Fool's Gold Part Three! - Gold Experience
According to the few books that even think to mention them, Faberge Birds are one of the rarest types of magical bird. Because of the rarity, the rumors around them are based less in truth and more in fantasy. Most scholars agree that they likely do not exist, and that stories about them were simply invented by sailors (trying to impress mares) and grad students (trying to impress their supervisors).
The birds themselves are fairly impressive looking, like large geese with blue-black feathers and patches of tough golden down the texture of steel wool. They are unable to fly, but make up for it with razor-edged metallic plumage as tough as dragon scale. Even if a predator managed to overcome this, the flesh of the birds is highly toxic. They're one of the few animals that requires a significant amount of heavy metals in its diet to stay healthy, and it had developed a particular magical talent to get those metals.
Cows have five stomachs. Faberge Birds also have five stomachs, but unlike a cow, their digestive system formed a transmutation circle. Cleaning their cages required one to wear lead garments and spend no more than fifteen minutes a day exposed to the glowing waste they left behind.
If that was all there was to them, they would be a curiosity and largely left alone.
Unfortunately for Faberge birds, their eggs had a shell of a particular heavy metal that was incorruptible and tarnish-proof. That is to say, they were literally the geese that lay the golden eggs.
This is the primary reason they are now so rare, even though predators would find their meat almost immediately fatal to ingest. Predators don't care about gold, but greedy ponies do.
Episode 13
Fool's Gold Part Three! - Gold Experience
"These might be the last in the world," Fluttershy said, as they looked around the room at the dozen cages. "I was told that I was being brought here to help with a repopulation effort, but..."
She looked down at her hooves.
"I think I see where this is going," Twilight said. She closed the door, not liking the odd pins-and-needles feeling of the heat in the room. "Geese that lay golden eggs. Or really, geese that lay Philosopher's Stones. That's what they are, aren't they?"
Fluttershy nodded, mutely.
"Endless Night," Twilight sighed. "And here I was hoping it would be something I could steal. I'm no good with pets. I'll just have to help you get them out of here instead." She gave Fluttershy a wink and smile.
"Thank you," Fluttershy whispered.
"Wait, Philosopher's Stone?" Shining Armor asked.
"It takes some refining," Fluttershy admitted. "The gold shell is just... gold." She shrugged, like gold didn't matter. Maybe it didn't once you could turn lead into as much as you wanted. "But the yolk... if you mix it with aqua vitae, lead dipped into it turns to gold."
"What if you drink it?" Twilight asked.
"T-that's..." Fluttershy shivered. "I told them not to do it. When you eat the raw eggs, the side effects..."
"Side effects?" Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I saw a goat with his head twisted half-off shrug it back into place, and another one didn't even notice a crossbow bolt in his eye."
"They can't die, but they're not really alive, either," Fluttershy said. "They turn to gold slowly from the potion. It starts with their wool, because it grows so quickly, and then if they'd scab or a cut would heal, or a bruise under their skin... it all turns to gold. By the end, they turn into statues, but they're still alive."
"That's horrible," Shining Armor whispered.
"It's why I told them not to do it!" Fluttershy whimpered. "I've been trying to make a version that doesn't have such horrible effects, but Lord Rust has been taking all of the eggs and keeps demanding more, so I barely have anything to experiment with-"
"Calm down," Shining Armor said. "For now, I'm willing to believe you're doing this under duress."
"He means that unlike me, you're not in any trouble," Twilight translated.
"That's good," Fluttershy sighed. "I was worried that I'd get in trouble for what they're doing in the mint."
"...The mint?"
Shining Armor's eyes were as wide as saucers that were as wide as a pony's eyes who was looking at more bits than he'd ever seen before in his life.
"That's more bits than I've ever seen before in my life," Shining Armor whispered, looking down at the shiny gold. Fluttershy had taken them on a rather circuitous route to the mint, avoiding most of the guards. Apparently she didn't like confrontation and had worked out a safe route on her own long ago, just to avoid having to speak to anyone on the way to the water closet. A vat of something glowing with golden light stood at one end of a room along with a printing press, a smelter, and dull grey bars. A steaming crucible of bubbling lead hung on chains above the floor, tools scattered around workbenches and left on the ground as if the room had been evacuated only minutes ago.
"Don't get too excited," Twilight whispered. She grabbed something from the distant floor with her magic and brought it up for Shining Armor to see. "Take a look."
