The Pieces Lie Where They Fell

by Evilhumour

Chapter Thirty Five: Page Turner, Rex, Xvital

Chapter Thirty Five

Page Turner

Page had to do her best not to panic as they were suddenly ushered into a space underneath the cabin they had been living in for the past week but she was very scared being here in the Crystal Dominance.

“Hey, you doing okay, Pagey?” Vix-Lei ask as she sat down in a strange looking chair that actually seemed to work for her backward jointed legs.

“Can’t imagine that she’s overjoyed being here,” Xvital said with a bucket in her lap. She was curled up against a corner of the hidden hold that Vix-Lei had so casually revealed by reaching under the shil of one of the bunks to hit a switch. Not even the Order had known of this place and after having Vix-Lei write down a list of other possible hidden catches, they had shoved them into this dark place and closed the lid on them. “The capital of the anti-changeling feelings in the world? It would be like Vix-Lei going to Roam or something.”

“Hey, don’t joke about that!” Vix-Lei hissed. “We left the Roamane Empire, we did not give it up to those damn ponies.”

“I sense that this is a sensitive issue for you?”

“One of these days, we minotaurs will retake Roam and restore the proper Roamane Empire and all the old borders,” she snorted, tilting her head to the side.

“I am fairly certain those in Prance, Bitaly, Cataballon, the Griffish Isles, Germane, Aneighzighen and a hooffull of others nations would have some words about that,” Night said, rolling his golden eye in the dark.

“How do you know the old kingdoms? I mean, Prance, Bitaly, Cataballon, the Griffish Isles and Germane are the known ones, but Aneighzighen?” Vix-Lei leaned towards him with Night shifting uncomfortably.

“It was part of my history lessons… and I used to attend to some board games that dealt with the past,” Night chuckled a bit nervously, tapping his hooves together. “Used to be Byzantion and just flatten the others by relying on how good they are from the get go and reforge the Roamane Empire without any real struggle. They got annoyed at me and told me buzz off for a while… and I never went back.” He let out a tiny sigh, rubbing the back of his neck.

“So you’re a history nerd that used to scum a board game,” Wind chuckled as he patted Night on the back with his wing. “Big deal. Or are you worried that your tough guy image is going to be ruined when it comes out that you hung out with nerds?”

“Oh please, as if those in my old team for the sword tournament need anything else to mock me with; my temper, my high standards, my glares... this is mild compared to all that and they know I’ve got enough dirt on them if they try anything.”

“Besides, with your little Butcher of the Everfree Forest name going on, I doubt they’d be stupid enough to mock you on like those nerd games,” Wind snarked. Night responded by rolling his eye and jabbing Wind in the gut playfully.

“As amusing and comforting to see you two are finally getting along,” Rex said with a chuckle before looking at her. “I do believe we are getting off topic here and neglecting Page’s wellbeing.”

“Oh no, please keep on talking about other stuff; I am perfectly fine blending in the background,” Page said with a weak chuckle. “I am being honest here; as a changeling,” how odd it was to admit out loud in public. “We rarely do well being dragged into the spotlight. Part of our nature is to be on the edge of things, to blend in and avoid being seen. And we are going to be landing in the capital where they make it their business to find and kill changelings ever since the world drove Sombra back here and killed him.”

“Say guys,” Vix-Lei said as she leaned across her chair. “Do you think our foe could be him? I mean, he came back once already after the gods and goddesses banished him and the Crystal Dominance away. What’s to say he didn’t sneak away a slice of himself and wait until he was strong enough to come back?”

“Considering it took the entire world working in unison to drive his empire back to this city state, it’s a fairly horrific prospect that we could be responsible to do what took almost a decade to accomplish in the past,” Rex said as he reached into Wind’s pack and took out a bottle and began to drink straight from the stout. “While I am an atheist, we would need divine help to deal with him.”

“Uh Night,” Wind began with Night shaking his head.

“We didn’t run many matches with the Crystal World War table set; it was near impossible for any of us to defeat the guy playing as him and it wasn’t that much fun,” Night said with a shudder.

“Well with that terrifying thought in mind,” Xvital groaned as she emptied her stomach again. “We don’t know anything and I don’t think we should scare ourselves silly with that kind of speculation.” She sighed. “Whatever we’re up against… we’ll beat it.”

“And we’ll be sure to take care of each other,” Page said, doing her best to calm her racing heart.

