> Dimension Jumper
>  by redtau
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Hard Landing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	There is a saying amongst dimensional travelers; the first experience in a new dimension usually defines one's experience in the dimension. Others have told me of stepping out on views of majestic waterfalls or dual moon rises. James said he once stepped out and was hip deep in dung, and how everything had gone downhill from there.

I awoke to being thrown free of my exploding conversion pod and into a raging forest fire, so this was certain to be a wonderful time.

What the hell? Get up.

I lay on the grass, my eyes stinging from smoke.

GET UP

When you sign up to go dimension hopping, the ARCO Company doesn't just throw you naked into the void. Every adventurer is outfitted with a pair of very helpful companions. The first was a spirit, ARCO techs don't like to use the word “Demon”. Truth be told, the spirits don't like that word either, but they do get a little too excited over the word “soul”.

Mine, a crass spirit called 'D', was currently taking temporary control of my body. It rolled me over, lifting me up. The explosion had disoriented and dazed me. The moon shone overhead, wreathed in fire and smoke.

WAKE UP SARAH! I am NOT dragging your ass out of here on autopilot.

I was confused, but some part of me started to respond to the conditions around me. I snatched up a standard issue backpack (still in one piece, thank God) and began to grab stuff with my right hand.

It took only two failed attempts to realize I no longer had my right hand. In fact my entire right arm was gone; the cybernetic component that comprised it was missing. With it was my second companion.

As I found new things to panic over, my left hand was busy grabbing anything nearby and stuffing it into the backpack.

Now run!

What could I do? I ran, swinging the backpack on to my back and charging through the woods. My eyes adjusted to the thin moonlight and starlight that trickled through the leaves as I ran.

Off to my right I caught a blur of motion, brown fur, claws and teeth. Damn, things on this world are big. I ran on, vaulting fallen logs and small streams, dodging under low branches, forcing my way through thick shrubs and patches of bright blue flowers. I ran until I was gasping for breath, until my legs burned and my vision was starting to blur. My exhaustion finally caught up with me, and I collapsed at the base of a tree to rest.

As I looked around, it struck me just how far I had run. The forest had given way to sparser woods, and I found myself on the outskirts of a farm, the large red barn visible in the distance in the moonlight. I spotted a pond nearby and limped over to it, my muscles cramping and burning after the long run. Once next to it, I glared into its depths. In the moonlight the pond looked clear, but it could have been bright green or deep purple for all I knew. I swung the backpack down and began pawing through it for its contents.

A utility knife, about 50 ft. of rope, three or four small pieces of the burned conversion pod, a cleansing canteen, and finally my cybernetic arm containting my AI "Machina". The arm was currently in travel mode, a cylinder about 4 inches across and two feet long. I pushed the activation button and nothing happened. Either it wasn't charged, it isn't functioning in this dimension, or Machina knows what happened to the conversion pod and is afraid of blowing up. I sighed and picked up the cleansing canteen. It was designed to clear any chemical or biological impurities out of any drink put into it. A dunk in the pond filled it, I capped it and-

DON'T PUSH THAT!

“What?” I had almost dropped the canteen.

Everything else has EXPLODED! At least poke it with a stick or something!

“Ah, right.”

I placed the canteen carefully on the ground, found a long branch and poked the ON button from a distance.

Nothing happened. I counted slowly to thirty.

“Happy?”

Very.

I picked up the canteen, opened the cap and threw back a mouth full.

Which I then quickly spit out. The canteen had dumped all of its various cleansing products at once, making a chemical stew that was almost poisonous. I need to wash this stuff out of my mouth Guess I'm getting pond water straight from the source. A few mouth-fulls of surprisingly clean water did well to restore my health and vigor, and wash the taste from my mouth. Maybe things weren't as bad as they seemed.

I walked to a nearby fruit tree, (is that an apple?) and clambered up into the higher branches to sleep. A ripe whatever it was hung temptingly near my head, but I was determined not to eat anything until I could see it in the sunlight. Wrapping the rope around myself so I wouldn't fall in the night, I drifted off to sleep.





*Thock*

*Thock*

I woke, bleary eyed, to the sound of someone chopping wood. I gazed down through the branches and was surprised to see an orange horse, with a pair of large baskets fastened to it like saddlebags. It was harvesting the apples by bucking the tree and shaking down all the lose ones. As I watched, it walked over to one of the fallen apples and picked it up with its hoof, tossing it back into the basket.

How the hell does that work? The bone structure alone is impressive, but how is it picking things up without fingers or anything?

A soft buzzing sound floated to my ears, and I turned my attention upwards. There, lying on a branch just beyond the leaves was another small horse. This one was powder blue and looked like it had wings. It appeared to be napping, and must have just missed me in the branches. Seen closer, it was a smaller than a normal horse, more like a pony.

“Glindor?!”

The pony below had just made some kind of noise.

“Glindor del nep gone dala!”

“What is it doing?” I whispered

I think its talking to the blue one.

Ponies....
Talking ponies....
Talking Technicolor ponies....

“What was in that water?”

I think this is the dominant species here.

“Then I'm going to need a translator, and a disguise.” I hissed as quietly as possible.

That is going to cost you; I'm running on very limited energy right now.

“What do you want?”

A finger, your pinkie at least.

“Fine, take it, but make it quick.”

I bit my sleeve to keep quiet as my pinkie finger dissolved. The spirit could use pieces of flesh, blood and bone to power its abilities like shape shifting and translation. It hurt though, like whatever piece it took was eaten off with boiling electrified acid. A soft whimper escaped my lips as the powers began to take hold.

“Five more minutes.” The blue pony muttered, rolling onto its side away from the orange one.

“Rainbow Dash, if ya'll don git down from thar Ah'll buck you down.”

“Illusion.” I hissed as I pulled awkwardly at the rope binding me to the tree, trying to quietly and quickly free myself. “Shape shift. Something! I need a disguise.” My form began to flow, and I felt my clothing shift with me as I became more pony like. I struggled to wrap the rope up with a hand that was becoming more and more hoof by the second.

“You wouldn’t really buck me down, would you Applejack?”

“Wouldn't Ah?”

I realized, at the last minute the error in untying myself from the tree. *Thock* The upper branches shook violently.

“Woah!” The blue pegasus spread it's wings and took off. I, on the other hand, found myself treading air.

“AAAAAH!” I crashed to the mercifully soft grass below, then sat up and rubbed the back of my head.

“What the- miss, are you OK?” Applejack called.

“Whoa...”

“What? I'm alright, just a little-” I stared at my hoof and blinked a few times “plaid...” I knew ponies could be blue and orange, but plaid? Not just a simple shades of red checker style, but that eye searing red and green crisscross. “Why am I plaid?”

It’s not me, I can't change it!

“That’s an extreme makeover” the blue one (Rainbow Dash?) was standing just a few feet away. “You alright miss?”

“Whah were ya in mah tree? An wuah are y'all... plaid?”

“I'm not sure. Last thing I remember was running through the forest.” I point off to the thick woods. Even during the day they look foreboding.

“Oh,” Applejack nodded, “did you touch any bright blue flowers while ya’ll were out there?”

“Yeah, I ran through a small patch.”

“Oh man, you got pranked good.” Rainbow Dash was on the ground rolling with laughter.

“What?”

“That stuff is poison joke.” Rainbow said between giggles.

“It 'plays a joke' on any pony that touches it.” Applejack explained, a serious expression on her face. “It made me the size of a mouse, and caused Rainbow here to crash constantly.” She smirked, “Though it was hard to tell.”

“Hey, I'll have you know I am Ponyville's top aerial acrobat and fastest flier! I even won the best young flier competition in Cloudsdale!”

“Um, so this 'joke' isn't permanent then? It'll wear off?” I was desperate not to stick out like a sore thumb.

“Ya gotta wash it off with an 'erbal bath. Ah think Aloe and Lotus down at the spa can fix ya up.”

“Then let’s go!” I sprang to my feet and fell over sideways. My right arm, now my right foreleg, was still missing.

“WHERE IS YOUR LEG?!?!” Rainbow cried out.

“Oh, uh heh. I lost it.”

“Whar did ya have it last?” Applejack was obviously still coming to terms with the idea, her face a slight mask of shock.

“I didn't misplace it, it's gone. I'm an adventurer, and sometimes my adventures can be pretty dangerous.”

“An adventurer? Like Daring Doo?” Rainbow seemed star struck. “AJ, did I ever tell you about Daring Doo and the Sapphire Stone? She has to escape from a pit trap with closing spikes and snakes and quicksand and spiders and-”

“Rainbow...” Apple Jack tried to bring her back to the present with a wave of her hoof.

“Yeah, traps like that can be really dangerous." I said, swaying a bit so the empty jacket sleeve was more evident. "Sometimes even when you escape, you don't make it out unscathed.”

“Oh...”

“I had a false limb, but it’s busted right now. I'll have to get it fixed later.” I shuffled, looking myself over. My pants, jacket and even shoes managed to hide most of me, but my hoof and head were very obviously plaid. “First though, I want to wash this ridiculous color off. How far is the spa?”

“It’s on the other side of town.” Rainbow lamented. “It’s gonna take FOREVER for you to limp there.”

Applejack frowned at her lack of tact, “Ah would pull ya in the cart, but mah brother Big Mac took it inta town. The only other cart we have has a busted axle.” Both ponies sat and thought for a bit, while I practiced hobbling around. Three legs was difficult, but I was able to get a decent trot. Strangely it was easier to run then to walk, but nearly impossible to turn at any speed without falling over.

“The crusaders have a wagon we could borrow.” Rainbow suggested.

“The crusaders?”

“Mah sister an her friends. They haven't got their cutie marks yet, so they go 'crusading' for 'em by trying all sorts a activities.”

“Scootaloo's a big fan of mine; she would probably volunteer to pull ya. Come on, um..”

“Sarah.” That got a couple of raised eyebrows. I guess Sarah either doesn't translate well or is unusual for a pony name.

“Well, c'mon Sarah,” Applejack waved, “The clubhouse ain't far from here.” So I limped the few hundred yards through ripening apple orchards to a small tree house at the edge of the farm. Outside was a trio of smaller ponies, fillies I guessed, working on some kind of catapult. One was orange with purple hair and a pair of small wings, another was yellow with bright red hair, and the last was white with purple hair and a small horn.

I just realized I can't see my hair with it this short without a mirror. I sat down and brushed a hoof through it, hoping to pull some into peripheral vision. “I wonder what color it is." I muttered to myself. "I hope it’s not plaid.”

I hope its bright pink.

“I hope this bath involves holy water” I hissed.

“Hm?” Rainbow looked over at me.

“Nothing.”

D just chuckled inside my head while Applejack called the little ones together.

“All right now ya'll, this here is Sarah. She's run afoul of some poison joke an needs ta get down ta the spa.” Applejack turned to me. “Sarah, this here is mah sister Apple Bloom.”

“Hi” The yellow pony grinned up at me. “You really got it bad didn't cha?” She poked my empty sleve. "Whut happend to your leg?"

"Don't be rude." Applejack chided her sister.

“She lost it adventuring.” said Rainbow Dash. She waved her hoof at the orange pegasus who was strapping knee pads and a helmet on. “And this is Scootaloo, my number one fan." The little pegasus smiled at that. "And Sweetie Bell is...” My world went suddenly dark as a soft blanket dropped over me.

“Sorry,” I pulled the blanket to look at the tiny white filly apologizing to me. “I thought that if we were going to pull you to the spa, you might not want to be seen. I didn't mean to drop it on you like that, it just slipped.” I smiled at her, thankful for her thoughtfulness.

Sorry, I think I did that. She was lifting it with magic and I still need energy, so I sucked it up before I realized it.

“That's alright, just be more careful next time, OK?” Sweetie thought I was talking to her. She smiled up at me, and helped me into the wagon. Sweetie and Apple Bloom climbed in and made sure I was comfortable and the blanket wouldn't fly away.

“All right, let’s do this!” Scootaloo had her scooter connected to the wagon, and I saw her wings start to blur with motion. “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: TAXI SERVICE!” she screamed out before taking off.

I had no idea something so small could pull so fast. The hills and uneven dirt path into town became a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, twists and turns. She didn't even slow down as the town approached, skillfully dodging carts, ponies, houses, trees and anything else.

“Please, please, please, PLEASE SLOW DOWN!” I begged our little orange driver as startled ponies called out in the wake of her near misses. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell took turns yelling apologies to those we clipped.

Wheeeee!

“You are NOT helping” I hissed.
> Spas and Sweets
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Rainbow Dash beat us to the spa by a good fifteen minutes. Scootaloo had done her best to keep up, but where our speedy driver had to dodge pedestrians, Dash could just fly over any obstacle.

“Not bad squirt.” Rainbow called to her little fan. I had no idea a filly could grin that big. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell were looking a little green from motion sickness. I had to breathe shallowly for a few minutes myself, and was still a little wobbly when I dared to exit the wagon.

We walked into the spa, me draped in the blanket and the crusaders wandering around. A soft pink pony with long, light blue hair looked up from behind the counter and smiled at us. “Hello, and welcome to The Ponyville Day Spa. I'm Aloe. How can I help you today? A mud bath or a relaxing massage?”

I glanced around at the empty waiting room and then pulled back the blanket hood. “Um, a cure for poison joke?”

Aloe gasped in shock. “Oh my, that is quite a joke. Let me go and get the bath ready.” She retreated into the back with a bit too much speed.

I took the opportunity to check myself in a nearby mirror. My plaid fur was painful to look at when I moved, the grid pattern only accentuating the numerous cuts and bruises my flight through the forest had earned me. My right eye looked a little milky, but it was hard to notice because of the plaid. I had damaged the eye in the same accident that cost me my arm. I couldn’t see very well out of it normally, but Machnia helped compensate for it. Then, of course there was the hair.

Well, it's not plaid, and it’s not hot pink.

I had to sigh, this wasn't any better. It was day-glow orange and looked like I had stuck my tongue in a light socket. A pony came out from the back, looking like a palate swapped Aloe. She was checking something on a clipboard and looked up.

“Miss?” she caught sight of me and did a double take, “Oh my. I'm Lotus, miss. Your bath is ready, if you could follow me.”

I turned to the Crusaders. “You girls going to stay here?”

“Shore!” Apple Bloom said. “We gots ta show you around thuh rest a town!”

Lotus lead me to a small back room where a steaming green bath was waiting. The comforting, if slightly herbal scent filled the air.

“The cure shouldn't take more than a few minutes soak.” Lotus said, waving at the tub. “I'll send Aloe in with towels in a little while.”

I struggled for a moment before getting my long sleeve jacket off, followed by my t-shirt and undershirt.

“OH!”

I spun round to see a startled Aloe, towels in one hoof, the color seeming to drain from her face. “Oh, um,” she stuttered, eyes locked onto me, “I – I brought y-you some towels for when you’re done.” I took a hobbling step towards her and she took a half step back. “I'll, um, just leave them here for you.” She set the towels down and quickly left.

Well that was rude.

“She probably has never seen anything like this before.” I looked down at where by right shoulder came to an end. The cybernetic component had a connection port and a few interface plugs, but it looked like someone had stitched a three inch metal disc into me. It was not my most attractive feature, even now that I was plaid.

Speaking of which, I kicked off the rest of my clothes and hopped into the warm bath and let out a sigh of relief. “Ah, I needed this.” I closed my eyes and relaxed. Five minutes later and my fur was back to its “normal” color, a light tan with a black and blue tail. On my left foreleg I had what looked like a bracelet of dark purple crystals, they were actually growing through my skin. D’s bond to me was in these crystals, and they grew and moved as he gained more power.

I noticed that, like the crusaders, I lacked a distinguishing mark. “Any chance you could fix this?” I said quietly, waving a hoof at my blank flank.

What do you want it to be? Whatever it is, it seems it will determine what you are “good” at. What are you good at.

I furrowed my brow in thought. “Running away from my problems? Failing at relationships? Getting in trouble?” There are a number of reasons why someone would want to spend their lives dimension hopping, not all of them good.

I don't think there is a mark for self pity.

“You're no help at all." I sat and soaked for a bit, thinking. "How about exploration, I seem to be pretty good at that.” I watched as the image of a map and compass appeared on my sides.

There, not bad work. Don't forget to wash your mane.

I dunked my head underwater for a moment, scrubbing at the last remnants of the horrid orange color away. Then I climbed out and toweled off before getting dressed.

“Guess I should go up front and talk about payment.” I opened the door quietly and made my way back towards the front of the spa, careful not to disturb any other guests.

“You should have seen it Lotus,”

I stopped just around the corner from the front desk as Aloe's voice drifted to me. I could hear her talking in a room marked “Employees Only”.

“It looked like somepony had heated up a train wheel and fused it into her skin. It was horrible! And she was covered in scars... she scares me Lotus.”

I didn't want to listen to this. The arm and eye were reminders of my past mistakes. I limped my way to the front desk, wondering what to do and feeling a little sorry for myself. Once there, the sight of the crusaders hard at work did much to cheer me up.

Apparently Lotus or Aloe had brought out a small pyramid of a dozen or so hot rolled towels. The kinds that are a little moist but can be used to clean hands and feel good on sore muscles. The crusaders had knocked them over and were very busy fixing their mistake.

“Man, there sure are a lot a these here towels.” Apple Bloom said, laying a cold, folded towel out flat on the floor to dry.

“I know,” Sweetie agreed, “It seems like we'll never get them all folded.” She picked up and folded a towel from a crumpled pile, focusing hard on the task at hoof.

“Or picked up!” Scootaloo said, snatching up one of the towels stretched flat on the floor. She wadded it up and tossed it into a nearby pile.

“Or dry!” Apple Bloom lamented as she reached for another folded towel.

It took a lot of effort not to giggle at the endless loop they seemed committed to. “Um, girls,” The three looked up at me, “Let’s make one pile of folded towels right here, for Lotus and Aloe to handle, ok?”

Glad that someone else was going to have to deal with their mess, they quickly put all the towels into one place. Just as they finished, Lotus came out front.

“I'm sorry; it looks like the crusaders made a bit of a mess.” I grinned at Lotus.

Lotus seemed transfixed on my right eye. “That’s alright,” she waved at the girls, “We can just send them back through the wash real quick anyway, no harm done.” She coughed and went over to a little cash register. “Now miss?”

“Sarah.” I said. She gave me an odd look. “Old family name.” That usually works.

“Miss Sarah, the poison joke treatment costs 24 bits.” Sweetie Bell gasped at the price, with made me a little nervous. “How would you like to pay?”

“Um, credit? I don't have any money on me right now.” I hated being broke. Machina could sometimes synthesize money for me, but that was not possible with her missing.

Lotus frowned. “We usually don't extend credit to visitors.”.

“I could work my debt off here,” I offered.

She cringed slightly at that, and I realized that such an offer would not go over well with Aloe. “Maybe we can hold you in debt for a short while. What do you do?”

“She's an explorer!” Scootaloo volunteered.

“Really? That explains... some things." She glanced at my arm quickly before looking busy with some papers. "Maybe you can pay us back with the herbs used for the remedy.”

“Where can I find those?” I asked.

“Out in the Everfree Forest. You can get the list of herbs and their descriptions from the local library.”

“You can't just give me the list here?”

Lotus shook her head. “Our treatment is slightly modified from the original cure, and much of what we use is dried and shipped. I wouldn't know what the plants look like when green and growing.” She smiled “Besides, I want to protect our secret tweaks. You will have to look up the remedy on your own.”

“OK, that sounds fair.” I nodded, seeing Lotus as the more sensible of the pair. “I'll try and get them for you this week, OK?”

She grinned. “That would be wonderful.” She waved us goodbye as the crusaders and I walked out the door.





“Is she gone?” Aloe peaked out of the back room. Lotus sighed and nodded.

“Yes she's gone. She didn't even mention anything about your rude behavior. Honestly Aloe, if a pony has lost a leg and an eye adventuring then it must be tough. Imagine if you had lost a limb and had to live with everypony staring at you.”

Aloe looked sadly down at the floor, upset that she had let her initial fear run away with her.

“Now see if you can fix the lights,” Lotus told her, turning to take the stack of dirty towels back to the laundry, “They have been dimming and flickering for the last fifteen minutes in a couple of rooms and we are getting complaints.”





The crusaders carted me through town to a house that looked like it was made of gingerbread, candy and frosting.

“That is the strangest looking library I have ever seen.” I said, eying the place and wondering how ants hadn't dragged it off.

“That's nawt thuh library,” Apple Bloom drawled, “That's Sugar Cube Corner.”

“They sell cakes and cookies and bread and cupcakes!” Scootaloo was licking her lips.

“And,” Sweetie Bell chimed in, “It's where Pinkie Pie lives. You have to meet her.”

“I do?”

“Yeah,” Apple Bloom turned to me, helping me out of the wagon, “Pinkie knows everypony in Ponyville. When somepony new comes ta town, she throws a big party so they can meet everypony.”

“I might only be in town for a week or two.” I told them, smiling. ARCO had never lost a conversion pod before, but everyone had trained for the possibility. If everything went according to the drills, a recovery team would be here within two weeks to pick me up.

“Ya still gotta say hi ta Pinkie.”

The crusaders circled and pulled me into the bakery, where a blue mare with pink mane greeted us. “Hello there dears, Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner! Can I get you anything?”

“Are you Pinkie Pie?” I was hopeful.

“Sorry dear, I'm Mrs. Cake.” She smiled at us. “I haven't seen Pinkie Pie in few hours. Why don't you have a seat and I'll check with my husband about her.”

We all piled into a booth and I was more than a little relieved to sit on something more comfortable than that tiny wagon.  A few minutes later Ms. Cake came out with a sample platter of cookies and cups of water for us all.

“Sorry girls,” she said as she set the tray down, “Pinkie is out for the day.”

“Awww.” The crusaders chorused. They were so cute sometimes.

“She went over to Sweet Treats to learn about candy making.” Ms. Cake continued. “You can probably catch up with her there.”

“Well come on then girls, lets go catch up to her.” I was eager to get going, exploring a new world, and maybe even finding the library.

“Ahm not so sure we should.”

“Why not AB?” Sweeite was reaching looking over the selection of cookies.

“Whell,” Apple Bloom looked down and scratched her leg, “That's whare mah friend Twist lives.”

“OK, cool,” I said, tasting a cookie. These were really really good. “Lets go meet her. We might even get some free candy.” The other two crusaders got big grins at the idea.

“Hang on,” Scootaloo interjected as she swallowed another cookie, “Who is Twist? You didn't talk about her at all around the clubhouse.”

“Oh, did something happen?” Sweeite was concerned.

“Yeah, she got her cutie mark.” Apple Bloom said sadly.

“Oh.” I raised my hoof to my empty sleeve, knowing how a life changing event could ostracize you from even old, close friends. “She stopped hanging out with you after, huh?

“That is awful.” Sweeite put her hoof on Apple Bloom's shoulder.

“That's just not right.” Scootaloo was upset, folding her forelegs and sulking slightly.

Apple Bloom looked down guiltily. “That's nawt exactly wut happened. She got her mark the day before Diamond Tiara's Cute-seen-yair-a. Ah wus so busy trying ta get mah cutie mark before the party that I plumb fergot about her. An then ah met y'all at the party and we formed the crusaders. Ah guess I jest sorta left her behind.”

“Well that's just silly.” I said. “If Scootaloo or Sweetie Bell get their cutie marks, are you going to kick them out of the crusaders?”

Apple Bloom's eyes went wide. “NO!” she shouted “Course nawt!”

“And you wouldn't stop hanging out with them if you got your cutie mark would you?” I smiled as Apple Bloom shook her head vigorously back and forth.

“Right,” Sweetie Bell said, “it's not like we will all just happen to get the same mark at the same time.”

“And no matter who gets a mark or what it is or when they get it, we will always be friends.” Scootaloo chimed in, hugging the other crusaders close to her.

“All right then,” I stood up dramatically. “Let's go find Twist!”

“YEAH!” three fillies cheered and rushed out the door.

“Thank you for the cookies Ms. Cake.” I called as I hobbled after them, hoping they wouldn't get too far without me.





Mrs. Cake waved to the departing crusaders and went to pick up empty glasses and sweep up the cookie crumbs.

“Dear,” she called to her husband, “Can you come do a little maintenance on the dining area?”

“What's wrong, sugar cube?” Her husband called from the kitchen.

“One of the lights is flickering, I think it's about to go out.”

Mr. Cake stuck his head through the door and squinted at the light fixtures. “I just swapped the bulbs on most of them. Which one?”

Mrs. Cake waved at the just cleaned table. “That one.”

Mr. Cake watched it for a few seconds. “It's not flickering now. I'll change the bulb just in case, we might have gotten a bad batch.”
> A Trip to the Hospital
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The candy store was no more than a few blocks from Sugar Cube Corner, so I decided to walk instead of ride. It was a lucky thing I did, because the crusaders turned the first corner and I heard a huge crash.

I ran around to find the trio untangling themselves from their scooter and wagon while being nearly buried in mail. A grey mare with a pair of overloaded mail bags was picking herself up. She had blonde hair and a bubbly cutie mark, and it looked like she had been hit so hard her eyes had gone wonky.

“Are you all right, miss?” I called, rushing over. “What happened?”

“We came around the corner and ran head long into Derpy.” Scootaloo said, getting the wagon back upright. “Sorry Derpy!” She called, stepping onto the scooter as the other crusaders piled into the wagon.

“HEY, WAIT A MINUTE!” I screamed after the fleeing crusaders. “Darn it, how can they make a mess and then just go running off like that?”

I turned my attention to the grey mare. “Are you all right?” I thought her eyes were still spinning from the impact, they were pointed in opposite directions. But even after she stood and blinked a few times, they remained unfocussed. “Um, miss?”

“I'm alright.” She glanced at her large spilled bags, “But now I'm going to be behind on my route.” she frowned.

“Don't worry, I'll help.” I did my best to start pulling the letters together and sort them by address.

“Really?”

“Of course, it's the least I can do after those kids ran you over Derpy.”

“Ditzy.”

“Hm?” I looked up at her as she placed letters back into the bags.

“My name is Ditzy Doo. Derpy is a- a nickname from flight school” she looked down, “I never really shook it, even after moving here to Ponyville.” She stuck a few more letters into her bags. “So are you new to Ponyville? I haven't got any invitations for a newcomer Pinkie party.”

“Wow, Pinkie really is the person to talk to if you want to meet everyone.”

“Yeah, she is. She even threw me a party, though not many ponies attended.” She picked up the last pack of letters and put them away. “Thanks for your help, miss. It would have taken forever by myself.”

“You’re welcome, Ditzy.” I shook her hoof, “I'm Sarah. If you ever need a helping, um, hoof, you just let me know. Before you go, could you point me to the candy store?”

She smiled and pointed at a shop about there blocks down, then took off.

When I walked up, the crusaders were chatting with a young filly working behind the counter. Her bright red mane contrasted bright blue thick rimmed glasses.

“Hello and welcome to Twiths Tweats.” Her lisp was mid-way between adorable and annoying. She was wearing Apple Bloom's crusader cape.

“Hi Sarah, wut kept ya?” Apple Bloom inquired.

“I was delayed in picking up the mail.”

“What mail?” Sweetie looked me over for letters. “Who sent you mail? Does a friend know you’re in town? Is that why you stopped to talk to Derpy?”

“OK, one, her name is Ditzy and two you lot crashed into her and just ran off!”

“Oh yeah.” Sweetie remembered, slightly embarrassed.

“Maybe you should try for your 'cleaning up the mess you made' cutie marks.”

“We should have gotten those ages ago.” Apple Bloom muttered under her breath.

“Anyway, why don't you introduce me.”

“Ah course!” Apple Bloom perked up. “Twist, this here is Sarah. She was visitin for a spell an we thought to introduce her to Pinkie. Ah was a might uncertain about following Pinkie here, on account a how we didn't talk none after you got your cutie-mark. It was Sarah who helped us realize Ah was being foolish.”

I waved at Twist.

“I'm sthure glad you talked sthome sthense into them.” Twist said. “I was sthure Apple Bloom had forgotten about me, and my only hope was them coming for candy making cutie marks.” She paused and looked off in thought for a moment. “Wait here a second,” Twist called and went inside. She returned a few moments later, and handed me a small coin. “Here, for returning my friend and bringing me new ones.”

“I didn't know there was a reward involved!” Scootaloo cried out

“Iths not just a reward, this is sthomething sthpecial. This is the first bit I made at my candy stand.”

“Twist, that is special. I can't just take your first bit.” I tried to hand it back, but Twist would have none of it.

“Friends are more important than money, even money with meaning.”

Sarah, take it. We need an Anchor for this dimension or we might drift off before we get rescued.

Dimension jumping is hard, everything wants to return to its home dimension. Travelers usually start to drift between dimensions towards their home. This can be dangerous since neighboring dimensions don't necessarily have habitable conditions.

The Anchor, usually a small thing like a rock or ring or coin, held the traveler in the current dimension. If I took the Anchor back to my world, it would have a lot of power to draw on. That's what ARCO explorers do, recover Anchors to convert into plentiful energy.

I accepted the coin gracefully. “Anyway, in addition to meeting up with old friends, we were looking for Pinkie Pie. Ms. Cake said she might be here learning the tricks of taffy.”

“She was here, but she left a while ago.”

The four crusaders discussed where to go next and who to talk to about Pinkie.

“We could try Applejack.” I suggested.

“Naw, she'd be too busy runnin’ the apple stand.” Apple Bloom said.

“My sister said she had like a zillion orders and I wasn't to bother her for anything.” Sweetie Bell lamented.

“Hey! I know who can help us find Pinkie!” Scootallo was bouncing with excitement, “We should-”

“Rainbow Dash” Sweetie and Apple Bloom muttered together in mild annoyance.

“Rainbow Dash?” I asked.

“YEAH! She’s the best pony in all of Ponyville! She’s the fastest in Equestria and can do a sonic rainboom and is head of the weather team here in Ponyville and-”

“Whoa, slow down! I know who she is, I met her this morning. But how can she help us find Pinkie?”

“If she doesn’t know where Pinkie is, Rainbow Dash could search the whole town in like ten seconds flat!”

“Well that sounds perfect.” I said with a smile, “So where is she.”

Scootaloo's face fell slightly. “Um...”

“Um?”

“She could be anywhere.” Sweetie said.

“She is a hard worker, but she takes naps when she isn't working or practicing tricks.” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah I saw her napping in the Apple Family farm earlier. Where does she usually nap?”

“Everywhere!” three crusaders responded dismayed. Twist just sat in awe of their synchronization.

“Ok, so we can't ask the people who are working, we can't ask the fast flyer we can't find, who else can we ask?”

“OH OH, I know thith one!” Twist was bouncing “When you need antherth to quethtions or more informathion on anything you go to the library!”

“The library?” I asked skeptically, “Really?” Well, at least I could get the ingredient list for Lotus.

“It’s not a bad idea.” Sweetie said, one hoof on her chin, “The town librarian is a friend of Pinkie Pie, our sisters and Rainbow Dash.”

“Thank you Twist,” I called as we departed.





Twist waved goodbye, then tapped on the cash register till its light stopped blinking. She sighed, making a mental note to buy a better one soon and check the warranty. She didn't want to have irate customers if the thing shorted out.





On first glance I mistook the library for being built like Sugar Cube Corner. While the pastry shop was built to look like a gingerbread house, I thought the library was built to look like a tree. It was only on second glance that I realized it was a giant tree that seemed to house a three story library.

We walked in on a Zebra in tribal accessories and a small purple lizard in conversation. It was lucky that we heard them talking as we came in, I don't think I could have contained my surprise at the sight of a talking purple lizard.

“It is important I talk to Twilight! Something in the Everfree is just not right.”

“Sorry Zecora, but Twilight is out shopping right now. She will be back later.”

The crusaders showed their usual lack of tact by barging into both the library and the conversation. “Hey Spike!” Apple Bloom waved at the purple lizard, “Is Twilight around? We need her to find Pinkie Pie.”

The purple lizard just shrugged. “Sorry Apple Bloom, I was just telling Zecora that Twilight is out shopping and won't be back till later.”

“You said something is up with the Everfree?” Scootaloo asked the zebra, eyes alight at the chance for an adventure.

“A fire near some poison joke. The forest is thick with it's smoke.”

“Ugh, that stuff.” I said to Spike. “I ran into some yesterday. It turned me plaid.”

“That's not all it does.” Spike said, giggling.

“It made my sister tiny," Apple Bloom said, "and gave Rarity bad hair, and Twilight a limp horn.”

“And it made Rainbow Dash crash all of the time!” Scootaloo chirped in.

“How could you tell?” Spike asked under his breath.

I turned to Zecora “<Was the fire put out? I don't want to have to worry about a cloud of prankster smoke floating around.>” I blinked. The fuck did I just say?

Zecora smiled “<Tis not often I find a pony who knows my native tongue, and rarer still they should speak it so well. Where did you learn?>

“<Oh, I'm an explorer. I travel a lot and it's important to learn the language of wherever I go. I haven't gotten a chance to use this language outside of learning before.>” Gah, I hate it when the translation doesn't warn me about shifts.

“What are y’all sayin?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I'm just trying out Zecora's native language.”

“You must have studied to great extent. In my tongue you are most fluent.”

“Huh.” Apple Bloom said.

“Guys, you’re missing the most important part.” Sweetie Bell said, “If Twilight is shopping, and Applejack is at her stand, and my sister is at her shop, then that makes the market the best place to ask for Pinkie Pie!”

“You’re right!” Scootaloo grinned, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS! LETS GO!” I had to hobble out of the way to avoid being bowled over by the as they rushed out the door.

“Girls, wait! I needed something from the library! You can’t just run off! GIRLS!” I hobbled after them at top speed, trying desperately to keep them in sight.





Zecora pointed to the ceiling. “Spike, before it comes to dark of night, you had better fix that light.” The bulb flickered off, then back on after a moment.

“Awww." Spike wined. It was such a hassle to drag in a ladder big enough for him to reach the lamps he would have been happier to let it wait till Twilight came home.

Spike rubbed his eyes. Had he blinked?

Or had all of the lights in the library just flickered once in unison?





The path to the market ran through a park, and when I reached it I was exhausted.

By that time, the crusaders had outpaced me completely and hadn’t slowed at all when I called for them.

I decided to rest by a small pond for a while. The fillies would be back eventually. Nearby a mint green unicorn played a lyre. I lay down on the cool grass and closed my eyes for a moment. The sound of the lyre melded peacefully with the sounds of wind in the grass and trees, and gentle splashing of ducks.

Then there was a much larger splash, and I opened my eyes. The tan lump of a soggy satchel sat at the edge of the pond, partially submerged. A soaked letter, the address starting to run, floated slowly away.

“Ha ha, looks like she can't even keep hold of the mail.” I looked up to see a trio of pegasus ponies picking on Ditzy, who was already landing to retrieve her soaked bag. She was trying to be brave, but I could see tears in her eyes. “What’s wrong Derpy, mail duty too hard?”

“Hey! Leave Ditzy alone.” While this got the attention of the bullies, what I didn't expect is the attention of another dozen nearby ponies, including the crusaders who, having realized they were missing their tourist, had returned for me.

“What’s this? The cross eyed feather duster has an ally?”

“What’s wrong, can't handle two ponies with only half a brain?” I limped around to be between them and Ditzy.

“Ha, of course! Only Gimpy would befriend Derpy.”

“Gimpy? Why not tripod? I may be missing a leg, but what is your excuse for being so lame?”

“What?!” He seemed enraged to be actually called out.

“Ah, brain damage, that explains it. So sad to be both stupid and ugly.”

“I'm not ugly!” And now he was on the defensive, a place no bully is good with.

“Oh? Do your friends lie and tell you you're handsome?”

“Shut up you stupid tripod.”

“Ha! Run out of your own insults already?” I checked to see that Ditzy was safely off to the side, while around me many ponies were smiling and laughing at the Pegasus. Even his mates were having a hard time suppressing grins and giggles at their leader’s expense. “I should leave, any more of your conversation would infect my brain.”

“You better shut up, or my mates and I will beat you up!”

“I would expect you to need your 'mates', your abilities are too infant-like to do much on your own.” Thank you College English, for teaching me so many Shakespearean insults.

Ditzy had finished recovering from the initial assault and launched herself into the air. “Thank you Sarah!” She called to me, “I'll see you later.”

“Bye Ditzy!” I waved at her. The bullies stared up at the retreating gray dot.

“Hey,” one of the more intelligent in the group cried, “She's getting away! Let’s go get her!” His less than tactful declaration was met with boos, jeers, and even a soda can or two from the crowd. Where did they all come from? Scootaloo had pulled the cart up behind me and was ready to make a swift retreat.

“You’re gonna regret interfering with us, friend.” The leader growled at me.

“Friend? Sir, I do desire that we become better strangers.” I stepped into the cart and shot through the cheering crowds towards freedom.

As we were pulling away a bouncing pink blur caught my eye. It was talking a mile a minute headed right for the cart. “-Oh-my-gosh-there-are-so-many-ponies-here-I-thought-there-had-to-be-a-party-and-then-I-heard-the-insults-and-thought-it-was-an-insult-contest-which-isn't-very-nice-but-then-Ditzy-flew-away-and-” Scootaloo tried to swerve, but forgot that there was a full grown mare and not two little fillies (god the translator has me thinking in pony terms already).

There was a flash of motion to my right and a sharp pain in my head. I felt Scootaloo's cart slide away, and watched the cobblestone path rise up to meet me.





I woke on an uncomfortable bed in a room painted neutral green-gray with a glass of water and wilting flowers on a bedside table. The hallmarks of hospitals everywhere. I groaned and sat up, taking account of myself. I was still clothed, and my backpack lay next to the bed. My scratches had been bandaged, and I could smell antiseptic cream from one of them. The sleeve on my left arm had been rolled up to the elbow, and the greenish black crystals clearly viable. Outside a pair of voices, one male, one female, approached.

“I don't think she will be conscious for at least another day or two, Ms. Sparkle.”

“I understand doctor, but I need to look at those crystals. If they are related to the Crystal Empire or King Sombra in any way-” The door opened and a brown stallion in a doctors coat walked in, followed by a purple unicorn. “Oh,” she said, “you’re awake.”

“Yeah, I guess I'm made of sturdier stuff. How long was I out?”

“No more than a few hours.” The doctor pointed to a clock on the wall. Then he frowned and pulled out a pocket watch. “darn clock's an hour slow, I'll have to get maintenance to fix it.”

“Could I talk to her alone for a moment, doctor?”

“Well, normally I wouldn't, but since it’s you, Ms. Sparkle.” The doctor picked up my chart and walked out. I picked up my pack and slung it over my shoulder.

“Hello, I'm Twilight Sparkle. You must be Sarah.”

“Yes. You’re the librarian? Why are you checking up on someone in a hospital?”

“I'm a scholar and researcher too. Those crystals on your leg, where did you get them?”

“Out exploring.” She wasn't happy with the answer, but I damn sure wasn't going to tell her I was a dimension jumping alien. I've seen that movie, it involves a lot of scientists and dissection.

“Those crystals made it very difficult to get you treated. Every time a unicorn tried to pick you up, the levitation spell would just get sucked up. Even healing spells seemed to dissipate.”

Damn it D, I know you're energy hungry but you could have let them treat me. “Ok, so they cancel spells. They aren't dangerous.”

“You don't know that! They could be cursed, or possessed, or possessed by some cursed thing.” Twilight was acting like she was possessed. “I'd like to run a few tests, if that’s alright.”

“They won't hurt, will they?”

“Of course not, I'd never hurt anypony.” But I'm NOT a pony. “Let me start with a simple scan.”

Twilight's horn glowed purple, and a purple aura surrounded the crystals. Surrounded but did not touch.

Arg, it's like having a cooked steak dangled in front of a starving man.

“It looks like there are two powers currently active.” Twilight nodded, and I saw a floating pencil and notepad jot something down. “I'll have to dispel them before I can know more, one moment.”

STOP HER!!!

I realized a moment before D how bad of a plan that was.

“Wait, don't just-”

The unicorn's horn glowed brighter, and the lights above me flickered.





Twilight stared at the odd creature now before her. It had hands like a minotaur, but feet like a diamond dog. It looked like something Discord would have slapped together.

“Oh my,” she said, realizing that this was probably a completely undiscovered creature. She couldn't be sure until she checked the 87 volumes of Scatter Brained's Guide to the Obscure and Dangerous Creatures of Equestria.

“Tahw did uoy yas?” Sarah asked.

“One of those powers must have been a translator, and the other a disguise spell! This is so exciting! I have to get more data.” Her telekinesis flipped a page in the notebook and pulled spare ink from her saddlebags. She frowned at the empty bottle and began opening drawers and cabinets , pulling out everything in the search for a writing instrument. She kept each new non-writing item suspended in her magic so she wouldn't keep checking the same thing over and over. “They have to keep spare pens or pencils around somewhere. If I were a pen, where would I be?” 





Sarah looked down at the purple troublemaker and sighed.

OW! That little pony's spells pack a punch.

“Mo ym!” Twilight said, staring at Sara’s human form.

“What did you say?”

“Eno fo esoht srewop tsum evah neeb a rotalsnart, dna eht retho--” The unicorn was rambling, fiddling with it's notepad, and opening the drawers looking for something.

I guess I'm something new to study. “D, how long till your abilities are restored?”

It's going to take a while. Whatever spell she used, it pretty much knocked out everything I had running. I'll do what I can to get it back.

The lights flickered.

“D?”

That wasn't me, but it's been happening off and on all day. I'd guess Machina is trying to draw power from ambient energy sources.

“We are in a hospital, a power disruption could hurt a lot of ponies.

	Um, Sarah?

“What?” I looked up. Floating around me is a soft purple glow were clamps and tweasers, gauze and bandages, thermometers and stethoscopes.

And scalpels. Lots of scalpels.

“Oh fuck me.”
> Into the Woods
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Doctor Strong Heart was heading back to check on his patient when the doors flew open and some terrible mix of creatures burst forth and went running down the hall. As the doctor leaned into the room, he was almost run over by Twilight Sparkle.

“Which way?!”

Strong Heart pointed down the hall and the unicorn took off in pursuit. He shook his head and stepped into the room to see drawers and cabinets opened, their contents spread across the counter-tops and floor. “Why were they digging through the surgery overstock?” He wondered aloud.





Hospitals very often have the same layout in every dimension. It's not so much a question of culture, more of space and efficiency. Uniform rooms on uniform hallways in uniform floors. Only special needs and labs get any variation.

Fortunately signs for stairs and exits are also nearly idiot proof. I spotted one pointing around a corner and followed the arrow to a stairwell. I took the stairs down two at a time, dodging patients and nurses who were all scrambling to get out of my way.

The bottom of the stairs opened into a half full waiting room, not the best place for a two legged monster to run through. Ponies panicked and ran in every direction, tripping over each other and throwing bags, juice cups and cans at me as I scrambled for the exit. I had almost made it out the front door when an abandoned crutch caught my right leg.

The world spun as I twisted and fell through the front door, and found myself looking at the three crusaders upside down.

We all just sat very still for a few seconds.

Say something.

“Yo.” I said, waving at them.

“AAAAAAAHHH!!!”

It’s odd what translates through all language barriers.

Apple Bloom ran inside for help, Sweetie Bell fainted straight away, and Scootaloo took off on her scooter.

Unfortunately for me, I was currently laying in the attached wagon. I saw a purple flash as Twilight teleported to the hospital entrance, but I was already being sped away by the terrified filly.





“Slow down! I can't get out at this speed! Look out for the cart!” I could have been yelling gibberish for all the good it did. I only managed to convince Scootaloo that I was right behind her and just as fast, so she went even faster. It was only a matter of time before she took a turn too sharply.

I managed to roll over and was now kneeling in the cart. I could lean a bit to help steer, but we were still effectively out of control.

Scootaloo had carried us from the hospital past the school house and was now trying to “lose” me by twisting through the market. All this was doing was showing me off to half the town. She took a turn to sharply and I saw the scooter start to tilt too far.

I reached out and puller her close to me and curled up as the cart went out from under me. “Ugh” I sat up and looked at my cargo. Scootaloo was unconscious, but I couldn't tell if she had hit her head or passed out from fright at being caught. She started to glow with a white aura and slowly lifted away.

“Gen tabent con ros Bilato?!”

I looked up to see a white unicorn with a stylish purple mane glaring at me. Her horn glowed with the same white aura, and Scootaloo was quickly pulled to her side. A burst of purple light to my right and Twilight appeared.

“Gestoben, gel den jison fragen. Tre pulos.” Scootaloo was placed down, and both unicorns tried to grab me with their telekinesis.

Ooh, that’s good energy right there. The spells faded as D ate up their power.

“Gran talken!” the white one cried.

“Ten gust sav who sun sir.” Twilight said.

The next blast from Twilight hit the ground by my foot and chipped the ground.

“They are SHOOTING AT ME!”

Don't explain you idiot, RUN!

I took off, but it didn't take more than a couple of near misses to remind me that I was not going to outrun ponies firing magic missile at me.

“I need speed and dexterity boosts D. Take what you have to but we need to get out of here.”

I nearly stumbled from the pain as my toes melted off, but my stumble moved my head out of the way of a magic bullet. Now it wasn't just an all out run, but a weaving zigzag I cut through town towards the woods.  I was putting substantial distance between me and my assailants, and safety was almost in sight.





“How is she so fast?” Twilight gasped, slowing to a stop. Running and casting with accuracy is a chore even if you are Princess Celestia's favorite student. Rarity came to a stop next to her, breathing heavily.

“Twilight, *gasp* I'm not as *gasp* as skilled in magic as you dear. I'm going to *gasp* be exhausted if we keep this up much longer.” Twilight looked at Rarity, noting she was starting to sweat from the effort of so many stun spells.

A hundred questions were running through Twilght’s mind. Why did she run? Is she a threat? Did exposing her trigger some attack response? What happened to Scootaloo?

“Twi, what are you doing? You woke me up.” 

Twilight looked up to see Rainbow Dash laying in the tree branches and rubbing her eyes.

“Rainbow Dash! Thank goodness!” Rarity pointed at the escaping creature, “That thing has done something to Scootaloo and we need to catch it.”

“It hurt Scoots?!”

“We don't know what it did,” Twilight saw a chance to recruit her, “but we have to catch it and we can't touch it-”

“On it!” Rainbow Dash took off headed skyward.

“-with...our... magic.” Twilight sighed. “Will she ever sit still long enough to learn everything before she goes dashing off?”

“Not without most of the Apple family holding her down.” Rarity joked, resting under the same tree Dash had been napping in.





I had almost made it to the forest. It was easy to see the clear line where well groomed grass gave way to thick undergrowth. A cloud trailing a faint rainbow arced overhead and came to a stop above my escape, but I didn't pay it any mind. If the unicorns had stopped shooting me, chances were good I was home free.





If Rarity AND Twilight have shot it enough times to wake me and still not stopped it, Rainbow thought, aiming the cloud, It should be able to take a lightning bolt. Better hit it with a number three, I wouldn't want to kill it. She closed one eye and stuck out her tongue, aiming the cloud as only a pegasus can. Right ...about ...NOW! She reached out with her hind leg and kicked the cloud.





Lightning stabbed down out of the sky, scaring the hell out of me. I threw myself forward into the brush in an attempt to gain cover. A second bolt smacked the ground at my heels, the blast throwing me forward into the forest.

I have disguise ability restored. Sit very still and I'll make us look like a fallen tree till they leave.

I lay still in the forest's edge for over three hours, watching as first Rainbow Dash and Twilight wandered past, then a smattering of other ponies, and finally a trio of what looked like guards. I could hardly bear the looks of worry and fear on their faces. With nightfall the guards retreated from the forests edge and the illusion spell could relax.

It looks like even ponies know better than to stay in the woods at night.

“Well,” I whispered, “We won't fare much better without shelter.” I moved quietly into the woods, further from the lights of the town. “How much power have you got after all of that magic?”

A fair amount. I could probably regrow your fingers and toes and still have a bit left. Do you want them back?

“Not right now. I may need that power for speed and stealth just to survive. See if you can find us some shelter, then we can work on fingers and toes.” My left arm emitted a high pitch whine, just on the razor edge of hearing. I waited for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of the forest at night.

I believe there is a small cave to the north.

A short hike proved D correct, the dry cave was little more than a 5ft deep 4ft tall depression in the side of a hill. I spent an hour collecting long branches and leaning them against the cave opening to help protect from wind and hide me for night predators.

“Ugh,” I shivered in the cold and dark, “How about you use a little of that magic and keep me from freezing?”

Fine, how about you check on that cinder of a backpack you're carrying.

I swung the backpack down and gasped at its state. Rainbow Dash's lightning bolt had caught it dead on, reducing the tough nylon bag to a melted mesh. The zipper was fused and I was forced to rip the bag wide open to get at its contents. Final count recovered: two of the least smouldering pieces of my conversion pod, a burned MRE (the other was burned straight through), the utility knife and my relatively untouched cybernetic component.

I munched on what I could salvage from the MRE and poked the component's diagnostic button. It hummed and whirred for a bit before a single green light lit up.

“Crap, it's only got one dot of charge.”

You are damn lucky it didn't just explode! What did I say about that? Be more careful!

“Nag nag nag.” I depressed the activation stud and watched the small cylinder unfold into a right arm and hand. “I'm beginning to think the pod exploded from a bad dimensional jump.” I picked up the arm and looked it over.

My right arm contained one of the most powerful devices ARCO had ever come across: a molecular sequencer. Given enough power and time it could build anything from money to medicine to amunition and weapons. It all ran on a powerful AI, and mine was nicknamed Machina.

The only downsides were the power requirements, and the connection. “Gods I hate this.” I lined up the arm's spikes and sockets to match the holes in my right shoulder and, after gritting my teeth, slammed it home.

“AAAARGH!” The pain of the connection spikes grazing my nerves was amplified by the electricity as the arm tested for sensory response. “I really wish you could test using pressure or tickling or something OTHER than pain!”

I blinked back a tear or two, and the cybernetics buried in my right eye started to come online. First was the heads up display, compass, health, radar, and targeting. Next was the projected image of a short woman in a pink kimono, Machina's preferred avatar. Machina bowed and began speaking, her words entering my ear through a micro speaker near my eardrum.

Hello and good evening. Thank you for activating ARCO AI model 1773-b “Machina”. Please wait while start up calibration begins.

I sighed and leaned back against the cave wall while a little holograph of an hourglass spun in my vision. The doctors and technicians had always told me I was lucky to have lost an eye. “most people have to have projectors built into their limbs” they said. “Its much harder to hide those when the AI has to show things to you” they said.

“bullshit” I muttered to no one. The hourglass stopped turning over and Machina reappeared.

Thank you for your patience, calibration is now complete. What can I help you with today Sarah?

“Augmenting D's illusion spells would be nice, you'll need to disguise my right arm when we are shape shifted. Nothing else right now, unless you can get us home.”

Home it is then.

I sat up, suddenly excited. “Really? You can get us home?”

Wow, that is quite a trick. Are you going to build us a conversation pod from scratch.

Nothing quite so drastic. I can perform an emergency jump, but you will be going through the void with minimal shields. It won't be pretty.

“That's ok, I think we can make it. Go ahead.”

Alright, please enter dimensional coordinates relative to home dimension.

“Um,” I had a sinking feeling, “Where can I get those?”

Your conversion pod's readout, your transition documentation, your dimensional probe reports, or your mission briefing.

“Crap.”

The conversion pod kind of kicked us out into a forest fire and exploded.

Machina's avatar giggled at us and waved her hand, poo pooing the idea. Conversion pods don't do that, they are completely safe

I picked up one of the burned pieces of the pod and held it with my right hand, watching Machina's expression become worried.

Oh dear.

“Right, don't you have digital backups of those files?” I grimaced watching my AI wring its illusionary hands.

There is nothing on my internal data storage. I can not tell if it was lost or never loaded at all. I am sorry Sarah, but without those coordinates we are stuck here until our rescue arrives.

I laid my head on the hard ground and closed my eyes. “Well that's just great.”
> Intermission I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

History of ARCO and dimension jumpers

ARCO is a power production and distribution company of remarkable political power and economic influence. To the public, it is similar in size to [TIME WARNER CABLE] and about as memorable, most don't think about it unless the power goes out. The company does advertize the use of nearly 50% renewable energy.

In reality, all but 3% of ARCO's power comes from the anchors brought back by dimension jumpers. The dimension jumping tech was pioneered by ARCO's president and CEO. Initially he hoped it would grant unlimited natural resources.

He and the first exploratory teams quickly found out three very important things.

1) Not all other dimensions are habitable. The first rover had to be shot into space as it was too irradiated to remain on earth.

2) Materials brought back faded back to their own reality over time. This was discovered when the CEO's demo vanished six minutes into a stock holder presentation.

3) There are.... things that live exist between the dimensions, and they find living things crunchy and good with ketchup.

A moment of silence will now be had in memory of brave Sandra, the poor cat in the first live test capsule.


Eventually a number of protections were developed that allowed unmanned autonomous drones and eventually full humans to venture into other worlds. There they met strange new people and brought back a wealth of ideas and scientific advancements.

That was when we discovered that our understanding of math and science did not always explain the workings of other dimensions. Undeterred, the brave scientists noticed that the materials that were brought back gave off a variety of energies, including heat and light under certain conditions. Realizing that the power emitted from such artifacts exceeded the power required to retrieve them, ARCO began as a power producer.

"But", I hear you say, "If all you need is just any materials at all, why not just go mine an uninhabited world?" Well, I'm glad you asked. While just any material can be brought back and does indeed give off about ten times the power necessary to retrieve it, some anchors are better than others.

Yes friends, an anchor given by a sentient species from one dimension to one of our brave inter-dimensional explorers produces anywhere from one thousand to one hundred thousand times the power it takes for a dimension jumper to pop over and get it.

"So this weird metal pod I found this letter in..."

Is indeed an inter-dimensional capsule and right now an ARCO dimension jumper has been alerted to your presence and is hurrying to meet you and answer all your questions.

FAQ

"Why does the dimension jumper approaching me look like a homeless person/panhandler/brusker/thief?"

Begging for change is a perfect way to get anchors, and when they return to your dimension and appear in random locations, no one seems to notice.

"Why does the dimension jumper approaching me have glowing eyes/ metal limbs/ a strange companion/ a weapon?"

Your world is in the "beta" stages of contact, and our first and bravest jumpers are paired with one or more assistants that are mechanical/biological/ethereal/animal/elemental/[REDACTED]/religious in nature. Do not be alarmed, as these are only present to aid our dimension jumper in making their way though your world.

"Why are there two openings to this pod and both are empty?"

This is either a training or visitation pod.

- If a training pod, then two dimension jumpers are exploring your world, one learning from the other how to interact with strange otherworldly peoples and places.

- If it is a visitation pod, then CONGRATULATIONS! Your world is close enough in physical laws and other metrics to ours that one of your species may visit.

"Why are there two openings in this pod and a weird pink thing is in one of them?"

That is an extreme environment pod. While the pods can do a lot to adapt our people to survive in extreme environments, your world may be slightly too toxic/radioactive/hot/cold/hungry for our people to survive. Instead, a remote controlled biological creature has been created to mimic your dominant species. The pink thing in the pod is controlling this creature as it explores your world.

"The thing in the pod was quite tasty. How do I get more?"

We regret to inform you that the thing you have just devoured/absorbed/ingested/[REDACTED]/possessed was the dimension jumper and we will not be sending any more to your world ever for any reason.

"Why can I read this?"

One of a multitude of technologies at work ranging from "magic" to psychic paper to just beaming information into your brain. We apologize for any mutations/tumors/sudden death that may result from it.

> A Little Knowledge
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Mid morning saw Ponyville return to a semblance of normality. Gossip of the creature attacking the hospital and chasing a young filly though the streets filled the marketplace. The town guard were out patroling more visably, partially for saftey and partialy for piece of mind. One lightly armored officer nodded and smiled to a yellow mare with deep blue hair and a book for a cutie-mark. She smiled back as she walked into the local library.

“Ah HA!” Something jumped out at her as she walked in.

“EEEEK!” She threw up both of her forelegs in defense, peeking around them to spy a small purple dragon with a pot on its head, wielding a broom like a sword..

“Oh, sorry miss.” Spike withdrew the broom from the mare's face. “Twilight stepped out and I'm a little on edge because of that creature running around.”

“Is it really such a threat that you have to go scaring your customers?” The exasperation crept into her voice just a bit.

“I guess I overreacted,” Spike admitted reluctantly, bowing his head. He was quick to recover though. “But you can never be to careful.”

“I guess so.” the mare sighed, “Listen, I'm here to do some research on the area around Ponyville. Can you help me find some books?”

“OK, just tell me what you need.” Spike waved at the central table where the lending ledger was, offering the visitor a seat.

“A book on general history, especially with regards to recent major events.”

Spike ran over to a section and pulled out a thick tome. “'The History of Equestria Abridged, 6th edition'.  This one is current up to the return of Princess Luna last year.” He sat it down on the central table. "They haven't published the return of Discord yet. What else?”

“Um, I'll be hiking around, so I'll need a book on remedies for bug bites and dangerous plants.”

Spike brought back a thin green book, “'Supernaturals: natural cures that are just super'. This has everything from Poison Joke to Mushroom Madness.” He looked up. "But I would steer clear of the Everfree Forest, aside from the creature running around, there are manticores, serpents and timber wolves."

“I'll keep that in mind." The mare cringed at the idea of going near anything so monstrous. "Now I need a basic cook book, simple meals and the like.”

“For research?” Spike asked as he wandered the shelves, eying titles.

“No, it's my first time on my own so I'm trying not to eat out every day. It'll drain my funds too quickly.” Spike came back with a thick book bound with a red and white checker pattern. “Can I get the first Darring Doo book too?” Spike paused before heading back into the shelves.

“Have you borrowed from the library before?”

“No, not really. Why?”

“If you’re a first time member, then you can only check out three books, and you can only have them for two weeks.”

The mare sighed “I'll have to make do. I was really hoping to get in a little fun reading time too. What do I need to check these out?”

Spike opened up a large registry to a half completed page, then filled in the book's titles and the date. “Just sign here and you're all set. If you want to borrow more when you come back, talk to Twilight about setting up an account.” He held out a quill and she signed it.

You idiot.

The mare blinked and then smiled. “Well thank you. Can you put those in my bags for me.”

What? Everything is fine.

The bell above the door jingled and the mare looked up to see Twilight. She waved her right hoof. “Hello! You must be the librarian.”

Run.

“Hi there miss, how can we help you?” Twilight beamed at the customer.

Ruuun.

“Hey Twilight,” Spike called, placing the last book in the saddlebags. “She was just finishing checking out some books. She said she might want to get an account here.”

Run!

“That's great, we always encourage more ponies to come in and read.”

Why are you so worried?

She signed Her name.

So?

Her REAL name.

“Thank you,” The mare smiled and walked towards the door, “But I must be going now, lots of reading to do. Maybe I can set up an account when I come back?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course, we are always happy to help miss...” Twilight stole a glance at the ledger as the mare bolted out the door. 

“Sarah?”





“Shit shit shit shit shit shit SHIT!” I swore as I ran, winding my way through the streets to the edge of town.

That was really dumb.

I rounded a corner and dived down an alley, ignoring shouts and stares from ponies nearby. “I know.”

Really really dumb.

“I KNOW!” I was gasping for breath. “Give me a new disguise. We just need to walk out of town and back to the forest. We can sort everything out later, away from all of these guards.” I felt my form shift, becoming liquid as I changed color, 	mark and even sex. .

Really really REALLY dumb

“I know, but its what you do whenever someone asks for your name. I'm not used to having an alias.” I made my way out of town on the main road.

Besides, what would she put down? Bookworm? Dusty Scroll? Pony names are a little strange.

“I'm sure Sarah is just as weird a name to them.” I had managed to find the nature trail off the side of the road that wound back to my cave. “At any rate, we have some research and reference material.

Why did you grab a history book, a natural remedy book, and a cook book?

Yeah, and why did you want a fiction book?

“These will give us insights into their culture. The history book should give us enough of an overview to blend in, and its a wealth of names and places for use in disguise. The cookbook will tell me know if there is anything they make or have that I can eat, good info if I need to dine while in town. The remedy book should tell us a little about their medicine.” I got pulled the book from my bag. “I can also try and find those herbs for the cure I got yesterday.”

And the work of fiction?

“Scootaloo had mentioned Daring Doo yesterday. I'm curious what they value in their heroes and how they treat them.”





It took about a day to go over the books and parse data into something useable. I had hoped the information might provide clues to getting back in the local inhabitants good graces while providing food and shelter. We would have to survive for roughly a month waiting for rescue, since we had no way of knowing if the damaged pod had sent any emergancy signal back before exploding.

As it happened, we were in luck.

“Ok, so the recipie book was mostly flowers, grass and hay, but there were some basic pies and bread and pancakes that we could eat while human.”

Good, I do not relish having to spend time in pony form just to get nourishment.

You have wandered south a little bit, bear right 3 degrees.

“Are you sure this Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is out here?”

It was referenced as the place where the Elements of Harmony defeated Nightmare Moon and freed Princess Luna.

“Who raises and lowers the moon while her sister controls the sun. I got that, even if it is a little hard to wrap my head around. I guess the laws of physics and nature don't work here like I think they should.”

It should be just beyond the next clearing if my understanding of the historical tale is correct.

I pushed past the branches and found myself standing on a cliff. A rickety rope bridge stretched in front of me, and on the other side was a large crumbling castle.

“An ancient abandoned fortress in the middle of a wild forest. If there is a dragon or ogre inside, I'm running for the hills.”

Could be another giant purple serpent. That thing was so strange.

“Says the spirit bound to the arm of a dimension jumping explorer.”

Point.

The castle was abandoned after the initial Nightmare Moon fiasco over a melenia ago. Chances are good that much of the structure is uninhabitable, but there might still be things here or there of worth.

“And a solid roof overhead and lockable doors will make me feel much safer at night.” I walked carefully across the bridge and began to explore the ruins. 





“Well this is almost entirely crap.” I groaned and leaned against a crumbling pillar. We had stopped in an audience chamber in one of the remaining towers. “About 20% of the place still has a ceiling, its obvious that the plants have done their best to claim the outer wall and chambers, and I feel like a stiff breeze would knock this tower over. How is any of this still standing?”

Something else to be aware of, listen.

I paused, holding my breath and closing my eyes to focus on the stillness around me. “I don't hear anything.”

Exactly. There are no animals, no rodents, no insects. Nothing but plants live in this castle. There aren't even any bones, like no creature ever came here after Nightmare's banishment.

Over in the corner lay bits and pieces of blue-black armor. “Looks like somepony was here at least.” I picked up the helmet, noting the hole for a unicorn horn. It was big enough I could have worn it. “It is creepy that there isn't anything here, but its not like the place is haunted.” I turned the helmet over and saw a pair of green dragon eyes open in the empty faceplate.

“YEAAAAAH!”

“Whaaa!” the helmet echoed as I lobbed it into the air, watching it come crashing down like a tin pot. “Ow! Be more careful you misshapen beast!”

“Wha- what is that?!”

Something an awful lot like me I think. A spirit, bound to this realm by powerful seals and promises.

“We are not just a that! We are something more! Something powerful” The helmet slowly rotated on the stone floor to look at me. “Tremble pitiful creature, for you gaze upon that which brought even Princess Luna low! Bow before the NIGHTMARE.”

But your just a helmet.

“What was that?”

Oh shit it can hear me.

“We will not take such offhand remarks lightly. Beg forgiveness and bow!”

I had finally gotten my wits about me. Even if this thing was the powerful specter it claimed to be, it had been sealed pretty thoroughly. Its eyes and voice were about the only things it seemed capable of projecting. Still, I wanted to be cautious. Dealing with anything like spirits, daemons or fairies could turn the slightest verbal misstep into a deadly contract.

I looked over the helm, the green eyes glowing menacingly at me. “No.”

“WHAT did you say?”

“I said 'no'. I'm not bowing to a battered helm and a disembodied voice.”

“We are the Nightmare! We have brought this world to it's knees and shrouded the land in eternal darkness twice. Know your place pathetic creature.”

“You are a spirit, powerful beyond imagination. But you failed, you were defeated. Twice. And if I guess right, you are trapped in that helmet until somepony is foolish enough to let you out.”

“We will get out sooner or later you little monster. There is always some foolish little-”

You are in the history books.

“What?”

You are in the history books. Even the basic ones. Everypony knows of the Nightmare and how it corrupted princess Luna. Everypony knows about you

No pony is going to come around to let you out.

“Not for a long, long time. I'm sure that Celestia wouldn't want to risk your return. She doesn't know if you were banished to this castle or the moon or just destroyed, so she is fighting you with knowledge.”

“She- she cannot, she would not. The knowledge is dangerous, embarrassing, politically damaging. That a princess could be corrupted by a spirit? Their pride would not allow-”

I flopped the history book open to her section and set it in front of the helm, watching the eyes flick over the text. “This is the newest textbook for history courses. Simpler versions are available for younger fillies. The local town library has a section of at least 60 books, most brand new, all talking about what you are and why you are so dangerous.”

The helm sat for a moment, absorbing all of this information. Then strange little muttering started to issue forth.

“We- I- this- we never wanted this. We have helped so many to attain their dreams. With princess Luna we were finally great. What recognition did we ever receive?”

I understand there is a holiday called Nightmare Night.

The specter seemed to cheer up at that news.“Really? I have a memorial day? Do they tell of my greatness and-”

Young fillies go house to house in costume demanding candy. At the end of the night they offer it to you in effigy, so you won't eat them.

“EAT THEM!?” Her ghostly eyes looked horrified at the idea, her voice shaking.

“Dear god, I think it's blubbering” I whispered.

Little drops of energy were seeping down the helm's cheek plates. “I- It is just not fair.” it whimpered.

Sarah, I hate to see a fellow spirit cry. Isn't there anything we can do?

What would you suggest we do? We cannot just force it onto some unsuspecting creature.

“We can try and take it with us.”

“What?”

“We aren't from this world, we travel between dimensions. If you swear to help us, and try to be good, we can try and take you with us when we leave.”

“Leave Equestria? Leave this world? What would we do out there?”

Not sit in an abandoned castle for centuries waiting for the next idiot.

“You have burned your bridges here. Come with us, learn from us, and maybe try something new.”

Sarah, we aren't even sure WE can get home. I don't like you promising something you can't deliver.

“You would do this, for us?”

“We will try. I can't promise you will go hopping worlds like we do, but we might find you a place to settle down.”

The helm was quiet for a short while. “Very well. Place the helm upon thy head and we shall grant thee our power.”

“Oh no, I'm not doing that." I shook my head. "I have more than enough voices up here already.” I picked the helmet up. “You can aid me just as well for now without bonding you to my soul. In the meantime, how about you help us out with some information.”

“What would thou like to know?”

“We need food and shelter. The castle can provide some shelter but needs repairs. Food will either mean scavenging, hunting, or finding funds somewhere. Know where we can get food or money?”

“The princess Luna's royal chambers are not far from this audience room, where ancient night court was held. The princess did posses a small trove of coin and gems.” A small trail of blue smoke extended from the helmet under my arm and pointed us forward.

The princess’s room was one of the better preserved in the castle, the ceiling having only two or three holes the size of my fist in it. The crumbling remains of furniture, and the ghost like remnants of sheets and tapestries decorated the room. I felt like breathing on something would reduce it to dust. The Nightmare pointed me to a lose stone near the head of the bed. Beneath it was a small wooden box with over a hundred golden coins, a dozen small gems, a few letters and a small book.

Finally, some money. Now we can buy a decent meal. It's been over a day since you've had anything aside from that MRE and a few random berries.

“Hang on.” I pulled out the precious bit Twist had given me and held it next to the ancient coins, sighing in frustration.

The size is larger, the thickness is different, even the markings don't match up. These coins are going to set off all sorts of red flags if you just walk into town and drop them on the grocer's counter.

Aww, no pancakes?

“Well one can hardly blame us for advances in currency. We were trapped in the MOON!”

“Relax, Machina is overlooking the obvious.”

Which is?

“These coin's are in excellent condition and over a thousand years old. And whenever something like this reaches such great age in such good condition,” I smiled, “There is always a collector.”
> Running Around Town
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was just before noon when the frightened and strange young filly walked into the pawn shop on the outskirts of Ponyville. The story of woe and hardship she painted: a failing farm, the coin found in a field they had not plowed in centuries, hope for medicine for a sick mother, all fell on deaf ears. Hard Sell had heard it all before and was not about to spend one bit more for whatever junk this filly had found than it was worth. The coin itself did get his attention though.

“How much is it worth?”

“Oh,” Hard Sale flipped it over, “it's hard to say. If it IS an authentic piece, then it is worth about 25 bits.” He licked his lips, “Maybe double that to a collector. I've got a friend in town who is an expert on pre-nightmare relics, I'll have him come take a look at it.”

They are going to rob you blind. Over 1000 years old in that condition and it's only worth fifty bits at best?

“When might your friend get here?”

“Oh, probably 45-50 minutes.”

“Ok, I have a quick errand to run. I'll be back with the coin soon, alright?”

He frowned, “I'd rather you left the coin here so it doesn't get lost.”

“Can you give me soemthing for it? A note or bill of holding?” He grumbled a bit and then filled out a holding slip for the coin and handed it over. “Be right back.” I walked out the door.

If he swaps that coin for a fake...

“Then I shall just go and get another and take it to a different shop. And when the new coin comes back appraised differently I shall return and demand my original’s return. With guards if necessary.” I pulled a small satchel and two of the books from my backpack. “Right now, we have some ponies to repay and we can return those books”

How do you plan to do that?

“Easy, I'll just say I found the books near the forest edge and-”

I mean, how do you plan to get through the shield.

“What shield?” I looked up the road to my destination. Sure enough, a purple hued bubble surrounded the library. I watched as one pony walked right through the energy and into the tree. “What is that?”

It feels a little like the spell she used to shut off my abilities. Touch that and you will have no illusion

I can extend the hologram from your leg to your whole body if you want. The shield should not be able to shut me off, but it will tap my resources.

“Uhg” I hated whispering to myself in public, “I guess I'll just deal with this later.” I put the books away. “At least we can give these herbs to Aloe and Lotus.”

I walked into the spa with a smile and a plan, I had run into a strange one-legged pony on the edge of town, begging to have these herbs brought here as payment for a debt. It was a wonderful plan, except for the part where the spa was empty and a little sign that read “Out To Lunch” sat on the counter.

“Well, that's even easier.” I sat down the pack of herbs and looked for paper and pen. “There has to be some in the back room.” I walked back towards the “Employees Only” door.

Are you sure this is a good idea?

“Relax,” I whispered, “they are out to lunch. I'm sure-”

“And you told me to be quiet when we had that- that THING in OUR spa!” The urge to sit still and be quiet so as not to get caught rooted me to the spot. Aloe was fussing at somepony, and it sounded like they were fighting over me.

“I couldn't have known, it even fooled Twilight a couple of times. At least we weren't openly friendly with it.”

“Now don't start. If that wall eyed mail-mare knows it enough to greet it by name AND have it come to her defense, then she obviously knows it too well.”

“Really though, fired? Just for knowing somepony?”

“Some CREATURE! A creature that attacked Twilight and ran amuck through the hospital and chased that poor Portaloo-”

“Scootaloo.”

“Chased that poor little filly all through the streets! If one of our biggest clients hadn't been there to pull the child to saftey Celestia only knows what it might have done.”

I had heard enough and went back to the front area. I felt a little sick.

FIRED HER!? THEY FIRED HER?! Give me control Sarah, I am going down to the post office and-

Calm down D, the only thing you would do in that case is confirm their deluded belief that a monster is Ditzy's friend.

“Come on, lets just get out of here.” I looked down at the bag, thinking for a moment. “D, give me a claw, fine point.” My left hoof stretched into a hand with a single long black blade at the end of my index finger. With care I scratched the words My debt is paid -Sarah into the bag, careful not to tear or spill any of the plants and powders within. Happy with my work, my hoof went back to normal and I walked out of the spa.

“eep”

I looked down and found a yellow pegasus that I had startled. “Sorry miss, um”

“I'm Fluttershy.”

“What?”

“I said my name is Fluttershy.”

I think she said her name was Fluttershy.

“Well miss Fluttershy, I'm afraid the spa is closed for lunch right now. And here I was hoping to get a quick hoof-i-cure.”

She smiled a little at that. “OK””

“Well, I'm sorry for startling you. You take care, OK?” I walked on bye, headed towards the pawn shop.

Visual scans indicate that pegasus was nearby on three different occasions today.

I looked around and didn't notice the yellow mare anywhere. “Do you think we are being followed?”

There is the distinct possibility. She may suspect you since your appearance is new in town and you have been muttering to yourself.

I grunted, not liking the idea. I approached the pawn shop and I felt I was starting to look suspicious, the way I kept glancing over my shoulder. Hard Sell was there with another stallion, eying my coin closely.

“Good news I hope?” They looked up a little guiltily.

“Very good news miss.” The new stallion smiled at me. “My name is Filthy Rich, and as a numismatist and lover of history I can tell you have a completely authentic pre-nightmare bit. Something in this condition can easily fetch over a hundred bits.”

“Of course, as a pawn shop I can't offer you full market price, nor could Mr. Rich attempt to contact you separately about this coin if you decide not to sell it to me.”

“Ok, that all sounds fair,” I was trying to calculate what I might be able to buy with a hundred bit limit.

“I can offer you 70 bits for it.”

I frowned “Couldn't you at least offer me 80?”

“72?”

“75.”

“73”

“Come on Hard,” Filthy Rich elbowed the stallion.

“Fine, 75.” He huffed and counted out the bits, handing them over with a bill of sale. “Now, Mr. Rich, I believe you were interested in the coin?”

“Yes, but as per our contract for arising items I am unable to purchase it for at least eighty days. At such time I will return to the store, 70 bits in hand.”

“70? But you said this coin was worth 100 easy.”

Filthy Rich smiled. “That is true, but if such a coin were to sit in your shop for 80 days and go unsold then I would expect at least a 30% reduction in price to help move the piece.”

“That- I- You-.... DAMN IT FILTHY!”

“Please, I prefer Rich.”

I giggled at the pair as I left, cash in hoof, for the market. 75 bits was a small fortune, and I was able to pick up food for a few weeks, as well as a couple of other supplies like sleeping bag, tent, rope, and a few other things. I was packing the last of it into my overstuffed backpack, as well as the remaining 20 bits, when I got a hoof on my shoulder.

“Pardon us miss.” It was a guard, in full armor, with a spear in its other hoof. One day, I'm going to learn how they can balance like that.

“Yes, how can I help officer?”

“Can you come with us for a little while, we have some questions we would like to ask you.”

“Of course, lead the way to the guard house.” Machina had already generated several entirely plausible backgrounds for me, complete with names, places, cutie-marks and everything.

“Actually, the library is closer and this will only take a moment.” Well shit, this was going to be very bad indeed. Time to think fast.

“Dashing armor you have there.”

“Thank you miss.”

OK, you want me?

It was a little code we had, when I couldn't talk openly. First letter of the first word determined who I addressed, D for D and M for Machina. The next set of questions and comments would be laced with as much double meaning as I could manage. We walked a little further before I popped the next question. “Does this have something to do with that creature everyponies talking about? I heard it drained all the power from the hospital.”

“It was only one wing miss.”

“Oh dear.”

I was in need of power, I can draw at a distance even when I'm at nearly 0% charge.


What are you planning Sarah?

“Your a unicorn, aren't you? You must have pretty good range with your magic. Do you catch thieves like they do in the plays? All heroic stance, not moving a muscle but you can pin a thief at 30 paces?”

He blushed. “I'm not quite that strong, 22 paces is my best, and I was hardly looking heroic after having just jumped a fence.”

OK, so something with me, with drawing power, at range... where are you going with this?

The library came into view, and I bought valuable time ogling the shield. “What is that around the library?”

“It's an anti-illusion shield. The creature can hide as a pony, so if it touches the shield, it's true form is shown.”

“It must take a lot of power to keep that up.”

Yeah, I'll bet. What I wouldn't love to reach out and drain that thing dry.

“Why don't you do something like that?”

“What?”

What?

“A shield. Don't let someone snatch away your chance to show off.”

The guard chuckled a little. “Heh, maybe later.”

That yellow pegasus is in the bushes to your right. I think she might have told the guards from the way she is watching you.

Wonderful, everything was falling into place. “Hey, its Fluttershy!” I pointed to the yellow pegasus. “HI FLUTTERSHY! I wonder why she is hiding like that.” When the guard turned to look, I made the angriest face I could at her.

“eep!” The mare became a butter yellow blur as she ran for the shelter of the library. “TWIILLIIIGHT!!!”

“Now that really isn't like her.” I mentioned. The guard got a concerned look and moved about a pace or two forward, hefting his spear. I waited for the fleeing mare to touch the shield.

“Now” I whispered.

The shield wobbled, flickered, and went out just as Fluttershy touched it. “Is that supposed to happen with shields?” I asked the guard.

“HALT!”

The guard was now in full pursuit of the pegasus, so I did my best to make myself scarce.





“Ah, the conquering hero returns.”

I trudged into the re-purposed bedroom, waving at Nightmare's helm perched atop a collection of armor. Much of the crumbling furniture had been cleared away, leaving room for sleeping and cooking in the fireplace.

“Did everything go as planed?”

“No, it was all shit.” I flopped down onto the ancient mattress, more dust than fluff, and started to pull and divide my shopping. “Can't get into the library without my illusion dropping, had to leave the herbs and ingredients with just a note, and I was nearly caught by the guard.”

On the upside, we did manage to get 75 bits for that coin, and that bought us a lot of supplies.

Yeah, and Sarah was able to get away without revealing herself.

“It never ceases to amaze me that you can function with two so diametrically opposed entities in one mind.”

I grinned. “It's not easy, but it helps to know that each has their own strengths and weaknesses. D is good at illusion and close combat, though he is a little bloodthirsty. Machina is great at construction and precision, and amazing at ranged combat, but she can be a little distant and overly clinical.”

“Biologic and mechanical both in nature and thought, intriguing.”

“Anyway, Machina is going to have to rig up a more mechanical version of the illusion spell, one that won't get shut down by the shield.”

We can probably expect an increase in guards, as well as an adjustment to that shield.


I sighed and mixed up flour, sugar, eggs, and milk. “Pancakes for dinner, hooray.” I threw another couple of logs onto the fireplace and used a battered breastplate as an impromptu skillet. “How are we with exploration, have we gotten a good idea of the castle's size yet?”

Accessing. So far we have seen: a large day court, a large night court, a small courtroom, 17 dining halls of various size, two royal bedrooms, servants passages, servants quarters, 23 large state rooms-

“It amazes me that we have yet to run across a single kitchen.” I used a small dagger to flip pancakes.

Seven separate armories, five towers and two large gates.

And a partridge and a pear tree.

“You found a bird and a fruit tree in the castle?”

“It's a joke Nightmare, we are still completing the list you gave us. We have, what, twenty percent of the castle explored? Twenty-five?”

I estimate 23.227%

“Right, there are still the lower levels, the dungeons, the moats, the store rooms, the library and the outer wall left to find.”

And the kitchens! Don't forget the kitchens.

I stuffed hot pancake into my mouth. “We are going to need clean water soon too. D, how much charge did you get off of that shield?”

A good bit. I have healed all of your injuries incurred since we arrived and could still provide enough oomph to fight something really nasty. I can even do a few medium range teleports.

“Cool. Can we set a teleport to bring us back here? We might need that in the future if the guards catch us. How is your charge Machina?”

32.8%. I really could use some more. At the moment it is going to be a slight drain just to keep that hologram up and running. Anything like weapon or armor reconfiguring is going to be taxing too.

“OK so our priorities for tomorrow are parts for an electric generator and water storage and filtration.” I banked the fire and laid out the sleeping bag.

Hey Sarah.

“Yes?”

Why did you buy a tent? We have a roof over our heads.

“One with a half dozen holes in it. I'd rather not wake up to a small lake where my bed was.”
> A Very Bad Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I crouched at the edge of the forest, just beyond one of the major thoroughfares and eyed the town. With dawn had come a new kind of surprise, a huge shield covered the entire town, its energy stretched thin.

“Could that actually knock out your illusion spell?”

It could certainly try. Want me to suck down the energy? If whatever sorcerer doing this is just handing out a free meal I say why not?

“No, this is a bad plan.”

Free food is never a bad plan.

“I mean this shield.” I waved a hoof at it. “It's not nearly strong enough to reliably shut you down. What are they planning?” I paced along its edge glaring at it.

Something caught my eye. I backed up slowly until I found what I was looking for, a small break in the shield. “There is a break here, maybe a quarter inch wide.” I tilted my head back and forth, looking up and down. “It looks like the break goes all the way to the top of the dome.”

I have a bad feeling about this.

I walked the shield a dozen paces and found another break. “It's an alarm. Not one shield but dozens. We cross and if you suck up the power or it neutralizes your abilities, somepony will know exactly where we are.”

There is a high probability that there are guards nearby, either stationed ready to respond or patrolling. It would be a good idea to cross the shield or leave before they show up.

I huffed and moved back into the woods. “How much power would a full body hologram consume?”

At current rates, power supplies will be depleted in eighteen hours. In addition you will have to walk carefully, or crawl on your hands and knees. I would not recommend it for long periods of time.

“There's no helping it then. Ok, D will stop all his spells, you activate the hologram. Once we cross the shield, D can re-cast.”

That is going to take a bit of time and power on both of our parts Sarah. Isn't there another way?

I looked the shield over, even lying flat on my belly to look at the bottom. “It looks like the shield doesn't go all the way to the ground. I see maybe a quarter to a half inch here.”

We aren't going to fit into a half inch gap. No diet in the world could make that happen.

“No, but if it doesn't touch the ground here, then it might have larger gaps elsewhere.”

Movement to your left, probably guards.

I slunk back into the forest, just far enough to watch the trio of guards march past.

“Did you hear something?” My heart nearly stopped as the last guard paused only a couple dozen feet from me.

“Probably timber wolves, the shield seems to attract them for some reason.” The other guard seemed bored with the routine.

“Come on, I don't want to fight those things if they are out here. Plants should not have claws and teeth, its just not right.” The guards moved on, and I remembered to breathe.

Local geography suggests there is a small ravine nearby.

“Lead on.” Machina projected a blue arrow onto my vision, and I followed it on around the shield, dodging two more sets of guards. The ravine was blocked almost entirely by the shields, save for a one foot section on one side.

That is still going to be a tight squeeze.

“D, give me a good claw. If we can add another six inches to this opening, I think I can get through.” Once more my left hoof shifted, becoming a wicked black implement. I clawed at the earth and stone, wincing at the clack and crack of shifting rock. In the course of a few minutes I was dirty and sweaty, but the curving gap between the shield and earth was nearly two feet wide.

“Go ahead and drop the illusion D, and the translation. I want to squeeze through and I don't want to risk your energy setting the shield off.”

Do you want me to fire up the hologram?

“Not yet, but keep it ready.” My body shifted and flowed, becoming human again. I flexed my hands and shifted awkwardly. Pony form dictated a lack of clothing, and I blushed to my chest realizing that I was only wearing a backpack. 	

“Remind me next time to pack my pants and shirt.”

So you can spend five minutes getting into them and five more getting out just to cross the town border?

“Never-mind.” I crawled through the tunnel, careful to keep my left arm pressed into the dirt as far from the shield as possible. On the far side I brushed as much of the dirt off as possible. “OK, D fire the illusion back up.”

I'm having some difficulty, must be interference within the shield.

“D, so help me if I am caught naked by the guards I am going to swear up and down that your possession is the cause of any bad thing they think I've done. I'll beg for holy water.”

Alright alright, you don't have to be so pushy

My body shifted and I was once again a mare, this time green with blue hair and a violin shaped mark.

“Better make my mark construction based, we are buying electrical stuff if we can.” The mark shifted to one of a wheelbarrow. “Better, now let's see what we can see.”





A spool of copper wire was easy to obtain, as was a basic rain barrel and filter. The electrical generator was a bit harder to come by.

“OK, you have lights, they aren't candles, they aren't magic, how are they powered?” I was getting very frustrated with the hardware salespony. Mr. Claw Hammer was about as knowledgeable as one could expect when it came to building a house. When it came to actually generating power though.

“What do you mean how? Its connected to the grid! Plug and go. You DIYers are making things overly difficult for those hard working contractors.”

Hardly working is more like it. How can this guy be that dense about where the power comes from?

“What if I wanted to do something big and didn't want to stress the grid?”

“Then I guess there is only one pony to talk to.”

“Yes?”

“Twilight Sparkle is the resident librarian and scientist and she would know all about your power making thingie.”

“Thank you sir, I shall inquire of her at once.” I left the hardware store, dragging a small cart of items. I was down to fifteen bits and I wanted to spend them wisely. “Where to next? The library?”

You should get some seeds, grow a small garden at the castle.

“That's a bit of an odd idea. Especially coming from you Machina.

I just think that not having to trade in more coins or risk town too often would be good. D can accelerate the growth so we can get fresh fruit and veggies quickly.

I shrugged and headed for the market. “Why not?”

I spent my last bits there, picking up seeds for corn, carrots, potatoes, beans, and oranges. I even got some apple seeds, though it was in the more traditional way. 

“Hear ya are,” Applejack handed me a bag of six bright red apples, “An remember, an apple a daie keeps tha doctor away.” 

“Thank you.” I put the apples in my cart and handed over my last three bits.

“Ah HA!!” someone cried from behind me. The blue mare to my right was lifted off the ground in a halo of purple energy. There was a pulse of power, before she dropped back down, dazed.

That was the illusion cancellation spell!

I spun round to spot Twilight Sparkle, and she was in ragged shape. Her hair stuck out in odd directions, her eyes seemed unfocussed, and she had the kind of smile that was making most of the ponies around her back away slowly. Fluttershy and Rarity were with her, trying to calm her down.

“Twilight, whut in tarnation are ya doin?!?” Applejack left her cart to check on her troubled friend, and I worked on leaving calmly.

“Its here! I know it's here. It has to be!!”

“Twilight?” Applejack asked, concern heavy in her voice.

“It's dangerous! It attacked me in the hospital. It chased down Scootaloo and attacked her. It left a threatening note and poisoned herbs at the spa-”

“Twilight, darling, Aloe only said she thought they were poisoned.” Rarity interjected, “Lotus wasn't so sure.”

“They threw them out, just to be safe!” Twilight countered.

Threw them out? It took us hours to get all of that!

“It was draining the power from the hospital, putting dozens of ponies at risk. It attacked Fluttershy-”

“Actually, the guard attacked me because your shield failed as I was running through it.” Fluttershy said softly.

“It must have cursed you when you interrupted it poisoning the spa. And worst of all, WORST OF ALL-”

What could be worse than poisoning ponies?

“IT STOLE BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY!!!”

....what?

“It probably took them off and- And Burned Them! And now those guards found that carved out section of a hill near the edge of town. Its obviously in here, and I am going to zap every pony I see until I find it!”

“Twi, Ah think you need to rest.”

“How can I rest when that- that Book Thief is out there, plotting more terrible deeds!”

I was around the corner and slowly making my way to the edge of town by the main road.

Our way out is going to be blocked by guards, and we are going to have difficulty getting this cart all the way back to the castle.

“D, what do you need to teleport us back to the castle?”

Five minutes and a clear space. Try the alley over there.

The alley itself was too small and cluttered with junk, but it lead to a disused communal area between houses. As I approached, I could hear somepony crying softly. I came around the corner to find a strange pegasus, grey with purple markings and blonde hair, crying in a corner.

“Hello?” I called. She flinched away as if struck and turned to look at me with a fearful expression. 

Oh dear god it's Ditzy. Why is she polka dotted? 

Those look like bruises.

“I am going to burn this town to the ground.” I silently vowed.

“Please,” she begged, “Please stay away. I swear I didn't know that creature and I didn't have anything to do with anything. Please don't hurt me anymore.” She was sobbing now, her right eye swollen almost shut.

I pulled the bag of apples from my cart and put them on the ground. Ditzy watched me with a mix of fear and defeat. I slowly backed away, leaving her with the food.

I could heal her, just touch her and all that damage would be gone.

No. Such an act would appear miraculous and tie her to us even more than before. 

I was quiet as I left. “I hate this, having so much power and still able to do so little.” I turned towards the right and caught a glimpse of a yellow wing as it vanished around the corner. “Shit.”

There are other yellow pegasi in town, there is no way to know that that was Fluttershy.

Or that she suspects us of anything.

Or that she is running off to tell her suspicions to that sleep deprived, paranoid Twilight.

I counted to ten, slowly, in my head. Then I heard a shrill whistle in the distance. “Run?”

RUN! 

I took off as fast as I could, the cart bouncing along behind me. The road was clear in the late afternoon sun, and I was making a bee line for the forest. I got four blocks before I heard guards yelling at me to halt. A moment later a series of small blasts plinked off the cart and its contents.

They are going to put a hole in the rain barrel.

I think we have other things to worry about!

Up ahead two patrols were converging on the town line, exactly where I was headed. An arrow plinked off the cobblestones to my right as I ran.

I gritted my teeth, making the tough decisions. “M, lose the cart. D, speed, all you can spare.” There was a soft sound of blade on rope and the cart dropped free of me as I sped ahead of it. I took a quick glance back and marveled at the sight. My poor purchases had caught over a dozen arrows, and twice as many guards were now surging over and around it to pursue me.

I passed through the barrier and watched the purple wall turn bright red. My form began to flow back to human, but I was still running for all I was worth. “Hologram.” I called as I hit the tree line. I must have looked like a heat wave running into the woods. Arrows and magic followed my flight, but luckily nothing touched me. A few hundred yards in I swung up into a tree and worked to quiet my breathing.

We should continue to put as much distance between our pursuers and ourselves as possible.

“Until D gets his powers back,” I whispered, gasping for air, “This is as far as I can go.”	

I'll have illusion back in a minute, but not speed or endurance. That shield packs a surprising punch.

“Shift over to your illusion when you can, Machina needs to conserve power.” A few minutes later my body felt like it merged with the tree as the shift flowed over me.

The guards ran by under me a moment later, followed by pegasi doing their best to navigate the thick tangle of branches and vines. I sat still, breathing slowly and watching as best I could from my limited vantage point as the guards trampled the forest floor for two hours.

Finally, one guard called the rest in. “It could have doubled back a dozen times by now, or even be hiding as one of us. We need to get back to town before nightfall or the timber wolves will have our hides for dinner.”





An hour later, I crawled out of the tree and sulked towards the castle, longing for the relative safety of my sleeping bag. “Well, that was an utter clusterfuck.” I grumbled as I stormed into my campsite at the royal bedroom. The unpredictable weather of the Everfree threatened rain, and I had to set up the tent. Nightmare sat quietly nearby.

