> A Tour of Neopia
>  by nightelf37
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Selection of the Tour Guides
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I will not be describing all the Neopets characters immediately; that will come in the future.



Somewhere in the cosmos, beyond Equestria, is a planet called Neopia, which is home mainly to a diverse series of creatures called Neopets. 

Unlike ponies, who come in four races, Neopets come in at least fifty-four diverse species, ranging from the draconian scorchio to the porcine moehog, from the alicorn-like uni to the griffon-like eyrie, from the canine gelert and lupe to the feline aisha and wocky, from the extraterrestrial grundo to the prehistoric chomby and grarrl, and from the rabbit-squirrel hybrid usul to the maned rhino-like tonu. 

Living alongside them peacefully, but not completely side-by-side, are the Faeries, a mystic, bipedal, and always-female race, who also come in a number of varieties, but not as much as Neopets. They are capable of powerful magic (though Neopets, in theory, can exceed their magical prowess), but their ruler Queen Fyora makes certain they don't abuse it for ill or for good. 

While not residing in Neopia itself but in another place entirely, there are also the Users, who explore the land and are as much a part of Neopian society as Faeries and Neopets. Via secret binding magical contacts of terms and reasons long forgotten, the Users are permitted "ownership" of at least one Neopet or as many as four (or five for a few privileged ones) and are entitled to care for their Neopets as they explore Neopia. They are also greatly limited in how much they can influence Neopian society by a group of "high" Users called the "TNT Staff", who moderate the other Users and impose penalties on those who violate "the rules", usually by "freezing" them.

But what should this place have anything to do with Equestria? 

The answer: one of Neopia's Faeries, who is called the Space Faerie (and named Mira), who travels the cosmos beyond Neopia as its protector, chanced upon a strange planet which instead circles the sun has the sun circling it. Its moon was uninhabited save for a few traces of dark entities. As she wasn't familiar with this planet, she was cautious as she explored the land from above. From what she saw of it, while they weren't primitive, they had zero knowledge of space travel. The land was also saturated with powerful magic unlike any she has felt before, though thankfully it had no negative effects on her. 

In the midst of her impromptu recon mission, in spite of her best efforts of stealth, she had been located. Princess Luna found her after noticing that some of the stars in the night sky were amiss. She went over to the source of the anomaly and saw Mira, who explained herself and wished to meet with the nation's leader, and requested that her presence be a secret. Without alerting anyone else, Luna took Mira to the castle, where she had an audience with Luna and her elder sister Princess Celestia. At first, she was careful with what she revealed about her home world, but she later found herself telling enough for them to be curious enough to want to explore it.

And so a couple of things were arranged; Mira returned to Neopia to report to Queen Fyora of her discovery and of Celestia's wishes to visit one day to discuss the possibility of 'linking' their worlds. A few days after that, Queen Fyora arranged a meeting in her castle with the other rulers of Neopia's many lands (as well as the"Neopets Staff", two high-ranking users named Lawyerbot and Sweets), so that they can meet one of the two diarchs of Equestria. Soon, the Space Faerie arrived with Princess Celestia, and a diplomatic discussion took place. 

Some time after, having kept this meeting secret from the majority of the Users, they decided that an special event will be announced. An event that thankfully did not coincide with any disaster or war. An event that did not involve beating "high scores". An event that would not have any deaths involved.

A delegation of six Equestrians—not to be confused with those who ride Unis or any equine Petpets—will be sent over and be given a tour of the world of Neopia.



One afternoon in Faerieland…

"Come on! We're gonna be late!"

"No fair! Our wings still need time to be set before we can use them for flying!"

Four Neopets were making their way to Faerieland Castle, two of them running and two of them gliding with their wings. The two fliers had 'natural' ones while the two runners had artificial yet operational ones. 

One of the fliers was a very light amber, smooth-skinned bipedal Neopet with the basic form of a dragon. He had large wings (relative to his body), each tipped with a small bony point at the top, huge eyes colored like his skin, and a single fin-like crest on his head. His tail was long and thick, which he used for balance when on the ground. He stood at 54 centimeters, a little under two feet, not counting the crest. He's a shoyru. Of all the many "User-owned" Neopets, his kind was the most popular of them all. More than six percent (there are fifty-four kinds of Neopets) of "User-owned" Neopets started as shoyrus.

"Tychophon. What's your opinion on this?" a female voice asked.

The shoyru turned to one of the runners, an usul. She was a furry bipedal Neopet with large, fluffy bunny-like ears, an equally fluffy tail akin to a squirrel, black eyes with cyan scleroses, a ruff of light yellow fur around her neck. With her ears up straight, she stood at 75 centimeters tall. On her back was a pair of Mechanical Wings. In spite of their apparent bulk, they're capable of lifting its wearer up to the air by means known only to its creators.

"Like every other event before this one, Euryflavia," the shoyru Tychophon answered. "Neutral."

"Neutral?" a second voice came, coming from the other flyer, then sighed. "As usual."

The other flyer was a quadruped Neopet with huge blue eyes and short but scruffy light yellow fur except on the paws, which were pink. Her most striking feature is her double-sized, shell-like ears and a pair of long horns on the back of her head. Unlike conventional horns, they're flexible and can flop and swing about when she moves her head. On her back was a pair of delicate-looking, pink-and-purple, butterfly-like wings. She's an acara, and stood at 48 centimeters.

"Knock it off, Aquanax," said the last one, a male. "You know he takes a bit from our owner."

The fourth and last speaker was a grundo, a smooth-skinned bipedal Neopet. His eyes were enormous, red, and pupil-less, his two antennae with their round sucker-like ends served as ears, and his feet consisted of two large toes. He stood at 35 centimeters, and was the shortest of the four. On his back were Wings of Flame, which were exactly as implied by their name, although they did not burn and were also capable of lifting its wearer up to the air, its means also known only to its creators.

"I know, Messerole, but still…" the acara Aquanax replied.

Neither he nor the others spoke any further and before long his and Euryflavia's wings were in operational condition and they used them to ascend to Aquanax's and Tychophon's level. The four of them reached the castle and made their way to the Great Hall, where there were a lot more Neopets gathered, both "User-owned" and otherwise. Those capable of extended flight or floating did so to provide space for those who can't, accompanying some of the Faeries in the area as well. Some larger Neopets, who were as tall as 120 centimeters (reaching 4 feet), allowed smaller ones on their backs, heads, or shoulders.

They all faced a large stage that was set up in front. Here stood Queen Fyora, who was smiling and waving at everybody gathered. Accompanying her was the Battle Faerie Aethia, who stood guard valiantly with her trusty sword and small round shield. Also with Fyora were the rest of the Faerieland Royal Guard, including their Captain Brynneth (nicknamed Brynn) and her companion the Master Thief Hanso, both of them heroes of a catastrophe that happened a few years ago called "The Faeries Ruin" by the Users. The young kougra guard was keeping the ixi pickpocket from sneaking off by grabbing his arm and keeping him close, much to the delight of some of the User-owned Neopets; the Users saw them as a couple for this and many other reasons. Messerole would've rolled his eyes if he had irises in them, which he didn't.

Fyora began her speech, which began with greeting everybody present as well as the not-present Users of the "User-owned" Neopets who are present. Then, she proceeded with a speech of some sort, the four Neopets listened but it went in one ear and out the other, as they weren't really into long speeches. Of course, they maintained neutral expressions so as not to offend the Queen. Eventually, she reached the part everybody has been waiting for.

"And now, I would like to introduce someone from a faraway place the Space Faerie found during her travels." Just as she said that, a portal began to appear, which looked just like one of those portals leading from Petaria. "Here she comes now."

From the portal emerged a dark sapphire blue hoof; and everybody in the hall can tell that the visitor is equine. It bore a shoe of some kind, which almost looked like a glass slipper or something, the four weren't sure. When the visitor fully emerged, everybody was awed at the sight of her, gasping accordingly, even the Royal Guard.

She had the basic body of a uni, but was about a foot taller than one, and more slender. Her mane and tail were long, sparkly, translucent, almost ethereal (could very well be), and very similar to the night sky. Her eyes were teal and had white scleroses like the Faeries and many Neopets. Her horn was not colored yellow, but in the same way as her coat. Behind it was a little black tiara. She also wore a black crescent-moon necklace. What was most notable of her appearance however is a symbol on both her hindquarters: a white crescent moon in front of a black splotch of what is presumably the night sky.

Queen Fyora raised an eyebrow as if she was expecting someone else, but was appreciative of the visitor's arrival regardless. "I thought it would be Princess Celestia coming here today."

"Pardons, dear Fyora, but my sister is unable to attend. It came at the last minute, but she had to attend a meeting at the Griffon Kingdom to renew a peace treaty. She has briefed me in on what I should do though, so I should be able to so what she was supposed to do here."

"I see." Fyora and the visitor turned to the audience and the Faerie Queen said, "Citizens, this is Princess Luna, co-ruler with Princess Celestia of the land of Equestria."

The visitor, Luna, then cleared her throat, and when she spoke to the audience, it was like standing next to one of those large speakers in concerts. "DENIZENS OF NEOPIA! I AM GLAD TO MEET YOU ALL!" She stopped immediately upon seeing her voice's effects on the audience.

Any of the audience in flight was recovering from the force of her voice and a few were even blown back into the wall. Those in front had been sent flying or pushed back. Several Neopets were rendered dizzy, among them the Neopets with large ears, all the grundos, and Hanso, who was teetering while Brynn tried to keep him upright while suffering from the effects of Luna's voice herself.

"Apologies, Neopians," said Luna. "My sister had told me you Neopets had a thing for loud voices. Apparently, she was messing with me." She rolled her eyes. "Again."

Fyora and Aethia just turned to each other in confusion, Brynn was getting Hanso to stand straight and not stumble for a kiss, and the rest of the audience was just trying to reorient themselves from the recent assault on their eardrums.

"Princess Luna," Fyora said as she gestured to the audience. "If you please."

The dark alicorn turned to the gathered Neopets (and Faeries), and began her speech. She started by talking about the important things they needed to know about Equestria and its inhabitants. Among these are the fact that the weather is manually managed (except in the Everfree Forest), ponies have a vegetarian diet (though they also eat dairy products like cake), their strange language quirk (like replacing the "-body" suffix with "-pony"), and its own history as well as that with its neighboring lands.

A couple of times during the speech, hands, paws, hooves, claws, or fins were raised in the gesture of wishing to ask a question. Having no limbs to raise, JubJubs—who were basically balls of fluff with flexible feet—jumped up and down instead. Luna answered their questions to the best of her ability, though did not ask anything about Neopia in return. When one faerie asked why, she said her sister Celestia has already supplied her with the necessary information learned from a meeting days before this event, including about the Users.

The audience began to murmur upon hearing this revelation, but thankfully did not react badly to it. Fyora then took over from here. "Thank you, Princess Luna." She then faced the audience. "The real reason I gathered you all is because Princess Luna and the Space Faerie will be sending six delegates to Neopia, and one lucky User will have their Neopets be their tour guides."

"As much as I wish to take that tour myself, I need to return soon to Equestria to rule while my sister is gone," Luna added.

A hand went up. It was from Tychophon. "Your Majesty?"

Fyora turned to the shoyru. "Is there something you wish to know?"

"Might I ask, why choose User-owned Neopets like us? Why not, say, someone in your Royal Guard or some other well-known Neopet or Faerie?"

"Excellent question. You see, while I can easily do that, there are a number of reasons why I decided to have User-owned Neopets be the tour guides. One, User-owned Neopets know the entire planet better than anybody. I, for instance, am not too knowledgeable on the technology in the Virtupets Space Station. And two, Users have the strange ability to be in more than one place at a time and travel distances greater than even the fastest Neopet can manage."

"But what about the Users? What will they say about this?"

"The TNT Staff already have that taken care of." She turned her attention back to the audience. "Now, for this to work, I need to know all the Users connected to the Neopets present." She was about to call for one of her faeries to bring a list when Luna already did so, producing one and a quill as if from thin air. Both items were floating in an aura colored the same way as her stellar mane. "Due to the importance of this task, I will need to ask that the Neopets whose Users have not been in Neopia for more than one year sit down." A fair number of them did so.

One at a time, User-owned Neopets made their way up the stage alone, or in pairs, in threes, fours (like Tychophon and company), fives, or even much more, and—one in each group—signed the paper with their User's 'username'. For the groups greater than five (and a few who are of five), signed their User's 'main username' and added their 'side accounts' below them but with a bullet point before them to set them apart from the other 'usernames' in the list.

Once the last of them signed, Luna turned to Fyora and 'passed' the list and quill to her. The Faerie queen took both items and started going through the names, crossing out a few repetitions. Once she was done, she returned the quill to Luna, who dismissed it into thin air. The Faerie Queen then let go of the list as it floated in front of her, summoned her staff as if out of thin air and into her right hand, then waved it at the list, which promptly vanished. A second after that, as Fyora dismissed her staff and positioned her hands as if to catch something, a glass bowl with strips of paper appeared on them. Luna seemed to raise her eyebrows in surprise.

"Now, I shall select a name from this bowl, and the name I pick shall be the lucky User whose Neopets will be the tour guides of Equestria's six delegates."

Nearly everybody else in the room turned to each other with awkward expressions, many of them thinking of one thing; it's a bit strange to select at random for something so important.

Finally, Fyora picked one and pulled out the slip of paper from the bowl. "If the name of your User comes up, please come over." She then raised the slip to her mouth and blew into it. The paper disintegrated into dust and turned into little golden lights that formed a word.

nightelf_37

Slowly as one, Tychophon, Aquanax, Messerole, and Euryflavia stood up with shock on their faces, took to the air, then flew over to the stage on their wings, both natural and artificial. The rest of the User-owned Neopets made various outcries and complaints—but none too loud—as they approached. Luna turned to Fyora and asked, "Are you sure about this? They look so…young."

"I assure you they are up to the task," said Fyora. "Neopets who have a bond with Users usually mature faster than those without."

"We'll do our best not to let you down," stated Euryflavia as the four of them bowed to both the queen and the visiting princess.

"I'm sure you won't. Does your User have a Neohome?"

"Y-yes, your Majesty."

"Take Princess Luna there. She'll explain why once you do. And before you go, take these." Fyora conjured six books and a large pouch of Neopoints and levitated them over to the Neopets. 

"Language Textbook," Tychophon read. "Umm, Your Majesty, we already read this." 

The books were then 'taken' by Luna as she levitated them into her stellar mane. "It's for the delegates, I presume." Fyora answered with a nod. 

"Oh, of course."

"And the bi—um Neopoints are for them to spend for items."

"It wouldn't be fair for the tour guides to provide everything," Fyora said.

"I'm not sure this is enough," commented Messerole as he shook the pouch.

"You will want to teach them then on how to earn more then." Luna seemed shocked at the prospect of the delegates finding a job in Neopia before catching herself and remembering one crucial part of Neopian society, which involved Users and games.

"R-right. Of course, Your Majesty."

The audience gave Luna and the four selected Neopets a wide berth to the exit of the Great Hall. Unbeknownst to the four Neopets, Fyora went into further discussion on the six delegates.



Later, elsewhere in Faerieland…

"Do you Neopets have some spell that allows you to walk on clouds?"

"Oh no, no, no," answered Messerole. "These clouds—" He indicated the pink ones they're walking on as they're making their way to their Neohome. "—are filled with Faerie magic so that not only can anybody walk on them, solid structures like these Neohomes can be built without falling through." He then munched into some Faerie Bubbles they bought on the way. For some reason, foods are always more expensive—and more filling—to User-owned Neopets when their User is around, which he isn't.

All around them were plenty of yellow houses with blue roofs heart-shaped ceiling windows, and a large magenta flower decoration on top. The corners were decorated with blue stands and purple-and-pink Faerie wings. Some of the houses had various outdoor decorations. As Luna paused to try a Faerie Bubble for herself, she then asked, "What about ordinary clouds? What can walk on them?"

"Only faeries, Faerie Neopets like me, and Faerieland Petpets can do that," said Aquanax as she romped around. "Faerieland was once up in the sky, you know. Unfortunately, a Neopet sorceress named Xandra used a magical artifact to petrify all faeriekind."

"How was she stopped?"

"Well, that's kind of a long story. You might want to look for Brynn of the Royal Guard. Or you could ask for the Master Thief Hanso, though he'll most likely brag and exaggerate."

"I see."

"Oh, we're here." The group finally stopped in front of one house. There seemed to be nothing special about it. As they reached the door, Tychophon put his hand on it and opened the door. "After you, Your Majesty." Luna nodded and crossed the doorway to to their Neohome, and she was shortly followed by the four Neopets. Once she was inside, she took in her surroundings. 

There were no walls in the Neohome, but the borders were clearly defined by the different wall colors and floor paints. From what she could tell, there was a living room littered with chairs and tables, a bathroom, two bedrooms, a short hallway, a small hallway, and a sixth 'room' with only a chalkboard.

Her only comment however was, "Oh dear. One of the delegates won't be too happy to see this. Why are there no walls?"

"That's one problem all 'beta' Neohomes have," Euryflavia answered as she and the others walked into various parts of their home. "The old ones are more customizable, but more expensive to make, especially if you want to expand it."

"Hold on. Why did Queen Fyora ask us to being you here again?" asked Aquanax as she hopped onto one of the four large yellow beds they each sleep on, which flanked three orange closets.

"Because I will be using a special teleportation spell to bring the delegates here. Sending them all at once will be very taxing for them and they will end up unconscious." As she talked, Luna made her way to the purple sofa, glancing at the Chariot Chair with a bit of puzzlement.

"So we were asked to bring you here so you can find a safe location to send them?" guessed Tychophon.

"Exactly."

"I see. Is there anything else you would like while you're here?"

"Nothing much, except for a few warnings. As I've said before, one of the delegates won't be too happy to see this home of yours, being a…critic in design. Another might act in aggression, so… tell me, are any of you well-versed in close combat?"

"All of us are," Aquanax answered confidently as she got up and slammed a curled-up paw into an open one. "We even read up on self-defense books. I'm sure we can take care of it."

"I really hope you are up to this task."

"Don't worry. How hard can it—" The acara was cut off when a Faerie Bubble burst on her face.

"It's not good to tempt fate," Messerole warned as he waggled a finger while sitting on the green round table in the home, having thrown the bubble. His Wings of Flame had been put away, though Luna didn't make any remark on it. "Saying something won't happen would most likely lead to it happening."

The visiting Princess said nothing as she then rested her eyes on the large yellow beds. Aquanax noticed and voiced her confusion, catching the attention of the others.

"Um, Your Majesty?" Euryflavia was just finished with her business at the bathroom; grooming herself as usuls like her often do. She had also taken off her Mechanical Wings, setting them down next to one of the sofas.

"I think I have located a good spot. Are those large beds occupied?"

"Um, yes. We sleep in them." She then quickly got what Luna was saying. "Hold on. Will you be sending…them there?"

"The delegates will need some rest, and these beds seem to be suitable enough."

"I guess," the Usul agreed. "Looks like the four of us will take the guest beds." She pointed to the four orange beds on the corner opposite her position.

"I shall require a closer examination of the beds." Luna got up and glided over the sofa and onto a spot between two of them. Aquanax respectfully got off and made her way to the sofa the visiting princess had been. Upon landing, she could feel its warmth, she could sense the strange magic lingering and reacting to her faerie wings, she could smell…something delicious. This made her start up in wonder.

"Chocolate fudge?" she barely whispered. This caught the attention of her fellow Neopets as they walked/flew over to her position.

"What did you say?" the grundo asked before sensing the scent.

"You smelled fudge?" Tychophon.

"Chocolate fudge?" Euryflavia.

"Yeah. I didn't notice it until now."

"I think we were all too focused on the fact that we were selected to be the tour guides to have thought about Princess Luna's scent," the shoyru mused.

Aquanax had to agree, as did the other two. "I guess."

Messerole shrugged in agreement. "Uh-huh."

Just then, Luna came over…and they could still smell the chocolate fudge. "I thank you for your hospitality, umm…" She turned to face the shoyru. "Tychophon, was it?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

She turned to the others. "Aquanax?"

The acara nodded her head.

"Euryflavia?"

"Mm-hmm," the usul answered.

"And Messerole."

"That's right," said the grundo.

"Again, thank you all."



Later that night…

"Are you worried?"

"No."

The four Neopets were sleeping at the orange beds they reserved for guests—not that they had any—leaving their queen/king-size beds for the delegates. Luna had already left for Faerie City, for reasons they did not ask.

"Be honest with us," Aquanax repeated her question. "Are you worried?"

"For the last time, no," Tychophon retorted.

"For Fyora's sake, could you please go to sleep?" Messerole muttered as he shifted about. "Even when Luna said their arrival will be quiet, I don't want to wake up to it and spoil myself the surprise."

"Me too," concurred Euryflavia. "I need my beauty sleep."

"Sorry, guys," the acara sighed. "It's just that…this is very important. And I don't mean save-the-realm or -world important, where nearly every User-owned Neopet can pitch in."

"Weren't you the one who said how hard can it—" Messerole was about to mock her.

"I know what I said! It's just that…I'm slowly seeing the responsibility required."

"Well, no use worrying about it," said Tychophon. "Let's just hope our delegates are sociable enough and won't make things difficult."

"Yeah. Good night."

"Night."

"Finally…" groaned the usul and grundo as they all nodded off to sleep.

Just as they did, something was happening on the beds they used to occupy.
> Meeting the Delegates
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Euryflavia woke up to the smell of chocolate fudge. The aroma was so strong it aroused her from her slumber. When she got up, she found out that her fellow Neopets were up as well.

"Is somebody baking fudge for us?" she wondered.

"Impossible," mused Aquanax. "Our User doesn't even have an oven."

"In fact, no ovens can be placed in these new Neohomes yet," added Tychophon. "Still, the fudge is strange."

"The scent is much stronger now. And it's coming from the right."

The four Neopets turned their heads as one to their right and were a bit surprised at what they saw. There were six occupants on their four beds, with two each on Messerole and Aquanax's beds.

"You think those must be the delegates?" Euryflavia asked.

"Must be," the grundo replied. "They certainly don't look like unis."

"Let's take a closer look." The two of them and Aquanax immediately approached the newcomers. Tychophon however took his time and remained cautious. In a few seconds, they all reached their beds and took a good look at their new occupants.

They certainly had the proportions of a Uni, but they all seemed to be a couple of inches shorter, though they're still taller than any of the four by at least a foot. Their muzzles were curvy and pointed up, and their eyelashes were long and visible. By Neopet standards, these (the eyelashes) made them female.

On Tychophon's bed was presumably a unicorn (pony), and she was facing the wall, Her coat was light purple, and her (properly brushed) hair was dark indigo with a magenta and purple streak. Her "cutie mark" (as they were told about by Princess Luna) was a six-pointed pink star overlaid on a white one with five small white stars surrounding the two.

On Aquanax's bed right beside were two ponies facing each other, one with wings—making her a pegasus (pony)—on the right side and one without—making her an earth pony—on the left. The one on the left had a cotton candy pink coat, fluffy and curly hot pink hair, and a "cutie mark" of a trio of party balloons, two blue and one yellow. The one on the right had a sky blue coat with unruly hair striped with all the colors of the rainbow (colors 'horizontally lined', warm ones closer to the head, and the cool ones 'outward' in the tail), and a "cutie mark" of a red/yellow/blue-striped lightning bolt issuing from a cloud.

On the next bed where Messerole normally slept were two more ponies, but this time were facing away from each other. The one on the left side was an earth pony with a honey-orange coat, blond hair both tied into a ponytail at the end with two red bands, white freckles on her face, a brown cowboy hat atop her head, and a "cutie mark" depicting a trio of apples. The one on the right side was a unicorn with a white coat with a very faint gray tinge, violet hair done in loose elegant curls, and three blue, rhombus-shaped jewels as a "cutie mark".

On the last bed—Euryflavia's bed—was a pegasus facing away from the others. Her coat was light yellow, she had long, straight pink hair that curled gently upward at the ends, and bore a "cutie mark" of three pink butterflies.

Tychophon went over to his bed and went over to face the purple pony. Messerole made his way to the pink one. The two girls went in-between the last two beds, Aquanax turning to face the white pony and Euryflavia the yellow one.

On an unknown cue, the four Neopets nudged the ponies awake. Upon waking, four things happened at once; the purple one grunted in curiosity as she looked at the shoyru with curious purple eyes, the pink one—after turning—swiftly grabbed the grundo in a hug, the white one gasped in awe—presumably at the acara's wings—as blue eyes of deep sapphire and bright sky looked at each other, and the yellow one—after turning—squeaked at the sight of the usul, her sea blue eyes quivering, though fear didn't seem to be the reason.

Two more things then happened; the orange one awoke, got up, and gasped at the sight, surprise evident in her green eyes. The blue one did so too, but instead of gasping she took to the air and made to pounce on Tychophon, and she didn't look happy. He saw this coming and strafed to his right, evading her pounce as she landed on the floor, but he didn't count on her recovering so soon as she charged again. With no time to dodge, he met her head-on, slamming his hands into her hooves and they began to push, beating their wings furiously and staring each other down with yellow-ish and magenta eyes respectively. The pegasus seemed to be surprised at his strength, but continued the shove-o-war.

This was immediately put to an end when the orange pony grabbed the blue one's tail by the mouth, pulling her back as Tychophon did so too on his own. "Sheesh!" said the shoyru. "I was hoping Princess Luna or Princess Celestia have at least briefed you in on us, given that she or somebody she knows sent you here."

The purple unicorn was about to ask something when the white one shrieked, catching everybody's attention, to Messerole's relief as he was nearly suffocating. She continued doing this as she looked around the Neohome before finally deciding to faint.

Euryflavia was the first to break the silence. "Uhh…"

"Oh," said the orange pony as she looked around as well. "Now I see why."

"Why?"

"This place. It looks like a group of interior designers decided to assign themselves specific areas and painted on them without takin' into consideration what the overall look would be."

The Neopets looked around their Neohome, then understood what Princess Luna told them. "Oh," the four of them said.



A couple of minutes later, after returning the white unicorn to consciousness, the ten of them now sat on the various chairs in the 'living room', then proceeded with the introductions.

The purple unicorn was Twilight Sparkle, and is the de facto leader of the group and protégé of Princess Celestia. The pegasus who 'attacked' Tychophon was Rainbow Dash, the earth pony who pulled her back was Applejack, the one who nearly suffocated Messerole with her hug was Pinkie Pie, the unicorn who had shrieked at (presumably) the sight of the Neohome's interior design was Rarity, and the other pegasus, the one who was yellow just like them, was Fluttershy.

Once the name-giving was done, the Neopets began to give them "the basics" Luna told them to tell the ponies. One was the fact that all Neopets were omnivores (i.e. they also eat meat). The other was on what the Uni Neopets were so as not to get any awkward ideas upon seeing multiple alicorns. And third was the basic nature of Neopets, and their connection with Users and Faeries, especially the Users, clarifying matters when the ponies thought of…certain unfortunate implications. They also told them, since they were already here, everything they knew on Neohomes.

"Is there anything else we need to know?" Twilight asked after the explanation.

"Yes, but we'll cover that as you take the tour," explained Aquanax. "And we are your lucky tour guides."

"You?" Rainbow was unconvinced.

"Yes. Us."

"Don't let our general cuteness fool you," said Messerole. "We're actually capable in a fight. From what Princess Luna told us, you all are also a testament to being cute and awesome at the same time. It's just not easy to tell from your standpoint since all ponies would probably be cute from a non-pony's point of view…unless they're cuter than them."

"Before we start the tour, we'd like to give you a few things." The acara turned to Tychophon, who seemed to reach for something on his back, and produce a brown bag, eliciting a surprised reaction from the ponies. The Neopets explained to them that all Neopets have access to a small pocket of "hammerspace", but it was (apparently) surprising to see it in action regardless. All the ponies had a limited version of "hammerspace" as well, with the unicorns (and Pinkie) having bigger ones.

"This bag belongs to our User, who will not be joining us in this tour," the shoyru said as he rummaged through the bag. "So as to make sure you'll be able to completely understand whatever we say should we not speak English—"

"Equestrian," Twilight corrected.

