1 - Broken Peace

Chapter 1 - Broken Peace

written by Fire Soul and Samantha Sprocket

Chirping. That was the only thing that Twilight awoke to so early in the morning. Her heavy-lidded eyes slowly opened and closed a couple of times before simply shutting and staying shut for a good long while. To Twilight, it only felt like a few minutes of sweet, sweet unconscious bliss.

She awoke with a start, her eyes shifting left and right before squinting hard, the sunlight beating hard on her face. The sun was already high up in the middle of the sky!

"Noon?! SPIIIIIKE!" she called out, clearly upset.

There was no response.

Confused, she called for him once more and still, he didn't answer. She got up out of bed quickly and peered over at her standing mirror. Bed-head and a mussed-up tail. She must've been tossing and turning in bed again, she'd been having such odd dreams.

She'd been dreaming of flying, soaring through the air with all her friends, surrounded by luxury and danger all at once. She felt carefree and happy, yet paranoid and very worried all at once while she looked through a massive window that took up an entire wall in a room she'd been standing in near the end of the dream.

Still, like all dreams it seemed to slowly trickle out of her memory the longer the day went on. She grabbed a small piece of parchment and levitated a quill and inkwell over, writing down what she remembered of her dream while she made her way downstairs. She didn't know why, but this last dream, like some of the dreams of flying she'd had the last few nights, felt very important.

She rolled the parchment up and set it down on her study table along with the inkwell and quill she'd been carrying, then turned towards the kitchen and pushed the door open, figuring she knew just where her assistant was likely to be. It was lunchtime after all.

She was correct. Spike already had his little apron on and his claws were busy cooking up some food for them both. Or rather, he was busy making Twilight some food now; his was already done and on the table, a simple bowl of gems, served up like cereal. She had no idea how milk could make a difference in the taste of something like a precious stone, but it wasn't worth saying anything about. Spike was the one with the omnivorous taste buds.

"Oh, hey there Twilight! Didn't hear you wake up," he said, pointing to the clock on the kitchen wall. "We missed breakfast today, so I'm throwing a pretty big lunch together, starting with some cereal for me and some oatmeal for you!"

"Why did you let me sleep in so long?!"

Spike looked at her, confused. "Uh, because you had 'Catch up on rest' written in on your checklist for today....? We started doing this once a week about a month ago, remember? You thought it would help with all the problems you have with freaking out about small things all the time."

She thought back to the previous day, her mind racing still from the panic caused by thinking she'd completely screwed up an entire day's plans because of Spike's lack of attentiveness. Of course, as the memories came rushing back to her, she realized she had nothing to panic about at all: she'd planned to sleep in, it was just so out-of-place with her usual need to get as much as possible done, she'd almost forgotten about it completely!

"Oh! Right, I remember that now....well then! I'll just go get ready and everything, you keep on making breakfast. I'll be back in a few minutes!"

"Well it's almost done, so don't be too long!" he called out to her as she headed back out of the kitchen.

Twilight went straight back upstairs, taking her time in the bathroom. A quick shower, brushing her mane until it was looking as good as it always did, and she'd brush her teeth after breakfast, not to mention a quick scan of her body, first visual then magical....no oddities or abnormalities, yup! She was ready for the day!

Twenty minutes later when Twilight showed up in the kitchen again, Spike was just finishing his cereal, and a bowl of oatmeal was sitting next to where he was sitting, waiting for her. He got up to clean his bowl up, and Twilight couldn't help but laugh.

"Geez, Spike! Don't forget to chew your food!" she teased, causing the dragon to chuckle. "Why're you eating your food so fast?"

"Eh, Rarity said that she wants my help with making some dresses this afternoon....ugh," he said, resting his hand on his stomach. "The oatmeal smelled a little odd while I was making it, but I gave it a taste-test, it seems alright."

Twilight took her seat, her magic taking hold of her spoon and picking up a nice big glob of her hot breakfast. No sooner had she brought it near her lips though, than Spike had interrupted her meal.

"DON'T....!!!" he barely managed to shout out to her.

Twilight jumped in her seat as her assistant stumbled down from the stool he was using to reach the sink, a pained look on his face as he stumbled over to the table and jumped up to grab the spoon from her magic, throwing it and the bit of food on it to the floor.

"Spike?! What're you-" she said, gasping when he grabbed her bowl and threw it as hard as he could on the floor, the bowl shattering into pieces and sending the oatmeal all over the ground. "What in the world's gotten into you, Spike?!"

The little dragon doubled over and clutched his stomach, brought to his knees by the pain he was feeling. When he looked up at her, she could tell that something was very wrong, she could see it in his eyes. She rested a hoof on his back while he coughed a few times, the baby dragon cringing and groaning loudly.

"Suh-something's wrong....with the food, Twilight....!" he wheezed out, coughing a couple more times. "Augh....! I-I think it's....like your ninth birthday-HHLK!!"

He didn't get to say anymore as a heaving noise gave way to a complete purging of his stomach contents. What horrified Twilight about it the most, however, was the distinct sight of something that almost looked to be acid, bubbling and sizzling alongside an unhealthy amount of blood.

Her ninth birthday. Just mentioning it brought back a torrent of memories that she wasn't prepared for. She could feel herself beginning to hyperventilate, her eyes locked on Spike, seeing that he was reaching out to her and trying to speak to her, but she couldn't hear him. She was shaking like a leaf.

Just as quickly as the panic attack reared its ugly head however, Twilight thought back to her youth and used what she'd learned to help her silence her nerves and rely on her favorite tool: logic.

Now that she had her head back in a proper state of mind, she wasted no time in grabbing him in her magic and laying him on her back. "Spike, I'm going to teleport us to the hospital!"

He nodded and braced himself as they popped out of existence, their bodies zipping across the aether and popping back into existence a short ways away from their destination. Twilight immediately broke out into a gallop, her rapid breathing and shrunken pupils giving away just how panicked she really was, despite managing to stop her panic attack.

She threw the front doors of the hospital open hard enough to shatter the glass in the automatic doors, the nurse watching the front desk screaming in surprise along with a few ponies in wheelchairs. Twilight cringed at that, but didn't miss a single beat.

"Please, you h-have to help him!" Twilight shouted, her eyes already tearing up as she turned to the side to let the nurse see Spike. "I-I think he's been poisoned!"

The nurse nodded and quickly called a doctor over, Spike groaning loudly in pain and curling in on himself while wrapping his arms around his stomach.

Twilight was trotting in place when the doctor showed up, a young-looking unicorn stallion with a white surgeon's mask covering his face. He had a lovely azure-colored mane and tail with a chocolate brown coat of fur, a noteworthy contrast. She couldn't believe how calm he looked! She felt anger rising as he walked over with a smile.

"Alright Lady Sparkle, what seems to be the problem?"

"I think Spike's been poisoned! He ate his breakfast, then he suddenly felt horrible and was in a lot of pain a couple minutes afterwards!" she said, her breathing frantic like her mind.

The doctor nodded a little and looked to Spike while the nurse placed him on a stretcher to help carry him into the back.

"So, you believe he has food poisoning then?"

Twilight's mouth hung open, but then she realized how it sounded. She shook her head quickly. "He was vomiting blood!!"

The doctor's demeanor changed almost instantly. "Has he eaten anything at all this morning?"

Y-yes he....oh, Celestia, I can't....!" she whimpered out to him, collapsing to her knees on the floor in front of the doctor.

The doctor leapt into action immediately. "Nurse Redheart, I'll need your assistance! Prepare to pump his stomach," he said, turning his attention to Twilight. "Miss Sparkle, we'll contact the authorities, please be here when they arrive. However if you plan on running home, do not, I repeat do not eat anything else from your home until we know what exactly Spike ingested."

Twilight nodded quickly, forcing herself to her hooves and shakily trotting along with the doctor while he ordered a couple of nurses to grab various medical equipment. "Doctor, when he vomited, th-the poison was in his vomit too, and it was bubbling and making this-this sizzling noise, it sounded like some kind of acid, but I don't-"

"What?!" he almost shouted, his eyes wide with what almost seemed like terror.

He quickly pulled himself together, turning back to the nurses. "Alright, this takes priority, get him to the room and start pumping his stomach NOW!!" he shouted, the nurses quickly sprinting down the halls to prepare a room, one nurse pushing Spike along on a hospital bed. "Nurse! Tell the others to also prepare for surgery!"

He turned to Twilight and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Miss Sparkle, you were right to get him here as fast as you could. If it really is acid then it needs to come out immediately," he said, taking a breath. "A dragon's insides are tougher and more durable than a pony's, but acid is acid."

"A-alright! How do you know that about dragons?"

"After I realized that we had a dragon living in Ponyville, I requested whatever information the Royal Library had on dragons so I could at the very least theorize on treatments for most common illnesses," he said, smiling a little before turning away and galloping down the hall towards where the nurses took Spike. "My name is Quick Cure, we'll talk more later!"

Once the doctor disappeared through the swinging doors leading to the emergency room, she slumped down in one of the seats, utterly defeated and, oddly enough, exhausted. It was barely the early afternoon and hadn't been more than an hour since she'd woken up, but already it felt like she'd pulled an all-nighter. The thought of trying to lay down and sleep where she sat crossed her mind, but she knew if she did that she'd screw up her sleep schedule entirely. Spike wouldn't appreciate that.

"Spike....!"

She barely felt it hit her before she began to cry, the overwhelming sensation of anguish and emotional pain at the thought of her companion being in horrible agony eating away at her and tearing her down like it almost had twice prior. She almost instantly began shaking uncontrollably, her entire body trembling to the point that she looked as if she may have been getting electrocuted, the mare curling inward and breathing semi-rapidly, the entire situation far too real and too close to home for her to be able to cope with it for long.

She buried her face in her hooves and let the tears and the panic attack and the memories hit her unrestrained. She immediately failed to care about her presentation or her composure, turning herself and laying on her side on the seats, the tears soaking her fetlocks and the seat beneath her head as she bawled and hid her face in her forelegs, cupping them around her muzzle.

It wasn't much longer before she managed to completely exhaust herself into a fitful sleep, nightmares clawing at her psyche for all of the few hours she was asleep. The few police officers that Ponyville had arrived and awoke her from a nasty nightmare, having plenty of questions as to the specifics of what happened.

The pair spoke with her quickly, gathering as much information as they could (which was very little) before turning to leave. Twilight made one request though: while they were out, she asked them if they could tell her friends Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack or Fluttershy to gather the others and get to the hospital.

It was only a half-hour beyond that when Twilight was united with her closest friends in all of Ponyville. She took the time to explain everything to them even as the sun began to lower closer to the horizon. Seeing the sun going down surprised Twilight; she didn't think she'd been sitting there that long!

"Wow....what time is it?" Twilight asked, looking for a clock.

Pinkie came prepared with her saddlebags, whipping a clock out of one of them. "Oh, it's about 4:30 in the afternoon."

"I've been sitting here almost four hours?!"

The panicked look on Twilight's features alarmed all of them, with Fluttershy stepping forward first.

"N-now, come on Twilight, everything's just fine-"

"Everything is NOT fine, Fluttershy! Spike, he's-"

"-doing just fine, Lady Sparkle," Quick Cure said while stepping through the swinging doors, cutting her off. "For the moment. I must speak with all of you, this is very important."

Twilight was up and walking alongside the stallion immediately, the entire group walking quickly down the hall while the doctor spoke.

"We managed to clear the acidic poison from his stomach, but not before it did some serious damage....we had to open him up, which was no small feat I assure you," he said, frowning and lowering his head, a sad frown creasing his lips while his ears flattened against his skull. "We had to remove a lot of scales while he was under sedation, after we pumped his stomach."

They all gasped very loudly, with Rarity almost fainting at the thought of Spike's shiny, handsome scales being forced from his body. Oh, how painful that must be for him! Twilight wasn't sure whether or not she'd be able to handle seeing him in his current condition.

"However, Lady Sparkle, the....well, it managed to eat away at his stomach enough to put several small holes in it," he said, cringing at the look of pure horror on their faces, especially Twilight's. "That was the reason we had to remove his scales and open him up, we had to carefully rinse the internal organs near his stomach to clear away any food, any of the poison, and any of his own stomach acids. We had to keep adding and sucking out water for hours to thoroughly dilute all remnants of the poison to the point of its acidity reaching a non-lethal level to his body. His body will clear out any remnants we somehow didn't get, on its own."

Twilight took a moment to breathe, a small amount of relief washing over her. "S-so, he's going to be just fine?"

"Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. First though," he said, stopping in front of a door leading to an Employees Only area. "The nurse told me that the toxicology report is done. I hope I'm wrong, but...."

They watched him step into the room only for maybe ten seconds before coming back out, his eyes scanning over the sheet for only a moment before a disappointed sigh left him, his eyes clenching shut.

"I was afraid of that....Erosia."

"U-um....what's that?" Fluttershy asked, lightly fluttering in the air just next to Rainbow Dash.

Quick Cure removed the pair of rectangular glasses he had on, his downcast expression turning to one of conviction as he looked over at the group of mares. It was only then that Twilight realized that his dark-colored, azure mane and beige-spotted, chocolate brown fur made him look much younger than his size said he was, though she was only guessing. Perhaps his age could explain his dedication to his work?

"Erosia is an enchanted poison that behaves more like an acid, truthfully. It's illegal in Equestria, due to how easy it is to accidentally poison someone with it," he said, his gaze wandering over the six mares. "Erosia is a poison that starts in powder form, created by crushing up a mix of Poison Joke and a very rare plant found only in the Griffon Kingdoms."

"To keep it simple, Erosia is completely harmless until it's ingested, and a very small amount is all that you need to guarantee a very painful end for someone. The poison remains inactive until it comes into contact with a creature's stomach acids, at which point it goes active and begins to eat away at your insides. Once it makes a hole or two in your stomach, death is almost completely assured unless you get medical attention immediately and you know exactly what's ailing you. Otherwise, the 'poison' will move on to eating its way through your other internal organs while the doctors scramble to figure out what's wrong with you, and you'll almost always die before they ever figure it out. We aren't trained to look towards illegal poisons when searching for a sensible explanation for someone's rapid decline and death."

They all gasped and covered their mouths with their hooves. Fluttershy looked the most shocked and disturbed by such a thing even existing in the first place, let alone their little Spike suffering through it.

"Th-that's so awful...." Fluttershy said, on the verge of tears. "Who would ever want to use such a terrible thing on somepony?!"

"Someone that wanted their target to have an almost assured death before they could get help," he said, looking grimly directly into Twilight's eyes. "Lady Sparkle, you're lucky to say the least. If you both had taken that poison in, you would've been in far too much pain to get yourself or the young dragon here in time to save either of your lives."

Twilight was shaken upon hearing that, and so were Rarity and Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus appeared to go pale at that realization while Rarity's eyes went as wide as Twilight's were, the fashionista covering her mouth with a hoof again.

Twilight was visibly trembling, her forehooves crossed over each other while she sat back on her haunches, her gaze focused on the floor while the gears in her head spun at mach speeds. Then the obvious occured to her.

"Wait, that's not necessarily true! Spike and I weren't eating the same things for breakfast, so I might've been fine!"

"Yeah! An' why in tarnation wouldja go an' say somethin' like that when y'know all it'll do is upset 'er?!" Applejack asked indignantly.

