> Limits of Mercy
>  by Beware The Carpenter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1 - Depart
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun’s rays painted the morning sky above Canterlot, meandering their way casually from house to house until they peaked gently through a window of a home and onto the face of Rainbow Dash. Setting to work immediately, the rays began poking at her through her eyelids as she tried to swat them away, but they danced merrily around this futile effort and continued until they had succeeded in waking her up. Though initially irritated at being woken from such a pleasant dream, Rainbow was handsomely compensated when she realized her situation hadn’t changed much, except now it was real. She was still being cradled in the sleeping, affectionate hooves of her sleeping husband, Silent Storm.

Her efforts to sit up snagged momentarily when she realized part of her mane was lodged in Storm’s teeth, from where he’d been nibbling it while he slept. He gave grunt as she disconnected herself, then rolled over to go back to sleep as Dash pecked him on the cheek and then jumped out the window.

Gaining a small amount of altitude, Dash chose several large clouds and plunged through the center of them; soaking herself with droplets which almost instantly evaporated as she went in for another dive, cleaning her of last night’s sweat. The effect was much the same that earth ponies and unicorns got from using showers, except the pegasi way was more awesome and didn’t require inventing plumbing inside cloudhouses. Rainbow had tried showers before; but never really enjoyed them until after she was married. To Rainbow Dash, indoor showers had nothing to do with getting clean. 

Once finished, Rainbow began taking an easy flight around Canterlot looking down at her house; two stories of wood and stone, one story of compacted cloud, and a lifetime of stories for herself and her family. 

After three years of active service as a Ranger, Dash had told Storm that she was pregnant and they both retired to Canterlot to start their new lives. Rainbow Dash still had piles of bits stored up from when she was a Wonderbolt, which she’d never had the time to blow, and Storm had sixteen years of accumulated army pay, which had been almost untouched by his previously ridiculously spartanic lifestyle and accumulating high interest. This was good because it let them both take a few years off to get a grip on this whole parenting business.

Needless to say, when the former leader of The Wonderbolts vanished without a trace, resurfacing spontaneously three years later, married to a stallion, pregnant, with twins, caused no small stir among Canterlot media and bounties were put out for photos of the fledgling family. Unfortunately for the paparazzi, they were annoying, and Storm had fifteen years’ experience hunting changelings and slitting their throats before they could scream. 

The paparazzi never knew what hit them.

When it became clear that privacy wouldn’t be given for the asking, Storm began taking their cameras. He collected over two hundred of them while Dash was pregnant, and a hundred more in the week after Sky Fire and Sky Blaze were born until one lucky young journalist Featherweight, (who just happened to be dating Scootaloo at the time,) was given an exclusive series of photo-shoots. After this the siege loosened considerably, kicking up again only briefly when Tungsten was born, after which they donated the entire camera collection to a charity auction to make room for a nursery.

As Dash kept accelerating, a slight twinge began playing up on her right wing; causing her to slow to a more comfortable pace. Just a few months after joining Storm in the Everfree Forest, a bad miscalculation had cost her a broken wing. Storm did what he could to fix it, but it didn’t set right and by the time they finally took it to Zecora, she’d needed to re-break it in order to set it again. 

The result might have been a success, but Dash tried to get back into the air a week earlier than instructed and paid with a third and final break which never fully healed. She could still fly, well enough to most pegasi, but pain was now the permanent rowdy neighbor to her left wing, which crashed any party it tried to throw.

But that was OK. 

A broken wing wasn’t the only thing that had happened to her during those first few months with Storm. It was a big adjustment period for both of them, and it went pretty rocky at first, but it was also the time when Rainbow Dash learned how to be happy. The secret was to just focus on the good bits of life and ignore the rest.

Like her time with the Wonderbolts for instance; at the time their stupidity had seemed unbearable, but now she could look back and laugh at the demented, twisted little world that their minds had lived in. Or that time when they’d lost Twilight and everyone was trying to save her; virtually everything about that time sucked dirt, except how awesomely jealous Storm had gotten when she’d needed to go undercover with Shining Armor posing as newlyweds.

When Rainbow got back to the house, the bed was empty and Storm was in the bathroom brushing a comb through a mane which for the last few years had been rapidly adding to its collection of silver hairs, breaking its previously monotonous obsession with black. (Rainbow Dash didn’t have any grey hairs of course. Those six bottles of hair color in the bathroom cupboard next to the baby oil were there for an… art project she’d gotten the idea for a few years ago, and hadn’t gotten around to yet… and never would.) 

Not that there was anything wrong with having grey hairs of course; they added a nice doyen touch to his face that she hadn’t seen before. It was very nice actually; maybe she should just… go turn the shower on and see how long it took things to steam up… after breakfast.

It was still morning, no point in wearing themselves out before it was even noon.


	………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..


Storm teleported into the kitchen and found his wife rearing on her hind legs to get some cereal from the top cupboard; “Good morning” he hummed, kissing her behind the ear, “Do you have any student’s today?”

“Nope; I’m free for the whole week.” Storm smiled, kissing Dashie more aggressively, “I’m hungry.” 

“Me too.” Smiled Storm, leaning her backwards against the bench.

Storm reached down, but Rainbow caught his hoof and passed it back to him, “Seriously, I wanna eat breakfast.”

“…Alright” Storm dropped begrudgingly back to all fours and turned away, only to feel Dashie’s tail brush against his face, “Later” she promised, smacking his rump and then flying across the table before he could counterattack. Storm sighed, hoping that ‘later’ would be before Twilight showed up, and spent the whole day sulking around because she didn’t have anything else to do, and searched for something to occupy his time, eventually settling on the newspaper in front of the door. Putting a pot of coffee on with his magic took a seat, scanned the headline and froze.

The initial surprise wore off after a moment and Storm tore the page open; reading every word article carefully before relaxing again, pouring his coffee. The article regaled in mostly accurate detail the recent arrests of several members of a cartel trying to make counterfeit quartz out of diamond. Storm’s involvement was entirely absconded, as it should have been. 

After he became a father; Storm’s priorities had changed, but he couldn’t sit around the house all day doing nothing; and hunting targets was the only thing he’d ever really learned how to do. By the time the twins had settled into a semi-regular sleeping routine, Storm had marshaled enough knowledge of Canterlot’s surrounding to begin bounty hunting. 

A policy he had made few exceptions to was never hunting anything that could be dangerous to his family and so for the most part he’d done little more than chase down petty vandals or punks who’d robbed a milk bar at knife point. There was no glory in it and little dedication, but it kept him from getting bored and furnished a little extra income; though most of the contracts that paid well were not off limits since Shining Armor had officially blackballed him from taking government contracts. 

Not that that really mattered though; Dashie was still known for her flying and did intensive one-on-one tutoring for the children of nobles, for which she charged some obscene and constantly changing figure; but Storm knew she didn’t do it for the money. It wasn’t for the beauty of flight either. She just liked yelling at spoilt rich kids all day; seeing how much she could get their parents to pay her for it was just icing on the cake.

Storm flipped to the next page.


……………………………………………………………………………………………………………


Alarm bells started ringing from the castle. A look out the window showed the castle was a flurry of activity; from all corners of Canterlot, off duty Royal Guards were rushing in, while scores of pegasi messengers were flying out. Whatever was going on was probably big, but Shiny would take care of it, and this really wasn’t her business; na, screw that, she was curious now.

Dash stepped out the window and circled, thirty wing beats brought her above the castle walls, where it took three heartbeats for her to realize the grey cloud rising from Ponyville; Scootaloo’s house, and the last known location of her children. 

Dash needed to know what had happened; she tried waving down a few of the messengers that were bussing around her but none of them stopped, so she decided to tackle one to the ground and then ask nicely. She chose a nice small pegasus about forty feet below her and angled a dive towards her shoulder blades and was half way to intercepting when she saw a guard she actually knew, talking to Storm outside their house. The lucky little pegasus flew by, oblivious to her close call, and Dash fell to Storm’s side to listen in on Gust who stopped mid-sentence when he saw her; glanced towards Storm and then started again.

“Buffalo attacked Ponyville last night; don’t know which tribe, don’t know why. They burned the town and took as many ponies as hostage as they could and are now running them on a forced march into the desert. Lists of who was killed, captured or escaped are being assembled; Shining Armor and his Sun Guard are heading out to intercept them in the Sunstrider and leave in forty minutes.” Gust looked between Dash and Storm, “Look, I know  you two are both former Royal Guard, and your kids were at Youtherd, but Celestia is urging everyone to remain calm and not to take things into their own hooves. Shining Armor’s got this, OK.”

“Of course.” Said Storm quickly.

“Let us know the minute there’s more news.” Pleaded Dash, “Promise!”

Gust nodded, then bolted back off to wherever he was going; Storm and Rainbow Dash went back inside; neither of them speaking a word. The next minutes passed agonizingly slow for Rainbow Dash; more than anything in the world, they wanted to leave that moment and track her kids down to the ends of the earth, but they needed to be patient: 

This would probably be a long journey and packing supplies now would be much better than foraging on the way, but even with pre-prepared bug out bags, nothing seemed fast enough. They needed to pack the supplies, and the camping equipment, and their weapons, and their armor, and some first aid kits, and sundries; they needed to check it all, and then they had to write some notes to her students for next week telling them to bugger off, and then they needed to give them to Sky Blaze’s pet falcon Allegiant, and they needed to lock the house!

It was almost eight and a half minutes before they were out the door!

> 2 - Blast From the Future
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------



Ice can burn. Sofas can read. It’s a big universe.

                                                                                                                                                           Name expunged.





Crackle Jack landed at the ‘bottom’ of the water tunnel; right way up, unhurt, and suspiciously dry. A giant neon sign was in front of him, flashing with a pretty pegasus mare and the words ‘Crackle Jack’s sleepy room’ pointed towards a door a few steps away. He looked at the mare for a few moments, then tentatively opened the door, and regretted his earlier request for a 'surprise'. 

Beneath him was a flight of stairs, leading ‘down’ to the roof of a lavish bedroom, the floor of which was stuck to the ceiling. The bed, (glued to the roof with what could be honey and shaped like a giant waffle,) was suspended above a bladed pendulum that ‘hung’ from the chandelier, which likewise stood inexplicably erect from the floor. Hundreds of eyeballs, of various sizes, were stuck to almost every piece of furniture and spare patch of wall in the room, all staring relentlessly at him and keeping time with him whenever he swayed from side to side. The eyeball in the base of the toilet was particularly disturbing, no less so because the toilet was mounted on the wall.

None of this was what made Crackle Jack decide he couldn’t sleep here. 

What did make him decide not to sleep here was that the entire room was filled with water, and there was a twelve foot shark swimming laps in the middle of it. He wasn’t sure whether or not the shark was real; but didn’t want to find out. 

He closed the door and began backtracking, only to realize that the trapdoor he had been sucked through had disappeared without a trace; leaving him alone in a twisted labyrinth of hallways and doors that made him think of a hotel amusement park designed by Pinkie Pie. Dinky had said that The TARDIS was infinite on the inside; Crackle Jack didn’t know whether he believed that was possible, but of the several doors he checked that weren’t locked, he knew it was massive.

