropes that bound her legs. Time did prove her right about one thing, however.

The Royal Guards Gale Force and Arrow Head never did return from the Everfree Forest.

Comments

[Hoof of Approval]

Fluttershy the Spy~

[djthomp]

Random theory, those dogs are all changelings. I may not have the timeline right for it, however.

“I had to purchase them, actually.” Brass didn’t frown, but there was a note in his voice that Chalice recognized. “For a rather exorbitant fee.”

Oh yeah, they're changelings.

Oh crap, so that's the purpose of the Torcs??

Go Fluttershy!

Shigure, noooooooo! What an exit, though.

An excellent plan, Fluttershy, if a little scary. Ooo, and there's Zecora, I had a feeling we'd be seeing her.

“I’m not tired,” she insisted, landing on the cloud.
“And I’m not your chauffeur,” Soarin joked. “But here we are. Keep an eye out for any town-destroying monsters that will probably blast us to bits.”

Heh.

Or maybe not Zecora. More changelings?

A rustle in the bushes preceded Arrow Head’s return in the form of the timid little pegasus mare.
“Oh, um, hi,” Arrow Head muttered in a soft voice. “I mean, um. I’m back.”
She was really playing her part to the hilt.

The Royal Guards Gale Force and Arrow Head never did return from the Everfree Forest.

Awesome, and just a little bit creepy.

[*sigh*]

I uh.
I may not have been paying as much attention to that last part as I should have. What happened there?

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2188882
An ironic twist, in this setting at least, is that changelings can copy a pony's magic once they're captured and bonded by blood. Blueblood's replacement, in chapter 30 for example, was surprised and pleased by the powers he copied from Blueblood. What this means is that Chrysalis can actually cast Cadance's love magic herself... feeding off the love is harder than just that, though, since Cadance's magic isn't love itself, but stoking the flames of love in others.
And whose to say she isn't using it?

2189338
It did actually... escalate, that is. Chalk it up to how the mane six have an inexplicable ability to make any and all carefully laid plans go wild.

2189717
I had hoped to get to Sand Dune and Rarity this chapter (31) ... but in the end, I opted against dividing the focus of the installment. I hope you'll find it interesting, regardless. Yumi and a certain somepony have a romp trough the forest.

2189882
I'm not sure. I don't recall using that convention all that much. What you have seemed fine, though. Lol. Sry for the 6 weeks delay in this! Vacation and then writing, I forgot about a ton of stuff and ended up putting it off till now!

2194081
I know I got to chat with you about TPC's changelings over PM before, but since we're attending to that again with the new chapter 31, I thought I'd add one or two things. In TPC, the changeling swarms (and there are more than just the huge one Chrysalis commands) are largly defined by the character of their leader. Most are not nice individuals, but that's also because they see those around them as either potential predators or potential prey. They do have individual thought and initiative (as shown in this chapter) but since the Queen controls which changelings are drones and which can breed, there isn't much a changeling can do to buck the system. If there is a future for the race in TPC, it will have to involve Chrysalis leaving the picture.

2196098
Thanks!
I was sort of dreading that quite a few readers would be turned away by the Euporie-Pinkie stuff, even though Pinkie dealt with things pretty decisively. It was sordid, after all. I'm glad you're enjoying the villains in this piece. I've sure got a bunch of them to juggle!

2196436
In fact, things are already spinning out of control of everypony's plans. I'm trying, as I've said before, to draw together various plot strings now as I inch towards the climax and finale, but when writing I often can't help but wish I could go off on another tangent about this or that. Focus has to be my watch-word until I get to the end now. Schemes and so many other schemes everywhere!

2196931
I thought about the sentiments in your post while writing up the new chapter, you know. Please don't think I've forgotten about it. Now that I've crested the hill in antagonist's schemes, I need to remember to keep up the momentum, despite the occasional dip or rise.
And I'm still so very glad that people liked my conclusion to RD's fight with Ritter. Dash is a very physical pony, and even her cleverness is sort of 'good instinct' (as it was described, way back in the fic), but her heart is in the right place and that shines through. That, and as I said, some battlefield cleverness. That quick thinking, you can call it.
Vinyl and Fleur were fun additions not in my original outline. I added them, I'll admit, partly because of the fun I had with them in the TBNE-Sweetie Belle Chronicles crossover chapters. I had to give 'em some love in the melee.

2197046
There will be a little (at the very least, as I show Rarity and Sand Dune) but I need to keep focused on the gradual resolution. Most all the schemes themselves are set and in play, so what's left is the "scramble" as all those plans come apart and need to adapt.

The intrigue-tag is really one of the reasons I wrote TPC. The fandom needs more of it, I think.

2197051
I am just a man! And if I was a AI born of internet-ponydom,I would probably be writing mathematically perfect porn. ahem. square root of 1 + square root of 1 = HOT
Chapter 30's differing fight scenes were partly an experiment on my part. RD's was the conventional control; the grand melee was the more unorthodox. I'm happy with how both came out, but the latter was pretty crazy and hectic. In terms of narrative approach, I didn't have any references on how others handled such a thing, so I developed my own.
Yes, Chalice. 31 is really her chapter to shed some more light on her bucked-up family and what it means to be a child of the Terre Rare.

