Cutie Mark Crusaders Fantasian City-State Historians, YAY!!!!!!

by Dragonborne Fox

Fifth Day, Evening—Anger Management

The Crusaders were making the end notes for the next chapter of their report in their room, though the task was made somewhat difficult with their sisters, idol, and sisters' friends not even three feet away from them, discussing… certain tragic events that the adults of Greenwood really should have stopped before it reached 'steaming tea kettle' levels of insanity. Worse, Shining Armor, Prince Blueblood, Spike, Zecora, and a guard named Flash Sentry had joined in on the madness, though those five only did their bantering occasionally, preferring to talk amongst themselves regarding the troubling information they had heard.

"So… two idiots shot their mouths off, and now you three have… information you really shouldn't have heard…" Rainbow said, shaking her head. "Seriously, I thought some of the soldiers around here had more sense than that…"

"Well… if'n you've just found out that one of your superiors had her wings…" Applejack averted her gaze briefly, searching for child-friendly words, "taken off her body, then chances are yer gonna get some people talking about it. Can't exactly stop the gravy train once it gets rolling, Dash." She sighed. "And she's got the scars on her back to prove it; can't get much more attention from the soldiers than having them seeing that."

Rarity looked about fit to madly stitch together several new outfits in rapid succession; her mane was frazzled and rumpled, her ears were pinned back, and if the Crusaders had to guess, she might have already gotten started on some new designs to cope with the stress. "The poor dear… having all of that happen to her must have made her snap. It was unfortunate enough that we had to listen in on that dreadful conversation while we were discussing with Lance regarding what to do about Redpine…" Her head shook gravely. "No wonder she's not socializing with the former villagers of Greenwood that much."

"If anything, she still looks about ready to punch somepony in the face if they even try to defend their former traditions," Twilight agreed with a nod. "I can already imagine how she feels right now, since Matt probably told her that she was a gossip topic by now." As if summoned from the gates of hell, the door to the room slammed open, and all turned to find a red-faced, shaking Anna standing in the frame, trying her hardest to not glare at those presently in the room. She was whuffling and wheezing, seemingly unsure over whether to start crying or start ripping ponies' heads off.

The Crusaders knew, fully well, the look of someone about to scream her head off, and dared not breathe a sigh of relief as Pinkie slammed into Anna at practically light speed, wrapping her in the tightest hug yet. Anna faltered, her glare softening a little, before she gingerly returned the hug. "Greenwood made you unable to giggle at the ghosties… that is unacceptable," Pinkie said in a quiet, severe tone of voice. "We have got to break the remaining villagers out of thinking that what happened was okay."

Uh-oh, Pinkie sounded like she was on the warpath. The Crusaders began to pity the former villagers all of a sudden, and they didn't know why. "But… they…" Anna stammered, only to be shushed by Pinkie.

"No, no, it's gonna be okay. You don't worry about those party poopers tomorrow; let me take care of it. You just take it easy and head to whatever sparring rooms you have, okay?" Pinkie said, shaking her head. Fluttershy moved to flank her, and together they escorted the youngest Lieutenant-General out of the room, closing the door behind them as they went.

"This sounds almost blasphemous for me to say, but now I'm starting to think Greenwood ruined her birthdays too…" Twilight muttered sadly, frowning ruefully at the thought.

"No wonder she's bonkers," Rainbow agreed with a nod, her voice subdued as she spoke. Her eyes gravitated to the ceiling as she began to think. "I would ask Sarah about it, see if we can learn what day their birthday is, but I think she might claw my face off if I said anything to her…"

"Well, it was a good thing the military found 'er, then," Applejack said, closing her eyes and sighing. "Least… least she can get better here."

Twilight's face turned solemn. "I wonder if… if her parents are proud of her up there…" she said, glancing briefly upwards as she said that.