One door he opened led onto a jetty on top of a lake of water, and another door, about ten steps down the hallway, had him looking off a mountain into a lake of lava. Apparently whatever space distortions kept the outside of the ship smaller than the inside also worked on the inside of the ship itself and for all he knew he could have walked a thousand miles in the last two halls. 

Would you be able to fit an entire new TARDIS inside of this one, and have both of them work the same way? Would that be any different from simply having one TARDIS and Dinky simply made one of the innumerable door around him look like a blue wardrobe? What if this TARDIS already was inside another one and Crackle jack had spent his whole life inside a TARDIS without ever realizing it? Or what if –

Crackle Jack didn’t look where he was going, placed one hoof too far forwards and fell headlong into a pool of what he hoped was probably water. Resurfacing moments later and pulling himself onto the edge of the pool he’d fallen into, Crackle Jack looked up and saw endless rows of bookcases, brimming with millions of books and scrolls. 

Crackle Jack swallowed, if Dinky or anyone had read one percent of what was in here… but how would she even find the books she wanted in the middle of all of this? Aunt Sparkle would probably kill to have a library like this, and then never come out again; but why was there a swimming pool in the middle of the library?

Crackle Jack shook his head; and kept moving. Ordinarily he liked reading, and would have taken some time to peruse the titles if the library had been any reasonable size. Here however, that thought struck him with utter futility: he read because it gave him a sense of accomplishment that he was absorbing a larger and larger portion of the information available to him. Here; he could read for a lifetime and never even scratch the surface. He tried not to look at the books, hoping that this feeling of powerlessness wouldn’t follow him and snaked his way through the endless maze of literature. 

Three twists and a dozen turns later, there was a hollow a few hundred feet wide where no bookshelves dared to tread. The outer ring of this circle was a garden, remarkably lush and well cared for, surrounding a small gazebo with six couches laid out in a hexagon each laden with their own piles of books; each pertaining to different subjects.

Crackle Jack figured that this must be where Dinky came to read and moved couch whenever she’d read enough about magic and wanted some botany. If this was somewhere where Dinky came often… there was probably a doorway nearby that led to the entrance of the TARDIS which he could search for it in the morning and meet up with the others. Alternatively, he could keep wandering and quite probably get very, very lost.

He sighed, and gently lifted the stacks of books that were on one of the couches; careful not to disturb their order and set them down on the flo- “Hey!” Crackle Jack leaped back, spilling the books all over the gazebo floor; “I wasn’t finished with those yet!” the couch yelled, “Give them back!”

“A-Aunt Sparkle?” stammered Crackle Jack, recognizing the voice.

“Now Twilight.” Clanged another couch from behind Crackle Jack, also coming with horrifying familiarity, “You don’t havta be so rude.”

“Settle down both of you;” Demanded a third sofa, “and look at what’s in front of you. This isn’t Dinky or Derpy which means they’ve let someone else into the TARDIS.”

“Does this mean Dinky’s fixed the TARDIS and we can go adventuring again instead of just sitten around here reading?” asked a fourth.

“Yay!” cheered a fifth sofa, “We can throw a ‘TARDIS is fixed’ party!”

“… did you call me Aunt Sparkle?” asked the first sofa.

“What is happening!?” demanded Crackle Jack backing out of the circle.

“Oh look, now you’ve gone and made him upset. The poor dear is positively trembling. You girls should be ashamed of yourselves!” Scolded the third sofa.

“What are you!?”

“OK, OK stop.” ordered the first couch. “I can see you’re confused so let me explain: we’re Reader Relaxation Units, RRU’s for short. We read books to people while they’re sleeping, loading the information into their subconscious minds. The Doctor bought us at an auction and since then we’ve been living here, reading to ourselves whenever we’re not needed.”

“Why do you sound like my aunt?” 

“Aunt?” asked the second sofa quizzically, “Who are you sugarcube? Who’s your parents?”

“M-my name’s Crackle Jack, I’m here with my brother, sister and Dinky, the TARDIS isn’t fixed yet and my parents are Shining Armor and Cadance.”

“I knew it!” Cheered the first sofa; “I knew they were perfect for each other!”

“Settle down Twilight!” ordered Applejack, “Look I’m terribly sorry for all this, we don’t get many visitors; and twenty five years with the same people leave you a little rusty. To answer yar question, we’re the Elements of Harmony. After we defeated Nightmare Moon, The Doctor decided to make a backup of all our consciousness’s in case anyone of us ever got amnesia or went insane. 
We were archived on the main drive for a couple years and then Derpy felt worried about Dinky not making any friends in Ponyville and since she was spending a lot of time in the library Derpy uploaded us into the RRU’s, hoping we could teach Dinky about friendship. That there is Twilight Sofa, I’m Palletjack, and these are Divan Pie, Rainbow Chaise, Rarettee and Futonshy. Please to meet you.”

The most disturbing thing about the couch’s bonkers lunatic story was that it actually made sense. The first four couches were easy to recognize, once he got his head around the idea that they were couches. Rarity he had only met a few times in the mental hospital, but he’d never known mom’s predecessor. “You were… Fluttershy?”

The couch gave an inaudible mumbling.

“Of course she is.” Declared Rainbow Chaise, “What, you don’t recognize one of your aunt’s best friends; what gives?”

Crackle Jack shifted uncomfortably, “… Fluttershy died before I was born.” 

Futonshy gave a small squeak, while Rarettee gave an angry gasp; “How could you say that? Don’t listen to him Futonshy; I’m sure he must be mistaken.”

“I-it’s OK” muttered Futonshy, “I-I don’t mind.”

“What about the rest of us?” asked Rainbow Chaise, “Did Rainbow Dash ever join the Wonderbolts?”

“Did Rarity find the prince of my dreams?” asked Rarettee.

“Now-now.” Cautioned Palletjack, “You know that that’s against Derpy’s rules; don’t try and take advantage of this young guy not knowing them. We are who we are and what the pony Elements of Harmony have been up to since we got created isn’t any of our business. I do apologize for my friend’s behavior young Crackle Jack; it’s just sometimes they can’t help being curious about outside life.” 

“Of course we’re going to be curious.” Growled Rainbow Chaise, “All we ever do is sit around and read.”

“We don’t even have eat, sleep or take bathroom breaks.” Added Twilight Sofa, “Isn’t it great?”

“I-is there any way we can help you?” asked Futonshy.

“…I was just looking for a place to sleep.”

“Well why didn’t ya just say so?” asked Palletjack, “Come over here and park yur caboose.” 

“Oh you’re one to talk Applejack,” called Rarettee blithely, “You have all the softness of a stack of bricks wrapped around barbed wire. If the lad wants a proper, restful sleep he can come and lie down on me.” The cushions jiggled excitedly in anticipation as the couch seemed to grow wider, giving the impression of a mouth opening, “Come on dear, I don’t bite.” 

“Pick me! Pick me!” begged Divan Pie, “We can have a slumber party!”

This was getting too weird. Crackle Jack had just decided he’d had enough and and began trotting away when Twilight’s voice called pleadingly after him, “Wait, wait, please don’t go!” Crackle Jack stopped, “You’re Shining’s kid, right? Did I ever like, hold you in my lap and read to you till you fell asleep?”

“…Yes.”

“Then… please come back, I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier, and while the real Twilight may have had the chance to be an aunt to you, this may be the only chance I ever get; I won’t even keep you up with questions and I can fold out into a queen sized bed if you like.”

“Don’t bother.” Crackle Jack sighed, turning back and hopped lightly onto Twilight Sofa.

“Would you like us to sing you a lullaby?” asked Futonshy softly.

“No thank you.” said Crackle Jack; puffin up one of the cushions on Twilight Sofa and laying his head on it. The lights dimmed by themselves as he closed his eyes and tried to fool himself into going to sleep; but he knew it was hopeless. This situation was way too weird for him to relax, and so after a few minutes he sat up, the lights automatically turning on as he did so. “Do you guys know any good books?

Rainbow Chaise scoffed, “Kid; we’ve been reading for twenty-three years straight. We know thousands of good books. What do you want?”

“If he’s travelen with Dinky, He auta read somethen that’ll prepare him for what’s out there.” Suggested Palletjack, “Trouble is attracted to that girl like flies to Granny Smith’s cooken.”

“But there’s hardly any books that broad” interjected Twilight, “except…”

“Except what?” asked Crackle Jack.

“Well… there is the book that the Doctor had begun writing before he went missing. It was meant as a general crash course for the universe; it’s called the Hitchhikers’ guide to the Galaxy.” 

Crackle Jack left the RRU’s and went to the mentioned location for the book and was comforted to see the words ‘Don’t Panic’ written in large, friendly letters on the back cover. Given what his last day had been like; this seemed like the best advice he could have asked for.


> 3 - The Oracle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Zecora

I'm sorry I haven't written to you in so long; it's just... I've been busy... and I've had a lot on my mind. I thought I could deal with everything on my own but now I don't know what to do:

Equestria has been taking in thousands of refugees from the civil war in Oatlantis; and a lot of them have ended up in Canterlot, though I'm sure you already knew that. The school's taken on hundreds of new students for the new school year; and the first day of school was just lessons about the cultural differences and recent history we should be aware of. 

There's been a lot of mixed results. A lot of the new students are behind everyone else academically; meaning some of them have needed to get reshuffled into younger classes, or else slowed down everyone their own age. Most of the native students seem to be taking this OK;  but it only takes a few people getting angry to cause trouble. I've done my best to talk to the new kids, and am thinking of starting a new netball team with some of the other pegasi fillies; but there's... something else.  

A few days ago after school I found a filly crying in the girl's bathroom. When she first saw me she screamed at me to leave her alone; but then after a moment she stopped and realized I wasn't Sky Fire. Her name was Summer, and she was one of the new refugees; and on the first day she'd run into Sky Fire. She said they'd hit it off right away, and then after only dating for about a week she let him sleep with her. 

Before then he'd come and talked to her every day; but when he didn't find her the next day, or the day after that she went looking for him and found him kissing Epiphany Dazzle. When she confronted him about it he brushed her off; and then she talked to some other girls about it, who told her what Sky Fire was really like, and laughed at her when she said she thought Sky Fire had really loved her.

Summer Tide feels heartbroken, and humiliated, and she's terrified of what her mom will do if she finds out. Her mom's the only family she has left; her dad died in the war and she'd lost track of her two brothers, and doesn't even know if they're alive or dead. 

I tried talking to Sky Fire about this, but he doesn't think he's done anything wrong and he won't apologize; and in the end all we did was argue. I don't know what to do Zecora. I knew that Sky Fire wasn't always honest, but this is low even for him; especially with how much he knows about what she's been through. He's my brother, and I know I should love him. But after these last few days all I can feel is that I almost hate him.








Dear Sky Blaze

Do not give into the common posit;
That love and hate are opposites.
Though it may seem they stand apart;
Love is nothing without it's counterpart.

If Apple Bloom claimed to love hard, honest labor,
Working for the good, of all of her neighbors;
yet she also believed that to live as a thief
taking from any who she thought she could leech,
was perfectly fine and equal in all ways
to the life that she has chosen in her nights and her days.

