> You're Here!
>  by Arn
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Dream of Marigold
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She never though she'd ever want one, she, quite content to live out her days alone.

Walking the paths of Filly Delphi, her boring quiet life from home to work to market, work and home again. Clients customers parties and weddings to fill the monotony....

...weddings...
....monogam...

News! News on the community tree!

Her eyes wandered to the tree in the square. 
She saw that proclamation nailed in public view!
Her face flushed her heart raced, her mouth opened and her tongue went to the the top of her mouth as if to click looking through half lidded eyes!   

A stallion. 
A poster.
From Celestia herself,Depicting what the perfect male would look like!  
A promising:  to every eligible female!Their own male. Just come to capital. 

She stared at it a long time. 
A very long time with her blue eyes, blue as crystal.

Then she shook her head breaking the eye lock, "I don't need a male! "she said rubbing her sore lower lip realizing she had closed her mouth and had been biting it, hard." I'm not like that! Nope! Not like those: uncontrolled brutes, chasing males all over town this time of year. "She stood up straighter putting her nose and air with a sniff that would have made a unicorn proud turning her back on the poster.

She turned her back on tree and poster.

"Mustanga!Them!" head held high. "I am better!" 


"Simply follow mother's time honored instructions this time of year. "She repeated her mother's instruction"...eat lots of parsnip and turnip soup." then of her own volition as to what to do after. "Have a nice bubble bath and all will be fine...just fine. "the cream colored mare mused to herself. 

She departing with a flick of her blonde tail with red highlights and pink strands matching her mane, going home away from the tree with the poster applied. 

As the pink flyaways seemed to drift against her coat main and tail,
that direction,
toward tree and poster!

A nice walk along garden paths of the city of Filly Delphi to her house. Good business at her shop had allowed her to buy this small plot and build her dream house, what we here on earth would describe as a narrow two story colonial.

She wanted squares, and had many arguments with the architect finally drawing up the plans herself. His contribution? The house looked like a box of flowers spilling into an open garden.

Proud of her house she was, standing there among the trees with her garden about.
.....and the best thing about it, a relatively new innovation.

Indoor plumbing!

Yes, a lovely night in her lovely house, eating lovely soup, taking a lovely bath and lovely sleep after a hard day's work upstairs in her lovely bed.
Lovely!

The night did not go well.

Scalded soup:  too much sherry; absentmindedly she stirred the pot. She stopped, noticing the bottle held aloft tightly in her hoof and caught herself attempting to swig from the bottle. So uncivilized. So gauche.

"What am thinking? I'm not! "she replied with a scowl. "Don't want to become a lush."  

After pouring its entire contents into the pot, draining with protest of air and sherry trading places from the bottle, a strange high pitched gurgling,  watching the wall across through half lidded eyes of disgust annoyance and disbelief at the sound coming from the bottle.

"Really, seriously?"

Listening or not,  she hurled the empty bottle across the room to said wall. 
It shattered everywhere.

"Snip the bud early keep the bad habits away as mom and dad would say. "She grumbled quietly as she left the soup to clean the mess.

There was a stinging smell to her nose. The soup had bubbled over, scalded then burned.

"How did it take so long to clean up the glass?" she thought.

She frantically opened up the windows, her trying to keep her house smelling  like that of vegetable miser's of ill repute!  When she had  a good breeze going, she sat down to eat her creation as an ugly brown bubble popped in her bowl startling her.

Staring at  the bowl with shock and dread, she hit her hoof to the table determined to clear the noiseless air. "Enough!" she said. "Its still good food! I'm not wasting it! "She gripped the spoon tightly. "I will finish it all."

She finished with a burp that tasted worse than on its way down.

"Come on! Your a lady...."she whined. "For heaven's sake be a lady!"

She cleaned up her kitchen waiting for the air in her house to clear.
Working and scrubbing really helped to take her mind off the building and conflicting pressures dancing inside as well as the prancing stallions dancing in her head trotting around her neurons as in a yard at a barrel race.

"Use the passion to get work done."thought she on her mother's and father's advice. She didn't stop with the kitchen.
When she was finished she was a sweeting mess.

"I really went over the top cleaning." she mumbled wiping her brow. "If I was going to be away for a couple weeks, that would be another matter...."she stretched. "It's late! I'm looking forward to that bath, just to float." she saw herself in a mirror."Heh. I'm a mess. I really need that bath, "she said with a smile." just to float." 
The evening was not a total loss.

She gathered her things placed in a bucket on her back walked into the bathroom to prepared her bath.
Draw the water. Fill the bucket and the tub.

Nice hot tub, bubbles to cover in a heap of foam, and cold water in a bucket beside to drink. Wait for the bucket to be room temperature and rinse off the suds when she was done. 

A tradition she had on a good week of selling flowers. 
She always had a good week this time of year! 

She settled in with a sigh. Let the water wash it all away. Leaning back to relax her ear suddenly flopped. A powerful inclination began asserting itself like a growing storm coming over the horizon. The thought of that poster, wondering what it would be like. She could handle her thoughts, she was an adult, she could stop anytime she wanted. 

Strong back and trunk, firm legs and neck, long mane, something she had never allowed herself to think about let alone experience, before she knew it "it" had overcome her thinking, raging roaring... it was overwhelming! She felt her self control rapidly going: a rabid cavalry charge over the hill to the defenseless town!

A raging tidal wave. A frantic flood! She gasped realizing she was about to be washed away in the torrent.

Frantically she grabbed the large bucket full of ice cold water and dropped over her self as she shrieked in shock of the unexpected cold, awash of frustration.

The following silence accented as the wooden tub fell to the floor with a hollow sound in the silence aftermath, with only the sound of sputtering cough and heavy, angry breathing through nostrils.

Now the evening was a total loss!

She went outside into the garden, in the cool of the evening when the best flowers are most fragrant, it smelt ravishing and delectable. As if the most fragrant of flowers were putting out their best for the one who took care of them. Especially tonight when she felt most blue.

But she was a florist, that was her job, it did nothing to make her feel better. It reminded her when home was shop bound, when she first started the business. All the worst of living above her shop, waking up in the middle of the night to rushing carts or commotion on the streets. 

It was why she had moved to her own house a distance away from the business. It was a way of knowing her customers and community better. Making friends.

She peered a gaze at her cutie mark, an expertly done bouquet depicting flowers of love and faithfulness wrapped up in what looked like a spreadsheet or grocery list, before darting her eyes forward again. Her cutie mark signifying the seal of the new her, her rebirth.

Although throughout her business everything she had done to that point she had done in joy, to advance, to progress, to achieve greater maturity. She felt to go back living above the shop, would be a regression, a lack of maturing. 

There was a grinding sound as Marigold brought her teeth together like millstone grinding barley to flour.

Lack of maturing like this gnawing stallion fever she had right now, that she thought was defeated long ago!
How her mother sat up with her this time of year...
It turned on in her too early. So bad in the days of her youth, she had to be sent home from school. Teacher took one look at this gasping mass of sweating hormones that day it was found out and immediately sent her to the nurse who contacted her parents.
"Remedial studies with mom at home..."she said to her self. "So very embarrassing beyond words."

The fillies and colts at school found words: Marigold the over fragrant/flatulent and other names less noble. 

An only child of elderly parents, their time together was too short. First mom left then dad.
Dad tried very hard not to blame Marigold for all the times mom had to be away from him, becalming their little filly. 

Males also had their season.
Marigold sat up with him in a flop sweet, laying on his back as she gently applying a cool cloth to his head mopping. Marigold had practice deep self control her urges seemingly conquered. The last days with dad seemed to be the richer he taught her much. She learned that males were not just objects of attraction. Most important in those last days of his he taught her what was love!

"As you stay by this sick old stallion you are showing love." he said looking at her face. "So much like your mother." he said with a gentle smile. "I feel that love...it believes all things, hopes all thing does not rejoice in evil...I love you, to protect you, yes, yes I will cling to that. I will cling to that unknown deep abiding love your mother talked about as if it were a being itself! Yes I will cling and trust that love! I know I have loved and continue to love and...and I am sure...I know for certain...love is life...."and those were his last words.

All her anger dried up in a single feeling of loss and defeat, a brokenness inside.

"Why?!!"she said  mewling and whining loudly complaining, stinking sweating, as it spilled out. "Why would Celestia do such things?"leaving her alone to build her up illusions of conquest and maturity then put this poster in front of her face, as if to mock her. "Having heralds put up such a poster in the public square for weak mare like me to see?" she cried. "How an omnipotent long lived ruler could be so cruel? Doesn't she know? Doesn't she care?" She said complaining to the night, complaining to the mare in the moon. 

"Are you entertained?" she said with a sneer in a final fit of temper looking up at it.

And with that she hung her head, dragged herself up the stairs a soggy smelly mess in the second story of her house in Filly Delphi.

Then to bed.
She dreamed.
There was  spinning pavilion before her. She navigated a large screaming throng.
Stallions hid among the columns of the spinning structure clutching and peering out confused at the world whirling before them.
Atop, the point roof standing on the struts , wiggly bipeds sang an introductory song of complicated cords, as strange as the exaggerated lutes and drums grasped in spidery like appendages they held.

A loud voice introduced them.
They didn't look like *Beatles!
The music started as they rocked back and forth with every word singing to each other. Seeming to try and out sing each other as the  herd screamed!

She could just make out
They wanted to hold and...she couldn't make out the rest (maybe because it was copyrighted)

During the song some stallions jumped of, sometimes mares jumped on taking a stallion off. Again, others were thrown out.

Again they sang about holding and being something.....

It continued, this. "The lines are to long, too long, too long look there are plenty of earth ponies why should we be denied? One for everymare one for everywhere!" said a voice.

Not being able to hide she heard,

Just then, a swarm of pegisi descended on the pavilion zipping through, seizing stallions with abandon and glee.

Something and wanting to hold and something.

At the same time unicorns used their magic and pulled stallions off, wrenching them out,  the stallions desperately  grasping empty air holding high in the air their prized studs. Earth ponies sprang out of the earth seizing unicorn males who had inhibitor rings on their horns.

Being happy and not able to hide, they sang.

Then the pavilion began to spin faster and faster, throwing stallions out more and more to the waiting mares who caught them with delight, it seemed our cream colored mare would miss out.

Repeating they wanted to hold and something again three times.

The crowd was gone all sated.
The pavilion stopped. 
The band packed up and left.

In the silence, Marigold though she had missed out. Then she smelled smoke and through the haze saw him a stallion the others had missed. The smoke was like a haze about him as he clutched the posts with all his might, between two as if he wanted to bring down the roof. 

A voice came from out of the smoke as it curled around his ear, "Mutilated and bent. Beast! "it snickered." You've lost your soul!"

"Faithful, faithful..faithful, faithful...I am called to be faithful! "gripping the pillars tighter so that they cracked. "Not to win or lose, just to be faithful! "he cried out as he shivered a stallion's huddled figure. He held a book to his trunk. On it were great golden letters.

She could not see him in the sun's fading light but a wad. "That one needs more help than the others. That one needs me!" She looked at him and loved him.

"There you are. So you have consider my imago dei, my son, Helpmate?"

She turned and sitting on a bench was another one of those wiggly creatures only different.

More real.

"What do the letters on the tattered book with the new cover say she asked? "surprised at her boldness.

"It was recovered by a unicorn who acted in good faith. Though he knew not, he imitated my first born the intercessor as he was led by an unknown hand,  he reasoned with this one saving him from the fire and Equestria from the devourer, delivering his mind from the evil one during the suns blindness."

It was hard to reply to that...what could one say to that?

"Gosh."

He continued. "The words say, In the Beginning. 
He then pat the bench. "Come. Sit with me.
Let us reason together. I'd like that."

She did so and sat the way he did, she was comfortable, strange.

"So you have arrived." he said knowingly. "It took you some very big steps and now...."he said with a sigh.

"You are here...with me."a beaming giant.
"Hee."he found another thing amusing. "You will never be more comfortable than when you sit atop your husband, a stately gate,as he steadily walks along. "

She blinked at his pleasant smile.

He leaned in close.
"He will call it side saddle." A small laugh in his voice.

She felt her face smile back. Such wonderful nonsense! She felt happy.

"Now for serious things, business." he turned serious. "My imago dei looks like me...and I take myself very seriously!" there was a solemn in the air that commanded attention.

"Listen carefully because you won't remember everything and that is for the best. What we speak of here, right now, is important and I will remind you always." She looked up at him and felt disappointed upset she would have to be reminded. " Its complicated for ponies, peeps too...but I will come again in dreams." her heart felt glad. "I will talk to you again starting in the morning." He said. "Remember be wise. Remember your parents teaching and of what to be fearful. In dreams, or whatever you hear: you, be discerning...for not all spirits come from me not all voices are mine."

They talked of many things especially the stallion He called imago dei.
> Dreams in the Clouds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She caught the next airship in the morning, despite the morning assurances and His pep talk, a frazzle. 

Forgetting absolutely everything He admonished her about.

Wearing nothing but an ugly hat used for gardening  and a purse containing her life savings swing wildly around her neck, like an albatross, disbalancing her at every quick turn , the addled mare made a complete fool of herself, a trick, as she lept aboard the departing airship ,kid's do not attempt,  considering the mares aboard were nearly as flustered (only difference: they on board being packed with appropriate attire luggage stowed  as the airship departed and were not doing a flying leap on to a rapidly departing airship high off the ground!)

She had forgotten her parents teaching: did not use discernment, listened to her neighbor's voice thinking it His and continued conversation despite many contradictions. She charged up the platform, foam flecked and smelly jumping over the rope line  charging up the gangway, all the while singing," I WANNA HOLD ANND, ANNNND!!!" running through town and the zephelport terminal.

Worse! Captain Updraft Tackey Tea  Sails was, at that moment, the mad mare had collapsed at his feet, hoofing him her ticket as if he were a train conductor,considering to put her off if his wife hadn't interceded. He remanded the delirious, shivering and soppy pony, to the care of his wife Saffron Sails.

In the captains cabin,she dreamed delirious dreams.

"Marigold."

"Yes."

"What did I tell you?"

"You told me to go to the capital and get a husband to leave immediately or I would miss my flight, use discernment and follow my parents teaching."

"Are you sure? That doesn't sound like me."

"You told me to follow my parents teaching and to think."

"Did you behave thoughtfully? I never change my mind."

"Wait, that sounded like...."she turned red."Feather Duster!"

"Please...follow me."

It was on to another dream.

These dreams:
She had never had any like these before in all her life.This mysterious giant and an allegory of why it was important to listen to her parent's teaching, walking together through a shadowy valley.The giant brought her attention to something she would remember forever .

"The one who scorns a father's advise, and mocks a mothers teaching..."she ran from the sight of the birds in the valley. 
The ravens, gorging, feasting!

Again, another dream:
She was running from a predictor, the predator seeking to devour, corned she screamed for help. Out of the sky, He reached down, He rescued her taking her up in his arms higher than she had ever been before! The predator howled and lashed at his feet...He crushed its head!

Now another dream.
As she opened her eyes, up high, becalmed, she asked questions.
" Couldn't you have done something? Did he have to die,the pony I saw?"

"What should I have done?"He answered softly.

"Stopped him,helped him, kept him from going....kept him from the bugs and the worms and the...birds."

"Oh? Made him go where I wanted?"He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If you loved him, protected him...stopped him.."

"Forced him to listen?"

"Yes!"

"If he wouldn't listen. What then? Chain his neck? Force him to go from place to place??"

"Well, no I... "

"Smile all the time, saying nice things? Opened his mind wide so only good thoughts would settle on the cords of his brain?"

"Stop No!"

"I can you see!"there was a rumble of thunder with His words and a darkness that seemed to swallow up everything in that starlit sky.

Marigold trembled frightened, who was she talking to?

"But if I did that, he would  never be my friend, could never be a friend,one I could share with...he would have been a puppet!"The darkness lifted. 

There was silence in the dream for the longest time, only the moon bore witness, passing near.

He broke the silence.
"I saw him grow up, a little plant, a little sprout, before me. Stretching to touch the heavens, sun and moon. 
Then I saw him turn." He sighed.
" Everything that could have been done was done. I sent him the best teachers. Many, many advisers and still he went where he would. Recklessly charged through ever warning, not caring who got hurt. So stuborn and proud!
He despised correction and discipline, ignoring his parents teaching. 
He never cast his eyes up, always looking down in self abasement/pride or idolatrous greed!
He never cried for help as the monster pursued him, he went willfully into that awful valley without protection, following the lure, climbing over all road blocks.Mocking the huge cliffs above him, towering over, threatening to cover him utterly.Laughing at them like a fool.
He refused to believe there was danger, a threat or even concede I existed.
I reach out to him to the last, he smacked me away, even as he struggled, the beast above at his throat!"He hugged her gently.
" In ending, he,  the utter ruin you saw. His choices were his own." the giant held the pony high in His arms brushing her mane from her eyes. 

She looked down a the slugly and muddy valley.

"Mark him well, and be attentive to your ways, least you end up the same."He said.

"Am I your friend?"Marigold asked.

"Only if you chose to be....there are always consequences for actions/decisions both good and bad....."

She began experiencing sever pain wracking her body.

"You silly sheep! Jumping onto my husband ship like that, you could have gotten killed falling so far back the the ground!"the mare atteneding Marigold grumbled."Glad I had the sense to keep your joints warm, can't have you staggering around the ship."Saffron tsked.  "And no warm clothes for these altitudes!"

"I assume I'm not dreaming?" Marigold said with a groan and a smack of her lips.

"And not dead. No, you're here! Awake."Saffron said sarcastically."I hope your decision and discernment skills improve while you are with us?"

Marigold opened one eye and stared at the mare, just to be sure. 

"Up you go! Got to recondition your joints, slow exercise warm and cold compresses." Saffron Sails pushed and helped Marigold up to  walk round the cabin to protests and whining, slowly working her legs till she was totally exhausted."There's your keep for sleepin in the captain's cabin!""

"...keep the hot compresses applied." she told the other two mares attending . "That's enough for right now."Leaving  the cabin she exclaimed."My husband has an excellent safety record and I just won't have somepony limpin around the deck!"

After she was able to walk properly again  after a few days, Marigold was unceremoniously evicted.
"That's all I can spare!"A bundle of thick blankets and an old warm coat of the captain's was thrown to her.
"If anypony ask you where you got them, say that they were in your hat. Better still, a little advice, tell them to buck off!"Marigold's mouth began to move.The captain's wife was in her face."You say otherwise, and I'll have my husband toss you overboard myself!
 I will not have a run on supplies, I will not have it! Do you understand me stiff joints?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Stumbling out onto the crowded deck she spent the next hours slowly walking round and round the ship. The crew doing maintenance do to excessive wear the craft was experiencing. Marigold snuggled into the warm coat and sighed.

"Stop blocking the way."a heavy set mare said rudely shoving past. She walked right up to a crew member working on rigging.

"Hello hansom."she said with bating lashes. The crew member look at her and visibly blanched.

That moment a group of mares appeared between them. One stepped toward the mare aggressively showing a mouthful of teeth.
Her husband relaxed and did the same bearing a wide smile. 

The heavy set mare began to back up slowly ears flat against her head.

"Hansom."said the dam."Heh,heh,heh. Not honey or sweetie..."the dam glared at the mare and brought herself muzzle to muzzle."The crew's wives have a message for you..."She whispered in her ear. Then she towered above the other mare who shrunk back.
"ruhaun..."the mare bolted just as the dam brought her teeth down to bare upon the mare's haunches. 
"MINE!"she screamed out,raising to her full height pawing the air.

"Oh, my savior!"cried the sire to his dam."Whatever you ask...."

"Yech!"she spat out some tail hair."Something to take away the taste." He kissed her."Much better." she said with batting lashes.

Marigold spent many sleepless nights on deck with other mares on the overbooked ship. Sleeping little, having to move every time some mare became territorial, which was quite often.(The captain loved his ship as much as his wife and would never overload it or put it in danger!)

These mares.
They acted foolishly, he didn't mind.
They tried to seduce a members of the crew, he let the wives take care of them.

But....when a strand of rigging was brought to Captain Updraft Sails attention, frayed, the captain had had enough of these addled mares! He could see the teeth marks. 

They were getting enough food! 

"Peckish? Nibbling the rigging?"He looked at the bit of rope with knit brow."What reason, what right? We're dropping most of them off!" He threw the bit of twine down and pushed himself away from the table."They're going off tonight." 

Saffron couldn't help but interceded again when she imagined tumbling, falling mares into the vast sky. How bad for business!
"Dear, let me handle them."she said with a nervous smile." In the morning you will have the trouble makers off in town and the trip will go much better!" 

"I put them in your capable hooves, mine own, myself."he said to her"You decide!Which witch wench to rest off my ship!" He said a mouth full of bile as he left the cabin, his wife nodded solemnly.
> Detour and Delays
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"....and," the pegasus traced his hoof across the chart he was holding up before the captain.
"You are here...."

More trouble.

The wave of a high pressure weather front set up as an off limits area blocked the way. This frustrated the captain no end.

"What do you mean by setting up a high pressure dome???!"the captain screamed at the landed pegasus on the ship's deck. He tore the map from his hoof and shoved it into his own face nosing over the course. 

"It will take at least a day to tack around.A dome: its like putting a mountain in the air!" he pointed a shaky hoof. "I can see the capital for crying out loud! 
And look! This new government ordered course,  changing its mind, for this government chartered trip.....the way stop town is well outside our trip!"

Marigold's heart sank as she stared at the mountains. She would be a day late to the capital.  

"She's pretty." thought the guard as he stared at Marigold,looking over the side tracing her hoof on the rail, for a moment, .

"If you haven't noticed I have a ship full of heaty females that I want deblimped sooner than before!" turning dark plum color, the mouth so very wide, his tongue a majority dwarfing his teeth. He, using a guttural voice, spitting out words, in a hiss, quiet, so he could not be heard, using the chart to hide from all passengers his dead eyed stare into the pegisus face.

"Try being stuck in a town full of them!" snarked the pegasus back as quietly.
The guard had a flashback:
A  crowd of a dozen mares standing round him, uncomfortably leering. They would disperse. Then ,when they thought nopony was watching, each one would eventually wander back and stare it his eye with  fluttering lashes, then start breathing in the face! Then, always, would turn to go, some dancing their tails in the face under the guards nose, tickling as if by accident in the whiplash,acting as if they were going to walk away, swinging their hips , thinking they had found a time, a spot, where no one would see, to harass a guard, lure him from his post, not thinking, not realizing the rich and powerful and sneaky watched from "above" laughing, looking back with dark grins as they departed, watching for any reaction. The mares, beckoning for the guard to follow, quid pro quo, watching the eyes, watching where the gaurd was looking. 
A little shirking of duty and professionalism and then leverage by another. The harm, caused, a lifetime of misery!

"Don't leave your post! God's sake don't sneeze! Just stand there. Expressionless! No matter what they do, just do your job, follow your training, do your job, do your duty. Stay with the herd...er..squad! With luck, they'll think your not interested." he reiterated in his mind. "And boy you had better not be interested, you're married."

He looked at the cream colored mare again as she enjoyed the cool air gently washing over the deck, the wind playing with the pink flyaways in her gold blond mane, with natural red highlights. 

" You better not," and looked away "or there will be Tarterus to pay!"he told himself.

"Look old boy!" said the pegasus."I'm sympathetic, truly I am. Troops are being brought all over Equestria. Blimp traffic is absurd but that is the least of our worries you would think it isn't worth it no matter how much song and drink we get it isn't worth a good night's sleep. Celestia is putting out boons and rewards encouraging us through this overtime. " He looked right and left, and brought his voice down. "Word has it she is working on some kind of spell a mix of her magic and ancient writings."

The pegasus eyes twinkled."Celestia assures, that when this spell is done, married ponies will never have to worry about running from mares at this time of year! Imagine! We can spend it with our wives! Surely a day is worth it to not be harassed this time of year later?"

" You and your wife aren't packed tightly with them!"  The captain was feeling his oats!
"At this time of year, I usually stay to the northern trade routes, there I can avoid most hormonal difficulties. True sometime husbands and wives of the crew chase each other round and round the deck, I've done it myself, but the northern ponies usually have more common sense being so close to griffon territories......."

The soldier would have sighed if not for professionalism.
,"Oh please!"he thought."Don't talk to me about the chased and demure way of mountain ponies!" he chewed his inside cheek."I can't tell you how many "wells" I have had to lead teams through, on the ground, upside down and sideways! The new guy always has to trace his hoof across the surface ripples, everything gets old! All because some father has to find a husband for his daughter, when all they have to do is leave the freaking mountains! Sometime I think they set up the whole thing as a quest, find the hero, have a wedding....happy ever after and then I'm short a man!"

"Oh, the captain is saying something dramatic...."

"....and I do not  appreciate being impressed into this enterprise! This fairy, breezy,trip! I want it over!" He hissed like a tea kettle turning his back to the soldier.
"I'm going straight across, at the weakest point in the bubble of the high pressure dome!" 

"Its either follow the course, "said the pegasus ,speaking loudly, through half lidded eyes "or be blown out of the sky!"  
Another Pegasus, a bruiser, appeared and began slowly circling the craft. Turned in a bank as he flew, so the massive  and deadly armaments could be clearly seen by the crew having knowledge, understanding the risk.

The blue eyed mare with the bouquet on her flank in the heavy sailor coat and ugly beaten sun hat smiled impressed at the wingspan and muscled power of the Pegasus flying technique, clueless the danger. 

Captain Sails looked past the mare to the armed Juggernaut and back to the stallion, over the length of his body, at both pegasus, a look aghast.

"You know."said the pegasus , signaling his escort.
" Never fly alone."  The other pegaus backed off. "Especially in the skies this time of year."  the chart was yanked back, he smirked," Keep on the approved course, around ,"and folded neatly, putting it in saddle bag as he spoke," where the wind take you," stretching out his wings.", you'll be fine."

The captain lowered his head and put out a sigh, as his face returned to its color.

" I will tell you, if it be any consolation," the pegasus said as he let gravity take him, " Look to the south."  calling out as he flew away" To call it a spell....Its going to be quite a show!" swooping into place as the armed pony's escort and winggaurd. 

The ship detoured. 

--------------------------------------------------
"What is happening? Why are we detouring? We can see the capital from here! Why are we going north!" said the mares causing quite a commotion, milling about the deck.

"Ladies please." Assured the captain worried for the deck planking as he imagined it warping as the mares stomped about. "There is a high pressure dome ahead,  so we're tacking with the wind. It's the fastest way." 

"Why not just let the updraft take us over/above." said a smart alack mare.

The captain did not say what he was thinking, was anxious but gave no sign. "Idiot! The ship would be torn to pieces at that speed!". Instead." If we did that, we would suffocate do to the thinning of breathable air." He grinned. " Or would the lady rather walk?"

They quieted down and stopped stomping.

He imagined later that night,  fearing, imagining, the mares.  All, like crazy foals, rushing starboard to watch whatever was happening in the sky! His ship tipping,falling. He didn't put anything pasted them.

Now was as good a time as any.

"Before sunset begins, an hour before bells," said Captain Sails"  an assembly will be called on deck.You will be partitioned into groups with walkways between." He then divided the mares into groups.
Continuing:" Find your designated areas. Everypony is to stay in their assigned places on deck. If you are one of the guest in the state rooms you need to come on deck, an hour before bells, with your luggage packed," he turned walked pigeon toed away from them and turned back." there are vermin aboard with a taste for tackle."he stared at the mares for a while. "We'll be doing some pest control tonight." 

"Hot will be drinks served after sunset. "the crew were set to guard.  " Crew will answer any and all reasonable questions."He nodded to his wife. "Dismissed." 

"Hey sugar. How about a date?" the captain cringed as he walked away, hearing the question to one of the crew behind him.

What followed was the usual theatrical commotion used by ship's wives to impress upon the wayward mare the finer points of fidelity!

 

> Starfall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The crew was anxious as they guarded, taking their positions on deck.The night chime rang: the hour before the sun descended approached. The captain made his rounds on deck, looked each crew in the eye, one glare from the captain and they resolved to keep the mares from rushing to the starboard side. 

"Pilot!" the captain cried. A electric blue pegasus with white mane and silver wingtips fluttered down to his side.

He talked to him quietly.
Our closest translation: "Are your men in position?"

"Yes sir..."

"All of them standing by, not just the nightflyers."the captain looked to the sky."We will have the moon tonight."

"I.....yes sir!"

"If we have an incedent, I don't think I have enough unicorns on board." Captain Updraft smacked his lip."God bless them! I don't think the crew can stem the tide!"

"I understand sir, I will explain the situation."

"I don't want anypony hurt, tell them to use there best professional judgement, but..."he raised a hoof over his head and slowly brought it down to the deck as he spoke."I never want them to forget the trip down. Do you understand?"

"We've seen the frayed condition of the ropes,they've embarrassed you and taken advantage of your hospitality."he smiled darkly."I'll pass your request along to my crews."

He turned to leave and looked back."If they fall, when they safely land, I don't want them back!"

Pilot nodded his understanding.

The captain again took his positions before the assembled mares and put on a pleasant countenance.
"Tonight,"He began."is the end to the longest day of the year! I am told by reliable sources that Celestia is going to put on a show for us the likes of which Equestria has never seen,"he looked starboard." in the sky,tonight, to the south!" Captain Updraft Tackey Tea Sails pointed starboard."You have an hour to find comfortable seating. Once settled, that will be your assigned place. Everypony is to stay in their assigned places on deck."

He was master of his ship and it would stay that way! 

The crew took confidence in his solidity while giving the mares direction, even the snooty stateroom guests followed said directions obediently...nobody likes vermin.

"Keep the designated walkways clear, you "will" be moved!"

The mares chose their respective spots carefully, spread blanket, getting comfortable like cats with luggage used as pillows or walls, being sure to keep the walkways clear.

Poor Marigold was shoved to some cold place near the bow. Asking to buy more blankets, she was ignored.  She was just about to move to another spot when crew came to her.

"Stay here. This is your spot. Do not leave your spot or your place."

"Yes sir." she sighed and sat down quietly.

Everpony watched the sky,watched intently and anxiously..Excited as they were.

As the sun was setting: 
"I see a small tiny figure descending on the plains! A descending twinkling star!"

Mares on the deck began to shout:
"Who else could it be but Celestia?!!"

"She spreads her wings to bring down the sun!"another shouted.

"Look! She settles, descending on a high hill to the south!"

Crew members smirked, they knew Celestia would be too tiny to see besides Celestia didn't "Twinkle!"

Last light of the sun, spilling over the horizon, then the last sparkle.

It never ended!
The light poured out of that sparkle!
As the it came, it turned into waves of pastel color in the sky of clouds, washing across, whirlpooling, with gentle subsets of light swirling, in an aurora above.

No! Not an aurora.
"Wings!"cried a mare."Her wings!"

Celestia's "wings", their joints somewhere in the valley and plains below, spread across,from horizon to horizon! Great pastel illusory wings they were! Gleaming wings! Swirling as oil on water,mother of pearl and soap bubbles, clear rainbows in starlight!  The moon crested over as if riding surf. A great silver bucket, spilling its luminescence.

Lingering sunset's light mixed with moonlight  in great clods, fusing with starlight that became smaller clumps, falling from high in the sky to the earth, showering shooting stars, trailing glitter as they fell!

There were millions of them! 

Raining down, each containing something dark in the center.
What they saw.
"The stallions!"cried a mare in exuberance, uninhibited, a terrible sound."The stallions, the stallions they arriving!!!" 

Mares ran to the side of the ship to watch, nearly sending the ship, slowly dipping, into a slow stall.
Did they really care?

In wisdom the captain's wife, Saffron,  had large steaming pots on carts wheeled out.

"Hot spiced punch!" she cried. "Feel the cold air!"she crooned "Feel the chill in yer bones!" She drew a cup for herself.
"Come drink with us! Drink with the scallions of the air!"She swallowed a huge swallow from the mug."Drink! And! Be! Warm!!!!!!!" A voice as ugly and instinctive as on, announcing the stallions arrival.

Distracted, the spell cast, the craft was wrighted as the mares ran back, back to the steaming bowls of hot punch in the center of the decks, back to get their own cup of punch.

"Just in time!" The Captain Sails sneered,secured in the visible confirmation of the mares behavior about his decision.
He was in his rights, of course, rights to put them off.They were a danger.

Saffron Sails made note of the many Mares who had run to the side then had joined in this rabble, greedily guzzling down punch.The crew merely smiled as the rabble demanded and downed second, even thirds! Calmed, they mellowly returned back to their places, to their own respective places,groggy.

"There's magic in those pots!" said a crew.

"Sush you!" said Saffron motherly."Open your mouth and fill it up!" she gave him a small cup filled a little."Such small words.Drink! Mocker! Captains orders!"The stallion's wife came beside him, smiling a wide smile, licking her lips.

"Want some?"he asked sheepishly.

"Oh no darling!" she scooped a bigger draft."All for you!" As she hoofed it back to him smiling, her eyes saying,"Shut your pie hole."

Saffron wheeled the cart, with the large steaming pot on top, down the rows. Encouraging the ones who had stayed seated to drink, everypony did. The streaming stars behind her, lighting her face, were hypnotic and she knew it.

Young Marigold mare watched awestruck, the sky, wrapped in fascination staring,  until she was startled by something beside her.

"Here you!"It was Saffron."Help me spread out this blanket."

As soon as the welcome blanket was spread out,a thick comforter like bed sheet, insulated from the cold of the deck, they both settled down ,starring at the sky, as it continued its rain of liquid stars.

Saffron encouraged Marigold to drink.She had to offer three times. Marigold declined.

"I don't feel right eating something I haven't payed for,"marigold protested. "though, a hot drink would be nice I'm hesitant to dip into my life savings around my neck, for just a drink."

"What is your name Raw bones?"

"Ma..Marigold."

"Saffron Spice...er...Tea Sails. Ah me, its been over two decades and I still do that! First thing to go is the gold...er last name.Then the mind. But it is nice to have somepony to lean on." 

Marigold clutched her purse her discernment going off wildly.

Very good Marigold your getting better,let's show you everything is ok.

"Marigold what did your mother tell you about being polite?"

Marigold was affronted starting back making an annoyed horsey sound."You're not my mother!"

"No, but I'm old enough to be.What did your mother say? Saffron stared at the mare."This is my house you are my guest...have some punch.""

Marigold would have refused but the scene, below the gondola outside,  the showering stars starkly contrasted, in the moon's light with ragged mountains, twisting, looked to marigold like some kind of predator,snarling.She didn't look for the eyes. 

She felt like a little filly curling up under an older adults stare as a parent looked on, expecting her to answer politely.

Go on Marigold.

Fortunately, with the heighth, the rigging and railings, reminded her of an embrace, in a dream.
The moon was there! 
She sighed and dipped her cup into the nearby pot and brought the cup up to her lips.

Before the cup came to her lips."Dear that's not nearly enough! "More protest, Saffron  tossed what was in the cup over the side then drew a large cupful and gave it to Marigold.

"Thank you." Marigold said taking slow small sips as she watched the star fall.

They talked. Conversation wandered. 

"Marigold? "Saffron asked. "Why are you going to the capital?" 

"I'm going for a husband just like everypony else, just as the proclamation promised. "she said matter a factly.

"I don't believe it." Safforn said chagrinned. "You're much to young. Maybe youngest shipboard! "She stared hard at Marigold till it was uncomfortable. "Are you thinking all your troubles will be solved by a mate? Take my advise! "She touched Marigold shoulder with her hoof and spoke gently. "Go home, back to your parents, we'll make sure you get home safely, and look for a mate when you older."

Marigold looked at the sky, the starfall continued. Maybe Saffron was right.
Marigold took a large sip from her cup. She ran her hoof around the rim of her cup and then spoke. "My father..."she hesitated. "my father said, 'advice is something old and used. The bad bits covered, then cleaned and polished then given out as something new. "

All Marigold wanted was not to be alone.If she had to fight for a mate like everypony else so be it! 

"Normally I would agree with you, but I was promised a mate! "Marigold looked at a particular blobby star fall. "Do you think that's him?" Saffron was quiet.

"My parents were old, I've been on my own for quiet a while now." she took a drink. "I walked through my empty house, and looked at my empty bed and though about the horror of my empty life and you know what? I realized it didn't have to be like this!" She took another drink. "I have dam friends,  always gets happy round this time of year, this blasted season." Big swallow, coughing.
"Just being single, they think I'm a monster! Coming to take their sires!"

"I have room in my life!"She became sleepy then yawned. "I have room in my life to be with another, to be committed to another..."her eyes began to well with tears. "Even if he never touches me at least he would be there!" She rubbed her eyes. "There is a stallion for me and I...want...him!" she felt really groggy."I..burn..Saffron."yawn "I burn..."

Marigold's blue eyes eyes looked up at the blobby stars again, continued up and up, rolling round back till she was looking behind at the  ship. Her head dropped, Saffron caught her , keeping the mug upright.  

Saffron Sails stroked Marigold's mane, petted  her head, set it on a pillow  and pulled the blankets round, nice and warm.
"You've passed my test." she said laying the mare down." I'm convinced. You can stay, Marigold. "she gave her a light hug.
She tucked her, in the way a mother would and as Marigold fell asleep she  curled up next to the older mare. 

Light snoring  came from  the decks. At the twelfth hour the star fall finally ceased.
"Time to start clean up." crews gathered to Saffron." Ok guys, just assume blankets and bags belong to mares with them." The blimp began descending. "Put them off together in the clearing but I want the ships blankets back, that's company property!"

"Guess I'm guide."said a mare sourly.

"Its not that far, for all the sweat of complaining of heavy bags and hard hiking, the path is short, going directly across. You should be there an afternoon before, as traffic permits us."Saffron smiled."They have to hike out everything, no littering.They hard hiking will make better of themselves!"

"When they get to the city they'll be like that mare," she laughed."jumping aboard at port the other day!" 

"Truly," Smiled back Saffron.She gave the scout a bag."Keep it quiet, your pay, refunds for the rest of the trip and a little extra to pay for what wasn't put off with them.

Saffron remeber something. Calling out to the crew.
"Guys, heaven knows why they would bring such bobbles but, you did remember to check for jewelry in the cabins and staterooms?"

"Unicorn are doing so now ma'am."said a crew member.

"You! Stop snoring, get to work, sleepyhead!" said a foreman to the stallion given punch.


> Captain's Table
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marigold awoke to streaming sunlight. It was quiet...well at least slightly muffled. 

AS she opened her eyes she realized somepony had given her a large pillow and taken the time to tuck a blanket round her firmly. With crisp air it was tempting just to lay there and snuggle down but ,dark shadows moving over her, she opened up her eyes to see the crew  quietly working round herself under the rigging. She felt guilty just lying there, feeling being in the way.

She slowly go up, stretched, folded the blanket setting the pillow on top and a crew offered to take it away. A walk around the decks despite the crowd, in the way, on blankets, no doubt blocking pathways, snoring loudly, would help loosen the joints. 

She imagined wandering through a maze of unconscious mares and their luggage. 

"Good morning." said a cheerful mare.
Marigold was surprised.She found herself on a near empty deck. So few mares now, where did they all go?

Walking round decks, she could now pay attention to the details, she saw it a tidy craft.
Well built, in tasteful trim and décor, all the brass and wood made to look like billowing clouds or waves. 
"Very expensive."She thought. 

Peering carefully over the side to the mountains below, she saw a sign.
"Cloudy Dream."
Well, duh! The Ship's name. What did she think this airship was? A trolley or interurban with a number on its side?

There was a stallion a the rails, his head resting. Two other males were beside him.

"I didn't bid her well leave!" he said to the other two stallions. "What if she gets in trouble? I should be with her!"

"Ack fellow!" said another fellow. "And be around those stupid nags?" Shaking his head."Naw, she has enough than to deal with watching them pull their luggage around up hill and dale, without her worry of them watching you!"

"No boy. She'll be fine!" said the other. "A well trained officer, she! No, she's had cadets worse than them to discipline."

"If it's alright...I'd just like to spend at least ten minutes more staring where she is, sending my love and asking any great powered pony to watch after her."

"Ah."said the other. "The altar to an unknown God...the legend of Pull." He smiled. "Only ten more minutes and then back to work. Polish away the green patina. It will help the time just fly!"

"An unknown God."thought Marigold trotting about the deck, thinking of her giant. 

Random thoughts: "Hmm is the store open, oh I know, food! The galley, it was closed but with so few.."she reached her purse, lost.
Panic! Retraced  steps:decks round rigging where she was sleeping.

Nervous shuffling in place,"Maybe it went over the side!"she thought!"Long necked snoop, you didn't have to look over the side!" Glanced  up," Why is the sun there?How late is it?"

"Ma'am the captain asks you have brunch with him."

"But...coming." she sighed.

She made her way to the galley, it was open! Again she noticed how few ponies there were. "Where is everypony?" Marigold said peering round the corner to the dining area.

"Marigold! You're here!Come over, come over here! Sit with us!" Saffron sitting on her rump decorated with what looked like a crochet work of rigging over a ship being off loaded with ropes by a crane, next to her husband, the captain, his mark, a teapot sailing full sail, on its own cloud of steam. 

"Enjoy a well stuffed tuffet!" Saffron patted a big cushion beside her.  "This is my husband, Captain Updraft Tacky Tea Sails."

"Like ways, A name to a face, please to meet you again." said the captain with a pleasant smile. "You can know ourselves better, in the light of day, by our marks!"

Marigold looked at him google eyed realizing how insulting it must have been for him as she hoofed over her ticket as if he had been a train conductor!Then to swoon at his hooves! How embarrassing for Saffron!

They ignored her ogling and returned to their plates eating with gusto until the steward brought Marigold a plate.