"—both of which are miraculously the same in almost every aspect, I'd like you all to read these." He took out six copies of Language Textbook, which Princess Luna had put in the bag for safekeeping, passed them one by one to the ponies, then put the bag on his back, fitting it so that it wouldn't impede his wings.

The purple unicorn gasped in surprise at this before then reading on the book, 'opening' the pages with her telekinesis. But Messerole was able to predict what she was about to say. "Yes, the bag is essentially a pocket to hammerspace. And yes, we are aware of the possible paradoxes or something this might entail."

Euyflavia noticed Rainbow grumble as she opened her copy and was seemingly disappointed with its content and discouraged from continuing on. "Those books aren't your ordinary reading tools. They have a special property." She smirked a bit when a few of them started to disappear in front of the ponies' noses. "Those are instant-knowledge books. They disappear—where, I don't know—after one Neopet reads it and thus requires having to buy another copy for another to read, but in return the reader is granted knowledge of everything written in the book."

"I don't get why you can't just have ordinary books that do not disappear," wondered Twilight.

"That… is a User-related issue," Euryflavia stated. "We don't quite understand the economy here either, but don't worry. We also have the 'ordinary' kind of books." By that time, the six books have been read and gone. "Now that that's over with, let us begin with our Tour of Neopia!"

Rarity gave a sigh of relief. "Marvelous. I don't think I could stand another minute in this gaudy-looking home of yours, no offense. Just who is your interior designer?"

"That would be our User," Messerole said as he put a hand to his nape and rubbed it. "Unfortunately, we are unable to place walls in this kind of Neohome. Allow us to prepare ourselves first." With that, he and Euryflavia made their way to one of the orange closets, and rummaged into them. They took out their Wings of Flame and Mechanical Wings from the closet, then put them on, getting another series of startled looks from the ponies.

Aquanax was quick to explain and cut off any questions. "Some of the destinations we'll we taking you to will require flight, and I don't want to have me, Tych, and the two pegasi to have to carry the others. And don't worry, they work just as well as our wings."

As they made their way to the front exit of the Neohome, upon opening the door, the ponies gasped once more at what was outside. Noticing this, Messerole started to explain. "Oh, right. The clouds." He quickly explained to them the nature of Faerieland clouds, just as he told Princess Luna of them just yesterday. With that taken care of, one by one, the group of ten left the Neohome, their tour of Neopia about to begin, starting with Queen Fyora's domain: Faerieland.
> The Land of Faeries
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first stop for the Equestrians' tour of Neopia was Faerie City. Upon entering the central hub for Faerieland's citizens, there have been a couple of curious looks from the surrounding neopets and faeries, but nothing greater than that, as they have been told by Fyora about them, though nightelf_37's Neopets didn't know that. The six ponies were awestruck at the majesty of it all. 

The buildings were absolutely beautiful, colored in shades of purple and pink, contrasting nicely with the blue sky and the greenery around. They noticed however that a few of the buildings however had temporary unpainted wood patches in the roof, or cracks in the masonry. Twilight Sparkle asked Aquanax if there had been some sort of conflict in Faerieland not too long ago, and the acara confirmed it, but told her they would explain another time. Right now, they had to eat breakfast, and a few grumbling stomachs from the delegates made them agree.

That didn't stop them from asking stuff on the way though. Like questions on faerie history from Twilight, food-related questions from Applejack, the various kinds of "cute" petpets ("Pets of Neopets, has your mind exploded yet?" joked Messerole) from Fluttershy, weather management inquiries from Rainbow Dash, fashion trends from Rarity, and random questions on neopets in general from Pinkie Pie.

Despite their maturity, the four neopets were in over their heads at answering many of the questions, particularly fashion trends as their User isn't savvy on that issue, and weather management was a bit of a foreign concept, even though they've been told about it during Princess Luna's audience with them. Regardless, they answered them the best they could before finally reaching a food store called Faerie Foods.

There, the group ordered a huge serving of Fluffy Faerie Pancakes, various Faerie vegetables, a heap of Celestial Salad, and a couple of Faerie Bubbles, which Pinkie immediately took a liking to. And for dessert, they would get some ice cream. The group took two tables, one for the ponies and one for the yellow neopets. Tychophon requested this so that they could plan all the parts of their official tour in earnest. Naturally, the ponies were a bit weirded out with the wings on some of the food, but they were assured it was safe to eat.


While the ponies conversed with one another concerning their initial opinions on Neopia, the neopets were busy formulating their stops and the order they'll have to do it so that they can cover them in as few days as possible. A book of the Maps of Neopia was opened and the yellow quartet were marking paths with their fingers or whatever they had that could pass as such.

"So, where do you think we should go first in Faerieland after eating?" Euryflavia asked.

"Let's start with the Faerieland Bookshop," Tychophon suggested.

Messerole had to disagree. "Oh no. We're not gonna spend the majority of the day there. We all know how much you like reading. We're supposed to give our delegates a tour around Neopia."

"We'll just be there for the crossword and the sudoku puzzle. Maybe I'll even give Twilight a try on the latter." While the ponies now knew the written language thanks to the "Language Textbook", it requires knowledge on Neopia, which they are sorely lacking at the moment.

"You better. Also, that sudoku—I mean, Roodoku is at Roo Island, not Faerieland. So we'll only be there for as long as you need to solve the crossword. It's not a library anyway." The grundo took a deep breath. "What about after?"

"I say we go try out the Wheel of Excitement," suggested Euryflavia.

The grundo made a face of worry. "What if we get a bad spin?"

"That's what the Healing Springs are for, duh," said Aquanax.

"We can't just warp willy-nilly without our User. And what we got takes a lot of time to charge. It would give a bad image for the ponies anyway. I mean, seriously, we're going to risk them getting hurt on the first day?"

"I think we'll have to take that risk. Plenty of things in Neopia are bound to hurt."

"Fine."


Tychophon traced his hand along the page that depicted the map of Faerieland. "All right. Wheel of Excitement, Healing Springs if we get hurt, try and see the TDMBGPP along the way, and then…"

"Faerie Caverns, Poogle Races, and Jhudora's Bluff for last," suggested Aquanax.

"That'll do. Looks like the Hidden Tower is out of the question. It's not like we can afford anything there, anyway. Also, the Rainbow Fountain is useless for them." As soon as the shoyru finished tracing, he flipped the book over to the map of Neopia. "But what about the other lands? Where do we head first after Faerieland? Haunted Woods or Brightvale?"

"I suggest the Haunted Woods. Best get the scariest place out of the way while it's still light out."

"And then naturally the Lost Desert," added Euryflavia. "Then Altador, Shenkuu…I hope we can get an airship to Neopia Central there. And then we can pass by Kiko Lake to reach Brightvale, then Meridell. Of course, we have to take them to Darigan Citadel too. Glad I brought these wings with me." Her Mechanical Wings unfolded themselves and flapped once in demonstration.

"Too right," agreed Messerole as he did the same with his own Wings of Flame. "Going the other way around might end up with us reaching the Haunted Woods come twilight." He paused for a moment. "Nothing to do with one of the delegates."

"And then we head for Roo Island, then Terror Mountain, then Tyrannia. After that, we teleport to the Virtupets Space Station, and after touring that take a spaceship to Kreludor. And then—"

"Excuse me." The four neopets turned to see that Twilight has walked up to them. "I think we're ready to go."

It also turns out that everybody was done with the ice cream that came after breakfast, although Pinkie was ordering a second helping of Faerie Bubbles for take-out, even as she popped a Starberry-flavored one in her mouth. 

"Yup, let's get going," Aquanax answered.





What Messerole had feared nearly came true during the trip to the Bookshop. But it wasn't Tychophon he had to worry about. Instead, it was Twilight 
who nearly spent too much time there, and might've spent all of the group's allotted bits before Applejack made her settle down. Apparently, the unicorn loved reading just as much as the shoyru if not more, especially since they were in a new world. They only stayed for as long as it took for Euryflavia to solve the crossword and earn neopoints for it, and during that time the other three neopets discussed (in hushed words) a couple of topics on faeries, like the Faerieland Employment Agency, and the concept behind Faerie Quests.

After that, they were given a full tour of Faerie City before they would leave and tour the rest of Faerieland itself. As they walked/flew, the ponies were introduced to the six kinds of faeries and some of the other species of neopets their four tour guides weren't. 

the ponies also took a Faerie Personality Quiz on a whim and Pinkie's suggestion. The quiz ended up going as follows. Of course, as some of their decisions weren't among the choices, they had to choose the next best one. Also, they were given basic information on the "abilities" in the fourth question and the lands outside Faerieland in the last.




When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you do?
Stretch and take a deep breath. [Air] RD
Shut your eyes and go back to sleep. [Dark]
Light a candle. [Fire]
Water your plants. [Earth] Fs, Aj
Open the drapes to let in some light. [Light] PP
Take a shower or bath. [Water] Rt, TS

Where would you go to relax?
Camping, so I could sit around the campfire. [F]
To my garden to plant flowers. [E] Fs
To the lake to go swimming. [W] PP
To the beach to lie in the sun. [L] RD, Rt, Aj
My backyard at night to stargaze. [D] TS
Out of the city to get some fresh air. [A]

Which of these words appeals to you most?
Flame [F]
Wind [A] RD
Land [E] Aj
Waves [W]
Sunlight [L] PP, TS, Fs, Rt
Darkness [D]

What ability would you teach your Neopet? (EDIT: What ability would you like to have?)
Drain Life [D]
Water of Life [W] Fs, TS
Restore [L] RD, Rt
Regeneration [E] Aj
Boil [F]
Invisibility [A] PP

Others might describe you as…
Fiery [F] RD
Carefree [A] 
Clever [D] Rt
Cheerful [L] PP
Modest [E] TS
Relaxed [W] Fs, Aj

If given the choice, which of the following drinks would you select?
Natural fruit juice. [E] Aj
Something diet. [L]
Black coffee. [D] TS
Ice water. [W] PP
Anything carbonated. [A] RD
Hot chocolate or tea. [F] Fs, Rt

Where in Neopia would you live?
Darigan Citadel [D]
Faerieland [A] Rt, TS, PP
Meridell [E] Fs, Aj
The Lost Desert [F]
Maraqua [W]
Altador [L] RD




Twilight Sparkle got Water Faerie (just like the neopets' User nightelf_37), Applejack and Fluttershy got Earth Faerie (which the former honestly predicted she would get), Pinkie Pie and Rarity got Light Faerie, and Rainbow Dash got Air Faerie (to her slight disappointment as she hoped for Fire). 


In any case, upon leaving Faerie City, the ponies were treated to another awe-inspiring sight. The verdant plains, the crystal clear waters, the pink-and-purple architecture, the sparkling rivers, a rainbow waterfall in the distance… the only thing that put them at edge however is the forest to the west and south, especially the one at the south. The neopets decided not to tell them that that was their next destination. Presently, only Tychophon and Rainbow were flying while the rest walked.


"Say, is that rainbow over there spicy?" Pinkie asked, pointing at the Rainbow Fountain as they walked.

"We never bothered to taste them," Aquanax answered. "However, from the few neopets we know who have sometimes been drenched in that sort of liquid (don't ask), it's just like water, but with a tingle of magic, just like what I felt when I first got these wings." She flapped her seemingly delicate wings in demonstration.

"First got those wings?" Twilight was curious. "You mean you weren't born that way?"

Euryflavia rolled her eyes, a song in her head. "No. I think we should tell you about the nature of Colors, and that's with a capital C."

"Colors in Neopia don't just mean…well, colors," Tychophon explained, doing a 'barrel roll' to show his features. "They also mean different appearances. All those neopets back in Faerie City with wings like Aquanax, or look extremely elegant without clothing? They are all Colored Faerie. Other Colors we neopets can have aside from the classical ones like Yellow, Red, Green, and so on are Pirate, Skunk, Fire, Desert, Royal, Shadow, and even Rainbow." The last one prompted raised eyebrows from the polychromatic-maned pegasus.

"Although a small amount of those Colors just apply it to the ruff of fur on usuls like me," the usul pointed out.

"Chias however, which are those smooth-skinned neopets topped with a fluffy crest of fur, have a ridiculous range of Colors, most of them making them look like various fruits and vegetables. We better exercise caution whenever one of those is nearby." He pointedly stared at Pinkie, who reacted innocently.

"Jus' what kindsa crazy Colors can Chias be 'colored' in?" Applejack wanted to know.

"Let's see…" Messerole began to count them with his fingers. "Apple, Asparagus, Aubergine, Avocado, Blueberry, Carrot, Durian, Gooseberry, Grape, Lemon, Lime, Onion, Orange, Pea, Peach, Pear, Pepper, Pineapple, Plum, Thornberry, and Tomato. Even some native fruits here like Agueena and Chokato." He turned to see the shocked/quivering looks from the ponies and immediately felt bad. "Yeah, we neopets are weird. But that's why the Users love us." 


Deciding to divert the conversation to a different topic, the grundo decided to ask, "Why did you ask if the rainbow from the Rainbow Fountain was spicy anyway, Pinkie Pie?"

"She took a taste of one of them when I gave my friends a tour of the weather factory back home at Cloudsdale," Rainbow explained.

"Oh." His eyes turned away from the group, then something caught his attention. "Hey, is that the Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity?"

The other three neopets stopped in their walk and turned to where he was staring. The ponies took a bit longer, and Pinkie was the first to point. "Is that it?"

The titular plushie was hanging on a tree branch close to a lake they were passing by. The group approached it and saw that it looked really sad, getting the pity of all of the ponies.

"Poor thing," said Pinkie. "All on its own, unwanted…"

"And yet from the name, it's apparent that this plushie is supposed to be well-known," finished Twilight. "Why is it hanging there in spite of all that and why hasn't anybody taken it home?"

Tychophon gave a chuckle as they all stopped a few feet from it. "You know, there have been a couple of stories behind that thing's history. One of them theorizes that the plushie loses its gift of prosperity and even brings bad luck to anybody who does take it home."

"Oh, that's so sad!" gasped Fluttershy.

"Yeah." The shoyru gave a deep sigh as he walked up to the plushie. "In any case, this plushie has granted minor windfalls (did I use the word correctly?) for anybody, usually Users and 'their' neopets, who has encountered him. Rewards range from simple happiness, to less hunger, enlightenment, getting healed, or even neopoints or random toys. Consequently, it might make visitors hungry, dampen their mood, or even nothing happens." He then walked back to the others. "Well, best be on our way."

Everybody agreed and began to walk away when a hoof made contact with something heavy. "Ow!" yelped Rarity. The other nine turned to see that she had bumped into a pouch of what seemed to be neopoints.

"Oh goody!" gasped Euryflavia as she picked it up.

"Are ya sure it's all right?" Applejack asked. "Maybe somepony dropped it and they might—"

"Nah, this is one of those windfalls the Plushie often grants," Tychophon assured then pointedly faced Twilight. "And I think it's best you do not ask exactly how it works; even we don't know either."





The party of ten approached the Wheel of Excitement, whose operator was a light faerie.

"It looks like fun, right? Come and spin the Wheel of Excitement!" she said.

"Me! Me! Me!" gasped Pinkie as she—with 500 neopoints ready—spun the wheel, then gave the money to the light faerie. She then backpedaled a bit as the group watched the wheel spin.

"I'm assuming the numbers on the wheel represent the amount of neopoints you can win when the pointer lands on it, right?" Rarity asked.

"Mm-hmm," Aquanax nodded. "And some of these spaces grant special potions and even healing."

"Your dragon friend mentioned that not too long ago. It's almost like the prospect of getting hurt is always around the corner."

"This wheel, and all other wheels in Neopia, always have a chance of bringing some sort of misfortune. Luckily here, only four of the sixteen spaces are bound to be bad luck for you girls."

Just then, the wheel stopped spinning, and the group turned to see that it seems to have landed on a red space depicting a being of fire.

"Darn. Well, you win some, you lose some," sighed the light faerie.

From a nearby cloud emerged said being ("The Lava Ghoul!" gasped Messerole.), who breathed a very quick blast of fire over the ten. A second later, something seemed to part the rest of the flames. The Lava Ghoul then decided to leave and it was revealed that Twilight had conjured a force field around the group, although Pinkie and Rarity were panicking about as they tried to put out some lingering embers in their tails and manes.

"Come back for another spin in a couple of hours."





"I told you we shouldn't have gone to the Wheel of Excitement," scowled Messerole.

"Would you stop blaming me?" said Euryflavia. "I mean it's not like there was a big chance of that happening!"

"But it's still a chance!"

"At least we have a good reason to fisit the Healing Springs now," quipped Aquanax.

"That is not a good excuse!"

"Guys, guys!" Tychophon quickly put a stop to their bickering. "What's happened happened. Nothing will change that. All we can do is say we're sorry, and move on."


Luckily for the ponies, the Lava Ghoul's fire breath didn't have any lasting burns (as much as Rarity would disagree). Twilight noted that it was kinda like Spike's fire, Spike being her "number one assistant" back home, and a dragon too. The conversation's subject then became comparisons between him and Tychophon, but the shoyru was modest. He also had to tell them that unlike other draconic neopets, he cannot breathe fire, although he has some resistance to it.

The group eventually reached the Healing Springs, where they were greeted by the water faerie Marina.

"Welcome to my home of healing and relaxation," she greeted. "What can I do for you today? Maybe I can heal you, or perhaps you would like to purchase some of my healing potions? You must remember that my magic is limited so I can't heal everybody that often. Also, I'm currently running out of potions so I am limiting one to each customer per visit."

"We'd like a healing session," requested Messerole. "Although I'm not sure if…" He glanced at the ponies.

Marina gave a gentle smile. "I've been told about you. Come. It's—as neopets would say it—on the house." She gestured to one of the pools. 





"Well, that was refreshing," said Pinkie.

"I'll say!" agreed Rarity. "I feel good as new."

"We were really lucky Marina was feeling very generous to us today," Euryflavia mused, buying a Healing Potion XII. "Sometimes she just heals only one of us when our User's around, heal us for only a bit, or even just give a potion or snowball. Her magic seems to fluctuate a lot given her customers."

"Snowballs?" parroted Pinkie.

"Yes. Snowballs. And they don't melt easy either. They're mainly one-use items for the Battledome."

"The Battledome?" Rainbow was curious.

"Yup," Tychophon answered. "We Neopets are competitive in nature. And all Neopets are capable of fighting, even the intellectual lennies, who are long-legged, slender-bodied bird neopets with three long feathers that form their tails."

"Intelligent, curious, devoted to learning and discovery…hmm…" Aquanax gave a knowing look at Twilight, who seemed honestly confused.

"Anyway, you can find the Battledome in Neopia Central, and that's still a long way from here."

"I'd like to give it a try sometime," said the cyan pegasus.

"Perhaps. We'll find out when we get there."


Rainbow decided to change the subject as they stopped somewhere. "So, where are we now?" The group was now standing a few feet from a large puddle, the water of which came from the mouth of a cave.

"Welcome to the Faerie Caverns," announced Tychophon. "Inside there is treasure. Mostly neopoints. We do need a fee of four hundred neopoints though."

"Why?" The pegasus rushed into the cave entrance, only to be repelled by an invisible barrier. "Oww…" She reeled back.

"Have you ever heard of the concept of 'trap maintenance'? You know, the sort in dungeon-exploring tales." As the shoyru said this, Aquanax produced the fee and tossed it through the invisible barrier.

"You know…I wondered about that myself when I read the Daring Do series back home," answered Twilight as she and the rest of the group then entered the cave. She also circumvented the need for a torch by flaring her horn and generating a light from it. "I mean, there's no way the traps there still work effectively, even though they've been left for hundreds or thousands of years."

"Tell me about it." From what little we neopets know, the trap maintenance is handled by the TNT users. Somehow. "I'm assuming Daring Do is a fictional…treasure hunter? Or was it tomb raider?"

"I think a much cooler term would be 'adventurer archaeologist'," Rainbow put in as they stopped at a fork in the path. There were a few curious looks from the other ponies. "What? Am I not allowed to use complicated words once in a while?"


"Okay, guys," Messerole interrupted, trying to get the group back on track. "Which way do we go?"

"I'm guessing you've never been in these caverns before, am I right?" asked Rarity.

"Actually, we've been here a couple of times with our User, who somehow turns into an idiot while inside." The grundo lowered his voice into a mutter. As well as plenty of other times… 

"And we do find treasure here," Aquanax supplied. "Less than ten percent of the time, though it should theoretically be twelve point five. It's just that the ones who do 'trap maintenance', as Tych helpfully called it, on this cavern scramble the pathways via magic each time the treasure is found. Lots of this magic, mostly faerie magic, is at work so that we don't encounter other groups who are in this cave as well."

"You're right," said Twilight. "I can sense a lot of magic at work. So much it's giving me a headache when I try to sense it."

"Why can't we just split up?" asked Pinkie.

"No can do, it's against the rules," said the acara. "It's said that a powerful Wraith spawns for every party detected exploring this cavern minus one." 

"That means for every party in this cave, there are just as many wraiths but they are one short?"

"Yes. The magic Twilight's sensing here is the only thing that keeps them at bay. Not even Queen Fyora is all-powerful, any more than your princesses are." She raised a paw to stop the purple unicorn from speaking up. "Yes, Celestia and Luna are probably more powerful given that they move the sun and moon respectively in your world, but that's beyond the point. And now we're getting distracted. We're supposed to be choosing a path."

"Right," she agreed, then pointed to the right-hand(hoof?) path. "That's where we're going."

It took a few seconds for Messerole to process this. "Oh. We head right."


A while later, as the dectet continued walking, Rarity had another question. "Say, about the treasure, are there any gems there?"

"Sorry, but no," said Tychophon. "Only neopoints."

"Oh."

"Why do you ask?" wondered Messerole.

"It's because Rarity has a gem-finding spell," Twilight answered. "I know how to cast it too. Surely there's an equivalent in Neopia."

The grundo put two fingers to his chin. "Well, it's against the rules to use such methods via the use of magical artifacts, but you could theoretically circumvent it if it's inherent magic like the faeries. Material treasures don't interest them though, and you remember what I said about neopet-faerie relations, right?" She nodded. "Also, when we're with our User, other rules are in effect; only he gets to decide, we're not allowed to help him."


They reached another fork in the path. "Now which way?" asked Euryflavia. She was given a coin by Pinkie, but upon catching it, she saw that it wasn't of a currency she knew. On one side was the image of Princess Luna's cutie mark, and on the other was a sun. She guessed it was supposed to represent Princess Celestia's cutie mark. "Hold on. This isn't a neopoint. Or a dubloon."

"Nope," the pink earth pony said. "It's called a bit."

"Equestria's currency, right?"

"Yup!"

"And you want me to flip it to decide?" Pinkie nodded her head rapidly in response. "Okay then. Sun, we head left. Moon, we go right." The usul flipped the coin and then caught it. "Sun. Left it is." She flipped the it back to Pinkie, who caught it in her mane, where it disappeared.Euryflavia decided not to dwell upon it.


As the group kept going, Aquanax spouted another topic. "You know, Rainbow Dash, Neopia also happens to have an 'adventurer archaeologist' as well. He's a kougra called Jake the Explorer."

"Kougra," Twilight echoed. "I remember you talking about them during our tour in Faerie City, when we encountered their captain of the guard. Brynn, you called her. They're feline neopets with small semicircular notches towards the base of their ears, and stripes like tigers, though their colors very greatly depending on their…Color. Wow, that's confusing."

"I know, right?"

"However, I notice something very different about her. Unlike most kougras, who you say walk on fours like us and you, she's on twos and has hands."

"Yeah. Some neopets—but never the ones that bond with Users like us—are born like—or turned into—that for some reason. We call them anthros. They aren't really that different from ordinary Neopets other than potential height. Not all neopets can be anthros though."

"Like what?"

"The aquatic neopets like flotsams, jetsams, peophins, and koi, the ones lacking either arms or legs like jubjubs, kikos, hissies, and avian neopets like pteris and lennies."


They reached yet another fork. "Okay. Which way now?" asked Tychophon. "And voting doesn't seem like a good idea since we're an even number."

"Rock-paper-scissors?" Messerole supplied.

"Not all of us have the appropriate number of fingers, so to speak." He gave an aside glance to the ponies.

"Odds and evens?"

"Same deal. You have four fingers. Aquanax's paws have four digits. My hand only has a thumb. So does Euryflavia. The ponies have none."


Suddenly, there came a short draft from the way they came in, and it blew off Applejack's hat and it went sailing to the left tunnel. Thankfully, it did not go far and landed on the cavern floor.

There was a few seconds of silence as the farmpony went to retrieve it when it was broken by Pinkie. "Let's go that way!"

"Sure," agreed Tychophon as the ten of them went.


"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask something else," Pinkie said. "Why isn't backtracking an option?"

Aquanax was about to explain. "Because…" She cut herself off from realizing something. "You know what? We never thought of that. Probably because the torches provided at the cave wall don't last long enough to warrant backtracking. And the fact our User is an idiot while inside this cave. Using other magical artifacts to substitute for that isn't allowed either, though that's once again circumvented with your friend's light."

"Thank you," said Twilight.


The group eventually entered a room lit with candles. In front of them was a barely closed treasure chest almost overflowing with gold coins. Everypony was fascinated at the sight, and Rarity's eyes were absolutely starry. The Neopets just sighed in relief.

"Like it? There are plenty more prize-winning places all over Neopia." Six faces immediate turned to face Tychophon. "How rewarding they are varies greatly though. And it's best not to ask about how the world's economy works. We aren't very knowledgeable on the subject."

Rarity trotted over to the chest and used her telekinesis to lift the lid. Twilight produced the pouch of neopoints as her friend 'picked up' the coins and 'put' them in. It took a full minute to collect every last coin, and Aquanax was able to count them all. "Wow, that's five thousand neopoints! We only manage to get between four and twenty-five hundred. I heard there are bigger prizes though."

Euryflavia nodded. "Uh-huh. I heard that sometimes you can get a set of brilliant wings, maybe a rare petpet, a rare stamp, or even a background."

"Background?" parroted Fluttershy.

"Something only we Neopets can…" She made air quotes. "…wear. It's User-related."





After exiting the caverns, the neopets took the ponies to the venue of one of Faerieland's most famed events.

"Poogle Racin'?" asked Applejack.

"Mm-hmm," nodded Messerole as the ten of them made their way to the betting station, which was tended to by a Red scorchio, a draconic neopet. A couple of Neopets are waiting in two line as well and the group went at the end of one. "We rarely come here, but it is all the rage in Faerieland."


"What about that rainbow waterfall we passed before the caverns?" asked Pinkie as they slowly went along the line. "You didn't take us there."

"Oh that? That's the Rainbow Fountain, where a Neopet can change their Color. No, it's not what Aquanax used to get her pair of wings, our User is still seething over the fact that his sister was able to via a quest from Naia the Fountain Faerie."

"And from what you told us, the chances of getting a quest for her are extremely slim," said Fluttershy.

"That's right. And faerie quests on their own don't come often enough. You could say that a quest from Naia is a rarity among rarities, more so than quests from Mira or even Fyora herself." A moment later, the other three neopets, Rainbow, and Pinkie burst into laughter while the others, especially the one whose name was used for the pun, just rolled their eyes. "Anyway, there are 'hundreds' of Neopets who use the Fountain, so the magic is often used up whenever we try to visit."

"That's the story given anyway for Users and…User-bound neopets who visit without completing a quest from Naia. I'm not sure about the other kind, but I think those are the 'hundreds' Naia talks about, not counting the Users who have completed her quests."

"Why would you want to change Colors anyway?" wondered Applejack. "What's wrong with bein' what you are?"

"Not all Color changes are for beneficial purposes, Applejack, or are even out of our User's volition," answered Tychophon. "There are other events that can change our Colors without our consent. For one, about being drenched in rainbow liquid, which Aqua alluded to, that can change our Color. There's also a criminal named Boochi, who owns a ray gun which he uses to turn neopets Color into Baby. 

"The difference between Baby and baby is that Neopets with the Baby Color are still just as mature as any other neopet… assuming they were mature to begin with, if you get what I'm saying. They aren't treated any less either, except when taking size into account." His face then turned serious. "Now I'm beginning to worry about something else. What if during our tour he decides to take a potshot at any of you? I'm assuming that you probably know a spell that can reverse the effects, but I'm not too confident on mixing magic in a complex level."