“Hey guys, I think we’re landing,” Vix-Lei said, tilting her head. “I can hear the engines slowing down.”

“Oh thank the gods, this craaa-” Xvital trailed off, shooting worried looks at the minotaur who was thumbing her hammer before coughing into her tail hand. “This fine airship, one of the best I have ever ridden!”

“You saying I’m a bad pilot, Xvital?” Vix-Lei asked softly as she had one of her hammers on her lap, with Xvital mewing in fright.

“Uhhhhh,” she began to gulp and look around for support but thankfully Vix-Lei couldn’t keep her straight face anymore and was about to laugh when there was a loud thud above their heads. She instantly ceased her actions and waited as metal on wood echoed out above their head; no doubt the Crystal Guards examining the ship.

Page, along with the rest of them waited in complete silence as the Guards shuffled around the room before pausing. “No disrespects, revered ones,” the Guard above her head said, sending a wave of dust at them. Before Page could even wrinkle her nose, Xvital had reached out with her tail hand and clamped down, even going as far to plug her nostrils with her fingers. “But why do you have an examination mirror in this room?” There was a long pause before the Guard spoke again. “I see. And if you have any information on the Traitorous Six, please do not hesitate to contact us.”

One of the other Guards spoke softly, “Or not.”

There was a sudden loud smack and the clatter of metal on the ground, with the whimpering of the second Guard.

“Revered ones; Ardent Daffodil spoke out of place,” the first Guard said in a submissive tone. “She did not mean to imply anything against the Equestrian gover-”

There was another loud smack and the sound of a Guard hitting the floor. There was another long stretch of silence, pockmarked by what seemed like the Order forcing the Guard back down.

“I understand, revered ones,” the first Guard said with a slight slur to his voice. “My thanks to you for correcting my errors; I serve all of Equestria, not just the Crystal Dominance for they are one.” Page did her best not to jump when a drop of blood fell onto her head, telling her the reason for the slur. Her ears flicked as the Guard dragged himself to his hooves before the other Guard was dragged up. “We are done here, revered ones. We are thankful for your time and… your lessons,” the last words sounded like it was dragged out by force.

The Guards then began to walk out of the room with the Order ponies staying put, tapping the top of the hold twice before leaving.

After a period of time passed, Xvital moved her tail hand off and out of her nose, muttering a soft apology. Wind Breaker looked around the room before he asked, “You think we're safe?”

“I guess so,” Vix-Lei said as she peered upwards. “Rex, you hear anything up there?”

“There are no ponies around that I can hear,” the Diamond Dog replied. “However, I would wait until one of the Order members comes back-” He froze, and sniffed. “And I think I hear one now.”

“You sure it’s an Order member?” Wind Breaker asked.

“Almost positive,” Rex replied. “I recognize the sound of this one’s footstep.”

The others turned to give him startled looks, but before anypony could say anything, the hatch opened, revealing a cloaked figure in the Order’s distinctive cloak and mask, making a gesture with one hoof that anypony could recognize as ‘Come here’.

Carefully, they climbed their way out of the hold, Vix-Lei bringing up the rear just in case, and were soon standing in their room. “So, now what?” the minotaur asked.

The Order member made a series of gestures, and Xvital nodded. “We’re clear,” she reported. “The Crystal Guards have left the ship, and this landing pad. We still have to get dressed before we can leave though.” She accepted the cloak and mask that the Order member was holding, with the others taking their own cloaks and masks. In minutes, they were ready to go with Xvital taking the lead again with Wind Breaker right behind her. Night followed the griffon with Page walking behind him as he was a bit shaky due to seeing out of only one eye. Rex was behind her and of course Vix-Lei took up the rear.

The Order was forcing them to move quickly as they certainly did not look like Order members, walking up the hallways of the ship before reaching the deck to see that they were on the upper levels of what was once the palace of the Crystal Empire, now refitted to serve the order. Of course, they Order hadn’t dared change a single thing about it due to the sheer historical value as well as the fact that there were fragments of a legend noted from the Goddess Celestia herself telling of lost treasure, a gem crafted in the form of a heart, within the grounds that would restore the empire to its former glory; not with the native crystal ponies throwing a huge fit about it that not even the Order tried to fight against.