Quick Cure cleared his throat and slipped his glasses back on. "Sorry. Sometimes I get lost in the facts and let the situation elude me," he muttered, looking to all of them with a serious expression. "I used to be a combat surgeon. Bedside manner isn't exactly a necessity when doing rapid-fire surgery on wounded soldiers in the middle of a battle."

Rainbow Dash tilted her head in confusion. "I don't get it! Combat surgeons only see action when there's, yanno, lots of battle, with all the fighting and explosive magic getting launched all over the place and stuff, spears stabbing ponies-" she said, mimicking all sorts of motions as ways she thought ponies might wield such weapons. "-and griffons and all sorts of dangerous creatures....but we've been at peace for the last two-hundred years, and that little spat with the griffons two-hundred years ago can hardly count as a 'war'."

The doctor nodded to her, smiling. "Yes, thankfully we've had excellent relations with our neighboring kingdoms, the zebras easily being the most friendly and courteous of all our nearby companions. However, they aren't usually the ones we wind up in conflicts with these days," he said, frowning. "Surely you know what terrorism is?"

Pinkie's hair bloated up like a balloon for a moment, then popped nice and loud, swishing around as if air were being spewed out of some non-existant hole until her perky pink mane was flat and lifeless, much like how her face lacked any humor whatsoever.

"Terrorists are evil ponies that don't like how things are under the rule of Princesses Celestia and Luna, o-or they don't like the state of our economy, or they just hate Equestria and want to see it burn so that some other country can be the dominant nation...."

All of Pinkie's friends stared at her for a brief moment, the thought of 'how'd she know all that?' hitting them for an instant. Twilight shrugged it off a moment later however, the others joining her a few seconds after that.

Terrorism was common knowledge, and was regularly brought up in the Canterlot Tribune with reports of recent activities from various cults gathering money that would likely be used to fund future attempts to dethrone the Princesses, destabilize the economy, assassinate several high-ranking officials to send Equestria's military into chaos, and a multitude of other things that the Royal Guard was constantly watching out for so they could put a stop to any of these horrible activities.

Quick Cure cleared his throat. "Yes, well! Recently cult activities have been rather constant, getting criminals across the borders as payment for services rendered, illegal goods smuggling, that sort of stuff is something a lot of the more serious cults have dabbled in, such as the Cult of Discord," he said, frowning and shaking his head. "Cult activity is the main reason a lot of these border skirmishes have been going on."

"Wait, what?" Twilight quirked a brow at him. "How do you know that?"

"I keep in contact with old friends from the Royal Guard. Anyways, some cults like the Cult of Discord and those working with the Cult of Discord have been doing a lot of sabotage, inciting brawls and tension between our soldiers and the soldiers guarding the griffon's side. It's been leading to a lot of skirmishes that've thus far resulted in about two-hundred griffon deaths, on estimate, and fifty pony deaths. As an estimate, I should say, I can't know the exact number, and that estimate's from about a week ago."

"....You are remarkably well-informed, sir," Rarity said calmly, a small smile gracing her lips. "Why do you have such potentially sensitive information?"

He looked all of them over, then smiled. "Well, you're the Elements of Harmony, you're all technically affiliates of the Royal Guard. Plus, Lady Sparkle's technically royalty, so I suppose I can tell all of you," he said, smiling more. "I'm on a month-long leave from the Equestria/Gryphini border, but I'm not the type to just sit back and relax, I enjoy my work too much. So, I came back home to volunteer to help at Ponyville General. Turns out I'm the most experienced surgeon here!"

Twilight just nodded to that, then blinked. "Wait, if you're the most qualified surgeon in Ponyville, what-"

"I'm twenty-seven years old, and I've got a Doctorate's Degree in Pony Physiology and Functionality."

Applejack whistled in appreciation. "Wow, that's a whole lotta fancy schoolin' right there! Don't degrees fer medical fields take like two t' three times as many years to study everythin' ya need to study?"

"Took me seven years to get my Doctorate. Would've taken eight, but I busted my flank to take a few extra classes every year until I eliminated year eight entirely from my curriculum." Quick said, walking down the hallways towards Spike's recovery room.

"I don't know whether or not you all want to see him at the moment, his wounds from the surgery are still fresh and fairly bloody....he doesn't look too good to say the least," he told them, frowning when they all looked like they were beginning to tear up, save for Rainbow Dash, who put on a front of immovable toughness. The somber look on her face, however, gave away how she was feeling beneath that mask. "He's heavily sedated as well, so until the sedation wears off, he'll be out like a light. If you like, I can send someone to get you all when he wakes up?"

Twilight and the others took a moment to talk about it, words being exchanged in near-silence between them before they all came to the same conclusion. While Rarity seemed to have the time as well as Fluttershy, the others had jobs to get back to, and Twilight had to both watch over the library and talk to the authorities about what happened.

It was decided then that Rarity and Fluttershy would keep him company for some time, and the others would wait for when he woke up.

Rarity and Fluttershy approached the doctor, nodding to him. "We'd definitely appreciate being notified. Fluttershy and I will stay to keep him company though, for now. Even if our little Spikey-Wikey isn't awake right now, I'm sure he's very scared. He should have somepony there the moment he wakes up!"

Twilight nodded to the doctor, forcing a faint smile. "We really appreciate your diligence, doctor. I....I don't know what would've happened if a doctor without knowledge on dragons had been the one to work on him."

"Just call me Quick Cure, if you please," he said to Twilight, turning and walking down the hall away from them. "Do be safe, Lady Sparkle. A poison like this isn't common, even outside of Equestria. Something like this would cost somepony hundreds of bits just for an ounce of it. Whoever used this....they wanted one or both of you to suffer terribly before you died."

Quick Cure waved goodbye to them while continuing down the hall, leading Rarity and Fluttershy to the room they were keeping Spike in. Fluttershy was already crying by the time they pushed the door open.

Laying on the bed was a small purple-scaled dragon with those tell-tale green spines atop his head that ran down his back, the clean pure white cotton sheets covering his body from his toes to his neck, his head the only part of him currently visible. Various tubes and lines for medication ran under the sheets from their respective bags, the medicine dripping down from one line to another through a drip feed.

Fluttershy did what she did best and went over to the unconscious form of their favorite baby dragon as swiftly and as silently as she could. She gently petted over the top of his head and along his spikes, repeating the motions over and over again while leaning in close to him, gentle words of encouragement whispered into his ear from Fluttershy's sweet, timid voice.

Rarity sat there next to Fluttershy, her eyes never once leaving the baby dragon they'd all come to love and enjoy having around. His constant earnest attitude and need to please anypony and everypony had earned him the trust of all six of them.

For Rarity though, it was different. For Rarity, he constantly volunteered to assist her, the pitter-patter of his small, bare feet in her boutique a common and welcome sound these days. He was always trying to find an excuse to be around her, any excuse he could come up with to give him a reason to help her work on her dresses.

She valued his judgment and his opinion, of course, but most of all he was a quiet, and very helpful companion, keeping track of her supplies and her tools while she focused entirely on her work, only speaking up when something seemed to need extra attention to him or if she needed to bounce ideas off of him to get a second opinion on things she was not one-hundred percent sure about.

He was her little Spikey-Wikey.

He also had an intensely strong crush on her.

He would also outlive her by eons.

It was for these reasons and the fact that he would always be her itty-bitty, favorite baby draggy-waggy that she had never even entertained the possibility of him becoming her beau or her coltfriend or anything of that sort. Sure, perhaps when he got older she could maybe take the inexperienced young dragon to her bed, but that would just be leading him on....well, if he still had a crush on her by then.

Yet, with him laying there, wounded and in pain, sedated and unconscious, all because he was Twilight's savior....all because he had eaten first and saved her from a terrible, brutal fate, a slow and painful death....she couldn't help but think of him as a knight in shining, scaly armor. Not just for her, or Twilight, but for all of them. The little knight in shining armor, watching out for the Element Bearers.

It was a more flattering title for him, and it was the truth: he was always there for them. When Discord had broken them all, twisted her up inside and made her a greedy, selfish monster of a pony, and Twilight had lost all her faith in all of them, Spike was there to deliver the friendship reports to restore Twilight's faith and give her all she needed to restore their memories, make them remember who they were.

When the Crystal Empire returned and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza put her life on the line to save the previously enslaved Crystal Ponies, Spike was there alongside Twilight, keeping her company and giving her a companion to rely on while she hunted down the Crystal Heart.

Then, when Twilight made a single mistake and got trapped by Sombra's dark crystal magic, Spike became the deliverer of salvation by snatching up the Crystal Heart and rushing down to Cadance and the others and giving the Crystal Heart to the newly-appointed Crystal Princess.

Rarity leaned in close and gave the little dragon a nuzzle, smiling a sad, worried smile even as the little dragon seemed to calm and smile a little himself the moment she touched him. She moved a chair closer to the side of the bed and Fluttershy did the same, both of them sitting on either side of him to make sure he had a friendly face to see upon regaining consciousness.

This wasn't good.

The guardsponies moving about her library and her home had her concerned, right alongside the yellow tape the Ponyville Police Department was erecting. Now, the last two things, namely the yellow tape and the police, Twilight could understand. The Royal Guard? That one initially had her thrown for a loop.

Then she remembered that she was the Faithful Student. Celestia's protege. Then it all clicked into place. It clicked even more into place when she realized who was inside of the library at the moment.

As the guard posted at the door opened it for her, she almost didn't comprehend the tall white pony standing in the middle of the room, several Royal Guardsponies walking in and out of the door to her kitchen. They were systematically throwing out every single food, utensil and what-have-you, every item being loaded into a bag along with many others and then carried outside, another empty bag taking its place.

"Puh-Puh-what?! Princess, what's going on?"

Twilight's outburst distracted her mentor from the current activity, namely, keeping the guards moving at a steady, efficient pace while at the same time sending out orders for replacement food for every single thing that came out of the pantry. Needless to say, the local grocer was going to get some serious business from the royal treasury, alongside the flea market.

"Ah, good evening, Twilight! It's good to see that you're okay," she said, walking briskly up to the much smaller unicorn and giving her a hug, complete with the perfect plumage of her wing. Twilight returned the hug mostly on reflex, a faint smile the only sign that the show of affection had influenced her. "Please, is Spike alright?"

Aaand there went that vague smile, gone as quickly as it came. Twilight hung her head and nodded slowly, frowning. "Y-yes, he's okay now Princess....but, before I got him there, it was just....I was so scared, and he was....!"

Celestia sat down next to her and pulled her close with her forelegs and her wings, enveloping the crying unicorn with a full-body hug the likes of which many would pay hundreds of bits to receive. "Ssshh....shh-shh-shh....I know Twilight, I know...." she shushed her, a wordless attempt to soothe the lavender mare as she let out another surge of sadness and fear from deep within. With Twilight's head leaning against her chest, she sat there reflecting her student's sadness, the sound of her sobbing protege within her grasp driving her to tears as well, though she cried in silence. "I could never forget that day. Just let it out, Twilight."

And she did. She stayed there with the Princess and cried until she had no tears left to shed on the whole subject. A full hour passed by the time she began to calm down, the emotional agony of both seeing Spike dying right before her eyes combined with the memories of her past too much for her to bear all at once.

As the food obtained by the guards got piled up next to the kitchen door and the bags of thrown-away food got taken outside, Twilight began to become more calm and collected. When she finally finished her tears, she smiled weakly up at the Princess and backed out of the larger mare's embrace.

"I-I'm sorry, Princess. I just....thinking about what happened to Spike, it must've been so horrible...."

Celestia nodded to that. "Oh yes, I've felt such a poison before, and I've removed it from myself as well," she said, frowning. "It's very, very painful, and the method of removal is extremely unpleasant. Well, perhaps not if you do it to yourself, but performing it on someone else...."

"What do you mean?"

Celestia just smiled. "Let's just say that it imposes the caster's magic aura upon the recipient in the process of searching for and isolating the poison so it can be forcibly removed. Permeating a pony's entire body with your magic...."

Twilight just shuddered at the thought. "That's....that's like a molestation of your very being."

"Indeed, since magic touches a living being's soul the moment you cast it upon someone. A shame Ponyville General doesn't have a Magister on-call, such a procedure could've been used to save Spike immediately while he was unconscious."

She just sighed and shook her head. "Actually, I reviewed the local specialized help in Ponyville a while back when the Mayor needed help deciding whether to build some new condominiums, or to dedicate the area to more standard residential buildings. I suppose I should suggest some more expensive housing, huh?"

"That would be best," Celestia said. Then a thought occured to her. "Though, Ponyville is likely so rustic and so full of happy and accepting ponies because it it has so few rich ponies and nobles living here. They tend to shy away from the countryside."

"Still, a Magister in residence here would be a nice addition to the town. This place is so devoid of magic users aside from me, it'd be nice not to feel so alone out here sometimes," she said with a weak laugh. "Besides, the town could benefit from a magic healing specialist."

"Among other things," a new voice said from behind Twilight. "Good evening Twilight, I came as soon as I heard. This is absolutely dreadful!"

Celestia stood up straighter when she realized that Mayor Mare was in the room with them, the sudden intrusion causing Twilight to spin around to greet the mare in charge of the town.

"O-oh, good evening Mayor! You know what happened then?"

"Oh yes Twilight, and you truly have my condolences. Don't worry though, your replacement food will be paid for by the town's funding!"

"Oh, that will be unnecessary madame Mayor," Celestia interrupted, smiling. "This is being taken care of by the royal treasury, it won't be a problem."

"....Oh! Well, alright then," she said, bowing to the Princess. "With that taken care of, I must get right to the other reason I came here. Will the Royal Guard be assisting the local police in searching for the pony that poisoned all the food in Twilight's kitchen?"

Twilight's eyes went wide. "Wait. 'All' of the food?" she repeated, turning to Celestia with legitimate fear in her eyes. "ALL of my food?! Th-they had enough of that poison to use it on all of the food I had in stock?!"

"Sadly yes, Twilight....why? You seem surprised by that."

"Th-th-the doctor, he said that the toxicology report labelled the poison as something called Erosia-"

"What?!"

"Yes!! A-and he said that the poison's illegal in Equestria, and that it's really rare and expensive! Oh my goodness, if they managed to get that much of it that they could get it in every bit of my food, then....th-then....!"

Celestia acted immediately with this new bit of information, looking far more serious now compared to before. She swiftly made for her student and embraced her once more, her wings surrounding her on all sides, enshrining her in the Goddess's divine embrace, warm and soothing.

"Ssshh, Twilight, don't let yourself go there. He is banished, he could never ever reach you again," she muttered to her in that serene, quiet tone that was so much like the tone of voice she used to address her subjects en-masse. "This was not his doing. I will not deny that the method is similar, though on a larger scale, but it cannot be him. He hasn't a clue where you live, almost nopony knows where you live outside of Ponyvillians."

Twilight looked up into her eyes, already crying a little, but she was at least calm compared to the trembling, broken-down mess she could've become. Celestia nodded to her with that constant serene smile, slowly releasing Twilight from her embrace before speaking up again.

"Twilight, you are now under the supervision of the Royal Guard. You must go everywhere with no less than four Royal Guardsponies acting as your bodyguards. If they say that something is wrong, you listen to them. Is that understood, Twilight?"

She shivered and nodded quickly to her mentor. "Y-yes, Princess....!"