"You're not eating?" Saffron mumbled mouth full taking the back of her hoof dabbing the sides of her mouth before using a napkin. "Three days without a proper bite, I think?"her mouth now empty.

"I feel guilty not being able to pay for it."

"Nonsense!Not this again!"Saffron playfully threw her fork with a clatter to the plate. "Tell you what. I'll pay you to eat!"

"I'll still feel bad."

"If I make you feel better, will you eat?"

Marigold's blue eyes looked above from the large plate of food." I donno, last time a drank something..."

"Pttt...that was just a non alcoholic totty!"

"I don't think anything can make me feel better."

Saffron dropped her purse in front of Marigold nose. "Took it from a mare with honey hooves. EAT!"

Her worries sated about her purse she quickly tossed her mane ,with joy and gusto, and tied the albatross again around her neck . 

Over oatmeal and fruit and small crab cakes, the discussion did turn to darker things and being part of an expert crew, the captain and his wife steered her back to what was right and true.

--------------

''Really?''Saffron looked at her deadpan.

''Heavens no! "said captain Tea distracted from his bread and butter chuckling. ''I dropped them at an old garrison, still provisioned, with the wife of one of my crew, a former guard of Celestia's. That many mares and one stallion? No. Poor fellow, it is the season. Rest assured she can handle herself.'' 

''You should have seen those who weren't asleep some were pickpockets, honeyhooves, always get them off!" said the captain.

-------------------------

''Kidnapping you for Saddle Arabia?!''the captain laughed, incredulous, spitting out some coffee ''See she is still young enough for nonsensical romantic writ.''he ate some fruit Saffron crossed her front legs, oblivious she also read the same stuff.

''No, just a little off course due to the high pressure dome. Besides...Griffons offer a better price further north. Don't ask how I know!''

''Really!!''Saffron looked at her husband.

"Honest! I can't talk about it. I signed Celestia's non-disclosure for that mission!" He said

"Captain!" said an exasperated hoof bowing running in out of breath. "We need you on deck! Something is happening with the sky, the Sun!"

The meal was over.

They all got up and went out on deck.The moon was closing over the sun.

"It alright!" said the captain ."Just Celestia recalibrating, even after so long, after her sister's rebellion."

As darkness fell a ring appeared in the sky .Marigold was struck with dread."Celestia is blind!"the thought struck her head.

A vision came to her.
As stallion, clutching something, standing on two legs, unnaturally hunched over, like some kind of bug, framed in smoke and flame.
"Yessss..."he hissed."We have not devoured fair Oyarsa in an age!" the smile and shine in his eyes unnatural, "Yes, pray to her like a God! What a delicious lie! More mistakes! Let us see if dinner, your doubting angle, brought to make mistakes, can save...oh what a mistake she has added tooo!"

"Oh Celestia!"Marigold swallowed, her mouth dry."What have you brought into our world!"

In her vision a unicorn stood before him, a pegasus behind him and another unicorn flanking.

"NO." said the unicorn, thunder rolled from the dark as he spoke.
"I will pray to an unknown god."

"Who died! "Shrieked the thing, triumphantly.

"Oh?" A cheshire smile crept across the unicorn's face as he spoke. "There is such a God? A creator of All Things? Whose will sustains everything?" the unicorn then laughed at the thing a hearty good natured laugh. "And since the world is still here, he's alive! So he must have become alive again!

"Impossible! "The disbelief on the thing's face.

"His sacrifice, once for all."the stallion said weakly clutching the book tightly. "Unicorn. He out ranks you...."the snarl returned to the stallion's face ."Shut up!" it said in a guttural animal sound that could barely be understood as words.

The unicorn captain was unnerved but held himself rocksteady."That I am sure...but I am on life's side! You, thing, are a criminal, against life, love, your betters! You rebelled against the true authority of life! I call one who outranks all!" The unicorn cried in a loud voice. "Please sir,"the unicorn looked to beyond the darkened sky,"I submit to whatever your decision is judge us, intercede between, us living, and this dead! Please bind this thing far and away from our world: Never to trouble again!"

The darkness lifted a moment later. The sun shone brilliantly.

"Brave Captain All Wishes, Sargent Captains and Doctor Puzzle! 'Behold the foolish thing making sport of the wise!" the thunder laughed. "Just doing their job!"

All Wishes approached the trembling pony, about to fall from his awkward two legged stance  " Please, come away from that pit, my neighbor, my friend." after licking his lips." There is nothing there in the smoke and flame, I don't know what life was like where you came from, but here with us, there is life! And here, in the sunlight, you have a better chance than there in the smoke and death!"

"Please, come away.I only want what I know is best for me, also for you!"

The last thing Marigold saw of the vision was the pony collapsing then caught by the unicorn's magic. Saved from the fire and smoke. Gently carried away from the fiery pit.

"As if a stick, seized from the fire."

"Come away from there, the fires of the pit, and live, my neighbor, my friend." Sang the three. 
"As wanted for ourselves, for you also we give.
"Life for ourselves, a great ruler once said 'I'm alive! Now others  live!"
"For  whatever you are, the form you is, life is love and good, so live!"

Marigold was back on the ship again.

"It's alright the sky is back again, everypony , everything is going to be fine." said the captain.

''Marigold!" Captain Sails called coming over. "I'll take you where you get more suitable warm things, I want my coat back" The captain said with a wink. "Oh, and I have a state room open for you! You'll have a roomy. Yes, we'll be to the capital by morning. A bit late I'm sorry. I hope you can still find your pony.''

He took her to....

"Oh my! What a pretty little shop!" she said as she went in. The captain waited outside content to listen to the laughter of the mares inside gossiping.

A wizened old unicorn came and stood beside the captain.

"Out of the woodwork and planking!" he turned looking to the wizard. "What did you see?"


> Wizened Words
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was laughter before the unicorn could answer, the sound of hooves on deck pounding! A mare and her stallion raced past. 

She held a hat in her mouth, teasing the stallion with it.Taunting. He answered back playfully, "Thief, thief,thief! Give me my hat back.Thief!" As they raced around deck out of site as fellow crewmates shook their heads and rolled eyes,wives shouldered stallions, encouraging them, for a turn round the deck.

"Ah..."said the unicorn."That's the way it should be here on board this time of year!"

"Well, Acknowl?"Captain Updraft asked impatiently.

"Well what? Oh! You're here. Didn't see you..."He smacked his lips and pursed them into a pout."You're a terrible witness! Yes."

"...and you make terrible predictions you old toot!"Captain Updraft Tackey Tea Sails let his voice rise a little." Long ago, you said,Saffron would have a child. I'm almost to retirement!"

"Saffron had to pass a time of testing, now,soon,she'll be expecting!"

Captain Tackey Tea looked at the old wizard with glassy eyes, wondering where he had been, what he had heard and had he seen something, in the early  hours of the  morning, when the ship had taken skyward, all command duties, petered off,stealing away, unnoticed, in the dark, with the moon no longer watching.

"I should have left you to that angry mob, chasing you in Zebracandria!" he said through grinding teeth."Sometimes, I muse, to myself, if this were fiction, that you're only on board to move somepony else's story along!"

The Wizard looked up rocked his pupils in the tops of his eyes while scrunging innocently."In fact, yes."the unicorn cleared his throat. "I saw and heard something in the shadow of the moon!"

"In darkness I saw, a thousands stallions milling...."Acknowl began.

What he spoke was sound and fury, of judgements, of mistakes, of forgiveness and monsters, of redemption and terrible loss.

Of a great Judge, Celestia's Select, her Prefect, Judge of Equestria.

"Beware the thundering herds....."

If that was hard enough for the Captain to imagine, what the wizard said, then in a turn, that all these battles were and meant nothing to this Celestia's thousand years of peace. 

Astonishing to hear. For this Judge, even Celestia made terrible mistakes.......causing staining tears, and only "one" could take away the wrong and make it right.That it was all part of the plan, "but not to be presumptuous or be willful, take advantage, a freind doesn't do that, break a promise.""...cause magic doesn't take you anywhere!" 


That all that counted was relationship to the "one" and friendship to him, for those that live. How, such could bring forgiveness and heal the heart of stone. That by this kith of relationship, harmony woven through, for by the elements of harmony through the descendants of the strange ponies could, rescue Luna from Nightmare Moon, bring forgiveness to Discord even Nightmare Moon!

These last words ended the prophesy.
"A book primarily, and sardines,crackers and kitchens and coffey and wings and song, tea and hairbrushes and gardening and work...and...."the wizard stumbled.

"Sardines??! Are you kidding me?" A different character, almost different voice."Away!You've had enough! Too rich for you! This is totally G-rated story that is another, or whatever the readers come up with!"

The unicorn shook his head till one could swear rattling was heard as his eyes rolled.

The captain was a loss of what to say,
"That last part sounds very domestic." he said slowly."So far..I don't hear anything... useful..."trying to be respectful of his older counsel.

"Was I saying something?"the wizard said. 

Then, while thinking, his pupils suddenly became pinpricks.The wizard tore off his medallion with violence and hurled it overboard

"Ack, me!"he said."I quit!" He sniffled closing his eyes rubbing the ridge between."It's just too big for me!"He turned around "Time to grow up..."and trudged off."I'm, after all,only a pony!"

"Time to get off this endless boat ride!"Acknowl grummbled.

"Why did, huh, what?" asked the captain.

"I'm going to Delphi, where the missus wants, I'm retiring.Besides."he called back."I want to see this immortal who came to life again, truly immortal." he started mumbling."He doesn't really like spells and incantations anyway.And I do soooo want to see eternity!"

"Beware the thundering herds."the captain said smacking his lips.

Marigold decide she was going to enjoy herself and make the best off it.
Her heart became lighter when she saw the garments left behind.Nice things and a bag. HER travel bag: filled with things to wear, she departed from the cheerful room of conversation and laughter of the other mares  and took her bag to her room.

She bumped into an old unicorn.

"Baths, brushes and taxes!" He looked her coldly in the eye, nose to nose, she shivered. He showed three teeth in his mouth."He will grieve you three times all at once, not know it, and be merry as a colt as he plays with the fourth! Do you still want him?"

"Yes?"Marigold stumbled but recovered."But I was told he would grieve me!" she almost yelled at the unicorn stomping her front hoof.

"Good."he snorted satisfied with the answer. "I was told the same."He smiled showing two more teeth. "Celestia will take care of anymore problems, you won't like it! Watch your temper, but Sunshine solves everything."

Marigold was about to speak.

"The wait will be worth it!" he put his hoof on her shoulder, gently patted."I promise!he said reassuringly"You'll find him on the hill, the last day of court, reading his book, crying about his face."He smiled, benevolently. "Though the little imp may separate, and the many hooves frighten, its only for a night they divide. Those stallions!Old friends, commiserating, honoring their elder!Tales feats of strength and jousting...he wins it all!" he began to walk away "You will laugh with the ladies not believing you would ever arrive,remembering, knowing...he is quite thick, Megan watches the morning. And.... you will be justified!"He gave a wide smile, many teeth." Just watch that temper later."He left swishing his tail."What a puzzle to solve! I'll be at the lake later. I want to know this giant."Looking back, he said."There is only one way, you are correct. You will see His face.The Way,its all part of being real, yes." 

Marigold was frozen with shock as he walked away, she never saw him on the trip again.

The rest of the trip was more pleasant. More space, with the removal of so many passengers.  Still she was the  youngest female aboard. 

The pilot called out, Pegisi began to board.

"What's going on?"Marigold asked.

"We're following a tradition."said a crew."Last night aboard you get to be be entertaine in our haus. So come to eat, prepared for fun!" 

That night everypony put on their best, a band played while the ponies ate.

"Usually there would be dancing but since there are only bachelorettes aboard, we'll follow one of the ship's older traditions and my crew will regale you with tales!"

Such wonderful tales, tales of bravery, heroics, funny tales sad tales. One pony even did a stand up routine. 
Marigold never laughed so hard.

Before the knew it it was late, the ships bell rang declaring the hours,the passengers dispersed drifted away for bed.

AFTER dinner she met her roomy Para Tefe, tucking in, they talk late into the night about the kind of husbands they would like as they drifted off to sleep.
> Port
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the days' ride with addled mares the captain put most off in an outpost in the mountains, of whom the peckish things were nibbling the rigging, the whole spirit of the ship changed. In Marigold thoughts and oppinion, things were going to start looking up!

The bed in the stateroom was great! It was nice to have some privacy after days being on the ship's deck and nice to talk to such an amicable pony as Para Tefe, she also couldn't ask for a better roommate very soft spoken, very quiet.  

So very quiet Para Tefe, that in the morning, when Marigold woke up, Para Tefe had cleaned up and packed up before Marigold woke up! 

Marigold washed up quickly, packed out and headed to the decks. Light travel with saddle bags! Turn down the bed, head out the door! It was still dark outside. She found Para Tefe on deck bouncing on her hoof tips.

Ignoring Marigold completely.

Marigold wa upset, she thought they had bonded as friends."Maybe if I bid her good morning and ask..."

All questions dried up as she watched the mighty teams of Pegisi and shadowy Thestrals, among them, in the dark it was the Thestrals in charge, straining at the harnesses. 

Such a strange sight hardly seen, but that wasn't the only thing made her stare, strange hulking shapes moved in the dark, all around them, like deep sea leviathans lumbering along, dark and muddy colored. Capital airspace was packed and stacked with airships! Every size and color and kind, as the ship's lamps iluminated eack one close, balloons that rippled on the breeze.

She came out of her stupor when she saw the docks, the Cloudy Dream passed the docks. Marigold's heart sank. 

If she had just waited later and caught another airship, she would have gotten to the capital earlier! 

They came around again, they passed the docks. They were in traffic pattern.
" It may take all day to land!"she thought.
They began to make a wider circle.
"No. Days to land!"

"Why so sad?" Asked captain Updraft who had slipped up unnoticed beside her under the light of flickering lamps.

"I can tell!"said Marigold."I'm going to be late! I should have caught a later ship!"

"Ohhhh..."said the captain as he turned swishing his tail and slowly walked off, heading to the steering house.

As soon as he was out of sight, things started to happen. First the pegasi, blind in the dark of early morning, and thestral leading, , and began pulling the ropes laterally instead of forward. Next, two crew appeared and raced passed, towards the back of the ship. They carried great horns, that reflected the lantern light with a gleam, these were silver. 

It was then that Marigold noticed the ship was headed for the very jagged peak above the city.

Then, in the dark, the ship began to swing round,  this was done by mostly  pegasi grabbing hold of the ship's sides as they darted to the ship like swallows. The others made the lines go limp as the others turned they ship. Marigold could feel the effot as the ship halted when it had fully turned. Marigold felt queasy at the turning , others just laughed, her stomache tried to ontinue the turn but with effort she held her meal the night befor down.

Gliding backward, momentum continued carrying the ship in the same direction. The Pegisi let go, joining their brother thestrals, pulling the ship backward.

Marigold couldn't see what was going on behind, where they were going. She headed to the back.

Behind them was a huge cave, Marigold could see work was being done on other ships inside under large lanterns. A pony, deep within was circling torches in patterns, coded patterns. Another, in the back of the Cloudy Dream, barely seen in the ship's and early morning light was doing the same, signaling with flags. It was apparent he was signaling more pegisi at the ropes, coming on duty, from the ship's sides, replacing yawning thestrals. 

All thestrals managed to get to their perches save one desperately struggling at his harnesses, the moment the sun's light hit he went as limp as a boned fish. The crews at the ropes began to groan and swear at the added weight, trying to wake up the floppy thing ,content to stay there like cats craddle, dipping the tow line, but it was no use. There would be no waking that one up! Two pegasi flew out like cherubs hovering over him unbuckling the straps as another pegisi waited.

"Couldn't you have have unbuckled faster you big lug?"
"I know he's heavy but he's your husband!"
"Ya isn't it great!"
"Oof."the other said as his weight came on their backs."Did you have to feed him so much?"
"He likes my cooking. What can I say?"

The team let out a groan of releif when the thestral fell onto the backs of the two mares as the rope vibrated like a cello string. The other pegasi buckled himself with the others. Tried too.

"Babe?" He look at her with expectant eyes."Can you help buckle me in?"
She look at the other.

"Five second glide time, then I'm out of range, you have to remberse me my time hiking back!"

"Five seconds.Ready?"

"Ready!"

She let go of the other, and began to glide with the thestral on her back.

Babe sinched up the straps on the male making him let out a gasp.

"Great!" he winced. "Catch up to Spoon Shine!" she was already gone.

Two signals came from inside the cave.
The flag pony on the back of the ship signalled the two ponies with the horns on either side, first one, then the other. They mounted the great silver horns cleaning them rapidly with cloth to a shine polish. Again the flag pony signaled the ponies with the horns. They turned the horns outward and began to blow short brief notes as the suns light glinted of them,  blinking.

"Beep!" Went the one on the right.

"Beep!" Went the one on the left.

"Beep!"right."Beep!"Left."Beep!" right."Beep!"Left.

The flag pony frowned for each individualized note, angry at the lack of uniformity.

"BEEp!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beeep!Beep!"

The sounds were now constant regular and identical, the flagspony front turned to one satisfied of the noise and he nodded his approval as the airship continued floating backwards into the cave as he signaled his compadre at the other end of the cave.

Yelling, as crews tossed ropes to waiting dockies as the pegisi embraced the ship, slowing it down. It found its moor with a quiet click.

"Good job lads!"cried the captain."Tie those ropes ready for inspection, then you can have shore!"

"Ya...only the best galley food. Oh! And enjoy sunning on the gangways while the city is full of mares!" dumbfound silence was followed by the laughter from the crews as they realized. "Yup. We're trapped in this cave for a while."

Captain Tackey Tea  gave the catcalls a shrug and waved it off with the back of his hoof and a grunt.

"You're here!" said the captain with his wife in tow."How do you like that? Right to the repair docks, into the very capital's heart!"

"For me..?"

Saffron laughed."Oh my no!" she smiled."I like you like a daughter Marigold, but we had this all planned from the beginning." She patted the railing."This ship is special..."

"How so?"

The captain and his wife told her the tale of how their two ships collided over the capital. After crews were done fighting, they limped to the repair dock. The forepony told them the ships were a total loss, but...if he could put them together as one....

As the building began, a strange thing happened. The crew began to join together in twos. Saffron and the Captain were the last surrendered to destiny when they saw their cabins and inbuilt furniture, were merged together..

"How romantic, like Odyssey."she sighed sadly. "But I'm still late."pouted Marigold.

"I wouldn't be so sure!"said the flagpony as he climbed down a ladder to the deck. "I just had news! The selections have been postponed to today!"

"Really?!!"Marigold asked holding tight the rail as she leaned over to ask the pony.

"Absolutely!" he replied. "Some backlog at the pens. It started off well but some stupid fool stallion tried to throw himself into an incineration pit."

Marigold clapped her hooves to her cheeks turning red with emotion as she let out a squeal. 
"Everything is ok! I won't be late! Aplenty of males to chose from!"

In an instant, Marigold was whisked away to a small room. Inside a mare was kneading dow. Great confusion cover Marigold's face.

"Captain?" said the mare, out of old habit, kneeding dough."Do you need me to leave?"

"No Pring Knowl." she said just as her husband entered the room. "I want as many witness as possible."

"Safron, I'm sure she didn't..."said Captain Tackey Tea Sails.

"Shush!"said Saffron glaring back at him out streching a hoof his way.
He shut his mouth.

Safron began to berat Marigold on her display of unsafe behavior on the deck.
"What is wrong with you? Your are going into a potentialy dangerious situation an you need to have your head in the game!" Concerned for Marigold's behavior and making sure she would not be putting of a child into a dangerious city full of mobs."You need know what's around you and have a plan for getting out, know where all the exits are  and not take risks! Taking riskd is foalish!"

"You think that celebration about that cracked bell of your city is wild? It won't bare a candle to this!"

"It wasn't always cracked..."it seemed the only thing to say at this moment.

"You may think you are choosing him, leading him, but in fact...he is choosing you!"Her breath was hot on her face."And once the choosins done...Nothing! Will! Ever! Be! The! Same!"Saffron's relaxed. "Are you ready for the lifetime commitment you are putting yourself into? The metiphisical bond that can never be broken? Are you really ready?"

It was very intense.
Finally, Captain updraft took over from his wife encouraging her to get some air, promising to make sure Marigold understood the gist of the place.

Safron began to leave. "You make sure she is fit to go into the city, because I swear, if she isn't, she gets locked up in this room with Pring Knowl till we get back to Phili Delphi!" she then stomped out the door.

"Sir?" said Pring breaking the hard silence of the room.

"Left as Cerberious at the gate again I see." he sighed." Don't you two look at me like that."He smiled weakly."She just saw in you, the hellion she was before." He approached Marigold ,his expresion now hard and commanding.

"But by no means is she a damsel in destress in need of rescue, nor to me, a destressed damsel!"He snorted."She is a strong tower, with fortified gates! Now. Do you think you can behave yourself?"

"I think I can now sir."

"That's great!" said Pring Knowl."Now. You two! Out of my bakery!"She turned them to the door." I've had enough of this dramatic play. I have dough to pan!"

The captain bowed and escorted Marigold out.

"Yawn! I though they'd never leave." A head raised itself out of a barrel."Test, passed!"

Pring looked down at the dough for bread she was making."Hon."she said."I really wish you wouldn't sleep in the flour barrels."

"This isn't a flour barrel."

"Oh! Pray mistic sage!" Pring fumed."What king of barrel is it?"

"Crackers." said Acknowl as he slowly lowered the barrel cap balance on the tip of his horn with him till it came to rest on the barrel over his head with a click.

Saffron and Tackey Tea were at the gang plank as they bid farewell, "We'll be at the capital for a couple days so when you return, we're headed that way, we can take you and your husband back."

Signs directed her from the repair docks to a small office where she could get more information. Agaurd waited at the door, he gave her a small smile as he opened it. She waved to her friends and left for the bustling streets of the city. 
> Capital City.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Well, girl. You're here!"Marigold said sarcastically.
Many of the mares on the street were ruder than what she had met on the Cloudy Dream.

But never in her wildest dreams did she expect,  on touring the castle for the guide and Marigold to cross paths with Celestia herself!

"Mare Mighty," the princess said impatiently with a sigh, "usually you need permission to be up here, near the Royal Residence."

"I asked a guard if it would be ok,"she was a little too comfortable talking to the princess, perhaps she was with the liberal party,"if I showed the less looked at places, I thought, you would be out...besides its just Marigold and me..."

"Marigold?"

She became very interested in Marigold upon hearing her name."I will continue the rest of the tour."

"Your Majesty!" Now came the formal addressing of a subordinate and member of the court, almost swallowing. "It isn't fitting...."stuttering." for your Majesty"maybe now a relization of the political problem she had caused. "to be giving tour for some commoner..."she began to protest. Maybe worried for her tour company's reputation?

"Fear not for the licence," Celestia produced an enormous bag," I will send you a copy of the rules and regulation, again..."
and gifted the guide with bits."Will this be enough for the tour?"Silence followed.

Mare Mighty rejoiced and raced away, rushing off to enjoy her new largess.

How had this all come to pass?
Off the Cloudy Dream, down the gangplank, past the smiling guard and through the door of the aerostation repair dock!

Marigold found herself going down a busy street.Capital City was the mess, as Saffron said.

Down that same street her ears turned to the approach of what sounded like a huge crowd of angry mares moving toward her,she having lost the trail of signs leading to the office that would give her information, to the number booth giving her a number in the queue...ah bureaucracy! 

It wasn't a riot. Surely not! The guards flanking all entrances off, guiding traffic, the mares, that direction, weren't alarmed. For the better part of valor,though, Marigold decided not to be carried along with the crowd. She backtracked against the stream and made a turn where the guards had left their posts momentarily ,allowing her to slip away from the hustle.

She found herself in one of the higher class, beautified neighborhoods: private, plenty of air, space and sky. She would have left, but she was fixated on the landscaping scene before her.

"Oh! Look at all the colors in that landscaping!"she ,being a florist, justified herself as just wanted to see the magnificent arangements, walking and looking every where! Every once and a while she stopped for a sampled smelling.

"I could just die here...!"she though dreamily after taking a deep breath sinking her head deep benieth the foliage, drawn deeper in.As the spaces between buildings became wider and wider.

"UHhm..."she heared somepony clear his throat. She opened her eyes to an irrate unicorn gardner, pointing out the devistated flower rows while marigold felt a swollow wad in her mouth that she had been chewing like a "stupid cow" on cud!

Ah! Ponies. You have to watch them as they brose around the wares.

"Cough!"It went down wrong, and she coughed."I beg your pardon!" she fumbled for her purse."I'll pay for the damages!"she blanched at the cost but counted out the bits.

"Your lucky my employer's wife, Crosswords Puzzle, is not around."He said counting over the bits, again."Otherwise she would have bound you over to the jendarm for damage to "The Puzzle Estate.'"He said as he rolled over a cart levetated out a shovel and began replacing plants.

"I'm sorry!" she gushed."I know what its like when somepony thinks all your work is simply a snack!"

"Bah!"grummbled the gardner. "She care not for an the greens, says workin the dirt is the occupation of mud ponies!"

Marigold looked agast.

"She onely carin cause its a statis thing...usually Lord Doctor Puzzle does the arangeing...but not today." he said. pushing the next shovelful with a clunk."I'm greatful, truly I am! He useally aranges them to complicated maths or riddles then asks us to guess...then Crosswords guesses wrong his missus and him get arguing and we staff for a week,we get no peace !"he shuddered.

"Please sir!"she said humbly."I'm looking for the queue booth."

"Here for the selection huh?"He looked her over."Welp."he looked at her with a preditory grin."If I give something, you have to give me something." 

It was then Marigold realize they were alone."Oh boy!"marigold thought." get ready to run girl."

"Don't be so ansy!"he said with pouting lips." I'm too old to care about such things!"He mopped his uncovered brow with a stained hooferchief blowing his nose,  "just workin on my plants," putting it back in his pocket."but I wants that hat on your head!"

"Oh, yeah, hee hee."Marigold said witha nervious chuckle." I can do that..."

When Marigold found the office she  was hoofed a number, it was a big number. 

It would be hours before transport could be arranged to take her group to the pens, she sighed.  Exaggerated with all the hormones in the air, her sigh sounded like a desperate and despondent gasp. "I have to take my mind off things!!!"

She didn't relizes how mellow her walk amoung the flowers had made her."I should never have wandered into those gardens."she grumbled.

She walked off and found a park.
"How about that! A nice park!Not like the estates, but nice."The colors of the flowers from the estate burst over her memories like vibrant fireworks."Sigh. Most smells calms but color excites!" She felt the panic inside her chest begining to rise she began to pant out of excitement."Come on Marigold! Keep it together!"she squeeked.

Here, now being out in the city, from the estate, she felt presures inside rapidly inflating. Was like turning on a switch to an air compressor."Preasure going in at a faster rate than going out," she felt dizzy."Calming at the estate!" Her head began to spin."I feel like I'm going to burst." she consentrating cross eyed on the limp branch of a fern"Look at the greens, dumby!"she fixated upon the tendril" All that calming green,yes...."She felt herself relaxing.

"Blarpogaboop*"
She let out a ugly ghastly burp,aromatic, tasteing of pine sap. Something that should never come up from the guts!
"Oh no." she said with wilded slanting eyes, started to hiccup,"Pentifors!" belched again."I did not (burp)eat(hic) Pentifors! Ponies don't eat(belch) Pentifores!" she whined. She started gassing out the other side.Nasty sounding as the belching. 

"No!Hiccups? Gas? Both ends all at the same time?"She figeteted. She was making a scene, she was out of control. "What to do?" Then the burning. In desperation, she plunged her head into a nearby fountain and started to scream, drinking water at the same time. "Get the feelings out! quench the acidic fire in my gut. Owie!"

She felt something poke her in the butt, pulled her head out to look.

"Burrrrrp."that was the last of it.

"Uh.No drinking of the public fountains,miss." said the guard holding his spear."And before you embarrass yourself..." he pull open the back of his lips showing his teeth."I'm married! Thee!" he directed her attention to the gold ring on his tooth.

"Why just what I need! A story! Get my mind off things, let me see if I can cox it out of him!"she tapped her hoof to her chin. "What to do?"
"Ring on the tooth? OH! "She said sugary. "Did you go through the "Rites of Megan", the oath you take and ceremony?"She thought of Captain Updraft and his wife. "I'm such a terrible romantic!" The stallion was giving her a doubting look. "If you tell me.." Marigold grabbed a stick in her mouth and drew a circle around her."...I'll sit her quietly in this circle and listen. Maybe it will give me a clue what marriage is like!" as she plopped down a little harder than she would have liked. A sound came out like sitting on a woope cushion making her cringe.

The stallion chuckled. "Lady, nothing can prepare you for what marriage is like." He said with a pleasant smile.

"Hey, Mighty." another guard appeared. "Are you having trouble with a loiterer?"

"No we're fine, Glam Arms." Rolling his eyes he said sitting down leaning against the fountain. "I was just going on break, and this little lady saw the ring in my tooth and wanted to know about the "Rites of Megan."

Glam arms scrunged his face."Are you sure?" he said sourly. "We have a lot of wild mares in this city, almost mustang, we aren't supposed to be out of sight for safty," he looked at her, up and down,"or temptation."

At this, Mighty was up on his hooves in an instance in the others face. "I've had enough of your innuendo young buck! "he snorted. "I'm your superior and I have a right to take a break! I took my oath before witness and Celestia herself and my best friend performed the ceremony!"He looked the sky in frustration."Its only because we are short hoooved that I'm out here.Me! From the academy! Doing traffic duty and hoofing street patrols!"

"If its too much trouble I can move along."

"Sit back down, your in custody.In that circle you are and that circle you will stay until your released!Understand?" As he sat back down again the younger stallion stuttered. "Its only because the wives said to be careful in these days."

"Look." he picked up  his spear leaning beside him and began encircling himself as he spoke. "I've had my exercise last night. Tonight, I will have to do my due duty! One is all and I want nothing more!" he finished the circle.

"Of course." smirked Glam Arms.

"What was that?" said Might looking at Glam Arms angerly as he spat out the spear handle.

"Nothing..."

"I'm in a public place, I'm here, she is over there." he picked up a hoof pointing at her."We are going to remain in our respective circles! Nothing is going to happen...."he rubbed his chin in thought considering."Ya."he considered."Uh,check on us later."

"As you wish,Mighty, sir!" Glam Arms left with a swish of his tail.

"Young bucks."He grumbled.

"Let me see." began mighty turning his attention to Marigold. "It was in the spring,"
Marigold listened intently. Didn't matter if the story was boring or inane, she had to get her mind off her body and aside from leaving it the best thing was to let the mind wander distract by the anecdodal discription from another. A yarn.

Mighty described the proposal, the attempted escape of elopement, the kidnapping by friend to celebrate lives before with games and stories and for the males, jousting...he just kept losing.How they all passed out, had to be woken up, dragged up, impressed into wedding clothes. Then the wedding, such simple vows...."In the sight of," word of memory," do you take, I pronounce you." Then he lifted his bride on his back. She stayed there for the rest of the day, they were one. Cake and dancing and then home. Over the threshhold she tumbled off laughing and he closed the door behind, under one roof together.

"And then?"Marigold leaned forward."What happened after?"

The old stallion swished his mouth and considered carefull before answering."Young lady, you will just have to find that out yourself."He chuckled.

"Oh."Marigold relaxed her position disapointed."Great story, I hope I'm not late. I..."she looked to the number panel, in expectation for her number to be close at hoof on the board. 
No where near.

She looked up to the sky, her body language unhiden in its expressions.

"Hours away."she said softly.

"If you want."started the stallion, Marigold looked at him, she had forgotten he was there."My wife is a tour guide of the castle, they're giving free tours today."

She remembered. "There was a sign advertising tours. A tour of the palace is just what will do!"

She got up to leave but stopped when given a glare by the sitting guard. She turned to leave going round the fountain the opposite way.

"Bye, Mighty, nice to have met you."

"What's your name?"

"Marigold."

"Please say hello to my wife," he sighed."Tell her I'm thinking of her." 

After Marigold had left Mighty spoke."You can come out now, Ad Dow."

A stallion rose from the brush." Glam Arms told me you might need watching, he's in a team of three."The eager cadet spoke with lightning rapicity." You know what was told.' At least teams of two. In eye sight at all times.' I was practicing my inconspicuous surveillance technique!"

"Sigh.I was hoping, really hoping, you were in the brush over there." he said in the labored speach of an academic point to Ad Dow's right.

"Am I really that good surveling?" Ad Dow asked hoping he had please the instructor.

"No." said Mighty flattly."That brush consists of..."He then listed the numerious itchy oily plants the Cadet was ingulfed in pointing to a sign any cross eyed mare could see as Ad Dow looked around himself, horrified.

She found the guide wearing a curt red jacket with a cap, like a bell hop, with her legs over her desk staring at the ceiling, bored out of her mind!

Seeing Marigold she fell out of her chair and excitedly began showering swag from the city's local business on the mare.After Marigold found her voice out of the pile."Am I the only one?"

"Yes,yes,yes!"her voice sounded like a claxon. As if Marigold had won a grand prise at a fair.

"Oh, and I saw your husband...Mighty."

In an instant, the mare spun around and glared hatefully at Marigold. For a moment she thought the mare would pounce like a savage beast.

"Um!"Marigold spoke quickly."He sent me,It was at the park fountain, I stayed in my place, he in his, Glam Arms was there and another gaurd was watching from the poison oak, he said he's thinking of you...Please don't hurt me!!!" she cried.

Her eyes brightened and she stood back."He's thinking of me? How sweet!"Like the flip of a switch the Mare relaxed."I'm, I'm sorry." she said. "There are just so many mare around... and.."

"He's yours...I understand."

"Honestly, I haven't felt this way since he was a cadet in the academy."she shuffled her legs."All the guard, all the armed forces and every last soldier in the EUP! And still its not enough!"She lashed her tail. "Just to think of those..Mustanga, leering at my boe!"she stomped her hoof before putting it to her chest and taking a deep calming breath.

"We'll start the tour immediately," she said with a smile a hoof pointing the route."This way."

The tour was exactly what was needed. Boring as could be! 
At least for the guide.

Marigold was full of youthfull energy, following all the activities, measuring out all the distances with her hooves, writing notes in a notebook as the mare spoke,as if every word where the most impartant in the world, wearing the guide out!

Coming across a guard, they were given permission to tour parts of the castle normally off limits to look at the architecture."Please stay ahead of me and don't look where I tell you not to look."

In some of the motiefs featured a dark mare like the alicorn Celestia.

"Is that Nightmare Moon?"asked Marigold.

"She was my sister, and is Luna."The guide and Marigold crossed paths with Celestia! She invited Marigold for tea after dismissing Mare Mighty, rushing off to enjoy her fortune.

"So."Celestia said."I suppose you want me to explain all the pictures here."

"Actually, I was more intrested in her."

"Really.In Nightmare Moon?"she said glummly."The epic battle where I 'saved Equestria'?"

"No...I've heard all that. Every Nightmare Night!"she shook her mane."No. Tell about your sister. Tell  me about the times before."Celestia cocked her head at this."Please tell me about your sister!"Marigold said almost desperately like a hyper child. Unable to tell excitement from exhaustion.

"Well,you are either very thoughtful or very manipulative."Celestia thought.

"No." she thought as she watched the mare make a monumental yawn."You are very worn,and it is only late morning. Speaking the true self. Other times you would be a foal! I will have to keep an eye on you."

She watched Marigold as she pointed at pictures, told stories from their foal hood. Simple ones. After hour of this thinking it was going in one ear and out the other, Celestia decided it was time for tea.

"So you love your sister very much?"

"Yes I do."

"I know(yawn), I'm sure(yawn) that someday you'll be joyfully united with her.(great big long yawn)."

A symphony of two, duet.
This statement of two: an agreement made between the parts that know, and the part that does not. Fellow travelers, walking, together, for a moment, down the same path. The two peacefully yoked together for a moment, or the ticking of a sixth of that, bearing the burden of the exposition, under the masterful arcs of one conductor, agreement, perhaps never to coda again. Both, gently guided in the same direction.
By a conductor Celestia instinctively knew .

Celestia looked back at the pony, at the start of the yawn, surprised at such a statements, and looked quickly away before the yawn ended.

"Time for tea,"Celestia said with a smile."My little pony."

At tea. Marigold began to speak incoherently."How wonderful to know that our strugles as mortals are know by those, through experience. Truly wise rulers have been anointed over us!"such strange words."As they perform their holy ministry of ruling!"Marigold yawned. As she lifted the cup to her mouth it dropped.It never made it to her lips. Celestia caught the falling mare and cup without spilling a drop and gently placed her cumfortably on the cushion.

Celestia brought the tea to her face. It had never been touched.

Late in the night,Marigold opened her eyes and sat bolt upright on the the cushion she was enjoy a little too passionately, she jumped up."How could tea make one fall asleep? And in the royal presence!" She must have been more tired than she thought.

Darkness. The moon coming up. It was late. "How late?" Marigold started to shake and then she burst out crying.
"I've missed the selections!It's all my fault!" She reproached herself. "If only I had listened to my giant's advice!" She sniffled."Had followed my parents teaching!" she remembered the visioned she had seen."I would not have come to this!Under the sky in the valley of shadows! That ruined pony was me!" 

"All that work, to nothing!" she cried.

Something soft and gentle touched her face and wiped away her tears.Celestia was sitting at the table with her looking tired.As soon as Marigold had sniffled away her tears Celestia wispered something in the mare's ears making her look agast at the princess then a playful smile apeared on Celestia .

"All is not lost. I think there is one left."
> Sky Treading
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia knelt down, “Please. Pull yourself onto my back." She stretched out her wing as a gang plank.

" No! This was the ruler of Equestria! The One who raised the sun and moon! It was unfitting to think of her as transport. No matter how much bigger she was, to think of her as a blimp." Marigold trembled as she hesitated thinking these words.

"Marigold,"Celestia stern words brought her back. “why do you stop? Do you not know that indecision leads to destruction, that the one who hesitates is lost? If you are not committed to your cause, how can you be committed to him, how can you be committed to marriage?"

Marigold met her eyes as she thought of Saffron.

"The situation can be salvaged if you hurry." Marigold swallowed at Celestia's words. “If a giant, bid you come here, your sponsor, and you neglect to follow through...after everything, your run through Filly Delphi, your jumping onto a Dirigible already pulling from dock despite you not being a Pegasus, your time aboard the crowded ship, your travels through my city, wouldn't this giant you fear have a right to take some reimbursement for his investment?"

"How do you know?"

"You talk in your sleep."Celestia said blithely. “What you need to know is you have been given a second chance, take it before it disappears and you have to go back home having done nothing, never being able to look Feather Duster in the eyes again!"

No!No!No!! No more down memory lane! 

At this Marigold scrambled onto Celestias back, between neck and wings. She was big!
Celestia raised up testing the balance of the pony on her back. Celestia was very tall!
Little Marigold gasped.

"Take your front hooves and wrap them tightly in my mane. “Marigold obeyed. Celestia’s hair was light, yet thick, soft yet strong. “Pull as hard as you can."

"Your majesty...."marigold protested her ears flat on her head.

"Do. As. I. Say. “the princess spoke gently but Marigold could feel a rumble running from the huge mare's frame through her own body. Again she obeyed.

"Please forgive me for hurting you!" Marigold said as she pulled with all her might, maybe more than necessary.

Marigold opened her eyes to see the princess's smile. "Very good!" She said motherly. “We are ready..."Celestia walked over to the balcony, turned around walked back into the room, did a quick turn speeding up, full gallop, and stretched out her wings as they passed the threshold. They were wide!

"Hold on, my little pony!" Celestia jumped the railing, as a barrier at a steeple chase, hurtling into the graying shadows, moon lit below and beginning with a dive, down and down. The wings to catch the wind, bitter in marigold's face, bringing them in to a fast step climb, muscle in the wings pumping to go higher. Celestia was strong!

A storm of humors Marigold could not easily communicate were left below and behind at the pit of the dive with her stomach. She bit down hard on her tongue and lips resisting an involuntary scream. 

Marigold ,understood why she wrapped her hooves so tightly, experienced freefall, glad she did not float off Celestia's back, before falling hard at the end of the arc!

Celestia was now bow shape below the moon.
Oyarsa, a strange pony called her. The Oyarsa of the Sun, her, flying below the Oyarsa of the moon both beneath the stars, on that clear night. The young stars too, treading their dance with Ramandu. Perhaps, the same young stars, in a few hundred years, that would aid the princess escape, not knowing better.

What would they learn on a thousand worlds after? A thousand maybe stories from a thousand would be worlds!

Speed and power is how Marigold would later describe the flight. In the sky: pure power, bending the wind, the will to trot across the sky, as if buoyed along in a boat over gentle waves, the rhythmic sound of that alicorn's deep breathing.  

Periodically Celestia would fall or dip or rock sideways making Marigold on her back jump or cringe, pressing into, burying her head into the princess's soft fur and mane, causing Celestia to chuckle. "Peak up little pony," she teased gently. "take a look at the sky, and the land," she felt Marigold hug tighter. "just a peak, then you can put your head back down again. Why should this one night scene be wasted? Why shouldn't you have visions to go with your memories? Something to tell of later, you’ll never see such things again."Celestia felt little Marigold raise her head tentatively and hesitantly. “Look to your right,"Celestia looked back, “with your eyes open." she felt the pony cringe again."Now, to your right." she obeyed. "Look up to the stars." she felt her body crane. "Now,to the moon." she felt her look that way." Now, you may curl up."Celestia felt the pony tightly burrow in. "You will probably never see such sights again." she sighed. ”To regret, not looking in more, in those times of intermission for contemplation.“ She felt the pony ever slightly lift her head.