It was a disk of dull metal the size and shape of a newly-pressed bit, soft enough that Twilight was able to bend it with little effort.
"Lead coins," Twilight said. "It's how I tracked this place down. They import a huge amount of lead for this."
"And then they turn it into gold and then..." Shining Armor looked at the burlap sacks stacked along one wall, each of them printed with the mark of the Canterlot Royal Mint. "Celestia's Beard. How many of these are in circulation?"
"Nopony knows," Twilight said. "I figured out how to distinguish them from real bits, though. They show up as pure gold instead of 18-karat." Twilight snapped the bit in half, showing the grey center. "And if you break them in half, they're still lead in the middle. So you might want get ponies on removing the fakes from circulation. I hate stealing something and finding out it's worthless."
"The solution only penetrates partway," Fluttershy offered. "If you look at it under a microscope, the transition between lead and gold is completely smooth, unlike a cored or coated coin."
"How can they show up as pure gold with the lead inside them?" Shining Armor asked.
"Lead blocks magical scans," Twilight said. "It's pretty worthless for anything else. Too soft and heavy."
"The same could be said of gold," said a loud, clear voice from the other side of the room. "It's as soft as clay, heavier than lead, and the only real value is because it's rare. Hello, Dusk Shine. Or should I say, Twilight Sparkle, master thief?"
Lord Rust smiled as he stepped out of the shadows. The shadows themselves peeled off of the wall, revealing themselves as three darkly-armored goats in form-fitting armor.
"I do love being famous," Twilight said.
"Your brother told me all about you. I've never heard of you before today," Lord Rust continued.
"Not that famous," Shining Armor whispered, smiling despite himself.
"Yeah, yeah," Twilight muttered.
"I'm afraid none of you are leaving here alive... though you already knew that," Lord Rust said. He shrugged. "Miss Fluttershy, this is particularly disappointing. The Faberge Birds will, no doubt, be heartbroken. Worse, I'll have to start looking at resumes again, in this awful job market."
"Counterfeiting Equestrian currency is against the law!" Shining Armor yelled. "You're under arrest-"
"The only authority here is the point of a knife. Speaking of that..." Lord Rust nodded to the assassins.
Shining Armor had the common sense to put up a shield, which was lucky because the knives the goats threw hit with the force of siege weapons, making his shield bubble wobble, cracks starting to form.
"They're as strong as minotaurs," Shining Armor swore.
"Twice as tenacious," Twilight agreed. She grabbed the railing next to one with her magic and tore it free, wrapping it around the armored goat and throwing him to the floor in a heap.
"Woah!" Shining Armor gasped. "Twilight! You just killed-"
The goat got up, wriggling free of the twisted railing, broken bones snapping back into place as it stood.
"Never mind." Shining backed up as the other advanced on them. "So what's your plan for stopping them?"
"Well, collectively, we've tried breaking bones, shooting them in the head, snapping their necks..."
"Remind me not to get on your bad side."
The two goats on the walkway jumped, one running along the wall and the other going low against the railing, trying to flank the three ponies. Shining Armor's attention went to the goat moving low, and he blocked a strike with a hoofblade before the goat on the wall struck from above, hitting his shield hard enough with his full weight to knock Shining Armor off balance.
Shining Armor stumbled off of the walkway, recasting his shield just before he hit the stone floor, the bubble bouncing him halfway back up before popping, breaking his fall enough to avoid injury. That likely wouldn't last long. The goat that had landed on the ground floor was already circling him and looking for an opening.
"Fluttershy," Twilight said. "Just stay behind me, okay?"
The pegasus nodded, shrinking down. With how quiet and inoffensive she was, she could have taught Twilight a thing or two about stealth.
"Okay, jerks," Twilight smirked, faking bravado. "I'm sorry to have to do this, but I'm going to have to show you why I'm the best."
Her horn lit up. One of the goats jumped, then looked perplexed even through the form-covering outfit as its trajectory changed, making it soar upwards to the ceiling. The second one on the walkway grabbed the guard rail in time to prevent falling up in the reversed gravity field.
Twilight poured more magic into the spell, expanding the area of effect. There was a dull thud as something hit the underside of the walkway, almost knocking the hanging goat loose. Loose bits fell upwards to jangle against the roof.
"Something I learned a while back is just how heavy money can be!" Twilight said, just before the inverted gravity covered the rest of the stacked bags of bits under the walkway.