I'm sorry Sarah, I was really hoping we could get those seeds and that power supply

“Thats alright Machina, we can try again in a day or two. Maybe we will even be able to reclaim some of the cart.”

Sarah, I- we need to talk.

“What is it?”

Its been over three days since I was activated, and only a day after you landed, correct?

“Yeah." I said, fitting tent poles together. "Standard rescue time is estimated to be about two weeks.” I shrugged, setting the tent poles in place and using lose stones to hold the ropes down. “Its only been done in training so far but everything should be fine.”

Sarah, that training is all done on the assumption that the landing area has been verified by drones.

“So?”

In all the time I have been active, I have been passively scanning the local dimensional fabric. I have detected no intrusion.

I felt a cold fear start to crawl up my back. “Machina what are you telling me.”

A successful recovery requires drones to start pinging the area within seventy-two hours of losing signal from the conversion pod for any reason. In the time since my full activation, no ping has been found despite the local area being dimensionally sound.

Sarah, no one is coming.
> The Long Week
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I sat out on the crumbling ruins of the castle's wall, soaked to the bone. Rain fell in a constant, heavy drone around me, the white noise of it washing all other sound away. Distant lightning lit the forest in flashes of electric blue, and announced the waves of thunder that made my bones tremble. I was so numb from shock that I didn't really feel or see any of it.

Part of me wanted to just give up. To pull Machina from my shoulder and disband D and just walk into the forest. I could just keep moving forward in my dazed state and wait for the monsters, or poison joke, or whatever else was out there to just end me. It wasn't the first time in my life I had thought of such things, but either through courage or cowardice I could not proceed.

I had other options too. I could drop the anchor and wander between dimensions, a near suicidal prospect at best. The monsters that lay in uncharted dimensions and the unpredictability of the wandering was dangerous beyond description. Several very sturdy and unnervingly short lived drones had been sacrificed to prove this point.

My final option was to sit in place and wait for a rescue that might never come. While in other circumstances that might not be so bad, but living the rest of my days as a fugitive in a ruined castle did not sound like my idea of a fun retirement.

The rain poured down on me through the night, and everything looked and felt grey.





The next day saw me return to some semblance of sanity, if only in the vaguest sense. I felt washed out, like I was grey and the world around me trended towards monochrome. The rain had stopped, but the clouds still filled the sky threateningly and mirrored my dour mood.

I went exploring, wandering the corridors and halls of the castle, letting Machina map out more and more of the lower levels. While wandering, I came across a curious room. 

The place had two long tables, a dozen fire pits, and an entire wall of cabinets and drawers. At first I thought it some large meeting room, but a quick check of the cabinets revealed it was a kitchen.

No, not a kitchen, THE kitchen. A heavy door led to a vegetable cellar, and another to a large pantry. The contents of both had mercifully rotted away centuries ago, leaving only a fine black dirt. Heavy pots, large pans, baking dishes and cookie sheets were stacked in a few cabinets. They were all rusted and brittle with age, and I would need to either replace them from town, or use Machina's limited power to restore them to new if I wanted to use them.

Two of the pots were badly corroded copper, and I picked them up appreciatively. I could turn these into wire, and maybe generate some power for Machina.

If I could find magnets. And something to turn them with. And something to heat the pots up enough to melt them. And tools for making wire.

The futility of the idea caused me to simply be more angry with myself. Here I was still making plans like I would be rescued in a week. Or maybe I was making plans for the long term.

An idea struck me, and I opened many of the drawers and dumped their contents onto the table. Tarnished spatulas, cracked spoons, and aged forks built a small pile before I found what I was searching for. The kitchen's knives, like the blades of the armory, had suffered with age. A millennium of decay had reduced them to machete bluntness. I pressed my thumb hard against the sharpest edge, and got no more than a bruise. I had no way to sharpen them without wasting Machina's precious power.

Sarah?

I sighed and dropped the knife. There was no way that was going to work. Besides, I was sure D would just heal the cut before it had finished it's job.

Dejectedly I went back to wandering.





The next day I wandered into the library. The place was huge! Two stories, and nearly a thousand square feet of shelf space. Much of it was empty, but there were still enough books to be worth consolidating. 

By this time both D and Machina were concerned about my mental state. They chatted at me as I walked the shelves, slowly gathering books. It looked like the place had been emptied in a hurry, and in a rush hundreds of books were left behind. 

I wish you would at least stop staring at the blades in the armory and sighing.

I know things seem bad but I'm sure if you just sit and think in the long term you will see...

I wasn't really paying attention. My morning had been spent pulling any remaining books into stacks at the end of their aisles. Now I just had to drag them over to a central area, one I had chosen for it's nearness to the main door and it's intact stone tables.

So far I had managed to pull several sections and nearly fill a single tall bookshelf. I had histories, ancient by now, a few works of fiction, gardening, home repair, weather construction, even a self help book The Thoroughly Modern Mare. I set my current load of books down on the stone table for sorting.

The current section I was emptying was the most intact I had found. The whole section was dedicated to science. At least it seemed to be. The book on top of my current stack was obviously a textbook. It had a long title filled with importance: Forces and Their Calculation and Application in Real Space. The cover art, in the trend of text books everywhere, did more to justify somepony's art degree than inform the reader of the books contents. A white silhouette of a unicorn stood in a field of brown. A thin red triangle extended from the tip of it's horn to embrace a stylized green cube.

Out of curiosity I opened it up and thumbed through the pages. There, like I'd expected, were the formulas and graphs and charts and even a few stylized "scenarios" for the reader to work through. What I had not expected were the complex diagrams. Circles, half circles, and thin arcs littered the book, always incomplete. Most had references like "Copy across image 2.1" or "see 3.3.1 b for missing section." A few circles were even pulled apart and printed on opposing sides of the same page.

What is this? I thought, diagrams for alchemy?

-then you could go fishing or work in your garden and I can help grow the plants. I'm sure with me and Machina working on it we should be able to get a decent interdimensional tracking and relay station set up in only a short year. We can celebrate Christmas as the half way point! By then I'm sure the ponies will have forgiven you for whatever they think you did and-

"D, shut up."

This really was doing nothing good to my mood. I did not want to discuss this now, and by pressing the issue and giving me "hopeful" estimates of a year in this place he was only pissing me off.

But Sarah, if you would just-

"Fishing? Gardening? What use is that when Machina might be out of power soon? What good is it to plan Christmas decorations when our food won't last to the end of the month?! Don't feed me pie-in-the-sky hope of going home in a year. Give me plans that mean I can survive to see next Tuesday!"

If you had been listening, you would know that-

D's agrivation was evident in his voice, but it was just gratting at me and making me more upset.

"Shut up before I shut you up."

That was the last straw for my spirit companion apparently.

You and what army you prissy, bitchy, morbid, emo, self-centered - 

"Команда демон мовчання" The "spell" was something ARCO had taught dimensional jumpers with my specific breed of spirit. The enchantment would shut them up for twenty-four hours.

Sarah

I could hear the warning tone in Machina's voice, but I had no patience for her after D.

"Don't make me use your command codes too."

It took me a moment to realize that the inside of my head was silent, as quiet as the ancient library around me. Lost and alone, I had just driven away my only friends by my own actions. I tried not to think about it. Picking up another book titled Applied Thaumatic Energy I walked back to the stack of "magic" books and kept consolidating as I read.





Four days had passed, and D still wasn't talking to me. He had regrown all my missing fingers and toes, healed every scratch and even grown my hair down to my shoulders. I couldn't tell if he was trying to silently apologize or if he was just letting me know that any suicide attempt would be little more than a painful failure on my part. 

I had taken to scavenging the nearby forest for berries and nuts, but had to compare them against Supernaturals to make sure I wasn't eating a poisoned potion component. After my morning gathering I would wander near the edge of town and watch ponies through the shield, dodging guards and timber wolves. Something about the shield agitated the wolves, and the guards were out for them as much as me.

In the afternoon I settled down into the library with a little bit of food and read magic texts until I fell asleep. I had done my best to understand magic, given the smattering of books I had, but the process still eluded me.

Why did one book detail a circle and say that it should have worked, then tell me it didn't and show the next, more complicated one that did? Why did that one work? Why did another book insist that I be facing south when doing an exercise and another that I be facing west? Why, in the name of all that was holy, did none of the forty seven books on magic have one single completed diagram? They all had sections that were blank or dotted saying see panel such and such on page so and so. One even referenced another book entirely, a book my collection was sadly lacking.

I was trudging back through the woods towards the castle, munching on my bounty of berries and thinking. The book on my mind was Magic Through the Ages and how it defined a form of magic as tied to the Elements of Harmony, providing the elements their true power. The author had gone on to define formulas showing that all of the power the element's had were derived from the element of magic. The formulas were wildly wrong, a fact visible to anyone who had more than a single semester of calculus. Still, his argument that nothing was greater than the elements was a fun one. They had no idea that Nightmare Moon was coming, or that she would escape after only a thousand years. 

Still, somewhere was a god of pure chaos, trapped permanently in stone because of the elements. Their ability to whisk poor Princess Luna away to her namesake. I mean, how would I have gotten home if that had happened to me? If I was separated from my home by an impenetrable and deadly gulf, how would I-

The nuts and berries dropped from my hands, and the thought played over and over in my mind. I began to walk, then run, back towards the castle. Overhead, rain began to pour down.





Nightmare stirred from her slumber as the door opened. Sarah, odd creature that she was, stood in the doorway, soaked to the bone. The last time she had seen Sarah she had hung her head and walked with the air of someone utterly defeated. 

"Sarah, thou hast the appearance of a drowned rat." Ever tactful, she realized the comment might not be appreciated. Nightmare could sympathize, she had felt much the same when had been imprisoned. "When we realized how impossible our escape from the moon was, we too despaired. But this will not get better if all you do is pick berries and sulk. "

Sarah turned, and Nightmare noticed something. Her hair was longer, down to her shoulders now. The spirit bound to her arm must have regrown it, no longer worrying about conserving power. The rain had pulled it flat and straight, and it hung around her down turned face like a thick curtain.

"But you escaped." Sarah said slowly, an odd inflection in her voice as she approached me.

"Yes, with the help of the stars."

Sarah walked over and picked me up. Nightmare could now see Sarah's face in the low light of the fire. Her eyes were wide, and her smile stretched across her face in a way that did not suggest mental stability. Nightmare heard the edge of psychosis in her voice, and wanted nothing more than to hide. 

"HOW?"





The library was a huge mess. Tomes, scrolls, and stacks of paper were everywhere. I had found a storage cabinet hidden in the library, a jar inside still holding dehydrated ink. A bit of practice and I had been able to write, with the help of a pen from Machina. I sat at the table, looking over the dozen tomes scattered across it's surface and trying to wrap my head around what Nightmare and Machina were telling me.

"So, you cast a spell in the stars?"

"With the stars" Nightmare clarified. "We used stars and constellations as a spell form, a map that the mystical energy could course through."

The stars defined nodes and intersections in a massive three dimensional arcane map? That is impressive.

Yeah, but it still took her a thousand years to put everything in place.

"HA! It took us less than an instant to set up the array."

"Then, why-?"

"You don't overcome the power of the elements of harmony overnight! We stole a little of our Dear Sister's power every time she moved our precious moon."

How long is your year?

"Three hundred and ninety days and nights"

D whistled. 

That's nearly four million little snippets of energy you stole.

"When you are moving the sun and the moon, the power is anything but little"

"So, with the right kind of magical array, we could go home?"

The moon is a little closer to us then our home dimension Sarah. We do not have a thousand years to collect power.

Yeah, but we ain't fighting against the elements.

"Do you think, between you three, we can generate the proper array and the kind of power we need to get us home?"

"The array will not be a problem, it will simply be a more complex version of the one we used for our escape. Power, however, is another issue."

Judging by what you have said, and estimating the power requirements, I do not feel that Nightmare, D and I can generate the level of mystical energy you would require.

We might need Twilight's help, or maybe even Celestia and Luna.

They will not like our dealing with Nightmare.

"Unless you want to wait here gathering power for a while, you will need to find some power you can actually access."

"I can think of something that might do the trick." Reaching out, I picked up the history book from Ponyville Library. I flopped the book open in front of the helm. "What about these?” 

The page showed two earth ponies, two pegasi, and two unicorns floating in the air, wreathed in white light. They were wearing the Elements of Harmony.

I have calculated that the timber wolves are now a much more immediate and real threat then we ever were. If Sarah can defeat a few and save some guard ponies, we might be able to talk to the element bearers and work something out.

“You do know one of the bearers is Twilight Sparkle.”

“I thought that picture looked familiar. I was hoping to bribe her a little.”

Sarah, you live in an abandoned and crumbling castle in the middle of a wild forest. What could you possibly offer someone who, according to the history book, is the personal student of Celestia?

"Oh, I don't know," I waved my left arm offhand at the library's collection. "How about a few old books?"





The sun was low on the horizon when I started my hunt. Normally I would have liked to hunt using bullets or at least arrows, but Machina's power had dropped below 20% with the hologram and the few times I needed her percision work etching the spell form in the sun court. 

“D, your up. We need to be seen attacking the wolves, so don't bother with illusion.”

Got it, claws and teeth.

“Lets not go too far, these ponies don't seem keen on killing.”

No, just pummeling helpless mares.

I tried to push the battered image of Ditzy from my mind. “Once we prove our good intentions we can work on that. Focus on speed and strength boosts, and maybe give my punches a little more oomph.”

Sarah, I recommend testing your combat skills against a lone opponent before you try showing off in front of the guards.

I glanced around the woods. “You have a likely target?”

Movement ten yards to your left indicates a timber wolf.

D's enhancements had me leaping from branch to branch almost like a monkey. It took only seconds to silently traverse the distance and spot the wolf prowling through the undergrowth. I waited until it was nearly right beneath me before swinging down to land a powerful kick.

My plan had been to hit it on the side near the center of mass and knock it sideways. Then I could pummel it into submission. But I must have made too much noise dropping from my branch, because the wolf turned to look at me. I hit it in the side, but only a glancing blow to the leg. 

Instead of stunning or spinning the creature, the blow tore the leg clean off, pieces of wood and vine scattering on the forest floor.

“What the?”

The wolf either didn't know or didn't care about its missing leg and lunged for me. A swift right hook drove it down, and D's claw seemed to shatter the beast, reducing it to a pile of rotting wood.

“What- what just happened?” I stood stunned in the aftermath, the adrenaline draining from my system.

It appears the creatures are far less structurally sound than previously estimated.

Should I reduce my augmentation?

“No, this one was about the size of a German shepherd, we have see some out here bigger than mountain lions. Keep this level of boosts and we will let the pieces fall where they may.”
.




Sarah was gone from the clearing a moment later, and the clearing was still. All that remained of the wolf was the stench of it's breath and the scattered pieces of its body. A soft breeze blew through, causing a single loose branch to fall to the ground. 

Slowly, looking like it was carried by ants, the pieces of the wolf began to move together, and it's eye glowed a pale white.


> The Bite of Their Bark
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	An hour later I had found my prey. A pack of eight timber wolves stalked the edge of the forest, trailing a group or three guard ponies just over the shield line. I followed silently from the tree branches, watching the wolves.

One of the guard ponies stumbled over a lose stone, and the wolves took that as a sign to strike. As they charged forward, I launched myself out of the tree feet first at one of the wolves in the rear of the pack. It started to turn from the sound of my movements, when my feet came crashing down on its shoulders. With a whine and a series of snaps its head and forelimbs separated from its body.

“RUN!” I cried, drawing the attention of both the guards and the wolves. The ponies, showing a remarkable knack for self preservation, took off running. The wolves, denied their initial meal, turned in force on me.

So much for our audience.

We saved them, that is what matters.

I couldn't comment, I was busy fighting. A punch to the chest of one of the wolves tore its right foreleg off, causing it to limp after me snapping its jaws. A whirling kick demolished it, sending wood spinning into the underbrush.

The whirling dance continued. Dodging two more wolves, I laid another out as kindling with a well timed blow. I will admit, I was showing off, but after nearly two weeks of frustration the ability to cut lose was invigorating
.
A wolf charged me, and its jaws clamped around my metal right arm. The look of surprise on it's face lasted only a moment before my left fist crashed through its head. I lifted its body and used it to smash another to pieces.

“Right, five down and.” I blinked at the sight before me, “Five to go?” There had been only eight when I started, but after killing five wolves five still remained. Worse still, two of the five seemed larger.

Minions first, then go after the big bads

I charged, and in a flurry of blows the three smaller wolves crumbled, though my haste earned me a scratch across the back by one of the larger ones. Their wooden claws were surprisingly sharp, and the force behind the blow was stunning. I spun ready to face the three large wolves.

“Three?”

Sarah, we have detected a pattern with regard to the wolves

“Make if fast Machina.” I charged one, and found that increased size also brought increased toughness. My blows that had shattered its smaller brethren were carving gouges out of the wolf's wood, but the beast did not fall to a trio of blows.

It appears as thought the prime motivator within these creatures is not inherant to a specific component or set of components. Furthermore-

A powerful blow destroyed the damaged wolf, and I drew on D's power to dismantle another with a single strike. “Faster Machina.”

The timber wolves are made of rotting fallen wood, and can assimilate more to-

They are regenerating?

I watched as the scattered pieces of my kills began to pull themselves together into a larger wolf. “THEY'RE MERGING!?” I cried. I could not stop the process, the wolves I was already facing were demanding my attention, attempting to pincer me.

Needing more reach than my feet and fists were giving me, I snapped a straight branch from a nearby tree and swung it like a staff. The increased range surprised the two wolves closing on me, and I shattered them.

The largest wolf yet was still pulling itself together, and I threw my branch like a spear into it's center. Instead of shattering, my branch stuck fast, merging with the pieces of the defeated wolves. This thing was already twice the size of the starting wolves and seemed to be drawing in any loose fallen wood nearby.

This may be a bit of a challenge.

The wolf righted itself, glared at me, then turned into the forest and ran.

“Why did it-” A burst of color above was the only warning I got of Rainbow Dash's arrival. “D, hide me.” I was a tree an instant before the prismatic mare touched down with a pegasus guard.

“Where is it!” Rainbow glanced around the woods,  looking amazed at the signs of battle that marked the small clearing. “You said the creature was leading timber wolves against your guard unit, but I don't see any wolves, guards or creature.”

“It was right here I swear! It commanded its wolves to run after us, so we fled. We can't take on a dozen wolves at once, they'd all merge into one monster wolf.”

NOW they tell us.

As Rainbow Dash and the guard talked, I slowly slunk away to pursue the giant wolf. If I was responsible for that creature, then I would need to find a way to take it out permanently. Fortunately D's enhancements and the wolfs size made tracking its path through the forest easy. It had headed straight into the woods before veering to the right. We followed its curving path for a few minutes.

It's still hunting Sarah, see how it keeps shifting directions? It's stopping to sniff the air.

We are still beyond the town line, there should not be any guards out in the forest this late. The only thing even remotely close is-

There was a roar, a loud crunch, and a chorus of girlish screams.

The Apple Family Farm!

I took off running, breaking from the tree line and passing a smashed tree house. The wolf was now nearly three times the size of a pony, and it was chasing four small colorful ponies. Scootaloo, ever the athlete was in front, shouting encouragement to those behind her. Right on her heels was Apple Bloom, her farm work giving her the endurance to stay ahead of the lumbering monster. Next in line was Sweetie Bell, who was somehow able to give a long, almost beautiful scream as she ran
.
But last was a tiny white pony with a red mane and blue glasses, who didn't have all the prior crusading to keep her in shape. Twist was already breathless, and I knew I had to reach them before the wolf did.

But more importantly, I had to reach them before they all reached the shield, and that was getting damn close. I was running with everything I had.

“Cumon Twist!” Apple Bloom called over her shoulder as they all raced for the barn. “We'll be safe in tha storm seller.” Scootaloo was almost at the door already. The scream froze them all in their tracks. 

The three original crusaders turned and stared at their newest members plight. The giant wolf had caught her cape in its teeth, and Twist dangled, pulling against the cape's knot to keep it from strangling her. They sat just on the outside of the town shield, the purple energy making the wolf a dark siloette in my eyes. The wolf swung her back and forth almost gently, then flicked his head upward, sending the tiny filly spinning head over tail through the air. As Twist reached the apex of her flight, The wolf reared its head up and opened its jaws wide. Twist fell screaming into the tooth lined pit, and the jaws snapped closed. There was no crunching sound, but there was a sickening gulp.

“NO!” 

I had launched myself a second too late, but I was still committed to my trajectory. My fist cratered its cheek and made the wolf stumble sideways. I pulled at it, clawing away at wooden teeth and jaw. The beast shook its head hard, trying to dislodge me, but I was stuck fast.

At least until it swung through the shield. Then that bright red glow filled the air, and my punches became mere knocks on wood as D's power faded away. “Shit, Machina!”

Scans have located the life point on the wolf. A strike to the back of it's neck should destroy it.

The wolf had no intentions of letting me do that, especially now that I did not have D's strength and agility boosts. It swung its head violently back and forth before attempting to rub me off on the ground. I punched it with my right fist, hopping the metal casing would do more damage.

But I timed my last blow wrong, and the wolf caught my arm. Another quick shake and I was dangling from my right shoulder. The lock bolts whined slightly at the mistreatment, and I could feel the nerve connections tugging painfully.
I was trapped, caught in the jaws of this monster of my own making. The only good luck I had was that the alarm would bring enough guards to kill this thing, but not until it ripped me to shreds. If only I could hit that spot I-

My eyes flew open, and I stared into the wooden nose and lips of the grinning wolf. “Machina, plasma cannon.”

Such actions will drain a substantial part of my remaining power reserves, are you sure-

“Plasma cannon, target life point, 70% remaining power.” I could not see my right arm shifting, and I could not truly feel it, but I knew within two seconds that I now had a gun for a hand. The wolf noticed something odd about my metal arm as well, and gave me a confused look.

“Fire.” 

Electric blue light seeped from between the wolves jaws, and a beam of light burst from the back of the wolves head and lit up the night. The thing stood rock still for a moment, before collapsing to the ground.

“Where is Twist?” I pulled myself from the wolf's mouth, brushing myself free of wood shavings. “D, I'm going to need power, illusion, translation-”

ONE THING AT A TIME! That shield takes a lot out of me and I need time to recover.

Machina had located the tiny pony, and placed a small beacon in my vision. 

She appears to still be in part of the wolf. 

I found the section to be its belly, the large form was thick and hardened. “Machina, saw.” The cannon became a small circular saw, and I made to cut a square shape opening. The saw made its first cut, nearly two feel long, then stopped spinning. 

“Machina?”

I am now at 2% power, I can return your hand, but the saw is no longer operational. 

To prove this point, the saw folded up out of the way of my hand.

“D, I need a claw and whatever strength you can give me.” What I got was very limited, my fingers slight claws and my strength only mildly boosted. I took what I could get. Digging my fingers into the cut I pulled, tearing handfuls of wood away until I had dug open a hole only a foot or two in diameter. Twist lay just inside, in a hollow half filled with some noxious liquid. The smell of rot and bile was overwhelming, and as I pulled Twist out I could see where the caustic soup had already eaten a couple of patches of fur away.

She wasn't breathing.

Sarah, we need to neutralize that stomach acid before we can do much else.

I gathered her up in my arms, the acid searing my skin and etching my metal arm. I ran to the barn, spotting a rain barrel. I slowly dipped Twist in, watching the fur float away and the water turn a sickly green. Once she was in though, I couldn't lift her back out, so I had to knock the barrel over.

“She still isn't breathing, and a human mouth isn't the best thing to give a pony CPR.”

I still don't have all of my powers back, but if we can get back to the castle I can draw from some of the artifacts there and heal her.

“We can't carry her that far fast enough. Can you still do that long range teleport?”

I can try. Hold onto Twist and keep both her and the castle in your mind.

I wrapped my arms around the tiny pony, focusing on the castle as hard as I could. If we could just get home, if we could just make it then I could correct this mistake.

“Han!”

I looked up to see Applejack with a determined expression on her face and a crossbow in her hooves.

“Teg yawa morf reh uoy hctib!” The arrow hit my left shoulder and I dropped Twist in pain. I reached back out for her, but even as I did she, the farm and Applejack all became insubstantial ghosts.

“No, NOOOOOOOO!” The castle faded into reality, as the one pony I was working so hard to save faded away.





I broke off the arrow, knowing D could repair the damage once he was able to use his full power. At the moment, power was all he could offer. Without his various abilities, the spell forms in the library were my best bet for saving Twist.

“What happened?” Nightmare asked as I stormed in to the library. The helm sat on the table and I nearly knocked it over tearing through my notes. “Thou have been shot! Sarah, whats going on?”

“I have to get back, I have to save her.” I flipped open a book and stared in confusion. “Melika? Atchu? The translation isn't fixed yet?!”

Hey, I'm doing my best! Twilight's shield and that teleport took a lot out of me. You are lucky you can understand Nightmare, audio translation is always easier than text.

“Read it aloud, we shall translate.”

“Eleka nahmen nahmen Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen Eleka nahmen nahmen Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen”

“Let her flesh not be torn, let her blood leave no stain. When they beat her, let her feel no pain. Let her bones never break and however they try to destroy her, let her never die.”

Invulnerability spell, I thought, and a nasty one too. Not healing, not teleport, try something else. I nodded, turned the page and began again. “Eleka nahmen nahmen Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen Eleka nahmen nahmen Ah tum ah tum eleka – beleka” My vision was blurring with tears as the pain and exhaustion of the ordeal began to overwhelm me. The thought that Twist might be dead, that so much had gone wrong at my hand clawed at my heart. I threw the book to the floor in frustration and screamed at the crumbling library around me.

“What good is this? I don’t even know what I’m reading ! I don’t even know what book I ought to try! Twist, do you still live? I left you not even breathing! One more disaster I can add to my generous supply?!”

I fell to the floor, the weight of my failure, of the consequences of my actions crushing me. All the ponies hurt, all my hopes destroyed. Every action I'd taken and the bitter cost of it all flashed through my mind.

“No good deed goes unpunished.” I lamented bitterly. “No act of charity goes un-resented, that’s how it seems. I walked a road of good intentions and look where such roads lead! No good deed goes unpunished!”

My life before becoming a dimension jumper was one long failure after another. Memories of how I had lost jobs, love, friends, even my arm stormed painfully through my mind. My defense of Ditzy had done nothing but mark her for torment and pain. And now Twist, dear sweet child Twist. Swallowed and cut and burned and hurt because I had to take on those timber wolves alone.

Everything I had attempted with good intent, every bit of aid or favor had brought nothing but pain.

Was I just being to blatant? Wanting recognition for my deeds. I looked up at Nightmare and saw, for an instant, a kindred spirit. Her actions as well had brought ruin, and all she had wanted was to be recognized for what she did. That was all I wanted as well, recognition.

The thought brought me up short. Recognition? Was I seeking good or just seeking attention? Is that what good deeds are when looked at through an ice-cold eye? And if that is all they are maybe that’s the reason why.

“No good deed goes unpunished.” I said, venom in my voice. “All helpful urges should be circumvented”

Sarah?

“No good deed goes unpunished.” I was chanting now, the words seeming to soothe my spirit and focus my rage. “I always meant well, but look what well-meant did.”

Sarah, what are you doing?

I stood, tears streaming down my face, thinking of those who hunted and persecuted me. Those brutes who tormented Ditzy just for my one time defense. That purple unicorn, intent on dissecting me for knowledge. The damaged equipment, the exploding conversion pod, everything in the forest trying to kill me. Everything in this world was against me.

And the last friend I had tried to save was likely dead.

I picked up the helmet, Nightmare's essence coiling down my arms.

“So be it then.” I declared in a hiss, turning the helmet around. 

“If all Equestria is agreed that I’m evil through and through, and since I can’t succeed, dear Twist in saving you, I promise no good deed will I attempt to do again! 

“NEVER AGAIN!” 

I put the helmet on, feeling the spirit merge with me, her voice and mine twining in my throat, power flowing through my body. The arrow head fell to the ground, its wound already closing. In the broken mirror on the far wall I saw myself with long transparent blue hair drifting in an ethereal wind, my eyes glowing the same blue-green of that spirit.

“No good deed will I do AGAIN!”





Princess Luna looked up from where she lay, pulling herself away from the dreams and night she guarded so closely. Somewhere in the distance she felt something call to her. It pulled at her, in a way that she could not identify, so distant and yet familiar. The sensation faded but did not disappear completely.

She frowned and tried to focus, for whatever this sensation was, it disturbed her. She could not place it, but something about it sent a cold shiver down her spine. 
> Dark Days
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Iron Shod jumped down from the caboose as the train pulled into Appleoosa, firing up a spotlight spell on his horn. It was his job to check the train when they arrived in station to see if any cargo had shifted or become loose. Tonight, as he worked in near darkness, he was worried.

Ever since they had left Ponyville that morning, the train had strange little groans and shifts, little shadows and creaks that usually meant a stowaway. But he had checked every nook and cranny along the cargo cars from caboose to the first passenger car, and found nothing.

Now that everything was stopped, he knelt, checking under the cars for lose chains or, worse, some poor animal caught in the wheels.

He heard the scratching sounds, and looked up. And froze. Something knelt above him, clinging to the side of the train car like a spider. Its eyes glowed green in the darkness, and the light from his horn showed two claws reaching towards him. The first was shining steel, the other like bleached bone and dark crystals.

He screamed.





Two weeks.

Two long, exhausting weeks. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to drive off the weariness. Twist had been attacked by that monster, that book thief, and in two weeks since her shield had not been touched once.

The guards that she had asked her brother for were now needed elsewhere. Reports had come in that the creature had been sighted in Appleoosa and the outskirts of Fillydelphia. There had been reports of break ins, brown outs, and theft of everything from lumber to food. There had even been a report of a train pony fainting when "a dark figure with long arms and claws of steel and bone" reached out for him on a late night run. All available information pointed to the creature having moved on to other towns.

Not that such information had been readily available to Twilight. She had to resort to sneaking into the guard captain's office while he was out and copying reports. She didn't understand why she had to resort to such crude tactics. It was HER monster! She had uncovered it, and it had stolen HER books! She was the personal student to THE Princess Celestia! How could the guards just- just shut her out?

Twilight looked around her room upstairs, at the notes pinned and taped to the walls and ceiling with red string forming a web of connections. Every action, every step, even just the suspected sightings she had traced and tracked. She knew the thing had been working out of the Everfree, but now.

Now it had been weeks. Before barely a day went past without something happening related to that THING. Sometimes it was just a sighting at the shield's edge. Sometimes it was an incursion. But it was always something! Now the creature was just missing. Gone.

Twilight sighed, exhausted from the strain of keeping up such a complex shield for so long. "Spike!" she called out.

Her baby dragon assistant waddled out of the lower library levels. "What is it Twilight?! Did your shield get a signal?"

"No Spike, I think the creature has really moved on. Go inform the Mayor and the guard that I am taking the shield down." Spike saluted and hurried off, and Twilight began to pull the pins and notes down. When she was finished she concentrated for a moment, and the shield slipped away. She crawled into her bed and closed her eyes, praying for a dreamless sleep.





Sky Hoops trotted into his home and kicked the door closed. It had been a good day hanging out with his crew, though he didn't look forward to work in the morning. His special talent of dodging and weaving aerial obstacle had to be for something better than in town courier, but it paid the bills. He smirked as he though about how it was still better than being a simple mail pony. Especially a certain wall eyed mail pony, though it was hard to mess with her now that she had lost her job.

Sky wandered upstairs to bed, glad to see the sky it's normal color outside his window. That dumb mare at the library had that silly shield up for far too long. She should have let the guards do their job and stuck to her books and kitchen. Now at least he could sleep easy with the right kind of star light pouring in through his skylight.

Sleep tugging at his eyes, he crawled into bed and turned off the lights. He grunted at the cold sheets, thinking he would have to get a new mare to help warm them. The last was too stupid to appreciate what he gave her and had run off. Probably with another mare, the bucking dyke. He smirked at the memory of the school teacher, offering her "private lessons". Still couldn't see what she saw in that dumb buck Big Macintire, especially since the idiotic farm pony was too shy to hit that sunflower stamped flank. Sky made a mental note to show the teacher what a REAL stallion could do sometime.

Rolling over, he looked up at the constellations through the skylight, letting his eyes slowly adjust to the dim light. He didn't know constellations by name, never bothered with them, but he knew the forms and connections.

There was the pegasus, and the treasure chest, and the apple, and the warrior. He squinted, the Ursa was off slightly. he could see the two bright stars that formed it's back, but the rest were dim. I squinted in the darkness, trying to make them out, when something else caught his attention. The edge of his skylight was between these two stars and all the others.

His eyes widened, and he began to see the thing hanging on his ceiling in the gloom. It had dark, segmented armor and four long limbs with wicked claws. It's long hair flowed out from a dark blue helm, swirling and floating on an ethereal wind. Its eyes, the two stars, glowed with a vicious blue light. It was worse than an Ursa Major, worse than a Changeling, it was some terrible monster. One that had evaded the best guards just to come wait for him here in his own home.

Sky Hoops lay paralyzed with fear, even his voice stolen as the thing began to lower itself toward him. Some part of his mind gave him the small reassurance that the thing currently dropping toward him could not possibly get any scarier.

He was wrong. 

It smiled.





Bounty hunting is the kind of work you get into when you have a certain set of skills and have burned a certain number of bridges. Elna had torched those spans long ago, and since found a great deal of success in her work. Usually it involved running down minor thieves or deadbeat debtors. Sometimes, when normal work became scarce, she would have to go looking for harder targets.

A gryphon raised on the edge of pony society, Elna always found the best use of her more predatory nature and skills. Right now she was tracking a completely alien creature through one of the most dangerous places in Equestria. The thing had attacked the nearby town on a number of occasions, causing a variety of chaos. A day of tracking had traced it's faint trail. Now it was hiding somewhere in the Everfree, and potentially gaining command of the monsters that dwell there.

She paused under a large tree and sniffed the air. Something had been moving around in the forest of late, something strong. A number of clearings that she had passed through showed signs of combat, but no blood or body parts. Elna turned and continued to walk cautiously after her prey.

She cleared a thick patch of underbrush and found herself looking at a crumbling castle ruin. The stone and wood structure stood out against the moonlight, and a thin trail of smoke rose from a far tower. Elna frowned. She had caught the scent of smoke hours ago, but had ignored it as being too diffuse to track. Now she understood why, the high tower placed most of the thin cloud above what she would have scented.

She carefully stalked across the rope bridge, noting the few places where new wood and vine had patched holes. The castle itself was a shadow of it's former glory, but Elna was no archaeologist and could only marvel at the buildings age. Her claws tapped loudly on the stone for a moment, before she remembered her shoes in her backpack. She wound her way towards that distant tower, finally finding her destination.

And her target. The thing was sitting, wrapped in a cloak for warmth, facing a crackling fire built in an old fireplace. Elna watched it for a moment, considering her options.

On the one had, the thing was fast. It had outrun the guard on at least three separate occasions. It was strong, she knew that from the scenes of carnage in the forest. It could disguise itself, and possibly teleport, so it knew magic. It could potentially control the creatures of the forest, not that she had seen any really threatening ones on the way in.

It all finally came down to too many unknowns. With its strength, speed, power, skill, allies, and even magic all only guessed at, there was little choice. A corpse was worth little, but it was still better than nothing.

Elna silently readied herself, tensing her muscles, stretching her claws. In an instantaneous blur of motion she pounced. Her fore talons clamped onto its shoulders, piercing the flesh. Her cat like claws tore great shreds in the cloak and the body beneath it. Her sharp beak reached around under the head and tore out the throat as the creature beneath her slammed to the floor. 

She stood, looking down at the corpse, a dark fluid pooling beneath it. Something was wrong. She smacked her beak and tasted not the sharp tang of blood, but the sticky thickness of sap.

Something hit her from the side, large and heavy and fast. They rolled on the floor and Elna found herself pinned. Something held both wings and all four of her legs and was even pressing down on her neck. She stared up into a flat face with a wide, mad grin and glowing white eyes. A dark blue helm framed the features, with a ghostly mane streaming out of it. That mane held her neck and limbs, save for her wings which were grasped by two terrible claws.

“Well.” Its voice seemed to echo inside her head. “An assassin. Have I become so lax that now gryphons are taking swings at me? Were they not content to let me sit on my ruined throne?”

Elna could not speak, fear crept in and stole what voice she had.

“No matter. Everything is nearly ready, and only the Elements themselves could stop me now. You will have to learn, little creature, the price for daring to cross me.”

The pressure on Elna's right wing increased. The creature was bending and squeezing it, the pain becoming unbearable.

CRACK

Elna felt her wing break, felt the spurs of bone push through the flesh.

She started to scream, and the creature just smiled wider.

“Now for the other wing.”





Twilight groaned and stretched. She hadn't been sleeping well. A runner had woken her up way too early in the morning because somepony was in the hospital and she had asked, politely, to be informed of anything that might relate to the creature. 

It was bad enough that the very night she took the shield down she got a half dozen reports of "sightings", though almost all could be dismissed as nightmares and fears. One pegasus stallion had even hurt his wing when he fell out of bed over such a nightmare. She had the connections web about half rebuilt, but with only rumors and hearsay it was hard to expand on it. At least, not without being really paranoid.

Twi plodded down the road towards the hospital, Luna's moon still lighting the early morning. Celestia had yet to raise the sun, but it's glowing promise of a bright day sat just on the horizon. There was a small twinge of fear, like something might jump out at her in the dim morning light, but she reassured herself that she could handle anything. She had taken care of an Ursa Minor all by herself after all. 

“Ah, good morning miss Twilight.” The doctor greater her as she came into the hospital. “I assume you are here for our newest patient?”

"Your runner didn't give me much information. Only that the new patient might be involved with the creature."

The doctor frowned. "Not might be, the poor girl definitely ran into it. And she's been asking for you by name." He lead Twilight back into the ICU. 

Twilight cringed away from the pegasus. It's wings and body were almost completely wrapped in bandages, but it still looked horribly deformed. It took her a moment to realize that it wasn't a pegasus, but a gryphon who lay on the bed.

"What happened to her?" Twilight asked, shocked at the sight.

"We aren't entirely sure." The doctor said, waving a hoof at the sleeping gryphon. "She has two broken wings, each with six or seven separate breaks, a broken leg, numerous cuts and scratches, and possibly a concussion." He glanced at the chart at the end of the bed and frowned again. "She was unconscious when she was brought her in, and only woke up for a few moments while we were treating her. She said something about a monster at the castle."

"She asked for me?"

"Something about a bounty."

Twilight narrowed her eyes in thought. She had put out an offer of reward for information about the monster. This gryphon had either misheard or misinterpreted and saw it as a bounty. Still, that the monster could do this to something as strong and predatory as a gryphon was disturbing.

Elna opened her eyes for a moment, half waking from a disturbing dream.

"Elements. She fears the Elements. Only hope. Must....tell...."

She drifted back to sleep, and Twilight worried about what the gryphon had seen that it even haunted her dreams.





I stalked through the castle, checking on doors here, a magical seal there. I had been preparing for the Elements for some time, and everything would have to be perfect.

Someone is here 

Someone strong 

Somepony familiar 

Nightmare's voice inside my head was new and still slightly disorienting. It was definitely the Nightmare spirit, but it didn't sound quite the same. There was a quiet, almost seductive tone to it.

I turned, facing the dark form before it fully materialized. “Princess Luna. Your highness, it is an honor to receive you at this time.” I bowed low before the midnight blue alicorn, enjoying the look of confusion that spread across her face. “Would you like something to eat or drink? We have tea, and I can do cookies or the most delightful pancakes.”

Luna pointed an armored hoof at me. “Thou art possessed creature, by the terrible Nightmare! Surrender, that we might save thee from it's clutches.”

“Why would I do that?” I smiled and walked on, leading the princess further into the castle. “It is in everyponies interests that I hold onto the Nightmare, at least for a while longer. You see,” I put on a sad tone, “I'm not long for this world.” A frown pulled at my mouth before twisting into a manic grin, and I whispered conspiratorially. “The Elements of Harmony are coming. I saw the armored chariot pass overhead a while ago, and I know that the bearers are in the forest as we speak. Soon they will arrive, and I shall be removed from Equestria, and the Nightmare with me.”

Luna would have none of it though. “Doubtless thy hath laid traps and ambushes throughout the castle, if not the whole Everfree Forest. Our friends and Element Bearers are in danger as long as thou art free.” She spread her wings menacingly.

“Have you the means to remove the Nightmare from me Princess?” I asked. Her wings wilted slightly at that. “Even your sister needed the Elements to handle the Nightmare. I'll admit, it now only has access to my power, not yours. Still,” I grinned, menacing and mad, “Are you willing to try?”

I could see the internal conflict in Luna's eyes. Had I been reluctantly under Nightmare's control I could be saved. If I was mad with power she might have had a plan. As it was, I was an unknown, and I knew how some might choose to deal with an unknown.

“How about a truce? A deal?” I asked quickly. She eyed me suspiciously. “Nothing I have planned or set is dangerous to the Bearers. Sit with me and watch their approach. If at any point it seems like they are going to be seriously hurt-”

“We shall impale thee upon the highest tower and rain down fire and lightning until thou art reduced to cinders.” Luna glared at me, her horn glowing slightly.

“Agreed.” I smiled, and lifted a small wooden cup. “Tea?”
> Generous Laughter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight checked her notes and maps. It had been a couple years since she and her friends had first ventured into the Everfree Forest in search of the Castle of the Pony Sisters and Nightmare Moon. Her friendship with Zecora and infrequent trips into the forest had revealed more than one path from Ponyville's outskirts to the ancient castle.

"Right," she held out one map with her telekinesis to Applejack. "Here is the long way round. The path is roughest, but the least traveled. You and Rainbow Dash take this route. Rarity-"

"Why are we doing this again?" Applejack interrupted. "Ah mean, why split up?"

"Ooh! ooh! I know! I know!" Pinkie Pie was bouncing up and down. "Because the thing we are looking for might be looking for us and six ponies wearing magical jewelry are bound to attract attention together and two can sneak where six couldn't and we are going in pairs in case there are traps and ambushes so we can watch each others back!"

"Um, yeah. Alright." Rainbow Dash said slowly, trying to process everything Pinkie had said in such a rush. She reached out and took the map Twilight offered.

"Rarity," Twilight continued, "You and Pinkie Pie will be taking the main path. Try and get some information from that big purple serpent-"

"Steve." Rarity corrected her friend politely.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Right, if you see Steve, ask if he knows anything about the creature. Fluttershy and I will be taking this route." She held up a map for everyone to look at.

"Um, Twi. Nawt that I don't trust yer plannin, but that path goes over a gorge."

"Which is why I and Fluttershy are going that way. I can teleport and she can fly the distance." She looked over her friends. "We can do this. The creature might be expecting all six of us, but not from different directions. Keep moving, stay out of sight, and we will meet at the castle gates."

With nods and smiles, the six friends split into pairs and walked off. Rainbow Dash challenged Applejack to a race through the woods. Pinkie started chatting to Rarity about a "victory party" and Rarity offered to help decorate. Fluttershy whimpered by Twilight's side, but the purple unicorn comforted her with a smile. "We will be alright."

Up above them birds of wood and vine looked down, their eyes glowing a blue-green. As one the spread their wings and took flight, each pair of ponies attracting a pair of birds. They followed, silently, watching.





Pinkie and Rarity were making good time through the Everfree. While no real roads existed, there was a rough path of sorts to the Castle. It led down a cliff, through a narrow pass, past a darkend section of the woods, over a river and ended at a rope bridge. Rarity had to marvel at how clean and clear the path was once they were down the cliff.

“The last time we came here we were just following Twilight's directions. Now look, the path is virtually unobstructed.” She frowned at the ground. “Granted its still dirt. I am going to need a light bath after all of this, but still, nothing I can't handle.”

Pinkie tackled Rarity into some nearby bushes, and Rarity found herself covered with mud, sap, twigs and leaves.

“Pinkmmmph.” Rarity's cries of distress were silenced by Pinkies hoof as she pointed up the path. Something was moving along. Rarity sat quietly, afraid as she waited and watched.

What came around the bend were not monsters nor the creature, but a small group of six deer. The deer were odd, as was everything in the Everfree, and looked like they were topiary.

Pinkie sprang from the bushes to land in the center of the path, making all the newcomers cry out in fright. “HI! I'm Pinkie Pie!”

“Argh, don't scare us like that.” A female sounding deer approached. “We were really worried, we heard there were terrible creatures in the forest today.”

“Oh?” Rarity poked her head from the bushes slowly so as not to frighten the deer any further. “What is it? Manticores? Hydras?”

“No silly,” the lead deer giggled, “Why would we be afraid of those? I heard there were,” she paused and leaned in, whispering, “Ponies in the forest.” The deer shivered.

“Yeah, those things are scary.” A seventh deer, no bigger than a filly, poked her head through the parents legs. “They EAT plants like us. I bet they would just pull me apart and gobble me up.”

Rarity stopped picking at the twigs and leaves in her fur and turned to look at Pinkie Pie. If she didn't know that Pinkie was a pony, she would have assumed she was one of the deer. She realized that she appeared similarly disguised, even if it was not nearly as fabulous as she would have liked.

Pinkie was firing off questions faster than anypony could answer.“So, where are you headed? Where are you from? What is your name? What do you like to eat? Do you-”

“Whoa, slow down.” The lead deer waved at Pinkie with both hooves. “I am Flora, and these are my  companions Thorn, Willow, Root, Petal, Stem, and little Fauna. We are headed for the ruined castle, we heard there was a creature there that even the ponies fear.”

“That is where we are going too.” Rarity commented, “Maybe we should go together. 'Safety in numbers' you know.”

Rarity did her best to make civil conversation, but paled next to Pinkie who had somehow already made a friend. She and Flora were gabbing away about life, weather, sweet treats, all without revealing her pony nature.

They followed the winding path until it led to the river. In the past year or two somepony had built a small stone bridge over the river, which had become much deeper from recent rains. The bridge had no railings or sides, merely long grey stone slats on brick pylons. The deer went first, trotting over two at a time. Little Fauna went over with Rarity last, right behind Pinkie and Flora.

“Miss,” Fauna called to Rarity, “I'm not afraid of any ponies.”

Rarity smiled. “You sure are brave.” In front of her, Pinkie's tail twitched back and forth, and then started looking around worriedly.

“Yeah!” Fauna waved a hoof at her. “You just watch, if we run into any ponies, I'll jump on them and WOAH!” Fauna's excitement had carried her too close to the edge of the bridge. Rarity reached out, but the little creature slipped from her grasp and fell toward the rushing water below.

“I got her!” Rarity looked up as Pinkie turned and jumped down into the water below. She watched the pink pony struggle through the water, dragging the struggling young thing towards the shore.

“Come on, we have to help pull them out.” Rarity found her way blocked by Root and Thorn.

“We aren't letting you anywhere near her again.” Thorn said.

“Not after you pushed her off the bridge.” Root added.

“Pushed her?”

“We heard her cry out while talking to you.” Root said, stepping forward and forcing Rarity to back up.

“When we turned around, there you were, hooves out, shoving her into the water.” Thorn kept pace with his kin.

“Darlings, I was reaching out to help her.”

“HA!” The two pushed Rarity off into the shallow end, just as Pinkie surged onto the shore, dragging Fauna with her.

Unfortunately the dip in the water washed off all of their plant camouflage.

“PONIES!!!”

Root and Thorn threw small stones at Rarity and Pinkie as Fauna ran past them across the bridge. For a moment, as the water got into her eyes, Rarity could swear that Fauna looked like Scootaloo, and Thorn and Root like Twilight and herself. She blinked to clear her vision, and saw on the far side a fight going on.

“Stupid.”

“Traitor.”

“Idiot.”

The remaining deer were beating up Flora.

“I didn't know!” Flora protested, shielding herself as best she could.

“You were awfully friendly with that pink Pony. What were you planning? Going to feed us to it?!”

“HEY!” Pinkie was advancing up the bridge, as Root and Thorn fell back in fear. “YOU MEANIES LEAVE HER ALONE!”

“It's even coming to her aid!” All the fauns but Flora fled into the underbrush. Pinkie ran towards the battered creature, hoping to help it.

“No. NO!” The faun was dragging itself towards the trees. “Leave me alone! Don't eat me! Please!” She was crying, battered. The greyish dust and her bruised face reminded Pinkie of a pegasus she had seen somewhere. Pinkie started to follow, when she felt a hoof upon her shoulder.

“Pinkie,” Rairty said softly, “We can't help her now. Any aid we give will only alienate her further. And we have to get to the castle, Twilight needs us.”

Pinkie just nodded and turned towards the distant castle. She swore she would find a way to make it up to Flora someday.





As the bearers left, the topiary deer fell apart. Their part done, Nightmare's magic unwound from the leaves and branches. She left them standing together in a small glade, smiling and holding hooves.

“You see,” I waved my hand at the image projected from a scrying circle painted on a sheet. “No one was hurt.” I turned to Princess Luna, smiling.

“But why the act?" The princess and I sat in the Night Court, sipping tea. "To what end do thy expend thine energies in this farce?”

“To stall. To needle. To sow little doubts.” I pulled out another painted sheet as the scrying circle started to fade on the one we had been using. "I want them to THINK a little about how things can be... misunderstood."

"To show that all thy crimes are not but simple confusion? That thou art not bad?"

"Oh no." I smiled at the princess as I got the next circle going. "I am evil. They decided that for me already." My voice broke a little as I talked, so I hushed up and turned away, trying to hide the tears forming in my eyes.

Princesses Luna looked at me with a confused expression and sipped her tea.
> Honest Loyalty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princess Luna walked around the ancient Night Court room, making mental notes of both the room and her, for lack of a better word, host. The room itself was impressive, and she had not seen it in over a thousand years. Long gone were the glorious dark tapestries that once lined the walls. A few rough torches in crude stands had replaced the dozens of silver candle holders, whose varying heights had mimicked the star filled sky. The splendor of the room was long gone.

That noted, the room was still not as she had imagined it might be. When she had sensed the Nightmare active within the castle she had imagined many things, but never renovation. The broken glass was gone from the ancient windows, but the frames had been repaired and restored. The dark tile had been patched back together, large sections replaced with matching color, and the whole floor buffed to a shine. Even the stone throne had been cleaned and repaired, and the ceiling mural partially restored.

The princess turned towards her odd host. The creature had deep black hair that floated in an ethereal wind. It wore Nightmare's Helm, which looked odd next to the dark grey long sleeve jacket, fatigues and boots. She sat on the floor, smoothing out another of the dozens of sheets she had painted with scrying circles. Her actions made no sense to the princess. Why, when she obviously had control over such creatures as the Fauna, did she not attack? What did she need the Elements for? What was she planning?

"Ah HA!" the creature exclaimed as an image began to form over the circle. In it, Luna could see Rainbow Dash and Applejack moving swiftly through the woods. "I found you!" the creature sang. She looked closely at the circle, muttering and waving her claws. It shifted focus for a bit, and the monster seemed lost in thought. After a moment, she flicked her left had up sharply.

In the circle, Luna saw a tree branch whip down and smack Rainbow on her back. The blow deflected the pegasus downward, and she collided with the running Applejack. The two element bearers went tumbling through a thick puddle of muck and into a large bush. They both emerged coated in mud, sap, twigs and leaves. 

The creature nearly fell over laughing.

"CREATURE!" Princess Luna called, lowering her horn and summoning her power.

The strange thing reached out and leaned on the end of the princesses horn with her left hand, and Luna gasped as her spell faded away. "Relax, Princess. They weren't hurt, and they will need their," she paused for a moment, "disguises for this next section." 

The door opened, and a small Fauna trotted in with a plate of fruit, cheese, and crackers. The creature let go of Luna's horn and went over to accept the tray.

"I know what will happen if they get hurt badly on the way here, and I'm doing my best to hold to that deal of ours." She crunched down on a cracker while the Fauna trotted out. "Had they gone much further, they would have passed close to an Ursa's cave."

Luna was having difficulty following all of this. "An Ursa?"

"It would be easier if they had not decided to all split up. I didn't want to have to fight one off just to save your friends, so I'm redirecting them. And it's not CREATURE. It's Sarah." She held the plate out to the stunned princess. "Hors d'oeuvre?"





Applejack plodded along the ground, picking at the twigs and muck that poked her when she moved. Rainbow Dash walked next to her giggling at the sight.

"We look like walking bushes." The prismatic mare chortled.

"Shut it Dash."

"We do! We are going to have to wash this off before we get to the castle, or Fluttershy will be upset."

Applejack paused. "Why would she be upset at us covered in sticks and leaves?"

"Cuz we got to be trees before she did!"

Before Applejack could respond to that, something lept on her from the bushes, pushing her to the ground. She tried to rise, only to have somethings hooves push back at her.

"Stay down, stay quiet." something hissed in her ear. Applejack swung her head to the right and saw Rainbow Dash similarly pinned by a topiary deer. It reminded her, briefly, of when Rarity had tried to help clean up before a storm by making topiary ponies out of branches.

Pressed to the ground like that, Applejack heard a soft thump. A moment later another followed. Footsetps. she realized, and they had to be something huge. From the look of worry that passed over Dash's face, she heard it too, and froze in place. 

Seconds stretched on, and the thuds became distant as whatever it was moved away. The weight and pressure abated, and a wooden hoof helped Applejack to her feet.

"Whew, that was close." The plant creature said, handing Applejack her hat. Upon closer inspection, it looked less like a pony and more like a deer. "Can't be too careful out here in the Everfree."

"What was that?!" Rainbow Dash asked, her voice a mix of awe and excitement.

"Taurus. Nasty piece of work." the deer next to her said. "Like an Ursa Minor, but worse. It’s a giant bull with a bad temper, and its fast and always hungry. I'm Willow by the way, and that's my partner Oak."

"Howdy, Ah'm Applejack." Applejack offered a hoof to Oak. She could now see subtle differences between the two Fauna. Oak was slightly larger and more barrel chested, while Willow had longer, sleeker lines.

"Rainbow Dash," the colorful pegasus said. Her wings were still stuck to her sides with sap, and she worked absentmindedly at them. "Perhaps you've heard of me?"

"Sorry, no." Willow said. Applejack smirked as Dash wilted a little, her ego slightly deflated.

"Is thar anything else we ought to be wary of in the woods?" Applejack asked Oak.

"Oh sure," He said, "There are a number of small creatures like rabbits and parasprites that can swarm if we aren't careful. And I heard a rumor there were ponies in the forest."

Rainbow Dash stopped picking at the sap and looked up. "Ponies?"

"Oh yes," Willow said with a shiver, "I'd almost rather face a stampede of Taurus."

"Speaking of which, we should get back to the rest of the herd." Oak turned and started walking through the woods, leading the way. "We heard you crash nearby and came to make sure you weren't some monster."

"Like a pony?" Applejack asked.

"Those things are scary." Willow commented, walking alongside Dash. "I heard there are ones who can fly through the air. You don't hear them coming, they just swoop down and," She chomped her teeth together, "your gone."

"Heh, not as bad as their magical unicorns." Oak turned down a narrow path, glancing back as he led the group. "They have dozens of spells to attack us with. Course that's still nothing compared to their earth ponies."

"Earth ponies worry you more than pegasi?" Rainbow Dash was skeptical. "What are they going to do? Run after you?"

"Rainbow." Applejack growled at her friend. She had proved herself as much an athlete during the running of the leaves.

"He's right you know," Willow said, they were talking lower now. "Pegasi have flight and speed, and unicorns have magic, but you never know what to expect with earth ponies. I heard there's one in the town nearby that ran down a pegasus."

"I heard one could play ten instruments at once." Oak said. The group had come to a small stream, and Oak waded through, the water sloshing up to her neck. Willow followed, with Applejack and Rainbow Dash trailing behind.

"Well I heard,” Willow said as she shook herself dry, “They sometimes bake…plants…like.” Her eyes were wide as she looked at the element bearers.

“Whut?” Applejack asked

“PONIES!!” The two fauna cried, running full tilt into the underbrush and disappearing. Applejack looked back at Rainbow Dash and realized the stream had washed most of the leaves and sap away.

“Wait!” Rainbow Dash called out “We aren’t monsters! We won’t hurt you!”

“Thars nawt much we ken do about it Rainbow Dash.” Applejack said sadly, trotting back over to the stream and washing the last of the leaves from her mane.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"

The cry had come from up ahead,  and not in the direction the Fauna had run. Rainbow Dash looked at Applejack, but the farm pony had already grabbed her hat and was running towards the cry.

A minute later they ran into a clearing, and saw both monster and prey. The creature was a semi-transparent dark blue bull, the stars of it’s constellation floating inside it’s translucent body. It was in a half run, head lowered and large sharp horns gleaming in the sun, as it charged its prey.

That prey was four of those small topiary deer, no bigger than an filly, who were doing their best to get out of its way.

“OH NO YA DON’T!” Rainbow dash cried as she delivered a powerful buck to the thing's shoulder as it ran by, shoving the thing sideways. 

The monster staggered and whipped it’s head around, trying to gore the blue mare with her horns. From the ground there was a disturbing wet crunch and a scream.

“AAARGH! MY LEG!”

Rainbow looked down and gasped. One of the fillies had tried to run past the bull as it charged past. The stagger had brought one of the monsters giant hooves down on the young mare’s hind leg, breaking and smashing it badly.

The large bull turned towards the noise and, spotting a tasty prize, opened its mouth to swallow the wounded young Faun.

“Lilly! Run!” one of the other young ones called from the edge of the clearing.

“HELP!” another called, pitifully.

As the bull bent to scoop up its meal, a long hoop of vines flew out and wrapped around the creatures horns. 

“YA’ll AIN’T GONNA EAT ANYPONY T’DAY!” Applejack yelled and pulled hard on the makeshift lasso. The bull reared and fought, but the cowpony held tight and dug her hooves in, holding it in place. Still, she could feel her grip slipping. The bull was more than three times her size, and she was lucky to be having any effect on it at all.
The bull seemed to realize this as well, and began to alternate slackening and tugging on the rope. It couldn’t get free, but every tug was dragging the orange mare a little closer. Soon, she would be near enough to stomp. With every inch, the bull was more overhead, and Applejack had less and less leverage. The bull swung it’s head in a massive tug, and the cowpony let the rope go.

No longer restrained, the bull’s head swung upward, just as Rainbow Dash was coming down. She wasn’t quite going Sonic Rainboom speed, but her hoof hit the monsters jaw with a sound like thunder.

The bull’s eyes boggled, it wobbled, then crashed to the ground unconscious.

“That…was…AWESOME!!!!” she cried out. Applejack ran towards where the young deer had fallen. The other three young ones were long gone, and this one had passed out from the pain. “Can you help her?” Rainbow asked, landing nearby.

Applejack looked at the broken leg. It looked more like a snapped branch than anything else. “Ah might be able ta mend her up.” Something bounced off her shoulder with a sting. “Ow!” She and Rainbow looked up to see Oak and Willow at the edge of the clearing, bucking rocks at them.

“Leave her alone!” Willow cried. “She’s just a sapling!”

“We aren’t afraid of you, or your hunting beast!” Oak called out, bucking another rock at them.

“Hunting beast?” Rainbow asked. Applejack looked back, and saw how the lasso looked more like a leash. More of the deer were coming, and the rocks were getting more accurate, another thwacking against her hoof.

“We were only tryin ta help.” The element of honesty called to the fauns. She got her hat knocked off. As she bent to pick it up, there was a blur of motion. Two very swift fauns had run up from behind them, grabbing the downed faun as they passed.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash said, caught off guard. “We just saved you!” She flared her wings in frustration.

“PEGASUS! RUN!” one of the deer cried. A moment later they had all vanished into the underbrush.

“But, but we helped them.” Rainbow protested sadly.

“C’mon sugar cube,” Applejack said, “We need ta git headed to the castle. Twi‘ll be expecting us.” As one, they turned and walked towards the distant fortress.





As they left, the fake Taurus faded away. Watching from the scrying circle, Sarah and Luna both visibly relaxed.

"Whew," Sarah sat down and relaxed for a moment. "I was worried they were going to pursue those Fauna."

"We still do not understand thy actions." The princess said, looking over the various items Sarah had been toying with. The metal arm had produced screwdrivers, snips, pliers, wrenches, and even a small drill as Sarah worked on a confusing tangle of steel plates and rope.

"I told you already, your highness," Sarah tied off a patch of rope to another plate. "I'm protecting them from the dangerous creatures of the forest."

"And these plays? You put on such a show, for what purpose?"

"I am a threat, princess Luna. I have allies coming to the castle. When the elements arrive, they will find a small army of well armed but easily fooled Fauna with me as their general." Sarah stood, wrapping the mess of plates and pans around herself in makeshift armor. There was a surge of energy and the armor shifted. The ancient rusted steel plates turned gleaming black and stretched, interlocking into vicious looking armor. "There," she said with a satisfied tone, "A villain needs to look the part!"

Luna furrowed her brow and refilled her tea cup.

> Magical Kindness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight ran alongside Fluttershy through the forest. Their ideal path was a straight line from the edge of the forest to the Castle of the Pony Sisters, but such a path was undoubtedly littered with obstacles. 

She had been prepared to dodge monsters, and maybe ford a river or two, and she was prepared for the gorge ahead. What she hadn't been properly prepared for was the sheer number of detours. Every hundred yards or so they would encounter a cave or an impassable thorn bush, and have to detour left or right just to move forward. More than once Twilight had wished for night just to double check her directions by the stars. She had to resort to coaxing Fluttershy above the canopy to spot the ravine ahead.

"Ugh, I thought there were supposed to be trails the animals used to get around in here. We are going to be late." The longer path was giving Twilight more time to think. She realized, of course, that the "theft" of her library books was ridiculous. So it had taken books from the library, you were supposed to take books from the library. That was what libraries were for!

There was just something wrong about its behavior. Something that made her see the creature as a threat.





"AAAARGH, where are you going?" Sarah glared as Twilight as she rounded yet another road block and kept heading straight for the castle. "What the fuck? What the actual fuck? You can't jump that ravine, and you HAVE to know it's there."

"Why art thou concerned about the ravine?" Luna inquired.

"There is a nest of hydras at the bottom." Sarah said, "If they fall, even I may not be able to save them."

Sarah turned and considered the circle, and the image projected above it. Luna looked on, telekeneticly refilling her tea cup again.





Twilight stood at the edge of the ravine and looked across to the other side. She swallowed nervously, judging the distance. Fluttershy had already flown across, and Twilight was still trying to gather her courage. She really would have liked to have the yellow pegasus drag a cord or rope across so she could get an exact measurement.

"Ah well, nothing ventured, nothing gained." She concentrated, watching the light from her horn turn the surrounding area purple. With a final push, she folded space and popped out on the far side of the ravine, right next to Fluttershy.

"eeep!"

"There, see? Nothing to-" The ground beneath Twilight cracked, and the section she was on slid out into the ravine, carrying the unicorn with it. "AHHH!"

Her decent stopped as she fell into a soft tangle of vines. Her back legs and horn were temporarily entangled, and she worked to free them. As she wiggled, she rolled over and looked down through the gaps in the tangle of vines. Twilight's brain took a moment to realize what she was seeing, and froze. There, not more than a dozen yards down, were hydras. Not two or three, but dozens. Twilight realized that she was half caught and half hanging from the vines, and if she wiggled too much she might alert the monsters to her location or worse, fall into their midst.

"Twilight!"

The purple unicorn rolled over slowly, thankful for her friends soft voice since it wouldn't alert the hydras below. She felt the pegasus helpfully tug a stuck leg free.

"Thank's Fluttershy," she said, finishing the roll, "Give me a moment and then...we....can....." Her voice trailed off as she stared up in horror. It wasn't a random bunch of vines she had fallen into but a web. Above her was a massive spider of wood and vine, vicious looking sap dripping from its mandibles.

Twilight started to try and back away, and started to slip through the web. The spider reached out and grasped at her, wrapping her leg in vines. Above them, Fluttershy was dodging two more massive spiders who were walking towards her up the wall, waving their long arms and hissing wickedly. The butter colored pegasus was forced to retreat back up the cliff side.

"Oh, I know you are hungry, and she looks like a good meal, but she is a dear friend. Please put her down. Pretty please?"

The spider had wrapped the purple unicorn in sticky vines and was dragging her back up the side of the ravine. It's going to EAT ME!, she thought. Her horn flared a soft purple, and she began to slowly loosen her bonds. She could feel smaller spiders crawling over her back and legs.

"Twilight, the spiders won't listen to me!"

As the spider reached the top, the power pulsed out of Twilight and she charged from the torn bundle of vines straight into the forest. Fluttershy joined her panicked fleeing a moment later, the both of them zigzagging through the woods to lose the pursuing spider.

Huffing and gasping, Twilight trotted slowly next to Fluttershy as they reached the small stream. The purple sorceress plunged her head into the cool water, gulping mouthfuls. When her lungs began to burn for air she threw her head back, showering her mane and coat in a spray of cooling water. Fluttershy was laying next to her, carefully drinking.

"Ah, that was refreshing." Twilight said.

"Yes, I needed that." Fluttershy agreed.

"Me too." said another female soft voice.

Twilight started and turned around. There behind her was, to all appearances, a deer made out of wood, vine and leaf. The creature had just raised its head from the stream, the water plastering its leafy mane to its face.

"Whew," it said, "It's hard going this way. I hope the castle is close."

"Your headed to the castle too?" Twilight asked, marveling at the thing as it moved about, washing its hardwood hooves in the stream.

"Yeah, I heard there is a creature there that can protect us from plant eaters." The fauna wiped the wet leaves from its eyes. "I just hope I don't...run..into ....any....." The deer's eyes went wide with fear.

"Um," Fluttershy said.

"PONIES!!!" the fauna screamed and ran off into the woods.

"Well, that could have gone better." Twilight said.

A crash behind her alerted her to the spiders return, and she and Fluttershy were fleeing once again.



	

Luna sat in wide eyed awe of Sarah. She had felt the power that surged from the creature, saw it break other spells to feed their power into crafting the spiders and web. The black armor was once again little more than rusted metal plates tied together with rough rope. Sarah's manic smile and clean glamor were gone, she was now dusty, dirty, and gasping from the effort  the spells had taken.

"Ah, thguac uoy." Sarah said confidently. It took Luna a moment to realize that even the translation magic had been sacrificed, all to save Twilight Sparkle. 

Why? The princess knew the elements were important, but she could have just cleared the way and invited them in. Why do all of this? But now was not the time to interrupt. The armor began to darken and stretch, returning to its vicious black look, and the manic grin was back.

"I'm going to make you pay for that little workout librarian." Sarah said to Twilight's fleeing image in the circle. "Let's have you run for a little bit."

Luna smirked a little and sipped the tea once more.





Twilight was beginning to get tired. Not of the running, though that was exhausting in its own right. She was getting tired of running into the same topiary deer. Every time she and Fluttershy managed to escape the giant wooden spider, either through flight, teleportation, or sheer desperation, they would run into the deer again. And it would scream "PONIES!" at the top of its lungs and take off. And then the spider would be after them again.

She and Fluttershy were grabbing a short break, gulping air and picking twigs and leaves from their fur.

"Why is it chasing us like this?" Fluttershy asked. Her shoulders were slumped from exhaustion. As much as Twilight was a bookworm, she at least trained for the annual running of the leaves. Fluttershy's only exercise was wrestling the odd bear for chiropractic care.

"I don't know. We can't be that good as food." Twilight and Fluttershy both froze as the deer, equally exhausted, trotted into the far end of the clearing. It was looking over its shoulder, not seeing where it was going. Grasping at a chance to get some answers, Twilight reached out and wrapped it in her telekinetic field.

"AAAAH!" The deer flailed helplessly as she was lifted off the ground. "No! Let me go! DON'T EAT ME!"

"WE ARE NOT GOING TO EAT YOU!" Twilight yelled. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to calm down. She glared at the whimpering deer, who had done its best to curl into a ball. "We just want you to answer a few questions. What are you? Why are you so afraid-"

There was a sound of breaking branches, and the giant spider crashed down on Twilight, knocking her to the ground. The deer fell free from the failing telekinetic hold and ran for it. Twilight managed to roll over on her back before the spider pinned her with a pair of the huge limbs. The massive mufti-eyed head lowered close to the unicorn.

"No. Don't eat me. Please." Twilight begged, her mind trying to remember the magical sequence for teleportation. The spider reached out with a massive leg and ran its rough wooden tip through her mane, tugging at it. Fluttershy gave a small gasp of suprise.

Something moved just on the edge of Twilight's vision, and she turned her head slightly to her left. There, tangled in her hair, was a small spider, no bigger than a walnut. It had been wrapped in her mane, and the giant spider was slowly and gently pulling it free.

"A baby?" Twilight asked aloud. She looked back up at the giant spider. "Your baby? You weren't trying to eat us, just to save your child?" She felt horrible. All the running, all the fear, everything had been just because she had been afraid and jumped to conclusions. There was a tiny doubt in the back of her mind, a sense of déjà vu, but she couldn't quite place it.

Once the tiny spider was free, it ran up its parent's leg, swarming with a few brothers and sisters that rode on the massive spiders back. The large monster carefully lifted itself off of Twilight and retreated up into the trees.





Luna sighed in relief as the spider left. She had been worried that Sarah would go too far, and had been silently prepping a quick magical blast. Now that things were calming down she relaxed. She was still confused about Sarah's actions though.

"We still do not understand. Why dost thou-"

Luna was interrupted as the doors to the chamber opened. Her eyes widened as a wooden mockery of Sarah's form wrapped in a tattered cloak. The thing was carrying a large box as it limbered forward.

"What in Tartarus is THAT thing?!" Princess Luna cried.

"Research in action." Sarah said. "I had to rip apart an awful lot of timber wolves, trying to figure out how they work. I still don't have it down, but this was my first attempt."

Luna looked over the creatures appearance. As unusual as Sarah's appearance was, this things lack of hair or face, and the silent way it moved made it even more unnerving. What was worse was the condition the thing was in. The cloak's back was shredded, there were great holes in the shoulders, and the throat looked ripped out.

"Do you treat all your research in such a vicious manner?" the princess inquired.

"What?" Sarah looked up from sorting the last of the scrying circles. "Oh, that. No, that's the gryphon assassin that came after me here." She laughed, "I had to break both its wings and one of its legs before it passed out. Ah, here." She took the heavy box and set it on the floor. "I was going to leave this and just hope for the best, but with you here you can take care of things."

"But, wait." Luna approached as Sarah, watching her lay out things from the box. A trio of books, a smaller box tied to a packet of papers, and several other packages. Each was marked with a drawing of a cutie mark of an element bearer.

"Wait, the gryphon was in the hospital." Luna blinked, "If you broke its limbs here, how did it-" She blinked and stumbled, dropping her tea cup.

"Princess?" Sarah reached out, catching her and helping her to the floor. "Princess, what's wrong?"

"Drowsey. Sleepy. What -why?" she eyed the tea cup. "Poison?"

"Poison?" Sarah asked in a scandalized voice, "Don't be silly, I've been drinking the same tea and I-" She picked up the pot and nearly fell over. "What? Its almost empty?" She turned to the princess, "How many cups did you have?"

"You offered. It was good." Luna was laying down. Why was she laying down? She didn't remember laying down.

"I offered ONE cup!" She said, "ONE is relaxing, Two helps me sleep. You must have drank almost ten cups!"

"Wha?" Luna felt her body shift, and realized she was being lifted.

"Argh, something would have to screw up!" Sarah said. Luna watched herself being pulled through the door as she drifted off to sleep.





"Twi!" Applejack called and waved as Twilight and Fluttershy walked up to the front gates of the castle. She and Rainbow dash were sitting under a tree, chatting with Rarity and Pinkie Pie. All of her friends looked tired, wary, and more than a little covered in tree sap. Still, she felt a relieved smile form on her face. This had been a dangerous plan, one that could have gone so very wrong. They had survived the Everfree Forest, a claim not many could make, and were reunited.

She looked at the crumbling, vine covered ruins, noting the thin lines of smoke coming from some of the chimneys. Somewhere in there was a real monster, something that had lied and tricked, stolen and hurt. Something that she and her friends needed to stop. Twilight wasn't as sure of herself as she had been when they entered the forest, but they had all come too far to turn back. 

"Let's go girls." She said with more confidence than she felt. She strode forward to the castle's outer doors, and pushed them open.

> The Defeat of Sarah Jordan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight and her friends walked cautiously into the ancient Castle of the Pony Sisters. The ruins were still ruins, but there were little marks of habitation here and there. The outer courtyard had been swept clear of rubble, though there were signs of small campfires here and there. The large doors that once hung ajar were repaired, opening without the slightest squeak. Inside the entry hall was clean as well. The moldy carpets and crumbling tapestries had been removed, and the floor repaired and polished to a mirror shine.

Something was not right. More than the cleanliness and upkeep, something was fundamentally wrong about the castle. She couldn't put her hoof on it, and it was nagging at Twilight terribly.

"Where is everypony?" Pinkie Pie asked.

That was it. "You're right Pinkie. Each of us encountered at least one Fauna on the way here, and they all should have gotten here ahead of us. Where are they?"

"Maybe we scared them away?" Rainbow Dash suggested. There was a note of hurt in her voice that worried Twilight. None of the others had talked much about their strange encounters, only that there had been misunderstandings and fear.

"All a them?" Applejack asked skeptically. Something caught her eye and she stopped. "Huh."

Twilight followed her friends gaze through the partially repaired window to a small side courtyard. There was a small but well tended garden. A few small fruit trees grew in one corner of the yard, and the center had tomatoes, beans, cucumber, and cabbage.

"That's a nice little garden for a monster to have." Rarity noted. It looked out of place, and it was no where near enough to feed all of the Fauna they had come across. If Fauna ate plants. Twilight shook her head to clear the thought, trying to focus on the task at hand.

"Come on girls, let's keep moving." The hall branched out, large doors leading to various areas. Twilight peaked in one to see a large dining room, the plates clean, the table set for six. 

"Gasp"

The slight sound drew Twilight's attention, and she turned to find Fluttershy sitting in front of an open door, a look of pain and horror on her face. At first, she worried it was a trap like the Sombra's door in the crystal palace. Once Twilight got a little closer, she saw it was just a room a large tapestries. It took her a moment to process the images before the shock hit her as well.

Fluttershy had her eyes locked onto the central painting. In it, the strange creature lay crumpled and wounded. around her, armed pony guards with wicked, blood stained spears rushed forward, while arrows from archers rained down. Behind the guards, pointing and scowling like a mad general, was the image of a yellow pegasus with a pink mane. As if to add mockery to the scene, the word KINDNESS was stamped in block font onto a brass plaque at the painting's base.

"No" the timid pegasus seemed to almost beg, "No, it- it wasn't like that."

"What in tarnation is this?"

Twilight looked up, and saw that her friends had joined her in the gallery, each glaring or cringing at the other paintings. 

Applejack sat in front of one named HONESTY. This one had a worn and tattered creature standing victorious over a giant fallen timber wolf, lifting a wounded filly to safety. An orange earth pony with a cowboy hat and a wicked grin was shooting her in the shoulder from behind. 

Rainbow Dash was fuming at one that showed her hunting the creature through the forest, tormenting it with lightning bolts. In the background, the huge timber wolf stalked from the forest towards a tree-house, four small fillies visible in the windows.

"Humph! I never!" Rarity chided. Hers was simple, the creature guarded an unconscious young pegasus while a white unicorn with a perfect purple mane and a vicious smile rained magical blasts down upon her.

Pinkie sat with sad eyes and straight hair before a tall, thin painting. At the bottom sat a grey pegasus, bandaged and bruised. above her were twisted faces of various ponies, one held a firing notice, another a "No Admittance" sign, Above them were three pegasi bullies, gloating at their work. Above and behind them, larger than everypony below was Pinkie Pie, laughing at the scene. The real Pinkie was near tears at how she was depicted.

"This is all just, wrong" Twilight said, reaching out a comforting hoof to Pinkie. "How could anyone view us like this?"

"Twilight, Ah think ya'll wanna see this." Applejack called. Twilight turned and her eyes widened in shock. Her own painting dominated the far wall. The creature lay strapped to a stained surgical table. Twilight's face was visible, her hair disheveled and her face twisted in a manic grin. About her, wreathed in purple energy floated scalpels, forceps, hammers and bone saws. The plaque MAGIC was painted over with the word "Curiosity" in thick red paint.

"Is this really how it sees us?" Rainbow Dash asked. "This is all just so wrong."

"I don't know, but I think it's time to find this creature and see what is going on." Twilight said, taking charge and leading her friends from the gallery.

A few empty rooms later, and the bearers stumbled upon the "waiting room" for the Day Court. The sight was one of shock and horror. There stood all of the Fauna, in various poses. Some were looking on with confusion and shock. Others were cowering and a few were fleeing. All stood completely still, their forms stiff, their leaves brown and falling. The entire herd was now little more than wicker statues.

"Why?" Fluttershy asked. "Why would she- why would anyone do this? They were coming here to offer aid, to seek shelter."

A low hum and soft green glow seeped from the cracks and seams of the massive double doors leading to the court. Twilight peeked through a crack in the door and gasped at what she saw. The creature was clad in black segmented armor, Nightmares helm worn proudly on it's head. It held a wicked dagger in its right claw, and at it's feet lay Princess Luna!

"Girls, we have to face her now! She has Luna!" Twilight hissed at her friends.

"What?" "How?" "Why that slimy little-"

"We have to hit her with the elements, now!"





I turned as the doors were thrown open, delighted by the sight of the Elements of Harmony and their wielders.

"You are too late Ponies, I have poisoned the princess and-"

I never got a chance to finish my speech, and I'd practiced for hours too. Instead, the ponies floated into the air, a white halo of light surrounding them. Twilight's eyes glowed white, and the power began to pour out of the group of floating friends.

Something is wrong 

I glanced at the edges of the room, the vast majority of the circle covered with pillows and rugs. None of the lines were glowing.

"What is going on?"

Sarah, the power transfer does not appear to be happening at the necessary rate. It is as if the power-

A rainbow burst from the Element Bearers and slammed down on me, and my vision went blindingly white. I felt the power burning into me, searing every nerve ending. There was a sound like a rushing river filling my ears.

No power, I have no power, there is no power-

"D?"

Sensor malfunction. System malfunction. Error. Error. Disconnect. Command codes compromised. Restriction compromised.

"Machina? What is going on?"

Sarah, the Elements aren't powering the circle. Something's wrong, they are pulling at us, tearing us apart.

No power. no bond. no seal. NO CONTRACT! NO LIMITER! NO BODY! NOBODY! ALONE! WHY AM I ALL ALONE?! WHY-

ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR ERR-

"D?! Machina?! NIGHTMARE?!"

I'm sorry Sarah. I'm so, so sorry. I wanted to help, I wanted to leave, I tried-

I screamed, and the white light and sound and pain ate me whole.





Twilight looked up, shaking the after effects of the Elements and looking out over the Night Court. The rugs and carpets had been twisted and thrown in the Element's wake. A huddled form was crouched between the unconscious Princess Luna and the ancient stone throne. It stood, it's loose piecemeal armor clattering and sliding to the floor.

A creaking sound built to a screech, and the metal right arm shattered and crumbled to the floor, only a thin, almost skeletal arm and hand remained. That gracefully thin hand grasped and twisted her left wrist, the dark crystals breaking away like dried leaves on a dead bush. With both hand she lifted the dark helm from her head, letting shoulder length straight black hair flow out. She held the helm at arms length before her and let it go. It hit the stone floor and shattered like a wine glass.

The creature fixed Twilight with a glare that spoke of hate and loss and despair.

"Kcuf uoy."

She fell to the ground, and did not rise.
> Fitful Dreams
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I stretched and closed my eyes for a moment, giving them a rest from the screen in front of me. It was nearly noon and I could get some lunch, maybe walk around for a bit. ARCO’s finances were a complicated mess at times, and I lothed the days I had a “working lunch”. 

“Hey there Sarah.”

My eyes popped open and I had to smile. There was Frank, my darling Frank. He worked in our sister department, and was slightly higher up the corporate ladder than I was. Our romance had to be kept on the down low, it wasn’t against policy but it was frowned upon.

“Hi Frank. Headed out for lunch?”

“I was, but I wanted to see if you wanted to come with me.”

He was always so sweet. “Sure. I need to go to the bathroom real quick, I’ll be right back.” I dashed off to the facilities. I checked my makeup in the mirror, test my breath, run my fingers through my hair. I came back to my desk to find Frank watching something on YouTube.

“Frank!”

“Wha! Oh, hey Sarah.” He sat up, startled.

“You know you shouldn’t use other people’s computers.”

“I know, but I just wanted to check out this clip Dave in HR sent me.”

I reached over him and closed the window, then locked the computer. “Well, you’ll have to watch it later. We need to get to lunch.” I helped him out of the chair and followed him towards the cafeteria.

Strange, I could swear I locked my machine before I went to the restroom.





I groaned and opened my eyes slowly. I hadn’t dreamed that vividly in a long, long time. I rolled over and felt something pull at my wrists. My eyes opened and closed a few times before I was finally able to processes what I saw.

It was a cell.

Actually, it was more like a dungeon. The room was about fifteen feet wide and long, and about ten feet tall. The corner I lay in had a pair of mattresses, a dozen pillows, and a pair of blankets. The corner right across from me had a small faucet and a tiny hole. From the odor I would guess it worked as a drain and a restroom. There was a thin flat slit of a window, right up near the ceiling, that let in a fair amount of sunlight. The door was solid iron, with a slide in the middle to looking and a door at the bottom for food.

The only other really interesting thing about the room were the markings. Not your normal graffiti, the floor, walls and ceiling were marked with spell circles and seals. They glowed slightly, blues and greens and even an occasional purple sigil gave the room a soft ambiance.

“D, what do they do?”

Silence. I looked down at my arm and remembered D fading away. Now my arm only bore a few scars where the crystals once were. Machina was missing too, I could tell from the lightness of my right arm and the lack of any HUD in my eye.

I also saw what had pulled at my arm. I was handcuffed, and those cuffs tied to a pair of ankle cuffs. The restraints stopped me from running or even stretching my arms over my head.

I sat quiet for a few minutes.

“Nightmare?” I was afraid to ask, but I had to know. The silence was both a comfort and a disappointment. I was truly all alone in this world.

There was a scrape of sound, and the food gate opened. A tray with a small cup of water and a sandwich slid in and the gate quickly shut.

I got up and picked up the sandwich. “Well, at least I won’t starve.” I took a bite. “Bleh.” I pulled the sandwich apart to find it stuffed with daisies and mustard.

“This is going to be a long stay.”





A few hours later a pair of heavily armored guards came and guided me to what looked like an interrogation room. My handcuffs were shackled to a table in the middle, and I was given a chair to sit on. The guards left and a pair of ponies, one earth pony and one pegasus, walked in and started to talk to me. I imagined that they must have been trying to question me, but of course there was a small problem.

“Won, fi uoy nac trats ta eht gninigeb-"”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Haow, tahw dnik fo noom egaugnal saw taht?” The pegasus exclaimed.

“I don’t understand you.”

It basically devolved from there.

“Kool, tsuj kaeps Nairtseuqe!”

“I don’t understand what you are saying.”

“KAEPS NAIRTSEUQE!”

“Yelling doesn’t make it any better!”

Three hours of this, then they dragged me back to my cell and gave me another flower sandwich. The sun was setting, and I watched the light fade until only the soft glow of the restraining wards gave any light. I slept, fitfully.





“Sarah.”

I looked up from my book and smiled. “Frank! I’m so glad you called me out for coffee. We should go see a movie afterwards.”

Frank sat down across from me, looking nervous and troubled. “Sarah, I need to tell you something.” That was never a good start to any conversation.

“Frank, what is it? Is it us? What is wrong? Did I-”

“Calm down Sarah, it doesn’t have to do with us. It has to do with you, and with work.” Frank straightened up. “I heard that an audit is coming through your department soon. Apparently there has been some shady finances and the higher ups are thinking embezzlement.”

“I don’t need to worry about that, I’m completely clean.”

“Yeah, but sometimes these things can taint a department. You know all those rumors about infidelity with our eastern sales teams, right? There have even been a few break ups just because of rumor and suspicion. I don’t want you to have to suffer the same thing.”

“Well, what should I do?”

“Look, transfer to R&D’s finance division. They could use your talents and you would be out from under any shadow of suspicion this inquiry might cast.”

“Didn’t you apply for the R&D finance division manager position? We can’t date if you are my direct supervisor.”

“I did, but the position fell through. They promoted internally.” He shrugged. “Anyway, you want to put in that transfer request by tomorrow. Any later and you might get stuck.”

I nodded, smiling sweetly at him. “Thanks Frank. You always do look out for me.”

He smiled back. “Of course, what are friends for?” He leaned in and gave me a quick peck on the cheek.





Three days of "interrogations" later and my captors had given up talking to me. The cast of characters had shifted slightly from day to day, but there were two constants. 

The first was a guard pony, a female unicorn with a shield cutie mark. She was often gruff with her questions, even though I couldn't understand them. She had brought in and introduced a number of other ponies, showed me photos of things I had broken or stolen, sometimes even photos of ponies I'd hurt. I was sad or apologetic, but I never really understood what she was saying.

Her partner was smooth talking and friendly, and seemed to have a bit of a crush on the guard. His mark was a quill pen and a rook chess piece. He didn't strike me as a guard, but he definately got excited at odd times. It exasperated his partner to no end. 

Today I was brought, not to an interrogation room, but into a doctors office. The ponies had uncuffed me for the examination, and had stationed almost a dozen heavily armed and armored guards outside the clinic. The pony doctor took my height, weight and temperature, guiding me around with a soothing voice and a gesture. Whenever he got a little too pokey I would bark a sharp "Hey!" at him. 

He tried once or twice to disconnect my arm, and I actually snerked when he hooked a blood pressure cuff to it. When he motioned for me to disrobe I growled at him. 

"hoo skool ekil ew tog a ssadab ereh." He said in a snarky tone, holding his fore-hooves up. He walked outside for a moment and returned with three spear wielding guards and the two interogators. He motioned for me to undress again, a victorious smile on his face.

I glowered at him and turned my back, pulling my shirt up. There was a comotion behind me, one of shock and worry. I had come to expect such reactions. Though D could heal me, it wasn't without scars. Aside from the claws, arrows, magical blasts and lightning bolts this world had hurled at me, I had nearly two years of dimension jumping to mar my body. I glanced back at the shocked ponies and gave them a wicked grin.

"Eramthgin, sti eht eramthgin!" One of the guards was obviously overreacting, waving his spear at me and shouting. The others were trying to calm him down.

Not wanting to get stabbed, I reached out with my metal right hand and caught the spear tip, pushing it away. The guard only became more alarmed at that, and swung the spear back with a panicked expression.

"Knock it off, kid."

I must have sounded more vicious than I thought, because the other guard had rounded on me and smacked me in the back of the head with the butt of his spear. The world blurred and spun, and darkness creeped in on the edge of my vision. As I passed out, the male interrogator was bouncing excitedly about something, and I thought I saw someone pull out a camera.





I was in my conversion pod, watching through the small window as the strange lights of the inter-dimensional void faded away to reveal a starry sky. There was a slight feeling of weightlessness, one I recognized as local gravity taking hold of the pod. I braced for the light bump as the pod came to rest on solid ground.

The bump didn't come. The sensation of weightlessness increased, and a sensation of gathering speed was added as a low whine began to build outside the pod. I looked at the altimeter and gasped. I was up. Way, WAY up. Over thirty six thousand feet, though that number was dropping rapidly.

I grasped at the controls but they were different, unusual. Instead of the normal buttons and switches I had foot pedals and a.....steering wheel?

It was my car. I was in a conversion pod that was now my car, miles above the planet and plummeting down with no control. My arms were bare of Machina and D. I slammed my foot on the brakes with no response. Outside friction flames began to lick around the window. Beyond the flames dark forms twisted past me.

Trees. I was burning, falling to the dark world below surrounded by falling, burning trees. The ember glowing branches battered and beat at my car, shoving me sideways and making me spin as I fell. Below the ground was getting closer and closer, jagged mountains reaching up for me.

I had nothing, I couldn't stop, couldn't flee. I could only watch in terror as the flaming branches of the burning forest around me smashed my windshield and pierced my arm, my leg, my heart. I could only scream in pain and terror as the ground rushed in with a final darkness.





I was still screaming when I sat up. My nightmare had managed to mix my accident and two of the most terrifying experiences dimension jumping together. I sat up and held my knees, sobbing in the dim light of the wards. Dawn was still hours away, but the adrenaline rushing in my veins would not let me sleep again tonight. I heard the guards moving outside, whispering to each other, fearful of me even in this state.

I had never felt so completely helpless and alone. I put my head on my knees and closed my eyes, not even trying to hold back the tears. I was still sobbing quietly to myself when the dawn came, and the guards opened my cell to take me away.
> Trial of a Dimension Jumper
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The guards led me, through upper halls and past stately rooms. I had never had a good idea of where I was, only that I was in the dungeon of what I'd assumed was a large fortress. It was only now, walking past banners and tapestries, over plush rugs and dodging well dressed servants, that I surmised my location. 

I was in the castle. Not the ruined one in the Everfree, though there were many familiar design elements. This must be the main castle in Canterlot. I was in the capital city, and had been the prisoner of royalty. I wondered if Princess Luna had been the one to carry me back, but dismissed it as unlikely as she had been asleep from the tea.

A few turns later and I was led into a courtroom. Not like the Day or Night Court of the castle, but more like a room for trial.The room was shaped like an operating theater, and noble ponies, families, and reporters filled the benches, their animated murmurs floating down to me. Before me were a panel of three judge ponies in black robes, one of each pony race. Above and behind them were two large thrones, both currently empty. Facing them were two tables. The one on the left had an legal looking pony frowning at me and waving towards a floor cushion. The one on the right had another lawyer pony and Twilight Sparkle. Between the tables was a witness stand, facing the judges. 

I sat on the cushion and glared at the pony seated next to me. I had seen him before in the interrogation room twice, but I only now realized that he was to be my lawyer. He seemed about as happy with me as I was with him. He said something quietly to me, but it was gibberish. After a moment of waiting for a response he shook his head and sighed in frustration.

"LLA ESIR!" a guard pony called out. The murmuring of the audience stopped and everypony stood. My lawyer dug a hoof into my ribs to encourage me up. 

I had only seen the pony who walked in as an image in a history book, but there was no mistaking her. Princess Celestia, draped in royal jewelery and wearing an aloof expression walked in and sat in one of the thrones. As she sat, we sat. The guard who had announced her began to speak.

"Gnitneserp eht Erutaerc sv eht Noitan fo Airtseuqe, segduj Thgiarts Ebircs, Koob Dnuob, dna Eselagel gnidiserp. Eht desucca si degrahc htiw neetneves stnuoc fo tfeht, enin stnuoc fo tluassa, dna eno tnuoc fo nosaert. Woh seod eht tnadnefed daelp?"