And from what the legends her tribe had managed to pass onto her, if the Crystal Heart was ever found, then Equestria would find itself at war with a nation that would not be subjugated again by an outside force with the crystal pony tribe only accepting a God or Goddess of Love on their throne.

But there was no way she was telling them that; too many questions would be raised and she would be risking the lives of the brave few changelings that lived up here searching for the Crystal Heart if she so much as hinted that she knew about the gem.

Still, they followed them into the former palace, down the staircases with the feeling of hatred directed straight at her causing the halfbreed to flinch and draw onto the love that Night had in his heart to keep herself from transforming back to her true self. To her relief, Night didn’t even flinch although she was given a look by one of the Order ponies that caused her to trot a bit faster. They were going lower now, and Page felt some sort of shift and by referencing where her changelings were, she realized that they were underground and going deeper by the minute. Page did her best to soothe the changelings she brushed across with her mind but did not dare send a message off in case the Order had the means to detect the hivemind. They were delighted to be touch with her, that much was obvious but they were also full of anxiety for her safety. The Goddesses and the Enteral Swarm forbid that they learned that she was deep in the headquarters of the Questioning Order or they might do something completely foolish like trying to attack the Order to rescue her.

Finally, almost after an hour of walking did their guide finally stop before a single ordinary looking door with a single Order standing guard in front of it. Their guide made a series of signs at the guard before they nodded and stepped to the side with the guide making a short number of hoof signs and giving her a sheet of papers before waving them in.

Xvital seemed to perk up, a flash of excitement in the ahuizotless making Page wince a bit, before she scampered in with Wind Break and the rest of them following her inside of the massive storage room, the Order ponies slamming the door shut behind them. In an instant, all of them removed those itchy robes and the confining masks and tossed them to the floor, with Page folding them up with her magic and placing them to the side.

“So Xvital, what got you so exci-” Wind began, only for Xvital to let out a squee and spun on her feet.

“Do you know where we are‽” Xvital let out another giggle before rubbing her hands together. “We’re in their treasure room! All the stuff they’ve ever gathered or found is right here! Oh the stuff I could sell would set me up for life!”

She let out what seemed to be a cackle before Rex coughed and said, “Are we not here for your Element?”

“Ah, yes,” Xvital said, blinking as she began to calm down. “About that… when they told us about having my Element, they revealed that they had three items from the old castle before changing it to two,” Xvital said as she examined the vast rows of crates. “Shit, how are we going to find it in all this?”

“Well Xvital,” Page said as she examined the papers and saw it was an inventory list. “We can use this magical thing called a log to see where your Element is being stored.”

“I highly doubt that they would actually list the Element of… whatever the Magi of Stars had, Page Turner,” Rex said as he took a step towards the crates.

“Well, yes,” Page said with a bit of a titter, frowning as she flipped the pages. “But that just means we can examine each crate cache to see what should not be there and-”

“That could take hours. I say we just look around and see what we can find,” Wind said, shrugging his shoulders.

“That sounds good to me, Wind Breaker,” Rex said, nodding his head.

“Ditto,” Vix-Lei said as she tilted her head as she looked around the room.

“Well guys, I say Page here has the right idea,” Xvital said, pulling her into a sideways hug. “What about you Night?”

“I’m for looking around,” Night said, causing Page to do a double take and Night noticed her surprise. “What? First off, this place is simply massive and it would take a long time to search it all. I highly doubt they’ll let us out until we find it and the way that these Elements work, it will show up when it wants to show up. And secondly, I want depth perception back and this damn eyepatch off.” Night grumbled as he reached for the fabric covering his eyes and tugged it off his face, blinking his scarred eyelid before he managed to keep it op-

“Oh my,” Page placed her hoof on her mouth as she saw at last how his eye looked. The Order’s treatment had repaired the worst of the damage; while the pupil had faded somewhat, she could still see the narrowest trace of a line across the eye itself, matching the line she had seen across his eyelid when he first uncovered it.

“Night, can you see?” she asked faintly.

“Of course I can, Page,” he said, blinking in confusion with everyone wincing except Vix-Lei who seemed to be impressed by it, of all things! “Why, is it that bad?”

“Uh…” Wind trailed off before coughing and turning his head to Rex. “Rex, do you have happen to have a mirror on you?”

“I, er, um,” Rex fumbled as he both spoke and searched his vest for one. “Yes, mirror. I have a mirror. Here.”