2197392
If there is one thing I always try and do in fight scenes is to make everyone awesome, not just one or two characters.

2197508
2197880
The others - especially the three mentioned, Pinkie, AJ and Rarity - really do have that 'improvisation' advantage over Twilight (RD's no slouch either), but it isn't just for that reason that I've been "holding her back" a bit. Twilight is the obvious powerhouse of the mane six and those that know what she is capable of are all careful around her (as Antimony was). Despite that, though, I see Twilight as less innately confrontational than almost all her friends. AJ, Rarity, RD, are all much more likely to seek a fight. Pinkie, Twilight and Fluttershy are more keen to back down, unless the situation is really bad.
Not... the best general rule, I guess, but in terms of initial impressions.

So, why isn't Twilight kicking ass? Well, Ritter blitzed her and basically grabbed her by her weak spot (the horn) and in chap 30 she was in the unenviable position of protecting a large number of other ponies and then solving how to defeat the Timberwolves, which wasn't a matter of strength. I guess I can summarize it by saying that I'm trying to get across that Twilight's greatest strength and asset isn't her magical power, it is her knowledge and her ability to gain more knowledge. Her power is the power of STUDY. The huge magical power comes second to that, because there are a low of powerful ponies (like Chalice) but few marry that power with an exhaustive knowledge base and keen mind. This way, when Twilight does cut loose (and she'll have to eventually), it will be her power enhancing her knowledge and not the other way around.

Does that make any sense? I hope so. lol

[Themaskedferret]

Oh bloody hell, things are getting more and more...just wow.

[Couch]

Good to have you back.

It all starts to unravel now, looks like, and all of these nobles have payment long overdue. I do have to wonder sometimes why Celestia even allows all this, though, even if not all nobles are quite as bad as the Terra Rares they're still not providing any clear benefit that's remotely worth everything they do. Alpha Brass's comment aside, those outside the nobility do get hurt by their machinations, even if it's not necessarily physical harm.

[Skrillex]

Wooooooooooop

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2198008
I'm not really musically inclined myself, haha, and it's always tough trying to fit in songs and things. I had less trouble in TBNE, but Pinkie Pie in general invites putting some crazy thing or another to melody.
Regarding Chalice... well, you'll see more in chapter 31. How did Antimony beat her? Think about it, though, and that scene where she was rooting around Blueblood's library looking for 'something' and it may just strike you. heh.

2198450
A banzai tree!
haha! I should've thought of that!
Twilie... you'll get your chance, but you also need a suitable opponent or four and some incentive to turn Battlefield Bookworm on everypony.

2199477
Sadly so.
I'm moving bit by bit towards the finale. We're in the last 1/5th.

You're actually quite right with respect to Celestia's thinking and planning there (though there may not be an opportunity to have her explain it in story). She set things up once she found out about the WWD's experiments to have Ritter and RD meet (in the Wonderbolts), not just so Ritter could pass on her martial skills to Dash, but so Dash could help Ritter come to terms with herself and gain a friend. Unfortunately, Ritter's patience for staying in the Wonderbolts was less than Celestia could have anticipated (she left before Dash could join obviously) but things still worked out roughly as Celestia planned, with Ritter toughening up Dash and Dash softening Ritter (and keeping her from leaving Equestria to become a self-destructive and murderous mercenary or pirate).

2199515
The Shy One cometh!
Though not a fighter - so I can't give her the same treatment most of the others have had - I hope I can portray her as kick ass and even badass in her own adorable way in the new chapter 31.

2199682
This is also true. Twilight, even in TPC (where she's rather "archmagey" to paraphrase the tvtropes) has a lot to learn. In the canon Sweetie Belle Chronicles chapters with TBNE, I introduced some archmages who perform an up-aging spell on Sweetie. One of them alludes to it being very fortunate that only they know how to do certain magics. Blueblood notes it is very profitable as well. I leave it to the imagination whether the restrictions on learning and/or performing certain magic is due to difficulty of the spell, lack of magical focus or power, or just the knowledge being tightly restricted and regulated.

There was, in that cross, also introduced the notion of accumulating difficulty as spells become increasingly alliterative. Bluebloods in the past (at least up to the 23rd) had to earn their names by becoming proficient in a five-alliteration spell. In modern times, Blueblood seems to imply no-pony at all is capable of a 5-alliteration spell anymore, except maybe one.

2200484
Haha. Actually, the imagine I had of it is mostly inspired by the Ursa Minor, but there are some similarities, especially when Chalice's transformation, since it has the bow and arrow.

2209521
I'm glad someone got that! I mentioned it before (the Dicta Boltke) and thought it was just really neat, myself. Since it is both based on some of my favorite real life stuff, and it could tie into the formation of the Wonderbolts. (Wonder-boltkes)

2259422
Antimony and Rarity both sort of broke that Pinkie promise (not to hurt one another) but Pinkie is a forgiving mare. She still seems convinced they'll be battle-forged friends some day...