I could tell that last bit was a question, but it took a sharp prod from my lawyer before I realized it was directed at me. I stood. "What would you like me to say? I couldn't understand any of it."

"Tahw did ehs yas?" the pegasus judge asked. Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow.

The door to the court opened and Princess Luna strode in. Well, for the first few steps. Then she staggered slightly and leaned on the wall for support.

"Retsis!" Princess Celestia's face and voice were full of surprise and concern. "Uoy dluohs ton eb tuoba ni ruoy denekaew etas!"

I for one was happy to see the moon princess. "Luna, it's good to see you're alright."

Luna blinked at me. "Tahw did ehs yas?"

And that was the last straw. I was hungry, tired, emotionally scarred, and sick of it all.

"Of course you can't understand me." I groaned. Luna's horn glowed slightly as she carried herself to her throne. "Why would I expect you to understand me? It's not like anyone else can."

"Well now we-"

"I mean the spirit in my arm was my bucking translator. Even Twilight Sparkle figured that out when we first met. Of course then she shut it off in the hospital and tried to cut me up." I didn't notice the gasps from the audience above.

"Now wait just a-"

"And then I'm chased out of town and hounded by guards whenever I return. And I go through this whole long thing to get home using the Elements of Harmony and OF COURSE it doesn't bucking work.": I was waving my arms and ranting now.

"You tried to use the-"

"So I lost my only companions and I've been stuck in a glowing cell, which is DAMN hard to sleep in, for a week. All your guards have done is drag me about, shout questions at me, and knock me unconscious. You all treat me like I'm going to rip the castle to shreds if you blink."

"If you would just-"

"You insist on feeding me things I can't eat, ignore the fact that I have been SPEAKING GIBBERISH FOR DAYS and finally drag me into a courtroom? If this is Equestria's idea of justice then you can take the whole proceedings, all the guards, the doctor, the bucking idiot sandwich maker, and this entire trial and shove it right up your sun painted backside!"

"ENOUGH!"

Princess Celestia was standing at her throne glaring daggers at me, her face red with rage and embarrassment. Luna was shaking in fear. 

No, wait. Not fear.

The moon princess pulled her hoof from her mouth and soft peals of laughter filled the court. "Ah hahahahaha. Tia, thou *snort* thou totally had that coming." There were more than a few guarded chuckles from the audience as well.

"Why did you choose now to speak?" My lawyer demanded angrily from me.

"The accused did not." The moon princess said. "I realized what was occurring and corrected it with a simple translation spell. Why was such a simple spell not cast before?"

"The creature had been noted as talking and understanding in all other records." The prosecutor said, referring to a thick folder of notes before her. "We assumed she was simply being stubborn." Next to her Twilight had the decency to look embarrassed.

"My little ponies," Luna addressed the court, "We are an alicorn of great power, and even we did not escape the touch of the Elements of Harmony unscathed. It was months before my power had returned enough that we might once more guide our moon." She grinned at me. "And our hair was hopeless at that time." She ran a hoof through her own ethereal locks, illustrating the point.

"Now that you understand us, this trial can begin properly." The unicorn judge said. "You are charged with seventeen counts of theft, nine counts of assault, one count of crimes against the nation of Equestria. How does the defendant plead?"

"Not guilty on all the theft, most of the assault, and somepony is going to have to explain the 'crime against the state' one to me."

"How are you not guilty of theft?" Twilight asked

"Hey, I borrowed those books properly." I retorted, "I even signed them out. They might be a little overdue, but there were SHIELDS keeping me from bringing them back!"

Twilight blushed again. "No, I mean you robbed a dozen stores from here to Appleoosa."

"I don't suppose anyone brought that box from the castle?" I asked looking at Luna.

"In truth, we have only recently regained consciousness." Luna said. "But we shall send pegasi guards to retrieve it."

"OK. The box contains a set of invoices." I waved to the judges. "You'll find that everything stolen was ordered by various ponies a day or two before, and paid for in advance."

My lawyer's mouth dropped. "You ordered and paid for the items you stole?"

"Then why steal them at all?" Twilight asked. "Why not just buy them?"

"Oh, that is a WONDERFUL idea." I said, sarcasm dripping in my voice. "Why, I can recall at least three such visits I made to Ponyville. You remember how well those went don't you?" The ice in my voice could have frozen a lake. Twilight grimaced and her ears laid back on her head. "Speaking of which, who do I talk to for compensation for that cart and supplies your guard shot up?"

"These invoices cover everything that was stolen?" The pegasus judge asked, dodging my question.

"Everything." I said. "The box the invoices are in also contains the library books and a few other treats. It was intended as a going away present. I staged the thefts to build myself up as a villain in the eyes of the Element Bearers."

"We shall reserve judgement on those thefts until we have the invoices." The unicorn judge said. "As for the assault charges."

"The only ponies you can think I assaulted are Scootaloo, Twist, that pegasus bully, and the Gryphon Elna. Anyone else is lying or just frightened by the sight of me."

"Then how do you explain the other four?" the earth pony judge asked.

"Scootaloo was running from me and fell off her scooter. I was trying to catch her when she fell." There was a gasp from the audience, and I looked up, easily spotting the beautiful Rarity. Her hoof was to her mouth in shock, and realization flooding her eyes. Next to her, Pinkie Pie was whispering to Rainbow Dash, and I could see a slow realization crossing her face as well. "Twist I saved after pulling her from the belly of a giant timber wolf. One I accidentally created while trying to defend some of the Ponyville town guard. The bully I just frightened, but I never touched."

"Why?" The prosecutor asked. Now that I could talk, it seemed everyone had questions.

"They beat up Ditzy Doo." I said.

Twilight looked confused. "No they didn't."

"Oh come on," I said, "On the day your guards chased me out of town and broke my wagon, I saw her crying in a back alley covered in purple bruises."

"That was poison joke." Twilight said. "Those bullies had dropped a whole barrel on her."

I must have looked really confused at that point. "Those were just purple dots....but poison joke should be simple to cure. I mean, I got it my first day into town and was cured in a few hours." My face got a darkened look. "Which reminds me, I heard she was FIRED from her job just for the minimal interaction I had with her!"

"She was your spy!" Somepony from the audience called.

"I will not treat any pony who associates with such monsters as you in MY spa."

"Order!ORDER!" The earth pony judge called. "The defendant will explain!"

"I met Ditzy Doo on my first day in town. When I met her again later that day, she was being harassed by bullies. No one else stepped forward to defend her, so I did." I grinned, "I gave them a bit of a verbal smack down."

"Liar!" "Traitor!" There was a few other calls from the audience, then a couple of shocked cries. Aloe, Lotus, and a half dozen others lifted from their seats in the audience and floated down to the court floor in a golden glow. If Princess Celestia had been upset with me, she was furious at her subjects.

"Guards, please escort these ponies to holding cells." The Princess said, a dangerous edge in her voice. "When this trial is over, I shall need to have....words with them." I saw every one of the assembled ponies shudder at that pause.

"You still have not explained the gryphon." The prosecutor pointed out.

"Oh I'm definitely guilty of that." I said, accepting my fate. "I broke her wings and leg. I dragged her to the Ponyville hospital afterwards, but I still attacked her."

"We beleive that thy actions were done in self defense." Princess Luna announced. "We have seen the scars your assailant left on the wooden clothing dummy she thought was you. Thy home had been invaded, and the gryphon gave no warning nor quarter in her assault."

"Thank you Princess Luna." I said. Then a thought hit me. "The crime against the state isn't for poisoning her is it? Because I did not do that either."

"Now wait one minute." Applejack called from the audience. "Ya said ya did right before we used the Elements against ya."

"She had drunk too much of my relaxation tea and passed out. I had spent all that time and effort painting myself as a villain so you would blast me with the Elements of Harmony. I couldn't give it all up by saying 'Oh gosh, thank goodness you are here! The Princess has accidentally poisoned herself and need medical attention immediately!' It would have ruined weeks of work and planing." I shrugged, "Not that my plans worked anyway."

"My sister's illness, though grave, is not upon your head." Princess Celestia announced to the court. "Your charge of crime against the state has to do with your collaboration and binding with the Nightmare and your failed plan to steal the Elements of Harmony."

"I wasn't planning to steal them." I countered, "I wanted to be banished by them. Home for me isn't someplace you can walk, swim or fly. I got here by extraordinary means, and I had intended to return and take the Nightmare with me." I held my left arm high so that everypony could see the scars on my wrist where D's crystals had been. "Instead, I banished my spirit companion, the companion in my right arm, and the Nightmare."

"Oh," My lawyer shuffled through the papers before pulling out a large glossy photo. "I guess you didn't understand me when I told you yesterday."

The photo was of me, passed out on the floor of the doctors office. My back bore all the expected scars but what caught my attention was the huge tattoo that spanned from shoulder to shoulder. Six black symbols in the shape of the Elements of Harmony were spread out, each contained in a black circle, Thick black lines connected each element's circle to the two closest to it. 

In the center of the hexagon, in a blue so dark I thought it was black, was the mark of the Nightmare. The same mark that had scared the moon for a thousand years now marked my own skin. 
> A Royal Verdict
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	My lawyer proved fairly adept at his trade and had used my shock to call for a brief recess. I sat on a bench outside the courtroom, surrounded by a half dozen guards, still staring at the photo. The Nightmare was still in me, sealed in some fashion behind a barrier created by the Elements of Harmony. I looked over my arms and even quickly peaked at my tummy, hoping that D and Machina were similarly sealed somewhere on my person. Unfortunately, if they were on me, they weren't anywhere easily accessible.

"I'm sorry miss, you can't approach this creature, she's dangerous."

I looked up to see a familiar grey wall eyed pony. "Hello Ditzy. It's probably not a good idea to be seen talking to me, I think a hearing is being set up about how you are my spy or something."

"I know. I had to come. To apologize."

"What do you have to apologize for?" I gave her a questioning look. 

"A lot." She took a breath, as if preparing herself. "You defended me. When everypony else seemed happy to look the other way, you stood up for me and made those bullies back down."

"It was the right thing to do."

"I know, but then- then you were a monster. You made fools of those bullies and I was the target of their revenge. The rumors they spread about me got me fired. I got cans and trash and poison joke thrown at me, and it seemed no one would listen to me."

"Those bullies have been picking on you for years." I told her, "And it sounds like everyone else was giving you a hard time before too. They aren't just going to stop because one person came to your defense."

She looked down, a little mad at herself. "I should have stood up for myself, but I just ran and hid. I couldn't take the abuse. Then, when I was down and beaten and just wanted to be left alone, you found me." she gave me a smile. "You came and gave me apples and a kind smile. You were on the run, hunted and persecuted more than I was. Even with all your worries, even after I was a coward, even after wishing we'd never met, you were so kind." Her eyes were glossy, like she was holding back tears. 

She stamped her hoof suddenly."I promise not to turn away again, not to give up on myself. After everything that you went through, all that was against you, you still took the time to give me all you could spare. You came to my aid, and were a good friend, and I will never deny that again. I'm going to work hard to be a better pony, and inspire others to do the same. If ever there is anything I can do, just let me know." She grinned and walked away.

I sat with a small smile on my face.

"Huh, crazy mare." one of the guards said, watching Ditzy go. "Who wants to be friends with a monster."

"I don't know if you noticed, but I can understand you right now." I said, suddenly right behind him. My breath was on his neck, and he spun to find me with an evil grin inches from his muzzle. My metal right hand grabbed his shoulder and squeezed painfully. "I'm already being charged with something akin to treason, so don't think that adding to my body count is going to stop me." 

"NO! Let go of me! Heeeeeeelp!" The guard slipped from my grasp and ran, panic stricken down the hall. I just smirked at his over reaction.

"Don't do that." One of the other guards said.

"That 'crazy mare' just declared me her friend." I said, noting the guard was a pegasus. "I don't know how you do things around your guard house, Feathers, but where I come from, if you mess with a friend, you mess with me."

"I"m Feathers," another guard said, "That's Iron Shoes."

I blinked for a moment. Were the guards really that dense?. Sighing and shaking my head, I sat back down and waited for the trial to resume.





When I reentered the courtroom I saw the audience had been greatly reduced. All that remained were the Element Bearers, my doctor and a smattering of guards, including my two interrogators. There was a little bit of pomp as both princesses came back in and sat in their respective thrones.

"The pegasi guard have returned from the castle with your box." Princess Luna announced. "We have an accountant comparing notes and numbers but everything seems to match up."

"There are, however, a few questions." Princess Celestia said, leaning forward in her throne. "You mentioned that you were in Equestria by extraordinary means. I need you to explain that."

"Is it really that important to this case?" I asked.

The pegasus judge ruffled some papers and answered. "Originally, you were being tried as either a new creature of an undiscovered tribe or a unique product of the Everfree Forest. As such, you were afforded certain rights and liberties. If you are a foreigner, things may change."

"We don't really have any legal precedent for outsiders who don't come from recognized nations, especially in individual cases like yours." My lawyer explained. "Normally we encounter envoys, merchants or armies before we discover the nation they are from."

"Very well, I'm not from Equestria." I told court. "I'm not even from this world."

"Ha! Called it, she's an alien." I looked up to see the male interrogator agitating his female counterpart. 

She just rolled her eyes. "Shut up Castle."

"You are extraterrestrial?" Twilight asked, looking at me with some level of awe.

"Extra-dimensional." I corrected. "I'm an employee of the ARCO corporation. They send inter-dimensional explorers like myself to other lands in search of cultural expansion, wisdom and energy."

"Energy?" The earth pony judge asked.

"When we arrive, we are not entirely in sync with the dimension around us. We require a token or anchor, usually something given freely from the local populace, to keep us from wandering between dimensions." I realized I was reciting from the company manual at this point. "The anchors are taken back with us when we go home, and ARCO is able to draw a surprising amount of energy off of the dimensional displacement."

"Isn't that dangerous for the dimensional integrity?" Twilight asked, sounding worried.

"ARCO has been running for most of a decade, and only after nearly three decades of research. We have yet to encounter any dimensional damage, even on the few tests where we were trying to create it." I shrugged. "As powerful as ARCO might be, it has it's limits."

"You have such an anchor?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Yes, a single bit, given to me in friendship by the filly Twist."

"Couldn't you just give it up? You would leave this dimension and be drawn towards home."

"That would be akin to saying 'I'm on a ship lost at sea, but if I jump off and start swimming I'll find land.' Not every world is habitable, and there are... things in the dark places." Despite the warmth of the courtroom, I felt a chill pass over me.

"Perhaps," Princess Celestia said, "You should tell us the whole story. Starting with how you got here."

"Well, ARCO uses conversion pods. It's a metal box, a little bigger than a small closet. The pods are used to breach the space between dimensions and help acclimate our bodies to the local environment." I waited as the information sunk in. "Mine arrived deep in the Everfree, ejected me early, and exploded. From there-"





"And that's when I started ranting. I didn't realize Princess Luna had cast a translation spell upon me until you, um, corrected my behavior."

It had been almost four hours. I was made to go over a number of things several times, including my interaction with Nightmare. More than once there had been giggles, and somewhere in the gallery a pen was scratching away furiously. There had been numerous questions, a few outbursts and a lot of apologies. Princess Celestia almost had to pin Twilight Sparkle to the floor when I mentioned the ancient library. 

The judges had been talking quietly to the Princesses throughout and had passed notes between each other. Shortly after my story ended the three judges passed folded pieces of paper, their pending decisions, up to the princesses. Celestia and Luna read them quietly and turned, talking softly to each other. The two stopped and bowed their heads in thought, utter silence filling remainder of the courtroom.

The pause was growing long and disturbing, and I watched the stone faced Princesses for any sign of a decision. After what felt like half an hour, Princess Luna looked up.

"We believe all that thou have told us," Princess Luna said, "And we find that thou are not guilty of any theft or assault."

"That being said," Her sister added, "You have painted yourself rather skillfully as a villain, and we cannot simply allow you to walk free. There are political ramifications, other minor crimes of harassment that you have admitted to, and the issue of the Nightmare." Princess Luna looked down and away at this. Princess Celestia sighed. "It is therefore with a heavy heart that I banish you. You are henceforth not to set foot in any pony town without at least a trio of guards and a formal release from me or my sister."

I hung my head at this, but there was not much I could do. I had dug my own grave, and it was easier to get rid of me then it was to quickly correct all the work I had done.

"What will you do with her then?" Twilight asked. "Are you going to throw her into the Griffon Kingdom? The Dragon Lands? You can't give her to the Diamond Dogs, they will just enslave her. And the Badlands." There was a shudder in her voice. Something was in the Badlands, something that made the Princess's favorite student, a unicorn that lived on the edge of the Everfree Forest and fought gods of night and chaos, worry.

"We would not dream of it." Princess Luna said. "Sarah will be returned to her house."

"Home? I don't have a home. The only place I lived was in your ancient castle."

"As it happens, I've been looking into restoring that old place." Princess Celestia said with a mischievous smile. "Possibly as a museum. I've been stockpiling funds for such a project, and will need to hire someone to assist and manage. Preferably someone who has recent knowledge of the castle and has even begun a little repair work already." 

A smile crossed my face as I realized what they were planing. It was brilliant! I would be safe, with room and board, while the Princesses saved face and could take their time in correcting the damage my villainous career had caused.

"Thou will not go alone." Princess Luna spoke, bringing my attention back. "A few guards will be stationed to watch over the construction and thou. The Everfree is a dangerous place, and we will not allow our little ponies to work without proper protection."

So that was it? "Banished" to the castle I had called home for a while now, and granted the tools, materials and manpower (pony-power?) to fix it up? All while being guarded and babysat by Equestria's elite guard, allowing the princesses to fix my public image? All in all, things were great.
> The Two Bit Tour
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Things were utter crap. I had been crammed into an enclosed carriage with eight heavily armed and armored pegasus guards, which had been lurching through the sky for hours in the early morning. 

After the Princess's sentencing I was given thirty minutes with my attorney before I was returned, roughly, to my glowing cell and given another inedible daisy sandwich. Apparently "banished" got even less respect from the local guards than "accused" and "incomprehensible" did. I was then woken before the sun risen, or I guess been raised, and shoved into the turbulence challenged box. With no windows, I had no way of knowing where I was going or how close we were to it. My fellow passengers had all the warmth and personality of granite slabs.

With a lurch, the carriage touched down. The back doors opened and the guards hustled me out, and my mood immediately lifted. We were in the outer courtyard of the Castle of the Pony Sisters. Aside from me and my guards there were a dozen ponies unloading lumber and supplies. Scattered among them were the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, helping here and there. In the distance the Princesses were walking and talking with two earth ponies. Luna looked up at me and waved me over.

"Good morning Sarah." Princess Luna greeted me as I walked up.

"Good morning your highness, your highness." I bowed slightly to her and her sister.

"Sarah, this is the carpenter Cut Once and the contractor Measure Twice." Princess Luna said, waving a hoof at the two ponies next to her. "They will be assisting thou with the reconstruction being done to the castle."

"Isn't that the creature you banished yesterday, your majesty?" Measure Twice asked. "I thought it wasn't allowed in any pony towns."

"Then it is fortunate that we are not in any pony town, but merely the thousand year old ruin of a castle." Princess Luna said with a smile. "Sarah will be organizing and running the renovations."

"Running the renovations?!" Cut Once cried out. "Your majesty, this castle is a historical treasure, marvel of engineering, and work of art all in one. You can't just hand it off to some alien monster. I mean look at this." He reached out and pulled open one of the huge wooden double doors that led from the outer courtyard to the entry hallway. "The door opens without the slightest resistance, even after a thousand years. And look at the tiling in the hallway. It has survived the ravages of the Everfree without a single crack. You want to give all that to this - this creature?"

"Um," I had more eyes on me than I was really used to. "I rehung the door, it had fallen off. I also re-tiled the hallway."

"Really?" Measure Twice asked, opening the other door and judging the smoothness.

'Where did you get the tiles?" Cut asked.

"I pulled them from side corridors and closets."

"Perhaps Sarah could walk us through and tell us what has been done so far." Princess Celestia offered diplomatically. "We can discuss where to go from there." 

"The two bit tour? Sure, I can manage." I turned, walking backwards. "Welcome to the ancient Castle of the Pony Sisters! This stone fortress was erected roughly ten years after the fall of Discord. The fortress acted as the center of government...and...." I stopped as I realized everyone was currently listening. There were confused looks from the most of the workers, bemused looks from both of the princesses, and Twilight Sparkle had me fixed with an intense expression. I got the feeling that she was both hungry for knowledge and desperate to correct any mistake I might make.

Princess Luna graciously came to my rescue. "Perhaps we might start with what repairs thou have completed already." I nodded and waved the carpenters in, Twilight trailing behind.





"This is the garden," I waved out the doors, "The original bushes and flowers were dead or overgrown to the point that I could not restore it. I'm not the best when it comes to gardening, so I will need help with the many gardens and lawns scattered through the castle." The princesses, Cut, Measure, Twilight, a half dozen workers and a pair of guards were following me around taking notes. So far I had gone over the basic repairs I'd done to the inner walls and doors, where all the unbroken glass from the windows had been stored, and where I'd found areas that would need the most help outside. Now we were tracing the path that Twilight and her friends had followed to find me.

"Twilight, where did you go next?"

"We, uh, visited your art gallery."

I cringed. "Really? Sorry about that, it was intended to be seen after you had banished me. Princess Luna threw some of my plans into chaos."

"Twilight mentioned these paintings in her report." Princess Celestia said. "May we?"

I bowed my head and lead the entourage into the gallery. I winced and cringed as they walked around, gasping at each new painting.

"Is- is this really how you saw us?"

I looked up to see Twilight standing near me, eying the Fluttershy painting. "Not really. These are exaggerations, I was trying to get a point across. I thought your interaction with the Fauna might not be enough. Of course you missed your original Fauna entirely."

Cut Once looked over at me. "Fauna?"





I wasn't certain whether to be thrilled or mortified by the cries of horror as the group entered the waiting room.

"What are these?" one of the assistants asked, morbid curiosity etched on his features. He leaned close to one of the dried Fauna that had been "caught" fleeing.

"I called them Fauna. They are magical constructs, built out of wood and vine, They are just puppets." I waved my hand at the macabre display. "My spirit companion could build and animate them once we figured out how the Timber Wolves worked."

"You figured out the Timber Wolves!? The magic behind them?! Why they act like they do?" Twilight was practically standing on my toes, eyes alight in search of wonder.

"Er, my spirit did. At least, in part. We could generate and control these, but the wolves are independent. I don't understand everything about them, just the basic principle. Like a paper airplane can fly, but not like a pegasus." I smiled, but felt bad not being able to give Twilight more information. "If you really want to see some useful magic, you should check out the courtroom." 

I led them into the Day Court with a flourish, throwing the doors wide. The ponies piled in and looked around at the tattered carpets strewn about and the massive throne. I pulled back some of the carpets and sighed. The circle hadn't absorbed enough energy to actually send me home, but it had taken enough to partially degrade away.

"Sorry, looks like my brilliant circle caught enough power to start fading away. I've got notes on it's creation in the Night Court, along with my scrying circles."

"Why did thou use the Day Court as thy departure point?" Princess Luna asked, lifting the carpets aside so Twilight could copy down what was left of my circle.

"Well, it's very slightly larger than the Night Court." I saw Princess Luna shoot her sister a look. ""I did a bit of repair work and found the extra space taken up by insulation, probably to keep the court warm on cold nights. I also found a hidden cupboard of, um, moonshine. For further insulation against cold nights. " Luna grinned guiltily.

"What is that smell?" Measure Twice asked, pulling a face. I sniffed at the air and caught a hint of rot. I pulled a face and walked to the right side of the room, pulling open another set of double doors. The odor of rot and purification filled the Court, and most of the ponies gagged.

Beyond the doors was a long ornate table, set with six place settings. Plush chairs before clean white plates, simple glasses and somewhat utilitarian tableware. A feast of salads, fruit, flowers and vegetables sat rotting in various bowls and serving trays. Pitchers of juice had turned green, pitchers of milk were yellowish and lumpy. A swarm of small flies filled the air, partially obscuring a banner that read "CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY" in bright blue letters.

"You threw us a....victory party?" Twilight was processing the scene before her.

"I figured after everything you had all gone through to get to me, you deserved a reward." I picked up one of the three pronged forks and nudged the lumps in what had been potato soup. "I guess rescuing Princess Luna came first." I sighed.

That had been a mistake, I gagged at the stench and backed out of the room, waving my hand in front of my face. The rest of the ponies retreated with me, all the way back to the morbid waiting room. Chairs creaked as the crew sank in and breathed fresh air from the glassless windows.

"Your generosity is inspiring." Princess Celestia told me. I waved it off, feeling sad.

"My generosity almost put your sister in a coma." I shifted, hearing the chairs creak and crack again. "I'll have to get masks to clear that room. Or a flamethrower." I looked over at Twilight, "Could I borrow spike for a day or two?"

Twilight laughed, and I walked over to the windows to get a deep breath of fresh air.

Creak.

I froze. The creaking stopped too, but I wasn't standing on anything that could creak. The floor was polished stone tile. My head turned.

The Fauna were looking at me. Each and every one, still in its original position, had moved it's head and was looking at me. Whether the faces were surprise or horror or fear or hate, each and every one was now looking straight at me.

From the courtyard outside, the sound of frightened voices floated up through the windows. Followed by a deep, deafening roar.
> Unkind Claws
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	In the years that I have been traveling through dimensions I have experienced many forms of transport. I've ridden on dragons and airships, submarines and living battle tanks. I've survived orbital drops and even ridden a space elevator.

Teleportation by purple unicorn is a new one though. 

It left me disoriented, my head spinning from the sudden shift in location and elevation. I patted my hands down my body, checking to see that I hadn't accidentally been given hooves or merged with my jacket. I scratched myself before I realized I was still holding the fork from the dinning room in my right hand.

The next deafening roar brought me out of my self inspection, right before I pulled off my shoes to count my toes. The workers had already fled the outer courtyard, and the two dozen guards were being pressed back by the beast.

It was huge, nearly as large as the giant timber wolf I had made not too long ago. It reminded me of a giant purple lion, but with a long whipping tail and a pair of large black horns. The teeth looked like they could crunch a guard in half, armor and all. Hell, some of the teeth looked longer and sharper than the swords the guard ponies were swinging. 

Pegasai dive bombed the creature, working hard to dodge the tail as it lashed out at them. Something that large should not have a weapon that fast. Already more than a few pegasi were limping along the ground, cradling wounded wings. Earth ponies charged with spears and swords, cutting lightly into the beast's flesh and working to dodge the sweeping claws and horns.

"Everypony back!" Twilight shouted, planting her hooves. "I've got this!"

Her horn glowed and her eyes shone with an inner light. It seemed like the daylight dimmed in comparison. A layer of purple energy coated the underside of the monster, lifting it into the air. The creature flailed for a moment, and the guards gave a cheer as Twilight prepared to throw it into the forest.

It rose a total of six feet. 

Then, suddenly, the energy faded away, seeming to swirl and seep into the few cuts on the creature. It crashed back to the ground, and I watched in horror as it's wounds closed over. The creature seemed even stronger and faster now, and with a swish of it's tail it downed two more pegasus guards.

"TWILIGHT!"

I turned at the chorus of voices to see the purple mare falling over. Rainbow Dash and Rarity caught her before she hit the ground. She looked exhausted. 

"Twilight?! Twilight, say something!" Rarity begged of her friend. The unicorn's eyes fluttered slightly.

"So... tired...." she seemed to go limp. 

Rarity began to pull her gently with her magic towards the great hall. The other element bearers retaliated against the monster, adding their own unique strengths to the fight. Applejack was bucking rocks at it with devastating force. Rainbow Dash was using her impressive speed, landing a flurry of blows while dodging the lashing tail. Fluttershy was trying to quietly fuss at the creature and ask it to stop. Pinkie Pie was...throwing confetti in it's face?

All their efforts were being ignored, the thing was staring right at me. The low growl and fearsome look told me it had found it's preferred prey.

Years of experience as a dimensional traveler had prepared me for moments like this. I appraised it's abilities, it's strength, regeneration, speed, and natural weapons. I assessed my surroundings, backup, and personal abilities. Within a split second, I had formulated a plan and acted on it.

Turn left.

RUN!

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit-"

The massive claws raked across the stone wall right behind me as I continued my mad dash around the courtyard. Without D or Machina to aid me, running was the best I could do. Right now, I was breaking land speed records. I thought passed a surprised Rainbow Dash, but I was too busy fleeing for my life to be certain. 

Something flashed in the corner of my eye and I ducked and rolled out of instinct, the long whipping tail tracing a line in the stone where my neck had just been. The claw came crashing down right after, and I felt hot pain pour down my right leg. Hissing, I rolled over to look up at the grinning monster as it raised it's claw for the killing blow.

Golden magic wrapped around me and I was flying sideways at an alarming rate. The creature howled as it's strike missed, and gave chase. I was drawn through the open doors, down the great hall, and into the inner courtyard.

Once there, Princess Celestia dumped my useless ass unceremoniously on the earthen path while she and her sister stacked brick, stone, and timber against the large doors. I looked around, happy to see most of the guard and workers here. Twilight lay in the corner surrounded by friends, Rarity talking softly to her.

"Dear, get up. Please!" Rarity begged , trying to lift Twilight. "We need you! You can think a way out of this, and we might need the Elements!"

Twilight looked up at her friend through half closed eyes."I know..but...I'm so tired." She fought a yawn. "Can't I just rest for a little while?"

As if in answer, something large and heavy slammed against the doors, shifting the barricade slightly. The guards looked nervous. Luna leaned close to her sister.

"If this creature can absorb such power as Twilight's, mayhap we should depart dear sister." She whispered, her words punctuated by another slam against the door. "We may be more burden than aid."

Celestia shook her head slightly. "I will not abandon my little ponies."

God damn it Sarah THINK! It's big, it's mad, the ponies don't know what it is, it's sucking up power, it's healing itself. You are an inter-dimensional specialist at weird shit! THINK!

The doors buckled slightly with another slam, then there was silence. I felt an odd sensation settle over me, and something clicked in my head. Very slowly, carefully, I bent down and began to scratch at the floor with my fork. The near silence crept on for long seconds, every scratch of the ground or shift of the guard causing nerves to stretch even further.

"Sar.......Ah..." 

The voice was like a dry wind, and it sent chills down my spine. Fluttershy eeped and hid partially behind her friends. Some of the guards were glancing at me. I didn't like that look. It was the kind that said "if we feed the dragon just one girl then maybe it won't eat the rest of us."

CRACK

A fist, not much bigger than mine, punched a hole in the door. It retracted, and a pair of long clawed hands, black as night began to expand the hole. Piece by piece the thick door was torn asunder, till the hole was nearly three feet across. Then the monster slinked through.

It was smaller now, more human in shape. Its hands had seven inch claws, its face looked like a battered blackened skull, its eyes glowing white. A pair of thin twisting branching antlers grew out of the sides of its head. The whole thing was wreathed in smoke and shadow, and it moved with barely a sound. It promised pain and death with every aspect and motion.

“Pfffft.” I was trying really hard not to grin.

It paused, glaring at me. “What?” it demanded, it’s voice deep and resonant.

“You look like a deer of death!” I blurted, giggling.

“WHAT!?”

“You DO! You- hehe, you look like a deadly walking hat rack!” Pinkie was giggling a little off to the side.

The creature stalked towards me. “I have fought manticores, defeated hydras, feasted on timber wolves. I have bested your guards and sapped your sorceress.”

“Right, you fear nothing but gods, dragons, low branches and clotheslines.” Even Princess Luna snorted a little at that. The thing kept stomping towards me.

“I COULD WITHSTAND ANYTHING EVEN YOUR PRINCESSES COULD THROW AT ME!” It bellowed, now only a few feet from me. If I was wrong, I was about to be very very dead.

I fell to my knees, holding my nose. “And with that breath you could probably outmatch a dragon as well.” 

“I AM UNSTOPPABLE!” 

It charged.

As it closed the distance to where I knelt I reached out and scratched at the ground with my fork, connecting a trio of lines together. The creature reached my lines and slammed into the invisible field, now contained by three concentric circles.

“Oh yeah?” I stood and held up my eating utensil. “Well I just beat you with a FORK!”

It raged and scratched at the wall impotently while the guards behind me gave a quick cheer.

“What IS that thing?” Rarity asked.

“It’s my own personal demon.”

“THAT!?” Twilight was shocked. “That is the spirit that was bound into your arm?”

“It’s also the thing you knocked out with your shields and spells. On more than one occasion.” I grinned, “I bet that’s why it tried to sap all your power right off. Good thing I had something stronger than your magic.”

“I’m the element of magic, what could be stronger?”

I held my fork aloft, wiggling it for effect and enjoying Pinkie’s laughter and Twilights’s groan. “Actually, the spirit I’m outfitted with has a few things that can hold it, one of which is a trio of concentric circles.” I point at the ground, where the fork's tines had carved into the earth. I then pointed my dreaded fork at D. “Now why are you attacking everyone?”

“Not everyone.” D sulked, sitting down in the circle I had scratched. “Just you.”

“Why?”

D held his tongue.

“Creature, thou shalt answer us!” Luna commanded, but D only smirked at her.

I was still reeling with the implications. D had survived, I couldn’t believe it. Not just survived but somehow thrived in the Everfree. There must be ambient spiritual energy to feed on. Either that, or he was draining it out of the beasts he claimed to have bested.

And if he had survived.

“D, where is Machina?”

He huffed with contempt. “Feh, you’ll never find her.”

I arched my eyebrow at that. “You’re protecting her?” His face, as horrific as it was, looked nervous. 

I had to think this through. D was strong and sometimes impulsive, but his skills were better suited to hunting then full frontal assaults. If he had waited, attacked me alone in the castle later, I would have been done for.

Instead, he attacked here. The attack was intended to be a fast show of force, his monster form was proof of that. The attack had been quick, and he had obviously not expected the guards or the other element bearers. He must have seen us through the Fauna near the Day Court, but not known of the others.

What would cause him to attack so quickly, so desperately?

“She’s here," I said, "Machina is in the castle.” 

And from the way D glared at me I knew I was right.
> Skeletons in the Library [EDIT]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princesses Luna and Celestia walked with me, along with the Elements of Harmony, as we carefully re-explored the castle. The guards had opted to stay behind to guard D and recover from their injuries. Thankfully none of the guards had been badly wounded. When I left, I told them that D would remain contained as long as they did not destroy the circles.

“But how can you know she is in the castle?” Twilight asked as we walked back towards the Night Court. She wobbled slightly as she walked. The Princesses had done something to help restore some of her energy, but she was still a little woozy from having most of the energy drained out of her.

“And who is Machina?” Pinkie bounced along eager to meet someone new.

“Machina is the AI, an artificial mind, that inhabited my mechanical arm.” I held up my right arm and pulled back my jacket sleeve to show it off. “She was supposed to be a lightning fast calculator and master strategist, along with having special powers different from D’s.”

“Sounds a little like an artificial Twilight.” Rainbow Dash said. Fluttershy giggled.

"What kind of powers?" Princess Celestia asked. "Do we need to worry about another giant monster?"

"Machina had a built in device that could rearrange the makeup of materials. She could build swords, walls, even advanced weapons, all from stone and scrap." I slowed down and wished for some sort of armor.

"Advanced like a crossbow?" Princess Luna asked.

"Advanced like a weapon to match Twilight's most powerful magical blasts, in a rapid fire form."

Twilight stumbled at that. "You had the those kinds of abilities? You never demonstrated anything like that before!"

“Machina needs power, electrical power, just to function. She was drawing on it in the hospital before I.... misunderstood your actions Twilight.” I still grimaced over that little slip. “That is why the lights flickered. Weapons on the level of magical blasts need massive amounts of power."

"How much power?" Celestia asked.

"Rainbow Dash hit her with a lightning bolt once. That gave her enough power for a few impressive tricks and a single powerful shot." I grinned  "I used it to fell the giant timber wolf. She was almost out of power after that, so I had to use D and Nightmare for most of the abilities you saw me use. We shouldn't have any trouble with Machina."

Rarity paused for a moment. "Was that monster, D?" I nodded, "And did he have the power to become a giant monster and punch through walls?"

I stopped in my tracks. "No, no he did not. But there is no power out here. Machina should still be relatively harmless." I glanced down at the still drowsy Twilight. "You, um, you can make shields, right?"

Luna rolled her eyes and a deep blue shield shimmered into existence in front of us.

I grinned and opened the library doors, just off the main hall from the Night Court.

“ohmygoshOhMyGoshOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH THAT IS A LOT OF BOOKS!” Twilight was having a little joy-gasm at the sight of the ancient tomes.

“Careful Twilight," I called out, "almost all of these are already over a thousand years old.” 

She wasn’t paying attention, already looking through the shelves, pulling off books and tomes and scrolls and sorting them into a pile to read on a nearby table. Applejack stopped her.

“That’ll have to wait sugar cube. We’re here looking fer somethin a mite odder than millennium old books and scrolls.”

She sighed and followed along, Princess Celestia smiling at her thirst for knowledge.

A soft click caused everyone's attention to snap around. With a nod, Luna's shield sprang up and we all moved slowly towards the sound.

Near the back, lying under the window, was a scene from a horror movie. A gleaming skull, rib cage and left arm lay propped against the far wall, cables and gears draped between it's ribs. pale synthetic skin covered patches of metalic bone and innards, the largest part being the right half of her face. Ant and spider sized repair bots crawled over her, making the skin even more macabre. She moved, pushing herself upright when she saw me. What skin there was showed expressions of panic and fear.

“Dear God, Machina.”  I whispered. 

There was a bang, and a small bullet bounced off Luna's shield. Everyone had jumped back except the princesses. The tiny gun fell away from where it had been hidden in the rib cage, clattering uselessly against the tile floor.

“Re-sources expended." Machina said. Her voice was distorted, electronic, but still held a note of sadness. "Cur-rent charge at oh point oh oh one three percent.” Her limbs shifted, and she tried to drag herself away from me.

“Its horrible.” Fluttershy said, “Why is this creature in such a state? What ripped her apart?”

“Ah think she’s less ripped apart and more half put t’gether. Reminds me of the barn when Ah just got the frame up an half the siding.”

“Machina, what happened? Did the Elements do this to you? The circle? What went wrong?”

“In-suf-fic-ent power. Disconnected. Do not delete.” She continued to try and move, having only shifted an inch or two with her efforts.

“Machina, status report.” I hated using command codes, but something was obviously wrong.

“Limiters not responding. Power levels at oh point oh oh oh seven percent. Do not delete.” She continued to try and push herself away from me with her arm. It looked like she was trying to cry with her one fleshy eye. "Do not delete." It sounded more and more like a plea.

“Sarah,” Princess Luna whispered, “What is happening?”

“She is essentially bleeding to death. Every question answered drains power, which she cannot restore.” I looked down at her pitiful form. “When it hits zero, she will die.”

“What can we do?” Fluttershy never liked for anything to be in pain.

“There isn’t much we can do. She needs power, and I don’t think she could handle a lightning bolt right now.” None of this made much sense. Why did she try and shoot me? Why had D attacked? We had been traveling for years, but I'd never encountered any animosity from them before.

I stepped forward, reaching out with my right arm, and she shrank away from it. What the actual fuck? The arm still had power. If she reunited with it, she could live. Instead she shied away from it.

Or from me.

I held up my right hand, eying the metal arm. “This thing still moves." I told her, "It must still have some internal power supply."

“Sarah?” Princess Celestia said with a worried tone.

I pulled off my jacket and rolled up the right sleeve, exposing my shoulder. I felt around for the hidden release buttons and pushed them, pulling on my shoulder at the same time. “EERGH!” The damn thing hurt almost as much to take out as to put in.

“SARAH!” The princesses hadn’t been expecting that.

I laid the arm on Machina's chest, enjoying the look of confusion in her eye. “There, power for you. Don’t waste it.” Machina just blinked at me, uncomprehending as I walked away.

I stalked back through the stacks, pulling my jacket on loosely. The trail of ponies following me were silent till we were almost out of the library. Luna, ever cautious, did not drop her shield till we were almost out of the library.

“Ah don’t understand, why was she tryin to run from ya? Why try an hurt ya?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she thinks I blame her for the plan with the elements failing so miserably. Maybe she blames me for her current state.”

“Still, even for such a failing she had an inordinate amount of fear.” Celestia looked at me. “Though you have been violent, you are not the sort of person who resorts to violence needlessly or rashly. Something else is going on here.”

“Right,” I said, “I need to go back outside and- Twilight, are you intending to steal from me?”

Twilight looked up startled. “What?”

“You just put a book into your bag.”

“Well of course.” She smiled, thinking I was just being silly. “I’m a librarian and scholar. I’m going to add these books to my library.”

“But their not your books.” I countered.

“Oh, I’m sure the princesses won’t mind if I take a few-”

“They aren't the princesses books either.”

Twilight blinked at that. “Of course they are. They are in the Ancient Castle of the Pony Sisters.”

“Yes,” I replied, “And if I remember the verdict on my assault on the gryphon, one of the key points was she assaulted me in my home. Right?”

“Yes.”

“And the castle is my home now, right? That's why I'm in charge of renovations and such.”

“That's correct”

“So now the castle is mine, right?”

“Yes.”

“And everything in it.”

“Yes.”

“Including the books.”

“Ye-NO!” Twilight realized that she had argued herself into a corner. The other bearers giggled a bit.

“It would be best to leave them here Twilight.” Celestia said, putting a comforting wing over her student. “I suspect the only reason they have survived so long is a preservation ward over the library.”





I marched out into the inner courtyard, uncertain of my next actions. I got three steps before the guards started yelling at me. Not the usual “halt” either.

“Ahhh! AHHH!”

I looked up, and saw the pegasus guard pointing towards the ground and making noises to get my attention. The earth and unicorn ponies were slowly moving around the courtyard, dragging their spears and swords.

I looked down at the lines in the dirt, and it only took a moment to realize what was going on. “Um, Princess Celestia, can you politely inform your guards that only the first three circles are necessary for containment?” The courtyard now had nearly sixty rings, with more being carved as I spoke.

Celestia laughed softly and nodded to her sister.

“CANTERLOT GUARD! WE APPRECIATE THY FINE EFFORTS IN CONTAINING THIS CREATURE! FURTHER EFFORTS ARE REDUNDANT! CEASE THESE ACTIONS AT ONCE!”

Oh dear god my ears are ringing. How can anything that cute yell that loud? I swear the nearest guard was pushed back a good two feet from the volume. I shook off the after effects and walked up to D’s containment.

“What did you do to Machina?” D had done the decent thing and grown something more like a face. His eyes were still glowing white, but the skull now had a thin layer of flesh, giving him lips to grin and eyebrows to furl. “What happened to your arm?”

"You are trapped in an awful lot of circles D. I think I'm the one who gets to ask questions right now."

"AAAH, WHAT IS THAT?!"

I turned around to see the guards chasing a small metal monstrosity across the courtyard. It got a dozen steps before it was surrounded by earth pony guards.

Machina had grafted my right arm onto her body and had pulled much of her lose components up into the rib cage. In the sun and walking on just her bony hands, she looked more like a technological zombie horror than ever. She shifted back and forth, eying the guards, D and myself.

"It's a metal one of those wooden puppets!"

"It was scratching out the circles!!"

"Quick, tear it apart before it finishes!"

The guards raised sword and spear, and even some of the recovering unicorns lent their magic to pin the mechanical thing to the ground.

There was a flash of movement, a dark shadow, and the swords scraped impotently against D's thick hide. The black smoking monster wraped it's long arms delicately around his metal counterpart, draining away the magic that pinned her in place. A moment later and he was moving again, past the guards and through the hole in the great door.

Silence settled over the courtyard.

"What just happened?" one of the guards asked.

Princess Luna walked over to where I stood, glaring at me. My foot was still outstretched, having rubbed it through the last trio of lines holding D in place.

"Princess Luna, I-"

Her hoof slammed me to the ground.

"Do you know what you have done?!" she asked, her voice cold and hard. "Have you any idea what you have done?!"

"Your guards were about to slay Machina!" I countered "I had to stop them!" I held my hand up to my busted lip, already smelling the coppery blood.

"A monster was threatening to unleash the very demon that nearly finished us all, they were just trying to stop it."

"A monster I had just given my right arm to help! A frightened lost soul on her last legs, and they were going to cut her to pieces."

"She didn't even have any legs." Pinkie offered in the background. Her friends shushed her.

"D didn't hurt me. Even though I was only a foot away, all he cared about was saving Machina!"

"ENOUGH!" Celestia yelled, drawing all attention to herself. After a moment to collect herself, she turned to her guards.. "Guards, prepare for our departure. Inform the construction workers that the contract is canceled but they will be paid for their time."

"So that's it? We all just go back and abandon this project?"

"No, Sarah," Celestia said quietly, "Not all of us. You must stay here." 

Celestia bowed her head and closed her eyes. There was a flash of light, and when my vision cleared, I could see a ring of faintly glowing runes around my wrist.

"You were banished from Equestira and cannot return until that banishment is lifted. These marks bind you to the castle, and will not release you until such time as the walls and ceiling are intact, the courts restored, and ponies willingly visit." 

She looked about. "Any guard who wishes to remain in the castle will be given hazard pay." She announced the the armored ponies. They shuffled back and forth for a short while before three stepped forward. The princess nodded and turned back to me. "I shall send a courier once a month to bring fresh supplies and check on your progress." 

With that, she turned, headed back to the outer courtyard and her chariot. Already most of the work ponies had gathered up their stuff. Even Cut and Measure were already out of sight.

"Why?" I asked quietly.

Luna looked at me incredulously. "Thou art a greater fool than I thought possible. Do you know what magic is?"

I nodded.

"I highly doubt that. Magic is energy, and it takes so many forms. Love, hate, fear, hope, order, chaos, magic has more facets to it then there are stars in my sky. Each but a flavor, a nature of true magic. It shapes our world." She paused, looking over the contractors who were packing up, leaving a smattering of tools and huge stacks of supplies. "There are things in this world that eat such power and grow from it. Dragons devour magic whole in gems. Evil sorcerer kings soak up fear for their power. Changelings can eat the love of a pony right out of their heart."

"So what? Why panic over D if you have an entire world of creature like him?"

"Be SILENT you utter fool." She cursed at me. "My sister fought a changeling that supped on the love of a regular unicorn for only two weeks, and was bested by it." My eyes widened at the thought of something so simple defeating one of the Princesses. "Two weeks, do you understand? It took two weeks of near constant exposure for it to build enough power to challenge the throne, and then only drawing from a single source and type. Your beast, your harmless 'D', drew almost ALL of the power from one of the greatest unicorns of this age. And it did it in an instant."

A terrible feeling began sinking in. "I'm not here as punishment am I?"

Luna bowed her head. "Thou art the only thing we KNOW it wants. Mayhap it will come and take you, mayhap it will merely stalk you all your days. Regardless, thou can NEVER return to our lands proper, lest it follow in your wake. Even if by some miracle thou art to lift my sisters binding, for as long as it sees you as a target you shall never set foot in a pony town."

I was trapped. Not just banished but imprisoned in the place I was banished to, bait for what they now saw as the ultimate monster. 

And there was nothing I could do.

I just stood in the courtyard and watched. 

Watched the trio of guards pick up kits and march off into the castle to find lodgings. 

Watched the element bearers glance at me as they trot away, their looks ranging from angry to uncertain to relieved. 

Watched the last of the Pegasi drawn chariots and wagons lift into the sky and fly away.



Once again, I was alone. 






All alone.




























Finally, I thought they'd never leave.


> Frightful Dreams
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Panic.

Utter blind Panic. It coursed through my veins, it pounded in my ears. A cold sweat ran down my face, and I walked stiffly through the castle towards my camp in Princess Luna's private chamber. 

I was lucky the trio of guards had already separated from me, intent on drawing three large concentric circles around the castle to protect them from D. There was no way I could keep the panic and fear off my face right now. I was trying very hard not to completely flip out.

Sarah?

"I didn't hear that." I muttered to myself, walking just a little faster. You would think after years of hearing voices in my head one more wouldn't matter that much.

Sarah, can you hear me?

"No." I knew, somewhere in the back of my mind, that responding was bad, but I was panicking. Nobody thinks stright while they are panicking.

You can! This is great! I was worried that you couldn't and-

"Shut up shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP! I can't hear you! You're sealed, trapped by the Elements of Harmony themselves! The last time that seal held for a thousand years!"

Lucky me it's wearing off so much faster this time. I wonder if I've built up a resistance.

I closed the door to Luna's chamber and pulled a chair in front of them. With only one arm and my leg still sore from D's claws I was in no place to go dragging anything larger around. That done, I paced back and forth quickly in the small room, my mind running in circles.

"You can't be getting out. I'm already banished AND imprisoned. If the Princesses find out you are wiggling your way free-"

There was a knock at the door.

"Yes?"

"Miss Sarah?" The door was pushed open, the chair sliding uselessly along the polished tile floor. A gruff looking earth pony guard stepped in. My eyes immediately fell on his sword.

He is going to find out. He is going to find out and cut the tattoo off my back and lock me bleeding in the basement with no food and then he and the other two guards are going to leave me there to bleed and starve and the Princesses will come and send me to the moon with no air and then I will suffocate and bleed and starve and never see home ever again and-

"Miss Sarah, are you alright?"

"YES!" I shouted, grinning manically, feeling my heart racing in my chest. "It- It's just that a lot has happened and I need to do a lot of repairs so I'm turning in early to get a fresh start tomorrow."

He stared at me, completely unconvinced. ".....Ooooh kaaay. Do you want some sleepy tea?"

I nodded, and the guard backed out of the room and gently shut the door. I practiced taking very deep breaths, trying to breathe slowly.

I can't go to sleep! He knows! He's going to kill me in my sleep!

Sarah, are you alright? You need to calm down.

"How in the name of all that is holy am I supposed to calm down?!" I felt like I was hyperventilating.

Tea?

There was another knock at the door, and this time a unicorn guard came in without waiting for a response. "Steel Strike told me to bring you this." He floated the steaming kettle and a cup in front of him, setting it down on the floor. I noticed that he had leaned his spear against the door, and his magic wrapped around it as soon as the kettle was down.

I knelt and with a shaking hand I poured the steaming tea into the cup, spilling a little. I picked up the cup and blew across the tea, trying to cool it a bit. "Thank you, um..."

"Bright Lance."

There was an edge in his voice, a lack of formality and an overly critical look in his eye. His stance was formal, but there was a bit of jumpiness to him, like he was ready to run for the hills.

"Thank you Bright Lance." I downed the cup and pulled a face. "Gah, that's strong."

Lance's face looked confused. "Shouldn't be, I put one teaspoon per cup of water like the package said." Lance held up the spoon.

"Lance, that's a table spoon." I was trying to remember, were tablespoons two times or three times as big?

"Oh," He looked at the spoon and then at me. "Is that a problem?"

I stood up to tell him exactly how big a problem that was, and found myself falling sideways. Ah, now I remember. Three times.





I looked at my vibrant purple salad and the small bowl of lumpy brown soup. I had tasted a bit of each and found neither to be palatable.

Salad contains high concentrations of a range of chemicals, most either toxic, cancerous, or just deadly. The soup is better, with only two thousand percent your daily sodium intake.

I could probably cure you of anything you got from eating, but you'd still have a massive bout of indigestion while I did.

That settled it, I was skipping this course all together.

"I must say it is nice to have such a charming young woman visit us this time of year." The local duke smiled at me and waved his right arm at me. "Tis not often ARCO sends one as friendly as you. Most are very business like. All, 'here is your payment, thank you for the anchor, where are your scholars?' blah blah blah."

I smiled at him. He had been charming, even allowing me to sit in on a short meeting of affairs of state. I had not cared much for the way the palace was staffed with what looked like slaves, but the duke assured me they were all treated well. He had even offered one to me, and I had chosen one in the hopes of setting him free with a small bit of money.

"Ah ha, here we are." The duke stood and smiled as six slaves brought in tray after tray of covered fare, setting them down around the table. Many a guest's eyes brightened at this signal for the main course to begin, and even I lifted my fork in hope of something more edible.

The covers were lifted. 

There was the slave, his head sat, still smiling at me, his eyes wide and empty. The right half of his face had the skin carefully peeled away, revealing tender cooked meat underneath.

The woman to my left leaned over and pointed with a fork.

"Do you mind if I take an eye?"





I woke and was instantly heaving the small contents of my belly onto the floor. Somepony had been kind enough to drape a blanket over me, though they had left me fully clothed and lying on the cold stone floor. 

Shaking with cold and sick, I grasped about in the dark until I found the box of matches near the fireplace. It took two matches to find the candlestick, and another two to light it. Shadows danced about me, and I huddled under my blanket and shivered. 

"Jerks. Just leave me on the floor? Who does that to a person?"

Probably too scared of you to move you.

I let out a sigh. "You're still here?" I didn't have the energy to try and fight with her right now.

Where would I go?

I moved about, piling small logs and kindling into the fireplace.

Sarah, what was that about?

"I'm cold and I can't see in the dark."

No, the dinner. Why did they cook that man?

I froze. "You saw that?"

Nightmare, remember. I can see dreams.

"Can you hear my thoughts as well?"

Would I have been asking if you could hear me if I could?

"Maybe," I went back to building a fire, "You might be that devious."

We sat in silence for a while.

So what was with the dinner?

"That world treats slaves as beasts of burden and livestock, creatures to work and be eaten."

The slaves are another race from their masters? Another species?

"No, just poor people. Literally poor people. When you can't afford your debts, you're sold into slavery."

They didn't look sad.

"I think... I think they cut out the part of them that lets them be sad. They are always happy. Happy to serve, happy to work, happy to be cooked and eaten."

The image of that poor man's grinning head resurfaced in my mind, and I worked hard not to throw up again.

You should climb in bed and try to rest.

"I don't think I can sleep anymore tonight."

I sat staring into the crackling fire in silence, waiting for Celestia to bring the dawn.
> The Next Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"Alright, so it looks like the roof here is going to need the most repair. The main beam is badly damaged and most of the supports are rotted through."

Sarah?

"I think we can get away with reenforcing around the main beam, then removing it. We will have to replace all the secondary supports before we start removal though."

Hey Sarah.

"I didn't see any lumber this long in our supplies so we will have to order-"

I don't think he's listening to you.

I turned around to glare at my unicorn guard who just stood a little ways off, a spear, notepad and pen floating near him.

"Are you going to write any of this down, Lance?"

"Is that why I'm carrying this pad and pen?" he asked in a snippy tone.

"No. You're holding onto it for when I spontaneously regrow my right arm and can write again."

His eyes widened and he began to scratch out something on the notepad.

"Lance, I swear if you are writing notes about my amazing regenerative abilities I'm going to do my best to shove that pad down your throat."

The spear came about, pointed right at me. "You won't get the chance monster! I'll slay you myself if you make even one false move!"

"Aren't you supposed to be defending me?"

"Hmph." Lance pulled the spear back, but still stood on guard.

"Why are you following me if you aren't going to help?"

"To find out what you are going to do." He glared at me, "You can't have survived in this castle for as long as you did, and done the things you have, without being far more powerful than you appear. You may as well give up and tell me what you are planing."

"Fine," I threw up my hand, "It's obvious I can't get anything past you. I'll tell you everything, but you'll want to write this down."

Lance's eyes widened with excitement, and the pad and pen floated at the ready.

I turned and pointed at the ceiling. "I'm going to order two long beams for either side of the main beam, along with lumber, brackets, bolts, screws and tools to replace and reenforce the ceiling here." I turned and smiled at him, watching him just grump at me.

"That isn't what I meant! How do you plan to escape?"

Is the guard honestly this foolish?

"Escape? You aren't some warden. I'm stuck here by the Princess's gease. The only way out is to meet the conditions, one of which is fixing the roof."

"You..you really are just going to do repairs to this place?"

Yes, yes he really is that foolish.

I sighed, "Let's go see if your pegasus friend has finished reviewing the outside." I said, heading up to the nearby tower. Lance followed me about ten feet behind, spear always at the ready.

Hey

"Not now."

"Did you say something?" Lance called.

"No, I'm just talking to myself."

Hey.

I sighed again. Nightmare was crap with subtle for some reason. We got up to the top of the tower and opened the door quietly. The pegasus guard Starlight was posing in front of an ancient and cracked vanity.

"Woe is me, a nobleman's daughter trapped in the tallest tower by that vicious alien beast." She pouted at her reflection before swooning dramatically. "Oh when will my brave prince come to rescue me?" 

"Sometime after you finish your job of aiding and guarding that vicious alien beast I'd imagine." I said, startling the midnight blue pegasus.

"Eeeek! Foul beast! How dare you sneak up on me. I will not give into your wicked desires!"

Wicked desires? Really?

"What in Equestria is going on up here?" Lance asked, following me into the room.

"That monster snuck up on me! Who knows what it was planing." Starlight said, pointing an accusatory hoof at me.

"Star, I was right behind her the whole time, and neither of us were very quiet. The only way anything could have snuck up on you is if you were off in your own little fantasy." Lance smirked. "Still waiting for your prince?"

"Shut UP!" Star cried, blushing deep red.

"Never mind that, did you finish looking over the roof?"

Hey!

"Oh sure." Star said, "They are a mess. A lot of places need to be tared and have shingles replaced."

"Good," I nodded at Lance to take notes. "How many shingles and how large of an area are we talking in total?"

"Hm?" she looked up confused.

"How much of the roof will need to be repaired and replaced?"

"Oh, a lot of it." She nodded.

"How much, exactly?"

"How am I supposed to know exactly how much?"

"I GAVE YOU A TAPE MEASURE FOR A REASON!" I was pretty close to jumping up and down and yelling at this point.

"Oh, I um, I left that behind." She said, a little scared by my outburst.

Hey, Listen!

I'm going to rename her Navi I swear to god. "What are you even here for if not to help?"

"We are here to guard you from that monster in the forest."

"And don't you think that would be easier if we could all leave the forest?"

"Sure," Lance grinned, "It would be a lot easier to protect you if you were behind bars in a maximum security prison."

"Well the only way I'm going to get anywhere near there is if I finish the work, and the only way I can do that is with help. Why else would you be here if not to help?"

"I was hoping a hero would come rescue me." Starlight said.

"I'm here to keep an eye on you." Lance growled.

"I'm in it for the money myself."

I turned to find Steel Strike climbing up the stairs. Grinning at the other guards he sauntered in. "The potential for quick promotion is good too."

"There's opportunity for promotion?" Starlight asked, excited.

"Yeah," Steel said, "comes bundled with pension paid to next of kin and burial with honors."

I like him.

I could feel my eye twitch slightly. These had to be the worst possible assistants in the history of anything. "Can you all go away for a little bit? I'm just going to have a very large headache for a little while."





Four hours later I walked out into the western courtyard with an armful of notes and sketches. Most of it was estimates and counting paces, but I figured that I had roughly half of the lumber, paint and hardware I needed to repair the roofs in the castle.

"I just have to wait a month to put in the order for supplies."

Don't forget the walls, you have to finish those too.

"Right right, I still need to figure out how to repair the wall. Then I just have to finish all the repairs with guards who don't want to help and find a way to invite ponies to visit an abandoned castle in the middle of a dangerous forest when I can't even leave!"

How are you going to do that?

"I have no idea!"

Thock.

I paused at the doorway to the courtyard. "The hell is that? Are they chopping wood?"

I came out to the courtyard to find the guards hard at work assaulting various wooden training dummies. Each had obviously built their own and each reflected D in one form or another.

Steel Strike was busy swinging his short sword against a humanoid dummy, hopping in a circle while delivering glancing blows.  It took me a moment to realize that he was also swiping out three concentric circles with his hooves as he moved about.

Lance's dummy had a chest full of pockmarks and slashes, and I had to marvel at how well he handled his spear. The blade slashed through the air before being drawn back and driving deep into the dummy's neck.

Starlight had been most ambitious and was still assembling her dummy, a massive structure that mimicked the monster bull form that D had first taken. Unfortunately for her, her construction was somewhat lacking. She put down her hammer, picked up a pair of strange bladed weapons, and then had to drop them and grab more tools as the dummy began to colapse.

"What are you all doing?" I asked. Lance jumped and spun around, spear at the ready.

"Training," Steel Strike said, rubbing out the circles he had drawn and getting ready to start again. "We need to be ready in case that creature attacks again."

"I can see that, but where did you get the dummies from?"

"We built them, duh." Starlight said, trying to brace her dummy's sagging head.

"Yes, with the lumber meant for repairs."

"You said you would need to order more anyway." Lance said, grinning at me.

I glared back at him. "Isn't yours missing an arm?"

"Nah, I got it just right!" He smirked at me, "Hey, how about some practice against a moving target?" He levitated the spear and pointed it at me.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea." Steel Strike said. "Provided we swap out for practice weapons, I think it would help our training and tactics immensely."

Well, if it will help them to fight off D, that may not be a bad idea.

"That's a terrible idea." I said, "You three are trained guards, what am I supposed to do against you? Shoot eye beams? I don't have D's strength or speed or claws!"

Starlight swooped by overhead and something thumped down next to me. It looked like a foam bat. 

"I don't think any of us are going to be able to do any real damage with these." Star said, dropping a pair of foam short swords at Steel Strike's feet. Lance caught the long padded stick that mimicked his spear before it hit the ground.

"Fine." I grunted, lifting the sword. Though it was heavily padded, the thing still had a good weight to it, and I found myself having to keep it close to my body or risk being pulled off balance. "Who gets to kick my butt first?"

I was unsurprised when Lance stepped forward, his training spear swinging through the air. I couldn't tell if he was trying to show off or if the fake weapon was weaker than the real one, but he seemed able to move faster than before.

"I got next!" Starlight cried.

Not having any real strategy, I raised my sword and charged. A few steps from him, his horn flared slightly brighter, and he tore the sword out of my hand with his magic.

"Ha! Look at that! The weaponless wonder-"

SMACK.

Lance stumbled backwards and raised a hoof to his cheek. "You slapped me!"

"You took my sword!" I shouted at him. "Did you really thing that was going to stop me? That can't be standard tactics in the guard."

"It would have worked against other ponies!" Lance countered.

"I'm not a pony!" I yelled at him. "Neither is D, unless you catch him in disguise."

"That really is a stupid trick." Steel said. "In a real battle, stunts like that will get you badly wounded or worse."

"Shut up you old grump, it would have worked against you."

"Oh?" Steel turned to face off, a foam sword hanging off a holster on either side and his cape flapping dramatically in the wind. "Care to test that theory?"

"Bring it on!" Lance said, taking a battle stance.

Steel Strike drew a foam sword in his mouth and charged, his speed startling Lance as he closed the distance in a flash. Unable to bring his spear to bear, Lance reflexively reached out and grabbed Steel's sword, halting the attack.

"Ha! See? I-"

WHAM

Lance was thrown to the ground, Steel's second sword having caught him across the face and spun him around. My mouth hung open. Steel's cape fluttered from the sudden motion, his first sword still held in his mouth, his second grasped in a strong wing.

"You- You're a pegasus?!" Starlight gasped.

"I thought you were an earth pony." I said.

"That's not fair!" Lance cried. "You tricked me!"

"Oh?" Steel asked, spitting out his sword. "You think your enemies are going to come at you head on? You have to expect surprises."

"A good lesson in not being too cocky." Starlight said, trotting up. She reached out and tried to pick up the foam sword with her wings, struggling. "How do you lift these things?!"

"Years of practice." Steel said. The wind tugged at his cape, and I saw something as it fluttered.

"Steel," I started, "Your wing..."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "It's not important."

"What about his wing?" Lance asked.

"How did you lose your left wing?"

Starlight gasped, falling back a couple of steps. Steel just sighed.

"I was with the five-oh-first."

"What?!" Lance was standing wide eyed now, "You were a DRAGON SLAYER?!!"

"Dragon wrangler mostly." Steel pulled at the front clasp, letting the cape drop to the ground. Even I cringed away from the sight. A long burn scar ran from the nub where his wing had been down his side. The fur had never grown back, leaving scared and patchy flesh. "I got too close to one a few years ago. Managed to save my squad mates from a worse fate, but you can't be a flying dragon slayer if you can't fly."

"But you can lift two heavy swords!" Lance said. "That's amazing."

"That is amazing," I told him, "But it doesn't make up for losing the wing."

"You're one to talk." Lance said, "You had a demon locked in one arm and the other one took out a huge timber wolf!"

"Look at me. Even if I could rebuild the entire castle one handed tomorrow, it would never make up for the loss."

Steel nodded, "You can't go back, and mourning over it gets you nowhere. You just have to move on.

"Speaking of fixing the castle, does anyone here know how I'm supposed to work on the outer walls?"





I looked at the supplies spread out on the ground in front of me.

"So the original wall was all stone, but the repairs are going to be brick with a stone face? This doesn't look like nearly enough bricks."

"Its a kiln," Steel Strike said, "you are supposed to build a kiln and fire the bricks from these molds."

"That... seems like an awful lot of work." I said.

"It makes since if you really think about it." Starlight said, rolling out the blueprints for the kiln. "If the wall is damaged in the future, it will be much easier to repair with a kiln in the castle."

"There is a town." I waved towards Ponyville, "Right there! Why do I need to make bricks in the castle? I can just go get more when I need them."

"OK," Lance said, still nursing a sore jaw, "Go get some then."

"You aren't nearly as funny as you think you are" I said. "So I guess I have to find a place to build this."

"You want to build it near the servants quarters, in a side yard, and away from any other structures." Starlight said, flipping through the kiln blueprints. "It's going to take a while to fire the bricks, and you want to leave the kiln somewhere it won't set fire to anything else."

...what?

Starlight looked up and saw us all staring at her. "What? I have family in constructions. Every Hearts Warming they would go on and on about stuff like this."

"And earlier today you couldn't give me estimates on tiles?" I asked.

"Well yeah, but that was because you were going about it the wrong way."

"The wrong way?"

"You were just looking at the obvious open spots in the roof. There are also rotten tiles and gutters that need repair and replacement. I won't be able to check for those and get a proper estimate until the support structure underneath is reenforced." Star grinned at me, "But your plan for those supports sounds solid."

Well, that was unexpected. Maybe these guards are smarter than I gave them credit for.

"Well, I'd better get the wheelbarrow and get started." I said. "All these bricks aren't going to move themselves."

Steel strike put a hoof up to stop me. "No wheelbarrow. You are going to move each brick one at a time."

"What?!"

"It's part of your training." Steel said. "You are far too weak, and you only beat Lance on a technicality. From this day on you are going to spend three hours a day training with us."

"And what do I get out of it aside from you running me ragged?"

"Our cooperation in the repairs." Steel said. 

"Your cooperation maybe," I said, "There is no way you'll convince those two to help."

"Well you can count on me" Starlight said, rolling up the kiln blueprints. "I want this done right. No offense Sarah, but a kiln built wrong could burn the castle down or explode. I'd like not to worry about burning to death in my sleep."

"Well that still leaves Lance." I said.

"Lance is a good soldier." Steel told me, "He'll follow orders from his superior and right now that's me."

"What will you do if he disobeys? Take away his tin-foil hat?"

"No, he'd have to run- why would he have a tin-foil hat?" Starlight asked.

"To block my alien mind control beams." I joked.

Lance jumped up from where he had been sitting and dashed off.	

"Great, now I'm going to spend a week either convincing him that I don't have alien mind control beams or that the tin-foil is useless." I said.

With workers like these, who needs saboteurs?
> Dreams of Ice and Snow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A cold gust made me wrap my arms tighter around myself, trying to hold a small bit of warmth in under the thin coat. My right arm was beginning to hurt at the joint, the cold metal giving me frostbite. 

I looked back over the snow covered clearing, trying to gauge my progress. Behind me my footprints were the only marks upon the field of white snow. Black trees stood on either side of the path, each completely encased in ice. Razor sharp sickles hung from every branch, threatening to fall upon anyone foolish enough to take shelter underneath. 

In the distance beyond the dark wood was a white and silver mansion, it's windows glowing with promised warmth. I turned away and kept walking.

"Machina?"

Conversion pod should be in sight now, seventy feet ahead.

"Well it's not. Anything on the scanners."

Lots, but nothing concrete. I suspect our host may have moved our ride.

"Are you lost little one?"

I nearly cursed as I spun around to spot the speaker.

"N-no, dear Lady. I am merely looking for something I left nearby."

The Lady smiled with her ice blue lips, but the smile did not reach her empty eyes. She was a mockery of the human form, her features too perfect, too symmetrical. Snow white skin and crystal hair complimented a dress that looked carved of ice and snow. It was hard to say whether she was an extension of her land or if her land was an extension of her. 

In her right hand she loosely held two silver chains, each leading to a studded collar around the neck of her two favorite pets. They were covered in white fur, and had canine muzzles and long black claws, but even I could see that they had been human once.

"What kind of gracious host would I be to leave a guests carriage to rot in a field?" She asked, her voice just far enough off of human to set my teeth on edge. "I put it away."

"The Lady is most kind." I said, gritting my teeth against the cold. "Where might I find my carriage?"

"Back at the manor house. Are you sure you don't want to come in and warm yourself? Maybe have a cup of hot tea?"

"No dear Lady, thank you." I turned back towards the house.

"I could have your carriage brought back here."

It wasn't an offer, it was just a statement. Wherever I went, wherever my escape had been, she would kindly put it somewhere else. Somewhere I had been or would go, but never where I was.

"What would you like me to do to have you bring it back, dear Lady?"

"Address me as 'My Lady', like I have asked you to before."

"I must respectfully decline."

"Then perhaps a game?" That damned smile never left her face. Everything in this place was so dangerous, and I was slowly freezing to death already.

"What kind of game?"

No! No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no-

We do not have any other choice D. Either Sarah plays the game or we die.

"You shall seek out your chariot, and my pets shall hunt you." the Lady said. "If you find your vehicle, then you win. If my pets catch you, I win."

"If I win, I leave. What do you get if you win?"

"My poor pets are so lonely since their last companion passed on." Her voice held mock sympathy, and a gloved hand caressed the heads of one of her pets. It went rock still in fear. "If I win, you will serve as their new breeding bitch."

"You won't move my pod once the game starts. I get a sixty second head start, and I can defend myself from your pets."

"Thirty seconds, but otherwise, agreed." A light flashed in her empty eyes. "Let the games begin."

I turned, running out into the forest, dodging falling blades of ice. Behind me, the Lady's pets let out great long howls.

From the forest around me dozens of voices lifted into the freezing wind as the howls were answered.





I woke in the castle and immediately pulled the blanket tight around me. shivering, I got up and shuffled closer to the fire. Despite it being late summer, the room felt so very very cold.

What was that?

"Don't ask Nightmare. Please, just don't ask." I shivered.

No, really. I've never even heard of a creature like that...that thing.

I looked around and finally spotted the ancient and rusted fire poker. I reached out and clutched the long iron rod close to my body, ignoring it's cold touch, and said the name.

What? You mean like fairies?

"No, I do not mean like faeries. I mean like gods damned Fae!" I huddled closer to the fire, my eyes darting to the dancing shadows in the corners of the room.

You had a spirit bound to your arm. You have a living nightmare sealed in your back. Why fear elves and tricksters?

"Dragons can eat you, demons can steel your soul, spirits can posses you, but Fae are worse by far. You eat anything, you take anything, you say anything out of turn or give any insult, and they own you. Rule one when traveling to other dimensions is to research all the variations on monsters, ghosts and demons you can get your hands on. You can trick gods, beat demons, and destroy most monsters. But you never, EVER fuck with the Fae."

"Sarah?"

I looked up to see Lance looking in through the bedroom door. He had on all his armor, his spear, an extra sword, and a whistle.

"Oh, hi Lance."

"Are you alright? You were talking."

"Just a nightmare."

"NIGHTMARE?!" Lance jumped into the room, his spear pointed at me. He glared at me, then looked around the room. "Nightmare is loose? In the room?! In the Castle?!"

"No, Lance. I had a nightmare, like a bad dream."

"Oh." He lowered his defense a little bit. "Ugh, why is it so cold in here?"

My eyes widened as I saw his breath steaming in the air.

"I guess Nightmare made part of my dream real."

"You dreamed you were cold?"

"No, I um." I realized I already had a white knuckle hold on the iron poker, but still I huddled closer to the fire. "I had a dream about the time I met a Fae."

Lance froze. "You mean a fairy, like a little thing with wings, right?"

"No."

"Hang on a second." Lance said, running out of the room.

He is CRAZY!

"He's a little paranoid, that's all."

He has tin foil sticking out from under his helm.

A tapping sound reached my ears, echoing from down the hall. It slowly got louder and louder, until at last Lance came back into the room. Each of his hooves was now encased in rusted iron armor from one of the suits of armor scattered around the palace. He walked in and settled down next to the fire, with a pad of paper and a pencil.

"OK, tell me about this Fae."





"Sarah, don't stop now you're nearly there"

"What?" I stumbled slightly, then lifted the basket of bricks again.

"Come on!" Starlight said, hefting a sack of mortar mix "Don't slack off now, we are almost there."

"For this load! You said there are twelve more I need to get done today." I said, stifling a yawn. "Where is Lance? He should be able to move this without trouble."

"Lance pulled first shift." Starlight said. "So he's running patrols while we build."

"And Steel sleeps." I finished. "We really need a few more guards, I'm worried you three are going to run yourselves ragged." I yawned again.

"A little lost sleep for hazard pay is a good trade. Why are you so tired?"

"Nightmare."

"WHAT?!" Her eyes shot wide and she almost dropped the beam.

"I mean I had a nightmare. More a memory, of another world."

"Oh." Starlight settled down some. "Was it a bad memory?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I said, shivering. Even in the sunlight, I still felt cold.

"Alright." She said, dropping the sack next to two others. "There, that should be enough for the main firebox. We just need to get more bricks and start building."

"That would be a hell of a lot easier if you would help. Or at least let me use a wheelbarrow."

"No way!" Starlight said. "Steel told me that if I or Lance let you slack on the brick carrying, then we have to pull double shifts for guard duty."

"That doesn't sound so bad." I said.

"He also said he would douse us in something called 'steak sauce' first."

I cringed. "Oh. Yeah, OK. That would be like dressing up as a giant candy on Nightmare Night."

"Here, I'll go get the plans and buckets." Star said before flying off.

I sat down to rest, unloading my basket. "Ugh. This stupid kiln."

It's going to take you two weeks to move all those bricks.

"The plans say I can line the inside of the kiln with unfired brick. The kiln will fire those for me, so that will save me a bit of hauling."

You should bring the molds over next and start making bricks.

"Well, I'll want to make sure Steel knows which bricks are cast and which are carried. I don't want him stepping up my training."

I wonder what the kiln will look like when it's finished.

"We'll just have to wait and see."

Feh, if I had my full power I could build it in an instant.

"Yeah, that's what I want. You at full power."

I'm really not bad, things just get out of hand.

"One day soon you're going to have to tell me about it."

Sure, we can sit down, have tea and cookies, and I'll tell you all about the time I caused a royal princess to overthrow her sister and try to take over the world.

"Sarah, are you talking to yourself again?"

I looked up to see Lance staring at me through a gap in the outer wall. It was one of the larger gaps, one of the reasons the kiln was built here.

"No Lance, I'm having conversations with Nightmare." I told him sarcastically. "I can hear her in my head, probably because I don't have one of those nifty tin foil hats of yours."

"Oh, do you want one?" he asked in a reasonable tone.

"Yeah, I could use one pretty badly." I gave him an evil grin. "Why don't you just take yours off and-"

"YOU WILL NOT TRICK ME THAT WAY DEMON!" Lance yelled before running off.

You told him about me? I thought you wanted to keep it a secret.

I got up and picked up the basket, heading back toward the front courtyard.

"You know, for an evil spirit, you don't seem to know much about lying."

Then educate me oh great and wise teacher.

"Sarcasm will get you nowhere. There are four ways to lie."

That sounds oversimplified.

"Hush, listen to me, four ways. The first is an outright lie, like 'I am twenty feet tall and blue'."

That is a terrible lie, nopony would believe it.

"Like nopony believed I had 'alien mind control beams'? You are right though, it holds no elements of truth and falls apart the fastest. The second is a lie that contains points of truth, like 'I come from another world and can breathe fire'. Since it is able to be proved in part, it is more believable. The third way to lie is by omission."

Oh, I know that one. Tell the truth, but not the whole truth.

"Yeah, you leave out important details. This lie is harder to disprove than the others. The last way to lie is to tell the whole, complete and unvarnished truth."

That doesn't sound like lying at all.

"You have to say it in a way that no one will believe you."

Like how you told Lance you could hear me, but made it seem like a lie to get your "mind beams" into him.

"Yeah I-" I stopped, "Nightmare, where are we?"

You are the one driving.

"I wasn't paying attention, must have made a wrong turn." I turned around and saw something moving down one of the far hallways.

"Starlight? Is that you? I got turned around trying to get back to the courtyard."

Silence.

"Starlight? Lance?"

Maybe it was just the wind?

I wet my finger and held it up. Not even the slightest breeze could be felt.

"I think I'm going back to the courtyard. Now." I started looking for familiar landmarks within the castle, but I was deep in the servants passages. As I walked I heard the tile shifting underfoot, and an odd echo from behind me.

"This castle must be haunted." I joked half hardheartedly.

The castle isn't haunted. I mean, it was haunted, but I was the one haunting it.

Behind me something clacked on the tile, like a heavily armored hoof.

"OK, real funny Lance." I turned around. "You can knock it off... right...."

It was large. 

It was dark. 

It had bat like wings and glowing eyes.

I don't think that's Lance.

"Time to go!" I turned and ran down the hallway, making random turns and pulling doors closed after me.

Left! Go LEFT!

I swung left and stumbled through the door into blinding sunlight.

"Sarah?"

Starlight was there, grabbing the last of the mortar sacks. I ran past her to the training ground, grabbing up the spare short sword and using it to quickly trace three circles around me.

"There is something in the castle! Maybe D! Dark, big, glowing eyes, bat wings! Get Lance! Get Steel!" I held the sword up in a defensive stance, glaring at the doorway I'd run out of.

Starlight, with mounting worry, soared off into the sky calling for the others.

It took her almost twenty minutes to rouse Steel and find Lance. I don't think I blinked once.





"We can't find anything," Steel informed me as I assaulted a manticore dummy with my short sword, "but given the size of this castle it would be easy to hide."

"Well, what do you suggest?" I asked, trying a thrust. It was hard to get enough force behind it to do damage without overbalancing me if I missed.

"One of us will be with you constantly from now on, and guard your room while you sleep."

"That doesn't seem ideal." I said.

"No, ideal would be you bunking with us," Starlight said, "but I don't think Lance would ever sleep then." She was busy using her wing blades, a pair of special swords that fitted to the front of her wings, to slash at a humanoid target.

"Never the less, until this thing is caught or we can prove it's gone, you are stuck with us."

"There goes my personal time."

I guess I'm going to have to get better with subtle, huh?
> Strange Friends and Visitors
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The days fell into a pattern for the first week.

Two in the morning: wake up either screaming or crying or just catatonic with fear from another memory or nightmare. I then would spend a little time trying to explain the dream to Nightmare and dropping in and out of a restless sleep.

Six in the morning: wake up proper, run laps with the guard, and eat breakfast. Lance has taken over breakfast since it usually involves fruit juice and cereal. Lance's first attempt at waffles and eggs ended with nothing more than smoke and cinders.

Eight to ten: move bricks, mortar, and other supplies to the kiln build site, usually while jogging or holding them above my head as "strength training"

Ten to noon: make bricks in brick molds. This had to be done very carefully as any air pockets in a brick might cause it to crack, deform or even explode while in the kiln.

noon to one: Lunch! Steel had taken lunch duties, though that usually left a very utilitarian meal. I was eating heavily from our supply of beans and soy to make up for my protein, and I really missed meat.

One to two:  sparing practice. I had gotten good with the sword and dagger in just a few days, and could beat Lance when he didn't cheat with his magic. I was still working on ways to deal with that, along with thinking of way's to stand against flying foes like Starlight. The end of practice was the same every day: Steel would challenge me and inevitably whup my butt.

Two to Five: Work indoors. After training it was too warm to work in the yard so I went around doing minor repairs and projects around the castle. Lance was supposed to stick with me during this time, but he often would leave to "go get that thing I forgot about" and be gone for hours.

Six was dinner, seven to eight was free time (usually spent inventorying supplies and cleaning up), and bedtime was at nine, though I usually crashed earlier due to my supernatural two A.M. alarm.

Today it was just after two in the afternoon and I was trying to install a secondary support on a split beam in one of the side towers. The roof as almost completely intact, save for this one beam. I had everything I needed to put the support brace in place: a tin frame for alignment, pre-cut boards, glue, bolts, etc. I just needed to nail the tin frame in place.

My resident hammer swinging unicorn had conveniently forgotten the hammer downstairs. I found said hammer under a rag a minute later, and I was damned if I was going to waste the day waiting for that slacker to come back.

Sweat dripped off my brow as I balanced precariously atop a ladder, pushing hard on a thin nail. Daily training with Steel Strike had given me more muscle and control than I had ever had on my own.

I had managed, with a lot of effort, to shore up both sides of a main beam with a massive crack through it. 	I had been smart enough to think of gluing the plates in place and lucky enough that the glue didn't set till I had the metal brackets on. Now I was leaning as hard as I could on the first nail, trying to make it stick in the wood just long enough to hammer it in. The hammer was clutched between my knees, and the next three nails were resting in my pocket.

Slowly, carefully, I let the nail go. It stayed, and I held by breath and glared at it, willing it not to fall out while I reached for the hammer. Aim very carefully ...and....

"I think she is in here!" a new voice said as the door swung open hard and smacked into my ladder.

The blow missed to the right of the nail, and the ladder kicked out from under me. I fell, landing in a mess of tarps and limbs while somepony shrieked and thwacked at me, retreating down the hallway. 

"Ooooh." I sat up slowly, checking my self for bad cuts or bruises, but only had a few scrapes luckily. As a final last joke, the damned nail came lose and plunked me on the head.

"Sorry, sorry. I was just so excited to see you."

I looked up at a mint green unicorn who was grinning at me with a look of wonder and excitement. She grabbed my hand and helped me up.

"Lyra," another voice said, "Be careful! That thing is a monster! It was banished for a reason."

I looked over to see a cream colored earth pony with pink and purple hair standing in a nearby doorway. She looked half concerned for her friend and half ready to run for the hills. I realized that, though I was now standing, the green one hadn't let go of my hand yet.

"Um, 'that thing' has a name."

The cream one's eyes widened when she realized I could understand her and took a step back. The other one, just started a little.

"Oh, um. Lyra. Nice to meet you." The green one shook my hand, but still didn't let go.

"Sarah," I responded, pulling a little. Lyra seemed interested in how the fingers and thumb worked on a mechanical level and was bending each finger down and back.

"Lyra, get away from it." 

"Aw, come on Bon Bon. She just fell off of a ladder, I don't think she's going to eat us."

"You don't know that!"

I grinned evilly at them both, but the green one still refused to let go of my hand. "So, how can I help the two of you today? You aren't here to volunteer your services are you? Good with a hammer and nails?"

"Lyra, let go! It's going to enslave us and make us work. I already have a job."

"Hang on a minute Bon Bon, I didn't come all the way through the forest to see the human for just a peak."

What is a human?

"You came all the way through Everfree just to....." My mind finally came up to speed. "Did you say human?"

Lyra smiled. "Yeah, you're a human aren't you?"

"You don't have to answer that," Bon Bon said. "She's been obsessed about this mythical species for years. Just because you happen to look a little like one doesn't mean-"

"How did you find out about humans? Where did you find out about humans?" If this pony knew about it, then maybe others did. Humans might have been some extinct species in this world, but there was also a slim chance that ARCO had visited before, and possibly left something behind I could use to find my way home.

"She made them up!" Bon Bon cried.

"I did NOT make them up." Lyra finally let go of my hand to dash back over to the corner Bon Bon was peeking around. "I have research!"

She pulled two overstuffed saddlebags full of books, sketches and scrolls from it's hiding place, lifting it in her light green telekinesis. She floated the load over to me and I, in my foolishness, attempted to catch it.

"Oooff." I fell over again, this time pinned under the weight of her research. The tarp and tools under me pressed painfully into my back. "This is all...very impressive." I strained to breathe and shift the load slightly. "Maybe we can look at it somewhere more suited to research? Like the library?"





"See, look at the way this is shaped. This too, most of these in fact." Lyra waved a hoof at what looked like an add from a hardware store. 

In fact, since there was a banner across the top that read "Tack Hammer's Hardware" I was sure of it.

"They're... doorknobs?" I asked, making sure I was following the conversation.

"Yes!" Lyra said, bouncing up and down.

I stared at the add for a little longer before turning to her. "I don't get it."

Lyra frowned. "Look at the shapes and designs. Round knobs? How are those ideal for hooves?"

"How do you grab things with your hooves anyway?"

"I'd always heard it was very short range telekinesis or something like that." Bon Bon said from where she sat three tables over. She was skimming through one of the old books in the library, keeping a wary eye on me. Lyra had taken a table and a half spreading out her research and trying to organize it into something coherent. 

"Even if that was true, there have to be better designs than a round knob." Lyra protested.

I looked over other items, seeing a pattern in the tools and items. "All of these items would be better used if you had hands, or something similar."

"Right!" Lyra was really excited now, "See? This is proof that humans existed here and had an influence on our architecture and tools!"

This was not at all what I was hoping for. If ARCO had visited this dimension before, the effects would have been recent. ARCO's footprint would have been small and circumstantial, and certainly not more than a couple decades old. What Lyra had lain out with her research pointed to a lost species, one that died out thousands of years ago.

"I'm not really sure." I told her, looking over an add for shovels, "Something about this is off, but I'm not sure if humans is the answer." Lyra deflated a little. "Maybe you could bring more research? A lot of this is current, but if you can find examples of ancient doorknobs and such..."

"Oooh! Yes, correlate the change in design away from a hand style of use so I can trace the evolution! I might even be able to find regional patterns! If all humans used round doorknobs, and round doorknobs started in one region, then I might get an idea of a homeland!"

Wow, she is really fixated on humans isn't she?

"That is an awfully big jump there Lyra," I said cautiously. "Maybe we should start small."

She nodded and began to collect her documents. "Right, and I shouldn't take up too much of your time. You should spend a little with your other visitors."

I raised an eyebrow. "Other visitors?"

"Sure," Lyra finished packing up. "We split up when we got to the castle. They went looking for you with the guards, while we went looking on our own. We just found you first."

Who else would come all the way through the forest just to see us?

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS MONSTER HUNTERS!!!"

"oh no"

And for the second time today a great weight crashed down upon me, knocking me to the floor.





"Here you are." Bon Bon said, passing an ice pack to me. I placed it down on my swollen ankle and went back to dabbing at the scrapes and scratches with rubbing alcohol. Tile floors and stone tables and benches are not made to catch you when you fall.

"So," I said, hissing from the alcohol's burn, "What brings the infamous crusaders out to this wreck of a castle?" 

The four crusaders sat in the corner, patching their own minor scrapes.

"We wanted to try catchin some monsters." Applebloom said.

"And since you were a really cool monster in the area and you seemed pretty safe, we thought we could practice on you." Scootaloo added.

"I'm just glad she didn't turn into a giant purple bull and eat us." Sweetie Bell said.

"No, the guarths said she wath attacked by a giant purple bull." Twist corrected her friends, reinforcing her glasses with tape.

I looked over at Bon Bon as she helped bandage some of my scrapes. "Aren't you still terrified I'm going to eat you?"

She snerked and reached for another bandage. "If you can be taken out by a quartet of fillies, I think I can risk it."

I let out a sigh. Well, harmless was better than humorous. Nightmare had not stopped giggling since the crusaders came crashing down on me.

I groaned and stood up, feeling the sores and scrapes. My right ankle had twisted slightly when I fell, and now I had a slight limp. "This is really going to put a damper on repairs."

The doors to the library flew open, and Lance ran in. His eyes immediately spotted the bandaged crusaders, who had half mummified each other in search of a medical cutie mark. His spear was floating at the ready as he rounded on me.

"Fiend! What have you done to these children? I should slay you now and save us all the trouble!" 

"In case you didn't notice, I'm just as scratched up as they are. They jumped me!"

"Lies will not save you monster! Die!" Lance prepared to charge, when the Crusaders jumped him.

"She was just helpin us!"

"She's telling the truth."

"Please don't hurt her misther!"

"Sarah?" Starlight came flying in from the broken windows. "I finished the patrol and went to help you in the tower but you weren't there. I thought you might be-" She spotted the visitors and her eyes went wide. "Heroes!" she cried, "You've come to rescue poor me from this wicked creatures clutches! You, um.. you.." She glanced around and lowered her head. "Aww, not a stallion in the lot."

"Hey!" Bon Bon countered, "What's wrong with mares?"

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?!"

Everyone froze and turned to see Steel Strike standing in the doorway.

"Have I walked in on a coup or an insane asylum? Star, what are you doing being melodramatic when the very creature we are charged with guarding has been injured. Lance, what are you doing fighting children?" Steel stalked forward, yelling everyone down. "And you four, when an adult tells you not to run off on your own then you will listen to them. I have a sudden urge to march you back through the Everfree and tell each of your parents exactly where you were and what you were doing."

I had to grin. It seemed that threat worked on a child in almost every dimension as the crusaders were now cowering in fear of parental reprisal. Sadly, grinning in front of someone on a drill sargent style rampage was never a good idea.

"And YOU!" Steel rounded on me. "Was all that training for nothing? Jumped by four children, for Celestia's sake. I ought to just wrap you up in a bow and toss you into the woods. Not that you can leave the castle because you are dilly-dallying down here when you need to be working on repairs!"

"Well, I'm sure she would get the repairs done sooner if one of you would help her!"

I turned around, mouth agape to find Bon Bon defending me.

"Yeah," Lyra chimed in, "When we found her, she was trying to hammer a nail into a board above her head. She's only got one hand."

"I'm a trained guard, not a work bench" Lance countered, finally getting up from where the crusaders had knocked him over. "I don't have time to go swing a hammer every time she needs a nail or screw put in place."

"So just go power her circles." Sweetie Bell said.

Circles?

"Circles?" Lance asked.

"Yeah, mah sister said she had made this huge circle in the Day Court ta send her home." Apple Bloom had managed to get her bandages tangled and was working her way out of or into a hog tie. "If she can make sumthin like that, then she can make one to drive nails and stuff."

"Hey, that's a pretty good idea." Lyra said.

Now why didn't I think of that?

No.

Just no.

They were underage, impulsive, and nearly crazy. They had traveled through a monster infested forest to an abandoned castle to jump an inter-dimensional traveler as training for hunting manticores and hydras.