Night blinked and took it with his right wing and held it to his face and then froze. He blinked his eyelid a couple of times before holding it open, examining his eye. After a moment of licking his lips, Night said, “This will take some time getting used to.” He then turned to Rex to return the mirror and thanked him. “So… shall we get going?”

“Yeah,” Vix-Lei said as she began to walk off, then stopped and glanced over her shoulder at him. “Oh - can I have that patch back, since you’re done with it? Never know when I’ll need it again.”

Night Blade nodded, hoofing the patch over to her, and watched as she tucked it into her pack. Page glanced at him as he walked in her direction. “Have it back?” she asked him.

“Apparently pony-sized eyepatches are among her emergency supplies,” Night Blade replied. “I didn’t ask why, trust me on this one.”

Page shook her head, a faint smile on her face. “I wonder what else she carries,” she commented.

“If it’s anything like that lizard, I’m not sure I want to know,” Night told her, prompting a nicker of amusement.

After a moment, she shook her head, and levitated the inventory list back into view, flicking her eyes at the sign indicating which crate cache this was. “Let’s see where we are…”

“Uh Page,” Xvital said, causing Page to frown, losing her place.

“Not now,” Page shushed as she looked over the papers again to get her place.

“This is kinda important,” Xvital said, causing Page to lose her place again.

“What is it, Xvital?” Page snapped as she turned her head to look at Xvital and- “They already left, didn’t they?”

“Yeah,” Xvital admitted. “They did.”

The unicorn-changeling mare pouted. “Well that’s just great; I thought at least Night would stay here.”

“Why, because you two dated?” Xvital gave her an odd look. “You’re the one who said you wanted space; you can’t blame him for doing what you asked him to. And besides, he said he wanted to go look around instead of this list review thing.”

Page just snorted and rolled up the paper to bap Xvital’s nose. “Don’t bring logic into this missy, he could have listened to me.”

Xvital just laughed at her with Page’s face burning up embarrassment as she stalked over to the first cache and began to examine what was there and what wasn’t.

Rex

It had been quite some time since they entered this treasure room of relics from the past that the Order had collected and he had been taking notes after notes from what he saw. This was the first time that anyone had seen these artifacts; the crystals on the moon, he was the first Diamond Dog in the Crystal Dominance in almost a millennium, not since the world banded together to depose the tyrant Sombra.

He was glad to be alone right now due to what his instincts were telling him being around the room made of crystals. Licking his lips as his stomach growled, he did his best to suppress his growing hunger despite how much his mouth was salivating and his teeth begged him to start eating this delicious forgotten looking place.

Shaking his head, he ran his fingers along the wall and let out a bit of low bark of surprise as hand clip a loose brick of stone and knocked it down. Turning his head, he saw something reflective inside. Tilting, he pulled out what appeared to be a clear crystalline object fashioned in the shape of a heart.

Rex turned back and forth in his paws and let out a bark of laughter. It was clearly fashioned in the shape of the old heraldry of the Crystal Empire and while he was fully aware of the old legends, this clearly had to be a replication of the fabled totem that some child that placed in here before the palace had been renovated to fit the Order's needs. Placing the faux Crystal Heart back into its hold and the brick over it, he turned his head as he noticed something very odd on the ground.

It was a long piece of cloth but the way it was laying on the ground bothered him. His eyes flicked to the standing horseshoe-shaped mirror, barely skipping over the small gems that decorated its rim. As he studied it, he realized what was wrong about this whole thing: beyond how the cloth must have fallen off of it in a windless room, it wasn’t crumpled up in front of the mirror but as if something had pushed it off to the side.

Yes that was it… although not quite right. The folds of the fabric were the wrong way for someone to have pushed it to the ground. Walking around it, with his back to the mirror, he saw that it was as if someone had come through the mirror and done the deed. How the deed was done was beyond him as there was nothing behind the mirror that could as act as a back door and this was further proven when he tapped the back of the mirror and saw it was solid.

“How very peculiar,” Rex said as he tapped his chin as he looked at the mirror and wondering where this mirror came from and tried to recall any legend that involved an odd looking mirror.

Xvital

Xvital so regretted agreeing with Page to look for her Element this way; it was so boring!

The mare had her going through each box, forcing her to pry open the lid for each one, peering into it and then sealing it back up without taking anything from the crates.