"Mayor Mare," Celestia said, stepping past Twilight to speak to the Mayor directly. "Let us return to City Hall. I will need your assistance in reviewing the town's residents, first new, then old. We'll work from there."

As Celestia said that, she walked past the Mayor at a semi-brisk pace, heading towards the door. The Mayor turned quickly and followed.

"Y-yes, of course Your Majesty!"

Both mares were gone quickly, leaving Twilight sitting there in the middle of the library, the sudden realization of how extreme this attempt on her life was making her library feel that much more sinister, her gaze wandering over her books, wondering which one of them may have some kind of trap spell placed upon them to make them explode and take her face off, or cause the bookshelves to collapse atop her and crush her completely.

Without Spike around to quell her paranoia, her mind ran rampant. Then it hit her.

"W-was that their plan?" she mumbled, sniffling a bit and wiping the tears from her eyes. "Take Spike away from me, s-so I lose my focus and get hung up on every little thing? So I lose track of my schedules and checklists?!"

She almost jumped out of her skin when someone cleared their throat behind her, the mare spinning around to be face-to-face with one of four Royal Guards, all dressed in standard Royal Guard armor rather than the normal Night Guard armor for all guards that work late nighttime shifts.

"Hello Lady Sparkle, we've been ordered to keep an eye on you and the library while you're within it. Please, do continue your night as if we were never here!"

"Oh! Uh, h-hi there....well, that shouldn't be a problem, since, uh....I used to live in the castle and had to deal with this sort of thing all the time, so...."

"Er....Lady Sparkle, are you alright?" one of them asked, frowning a little.

"I...." she started, looking down at the floor for a moment before looking back to the four of them. "Yes, I'm fine. For now," she muttered, looking to the kitchen. "Look, just go and help them clear out the kitchen. I'll....well, I'll be upstairs if you need me."

With looks of concern all around, the guards left Twilight to her own devices and went to do as she told them. It wasn't like she wasn't going to be somewhere safe, in a place where guards would be going in and out of the building constantly. It would be nigh-impossible for an assassin to get to her where she was now....right?

Either way, Twilight went up to her room and unceremoniously flopped into her bed. She didn't care about the fact that she hadn't brushed her teeth. She didn't care about the fact that she was somewhat sweaty from running at a full sprint earlier in-between teleportations to save Spike's life and hadn't taken a shower to clean herself up yet.

No, all that mattered to her in that moment was how very appealing the bed looked, and how nice it would be to close her eyes, go to sleep, and wake up in the morning with all of this having been a terrible, horrible nightmare. Some part of her deep down, however, told her that this would not be the case.

That didn't stop her from going to sleep and giving it a shot.

Author's Notes:

Well, here it is finally, everyone! The first chapter of Harmony on the Winds, a joint project between myself and Samantha Sprocket, a new face on the fanfic writing scene, though that's mostly my fault since I coaxed her into doing this with me.

Not much to say just yet, aside from the fact that I'm the one that's mostly doing the writing aspect of this, and she's assisting me by proofreading and being the one that I bounce my ideas off of, and she bounces her ideas off of me so that we can both come up with an excellent direction for the storyline. Don't get it twisted, though: Samantha's just as skilled at writing as I am! Don't let her fool you, either: this story would NOT have happened without her input.

Hi there! Samantha Sprocket here! This is my first time having something posted on this site. While I didn't have much of a role in these first few chapters, my work will start showing up later on. Fire Soul is the real mastermind behind most of this world. I'll put in little quips and such at the end of each chapter to give my thoughts and thanks, so keep an eye out for me! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of our co-authored story!

2 - True Harmony

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Chapter 2 - True Harmony

written by Fire Soul and Samantha Sprocket

She awoke on her side, her eyes bleary and an odd taste in her mouth. She flapped her mouth and her tongue a few times to clear the dry feeling from the inside of her mouth, but it was no use. Oogh, she was thirsty....

She crawled out of her bed, exhaustion weighing heavily on her eyes and every fiber of her being as she slowly walked downstairs, taking each step one at a time. It felt like it took several long minutes just to clear it.

She let her gaze wander around the library, lingering on the shadows and the center table that had the little horse head wooden statue on it.

Wait. Wait wait wait. Where were her bodyguards?

No sooner had she asked the question that there was a clattering sound from the kitchen, the groggy mare spinning around to face the door. Ah, that made sense, they must've decided to grab a late-night snack or something like that. It's not like anypony would cause trouble with four members of the Royal Guard watching over her home!

She let out a relieved breath and walked towards the kitchen door, pushing it open....and gasping in terror.

There, lying in a pool of blood on the floor, with one guard sitting at the kitchen table slumped over it and pouring blood out of his neck, were the four guards that were supposed to be watching over her home.

"Unicorn. Disgusting sins of nature....!"

She knew that voice. She knew it too well, it was too impossible for her to ever forget that voice. Her heart began to race and pound at her ribcage, as if it were struggling to get out, get away from the situation she found herself in. Alas, there was no escape from this terror she felt.

She began to hyperventilate as she stepped backwards, the lavender mare feeling dizzy and utterly terrified of the room she was stuck in now, her eyes darting left and right trying to find the source of that voice.

She only heard a few hoofsteps behind her before a foreleg went around her chest and her muzzle, muffling her shriek. The pony's weight pressed down on her back, forcing her to plant her hindlegs and forelegs before she could try to buck him off. Just before she could take advantage of an opening however, the pony pulled back and up with his own body, the foreleg around her chest forcing her up and onto her hindlegs as well, the pony's chest pressing firmly against her back while holding her tightly around her chest with that foreleg.

She flailed her forelegs desperately, pure terror causing her to panic and scream in vain against the assassin pony's leg over her muzzle. Then she saw it out of the corner of her eye as he let go of her chest, the moonlight coming in through the window glinting off an ornate, polished hoofblade, filigree covering the entire weapon, just short of coating the actual cutting edge with that filigree as well.

Twilight screamed in horror against the assassin's leg covering her mouth.

She felt his teeth bite down on her mane closer to the top of her head and yank back hard, forcing her head to bend backwards far, the flesh and muscles around the front of her neck being pulled nice and taut on both reflex and because of the position she was forced into.

Then, she felt him begin to cut.

Her eyes went wide and her forelegs flailed harder, the hoofblade cutting cleanly through her esophagus and cutting off her screams almost instantly. She struggled and flailed harder, but with her silenced, the assassin moved his leg from her muzzle to her chest the more she struggled, holding her tight so she had no chance of escaping his grasp.

She spasmed and tried to gasp for air, but all she got was blood, her limbs trembling as she tried to grab at something, anything that would help her in her blind panic. She could feel the blood running down her front and flowing over her thin fur, soaking her skin with the quickly-fading heat.

Suddenly she felt his body leave her own, and she stumbled forward, barely catching her weight. Her eyes locked on the window and she struggled towards it, an odd and horrible feeling surrounding the area of her throat as she tried to swallow.

She could barely breathe, the unnatural sensation of air flowing in and out through the opening in her neck making her feel nauseous. The warmth in her body rapidly began to leave her the more she bled out, and soon one side of her body began to go numb. A few steps short of the window, the numb side of her body gave out, and she collapsed onto her side.

Her horn sputtered weakly from the tip as she tried to focus on a spell, any spell that would get her to someone that could help her. She closed her eyes to concentrate on her magic, sluggishly trying to conjure and weave the magic with her mind.

She didn't open them again.

....She woke up screaming.

Her bodyguards were up the stairs in seconds, each of them activating the runes on their armor, the four guards glowing a radiating, gentle light by the time they reached the top of the steps.

She quickly threw a foreleg over her eyes to shield them when the guards charged into the pitch-black room, the moonlight from outside doing nothing to ready Twilight's adjusted eyes for the light the guards were letting off, no matter how gentle the light may have been in the way it lit up the room.

"Lady Sparkle!" one of the guards said quickly, the other three moving to surround the bed, their eyes wandering over the room quickly to search for any sign of an intruder. "Is everything alright?!"

She had her face buried in her hooves, tears running down her cheeks while she cried and sobbed with no sign of stopping. The guards looked to one another while standing guard, before the one in charge out of the three of them placed his hoof on her left wither.

"I-I'm sorry! It was just so real, I thought you were all dead, and he'd just cut my throat open....!!" she shakily told them, her forehooves going to her neck just to comfort herself by confirming that it was dry and very much un-cut.

He sighed. "Well, as you can see, we're fine Lady Sparkle. I understand what's happened is likely difficult for you, but there's nothing you can do about it at the moment. You need to rest."

"How can you expect me to-?!"

"Because somepony made an attempt on your life. We are here, we are watching over the library, we are keeping an eye on you and then some," he said, the other three nodding in agreement. "We are also working in shifts. One in the kitchen, one outside the front door, two just downstairs sitting in the main area reading or patrolling, with ten-minute pauses between when we walk up the stairs to check the upstairs area to make sure the balcony doors are still locked and the curtains drawn."

She just stared at him, only breaking his little speech with a small sniffle.

He stepped back and nodded to her. "The entire house is under constant observation. You can trust us," he said, motioning the others back downstairs, the other three guards returning to their posts quickly. "If you can feel safe enough to fall back to sleep, even if just barely, I would recommend it....there's little worse than being paranoid, scared, and exhausted on top of everything else."

He headed back downstairs, leaving Twilight to her own open-eyed lounging as she flopped back down on the bed, eyes staring up at the ceiling while her magic tucked her covers in more smoothly over and around herself. She was still trembling lightly from the nightmare, the thought of sleep bringing with it the terror of that horrible experience happening to her once again.

Twilight's sleep was very broken for the rest of the night.

Waking up wasn't something that Twilight took kindly to, now that it was actually time for her to get out of bed. The guards in her kitchen were barely noticed as the grumbling, slouching and barely aware mass of purple pony walked to the table and slumped down unceremoniously next to it, her head thudding down against the wood noisily.

"Spiiiiiike....I need coffee. Lots n' lots of coffee...." she muttered, barely heard by the guards.

One of the guards already in the middle of her breakfast opened her mouth to say something, but a stern look from the pony next to her shut her up. Instead, the silence continued unbroken as one of them retrieved a steaming mug of coffee for her, utterly black and with only a single packet of sugar torn open and mixed into it.

Her magic grabbed that cup as if it were the nectar of the Gods themselves brought down to her by a Cherub from high above to grace her parched, unworthy lips.

Sadly, she didn't realize that the coffee was both pure black and scalding hot until she took a quick swig.

Instantly, the coffee had a lovely, if startling introduction to the surface of her kitchen table, including that which had managed to enter Twilight's mouth. Thanks to the guards and a particularly overzealous wash rag however, their romance never got a chance to leave the ground.

"Ghk-GAH! Spike! You know I-" she said, turning to glare at her assistant.

She froze when she saw the guard sitting there, a sympathetic look upon his face, another guard sitting just next to him.

Twilight's eyes seemed to stare far beyond either of them. "Oh."

Her gaze lowered and her withers along with her head slumped, her eyes glistening with fresh tears. "Oh...!" she uttered, her voice clearly trembling as she said it.

The lone mare in the trio of guards went to Twilight's side, an armored hoof resting upon her shoulder just as she began to cry, her near-silent sobs unheard by the two stallion guards as they left the kitchen with their coffee cups.

The Captain in charge of the three of them pointed to the other. "Private, I want you to gather up the Elements of Harmony and bring them here. We can't provide the emotional support she needs for a situation like this, she shouldn't be left alone."

The younger guard nodded and gave a salute, leaving the library quickly behind, his wings spreading and taking him to the skies so he could make a beeline for the closest Element nearby.

It only took around a half-hour for him to gather up all of the Elements, the ponies arriving one by one as the guard told them that Twilight Sparkle really needed her friends right now.

First Pinkie, then Rainbow Dash, then Rarity, Applejack, and finally Fluttershy arrived to check in on her, all five of them sitting in the main area of the building consoling their friend as she slowly came to terms with what happened to Spike yet again.

"I-I don't....I wanted to believe it was all just one huge nightmare so badly....!"

Applejack was patting Twilight on the back in a quiet attempt to cheer her up. The others were sitting there drinking tea....though Pinkie could have been said to have been drinking sugar with a bit of dark water poured over it.

"Twilight, I stopped in at the hospital last night, and Spike is doing just fine. They have guards inside and outside of his room, so he's perfectly safe!" Rarity said with confidence.

"I-I know...." she whimpered, her sobbing having ceased for the most part.

Fluttershy smiled and set her tea down. "Not only that, he's very stable, they finished patching him up last night after Rarity and I left to go home."

Twilight just nodded to Fluttershy, managing a weak smile while Rarity offered her a fresh cup of tea. She took it within her hooves, too upset to use her magic all that effectively. It had the intended effect, her nerves seeming to calm considerably after just a few sips.

"Th-thanks, girls...." she muttered, sighing deeply and sinking down in her seat, laying her head on the table. "It just caught me so off-guard this morning, I don't know how I convinced myself it was just some big nightmare!"

Pinkie tilted her head a bit. "Nightmare? Now that I think about it, the guard said that you were having nightmares all night. What's that about?"

Twilight shrunk away from her friends a little. "I don't really know...."

"Ah, it's no big deal, Twi! Might help ya calm down a bit if'n ya get it off yer chest."

"Yeah Twilight, tell us a super-creepy story!" Pinkie chimed in, all grins by now.

The exhausted-looking lavender mare couldn't help but smile at her cheerful friend, briefly wondering if there was anything in the known universe that could actually get Pinkie down. If there was, she certainly didn't know what it could be....aside from maybe a law banning parties, or a worldwide shortage of sugar and sweets in general.

"Well....I'd woken up and it was still dark out. The lights in the library were off even though I knew I had guards posted to watch over me. It had me nervous, but I went downstairs anyways since I didn't want to be alone," she began, biting her lip. "I think I called out for them, but no one answered me."

"Then I heard something from the kitchen, and walked over to take a look. I stepped in and the kitchen was dark, but I could see the guards laying dead on the floor. Before I could do anything, I heard something behind me, and then somepony was on my back like they were mounting me!"

Rainbow tensed at the thought of that, but everyone had their attention on Twilight, so no one noticed.

"Then a leg went over my mouth before I could scream, and the other lifted me up by my chest. We're both standing there on our hindlegs, I see a flash of metal by my neck, and next he's just....cutting back and forth, like he's trying to slice my head off or something! I'm flailing in panic, I can feel my blood running down my chest, and when he's done he throws me to the floor and just watches me bleed out....I-I've never felt so cold before....!"

"Whoa there, calm down now! Yer safe, yer with us-"

"Am I? Am I safe, Applejack? Are any of us safe? Wh-what if I'm not the only target, what if they're after you girls too?!"

"Uh, hey, Twilight? Not to be mean or anything, but you're kinda sounding like some kind of conspiracy theorist, saying stuff like that," Rainbow said, cringing a little. "Just....calm down a bit."

Twilight's gaze wandered over her friends before she focused on the surface of the table. She took a few deep breaths and set her tea down while her hooves covered her face, dragging them down her muzzle in frustration, mostly with herself.

"I know. I know, you're right. I'm....I'm sorry," she muttered, taking a moment to stabilize her thoughts. "This whole thing just really, really threw me."