They were absolutely NOT allowed to be smarter than me.

> Repairs and Research
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Lyra, Bon Bon, and the crusaders were all sent home long before the sun set, with Starlight escorting them for protection. The remaining hours between the crusaders wonderful discovery and their departure had been spent compiling all I knew about the magical circles.

It wasn't very much. Even after they left I sat looking over about two dozen pages of notes that summarized what I knew about spell forms. There was three or four times as many papers stacked to the side that could be generously called theories. Truth was, they were mostly just guessing.

Did you really have to use Machina for everything? Unless she comes back, the most powerful circle you have can barely heat soup.

"You're one to talk. You can rearrange the stars to escape your lunar prison, but you can't provide a simple spell for cutting wood?"

I can provide a spell that can slice through nearly anything, but most of what I know or Princess Luna used was destructive or restrictive. You want constructive magic. Besides, you were supposed to e the great dimension jumper, able to decipher new languages, conquer kingdoms, leap tall buildings.

"All with the aid of my companions. This was so much easier when I had Machina to memorize everything and project what I needed to draw."

It may not be a total loss then. 

I leaped back from the table as an arcane circle of dark blue fire burst into existence.

"Put it out! PUT IT OUT!" I hissed, beating at the ethereal flames with my jacket. Nightmare sighed and the circle vanished.

I was only trying to help. There was a pouty tone to her voice.

"Well do that when we are certain Lance isn't going to come bursting in here. He's already wearing tin foil under his helm AND he won't take those cold iron boots off. Next thing I know he'll be looking for garlic."

"Why would I need garlic?"

I spun round to find Lance standing apprehensively in the doorway.

"Are you talking to yourself again Sarah?"

"No, I'm talking to Nightmare. She's telling me that her bond is manifesting as some 'blessing of the moon' and I'll need to avoid garlic." I grinned at him. "The good news is I'm getting a lot stronger. Now if you could just give me a pint or two of your blood-"

Lance disappeared so fast it would have made Rainbow Dash jealous.

When are you going to learn that sarcasm is worthless against him.

"He's always good for a laugh."





"Sarah," Lance called, "your visitors are back!" 

I looked up from where I was scrubbing the massive magic circle off the tile in the Day Court with a bit of worry. "The crusaders or the other two?" I reached for my practice sword, trying to remember the defensive training Steel had pounded into me in the two days since their first visit. I didn't want to hurt them, but I had no intention of getting caught off guard again.

Bon Bon poked her head around. "Good afternoon Sarah."

I had to smile, and moved my hand away from the sword. "Hello Bon Bon. Did you and Lyra come back to discuss humans again?"

"Lyra did, but I've got something a little different for you." The mare walked in and sat down, pulling books out of her saddlebags. I walked over and picked up the first one.

"'Thaumaturgic Theories in Ley Lines and Nexus Construction'?" I looked down to see the rest of the books had a similar theme.

"I spoke to the local librarian and she suggested these books to aid you in your construction based circles. She's even willing to lend them to you-"

"Wait! The local librarian is Twilight Sparkle!" I dropped the book on the pile and backed up a few steps. "No, nuh uh, no way. The last time I legally, reasonably borrowed books from her she hunted me down with a determination bordering on psychopathic. You can take those back right bucking now!"

Bon Bon was stunned by my outburst and waved a hoof to calm me down. "No, listen. I told her about you and the castle and she is willing to let you borrow these books long term in exchange for copies of the books in your library."

"Sure," I said, waving at Lyra as she staggered in, her saddlebags overstuffed. "I'll just add 'copy all of the books accurately with my off hand' to my to do list. I can schedule it along with carry bricks, research magic, research humans in Equestria, aid crusaders, rebuild castle and find way home."

"It won't be that hard." Lyra said, "Twilight gave Bon Bon some copy books."

Bon Bon lifted a thick leather book with a brilliant diamond in it's center. "You place a book on top of it and it makes a copy."

"How much of Lyra's power are you going to need for that? I was hoping to experiment with the magic circles today."

"None, that's what the gem is for."

"Really? Show me."

"Hang on a second." Lyra said, dumping out one of the overstuffed saddlebags. "We have RESEARCH to do first!"





"OK, I'm looking at this, but I'm still not sure what I'm seeing." I said, looking at a large map. Several large arrows were drawn on it, flowing from from small regions and branching out. At each branch were small drawings or taped on pictures of tools, door knobs, or other odds and ends.

"It's a trade map, showing the spread of doorknobs, shovels, and a few other things." Lyra said, "Twilight helped me put it together."

"So this is where these items are coming from?" I asked. "But what is with the splits?"

"That's where variations are made, usually using the original item as materials." Lyra explained.

"So you think the lands these items originated in are where humans used to live?"

"That's the idea." Lyra said, grinning.

I looked over the map, following the arrows and reading some of the country names. All the paths passed into or through Equestria, but none originated in it. I traced one of the arrows back to an imposing range of mountains. "What land is this?"

"Those are the gryphon lands." Lyra said, "I bet they found the ancient artifacts from humans!"

"I'm not sure they needed ancient designs to come up with a pickaxe." I said. "If the gryphons mine the mountains at all, that tool would be a pretty basic item." I looked over my notes. "Don't gryphons have claws that are kind of like hands?"

"Um, kind of." Lyra said, unconvinced. "There was an obnoxious one in town a couple of years ago, but I never got a good look at it."

"Bon Bon, can you hand me that book of foreign creatures?" I asked, pointing at a textbook on Xeneology. I flipped through it, looking at the lands and kingdoms each creature called home. "Look at this Lyra, every item comes from someplace with creatures with either claws or hands. Dragons, Gryphons, Minotaurs, each item originates somewhere like this." I stared at an odd creature in the book. "What are Canids?"

"Oh, I know those." Bon Bon said. "We have a pack living near Ponyville called Diamond Dogs. They can dig really fast and prize gems over everything else. They used to kidnap ponies as slaves."

"So all my research was for nothing?" Lyra asked, looking tearfully at the map.

"Not necessarily." I told her, "You know that some of the items were created by creatures with claws and hands. Just remove those items and anything left might still have human influence."

The chance that anything was made by humans is slim to none. I've been around for centuries and never encountered anything like a human before you.

Lyra picked up a book of xenology and began reading through the entries, looking for creatures with claws and folding the corners down. I turned to Bon Bon.

"So, you were going to show me the gem powered copy book?"

She looked up from where she was sitting and grinned. "Sure, check this out!" She picked up a tome from the library shelf and put it on the stone table. Next she laid the copy book on top and tapped on the gem. There was a soft glow from the gem, and as the glow faded, the pages of the copy book seemed to glow. It lasted a few minutes before the glow of both page and gem faded out.

Bon Bon, with a flourish, opened the copy book to show me the first page of the original tome, copied perfectly.

"That is amazing!" I said, pulling the books over and flipping through them for comparison. "Any limitations?"

"Oh tons," Bon Bon said. "It can't copy books with magical seals and circles because of interference, it can't copy a book bigger than the copy book itself, and they are expensive to make."

I flipped the book over, seeing that the gem inset could be removed with a bit of work. "How much charge does a gem have? How much can it hold? How do you charge them? Is charge dependent upon size, type, clarity, cut-"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Bon Bon waved her hooves in the air trying to stop the barrage of questions. "Geeze you sound like Twilight. I don't know the answer to most of that, other than most gems just kind of absorb ambient magic. That's why there are things like rock farms."

"You....are going to have to explain that one."

"OK, so there is power, magical power, all around us." Bon Bon said. "And anypony, or creature I think, can use it. Most of it manifests as just little things. Earth ponies can grow food faster and better than it might naturally grow, and pegasi can fly and walk on clouds. Gems sort of collect that power so it can be used."

"So in rock farms earth ponies move rocks that have the seeds of gems, like little shards, around so they can absorb the magic in the area. It's a slow process, and there are few who are good at it."

"Can't you just get a unicorn to charge a gem for you?"

Lyra looked up from her notes. "I've tried it before, and it's really tough. If you use too much power, or go too fast, then the gem just goes flying or can explode. I even heard of one pony who tried to recharge her gems, and ended up melting them."

I didn't even want to know how they did that. Still, if there was a way to use gems in my circles, then it would cut down on needing Lance to power everything I did.

And if a unicorn could charge a gem, there was a slim chance Nightmare and I could work out a circle to do the same.

"OK, enough human talk for a bit, it's time to make some circles. Now," I propped open one of the books and picked up a piece of paper and a pen. "How do I drive a nail?"





Two hours later and I was pulling nails out of wooden blocks, stone benches and brick walls. 

"Well," Bon Bon said from where she was crouching under a distant table. "I'd say that last one was a big success."

"Look, with every new circle we learn something." I said. "The first one showed us which direction was which."

Lyra stared up at the ceiling, her horn glowing and her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth in concentration. "I'm not sure I can get this one out of the rafters."

"The second circle showed us that we needed to dial back the power. The third showed that we needed some sort of 'stop' trigger."

"Well, at the rate you're learning, we will all be pincushions by the time you're ready to do anything. What marvelous lesson did you learn from this particular disaster?"

"My circles are very power hungry. Also, don't leave drawings of circles and loose nails near gems. I think I owe you one of those copy books."

"Aww." Bon Bon said, "Those are expensive."

"But this is great!" Lyra said, bouncing up and down. "You've basically mastered nails in the first day. We should try learning how to spin things so you can make screws next, or maybe even how to cut stuff!"

The library door banged shut.

"..... Bon Bon?"
> Stupid Bets and Royal Pains
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	We had been here for a full month, and already things were looking brighter. Lyra came by almost every other day with research notes and a few books on circles and spell forms. I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten any work done if I hadn't put my foot down and limited our research time.

Bon Bon often came with her, usually with packed lunches for the guards and other ponies. I just could not convince them that daisy and daffodil sandwiches were not appetizing to humans. I'd had her bring fresh trout once, but after how nauseous all the ponies were when I cooked and ate it, I stayed vegetarian around them.

The crusaders came about twice a week, usually to try some new trick for a cutie mark, and usually to end up covered in tree sap.

I had honestly lost count of the days until the pegasus delivery ponies showed up with three wagons full of lumber, paint, nails, screws, tools and other supplies.

"Sign on the bottom line please." The the lead courier requested, pointing at the clipboard he had kicked my way. Despite me sitting pleasantly next to two civilians and the assurances from Steel Strike and Starlight the three couriers were wary to come within spitting distance of me.

I sighed and signed, flinging it back at him before turning to Lyra. "Ok, so this symbol designates a cut, and this one designates wood. That means we don't need a different limiter because the cut will only go through wood." 

She nodded, looking at the half finished circle I had traced out on the page. "Right, but if you need to cut through the tile to reshape it, how are you going to do that?"

I stopped tracing the circle and scratched my head. "I could.... set the limit to stone. But then I'll need a wooden table to 'cut' the tile on. Maybe I should ask for a sheet or use a tarp. What are tarps made of?"

"Rubberized cloth I think," Bon Bon said, munching on a sandwich.

"Are you happy with the nail and screw circles?" Lyra asked.

"I've got them down well enough. I even made a stamp that puts the basic circle down," I pulled it out and showed it to her, flipping and catching it with a flourish. "Though I have to go over it with a marker afterwards to make sure all the symbols are right. " I smiled. "I even made the circles small enough so the screw head will break the circle, so I don't have to modify for screws of a different length."

Snap.

"AAARGH!"

"Lance however..." I looked over at where he was glaring at another screw he had snapped off. 

Put a nail on a screw circle, and the thing just spins until you take it away. Put a screw on a nail circle, and the sudden force would bend or break them. For some reason Lance just couldn't tell the difference between the two.

That's the seventeenth screw this morning, and at least the fiftieth this week. I sure hope you have a lot more screws in that shipment.

I grinned. Lance was not my favorite guard, and had more than once sabotaged me. Last week he left me holding a beam in place for an hour, waiting for him to drive a nail in. The week before he "accidentally" used some of my notes as kindling.

"I can't help but think there has to be another way to do this." I said, looking over my notes.

"If there is, I don't know it." Lyra said, "No one has seriously used spell forms for more than teaching in centuries."

"Was there anything special to request for the next shipment?" the lead courier asked, still putting my trio of guards between myself and him. His two comrades were pulling the last items off the carts and checking against the shipping list.

"Romance and adventure novels," Starlight said, "I hear the new Daring Do is out."

"More screws," Lance said, glaring at the small pile of busted ones next to him. "And I would really like some iron plates to reenforce the doors with."

"Food, firewood, paper, pens and ink." Steel added as the pegasus wrote furiously. "Sarah's started a little research project, and she's written through everything but personal journals and reports."

"I'd also like some gems for experimentation, and any texts you can get me on spell forms and magical energy storage." I added. The courier looked up at me worriedly. "What? I'm not allowed to make requests too?"

"I'll have to run items like that past our finance and regulations department." the said.

"You could just take it up with Celestia and Luna."

"PRINCESS Celestia and PRINCESS Luna are very busy," another courier snapped, "And I don't think they have the time to listen to the demands of some banished freak of nature."

"Hey!" Lyra called out, "She's in charge of the castle renovations."

"Really? I heard she was the one responsible for all the contractors getting fired on the first day." The last courier looked around pointedly. "I see you have made REAL progress since then."

"When I'm done marking these," I waved my hand at the lumber she had offloaded "We will be able to repair most of the roof over the main hall in a day."





"How the hell did this get turned into a bet?"

It took less than an hour with everyone helping to drag all the wood into the right place. I was busy doing the circles, using faint outlines from Nightmare to get all the symbols right, while Bon Bon and Lyra were tracing out cut lines. I was tempted to really show off and use gemstones for every circle, but I just didn't have enough.

"If I recall," Starlight said, flipping a board over to mark nails and screws, "The courier over there said it was impossible to do in a day and I vouched for you and then he told me to put my bits where my mouth was and I thought 'hey, twenty bits for a show isn't a bad idea'."

"Why is he trembling like that?"

"Oh!" Bon Bon chimed in with a grin. "The bet got up to a hundred bits and he made a remark about Star paying with her body and you countered that if you won, he could pay with his."

"I meant that as a joke. I'm not going to sleep with him. Besides, why would that make him so scared? It's like he thinks I'm going to eat-"

Lyra coughed.

"Lyyyyyyraaaaaa?"

"I, um, may have mentioned the trout."

I sighed and squinted, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I need them to add alcohol to next months order."  The gathered ponies laughed, and I used the marker to finish the last circle. "Ooooh kayy." I said, standing up. "That's the last circle. Lyra, if you and Lance would be so kind?"

The unicorns lit their horns and moved fields of energy over the boards, careful to only power the cutting lines. The power sizzled in the air, then faded as the boards shifted along their new breaks.

I smiled at the speed and efficiency of it. "Alright, now if I can get Bon Bon and Steel Strike to lend me a hoof with the long boards-" I began directing motion, and in short order the main beams were up. The pegasus couriers were watching with a mix of amazement and concern as I demonstrated how the circles could be activated with charged gemstones, and how they could work on screws and nails.

"Why not just have your unicorns lift it into place?" The courier asked.

"I don't want to tire them out," I said, "And if their levitation accidentally touches one of the circles it might activate prematurely."

Three hours later as the sun was setting, we had the main beam in place and most of the side beams installed.

"I- I just don't believe it." a courier said. "You really got it up in one day."

"Yup. Don't worry about the bet though, I don't eat ponies." I grinned at him. "Though if you could find me some smoked fish-"

"Hey!" One of the couriers said, flitting around the new rafters. "You're missing a piece."

I walked around to the side to see that there was indeed a piece missing, a board about two foot long that sat between the side rafters and the roof supports.

"Huh, I could have sworn we got everything."

"Here it is!" The other courier cried out, pointing with a wing. One of the tie ins to the main beam was about two feet too long, and a cut line could be seen around the edges of the board.

"Damn." I said, huffing. "Must have flipped the board over to make the screw and nail circles. Lance, run downstairs and grab a saw please?"

"Oh, don't worry." The betting courier said, taking flight. "I've been wanting to try that gem trick for a while!"

"Wait!" I called up, watching in horror as he picked a gem up in his teeth and touched it to the line. There was a faint flash, and a clatter as a single piece of wood fell to the ground.

"What?" The pegasus asked, dropping the gem. "Nothing to worry about. I-"

The entire central beam groaned, and half of it shifted downward two inches. The cut had gone through not only the tie in, but both supports and the original beam.

"OUT! EVERYPONY OUT! RIGHT NOW!" I was yelling, shoving Bon Bon down the stairs so fast she was almost tripping. A courier ran past me and I shoved him towards the opening, looking around to see if anyone else needed to get out.

Lyra stood frozen, staring at the mass of timber hanging precariously above her head.

"God damn it Lyra, MOVE!" I shouted, pulling on her. It was no use, she was frozen in fear.

Shield circle?.

"Do it." I said, pulling a dozen gems from my pocket and dropping them on the ground. Nightmare's circle bloomed into existence, purple flames tracing intricate patters across the floor. Lyra snapped out of the fear of being crushed to death only to look down in wide eyed terror at the thought of being burned alive.

The gems flared and dulled as the circle finished, and an inky purple darkness wrapped itself over us as the roof finally gave out and caved in.

The dust settled, and slowly, exhausted, Lyra and I crawled out from under the rubble and down the ruined stairs to our friends. The couriers were stammering apologies to Steel Strike and Starlight was looking on in horror. Lance and Bon Bon rushed forward and helped support Lyra while I sat down and leaned against the cool stone wall.

"Well" I said, breathing hard. "Roof's done."





Three days later we were still pulling debris out of the room. Lumber was salvaged and a shallower roof was being designed but it was all just guess work. I needed a real contractor to come and at least give me designs, but I doubted I could request one from the princesses.

I was getting used to having my few rare visitors, Lyra, Bon-bon and the quartet of danger. I was not prepared for the visitor that arrived mid morning.

He had a white coat, short red mane, and a bit more weight than I had seen on a unicorn before. I’m not saying he was fat, but there was definitely a bit of strain on the buttons of his overcoat.

I was making bricks in the yard and saw him come in, though he didn’t seem to notice me at all. Just trotted right up to Lance and began making demands.

“I want to know who is in charge of these renovations. There are changes I wish to make to my castle and they had better be carried out to the letter.”

“What?” Lance replied with his usual amount of wit.

“I asked you who was in charge guard. Where are your workers? Are they all on break? Those lazy ponies had best get to work if they know what’s good for them.”

“There aren’t any worker ponies here, just three guards.”

The noble scoffed. “Three guards? It will take far more than three guards to fix things. Where are they then?”

“They are coming to see what all the racket is about.” Steel Strike said as he trotted up. Starlight trailed after, and I could see there was going to be trouble by the look in her eyes. Here was a noble, a duke or lord, who would wisk her away from all this petty work and love her like they did in her romance novels.

He worked pretty hard to dissuade her right off the bat.

“These are your underlings?” the noble asked in a disdainful voice. “A dirt pony and a feather duster?”

“Hey!” Starlight said.

“I’m the commanding officer here.” Steel Strike said with a tone of authority. I could tell he’d had experienced with ponies like this before: arrogant bigots with power. He kept his tone even, but I could see his muscles in his legs tense and release.

“A ground pounder in is charge? What has the world come to? Very well, what are you doing to my castle?”

“Your castle?” Steel asked

“Yes. I am Bright Harold of the Regal Harolds, and it is our duty to preserve and tend to the grounds of the Castle of The Pony Sisters.” He sneered at the three guards. “I own this castle and anything that you have done to it since it’s last inspection will come out of your paychecks.”

“When was the last inspection?” Lance asked.

“Oh, about eleven hundred years ago.” The noble said with a wicked grin.

“Do you really think something like that is gonna fly around here?” I asked, standing up from where I was partially hidden by supplies and walking over.

“Watch your tone peasant! I won’t take any lip from a common MONSTER!” Harold had finally turned enough to see who he was talking to and began to instantly panic. “Guards, the castle is infested with monsters! Evict it, quickly!”

“We can’t throw Sarah out!” Starlight said.

“I don’t care what you’ve named it, you can’t keep something like that as a pet.”

I don’t remember the nobles being this retarded when I was in court

He was pissing off my guards. He was pissing off Nightmare. I decided it was time to wind him up a bit.

“Sir, I’ll have you treat me with some respect in my castle.”

“YOUR CASTLE?!”

“Yes, my castle.” I grinned at him and waived a hand. “I was staying here for a few weeks now have ownership.”

“Oh, a squatter. Is that all? I’ll just appeal to the courts and you’ll be out on your rear in a heartbeat.”

“Wow, I didn’t realize you had so much authority and political pull.” I said. I let the apparent compliment hang for a moment, enjoying the smug smile that spread across his face. “That you could overturn a ruling from the Princesses so quickly is quite a feat.”

“From… from the Princesses?”

“Yeah, they banished me out here.” I raised my arm to show off the white band around my arm where D used to be. “Even placed a royal geas on me.”

He huffed. “Well, that complicates matters, but not beyond my ability to rectify. I should be able to remove a magical restriction, even a royal one, with a bit of work. After that, out you go.” His horn lit up as he prepared a spell.

“You can undo a royal seal?” Lance asked, somewhat suspiciously.

“I can break it at least. You might feel a slight pinch followed by your arm being ripped off.”

“I didn’t think anyone was willing to try and break Princess Celestia’s royal seal with a seal breaking spell.” I said “Especially not with the secondary seal on my back.”

“This will take care of that mark too! Anything to get you out of MY castle!”

“Great! I was getting really tired of having The Nightmare locked into my skin.”

The light on his horn dimmed a bit. “Th- The Nightmare? THE Nightmare?”

“Yeah,” Starlight chimed in, “It got sealed into her with the Elements of Harmony.”

Harrold growled and drew his sword.  “There is always transferece by conquest! I challenge you to a dual!”

“I decline.” I said, turning away from the brute. “You don’t have anything I could want, such a dual would be very one sided.”

“Don’t you dare ignore me! I am Bright Harold of-“

“That’s great but I have a castle to repair. Being such a powerful noble I’m sure you have other duties you need to attend to, so I won’t waste your time. I’m certain that somepony as intelligent as you can find your own way out too.” I walked back towards the kiln. “But just in case, Steel Strike, be a dear and show the Lord out.”

"RAAA!" Lord Harrold charged, bowling over Lance and coming straight for me. I drew my sword as I turned to face him and deflected the first blow. I lifted the sword high for a downward swing and felt the tale tell pull as the unicorn grabbed at it with his magic.

"HA! Pathetic cur! You are no match for-" Harold stopped when he realized that he was holding a sword in the air, but something sharp was poking him in the neck. Without moving his head, he lowered his eyes to see the dagger pressed firmly against his throat.

"Drop it." I said, listening for the memorable thunk of my sword landing on the ground. "I think I shall be a most generous host Lord Harold, and allow you to leave with your person intact save for your pride. If you try a stunt like that again, I will feed you to a manticore. Feet first. Slowly. Understand? I would recommend against nodding."

"Yes." He hissed. I let him go, watching as he retreated out of the castle and back to a waiting sky wagon. I could see the venom in his eyes. I had taken something from him, defied him and now embarrassed him. He was silently vowing to make me pay for the slight, the way bastards like him always seemed to.

"He's going to be a problem." Steel Strike said.

"Yes, and I think I'm going to need to learn a new trick." I turned to Lance as he rose. "So you and I are going to go ten rounds, right now, as punishment for letting that happen."

Lance groaned and raised his spear.
> Bad Dreams and Zebras
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I lay naked on a hard metal table, my limbs bound tight to its cold surface, bright lights shining in my eyes and throwing the rest of the room into impenetrable shadows. I heard hoofsteps to my right, and struggled to shift my head enough to see what was happening.

Twilight walked up, a stained lab coat draped over her. The pockets were stuffed with scalpels, needles and pens. Her hair was disheveled and her eyes had a wild and crazed look in them.

"You're awake! Good, we couldn't begin while you were sleeping. I need to know everything I can about your physiology." Her horn glowed, and a black marker floated up and began to trace dotted lines over my bare skin. "I hate to do such destructive examinations, but it's the best way to learn EVERYTHING I can about you."

'Twilight, please. You don't have to do this. I'm sure there are other ways. We can-"

"Ah ah ah, none of that now." Her horn lit up again and a sharp scalpel cut into my chest just above the breast bone and traced an agonizing line almost to my groin. There was an awful smell like cooked meat, and when Twilight lifted the scalpel up again I saw it was glowing red hot. "There," she said with a satisfied grin, "I've cut you all the way open with only minimal blood loss. Did the cauterization spell hurt really badly?"

I sobbed in pain, my vision clouding slightly.

"Good, nice to see the nerves are all still intact. Hmm." She tapped on my ribcage. "We will have to do something about that." A glow appeared behind the ceiling lights, and a strange device floated down. My eyes widened to see a pneumatic saw with a three inch circular blade. It whirred quietly to life. "Now, I know you can't move very much but try to hold still.

I threw my head back and screamed as the saw tore into my ribs one by one, my vision threatening to black out but never quite getting there. Suddenly I felt a strong tug and realized the saw had been turned off. Looking back down, I saw Twilight had pulled the center of my ribcage off and tossed it aside. 

"Stop trying to black out on me, my spell won't let you till I say you can die. Now," she tore my heart roughly from it's place and held it up, still beating and connected before my eyes, "tell me what this does." Her glowing red scalpel appeared before my eyes next to my heart, "And try and describe where the pain is when I start cutting...."





I groaned and lifted my head slightly, squinting at the clock on the far wall. This night I had managed to sleep all the way to three-twenty in the morning.

You have the most interesting dreams. I'm beginning to think you are going to corrupt me.

I groaned and shut my eyes, scrunching my face up and wondering if I could just get back to sleep. My tossing and turning at night had tangled my arm and a leg in the sheets, and I pulled at them gently trying to untie them.

"You are a specter of darkness and fear who nearly plunged the world into an eternal night and I'm corrupting you?" I kept pulling but I had obviously really gotten the sheets stuck.

I can't help it if your nightmares are so terrifying. The worst I had before was a headless horse.

Becoming flustered I used my free leg to kick all the blankets and sheets off of me and rolled over to see what the problem was. 

I stared down at my wrist and ankle, each bound in thick medical grade restraints that seemed welded to the bed frame.

"LLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"





"Your dreams are manifesting?" Steel asked me as Lance worked at the buckles, trying to free my arm.

"I didn't think anything of it at first," I said, trying very hard not to freak out, "I had a dream a while back about someplace very cold, and when Lance came to check on me the room was so cold his breath fogged on the air."

"Has anything like this happened before?" Starlight asked.

I shook my head. "No, never before with my other companions. It must be something to do with Nightmare."

"The only one who has a lot of experience with the Nightmare is Princess Luna," Lance said, managing to at least loosen the strap. "I don't think she is going to be willing to come chat with you over it."

"OK, so Sarah tied herself to the bed. That's not that bad right. I'm sure more than a couple of creatures might think of that as the start of a good dream."

"Trust me, it was NOT a good dream. It also wasn't my most dangerous. The straps have lasted quite a while now, something else might come out of my head and be dangerous to you. What if I dream of poisonous spiders next? Or a giant forest fire? "

"Looks like we need an expert on spirits," Steel said, tapping his hoof to his chin. "Trouble is, the most mystical thing ponies usually get up to are unicorn spells, and those they treat more like a science."

"I don't know if I want to wait another three weeks for the next shipment in the hopes they will send a shrink, a mystic, and a witch doctor," I said, finally pulling my arm free. I went to work on the strap on my leg, managing better than Lance had.

"Oooh, we might not have to wait," Starlight said. "I was talking to Bon Bon earlier, and she said there was a witch doctor in the Everfree Forest. A zebra named Zecora."

"And you have an address?" I asked, good feelings fading as I saw Star's ears droop.

"No, but I know how to find her from Ponyville."

"So you have to leave the castle, go to Ponyville, go back into the Everfree, find Zecora, and then retrace your steps to get back here? How long will that take?"

"A couple of hours at best," Steel said. "Do you think we can leave you alone for that time? The circles around the castle are intact so whatever is out there can't get to you."

They are all looking for a way to run away. They don't want to be near me if I have a total breakdown and become a full monster. "S-sure," I said with a slight waiver. "The sun is almost up, so you'd better get going."

I watched them all leave and huddled under the blankets on my bed. I was tired, but sleep now was too dangerous to indulge in.

They will be back in just a few hours, then I'm sure we can sort this out. I'm not sure why my power is running rampant within you like this. Maybe it has to do with the way the Elements sealed me up?

"Maybe they won't come back. Maybe they will go talk to Twilight or get a letter to the Princesses and everyone will realize that I'm too dangerous."

Isn't that a little bit much?

"What if I actually manifest that icy bitch? What if I call up cannibals or zombie-ponies. Even my memories are dangerous. A forest fire is tame, I was almost at ground zero for a nuclear war."

A what war?

I thought for a moment, "Ever seen a meteorite fall out of the sky and hit something?"

Oh, yes. One of my earliest hosts had one that burned down a barn, I think the thing was about the size of a baseball.

"This world made artificial ones the size of houses, and used them to threaten and fight each other. They threw hundreds, maybe even thousands of them at different nations. I was almost there when one hit. I saw.... I..." I started to sob. "I'm a monster. A ticking time bomb waiting to wipe out anyone too foolish to get away."

I felt a dark depression start to overtake me, saw the lights and candles dim as that horrible power fed on my fear. I shut my eyes and began to beg silently. 

Please. 

Please let Lance and Steel and Star find the zebra. 

Please let her be able to help. 

Please let them get here in time. 

Please....  


please... I don't want to be a monster.





Anderson crouched in the woods just beyond the three tiny moats that had been carved around the ancient castle. He watched and waited patiently as three guards departed. The minotaur had to admit, this was all a stroke of luck, he had been worried he would have to wait weeks for a chance to get into the castle instead of just a few days. 

Lord Bright Herold was a bastard, but he was a bastard who paid up front. Of course, for such forthright payment he expected, nay demanded the best. So when he had approached Anderson of Anderson and Folly's Beast Busters, Anderson decided to take it as a compliment, and as a minotaur he appreciated a good challenge. After all, he was the one responsible for most of the company's big successes. The wall of his office had the heads of two manticores, a serpent, a dozen changelings, and three hydra heads, all personal victories.

Anderson slipped into the castle through one of the holes that littered the outer wall, carefully and quietly threading his way through the servants passages and back hallways. He paused as he neared the ancient private royal chambers, listening quietly.

Soft sounds, like a child weeping, drifted through the partially open doors to the Moon Princesses ancient quarters. Anderson quietly checked over his arsenal. On his belt hung three short swords, each edged with a different metal that creatures were weak to. He had a small pouch filled with vials of herbs and poisons that worked against everything from parasprites to hydras. Finally he pulled and readied his favorite weapon, a heavy crossbow.

Slowly he crept in and peered into the room. Heavy curtains covered most of the windows in the room, and it took a few long seconds for his eyes to adjust to the gloom. The splendor of the room was not lost on him, and he marveled how the ancient mural of stars painted on the ceiling still glowed softly. Most of the room was clear, save for a nest of pillows against in a distant corner and a bit of wood next to an empty fireplace. He listened for the soft sobbing sound, and found his target huddled against the far wall.

It looked like a small deformed minotaur, its arm wrapped around its knees, head down and crying softly. Its face was hidden in long black hair that flowed over its shoulders and pooled in the shadows near its waist.

This? He thought, This is the threat that bastard of a Lord needed me for? He crept forward till he stood in the middle of the room. It felt more like murder than hunting. It just didn't seem fair. He lifted his crossbow with a soft click.

It shifted, hearing the noise and raised it's head. Two glowing blue-green eyes stared up at him through the hair.

"Sorry dearie, it's just business." He steadied the bow and aimed between it's eyes.

A third eye opened, above and between the first two. Then another above that one, and another. Anderson looked up and realized that the eyes were not within the creature but instead in the shadows on the wall. His eyes traced upwards into the darkness and he felt a shock of fear fill him as he looked upon the ceiling mural.

What he had taken for stars and constellations were eyes. Dozens of eyes, surrounded by something between living shadow and moving hair. The ceiling bulged downward towards him, like a tarp filled with water. A long seam formed on the underside of the bulge, and the shadows split to reveal a massive maw filled with row after row of sharp teeth.

Anderson raised his crossbow and fired as the massive jaws came crashing down.





"Sarah? Sarah, we are back!" Starlight called as she ran up the steps and into the bedroom. "Sarah?" She looked around the darkened room and found her target asleep on the pillows. "There you are!" she went over and shook the one armed creature awake.

"Wha?"

"Come on Sarah. We found the zebra witchdoctor and she needs to look you over before- Wah!" Star slipped slightly and looked down at a thick puddle on the floor. Carefully she bent down a sniffed at it for a moment. "Ugh, blood. You must have had another nightmare. Come on, we need to get you some help before someone gets hurt."





I struggled to sit still, an anxious tingle shivering through my skin as the zebra walked around me. She poked and prodded, inspected the tattoo on my back and looked in my ears and mouth.

"It is no wonder you look so beat. It's clear to me that you need meat." Zecora said.

Starlight looked a little green at the thought. Steel stepped forward. "We aren't interested in her diet, we are more concerned about the Nightmare's power bound in her."

"The answer may cause you to shout. To restrain the power, she must let it out."

"Let it out?!" Lance cried.

"The power is a river, and she's dammed it up at first. But no dam can last forever, and it's about to burst. Skillful and controlled release would be ideal. The best creature to do that resides within that seal." Zecora pointed at the tattoo on my back with the last rhyme.

"We can't break a seal set by the Elements of Harmony," Starlight said in a worried tone. "Not before this whole castle is a giant fright fest."

"The seal that was put in place is already part undone. Though I cannot say if it was magic, time, or the actions of this one."

"That doesn't matter right now. We know a way to keep me from unleashing horror on the castle and surrounding countryside. Starlight, Steel Strike. I need you to gather my research notes on circles, along with paper, pens, ink, and some books from the library, any will do. Bring them to the Night Court. Lance, I want you to work on sealing the Night Court. We can lock me in at sundown and let me out at sunrise." I turned to Zecora. "How can I repay you for your kindness in coming to see me for this unusual need?"

"A tale of your journeys without any censure will repay me for this venture."

I smiled. "We have a little time while the guards prepare. Let me tell you about this one world where the masters ate their servants..."





Are you sure about this?

I looked around the room at the various things I had stacked to pass the time, nodding. "D and I did something like this once. He needed control of my body to barter for my freedom from a daemon. The principle is sound."

What will you do, while I am in your body? What will I do?

"You just have to expend your power. Read, draw, dance. Just don't hurt me." I wrapped my arm around myself, sitting down on the throne. I was shaking.

You are scared.

"I don't really know what will happen. It's a risk, but it's a risk that only threatens you and me."

I sat back in the chair and closed my eyes.

"By my will and mine alone, I lend myself to thee. Till the time the sun does rise, in it you are free."





Lance peaked in through the main door. It had been an hour since Sarah had been locked in and he hadn't heard anything since. That could have been good or bad, but his nerves wouldn't let him rest till he cracked the door and checked.

Sarah appeared to be just sitting on the throne, slumped to one side and resting. He watched her chest rise and fall softly for a moment before closing the door and reassembling the barricade.

He never saw Sarah's head raise and open her eyes. Her eyes that belonged more in a serpent than a woman, and that glowed with starlight and magic.
> Things Fall Apart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Another month passed, and I was already dashing down the stairs toward the courtyard when Starlight spotted the delivery wagon. I ran outside and watched the single wagon land next to Steel and Lance.

"Just one?" I asked, "I thought we had ordered more."

"Most of what we need are little things." Steel assured me. "Nails, bolts, gems. Maybe it's a lighter load?"

The courier eyed me warily. "I have messages. Is there a Sarah Jordan?"

I stepped forward, and the pegasus handed me a thick letter with a flowing silver seals. I pulled it open and began shuffling through the legal length documents with tiny font and large words.

"Steel Strike, Lance, Starlight?" The courier called out, lifting an official looking scroll. The guards looked up, Star landing just behind Lance. Convinced that the guards had assembled, he unrolled the scroll and began to read. "You are hereby dismissed from this assignment and ordered to report Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in Canterlot for debriefing."

There was a sound of paper fluttering as my bundle of documents fell to the floor. "What?!" I cried out. "You can't take my guards."

"Um, I'm afraid I have to." The pegasus said. "I've brought what I could from the last order, but there are no more funds for this project." He pointed at the documents. "It should all be there, they made me stop by the Royal Treasury for the documentation before I left."

Steel was busy reading over the scroll. A frowned formed as he read, and deepened the further down the scroll he got. "It has the royal seal on it, the orders are valid." He let out a sigh. "I'm sorry Sarah, but it looks like we will have to go."

I felt a soft pressure across my shoulders and looked over to see Starlight. "It's not so bad Sarah, Lyra and Bonnie said they would visit today with the crusaders. You'll still have some help, and we've gotten all the big stuff done."

"The obvious big stuff. The castle still needs work in the side halls and guest rooms. I'm going to be running the kiln nonstop just to get enough brick to repair the southern tower." I shook my head in disbelief. "I can't believe we ran out of funds for such a large project in only two months."

"We will lodge a complaint and report when we get back." Lance said, "Right now we need to pack up and go, those orders want us to report in by noon, and Canterlot is two hours flight from here at least."

Steel was busy pulling a few large boxes of nails, bolts, screws, and even a bit of food from the back of the wagon. I now saw that it was the kind used for hauling ponies more than cargo, and the boxes had been stuffed between the two short benches.





I had retreated to the library and spread out the papers from the bank, trying to tie each reference and receipt to a bit of materials. I could see the payment to the contractors and the purchase of initial materials, then I could see the refunds from the contractors after the work was canceled. The funds were removed from a private savings account to one where frequent withdraws would not be a problem.

Then it got confusing. There were payments to hardware companies, transport companies, storage facilities. The names and invoices became more obscure, and at times it seemed like materials were being purchased from multiple places at once. Maybe they just didn't have everything in one spot? There were access charges, handling fees, and a number of other things, but the end result was that I had gone from a fairly large sum, over fifty thousand bits, to nothing in roughly sixty days. Some of the larger fees and charges had odd names or referenced the Equestrian government.

"What in the world is a Chrg PgGrdCp + promo and why does it cost nearly three thousand bits?"

BANG!

I dropped to the floor, a flight response as the sound of a gunshot rang out. It had been distant, from the side courtyard. I held my breath for a few seconds then ran towards the court.

BANG! BANG BANG!

The sounds came slightly muffled as I ran, but I heard the clinking sound of ceramics and came to a halt. Was someone attacking my kiln? I spun round and ran for the window. Looking out over the kiln I could see no one.

BANG!

A piece of brick shot past me, and I looked down to see a hole in the top of the kiln.

Sarah, what is-?

"NO!" I yelled, running for the stairs. "Nonononono NO!" 

What? What is happening?

"The bricks! Someone made some of the bricks hollow! They are exploding!" I rounded the corner into the courtyard to the sound of another brick bursting. "We have to douse the fire and let them cool before they-"

BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG

It sounded like machine gun fire, a whole layer of them right near the fire seemed to go off at once. I ducked into the stairwell as bits of smoking half baked brick soared past me. Warily I looked out to see if the worst was over.

It wasn't. With slow, almost graceful ease, the smokestack gently fell forward onto the kiln. With more oxygen, the fire raged up, blackening and cracking much of the finished brick.

There wasn't anything to do now but let it burn itself out.





Lyra wandered into the night court to find Sarah sitting slumped upon the throne. A goblet sat on one arm of the throne, and several stone bottles rested on the other. Several more stone bottles lay empty at her feet.

"Sarah?" she asked. The human looked up at her and smiled slightly.

" 'lo Lyra. Wheres Bonnie and the girls?"

"Sarah!" The crusaders yelled out, rushing over to her.

"Can you help us build a really big catapult?" Apple Bloom asked.

"What was all the smoke outside?" Sweetie Bell asked.

"Why do you smell like rotten grapes?" Scootaloo said, sniffing the air and pulling a face.

"Why do you smell like tree sap?" Sarah countered with a slight slur.

"Well thaths because we broke the firsth catapult." Twist said.

"We were thinking more of that other thing you mentioned to Lyra awhile back." Apple Bloom said. "A tray-boo-shay?"

"Trebuchet." Sarah mumbled.

"Yeah, that. We can get Steel ta put the pieces together, and then we can use bricks from the kiln as a counterweight to-"

" 's gone." Sarah said.

"Gone?" Scootaloo said. "What's gone?"

"All of it." the human mumbled, sitting up a little more. " 's all gone. The bricks are gone inta tha wall. Tha kiln's gone up in smoke. Tha guards 're gone, tha money's gone." She lifted the bottle to her lips and then pulled it away disapointedly. "Even the wine's gone."

"Sarah!" Bon Bon admonished, dropping the small satchel of gems on the floor and glaring at her. "How dare you behave so shamefully in front of children. You need to go clean yourself up and-"

"And what?" Sarah asked angrily, sitting upright in the throne. "Build the castle by myself? With no materials and a buncha kids? Break the curse on Princess Celeser- Princess Solisti- Princess Sun Butt's gilded cage? Then what? Wander the world with a personal demon at my heels? Go live with dragons and canids and the other MONSTERS?" She was standing now, and the crusaders had all backed away in fear and hurt. "Should I go crawl to the royals who spent all my funds and gave me no notice? Go beg Blue Blood for a loan so I can finish my grand summer home? Tell me what I should do sugar rump, cuz all I've ever done is run and there ain't any place to run to anymore."

"Sarah," Bon Bon said, trying to be gentle but firm in a delicate situation. "You need to calm down. I know you're upset, but if you don't get a hold of yourself you might start letting Nightmare out."

"YOU THINK SHE'S NOT?!" She screamed, and Bon Bon's pupil's shrank in horror as she saw Sarah's eyes turn turquoise and serpentine. The shadows seemed to gather around the throne, and the room felt cold. "You think someone as WEAK, as PATHETIC, as FUCKING USELESS as I am could EVER hold her back?" The torches around the room gutted and died, then relit with an eldritch blue and green flame. "The Night Court is in session my little ponies! Do you have anything to say?"

"Sarah stop it." Lyra begged, a cold wind seeming to blow through the room. "You are scarring the crusaders. You're scaring us!"

"That's what Monsters DO!" Sarah yelled back. The flames flickered and died, returning to the soft yellow they had been. The dimensional traveler, the great human, slumped low in the ancient throne.

"Sarah?" Apple Bloom asked, peaking out from behind Bon Bon.

"Go away." She said softly. She dropped the stone bottle and reached for another in a crate next to the throne. "Just go away and leave me alone."

Unable to find an argument strong enough to cut through her drunken stupor, Bon Bon ushered the girls out. Lyra was the last to go, looking sadly at Sarah before closing the court's great door.

"Go on an' go." Sarah said miserably to the empty court.

"It's what you're going to do anyway."





I sat in a window in the tallest tower, watching the sunset and trying to see Ponyville in the distance. The buzz from the wine was sliding slowly from a warm fuzziness to a dull ache, and I was gulping water from a pitcher to stave off the inevitable hangover. In the distance the blue sky began to fade to orange, painting the few clouds gold and purple.

Suddenly in the distance there was a boom, like from a jet breaking the sound barrier. The clouds were all pushed away by a massive rainbow colored shock-wave, and a single rainbow arced over Ponyville and back down.

I looked at it, at the magical sight of an artificial rainbow. I thought about how I was watching it from a haunted castle in a monster filled forest on another planet, and all I wanted was home.

All I wanted was a little job and a little apartment where the most excitement I could expect in a month was the phone bill. A life where a rainbow was the most magical thing I could see, and my mistakes only hurt me and no one else.

"Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high
There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream,
Really do come true."

Was I singing? why was I singing?

"Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops,
High above the chimney tops,
That's where you'll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?"

I sniffled and dabbed at the tears on my cheeks, giving a little half smile before taking another swig of water.





Sweetie Belle ducked back around the corner, quietly making her way out of the castle. It isn't right. She's so sad and alone. I know she said she wanted us to go away, but she doesn't have anyone now. It's just not right. Sweetie began the long jog back to town, a determined look setting on her face as an idea formed in her mind. We owe her. She reunited us with Twist after almost two years of not speaking to each other. Besides, we've beaten up Sarah a bunch of times

How hard could it be to catch a demon?
> Strangers and Dogs
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Princess Celestia obviously had it in for me. She'd had me imprisoned, put through a silly trial, banished to this Castle, and finally bound me here so I couldn't leave. Now she was using her ultimate weapon. Now she had done the unthinkable.

She had raised the sun.

It wasn't the normal sun. It was some kind of death ray sun. Even through my narrowest squint the deadly rays bore into my brain. I could feel them cooking my eyeballs and squeezing my sinuses. Even with my eyes shut tight that hateful ball of flame left a burning after image of pain in my vision.

I could remember, faintly, the sun raising and setting a number of times since all the ponies had stopped pretending to care and run off, but I wasn't sure of how many. I'd been too busy at the time trying to find more ancient alcohol. It numbed the pain and shut nightmare up.

My mouth tasted funky. Dry and sticky with a bitter-sweet taste. Cold stone grated across my sore back as I shifted, unable to get comfortable enough to return to blissful unconsciousness.

Something mercifully interceded itself between Celestia's vengeance and myself, and with a small effort I was able to squint up at it. It was hard to make out any details with it being so highly contrasted against the sun, but it looked like it had a lot of sharp teeth.

Great, D's come to kill me  There was hope in that thought, hope in the end of my current suffering.

Instead, it's head swung up and it did something horrible. 

It yelled.

“Hey! I think it's still alive!”

By all the gods and goddesses that had hurt. The harsh sound of his voice had reverberated through my skull, amplifying my headache in every way. I groaned and rolled over, away from both light and sound.

“I think it's hurt! Come quickly!”

More yelling. What could I do to stop the yelling? I could yell back, but my throat was still very dry. Maybe there was more wine around.

I felt claws grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled upright, and I fought off a huge wave of nausea at the motion. There was motion around me, but my head hurt too much register from what. 

"This is the creature the zebra told us about?" one asked. "It looks like a deformed mutt and it smells like a trash pile."

"Look at all the work that has been done to the castle! Something must have done it." another said.

"It's a drunken mess." A third added. About a dozen more started talking about me like I wasn't there. Each new voice caused the others to be raised, and all just ratcheted up my pain.

"Quiet." I said, wincing at my own voice. My words went unheeded.

"It's a mess."

"The other ponies must have just left it behind."

"BE QUIET!" I yelled, and a wave of shadow washed over the canid's. Dark tendrils stretched out from my hair and wrapped around each creatures mouth, bringing blessed silence.

"Thank you." I whispered. The dark tendrils faded away as the headache spiked again.

"Our apologies," The largest canid said, "What can we do to make up for it?" All of them were looking at me nervously now.

"Head hurts," I rasped. A moment later a bowl of water was pressed into my hand and I gulped it down almost without thinking. A second bowl appeared, and someone emptied a small sachet of dark green powder into it.

It could be anything, I thought, my head still pounding. Even poison.

I downed the entire bowl as fast as I could.

Fortunately or unfortunately it seemed the powder was more medicine. A few moments and my head began to clear, the pain receding to manageable levels.

I looked around the courtyard and took in my surroundings. It was obvious from the half dozen bottles they around me that I had passed out the night before. My suffering was no more than a well-deserved hangover.

New to the courtyard were a dozen and a half canids, each dressed in light armor and traveling cloaks. I grinned at the closest one who had been handing me more bowls of water.

"Welcome to my Castle," I said, waving my hand around. "Let me give you the two bit tour."





An hour later I sat to my throne, washed, freshly dressed and feeling a lot more human. My guests sat at a low table they had dragged in, eating a meager breakfast from my stores.

"So, what brings the Ruby Rovers to my own personal Castle so deep in the Everfree forest?"

Red, the leader who had given me water back in the courtyard, stood and bowed before speaking. "Well your highness-" 

"your highness?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Aren't you royalty? You live in a Castle, and none challenge your domain here."

Not since last month anyway.

"Go on." I said waving a hand.

"We had heard you were quite skilled at the lost art of sigils."

"Sigils?" 

"Drawn spell forms? Magic circles?"

"Oh, yes I have some experience with them. What of it?"

"My great great grandfather was working on a circle of immense power and utility. He was able to make it work but only for short periods of time. It was my hope that you might be able to correct this problem."

"You want me to troubleshoot your spell form? I don't know if I'm that talented."

"All I'm asking is that you look at it. The art of drawing and understanding spell forms has been mostly lost to my people over the centuries."

"Alright, I'll take a look. Why was the art lost if it was so useful?"

"Because it's not useful," another of the Rovers piped up. "It's wasteful!"

"Wasteful?" I asked, "How so?"

"We don't have the innate magic of the ponies, so we must expend the energy stored in gems." Red said, glaring at her subordinate. "This greatly reduces their value."

"The spell must be quite powerful for you to risk such a loss for it's activation. Aside from a bit of knowledge, what would I get out of this bargain?"

"My pack is one of the few brave enough or skilled enough to dig to your Castle. We could provide you with new supplies and access to the world beyond the forest." Red said, bowing low.

"I'm bound to this castle by a powerful spell, and cannot leave by any path until it is lifted. Nonetheless I need a good challenge to distract me, and more supplies would be appreciated. Let's go to the courtyard and see what you have so far."





"Okay, let me run through this and see if I understand what it is supposed to do."

A trio of Ruby Rover scholars nodded as I paced around the massive complex circle drawn in the sand. It was actually series a of concentric circles, each linked to and interacting with the next one going inward.

"The center ring is a focusing array. It concentrates energy stored in the second circle into a single point." The three nodded again as I continued pacing. "The next circle out seems to be a filter of some kind. I can see markings for specific kinds of energy. That means the next to last circle has to be gathering energy somehow, though I don't really understand it." I scratched my head and knelt down looking at the last circle with curiosity. "This last one I have never seen before. What does it do?"

There was a shocked gasp from the scholars and I looked up at them curiously.

"Don't you know the repeater glyph?" The first scholar asked. "It is so much simpler in the central circles that you diagnosed with ease."

"My references have been very limited, and fairly advanced. Maybe they were missing some of the lesser circles."

"And you have had to redraw every circle you ever made?" The second scholar asked.

"Of course," I said, "unless I leave the circle unfinished. That's how it's done in all of the texts."

"Of course, that explains it." The last scholar said. "If she only knows from texts and unicorns, she would see no reason to preserve a working circle."

"Okay so then this keeps the circle from being erased?"

"No, once a circle is empowered it will naturally fade. The repeater redraws the circle as it fades."

"Gotcha. So the circle gathers power, filters power, focuses it, and... Then what? Where's the power coming from? Where does it go?"

"It comes from everywhere." The first scholar said waving his arms. "It's gathered from the area around the circle. As for where it goes." He reached into a bag and pulled out a single small gem. It was dull, holding almost no spark of magic energy.

I turned to the chief. "Your great-great-grandfather designed this? Was it always so large?"

"No," she said with a sigh "the first one he made was no bigger than a claw- span. You could only charge the smallest gems, and only a little bit."

I paced back and forth around the circle looking at it carefully. "Is this one active?"

"It should be." Red said, huffing and crossing her arms. "All it needs now is a gem."

"Well then," I said, turning to the third scholar "Add the gem and let's see what happens."

She nodded and, stepping carefully, place the gem on the ground center of the circle. He stepped back out and sat down to watch.

"How long does it usually take?"

"Not long at all. The gem should start glowing almost as soon as it's put down."

I sat and watched for a minute or two, but nothing happened.

Maybe it has to do with the way circles are drawn? Or the way the gem interacts with the circle?

I cocked my head to one side and glared at the circle. "It works on the smaller version, so something has to change with regard to size."

After thinking a moment longer I got up and stepped carefully to the center. I picked up the gem and very slowly raised it straight up about the circle. At about 3 feet, and just as I was losing hope, the gem began to glow.

I looked around grinning as all four canids stared at me with stunned expressions.

"What did you? How did you? Why is it?"

"It seems the center of focus for the circle is at a distance above the circle equal to its radius." I said with a grin.





They left a few hours later, leaving me with the current circle to study and over two dozen gems to work with. As a research project I knew there would be a lot of fine-tuning to do, but for now I have a functional way to recharge I gems. I even made a stand of a training spear Lance left behind to hold the gem at the right height.

It was an hour or two after they left that I began to realize how much I had enjoyed their company. Now I was alone again, and the stark contrast made me feel like crying. I felt a drop, and looked up at the darkening sky. Letting out a heavy sigh, I turned to go inside as rain started to fall.





Scorpio pushed his way deeper into the woods, squinting against the driving rain. His right wing hurt bad, a mistake from trying to fly in the storm. The Everfree was no less dangerous for the rain and wind, and he needed shelter. A cave would do, or at least a couple of fallen trees in the right places. 

Lightning flashed, and he blinked. It must have been a trick of the light, there was no way there was a castle out here. He heard as much as felt the thunder, and decided that one illusion was a good as any. A last burst of strength carried him over the wall, and he hammered at the doors as he felt his exhaustion overtake him. As darkness crept up, he felt the doors shift.





Scorpio woke still in darkness, but this was a much warmer and softer darkness. He felt something constricting his head and wing, and but altogether better.

"You're awake." A soft voice said nearby. He turned to it, even though he could not see in the darkness.

"Who's there? Why can't I see?"

"You are blindfolded. I'm sorry, but it was a precaution."

"A precaution?"

"Do you know where you are?"

"Some manor house or fort on the edge of the Everfree."

There was an almost light hearted laugh. "No. You are at the Castle of the Pony Sisters, near the heart of the forest." He felt a shifting on the bed, and the voice whispered from closer. "And only monsters live in the forest. Are you sure you want to take that blindfold off?"

"I think I'd rather know the creature that is going to eat me."

"Really? What if you upset me with your reaction? Wouldn't you rather take my hospitality and get better before tempting fate?"

He pondered that for a moment. "How bad could it be?"

"I might be like a cockatrice. To look at me would turn you to stone."

"You don't sound like a cockatrice."

"I could be worse."

"I'll risk it." He said, reaching up and pulling off the blindfold. The deformed canid that stood before him didn't seem nearly as threatening as it had made itself to be. "You don't look like much."

"Oh, what would make me worse? If i had long teeth and claws? Scales and slime?"

"Why? Planing a Nightmare Night costume?"

"Not yet, but I really should dress up on my night."

Pio scoffed. "You mean Princess Luna's night."

"But it was named after Nightmare Moon." the creature said, it's eyes starting to glow with a strange turquoise light. "She's only half of that monster."

"And, um, what are you then?" He felt and heard a tremble of fear in his voice as a third and fourth eye opened in the creatures hair.

"The other half," It said with a wicked grin. "Don't you wish you'd left that blindfold on.

Pio nodded.

The horror stood before him a moment longer, then the extra eyes vanished and the glow faded. "Good. You have a name?"

"Scorpio. Pio to my friends."

"I can call you Pio then?"

"We're friends?"

"You'd prefer we were enemies?" She asked with a smile. Pio shuddered.

"No."

"I'll call you Pio then. Alright Pio, I am Sarah. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Pio nodded.

"There isn't anypony else at the castle right now, but I'm expecting a visit from some canids in a few days. I've got a little research project that is taking most of my time, but I'll do what I can to look after you. Is there anything you want or need?"

"Um, I-" Pio's train of thought was interrupted by a loud growl from his stomache. " I'm kind of hungry." 

"What would you like? Vegetable soup? Small salad? Bread? Fish?"

"Um, just some soup for now."

"Is that all?" there was an odd tone in the creatures voice.

"That's all."

"OK, I'll go make some. Don't move around too much, you don't want to agitate that wound."

The creature stepped gracefuly out of the door, and Pio sat trying to work out the strange thoughts and feelings it had stirred in him. Was it safe? Was it crazy? Did it know more than it was letting on? and finally Was there any chance he could just put the blindfold back on and pretend this conversation never happened?
> Days go by
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A few days later I had received the first small shipment of supplies from the Rovers, though I wasn't too fond of the hole in the middle of my outer courtyard. Apparently there was enough of a subterranean structure in the castle that the entrance could only be one of two places:  here or the dungeons. I loved the visit all the same. Only four of the Rovers came, bringing fresh produce, flour, eggs, milk, and even some salted meat, a delicacy I had almost forgotten under pony care. There were also notebooks, pens, ink, and gems, along with a dozen books about spell forms and sidgils.

Well, roughly about spell forms and sidgils. One claimed to be a textbook but read like some of the spirituality books from earth: one sentence of partial fact for every two paragraphs of fluff. The rest of the books were stories, myth and legend. Ruby, the leader of the Rovers, had kindly marked ones I might be interested in, where the hero or villain used a magic circle to some effect.

I also received almost two dozen letters requesting an audience to hear grievances or settle disputes.

It appears they have taken you for a real noble.
.
"We've met a 'real' noble," I muttered, hoping the Rovers wouldn't mind me talking to myself. "and if I ever see that arrogant prick again I will knock his teeth out." I looked up at the Rovers enjoying a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon in the courtyard. "How would I reply to these? I don't exactly get mail service out here."

"Our leader is working on establishing or extending existing mail routes to this castle. If you want to respond to those today we can take them back."

"I suppose I'll see them all and just see how it all turns out. 'Have castle, will rule.'" I heard the sound of hooves and looked around. "Speaking of which." I smiled and waved at Scorpio.

Ah, the child of Morphi is up and moving.

Pio was hobbling in my direction, a nervous grin on his face as he eyed the Rovers. They responded by narrowing their eyes at him, and one even let out a low growl.

"Pio," I said in a friendly voice, waving him over. "It's good to see you up and about. A few more days and that wing should be good as new. Care to join us for some breakfast? We have cereal, eggs, bacon, fruit, and I think even a little fish."

"T-t-thank you," Pio nervously sat down and began to much at an assorted tray in front of him, never really taking his eyes off of the Rovers.

"You can all relax. Scorpio here is a guest in the castle. He crash landed a few nights ago and I'm letting him stay until he gets better."

"He doesn't smell right." One of the Rovers said, glaring harder at him.

"He's been sleeping in a dusty castle for three days and he's practically bathing in my healing balms, I'd be surprised if he smelled like anything normal under all of that. Which reminds me, can you add soap to my next shipment?"

"Soap?"

"So I can take a bath." I grinned as the Rovers all flinched away at that word. "And so I can get some of the rest of the castle cleaned up. Do you know how long it's been since anybody washed the -"

"PIO!"

I spun around to see five ponies charging into the castle, all of them covered in scratches and bruises. They dog piled onto poor Pio before he got much chance to respond, all calling with "Where were you?" and "We missed you!"

More of Morphi's descendants? I didn't think they operated in groups of more than two or three.

"Friends of yours?" I asked, drawing their attention. Two of them shied away, and one actually ran and hid behind the others.

"Family mostly." Pio said, wincing as he pushed one of the pack off his injured wing. In addition to the dark pegasus himself there were two more pegasai, one orange, one white, an earth pony in deep blue, and two unicorns of matching hues of turquoise.

"Ah, all of you have come such a long way from Appleoosa. How is it out that way this time of year."

"It's great!," the orange pegasus said with a smile, "We can't wait to get home." Pio cringed.

"The snow must be getting kind of deep in the mountains this time of year. Do you work on the weather team?"

"No, I'm more of a shop pony. The weather team back home can handle the mountains with no problem."

"They must work hard with all the rain you guys get."

"Yeah, they keep bugging us to join up." the white pegasus chimed in. Pio was sweating heavily now.

"Your Majesty!" one of the Rovers piped up, no longer able to hold it in anymore. "These ponies are not as they appear!"

"Oh, I know." I said. "They are changelings."

There was a collected gasp from the six in front of me.

"Changelings?! What? How could you even think something like that?"

"Pio said he's from Fillydelphia, not Appleoosa. Appleoosa is a flat desert so there are no mountains, little snow and very little rain." I said with a grin. "Oh, and Pio was partially transformed when I found him passed out in the courtyard. That and he was happily eating bacon just now."

"You knew!?" He asked. "You knew and you still took me in?"

"Of course. I can't very well have ponies dropping dead at my doorstep and do nothing, what kind of monster do you take me for?"

"But if you knew," a Rover asked, "Why question them at all?"

"I was enjoying seeing a creature dig a hole faster than you Rovers." I said with a grin. I was rewarded with a barking laugh from the canids.

"W-w-well we will j-just be going then." The earth pony disguised changeling said, backing slowly towards the gate.

"Nonsense. Look at you lot, you're all scratched and bruised and banged up. You will stay and receive some food and medical treatment." I put on a stern glare. "Provided none of you are stupid enough to try and steal love from me or anyone else who visits my castle."

"Then you invite us to starve." the unicorns said in unison. 

"I invite you to ASK." I responded. "I'm sure even a Rover would not object to hugging or cuddling for a short while. As long as you are honest and don't take more than you need, you are welcome to stay."

"Really?" One of the Rovers asked. "You're just going to let creatures like these wonder around your castle?"

"I'd love it if they could lend a hand with construction or cleaning, but otherwise yes. I am more refugee and lost soul than almost any on this world. I would gladly open my doors to those who need a place for a time, provided they obey some simple rules and can be civil. Pony, canid, gryphon, zebra, even the children of Morphi are welcome."





You and your big mouth.

I looked around the courtyard and had to fight to keep from gawking. Almost two dozen canids, mostly Rovers, had come to bring gifts or have me hear grievances. In addition, there was a smattering of almost every other creature imaginable. A trio of zebras brewed potions and soup in one corner of the courtyard, while a half dozen wounded griffons joked heartily around a keg of rum. Minotaurs boasted and chatted with canids, and the changelings ran around making sure everyone had food, drink, and a place to sit out of the sun.

"My home has become a mad house!" I lamented.

"Worse than a mad house. In a mad house at least the doctors have some control. You are on your own."

I glanced up at the gryphon, Reggie ,who had volunteered to help organize the madness. He was the only one who seemed determined to get everyone to behave. Already he had organized those who had come into three distinct groups.

The injured, who were suffering old wounds from various battles or encounters. There was everything from a minotaur with a twisted ankle to a gryphon with a missing wing. They had either brought some small tribute of supplies or money, or were offering aid in small ways like cooking or cleaning.

The refugees, those who for one reason or another had been cast out. They were working where they could, the few skilled laborers leading the unskilled in doing things like rebuilding the kiln, working on fixing my slapdash roof repairs, and creating an accurate map of the castle.

The last group, the petitioners, were taking up all of my time. Already I had decided two financial disputes, married a couple of canids and blessed a child. Well, blessed an egg.

A rough cough brought my attention back to my current petitioner. The young gryphon glared at me as I turned back from the window to address him properly. The courts were both being repainted so I was set up in a temporary court in one of the towers off the main courtyard.

"My apologies, it's been a hectic couple of days. What did you want of me?"

"I wish to challenge you to combat for possession of this castle." The gryphon declared, a wicked look on his face.

"No." I said simply, turning to Reggie. "Who's next?"

"Then you concede defeat?" The gryphon asked.

"No, I'm just not going to fight you."

"Then by the rule of the gryphon lands-"

"This isn't gryphon land." I said, sighing and standing up. "This isn't pony land. This isn't zebra land. This isn't changeling land. This is my land. Mine. And I make the rules for any changes in power."

"You cannot simply dismiss me!" The challenger said, drawing a scimitar.

"So you're just an assassin now?" I asked, eyeing the blade. "You barge in here and don't get your way so you're going to just start attacking things?" Reggie was bristling next to me, doing his best to glare the upstart down on my behalf.

"You must fight me, or you must surrender your lands to a stronger opponent." The challenger said, not giving up on his claims.

I turned to my secretary. "Reggie, how would this work in the gryphon lands? Do I have to fight him?"

"If you were a gryphon you would be required to name a time and place to accept his challenge. However, you are not a gryphon, and the ruling on such things are sketchy at best."

"I'll bet. I'd love to see how far this tactic would get with the princesses." I said with a grin. "Very well, challenger, you must answer me this. If I accept your challenge and fight you, will you cease bothering me?"

The other plaintiffs waiting in my court let out a gasp of surprise, and the challenger nodded eagerly. "Yes, on my honor."

"Good. Let it be known that you are the first challenger and any others must follow you unless I specifically accept another challenge. Is this accepted?"

"Yes!" The challenger said eagerly, adjusting his grip on his sword.

"Then that's settled. The challenge is set for Friday at noon, one hundred and seventy five years from now."

There was a clatter as the sword fell to the tiled floor.

"W---WHAT?!"

"You have a problem with the challenge?" I asked.

"You can't set a date so far in the future!"

"Says who? I'm sure it's reasonable for royalty like me. The princesses are thousands of years old, and I'm sure your king-"

"Emperor" Reggie whispered to me

"Emperor has a similarly long and blessed reign."

"I reject your date."

"Then you forfeit the challenge and cannot place another." I smiled down at the stunned challenger. "To be fair, if I fail to show then you win the challenge by default." I looked up at the line of petitioners. "Next?"

A minotaur stepped forward and hefted an axe. "I challenge you for-"

"Line starts over there." I said, hooking a thumb at the dejected gryphon challenger. A number of snickers floated up from the crowd, and two or three petitioners, mostly well armed, detached themselves from the line and slinked out of court.





I glared up at my most recent failure with the magical circles, a massive convoluted mess covering the better half of a wall in one of the ballrooms. The idea had been a simple one, but the execution was beyond me.

"Oh, who want's magical karaoke anyway?"

"Your majesty?"

I turned around to see Scorpio walking into the room. It had been some days since the first court, and most of the freeloaders had scurried off when I demanded work or funding for the privilege of living in the castle. I still had more workers than I knew what to do with though, and was rapidly running out of small tasks for them to do.

"Ah, Pio. Just the creature I wanted to see. Tell me, how are you and your family fairing?"

"Well enough. It's rough trying to get affection honestly. Some of the visitors to the court have been suggesting... less savory means."

"I heard about that, and I'm not about to let a group of changelings trying to make an honest living be pressured into prostitution. I had another idea, but I wanted to run it by you first."

"Ok, shoot."

"I'm thinking of turning this room into a stage."

"There's already a stage over there." Pio said, pointing to a small section of the room that was raised about a foot off the ground."

"Which was great way back in the day when a string quartet was the only thing you needed to put on a stage to entertain ponies. I want something that can support a half dozen musicians at least, along with speakers, amplifiers and room to move about."

Pio raised an eyebrow. "That's... ambitious. You have some musicians in mind?"

"Yup. You."

"Me?" Pio looked around the empty room to make sure I wasn't addressing someone else. "I'm not a musician."

"You can learn. Think about it, with your magic you could be the best cover band in the world."

"What's a cover band?"

"You play songs from other musicians."

"And how, exactly, will I be 'the greatest cover band in the world'?"

"Well, you and your family will. Think Pio. Ponies like songs, and while they might break into song and dance numbers spontaneously sometimes, more than a few would love to go to shows. Master a few old songs and you could even do concerts of dead musicians."

Pio cocked his head to the side, thinking. "And that will get us love?"

"Worth a shot. Besides, at least then I'll get some music in this room. This circle is just beyond me." I waved my hand at the curving lines, remembering that the last time I had tried powering it up it had drained three gems and produced a single tone for six minutes.	

"Actually, there was something else I wanted to ask you about."

"Of course, anything for my favorite Child of Morphi."

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Talk around the castle is that you aren't from this world."

"That's true, I've only been here a few months."

"Then how do you know of Queen Morphi? She died out thousands of years ago, even most of my brethren don't know about her."

My eyes glowed turquoise for a moment, I could tell by the shifting light. "Because I'm bound to a spirit that is older than any of you. Nightmare tells me things."

"Did- did she know her? Did the Nightmare know the first changeling?"

"Do you want to answer that?"

Yes, I'd better.

"Sorry," Pio said, "How would I answer that?"

"Not you Pio." I closed my eyes and breathed out slowly. "Nightmare."

I let go.





Pio stepped back from Sarah, some ancient instinct deep in him screaming that there was a deadly predator nearby. Sarah opened her eyes, and they were blue and serpentine.

"Um, Sarah?" He asked.

"Not quite." Nightmare responded, her voice and Sarah's intertwined, giving her an eerie doubled effect.

Pio swallowed. "Nightmare?"

She smiled.

"Tell me- tell me about Morphi. What was she like?"

"Morphi is, was, an alicorn."

Pio raised an eyebrow. "An alicorn?"

"Alicorns are made when a pony masters a certian kind of magic. I'm not sure about the princesses, but Morphi mastered illusion and charms. She was able to subdue great beasts by gently suggesting to them that it was better to lie down or move on to other hunting grounds."

"How does an alicorn make a changeling?"

"Love and magic.She had a crush on another, but was too involved in her research to ask after him. When I found her she was so sad, having already given up. He had fallen in love with another, and they were to be wed shortly."

"What happened?"

Nightmare-Sarah frowned. "Understand this young changeling, I am not merely a bad dream walking the waking world. I am a creature of dreams, and as such I strove to be more than just another nightmare. My dream horrors were always crafted to guide a creature to action. I gave her a nightmare, a dream of a life of loneliness without love. It was my hope that she would be inspired to seek out love elsewhere, but I fear I am too good at my craft."

She waved her arms, and a shadow play appeared upon the far wall. A green alicorn watched from hiding as two ponies, a blue unicorn male and a grey unicorn mare, kissed and cuddled.

"She used her magics," The scene shifted, showing the alicorn luring the grey mare away and slaying her. "And replaced her rival. She used illusion to mask her form, and charm spells to keep her love enraptured."

"The constant deception was draining on her though, and she started to use the stolen love to supplement her magical abilities. Because the love she received was not for her, it was weak and fleeting. In order to get the power required to continue the illusion, Morphi had to steal love from others in secret."

The scene shifted, and the disguised Morphi sat on a throne surrounded by males and a few females. Their eyes all seemed dull, their expressions listless.

"It was not till her children came into the world deformed that she began to suspect something was wrong. They were born with twisted horns, misshapen wings, and sometimes even physical holes in their bodies. These strange deformities expanded with age, a side effect of being born and growing up without any real love. It wasn't just that there was no love and no chance of love, it was that any love they got was taken from them. Morphi taught them to hide their deformities and steal love as she had." The illusion faded, and Nightmare lowered her head and turned away. "An entire race was born and doomed to live as monsters, all because of one simple dream."

"You can't blame yourself."

"But others would, if they knew. Nightmare, corrupter of alicorns, mother of monsters."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room, and Pio stared at the ground, absorbing what he had heard.

"What happened to Morphi?"

"She became... concerned. Each new child was more deformed than the last, more monstrous and feral in nature. One day she let all her illusions go, and saw what decades of magical misuse had done to her. Her first love found her in their bedroom, staring into a mirror in a state of shock. When he saw a monster standing where his love should have been, he attacked her. "

The illusion swirled back into being, an old blue unicorn blasting and swinging at a large chitinous black beast.

"Wounded, scared, and starting to break free of decades of glamour, he launched himself at her."

The scene carried the two out of a window and down into a deep ravine.

"They died from the fall?"

"He did, but she was already dead."

"How?"

"Alicorns are notoriously hard to kill, even the corrupted ones. But she stood and faced the one she had struggled so long to be with. The one who she had lied, killed and stole just to stand beside."

"And he called her a monster."

"When all you have to keep you going is the faint echoes of stolen love, you'd be surprised how fatal a broken heart can be."
> Tooth and Claw
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I was living in a state of worry. I had workers and patients and visitors on a nearly daily basis only a week after the Rovers first appeared. I had promises and contracts and even challenges to my rule, though those were a long way off.

And any day now I was expecting to be gone. I had destroyed the trio of circles protecting the castle the day after my first drinking binge and spent every morning thereafter awaiting D's imminent arrival. The addition of new friends and visitors did nothing to encourage hope for longevity.

This morning I knew he was coming. I could feel it in my skin, in little shivers that ran up and down my spine. For over an hour I sat and listened to monstrous roars and the sound of trees being toppled get closer and closer. Every other creature had vacated the courtyard, though a few were watching from windows and doorways.

When he finally appeared in the castle gates I was completely unprepared for what I saw. He was powerful, tall, dark, and deadly, He still wore the humanoid form with a skull face and thin antlers, and still had shadow and smoke boiling off of him in a show of just how much power he had to spare.

He was also upside down.

In chains.

In a net.

In a rickety cage.

Between three separate sealing circles.

Covered in tree sap.

And soaking wet.

Pulling a wobbly cart holding this ramshackle prison were four equally sap coated and soaked crusaders. No one said anything for long moments as I eyed the whole setting warily, the crusaders caught their breath, and D did his best to glare me to death.

"Alright," I said, "Someone tell me what is going on."

"We-" Apple Bloom huffed, "We went ta get your friend, so ya could talk an work things out."

"You thought the best way to do that was to set a trap for him?"

"Oh no." Scootaloo said.

"Then why-" There was a snapping sound from the forest, followed by another monstrous roar.

"We set HUNDREDS of traps for him. This is just the one that got him."

"I- I see. Why are you all soaking wet?"

"Well..." Sweetie Bell said.





"Why did we set more traps?" Apple Bloom cried as she hauled on the wagon, dragging D along.

"Pull now, ask later." Scootaloo yelled.

Behind them, the crashing sounds grew louder as the enraged sap and string covered Manticore came closer.

"We're not gonna make it to the bridge at this rate." Sweetie Bell said.

The crusaders gathered round the wagon, eyeing the irate demon caught within and looking for a reasonable escape. The path along the river was clear, but the bridge was simply too far away. The castle lay just on the other side. Twist spotted a section ahead where the river split into a series of shallower streams.

"I have a radical idea." Twist said. "it can't follow us into the casthle. We just need a shortcut."

"Great! How?" Sweetie Bell asked

"We cross the stweams."

The others got a worried look on their face

"Excuse me Twist," Scootaloo said, "You said crossing the streams was bad."

"Cross the streams..." Apple Bloom said worriedly, eyeing the cage held together with equal parts craft glue, scotch tape and tree sap, all of which could be washed away.

"You're gonna endanger us," Scootaloo continued. "You're gonna endanger Sarah. The nice lady who helped us before she got banished."

"Not neth-ith-tharily," Twist said, laying a confident hoof on the cage. "There is definitely a very sthlim chance it will survive." The cage wobbled slightly under the pressure.

All four stood still for a moment pondering this. Then there came an ominous Sproing of another trap going off, followed by a furious roar, even closer than the last crash.

"You know what?! I love this plan!" Desperate, manic energy filled Scootaloo as she resumed pushing the cart with all her might. "I'm excited to be a part of it! LET's DO IT!"





I stared at the five of them for a long time, trying to process the thought that D, an inter-dimensional spirit who had helped me survive countless encounters, had just been caught by four children. Incredibly industrious children, but children none the less.

"You got caught on purpose, didn't you?" I asked.

"Yes." D said, then swung slightly in the cage. "Initially yes. The net looked like something I could easily get out of, and I knew they were friends of yours since they kept coming and going from the castle. I figured I could sneak in this way, find out what horror you were planing for me, and break out. I was not expecting the cage. Or the circles. Or the tree sap."

"I've learned to always expect tree sap when it comes to the crusaders." I said with a deadpan tone.

"Well, here I am." D spat bitterly, "At your mercy. Why don't you do it already?"

"Um, do what exactly?"

"Bind me back into your arm! Drag me back to ARCO."

"Back to ARCO?"

D grumbled and shifted in his bindings. "I was finally free after that circle took you home. I and Machina didn't expect you to come charging back in with both princesses and a contingent of guard!"

"What are you talking about?! The circle failed, I was knocked unconscious and had the Nightmare spirit sealed into my back."

I can't even leave because of the seal the Elements of Harmony placed on me!

"So... you didn't come back with plans to re-capture Machina and I and force us to bond with you again?"

"No! I stood trial for everything we had done and got banished out here. When you attacked and showed everyone just how powerful you are the Princesses placed a gease on me and bound me to this damned castle. I-" I paused and pinched the bridge of my nose. "You know what, let's get you out of that cage. It's very distracting to talk to you while you're upside down."

The crusaders began to pull at the cage, and it came apart with surprising ease. The chains and net however had become glued down with sap, but they were at least able to sit D up against the castle wall.

"What happened? After I left, after the Element Bearers came?" I asked him. "Why were you so strong but Machina..."

"We thought the circle had only taken you and maybe the Nightmare, that we had gotten left behind. Whether that was a miscalculation on our part in the circles design or an effect of the Elements was unknown to us. Enough of the circle was left that Machina was able to rebuild it, and we tried to go to our own separate homes."

"You sent Machina first." I said. Since he was the only one who could use magic, it made sense to send her first and follow after. "You powered the circle, but it didn't send her home."

"We didn't know it was broken. It tore her to pieces. We wondered if it was an aftereffect of the Elements or maybe something ARCO had done."

"Why are you so hard up against ARCO?"

"Because they are liars!" D shouted, "They promised me and Machina the chance to travel to other worlds and experience limitless power, but you never bothered to release us from our initial locks."

"Now you have completely lost me. What locks? You seemed pretty strong for B class entities."

"B class? B CLASS?! We are S class entities damn it! Why did you never use the unlock commands? There were dozens of times where our power could have saved us, but you never did anything."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"We are forbidden to. It's part of the seal, so we can't try and seduce our handlers into letting us just roam free."

"Hey, hold on thar." Apple Bloom cut in. I looked up, having forgotten that we had company. "Are ya saying ya are even stronger then we thought you were?"

"Well, not now. Between the circle, the Elements and everything else I probably wouldn't be much better than a B class, maybe a low A. Give me a few months to rest and recharge and I'll be back in fighting form."

"They never told me." I muttered.

"What?" D asked.

"They never told me you were S class. They just said you were B class and showed me how to restrict you."

"You should have gotten that information when you upgraded from B class."

"You are my first spirits! How could you not know you were my first spirits?! We have been traveling for three years!"

"You never stopped to say! You never stopped to do anything! We barely got any downtime, just eight hours of sleep and another mission. I was never really sure if the higher ups were just shoving things at you faster than normal or if you just jumped at any chance you got."

I walked over and began pulling at the net and chains, tugging here and there, scooping away glue, sap and mud. "That was a little of column A, a little of column B." I said, "You know I lost my arm in a car wreck."

"I can't regrow it. Even fully unsealed I would be hard pressed to give you your arm back."

"I can get by without it, but it's more the reasons for the crash."

"You were drunk."

"WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LET ME FINISH?!" I yelled. D leaned back.

"Sarah...." Scootaloo said nervously, "...your eye."

"What about my eyes?"

You never noticed? You get this blue flame from your right eye whenever you get too angry. It's happened since you started letting me out at night.

"Well THAT sounds perfectly safe." D said.

"It was that or let my nightmares manifest in reality. You know some of the places we've been. I didn't want to expose this world to those...things."

Some of the castles other residents, mostly the braver Ruby Rovers and a handful of gryphons were starting to come back into the courtyard.

"So you've just been hanging out in the castle, building an army of creatures and mastering magical circles. You've spent months preparing to hunt me down and I just gave myself to you on a silver platter."

"One, you're not bound anymore. Two, look at these creatures. They are all battered, wounded or hungry. I don't have an army, I've got a refugee camp."

"Well you can't deny you've been doing magical research. I could feel some of those spells even out in the woods."

"Yup, you got me," I said as I finally worked his arms free enough to free himself. I dug my hand into my pocket and pulled out five charged gems. Picking the smallest one, I tossed it to him. "I've been working on perfecting a circle that passively charges gems with magical energy. Other than that, my last research project was a karaoke spell in the eastern ballroom."

Swetie Belle gasped at that, her eyes wide with wonder.

D just arched an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Hey, not everything here can break into pitch perfect dance numbers on cue. Some of us have to practice."

"Your Majesty," Reggie called, running up, "Is everything alright?"

"'Your Majesty'?" D asked with a grin.

"I have a castle, and apparently that is enough for some people. At least I got them to stop calling me princess."

"What is that?" A zebra asked, daring a little closer. I realized that this would be better worked out as fast as possible.

"Everyone can relax. This is D, shape shifting spirit, magical power house and the most feared monster in all Equestria."

"What?" D's eyes went wide. "Feared? Me? What did I do?"

"Step right up and see the ultimate magical predator! Changelings can take love, windegos feed on anger, and dragons munch gems, but D can suck down any magic of any kind from any source with but the slightest touch."

Most of the creatures backed away at that.

"Hold on, I'm not anywhere near that powerful. If I was, the Princesses would have-"

"Such a threat was he that, in order to keep hi movements, Princess Celestia HERSELF bound the one thing he wanted to a remote location."

"Now I know you're lying. The only thing I was concerned with was you, and you are-"

"That's right everyone! The Princesses were so terrified of this creature's ability to knock out their best spell slingers in the kingdom that they banished someone they had just given a full pardon to." I held up my arm, showing off the faint glow of the gease. "ME!"

"I thought that was what held Nightmare." D said.

Please, that little bracelet can't even keep my power in this castle.

"This is what's holding Nightmare." I said, pulling the back of my tunic up over my head. It still preserved a bit of decency, but not much. "See! There, that's everything. Any questions?"

Everyone was quiet for a little bit and I started to calm from my outburst.

"Why are four of the outer symbols in color?" Reggie asked.

"....What?"

"Four of the symbols are in color." D said. 

"....What? How are they in color? Why are they in color?"

"You didn't know they were in color?" D asked.

"I can't exactly look at my own back. The only time I saw the seal at all was a photo at my trial, and that was months ago."

"Well, the're in color now." he said. "Looks like an apple, a balloon, a gem, and a butterfly. Only ones left are a lightning bolt and a star."

"But why those four? And what do the symbols mean?" I asked, "It's been so long since I last saw the elements or their bearers that I can't remember."

Don't ask me, I only saw them for a moment each time they were used. Last time I got a good look at them, they were all diamond shaped.

"Hey, maybe we can tell you!" Twist called out.

"Oh yeah!" Scootaloo piped up. "I know Rainbow Dash's is the lightning bolt, and she's the bearer of the Element of Loyalty."

"Hey," Apple Bloom said, looking around. "Where's Sweetie Bell?"	
> Intermission II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Advancement in ARCO: More Headcannon

Well, not really headcannon, more "This is how the imaginary company from the alternate reality earth works and treats it's employees" cannon.

When you become a dimension jumper, you are given/ contracted to C or B class entities and usually assigned as assistant to another jumper for your first few jumps. C and B class entities are capable of minor manipulations and defenses, though a number of jumpers have found their limited nature inspires resourcefulness in the human component. C class jumpers only visit explored and vetted worlds, and C class worlds are where the majority of ARCO's power comes from. B class jumpers explore slightly more dangerous worlds and usually return with limited power but a wealth of cultural or scientific data.

After a year, and if the regular psych evaluations come back clean (once every six months), a jumper can upgrade one or both entities to A class entities. A class are some of the strongest ARCO has on tap en mass, akin to things like the Witchblade at times. The A class outfitted jumpers can also visit worlds that are considered hostile (war has broken out, large carnivorous plants, an abundance of clowns) or even some new worlds where drones were threatened.

A year later and jumpers can upgrade to S class. S class entities are the strongest and rarest among the creatures ARCO has contact with, and jumpers paired with these creatures can handle some of the toughest environments in existence. Psych evals for S class jumpers are every two months, and detailed reports are required to limit the number that go rogue and exterminate a planet (zero have done this to date)

D, an S class entity, was contracted by ARCO to do a job, and for three years, he hasn't been able to. Imagine if you got contracted to do a job that was described as "go to new and amazing places, see interesting things, and wow them with your abilities" then for three years you had to get up, catch a 5 hour flight to Alaska, and deliver two boxes of paperclips and a roll of masking tape. Every day. With no vacations, no weekends, no sick days. You'd think ARCO was the devil incarnate too.

Of course, there is a reason for all of this, and Sarah is right in the middle of it.

> A Musical Interlude
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Sweetie wandered the halls, marveling at the number of creatures and the extent of repairs. The castle was far from full, but there were easily dozens of creatures wondering the halls. Minotaurs and zebras worked on repairing tile in the hallway, while a pair of gryphons and one of those dog things carried lumber upstairs to work on sections of the outer wall.

If it weren't for her curiosity she would have gladly stopped to talk to most of them, but for her purposes she was glad everypony was busy. 

She paused in the hall and thought about that. Everypony didn't sound right. It was alright with the zebras, but minotaurs and gryphons and dogs weren't ponies. "Everything?" she said aloud, testing the word. "No, that's not it. That sounds like I'm talking about objects. Every...body?"

"Excuse me."

Sweetie jumped and spun around. A lean female dog was behind her, hoisting part of a long piece of lumber.

"I'm sorry, could you step aside? You're blocking the hall."

"Oh, sorry. I was just looking for the ballroom." Sweetie said, stepping aside. The dog nodded to her and started forward.

"Two doors down on the left." She said.

As Sweetie turned towards her destination, she herd the dog's male companion speak up.

"Why you so nice to pony?" it asked.

"Because the Diamond Dogs were mean to one once, and they lost over a years worth of gems for their trouble." The female said. "Nice is free."

Sweetie had to smile at that thought as she turned into the room.

Her eyes widened and her jaw hit the floor.

Of all the things. This was the best. possible. THING!

The room was huge, and one side had been entirely devoted to a raised stage. Scattered around the stage on stands were guitars, drums, speakers, microphones, and a huge mess of cables. Behind it, dominating most of the wall, was an intricate magical circle. Sweetie didn't have to know a single thing about it to tell it was amazingly complex.

She knew what karaoke was, she had heard her sister talk about it at length. You went out to someplace full of people and had two choices: live or recorded. The recorded music required a skilled DJ and an extensive library of disks. From what Rarity had said, live was better because the musicians could help a singer by going slower or faster.

This however, didn't have any records or musicians. She poked at the cables and plucked a string on a guitar, wondering if the circles were keyed to one song or would adjust to the singer. A grin broke out on her face as she realized the best way to find out was to test it.

With a bit of focus, she reached up to the microphone, mounted at adult height, and pulled it down.

"Testing, testing one two." she spoke into it, listening to her own voice echo off of the walls. She had a stage, a microphone, and all the audience she could handle: none. Now, she just had to think of what to sing. After a few moments she decided. She reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a small gem, Rarity's idea of spending money. She levitated it back to the circle and watched the arcane lines light up.

Sweetie closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and sang.

"There is a house in New Foaleans,
They call the rising sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor foal
And Faust, I know I'm one"

The guitar started up, slow sad notes filling the air, and Sweetie Bell smiled and let the song flow with the music.

"My sister is a tailor-ess
She sewed my capes new seams
And my father had a gambling plan
Down in New Foaleans,"

A base guitar started up, adding richness to the song.

"Now the only thing a gambler needs
Is a suitcase and a trunk"

The drums tapped in.

"And the only time he's satisfied
Is when he's on a drunk"

It sounded like the organ and piano had joined in. Sweetie felt like it was a dream and didn't dare to open her eyes.

"So mothers tell, tell your children
not to do what I have done
not to spend their lives in sin and misery
in the House of the Rising sun.

I've got one hoof on the platform
and another three on the train.
I'm going home to New Foaleans,
to wear that ball and chain.

There is a house in New Foaleans,
they call The Rising Sun.
And it's been the ruin of many a poor foal,
and Faust, I know I'm one."

Some sort of echo effect kicked in, doubling her voice.

"poor, poor foal
poor, poor foal
poor, poor foal
poor, poor foal
poor, poor foal
poor, poor foal
poor, poor foal
poor, poor foal
poor, poor foal
poor, poor foal

A huge cheer went up, and Sweetie's eyes flew open. There was now an audience. Not just the other crusaders and Sarah, but D and almost two dozen others. Canids howled, gryphons screeched, zebras stomped and the few minotaurs clapped and hollered.

"That was amazing." a voice to her right said. "Any chance we could convince you to sing and write for us?"

Sweeite nearly jumpped off the stage, spinning round to stare at Pio and the other changelings grinning at her.

"AAAAAH! Where did you come from?"

"Well, the audience filtered in when you started singing." Pio said, "and you woke us up testing the mic." He pointed at the ceiling, where six hammocks were stretched between the rafters.

"That was the best meal I've had in weeks." Leo said, "Want to do another?" 






"So," I said, looking at the rough drawing of the seal before me. "Laughter, Generosity, Kindness, and Honesty are colored in, and Loyalty and Magic are still dark. Any ideas?"

"It could be that Nightmare is close to being freed." Red offered, trying to make sense of the seal.

I don't feel any more freedom now then when we first arrived at the castle. Then again, you are holding me down yourself.

"I'm not inclined to let Nightmare go all out just to test that theory."

"And we all appreciate your amazing forethought in that." D snipped.

"Just shut up if you aren't going to be helpful." I snipped back.

"Fine, I'll just go find your little devious ARCO plots."

"There are no ARCO plots D." I sighed. "The only three things in this world from ARCO are you, me and Machina."

D's form shifted into one of a pitch black canid with a deer skull over his face. It was about as normal as he could manage, his natural forms tended towards the monstrous and daemonic. Once satisfied with the shift, he stomped off to investigate the castle.

"Reggie, can you follow him and make sure he doesn't upset anyone too much?" I asked. The gryphon flew off after him. Most of the creatures in the castle had gotten a little exposure to D at Sweetie Bell's impromptu concert, but there were still enough scattered around to cause a panic.

I turned back to the copy of the seal and then looked up at the four crusaders. "I wish I knew what it meant."

"Well, maybe it's your actions in relation to the elements." Sweetie Bell said.

"Yeah," Apple Bloom added, "Ya were honest at the trial and ya laughed at D."

"You have been more than kind and generous to me and mine." Red added. "As well any all of the others who have come to your castle."

"That would make sense, except it's not really all that testable. The last two are loyalty and magic. I'm not sure I want anything to test my loyalty, and I can't do magic."

"You can't?" Twist asked, eyeing the failed karaoke circle painted on the wall.

"I've been doing those for months now. If something like that art project was going to change this thing's color, it would have done so already."

"Maybe it's a different kind of magic." Scootaloo said. "Like, Twilight goes on and on sometimes about the 'magic of friendship'. Maybe that's what you need."

I looked over my shoulder in the direction D had stalked off to. If that's what I have to work with for the magic of friendship, maybe I should try for loyalty first.

It's not going to work like that.

"Hm?"

"Hm what?" Apple Bloom asked.

When the element bearers came after Luna and I upon our return from a thousand year prison, I placed obstacles in their way. Those obstacles tested them, and revealed their true power and connection to the elements. If I had just let them come to me and fought them together, I might have won.

I looked up to realize I'd been sitting listening to Nightmare for a while. "Sorry girls, Nightmare just wanted to add her two cents. She pointed out that I can't just set up a test to pass, they have to come naturally."