“Come on Page,” Xvital whined. “Can’t I take just a little something?”

“No,” Page replied. “Now come on, we’re almost halfway done.”

“Gah, you’re no fun,” Xvital pouted as she took a drink from her canteen. “This place has so much stuff and we could make so much money off it.”

“Well Xvital,” Page said as she ticked off a page and flipped to the next one, trotting to the next stack of crates. “We have gotten this far without needing to spend much of anything and I don’t see us winding up in a situation where we’ll suddenly need a lot of cash.”

“Oh come on, that’s what poor people say,” Xvital snorted with Page shooting a very librarianish look at her that made her wince. “Uh… sorry?”

“Thank you,” Page chirped as she stood in front of a very large box. “Open this one, please. It should contain the armor of one… Quick Thought, a pony who was tricked and turned into a wolf for a while, until he figured out how to make the pony who did it change him back.”

“Oh come on, that was just a leg-” Xvital trailed off as she saw the armor of a pony and with a quick poke, it had shifted into that a wolf. “Well, I guess that legend is true.”

“And no Xvital, you cannot take it and sell it to the highest bidder,” Page snarked at her, causing Xvital to flush and sputter.

“I wouldn’t do that, Page Turner,” Xvital pouted.

“Mainly because you couldn’t actually carry it out?” Page asked, raising an eyebrow as she opened up a crate and studied the contents, then checked her list and covered her mouth. “Okay, no.”

“Why, what is it?” Xvital asked curiously.

“An enchanted frying pan,” Page said disgustedly. “If the rightful owner hits somepony with it, it turns them into a giant poached egg. If anypony other than the rightful owner tries to use it, it turns them into a giant poached egg.”

“Yeah, definitely not,” Xvital said, lifting the lid back onto the crate. “That’s just freaky. And dangerous. Who in Equestria would create such a thing anyway?”

“A very, very poor magician,” Page replied. “And it doesn’t help that he missed his intended target - he tripped over something when tried to cast the spell. Not only did it not give him the effect he wanted, he enchanted his wife’s best frying pan instead of the Masamane sword he was aiming for.”

“He was trying to enchant a Masamane sword?” Xvital’s eyes widened. “What kind of idiot messes with his swords? I thought he destroyed them all and this joker almost wasted one with his botched spell? What kind of effect was he going for anyway?”

“Nopony knows,” Page replied as she studied her list. “He never told anypony, except possibly his wife, and she never said anything. Because she became a giant poached egg, and that’s how he found out about that part of the spell.”

“You ponies and your magic can get pretty messed up,” Xvital said as they turned the corner to check out the other boxes when they spotted Night and Wind approaching an armoury full of weapons.

They were both clearly examining the items there instead of looking for her Element, with Night holding a small dagger and Wind holding up a simple looking bow.

Then Night flashed a look at Wind, making sure the griffon saw what he was doing and picked up a longer knife. Wind raised an eyebrow at this and picked up a slightly longer bow. Night responded by grabbing a gladius, while Wind found a longbow. Night then reached for an Assegai while Wind grabbed for a very large gastraphetes, and Night promptly found an even bigger sword. In response, Wind found a massive ironwood bow, only to see Night Blade now carrying a curved sword that was even longer than his body. The two stared at one another, perfectly still.

“Ooo, what’s that?” Vix-Lei cooed, walking past them with a massive hammer with the head as big as she was in her hands. “You want me to take you with me? Oh I don’t know; you are a very pretty hammer but I just don’t know how Lady Kabonk and Señor Hardhead would feel about it. Oh now, don’t be worried, I am sure everyone will like you just fine,” Vix-Lei continued to say as she walked out of view, still stroking that insanely large hammer she found. Turning her head back to Night and Wind, Xvital could see both of them were laughing their heads off, leaning on each other for support.

“Oh my,” Wind Breaker gasped. “Can you believe - gah!” He broke off to laugh some more. “Ah, I needed that…”

“I quite agree,” Night Blade chortled as well as making these high pitched squeaks . “Really, how could one even use such a thing as this?” He lifted his last sword, and shook his head. “Completely impractical, yet… who in the world ever thought making something so big was a good idea?”