Applejack winced at that. "Her too…" she muttered, Twilight's remark seeming to resonate with her soul on some level. "There ain't gonna be no healing from that, if Greenwood did her dirty like that…"

Twilight gravely nodded, her gaze pointedly fixed on the closed door. "They did," she said softly. "They became wraiths… and chose death, even then… Rubywing told me everything."

Applejack's face softened, her brows slanting and her eyes shining at that. "No wonder she don't want to lead the villagers… they did her dirty every way they could…" she hissed, eyes narrowing at the thought.

It wasn't long before those gathered in the room heard a guttural scream echo from the hallway. The Crusaders set their report down, sharing uneasy glances to one another. Sweetie Belle grabbed one of their saddlebags and put it over her back using her magic, squirreling the notes, the photographs for their references, and pencils away for the time being. As one, they trotted to the door, unsure of what they would find, yet knowing that whatever laid beyond the door would be a terrible sight to witness.

Applejack took notice of them heading for the door. "Where're y'all going?" she asked.

"To see if Anna's okay," Apple Bloom replied, frowning. "Or to see if we can help 'er feel better."

Applejack strode forward. "I don't think y'all can make her feel better right away," she said, shaking her head. "Ya sure ya wanna try? Because that mare has a lot of pain that still ain't healed yet, and won't probably start to heal until the villagers get in line."

"But we gotta try, otherwise she won't ever get better!" Sweetie argued, her face hardening a little as she stamped a hoof. "She's gotta be in a good mood to help run the military, right? If she isn't, the military will suffer!"

Applejack paused to consider that. Shining trotted forward, his expression equally as grim. "The kid's right. You can't have soldiers who are unwilling or feeling miserable; otherwise, it's disastrous all around," he said firmly. He turned to Applejack and added, "You guys, think of something big… like, a party, or something similar in nature. I'll help the youngsters lift Windwood's spirits up."

With that, the Crusaders and Shining opened the door and left the room, and indeed, a horrible sight did greet them; Anna was clutching Maria something fierce, sobbing loudly, face shrouded by her hair and ears pinned all the way back. Maria struggled in her grip, but it was no use; the wooden claws held her tightly in place, rendering her thrashing pointless. Pinkie and Fluttershy were holding Anna in turn, the former with her mane deflating and the latter using her wings to cradle everyone.

"Mommy! Why won't you let me go?!" Maria demanded, still struggling to no avail. Anna just clutched her tighter, still wailing as grief consumed her. She even tried scratching her, but the wood proved tough to crack, her claws only raking across its surface and scoring it faintly.

Shining trotted up and nudged them with his magic. "We need to take these two to a room," he said, when Fluttershy and Pinkie looked at him. Both nodded, and moved to another room that Shining went to unlatch the door of. As soon as everyone was inside, and the door closed, Anna began to babble incomprehensibly.

"I-I-I… di-didn't…" was all they could make out. Shining trotted over to pat Anna's withers, and he did so gently to avoid startling her.

"Hey, nopony asks for such awful things to happen to them," Shining replied softly. "And nopony can expect to be on top of everything at once, because they can't be everywhere at once."

"But… if I-I don't… I'll have… h-have failed…" Anna mumbled, curling in further on herself, only to wince as Maria scratched her chest to force her to relax her grip.

Shining frowned at that. The Crusaders approached, with Sweetie Belle putting a hoof on Anna's shoulder. "But you're not a failure; you're more awesome than most ponies give you credit for," she said gently. When Anna looked at her, she elaborated, "You have your cutie mark, you're helping run a military, you have your sister…" Sweetie's eyes trailed down to the still-thrashing Maria, "and a daughter, although you're squeezing her a bit too tightly for her liking." At that, Anna loosened her hold on the young hippogryph, allowing her to squirm past her forelegs.

Maria took a moment to flex her wings and rub the back of her head as she regarded her mother. "Mommy, who made you sad?" she asked, frowning. "And can I rip their face off?"

Shining looked at Maria and shook his head. "You can't, on the grounds that someone… or something has probably beat you to that punch," he said. "And as it stands, Godcat's probably doing that for you, so…"

Maria's frown deepened. "The creator cat's doing bad things to the bad ponies?" she guessed. Shining nodded.