Marigold was taken directly to the pens by Celestia.

It was a while before she lifted her head again.

"Marigold." Celestia spoke at last. "I need you to raise your head high now! I need you to look around. Scout the sky and the ground with me.I need you to see what I see." Marigold obeyed. She clenched her jaw as she looked at the scene below her, a deep pit like a upside down layer cake, beside her, right then left, down and down and down!

Three colossal structures they were, before Marigold, wide and tall, looking like rain cisterns. Small individual lights on top and campfires all around the base. One had a cage, like a grid, doming over it.

Celestia flew close around them till Marigold could make out individual ponies by the shining in their eyes.
"Tsk."Celestia muttered. "I will have to have a word with the centurion on the north side on the training of his soldiers!“ This was a curious thing to say Marigold thought. "I will tell you a secret Marigold."Celestia said playfully. “Do you see their eyes?"

"Yes Ma'am?"

"Do you see how they shine?"

"Yes Ma'am."
“Look at them.”

"Wait." Marigold noticed something. "Some eyes Twinkle others are steady, on the north side!"

"That is right." Celestia explained that ones who are glancing back and forth were doing their job," keeping watch on the pens and the ponies outside at the campfires."Celestia swallowed as she made a quick spiraling circle moving upward. "Every light and shine has its own hoofprints. My reflection is shining of thier eyes." Marigold could only see this because she was on Celestia's back near enough to her eyes. ”They also give away their positions.”

Celestia flew over the tops of one of the pens. A vortex of wind threw them just the slightest, but that wasn't what troubled Celestia, she was a ruler of the wind, obviously, looking down.
"Oh dear!" she said.

In an instant, Celestia was surrounded, at a comfortable distance, for Marigold, by a swarm of armed Thestrals. They were, uncomfortably glancing toward Celestai, making chipping sounds like words spoken with uncertainty, and then their leader who was now flying beside Celestia. She looked at him, made a series of strange clucking sounds, like sneezing played from a kazoo, and immediately, in one body, the Thestrals broke away and returned to their patrols.

"Very good!"Celestia said. "At least somepony is doing due duty!" She cleared her throat. "That sound!” she nickered a little,”I'm out of practice. I should join with the choir more often! What they must think hearing that quacking!"

Celestia straightened her flight path and headed out of the covering airspace, passing clouds lit, bathed, in dim green or blue light, designating levels of hazard in the wind vortex, yet not overpowering or obscuring the illumination of stars and moon.

Marigold didn't notice as they passed a singular blue lighted cloud with a Pegasus guard, groggy, fumbling paperwork under a small light,yawning. A female thestral stood on the cloud with him looking nervous, rubbing front hoofs one leg at a time. Startled by the passing alicorn, the guard glanced at Celestia who then nodded as she flew by. All it took was one look from the princess; he almost dropped the paperwork, then hurriedly, ordered the paperwork into a neat square tapping it on his hoof and gave paperwork back. 

Surprised,  the delighted thestral, let gravity take her,  carelessly and with great speed, falling , chitterling merrily all the way down, before flaring her wings into a graceful glide, swirling on the updrafts, then descended gracefully into the pen below, joy shinning in her eyes.

Celestia began to make her own landing some distance from the campfires just a little beyond the pens.
" You’re here!"she said." You have to quietly make your way to the door, past all."

"Why here?” Marigold asked as she dropped off Celestia's back. "Your majesty, please, couldn't you just land and drop me off at the door?"  

"Now Marigold.I need to prepare things, they aren't quite ready for you yet.”She walked around Marigold "Look around!" motioning with one hoof as she walked. "Even you can see through the curtain of this shrub brush, the fires: ponies, griffins, dragons and diamond dogs celebrate; at campfires with family and friends!” Marigold looked back at the fires, silhouettes moved around beyond the heavy brush. “A lot has happened these few weeks. Even more these last days!Things I don't truly understand." She looked back to Marigold. "They are tired.I have had to put them through paces making time away seem longer. The soldiers, the staff, they've been doing their utmost for me and now is a time for them. Couples, who for the first time in their lives, can be with each other, unharried. " She spoke with a sigh shaking her mane."No,with this I won't interfere."She smiled."It is a great mystery..."

Marigold imagined the commotion that would occur with Celestia's appearance.

"I understand your majesty." she said dutifully with a sigh.

"Fear not, my little pony." Celestia said with a smile. “He will be there."

Marigold bowed, Celestia came forward then lifted the pony's head, "Marigold.“ her face serious." I will be watching and I expect great things from you." Celestia then shot off in a sudden gust of power, a deep whump sound stirring neither grass nor leaf, making Marigold gasp.

Oh! No pressure there! Me...Just a simple flower store keep I am!her mind bubbled as she made her way to the door. 

Sights, so many strange, sights. Marigold determined to head straight up to the door turning neither to the right nor left.

> Pathways
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Though determined, temptation to look around got the better of her.
So many strange sights Marigold saw as she walked the arcs around campfires, hoof falls quiet, to temporary trails, on her way to the great doors towering on the massive structures before her.

There was dragon! 
At first Marigold didn't see it, till it stirred, flicking tongue, saw soft, seaming, kind eyes shining , a body, not to big with not much length, framed, by the moonlight and flickering firelight setting off her scales like shimmering stars, sitting on its legs like sphinx. All color muted in dark firelight and moonlight.

Something stirred in the darkness beside, a pony snuggling her side!
"I have never been so warm in all my days!" he exclaimed luxuriating, enjoying the warmth, putting his back against her. The dragoness had no need for a campfire and looked down benevolently on the pony just a little smaller than itself.

Surprisingly the dragon appeared to enjoy his company.
"So..."  With clicked tongue, “Your name is Ice Bane?"

It was a dragoness, unmistakable!

She reached out and stroked his mane and fur. From it she pulled at a crystal held it up to her face, in her claws, as if to admire its diamond clarity as a precious ember jewel sparkling the color of glowing amber in the fire's light. The crystal grew smaller in the dragoness grip as Marigold watched, and the ice melted away, turned to wispy vapor immediately. 

The dragoness continued speaking almost in purr.
"My cool rock upon the ancient mountain..."she chuckled.

Interrupting her discourse, he threw his head over hers, barely twice his size, like some strange hat ( if she had been larger he would have sat atop!) gathering up her mane in his fore legs and breathed it in deeply, embracing her neck as she, surprised, gasped.
"Mine is like lavender," he said, falling backward,   head and main toppling over her back, laying on top, Snoopily, her, making a contented sigh, “my love, she grows among its crags within....legs?...reach!" 
They giggled in a way that made Marigold feel very uncomfortable.

"Yes. Best move on Marigold." she felt herself turn beet red."Best move on.." she decided to move on.

Next she came upon a flock (pack?) of female griffin's dancing around a campfire. No. They were dancing around a campfire and a couple, the couple, a pony and a griffon. Couples! More griffins! They sat together in pairs, save one, watching, eating, pulling, fish (?), lanced on spears, to their faces. 
This dance was savage. The roaring and shrieking, the couple locked into each other’s gaze, as he examining her talent claw with his hoof. He felt it, pawing at it, as she glanced back and forth, nervously, blushing, at him a mix of compassion ambivalence and perhaps love on her face.

Were the other griffons trying to distract them or were they celebrating for/with them?

Marigold notices the young male griffin finish his fish among the couples on the log. He began to stare at the pony picking at the tip of his lance with his talent. Red shined in his eyes from the fire. 
An older male sitting beside, with his wife, dashed the lance from the young one's claws to the ground, chewing out the younger, to his shock, loud roaring and shrieking in griffon toungue. Marigold couldn't hear what was said or understand in their language, but it disturbed the others. 
Forgetting dinner, they, stared accusingly, and then began chewing out the young male; hatefully playing with his lance. They now ignored the dancers and the couple and super as they argued, with loud squawking.
The dancers shook and shrugged, ignoring the arguing couples. 
The couple, themselves, ignored everything, making goo goo eyes and quietly watching the other as the frightful din around them swirled. 

Marigold kept going, "What a noise!" she didn't stop to ask questions about the noise, but it was distracting.

So distracting; she almost bumped into a thestral couple walking past.

The male made his apologies dipping a graceful bow, accepting responsibility for the collision. 
As the griffin's harangue died down she caught snippets of conversation from the thestrals. The female continued her discourse unabated.
“Honey, I don't know what to think!" They continued walking passed." If our daughter feels she has to have a mate, why not a mate from our own, our own colony?" Asking why she would seek out a day dweller, where would they live, how could it work and, "Weren't there enough males," of their own. "Couldn't she be happy with one?" Names like Chittering or Fire Lite, as she nagged. ”And the other thestral here we are forced to be around!”

"If she says she saw a vision, that she was promised a husband,” the male said grumpily," among the day folk, who are we to judge?"

They disappeared among the brush talking about a giant who towered above the sun, moon and stars.

Giant?"Wait!" Marigold pursued, stumbling, bursting into a campfires light, interrupting a pegasus tenderly embracing his mate within wings, his armor carelessly leaning against a log glinting in the fire light. The spear and shield the only things looked after, in their place.

"May I help you?" asked the female, startled.

"I'm…I'm looking for the pens..."

"Oh, you poor dear, it’s so late! I'll take you there at once.” She began to pull away from her husband.

"NO!"he said, pulling her back."You poor dear.What about me???"He then nickered explaining his duties for these past three days: Gone to great heights of the sky, diving at great speed, in harm’s way as the great vortexes of the pens batted him around, being kicked in the face, and bitten on the flank! Herding smelly strange ponies who didn't know how to walk or fly or even bathe, sort them, direct them, stand among them and march around them till his frogs ached.
Then extra duty: guarding enflamed female pegisi, earth ponies and unicorns while Celestia berated them, who in their headlong quest for a mate snatched them as if they were sacks of potatoes or the fare at a sale, bursting through the walls or up out of the earth carrying them over more walls, snatching them out of the air or lassoing them with rope. Total chaos! Disorder and lawlessness: throwing things, diving into the pens, scaring the ponies, not taken, out of their wits
Having to contend with a tired Celestial Princess; she having to mend broken bones and strained backs after the event.
Then apologies!
Him! Prostrate himself before Celestia: forgetting, losing his temper, justifiable so, at these mares, (these uncivilized, uncouth, brazen mustagna!) wiping their mouths and muzzles, fanning tears, protesting innocence! Them! “Why are you so mean? “They cried. “We can see by the ring on your tooth, you have your special somepony!"
"After, what I saw? Makes me doubt my faith in Equanity! But that wasn't the end of it!"
Having been dismissed, these mangy mares, together, at the same time, galloped headl
ong out of the throne room and became stuck in the door. They, pushing and pulling, pulsing and throbbing, a pulp stopper of unicorn, earth pony and pegisi stuck in the great throne room doorway. "The doors, those hollowed and ancient doors, to the throne room, wind milling their tails about to get free, out and through yelling screaming and cursing! Celestia gave them a might shove with her magic, they popped out they popped out like an air cannon!" They, shattering throne room doors and archway into a pile of stone and splintered wood hit the ground running as they galloped out!" 
He, then directing traffic, through the palace, around velvet ropes, keeping the pegisi jumping from the widows, keeping the glass intact, as they left muddy tracks on all the carpeting."It was all ill thought out!The maids swooning over themselves. Mud from the courtyard brought into the halls, the mushy carpet sinking up to the pasterns!" The mess, the mares, together, made public service project for later! 
"We Pegisi had to do the lion's share of the work cause we can be everywhere, the sergeants made sure of that!" his eyes softened. "You." he cooed. "Only you...thinking of you got me through these three days; thinking of my beautiful, lovely wife, my Boudicca Da Roses...working so hard under Rose Water. That at last, when our duties for this tour were at an end, he brought his hoof up and gently stroked her cheek,
"I would hold her and comfort her…" he said "And now you’re here!" He looked at her with doleful pleading eyes.  "Do not remove yourself from me!"

They looked into each other’s eyes a long time. She broke contact, he turned his head away downcast eyes, spurned, chewing his lips. She looked at Marigold, still wrapped securely in his wings, a pleasant continence on her face, dark eyes shining, expressing her willing and helpful attitude as she spoke her words with force clearly for Marigold to hear.

"Scram!"

Marigold knew that tone of voice, on the Cloud Dream, with the ship's wives, when she met Mare Mighty and every time she accidently go between a mare and her mate. " MINE!"  
Quickly she retreated back to her path as she heard the male praise and extols his mate. "That's my girl." followed by the sounds of kissing.

As she passes by she heard the stories of the day. It was hard not to listen. But she turned her ears forward and neither to the left or right did she look. She focused! She must get to the doors, she must not let any distract her from getting her heart’s desire, the stallion promised for her. But as the night wore on she began to doubt if she would ever get through the pathways between campfires.

A bard sang.
Itching ears, tickled ears.
Hearing only what you want to hear.
Thinking all worlds but the same!
What use is strength but to impress another?
Unless to feed the mouth?
To fill the belly?
Then to be hungry again!
Magic: Vanity! 

Hope!

More friendship you have less magic you need!
(reprise)

Now,
Books without number, much study tiers the eyes,
for the ears do not get enough hearing,
and the eyes not enough filling.
"Meet me you at 'The Library', says the ah..unicorn filly.
She seals the message inside the wings of her mind,
She cocooned inside,
Cocooned,
(reprise)
sent 
a kiss.

A star descends.

"Oh dear Doctor.
You seek truth same as I." 
Inside her head.
Meet at 'The Library' she said
Truth she knows
Bites at her tongue
not ready yet to say.
But truth, 
in a tear, 
shall carry her away! 
(reprise)

Of a thousand worlds, 
libraries ten time its size
not enough space for all the Creator wrights!
Nor all his deeds.
Poured out for his freinds...
For much study tires the eyes
And more the words,
more lies.
But truth shall come and spirit thee away!
(reprise)
Alon
(reprise twice)"

Ears are such easily distracted things....

Rounding a stump she heard a filly asked if the strangers were dangerous.

"Straight toward the pens Marigold neither to the right or left, committed!"she snorted

"Why do you ask Dew Drop?" mother asked.
"I saw a stallion go into convulsions, when I asked if he was okay, he asked for more hot water from my rain cloud...as if he didn't know how a rain cloud worked."
Trying to get to the point, "What makes you ask if they are dangerous?" Mother said repeating.
"Oh. He said they were dangerous!” Dew Drop replied. “When he found I be a girl, bringing him towels, he got upset. Then I practiced flirting..."
"Dew Drop! You shouldn't do that! You're too young, much to young a pegisus!"Mother said aghast.
"That's just what I told him! “said the girl, completely clueless to mother. “But that's not what happened next, he got really upset asking(don't know who)'What is with the crazy females here, are they all so aggressive?' I told him, I said. 'Geez, grandpa relax. I'm decades and years from being able to foal!'''
"Sigh...."Marigold imagined the mother mare rubbing her temples. “What happened next, daughter?"
"He told me not to bring the towels, told me to stay on my raincloud and to swear to keep my distance from the strange ponies and to tell my friends the same!"
"How, strange.” said mother. “did he give a reason other than they were dangerous?"
"We talked, before I swore, I had trouble understanding him and I'm having trouble remembering whatever he said but I looked at him, staring, and I said to him....'because it is death.' Then he asked for more hot water."
"I thought you said he made you swear."
"We talked some more, I asked him what he was singing..."
"He was singing?"
"Yes! From before he started shaking was scarred and was talking to himself!"
"Talking to himself?"
"Yes, singing to himself. I suppose that's why he called the songs 'hims'. He wouldn't tell me who he had been talking to except to say he didn't feel abandoned and had help to win, I guess that's why he looked better and answered me! He slammed on his back and was like that before I called to him,looked like a bully had jumped on top of him...only I didn't see any bully."
"Huh...and then he made you swear to keep your distance from strange ponies?"
"Yes.” she said. “We argued what to swear he said I really, really had to do it."
"He was insistent?"
"Yes.” Marigold could hear the insistent nod. “He was insis...insi...said I really had to. Anyway...he said I should swear by my wings or by flight said that was silly. He got mad, crossing his front leg, sitting in that pool of hot water said something like...'stick a cupcake in your eye!' I thought that was a great promise!
So I did it!
Cross my heart and hope to fly
Stick a cupcake in my eye. 
He made circles with his eye as he talked about the importance of keeping promises. I agreed, I asked him if he was my friend. He said, ‘As long as you are on that raincloud, and never come to any stranger being alone.' I told him I already promised and to break a promise was the quickest way to lose a friend, just then we hear Celestia lecturing the ponies at Canterlot for making a mess at the pens, the reason we had to scrub them down and give the strange ponies baths! I didn't think of it at the time I just took my raincloud to the next pony she sounded mad!” there was quiet. “Mother? She said, ‘Forever!' didn't she?"
"She did indeed little one.” Mother was satisfied. “Now, eat your super, we have a treat. Look! The thestral have been nice enough to trade for us squishy fruit...."the filly squealed with delight. “When your father gets here we will talk about this again. “there was a pregnant pause. “We just want to know how your day went."
"Ok..."

Marigold sped up her walking a bit, she had slowed, just to . 
Eavesdrop, naughty!
How could the strangers be dangerious? 

She heard something. It chilled to the bone. 
It was crying.
"Mommy!” sobbed the voice . 
That had been Dew Drop!
"What am I going to do? I'm, I'm, too young!” the voice became frantic."I broke my promise! Bad things happen when you break promises!” She started frantic breathes. "I ran as fast as I could! Couldn’t fly! It not my fault.." hysteric cries again.
Mother’s voice: "It’s ok. It’s not your fault no pony blames you. You are not the one at fault." Cried mother, "Whatever happens, your father and I, are here. We will be with you two!"
"But I'm too young, too young , too young,too young....."

Marigold spun around. Where had that come from? Maybe she should go back and try to understand. No, she had a job to do and she had to do it no matter what. It was then she realized she had been completely turned around, didn't know which fire was which. She had promised. Oh! She had promised! 

She remembered her conversation with her giant had been up high in his arms.
"Am I your friend? She asked.
"Only if you want to be Marigold, only if you want to be..." 
"I do. I do want to be His friend.” she said. “I’ll use that! Friends don't break good promises!"
"I will only tell you what you know. My ‘friends’, do as I ask...."
Right! Wait. That wasn't part of the memory! “What I know?"
" What is real, good, noble, of good report, right, truth...think on these things.
"Think on these things. It is Noble to persevere and keep promises!"
"Treasure kept in the heart..."
What did that mean? She decided to keep it in mind but trudged on, but soon she had forgotten.

Soon she heard a Hard Nose recounting to his wife, a tale, his day.
A tuba was hurled on his head, he scrambled to keep flying. "I had never been so scarred and blind, not since that mission in the mountains and I flew into that endless cloud!" However :"I was only inches above the ground."When they had calmed him :"It took a dozen ponies to pull the thing off my head."His fear turned to vengeful anger :"Done they would I, the three standing right there!" Against the mare in question :"She with the division we caught of pegisus down as they attacked the earth pony pen. Them: maneuvers band!" Celestia was scolded them in the open arena. Making his way:"With fire in my gut!"He was stopped :"Strange pony, Held me back. Be maestro! Play the scales on my pinfeathers like a metal harp: Cords!"Who being so fascinated in the pegisi's wings.
"Did you behave correctly? “she asked.
"I did the only thing reasonable."
"You?” she questioned “Reasonable is a buck to the face, now what did you do?"
He sighed. "I grabbed my wing and said 'Do you mind?'"
"Probably glared at him too, well, you're improving...go on." 
"I stood before Celestia at court alone with the other guards, bitten and kicked. I" he sniffed feeling himself of some small reputation. "I asked to personally select punishment."   
"What did you do?" she asked excitedly.
"Silver Sheaves and her second Golden Sparrow, were going to exhibit their flying skills to the ponies. The exhibit was illegal of course; the band music was to be ‘Fanfare Fillie Fie Dee!"Hard Nose said worth of punishment but March Majorette earned his special attention.
HE described what he did:" After me and her and two other guards entered I gave the tuba back. I drew a sundial on the ground.” He would make her play her tuba with all the choreograph marching around the inside of the wall all the while playing a solo.
"Oh solo tuba. That's very hard. What did you make her play?"
"Fanfare Filly Fie Dee!” Marigold could hear the creak of the grin in his face.
Shock: in the silence. “OH! But that is nearly impossible as a solo!Never heard a Tuba really do a solo or carry the melody before. OH you wicked stallion!” Said the mare, with a playful tone."
"Aye. "Said Hard Nose, you could hear the evil grin in his voice. “with all the moves:"  Repeat, Inverted Repeated Capo, Dal Segno ,DS al Coda, DC al Coda, DC al Fine, DS al Fine, Alternate Ending, Choreography,” and on the ground circling the inside of the wall, in  the marked time on the sundial!"
"What was her motivation?"
"Start when I blew my whistle, “If she did not do it perfectly, finish, or refused to,  "she would be taken to her home under house arrest." until the selections were over. "You should have heard her whimper."
"Serves her right for embarrassing my Nosey!" she said in a justified tone. “But...something went wrong?"
"Or right." snorted Hard Nose. He explained in detail how she march around playing the awful tune never meant to be a solo, following all the cues, doing all the motions repeating the song in all the right places, as an expert musician would.
Then finished, she took her prized instrument and threw it away. "Junk she cried!" She still had plenty of time, but she fell on the ground sobbing. "Mind you, I felt quite justified! But things happened." He saw a passing shadow. He explained: "A pony, a stallion, broke off from the herd. He came over looked at the blubberer. He went over to the tuba," testing his joints, not sure how they worked everything still being new, pleased at the full range of motion, "picked up the Tuba but she didn't care...."He then tuned it, tested the keys. "He played,  triploding along."
"He played for her a melody "Hee, a solo, a solo on a Tuba of all things!" She stopped crying. "It was wondrous, everypony agape, but it was an easy tune to pick up. “Then there was an opening in his playing, the ponies on the walls of the three races, began to play, in a spontaneous orchestration. “Marching Majorette and the stranger talked for a while, till, their own pause, she took a clue from his opening in the conversation. He had no name, so she named him Maestro...common as they get..."the orchestra was slowing down so," he gave the Tuba back to Marr and then directed," Mar playing the last, “in a grand fitting solo!"
"How romantic...!"
"Ya...."
There was a pause and quiet, then the sound of a slide upon a metal harp, the male gasped.
"Pray, what was the name of the piece he played?"she asked as cords were played slowly, being molded into a melody.
"Fine,  you can do that!" he sighed “The stallion called it Tubby the Tuba."
"What are the notes?" she giggled playing on his wings as he instructed.
Marigold moved on.

Others took up the tune, some a delightful memory others out of habit, more due to peer presure  and perhaps lack of sleep. Soon all the brush was filled with the tune, if not disjoined and rounding confusedly upon the melody in all the wrong ways at each pony’s own tempo for about an hour!

"Gee." Marigold said. "Accompaniment...."and rolled her eyes as she plodded along.

She heard a very deep chuckle. "Coo coo cachou! Eggmare...Walrus...."
Was that directed at her? It made her freeze...it seemed so close! Nopony was there as she looked around herself.
She swallowed and started walking again.

She later learned about the other two mares Hard Nose spoke, his voice did carry and was interesting to hear as his wife plucked pinfeathers!
One was a mighty pegisus warrior, strong and dark, showing herself:
She danced the ancient dance of warriors, pegisi taken as a prize and tribute from the griffons and minotaurs. All the moves mixed, moving disjointedly, rattling her armor and leaping about, forgetting why she was there.
Not a very pretty dance, more to frighten than allure.
A stallion approached her and interrupted the dance, annoying her.
"You are much better at dancing than fighting..."he said with a sweet smile.
Angry she dismissed him and continued her 'dance'. He reached round and broke the strap between her wings holding on her armor. It came off with a clatter leaving her wearing some kind of long cameses. Embarased, clutching herself, though nothing could be seen; she shrieked at him in a rage her face, livid dark purple.
"As I said: No good at all!"as he metronomeed his leg before her.
She was stunned at his assertiveness and just stared at him as he turned his back to her and walked over to the nearest wall.
"Little Unicorn..."he said leaning against the wall, crying up to a unicorn chewing bubblegum sitting high atop popping bubbles. "As you sat, bored with your mother, I saw you making musical bubbles. Wonderful! Simply Wonderful! Perfect melody!" He smiled. "Would you make another?”
She looked down and smiled, this whole affair was boring and silly to her.
“Tee hee!”
Nice to have some attention! She closed her eyes and produced the biggest bubble she could from her horn, as a favor, a boon, in this game of pretend. As if she: a princess noticing a lord at court, this pony below and casting favors.
The bubble floated down, music echoing from the sides of the pen, it was said to have been quite lovely.
He approaches the mare, on his back legs, walking gracefully, scissor like, long graceful stretches. She amazed.
"No...You were meant to dance the ballet!” as he stretched out a fore leg to her.
Intrigued, she took his front hooves and he led her as they danced.
After a while he raised her high over his head in improvised croiagraphy and she slide down his body never taking her eyes off his.
He looked at his hooves, the bubble finally landed with a pop. He went into shock.
"I had...I don't....why are they gone?" He stuttered. "Where did they go?"
She named him Piernas, Cabolo for legs, and gently led him out. 

The last of the three came in. 
Desperate she threw off all her armor and danced a typical silly Pegasus mating dance to any male who would look at her, desperate. All the males turned from her. 
At last a male made eye contact.
Finally she thought she had a male who would look at her and she put all her efforts into her frenzied movements:
Frowning deeply, he raised a hoof, doglegged, in front of her. She stopped, stared at it. Then the stallion looked away.
Shaken, she sat down beside the stallion that now had his nose in the air his eyes closed tightly. They sat a long time.
At last she spoke in a voice like chalk.
"I'm.....sooo sorry I broke your leg...."she said at last.
"You should be! “he replied, swinging his head around glaring at her. “Come on.” he got up leading. “Let’s go get this paperwork filled out!"
He led her out, her following behind flying meekly, as he picked up her armor and put it on his back.

Marigold heard many things.

"It was like a fish bowl! “Said one.
"Thank Celestia things slowed down, we all cased a tornado vortex, lifting ponies off the ground, as if they weren't scared enough already!"
"I'll tell you what was worse:  Being kicked by Golden Sparrow!" said another.
"Such a small thing, hard to take seriously in all that showy golden filigree armor, and flashy crimson feathery plume on top, I caught her...she bites like a mule!"
"She inherited the helmet from her father and had it fitted. Have some respect for Silver Shield second!"
"I guess I should thank her for the medical reimbursement, hazard pay, the overtime pay, the battle pay...whatever happened to her?"
"Last over the wall with a stallion at least ten times her size. She barely cleared!"
"You must have been under that pile! He wasn't ten times her size...but he was big and she could barely lift him, I heard her tell him they would have fun."
"Golden Sparrow?" said somepony surprised. “She was the one Celestia congratulate so all Equestria could hear, reminding to come to Capital in a month to finish signing papers?!!"
"Good Lord." said another. "It was only an hour!"
"Ya...them ponies were so jealous, even Celestia was surprised when Silver Shield told her in court !"
"About the door to the throne room, Pity.” said another guard.
"It was not well thought out."

Marigold learned as she listened that that afternoon the pens had simultaneously been attacked by swarms of unicorn, earth ponies and pegisi. This, ‘Spasm' had happen all over the area, at all the gathering points, but here at the capital it had been most sever.

Unicorns: seizing earth ponies and pigisi in their magic. Earth ponies: tunneling under the earth springing up and catching what they wanted, holding fast, unicorn and earth ponies cooperating to breach the walls. (She heard a funny story about a unicorn who used a earth mare to ram through the wall, highly unlikely with all the laughter.) but the worst was the Pegisus Dive.
The earth pony and unicorn were easy to round up without causing damage, 
They gathered high above, in a spontaneous assembly led by Silver Shield. Afraid of exactly what happened, the pegisi spooked the mares when they began to appear a swarm over the horizon. Silver Shield gave the command and they dived, from high altitude. They crashed through the upper blockade defenses and gathering speed casting off armor and instruments, swooped in and carried off hapless males all the time being chased around the arena until they had a stallion in their hooves.
However, a lot of the stallions had been hurt. Celestia tended and healed many, herself.

One had just gone wild.

"He ran around in circles screaming and we corralled him in. Watch for those frantic flying hooves! Such a state! Trying to calm him down those wild eyes I though his heart would burst! Celestia came and just looked at him. He stopped running, just tore up clods and chunks of earth. He stood still pawing, pronging, snorting, wiping his back wildly. Then, fell on his haunches hitting the ground over and over again with his front hoof. Finally, he stopped. Started bawling with ever once of his lungs." the guard told his comrades around the fire.
"Then, whoop, she was through, surrounding him with her  wings till his crying became softer and softer. She carried him to the medical tent herself, and stayed with him for at least an hour..."
Then Marigold was out of earshot.

She heard more about broken limbs and strained backs.
She thought, would she have given in to such?

She heard about a stallion trapped in a wall as pegisi swarmed around trying to pry him out. Another about a unicorn who tried to seduce a stallion with a love spell and failing, tried to use "forget me not" to lure him. Same stallion, huh, prying him out of his rock she fell backward swallowed her lipstick and went off with another pony she had kissed.

How three clueless stallions at the beginning of the day, elected by the majority of ponies in the arena walk up to three mares expecting to negotiate a release. How the fools were lead out following Mare's tails.

Gift were given, stallions, them, and they decided in small sporadic groups to play cards over bit with the undercover ponies scattered covertly. Some mares joined the games and won a husband that way, letting stallions go who discretelty showed the rings on their teeth.

"So...."said a pony nervously. "griffons are omnivores?"
"Course they are!” laughed the griffon. “And when I heard your son say you were having cabbage and broccoli...how could I say no? I had to get myself invited; tiered of sardines and hard tack! What do you think?"
"Tangy.” said a mare.
"That would be the mustard!" a munching sound. "Oh!Good cook!"
"That would be me..."said the male annoyed.
"Good cook!" repeated the griffon.
"Oh!" said a young voice." Tell them what happen today Doctor Pax Claw!"
"Why not?" He said. "After that Pegisus dive," he shuddered," Celestia ordered all the stallions to be looked over again, one comes to my medical tent, hoof split down the middle. Unicorn did a healing spell; mine was just unwrap the hoof and send him on. I'm away; he smelt something and decides to help himself to my rations! I come in finding this pony crunching away at my stores. I ask him what he has to say for himself.
He sings...."
There is quiet. A little voice pipes up.
" I’m going to eat you little fishy !"
"Well sung little colt! Anyway, I want to find out what he has been doing. I tell him to stop chewing and open his mouth! He tells me it’s rude. I tell this rube 'Ruder to talk with your mouth full and to eat a griffon's kippers!' I find out he turned my sardines into a paste and spread them on my hard tack! He gives me a biscuit decide to join him in the repass. We sing together."
The colt and the old griffon sing.
"I'm going to eat you little fishy!
True sardine in mustard sauce not white whittle in wine for me!
I'm going to eat you little fishy!"
"Along comes this Pegisus, big gruff, thick armor plate. He roars, 'Your late soldier! They're waiting for you! Hose you down scrub you off." There are muffled snickers. "Well it sounds better that way. What the hay are you doing?' he says.
We sing.
"I'm going to eat you little fishy" sings the colt
"I'm going to eat you little fishy."sings the griffon.
refrain,"spread sardines on crackers toast"
Together, "we're going to eat you little fishy!"
"As we eat together, A unicorn shows up puzzle piece on his rump. Oh he is mad!
"What are you doing!!? You’re holding up the line.
"I'm going to eat you little fishy
I'm going to eat you little fishy
I'm going to eat you little fishy
We're going to..."
"He then roars his interruption tells the pegisu Captain (or was it sergeant?”) how upset he is boots him out of the tent, grabs me in his magic, makes me take the bandage of the pony and inspect the wound, (not like there’d be stubs growing out of it!) it is sound. He tells him he'll return his book and leave a bag of kipper at his door, and then he sends him on his way floating out followed with a kick.
" I’m going to eat you little fishy..."sings the colt.
"Exactly, he sits down and tries some...'not bad.' he says crunching."

On strange Unicorns: they had no idea how to use their power. Inhibiter rings began to run short.
Old Bendy Bust was brought in. He played up what happens to a unicorn with a cracked horn. That got them to behave!
Mostly.
Save one, scarred to death of magic...worried for his soul.
"Ah, so spiritually minded of no earthly good!" said the other strange unicorns.
"Ah," said the staff at the pens."So he isn't fit for even the lowest of earth pony work!" The ponies decided to call him Weepers!

As wife gently led him out, before his name was written in the rolls, he spoke.
"That is not my name!" he straightened himself and stood tall as a prince, holding back the emotions within of a tear stained face.
"Then, pray," said the scribe" What is thy name?"
"Tisss" he hissed "Not Weepers!" He fumbled, his eyes darting around searching for any memory, an inkling inside, a clue of his true name.
"Not Weepers..."
That was as bad as Namis Watt.
"No!" before the scribe set pen to parchment, dots of ink threatening to invade the pristine page by never reaching the shore dropping down, down, into space.
"Well?" said his wife. "Reveal thy name!"
He licked his lips.
"Carbide...Calcium Carbide!"
"Calcium....Carbide." wrote the scribe." Dame Carbide, take Weepers and go..."
Carbide roared in anger and grabbed an impressively huge rock, boulder, ripping it out of the earth, in his magic, and all stared at the floating boulder knowing full well the pretext, the scribe, falling down staring at the floating rock ears back eyes wide. 
Breathing heavily fire in his eyes he looked at the other ponies and the fire extinguished immediately realization dawned upon his face.
"I feel myself and this thing I do? If this I do with magic, what else will I dare to do?" He dropped the boulder falling back into its hole, with and earth trembling thunk.
He then fell on his haunches; head bent down as a single tear slid down his face.

Namis Watt,another pony, , with a twisted backward question mark on his rump, that appeared to the sound off a barley shucker, would not stop talking! His accent appalling his face, cross eyed, his tongue falling out of his mouth most of the time and his mane, a scraggly mess!
A painful accent to listen, but every word was gold...real gold!
"Acck...you go to sleep after working your seat at the exchange, and the next morning you wake with a weird accent, your first word your first name and the next word your last name and a twisted backward question mark on yer bum!" Followed by a rasberry."Ptttttttttttt......"
He spoke words of advice and investment and common sense, all the earth ponies, unicorn and pegisi gathered to listen and ask questions, this stranger with a backward, bent twisted question mark on his bum, every question he answered, crops and sky and energy.
The natives of Equestria plied him with questions that would have crossed Celestia's eye...yet he answered with good common sense answers and start laughing and grinning making the crowd merrier!
"Pttttt....."he put out a raspberry, “a regular Poor Rich and Almanac am I!" He cried, Marigold heard from the story. “A regular Bean Jasmin Franking-Kiln!" He laughed hysterically and fell down straight, as if his legs were made of rubber.
"Stop!" a mare rushed forward, blocking him from the crowds. "Leave him alone!" She spoke in an accent not unalike but less grating. 
"Do ya not have common sense?" she cried in groag."Can't ye see he's scarred, he's tiered?!!"She brought here face to his she touched him tenderly. A ripply smile took her face a manic look in her eye. With grace and surprising agility, she slid under him and picked him up on her back as if he were the most comfortable saddle bag she had ever owned.
“Now, he’s MINE!" she said in a cringable tone with all legs turned inward as if she hadn't let go and lost control in a long, long time. She brought her hoof to her chest and calmed herself from the breathing coming through clenched teeth. 
"I claim him!" she raised up Namis Watt hanging limply on her back, trying to keep his head from swinging back and forth like a pendulum.
She being just a little bigger than he, classic profile, good proud strong old earth pony stock!
"I take this as a consulting meeting...I have all your names...."she squinted as she raised a hoof ,  pointing to each pony. "You'll get a bill in the mail at a price  I deem fit!" She brought her hoof down with a click for emphasis. "And if ya be thinking o' skippin out, and not payin.." she leaned forward , pointing. "Next letter becoming with a writ having the mare o' the sun's sign on it, followed by the royal guard!" her eye narrowed as she spoke. "Now clear the way, I be takin my husband home, or do ya want to be feeling the full brunt of four on the floor mud pony style??!"

They cleared the way and she walked out like a princess.

As the two left Namis Watt was heard say, "They storms the storms..among the towers, the winds they nash and scream!” He sputtered and grabbed her hard around her neck all the strength of his front legs, his eyes wild. "Never be done with me! Always give air Maid Mare. Do not let me drown when you are done ."

She reached back and gently touched him. "Never. " her soft words put him at ease and he flopped into a rag doll again.” I'll always be here for you.”
That was the story Marigold heard.

Another was called Romani, he a pegisus.
He only spoke a certain way.
He said good things about the authorities and good things about marriage...but only as if quoting another.
He wrote in a strange language when trying to say something else he couldn't speak.
His wife took him with her satisfied there was more in his head than what came out his mouth.

She heard a wonderful flute tune that was cut off suddenly.
"I do not mean to be curt, but take your fore leg off my trunk, or you'll be hurt.”what happened? Marigold moved closer 
“And as for you, you're quite a jerk!” she was addressing somepony else.
“What do you mean giving you husband old wine? Didn't you monitor the time?
What makes you think I’d consider you? Can't you add two and two? 
Did you hit your head with a thunk? No, you're also drunk!
Why would he consider me? Oh I see! You think this flutist’s easy!
What...you intent...with me?" there was a disbelief in her voice.
“Did I mishear?? Is he not your dear? 
Is this sire not your heart’s desire? What is your thinking here?
I see no sign, why don't you cry out mine?
I just heard crime! The crowd your words heard this time. Last time…
Was I aloof?Make proof!
Is that all you think of him?
You think him be yours so easy? Those papers you wave make him your slave???
My point concede, repent if you are agreedthat you don’t want him just…”in the weed, Marigold lost the voice due to the vengeful growl growing in it.” 
“What think you of me?”It was soft now and gentle and caring, mercy to give the other a chance.
She didn’t take the hint whatever insult/threat she said.
“GAURDS!!!!
“Insult us most gravely! Not a wondering homeless vagrant in rags I be but Zebra chieften, come from across the sea, to give these couples my heart felt blessing! If I did not know how low you are this would be an act of war!!!”real rage and furry, Marigold heard the crowd gasp.
“No....Sweatheart it’s ok. My gaurds will keep you safe.
Take her away!!!Out of my sight!!When she is sober where Celestia can deal with her in the day.
You!!!!I don't think so, you dare! Mare!Why should I say your name? 
Tears for mercy now? Away!Let her not out till full light of day.I say!!!” 
Now she turned to the stallion, “Do not cry. Please dry your eyes. There is no need. It makes you look less the handsome steed.
Sleep is what you need, and what Celestia says? We shall see.
Oh sweetheart. I have duties see?
With you, my children, last would be, of me!
I will wait patiently.
For me?
I would like, for them, to see, the last sunny day and  then be carried away."said the Zebra."From the sky with a smile.In a rainbow, donchaknow!"
"Come! Forgive the interruption! There shall be no war’s desolation." cried the zebra. "From my flute you shall hear songs to bring you great cheer!"

"Apparently everypony is finding somepony!"she rolled her eyes.

"I saw the world end today."
Marigold froze. She listened.
"I would call you wrong,"Tsked another" but from what I imagined..."
"You imagined losing your magic too?" asked an older mare.
"It was just a collective delusion!" said another male.
"No...Delusions are not collective." Said a scholarly voice, ignorant and ignored. “collective delusions belong to the family of hysteria...."
"I said,” clearing his throat keeping the conversation from becoming discursive, keeping command. "I saw the world end today!” The other unicorn poke the fire in frustration as Marigold heard him ."You saw it!” said the female."Pegisis falling out of the sky! Unicorns dropping things! Large public works crashing to the ground!"
"Then where is the proof, my dear? “asked the sire angrily. "Sure, I saw unicorns working on a tower, then the whole thing came crashing down as their power evaporated! But where is the proof? Pens, paper, buildings dropping everywhere, but where in the proof?" 
"Sure, I thought I lost hold of the notation I was taking, a wind came and scattered it and there was nothing I could do!"
"I saw all that." said the unicorn as he poked the fire again. "I also saw the look of horror on Celestia's face."
Now they were paying attention.
"There is a widow...with a stately slow stride, eight minutes from the throne.” He cleared his throat. "I saw her dethrone, walk over to it." Marigold heard his jaw pop. "I saw the sun...fall from the sky!"
"Oh Celestia!" there was shock in her voice, Marigold imagined tears.
"I heard her say...'This is not how the story ends!' Then it plunged into us...Celestia screamed...we. Were. Gone...."
Marigold swallowed, her mouth was dry, she had slept through it! No wonder it was dark...no wait...she should have been dead...emolliated.
"That would explain the hot flash..."said another mare.
"But we're still here..."
"I heard her scream...I ask if she was alright...I mean we had just cleared the last of those, heated mare out of the throne room hours before...."there was quiet. “No I didn't see the end of the world." mumbles. "I thought it was just stress. Then she looked around, at her throne, at us, and let out a great sigh of relief and dismissed court early, saying she had an appointment standing at tea."
"Do you want to know my impressions of what I felt when we were gone?"
"No. Please tell us. It should be good for some hypothetical college lecture!"
"Please, tell us." pleaded a mare.
"Admonition:" said the stallion matterafactly."admonition of a parent to a child, a father to a son.
Mumbling heard around the fire.
"I don't suppose you heard words?" mocked one.
"They were, ‘it’s fixed, and it was serious. It’s forgiven. ‘My name is not to be misused.....the consequences, most serious’."
"Hah." laughed another unicorn. "I saw none of that!"
"...and a feeling...the world has changed...no more mindless sacrifice or meaningless ceremony....no....it has changed not magically or naturally but supernaturally...it overshadows it orbits it oversees before and now to after..."
There was murmuring, some agreement, some awe some to argue.