2273404
This is very presciently observed. Somepony did betray Alpha Brass, and he does blame Discord for it. The question is 'who' and where are they now? In fact, with chapter 31 out, the answer can be gleaned by those who look closely enough.
Eunomie mentioned her name before there was a face to go with it, back when she interrogated Shady Deal.

2276021
2302048
I hope my lack of a response for so long wasn't taken as a dismissal. I'm pretty cool about thing being borrowed from my fics or ideas. Downright gentlemanly to ask, though. We need more Pokey Pierce in general!
It looks like you soldiered past the Ritterkreuz and Euporie parts, too. They're not everyone's cup of tea, when it comes to characters and certainly not behavior, but as a writer (and as their creator) I try and have their abrasiveness and personalities make some sense, given their background.

In fact, now that I think about it, counting the mane six, basically every main character in this story is kind of a basket-case! These ponies really are crazy.
Well, except Soarin and Pierce. They're just bros.

2291814
Thanks; your analysis reminded me of all the research I did when I needed to come up with a name. The deciding factor, as you discovered, was as you said, "more importantly, it is very similar in its effects on mammals to a much better known element, arsenic." Antimony very much sees herself as the one to right the historical injustice that happened to Arsenic. And... a bit more that hasn't been revealed yet.
Also, she's poisonous and a beauty product, which yes, fit her perfectly.

2300857
One of my personal favorite exchanges, actually. I've said it before: Pinkie Pie is a damn scene thief. She steals almost every scene and chapter she's in.

2310834
I remember that... my original thought, back then, was that 'it was too like Shining Armor' and that I didn't want 'knight' in the name of a mare. Looking back, I'd have cared less about it, since I ended up constantly using Ritterkreuz, and so did all the other characters. The translated version of her name proved to be superfluous. lol

2324007
Thanks man. OCs are such tricky things, even as antagonists. When I was outlining this stuff, I paused so many times as I looked at the characters I planned to use: Ritter - crazy psychobitch especially - and wondered, GG, am I really going to pull this off? I'm glad that, I think, most of my remaining readers are happy with how I've foisted a few colorful OCs on them to join the mane six in this adventure of scheming and explosions.
A best Rarity? You flatter me, sir.
And yes... her. Sooner than you may think.

2327557
Oh man, I remember that! Classic!
Yeah. "You're a real pain in the neck!"

2342092
That's because I thought, in writing TPC, I'll make two arcs. Antimony and Post-Antimony, just in case I wanted to stop after Antimony was defeated. So, yes, just as you inferred, there's a real divide there, like season 1 and season 2.

2372374
2415876
I pulled these two quotes together, because they are connected in a way. You might have noticed that - as with Euporie and Eunomie outright stating that they have plans that Brass doesn't know about - Alpha Brass always prefers to work through others and, if possible, have those others use their initiative. This is both personal and a practical development in light of changeling troubles, and it is also a measure of faith Brass has in his daughters and his sister. Brass isn't like Antimony, in that he is formidable because of himself and his abilities first and foremost, but because he surrounds himself with others who support him and who share in his end-game and beliefs. So, even if he did die or disappear, it really wouldn't matter. Others would carry on in their own ways.

Ironically, this makes him very much like the changelings, as he himself describes them. "Remove the Queen, and a dozen will appear" - remove Alpha Brass, and a dozen followers will rise up, believing just as he does. But then, the comparisons and similarities between Brass and the monsters he hates is rather intentional.

Whew! Now, with the new chapter out and me mostly caught up on stuff, time for a little break!

[RoboRed]

I was hoping Flutters would have a moment to shine.

Damn, poor Shigure. What a way to go...

[Obsidian]

2437707 - I still want Twilight to kick ass... I thought she took Celestia's words to heart.. 'Don't Panic, Cause it!' but no... she's still being meek and non-confrontational when she needs to be. I dare say I think you've significantly deviated on Twilight's character though. She may be less confrontational than AJ or Dash, but she really isn't anywhere near Fluttershy's level.

Your probably taking it from her performance vs Trixie? That's because she doesn't like using her power frivolously, especially in circumstances when it could alienate her, but more and more, these haven't been those sorts of circumstances. She has no problem breaking out to protect ponies, and there have been some significant threats recently.

With any luck you'll start having her be a bit more pro-active, granted there hasn't been much room for her to start knocking skulls yet. Still, I know she's supposed to be comparable to Chalice (who can summon and control a star-god it seems), and really... she's probably even more powerful than that, though she likely doesn't have extensive access to brutal lost magics like that.

You also say everypony (that may come in conflict with her) knows of her power, but I think Twilight is one of the least knowledgeable of the lot and it seems to be massively overplayed based on evidence. Sure, her extended family thinks she's strong but she really hasn't displayed that much yet. It's probably some sort of mental restraint or something holding her back, but still... I don't see how the greater family would be wary of her when shes never expressed it, it's a chicken before egg type thing.