Anna wilted a bit. "But…" she began, only to be shushed by Pinkie.

"You're not a failure. That's final; to Tartarus what the meany-pants fun-destroyers said about you in the past. They can't tell anypony anything like that ever again," Pinkie said gently. "They were just trying to destroy you to keep you from telling them what a bunch of hooey their so-called 'traditions' were."

Anna wilted, her head hanging in shame. She didn't say anything.

Fluttershy rubbed Anna's back with her wing. "Pinkie's right; you're letting them have control over you, even now. Don't you want to be the one in control instead of the other way around?" she asked, garnering a hesitant nod from the Lieutenant-General. "Then stop thinking about what those ponies have said to you before the Aerie found you. I know… it sounds extremely difficult to do, but it's possible. What those ponies said before doesn't matter anymore—unless you let it."

"The less power you give them," Shining began sagely, "the less they can influence you from beyond the grave. It's one thing to shed light on their crimes, and teach the younger generations to avoid following in their hoofsteps. It's another thing entirely to keep feeding them power that they do not deserve and have never earned. You're better than this—you're proving them wrong merely by continuing to live. It's still too soon to forgive them, but you can diminish their power by influencing the remaining villagers to not act like them, okay?"

Anna slowly, almost hesitantly, nodded. Maria went over to give her a hug. "The bad ponies are gone, mommy. And if they show up, you can tell them to shut up," she said. Anna returned the hug, and sighed bitterly.

Pinkie took a moment to get the hamster wheels of her brain to start working, before she asked, "How about this: does the military have training dummies?" At Anna's slow nod, she said, "Then we head to where the training dummies are at, and you get to beat them until they crack like piñatas. Actually…" Gears spun in Pinkie's head, and she wore a rueful, evil smile. "I have an even better idea."

"Wh-what is it?" Anna whuffled, taking a moment to wipe her face on her foreleg. A few vines brushed up against her snout, but no splinters pierced her hide.

"Teleport us to where you keep the training dummies," Pinkie said in a clipped tone. Anna, confused, followed the command, and soon everyone vanished from the room with a flash of her horn. They reappeared inside a large room, divided into sections, and filled with blaster fire from multiple directions. Each section was separated by rune-engraved glass, showing soldiers of various ranks firing at wooden, rune-engraved dummies on sturdy metal posts, or watching the other soldiers take their potshots.

Pinkie contemplated the dummies, and put a hoof to her chin. "Hrm, too loud in here… and those metal posts might be a hoof breaker…" she muttered, before shaking her head. "Do you have any spares you don't use anymore?"

Anna weakly nodded, lighting her horn again. She teleported the group before any soldiers could notice she was there, and brought them to a hallway with a few doors, all marked by signs sporting crystals in their surfaces. She opened the first one on the left, revealing a massive room piled high with boxes, chests, and more than a few broken training dummies that had seen far better days, fortunately dispossessed of their metal posts and still somewhat intact otherwise. Pinkie dove in right away, sorting through the pile of stuff with purpose.

In moments, Pinkie emerged with more than a few dummies gathered haphazardly in her forelegs, and the poofiness began to return to her mane somewhat as she stood on her hinds just to hold it all. "I know just the thing to make many of those bad feelings go away, but I'm gonna need more materials," she said. "Scootaloo, are there any changeling soldiers nearby?"

Scootaloo looked around, and found a soldier rounding a bend, his buzzing wings announcing his presence. "Yep!" she reported.

"Okay, we need chitil," Pinkie instructed. "Could you get some from him?"

Scootaloo nodded, and went to approach the soldier. "Hey, could I borrow some chitil?" she asked as soon as they both skid to a halt.

The soldier tilted his head. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Scootaloo nodded. "And we need to put something together to make it better," she answered truthfully. The soldier mulled it over, took one look at those Scootaloo accompanied, then relented, lit up his horn and produced a wad of chitil half as big as she was before plopping it on her back.