Marigold moved on.
Was that why she was clutching her pillow so tightly?  

She heard Rose Water call out periodically, “Not here!" or "Get a room ponies! There are little ones present."
"Look! You missed the chariot back to the capital, you either behave or I'll have the guard take you to the edge of the woods if you can't control yourselves." Some took her up on the offer. “Really? You want to be nothing but a stripped femur in the morning when we find only you?" They always changed their minds.

Marigold came to a clearing. At first she couldn't tell sky from ground, the she understood it was full of pools. She took a drink. "Fresh water."
She then noticed a mare and a unicorn. She was playing with his horn. He wasn't sure what to do but just let her play.
"I'm following a downward spiral," she said with a playful lilt in her voice.
He began to sing," destination unknown
A double-crossed messenger, all alone
I can't get no connection, can't get through..." 

"Where are you?" came another voice, it was Rose Water again. She chided the two lecturing them on self-control and encourage them to go and hang out, more like bullied, with a nearby family so as not to be tempted and give a bad example to the youth.

Rose Water glared at Marigold who decided to move on after breaking eye contact with the mare. 

Rose Water then summoned a guard and as Marigold left told him to shadow her.

Briefly, in the darkness, Marigold thought she saw a unicorn and his family, a mare and a young daughter. But it couldn't have been. 
His armor was dinned and dented. His horn was cracked at an impossible angle, nearly severed. The mare was muddied mane and tail unkempt. She wore a torn and dirty dress.
And the filly? She looked unnaturally fat..."No just fat," Marigold shuddered to herself as she looked away. "She's too young..."she looked back, they were gone, "must have imagined it."

Something interesting to hear...
"You're not really a pony?" asked a young pony.
"No."
"You look like a pony....."
"I well...its.."
"Why don't you tell the kids a story...maybe I'll understand..."
"Ah....That's a good idea. Have you ever heard the story of Beowulf?"
"No..."They said.
"It the story of a god in the shape of a m...pony and a thing of...wood and stones... that looked like a pony!”

Then a sad story head told by two mares.
"I wonder what it was like for him. To fall out of the sky...wander around for a day not being able to see or hear."
"Well we got the fever down, cleaned the infections, Celestia did her best." said the other. "But unless there is a miracle or a phoenix tear, he’ll never see or hear again...that was obvious when he wondered into that village."
"He was so confused, he fought."
"What is his name?"
"I think he built boats, said his name was Keeler..."
"Hmm...Sounds right, Heaven and Keeler....you will make him see."
"....I don't have the salary to support such!!"said Heaven Healer.
"Nopony asked you too....he's comfortable in hospital." She stabbed at the fire.
"What are you doing?" asked Healer.
"I see too logs,” said the unicorn. “both burning brighter together than separate. That no wedge can divide...”
"Are you talking about me?"
"You will help him see. At the water..."
"I told you...I can't do it."
"The more you run, the closer to the water you will get...get close to him now, save both your lives and the water will be harmless."
"I'm so confused.” said the other mare.
"When have I ever been wrong about you?"
"Logs?" there is a hollow thud sound.
"Ack!" the unicorn is startled.
"HA! My friend sees all the future around me but doesn't notice a towering stallion come into the camp fire light!" Heaven Healer laughs. "Yes please, put them over there."
"He's Mine!"Says a smaller voice.
"Yes...quiet a catch too!"
"Thanks!"

Marigold hears them tromp through the brush away from the fire.

"Haul logs here, haul logs there, this would be most dull if alone!"  his voice deep and throbbing.
"What did you do before?"asks the smaller voice young and female.
"(sigh)I hauled logs.."
"Ok. No problem there, transition into the new life doing what you did before." there is cheer in her voice. "Other stallions should be so lucky.
"You don't understand. When I say I hauled log's I meant I loaded them on a vehicle sixteen wheels maybe twenty four hauling small fallen sequoia! Engine four thousand pound per foot and one thousand one hundred fifty cubic Inches, power of two thousand horses at smallest!" He said in a voice Marigold imagined sounding a lot like that engine. The mare with him gasped excited. He continued.
"Capable of going over sixty miles an hour governed, five thousand, two hundred and eighty feet per minute, five to eight times longer than your own hoof! Five hundred thousand pounds empty. Stopping distance: twice as far as one of those pens we were in in eight seconds, operated that machine coast to coast sea to sea, over mountain deserts and plains forest cities.”he grunted.
” But not on my back!"
"How romantic!"
"Roman...?"
He is interrupted by a kiss. "I say so."
"How could it be, Orange Rind, you weren't there!"
"And isn’t life more exciting with me here."
"Stop jumping on my back!"
"It’s just practice for later......."something in her voice.
"Oh look." he spoke hurriedly and nervously. "Their fire is about to go out guess they need a log!"

Ah romance, Marigold would have loved to listen but she had a mission.

What she heard next was rendering.

"You're not my father!!!!” screamed the foal. Mother tried to explain but was cut off. "I'm sick of this! Every time you get into the passion, you have to go looking for a stallion, stallion here stallion there! Here! “She mocked. “OH and look at the big pigeon you managed to find! Pig! Pig! pig!"
Then a male voice, "Lay off your mother!"
"You can't tell me what to do!" the filly screamed.
"I'm sorry about your father...."
"You. Never knew. My father!" crying. "I never, never, never, never. Want to be like you!" mother was crying now. "I'm talking to you PIG!"
"How dare you! I've served my community over ten years I lost friends and colleges all in the line of duty, wearing the blue..."
"What are you talking about you stupid!!"She choked.
"No." said the stallion quietly. "None of you would know what I'm talking about. I can't...use it....I have to...be it..."
"So!" said the male determined. "You are disgusted you mother gets these...passions?"
"Iam!!!!!"
"How would it be if I, with your mother’s supervision, taught you how to say no when the boys come around."
The sniffling stifled. "Can you do that?"
"Is it possible?" asked the mother.
"I'm sure it can be remedied, I have experience some army training and discipline, I'm sure we can do it." He said confidently. "She already has the determination...."he talked to the child directly, "if you stop persecuting your mother, we, you, your mother interceding and I, can come up with ways to help you. Then when the boys come around you can lift up your nose and say, No!" There was quiet. "Please let me help you..."
"You have till next spring..."growled the filly.
"Great! I....AHHH!" the stallion cried out.
"Not again! How are you dislocating your wings like that? Hold still." said mother.
"Hmmp! You promise me self-control but you can't even control your wings!"
There was cracking sound and the stallion cried out again. Marigold was close enough to hear.
"Let her be made at me...better me than you, her only mother."

"Lots of luck." Marigold thought as she walked passed.

"There they were a dozen stuck in that lightning tree, all looking stupid; some were even eating the rainbow fruit!" He then went at great lengths to explain an exaggerated tale about he got them out of the tree, Rube Goldberg style!

"Pass!" Marigold said. 
She was getting anxious. She should have been there by now.
Wait. What? Turned around again? She headed back toward the cyclopean cisterns.

"I really wish your wife had come Doctor Puzzle," said a mare, "and you Captains, you really should get a wife. I do tire of these bro bonding nights and I have nopony to talk too. The testosterone is oppressive, the conversation awkward." She huffed. "Oh, do find a wife Sergeant Captains! I'm sure she will adore you as I adore my Wishies here."
"Not behind the ear," said a laughing voice.
"Ah...no. From what I've seen, from what was available today, nothing desirable and desirable was simply unavailable. Unlike you two; a Captain and his lovely wife, doing their duty to help repopulate the country in our demographic crisis," said the sergeant. "with a soon to be large herd!”
"We only have one daughter!" The unicorn laughed hysterically. "Don't let me use my magic on you!"
"Oh save me sergeant from this upstart captain, they outnumber us, these two unicorns! We minority pony and pegisi must stick together! Tickle him with your wings!"
"It’s a plot! That's why you left your daughter at home, political power. Revolution! “said an older voice.
"No." came the sergeant’s pouty voice. "That's mares work. You take care of your own unicorns. You're outvoted at home too. Ask your daughter to tickle him."
"Outvoted, where I turn wherever, “she squealed as the laughter increased. “But no, she has an important test she is studying for."
"Hey!" the voice came hoarsely from laughter. "Tell you what stop tickling and I will show you the new trick I learned. I'll teleport you to Lord Puzzle’s estate. You can walk home and look in on her, when you can't shreve!"
"No!" screamed a stallion. "Don't do that!"
"Puzzle!" said the laughing one seriously. "Don't drop that book in the fire!" Scuffing sound. 
"Second time." said Puzzle.
"What..?"
"It’s a copy. After that dam stunt the pegisi pulled today I took it from that recluse of ours hiding in the wall."
"Soldier? You took it from soldier? “said the pegisus.
"Split his hoof pretty badly. Is that what you've taken to calling him, our fire jumper?"
"Well I found him at the water bar after you lost him, pretending trying to blend in that's what I call him."
"You took his book?" now the laughing voice was angry. “He was in tears when I gave it back to him with the new cover!"
"Only to have it cleaned.” said the voice, a bushing sound came later. “Blood and parchment don't mix cleaned it gave it back...along with a bag of sardines in mustard sauce and hard tack."
"I'm going to eat you little fishy!!"sang the Pegisi."Nice fellow Doctor Pax Claw."
"Shh." whispered the mare. "No."
"But. His. Book, doctor!" he was getting flustered.
"It’s a copy. Can't you tell? The paper is not nearly the quality or has the gossameric properties of this one, it twice as thick. See?" 
"But how?"
"Same bookbinder...made copy, asked me if I wanted one."
"Wait." said the female. "Book binders take weeks to bind books."
"Well, his was a special emergency." said the younger unicorn captain. "I took it to the best...who shall remain nameless, he works for the royal achieve and does important work, he owed me a favor."
"I also!" said doctor Puzzle. "But when he told me how singularly unmagical this book is, it’s a riddle,"
"As you always do." said the pegisi sergeant.
Ignoring him'"...I said I'm going to solve this riddle. You know how much I love translating languages. This one is easy. “More rustling. “It’s our language only different letters, truly fascinating. “There was a page rustle. “For different sounds, the letters break them down, or compress them together. For instance "the" these two letter make up the "the" sound. As opposed to the ‘one’ we use.” he then made a "th" sound through his teeth.
"Yes." said the mare. "All well and fascinating, but a grown stallion pays attention to the affairs of his household..."she now spoke very gently. “What’s wrong at home?"
"You do have to pick, don't you?" he shot back hostilely. "Is it that obvious?" he reframed.
"Mmmhm."
"I've been avoiding going home. My wife wants me to meet this new stallion, her friend, Glam Mare, just married." He mumbled. "I honestly didn't think she liked stallions."
"Glam Mare?” said the pegisi."She was the one harassing Soldier!"
"What?" said the doctor.
"She fell on her back and swallowed the forget-me-not lipstick she was wearing."
"Then she kissed this other fellow." said the doctor.
"Uh, I didn't think about that."
"I see what she's doing...have to be careful otherwise I endanger what I promised Soldier,have to give the two good memories before the thing wears off, hope I can help them bind, Crosswords how could you!" Again he said under his breath.
"Give Soldier what?" asked the pegisi.
There was silence. "I think him worthy...."
"Doctor Puzzle…"said the earth mare surprised.
"Oh, my…Celestia's going to have a new neighbor in the future!“ The captain gave his wife a kiss.
"Won't those capital city snobs be...."said the pegisi,
"…totally and utterly aghast!" said the mare in fanned shock. They the all started laughing around the fire.

Marigold moved on.
Marigold heard a baby cry crying. She looked down and saw it was a little foal she was holding in one leg she sat down, such joy as she lifted her up and nuzzled her. 

Her own child, this, a vision of the future, with her pony stallion? Something pricked her cheek. She drew it back and looked it over. She had a horn. She was a unicorn! Well that's fine; sometimes if there is a unicorn in one’s ancestry....there was no unicorn in her ancestry certainly any in his!

Marigold was still walking. Wait, again she had been distracted. The sight and the scent of the child were gone, her mind pondered this. 
"Just a dream, I will be faithful! There will be no unicorn."

Marigold stopped looked around. She had been turned around again. Something was making distracted. She heard a laugh, look a little ways saw something...yellow eyes, indistinct, warble laughter and moving in the bush, if that were possible. 

"Oh...but the tyke is of unicorn stock!"

Suddenly something sprang up in front of her, startling her. Up and up it went higher and higher it didn't seem to stop. When it did, all Marigld could see where the yellow eyes somewhere in the top, she still couldn't wrap her mind around, of the shadowed form.

Thought translated: “Error...prmt connect device on early.."
As if she could possibly understand that on top of what she was seeing.

Something tapped the top of her head.
It touched her mind. "No? Forgotten me from history?" she felt it say, "What’s the matter.....too soon?" 

Her mind was suddenly dropped in a vat of jellow and surrounded by a thick blanket, dots and flashes appeared in her eyes as they began to swirl. “Disco Dance Party!" came a muffled voice inside her mind. Her mouth felt like it was full of sawdust and cotton and....

"Peanut Butter....choclate?" she said through puffed cheeks as she fell over on her side like a shutdown toy.

"Actually...its Nutella..."said the voice again. 
There was a wince as something dug its heels into Discord’s sides.



> Special Taloned Touched
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Fool! Fear is my best weapon...now I have to work at it!" The thing, looking like some kind of scientist or chemist with a disease of the frame, pulled tight on the chain binding discord, like a bridle. ”Now I have to lull her into a false sense of security and delude her thinking!”

"It's not my style....."Discord complained like an artist to his shop supervisor, a choked sob followed. "Please..." begged the muzzled mouth, followed by a gag. "Let me go." He knew it was fruitless, begging to the cruel thing on his back gigging him as the reins tightened, pulling the chain clinked and as it sank into him.
His pleading came out of an instinct of survival!

He knew him before, after the swirling wonder of creation. That one, on his back, now, would never show mercy!

Mercy came from another, the first from before, the one who made light known, the wonder! 

"Let there be light!"


Day made known the swirling glowing of creation's workshop. Day, revealed!
He was like, the physical and yet, extending beyond what could be seen and so close as if to be inside and yet beyond and inside connected yet separate(unseen above and around, walking beside and also inside). He had borders, an exciting country to live! 

"Oh...so this is what it all looks like! This is what I look like!" said the little draconequus.

"Hello."


"Hewlo..."

"Do you want to see things neat and new and never done before?" He asked smiling know he would.

"Am I a thing?" said the draconequus."I like new things!"

"Okay!" He said He picked him up and held him. “This called a hug!" As he snuggled him, the baby draconequus laughed."...and laughter."

"Is it um...safe?" asked a woman who stood by.

"Who is that?" the tyke asked pointing at the woman. 

"Ohhh!" He said. "It is good!" He then handed the baby to the woman who held it dangling awkwardly confused and concerned. Staring at him chagrined.

"Hewlo." he said. "Are you good?" asked the draconequus, he concerned.
Wisdom put out an entertained half smile

"Of course she is!" He said. "Now sit over here, and watch, as you always do and bear witness!" he took her by the hand and sat her where they could see everything and lifted the draconequus on her..."this is called a lap. Have to get started with the day."

They eyed each other; he this tall woman, she this fuzzy strange, "I created cute!" thing on her lap.

"Watch now!" He said. "This is called busy...."

They watched in awe! 
In that first light that wisdom saw clearly, as she pet chaos head and scratched him behind the ears,  He, with that, "I created kindness and mercy, bam!"
Then he did!
Glorious day!
Then he created another, and another, and another......
Wisdom tempered chaos, with kindness and mercy , as they watched together, her and him, the seven days, rejoicing in that first beginning!

That first draconequus,( was it him or his father, made unclear.) had let Him take  the reins, willingly. 
*When, bird and beast and flower were one; and of endings..? But a dream!
Then someone came along and stole a fruit and everything became so laborious and less exciting…..but the outline and the goal never changed.
That was what He was like, the snippets Discord could remember, pushing against the door, ready to spill out when kindness was revealed to him again! He, rejoicing at the actions of his creations as they proved themselves distinct, individual beings by whatever they did!
”It is one thing to know it works. To draw it out on blueprints and know that it ‘will’ work. It’s another to see it racing round the track proving itself on the grounds! So exciting!”

Not this one, now on his back. 
This one hated kindness, hated light, and maybe darkness too, but darkness leached from this one’s eyes like dying flames....it sought to overthrow all creation, (in its worship of a false premise, if it didn't worship anything but itself, that everything was it and it was everything, even the dracoaquis, as well as Marigold and Equestria, delusions, actions made by itself alone), even the chaos before; that the light had revealed, glorious, the workshop to the creation of all!
In madness (Denial: what it was, not even discord would do that. Hopeless: saying right was wrong and dark was light) leaving, not even,
......nothing.......

There......

Marigold Found herself....where?

"You're hereee!"She thought she heard a voice say behind her. She spun around panting...there was no one in the nowhere to be seen or could it be seen ? Or  couldn’t , as she spun around all three sixty of the axis, tail and main going everywhere.

Here  mind screamed and prattled about the wrongness of it all as she pawed and flailed at the empty around her, with a deeper voice underneath it all, barely inappreciable.
"This isn't how the story goes..."

Finally coming to a still position, a path lit up before her, swirling and scroll-like, tracing itself in the nothing...she was floating above and scrambled, pawing at the ether toward it, she managed to set her hooves on it, body next and hair falling gravitationally toward the hooves. 
A sign board popped up, neon words flashing and dancing like eels, this way it said.

Marigold followed, for all she knew, with the lack of horizon, she could be walking up a wall.

It seemed like an eternity she traveled on the path.
"Where am I?" she huffed. "I can't be late! I'll miss my hope of a stallion of my own!"

A unicorn came up beside her, a gold chain on his neck, glinting authority.
"Hello."
"Hello." she said still straining ahead, why it felt like she was slogging through oatmeal....without the pleasant taste or warm feeling.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"I'm on my way to the Selections to find my special pony!" she answered with a sigh of frustration.
"Why?"
Marigold stopped."Why?" she thought. "I know why...why is it taking so long to remember?" In her mind pink hooves frantically searched through files that had mysteriously fallen over and had become jumbled finding at last what was need the file was placed in the heart corollary and compared. A bell went off signifying a match. 

Satisfied the assistant barred the door and began reordering the files, "And I wanted a dance party....."She sighed. 

"I'm off to find my special pony!” Marigold repeated manically.
"Why?"
"I promised!"
"Who did you promise?"
"My giant: his father!" she said exasperated.
"There are all kinds of giants, cyclopean giants, centurion giants, troll giants, dragon giants....all kinds of magical giants that would have a pony as a son.....
"He..um...isn't a pony and..well, I didn't, didn't feel, um magic from him....not...not really..."she scuffed her hoof on the ground.
"Your special somepony is a pony.."
"Yes."
"Regular ol' earth pony?"
"Yes."
“What is his name?”
Marigold blinked.
“Come on!!!”Cried the poor pink over worked file clerk inside her head as she began a desperate search through the scattered files, now more desperate because she was causing a commotion with her fellow workers, yellow, white and blue, but now her purple supervisor was coming over and she did not want to be demoted to grocery list again! She had gotten too many write ups for including an overabundance of cake flower, sugar, sweets and chocolate. 
“What’s the problem?” asked the supervisor.
“I’m looking for a name!” whimpered the pink clerk almost to the point of tears.
The supervisor walked over to a very important file drawer she unlocked. ”Important files are kept in here.” She slowly hoofed it to the anxious clerk before pulling it away.  “Remember. The information in these file are acted on by emotion so they may not be wholly accurate.”
Pink thanked her supervisor. Barely controlling the urge to rip it from her barking, “Gimme!” and fed it into the heart corollary. The bell went off, with confirmation and the mare set the information to the brain.

“Imago Dei!” blurted Marigold. 

The purple mare came up to the pink one and touched her reassuringly. ”Don’t worry.” she said. ”Do your job. You can’t go wrong just doing your job. Clean up the mess and keep going. ”She smiled and the pink mare calmed. ”I have assurances from higher up, that everything will be ok…”

“Amego Day?” asked the unicorn incredulously. ”What kind of name is that?” he scrunged his nose. “Friend of the day? Who's next tommarrow?” 
He then put on a more thoughtful face. “Well, I suppose a powerful giant could name his son anything he wants.” The unicorn chuckled darkly. ”After all I’ve known many powerful giants; the most powerful and awesome went into the dark, shining bright in that sacred dark and discover a great truth about himself, above the sacred and above right and wrong, about how great and beautiful he was, that he desired to reach beyond. We all agreed…many followed.” there was a tinge of grief in the unicorn’s voice along with a slight shudder. 

"So, the giant is a giant earth pony!"
"Well, ah, no..."She then described the giant.
"Come, now Marigold..With a name like Amego Day?" speaking sarcastically he then explain how biologically something like that didn't happen. "Face it Marigold...you made it up..."
"I did not make it up, he was kind, and we talked!" she stammered. "He took care of my needs as I came up here!
"Really." he said. "So this giant bent down out of the sky and took care of you like ponies do with the fauna?"
"Yes...uh no.." she explained that he had, but the unicorn countered that this giant had been just a dream.
"A dream?" Marigold began to doubt as the handsome unicorn looked at her with cross front legs. He then stood up again.
The yellow pony inside marigold bit her lip as she saw a light indicating doubts begin to flutter.
“Just do your job.” sang the purple supervisor cheerfully as she trotted passed, making her rounds.

"Poor Marigold..."he cooed in such a lonely voice. "so lonely, for such a long time!" He gently stroked her cheek with his pastern, she closed her eyes. It did feel good. "It’s understandable. You can see how a pony like me could see, that those dream were just a longing...a longing to fill a need." She opened her eyes to his cheerful cherub smiling face. "It’s the season." he said apologetically. "You’re an incurable romantic!”  He talked so sweetly. ”You saw the princess edict and you then built up a fantasy around it. Going on a quest: a mission under the guise of a mighty king sending you out, hence...your giant."
"But if only you had been there!" Marigold said. She then told the story up to that point.
The unicorn grinned and touched her cheek again. "Manically running around acting like a foal?" he said dotingly. "Why that was just the passion this time of season we all get!" He stepped back and she got a good look at this unicorn walking with her, a really good look. "Even I feel subject to the passion..."he let out a sound as he bowed his head. ”But there is hope..."he came up close to her. "We are beings with imagination. Surely we can satisfy ourselves right now! Hope in me.." Marigold's eyes opened wide. "I know you burn as I...you’re so hot, why don't we..."
"No!"she said. "I can't do that! Not out in the open, with who knows what pony is watching?" she stuttered. "There is a process!" she stepped back looking at him clacking her front hooves together for emphasis at each word. "I don't know you. Even if I didn't go through the rites of Megan, there is still paperwork to fill out and... I promised the princess at least!" she let out air. "Besides, I'm hot...but that would make me hotter still." she chuckled. "And..."She sniffed. "I promised, and you never break a promise."

A gently breeze came up, Marigold felt relief, she closed her eyes again.
"Do you like it?" asked the unicorn a sick saccharine grin wrapped around his face.

Saffron Sails was doing a quick tour around the deck. She slipped up to the rigging and enjoyed the breeze. It was a lovely moonlit night for sailing. The ship wright had done some necessary, "busy work" and she and her husband had taken the ship out to circle round the mountain that was the capital of Equestria, to see that it held together. The crew had been given the night off, it was a simple maneuver, so they really didn't need anypony but themselves to steer the ship. Then the breeze stopped. The sail fell limp.

Faraway.
"Keep pumping those wings!" said the head weather pegisi.
"I don't understand." said another breathlessly. "I've never had a pressure front come up and block the wind before!"
"Don't worry." said another pony breathlessly. "It’s just a mountain swirler!" He said this with a grin. "Once it builds up a critical mass it will break...and come swirling back on us." he laughed. "You're in for a treat! Have you ever been wind surfing boy?" The other shook his head. "Well this will be nothing like it as we're scattered swirling leaves across the sky! It always comes back on us, always has, always will. It’s a law of nature!"

Back on her ship Saffron opened her eyes to the stopped breeze.
"Odd.." she said.
She then heard voices.

"Still hot?" it was a sickening masculine voice, full of attraction. "Look at all that cool air down below, surely your giant wouldn't mind if you refreshed yourself in the air between here and the ground, surely he would catch you...."
"No...." said the other voice. "What happened before was accidental, he was watching me then, I was in a mania, I was lucky...but he might not be watching me now. Busy with other things..."the voice was remarkably calm and lackadaisical. "I'm supposed to be at the pens, he wouldn't be watching for me here..." 

"Marigold?" Saffron Sails said as she came to where she heard the voice. She saw her for a moment entwined in the rigging, her mane and tail wild and frizzed before she disappeared. She approached the place, she found one of Marigolds pink strands in the ropes, where she had stood was warm and her scent lingered in the still air. 
She had been there! Had she fallen overboard?

Saffron rushed to the side, the moonlight made everything clear, she would still be falling...Saffron saw nothing.

The hairs on Saffron started to stand up she straightened her stance, a chill ran through her. Something was there!
She turned saw the other. Saffron’s heart caught in her throat, her mind could not comprehend what she was seeing, this eldritch thing!

He looked at her.

"My dearest Saffron: Sweet, sweet delectable Saffron." He said."Let'ssss make a bargain you and I?" It said.
"Gleaming gold, pouring out (after the crash, over the countryside) gleaming gold, in rivers, into that bluest of blue sky grey clouds like smoke, like foaming water washing over the sides!  They coming, from the split in your hull, gleaming fountains! Those golden glitters raining down, they gushing down!" swaying back and forth. ”Washing over the studs on your hull.” It came so very close to her. "How you lonnnng, those sweat days of freedom." *It stared her in the eyes, endless bottomless pits of adventure as the back of her mind screamed to just jump in. "How would like to have all that gold back, your license and ship rights restored? Hmmmm..."

Saffron couldn't move her eyes off the thing, part of the rigging? Through the rigging, part of the woodwork and air??! Chains???!!
Like a heat mirage or vibrating air when unicorn were so move to make heat or cut thing for work with their horns to transmit over distances visions of sights or sounds for fun and entertainment or educational information, but it wasn't like that all. It was...dirty.

"All you have to do...issss" it smiled at her touching her cheek, "Want me....",along her back feather touching here cutie mark, the ship with the spider's web of rigging and cranes.
She almost wanted to lean against it. 
Saffron bit her lower lip. That voice, that bargain! It was a deal come true. To be pirate again! To free! To swing in the rigging without a care in the world as the crew watched, breaking hearts, crushing them under her hooves, laughing, wherever she went...but it was wrong....To be a pirate again-to be a foal as the crew watch her be unchaste and undignified, laughing! 
To break hearts again-
before she knew how much it hurt when one's own heart is broken. 
A life without Tackey? The one who was with her, hiding her as she fell apart and to pieces?
He mended and complete her, lifted her up, her yoke-fellow beside as they strode out together in purpose as one, her to become...so much less, alone? Like a stereotype of herself? The horror!
Saffron turned mechanically away, her eyes fixed ahead, her back to him. It was all she could do, turn away, turn away from that, that that, maddening indescribable monster tempting her to break faith, to break her oaths!
She could feel it behind her, moving like smoke, away, its eyes burning into the back of here skull.
"Hafto find Tackey!"She swallowed, feel like she had been kicked in the side.." Got to find him! Can't go back, can't go back, can't go back! Not the way I was! Before my heart was broken....!"
She found him in the steering house.

"I don't like this. This calm, what are the pegsi thinking? Ah! My own self...."he said. She rushed forward and held him. Acknowl was there with him talking." Is everything alright my dear?"
"I saw Marigold!"
"Where?" he said look toward the side. "Hardly, not in this light."
"No.!" she said. "I saw Marigold, on board, tonight, she's in danger." Saffron grabbed the wheel, Acknowl stopped her.
"You'd never get to the pens in time!"Acknowl sadly said.
"We'll signal the docks to get help!" Saffron said tears in her eyes.
“Never get to the docks in time!” said Acknowl
"What happened?" Asked Captain Tackey Tea Sails.
Saffron explained what happened.
"Tell me." asked Acknowl the unicorn. "How did you avoid the monster's temptations..."
It was a surprising question.
"I..."she sputtered. "I simply begged for anything good out there to give me help..."
"Then that is what we will do!" said Acknowl."We will ask anything out there, an ally to life and love for help in saving and protecting our beloved Marigold!" he bowed his head, Saffron and Tackey Tea confusedly copied. "Hello? Anypony there?"Acknowl asked. "You know who you are, we accept that! So we direct our request to you who knows yourself to be. O, ally of, of love and of, of life...the creator of wisdom!Yes. You, you, who, who loves us!" he nodded sure of himself. "Please let our asking be made acceptable and in the way you would have us ask.” he licked his lips. ”Forgive these many words…Please, protect our friend Marigold; we feel she is in trouble..."
"I know she is in trouble!" Saffron said. "If you could help her? Send a pegisi or anypony...."

"Its not supposed to do that!"
"The pressure front is gone! The bubble! It’s collapsing!!"screamed a pegisi.
"Stop!!!" cried the weather lead to his team. "Disperse! No more wind! Too much!"

A tidal wave of air came crashing against the side of the Cloudy Dream, the ship was shaken and tossed! Tackey pinned his wife down holding her on the ship for dear life as Acknowl clamped himself to the deck with his magic and took hold of the wheel.
"Keep us upright, you old toot!" barked the captain.
Small pieces of the ship ripped away some of the rigging came loose, but on a whole the ship stayed together. Then it calmed to a gentle breeze again.
"MY self!" the captain asked his wife. "Are you okay?"
Acknowl broke out laughing they looked at him saucer eyed.
"What's so funny you old toot?!!!"
"I'm sorry. I couldn’t get anything to happen!" he said wiping a tear from his eye. "But you! Forgive me Saffron, I was only trying to placate you. Stags!" He exclaimed. "You really hit the right keys. Right between the eyes! You did. You really made it mad!" he said speaking like a much younger unicorn. "It’s lost that power with that display of temper! The rules you know." he said matter of factually with a sniff returning to respectable unicorn speak. "I have no doubt, that everything you ask will be granted, that, now, that your prayer will be answered. That all I have prophesied is real and will come to pass!"
Looking back at the old unicorn the captain spoke incredulously. "I thought you forswore never to us magic again."
"Son." said the unicorn with endearment. "There is magic and then there is 'magic'. There is the type that has rules: that will always happen a certain way, that requires food for power!" his stomach rumbled. "You owe me breakfast!" he said as if wining a bet against a rival.
"Yes.Me too." said Saffron huskily. "I'm sooooo....very hungry." Saffron seized Tackey, wrapped her legs around her husband. "There's certain magic I need to practice on you right now!" She drew him in as he made a squeak. "Hungry for you!" She kissed him and he melted.
"Oh dear." said Acknowl."I don't want to know!" He threw an old sail, patched a quilt sail over the two. A sail worn and useless that let plenty of air pass through, might as well have been a blanket, why it was on deck instead of in the mast.
"Keep it quiet you two!" The unicorn faced forward steering the limping skyship back, the balloon a little droopy, ballast a little wobbly rolling around below deck making rumbling sounds. Acknowl smacked his lips, showing his teeth, with his tongue playing with the ring on his tooth. "Saffron has to pass a time of testing....expecting." The unicorn rolled his eyes as the sail rumpled about. "Won't the little ones be interested in how it came about?" No pony was listening. "Again.”Acknowl sighed.”' You two make terrible witnesses!'” turning the ring on his tooth with his tongue, his wife Pring Knowl the earth pony had placed there. "Unlike me....well, but for zebra maybe..."he mused.

"Tell me more about this giant." said the unicorn.
"He's kind, he's gentle and he wants all that he made to try to understand, to try to be friends!" said Marigold.
"In order to do that, he'd have to come down to your level." The unicorn showed her a vision of a bipedal creature staggering through a desert.
Marigold saw something familiar about him.
"Look at him, all in the name of restoring relations: friendship!" the thing mocked.
Marigold looked at the unicorn.
"It’s true!" there was a scene. More bipeds about a dozen gather round a fire. "He said it himself!"
"No greater love than this," said a biped no different than the others, nothing special looking about him, "that one pour out his life for his friends..."
Marigold was intensely curious and struck out on her own.
The unicorn started to walk away again, "And for what? Just to suffer and die! For these muddy things he..."it was at this point the unicorn realized he was alone. Where did she go? His eyes widened,"NO..."it snarled.

"Is that why you were angry with him?" asked Marigold drowsily. "Is that why you called him a name and made him get behind you? Was he going to try to stop you from doing great work?" The man was seated, the fire burned happily. He looked up to the sky, smiled, then looked at Marigold, smiling and slowly nodding.
"So you intend to make friends of any who would be your friend and love them before they loved you?" he considered nodded again.
"What love, what trust!" Marigold reared up happily. "Such love, like my father said, that believes all things trusts all things, hopes all things. How can I get, where can I get, no, to seek it out, such love, the kind as you?"
He looked at the fire thoughtfully. Then pulled out a stick and put out the fire by looking at it. He bent it into a circle and looked through it at Marigold holding it tightly. He was still taller than she sitting down, even on her hind legs. He dandled the ring back and forth above, daring her to reach up and touch it , a whimsical smile on his face. On here side, looking through, Marigold saw his face and a star resting on his right shoulder. In wonder, she reached out and touched it with her front hoof.
That instant, the monster whisked Marigold away, he now standing there under the gaze of this man seated, who tucked the ring quickly into his robes near his heart.  He glowered at the monster in that twinkle of time at which point; the monster left his presence "an infinite distance, instantaneously" to the effect as to be compared to a bolt of lightning.*

What became of the circlet of twig snatched from the fire?
It went with his clothes, and only the lots drawn know where they went!

The unicorn cleared his throat having receive such an intense stare.
"For that you need power!"in an instant marigold was an alicorn.
Circlet it occurred to him"And...and authority!"he placed a magnificent crown on her head.
"If you just take me, all this can be yours!"Celestia was there in a palace even more magnificent than her's bowing low, all the other ponies bowing."With power to move the sun and moon and manipulate the stars through the skies!"
Then Marigold saw an earth pony resplendent in armor stand at attention, she wanted."Anything you want, yours!"She approached him touched him but instead he cowered away and shook in fear. "The ability to make ponies think and do only what you want!" She turned round and round unsettled by what he said, she had heard it somewhere before. "Look,”he raised a mirror before her. ”Are you not most resplendent in your glory?" She wasn't thinking about what he said or what she saw in the mirror, just the ponies around her, abasing themselves around her in hysteric fear!

"What if that circlet had been a crown?"she thought,"wouldn't that nice fellow be disappointed?" he was so much bigger than her."What would he do?"she became afraid as she thought about what she was tempted to do.

"It's sensible to be afraid of me, after all, I am so much bigger, and those who do wrong should be afraid of me. But my friends I will always help not to be afraid."Marigold remembered."....but he wouldn't be my friend, nor anyone else's, some pony I could share with."Marigold stared at the pony withering under her gaze."He would be a puppet...."

"You would have any pony you wanted..."said the unicorn noticing Marigold looking over the herd before her.”The queen bee: the alpha female!"
Marigold looked at her reflection, she was impressive. However the look on her face, haughty, arrogant, and proud. Here was a mare that would be strong enough to do anything. The power made her look hard, look, ugly, she didn’t like that.

Marigold didn't want that.

"No thank you." she said taking off the crown slightly glancing at herself, diminishing, as the palace evaporated and the ponies faded away, removing the wings and horn as easily as props. "But I have my stallion I need to find."

They were back in the wild woods, the wild wood in her mind, before them stood a wild tree. A face emerged from the tree. A face unfinished and wrapped in red vines pulsing with a throbbing heartbeat, "This? This is this thing think you worth it? What want you really?" said the unicorn leaning against the tree, looking at her as if she were stupid.

"No! That can't possibly be him!" she said in horror.

"You're right!" said the unicorn glibly. "Take a look at the things ancestors, his great uncles!" The bigger ape crushed the smaller with his fists, crushing him like an egg. The unicorn and the pony then flew together into the sky, zipping past an elderly couple deer in the headlights look in their eyes. "But mother and father, did they come and stop them, try to prevent what was obvious to all, after such a mighty fall, one son claimed, a possession, the other? Nooo! Instead they made another," then the unicorn showed an angry mob." And look what his descendants did!" that same biped from earlier, the one who looked just like him, the crowd...."Marigold looked away.
"And you want to make him your family, some foreigner, some stranger?" Marigold opened her eyes and looked at the unicorn, lovely and pretty: the very emblem of virtue. "Come on..." he smiled.”The vision prophesied the child was born out of unicorn. "He smiled. "Why not make that unicorn...."he let out a breath."meeeee...!!!"

"Test the spirits, not all come from me....I will never tell you what you do not know...all who are friends of life are my friends....."marigold remembered.

"Let me be your dream...."

She recognized the intruder, he was trying to bully! She blocked his attack and defended wrestling away the idea.
He was losing.

According to the rules of Equestria... being new and a traveler in time, all be it, hitchhiking a ride on anther's back, the rider decided to take a pause and assess the situation.
He was allowed one pause.
"Okay." he said looking over the frozen mental refection of Marigold before him. "Time to improvise...."

The Cossack rubbed the beard on his face, the chains on his uniform clinking ever so slightly.
"Sooo..."he said, "You're not into power." his brow furrowed. "What is your yen?" said the Mongolian rider of the plains. He leaned over discords head and looked into the reclining face of Marigold, with discord's finger on her head, as she lay on her side her eyes eschew. "huh...."said the rider, looking into her face a blotted scarecrow with hooked nails wear a backward baseball cap. "The changes are already happening, everything He touches changes, more like him, more like themselves..."The rider grinned. "The image, right, in, the, mud." He glowered over her."Welp, let’s see if we can find something out from what in left...the ugly left, uglier than me!"
"Ahhh.." came an awful toothy grin. "But what is a lady finery sitting, starring in the mirror, at her vanity?" she said as she leaned in remembering the glances Marigold gave that mirror in her court. "You and I are not so unalike after all." said the cruel face of a haughty Amazon princess in manacles as if escaping from Prometheus rock.
The rider returned to his place in the reflexive mental construct and hit the pause.

"Ah! You have defeated me." said the unicorn looking at her with a piggy eye, bowing down the chain of authority round his neck. "I am ejected..."he disappeared in a cloud of sulfurous fume. 

Proud Marigold!
She had defeated the enemy all by herself (not knowing how)! 
Inside Marigold the mares of the office were celebrating, they had won.
All celebrating except for the purple supervisor sitting on her haunches, chewing her lips, her eyes wide in horror, a barely visible smoky shadow circled round and round her keeping her within an imaginary circle. Keeping her from making her mind known to the rest of the office.

"If I have won, then where am I?" Marigold pondered." Its dark so I must be in...some kind of large cave...yes!" She shook her head vigorously.

"Oh for heaven’s sake!" said the moon high above. Luna peering out."She is as thick as he is! How in heavens are they ever going to meet!"
"Patience Luna."said a male voice."He's interfering with time. With my will set down. Being sneaky. You think he'll get far? Patience. Everything will always work out."
"Finnne...."Luna said, spinning the moon like a coin till the profile of Nightmare moon returned.

Marigold strode out, what she thought, confidently, but she stumbled around in the dream, drunk as a fly in a pitcher plant, not knowing how close she was to the digestive tract.

She found it.
She tripped. 
In her mind a rip! 
Great jagged chasm was before her. A deep darkness lay deep inside! She notice something Beside it, a box, something inside her warning her not to open it.
What was she to worry? She had defeated the enemy soundly and completely, in her haughty mind! This was her reward, she told herself. 
She opened the box. In an instant a stallion of her dreams appeared everything she imagined. He was gorgeous! 
He embraced her.

"At last Marigold, you have found me!" He was as beautiful as the illustration of the stallion depicted on the edict nailed to the tree. At last her dreams come true. "Yes!" cried Marigold ecstatic.
"Our children shall be great and many!"
"Oh yes!" She did care, her needs, her wants!
"They shall bring down kingdoms and trample down worlds!"
"Ye...what?" the words caught in her throat.
His words were sickeningly sweet." They shall go from world to world, multiplying becoming a mass higher than the heavens, subduing them!"
"No..."Marigold thought in disbelief.
Teeth appeared on the shadow and the mare waited patiently for the thing to devour her, closing her eyes.
Now Marigold was afraid. There was something was wrong its eyes.  They shined red reminding her of the predator of the valley in her dreams. Its embrace, like chains, cold and unfeeling and he looked exactly like the poster in the park. 

All eyes in the office turned to the purple mare circled by the toothy shadow, fear filed the staff.
Marigold swallowed for words to test it. "So..."She licked her lips. "If I chose you, forgot friendship, and said to that world, the world I saw were the monsters ran around like mare aflame...die...it would come to pass?"
He smiled. "Oh Marigold..."he cooed. "I like the way you think, just like me. "He came close to her. "I knew you were part of me!" the embrace was colder. "I would guide your hooves to make it happen, that entire world...desolate and empty..."he hissed.

"All the children, the animals, everything, dead?" Marigold said her lip quivering. The things expression froze all that feeling merely a reflection of her!
"Then I don't want you!" Horrified Marigold shoved too pulled herself away.

Suddenly, it grabbed her. "You will take me!!! Our children shall careen across the multiverse slaying thousand, million drawing to a close the reign of mortals !!!!!"
"No!!!!"Marigold screamed hitting him in the face. That drawing of a face, out of an artists scetchbook, split itself in two, a parade of a unicorn revealed, snapping at her, a maw full of tentacles the kind eyes gone!