"That's okay Twilight," Fluttershy quietly chimed in, the timid pegasus smiling happily at the lavender mare. "You're just worried about us, aren't you?"

Twilight looked to Fluttershy, her eyes glossy with tears as she looked over her friends.

She looked over Fluttershy first, gazing into her timid, shy eyes, finding a true friend within her pure and caring gaze. Twilight smiled at Fluttershy and looked to her other friends.

All of them. It didn't matter who she looked at, the feeling was always the same.

"Yes. Yes I am. I'm terrified by the possibility that I'm not the only target out of all of us."

Her friends sighed and moved in to surround her in a big group hug, the five mares hugging each other and Twilight in the middle of them. Twilight reveled in it, feeling that it had ended all too soon when all of her friends pulled away from each other as well as herself.

"Darling, take it from me," Rarity said, resting a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "If you do naught but worry, you'll wind up in the same situation as you did the first time you delayed in writing a friendship report to Princess Celestia. I think we can all agree that that's the very last thing you need right now."

Twilight sighed and nodded to her friends, her mind in the process of running through the recent events and quickly sorting them out. She tried an old mental exercise from school, just closing her eyes and breathing while focusing on one single thing at a time.

It worked, for the most part. While she had managed to stop crying and calm herself down, she still couldn't stop thinking about what had happened. It kept reminding her of her youth. It kept reminding her of the time she'd been poisoned by a psychopath. It kept reminding her of how close she'd come to dying under the blade of a zealot.

She had to keep quiet about that though. No one could know. She was fine now, she went to therapy for that, it's over and done with. She'd be fine.

She didn't want all her friends to fear being around her again.

Beyond that, she felt a whole lot better visiting with all of her friends. Fluttershy's soothing voice did a lot to keep her calm, and Rarity's generous offer to stay with her and be there for her at any time if she needed help was a very nice gesture that put her mind at ease. Applejack only compounded that by stating that if Twilight didn't feel comfortable in the library, she could come and stay on the farm for a spell. She was very tempted to take AJ up on the offer, but she declined after thinking about it a little longer.

The library was, in the end, her responsibility to herself, the Princess, and the entire town. She kept the books in order (with Spike's assistance of course), and she kept all the records neat and tidy. She even sorted out all of the records that had been made before she started running the place, and those papers were an absolute jumbled mess!

After a few hours of conversation and talking about the recent Daring Do book, Pinkie Pie grinned wide as could be, a classic over-the-top gasp coming from her soon after.

"We should all go to Sugarcube Corner for lunch!"

They all stopped suddenly, staring at Pinkie after her fairly loud outburst. Then they all smiled, Pinkie's gleeful bouncing and grinning being fairly infectious.

"Hey, yeah! Sounds like an awesome idea to me," Rainbow said, fluttering idly in the air above the group. "Where'd all that excitement come-actually, nevermind. It's you we're talking about here."

With the decision made by the group, they all picked themselves up from the library and headed straight for Sugarcube Corner.

Along the way, Twilight felt a chill run up her back despite it being the middle of the morning, almost like someone just stepped on her grave. Her friends began to walk ahead of her while she peered around, her gaze wandering over the ponies walking through the area.

Aside from a few idle ponies walking around the library gazing curiously at the group of mares, she didn't really see anyone worth notice. She took another quick look around, her eyes scanning the library for some reason. Something was nagging at her in the back of her head....

"Hey Twi, whatcha laggin' back there fer?"

She jumped a little and turned her attention to her friends, who were all looking at her with a mix of impatience and curiosity. She gave her friends a sheepish grin and took one last look around, then rushed to catch up with them. The feeling was still there, but for now, she chalked it up to her nerves and paranoia.

After she left, a lone figure in a camouflaged cloak leapt gracefully out of the leaves by one of the windows on the upper floor of the library, once she confirmed that the guards watching the place were inside.

Dark blue eyes scanned left, then right. No one had paid her any mind, good. She briskly trotted away, her features indistinguishable under the cloak, aside from a pure white tailtip and light green fur around her fetlocks.

The mysterious mare quickly made her way down the streets, seeming to draw very little attention from the ponies she passed by. Then again, this was Ponyville: strange occurrences and strange ponies were more commonplace here than anywhere else!

She kept an eye out for a single white chalk mark at the base of the far wall in one of the alleyways....yes, there it was! She quickly ducked out of the morning crowd heading for the markets and stepped into the vague shadows the alley provided.

There, several ponies were waiting, all of them of varying colors and species, but they all wore the same robes: gray robes with colored outlines around the hood. Each of the six ponies had different colors, each color matching one of the colors of the Elements of Harmony.

One of the ponies nodded to her. "How is she?"

The mare snorted. "Shaken, but alive. The Princess, in her naivete, cleared out her entire pantry, and all of the poison we paid for. Only her dragon assistant got a taste of it."

Another of the ponies spoke up, this one a more soft-spoken stallion, his robe's colored outline matching Fluttershy's Element.

"It's unfortunate they have to die. I wish there was another way...."

The pony wearing the robe matching Applejack's color spoke up next, another stallion. "We all do. Harmony belongs to all living creatures on this great Earth, not just us ponies."

"Indeed," the mare wearing the purple-lined robes said, having been the one moving away from Twilight's library. "Why the Elements chose six ponies instead of a multitude of other species, we do not know. What we do know is that Princess Celestia was involved somehow, and her need to keep Equestria as the dominant superpower no doubt influenced her decisions. Thus, we must make this decision for her."

Another stallion spoke up, this one of the same color as Loyalty. "Yes. In order for true harmony to exist, Equestria must share its strength with the rest of the world, and that starts with the release of the Elements. The Bearers have to die."

"What troubles thee, sister?"

Celestia sat there with her morning tea, her breakfast barely touched and her daily newspaper left folded and off to the side, untouched like the rest. She had a far-off look in her eyes, the Goddess not truly 'there' at the moment.

Well, until Luna stepped closer and booped her nose.

"Boop!"

"Buh-wha?! Oh, Luna!" Celestia said after jumping in her seat a little, her beloved sister having taken her by surprise. Then she blinked, wiggling her nose a little. "Did you boop my nose?"

Luna just smirked. "You're welcome."

"Sorry, Luna. I've just been so distracted since last night!"

"Twilight Sparkle?"

Celestia nodded once. "At first I thought of the possibility of them targeting Spike, but he has no enemies, none that I know of anyways, and I've watched over both him and Twilight since they were little ones! That leaves two other possibilities: Twilight was the target, or they both were. Every last bit of the food was covered in the poison, after all."

"Hm, true. Any leads?"

Luna wandered over to where Celestia was sitting, a large study desk covered in papers and scrolls. Among several individual profiles, there were multiple registration papers for several cults, all of which operated in the Canterlot and Ponyville areas.

"Cult of Luminous Suns, Cult of Harmony....Cult of Discord? When did the Cult of Discord come together?"

"About a year ago, soon after Discord was sealed away in stone once again," she said, smirking and shifting the papers around. "I believe I even have some papers on....ah! Here we are. 'The Cult of Shimmering Moons'! They have new beliefs regarding you."

Luna's eyes sparkled. "Really? What-"

"They harass Twilight three or four times a month through the mail and through surprise visits, trying to get her to admit that she's secretly yours, Nightmare Moon's, love-child with one of your many harem stallions, before I banished you to the moon."

"But, that....that doesn't even make any sense!"

"Oh, it's like a horrible fanfiction all about you! They actually think that I've kept Twilight in stasis until recently, so I could use her as blackmail material to get you to 'behave'! It's hilarious!"

They both shared a laugh over that, Luna's laughter easily outweighing her older sister's.

Both mares sat there together giggling after their laughter died down. When all was silent again, Luna broke the quiet once more.

"Truthfully, what worries you is your student, yes?"

Celestia's smile disappeared at that, her gaze turning downward as if she'd fallen into thought yet again.

"Of course....you know what we had planned for her. How could I ever ask her to work on such an important, life-changing project under the current circumstances?"

Luna nodded, walking over towards the balcony doors. "Indeed. She is truly ready for such a change, but....I share your concerns. An attempt on her life could deeply alter her mindset for such a task. It could even cause her to fail if we were to send her this book now!"

"Yes. Yet, her wisdom upon being recognized as Equestrian royalty, a Princess no less, could put an end to all of these border skirmishes. The Griffons are a cowardly race and nation, acting only as bullies when they believe they have the upper hoof. Or claw."

Luna stared up at her moon, pensive. "We would lose a chance at such wisdom and knowledge if we dared to act hastily! We must have patience. Wait for things to stabilize in Twilight's life. Then, we may test her. As long as we are being honest, there is always the possibility that she could fail-"

"There is not! Twilight is far too capable, and her dedication to her friends is unbreakable. She will not fail."

"So you say, sister," Luna said, sighing. "But surely you have factored in the possibility of her failing?"

"Yes, I have. She won't fail."

"But-"

"The only way she could fail, Luna, is if all of her friends abandoned her, and we sent her this book right this very moment," Celestia said matter-of-factly, the serious look in her eyes easily discernable for Luna as their gazes met. "The Elements of Harmony will always stay together. They love one another, and are as close as friends could possibly be. Not even Discord could break the bonds of their friendship now."

They both stared at one another for a long, silent moment, Celestia's gaze just daring Luna to attempt to try to think of some way that her star pupil could possibly fail.

Luna could think of nothing, though. She had met Twilight Sparkle on more than one occasion, both as casual meetings to get to know one another better and generally spend time together with her and Celestia, and during a few consultations where the young unicorn's excessive knowledge and amazingly sharp mind could even rival her own!

Sighing, Luna bowed her head and closed her eyes, shaking her head.

"....I suppose you are right, sister. You seem to be able to put faith in others much more easily than I. Often, I wonder how good of an idea that truly is, but it has brought Equestria to a truly Golden Age, so you must be doing something right."

Celestia smiled at that and nodded to Luna, the smaller embracing the larger as the two gently pulled one another close for a hug.

"Thank you, Luna....I genuinely do feel better, clearly I was unaware just how badly I needed to hear someone say that to me."

Luna laughed a little and hugged Celestia tightly for a moment, smiling wide.

"Anytime, sister."

Celestia stepped back and away from that embrace, nodding and turning to her work desk to resume looking through the papers she'd been sifting through for hours already. A knock on her door had another three ponies setting down three stacks of papers each, filled with detailed information on cults and the cultists that were a part of them.

Luna turned and walked slowly towards the door.

"If you need me for anything Celestia, I shall be in my quarters resting," she said, looking back to the larger mare hopefully. "And I do mean anything, sister."

Celestia looked to Luna with a wide smile, nodding in appreciation. "It's very kind of you to offer me help like that. Thank you very much. I will see you at sunset, of course!"

Luna had learned over the eons of her life to learn how to control her emotions and her body language, but with Celestia, she was getting a lot of practice in! She sighed quietly through her nostrils and nodded quickly to her sister, exiting the room rapidly.

Luna briskly walked down the halls towards her own room, a blank expression locked on her face all the while. She looked to the two Night Guards standing watch outside her room, and they pushed her doors open for her to step inside.

Darkness consumed her entire room, her wings flapping once hard and rushing wind through the chamber to blow out all of the candles with ease.

She slumped suddenly, as if the weight of the world were on her shoulders, a single tear trickling down her left cheek while she clenched her eyes shut.

3 - Danger

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Chapter 3 - Danger

written by Fire Soul and Samantha Sprocket

Happiness and joy permeated the air in Sugarcube Corner, the six mares all seated at one of the larger tables inside. Voices ran all around them, various ponies talking about this or that, what they did last week, how things have been at work....you know, the usual banter, and the girls were no different.

Applejack talked about the farm, Rainbow Dash spoke of her stunts and her work on the weather, and Rarity got them all nice and updated on all the local gossip, of which there was a lot concerning Spike and him having emergency surgery performed.

The talk of 'hideous' injuries to his body were more and more exaggerated as word spread. Rarity had even heard a few ponies talking about how Spike had lost both of his arms! This wasn't true, of course, but the fact that the rumors had gotten so far was surprising to them, to say the least.

Then of course there were rumors about Twilight as well! Guards posted around the library all night and day long, a spontaneous and personal visit from the Princess, of course rumors began to spread about her involvement, but any such rumors were entirely unfounded.

By the time they all left, several hours had passed and they were all full of delicious baked goods courtesy of the Cakes. The only reason they all left at that point was because Applejack's necessity of being on the farm stopped her from being kept away for too long, thus the others decided to leave at the same time.

Rainbow Dash was out the door first, followed by Applejack, then the others. Fluttershy was the last one out, the normally grounded pegasus fluttering just behind Rarity, the proud and pristine fashionista walking in a manner that flaunted her best assets and her glamour for all to see.

Twilight walked mostly right in the middle of them all, watching with amusement as Rainbow and Applejack started to speak rather heatedly about Rainbow always seeming to rush around anywhere, no matter how short the actual distance.

Suddenly, Pinkie yelped, the others all looking in her direction, only to find that Pinkie's tail was twitching away. Not just the normal kind of twitch though. Her tail was twitching almost violently fast, almost to the point of making it look like she was trying to shake her rump at the ponies back behind her in Sugarcube Corner.

"G-g-girls! S-something's wrong!"

The sound of metal straining and then snapping struck Twilight to her very core, filling her with absolute terror, not for herself but for her friends. The sound of splintering wood right after the metal spurred her into action.

Just as the other girls looked up, Twilight's magic engulfed all five of them and flung them as hard as she could away from Sugarcube Corner's front entrance. She felt as if things were moving in slow-motion, her hooves scraping hard against the cobblestone pathway as she desperately tried to run towards where she'd thrown her friends.

They hit the pavement with resounding thuds just as Twilight made a final dive forward, the fury of Celestia herself sounding as if it were crashing down just behind her, the sound of bending metal and splintering wood on a huge scale filling her ears just before she landed.

She hit the pavement chest-first, knocking the wind out of herself and forcing her to curl inward on reflex, rolling over twice before coming to a stop on her side. She coughed several times while pressing a hoof against her chest, a sharp pain there making it slightly harder for her to breathe at the moment.

Her friends were on her almost instantly. She heard all of them around her, a flurry of activity and hooves picking her up and setting her on her already wobbly legs.

"Oop! Whoa there sugarcube, ah gotcha!"

She began to fall over just as a warm body pressed against her side, holding up her comparatively meager weight. She recognized the voice, but a quick shift of her slightly spinning vision told her for sure that it was Applejack.

It didn't take her long to recover from her disorientation. She spun around to look at the object that had almost fatally taken her and her dearest friends out.

The majority of the decoration surrounding the sign of Sugarcube Corner, the cupcake decorations and everything....right over where they were walking just after exiting the store.

Twilight teleported away instantly, re-appearing atop the store, rapidly turning around and peering down at the other ponies all around. Unfortunately, she felt nothing, not even a trace of magical residue aside from her own.

She teleported back down to her friends, all of them looking to her with confusion and concern, Pinkie in particular seeming upset. Her hair had flattened out and her colors seemed to become more dark and dull, the younger mare appearing nervous as she moved to speak to all of them.

"I-I'm so sorry girls....I was supposed to check on the bolts and nails and integrity of the sign and decorations and stuff, but I just didn't get around to it on time and, well....!"