"No need to worry," assured Twilight. "Before being sent here to Neopia, Princess Celestia cast a protective spell on us that would protect us from involuntary transformations."

"I see." He was about to ask why their princess didn't apply protection for injuries, which would've been useful against that Lava Ghoul, but assumed that Celestia had her reasons. Besides had they been protected, they wouldn't have had the visit to the Healing Springs in the first place. And they probably wouldn't be allowed in the Battledome with that 'shield'. Maybe it would be too much even for her, whether as a taxing effort or just a bother.


Just then, at the adjacent line, an individual well-known to neopetkind.

"So these are the delegates from Equestria." she said.

The ten turned around to see—

"A dark faerie?" whispered Twilight.

"Not just any dark faerie, it's Delina the Crafting Faerie," Tychophon corrected.

Like most dark faeries, she was purple, and had bat-like wings. Unlike the usual dark faerie, who have a fancy appearance that doesn't hide their 'evilness', Delina had personal items and attire that imply that she spends a lot of time in a workshop.

"Hello," Delina greeted in a friendly tone, then bent down to face the Yellow shoyru. "You must be their tour guides. How's it going so far?"

Tychophon put a hand to the back of his head and said, "It's great so far. We're still starting though. What are you doing here, Miss Delina? Shouldn't you be looking around for Neopets to give quests to?"

"It's my downtime right now, and I decided to spend it by watching the Poogle Races. I could easily just fly in, but that wouldn't be fair, now would it?" Delina stood up straight and faced the betting station, which they were getting very close to. "Besides, not every User has the Neocash to spend for the items I need. Kinda unfair, right?"

"Yeah, it kind of is." 

Delina turned to address Twilight. "How's the tour so far, ponies?"

"So far, I think we're doing fine. Our tour guides have been doing their best to tell us everything about Faerieland."

"I assure you that Neopia is a fantastic place to explore. There is so much to do." Just then, she reached the betting station before the tour group. "Well, nice meeting ya." She took out a couple of odds and ends and used them to make a  bid. Once she was done, she made her way to the seats. A while later, the ten reached the station.


"Care to place a bet?" the scorchio bookie asked.

"Why else would we be here, silly?" Pinkie asked in return.

"To just watch the races perhaps?"

"Oh."

"We're gonna bet on Poogle One," Tychophon said as he took out a pouch of neopoints. "Maximum bet."

"That would be three hundred neopoints. Thanks for betting!!!"





A few minutes later…

The tour party of ten were now seated at the bleachers, watching the poogle racers warm up. Poogles are smooth-skinned neopets, though some consider them to have very short fur. They're quadrupeds, have large and downturned ears, have naturally rounded, chubby bodies, very small tails, and surprisingly sharp teeth in their mouths. According to Euryflavia, the five were all Colored Yellow.

"This sort of feels like watching the Wonderbolt Derby," Rarity mused.

"Except replace the Wonderbolts with poogles," Rainbow said.

"True."

"We don't know the real names of the poogles, they're only addressed as Poogles One to Five," Aquanax explained. "And their odds of winning aren't equal." She then pointed at each of them. "For example. Poogle One is lightning quick, great over jumps, and fighting-fit. Because he's the favorite, odds are about thirty-three point three percent. Poogle Two could easily be the fastest Poogle around if he wasn't easily distracted. His odds are twenty-five percent. Poogle Three exhibits great bursts of speed, but is normally very clumsy when jumping. Odds; twenty percent. Poogle Four used to be a contender, but now he is getting older, and he has lost his speed and agility on the racetrack. Odds are about fourteen percent. If you check out Poogle Five, it can be seen that he doesn't get much exercise an an athlete like his should, and so his odds are about eleven point one percent."

"Since Poogle One is the most likely to win, he's also the least…rewarding. If he wins, we only get triple our bet back."

"And if you, say, had bet on Poogle Five and he won, you would win about nine times your bet, right?" Twilight surmised.

"Correct."

Rainbow leaned back in her seat. "I can't say I'm really impressed with them."

"I'm assuming the Wonderbolts Rarity mentioned are pretty darn fast, am I right?" said Tychophon.

The pegasus scoffed. "I guess fast is one word to describe them! But they're more than fast; they are simply the most talented flyers in all of Equestria! I'm already training to be one!"

"I see. Well, Neopia doesn't have a world-famous team of flyers or acrobats, but we do have our share of speedy 'celebrities'."


"Hush! It's starting!" Euryflavia said. The five poogle racers were now positioned in their respective lanes of the course, which was a long line, like the sort for a X00 meter dash.

"Poogles get ready!" announced a voice. "Three! Two! One! Go!"





"Was there ever any—"

"Of course there were doubts, Eury. While his odds were the best among them, it wasn't even higher than fifty percent, which is commonly good odds."

"At least we're nine hundred neopoints richer, Mess."

"Don't. Call me that."

Poogle One was the winner of the race, with Three in second, Five in third, Two in fourth, and Five in fifth. It was a relatively close one too. 

Rainbow hadn't been particularly impressed, saying that even the slowest Wonderbolt could clear the distance faster. Applejack wasn't impressed either, saying that Poogle One wouldn't have scored a ribbon with that speed in the Equestria Rodeo Competition.


Right now, they were at a bluff northwest of Faerieland, and frankly it looked rather creepy, reminding the ponies of the Everfree Forest. 

"And this is Jhudora's Bluff." They stopped just outside the entrance. "Like the other faeries, Jhudora bestows quests and grants rewards. But unlike those faeries, you can go to her personally and take quests once every twelve hours. Her quests are different too and are most suited for Users. She's actually 'nice' by dark faerie standards, though not as much as Delina, who is pretty much an outcast."

"I heard her name being mentioned back at Faerie Foods while we were eating," said Fluttershy. "The ones who talked about her also mentioned someone named Illusen and from what I could tell, there seems to be…a disagreement between them."

Messerole shook his head. "Disagreement doesn't even begin to describe their hate for each other. Apparently, Illusen was the sole witness to a crime Jhudora had committed. Not only was it apparently so vile to spark this rivalry, it is said they were even once friends. For the record, Illusen's not a light faerie, but earth. We can find her in Meridell."

"So, why aren't you gonna take us inside to meet her?" asked Pinkie.

"Are you sure you want to?"

"Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside," Twilight said, sounding like she quoted it from somewhere.

"True." The grundo put his hand to his chin. "Dark isn't evil. Some of Neopia's heroes have used dark items without 'falling' to the dark side. Even I used one once, and look at me." He spread his arms out, then relaxed them. "But the thing is, no-one has ever caught Jhudora doing anything bad. Even the other dark faeries have been found commiting a wrongdoing at least once. Jhudora? Her record's squeaky clean. And that's the cause of the discomfort concerning her. Are you sure you want to go see her?"

"I know we're your tour guides and that we shouldn't be partial to things," said Tychophon. "But if we were, we wouldn't have taken you here in the first place."


"WHAT'S WITH THE RUCKUS OUT THERE?!" a loud menacing voice came from inside the entrance. Thankfully for the neopets, it wasn't as forceful as Princess Luna's. "WHY DON'T YOU EITHER JUST COME IN OR LEAVE?!"

There were a few moments of silence. Then Rarity said, "That was Jhudora just now, was it?"

That was when a pair of neopets walked past the group, a pair of lupes (one Spotted and one Faerie), giving curt greetings as they passed, then they looked at two of the ponies with slight confusion, those two looking back with the same expression. The two lupes were wearing wigs, and they pretty much looked like two certain manestyles.

Rainbow was the first to speak. "Um, where'd you get those wigs?"

"Oh these?" said the Spotted one, who wore a wig that was identical to the pegasus's mane. "This Funky Rainbow Wig is from the JubJub Power Bounce."

"And this Trendy Highlights Wig is from Blumaroll," said the Faerie one, whose wig was black and had a headband, but had highlights similar to the ones on Twilight's mane. "Well, we best be going. We're gonna take one of Jhudora's quests. See ya!"

And with that, the two lupes ran deep into the entrance.


Once they were gone, Pinkie asked, "JubJub Power Bounce? Blumaroll? What are those?"

"Games that grant prizes. You need special tokens though. But enough of that. Let's get out of here before Jhudora gets angry."





Soon, with the tour of Faerieland over, the ten stood at the land's south edge. Ahead of them was a very large, very forbidding, and sometimes barren wilderness. The ponies regarded it with silent trepidation for a long moment before Pinkie spoke up.

"This feels kinda familiar," she said.

Rainbow turned to Tychophon and said, "How is the weather managed here again?"

"Same as in all of Neopia," the shoyru answered. "We let it do its own thing, although certain faeries and neopets sometimes do what they want with it. From what Princess Luna told us about Equestria the day before you came here, the only place nature behaves like this is the Everfree Forest. But I assure you that the Haunted Woods isn't full of dangerous creatures." He lowered his voice. "Any more than the other lands of Neopia anyway, though it does have more than its fair share."

"As your tour guides, it is our obligation to take you to all the lands of Neopia," Euryflavia explained, seeing the frightful expression in Fluttershy's face. "And we figured we best get the creepiest place out of the way first. They're less scary during the day than at night, anyway."

"The sooner we enter the Woods, the sooner we can leave them. We'll make sure to minimize the harm that comes to you to the best of our ability. Besides, this is just the beginning of our tour. Neopia's a BIG place. There is so much to see." 

"And we're wasting time seeing you hesitate!" Aquanax spoke up. "Think of Neopia as a world of adventure! So let's go! We promise there are more interesting things later on after the Haunted Woods."

"We promise," assured Messerole as he began to do a motion. "Cross our hearts and hope to—"

Pinkie interrupted as she did her own motions. "—fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" This ended with her placing a hoof on her closed eye.

The grundo shrugged his shoulders as he finished along with Pinkie, inadvertently doing hers. "Eh, close enough. Now let's mosey! After this, there are still at least sixteen nations to go!" With that, he marched forward. One by one, the ponies followed his lead, the other three neopets doing the same.
> Don't Go Into The Woods
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second stop for the Equestrians' tour of Neopia was the Haunted Woods. As the party of ten crossed the forbidding forest, the ponies couldn't help but note that it looked less like a forest and more like a maze with trees, dead or spooky-looking, serving as the walls. A twisting path snaked between the spooky trees, and translucent, red-eyed rodents (the neopets called Meepits) dancing between them. Tychophon looked quite regretful on seeing Fluttershy quiver from the eyes. 

Despite it being light out back in Faerieland, the Haunted Woods was plunged in darkness for reasons unknown even to the neopets. There was also a great deal of fog, though not as thick as usual. It didn't help that Messerole was whistling a tune appropriate for the setting. Even the sight of other 'normal' neopets wandering the woods didn't ease them.

"Believe me, it's much darker in the night," Tychophon assured them.

"Were-were th-those r-r-real gh-gh-ghosts just now?" Fluttershy asked.

The shoyru was uncertain how to break it to them that there were real ghosts of  neopets (and petpets) and that Ghost is another Color both can have. In the end, he decided that while saying there are both isn't a nice answer, having her or the others find out the truth later didn't sound appealing either. "No and yes. Ghost is actually another Color we neopets can be colored in, and we have a system to differentiate between them and real specters. Not all 'real ghosts' are evil, although it's best to stay on your guard."


All of a sudden, something fast zoomed right into them, specifically Pinkie Pie's face. Immediately, the earth pony began to run about in panic and it stopped the whistling. "Giant bat! Giant bat on my face! Heeeelp!"

Twilight was quick to pull whatever it was out of Pinkie's face and immediately brought its face to hers. (Pinkie had stopped the moment her face was clear. The "bat" was about Euryflavia's height (counting her ears), and was very much like a vampire bat except it had a slender but strong triangle-tipped tail and more opposable digits than an ordinary one. Its body was also primarily white, its claws were yellow, and its wings were red. It was a korbat, another of the many species of neopets.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" said the red neopet, revealing to be a male. "I should be watching where I'm going."

Messerole reacted in surprise as he and the other three neopets surrounded him as Twilight let him down. "Roktabio! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be tending to the shop?"

"Sorry, guys, but I have to provide a report. Since your User is gone for the moment, I thought I'd tell you. Had no idea you were currently taking up a job as tour guides. And with the Equestrian delegates to boot."

This surprise the grundo even more. "News of this already reached all the way to Neopia Central?! So soon?"

"Rumors, pal. Word has got out that prior to you-know-what in Faerieland just yesterday, there had been a meeting with all of Neopia's rulers in Faerieland Castle. Queen Fyora, King Altador, Princess Amira, Lord Darigan, Governor McGill, every land had a representative, including that 'non-existent' world. Except Lutari Island, which is still under attack from harsh tropical storms even to this day."

"What were these rumors?" As they talked, the rest of the ponies surrounded the group.

"The rumors said that the meeting had involved some ruler of an undiscovered kingdom, more of a principality. The visitor had the basic form of a uni, but was much taller, and more majestic, more so than a Royalgirl uni, and without much clothing either."

"Princess Celestia?" Twilight whispered to herself.

Roktabio seemed to hear. "While The ones who picked up the rumor certainly know the visitor's female, they didn't pick up her name or even description. They also heard that the visitor was a ruling Princess, like Amira of Sakhmet, although whether or not she keeps the title out of respect for her father like Amira is not known."


"Hold on a second!" Messerole interrupted. "What's this report you wish to provide us? Unless this rumor thing is the report."

"Oh, right." The korbat rubbed the back of his head. "My report is that…some of lands are already preparing for the arrival of the delegates. Just thought I'd give you a heads-up."

"I see. Why don't you tag along with us for the moment? Get to know the delegates."

"Sure, why not? I just closed the shop." And with that, the Red korbat joined the party and they continued walking. 


"A shop?" Rarity asked. "What do you sell there?"

"Their User calls it 'Yellow Travelers Food Shop Deluxe', but we sell stuff aside from food whenever possible," Roktabio explained. "And before you ask, I am not User-bound like your tour guides. I'm just their hired help for shopkeeping."





As the party of eleven traversed the woods, passing a graveyard for "games" and a creepy castle the neopets made sure the ponies didn't visit, as well as Pinkie acquiring Neopet masks to take home, a creepy voice called out to them.

"Twilight Sparkle!" it said, alarming everyone in the area save the local residents, who just paused for a moment before going about their business.

"It's the Brain Tree," Euryflavia explained. "It's best we heed his call. Follow us."

A few quick turns later, as well as a fright from some hanging spyders, black six-legged and -eyed spider petpets, the group finally reached a dead tree with what could only be described as a large brain (that was pulsating!) in place of its leaves. Branches protruded from this brain, and in its trunk was a face with red eyes.

Two other Neopets seemed to have answered his call as well. One was a Blue gnorbu, a long-haired llama-like neopet with a long flowing mane around her neck and a tassel-like tail. She was 33 centimeters tall, shorter than even Messerole. Another was a Green xweetok, a quadruped with a fluffy ruff and mane, which stretched down its back to the tail, curved black markings on its forehead, and distinctive large, dark eyes. She was even smaller, standing at 26 centimeters.

"Ah…Twilight Sparkle. I've been expecting you and your friends!" he said, which brought a shock to the ponies, and elicited visible cringes from two of them. It then addressed the Neopets. "Leave! I shall not be conducting quests for the time being! I was calling for the world foreigner!" Meekly, the two non-yellow neopets left. His gaze turned to the four that remained.

"We are their tour guides, sir." Tychophon quickly explained.

"I see."

"What did you call us for, sir?" Twilight asked. "And how did you know my name?"

"Two days ago, your name was mentioned in a meeting between Neopia's leaders. I was representative for the Haunted Woods. I heard your name through the world foreigner, Equestria I remember is the name of the place. She was a uni-like creature taller than the Faerie Queen herself, had a mane and tail that flowed on its own in four colors, and a marking on her flank that depicted the sun."

"Princess Celestia?!"

"That is her name! I called you here because I thirst for knowledge! And the knowledge I crave for…is—"

"Iiiii ammmmmm hungryyyyyyy, feeeeedddd mmmmeeee aaaaannnndddd Iiiiii willlllllll rewwwwwaaarrrdddd yoooooooouuuuuuuuuuu…," another creepy voice came.

Everybody, including the two who had fainted, turned to see a dark cyan goop-ike creature with a huge mouth, a pair of large hands, and red evil eyes lurking nearby, just outside the Brain Tree's area. A group of neopets had just entered his domain.

The Brain Tree gave off a sigh. "You have to forgive him. You see, the Esophagor always has such an appetite. In fact, food is pretty much the only thing that he thinks about, and that is what he demands in his quests. He does help me a bit in the quests I give neopets."

"You give quests too, Mister Brain Tree?" asked Pinkie. 

"Yes. Both of us give quests for users. The Esopagor demands food, while I want to know when and where a certain neopet died…which the Esophagor knows, but…"

"Lemme guess," said Rainbow. "He wants food in return."

"Yes. Both of us are also available as challengers in the Battledome, but I only accept those who have accomplished one of my quests. Unfortunately, the User who 'owns' these four Neopets have not done so."

"He doesn't really find them worth it," Messerole whispered to Fluttershy.

"Iiiiii aaaaammmmm soooooo hungrrryyy…..Iiiii neeeedddd toooo eaattttt soooonnnn…," the Esophagor complained as the neopets left.

If the Brain Tree could roll his eyes, he probably would've done so. "You wouldn't mind getting him some food, will you? He always gets so upset when he doesn't get food. I'll make it worth your while, but you still won't get me as a challenger."

"We just saw some neopets there a while ago. Won't they be able to feed him?"

"It always helps to feed him more."

"I'll do it," Roktabio offered as he flew toward the Esophagor.

Once he was gone, the Brain Tree spoke again. "As I was saying before the Esophagor interrupted me, the knowledge I crave for is…everything about Equestria you are allowed to confide. I am aware that you have your secrets you may not wish to reveal, and I shall respect that."





"To be honest, we don't visit the tree that much, or the Haunted Woods in general for that matter."

It took a quite some time for the ponies to talk about Equestria, especially since the Brain Tree looked 'evil'. A bunch of time was saved by Twilight using a memory spell to relay all that she knows to the knowledge seeker. She was surprised it worked and had no strange side effects. The Brain Tree was unable to know how to replicate the spell though (thankfully for her).

As thanks for feeding the Esophagor, Roktabio was bestowed a Lucky Robots Foot, a sharp item that it supposed to be a one-use item for healing.

Also, Fluttershy thought to herself, I changed my mind. I don't like to be a tree. Not that tree, anyway.


"So, who is this Edna?" Twilight asked their tour guides.

"She's the residential sorceress of the Haunted Woods," Aquanax explained as she took to the air. "She's not very good at spells though. And she doesn't use magic the way you unicorns do either; she needs ingredients and a cauldron to mix them in to perform them."

The ponies immediately thought of Zecora, a zebra friend of theirs who resides in the Everfree Forest.

"Is Edna an evil enchantress?" Pinkie suddenly asked.

The acara thoughtfully put a paw to her chin. "Well, we're not sure on her being evil or not, but she certainly isn't nice. She does give quests though, just like the Esophagor and the Brain Tree, bestows prizes on whoever completes it (usually not worth it), and can be challenged in the Battledome, but only at midnight. She also takes a power nap at noon. Thankfully for you, we're not gonna visit her, 'cause said power nap is right now."

"Where are we headed?" asked Roktabio, who was flying alongside Aquanax, his Lucky Robots Foot dangling in his tail.

"The Deserted Fairground," answered Messerole. "After that, we're going to Neovia."


The party of eleven crossed the black iron gates that served as the entrance to the Deserted Fairgrounds…which, while desolate, was certainly not deserted. There were a couple of carnival stalls, shops, a castle in the distance, and a mediocre amount of neopets—Ghost and otherwise—at the stalls or mulling about. Just as the group crossed the gate, klaxons and red lights went off, alarming all inside.

"What's happenin'?" shouted Applejack as they saw the game stalls and stores close, some of the wandering Neopets taking refuge in them before they could be locked out. The gate behind the group also closed, 'locking' them inside.

"Oh bother," groaned Tychophon. "It looks like the robotic Chia Clowns from the nearby carnival are causing problems again. This is our first time seeing it happen though."

"Roktabio, get the ponies to safety." instructed Euryflavia. "Unless they want to give robot wrecking a try. We gotta warn you; the pies they throw can cause stomach cramps when you ingest so much as the filling, so try not to get hit!"

Rainbow Dash was the first to volunteer. "Count me in!"

"Me too!" Applejack.

"Me three!" Pinkie Pie.

"I'll help as well." Twilight Sparkle.

"Pies? Please count me out. I can't possibly get my mane all messed up for this." Rarity.

"I'll stay out as well, if that's okay." Fluttershy.

"All right, but prepare to defend yourselves if they attack us. You two come with me." Roktabio led them someplace safer than where they were currently, namely near the Cork Gun Gallery. 


Twilight flared her horn, Rainbow got ready to charge, and Applejack produced a lasso from underneath her hat. Some of the other neopets in the area who stayed behind readied themselves as well, half of them producing weapons. The ones who failed to find a a safe place in time went and hid as well as they could.

And that's when the first pie came into view. It hit an unfortunate kougra in the face before its thrower came into view, followed by plenty more robots. Aquanax was the first in the 'tour group' to charge. Rainbow immediately followed her, and so did everyone else.

A volley of pies headed their way, but magic blasts from Twilight's horn and sound-based blasts from Messerole's antennae splatted them before they could land. It did split them into cream rain, but these had less of a chance to induce accidentally swallowing than when they're whole.


Rainbow plowed through the robot horde, smashing through them before ascending to get a better look at the situation. It wasn't particularly bleak and her friends and the other neopets seemed very capable of handling themselves. However, more and more robots were appearing out of various hiding spots. More curiously, a couple of them were floating down from the sky on umbrellas. And the pegasus had to dodge projectiles from the neopets below as well as Aquanax coming in to assist her.

"Hey," she addressed the acara. "How tough are those wings?"

"Plenty tough for me to tussle in the Battledome and still go about flying immediately after. They regenerate if they get torn."

"Wow, that's cool. Let's see who can bust the most robots while in the air!"

"You're on, Dashie!" 

"Only Pinkie Pie's allowed to call me that." And the two of them started bashing robots.


Below, one Chia Clown robot was about to charge a particularly unskilled neopet as it ticked like a time bomb before a lasso wrapped itself around its body and pulled it towards a couple more robots, exploding on impact. 

"Just who in Sam Hill made these robots, anyway?" Applejack wondered as she pulled back her lasso, which was a bit charred but still all right. Given the explosion, she thought it would've been broken. She turned to the neopet she rescued. "Yer all right, sugarcube?"

The neopet in question was a flotsam, a small dolphin-like neopet who could probably be easily carried in Spike's arms. She had two flexible forefins that seemed to be holding a ring, and an elegant tail divided into two curved fins. She also had a smooth horn on its forehead. She was colored teal, and wore various 'high-class' items like a ring at the base of her tail, an amulet, a regal coat, two bracelets on her forefins, and a crown that circled her horn and extended until her dorsal fin. Tychophon would explain later that she was colored Royal, which in turn has two different styles depending on the gender.

"I'm fi—" She raised a fin and pointed behind her rescuer. "Look out!" Instinctively, Applejack raised her hind legs, but before she could hit the robot that came up from behind, something else did. A Shadow (black) ogrin wielding a four-colored blade in his mouth. The blade cleanly bisected the machine and its halves fell.

(An ogrin was a furry quadruped Neopet with a stiff mane, a long thin neck ringed by a fluffy ruff, tassel-like ears and tail, stripe markings on their backs and hind legs, stood nearly as tall as Euryflavia, and—unusually for one of its build and general shape—paws rather than hooves.)

Luckily for the neopet, the earth pony had enough control not to end up kicking him. Applejack lowered her hindlegs, then tipped her hat to the ogrin in thanks. 


Elsewhere, a regiment of Chia Clown robots was being bombarded by Pinkie, who was throwing the custard treats they were throwing right back at them, to the surprise of the neopets behind her. The way she was flipping around, catching the pies with her hooves before they hit, and doing back-at-yas, all while keeping a gleeful face, it just baffled them senseless, although some neopets who had ranged attacks took advantage of this and shot the robots.


There were never this many before… Tychophon thought as he busied himself punching robots that were floating down when he saw Twilight on the defensive as she erected a barrier around herself and some neopets who have 'eaten' some of the pies. Messerole was among those victims. Euryflavia was inside as well, trying to find an opportunity to charge. She was being 'pummeled' by the pies coming from a marching Chia Clown robot group and didn't look like she could hold it for long.

Deciding to be a hero, they shoyru dive-bombed the robots, wrecking one on impact and disrupting the others enough for his usul User-mate to dash out of the barrier, take out a gold wheel from hammerspace, and slice the robots with it. This in turn allowed Twilight to dismiss her barrier and fire back at the robots, knocking them back before they are destroyed by the two of her tour guides.


Before long, the battle ended as quickly as it began. Peculiarly for robots like them, they retreated to the carnival whence they came. Rainbow considered following them, but Aquanax stopped her for three reasons, which she explained. One, many Neopets like to live for this sort of thing; adventuring and fighting. Two, neopoints are earned for participating in this activity. And three, as world foreigners, the ponies are not allowed to interfere with local affairs.

Also, Rainbow won their little side-bet by two robots.





After cleaning up the fairground of scrap metal, collecting the neopoint reward, and recovering from the pies, the tour guide party acquainted themselves with the flotsam Applejack rescued earlier. 

"Delegates, I'd like to introduce you to a Neopet whose User is the sister to our User," Tychophon introduced.

"Hi, I'm Vaniray," the flotsam said as she extended a fin. "Nice to meet you." She shook each of the ponies' hooves as the shoyru gave their names.

"What're you doing here, Vaniray?" asked Euryflavia.

"Well, with my User off for the time being…again…I decided a little trip to the Haunted Fairground would do a little good. She's so paranoid about us getting hurt and ever since getting a loss in the Battledome I haven't been able to participate. I'm nowhere near as strong as you guys."

"We're nowhere near top notch, either." The usul brushed her head with her hands, bending her ears back as she did so. "We haven't been in the Dome for quite some time. At least not with our User, anyway."

"It doesn't help that while our User booked us in a hotel in Neopia Central, we do have to tend to our Neohome in Faerieland," added Tychophon.

"Give us a moment, will you?" Aquanax told Twilight. "We're just catching up on old times. Why don't you girls go try out some of the games?"

"Um, they already are. Messerole gave them enough bits for one game each. He's probably at the Cork Gun Gallery with Fluttershy by now." Rainbow and Applejack were en route to the Test Your Strength, Euryflavia going after them. Pinkie was headed for the Wheel of Misfortune. Rarity was going to give Bagatelle a try, not knowing that a petpetpet was involved. Roktabio had decided to check out the furniture store. "I think I'll give Coconut Shy a try, okay?"

"Go ahead." She gave her some neopoints. "Gotta warn you, though. Nearly all the games are kinda…rigged."

"What?!"

"Every neopet and their User knows it, but some of the prizes here really are worth it, just not to our User."

"I see."

"There's also a scratchcard stall here, but we don't really go there."

"Scratchcards?"

Aquanax did a facepaw. "Oh, right. Never mind." Right. They're a race without easy means to use such things. Even though there are other races like griffons—who are similar to eyries, except they lack manes, have talons instead of paws as their forelegs, and only tiny unseen holes for ears just like most birds. Wonder how they'll react upon seeing an eyrie?





The two athletic ponies, accompanied by their usul tour guide, were standing in front of the Test Your Strength high striker. But instead of a bulls-eye in front of them to buck like they were used to, there was a red button.

"So how do we play this game?"

"Dunno. But it sure doesn't involve buckin'."

"That's right, ladies," said Arnold, the owner. "You're only allowed to use this mallet." He handed it over to Applejack, who took it with her mouth. "Swing it to strike the button and see how strong you really are! I assure you, this game is not rigged."

This earned him extremely harsh glares from the two ponies. Knowing the game, the usul just stood back and watched, but was ready to stop them from committing assault and battery. "I know a swindler when I see one!" Rainbow said as she poked a hoof at the mynci.