[Admiral Stoic Rum]

excellent work old chum, feels a little on the short side, but I could have just been absorbed into the story.

how long did it take for you to decide on a jaculus?

[Radiant Silver]

This was an amazing chapter! keep up the awesome work

[Convisku]

The changeling!Zecora's rhyming is pretty poor compared to real!Zecora's; focusing so much on making the final words rhyme that she messes up the rest of her speech pattern. That's an excellent touch.

Fluttershy! Poor, sweet Flutters. You're really growing into your natural bloodthirstyness aren't you?, leading what-you-then-thought-was-Chalice into the jaws of such a monster. Seriously though, Kindness is best element.

As this finishes up, I guess a benefit of being so close to the end is that soon we'll see Twilight lay a beatdown on somepony(s). And even better, get validation from the princess! In my mind I expect her to have significant anti-dark magic skills and training as granted (re: arranged for reasons perhaps other than stated) by Celestia that she will bring to bear against, say, leashed Star Beasts. She probably doesn't know how to cast dark magics herself on anything but a theoretical level. Then again, there was that eye thing in the S3 opener...

[Hilltopper2]

Heck might be fun if Twilie has to Ascend ahead of schedule to not panic but to cause it....

[Racheakt]

Hmmmmmm....

I think, strangely, that we might actually end up seeing Gale Force and Arrow Head at some future date. After all, they never reall entered the forrest either. Eh?

[Xanderfox]

Why do I have this sense that a LOT of Changelings are going to suffer the same surprise of "What your NOT a changeling?" I also have this vision of Alpha Brass mistakenly causing Twilight's Ascension early and taking advantage of it by using the "Anger Godzillia then aim him At the Monster" method to try and kill Chyrsalis?

[Always Breakfast]

Well, this was intense. Poor Shigure.

Good for Fluttershy on the escape sequence and messing with changelings! I totally want to see concept art of the jaculus, too.

[Lurks-no-More]

So, the first Zecora was a changeling luring them into a trap with the Twilight-changeling... only the Twilight one was defeated by the real Zecora, who then had Fluttershy defeat the one masquerading as the zebra? Did I get that right?

On the subject of the dogs, I'm thinking that Alpha Brass got them from somewhere in order to literally sniff out the changelings inflitrating around him, which would explain his comment to Chalice about her "passing the test", which suggests he's been preparing himself to move against Chrysalis for a long time. And, once again, he comes off as this wonderful mix of a heroic villain or villainous hero!

Also, I'm thrilled by all the less-known critters from Medieval bestiaries that you're populating the Everfree with, like the jaculus. Your Fluttershy is another excellent character, with the right mix of fretful timidity and anxiety about nearly everything, and fearless interest in all things natural, no matter how red at tooth and claw. Nice!

All in all, another very enjoyable chapter. Now, I just want more Rarity!

[RevelRomp]

I think I'm going to have to reread this chapter a few more times (and at least once back to back with the previous chapter to get a feel for the context again) before I have any particular solid opinions of it. I do still feel that some kind of bloody violence or gore warning may be appropriate in the story description. The Games We Play in particular gave me that feeling, but Motivate was really the first to throw that flag for me, and now Escape. I made an assumption at the lack of labeling, and while some expectations can be swatted down with a pre-read of the TVTropes pages before starting a story, shocks are still here and there when the context starts to line up in the actual reading. In any case, the lack of such a forewarning isn't going to prevent me from finishing the story.

I got through Fallout Equestria, Project Horizons, and The Immortal Game / Ponies Make War just fine, but I guess in those cases it's an expectations thing. They had the labels up front, and all three had war as a core theme, so the violence was expected and over time became mundane and expected of them in the midst of all the other things more important to the story.

Or maybe that's the point.This Story Content may be intended as a surprise, with the pleasantries and terrors that surprises entail. I don't know.
--

Anywho, neat stuff. Seeing more Fluttershy being slightly less of a coward, and spacecritters is pretty neat. And dogs! And more politicalplotting! Yay! I don't like the changelings at all, but if it's anything like the other characters I don't like, that's completely by design.

[Shantara]

it's good to have you back, Capn! I thought Sweetie has totally consumed your soul, but having a vacation is always great!

Alpha Brass' dogs - are those for sniffing out changelings? Interesting... I wonder if they would be able to sense a deeply bonded changeling?

I have a feeling that Slatestone's betrayal was orchestrated by Alpha Brass himself to offer Chalice help, earn her trust and turn her into his pocket superweapon.

Transition between opening scene with Alpha and Chalice and fight in the forest was a bit confusing. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out that the first one was describing events before Chalice's arrival to Ponyville. Or was it?

Shigure! ;_;

Haven't heard of any of the creatures you were describing before, but was delighted to find out they all were real (as in 'from real myths').
Jaculus had no self-preservation instinct when getting in fight with Sagittarius, because it knew that it's death would give a birth to its children?

Liked all strong Fluttershy moments in this chapter - her readiness to risk her life for complete stranger, her unwillingness to squash a tick and her fascination with nature in all its forms, even those that other ponies find ugly.

Out-masquerading changelings is fun!