Twilight's eyes went wide. It seemed way, way too convenient timing for the sign to almost wipe all six of them out in a single motion just as they were all walking out the door, just as they were all in the exact perfect position to all be killed by it all at once, right around the time when Pinkie had slacked off on checking up on the integrity of the materials holding the signs and decorations in place!

But....could that have been all it was? A simple coincidence? Just plain old bad, even horrible timing?

Until she could prove otherwise, she refused to jump to the conclusion that another assassination attempt had just been performed against all of them. If she accepted that, she'd have to accept that she was no longer the only target. If that was the case....

She jumped to her hooves and rushed over to the collapsed sign, all of the parts in mangled pieces, splinters and wood pieces littering the ground. If this was planned, there would be signs of tampering. It was just too convenient in her mind, too much of a coincidence for her to believe without solid proof that it was an accident and nothing more.

She looked for the metal bolt sections and nails, any part of it that would've secured the decorative wooden sculptures to the building. On each one she found, there was a large amount of rust consuming all the metal, not a single part of the metal frame left un-rusted. Okay, no signs there, no cuts in the bolts, it doesn't even look like they'd been changed in years!

Okay, nothing she could find there. Now she just-

"Whoa there, Twi!"

Before she could teleport up to where the decorations normally stayed mounted to check for any tampering up there, her friends were around her with Applejack grabbing at her withers, spinning her around so they could speak face-to-face.

"Twi, whatcha doin' there?"

"What does it look like?" she asked, motioning to the wreckage. "I'm looking for signs of tampering! Whoever tried to kill me with poison might've left behind evidence that they're after all of us, not just me!"

"Now c'mon there Twi, Pinkie already toldja what's up. This here was a big ol' accident, nothin' more! Don't start gittin' all paranoid on us again like ya did that one time, y'know, when ya fergot yer friendship report to Princess Celestia?"

Twilight absolutely hated being reminded of that incident. Even some of the townsfolk didn't leave her alone about her horrendous social faux pas, the Want-It-Need-It spell now permanently on her Do Not Cast mental list of spells she no longer trusted herself with. Making the majority of Ponyville fall in love with her Smartypants doll wasn't something she was proud of, though she and Big Macintosh at least talked enough to the point that he gave her the doll back once the spell was cancelled out by the Princess.

"How could I ever forget...." Twilight grumbled, hanging her head a bit.

Applejack just sighed and shook her head. "Look, ah'm sorry fer bringin' it up, but ya gotta admit, it'd really be a bit of a stretch to think that anyone'd wanna kill all of us, instead of just focusin' on someone as important as Celestia's personal student, y'know?"

"Gee AJ, that makes me feel soooo much better!"

"Ah'm just bein' honest, sugarcube....it makes ya sound like yer really jumpin' ta conclusions."

"And yet, what if I'm right?"

"If ya are, then we got th' Royal Guard hoverin' 'round Ponyville now, watchin' over the place! Look, they're comin' this way already!"

"What?"

Sure enough, when Twilight looked away from the wreckage, she saw a group of six Royal Guardsponies coming their way, in quite a bit of a rush. Twilight frantically scanned over the rest of the debris, looking over as many of the bolts and rusted metals as she could, but by the time the guards ordered her away along with her friends and cordoned off the area, she'd found nothing to lead her to suspect foul play. For all intents and purposes, it really did just look like a bad accident.

Pinkie seemed absolutely devastated. She felt like she was to blame for what had almost happened, and said little to nothing to anyone the entire day, until Twilight got the others to get together and group-hug The Pink Menace and forgive her for, well....almost killing or gravely injuring all of them.

It worked, for the most part. Pinkie was her usual cheery self, save for being fairly subdued. She was still upset at herself for letting something like that happen, and vowed to be more punctual in getting important jobs like that one done on time, instead of putting them off in favor of playing with the twins or going out to spend time with her friends.

By the time the day was over, they'd all spent time relaxing in the park, and had gone their separate ways with Twilight heading back to the library while AJ and RD went off to Sweet Apple Acres, having another game of Shoes to play. Rarity and Fluttershy headed back to the Boutique, Fluttershy following next to Rarity and a little behind her, the two conversing as if nothing had happened all the way to the shop.

Twilight, however, couldn't rest easy. She tried to convince herself that she was being paranoid. She tried to convince herself that it really was just a big coincidence and there was little to worry about.

She just couldn't bring herself to dismiss the possibility though. No matter how much the guards in her library reassured her, she refused to believe that those decorations falling on them was a mere accident.

The guards gave up when Twilight just got frustrated with their weak attempts to persuade her, simply sticking with restricting her to staying in the library and nowhere else once the evening rolled around. As irritating as this was for her, she knew it was necessary, even if it made her feel like a little filly with a bedtime.

"I really hope I am just being paranoid...." she muttered to herself, flipping through the two books she had sitting in front of herself.

Unlike her usual choices in reading material, she had chosen two books that, before now, had never held much interest to her. Now though?

"Self-Defense: Physical Edition and Magic Edition...."

Fluttershy had enjoyed her time at Rarity's greatly! Then again, how could she not? Rarity was her closest of close friends and more, and time spent together with her left Fluttershy often feeling sore, tired, and very, very satisfied.

She winced as she moved to sit down on her couch, a fresh pot of tea sitting on her coffee table while Angel sat on the cushion next to hers on the couch, the rabbit quirking a brow when she flinched and slowly, carefully sat down after her second attempt.

He looked to her flanks and noticed some red marks that were barely visible near her rump, causing him to frown and look up to with an expression that said 'Okay, what's that all about?'

Fluttershy blushed profusely and rubbed her cheek with a hoof, lifting up her tea with the other hoof to take a sip from it.

"O-oh! That. Don't you worry about that Angel, you won't even be able to notice it by tomorrow morning." she said, hoping to be able to wave it off and leave it at that.

Angel didn't get it. Wasn't he supposed to be her pet, or something like that? Not even questioning the fact that a female was the one calling mostly all the shots in his household, how could he be the pet of a pet?

Plus, if she was constantly out spending time with the Prissy One, how could she be here making him sandwiches?!

Still, he sighed and just shook it off. Even he, in all his arrogance and ability to push his caretaker around, knew that this was 'one of those things'. The things that lacked any opportunity to debate their importance in comparison to her showering him with attention and affection like she should be. She'd never allow it. She'd just glare at him until he inevitably fell to pieces under that demonic Stare of hers.

A small shudder worked its way through his tiny body at the memory of the last time she used it on him. He'd wanted that really, really awesome salad, but she insisted on either getting it wrong or force-feeding him a big bowl of oh-so-tasty leaves. Ah well, it wasn't like it didn't taste good, it just....wasn't what he wanted. How could she not see that giving him what he wanted was her job?!

He took solace in reminding himself that she was a very, very silly pony that needed more cautious males like him around to watch her back for her. Females like her were just so hopeless, after all!

Still, he couldn't deny his affection for the mare. She'd taken him in after almost getting killed saving him from Timberwolves, and they'd been really intent on him! He'd been running off and on for at least ten or twenty minutes, and the whole time they gave chase, passing up far more filling animals along the way.

It wasn't his fault he accidentally chewed through a vine that dropped a decaying tree on their Alpha! Not that he wasn't proud of the unfortunate accident, but....she did wind up getting really torn up because of it.

He left it alone and finished his carrot, just shrugging to Fluttershy and ignoring the marks on her flanks, even the ones covering her cutie marks. He figured that sort of thing probably wasn't really his business, not to mention he just didn't get it, so worrying about it would just give him a metaphorical headache.

The day continued to drone on beyond that, with Fluttershy milling around the house, conversing with the animals in her house and outside. She even treated Mr. Grizzly's chronic shoulder ache, as she usually did whenever he stopped in. One quick chiropractic session and he seemed to be good as new with a proper massage to his shoulder.

By the time the night rolled around, Angel had been fed his dinner, dessert and nightly snack that he was holding onto for later in the late evening, and Fluttershy was exhausted from tending to the needs of the animals. Some problems had been small, some problems had been large, but they were all quickly solved as was the usual case due to Fluttershy's extensive experience with her specific field of work.

With the evening winding down and her eyes getting heavy, her animals began to give her the hint that maybe it was time for bed, seeing how most of them were enjoying their dinners in the comfort of their homes within her home and around it.

With all her dishes washed thanks to the assistance of some of her animal friends, as well as having cleaned up the bathroom after a nasty little spill by a recently-born litter of kittens, she made her way upstairs to her room and got nice and tucked in for bed, fluffing her pillows before lazily flopping down on her side and fwumping her head down atop the feather down pillow.

Meanwhile....

A lone pony in a plain brown robe stood in the shadows next to Fluttershy's cottage, peeking in here and there to see what she was up to. The lavender fabric lining the outer edges of her robe made it obvious that she was one of the Harmony cultists hiding around the town. Her horn constantly fluctuated with a dim glow of magic that seemed to ripple up and down the length of it.

At the same time, deep within the Everfree Forest, a robed stallion, this time with pink-colored fabric lining the outer edges of his robe, walked purposefully through the underbrush, actively checking the trees above and the ground below, stopping whenever he found some form of animal tracks.

Hours had ticked by through the afternoon as the robed pony searched for a specific kind of track, but Timberwolves weren't known to be active unless prey wandered near. Without any biological need outside of feeding the trees in the Everfree around their dens so they had fresh wood and plant life to add to their bodies with over the years by letting bodies decompose while partially buried under the soil, they rarely had any reason to go hunting.

Rarely. But they still went hunting. They still occasionally needed corpses to bury around the trees surrounding their dens, and if they had been active in the last few days, the ground combined with the damp air thanks to the intermittent showers over the forest the last few days, should have made their tracks extremely easy to find and follow, what few there would actually be.

He stopped when he started to reach the crest of a hill he'd been climbing, far off the beaten paths that made their way through the Everfree Forest. As he stepped up next to one of the trees at the top of the hill, he felt a dull crunch under his hoof, feeling like it came from underneath the dirt he was standing on.

Taking a moment to dig up whatever it was, he gasped when he found animal bones, small bones of what seemed like a bird scattered around in the dirt.

He looked up quickly when he heard movement near the bottom of the hill he'd walked up, his eyes catching sight of movement amongst what seemed to be a large pile of old and even new wood, branches and twigs all gathered up down below like a stockpile. Then he saw them.

One, two, all the way up to ten Timberwolves formed from smaller batches of wood around the large stockpile. He thought he had the perfect, though surprising opportunity, a smile lifting the corners of her muzzle. 'Found a pack.'

The pony watching Fluttershy's house perked up suddenly, her eyes becoming alert once again. 'You finally found some?'

'Yeah. I think I'm in trouble though. There were no tracks around the den or anywhere for that matter. That means it's been a while since they've gone hunting. They need fresh nutrition for the trees around their den.'

'....How close are you to my location?'

He chuckled, lowering down into a more threatening stance as three Timberwolves approached behind him. He was the one being hunted this entire time, it seemed, and he'd had his eyes down towards the ground too much to even notice them stalking him.

'You'd never make it in time. I just need to find some kind of opening....!'

Her muscles were tense while she was hunkered down low underneath one of the windows in Fluttershy's kitchen, listening to his thoughts as he puzzled out how he would get out of the shrinking circle of Timberwolves that had taken him by surprise.

He eased his way a little to the left, then back some....and leapt as high as he could over the timberwolf furthest below him on the small hill's incline. He felt wooden teeth nip at the harder metal shoe he had on the bottom of his left forehoof, the spikes on the shoe giving it all the extra grip the physically streamlined stallion needed to bolt away from the ambush.

He didn't run at his fastest, however. No, his wings stayed right where they belonged, hidden away beneath his robe, his speed remaining just a little faster than the timberwolves to make up for their seemingly immaculate knowledge of the surrounding forest: while he had to take the time to figure out a path through the underbrush as the obstacles came to him, the timberwolves seemed to move over and around them as if they'd done so numerous times previous, giving them small chances to close the gap between him and them bit by tiny bit.

Every time he felt them right at his hindlegs, he lunged forward and ran far faster than he normally could, sprinting hard and digging his hooves into the dirt with every rapid step he took. Every breath he took was deep and purposeful, meant for nothing more than keeping his energy up as he led the timberwolves on a wild, weaving chase through the Everfree Forest.

He couldn't help but smile when he spotted the edge of the forest. This was both the moment of relief and the moment of truth for their plan: if the timberwolves refused to leave the security of the forest, their plan will have fallen apart and the entire day will be wasted.

Fortunately, these wolves proved tenacious.

The moment he made a dive over yet another dead log, the timberwolves paused for only a valuable, brief moment, before making the jump themselves and bursting out of the underbrush behind him. The large group of timberwolves rushed for the fleeing pony that constantly kept just out of their grasp.

'Nopony's around and she's asleep. Do it!'

He hopped over the fence separating Fluttershy's house from the Everfree, as well as indicating her property line, bolting straight for the front door with the timberwolves hot on his tail.

With a heaving slam of his shoulder, he bashed his way through the front door, the animals in the living room of the house going wild from the sudden disruption, Angel most of all. The bunny was awake and on the stallion's case instantly, even as he slammed the front door behind himself, locked and bolted it, then proceeded to close all of the windows he could reach.

The front door rattled and claws scraped at it wildly while he finished closing off access points, making sure the timberwolves couldn't get in and would have to force their way through the front door. It was when he stepped back into the living room that he spotted the yellow pegasus coming down the stairs, concern etched onto her features as well as fear when she spotted him.

"Ohmygoodness!" she squeaked out while lowering down closer to the floor, hiding herself behind the railing. "Wh-who are you?! Why are you in my house pleasedon'thurtme!"

The young mare's plea sent a jolt of emotional ache straight through his heart, but he knew it had to be done. This had to look like as much of an accident as possible.

He rushed towards the staircase, making Fluttershy backpedal up the stairs rapidly, her entire form trembling as he approached. "Please, you have to get upstairs with me! I-I'm being chased by timberwolves-"

A loud howl from outside the front door silenced him for only a moment, the howling making Fluttershy quiver in terror. She didn't ask anymore questions, instantly turning and running for her bedroom down the hall, past her guest bedroom.

He followed quickly and slammed the door shut and leaned his weight against it, listening for the wolves as they attacked and bashed at the front door, the animals downstairs going wild and making a cacophony of noise. Fluttershy was in the corner, trembling and cowering, her eyes wide in fear for her life.

That stab of guilt and shame hit him again right in his heart. Sometimes he was just too soft for his own good, but he knew that this was necessary. It had to be done. For the good of the entire world, not just Equestria, she and the other Elements had to die so that the world could have yet another chance at being unified through the power of the Elements of Harmony.

With a heavy heart, he took a deep breath to steel himself against his emotions.

"Come on, I can hear them breaking through the front door, I need you to help me hold the door shut!"

She stared at him, frozen in her spot, unable to move for a moment before a loud growl from down the hallway startled her into trembling action. She rushed over next to him, looking between him and the rest of the room.

"Wh-whuh-what should I do?!"

That was the last thing she said before the world instantly began to spin and grow cloudy around her, the hard and sharp pain in the side of her head along with the sudden impact of the stallion's hindhooves against her face sending her partially flying across the room.

Fluttershy crashed against the side of her bed, dazed and almost knocked unconscious. Her head didn't hurt at first, but the world spun and blurred in and out repeatedly, a wet warmth running down the side of her head.