They slammed into the platform's underside like an avalanche of gold, the wooden beams shattering and falling up in the torrent, carrying the goat along with them. The one already on the roof tried to get to the side, and ended up pinned at the edge of the pile of gold. The goat that had been carried with it was nowhere to be found, stuck somewhere and crushed under the weight.
"Easy," Twilight said, panting with the effort. Casting it on an area was a lot harder than on individual targets.
"Um, excuse me-" Fluttershy said quietly.
"Hold on, I just need a quick breather, then I can help Shiny..."
"It's just that, um. I think this part of the walkway is-" there was a sharp crack as wood splintered. "I think you took out the main support beam."
"Feathering-" Twilight started to swear and trailed off in a scream as she felt herself start to fall. The stone below rose up to greet her and she closed her eyes, waiting for the pain.
Instead, there was a jerk upwards as hooves wrapped around her. She opened her eyes, and saw she was only inches from the floor. Above her, Fluttershy held on tight, wings flapping wildly.
"Nice save!" Twilight yelled, laughing as Fluttershy put her down safely. "Need a hoof, Shiny?"
"I'm a professional, Twilight," Shining Armor yelled, as he held off the goat assassin with his bare hooves. They fought for dominance until Shining Armor suddenly went limp, stepping to the side and letting the goat stumble past. A hoofcuff slapped around its foreleg as it passed, Shining Armor hooking the other end around its back leg on the opposite side.
The goat teetered awkwardly, trying to free itself from the short chain, until Shining Armor turned and kicked it, sending it to the ground.
"That'll slow it down," he said. He turned to Lord Rust and glared up at him. "You're under arrest! I don't care if I have jurisdiction or not, there isn't a court in the world that wouldn't prosecute you!"
"I think I'm learning to hate you," Lord Rust said. "This was supposed to just be business, but you're making it incredibly frustrating." He drew a crossbow and fired without hesitation. Fluttershy was frozen in place until Twilight shoved her away.
Twilight rolled with the impact, getting back to her hooves and stumbling, her left forehoof collapsing for a moment. She looked down and saw a wooden shaft going right through her leg, the tip dripping red.
"Huh," she said, blinking, still trying to process what she was looking at. "I thought... I thought that would hurt a lot more." Everything felt a little wobbly, like her bones were made of gelatin. "Oh, never mind. I'm on a lot of painkillers and going into shock and I think I'm starting to feel it and ow ow ow."
Fluttershy caught Twilight before she could fall over. Shining Armor put up a shield as Fluttershy walked Twilight over into the shadow of one of the printing presses for cover and helped her sit down.
"We need to get the bolt out," she said. "This is- it's going to hurt."
"Aren't you supposed to leave it in to stop the bleeding?" Twilight said, her voice distant and weak.
"It's too close to the joint. Leaving it in will make the wound worse." Fluttershy put a hoof on the bolt. "Close your eyes and take a deep breath."
"Just give me a little warning bef-" There was a snapping sound and Twilight felt a shock run up her leg. "Endless Night! I said give me warning before you pull it out!"
"I was just breaking off the tip," Fluttershy said. "You've been very brave. If you don't bite or growl, I'll give you a biscuit."
"...You've never done first aid on a pony, have you?"
"I mostly work with animals," Fluttershy whispered.
"I can tell. Just do it." Twilight grit her teeth, preparing herself. Or at least trying to. Having the bolt taken out of her leg felt like being shot all over again, in slow motion as Fluttershy held her leg still with a grip like iron and drew it out without twisting or wiggling, as precise as any machine.
The bolt dropped to the ground, clattering against the stone. Twilight let out the breath she'd been holding.
"Remind me not to get shot again anytime soon," Twilight muttered.
"That would be a good idea," Fluttershy agreed. She tore part of Twilight's jacket and wrapped it tightly around the wound. "We'll need to get real bandages, but it's better than nothing."
"You should be a real doctor," Twilight said, getting up. "Though with a beauty like that ponies might hurt themselves just to have a chance to steal away a bit of your time."
A half-broken goat fell to the ground in front of them, dragging itself along by its front hooves. It still had counterfeit bits embedded into it from where the weight of the gold had bent and forced them into place.
"The City of Baa Ram Ewe has-"
"I've heard that one before," Twilight said. She blasted the goat back with a weak burst of magic, not enough to do more than slow it down.