"And from the way ye said that, yer implyin' that the other games're rigged," added the farmpony as she spit out the mallet and approached the stall owner. "What's t' say yers isn't, huh?"

Arnold attempted to defuse the situation. "Come on, ladies. There's no need for violence. It's not like I'm forcing you to play."

"Maybe, but it certainly ain't nice what yer doin'."

"If it's okay with you ladies, I'd like to try this game." The usul and two mares turned around to see a Green meerca walk over.

Meercas were furry bipedal Neopets with very short legs, a long, thick and flexible tail, large ears, small eyes and nose, and two prominent front teeth for gnawing. From what they were told, meercas would reach 80 centimeters high if they stood on their tails, which they can do, but this particular one seemed to be slightly bigger overall and would probably reach higher.

Euryflavia let off a loud gasp. "I don't believe it! It's…it's…" Still trying to get over her shock, she was about to speak again before the meerca beat her to it.

"Look, I don't know how some neopets are able to identify me among other Green meercas, but please, I don't want any questions or autographs."

The usul instantly passed out like an overenthusiastic fangirl whose dreams came true. Arnold and the two ponies just stared before Rainbow asked the meerca, "Just who are you that you were able to make her swoon like that?"

"Oh, you must be the delegates from Equestria. I was in Faerieland yesterday when that princess showed up. Man, was her voice loud. I could still remember my ears ringing." He extended a stubby hand. "I'm Gregorio Maille, former Yooyuball player for Meridell. Not that you'd know that."

"Yooyuball? What's that?"

"Yooyuball is only the most well-known game in the Altador Cup, an annual event that unites all of Neopia in competition." 

"Like the Equestrian Games!" the pegasus whispered to herself.

Gregorio either didn't hear or paid no heed. "Eighteen nations, including Altador, participate in hopes of achieving eternal glory, and Users take sides in hopes of prizes and commemorative souvenirs. You should ask your tour guides for more. I'm just here to enjoy myself." He tossed 100 neopoints to Arnold.

"I better warn ya, that game is rigged," said Applejack.

"I know," answered the retired player as he picked up the mallet. "But I don't care. It is possible to win this." He walked over to the button, then stood up on his strong tail. "Here goes!" With a cry, he 'jumped' down, smashed the button with the mallet…and everyone watched the meter rise…all the way to "Jackpot".

"Well, well, well. Looks like we have a winner!" Arnold said as a trapdoor opened between the button and the tower and out popped a large sack. "Your prize is one million neopoints!"

"All right!" whooped the meerca as he left the mallet, hefted the sack, put it in his personal hammerspace, and went on his way, bypassing two gaping mares and a still passed out usul. "See you in Meridell!"

A few seconds later, once he was out of sight, Rainbow immediately took the mallet, gave the neopoints, and said, "I'm next!"

The mynci couldn't help but feel the fates smiling down on him for this turnabout. Euryflavia just muttered to herself dreamily as she lay on the ground.





"Hit those nails in harder, you don't want…" The quiggle stall owner stopped upon seeing Twilight come over. "Sorry, I didn't see you there. Hello and WELCOME to the Haunted Woods Fairground Coconut Shy. Just 100 of your finest Neopoints gets you a throw. Knock down a coconut and win TEN THOUSAND NEOPOINTS, plus a very special (and exclusive) prize! Hitting the coconut earns you 50 NP, and if you nearly knock it down I'll give you 300."

Concentrating as she 'picked up' a tennis ball, Twilight mentally analyzed all the factors required, including the possibility that the game is rigged just like Aquanax said. The acara had given her enough neopoints for five throws; any more she'll have to earn from the game.

Still, throwing it with all her might could possibly make her throw too strong. So she tried to ease up a little before finally 'throwing' the ball.





Pinkie stood in front of the Wheel of Misfortune, somehow not getting that such a name might bode something dark. 

"Who dares to step forward and give the Wheel of Misfortune a spin?" said the ghostly figure. "For a mere pittance, you can give the Wheel a whirl and see where it lands! Bear in mind, however, that you can only spin the Wheel once every two hours. Go on, spin. You know you want to. It won't hurt…much."

With 150 neopoints, she spun the wheel, then gave the money to the figure. She then backpedaled a bit and watched the wheel spin. Eventually, it stopped…on a space depicting some strange substance.

"Mwhaha, now you know why it's called the Wheel of Misfortune!" laughed the figure.

All of a sudden, something was pulled out of…somewhere from Pinkie, and it turned into a pile of sludge. 

"Return for another spin in two hours… if you dare!" said the figure as a scream of agony followed.





"Well hello there, stranger!" the anthro aisha stall owner Lyanka greeted Messerole and Fluttershy. "Welcome to the FINEST game kiosk this side of the Wheel of Misfortune, which is just over there." She pointed at said wheel, where Pinkie seemed to be ready to spin it. "For a mere 100 Neopoints per shot, you could be on your way to winning fabulous prizes! Such a very small price to pay, don't you think?

If you manage to knock one of those faboo items off the shelf, you get to keep it as a prize! Aim carefully, though. If you miss, you're out of luck… not that missing happens often or anything. I mean it's so easy, a Meowclops could do it. Look at this face. Would I lie to you?"

"Yes, she would," whispered the grundo as Lyanka handed him the cork gun. He paid the neopoints and handed the gun to to the pegasus. "Aim well. And try to get the yellow box."

Fluttershy followed him as best as she gould, given her hooves. Messerole then cranked the gun, readying it to fire.





"Fancy a game? 250 Neopoints and you're in!"

After giving the stall owner 250 neopoints, Rarity watched as he tossed the poor little mootix (a green 'petpetpet' with two antennae, a body of wide yellow-and-green stripes, and four yellow appendages) into the air. She had also immediately noted the two books on the left legs of the table with the Bagatelle stand; obviously, the game was rigged.

Well, two can play at this game. As the mootix entered the bean machine, Rarity used her telekinesis to influence its movements. She didn't know whether or not neopets can see unicorn magic in action, so while she did that, she also took out a pocket mirror and checked herself out. The petpetpet eventually landed on Slot 12; getting the jackpot on the go would look very suspicious. Her prize… Bagatelle Coloured Pencils.

Oh well. At least Sweetie Belle and I could use these.





"…and it's because of that we no longer go Apple Bobbing," Vaniray finished.

"I see," replied Tychophon.

"Well, I'll be headed back to Faerieland now." The flotsam began to 'swim' away, hovering in midair thanks to a little inherent Neopet magic.

"Say hello to Irishmae, Perlipy, and Mhargaux for us!"

"I will!"

Once the flotsam was gone, he turned to face Aquanax and said, "Well, let's see how the others are doing. I'm glad we started the tour early, but I'd like us to be out of the woods before noon."

The acara's face blanched at this as she argued, "And into the Lost Desert?! Hot climate plus noon time equals bad idea! At least our User has a protective system that protects us from the elements, allows us to go underwater without that potion or pendant the Black Pawkeet's crew use!" 

The two of them started walking toward the Wheel of Misfortune. "Come on. We also know that Lucky Coin plot. Those three weren't fit for adventuring, yet—"

"Barely, maybe. But we don't know just how well ponies can endure the desert. Sure, there's such a region in Equestria, but have they been there?"

"Why don't we ask the—" The shoyru cut himself short as he and Aquanax saw Pinkie letting off the ocular gushers. A pile of sludge sat next to her. "Oh no." The two of them immediately flew over to the crying pony.

"Pinkie, what's wrong? What did you lose?"

"I thought my hammerspace was the safest place in the universe to hold my things!" she answered between sobs before returning to full-blown crying. "I was wrong! And now, my party cannon's gone!"

The two yellow neopets faced one another in confusion. "Party cannon?"

"I never leave home without it!"

"Oh dear." It was the shoyru's turn to blanch. "I'm not sure if there's anything we can do to replace it. I mean—"

Pinkie then surprised the by doing an emotional one-eighty. "It's okay! I got backups! And I can always order a new one." She then went sad again, but thankfully not to the level of crying again. "But they're all back in Equestria. I'll have to do more work if I'm to throw a party in this unfamiliar land."

"What did you do?!"

The two neopets turned to see the rest of the tour party returning (not together yet). The first was Rainbow Dash and Applejack, one of them carrying a Baby Fireball Lamp (which the neopets were jealous of her for), and the other a commemorative mug. Euryflavia was following them, and looking as if she was restraining herself from bursting into joy, for wht reason they didn't know. It was the pegasus who asked the question.

"Well, Pinkie tried out the Wheel of Misfortune, and got one of her items turned into sludge," explained the acara. "Unfortunately, that poor item was her 'party cannon'. It's our fault for not warning her that even hammerspace is not a completely safe place to keep your things in Neopia."

"Our User has lost plenty of items over the years to this wheel, as well as a few other unscrupulous figures," confessed Tychophon. "Thankfully, he's learned to put a lot of junk in his inventory and store his important stuff into his safety deposit box."

Rarity soon followed, along with Roktabio. Next was Fluttershy, with Messerole behind her…carrying lots of food, half of them Achyfi™ cans. This completely boggled the ones gathered so far.

"I know, right?" the grundo grunted as he tried to keep the pile steady. "She must be insanely lucky to have knocked down prizes with every shot, even when they veer off to the side. Now I understand how Wallace feels when he tries to balance his pile of junk."

"Wallace?" parroted Rarity. "Who's he?"

"He's a character in a video game called Wicked Wocky Wobble. You do have video games in Equestria, right?"

"We have arcade cabinets. One colt I know named Button Mash plays them a lot."

"That counts. Any—whoops, no handhelds. You don't even have hands."

And then Twilight was the last to arrive, looking annoyed. With her are a sack of bits…and a Wailing Evil Coconut. It would've earned her envious looks from the neopets were it not for what the coconut said.

"Good night! Good night!" it said.

The neopets recognized it. "mr.coconut?!" the five gasped as the unicorn dropped it and it landed on the ground.

"Good night!" it said again, seemingly unfazed by the fact that it was dropped.

"It's him, all right," snarked Euryflavia.

"Good night."

"You know this…uhh…coconut?" Twilight asked.

"mr. coconut. He's an editor in The Neopian Times, Neopia's most popular newspaper for the Users, don't ask how," Tychophon explained. "We should take him to Neopia Central."

"Good night, good night, good night, good night."

"What was that, mr.coconut?" Pinkie asked as she approached mr.coconut.

As it continued to reply in "good night"s, Messerole grumbled as he said, "Yeah, that's all he can say. Let's continue the tour."

Finally, the usul couldn't hold it in anymore. "Guys! Guess what! I just met Gregorio Maille!"

The grundo's eyes widened. "You're kidding!"

"Well, the green meerca we encountered did say that was his name," Rainbow confirmed.

"You lucky bastards," Aquanax said. "To have met an Altador Cup athlete in person… We usually only see them from the stands."





After checking out Castle Nox, which didn't have much do go on about, Pinkie and mr.coconut were finally finished with their "conversation" as the group exited the fairground and continued on through the Haunted Woods.

"So, what did mr.coconut say?" Roktabio wondered. "You seemed to understand him somehow."

"Oh, he said that he's in no hurry to return to Neopia Central. He also knows we're in a tour and that he'd like to stay in the tour guides' backpack for the time being."

"Okay." The korbat took hold of mr.coconut, then turned to Tychophon, who was in the lead and wearing the backpack, and prepared to throw. "Hey, Tych! Catch!"

"Don't treat mr.coconut ike that!" called back the shoyru. "Bring him here!"

The red neopet did as told and eventually the internally-on-fire fruit was inside the backpack. It still boggled Twilight's mind as to how it worked, stuffing mr.coconut inside a bag smaller than him.

"Now that Pinkie Pie's incessant conversation with mr.coconut is over, let me tell you where we're going next; we're headed to a quaint little town called Neovia."


The group soon found themselves at a gypsy camp. The heat of the fire crackled along merrily to the clinking of the tambourine one gypsy was clutching in her paw. She was singing along with another gypsy to what was presumably an old Haunted Woods tale. Here they rested, and the four tour guides decided to tell a story, the gypsies helping by playing music and doing other parlor tricks to create effects. Throughout the storytelling, the group ate the food Fluttershy had won, although the neopets made sure the ponies didn't get anything with 'prawn' in the name.

"Before we enter Neovia, I'd like to tell a story about it," Euryflavia began as she tossed a snack into her mouth and munched it. "It all started long ago, beginning with an ordinary family of five. The eldest son, Bruno, was painfully shy and had an eye for one beautiful girl. Unfortunately, he had a weak constitution, and lacked anything that would make a surprise turnabout." She glanced and raised her eyebrows at Fluttershy. "And then one night, he encountered a stranger, who offered a elixir in exchange for—"

"His soul?" guessed Pinkie.

"Someone dear to him?" Rarity.

"Eternal servitude?" Fluttershy.

"No. Just a handful of neopoints." 

"Seriously?" asked Applejack.

"Yes. That night, Bruno took the elixir, and the next day, he became handsome, strong, and confident. He told his father Edmund about it, who was predictablyskeptical. However, his business had begun failing over the years. He soon encountered the stranger, and—with nothing to lose—took the elixir. He achieved financial prosperity as a result, and word soon spread. Soon, everybody wanted the potion, and the stranger was all too generous. All of the consumers of the elixir had their dreams fulfilled. But…"

"Let me guess," Rainbow put in. "It was then that the elixir began its horrible side effects, right?"

"Wow, that was rather savvy of you," commented Messerole.

"I read a similar case in a Daring Do book once."

"Oh."

"You'd be spot-on there, Rainbow Dash," agreed Euryflavia. "Edmund became paranoid and miserly, Bruno turned into a hulking monstrosity, and his brother Reginald became too smart for anybody to follow his conversations anymore and he had to take lonely refuge among his books." Everypony glanced at Twilight, who cringed (possibly) at the fact that she might've gone down that path were it not for her friends, and even today she still skirted that path a bit. "The other townspeople underwent similar changes, their greed and ambitions turning them into far worse neopets than they ever thought they could be."

"Naturally, they placed blame on the stranger who gave them the potion, but he had disappeared," Tychophon continued. "Desperate for a scapegoat, they pinned the blame on Edmund and his family, since they had advertized the elixir. Only Sophie, the youngest of the family, hadn't taken the potion and Bruno told Reginald to take her into the Haunted Woods for refuge until the danger passed while he himself distracted the angry mob.

"In the woods, the two ran into Ilere, an earth faerie feared in Neovia. She wasn't too nice a fellow, but she offered to take in Sophie. With no other choice, Reginald accepted. Meanwhile, the mob had cornered Bruno, who was forced to flee into the woods. As they followed, Reginald returned, and led his parents to an abandoned mansion that had numerous secret hiding places. When the mob returned to town after losing Bruno, they started turning on one another until their mayor, Thumburt, brought them to stop. He proposed that they summon the Spirit of Slumber to cure them of their curse, who agreed to do so, but at the price of turning them into ghosts, not Ghost Color as that didn't exist at the time, and haunt their town every Halloween night."

"We skip ten years later to a little usul girl named Gilly, who recently escaped a haunted mansion we passed earlier in this tour of ours and found herself in this very camp, where she was told this very tale we covered just now," Aquanax took over. "After spending a night there, she headed off that way…" She pointed a paw at a creepy path leading away from the camp and into some glowing town lights in the distance. "At that time, Neovia was a ruin. There, she found a strange locket. Hoping to find answers about it, she eventually made her way to the shack of a swamp witch, who happens to be Sophie, all grown up. The Witch seemed to recognize the locket, and grew angry, forcing Gilly out of her shack. 

"The poor usul was forced to take refuge in a cave for the night. There, she found a horrible monster, and managed to knock him out for a while before having to flee back to Sophie with the monster in tow. Sophie answered the door, only to recognize the monster as Bruno, her brother. It turns out that Bruno had lost the mob ten years ago by taking refuge in a cave, the very one Gilly went in, and stayed there ever since."

"Until Gilly found him, right?" said Applejack.

"Mm-hmm. As for Sophie, Ilere merely gave her some basic magic ingredients for survival before vanishing, putting her on the path of witchcraft. Cold, I know. A few days after Ilere had left, Sophie kept returning to Neovia, puzzled that the town had become abandoned. Until Halloween night, where she saw the ghosts. Since then, she had been at hard work on a cure, but without much success. Then Gilly stepped in and mentioned the story we told you before the 'time skip'. With that, Sophie figured Ilere would have an idea and she and Bruno set off, Gilly tagging along."

"It was a long journey, but they eventually found Ilere's place. She wasn't particularly helpful and unfortunately knew little, suggesting they ask the older denizens of the forest. She also hoped they would fail for their sakes. Gilly suggested the Brain Tree, but Sophie had a bad experience with him, blasted the usul for it, and was called out on by her brother. When they asked the Brain Tree, he said he'll only tell them the Spirit of Slumber's real name when they tell him when he died. Gilly then suggested the Esophagor, who told them to tell him his real name before he tells them when he died."

"That's hardly fair!" complained Pinkie. "They need the name to know when he died, but then need to find out when he died to know the name!"

"I know, right?" agreed Messerole as he decided to take over storytelling for his User-mate. "Because of that, Sophie suggested that she may be able to find his name if they had access to his bones. Unfortunately, that meant digging up every single grave in the Haunted Woods until they found him." This unnerved the ponies; gravedigging was a very disrespectful act. "To save time, they went to the graveyard caretaker to ask for his record, but they had been stolen. A few neopets, which grew into an small army over time, decided to help them find it. They eventually did, and after the caretaker successfully sorted them out, Sophie's band got to work.

"Some went grave digging, some went to Sophie's Shack for ingredients, and others went 'bone testing'. Eventually, the bone was found. Unfortunately, the gravestone was broken. And so they had to go through the caretaker's records to find the name. However, due to the grave digging, and the fact that Sophie stole the books, not only were the more eerie denizens of the woods disturbed, the caretaker was particularly angry. Eventually, they found the name: Jubart Igig."

Euryflavia pitched in, seeing the grundo run out of breath. "I have to tell you that throughout the entire ordeal, this 'army''s size fluctuated. Some gave up, and others joined in their place. Not really a faithful bunch to be honest, but that's the thing with volunteers who are User-bound Neopets. With so many taking part, the bystander effect often takes place.

"Continuing, Sophie found a potion to summon the Spirit of Slumber, but it involved a potion that would make its drinker the spirit's vessel. Gilly was too small and weak to house the spirit, Sophie needed to work the magic, and the rest of the band were naturally hesitant to volunteer. Bruno decided to do it, in spite of Sophie's inital protest. Soon, the potion was made, imbibed, and the spirit was called upon to reverse his spell on Neovia. The band went to the town and the Spirit did as he was told before leaving. Unfortunately…"

"The elixir's curse!" realized Twilight. "He didn't, or couldn't, remove it!"

"All too right," sighed Tychophon. "Upon seeing her family mutate before her eyes, Sophie screamed in fright and fled, a small fraction of the band following her. The mayor ordered the townspeople to attack the army, some who fought back for their survival, and others who fled for their lives. Amidst the chaos, Bruno caught sight of the stranger who sold the elixir and instructed Gilly to chase after him. Another portion of the band accompanied her, and good thing too since they had to then fight off animated gravestones and attacking trees. 

Eventually, Gilly's band found themselves at the abandoned Meepit Oaks Sanitorium on the outskirts of town, which the stranger, whose name is revealed to be Krawley, had led them to for a reason. Zombies began to corner the band, and they were forced inside. In there, Gilly uncovered the story of Lucy, a nurse who was left with only the janitor Miles, Dr. Valus, and a mysterious Dr. Alexander (which turned out to be an alias of Krawley's) when the other doctors disappeared. Alexander soon followed suit, leaving Lucy with a mysterious flower, before both she and Miles met grisly ends at the hands of the former inmates. Gilly found Lucy's body, and the still thriving flower, before returning to Neovia." The shoyru took a deep breath.

Aquanax subbed for her now-tired User-mate. "Back in town, things were looking bleak and Bruno had to take refuge in a cellar while his band was steadily pushed back. Erstwhile, Sophie had made it back to her shack, shock with what she had done, but quickly recomposed herself and started mixing up potions in hopes of making a cure. The band that followed her assisted in gathering ingredients and mixing them. Eventually, she completed a potion and was on her way back to Neovia when she and her party bumped into Gilly's. Turns out, the flower found was the last ingredient."

"Sophie planned on putting the potion in the town's water supply, but found her path barred by the mutated Mayor Thumburt, who was adamant in stopping her. After all, 'What if it doesn't work?' he said. The amassed army rushed him, and while many of them suffered grievous but survivable injuries, the mayor was eventually defeated. Sophie poured the potion into the well, then she, Bruno, Gilly, and their band left the town, its residents restless. The next day, the trio, and some of the band since the rest went home. The next day, it's revealed that the cure has worked. Sophie urged her brother to drink from the well's water as well, but…"

"It didn't work?" Fluttershy finished.

"Yes. Regardless, he was accepted back into the family. Sophie however had too many bad memories of the town and to this day continues to live in her shack. That ends our tale."

A few minutes of non-speaking ensued before the gypsies stopped their music and effects. Once the music stopped, Pinkie spoke up. "That is an interesting story, but…how do you know all this? You narrated it all as if you were there, but you explicitly said you weren't."

"We have very strong 'memory recall'. Our User told us all about it. From what he can confide, the High Users called the TNT Staff are able to record these events and tell them to our User. It's a very complicated process to explain. And we still have a tour to conduct."





"You know, there was a 'Spooky Food Eating Contest' in Neovia last fall," Euryflavia said as they walked down the path to the town. "We missed the actual eating contest though. Good thing too since the winner of the contest turned out to be a shape-shifting monster. We and a couple of other neopets and their Users arrived just in time to be volunteered by the resident monster hunters Kell and Corbin."

"We heard there were free paint brushes, the magical sort," Tychophon grumbled. "We'll explain another time. At first, while Corbin went to locate the monster, we were asked by Kell to perform an experiment involving rare flowers that make magical music when the wind blows into them. Unfortunately, the melody for inducing sleep comes in thousands of parts, and even one of those is enough to send us to dreamland. With the monster on the loose, it was a good thing there were so many volunteers.

"After decoding the music though, Corbin reported back to say that he had tracked the monster back to its lair, a crypt on the outskirts of Neovia. On the suggestion of the contest's judge, we went to see a local eccentric inventor named Baffington, who told us that the crypts were actually vaults constructed by an exiled family of dark magic users long before Neovia was founded."

"The place was filled with traps and curses, made more powerful by a confluence of leylines in the area," Aquanax supplied. "We all went down there, the four of us and our User lucky enough to accompany Corbin and Kell themselves, but unlucky enough to keep getting the brunt of the curses aimed at us.

"Curses weren't the only things we had to worry about though. There were giant dragons, gelatinous "non-cubes", sarcastic skeletons, ghosts, exploring kids, a rival monster hunting group, tourists, and mostly cultists of all kinds." 

"Hold on a minute!" Applejack interrupted. "Tourists in the crypts?"

"Yes. I told you we neopets are weird. We obtained all sorts of prizes thankfully, though most of it went to Kell and Corbin for them to sell. Monster hunting isn't a particularly profitable job."

"Eventually, thanks to our combined efforts, we managed to corner, subdue, and capture the monster with the magical music we decoded earlier. With the monster under lock and key, the monster hunters took it away while the contest's judge handed out prizes for our efforts.

"Today, Users' neopets dispatch their petpets in those catacombs to find more treasure as they are immune to the curses we had to endure. Thankfully, new Faerie magic makes sure that petpets do return, so no need to worry."


Finally, the group reached the town of Neovia, and it was another sight to behold. It was a complex and mysterious town, and with the fog that seemed to be eternal according to the neopets, combined with the lights that make a mediocre effort in piercing through, it looked ghostly too. In spite of the 'horror story' earlier, the ponies sensed an enchanting sort of feeling in the air.

The party of eleven passed the gate, entered the cobblestone streets, and took in the marvels Neovia had to offer amidst the chattering crowd, plenty of them anthro neopets. "You know, for some reason, I feel like both at home and creeped out by this," Rarity remarked. "Your story certainly did not help."

"Yeah, sorry," apologized Euryflavia as she rubbed the back of her head. "Well, this is what Neovia looks like with the curse gone."

A nearby gelert—a canine neopet with long bendy ears and tail to set it apart from lupes—petted a passing group of rodent petpets called meepits, which were all rushing along to the Sanitorium in the distance. Their wide eyes and the way they stared put all but one on edge, but what alarmed them most was that Fluttershy was the exception, who called them cute.

"Something seems off about these meepits," said Pinkie. "I can feel it in every bone in my body."

"You too, huh?" said Roktabio. "It's a common rumor that they're…" He approached her ear and whispered, "Taking over the world. But that's just silly." He waved off the idea. "As is the idea of a world made of j—"

Tychophon instantly clamped his yap shut. "Shh! Not yet! That's our final destination!" The korbat nodded and spoke no more. "Anyway, our first stop is the Almost Abandoned Attic."

"Almost?" asked the pink earth pony.

"That's because there is stil one resident inside. Though like with most denizens of these woods, she might give you a fright."





The party of eleven walked up the stairs of the unmarked house, eventually entering the attic. It was naturlly dusty, but the chandelier above gave off a bluish glow. There were a couple of other neopets milling about.

"Just why is this old attic a tour stop?" Rainbow asked, obviously bored.

"That's because this place is actually a…" Messerole paused to look for an Equestria-appropriate word. "…yard sale of sorts. And these other neopets are customers."

"And the resident of this attic is the owner of all this junk?"

"Yes." He then caught sight of something. "Why, there she is now."

A short distance away was an anthro Ghost aisha. Well, she's actually a 'real' ghost, as in the undead sort, but the neopets didn't tell the ponies that. She still gave the six equines the chills (in varying levels) regardless. She was currently finishing a transaction with a white lenny, who thanked her and went on his way, item carried in his wings as he left.

The ghost then took notice of the very colorful band, and floated over. "Welcome! I am very happy to have more visitors. No one ever comes to visit me anymore, aside from these neopets." She gestured to the other 'shoppers'. "I wish someone who wasn't a ghost would help me clean up a bit, but I guess that is too much to ask." Aquanax shushed the ponies from speaking up; volunteering to clean up counts as "interfering in local affairs". Besides, the High Users have a hand in keeping this attic full of items. "Let me know if there is anything you want in the attic as I am the only one that still lives here and I can't really use any of it."

"She's gonna want neopoints in exchange for all these," the Yellow grundo explained. "Even ghosts have needs here in Neopia. So please choose your souvenirs wisely before buying. Some items here are more expensive than the ones in the 'User' shops like ours, the one Roktabio tends to."





In the end, the ponies didn't find anything interesting (or affordable) as souvenirs and left the attic.

"All right, ponies. Our next stop is across the street from the clock tower."

Ahead was a building with an iron post near it. The sign that swung there read "Prigpants and Swolthy, Tailors". Thanks to reading the Language Textbook, Rarity was able to read it and was trotting merrily. When Euryflavia asked about this, Twilight explained that as a fashion designer, Rarity's been ecstatic on discovering new fashion trends, and she wants to know all about Neopia's.

As they crossed the scarlet door of the store, they saw an ogrin mother shuffle her son out of the way of the door. Curiously, the son wasn't an ogrin as well, but an…usul?

"Adoption," Tychophon explained away. They were not ready to know the truth of interspecies romance.

A large Purple anthro meerca, Swolthy, was sizing a customer, and a rather dapper looking Yellow lenny, Prigpants, walked over to the group and showed them a wonderfully made blue dress. It was made for a non-anthro uni to wear, and so would make a loose fit for the ponies.

"I say, we've only the finest garments here at Prigpants & Swolthy," he greeted. "Dinner party? Charity function? Funeral? You'll look so dashing, even the dead will take notice." The ponies seemed to be creeped out a bit at this statement.

"Remember, they're near the Haunted Woods," reminded Aquanax before addressing the shopkeeper. "Sorry, we're just window-shopping. Although we do have somebody who's in the same business as you are." She allowed Rarity to approach them.