[Luminary]

Shigure was my favorite in the lackey swarm.
Pretty much the only one I really cared about, or remember from the Yumi's retainers.

Well, I guess there's still no shortage of OCs. Plenty more available for murderizing!

Nice to see another chapter of this, Cap'n! Was starting to worry about burn-out, which would have been painful at such an advanced stage in the story.

Now, first and foremost, your Fluttershy was badass. Oh, I admit, I was expecting more epicness and divine Stare-downs, and that would have been good too, but the way things played out with far less cliche. Whenever Flutters gets her hero groove on, there's something extra special about it. It's doubly awesome just by virtue of her being the one doing it.

And yet, it's still very, well... Fluttershy. The way she tries to save the tick, and tries glaring at it. Or how she knows where the various critters' homes are. All those are tiny things, really, but that's where the pure gold of characterization and story is. Your attention to the little details is my favorite thing about your writing.

Also, I love Chalice. I probably shouldn't, as she's a villain. But she's just so... pitiable. She's Dark!Fluttershy, and how can you be mad at that? The flashback scene with her speaking to her brother only amplified the effect. She just really needs a hug. (And a stern reminder that 'because my family asked' isn't a valid reason for murder).

Also, inept villains never get old. The changelings were cute.

All in all, I enjoyed the chapter. It just seemed to fly by, which, I suppose, is a credit to the pacing.
Can't wait for more, as always.

[Z2]

There's something about the dynamic of Fluttershy's heroics in this chapter... Her versus Sagittarius is kind of 'The Ultimate Hunter' versus 'The Ultimate Prey'. I can't think of anything more appropriate you could have done with it.

[coandco]

“Looks like you passed the test,” Bass said, cryptically, his smile widening slightly. “I’m glad.”

I assume "Bass" is supposed to be "Brass"?

The body of the beast was still wrapped tight around it’s would be prey, even as the head turned to a bloody, burned pulp, a ragged mass of flesh and flying teeth.

"It's" should be "its", since replacing it with "it is" doesn't make sense in context.

Zecora motioned them to follow her. “A fright I did not mean to give, but come with me.” She smirked. “If you want to live.”

Hah! Zecora, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

‘One crisis at a time, Fluttershy,’ she thought to herself, flying over a tangles knot of roots, bulging out of the forest floor.

"A tangles knot of roots" doesn't parse. Should it be "a tangled knot of roots"?

[Forderz]

Shigure...

You were a mountain, friend.

[Kraid]

It lives! Awesome chapter though i am sad to see my favorite mountain gone.

[DungeonMiner]

Six chapters after we find out that Brass is playing a third angle, and we still aren't sure what it is...

Excellent job.

[Psykosis]

Zecora would be able to take things from here, and Fluttershy could wash her hands of the whole nightmare and fly home.

Okay, I'm not usually the one to point out mistakes, but something about that sentence doesn't look quite right.

[404]

2437627
Isn't it obvious? Alpha Brass captured them and fed them to parasprites.

[Kristaline]

R.I.P. Shigure. You were loved by many fans here and they will not forget you

I'm worried for Fluttershy (and Yumi). I hope that critters will avenge them (okay, I can dream ). The most plausible situation is that Angel Bunny will saw that Changeling!Fluttershy is not real and try to inform the other Mane 6.

It's a fantastic chapter ! Keep the good work !

[elmagnifico]

2442470

Lyra approves of the expression used.

Also, Alas poor Shigure. Stupid cheating star ponies and their overpowered powers. Although I do hope he has a son/apprentice/nephew of some sort to carry on the banner. His name should be Molehill, or the Japanese transliteration thereof.

[q97randomguy]

“Looks like you passed the test,” Brass said, cryptically, his smile widening slightly. “I’m glad.”
“Test?” Chalice asked.

Why, the "are you a bug" test of course!

“A fright I did not mean to give, but come with me.” She smirked. “If you want to live.”

I see what you did there.

She still remembered how he had caught her setting traps for the animals at the Gala, and how instead of being outraged or calling for the guards to arrest her, he had calmly talked to her and helped her.

Should have a comma. Also, I like the integration of the time loop.

Maybe she could call up some giant eagles to take them to safety?
Or would that be too convenient to hope for?

No, probably not. You're in Equestria, not Middle Earth.

Great chapter! I'll also bid my farewells to Shigure. May he rest as one with the mountain.
PM to follow.

[Ono-Matopoeia]

Very very good. Asses are being kicked. Plans are starting to come undone. You are vindicated.

Just keep up the pace on the bad-guys-losing-ness.

[Ono-Matopoeia]

I'm going to make a prediction here and say that Ritterkreuz is going to show up again, possibly for the grand finale, to help kick ass and take names. Possibly a Butch Cassidy type ending. Go down fighting and shit, yeah? Buy time for Twilight and the others to unload some rainbow laser death on the Changelings and that bitch Chrysalis.

