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

by Dragonborne Fox

Second Day, Afternoon—Ranch Samples

Once the notepads and pencils were retrieved, and the digestion went underway for Katie to slim back down to her usual size, the trio proceeded on to the slime ranch with Anna accompanying them. They had considered trying for their cutie marks, but had to shelve the idea when they realized that a Lieutenant-General was accompanying them, and she would probably take no nonsense on that front as per her rank. Anna wasn't particularly upbeat today, but she did try to answer the questions of the Crusaders to the best of her abilities.

"So why do the slimes have vegetables and tails and everything else like that?" Sweetie asked.

Anna shrugged. "Well, there's multiple variants, all built for certain environments. Ice slimes like cold places, fire slimes like it burning hot, electrical slimes prefer barren wastelands with lots of lightning, and the vegetable and tabby slimes prefer forests. There's also sand slimes, and they prefer deserts and beaches, along with water slimes… then there's the toxic waste slimes, which we do not house as a matter of principle and another matter of safety. Honestly, I'm not sure where slimes came from," she said.

"And why do you keep them, besides feeding the changelings with love?" Scootaloo asked.

Anna turned her head to give Scootaloo a grin. "Well… we're studying them, actually, so we can get to know them better. They also willingly give us pieces of themselves, so we can use them for varying applications," she said as she lead them under the gate of the slime ranch. "Ice cream, restorative potions, enchanting materials…"

"Enchanting materials? Like, complex spells?" Apple Bloom asked.

Anna nodded. "Sometimes complex enough to require binding spell circles," she confirmed. "But the slimes regenerate, and as long as we don't kill them, they're an infinite resource."

"Kill?" Sweetie asked, frowning a little.

"Well…" Anna slumped a bit. "With a slime, it's kinda subjective. Eventually it'll reform and resume its usual slime routine after… I don't know, a few weeks to a few months, depending on the breed. They're functionally immortal. Wouldn't be surprised if Godcat and Faust had a magical accident that lead to the slimes' birth."

The slime ranch was expansive, at least the size of a large stadium with arches leading to possibly more. Sunlight filtered in from holes in the walls that didn't shapeshift, and where it couldn't reach, light crystals that seemed to almost be fluorescent did the trick. Here was a collection of farmlands, with irrigation all the way throughout, and the fields were split into long rows of five apiece.

Changeling and gryphon soldiers were both tending the fields in farm-appropriate garb, hauling tools and large buckets to house the vegetables. There were a myriad of different vegetables available; beets, carrots, parsnips, onions and potatoes were the prime ones on the fields here, though there were some others that took a moment to be discerned because they needed to be squinted at due to the distance.

Amusingly, the only magitek here seemed to be whatever specialized tools the soldiers were using; enchanted shears made quick work of unwanted stems, rakes and hoes tilled the earth and scraped up loose harvest by the dozens, and swift thimbles ensured that any eyes growing on the potatoes that were to be eaten were snipped off and dealt with accordingly.

The buckets might have been magitek too, because they didn't seem to be overflowing at all; no matter how many vegetables and the like went in, very little if any came back out. Some curious round drones with propeller blades flew about, steel-grey with crimson lens on the front, also hauling buckets and tools and vegetables with great care.

Anna gestured to the far door at the left with a claw. "That over there leads to our fruit orchards; there, we have mangos, lemons, oranges, pears and so on. Beyond them is the vineyards for grapes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and past that's the chili pepper fields." She turned to the Crusaders, smirking. "There's probably a lot more I'm not mentioning about the fields alone; it helps that we have a lot of room to spare for them, and then some. We use a special fertilizer to help the plants grow and regrow a lot faster than standard; magic goes into it too, and the soil we use is only the best Fantasia has to offer."

The Crusaders chorused an "ooooooooh" as they turned to behold the size and scale of the vegetable fields. They jotted the information down, then noticed that a few of the harvested vegetables were regrowing at such speeds they wondered if they had even been replanted at all.

Anna's smirk widened. "Oh yeah, and the seeds of the vegetables are of a special strain that yields more bounties in mountains like these. We can get more out of less land, and when we replant…" She gestured to a soldier who was putting down some smaller potatoes sprouting eyes on them from a bucket on his back. "The results are almost as fast as the zap apples when they're in a good mood."