"You don't say? We've been looking for new trends that still fit our theme."

"Well, I'm also on the search for unique trends and I'm hoping Neopia has a lot to offer."

Roktabio was quick to explain, "In case you haven't heard, there are some foreigners from another world who are taking a tour of Neopia. These non-unis are those foreigners." This elicited a small amount of surprise from the two.





Things went surprisingly smoothly after that, though the Neopets were bored to death to try and remember what happened. Basically, in exchange for what Prigpants and Swolthy had to offer, Rarity told them about the trends she set back in Equestria at the high class city of Canterlot. Rarity then purchased the uni-sized dress and put it in her "magicspace", which is the name for unicorn hammerspace.

Once that was done, the group walked out of the store, and made their way to their next stop; the Neovian Printing Press. The slight smell of ink snaked its way through the slightly ajar door, and they walk in to see—

"Okay. Guess I stand corrected," Aquanax said. "Pteris can be anthros too."

The shopkeeper was a Green anthro pteri in a simple denim blue dress, and with brown hair tied into a bun. A tad puzzling as she was an avian neopet, but Messerole did say that neopets are weird. She was just sliding down a bookshelf on her moving ladder, with a red book in her wing, when she noticed the newcomers and let out a soft gasp. "Could those be…" Her eyes squinted as she looked at each of the ponies inside her store, then widened as well as her beak. "I don't believe it! The Delegates from Equestria!"

The four yellow neopets had no idea how to handle this predicament. "Oh, dung."

"I've heard rumors from reporters in the Faerieland Gazette about you! They've been trying to get an interview, but the Royal Guards have been keeping them away! And now, Neovia is going to get first dibs!"

"Umm, miss?" Euryflavia spoke up. "I'm sorry to say this, but we're currently conducting a tour of Neopia for them. Haunted Woods is just our second stop. I don't think getting interviews would—"

"I see. Where are you headed next?"

"The Lost Desert. Why?"

"May I spend a few minutes with you? I'd like to know a bit about this tour for the local paper."





In exchange for sparing some time to talk about the tour-in-progress, the eleven were given Lost Desert Travel Brochures, free of charge. The newspapers were the disappear-after-reading type of books, which irked Twilight somewhat.

The group soon reached their next stop; Chesterdrawers’ Antiques. As they walked underneath the store's blue awning and entered the glowing room, they caught sight of a strange bipedal being. It was able to be descried but for some reason they couldn't. It was just finished haggling with a red anthro Techo (presumably the shopkeeper) and was lifting a bookcase with the help of a Purple chia.

As the duo passed them, Fluttershy asked, "What was that?"

"That, Fluttershy, is a User," Tychophon answered. "Their avatars, anyway."

Before anypony could ask more about them, the shopkeeper glided over to them. "Greetings! I'm Alabaster Chesterdrawers, and I can guarantee you won't find any finer antiques than right here at Chesterdrawers' Antiques!"

"Sorry, but we're just giving a tour to some friends of ours," apologized the shoyru, preventing any of the ponies from answering. "Although we'll probably browse for a while."

"I see. That's a shame."


As promised, the group stuck around for a bit. Twilight was checking out a cauldron, Rarity was looking at a mirror while brushing her mane, Euryflavia was doing likewise (though she did not have a mane to brush), Rainbow was making funny faces at another, Applejack, Aquanax, and Fluttershy were checking out the portraits, and the only males in the tour party were checking out the other furniture. 

As for Pinkie Pie, she was tinkering curiously at a bobble-head toy some neopet had left behind when something caught her nose. It was the scent of sweets and bread, and it was making her drool. She began walking out of the store, and Euryflavia noticed her from the mirror. She quickly hurried over before she could leave.

"Hey, Pinkie. Where're you going?" the usul asked.

"Oh, that heavenly smell it's calling for me. It's better than the ones in Sugarcube Corner, and that's saying something."

"Sugarcube Corner?"

"The bakery I work in."

Euryflavia turned to the group. "Tych, I suggest The Crumpetmonger be the next stop if it isn't already. I think Pinkie Pie's getting enamored from the food coming from there."

"All right."

"She can smell it all the way from here?" Aquanax asked as she turned away from a Framed Alice Photo. "I'm pretty sure I would've picked it up earlier."

"Just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie," Twilight waved off.

The acara raised an eyebrow. "What kind of saying is that?"

"She does plenty of strange things all the time. I learned the hard way not to question it."

"Okay," Tychophon agreed. "I guess we spent a little too much time here anyway." He turned to their shopkeeper korbat. "Roktabio, could you take them to the Crumpetmonger for us? I just remembered we have something to fetch here."

"All right."

"Where are you going?" asked Twilight has he, Euryflavia, Messerole, and Aquanax ran out of the store.

"We visited Neovia two days ago and…dispatched our petpets into the catacombs we mentioned earlier. We were about to go fetch them until Princess Luna's visit back in Faerieland. And then we were so caught up with meeting you guys we forgot. We'll be back very soon!"





A red awning with a cupcake over it marked the bakery Pinkie was being lured to. The wonderful aroma of sweets and bread wafts the open window of the shop, stronger now since they were closer, and it enamored all of the ponies. The store owner—an plump Yellow meerca with a white pompadour on her head, a mole under her right eye, a rolling pin curled in her tail—was busy kneading large amount of dough while in her hands while customers inside and outside were chowing down.

"Fresh pastries!" she was yelling. "Get yer pastries while they're hot! No, I meant it… buy summat 'fore I eat it meself!"

"This is the Crumpetmonger," the Red korbat said as they walked through the door inside. "The best and only bakery in Neovia. The food's apparently so good the old meerca can hardly resist her own creations."

"Yeah, I know that feeling," said Pinkie. "One time, the Cakes got mad at me when I ate the cake they, me, and our competitors made together. And I did it in front of the Princess too."

"Cakes? You ponies sure have strange names."

"Speak for yourself," retorted Rainbow. "Your names are such tongue twisters."

"You'll have to blame the Users for that. User-bound neopets have a very strong limit on names to avoid same-name scenarios. nightelf_37 was adamant not to have numbers and underscores, and since all the common names have been taken, he had to resort to such a thing. He's been into these names ever since. At least that's what Tychophon tells me."

"Ahem!" The Crumpetmonger was now next to them, looking a little cross and her paws in an akimbo position. "Are you girls gonna order?"

"Sorry, ma'am. We're new here at Neovia, and my friends here are strict vegetarians, so what do you recommend? "

"I recommend the Linzer Tortes. And maybe the Negg Pies. Oh, don't worry. Neggs are just egg-shaped fruits and are not real eggs."





Despite having eaten already during the retelling of the "Tale of Woe", the group took another snack, although Roktabio warned them not to eat too much; all their next stops had other foods for them to try. They were on their way to the gates of Neovia when suddenly…

"Hey there! Haven't seen the likes of you around these parts!"

The group turned to see a Green anthro gnorbu with a suit, cane, and hat standing next to what seems to be…

"An apple bobbin' tub?" said Applejack.

Indeed there was, and there were a couple of neopets and users who were playing the game, and a few of them acquiring not just apples (or all sorts), but other apple-related products.

"Got a hankering for apples?" he said as one player fished out…an orange with an apple sticker on it. "Have I got the barrel for you! That's right, step up and get bobbing with Apple Bobbing Bart — yours truly. I reckon you might even rustle up something marvellous… If you don't mind getting a little wet, you can bob for one of its magnificent prizes! In addition to a huge array of apples, my tank also offers a wide variety of other spooky delights. Give it a shot!"

The ponies turned to one another, then to Roktabio, who shrugged his shoulders. "Can't hurt to try it. Accidents can happen however. Nothing out of the ordinary from conventional apple bobbing."

"I heard from the pteri gal in the Printing Press that you're not from around here, if you know what I mean. Normally, I only allow one User a day whether or not they have one to four neopets, but given your tour, I'll let you all have one chance to grab a prize!"





Tychophon, Aquanax, Messerole, and Euryflavia were on their way back to Neovia proper from the catacomb entrance they narrated about earlier and have been to a long time ago, their petpets accompanying them and carrying the treasures they found.

The shoyru's petpet, whom he called Cathaidana, was a carmariller, a butterfly-like petpet with a bipedal body, large downturned ears, and a long (for her size) tail. She had found a cello, which her master was carrying in her stead.

Ercole, Euryflavia's mazzew, was a mouse-like purple petpet that stood on twos and whose tail had two small fins. He was carrying a banjo. The body anyway, with his owner holding up the neck.

Messerole's petpet, Mettaur, was a Navibot, a robot petpet with a red helmet/armor plating, an obscured black body underneath it, a yellow square mouth, small two-toed feet, and smaller claws coming from the top of them. Balanced on its head as it walked was a Healing Potion XIX, which is more potent than the XII Euryflavia ordered back at Faerieland.

The fourth one, who belonged to Aquanax, was an N-4 Info Retrieval Bot named Aleksander. It was a small blue machine with a telescope-like body, a yellow eye in place of the lens, and two spindly legs with proportionately sizable feet. It was lifting a black doctor's bag on its head, the handle of which was being lifted by its acara owner by the mouth. The doctor's bag contained three random medicines, but it hasn't been opened. 

Normally, only one petpet per User is allowed at a time into the catacombs, but with him gone for the time being, the Neopets decided on 'dispatching' all of their petpets for extra safety to each other. All four petpets has been covered in cobwebs and slime from their adventure, and despite their owners' best efforts in cleaning them, are still a bit dirty. 

As the little group returned to Neovia to fetch the delegates, they caught sight of them at Bart's Apple Bobbing stall. Each of the ponies had acquired prizes. Applejack got an Apple Apple (which was an apple decorated with an apple pattern), Pinkie Pie got an Unconverted Apple, Rainbow Dash got a Hot Apple Cider (which she was both enthusiastic and confused to get), Twilight Sparkle got a Digital Apple (which completely weirded her out), and Fluttershy obtained a Red Korbat Plushie, which was in Roktabio's likeness.

The cider and plushie came in special packages that rendered them in a safe stasis form until pulled out of the tub. When Bart was asked how that was possible, he said he's sooner eat his hat than tell. It was Rarity's turn, and while hesitant, she eventually relented and submerged her head. Upon surfacing, everybody, including Bart, gaped at what she got; a replica of his hat.

"How'd that get — I mean, bully for you!" the gnorbu congratulated. "I'll just put that in your inventory for you. Wouldn't want it to get stolen, after all. Downright saddening, that would be. I might even shed a tear." 

"Allow me." Rarity made the hat disappear, sending it into her magicspace.

Bart did not react from this. "So how about that? I reckon your apple bobbing skills have no match." 


By this point, the tour guides have reached the delegates and Roktabio. "I see you went Apple Bobbing," commented Tychophon. "Our User goes here everyday, you know."

Before he could say any more, Fluttershy and Rarity gasped upon seeing their tour guides and their petpets, the latter on seeing how filthy they were. This caught the attention of the others, except for Rainbow who was just as finishing her cider (she would later comment that the Apple Family cider is way better). Pinkie was already gushing on how cute Cathaidana and Ercole were, Twilight's curiosity was sparked on seeing Aleksander and Mettaur, and Applejack was confused at the sight of the two robotic petpets.

"Oh my stars!" the white unicorn gasped. "Just where have these been?! They really need a bath."

"A simple cleaning for mine and Aqua's," Messerole said. "They're not really waterproof." he picked up his petpet and flipped it over, revealing its black body. "Especially here." He indicated the bottom before setting Mettaur right-side up again. "Hey, I just realized something! We're done with the Haunted Woods!"

"All right! That means our next stop is the Lost Desert!" announced the shoyru, then made a remark to the ponies. "And don't ask about the name."

"I plan on heading back to the shop once we reach Neopia Central," said Roktabio.

"Neopia Central's the other way, you know," pointed out Euryflavia.

"Oh, right. See ya!" With that, the korbat took to the sky and flew away. 


"Will he be all right?" Pinkie asked.

"No need to worry," assured Messerole. "He goes to the Battledome occasionally, so he's a sufficient fighter, just like us."





Later…

The group took another long walk, across the more dangerous parts of the Haunted Woods, which would eventually lead to the Lost Desert. Not many neopets traverse in the fashion they are doing right now—those with wings opting to fly over—and would rather travel with their Users, who are capable of teleportation and being iin multiple places at once using methods involving "browsers".

Cathaidana flew beside her master, Aleksander was offered Twilight's back to sit on, Mettaur was cradled in Messerole's arms, and Ercole walked beside his owner.

It occurred to Tychophon that he could just use the User Teleporter their User left behind, but he wasn't completely sure if their minds could comprehend its range. Twilight told them about her teleportation spell, but the range of their User's is much greater than even Princess Celestia's.

Rarity was insisting on cleaning up their petpets, but Euryflavia asked she put that on hold until they reach their next destination. "They're bound to get dirty again real fast in here," she added.


Amidst the gnarled branches, quicksand pits, creepy eyes, meepits, spyders, and pocket-hunting petpets called ghostkerchiefs, the group trudged on. They did their best not to show it, but the neopets could see that some of them were reaching their breaking point. I hope we reach the edge soon.

Finally, upon seeing light, Fluttershy was the first to zoom ahead to the neopets' surprise. "I'm guessing she has her limits," sighed the acara as she and the rest of the group followed.

"Maybe it's for the best," said Euryflavia before they finally caught up and left the forest's bounds. After recovering from the blinding light of the sun, the ponies gaped with Fluttershy at what they saw. 

The party of ten (not counting the petpets) stood at a vast plain, its grass quickly ending as it left the woods and became sand dunes. "I hope your fur coats can protect from sunburn, girls. We're about to enter the Lost Desert," Tychophon said.
> Qasala and Sakhmet
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The third stop for the Equestrians' tour of Neopia was the Lost Desert. Luckily for the tour group, they didn't need to walk far and encountered a single caravan on the way that was willing to take them to Qasala, which was where nightelf_37's neopets planned to take the delegates. 

The caravan drivers consisted of a bruce (feathered neopet with two large flat feet, a pair of stubby wings, no tail, a smartly tied ribbon around their neck, and 75 centimeters tall), and a kyrii (furry bipedal neopet with large pointed ears, a long mane that stretches down to its tail, a naturally wide mouth and 30 centimeters tall), with a pair of Desert(-colored) unis (120 cm-tall alicorn neopets with horns colored—unlike Equestrian unicorn ponies—differently from their coat colors) pulling the entire vehicle. It wasn't awkward for the ponies; they had been in horse-pulled carriages before.

It was also decided that the neopets told the delegates of how the Lost Desert was discovered, but not before using their hammerspace to 'put away' their petpets, and assuring that it was safe for them.

"It may sound strange, but the story begins at the third Annual Neopian Cheat! Championships in Neopia Central," Tychophon began. "In case card games don't exist in Equestria, Cheat is—"

"I'm familiar with the rules," Twilight Sparkle interrupted. "Cheat is a card game where the players aim to get rid of all of their cards. Players would set a number of face-down cards and make a claim as to what those cards are. The player must call either the same rank as the previous player, or one rank above or below. This claim may be a lie, and may have to be one if the player has no cards of the required ranks.

"Once a player has made a claim, every other player has until the next player starts their turn to call "cheat", if they think the player's claim was a lie. The game then pauses as the pile is checked. If the player lied, then they take the entire pile and play continues starting with the claimer. If the player didn't lie though, it's the claimer who takes the pile. The first to run out of cards is the winner."

The four yellow neopets weren't exactly surprised that something like card games existed in Equestria, but for a race that lacked hands to develop such… No, stop thinking about it. "…Thank you for summing that up for the rest of us," the shoyru said.

"You're welcome, Tychophon. Although in Equestria, we don't have tournaments for card games, let alone one that revolves on bluffing."

"I see."

Messerole then decided to continue the story. "Moving on. In this tournament, a Green bruce named Brucey B…" He gestured to the avian driver as an example. "…was on a winning streak thanks to a 'lucky coin'." He made air quotes to emphasize this. "He managed to sweep the competition, and won the finals, earning himself a trophy and 250,000 Neopoints. Unbeknownst to him, somebody was watching, paying particular attention to his lucky coin.

"Upon returning home, Brucey found a letter waiting for him, signed by someone who identified themselves as R.S.. The letter invited him to a private game of Cheat! with a minimum buy-in of 100,000 Neopoints. Despite his friend Capara, who is a kyrii—" The grundo gestured to the other caravan driver. "—and a fellow Cheat! player, advising him not to, Brucey decided he would attend the game."

"That's not gonna end well," remarked Twilight.

"Indeed it didn't," confirmed Aquanax. "But not in the way you think. The prospect of a game was legit, but it turns out that R.S. cheated, as in played unfairly. Since Brucey foolishly entered with his prize money as his buy-in, he lost everything, including his 'lucky coin' after R.S. goaded him to wagering it. And then he was kicked out.

"Brucey was heartbroken from this loss, and his two friends went and consoled him, Capara and…" the acara gave a dreamy sigh. "…Princess Fernypoo."

"Princess Fernypoo?" Rainbow Dash parroted. "What a ridiculous name."

In an instant, the acara's eyes flashed red, a trait common to her species, and her face turned into a frown. "Don't you dare insult her!" This shocked the pegasus for only a split second.

"Pardon Aquanax's outburst, but Princess Fernypoo is a role model for many User-bound acaras," said Euryflavia as her User-mate shortly calmed down. "Even though she's a bit of a spoiled brat with a wicked temper and a top Cheat! player." She took out a book from their User's (Tychophon's) bag, which was titled the Neopedia, and sifted through its pages until she reached Princess Fernypoo's article and placed a bookmark on it. "Here's a page on her you can look up later. Anyway, Capara and Fernypoo convinced Brucey that they'll help him recover his 'lucky coin'."

None of the ponies commented on their dedication to what seemed to be a ridiculous endeavor; after all, friends are supposed to be there for each other in times of need, no matter what.

"They started their search by asking Kauvara, the Magic Shopkeeper in Neopia Central. She also happens to be a challenger in the Battledome. Unfortunately for the group, Kauvara did not know much and instead advised them to go see the Brain Tree. Meanwhile, miles away, it turns out that R.S. was in league with a villain named Dr. Frank Sloth, who had hired him to acquire Brucey's lucky coin for reasons we'll reveal later."

"Uh, who's this Dr. Frank Sloth?" asked Twilight.

"We don't know what he is, but he's certainly not a User or a Faerie or a neopet, and takes offense to anybody who thinks he is one. Well-versed in the arts of mad science and technology, he plans on conquering Neopia," Messerole explained. "In fact, it was he who brought my kind to Neopia, although we were a slave race back then. But thanks to the Space Faerie and the Users, he was thwarted and we were freed. But that was long before our User adopted any of us, though.

"But you don't need to worry about him. Currently, he's sealed away and floating somewhere in space, although that tale is for another time."

"Anyway, Brucey and his friends, not wanting to see the Brain Tree yet, asked around Neopia Central, but all who they asked said to ask him," continued Euryflavia as her fellow female User-mate calmed down. "And so they did. The Brain Tree told them to travel westward across the Haunted Woods, which no one had done at that time. It was an arduous journey, the area not being as less hostile as it is today. Eventually, they emerged from the forest and found themselves facing the sand dunes we faced just a while ago. At the same time, many miles ahead, Dr. Sloth and his Mutant grundo troops made their way to a giant Sphinx statue, and tried to force their way in by blasting through the entrance. However, somehow it failed to even blemish the surface."

The Equestrian delegates did not ask for an explanation; such things (at least one instance) existed in Saddle Arabia.

"Brucey and his companions did not have the privilege of a friendly caravan like we do and trekked through the desert on foot. His friends were at the verge of giving up, not having expected or even been to a desert."

"Ugh, I gotta sympathize for Princess Fernypoo," commented Rarity. "All the sand in her shoes must be a pain for her."

"But in the midst of complaining, Capara paused mid-complaint as she saw a gigantic city among the dunes. Fernypoo and Brucey stopped and saw it too. Thirsty from their trek, they raced up the last dune towards the gates of the then-lost city."

"Which of those two be that city?" asked Pinkie as she poked her head out of the shelter of the caravan.

Her friends looked out as well and saw what she was pointing at. There were two great cities made out of hardened sand and clay in sight. One was larger than the other, which in turn seemed to be nearly finished in a state of rebuilding.

Tychophon poked his head out with them and pointed to the larger city. "That one. Sakhmet."

"But we're not going there," said the Bruce driver. "We're headed to Qasala, which is the other one."

The ponies and shoyru popped back inside the caravan and the Yellow usul continued. "Once inside Sakhmet, the first thing they did was look for clues on the whereabouts of R.S.. That and buy some food. The locals soon directed Brucey to the Great Pyramid, which we won't be able to see from here, and is where the Sphinx statue is. At the same time, Dr. Sloth was losing patience from the seemingly impervious entrance and in a fit of rage tossed the coin right at the opening—"

"And it turned out to be the key?" guessed Rainbow.

"Why, yes. I'm guessing you know thanks to another 'Daring Do' book?"

"Yeah."

"Moving on. It soon turned dark, and the three unprepared adventurers managed to successfully sneak past all the Mutant grundos and just outside the Sphinx entrance. Inside, Dr. Sloth, his troops, and R.S. found a treasure trove. R.S. naturally went for the gold, but Sloth was looking for something far more valuable; a magical staff. Just as he found it, Brucey and his companions stumbled in. While they found R.S., they also immediately made a run for it at the sight of Sloth."

"Is this Dr. Sloth really that notorious?" asked Applejack.

"Yes," Aquanax answered in her User-mate's stead. "Unfortunately, Sloth's staff claimed two of them as its first victims. Capara was transformed into a Wadjet, a small snake petpet—" Twilight shuddered from hearing it. "—while poor Fernypoo was mutated into a horrible creature. Only Brucey was able to escape such a fate by running as fast as his short legs could carry him."

"All of the treasure was loaded into Dr. Sloth's vessel, and R.S. was only given a meager number of gold coins, as well as the gold ornaments he wore, as his share, and that is the last anybody heard of R.S.. With the staff and his army, Dr. Sloth made his way to Sakhmet, eager to conquer it. Brucey and his mutated friends followed haplessly in their wake, while Sloth's army began to storm Sakhmet's inner city. Their advanced technology proved too much for the locals, and Brucey soon came up with a desperate plan; recruit the locals into an army to help defend the city. Incidentally, a band of more-prepared Users and their neopets had arrived, and found themselves enlisted. As it was, a few curious Users had followed Brucey's group, and then went back and told everyone about it."

"I know it sounds wrong, but many of these Users were eager for a fight and, as I've said before, neopets are competitive in nature," Tychophon took over as the caravan neared Qasala's gates. "Miraculously, both sides suffered very few fatalities, since most of the weapons, both Neopian and Sloth's, were set on stun and neopets always ignore anybody obviously too tired to fight. I guess you can say that we all are also merciful to a degree. Were, at least, if the 'Tale of Woe' is anything to go by. And even then it's only in combat. Other…unsavory methods are still used.

"With the help of the Users and their neopets, the city residents began to turn the tide of the battle, overcoming the mutant grundos. Dr. Sloth however refused to go down without a fight, and used the magic of the staff to summon a large rock beast, tipping the scales once more. Thankfully, the army was able to destroy that as well. In the midst of the chaos, Brucey B made his way to where Dr. Sloth was watching the battle, and entered a brief scuffle with him, all in an attempt to get back his lucky coin. The staff was destroyed in the process, and its magic was completely undone, returning Capara and Fernypoo to their original forms. Defeated, Sloth escaped, vowing to return, and leaving his army behind, who were detained as prisoners of war.

"As for Brucey B and his friends, they returned to their normal lives in Neopia Central, with Brucey finding his lucky coin too. And that ends our tale."

"And this ends your ride," added the Kyrii driver. "We're finally at our stop."





The heat was oppressive, or would have been were it not for Twilight casting a cooling spell on the group. She nearly neglected Tychophon, assuming that as a dragon(-type neopet) he would be naturally resistant, but the shoyru explained to her that his kind doesn't bear as much heat-resistance as most draconic neopets (and petpets), and can't even breathe fire.

And they didn't get to walk that far before some Qasalan guards found them while the group was at Qasalan Delights, checking out the foods, particularly the Qando and Queela fruits. As it was, the guards had been looking for the delegates under orders of their rulers, King Jazan and Queen Nabile, who requested an audience with them. Or something like that. Unfortunately for the tour guides, they were not permitted to accompany them, so the four milled about in Qasala.

Soon, the delegates were finished and they met at the place entrance. All they confided to the neopets was that they discussed political matters, and requested for a ride to the next closest Neopian land (apart from the Haunted Woods). That next land turned out to be Altador…which was across the mountains to the west, and between them and Qasala (and Sakhmet) were a sizable number of lesser kingdoms sitting in the desert sands, and wars frequently broke out between those countries. Because of the conflicts, that area is rendered off-limits to Users. An escort would have to be established for the trip. In the meantime, under Nabile's suggestion (and incidentally as the tour guides planned), the delegates would visit Sakhmet and have an audience with Princess Amira.





The party of ten found themselves trekking from Qasala to Sakhmet. It wasn't far, and there was a river between the two cities. And there were a few stops on the way. In the distance, they saw a swarm of red bugs (and a few green) coming in from the east, but they were being blasted into oblivion by a steel gray vehicle with a long tube that launched projectiles aimed for the bugs. Euryvlavia quickly noticed that Fluttershy as wincing at the sight, so the neopets quickly led them away.

Ahead was a Tug-O-War match currently in progress, with spectators surrounding the area. The current competitors seemed unbalanced in terms of size.

The one on the Sakhmetian side of the river was a grundo, but he was approximately two to three times Messerole's size. He was also muscular and had dark green skin. According to the smaller grundo, his name was Truggdon.

The one on the Qasalan side was a female Desert aisha (short-furred quadruped felines with two extra ears that stand out on antenna-like stalks, half-closed-looking eyes). As with all Desert aishas, this one's fur was tan-colored, there were gold ornaments around the body, and a white cape and headdress. Her name was Horak.

The marks on the sand/mud showed that the match had been going for quite a while. To the ponies' surprise, Horak seemed to be holding her ground. In fact, it was apparent that for all his bulk, Truggdon was losing. And it wasn't long before he fell into the water, eliciting cheers from the audience. Thankfully, the river wasn't too wide, and he was big enough not to be swept away as he climbed back to shore.

"Whoo-ee. That smaller neopet sure is strong for her size," commented Applejack.

"She certainly is," agreed Tychophon. "Although the weights tied to her feet helped." And with that any good opinion on the Aisha was gone. "Although she still sometimes loses even with the weights."

"Serves her right," said Rainbow.

"Says the cheater." The cowpony gave a teasing look.

"Hey, the rules weren't clearly established in that competition!"

The shoyru looked at them for a moment. "Reminiscing an old memory?"

"Yeah," both athletic ponies answered.

"The two of them underwent an Iron Pony competition," explained Pinkie. "They tied in the first half, but Dashie dominated the second half thanks to her wings, mostly by flying."

"Ah." And Tychophon ended the inquiry on the subject there.





The tour party approached their next stop before Sakhmet: Coltzan's Shrine. It was a tall obelisk with huge hieroglyphs on all sides reading vertically, except in place of the second hieroglyph (if one was to try and read it from top down) was an empty space holding a crown. 

"This here is Coltzan's Shrine," Messerole told the ponies. "Plenty of Users and their neopets visit this place for the chance of a blessing."

"Like the Discarded Magical Blue Grundo Plushie of Prosperity?" asked Pinkie.

"…In a way, except the plushie is more hidden than the shrine. Coltzan's Shrine rewards range from gifts of…" The grundo tried to find a suitable substitute for 'stat increase'. "…permanent personal enhancements to items to a handful of neopoints. However, unlike the Plushie, the late Coltzan's spirit isn't often there to gift those who visit his place of rest."

"Coltzan isn't a deity worshiped by the residents of the Lost Desert," Aquanax stated. "Not that you'd probably know what it is to worship a deity since she doubles as your ruler, and teacher in the case of one."

One of Euryflavia's Mechanical Wings slapped the acara in the face and gave her a frown, 'telling' her that what she said could've been offensive. "There's a tale concerning this one too. You see, King Coltzan III was Princess Amira's father."