“I don’t know,” Wind Breaker said as he studied his last weapon. “I think I heard a story about a guy with a bow this long and hard - oh hah hah,” he snarked when he saw Night Blade’s expression. “But seriously, I think he was a minotaur or something, and held this contest to prove he was the strongest of them all, because none of the other minotaurs who tried could even bend it to string it, let alone fire the dang thing. Either that or it was to prove his identity, because he was the only one who could ever string and fire it.”

“Really?” Night Blade gave him an interested look. “Where did you hear about that?”

“It was something about ‘The longest journey’, I think. It was back before I could fly, at any rate, so I really don’t remember much else. Just that he had a lot of adventures at sea.”

“I’ll have to see if I can find it myself someday then,” Night Blade told him.

“If you do, let me know so I can read it too,” the griffon replied. “Because now I want to know if I’m remembering parts of it right.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” Night Blade said as he started hanging weapons up again and studying them, seeing if there were any that would actually suit him.

As he looked over the swords again, Xvital turned her head to Page and just smirked. “What an insane group we are, eh?”

“I doubt there has ever been a group like ours, Xvitall,” Page said as she stared at Night with a happy sigh. Speaking of…

“Say Page, something I’ve been meaning to ask you; are you feeding okay due you and Night no longer being together?”

Page jerked at this, going back to her changeling self in surprise before looking at her with a blush on her face. “I uh,” she fumbled for words for a little bit before smiling. “I am doing quite fine; with the residual love that Night has, that blender and you guys are feeding me just fine.”

“Blender?” Xvital blinked at the odd word.

“Oh that’s we call someone that can blend two emotions together,” Page said. “Neither emotion is greater than the other; they’re a perfectly equal mix. It’s incredibly rare but Night is perfect at doing anger and love and those two rarely mix well.”

“Really?” Xvital tilted her head at this, interested to know more.

“Oh yes, love is just the sweetest, most fulfilling emotion you can ever taste and anger is a fiery, spicy emotion and can easily leave a burnt taste in your mouth if you take too much in,” Page said, closing her eyes. “But Night is just able to hit that sweet spot in mixing those two emotions naturally whenever he duels and then…” she let out a soft moan and began fanning herself.

Xvital stared at her for a few seconds before she cracked a smile. “So I guess we now know why you like spicy stuff then, eh?”

“Xvital!” Page squeaked with embarrassment, looking to see if Night had heard them.

“Let me guess; you were always thinking of yourself as a damsel in distress with Night being your knight in shining armor to protect you, right?”

Page just glowered at her, her face heating up and telling Xvital she was right on the money. The ahuizotless started laughing at the mare’s expression, but suddenly yelped as Page gave her a telekinetic push, just enough to knock her off balance. Flailing her arms, she fell back into one crate, feeling something sharp suddenly jabbing her in the side, letting out a screech. “Yeeoww!”

At the sudden cry of pain, Page gasped, holding a hoof to her mouth before rushing over to her. “I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to push you that hard-”

As Night, Wind Breaker and Vix-Lei hurried over as well, Xvital shook her head. “It wasn’t what you did, it was something I landed on.” Shifting around, she managed to clamber back over the edge of the crate and dusted herself off. “I’m okay, I’m okay.”

“If you’re sure…” Page murmured.

“I’m sure.” Checking herself one last time, Xvital reached into the crate. “What the heck is this thing anyway?” she wondered aloud as she picked up the object that had poked her in the side. Studying it, she frowned as she saw the sharp edge that had done the poking; it looked something like a broken gem of some shape, attached to a warped almost horseshoe-like piece of metal. The entire thing was bent and tarnished, and she curled up her lip in disgust for some reason. But at the same time, something within her yearned at her to put it on her head, that her entire life was leading up to this moment.

“Is that your Element?” Page asked her. “It looks… wrong.”

“Yeah, I think so,” Xvital said as she turned it around in her hands, running her thumbs over the broken centerpiece with a low hiss. That felt incredibly wrong for some reason but she could not place her finger on why. “Well, I guess I should put it on and talk to the Magi of Stars? See what’s going on?”

Xvital saw Page, Wind, Night and Vix-Lei give her encouraging nods and that was enough for her. Twisting the Element around so it would go on her head the right way, she began lowering it onto her head when it was suddenly yanked out of her hands.

“What the fuck?” she swore as a red and yellow maned unicorn mare dashed past them. “Hey, you!”