"If you need any more chitil, just hit one of us up," the soldier said, before heading off in another direction. Scootaloo grinned and raced back over to the group, careful to keep the chitil tucked between her wings. It didn't drip or ooze or do anything of the sort, just wibbled and wobbled on her back like a particular desert back home.

"Now then," Pinkie continued, grinning behind the mound of dummies she had gathered in her grasp. "We need one more thing: papers and pencils, and big enough to lay on the dummies' heads."

Shining's eyes widened, catching on to what Pinkie was planning. "You mean you're wanting to build something like dartboards, with the faces of Greenwood's wicked plastered onto them?" he asked, mentally kicking himself for not figuring it out sooner.

"Well, duh! They encouraged all sorts of bad things when they were around, and besides, they must have ruined more than one birthday before Godcat decided to tell them She didn't like them," Pinkie answered, nodding carefully to avoid disturbing the pile in her hooves too much. "And Anna's gotta get rid of the bad feelings one way or another; she didn't get a chance to give those meanies a piece of her mind! This might not get rid of all the bad juju she has built up, but this'll take a great big chunk out of it and make her think straight again!"

"And you're not even gonna stuff it with candy?" Shining asked.

Pinkie shook her head. "No; she'll probably destroy the dummies entirely. That's a waste of sweets," she replied evenly. "Besides, we don't want her associating plotheads with candy." She turned to Anna, or at least, as much as the pile of dummies would allow her to and asked, "Do you have blank sheets of paper in the Office of Doom?"

Anna nodded, and promptly teleported the group over to the Office of Doom, still crammed with paperwork that was liable to eat anyone who set foot into it. She trotted inside, careful to avoid disturbing the stacks of unsorted papers, and came out after a few moments, with a whole sheaf of papers as thick as a pony's hoof levitating at her side, as well as various colors of ink and quills.

"Now, we just need to cobble everything together," Pinkie said. "And a quiet room." Anna nodded, and teleported them into the room they had left from earlier, whereupon Pinkie plopped the dummies on the floor and grabbed the chitil off of Scootaloo's backside. She turned to Anna and said, "Draw the faces of those meanies on every single paper you can; accuracy doesn't matter, just that they're recognizable to you." Her hooves were a flurry of motion after the command; she glued pieces together lickety-split and even took the time to make sure they were secure first before gluing new pieces onto whatever conglomeration she was hatching.

The Crusaders watched, even as Sweetie Belle handed her friends their notepads and pencils to continue writing down information on their report. They weren't the only ones scribbling; Anna found a table, opened the ink and began scrawling on the papers she had gathered. Her movements quickly became more harried, and before long she began screaming her head off as she drew, coming close to ripping the papers a few times before managing to control herself.

In fact, it didn't take her more than maybe five minutes to finish scribbling down the faces of those of Greenwood who had wronged her; by the same token, Pinkie cobbled together a multi-headed, multi-armed dummy standing on a myriad of legs, like some kind of monster that Discord would have made for fits and giggles. Pinkie had some leftover chitil, and once she was handed the sheets that had been drawn on, wasted no time using said chitil to tape the papers onto the wooden monstrosity.

The trio noticed a disturbing trend with the papers, or more accurately, the drawings scribbled onto them: save for three almost completely identical faces belonging to evidently young-looking, dark-furred unicorn stallions with piercing red eyes, every single face present on the papers had wrinkles, bald spots in their manes, thin wiry hair, and other such features associated with the elderly. Furthermore, each and every pony was scowling, or sneering, or some combination thereof, and all had red splotches on their hides, as though they had spilled blood—whose blood, how and why, the trio did not want to guess.

But there were more papers than dummy heads, so Pinkie decided to improvise, putting the papers on the arms and the haphazardly-stitched chest and just about every place on the head until it looked like a papier-mâché abomination wearing a myriad of different, blood-splattered faces. The Crusaders noticed another quirk of the drawings; the faces either had horns or none at all, and Sweetie decided to ask about it: "Were there any pegasi in Greenwood?"