Chaos was in the office, they grabbed what files they could and pulled away the super, they scattered to the winds to evade the pursuing predatory shadow!

She broke free, she shouldn't have been able to do that, herself from the grip of the snake eyed, split faced, unicorn thing threatening to devour her and ran, ran into the wilds.
"You can't escape me!" it cackled. "This isn't real and when I find you, none of this will be real!  With the power of chaos, the universes will be mine!!!!!"

The office staffs had made a barricade and were huddled together.  “It” would not be kept out.
As they all cried their apologies there was a crunch sound then quiet, they cleared the barricade to reveal a shy wild pony so very transparent, who immediately spat out the severed head of the snake and looked very embarrassed and shy. Another pony trotted up, as see-through as the other. ”That was so awesome!” she said.
“Welcome promises of the future!” said the purple pony."...and garantee of faithfulness!" she mused the rainbowed ones hair up. 

"Stupid romantic notions!" Marigold snorted afraid and crying. "They nearly got you killed, or worse!" She galloped hard along the path till she came to a split. She stopped to read.
The office was back together again, having locked the predator out, all eyes on the supervisor.
“Think.” she said most serious assuring them. ”Just do your job and think.”

One  sign said, "The valley."
The other, "The maze."
Marigold set her hoof to the path of the valley and stopped.
"Valley of the Shadow..." she remembered.
Well she knew the valley, not in a good way. "It" knew the valley better. Suffer to say that was the predator’s territory. Going that way would be like jumping from the airship earlier. She could hear it behind her!
"Make up your mind!" she huffed.
"She who hesitates is lost."she remembered from Celestia.
"Maze it is." she though as she bolted down the path.

A thing, the shape of a man knelt down and examined her hoof tracks. Something scampering and crawly, like a millipede, scurried over its body, clicking , the of back his arms, his back, across his war painted  face, over its bloated belly, painted with bulls eye on it. He stood up, bone through its nose, dead bird round its neck, feathered headdress. It ran across its open palm clinking. He caught it tightly. It curled round and round as the savage clenched the chain, turning his hand red. He brought that hand to the open palm of the other in front of his face, holding it there as the other grasped around, looking over both with a vicious scowl. He put his feathered riding crop to his cheek under his turbaned head, as the ruby in it glinted, the gold chain around his neck clicked. "Someone is helping her." he said mimicking a bad stereotype of the local accent of the costume.

He pulled tight on the chains around Discord and whispered in the choking draconequus ear, "I wonder who? Jigsaw!" it was rhetorical as Discord gagged.

The rider began to whistle as he placed the flap of the ridding crop bind his ear, on his oiled head, walking along in his ruffled shirt and waistcoat watch chain across. She periodically swatted at the green of the shrubbery of the maze, walking along swaying in her knee high riding boots chains on their tops, red jacket and fox hunting gear. Swelling up as a blot fly on his legs to pudgy to carry her in the too tight fox gear, she was wearing.
"Come out come out wherever you are!" It said saccharinely
.......

Marigold came to a break in the maze wall, before her was an image of a purple unicorn.
"....with friends like you who needs enemies..."she cried bent her head down, and began turning grey. 

"Celstia!" cried a pony before Marigold could contemplate the scene. "Its father! Mother and Father had an argument," she was a lovely golden color, washing out the grey that was popping up everywhere in the maze, her eyes afraid." He said....she said.... his jaw just went slack....he just stat!  He doesn't speak....he doesn't move!" there were tears in her eyes. "His face is a nasty color! Oh aunt Celestia! Help! Come quick!"
Marigold was flummoxed. "How could anypony, let alone an earth pony, have Celestia as an aunt?"

Marigold recognized the next as earth pony drawl.
"It can't be over. Nopony, nopony whatsoever. Nothing, nothing best be moving".
Discord: When all the truth does is make your heart ache, sometimes a lie is easier to take!
Marigold saw a golden mare flying through the air being pulled by a necklace she wore with a jeweled apple in it.

"I know this one!" came the craggy voice of the rider. "You look just like you ancestor! Apples taught this one to lie!"
"Help me!" sobbed Discord's voice.
"Well played..."came discord's voice again. ”Well played." It sounded so pathetic.

A normally cheerful voice spoke exasperated, making Marigold’s pink hairs stand on end, as if she knew that voice.
Stop it! Stop laughing at me! You are huh...Need a good laugh? What are you laughing at!"

Smoke and flame filled that part of the maze. Marigold couldn't get a look as she walked passed.
"Dragon! If I get you to laugh will you leave?
"I have never laughed!"
"Take a good look at me!"
The dragon laughed. "Oh! My!"  more laughter. "You are a long way from home! I've never seen anything as ridiculous as you!"
Something shot by the opening startling Marigold, then; there was Celestia in full battle armor.
"I find your battle training sorely lacking...."she said sourly. "I will have a talk with your trainers, just as I have had a talk with your tutors who were supposed to teach you about the law.” A groan came from a pile of rock that was once a pillar. "All is not lost, the winter is long and so we have time. I will not send my judge out again to look a foal!" Celestia took a stance. "Now, I see you! Come at me again. "Marigold only saw a minimalist grey blur full of furry, she blocked in an instant sending him flying. "Terrible. I'm going easy on you because today I need you to know the laws of evidence." her student groaned again. "By tonight, while we work on your mountain moving, earth ability," Marigold could hear a guttural grumbling and cursing, "YOU will recite," she brought her head eye level to the pony to beaten armor clearly intimidating him, "the fundamental laws of evidence!"
The vision disappeared.

Again another voice.
"I like very much. No. No. Must Get to the center, reach the others. Mine! Mine!Don't get any ideas about my gem!"

"Mine!" came a different breathless voice. "At last! At last!" she gasped. "He's minnnne!!!!"To Marigold it sounded like herself.
Marigold quickened her pace past; she did not want to know what was happening there.

A tower appeared before her. A voice came from inside, "You! You! Sit! Right there and you my lady sit! Here!"
"Know your place!" said a voice shocked. "Do you not know who you speak?"
"I speak as if to speak to two young fillies, caught taking sweets!" Now she was accusing. "You first, and then her, and then you again afterward! You should know better! Taking what you shouldn't take, going where you shouldn't go!"
"Do not abrade your servant." said a voice that sounded like Celestia's. "What should we do Pegisus?"
"I mocked him, The Rider, I did, when he came for my mistress and I laughed and I laughed at him and ask for help from the creator of life itself." She said stoically. "We will ask for help again, and ask to be protected from the shadows!"
The lonely tower disappeared.
There was the cry of a baby.
"Please take care of her." it was young filly's voice.
"What is her name?" asked what sounded like Marigold.
"Her name....name is....Constance....." then there was a ticking sound, like a small clock, then quiet, only Marigold and the maze.
She swallowed, she couldn't think what that meant, it could all be a trap of distractions for all she knew, she had to keep watch she had to be ready for that predator, the rider.

A tall stoic figure stood before her.  At first, Marigold thought he a statue, till he blinked, a fare haired unicorn with bleary blue eyes, he had a stance that would put an ,of the royal guard to shame despite the massive inhibitor ring, almost a manacle, latched on his horn,. As Marigold approached, she began to notice differences. His cutie mark: one that signified the pride of unicorn, history and heritage a deep gash, a scar ran through it.
Grey ran through his blond mane, he held himself as a young stallion but he looked a little grizzled, old enough he ot to have been retired. And his armor! Old and dented, it wasn't even Equestria's style. Marigold looked over it, she spotted an eagle, wings unnaturally straight, then  something battered and battered again, where there were holes only shining because some pony polished his armor daily, two lines intersecting, like a crossing the edges totally annihilated. Despite the air of gloom he wore, he held his tattered spear straight. He guarded a large slab,strange glifs, but Marigod could read the name. The name on the stone read,"Issac" and it was written." Celestia. There's been enough, no more. For my sake, this once, have mercy."
Marigold turned to leave. "Please...."came a small voice from the stone. "There is so much to atone, but he won't be doing much if just standing there, alone. "Marigold looked to the guard, she felt for him. "Even if it cannot, in a lifetime, be undone, please send someone."
"Someone?" Marigold said.
"Hello." said a young filly startling Marigold.
The guard looked down at the filly cross eyed.
"I come here, with my family." said the filly. "Father has us sing to the statues, especially Nappy and The Old Carob and of course discord, though Celestia always makes a face at that like this." the filly made a scrunge.
The guard looked away.
"Maybe, you've heard us sing?"
No response from the guard.
"Well, I know about you." she said expecting an answer. "Mom and Dad say, 'leave that one alone.'"she puffed out her chest."Celestia says you irredeemable!" she snorted. "I don't believe it! My dad says, 'None alive are irredeemable.'" She said proudly. "I realize, you may not understand me. So, I am going to sing to you..." she stood up and took a deep breath. "In your own language...I searched and search...I found it!"
She began.

*Ein' feste burg ist unser Gott,.......into the forth stanza.
Das wort sie sollen lassen stan,
Und kein dank dazu haben,
Er ist bei uns wohl auf dem plan
Mit seinem geist und gaben.
Nehmen sie den leib,
Gut, ehr', kind und weib,
Laß fahren dahin,
Sie haben's kein gewinn,
Das reich muß uns doch bleiben.

Her father called and the little filly left.......and the stallion was greatly troubled, he trembled and a tear left an eye.

Marigold saw him much older, an older filly capable of making wise and discerning decisions, knowing her own mind, came and set a blanket a short distance, she had a picnic basket.
"Come and have something to eat!" she teased something light and fare at him it was practiced as if she had done it many times before.
The guard looked away.
She sighed. "For the past few weeks I've been doing this every midweek, but this time, I know that you've had nothing to eat today..."
The guard’s stomach growled still no response.
"In my job, following my mothers practices, when I find the time, for your sake, I've gone to the best unicorn cooks and bakers in all the capital and Equestria. finding ponies who make the the lightest and most traditional digestable fare, as to not shock your system into indigestion, for the grass you have always eaten, and the fo
untain you always must drink from." she said trying to tempt him again.She dipped the tip of her hoof into a small cup and brought it to her mouth. ”The specilty made by a cheif in that new city, Manehattancoat."She smacked her lips."So creamy! You simply must try!” 
Still no response, the mare closed her eyes looking totally serene as she turned her head to the sky."Oh..mom.."she sad saddly,quietly.

"How dare he make this one cry!"marigold blinked, an idea occured to her. "Do I dare?"Marigold though mischievously her tongue through her teeth. She jostled the stallion at the moment the guard was startled by leaves, the helmet came off his head, it rolled up to the other mare who seized it up.
"Mine!" she said with a smile. "And I won't give it back," she grinned wickedly, looking at him through half lidded eyes and lashes" and who knows what Celestia will do to you if you've misplaced your armor!" Marigold snickered, she knew that smile.
Now the stallion was looking at her, panicked eyed under his golden and greyed mane, rubbing a shoulder as if remembering an old wound, she filled it up with some food. "Come over here." she placed it on the other side. "Eat with me...."
He stared at her chewing his lower lip. At last he relented, humbly and meekly walked over, and slowly descended beside her.
"Don't worry, father has Celestia's ear for some charity ideas along with her favorites...with Sunshine, her most favorite! She'll be busy till the sun goes down. No pony will bother us, its spring." her smiled dinned. "Then, you can head back to the barracks, back to that haystack of yours, in that barren clapboard  shed in the back, staring at those bare and empty walls, waiting for your next assignment for the earth pony guards. Or till they are ordered to humiliate you again scrubbing you down publicly."
He had no reaction and had quietly started eating. "You're not going to talk about unicorn superiority are you?" she asked.
He let his mouth empty before he spoke. "No,no." he said a heavily accented voice. "Unicorns are exactly like everyother pony." he took another bite. "Except with horns, "he took another bite, "and can move things." and another bite. "and can perform fantastic Thurmatic displays of...."she put her hoof to his mouth.
"I know you haven't talked for a long time," she smiled sweetly. "How about you concentrate on eating instead," she moved her foot away. "Think about what we can talk about."
They sat enjoying each other’s company.
He spoke again." Earth ponies have their glories. There are many wonderful aspects," He reached out and cautiously touched the most extreme tip of her tail. Her face expressionless she moved his hoof to her rear hoof. He pulled away looking forward turning red; he had not touched another pony like that in a long, long time.

The vision swirled away.
"That was weird." Marigold said.

Discord: Listen closely. A weighty choice is yours to make. The right selection or a big mistake. If a wrong choice you choose to pursue the foundations of home will crumble without you!
Now a panicked voice could be heard."
"Crumble without me? No!!!
Marigold saw the pegisi looking at a box with a ribbon on it. 

Leaves began to fall. Marigold picked one up admiring it. Wait a leaf doesn't look like that. It wasn't a leaf...her mind snagged the answer.
"Wings!" Marigold dropped the thing in horror. She looked up. They were coming from a solitary red and brown cloud in the sky, the color of a scab.
"DON"T LEAVE US!" cried voices from the cloud.
"You only have to blame yourselves!" said a pegasus pushing a balloon in a team.
"What have I done??!"gaped a voice.It came from that balloon drawing away from the cloud."Get me down."said the voice.
"Getmedowngetmedowngetmedowngetme down!!!!!"
The balloon touchdown there was the sound of clattering hooves and cast off armor. 

That moment a comet crossed the sky. It flew to the ground and everything was obscured by the flash. Marigold shuddered as the explosion tearing at her core, the very foundations of her being!

The light dwindled into a lovely golden colored filly.
"Come on!" she said it was the same one as before with Celestia as she ran past Marigold.
"I don't know about this!" said a pegasi running past on the other side of Marigold wings held up excitedly. .
"Don't be silly!" said the radiant golden filly to her sister. "I promised mother I would help you learn to fly and that is just what I'll do."
There was a slightly annoying ticking heard. "Why are we here again?" asked a much older unicorn filly with a pocket watch tastefully set of necklace around her neck with a younger one coming stage right. She looked at the watch,”I have homework I need to get to!”
"Yeah!" said the unicorn filly as young as the other two. "And I wanna get ice cream!"
"I need you two here!" said the earth pony confidently stomping her hoof." Your essential to my master plan!" she raised her head high.
"Listen to you!" said the older unicorn filly. "Going all 'Aunt Celestia' on us?"she said in time with the ticking of the clock.
The filly glared at her unicorn sister."...and you’re starting to sound like a capital city snob!" she stuck out her tongue.”Are you going to tell me its ‘ a complete lack of eff-ecient-ce-cy!’” glowered the earth pony.
"I just wanna fly!!"Cried the Pegisi before the argument could germinate losing focus on their objective.
They came to a place, a high hill, the earth pony made the pegasi climb on the unicorn's back, only because she was tallest and told the younger unicorn to stand below the birm and help lift the pegasi when she jumped off. They did this a dozen times and failed, falling in a heap.
"Oh come on!" said the earth pony to the younger. "You have to start, then older sister can help!"
"I'm not that old!"
"I know what sister can do!" she said. "Show me that horn on your heard can do more than sound like a kazoo!"
Marigold heart filled with joy as she saw the four accomplish their goal and the pegasi lifted of the ground, flying.
She landed gracefully, to the laughter and embrace of her two sisters.
"Now." said the older sister the ticking symbolizing time was fleeting and short." All you have to do now is find your marks!"
"Way to spoil the mood Constance...."said the younger sister as the two others groaned.


Discord: Looks like you’ve been left behind again by your so called friends.
Then came a voice filled with faith. "Oh no I'm certain their doing their best to find me."
Discord: It must be so upsetting to know how weak and helpless they think you are.
"Not at all." she said not at all discouraged. "I know I am weak and helpless I appreciate their understanding."
Discord: Surely it burns you up inside when they are always pointing out your flaws, right? 
"Not really, in fact, I think I'm lucky to have friend who want me to be the best I can be." she spoke confidently.

In that moment the pegisi and the draconequus froze. Marigold felt a breeze behind her. She turned to see another pegisi.
"Hello Marigold...."Marigold could see her, she knew she was dainty and lovely, but she couldn't define her or her cutie mark.

"Stay away!" She cried. "Whatever you are!"
"Please...don't be afraid." said the older pegisi."I've been sent. He asked me to go and I  volunteered and went after one called out in faith!"
"Are you a ghost?" Marigold looked at her cross eyed.
"Oh no.Don't be silly...spirits of the past can't communicate with the living." She smiled rolling her eyes to the sky as if sharing a joke with someone. "Now of the future...let’s help move your story along hmmm?"

Marigold was about to lash out again when the pegisi spoke.
"I will tell you only what you know..."Marigold knew that answer and she calmed. The Pegisi came closer to Marigold. "What do you see?"

"I see a weak mare." Marigold said. "About to fold under the power of a monster."
"....and yet she stands!" said the pegisi "How is that?"
"I suppose because her strength comes from somewhere else..."
"From where?"

"I don't know...."

"The monster from before? Was he strong or was he weak?
Marigold felt ashamed and sighed," He was strong..."
"...and yet he failed. Why?"
"He didn't fail...I only found out because..."the horror gripped her as her heart began to pound. Marigold started to hyperventilate."...because, because...I am weak!" She fell to her haunches. "I am so week and a coward!" All her memories came back from her travels, she hadn't done anything unless she had been bullied or temped or let the worst of herself out.

Her head bowed she began to sob. "I am soooo weak! What am I going to do?" She cried some more.

The pegisi reached down and touched her cheek. "And yet, the other still stands against the monster and his temptations, how?"
"Because in her weakness she is strong?" the idea seemed ludicrous!" That in its strength, it is weakness?" she looked up to the pegisi.

"What does that mean?" the pegisi was earnest in her anxiousness, wanting to help but for the rules.
Only what Marigold knew
"What is strong that would be flawed?

Marigold remembered a field trip her class had taken to a foundry. There the blacksmith explain after a long lecture on metal fabrication..."
...good metal cannot just be strong, it must be alloyed, allowing it to have flexibility and rigidity." 

"Metal." Marigold said. "Alloyed metal is both weak and strong."

".....so you are strong?"

"No..."she said. "I am week."

“And yet you stood up to the power of an alicorn earlier? How did you do that?”

Marigold was flumuxed turning pale. ”I rememberd how the giant would feel about such things, I want to do my best for him, I want to keep my promise!” She stuttered.” I remembered his words and held them.” She looked away. “But I was flawed, the thing that made me turn away was seeing how ugly I looked in that mirror, vanity!” She pawed the ground still looking down. ”And my vanity, that thing got me to embrace it.” Marigold shuddered. ”I only broke away because I remembered my giant was a friend of life.”

“And because of that embrace there will be consequences.” said the pegisi.

Marigold looked away and made a choked sob.

…but when you find him, he will help.” said the pegisi again. ”So we know from where the help comes,from one greater than the monsters.We know him because He is on the side of life, from good help and good words, all are know by there deeds and their fruits. If you stood against the monster, with such bad motives as vanity and got away from him know how good life is, that you are loved because you are alive, that you exist because all thing that exist, good and life made, how can you not stand now?” She reached down to Marigold.

The pegisi smiled "Let the weak say I am strong!" she put her hoof under Marigold's. "Having done all you can to stand, stand anyway!"
"Let the weak say,' I am strong!'"

"I....am...strong!!!"Marigold said as she began to push herself up in the real world.
She began pushing herself up with all her might as an earth pony mare. Against the mud her face was in, her face rose.
"I...am...strong!!!" She grunted. She still couldn't see, and her mind was a muddle, with nutnilla in her mouth. 
"I...will...stand!" She began to rise despite Discord's talon on the top of her head, panting, her chest heaving.

Discord was surprised.
"Huh...stronger than I remember; not as strong after ,hmmm, must have watered down during the years  coming through the family lines. You're becoming more trouble than Flutter Bye, little mother!"

"You did it Marigold!" said the pegisi embracing her. She held her legs distance away and looked into her eyes. "This monster is cheating, trying to use the rules of the world he used before! Using the only one who may override the will of others, don't you give in!" She grabbed Marigold. "Remember: self control, discernment and faith are on your side. Above all have faith, for in weakness, He will give strength in hope and love. Remember: here, the enemy cheats, but he can’t make you do anything you don't let him do! For his strength lies only in brutality! Remember! He can't, read, minds!"

Then the pegisi sang this song.*
For still our ancient foe
does seek to work us woe;
his craft and power are great,
and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal.
.....one little word can fell him.she sang.

"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!!!!!"
Then the monster screamed, tired of searching for Marigold among the hedges.
He stomped the ground in Marigolds mind and everything disappeared like roiling silk even her savior, the pegisus.

She saw the thing on the monsters back wearing a large floppy hat, screaming catcalls, it lassoed her round and round with chain. 

The thing stared dead eyed at her.
"Well this has been a 'fascinating' bit of storytelling, a bit of brothers Grim, Andson: of grand battles and heroes and villains and monsters and dragons and, tell the truth, I did get a kick in the head when I saw you get yours!" He said with a cruel smile."I will crush his heart!" a cruel smile on his face like someone who has had too much of his favorite cooking."Sqish!"as he closed his hand in illustration.
"But, so very toilsome when our favorite 'moon pie princess' showed up. 'Oh, let myself be changed, be mortal.' Like her? Helpless?"

"My favorite doubting angel: a horse!” he mocked.
Oh, how He protects them, shrouding their mind with tinnitus and forgetfulness when they submit to his 'grace'. Here! Of all places! This Ghost and the Darkness!
' Stop!'
says the commander and they stop.
'Go!' 
says the commander and they go. 
Not willing to let these doubters with alligator tears throw themselves headlong into the fray for their doubts, even though they long to do so in the despair of their doubts, the remnants, gnawing at them, but having guards behind to back them up as they advanced, for Him! Not even put on the front line to be offed for their doubt, where they would have gladly gone, but soldiers before and after trusted these doubters as their backup, to watch their backs!” He hissed.
“ She even had her little orbiting star in the fray, in love, fighting with her, clueless of her mentors sin! Laughable, seeing such a tiny sparrow trying to protect both sisters as her mentor finally begged one of the faithful to protect her!Fighting together, the four. 
He even came down to encourage these doubters, as if they like every other soldier, before turning them over to the commander, ’Be not afraid!’ He said.
How they were in fear! But they used it these two sisters.  Every swing counting against what they allied too, they, chained together: Traitors!"  He then took the form of something like nightmare moon if she were male and human.
"By all rights they should be here with us," he became darker still. "here in the void."
"What did He do?”the shadow said indignently. “He commended them, gave them their commissions and sent them on His missions!"

He then brightened back up to the merry commissioner of Hazard. "But no matter,”he smiled insipidly and insanely,” think how much smoother things will run when....I"his voice took on a dark tone."...am in charge. 
How much smoother the thundering herds will run, the racist we can appoint as leaders, then harness the power of the windigos, get some zero point energy going...then let Nappy and The Old Carob put out their philosophy and machinations and hatred....." he yawned. "I'll just save time and make you read the juicier excerpt from Lovecraft, make that holly writ!" he straightened his powdered wig. "Nice thing about being a lackey of the 'devourer' I get the right vehicle, and all his rank and power are mine! 
You'll like it, Marigold," he said bruising, "You watching it happen, trapped inside!"

"Please, stop!" cried Discord. "You're soo boring! Can't we do this later??!!!"
The monster tightened the chain, caging up the draconequus for the time being.
"I...am..later!!" hissed the rider.
“All I wanted was to keep them apart,” the draconequus stuttered then they would never come together. My job would be sooo much easier!” Discord began to pant. ”We can still do that?”
“And have him die? Centuries long gone turned long ago to dust?” If it were possible the rider pulled the chain harder, ”You would like that! Denying me my influences to future generations? O don't worry my friend when you get to the future I'll keep you on a very short leash.” It rattled the chain.
“It won't work!” Discord protested.
"I’ll make it work. I’m bigger than you.” 
Discord made scoffing noises. ”And yet you’re on my back!”
The rider threatened Discord’s face with dancing catlike claws.”If I make you drink a glass of chocolate milk, leaving the chocolate and drinking the glass, you'll be so grateful!" 
He threw something besides Marigold. It landed with a splat.
“How much more fun, to bend her, distort her, distorting all generations after. Then, when you arrive again, I'll just saddle the two of them!” he spoke with a face splitting grin. ”What a world this will be!”
He looked back to Marigold.
"This es going on yo back!" the thing beside her rose up on a stand that sprouted up. It was a saddle. The nastiest saddle Marigold had ever seen! She then imagined that thing crawling all over her fasting straps, tightening chains and then that bridle, like a muzzle. 

Marigold thrashed and jumped and coiled!

She struggle against the chains wrapped around her. Thrashing as the thing changed its form every time she’d look away.
"Kick Marigold, Kick with all you're worth!" it laughed. "You can't keep it up forever!" it tugged the chain." Once you’re tired, I'll bring you in like a lowing ox!"

Her eyes fell on the awful saddle on its stand as she rolled and thrashed like a pony at a rodeo. 
"Yess!" she thought. That is exactly what she would do! She stopped thrashing and lowered her head.

"Already?" he said with a crooked grin. "I thought you were stronger?" He mocked.
"No." Marigold said. "I am sooo very weak..."
"Quite right." said the monster rubbing his finger under his nose looking at the mucus between his fingers. "You can't fight a god..."he said.  He whipped the chain. "HiYA! Come closer, my little pony."
She walked towards him.
"Closer."
She had to get closer.
"Stop!" he said.
She got as close as she dared.
"Turn around..."he said a sick grin on his face.
*"Apples and Pears!!!" screamed Marigold, she had ment to say Apples Forevers. 
She spun around quick with a kick at the end lashing out at the stand. It spun round and teetered for a moment on the edge of the precipice. The rider looked at it perched there, unsure what to do, flummoxed at the unbelievability , the unimaginable possibility, that this mortal, this simple silly thing, could escape so easily. 

The stand fell backward. Down it fell into the chasm, the crack in her mind.

There was the sound of chain clinking as it unwound going faster and faster. The rider mounted on the strange monster looked dumbly, disbelieving, as the chain fell faster and faster through the darkened crack.
"Are we going for a ride?" asked the draconequus stupidly. Marigold grinned at her tormentor. "You're not a god!" she said. "You're nothing!" she laughed. "Nothing but a slave!" she said as the thing looked back at her in fear.

"I'll make you pay for that!" he growled. "I'll use him to do it!"*

*Dragged away suddenly the monster, the beast on his back and Marigold.
...she hadn't planned for that! 
Down into the abyss they fell, Marigold grabbed on the edge of the crack. Hanging there the chain unwound from her like stringy mucus the rest of the metaphorical pitcher plant following, being turned inside out. She scrambled, pulling herself up, hooking her rear legs, launching herself out. She looked down, swallowing as the two monsters dissipated into the darkness. 
High above, the moon watching, the crack Marigold looked through.

"Behold! The foolish things that make sport the wise!"  the mare in the moon looking down, grinning looking down on Marigold.

Then she turned to the monster falling.
"Lost, lost, you have already lost long, long ago," her beautiful voice merrily coming from the moon. "cauterized, the last of the power of the Devourer!" The rider screamed, in abject frustration!
Outside, Discord he draconequus rolled his eyes back into his skull. His face followed, then his body, till at last in a pinprick he disappeared with a pop of chocolate milk smoke back to the future!
The chasm was gone but Marigold was not alone
"You’re a mess." said the pegisi beside her. "Come on let’s find some water."
"Who are you?" asked Marigold.
"Remember those mares in the maze?" she smiled. "I'm a direct ancestor of one of them!" a gentle soft voice with a light laugh in it.
"Oh! Oh!" said Marigold excitedly ponging a little, pink strands wiping around as she jumped. "I know which one! It’s the rainbow maned one isn't it?"

The Pegisi looks over at her a lock of silky hair draped over one eye. An unreadable expression on her face as she turns back to the path they tread together. Was it disbelief?" this way Marigold." she said.

Through the reeds they came to a river.
"Walked through the reeds, drawn from the reeds, of warrior race named for Pans flute of reeds..."she sang.
"Oh." said the pegisi."Remember the reeds. Very important! Lift you up, when you feel the bitter..."

Turning to the Pegsi Marigold was going to ask her permission to wash when she saw something on the other mare's back. 

A dress shop, a studio, as a bipedal squirrel hemmed a dress. It was a very pretty shop, Marigold considered incorporating aspects into her own flower shop, another squirrel burst through the doors with an envelope, she red, a red squirrel with a braided main almost as long as her tail.

“OOO…”said the white pony inside Marigold.” What a darling little dress shop! I must take notes for later!” She took out a notepad and started making notes as the purple pony rolled her eyes. ”What is she using in her mane? I can guess!” said white.

Red is different from the other, a head not as round, blue eyes, her face, almost comical and comely, ears tied with a head kerchief, a body that looks made for dancing, neat cloths, not as fancy as the others a working girl. She gives the envelope to the styled purple tailed and manned white furred seamstress; she looks at the contents of the already torn open envelope and gasps. 

These squirrels had manes like ponies!

Red exclaims something as she tosses her laughing, the head kerchief is loosed off her head revealing two fair and lovely shaped ears, alien and strange for the squirrel like creature she is, yet somehow fitting, and she tosses it into the air. 

All decorum is lost as they hop around together hand and hand chirping a circular dance. The seamstress hair bouncing, measuring tape flapping, both excited.
"My Tam my friend from another world, 
the face of a chipmunk the body of a squirrel
Agreed, decreed free to wed, her and him, as squirrel, 
Safe, to marry as been said!!"Marigold heard.
A dress for her,
A suit for him,
spreading  copper leaves under,
An honor guard!
Under the blessing,
this world,
the mice of the trees!
in dark crimson, grey cobalt, silver and gold!" 

"Uh..."Marigold said, "there are squirrels on you back...."

The pegisi looks back and then looks at Marigold.
"You do get distracted don't you? Or is somebody got bored...?Hmmm. No." She turns Marigold's head forward gently. "That's just a reflection somewhere of something else: something else for another time, another story." She says quietly." What you should pay attention to is what is on the other side of the river."

"Ohhh! But its so boring over there!" said the pink mare inside.

On the other side of a river there was a stallion, hunched over and crying, she hears him speak.
"I am Nothing!!!!"he roars, choked sobs follow. "I am trash upon the banks of the Styx! Flotsam and debrie was up upon the shoes of Tarterus."

A figure come out of the dark wood behind, going through some old books in his grip, tattered and cheap looking as printed on pulp he flips through bookmarks. His lips move as he quickly reads to himself, the notes transcribed then he tucks them in his cloak confidently striding forward. 

It is Starswirl the bearded!

"A powerful stallion, crying its eyes out, under the moon, in a deserted valley is a sight and a sound hardly to be imagined!" quoted the mage.*

"Hardly deserted!" snarled the stallion. "You're here; the river also!"

"Luna was very impressed with that speech...none has ever recited so well what liberty is!" said the unicorn as he diplomatically led him back from the steep river shore.

"It’s just good manners, better.” grumbled the pony. ”Liberty is foremost; it keeps us from treading on the other as we seek life and property." As we freely keep ourselves from taking advantages of another...it pre-most the rights of m....the rights of m....."he gritted his teeth and forced it out with all his might. "THE RIGHTS OF MNNR!!" he roared again. "BUT I AM NOT A MNNR!!!I AM A THING, A BEAST CRAWLING ALONG THE GROUND ON FOURS!!!"

Starswirl grabbed his head and stared into his eyes.
"You are not a thing!" he said with authority making the pony listen. "You! You are a decedent of Adam and Eve: The pride of your world's lowest beggar and the shame of its greatest king!"* he exclaimed loudly." You are loved! You are alive!" 
Now Starswirl spoke quietly," And you are not alone!"Starswil took a deep breath. "Any that can think and talk and know what they are...are also called Eve's descendants."

"What shall I do?" asked the stallion relenting. 

Starswirl let the pony go.
"Take pride in what I have told you, hold your head high." said Starswirl."Plant gardens, eat of their fruit. Build houses, live in them." a mare came out of the woods and slowly approached the two. "Take up an occupation, excel in what you know in well and good." the mare came to him, she knew the stallion well. Starswirl took up her hoof and put it in his. "Marry: make pride in what you are, tell your children lest they forget and wonder why the world is weird for them, why they kick against the goads."Starswirl smiled. "Remember: The Lord shall never forget what he has made and everything that is, He has made! He will return."

Starswirl departed into the woods.

"What shall we do first?" ask the mare of her husband.

"We shall build a great house, and in the great house, there shall be a great bell, and that great bell shall be in the center of a great city!" He stood up proud and tall. "And when that bell is rung...ever pony shall be reminded to preserve Liberty!"

Fog drifted between the scene and Marigold, she knew the story well.
"That was from my home town," said Marigold. "but the bell is cracked. We dare not ring it more."

She looked at the pegisi,"Does he really look like that monster I saw in the tree?" Marigold asked.

The pegisi spoke, "Oh Marigold.." the elder Mare said through limpid eyes. "If there weren't something there, "Marigolds world was becoming stilted, so gradually she hadn't noticed," there wouldn't be an attraction!"

Fog drifted in.There is a sparkle in the dark, "Is that the moon?" It is not. It is a coin, a silver coin, spinning in the darkness. A bit of the finest workponship. Marigold cane see a face, no, two faces, reflecting in the coin. Then the coin falls.

"Don't you dare."says an irrate voice."Don't you dare slip off into the darkness you coward!" Now a choked sob."Please. You interceeded for me, you showed me there was an intercesor! When you stood beteen me and the fire.When you recovered my book."Now a cry."A pagan had to show me."he laughed. "Don't go off into the darkness, don't close your eyes, my unicorn, without, without considering, a better way, by, by, believing in this adopted before you..."

Marigold was amoung the hills near a lake.Again, the little unicorn foal was in her grip. "Where did you come from?" she said frustrated. She raised her face and looked ahead. There, on a brier of flowers was a very young unicorn filly.
"Ohhh..."tears came to Marigolds eyes as she saw how young the mare was.
"I give to you,"Celestia's voice boomed." to meet out justice and to judge your brothers and any who would run with the thundering herds under my authority as my select prefect, judge of Equestria!"

There was the sound of a ticking watch. A stallion ran past. The young filly mare rose and stood beside Marigold. The stallion ran, he ran among the rocky hills, at every turn there was another filly holding a child. Marigold followed the stallion as he ran panicked, avoiding them their eyes staring at him accusingly. He tripped dropping a pocket watch and fell down a hill, a huge bound became embedded in his back, (no!) was part of his back, yet still he ran. He fell again, this time he was plunged into the middle of a huge lake.
He struggled; the lake was viscous, as Marigold watched from the shore. The unicorn stallion, with broken horn and dented armor from earlier stood beside them. They were joined, by the same foamed and dirty mare wearing the torn dress. Marigold realized, as they stood together silently...they were a family.

They looked to the stallion struggling to stay above the waters in the lake. Then they looked to the horizon with compassion. Out of the horizon a figure approached, he stood on two legs, at first Marigold thought it was her giant, no, it was the biped. The biped, the giant, they were the same!

He reached out to the stallion, a kind face a gentle hand. The stallion slapped it away. This happen over and over again. At last he turned his back on the giant.
In a few more moments of struggling and cursing the stallion was pulled beneath the waters as ripples reaching the shore and reflecting back, then the surface of the lake was placid calm, as if the stallion never was. The giant stood up and looked to the unicorn who walked out to meet him. As soon as he got close the mare trotted past, and leaned up against the giant in absolute contentment and adoration. One touch from his hand and she became clean. The unicorn stood there confused. The giant reached out and put his hand over his broken horn resting on his head. The stallion's eyes went wide for a moment, then he wept, none had done that since his mother when he was a foal, and his horn was quite small and remained that way.

They turned to leave.
Marigold turned to the filly. "He is  very good and kind..."
"I know." she said. She reached down and picked up the pocket watch and placed it with the foal with a smile, an heirloom of belter generations. The filly looked at Marigold. "I know his servants." she walked out with her parents.
He turned and looked at her, she looked up at him and smiled, He looked down and smiled back and brought her together with her mother and father. 
Many rose from the waters and followed; many came to the shore and walked across. Some rose from the water, no stones on their backs. Together in a merry crowd, they left for the sunsetted horizon, rejoicing. Marigold couldn't tell but in that glimmering light, they looked like the same kind of creature.

"Not yet." said the pegisi to Marigold.
"You have a lot to do." 
There was the sound of nails being draw across a ballon  or as if it were turned inside out and then a pop sound.Marigold eyes gently opened. She slowly lifted her head, she heard the murmurs of ponies talking and saw the flickering of campfires waking up, pasterns up in nasty mud, of her own making...the pentafores had finally made their appearance! And the smell of chocolate milk?
She had made a mess
She brought her hoof to her head and winced. There was a bruise. She must have tripped and fallen.
Then gotten up and fallen asleep on her hooves?

"Miss? Miss?" a unicorn trotted up. "Are you alright?"


"Ahh!" Marigold cried. "I do not want to marry you!"

"I wasn't asking." said the unicorn guard incredulously. "See?" he pointed to a ring on his horn. A figure moved about on the ring, becoming abstract when she was doing private things, like taking care of their child. "I'm married."
It was one of those expense deluxe wedding bands, sold at the high end shops: the highest end.
"And I'm a mess!" Marigold said with a bit of a chuckle. "I'm a mess and weak! Whelp, better clean up!" she then proceeded to turn over the earth in instinctive earth pony earth action, in a manner of a  dog or large gofer so the smells of the mud would also be covered up and the mud dried out, as the guard tried to question Marigold.
She was in the garden, with her father, turning up soil, cheering her on as she dug the earth for vegetables making a mess of her. "Won't mother be incredulous!" she liked using big words when she was a filly. Marigold laughed, it was such a vivid memory,
"Did you call Dyer Kiln?" asked Rose Water as she approached.
"Yes." he said. "She won't answer questions!" he said perturbed.
"You won't get any answers from that one, not right now, and you know where she needs to go!"
"Well, all done!" said Marigold finishing her tilling, wiping her brow.
"Miss!" said Rose Water looking at the mare aghast. "You can't go up there!"
"Out of my way," Marigold said dismissively. "I've been delayed enough!"
"Yes. Yes." Nodded the Mare manically, "That's just it maam!"Rose Water said "Its ttatt way!"
"Oh."
Rose caught Marigold by the tail.
"Let me go!"
"Bleak!" Rose water spit out the tail, leeching at the taste, looking like she would gag. "You can't go up there like this! You can't go up smelling like both ends!" In an instant she mesmerized Marigold in the eye.
"Can't go up smelling like both ends..."Marigold repeated. She obediently looked at her mane and tail took whiff, came to her senses and gagged.
"Come along dear; let's get you clean for the medical."
"There's going to be a medical examination?!!!"
Dyer Kiln found a curtain to give Marigold some privacy.
"Here Kiln!" clean those up would you.
"Gives those back!" shadows struggled, playing keep away. "My life saving is in that bag, permits, papers and licensing!"
"Shuuu....shush ush suh." said Rose Water somehow calming the agitated Marigold down. "He is just going to clean your saddlebag and neaten your paperwork." dropping the saddlebag out of the curtain to the stallion outside.
"Hey!" said Dyer Kiln.
A mares head popped between the curtains. “It’s your family’s business! “Scolded Rose Water. “Isn’t it?" She put a hoof on his mouth. “Not another word! This mare is held together by shivers, I'm going to have a time getting the smell out, ten minutes tops! And as they say, the team clamming on the bit will not be held back!" she disappeared. "Oh." her head popped out again. “Be a dear. Send this to Celestia STAT!" she pressed a letter to his barrel. 
He glanced at it."Hipposunculus? Really?"
"Well! Can you blame me,” she whispered. “Strangest goings! At the very least she shows signs of hypnosis...that is only the worst case scenario!" she glanced back “Miss! Miss! Don't do that! You’re going to drop the curtain!"
He sent it in a puff of magical flame. Really, mother in law." the stallion grumbled, "You should leave spell analysis to the casters!" He began cleaning the bag and the things.

"Brush found water made clean a mess,"sang Rose Water.
"Couldn't believe she did that, such a mess! You're here!"

"Thank you." Marigold said cleaned up, receiving her saddle bag, setting her hoof to the path.
"That way.“ said Rose and Dyer pointing the opposite.
"Of, of course." Marigold grumbled trotting past with a flick of main and tail. She followed the path up the hill.

"I can't believe I made that poster picture to be my fantasy pony, so very cartoony. What a terrible thing to have been chained to that thing for eternity! As if that was my heart’s desire! Why fantasize anymore? The reality is about to replace the dream!" thought Marigold as she topped the hill. Massaging the headache she was having.
“Yes…Yes!The reality is about to replace the fantasy!“ said the inner pink pony who was now floating high above the others, her eyes glowing tail and mane swirling around her.
”Is she supposed to be doing that?” asked a timid member of the staff as a white pony stared with her.
The purple pony rubbing her head with a wince, ”Just do your job.” She repeated. “Despite this temporal delay, everything will work out the way it should. It happens to everypony eventually, why we still remember what happened with Majesty, slight heroes, and never-weres and could-have-beens!”
“Yep!” said the pink pony.” Everyone just do their job!”
“You are not promoted!” called out purple.
“We’ll see, we’ll see.” sang the pink one. ”Chocolate milk and gummy snacks!”
“Sigh. Just get through the Doctor and the medical.” mumbled the purple pony trying to placate the intense throbbing in her head.
“Do wa deee.”sang the pink pony high above. ”Da doo day..” as she floated around in circles. “Dee do, da do da dee…”
“Not cool!” said a serious light blue pony.
“Not helping!” said a gold pony rubbing her eyebrows.
“Its from Carousel!”said the pink pony.
“No it’s not!” Said the white pony.
The pink pony made a sound like somepony scraping at piano wires.
“Pleeeease, everyone… “wined purple” just get through the door!” 