[BornEquestrian]

2442999

Reread the end of the chapter, the real Zecora saves Fluttershy, who then pretends to be a changling and knocks out the fake Zecora with the sleeping mask.

emphasis

As ‘Twilight’s’ body hit the leaf strewn forest floor, a black-tipped hoof slipped off the wooden mask that had so quickly subdued her.

The sound of hoofsteps galloping forward warranted a moment of confusion from the changeling. Was Arrow Head running past her? She turned her head slightly only to feel a weight land on her back. She caught sight of a yellow wing, and realized it was Arrow Head. The other changeling had jumped onto her back. What was she doing?!
Then the mask covered Gale Force’s face.
Only in the split second before she fell asleep did Gale Force realize her error. “You… tricked…?!”
Hitting the forest floor, face-first, the changeling in the guise of Gale Force never appreciated the irony of just how she had been felled. She never felt the hooves grab onto her and drag her away or the ropes that bound her legs.

In the end both changelings failed and now 2 ponies and a Zebra are aware of their existence, while not being under anyone's control. That is the best possible outcome this chapter could end on.

Edit: Fluttershy could not believe Yumi or Chalice that Blueblood was like that and now she has a plausible reason for them to both think they're right but be wrong. Eagerly awaiting the next chapter

[Arzoo]

2438372

I suspect Twilight has been light on action for dramatic effect. Nothing but the climax will do for Equestria's greatest mage cutting loose.

[Ack Sed]

New chapter! And Fluttershy proves her courage, ranger skills and even a bit of sneakiness.

Shigure, no...

[Xuncu]

"In caves dark and dank,
Even worse than Tora Bora;
You tried to trap me;
Bitch, please! I'm Zecora."

[Ponibius]

Lots of great stuff this chapter all around. More hints about Alpha's scheming, the true power of the Torc, and Shigure death.

I loved how you showed Fluttershy using her knowledge and skills to escape a harrowing situation. Not many ponies could have gotten out of that situation alive. Nice, solid chase scene there.

[Capn_Chryssalid]

It is good to be back and to get out of the funk from before. I've got some fun stuff I'm looking forward to writing. I can't let one fanfic, no matter how it made me cringe, get in the way. Time to pick up where I left off, eh?
Ah, but comments!

2437756
I was thinking about this in another TPC related post, though it mostly was a matter of scales. In TPC, Equestria is many times larger than it is in canon... if I had to put a number on it, roughly, there are probably between 20 and 30 million ponies in TPC Equestria, divided between the many realms and Duchies. Practically speaking, this is simply too many to do without an extended bureaucracy. There are limits to how much it can be micromanaged. Celestia is a hands/hooves-off ruler, for the most part, and a believer in diversity of cultures and opinions within her country. What she does is provide a moral, spiritual and doctrinal focus for the nobles who are part of and oversee the bureaucracy itself. It is a system that plays to the strengths of ponies, their herdish mentality, and it works... most of the time.
Even then, Celestia is not entirely out of the game here. In fact, she has her hooves in things even now.

2438378
2439535
I actually assembled a smattering of potential beasties to use, a little Everfree Bestiary I guess, but I didn't get to use them all. Mentions of them serve to reinforce Fluttershy's knowledge of the forest and the animals there, though we don't actually encounter a muscaliet or a parandrus. I picked the jaculus because it seemed the coolest type of creature to have in a fight here. Serpents are cool, winged ones also cool, and most readers can more easily imagine them - especially as a threatening animal - than something with a mismatch of features.

2438372
I never meant to imply Twilight was Fluttershy, but she was hesitant to get involved in her extended family, and she simply doesn't want to hurt anypony, either. She wasn't and isn't fond of politics and she isn't the type to be comfortable using her magic to intimidate or beat down others. Convincing her that these steps may be taken was part of her story in TPC to the point, now, here she is willing to justify the use of force against, for example, Cruciger or Antimony, to protect her family.

When push comes to shove, yes, she'll use her magic forcefully. Yet most all the antagonists have been careful around her. Antimony was polite; Eunomie and even Euporie are apparently cooperative; Yumi never interacted with her.

I like to think I've given everypony a chance to shine and be badass. I even tried (and hopefully did okay) with doing some of that with Fluttershy in the last chapter. I'm saving Twilight for when the big guns need to thunder. I promise not to forget about her, though as I said, her role in the story is driven as much by her mind as by her magic.

2438440
"You wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
Zecora's rhyming is always annoying for me, the author. Silly zebra. It can be fun, too, though.
Mustn't spoil the Twilight stuff, though, especially since she has some major stuff coming up post-festival-battle.

2438546
2439121
I actually haven't entirely made up my mind about the alicorn stuff and Twi.
In a way, I think TPC is one of the more unusual MLP fanfics, in that becoming an alicorn is not a game breaker. It does not convey instant immortality and it does not make a pony instantly more powerful. There are TPC-canonical unicorns who have overpowered and even slain alicorns (Blue Belle from the TSC crossover chapters and Iridium from the preclassical era). Blueblood mentions a few times that his family hoards knowledge and exists partly to counter and control alicorns that appear, especially those outside Equestrian control.