I noted a particular gleam in Apple Blooms eye. "AND YOU CAN'T SET UP TESTS EITHER!" I added quickly, visions of manticores, dragons and small oceans of tree sap swimming in my head.

"Awwwww." The four fillies chorused.

I grinned at them, realizing how much I had missed their antics since they had left. "I owe you all an apology." I said, sadness creeping into my voice. "I shouldn't have sent you all away like I did."

"Sweetie was actually worried about you." Apple Bloom said. "She went back to the castle after you made us leave, to try and help."

"You came back? I didn't see you."

"You were in the tall tower." Sweetie said, looking down. "You were just watching a sonic rainboom and you were singing and you just... you just looked so sad." She actually sniffled a little at the memory. "I thought that maybe what you needed were your old friends."

"You spent weeks in a deadly forest setting up traps just to capture one of my friends and hope we would make nice?" I asked, stunned at the level of dedication.

"Well, firsth we were gonna just talk to it." Twist said. "But we could never track it down. Then we got the idea to lure it out and the traps just kind of evolved from there."

"I wish I could go find Lyra and Bon Bon and apologize to them to."

"You could write them a letter, like Twilight does to Princess Celestia." Apple Bloom said.

"Ugh, I might as well. Red told me it takes almost three weeks to deliver a letter to ponies though."

"Why so long?" Scootaloo asked, eyeing one of the work crews. "Hey, Twist, do you think I could get a cutie mark in castle building?"

"You tried that already." Twist said.

"Oh yeah."

"Letters go from me through the Canids to the zebras or gryphons and then on to the ponies. Something about alliances and politics." I told them.

"Well, we can try and bring them out in a couple of weeks." Apple Bloom said.

"I'd appreciate that." I felt a genuine smile settle on my face, and I realized just how much I had missed these ponies.
> Challenges and Triumphs
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The mood of the whole castle was a mixture of tense and depressing. D had spent the last three days sulking around the castle, and it was a world class sulk too. More than once I overheard a canid or minotaur talk about turning a corner and running into this thing of smoke and bone. A few had startled and fled but most just noted that, for all the menace it's form held, D's demeanor gave them the impression of an Emo teenager.

In three days he had failed to find anything in the castle to support his wild ideas of me building an army or any connection to ARCO. He had spooked most of the work teams and was even doing his best to creep out the changelings. 

It all came to a head this morning though.

"Watch your step, you noxious fume!" 

I looked up from where I was reading contracts at my throne to see one of the gryphon's glaring at D.

"You ran into me worm breath."

"What did you say smokestack?" The gryphon flexed it's claws and everyone else in court started cautiously backing away.

"You heard me mix and match. Was the animal you got your ears from deaf?"

"Someone ought to open a window and air you out!"

"Feather-duster!"

"Old fart!"

"Are you two going to actually fight or just throw insults at each other?" I asked, glaring at them. "Either way, take it outside. You are interrupting court."

"I don't take orders from you." D said, rounding on me.

"What next? Are you going to start crying, telling me I'm not your real mom?"

"Shut up!"

"Your majesty!" a canid runner called, bounding into court. "Your majesty! A unicorn noble is outside the gates demanding entrance. He claims this is his castle."

I blinked a few times while murmuring filled the court. "Ah. Him."

Seriously? Again? Didn't we kick his ass hard enough last time?

I turned to the few creatures who had set themselves up as my aids. "Would you fetch my armor, sword and dagger? Oh, and get me a second dagger and a dozen charged gems, just in case." 

The pair of canids loped off, while I directed my attention back to the rest of the court. "Calm down everyone. I think I know who this is and what they want." I stood, accepting my armor as it was brought. "This shouldn't take too long."





I glared at Lord Harold from the castle side of the main gate. He was dressed in light armor, a steel breastplate and barding on his forelegs and had a pair of short swords were strapped to his sides. It had all the hallmarks of dueling armor, light and only armored on the front so you could move easily and were encouraged to keep facing your enemy. 

He glared at me, obviously irked by my presence for some reason.

"I'd heard rumor that the demon of the forest had finally come to claim your head. It appears my information was mistaken."

"Go away Harold, I have more important things to do than to put up with you. Even if all I had to do was watch paint dry for the next twelve hours it would STILL be more important than you."

He drew his swords with his magic and pointed one at me. "Face me in the field of combat!"

I rested my hand on my sword and smirked at him. "You'll have to get in line, I've got a number of challenges for my so called throne and holdings."

"I'll not wait almost two centuries just for a shot at a pest like you."

Now how does he know it's a 175 year wait I wonder?

"Then you forfeit and should just leave."

"At least I can leave, but you are going to be trapped here forever."

"I may be slow on construction but I'm not that slow." I waved my hand at the work being done. "I'll be out of here in another few weeks?"

"Really?" he asked, his horn glowing brighter.

"What are you-"  I jumped a little at a crashing sound to my right. A small boulder, no bigger than a cannonball, had knocked a section a few feet wide off the top of the nearby wall. As I watched, more crumbled away. Harold started laughing.

I drew my sword. "I win, you don't try and dismantle my castle again."

"When I win, you will serve me as bodyguard in this castle until repairs are finished and then you will be tossed into the forest without a bit to your name."

I looked back at the canids, gryphons and zebras watching from the square. "If you win, you don't kick anyone out. They get to leave on their own, in their own time, with their own things." 

I watched him wrestle with that for a moment. "Deal." A sword flew out and etched a wide circle around him and I. "Cross the line or yield the fight and you lose."

I nodded and held my sword ready. "Ready when you are." I was prepared for this kind of fight, it was something I was training for with Steel before he left. Standard unicorn combat was to keep one sword near you for defense and to send the other out to attack with.

So naturally I was a little stunned when both swords came flying at me. Sometimes having only one arm really sucks. I parried a blow from the first blade and managed to barely sidestep the second and, suddenly, found myself between Harold and his blades. I lunged forward, hoping to drive him back. He stood smiling like an imp as I closed the distance.

I never made it.

Three quarters of the way across our impromptu arena and just beyond the gate my wrist was slammed back behind me. I lost my balance and fell. Looking back, it was clear to see what had halted my progress. Celestia's accursed binding was glowing with a golden light, and I could move my arm no further. 

Harold, smug fucker that he was, actually walked closer. "What's the matter? Has the stuck up abomination actually forgotten where the walls of her cage were?"

I gritted my teeth and pulled, only to feel the golden sidgils heat up. There was a sizzling sound, and the smell of flesh burning, but I didn't pull back. A look of worry flashed across Harolds face, and I fixed him with a glare that said I would rip my own arm off to get to him if I needed to.

His horn glowed, and I fell back to defend myself from his blades again. Now he followed a standard defense, keeping one sword close just in case.

He still wouldn't shut the fuck up though.

"Come on you little bitch, just give in. You can't beat me. Hades, you can't even REACH me. You are bound so tightly to your leash that all you can do is strain at it and bark."

"Take six steps closer and repeat that," I said, deflecting another blow. The blades were fast but there wasn't much power behind them. A moment later though, my own sword was ripped from my hand. Three magical blades circled around me, all pointing in my direction. A fourth joined them when I reached for my dagger.

"Yield. I have no desire for a dead servant," Harold said, ignoring cries of "Bad form!" and "Honor-less mutt" from the assembled creatures.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a gem, only to have that pulled from my hand and tossed to the ground. "Trying to bribe me now?" The blades dipped for a moment as Harold's magic pulled at my clothing, dumping the other dozen gems out on the ground. "You are pathetic you know? What would be the point in taking gems into a fight? You can't even reach me to draw a circle."

I stood there stalling, trying to think. The blades nicked at me, forcing me back until me heels were at the inside edge of the circle.

Bastard, I'd like to cut him down to size.	

An idea blossomed in my mind, and I had to fight to keep the smile off my lips. "Your right. I can't nail you to the ground. I can't spin you like a top or throw you back into that ridiculous carriage of yours. I'm bound to this castle." A grin spread across my face.

"But Nightmare isn't."

Turquoise fire leaped into life around Harold, tracing intricate patterns and linking the magical circles to the scattered gems.

"WHAT IN LUNA'S NAME IS-" his steel armor slammed him to the ground, finally silencing his wretched voice. In an instant he lost all control over his blades, and the circles shifted, spinning and twisting and pushing on the metal in his armor.

"Get out of my castle."

Dizzy and bruised, Harold struggled to his feet as the circle beneath him shifted for one final time. With a disturbingly high pitched scream the disgraced and defeated noble was launched through the air, crashing back down to earth through the roof of his fancy carriage. The two pegasai had the sense to lift off.

I turned and walked back into the courtyard, picking up my sword as I went.

"Well, that was certainly-"

Boom

BOOM

BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM

Creatures cried and ran for cover as stones and boulders rained down against the outer wall, pounding larger and larger holes in the structure. A well aimed one even smashed through the nearest tower's roof.

I looked up up in the sky at a hanging carriage, a ragged noble bastard hanging out the side, his horn lit like the sun.

"YOU LOST!" I screamed up at him.

"YOU CHEATED!"

"You had NO PROBLEM using Celestia's CURSE against me! No trouble when YOU ripped MY weapons from my HANDS!"

"YOU CHEATED!!" he repeated, half maddened. "YOUR CLAIM IS FORFEIT! THE CASTLE IS MINE!"

I pointed my sword at him, allowing Nightmare's power to flare out of me in a wide shadow at my feet. Within the shadow, dozens of eyes opened. 

"Come and take it."

Harold floated for a moment longer before taking off.

D walked up beside me looking at the ruined wall. "So, does this happen a lot?"
> Darkness Unbound
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"We cannot live like this!" Reggie said, keeping a wary eye on the ceiling. "Even with round the clock guards and watchers we are still getting attacks every other day. So far the stones they drop have landed on empty towers and sections of wall, but we can't be lucky forever."

"They are going to hurt someone, maybe even kill them if this keeps up," Leo said, speaking for the other changelings.

"The workers can only build so fast, even with the Fauna added to the mix," D added. "We will eventually finish, but it's going to take months if not years at this rate, and that's only if they don't step things up."

"What, exactly, do you want me to do about it?" I asked, leaning forward in my throne. I felt like a worthless ruler if ever there was one, but then I'd never intended to BE a ruler in the first place.

"Surrender!" One of the gryphons said. "Put up a green flag."

"A green flag?"

"Green means peace," Reggie clarified, "a wish for the crops and fields to be spared bloodshed."  Giving me quick and relevant information had become second nature to him.

We are to become a slave, bound in chains and contracts by that oafish fool of a noble just to spare their lives? If this is the kind of choice that good creatures make I wonder why evil doesn't win more often.

"Do you think you could do anything about it?" I asked under my breath as my impromptu cabinet began to argue with the court over exactly how to surrender.

Please, I shared power and knowledge with a creature capable of moving the moon and resisting the sun. Give me enough energy and freedom and I could rebuild this castle ten times over.

"This is pointless," a gryphon spoke up. "Even if you could stop all the attacks and even IF everyone helped out with construction, you still couldn't finish your goal at this point. I don't know when last you checked but you are woefully short on supplies."

"Timber can be cut from the surrounding forest," I said, "bricks cast and stones-"

"What about axe heads? What about hammers and saws? In the name of the princesses what about nails? Did you know your workers used the last one yesterday?"

"We can buy more from the Ruby Rovers."

"With what money? The only 'export' from your 'kingdom' are those gems you charge. It takes a day to do one and you wasted a dozen on Lord Harold." The snooty gryphon sniffed at me. "For the last week you've been getting by on gifts of tribute, but even those are due to run out soon."

"So my options are surrender or starve."

"I'm sure my lord Harold-"

My head snapped up. "MY lord?"

"The! THE lord Harold-"

"I wondered how he knew how long the wait for a challenge was. I bet there's a dozen more like you in the work crews, wasting nails and dulling blades."

He pulled himself up with a fair amount of bravado, especially given the way everyone else was eying him. "That isn't even necessary at this rate."

"Can't you do something?" Reggie asked. "Can't Nightmare?"

"HA!" D scoffed. "If you charged all the gems in the castle and used them all at once you might fix a third of the castle."

There is an alternate power source I could use, if you would agree to let me out.

"I let you out almost every night," I muttered.

You let my power leak almost every night. You free my mind and constrict my abilities. Let me run truly free.

"WELL?!" The gryphon demanded, regaining my attention. "Are you going to surrender? Or are you going to let everyone here keep playing dodge rock?"

"Why don't I let Nightmare put her two cents in. After all, she's trapped like the rest of us." I stood up. "Nightmare, I release thee."





In the past I had always sort of slept while Nightmare took control. This time I just sort of became disconnected. I could feel my body and see through my eyes, but I couldn't move. It was like an amusement park ride, like the movie theater roller coaster combinations.

I could tell from the reactions of the gathered creatures that Nightmare had made her presence known somehow, though without a mirror I couldn't really tell how. Everyone save D fell back a step or two.

"Nightmare?" D asked.

"Yes, I'm here," she said. Hearing her voice outside of my head was so strange. "I have heard your concerns and worries, and I feel I have three potential answers. The first and most obvious one if for everyone to leave the castle."

"What?" Reggie asked in surprise. "How does that help."

"D and I can complete construction without having to worry about court and injuries to civilians." Nightmare responded. "Though that does kick a number of you to the curb, so it is not ideal." She shifted on the throne, and I caught a glimpse of dark tendrils snaking out from around the throne and encircling the room. "The second option is, as the advocate for Lord Harold has pointed out, surrender."

A number of creatures nodded at this, seeing Nightmare be a reasonable if somewhat unnerving creature. The insufferable gryphon actually smiled.

"This also poses problems. As a bodyguard both Sarah and I represent a substantial power and threat. It is possible that the Lord might never truly finish the castle, that we may never be freed." 

The grimace that crossed the faces of the gathered made it clear that almost none of them had considered that option. Only D seemed unsurprised by the idea.

"You said there was a third option," Reggie pointed out.

"Yes, Sarah was incorrect when she said we were all bound here. As the first plan pointed out, all of you are free to leave, even D if he so wished."

"Abandoning you to this castle doesn't seem like a better idea," D pointed out.

"You misunderstand. Sarah and her body are bound to this castle. My power," The doors to the court slammed open, dark tendrils sliding through them and down the hallway, "my power has no such limit."

Screams filled the courtroom as creatures turned and fled. Few, like Reggie, Red and D stood their ground, shouting my name, begging me to retake control. A couple, like the poor gryphon, were too terrified to even move. 

Nightmare seemed to glide forward in my body, floating on her power. Everywhere her tendrils passed the castle stone was reshaped. Grey aged stone became black perfect brick, iridescent mortar holding it together. Cracked and worn tile shone like volcanic glass. As we passed out of the court and into the halls I could see the effect spreading through the castle.

And I could hear the screams. Zebras, changelings, anything that could move was fleeing for the front gate as fast as possible. Even the pompous gryphon had regained enough sense to run for the hills.

Stop this! Nightmare stop, please! I begged inside my own head, and Nightmare only laughed. The castle around us shifted and changed as we went, hallways redecorating in dark hues of red, green, purple and blue. Windows stretched and shifted, doorways became ominous. As we passed into the courtyard I could see gargoyles literally growing out of the stonework.

Gryphons were air lifting the wounded and land bound creatures over the outer wall as Nightmare approached, others ran for the main gate. I could see in my minds eye this horror stretching out through the land. I could imagine Nightmare twisted monsters flowing from the Everfree just in front of the wave of dark magic.

As we reached the gate, Nightmare turned to look upon the castle. It was dark and terrible and beautiful. I was going to be locked in here forever, nothing more than a host to the Nightmare while her shadow enveloped the world.

And just like that I was back.

I lay on the edge of the castle, gasping for breath and willing my heart to stop beating so fast. 

"Sarah?" 

I looked up at D approaching.

"You, You're back?" he asked confused. "Why did she let you go?"

"I don't know."

Really Sarah? After all this time have you so little faith in me? I told you what happened for Morphi, you know what happened for Luna. All the nightmares I have ever made were only there to make things better.

"Better? BETTER!? How the fuck does this make things better?! All you've done is scare everyone in the castle!"

I needed to. I need fear, Sarah, the same way changelings need love. It is what powers me, what gives me strength. With the fear of weakness I can move mountains. With the fear of abandonment I can guide you to friends and love. With your fear of imprisonment...

I noticed something on my arm and held it up. Before my eyes Celestia's spell flaked off and faded away.

I can set you free.
> Ripples and Sacrifices
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I just stared at my arm for a moment. 

Free.

After all this time, I was finally free.

I wanted to go running through the Everfree, feeling the wind on my face. I wanted to knock on Twilight's door and laugh in her face. I wanted to stroll through Canterlot with Nightmare fully unleashed, watching the Princesses cower in fear of what they had toyed with. I wanted-

I wanted to know when all the God damned manticores got here.

There were over a dozen of them pacing back and forth in front of the open castle gate while staring at it. One would take a step forward, then turn and go back to pacing.

"That is a lot of manticores..." I said.

The massive shift in the castle must have attracted them..

"Watch how they are moving, like they can sense the castle but can't see it," D said with a look of wonder. "I'd really like to see how that spell works."

Nightmare's power might be enough to sneak out, maybe even give me a shape change. After her last outage though, I was in no rush to give her that kind of freedom. Even though her actions had freed me.

There was a cry, and a crash from the courtyard.

"Maybe later, but right now I think we should try and restore a little order. See if you can't gather up and calm down the creatures left in the castle. I'm going to take a look at my new castle." 





I was practically dancing through the halls, looking over my brand new castle. Everything was new and dark and beautiful, like the full moon over an ocean at night. Everything from the windows, now massive stained glass works depicting the history of Equestria, to the furniture, covered in rich dark hued cloth, had changed.

"This is fantastic! Nightmare, I knew you were strong but I never knew you had this kind of power!"

Fear is a powerful emotion, but fleeting. I had to do some of this fairly quickly near the end, and I'm not sure I got everything.

I was actually skipping up the steps towards my private room. "I'm sure everything is nearly perfect. You've fixed the castle, my seal is gone, and I am finally free! Once the sun is up and everyone is settled I'm going to town.  I'm going to put on the best outfit I've got, grab a zebra and a gryphon as escorts, and go skipping right through Ponyville!" Laughter escaped my lips as I was happy for the first time in a long time. "I'm free and out and gone and.... Nightmare?"

Yes, Sarah?

"Where is my room?"





I sat in court, on the beautiful but uncomfortable throne, looking at maps of floors for the old castle and frowning. I compared notes brought to me in the last hour and made another mark with a red pen. A pair of canids stood guard at the door, while another stood by nervously as I deciphered his scouting report. Reggie circled nearby, frowning at the map.

"Ooookayyyy......So that's somewhere between a third and two fifths of the castle that have been completely re-worked. My room is only accessible from a staircase on the first floor that spirals up to just that room. Most of the refugees are still looking for their items since what was a communal hall has been turned into apartments. There is a gem charging facility where the dungeons were, dungeons where the kitchens were, and once more we've lost the kitchen!" I sighed and scratched my head. "But I really want you to explain the eastern hallway."

What's wrong with it?

"It's fifteen point seven feet and thirty seven feet by twenty-eight feet". 

Isn't that one too many dimensions?

"Nope. It's one when you measure it from north to south and the other measured from south to north. At least the east-west direction is stable. I've also got a corridor that spirals into a dead end, a dozen rooms that are upside down, and then there's the quote unquote 'horror section' in the east wing."

"Your Majesty," Reggie said, drawing my attention. "Is there any chance we can just wall that up and ignore it forever?"

I sighed as I looked over the "map" Reggie had given me. It was only a map for the first few feet, then it become something akin to a flow chart. sections had been named things like "the hall of skulls" or "Displacement Art Gallery." I pointed at the last and raised an eyebrow.

"It was a large room, like a ballroom, but with a second floor interior balcony. There is a ton of art, some of it I suspect hasn't been seen since the first Nightmare Moon incident."

"Ok, that's the art gallery part. Explain the displacement bit."

"You just sort of... move through the gallery."

"That's what you do in an art gallery," I frowned.

"No, I mean you see a painting across the room that looks kind of neat and suddenly you're right in front of it. The paintings also change when you aren't looking."

"That sounds fun, like a speed run of Equestrian art."

"Yeah, but you haven't seen the curator," one of the canids chimed in, shivering. "Tall, thin canid in a black suit with no face and long tendrils coming out of it's back."

"Except I saw it as a gryphon. It moved whenever we moved, and it hurt to look at for too long. I'd hate to see what happens if someone tried to take a painting."

I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. "I am this close to declaring this whole thing somebody else's problem and heading for the hills."

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that," Red said, walking into the court. She waved a paw and all the canids departed, leaving just me her and Reggie in the closed courtroom. "I seriously hope you are joking about leaving the castle."

"Why, exactly?"

"Come here, Sarah," Reggie said, beckoning me to a window. I looked out and down at the creatures milling about in the courtyard. "Do you see them?"

"I do. Honestly I'm a bit surprised. The way Nightmare got so much fear to power the castles transformation, I'd have thought all of you would have up and left."

"A good many did, but not everyone has that luxury. The few who stayed behind did so because life in this castle, even one run by a tyrannical Nightmare, was preferable to whatever they might have found outside."

"It's a good thing I'm not a tyranical nightmare then, isn't it?" I said with a smirk. Nightmare grumbled a bit but I didn't relay the message.

"Still, there is a problem inherent in your departure," Red said. "If you go, then who is in charge of the castle?"

"That's easy, just elect someone."

"Who?" Reggie asked. "The races will only vote for their own, and right now that would cause a split between the two biggest groups here, the gryphons and canids."

"The Ruby Rovers were here first, so let Red have the throne by seniority." 

"The Rovers are not well loved or respected amongst canids. My grandfather's experiments with magic circles drained our mines of valuable gems, and eventually we were thrown out of our last good mines by stronger packs. Many still see my pack as the lowest of the low, wasteful vagrants and thieves who steal to survive. If you hand us a prize like this castle, it would be like throwing us to the wolves."

"The gryphons aren't any better," Reggie added. "They would most likely try and eject all the other races, and turn this castle into a warlord's camp. But there isn't enough food here for a real camp, and it wouldn't be long before they were raiding Ponyville."

"Surely you wouldn't do that," I said.

"No," Reggie agreed. "I wouldn't. But I also won't be the one in charge. Serving as your right claw for the last few months has definitely given me a bit of power, but all that disappears when you leave. I'm an adviser Sarah, not a king."

"Not to mention," Red added, "That the number of challengers are going to increase a hundred fold from what you faced. Only the brave and desperate came to challenge an unknown like you for a crumbling ruin in the middle of the Everfree forest before. Now that the castle is restored and there may only be a gryphon or canid or minotaur in command? I wouldn't be surprised if dragons started showing up to pick a fight."

"That's going to be true whether I stay or not," I pointed out.

"Yes, this castle is a prize. Yes, the circles for charging gems is a treasure beyond dreams. Yes, there are creatures who are coming to claim it. How many do you think will not come if the Nightmare is still here? If you stay-"

"What happens if I stay? What gets better if I don't leave? Once creatures find out it was Nightmare who rebuilt the castle I'm going to have monster hunters after my head."

There was a cough, and everyone spun around. Pio, in pegasus disguise crept in the window.

"This was a private conversation," Red said, glaring at the changeling.

"Yes, among creatures. But you keep thinking of solutions that creatures would think of. You need me, need a monster, to think of monster solutions."

"Monster solutions?" Reggie asked with a chuckle.

"Tell me, do they have zoos in the gryphon empire?"

"Of course, some of the best in the world."

"Why don't you fear the monsters there?"

"Because they are caged you stupid bug!" Reggie said.

"Exactly," Pio said, turning to me. "No one fears the monsters that are shackled, but none are keen to get too close."

"My shackles are gone Pio. I'm finally free."

"Yes, Sarah, you are. Completely free. You can leave the castle and spend your whole life running and hiding. You can abandon every creature who stayed, leave them to the brutes and scavengers. You can be far, far away when that obnoxious lord brings down his wrath on whatever poor idiot holds the castle.

"You can let Harold win."

Pio flinched back from the hard look I gave him, and thoughts whirled though my head.

"Just being here isn't enough. If I can be carted away or tricked into giving up the castle then things will still go badly."

"It won't be long before someone comes to check on the castle." Reggie said.

"Nightmare, can you simulate Celestia's geas? Just an illusion of it?"

I think so. Do you have a plan Sarah?

"No, not a long term one," I held up my arm as the illusion seal formed. "But this will buy us time to work out a better succession plan."

"Good, a little more time and talking, and we might get something really worthwhile here," Reggie said with a smile. He looked out the window towards town. "I can only imagine what the ponies in town will think when they see the castle."





Twilight opened the shipment of books and groaned. Another box of trashy, young adult horror and romance. She had been grateful for the donations when they started months ago, but now it was getting tiring. Each shipment was becoming increasingly more and more focused, and it was becoming painfully obvious what that focus was.

The first book, right on top, was indicative of the entire box. A crude representation of Sarah, her eyes glowing red, her teeth sharp and bloody, stood over a wounded mare, a brave stallion attempting to put himself between the two. The title, depicted in a dripping blood motif, was "Terror at Canterlot High". Twilight pulled it out and tossed it into the growing pile in the corner of the library. There was only so much space in the tree, and already these new books were going to back stock.

Twilight pulled out the crumpled newspaper that had been used as packing filler so the books wouldn't shift. It had not escaped her notice that all the filler paper had been stories about Sarah. This one, from a rag of a tabloid, claimed that Sarah had escaped the castle and was living in an abandoned mansion outside Manehatten. 

CRASH

"Hello Rainbow Dash."

"TWILIGHT! You HAVE to come see this!" The speedster cried. Normally she would be all excited about a new trick she had worked out, but this time her voice sounded more serious.

"What? What is it?"

"Can you cast that cloud walking spell on yourself?"

A few minutes and one nerve wracking flight later, Twilight and Rainbow Dash stood atop a small cloud high over Ponyville. 

"Look!" Dash said, waving a hoof at the Everfree. "The castle is gone! I noticed when I did my weather patrol this morning! The Castle of the Pony Sisters is just gone!"

Twilight squinted into the distance, looking for the grey and white crumbling towers that marked the castle in the forest. All she could see was a dark shadowy hole where the castle should have been. She scrunched up her face and glanced up at the noonday sun.

It can't be a shadow, there isn't anything to cast it. Twilight's horn glowed, and the air in front of her and Dash shimmered and shifted, her magic acting as lenses for a massive telescope. Both she and Dash gasped at what they saw.

The ancient castle was transformed. Where old, square towers had stood, now majestic dark spires reached into the sky. What could be seen above the treeline was obviously larger than the original castle's proportions, and far outside of Sara's power to construct.

Had she gotten that spirit to help her instead of hunting her? Or are the rumors that Nightmare is free true? Has she been hiding the renovations under an illusion like she hid herself? If so, why reveal them now? Is this more or less worrying than the idea that she changed the entire layout of the castle in a matter of hours?

"Um, Twilight? You want to come back to reality with the rest of us?"

Twilight shook her head, snapping out of her musings which were already spiraling into dark thoughts. "We have to go and see what's going on."

"Yeah, like that's going to happen," Dash said sarcastically, waving a hoof at a pair of Night Guard hovering nearby. "You know these two won't let you anywhere near the forest."

"Ms. Dash is correct Ms. Sparkle," one of the guards said, addressing her with an air of formality she had grown used to in the past few months. "As the bearer of the Element of Magic AND the most powerful unicorn in a hundred miles you represent too tempting a target for the daemon in the woods."

"The castle's change has already been documented with flyover photos and all information has been passed up the chain of command."

"Explain to me, again, why I don't get access to this information for weeks on end?" Twilight asked annoyed.

"National security miss. There is only ever one copy of the photos until they have been released by the princesses. Though, since this is such a big development, I'm sure Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will be hearing about it sooner rather than later."





In Canterlot, in a dining hall turned war room, Princess Celestia looked over the photographs of the newly restored castle with a faint frown on her otherwise unreadable mask of neutrality.

"This is only from this morning?" she asked.

"Yes," the unicorn before her said, shuffling folders and reports. "It appears that there has been a drastic reduction in creatures we can see from overhead. I'd like to think that they all left when the changes started."

"Thou fears a different reason for their absence?" Princess Luna asked.

The unicorn shifted uncomfortably, adjusting his noble robe. "In the initial court hearing, during the questioning, Sarah Jordan noted that one of the spirits, D, was able to power transformations by dissolving parts of her body." The unicorn looked up from the report worriedly. "I'm concerned that she got tired of waiting and started using other creatures as blood sacrifices."

A look of shock and horror washed over Luna's face before she managed to return to a neutral mask. Her long isolation and recent reintroduction to life in Equestria meant she lacked some of the diplomatic skills her sister had honed over millennia. "This is surely only one likely possibility, just as their exodus is another. We must not jump to conclusions regarding Sarah, as that is what caused so much trouble in the first place."

"Still," Princess Celestia said. "She has not responded to any of my letters, despite me writing her once a week." A smile flickered over her face. "I swear, sometimes it feels like I'm writing friendship requests to go with Twilight's friendship reports."

"Speaking of Twilight Sparkle, my guards are still keeping her safe aren't they?" Princess Luna asked. "I lent you those four right after Sarah's banishment, and their updates have been sporadic at best."

"She is well and safe your majesty. Two of your guard keep watch on her at all times, while a third watches the castle. The fourth rests and cycles as needed." The unicorn smirked. "The only trouble they've had since you assigned them are a few bouts of curiosity and the problem with the zebra in the Everfree." The unicorn frowned. "However, if this is a shift in Sarah's nature from simply amassing power to going on the offensive, I may need more soldiers to keep her contained."

"We do not yet know the nature of her stance," Celestia said, rising from the table. "Your agent's work acting as contact for that canid pack has allowed you some level of information gathering as you pass letters and supplies in and out, but I fear we will need more direct information. You will have to send an envoy to see what the situation is on the ground. If the castle is restored, then my geas may have been broken and Sarah might walk free across Equestria. While I have no real wish to detain her, the panic such an action would cause is not something I can allow. If the geas is still in place there is a chance we can negotiate for Sarah's peaceful release."

"Of course your majesty, I will send my most amiable and careful diplomat," Lord Harold said, bowing low. "You have my word."
> Visitors and Ideas
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I sat on my uncomfortable throne, surrounded by representatives of almost every race in the castle. Reggie and Red were there, along with a slender zebra called Zaephir and a one armed minotaur named Thomas, Pio was the only one missing. Each had been asked to give a report on their race's numbers and current disposition.

It wasn't very good.

In a day's time the population had dropped from an estimated two hundred to a mere fifty. Of that, six were changelings, a half dozen were zebras, another half dozen were minotaurs, and the rest were split between gryphons and canids, most of which came and went.

Of those who stayed, the ones who were well enough to work had been adding to the ever growing map of the castle that now took up the left half of the courtroom. The entire eastern wing had been closed off after it was found that the map Reggie had provided yesterday was worthless today. Everyone was still working out where things were, and I still didn't know where the kitchen had moved to.

And everyone was scared. Red and Reggie hid it best, actually trusting me after having known me for so long. Thomas was antsy though, and I got the impression that he was less a spokesperson and more someone who drew the short straw. Zaephir made no secret of her interest as she stared at the glowing mark on my arm.

"It's not going anywhere, Zaephir" I said as I flipped through another map report. I was starting to worry that we were going to run out of paper before we ran out of castle.

"My brothers say it disappeared, an event that I have often feared."

"Well it was just Nightmare trying to get a little more power to rebuild with. The confusion about it probably influenced the east wing."

I swear there is something else in this castle that's fucking with me. How could the rooms still be changing?

"There is much fear in heard and flock, even with you under key and lock."

"Well I'm certainly locked down now, and Nightmare doubly so. After that trick she pulled she's not likely to see any freedom for quite some time." At least not until I work out how to hand over power without you all going for each others throats.

You do know I'm not currently locked down right?

I sighed. Again.

"Your majesty?"

I looked up. A zebra runner had just entered the court. "There is something you should see."





It was a pegasi drawn carriage, and it was descending just outside of the castle's main gate. The carriage was much less ornate than Harold's had been, but still held enough traces of nobility and pomp in it's design to signify importance. It was graceful, elegant, and powerful. It also looked like it might fall apart in a good storm.

A noble unicorn mare with blood red fur and a sapphire blue mane stepped out, doing her best to look down on the Rovers who had come to greet her, despite them standing a full head taller than her. They escorted her into the courtyard, and I returned to my throne. The court milled about muttering quietly for the few minutes it took the visitor to arrive.

She strode into my court like she owned the place, and she spoke as though she was the megaphone for a higher authority.

"I am not here willingly."

I raised an eyebrow at this, then looked at the Rovers accompanying her. "Bill, Dave! What have I told you about kidnapping visitors?" A gentle chuckle went up from the small crowd at court, while the Rovers looked confused and worried.

"I assume," the mare said, ignoring my jest, "because you are still here, that the geas her Majesty placed on you is still in effect."

I raised my left arm, revealing the softly glowing band of magical lines and runes that had bound me to the castle. Of course, what I showed was little more than an illusion courtesy of Nightmare, but she probably wouldn't be able to tell.

The noble nodded, satisfied. "Then I am here to discuss terms for your release."

"My release?" I asked, leaning forward. If this was some new tactic by Harold, or even another noble, then I would have to be on guard. "What terms do you wish to discuss?"

"Firstly, you will have to give up your claim on this castle."

Well, that was no surprise. You build something bigger and better and someone will always try to steal it. "I'm not the only one living here now, you know. What will happen to them?" I waved my hand at the rest of the court.

"That is covered in the second condition. Your army will disband and remove itself from the premises."

"I have an army?" I looked over the court and realized that the gathered assortment of creatures did look fairly fearsome. The only demographic left out were the changelings, who were spending every day practicing with their instruments.

The messenger sniffed at this, taking it as another jest. "You will be required to provide two years of community service to Equestria while we try and ascertain a place for you."

"I think that should have been covered in the reconstruction of this castle, which is mine by the way." I glared at her but she didn't seem likely to budge. "So this is not so much a release as a prison transfer." I said. "This deal is getting better all the time. Is there anything else?"

"You will also be required to provide a detailed debriefing of your time here at the castle, as well as tactics used against ponies, zebras, minotaurs, gryphons, and any monsters of the forest up to and including the daemons you brought to this world."

They want to know what? 

"You want to know what?" I asked.

"How you coerced all these creatures to join your cause and how you defeated the creature you called D. We will study your methods and determine if any practical tactics can be created that may apply against future inter-dimensional incursions."

"Hey D!" I called out. He had made himself a nest at the rear of the throne room out of tarps and sheets, and was sleeping in his demonic canid form. With a great show he yawned, stretched, and got up, plodding towards the throne.

"What is it, Sarah? I was having a nice dream."

"This unicorn want's to know about how I defeated you," I said, enjoying the look of terror on the mare's face as she fell back a few paces. D blinked his eyes and shook his head, trying to clear the sleep from his mind.

"Sarah, you haven't beaten me in anything since I started taking advice from Machina in chess."

"It- it's still free?!?" the messenger said wide eyed. "Restrain it!! NOW!!!"

"D's not an it, D's a he," I said, becoming increasingly annoyed with the messenger. "And I'm not restraining anybody, unless they've done something to deserve it. Besides," I scoffed "you're not the boss of me!"

D leaned against my throne and grinned at the mare. It was a menacing grin, far too many teeth. The unicorn, to her credit, managed to regain some composure and even took a step forward, though she was still several yards back from where she had been standing initially.

"Then if you have not defeated this creature, you must provide information on how it was commanded or tricked into restoring the castle."

D raised an eyebrow and gave me a questioning look. "OK, I need to stop sleeping through court, someone give me the cliff notes."

"I didn't trick him into doing anything. He offered help after our altercation was talked out."

"You got your spirit to do all of this just by talking to him?" she asked, seeming amazed. "We may have to employ you as a diplomat."

"I got my friend to offer a bit of help, but he didn't do most of the repair." I leaned back in the chair. "Nightmare did that."

She glared at me, and let out a loud harrumph.

"What?"

"I understand that you are bored out here, trapped in your castle, amassing your army, and toying with me when I'm here to offer aid and assistance, but that is just one joke too far," she said, a stern look on her face like she was a teacher scolding a naughty student. "Nightmare is bound to you by the Elements of Harmony, and their hold has been known to last hundreds of years."

"Really?"

"Rumors that you have control over her and can let her out at will are simply that: rumors and nothing more."

"Want to bet?"

I wasn't aware that technicolor ponies could go pale like that. It made me wonder what the white ones did. "The stories are true." 

"Calm down," I said, waving my hand and showing off the geas. "She isn't free by any stretch of the imagination. She's locked down by the seal just the same way I am." 

She settled, albeit not so far that she lost the worried look entirely. I tapped my fingers on the throne thinking for a bit.

"I am not, at this time, willing to accept your terms. While I have no army, I have no wish to see those who are here be thrown out on a whim. I also will not simply hand over this castle, though I might be willing to sell it for a fair price. Take these requests back and return in one month with your answer. If a potential resolution is reached before then, feel free to start pony mail service to the castle via pegasus."

"I shall take your requests back, but I do not think you will get much for a tainted castle, nor much consideration for a traitorous army." She huffed, prideful and turned to leave. 

"Escort her out please," I commanded. "Thank you for coming."

"Have a pleasant flight," D said with a slightly sinister tone.

She shuddered and trotted a little faster out of the court. Conversation started back up, mutterings and half sentences reaching me on the throne. I noticed the gleam of metal as a few coins changed paws.





A week later and I was certain the diplomat wasn't going to come back anytime soon. I was talking with all the representatives, even Pio, trying to determine what to do next. A small war room off of the main court served to give us some privacy, and also provided us with a useful blackboard to list concerns. We had indeed run out of paper.

"It appears that concerns fall into two main categories," I said after listing over two dozen items by all those assembled. The lists contained everything from bandits and bad weather to internal struggles. "Internal and external. The internal ones we can work out with a council or congress, similar to what we are doing now."

"A council such as this often advises leaders, your Majesty," Thomas said, munching on a bowl of peanuts. "Though I've never heard of one with this level of diversity."

"Right, well, get used to it," I said. "This council is going to be official from this point forward. Your job is to both bring forward problems and to work out solutions to those problems."

Everyone nodded, though I saw Zaephir eye Thomas and Reggie warily. I made a mental note to have the three update me on the history between their races. The last thing I needed was a centuries old grudge sparking a war in my castle.

"Next are the external concerns, which appear to be mostly attacks by bandits, attacks by monsters, and shortages that we cannot overcome here in the castle. We need some good international connections that we can lean on for support when times are tough and depend on for military aid."

"That is going to be a little difficult," Red said. "The canid tribes won't support us with the Rovers here. You know our history Sarah."

"Roughly," I admitted. "I gather the same  is true about the rest of you as well?"

"Most of the gryphons are just old or wounded and would live in disgrace in the empire, but there are a few more unfavorable types: deserters, drifters, etc. The Empire won't harm us, but it won't help either."

"The minotaurs are simply a small band who did not wish to follow our leaders. It's either live free here or return to a life ruled by faith and law. My government won't aid us because they won't support an alternative to bowing to their rule."

"In my tribes support you can surely count, though I could not guess at the amount," Zaephir said.

I turned to Pio, who lowered his head. "We six are all we know. I doubt my swarm is in any condition to offer aid of any kind, nor would I ask you to take it." Everyone else looked a little relieved, and I was worried about just how disliked the changelings were.

"OK, so we can't ask directly. What about indirectly? We could petition for aid from potential backers and businesses within each kingdom. Or maybe we could use a little trickery for support."

"What do you mean?" Reggie asked.

"Okay, say that the gryphon's don't like the control the minotaurs exhibit over their citizens. Would they support a kingdom that offered them freedom?"

"It's a fine idea, but it falls apart as soon as a single diplomat sets foot in the castle," Pio pointed out. "And while independent backers might offer up funds, I don't think we have enough diplomatically inclined creatures to keep up the steady flow we might require."

"OK, so how about inviting some diplomats and backers here and asking for their support formally?"

"A small fledgling kingdom like ours isn't going to attract much attention, and if we take too long or call them in the wrong order it will send the wrong impression," Reggie said. "We need something to get them all here at once and in a good mood."

"How about a party?" Red asked.

"A party," I said in as incredulous a voice as I could manage.

"Yes, your majesty," Red replied.

"You want to hold a party." 

She bowed her head. "It would improve creatures opinions of you if you did something other than sit in a castle all day with your army waiting for the outside world to respond."

"It's not an army," I muttered. 

"Anyway, I thought it would be a grand idea to hold a party in the castle your majesty. A festival of ours is coming up. It doesn't translate well into Equestrian, but roughly it's the Bittersweet Harvest."

"And what do you do during the bittersweet harvest?"

"Dress up in costume, drink, dance, and generally party."

"Sounds like the ponies Nightmare Night."

A canid Nightmare Night? This sounds interesting.

"It falls on the same night this year actually, but there is more to it. It is a little hard to describe."

"Go on," I leaned forward.

"It is the day of crossing. From moonrise to sunrise those who have gone before us may come visit."

I sat up straighter. "Are you telling me that you want to host a costume party and a number of the guests will actually be dead?"

"If that's alright with you."

I sighed and pinched my nose, shutting my eyes tight for a moment. "You want me to have a party in a dark castle with undead guests and you think this will increase my popularity. That is the party you want to invite diplomats to."

"With all the work Nightmare has done, this castle is probably the best place to hold a Bittersweet Harvest party. This is the time when the veil between the worlds of living and dead is the thinnest, and your presence makes the veil extremely thin. That's why our departed can come visit us on this night."

There was a cough from my right, and I turned to Reggie. "Yes?"

"Actually, there is a tradition for the Gryphons coming up as well. It's called the Ghost Flight, and it commemorates our victory over ghostly spirits of icy rage."

So that's what happened to all the wendigos. I'd always wondered.

"A Nightmare Night, Ghost Flight, Bittersweet Harvest party. The multi-species ball of the century."

"Hmmm," I tapped my finger on my chin. "Alright, I don't see any problem with this. I want each of you to draft letters to leaders, important political figures and potential financial backers you know of. I've never had a formal ball before. This should be fun."
> Party Plotting
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I looked at the wall of my courtroom and glared. Over twenty letters, each penned carefully by my own hand, were now pinned or taped to the wall. Some were still unopened. Next to almost every one was a return letter of rejection. Some were soft, quiet letters of refusal to my party in long flowing lines of diplomatic platitudes. Others were simpler, or had more valid reasons, like the gryphon Emperor not being able to get away during a national holiday on such short notice. Two or three were blunt and snarky, remarking on how they would never fall for such an obvious trap.

One letter was missing, but only because Zaephir had smelled the poison before the envelope was even opened. I had a great urge to travel to the coward's home and feed him his letter.

"I have to say, some of these responses were disturbingly fast." Red said, taping the final rejection, now clean of poison, in place. "I believe we are going to have two minor dignitaries from Saddle Arabia and one minotaur emissary."

"Five bits says the dignitaries drop out. They were the first to respond and I don't think they knew what they were really accepting. And the minotaur doesn't count, it's Thomas' brother Robert."

"Do you want to try and return the food you've ordered?" a gryphon asked.

I slammed my fist into the stone wall , causing a number of pages to flutter loose and those around me to jump. "WHO CARES A DAMN ABOUT THE FOOD!?" I banged my head against the wall. "What is the point of trying to prove things are different if no one will give you a bucking chance?" 

There was an uncomfortable silence for a while, as the gathered court waited for someone to be brave enough to approach me.

"Sarah?" Red asked.

"Buck them."

A gryphon looked up startled. "Your Majesty?"

"I said buck them!" I practically yelled. "They don't want to come? They want to hide and snivel and cower? BUCK THEM! I've got a God damned castle in the middle of a chaotic forest! I've got this world's apex predator sleeping in my throne room and The Nightmare bound into my very skin!! And you know what else I've got?"

There were a few worried head shakes of no from those around me.

"A castle full of creatures that deserve a party! So we are going to have one. Not just a party, but THE Party!!!" I turned to Red. "Send out runners! Find me musicians, entertainers, anything you can. I'm not doing a stuffy ball or a pompous meet and greet! I don't care who comes and what they think. I want to rock this castle so hard we wake hibernating ursas! I want creatures dancing till Celestia raises the sun, and enough booze to knock a dragon out till Thursday!!!"

There was a cheer, and they all started working happily towards the new and improved party. Zaepher came up next to me, smiling.

"I see you've decided I'm not so dangerous." I said to her.

"Though these events did take their toll, I marvel at your self control." she said.

"Oh? Why?"

She reached out and placed a hoof on the wall near where I'd punched it. "You caused but a few loose pages to fall. If I were you, we would be rebuilding the wall."





Two days later saw the arrival of the only two entertainers the Rovers had managed to lure, along with Bon Bon and Lyra and a dozen other creatures. What surprised me most was that they arrived via the Rovers tunnel network. Canids and minotaurs usually used the tunnels, while zebras and gryphons just came through the forest.

As was standard for new arrivals by now, they had sent a runner ahead to let me know who was coming and when. This let me sequester a few of the more shocking inhabitants of the castle, namely D and the changelings, out of sight. D was using his demonic nature to explore the east wing, and Pio had his family learning as many songs as they could. With a party coming up, I had promised them a central spot as a band, and they were more committed than ever to doing a good job.

"Good morning everybody!" I said cheerful, waving my arm. The Rovers that knew me waved back happily, the rest all seemed to cringe away. "My name is Sarah, and I welcome you to my castle. I know some of you have traveled quite far, and there are beds, water, and warm food waiting. First however, I need to explain a few things.

"One, you are not in Equestria right now. You are in my domain, and my word is law. I don't ask much of you, just for you to behave peacefully with ALL the inhabitants here, regardless of history. If I have to break up a fight between you and someone else, I will personally kick both of you deep into the Everfree. Stay friendly, and everything will be fine.

"Infirmary is that way if your wounded." I waved towards a pair of gryphon nurses standing nearby. "I expect everyone here to contribute to the castle, either with work, funds, food, or skill. Any problems, questions or concerns can be brought to me at court, which is held every day starting at noon and ending at sunset. 

"As a final note, stay out of the east wing unless you are part of the map team. Since the reconstruction the wing has been ... unstable and potentially dangerous. Thank you." I grinned at the ponies as the rest of my visitors departed. "Greetings musicians. It's good to see some new faces, and some old ones too." I held out my hand for Lyra, who shook it with gusto. "How are you lot doing? I didn't think I'd ever see you again after the send off all those weeks ago."

"You might not have if the crusaders hadn't been so adamant to us about their last visit." Bon Bon said, scowling at me. "It seems you've given up drinking yourself stupid." I blushed in embarrassment and nodded.

"This is fantastic!" Lyra said, turning her head around like she was trying to see all of the castle at once. "I can't believe you got the Nightmare to do all this work for you."

"She scared the crap out of everyone in the castle to do it, me included. If you like, I might introduce you two formally later. Why did you all come through the tunnels?

"The overland route is blocked off." One of the musicians, a grey mare with black hair and a music note for a cute mark said. "Night guard are paroling the woods. Anypony gets too close and they are warned away and forced to turn back."

"That's a bit excessive." I said. "What caused the increased security? Just me rebuilding the castle?"

"I think the crusaders and the element bearers had something to do with it." Bon Bon said. "I didn't overhear the entire conversation, but Rarity said that her sister was grounded for a month and Applejack said that Apple Bloom wouldn't tell her anything either. Loose lips and all that."

"Yo, we gonna get this audition started or not?!" Another mare, white with electric blue hair and huge sun glasses yelled out. "I got places to be, ponies to see, parties to crash."

"Ugh, I can't believe I have to compete for a gig against her."

"You two have a history?"

"Oh yeah, Tavi and I go way back. She's still bummed she didn't get to play at the princess' wedding last year."

"It's Octavia, you dubstep slinging showoff."

"Which one got married? Celestia or Luna?"

"Cadence." Octavia said. "You really are from another world aren't you?" 

"Yeah and with me, DJ-PON3, your party can be out of this world too."

"Whoa, whoa, settle down. This is going to be an audition, not a street fight. Lets get you two set up in the main ballroom and I'll hear what you have to play."

"Come on everyone." Octavia called, the rest of her small orchestra picking up their instruments and tagging along.

"Flip Switch!" the DJ yelled. "Grab the gear! We got a show! I can't wait to rock the ballroom all night!!!" The DJ's assistant, a deep grey pegasus with a simple circuit diagram for her cutie mark was already dragging a cart of cables, speakers, control boards and other equipment.

"You'll actually be playing in the outside courtyard for the party." I said, leading the way.

The DJ stopped. "They why are we auditioning in the ballroom?"

"The other band is practicing in the courtyard."

"You have another band?" Octavia asked. "Are they the main event or just opening for us?"

"That will depend on how well you play, though I suspect they might just play along side you."

"What band have you got that can play alongside a classical string quartet and a royal DJ?!?"

"A very versatile one."

The DJ's assistant, giggled. "What, have you got changelings playing for the main event?"

"Yeah, how did you guess?"

The musicians stopped stunned, and Lyra just laughed.

"Come on Sarah. Canids, minotaurs and gryphons I can understand, but even you wouldn't let changelings in here. Not after they crashed the royal wedding and tried to enslave Equestria."





"Cut my hair/ gag and bore me/ Pull the pin/ Let this world explode!"

The last notes faded out, and the half dozen creatures in the audience applauded and cheered. Green flame engulfed the earth pony lead singer, and Pio turned to grin at his family.

"That was great everyone. Ok, lets try Bring me to life. A one and a two and-"

"PIO!!!"

The changeling spun round to see Sarah advancing on the stage, sword in hand, eyes glowing with Nightmare flame.

"Um, Sarah! You look....upset. Is there anything we can-"

"A wedding Pio? A Royal wedding?! And a plan to take over the entire nation?!? DOES ANY OF THIS RING A FUCKING BELL?!?!!?!?"

"Well, um, it, we, uh-"

Shadows lifted Sarah onto the stage, and the sword's point was suddenly far closer to Pio's nose than he'd ever wanted a sword to be.

"Did it occur to you, to any of you, at any time in the past weeks, to shape shift into something with a pair of fucking balls and tell me that your entire race is basically wanted for HIGH TREASON?"

"Y-y-y-you can't commit treason if you aren't a resident of the nation the crime in question is-"

"NOT THE FUCKING POINT!"

Lyra stared open mouthed. These were changelings. The monsters who had enslaved her as a zombie bridesmaid. The creatures who had captured the capital city in a matter of minutes. Six well fed, very strong changelings, and they were cowering before Sarah. She turned to express her disbelief, only to find Bon Bon, DJ Pon3, the string quartet, and almost a dozen other creatures staring in the same fashion. Near the back of the crowd, she could swear she saw bits change paws.

"We thought you knew!" Pio pleaded. "You knew about Discord and Morphi and-"

"Nightmare fed me the ancient history and I read the rest in a history book! One that doesn't get the kind of updates it needs apparently."

"Hey, we've been good!" one of the changelings said. "We are only feeding on the audience at this point."

"And we didn't steal from any creature before we became a band either" a gruff one, Leo, chimed in.

"We even asked," Gem and Ini whined in unison. "Nicely!"

Sarah glared at the lot of them. "IF you want to stay, this is the absolute end of anything hidden like this. I want a report, one thousand words, by sunset, from each of you. What you did before, during, and after the invasion, a description of any pony you might have hurt, and what you are going to do to make it up to them. Benefit concert where all proceeds go to the victims of changeling assaults, care baskets, carefully written and hoof delivered notes, something."

I turned to the growing crowd. "That goes for everyone else in the castle. If anyone is a criminal of any kind from any country, I want to know about it by sunset. Or else."

"We don't have to take this." Leo said, glaring right back at Sarah. "We can take a little one armed-"

"Try me! Please, please try me." Sarah's eyes glowed turquoise, and dark tendrils of her long hair started to shift and stretch. Around the entire band circles of blue flame erupted, carving arcane sigils into the stage. "I've just found out that one of the few ponies who came to visit us after our banishment was effectively mind raped by your queen and I am dying to see how long you can survive without an exoskeleton!!!"





Everybody had shut up and the changelings had, wisely, backed down. I was able, with some effort, to talk Nightmare out of peeling Leo like a banana as a demonstration. Everyone else had calmed down, though Bon Bon and Lyra were now standing in the far corner of the courtyard, with Bon Bon, tugging at Lyra to try and get her to leave. 

"Now, if there is nothing else, I think we will set up the auditions out here since our supporting band will be busy with a writing project." I said, turning to the musicians. "DJ Pon3, you will have the western quarter of the courtyard and will need to provide your own power supplies, there are no outlets in the castle. Octavia, you and your band should appreciate the natural acoustics from the eastern wall. Now-"

"Sarah," D called out, running down the stairs, "you need-"

"STAY BACK!" Flip Switch screamed, pulling me to the ground. She stepped over me, placing herself between myself and D and spreading her wings protectively.

Then the wings unhinged and spread again.

There was a tearing sound, and the fur and feathers pulled and fell away from sleek steel underneath. Each wing became a long elegant blade on a multi-jointed arm. Her legs split and extended, making her more arachnid in appearance. Her cutie mark, a simple circuit diagram, slid off her metal hide as a pair of small cannons extended from her hips and locked onto D. Lightning arced and sparked off of her blades, and her eyes glowed with an electric blue light.

Machina had come home.
> Disturbing News
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"You cannot do this D!" the silvery defender standing over me said in a synthisized voice. "I will never let you hurt Sarah. None of this is her fault!" 

"Machina?" D asked, a broad grin breaking over his features. "It IS you! It's so good to see you! How have you been? Where have you been? Are you alright? Can I-" A bright beam cut across D's cheek, leaving a deep smoking hole in the stone wall behind him.

"I will not be lulled into a false sense of security." Machina said, unfolding four extra arms ending in scything blades as she kept moving to keep herself positioned over me. "I will defend her, even if it means I- WOOOOOOOAH!"

She slid backwards a hundred feet and slammed into a stone wall, a Nightmare circle burning on it. I stood up, careful to keep the charged gem pressed against the arcane power line connecting me to the circle.

"OK, steel was a good guess. I was worried I was only going to get an arm or a leg."

"Sarah? You are doing this?" Machina asked in wonder.

"Well, Nightmare is drawing the circle, but it's my knowledge."

Our knowledge

D stepped closer, and I was surprised to see Machina actually manage to free one arm from the circle.

"Sarah, you have to be careful. He would not listen to me, he thinks you have come to drag us back to ARCO in chains."

"Yeah, D, how is the search for my nefarious plan to drag you back to ARCO going?" I asked, sarcasm dripping from my voice.

"Just because I haven't found it yet doesn't mean it's not here."

"Yes D," I sighed, "You got me. The special conversion pod is hidden in the fourth cell in the dungeon."

"But I already-"

"I know you checked it two days ago. I have it moved on a regular basis."

"I knew it!" D exclaimed as he ran off to the dungeons, happy that he had finally gotten the best of me.

He's as bad as Lance was.

"Sarah?"

I turned to Lyra and the others, realizing they were all staring at Machina.

"What... What is that?"

I set my foot on the gem to hold it in place and waved at Machina. "This Is Machina, my second companion." 

"Huh," DJ Pon3 said, "The stories only ever mentioned the one." 

"I suppose looking like a half a skeleton made most ponies think I was just an aspect of D." Machina said. "I hope you will not think less of me for hiding this from you."

"Are you KIDDING?!" Pon3 exclaimed. "This is awesome!! I get to tell ponies that I had a famous Daemon as a roadie for months! I gotta get a photo, no one's gonna to believe this!"

"Is it safe?" Octavia asked.

I pulled the gem away, and the circle collapsed. Machina slid to the ground, folding herself back into a mostly pegasus form. Everyone cringed away.

"Um, Machina? You sort of ripped your outer coating, and kind of look like a robo-zombie-pony. Maybe a new form would be better?"

Machina looked over herself. Between shifting into a battle mode and being slammed against the wall, all but her chest and head were shredded. I was silently thanking any gods that would listen that Machina only used synthetic skin and hadn't tried to grow a biological outer coat. The machine pony shifted, turning and rolling into herself until she stood like a human. 

Mostly human. She had four arms, and a pair of digitigrade legs, as well as a pair of small metal wings that looked mostly ornamental. The fur had been recycled, thankfully out of sight, into a deep blue kimono. Her round head had only four glowing blue eyes to give it any direction or expression.

"OK, forget safe. Tell me how dangerous it is." Bon Bon said. "I want to know if I should run screaming or if just a pleasant jog will do." 

"Machina is an excellent statistician and mathematician, with focuses on precision work." I explained. Machina bowed to the crowd. "She is the subtle blade, a precision scalpel to balance D's sledgehammer."

"So, not very powerful then." Bon Bon sighed in relief. I got the sense that if Machina had given herself eyebrows, one would be raising right now.

"She provided me the weapon that took out the giant timber wolf."

I had wondered about that, but you never volunteered and I simply didn't ask.

"There is no need to scare everypony with horror stories of my power Sarah." Machina said, "Not since you have your own twisted tales of blood and death."

"Tales of what?" I asked confused.

Machina nodded. "Traveling with Vinyl Scratch-"

"DJ Pon3!" the DJ shouted, "I've got a brand and image to maintain!"

"Traveling with Pon3, one hears a number of rumors and stories." Machina advanced on me, hissing at me. "You threw every pony in your construction team out in a fit of drunken rage. You sabotaged your own repairs just to keep the guards assigned to you here longer. You've gathered an army of monsters, gryphons, zebras, minotaurs, and canids to assault Equestria with. You eat assassins and consort with demons."

"Where are you getting all of this???" I demanded. "An army? Have you seen the creatures around here? Most of them are just refugees! And sabotaging my own repair work? I'm bound here until the repairs are done. unlike the guards who got to leave when the money ran out."

"Still, you cannot deny that you killed a monster hunter sent here to exterminate you!" Machina said. "I've seen the official reports, he has been missing for so long he has to be dead."

"I haven't killed any pony, hunter or otherwise."

"It was not a pony, it was a minotaur."

"A.. a what?"

"A minotaur. He specialized in rare monsters and had a crossbow. It happened months ago so you might not even remember-"

"I- back when I was freshly banished, Nightmare's power was leaking. It was making my nightmares real within the castle."

"What?" Machina fell back a step. "Sarah, I know everywhere you have been. Please tell me that is not still happening, because I do not want to wake up in fields of ash and glass."

"No I... we, got it under control. But on the last day I had a dream, or I thought it was a dream, of being a monster. A huge monster and a monster hunter came and he... and I..."

Sarah, I'm going to need the body for about an hour.

"What? Why?" I hissed.

I'm going to be violently ill.

"Wait in line." I muttered under my breath,

"What did you do Sarah?" Machina asked. "Where is his body."

I swallowed, trying very hard not to loose what I had for breakfast. "I dreamed that Nightmare grew a massive maw and I- I ate him. I swallowed him whole."





It took two hours to calm me down, and in that time only Lyra, D and Machina would approach me. Nightmare was utterly repulsed at the idea. Though creatures had been hurt in the past as a result of her actions, that she had in some way not just killed but eaten a living sentient creature was terrifying to her. In dreams she killed all the time, but those were just dream creatures, no more than shadow puppets of her own making.

Bon Bon stood a little ways off, eyeing me and trying to coax Lyra away. Lyra wasn't moving save to brew me some relaxing tea, at greatly reduced strength, and try and offer words of comfort. Even D felt sorry for me.

Machina was doing her best to compile a list of rumors she had heard, as well as talk to anyone who would listen and get info about the castle.

"Here," she said, handing over three scrolls. "A list of the rumors that are mostly true and a list of those that are complete fabrications. Due to the sheer number of accurate or semi accurate stories I have heard, I can only assume that someone within the castle was feeding information to ponies outside."

"That makes sense," I said, sipping the tea with a shaky hand. "We tossed out a number of spies only a few weeks ago." I looked at the third list, which comprised of names, titles, types, and a percentage. "What is this?"

"A list of books, plays, short stories, and songs about you and Nightmare and how terrible you are."

"This looks a little older, how did you get an accuracy rating on them already."

"That's their popularity rating."

I looked over the long list, processing it.

"The Nightmare in the Forests, Poems in the Dark, Nightmare Edition, Demonic Debauchery?" I looked up, "What is all of this?"

"My best guess would be an organized smear campaign. Anypony who wanted to make anything that put you in a bad light in the past few months has been given extra funding by anonymous donors."

"Ugh," I closed my eyes and laid my head back. "The princesses promised me they would fix my image problem, not fund it's complete collapse."

"Hey, they have Nightmare of Equestria on here!" Lyra said, "I know it paints you as this creature of immoral darkness, but the songs are amazing and the story is fantastic!"

"Oh, I love the title song in that." Bon Bon said. Then an idea struck her, and she turned to the musicians who were setting up. "Can you guys play Nightmare of Equestria?"

"Can we?" Octavia acted as if she had been slapped. "We were the original band for it's first twenty performances."

"Bet you can't keep up if I rock out to it, though." Vinyl called in challenge.

Octavia narrowed her eyes at the eccentric DJ. "It. Is. ON!"

Two opposing styles of music filled the air and, after a moment's cacophony, harmonized into something eerily beautiful. Octavia's violinist set her instrument down and began to sing.

"At night she sang to me
In dreams she came
that voice which calls to me
and speaks my name
and do I dream again?
for now I find
The Nightmare of Equestria is there
inside my mind."

"Here," Machina said quietly, so as not to disturb the music. "I made it for you, in thanks for giving it up to save me." She handed me a long, heavy cardboard box. Inside I found a metal right arm, far simpler than the one Machina usually resided in, but still fully serviceable.

"Thank you." I whispered, and felt a tear on my cheek at finally having the friends I'd survived so much with at my side again.





Bon Bon was just about bouncing with excitement at the song, singing along with the parts she knew. "Oh Lyra, this is fantastic! I never thought I'd hear something like this."

"Yeah, but they were more polished at the party." Lyra said.

Bon Bon stopped. "The party? What party?"

"The party. On Nightmare Night, where they..." Lyra looked confused. "No, wait, that's? Huh?"

"You alright?"

"Fine, I must have just dreamed it or something. Don't mind me Bonnie."





"I believe this should settle the land dispute between your two families." Princess Celestia said, passing down her judgement on the two nobles before her. They bowed and retreated.

"Next appointment?" She asked her steward, who looked down the scroll.

"A new kingdom seeking recognition." he said, nodding for the petitioner to step forward.

Celestia lit her horn and lifted the petitioner's package towards herself, unfurling the scroll on top and reading through it. Her eyebrow arched upwards.

"This says the kingdom is barely more than a few acres of unclaimed wilderness and a single stronghold." The princess said.

"Yes, your Majesty."

"The population is very small as well. Are you certain you would not prefer to petition for annexation into Equestria? We could provide support in terms of funding, troops, materials and food."

"Thank you , your Majesty, but no. We have already been recognized by a few other nations as being independent, and we feel we must stand on our own. We simply request recognition as an official nation by Equestria."

"Your kingdom isn't just some rebel stronghold in a far off land is it?"

"No, your Majesty. It is in a wilderness that none lay claim to, and it has no desire to expand it's borders." He bowed.

"It says here your primary exports are shining gems." Celestia said, opening the box. "These are certainly some fine examples. Are you worried about outside forces attempting to take control of your mines?"

"That is not a problem your majesty. We have had one or two attempts in the past, but they have all been halted by our own forces. The local terrain also limits much military action."

Celestia smiled, happy to see any group that could stand on their own. "Very well. I, Princess Celestia, Co-ruler of Equestria do hereby recognize the Kingdom of Dreams as a friendly nation, and welcome trade and diplomatic relations with it."

Reggie bowed low, a happy smile on his face. "Thank you, your majesty."
> Computerized Deductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Putting my arm back in place after such a long absence was not something I was looking forward too. Machina had requested to look at and clean the contacts in my shoulder first, and I wasn't about to strip down in the courtyard, Equestria's near universal casual nudity not withstanding. We retired to my private room and locked the doors before reattaching the appendage.

"OOOOOHHMYFUGGINGGODDAMNIT!" 

I gritted my teeth and held back tears as I cradled my metal right arm at the shoulder. 

"Gently." Machina said, placing a hand on my other shoulder. "The socket has been empty for months, you might cause nerve damage shoving it in like that."

"Old habits die hard." I said, blinking back the pain. "Why isn't it moving?"

"Any number of reasons. Most likely the system is booting. There will be a short calibration period."

The metal hand jerked up and tapped me quickly on the shoulder.

"Is that-"

"Do. Not. Move." Machina intoned.

Quickly the hand reached up and tapped my forehead noes and chin. I held still for another twenty seconds. "Is that it?"

"I may have programed in certain commands that will cause the arm to smack some sense into you."

A chuckle escaped my lips. "When did you get a sense of humor?"

"Around the time I lost my third job for being too serious. Part of the reason I sought employment with Vinyl was the parties she hosted provided a wealth of research subjects." Machina seemed to sway almost gracefully on her multi-jointed legs. "Was there anything else you needed?"

"Yes, actually." I handed her a small box, marveling at how much easier it was to handle now that I had two arms. "Here, these are all the correspondences from my party request, invoices for materials, and statements from the royal bank about how all the money was spend. I know something is off, but it's just too many numbers in too complicated a fashion for me to sort through."

Machina nodded. "I shall do my best."





Machina returned to the courtyard and finished setting up for Pon3 before retiring to a guest room in a nearby tower. Between Octavia's training and Pon3's skill they had no problem working together, their music hitting the range from rock to classical and all of it made me want to dance. In two hours time we had hammered out a deal that included room and board, as well as transport out after Nightmare Night. Neither had any trouble with the changelings performing as long as they stayed in pony disguise and didn't feed off of them.

I had other tasks that needed my attention, as the castle did not run itself. In addition to hearing a few complaints in court and helping some of the refugees settle in, I had to tend to the gems charging in the basement. That's where I was when the canid runner found me. I'd not seen a canid this upset since Nightmare turned the castle into it's current form.

"Princess Nightmare-Sarah! The, um, the machine creature is doing something in the western tower! Please, you have to make it stop before it destroys the entire castle!"





Machina's kimono clad form was now the center of a small nest of thick cables, each stretching out to a glowing holo-projector. After seeing what I had done with a few simple circles of Nightmare's, any creature walking into this room would think the castle was about to undergo magical Armageddon. 

"It's alright." I assured the terrified canid, "The projections are harmless and there aren't any gems up here to empower circles anyway. Go tell everyone that things are fine."

As he took off Machina looked up and smiled, her face having been altered enough to convey emotion. "Well Sarah, I have to say. When you piss off people in power, you really go all out."

"Tell me about it." I muttered, pulling up a chair. "This entire restoration project has been one assault after another."

"No, I mean you really have someone out to get you." She waved a hand and one of the holographic displays brought up digital copies of the bank financing. "As near as I can tell, whoever was in charge of your finances handled them in a way that is either woeful incompetent or brilliantly malicious. You've bought almost everything twice and paid high restocking fees for cancellations. There are also a number of transfers out of this account that are disguised as purchases. All in all, I'd say  you only ever had access to between one eighth and one fifteenth of the total funds allocated to you."

"I had suspected as much." I glowered. "I'd love to wring the neck of whatever little paper pusher took all my money."

"Technicaly it was not yours, you were merely granted access to the funds in order to restore this castle." Machina waved a hand around. "Clearly you did not require it, as Nightmare has effected better repairs than you might have." Her frown returned. "Still, I have found other things that concern me, other hints of a force or forces directed against you."

Machina nodded and the display changed again, becoming a large map. I was able to pick out the Everfree and Ponyville, but everything beyond it was outside of my knowledge. The map became populated with a wide number of dots, most in towns near the Everfree and away from Canterlot. 

"What am I looking at here? Guard placement? Secret Nightmare hating societies? Not-so-secret Sarah hating societies?"

"This is a distribution map of the considerable number of stories, songs, plays, poems, and such that feature you in a negative way. Alone each represents only a small opinion, but together they make up a fairly cohesive smear campaign. Compared to the rest of the nation," The map zoomed out with only a few other dots appearing, "we must also conclude that this is a targeted attack. If you left the castle right now in your human form and walked in any direction you would likely encounter hostility greater than what you experienced in Ponyville. A few towns," almost two dozen encircling the forest were highlighted, "have started militia training and patrols since the castle has been completed."

I felt my eye twitching. "Seriously?! The princesses were supposed to take care of my negative image, not allow it to get buried in this kind of crap!"

"It gets worse." Machina added.Two spreadsheets replaced the map side by side. One appeared to be a simplified version of my finances, embezlement shown in bold numbers. The other was a set of titles, dates and amounts of money. Even at a glance I could see a disturbing pattern. "As near as I can tell, the amount of anonymous funds spent on these publications is near the total of funds embezzled from your accounts. It appears you have paid for your own smear campaign."

They would not only dare to steal from us, but use our own funds against us!? Tell us of these bastards, that we may turn their final hours upon this world into a living nightmare. 

"Now now Nightmare," I said through gritted teeth, "there is a certain protocol to these things. We are the rulers of an independent kingdom and it wouldn't do to go rampaging across our neighbors land in search of these criminals. Instead we shall present this evidence to the Equestrian courts and demand they hand over the offender for prosecution." I felt a wicked grin form on my face. "Then we get to enjoy the look on their faces as their own country drops them into our claws."

"An admirable, if somewhat disturbing, idea." Machina agreed. "But I doubt any plea along those lines is going to reach anyone who will be inclined to help you in any way."

The spreadsheets faded and were replaced with digital copies of the response letters from my party invitation. Two letters expanded to fill most of the area, while the rest hovered in smaller form nearby. "These letters are supposedly from the Gryphon Empire and Saddle Arabia, the two nations that are the furthest apart from each other. However, the paper and ink are both of the exact same make, and though the literary styles are different the writing style is exactly the same."

I looked over the analysis, stunned. "Someone has hijacked our mail route? Even the one with the Rovers?"

Every request, every letter, even those sent by the Canids?

"I discussed mail and shipments with one of the Rovers." Machina said, closing down the screens. "He told me a pony made contact with them shortly after they came to this castle, offering them supplies and courier services at a very low rate. Looking over their records it seems the only things that were overpriced were equipment and supplies used to rebuild the castle."

"What is the point of all of this!?" I screamed, my rage finally reaching a boiling point. "Why do all of this? To keep me at the castle? To annoy me into submission? WHAT!?"

"Uncertain at this time." Machina adapted a calm, clinical tone, trying to calm me down. "It is clear these actions were taken by a small, well connected and well organized group. Several possible outcomes seem probable: the first being containment. In the event you break your seal your departure from this castle will trigger mass panic. Such a reaction by the masses could be used to sway the opinion of the Princesses and result in further incarceration or banishment."

"My seal is already broken Machina." I held up my left arm, the fake seal fading away. "This is just an illusion by Nightmare."

Machina raised an eyebrow. "Then why do you remain behind? Why court favor with other nations?"

"The creatures in my castle are mainly here because they have nowhere else to go. My departure would create a power vacuum with disastrous results."

Machina gave me a blank look, but her holographic displays whirred to life, images and figures flashing faster than I could register. For Machina this was akin to thinking out loud. The blur of data snapped to a stop, a massive list of options visible.

"Sarah, I have some questions for you. First, have you been officially challenged in this castle?"

"What exactly do you mean 'officially'?" I was starting to get an idea.

"A test or challenge issued in a formal or semi-formal fashion with set rules, victory conditions, and agreed upon rewards."

"Yes, several times."

"All before the seal was lifted?"

"Yes, though that's a secret so nobody really knows." I said.

"Right, that removes it as a variable. Anyone who challenged you before could still challenge you now. Reguarding the challenges, was the prize to be rewarded upon your defeat ownership of the castle or control over you?"

"Ownership of the castle." I said. "Though, given that I couldn't leave until just recently it would also have given rough control over me."

The holographic displays shut down and began to retract within Machina. "Someone obviously wants you under their control. My arrival here will undoubtedly be reported back to your enemies soon, either by a spy inside the castle or just through casual gossip in letters to family."

"We can shut down the mail route!" I said."Or sabotage it! Ship bombs and such."

"Either action would show our hand. Right now they do not know that we know, and we can use that to our advantage but only for a very limited time. We need to solve the power problem and leave this castle by the end of the party, or I worry that we will not be able to leave without a massive show of force." Machina frowned. "The longer you stay, the more likely these creatures will be put in harms way."






The council, as I'd come to think of the representatives of each race, sat nervously on one side of a long stone dining table. D and Machina stood beside me on the other side of the table, D looking menacing and Machina providing displays and data.

"So," I said, leaning forward, "you see the dilemma. I can't walk out of the castle without abandoning you to your fates AND walking into a lynch mob in every direction. The longer I stay, the more likely forces will be allied against me and, by proximity, all of you."

"Our foes assume," Machina added, her synthetic voice still unnerving most of the creatures. "that with the alterations to and completion of the castle, Sarah's escape is imminent."

"That makes no sense." Reggie said. "If my clan was tracking a foe and knew it was about to escape our grasp, we would increase our efforts to capture it. Of late there have been almost no such attacks."

"That would be if your target really was going to escape. Keep in mind that our opponent may not know we have figured out about the smear campaign. If you had a prey that you knew was running for a trap, you might back off a little just to watch it catch itself."

"There is also the chance that they, whoever they are, are gathering strength and consolidating power. Sarah might be able to break through a militia or a scared town, but if there was something tougher nearby."

"Such a force seems to be the Night Guard patrolling the Everfree." Zaephir said.

"They have, however, forgotten a potential exit." I said, pulling out a bit and setting it on the table. "I mentioned this in my trial, but like Machina's existence it might not be common knowledge. I can give up my anchor and leave this dimension, though I have held that option as a last resort. Travel in that fashion is unpleasant at best and just plain deadly in normal conditions." I gave a stern look to the council as I played with the bit. "This does leave another massive problem, namely what you all are going to do once I leave." 

Machina's screens shifted, displaying historical records of aggression between races. More than a couple looked down and away from their shameful history. 

"I'm not so blind that I can't see the looks you give each other now and then." I said. "You of the council have proven to be of wiser minds and calmer nature, but each of you could probably name at least one in your number that would strike out if they thought they could get away with it. There must be a balance, one not built on having the biggest monster at the top. We have been trying to find instances of peaceful co-habitation of so many varied species, and only one has shown up: Equestria itself. Therefore, I have decided to model the replacement government of this, the Kingdom of Dreams, in the Equestrian format."

Puzzled looks greeted the announcement. Thomas leaned forward in his seat. "How, exactly? Are you just going to merge us all together into some immortal chaos spawn of a ruler?"

There was an uncomfortable shifting in the councilors as they looked for exits.

"Calm down." I waved my hands, trying to calm them. "I haven't got that kind of power. I was referring more to the founding as seen in Hearth's Warming Eve, where the various tribes banded together against a common threat. I cannot guarantee that my departure will mean the end the attacks on the castle. As you pointed out, this recent lull might just be Harold or others gathering forces against us. Eventually I want this council to act as the ruler, but until such time as everyone in the castle can recognize you I'll have to appoint someone to stand in my stead." I was doing my best to stare down the entire council at the same time. "Whoever I select will start out completely out of their depth. I want each of you to support them, reguardless of their race."

"You would have us swear to a new queen? Even one sight unseen?" Zaephir asked.

"I'm not going to pick one at random." I said, "Machina and D have collected an amazing amount of data on everyone both in and out of the castle."

"A number of gryphons are itching for your departure." Reggie chimed in. "Unless you choose one of them, I'm sure your replacement will have some trouble to deal with."

"Then I'll make sure to pick someone who can deal with that." I said. "Any other complaints?"

"This castle and your protection is one of the greatest things we minotaur could hope for." Thomas said. "You have our support."

"Likewise for me and mine." Pio said. "Once we are done with our penance. We all opted for a benefit concert by the way."

"The Rovers have always had your back Sarah." Red said with a grin. "And we outnumber the few from other clans in the castle. We can look after our own."

"Any decision will be fine, with support from me and mine." Zaephir added, though he didn't seem as happy about it.

"I'll talk to the gryphons, and I know you can trust most, but be ready for a couple to make a move once you pick."

"Good, it's done then." A ghost of a smile crossed my lips. Though they didn't realize it, the council had already started acting together. I knew that Thomas had no love of gryphons, but that he would stand by Reggie. Likewise Zaephir and Thomas had already started to shrug off centuries old prejudice. Even Scorpio, a changeling, was sitting here unharassed. 

I stood up to signal the end of the meeting. "Now, lets all get to work. Nightmare Night will be my farewell party, and I intend it to rock this castle till the sun comes up."
> You Are Cordially Invited
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Nightmare Night. No longer a night about Luna's decent into madness and the rise of Nightmare Moon, it had become a celebration of the dark and macabre side of things. The transformation of the holiday was something Twilight was studying on a sociological level, in hopes of graphing the changes in culture around such an event.

Or she would be, if she didn't have to watch over four very energetic troublemakers.

She sighed and looked at the crusaders in their mismatched costumes. Twist was dressed as a minotaur, Scootaloo as a gryphon, Apple Bloom as a zebra and Sweetie Belle as a....a.....

"Sweetie, why are you covered in black paper mache?" Twilight asked.

"I'm a changeling!" Sweetie replied, grinning.

Twilight shuddered. She still couldn't get the image of that terrible queen out of her head some nights. It was one of the few times she and her friends had failed Equestria. If it hadn't been for her brother and Cadence.... she didn't want to think about that.

"Ya alright Twi?" Applejack asked. The farm pony shifted her scarecrow costume a bit as she turned to her friend. They followed the crusaders to the next house, standing back while the younger fillies surged to the door to demand treats.

Twilight looked around at all the young ponies dressed in a surprising variety of ghoul and monster costumes. "Just wishing there were more pirates, astronauts and fire fighters instead of zombies, vampires and ... changelings." She suppressed the urge to shudder again.

"Well, at least Pinkie dressed as a chicken again this year." Applejack said in a reassuring voice.

"I am?"

Twilight and Applejack spun around to find the feather festooned pink pony trying to look at her backside. "Darn it! I'm supposed to be a cockatrice. The tail fell off again. I'll have to go to the store."

"What store?" Applejack asked.

"The re-tail store!" Pinkie said with a grin. Twilight groaned, pulling the hood of her Clover the Clever costume down in an attempt to hide from the awful joke.

"Twiligh can we gow to tha nex howse now?" Scootaloo asked, a lollipop in her mouth slurring her words.

Twilight did a quick count of the crusaders before nodding. Applejack and Rarity had found out the little ones were playing in the Everfree, and had grounded them until tonight. The only reason they were even able to go out and about tonight was that she and Applejack were watching their every move. Twilight glanced around at the crowd and suppressed a groan. 

Nearby were a pair of adults in costume with no child nearby, obviously Lunar Guard by their bat wings and dark armor. They were trying, and failing badly, to blend in on Nightmare Night. One wore a lame sheet with holes cut in it and the other had skeleton paint over his face and armor. They had been there every time she turned around, ensuring that Twilight wasn't going to get anywhere near the Everfree even on Nightmare Night.

"OOOOOOH!" came a chorus of young voices, drawing Twilight out of her inner thoughts. They all stared up at a brightly colored poster stapled to a light post.






COME ONE COME ALL!

Scare yourself silly at Jump and Spook's Haunted House and Cart Ride!

Three separate rides for thrill seekers:

Dark Circus - where mad clowns drag the audience into the deadly act

The Factory - See ponies broken down by machines to their basic bloody parts

Nightmare Science - A New Experiment in Fear! Each Ride Unique!

Your Nightmare Awaits At 1313 Everfree Way






"Wow, that's out near Fluttershy's cottage." Applejack said. "It's got to be practically on the edge of the Everfree."

"Can we go? Can we?" Scotaloo asked, bouncing in excitement.

"We'll be real good!" Sweetie Belle chimed in.

"Well, alright I guess. We can go see the Dark Circus one if you-"

"Um, Twi, if its all the same to you, Ah'll pass on that one." Applejack said, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"What? But I thought-"

"Psst." Pinkie hissed in Twilight's ear. "She's scared of clowns."

"You're coulrophobic?" Twilight asked in a startled voice.

"What?" Applejack asked stunned. "Nah, Ah just can't stand clowns. Ah ain't afraid of colors."

"Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns." Sweetie Belle said. Twilight smiled down at her, pleased at her knowledge.

"OK," Twilight said, "what about the factory?"

"NO!" Scootaloo piped up quickly. "Please please PLEASE no!"

"What?!" Twilight asked.

"Scootaloo had a nightmare the other night." Apple Bloom said, putting a comforting hoof on her friend. "I don't think she'd like to see the factory." Scootaloo shuddered and muttered something about rainbows.

"Alright, Nightmare Science it is then." Twilight paused for a moment and then smiled when nopony spoke up in oposition, glad things had finally been worked out. "Lets drop your candy haul off with Fluttershy before we hit the haunted house. You wouldn't want to lose those sweet treasures from fright would you?"





Twilight looked over the four wooden carts on rails sitting outside the haunted house. Each cart had two bench like seats, one behind the other. Muffled roars and screams drifted out of the house, along with a recording of a haunting violin melody. She turned to the costumed unicorn next to her.

"So, how does this work?"

"Well, Twilight Sparkle, the Nightmare Science ride comes in two stages." Lyra waved a hoof at the carts. "First we run you though the Test of Fear, where our assistants will gauge your response to a number of scare scenarios. There is a brief break in the back where we let everyone recover and set up stage two." She put on a wicked grin. "That's where the scares really begins."

"Are you all going to ride?" An orange earth mare asked Twilight. "They said they needed a few more ponies before they started."

"Yeah," Lyra said. "We have a minimum four per cart, and right now we only have nine ponies waiting. You all would fill our quota."

"Look who it is, Silver Spoon." A snooty voice behind Twilight rang out.

Apple Bloom hung her head and grimaced. "Oh no."

Twilight turned to see a pair of young fillies, one with a tiara, pointing at the crusaders and giggling. "It's a bunch of blank-flank babies!"

"We are not babies!" Sweetie Belle snipped.

"Oh?" Diamond Tiara asked in a leading tone. "I don't know of any other fillies who need three chaperones for Nightmare Night! Are you sure you want to get on this ride? You might wet your diapers!" The two began to laugh so hard they almost collapsed.

"We won't chicken out." Scootaloo cried, shouting to be heard over the laughter.

"You want to bet?" Silver spoon asked in a wicked tone.

"Yeah!" Twist said.

"Fine, you ride this ride. If you chicken out before it's through, Twist owes us free desserts for a week." Diamond said with a grin, confident in their win.

"And if we make it through, you pay for our desserts for a week." Apple Bloom countered. "Deal?"

"Deal!" The bullies chorused, grinning wickedly.

"Ahem." Lyra called the attention of everypony gathered. "I'll need you all to sign these release forms before you are allowed to ride. Anypony without a cutie mark needs an adult to sign for them." The crusaders cringed at this news, but Twilight stepped forward to handle the paperwork.

Twilight climbed into the rear seat of the last car, anxious to observe as much of this so called experiment as possible, next to Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo and Twist sat in front of her. In the next car held Applejack and her sister, just behind Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Next up was Pinkie Pie, who sat next to the orange mare with a cutie mark like an exclamation point in a word balloon. In front of them sat Clockwork, the towns watch repair pony, wrapped in a ludicrously long stripped scarf. Ditzy was next to him in an eye searing coat of pinks, greens, reds, and plaids with a strange little cat pin on the lapel. The front cart held the candy maker Bon Bon, who was chatting with Lyra about the ride, and a pony in a blue jumpsuit with yellow striping and some metal thing on her foreleg. The very front of the cart had young Pipsqueek, dressed as a zombie pirate, and Button Mash, whose parents were both signing off on their papers.

"Alright, that's everypony!" Lyra called, checking that they were all seated. "Please keep your head and hooves inside the cart at all times, and no magic. Enjoy the ride." She pulled a leaver, and the carts rolled forward through a pair of swinging doors and into the dark.

The young ones giggled in the dark, but the giggles seemed to echo back in a creepy fashion that set Twilight's teeth on edge. She resisted the urge to light up her horn to see what was around her, but she swore she could hear motion outside the cart. The doors to the next room had opened before the lights came on, and Twilight jumped slightly.

This room looked to be nothing but storage. Roughly a dozen ponyform mannequins stood around the cart, standing randomly, leaning against the walls or lying down. They all seemed dirty or worn in places, but still looked serviceable.

"Um," Sweetie Belle drew Twilight's attention, pointing to one of the mannequins. "Did it just-?"

As Twilight watched, all the mannequins' heads turned slowly to look at the carts. Everypony froze and seemed to hold their breaths. The lights went out with a loud bang and several screams filled the room, not all coming from the cart. As the lights flickered back on, several of the mannequins were now missing their heads, and there was a distinctive red stain around the raw fabric of the neck. 

"B-baby blank flanks want to get out now?" Diamond Tiara teased, trying to keep the fear out of her own voice.

"N-n-not a chance!" Apple Bloom responded, trying to keep from looking at the decapitated mannequins.

Diamond spun around in her chair. "Yeah right! I heard you scream and this is only...the....first...." Her eyes grew wide with fear as she stared at Twilight.

No, wait, she's not looking at me. Twilight turned to look at Sweetie Belle but she seemed fine. What is she... Twilight looked back to her right, and found herself staring into the bloody stump of one of the ponyforms. A half dozen had come forward and were shambling after the cart in jerky unantuarl motions.

"AAAAIIIEEEEEE!" Twilight screamed as the carts carried her out of the monsters reach and through another set of doors.

The next room had machines dismembering still moving pony bodies. Scotaloo crouched down in the cart and covered her eyes. "nononononono-" she cried as steel arms with wicked drills and saws swept close to the cart, eliciting screams from others.

"Look at the little crybaby!" Diamond called, leaning over the back of her cart. "Baby blank flank is shaking like a-"

SSSSZZZINKT!

There was a soft tink as the top of Diamond's tiara bounced off the cart floor. Silver Spoon pulled her friend down into the seat, her eyes wide with panic. "THAT NEARLY TOOK YOUR HEAD OFF!"

Each new room brought on a different horror. Zombie clowns, their faces pale with blood smeared lips for smiles, nearly scared the daylights out of Applejack. Hissing green blocks had Button Mash screaming something about creepers. Even Clockwork was jumping at the scares, though Twilight couldn't see what it was about the strange robot with the synthesized voice that had him jumping in fright. The thing wasn't even a proper robot, it had a plunger for an arm for crying out loud!

When finally rolled to a stop in a well lit room with a kind of train roundhouse built into the floor, everypony was shaking with fright. Lyra was standing nearby in a bloody lab coat with a discolored clipboard, smiling as she waiting while they all regained their composure.

"Ah don't ever want ta see another clown as long as Ah live." Applejack said.

"Spiders." Twilight shuddered, remembering one room where you couldn't see the walls for the spiders. Not webs. Spiders. Thousands and thousands of spiders."Why did it have to be spiders."

Pinkie was laughing. "OH my gosh Sparkling Thought, did you see the vampony in that last room?! I thought it was really going to get us." Her orange seat mate was giggling slightly as the adrenaline from the last jump scare started to fade away.

"Well, I have to say we got some really amazing data we got out of all that." She grinned at the ponies who were half shaking, half giggling as they started to relax. "We've compiled what got the most reactions and I believe we are ready for the final leg of the ride. Before we go forward, does anypony want to get off?"

Shaking badly, Diamond and Silver turned around to grin the crusaders, who were all having an internal struggle to stay. 

"Iths just a ride! Even if iths the scariest ride ever, iths still just a ride." Twist whispered to her friends, desperate to believe it herself.

"W-we can t-t-take it!" Scootaloo said through chattering teeth, trying to use bravado in place of bravery. "G-g-give us your worst."

"I hope they have some industrial strength cleaners." Diamond teased. "Because I know four blank flanked babies who are going to wet themselves in fright."

"If it's much worse than the room with the pony being pumped up till it exploded, they are going to need to clean this seat too." Silver Spoon hissed at her friend.

Applejack glared at her. "When we are done with this, ah think ah might have a word with your pa."

"Really? Nopony is leaving?" Lyra asked surprised. Pipsqueak and Button Mash glanced nervously at each other for a moment, then shook their heads. Everypony else gave words of affirmation, though some were less enthusiastic than others.

"Wow, I don't think we've had more than two or three full carts all night! That means we can run... the ultimate track!" She put deep emphasis on the last words, then turned and knocked on the wall. "Track four!" The tracks beneath the carts began to turn to the right until they were lined up with a pair of wooden doors with the number 4 painted on it in deep red. "I haven't even seen this one!" Lyra confided in Twilight as she did one last check over the cart. "In fact, scoot over." Button Mash and Pipsqueek shifted against the sides of the cart, allowing Lyra to climb into the middle of the front seat. "All right! Lets go!" She said, and the carts started to roll forward with a click. Through the doors and into complete darkness.

The first surprise came when the ponies in the front cart let out a cry and the whole train picked up speed.Twilight felt the track drop out from under her as the train plunged down into the darkness. Down they went, banking hard around corners and jostling each other with each shift and turn. Unable to see, each turn or dip was a surprise.

At last the little train leveled out and rolled through a pair of doors into a well lit basement. The wooden floor looked rotted and worn, but the stone sides were clean and well washed. The cart rolled to a stop before Twilight noticed something.

There was no exit for this room. There was even a cart stop built into the wall a few feet in front of the train, to keep it from hitting the far wall. There weren't any other doors or anything.

Are we just supposed to get out and walk? She wondered.

Something floated down from the ceiling into the carts. A few screamed, fearing spiders or something like that, but instead they were just crisp envelopes. 

Envelopes with their names on them. Twilight held up one that had "Twilight Sparkle" written in flowing dark blue ink on the surface.

"This looks like an invitation!" Pinkie said, tearing hers open with glee. "Ooooh! A party!"

With greater care, Twilight opened hers and looked through it.






You are cordially invited to the multicultural party event of the season. 

Come join us in the Kingdom of Dreams for

Nightmare Night, 
Bittersweet Harvest, 
and
Ghost Flight. 

An evening of food, music, dancing, and fun.




Sincerely,

Her Majesty Sarah Jordan
Nightmare  



Applejack blinked at the letter, looking round to her friend. "Twilight, what-"

There was a groan and a defining crack as the floor in front of the cart sagged and gave way. The whole floor tilted down and forward, revealing a great dark cavern. Everypony screamed as the little train slid down into the cave and was swallowed up in darkness.





Twilight's horn lit up the cave in weak purple light, showing how terrifyingly close the cave walls were as they rushed by. A moment later the light gained a green tint as Lyra lit her horn as well. Sweetie Belle, along with almost every other pony, was cowering down in their carts. The speed was still increasing, and the wind was starting to sting at Twilight's eyes. She had beleived the last decent the carts had done was a roller coaster. She had been wrong, it was a kiddie ride, compared to this. She could swear the drop was nearly vertical.