Would you believe her, and think her sincere
If something she 'loved' could also be jeered;
And find no reproach, no hate in her mind.
Would you  believe that her 'love' was just fine?

To truly love anything is to hate that which hurts it
and discharges blasphemies against the core of its spirit.
If you say you love justice, you must hate oppression;
and cannot love freedom without hating repression.
If you love what is honest, you must hate deception;
And to truly love goodness is to hate evils inception.

If you say that you love marriage and family:
Children raised lovingly by their mother and daddy;
Who through sacred union, have tied close their lives
No matter what hardship, or hindrance betide. 
Then can you, in honesty; not hate that which acts only
to satisfy lust; with tryst after tryst, with commitment that's phony?
The thing to remember is that there's a difference,
between a person; and their deeds of diffidence.

And now as for your friend Summer Tide...








The sun was hot; the pace was merciless and one sip of water was rationed per hour. The pegasus colt next to Sky Blaze stumbled, caught himself in the nick of time, and used the jolt from the chain around his neck to pull himself back in line. He was giving it everything he had to keep the pace the buffalo demanded, but he'd fractured his hip in the battle last night; and would be dead soon. 

The weak who had been lucky were left strewn around Ponyville wherever they had fallen. Those moderately lucky had been thrust through with a buffalo horn; granting them a quick and painful death. Those least lucky were forced to run, dragged for about a minute if they fell, and killed if they failed to get back up again. 

Almost everyone by now felt that they were on the brink of exhaustion; but then, most ponies had no idea what actual exhaustion was, and underestimated their bodies potential for adrenaline. For Sky Blaze, this was no worse than the cross country runs she'd done with her family; and knew from experience she could maintain this current pace for at least seventeen hours before needing to stop. 

So far they'd only been running for about five hours; and those who'd collapsed, were those who'd been injured in the battle with less visible injuries. There were two more ponies like that who wouldn't make it till tomorrow evening; but the rest would probably last until they reached whatever part of the buffalo Pridelands they were headed to; as long as they kept their emotions in check. 

That last one stood as an uncertainty. Everyone was afraid; both for themselves, and for their friends and family who they had no way of knowing if they were alive, dead or captive. Most of them were now in shock, putting one hoof in front of the other because that's the only thing they could do; and for some of the others, there was the guilty uncertainty of having killed someone for their first time. It was a look she'd seen before; in comrades, and a mirror.

The earth pony running to her left and one space back had killed someone; the blood still splattered his coat, and the glances he kept throwing it showed mixes of accomplishment and guilt. The unicorn in front of him was completely clean; but she knew he'd done it too, maybe even enjoyed it, and the hateful glances he cast at their captors showed he was ready to do it again. He might be useful. The ponies weren't the only ones struggling with being killers, of the nine buffalo she saw; at least three had the same expressions.

So why had they done this?

The colt to her right wobbled. He was about to fall and if Sky Blaze moved now she could catch him with her wing; but for what? If she caught him now, he'd be dead within a few hours anyway; she would have only prolong his suffering, and drawn punishment on herself for breaking the rule of touching other prisoners. 

He needed to die; she'd been waiting for it for the last two hours! The colt fell, Sky Blaze whipped her wing out from the ropes she's worked free and stretched it out to catch him, a moment too late. The colt hit the earth with a pained shriek as his hip broke in two; and Sky Blaze swerved back in her own line, shoving her wing back under the roped before the wardens noticed. 

A minute later the chain line stopped, and everyone who had been behind him moved one space forward. Now Sky Fire was close enough that if he turned slightly to the right, and she to the left; they could see each other's eyes without being noticed. He began winking to her in a modified morse code; “Focus.”

“Sorry.” she winked back to him. She hated apologizing to him; but he was right. If the wardens had seen her wing free, they would have bound it again, maybe even broken it; and every pony in this convoy would suffer a major blow to their chances of survival. Sky Fire was OK which meant when they picked their locks that night, (assuming he still had his multi-tool), one of them could assassinate whatever unicorn was in that box; taking out the only anti-air capacity the buffalo had. The assassin would lead as many of the buffalo away on a chase; and the other sibling would free the other captives. “Assassin or liberator?” 

“Assassin.” he winked back. “Tungsten?”

“No.” she hadn't seen him either; something she was glad for even though they could have used his help. With his telekinesis he could pick multiple locks simultaneously, and though he wasn't as strong as either of them; but he wielded an impressive amount of magic making him surprisingly dangerous for someone his size. “Hurt?” 

“My jaw hurts.” he winked sarcastically; indicating where she'd kicked him the night before. 

Her own jaw hurt too. 

Sky Blaze wished there was something more to talk about, something else Sky Fire would say that would keep her mind focused on what was happening; but he didn't, and the argument of last night began replaying in her head. Last night… they had fought? She didn’t know what she would have done if she had gained the upper advantage, how badly she would have hurt him before she stopped or even if she would have stopped. Then, just a few hours later, they had been fighting, side by side, and it had seemed so easy.

It's not that he didn't deserve to be beaten of course. Summer Tide had given him her heart and virginity and then dropped because she didn't 'perform' as well as he'd hoped; and he continued to make it sound like it was a joke. That he'd slept with Carrot Sauce and Misty was unimportant, yet still had the power to infuriate her; and then there was that little claim about role playing violent rape with Tempest Dive. 

That, bothered her. 

She realized Sky Fire was winking again; and coughed to ask him to start over; “You can relax by the way.” he repeated, “I’ve already saved us.”

“How?” 

“Four O’clock” Sky Blaze managed to cast a subtle glance behind her and saw a large gray buffalo, his breath coming in heavy pants with his face contorted in pain, masked tears slowly tripping down his face, barely keeping up with the general pace, and only by a hair’s breadth. She looked back to Sky Fire, “I fought him last night, and delivered internal bleeding to his abdomen. He began running at the head of the herd and has been slowly falling back ever since. He can’t go on much longer but the buffalo revere their elders and won’t leave him behind. Either the whole group will slow down to a manageable pace and the rescue party will catch us, or he’ll fall back with a few buffalo, the rescue party will catch them and the old guy will make some kind of deal for his life. Trust me.”


…………………………………………………………………………………………………….


Sky Fire was almost right. Two hours later the buffalo elder who Sky Fire had wounded was now being supported on either side by younger buffalo who had interlocked their horns with his, but he was still weakening. They'd just woven, at a merciful pace, through a lightly wooded area; and the  path went over a small ditch about two feet wide. 

The jump should have been foals play, even for the exhausted hostages;  but as the two young buffalo sprung over it, the elder caught his hoof on the edge and came tumbling to the ground with a cry of pain. The youths stooped to try and help him but he, but just lay there, panting in exasperation. 

Calls were passed to the head of the column and with a chorus of grunts and sighs of relief; the columns came to a halt. The palanquin slowly turned and then the six buffalo carrying it turned in unison and came galloping down the column, and every buffalo bowed to it as it passed, kissing the earth as it palanquin’s shadow passed over them. 

When they reached the elder there was a flash of a teleport, Sky Blaze bowed her head and through the legs of the buffalo honor guard saw the much smaller pale blue legs of what was definitely a pony who seemed to be looking over the elder. There was a short cry of pain, and blood splashed against ground. There was the flash of a teleport, the blue pony legs disappeared and the palanquin rocked slightly with the added weight. The honor guard turned around; began trotting slowly between the ranks of pony captives and buffalo captors, though Sky Blaze began to doubt that either group had more freedom then the other. Once again the buffalo bowed as the palanquin passed, once again they kissed the dust as the shadow went over them and – “STOP!!!” 

The honor guard obeyed, “Go back!” They turned on the spot and began galloping back towards the elder’s corpse. “No, stop you idiots, you’ve gone too far!” the buffalo stopped once again, and after exchanging confused, fearful looks began slowly pacing back along the line for a fourth time until they stood just a few steps away from Sky Blaze and Sky Fire. “Stop!” The buffalo did so. The palanquin tilted as if whoever was inside was leaning over, almost jumping out of the palanquin; Sky Blaze stared back, trying to see the face of the unicorn but couldn’t see anything. 

The chains binding her shackles to the ponies in front and behind of Sky Blaze shattered and she felt herself gripped in a suffocating telekinesis and raised up out of line, along with Sky Fire, to be eye-level with the unicorn in the palanquin. Daddy had trained them to break free from telekinesis; so if the unicorn was distracted just for a moment they could - “… So Rainbow Dash wasn’t gay after all.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you too.” Answered Sky Fire without missing a beat, “Who the hay are you again?”

There was a snort from inside the palanquin followed by a bolt of lightning which cracked the air just inches from Sky Fire’s face, blasting the sand and transforming it to a pool of molten glass. The other nearby prisoners cowered in fear and Sky fire twitched slightly as he blew out a smoking lock of his mane away from his eye. 

The curtain of the palanquin was yanked open to reveal an azure unicorn mare covered with a sprawling, full-body tattoo of some kind of multi-headed snake or hydra. A long white mane billowed behind her, and a large, feathered talisman that glowed with a reddish light; as she reared dramatically on her hind hooves. “I am the Oracle; knower and seer of all, mistress of the ethereal realms, liaison to the earth spirits, defender of the Aether, vanquisher of the horde of specters and guardian of the buffalo people!”

“Trixie?” The word was out of Sky Blaze’s mouth before she even knew it; her eyes had just locked onto the mare’s cutie-mark of a wand juxtaposed over a half-moon and confirmed the answer. Trixie was the show mare that had inadvertently brought mom and daddy together for the first time all those years ago. 

She’d heard the story from her mom numerous times, and seen snapshots of it countless hundreds due to the whole ordeal having been immortalized in a series of magnificently timed photos taken my an ‘armature’ photographer of daddy cutting through Trixie’s assistants and mom kicking Trixie in the head, which now hung on their living room wall. 

At the time it had seemed like a random brawl over nothing; but later it came out that mom's then-vice-captain Spitfire had hired Trixie to take mom out so Spitfire could resume control of the team; and might have if Derpy hadn't inadvertently blundered into the situation. Trixie had spent some time in jail, and that was the last thing that Sky Blaze had ever heard of her.

Sky Blaze pursed her lips and thought. Trixie had apparently somehow enslaved a tribe of buffalo razed a town and taken captives for who knows why, and now seemingly had recognized herself and Sky Fire as being the kids of two ponies who had arguably wrecked her life twenty something years ago; but that didn't necessarily mean Trixie was the kind of person to hold grudges... right?

> 4 - Desert Trials
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The sun was hot; the pace was merciless, and this time Sky Fire was actually feeling tired. It was two days after Trixie had recognized them; after thinking for a while she had selected six of the largest bulls in the army, and ordered them to take him and Sky Blaze to her ‘abode’ and that she would be there to deal with them 'at her convenience'. 

At first, Sky Fire could hardly believe their luck. He and Sky Blaze had taken out at least forty buffalo the other night, and so leaving them alone with just six would be child's play once they picked their locks. To make things even better it seemed that where ever this 'abode' was; it was also the destination of most of the plunder taken in the raid. When Trixie had made her ‘judgment’ Sky Fire had seriously been scanning the crowd for Tungsten; thinking of how he could accidentally draw attention to him so they could escape together. If he had succeeded, Sky Fire would now be cursing himself, for leading his brother to his death.