"We need to hide!" Fluttershy whimpered. A crossbow bolt skipped past them, raising sparks on the floor. Shining Armor was pinned down by the shots, using his shield for cover and unable to fire through it.
Fluttershy helped Twilight limp around to the other side of the press.
"We need to stop Lord Rust," Twilight said. "And I'm still drained. Is there another way out of here?"
"The big doors over there go outside," Fluttershy pointed. "I think that's how they get the bits out." They were double-doors, with a metal track leading down the middle for heavy carts full of moneybags. One of the carts was only a few paces away.
"Okay, that's good. Do you know where it leads out?"
"The back of the palace. There's a carriage yard."
Twilight paused, thinking about where she'd left Gilda.
"I was that close to it the whole time?" Twilight muttered. She'd ignored the double doors as being too obvious. Ponies - and thus sheep and goats - watched big doorways. They didn't notice servant entrances. She could have saved herself the trouble of being captured.
Her train of thought was interrupted when the broken assassin pulled himself up onto the inactive press, apparently deciding it was faster to go over than through. He crawled through the open machine towards them, and Twilight spotted a gleam of steel.
She didn't have enough magic to shove him back or blast him apart. She did have enough to pull a lever.
The press turned on, and came down like the hoof of an angry god, steam leaking from the joints. It was designed to punch disks out of lead - flattening something distinctly softer didn't even give it pause.
Fluttershy's hooves covered her mouth in horror.
"You just-"
"Try not to think about it," Twilight suggested, leaving the press down. She didn't want to see what it would look like if she raised the lever. Would his body have turned to gold, or would there be counterfeit bits made out of bone, broken armor, and distressingly soft pink bits?
Shining Armor cried out as the goat he'd hobbled grabbed his hoof, holding on despite Armor's attempts to kick him off.
"The problem is, you ponies can't see the bigger picture!" Lord Rust shouted. "Friendship and harmony only go so far! You have to be ruthless to get on top and stay there!"
Rust fired at the hanging crucible of molten lead. His crossbow hadn't taken Twilight's leg off, and so clearly wasn't powerful enough to pierce through the chains holding it, but he had surprisingly good aim. The bolt sparked as it hit an emergency release. The chains went slack, and the crucible crashed to the ground so close to Shining Armor that he could have reached out and touched it, the stone floor cracking.
"Oh buck me," Shining Armor said. There was a groan as the burning-hot container listed towards him.
Twilight grabbed at it with her magic, trying to hold it back. Her aura wrapped around it for less than a second before the weight shattered her concentration, but that second was just enough. Shining Armor reared up and managed to kick the goat hanging onto him away and jump to safety before the patch of floor where he'd been standing became a lake of molten lead.
The goat wasn't so lucky, sizzling like hay bacon in a frying pan as it tried to get away, the lead slowly solidifying around it.
"You're out of minions!" Twilight shouted. Her head felt like somepony had driven an ice pick into it. Fluttershy's painkillers weren't doing much to help with magical backlash.
"Do you know how much their lives were worth?" Rust asked, ducking behind a doorframe for cover and avoiding a magical bolt from Shining Armor. "I do. The chemical reagents used to make them could have been used to create ten thousand bits."
"You can't put a price on a life!" Shining Armor yelled. "Come quietly or else we'll have to use force!"
"How long do you think it's going to be before the rest of my guards come down here? You'll never leave this palace-"
There was a twang. Lord Rust stumbled out onto the walkway and over the railing, a bolt in his side.
"What's wrong with all of you?" Gilda demanded, reloading her crossbow, perched in one of the windows high above the mint floor. "I've been waiting out back and when I come in following all the feathering noise you're having a nice chat in the middle of a fight!"
"Happy to see you too, Gilda," Twilight said. "I'm still alive, by the way."
"I know. I could tell by how frustrated he sounded."
"Y-you're all going to... pay..." Lord Rust gasped, coughing up blood. One leg was crumpled under him and obviously broken badly.
"I'd really like to get away from here," Gilda said. "Maud got in touch. She had to pull a bunch of sheep off of this dweeb's boat." She pointed at Shining Armor and added "Nopony's dead."
"When you say nopony-"
"Oh, there are a bunch of dead sheep. But nopony's dead. See?" Gilda smirked. "She didn't have time to use a soft touch."
"Let's get your birds and get out of here," Twilight said, patting Fluttershy on the back.
"But what about..." She looked at Lord Rust.