The moment the smaller eye-riddled potatoes were covered up by freshened, fertile soil, the ground they occupied heaved a little as a changeling came to work his magic through his hooves and send it out in pulsating bursts across the dirt. The potatoes reacted instantly, causing little shoots of green to sprout out, some even doing a little cutesy dance if the sun happened to kiss their patch of earth. "Cool!" the Crusaders chorused, grinning widely.

"That's just like what happens with smaller vegetables back home!" Apple Bloom chimed, eyes gleaming. "So how long does it take for vegetables to grow here?"

Anna lifted a claw and bobbed it up and down a bit as she did numbers in her head. "Well, depending on the vegetable, a few weeks to a few months. We have a wide variety, but fortunately our slimes only need to be fed every few months; while they eat a lot come feeding time, they still leave enough for the army to dig in." She then gestured to the door directly opposite of the slime ranch entrance.

"Over there's our black bird, tortoise, crab, fish and jellyfish farms. We make a lot of meat products there, for the few slimes who eat meat and the army of course." She pointed at the door to the right. "That is where the slimes are at, split into different and some temperature-controlled enclosures to keep them from getting trigger happy with each other." She lit her horn, grasped the four behind her, and teleported them all and herself to that door.

A drone hovered over and shone a red light as it scanned Anna. "Lieutenant-General Anna Aria Windwood recognized in data banks," the drone said in a robotic tinny. It turned to the Crusaders, and Katie, and scanned them as well. "Non-hostile wraith detected, recognized as guest until data banks are updated. Non-hostile fillies detected, recognized as guests until data banks are updated. Guests accompanying Windwood are to remain close at all times. You can proceed," it advised.

"You have some robots here?" Sweetie asked as Anna lead her and the others into a hallway that stretched on for a little bit beyond the door as it hissed open.

Anna nodded. "Some for fighting, some for disabling enemy magic with EMP fields, some for farming and some for support," she answered, shrugging. "Honestly, though, we keep them congregated in the mountain most of the time." They reached the end of the hallway, marked with another curious steel door that hissed as it opened, and entered the enclosure beyond proper.

There was a forest, at least several acres wide, with sunlight filtering in through more of those holes that didn't shapeshift and some sprinkler systems in the ceiling to simulate a light forest rain whenever it was needed. There were more crystals here too, colored and hot enough to simulate the sun itself in the places where the real deal could not reach.

Many trees, some fruit, but mostly miscellaneous, grew here with their own canopy thick enough to at least hold a candle to the Everfree. There were berry bushes and standard forest undergrowth, with a clear-cut path of tramped dirt before them that lead all the way to another steel door at least a thousand yards away that was currently shut.

The Crusaders grinned, with Scootaloo fluttering her wings as they beheld the enclosure. Katie heard bushes rustling and immediately turned in that direction, but relaxed as a vegetable slime about as big as her hopped out of the brush and grinned at them. Amusingly, it held a pear in its mouth, probably a Fantasian breed since it was more of a darker green than the Crusaders were accustomed to.

The Crusaders cooed at the slime as it bounced over to them. It gave one of them the pear in its mouth and allowed Anna to use her claws to scrape some of its gel from the side. Then it bounced away, making cute little squish noises as it went. Anna held the scraped gel in the sunlight, stretching it between her claws to examine its consistency and the like.

It had specks of vegetables in it, and some flower petals that kept their color in the gel. "Hrm… we might be able to use this for a spell circle, but it's nowhere near enough for even a tiny one…" She turned to the Crusaders. "How about we gather samples for your report? I'm pretty sure your teacher didn't say anything about not doing that."

The trio grinned. "We'd really like that," Sweetie Belle said. "Extra proof the ranch is real too would be nice, which will probably help with our extra credit."

Anna grinned, and conjured a small glass jar complete with lid to scrape the gel into. It went in smoothly enough, and filled the little glass container quite nicely. Once the lid was screwed shut, she gestured to the pear. "A little bit of slime will help preserve fruits for pretty much forever. That's how we keep our slimes fed whenever we get a food shortage," she said with a smile. "Should we get a bigger sample?"

"Well, I was thinking of different samples from each kind of slime you've got," Scootaloo said. She turned to Katie, who she noticed had been silent until now. "Fantasia to Katie? You there?"

Katie turned to Scootaloo, nodding, albeit seeming a little bit dazed. "Sorry… just… food coma," she muttered apologetically. Anna giggled.