Unlike the other buffalo he had encountered so far, the six brutes that Trixie chose to guard them carried themselves like they actually knew what it was they were doing, and took their position seriously. The first thing they did was a thorough search which revealed both their multi-tools. Then their wings were actually properly tied with knots made to press on the nerves in a way that inhibited flight. Finally, they hobbled both pegasi with heavy, freakishly short chains that cut into their skin, halved the distance of each stride and made effective front kicks almost impossible.

The pace was increased, and when they finally stopped for the night; two buffalo stood guard at any given moment, one alert for outside threats, the other kept watch over them who after taking their vitals deemed them in far too good of condition to let rest and took it upon himself to keep them awake the entire night, kicking them, growling at them and throwing sand in their faces. Apparently he thought they'd killed one of his friends the other night.

The next morning they started out again; by now the pegasi had managed to pace their steps so the shackles didn’t hurt quite so bad, but that could just be because shorter steps were more natural with how tired they were. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were a few mouthfuls of green mash and the water was about half what they needed. On the second night, they were allowed about two hours sleep, before being woken up by having sand poured over their faces. For crying out loud; these guys were even worse than mom and dad!

Whoever their head jailer was; he kept taking their vitals and seemed an expert in causing short term pain and exhaustion, without doing anything that would permanently damage either of them; and somehow kept rationing their water so they just barely had the strength to keep their pace, but would be taken down instantly if they tried to fight.  

Sky Blaze tried talking to him, saying little proverbs and ditties that Sky Fire didn’t fully understand. The buffalo tried not to respond, but it was clear that her words had some kind of effect that made them uneasy; and resulted in clumps of Sky Blaze’s mane being torn out as punishment. She winked him a code saying that she thought the head buffalo here had some shamanic training; but given that they were both blinking dust from their eyes, it was hard to tell for sure what she was saying.

Today was the fifth day since leaving Ponyville; last night they had been allowed to sleep the whole night, as by now they were too exhausted to try to escape. His mouth tasted like leather and the last watering hole they had been to was dry. 

This last part wasn't just bad for him and Sky Blaze, but meant the entire party didn't have the water it needed to get to the next rest stop without risking dehydration. There was a meeting; which the buffalo didn't even bother to hide from their prisoners, in which they finally decided to deviate from their  original course; and delay arriving at 'The Oracles Sacred Abode' by one day in order to search for water in a series of rocky outcroppings which often preserved pools of hidden water. The plan was considered dangerous; though whether from Trixie or some other threat that guarded the water, Sky Fire wasn't sure. But to plunge on into the desert without fresh canteens would have been suicide.

They arrived in the hills a little past noon and began into the hills. At first there was only one obvious path, but about a third of a mile in, it began splitting and after a few hundred more feet, the party stood at a crossroads of five potential paths, including the one they just came. The head buffalo stopped and gave Sky Fire a shrunken canteen. “Drink everything that's left.” he commanded.

Sky Fire needed no more encouragement downed the contents in five gulps; then passed the canteen back and waited expectantly,  but the buffalo just stood there. “Her turn now.” Sky Fire said, indicating Sky Blaze, “She needs it as much as I do.”

“No.” The warden answered, “You just drank the last of her water.”

“What!?” Sky Fire yelped; looking guiltily at the canteen like he could give back half the water he'd just taken. Sky Blaze was already swaying on her hooves; he knew she wouldn't say it, but she had been in slightly worse shape then he was, and wouldn't last much longer without a drink. “You need to give her something; now!”

The warden struck him across the face; waited for him to calm down, and then took a long rope from his dufflebag and began tying it around Sky Fire's hind legs. “I will  untie your wings; and you will fly to the end of the rope, and tell us where we can find water. If you try to undo the knots, you will be pulled back to the ground immediately. If you manage to escape; your sister will die more painfully than you can imagine.”

'Yeah, right.' thought Sky Fire, 'like that wasn't already the idea of what happens once Trixie gets her hooves on us.' Needless to say, he said nothing. She was a pain in the flank, and a nag, and in serious danger of one day becoming a total bitch; but no one was allowed to kill his sister but him. 

Who knows, maybe if he pulled off a good enough rescue here she might even get off her vendetta about trying to ruin every score he tried to set up; or at least earn him enough credibility that she would stop taking any side that would make him look bad. If he was supremely lucky; maybe he could convince her to abandon her edited version of the disaster with the Mcpie sisters. She never believed him about what really happened, just because it went against the laws of physics, math and time; but for the record, he never set out to seduce Pinkie's daughters. Those girls had come onto him!

The warden had finished triple tying the knots on Sky Fire's legs and with a nod, Sky Fire took off. Twenty foot gorges of sharp stone gave way to blue sky, as Sky Fire circled around a few times, testing the ropes with his legs and searching for the telling glare of sunlight off of water, failing at both. At worst they would need to dig in the dirty in the crevices for water the cliffs had saved from evaporation; but with all these slopes there had to be somewhere where the runoff from rain would congregate naturally. There had to be.

Sky Fire twisted his legs again, trying to get an edge on one of the knots. He heard a furious grunt from beneath him that made him shiver but before they got a chance to pull him down; Sky Fire began dropping on his own accord, feigning oblivion to the shout and any accusation that he tried to undo his ropes. “I saw a pool.” he said confidently, “This way.”

The warden looked at him suspiciously but followed him none the less; knowing that they all needed water in order to live. Sky Fire himself had no idea where he was going; but he'd been able to see that three of the new paths didn't look like they had water in them. This one was a complete mystery.

He led them through the snaking path for three twists and four turns; and then, just when he felt like the chief warden's eyes were goring holes in the back of the back of his head he heard something. He paused, but the looks on the buffalo's faces showed they'd heard it too. 
The party continued around the final bend and saw a broken wagon, several sacks and boxes including two water tanks of water lying on the ground and one cloaked, orange buffalo cow trying to hold the wagon up on her back, while using her cloven hooves to try to reattach the separated wheel and failing miserably. 

The head buffalo drained the dredges of his canteen and then approached the cow who jostled when she heard him, dropping her wagon, and stepping back quickly. “Ephrolay” he said gruffly, “We are soldiers on the business of the oracle; but have run low on water. Give us one of your tanks and keep the other with the oracle’s blessing.”

The cow backed off; swallowing hard, “Ephrolay warrior; I wish that I could grant your request but I cannot. My family needs both tankards very badly, and I cannot afford to take a second trip to the well again today.”

The head buffalo shifted; apparently not used to being denied; “I regret that I must do this; but I and my party must drink as well. Give me water, in the name of the oracle.”

The cow trembled slightly; but she didn't move. “The well is in the north eastern corner of the promontory; three hours journey from here where you and your party may drink all you wish. But my son is sick, and he needs this more than you do. I beg of you to have mercy.”
Sky Fire clenched his teeth. He may have been soft at the start because she's his own kind; but Sky Fire knew their warden wouldn't back down. If this cow didn't fold she would probably get hurt, not to mention her thirsty kid. The warden narrowed his gaze, “If I lead my party three hours north east, then three hours back again; we are delayed by another day. We are late as it is.”

“If she complains; then you can tell her there's a sick little bull who didn't die of dehydration because someone  stole his water when he had diarrhea. She'll understand; and if she doesn't then maybe she's not that great.”

The warden stiffened. Sky Fire hated himself for leading his captors here... but then something seemed off about this entire situation. This cow here, was pleading for the life of her son if you believed her, but she wasn't afraid. If anything Sky Fire wasn't certain she wasn't resisting breaking out into a smirk. 

He widened his vision. There were hoof prints behind him and the other buffalo; because the ground was soft, and there was no wind. The heavy laden cart that the cow had supposedly been pulling, didn't have any tracks behind it; and the spoke that was missing a wheel was dusty, without a ring that would suggest a wheel had been there until recently. It was almost as if - “Rattlesnake!” he yelled out, jumping back from the imaginary serpent, “Rattlesnake!”

The warden swung his head around to face Sky Fire, and that was his final mistake as the cow drove forwards and gores her right horn into his vulnerable neck. He had just enough time for a cry, turning back to her with his eyes wide with pain; making his left eye a perfect target for the cows follow up attack. 

A second bull tried to butt her from the right, to which she simply stepped back, letting him fall forward and form a running ramp which she used as a launch pad to launch into the air; somersaulted, and came down horns first onto a third enemy. Her weight pulled the impaled buffalo to his side, but when her cloven hooves hit the ground she turned, lifting that bull into the air and then dropping him on top of a fourth enemy who was gored to death before she could  get herself unpinned. Launch-pad buffalo had spun around and was coming at her from behind, and was answered with a very precise return charge. The orange cow's head, and the head of the other buffalo moved with the rest of her body; but his body did not, though it did echo with a very impressive crack.

Sky Fire... had once promised himself that he was only ever going to do mares; but if this cow wasn't four times bigger than him and old enough to be his mother, he would totally make an exception for her.

The two wardens that had been standing either side of him and Sky Blaze were now dead too. One had a spear sticking into its back and the other a pair of darts in it's neck. A few hairy heads looking down at them from an overlooking precipice informed why. 

“Ephrolay” panted Sky Blaze as loudly as she could, “May the Logos guide you.”

The cow quickly surveyed her horn work, making sure she didn’t miss anybody and then turned towards the pegasi; her face showing that she hadn’t made up her mind on whether to kill them or let them go. The twins subconsciously took a step closer together.

The buffalo mare flinched slightly at this; but didn’t lose her grim expression, highlighted by the blood dripping off of her horns as she stalked closer. “Who are you?”

“I'm the guy that just helped your ambush by distracting our common enemy.” smiled Sky Fire.

“Proving that you are skilled in deception and that it comes easily to you. Who are you!?”

Sky Fire was about to speak but Sky Blaze beat him to it. “My name is Sky Blaze, and this is my brother Sky Fire. We are Equestrians from Canterlot City, we were visiting family in a town called Ponyville when it was attacked by the oracle’s army.”

“Why was your town attacked?”

“We don’t know, several hundred of us were taken captive; when the oracle saw us she wanted us sent with some of the plunder to her personal abode.”

The buffalo mare came closer, almost face to face, though she didn’t lower her eyes to meet theirs, “You’re manes” she said after a tense pause, “Why are they colored like that?”

“...Excuse me?”

“Why are your manes six different colors!?”

Sky Blaze bit her lip, “… we were born like this; we got them from our mother.”

“These colors are hereditary?”

Sky Blaze nodded, “It’s a rare recessive gene that only manifests in pegasi.”

The buffalo mare took a step closer, and then without warning jumped to the side and bowled Sky Blaze over. Knocking her fettered fore-hooves out from under her with her left paw, the cow then brought her right paw down onto Sky Blaze’s back and pointed her horns at Sky Fire, like she was daring him to try to stop her.