Night dove at the amber coated mare but she simply used her magic to push him to the side, jumping off Wind’s face as the griffon tried to copy him. Page let out a vicious sounding hiss, spreading her wings out wide as she created a bubble around the mare but whoever she was seemed unfazed and simply teleported out of it and continued in her mad dash.

“Oh no you don’t!” Vix-Lei shouted as she dropped the massive warhammer she had found onto the ground that caused everything to jump and took a swing at her with her fake hammer at the mare. The thief simply used her opal-green magic to pull several crates down onto Vix-Lei, causing the minotaur to let out a stream of curses in her native language.

“Stop!” Xvital called as she, Page, Night and Wind Breaker chased after her.

“Xvital, what is goin-WHOA!” Rex let out a yelp as the mystery mare almost ran him over and nearly caused a nasty pile up.

Glancing back, the unicorn gave her a nasty smile, before turning away and running towards an odd-looking mirror. As she reached it, instead of stopping, she ran through it, leaving only a ripple behind.

Stopping just short of the mirror, Xvital gaped in astonishment as she and the rest of them stopped short in front of the mirror. “Okay, what the fuck just hap-GAH!” she shouted as she was suddenly shoved forwards by a furious Vix-Lei and found herself suddenly flying into the mirror itself!

There was a whirling motion…

A flash of odd colors surrounding her…

And then a ton of weight on her back with the groans of the rest of the crew.

“Where is that little skank that dropped that shit on me, I’ll smash her faceeee...!” Vix-Lei’s shouting came to an abrupt end. “Uh guys, anytaur else see this or is it just me?”

“Seeing what, Vix-L- Oh my!” Rex exclaimed.

“What in Equis is going on?” Wind Breaker said in awe with Night and Page letting out gasps.

Pushing herself upright to her knees, Xvital rolled her eyes and asked, “What are you guys talking abo-” she stopped as she saw hand was no longer covered in fur but was now light purple-blue skin.

“Guys,” Vix-Lei said in a shaky voice, causing everyone to stare at her and recoil at how much she had suddenly changed. “I don’t think we’re in Equestria anymore…”

Comments

[nickle241]

and here i was thinking that the mirror was just a throwaway reference, must be that pesky temporal misalignment at work again to allow this. now im thinking that the heart they found is real and they are going to end up reactivating it.

[Evilhumour]

8282913

Hehehehe you are right about some things; but you didn't ask an important question; what's the third item?

[nickle241]

8282945
not sure which item you are refering to, there were so many mentioned and only the heart, mirror and element stood out clearly to me.

[Evilhumour]

8283017
The Crystal Heart was never in Canterlot.

[nickle241]

8283023
i got confuse i guess, i thought this was the treasure room in the empire, though unless they raided everything after sombra's return i'm not sure how the mirror ended up in canterlot
edit: now im forgetting baseline... my mistake

[nickle241]

8283057
still not sure what the heart in canterlot could be though, i imagine its important to someone though

[Evilhumour]

8283057
The Order somehow collected it, the Xvital's Element and something else after everything went boom in Chapter Zero...

Sombra hid the Crystal Heart as it would be one of the few things that could defeat him. And yes, Rex did uncover where it was stashed away and then put it back because he thought it was a fake.

[nickle241]

8283067
i cant wait to see how eqg plays out with an inactive magic and two different sets partially active bearers for the other five present, kinda sad that sunset will never have that chance at reconciliation that she wanted with celestia after getting element blasted. so all in all, this is going to be an entertaining mess no matter how it plays out.

[Evilhumour]

8283064
huh? what heart in canterlot?

[nickle241]

8283080
now we're both confused i guess, so this is the empire treasure room like i thought at first, your second comment threw me off on that

[Evilhumour]

8283079
On the point!
8283082
Yeah.

The Crystal Heart was in the Crystal Empire-now Crystal Dominance. The Mirror, the last Element and something else was recovered by the Order from the explosion of Canterlot castle, something that the Order didn't want them to know about.

[Joeyjambo122]

8283086
This is a completely random question.

Where does Rex lears towards more in terms of his sexuality?

[Evilhumour]

8285516
That is random!

[Joeyjambo122]

8285519
Darn it! I meant to say leans towards more. So... I am genuinely curious about Rex's sexuality. Sorry to bother you.

[Copper Springs]

Rex found the Crystal heart....and put it back.
I was NOT expecting them to go through the mirror.
Well whatever it is that's trying to stop them, I highly doubt they could have predicted this.