"Nothing we can do for him," Twilight said. There were probably a few things they could do, maybe even including saving his life, but she didn't feel generous enough to attempt them. Shining Armor and Gilda followed them, one thinking Twilight would escape if she left his sight for more than a moment and the other just not believing that any of the others could take care of themselves. Both of them were absolutely right, of course.
Lord Rust was left alone in the foundry. His breathing was getting shallow, and everything was starting to go dim, his vision closing off like he was looking down a tunnel. And at the end of that tunnel was a vat filled with glowing golden light.
"We can't set them free here," Fluttershy said. "They'll just get captured again. I don't want them to live in captivity, forced to lay eggs. If we took them back to Equestria, the same thing would happen - they'd be locked up."
"The Royal Aviary is far different from tiny cages in a dungeon," Shining Armor said. He kept one eye on Gilda, even while he helped Fluttershy pack one of the sky chariots full of caged birds, each of them covered by a heavy, leaded sheet to help them sleep and keep their poisons from making anypony sick.
"A gilded cage is still a cage," Twilight said. "How about we make a stop at one of those uncharted islands a little out of the way?"
"And let you steal them and forge bits yourself?" Shining Armor asked, huffing. "I'm not an idiot."
"Why would I want to?"
"You'd be able to make millions."
"Millions that didn't mean anything," Twilight said, sharply. "What's the point? It'd be like getting a trophy just for showing up to a marathon. Have the navy keep an eye on the island and donate a few eggs a year for medical research. Maybe if they can keep patients from being turned into gilded statues something useful can come from it."
"That's oddly altruistic of you," Shining Armor frowned.
"Enough to convince you to let me go free?" Twilight asked, hopefully.
"Don't push your luck." Shining Armor secured the last cage. "Fluttershy and your... friend will take this to the ship. We won't fit on the chariot, so I'll just walk you there myself."
"Forcing a wounded prisoner to walk on their own?" Twilight said. "Cruel and unusual. I'll make sure my lawyer knows how you treat ponies who save your life."
"You're just lucky I'm letting you walk on your own. If you even try to escape, I'll hit you with a sleep spell so hard you won't wake up until you're already in prison with half of your sentence served."
Gilda helped Fluttershy get the chariot into the air, and the two were quickly on the way, taking a long, circling path to avoid going over the volcano caldera right behind the palace.
"Do you think it's only the really evil villains that get volcano lairs, or are there decent ponies who use lava to make casseroles?" Twilight asked, idly looking over the bubbling expanse.
"I think only crazy ponies would build their house over an active volcano," Shining Armor said. "Now let's go. It's a long walk. You can lean on me if you need to."
"Thanks," Twilight said, leaning into him. "You know, you did make one mistake."
"What?"
"You reminded me that I know a sleep spell too." She fired it into his neck at point-blank range, and he collapsed in a heap. "When Gilda comes back I'll have her pick you up and drop you off somewhere safe." Twilight patted his shoulder, smiling. "Idiot."
Twilight heard a twang, and ducked, a badly-aimed crossbow bolt going wide. She rolled behind one of the other chariots and looked around cautiously. Lord Rust tugged on the crossbow in his hooves and then threw it down, frustrated, when it refused to cooperate and reload.
"Twilight! Get out here!" He screamed. She could see glints of yellow. His coat was already starting to change. "Face me!" Rust drew a saber, limping towards her. His back leg was twisted, painfully bending where a leg shouldn't bend every time he took a step. He didn't seem to notice.
"You're not dead?" She asked, surprised.
"You left me in a room with the Philosopher's Stone! It's the cure for everything, even death!" He shoved the chariot she was hiding behind with inequine strength, tipping it over. She could see his veins outlined on his neck and face, standing out and hardening in place like golden cracks. One eye was already a solid golden orb.
"For someone who's been cured, you're looking awfully sick." Twilight backed away, towards the edge of the yard. She didn't realize just how close she was until her flank hit the low wall at the edge.
"I'll kill you, get that idiot pegasus back, and make her fix this," Rust said. "It's just a minor setback."
"You can't feel any pain at all, can you?" Twilight asked. "I guess that suits you since you didn't feel anything when you ordered assassins to kill me."
"You won't feel anything either," Rust said. His movements were starting to slow. "Not once I'm... done with you." He struggled to take another step. All the bones grinding inside his broken leg, the muscles getting torn up, had already made his back leg turn almost entirely into solid gold. He dragged it along behind him, hobbled by the weight.