"That means we'll need to monitor how much you eat, then," Anna said with a smirk, conjuring a set of saddlebags to put on her back and put the first jar into it. Katie groaned and lowered her head, only to receive a pat from a sanded claw. "Cheer up; it'll be part of the autopsy we do on you anyway."

"Autopsy?" Apple Bloom asked. Anna turned to her with a shrug.

"Normally, it's… looking at dead bodies to determine how they died. As we're dealing with a wraith, we're gonna be… required to see if anything else is wrong with her before her combat training starts," Anna muttered, her smile falling. "For her, think of it like a check-up at the doctor's office. Only… more extensive."

Katie glanced back up at Anna. "And speaking… of the autopsy… when will that be?" she asked.

Anna glanced upwards, doing numbers in her head. She glanced back down before answering, "Probably tonight, or tomorrow night. That depends on whenever Alexander stops his hissyfit long enough that I can remind him to do it," she said. She glanced at the trio and added, "It's over nothing you three need to be concerned about, but it's made him pretty mad."

Scootaloo frowned. "Are there mud slimes here?" she asked, gesturing to the forest enclosure. Anna shook her head.

"No, that one's a few enclosures down, in the muddied pond side of the enclosure," she said. "They feed on their namesake; same with the water slimes on the other side." She turned to the door at the far end of the enclosure, and teleported them all over there immediately.

The door hissed open and through it they went, into another hallway lined with gleaming crystals. Anna took a moment to conjure scarves and earmuffs for everyone, although they didn't quite fit on Katie so well. She took a moment longer to make sure they wouldn't slip off the wraithling, then sighed when they went on as well as they could, before leading the quartet to the next enclosure. Another door at the far end hissed open, this one billowing steam as it did, and into the surprisingly cold room they strode.

Snow blanketed the area, and here scarcely any sunlight came through the walls at all. Icicles and ice crystals blanketed the ceiling, providing a gentle moonlight-like glow onto the area. Between the crystals was an irrigation system, albeit stationed high enough that they could only be seen thanks to the crystals. About the same size as the forest enclosure, with a catwalk complete with rails stationed over the snow, it boasted a few larger ice slimes that weren't afraid to pull the snow into their gobs with their smaller orbiting slimes.

Sweetie Belle trotted to the railing and reared up on her hinds to better look at the ice-blue slimes. Katie mimicked the motion, chittering in approval. "So these guys eat snow?" she asked, her breath clouding in front of her face.

"Yep. We use crystals to regulate the temperature, and special enchantments that ensure they remain in effect, as well as to make it snow whenever we need it to," Anna answered. "Unfortunately, the ice slimes won't just yield their goods unless you encase your limbs in ice first." She conjured a set of dulled steel clawed horseshoes, all inscribed with runes. She passed them over to Katie, who took a moment to stare before realizing what Anna was asking her to do. She put the shoes on, buzzed her wings, and flew over the railing, tripping one hoof on the metal with a clang and spinning in the air before reorienting herself.

"Careful there," Anna said, watching hawkishly as the wraithling sheepishly nodded and flew over to the slimes, kicking up small flurries of snow with her wingbeats as she came near. The slime she approached looked at her funny, but Katie gathered snow in her claws and offered it to the creature, the enchantments on her extended shoe glowing and encasing her limb in ice immediately. The slime bit down on the offered treat, retracted without harming the ice or Katie's leg, or itself on the claws of the shoe, and turned to its side to let her gather pieces of itself.

She gently scraped off a wad of goo big enough for both of her two front hooves, and flew back without issue. She presented the goo, which had a faint gleam like ice and a slushy texture perfect for making ice cream with, and Anna summoned a chilled jar to store it in. The moment the gel was planted in the jar, icicles grew on the bottom and the lid as it screwed shut, and runes activated on the glass and lid to keep it cold. "I'd recommend using unicorn magic to hold it," Anna said, looking at Sweetie Belle as she stashed the jar in the saddlebag.

"So you can use magic with your hooves? That's amazing!" Scootaloo said, grinning as the wraithling plopped her hooves on the catwalk and let Anna take her horseshoes away and send them to the ether in a flash of light. She immediately noticed that Katie wasn't quite sharing the mood.