After a tense moment in a staring contest, Sky Fire relaxed and the buffalo began digging around Sky Blaze’s mane with her free paw, examining the roots of each section of her mane carefully as if to check if they were dyed. After a meticulous search, the buffalo let Sky Blaze up then looked her in the eye. “Who was your mother?”

“Her name is Rainbow Dash.”

The buffalo took a step back, her face twisting into a startled pause. “I think I’ve heard of her; does she have a white coat, with cutie-mark of a pair of multi-colored wings?”

“... No.” Sky Blaze admitted, “Her coat is blue… and her cutie-mark is of a jagged rainbow coming out of the cloud."

The cow swallowed; "Your mother came here once, a long time ago, in the company of a purple dragon. What was her name?"

"...His... name is Spike." said Sky Blaze cautiously, "And I swear by his name, that we are not your enemies."

The buffalo thought for a long moment, then smiled. She turned and walked to the corpse of the head buffalo’s buldio, took the key ring off it and tossed them towards them, “Nice to meet you Sky Blaze. I’m Strongheart.”



> 5 - Burnt Pancakes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	A clash echoed from the kitchen, causing Fidora to wince painfully. A few more steps through the  gates revealed the culprit, hunched messily over Fidora’s stove with one of Fidora’s pans, cooking some batter that looked like it was trying to escape. “What are you doing!?”

Fidora regretted her question almost immediately; firstly it was obvious, but more importantly she had no right to use that tone against Obtrillion’s mother. By rights she should be reprimanded, but Twilight just raised her head with sad tired eyes that spoke of a second night without sleep that struggled to make an apology. “I… was going to make you and Obtrillion breakfast.”

Fidora sniffed the air and found it burnt. Another pan, rammed haphazardly in the sink with batter burnt to the bottom of it claimed responsibility under the duress of Fidora’s cold stare. A glance at Twilight’s glowing horn confirmed her fears; these stoneware pans were crafted by earth-zebras to resonate with earth-zebra magic. Every morsel of nutrition was maintained while the natural flavors were enriched upon, in much the same way farmers coxed the food from the earth to begin with. Telekinesis, and lubrication spells that tried to replace oil, ruined them.

“I cook for Obtrillion.” Fidora said firmly.

“I’m his mother.” Insisted Twilight, “I will feed him.”

‘Or make him sick’ thought Fidora, frightening herself with how close she came to saying that out loud. She took a moment to breathe, and considered starting to speak in rhyme to force herself to think before speaking but decided against it. “This is beneath you,” she said calmly, “You are the mother of the lord of the house; I am his servant, let me serve.” 

“I will feed him.” 

“… I relent.” Submitted Fidora, “… May I please help you… mother?”

A slow steady smile spread over Twilight’s lips, which opened like they were going to say something, then changed their minds. She passed the bag of carrots to Fidora along with a chopping board, “Can you dice these?”

Could she? Fidora clenched her teeth, wondering what Twilight was trying to imply, then remembered how common rhetorical questions were in Equestrian speech. Without speaking, she ran her knife under boiling water to sterilize it, evenly quartered the first carrot with two strokes and then diced them into 1 centi-meter slices; going slower than she needed to so as not to embarrass Twilight who continued to fumble around with shaking hooves.

“Will you tell me more about enchanting jade crystals?”

Twilight looked over her shoulder as she stirred her latest disaster, but managed to keep it all in the bowl. “What?”

“Last night you started telling me about a new artifact you'd gotten at your university that made it easier to store telekinetic energy in jade. You made it sound interesting, but then Obtrillion got home safely before you finished explaining it to me.” 

Honestly; Fidora wasn't interested. Obtrillion had already told her the basic theory, and it was a skill Fidora, being an earth pony, would never find practical. However it was clear that Twilight was still hurting, and needed to think about something other than what had happened to her dragon. 

Twilight stared into space like she'd forgotten; and then jolted back to reality as two hours of conversation concluded not twelve hours ago came flooding back to her. “I... don't really want to talk about that right now.”

“Please?”

“Later.” said Twilight, with a smile that almost made Fidora think she meant it. 

It was understandable really. Fidora knew what it was like to be betrayed by your own family, but could barely begin to understand the levels of pain Twilight must be feeling right now:

After Fidora had helped Obtrillion secure the dragon in the dungeons on the bottom floor of the sanctuary; they came back up to the lounge to find Twilight pacing tiny circles in the middle of the floor muttering arguments with herself. She'd obviously needed help, but someone needed to plant the tracking device in one of Raggarock’s warehouses as soon as possible and Fidora could not do that alone, and so Obtrillion left her to talk to Twilight while he went to plant the false trail. 

Twilight's pacing was something she'd seen in Obtrillion when he was at his lowest. If it had been him acting this way Fidora would have known exactly what to say, do, and would have had him sleeping peacefully within the hour. But seeing as how that was unquestionably out of the question, so she tried engaging Twilight in conversation instead.

It took several attempts, but once she got Twilight on the topic of teaching magic, there was no stopping her. Fidora never asked about specific students, or anything that might lead back to Celestia or her family, they just talked about teaching magic, pure and simple; or at least Twilight talked while Fidora managed to keep her going until Obtrillion returned in the deep hours of the night unharmed, yet exhausted and they'd retired uneventfully.	 Fidora had hoped that seeing Obtrillion safe would have given Twilight enough peace of mind to engage in restful sleep. Obviously she'd been wrong. 

“Tell me more about Obtrillion.”  demanded Twilight suddenly. 

“Like what?”

“Tell me who his friends were; what kind of people he surround himself with?”

“...Most of them are dead.”

“I'd like to hear it anyways.”

Fidora thought carefully about who to mention:

Sapientry had been an agile brute with a short temper and fast hooves; who Obtrillion kept only for his usefulness. He’d had two wives; both of whom Fidora pitied, and forgave on the nights they showed relief their husband chose prostitutes over them; and one concubine Fidora has given to him as a punishment for the mare. Fidora was glad that he'd died defending Obtrillion's house in the final days of the war; dying doing the only good he had ever seemed capable of.

Cobran had ruled a band of mercenaries that Obtrillion had outbid Ragarrock for after the outbreak of the war. For a time it seemed that his guild would earn their exorbitant price and turn the tide; until he surrendered in the darkest hour and bought his way out from under the sword. Fidora would see him dead for his betrayal, but Obtrillion mused that he might still be useful, and so she waited for him to reveal his plans to her.

Then there was Bouros; a strange and reclusive member of his species. Fidora had always thought that if she ever got the chance, she might very well be friends with him, though he rarely ever spoke to anyone except Obtrillion; and even then only by necessity. Officially he'd been reported dead; but after returning to her father’s house, Fidora had heard rumors of a demon stalking the streets of the poorer districts at night who stole bodies from the morgue. She opened her mouth to speak his name and then reconsidered. Mentioning him might turn Twilight's thoughts back to Spike. 

“There was Faetoth.” she said, finding herself suddenly smiling. “An orphan who used to wander the streets with no family, no money and no hope. Obtrillion found him digging through a trash heap for food and brought him home. The next day Faetoth sold himself to Obtrillion.” 

Twilight tensed at the word 'sold', and Fidora reiterated; “It was a ten year contract. Faetoth would be housed, fed and given a good education; in return for working part time in security in shifts that would gradually increase as he got older. When he finished he could leave an educated and empowered stallion, or stay on as part of the family which he doubtless would have done. 

Legally he wasn't more than a slave but Obtrillion always treated him as family, even from the start, and Faetoth always did more than he was asked to.  He was smart, talented and fiercely loyal. Now that Obtrillion is back, I suspect we'll be seeing him shortly.”

“You think he survived the war then?”

“I know he did.” Fidora smiled

“So you saw him?”

“Just once.” quipped Fidora quickly, turning away and hoping that she wasn't blushing; “I told him what Raggarock had done to Obtrillion, and he said he would remain nearby and wait for Obtrillion to escape. That was four years ago, but it would have taken a concentrated effort to catch or kill him. 

I doubt even Obtrillion could find him with a trail four years cold, but when Faetoth hears Obtrillion is back, he'll find us. Apart from myself, he was probably closer to Obtrillion than anyone, especially after Obtrillion started teaching him magic.”

“You mean like an apprentice?”

“Something like that, though it was never official. Obtrillion was still an apprentice himself at the time, learning from Raggarock; but he still took several unofficial apprentices and passed onto them some of what he knew. If the war had happened five years later, Raggarock wouldn't have stood a chance,” she sighed, “I suppose that's why he attacked Obtrillion when he did.”

Twilight smiled to herself, trying to imagine a ten year old teaching adult classes at her school for gifted unicorns. “So he had a class of archmages who were willing to take lessons from a kid?”

“Not exactly. His lessons were typically conducted one on one, and with colts who weren't much older than himself. With his telepathy Obtrillion can just look at someone; and tell what their true aptitude was, as well as how badly they wanted to learn and how trustworthy they will be. Most of the slaves he bought for his house were young, unrecognized prodigies of one skill or another, many being his former classmates from the orphanage.”

“But I thought Obtrillion never had any friends there?”

Alarm bells rang out in Fidora's mind as she cursed herself for her mistake,  “He didn't.” she said quickly, “But people are more willing to give you a chance if you're the millionaire apprentice of Raggarock rather than the foreign orphan with no heritage. That chance was all that Obtrillion ever needed; and he was willing to forgive past ignorance.” 

Twilight nodded happily, yawned, and Fidora gave a sigh of relief which turned into a smile as Obtrillion came into the room and sniffed the slightly-burnt air. “Something smells good.”

“I made breakfast.” beamed Twilight happily.

Obtrillion looked over Twilight's shoulder at the pile of round pastries she'd assembled; “I've never seen these before.”

“There called pancakes.” said Twilight, still smiling, “I used to make them all the time in Equestria.”

Obtrillion looked at  Fidora, who gave an apologetic shrug and gestured that she would make him something else if he wanted. He answered with one firm shake of his head that made it very clear that both of them were going to eat whatever his mother made for them, and they were going to like it. Obtrillion picked up one of the cakes and sampled it, making appreciative noises, “So what were you two talking about?”

“Fidora was telling me about how you used to teach magic.”

Obtrillion smiled wistfully, “Those were happier times.”

“You enjoy teaching?”

“I do, and I'm good at it. I can see people's thoughts and know exactly what part of what I've said doesn't make sense to them, and how to make it make sense; but I like learning better. Raggarock was a monster, but he was also a genius who could teach you a lot of secrets you'll never learn anywhere else. It won't be too hard for me to find new people that I can teach; but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to find someone again who will be able to teach me magic.”

Twilight's spatula clattered to the counter top as she turned and stared at Obtrillion; blankly at first, and then with an almost predatory smile that grew bigger by the moment. Fidora sneaked around her to prevent the pancakes from burning.
> 6 - Master and Student
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight lay sprawled on her bed; small rivets of tears streaming down  both sides of her face, but she wouldn't let herself sob. She had dedicated her entire life studying magic, hours and hours almost every single day, learning things that only a few other unicorns in the world knew. She had struggled fiercely to get where she was, and yet Obtrillion, who was less than a third of her age, was already leagues ahead of where she could ever hope to be. 