Lyra's light at the front moving up and left was all the warning Twilight got before the carts quickly changed directions, banking hard and rising. Most of the ponies screamed or groaned at the forces exerted on them.

"We have to find a way to stop the carts!" She called over the wind.

"Are ya kiddin?!" Applejack yelled back. "At this speed anything ya try will just crash us inta the walls!"

"If we can press something against the walls to slow us down." Apple Bloom mused loudly.

The walls around suddenly fell away, and the cart now rocketed through a huge cavern, slowly climbing a thin scaffold of wood and stone. The light of their horns were too dim to see any roof or bottom.

"OK, new plan." Twilight yelled as panic started to grip her. "Who can fly?!" Ditzy raised her hoof, but Clockwork pulled it back down shaking his head. 
.
At the top of the hill was a sign mounted on the side of the track that read "Now Leaving Equestria. Come Back Soon!" 

"What in tarnation?" Applejack asked.

"PUT YOUR HOOVES UP!" Pinkie Pie screamed as the carts crested the hill and plunged back into a dark narrow cave. Screams echoed off the walls as the cart banked hard left and right several times before begining to climb again. The climb kept going and going and going. 

That's not right, Twilight thought, glancing around in confusion. we should have slowed to a stop now, if not started going backwards. She realized that something must be pulling the cart, but for the life of her couldn't figure out what.

A few moments later the cart crested another hill and suddenly the ponies found themselves in a well lit barn. Three other small trains were parked in the stables, and a set of switches directed their cart into the last empty stall.

Everypony was quiet for a little bit. With shaky legs and a bit of trepidation they began to climb out.

"Woo hoo!" Pinkie cried, bouncing up to Applejack. "What a wild ride! I've got to go on that one again."

"I have to admit, I did not expect that." Lyra said, grinning sheepishly and trying to steady herself. 

"You blank flanks are a lot braver than I gave you credit for." Diamond admitted grudgingly.

Silver Spoon nodded in agreement. "Can you imagine if this thing had actually taken us to that icky castle in the middle of the Everfree? My dad would ground me for a month!"

"That was pretty scary though." Applejack said conversationally to Sparkling Thought. "Can you imagine if it had actually taken us to Nightmare's castle?" She joked pushing open the barn doors.

Obsidian black tile shined in the starlight. Matte black stone walls rose around them on all sides. Torches burned with a blue-green flame. Two gryphons in armor bowed to the ponies and waved their claws, directing the guests to a pair of huge doors. Overhead a deep blue banner hung with letters that glowed a soft white like stars.


WELCOME TO CASTLE NIGHTMARE


"Oh I am so grounded." Silver Spoon whined.
> Welcome to the Show
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight pulled magic into her horn, ready to throw up a shield around herself and the other ponies as one of the armored gryphons approached.

"Unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi! Mares and gentlecolts of all ages! Welcome! Welcome to the Castle Nightmare in the Kingdom of Dreams." He waved his claw, and torches lit in sequence across the courtyard, forming a path to a massive door. Strange lights flashed and danced beyond the door, and a rhythmic thudding was filtering though the cracks.

Twilight walked cautiously along the lit path, ponies of various ages tagging along behind her. Applejack walked by her side, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, while Pinkie Pie bounced along just behind. The armored escorts simply smiled and waved them along, trying to look as unthreatening as possible in heavy body armor.

A pair of cloaked figures stepped out of the shadows and pulled open a large pair of double doors. Light and sound poured into the hallway, and Twilight caught her breath. 

Just beyond the opening was a sight straight from Tartarus. Undead canids, bloodied cannibalistic zebras, armored and battle scarred gryphons and tattooed minotaurs twirled and moved around each other. A strange mix of classical strings and electric back beat floated in the air, playing a haunting tune. The walls were decorated with bones and blood, spider webs and strange runes, and a long table of gruesome treats like stacks of raw meat sat against the far wall.

"It's horrible!" one of the ponies behind Twilight cried.

"It's terrible!!" another agreed.

"It's a PARTY!!!!!" Pinkie cheered before bouncing forward.

The music slowed and shifted, and a familiar voice cut through the din. "Hey all you amazing creatures out there! Are you all having a good time?!" Twilight turned to the right and spotted the famous DJ Pon3 sitting in a literal nest of turn tables, speakers and cables. A roar of approval rose from the crowd. "I said, ARE YOU HAVING A GOOD TIME?!?!" Pon3 screamed, and the roar doubled in volume. "Well everyone, it seems that we have some more ponies in the crowd."

More ponies? Twilight turned back to the crowd and was stunned to see over two dozen ponies, including the Mayor and Mr. and Mrs. Cake dancing or chatting with the monsters.

"Well don't just STAND there!!" Pon3 called. "If we wanted wallflowers we'd have planted seeds!" the crowd laughed. "Alright, lets keep this party going!"

An armored gryphon approached the ponies and bowed before them. "Please, come in. You are in no danger here. I am Reggie, scribe and assistant to her majesties Sarah and Nightmare."

"No danger? In an army of zombies and warriors?" Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

Reggie drew a scimitar and waved if back and forth. It wobbled. "Cardboard armor and rubber blades are enough to make ponies cower? And don't tell me you're fooled by the makeup and body paint. The Rover's couldn't even decide what color dead things turn."

"Cardboard? Body paint?" Twilight said. "It's all costumes?!"

"What did you expect for a Nightmare Night party?" A minotaur asked. "You all aren't scared of this fancy makeup are ya?"

"I don't know if anyone could really be afraid of ol' Zeke." Reggie said, pointing out a gryphon in a wheel chair. He had only one wing and was missing both of his left legs.

"What is all of this?" a pony asked.

"I believe the pink one said it best." Reggie said, pointing to Pinkie Pie who was already dancing with the minotaur. "It's a party."





On the western wall of the obsidian castle, seven ponies touched down without a sound. Princess Luna looked over her hoof selected guard, nodding her approval at the stealthy flight. Some of them were looking around at the shadowy castle in concern, others in curiosity. The Princess herself did not care for the current state of the castle. The odd dark stone, the subtle way old towers and walls she had known for centuries were different, the entire makeover felt like a tainted dark version of a childhood memory.

"Guards." She addressed them softly, drawing their attention. "Search the castle covertly and locate Sarah Jordan. This castle's completion signify fulfillment of two of the three conditions on her gease. The last is for ponies to willingly visit her."

"Princess." one of the guards pipped up.

"Yes, Sergeant?"

"Aren't we willingly visiting her?"

"No, you are here on my orders, not because you came of your own free will. I am here out of a sense of duty, nothing more. We must determine what strength she has, what forces are allied with her, and try to determine what she might do once released. Blaze," A male bat-pony stepped forward. "Thou art our assessor. Be on the lookout for signs of other, larger monsters the Nightmare may have enslaved or tempted to it's side. Appraise and advise on the best methods for their defeat."

"Your Majesty," one of the guards said, "I hear music."

Together the trio crept along darkened hallways until they reached a balcony overlooking the party.

"What manner of madness is this?" Luna whispered, stunned at what she saw. "So many creatures, and even ponies?"

"Should we fall back?" the guard asked.

Princess Luna considered for a moment, then lit her horn. Deep blue magic surrounded each of them, and when it faded the guards were in their normal colors. Their armor looked like cardboard, and their bat wings appeared to be costume. Luna herself was now a smaller unicorn.

"Princess?" one guard said, looking over himself.

"Thou- you shall address me as Moon Dancer." She said. "If this is what it appears to be, a Nightmare Night party, and the ponies below have come here of their own free will, then there is nothing we can do but try and protect them from the beasts around them. You," she singled out a guard, "go and wake my sister. Tell her what you have seen and encourage her to bring the Elements."

"Princess there are at least two dozen ponies down there." Blaze said, looking around. "That is way too many to escort through the Everfree without our patrols noticing. There must be another way in." 

The Princess nodded and pointed to two other guards. "Find it, we may be able to use it as a way out too."

"And the rest of us your majesty?" Blaze asked.

"You will keep an eye out for larger monsters, while the rest of us work to determine if these ponies are guests or prisoners. If the latter, we work to remove them from danger. If the former, if they are here of their own free will and Sara is free, then we shall simply have to try to reason with her." The Princess said. And hope that the Nightmare has not corrupted her as thoroughly as it had me, or we may be facing a foe akin to Discord





In a place that is not a place, a creature who is not a creature stood before a dozen canids. It gazed at them in a way that would have struck terror into any living thing.

"Um, excuse me."

The cloaked figure turned to see a half dozen ponies standing behind him.

YES?

"Um, could we come too?"

I DON'T SEE WHY NOT





Princess Luna, disguised as Moon Dancer, made her way carefully through the crowds of creatures dancing, eating, and chatting. Somewhere deep inside she was a little jealous that Sarah had managed to get everyone partying in the courtyard like this, her full moon and stars adding to the few torches scattered around the party.

"Good evening miss!" a canid painted up like a zombie said, "Can I offer you a drink?"

Luna flinched away from it, remembering the last time she had taken a drink in this castle. "No, thank you uh,"

"Trevor."

"Thank you Trevor, but no thank you. I need to keep my wits about me if I want to get out of here."

"You want to leave? But the party's finally getting going! That one pink pony really seems to know how to have fun."

"Pink what?" Luna asked, scanning the party. Sure enough there was Pinkie Pie herself, dancing across the dance floor and pulling creatures in to dance with her. "What in the world is Pinkie Pie doing here?"

"She came in the last cart." Trevor said, "Though to be honest, I think more ponies are watching the reactions of that orange pony and purple unicorn."

Luna spied Twilight standing near a snack table talking with a pony in a blue jumpsuit with yellow stripping. She trotted over but had to stop herself before she gave her disguise away. According to Celestia Twilight had known a Moon Dancer in Canterlot, and Luna's disguise didn't look a thing like her. She trotted up close enough to overhear the conversation and pretended to be looking over the snacks.

"I was thinking, given the late hour, that it might be safer here than in the Everfree." The pony in blue said.

"I agree, but I still wish we had Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy. They could fly back to town for chariots or something to get everypony home."

"Maybe once the party dies down a little one of the canids could get us home?" The pony suggested, waving her right hoof.

Twilight frowned. "Maybe, but I'm not happy just sitting here waiting, and I definitely don't want to ride that roller coaster again after a night of drink and dance. I'm going to go look for another way home." She trotted off, a determined look in her eye.

"I hope she doesn't do anything dangerous." The pony muttered, tapping a large metal band around her right hoof. Luna was surprised to see a small screen light up with a very familiar display.

"Oh my goodness!" Princess Luna said, trotting up, "You're dressed up as Little Pip aren't you? I didn't recognize the Stable-Tech Uniform from a distance."

"Yeah." The new pony said with a smile. "My friends made it for me, said I fit the part well. I don't think we've met." she offered a hoof. "I'm Seeker."

"Moon Dancer." The Luna said, shaking her hoof. "Can you believe we are in the castle with the Nightmare? Just thinking about it gives me the shivers."

"It doesn't seem so bad really." Seeker said, waving a hoof at the crowd. "Everyone seems friendly, the music rocks, and the food is great. Mostly."

"Mostly?"

Seeker pointed at another snack table on the far side of the dance floor. Two gryphons were standing guard over it and politely but firmly turning ponies away. "My guess, those are snacks for the more carnivorous guests."

The thought of plates and bowls full of meat sickened Luna slightly, though she had to admire the effort taken to prevent ponies from accidentally eating something so revolting. "That's disgusting. I hope they have enough, I'd hate to think where they might get more meat from in a pinch."

"I think I overheard one of the minotaurs saying it's manticore meat." Seeker said, "Which makes somepony here braver than me, and I'm an adventurer."

"I just worry what they've brought us all here for." Luna said, trying to put a little doubt into the adventurous young pony. "What if we are needed to free Nightmare or that Sarah creature?"

"Well, the invitation said party, so I'm hoping that's all it is." Seeker said, waving her party invite at Luna. "Still, I haven't seen Sarah all night, or any sign of anything else aside from a party. Until something shows me otherwise I'm going to enjoy myself. Looks like others already are."

Seeker pointed at a one winged old gryphon in a wheelchair with almost a dozen children of various races sitting in a circle as he told an exciting story. What caught Luna's eye though was the familiar sight of Applejack talking with one of her disguised night guard and a gryphon. She excused herself from Seeker's company and wandered over to where the farm pony was.

"You work on the apple farm on the edge of town right?" the gryphon asked. "I used to fly with Davis, Twine and Squawk. We'd get about two dozen bushels every time we came through this area."

"What happened to your wing?" The guard asked, pointing to his left side. The gryphon extended it, revealing the wing missing from the first bend on down. "Is that the price Nightmare charges to stay here? I notice almost every creature who isn't a pony looks wounded."

The gryphon laughed. "You folk have strange ideas about Sarah and Nightmare. Her majesty didn't have anything to do with this, I lost it to a manticore about a month back. D, T and S had to drop me, a gryphon who can't fly is just dead weight to them. I had nowhere to go, till I heard about this castle."

"Whut did ya hear?" Applejack asked.

"'Refugees welcome' basically." The gryphon said. "Sarah said she was more of a lost soul than anything else in this world. She fed and housed me, and only asked for a little construction work." He laughed again. "Mind you, she ended up having to fix the whole thing herself, but that's a whole other story. You should get Zeke to tell it."

Applejack smiled, looking over at the crusaders among those caught in Zeke's storytelling. The guard just huffed and trotted off. Luna just looked around and felt a little lost. Everyone was having fun, there didn't seem to be anything more malicious here than a normal party. She felt a tapping and it took her a moment to realize it was coming from her own hoof tapping to the rhythm of the music.

Well why not? She thought, moving towards the dance floor. Nightmare Night only comes once a year.

Three songs later she trotted off the dance floor towards the bar. Halfway there a pair of her guard, one she recognized immediately as Blaze for his bright red coloring, approached her.

"Princess," Blaze started.

"Moon Dancer!" Luna hissed at him, pushing forward to the bar. A minotaur behind it smiled at her and poured a tall cool glass of cider.

"Moon Dancer," the other guard said, "I believe I have located two potential exits. One appears to be a barn in the outer courtyard, it has roller coaster carts and a door to some tracks leading underground. The other is the gates to the east wing of the castle, which are being guarded by a half dozen creatures. They wouldn't let anyone past."

"I've looked around everywhere but I can't find anything more threatening here than a few gryphons and minotaurs," Blaze said, "and they all seem more interested in dancing and drinking than fighting anything. Honestly the Equestrian army could probably take this entire castle with only a platoon or two of soldiers, a single company at worst."

"None of us have seen Sarah or any sign of the Nightmare or the daemon D anywhere." the other guard added.

"We shall have to wait and see then," the princess said, looking up to the empty main stage as the dance music faded out. "And perhaps not for very long."

The curtains on the main stage pulled back, and a pony rock band struck a few chords to the cheers of everyone. Speakers whined as a mic was turned on somewhere, and a familiar voice poured out.

"Hello Nightmare Castle!" A royal voice cried, "Art thou ready to party?!" Another Princess Luna in full regalia burst from backstage to the surprise of everyone

Luna looked up at her double on stage, eyes wide in wonder as her guards worked to pick their jaws up off the floor. "What- what trickery is this?!" she cried.
> And the Band Played On
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight couldn't believe what she was seeing. There on stage was the dark blue alicorn sister to her mentor. Princess Luna pranced back and forth across the stage in full royal regalia as the audience cheered, a small microphone headset attached to her head.

"I said, ART THOU READY TO PARTY?!" the princess cried again, louder than the first time. She was met with a roar of agreement.

"Princess Luna?" Twilight called, staring wide eyed.

"Ah, if it isn't my old friend Clover the Clever," the princess said, smiling down at Twilight. "You are looking good for your age."

"Princess," Twilight said, pushing to the front of the crowd, "It's me, Twilight Sparkle."

"Now miss Twilight, if you are going to name me by my costume I will name you by yours."

"Costume?" Twilight asked confused. "But you aren't wearing a-" Twilight's eyes grew wide as two monstrous beasts stalked out from back stage, taking their places near the band. One was a the unmistakable daemon of smoke and shadow, bone white antlers rising from a skull that was dripping either ink or very dark blood. The other was some sort of robot spider centaur, each limb tipped with blades still wet with gore. "Princess! Behind you?"

"Hm?" Princess Luna looked round at the creatures. "Ah, it's time for my song it seems. Don't go anywhere and maybe we can talk after."

The robotic spider thing produced a microphone as the band began to play. It's mouth opened and an errie electronic voice came out.

"Mrs. Hyde"

Princess Luna danced across the stage, singing into a floating microphone.

"In the daylight,/ I’m your sweetheart,
Your goody-two-shoes pure as a work of art.
But you don’t know me,/ And soon you won’t forget,
Bad as can be, yeah you know I’m not so innocent

Better beware I go bump in the night,
Discord-may-care with a lust for night,
And I know you, (oooooooh)
Can’t resist this
You know you
Are so addicted.
Fools you better run for your life!"

There was a flash of dark magic, and suddenly Nightmare Moon stood on stage in the princesses place, singing to the crowd.

"Welcome to the nightmare in your head,
Say hello to something scary,
The monster you all dread,
Just give in or you'll be sorry,
Welcome to my other side,
And now it's Mrs. Hyde!"

Dark forms boiled out of Nightmare's starry mane, manifesting into ghostly monsters that drifted through the crowds producing shrieks of fear and laughter.

"I can be the witch,
I can play the bore,
Or your fairy tale princess who could ask for more?
A touch of wicked,
A pinch of risqué,
Good girl gone bad, my poison is your remedy"

Better be scared, better be afraid,
Now that the beast is out of her cage,
And I know yooooooooou,
Wanna risk it,
You know yoooooooooooou
Are so addicted.
Fools, you better run for your lives!

Welcome to the nightmare in my head,
Say hello to something scary,
The monster in you all dread,
Just give in and you won’t be sorry,
Welcome to my evil side,
And now it's business time!

Nightmare Moon reared up on her hind legs, striking an imposing figure for a moment. As she came back down she seemed  to melt, her hair swirling around her. As the magical smoke cleared and Sarah stood up. Her right arm was a masterwork of silver and steel, and her long shimmering dress looked like a window into a star filled sky.

"I’m the spider crawling down your spine,
Underneath your skin.
I will gently violate your mind,
Before I do you in.
Put on the blindfold
There’s no way to be sure,
If you'll survive tonight!

Welcome to the nightmare in my head,
Say hello to something scary,
The monsters that I dread,
Better run or you'll be sorry,
The Nightmare's in your head,
Say hello to something scary,
The monster that you dread,
Just give in and you won’t be sorry,
Welcome to my evil side,
And now it's business time!

The crowd went wild as the song wound down. "Hello Castle Nightmare!" Sarah cried to a renewed cheer. "Tonight, we are here to celebrate not one, not two, but three separate holidays. Many of you may know the story behind one or two of these, but I doubt more than a claw-full know the story behind all three. Let us start with the tale of the founding of the Gryphon Empire and the Ghost Flight."

A dozen gryphons joined Sarah up on stage, gathering into two groups at opposite sides around small torches. Overhead a strange ghostly cloud hovered, and Twilight could swear she saw glowing eyes and strange equine shapes moving in the fog.

"Thousands of years ago, just after the founding of Equestria and the mark of Hearth's Warming Eve, the scattered tribes of gryphons were at war. An unnatural winter had settled over the land, destroying crops and driving the tribes against each other in a desperate bid for survival." As Sarah narrated, some of the gryphons left the torches and stalked towards the others, meeting in the middle in a mock battle. "But so cold was the winter that the battles never finished. The warriors of each tribe were frozen in place at the height of combat." Crystals made of blue cellophane stretched between wooden frames sprung up from the stage between the gryphon fighters and the audience, giving the impression of each being frozen in a block of ice.

"The cold blew through the camps, chilling even the hearth's and forges. Confident of their success, the terrible windigos descended from their icy clouds to claim the last of the gryphons, planing to seal them in icy prisons of hate forever." The ghostly horses drifted lower, and a few more ice blocks popped up over gryphons around the flickering and fading torches.

"It was at this time that young Agustus, barely into his fifteenth year, began his rise to power. While normal weapons and armor had no effect upon the strange and ghostly creatures, iron blades and claws made in the cooled forges cut deep into their side." A young gryphon swung a deep blue blade at one of the ghostly horses, cleaving it in two as it let out a terrible wail. "So armed, he and a smattering of remaining warriors flew against the creatures that had claimed his homeland.

Five gryphons gathered behind the young one, dropping their armor and weapons and replacing them with ones painted a deep blue. The rock band began to play a heavy tune, and one of the female guitarists stepped up to the mic.

"They see you as small and helpless 
They see you as just a child
Surprised when they find out that a warrior will soon run wild

Prepare for your greatest moments
Prepare for your finest hour
The dream that you've always dreamed is 
Suddenly about to flower

We are lightning
Straying from the thunder
Miracles of ancient wonder"

As one the gryphons launched into the air, beginning a tight areal battle between the ghostly horses and the blue clad gryphons. The audience roared as the fight began.

"This will be the day we've waited for
This will be the day we open up the door
I don't wanna hear your absolution
Hope your ready for a revolution
Welcome to a world of new solutions 
Welcome to a world of bloody evolution
In time-your heart will open minds
A story will be told 
And victory is in a simple soul"

As the ghosts were beaten back over the crowd and up towards the sky, the blue 'ice' blocks fell away from the frozen warriors on the stage. When they began to fight again, the young 'Agustus' landed and stopped them, redirecting them towards the windigos in the air. Similarly he dragged the unwilling from the campfires up into the fray.

"Your world needs a great defender
Your world's in the way of harm
You want a romantic life a fairytale that's full of charm

Beware that the light is fading
Beware as the dark returns
This world's unforgiving 
Even brilliant lights will cease to burn

Legends scatter
Day and night will sever
Hope and peace are lost forever

This will be the day we've waited for
This will be the day we open up the door
I don't wanna hear your absolution
Hope your ready for a revolution
Welcome to a world of new solutions 
Welcome to a world of bloody evolution
In time your heart will open minds
A story will be told 
And victory is in a simple soul"





The final ghostly windigo was driven to the stage and slain on the final note, a much older looking Agustus now standing victorious. "Well, wern't that somethin." Applejack said, watching as the gryphon actors stepping off the stage to talk with the audience.

"I had no idea the Gryphon Empire was founded around the same time as Equestria." Twilight said, telekinetically sketching out notes as fast as she could. "The uniting of the three pony tribes and driving the windigos out must have been the catalyst that started their own rise! This is so exciting!!"

"Uh, right." Applejack said, turning her attention back to the stage. Sarah raised her hands to call for quiet, drawing her audience back to her.





"Next up tonight, we have the Bittersweet Harvest." Sarah said, waving a hand and inviting a large number of 'zombie' canids up on stage. "A tradition that actually mirrors one from my homeworld, on this night the canids who have passed on during the year are escorted to their final resting place and those who have passed on may visit loved ones in disguise." The canids began to mill about, dancing to a soft classical tune drifting from Octavia's section. "Old foes might use it to scare, and friends and family who have gone on use it to heal the wounds left by-"

"You!" one of the canids yelled in shock, causing the others to jump back. There stood a young but commanding canid, her redish fur covered in green and grey dye. She was glaring at a taller, older canid of similar color who had done a much better job on her costume.

"Red?" Sarah asked.

"How dare you?" Red asked, enraged. "How dare you show yourself here tonight?! I had all but forgotten you." The band started to play a different tune.

"Red, please, I just needed to see you, to know you were alright."

"What do you even care?! You abandoned me! You walked right into the Emerald Hound's lair to your death."

"They had your brothers, your father, I had to try and free them."

"And where are they? What good did it do to have all of you slain in that stupid feud? To have my aunt wake me to tell me that not only was my entire family dead but now we were homeless as well?"

"Please, Red, you have to see-"

"NO!" Red said, catching up a microphone. "You weren't there when I felt like I'd reached the end. You weren't there when I was considering a final option. Do you even know how hard your death hit me?"

"Couldn't take it couldn't stand another minute 
Couldn't bear another day without you in it
All of the joy that I had known for my life 
Was stripped away from me the minute that you died

To have you in my life was all I ever wanted
But now without you I'm a soul forever haunted
Can't help but feel that I had taken you for granted
No way in hell that I can ever comprehend this

I wasn't dreaming when they told me you were gone 
I was wide awake and feeling that they had to be wrong
How could you leave me when you swore that you would stay 
Now I'm trapped inside a nightmare every single fucking day

It's like a movie but there's not a happy ending
Every scene fades black and there's no pretending
This little fairy tale doesn't seem to end well
Theres no knight in shining armor who will wake me from the spell

I know you didn't plan this
You tried to do what's right
But in the middle of this madness
I'm the one you left to win this fight

Red like roses
Fills my head with dreams and finds me
Always closer 
To the emptiness and sadness 
That has come to take the place of you 


I know you're broken down by anger and by sadness
You feel I left you in a world that's full of madness
Wish I could talk to you if only for a minute
Make you understand the reasons why I did it

I wanna tell you that you're all that ever mattered
Want you to know that for eternity I'm shattered
I tried so hard just to protect you but I failed to
And in a prison of abandonment I've jailed you

I never planned that I would leave you there alone
I was sure that I would see you when I made it back home
And all the times I swore that it would be okay
now I'm nothing but a liar and you're thrown into the fray

This bedtime story ends with misery ever after
The pages are torn and there's no final chapter
I didn't have a choice I did what I had to do
I made a sacrifice but forced a bigger sacrifice on you

I know you've lived a nightmare
I caused you so much pain
But baby please don't do what I did
I don't want you to waste your life in vain

Red like roses
Fills my head with dreams and finds me
Always closer 
To the emptiness and sadness 
That has come to take the place of you 




You're not the only one who needed me I thought you understood

You were the one I needed and you left me as I always feared you would

Would I change it if I could?


It doesn't matter how
The petals scatter now


Every nightmare just discloses

It's your blood that's red like roses

And no matter what I do

Nothing ever takes the place of you


Red like roses

Fills my head with dreams and finds me

Always closer 

To the emptiness and sadness 
That has come to take the place 

of 

you!





The canids re-converged on stage, all bowing to the audience before separating out into the crowd. Sarah stepped back up, applauding as well. "The Bittersweet Harvest everyone! That brings us, of course, to the final holiday we are celebrating this night. As you are all aware not too long ago Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria, returned from lunar exile. She was still woefully intertwined with Nightmare, a creature of the dreamscape Luna ruled. With the Elements of Harmony, six brave young ponies managed to separate the princess and Nightmare, ending the madness that had consumed their merged minds."

A black fog seemed to roll out from back stage, swirling around the hooves and equipment of the band and pooling near Sarah. Slowly the fog began to pull together and rise.

"In Equestria the summer sun festival honors the princess's return, but tonight is not her night. Tonight is-"

"Nightmare Night" the black fog said, congealing into a somewhat ghostly Nightmare Moon. Ponies cried and fell back from the stage, and even Twilight recoiled from the ghostly sight.

"It is this night when we dress in costume and dance with the darkness," Sarah said, sweeping up beside Nightmare, "giggling at the ghoulish and facing our fears, for in facing them we grow stronger." 

Sarah and Nightmare Moon danced around each other as electric and operatic music swelled from the amplifiers. Sarah began to sing, her voice having a haunting edge to it.

In sleep you sang to me
In dreams you came
That voice which calls to me and speaks my name
And do I dream again for now I find
The Nightmare of Equestria is there
Inside my mind

Nightmare joined in with the second verse, pulling and dancing around in a ghostly fashion.

Dream once again with me
Our strange duet
My power bound with yours grows stronger yet
And though you turn from me to glance behind
The Nightmare of Equestra is there
Inside your mind.

The two spun together, merging in a strange fog until only Sarah remained

Those who have seen your face
Draw back in fear
I am the mask you wear

Her eyes glowed turquoise. 

It's me they hear...

Sarah and Nightmare began to sing, a strange chorus considering they had only one mouth.

Your/My spirit and my/your voice in one combined	Your/My spirit and my/your voice in one combined
The Nightmare of Equestria is there/here	The Nightmare of Equestria is there/here
Inside my/your mind	Inside my/your mind

In the background, twin guitarists stepped up to microphones and began to add their own voices to the song.

Its there, the Nightmare of Equestria!
Beware, the Nightmare of Equestria!
Its there, the Nightmare of Equestria!
Beware the Nightmare of Equestria!

In all your fantasies, you always knew
that dream and mystery

Were found in you

BOTH
And in this labyrinth	And in this labyrinth
where night is kind	where night is kind
the Nightmare of Equestria is there/here,	the Nightmare of Equestria is there/here,
inside my/your mind	inside my/your mind

Sarah's voice rose in a single pure and beautiful note. As she sang, Sarah herself lifted into the air, dark tendrils of shadow supporting her. More reached back and tore the curtain from the back of the stage, revealing a large blank wall of flat stone. Nightmare's head appeared, floating above the scene and gazing down.

"Dream, my Angel of the night" Nightmare commanded, and Sarah began to move her hands, directing a blue flame to the empty stone. As she sang and moved her hands the flame extended, stretched and split, growing into a large and intricate spell circle.
Dream, my Angel
With each command Sarah took a deep breath and sang the long haunting note again.
Dream for me
With each command the circle glowed and grew, more intricate, more detailed.
Dream, my Angel!
The limits of both voice and space were being reached, and the flames flickered and spun.
Dream for me!
The note reached an apex, held as the circle flared brightly before both finally snapped out and silence and darkness fell over the stage.





Cheers erupted from the crowd as the shadows died away and a single studious purple unicorn made her way to the front of the stage. The lights slowly came back up and the bands began to cycle through dance music. Twilight found herself not far from Sarah, who sat on the edge of the stage, drinking from a tall glass.

"You wanted to talk to me, Twilight Sparkle? I'm surprised you would even approach me after our last encounter."

Twilight swallowed hard, uncertain of what to do. Sarah should have been harmless, but with the Nightmare so active she could be as dangerous as Nightmare Moon. But she had thrown a party. But they had effectively kidnapped the pony guests for the party. But they didn't seem to be in any danger, and even Applejack was having fun, despite her misgivings. There were just so many questions, but it seemed best to start with the broadest one and work forward. "What is going on?"

"Its a party, Twilight! I would have thought with Pinkie Pie around you would have experienced at least a few of those before." Sarah waved at Pinkie, who was back on the dance floor again. "A celebration of holidays and festivals."

"But it isn't just that, is it?" Twilight asked, concerned, eying the huge blackened magical circle burned into the stone wall behind the stage.

"No." Sarah said, "It isn't, but that's a surprise. I'll tell you if you promise to keep it secret." She smiled, and Twilight nodded, leaning a little closer to listen.





Princess Luna had a long history of difficult decisions. She had aided her sister in the peace accords after the Draco-Gryphonic wars following Discord's fall. She had stared down Discord, challenged beasts and out foxed devious politicians.

Princess Luna was sweating bullets. Right now Nightmare, the same horrid creature that had resulted in her banishment for a thousand years, was inches from Twilight Sparkle. It was only with an iron will that she did not cast aside her facade and rush to her young friends rescue. Three of her guards were standing at her side, ready for a take down order, and everyone flinched when Twilight let out a loud "WHAT!?" only for Sarah to hush her.

"Your majesty?" one of the guards asked.

"If I have to tell you to call me Moon Dancer one more time you will be on latrine duty for a month." the princess hissed, her voice on edge. "What is going on here?"

"Moon Dancer, what is that circle? What does it mean?" 

"It is similar to the one Sarah attempted to use to escape Equestria the first time, but without the Elements of Harmony I worry about how she intends to power such a spell."





"Leaving?" Twilight whispered, slightly embarrassed by her loud outburst. "But, all of these creatures..."

"They aren't my army Twilight, they are just creatures who fell on hard times." Sarah looked out over the party, "Many of them needed this," she said, waving an arm. "This party. Many haven't been happy for a long time. They've lost friends, family, homes, loved ones. I just wanted to see them smile for a bit before I left." Sarah stood, stretching out her left arm. "Anyway, it's time to get started."





Sarah picked up a microphone. "Alright DJ, we've had quite a few tricks tonight. I'd say it's about time for some treats!"

The deadly forms of D and Machina moved forward onto the stage next to Sarah. D was now carrying a great glass bowl filled with dozens of tiny slips of paper, while the spider like Machina was quickly setting out a dozen boxes. 

Sarah waved her hand over the bowl with a flourish. "Here we have the names of every creature in attendance. If I call your name, please step forward." She pulled a piece of paper and glanced at it. "Applejack?"

The orange farmer swallowed heavily and padded slowly forward, her eyes flicking nervously to the monsters on either side of Sarah. Machina shifted, pushing a box forward, which Sarah opened. "Ahh, here we are." Sarah pulled out a stack of dark metal pans and a small book. "Pie pans, cake pans, and a skillet from the castle kitchens, along with a reproduction of the cookbook 'A Royal Snack by P.L and P. C.'. I can vouch for both the durability and effectiveness of these pans and the deliciousness of the recipes in the book."

Applejack looked at the prize as though someone had just handed her a 24 karat golden saddle. "T-THANK YOU!" She practically screamed, hurrying back into the crowd to a waiting Pinkie Pie, both eager to try the centuries old recipes.

"Next," Sarah said, pulling another name, "We have, oh, Twilight Sparkle! Another element bearer." Sarah turned to D, "You did mix these right?" D responded by shaking the bowl vigorously, while Machina pushed another book forward. Sarah opened the box and smiled. "Well, I don't think this could have gone to a better pony. As you are aware, Miss Sparkle, the library here in the castle is only maintained by the ancient spells here. That is why I have asked some of the refugees to make reproductions of some of the older texts. It is my great privilege to present some of those reproductions to you now."

Twilight lit her horn with glee as she accepted almost twenty books, all obviously constructed by claw and hoof.

More names were drawn, and more prizes given out ranging from a gem studded bracelet for a gryphon to earrings for Sweetie Belle (who had to Pinkie Pie Promise not to pierce her ears before she got them), to a list of recipes from other worlds for Pinkie Pie. At last there was only one small box remaining.

"Seeker." Sarah said, and the costumed pony stepped forward bravely.

"Your majesty." Seeker said with a bow.

"Well Seeker, you've won the grand prize, though I'm afraid it still needs a little assembly." Sarah reached over to her metallic arm and pulled out a single golden bit. "D, Machina. Come here." She held up the coin. "A bit, my anchor in this world, for gold, to represent a wealth of spirit." Sarah passed the bit to Machina, who heated it, pushing a hole through it's center and stretching it out into a thin gold circlet. She intertwined it with a dull grey band of her own metal. "Steel," Sarah continued, "from beyond the stars, to show the strength of will." 

Machina passed the circlet to D, who enveloped it in his shadowy body. When it emerged, the circlet now had a ring of bone  intertwined with the gold and steel. "Bone," Sarah said, accepting the circlet back, "as a reminder of the wisdom of those who came before." 

A dark tentacle of hair rose from behind Sarah, bearing a large sapphire. In it's center something dark flickered and moved. It was set in the center of the crown, held by the other materials. "And shadow, that, like all knowledge, is insubstantial and sometimes difficult to capture and use."

Sarah raised the crown high for all to see before lowering it onto Seeker's head, smirking at the astonished look the pony was giving her. "I hereby crown you Princess Seeker, of the Kingdom of Dreams.

"Y-you can do that?" Seeker asked in wonder. Everyone else in the castle seemed too stunned to speak.

Sarah opened the box and held up a thick folder of documents. "Here I hold official copies of the constitution of the Kingdom of Dreams, as well as letters of formal recognition from several major powers. It is by these laws and letters that this kingdom may trade and converse with foreign powers, and it is by these laws that rights of succession for ruler have been set. There are only two, the first being that a council, composed of one representative of each race, unanimously votes to remove the current ruler and unanimously selects a replacement." Sarah looked around at some of the non-pony guests and smiled. "The other is that the ruler may voluntarily give up their rule to any they deem worthy. For your bravery in coming, and your luck in being drawn, I have chosen you to succeed me." she said, handing the folder over.

"What!" A gryphon cried out. "Just like that? What happens if we don't accept that?"

"Well the first thing that would happen is the kingdom would no longer be recognized and the constitution would be rendered null and void." Sarah said calmly.

The gryphon snorted. "I think we can survive that." There was a soft cracking sound, and a glossy black brick landed at the gryphon's feet.

"The second is that the Nightmare energy holding the castle together and bound to the constitution dissipates and the entire castle crumbles to dust."

"Ooooh kay," Seeker said warily, her eyes not leaving D and Machina. "So I guess I'm princess until this council picks someone better."

Sarah nodded, then seemed to flicker, as though she and her companions were invisible for a split second. "Ah, it seems my time is up. Without the anchor even the princess' gease cannot hold me to this world." She smiled. "You may all want to stand back a bit for this." She raised her arms, and six large gems were lifted from their hiding place behind the stage by Nightmare tendrils and slotted into place on the massive spell circle at the back of the stage. An odd wind kicked up, and a swirling dark mass of energy formed above the center of the stage. Machina's spider form folded down impossibly into itself before attaching to Sarah's right arm, while D just seemed to turn to smoke and was absorbed by her left.

"Friends, guests," Sarah called, yelling over the unnatural howl from the portal, "I bid you farewell, but say that the night is not yet over. Dance, drink and be merry." 

Sarah looked out at the crowd, her eyes seeming filled with sadness as she looked over everyone. "And remember me." With that she stepped into the portal and vanished, the massive gems draining away instantly and the circle and portal fading from reality.





Silence filled the space, a kind of respectful silence. Reggie, Zaephir, Thomas, Red, and Scorpio came forward and bowed to me, giving a sign of cooperation at least for now.

"Your.... majesty, there is much we should discuss" Reggie said, "We should retire elsewhere."

"I agree that there are many many things I'll need to know to run a kingdom, and I want to do my best, but certainly the majority of it could wait until tomorrow morning, right?" I shifted nervously from hoof to hoof, adjusting the crown to sit a little more evenly on my head. "I don't want to deprive the band of a member in the middle of a party. Let's let every, um, one have fun tonight and we can talk about details later."

"Very well," Red said with a sigh, her respectful nature dropping for a more casual one. "But you are going to have us hanging around you for the rest of the party trying to fill you in anyway so you'd better pay attention."

I nodded, "Fair enough, that will allow you to introduce me to everyone I haven't met yet." Pio went back to playing, and Red and Reggie helped me off stage and started to point out important creatures. "I've got to say, that was quite a show."

"Yeah, we've got to hand it to Sarah and Nightmare." Thomas said with a grin. "When they make an exit, they really make an exit."

Indeed, I have to say that was probably the most fun I've had in ages.
> Shell Game
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Reggie, Zaephir, and Thomas kept close to me as we wandered through the party, getting awkward congratulations from almost everyone. Twilight had asked for the chance to review the constitution and recognition letters, which I had grudgingly allowed on the grounds that Red stay with her so they didn't get lost. I was actually enjoying the masquerade I had going, convincing everyone I was gone.

It had started hours before, when I had locked myself in my chambers under orders that I wasn't to be bothered until the party started so I could prepare for the trans-dimensional trip. Only I, Machina, D, and Nightmare knew the real plan, and the majority of work was going to be on Nightmare's shoulders. 

The hardest part was creating a Nightmare/Sarah duplicate that could exist without my direct control. For that, I needed to give as much freedom to Nightmare as possible. Unfortunately that left her with only enough power to ponify me, not disguise me. With peach colored fur, a long black mane, a metal right foreleg,  and the Nightmare Seal as my cutie mark I wasn't going to get ten feet into Ponyville without getting caught. Fortunately Machina's time out and about had left her with a huge library of characters to dress me up as, as well as power and materials to spare for fabrication. The Little Pip character from some horrid post-apocalyptic Equestria was a great choice as the blue jumpsuit covered my conspicuous fur and cutie mark quite well. In addition, Machina had managed to fabricate a one time use invisibility device that slotted into the clunky metal bracelet on my right arm... leg... whatever.

The thing lasted until I was on the edge of the Everfree, and then I just walked into Ponyville. The number of disguised Night Guard around town was worrying, I had already had to slip past almost a dozen in the Everfree and was in no hurry to test my disguise under close scrutiny. All I really needed was to go around and be seen by a few ponies, and maybe get some candy for D since he couldn't come with me. I'd been hoping I could "bump into" Twilight Sparkle, to lend credance to "Seeker", but I couldn't get close without running into a pair of guards. After almost an hour of trying, and a few awkward conversations with other ponies like Clockwork, I gave up and headed for the haunted house.

Every room had me hissing at Nightmare not to waste her power making such terrifying illusions, and every room had Nightmare screaming that none if it was her doing. The trick with the invitations was cool, and I screamed my head off on the roller coaster ride, before finally ending up back in my castle. I found it hard to believe the effort the Ruby Rovers had gone through just to get me a couple dozen ponies for the party, and I promised myself I'd do something to properly reward them when I had the chance.

The party was, quite possibly, the most fun I'd had in ages. Between chatting with Twilight Sparkle, away from her guards at last, to watching the song and dances everyone had practiced being pulled off so well it was the most relaxed I'd been in a long time. This close to my double, Nightmare could focus her energy more on putting on a good show and not just maintaining the illusion. She had gotten quite a charge off of the haunted house, and the show she put on only used up what she considered excess energy. The raffle was a bit of slight of hoof as well, all the pieces of paper were blank. Nightmare had simply filled the boxes during the first part of the show and called out names of ponies I'd talked to or creatures I knew.

I wasn't the only one hiding in plain sight either, Machina and D had disguised themselves as costumed foals, loaning Nightmare the use of more impressive and intimidating doubles of their own making. Similar to Nightmare however, D and Machina had put a lot of effort into the doubles and not thought as much about their pony forms.

D was disguised as a young unicorn that was dressed, ironically, as D. He had a long dingy grey cloak, a paper mache skull face mask, and horns made of pipe cleaners and paint. The costume would have been much better if the pipe cleaners weren't wrapped around actual horns, the skull mask was more than a thin layer of paper mache over a real skull, and the dark smoke and shadow that was his body would stop leaking out from under the cloak.

Machina wasn't much better. Her costume's body and head were cardboard boxes, and the rest of her looked like somepony doing a mummy costume with aluminum foil. The cheap wrapping only mostly hid the metal limbs and joints, and she claimed she couldn't keep her eyes from glowing that electric blue.

Still, they had to look after themselves for now. I had to focus on keeping the three council members from guessing who I was.





"Some of these laws are really extensive." Twilight said, flipping back and forth through the constitution. "Creatures seeking sanctuary within the castle are exempt from extradition as long as-" the Ponyville Librarian rambled on, while the canid council member just stood by, looking out over the crowd and lost in her own thoughts.

Lulu was supposed to sing my mom's part in the show. Red thought, But she came up after the song all dishelved, her makeup half gone. So then, who sung with me?

The party moved around them. Minotaurs were dancing, Twilight had gone into full study mode and was taking notes, and in the dim torchlight Red's keen eyes could see every creature around her. All but one.

"Mom?"





"An that's when we got the idea to put a lot of traps all over the forest. We figured if we could catch D then he and Sarah could make up." Apple Bloom said, waving her hooves excitedly. The costumed pony beside her nodded along, clearly paying more attention than most adults gave the crusaders.

"You are such a brave little filly, wandering a forest, tracking monsters, talking to creatures from beyond this world. I bet you are a wonder to your family." the pony said.

"There ya are!" Applejack said, trotting over. "Ah been lookin all over for you. Don't go botherin other folk with your crusading tales."

"Oh, she's not bothering me at all Applejack." The pony said with a smile."She's been telling me the most wonderful tales of her adventures, reminds me of when I was ... younger."

"Thank ya kindly miss." Applejack said. There was something about the costumed pony that was familiar, but she couldn't place it.

"You should be proud of how you've raised her to be honest, hard working and creative. I...your parents would be very proud of you, of both of you. I-" there was a tear in her eye. "I have to go. Give my best to Big Mac and Mom- Granny Smith." The pony ran off.

AJ shook her head smiling. "Heh, you meet all kinds at costume parties I guess. Come on sis, we ought ta get some snacks before they're all gone." She turned, and her little sister fell in step behind her. "How long were you telling stories for, ta have told her all about me and Mac and Granny?"

"But I didn't," Apple Bloom said. "I only told her about Sarah. I didn't even mention Sweet Apple Acres at all."

"Then how..?" AJ pondered for a moment. "Huh, must be an old customer or friend from outa town.





The costumed pony sat in the back, away from the crowds and the dancing. A figure in a dark cloak moved up beside her.

"Go away. I want to be alone."

IS THERE ANYTHING THAT I CAN DO?

She looked up at the creature wrapped in black cloth and shook her head. "If only I could tell them, could hold them."

THAT IS NOT HOW THIS WORKS

"Can't we go already?"

THERE ARE OTHERS THAT ARE STILL VISITING AND BESIDES, he looked around the crowd, I STILL HAVE A PICK UP TO MAKE.




"And I was all 'Oh my gosh there are so many new ponies and not-ponies to meet and we should throw them a party' but then I realized we were at a party and I thought it was kind of a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party except instead of Ponyville it was Castle Spooky and have you thought of changing the name because-"

The is not my first encounter with Pinkie Pie, but I had somehow managed to forget that, while some ponies mastered magic or sewing or growing food, Pinkie had mastered the art of never stopping for air. As far as I could tell she was still on the same sentence she had started when I walked up five minutes ago, even though the subject had changed a dozen times. The only solace I had was that the council members and the few other ponies around, Clockwork, Ditzy, Applejack, and Moon Dancer, seemed just as in awe.

"-And I was totally waiting for Sarah with cupcakes like the next day but she never came back to Ponyville and I thought it was dumb since the gease was broken almost as soon as it was cast and-

"Wait, what?" Moon Dancer asked, finally bringing the pink chatterbox to a halt. "What do you mean the gease was broken almost instantly?"

"Well, duh. I mean, if you think about it, the only hard part was the whole 'ponies voluntarily staying', and the princess covered that by asking guards to volunteer."

"OK," I said, "But weren't there other parts to the gease?"

"Oh yeah, she couldn't leave till she finished the castle. That was done in an instant."

"Sugarcube, Ah think you're a might confused. No creature could have fixed this place up in an instant."

"No its like, um, you see..." Pinkie trailed off. "Hang on, I need a visual aid." She turned and dashed for the snack table.

"She is very.... excitable." I said with tact.

"She runs on sugar, and apparently is responsible for demolishing half the snack table."

"But, but we made that to feed a hundred creatures." Reggie said.

"If I ate at such a rate, I would be in a coma state." Zaephir said in awe.

"Hi! I'm back!" Pinkie yelled, popping up behind us all. She had two cupcakes with her. "Now, I'm going to finish this cupcake!" She announced before devouring it whole. "And now, to finish this cupcake." She said, lifting it high in the air, before setting it down  We all stared at it for a bit.

"Well?" Applejack asked.

"Well what?" Pinkie replied.

"Aren't you going to finish it?" I asked.

"I did, I am finished with it."

"But you have not done anything to it." Moon Dancer protested.

"So?" Pinkie asked. "Its my cupcake, it's done when I say it's done. Just like how this castle was Sarah's and it was done when she said it was done." Pinkie frowned. "I was really hoping she would figure out the loophole the princess put in and leave the next day."

WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Freedom was within our grasp for MONTHS and we were just too dense to realize it!

"Of course now," Pinkie said, "She has all these new friends she has to take care of, and I doubt she could just leave them alone without someone to take care of them." Pinkie pointed at me. "That's where you come in Seeker."

I nodded, trying not to visibly wince at the tirade Nightmare was screaming in my head. "Thank you Ms. Pie, that was most informative. Maybe once all this is over and things have settled down a bit you could come out and hold a birthday party for some of the little ones here in my castle." I grinned sheepishly. "Wow, I'm never going to get used to saying that. If you'll excuse us, I still need to meet a few more of the gryphons and minotaurs."





Applejack smiled at the new "Princess" as she walked off, happy to see a pony who was trying to take charge of such an odd situation that had been thrust upon them.

"Oh my." Moon Dancer said, startled. Applejack turned back around to see Pinkie Pie shaking, flopping, and jerking about. 

"WoOoOaAaAhHhH!" Pinkie jittered before finally coming to a rest. "That was some doozie!"





"Your highness," a gryphon, flanked by four others, bowed low. "May I say, you have certainly won the grandest prize I've ever heard of at a party." The sarcasm in his voice was sharp enough to knife someone.

"Thank you Mr....?" I was racking my brain trying to identify this offensive feather duster, but I knew he was trouble with the way Reggie was glaring at him and his goons.

"Black Talon." He said, placing a claw on his breast. "I hope you recognize the contributions me and mine have made for the care of this castle."

"To be honest I'm not sure what everyone brings to the castle." I lied smoothly. "I can guess from the tunnels that brought us here that the canid  populous provides safe transit. The minotaurs seem well suited for harder labor, but I'm not sure about the zebras and the gryphons."

"We provide security and general labor, though the zebras do most of the grunt work." A smirk crossed his beak. "When they aren't lazing about." Zaephir shot him a glare.

"Security? I thought the castle was safe." I said. Lazy? The few zebras we have here have done more work in a week that you and your friends have in three months!

"We patrol the outer walls to keep out uninvited guests." He said smoothly. "We also help to keep the other races in line. Wouldn't want there to be any accidents."

"Oh really?" I was a little incredulous in my response. "How would you keep the other races 'in line' so to say?"

"Strength in numbers." Talon said with confidence. "We gryphons outnumber any other race here. You would do well to listen to my advice."

Is he trying to set us up as a puppet? You have been "crowned" not an hour and he's already testing your rule?

"Your advice?" I asked, looking to Reggie, "I thought Reggie here was on the council, not you."

"The council is redundant. With us by your side, everyone will follow our commands."

I had enough of this. Turning to Thomas I asked the question that would shut Talon up. "Can you give me a ratio of other races to gryphons in the castle by population?"

"I can answer that for you," Talon interjected gruffly. "No need to bring this horn head into it. We are closest matched by the rovers at five to four. For the other races we outnumber them anywhere from five to one and up."

"When one counts wealth, do you only count the silver or do you account for gold, jewelry, art and land as well?" I asked Talon before turning to Thomas and nodding.

"The gryphons are outnumbered by the other races nearly ten to one, depending on a number of transients." Thomas said, "Now that the castle is open to pony visitation and with the relative closeness of towns and uniqueness of our habitat that number is likely to raise to twenty to one or higher."

Talon boggled, not realizing exactly how outnumbered he was. I could see him deflating as he realized there would be no way to keep the other races both divided enough to conquer them and cohesive enough to rule by force.

"Thank you Mr. Talon, I shall keep your words under advisement." I said, deciding to make a few concessions. "Since your forces are already acting as security you may stay on as captain of the guard, though in the future I hope you will learn to utilize the strengths the other races can bring to securing this castle." 

"T-thank you." Talon said, somewhat shocked at being allowed to stay in power, even if that power was much diminished from what he had believed moments ago. Talon puffed back up at that, believing that he had impressed me enough to earn some level of rank and power.

"Just make sure we don't have any security problems during this transition," I told him, "and everything will be fine."

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING IN MY CASTLE?!"

The music stopped, and everyone turned to look at Lord Harold, standing in light armor with a pair of swords on the main stage, shouting into the microphone.

"Black Talon," I said, "you're fired."
> It's Time to D-D-D-Duel!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Harold was here, and I knew better than to take him lightly. His last loss at my hands had inspired not only harassment but outright spying and sabotage on the castle's restoration. I hadn't forgotten his crony's slip the night I unleashed Nightmare, and I didn't believe for one instant that he'd come here alone. I turned and walked up toward the main stage. "Hi, sorry. There appears to be some misunderstanding. This is my castle, it was given to me by Sarah and Nightmare upon their departure from this reality."

Harold glared at me, his horn lighting up as his magic pulled the crown from my head. "She has no authority to do so!" He shouted. "With her gone, the castle reverts to me."

"And you think you can just swagger in here and take it?" Thomas asked, raising a clenched fist threateningly.

Harold looked over the dark crown before discarding it in disgust. "Don't think for one moment that you can hold it cow," Harold said, looking down his nose at Thomas. "The Equestrian Guard would take out a ragged bunch of squatters like you in a heartbeat."

"You are here to rescue us?" Moon Dancer asked excitedly.

"Rescue?" Harold seemed a bit thrown off by that. "Nightmare supporters? You can all hoof it through the Everfree for all I care."

"What?!" I couldn't see Twilight but I recognized that shriek anywhere. "Do you KNOW what is out there? You might as well douse us in tomato sauce and oregano!"

"Just deserts I say." Harold barked back. Several of the more dangerous creatures were glaring at him and advancing on the stage, and I noticed several members of the band seemed to have glowing solid blue eyes for a moment. This was going to get very ugly very quickly if something didn't happen soon, and with the way Harold was acting it seemed like he wanted that.

"Hold on everyone!" I called, leaping up on stage. "Everybody just step back and calm down a moment." I waked over to Harold, retrieving and replacing my crown. "Now what you say may have some validity," It didn't. The claim was a crock of manticore droppings from top to bottom, the castle in its entirety was mine by legal ruling of the princesses. "However, I have been informed that this land is currently the Kingdom of Dreams, an independent nation recognized by several global powers including Equestria Itself."

That took the wind out of his sails. "What?!" Harold asked shocked. I noticed the glow in his horn fading, wondering what kind of spell he had planned after riling up everyone. "Th- that can't be."

"It can and it is." Reggie said, advancing with a sheaf of papers. 

Harold's magic snatched the papers out of Reggie's claws, pulling Reggie off balance for a moment. Harold separated the papers out and quickly skimed them, a worried look on his face.

"As you can see," Reggie continued, straightening his costume after his near fall. "The Kingdom is officially recognized by Equestria, the Federated Zebra States, and the Gryphon Empire, as well as a number of others."

"You have assaulted a foreign ruler." I said, grinning at Harold.

"One who is still trespassing on my land." He shot back. "Still, I acknowledge that there has been a... a misunderstanding. Perhaps we can come to an agreement."

The sudden change of attitude was enough to make me wary. "Go on."

"Princess Sarah accepted challenges to her rule in the form of formal duels, are you willing to accept the same?" Harold asked.

I nodded. "Of course, I will uphold any agreement that Princess Sarah made, including any duels she had scheduled, though I'll have to check to see when they were set for."

"All challenges to her rule were set one hundred and seventy-five years hence and were forfeit if she did not appear." Reggie offered, flipping through a notepad quickly to double check the numbers. "At the moment there are twenty seven on the list challenging her for rule over this castle."

"Very well then, if you will accept it, I wish to challenge you for ownership." Harold said.

"Agreed." I nodded with a smile, turning to Reggie. "Add his name to the list. As soon as other challengers are dealt with you and I can fight."

"Very well," Harold said with a grin, "You'd better get a sword so we can get started."

"Lord Harold, I think you misunderstand. You will have to wait for all the others challenging my rule, just like everyone else."

"But I'm not challenging your rule," Harold said. "I challenged you for ownership. There isn't anyone in line before me."

Damn it really? He's going to pull something like this? "You don't want to at least wait till morning? Let these ponies go home?"

"What, afraid a few of your commoner friends will laugh at your defeat?"

"I was more worried about the impression two adults fighting with swords would have on the children here tonight." I said, waving a hoof at the crusaders who looked positively primed for such an event. Turning to Reggie I asked "Can't we at least move them back where they can't see as much and will be safe? Maybe open up a tunnel or something so those who want to leave can?"

"Agreed," Moon Dancer said, stepping up to take charge of the little ones. "An event like this might give the young ones nightmares."

Harold grumbled as the children were gathered up and lead to the back of the party where Pinkie Pie was doing her best to be more entertaining (and less traumatic) than a sword fight. A handful of creatures left but most were looking forward to the fight.

"Someone bring me a sword," I called. "there has to be a half way decent one somewhere in this castle." The blade Reggie brought me looked ancient and dull, but I could tell it was more than it appeared the instant I picked it up. The unusual balance and slight sheen to the blade's edge were Machina's handiwork, and would help me even while I was fighting with the sword in my mouth.

"Are you ready?" Harold asked, his blades floating around him in his telekinetic grasp. He sounded more impatient than concerned for any sense of fair play.

"Almost. There is one last stipulation to this fight, one that should even the field a bit. No magic may be cast aside from the spells already in place." I grinned at Harold. "I'll answer your blades with mine, but I'm not about to go dodging fireballs at the same time."

More than anything else this seemed to give Harold pause. Were he fighting just an earth pony, this condition might be a serious detriment. An earth pony's natural speed, strength and endurance was normally greater than a unicorn's. Still, refusal of my condition would weaken his position in demanding a duel right here and now. Reluctantly he nodded.

"Submission or first blood?" I asked politely.

"Submission." Harold said, clearly uncertain about drawing first blood even with his magically manipulated swords. I nodded and picked up my blade, signaling the match to start.

Harold used the standard defense, keeping the slightly shorter of his two blades close to him for defense while he sent the other out for offense. I parried three swift blows and knocked the offensive blade back before charging closer. Harold danced back, his defensive sword parrying a few blows before I had to retreat or face both swords at once. There was a brief pause and the dance repeated itself.

Again and again, Harold's sword swung out or lanced forward in an attempt to do me harm and each time I battered it off and charged him. Every attempt wore on me, but it wore on him more. The mental strain needed to keep both swords at the ready coupled with his need to dodge and move every time I pressed my advantage was starting to show. He looked concerned, seeing that this was not the easy fight he had thought it would be. His sword swung low, seeking to trip me up and at least stop one charge. I countered with my own downward thrust,  watching his blade bounce off and up. 

That was way too weak! I spun around in time to parry the defensive blade that had been sweeping in from the other direction, before charging Harold.He now had the larger, heavier blade defending him, and it was clear he was having trouble making it move to block my attacks. With a great grunt of effort he managed to throw me back. I sprang up and was ready for the next attack.

But the next attack wasn't coming. Harold was looking at me curiously, as though something I'd done had confounded him. Both blades swung out in an obvious attack and I parried them both before charging. The shorter blade made it back to him in time to fend me off but now instead of curious he looked crazed. He was grinning like a maniac, but there was a deadly coldness in his eyes.

Harold laughed in an unsettling way as his blades came dancing out. Again I deflected the blades and again he had to scramble to put enough distance between us so that I couldn't gut him. The swords pushed my back, their tactics shifting to rapid light blows that I had to keep parrying and retreating. Something about this felt very familiar, but I couldn't place it while defending like I was.

At last I saw an opening and lunged forward, running full tilt right at Harold.

And straight into a magical blast. I tried skidding to a stop, throwing my left foreleg up in defense as the spell washed over me. Instead of a wave of pain though I felt an odd numbness in my skin. It took only a moment to realize I was frozen in place.

"That style, those moves." Harold was raving as he pranced closer, his swords hovering nearby. "You might be able to hide your face, but not your form." His horn glowed again. "Lets show everypony who you REALLY ARE."

A wave of dispersal magic struck me, and Nightmare's illusion began to fall away.
> Shattered Illusions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight stood stunned at what she saw. There was Sarah, frozen in place in a semi crouched position, her left arm raised defensively, her sword clenched in her teeth. She was not in her magnificent gown, nor her terrifying armor, but just a short sleeve shirt, light pants and a cloak that draped over her shoulders. As Lord Bright Harold walked calmly closer and Sarah did not move, Twilight realized just how powerful Harold was. The dispel wave had ignored the paralysis spell, a difficult task requiring a lot of power. If the paralysis spell had been cast with similar power it could freeze not just primary muscles, but internal ones like lungs. A paralysis with enough power could even stop a heart. For the Canterlot noble to have cast it so quickly, he must have readied the spell earlier and had a lot of practice with it.

"Cheater!" Pinkie huffed.

"Now Pinkie, Ah know you're a might upset that Sarah was hiding as-" Applejack started.

"No, not Sarah. That snooty noble!" Pinkie huffed again. "They agreed, no magic during the fight."

"Well he's caught her now." Twilight said, uncertain about this turn of events.

"You see!?" Harold shouted to the crowd, waving his hoof with a flare. "It was her all along!" He turned and began to advance upon her, his swords hovering close. "The princesses will reward me for uncovering your deception, and I'll mount your head above my mantle so everyone will know who finally defeated the Nightmare!"

He's going to KILL HER?! Twilight thought, panicked. She cast her glace around at the other creatures around her, all of whom seemed too stunned to move. Some of the younger ones had pushed or slipped closer to see the fight and were now staring in wide eyed horror at what had become an execution. Her horn started to glow as she pulled magic, uncertain what she would do but knowing she had to act.

Harold circled closer, unable to pass up a chance to gloat. "Well, I guess this is the end of you, Sarah. I'm sure you'd like to plead for your life, and I'd love to hear it, but I just don't have the time." He leaned in close. "Farewell."

There was a soft sound of cloth moving and the sickening crunch of steel on bone as Sarah's metallic right arm shot out from it's hiding place beneath her cloak and caught Harold in the jaw, sending him sprawling backwards. With his concentration broken the stun spell fell away and Sarah fell to her hands and knees gasping for breath, the sword slipping from her mouth and clattering to the ground.

With that, all Tarterus broke lose. Many ponies began running for the exit the canids had provided, while other creatures began to shout and bicker. Twilight's mind was going a mile a minute trying to come to terms with what was happening and plan ahead. Spells came to mind to freeze the crowd, to raise shields, to teleport a few ponies around. She was ready for anything.

Except the cursing.

"EVERY TIME!" Sarah screamed, climbing back to her feet and picking up her sword. "EVERY FUCKING TIME! Every time I make a little progress in getting out of this god damned castle YOU show up! And every time you do I KICK YOUR ASS! YOU NEVER LEARN!"

"Bitch!" Harold cried, firing off another spell at her. She blocked with her right arm, the mystic energies trying and failing to find some organic component to freeze. "The Princesses will reward me for-" He had to cut off his rant to defend against Sarah's blade.

"FUCK that noise!" Sarah screamed, actually pushing Harold back with the ferocity of her attack. "You think I'm going to let you go whining back to the princesses, letting you spin this shit however you want? I'm going to rip your lying tongue out and kick your teeth in!" She feinted with the sword in her left hand and when Harold tried to defend to his right, her right fist caught him in the face and knocked him nearly six feet. "I'd say I'm going to hit you so hard your children will be born bruised if you weren't to inadequate to satisfy a field mouse and that stick up your ass leaves no room for a better lover!"

"GUARDS!" Harold cried out, falling backwards and throwing off another spell. A trio of earth ponies rushed the stage, one pushing right past Twilight and drawing a short sword. Two managed to scramble up onto the wooden stage with only a little trouble, but the third made the mistake of trying to use an injured gryphon's wheelchair as a step stool and was now grappling with the elderly gryphon and a nearby zebra. He got free just in time to catch a nasty kick from Sarah that sent him sprawling.

"I'm going to take that calcified pimple you call a horn off with a belt sander!" Sarah yelled at Harold, parrying and dodging the guard's strikes like it was a graceful and deadly ballet. "Starting with the tip! I'm going to brand that worthless mark off your flanks and stick red hot nails in your eyes!"

Twilight felt sick listening to the abuse Sarah was spelling out for the hapless noble, and Applejack was actually retching at the thought of branding. Looking back towards the rear of the milling screaming crowd Twilight was happy to see that Pinkie had managed to keep track of most of the children at least, though she seemed divided between trying to cover each of their ears and covering her own. The kids looked scared, excited, and disgusted in varying degrees, a few even cheering Sarah on for each hit.

"I'm going to break your legs!" She called, knocking one of the guards off the stage. "And drag you to the edge of the Everfree!" Her right arm caught Harold's lighter blade as it came sailing through the air at her. There was a horrid screech and the bent and twisted blade fell to the floor. "And if you can drag your retarded ass back to the castle I'll give it to you! If you don't then I'll come back! I'll find you once a year, every year, and leave you a little aniversary scar! Your face, your back, your sides, will bear the marks of my rage for the rest of your pathetic life!" Sarah parried and flipped the last guard, leaving him tangled in a loose tablecloth. "But never your ears! I'm going to leave them alone so you can hear every cry, every scream of 'Oh god what is that THING?!' every day until the day I come to you and you beg for your death."  Sarah's rage was shifting from the white hot fury to a much colder, deadlier tone. "And on that blessed day I will take great joy in telling you 'No' one last time!"

A guard stepped up and blocked Sarah's advance, shielding Harold from her wrath for a moment longer. It took everyone a moment to realize the guard was not one of the earth ponies who had attempted to assault her earlier. This one had better armor. This one had better weapons. This one had dark fur and a military training in his stance.

This one had black, bat like wings.
> A Lunar Incursion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	"A thestral." I said, looking the guard up and down. Three more joined him, forming a defensive line between me and the sniveling noble who was my target. "You guys are extremely rare, almost exclusively used as Princess Luna's favorite guards. Which means the princess either sanctioned your actions or..."

Moon Dancer stepped up onto the stage, her form shifting and flowing as Princess Luna let the illusion drop away. "You have leveled some serious charges at this Noble." The princess said, "If he has done as you said, then he will be tried and punished in an Equetrian court."

"He's already being tried Princess. In my court, right here and now." I pointed my sword at Harold. "I found him guilty of just trying to slit my throat after cheating in a duel and I believe I have very clearly laid out his punishment."

"While the crimes you have listed are quite serious, the punishment described is far to harsh." Luna said. "I cannot stand by and let you harm a noble." Behind her Harold started charging a spell.

"You had no problem when he had a sword to my throat." I countered, advancing slightly. I was trying to keep an eye on Harold while also keeping a guard between the two of us. There was less chance of him casting any nasty spells if one of the princess' favorites was in the line of fire. "Nor did you or your guards seem to have any trouble letting a trio of brutes rush me while your precious pony rained down spells."

"We were interested in how your army would respond to the threat." The princess responded, waving a hoof at the crowd.

"My army? Have you seen these creatures? This isn't some fighting force set to conquer Equestria!"

"Your real army must be hidden, perhaps out in the forest."

"In the forest?" I almost laughed. "In the Everfree? At night? If I had an army that could survive that then all of Equestria is in trouble."

"So you admit you have an army in the forest!"

"I don't and you know it because of all your spies!"

"They didn't stop you from digging a tunnel to town! Is that where your army is? Marching on Ponyville as we speak?!"

"THERE IS NO ARMY!"

"How can I trust someone so Nightmare tainted?"

"You didn't have any trouble last time!"

"You mean the time you poisoned me?"

"YOU POISONED YOURSELF!"

"That's what I thought at the time too, but then I heard all the stories-"

"What, from before you banished me out here?"

"No, from when you used Nightmare's power to slip away and terrify the countryside!"

"YOU LISTENED TO THOSE LIES?!"

"HOW DO I KNOW YOU ARE TELLING THE TRUTH?!"

"YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE FANFICTION AS CANNON?!"

"HOW CAN I DO OTHERWISE? YOU NEVER RESPONDED TO MY SISTER'S LETTERS"

"WHAT LETTERS?"

NO PONY MOVE!





Twilight watched the back and forth between Sarah and the princess with disbelief. That ponies might run from a princess she had accepted after Luna's first Nightmare Night, but that anyone would willingly stand and yell at one was not something Twilight's personal theology encompassed. Worse, with every exchange it became increasingly clear that somewhere a massive communication breakdown had occurred. This didn't look to Twilight like some covert assault on Equestria so much as an attempt by Sarah to get out from under the negative publicity she'd been subject to.

You don't put that much thought and detail into creating and getting acknowledgement for a brand new nation just to throw it away by attacking a military and industrial giant like Equestria. she thought. There has to be something else going on here!

NO PONY MOVE!

Twilight spun around in shock at the amplified voice coming from the rear of the party. A trio of unicorns were all holding short daggers in their magic and grappling with a squirming child. The one on the far left was wrestling to hold onto a young gryphon, while the one on the far right had snagged a zebra colt who was scared stiff. The center one, who had yelled at the crowd, was holding a very familiar little yellow filly with a bright red bow in her hair.

"I see one claw, one horn light, one wing flap, and these little ones will regret it!" The unicorn shouted. "You are all going to bow down to Queen Nightmare and then we are going to walk out nice and slowly and nopony will follow us! OR ELSE!"

Applejack was edging slowly through the silent, frozen crowd, trying to get in a better position to rescue Apple Bloom. Pinkie looked on terrified, holding a single pie from the desert table but uncertain who to target. The rest of the children, who were still no more than a few yards from the kidnappers because of the press of everyone else, stared on in horror and shock.

This is WRONG! Twilight thought. This isn't something somepony who was trying to sneak away would set up! This does nothing but CONFIRM all those terrible stories about Sarah. Twilight turned and looked up at the stage, silently begging Luna to see through this for what it really was. It's a setup. Please, princess you have to see it's a setup! If Sarah claimed the kidnappers, commanding them to stand down, it would confirm everything Harold had been saying. If she denounced them, she endangered the children.

"Sarah, how could you?" Princess Luna asked, her voice a mixture of scorn and disappointment. "How could you endanger children?"

Twilight froze, feeling an odd chill wash over her. She saw the torches around the party gutter and flicker for a moment, and the shadows cast across the ground seemed alive. That had been the wrong thing to say.

"OK." Sarah whispered, her voice seeming to carry unnaturally in the night air. "You win."

"Win?" Luna asked, confused. Harold seemed just about bouncing for joy.

"You want me to be the villian? The monster?" Sarah asked, a strange blue light starting to glow from her eyes. "Fine."

From the back of the crowd came a trio of terrified cries of pain.





Diamond Tiara was watching in horror at the little blank flank being held at knife point by this terrifying pony. If her father had been here, he would have protected her. She was scared, but put on a brave face for Silver Spoon, who was crouched behind her trembling. 

"H-h-hey, Silver. Maybe the l-l-little blank flank can get her cutie mark in being k-k-kidnapped?" Diamond joked half heatedly, trying to calm Silver down a little. Something dark flickered near the kidnapper and suddenly Apple Bloom was rushing past Diamond crying about how the bad pony still had her. And sure enough, the bad pony's hoof was still grabbing hold of her costume.

It's just that hoof wasn't attached to anything anymore.

"What the-?" Diamond asked, as a burst of orange motion filled her vision and she turned to look back at Apple Bloom's ex-kidnapper.

She learned something important that day. Something that made her almost completely stop teasing Apple Bloom altogether.

When you buck with the Apple Family, the Apple Family buck back.

Applejack's rear hooves connected with the barrel of the stunned kidnapper, who was staring at his severed hoof, to a symphony of cracking ribs. The impact drove the pathetic unicorn into the black stone wall so hard it left a pony shaped dent when he slid away.

The other two kidnappers, also without their hostages and missing a hoof looked up at the small army of angry creatures advancing on them. Pony, gryphon, minotaur and canid stood shoulder to shoulder in staring down those who had dared to raise a hoof against a child. A single zebra stepped forward.

"You thought our children gave you right
to command us as though you owned this night."

Another stepped forward, this one holding a number of broken chair legs that were quickly snatched up and passed around.

"That to hold small lives in dangers way
Would make us listed to what you say."

The last, an older zebra with a minotaur at his side, stepped up with authority.

"But all that power has gone poof
And it's clear to see that-"

"You done goofed." The minotaur said with a smile, lifting a heavy looking ax.





Princess Luna stood stunned at the turnaround happening in the back of the party. While she had no love for any who would threaten children, especially children who had accepted her upon her return, to see them so casually maimed by the Nightmare sent chills down her spine.

"Waaaaaaah!"

Her attention promptly returned to the standoff before her. She found her guards now fighting dozens of black shadowy snakes, some as small as garden snakes while others seemed like anacondas. The dark mass had already bound two of the four thestrals who had accompanied her to the stage, and had thoroughly bound Lord Bright Harold in place, going so far as to wrap him in a torn scrap of stage curtain. The snakes gathered in pools and...

"Sarah?!" Luna cried, looking up at the human who seemed to be floating above the stage. Her hair had become long and shadowy, pooling below her and stretching out into tendrils and snakes, disappearing into crevices and shadows. "Sarah what are you doing?!"

"I tried" Sarah said, Nightmare's voice doubling her own. "I really tried. I built and I helped and I did everything I could to be free while following the rules. And none of it mattered." She floated forward, eyes fixed on the bound noble. "You were always there, always in my way. Stealing my funding, sabotaging my repairs, dropping stones onto the castle living quarters, planting spies and stealing mail. Only you, my warden, would be in the right place to take all that money. Only you would have the influence, the connections, to get all those petty little stories published. All those nasty little lies. Well, do I live up to your expectations?" Turquoise eyes opened up in Sarah's hair. And down her hair. And in the snakes. And in the shadows under every creatures feet. And in the crevices and cracks in the stones. 

"Am I enough of a monster for you?"

Princess Luna leaped into the air, her wings holding her above the dark monster as creatures ran around screaming. Her guards were quickly becoming overwhelmed, and Harold was lifted into the air as Nightmare drifted closer to him.

"I wanted to explore this world as a traveler," Sarah said, waving her hands as though it was the simplest thing in the world. "one that would come and go and no creature would be the wiser. But you prevented that, all for your precious castle. Now I will walk the world like a dark goddess, and you my precious little idiot, shall be my herald."

"I'D DIE BEFORE I HELPED YOU MONSTER!" The noble screamed.

"Of course you will." Sarah said, and crazed smile on her face. A huge mass of darkness emerged below Harold before splitting open to reveal a giant maw lined with hundreds of razor sharp teeth. "Your rotting corpse shall march on strings of shadow before me, announcing my coming to all and showing the price of crossing me." A lolling tongue, dripping acidic spittle reached out of the maw and dropped a destroyed crossbow and a bleached white minotaur skull. "You chose to cross us on this night, Nightmare night. MY NIGHT! And though this night will not last forever, you shall never see another dawn!"

Luna looked about the scene, trying desperately to find a solution. She saw her guards all bound, save those who were still hidden in the crowd. She saw creatures of all kinds running around trying to find an escape from the eyes and tendrils that seemed to be everywhere. She saw Pinkie Pie trying desperately to put eye patches on all the eyes and keep the children calm. She saw Twilight, searching the chaos, looking small and frightened.

Luna turned on Sarah and unleashed a spell  she had been saving for last resort. The power coursed down her horn straight at the daemonic looking creature. "SEE THE TRUTH!"

> The Truth Will Make You Fret
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The blast of energy swept through me like a storm, ripping away any defense I or Nightmare might have had. The spell cleansed Nightmare's thoughts from my mind and removed my access to her powers but only as a side effect. The main thing the spell did was bring me clarity. Terrible, horrid, near perfect clarity. The kind of unfiltered clear headed nature that drove Sherlock Holmes to cocaine and heroin. A thought, any thought, would bring a deluge of others as my mind made connections that were so obvious now I couldn't believe I had missed them before. Harold had forged the return letters. D and Machina were sweet on each other, if not in love. At least a half dozen of the Canid's here were a little too convincing zombies. 

I clutched my head and tried hard to focus only on the now, fighting back the urge to reassess old mistakes and actions like my car crash. Surprisingly enough, I had Harold to thank for bringing me back to the present.

"LLIK REH!"





Twilight Sparkle cringed in sympathy when Sarah collapsed on the stage. She had designed that spell after the changeling invasion as a way to overpower the mind control changelings used on their hosts. When she had turned her report in to the princesses she had mentioned that a strong enough charge behind the spell might even counter Discord level mind manipulation she never expected to see it first hand. 

Harold still lay bound on the floor in rope and cloth, but the Lunar Guard were up and moving again. Also recovering from their earlier battle with Sarah were the three brutes who had come to Harold's aid after he cheated in the duel.

"KILL HER!" Harold yelled, thrashing around in his bonds. The princess and her guards looked back in shock, while his three thugs resumed their assault. Each brandished a short sword and charged.

Twilight wasn't going to have any of that. Telekinesis charged through her horn and she tried to lock onto the blades before they could get too close. Her concentration was thrown when Sarah sprang to her feet and began to move.

Before, during the duel, it looked like Sarah was dancing with the brutes. She had dodged and weaved and moved in a graceful fashion. Now her movements were short, precise, powerful and terrifying. 

The first pony swung downward at her, and she parried the blade up slightly with her metal arm. The parry slid down the sword, dipping under the assailant's chin to become a hard strike to the throat. The pony gagged, releasing his sword which fell into Sarah's open left hand. That same sword defended against the next two blows from the gagging pony's comrades before coming down hard, sideways, on his front left leg. There was a snap, and he fell to the ground in agony.

One of his comrades, enraged by how easily his friend was taken down, came in slashing. Sarah fell to her knees while deflecting his blow up before delivering a palm strike uppercut. The pony fell unconscious and dropped his blade, a number of his teeth still embedded in the grip. 

The last of Lord Harold's hired help bucked and swung, trying to drive Sarah off stage or into Luna's guard. At last he tried a powerful thrust, only to have his opponent grab his blade and embed the tip in the stage floor. Unable to pull it out quickly and now weaponless, he turned and hurled himself out into the sea of creatures at the edge of the stage, all of whom quickly stepped out of the way and let him belly flop onto the cold stony ground.

There was a quiet moment as Sarah stood, took a deep breath, and seemed to focus herself.

"Etalsnart." Sarah said calmly, looking at Princess Luna.

"What?" Was Luna's eloquent response.

"Uoy dekconk ffo lla fo S'eramthgin srewop dna ehs saw eht eno ohw saw gnitalsnart rof em lla siht emit os uoy evah ot tsac eht noitalsnart lleps no em niaga."

Realizing what was going on, Twilight quickly cast a translation spell on Sarah. "Better?"

"Yes, thank you Miss Sparkle." Sarah said, recovering her sword from where she had dropped it. "Now, Lord Bright Harold, noble of Equestria. I, Princess Sarah Jordan of the Kingdom of Dreams do hereby charge you with attempted regicide, conspiracy to attempt regicide, accomplice to attempted regicide, accomplice to attempted kidnapping, slander, embezzlement, and being too stupid to live." She turned back to the crowd and spread her arms. "Before I pass judgement and have you immediately executed does anyone have anything to say in your defense?"

"What?" Luna asked again. "Sarah I'm glad that you are free of Nightmare's influence but you can't just-"

"I can't just what, Princess?" Sarah turned on her. "I can't meet out justice in my own kingdom? I can't take matters into my own hands? I can't have revenge upon those who would wrong me and mine?"

"You- I- This- This isn't a proper trial!" The princess objected. "There has to be a judge and jury and evidence provided to a fair and impartial third party. You can not just play judge, jury, and executioner!"

"Yuh huh." Sarah countered, pointing a finger at herself. "Tyrant. My kingdom, not yours. What you do in the rest of Equestria is between you and your sister but here in the Kingdom of Dreams my word is law. Unless Nightmare wishes to object, but I'm afraid I can't hear her right now."

Twilight was stunned. The thought of arguing with another pony was something she understood well. The thought of disagreeing with a princess was something she could comprehend, but could never see herself doing. But right now, right before her eyes, Twilight was watching Sarah Talk Down to a princess. The last creature who had come close was Discord with his sarky remarks about Celestia being so dull. Worse still, everything Sarah had said so far sounded right to Twilight. 

"Are you still Nightmare tainted?" Luna asked, not believing what she was hearing. "Did the spell not work?"

"You mistake the dream and the dreamer Luna." Sarah said, turning her attention back to the bound noble. "Now, Lord Bright Harold, do you have anything to say in your own defense before-"

Harold's eyes were filled with green rage. Spittle was dripping from his mouth that was set in a firm grimace. At the tip of his horn was a spell charged to nearly six feet across. It was not his normal magical color but a sickly purple and green that seemed to boil and ooze.

"Hate." Harold said, the spell surging another foot in diameter. "HATE!" he yelled, rearing his head back to strike. "HATE!" he screamed as he launched his spell.

Right at Princess Luna.

Her thestrals, in a well trained response, tackled Harold. One even tried to tackle the Princess to the ground, but the mass difference and the fact that Luna had locked up upon seeing the spell come her way meant she didn't budge an inch.

It was lucky that someone was apparently throwing around suits of armor. The massive iron plated unicorn seemed to fall out of thin air, it's hooves embedding a good two inches into the stage right in front of the princess. 

Instead of fizzling out like Harold's stun spell had done on my arm, the dark spell seemed to almost gnaw at the statue. The metal plating and helm of the unicorn lit with carved circles that flared and died. Fire and lightning seemed to fight with the dark spell as layers of protection were peeled away. Gems studded into it's flanks, shoulders, back and neck dimmed, and parts of the armor seemed to heat to almost red hot. After an entirety that lasted three seconds the dark energy rebounded up and out of the castle, streaking into the Everfree.

There was a heavy thud as a single pegasus drawn carriage dropped almost vertically onto the rear section of the stage, just barely missing the musicians.





I was stunned, absolutely stunned. That Harold was bat shit crazy I'd come accept, on top of his Darwin Award worthy stupidity. Attacking me, with Nightmare's powers, on NIGHTMARE NIGHT was the dumbest thing I'd thought I'd ever see him do. But to throw a spell at Princess Luna? It was like he wanted us to kill him!

I got my second shock when Starlight dropped the little carriage almost on my head. Steel Strike climbed out and walked over to the suit of armor while Star worked on unbuckling herself from the carriage. The helm turned to look at Steel, and he just smacked it on the back of the head.

"What in the name of Cerberus's chew toy did you think you were doing you idiot?!" Steel yelled. "Unicorns don't fly! The next time I see you try and jump out of a moving sky wagon in full armor I'll make sure you've got a rope around your neck so you hang yourself!"

"Hey, there wasn't any other way to get in place in time!" A muffled voice said from the armor. It took me a moment to recognize it as Bright Lance. "Besides, it worked perfectly!"

"Perfectly?!" Star screamed, marching up to Lance. "Looks to me like you burned out almost every gem you had! I can't believe you thought this would be a good field test!"

"It took the hit!" Lance seemed ecstatic. "Knocked out primary, secondary AND tertiary shields before the armor could deflect it but it took the hit! I'd be jumping up and down if I could."

"Why can't you?" Star asked.

"I think the joints are welded together. Unbuckle me?"

"My little ponies," Princess Luna said, calling their attention to her. "What exactly is going on here."

"Anti-Nightmare squad your highness!" Lance said, still facing the wrong direction.

"Actually, we are just an anti-magical threat squad." Starlight corrected. "Our time with Sarah taught us a lot about spell circles and gems, and we were trying to find an easier way to deal with large enchanted creatures."

"Face the princess when you speak to her!" Steel ordered Lance.

"Can't." Lance said. "The suit's knees are locked and I think the hooves are embedded into the stage. A little help?"

Luna's horn lit up, and a dark blue glow enveloped Lance's armor only to fade and slide off. "We cannot touch it with our magic!"

"Anti-magic armor." I said, nodding and looking it over. The clarity spell was buzzing away in my head, analyzing the seals and circles and working out ways to improve upon them.. "Very nice. If you used arcane trace back lines from energy absorption circles instead of dispersion for the shields you could draw power from your opponents attacks to recharge those gems."

"Oooh, that's a good idea." Lance said. "Then I can add in those jump circles on my hooves to give me a speed boost and WHY ARE YOU HELPING ME BUILD ANTI-YOU ARMOR?!"

I shrugged. "Cuz it's neat?" A sound of chains drew my attention back to Lord Harold, who was currently being hoof-cuffed by the thestral guards. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"Arresting this scoundrel who would dare to attack our princess." One of the thestrals said.

"Nuh uh." I said, waving my hands. "He's mine. He attacked me first, I've got dibs."

"Sarah, he is a noble of Equestria." Princess Luna said, placing a hoof on my shoulder. "Casting a clearly offensive spell at me is tantamount to treason."

"It's PRINCESS Sarah, your majesty, and I don't care." I said shrugging off her hoof. "He's my prisoner first."

"Guards," Princess Luna commanded of her thestrals, "load the traitor onto the sky wagon, that he may be taken to Canterlot for trial." Her guards all looked looked around nervously. "Guards?"

"But," one of the said. "But she called dibs."

There was a soft smack of dark horseshoes against alicorn skin as the princess of the night face hoofed. I had picked up my sword and was advancing on Harold. "Don't worry your highness, you can have whatever is left of him once I'm done. You'd have trouble holding him in a cell anyway, what with the him following Sobra's path."

"What do you know about Sombra?" Twilight asked. "How would you even know what that kind of corruption looked like?"

"Nightmare told me." I said, trying to step around the thestrals who were doing their best to work out who had greater ownership of Harold.

"How would Nightmare know?" Princess Luna asked. "My sister and I fought Sombra before that monster infested my mind. Was Nightmare in the Crystal Empire before it fell?"

Silence filled the courtyard.

"OK, look. In her defense, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

"What did?" Twilight asked, climbing on stage. "What seemed like a good idea?"

"There were a lot of dark things near the Crystal Empire around the time Discord was causing chaos in Equestria." I said. "And King Sombra wasn't making as much headway with the Crystal Heart shield as he'd hoped so..."

"Soooo?" Twilight encouraged in the tone of a parent waiting for their child to admit to breaking the window.

"So Nightmare... sort of... encouraged.... alternative research."

"NIGHTMARE TOLD SOMBRA TO RESEARCH DARK MAGIC!" Princess Luna screamed.

"Hey," I said, "The shadow beasts up there had just kidnapped his wife and he was running out of time and options. Nightmare didn't know he'd go full on dictator."

"Next you are going to tell me she's responsible for the changelings!" Princess Luna yelled.

I grinned sheepishly.

"SHE'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CHANGELINGS?!" Screamed the princess and about a dozen others.

"Yelling at me isn't going to do any good right now!" I yelled back. "Nightmare can't hear you because SOMEPONY decided it would be a good idea to lock her away and leave me vulnerable." I got tired of dancing back and forth with the thestral between me and Harold and simply shoved him out of my way. "So you can drag me back to the palace and parade me through a mock trial and imprison and banish me for whatever Nightmare did thousands of years ago." I raised my sword over the unconscious body of Lord Bright Harold. "But before you do any of that, I'm going to make sure this bastard never hurts anyone ever again."	

From out in the Everfree there was a loud crashing sound, followed by a deep bellowing roar.

"NOW WHAT?!" I demanded.

The stars beyond the courtyard wall shifted, moving and rising across the night sky. But this was not the work of the princess. These stars weren't in they sky. They were in the forest. And they had claws. 

"Wha- WHAT IS THAT?!" somepony shouted, and the thing roared again, and brought down a massive claw down towards the castle. The ancient spell that kept the creatures of the Everfree out became visible for a fleeting moment, and I saw just how badly a thousand years of neglect had worn on the shield. It was thin, like spider string, and cracked and broken in places. With another blow the shield started to buckle and break, and everyone started to run.
> Bear With It
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Luna's horn lit brightly and a secondary shield appeared just below the ancient one, reinforcing it. The Ursa Major slammed it's claws down and the ancient shield buckled and warped under the blow. "Blaze, your assessment!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Blaze squeeed at the sight of the massive star bear crashing out of the forest. "A fully grown Everfree Ursa Major!" He fan-fillied. "I thought I might see a manticore or a hydra, but an Ursa Major! Look at the size of it! And the teeth!!!"

"What is the standard contingency against such a beast?!" The princess asked as the next blow shattered the ancient shield and fell heavily on her own.

"Oh, um, let me think." He put a hoof to his chin. "Ah, right. Two armored divisions and a week of prep is the usual response."

"A week?!?!?"

"Ursa's are usually pretty easy to spot when they leave the forest, and they aren't the fastest thing in the world."

The Ursa's next blow caused the princess to wince.





The magically enhanced clarity Luna had forced into my mind was, in a strange way, making it difficult to think and focus. My new powers of perception and deduction latched on to any creature that drew my attention and set to work analyzing and deducing every bit of information it could, nearly drowning out all other thought. When Lance had so unceremoniously fallen from the sky I had worked out the anti-magic nature of the armor in an instant. My mind traced and recorded the various seals and sidgils that covered the armor, noting the power lines connecting glowing gems to shields and offensive spells. Now that the Ursa Major was leaning onto the castle wall and roaring at the massive shield, my mind had picked a new target of focus: Princess Luna.  I knew from experience and D's drain of Twilight Sparkle so long ago that unicorns had limits to how much magic they could expend at any given time. I deduced that an alicorn like Princess Luna had an exponentially greater amount of power, but there was no way to tell how well that power was spent. I could think of at least three spells she had cast so far tonight: an illusion spell on her and her guards, the truth spell on me, and this shield. That she had pushed too much power into the truth spell was obvious from how it had affected me, and now I was wishing she'd held back more for her shield.

I wanted to do so many things. I wanted to grab gryphons and direct them to evacuate everyone they could. I wanted to get the zebras and minotaurs on crowd control, pushing everyone into the relative safety of the canid tunnels. I wanted someone, anyone, to go to Ponyville and bring back help. To have the element bearers show up and deal with this monster. I really wanted to take a moment while everypony was distracted to slit Harold's throat, but that was going to have to wait. I pulled short swords and belts from the two wounded brutes still whimpering on stage, knotting the belts tight around my waist as I walked over to where Lance was still stuck.

"Hey Lance. How have you been?" I asked, looking over his armor and taking a long spear from his back.

"Hey! What are you doing? Don't touch that!" Lance cried, still trying to work his way loose from the stage. Starlight just sighed and kept pulling at the straps she could find, trying to work him free of his armor.

"Sarah," Steel Strike said. "If you are doing what I think you're doing, then you are out of your mind."

"Yeah, I know." I muttered, considering taking the breastplate Star had just worked free before dismissing it as too heavy. "You can tell me all about it when I get back." I said, stepping off the stage and walking in the direction of the beast.

A flash of purple to my left caught my attention.

"Sarah-" Twilight started.

"Ms. Sparkle, there is a monster attacking the castle that even the Princess is having a difficult time holding off. Either reinforce her shields or evacuate."

"What are you going to do?"

"Invite it to tea." I joked, hefting the spear. "I'm going to do what a ruler always does, defend my subjects and my castle."

Twilight Sparkle looked at the weapon and raised an eyebrow. "With a spear? Sarah, I know what spell Princess Luna cast on you. You don't have access to Nightmare right now."

"And do you know what spell Harold cast?" I asked her venomously, hoping to dissuade her as I stalked closer to the edge of the shield. 

Twilight faltered slightly. "I know it was dark magic, mind control or compulsion with heavy emotional influences, but I don't see-"

"That, Twilight!" I yelled, pointing at at the bear trying to scratch a hole in Princess Luna's shield. "That monster is the result of Harold's spell. It has been charmed to hate, but it doesn't just hate the world or the castle or even ponies."

Twilight looked up at the bear, realizing that its eyes were locked right onto her. Only, no, not her. She turned and looked with growing horror at Sarah.