Twilight threw herself to the side as he lunged. Rust was ponderous and heavy and hit the short wall almost in slow motion, smashing through it with the inequine strength he'd displayed a moment ago in flipping over the carriage. His mass carried him over the edge, that strength not nearly enough to stop his momentum.
Goats were, though, natural climbers if nothing else. He dropped the saber and grabbed for the edge, his front hooves finding some purchase even as his back half dangled in midair, the weight dragging him down.
"No! It can't end like this!" Rust growled, trying to pull himself back up. The solid gold attached to his hip started to pull and tear at things inside him, the transmutation flashing up his back like fire that left gold instead of ashes in its wake.
Twilight looked down at him, then picked up his sword. He looked at her in fear for a moment, like she'd make his situation worse by stabbing him. Instead, Twilight tossed his dropped saber over the edge and into the lava. The steel started glowing red hot and spread into a puddle like butter on a skillet. She glanced down at Rust and walked away.
Twilight didn't look back when he lost his grip, his screams ending in a wet splat.
Gilda sat back, watching her fishing line. "Too bad we didn't end up with anything valuable," she said. "We spent all that time and effort and we don't even have anything to show for it."
"Taking the gold seemed like a waste. We'd have to smelt it to separate it from the lead in the middle, and that's way too much like honest work," Twilight said, relaxing in the sun on the deck of their little fishing boat. "Besides, I did get a little something."
"Really?" Gilda asked. Maud turned from where she was studying the ocean to look, surprised.
"Yep." Twilight pulled a metal flask from her jacket. She opened the lid and revealed that the contents were glowing with a golden light. "I'm not sure how long it lasts or what to do with it yet, but I wasn't going to walk away totally empty-hooved."
"Just don't drink it," Maud said, quietly.
"Trust me, after seeing what it did to Lord Rust, I'm not even close to tempted," Twilight said. She closed her flask securely. "I might just put it away in the family museum as a trophy."
"Wonderful. All that work for a trophy. What about the pegasus?"
"Fluttershy? Well, I'm sure she'll be fine."
"Are you enjoying the royal menagerie?"
Fluttershy winced. It hadn't been said in a harsh tone of voice. In fact, it had been calm and measured and pleasant and if it had been said by anypony else, she probably wouldn't be afraid. But every motion and word the pony in front of her made caused Fluttershy to feel a rush of fear. It wasn't often that one had tea with a goddess, after all.
"Y-yes, Princess Celestia," Fluttershy whispered.
"Good, I'm glad. They do take some time to get used to new ponies, even ones who are as gifted as you are." Celestia sipped at her tea. Fluttershy tried not to look directly at her.
"Thank you f-for giving me this opportunity," Fluttershy said.
"No need to thank me. This worked out well for everypony," Celestia said. "My old gamekeeper was only staying around because he couldn't find a replacement that satisfied him. He's been looking forward to retirement for years."
Fluttershy nodded, not sure what to say. Ponies were more difficult to talk to than animals.
"There was something else I wanted to discuss," Celestia said, smiling down at her, eyes twinkling like garnets. "Would you be so kind as to tell me everything you know about Twilight Sparkle?"
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Sharp wit on celly how would she have known
Nice job with your take on 'The Castle of Cagliostro'. The ending was rather fitting, and I'm excited to see what the next chapter entails. Keep goin and stay golden^^
This story is great! Keep up the good work!
Wait, Sunset is still around? I look forward to the eventual confrontation! Also, how could Rarity and Twilight have kids? (Assuming that they didn't just adopt). Lesbian magic ala winningverse?
Loved the chapter, especially the Terminator feel to how you dealt with the unstoppable goats.
Ohoh. This alongside an earlier mention that Luna/Nightmare is still on the moon makes me think somepony is seriously considering our purple thief for a certain crown.
I'm going to have nightmares about what happened to Rust.
Rather like that wet pop that heralded the end of the Count of Cagliostro, come to think of it.
Personal student... I think we've found our Rebecca. Or worse.
MORE! I DEMAND MORE!
Interesting.
Nice action set pieces here (in the whole story really, but this chapter in particular).
Sunset Shimmer?
Sharp as a blade, eh?
8064995
She probably heard Shining Armor's scream of frustration when he woke up empty handed.
I finally figured out where that name was from.
9360012
What name?
10491875
The name of the city.