Of the seven major branches of magical theory, Obtrillion had shown better control over his magic in all of them. Several times he corrected her on her statements, and when she defended her position, he always proved her wrong. It was very rare for another mage had been able to prove her wrong about magic, and ordinarily she'd been thrilled because it meant she had learned something. When it was her own son however, all she could think about was that it wasn't fair! It was insulting, it was unbearable, it was unthinkable that he should have come so far, so fast and... that she hadn't been there to see any of it.

When she was young she had always imagined that when she married and had children, her foals would know even more than she did; but in all those fantasies, she had always the one to teach them. Now when she finally found her son, he had already outgrown her; and the worst part of this was how it reminded her that she hadn’t just missed his education; she'd missed EVERYTHING! 

She was never going to tuck him in at night and read him a story or sing him to sleep. He was never going to run to her crying with a skinned knee, looking to her to make everything better. She was never going to see him go off on his first date; he had Fidora, they were practically married and trying to have a baby! 

He'd fought the war and lost, by himself. He had broken himself out of Ragarrock’s dungeon by himself and all those years when he had desperately needed her, she was nowhere to be found. Now he was all grown up at the tender age of fifteen, and she was terrified that he simply wouldn't need her for anything.

She'd been robbed her one and only opportunity to raise Obtrillion, and now it was too late for her to have another child because she'd wasted too much time at Celestia's school, teaching other people's children. Twilight was proud of him, more proud than she could ever express and nothing would make her happier than to see her son surpass her even further; yet nothing could ever take back the years she had lost.

Twilight knew she shouldn't be in here. Leaving the makeshift classroom the way she did had been horribly inappropriate and was more like storming out than actually excusing herself. She should go back, and try to make up for walking out on him like she had; but all she wanted to do was lay there and cry.

“Mom?” Twilight stiffened; she hadn't heard the door open but from his voice Twilight knew that he wasn't more than a few feet behind him. “Mom I'm sorry.”

“No!” gnarred Twilight, turning angrily to face him, “Don't you ever apologize for how smart you are. Not to me, not to anyone!” She choked on her tears, trying to contain herself, “I just... wish that I could have taught you something.”

“I do too.” agreed Obtrillion somberly, “And not just because it would have meant I'd learned something.” Twilight closed her eyes and began turning away from him, but Obtrillion caught her face, and began wiping the tears away from it, “I do need you mom.”

Twilight opened her eyes then reached out and wrapped both arms around him and pulled him onto the bed next to her. She was still crying, she didn't know if they were for sorrow or joy, but that didn't even matter now. She had her son, snuggling up beside her, happy she was his mother, his warmth spreading into her. 

She didn't say anything, the moment was too special to be ruined with words but not matter how much she wished they could stay here forever it. Instead it lasted all of a paltry ten or fifteen minutes, “Do you ever regret coming here?” Obtrillion asked shyly, “To The Zaharren?”

“No! How could you even suggest that?”

“Because you had so many other students back in Equestria who you could teach things to. You had friends and colleagues... your never going to see any of them again.”

Twilight turned his head to face her, and kissed him on the muzzle, “Those I was closest to betrayed me; the rest I can live without. You are worth more to me than all the students, and all the friends, and all the Elements that I left behind.”

“... The Elements?”

“The Elements of Harmony are a series of magical artifacts that bind themselves to a group of friends. Individually they increase their wielders natural talents and abilities; together they create a synergistic effect that can unleash an immeasurable amount of energy.”

Obtrillion's ears perked forwards as he licked his lips in anticipation, “Will you teach me about them?” he asked in an excited whisper.

“Yes.” whispered Twilight, grinning back.

> 7 - Twilight's Questions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Twilight told Obtrillion everything she knew about the Elements of Harmony, and then she slept. It was the first time since meeting him that her mind was relaxed enough to allow itself rest, and even then it was only with the help of one of Obtrillion's spells. 

Obtrillion himself, although younger and fitter, had expended most of his magical reserves over the last few days between meeting Zomar, fighting Shining Armor, preparing the warehouse, and conditioning Twilight, so he slept as well. He knew that when he woke, he would need all the remaining strength he could muster, and then it would be three or four days before he was recovered to full strength. 

By early evening; the remainder of the pancakes finished their voyage through Twilight's tracts, rousing her, and waking Obtrillion with her departure. After he'd taken his turn after her they both left Twilight's  chambers, and found Fidora had, apart from an hour in the gym, spent most of the day cooking a lavish early-dinner for the three of them, particularly suited to unicorns recovering their magic after heavy spell work.

Her voice and face never showed it, but Obtrillion saw clearly in Fidora's mind that she was slightly miffed at being denied last night, then again this morning, and then having Obtrillion spend the entire day in bed with another mare, even if it was flaccid. Of the five methods that competed in Fidora's mind naturally over how to move on him when they were alone, Obtrillion added fuel to the one he wanted, and then cast a shroud over her mind to block his own vision; allowing her to plan the details in private so she might still surprise him.

That would need to wait until later however. Twilight's adrenaline rush that had kept her sustained over the last several days was over, leaving her exhausted; and everything she'd ever believed about herself and morality was currently in doubt, and she hadn't yet figured out what beliefs she would use to replace them. Her mind was scattered, undefended, and would make a soft target.

“You look so relaxed right now.” smiled Obtrillion dreamily to Twilight; once he had had enough to eat. 

Twilight looked up, finished chewing and swallowed, “What?”

“Your ideas aren't bouncing off each other anymore.” Twilight smiled happily and then took another bite. “It means.” finished Obtrillion, “That I might now be able to undo the memory block Celestia put on you so you wouldn't remember father.”

Twilight's fork clattered to the table, and she stared up at him, her mouth hanging open and full of food. “You can?”

“Yes. As soon as your done eating I'll see what I can do.”

Twilight pushed her tray away, swallowed, nearly choked, and wiped her muzzle off on the back of her arm, “What do you need me to do?”

“Relax.” ordered Obtrillion, “You being anxious is why I haven't been able to go into your mind until now. Breath.”

Twilight took several deep breaths, her anxiety dropping slowly, and followed Obtrillion's indication to recline on the couch where he started kneading his hooves down her muscles, starting with her neck, and feeling her gradually go limp under his touch. “Breathe in.” he whispered, watching her barrel expand; “Breathe out.” she obeyed. 

Fidora looked at the finished table, but a small gesture from Obtrillion pulled her to his side immediately, where she waited patiently until she was needed. Obtrillion reached with his magic to unlock a cabinet in the corner of the room,  withdrew a potion he and Fidora had prepared earlier and began warming it slowly. “I'm going to need to  put you into a deep form of hypnosis, but first, I need to paralyze you.” 

Twilight's ears flickered with confusion, but not fear. She totally trusted him right now. “If I didn't, you might act out your past memories. We don't know what kinds of spells you used in your blackout, and if I touched on a memory of you being attacked, or seeing father killed by Shining Armor, you might start throwing missiles.”

Twilight nodded weakly, and whispered something inaudible that Obtrillion knew was consent. He applied the potion to her lips and she drank disabling her magic and causing almost every one of her muscles go limp. “The year is one thousand and six.” he whispered closely in her ear, “You're in your lab, doing calculations to solve the riddle of the Manehatten Project...”


…………………………………………………………………………………………………


Chalk scratched noisily on the board, one of many boards which had been placed around the small room, wrapping Twilight almost entirely in a cocoon of her own math; just the way she liked it. Obtrillion watched her for a few moments, unnoticed although in plain sight and then left her to continue her work as he slipped out the back door into an exhibit where Twilight and her team of archeologists were showing off the artifacts they had uncovered from the draquoni curiosity factory. 

As Obtrillion moved through the palace the architecture gradually changed, sometimes it was reminiscent of the School for Gifted Unicorns, sometimes of the royal palace, sometimes the halls turned wooden like a tree house, but always it was organized by predictable logic. It wasn’t long before Obtrillion found what he was looking for: a massive, empty stone hall between two libraries filled with facts and calculations pertaining to the Manehattan project.

Obtrillion paced up and down the stone wall, a solid mental barrier, made from the combined magics of Celestia, Shining Armor and Cadance. Obtrillion checked it for weaknesses, tapping it with his hoof and feeling for air from cracks, but despite recent decay, the wall was solid and should be able to take more energy to break than Twilight could muster; but the possibility of her breaking it by herself was still there.

Obtrillion considered trying to bolster it further with his own magic, but to do so would require damaging the wall that was already there, and so he left it as he found it. He left that room and ran up several flights of stairs into another room where hundreds of questions continually buzzed around, waiting to be answered, though most of them were being driven to the remote corners by the swarm of recent questions that had entered now invaded about himself  Fidora and Zohan. 

Obtrillion looked them over and began picking out questions that had not yet made their way into the forefront of Twilight’s conscious mind:




‘If Obtrillion's father was a zebra, why didn’t he have a single stripe on him?’





‘If Obtrillion's father wasn't a unicorn, how was his magic stronger than her own?’





'How was Obtrillion the first stable telepath to be born since the second reign of Discord?'





'Why hadn't Twilight listed to what Shining Armor tried to say before she attacked him?'




Were just some of the questions Obtrillion chained and buried in the dirt, still buzzing noisily. Eventually, he could smother these thoughts altogether, making it so Twilight would automatically dismiss them the moment they came into her head, but for now he would have to keep her close, reinforcing these chains regularly. 

He wanted his mother to love him; and although he knew she would still want him even if she did remember the rape, her feelings  would be far stronger for him if she saw him as the only memento of her one true love, than as the result of a breeding program aimed at creating a weapon.

Now there was just a few more things he needed to do…


…………………………………………………………………………………………………


Twilight couldn’t move, but that was OK. Fidora was watching over her body and Obtrillion was fixing her mind. She could almost feel his presence drifting through her thoughts; soon he would undo the lock Celestia had put on her, and then she would remember Zohan, his family, and what it was like to be loved romantically. All at once, Obtrillion’s hold on her mind stopped and her stillness was shattered by a blood curdling cry of agony. 

Her eyes flashed open at the same moment Obtrillion’s hooves were retracted and she saw him there, screaming, curled into the fetal position as he gripped his horn with both hooves. In a flash, Fidora was behind him, leaning him against herself as she cradled his head, her eyes filled with worry and then a flash of anger as she glanced at Twilight, knowing she had failed in her oath that she wouldn’t hurt Obtrillion. “m-methrine.” He whimpered. 

Fidora put him down, gently but swiftly, and galloped to a small cupboard, where she began mixing and measuring several urns and mixing them in boiling water. Twilight needed to do something: she tried to step forwards but then realized she was still paralyzed, and there was nothing she could do but watch her son writhe in pain as someone else helped him. 

Even now that she had found him, she was useless to him, causing him nothing but pain.

Fidora returned at a gallop, holding a ground filled with steaming liquid. Once again she propped Obtrillion upright against her, and offered him the drink which he drank through agonized gasps. Gradually his breathing began slowing, as Fidora moved him into a more comfortable position, and began massaging his back as they waited for the painkiller to have its effect, while Twilight watched on in guilty envy.

