Children of Equis.

by reflective vagrant

Worries All Around.

Zecora spoke with the Fey, as Celestia asked, as soon as she recovered her hearing. Sadly she was met with resistance.

"We have no intention of helping those of the outside world study something within our realm," The chosen speaker answered the shaman. "While you are a servant to our surrogate mother, shaman, you still associate with users of Æther and so we cannot trust you fully. We will not aid you."

"Your people know the legends more vividly than mine ever could." Zecora called out to the seemingly empty trees. "Some of your eldest were fledglings on the day the rifts were sealed for good. Surely you realize if this creature brings back war, the Fey would suffer far more."

The one visible Fey zeroed in on the shaman's face. "We have our own contingencies for such events. We do not need the collaboration of outsiders. They have been kind enough to leave us in peace and thus we leave them in peace, but that does not change the fact that we will not aid Æther users in a war that is not ours."

Zecora stared back at him with all her might, searching for any flaw. After a minute, she found one.

"Your voice does shake. But I say make no mistake. If the light of the rifts begin to glow, the forests will be among the first to go. You know that no matter what you do, there is always a chance that war will be forced upon you."

The rustling of many sounds could be heard in the trees, feathers flapping, leaves stirring, dead twigs snapping. Meanwhile, the one visible Fey hesitated for a moment.

"Then you see why I need to know. Will you at least help me see if this creature is friend or foe?"

The one visible Fey listened intently to his hidden brethren, taking in the decision his people were reaching.

"Our answer is final: We will not aid the Æther users. You, being a servant of our surrogate mother, may study it on your own, but we will tolerate no Æther user in your company while in our forest."

The shaman gave a disgruntled sigh. She then gave a bow to thank the Fey for their audience as she felt their presence vanish from her senses.

Zecora managed to track the creature to Ridge Tear Lake just before dawn. Speaking with the local crows she had befriended over her years in the area, she managed to get them to agree to watch the creature and tell her anything of interest. They wouldn't be as thorough in scouting or in judgement as the Fey, but any extra set of eyes helping was welcome.

Just as dawn was starting to come forth, where the light was allowing her to get a good look at the creature, she found him to be bipedal, like a diamond dog, but perhaps more so. He was also shivering, like he was having trouble staying warm in spite of the many fur wrappings he had on him.

There wasn't a whole lot she could determine with an initial look, but if she could get his sent, it would be easier to track him with greater detail later.

Just as she got a good whiff of his sent, the creature tensed. He had woke up from her breath. A long moment passed as Zecora read every bit of the creature's body language. She could tell a lot from this: He was scared, hungry, and lost. She almost felt sorry for him when she suddenly saw its upper leg shift ever so slightly.

In her many years of experience, she didn't have to guess what that meant and jumped away out of reflex. Narrowly missing the creature's weapon, Zecora managed to find cover in the nearby bushes before the creature could stand.

The creature stood there, looking every which way in search of her.

With her natural coat camouflaging her in the underbrush and a safe distance established, Zecora watched him further. The creature's aggression wasn't out of malice, but simply fear. he was trying his best to survive and didn't look too powerful.

She called upon the Animus Mundi to help her read the creature to get a better feel for it. Was he a beast? A poninoid? A merfolk? What kind of magic did he harbor in his blood, if any?

When it came up as poninoid, she cocked her head slightly, but then again diamond dogs and griffins came up as poninoid by this technique as well.

She checked to see if the creature had spotted her before continuing. Deepening her concentration, she focused, half expecting the solid white/blue energy of the fallen star, or perhaps a relatively near transparent color of Æther. What she found though, was startling.

While it seemed to have a trace level of the fallen star's energy, it was more prominently a solid green energy with a slightly darkened overall aura. The green energy was coming out of the ground, caressing and enveloping him, not too unlike how a young servant would be treated by the Animus Mundi in their first years of training.

Zecora's jaw went slack and her eyes widened upon seeing this. Without making a noise, she promptly ran away quick as a flash to rethink her approach.

---

The next afternoon:

Blazing Stars searched around the area alongside the unicorns and the draconequus aiding them.

The crash sight was uncannily close to the rift, or so the unicorns said. Being a pegasus, Blazing Stars couldn't detect magical stuff and could only play a support role in the order, but it was a family tradition and he held it with pride none the less.

"That is very odd," the draconequus mumbled as he held his ear to the ground. "No matter how hard I try, I can't find a flaw. It really did seal up the rift good and tight."

Standing back upright, the draconequus snapped a floating piece of paper and an animated quill into existence, which promptly started taking notes for him. He then put his paw on his chin and continued with furled eyebrows. "If anything, I'd say this little booster shot has made the fabric around the rift strong enough to rival the days it was first created, maybe even slightly more so."

Blazing Stars swooped down as something caught his eye. Pulling the lump out of the ashes, it appeared to be the charred remains of a wooden shield of sorts. He couldn't see if it had bore a crest at one time, it was nothing more than charcoal on the surface now. Promptly, he brought his find to the team leader, Sea Spiral.

"Thank you Blaze," the unicorn scholar said as she took it from him. Just as she was about to set it down, she did a double take between the shield's shape and the thing she had been studying.

"Blaze! Where did you find this!? Show me exactly where!"

With a quick zip back to the spot, Blazing Stars showed Sea Spiral where he found it. She promptly did calculations, tromping all around the excavation site, and even to the large stream a little ways outside the excavation site.

With her mutterings coming to a close she gave a gasp. "I knew it! It was a stasis pod! The thing inside was blasted away and into the stream!" She half trotted, half skipped like a giddy school foal over to the main table. "We need to get this information to the princesses right away!"

With that, the draconequus, as well as the rest of the research crew, drew together and loaded down Blazing Star as well as his two wing ponies with documents of the day's findings, and were promptly sent on their way to deliver their cargo to Ponyville Castle.

---

"So The Fey have chosen to not help us, but they have allowed Zecora to study the creature so long as nopony else assists her. She has also made contact and confirmed that there is indeed only one." Twilight summed up the report from Zecora.

"What about the other danger? How are the other rifts around Equis?" Sunburst asked the local rift team, which basically looked like a standard meeting of the princesses and a few members from the counsel of friendship.

"Sadly, what reports we have found seem to indicate that the fabric keeping the the LosPegasis and Appleloosa rifts have taken serious damage and are further weakening faster than we can repair them given our current number of veil weavers." Celestia answered the guests of the rift counsel.

"Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike are speaking with the dragons and the breesies on new methods to make the future weaving longer lasting, but I fear these rifts will tear open before the new methods are finished. The one good note, however, is that the team has come back from the Everfree rift and Discord has confirmed it is firmly sealed and seems to be staying that way. Likewise, all remaining rifts inside and outside Equestria have been accounted for and do not seem to have any particular decay that the local teams couldn't fix. We've asked other rift teams to send as many experienced weavers as they can spare to help stem the tide of losing the seal on the LosPegasus rift."

"Applejack," Luna called from across the table. "I know this sounds bad, but if we had to abandon one rift to preserve the other, it would be far more practical to evacuate Appleloosa than LosPegasus. Please work with your kin in Apploosa and the local Buffalo tribes on ways to evacuate the area's around the Appleloosa rift in case this proves necessary."

Sunburst chimed in at this, "And I know you aren't the best with filtering your words, Applejack, so if anypony asks just say that it's a precautionary exercise ordered by the princesses for potential magic fluctuations that might occur in the area. It's an honest enough answer that won't cause a major uproar."