Then the intense pain came.

Every time she tried to look around with her eyes, a sharp stabbing pain sent her vision reeling. She struggled to locate the stranger in the plain-looking robe, but she didn't see him anywhere, or any moving blurry blobs shaped like him. All she felt was the breeze of her open window.

A loud crash from downstairs made her blood run cold. They would find her. They were going to find her and they were going to kill her, tear her to pieces and drag her body back into the Everfree Forest so they could bury her at the foot of a tree!

Well....maybe that last part wouldn't be such a bad way for her body to be used. But, what about her animal friends? Would Angel be okay? Who would take care of them once she was gone? For that matter, were her animals still okay with timberwolves moving through the floor downstairs?!

She struggled to get to her hooves, using her bed as a brace to help herself at least to a sitting position. She could barely think with the world spinning and swirling around her. Her neck felt like a wet noodle, weak and wobbling her head around, swinging her vision every which-way against her will. A sudden intense feeling of nausea built in her stomach, but the adrenaline coursing through her veins forced it back down, her survival at the forefront of her thoughts.

She knew that if the timberwolves were attacking her animals, there was nothing she could do....and it made her heart ache even worse than her head did. She could barely hear her little friends downstairs, crying out from their little cages and bird homes for her, confused and utterly terrified from the huge magical predators stalking through the house, eyeing them with the murderous intent of a hungry predator.

They wanted the pony that had mockingly kept in pace with them, though really any pony would do. No matter how fast they had run, he had made sure to stay either in pace with them, letting them get close, or he ran as hard as he could to put some distance between them before slowing down again. The Alpha didn't just want to hunt, he wanted blood.

They were sniffing around, knocking things over in the kitchen, nudging chairs around in the process of locating their prey. Slowly, they began to pick up her scent,and their focus began to change when they realized that the house was permeated with her unique signature, right alongside the scent of so many animals.

Angel cowered inside of his doghouse-like home within a home, only peeking his head out from under the blanket folded up inside to see if the timberwolves were close by. When they were all in the kitchen, he bolted upstairs and darted into a small cubby hole in the wall. He made his way through the tiny passage, weaving around the small obstructions that didn't bother the mice that made the tunnel in the least before coming out underneath his owner's bed.

He almost jumped out of his skin in alarm when he heard and saw Fluttershy fall flat on her face. The house was deathly quiet now, not even movement from downstairs could be heard. Had they heard her fall? Oh, he could only pray that they didn't.

She just couldn't center her equilibrium. That stallion had bucked her so hard upside the head, she was afraid that the reason she couldn't walk straight could've been because of brain damage! She wasn't counting it out as a possible factor for her current confusion, dizziness and severe lack of balance.

There was also the fact that she was actively fighting the urge to just stay down and pass out. Her head hurt so much....was that stallion really that strong?

Angel bolted over to her when he heard claws clacking against the stairs leading up the stairs, the house so deathly quiet from the animals currently hiding in fear that every step the timberwolves took sounded thunderous in comparison. He quickly started chittering away and urging her to stand up, doing everything he could to get her moving.

'Shy was infinitely grateful that Angel had come to her. She likely would've passed out on the floor right there if he weren't so urgently pushing and pulling at her ears and fur, trying to get her attention. She struggled to her hooves, her voice shaky as a weak groan left her.

The timberwolves heard her moving around, and stalked down the hall, pushing and clawing at the guest room door on the way, searching the spare bedroom a mere three hooflengths away from her door.

"A-Angel....guide me to the w-w-window." she told him in a voice just barely below a whisper.

He stood on her aching head, quietly pulling her ears and using his voice to work her over to the window while the timberwolves tore up her spare bedroom. She reached out to the window and firmly slid it upwards, almost instantly getting the attention of the predators in the other room.

She pulled herself over the window's edge, leaning her weight forward just enough to send her plummeting side-first into the ground right as the abominations bashed the door to her room open. She whimpered in pain when she tried to get up, having easily broken a few ribs and who knew what else upon impact. She struggled, but ultimately, she couldn't manage to fight through the pain. She stayed down.

Angel didn't know what to do now. Having only suffered a few scrapes, he was on his feet immediately, but his owner wasn't getting up. The timberwolves didn't know where they were yet, but all one of them would have to do is follow the scent of the blood leaking from a gash on her head to find them, vulnerable and unable to escape outside of the house. It would be all over then.

"Ah-Angel...." she managed to breathe out, her eyes barely open. "Guh-guh geh....Mr. Bear....helped him relax yesterday, should be sleeping in the small cave near the chicken coop...." she mumbled to her pet rabbit, barely able to speak coherently through the dark haze that was rapidly taking away her vision.

He bolted for the chicken coop like he'd taken Speed, his little body jumping and weaving through the grass and leaves and broken twigs and sticks. Adrenaline fueled his dash as he rapidly passed the chicken coop and went for the larger cave-like building that had been put together by Applejack at Fluttershy's request.

He jumped on top of the sleeping bear's belly, bouncing on the softest part of the huge predator's body as much as he could to try to wake him up.

Once he started smacking at the bear's nose, he managed to rouse the creature.

He suddenly found the air squeezed out of his lungs by a powerful paw pinning him to the ground, and a loud, ear-splitting roar surrounding him on all sides. The only reason he didn't faint from the sudden surprise barrage of terror was because his mind didn't entirely fathom what was in front of him until after the initial shock was over.

Rows upon rows of big, huge, razor-sharp, nasty-looking bear teeth. His eyes were wide as saucers and he could've sworn he saw his family one more time in that moment of grim acceptance that, yes, he was about to die. He could only hope it would happen quickly, in one single, devastating chomp.

A shriek from him when it all settled in gave the bear pause. He knew that little tiny voice. He backed up from the little thing that dared to wake him from his slumber and noticed the little bunny practically paralyzed with fear in his grasp.

The bear let go of him when he realized who Angel was. He quickly tried to apologize while the trembling rabbit desperately tried to get his brain to work again.

It didn't take as long as Angel felt it did. The bear tilted his head as Angel rapidly explained in that unfathomable animal language what was going on. The large predator immediately ran out of the cave, roaring as loud as he could while charging the house. Angel quickly climbed up onto his back for safety, guiding him to where Fluttershy was while the timberwolves began to rush back out of the house upon hearing his bestial war-cry.

The timberwolves made their way outside just as the bear approached the front door, two of them lunging at the massive creature only to be easily swatted away when the bear rose up onto his hindlegs. He made himself look massive, Angel standing on his shoulder with a smug smirk, watching the group of wolves whimper after a moment of contending wills, the Alpha among them the only one not backing away.

The Alpha lunged, and was quickly put in his place by the much larger predator. With their Alpha shattered for the moment, they all took off towards the forest once again. Angel and the bear both watched as the Alpha pulled himself together a moment later, then took off towards the forest when he spotted the bear standing over him, his stance and body language threatening a repeat if the timberwolf dared to stick around.

Angel quickly told the bear where Fluttershy was, the two rushing around to the other side of the house. She laid there unconscious, but when Angel hopped onto her chest, he was thankful that she was still breathing.

Mr. Bear quickly picked her up and eased her onto his back, before Angel hopped up and they ran down the walkways to get to the nearest ponies that could help: Sweet Apple Acres.

Applejack was by far not a light sleeper. In fact, waking her up before she woke herself up was often close to impossible, short of bucking her in the gut or throwing a bucket of ice water on her head. Yes, she was a young mare that really needed her rest, but unlike Rainbow Dash, she rarely found an opportunity to so much as get an hour's nap, let alone a standard eight hours' sleep over a single night.

Farm work was tough and exhausting work, tending to fields upon fields of crops, watering them by hoof and tilling soil, bucking apple trees that made up seventy-five percent of the farm's income, not to mention all of the fees, budgeting and haggling she had to do when selling her crops for an optimal price. Then of course there was dealing with boundary issues and neighbor farmers arguing over where the property lines started and ended, just to try to get one more row of seeds planted to eke out just a slightly better profit for that year.

By the time her head found its way to her pillow at the end of the day, her bed was easily the most comfortable, most magnificent gift from Celestia herself that AJ had ever felt. It was easily the greatest double-whammy of bliss, to take a hot, relaxing bath, and then follow that up by flopping down onto a comfortable, soothing bed, no covers or anything, window wide open, and just....pass out.

So when she heard something heavy beating at her front door, it took her a few minutes to finally get halfway awake. She awoke the rest of the way when she heard Granny Smith shouting from down the hall outside of her room.

"Applejack, git on downstairs and answer the door! Dang ponies not knowin' what time it is, swear ta Celestia...."

Grumbling to herself, thoroughly irritated by her sleep being so roughly interrupted, AJ stalked slowly downstairs even as the beating on the door became more urgent.

"Ah'm comin', ah'm comin'!" she called out, reaching for the knob and pulling the top half of the door open. "Land sakes, what's-BEAR?!"

Right in front of her, the face of a huge, terrifying, yet somehow sad-looking bear was looking directly at her. Frozen in momentary fear from being mere inches away from such a hulking predator, she gave the bear enough time to back up a little and let Angel hop down from atop his head to stand on top of the bottom half of Applejack's front door.

The farmpony just barely managed to acknowledge Angel's presence before she wound up slamming the front door in the bear's face.

"A-Angel?! That you?"

The small rabbit nodded quickly, then pointed to the bear, the huge predator lowering down and turning a little to let AJ see Fluttershy's wounded and unconscious form more clearly, a kind of growling whimper heard from the bear, as if he were trying to get across what happened.

"Oh mah stars, what happ-nevermind, y'all can't speak mah language. Just, lemme take 'er inside and fix 'er up, hold on!"

AJ hefted Fluttershy onto her back after easing her down from the large predator's back, still nervous about touching the massive creature. Still, if Angel trusted him enough to let him carry Fluttershy all the way over here, she supposed she could trust the bear not to make a fuss as well.

She walked inside quickly, flicking the lights on and making a fuss of digging around for the first aid kit they kept in the house, waking up the rest of the Apples in the process, though most of them were still pretty much up and just trying to get back to sleep when she started making more noise.

Apple Bloom, being the energetic and curious filly that she was, was the first one downstairs, with Big Macintosh coming down right afterwards.

"Mmn, sis....? What's goin' on?"

"Eeyup."

"Somethin' happened to Fluttershy. Mac, help me hunt down our first aid kit!" she ordered them quickly, the stallion snapping awake almost instantly when he realized somepony had been harmed.

"Apple Bloom, y'all are familiar with the animals down at 'Shy's cottage, right?" she asked, her sister quickly nodding, becoming more aware as time went on. "A'right, well, 'Shy was brought here by a bear that she takes care of or somethin' like that. Angel's out there with 'im, but he'll probably wanna come on in, so bring the little varmint in when ya come back, an' then start preparin' th' guest bed."

It was at this point that Granny Smith started shouting from upstairs while hobbling her way down the hallway. She carefully made her way down the stairs, just in time to see Apple Bloom head out the front door in the middle of the night.

To say that that upset Granny was an understatement. Once she realized Apple Bloom was outside, her anger reached thoroughly livid proportions.

"AJ, what'd I tell ya 'bout lettin' that lil' filly wander 'round outside without no supervision at night?!"

She paid her Granny no mind, instead grabbing the first aid kit from Big Macintosh when he came back into the room and quickly getting some gauze out. Macintosh went to get a wet rag filled with hot water while AJ carefully tilted her head left and right in her hooves, checking out the damage to her head more closely.

"Applejack Jenna Apple!! You git yer flank on out there an'-....Is that Fluttershy? What's she doin' here? Is she bleedin'?"

AJ stayed silent for the moment while Granny hobbled over, her anger-ridden features softening into a genuine expression of concern for the young mare who was clearly unconscious.

Her breathing was labored, it seemed, and every breath she took had a kind of wheezing, rasping sound to it. When Granny pressed her ear to the right side of her friend's chest, she cringed when she heard a resounding crackle, the clear sound of broken ribs that managed to shatter into multiple small pieces. Suddenly, Fluttershy's wheezing and rasping breaths were explained, and she knew she had to get this young mare to a hospital pronto. She was still able to breathe okay for now, but who knew how long that would remain the status quo?

"Oh no. Big Mac, ah think she had bone fragments in 'er right lung!"

The big stallion visibly became alarmed, his pupils dilating and his entire being emanating a mix of fear and despairing rage.

"If ah ever git mah hooves on whatever or whoever hurt 'er like this....!!"

Applejack quickly asked Granny Smith to head back upstairs, since they had everything under control thus far.

"Well if'n ya wanna help, ah need ya to carry her fast as ya can go to the hospital. Jus' don't jostle her around too much, she's in a lot o' pain, an' ah can't give 'er nothin' since she's unconsc-"

Just as she began to say that, Fluttershy whimpered semi-loudly, though it quickly dropped to a pitiful whine of agony, reaching with her left hoof to try to rub at the burning pain in her chest, but that only made it feel infinitely worse.

AJ quickly patted Fluttershy's right forehoof, the mare appearing to be utterly confused and dazed, her eyes appearing to float in their sockets while she attempted to take in her surroundings.

"Now look here 'Shy, yer breathin's really got me worried, so ah'm gonna have Big Macintosh rush ya into town, so ya can git those busted ribs looked at."

Fluttershy didn't fully comprehend what the mare looming over her was saying, her hearing almost as impaired as her vision. She knew she had to say something, anything to try to relay what happened. The last thing she wanted was for somepony to be wrongly accused.

"Stuh....strange stallion...." she mumbled, her words sounding slightly slurred.

"....What?" Applejack said, lowering her head closer to her friend. "What was that about a stallion, 'Shy?"

"Stallion buh-broke....broke into house, was....being chased," she mumbled, barely able to keep herself awake by keeping her eyes open, the spinning world making her nauseous. Still, she was afraid if she fell asleep, there'd be a chance that she wouldn't wake up again. "Tuhn-timberwolves....!"

Applejack just barely made out what she was saying, and it set off alarm bells in her head.

"....What'd that stallion do to ya, sugarcube?"

The edge in AJ's voice made Big Mac go on full alert. When his sister started thinking about things like that, she could make very rash decisions. The last thing he needed her to do was to storm off after he left, going on a hunt for this random unknown stallion's head .

"Locked out the wolves, by....my bedroom. Then he tried, to-to knock me out, but I....managed to fall out of my wih-win....dow, before the timberwolves sniffed me out. Theh-then Angel ran and got Mr. Bear, but I....I passed out I think, before they came back."

Before AJ could inquire further, Angel appeared next to Fluttershy's head in a bolt of movement, the small rabbit squeaking noisily and rapidly to the dazed mare. Fluttershy seemed to be barely comprehending what Angel was actually saying to her, but when he quieted down, she smiled and gently patted the top of his head with a hoof as best she could.

"Mama's okay now, Angel...." she breathed out quietly. "No need to worry. Applejack's very trustworthy. You just stay here tonight....oh. Oh my."

Angel's eyes bulged when she looked so suddenly panicked. Applejack and Big Mac approached her, looking slightly concerned.

"What? What's wrong Fluttershy?"

"M-my animal friends....I have to go help them! They're in my house, all alone and sc-scared....!" she said, trying to pick herself up from where she was laid down.

Big Mac looked to his sister, then back to Fluttershy. Without saying anything, he lowered himself down, and Applejack helped ease the timid mare up onto his back, much to the large stallion's slight embarrassment.