After a minute that lasted for eternity, Obtrillion seemed to be recovering; he gazed dreamily up at Fidora for a moment and then looked worryingly at his mother, standing up and cast the spell that allowed her to move again. Twilight tried to jump up, but had her legs fall out from under her as she tumbled to the floor and then dragged herself to Obtrillion and hugging her son with tears streaming down her face, “I’m so sorry. There wasn’t anything I could-”

Twilight tried to continue but couldn’t, so Obtrillion took the initiative. “Celestia booby trapped your mind to stop you from remembering. I’m sorry, I didn’t find anything-” Obtrillion continued, but for once in her life Twilight didn’t care; she didn’t care that he was explaining to her the secret mechanics of mind magic. It didn’t matter that she might never know who Zohan was. Of the thousands upon thousands of things she'd learned in her life, only two were important to her now; she was a horrible mother who couldn’t help her child when she needed her, and Celestia’s magic had hurt her son. Twilight vowed that the first one would change, and that the second would never, ever happen again.

> 8 - Revolutin Stripes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Tell me again what your mane means?” Strongheart demanded.

Sky Blaze sighed; knowing they’d been through this already, and knowing that making prisoners repeat stories to check for inconsistencies, was standard interrogation procedure. She hoped Sky Fire, wherever he was, was giving all the same answers. “It’s the logo of the Cloudsdale Weather Company,” she stated evenly.  

“There used to be many weather companies, competing for contracts to provide rain for different farms; each with their own colored rainbow which they displayed over the fields they supplied. If a farmer thought the crops looked greener on the other side of the fence, he always knew where to get his next rain shipment from.

Cloudsdale began as a company town, founded by the Typhoon family. They had a rare gene that made their manes striped red, orange, yellow, purple, blue and green; so those are the colors they made their rainbows. In the late eight hundreds they invented new refining technologies that allowed them to manufacture purer clouds for less, and undercut their competition. They were on the verge of establishing an absolute monopoly on weather when Celestia nationalized the company to prevent them from charging exorbitant prices and taking over everything.”

Strongheart nodded, “And you are descended from this family?”

“Yes.”

“This makes you what? Deposed royalty?”

“Hardly, my great, great, great grandmother was a mistress of one of the Typhoon brothers, and had several children with him, including my great, great grandfather. He provided for her and his children well enough; but she wasn’t the only mistress he kept, and neither was he the only Typhoon who had affairs. Billionaire stallions seem to enjoy making herds of bastard foals; and their millionaire lawyers make certain that the estates remain secure.

Today there are hundreds of pegasi with rainbow manes, and thousands more who dye their manes like this. However, many members of the Typhoon family, who still run The Weather Company, don’t have rainbow manes, since the gene is recessive, only manifesting in pegasi and often skipping a few generations.”

“Why would someone dye their mane rainbow?”

Sky Blaze shrugged, “Patriotism. With one of our diarchs in prison after a mass killing spree, the other hiding herself in isolation, and refugees coming in from where another royal alicorn fought a civil against her own people; a lot of Equestrians don’t like the idea of royal alicorns anymore. Rainbows are still the symbol of Couldsdale, pegasi ingenuity, wealth and the closest thing we’ve had to a pegasus empire in centuries. If the royal family falls or abdicates, these colors are the next logical symbol for pegasi to rally to. If that happened, I would dye my mane black.”

“Why?”

“Because despite our current problems, Celestia’s provided a stable government for over a thousand years and I still support her. I was born with my mane, it’s my heritage and a part of who I am, but if it got to the point where everyone who saw it believed that I was a revolutionary, it would no longer reflect who I am. These six colors are a symbol, but symbols change meaning just like words do and could potentially come to mean anything. If the world agrees the symbol means something I don’t believe in, my mane will change because of it.”

Strongheart nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answers, though Sky Blaze knew that she wasn’t, otherwise she wouldn’t keep asking the same questions. Sky Blaze grit her teeth, hoping that she hadn’t said anything wrong as Strongheart gave a throaty laugh, reached into her satchel, pulled out a round pastry, and pushed it toward Sky Blaze.




……………………………………………………………………………………………



“Apple Pie?”

Sky Fire accepted the meal and took a small bite without question. He knew from the taste that it was drugged, just like the last three pies had been, but only with something that would calm him down and make it more difficult for him to lie. He swallowed.

So far Strongheart had made two things clear; and that she wasn't going to hurt them as long as they didn't do anything she didn’t like, and a failed escape attempt by one of them would result in severe punishments for both of them. He'd been separated from Sky Blaze, but had been allowed to see her yesterday, and again that morning; just long enough for them both to know that the other was unharmed. 

Of course, escape was always possible; but for now he was still recovering from his trek through the desert, and wasn’t convinced Strongheart wasn’t really on their side. At the very least they shared a common enemy, and after the ambush in the gorge it had seemed like everything was going to be alright. Then Sky Blaze saw her saddlebag in one of the wagons their captors had been pulling and asked if she could have it back. Strongheart looked like she was about to agree, and then Sky Blaze needed to open her big mouth, and ask if she could at least have her flute back which meant a lot to her since it have been a gift from her friend Zecora. 

That had set everyone off again.

Sky Fire didn’t know how the buffalo knew her, but it wasn’t hard to imagine the old shrew doing something to piss the buffalo off if she’d passed through here; or charlatan them into thinking she was some kind of divine messenger. Since then however, they’d been prisoners; separated, but treated kindly as long as Strongheart didn’t decide the oath Sky Blaze had sworn on the name of a dragon had been a lie, and needed to kill them.

Then there were the apple pies that also seemed present at every meeting-slash-interrogation-slash-getting-to-know-you session. He guessed they were endlessly amusing to Strongheart from the constant squirming at the end of her lips whenever she offered them, but didn't know why. He guessed that the buffalo had recently raided some supply caravan, and this was the food they had the most of, or else they just really didn’t like apple pies. 

“So you were telling me about Cloudsdale," continued Strongheart from across the table, “and how your great, great grandmother had had an affair with a Typhoon brother.”

“… Great, great, great grandmother;” corrected Sky Fire slowly.

“Your sister said it was your great, great grandmother.” Strongheart challenged, checking her notes.

“She’s wrong then.”

“If you say so," said Strongheart, scribbling in her notes, “What else is your sister wrong about?”

Sky Fire raised an eyebrow, “Is that a trick question?”

“Humor me.”
> 9 - Just a Little Bit Crazy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Clastic Strain's room in the TARDIS had been surprisingly accurate to his one in Canterlot. Suspiciously and disturbingly so; to the point that Calstic Strain had lain awake several hours, until finally coming to the conclusion that Dinky had been in his room, at least once, and had gone through every inch of his shelves and drawers so she could re-create an exact replica of it inside her TARDIS, accurate down to his brand and color of toothbrush.

Well almost.

There was one, glaringly obvious difference; and Clastic Strain hadn't quite decided how he felt about it yet. Walking cautiously down the now blank, stationary hallway, Clastic Strain found his way back to the courtyard where a long table had been set up in the middle of it; already furnished with fruits, cheeses, cereals, drinks, plates, cutlery and Benefair.

Clastic Strain felt guiltily relived to guess from his sister's tired expression that she hadn't slept any more than he had. With everything weird and disturbing that had happened this last day, at least it was encouraging to know that he wasn't the only one who found it weird and disturbing.

Clastic Strain pulled up the chair closest to Benefair and looked at the nearest coffee jug. His telikinesis slid off it as abruptly as if it had been made of tylithium, but then the jug raised itself up, as if it had been sleeping, scampered over to him, dangled it's snout over his empty mug and began tinkling coffee into it, whistling in a way that made Clastic Strain lose his appetite by the time it was finished.

“You should try the coffee.” Smiled Benefair weakly, sipping her own mug, “It's good.”

Clastic Strain hesitantly obeyed, took one small sips, and was rewarded with a warm, rich blend, which acted like coffee, pouring down his throat and into his empty stomach. “How did you sleep?”

“Not a wink.” Benefair sighed softly, “I was up all night long.”

This was odd. Usually Benefair jealously guarded her sleeping hours, and retaliated viciously against any who dared threaten them like a dragon protecting it's hoard. Until now, a tired Benefair had always been a cranky Benefair, but this one seemed perfectly relaxed, leaning on the table with an almost dreamy smile that Clastic Strain tried his best to ignore. “Question.” he muttered slowly, “In the room Dinky made for you, was there a single bed or a double?”

“It was a double.” answered Benefair between sips, “Why do you ask?”

Clastic Strain sighed, realizing he was relieved, “Everything about my room was the same as my one in Canterlot except my bed was a double instead of a single. I was wondering if maybe she was trying to hint something to me.”

Benefair looked at him sheepishly, “Maybe she is.”

Clastic Strain dropped his coffee on the table in confusion, “Then why would she give you a double bed?”

Benefair began blushing the reddest red Clastic Strain had ever seen, and then broke out into a the widest, most embarrassed grin to match it, “She... came to me last night and-”

“Wha-wh-w-what!?”

“It wasn't planned or anything.” she said quickly, “She just came to talk, and then one thing led to another and... well... you know that I've never had a coltfriend before and you had to have guessed why.”

“...WHAT!?”

“You still love me, right?”

Clastic Strain was startled when he heard a colt screaming nearby; he was relived when after a moment he could confirm that it wasn't him, and then worried when he realized it was Crackle Jack. He accepted the merciful distraction as he ran to where his brother had fallen in the hallway, free of any visible injury but curled in a ball, screaming; and then looked up at him with a terrified white face, “I-I have balls!”

“Umm... yeah.”

Benefair yelled from behind him; Clastic Strain spun around and saw two Benefairs, one standing with a towel around her neck, the other sitting where Clastic Strain had last seen her. Benefair—with-towel ding seemed to have been the screamer, but this shout was less intense than Crackle Jacks and soon died to a silent glare directed at Benefair-who-was-sitting, “Dinky.” she ordered solemnly, “Put us back.”

Clastic Strain looked between his sisters; then cast a revealment spell on both Benefairs to spot which one was the changeling, but neither of them changed. Benefair-who-was-sitting, looked like she was shaking, almost in shock and then the sound of shrill laughter emanated from somewhere very near Clastic Strain’s mouth, even though he hadn't made a sound.

Benefair-with-towel spun to face him angrily, “Dinky put us back!”

“...What?”

“This isn't funny!”

The Benefair who was sitting didn't seem to be listening to anything the rest of them were saying, but was now freaking out over a set of problems entirely her own, staring down at her tail as if she was searching for something before blurting  out, “What the hay is going on!” Clastic Strain was beginning to decide very definitely that he had gone mad.

Going mad soon became the less pressing of Clastic Strain's concerns however something was suddenly very very wrong down between his legs. He looked down just in the nick of time to see his colthood retreating into him, and then there was just a flat, lavender stomach tipped with a cute blond tail. Crackle Jack was now standing back up, glaring at him furiously, “Dinky, if you're the one doing this; stop it right now or so help me, I will kill you.”

When he didn't say anything, Crackle Jack hit him, and Clastic Strain was too shocked to block the first hit, or the second one that knocked him to the ground. Crackle Jack looked like he was going to hit him a third time, and then the Benefair-with-towel cast a shield over him. “Everyone stop!”