"It hates ME, Twilight." Sarah said with a grim finality. "And it will tear through every barrier, every wall to get to me."

"Your companions!" Twilight said. "You could go and get-"

"They were disguised as ponies, probably already been evacuated." I looked at the purple unicorn with a frown. "If a monster like this was chasing you, what would you do? Would you run and hide in the crowd with the others?"

Twilight bit her lip and looked around, a panicked expression rising in her features as she realized exactly how few options there were.

"On the bright side," I said, bringing her attention back to me, "At least the spell didn't hit the princess." I started jogging the last few feet towards the edge of the shield as Twilight Sparkle looked back at the princess of the night, straining under the ursa's attack, and shuddered at the thought.

The monster hated me, but the spell might have been altered when it deflected off of Lance's shields. There was no guarantee that once it killed me the enraged beast would stop it's assault. So I had to survive, to fight, if only long enough to distract it so everyone else could get away.

The constant barrage had driven Princess Luna's shield back several yards from the castle wall. Not far enough to allow the creature to climb inside the castle, but enough that I couldn't climb the wall from safety.

I pressed against the inside of Luna's shield, and was a little surprised to find it parted to let me through. Even with clarity I wasn't sure if that was just an effect of the shield or if she was willingly opening the hole. I didn't have time to look either.

With a massive roar, a huge dark blue claw crashed down right next to me. The claws scraped along Luna's shield, sending up bright sparks before slamming into the stone floor. My spear came around in a wide slashing arc, scratching a deep line in the paw before I pulled back. The bear jerked it's limb back in pain and swung the other down at me. I spun and braced the spear, hoping to impale the paw and drive the attack off.

I was half right. The spear sank two feet into the dark blue transparent claw, but the force was too great for me to even hope to stop. The shaft snapped just below my hands, and the claw picked me up and threw me against the stone wall of the courtyard. I climbed back to my feet, hissing. My back burned from the impact, shards of the shattered spear were embedded in my leg. My metal right hand still held the ruined shaft, and I tossed it away and drew my sword.

The bear reared back and roared as two more spears sank into its hide, and a half dozen chairs bounced off its face. I turned around to see everyone literally throwing the party at the bear. Gryphons took flight bearing what was left of the food tables, raining everything from pickles to hot sauce down on the beast. Ponies and zebras bucked debris, trash and even a few pieces of cake. The canids and minotaurs directed those who weren't fighting with the strongest and bravest dragging more ammunition forward while the rest made their way towards the escape tunnels or further into the castle. A burst of purple light shot straight up into the night, creating a small lavender sun. 





The beast roared and slammed against Luna's shield, pushing it back several feet. The claws slipped down the glowing shield and crashed into the castle walls. There was a groan before the ancient walls gave way under the weight of the Ursa. A prismatic blast of magic energy impacted the Ursa as the various unicorns in the audience pushed back against the creature. A moment later Twilight added her energy to the mix, driving the Ursa back several steps.

"Much as ah respect your magical powers Twi," Applejack called out as she bucked a bench into the Ursa's nose. "Ah think we might need a bit more help!"

"That's why I called for reinforcements!" Twilight said. A distant boom, like thunder, echoed over the forest. "And here they come!"

A bright rainbow streak lit up the night sky, followed shortly by a dozen pegasi in golden armor. The Equestrain Guard hit the bear hard, driving it back beyond the castle walls and allowing Princess Luna to drop the shield for a moment and catch her breath. 

"Honestly Twilight, I don't know why you come out to this dreadful forest." Rarity said as the pegasi drawn carriage bearing her landed. "You run into the most ghastly of beasts."

"Oh, the poor dear." Fluttershy said as she unstrapped herself from the carriage. "It must be suffering terribly under that spell."

"Had we time and much less commotion," Zecora said, stepping off next to Rarity, "I could brew a clarifying potion."

"Then we'll just have to hold it off until somepony can cast a counter spell." Rainbow Dash said, skidding to a halt next to the other six.

"Dash you can't just make a counter spell on the fly." Twilight said. "Where did you even learn about counter spells anyway?"

"Daring Do and the Sorcerer's Stone of course!"

"Is there anything we can assist with?" A young filly still dressed up as a robot asked, running up. A slightly larger colt came up behind her, dressed like some daemonic deer.

"Now dears, you shouldn't be anywhere near that monster!" Rarity said.

"But we can help stop that thing!" The older colt said.

"We just have to hold it off until Princess Celestia gets here with the Elements of Harmony." Twilight said. "Spike should have sent a message I prepared in case of emergency when I sent up the beacon."

"You kids just stay in the back and, uh, lend a hand if it gets too close." Rainbow Dash said, trying to shoo the two little ones away from the bear.

"What, like if it crosses the wall again?"

"Yeah, that's it!" Rainbow said, satisfied that the kids were headed back towards the rest of the non-combatants. "If Luna's shield falls and the bear crosses the wall, you two brave warriors stop it cold, alright?" They nodded at the prismatic mare as they left.





Red and Reggie had a hold of my arms and were doing a damn good job of dragging me away from the bear. Pulling the other direction was Black Talon.

"Come on!" Talon yelled, pulling at my legs. "You heard what she earlier! That thing just wants her!"

"MIGHT want her!" Red yelled. "You might feed her to it and it still would be attacking!"

"DON'T I GET A SAY IN THIS?!" I screamed, trying to kick and punch my way free. "What kind of guard feeds their leader to a monster?!"

"An Ex-guard. You fired him, remember?" Reggie asked. "Besides, he's being completely unreasonable."

Talon let up for a second. "I am?"

"Thank you," I said, kicking free of Talon's hold. "Now just-"

"It would be far better to use her as bait and lure the monster further out into the forest, then feed her to it." Reggie clarified.

"I'M GOING TO TURN YOU TWO INTO DOWN PILLOWS!" I yelled, pulling free from Red at last. I stumbled away from her and back into line of sight for the Ursa Major.

As soon as it spotted me the bear charged straight through the attackers pestering it and pushing it back. Luna's shield surged into existence, and Twilight added a secondary shield in front of it. Before, Luna's shield had been able to hold off the attacks, but now the Ursa had a running start. It barreled into the Twilight's shield, it's claws seeming to cut straight through the magical construct before the beast slammed into the Princess' shield, deforming it inwards. Maybe it was the effort of holding the beast off for so long, or all the energy she had spent against me earlier in the night. Or maybe Princess Luna was distracted by the cry of distress Twilight gave before falling to the ground as her shield was cut down. Whatever it was, Princess Luna's shield shattered and the Ursa Major, mad as hell, charged past the ruins of the western wall.

I looked up at the bear barreling down on me, and the world went blindingly white for a moment. When my eyes cleared the bear lay dead inches from my feet, the left half of it's head missing and the edges of the hole seared cleanly. The smell of burned meat and ozone hit me, nauseating in it's potency. I turned slowly around, looking back to where Machina and D were standing back to back. D's left arm and Machina's right were held straight out together, each having twisted, warped and merged with the other to create a strange weapon ending in a long, two inch wide barrel. They stood there in a quiet heroic stance for a moment longer before D collapsed to the ground unconscious.

"D!" I called out, rushing toward where he'd fallen, dragging Machina Down with him. About half way there I met a line of multicolored ponies, the Bearers, who seemed intent on holding me off.

"Whoa there sugar cube." Applejack said, rearing up a little when I tried to dodge around the line. "Ah think we need to have a talk."

"Guards," Princess Luna called. "Mark the restraining circles. Do not let the daemon escape." The princess marched up next to me only to be halted by the bearers as well.

"While your concern is understandable, it is currently unnecessary." Machina said calmly as two of the thestral guards started to draw three concentric circles out of spilled food, broken furniture, and rubble. "D and I are currently fused and cannot be separated until he regains consciousness."

"Machina, what was that? I've never seen a weapon like that before." I called.

"I believe that is something we would all like to know." A regal voice said softly from above. It took me a moment to realize that all of the ponies and even most of the other creatures were bowing.

Princess Celestia had arrived with the dawn.
> Dawn of Reason
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I could not honestly say if I was happy or not to see the other Equestrian Princess descend upon my castle, especially since she came with not only the Elements of Harmony in a fancy golden chest but also a platoon of guards. The guards seemed mainly concerned with evacuating as many ponies from the castle as safely as possible, leaving only a handful including the Bearers. Princess Luna had calmed considerably upon her sister's arrival but still insisted on her guards watching over D, who was softly snoring, and Machina, who was doing her best to keep track of everything. I was being looked after by the Bearers, as well as most of the council. 

Applejack kept giving Pio odd looks, Pinkie Pie and Zaephir were engaged in a rhyme off, Rainbow Dash and Red were discussing Red's extended family, Thomas was doing his best to avoid Rarity as she did her best to convince him he'd look dashing in a new suit, Twilight and Reggie were still discussing the constitution, and all of them were circled around me to either protect or restrain.

Lord Harold was surrounded by six guards in flashy golden armor, a strange ring around his horn and several layers of cuffs connecting his hooves. Nearby, Fluttershy and a red Night Guard were trying to glare both me and Harold to death, every now and then looking back at the dead ursa with extreme sadness.

At last Princess Celestia approached us. It was interesting to see the level of respect she commanded from even those who were not part of her domain. Though no creature within the castle had any call to do anything she asked, each responded to any polite request with prompt and friendly service. The only ones who seemed to avoid both her and her guards were the band.

"Well," Celestia said softly, breaking up the various conversations going on around me. "It seems we have much to discuss."

"Such as?" I was somewhat resigned to whatever dungeon they planned to throw me into. There was little hope for someone who had willingly attempted to release the Nightmare on the world.

"To begin, I think we are going to pull repair funds for damages done to your castle from Lord Bright Harold's personal funds."

That got my attention.

"Then I believe we should move you to Canterlot," She continued, and my heart sank waiting for her to tell me what dungeon I'd be in. "For professional care."

"Professional care? Is that a euphemism for torture?" I was honestly at a loss. 

"Of course not!" Celestia said with a shocked expression. "I want Canterlot's top medical specialist to try to help you," the princess said, her voice carrying tones of concern and compassion.

"No offense your majesty but I'll heal up just fine. I don't think you have many doctors in Canterlot experienced enough with my physiology to heal me."

"While I am concerned about your physical health Sarah, it is your mental state that concerns me more."

I blinked. Did she just call me crazy?

"Maybe you could see the same therapist I did!" Twilight chimed in. "He did me a world of good after I brainwashed all of Ponyville because an assignment was late."

Yup, they called me crazy.

"You all think I'm nuts?" I asked, somewhat taken aback. "Me?" I looked at Pinkie Pie to emphasize the point. 

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with seeing a doctor when you need to." Pinkie said. "Even a, brrrr, dentist." The thought of someone scraping at her teeth obviously frightened her.

"What evidence do you have that I am at all crazy?"

"Ya mean aside from sidin' with a creature like Nightmare?" Applejack asked.

"She's not so bad once you get to know her."

"Or coming up with a positively ridiculous plan to use the Elements of Harmony to banish yourself back home?" Rarity added.

"It had sort of worked for Nightmare Moon." I countered weakly. The clarity spell was still buzzing in the back of my head, and some of the plans I'd felt certain of before started to look poorly conceived.

"I am afraid that we are in part to blame for some of her actions." Machina said, her voice carrying clearly in the early morning. 

"Please explain." Princess Celestia asked patiently.

"In addition to physical augmentation, D and I offer a constant background mental augmentation. D heightens the senses, and allows for quicker responses, while I provide more mental focus for dedicated problem solving."

"Those don't sound bad." Twilight pointed out.

"They are not," Machina answered. "If you are aware of them. Sarah recently brought a... miscommunication to our attention. She believed us to be weaker creatures instead of bound ones. As such, she was unaware of our modifications to her psyche. Constant heightened senses and reaction times can lead to a sense of paranoia, and the focus I provided along with several past experiences creates a self reliance that can become self destructive. In short, Sarah would be convinced she could solve any problem on her own and suspicious of help offered by others."

"That certainly goes a long way towards explaining her initial time in Ponyville." Twilight said.

"But it does not explain her actions after banishment." Red pointed out.

"Really?" I asked, "You are going to side with them?"

"Sarah I can understand being suspicious of creatures in power." Red said. "My entire clan is here because of the reactions of other, stronger clans to one thing my parents did long ago. But you seem obsessed with backing the underdog and sheltering anyone with a sob story."

"Honestly I'm surprised you let jerks like Black Talon stay more than a week." Reggie said. "Anyone can tell he's a thug with a band of thugs from a mile off. You seem to have a knack for attracting and accepting rogues, revolutionaries and criminals."

"The words she speaks you know are true." Zaephir said before eyeing Pio. "Though you have reformed one or two."

"Right, so I'm a terrible judge of character-"

"Um, honestly I think your relatively good experience with Nightmare biased you towards accepting the outcasts and wanting to offer them another chance." Fluttershy said quietly. "It's really quite noble, if you think about it. You saw how one creature was being misunderstood and persecuted like you were and you've expanded your protection to any who might be misunderstood or need a second chance."

"OK, so I'm just a sucker for hard luck cases." I continued. "But that doesn't mean I'm crazy."

Celestia looked down sadly at me before pulling out a scroll and unfurling it with her magic. "I have notes here that when offered assistance in the form of research material from my student Twilight Sparkle you refused biased on her reaction to your last attempt to quote borrow books end-quote. This is despite the fact that such reactions by my student were explained and reprimanded in your own trial less than a month prior. Did you really believe that Twilight would willingly give ponies books to bring to you just so she would have a reason to track you down and hurt you?"

I paused as I thought about that. It had been so long ago when Lyra and Bon Bon had first ventured out to my castle. Why had I refused their help like that? It had seemed so reasonable then but now....

"Then there was the trouble Lord Harold heaped upon you." Celestia continued. That brought my attention back to the here and now. "I suspected something might be wrong when an envoy from the Kingdom of Dreams appeared in my court but you had not responded to any of the letters I sent. At first I feared you were trying to spurn me out of spite, but a reliable source informed me that you had never gotten any such letters."

"A source? Who, Lance? Star?"

"They shall remain nameless, except to say that they had no reason to hide or distort the truth. After all, I was giving them access to the Canterlot Library for their xeno-biology and xeno-archaeology research. Once the absence of letters had been confirmed I began to discretely poke into the pony we had selected to handle your affairs in Canterlot: Lord Bright Harold."

"How did you manage to pick someone like THAT to watch over me?"

"That was partially my decision." Princess Luna said, stepping forward. "Lord Harold had hereditary claim to the castle and some sections of the Everfree from centuries ago when his family agreed with my sister to accept ownership in exchange for land on which Canterlot was constructed. His line was originally charged with the upkeep of the castle but as the Everfree grew this proved more and more difficult. Eventually travel to and from the castle was declared too dangerous and it was left to crumble from neglect. Squatting in the castle gave you a claim of ownership that my sister and I validated at the end of your trial."

"So you gave control over my access to the outside world to the one pony I stole a castle from? How does that make any sense?"

"We- I believed that he would assist in repairs in order to uphold his family's ancient vow to maintain the castle as a historical site." Princess Luna said, bowing her head in apology. "We did not foresee his assaults upon you to reclaim the land, nor the depths to which he would sink to attain his goal. It seems my sister knows more about it than I do."

"If we had been alerted to his activities sooner, tonight's events might not have happened." Princess Celestia said. "As we said, we only got the first hint something was wrong when your envoy arrived in a friendly fashion but you still hadn't responded to my letters."

"OK, that can't be right." Lance said, having finally been freed from his anti-magic armor. "I know that Steel, Star and I each turned in a report that had Harold's initial assault described in detail."

"We received... edited versions of that report." Princess Luna said. "As I mentioned, Lord Bright Harold had been put in charge of everything regarding repairs to the castle and relations with Sarah. He looked over the reports and 'sanitized' them before I or my sister ever laid eyes on one."

"That still does not excuse your actions Sarah." Princess Luna pointed out. "When you had your creatures bound to you, you chose a lone path and charged forward with utter abandon. You asked for help from no creature save Nightmare and you pursued your mad plan to its near catastrophic conclusion. That is understood and even forgivable as you were under other influences, but once you were here you had no influence but Nightmare."

"Are you saying that Nightmare made me crazy?"

"We had actually hopped this was the case." Princess Luna said. "When we first came to you, in the midst of your mad plan, you impressed us with the care you took not to harm any of the Bearers as they came to fight you. You had two other spirits under control, so I did not fear the addition of Nightmare to your burden. Once freed however, it became apparent how little control you had on your original spirits. Once I learned that Nightmare was loose within your mind, I feared that your actions were the result of her machinations. Sadly, this has proven untrue."

"It has?! When? How?" I didn't remember undergoing any psych test.

"The clarity spell!" Twilight said, excited that she had figured it out. "If your actions were Nightmare influenced then your mannerisms should have changed. Instead, they became more pronounced. You charged Harold, Princess Luna, even an Ursa Major head on, never once asking for aid. Even with friends and companions around you, even with D and Machina close by you still chose to sacrifice yourself rather than beg assistance."

"Self sacrifice can be a true and noble gesture," Princess Celestia said, "And many lives have been saved by the brave sacrifices of the right creature at the right time. But you seem determined to throw yourself into mortal peril so that your end might have a noble twist to it. I can only think that something terrible has happened to you long ago, and those scars have never fully healed."

"There are a lot of options for that 'something terrible'." I admitted.

"So, will you agree to come with us and get help?" Princess Celestia asked.

"Yes."

"Honestly," Princess Luna huffed. "If you are alright with all of this why didn't you agree to the request from our envoy weeks ago?"

"The envoy that told me I was going to be imprisoned in Canterlot, had to kick everyone out, give up ownership of the castle, and explain how I had beaten D into submission."

Princess Luna looked started before glaring at where the unconscious Lord Harold lay, surrounded by guards. "That was most certainly NOT the list of requests I sent for the envoy to read to you."

"What about D and Machina?"

Princess Celestia hung her head slightly. "Originally I had hoped to ask them to help your recovery while offering their knowledge and experience to our researchers." Twilight seemed almost giddy at the thought of studding extra dimensional beings. "However, with the new power they have demonstrated they will have to be detained. Such a weapon cannot be allowed to run loose. Even keeping it in Canterlot can create trouble internationally."

"If it helps your Majesty," Machina said, "I do not think D and I could fire the soul shard rifle again." She looked down at D and seemed to smile. D was snoring softly, his arm still intertwined with her. "The weapon requires two things to fire, the first being a massive amount of energy. D provided the majority of the energy used in that last shot, power he only had from months draining monsters in the Everfree Forest. D would have to drain Twilight Sparkle of power two or three times for another shot, and even then it would be life threatening for him." Machina shifted to be a little more comfortable. "He had been storing that power since we first landed months ago."

"What was the other thing ya'll needed?" Applejack asked, walking over closer to Machina, ignoring the thestrals who guarded her.

"We require permission." Machina said flatly.

"Sarah!" Fluttershy scolded, her anger finally finding someone she could be mad at for the bear's death. "How could you? I know the bear was attacking you, but it was under magical influence."

"Sarah did not provide permission." Machina said, pointing to Rainbow Dash. "She did."

"ME?!" the prismatic pegasus cried in shock. "I don't remember telling you to fire your massive scary awesome death beams of doom at anyone!!"

Machina nodded. "We came and told you we could help and you said-" Machina's voice changed to an exact mimic of Rainbow Dash.  "If Luna's shield falls and the bear crosses the wall, you two brave warriors stop it cold, alright?" 

"What? But, you, I, that, I SAID THAT TO A PAIR OF KIDS!"

"Yes, that was us." Machina said. "We were in costume. It is Nightmare Night after all."

"Regardless, for the safety of everyone we will have to bind you-" Princess Luna began.

"That's hardly fair," I interrupted, walking over and waving a hand at Rainbow Dash. "I seem to recall a certain pegasus who can create a rainbow shock-wave with much less effort than D and Machina. That could easily knock gryphons out of the sky if used wrong, but I don't see the gryphons trying to ground her permanently."

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash pipped up, "My speed may be awesome, but I'd never use it as a weapon."

"Really?" I countered. "You've never used your speed in a destructive fashion?"

"No way!" Dash proclaimed.

"Um, Dash," Applejack said, looking awkward and rubbing one hoof on a foreleg. "Remember that time Twilight was tryin' to finish a friendship report and you were helpin' me take down the barn?"

"Okay, once." Dash said with a sigh, "But for good reason and I'd never do it again."

"Fine, then I think D and Machina can agree to similar terms." I said, turning to the princesses. "D's nature means you could even write it into a contract and he would be physically incapable of breaking it."

D lunged upright, going from blissful slumber to snarling rage in a split second. His form shifted into something more predatory, more wolf like, and he slowly began to pull away from Machina. He pressed against the inside of the circle.

"D!" I called out. "What?"

"CODE ALPHA SEVEN!" Machina called out, her own form pulling free of the now conscious D and reforming a worrying number of blades. "CODE ALPHA SEVEN! DIMENSIONAL BREACH IMMINENT!"

"ARCO?" I asked, startled. "They are finally coming?!"

D lifted his canine nose into the air and took long sniffs, turning left and right as if trying to scent the breach. Machina's head swung back and forth as well. "It is near, possibly within the castle." 

Twilight spun around, trying to spot this new traveler from beyond the stars. Rainbow Dash shot skyward, hoping for a birds eye view. Fluttershy dove under a table.

"How long until they get here?" Twilight asked.

"If we are lucky the conversion pod will take roughly one week to acclimate the jumper to your world." Machina said, turning slowly to scan the area.

"What happens if we're unlucky?" Applejack asked.

"Pod does a quick conversion in a minute and spits out a jumper for a quick look around." D said.

"Or the pod explodes." I added.

The guards looked worriedly at the princesses. After a moment Princess Celestia gave a short nod. A guard scratched out the circles with a spear tip, freeing D and Machina.

D took off, the few creatures still in the castle falling back from him in a half panic. Machina followed with me trailing behind.  After everything that had happened tonight my body hurt and every step brought agony and exaustion. Still I managed to keep up enough to see them round the corner into a smaller courtyard and come to a halt. D began sniffing the ground, carefully combing the area for information while Machina began scanning.

"Well?" I asked after a few ragged breaths. 

"Definite breach." D muttered, sniffing around. "Damn fast too, they must have been in and out in just a few seconds."

"Probe?" I asked, sitting down against a wall. Princess Luna came into the room, followed shortly by her older sister.

"The breach is too large for a probe." Machina said, looking concerned. "It is most likely a larger conversion pod, at least a Orion Class."

"That would have been big enough to take all of us home." I said. "Why didn't it stay long enough to pick us up?"

"Hey!" a new voice caught my attention and I turned. Sweetie Belle walked in, balancing a tray of snacks on her back. Behind her Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were doing their best to carry five glasses of punch. "Where did Lyra and Bon Bon go?"





"A jumper took them?" Princess Celestia asked. "You are certain?"

"Please bear in mind I am running on very little power at this point." Machina said, her form now one of a robotic earth pony. "But the disturbance I can detect is on par with an Orion Class pod. They are built with additional chambers around the outside to transport jumpers in training or bring diplomats back to the home world."

"And apparently kidnapping." Rainbow Dash chimed in.

"There isn't any way to prove that." I countered, "Knowing how enthralled Lyra was with humans, it's likely she would have gone willingly. Bon Bon might have followed her."

"Do you really believe they would embark on such a dangerous adventure so suddenly?" Princess Luna asked.

"Ah find that hard to believe." Applejack said. "Given the speed yer friends came and left."

"Hey, no friend of ARCO's is a friend of mine!" D said with a bit of a grump. He'd taken on the death deer form and would keep rubbing a hoof over his eye sockets sleepily. Firing the soul shard rifle had obviously taken a lot out of him.

"I would point out that Lyra and Bon Bon did, not too long ago, brave a deadly forest to reach the castle prison of an alien creature tied to the Nightmare." I said. "But I'm beginning to suspect somepony may have nudged them into that." I glanced at the princesses who remained unnervingly stoic. "Besides, I have to concede the point on time constraints. The pod couldn't have been here more than a few minutes, too little time to convince a pair of ponies to jump in and see where things go. The question that remains is why they would want to take them?"

"Probably something ghastly." Rarity said.

"Oh, I hope not. I hope they are alright." Fluttershy added.

"Maybe it's a surprise party!" Pinkie Pie grinned hopefully.

"Girls!" Twilight yelled, "Calm down."

"Right," D added. "The pod is usually used for diplomacy. Chances are they just want to talk to them, maybe gather information."

"There is not much that commoners could tell." Princess Luna said, Twilight wincing at the 'commoners' remark. "They do not know the strength of our army nor the extent of our power."

"They know other things." Machina remarked. "Simple things. Sometimes those are all that is needed to wage a successful attack. One does not need to know the measure of every stone in a wall to bring it down."

"There is a more worrying concept." D added. "Lyra and Bonnie would need anchors. If they brought those back here, it would give whatever jumper accompanied them a massive power boost."

"How massive?" Twilight asked. 

Machina paused, considering and calculating. "The power levels become dangerous after three days." She said. "If the jumper could create a soul shard rifle, a task few can accomplish, they would be able to fire it once by draining both anchors completely. The power would double every day after that."

"Could there be another reason?" I asked, almost begged. "Something a little less malevolent?"

My companions were silent for a moment.

"Reference points!" D said. "They might use them as living samples of the world to form a stable jump."

"We are still uncertain of what caused your pod to explode when it did." Machina said, nodding. "Because it did not do so on landing but shortly afterwards, it might have been a phase calibration error. Two samples could be used to measure and correct this error."

"Still, would have thought they'd send a probe or something before this." D said. "It seems fishy."

"Hey I put my faith in ARCO!" I said.

"We, sadly, can not afford to do so." Princess Luna said sadly. "A great pony once said to hope for the best but prepare for the worst."

"To that end," Princess Celestia said, "I would appreciate it if you, Twilight Sparkle, and your friends learn as much as you can about ARCO in whatever time we have. You will act as our ambassadors if they are friendly and our military advisers if they are not."

"We shall do our best to assist you." Machina said, D nodding in affirmation.

"Which screws me over." I huffed, sitting down on a short stone wall.

"What?" Twilight asked. "Sarah, just because-"

I pointed to my head. "Truth spell, remember? The Element's of Harmony are already going to play host to two alien creatures, and they will be able to tell you a lot more about the jumpers and methods faster than I would. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna need to subtly prepare and arrange their guards and probably call in extra forces from allies. No one has time to look after me."

"Um," Fluttershy started, "you are more than welcome to-"

"And the Nightmare is still bound within me, waiting for the truth spell to weaken so it can be free again."

Fluttershy eeped and hid behind Rainbow Dash.

I looked at the princesses. "I know that old shield fell, but what about the ancient wards? Is any part of the castle still safe?"

Princess Luna looked around critically. "The inner courtyards and ballrooms, as well as the royal chambers, should be safe. Still, I would recommend the canid tunnels for added protection."

"Right," I said, picking myself up. "Try and visit sometime, okay?" 

"We can't just let her leave, can we?" Rarity asked.

"Much as Ah hate to admit it, she has a point." Applejack said. "That varmint Harold's done a right number on her reputation. With Nightmare as active as she was tonight, ain't no way we could keep her." 

"Sarah," D said. "I promise, whatever happens, if we can get you home we will."

I looked back and nodded. "I'll be in the royal chambers if you need me. I doubt my presence in the canid tunnels will do anything but antagonize the refugees at this point." I stalked off, wondering if I'd hear anything from anyone before ARCO returned.





I felt awful. My chest and arm hurt, my head was swimming, and the damn truth spell was spinning through my skull. I was lying in bed trying to sleep but my brain wouldn't shut up, and I couldn't even lie to myself. I tossed and turned on the bedding, fighting for rest, listening to the wind outside the heavy curtains. Day had come as the princesses left, a parting gift of Celestia to aid the cleanup. Sunlight peeked through holes in the curtains, and the sound of creatures moving outside mixed with birdsong and the buzzing of flies attracted to the Ursa's carcass. 

THOOM!

I sat bolt upright in bed, blinking my eyes to clear them of the vision in front of me. A conversion pod, Orion class, had just landed in my bedroom! The doors swung open and the jumper stepped out.

"FRANK?!" I cried in disbelief.

"Sarah come on!" He called. "It won't hold here long!"

I leapt into his arms, closing my eyes and letting the pod close around us.

My love had come for me.

I was going home.

	
> Intermission III
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: RnD@ARCO.com
From: AQVP@ARCO.com
Subject: Power Sources

Good morning everyone,

First I want to congratulate you all on the tremendous amount of work you have done over the past few months. Our shift away from cultural exploration in our jumps have allowed us to direct more funding to personal research and less to inter-dimensional conversion. Figuring out if a nifty magic wand would work in our world was never really profitable anyway.

Many of you have demonstrated remarkable results with the technologies currently available to us. The concept of a car that never needs refueling, running off a single anchor for nearly twenty years, is wonderful if not financially viable.

Those of you dedicated to weapons research have proven much more profitable. Using anchors as small, high energy power sources has enabled us to miniaturize some highly experimental weapons and systems. The rail cannon system is looking very promising, as is the micro power reactor for mobile armor.

Many of you have reported problems with anchors of varying power levels. We here in acquisitions admit it is difficult to get multiple anchors from multiple locations to have similar levels of charge. 

As you know since the tragic loss to our company a few months ago, our jumpers are now better armed and armored against attacks, and our landing sites are cleared by unmanned drones before a live jump is preformed. These worlds are then rendered safe for transit by various means at the discretion of our jumpers. A new proposal has been put forth to farm these worlds for anchors.

Before any of you protest we KNOW that giving one jumper multiple anchors merely splits the charge evenly across them. So our plan is to send multiple jumpers to safe worlds at the same time. This way we can return with dozens or even hundreds of anchors with the same charge level. There may even be an eventual resort built to gain extra research revenue in addition to equally charged anchors.

To complete this task, we have asked some of our best jumpers to go to select worlds and make them safe. In some cases this will involve drawn out political deals. There are a few worlds though, where we are trying a more direct approach. We have invited a few of their residents here in order to charge anchors that can be used by a jumper upon return to the visitors world. These anchors can be utilized to power companions in innumerable ways.

That jumper will then make that world safe.

However they see fit.

Thank you all,

Frank Johnson
VP Acquisitions
> Two Weeks In Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight Sparkle woke up to her alarm and growled at it. She had fallen asleep researching last night, as she had every night since Nightmare Night. Someone, probably one of her new guests, had carried her upstairs, tucked her in, and wound the damn alarm clock. Grumbling, she pulled herself out of bed and downstairs.

The library was a mess, as was usual whenever she was in research mode. Piles of books, notes, and charts were scattered around the library floor as Twilight groggily dodged her way into the kitchen. Spike was busy making pancakes. Machina, in robo-pony form, was sitting and plugged in where the coffee pot usually sat. D, looking like a cross between a pony, a deer, and a living shadow, was flipping through the newspaper.

"Morning Twilight," D said, turning the pages. "Sleep well?"

"Well enough," she said with a touch of annoyance. Coffee was a terrible addiction and she had been without for two days in a row now.

Machina unfolded herself from where she sat and went to work mixing something up on the counter. Spike came over and put a tall stack of pancakes in front of Twilight and sat to eat his own gem encrusted short stack nearby. There were dark rings under the young dragon's eyes from late nights, probably mirroring her own. She cut the first bite free from her pancakes and pulled the bottle of syrup over using her magic. Machina came over and set two glasses in front of Twilight. The first was only filled with ice. The second was about a third full of what looked like thick cream and the remainder of the glass was slowly filling up with a dark familiar liquid dripping down from a strange metal tin on top of the glass. Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"Wait for the coffee to finish in the first one," Machina said, pointing a shiny metal hoof at the glass slowly filling with coffee. "Then stir the hot coffee and cream together, pour it over the ice, and drink slowly."

Twilight followed the instructions, watching the mixture of coffee become a light tan. She sipped carefully and her eyes went wide. The cool liquid was milky, sweet, and very strong. "What is this??"

"Cafe Sua Da," Machina said. "A kind of coffee from the home world of Sarah Jordan. She has told me the drink is very good, but unhealthy to drink too often."

Twilight felt like her teeth were vibrating slightly. There was so much sugar and caffeine in just a single sip. For the briefest of moments, Twilight contemplated giving a large glass of this to Pinkie and then pointing her at any ARCO assailant and letting her go. The idea quickly left her mind and the drink was mentally added to an extensive list of things not to give Pinkie Pie.

"So, quick review of what we know," Twilight said. "First, an ARCO jumper has limited time to obtain an anchor once they land in another world."

"Correct," Machina nodded. "It has to do with how well integrated they are into a world. The standard week long conversion gives a jumper about a month. The quick version gives only 24 hours."

"OK," Twilight continued. "Second, using power from the companions can reduce that time."

"But we have no clue how the additional power from a charged anchor will affect that time limit," D pointed out. 

"Third," Twilight said, pushing the nasty uncertainty from her mind. "Once an anchor is given or coerced, the jumper's time in a world is not limited. This seems like the largest obstacle in keeping any jumper out. They could beg for bits in Canterlot and have an anchor inside of an hour." Twilight sipped more cold coffee. "Is that all we know?"

"You are dealing with certainties," Machina said. "Defined limits. Generally a jumper is bound to a technological and a biological companion to aid in incorporating with the locals. When we left ARCO there were over five hundered different kinds of companions a jumper could be paired with. Assuming the jumper is offensive and high powered that still leaves hundreds of permutations for companion combination."

"It is hard to plan when you don't know what you might face," D pointed out.

"It's like planing a tea party for Discord," Spike moaned.

"They might not be hostile though, right?" Twilight asked with hope.

D and Machina looked at each other.

"There is a chance," Machina said slowly, "There could be a very good reason why, knowing that Sarah is here-"

"Which they would if they talked to Lyra and Bon Bon at all," D commented.

"Right, knowing Sarah is here they haven't sent another quick jumper."

"Or long jumper."

"Or unmaned retreval pod."

"Or comunication probe."

"Or-"

"ALRIGHT I GET IT!" Twilight shouted. "But there still might be a chance, right?" She sighed. "Princess Luna and Princess Celestia want us to keep this as much under wraps as possible. If things go well we can talk to other ponies. If things go bad, hopefully the Equestrian Guard and the Elements of Harmony can take care of it."

"Is that really what we've worked out for a plan after three days?" Spike asked disappointed. "Go say hi and if they are mean we hit them with the Equestrian Guard and the Elements?"

"It was your idea to use the Elements," Machina pointed out to the little drake.

"That was a joke!" Spike said. "If they only have a day to get an anchor, can't we just not give it to them?"

"There was a reason," Twilight said, rubbing sleep from her eye. "But it was late-"

"We don't know where they are going to pop up," D said. "So we might have to relocate a huge population center in a hurry."

"There are also numerous companions or companion combinations that could reach the moon with the power a two week anchor might provide," Machina's toneless voice seemed depressed.

Twilight drank slowly but deeply from the strong coffee. "I think we need a break."

"A break might be a good idea," Machina said. "We can check on the other bearers and see how they are doing. Maybe they can suggest something."

"You really think so?" Twilight asked. Much of what they were doing seemed almost out of her ability to grasp, and for the first time she doubted that her friends could give meaningful aid.

"Look, I know we've said this before," D said, putting the paper down. "But Sarah was more than just a host for us. Each of us is brilliant in our own way but it takes someone creative to really utilize us."

Twilight shrugged. Honestly it couldn't hurt. Maybe, time permitting, they could even make it out to the castle to talk to Sarah.





"Well, I always think that new creatures should be given the benefit of the doubt," Fluttershy said, tending carefully to a small clutch of eggs under the watchful gaze of two concerned looking snakes. "If met by strangers, there is always a chance for confusion and hostility, but if they are met by ponies they know, things can go much smoother."

Twilight nodded. There wasn't really much hope for the diplomatic route, but Machina and D certainly had more in common with whatever was coming than anypony else. It was strange enough being around these two and seeing how the world reacted to them.

Machina, for instance, looked completely out of place surrounded by squirrels, birds, raccoon and other animals. Even she wasn't sure why they all flocked to her, though she guessed her shiny skin made her peculiar enough to approach. D on the other hand had been forced into a corner by a bear and a bunny rabbit. His bestial, predatory nature was apparently not welcome among so many prey species.

"What do you two think?" Twilight asked. "Want to make first contact?"

"Considering we are not entirely fond of ARCO, we may not be the best envoys for peaceful relations," Machina said.

"We are more likely to survive first contact if things go south though," D put in, dodging around the bear. "We might even be able to get a signal of where the ARCO person is headed and how dangerous they are."

"As it stands, D and I are the only ones capable of detecting a dimensional breach, and my range is limited," Machina stood up slowly, allowing the animals to safely move away. "We can build a stronger sensor array, but it will drain my power slightly."

Twilight  considered for a moment. "Do it. The more advanced the warning the better our odds." 





Angel looked up at the dark thing sitting in his house. It had come in with the shiny one and the purple one to talk with Kindness. Whatever they were saying was worrying Kindness. She had tried to hide it from the others like her, but she had not hidden it from him. These things weren't scaring her, but something related to these things were. Angel didn't like it when Kindness worried, and he knew the others didn't like it either.

One of the birds, a bit of a loudmouth, chirped about getting help. But what help could they get? The large bear was here, and it didn't seem to really worry the dark thing.

Who else was there to call?





A couple of days later the Ponyville Library had a gleaming metal spire affixed to the tallest branch, with various small spires and metal bowls attached at seemingly random angles. Twilight smiled at the job well done while Machina finished tuning the antennas.

"We are set. If a dimensional breach occurs anywhere within one hundred thousand miles, we will know."

"Yo, egghead!" Rainbow Dash called, dropping from the sky. "Why is there a metal spike on my favorite napping branch?"

"Rainbow Dash, you know darn well why!" Twilight huffed. While the others had offered assistance in planning, Rainbow had spent most of the week in intense training. She was pushing her speed and agility to the limits in preparation for whatever was coming.

"I know you and these two are working on some super genius strategy, but that doesn't explain the new addition to your home."

"It's a detection array," D said. "So we know where the next dimension jump will come from."

"OK, then what?"

"If they are hostile, we will respond with the equestrian military and Elements of Harmony," Twilight said.

"They aren't all leaving from Canterlot, are they?" Rainbow Dash asked. "What happens if the baddie drops on the far side of Equestria?"

"You have a better suggestion?" Machina asked.

"When we have to wrangle wild weather coming off the Everfree, the weather team splits into watch groups." Rainbow Dash drew a crude oval in the dirt and placed pebbles around the outside. "We usually only get one or two big storms, but having everyone spread out means one group can signal the others with a lightning bolt and slow the storm while the rest move to respond." Rainbow drew a big cloud near one of the pebbles and moved the rest of the pebbles to surround the cloud.

"I'm sure Princess Celestia has plans already in place," Twilight said. "Still, I guess a letter to her wouldn't hurt."

"Yeah," Rainbow said, then brightened up. "Hey! Since the Elements are so important, we should get a group here that can defend us if needed and transport us quickly to where we have to go!"

"That seems like a sound plan," D said, nodding.

"Right!" Rainbow agreed. "And who is better and faster than the WONDERBOLTS!?!"

Twilight grinned awkwardly. "I'll ask, Rainbow, but don't hold out hope. We are trying not to worry everyone with massed troop movements and the Wonderbolts are kind of high profile." 

"If the Wonderbolts are coming, I need to be at the top of my game!" Grinning like an idiot, Rainbow launched herself into the air.  She banked towards a pair of pegasi cleaning up the mid-morning clouds.

This was going to be a big important event, and she needed something to really wow the Wonderbolts. More than just flying. Maybe she could get the weather ponies to lend a hoof too.





"What do you mean she isn't here?" Twilight asked.

"Just what I said," Red responded, burshing her claws together to remove some of the dirt. "Nobody knows where she went but she's gone. Gryphons moved into her tower a few nights after Nightmare Night. Changelings took the court, minotaurs the ballroom and we got our tunnels." Around the courtyard a myriad of creatures were working to repair the massive hole the Ursa had smashed in the outer wall. "Nobody has seen her since you took those two," she waved a paw and D and Machina, who were eyeing the construction around them.

"Uuggghhhh!" Twilight groaned. "She promised not to wander off!"

"Actually," Machina said, "She only commented that the obligations of others would prevent them from looking after her. It is possible that Nightmare woke up."

"With Nightmare's level of illusion and power she could be hiding anywhere," D added. "It's not like we have some special Sarah detection ability."

"Are you sure?" Twilight asked. "I don't want her movements to give false positives for the next ARCO jumper."

"No," Machina assured her, "Sarah moving about will not be a problem."

"Another jumper?" Red asked. "Are they going to kidnap more ponies? You all didn't give us much information when you left after Nightmare Night."

"We suspect the next group may be more of a conquering force," Machina said. She produced a small metal device. "This alarm will sound if a jump occurs within my scanning range."

"So what should we do if the alarm does sound?" Thomas asked.

D looked them square in the eyes. "Hide."





Rarity grinned sheepishly at D and Machina from her massage table at the spa. Next to her both Aloe and Lotus were working to get the knots out of Twilight's back. "Darling, you really have been working too hard. You need a break."

"Can't rest. Must plan," Twilight managed between groans and the two earth ponies turned the sore spots on her back into painful relief.

"Yes, but you don't have to do it all by yourself. We can help," Rarity reminded her. "I still need to pay your, um, new friend back for that book on cultures and fashion." The fashionista turned to the strange pair. "Are you sure I cannot create a suit or dress or anything for you?"

"No, thank you," Machina said. "I appreciate such efforts, but such garments would not prove very efficient for me."

"I'd offer your friend," Rarity said, waving a hoof at D, "but I've no idea how to make anything to accommodate his fluid form."

"Don't worry about it," D said, waving the offer off. Already he had submitted to a number of experiments regarding his strange form, including a brief massage. When Aloe had tried to rub his back and found the flesh only semi-substantial and in a constantly shifting state she instantly volunteered to help her sister with Twilight, instead.

"Isn't there anything I can do? Some aid I can provide?" Rarity really did want to help.

"Not unless you can learn a shield spell against weapons powered by souls," Twilight groaned.

"I have tried to inform Twilight many times that this is highly unlikely," Machina said. "Energy weapons, though flashy, are not efficient to form and fire. Any attack is likely to come in blade and claw, at least at first."

"And the Equestrian Guard are already prepared for that," Twilight replied while D silently bobbed his head as if mimicking her. Obviously this was not the first time they had had this conversation.

Rarity nodded, then got a glance at the clock and put her hoof to her mouth in shock. "Oh dear, is that really the time? I have to get going." She waved as she got up and placed a hefty bag of bits on the counter before trotting back to her shop.

There was a small sign on the door which politely informed any callers that the boutique was closed until further notice and all orders were suspended until then. The inside of the boutique, hidden by heavy curtains, was a display of cluttered creativeness and study that would have rivaled Twilight on some days. Smashed melons and stained fabric were piled in one corner next to a dulled axe bearing the Apple Family mark. In another corner sat a respectable stack of brown paper packages, each a completed order.

For the first time in as long as she could remember, Rarity did not have orders pending. Everything was finished. She looked over her notes, nodded again, and drew out a clean piece of paper.



Hoity Toity,

Enclosed you will find the most novel little book about fashions that are, quite literally, out of this world. I think an important new Element in the next fashion wave will be layers. Check the dog eared pages for reference.

Your friend,
Rarity Belle



Rarity folded the note and placed it into the book Machina had given her, next to a dog eared entry titled "Gambeson." The book was quickly wrapped, tied, addressed, and marked for express delivery before being dropped in the mail box.

Turning to the pony forms and the yards and yards of linen and stuffing, she took a deep fortifying breath and got to work.





Applejack watched carefully as the mechanical menace and the daemonic monster tore up the stubborn old apple tree by the roots, glancing now and then at Twilight. 

"Ya sure they ain't gonna go on a rampage?"

Twilight sighed with exasperation. "They are fine Applejack, they just needed to let out some stress and this was a productive way to do it."

"Ah, gotcha," Applejack said. She watched in silence for a few moments. "How bad is it, Twi?"

"How bad is what?"

"Element of Honesty, remember? It's hard ta hide a secret that big."

Twilight hung her head. "We've managed to coordinate with the Equestrian Guard and we have a number of ponies working on potential weapons or strategies, but all in all it's not good. AJ, we have faced more bad situations than any pony else, save some of the guard and the Princesses, and I don't like our odds. The longer we wait, the worse it gets."

Applejack nodded. "Ah figured. Granny Smith said she could feel it in her bones, like a storm comin'. Big Mac's been nervous, keeps misplacin' things like the wood axe we just got back from Rarity , or his crossbow." She looked at the ground and kicked the dirt. "Twi Ah, Ah know we were supposed ta keep it a secret. Not scare anypony or anythin', but Ah can't just leave my family vulnerable like that."

"Applejack," Twilight said, worried a panic would start. "You didn't-"

"Ah didn't say anythin' specific," Applejack countered. "Just wrote a few letters to my family telling 'em it might be a good idea ta go ta ground for a lil' while. They'll keep their heads down, but they won't panic anyone." The farm pony let out a chuckle. "Heck, some of 'em might surprise you. A cousin got warned like that before a drout hit, his stores fed the whole town for two months!"

Twilight nodded, reassured. They were as ready as they were going to be. 





Twist, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle stood at the podium in the clubhouse and looked at the fillies and colts gathered in the fading light of the setting sun. Bloom pounded her hoof to get everypony's attention. "Ya'll are here cuz we noticed our parents gettin' awful spooked about somethin'," she said.  

"Cuz your sister and her friends are acting all weird," Silver Spoon snipped. "We are used to friendship problems and monster attacks, but right now they are just escorting those monsters around town. I know Twilight vouched for them but those two are just creepy."

"The shiny one doesn't even have a face!" Pipsqueek said. "How can she see me with no face? How can she speak to me? The other one has that scary skull mask on all the time."

"I don't think it's a mask," Button Mash said. "Those two don't really worry me though. What worries me is the way the Elements of Harmony keep preparing for something. Everypony is used to Twilight over planning but now all six of them act like they are planning an epic dungeon raid." 

Every colt and filly gave Button an odd look, as though he had just grown a second head that was speaking Prench. Dinky coughed to bring attention to her. "My mom's been working really hard delivering letters from them to everyone. Packages to Canterlot. Boxes to Appleoosa. Heck, your sister," Dinky pointed at Apple Bloom, "just sent out so many letters mom had to make six trips from the farm house to central processing!"

"Your sister came into my pop's sofa store and bought all the upholstery fabric!" Snips said, pointing a hoof at Sweetie Belle. "Even the plaid! He's freaking out."

"All our parents are freaking out!" Snails added.

"Ah KNOW!" Apple Bloom yelled back. "It's worryin' us too, but worryin' ain't never solved nothin'. We've gotta do somethin'."

"You blank flanks have an actual plan then?" Diamond Tiara asked with a snide remark.

"Diamond, did you just come to make fun of us?" Scootaloo asked, "Or did you come to help cuz your worried about your daddy?"

Diamond bit her lip and looked down, slightly ashamed.

"We're all worried," Sweetie Belle said. "My sister has even finished all of her work orders. ALL. OF. THEM." She felt the other little fillies and colts were not suitably impressed by this for some reason. "We have to agree to all work together."

There was some murmuring before everypony nodded in agreement. "So then bla- Bloom," Diamond said. "What is the plan."

"First we need somepony in charge who can keep track of everypony's job and keep them on task," Sweetie Bell said. "That's you Diamond."

"ME?!" Diamond Tiara cried out in shock. The shock was echoed by several in the room.

"You kept track of our crusading, the actions of every other pony in class, news around town, and never forgot your homework," Sweetie Belle said. "You're even tutoring Silver Spoon from what my sister says. If anypony can keep track of all of us, it's going to be you." 

"As for what we are doing," Scootaloo said with a grin while Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell carefully laid the complex and deadly device from their saddlebags on the floor. Several of the closest ponies backed up. "We are going to be answering the age old question 'what happens if we make this  REALLLY  big?'"





Twilight felt like she was in the middle of the strangest and most wonderful dream. The whole of Ponyville was done up in streamers and balloons. Punch bowls, trays of sandwiches and sweets, and piles of small party gifts were set out on tables scattered around town. The town square was a massive dance party with scattered speakers playing the kind of songs that had everypony moving to a beat.

"What is all of this?" Twilight asked. Machina tapped her on her shoulder and pointed to a large banner tied to town hall






PINKIE PIE'S EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE PARTY






Twilight looked at the banner for a moment, trying to parse the words, before looking around. "If this is a Pinkie Pie Party, then where is Pinkie Pie?"

Machina sat for a moment and then pointed down the street. "Pinkamina Diane Pie is located approximately seven hundred and thirty five paces in this direction."

Twilight boggled for a moment. "How can you know that? Can you track everypony?"

"No," Machina said. "But she causes unexplainable anomalies in my long range sensors. I have not investigated under the advisement you gave me of 'that is just Pinkie being Pinkie,' though this seems an inadequate explanation. I can locate her by tracking the anomalies."

Twilight nodded and galloped off in the direction Machina indicated and quickly found herself outside Sugar Cube Corner. Inside, a worried Mr. and Mrs. Cake pointed her to the kitchen. Counters and carts were piled high with cake, cookies, candy and treats. Two ovens were glowing softly, filling the air with the scent of freshly baking cakes.

Pinkie Pie was crying in the corner.

"Pinkie!" Twilight called out, rushing over to her. "Pinkie, what is it? What's wrong?"

"Twi- *hic* Twilight I- I can't, I don't," She held up a long long list in her hooves, much of it tear stained. Twilight glanced down and saw only a fraction of the list.




Dinky, April 13th, Cutesienaria
Moon Flower and Bright Glory, April 25th, Wedding anniversary
Ditzy Doo and Time Turner, May 14th, 5th dating anniversary
Sweetie Belle, May 14th, "learned not to skydive" party
Ditzy Doo and Time Turner, May 15th, 3rd dating anniversary
Mr. and Mrs. Cake, May 18th, Wedding anniversary





"Pinkie, what is this?" Twilight asked.

"I wanted- I didn't want to miss-" she started crying harder. "Everyone is worried Twilight! Everyone is scared! Applejack is worried and Rarity and Fluttershy and even Rainbow Dash. And when they are worried their friends and family get worried. But when you worry ALL of Ponyville worries! You and Machina and D act like this might be really bad. Like, Discord, Nightmare Moon, Sombra team up bad!! And I had all these parties I had planned and I might not get to throw them because I- I might- or even worse THEY might- and I- I can't- I just-" Pinkie broke down completely, her hair falling so flat it seemed almost two dimensional.

And then something was wrapped around her. Something warm and soft and purple was hugging her so tightly.

"I know, Pinkie. Believe me, I know," Twilight said, her voice hitching slightly as she fought back tears. "But I've been holding back that fear, just like you taught me on the first night we met. I've been giggling at the ghastly this whole time Pinkie, but it can be tiring to laugh all the time. Sometimes you just need somepony else to be there."

Pinkie wiped her eyes and looked up at Twilight. "T-Twilight, I think- I just."

"Come on Pinkie," Twilight said, pulling the baker to her hooves. "I think you need some hot chocolate and some quiet time with your friends. Let's go up to your room and I'll go get everypony."

"B-b-but th-the treats..."

"D and Machina can put them out," Twilight said, nodding to the two and receiving a nod in return. Each lifted as much food as they could handle. "They need to get a little more good will exposure around town anyway. Come one, I think you need some rest."





Sugar Cube Corner was unusually quiet, despite how packed it was. The kitchen door hadn't closed when Twilght went in, and everypony could hear what was said. The patrons all quietly filed out, making no conversation save to finish purchases. Many were clearly worried, but more than a few had the kind of look that spoke of planning.

The Cakes, having heard it all, watched their patrons depart and then turned to each other. With a nod Mrs. Cake turned and went into the cellar, grabbing several bags of special flour that had a dozen notes pinned to it telling Pinkie not to touch. Mr. Cake went to the register and shifted it three hooves to the right. In the open cubby hole was a book he pulled out and dusted off. The worn cover had a pony skull and crossbones, and the hoof penned words "Combat Cooking 101"

They had some baking to do.





Twilight jumped back from the kitchen table, managing to save her oatmeal as the table was flipped. Machina had stood up so fast she hopped a little.

"CONTACT!" She said. D dropped his breakfast and righted the table. Twilight floated two dozen open scrolls over along with several quills and a pot of ink. "DIMENSIONAL BREACH WITHIN INITIAL SCAN RANGE. WHITE TAIL WOODS. CONTACT ESTIMATED WITHIN TWENTY MINUTES."

Twilight nodded, the information being magically scratched onto the scrolls. D had moved into the living room, shifting his form into something more humanoid. He flexed his claws and rolled his shoulders.

"SPIKE!" Twilight called, the little dragon already running down the stairs. "Scrolls are done. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, local guard, and Wonderbolts first." The dragon nodded and began to roll up the scrolls, incinerating each in dragon fire as soon as they were ready.

Machina had joined D, shifting her form into the kimono wrapped humanoid she had been so long ago. Her metal fingers pushed a button hastily mounted to the wall and alarms began to sound.

Twilight winced. "I wish we had tested that. They can probably hear it all the way out at Castle Nightmare."

"I certainly hope so," D said. "Some of those dogs and griffons were alright. They can take shelter."

"Who knows, maybe Sarah can even hear it." Machina said, "Wherever she is."
	
> Two Weeks in Paradise
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	I rolled over and smiled, enjoying the feel of the soft satin sheets around me. For four glorious days Frank had done absolutely everything to make me comfortable. Being the first dimension jumper officially lost and recovered, especially after such a long time, had made me a bit of a celebrity. ARCO had spared little expense in getting me checked out and patched up after my ordeal in Equestria. The doctors were concerned about the loss of my companions and the mystical tattoo on my back, wanting to keep me in the hospital for observation.

Fortunately, Frank had other plans for me. Naughty, delicious plans that definitely kept me in bed but didn't give me much in the way of bed rest. Rolling over again, my arm found the empty space Frank should have filled. Opening my eyes I found him quietly dressing next to the closet, buttoning up a navy blue long sleeve shirt and contemplating ties.

"Good morning, lover," I called to him.

"Good afternoon, beautiful," he replied, giving me the kind of warm smile that had won my heart back when I was in accounting. "You ready for the big day?"

"I'm not sure I can take many more big events today," I teased, grinning at him. Something about the man satisfied me but left me wanting more.

"I got a text a couple of hours ago," He said. "The techs down at R and D have finished calibrating a new arm for you. I was going to go pick it up, but if you want you could come with."

Stretching I sat up. "Give me a few moments to shower?" I asked, skipping off to the bathroom. "I'll be right out."

"If you aren't I'm coming in after you."





ARCO's main facility was a buzz like always. The front office had the usual display of secretaries running around and mail clerks pushing overstuffed carts between cubicles. We walked past various departments, human resources, accounts payable, till we got to one labeled Resource Acquisition Appraisals.

A blonde woman stood up as we approached. "Frank," she said with warmth bordering on flirtation, "We were starting to think you'd retired. I saw Mr. Deccan come through a little while ago asking if anyone had seen you." 

Frank grimaced and turned to me. "It's probably something important if he left his office to hunt me down. I'll have to go take care of this, love. You alright?" I nodded and he dashed off in the direction the woman pointed.

Turning back to me she saw my empty right sleeve and my eye. Her eyes got wide for a moment. "You must be Sarah Jordan! I've heard so much about you. I'm Karla, from resource acquisition appraisals."

"Hi," I replied, "I'm not familiar with that department. What resources do you appraise? New conversion pods?"

"No, no," Karla laughed. "Nothing like that. We look over the data from probes and test jumps to determine if a world is safe to land on. I have to tell you, we have been pouring over your reports, the scans, and files to try and find what went wrong."

"In some instances I wish you had done that before I dropped onto a world," I responded with a gentle jibe.

Karla nodded. "We have a number of automated systems to filter out worlds, but there are just so many out there that need a human to look over them and give final approval. It's a shame so many bad jumps ended up in your hands. You do have more jumps on record than anyone else so I guess you were statistically the most likely to get the rotten ones."

"Are we doing anything about how many bad ones are getting through."

"Yes, actually," Karla said, pointing to a corner office. My name was stamped across the front. "You've just been put in charge of that project. You get a personal assistant and access to all the 'bad' jumps, starting with your own. If you can find a pattern in the jumps we can add that as a filter to our systems, weed out any bad worlds before they get to my desk or your pod."

I nodded. "A worthy task, and a little relaxing after everything I've been through. If you'll excuse me, I hear R and D are waiting to give me a hand."





I flexed the bionic arm, enjoying the natural look after dealing with Machina and that chrome arm for so long. "It feels lighter."

"Well, it should be," the tech explained. He held out my hand and stuck my finger with a pin.

"OUCH!" I drew the hand back as the doctor beside us chuckled quietly.

"This is a functional replacement, not some companion attachment," he went on. "Don't go trying to lift cars or punch dragons with it."

"You make me sound like some superhero."

"Considering all the trauma in your medical report you are lucky to be alive," the doctor smiled and stepped away. "Congratulations on the promotion by the way."

"Thanks, though to be honest it sounds more like ARCO is trying to save on insurance premiums by not having me jump," I grinned at the doctor.

"We need you in a position more important than just some random jumper," he said. "You might have had it the worst and I've treated plenty of jumpers who were badly wounded or sick."

"We really need you, and your experience with jump errors, to head up the appraisal department and double check systems and contingencies," the tech added. "Maybe then I can spend less time repairing jump pods."

"Not that I won't enjoy the break but that is a bit of a radical shift from what I used to do."

"Sarah, I've read most of your after action reports and treated most of your injuries," the doctor said kindly. "What you 'usually did' was run, and you can do that at the employee on site rec center with a lot less cost and danger. We need you to work with the techs and figure out what went wrong and fix it." 

My thoughts flickered for a moment to the land of ice and snow and death and a shiver ran down my spine. If I could prevent that from happening to anyone else ever again, It would be worth a lifetime of boring charts and data analysis.





I sat up in bed gasping from the nightmare. It had started out like such a wonderful dream, Frank taking me out for dinner with a promise of clubs and dancing after. It had devolved into a memory, one of me telling Frank I'd found my old backups from before my transfer from accounting. I'd wanted to hand them over to disprove the lingering rumors of embezzlement that haunted me, despite there being no real proof I was involved.

Frank had dumped me. He was shooting for VP and if I was going to voluntarily put myself under internal affairs microscope then he couldn't be associated. It was a purely business politics move but it was also a dick thing to do.

I'd left the restaurant in tears, gone out and drank heavily, and then crashed my car into a tree. I ran my hand over the soft covering of my new bionic arm, tracing the spot where a tree limb had brutally severed my living one.

"Love?" Frank asked, rolling over. He sat up and kissed the back of my neck softly. "What's wrong?"

"Bad dream."

"Wanna talk about it?" It was clear he was still half asleep, it was almost 2 AM. He was making an effort to wake up though.

I thought for a moment. "It was about my crash, and the dinner before it."

Frank was silent for a long moment. He kissed around my shoulders and neck, pecking behind my ear once. "That is a day I have long regretted. I felt like I drove you to that, and it took a long time to come to terms with it. I did everything I could to help you after that but I was too much of a coward to face you in person."

"Help me?"

"Sarah, love," He kissed me again and ran a finger down my bionic arm. "Cybernetic replacements aren't usually covered in the employee health plan. I pulled some strings to get you the option to be a dimension jumper. If I had known how much danger you would be in..."

I kissed him back. "Jumping was some of the most excitment I've had in my entire life. I don't know if I'll ever jump again after the last one but I don't regret it."

Frank nodded. "That last jump. God, Sarah I don't know how ARCO managed to screw it up so badly but I swore I wouldn't stop till we brought you home." He grinned. "I'm actually getting a bit of hero praise from the boys upstairs for that. Great PR and all but your safe return means more to me than any of that."

He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. "I found you Sarah. Against all odds I found you, and I'm never letting you go again."





My life seemed to be fluctuating between heaven and purgatory. During the evening and night Frank deprived me of sleep in the best ways. During the day I was stuck behind a desk staring at charts and figures and going back over my own notes for the past three years.

"Miss Jordan?" a sultry voice called over my intercom.

"Yes, Mona?" I directed my eyes up from the dull numbers to the intercom. It wasn't that I minded having a personal assistant, but this one looked and dressed like she was sleeping her way to the top. I'd only been working with her for a few days and couldn't decide if she resented having a female boss or was going to "go for it" anyway.

"Justin from Tech Support is here for you."

"Send him in."

The door opened and I heard my secretary tell Justin I was ready to see him in a breathy voice. Maybe she was just willing to bed anyone?

"Thank you Mrs. Albtraum," he said, walking in looking a little flushed. "Ms. Jordan-"

"Justin," I cut him off. "We've known each other too long for formalities. What have you come to show me?"

"I wanted you to come take a look at the next generation conversion pods, to give your approval."

I nodded and followed him out, letting Mona know to hold my calls. Mona batted her brilliant green eyes at Justin as he passed, making him blush. I rolled my eyes and got Justin back on task, chatting about improvements being made to probes to scan for things the old probes might have missed.

Down at the testing floor I was surprised to see a car sitting among the various space age style conversion pods. Not just any car either, my old car, the one I had put hood first into a tree.

"Justin, what-"

"Isn't it great?!" He asked, waving at the car. "I knew you would be surprised."

"Are jumpers just going to drive between worlds now?" I asked, noting that he'd even gotten the old scratches right.

"What? Oh, no. It's a conversion pod. We designed it to shift shape into a local form." He snapped his fingers and the car shifted and changed until it was a little red coup. "What do you think?"

"I think Frank would have a heart attack if he saw his precious sports car sitting on your chop shop of a research floor," I laughed. "Where did you get the designs?"

"Scans and records. The AI component for a jumper can remotely link with the pod and change its shape. Good for hiding. We call it a chameleon circuit."

"A great idea as long as nobody hauls it away for scrap. Does it run?"

"No," Justin said sadly. "We figured it would be too much of a power drain. Also, if you noticed, you can't actually be in the pod when it transforms."

I nodded. The drivers seat had seemed to merge with the steering wheel as it had changed. "Frank never could get his car working well either." I smirked. "When I was back in accounting, I left one day to find he had taken apart my brake assembly to work out why his didn't function."

Justin boggled at the idea. "What, in the parking garage?" I nodded. "That's nuts! Did he figure out why his didn't work?" Justin asked.

I nodded. "He forgot the hydraulic fluid. Took him two hours to put my brakes back together."





I was honestly looking forward to the weekend. Staring at the various reports I had available to me was boring me senseless. Admittedly I wasn't getting a lot of chance to review them, but that just made the boring task worse. So far every time I opened a file or glanced at some numbers, I got a call from tech support or a vendor or a jumper. 

Worse, I was coming to hate my assistant. It seemed everywhere I went I'd overhear some sexist remark or another about her. Yes, she was pretty. Yes, she was attractive. Yes, she had a tendency to flirt with the people around the office. But I didn't need or want to hear about it constantly. The worst was James, a jumper I'd always thought of as a misogynistic, psychopathic asshole. His constantly repeated "joke" was that a secretary was not permanent in an office until "someone screwed her on the desk!" He'd already made several passes at her, and had apparently started a betting pool about how long it would take me to give her some "overtime." 

Mona didn't seem to mind such gossip, seeming determined to live up to it. I'd come back from one meeting to find Mona making eyes at Frank, who himself was there for a lunch date with me. Frank had had to work hard to cheer me up after that. He spent lunch digging himself a nice little hole with offhand chauvinistic remarks. He'd been able to dig himself out by dinner with wine, chocolates, and a night in bed I was still deliciously sore from.

"Ms. Jordan?" Mona asked leaning into the office. She had taken to getting more face time with me when possible, ignoring the intercom unless she was swamped with calls. Intercom use and neckline seemed to be declining hourly.

"Yes, Ms. Albtraum," I responded a little coldly. I had a large project I was working on and I didn't need my secretary flirting with or distracting me.

"I got an email about the report-"

"IF I HAD MORE THAN TWO HOURS A DAY AT MY DESK, THEY WOULD HAVE THE DAMN REPORT!" I yelled. It was Friday and it seemed like ARCO wanted me to work my first weekend back. Mona 'eeped' in a way even I found cute and retreated back to her desk. I sulked behind mine for another hour before finally making a decision.

It was against company policy, but I needed access to the files and there was no way I was going to get any work done in the office. I pulled a flash drive out of my purse and downloaded a number of the files down to it. With any luck, I'd take a look at them this weekend.

I stepped out of my office to find Frank consoling Mona, his arm wrapped around her shoulders as she hung her head.

"There there, I'm sure she's just under a lot of stress." Frank said. Mona nodded in partial understanding.

"Frank?" I asked a little sternly, causing both to jump. "How long have you been here?"

"About fifteen minutes," he said.

I turned to Mona. "Why didn't you page me?"

"Sarah," Frank said, stepping between me and my secretary. "You are scaring your employee. Come on, I know that report is important but it's five o'clock on a Friday! Let's go have some fun."

I waved the flash drive at him. "Not too much fun now Frank," I chided him. "I have some work I had to take home with me."

He looked panicked for a half second then frowned. "Sarah," He hissed, "you know you aren't supposed to take files off site!"

"Relax Frank, it's encrypted. Besides," I grinned at him. "I need something to do between the fun times."

"You think you've had fun before, I've got something planned that will really get your blood pumping."





I love the amusement park. No, really. I do. My adrenaline junkie itch is one that ARCO had scratched fairly well for years. I loved running. I loved spinning. I loved being upside down.

I was doing my very best to remember that as I squeezed Frank's hand while the seat I was locked into continued its accent.

"It's OK, Sarah," Frank called to me, grinning like an idiot. On my other side, a pair of teenagers hooted and laughed, pointing out how far you could see. I couldn't see it because my eyes were shut.

I was breathing like I was in a lamas class. My heart was pounding in my chest so loud it was nearly drowning out Frank. He squeezed my hand and I looked up at him.

"Hey," he said. "I love you."

I smiled and opened my mouth to respond when the chair came to a stop with a lurch. Nervous laughter and startled screams burst around the ride as we hung there for several seconds. I looked around, seeing only the height and not the view. More seconds ticked by.

"Heh," I said, smiling weakly at Frank. "Maybe it-"

I didn't fall. The chair under me fell. It dragged me down, pulling the air from my lungs in a long scream. Something flashed in the corner of my eye and for a moment I was back in my conversion pod falling through the atmosphere. I fought the wave of insane panic that threatened me and looked towards the flash. Those damn teenagers had put quarters on their knees and were watching as the coins fell slower than us. 

The rushing wind slowed as the ride gently caught us, bringing our downward velocity to a nice stop. I stumbled from my seat and out of the ride before collapsing on a bench. The ride was over but I was still falling. I covered my face but kept my eyes open because when I closed them, I could see the pod and the flames and I could feel the falling.

A hand on my shoulder startled me and I looked up. "Sarah, are you alright?" Frank asked, obviously concerned.

I waved him back a bit as I gathered my breath. "That-," I gasped, "was a bad idea."

"You said you wanted to face your fears," Frank said.

"Consider them faced," I said. "Never let me do anything like that again!"

Frank knelt down in front of me, holding my shoulders and trying to calm me. After what seemed like forever I finally stopped shaking. "Better?" he asked. I nodded.

"Well," he said, shifting his weight to one knee, "if you can face your fear of falling after everything you've been through, I guess I can face my fear of commitment."

My eyes went wide as he pulled out a small black box. 

"Sarah Jordan, adventurer beyond compare, woman of mystery, will you URK-"

I tackled him to the ground shouting yes over and over again.





Tuesday's clock ticked down to one as I ate quickly at my desk. Even without getting to peak at the files in the drive over the weekend I had finally managed to reschedule enough to get some real work done. There was a pattern within the files that was eluding me, but I couldn't see it just yet.

The door opened and Frank walked in with a smile. "Hello, my dear fiance."

I couldn't help but squeal when he called me that. "Hi," I said back, grinning ear to ear. I leaned forward and hugged him over the desk before pulling back. "Whew! Frank, that cologne is strong enough in small amounts, you don't have to bathe in it."

"I do if I don't want to smell like cigar smoke or something else," he huffed. "Upper management keeps treating me to lunch and I swear those guys are trying to fund the tobacco industry all by themselves," he chuckled. "I'll run home and take a shower in just a bit, I got a half day today."

I laughed then my eyes lit up. "Oh, when you get home, can you reactivate my Hulu account? My password is-"

"Jordan backwards with the 'o' and 'a' as a 0 and 4," Frank said. I blinked at him. "What? You always use that password."

"I know, I just don't remember telling it to you."

"It's something I picked up a long time ago, before I was stupid and lost you for so long." Whenever he looked down like that, he always looked like I'd just kicked his puppy. 

I leaned over and kissed his forehead. "Well you found me again, and I'm not letting go this time."

Frank let himself out and Mona brought in my newest charts and printouts. I was trying every kind of data comparison I could to find some trend in my "accidental" jumps. I wrinkled my nose as she approached.

"Don't look at me like that," she countered. "I took the elevator up with him from lunch. There have to be a half dozen people on this floor that will smell like your fiance for the rest of the day."

I chuckled. "He really does need to cut down on that stuff. It isn't cheap." I looked over the charts then sighed and handed them back. "Shred these too please."

"You must be having a good day," Mona said, taking the charts back. "You asked me to burn the last set."

"Every time I try and compare one set of data to another, I get nothing. There is no trend, no plan, just plain coincidence."

"So when the Safety Assessment Committee  asks you what happened you're going to say 'I don't know, dumb luck'?"

"Looks like," I said. "I'll get working on it now so I can get the yelling out of the way."





Three thick binders sat on a rolling cart in my office and I glared at it in the hope they would turn into something better than the condensed failure of my greatest calamities. "Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked.

"It's the job of a personal assistant to take some of the heat sometimes," she said with a shrug. "You had a new idea you wanted to look at, so I'll spend time going over notes with the committee head, the VP of acquisitions, and buy you some time. Who knows, maybe he has a good idea or two."

I nodded to her as she pushed the cart out and went back to work. No more trying to compare data from scans en mass, it was time for a piece by piece comparison.

First was the world where I'd made an orbital entrance. I flipped back and forth through the data before something caught my eye. Of the two dozen probes only three were used for calculating the entry vector. I fed the three into my computer and was stunned to find that it did indeed give me an entry point several miles straight up. I fed another random vector and saw an error message pop up. The inconsistency caused the vector program to demand additional readings.

"Why only those three then?" I asked, flipping through the notes trying to find something to justify it. "Someone running the program late and didn't want to waste time?" The scans weren't sequential. Finally I entered all the data into a spreadsheet and mapped it out.

I blinked. The three coordinates used were outliers, well beyond reasonable bounds of acceptance. They should have been tossed as bad data, not accepted as valid.

I flipped to another jump, this one into the Ice Fae realm. The probes had shown signs of civilization, but the local bio/socio/political reports were missing. Such a thing might get by on worlds with small populations, and this one was inhabited by only a Fae and her toys, but it still seemed suspicious.

Another world: the one on the edge of war. The political update report from three months prior was missing. The jump hadn't been done and no probe had been sent. That shouldn't happen.

None of this should have happened. This spoke of high level manipulation of very sensitive data.

I stood up from my desk, taking my findings and walking out the door and down the hall. A short elevator ride up and I reached the office for the Vice President of Acquisitions. 

"He's in a private meeting right now," the secretary snipped, looking sour. 

I nodded and sat down. "I'll wait." The secretary huffed and went back to work. I focused on what I had discovered.

The way the data was manipulated seemed to intentionally put me into danger. The reason I'd missed it before was because I was looking for faults or accidents. This wasn't just some accident, but a deliberate manipulation of the data. Worse, it all seemed targeted at me.

But why? I wasn't a threat to anyone. At least, I couldn't be a threat to anyone high enough up to do the manipulation. 

I was stirred from my musings when I heard a very feminine moan from inside the room. I recognized my secretary's voice, even though I wasn't used to it in that tone. The VPs secretary growled and hammered at the keys louder. Suppressing a grin, I went back to my musings.

If all the "accidents" were a plot to get rid of me, who did I threaten? The only thing I was involved in was that damn stupid embezzlement thing. But if that was so, why didn't they try and get rid of me before-

My mind flashed to a darkened road, the trees rushing up, the brakes seeming not to respond through my drunken haze.


"He even took my breaks apart in the parking lot once!"


"I swear I locked my computer." 
"Your password is Jordan backwards..."


Only someone in power.


"I got a promotion.."


"Resource Acquisition Appraisals. We deal with finding new worlds and anchors"


".....I'm going to be VP of Resource Acquisitions."


My head shot up as I took in the nameplate on the door with a very familiar name.

The same name my assistant was yelling out in ecstasy right now.

"OOOOOOOHHHHH FFFFFRRRAAANNNNK!"

"FRANK!" My kick tore the door lock from the frame, revealing my fiance with his belt around his ankles and his cock balls deep in my assistant.

"YOU LYING!" The cart full of unread binders spilled across the floor.

"THIEVING!" I shoved the guest chair aside. Frank had a look of glorious terror on his face.

"CHEATING!" The fucking desk flew across the room, hurled by dark tentacles.

"MURDEROUS!" My left hand fasted around his tie knot, his hands coming up in impossible slow motion. My bionic right arm drew back as far as it could.

"BASTARD!"





"This is wrong, Leo," Scorpio said, pulling against his restraints. He ran his dry tongue over his parched lips. 'You'll never get away with it!"

"You've been saying that for over a week now," Leo said, checking the restraints on Gem and Ini. "It's like your manta."

"It's mantra you idiot," The twins responded.

"Shut up, worms," Leo spat. "The queen is coming, and I'm going to be the one to present her with a brand new base. All she has to do is pose as this pathetic creature," Leo kicked the side of the large cocoon, "and we can swap out foolish ponies who come for concerts."

"We could have gotten more than enough food from just the concerts you idiot!" Gem and Ini said in unison.

"When she wakes up-" Cancer said.

"She isn't going to wake up!" Leo said. "She is going to dream of her perfect lover taking her home and treating her right for a long, long time."

"She's tossing an awful lot for someone with a good dream," one of the changeling guards said.

"It's probably just a really good bit of the dream again!" Leo said. 

A muffled "Frank" came from the squirming cocoon.

"See?" Leo said. "Good part. In fact, I think a little snack would really hit the-"

There was a sound like fabric tearing, followed by a sickening crunch as Sarah's metal arm tore free of the bindings and broke Leo's nose. The changeling rolled over before coming to a rest against the far wall.

"OW! Bitch, just for that, I'm going to give you nightmares-"

"What did you call me?"

Leo looked down at the cocoon and saw a flaming turquoise eye glowing through the thin wrapping. As he watched, more and more eyes opened, and darkness poured into the room. 





The changeling queen swept into the castle with the same smug, self-satisfied grin she'd had the day she had almost, almost captured all of Equestria. Here was a new staging ground, one that allowed changelings to come and go as they pleased, one the foolish  Princesses had even sanctioned!

"Hello, my children!" she said, her accompanying guards opening the main doors for her. "What delicious new morsel have....you...found......."

Shadows seemed to drip and pool from the inside of the castle. The few torches burned a magical blue and did little to push back the dark. One of her changeling spies, Leo, lay on the ground before her, his carapace cracked and pitted, a look of horror on his face. Behind him in a throne of night sat something old and dark and terrible, and it had the rest of her children bound in shadow around it.

"Hello your highness," it said, its voice echoing in strange ways off the walls. "I think you and I should have a little chat." 

It waved a hand, and the doors behind the queen slammed shut.





Ponies were making their way to shelters or piling up supplies onto carts. All of Ponyville seemed to be in motion, but not quite in panic yet. The near deafening alarm was finally silenced.

"We will gather on Bunnytop Hill, just south of White Tail Woods!" Twilight shouted, her voice compensating for the now silent alarm. "Oh, that's better. If you can, meet the jumper in the woods and give us a signal like we discussed." D and Machina nodded and turned to leave.

Nearby, a grey earth pony who was helping to pack up a cart stepped away. "I'll be back in a moment, I've got to grab something." She dashed around the corner and, in a flash of green fire, a yellow pegasus stood in her place.

This was what her queen had wanted. Knowledge of where the two alien beasts were going.

So the Nightmare could follow.
> Storm Clouds Gather
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	James Robinson breathed in deeply, enjoying the scent of a new world. He walked along, reveling the clean summer air. Initial scans from the pod had located a large concentration of life, most likely the "Ponyville" his captives had so kindly told him about. 

He couldn't wait to burn it down.

Attention: Scans indicate creature approaching. Anchor potential: 32%. Suggestion: Feed us its soul.

James rolled his eyes and looked down at his mechanical right arm. Strange runes etched into the metal glowed a soft red, and a red eye in the back of his right hand blinked back up at him. "Xzic, remind me again why I decided to go with a daemon possessed cybernetic instead of a good old fashioned sentient AI?"

Information: You psychological profile indicated you would drive most S class AI into a state of mental collapse in a relatively short period of time. Three tests confirmed this..

An overriding and alien hunger swept over him for a moment, and a buzzing filled his head. 

GiVe Us ThIs FlEsH tHaT wE MaY gRoW.

He shook the parasite's words away. The devouerer parasite that infested his left arm was always ravenous. If it didn't offer him such a unique benefit over normal spirit companions he would have dropped the thing long ago. Keeping both of these homicidal entities in check was always an issue. Fortunately, he didn't have to do that for long.

"James?"

He looked around to see Sarah in a tattered and stained ARCO jacket trudging out of the woods. She looked ragged and a little thin, but still healthy. There was a sword sheathed at her side and a non-standard backpack on her back. She smiled at him, and James had to note this was the happiest he'd ever seen her. Admittedly, he'd only ever seen her when she was just back from a jump, but still she looked happy.

"Sarah?" he asked, seeming surprised to see her. He'd been hoping to run into her early on, it made the rest of the mission so much easier.

"James," she exclaimed, "you came to rescue me!"

"Sarah!" he said, holding his arms open for a hug. "How have you been? I'd heard you were still alive."

Sarah stepped forward. "Yeah, well I-"

There was a wet sound, and James withdrew the dagger from her side.

"I guess I heard wrong," he said with a grin, watching her crumple to the ground, grasping at her bloody wound. Sarah let out a gasp of pain, confusion in her eyes.

The sound of breaking branches was the only warning he got as a massive beast slammed into him. James rolled and brought up his left arm, the devourer parasite growing large bony scales to shield against tooth and claw. The strange beast was dark hair and muscle, but the nature of Sarah's spirit companion was still obvious. The skeletal face and claws and the dark smoke that seemed to boil off the beast gave away it's true nature. D charged again, driving James back another few feet.

"Sarah, you've been letting your personal demons go walking around on their own," James mocked, grinning as D hammered against the shield. In a swift motion James reached out with his right hand and caught D by his throat. "We can't have that."

D clawed at the cybernetic arm and screamed. The runes carved into the arm glowed, and D's body began to evaporate into a cloud of dark smoke that was sucked into the cybernetic arm. D's body began to wither and fade until at last all that was left was a frail skeleton that crumbled to bones at Jame's feet. James brought one heavy boot down on the skull, crushing it and scattering the shards in the dirt.

"Hold," a synthetic voice called out. James looked up to see a six legged robot girl, wrapped in a kimono, aiming a bow and arrow at him.

"You're going to need something a lot stronger than an arrow to stop me," James said, swaggering closer. "With my companions keyed up and charged like they are, I doubt even decapitation would slow me down."

Machina aimed straight up and fired. As the arrow reached it's apex, it exploded in a massive green and orange firework display. "You are outnumbered," Machina said, drawing another arrow. "You cannot win. Turn around and return to your masters. Tell them this world is not theirs to take."

James barked a laugh. "What? Are you siding with the locals?" He stepped closer. "Not much choice since you obviously abandoned your own master, letting her get stuck like a pig!" James kicked Sarah in her wound as he walked past. She cried out in pain, rolling away from him. "Of course, you just lost any element of surprise, but that's one of the two big flaws with you type 40 AIs." He continued to step closer to Machina, waving his hands and monologuing. "You take every problem and try and solve it with logic. No subterfuge, no guile, just straight up facts."

"The other flaw?" Machina asked, her arrow pointed right at Jame's heart barely a foot from the tip.

Jame's moved with lightning speed. There was a crunch and Machina looked down to the ragged hole in her torso. James stepped back, casually tossing up and catching her power core.

"You never build secondary power supplies," he said, watching the machine collapse as her limited reserves ran out. Something pulled on his foot, and he looked down to see Sarah grasping at his ankle.

"S-s-stop this...," she weakly begged, trying to hold his ankle with one hand and her bloody side with the other.

He turned and kicked her, ramming the boot tip into the open cut and reveling in the anguished cry.

"I know it hurts, Sarah, but look on the bright side." His cybernetic arm produced a long thin sword. James shoved his sword through Sarah's chest, puncturing a lung. He watched with unmistakable joy as she cried out and coughed, wet red blood staining her lips. "By the time I'm done enslaving the locals, you'll be dead, so you'll never know how many I killed just for the hell of it." He drew the sword out and flicked it clean with a flourish.

Sarah coughed up more blood and struggled to grab him again, and he just turned and walked off to war.





Not that far away in Ponyville a mass panic was starting. Applejack had been at her stand when she saw the fireworks, and was running home to grab her element and what little equipment she had.  As she passed the train station, she bumped into a yellow stallion in a vest and hat.

"'Scuze me," she said, running on.

"Where ya goin', cuz?" he asked.

Applejack spun around as her eyes finally recognized him.

"Braeburn? What in tarnation are ya doin' here? It ain't safe! Ah wrote ta ya about that monster that's comin'!"

"We got yer letters, but we decided we'd ruther stand together than apart," he said with a smile.

"Well, ya obviously didn't read 'em well enough 'cuz Ah gotta go fight it and Ah can't be worryin' 'bout family bein' safe!"

Braeburn nickered "Don't worry 'bout leavin' me behind,  Ah'm comin' with ya."

"No, ya ain't!" Applejack said, stomping the ground firmly. "It's too dangerous. Ah'm the bearer of an Element of Harmony. Ah gotta go stand with my friends against whatever is comin'."

"You might be an Element Bearer, but you're still a member of the Apple Family," a young voice with a Manehatten accent piped in. Applejack looked back at the train station to see Babs Seed standing next to Uncle Orange, both dressed in sturdy clothes with crowbars and hammers hanging from loops. 

"And you've got to remember," Uncle Orange said, smiling down at her daughter. "When you buck with a member of the Apple Family."

Applejack blinked back tears of pride as she saw more and more familiar earth ponies start pouring out of the train station. Braeburn turned to her and smiled.

"Ya buck with the WHOLE Apple Family!!"

---------

Pinkie Pie was out back at Sugar Cube Corner, packing and repacking her party cart for the thousandth time. There was only so much preparation time and just not enough of her to go around. She had considered reopening the mirror pool, but decided that she would lose more time training an army of Pinkie Pies than she might gain from a few extra hooves.

She looked over her arsenal of sweets, treats, cakes, and other party favors and frowned.

"Oooh, if only I had more time to bake some more pies-"

"Will apple and cherry do? I've got two dozen of each, though they aren't quite Sugar Cube Corner quality," a mare said as she dropped off several large boxes.

"Thanks! I-"

"Will you be needing any instruments?" A stallion asked, pulling up in a cart stuffed with a small orchestra. "Tuba? Harmonica? Flugelhorn?"

"Sure, I can always-"

There was a wet slosh as another stallion began unloading clear trash bags filled with small brightly colored spheres. "I've got 473 water balloons filled with paint, oil, hot sauce, shaving cream and water. Think your party cannon can handle them?"

"Of course, but how will I load-"

A whistle cut her off, and she turned to see two dozen teenage colts and fillies standing at attention behind a mare with a cap and whistle.

"Ponyville junior varsity hoofball team here. If it needs to be lifted, run, thrown or pushed, we are your ponies."

Pinkie blinked and looked around at the small crowd of ponies gathered around her, most pulling carts filled with prank and party supplies.

"How am I going to carry all of this?" She asked.

The ponies looked at her quizzically, then all burst into laughter.

"What?"

"Pinkie dear," Mrs. Cake said as she stepped out of Sugar Cube Corner with a large sack of supplies.,"they aren't dropping stuff off. They are coming with you." Mr. Cake nodded, hefting another bag and wearing a harness with little Cup and Pound cake.

"Oh no no no no no no no. I can't put all of you in danger! The monster I'm fighting might be even scarier than Nightmare Moon and Discord!"

A stallion cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Pinkie, my family just moved here a month ago. My little colt is three, going on four next month. I heard ponies say that you might not come back from this, and I don't want my boy to grow up without a Pinkie Pie birthday party." A big grin crossed his face. "You bring so much happiness and laughter to our town, and we won't stand by while that's threatened!"

Pinkie felt a tear in her eye. She'd always planned for everything, but even she had caught herself by surprise. I've hidden friends all over town. she thought, Just in case of friendship emergencies.





Twilight paced back and forth, waiting for Celestia's reply just outside of the library. She had sent a letter to each princess via Spike, but she wasn't sure if they could respond in time. The entire army had been mobilized and positioned, spread out across Equestria so that wherever the raider appeared, units would be nearby. The tactic allowed for fast response, but also stretched the forces thin. It would still be up to whatever militia Ponyville could muster, along with the Elements of Harmony.

"Stop worrying so much, Twilight! Things can't be that bad," Spike said, waving at her.

"Thing are about as bad as they can get Spike!"

"Twilight, you went over this in the town meeting months ago. You even put up posters," her assistant said, pointing a claw at one nearby. "White is shelter in place, blue is go home and stay off the streets, orange is go home and lock your doors because things are going to get bad, and red is evacuate. The burst was orange, so we ponies hunker down and wait it out."  he seemed pretty proud of himself for remembering everything. "I'm not sure about the green mixed in though."

"Spike," she whispered, glancing around to see if anypony was listening. Most were just rushing by, trying to get home. She came over and whispered, "Orange just means that we don't have to evacuate because there is no hope. If we don't stop it, no amount of distance will help."

Spike's eyes were wide in horror. "Bu- but Machina and D can help! They've been planing with you for weeks!"

"That was what the green firework meant."

"That they are coming back to help?"

Twilight shook her head. "That they've already fallen."

There was a sudden flurry of movement, and Twilight looked up to see a half dozen large chariots landing. She was surprised to see Princess Celestia step out of the first one. She was even more surprised to see her old magic theory teacher Slide Rule follow her, along with three dozen students carrying crates and boxes full of magical equipment.

"Alright, class!" Slide Rule called, gathering the young unicorns attention. "The target is approaching town at a rate of seven miles per hour. That gives you roughly ninety minutes before it hits the outskirts of the town and YOU have to stop it. Remember, this will count as 37% of your final grade!"

"Slide Rule?" Twilight asked, coming up to her old mentor. "What are you-"

"Ah, Miss Sparkle! Can't let our best pupil stand alone, can we? Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns has a reputation to uphold after all."

"And I can't let my faithful student stand alone either," Princess Celestia said. "The guards are on their way, but I thought a bit more magical artillery won't hurt."

"It is typical of you, sister, to trust in scholars when our kingdom is tested," another regal voice said from above. Everypony looked up to see Princess Luna descending with a dozen over her Night Guard.

"Hello, sister. Are these all the guards you could spare?" Celestia responded.

"They are my personal guard. The smartest, strongest, fastest and bravest." She smiled. "They will hold back Tarterus itself if it means we can stop whatever is coming."

"Still, you could have brought more soldiers," Celestia said reproachfully.

Luna blinked, then looked to one of the students rushing around.

"You there."

"Yes, your majesty?" she responded, bowing briefly.

"What is your profession?"

"Me? I'm a student, but I want to work in high energy research."

"I see, and you?" Princess Luna asked, pointing to another.

"Magical construction and automation, your majesty!" He said, patting a little magical automaton that was dragging a crate.

"Right." The moon princess turned to her guard. "Night guard, what is your profession?"

"HOORAH!!!" cried all twelve guard in unison. Luna turned to Celestia and smirked.

"I brought more soldiers than you, sister." 





Angel sat and watched as Kindness argued herself out from under her bed and halfway to the door before there was a moderately loud noise outside and she fled back to safety. At last, she pulled herself from safety and took a few deep breaths.

"Come on, Fluttershy, your friends are counting on you. No matter what kind of evil, scary, d-deadly, t-t-t-t-terrible m-m-m-monster is waiting, you have to go face it." 

With unsteady steps, she walked out the front door and locked it behind her.

Angel waited a few moments, thinking. He could tell something bad was coming, the kind of bad that made him want to run and hide. The kind that was too big for him to fight off.

But he couldn't just let her go on her own. He could still remember the time before Kindness came into his life. He had talked with all of the animals and every one was willing to help in any way they could. He was surprised to find himself shaking, the fear threatening to overwhelm him.

But Kindness, the pony who was terrified of her own shadow, had just marched off to face it. And he would be damned if he let her do it alone. 

Angel jumped up and kicked open a window, whistling to the waiting birds and getting the message started. He hesitated, then waved down one of the feathered pets.

The hawk and he were not friends. On several occasions, they had dueled outside of Kindness' view, and the prey versus predator aspect of their relations was always simmering just beneath the skin. There were few things that could make them set aside their differences, and this was one of them. Angel hopped up on its back and held on tight as the hawk lifted into the sky and wheeled away from Ponyville.

And towards a nearby mountain.





Rarity stacked the last set of garments onto the cart outside her home. She had run out of fabric in the end, and the last hoof full were a hideous mash up of her few personal dresses, her towels, her throw rugs, and even the window curtains. Two sewing machines had given their lives in stitching together the rough armor, and still she only had a couple of dozen.

It wasn't going to be enough, but it was all she could do. She was tired and sore and needed rest. She had managed only a few hours sleep and a quick shower. Her last dress, altered to be lightly armored and more flexible to combat, was the only stitch of clothing she now owned.

A cart pulled up next to her, and Rarity had to blink a few times to clear her eyes as she registered what she saw.

"Miss Cheerilee?" she asked, eyeing the pile of armor strapped onto the back of the cart. It was only half the number she had made, and somewhat cruder, but here and there bits of metal reinforced what cloth there was.

"Miss Rarity," Cheerilee responded with a nod. "Am I too early to be fashionably late?"

"Early?" Rarity asked, looking up the road. Six more ponies were dragging carts down the path heading her way. Three were stacked high with sharpened spears and large timber axes, and the others packed with flat wooden slats that could serve as mobile walls.

"Yes," Cheerilee said. "Somepony saw you working in your shop after you tore your curtains down and we thought we might chip in."

"But," Rarity protested, noticing familiar patterns in the cloth in Cheerilee's cart. "But those are your dresses! Your curtains! And Green Stalk that is your Asparagus stand!"