Rose Water was content. She had kept the camp safe and family friendly and had just led a lost mare, clean and prepared for her stallion, to where she needed to go! Her good mood was interrupted when she heard munching beside her. Dyer was eating.

How could he! Didn't Celestia say to everypony that they needed to work together as a team.
"Did you give her anything to eat?!!" anger build inside her. 
"Should I have?" said the clueless steed to the danger.
Rose Water grabbed the pie he was eating and smeared it all over his face. "It’s a wonder you're still married at all! “She turned and headed back into the light of the fires leaving the stallion behind to wonder what he had done wrong.
> Aprehesion Between Walls
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"At last!" Marigold panted." The entrance!"
No.

This wasn't the entrance! It was a pile of boulders stacked against the wall!
There was a  picture above, depicting the symbol for pegisi. She looked at the top of the cyclopic cistern that same domed top grate she had seen from Celestia's back.

It was the wrong pen! 
How she had gotten turned around! 
She began to walk the circumference.

She moved on to the next structure close beside, joining. They stood together like three grain elevators of stone, or clay frozen in that moment the potter has created a cylinder on his wheel. This one had the symbol for unicorn! How far had she walked around?! 

She tripped over what appeared to be mole diggings. More stones... This time piled against the lower part of the wall and buried. 
"OH!" Marigold remembered the stories, gossip, from the campfires. "This was when the unicorn and earth ponies were trying to dig in to find a somepony!"

Marigold continued her walk toward the gate over the evidences of digging and excavations, her mind beginning to wander. All those stories at the campfires of ponies and unicorns and pegisi, especially the pegisi.
"Oh my!"thought Marigold.

Dark shadows in her mind, ponies milling about. Desperate: digging, chipping, clawing if they had claws, making their hooves ragged , blasting away with their horns, blasting away at the rock.

Marigold jumped back as a wall threw itself up before her putting her in total darkness!

Then a sundering and splintering of rock, a chip, a crack in the clay pot! The flakes, like filmica, flew around and past Marigold on every side. 
A unicorn,  stood in the hole, too impatient to get through the very last wafer thin layer between them and the males, used a pony as a batting ram!  The unicorn galloped past Marigold into the embracing darkness that was the pens beyond.
The pony got up, shook the rock flakes out of her mane, and also started running in a sharp angle in another direction completely unfazed about the humiliation of being used as a battering ram to smash through!
"Come here you beautiful...!"squealed the unicorn.
"Heyup, doggie, doggie! "Yipped the earth pony, whatever that meant in the cruder parts of Ponyland!

Both voices were drowned out as a literal torrent of females pushed itself through the wall, making it even wider, with the sound of armor clad ponies galloping hard, following close behind! Their excavations had not gone unnoticed hence the rush!

Then images, like classical images one would see on reliefs of the Romane or Ponicians, movement body  muscle and sounds: TERRIFING YELLING!
Ponies unicorn and pegisi with headlights eyes sweeping back and forth, dark shadows they, grappling other dark shadows with lamp eyes! Them the males, they, grabbed by unicorns or ponies as the mares popped out of the earth, a frightening jarring sight, scaring them.
The mares clinging round their necks, the helpless unicorn or pegissi, their prizes unable to shoo the mares off , inhibitor rings on the males horns and unfamiliarity with pegisi wings.
These females, aggressively, grabbing, lassoing the males, unicorns, pegisi out of the sky, squawking. Unicar using their magic to grab their 
unicorn counterparts or snatch a hapless pegisi stallions, dragging them down, down as they scrambled in the air confused about their lack of lift, he crying out in fear!

"Halp!"

At every pairing, as one female grabbed a male, the guard in pursuit, behind, would rush by to try stop another female who hadn't.

"Stop it!"Marigold cried out as she saw a pegisi cry out in pain, they, falling hard to the ground, wings bound to back with either rope or magic, or falling from a female leaping into the air to tackle.
"Guards please stop them!" 
Unicorns were drug past, whimpering, tearing at the ground, their tails alight with in magic or by rope or the teeth of a shadow of a mare. "They're hurting them!"

But it didn't stop! The storm grew worse!

The pegisi! Bursting out of the sky, out of the clouds like tendrils, pursued by pegisus guard, showering the open pen with tools and instruments and armor and weapons and junk! The poor stallions below scrambling for cover. Those pegisi,  chasing the earth ponies around and round the arena, snatching them up! Those "mud ponies", the pegisi, caring them as wasps with loads of mud, to build nests on walls.
Now, flying at high speed toward walls! 
At the last moment, pulling up barely clearing ,clearing with cries of delight, echoing whinnies, as guard would duck dropping spear and clutch the ground, then glare after. 
That guard watching, intently, through beady eyes, where they went, hid and landed, signaling with a mirror sompony out there, under cover, in wait! 

"Brutes!"Marigold shivered as she spoke. "Over, through and under the walls, leaping up into the sky, entering and exiting those big places, through revolving doors, those huge cavernous endless spaces!" Indeed, intense and hurtful images  to see!

At such sights: her head hurt and throbbed, her body clutched together. She became even more feather, headed if that were possible,begining to pant and perspire.
"No."Drawing in a deep breeth, she stops. She licks her lips and swallows, embarrassed and ashamed. She stands tall and proud, indignant.Her breath catches in her throat  as realization slogs its way to the front of her mind.
She knows, she is caught and must look directly! 
This is not the best of Equestria! Not the best of the cities or town or villages! This not the best of museum or culture or even a well run party. Nor is it he best of the stores, or the market. It is not the best of the field or the orchards. Or the best of the artisans, or of the laborers tor the miners deep below ground!
She would never condone to let a child to see this bedlam let alone a race from another world! 

This:
is what mares whisper and snicker in hearing of others they consider lesser bred! To illicit blushing embarrassment and laughter together as they say to themselves, "Everymare does it." As if that makes it right.
She stops again and thinks, thinks of her father and the lost springs and summers. Him, held up, the family house like a prison or a tomb. Before she can stop the words "I would never hurt him." 
It hits her.  
Her continuance falls into slouch, her ears lay back and pupils shrink in horror, "Am I like that?" she asks. "Like...mustanga?"she gasps. "Like one of them??!"

She then understands, she is one! 
She is! 
Just like her sisters.

"What...wha...what made me think I was better?"
She closes her eyes and weeps.
Mortified.
Trying to hide. 

In her weeping, she does not notice the stampeding thundering herd about to engulf her. The  moment it reaches her, the flood parts. 
She, to grieved to notice as the ponies tear up the ground, diving around her.
To grieved to feel a connection to the ground beneath her or hear the roaring sound they make as they roll past.

The males, a brief storm, of their own.
They, a wild of t heir own.
Mustang.

"Celestia!" a vision of Celestia appears before her eyes, sitting on her haunches before a closed door.She run to her to have some reasurance fron her noble face.
Her face! Stopping short. Her hair askew, her eyes wild...that face on another stupid pony, but not on her!
As Marigold watches, the princess's face begins to harden.
"No..."she says through proud lips."It's not my fault, it's theirs!"She says through clenched teeth."It's yours!"a deep growl in her voice that vibrates the ground as she stares at the door."You're just like all the others!" 

Marigold was angery.
"What right did Celestia have to rip these beings from their world?" Her brow furrows to a scowl. "A princess should now better!"
She begins coughing to dust as a few stragglers from the herd run past.
Dust as dry as anger.

Then beyond the door she hears it.

"Hear us!
Peace to your leaders,
Appointed, we ask, you forgive!

Us for Him made, was sent, voluntered, 
He came, like us made, the peace, only He gives.

His servants: lightning and flame!
Ask peace from disorder, for younger and older,
His spirit.
Please come over,
Luna: restore her, 
Her sister: uphold her!
For the stewards and leaders, he holds, are His!

For Celestia: We ask.
Forgive, her,
Our father
please forgive."

"What a strange song."her anger leaves.

She opens her eyes.
The dust settles, figures emerged, creatures like herself, yet deeply faulted.
"You were singing?" she says staring in disbelief at the ponies before her.
"I never said, "stuttered a pony with a twisted question mark on his bum, "that I was better than any pone else! Pttt..."
"Of all the sinners, "said a pegisus with a book, chapters beside it, on his flank, "I am the worst."
Another Pegisus, muscular and dark,"Not perfect, I am week."
Marigold cried, "Let the strong say 'I am week!'"
"I was a steward," he continued, ignoring her as if she weren't there. "given a job, a talent," his head drops in shame." but I buried my talent. I went my own way." his face becoming acrid. "I slacked off!"
"I behaved badly, I yelled abuse at my fellow stewards.
Then I came to my senses! 
I ran to the field where I buried my talent and tore the field to soil, turning it over and over, but the treasure, it was gone!" He fell on his haunches.
"He trusted me and I failed!
In fear...I worked and worked and worked, and still I barely had what was entrusted, me!" He eyed Marigold.
"Survival isn't enough! He deserves interest!" He pined.
"...and now I find myself here, even the little to pay back the original loan, gone! 
I have to rebuild from nothing again." He turned his head to the sky." I'm so tired...I can barely stand!"
"Doing all you can to stand," Marigold swallowed. "Stand anyway." Then another though came to her.
Another pony bowed. "Please ma'am."he said. "I know you can get a lot of mileage from 'Stand when you can stand' but the context, has to do with the enemies schemes, you've met him...I terrible foe! Even the Lord says so!"
"Never tire of doing good." Marigold said to the pegisus trying to uplift him.
"I deserve to made a statue in that alicorn's garden, so many bad stewards!" He cried aloud. "But it is a debt I can never pay off!" At this he was rebuffed by the others.
"You are confused." said the other pony. "We are never to pay of that debt, we are not to take on others, at least none other that we cannot repay. We do our deeds with gratitude, not looking for pay, but because it is the right thing to do! But indeed, He promises He will pay wages, because He is fair!"
"Aye." said a unicorn. " Despite our faults we have been so ransomed! We live, we are not dead. Know, we, are not in torment so, we are not cast away, thus still alive we are loved! Those debts, we being here, are forgiven as there,  but showing that very flaw in our base nature. 'Positional righteous but practically sinners.'"
"And that weakness, in life, is slowly melted out as dross,  as we are purified." another unicorn spoke, a bell on his flank that suspiciously looked like the bell of Filly Delphi.
"But this? This is silly and laughable but is no image of purgatory I ever heard: where our race continue its willfulness and sinful defiance?" said another pony shaking his mane. "I am not in torment. This is not hell. Where are we?" 
"'All fall short of glory?'"
"Listen to her!" said another pony, laughter in his voice. "Bringing us back to point! By the Spirit's leading! Dynamos! She hasn't even read and it is written on her heart! What a good choice for you! You'll need her more than she will need you!"
"We are not perfect. Hopefully, let us not be willful, Lord protect! Here, as there, we are moved by his will. His will, to a mold, to make us a more perfect, us mortals immortal, immutable! To join with Him as perfect reflection: imago dei." said a grey eyed stallion who tried to reach out to Marigold's face. As she withdrew, he instead took her hoof in both hooves and patted it smiling. "Take peace ma'am, and come upon a shady arbor as you climb the hill of Difficulty!" 
"Ah...quoting classics?" said the pony with the question mark on his bum raising an eyebrow."Ya would quote from Bunion! Ah world! I'll say what I wish..."
"Don't do the raspberry again!" interrupted the stallion with tired grey eyes . He looked back to Marigold and spoke softly to her."Don't lose the promise in your heart." At last smiling he moved her mane of her forehead with his hoof, it was cool a refreshing. "Be assured, neither height nor depth can separate."
She closed her eyes.

There was a tickling on her ear. 
"Stop it!" she laughed.
When she opened eyes again the stallions were gone and she found herself in a grove of willows, cool and calming,a complete change in her surroundings! Streaming sunshine.
"Sunshine, Sunshine!" She turned her eye to her ear, a ladybug perched at the tip. It jumped and flew. Marigold followed, through the willows. To her surprise it did a couple tremendous loops.
"You're so awake!"
she laughed again clacking her hooves and shaking her tail a bit. The she stopped.
Among the willows she spied a pony, a purple pony, taking a moments privacy, rubbing her temples as if trying to fight a migraine.

Marigold smiles. "Hello Twinkling Star!" she says.

Startled, the pony looks at Marigold shocked, lifting one leg, ears splayed back as if she is not meant to be seen! Luna walks between the two, carrying through. " This is getting out of hoof!" as she rolls her eyes turning and looking at them.

"Hi Marigold!" a pink pony cries from high  above in the domed ceiling, flying, headlamp eyes, circling and rhythmically porposing.
"She's trying to take my place!" cried the purple one. 
"That's not true!" came a blond pony out of the trees. 
She had no face! The purple pony had only part of a face with one tired eye and the pink one? Her body was wrong missing muscles under the skin.
Luna comes forward, "That will never happen!" She says, "There is a greater place for all of you!" 

She steps up to Marigold."Do you have your promise?"
"I...."
"Do you have your promise?" the alicorn asks in earnestness.
Marigold touches her barrel confused, then she feels something, it is a scroll!
"Good," Luna says, "Bring it out only at the proper time, soon. Till then guard it!"

"Luna. You're in the moon."
"Yes..." she answers rolling her eyes.
"And discord he's in stone."
"Yes..."Luna answered petulantly.
"What's going on??!"

"Such questions!" Luna steps forward craning her neck to look into Marigold's face. "What is wrong with you?"

"I believe she's turned inside out." said that same scraggly pony with the question mark on his rump relaxing under one of the trees with a pipe, letting out bubbles. "The part that 'knows' is wandering around outside." the ladybug landing on his nose as he crossed his eyes to observe, next he looked to Luna. "Poor dear, the intense paranoia, taunted by shadows, you know what that's like." The ladybug took off, startled by a popping bubble from his pipe.

Luna was fronted at him. Then the ladybug demanded Luna's attention, landing on her rump.

"Backlog my dear," said the pony addressing Marigold "for Luna anyway." He let out more bubbles. "As for Discord? Consider that a mystery of Job...."he pronounced job funny. "As for you...my guess?" he tapped his lower lip with his hoof. "You're trying to re-calibrate and decompress."

He then looked to Luna. "I'm not in charge but does this whole thing need be so meta and new age?"
"Opinionated review?" as she gently ushered the ladybug away, it landed on the gold faceless pony ear, twitted its wings, causing Marigold to laugh. The ponies there, were more comical than terrifying.
"Would thou be my critic?" Luna grumbled, he shrugged, she sighed. "What can I say?" shrugged Luna. "You're right, indeed I do have a backlog. Dreams are timeless..."

"But this will not do." Luna said looking at Marigold garnering her full attention. "You must be joined to the outside again, you won't remember here. To the one that knows: You will be confused after that little stunt of Discord's." She then moved her wings and touch Marigold's shoulders.

Marigold felt a tugging like she was going to be pulled away.
"Wait! What about all those mean mares?"

"A warning." Luna said. "You are going to pass through an interrfase area, as your mind tries to assimilate all it has gone through. Think of yourself as one of the best guesser there ever was!" Luna smiled. "But take no stock in the visions. They are only mostly true...."Luna's stare was intense." When you get back," she licked her lips, "do try to hold your tongue, you'll want to tell everypony the wonders you see and do justice, but remember they are only shadows, and may do more harm than good."

Marigold faded away.
"In order to snap back. The bubble will need to be at the peak of field strengthen."  said the pipe bubbler. "She'll need a terrible shock to her system."
Luna smiled. "Our good Doctor, when pressed, will take care of that."

Marigold saw a glimmer, at the end of a signaling mirror, every mare with her mate ended among a group of well armed guards, either as they flew or stopped running. The stallions were cataloged "bookmarked" with the sign, a necklace of each mare's cuttie mark and caused to fall into a deep sleep, all but one, the stallion of Goldened Sparrow. 
They were busy.
The mares were all together brought into the  court of Celestia. As she looked upon them all with Oden eye.
"I am very disappointed in all of you. "Looking over the mares. "This is not the way to begin relationships. It's like breaking a promise, he, your friend..."her voice rising."FOREVER! "it was loud, blowing many of the mares mane out of their faces. The princess regained her composure. "I'll do what I can, the sleep will cause a reado, but the rest is up to you!"
She looked at The Pegisi commander Silver Sheeves."Now. Where is your second, Golden Sparrow? Where is she that twerp?"Celestia snorted. "I want to talk with her along with the three caught, forher unladylike andundignified behavior as well as the injuries she gave to my guards."
"She avoided us ma'am."said a guard.
"With a stallion, at least three times her size?"Celestia raised an eyebrow.
"She had a plan.....A place to go."
"She was busy..."volunteered Silver Sheeves.
"What could have been so important...?"Celestia closed her mouth with a snap. 
The other ponies were stunned, "But its only been an hour...."
Celestia rubbed her forehead, and sighed. Then, in a very motherly voice that could be heard across Equestria congratulated Golden Sparrow and reminded her to have all paperwork turned in by the end of the month. She then, however dented, reequipmented the pegisi, returning their livelihood and dismissed all ponies in the court graciously but for the three caught in the raid, reminding them of the necessary public service required of them in a month.

Here upon, they headlong beat to the door and clogged it up becoming stuck, as Celestia looked on in disbelief.
Had they learned nothing?

Bright lights.
"Oh no!" MArigold thought. "I'm coming down with a migraine again!" 

Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted.

"Halt who goes there?" A bright light shone in her face. "State your business!" barked the unicorn with the illumination spell.
"Please sir!" pleaded Marigold confused at her sudden lack of perspiration and cramping. "I'm her for the selections!"
"Bit late aren't you?" he guffled.
"Story of my day..."
"Need a number, what's your number?"
"Two thousand, three hundred, sixty four..."
"You are late, its already tomorrow!"he sniffed. "Should have been here this after noon," he paused."or you're lying."looking at her with distrusting eyes. "Let me see the number slip."
Marigold reached into the saddle bag and pulled out the card for the unicorn guard, floating over to him in his aura light. He scanned it, with eyes then horn then tasted it! Marigold protested to stop him.
"Part of the procedure ma'am.." he said. "Can't tell you how many Mares have attempted to trade stallions, or for whatever reason, trying to get more than one." He swirled his mouth and smacked his lips, turned the card and looked at it again. "Tastes like...Pentifors?"
"Really?" Marigold said nervously."I guess we all as foals get tempted by those lovely decorated flowers." she recited what countless parents taught their foals." Not for eating!"
He raised an eyebrow."I hope your not that young.."
"Nope...been of age for years, yup uh huh."
The stallion stamped the card gave it back to Marigold pointing her to the gate for the earth ponies who tucked it away.

"Almost there!" She begins a rapid lope. Sticking her tongue out licking her lips.
At last the entrance, just hooves away!

"Hello!"
"Gaa!"she falls forward. "Why am I tripping all the time??!"
"Are you ok, pretty lady like gold and iron and amber?" a dimond dog pup jumps over staring at her. "you have little hairs like asbestoses!"He tilts his head. "Mom and Dad say to stay away from asbestos, when I see asbestos, turn around, walk up wind, find an adulty. Asbestos is bad. Are like asbestos?"
Marigold had no idea what asbestos was. Grunting as she got up, "No.  Not  asbestos."

The pup then seized the door and proceeded to show the excellent work pony ship as he flapped it back and forth to the confusion of the guards inside peering out and Celestia who was with them.
"Little boy(closest translation.)"Marigold spoke her ire rising, beginning to grind her front teeth. "I appreciate the gentle colt behavior of you holding the door open for me." He didn't get the clue flapping the door back and forth.

"See how easy it opens, closes, opens, closes, opens, closes opens."

Marigold muzzle twisted into a sneer as her eyes locked on the door swinging back and forth.

"Dig Dug!" mother rushes forward, maternal instinct coming to play, glimpsing guards and Celestia and an upset mare ten times her sons height with heavy hooves. From far away, not knowing a pony would never intestinally hurt a youngling no matter how annoying. "What we tell you of wandering away?"
"Miss neat things, but door is very neat! You and papa made"
"Dust to dust in the morning!" Scolded mother to child. She then turd to address Marigold. "Very, very regretful." she says. "Such a naught boy. " She smiles. "Well past his sleeping time."
She then speaks to her son and lures him away with the promise of story time with all the youngling and a treat.
"Look have you ever seen such a thing?" she produces a lobster claw. "Pegisi  have brought sea meats!" She tears out a chunk and gives it to her son. 
"Yummy!" he says.
"Come, run ahead, back to father, fire and story time!" they playfully run back to the campfires, she catching up and then slowing down and holding her paw with a great yawn, she looking back at marigold nodding her head in apology.

Marigold takes a deep breath and enters.
There is  a second wall, the obvious work of skilled earth mover ponies, a second door so well built cantilevered on earth pony cast rocks, making the first look so unprofessional.

"You're late."Celestia says. Then a look of concern on her face.
Coming up to her, taking her head in her hooves and staring deeply in her eyes, glancing at the bruise on her head. 
"I see what Rose Water was talking." she said quietly.
"All the paperwork has been filed correctly, now all that is need is a quick exam..."she smiled, as if to take tension out of the air not taking her eyes off Marigold."Surely a doctor is available?"

"We have a full staff, we should be able to turn one up." said one of the guards. She trotted out. "I'll be right back."

"Are you alright?" Celestia asked Marigold.
"Just a little dizzy..."her eyes crossed. "Things just a little blurry with an after image..."
"We can do this later...." Celestia suggested.
"No!" Marigold cried uncrossing her eyes. "I'm fine!"

A few moments later, "Here we are doctor!" a brown pony with an hour glass on his rump ,wearing a tie brace, was carried into the room in the unicorns magic, looking uncomfortable (like the elderly family cat patiently bearing the affectionate cradling of a five year old), becoming increasingly  nervous as he looked around, first at Marigold, then especially at Celestia, after being dumped on the floor. 
A grey pegisus followed.

Celestia's concentrated on Marigold as she brushed mane from the mare's face in front of her. "Doctor, I need you to give this mare a through med..."she looked at the stallion, suddenly surprised. "Are you capable of doing a thurmatic wave examination?" Quizzed Celestia.

"Hmm? Thurmatic analysis? Oh yes! Work withem all the time." he turned to the pegisis."I need a unicorn, an intern, hopefully a medicine student, he'll be wearing a white coat jacket." the pegisi stared at him with crossed eyes. "Really. Now. Go!"

"Sorry. Yes Doctor!" she saluted. "Right away!" she disappeared out the door.

"Thermatic wave analysis?" asked the  unicorn guard who brought him in, looking for anyway to advance her rank, improve her station."I can do that!"
"Sure..."said the doctor sarcastically rolling his eyes. "Making a fireball and leaving us skeletons before we turn to dust." he said all with a smile.
"Hmp!"she, the barded guard said.

Celestia moved from between them.

"What is so special about that earth pony mare anyway?" she said bitingly.
Now the doctor was angry. "You think your so much better unicorn?" he said. "I promise you'll long for the princess embrace when you stand before her, agony in your head and tears in your eyes as you explain how you totally failed. Your guard trampled underhoof as you lay there helpless...hearing the wail of the unprotected town!" the guard was taken aback by this. "Because your hubris didn't take the threat seriously."
"How you will completely crumble and cry when she puts her wing around you, finally understanding how very weak and powerless you were and are against the thundering flooding tide!"
"I am strong!" she growled.
"Well I tried." he sighed.

"Oops."

"Oh Celestia!"Marigold cried speaking rapidly. "Beware Nappy, and Carob! The ponies that worry for the loss of a world that never was when their books are burned that they don't care about anyway, writing over what's written! Beware the unicorn that gather and whisper thinking themselves superior! Beware the thundering herds! Beware the season, beware the unicorn the pegisi. Beware closing the door! Beware the dark red cloud! Beware the stone of strange glif.....and...and"
"And oh so much fun orbiting high above in circles, peering over the fence looking into the great beyond!" The doctor said  looking at her through half lidded eyes." Just wanting to tell everyone the wonder of it all! What you think you've seen! Crying out a warning? Not even under standing one atom of it!" He stared hard at Marigold. "Knowledge only puffs up!" he said with a frown. "Now...little pink ball of fluff..."said the Doctor clearing his throat. "What good is it? How do you know such things?"

The pink pony floating at the dome of Marigolds mind blinked surprised and the other ponies inside laughed at her. She turned round inspecting herself eliciting more laughter.

"Help me...."said Marigold looking through glassy glazed eyes.
"Time will remedy..."said the doctor. "By the means predestined as well as the method." He circled his hoof in a loop in the air. "We need to let the field expand to its maxim, come to its peak before collapse and release.Like a bubble, or a blister. "Marigold cocked her head.

"Only what you know." said the doctor  as he approached making tushing sounds,"Only what you know..." finally stroking the bridge of the nose, weirdly calming here down.
"If your ready I'll begin." said the doctor.
"Don't we need a curtain?"
"Non sense. You have somewhere you must be soon,"
"Yes! Yes!"
", and this is the quickest way to do it," he looked her over.
Celestia cocked her head looking at the stallion.
"Don't need a unicorn for a visual inspection." He moved so quickly they didn't know where he was looking. "Just a visual inspection. "He bent her head down looking at the bruise. "Yes I see.."

The pegisi returned with unicorn, who was expecting to treat the cross eyed mare, till directed over to Marigold.
"I need a thermatic pulse, of, this magnitude." the doctor showed a small card cover "Can you do it? I need it exact."
The unicorn began his stance exclaiming how decimally precise he could get it.

"I suppose that will have to  do..." sighed the doctor, asking the unicorn to".... at least try to focus it at the twenty thousandth." Then reassuring Marigold that it wouldn't be harmful, no pony would see anything but it would be, "Quite evasive."

At the order, the unicorn released the thurmatic pulse.
Marigold blinked and shook her head, "I just saw the inside of my eyeballs, I am getting noid of unicorns."

"Well student?" the doctor said.
"Um, she looks in perfect health to me."
"Good. Confirmation." said the doctor. "Trust but verify. Now if you don't mind." he turned to Marigold," fill out the paperwork and you guards, give her something to eat from the leftovers from catering. I need to talk to the princess."

Suddenly Marigold leapt into the pony's face, "Are you married?" she asked ever so sweetly.
Derpy shot between them and stared down Marigold.
"Yes...."said the doctor."...to my work." the doctor said quietly.
The cross eyed mare looked back at him and smiled.
Marigold turned away disappointed as the guards asked for paper work number and had her sign the log book along with themselves. Ready to stands at the door she waiting to enter asked for a mane brush.

"What do you have to talk to Celestia about..."ask the grey pegisus.
"Oh. Nothing very important.."
Marigold was back again and grabbed the grey pegisus by the face and looked into her eyes, "Oh dear! What happened.." she cried a little ."did we not eat the right foods?" She then brought the mare into a tight embrace.
"Waaa?"said the Pegisus."She's hugging me Doctor..."
"Shhhh. Don't confirm anything. Its just the part that knows" the doctor spoke softly"..keep her busy."
"I will..."said Marigold.
"Make sure she has something to eat." said the doctor addressing the crossed eyed pegisus.

In a corner the pony and the alicorn talked.
"What do you have to say to me?" she asked.
"Permission to say what I need too." he replied.
"You may, but all my ponies can speak to me freely."
"Just as long as I have your word." he became serious "I will only tell you what you need to know." he said "You tread dangerous ground, Celestia."
"Who is this pony?"she thought.
"Even I would not dare this game: to go where you have gone,  or to take what you have taken, or done what you have done. Understand; the consequences are all on you!"
Celestia snorted.
"Your word, your highness?"
"My word.."she grumbled.
"She is fit and fine."he proclaimed."Now. What I've said between these walls is what you need to know. Don't go picking at it for answers, they will come in time."
He cleared his throat. "The bruise on her head was caused by unstable, thumatic waves along the entire spectrum, there will be a harmless thumatic discharge."
"Chaos magic."Celestia flared her wings. "Discord!"
"Back on the ground your majesty!"the Doctor snorted. "Your ponies are watching, no need to upset them over nothing."
"But Discord..."
"Oyasa in charge of the sun!" That got her attention. Where had she heard that before? He stretched out across the ground a sign of supplication his hoof on the ground. "Can't you feel the fabric of time?"
She blinked. Then assured herself. To see time,  common earth pony skill, like looking at earth manna, just slight adjustments to see once one learned the knack. She reached out and felt it.
"Ah," she said "I see. He came through, twice. First ahead, now before the second time, now gone, sealed neatly here."She closed here eyes tightly. "Then back again....there is a hole! No wait..."
"Will you look at the quality of that stitch!"exclaimed the doctor.
"Elemental harmonics?" she opened up her eyes and stared at the doctor. "But how?"
"Always faithful." smiled the doctor. "And a promise...well some pink strands fraying, allow the spirit back, but that's to be expected, won't he be a mess! They'll reintegrate into the fabric nicely..Marigold will keep him at bay."
Celestia towered over him. "One day, I will find out you are!"
"Ah, but temperal riddles atract me, as amoth to the flame..."The Doctor simply kissed her hoof." When you figure who the Reagan and the Thatcher were, and who held the winning card!" he smiled. She yanked her hoof back staring at him. "Borrowed names...Oayasa."he bowed low again rising. "Borrowed names, until we meet again Celestia. "Celestia wrapped her wings around herself as if they were a cloak and she was cold.

"Just a tick." the doctor trotted back over to the guards and Marigold who was playing a silly hoof game with apprehensive pegisus like a child daughter. "Didn't you get her something to eat?"
He addressed Marigold. "Have you had anything to eat?" He chewed his lip. "You have something to eat, or you don't go in!"

Marigold was in his face again.
"How dare you!" she snorted."Taughntheaven sent stars who are only doing there job!" She scolded him as if he were I child. "If you're going to live among us I need to see a better attitude young mrnnn!"She then looked at him squinting."YOU!!!"she put her face in his. "I saw you!" She cried. "You were there! Always there! Always in the background with the sandbags!You!You walked with him over the horizon." She licked her lips. "At the temple of the moon, with that floating head of plaster to hide the ruse! And behind the scenes as all the animals rushed around piled of jewels and gold. As the squirrels and porcupines and hedgehogs in accounting hats negotiated exchange rates. "Her eyes went wild." Fly the ship, passed from carrier officer to another, a parade float, a chandler, a plate between two bread sticks, they say twirling their whiskers! Captain say, 'What did I do wrong for this command? 'Ship engines, Caught between the e-gap, like I! Charging through the fray. Rapping ramming the massive walls in the sky. Those insane brave mice , spinning like a ragged corkscrew. All a missing, till under the gun.! All in the name of the human...EMGAAAAA!"

"That's enough!" the doctor put a rattling stick like device with a blue light on the end to her head. "Not your story."

The pink pony fell to the ground hard. Her eyes normal. A shadow of authority came over her. The pink pony trembled with dread. The Alicorn rushed forward.

Celestia was at her side, caught her as she fell. Guards grabbed the doctor.
"What did you do?"Celestia asked.
"What needed to be." he loosed himself from the guards. "See?" he said pointing at the empty spot where the bruise had been."Done.

"Please!" pleaded Luna." There was no harm done."
The pink pony closed her eyes. Something curly and crackly fell about her eyes and head.

"How do you feel?"
"I feel I could run all the way back to capital city with my guy!" Marigold exclaimed.
"Well....Not before you eat something."said the doctor becoming quieter as Celestia overshadowed him.
Celestia dismissed the guard back to duties.
"Be out of my kingdom, before dawn, Doctor." growled the alicorn as Celstia took flight shooting into the sky. He wings making a mighty wump sound.

The pink pony looked back to the authoritative figure. "Your back to grocery lists again!" it said.
"Awww..."groaned the pink pony.
"I really must be going." said Luna.

"Should we leave?" asked Derpy.
"Nonsense! We have at least two hours before sunrise. What do you think give us thirty minutes?" The guard nodded.
"There is more leftovers than you or your families can eat before it goes bad. How about that food?"
said the doctor rubbing his hooves together.
The guard pulled up on a catering box, that folded out into a beautiful display then they all helped themselves, a little party with leftovers. Marigold grazed a little before discovering something that disagreed with her tongue.
"Yuch!"marigold said bringing a napkin to her mouth. "What was that?" she asked.
"Oh just a sardine..."
"If I never..ehhh, what a t taste.." she shook her tongue. "If I never have another!"
The doctor laughed. "But never is such a long time?"

Again, Marigold was in his face. "Are you sure you're not married?
This time the pegisus was between them. "He's spoken! If not by a blue box, then by the Queen of Eggland and if not by her, then me! My Doctor!"she caught him in hug.
"Yes.." as he twittered his wand. "You're a mess of hormones. Starting to go native, I need to get you back ."

As the pink pony sat with her ink pot, dabbing the end with her tongue to keep the ink running, the faceless gold pony came up to her.
"Come to scold me like the others?" she said.
"Oh come on." said the blond pony. "Heck, its not going to be forever." she swung her leg for emphasis."Maybe, someday you be running the shebang: here between the ears!"
The pink pony paused. "I really do like a good joke now and then, but that's not going to happen. I appreciate the effort but I'm just not in the mood for laughing right now."
The gold faceless pony looked over the pink one ignoring her, she never made jokes. 


As Celestia ascended between the the inner and outer wall upward toward the moon and twinkling stars, she nearly swatted a thestral out of the sky. Regaining composure, she leveled out her flight and settled on a cloud colored salmon in the pink light.She circled around with high steps, turned and glared at the thestral."Don't you know she who does not enter by the door is a thief and a lair...worse?" she scolded.
Seeing the shame in the thestral, who had collided with cloud, a lighter shade of blue, showing her impact, its lamp bobbing up and down, as she bowed low to the uneven field of fluff making her look spider like, Celestia relented and sighed. She pulled out the paperwork from the thestral saddlebag abruptly in her magic "Fortunately, for you today'" having the sheets orbit her head as Celestia looked them over. "I am acting on behalf of the door," she initialed each page. "Medical in Capital city? good."

Signing the paperwork she let the testral go who sped ahead of her to a stallion waiting in the center of the pen under the moonlight, on his rump, alone, head bowed down, with other things, potted plants and playing cards scattered around, looking like a lost toy.

Celestia looked to large crack in the pen's wall. "Still in the wall I see. "Celestia huffed. "I though you were going to be brave." as she descended. "Little dormouse!"
> The Selections
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the pens, Celestia bid Marigold farewell, talking with the guard, leaving instruction. 
At the doors, she only had to wait a few minutes.  

Such doors! Great, stone and well balanced, the work of master masons earth pony and unicorn, opened silently, opened exclusively for her! The doors opening, letting in: the quickened Marigold Mare! 

 As soon as she was through, they closed behind, silently. 
She glanced back only in respect, by morning they would be gone.  
She wanted a flash of memory to share later. 

 Turning, looking ahead walking forward, she didn't see him, walking softly toward the center.  

What she did see, was clutter: potted plants, tables, artistic statues and iconography that look like they had seen better days. Made sense, give the new arrivals an idea what the world they were in was like. 

When the selections were over the walls would be pulled down and the tools and trinkets put away, maybe sold at auction before the staff went home. She saw some lovely reliefs of Celestia that would be good for her shops decor....if she weren’t on a mission.  

Something really piqued her interest.  

At first glance she saw some magnificent moon lit statue standing inside that high walled pen the size of a hoofball stadium, standing in the center. She didn't see at first, among the large fragrant yet common, well hoofacured, potted plants. 

Breathtaking, but just a statue. 

  "How charming." Again she rebuffed herself and shook her mane. " Focus ,"she snorted"I am not here to rummage!" 

  Then, he shook,startling her. The statue was moving! Powdery dust clouds shook in rings from round  his coat at his neck and body with his hair and mane. 

 The pony was alive!  

He, for air, gasped, as if breathing in his first breath. Held it, looked in the direction of the high walls, staring up at the wall in front of him, then let the air out with a resigned sigh as if it were his last. His head sinking between his spread front legs, coming close to the ground. 

Whatever had been there, high on the wall, was gone. 
Only the grizzled guards holding position and watching, those watching from the walls! 

 But who cared about that? 

Finally! At last! A stallion. Her own stallion: a complementary mix of green gray and olive with tinge of copper gleam that shone through his coat and brown main, even in that moonlight coned down on him the center of it spotlight. 

 The words were native equestrian as they came out ,roughly translated: "Wow!" 
Followed in the mind (or overlapping)by:Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!!!! 

He flopped down, on his rump, mumbling, ignoring the mare as she spoke. 
"....couldn't even save one....?Didn't understand what you memorized.... Oh no not you...! Tetelesti...that's all you had to say Tetelisti to them...but no...!Brother...bat...let go...that's all you...!"  

A statue was one thing, but a living breathing being is another. She never thought she actually needed a stallion, that it was another trick of hormons. That once she saw one all of them would fly away and she would at last be "normal". 

Now, looking at him through blue eyes she realized it was just the begining, things would never be "normal".
She needed him. 

But fate was not lacking mercy.

 He fit the bill, fulfilled the promise she heard in the wind from the toy maker's Son that morning, confirming the dream she had had that night before during her restless sleep. 

 Destiny! 
He was perfect! 

 In her head crowned in yellow gold, highlighted with red and small pink strands that wisped all over,all she could think was 
"You're here!" 

 Just him being there helped her think, quieting the impulsive sea of burning passions, hot. That storm of wild, crooning, emotions, that excitable lunacy of hair pulling and jumping about fools called love, they fled away becoming humid close air, stilled, prepared for her to wade out from the sandy beach of indecision through the warm water to meet him.  

That! As her heart pounded inside big grin, wide eyes her face and sockets hurting, breathing through her teeth. 
She was up to her sides in it! 

 She cried inside as she made the first advance slowly moving across the open field of the arena, then quickly covering ground silently, rear to front legs leaping over each other, front then stretching beyond.  

"Oh yeah, you got that something I think you understand when I say that something I wanna hold and, and, annnd...!" 

 Annnd.... a "what"? 
Marigold? 

It was like Saffron pulling her into that small bakery, telling her what for, like cold water from here bath from that night after she saw that poster. 

"Woah!!!"she thought.
She then pulled back on the reigns of her heart and slowed down, just stopping short of him her heart racing, plopping on her rear.  She was going to throw herself at him! 
"Mustn't do that, mustn't scare him, mustn't disrespect him." 

The feelings inside were settling "This is Good!" she was thinking, licked her lips, this mare who owned a flower shop. "Don't have to drowned myself in gallons of scalded parsnip and turnip soup!" 

 She waited. 

And she waited. 
Obvious quibble filled his mind, as he mumbled tilling his head back and forth.

New confusing feeling. 

He was ignoring her, mumbling. 

His mumbling was infuriating, it was becoming maddening. 

"I'm right here..."She fumed, she didn't know quite how to take this."All this fuse and wait and now you ignore me?" 

 She then became ambivalent, "He may be like this for the rest of his life, I might not be able to change this...this mumbling..." as she remembered her mother's warning about marring for the sake of changing the stallion.

"Yeah....."she thought clicking her lips 

Then another thought stung her. 

 "Oh, dear, looking at the wall!"She thought/remembering (A vision of her snoring on her tuffet as Celestia was talking to a guard/ messenger/ something.) how the unicorns gathered atop the wall, watching/waiting for these stallions, too anxious! Waiting for their turn, impatient of waiting for unicorn males!  

"Maybe he saw a unicorn maid he fancied!" she chewed her lip. 

 I know a lot of stallions really go for a pretty, young, trim unicorn. The little....maybe he won't like/want me!"but just before another would have cleared her throat to bring attention to the rube, in an instant  the stallion's ears snapped to her swiftly,  his head spinning round to faced her, surrounded by a cloud of dust, in a defensive stance  . 

Those eyes, those strange gray eyes: wild, confused. Being almost out-worldly as they gazed at her, as if upset at the interruption in his conversation. 

  .....but other eyes were watching, eyes glaring, glinting with mischief, from the bushes, the potted plants! 

 "No..... I don't see unicorn love in there."she thought. 

"Hello…" she said slowly,softly, she sauntered over. She had already imagine and practiced in her mind how it would sound, and the affect was better than she dreamed as his eyes looked at her mouth fascinated at her form words then snapping back, locking onto her blue ones.  

Those grey eyes.  

It hurt a little to look at them.  

Now he was afraid. 
He began to breathe rapidly His pupils began to slowly shrink with her every step, his head pulling over his body, one front leg slowly rising. Wrapping his tail around himself.

"What to do?" she remembered what the Doctor and Rose Water had done. 
"Move quickly girl." she thought. She closed the gap. 

  "Tush,tush,tush,tush....shhhh." 
She touched the stallion gently with her muzzle on his, so soft, his mouth popping open slack jawed crossed eyes looking to her at muzzles point. 

Taking in his strange exotic breath,  more feeling hit her,her eye rolled back and she forgot herself. 

She moved down his upper body, stopping at his back before his withers, coming back closing her eyes retracing her path breathing him in,her mouth more than her nose, a very masculine stallion.  

 His voice brought her back. "No...pleease, don't..."he said in strained soft protest, as she touched him, his eyes rolled into his head as his body relaxed and all hooves planted themselves to the ground,  seeming to enjoy the touching of his jaw under the cheek, a little taking in her air. 

"Yes of course." she thought."Silly girl this was no way to start!" 
She had to focus on him, lead him out. Thank goodness she hadn't started rolling on him like a cat!

"Be ready old boy!" said the eyes in the potted shrubbery, watching, digits impatiently waiting in a snapping possition.

She had to begin a relationship! Begin a reportee.
If she was to be committed to him, she had to put him first, and hopefully, he would do the same. She had to find out why he was upset. Just touching him and he would quiver as he held himself back, started breathing through his mouth. "Who knows what he might be thinking!"He was uncomfortable....because, why? 