Applejack sighed. "'Shy, ah'll go get the girls, and we'll go check up on yer cottage, make sure yer animals are doin' alright n' whatnot. You just git on over to the hospital an' get checked in so they can fix ya right up!"

Fluttershy whined, appearing to protest for a moment, but with one look into AJ's stern gaze, she softened and let out a deep sigh, nodding just slightly and going silent.

Big Mac wasted no time rushing Fluttershy to the hospital, the large stallion keeping to a constant jog all the way there.

Applejack, meanwhile, moved with even more urgency towards Ponyville, Fluttershy's state of being putting her thoroughly on edge. She thought back to what Twilight tried to tell them, about that incident earlier not being an accident possibly, and a shiver ran through her body.

A timberwolf attack, now of all times, the same day they all almost got crushed to death, or at the very least seriously injured? Something wasn't right. Despite the fact that Rarity's house was closer, she rushed to the library and asked the guards if she could speak to Twilight. She refused to leave until they went in to wake her up

Upon knocking on Twilight's bedroom door, they found that she'd never planned on going to sleep. She'd been up in her room all evening studying and, unfortunately, developing a nervous twitch that involved her looking out of her bedroom window for fear of some unseen killer leaping through her window and slamming a blade through her face.

AJ quickly explained the situation to Twilight, and the look on the lavender mare's face was easily one of anger, confusion and deep concern.

"So....let me get this straight: a stallion in a plain robe led timberwolves to her home, ran upstairs to hide in her bedroom with her, and when she got close enough after asking how she could help, he tried to knock her out before escaping out of her bedroom window to leave her to die??"

Applejack frowned and nodded to her friend, the two of them sharing a moment of silence while Twilight fell into a deep thought process.

For her, this was the final piece, to tip the scale. They were trying to make these deaths look like freak accidents now, unlike the attempt on her life and Spike's with the supposedly really rare poison....unless they were going to slip into the library afterwards to replace all the food. That seemed really troublesome though, so....maybe that's why they altered their strategy?

The falling of the large wooden structure on the outside of Sugarcube Corner, now timberwolves attacking Fluttershy in her own cottage....even that would've looked like a tragic accident because they never would've known about the stallion, Ponyville's Finest likely would've blamed the timberwolves for any and all of her wounds....if her body was even found.

The thought sent a chill up her spine. It was happening again. It was happening again and they were sitting ducks. Even if they got the Royal Guard involved, it only took one slip-up, one moment of unattentiveness, or one guard of low moral fiber that they could bribe, and the next day, she'd find out one of her friends had become a corpse.

She felt a tear run down her cheek when she looked at AJ, and saw a large slice across her throat, the mare's lifeless eyes staring off into the distance while her blood poured out across the floor. Then she pictured the others. Pinkie Pie crushed at the front door of her workplace. Fluttershy torn apart by timberwolves in her own bedroom.

No. No, this wasn't happening to her, to them! This just couldn't be happening again! Well, not exactly the same, but still....damn it! Not again, not ever again, the Princess promised she wouldn't allow something like this....but she couldn't blame the Princess for this. This wasn't, this couldn't have been something she could've stopped or even predicted.

Okay, that last part wasn't true. Celestia was <b>beyond</b> sneaky, and she could read ponies like open books, sometimes.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when AJ firmly shook her wither, getting the mare out of her daze.

"Hey, Twilight! Twi, what's wrong? Ya just up n' started cryin' on me here!"

When Twilight's eyes focused on her friend, a sudden and very serious look overtook her, the lavender mare wiping her eyes clean with her hooves before motioning to the front door.

"Applejack, please go tell my friends to meet me in Fluttershy's hospital room. I need to speak to all of you and it can't wait."

"But Twilight, ah just-"

Twilight grabbed her friend firmly, glaring into her eyes.

"I'm not playing around here, AJ. This is too serious. We've been attacked by a Goddess, a God of Chaos and even a tyrant King unicorn that managed to curse an entire country, but Princess Celestia and my experiences in life taught me a long, long time ago that when ponies bear ill will in their hearts towards you, you should fear them like you fear the fury of the Sun!" she almost shouted at her friend, Applejack visibly unnerved by the grim aura her friend was giving off.

"Now please AJ, just go get Pinkie and have her help you round up the others and wait for me at the hospital! Besides, I need you all to stick together to keep an eye out in case they plan on doing something horrible there while Fluttershy can't defend herself."

"But Twi, what about yo-oh, right." she said, her gaze locking on one of the guards in the room.

"Exactly. So go, please!"

One of the guards cleared their throat. "I can accompany her if you so desire, Lady Sparkle."

"Please do. You don't mind, right AJ?"

She seemed to think about it for all of a few seconds before nodding to her friend.

"Can't argue with a helpin' hoof," AJ said, adjusting her Stetson atop her head while walking past the guard, who turned to follow. "C'mon then. Hope yer cardio's fine in that armor, we're makin' a dash for Carousel Boutique, then Sugarcube Corner!"

Twilight waited until they left to let the tears fall anew, the remaining guards looking unsure about the current situation. So, they did what they were trained and ordered to do: they went back to their posts.

Twilight quickly rushed up to her room, grabbing her saddlebags and moving rapidly around the room, her hooves digging through drawers while her magic collected papers from other locations they'd been hidden away in, along with a lot of personal items from under her bed.

She grabbed her Royal Pass for the train, and several personal documents pertaining to her own personal royal bank account, something she hadn't touched in years. She already had a plan that was as outrageous as it was necessary, all of her calculations demanded a course of action this extreme. She didn't know how she was going to convince her friends to go along with it, especially Applejack given her obligations more than anyone else's rested in Ponyville, but it had to be done.

That wasn't what was making her cry though. For a good long while, a lavender mare curled up on the floor of her room and had herself a good old-fashioned breakdown as her situation assaulted her with memories of a time long past that she'd much rather have never revisited.

This was all happening so fast. Too fast! Too fast for her to be able to deal with this sensibly, if sensibility even had a place in a situation like this.

She didn't have enough time to let it pass though, she'd just have to deal with it. A quick look at the clock told her only ten minutes had ticked by, the young mare pulling herself up from the floor as a feeling of urgency and a deep desire to keep her friends safe brought her mind into an intense focus.

"Not again....it's not going to happen again. I can do something about it this time!"

She quickly threw the stuffed saddlebags over her back and tied them around her barrel, and rushed downstairs, the guards moving in formation at her sides to the hospital. This plan would work. It had to work, she would do anything to make this work.

'Just please, for the love of Celestia, let me make it work in time!!'

4 - Drastic Measures

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Chapter 4 - Drastic Measures

written by Fire Soul and Samantha Sprocket

It wasn't until the very next day that she'd actually gone and left for Canterlot, her friends (minus the hospital-ridden Fluttershy) having talked her into staying with them at the library one more night before she left for her stay in Canterlot. They all promised to do as she'd told them, giving her at least a small bit of relief as she'd boarded the train.

The quiet beep of Spike's heart monitor filled the train car, the entire caboose of the train requisitioned both for heightened security as well as packing in all the equipment necessary to keep Spike alive and as well as he could possibly be all things considered. His small draconic claw was holding Twilight's hoof, the mare staying by his side during the entire ride, every little bump making the young dragon grimace from sharp jolts of pain to his insides.

She slowly laid her head down over where his legs were, the majority of his body covered up by fairly thin bedsheets. Even though he was incapable of speech for the moment, he reached down to lightly pet down over the top of her head, earning him an understanding smile from his caretaker.

She was worried about him still, he knew it. She'd put up a good front up until they'd loaded him onto the train. He found it funny that the moment he first winced in pain when the train jostled him in the bed, she started darting around the instruments to check for any abnormalities. He'd known that she was basically self-taught beyond the basics about medical terminology and biology that the Princess had tutored her on, and he trusted her to know exactly what she was doing when she began to fiddle with some of the machines.

She smiled up at him when she felt his clawed hand petting through her mane, his familiar
touch a source of comfort for the distraught pony at the moment. It was nice to know that her little brother was still worried about her well-being even now, when he's the one stuck in a hospital bed.

Noting her bloodshot eyes and the tired look in her eyes, he pointed to the couch nearby with a more neutral expression, then pointed to her. She tilted her head at him in confusion for a moment, but then her tired mind hit the power and let a few gears turn.

He smiled when she smiled at him, the tired mare moving away from Spike's secured bed, resisting the urge to return to his side when he groaned in pain from another hard jostle along the tracks.

Twilight slumped down onto the couch with a sigh, her body's aches finally becoming very apparent once her muscles finally went slack. Joints ached, muscles protested their unjust treatment, and her mind was screaming 'FINALLY!' and flooding itself with the unstoppable desire to sleep.

As she laid her head down and closed her eyes, her thoughts returned to her friends in Ponyville, and their reaction to the news she gave them....

"What?! Protective custody?"

"Darling, why-"

"And you're running off to Canterlot on top of all that?!"

"Girls...."

"Twi, ah can't be under lockdown! Ah got a farm t'take care of!"

"Girls!"

Twilight just sat, shrinking away from her friends, specifically Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, as they shouted at her.

Fluttershy tried to get them to back off, but being bound to bed with her head wrapped up and an ice pack against the back of her head and neck, she was an unfortunate sight. Still, she was far better off than most. Certainly, she was better off than Spike right now!

Rarity refused to let up on her, however. She and the others were very upset at Twilight's desire to put them under protective custody, which could very well restrict them to their houses until a more permanent solution arose.

"Twilight, I regularly have to go to Canterlot to meet with and speak with various high-profile clients! If I am restricted to my own home, why....I-I could be put out of business! How could you even think of doing such a thing to me?!"

"Not to mention I wouldn't be able to continue my flight training! If I can't leave my house, the best I can do is wing-ups and various stretches and stuff. I'd totally get all soft and flabby, plus I'd get really rusty with my stunts and tricks!"

"Mah farm would wind up goin' under eventually without me there! Granny can't do any applebuckin', an' Big Macintosh can only do so much....Apple Bloom's too young....no, no way Twilight, ah can't let'cha-"

"GIRLS!!"

They all went silent, the frowning but very adamant Twilight turning her attention to the wounded Fluttershy, who rubbed the side of her head after shouting loud enough to get the attention of her friends.

"Twilight....you had more to say, right....? Because I, well, I have to take care of my animals, and I can't do that very well from the safety of my cottage....so, um, please....if you could maybe, e-explain what else you had in mind....?"

Twilight took a deep breath after that, all of her friends looking to her expectantly. She really wanted to tell them exactly what she had in mind, but it was too risky. She didn't want to give them a chance to argue against the idea. No, she had to give them no other options. Fortunately, she'd already put plenty of thought into what could be done to alleviate their concerns.

"Applejack, I fully intend to talk to the Princess to get a royal stipend set up that would allow you to pay an employee or three to do your work in your place. If she can't allow that....I'll take money out of my own royal account to do so for you."

"What?! Twi, ah can't-"

"It would be my fault you can't work, it would be my responsibility to fix the problem."

She and Applejack shared a very firm, silent stare, looking into each other's eyes for what seemed like an entire minute before the farmpony backed down.

"Twi....a-ah don't know what t'say, ah mean, this seems really...."

She didn't give AJ much more time to think on it, turning her attention immediately to the timid pegasus laid back in the bed next to her.

"Fluttershy. I'll try to get a new caretaker hired and moved to Ponyville to do the outside work and shopping for you. One employee working an entire animal sanctuary on her own isn't supposed to be allowed by the government anyways, no matter the size. You should've had an assistant a long time ago."

"W-well, really, the animals usually assist me...."

"Still, another should be there to help you in case you fall ill, among other things."

"Oh, u-um, okay...."

She turned her attention to Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow Dash next. She quickly focused her gaze on Pinkie, since she was easiest to deal with.

"I know you won't really be able to throw anymore parties Pinkie, but you can still help the Cakes with work, as long as they're okay with customers being checked by the guards at the doors. I'll talk to them about it before I leave."

"Fine with me! I can put my parties on hold if it'll make Twilight feel better! Not to mention if somepony kills me, I won't be able to make ponies smile more, and Rarity wouldn't be able to make her dresses, and-and Rainbow Dash wouldn't get to be in the Wonderbolts, and....y'know girls, why are we arguing with her?"

They all stared wide-eyed at Pinkie for a moment, the pink mare looking over to Rarity with a grin. "You do all your work from inside your house anyways, just like me! Plus Rainbow Dash, you'd always be up in the sky! As long as you don't go too far away from the guards, I'm sure you could afford to leave your house to practice."

They all looked between each other for a moment, their gazes lacking confidence in the resolve some of them had built up, their knee-jerk reaction to suddenly being restricted to their homes seeming foolish now compared to guaranteeing their safety.

After a long, extensive moment of silence, Twilight decided to speak up once more.

"Girls, I know this seems....really extreme-"

"Not really, Fluttershy almost died. I'd totally expect this from you Twilight." Rainbow said quickly.

"-BUT....I need you all to trust me on this. I don't...."

Fluttershy's eyes fluttered open from their closed state, the timid pegasus still feeling very tired from her ordeal.

"I just keep seeing one horrible scenario after another every time I close my eyes, some different way they might get one of you! Poison, animal attack, buckling structural braces bringing your barn down on top of you Applejack, an errant lightning bolt hitting you mid-flight, Rainbow Dash....!"

"Twilight, please! We get it darling, calm down!"

"No, you don't get it!"

They all recoiled from that, Fluttershy cowering behind her own mane. Even Twilight seemed jolted by her tone, her ears flattening against her skull and her head ducking lower in a mix of shame and worry towards the possibility of being yelled at by the resident nurses. Fortunately, this didn't come to pass.

"Sorry. Sorry girls, I didn't....just please, trust me with this. I just need one month, and I'll have a much better final solution ready for this whole thing. That's all I need, just one month."

They looked amongst each other, all six of them, the final conclusion coming quickly, with Applejack's hoof resting down atop Twilight's shoulder, patting it a few times.

"Ah think I speak for all of us when ah say that we understand why yer askin' us ta go through with this. Yer not th' only one that's scared sugarcube, I'd be lyin' through mah teeth if ah bothered to try an' convince anypony in here that ah ain't scared o' ponies tryin' ta kill me when I don't expect 'em."

"It's just that it's kind of sudden, and extreme for us. At least, I think so...." Fluttershy said to them, rubbing the side of her head and laying her head back slowly.

Twilight nodded a little to her friend, then turned to leave the room. "I need to go get ready. I know you're all apprehensive, but I just....can't let this happen, to any of you," she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "I'm going to fix this."

Her friends just looked to each other as she left, feeling condemned to being imprisoned in their own homes. They didn't like it, but they knew just as much as they couldn't dissuade Twilight from this decision that this was entirely necessary for their safety.

Twilight, however, was utterly determined to do far more than just keep them safe. "I have to fix this....!"

That was the conversation leading to their sleepover last night, though Twilight felt that it had been much longer. She wished it was longer still before they arrived in Canterlot, but she knew she couldn't avoid presenting her ludicrous plan to her teacher for much longer.

That was the whole reason for this trip after all, this crazy plan of hers. It was easily the boldest thing she'd ever decided to do in order to take care of what she felt was the worst of possible problems.