Anna shook her head. "No. They hated winged children," she said, without elaborating why. Then again, given the scars on her back, maybe that elaboration was better left in the dark where it belonged.

"Okay, everypony: make a hole, make a hole," Pinkie ordered as soon as the last paper face had been glued on. She moved to direct everypony to the far end of the room, and Shining took his cue to create a shield to dome off the paper-creature and Anna to keep the property damage from getting too high. Maria tried to get a closer look, but was grabbed by Pinkie and plunked with the Crusaders.

"But I wanna help mommy!" Maria complained, making another move towards her mother before Pinkie moved to grab her again.

"This is something she's got to do herself. But, you can give her sweets tomorrow—that fair?" Pinkie asked, garnering a nod and a reluctant grumble from Maria.

It wasn't long before the screaming, muted by the shield, ripped its way from Anna's throat once again as she went completely insane upon the massive dummy abomination. She scratched, she kicked, she bit, she impaled it with arrows, poison ivy, and even bamboo skewers that had been ripped from the ground at some point, utterly thrashing the perceived enemy to her sanity, safety, and existence. She did not relent; her body was a flurry of hooves, magic and raw pain that influenced her spellcasting, whaling on that which bore the faces of her apparently numerous tormentors.

The trio alternated between jotting down the next chapter of their report, and watching the beatdown take place. "Well, she's checking that dummy into the Smackdown Motel," Pinkie said, watching as the dummy got beaten to within an inch of its life and beyond. It was almost frightening, the complete shift in the Lieutenant-General's demeanor; the Crusaders could hardly be pressed to find anypony they knew with as much concentrated rage in their blood in comparison. No wonder the soldiers who shot their mouths off said she had cut it close to becoming a wraith; she had as much anger in her as Ponyville had when the Fantasians first arrived in Equestria.

"Erm… she's certainly vicious," Shining idly remarked, watching the rather one-sided 'battle.' "Now I see why the soldiers aren't allowed to talk about some things with her…" He turned to the trio, and trotted over to them to watch them write. "Are you three going to include anything about Greenwood?"

"Nope," Sweetie Belle answered. "Most we're putting in the report was that it was one of the territories claimed during the Trials of Attrition." Which, while technically true, wouldn't have given the town in question anymore attention than it already had. Besides, if it had a bit of a bad reputation as a nuthouse, then maybe it shouldn't be under any spotlight if they could help it.

She promptly traded notes with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom, and reviewed what they had so far. Welp, the third, fourth, and fifth chapters of their report were done, and the sixth was about three-quarters of the way done by Sweetie's estimates. Of course, they needed to figure out how to get started on the seventh chapter, but that could wait until they wrapped up the sixth chapter of their report. They went back to reviewing their notes, just to make sure their ducks were in a row.

20. The Aerie has guard posts surrounding its base of operations, a hundred posts total that are all hidden in the surrounding mountain range, complete with their own gardens, magitek, and extensive tunnels that are mostly dead ends, save for one tunnel in each one that connects to the Aerie itself. The tunnels in the guard posts are not made of the same material as the hive portion of the Aerie, so they do not shapeshift; rather, they use illusions to mask their passageways, and pheromones and special magitek that tell them where to go.

21. The crystals used for the Aerie's magitek not only charges it and imbues it with special properties, but can have spells cast into them to replicate the effects of an ordinary spellcaster. For instance, the guard posts have illusion-based crystals used to disguise them, serving a twofold purpose: to hide the true size of the Aerie's army, and to watch for any signs of danger and relay any information back to the main base in a safe, timely fashion. Illusions cast this way are more difficult to see through, and break than if they were simply cast through a unicorn or changeling's horn.