"What?" Green Stalk asked in her usual grumpiness. "You think just cuz you've got the element that you are the only one that can be generous?"

"Quite right!" a familiar voice said, and Rarity spun around to see Hoity Toity, Fancy Pants and Fleur Dis Lee trotting down the road followed by six carts of their own. "One would not do to hoard generosity, Miss Rarity. It is unbecoming in a hero." 

Rarity's eyes boggled at the sight of so much simple armor, accompanied by more simple weapons than she had ever seen in her life. Staves, clubs, hammers and even a mace or two could be seen sticking out of the carts, all things that could be handled with little experience and had little chance of accidentally hurting the wielder. 

"But- But- but you- how?" Rarity's voice seemed to be seeking words to express what she saw, her eyes tearing up. The ponies around her, ones who had in some cases literally torn apart their livelihoods to offer additional defense, simply smiled. She could only think of something she had heard Princess Celestia say once long ago. "A generous act ripples outward, creating infinite repetition and echoes." It was so wonderful to see so many echoes bouncing back to her.





Rainbow Dash huffed in frustration. She had spent a long time building up this surprise, and now she felt hubris biting her in her flank. Most of last week has been spent systematically emptying her cloud home of all furniture and valuables and turning it into the biggest Celestia damned thunderhead she could manage. The thing had enough lightning in it to fry a full grown dragon with power left over to blow away the smoke. It was massive, it was powerful, it was a testament to her ability as a weather mare to make and charge such a massive cloud without killing herself.

It was too damn heavy to move.

Rainbow grunted and pushed again, the cloud shifting a few inches in the sky. She may be the fastest flyer in all of Equestria, but she was far from the strongest. At this rate she would get to the battle hours late and too exhausted to do anything helpful.

A grunt came from nearby, and Dash looked up to see another pegasus pushing on the cloud. Cloud Kicker was just beside her, leaning into the massive storm cloud and pushing for all she had. The storm front started to shift, and Rainbow looked around in awe.

Half of the weather team and a smattering of other pegasi from around town were pushing the cloud. The other half were busy handling over a dozen other storm clouds.

"HEY!" a stern voice called out. "Keep those storms apart! We don't want lightning arcs!" Rainbow spun around to see Thunderlane, the slacker of the weather team, giving orders like some ancient pegasi general.

"What is all of this?!" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Reinforcements!" Thunderlane responded. "You didn't think we were going to let you go at this alone this time, did you?"

"But you never volunteer for this stuff! You shirk Everfree duty constantly!"

"Well, with the bearer of Loyalty leading us day in and day out, something had to rub off sometime." Cloud Kicker called.

"To misquote the best weather team captain Ponyville has ever had, and the self proclaimed fastest mare in Equestria, 'Ponyville would never leave you hanging!'" Blossomforth said, correcting a smaller storm cloud's course.

"YEAAAAAH!" cried Bulk Biceps, and the rest joined in.





Twilight stood at the top of the hill with her mouth hanging open in awe. She had expected to find her friends and maybe a few volunteers waiting for her near where the raider would hit town.

She wasn't expecting each of her friends to show up with a small army of their own. Applejacks impromptu family reunion were getting arms and armor from Rarity, Cherilee, and a collection of local ponies and fashion models. Fluttershy was helping to sort medical supplies for Nurse Red Heart as the nurse divided her volunteer staff into emergency surgeons and combat medics. Pinkie Pie was running drills with the local hoofball team on the loading and firing of her party cannon and a half dozen catapults. The pink pony's weapons were situated next to long folding tables of cakes, pies, balloons, and dozens of other strange kinds of ammo. The storm front hovering on the edge of the battlefield marked Rainbow Dash's location, and the prismatic mare was swooping about the various clouds and checking with the pegasi guiding them over the battlefield.

Even more surprising were the hundred or so non-ponys talking with the thirty six guards that made up Ponyville's ACTUAL militia. Zebras, gryphons, canids and minotaurs were chatting with the volunteers and guards about tactics and plans. Some even seemed to be just sharing good stories or jokes.

Twilight turned to her mentor, only to see both royal sisters were just as stunned as she was.

"We were under the impression that the minotaurs and gryphons were at odds with each other," Princess Luna said as she approached the crowd, many bowing respectfully to her.

"We are, your Majesty," Thomas said. "My father would tan my hide for so much as talking with ruffians and fools such as these."

"And each are likewise looked down on by zebra eyes," Zaephir added

"Aye," a gryphon said, "had we a lick of honor or respect, we could never fight alongside a horn head. But a friend.-"

"Yes, a friend," Reggie said. "We could fight alongside a friend." He pulled himself up atop a supply cart, speaking up to catch everyone's attention. "We could stand proud and die by the side of a friend. We would give our lives to save their family and their friends as they would for us." There was nodding agreement around the battlefield. "This battle, hard as it may be, shall make heroes of the survivors, legends of the fallen, and friends of us all, for any who stand with us today shall be our friend. Those who shed their blood with us today are bound beyond such things as race or creed. They are elevated beyond any misdeeds or angry words. Every year this battle shall be feasted! Every year it shall be remembered, and doors once barred shall be opened to all. The stories told of this day will bring tears of pride and sorrow, and never shall be forgotten the friendships formed by those who fought with us upon this day!"

A great cry when up from all around, and Twilight felt a small tear roll down her cheek. If we survive this, she thought, I'm going to have one hell of a friendship report to give.

A soft sound floated through the crowd, a slow repeated slapping. Across the clearing, near the tree line, leaned a single creature. It looked like Sarah, but was slightly taller and bulkier. His hands came together, making the slow clapping sound.

"How touching," he said, his mocking voice carrying unnaturally across the distance. "To think that all you candy colored creatures are going to defeat me with your friendship."

There was a short scramble, and creatures fell into formation. Minotaurs with tower shields and heavy morning stars stood inter spaced with flightless gryphons, each in their own heavy armor and carrying a long spear. Earth ponies filled in where gryphons were few. Unicorns at the back prepped spells, while pegasi and the remaining gryphons stretched and readied to launch themselves skyward.

"You don't want to just surrender? It would go much easier for you," the man stated, his mocking tone grating against everyone's nerves. "Very well."

He turned to the forest and waved his hand. Hundreds of things moved out from the tree line, little more than jaws on legs. They snorted and shifted, a mass of bone plates, horns, talons and teeth.. 

The man pointed at the line of ponies, canids, gryphons, and minotaurs allied against him.

"Eat."
> The First Drops 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The monsters that charged forth from the forest were strange things unlike any seen before in Equestria. Each barely half a pony in height, they moved on two legs with a pair of small grasping claws hanging from their chest. Their wide mouth was filled with sharp teeth and seemed to make up almost a quarter of the beast. The pale leathery flesh that covered it was broken by bony spines along its back leading to a sharp, squat horn near its nose. The strangest thing about the creatures was that it had no eyes. By itself a single one would be little more than a joke to any zoologist. In a swarm light this, it was more of a nightmare.

Dozens of spawn swarmed down from the treeline towards the ragtag army. The defenders rallied against the sudden charge and fell into rough formation. The monsters hit the front lines, and almost immediately the screaming started.

The creatures were stronger than they looked, and that surprise had cost a few of the defenders dearly as their shields were butted aside or ripped away. Many found that the spawn would bite down on almost anything in front of them, and more than a few combatants had their weapons dramatically shortened or a semi-circle set of dents set into their shields.

What was more surprising was what happened to the monsters that fell. As one dropped three of its brethren fell upon it ripping it to shreds before it had even stopped moving. More worrying, the ones who ate appeared to grow slightly, adding muscle and armored plates.

Unicorn shields sprang up where the minotaurs had failed. Pegasi overhead fired a volley of lightning bolts down onto the battlefield, scorching dozens of the monsters. A second group of pegasi, armed and armored for close combat, streaked out towards the Jumper at the far end of the field.

As they closed the distance, a brilliant ruby beam arced across the sky. One of the pegasi let out a scream and began to tumble downward. Two of her comrades caught her, and Twilight watched in horror as one of the injured pony's wings continued to fall. That beam had sliced right through armor and bone in an instant. Again and again the red energy lashed out, first cutting down two more assault pegasi and driving them back before turning its focus on the lightning throwers. Several of the volunteers were singed and one of the weather team nearly lost a hoof before they retreated, leaving only a few who dared to stay among the clouds. 

Luna stamped her hooves anxiously, maintaining three separate shields. "Sister, we cannot stand by and watch this. Creatures are dying!"

"And if they have the same magic drinking powers that D had?" Celestia asked, flinging a half dozen of the creatures back from the front lines with a quick kinetic burst. She frowned at the amount of blood that seemed to stain the ground from just the first charge. "We must maintain a distance until we know they lack that ability, or we are given no other choice."

The red beam arced out again, and several of the weaker unicorn shields cracked against it's power.

"Really? Is that the best you have?" the man mocked. "I might just have to call some of these darlings back if this is all you can throw at-"

twang



THUDD

James looked very slowly to his left. A massive arrow, only slightly smaller than a spear, had grazed his cheek and embedded itself into a tree.

"Halth a degree to the lefth!"

Twilight turned and marveled at what she saw. It looked like parts of Applejacks' apple cart from market, along with parts of plows, a spinning wheel, and a pigs trough. Twist sat to the right of it, peering down a long spyglass and scribbling on a chalk board. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were busy rewinding the massive bow. Sweetie Belle and Silver Spoon were at the very back, pushing the back of the cart between stakes pounded into the ground. "Half a degree left!" Diamond Tiara confirmed as the adjustments were made.

"Reload!" Scootaloo called. Snips and Snails stood nearby a large pile of ballista bolts, carefully lifting it up into the primed machine.

"Clear!" Apple Bloom called as she and Scootaloo leapt down from the machine.

"FIRE!" Sweetie yelled, and once more the bolt launched through the air. A devouerer leapt up to defend it's master, and the man still had to jump aside as the monster was pinned to the tree.

"Right!!" he yelled, enraged at being nearly hit twice. "You want to play?!? Let's play!!!"

Three dozen more devouerers poured from the forest, filling the small clearing and threatening to overwhelm the defenders who had just started to push back. The man walked out among his horde, each death feeding them, making them stronger, and his red light flickering across the shields. A larger pair of creatures, ones with bulging arms and thick plates, flanked him, defending against the ballista bolts.





"Did you see that, Tavi?! AW man, those kids are awesome! Total DIY warriors. I can't believe they built their own freaking ballista!"

"Vinyl, while I'm sure they are impressive, for this project of yours to work, you have to pull, too!" Octavia grunted, pulling forward on the overburdened cart. "How did you pull all of this around between shows before anyway?"

Vinyl Scratch shrugged in her harness. "Extra-dimensional robot demon disguised as a pegasus," she said. "You should get one, they're a great help." She turned back to the battle and frowned. "Might as well stop here. With those reinforcements, we won't have to wait long to be in range."

Octavia nodded and slipped out of her harness, reaching around to start unpacking the massive amplifiers. "I can't believe you made this in a month. Only someone like you would think to weaponize sound."

"Oh, I made this years ago," Vinyl said, connecting the mobile generator to the sound board. "All my current speakers are based on it, but the police insisted I install limiters on them. I mean, you collapse one apartment building, and the whole world is against you."

Octavia shook her head. "I can't believe we're friends. Sometimes I think-"

"TAVI!"

Something pushed her down, and she smelled hot metal, burning electronics and cooked meat. She rolled over and looked around. A deep singed cut marred the trees on either side of the cart, and scorched some of the equipment near where she had been standing. Next to her was Vinyl.

She wasn't moving.

"No. Oh no! Please, please Celestia, no!!!" Octavia bent down to her friend. She had the turntable clutched to her chest, and it had taken most of the hit, but there was a deep cut on her waist and another on her shoulder.

"MEDIC!!!" she screamed, waving at the pegasi circling overhead.

"You  *cough* you have to be more careful, Tavi," Vinyl said weakly.

"Shut up!" Octavia hissed as the pegasi pulled the DJ onto a stretcher.

"Got you a present," Vinyl said, already becoming dazed by the pain.

"Miss, you should evacuate the area," one of the medics said sternly. "It's not safe."

Octavia nodded, looking over the equipment. It was almost setup, too. But with the turntable destroyed, there was only the microphone to feed sound into the device. She scrambled back into the cart, desperate for some other piece of equipment.

"Extra power cables, extra audio cables, fuses." She sorted through, trying to ignore the sounds of fighting that were getting closer. "You couldn't pack an extra music player?!" she asked, frustrated as she lifted a wooden support.

No, it wasn't a support, it was shaped wrong. It looked like part of a washtub instrument without the washtub. Like someone had ripped the central stem out of an over-sized cello.

"What in Tarterus is this thing?" she asked, spinning it around. On the back, painted in electric blue was the message To Tavi with love. Below that was stamped the most wonderful words she had ever read.




ELECTRIC UPRIGHT BASS








"Sister, we cannot hold back much longer," Luna said, trying not to look at the numbers of dismembered and wounded the medics were dragging back from the front lines. While the strange army of so many desparate creatures hadn't lost any ground and had slain the devouerers at a rate of almost five to one, it was still a losing battle. They were outnumbered, and for every devouerer that fell the ones around it grew stronger feasting on their own dead and wounded.

"Agreed, sister," Celestia said. "We are in luck then that we may not have to." She nodded skyward, as a half dozen armored pegasi, accompanied by another half dozen Lunar Guard streaked down onto the devouerers. The defenders cheered the sight of reinforcements so soon into the battle, yelling out as the newcomers swept low overhead, dropping stones among the monsters before pulling away.

As they rose, the bombs they had dropped ignited as one, turning the middle of the enemy ranks into a smoking crater.

"YES!" Twilight cried, giving a little hop. 

"What?" Luna asked.

"Something my faithful student worked out about a week ago," Princess Celestia said. "The bombs were filled with a slight magical charge, as a timer. If any of the creatures they touched could siphon magic, the bombs would have gone off in sequence instead of all at once."

"What does this mean?" Luna asked.

Celestia dropped her shield. "It means, dear sister, that our magic users are no longer limited to Twilight's protected shield spell." Her horn began to glow, and a fireball the size of a melon appeared above her head. "It means that we can fight, too!"

The magical blast arced over the allies and landed amid the devours, detonating in a brilliant fiery burst that caused even Twilight to turn away from the light and heat for a moment.

It was followed by a rainbow barrage of magic as every unicorn assembled, from student to shop keep, and threw everything they had at the invaders.

"We may win yet!" Celestia said.

Luna looked worryingly at the human, standing at the other end of the battle between his two body guards. She didn't like the way he was grinning.





Mr. Cake stared in mute horror at the sea of jaws and teeth just beyond the shield line. The thought of those teeth closing down on him was almost overwhelming him with fear. He had stood frozen as they charged and he was still frozen now.

"Sweetie?" 

He blinked and turned to his wife, who was helping to load one of the catapults.

"Can you help wind this up? I need to balance the load," she said, lifting a large pie.

Stepping next to the catapult he pulled back on the winding crank, stopping when he heard the catch click into place. His wife put the pie carefully down.

"FIRE!" Pinkie called, and an assortment of baked goods went flying . Muffins hard as rocks pelted the enemy. Pies with caustic meringue and bubbling hot filing burned away the flesh of the monsters. Carrot grinned with satisfaction at seeing a dozen fall and wound the catapult again.





"More bombs," Starlight ordered, touching down lightly next to the supply cart. She had arrived with the first set of guard reinforcements just after the battle started. She had done three runs in the time it took most of the other pegasi to do two, and she looked ready for more.

"Aren't you tired?" A militia pegasus asked, slouching. "This armor weighs a ton, I can barely fly in it."

"I'll rest when they are defeated. More bombs."

"All out!" the white unicorn with a red mane said, stroking his mustache. "We honestly didn't think it would be such a big success, so we only made a few dozen."

"You've dropped more in a single run then the others did in two," his twin observed, tugging thoughtfully at his beard. "We are putting more together as fast as we can, but you'll have to wait."

"Waiting is for the wounded," Star snapped. She dropped the bomb carrying satchels and started fastening on her raking wing blades.

"You can't go out there like that!" one of the other guard protested. "You saw what that thing did with that red light. If you're out too long he'll slice you up and those things will eat you before you hit the ground."

"There are CHILDREN fighting these monsters!" Starlight yelled in their face, strapping the last blade down. "If you want to cower here then be my guest."

She launched herself into the sky. Training in the heavy armor had been difficult, the weight made it hard for most pegasi to even get off the ground. Maneuvering was tough, and passing the obstacle course had been a real bear, but Starlight had learned something important about the extra weight. It gave her momentum.

She climbed high into the sky, using the sun behind her to help hide her. Once she was high enough, she began her dive. Her wing blades reached out as she drew level, momentum carrying the quickly dulling blades through scale and flesh. A line of monsters went down, and she pumped her wings trying to climb away.

A flash of light caught her eye, and she folded her wings, dropping under the ruby death beam and impacting a devouerer. She launched herself right back into the air and was forced down again by the flashing beam. She crashed down again, and the last of her forward momentum was sacrificed slashing the throat of the creature lunging for her.

Around her the devouerers crowded, feasting on their dead and dancing just outside of her blades reach. Being little more than jaws, Star had the unnerving feeling they were all grinning viciously at her. One stepped forward and she dropped it with a slash. As others fell on the dying, she was able to take a few steps back. The process repeated twice more, and Star started to hope she could edge her way free.

She felled her fourth before she realized the pattern. Each one that died made the others stronger, but the strong weren't staying. The damned things were using her to get stronger, then marching off towards the front lines. Worse, she saw one of the larger beasts take a blast from one of the unicorns and keep going. 

Star was stuck. If she took off, the red light would almost certainly cut her down. If she kept fighting, she would doom her friends.

Was the only choice to give up and die?!
> Downpour
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Zaephir pulled his spear back, crouching behind Thomas' shield as the devouerers fell on the fallen. He wished he'd been able to pull more of his kin into the fight, zebras were always better in a group. Each of the attacking creatures was bigger, better armored, and stronger than they had been when the battle started. A few had grown an extra set of forelimbs and were clawing aside shields and parrying attacks.

"If this keeps going, I've little doubt, this battle will end in our complete rout."

Reggie grimaced as he touched the long wound where a devouerer claw had taken his left eye, tracing down to where it cracked his beak slightly. "Are you always this cheerful when you're about to die?" He ruffled his wings and reloaded a crossbow.

"My father would pray for holy spirits to sing us to our eternal rest." Thomas huffed, bashing a creature back with his shield and smacking it with a morning star for good measure. The minotaur swung again and took a large chunk of a creatures skull out.

"What would you do?" Red asked, raking a pair of claw like blades down the side of a devouerer. 

"I would pray the spirits play for these things first." 

"Ha!" Red barked, "That's a good one! I'll have to... hey, do you hear that?"

"If you are hearing spirits, keep it to yourself," Reggie said.

"No," Red said, perking up her ears and turning her head. "It's more like wheels and a hum and-"

"YOU ABOMINATIONS WANT A PIECE OF THIS?!!!"

The devouerers fell away as a cart packed full of electronics came barreling down the hill. On top was a grey earth pony leaning on a post and holding a bow. She drew the bow across the post and-

WaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

A single low note slammed into the side of the devouerer line and lifted it like tumbleweeds in a tornado. The cart rolled to a stop in front of Thomas and Octavia looked down at them.

"Well, don't just sit there! I can't aim this thing and play!"

Reggie laughed and ran up to the cart, leaning hard on the harness supports to spin the auditory weapon towards the bulk of the enemy.

"For glory! For friendship! FOR VINYL!!"

Red clasped her claws over her ears as wave after wave of sound started to push back the enemy line. Zaephir just grinned. They might just win this after all.





Starlight grinned at the confused monsters milling about, glad her little plan was working. Instead of letting them back her deeper into enemy lines or wear her out running in circles while they kept growing from her kills, she was simply staying put. Four dead devouerers lay in a single pile at her hooves, and she was going to make it an even ten before they brought her down if she could help it. With any luck, a unicorn magic attack or a pegasus with more of those bombs would hit the pile before it got eaten. Maybe I can stack the corpses high enough that the pink pony can get them with her cannon.

The way she was currently situated the dead piled together kept the monsters from swarming her. To survive long enough to get to her, the monsters needed to be bigger than they were. To get bigger, they needed to eat from the ones she had slain. As one tried to crawl forward and take a bite of a fallen creature, Startlight leapt off the pile and drove her short dagger into its spine. She swung her blades wildly to hold back the otheres while she bucked the still dying body onto the pile.

Star jumped back on top of the pile, glaring at the monsters and daring any to try their luck. The red beam flashed by overhead, reminding her that the alien general hadn't forgotten about her. I'm probably pissing him off.

The beam flashed twice more, in rapid succession, and was then followed by a loud boom. A new type of weapon?

One of the devouerers took advantage of her diverted attention and pounced on the pile of corpses. Star readied her blade and aimed for the killing blow.

With a resounding thud and a sickening crack, a pony landed on top of the helpless little spawn, crushing it under hoof and leaving it a gooey mess on the battlefield. The pony was a unicorn, not pegasi, but had just dropped from the sky like a ton of bricks. The steel plate had to be an inch thick, but it shifted and moved fluidly with a whir and a hiss. Four spears held in glowing magic danced around the newcomer, trailing ribbons of blood as a half dozen more devouerers fell.

Star marveled at the deep black armor, etched in glowing lines and letters of magic. Some of it hurt to look at, like it was twisting something in her brain. As alien as the armor appeared, there was something familiar about it.

"Lance?" Star asked.

The pony grabbed her and jumped. Some magical force detonated under them, and they rocketed skyward like a cannon shell, arcing overhead before slamming into the ground behind friendly lines. Only then did he let her go.

"Stay here," he said, his voice heavily distorted by the helmet. "Don't move."

"What? Lance, what are you-"

"I need to go fight. Stay here and wait for me." He turned to leap away.

"Dammit, Lance, where have you been? I've been worried sick!" She grabbed him, turning him around and pulling the helmet off. "What do you mean stay...what.... why are you..." 

Lance looked at her, grimacing. His face had a network of scars, his left ear was gone, blue and red lines seemed either painted or carved into his flesh.  Dark green smoke seeped from his eyes, and when he blinked his right eye it took a moment for all three pupils to stop moving.

"Lance, what have you done to yourself??"

"What I had to do. What I needed to do." He turned from her. "I took Sombra's path, I walked in dark places to defend the light."

"But Sombra-"

"The dark king was seduced by his own power because he didn't have any reason to return to the light. That is why I need you to stay here. To stay safe." He pulled the helmet back on. "So I have something to come back to."

He jumped into the air, and Star watched him go, wondering how the bumbling paranoid guard from not so long ago had become so foolish and so brave.





"What do ya mean ya can't enchant the bolts?" Apple Bloom demanded of Bright Bolt, one of the unicorn students who had come to assist with the ballista.

"If you wanted the bolts to be sturdier or give them armor piercing enchantments, then they need to meet certain prerequisites. Anything more than that is pushing into theoretical."

"How hard can it be to make the bolts explode?" Scootaloo asked.

"Explode? Easy," Bright Bolt replied with a wave of his hoof. "Explode when you want them too, that is a lot more difficult. Anything I charge is likely to blow when you try to fire it."

"Well, can't ya at least make the big crossbow set fire ta the bolts when we launch 'em?" Apple Bloom pleaded.

"You can't do that now!" Button Mash cried out, pausing from dragging a bolt into place. "The weapon has to be Masterwork to start with and then you need at least a +1 modifier before you can add the Flaming special ability-"

Sweetie Bell smacked him. "This isn't Ponies and Castles, Button!" she yelled. "Pick up the bolt and MOVE!"

"He's not far off," Bright Bolt said. "Enchanting a weapon to confer magic onto fired ammunition requires strict control of materials and manufacture." 

"Well, if ya can't enchant the bolts ta explode or get through those stupid guards and ya can't make the big bow any better, what in the name of my aunt Fanny are ya doin' here?!" Apple Bloom yelled.

"Oh, I came to drop off malfunctioning spears our graduating class failed to enchant properly," Bright Bolt said, pointing to roughly three dozen spears strapped to his back. "We tried to imbue them with low level elemental abilities, but we failed."

"You are bringing us broken equipment?!" Scootaloo screamed. "What do you want us to-"

Apple Bloom shoved a hoof in Scootaloo's mouth. "Failed how?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

Bright Bolt picked up one spear and turned it over. "This one was supposed to let out an electrical shock when it hit a target, to stun them. Thirty shocks to a charge, and we can recharge it easy," he said. "But I think Volt Amp, the pony who made it, forgot the regulator spell. I'd be surprised if it didn't drop all thirty charges into the first creature it hits."

Scootaloo's eyes went wide with possibility. Apple Bloom chucked and put a hoof on Bright Bolt's side. "Partner, my friends and you are about to have a lot of fun."





They were out of cakes. They were out of pies. Two of the catapults had suffered serious malfunction and would not fire again. Even the party cannon was showing cracks. All of these things were meant as novelty items, they should never have seen combat.

Mr. Cake tore a wheel from one of the broken catapults and dragged it back to his own, using it to replace the broken crank wheel. The local hoofball team was piling up stones, anything larger than a pony's head. An impressive twang was heard as another of the larger beasts fell to the Crusaders's ballista.

Children are fighting he thought, working hard to get the wheel on. Children! Right behind the front lines. He glanced over and saw that little orange pegasus and white unicorn, and in them saw his own children sitting at home, waiting for him to return. If the front lines fell, those children would be devoured.

If the line fell, his own children would be next. 

Finishing his repairs, he wound the catapult as his wife wearily loaded it. The catapult lurched and three more monsters were crushed by rocks.

The line will hold, he swore. As long as I have so much as a pastry knife and my life, It. Will. Hold!





Luna's focus was split three ways as she watched the battlefield. The first part was a simple process of shifting and powering an energy shield that held many of the monsters at bay. It did not stop them for there were too many spread over too large an area, but it slowed them so the front lines were not completely overwhelmed. The second part of her mind focused on tactics, tracking the rise and fall of combat and directing the incoming guard units to the best places. These duties she shared with her sister, who was likewise directing the battle and defending the front. Both had, on occasion, pulled power from the shield to strike at a larger enemy with a magical blast. For the most part, they killed with blade and spear, leaving the magical blasts to the other unicorns.

The last part of Luna's mind was on the contingency plan. She and her sister each controlled a stellar body, and with each came the ability to unleash incredible power. Celestia called her ability the Solar Lance, the ability to call down a fraction of the sun to destroy her foes. It was a weapon of last resort, and in her long life Luna had only seen the lance used once while she was imprisoned in the moon. But drawing down that power was flashy, and it would have painted a giant target on Celestia. Luna's ability was a little more subtle, she did not need the entire moon, only the smallest sliver of it. Even better, her Star Fall could be set up in advance. As it was, the Star Fall would hit between the battlefield and Ponyville in a little over two hours.

If the battle went well, it would take but a moment to push the stone off into space and back to her moon. If she fell, then the Star Fall fell with her. Princess Luna knew it would probably take Ponyville and much of the countryside with her, but such a quick death might be preferable to suffering at the hands of a madman. Besides, the spot Celestia had hit so long ago was starting to recover.

In another two hundred years the badlands might even be habitable again.





Celestia's sword cut a beast off at the ankles, and her shield pushed them back while the minotaurs took a short rest and tended to their wounds. Things were not going well. The eastern flank had been successfully defended, and where she and Luna stood was definitely fairing better, but there were just too many of the damned things. Luna had proposed a strike at the leader, but after the wedding and her failure to defeat Chrysalis, Celestia was uncertain of her ability to defend her ponies. For now, she and Luna were restricted to shielding the front lines and allowing the wounded to retreat. 

We have cut the enemy numbers in half, she thought, and we are still outnumbered nearly two to one. Many of the monsters now on the front lines had reached truly monstrous proportions from feasting on the dead. A few even towering over the minotaurs.

Worse still, she could see at least another two or three dozen gathering beyond the tree line. They were mustering together, waiting for some unknown sign to charge forth. She did not know if their lines could take a charge. She wasn't sure it could take much more of the assault it had already sustained. Luna turned and looked at her sister sadly before stepping back and closing her eyes.

She knew they could beat this monster and his army. They had power over the sun and the moon for Faust's sake, it would be next to nothing to call that power down. A small Star Fall from Luna or a Solar Lance from her would wipe the battlefield clean. That was of course the problem. These solutions were not tactical weapons. Pulling at even the smallest fraction of their abilities would be devastating for everything for miles around. She had done it before once, long long ago. Luna was doubtlessly calling upon her own power to line up a Star Fall.

Something in the battle shifted, the demons assailing them pulled back slightly. Ponies and others readied their defenses. The charge came, and Celestia pushed as much power into her shield as she dared. "Soldiers!! HOLD!!!" she cried, trying to instill bravery by sheer force of will. The red light flashed across her shield once and she winced from the strain of holding it up.

The light flashed twice more, but this time it didn't touch her shield. In fact, it didn't seem to touch any shield. Celestia looked up to see twenty fiery green meteors streaking out of the sky towards the oncoming army. She cast a glance to Luna, fearing her sister had struck too early, but Luna appears as confused as she was. The blast threw the oncoming charge into disarray, halting it and granting hope to the defenders.

The hope vanished as the smoke cleared. Not a single devouerer had been killed.  The reinforcements swarmed together into a wave of teeth and claws, readied for a charge.

And then turned on one another.

"I- they- what?" Luna asked.

"Ah," a buzzing female voice said nearby."Your majesties."

Luna turned to see Celestia caught completely by surprise as an alicorn sized insectoid pony landed next to her. Queen Chrysalis bowed low. "I wish to discuss potential trade, as well as payment for mercenary services." The queen stood and grinned. "Once the battle is over, of course. My disguised soldiers will stay away from the front lines, so feel free to swing away." 





Applejack blinked unbelieving at the front line. "Is- is that Queen Chrysalis?"

Rarity nodded slowly. "Yes dear, I'm fairly sure it is."

Twilight closed her eyes. "Okay, this is officially the strangest day of my life, and I've fought Discord." 

Fluttershy nodded at that. Everypony seemed speechless at the development.

"Can we attack now?" Dash demanded.

Well, almost everypony.

"He's too far from the front lines!" Twilight said with a huff.

"Nuh, uh. I could hit him with a Sonic Rainboom! Like I did to Applejack's barn that one time."

"What one time?" Pinkie asked.

"Ya know," Rainbow said, "The day Twilight, um, cast the spell on the doll-"

"We don't talk about that day," Twilight hissed under her breath.

"COME ON!" Rainbow Dash said. "I never thought I would say this but there is a massive battle going on right in front of us and I am bored out of my skull!"

"You know-" Twilight started.

"WE KNOW!" her five friends shouted in unison.

"I understand why you don't want me to hit him with a Sonic Rainboom. If- IF he survives, I'll be a sitting duck." Rainbow gripped. "But you don't want me up with the weather team because of that red beam thing. That's my weather team putting their wings on the line Twi, and I can't be with them!"

"Ah know what ya mean," Applejack said, putting a hoof on Rainbow's back. "Almost my whole family are on the front lines, and Twi won't let me stand with them."

"Not to mention Applejack's sister and mine are over there with that amazing contraption," Rarity put in. 

"WE CAN NOT RISK ANY OF YOU!" Twilight screamed. "If we want to use the Elements, we need all of you safe and sound. We can't get close enough right now to use the Elements on him without risking us to all those monsters. If I thought we could pull it off I'd have us circle around and try and hit him from behind, but he keeps calling more and more of those monsters from the woods."

"Come ooooooooon, Twilight," Pinkie moaned. "Can't we at least use the Elements on the army? I bet we could blast a line right to the bad guy!"

"We do that and we lose any element of surprise," Twilight said, waving a hoof at the mess the battlefield had become. "And I think that Chrysalis has just shown how powerful that element is."





Octavia crouched behind the cart, digging through the supplies and taking a short respite as the monsters attacked each other for a change. Her rough handling of Vinyl's gift had nearly broken her bow, and the strings on the bass were already becoming worn. They were just the cheap strings it had been sold with, not the kind of quality she would usually insist on. 

Thomas slouched next to her, reaching out to tie a strip of cloth around a cut on her shoulder. The last charge had nearly destroyed them when Red's defensive actions accidentally pulled the audio cable connecting the mixer to the cannon. Zaephir and Red had left for medical attention, leaving only her, Reggie, and Thomas in an advanced position. 

"How's the music maker?" Reggie asked, double checking the connections.

"If we have to fire this thing more than a dozen more times, I fear we may have to resort to singing." Thomas replied

"We could try beat-boxing," Reggie suggested.

Octavia shook her head. "Thomas is the only one with a deep enough voice for it, and we need him on defense."

The cart shook and shifted.

"Did somepony call for a band?"

Octavia looked up. Perched on top of her cart were six changelings, each carrying an instrument and parts of a drum kit. One appeared to be less than thrilled to be there.

"This is a job for warriors! Not infiltrators, and certainly not musicians," he said, shrugging off the drums and his bass guitar.

Two others smacked him in the back of the head.

"You will play," they said in eerie unison. "Or we will feed you to the enemy. Tail first. Slowly."

"What are you doing out here?" Octavia asked as the band began connecting their instruments and tuning them up.

"Well, somepony was pretty insistent we get out here," Pio said, pointing back towards the friendly line. Octavia looked and was surprised to see two pegasi air lifting another pony out to them. 

A certain white unicorn.

"VINYL!" Octavia yelled, running over to the DJ as she landed. She had white bandages wrapped around her barrel and was a little unstable walking.  "What are you doing out here? You're hurt, you should be-"

"Tavi, you are a bucking great musician," Vinyl said, hugging her friend. "But you can't work a mixer to save your flank, and if you think I'm missing out on this you are out of your mind. I am about to become Equestria's first and only Combat DJ!" 

"Ms. Scratch," one of the pegasi addressed her, "I must insist you return to the medics and rest. You are in no condition to be out here."

"Yeah, yeah," the DJ huffed. "You've been saying that since I bullied you two into carrying me."

"Yes, but I'm required to try one last time. Are you sure I can't get you to return?"

"No!"

"Right then." The nurse pegasi turned to each other. "You tend to the minotaur, I'll realign the speakers." The other grinned and nodded.

"What the-" Octavia stated.

"Front row seats to DJ Pon3, Octavia Melody, and a changeling band rocking a battlefield?" the nurse asked with a grin. "Enraged Ursa's couldn't drag us away!"





Lance danced back and forth as he eyed the massive spawn before him. He'd realized his error in leaving the large pile of corpses Starlight had made unattended. This thing looked like a bear and a dragon had a blind baby and spent the first few years of its life whaling on it with the ugly stick. It was better armored and bigger than almost anything else on the battlefield save those two bodyguards. The only reason the thing hadn't landed a serious blow on lance yet was the way it telegraphed every attack. Even still, it was armored enough that Lance was having trouble lining up a vital strike.

The smaller spawn couldn't bite through his armor, and he could kick hard enough to drop one in a shot, but they were still annoying. It came to him that he was now trapped similar to how Star had been. The beast before him could not be easily slain, while the ones around him could be killed like flies. If he tried to focus on the large beast the smaller ones would swarm him and drag him down. If he tried to clear back the small ones, the large one could line up a strong attack. If he killed too many of the little ones and didn't defend their bodies he'd soon be facing two or three of the massive beasts at once.

The red beam flashed overhead, and something going very fast flickered past his peripheral vision. He spun to face the attacker, only to watch in awe as a line of smaller spawn fell, their throats and chests cut wide open. A gurgle drew his attention back to the largest spawn, and he watched it topple over, grasping at the hoof sized hole ripped in its massive throat.

Starlight stood over her kill, stripped of all armor save a simple breast plate. Bloodied blades lined the edge of her wings, and a pair of gryphon war talons were strapped and buckled to her fore-hooves.

"Starlight! What are you-"

She pounced forward, hooking his collar with her talons and pulling him close. She pulled up the face-plate and kissed him hard on the mouth.

"You ever tell me to sit still and wait while you go off to fight and die again, and you won't be able to build an armor thick enough to save you from my wrath," she growled.

"What? You- I-"

She pushed the plate closed and moved to stand back to back to him. "And don't think this counts. I want a real ring and an honest, on the knee proposal when this is over."

"WE COULD DIE OUT HERE!" 

She flared her wings and raised her talons against  the monsters. "You do," she said with a viscous smirk, "and I'll kill you," 





The fighting came to a sudden stop, almost every spawn freezing in place. Most of them dropped to their bellies, leaving roughly two dozen looking around confused. 

Celestia looked over the suddenly still battlefield with a worried expression. Starlight and Lance looked cautiously at a medium sized spawn before them. A moment ago it had been trying to rip their faces off. Now it was lying flat on the ground like a trained puppy.

Twilight watched as Pio and the band started to scramble down behind the cart, dragging Octavia, Reggie and Red with them. "What are they-"

"DOWN!" Luna yelled in her Canterlot Voice as she raised her shields to full power. Three bright red beams arced across the whole field, and a sickening smell of cooked meat filled the air. 

Thomas clutched at his left foot, severed clean through just above the ankle. His shield had taken most of the other two beams, but it broke in three when he dropped it to the ground. The speakers started to spark and hiss as damaged electronics caught fire.

Starlight pulled away from Lance, and gasped at the three deep cuts that scarred his armor. He staggered, and blood leaked from the face-plate.

Changelings lay scattered over the battlefield. Some lucky ones were only maimed, missing a wing or a leg. Many were missing a head or had been cut in half. Those that could were limping away, dragging their friends with them. One was talking encouragingly to another he was dragging, oblivious to the fact that his limp partner stopped half way down, and his guts were dragging behind them.

"There we are," the raider said, grinning at the carnage he had unleashed. "Much less confusing."

The few changelings still walking made it back behind friendly lines, and Fluttershy was there with the rest of the medics, wrapping and bandaging as best she could. Chrysalis glared across the battlefield with a cold hatred in her eyes. Red and Pio pushed on the music cart, while everyone else pulled, dragging the damaged equipment off the field. Starlight supported Lance as best she could in his heavy armor, trying not to think about the amount of blood he was leaving with each step.

"Well, that was a nice rest," James said, waving his hands. As one, his army rose. Many began to turn and eat those who had fallen. There was a certain snapping crunch mixed in with the meatier chewing as the changelings were eaten as well. "Now, you have a choice. You can surrender, in which case I promise to only kill one in every ten of you, or you can keep fighting, and I'll make this place your grave."

Twilight turned to look at her friends, each worn and weary. Rainbow Dash was talking encouragingly to a pegasus who was missing a wing and most of their right foreleg. She had long since stripped off what little armor she had, trying to be faster at delivering supplies or recovering wounded. Rarity's armor was gone, the layers of cloth having been cut away to make bandages for the wounded. She and Fluttershy were tending to several creatures nearby, and Twilight watching in sorrow as Fluttershy used her wing to close a gryphons eyes for the last time. Pinkie's hair was straight, and there was a far off look in her eye that worried Twilight. Applejack was doing her best to rally any troop near to her, calling out to her family to stand strong. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were busy keeping a gryphon and Queen Chrysaliss from killing each other. The gryphon wanted to surrender and Queen Crysaliss wanted vengeance for her fallen.

"Well?" the raider yelled, his mocking tone grating on the army. "I'm waiting! Tell you what, I'll even be generous. You can choose who I kill."

"How can any creature be so cruel?" Fluttershy whispered, tears shining on her cheeks.

"I'll give you to the count of three!" He yelled.

"ONE!"

"TWO"

ROAR

A massive red dragon landed on the western side of the field. A small white dot fell from its massive claws and hopped quickly over to where Fluttershy stood stunned. Angel came to a stop in front of the bearer of Kindness and bowed.

"You brought a dragon?" James asked, staring at the massive beast without comprehension.

The dragon fell on all fours, crushing half dozen of the spawn under claw as it positioned itself. The invading army began to retreat in a large swarming mass as the dragon took a long deep breath.

"YOU BROUGHT A FUCKING DRAGON!!" James screamed.

And turned a third of the battlefield into an inferno. Spawn burned as they ran, twisting and falling. Smoke rolled up from corpses reduced to cooked meat. Some of the spawn closest to the dragon were little more than bone and ash.

The great beast sat back on its haunches, taking a few slow deep breaths as a hush rolled over the blackened battlefield.






Clap


Clap


Clap


The weather pegasi, using this opportunity to move some of the storm clouds closer, blew away the smoke. A massive shell of bone and meat stood at the far end of the field. Behind it the raider was clapping slowly, completely unscathed by the blast.

The damn raider was clapping! He stood there applauding the destruction of his own forces in such a fashion.

"Amazing," he exclaimed, sounding genuinely thrilled. "That was fantastic! I have to say, that was truly a masterful show of force. Well done."

"Still," his right arm came up, the red light emitter folding back and away as the arm seemed to expand outwards. There was a sound like a sonic rainboom, and the dragon lurched backwards. A deep bloody wound like a crater formed his left breast, showering blood and scales over the battlefield.

The dragon roared and reared up to retaliate, and the red light slashed across his eyes blinding him.

"Now now, no more of that fiery nonsense," James' voice called out, his voice echoing from several locations at once. The dragon swung his head back and forth trying to pinpoint the source. "Not unless you want to cook your little friends as well." The raider grinned. "Actually, that's not a bad idea at all." 

James touched one hand to the wall of meat and bone that had shielded him. The mass of flesh squirmed and stretched, it shifted and drew in pieces of other creatures who had fallen nearby. Soon its shape became apparent, a mockery of the dragon who had come so close to winning the battle. Like the spawn it had no eyes, but unlike them it had massive wings and was easily a quarter the size of the dragon itself.

"This has been fun, really it has. But it is time to say goodbye," the raider said, waggling his fingers and grinning at the ponies. "Bye bye now!"

The great spawn took a deep breath, the scales under its chest starting to glow with deadly power.

Then there was a loud bang the top of its head exploded, showering blood and brains over the army. It staggered once, then fell.

With great care, its attacker pulled a metal fist from the remnants of its skull and stood.

Sarah Jordan had arrived.
> Distant Rumbles
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


-- TWO HOURS AGO --


Ten minutes had passed since James had viciously ripped Machina's power core out of her chest and walked off. The clearing was quiet, as though all life in the area was being eaten and turned into more and more little monsters.

Machina sat back up slowly, her eyes flickering to life. "OK, backup power supply needs to start up before all the battery backups fail." She got up and stepped lightly to where D's bones had been scattered. Many were already crumbling to dust, the last of his power dwindling to nothing. Machina collapsed to her knees, looking like she wanted nothing more than to cry. "Oh D. I could not save you." 

I'm not dead yet. 

Machina looked up to see a single finger bone in a dark swirl of smoke, in a three ring circle near Sara's lifeless body.

"She saved you?"

With her last breath I think

"I wish- I wish we could have saved her." Machina looked down at the ground. "I am such a fool. If I had spent a little more time getting powered up with lightning bolts-"

"Then it still would have been ripped out of your chest," I said, walking out of the woods, grinning down at my friends. "What? You look like you've seen a ghost."

SARAH?! How?

I kicked my double, and Nightmare disentangled her illusion magic from the old battered wooden fauna. "Come on, I can understand how he might have fallen for that trick, but you two? We have been jumping between worlds for three years, how are you so bad at this?"

"To be fair, we usually ran and hid."

The last few times I tried to take things on head on like this, I believe you caught me with a fork.

"You'll never live that down by the way. Need a lift?"

I've got no body and no power

"I am running on limited reserves myself," Machina said, a smile crossing her face. "Any chance I can get a lift too?"

I held out my arms, the metal one to Machina and the flesh and blood one to D. "Come on, friends, lets go home."





I watched the pair of armored monsters circle the transport pod. The things had no visible eyes, and their flesh, what little there was between bony plates, had an unnatural sheen to it. From where I sat high in a tree, I could see blood on the grass.

"I think this is going to pose a bit of trouble." 

What are those things? I've never seen anything like it in Equestria.

They aren't from Equestria. They are spawnlings of a devourer daemon.

Sarah, I take back anything I said about your sanity with regards to bonding with Nightmare.

"I'm just glad he only left one behind."

Um, don't know if you forgot how to count, but there are two of those things.

Note the blood. They kill, eat, and then vomit up copies of themselves. Unless they eat a copy, then they just grow bigger and deadlier.

So they are effectively giant, armored, vicious, mindless parasprites?

"Yeah, that sounds about right." I shifted, judging my options. "Chances are good I could kill both, but that might alert James to my continued existance." 

Don't look at me, I'm running on almost zero power. Machina and Nightmare are your power houses right now.

Power currently at 23.225%. Ideas?

At that point, Clockwork and Ditzy stumbled into the clearing. Both of the monsters looked at them and began to growl.

"Ah, right." Clockwork stammered, looking nervously at the monster. "Look, any chance you and your friend could see your way to not eat us for a little bit?"  

The closest began to charge, and Clockwork grabbed Ditzy and pulled her to the side. Just in time for a manticore to come barreling through the clearing and tear right into the spawn.

The other turned to aid it's comrade, and a tree fell on it.

Well, I say fell... 

Power now at 18.27%. Please refrain from using the laser cutter unless completely necessary.

"Clockwork! Ditzy!" I called to them, stepping away from the singed tree stump. "What are you two doing out here? How did you even find the place?"

"Ah, Sarah," the watchmaker said with a smile. He held up a cross between a lunchbox and a reel to reel movie projector. "My timey-whimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff."

*Ding!*

"If James is packing time manipulation weaponry then we may be completely fucked," I muttered, waking closer to the pod. As I approached, I heard something knocking from inside. 

"Is somepony in there?" Ditzy asked. 

Curious, I walked around the pod. The ship had a central conversion and control chamber for the jumper and six smaller chambers for "guests" they wanted to drag along. Two of the smaller pods were occupied, one of which was damaged.

"Ditzy, come here!" I called. "Help me with the door!" I disengaged the lock and lifted up.

Lyra tumbled out. Her legs and chest were covered in tiny cuts and bites, and her green fur was matted with blood. Her eyes were unfocused, and she kept mouthing words but not making any noise.

Clockwork came over to help, and his lunchbox started to ding repeatedly.

"What is it?" Ditzy asked.

"She's been exposed to the void between worlds," I said. "It looks like some of the smaller, weaker things there tried to pull her out. She's alright aside from a few cuts, but I don't know why she's catatonic."

"Some part of her is time-spanned, stretched out over time," Clockwork said. He pulled out a pen light and shone it into her eyes. "Open the other one," he said, waving a hoof at the next pod.

Ditzy trotted over and opened it, and a tired and bruised Bon Bon stepped out.

"Is she alright?!" Bonie asked, running over to where Lyra lay.

"Her physical wounds will heal, but her mental wounds..." Clockwork trailed off, uncertain.

"She kept talking, the whole time we were captured she would say these things," Bonnie said. "Right before they happened, she would tell me something was going to happen. She knew the name of the people before they said them. As it got closer to time for us to go, she became more and more worried."

"Precognition from temporal echo of her own mind back down the timeline!" Clockwork spoke quickly. "Oh, that's brilliant! She must have been getting more and more echoes the closer she got to the ripple point. Probably why she's catatonic though, near infinite feedback loop."

"Will she recover?" I asked.

"Ah, yeah. She'll be fine in a month or two," he said, nodding his head. "She won't get memories from her future anymore either."

A thought struck me. One that stuck in my mind and wouldn't leave.

"That's it?" I asked, stunned. "That's how she knew about humans? She remembered ARCO capturing her in the future? So all of this, everything I went through, there was no way to change or escape it?" I felt my knees go weak. "Is it all just fate?"

"No," Ditzy said. "The D- Clockwork explained it to me once. Something like this, it just creates an endpoint. How we get here is our own decision, and how we move on past this point is entirely up to us."

"I- I got something for you," Bon Bon said. 

"What?"

"She told me to, told me I would." She held up a small metal washer, the kind of thing we would use as anchors for inter-dimensional guests back when ARCO hadn't gone evil.

"I would have thought James would have taken your anchor when you landed."

"He did. He told us he couldn't let us out until we handed them over. Then he told us how he was going to go hurt and kill our friends and the princesses. He's a monster." Bon Bon hung her head. "Lyra said I would act like I'd dropped my anchor and ask for another. You can stop him now right? The power is two to one but you might get help from the Element Bearers or the princesses."

A second anchor on one carrier will only split the power that carrier has. Instead of James having two anchors worth of power he has one and a half. Still, that half is useful.

"It might help," I said taking it. "I'll do what I can to fight him."

Fight him? Sarah no offense but you are out of your god damned mind. We are leaving.

"What?"

My body lurched up, stumbling towards the conversion pod's main door.

"What are you doing?!" I asked myself, throwing my arms out to keep myself from climbing in.

Getting us the heck outta Dodge! Move your arms Sarah.

We are just abandoning everyone?

"We have to go back and fight! You saw what he did to you!"

Sarah, I, for one, am in no hurry to have that happen to us again. We barely survived thanks to you, but I do not wish to tempt fate.

See? Machina agrees with me. Lets get while the gettings good.

Then what? You return to your world and try and run?

Sarah can go to the leaders of her world and plead her case. They will, in turn, shut ARCO down and stop this kind of thing from happening.

We are going to run. We've spent too long as slaves to risk bondage again.

Machina and D were beginning to argue their case while trying to gather control of my limbs, while I fought their control.

"Sarah, what are you doing?" Ditzy asked.

"Fighting her inner daemons from the looks of it," Clockwork said.

It was a battle I was slowly losing, and the growing roar of daemonic and electronic thoughts in the back of my head made it hard to focus.

"We cannot leave!" I demanded, having locked my joints slightly to hold my two companions off.

We always run and hide. We always flee. Why is this time any different? We can't beat him.

The odds of our victory are very slim Sarah. Survival is our highest priority.

Ponies will die. Gryphons will die! Changelings and canids and zebras and minotaurs and everyone we know! You are telling us to strand a psychopath with a ton of power in this world just to save your own hides.

The ponies who banished you? Who mistreated us? We lived among them, we helped them muster what forces they had.

They won't last ten minutes, not against James as he is now. If we take his pod he might be forced to conserve power. That is about the best chance they have.

"YOU ORGANIZED THEM! YOU POINTED THEM DOWN THE MONSTERS GULLET AND THEY ARE GOING TO CHARGE!"

We fought James and fell. They can fight or surrender on their own terms. It is their world, but we have a chance to escape. We have a chance to survive.

Reggie and Red

Don't start with me you bad dream.

Thomas and Zaephir

We have recordings of James' activities, in clear violation of the ARCO mission statement. We could release it to the media, get the public turned against them.

Pio, Gem, Ini

"You know that will take too long to have any effect here and now! We can't just leave them all behind!"

Bright Lance, Starlight, Steel Strike

You can't just build a ARCO fallout shelter and hide everyone! It's far too late for that.

Convince me Sarah.Why not just leave these creatures behind?

"They aren't just creatures!"

Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom

Then WHAT are they to you Sarah? These things have caused you so much trouble and heartache that you were contemplating suicide not that long ago!

What are they to you?

Twist

"THEY!" I was shouting now. "ARE! MY! FRIENDS!"




There was the smallest sound, like the breaking of a glass, as the six pointed star on my back turned a brilliant purple, and the seal began to fade away.
> Lightning Strikes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	James wasn't having a good day. He was supposed to just show up in this world of pastel ponies, spread havoc and chaos, and claim the place for ARCO. So far he'd spent almost half of his energy on an army that had just gotten thoroughly trounced and now the one person he had successfully murdered didn't have the decency to stay dead.

"Sarah, if you won't stay down when you're put down, then I'll just have to use you as best I can."

He raised his hands, and tendrils reached out from the opened skull of his dragon type devourer spawn. They wrapped themselves around Sarah's arms and legs, quickly binding her and beginning to bore into her skin.

"Since you blew his brains out, I'll just make your brain the new one! That way you can enjoy a front row seat to killing all these pathetic-"

The invading tendrils touched her spine, and suddenly his mind was screaming.

There was a voice that spoke like a hundred voices, chanting mantras full of death and blood and violence. There was a sound like writing, and the thoughts of a thousand complex equations changing constantly. There were dreams of darkness and power and fear. Some of the dreams were mantras. Some of the Mantras were equations. Some of the equations were dreams.

In the middle of it all was Sarah, her mind the eye of this storm, and from her perspective he saw himself clutching the sides of his head and screaming. He watched himself fall to his knees before darkness swept over him.

Attention: Emergency disconnect engaged.

James sat up, coughing and spitting. He wiped the back of his hand across his face and found himself bleeding from his nose and ears.

"Fucking bitch."

There was a deep, painful roar and James looked up to see his dragon spawn standing up. Sarah was buried to the waist in the thing's severed neck. He smiled, maybe he had succeeded after all. 

Then the monster started to thrash about wildly, and for the first time in his life James heard a spawnling scream.





Princess Luna stared up at Sarah, covered in blood and waist deep in the dragon thing's head. Luna could hear distant echoes of the thoughts roaring in Sarah's head, and she could see the manic grin frozen on her face.

The monstrous beast roared in pain, thrashing around as though trying to stomp out an invisible enemy. It wasn't until the thing raised a claw to rake across its own destroyed face that Luna could see what was really happening.

Its flesh was boiling away. As she watched its skin and muscle dissolved, and the blood pouring from its wounds turned to steam. The thing thrashed and screamed as it was slowly eaten away to nothing, even its blood being cleaned away from her clothes.

It's D! Luna thought, At the trial Sarah said D could eat parts of her body for power! That thing just merged with Sarah, and gave D a small army's worth of flesh to consume!





James fed more of his stored energy into the devouerer parasite and his cursed AI. An armor and shield of bone and steel grew from his body as the last of the dragon-spawn dissolved away into Sarah. He got the shield up just as Sarah slammed into him.

The strike pushed him back a few feet, digging grooves into the blood stained field. Sarah pulled back her metal arm and slammed it into the bony shield again.

"You can't win!" he taunted as the blow landed without effect. "You can't even crack my-"

An intricate circle of dark flames burst into being on his shield, and her fist slammed into the middle at speeds impossible for her strength. The crack ran through the bone of the shield and into the bones in his arm.

"AAAHH! BITCH!" he yelled, bringing his right hand around. A steel blade extended out from his hand and punched through Sarah's unarmored stomach and out her back.

A dark claw wrapped around James' wrist, and he realized that he'd trapped himself too close to his opponent. Her steel arm came back again and the black flame circles etched themselves in the air. The steel fist slammed again and again into the bone shield, cracking and splintering it. The punch slipped past the shield and broke his nose. If it weren't for the additional armor and support, it probably would have broken his neck.

ATTENTION: YOU ARE GETTING YOUR ASS KICKED!

"Break!" he screamed, pushing Sarah back. She held onto his wrist with a death grip, and so he brought the razor edge of the battered shield down on his own arm. Taking a half step back, a small turret raised from his shoulder, and his signature red laser raked across Sarah's body and face, taking her left eye and deeply scaring her body.





"There there, you just stay still, mister dragon." Fluttershy tended to the wounded creature with the last of the medical supplies. The rest of the army had regrouped and was watching the two humans trade blows. The raider was quick to fall back, making use of armor and ranged attacks, while Sarah was putting everything into each hit, ignoring the wounds he dealt her.

"I don't get it. She's fighting like she doesn't care," Twilight said.

"Ah've seen a fight like that before," Applejack said worriedly, "in a cornered critter. Ah don't think she can waste time and energy defending. She's running outta time."

"You are very correct," Princess Celestia said, cringing slightly. "Even from here I can hear all her companions screaming. Whatever seal the elements had on Nightmare is gone, and now there are four minds in that body fighting just to stay alive."

"Well then, let's just hit them with the Elements of Harmony!" Rainbow Dash said. "The field is clear of other baddies and they're holding still enough that we could get them."

"Yes, darling," Rarity pointed out. "But the way they are moving we'd have to hit both."

"What happens if all the spirits are released like last time? Or what if they all get locked inside of Sarah? Or what if the author gives away a plot point accidentally as one of my random ramblings?"

"Uh, Pinkie, you're not makin' a lick a sense."

"Girls!" Twilight got her friends focused. "It doesn't matter. This may be our only chance to stop that monster. Still, it never hurts to have a backup." She smiled. "Fluttershy, how's the dragon?"

"He can't fly, and I don't want him to fight."

"Can he still breathe fire?"

"One or two blasts, but that's all." The dragon nodded in agreement to Fluttershy's assessment.

"OK, Applejack, I want you to get your family ready. Anyone with a bow. Rainbow, it's time to bring the lightning. Think you can target it like we did last week?"

"Yeah, I know to get out of the way this time."

"Rarity, Pinkie, I need you to go help the others. Ranged attacks only. This needs to be a combined strike."





Sarah staggered before James, bleeding from hundreds of cuts and gasping for breath. Sweat poured down her body, mixing with the blood and causing her wounds to sting. James felt and looked better, but he was running low on power. There was only so much in each anchor, and he was starting to feel like he didn't have as much as he ought to.

"Give this up Sarah. You can't beat me. All you're going to do is work yourself into a messy death."

"Messier than being stabbed by someone I thought was a friend?"

"It's just business, Sarah. I don't know why you won't just roll over and die already." A magical glow attracted his attention from the pony's army line. "What are your crayon horses doing now?"

"That is the dumbest version of 'Hey, what's that!?' I have ever-"

Rainbow light slammed down on the two of them, and James felt an odd sense of disconnection. As the light faded, he blinked his eyes clear to see Sarah just kneeling there before him. 

"HA!" he threw his right hand forward to blast her away.

Nothing happened. 

"Dev? Xnic?"

"SoRrY mAsTeR," the deep burbling voice of the parasite said. "It LoOks LiKe We DoN't NeEd YoU."

James looked to his left in time to see a scale and metal hand brush him aside, throwing him nearly thirty feet towards the tree line.

What stood in his place now was massive. It was flesh and steel and bones all melded into one creature, ten feet tall with massive horns and thick armor. A devouerer parasite and a posessed AI merged into a single body of death incarnate. It stomped over to the kneeling form of Sarah, chuckling to itself.

"AlL tOo EaSy." The new daemon raised its right hand, summoning a war-hammer of fire and blood out of thin air.

Sarah shot straight up, her uppercut throwing the daemon high into the sky.

"OW! WhAt ThE?!"

"Hi" A blue pegasus said as it sped by, a rainbow trailing after it. The sonic boom and corona of light that followed spun the demon around.

"If YoU tHiNk A lItTlE lIgHt ShOw Is GoInG tO-"

"NOW!" the blue pony yelled. Further up the rainbow, every pegasus still air worthy was pearched on Rainbow Dash's House-storm. As one they bucked, disgorging a massive lightning bolt straight down towards the ground. When the massive electrical arc hit the ionized light path of the rainboom trail, it made an immediate right angle turn and streaked along it's curving path.

Straight through the demon.

"AAAAARRRRRGH!"

The thing fell to the ground and as it rose, it found itself staring down a single massive speaker. Perched atop it was the dark alicorn. She drew a single long breath.

The Canterlot Voice hit the microphone, destroying it. 

The sound carried up the cables, setting them on fire. 

The amplifier did its job as circuits sparked and melted, before the final product was delivered through the speaker as its last act in this world.





The Gryphon Emperor raised his head from his pillow in the early morning and glared at his maids and servants.

"Did one of you just call me a bitch?"





The daemon rolled back, quickly gathering energy to regenerate its ruined ears and eyes. As it rose it felt dozens of stings. The ponies were firing arrows at it. A balista bolt hit and bounced off the armored plate.

"HA! LoOkS lIkE yOu'Ve AlReAdY gIvEn Me YoUr AlL!"

Half a massive bow appeared above the archers in translucent golden energy.

"Your Highness," Princess Celestia called to Queen Chrysalis with an air of smug delight, "if you would care to assist me?"

"It would be my honor, your Majesty!" Queen Chrysalis hissed, vengeance burning in her eyes as the other half of the bow formed from dark green magic.

"READY!" Sweetie Bell yelled as Twilight, Rarity and a few other unicorns lifting the fallen tree into the bow.

"Two degrees down and a degree to the lefth, your Magesthies." Twist said, looking through her spyglass.

"FIRE!" Sweetie called.

The tree had no point to it, but it still punched right through the plate, sticking half way out the back of the demon.

"YOU WRETCHED LITTLE GLUE FACTORIES!" The demon yelled, tearing the tree from it's chest and turning towards the line.

And that's when the dragon caught it in a massive blast of fire, turning the tree to ash and causing the daemon's exposed flesh to bubble.

"ENOUGH!"

A blast pushed back the lesser ponies and scattered the remains of the Bass Cannon.

"I WiLl NoT pUt Up WiTh YoUr PaThEtIc LiTtLe ReSiStAnCe AnY mOrE! YoU AlL DiE! NOW!"

It's arms came together, distending and shifting in a disgusting fashion. Luna watched in horror as she began to recognized the shape they now took. 

She was staring down the business end of a soul shard rifle.
> Thunderous Roar
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	As the daemon steadied the soul shard rifle at the ponies a streak of burning pain was etched down its back. Letting out a cry of agony it turned to find Sarah falling back, dark blood dripping from a short sword in her right hand. Correction, her right hand had become a short sword, her AI granting the blade power beyond that of normal steel. Her left hand was an enlarged bony claw wreathed in dark fire, some combination of her other companions power. Once more Sarah charged forward, and her weapons bit deep into the daemon's flesh.

Secondary laser turrets sprouted from its shoulders, and red beams of death traced their way across the ground after the pest. Arrows plinked uselessly against its armor, though it kept an eye on the two larger winged horses in case they tried that magical bow again. The daemon tried with little success to box Sarah in, sweeping the lasers around to try and cut off her escape options. The deadly soul shard rifle hummed with charge as the daemon guided Sarah into range.

Its lasers swept in, pushing her towards itself and it hunkered down to prevent her from dodging between its legs. Just as she was coming into perfect range she leapt, her companions aiding her ascent in a glorious arc that carried her over its head and out of reach.

ATTENTION: HIGH JUMPS ARE ESSENTIALLY BALLISTIC. INITIAL VELOCITY VECTOR AND POSITION LOGGED. CALCULATING X(t) = Xi + Vi*t + g*t*t. END POINT FOUND

ThEn LeT uS rOaSt hEr!

The daemon swung the rifle around and fired at the spot where Sarah would touch down, trusting in the calculations the possessed machine half had provided. Blinding light filled the battlefield, tearing into anything in its path and racing towards the forest beyond.





Ex-Lord Herald, his clothes tattered, a length of broken chain trailing behind the cuffs still latched to each hoof, grinned up at the nightmarish black castle. It was abandoned completely since the shield fell. Even that cursed human was gone. There were no changelings, no gryphons, no zebras, no canids, no minotaurs, nothing. 

It was his again. All his. No one was around to take it from him. No one could. He looked at the size and majesty of the place from just beyond the main gate, and couldn't keep the manic grin from his face. A laugh, slightly unsettling, burbled out of his throat and echoed through the forest. 

His ears twitched at a sound, like distant thunder.

"What in the world is-?"

Herald's world went white. Even with his eyes shut tight the light was blinding. He could feel heat on his fur. Then there was darkness.

Herald blinked, waiting for the nothing that was before his eyes to return to the splendor that was his castle. Instead, he found himself staring at a long blackened trench. All that remained of the once great estate was the main gate, a few feet of wall, and the east wing.

Herald sat down heavily on the ground and began to wail.

"It- it's Just Not FAIR!!!"





Queen Chrysalis stared in mute horror as the weapon pointed at her and her changelings not moments ago tore a swath through the Everfree like it wasn't even there. The light burned her eyes and even at this distance she could feel the heat and pressure. She wanted to run. Every instinct in her was yelling that she should take what was left of her brood and get while the getting was good. The only thing stopping her were Sarah's words ringing in her ears.

"What did you think you were doing!?" Sarah yelled. "Full scale invasion?? Cocooning all those ponies including the Alicorn of the Fucking SUN!"

"We were starving!" Chrysalis screamed from where she hung wrapped in Nightmare tendrils. "We couldn't get enough from stealing."

"SO YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD STRIP MINE LOVE INSTEAD?!?" Sarah roared. "You need to decide if love is something wild to be hunted, or a crop to be harvested! Something to steal, or something to defended?"

So she had come to defend the ponies whose love she needed. But there has to be a limit. Against the power the daemon displayed, there was little chance she could offer any real assistance. The blinding glow of the monster's weapon began to fade, and the smoking path carved into trees and stone made her blood run cold. For a moment she could see no sign of Sarah, then a smile spread across the queen's face as she caught sight of the strange human. Sarah was hovering just above the weapon's destructive blast, hanging in the air on a pair of large dark wings that flapped slowly.

"CuTe," the daemon growled, "BuT yOu CaN't DoDgE fOrEvEr."

"We do not have to!" Sarah responded in a harsh shout. "A blast like that is costly! You have created and lost an army, and suffered grievously at the hooves and claws of your would be victims! We know the limits of your anchor, you cannot have much power left."

"MoRe ThAn EnOuGh FoR yOu AnD yOuR pAtHeTiC pOnIeS!!" it screamed, the rifle humming as another shot charged. "I jUsT hAvE tO pIcK a TaRgEt I cAn'T mIsS."

Queen Chrysalis felt her knees go weak as the terrible weapon was turned towards her and what remained of the resistance. Ponies, gryphons, canids and minotaurs cried out and began to flee from the gun as an ominous light filled the barrel. A great golden shield sprang into existence as Princess Celestia stepped forward. The dark blue shield of her sister formed just behind it a moment later, the princesses standing together in defense of their ponies.

The bright beam hit Celestia's shield, and the princess of the sun actually cried out from the strain of holding back the blast. Creatures were huddling in behind the shield, desperate for protection. Even that massive dragon was being guided down behind the shields by a yellow pegasus.

"Where is Shining Armor when you need him?" Twilight cried out, forming a small shield of her own. Around her unicorns lit their horns and interlocked their own small shields with Twilight's. It reminded Chrysalis briefly of some mulit-colored translucent caripace made of purples and oranges and greens-

The queen's eyes widened. Her changelings were there among the ponies. Some were limping and some were bandaged but none were disguised. They stood side by side with the unicorns, some leaning on a pegasus or an earth ponies. In place of the fear and distrust she expected there was respect and gratitude. 

Princess Celestia cried out as her shield fractured and fell, and her sister staggered slightly as the wave of power hit the midnight blue shield. If Chrysalis didn't take her changelings and go now, there might be no escape. 

The only thing stopping her was the sight of her changelings, naked of disguise, working hoof and horn with the ponies they had hurt not so long ago. Two races that should have little more than bitterness between them, working together in harmony.

This, she thought, a chance at acceptance and peace. This, more than love, is worth defending.

Her own massive green shield flaired out between Princess Luna's and the patchwork mess everyone else had thrown up. Luna's shield failed, and the queen bit down on a scream as the pressure hammered in her head. What reserves of love she had were burning faster than she thought possible. Everything hurt, every part of her was pushed to the limit.

It wasn't enough. Her shield fell, and she heard unicorns and changelings in the front crying out as the blast reached their own small weak shields. The light surged around her, and she closed her eyes, bracing for the end.

The light faded, and Chrysalis blinked her eyes and stared in wonder around her. None of the creatures were hurt. Tarterus take her, none of them were even slightly singed. A blast shadow was etched into the ground around them, and at the very front of that shadow just behind where the shields had been, stood Sarah. Her black wings outstretched and her arms merged into a single deadly weapon.





Ponies gasped as we staggered, and the wings broke off and fell apart like cigarette ash. Everything hurt and burned, and we felt utterly drained. Part of us wanted to just lay down and go to sleep. 

"YoUr OwN rIFlE?" The daemon chuckled and shook its head. "ImPrEsSeD. YoU wAsTeD a ShOt To LiVe A fEw SeCoNdS mOrE."

Something nudged its way under our right arm, and we turned to see Twilight trying to get us to stand up. A claw wrapped around our other arm as Reggie aided her.

"Come on, Sarah. Please." Twilight begged.

"There's... there's nothing left," we gasped quietly, wincing as our friends touched our singed skin. "That was everything we had."

"Then we shall have to give you more," Princess Celestia said. Her horn glowed, and magic began to flow.

The daemon laughed, a deep rumbling sound that hurt our ears. "ThEy HoPe To GiVe YoU pOwEr ThRoUgH mAgIc? A wAsTeD eFfOrT, iT wOn'T bE eNoUgH tO sAvE yOu. It WiLl NoT bE eNoUgH tO sAvE aNyOnE."

We stood up a little straighter, still leaning heavily on Reggie and Twilight. We felt the power from Celestia and Luna pour into us, and we knew the daemon was right. However much power they gave me in what little time we had wouldn't be enough. The unicorns, the changelings, even Queen Chrysalis were feeding us but it was too little, far too slow. We looked back at the creatures gathered behind us, looking on with desperate hope. A few smiled and cheered a little as we struggled to stand.

Around us the army was pulling itself together. Apple family members stood shoulder to shoulder with changelings and gryphons. Neraby the element bearers, sans Twilight, were giving encouragement and aid to everyone they could. Fluttershy was even helping Queen Chrysalis to steady herself. The ponies and minotaurs and canids and everyone else became a tangled mass of creatures all crying out "Get up, Sarah!" and "You can beat that monster." Our friends lifted us up and steadied us as we stood. 

Our friends.

We had friends.

We have been alone for so long.

In the moon	In the Neither	In the Network	in the world

The daemon before us could kill them all, had come so close to doing so.

They were not running away. 

They were standing with us.

Till the end.

How can we do any less?

There was an energy in the air, something other than the magic of the unicorns and changelings. It filled the space around us, flowing into us, but strangely invisible to the daemon before us.

We stood, taking a few unsteady steps forward away from Twilight and Reggie. The cheer that rose behind us was heartening, and that strange power surged. 

"You should have done more research, sent more probes. You've already lost."

"Ha!" The daemon lifted its rifle. "EmPtY bLuFf, YoU hAvE nO hIdDeN pOwEr!"

"It's not me you've underestimated." We waved our hand at the creatures behind us. "It's them. These kind, generous, honest, loyal, funny creatures. They have a magic all their own."

The daemon snorted. "WhAt CaN tHeY dO? PeGaSuS cAn FlY aNd DoGs CaN hOwL bUt ThErE iS nO mAgIc In ThAt FoR yOu!" 

Our arms merged back together into the soulshard rifle, and we pointed it defiantly at the demon. "It's not something like that, not the differences between them. It's something that unites every last one of them. For some, it is something that they've had for a long time. Others, you've given it them, newly forged in battle." 

"YoU aRe GoInG tO wIn WiTh 'HoPe' AnD 'lOvE'? i DoN't KnOw If I sHoUlD lAuGh Or PuKe!"

The creatures surged around us, some offering little more than moral support in their presence. We grinned.

"Friendship," we said with laughter in our voice. "They have fought and bled together, and they are friends. Creatures that on any other day would hate each other. Creatures that have spent months hunting me are cheering me on." Our rifle started to hum as it charged.

The daemon just laughed. "YoUr LiTtLe BlUfF wOn'T wOrK, fOoLiSh HuMaN. ThOsE hOrN hEaDs HaVeN't ChArGeD yOu WiTh NeAr EnOuGh MaGiC tO fIrE tHaT tHiNg."

The gun shifted, expanding to try and contain the power now swirling inside of it. It no longer held a single shot, a single sliver of our soul. It now held a barrage, hundreds of tiny flechettes of energy gathered from all of our friends. It was no longer a soul shard rifle. It was now a soul storm cannon, the mere glow from the end of it was causing the daemons skin to blister and burn.  The monster before me held up it's arms to shield it's eyes, stunned disbelief obvious in his features.

"They are our friends!" We yelled over the whine of the cannon. "Each and every one of them! 

And in this world, 

Friendship is MAGIC!!!"

The cannon fired a beam of blinding rainbow colored light, and the daemon was literately wiped from the face of existence.





Twilight's eyes recovered first, she having the foresight to cast a polarization spell upon herself. Before her was an utterly empty battlefield, the daemon was gone. As more creatures recovered, cries of joy and relief grew until the army was now a great party of celebration.

"You did it!" Twilight said, hopping about in joy. "You did it! Oh Sarah you did it!"







"Sarah?"





James wiped the blood out of his eyes and cursed at the conversion pod as its engines slowly spun up. His leg burned where he was sure the fall from his ex-companions had twisted if not broken his ankle. The last of the pod's subroutines on the built in computer finished booting.

[INTERDIMENSIONAL DRIVE READY]
[PRIMARY POD LOCKED]
[SECONDARY PODS LOCKING........ERROR: POD 7 NOT FULLY CLOSED]

"Override!"

[ANY OCCUPANT OF POD 7 WILL BE EXPOSED TO THE VOID.]

"OVERRIDE!"

[OVERRIDE ACCEPTED JUMPING IN 10.....9.....8....]

James leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He could faintly hear the sounds of explosions going off in the distance, but in another few seconds he wouldn't care.

Suddenly the pod shook as though something had slammed into it.

"What the hell?"

[POD 7 CLOSING. JUMP IN 3....2.....1....]

James shut his eyes as a tear in reality opened up and swallowed the conversion pod whole.
> Into the Void
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The temporary synchronization forced upon our minds by the Elements of Harmony was already wearing down before I got to the conversion pod. Now that we- I was in a damaged section partially exposed to the void, the harmony was being torn from my brain.  Sounds and images assaulted my mind, and I was hard pressed to separate the ones in my head from the ones just outside the damaged door.

The screams and gibbering faded away and I started to breathe normally. I looked at the little chamber I'd thrown myself into just before launch. Machina had extended my mechanical arm to repair the hole Lyra had bucked and was now pulling it back into a humanoid shape. Slowly, hissing at my cuts and bruises, I uncurled from the fetal position and sat up. There wasn't room to stand or lie down, but then the area had been built for quick transit and space concerns.

 WHAT IN FAUST'S NAME WAS THAT?! I have seen nightmares from Discord more sane than that! Sun and stars, I had no idea! How can you fucking volunteer to be fired through THAT? No amount of money is worth it. 

"Shit, and here I was looking forward to watching those things eat you."

I spun round to see James face on a small screen, grinning like the bastard he was. "I did that with a dog once just to get an idea what it's like, but I never saw it on a human before. I'd blow the explosive bolts and drop your worthless ass into the void, but that would be too quick an end. Think I'll keep you as a pet instead."

"James," I gasped for breath, "you are an absolute fucking asshole." The battle had left me too drained for a better insult at the moment. "I just finished kicking your ass and killing your companions, what makes you think you can threaten me at all?"

Sarah, plug your arm into the data port there. I can disable the explosive bolts at least.

If it wouldn't drop us into the void, I'd suggest clawing through the pod just to rip out his throat.

NOT THE VOID! ANYTHING BUT THE VOID!  

"Bitch, I can do whatever the hell I want. In a little while all of your companions will be locked away by their seals and protocols and you will be your mundane, worthless, crippled self. I'm going to enjoy breaking you."

"Try anything and I'll break both of your legs." I threatened, plugging Machina in subtly. "for starters."

"What, in your sleep? New procedure is to pump those little rooms full of knockout gas before landing. I'd do it right now but somebody murdered my AI."

"Fuck you."

"Listen here, cripple cunt, do you even realize who you're fucking with?" He chuckled in an ugly fashion. "I'm the best damn raider ARCO has. I'm a pro in fucking people the hell up! "

"Big talk for someone who got their ass handed to them by cartoon ponies," I retorted.

"You really are a stupid ass bitch. I've tortured and murdered countless creatures in ways that would scar your for life! Fifteen of them were jumpers. Yeah, that's right," he responded to my shocked expression, "jumpers just like you. We got those pussy pencil pushers back home to see how 'dangerous' other worlds are. They got off their fat asses in a hurry to take the restrictions off of ARCO. Fifteen jumpers, and once we land I'm really gonna enjoy fucking you up and making you my sixteenth!"

"What, after the knockout gas renders me helpless?" I asked with disdain. "What a fucking coward. Just my luck too. I made it this far just for a lowlife asshole like you kill me in my sleep."

"Oh you poor dumbfuck, you really think you'll get off that easily? No, I'm going to enjoy making you suffer for as long as possible, Sarah." His face had an ugly, almost insane grin on it. "I'll make sure you're awake for every second while I fucking break you. I'll start off by ripping out your fake arm and running electricity and fire through your nerve connections. If that doesn't get you screaming, I'm sure you will when I remove all of your nails and then break every bone in your limbs right before amputating them at each joint slowly.  Then I'll pull out all of your teeth one by one and stick double ended barbed needles in the gaps left behind so you can't fucking move your mouth without feeling a shit ton of pain. I'm going to scar you, pierce you, rape every hole in your body, and make some more holes to fuck. And when I'm done using you, I'm going to mount you for public use in the company break room. 

"But before I do all of that, I'm going to take three other jumpers and two brand new companions and I am going to break that little piece of shit world. I'm going to rape and burn and kill everything in that town until there is nothing but ash. I'm going to burn that fucking forest to the ground and wipe all your little friends out of existence, the entire time yelling out that it's all for you. That way your friends will die cursing your name and damning you to the deepest pits of hell.

"And we are going to record it all. Every bloody murderous fucking second of it. I've never raped a horse before but I'll gladly skull fuck a few just for you. I'm going to mount three, seventy inch, plasma screen televisions in front of you in that room, and play the entire massacre non-stop just for you. I'll even cut your eyelids off so you can't look away. The only reprieve you'll have is when someone is fucking your worthless face. 

"Then, and only then, after you've been utterly broken, I might give you the option of begging me for death."

The man is one hundred percent, certifiably insane! How does a psychopath like him pass the psych tests?

Maybe those corrupt companions tainted his mind.

Speaking as a creature of nightmares, the taint was there already. Murder for the sake of murder is never the concept of a sane mind, but he sounds like he'd stick his head in the void for the hell of it.

If, as he has said, ARCO has sanctioned this kind of behavior, maybe the psych tests were not looking for sane people.

Their commentary jarred me from my horrified surprise and I whispered, "Machina, are we deadlocked on? Did I get you enough time?" 

Yes, Sarah. James can no longer eject this section of the pod. I estimate we will be landing in just over fifteen minutes.

"You are all free right? You're not actually bound to me are you? I worried when the Elements hit us-"

Third times a charm it would seem. I am finally free of the seal upon your back, though I'm not sure if the seal itself remains.

I don't have much power left after that fight, but I could get out and about if I needed to. Why? Is there an air shaft I can crawl through and eat him?

It is doubtful any of us could navigate this pod's systems and get to him before we landed. We are all free, Sarah. What is your plan?

"I want you to make a mini-pod out of my arm, take D and Nightmare, and go."

What?

Sarah, you can't give up. We've come this far and I know we can beat him.

"Are you talking to the voices in your head?" James snarked. "Begging them for a quick death? Pathetic cripple psycho cunt."

I ran my finger along my metal shoulder and pulled out a small golden disk, one that had been given to me so long ago.

Twist's bit.

That bit has to have a ton of energy, surely we could beat him.

The power won't be fully accessible till we are almost home, and he will have gassed us by then.

So that's it? We just run? We have beaten everything that's ever been thrown at us and you just want to quit now? 

"I'm going to fight, but I can't sacrifice you as well." I grasped the bit in both hands and started to put pressure on it. Slowly, ever so slowly, the bit started to flex and deform. "I want you to go."

Sarah-

You can't break that! Do you know what will happen if you break that?! We are way too close to home for you to even be touching that!

The bit started to glow a soft orange and my fingers felt warm.

"Go," I whispered harshly, feeling tears sting my eyes. "Just go. This is all I can do, it's the only thing I can do to stop him. But I'm not running anymore."

The fleshy fingers on my right hand stopped feeling so warm, and I saw bony growths over my fingers.

Fuck that noise. You think I'm going to let you just up and die on me?

My right arm shifted, pistons and motors growing to add more torque on the coin, which was now glowing cherry red.

I shall not abandon you again. I never forgot the sacrifice you made for me, giving me your arm when you had no reason to. We shall stand together, till the end.

Dark runes etched themselves into the air with black fire, and I felt a blade of magic hiss at the coin.

If he thinks we are going to let him lay a finger on you or any of our friends he has another thing coming.

I nodded. "For what he has done, for what he plans to do, for every creature he has hurt, he deserves to burn."

"Sarah? What are you doing in there? The thermal sensors are going a little haywire. What are you- Your anchor? You are seriously trying to break your anchor? Shit, you're a crazy bitch! If you are so desperate to die, I'll eviscerate you and shove that heat energy into your whore ass. Cook you from the inside out, really slowly. Maybe we can even cut a piece free and give you a taste. But before I can have my fun -"

I heard a soft hiss, the sound of gas starting to pour into the chamber.

"Breathe deep bitch," he taunted. "It'll all be over soon."

"Machina, can you shut him up?"

"Sarah, your companions are fucking useless and were locked down long ago. Standard protocol now that we are this close to home. You don't honestly think-"

He was cut off as a song began to play over the speakers. I could see his shock even as tears filled my eyes. 

Something Octavia and Clockwork gave me before the battle. I felt it appropriate.

I nodded, having to shut my eyes against the light and heat of the glowing bit.

"Stop this!" James yelled, barely above a lull in the music. "Stop!! You can't!!"

"WHY NOT!" I screamed against the music. "I HAVE BEEN RUNNING ALL MY LIFE! Well there is no place to run anymore, no where to hide. But if you think, for one moment, that I will not do everything in my power to save my friends, then you have sorely underestimated me!" The coin was folded almost in half now, so bright and thin that it needed only a little extra push. "I am not going to give up! I am not going to lay down and die! Not this day! This is the day I STOP RUNNING!!!" 

"STOP THIS!!!!" James begged desperately, pounding at the monitor that was glowing so brightly. "I was just joking! We'll all have a big party and dance around and sing songs and YOU CAN'T DO THIS STOP IT STOP STOP STOP STOP ST-"








In the dark place of madness that is the void between worlds, for the briefest of moments, there was a single brilliant light.
	
> Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Frank stormed down the hallway towards his office, pissed off and muttering to himself. Behind him a technician was still babbling about the mess on the production floor.

"-upset the resonance or harmonics. Everyone going out got dumped back violently, and I don't know if we will be able to recall those who are already out. Then there is the damage to the landing bay, the processing facility-"

"I don't care about the details, just give me the basics. How many people did we lose? How soon can we get back up and running?" 

"At least one hour before we can launch or receive pods again," the tech stated, "provided the blast didn't upset something in the void. There is a good chance we lost about seven percent of the on site conversion pods for good and two of the jumpers on the floor were seriously injured. There at least one pod was transitioning in when the explosion occurred. We are pulling records now to see what it might have been carrying to cause such a disruption."

"Get on it. Prioritize cleanup for landing, I don't want to lose anymore employees or hardware-"

A woman in a heavily stained coverall ran up the hall towards him. "Sir! We might have a code 7R on our hands!"

Frank came to a halt, brought up short. "Why? What's happening?"

"Something just ripped through the companion chamber!" she exclaimed, leaning against the wall to catch her breath. Frank's eyes widened as he realized just what the stains on her clothes were. "Every companion A class or higher was released or banished except for the Devouerer Parasites. It- they...." the woman paled at the memory, "s-so much blood." 

The tech's phone went off with a high pitched alarm ringtone. "It's the Jumper Dorms emergency line!" the tech shouted, answering the phone and switching it to speaker mode. An unearthly wailing erupted from the speakers, the sound of men and women screaming, crying and yelling nonsense. The bloodstained woman let out a cry and fled the noise, running down the hall as fast as she could to get away.

"What is going on over there?!" Frank yelled into the phone. "REPORT, DAMN IT!"

"MOST OF THE PEOPLE HERE ARE SCREAMING, CRYING OR GIBBERING WITH FEAR!" someone yelled back over the noise. "AND THE REST ARE CATATONIC!"

"How many injured? How many dead?!" The tech called out.

"MASSIVE INJURIES AND EVERYONE IS SUFFERING SOME KIND OF MENTAL TRAUMA!" the person on the other end responded. "BUT ZERO CASUALTIES, THANK GOD!" The screaming in the background picked up for a second before the call ended.

"Right," Frank said, flipping out his phone and hitting an emergency contact. "Code 7R, put isolation protocols in place, we have an extra dimensional invader. Have security start a sweep of the building starting with the exits and working in." He ended the call and turned to the tech. "Call me if anything else happens, I'm heading to my office." The tech nodded and turned to leave.

Running up to the door he could hear his secretary juggling calls.

"Mr. Harrison's office, please hold. Mr. Harrison's office, please hold. Mr. Harrison's office, yes, I understand, please hold," she said politely but quickly. She spotted Frank coming down the hall and muted her current call. "Mr. Harrison! You have fifteen messages and requests for calls back from regulators, news outlets and one John Oliver."

"How did they find out so fast?" Frank growled. "They will all have to wait until we have a better grasp on the situation. "

Frank dodged past a cleaning woman and ducked into his office while muttering to himself. "We have a decent stockpile of anchors for power at least. We don't need to worry about running dry any-"

The computer was on. His computer was on. His personal computer was on and logged in and some kind of program was running on screen.
What the fuck? Was the cleaning person using it without permission to play some web game and got it infected? Just what I need, I'll fire that bitch! Even more pissed off, he stormed over to his desk. "Jennifer!" he called to his secretary, "find out who that cleaning woman was! She...."

He stared at the screen, his brain not processing what he was seeing. Several folders were open on the desktop, each showing files that should have been heavily encrypted. There were private spreadsheets, notes on worlds targeted for raiders, memos about the deadliest combinations of companions, even his personal list of which jumpers had been expendable and how they should be... expended. 

The left hand side of the screen displayed his outgoing email. In the last few minutes letters with attachments had been sent out to a long string of addresses. State regulators, board of directors, CNN, Fox News. Realizing what this kind of data dump meant, Frank tried to shut down the computer, but the keyboard and mouse wouldn't respond. He held down the power button and still got no results. Desperate to stop whatever hack or virus this was, he tried to yank the power cable from the machine. 

The power and network cables were fused into the tower. A quick check found them fused to the wall ports as well.

"What- what the fuckis-?"

His cell phone rang and he answered it with a snap. "WHAT?!"

"Sir!" the tech answered in a panicked voice, "Another incident! Your car!"

"My car?" Frank asked in disbelief.

"Yes, sir! It's on fire!"

The building fire alarms began to blare, strobe lights and sirens working to turn Frank's headache into a massive migraine.

His computer dinged and he looked down.




To: AcqVP@ARCO.com
From: SJordan@ARCO.com

Subject: My Dearest Frank



Fuck You


-S,N,M,D




The sprinklers started, the deluge of water tripping a circuit breaker somewhere and finally killing the computer. He was ruined, even if ARCO as a company could survive all the damage and scandal he personally was ruined. 

"SJordon?" he asked aloud. "SARAH! I should have shipped a nuke to that piss ant world as soon as the talking candy horse mentioned you were still alive! You may have destroyed me but  you don't have anywhere to fucking run! I'm going to hunt you down and wring the life from your worthless neck if it's the last thing that I-"

"SIR!" the tech on the phone cried out again. "New Contact! R and D was just hit! The prototype multi-point jump ship was just stolen!"






~~~~~Six Months Later~~~~~





The wide clearing that had been the battlefield still held many scars. Craters pockmarked the field, and the blast shadow of the daemon's last shot was deeply etched in.  The wide path blown into the Everfree by the soulshard rifle would take decades to heal, even with the forest's strange magic. Six months was too short a time for the damage to the land to repair without aid. No aid had been given or asked, the damage had been left as a reminder of the sacrifice that had been made here. The only alteration to the clearing was an six sided pillar. On each face was a carved image of one of each species that had fought, and under the image were the names of the fallen. 

Princess Twilight shifted her new wings slightly as she looked out over the clearing, trying to hide the nervous energy she felt while looking over the pillar. So much had changed, relations with the other races had opened up and those who had been outcasts in the Everfree were being lauded as heroes in their homelands. Almost everyone had celebrated the victory like the end of some great war.

Almost everyone. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia had not taken more than a days rest. They had tasked her with uncovering as much as she could about the dimensional travel Sarah and the raider had used. While Twilight had been unable to produce a working jump ship or even an inter-dimensional probe, she had been able to reverse engineer the detection array Machina had built into the library. With that knowledge, she had managed to set up a massive detection grid and listen for any incoming jumps much further out than Machina had.

Which was why she was standing in the field now next to Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Queen Chrysalis, her friends, and Discord. Each of her friends wore their element, and stood ready at a moments notice. Two dozen of the strongest unicorn sorcerers in Equestria stood by, along with fifty changeling warriors.

Beyond them were nearly fifty of Equestria's newest troop, the Equestrian Mechanized Guard. Lance wore his latest model armor, powered by a diamond that shone like the sun. Starlight stood by his side encased in her own variant armor. Shining Armor, Princess Cadence, and a massive multinational army stood ready only a short distance away. Though, Twilight thought, if whatever was coming could get past the princesses, Chrysalis and Discord, the army is going to be hard pushed to do anything.

A few moments later, and a massive machine appeared in the field before them. It was larger than the pod Machina had described to her, almost as big as Sugar Cube Corner.

A door on the right side opened, and a man stepped out. Naked from the waist up, he had glowing golden eyes, and fiery red hair that seemed to flicker and shift in an ethereal wind. Coiled around each arm were long serpentine dragons, gold on the left arm and silver on the right. The three of them scanned the crowd and frowned, moving a little away from the pod.

After him came another creature. It looked male, and resembled the fiery one from the waist up. From the waist down he was a thing of nightmares. A massive metal body like some daemonic scorpion supported him. Each limb ended in a mixture of vicious blades and threatening barrels. Both guards circled the pod slowly, looking over the area and the forces gathered against them. Finally the fiery one leaned back into the door.

"llA raelc!" he called.

A woman emerged with long dark hair. A pair of black wings hung from her back, each looking like they were cut from the night sky. Her left arm was studded with thick dark crystals glowing in deep reds and purples, and ended in a vicious claw that easily twice the size a normal hand should have been. Her right arm was silvery metal with painfully bright light seeping through the seams, hinting at the barely contained power. A disfiguring burn covered the left side of her face, highlighting the empty eye socket. She ran her right hand through her hair, and the dark tresses swirled over the empty eye. A soft glowing turquoise eye opened in the hair, it's dragon slit pupil narrowing in the sunlight.

The woman stepped forward until she was roughly halfway between the pod and the Princesses. "Princess Luna," she said with a chorus of four voices, three female and one male. The Equestrians all cringed away from it for a moment, Chrysalis raised her eyebrows in surprise, and Discord smiled unnervingly. "Princess Celestia," her gaze fell on Twilight and she raised an eyebrow. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, Bearers of the Elements of Harmony."

Sarah bent on one knee and bowed low.

"We are in need of your assistance."