Clastic Strain wasn't sure how he could stop when he wasn't moving in the first place, but he gave it a try anyway. Benefair-with-towel cleared her throat; “Dinky... is a shape shifter; it's her special talent. She's like a changeling only she can change other people as well; without their consent.”

“Yeah!?” snapped Crackle Jack, “And how do you know that?”

“A talking couch told me.” Benefair with towel answered; somehow managing to say that in a way that it seemed utterly reasonable. “I'm Crackle Jack by the way; now which one of you is actually Dinky?”

“Fine.” sighed the Benefair at table, “I am.” her face contorted with shock a moment later, “What the hay!? I didn't just say that; I'm Clastic Strain!”

Benefair-with-towel turned glaringly towards Crackle Jack and pony-who'd-hit-him, “The couches also told me that Dinky is an expert ventriloquist.”

“I'm not Dinky!” Clastic Strain insisted, noticing his voice sounded nothing like his, and very much like a young mare. He thrust his arm out at pony sitting at table, “That's Dinky!”

Clastic Strain felt the tug of another person's teleportation spell on him and the next thing he knew he was sitting back at the table, exactly where Benefair had been, with his hoof wrapped around a cup of coffee. Pony lying in the hallway, had its hoof thrust at him accusingly and repeated, “That's Dinky!” 

Pony standing in hallway looked suspiciously between Clastic Strain and pony lying in hallway, “Whose house was Winnow at when the buffalo attacked?”

“Board Swipe!” answered Clastic Strain.

Pony-standing-in-hallway smiled smugly at Pony-lying-in-hallway, who then jolted in surprise raising their hooves to defend themselves, “Don't hit, it's me; Crackle Jack!”

“Don't listen to her!” shouted Benefair's voice, from somewhere very close to Clastic Strain's head, “Let's tie her up, saw her horn off, and then have our way with her!”

And then, of course, everyone was looking back at Clastic Strain again. 

Pony-lying-in-hallway stood up and gave a diminutive sigh, “This could take a while; Dinky likes mind games. She’s been that way ever since her dad abandoned her and her mom.”

Dead silence.

No sudden yelps of confusion, no witty retort. They all flickered for a few moments and then Crackle Jack was himself again; Dinky had the towel around her neck and was glaring daggers at Crackle Jack, who was standing in front of Benefair. 

She took five steps towards him and threw a slap at his cheek, which he blocked; and then a focused blast of telekinesis which he couldn’t, knocking him to the floor. “You just made things not fun anymore.”

She turned around, took one step towards the table, paused, and launched a kick behind her which Crackle Jack barely managed to dodge so that it only hit him in the lower gut. “He didn’t abandon us.” Dinky muttered and then strode to the breakfast, pushed Clastic Strain out of her seat, and sat down.

Clastic Strain looked at Crackle Jack who was keeled over in pain, and bleeding from his mouth; then at Dinky who he had never really known how to admonish. Benefair looked between her brothers and he tried to change the subject. “Have you figured out how to move the TARDIS yet?”

“I was up all night working on the calculations.”

“How soon till you finish them.”

“I already finished them.”

“So we’re ready to go?”

“We already went.” Quipped Dinky, sipping her mug of coffee, “I decided to pull the switch before I lost my nerve, and wake you ponies up if I needed you.”

“So… are we flying above the buffalo right now?”

“Not exactly.” Clastic Strain felt his blood run cold, and turned to the doorway that led to the outside world, wondering what hellish void they were trapped in. “I wouldn’t open that door if I was you.”

“… Why?”

“It’s hot.” Answered Dinky smugly, “You might get a sunburn. Bring a hat.” A straw hat from a clothes rack that hadn’t been there the night before, lifted in Dinky’s telekinesis and plopped itself on Clastic Strains head; shielding his eyes from what would have been blinding. 

As his eyes adjusted, Clastic Strain could see nothing. Nothing but sand and sand hills and valleys stretching as far as the eye could see. He took a few timid steps forwards, stuck his head out and looked left to right, but the sand remained. “Wh-where are we?”

“Somewhere in the Zaharren… I think.”

“Then we overshot our target by at least two hundred miles. You can try again though… right?”

“I could.” Muttered Dinky, slowly shaking her head, “But I won’t.”

“What? Why?”

“Because.” Dinky stood up and strolled towards him. 

“Because why!?”

Dinky put her front hooves on Clastic Strain’s flank, pushed him out of the TARDIS and slammed the door shut behind him. 

> 10 - Treasure Hunt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Clastic Strain fell face first into the sand, turned, and threw himself at the door, battering his hooves and magic against it without effect. After minutes of pointless effort he slumped down on the burning sand and banged his horn against the impenetrable door, regretted it and then saw something moving out of the corner of his eye.

There was a camel train; distant but coming nearer. They weren’t on a course for him, but he could catch them if he left now. If Dinky really had just stranded him here he might need their help. Would they help him? They could be slavers. He could promise them a substantial reward for returning him to Equestria safely, but there was no way he could prove his identity unless they’d seen pictures of him somewhere. 

He was an alicorn though; that didn’t really give anyone status, but a lot of foreigners thought that it did. He remembered a story about another alicorn stallion that convinced a tribe of camels he was a prince, and would reward them if they did his bidding. When they found out he was lying, they gelded him and then buried him up to the neck near a fire ants nest. 

Maybe these were the same camels?

He turned back to the door of the TARDIS and started pounding on it again, even harder than before. His horn and hooves hurt even worst this time. In a momentary lapse of control, he even tried swearing at it; but that didn’t work either. 

He looked back at the camels, then to the TARDIS. Benefair and Crackle Jack were probably in there trying to open the door the inside, but he had no idea what they could do against Dinky. So much about that mare confused him. He waited. Minutes passed. Nothing happened. Benefair and Crackle Jack weren’t opening the door for him; maybe the camels would help. 

He cast one last disdainful look at the TARDIS and then headed out from its shade towards the camels. He made it eight steps and then his neck snapped to the left. He stared for a long minute, “Very funny Dinky.” He yelled back at the TARDIS, “Were one mile away from city walls.”

The TARDIS doors swung open showing Dinky with a stop watch laughing her head off. “It took you three minutes and forty two seconds to think to look behind the TARDIS.” She said smirking, “You know we originally landed so the doors faced the city, but I turned us around so it would be funny.

“Where are we?”

“Timbucktoo.”

“Why are we here?”

“Do you remember how I said that the reading I got from the palanquin was of a unicorn with MQ of about three hundred using an artifact to boost their magic another nine hundred?” Clastic Strain nodded. “Whatever that booster is, it’s linked to some kind of generator located inside the city. Finding it won’t get my mom back, but it will break the power of the unicorn that shot her and there’s a very good chance I could use the generator to get an exact lock on the magic booster it’s attached to, so we can home in with the TARDIS directly. Now come inside, you’ll get a sunburn standing out there.” Clastic Strain slowly obeyed and the doors shut behind him, though he didn’t know how. 

“What does this generator look like?” Crackle Jack asked.

“Not sure; could be a furnace constantly burning enchanted oils, it could be a crystal that a whole coven of normal unicons are charging; I’ll know it when I see it.”

“Timbucktoo has over a million people. How are we supposed to find something when we don’t even know what it looks like?”

“It’s between thirty to forty-two feet underground, and between three, to three point four miles from here that way.” Said Dinky with a thrust of her hoof, “That gives us the general location and my screwdriver should be able to give us hotter and colder signals as we get closer. Mind you, most of the area we need to cover is under the grounds of the Shaman Temple, meaning they probably orchestrated the attack and we’re on the brink of an international war, but let’s not just to conclusions just yet. 

“… Could we take the TARDIS back to Canterlot and make a return journey if we have to?” Benefair asked slowly.

“I left a locked beacon in the cottage before we left, and there’s another one in the sand outside.” Dinky nodded, “We can travel between here and Ponyville safely.” 

“We should go back and get reinforcements.” Ordered Benefair, “We could get some royal guards, and our father, and maybe Celestia or-”

“That’s a no.” scoffed Dinky, “Celestia’s been trying to kill me for the last twelve hundred years.”

“… Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“You seem awfully happy about that.” Observed Crackle Jack.

“Of course!” Dinky laughed, “Can’t think of anything I’ve done to her so far that would make her that mad at me, so that means at some time in my future I must go back in time and do something really bitchy. That means someday I get the TARDIS working and don’t spend the rest of my life in a drab little town full of stupid ponies.”

“… But you feel safe telling us this?”

“Well I know I’m probably going to have to erase all your memories of this anyway so, what’s one more bit of interesting trivia I need to burn out of your skulls.”

“But aren’t you afraid that one of us might stab you or something?”

“That could be fun!” laughed Dinky gleefully. Clastic Strain felt himself changing into a mare again, and was faced with three exact replicas of Dinky, all looking equally confused and horrified. Then he was teleported to swap positions with who had been Crackle Jack, then to where Dinky had been standing, then back to Crackle Jack. A knife materialized out of nowhere next to him, with three more appearing next to his companions before Dinky’s voice seemed to come from everywhere, “Now everyone stab the pony to your left.”

“… We promise not to stab you.” offered the Dinky in front of Clastic Strain after a few awkward moments of silence.

“You’re no fun.” Dinky sighed, turning everyone back to their original states. 

“…Are you sure Celestia might not have a good reason for attacking you?” Asked Benefair slowly.

“Not at all; but it’s just as likely she was doing it because she’s crazy.”

“Don’t talk about Celestia like that.” Warned Clastic Strain, “I know she’s been going through depression since Luna fell again, but our parents knew her before then and-”

“Which one of your parents ever realized that Celestia is climbacophobic?” 

“…What?”

“Celestia won’t climb stairs. She flies up them or teleports, but never just walks up them.”

“… Flying is a lot easier.”

“It’s not that she chooses not to walk up them.” Rebutted Dinky, “It’s that she downright refused to for centuries, and by now she doesn’t even know how to anymore. She’s forgotten how.”

“…That …makes… no sense.”

“And yet when was the last time you actually saw Celestia climb a staircase?”

Clastic Strain thought like mad; she flew up the steps to her throne, she flew down, and he really hadn’t seen her many places other than her throne room. “I haven’t but that’s not enough to prove she can’t do it, either for me or you.”

“Well I once decided to stab Pinkie Pie with a hypodermic needle to knock her out and stuffed her in the closet so I could pretend to be her for the day. Luna told me about the stairs, and proved it to me.”

“Why did you stab Pinkie Pie?” 

“Because why the fuck not!?” yelled Dinky, “Now are you three going to waste all morning with stupid questions, or are you going to eat breakfast so we can go take a look at this generator?”

“If we’re going to be breaking into the Shaman Temple; shouldn’t we at least work on some sort of plan so we don’t spark off an international incident?” Asked Benefair cautiously.

“Planning’s for wimps;” Smiled Dinky; “I think we should just wing it! But remember what we said before about me keeping whatever magic booster the unicorn in the palanquin was using? This applies to the generator as well. If it’s movable, I’m keeping it.”