Becoming an alicorn IS a big deal, but it isn't a BIG DEAL. For me, this means that I have the freedom to use it or not use it. I don't know yet.

On the other hand, creating and/or developing new magic IS a BIG DEAL in TPC. I'd say it is a bigger deal in and of itself than becoming another mortal alicorn.

2440017
You got it!
Glad you liked my Flutters, too. She's one of the manes I think I struggle the most with, to portray correctly or believably. This is only made harder by thrusting her into these difficult circumstances.
Ye crave more Rarity? Lots of that next chapter, oh yes.

Brass's dogs, by the way, were meant to be dogs, imported and trained to sniff out changelings. During this timeframe, Brass is still married to the previous-Chrysalis masquerading as Olive Branch. Euporie and Eunomie are oblivious little fillies (who don't know why their mother is the way she is) and the Chrysalis we know is a just a little nymph, feeding off him and growing in strength. Even then, though, Brass hated the changelings and planned to exterminate them.

2440477
When I write for TPC, I sort of imagine it is like writing for a HBO miniseries... but then I usually tone down the violence or sex when it shows up. Where and when I do NOT tone these themes down, it is usually to drive home a point. Compare how the issue of sex is handled early on between Rarity and Blueblood - who are and have been sleeping together the entire story - with how it is handled around Euoprie, who uses it not as an act of intimacy and trust, but as an expression of her own power over others. The sex there is more explicit, because it is meant to be more shocking.

Likewise, the violence shown in this chapter, such as Chalice killing Shigure with a blazing arrow to the chest and then bloodily destroying the jaculus, is meant to be shocking because it shocks the characters observing it. It is meant to be a visceral disconnect between the Chalice seen before, who laments how animals flee from her (when they clearly didn't in the flashback before - the dogs were friendly towards her), and how weak she is, contrasted with this form she takes, that kills and destroys mercilessly.

That's my reasoning for it, and it is also why I've resisted adding a 'gore' tag or whatnot, because really it is there for narrative effect and not to be a principal part of the storytelling experience. It is not pervasive, like an 'intrigue' tag would be warranted (if it existed). Also, privately, I do think that the gore here is still pretty tame, but that's just me.

2440525
It was. The opening scene took place many years before, during the Terre Rare succession duel. That, plus the mentions of Brass being fairly recently married to Olive Branch, I thought filled in enough background that people could guess the timeframe.

Sweetie could never consume my soul. She lacks the proper soul shards.
Also, if she tried, I bet she'd just end up lighting things on fire.

Slatestone's betrayal... you think Brass was behind it, do you? Haha. Such a skepticism may be wise. After all, who benefited from all that, in the end?

Poor Shigure!
Though as an author, I'm glad many people seem to have been moved by his fall. I did think, wish even, I could keep the hope of his surviving somehow alive. He was fun to write, and a cool, kickass old martial arts guy is one of my favorite character types. I hated having to buckle down and do what I had to do there.

I imagine the jaculus is curious, in that the way its life cycle works, it is basically fearless and even suicidal. Fluttershy knew it would attack the Sagittarius avatar because she knew there was a large, gravid jaculus in this part of the Everfree. Had the Sagittarius never shown up, it probably would have eventually gone off to find the Ursa Major or Minor and died there, thus giving birth.

[Always Breakfast]

So it turns out Roman mythological serpents aside, a jaculus is a real animal. Just one...significantly less threatening.

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Lesser_Egyptian_Jerboa_%28Jaculus_jaculus%29.jpg

D'AWWWWWW :3

For those curious, this is the classical picture of the mythical "hi I eat your face nao" kind of jaculus.

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Jaculus.jpg

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2440814
You know, Shigure was my favorite, too! I mentioned in the previous mega post, but he was one of my favorite character archetypes, and he was sort of a father figure, too, not just to Yumi but in a way to Applejack as well. I think... despite Shining Armor being a paragon of the chivalrous code in Equestria, that Shigure was the most noble pony I've written about in TPC.

One thing I always thought, even back when I wrote World of Ponycraft, was that Fluttershy-solves-problems-via-Stare was sort of ... too easy. The idea that if Fluttershy just gets pissed off, or pushed far enough, that she can make her problems go away? That doesn't interest me so much. It doesn't feel challenging, because while it does involve her overcoming her natural shyness, it also implies that the threat itself is negligible. "Once I apply myself it'll be no problem."

Don't expect her to solve problems with a Stare in TPC. Expect her to solve problems with her wits, with her knowledge, with her insight, and yes, with her courage, too. All these things together.

Chalice, like to many characters in TPC, is a victim herself. In fact, I'd say she is the most obvious one. Fluttershy was able to lead the life she wanted to lead, and one that she finds fulfilling and enjoyable. Chalice, on the other hand, was forced by pressure, heritage and obligation to live a life she wasn't suited for. A tragedy is that, even with her being timid and kind hearted, she would still have made an adequate noblemare... in any family except the ultra-competitive one she was born into.

And the only one who ever did give her a hug, or any emotional support, was Alpha Brass. Who, for all he appears to care for her, also seems to be using her for his own aims. And this is something she accepts as natural and right. Chalice does need a hug, especially from somepony who won't ask her to kill to get it.