Katie jolted a second later, and in the brief second she did, the Crusaders noticed her orbs had dimmed considerably. They re-alighted without issue, and she slowly nodded as her brain kicked itself back into gear. "Well… unless I stab something with my broken horn, my magic… doesn't really have anywhere else it can go…" she mumbled somewhat apologetically. "And I only use it to fight anyway, most of the time…"

The trio shared glances. "That food coma's really kicking her butt," Sweetie muttered.

Anna sighed, lit her horn, and hefted the somewhat dazed wraithling onto her back. "It should wear off in another hour or so; we got time to kill anyway," she said, turning to look at the trio evenly. "Couple of weeks ago, she wasn't eating at all. She's… had some very interesting reactions to food, ever since Natalie decided to force feed her biscuits."

"Why was she forcefed?" Apple Bloom questioned, frowning.

"Well… something about being polite at her adoptive mother's dinner table. It nearly went pear-shaped," Anna replied with a shrug. "Needless to say, she hasn't tried that again, although it did spurn the appetite." She teleported them to the next door and let it open before they trotted inside, and she took a moment to remove the scarves and earmuffs. "This one… I don't think our little undead friend here should touch anything in at all."

Anna gestured to the crystals of this hall, which shifted from a cold blue to a blazing red that radiated heat as they went on to the next door. Before they even reached it, everyone began to sweat a little, and Katie gave a firm hiss of displeasure at the change in temperature, her chitin seeming to shrivel up as the door hissed open and waves of heat washed through on them all.

Inside they went, but instead of fire and lava and death as the Crusaders had expected, there was nothing but an expanse of burning sand set in cresting dunes of varying heights. The sunlight, both its real and artificial variants, was intense here, and it was fortunate there was no catwalk so much as a path of clear-cut sandstone leading to the next enclosure, because otherwise it would have been truly unbearable for them all.

As with before, there was a sprinkler system here, but in the intensity of the crystals' glow, it was barely visible at all. Completing the picture was some cacti, with some bent into funny shapes that were tilted as though they stood on one crooked leg. The ones in this configuration had a trio of holes near their tops, set in to look like wide-eyed and open-mouthed faces.

Scootaloo buzzed her wings, hoping to get a cool breeze going to dry the sweat. "You don't have fire slimes here, do you?" she asked. Anna nodded, and turned with a sigh.

"Well… we have them here, but they're in a special enclosure we're not allowed to enter. They're the more aggressive slimes, and we have to maintain preventative measures to stop any lasting accidents," she said. "I could gather up their gel for you, but you'd need more than oven mitts to hold them. Besides, it would probably burn that report you're working on anyway." She heard the rolling of moving sand, and turned in that direction as Katie gave another hiss of displeasure.

"I'm already melting here, thank you," Katie hissed, wings buzzing without achieving lift.

"Yes, yes, I know, primadonna," Anna replied, looking up at a tall dune as a slime of rippling sand came rolling down it in a graceful dance that sent more sand cascading down as it went. The Crusaders grinned in spite of the heat as the slime leapt clear over a funny-looking cactus, landing with a plomp to continue rolling in a mesmerising descent that dug a zig-zag into the dune.

It kept speeding up as it approached the sandstone walkway. It weaved around another cactus, and then zipped towards another to etch a circle around it before continuing on its way. Anna watched with a smile as well, eyes tracking the slime as it approached. "Looks like it's feeding hour," she said, amused. The slime kept up its elegant pirouette as it danced around another cactus, grinning the whole time as it came closer and closer to the sandstone.

Even as it drew nearer, more slimes crested the dunes and proceeded to stop, drop, and roll. The sand was spilling around them as they carved their trails, sliding around their stomping grounds with an ease to their movements and a grace that was matched by few wild creatures. The cacti were of no challenge to them; they simply darted around them as though their existence didn't matter at all.

The first one had reached the sandstone, and leapt clear over the heads of the Crusaders, whose eyes had moved to follow the arc of its jump. They cheered as the slime landed on the other side of the trail and dug into the sand by wriggling its body from side to side, before long burying itself into it. The trio turned to the other slimes as they prepared to launch themselves high, arcing over the path with adorably goofy grins that almost glowed in the light.

The walkway rumbled. Anna immediately shifted to lay down flat on her stomach. "Big Bertha's coming; you might want to duck," she warned. The Crusaders looked at her.