There came a soft gasp. "How did he die?" The question came from Fluttershy.

The tour guides felt a little chilled. While they knew what death was, the TNT Staff was very sensitive on the matter being discussed since most Users are still children who have yet to grasp the concept. Offenders are often "frozen"; it never happened to their User, who doesn't plan on finding out.

"There's another story behind that," said the usul. "And please take caution when you say that word. The High Users are known to 'freeze' Users who violate the rules. We don't know what it does, but there is no ice involved. I don't know if you guys are exempt from it, but we don't want to chance it.

"Anyway, it all began after the deal with Brucey B and his lucky coin. King Coltzan was throwing a great dinner party to celebrate Dr. Sloth's defeat, Brucey and his friends having already returned to Neopia Central. Unfortunately, disaster struck. Coltzan's meal had been poisoned by one of his guests; Princess Sankara, an exiled Princess from one of the many kingdoms to the west. As it was, her motive behind the crime was because she wanted Sakhmet to send troops back to her homeland so she can liberate it, but King Coltzan had always advised against such notions, saying she was too young." 

"And she hoped to put Amira on the throne and manipulate her into doing that?" deduced Twilight.

"Not exactly. You see, Amira was out traveling at that time. Her sister, Vyssa, was Sankara's target, though."

Messerole could see the ponies about to dwell on the subject (like if Sankara's method was justified or if Coltzan's reasons for refusing Sankara were valid), so he decided to distract them with another. "Anyway, when this shrine was first opened in Coltzan's honor, his crown was revealed to be missing!" 

The ponies turned to face him with interest in the tale. Apparently, it worked. 

"Stolen by the Meerca Brothers Heermeedjet and Meerouladen, as deduced from their taunting note the former left behind."

"He even signed it with his name. What an idiot," commented Aquanax. "They also happen to be opponents in the Battledome and have done time in prison."

"The race was on to find the crown and restore it to its proper place," Tychophon continued. "Neopian super-sleuths (read:Users) gathered to examine the clues. In any case, the search for the crown took them all the way to Neopia Central, to Peopatra's Petpet Shop (which we'll take you to later), to a parrot living in Mystery Island, to a Neohome there, and finally—"

"Bo-ring!" Pinkie interrupted. "A story about a mystery isn't really exciting when it's told in summary. What happened in the end?"

"I was just about to get there. The sleuths eventually found the crown at a beach in Mystery Island… and they saw Malkus Vile, a notorious crime boss who had hired the Meerca Brothers to steal it (and unfortunately got away). Also, it was revealed that Princess Sankara conspired with him and she was naturally (already) arrested. Of course, the crown was returned to its rightful place, since Users are also honest when it comes to artifacts and transactions."

Just then, an image of a Lupe's head wearing a royal Lost Desert headdress appeared. It could only be King Coltzan.

"I will do what I can to help you…" he said, addressing all who were present.

A wind then blew, revealing a variety of items from the dunes underneath their feet. From what the ponies could see from what the other visitors picked up, the 'rewards' ranged between lenses, shields, food, scrolls, books, and plushies that were apparently in Coltzan's likeness when he was still alive.

The tour group's rewards were…three silver coins that were larger than either a Neopian neopoint or an Equestrian bit, and had the image of a moon embossed in both sides.

The ponies were unimpressed. "Three coins? That's it?!" Twilight asked in disbelief.

The neopets however were completely amazed. "Not just any coins!" Tychophon said as he picked them up. "They're dubloons! This one has a denomination of twenty, and that translates to approximately twenty thousand neopoints! They're also the only currency in Krawk Island!"

"Krawk Island?" parroted Pinkie.

"In a nutshell, an island rife with…" He made air quotes, dubloons still in hand. "…high-risk traders."

Rainbow seemed to get what he was not saying immediately, which was surprising as she didn't give the impression of having a brilliant mind. "You mean pirates?" she asked eagerly.

"…Yeah," Euryflavia confirmed. "Although they aren't all that bad. In fact, one of Neopia's heroes is a pirate, but that tale is for another time. Let's hurry to Sakhmet."

"But you haven't told us some of the other things out here," Twilight pointed out as she indicated some of them. "Like the pyramids in the distance, or what is apparently a battlezone you deliberately led us away from."

"The pyramid, also called Gebmid out of the Geb petpet in these parts, is Sutek's Tomb, which sadly doesn't have much in the way of history." 

"Who's Sutek?" Twilight wanted to know.

"An ancient and presumably the first Geb who was basically the wisest and strongest of all the Gebs. There's a combination lock there that keeps thieves out of the tomb and its riches and the tomb was just as tough as that pyramid Dr. Sloth failed to penetrate by force."

Messerole took over from here. "And as for the other, the Lost Desert has been having infestation problems and that…vehicle blasting them is one of many 'pest control' methods, that one being one the Users can take a part in and earn neopoints." The grundo raised a hand. "And please, no asking us on the economic system. I'd like to stress that again."

As they explained, Aquanax and Tychophon meanwhile talked in hushed tones for a moment.

"Should we talk about the 'Desert Diplomacy' incident?" asked the acara.

The shoyru thought for a moment. The 'Desert Diplomacy' incident happened not too long ago. It involved stolen items from visiting rulers, sorting out which band of thieves stole which item, and Users solving the crimes. "…Nah." It wouldn't be a nice tale to tell, given how badly they retold the case of the theft of Coltzan's crown.





A while later, the tour group made it to the gates of Sakhmet. A regiment of guards were there, undergoing a marching session. The two posted at the gates themselves allowed the group to pass, and it looked like they identified the delegates. They were all tonus, leathery-skinned quadrupeds with enormous ruffs around their heads, a horn sprouting from their nose, thick and sturdy legs, comparatively small ears, a tiny tufted tail. They stood at about 70 centimeters in height, making them shorter than the ponies. The non-anthros, anyway; the anthro ones towered over them.

Just before they could proceed further, somebody else revealed himself. It was an anthro tonu like the guards at the gates, but his armor was significantly more ornate, and his color was Blac—no, Shadow.

"It's General Dacon," Tychophon told the ponies.

"Greetings, delegates from Equestria," Dacon said. "Princess Amira is expecting you. Please follow me."

And the ten did so. "It'd be wrong to say no," remarked Euryflavia. "You can check the sights in Sakhmet after your business with the Princess. We'll be waiting just outside the palace."

As they traversed the thankfully not-so-busy streets of Sakhmet, the neopets noted that the ponies didn't exhibit as much interest as back in Faerieland. Then again, this was just the third land; there was still so much to check out.

The Yellow neopets half-expected the Desert Scarabs, thieves local to Sakhmet (and honorary heroes in another conflict that hit Sakhmet, different from the one that 'exposed' the Lost Desert to the Users), to try and filch something from the delegates, but they never came. 

Eventually, the group made it to an expansive square, which 'housed' a bazaar. Stalls selling all sorts of items, hosting games, or just showing interesting stuff. All the way across it (and dividing the bazaar in two) was a main road that led to what General Dacon indicated to be the palace, where Princess Amira is waiting inside. nightelf_37's neopets were hoping to show the delegates all the sights in Sakhmet, but that could come later. As with the case of Qasala's rulers, the four neopets were asked to wait outside as the ponies went in with Dacon.

Less than a third of an hour later, the ponies were out of the palace. nightelf_37's neopets showed them the sights in the bazaar. As Tychophon promised, they went to Peopatra's Petpet shop first. Most of them were awed at some of the traditional animal-like petpets, some were weirded out at seeing just what a Geb was (short pyramid) as well as the khnum petpet (which looked like a sphinx), and Twilight kept away from the wadjets.

Since the area was so big, the party decided to split up. Tychophon and Twilight went to the Sakhmet Solitare tent and the latter played one game. Fluttershy and Rarity followed Euryflavia in Osiris Pottery (It's supposed to be Osiri's Pottery, but there's an…issue with apostrophe use). Messerole took Pinkie to the Food Stall. Aquanax took Applejack and Rainbow past the Coloring Pages stall ("It's just pictures of neopets going about their daily lives.") and to the Scarab 21 game stall, where the farmpony decided to give the game a try while the pegasus waited boredly, and was considering actually playing next. 

Right after checking the pottery, the usul took the two delegates she was escorting to the Fruit Machine. Greeting them at the stall were an anthro aisha, kau, and lupe. 

(Kaus are bovine neopets with a short coat lengthening around the hooves and forming a tuft of hair on top of their head. They are easily recognizable by their large ears and horns and their stripy markings, as well as shiny hooves. Non-anthro kaus normally stand at about 60 centimeters.)

Seeing Twilight over-analyzing her moves, Tychophon told her that he'll be at the other side of the bazaar. Meanwhile, Messerole was chasing a pronking Pinkie as she made her way to the Scarab 21 tent. She went in on Rainbow playing a game and naturally so did the grundo. And things were not looking good for the pegasus. She took one more card and put it down.

"That's it. You're out of moves," stated Aquanax.

"I can't help it!" said Rainbow. "Thinking far ahead like this isn't exactly one of my strong suits."

"Well, you did score higher than our user ever did in one game. 435 points is above his record of 287. I mean, two full house 21s! How did you even do that?!"

The pegasus just rubbed the back of her head. "Huh. I don't know. But I certainly wasn't placing cards at random. Even I wouldn't do that."





After Twilight left the Sakhmet Solitaire stall and made her way to the Emergency Supplies tent, where Tychophon was standing… "Finished?" he asked. "We'll need to return to Qasala soon for our ride to Altador."

"Right," the unicorn agreed as the two of them walked towards the Sutek's Scrolls stall, which not only sold scrolls, but standard hardback books as well. Euryflavia and Rarity were inside as well. The shoyru saw Fluttershy enter the Scratch Cards stall. "Judging from the sun's position, I think we have a few minutes left."

Messerole and Aquanax left the tent with their accompanying delegates towards the Geos stall. Their user never got the chance to play it, and they thought it'd be nice to try it out. It was a two-player game, and the 'pairs' went as follows; Messerole decided to take on Applejack, while Aquanax and Rainbow contended against one another. Pinkie was about to sit this out as a result when a Blue Blumaroo invited her to play with him.

(A Blumaroo a neopet with short, soft fur that walks on two legs, although it can also often be found bouncing on its highly springy tail. It is recognizable by its large ears, beady eyes and long drooping nose. When balanced on its tail, it measures about 100 centimeters.)

As Tychophon exited Sutek's Scrolls, he saw Fluttershy exit the Scratch Card stall with her head hung low. He walked over to her, but before he could speak, she sensed him coming and said, "I'm sorry I wasted 500 of your neopoints. I thought I could win, but…"

"Eh, it's okay, Fluttershy," sighed the shoyru. "We don't win often either. It's better to sell it, anyway, have others try their luck. Come on. Let's check out our last stop in Sakhmet."

The two of them made their way to the Paintbrush Stall, which did not have any paintbrushes, but instead showed pictures of neopets painted in Desert Color. Twilight, Rarity, and Euryflavia arrived shortly after. 

"What's this place for?" Twilight asked. "I don't even see any paintbrushes."

"I'm glad you asked. Nearly every land in Neopia has these kinds of places. As we've explained earlier, we can come in various Colors." Tychophon indicated the pictures that were in the stall. "These serve as a preview for the Users on what they would look like if they wish to change their neopets' Color, in this case the Desert color."

"Oh, right," said Rarity. "You guys said something about magical paintbrushes back in the Haunted Woods. And you said you'd explain."

"Right, but I'd like the others to hear it too so we won't explain it twice. Let's go find them."





The four of them eventually made their way to the Geos stall, where their friends (or User-mates, which is a closer bond) were playing. The ponies playing were on one side of the table, and their neopet opponents on the other. The Geos game boards were upright, preventing the opponents from seeing each other's. The game pieces were on the table, and were magically modified so that players without arms (like jubjubs, kaus, and unis) can lift them up by simply thinking it. It only works for the individual closest to them and can see them, so nobody else can sabotage the game in that way.

Messerole placed a piece on his board, and then 'ghosts' of another player's pieces suddenly appeared, and he hung his head in defeat. "Ugh! Defeated by a farmpony…" He then quickly turned his head past the boards to look at Applejack. "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

As for Aquanax, she whooped in victory, having apparently won her game in Rainbow's long exasperated groan was any indication. 

"Oh goodie! You're finished!" Pinkie said as she placed her piece, earning a groan of defeat from her Blumaroo opponent. "Come on, girls! It looks like Tychophon's gonna explain something!" The shoyru wondered how she knew that, but he had been told by Twilight to shrug off from trying to find an explanation. After all, "it's Pinkie Pie".

In a while, everybody was gathered at the Paintbrush Stall. "Okay," the shoyru began. "Before I begin, I want to hear what you girls remember about Colors."

"Colors is an attribute all neopets have that can be changed via multiple methods," Twilight summarized. "They don't always mean colors, but also forms, like with the Baby Color. Changing Colors is sometimes voluntary, and sometimes not."

Tychophon nodded sagely. "That's the gist of it."

"So…about the magical paintbrushes. I'm guessing they have something to do with changing a neopet's Color, right?"

"That's right," agreed Aquanax. "Magical paintbrushes is one of the many methods of changing one's Color, and it's what our User used to change both of our Colors."

"Both?" asked Fluttershy.

"Me and Tych. I was once Yellow, which is a shade darker than this…" The acara gestured to her light yellow fur. "And had no wings either." She then indicated the shoyru. "And he was once Blue, his shade akin to Rainbow Dash's fur. But it's not as simple as finding a magical paintbrush and applying it. One has to go to the Rainbow Pool (not Fountain) first before that for its magic to operate. We'll tell you more when we get there."

"And when will that be?" queried Rainbow.

"When we get to Neopia Central. But we got two more stops before that. And lots more to see besides."





A couple of minutes later, before they knew it, the tour party of 10 were back at Sakhmet, Queen Nabile already has a transport and (light, so as not to attract attention) escort ready to take them to Altador, and they were off.

(A/N: The lack of detail of the ride they're on is deliberate. Partly because I don't know what an appropriate royal desert-themed transport would look like that can hold ten. And I didn't feel splitting them up was a good idea.)

The ponies waited boredly, since there was nothing of interest to see outside apart from sand dunes. And the occasional clash of blades. Luckily, their ride was covered to not only shelter them from any coming sandstorms (even though Twilight can erect a barrier to rectify that problem) but from watching eyes; the warring lesser kingdoms might have spies who might put the delegates' lives at risk. And so to alleviate the boredom, the tour guides decided to tell the delegates another story.

"Here's another tale about the Lost Desert," Tychophon began. "Did you know that a couple of years ago, Qasala was little more than a ruin?"

This caught their attention. "What?!" they all gasped.

"Surely you must be joking!" added Rarity.

"It's no joke," assured the shoyru. "Let's start at the beginning. It was a couple of years since Brucey B's discovery of the Lost Desert, and it all began when Jazan, who was merely a prince back then, arrived at Sakhmet upon a Blue uni. He bribed his way into the palace and to Princess Amira's throne room, where she was holding court. He intended to seek her hand in marriage. Unfortunately, she has—even to this day—stubbornly refused any proposals made to her; Jazan would've been no different. Amira cast Jazan out of the city, branding him a fraud. As the Prince rode away, two of the Desert Scarabs, a small band of 'street rats', decided to follow him."

The shoyru took out the Neopedia and flipped through the pages until he reached an entry showing them. On the page was a picture depicting a couple of anthro neopets, all dressed lightly for the hot desert weather, and all standing in an alleyway. They consisted of a male Red lupe, a female Pink ixi, a Yellow blumaroo, a few other neopet species the ponies hadn't been introduced to yet, nor have—rather miraculously—even encountered, and a couple more they knew.

(Ixis are furry quadruped neopets, recognized by their small pointed horns, tufty tail and large almond-shaped eyes. Their slender limbs ended in shiny, solid hooves, and their faces are framed by fluffy fur similar to acaras. Almost all (non-anthro) ixis wear a species-unique "ixi collar", a ribbon band finished with a diamond-shaped gem, around their necks. Non-anthro ixis normally stand at around 60 centimeters.)

Euryflavia took the Neopedia and pointed at the former two in the picture, the Lupe first, then the Ixi. "These two," she indicated. "Their names are Tomos and Nabile."

"Wait a second!" Pinkie interrupted as she raised a hoof. "By Nabile you mean the Queen of Qasala? Or somebody who happens to share the same name?"

The usul looked at her User-mates who just looked back at her confusedly, then back to the ponies and said, "It will all be clear later." The smile she then made gave the implication that she's not about to spoil the story, and neither will the others. "Ahem. At the same time, a number of Users were led to a fortune teller's tent just outside the city, who would give them a couple of mysterious tablets, which had pieces missing. She 'tasked' them in looking for the pieces to complete the inscription that was on it so she can translate it. Users in general are eager for adventure, so they went off. As the Users searched, an ancient temple rose from the burning desert sands, the Temple of 1000 Tombs, awaiting eager explorers. Naturally—"

"Let me guess," Rainbow interrupted. "Lots of deadly traps."

"Traps, yes. Deadly, maybe not." 

"Despite their stupidity, Users are quite strong, sturdy, resilient, resourceful, and lucky at times," Messerole explained. "Sleeping gas, flooding rooms, gelatinous beasts, spike traps, closing walls, piles of sand dropped on them, riddles, they could escape them all in an hour. Other rooms contained libraries with four scrolls each. Each would make the User's 'Active' neopet become smarter, and then a trap door would throw them out of the temple and onto the desert sands. But their efforts soon paid off, and they found pieces of the tablets, slowly completing it.

"Back with Tomos and Nabile. They made it to the then-ruins of Qasala, not that they knew its name yet. As Princess Amira's advisers meanwhile discovered (presumably under orders to research Jazan's background), it had been destroyed by a sandstorm 200 years prior to the events. Unable to find the prince, the two young thieves left the ruins. Jazan turned out to have successfully been eluding them."

"The next day began as a normal day, or as normal as a day in Sakhmet is," Tychophon took over. "Princess Amira was planning to make a public announcement. Meanwhile, Jazan returned to the city, intent with his usual plan. Seeing him arrive were the two thieves and another Desert Scarab named Horace." Euryflavia pointed at the Yellow blumaroo in the Neopedia. "Tomos thought of getting the jump on Jazan as soon as he was in range, Nabile thought otherwise and advised him they do the ambush when he leaves, and Horace decided to sit this one out.

"Back with Amira. She was pretty much ticked off that Jazan returned, again asking to marry her. Stubborn as ever, she refused. In response, he conjured a great magical force that transported Sakhmet into an alternate dimension, where his undead forces then began to raze. Mysteriously, no User ended up trapped inside and were instead forcibly evicted along with their neopets. These Users, as well as the two Desert Scarabs, were witnesses to this disappearance."

"Thinking it was destroyed, the two thieves sullenly followed Jazan's steed's tracks to the then-ruins of Qasala for shelter, while the Users either left or joined the others in the Temple of 1000 Tombs," Messerole pitched in. "Unfortunately, during the night, they found that—not that they knew him by name—Nightsteed, Jazan's mount and close friend, was searching for intruders. He soon located them, and a chase ensued, but the two narrowly avoided death—oops—when they fell into a pit."

The grundo paused, as if waiting for something to happen to him, but nothing did. He then continued as if nothing happened.

"Back in Sakhmet, the situation was getting worse. All its walls were breached, and Amira and the city guard was at a loss on what to do. Jazan then gave them one more week to decide whether or not he will wed Amira. If she refused by the end of the week, he would tear Sakhmet apart, and the other nobles were already considering marriage as an option and were pleading to their Princess to just accept. Elsewhere in Sakhmet, some of the other Desert Scarabs, among them Horace, had taken refuge in a fruit vendor's house, formulating a plan."

"Doesn't sound too comfortable for the fruit vendor," commented Applejack. "He must've had wares stolen from them in the past."

"True that, but they did save him from the monsters," agreed Aquanax. "Back in Qasala, it turns out that Nabile and Tomos were in its ancient tombs…which was incidentally similar to the temple the Users were exploring. They had even stumbled into one of the flooding traps, but Tomos was much more resourceful than the Users and disarmed the trap in seconds, which in turn led them to a library with all kinds of books. Nabile explored that while Tomos went the other way and located Qasala's armory.

"Back in Sakhmet, two of the Desert Scarabs got into a heated argument…which unfortunately attracted the attention of Jazan's undead forces. As far as they knew, they were nigh unstoppable. Blades didn't work, pelted fruit did little, and melee was of no use either. But thanks to a fit of rage from the fruit vendor, it was revealed that blunt weapons instantly knock them unconscious. Now armed with this knowledge, the group left to find another safe refuge, also learning that Jazan's undead only track movement—"

"So if they stay perfectly still, the monsters just pass them by?" deduced Twilight.

"Yes," Euryflavia nodded in agreement as she took over. "Soon, one of the city guards located them and after a brief explanation hears them out on what they have learned, then took them to the palace so they can tell General Dacon, whom we've met, about this. Soon, this news reached the Princess, who had the entire guard armed with blunt weapons and to evacuate the populace to the palace.

"Meanwhile, in the ruins of Qasala, Nabile found some Qasalan hieroglyphs. After translating them, and calling Tomos over to listen, She discovered that Qasala had been struck down with a horrible curse, its citizens turned into monsters.  and that only Jazan's marriage to a Princess of Sakhmet would lift it. Jazan would be doomed to live a tortured existence until he weds the princess of Sakhmet. When true love unites, Qasala will live again. Naturally, Tomos found it rubbish and led Nabile to what he had found; a couple of old rings."

"I think I know what happens next," said the intellectual unicorn. "He touched one of them and some sort of evil spirit came out of it to attack them?"

"Wow! Picked it up from the Daring Do books, too?"

"Actually, I was the one who introduced the book series to Rainbow."

"I see. They really must've covered a lot of tropes relating to ruins, traps, and curses."

"As an adventurer archaeologist, she's bound to be in a lot of them."

"Ahahahaha. Incidentally, a similar spirit was summoned in the temple, forcing the Users to fight it off. Tomos and Nabile just fled theirs, narrowly escaping a spike trap in the process. Back in Sakhmet, Jazan decided to turn the tides in his favor once more by dispatching his giant 'pet' two-headed scorchio Scordrax onto the populace. Infuriated with the torment Jazan was dealing, Amira confronted him on this, who continued with his advances."

"Back in the temple, the Users managed to complete the tablet and find a statue of Nuria, a fire Faerie native to the Lost Desert," continued Tychophon. "With the prophecy inscribed on the tablet, which reads along the lines of Prince Jazan making Sakhmet disappear, they read it, and a secret panel on the base of the statue slowly began to open…unleashing loads of scarabs that overwhelmed them." This made their listeners worry a bit. "Thankfully, they're harmless.

He then continued, "Meanwhile in Qasala, as Nabile continued to read, she found out that when the curse is lifted, Jazan isn't the only thing that would 'live again' and she expressed pity at his plight. Tomos naturally teased her with this, and then when his friend found out about what the rings he found could do, he took one so as to figure out its effects. He ended up taking the 'Ring of the Lost', which teleported the two of them back home…Sakhmet, right where Jazan and Amira were. They were promptly arrested and Jazan ordered for a royal wedding to be prepared."

"…Awkward," commented Pinkie.

"That's putting it mildly," said Euryflavia. "As for the Users, it turns out that the scarabs somehow transported some of them to Sakhmet as well, allowing them to help in fighting off Scordrax. As for the rest, while exploring the Lost Desert, they stumbled into a Scroll Repository, which contained knowledge that might help solve the disappearance of Sakhmet. Naturally, guards barred their way, but the Users' resourcefulness allowed them to help out in the digging, as the repository had been partially buried by a freak sandstorm. It took quite a while. Unfortunately, after completely unearthing it, no entrance could be found. In fact, there had been no room made for them." 

"That's pretty stupid."

"Yeah. They got to work on hauling out blocks to clear out rooms and corridors inside the repository. Scarabs proved to be a constant problem as well. All the while, they unearthed lots and lots of items from un-burying the pyramid and from clearing out blocks, which resulted in a few scuffles as to who would get what, which in turn was cleared up by the foreman.

"While all that was being done, furniture was being constructed to haul inside the Repository. Once the repository was cleared out, the Users and their Neopets got to work on moving the furniture in. Unfortunately, it turns out there have been thieves stealing the stuff, and it became a 'race' of sorts. The Users won out though in the end."

"Um, could we please get back to what's going on in Sakhmet?" Fluttershy asked.

"Oh, all right." 

"Allow me," Aquanax said. "Back in Sakhmet, while Tomos was kept under the guard of one of Jazan's undead, Nabile had better luck as she was dressed up to attend the wedding, where she plans to speak to Jazan. Luckily for Tomos, his guard's wrapping came loose, and he used it to tie him to a chair while he escaped. Unfortunately, he got the attention of Scordrax, who proceeded to chase him, in turn being chased by User-bound Neopets who had the guts to fight it. Luckily for the Desert Scarab, he found refuge while the Users held off the two-headed dragon.

"Meanwhile, Nabile was escorted to the wedding, which was already in progress. Before the vows could be said, not that Amira would say them, Nabile explained that the marriage would not break the curse, as neither party loved the other. During her explanation, a startling discovery was made — Nabile was actually a descendent of Princess Neera, a disgraced Sakhmetian Princess." Quite a jarring revelation if you ask me, since Neopets can come in any species regardless of parents'. 

"Why was this Princess Neera disgraced?" wondered Rarity. 

"Old fashioned traditions," Messerole pitched in. "She married a peasant and was cast out as a result. Anyway, Amira obviously did not love Jazan, but—sympathizing with his situation, and believing there was good in him—Nabile did."

"Poor Tomos! It looked like he loved her too!"

"Yeah. Probably would've too were it not for this revelation, and that's where his part in the story ends. Anyway, once the marriage was done, Sakhmet was finally returned to Neopia, the monsters vanished, Nabile returned to Qasala with Jazan as her husband, and together they began rebuilding the kingdom."

A pregnant pause followed after that, leaving the ten of them feeling a little awkward. Thankfully for the neopets, they weren't asked what happened to Scordrax; they had no idea either.

"So… is that the end of the story?" asked Twilight.

"Well, the Users certainly thought so," Euryflavia stated. "But it turns out the tale wasn't over yet. Back at the Repository—and we needed to get back to them—before Sakhmet returned to Neopia, the Users met with the chef, who said he wanted a souvenir from an 'exotic locale'. But the only such place was the Gift Shop of 1,000 Trinkets, which was hosted near the temple. The shop owner there did have something to give, but wanted some black smoke from the spirit in the temple, and offered them a vial to hold it. It was a fairly easy task, with the Users' Neopets being stronger than we are. They returned with the vial, and she traded a souvenir t-shirt for it. The Users then returned to the Repository, and the chef gave them a 'useless' crystal."

"Heheh. I'm betting that crystal won't be so useless," chuckled Rainbow.

"And you'd have won that bet. Some Users made their way to the fifth floor of the Repository and found themselves teleported to a mysterious room that eventually led them to a mini model of Sakhmet city. Light was shining in from a crack and—in a bout of curiosity—they placed the crystal onto a little notch in the biggest palace roof. The light reflected off of the crystal and shone a series of red, yellow, and blue lights on the wall opposite it. Yes, I know this shouldn't make sense, and that there should've been a green in place of a yellow.

"Long story short on what they did; the Users found themselves going between the temple and the Repository, finding new crystals (up to four, counting the first), browsing the Repository, going back to the strange room (the teleporter is two-way), rinse and repeat." If she had fingers, the usul would've raised them in indication, but alas she didn't. "By the time of the fourth crystal, it didn't show an array of colors but broke the wall, revealing a mysterious scroll behind it. They returned it to the fortune teller, who couldn't decipher it at that time and made a copy so she could examine it."

"Back to the 'main story'," interjected Tychophon. "In Qasala, Nabile and Jazan's love continued to blossom as the city was rebuilt… but still the curse hasn't lifted. Knowing she was holding in her loneliness, Jazan requested Nabile to return to Sakhmet to be along the living. She was given a hero's welcome upon her return and Princess Amira declared the day a holiday, holding a grand banquet. But Nabile wasn't one to give up, and got to work on finding answers and a way to end the curse.  Back at Qasala, with his bride gone, Jazan lost interest in rebuilding his city and became weaker, often going for days without eating.