22. The single tunnels leading back to the Aerie connect to a forlorn place known only as the Graveyard of the Forgotten, a place where those cast aside by Fantasian society, who are subsequently found by the Aerie, are buried with full funerary rights. However, due to those who were cast aside having as much anger and despair as ten ponies, all bodies are cremated, to prevent the dead from returning as vengeful wraiths. There are two types of wraiths: the intangible, which are ghost-like, weak, and use whatever element they died to, and the tangible, which are physical, harder to kill, and mad as Tartarus. Wherever found, unless a wraith is willing to see reason, they are typically slain by the Aerie.

23. The Graveyard of the Forgotten is considered toxic by changeling standards, due to the ashes of those buried there containing their hatred and sadness, which in turn has affected the plots of land the graves are marked by. Changelings cannot touch any grave without going into shock, so they avoid it at all costs, or flit through the air if they must traverse through it. It is located deep beneath the Aerie, hidden from the rest of Fantasia at large.

24. Few enemies have managed to get past the Aerie's guard posts successfully, or even enter them at all for that matter. Only a recorded three have perished in the endless mazes of the guard posts, and all others have been detained for questioning. This is accomplished by magitek, which is used to communicate long-distance with the Aerie, and to monitor the surrounding landscape for any signs of trouble.

25. The Aerie's total population, combined with the guard posts, is one million, five hundred thousand, with the changelings outnumbering the gryphons three-to-two. This is because the changelings can lay multiple eggs in one sitting, upwards of several dozen if they only stay in one couple, compared to the gryphons' more manageable dozen-or-less per litter. The ratio at this time may grow yet, or it may even out if the changelings ramp up or slow their population replacement for whatever reason.

26. There are multiple cemeteries within the guard posts, where the dead from the Trials of Attrition rest with full funerary rights. All are connected to the tunnels that lead to the Graveyard of the Forgotten, but get much more traffic than the Graveyard due to the dead within the cemeteries not being afflicted with rage and hate as they have died. Every soldier changing shifts has to tread through both graveyards to make it to, and from, the Aerie.

27. While the guard posts have gates, they're built to keep intruders out, rather than to let anyone inside. They are armed with turrets, tanks, drones, and cannons, each one also fitted with the illusion-making crystals that let them blend into their surroundings. In order to break the illusions over the guard posts, one would have to take the difficult feat of disabling all of the magitek within the area, an immensely suicidal task to perform since one would not be able to see the weapons, much less be able to tell what hit them in the end. The gates, too, are fitted with the illusion crystals, and crafted of the sturdiest steel the Aerie can cultivate from the factory, making the task of penetrating the guard posts to get to the Aerie that way even more difficult.

The trio looked up at Shining's shield, and found that Anna was still a little bit preoccupied with tearing the wooden dummy a new one; the papers were shredded, it was halfway reduced to splinters, and she was still thrashing it like no tomorrow, stomping on it like a foal on a trampoline. She was still shouting as well, turning from red to purple as she made passes at the dummy's many legs… or more specifically, between the dummy's many legs as she continued with her tarantella.

"Wow. She's still mad?" Sweetie asked, somewhat worried about her Fantasian military friend.

"Looks like. She's going for the apple tree's forks, too," Apple Bloom said, shaking her head. "Reckon most of the ponies who hurt her were stallions."

"And why would full-grown stallions be okay with whatever was done to her?" Scootaloo asked, before receiving a sharp look from Pinkie Pie.

"I don't want to understand the reasoning of the ponies who probably ruined her birthday," Pinkie said curtly.

"Neither do I," Shining agreed with a nod. "Let's just wait for her to calm down first."

"We should probably check her for splinters after she's done. I don't want her to get an infection…" Fluttershy muttered, still mesmerized by the absolute walloping the dummy was still receiving. Though, they had to wait until her face started turning blue to intervene; by then, the dummy wasn't even recognizable as a dummy, and neither were the now-shredded paper faces recognizable as anything other than tiny scraps in a splinter pile. The shield had dropped as she kept stomping on the splinters until Shining magically lifted her into the air.