"Big Bertha?" Apple Bloom asked, before turning to the dunes as the largest slime she had ever seen came onto the scene. It was the size of a small Ponyvillian house, with what looked like a sandcastle sticking out its head. It tucked its smaller orbiting slimes into itself and began to roll, shaking the dune and the walkway with its descent. The trio got the idea and laid flat against the walkway, wincing a bit at the burning before it cooled beneath their bodies.

Big Bertha was no slouch in the grace department either, taking the time to bounce around each and every cactus that dared stand in its path, etching massive holes around the plants until it formed whole circles to move onto the next cactus in line. One of the funny-looking ones shuddered as Big Bertha brushed against its branches, seeming to sweat a little as the massive slime tromped around it.

The Crusaders watched the display, as Big Bertha carved another whole circle and rolled right on over to the third one. Another circle was carved in swift order, and it was onto the next in line. Apple Bloom watched, grinning as Big Bertha came closer and closer. The massive slime did not disappoint; it arced far higher over the walkway than the previous slimes, owing to its size and strength. As it reached the apex of the jump, it launched a piece of an orbiting slime down onto the walkway and plopped down into the sand on the other side with a rumble and a shower of granules that rained on the five. The four living ponies were wise to cover their eyes and mouths, and so was Katie.

Then Big Bertha dug into the sand and vanished from sight. The four ponies rose and took a moment to shake the sand out of their manes. Anna turned to find Big Bertha's surprise behind her, grinned, summoned a larger jar to hold it all and scooped it into the container with ease. The deposit had a silty, gooey texture, and the sand therein swirled and glimmered almost like stars.

Sweetie Belle hopped in place after she and the others were teleported to the next door. "Can we handle these slimes?!" she asked, excitement taking hold as the door hissed open to let them through into a far cooler hallway.

Anna conjured some towels, and dabbed away the sweat with them. She handed three small ones to the trio and nodded. "Just don't get too aggressive with them," she answered.

Katie just rammed her muzzle into the back of Anna's mane, sighing as cooler temperatures washed over her. "Gonna need a cold bath later," she grumbled. Anna rolled her eyes, and into the next enclosure they went. Here, there was a series of cobblestone walkways, with cement filling in the cracks just enough to prevent anything particularly disastrous from occurring.

There were some light crystals and sprinkling systems as before, but nowhere near as much as the previous rooms. The room was cool, but not frigid, and the walls shimmered near the holes in the mountain as clear water reflected light back up onto them. On all sides of the twisting paths were two ponds, one clear as the day and the other murky and brown, but not polluted-looking, and littered with some impressively large lily pads and reeds to complete the look.

Inside, swimming about, were some water slimes. A few of them were adorned with seashells, and some with starfish. A few of the bigger ones had seaweed and shells, and all just seemed to let the sun kiss their reflective bodies without a care. In the murky side were some mud slimes, sloshing about with lily pads and cattails on their heads, although a few were adorned with cute pink flowers that made them stand out. In both ponds floated a few rubber duckies, some of which found themselves sitting on the heads of slimes passing beneath them.

"And now, our last stop," Anna said with a smirk. She nudged Apple Bloom with a sanded claw. "Can you swim?"

Apple Bloom looked at the pond for a bit, finding it just a bit too deep for her friends' liking, possibly. "I can, but I'm not sure about Scoots and Sweetie," she said.

Anna smirked. "It's alright; I can float them over myself if I need to," she said. "You don't have to do anything fancy-like; they'll just hand you the goods." Apple Bloom dove into the water after handing her notepad and pencil to Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom swam over to the slimes. One of the ones floating a ducky bobbed its body out of the water, grinning as it seemed to glide across the surface.

The ducky squeaked as the slime let Apple Bloom reach a hoof out to grab some gel. It felt almost like water, but it wasn't liquidy like she was expecting—rather, it had a thin film that kept it together, almost like a ball that bobbled and warbled in her grasp. She swam back, careful to keep the ball of gel in her hooves and to not paddle too hard should it burst. When she returned, Anna levitated it into its own jar and sloshed it about, holding it to her face to check the quality as Apple Bloom clambered back onto the walkway with a soggy mane and a proud look on her face. She was offered another towel, and took it to dry herself off.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were looking at the mud slimes, some of whom looked back as the others just minded their own business. "Rarity would fuss if I got into the mud," Sweetie Belle said. Anna turned to her and patted her mane.