Marigold spoke gently"What's wrong?"She stood in front again, eye contact as he opened his again staring at her with his great grey orbs. 

He was silent. 

She had to call him something. 

"What's wrong, Imago Dei?" a name heard in her dream. 

At this he found his tongue with a roar. 

Nostrils snorting fire.

 Head down shoulders up nearly flat against the ground as if he would pounce, crazy eyes, mouth opened wide teeth bared, exaggerating every foreign word, an angry tongue, angry and furious tongue, directed at her, as if she were a chief conspirator in a plot. 

 Stallion roughly translated:Aha! 

 "Celestia can't make me! Are you in league with that Oyarsa of this Sun, moppy lightly drenched little rag popery in flowered scent??!Uh?!"  

 Now, barely translatable, unrelenting connected nonsense coming from his mouth...not happy to be here...he had rights. 
Garbled nonsense!  

She was taken aback by his  sudden aggression, jumping to a flop coming down as she cocked her head at him.  

 At this Discord snapped his eagle talon stopping time. 
"...annnnd frame! Perfect!" He held his front legs forming a box."  
Right here! Right at this moment!" He had a directors costume on."The right moment always comes along!" He walked over to Marigold. "Marigold, Marigold! You ridiculous thing!....the absolute shining flower of the equine race! Rash, impulsive, vain. 

Oh how much fun I had in the day: putting you into frenzy and then watching the chase!  

Oh the hapless male!  

Entertainment for weeks...ah." he said looking her over. 

"You're going to do enough damage on your own without my help. Oh, bouquet of poison joke!" He stood in front of her. "In that position, who knows what he may think of you!" 

He stopped and did a double take. "Though," he said looking her full in the face." there is something, different...that difference in Twilight and her friends, not so much in the others." he put his claw to his lip. "And another difference, something familiar... like the layering of an onion. I can't quite place it. "He put his paw to her ear and pulled out a hard boiled egg and began to munch. He then produced a seasoning shaker. "Paprika?" He offered to the splayed out frozen mare, held aloft by the fluff of her tail. Discord shrugged then laughed like a cub shaking the pepper pot near the mare's nose over the egg bite, it contents a natural blue with purple poke dots."...I'll figure it out latter, with your descendent, when they are of a more..."he finished the egg leaving crumbs everywhere clearing his throat. "...natural, weaker stock, of course...."He turned his back on her the look of shock on her face frozen, the guaranteed consequence of the inevitable rejection by or of her by the other. 

"You....!On the other hand, "he looked to the stallion and charged, threading over like a wet noodle in a hurricane. "you're the variable. "He said still floating in the air, like smoke rings from a great grandfather's pipe. 

He looked the stallion over: face, top of head and along his back. 

"Nasty bit of work...traitorous!" he snarled. "What was Celestia thinking. Bringing a thing like you here?" He paced around him, starring through on contracted pupilled eye. 

"What is so special about you?" his head snapped back to Marigold. "Or her?"   

He looked back at the stallion and blinked, did he move? No, he chewed his lip. No not possible in freeze frame. 

"How unclothe and unclean!" He snorted. "No matter how well Rose Water and her mares were able to clean you up, after the pegisus dive, and braid up your mane, in curls, you're still a scarreddy cat hiding in your wall...afraid of life! Viva!! Arriba!!!"he yelled in a voice that would have startled another pony, he though, still as stone."Oh you can't make me do anything Celestia! When they find me I'll be as still as a toad in a geode!"Discord imitated. "I mean, really! I can't think of what those mares possibly saw in you!" Discord shifted his head back and forth. "Well...who could blame the changeling queen, six stoat stallions in armor crossing her dominions...though Calcium Carbine, Brutus even Namis Watt would have been a better choice than you! Romane would have been interesting,quoting sacred texts/your sacred texts all the time, Ransom...ehhhhh....boring,loyal pointy head!" 

He looked back at Marigold his neck extending into her face. 
"Frankly my dear, you should be thanking me! Saving you from such a dog! No intimacy, making you wait, and then dumping four little ones on you! True you had practice with Constance, and help from Shambles or Stabbles her father's servant, but you had to raise these little ones yourself." He was in the mare's face. "And you just forgave him. Honestly! Have you no pride? Hi doormat! Walk on me anyone!At least you didn't have to raise a thestral, strong family values and support them." he went back to the stallion. "A dog like you! Saying things without thinking. Sleeping wherever, not until Celestia's suggestion." 

 He came close to the stallions face talking darkly. "What do the mares at this time see in you? 

All those Unicar on the high walls watching you, this afternoon, considering YOU!

To much pressure as you noticed their eyes, their eyes from the high walls on you? Looking on you with that scary funny look all females get! Oh heart breaker, found you didn't like the attention? Eh?

You decided to act the pig: clomping through the mud, trough slurping, and headlong chocolate fountain and bonzi plant eating burping/farting...
All just to get back to your crack in the wall!" 

  

"Oh come on! That's some great material! Keep up with the sight gags?" Sorry, this story is about Marigold. 

  

"Marigold....hmp!"Discord huffed. 
He turned back to the stallion. "I know why Glam Mare wanted you. Wanted that legacy that doctor of the court promised you, wanted you enough to drag you out to kiss you with forget me not, Mah, mah, mah! 

 Why  didn’t she  succeed?"  

 He looked him all over."What did Thunder Bilit or the Lady of the Lonely Gray tower see in  you? You! Sleeping in the reeds under her sky, her cloud, with animals. 
You sobbing like a foal, after the judgment of red cloud, or at the cracking of horns, when you stopped by drenched in dew, exhausted, messy, muddy, at her door, of her tower,  to get out of the storm?

Not a clue it was by a pegisus upset about her figure."  

His coils became tight and angry."But what did Ancient and wise, wise, Celestia see with her lamp held high over her head in the middle of the night looking over the rump of a sleeping runt pup like you?" 

Discord produced an ancient and tattered scroll and continued his monologue. "As she wrote it. Hundreds of years ago!"he shivered as he ran his claw underlining the words.

"All that pain!

How mad,(as if I had intruded, as if she was the only with the right to remember you!) she was when she found me reading those tattered scrolls and her diary at this time.This forgotten piece of equestrian lore, leaving you: a smudged hoof note.

She turning as red as that vile of iron stained with salt crystals: that pendant of red tears I dangled in front of her face. Then she turned deathly pale, and bowed!  
She bowed, to me!  
Ruining my game!  
My fun,mine!"

'Where there are tears, there is hope.'she said.  

Hope, faith and love."Discord growled."Which virtue did you have when you faced me down Celestia?" 

"That's why I had to come back...she's changed, you know, and it's all your fault!" Discord turned his back on the pony eying him over his shoulder. "But when I offered to fix it, she changed again!" 

 *'Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Everything has its time and everything ends.'this she said this to me!"Discord snorted.

"She was fun!
Now, she acts like..."he shuddered" a mother!" 

"I'm the master of Chaos, I make Chaos!Choas is mine!I know where it come and where it ends!"he pined." I don't like this middle! This foggy center! I don't like it! Chaos, swirling about me, not me! Like a cloud. With an order in there...like something’s grinning at me, grinning at me from inside,laughing! Laughing at me!" 

Then an awful grin  filled his face.
"Well, she blamed you!Through the closed door she blamed you."He looked over the tatter paper,looking  the stallion over again."You.Just a pony and you burned,burned before our Celestial majesty, our angel of the day our 'Oyasas of Equestria'!" He turned away and spoke puckishly. 

"She asked you how it was, but you just turned to jello!"he said with smirk, burning eyes. 

"Dying! 
Dying at her feet, uncontrolled adoration from your mouth as , at last, you let out a horse's scream and fell shivering at her hooves! What would have happened next?  

Would you have spontaneously combusted equaling the fires that consumed those strange ponies in the desert valley who wouldn't take your intersession or Celestia's pardon? 

That would have something.That would have been true justice! That would have been satisfying!

But what did she do? What did she do?!!!"He turned into a characture of Celestia and wrapped his wings around the pony. "Live!" He squelched"Liiiive!!"He cried out mock mournfully. 

He let go of the pony. "That look, especially Luna looking agast her face saying it all,'What did you do while I was away?!!' Almost made me consider not changing the fates." he smirked. 

  But his good mood flashed away."She said it again,'Where there are tears, there is hope.'" 

He looked down at the stallion. ”I don’t think of any pony as thick in the brain as you!” He put his talents in a pinch to his cheek.”One little tinsy widle argument from your wife ! One slip of the tongue and you almost die again,”He was in the pony’s face again."Mr. Thick!! Mr. Thicketty, thick thick thick!” he relaxed. "If you had had wings now you would be almost to the ground before you did realize 'Gosh. I can fly.'" 

”And just like before you almost died!
Because. You. Knew! 

And then Sunshine saves the day!” he let out a sigh. 

”But who could blame Maridold after all the things a clueless stallion like you did? No matter how many children you had!" 

He backed up and shook his head. "Enough about a future as good as gone!” He pontificated. ”No. All of ponydom would be better off without you running about their dreams and genome!" He glared at the pony, who was, glaring back, resulting in a staring contest between the two, a battle of wills between a madman and a rock. 

Discord broke eye contact, and turned. Discord took his tallent and elongated his face. 

"What am I doing? Why am I spilling the beans! You are not my confessor! You can't see or hear me!" 

 In the back of his mind he ignored a voice that said,"Really?" 

Discord sighed closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. 

  
As Discord's head was turned, the pony seamed to blink. The "lids" like great darkness, ugly slits in them like a deranged cat or an earth dragon just after it fell from the sky, seeking healing food, fruit from a certain tree, stolen by the mate of a duplisate yahoo! 

 "Well." discord said turning back. "Time to get this started." 

"Don't worry....you live out the rest of you days...alone...Maybe the thundering herds will cause enough chaos a might get released. "He smiled, putting his arm around the stallion’s barrel. "All that pain I'll be sparing you. No beatings. No exhausting climbs, no scars, no tears"He let go, bruises on the stallions sides attempted to follow the draconques as he withdrew, but the lumps, tendrils,  failed and retreated back into the stallions sides. "just a pitiful, lonely bachelor, spending the last of his days trying to get back to the ordinary world!" He stood in front of him and cracked his tallens, reached out one talened claw. "We'll start by turning off all the hibitions." 

  Discord touched the pony's head, it pulled in his claw like quicksand.  

  There was the sound of thunder. 
"You cannot do as you like, you were bought at a price...."it was voice ! 

  Discord cried out as it pulled him in up to the elbow. 

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."said the voice again. "From clay made He them: from the dust of the earth. From the dust they came to the dust shall they return."the voice rolled like thunder. 

  Discord struggled, two bruises on the ponies each side disapeared, finnally discord pulling out his hand free. 

  He noticed the tip of his finger, it was bruised. He shook it, it dripped down, like mucuse. Then it discolored, taking the form of a chain.

"No! Discord horrified."Not that world! Celestia what have you done! What have you brought into our wourld!" 

 

The chain rattled like an insect then in long links it caught and wrapt him like a spider wraping a fly, Discord imobal and strugling his muzzle tightly closed the chain wound round and round like a gag.  

"I know you as you know me!" said only a tightly grinning mouth."Did you think you would rid yourself so easily of us from the void," it wispered in his ear sickenly,"jigsaw little cub?" 

Something began to form on his back, as it puffed up there was the sound of inflattion. At last the thing took the form of a monsterious wiggly mokey like thing, beedy eyes, thinning fluff on the top of its head a poor excuse for a mane, pale skin, thin lips jagged teeth wearing somekind of red unimorm that looked like long johns with a badge on his lepel the sybol for  an anarcriss. 

It was a hidious mockery showing his contempt and hate. 

Discord tried to speak. But couldn't.  
Couldn't hardly breathe.
The chain wound tighly like a muzzle. 

 "And after all this trouble I took for this form, I though you could be aprciative!Oh well.."he monster produced a straw."Let see what the fommy froth is like..."he popped the straw into discords head Discord merely glaring at him like an angry dog. 

 After a few sips the monster spoke."Ahh, my favorite straw...I like it because of the fizz! He tossed the straw."Pitty I can't read you fully." 

 Discord growled. 

  "Lousey plan by the way,lazy writing...just stop them coming together?I mean,for the master of chaos?What kind of plan is that? ...no. We can do better!"

He though for a moment."OOO!" he pulled out a sterio scope "All these wonderful memeories!"and began to look at the pictures on the slidding tongue."Where to start?" he threw it away with abandon."Make Luna darker...the myrter? Make Terik more violent? Stop Starswirl from becoming prominate, or better still use him as a vehicle to mount the heavens!" the rider laughed. 

"I know!  
Revenge!" He glared at the stallion discord had only moments before been interested in. "Go back...have his cave fall down and crush his bones!" He said this gleefully clenching his fist fire in his eyes. 

"No, have to play the game the way I set it up, don't know what that will do, yet!"he sniffled. "No…ending him, that's too much like your's…even though you're me, just as she is me and he is me and Celestia and Luna and humans the sun the moon the sky and stars everything is me, it’s just me..."He said with a mad cackle.  

"I will be original....do something different I haven't though yet, ooo change my timeline fight myself come up with a different outcome then I can debate myself over tea,"he said irrationally. "Then when I'm done, I'll make it the way I want. I'll have to ask myself why I did it this way, I already have a good answer, and I'll be surprised, maybe I know better in the future, teach myself a lesson!" He crossed his eyes looking like a true dullard.”What a wonderful game!” He laugh hysterically not happily but in anguish continuing to ly to himself a lie none could deliver him from."...what was I doing?" his head hurt he rubbed his temples. 

"Yes! Bend Equestria to our will, establish a beachhead...then I can all come over and defeat myself!" Now the rider was a wrinkly general wearing a shining bowl like helmet. "Go back...bend the generations, where they're weak." He looked to Marigold. "Thwart His will, stop that radians in the face! It can't be natural...after all she is just a pony! It’s not like she has any kind of commonality to the one who created all! What a game I've made!" 

He pulled back on the reigns of chain around discords mouth, making him rear."Go back when she is weak...then...one way or another ...."both he and Discord began to fade."Equestria will be minnnnne...."he was gone. 

"Well. That happened!" Luna said from her moon. 
"Shhh...."said another. "Don't interupt!" 

 Time began again. 

 Both Marigold and the stallion gasped a feeling as if an edit had occurred.
Marigold looked away and sneezed. 

 "Paprika?" she questioned in her mind identifying the elusive taste. Oh dear! What about her stallion. 

  He was stumbling a little talking nonsense, "I've never felt so lite before..."wonderful nonsense, but nonsense nonetheless. He lost the words again as his mouth opened and shut, like a guppy. 
Disarmed: The venom gone. 

 He looked at her and was confused , pupils becoming pin pricks again, raise a hoof to his mouth. He couldn't take his terrified eyes off her bobbing his head up and down to get a three sixty view glancing rearwards as he backed up and away to gain distance, stopping at length. 

 Trying to find words again, he was floundering, like a sliding mountaineer floundering and clawing for a foothold to get away from an open pit or trap, being nervous, trying to hide what nature was having him do. His Eyes flitting between her body and face lingering more and more on the body and jumping back to the face, embarrassed deep red faced stallion as he attempted to rub face and neck only getting a mouth full of dirt, and a clount in the head rolling eyes, he began talking a million words a minute, afterward, under-breath confused recriminations and swearing. As he hit the ground with his front hoof a lite white streak across the nail, sign of healing.  

  "What?"she thought."Oh." 

She had made herself more vulnerable than she had intended to be.I little more exposed than planned. It had lured him in further, further than she intended to draw him and he did not want to be drawn in at all. But moving might embarrassed him further. 

  "You are not...a...saint!" 

  She took this as a cue to move slowly covering herself with modesty so less was seen. 

  Wait. What?  
She felt affronted. 
"I'm just like you!" she told the stallion, glaring. 

The words seamed to hang in the air and echo. 
Where did that come from? 

 "Impossible!" fumed the stallion trying to act older and more mature than he actually was scrunching is face together for a moment, then relaxing before looking away. 

  "What a face. Serien, innocent and knowing...Very saintly."he thought with an insincere smirk."Like L'Inconnue de la Seine."he though sarcastically. "Hmp. Have you been sent to keep me from drowning?"  

  

Smudgie Pie...is that any way to behave?" 

  

"Who...?"The stallion thought."I...I know who! I can hear you."now afraid."I swear, no I haven't sworn!Not at all! I have not used your name in vain...have I? 
Not since Glam Mare, not since I almost ended this world!" 

  
"An offence forgiven, brought up, separates close friends.  
I told you.  
I solved that. 
Don't bring it up again..."He changed the subject. 
"How are you doing. How are your sides? 

It was then the stallion realized"They don't hurt sir! How?...I saw him. Has he been cast away? 

"Just a little blessing, a little break, just a rest from him, giving you two some privacy." 

 "No.No.No.No! You don't want me to...to..."He was shocked talking quickly."I can't believe you could be on their side! They kidnapped me! Put me in this form!" 

  "Are you hurting?" 

  He knew was talking about other places besides his sides."No..." 

  
"Did this steward of the sun force you to do anything?" 

  
"She imprisoned me!"he snorted "She took away my hiding place...." 

  
"And I approve!" 

  The stallion made a sound of disbeilf and shock. 

  
"You were threatening to stay in there and starve! What else was my servant to do, what could  Celestia do? She is ruler here." 

  "You're not sugest I bow down, to this...this...monster..."his breath became quick. 

  "I never said that.  
What I have said, 'To the rulers: respect, honor and treasure. Render unto Cesar what is Cesar's.' and 'By their fruits you will know them.' 
You cannot point to one thing, done here that in any way makes her evil, nor her servants." 

  "I… don't… have… fingers… to… point… with…!" he said pointing with his hoof at every word, to make his point. 

  
"You're doing well without them as I knew you would! " the voice teased. The stallion turned red.Otherwise I would not have let you come.  
"No all her servants I approve. 
In fact I commend them! 
All Wishes who intercede for you, at the fire, who put a new cover on my book. That guard who waved the pegisi away and protected you. Ha. He even offered to introde you to his sister! I have found a wonderful mate for her. Doctor Puzzle  who bandaged your hoof, got you a bag of sardines and cleaned up my book for you? He finds my book a wonder and has determined to understand all its secrets for the rest of his life! 

  "And this mare??!" 

  "She is also a good servant, as are you, so you know you are not alone, not to be left alone with the thing on your back... , a good steward, a Knight of my chessboard. I brought her to help you." 

  Marigold began to think. 
"It’s a chess game Marigold, you have the advantage and you know what happens when you win? Check.... 
Marigold smiled. 
Before she spoke, the stallion was thinking loudly in his head one word,"Help?"he repeated. 
"...mate." spoke the mare a moment after the stallion thought the word through a brightly smiling cherub face. 

  She opened her eyes to a ears laid back, pupil shrunk googley eyed stallion with his mouth agape staring at her before shaking his head violently to get the mind thinking, putting out a last cloud of stone dust. She laughed, thinking how cute he was. 

  
He considered how cute her laugh was, before reflecting on..."the horror!" 

  "NO.Nonononnono!" thought the stallion. 

"Unclean!" said the Stallion grasping at straws pawing the ground."I have been placed in this unclean shell...." 

  
"Do you really want to go there? 
'Under the law judged by the law: None can keep the law!'  

  "Humans are special! You came into the world through humans." 

  
"Women are special... 

Without women civilization would fall apart. They have power...they have the power to say'no.' and have it done.  
Most favored are women, I came into the world through a woman, oh man! 
Most favored is Mary.  
Yes, most favored are man because from there I came into creation. 'Goodwill towards man for unto us a Son is born.'
Most favored is my Son, because He was obedient and glad to volunteer for the prize of creation where he was sent by me, always with me, even before angels, even before space and time...when things moved at a word or a thought.

Only time He was ever away.....

 Most favored are you because you believe.  
Most favored is she also, 
because she believe too!  

'Do not say branches were broken off so I could be graffed in lest you be broken off so the the natural branches be regraffed.'  
But untill man discovers there is other life in the universe I will let him continue to believe his definition of 'special', not including the planet.  
Sol: Your world's solor engine rocketing through the universe! Such an ordinary star,still, her system corkscrewing merrily within the sin wave, the borders of her assigned worlds including yours, her wards, throwing them out and pulling them in again like aparent with her children, tredding the great dance of the galacitic plane, changing orbital declination with every burst of vitality ever so slight, that you being so small, can't detect. 
Siding notes on a musical scale. 
All this despit her'imperfections'.  
And your world? It may not be a grand house, though well situated. Great veiw, tremendious! 
Everybody goes there to look at the stars!  

 The stallion blinked. 

  
"Only what you know and about the world, a very good 'guess'. 
You don't have to think about that right now, but consider: 
Its not like you have been so inocent: like your father Adam, stealing sardeens  from that Doctor Pax Claw. He unbandaged your hoof and let you eat his sardines and hard tack!He forgave you! I have a griffon now! Sargant Captains who came and joined you both singing how you would eat the little fishes?"The stallion remembered how they sang, "I'm going to eat you little fishy!" "Till Doctor Puzzle drove you out to be cleaned of the mud from the Pegisus dive/fall/swoop" . The stallion shuddered remembering the stallions being carried off ." After Rose water and her friends helped clean you up?
Do you rember Little Dew Drop, it was just today. How she didn't judge you after you saw the devil and got you hot water, listened and obeyed when you to told her to stay away from you strange ponies?"He rembered telling Dew Drop not to leave her cloud high above making her promise, to swear, as they both heard Celestia yell 'Forever' from somewhere, far away."As  a dragon breath and pegisi turned that vortex of fire, a tornado, awesome to behold, to warm and dry you as you rested on warm stones, you and your friends?"

The stallion remember the dragon, female making eyes at one of the ponies."Where is your mind? Back on subject."The stallion focused again on the voice." Maybe you'll see them later Imago Dei."

He changed the subjet." When dry, Rose Water brushed you and combed out the nits in your main?After I showed you why you must never take my name in vain, after you almost destroyed the world? 

 If they were a tyrant, you would pray: the peace of God and wise rulings. 
You are being ruled by a large horse? You pray the same, asking for her to be guided in wisdom, (lest she do worse than bring twisted humans into her relm!) 
If you were under the rule of a giant monkey..."the stallion turned red as he thought of those movies."You pray the same: for peace, healy and wisdom on Ceasar's brow! 

  Besides, can you really call Celestia evil when you saw her walk amoung the wounded, talk gently to them, rebuke the pegisi who had caused damage and intervene and wrap her wings around one to calm and bring that maddened stallion slowly to peace??" The stallion remember seeing Celestia enter that carale of gards to confront the poor screeming and charging fellow.

  The stallion felt ashamed,"I'm sorry, please forgive me." 

  "Let me ask you something.Have you forgiven them?" 

  He swallowed and took a breath,"I forgive them...now." 

  "Glam Mare for what she tried to do?" 

  "Yes." 

  "Have you forgiven the guard, asleep against his spear, when she accosted you..." 

  "Of course." 

  "Have you forgiven the pegisi who made you hurt your hoof or the unicorn staring at you from the walls?" 

 

The stallion said he had. 

  "How about all those ponies who frightened you when you first came here?" 

  "They didn't know...and I'll get new clothes." 

  "Good. I want you to be perfect." 

  A joke private between them, the stallion smiled. 

  "Now. What I ask is difficult. Can you forgive Celestia?" 

  The ponies head began to spin and he stumbled."I..."he swallowed, he wanted to scream and call her a witch."...I will put myself out, please help me." 

  "My Imago Dei, I will help..."and with that the rage and bile slowly was put to bed in his mind. 

  "Imago Dei is not my name." he said in a last, fading struggle of wills. 

  "To me you will always be Imago Dei, any that think and can speak and reason are imago dei, Children of eve." 

  "I'm sorry." 

  "I forgive you,"There was play in the voice."I'll let you two figure things out. Understand, I call you imago dei for a reason. 
Rememeber: nothing is too much.  I give whatever helps any need if any truely ask and seek."  

  

Marigold could tell he was talking to himself,  quietly  mumbling. She closed her eyes and waited. Now that she thought about it, the murmurs were relaxing. She almost fell asleep. 

  There was quite, she open her eyes, he was staring again and had been staring at her for quite a long time. They looked into each other’s eyes a little long yet, till he broke eye contact again. 

  "Stop it!" he fumed "How would you like being ogled....?"He looked away. 

  She leaned sideways trying to get a good look at his face, trying to empathise.His eyes were closed and he was chewing his lip. 

  "Think. Think." he put his hooves to his head. "Whatever is true," and other things as he took a deep breath "Do unto others!" he said "I'm an/of imago dei....it is His will that I control myself in an honorable and holy manner not in passion..."He stood proudly erect head held high. Collapsing again, "putting  hoof slowly to face, " Too much, too much, too much." as he slowly massaged his temple. He mumbled grumbled, 

  "Face!" 

Marigold let out a startled chirp as he creid out. 

  "Imago dei....Face!" he said with a start that made them both jump. He forced himself to stare at her face, then winced till he settled down. 

  
"Her face." He said licking his lips. "Look at the eyes that's where it is...." 



"Not in passion. Huh. That would have been nice to know before that Airship, leaping on, Singing, 'I wanna hold and, and, annnnd from my dream.' Long fall that."" she thought, she looked back at him. 

  
"I forgive you." he said startling her out of her thinking. 

 She decided to change the subject. 

  "I should feel flattered, never met a Stallion more interested in my face. Simple flower shop owner me." 

  

"Oh...it’s not just the face it’s the mind, "the stallion said quickly waving one hoof around dismissively nearly falling over in  proud declaration pronouncing great truth. 
"The mind:  that of reason/speech 
Imago dei: made in His image, the mind that separates us from animal/beast!  
Imago dei: made companion, breath of life into the lungs, first sparkle of the eye, first words out of the mouth after He first kis...."he hid under his mane and started to turn pink again."Many words..."he grumbled."Too many words, and not a wit in them!" 

  
"Well timed."She smiled getting up."And like a good shop owner I'll use my mind."  


"Good steed."she said."I forgive you too!" she responded big smile. Her eyes saying,"I know who you were just talking too!" 

  
"Tell you what," She began a bargain through fluttering lashes as she walked past him turning around staring at his side, coming up on him,"oof,"stumbling. Recovering. ", if you can get away, in a race." her head and neck swung gracefully to moving her eyes forward till she had contact with the guards' eyes at the gate. "I will let you go." The grizzled guard at the gate nodded. 

  "Let me go?" said the stallion a little shocked, his eyes saying,"I don't even want to know how you know who I was talking to, but I know you know!"  

"Free to go anywhere in Equestria you want. Free to go to the far edges to try and leave this world."she said in a husky voice. 

  "If I win, I never have to see you again?" His voice wasn't readable, but his mind was feeling the slightest upset of rejection. 

  "Uh hu." she said licking her lips. "Do we have a deal stranger?" 

  

"I don't want to look shameful. We are to look are best for the female!"He straightened up his body again."Irrelevant thoughts! I do not acknowledge you!"He winced again, remembering the pains in his sides, straitening up to his height."Don't care! She certainly isn't smooth and her words aren't like honey....does she consider me a pound of meat like that awful beastly unicorn Glam Mare...?"he thought, keeping his jaw tightly closed though some mumbling did escape. 

  
"It does say, if you are a slave you should try to buy your freedom."the stallion thought chewing his lower lip. "This is a good deal...Looking over his own body "I feel so strong! I don't think I've ever felt so strong!" He looked himself over "I am stronger. "He stood up tall."I am bigger! realizing "I can out run her! Outrun her grasp. Ha, I'll be so fast I won't have to find out!" but he forgot.  

  He forgot that the race is not always to the swift or strong. 

  "Deal." he said with a stern countenance upon his face. 

  In that moment, to the bearded old guards, they looked like a portrait Amour Gothic  by Grain Wood, they couldn't help chuckle as Marigold nodded her signal. 

  They pulled the gates wide with gusto and the couple scrambled in a flash and away . 

  
"Anddd, their off!" said the gaurd looking after. 

"That is that.Who are we crossing of the registration?" 

 "Smudgie Pie."said the other satisfied. 

  "Ohhh him!
Celestia can't make me" the first smiled."I'll just isolate myself in this crack in the wall and die here  The look on his face when he opened his eyes coved in dust. And to dust did that cave go, she did, to draw him out at her last gentle word!" he laughed.
"I'm my own free number! Whatever that means..." 

 "Soooo,"Said the other." should have Pie listed in the stud books at records?" 

  "Ka pth!" said the unicorn with his tongue and cheek."You could but why bother? Pie is such a common name."
> Steeple Chase
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

She caught up to him, once, as the sun rose. Apprehending him she forced him to look back. 
"Take a break!" she said to the flailing stallion she embraced. "You have to see! Look as the pen comes down." 

He stopped bucking and struggling, all his huffing and puffing stopped. He watched, awestruck as at last the gentle rumbling hit his ears and soft as a heartbeat and the massive columns and stonework's of the pens went back into the earth at the earth ponies' command, crumbling almost melting into crumbs. 

One tall pillar remained. 

The stallion felt something at his foot, under his right front leg. Something in the ground, Marigold was distracted by the great structures crumbing away, but he look down at his foot, the ground was tingling hardly glowing, just barely noticeable. 

The pillar began to take a shape as it crumbed as if being shaped by a master confectioner; it started getting thinner at the base, wider near the top with an uneven globe beginning to form and what looked like eyes scowling. 

The master earth movers were fluster at this turn of events, all the earth and stone was supposed to go back into the ground, except for this stubborn lump, the fact that it was taking a form, some kind of fanciful biped, twelve stories tall, was just to the imagination. They leaned in, trying to get the stubborn, shall we say "willful" thing, to fall back to the ground, some pushing the youngster huffing as if caring heavy loads, all staring at the thing, but for the oldest of the grand earth shaping ponies. 

He slowly turned his head to two tiny figures standing some distance away on a gently sloping hill. He narrowed his eyes and scowled. He focused on the male, what a stupid look on his face. He was acting like a spoiled child, holding tight, refusing to accept the changes happening in front of him, excited at what was happening yet stubbornly clinging to a toy now being dragged along by that toy as his parent told him to clean up. 

He had had children. He was not going to let the situation get any more out of hoof. As he stared at him, the stallion wasn't even aware he was being stared at; the elder raised his hoof high above his head and slammed to the ground. 

"Ah!" the stallion cried at the little slap on the hoof, looking at the bottom of his hoof at his frog like an idiot. 

The pillar disarticulated, like chocolate crumbling or a Figgie Pubbing not having had enough time in the mold, returning to its natural states, a mound terracing and shaping as if the pens were never there.

....except for the sundry of different  and unalike items in the middle, honestly it did look for all the world like an auction. 

"We have no idols here," said the old pony under his breath still sighting the two dots so far away, "not here in Equestria." 

"Did you say something grandfather?" said another pony. 

"It’s just earth youngin,"he said through his teeth, "you only need to grunt when yer plowing it!" 

"That was something to see, wasn't it?" Marigold said with a pleasant smile as he nodded his head starring at her wide eyed. Through his eyes she could see awe of it, the wonder of youth and again how awesome indeed it was, the thoughtful contemplative flash that just the night before he had been walled up in a crack in one of those wall, so no mare could touch him, and now the place was no more. 

The countryside was pleasant, cloud and mountain made for a lovely panorama. 

"What a lovely day for a run! The sun is shining, birds singing!" 

She didn't notice......he was turning blue,  

"Maybe he will stop running? We can at least know each other's names...."she finally noticed. "Breathe!" 

Gasping and coughing. 

"You have perfect timing stranger!" She thought through half lidded eyes. She could've hit him. 

Catching his breath,  "Huff, Huff! Snort. This race hasn't ended. Bacon hair!" 

...and the meanness again. 

"What's becanhier?"She smiled presently, he was stubborn...and thick! "Very well." She waved her hoof before her. "The field is open; I'll give you a head start..." 

Fascinated, he imitated the gesture, fixated on his own hoof to Marigold's dumbfounded look, shaking his head snapping out of it darting off, clumsily stumbling, and crashing through the brush ignoring all the switchbacks as he made his away. 

"That's not...I don't believe that!" She trotted after with a sigh after picking up his saddlebags." Is this how marriage is supposed to be huh? Married to a big colt or strange puppy? Tsk, too late now." Strangely after that display of stupidity she still wanted him. Guffawing she shook her head." A huntress me, like the stories those wandering griffins tell in downtown Filly!" 

She knew he would be totally spent by noon, but she had a plan envisioned, and he was doing exactly as she wanted, along the path. 

Well not exactly! 

It is a beautiful thing to see, a pony run. All the muscles working together in harmony of motion to perform this action called runn... 

"Good gracious!" 

She ran of his right side, then on his left and again on the right, to be certain she was not seeing things. 

The muscles were completely uncoordinated. 

It was as if he had never run, or trotted, or cantered? Even the mustang knew how to run! 

He strained, tried to get ahead, kicking up clods of earth and lose stones nearly falling over at times, the rotation of the ankles was wrong but it was no use. He was using shear power and simply could not figure out how to pace his body. 

There was no spring in his gate that was purposely held down. Every step shot straight through his joints right up into shoulders hips and back!  

He was going to be in a lot of pain later, a lot of pain.  

She had seen this type of style/gate only once, an actor clowning around to the laughter of colts. 

However, Marigold knew tricks, massages and remedies, time practiced you had use on her elderly parents. 

She caught up to him, pulled gradually ahead, a gentle restful canter for her, and she herded him where she wanted, teasing sometimes, falling back and pushing him back up sometimes circling to the other side moments later, shoring up the other side, pushing, preventing him from tripping over at such tremendous speed. 

She would fall behind at times giving the illusion that somehow he could pass, blocking only once to prevent him from running up and over a cliff he never knew about. 

At last, at noon she pulled away, leaving him in the dust, galloping at full speed ahead, while she turned her head back at him back at him with a smile and a wink, letting him get a good look at her flowing tail and curvy backside, crushing his every idea of outrunning her. 

She sat down waited for him. 

And waited for him. She could hear him. 

Straight ahead , tunnel vision, he had no other place to go. 

How to emphasis the point. 

She pulled a book out of his saddle bags, a heavy tome; she was just going to use it as a prop but became fascinated in the strange language and scribbles in the margins and all over the pages. 

Out of the brush he came, stumbling haggard wheezing.....even if she didn't mean to, now, it was her turn to ignore him!  

Part of her really, really wanted pay back! 

"You're here!"she said at last with the air of somepony looking over the morning post, a mischievous smile . "I've been here half an hour." she lied. 

Too tired to evade capture, eyes crossed the whole world a blinding blur, his messy mane drooped with his head to the ground. "You win..."he said petulantly between gasps admitting defeat. "I've lost my soul...." 

" Okay......"she said hesitantly putting the book back inside his bag. "Um, where did you lose it?" she asked confused, strange name for a saddle bag. 

"Stories, bet with devils..."he said parched licking his lips. "Big devil angel of light raising the sun..."he said with some heaves, sobs shivering. "You have my soul!" he said balefully. 

"What??!"she said, leaping to her hooves. 

"Soul! "Oh no! Not like this! Not superstitions! Not broken down, no. I must snip this bud to the root!" Crying was the worst thing; it would amplify all his muscles hurt. 

She came beside him, "No...No, stop." she said raising his head. "Don't be crushed, wadded and give up.  I am like you,, nothing more or less." She smiled looking into his tiered gray eyes. "No." she said brushing his check. "We are yokefellows , you and I.You are new to the field. Soon you will lead." she smiled gently, it didn't seem to help. 

Nuzzling him softly speaking likewise" I don't have your soul…but." She said a deep breath "if I did,  any remote ridiculous possibility..."she put her hoof on his chest. "I give it back, I let it go. I give it back to you. You, take it back, ok?"  

"Forgive so I can be forgiven...I promised I'd forgive..."he gasped glumly. 

She pressed up to him and gently embraced him. "From my heart, to yours, please. Don't be sad. You are not a little sparrow in a cage, ok." she pulled away and looked into his eyes smiling. 

"I'm sure you have nothing to be forgiven for." 

"You should wait till after tomorrow’s reading, Moses father in law." 

"What..?" 

"Did I say something?" he said breathing hard, blinking confused. 

She stared at him. 

In that look was communication. 

"Look. That is enough of that. The same rules that apply there apply here, no spoilers. I know your still having trouble here, but you must pull yourself together. The rider will return and you must be ready." 

He looked at her. 

Communication: 

"Understood. No advanced previews." 

Communication Marigold:  ”I was hoping for a little more.” 

Marigold saw a glint in the corner of her eye a reminder vying for attention. Today’s goal! 

She cried out, "Nike’!" a tradition from her city Filly Delphi. 

Its closest translation, he didn't shudder being so tiered. 

"Look." showing him what sparkled under the sun, leaning into him being motherly, leading him to water." Most welcome." He didn't even notice he was now leaning on her as they walked. "Not too much. Slowly."  She said as she brought his head toward the water, he drank. She knew he would pay later for overworking, cold water to aggravate it. Thankfully the water was clean and warm in a stone pool. Pegius sign assured the water was fresh. She drank beside him. 

Marigold saw him wince as he began to straighten up with her, the pains were beginning. 

Now to the distraction, "My husband." she guided his eyes to a lovely green grassy hill, a high meadow, like a dark emerald. "…your reward." 

He bolted toward it alarming Marigold at how fast he moved. His body must already feel the cramps. 

As soon as he got there, he collapsed among the soft green grass and welcoming flowers. He then cried out in a loud voice in words in an order she had never heard before. 

As marigold got closer she heard these magnificent words: 

"The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want...."he began to droop and fade as he spoke but he pressed the words out of his lungs at the same volume. "He makes me lie down in green pastures," he began to slump. "He leadeth me beside the still waters." He was against the ground heavy breathing. "He restores my soul." He jumped back up again. "He leads me in the paths of righteousness...for his name sake." He slowly slumped to the ground collapsing again like a crumbling mountain. He began to fade. "Though a walk in shadow....mumble...valley... death...no evil fear I...you.. with..me...staff..rod, comfort." he was done. He slept. 

Marigold was over, checking him out. "Not dead. Not dead! Thank you" she said breathlessly. 

He had scared her with this run. She curled her hoof around his. "Still fighting… not broken, good. Good! 

Have to keep him, shade him now from the sun, warm compresses later on all the joints....hot mud and grass wrapping" she patiently waited on the sun as it moved across the sky. "Need to build a fire later." 
After the sun had turned she took away her shadow for shade and laid her head on his side. "I will never take advantage of you." she said. She gently touched his side. "I have heard Him speak; he called you his brother and son. You must tell me who this/our Lord is, my husband, and why He called you Imago Dei. 

I promised him, I would help you, take care of you, me, owner, a little flower shop, a mare of Filly Delphi."
> Collusion With Parts Unknown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The stallion dreamed.

All the world changed in a moment at her last yawn. (see notes 1)
From: tucking in grey filly with the dulcet eyes, under the watchful(ness?) of her strange pet rock, after telling tales in her bedroom, too: the stallion finding himself in a gentle embrace in the dawn/dusk clouds. 

No.
Not an embrace!
It was leading in a dance.
He: leading, the dark mare, with starlight in her hair, the dark mare was holding him.

"Lucy in the sky with diamonds!"he thought.

Such grace!
She was a Ginger Rogers or Grace Kelly, such wonderfully swinging movements!He couldn't even feel the ground.
No Fred Astair was he.

Such a strange dance, he recalled  movements similare to visions  in childhood, imagined, after reading Rudyard Kipling's. "Elephant's Dance."

And he was leading her?
He decide not to talk for a bit.
She was singing a melody, liltingly.

He knew the music.
Right on cue, the flute solo!

A little strange mousing, biped, leapt out of a cloud bank dressed in a wonderious uniform, of command regalia, of silver, gold and cobalt some scarlet for trim, wearing a neat captains cap, dance and playing the pipe with all his might, leaping jumping spinning his tail turning round him in a coordinate spiral, among the clouds, getting closer.

But, oh, so dignified was he, leaping and twirling!
"I wonder." thought the stallion."Is this what the audience, all those cowboys, thought at the premier of Aaron Copland's ballet "Billy the Kid" in 1938....I can remember all that, but not my name?It was Pea...It was Peaa.." Struggling to remember that human name the dream around him seamed to ever so slightly darken and flutter.

At the gleam of a single button,the stallion was distracted. 
The dancers noticed inconsistencies in costume distracted he:
though his uniform was professional and neat, it had not been surviced in a while. Grey was in the white of the shirt he wore and the cuffs of his pants and jacked were tattered to threads. Though his continuance was pleasant and he smiling, his face, with its long mousey nose, looked tired. Grey was in his mane at the top of his head. He had the look of a hunter, a warrior long in battle by his eyes surrounded by winkles. Long in the trenches or under the marine depths, the winkles of sleep deprivation. 
Those eyes looked as if they had seen sights to make men, yes, human beings mad!

Those old and weary eyes kept focused, locked, on the mare singing. 

It wasn't a button at all! 
A tiny star flitting in and out of the stallions preferential vision, something to say when you consider a horse can see nearly three-sixty!
It was joined by others, scads and swarms! Great bright pinpoints of light gathered to him charging across the clouds, sparkling like stars,lens flare fireflies, circling and dancing with him. 

Tear, one, came to his diamond shining like eye. He was among friends, he had sent them away and now they had returned to find their...admiral! Yes admiral! Admiral of the stars!
At once the stallion knew, The Mousling Admiral of the Great Star Fleet, he was glad!

He finished and bowed, the stars took stationery orbits around him, waiting orders.He, standing back up, the flute clenched in his fist, waited.