2441090
Heh.
I like that notion. The ultimate prey! And you thought that was "man," Hollywood?

2441099
Corrections have been made, of course.
And yes, Zecora (or rather the changeling) was channeling her inner-Arnold.

"Get to da choppa!"
(and man is it hard to rhyme with choppa)

2441109
2441795
2442999
2443568
2447014
He was an honorably pony. It is up to Yumi, now, to ultimately carry the torch and make his loss mean something.
I rather like the 'molehill' name, too. Heh. These ponies and their plays on words!

I am a bit surprise, though, that no one seems to have identified the naming convention of the Neighponese ponies. Was it too obscure? I guess some references are much easier to identify than others...

2442470
Those phrases! Of course, I made the adjustment two days ago, but it is very easy for phrases like that to slip through.

2442640
2445100
Actually, I recently had a commission done with Ritterkreuz and RD. I should have it up for viewing soon. I'm glad it looks like you've stuck through the intrigue chapters and into the unfurling madness of the final arc. And yes, Ritter isn't gone just because talked (and beat) some sense into her...

2446284
You got it.
This was not a good chapter for the changelings. The Blueblood replacement in the previous chapter was, by their estimation, a real godsend. Or is it just a trojan horse? Hm. Well, either way, this chapter was a definite loss. They lost Yumi, they lost Fluttershy, and now two of them are missing... worse: they're missing in one of the few regions of the world that can and do cause ponies to "mysteriously and tragically disappear." Not good news for them at all.

2455160
Exactly!
It also gave me another opportunity to showcase some cool and distinct zebra magics. I admit I kind of like the idea of the fetish/tiki/mask/voodoo magic for the zebras, so different from the normal Equestria stuff. We've only got one zebra, so she may as well be kick ass.

2455781
I daresay almost none would have! Of course, I'd also say - and hope to get across in the story, too - that Fluttershy's greatest "weapon" in a way is her kindness and her insight. With very little information, she's already reasoned, emotionally and rationally, that there's some sort of conspiracy going on and guessed as to some of the core of it. Mayhap I should call it FlutterSight. She stares into your soul!!

[Capn_Chryssalid]

2452742
Ah yes! I recognize your name!
I hope to hear again, provided you soldier through to the chapters to come.

I almost grouped this response in with a bunch of other comment responses from chapter 32. Hah. That would've spoiled some stuff! Good thing I caught it.

But yes, I do recognize your name, and I do hope you make it out to the 30s here! I'll look forward to any future comments!

[Xanderfox]

2459689
Well I am very convinced Alpha Brass is pulling a "Xanatos Gambit" where no matter what happens he comes out on top in the end. It's quite likely he wouldn't know if Twilight's ascension made her immortal (WoG is she's not immortal), really it probably wouldn't alter his plans to use her as a weapon against Chrysalis. I'm more interested what happens when Twilight encounters "Cadance" next, knowing she's an impostor. Knowing the real Cadance is imprisoned(or in hiding, not sure which) and cheese legs is feeding on her brother, can she keep from jumping the gun and exposing her? But as I say, I see Alpha Brass having many many contingency plans.

[Lurks-no-More]

2459689

Zecora's rhyming is always annoying for me, the author. Silly zebra. It can be fun, too, though.

It's something that drives me to despair as a writer! I'm a fan of zebras in general, Zecora's one of my favorite characters in the show, and I love all the worldbuilding potential inherent in zebras... but that rhyming trips me up. English is not my native language, and although I'm quite fluent, rhyming is too hard for me to do consistently... which means that despite itching to do so, I'm never going to write a Zecora-focused epic.

[elmagnifico]

2459825

"Get to da choppa!"
(and man is it hard to rhyme with choppa)

I'm sure you'd think of a good rhyme, one right and proppa!

[Spectrumancer]

Finally caught up. This is quality writing.

2437627 Actually, considering he stated they had "passed a test", I'd guess these are specially trained changeling-hunting dogs.

[Faraday]

Minor typo glitch I caught:

At one point you use the word 'heart' by accident instead of 'heard'.

I know it's a good story when the only thing I can find to criticize is the occasional typo. Keep up the good work!

[PoweredByTea]

I have to say, Fluttershy is made of awesome in this chapter. I enjoyed the action in this chapter far more than the entire of the last chapter.

Also damn! Shigure! I liked you! I liked you a lot! Chalice, you have a lot to answer for. Your the first pony who went over the moral event horizon. From this there is no return.

[Majk]

Awwww man, i know it's traditional to kill the experienced, grizzled guy in such stories, but i really liked Mr.Mountain.
Other then that, awesome stuff.

[Super_Big_Mac]

2459825

We've only got one zebra, so she may as well be kick ass.

The preservation of zebra brews, cantrips, and a daring ruse.

Zecora's speech is like fine wine, it's best in doses as you dine. She's a mare of concise words, use too much, and she sounds absurd. Just rhyme it to a simple tune, like Celestia reading Goodnight Moon.