Anna growled for a moment, but it died midway out of her throat when her body reminded her that she needed to breathe. "Deep breaths," Shining instructed, watching as she heeded his advice and took the deepest breaths she could get. Gently, he set her on the floor as her legs went slack in the air, though he kept his magical hold on her to steady her nonetheless. Slowly, her face went from blue to its normal tan-beige, albeit with a tinge of red from exertion and fleeting rage. "Do you feel better?" he asked, garnering a slow, breathless nod from her in response.

At that point, Maria was let go, and she ran to her mother with worry flashing in her eyes. She hugged her leg, wings flapping as she looked up to meet Anna's tired gaze. "Are you sure you're gonna be okay?" she asked, to which Anna shakily nodded and lifted her other claw to pat her head. "You need some food," she said.

Anna wheezed and shook her head. "Not… not hungry…" she muttered.

"But you didn't eat dinner with everyone else! You need to eat!" Maria pleaded, wings flapping harder. "Please eat something, mommy. I don't want to see you sad anymore."

Shining smiled, and conjured a food tray from the ether, laden with various meats and vegetables and breads, still warm as if sent to the ether that way. He gave it to Anna without another word, and hesitantly, her horn lit up and grasped the tray before she started bringing food to her mouth. Soon she was tucking in and eating with gusto, though not to the extent of cramming so much food into her mouth as to choke on it. Maria smiled as she watched her eat, and let go of her leg to give her a little more breathing room.

He turned to the Crusaders once he was sure Anna would be fed and, more importantly, coherently sane for the night. They had their eyes on him, watching hawkishly. "Has the bomb been diffused yet?" Sweetie asked worriedly.

Shining glanced back over his shoulders before slowly nodding. "I think we should be safe for the night," he said in reply. He looked at the trio with a frown. "Are you girls gonna be okay for the night, though?"

"If'n we have any nightmares, we'll just have Princess Luna help us through them," Apple Bloom said with a shrug. "And if'n we can't, we'll just push on through tomorrow anyhow. As I see it, Discord's second reign of terror was more awful cause I'd actually been there to live it."

"... weird, but okay," Shining mumbled under his breath, before straightening his posture. "You sure?" he pressed.

"Ayep," Apple Bloom replied, with much nodding from her best friends. Shining relented, and trotted over to them to see their report.

"What all have you got?" he asked.

Scootaloo and the other two looked over their notes and chapters, and exchanged notes to see if they had wrapped up another one for the night. "We got done with the sixth chapter, and just need to do the seventh," she said.

"And what would that entail?" Shining asked.

"Their cuisine, ingredients, and cargo," Sweetie replied. A thought hit her, and she turned to Anna, "Hey, does the Aerie have any restaurants?"

Anna, still stuffing her face, shook her head, her mouth too full to contemplate answering otherwise. She took a moment to swallow before replying properly, "It does not, in the sense that you would define it. We do have cargo bays and storage facilities for storing our food surpluses for extended periods."

Sweetie nodded a bit. "Could you take us there tomorrow?" she asked.

Anna contemplated for a moment, before shaking her head and returning to shoveling food in her gob. "Can Natalie take us?" Scootaloo asked, garnering a nod that time.

Apple Bloom grinned, and reached over to the stack of photographs in Sweetie's saddlebag to check and see if any one of the pictures detailed whatever looked closest to a military cargo bay. Sweetie magically grabbed the stack and began shuffling through them with her friends, all three silently glad that Anna was feeling some measure of better. They didn't find much in the stack at first, just shots of places they had visited earlier, though the stack was huge even for a simple school report, so it took them a little bit of digging to get what they were after.

There, in a series of rooms, were several crates' worth of stuff, mostly wood and steel, but some sporting crystals and polished surfaces that could only be magitek. Each crate was labeled, too: partitions, rations, ammo, slime gel, spare parts… in fact, in every shot of the cargo bays, there were crates for everything they could think of; it seemed the Aerie was well stocked for a drawn-out conflict if the need arose. Plus with its own farms, and they'd be set to win another Trials of Attrition if they were of a mind to do so.