"It wasn't long before an unnatural storm descended upon Sakhmet, and Emperor Razul, Jazan's undead father, arrived to lay waste to the city. Claiming to have been freed from his imprisonment by the marriage, he effortlessly destroyed the Sakhmet army. Not even User-bound neopets could harm him, strong as some were, because unlike most 'bosses' they have fought, Razul regenerated each time he defeated even one of them." Back in Qasala, Jazan, sensing his queen was in danger, immediately rode on Nightsteed towards Sakhmet."

"I bet that Razul guy's the other thing that would live again when the curse was lifted!" said Pinkie.

"You'd be right," agreed Aquanax. "Erstwhile, the Users who were seeing the fortune teller returned to her tent. It was soon revealed that she had been reading the scroll upside-down the entire time, the inscription having been cleverly written to be readable both ways. Reading it upside-down, she discovered that the inscription served as some sort of translation guide. The Users consulted their tablets and found that all the pieces were detachable and that on the other side of the pieces were different symbols. After replacing the pieces, with the scroll and the fortune teller, they were able to decipher the meaning of the tablet. It read: 'The golden eye shines truth upon those who would do evil'. But when read the other way, which was how it is supposed to be, it read: 'The father of the prince will destroy the great desert'.

"With this prophecy, the Users returned to the temple to where Nuria's statue stood, and spoke it to it. The secret panel opened and instead of a swarm of scarabs, there was a compartment with three weapons; a scimitar, a mace, and a spear. Three of the Users' neopets out of the many were selected to pick up each of them, only for them to disintegrate (the weapons, not the neopets). The weapons still looked usable, though. They made to return to the fortune teller, only to see Sakhmet under attack." 

"While that was happening, Razul had stormed the palace, intent on eliminating the Princesses," continued Euryflavia, "He managed to corner them and was about to finish them when Jazan arrived, the Users not far behind. Razul turned on his son, intent on going for the rest of Neopia after dealing with him and Sakhmet. He decided to strike Jazan first, who tried and failed to counter it with his own magic, and then Nabile took the blow before he could be overwhelmed.

"It knocked her out cold but she would survive it. Still, the attack left Jazan stunned for a few moments, giving the Users the chance to have their neopets attack. Razul brushed them all off, knocking out most of them. But the weapons found in the tomb turned out to have weakened him, since when an enraged Jazan struck once more, he overcame and destroyed his father. With Razul gone, the curse of Qasala was finally lifted (with the sad exception of Nightsteed), the damage Razul had inflicted on Sakhmet was reversed, and peace returned to the Lost Desert. That ends our tale."

And the silence that followed wasn't awkward this time, but a relief. And then a voice from outside came. It was their ride's…driver, who was a Desert Shoyru; gold-colored, wearing a headdress with a cobra adorned on top, a curled "pharaoh's staff" on one hand, and some sort of gold accessory covering the tip of his tail.

"We're nearing Altador," he said.

When the delegates looked out the window, they found themselves looking at a majestic walled city. It was no longer sandy and arid, and they could smell the sea. They were nearing the gates, but it was still two miles before they would reach it. The skies were also clear and sunny, and Rainbow could swear it was manually managed, just like in Equestria 

Suddenly, Pinkie's ears began to pick up something. "I think there are some neopets expecting us."

"Well, we were told by Roktabio there were some lands preparing," pointed out Euryflavia. "Let's see what Altador's got in store for you."





I deliberately minimized details here because… I want to be faithful to the Neopets site, but at the same time the 'small maps' for the Lost Desert area (especially Sakhmet) leave so much to the imagination for what's beyond.

Now I see my story seems to be becoming half "Mane Six interacting with what Neopia has to offer" and half "Mane Six listening to nightelf37's neopets' version of the Neopets Plots". Whoa. Sorry about that. Maybe I should post this in FanFiction.Net, and then I'll likely make it a "plus Spike" edition. Having him interact with another dragon (who isn't an out-and-out jerk) sounds fun to write.

See ya on Third!
> Altador
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The fourth stop for the Equestrians' tour of Neopia was the city of Altador. A small-scale parade had been arranged, and the citizens were awed as the ponies popped their heads out of the windows of their Lost Desert transport (Fluttershy had to be coaxed to do so). Aquanax pegged Rainbow to be the type who'd hog all the attention, but the blue pegasus didn't seem to be doing so.

Judging by the spectators, it seems that the tour group were about to be headed for the Hall of Heroes. Which wasn't exactly where nightelf_37's neopets wanted to go (they wanted to go to the Altadorian Archives first, then here), but figured it might as well be their first stop in Altador.

Strangely, the populace calmed down rather quickly before the carriage finally pulled to a stop at the entrance. Although the surrounding Users in the area probably had something to do with it. Something about wanting to get on with their business; apparently, they were a bit cross that they aren't involved in this "Plot" as they always were, which had nothing to do with an equine's behind.

Once inside the Hall of Heroes, the delegates stood in awe as they marveled at what they saw. (Their driver decided to return to the Lost Desert…after a day's rest) There was a circle of eleven statues, each depicting a famed figure. The figures seemed to be from all walks of life, ranging from humble peasants to brave warriors and mighty spellcasters, and even one from a white-collar occupation and one from a…darker background. There was also a base meant for a twelfth, but the statue there seemed to be missing. And tending to the rubble that happened to be there was an orange yurble in a green toga and yellow sash, and a mop and bucket in hand.

(Yurbles are furry bipedal neopets who also seem to be able to go down on fours to run, according to Aquanax. They are easily recognized by their large, fluffy mane, their unusual curled-up ears, as well as the fuzzy patches around their eyes and their very large nose. They also stand at around 40 centimeters tall.)

That's where the tour party of ten went to. The yurble noticed them and said, "Oh. You must be those delegates." He pointed his mop to a far-off stairway. "King Altador is waiting, as well as the rest of the council, very rare for all eleven of them to be there."

And with that, the party headed there. As they ascended the steps, Tychophon decided to start with another story. But before he could do so, he noticed somebody headed their way from behind them. It was an aged Blue anthro lenny with a monocle and balding white hair. 

"It's Finneus!" noted Messerole.

The lenny, Finneus, let off a gasp and said, "Oh! The delegates from Equestria! It's an honor to meet you! I'm Finneus, Archive Keeper of Altador!" He turned to face the grundo. "I assume you're here to see the Council?"

"Yes, we are," Twilight answered.

"We were hoping to go to the Altadorian Archives first to…brief them in on this land's history," Tychophon explained. "But then the parade happened. I wonder how they even knew we were coming today at that exact time. They couldn't've waited for hours."

Finneus just shrugged his shoulders in return. "Well, I happen to have the Book of Ages with me…" He demonstrated it by pulling and old book out of his hammerspace (remember, all neopets have one). "So I'll try and read as much as I can to you on the way."

(A/N: For those of you who want to read the Book of Ages without going through the Altador Plot for reasons (i.e. not a Neopets player or think the plot's too difficult), read it here.)





As they continued up the long stairs…

"So this Darkest Faerie… she was a hero before she became The Betrayer?"

Finneus nodded. "Yes, my dear Twilight Sparkle."

"And that was because she saved King Altador's life back in his youth. Supposedly a compassionate act not often found from a dark faerie. At least back in the old days."

"Yes. Betrayals hurt, especially from your first friend." At that, Aquanax noticed Rainbow Dash lower her head and turn away a bit. But the acara decided not to inquire the pegasus on the subject; if someone headstrong like her was acting this way after hearing that, it must be something serious.

At this time, the eleven of them reached the Council Chamber, where two faeries and nine neopets, all anthro, were waiting. There were twelve seats arranged in a half-circle, and one was naturally unoccupied.

"Welcome back," greeted a Blue aisha dressed in a brown bodice with light yellow sleeves, a brown skirt that also bore images of the sun, moon, and stars, and simple black shoes. In addition to long light blue hair that nearly reminded the ponies of one certain…rival, Twilight could also sense that she was a strong spellcaster. She was seated in the middle-right chair. "I see you have brought the delegates from Equestria with you."

"They know you?!" Rarity asked their tour guides, facing Euryflavia.

The usul gave a sheepish laugh as she rubbed her nape. "Eheheheh. It's kind of a long story."

"I presume you aren't merely here for the small 'daily' gift for your User." The voice came from the White lupe sitting in the center of the half-circle of chairs that seated the Council, and was at the right of the Blue aisha. He bore a medium-length beard that signified his age and wisdom. Messerole introduced him as King Altador.

"No, Your Majesty," Tychophon answered as he stepped forward and bowed. Even though that would be nice. "We currently serve as the delegates' tour guides. We took them here so you can discuss…well, political stuff. We planned on taking them to the Archives where Finneus would be," He gestured to the aged Blue lenny. "But then the parade happened and it led us here, so here we are."

"I see," Altador nodded. "Well, let's that over with first. In continuing memory of your great service to our land, I'd like to present you with a gift. It's only a small token of our appreciation, but we hope you will find it to your liking."

The shoyru walked over to the king, who produced an item from…somewhere (likely the hammerspace all neopets have) and offered it. Tychophon took the gift, nodded in thanks, and stored it in his hammerspace.

"What is the gift?" Rarity asked Euryflavia.

"Nothing special, really. A book, a food item, a toy, we sell it at our shop. We come here all the time if possible."

"Now that you're here, should we begin our discussion?"

"Actually, on our way here, Finneus was telling us about this land's history," Twilight said. "So far, we just reached the part regarding the Darkest Faerie." This was followed with a quick blink of her eyes, as if realizing she might've offended them.

Indeed, everybody in the Council had mixed expressions ranging between scorn and sorrow, the latter in Altador's face. "Yes, even now it hurts, but dwelling in the past won't change anything. We have to look to the future." He turned to one of the members in the council. Judging from her appearance, she seemed to be an air faerie (who are often identified by their blonde hair, periwinkle dresses, and delicate-looking bluish wings). She was at the seat second to the left.

The faerie nodded her head, then turned to the delegates. "I am Psellia, the Dreamer, and this is the deed that gave me my standing in the Council of Heroes. Long before the founding of this nation, when Faerieland was still a kingdom on the sky, I was relaxing on the clouds one day when a blumaroo bounced too close to the edge and slipped off. He was about to fall to the sea, and I knew he wouldn't survive the impact, so I immediately swooped down to catch him. My initial shock unfortunately made the distance I had to cover too great for me to do it safely. 

"By the time I caught him, we were going down too fast for me to pull ourselves up, so I did my best to slow our fall until we reached the ocean with an almost delicate splash. Then, with the last of my strength, I swam us to shore, where we rested and recovered. While I think it's a fairly modest deed, this tale spread, reached Altador's ears, and he invited me to his group. I'll admit I used to be a little vain back in the day, even after I rescued that neopet, but his bravery eventually served to inspire me and give me a cause to believe in."

Psellia then indicated the other faerie in the room; a light faerie (identified by their bright yellow appearance in hair, clothing, and eyes) who had yellow markings under her eyes. At her seat that was second to the right in the half-circle, this faerie then spoke up. "I am Siyana, The First to Rise. My deed was the saving of a village from a most dreadful fate. During my travels, I once stopped at that village, staying for many weeks and helping keep their crops from frosting over in chilly nights."

"One evening, I spotted a shadowy form moving in the woods and followed them, using a thick blanket to hide my light. There, I found out that bandits were about to raid the village. I immediately flew to warn the village, but I was spotted and an arrow pierced my left wing. It hurt bad, and now grounded, I ran as fast as I could, my pursuers quick to the chase."

Some of the ponies turned to Aquanax, who had Faerie wings of her own. The acara explained, "Wings of true Faeries and born-Faerie neopets are more sensitive to pain than painted-Faerie neopets like me. That doesn't mean I won't feel a thing if that arrow pierced mine."

Siyana had paused patiently and once the neopet was done she continued, "By the time I reached the village, I was too out of breath to cry for help, so instead I used all my power to shine as bright as I could. The villagers thought the sun had risen and left their houses and saw the bandits approaching. Alerted to their presence, they armed themselves and drove the bandits away. As thanks for my deed, this farmer recommended Altador to me, and that's how I became part of his Council." The light faerie indicated the neopet to her right, a Yellow kacheek with hair of a lighter shade and deep blue eyes in a white toga with green pteruges, a laurel wreath, and leather caligae. 

(Kacheeks are furry bipedal neopets with pointed ears and a fluffy tail. They normally stand at around 30 centimeters.)

"I am Florin, the Farmer," he introduced himself. "It wasn't long after Siyana's deed that I did mine. One day, I found some fellow farmers talking about a blight that was affecting their crops and turning them black. Unless something was done, an entire season's worth of food would be lost." Applejack, herself a farmer, took off her hat and put it in front of her chest in sympathy. 

"I asked one of them to show one of those sick plants, they instead led me to the entire field, one third of which had been afflicted. Even though my own crops wouldn't have been affected, I spent days trudging through the woods, looking for a rare plant that could fix the problem. I found it after a few days, and returned to the village. I quickly ground the herbs and mixed them into a large trough of water, instructing the farmers to take a bucket and pour them into the afflicted plants. Within days, the blight vanished, though at the cost of my own crops due to neglect. Thankfully, the villagers were more than happy to share theirs with me.

"This word of my act of true generosity spread, and that's how I came to meet Altador himself, who offered me to join him." At hearing the word 'generosity', Pinkie's right ear began to twitch a bit, but nobody seemed to notice. "Now, I'm the overseer of the kingdom's plentiful farms." The kacheek then indicated a Blue cybunny in a purple dress and simple bonnet, as well as a tambourine in her paws, at was at the leftmost seat. 

(Cybunnies are furry, lapine, quadruped neopets whose most noticeable features are their large ears, the ruff of fur around their necks, small and fluffy tail, and large, strong hind paws. They normally stand at around 30 centimeters as well.)

This cybunny spoke. "I am Sasha, the Dancer. In the quiet hometown where I grew up, me and the villagers there toiled for months for a great festival, hoping to make it the grandest ever. They worked extra hard to save as much food as possible, and even set up a grand stage. When the day came, the town was buzzing with excitement. Unfortunately, just hours before it would begin, a fierce tornado appeared. The town elders herded everybody to the large basement below the town hall for safety. For hours, I sang to the children and kept them calm."

"When it was all over, we found that the tornado had destroyed everything. The bandstand, the food stores, everything was in shambles. I couldn't let this storm take the community's spirit along with it, so I proceeded to dance, as if I was on a beautiful stage. They were shocked at first, but eventually joined in, and the sound of our revelry was heard well in the night. This deed reached Altador and he came in search of me. He understood the gift of hope and laughter, and welcomed me to be a part of his Council."

Upon hearing the word 'laughter', Pinkie's right ear twitched again for a little longer before stopping. Rainbow did notice it, but she shrugged it off as Sasha indicated a Blue peophin with a dark blue mane, blue iris-less eyes, and silver breastplate and arm guards. He was two seats from the right away from Jerdana.

(Peophins are elegant, graceful neopets that are half-equine in the front and half-aquatic in the back. They have fins sticking out from near their ears, their fur is very short and fades to scales in their large tail area, and a long mane reaching all the way to their backs. They normally stand at around 40 centimeters.)

"I am Marak, the Wave. I ruled over a small underwater village at the base of a drop-off just beyond the shore, where a town of fishermen resided. I used to be unmoved by their activities, but Psellia's plea impressed me to communicate with them. We co-existed peacefully for many years, but then food became scarce due to over-fishing. The land folk put the blame on my clan, and though I tried to reach a peaceful agreement with their leader, hostilities escalated quickly. One day, our village had been hit with boulders pushed down by the fishermen. Infuriated, I readied my clan for battle. As a counterattack, we positioned ourselves in a long line, three peophins below water level, and swam forward as fast as we could, creating a wave to push back the villagers and their rocks. By evening, the fishermen pulled back. 

"Despite my anger, I couldn't leave this mutual hatred to fester, so I went ashore and spoke with the leader, reasoning that this conflict was senseless. I succeeded in persuading him, and we worked to find a peaceful solution. Years later, my deed of strong leadership reached Altador's ears, and he offered me and my clan to live off the shore of what would become this city. I accepted his offer, but not before testing his strength to see if he really was sincere, which he was. We would defend the city from enemies who would attempt to reach here by sea." 

Marak extended a hoof to another member of the Council, a Blue grarrl with green scleroses in a brown military uniform. Galea, breastplate, leather gauntlets, caligae, the works. He also had some bandages on his tail, and was seated next to the Blue Aisha.

(Grarrls are scaly bipedal neopets, notable for their enormous teeth, which are bared at every suitable occasion. They also have short, slender arms that are surprisingly feeble-looking in comparison to the legs, a long, strong tail, a broad body, and a powerful roar. They normally stand at around 100 centimeters.

"I am Torakor, the Gladiator. In the days of old, armies often collided, at the cost of many lives and lots of money for funding the troops. Sometimes, to spare these costs, each army would settle a battle with the Rules of Engagement, a one-on-one between their greatest warriors. I was one of those warriors, and won many victories for my commanding general. He thought his army was invincible with me in it, and decided to expand his territories.

"I was troubled at this, but did not question him… until we came upon a small village. We surrounded it, and he challenged it via the Rules of Engagement. A quivering shoyru with a garden hoe was unfortunately their only champion. The army burst into laughter, but as for me, I decided to represent them. Enraged, the general ordered my elimination, but the prospect of fighting one of their own—thousands to one, no less (even I wouldn't have lasted long)—was horrifying enough for them to instead defect from him. And before I knew it, I had my own army."

"We became known for protecting villages instead of sacking them, and it wasn't long before I received a letter from Altador himself, informing me that a new city could use an army with such virtue in their leader. I was a bit skeptical at first, so when I came, I engaged him in battle to test his worth. He proved to be a skilled warrior, we became close friends, and I accepted the offer."

Torakor then indicated an Orange skeith with brown hair and a goatee in a blue official's uniform and red sash. He was seated to the right of Psellia from the perspective of the delegates.

(Skeiths are draconian neopets who can either go biped or quadruped, and are very solidly built with large bodies, tails and thighs. They have two small wings on their shoulder blades, spiky ridges down their spines, and strong tails tipped with a triangular plate. They are also notable for their large ears, obvious underbite, and stand at around 90 centimeters.)

"I am Gordos, the Collector. I'm the city's tax collector." he then noticed the wary eyes of some of the ponies. "Yes, I know that when it comes to the world of financial dealings, it's very easy to fall to evil but let me explain how and why I'm part of Altador's council. I once served a city that heavily taxed its citizens. I felt bad for taking so much of their earnings, but the governor insisted that every neopoint is put to good use and the high taxes were necessary for the city to prosper. I took his word at first, but eventually I saw the city fall into ruin, crime, and poverty."

"I wondered why a city with so much tax revenue was not flourishing, so I went to the governor. I was denied entrance, but I pushed my way in and would you believe what I saw; his home was lavishly decorated, there was plenty of exquisite rugs and expensive art, and on the dinner table was food on golden plate and goblets, enough for thirty. I was livid! The tax money had gone to his gold platters while the people starved."

"I confronted the governor and he attempted to bribe me into silence with his riches, but I wasn't having any of that. I outed him to the authorities, he was removed from office, and not only did I sell the luxuries and returned the profits to the people, I also reduced the tax rate by four-fifths. My deed of honesty despite the vice of riches surrounding me came to Altador's attention, and before I knew it I was part of his council, not just when it comes to riches, but also for artifacts, other supplies, and even information."

Erstwhile, upon hearing 'honesty', Pinkie's ear twitched again, and this time, everybody noticed as it came along with a moan from the earth pony. Twilight was quick to defuse the awkward silence, "Sorry, it's just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie. She's always been weird, and I've learned the hard way never to question her moments like these."

After taking a moment in silence, Gordos gestured to a Blue techo with green eyes and yellow scleroses (as with many techos) in a dark green cape and similarly-colored clothing that just screamed "thief". He was seated at the right-most seat, next to Siyana.

(Techos are scaly bipedal neopets with three-toed feet, a long, sturdy tail, very large eyes positioned on either side of their head, and markings on their face that contrast with the color of their skin. They normally stand at around 60 centimeters.)

"I'm Kelland, the Thief. I'll admit it's strange for someone of my stature to be part of Altador's Council, but remember that it also had someone like the Darkest Faerie, who only turned on us a long time after the founding of this city, that'll be explained later. My deed that landed me among them was, as expected, back in the old days. I was a firm believer in freedom, and I saw the darkness as a way to avoid scrutiny. And from that I came to understand that true liberty came from embracing the unknown rather than fearing it. Back then, I didn't question my role in society, it was just the way I am. 

"Until one day, when I saw a tired worker collect his weekly wages and headed down a dark alley. His money was promptly swiped by a robber. I took witness of this, and something awoke deep inside of me. I returned to the thieves' den that night, and saw the robber lounging about. I was disgusted with how smug he felt, and stealthily swiped the coin puch back, with him none the wiser. Back in the streets, I saw the worker sullenly trudge home. Once he was inside, I knocked on his door, left the pouch, and hid on the roof."

"He gasped in joy upon seeing the pouch, and said that whoever returned this has his eternal gratitude, and left a few coins for me, not that he knew it was me. I felt…fulfilled, something I never had throughout my life of crime. From then on, I used my skills for good whenever I could, protecting the working poor from crime. Word soon spread of my deeds of charity, and Altador invited me. While the Darkest Faerie had already been Altador's friend by that time, it was my suggestion that she be part of the Council too. Since we were both Dark-aligned, her by element, me by background, Siyana initially distrusted us, but she eventually came to an understanding."

Kelland then gestured to a Yellow acara with green eyes, pink eye shadow, long red hair tied in a ponytail, a khaki cape, and a humble brown stola. She was seated to the left of Gordos. She offered a gentle smile before speaking, "I am Fauna, the Gatherer. I once lived in a small farm where the apples I tended grew to an enormous size and were the most delicious in all the land. The villagers smile and wave when I passed by, and petpets often followed at my heels. Even so, there were those who would do harm to them in my area, and I would protect them at any cost, even if I have to drive them away."

"One day, to my confusion, the petpets who follow me were nowhere to be seen. An old usul explained that the storm a night prior scared them so badly they ran off into the dark. I knew many predators roamed the edge of town, so I set off to find the petpets, followed by two pitchfork-wielding townsfolk for my protection. After a while, I heard one of their squeals, and we hurried over to find one of the petpets cornered by a giant, snarling creature. It glared at us as we approached, and managed to scare my 'protectors' in at least backing away.

"I on the other hand held out an apple to the beast. Even as it bared its teeth, I held my ground. Eventually, it took the apple, and I proceeded to stroke its mane. I remember the villagers falling over in shock when it began to lick my face." All of a sudden, Pinkie began to giggle, doing her best to not guffaw right then and there. Fauna didn't seem to take offense, though. "Is something funny with my recollection?"

The earth pony shook her head. "Not at all. It's just that…now that I think about it, you're very similar to Fluttershy here." She pulled the yellow pegasus over to indicate her. "She's very good at taking care of animals, and very kind too. You know, one time, me and my friends—though we weren't exactly friends friends yet—had to get past a scary monster. Everypony else was all for forcing their way through, but Fluttershy convinced us to wait. Well, after trying and failing a few times. Turns out the monster had a thorn in its paw." Her voice then lowered into a whisper as she leaned in Fauna's direction. "Though she didn't actually know it yet." Pinkie then pulled back and resumed normal tone. "After removing the thorn, the beast began to pick her up and…lick her in the face like a lost puppy, allowing us to pass through!"

Just as she finished, a magenta aura surrounded her and she was pulled to the back. Judging by the aura, the culprit was Twilight, and she immediately let off a nervous giggle as she mainly faced Altador. "I'm terribly sorry for her actions, Your Majesty. I've been telling her to control herself before coming here, but it just seems to be difficult for her."

"It's all right," said Altador as he faced Fauna. "Please continue."

The acara in the Council nodded. "In any case, the tale of my patience and kindness spread far and wide, reaching Altador's ears as well." Pinkie giggled a bit, but quickly stopped herself. Her right ear did continue to twitch a while longer, though. "When he came to invite me in his council though, I was in the process of fiercely protecting my land. And one day, when I was resting after a weary session, he came at my door, and he explained his intentions. Once I understood, and realizing I ended up being the first 'threat' to this future kingdom, and that I had been repelling its to-be-settlers, I joined his cause immediately. I believe it's your turn, Jerdana." she indicated the Blue aisha sitting next to Altador.

"Thank you, Fauna." The aisha turned to face the delegates. "I am Jerdana, the Protector. Before I joined the Council of Twelve, I was a wanderer. I got by on neopets I help for food and shelter. I was looking for something, but I didn't know what. And then one night, I came across Altador, though I have yet to know his name, sitting by a campfire, and he offered to share his food before I even asked. We sat and spoke for a time, we didn't notice a pack of werelupes until they surrounded us."

"Werelupes?" Twilight asked. "What's their difference between ordinary lupes?"

Finneus, who had stayed quiet the entire time, spoke up. "The difference between werelupes and ordinary lupes are that the former are generally more savage, moreso in the night. Their fur is also dark brown, at least the grunts."

"And to make things confusing, a Halloween-Colored lupe has the same appearance as a werelupe," snarked Messerole, though with a hint of humor.

"Altador made to attack, but I knew we were outnumbered, so I threw up a barrier that kept them at bay until they gave up and loped off into the night," Jerdana continued. "Altador was astounded by my power in magic, and offered me a place in his council. I finally found my calling, and joined him."

All of a sudden, Pinkie burst into a fit of laughter. This earned a worried face from Twilight, and curious looks from the neopets and faeries. "Pinkie!" Twilight scolded.

The earth pony's laugh abruptly stopped. "Sorry, Twilight. It's just that…five of their stories just reminded me a lot about us!" She gestured to Florin. "Generosity!" Then to Sasha. "Laughter!" Gordos. "Honesty!" Fauna. "Kindness!" Jerdana. "Magic! Though I haven't heard one for Loyalty."

"Um, do you know what she is talking about?" Florin asked Twilight.

"I think she's referencing the Elements of Harmony." The 'leader' of the delegates turned to face Altador. "Which are six magical artifacts in Equestria that represent subject aspects of… well, harmony; honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty, and magic, the Magic of Friendship. Their purpose mainly serves to purify forces of evil, or undo the damage those forces have done." She made a pointed glare at Pinkie, 'telling' her not to spout out anything else. Like the fact that the artifacts needed bearers, or that they were those bearers; that can come at another much later time.

They didn't know it, but it was obvious to Altador that they did not tell everything, but the king knew it wouldn't be right to force their…hoof. Every nation has their secrets, and there's no need to delve into it unless it directly concerns them. He didn't voice this however.

"I see. Now it's time for my tale," he spoke up, returning everybody to the topic they previously started on. "I was raised in a city of corrupt leaders, and one by one my neighbors left to seek a better life until little remained. The citizens left, looking for somewhere else to make a new start. Though still young at the time, I did my best to help by hunting for food, thus honing my skills in archery. We soon managed to settle and build a new village and prospered, though it was difficult without a city's resources and minimal trade."

"By the time I was an adult, I left to seek out a new city with good and just leaders. But as I traveled, I heard of the greedy and power-hungry governors all over, and their people suffering for it. I would've given up on my quest, had I not come upon a lush plain beside a beautiful shore, and I thought 'This would be a good place for a city. Too bad there isn't one here already.'

"And that's when I realized, maybe I should found my own city. But it would take years, and I would have to find others with the same dream, others who would swear to uphold what is right over what is easy, and not fall into corruption. As you have heard…" he gestured to all the Council members present. "…They, and her…" It was obvious who he meant by that. "…are among the ones I found. I gathered them, more from other scattered villages including my old home, and united them under one banner. 

"The years passed, and our city flourished. Together, the twelve of us pledged that we would form the greatest and most noble city to ever grace Neopia's landscape. Even I, when not holding court, would help build the city alongside my subjects. The Darkest Faerie suggested magic be used to speed up the process, but I replied that one appreciates a home far more when they themselves place its stones. Indeed, when it was finished, nobody littered, nobody made markings on the walls, for we worked hard to build our city and doing so would dishonor that.