The train slowly lurched to a stop as they arrived in Canterlot's train station. She stepped away from Spike when the doctor and nurses came in.

It was a surprisingly vague spectacle, having a royal escort watching over them as she walked with Quick Cure up to the castle, the trip taking around ten minutes after a quick ride in a carriage straight to the castle's front steps.

"Why are you here, by the way?" she asked, turning her attention to the doctor, who was doting over Spike's various medical machines.

Quick Cure moved away from him as they wheeled him into the castle and moved quickly for the Medical Wing. With his attention turned away from his patient, he focused moreso on the next important individual: his patient's caretaker.

"I believe in forming bonds, Lady Sparkle. I am his doctor, I know the most about his case and I'm the one that operated on him. I should be the one that continues to treat him regardless of the situation."

She just stared at the doctor as they walked along, Cure's notepad and quill scribbling away rapid-fire next to his head. Then she chuckled and just shook her head.

"If I weren't such a scientist, I'd say your timing in coming to Ponyville is nothing short of Providence!....However, I know Princess Celestia. At least now I know what I want to ask her first when I reach her."

"Oh, you're here to speak to the Sun Diarch? I thought you'd come along simply to oversee your assistant's transfer from Ponyville to Canterlot's Royal Hospital."

"Huh, not many ponies call her that anymore," she said, a quiet sigh escaping her. "Y-yes, well, we have a few....very important things to discuss. You'll probably hear about it in around a month or so. Talk to you another time, Quick!"

"Er, sure, al....right, then."

Twilight was off at a brisk pace before he even had a chance to say goodbye to her.

It didn't take much time for Twilight to reach the Princess's chambers. The guards recognized her immediately, and since the standing orders were to treat Twilight as a guest of the Princesses at all times, they immediately nodded to her and let her knock on the door.

"Enter!"

The guards were already in the process of moving to open the door for Twilight by the time the Princess spoke up from the other side.

Within, the familiar opening sight of the pristine Princess Celestia could be witnessed, leaning over a table covered in legal papers. Tax reform requests, nobles whining about their neighbor or not being able to afford a five-star vacation instead of four....until somepony like Twilight showed up, somepony important, many days those papers were Celestia's entertainment, and Twilight knew it. Nobles could be downright hilarious sometimes, with the things they whined about!

She could never not be happy to see Celestia! Both mares were quick to move, one towards the desk and the other away from it, both of them meeting closer to the center than anything else.

A quick nuzzle as a greeting later, and they were quickly catching up on recent events. For Twilight, however, their small talk was mostly an act, and Celestia seemed to pick up on this. Quickly.

"Now then, Twilight....this visit is certainly a sudden one. I can only imagine it has something to do with what happened to Spike for you to rush him here so urgently," she said, motioning towards the bathroom. "A moment to ourselves sounds like a good idea. Care to join me?"

Ah, the baths that the royal suites had. Obviously every room in the castle, even for Ambassadors, couldn't incorporate the special traits of the mountain's internal, hot spring water supply. The water itself seemed to have a certain rejuvenating effect all its own, so even the Princesses didn't get to use such water for their daily bathing, but when entertaining company or after a very hard day's work, it often became something they awarded themselves.

Not to mention, it was a great way to just kick back and relax with a friend or two!

She and Celestia had often taken time at least twice a week to just relax together, discussing Twilight's most recent studies and lesson plans as the Princess's student while she was growing up, and even as a filly they often bathed together. She'd grown out of the habit as she'd gotten older, and instead just used the royal baths as a place to rest and relax with one of the most important ponies in her life.

It only took a little over two or three minutes to siphon in the water from the mountain's internal hot spring, the distinct scent of minerals wafting into the air of the bathroom as the steaming hot water beckoned both of them.

Celestia entered first, a deep sigh leaving her as she sunk her larger form down into a laying position in the large spa. Twilight moved in next to her, taking a seat a very short distance away from the Princess.

For a time, only the gentle sound of the magic runes humming within the construction of the tub itself could be heard, quietly swirling the water around them and gently buffeting their bodies with wide streams coming from various directions.

Twilight was the first to break the silence, which was in and of itself unusual between them. Whenever Twilight was so urgent about talking to her, she always became very subdued and nervous about voicing whatever the problem was in Celestia's presence. The fact that Twilight showed little hesitation in this matter told her just how important this really was to her.

"Did you hear about what happened yesterday?"

Celestia perked up.

"Hm? What happened Twilight?"

Celestia could almost see Twilight's face pale as she got lost in her thoughts. She quickly snapped herself out of it though, making the Princess blink when they gazes suddenly locked, Twilight's eyes carrying a somber tone to them, the life within dimmed and afraid.

"When we were all leaving Sugarcube Corner, the decorations and the sign over the entrance fell and almost crushed all of us. We only managed to get out of the way thanks to Pinkie's weird Sense and my magic."

"My goodness! Twilight, I'm-"

"That's not all," she said quickly, making Celestia instantly go silent. "They almost killed Fluttershy, in her own home."

Celestia's figure went rigid at that news. Her stern, alarmed gaze said all it needed to.

"She's doing better now. Moderate concussion and a broken rib, couple of bone fragments in the wall of her lung. They fixed her up quick, she just has to take it easy for a while. Pretty neat that magic allowed them to remove those bone fragments without having to open her up! Just some tiny incisions, and they could ease them out through the small slits in her skin."

"I am....very sorry to hear that, Twilight. If I had known....!"

"I came here to ask you if you could do something, or several somethings, to help me."

"You know there's very little I would ever deny you, Twilight. You have but to ask, especially when it comes to your friends and the safety of their lives!"

Twilight seemed very tense at that point, looking away from the Princess and staring down into the wavy water, becoming pensive as time passed. The silence grew between them once more.

Should she show Celestia exactly what she planned to do? She'd spent all of her time since Spike had been hospitalized trying to think of ways to keep herself safe, and she always came back to the same problem: being in one location.

The issue of being ambushed and killed before knowing what happened was the main problem, but the only solution she could see that actually worked with any degree of guaranteed, repeating success was keeping on the move, as much as possible. Every time she remained stationary in her mental scenarios, she could easily move the evil little creatures and things into position around her and they would just....tear her to shreds before she even had a chance to defend herself.

The same issue became even more serious once her friends became involved. The solution remained the same: they had to keep moving. She had to tell Celestia of her plan if she was ever going to make it happen within a single month.

She took a deep breath and met the Princess's gaze. "I need a crash course in martial and magic combat, along with a refresher course on military doctrine and protocol."

Celestia stared at her student for a moment, unsure if she'd heard the lavender mare correctly. Was she...?

"Twilight....you are of course aware that getting a few quick lessons in martial discipline, or joining the Royal Guard-"

"What? No, that's not my intention. Besides, according to what I understand of Equestrian law, us Element Bearers are already considered a part of the military forces keeping Equestria safe, we're just ambiguous at the moment."

Celestia stared at her student for a moment, the silence lasting for only a few seconds.

I must trust her. She will reveal her plans, if she believes she can trust me with this.

Celestia took a deep breath with her eyes closed, looking to her student with a faint, serene smile a moment later.

"....Very well, Twilight. What about the lessons on military protocol and doctrine?"

"That....well, once we're done in here, I have something I need to give to you. Well, that and a list."

They shared a long silence together, Celestia looking down to the lavender mare who seemed fully intent on avoiding her gaze. She was beyond nervous. Celestia knew that Twilight was afraid she would say no.

Her student had proven to be dependable and forthcoming about almost everything that she'd put in front of the studious young mare. Whatever this was, she was sure she could trust Twilight's wisdom.

"Very well, Twilight. For now though, let us simply enjoy ourselves as best we can, given the circumstances."

It was an awkward silence that enveloped them, or so Twilight felt. Celestia seemed unfazed by the current situation. That was just her mask though: Twilight had gotten to know at least a large part of the mare beneath. She knew that Celestia was trying to think of a way to break away from the awkward atmosphere that seemed to be smothering them both.

"So Twilight."

"Hm?"

She looked away for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. She was trying to think of a way to properly word her question.

"....Are you alright?"

Twilight frowned and stared down at the water. Was it that obvious that something was really bugging her? Well, moreso that she was just feeling apprehensive. Fearful.

"Well....I'm feeling nervous-"

"No," Celestia gently said, placing a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Not right now. I'm talking about the events leading to this meeting."

"But I don't-"

Celestia quickly lowered herself down to be eye-to-eye with her student.

"Twilight."

"Yes....?"

The lavender unicorn's gaze couldn't be more erratic. She looked scared, afraid of what was happening to her. She'd already been getting agitated with the silence, and her teacher had chosen the perfect time to try to get under the surface of her thoughts.

Celestia stepped closer, placing a hoof over her withers. "Twilight....have you opened up to your friends about what happened?"

Twilight twitched. "O-of course! We all sat down and talked about it, we-"

"You were one bite of food away from dying."

Twilight went silent instantly, her head hanging low to the water. Celestia could feel her entire body beginning to shake like a leaf.

"I know you have faced danger before Twilight, but not like this. When Nightmare Moon struck, she wished to toy with your mind, break you. The same goes for Discord. Only Chrysalis seemed intent on harming you directly, and even then, she never got the chance," she muttered, resting a hoof on Twilight's wither. "This was not something you could face. This was something that snuck up on you, and attempted to end you without giving you a single chance for survival. It was not something that you or your friends could face, and this fact has not changed."

Twilight's tears began to join the water, disappearing beneath the undulating waves of the spa, her withers quaking with the silent, barely-restrained sobs of a terrified mare.

"Why are you suh-saying all that?! Please stop!"

"No."

Twilight's sadness quickly shifted to anger. She turned suddenly and backed away from the Princess, having rarely ever heard such harshness in her tone. Celestia knew what this was doing to her, why was she pushing it?

"What do you mean, 'no'?!"

"Because you are afraid."

She said it so matter-of-factly that Twilight couldn't bring herself to refute it, mostly because it was true. She wasn't just afraid, she was terrified. This was the only safe option. It was either this, or doom herself and her friend's futures to the fickle nature of pure chance. It was pure chance that Spike took a bite of food before she did, after all.

"....But why are you pushing me on it if you already know....?"

"Because I know you, and I was there when it happened, Twilight. I know you haven't approached your friends about this, not all of it. You have put up a front, as you did when you were a little filly. I also know that that incident has everything to do with why you're here, alone, without your friends."

Celestia took a small step closer to her student, the young mare shrinking back, as if this Princess she trusted with her life had just attempted to strike her.

Twilight didn't know why she was panicking. She felt cornered, laid bare and helpless before her teacher, and there was nothing she could do about it. Celestia had blitzed her, and she was utterly unprepared to handle what she was feeling. It had gotten buried so deep that she thought if she just kept busy it would stay there, but right out of left field, the one pony that knew her best was ripping it right out of her and making her face it, whether she liked it or not.

Her body shook violently, like a foundation crumbling under the weight. Even as the tears began to flow unrestrained and she cried like a little filly that had just the absolute worst nightmare about the monster under her bed, she wondered how she could possibly hold up to the strain the next month and beyond was going to bring her if this was all it took to make her crack.

She felt deceptively powerful forelegs envelop her, the sound and feel of perfectly-kept wings moving around her giving her a deep-rooted feeling of safety and trust as the Princess's warm body seemed to surround her own. Her withers quaked with every sob, every hiccup and sniffle that sounded off as the floodgates tore open and her forelegs gripped around Celestia's middle and clung for dear life to her.

The Princess couldn't help but shed a few tears herself, feeling her strong, smart and confident student reduced to such a terror-ridden mess. It broke her heart to hear Twilight crying so, but there was little she could do to avoid it. Right now, it was best to help her student past this, so she wouldn't break under the strain of it all later.

"Yes, I'm scared, I'm so scared....!" she struggled to say. "I thought that if I just....k-kept wuh-*sob*-working that I wouldn't have to think about any of that....!"

She gently ran a hoof up and down Twilight's back while the young mare buried her face in her teacher's perfect, immaculate coat of fur, right at her chest. She would have felt bad about ruining Celestia's fur, given the kind of attention needed to keep it in such a state, but her teacher wasn't complaining, and it just felt so good right now....so safe.

The Princess stayed there with her for however long it took, gentle caresses and calm words accompanied by the intense sobbing and wailing of a lavender unicorn that had been reminded of and terrified by events both past and present.

Twilight felt tired, but much lighter once it was all over, a noisy and unladylike sniffling vaguely echoing through the bathroom as she backed out of the Princess's grasp. She took a few deep breaths to try to calm herself down, the Princess waiting patiently for her to collect herself before speaking up.

"I assume you feel a bit better now?"

Twilight faintly laughed, barely able to hold a smile for a second before it fell away.

"Nnnnot as much as I wish I felt better."

Celestia just smiled at that and nodded. "I do apologize for that, Twilight. Anypony that knows you could have easily seen how nervous you were. When it comes to having one's loved ones at mortal risk, I couldn't let your fears influence your decisions."

Twilight quickly shook her head, rubbing the tears from her eyes before looking up to her.

"If I wasn't afraid, I wouldn't be approaching you about this! I know this is a big decision, but it has to happen."

The Princess quickly nodded to that, standing in the tub and walking over towards the short steps leading out of it.

"I know you well enough to believe that, as well! Now then, let's take a look at those papers you brought me...."

Twilight quickly followed her mentor and dried off, the comparatively quick soak in the spa-like bath doing more to release the tension in her muscles than she thought. Or, maybe letting out all of those pent-up emotions did more for her than she thought, either way.

Once they were back in the main room, Celestia took hold of the two papers that Twilight levitated out of her own saddlebag, reading over the information contained within. Her eyes slowly widened as she made it to the end of the first page, then quickly switched to the list Twilight had put together.

Twilight sat there, nervous and unsure as to what Celestia would say. It was such an outrageous thing to ask for, so out-of-nowhere and of such a grand scale....how could she ever have expected the Princess to acquiesce to her request?

"I-I know that it's a lot to ask for-"

Celestia held up a hoof and took a deep breath, then smiled widely.

"This is a very big decision, Twilight. You would be using almost every last Bit in your personal treasury. Are you sure you want to fund this?"

Twilight stared into her mentor's eyes, swallowing hard before answering her.

"It's....the only answer that guaranteed any semblance of safety for myself and all of my friends. I-I can keep them safe with this, just please, please let me do this!"

Celestia nodded slowly. "Very well, Twilight. Work will begin immediately!"

"Will it be ready by the end of the month?!"

Celestia looked up to the ceiling in thought, exhaling slowly while she crunched a few numbers in her head. She looked back to Twilight with a quick nod.

"I am fairly sure that it should be done by the end of the month. Perhaps a little before, but I assume you can make the most of the time."

Twilight sighed and seemed to visibly slump in relief, glad that this, at the very least, was going right for her. It was the first step, the only way she could guarantee any amount of safety for them, and it was actually happening....quite literally, she could say 'thank Celestia' and mean it as a personal thank you instead of a saying like most ponies used her name.

"Th-thank you so much, Princess! With all of that out of the way, I have to admit, I'm feeling really exhausted. If there's nothing else, I'd really like to go to my room and get some sleep."

"Well, there is one thing, Twilight....you forgot it, when you made your list."

"Hm? Wh-what, what'd I forget?"

Celestia chuckled softly. "Well...."