"Eh, it'll be fine," Anna muttered. "You can always wash off."

Sweetie nodded, and gave her the notepads and pencils. She found a nearby lily pad and turned to Anna. "Are those big enough for a pony to stand on?"

Anna nodded. "I've tried it myself in the past. If you need to row the lily pads, I'd suggest this." She conjured a simple oar of wood and gave it to Sweetie, who took it in her magic and hesitantly boarded the lily pad. It supported her weight just as well as it looked; Scootaloo handed her notepad and pencil as well, and clambered aboard too. The lilypad still held, and the two of them plonked their butts onto it, with Sweetie rowing and Scootaloo beating her wings rapidly for a speed boost. They went around the reeds slowly and carefully, aiming for the slimes who were eyeballing them curiously.

"The slime ranch is the bee's knees," Apple Bloom said as she dried off, looking at Anna with a grin. Anna smiled back and set the jar of water gel into the saddlebags next to the others, and patted her still-damp mane with a claw. "Y'all seem to have it made here!"

"We do, but not everything is as simple as it seems," Anna said with a shrug.

Apple Bloom's smile fell. "Why not?"

"Well… here at Irongrey, we have a lot more enemies than just the wildlife," Anna said, gesturing about the room. "Fantasia seems to have made it big on the asshole lottery; every other week, something turns up because some jackhole decides he wants to ruin everyone else's day, and it just… it tends to escalate big enough for us to have no choice but to get involved."

"Why's it like that?" Apple Bloom asked.

Anna shook her head. "Here's the thing… we Fantasians don't know our own history the way you guys do," she said bluntly. "Whoever decided to burn those records was damn good at their job, because we're still scrabbling to find out why the barrier between the worlds broke, while those jackholes I mentioned keep doing their usual antics. We don't have any idea what happened in between the Sealing of Godcat and Faust to the disappearance of the Fantasian alicorns, nor how long it's been since."

Apple Bloom frowned at the information. Who would want to burn Fantasia's past to damn everyone that came after? She took a closer look at the two peculiar scars that stretched across Anna's back, noticing they went from withers to croup in a way that… that…

Anna shuffled, seeming to sense what Apple Bloom had picked up on. Katie turned to Apple Bloom and shook her head, as if to say 'now's not the time to be asking about that.' Fortunately, Apple Bloom understood, and all ears perked up when they heard the sound of sloshing mud and buzzing wings.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo hopped off of the returned lily pad, a wad of mud gel held in magic. The oar was returned and sent back to whence it came, and Anna smiled at the other two Crusaders before taking the gel and examining it. "Hrm… larger granules than normal…" Regardless, she plunked it in a jar and put in the saddlebag, noticing that Scootaloo had some mud on her hooves and some splatters on her face.

Scootaloo grinned sheepishly. "I, uh, almost slipped and fell into the mud," she said nervously. Anna giggled, conjured a damp cloth from the ether, and proceeded to clean her up with a surprising amount of care.

"I did the same thing when the slime ranch was first built," Anna said with a grin. "As long as you're fine, I'm happy."

"Where are the tabby slimes?" Sweetie asked, grinning as Scootaloo squirmed in the cleaning session. Try as she might, she was up against an official of the military, but it only took a moment before she was squeaky clean again.

"We walked right past them, why?" Anna asked, tilting her head.

"Well, we kinda want to see them," Sweetie said, her grin widening.

Anna's face lit up as she considered this. "Oh, I almost forgot about those guys! They're probably sleeping this time of day, back in the forest enclosure."

"Do they have hair in their gel?" Apple Bloom asked.

Anna shook her head. "No, but the gel has plant-like strands that look like hair," she said. She gathered the trio up in her forelegs, still magically holding onto their notepads and pencils. "How's about we go back and get a few more samples, and I can go and get the samples from the ones we didn't see today? Maybe I'll let you crusade for your slime rancher cutie marks while I'm at it?"

The trio's smiles could have lit a thousand suns. It seemed as though they might get their cutie marks yet! "Deal!" the Crusaders answered in unison.

Comments

[Comickook]

Again, a superb chapter to this intriguing story. Really enjoyed the look at the slime farm as well as the mentions of the slime being functionally immortal because they can regenerate (as well as the detail of what it takes to provide medical attention to somebody who is already dead).

Again, on to the next chapter.