Some photographs detailed more changelings and gryphons in security gear, though only the vests and hardhats for visibility's sake. There were also cranes and massive tread-based magitek to cart off whatever was loaded off from the airships that came in through the hangars, on lifts specifically built to house vehicles of that size. There were also armed soldiers in blue suits, kind of like police officers except without the badge, holding clipboards and doing inventory checks on whatever went in and out of the Aerie.

And from the looks of those lifts, they might be connected to the hangars where airships and planes came and went to do whatever scouting missions Lance needed done at the moment. "Look," Apple Bloom said, pointing to a crane carrying a crate with bulky wires and a hook, causing her friends to look at her hoof. It seemed the cranes were magitek too; they had equine-sized crystals in their joints and hooks, sparkling with power when the photographs were taken. In addition, behind the crane she pointed at was a series of conveyor belts, each being fed scrapped steel and towing their goods into a series of chutes.

"Goodness, maybe they could open up more factories around Fantasia with all that equipment!" Scootaloo said, grinning.

"They might," Shining interjected with a smile, "but they probably don't. And from what I hear, it might be because they learned their lesson the first time, during the Trials of Attrition."

"Do not bite off more than you can chew," Fluttershy translated with a soft smile.

Anna finished her food and sent the empty tray back to the ether, taking a moment to produce a napkin and wipe her face off. She stretched and lit her horn. "A'ight, I'm going to bed now, and take a young gryph to her bed before she gets any bright ideas," she announced, causing Maria to pout a little.

"But I don't wanna go to bed yet!" Maria complained, crossing her claws over her chest before Anna went to pat her on the head again.

"Sorry, rules are rules," Anna said, before turning to look at the Mythonian guests. "Thanks for… for cheering me up. I guess I got a little carried away."

Pinkie grinned. "No problemo," she replied cheerfully. "Maybe we can start talking about making your birthdays fun days again, after we figure out who or what broke the barrier."

Anna smiled at the thought, albeit ruefully. "Maybe, but you've got a couple of months yet at least," she replied. "Until then, I am not telling you my birthdate. It has to remain a surprise; deal?"

"Dealio!" Pinkie agreed, her smile widening. "Surprises are always fun!"

Anna nodded, and with that, she teleported out of the room with Maria in tow. The Crusaders grinned and traded looks; while bedtime loomed over their horizon, they had one last day to wrap up their report before reading the rest to Lance to get his hoofprint of approval. And though they pitied the poor bastard who would have to clean up the splinter pile Anna left behind, at least that would be easy compared to the task they had ahead of them.

This project was sure to get a passing grade at this rate, and would make the look on Cheerilee's face so worth it when they returned home.

Comments

[gfr091702]

I have been having a debate lately. I want to write my next crossover fan fiction, bit I don't know which one to pick. There are either:

Kingdom Hearts x My Little Pony x Pokémon (takes place in Zeusdemigod131's "A New World, A New Way" universe and after Kingdom Hearts 3)

OR

Hot Wheels Acceleracers x Zelda: Twilight Princess (takes place after Zant attacks Link and Midna after the Water Temple and after the Water Realm)

Which one would you pick?

[Dragonborne Fox]

11140443 ... can we carry this discussion over to PMs, perhaps?

[Comickook]

Hey there. Sorry I took a while to get around to responding to this. Nothing to blame except self-admitted laziness. Anyway, very good job on the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places.

Really appreciated the reflections on recent events as well as the Crusaders getting used to the new gear to go with the marks that they earned the previous night. And the foreshadowing concerning the possibility that some of the Changelings might end up reforming a little sooner than in canon is also a good touch, in addition to the steps being taken concerning some of the troublemakers.

Very certainly looking forward to more of this.

[Dragonborne Fox]

11143285 And how did you feel about the Fantasian General and his cohorts' true natures?