"For the record, I did not actually name this city after myself. Rather, when the time came, the twelve of us submitted the name in a ballot box, and when I pulled each piece of parchment from it, I saw that everyone but myself wrote 'Altador' as their suggestion." There were nods of agreement from the rest of the Council, affirming his words. "Soon, the caravans came, trading began, and our city became a center of culture and enlightenment. To ensure it survived the ages, Siyana blessed the mortals among us with the gift of great longevity."

"You might ask why I haven't shared this with the rest of the world. Well, the Darkest Faerie asked the same thing, and suggested I send Torakor and his army to unite them under my fair rule. I admitted that on the surface it sounded like a good idea, but I refused, reasoning that I would be no better than the general Torakor stood against if I did that, even if I thought it would be for their own good."

"The dangers of a well-intentioned extremist," muttered Tychophon. "It's easy to slip off the deep end, and you can't often tell until it's too late, and maybe not even then."

"Yes," agreed Jerdana. "She didn't like it, but she knew he was right. Perhaps turning down her ideas was why she eventually  betrayed us. Over time, she plotted to take over Altador, removing all history of the rest of us in the process both physically and magically, but thanks to me and Queen Fyora, she was narrowly thwarted, turned to stone, and cast to the bottom of the ocean," Jerdana continued. "Unfortunately, it came at a price; our city was trapped within a time bubble and disappeared off the face of Neopia for as long as the Darkest Faerie. According to later visitors, a thousand years have passed before she escaped once more.

"Returning to Neopia, she sought to take over the kingdom of Meridell to recover the wand Fyora used to seal her, which had been buried there," Altador continued. "Next she attacked Faerieland itself, and fought with Fyora. In a desperate attempt to seek help, she created a portal to Altador for two young heroes, Tormund and Roberta. After gathering us all together, Jerdana handed them a magical amulet for their use and for sealing the Darkest Faerie once more."

"Gather you all together?" asked Rarity.

"The details of that is a tale of its own and it best told by those two heroes. You'll find them in Meridell and Brightvale," Jerdana stated. "After I sent them back to Faerieland, we enacted on a contingency plan should they fail, which they didn't. Using a very complex spell, I began to magically veil the memories and history books of everyone and everything in Altador, so that the Darkest Faerie could not bewitch us into believing she was the true ruler. Thanks to another part of that spell, it was eventually broken by a User.

"You see, part of the complexities of my spell is that it doesn't merely draw from me; I made it run on a separate power source, which I hid in the Darkest Faerie's statue. That other part of the spell provided for magical clues that would eventually lead the User to the mechanism for destroying her statue. It was a long and drawn-out process, to ensure that only the persistent (And whose who looked up guides made by those who cleared it, Euryflavia added mentally.) can solve it. The Darkest Faerie wasn't one for obscure puzzles."

"I see," Twilight spoke. "But… "





Sorry, dear readers, but I feared I would be putting way too much text on the Council portion than on the rest of Altador. Basically, what happened next is that an explanation of provided on why the Council seemed to know nightelf_37's neopets; The High Users, one of them being the User who broke the spell, decided that the puzzle would be interesting for Users, so they created a magical field around the city that would take Users to different "time periods", a very complex process I'm not gonna explain here (I put up something in the TV Tropes page on Neopets under the WMG sub-section). After that, the council requested nightelf_37's neopets to leave the chamber while they and the delegates discussed…diplomatic stuff, but not before the four yellow ones asked for a favor regarding the Colosseum…





Once the delegates of Equestria were finished discussing with the council, they rejoined their tour guides as they took them to the various places in Altador, starting with the Altadorian Archives as they first planned to go, where they showed the various clubs (especially the astronomy Club), then to the other (for-Users) stores, which sold food, armor, petpets, and magic items. The ponies were awed with the verdant greenery in the entire city, the aqueduct system was really innovative, and indeed there was no littering or graffiti in sight.

Before long, the group of ten reached the Colosseum, and entered its halls before making their way to the central area, where two teams of neopets were practicing a game. One team was composed of chias (normally 60 cm-tall neopets shaped like squashed ovals, have chubby arms and legs, and have no distinction between head and body) that seemed to be made of…some sort of gelatinous substance. And the other team was an assortment of more-or-less normal anthro Neopets, and—judging by their uniforms—they were a sports team local to Altador. There was also a red scorchio in a referee outfit and a whistle just outside the field boundaries. He was obviously the referee.

The sport was reminiscent of soccer, though with only five members per team, and the ball wasn't kicked around but instead held by 'catchers' on their arms (either the left or the right, mostly the right). And when the ball (colored brown) was hurled by one of the players, it was evident that it was actually a living creature curled into itself like an armadillo. One of the ponies moved, and everybody instinctively stopped her, and surprisingly she didn't struggle. And then Tychophon did a double-take upon realizing they were holding back Fluttershy.

And then he remembered something Pinkie Pie said about her when comparing the pegasus with Fauna; they both cared for animals, and can be scary when coming to their defense. The difference here was that as a native to Neopia, Fauna knows that these yooyus were not being abused; the neopets can only imagine Fluttershy's thought process upon realizing the balls the two teams were throwing around were living things.

And then the assorted team scored as one of them hurled the living ball to the goal defended by the…gelatinous chias, and the goalkeeper failed to catch the yooyu in time, in which the ball uncurled itself and jumped in cheer. And then the referee blew his whistle, making a short 'beep'. The players returned to their positions, and the yooyu rolled out of the field's bounds to be picked up later. The ponies observed that the teams consisted of two forwards, two defenders, and one goalkeeper.

Messerole then decided to supply them with a little more info. "That two-two formation is just one of three. There's also the one-three formation and the three-one formation, offensive and defensive respectively. It all boils down to preference and team chemistry."

And then something happened in the center of the playing field. Unlike the rest of it, which was all sand and dirt, this was two metal plates, akin to a 'door'. And then that opened and another yooyu popped out. In an instant, the forwards were on the ball-like petpet like cats to a ball of yarn or a mouse.

The match was as heated as any other sport. Quick passes, stealing the ball (somehow), scoring attempts, and at least one hint of unfair play. In the end, the local team (Team Altador) seemed victorious over the team of gelatinous chias (Practice Team) as the referee signaled the end of the match with a long whistle. 

And then the leader, an anthro Green poogle, spoke to the rest of his team, "Nice work, everybody! We'll get the trophy one day!" And then he turned to where the tour party is. "Ah! The delegates from Equestria! Right on schedule!"

"On… schedule?" parroted Twilight. The other ponies were equally confused. In the meantime, the team of chias and the poogle's teammates left the field. 

"His Majesty asked that you partake in at least one game of Yooyuball. Your tour of Altador isn't complete without playing its national game."

"Come on," urged Tychophon as he reached into the bag for something. "It'll be fun. We even brought our own Yooyuball."

"That won't be necessary, kid," said the poogle. "The field's been set up for you."

"Thank you very much, sir," Twilight said politely. "Oh, I didn't catch your name."

"'Trapper' Remis, Yooyuball Team Captain for Team Altador."





A half-hour later, the tour group was ready to take part in their Yooyuball game, fitted with Yooyuball uniforms that were then given a quick paint job with a magic paintbrush, but not the ones that change a neopet's or petpet's Color (and not for sale to Users). There was some adjustments for the ponies though, since not only the Uni-sized uniforms were slightly bigger, there has been no Uni in Altador Cup history that has played the role of a forward or defender (only goalie). There was also the issue of fitting the 'catchers' to them.

There were also limitations imposed to keep the game fair, some already established. Some of these were an 'altitude limit' to prevent the players with flight from going too far up (Euryflavia and Messerole were required to relinquish their wing gear for the duration of the game), tethers were attached to the unicorns' catchers and their uniforms to prevent them from 'reaching' farther than is possible for an average neopet Yooyuball player, and a speed regulation was set on Rainbow Dash to keep her from going too fast for a fair game.

Given that there were six delegates and four tour guides, one pony had to be transferred to the other team to keep the numbers even. To everypony's surprise, the neopets chose Fluttershy as their fifth member, using the claim of 'home advantage' as an excuse for their 'confidence'.

The teams went as follows: "Team Equestria" assumed the two-two formation, with Rainbow and Pinkie as forwards, Applejack and Twilight as defenders, and Rarity as the goalie, while "Team Yellow" on the other hand assumed the one-three formation, with Messerole, Tychophon, and Euryflavia as forwards, Fluttershy as defender, and Aquanax as goalie. 

The acara wanted to be on the front, but there were no uniforms accustomed to her for forward or defender. While there is an acara player in the history of Yooyuball, he's an anthro and she isn't. That and Messerole didn't want to be stuck in the back, and they settled the dispute with a rock-paper-scissors.

The only spectators for this 'exhibition match' were Team Altador, the practice team of Jelly chias, members of a secret club situated in this very Colosseum, a few visiting Altadorians, and some officials to ensure fair play in this match. The entrance to the playing field then opened, and the audience first saw the delegates as they walked in. 

Five of the six ponies were dressed in Yooyuball uniforms that were structurally similar to Faerieland's, except the primary colors were white and dark blue, and one of them wore a cowboy hat. The last pony's uniform was saffron and amber (two shades of yellow), an example followed by the four non-anthro neopets that followed; a shoyru, an acara, a grundo, and an usul.

Once the two playing teams were in their positions, the rules were reviewed for the sake of the delegates. After that, the center opened and a normal yooyu was launched skyward. All five forwards advanced, but Rainbow reached and nabbed it first with her catcher, which was attached to her right front hoof; she will not be able to rest on all fours for the duration of the match.

The pegasus promptly zoomed past the hesitant Fluttershy as the ground-bound forwards of Team Yellow immediately turned around to steal the ball, Pinkie pronked after her teammate, and Aquanax prepared to defend the goal. As soon as she was in what she judged as a good enough distance, Rainbow hurled the yooyu towards the opponent's goal, but the acara was ready. Taking off from the ground, she flew straight for the ball to counteract its velocity and caught it, just getting pushed back a bit as she landed.

Then, seeing two of her teammates waiting to be passed the ball, and Pinkie already moving to block one of them (Euryflavia), she twirled in place once to build momentum before hurling the yooyu straight for Messerole. The grundo caught the ball easily, then started to scud for Team Equestria's goal, but was ready to toss it to Tychophon, who was already positioning himself for a pass-shoot. Twilight stood below him, ready to jump so that her catcher can intercept it.

Already, Applejack was closing in on the grundo right in front of her, her catcher ready in her tail (the same went for Pinkie). Most of the other players at Team Yellow's end of the field were also making their move on the ball. Making his move, Messerole leaped straight over the earth pony, but Applejack reared up in surprise. Thankfully, she didn't do it early enough for him to end up smacking her in the face with his foot or his body, and he ended up just knocking off her hat instead. Still, it messed up his landing and he stumbled a bit, and it gave her enough time to turn around, approach the grundo, knock the yooyu out of his catcher and into hers.

Applejack turned to the approaching Pinkie, who has Euryflavia right behind her, then to Twilight, who had Tychophon above her ready to dive, then at Pinkie again. Knowing that Messerole will be ready in a few seconds to steal the yooyu back, and knowing that the shoyru might be able to grab the ball if she tossed it into the air for Rainbow to get, she hurled it at her (possible) distant cousin. However, the usul managed to get around Pinkie at this time, grab the yooyu, and dash away from her to make a run for the goal.

As she made to run between Team Equestria's two defenders, Euryflavia was coming to a minor conundrum as to how she could make the shot with the detail-critical Rarity standing in the way. She also doesn't know how experienced the fashionista might be in predicting an opponent's moves. Still, hesitation would give her opponent more time, so Euryflavia decided to leave it to chance and give it her best shot.

The yooyu sailed in the air towards one of the goal's corners, but Rarity was already close enough for her catcher to grab it. Since grabbing the yooyu with her magic is prohibited (and watched closely by an official), she reared back her catcher as she prepared to throw it, but then a whistle rang out. As it turns out, she had reared back her catcher so much that it was now in-bounds of the goal's area, scoring one point for Team Yellow.

Everybody groaned at this fluke (including the yooyu as it uncurled itself, hopped off, and rolled away), and a few even made outcries. Even neopet children who have seen a Yooyuball match knew not to make this mistake. Then again, telekinesis isn't a common ability among Neopets, and while Faeries do have some degree of it, they don't participate as players.

All the players returned to their positions as the stage prepared for the next yooyu to be launched.

The next yooyu turned out to be the Ice variant; snow white and ice blue, freezing to the touch, and flies slower without falling to the ground as a consequence of less velocity. It even falls faster, as if time is slowed down for the yooyu. This time, Euryflavia was the first to nab the ball, dashing forward before jumping to catch it.

Her follow-up landing was smooth and she was already advancing to the goal, Rainbow right behind her, Pinkie being blocked by Tychophon, and Twilight staring hard at the usul as she tried to predict her next move. Euryflavia elected to run straight for the unicorn, catching her a little off guard before then doing a left ninety-degree turn. However, Twilight managed to get her catcher to knock the yooyu out of the usul's (right-hand) catcher and into hers. The unicorn then quickly passed it to Rainbow, who immediately flew for Team Yellow's goal.





Erstwhile…

"Please, Fluttershy, at least make an effort in playing," Aquanax called out to her pony teammate. "We didn't choose you just so this can be a six-on-four. There aren't even that many spectators."

"I know. It's just that…"

"You haven't played against your friends before?"

A nod was the only response the acara saw.

"I have difficulty believing that. Anyway, remember that this is just a friendly match. No grudges will be held. It's all in good fun. And Rainbow Dash is already coming this way."

Indeed she was, and once again Fluttershy was easily bypassed, and once again it was up to Aquanax to defend the goal. This time, Rainbow moved closer than last time before hurling the yooyu at the goal. The acara was able to catch it once again, but the force of the throw was so strong despite the Ice yooyu's reduced speed she found herself within the goal's boundaries. Thankfully, the yooyu wasn't as well, so Team Equestria hasn't scored yet.

Unfortunately, Rainbow realized this wasn't soccer, where stealing the ball from the goalie was penalized, and swiftly swiped the yooyu from Aquanax, then shot it through the goal again, scoring a point for her team. The acara's eyes went red at that, but she knew this was a fair move, having seen it in numerous Yooyuball matches back in the Cups.





The next ball was the Fire yooyu; red and black, on (relatively harmless) fire, and flies very fast, even sometimes leaping right out of the players' hands when in their catchers for too long. Tychophon was the first to reach the ball this time, and as he weaved around Rainbow's attempts to steal the yooyu, before he was in range of the defenders, he spun once before tossing the ball, counting on its speed to make it to the goal before Rarity could react. 

Unfortunately, while Team Equestria's defenders were unable to get in the Fire yooyu's path, he underestimated the white unicorn as she was able to successfully get her catcher in its path and exert enough magic force to keep the yooyu from making it. After that, she tossed the ball to Applejack, who then galloped straight for the goal.

Messerole was closing in from the front and Tychophon from behind, but she was confident she could keep the ball away from them and get close enough to score a goal. Unfortunately, just as she successfully went around the grundo, the yooyu decided to be fickle and launch itself out of her catcher…and straight into Fluttershy's. She was naturally surprised to see herself catch the fireball, and as she looked at it, it uncurled itself momentarily and looked happy to see her before curling up again.

And then came the calls to pass the ball to them. From Tychophon being blocked by Rainbow at every turn, to Messerole being barred by Applejack, and to Euryflavia and Pinkie making swerves around each other without any rough handling. It was a difficult choice to make, but eventually she decided to toss it at the shoyru; from what she'd been able to pick up in the game so far, he seemed to be the best out of all of them, even though he's currently being blocked by the fastest flyer in Equestria.

With some swift aerial maneuvers, Tychophon was able to swerve below Rainbow before rising upward to catch the Fire yooyu. Then, he spun once before facing the opponent's goal and tossing the ball for a long shot. As it streaked straight for Rarity (or more precisely, past her), she prepped herself to catch it. The Element Bearers have faced numerous dangers before; one living fireball should be no problem.

The Fire yooyu landed soundly in the catcher, but Rarity had been so focused on it that she didn't notice Messerole already closing in, having ran to the goal the moment Fluttershy tossed the ball. Euryflavia was still being blocked by Pinkie, and Tychophon was feeling a little winded from his stunt, so it was up to the grundo. As quick he could, he snatched the ball from Team Equestria's goalie, and threw it down, landing on Rarity's left before bouncing upward and into the goal, scoring one more point for Team Yellow.





The next yooyu was the Clockwork yooyu. Completely mechanical, set on a timer to explode, and not actually a living yooyu, not even mentally; just basically a yooyu-shaped bomb, and a rather weak one, too. But because there was no time to assure Fluttershy that it wasn't going to off itself, the rest of Team Yellow had to act very fast to score before it blows up. In the meantime, it will slowly turn red, which will likely alert Team Equestria to do the same.

Once again, Rainbow was the first to reach it, and she was quick to speed towards Team Yellow's goal. Unlike the first time, Fluttershy was able to intercept it. However, it wasn't a good enough effort to steal the ball, but it was enough for the speedy pegasus to drop it. 

Messerole managed to grab the yooyu and started making his way to the goal, only for Pinkie to intercept him. He barely managed to keep the ball away from her, saw Euryflavia right past her ready to catch, and immediately ran to the closest side of the field. On the grundo's other side, Rainbow was already closing in to nab the yooyu from him. The moment he thought it was okay, Messerole performed what was known as an outlet pass, where one passes the yooyu to another player by making it bounce at an angle off the arena wall; a maneuver coined by one Ilsa Ellits of Team Meridell. 

The maneuver was a complete success, and Euryflavia received the ball flawlessly before speeding straight for the goal. Twilight was busy mentally analyzing the outlet pass before noticing Euryflavia moving to bypass her. Quickly, she made to steal the ball, but the usul vaulted straight over her when she thought the neopet was going to go around. Once the bushy-tailed Neopet was back on solid ground, she made a dash for the goal. Rarity stood on guard, ready to catch the ball…until she saw it turning red and steaming. The second the usul hurled the ball, Rarity was quick to snatch it, and—in a moment of panic—was quick to hurl it skyward.

Tychophon debated flying up to catch it, and he wouldn't be penalized for breaching the 'altitude limit' if it was only to catch a yooyu, but he would have to fly back down to the 'limit' before he could toss it, so he decided to try and anticipate its descent. Rainbow did the same thing and the two ended up trying to push each other away while adhering to the rules. 

Just as the ball reached the both of them, the shoyru noticed it was at its breaking point and immediately bugged out. The pegasus didn't as the Clockwork yooyu exploded, catching them both in the blast. Thankfully, due to secret materials, the yooyu did not leave shrapnel upon blowing up. Mysteriously, three bodies fell to the ground, but the unconscious one was neither of those sent crashing from the explosion.

"I guess one of us should've told her the Clockwork yooyu was just a non-sentient machine," Messerole noted as he looked at the fainted Fluttershy.





The next yooyu, after two more normal ones, was the Darigan yooyu; purple and black, evil red eyes, leathery wings, sharp teeth, and a mischievous attitude, not going where its thrower wants it to go. Rainbow should've know something was up, but didn't have time to ponder on that as she caught it—and seeing none of Team Yellow's forwards make a move for it—and zoomed towards the goal. As soon as she was in range, not quite getting Aquanax's smug look, she tossed the yooyu, only for it to decide to go the other way as soon as it left her catcher.

"What?!"

"That's the thing about those yooyus," said the acara goalie. "They never go where you throw them."

"Then how do you even score a goal with that kind of ball?!"

"Luck and reverse psychology."

Meanwhile, the Darigan yooyu was now in Fluttershy's catcher, and she overheard Aquanax's explanation. However, she still didn't know what to do with it. Still, she figured she should throw it. With a short plea, she hurled it right for Euryflavia, who was closest, but the ball instead flew into Meserole's general direction, where Pinkie also happened to be. 

The grundo was the first to catch it and clutched it close as he barely managed to weave out of the earth pony's way as he ran for the goal. He and his user-mates, through watching countless games, knew the "sweet spots" where the Darigan yooyu would fly straight to the closest goal…provided one was facing a certain direction.

He reached one of these sweet spots and hurled the yooyu just before Pinkie could approach and grab it from him. To her surprise, as well as Rarity's, the ball went straight to Team Equestria's goal and it was another point for Team Yellow.





After a return of the fire yooyu, the Faerie yooyu was next to go; pink-and-purple, beautiful faerie wings, and with a tendency to curve in its trajectory. For once, Messerole was the first to grab the yooyu. Unfortunately for Rainbow, stealing the ball from him, which she can easily do, is against the rules as he wasn't a flyer; he has to make contact with the ground first. Thankfully, Pinkie was ready to do that for her. The instant the grundo's feet made contact with the dirt ground, the earth pony pilfered the ball from his catcher and put it straight into hers.

As she sped to the goal, Euryflavia was hotfooting it to intercept her, but she wouldn't make it in time as Pinkie took a chance for a long shot and hurled it forward…only for it to curve upward, where Fluttershy happened to be, and land straight to her catcher.

"Wow. It rarely curves upward," Tychophon noted to himself before yelling, "Pass it to me!"

Used to the game by now, the pegasus did as he asked, even as Rainbow moved between them, and the yooyu curved as the shoyru predicted. Having been tricked once before by the darigan yooyu, she immediately zoomed for the yooyu, even as Tychophon made for it as well. She managed to grab the yooyu, but the neopet knocked it off of her catcher shortly after and got it into his as he U-turned it to Team Equestria's goal. Knowing the Faerie yooyu's tendencies, and seeing it happen in previous games, throwing it from the air often resulted in it going out of bounds, which would give the other team the yooyu.

So he was forced to cruise close to the ground, where Pinkie. Applejack, and Twilight would be able to easier intercept his throw. Even now, he was sure the unicorn already passed on a plan in anticipation of the Faerie yooyu's abilities. Still, there was nothing much he could do about that, so he just flew right for Applejack to avoid Twilight. He held no illusions that the orange pony was going to be easy to weave around, but the purple one had longer range. Still, he managed to pull it off, doing an aileron roll to keep his yooyu out of Applejack's reach, then closed in on the goal; tossing the yooyu now would only have a small chance of hitting the goal, let alone scoring.

Once he judged he was close enough, he did a spin before throwing the Faerie yooyu, holding onto faith in that it'd curve how he predicted it would. Rarity stood at the ready, catcher fully extended, and her attention on the yooyu as it then curved. Unfortunately for the shoyru, she managed to intercept the yooyu in time, and took a few seconds to consider who to throw it to and how to take into account its curve. Tychophon was already closing in, so was Pinkie, Euryflavia and Messerole were already blocking her ground-bound defenders, and Rainbow was waving to get the ball passed to her. Seeing the two forwards in the same Y-axis from her point of view, she hoped that despite the faerie yooyu's curving trajectory, her throw would be able to head for Rainbow or Pinkie's general direction.

Tychophon's musing of the faerie yooyu was right, though, and the yooyu curved toward Messerole and Twilight. Seeing where it was going, the grundo made to hop up to catch it, but his head made contact with the unicorn's catcher as it was extended right above him for the faerie yooyu to land on. She then made a break for the goal, not trusting the random curve of the yooyu to throw it to Rainbow.

"Keep the forwards busy!" she directed.

Already, Pinkie was doing just that to Euryflavia, Team Equestria's pegasus intercepted the shoyru, and Applejack was moving to get in Messerole's way, who is right behind Twilight. There was also Fluttershy to deal with, and she held no illusions that the pegasus would make it easy, despite looking very much like she would.

The yellow pegasus moved in as predicted, and while the six don't exactly practice evasive maneuvers against one another, Twilight was able to predict Fluttershy's next move and swerve past her dive for the yooyu. And to avoid collision, Messerole had to slow down, which was enough time for Applejack to block his path. 

With her as the last line of defense, Aquanax reared up so that both her forelegs are ready to catch the yooyu as soon as Twilight threw it. The unicorn was closing it, and the moment she realized the yooyu wasn't going to be thrown when she expected it, she realized that Twilight was going to make a close shot; it was the only absolute certain way to score a goal. Her opponent already had her catcher outstretched, and the acara knew that this would be very disadvantageous for her. 

As soon as Twilight was in range, she made to block where she thought Twilight was going to throw the yooyu. Then, as soon as she thought her opponent was about to turn out to have made a feint, she made to call it and block the next move accordingly, only for Twilight to…well…

Both actually fumbled in this part and Aquanax nearly fell over, but Twilight eventually won this game of deception as well as a point for Team Equestria when the Faerie yooyu decided to jump out of the catcher; the Fire one simply has a shorter level of patience. Pony and neopet were shocked at this result.





(A/N: I decided to skip out on writing the rest of the match; it was a great source of writer's block and why I hadn't been able to advance this story much for so long. Sorry for skipping the Mutant yooyu for those who wanted to see it.)

After the game, as well as the short ceremony for the winners, the party of ten, now out of their Yooyubal uniforms (and back into their wing equipment in the case of the two that did have such) were now aboard a mode of cross-Neopian transportation the four tour guides have never realized was around until now: the Eyrie Cab service. They started in Neopia Central before eventually setting up branches wherever Eyries can fly to, which basically everywhere but the Virtupets Space Station (because it's in space, Kreludor (same reason), Lutari Island (all those storms), Moltara (it's underground, but they have a stop at the entrance from the surface), and Jelly World (because "it doesn't exist").

Pinkie was particularly wary upon seeing an eyrie up close for the first time, and Fluttershy showed a moment of fright before calming down. When asked, Rainbow explained that the two have had a particularly bad experience with a griffon before, a former friend of hers named Gilda. Of course, they've seen other griffons since then like one esteemed baker named Gustave le Grand, so it's not going to be a big issue.

Right now, the group were in two cabs they hired to take them to Shenkuu. Two medium-sized ones that can fit up to six each were taken to accommodate the group. Rainbow wanted to opt out of taking the ride for flying alongside the cabs, but since everybody was fatigued from the yooyuball tournament, she was convinced to ride with the rest. On an unrelated note, the neopets' wings (artificial and natural) weren't good for flying for long periods (and Tychophon wasn't as fatigued as the others). 

The group were separated in two groups for each cab; one would hold Tychophon, Messerole, Twilight, Applejack, Aquanax, and Rainbow, while the other would hold Pinkie, Euryflavia, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Messerole. The cabs themselves were colored like the ones in Manehattan, though were completely enclosed with roofs and windows to protect from the wind, although the latter can be opened separately from the doors.

"So, Shenkuu is our next destination, is that right?" Twilight asked.

"That's right," Tychophon replied. "It's the next nearest land from Altador aside from the Lost Desert."

"I know the tour is supposed to take a few days or so, but…how many cities are you taking us to?"

"Nineteen, minus the four we've already been to, which makes fifteen. Probably sixteen if one counts Darigan Citadel as separate from Meridell. Why? How long do you expect we'll be here?"

"About a week, two at most. But judging by how long it's been since we awoke in your Neohome, if days in Neopia are as long as in Equestria, I think our tour might finish well before then."

"I see."

"What can we expect upon reaching Shenkuu?"

"It's mainly a merchant town, though until more than a decade ago, nobody knew of its existence, until…"

"Is this gonna be another story?" Rainbow asked as she looked out the window of the cab.

"Yup," agreed Aquanax as she moved for the other window, seeing the other cab, where she can see Messerole trying to tune out the 'girl talk' being exchanged between Rarity and Euryflavia, and then opened the window,. Neither eyrie flying the cabs made any warning to keep the windows closed (some neopets liked to fell the wind in their face, and there were no immediate airborne dangers at the moment), though they were ready just in case. She got the grundo's attention and he opened his window.

"What is it?!" he called over.

"Cyodrake's Gaze! Story time!"

"That's the fourth time today!" The Tale of Woe, the two Lost Desert tales, and now this.

"I know, right?!" After that, the two closed their cabs' windows and turned to the delegates.

"What was that about?" Fluttershy asked Messerole.

"It's time for another story. About an airship called the Cyodrake's Gaze…"