Presently the mare spoke.

"Rest now warrior, my Admiral. The mission is finished, the battle joined, the hunt is over. You did well in my domains and did not take the final blow, deserved, in the house of my sister being at your mercy. Your noble heart would not let you. Let you end this jelious Alicorn's existance for the crime against those gliding ships in her sky. 
Go now, to the heights of the sky!
Join your brothers, under the rollers there! 
Living soul, 
under the waves
among the broken instrumentality, 
barely used,
,cry out to the intercessor as he walks above.
Bringing you up,
to walk as equal with him."

A gesture of his hand the stars zipped away in all directions, began dancing among the clouds. 
Slowly, the old soldier, faded away.

The stallion didn't ask. He knew the story, could guess ,or at least come up with a dozen intersecting explanations...
....and the thing was, for our strange stallion, he knew, all of them would be true!

A true believer story!

"What a story."He though about contacting that dancer who lifted his wife one high above his head as a swan, contacting him to make..."A ballet. I would call it,"The Mouse Admiral Encounter in the Alicorn's Domain!"
She called him...what?
Piernas

Then the dark mare spoke to him....

" There’s never been such a sky!"she talked in verse, the little stars disappeared into the clouds,bringing attention back to her. ]" Damp clouds have shined it and soft winds have swept it as if to make it ready for a King’s ball. All its lanterns are lit, all its torches are burning, and its dark floor is shining like crystal...."she said.

"Most lovely!Where is it from?"She asked, he embraced in her wings. Alarmed the stallion, noticing, at that point the long and slender tipped glinting one coming out of his dance partners forehead.

Her lips didn't move but did...
"Here is the true story...." a darker, drifting, ghostly dragon,yellow, eyed image around her disappearing after it spoke...very disconcerting.

A terrible vision filled his mind.
Monstrous shadows, giant ships, illuminated by burning venting gasses,helpless!
A great space battle, high above the moon.

Again, what? 
A horse! A flying unicorn with wings! A terrifying dark nightmare that the technologically minded should never see! Their energy weapons useless as she cleft one of the fleets ships in twain!
Diving through the force-field of another, like a pin lancing a blister, close to the hull, skimming past a large window, Time slowing...the Nightmare turning, turning her head looking. She, looking directly, directly at the one seated, flaring her nostrils to take a breath as if smelling him, him, the one in command, the Mouse Admiral, shuddering to the feeling of something breathing in his fur behind him. 
Walking on his grave! 

Without missing momentum, she flew past the tiny window, making a great arch of her back,  displaying lewdity, actions stating,"This time, have a really good look!"
Forces fields rumbled protest, sparks flew from the tiny control consoles.  

His pupils shrunk to pin pricks.
Discernment to the Admiral, he knew! 

NO!!!
The statue!!
Her he recognized, he had seen enough.
Landing on the moon to look around,  that found, they were enthralled...one might say enchanted!
Savagery, muscle and movement mixed with delicacy, his experts said the work of a genius! 
Fine exhibit for the museums! 

Who was going to say no if they took it?

Shoulda, woulda coulda!
Could have taken more of the day to study the thing. 
Would have allowed a more detailed look with instruments, seen something wrong,instead of ogling.  
Shoulda realized there was a problem when it took three armadillo heavy lift drones full  power, to lift, upside down and encircled in chains, off the pedestal it was so mathematically and astronomically precisely placed!
Heaven knows what the thing was thinking head down at perigee just before all contact with the drones was completely lost!

Worse!
Being assessed by his thing, they were, by this demon, this impossible nightmare!This statue come to life, impossibly flying!
Toys!
These silver ships, bobbing, splashing  about in her moab tub of moonlight!

Away! Away!
Even if nowhere twas warp computed.
Playtime was nearly over. 
Either way, the second the force field made a sonic boom as she flew out again, that moment,he knew, the sparks flew, 
his great star fleet was doomed. 

He swallowed.

This mare, this mare in front of him smiling serenely, this mare was the nightmare!
"Oh God! Oh God! Intercede for me!"came the thought fighting through the seizing gears gum and tar in his mind.

The stallion replied with the first thing that came to mind.
Singing from the same opera.....
" Have you seen a Child, the color of wheat, the color of dawn?"he sang weakly."His eyes are mild, His hands are those of a King, as King He was born. Incense, myrrh, and gold we bring to his side, and the Eastern Star is our guide."

She looked him, quizzically.

He continued, almost in a squeak." Yes I know a child the color of wheat, the color of dawn. His eyes are mild, his hands are those of a King, as King he was born. But no one will bring him incense or gold, thou sick and poor and hungry and cold. He’s my child, my son my...."his throat became dry and he cleared it.
"Amahl,"he stammered again, recovering his voice."It is from a short opera called, Amahl and the Night Visitors."

"Ahhmaaaahhlll....."she sang, the very sound of it , it rang as a bell, the flawless tone of glorious fruit made of silver, 
exactly as the mother of a lame shepherd boy should sound...
...perfect!
It sent shudders through the stallion as he rolled his eyes and he was assured, all was well.

"Oh dear. We have over compensated!" she said apologetically."Forgive us. Sometimes tonality reflects into the center, backing down the family lines from origin, affecting the humors! It will pass."

Collywobles: floating on the memory of the vibration, all of his apprehension slipping away.
"I don't ever want it to pass..."said the stallion, a stupid smile on his face.

Marigold woke up.
The strangest of sounds Her stallion had made. She checked over all the mud compresses, still secure. The warm mud would keep his joints from swelling and locking up. After attending him she looked at his face, the stupidest grins she had ever seen. 

Getting up and stretched,"He must be dreaming." 

Walking over to the fire she had so carefully constructed, she lay near it to absorb the heat. 
Pity he was sleeping. She had found this place, made this fire, for him, for them so they could get to know each other better.  

Marigold sighed, looking up at the silhouette in the moon. 
All at once a directionless jealousy filled her.
"Mine!"she barked

"Oriiingin? Wha?"the stallion stirred.

"Oh dear!"said Marigold covering her mouth staring wide eyed at him. He let out a snore, "No harm done."
she said. 

"Yes...."said the mare impatiently"That too will pass.".

"Did I hear that?"
Slowly rolling her eyes to looking at the moon it looked different somehow. "How odd."she exclaimed recovering.
"No." she thought shaking her head vigorously. 

"Really?Get a grip on you're self!"


The Stallion heard Marigold and felt self conscious, embarrassment.
"Pardon me."politely speaking.
" Who are you?"he said quietly as he gently but firmly left the embrace pushing her away."You're like Celestia."

"I wanted to see to what you would do."she said."I conclude you are of a sound character..."

"Ohhhhh Xanadu(TM)uuuu!
Now that you're herrrrre! musical Xanadu.

Mare and stallion were startled by the little filly.

"I love it!"she said falling backwards on the clouds.

"Gee."thought the stallion."As much energy as a cast member from Bye Bye Birdy. Don't judge! Its all that 
comes to mind!"

"That's a terrible musical!"said the stallion.

"Nu uh." said the filly."I found an anniversary digital disk of the original eighties version."

He guffawed "Lots of bright colors....I should have known." grumbled the stallion giving the filly his full attention away from the mare."Of all the things to keepsake, without a player! I demand to know who brought it!"

The filly gave it a spin on her horn, it stood up and spun balanced on horn's tip.
"Nope!"she said, the stallion waited for a bubblegum bubble."He will remain...safely,"she took a deep breath,"anonymous."her mouth took a funny shape and she started to make funny sounds, eyes glowing light blue from the musical playing within.

A more exuberant filly jumping out of the clouds"Luna!Luna!"she cried excitedly , same main color, same mark, same horn and wings and."Tell him he must write it down when he gets to Filly Delphi, while he's dismembering car parts, and rocket engines, remembering recipes for candy bars! Its really fun!" 

The elder mare eye began to twitch.

"I enjoy it as much as Celestia enjoyed Camelot, such a wonderful name for a city, Fiddler on the Roof is great and who could forget...."Mariaaaaa! I just met a girl named Mariaaaaa! musical West Side story.

The jets are pegisi!"

"Luna."said the elder turning a little pink oviouly embarased.

"....shall we dance, shall we dance, shall we dance."said the filly twirling. Musical King and I.

"Luna."warned the mare.

"...the power of the music of the nighhhht..."sang the filly falling into a cloud bank. Musical Phantom of the Opera.

"Luna."the mares tone rising.

"...I could have danced allll night. I could have danced all night."Bellowed the little filly as she swam out of the clouds , skating along as if she were in an Icescapade. Musial My Fair Lady.

"Luna!!"cried the elder mare.

"Who me?" was the look on the younger version of the mare with a dozen others similar popping out of clouds.

"Disentangle yourself at once from my inner child this instant!"she scolded."You know as well as I and will know better.... later, 'You don't know such things yet'!"

"Oh but Luna!" protested the filly."The world is so much boring without them, we would have never thought such thoughts, songs and music...I'm glad to know them."

"Well you don't!"snorted the mare."We never knew him or them in our time reference...that you should be getting back to by now!"


Talking off the top of his head."Well I for one, think a better musical distraction would be Peter and the Wolf, or More (Starts?), Magic Flute..

"Yes see!" Said one the little Lunas.
"The world's so boring don't you see, don't you see,don't you see! So will all the strange ponies please stand up,please stand up, please....stand...up.."she stopped under the withering gaze of all the other Luna's including the big one.
Slim Shady Eminem paraphrase.

"None of you ask,'Where it is....'"she said darkly. Whomps there it is. by Tag Team paraphrased.

"I agree said the filly,"there was mischief in her eye."So Papagana...."she asked the stallion,"How are you and Momagana getting along?"

"Luna!!!"cried the elder Mare again .

The stallion blinked.

"Pa,Pa,..Pa,pa,pa."they all began to sing the aria for Papa and Mamagana as a chorus, Except for the elder mare who rolled her eyes.

The stallion still in the bubble at the top of his mind.
"They're really quite good..."

The elder Luna silenced them all with her rendition of the "Queen of the Night's Aria" in staccatos only, with a frown.
Motsarts magic flute.

"No."said the stallion.
"She's excellent!"

The younger Luna's pawed the clouds looking this way and that embarrassed, mumbling,to the effect,"We're practicing/working/getting there/ mother's helping me/starswirl is tutoring me/never heard that before simply improvising and not done yet..."

"What no Gilbert and Sulivan?"

There was a big breath....
"NO! That would be totally unpalitable, unacceptable and indigestable!
No Hms Penifore....the gang is.. just... leaving."

"Thank goodness for little girls." musical GIGi 
"That's right!"said the stallion feeling dizzy and silly."Everybody out of the pool! Do as your aunt says."

This resulted in uproarious nickering.

"He's so cute! Isn't he."they laughed."Just so thick!"

The elderly Luna stomped her hoof to a crassh of thunder.Silence for the longest time.
"I insist you disengage!" she said seriously."Your going to give him an anarism...."

They all departed, saying goodbye, each giving him a different nick or pet name the last having Xanadu snatched away, by her elder, she stuck out her tongue.
Leaving one.
Two.

"No he can't have an anarism...."This one was different, darker but still as small as a filly if not more diminished.
"Not just yet!"

"Soft, shinny Tears  of argentum," she sang slowly aproaching.

"Graft is it now? Trying to bribe me with my own tears?"

The darker mare continued.
" The truth is  that I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Let's close the distancccccce.
I kept my promisssssse" musical Avida paraphrased

"What do you want,martyr?" said Luna coming between the stallion and the approaching mare.

"Don't be a stranger.I only wanted to meet him...."

She looked like a mini version of the vision he had seen."Now that's a Xanadu..."said the stallion seeing all that glittering peering around Luna he shivered.

"Shhh...."Luna said."...and devour him?"

"Pray no!"said the other mare."We have the better deal here, crone."she said with sweet poison. 
"You will become more, and I will become less."she smiled.

"What does she mean maam?" asked the stallion.

She sang a mockery.
"There was another 
He was your brother 
He came before you, fought the darkness,  darkness won.

And he fought bravely, oh he died bravely
forsaken by the ones he wished to save.
when he died, he died in vain. 
I was the only one who mourned!

"That's not true!"Luna said agast.

You need to know."Bellowing, the very growling voice of  a rocker, the very vibrations of a electric guitar!
She started violently bobbing her head up and down , it was amazing she did not lose her helm, rocking!
"You are not him."she roared.
Smoke and fire billowed from her mouth. Letting only the eyes seen.
"This fight's not yoursssss...."she sang in anticipated dynamics. Musical Megaman paraphrarsed

No he was wrong, this one was the ship ending nightmare!

Looking at her his eyes came onto sharp focus on the crown on her head. 
Two small dots were flitting through the crown spires.

"Stop it!"Luna said curtly.
"Wouldn't mother be proud!"then she smiled, a trophy taken too early."Having trouble with reentry through the ragged layer of ether?Contending with that thick miasma?

"As you say....you would know.You will know!"said the darker filly with a shrug lashing her tail like a Cheshire, the voice of an intellectual and a pout.Noticing she had captured the stallions attention."Then, I just wanted to meet the stud with the piercing grey eyes." She stared at him.

The crown spires became minarets, and the crown became a fairy city pearched percariously upon a mountain side, Two puppets zipping in flight like gad flies, a marionette show around her head, one alicorn, the other, a historonically dressed humanoid mouse, chasing her in a rocket pack.  
She flew in and out, the great city, weaving amoung the towers, trying to avoid the laser blasts from the two long cannon tied with cords to his mouse's arms. 

Lucky shot! 
Knocked down a wall pinning the dark alicorn puppet, he approached pointing at the helpless doll,now panting, his weapon charging, black ooze teared from his soulless eyes. 
He hesitated for the longest time shaking. Wracked with pain he cried out too the sky, and fell at the alicorn's hooves. The shadows came out of him and the alicorn quickly held him to her side,under her wing. 
The shadow rose above them like a monster.

"You shall not have him!"she cried.

There was a flash of light!
Marionette of Celestia, descending! 
Tearing open a hole in the air with her horn, a flaming fiery hole, light wrapted the shadows and threw them, beyond.
Banished them in closing she spoke.
"Join the collected of thy ruin!"

Puppet Luna embraced the mousling cheif and seemed to weep.

Feeling funny,the stallion, tried to turn away from the nightmare filly, too late.
Wreathed in shadows, 
her face filled his sight, 
his vision 
and his mind.

"How much like our little Admiral is he ."she smiled, as she continue her stare at the stallion, a sound in her voice. 

"Contact has been made!"her voice echoed through the now hollow shadows of his mind.
Unheard by gloating Luna.

"Left behind inside the central  control computer node as his fleet warped to limbo."that sound, a vibration,alien, growing. "What a dainty little kinder egg , with the prize inside, a little toy clock of gears and springs for me to adjust." Her voice distorted.
"All for me!" sounded strange along with...rattling. 
"Can you imagine him dressed in armor, silver helmed, diamond shining eyes and chains."

Luna rolled her eyes at the thought of him being undignified slipped out of his uniform  into such a armor carapace.

" Weapons, chain from each wrist." The stallion rolled his eyes becoming milky and whit
e."Crackling electricity."
"Chains, hot chain, to grab and bind and tear to rend...."The rattling of a snake's tail now fading."Head of my immutable army of shadows.
The gnawing, biting thing....thing.."she echoed in the stallions mind.

"Bah!"said Luna."That place has alread be chosen and is not for me to say!"with a word she had unknowingly tampered and bent the spell.

"Aye..."said the nightmare hiding behind half lidded eyes trying to cast the charm what she felt best.
"The little shadow of the moon...moon...moon..."

The stallion found himself staring into a pool at his reflection. He, girded in armor and barding one could only call nightmare armor. He was on a hill, looking a vast army. His mind full of duty and responsibilities, chewing his lip, thinking what the troops could do dealing with such violent and lawless ponies, having no respect for life, in the camp below. 

He walked over to his companion. At his hoof, just up to his pastern, there was a little figure, he had taken his helmet off and placed it on a rock beside him. He was looking out a pair of antiquated field glasses his size. "Saramouse, Scaramous."he hummed."Can you do the fandango?"

He pulled the field glasses down.
"Very,very, frightening thing!" He yanked the helmet back on his head and lept to the stallions neck. An electrical surge passed through the stallion causing him to rear.The mousling used his weight to canterlever the pony, using his body as a fulcrum, tumbling and falling quite a distance. 

A pegusi with ragged wings and unkempt fur slammed into the place they had been only moments.A large cloud marking the place as explosives shook the ground.

The stallion glared at the mousling who was, laughing?
"Classic!"he said giddy."Time to put that book learning to good use, one fire to another eh? This will be easy way to earn my spurs!"
He then became serious and sighed."Its behind the lines the real dirty work is." he look up to the stallion."I'll even gift wrap them like Ai for you."as he nudged the stallions pastern, leap away in a cartwheel. He let a chain and tested it, electricity ran through, throwing it round a rock, turning it dust and splinterings. Pulling it back, red dots from his shoulders set down long lines burning the ground.

"Warning twelve percent power remaining."

"Sigh. Don't need it till the last dash." he tested long blades that came from his wrists."Infiltration mostly..." he struck the ground with the spine connected to the armor of his tail. He raised his arms, shadow circled him like a shroud, flew of like ribbons, picked up the little granular bits of rock and piled them in a pile before he dispersed them with a wave of his hand.
Jumping on the stallions back,"Back to camp your honor." The stallion began to walk, unsure of his passanger."You need a distraction and I need to talk to your general."

"Better the nightmare Herself than her servant."softly sang Luna.
"Be not cruel,
Honor your parents little child. 
To tell no lie.
For them, to you, interceding.
From:
thing, little gnawing biting....
shadows, he's always watching,
Little Shadow of the Moon!"

The stallions eyes cleared to Luna looking at him with concern the tip of her wing on his shoulder. He nodded to her.She brought her attention to the nightmare before her.

"So? You filtered into the air tight compartment and let him see your smoky visage."she said with raised eyebrow."Why did you let him go?"

"Oh I dealt with him!Nasty thing, part shadow hunter!"she smiled."Into the interstices flung he." she said polishing her hoof.
Immature race, the voids with them, along with the scrap of their juvenile little silver ships, to starve!"

"For me to deal with..."Luna corrected.

"Why didn't you let him go?"she smirked.

"He deserved to lay in state for the prescribed time, under the banner of his nation and handled with dignity, the custom of heroes we honor!"

"Hero..."The nightmare smirked, shrugged and she looked back at Luna."You see what's happening out there, don't you?"

Luna was silent.

"Here is another story for our little story teller."she said to the stallion.
"She has brought him before her, and there he is!"She said proudly pointing at the stallion."As queen she stands, she towers, towers over him, her shadow over him, in darkness is he,this week thing, this whelp, this mongrel pup, this dogggg..... she says.
'Who are you?'"

"But His eyes are seen through the darkness...all darkness.....it can never cope with with the light.
Go on."said Luna, unimpressed."What happened next, you are commanded to continue."she said with an almost smile.

The filly was unprepared."She...."she stammered as the story was dragged out of her."He...."she licked her lips."Those eyes turned to her,looked at her...she...trembled at their gaze.... stumbled back, she felllll, breathing hard, she gasped...."the filly said dry mouthed."Gaping at him,now even more terrible out of the shadow...how real he is! She asked again,'Who are you?'"she again looked to the stallion."Those eyes looked at her a long time, then spake he,"One who you will regret having ever brought into the darknessess presence!"...."

"That's enough."she said.

She looked at Luna"Till again."
She looked at the stallion."We all have riders on our backs don't we?"

"Begone!"

The filly disappeared.

The stallion was confused.

Again Luna gently wrapped him in her wings, he did not resist.
"For what will happen, for the things you must do, on behalf of Equestria I extend my deepest feelings, and thanks."

She let go.
"Know this that for every stripe of the rainbow I shall receive one strike, for every hurt that happens to your people, I will receive six more!
I am at fault. I was not there to give my sister sound council, I blame myself!"

A giant shadowy figure rose, a simplistic cameo of the mare of the night herself.
"And for every hurt, I inflict on you, I will punish myself with nightmares!"

The stallion with the grey eyes, turned quickly away from the cowering form of nightmare moon and spoke directly to Luna.
"NO.
LUNA."Luna looked directly at him cocking her head paying close attention." Bend your ear to me."Luna bent down."I forgive you."he said gently to the princess." You will not abuse yourself over me!"He approached her ear."I bind you to this promise by this name."He whispered it in her ear.

She backed away and looked at him.
The giant shadow evaporated.

"After....you will hear more on this. Know, that it comes from me, it comes from the one who saved me, from my father."
He looked at Luna and smiled."Lucy."

"One before called me Lucy."she said staring at him. "He wrote books about a Lordly Lion and dedicated them to me before he knew my sickness, my madness, he read them to me when I was alone to ease the screaming in my head....you tell some of his stories, I recognize the style."she looked at the stallion penitently."Will I see him again, to thank him for the stories when I was lonely?"

The stallion smiled.
"If a student of Celestia's, called Bee Tricks, can be caught up in a bad spell, redeemed, then called to pray for a creature she saw, so far away called Dante, and be lifted to the heavens to her astonishment at the heavenly light in her eye under the sun watch..."he chuckled."He does the impossible you know! More amazing things have happened!
Everyone anxiously awaits you and your sisters' return!" The stallion bowed and came to himself.

"Till unification."she said a gentle bow of the head.

"Luna."he asked."Will I ever remember the name I had before?"

Luna thought then spoke.
In borrowed armor, armor redeemed from a racist, through many blows but not one blow from you. Authority of a crown against the shadow name, spanned many shadows, the cur, from a time of magic yours but you will bow. Led to pasture along paths of poured stone but not brought to salvation torn grass and roots and soil. Scream the beast the  stallion searching! Led away, hand in hand, from the two legged couple, the chase under the lightning lights of night. How hot the crown! The crown explodes. Through the portal, before the other, tumble. Duck! The final blow, the army stone, that is all Celestial. The singing throng but a note is wrong, through tears you press against the window. 
Know this: you are not alone Amago Dei cries out, at your side, and will be with you! On your back, your youngest, called back through, irreistable, your strength shall be renewed and before your wife and children will cry your name to the heights of the clouds.

"Children?"the stallion spoke through his teeth."How will that happen?"he asked again.

Luna smirked."Your wife will lead you."

"Like a lamb to the...."

She grabbed his head and looked into his eyes.
"Like a lion! With much roaring as their hooves thunder in every hill and their wings flutter in the skies proclaiming the holy name whispered in my ear,closer than sister or brother, deeper than friendship."

"Who did that?" he asked.

"A worthy servant of the most high."she smiled.
"Summarize the parable of the scattered seeds."Luna commanded.

"Ummm....
Seed along the path, birds take away."the stallion recited."The evil one steals."
"Seeds in the gravel, shallow root, wither away.The shallow who hear."
"Seeds in the weeds, distractions choking the crop."
"Seeds in good soil, the noble acepting, good crop a hundredfold!"

"You get too distracted, Smudge Pot!" said Luna."Of all the things I could have said you had to glome on that!"she pouted."There are too many doorways into your mind, you must be watchful!"She stared at him earnestly.

"For your enemy, my enemy roves like a predator...back and forth...seek souls to devour! But you will have help!"she sighed gently patting his check.
"What a pair you make!"

She began to drift away, to move away at a rapid clip. Her hair tossed as if in a hurricane. She sat upon a luminous orb.
"We are tested in dreams!Dreams are timeless...."as she was obscure in the cloudy milky background by distance."Watch and be ready."The stallion swallowed.
"Remember:
Two have a better return than one on their investment."

"...I can let you have some stars."said a dark and wicked voice."Rending between worlds! Many stars, wondering stars, from many worlds. At the edge of the looms, the spindly rags."It chuckled."You just remember our bargain."

"You will be in fumus sulfury torment long before you collect!"

There was a bright flash, he turned in time to see a greasy colored fiery comet sparking, slight the sky above the clouds before. There was a skeleton of a Pegasus inside, a fiery figure of blue flame mounted aback, digging its heals. The skeletal head, looked at him piteously with luminous eyes,  disappearing beyond the clouds before them.Dividing them in a thunder boom. After, an explosion, he looked at the clear sky above, full of stars.

He turned his eyes back to the clouds and his eyes settled upon a pegisus filly being tucked in clouds by an earth mare with  three other lumps, two unicorns, an older child and a younger and a  gold yellow blond earth filly lovely to look at with classical features.

"Where have I seen those before?" thought the stallion.

The mare came over to where Smudgie was, it was the same mare from before only in barding and battle armor. She smiled at Smudgie and sat down beside him gently taking his hoof.

A pegasus pony white and blonde darted away in the clouds till the sky was seen above, he looked away and back to the mare holding his hoof. She was looking seriously at the sky. 

He looked back from the smoke of the comet a shadowy serpent took form it was coiling through the stars. Lashing out hurling many down.

It spied the stallion and came barreling towards him.

He tried to run pull away.
She held tightly.
"Hold your ground."said the mare in all earnestness holding his hoof tight. He looked to her stern face."This is going to hurt in the long run. I'm here!"

The thing dived into his chest till all of it disappeared. Smudgie gasped, he cried out, he felt the burning in his side again.
It was gone! He rubbed his chest with his other free hoof and began to laugh, the mare looking at him with thoughtful eyes.

"Did you think that you would ever be rid of me?" snarled a voice behind Smudgie in his ear, turning his blood cold, followed by the cramping in his sides.
> By Campfire's Light.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the darkness of the night. There was a fire very near, very warm. 

"Fire! The pit! Hell!"his mind screamed, biblical references, Gahena, mixed with that awful pit of burning garbage and rags under the eclipse. 

His eyes shot open, waking up with a start.
It was nice fire...not like that other fire, full of smoke and sparks,  under the eclipse where All Wishes, Sergeant Captains and Doctor Puzzle found him.

Of course, that nightmare was redeemed, he learned the intercessor was real. 
Thanks to a pagan magic practicing unicorn,All Wishes. 
What was the creator up to?

He sighed, feeling the weight of his body. The wonder of this being at all real. That seans that you dwell just behind your eyeballs! Under the skin and frame of the body,his body: all velvet dark in firelight. He turned over his hooves letting firelight pass through all the spaces and cracks. His joints ,moving, better than fine, covering them; something crusty and warm.

Barely at the edge of his perception, "A pony...not anything like the man who came from heaven. What right you, beast, into his family?" 

The stallion groaned inaudibly and rolled his eyes."Not you again." He remembered what he had said to the thing before and doing justly, having mercy and loving...."If I be in punishment..."He added Micah 7:9." I have sinned against him,I will bear the Lord’s wrath,until he pleads my case and upholds my cause.He will bring me out into the light;I will see his righteousness."

The thing hissed."Feel wrath!"

The stallion felt the awful pain in his sides. He did not cry out, but he did shed tears.
"It was given me a thorn in my side, strength made perfect in weakness!" he quoted from Paul.
"I will overcome for the crown!"he snorted.

Over by the fire,  the mare from the days run patiently waiting, watching the blaze, as the light danced over her face and body. Swirling flames,reflected in her eyes like Ages Laticinio marbles, more gold than blue.

She made a welcome distraction and her very being brought relief , diminishing the poking of the rider as he let her fill up his mind's eye.

"Damn Yankee!"said the rider in the image of Quantrill taking a big puff from his cigar and blowing it in the stallion's face.
"The smoke isn't real," said the stallion indignant." Neither is your face! That is the name of a Baseball Musical where the wife saves the main characters mortal soul just by being there!
She does her job, just like mine! 
Just like the steamboat engineer in Call of Cthulhu! 
Ram you too, I would if I could if I thought it would do any good!
Away with you!"

The rider retreated to chaw on his candy cigar and plot strategy. He had a lot of scheming to do after being exiled of a Draconequus back, by a rainbow, from the future. So much power and now again on the back of this mortal squib! He bathed in delusions of twisting the future, knowing what he knew, to where he wanted. 

The squib was right though.
She would mock and laugh at him. 
Would find him funny!

"My wife....and you're here." he thought as he yawned quietly."You're certainly not a dream."He let out another soft sigh."Oh! but this might as well be."warm and comfortable, he looked around at the world in the fire's light. "All  dark, rich and royal colors, this mare all aglow in the dancing of the fire's light, golds and reds in the shadows.."He looked skyward."Those milky stars and that figurehead on the moon near the horizon."

Looked to the moon, the silhouette, the goddess in his dream, stars like her mane.
Again he sighed," I never got her name."

He looked back to the mare. Her head like the horse nebula, turn in that beautiful golden mean, mathematically close enough to perfection,fibonacci one,two,three, five eight...the things he was remembering!
"If I don't think too deeply about what she is, what I am, hee, she is kind of cute..." front leg resting behind his head looking her over in a drowsy state of observation and thoughtful contemplation. "I have my own goddess." 
Mind drifting to legend.

Greek legend.
Hercules! 
Fighting the sphinx.

Intersecting other thought.
"Haaa...she actually looks almost like a lion in this light, resting...'if you were any braver Lucy you would be a lioness." Thinking on C.S. Lewis's Aslan.

'in the jungle the mighty jungle.'
Descriptions of the lions of Africa in Hemingway's Old man and the Sea, it made him happy, happy fisherman! 

That reminded him of fish"..oo tasty sardines in mustard,'I'm going to eat you little fishy!' Reminding of Doctor Pax Claw merrily singing and eating sardine paste on hard tack.. 

" Claw, Pax."he softly laughed.
His eyes grew wide"Beak and claw.
Sharp."

Reminding him of sharks, like sea hennas, piranhas.
'little fishy eating me!' 

'welcome to the jungle!'
Scratch in Lion King.. Switching back to a good lion Aslan, who ate the White Witch wasn't she was a lot like Celestia? Remembered  the old man fighting back, the sharks eating the great fish, thrashing about in the water.
"All this eating, am I hungry?"

The Sphinx, a monster like a shark.
Trying to eat Hercules.
No he wasn't hungry.

The Sphinx half one thing half another, the head of a woman...! 
His mind revulsed latching about the fact his mare  was a horse! 

"Centaurs!Think about Centaurs! 
Brave noble Centaurs! 
Monster verses monster, fight the Sphinx!"

"They won!" he imagined."Look at them gallop in celebration! Huh, girl centaur...ehhh! Put a top on, girl!"
Looking away, focusing way too much on the mares lower half, thinking of Hercules again and the mares of....
"...ah,ha ha...No!" 
Enough of that! Making him ill.

Making him ill his stomach cramped and he felt the awful pain on each of his sides, again. 
His mind tumbled in a shadowy vortex downhill after that,followed by a mob of those same monsters from legend, rumor, hysteria and pop culture, including four gentlemen, shipping club for Vina and Pike, from Talos grumbling loudly about the franchise, out of towners from dark city, it, and an invisible monster, crackling with electricity, from a forbidden world. Together, charging, with giant grasshoppers, in a wild hunt with their leader, a cruel rider in the gilded mask of farce of humanity, cackling in his ear, feeling sharp spurs jammed into his sides all the way down, stinking and sweating!

"Naw man!"The mare heard him loudly grumble, "Don't feed the bad wolf!"

She was beside him. "You're awake."

"Gee, how you can move girl." he started.

"Quick and quiet." she said, her eyes gold in the fire's light. "What do you mean don't feed the bad wolf?" She tilted her head looking thoughtful. "Better not tell him about timber wolves, just yet!"

Just the eyes in the dark. Through the shadow of what looked like a woman.
Looking that way, he felt he would answer her any question, as if a lasso of truth was tied over his shoulders...like Samsons hair in the looms...aack! 
"No more strong men!
Like Centaurs....."

"Take a deep breath Smudgie. 
Answer her question. Submit to the Lord, resist the enemy he will flee.How?"He gently prompted.

"With scripture..."
"Whatsoever things are real, uh true....noble, pure, of good report from your teachers whatever you have learned , think on these things."he said.

"That sounds right," said the mare, "but, has it to to do with wolves? Did you have a wolf for a teacher?"

Visions of Ladyhawk danced in his head, fun and childish romances...The wolves of Narnia, Mowgli's, wolves, the law of the jungle, Island of the Blue Dolphin, no those were dogs Goblin Warves, no, no none of that!
Romulus and Remus, classic stories told to children at story hour, before the world went morally mad....an endless library bigger than the library of hymns, all in his head. 
In his mind he leaned up against the door,coronaic light at the doors edges, putting his whole weight against it with a deep feeling of regret and felt it close with a click, leaving only the door's dark outline, getting down, walking away the door behind him. 
He simply had to, getting sidetracked, there would be time to look things over later.
"Forgive me. Please help me open it again later if I have to...this all needs a song, but I have no idea how to put all this into words. I guess I'll learn!"He smiled."I'm not done yet. I'm not perfected! I'm alive! A work in progress!"

"Well no, things that feed the good wolf...representing light and hope."

"...and the bad wolf?"

"Despair and darkness..."

She looked away again, contemplating in the firelight.

She spoke.

"I hope you don't mind dusty knees, "she said he looked at her quizzically.
"warn mud mixed with straw, made a kind of clay, a type of warm compress keep your knees from cramping...you ran hard today."

"Oh....."

Uncomfortable silence settled between the two.

"Married. Do I lead, let her lead? How does this all work? Lord how does this work?"he thought."She lead me on a merry chase and of course over the hill and down the dale then down again, The sun was on the right or was it on the left...and.."

Stop. Ask a question.

"What's your name?" the stallion asked.

"At last!" said the Mare with glee and delight."Marigold."

"Marigold?I would think you an Abigail myself." he teased with a smirk.

"No." she said with a pout. "I would call you Imago Dei." she said with a dark smile. "What do you call yourself?"

"Smudgie Pie."
"Me a name, I call my,self.."his mind recited out of habit.

"Smudgie Pie?"Marigold winced saying the name."So much for naming the Saturday Special Bouquet after him. Can get him to change his mind?"she thought."Are you sure you wouldn't like Imago Dei? That sounds so much better!"

"Nope. Smuggie Pie that's me." his eye twitched. "Do I look imago dei? Nope! A pony me."he looked at his hooves that started to shake." I don't see any sign of son of Adam me,nope and..and Adam named things you know..."he began to laugh."I'm just a freaking horsey!"he turned on his back and began to laugh hysterically, madly galloping in the air.

All his movement stirring the ground beneath, legs flaying in the air, threatening to bound him into the fire.

"Oh and he was doing so well!"said the mare in the moon.
A masculine voice replied."It's only natural, it will happen to all of them, sooner or later. Better in a warm embrace than none."

Marigold grabbed his head and looked him in the eyes.

"Smudgie Pie! Stop it!" she said sternly. All his attention was drawn to her eyes his legs stilled folding in on themselves. All the authority of a mother in her voice.

"Wouldn't He who called you imago dei be ashamed the way you're acting?"she scolded. "At you, yourself, your being?"that caught his attention as if replying to what he had said out of habit echoing among the grey cells.
"I think, no, I know He sees."he looked away as he listened his front legs folded in front of him like a mantis humbug. 

"You have a mind, you think. He gave you that mind so you can think. 
Think your way out: those dark bogs in the mazes of the mind, those place where the bad wolf lives and preys and feeds." she said. 

"The one who sees me."Smudgie quoted in his mind."Worship the Lord with all your mind, all your heart and all your soul.''When doing anything do with all your strength as if doing it for the Lord.''Do everything with thanksgiving and faith for anything done outside of faith is sin''submit to the Lord, submit to the Lord, resist,"Smudgie winced,"resist the devil, the rider, and the devil will flee."

"I call  you Smudgie Pie,"she said. "I will take your last name!
Alone? You may call me your Abigal. I will call you Me Amigo or Smudgie Poo or whatever else, okay?"Smuggie felt a tremble through her hooves through his cheeks, feeling of uncomfortable heat, was it him? Her? 

"Oh dear..."she said.

He looked back and was alarmed at what he saw. Her eyes were wide and her mouth had a rather large insane grin, a smile akin to a predator. As the eye and teeth shined in the dark the stallion had never felt more in danger than at that moment. He swallowed as he felt his pupils shrink, helpless and exposed.
....for all the stars to see!

"Me Amego."she said a darker horse like husky quality to her voice, her eyes locked on his face, one twitching. "I, fear, if I look up. I will see something, that I will lose control, and you certainly are not ready. 
It would hurt you. 
Not want to lose you, break my promise to take care/help you, Me Amego."She licked her lips the smile returned. "Help me...with you mind, with you word, to think...pleeeease, speak the words again."she said breathless and flustered desperate.

Help her.

"Whatsoever is real/true...forget that we're freakin ponies..."he thought,

Smudgie!

"um, noble, virtuous, of good report or learned from me, think on these things..."

"It is virtuous that a couple be together..."that husky winnowing tone returned as her eyes narrowed.

"...but not in the open, for all, the star, that shadow in the moon, to see! Not when one is not willing!!!"he said.

"What did I learned from you," she closed her eyes and remembered.'It is His will, you abstain from passion that you control yourself in a holy and honorable manner, not is passion....'"

"Honor your father and mother..."

"My mother and father told me at this time to think... to stop...to think. Keep me from much trouble!"

"Yes, that is wise...'though it costs you all you have, get wisdom.''She is more precious than rubies, more valuable than silver, has better returns than gold. Long life is at her right, riches and honor at her left, all her paths a pleasant all here ways are peace, she is a tree of life to all who embrace her....oops."

She began to move in a direction Smuggie knew would be uncomfortable for both.

"Though it cost you all you have get wisdom!!" he braced her away.“The eye that mocks a father, that scorns teaching from an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures!"

"I dreamed!"she said." I saw! him of the valley. The birds! I ran!" she said almost shocked."How I ran!"

'Prudence is wise folly is noisy.'There is a way that seams right but in the end leads to death''narrow is the way that leads to life but wide the way that leads to destruction.' 

"He found me, lifted me beyond the predator...."She began to relax.'the raving lion' wandering too and fro 'looking for souls to devour.''In the valley of the shadow of death!" I feared no evil, for He was with me."

"If you chose to do what is right you will be uplifted' that's an eighty percent chance you will do what is right!"

"Come again?" she look at him as if his head were on backward.

"If you've never done something, bam, another eighty percent chance." he was talking quickly now.

"Smudgie I don't think..."

"Refrain tonight, And that shall lend a kind of easiness, To the next abstinence, the next more easy."

She looked into his eyes.

"Um...Shakespeare, Hamlet. The things I'm remembering."

"Refrain?"

"That we refrain by mutual agreement, and in that to pray."

"Those are the words." She closed her eyes. Slowly pulled herself away and off his cheeks, moving to the fire and then looking away with a swallowing pant.

He rolled off his back and looked warily at the mare, still, a golden lion in firelight, now curled as if in repose.

"How do I pray?" she said in a most remorse way.

Smudgie stretched out his whole body length. The cold on his underbelly. He touched the mare's hooves with his own, curling round them. She quickly looked up into his eyes.

"Trunk to trunk,"he said with a smile rocking their legs back and forth." have you seen the elephants dance?" quoting old Rudyard in his mind with joy lessened as he felt again, sharp sting in his sides. She looked at him with a big blink then a smile.

"Eh. Mush...!I know what you want,male! Who's the predator now?"croaked the rider in a voice only he could here.

"Hey, you may call this taking advantage, but it's all I freaking know!"Smudgie fumed."I'm not perfect I still have much to learn! You don't have anything to offer better, just a perversion of what is real. 
Dear V'ger!"
"This simple feeling..."he quoted Spock."Friendship is beyond your comprehension!
Don't know what will happen. If I,  just because everypony else is dosen't mean, even though I've never done it before...if this is all then it is enough!"He felt the monster retreat from his mind.
"Huh, eighty percent chance I won't because I choose not too. 
Eighty percent chance!
Hah I beat you! 
Again I beat you rider! 
Hit me with spurs all you like. 
But enough about me 'God is against the proud' 'knowledge puffs up but faith builds up' 'God gives grace to the humble', to Marigold's needs then.
Together We have a father, a brother, an intercessor. 
I? 
Sister? 
A Friend!"

"How do we pray?" he quoted as he rocked Marigold's hooves back and forth she smiled then nodded.
"Our father, who art in heaven...."she repeating after.
> Meadowlarking
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Romeo and Juliet, Act 3,Scene 5, p.1-2(paraphrased) 
JULIET
Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.  
ROMEO
It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale. 
JULIET
Yon light is not daylight.
It is some meteor that the sun exhales.
ROMEO
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
Grey is not the morning’s eye.
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat.
Juliet wills it so.—
How is ’t, my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day.  
JULIET
It is, it is.It is the lark that sings so out of tune, 
Hie hence! Be gone, away!
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division.
This doth not so, for she divideth us.
Some say the lark and loathèd toad change eyes.
Oh, now I would they had changed voices too,
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunt’s-up to the day.
O, now be gone. More light and light it grows.  
ROMEO
More light and light, more dark and dark our woes! 

I say,"With daylight is the Lark!"

She woke up to singing, his singing. It was still dark.

It wasn't a Lark.
" Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.....

He was singing something. somber, dignified serious. She heard parts as she stirred from sleep.

" Born of the one light Eden saw play,"

"That's nice..."Marigold sighed.

"Praise with elation, praise ev'ry morning
God's recreation of the new day." 

Marigold smiled and stretched.

"This has been the BBC world service!" grumbled the stallion.

"Waaa....?"Marigold quietly said confused.

"Like light in Narnia. Like he Ravin,sigh like the first joke..!"he said putting out a huff curt breath, through teeth. 
After looking at his reflection in the pool of water, he turned away, trudging past, hard heavy stomps, ignoring Marigold, occupied by his own circling thoughts, neck head up, tail in the air.
All the wrong signals!
"BBC! Oh, what would starting a broadcast day on shortwave sound like when I was a boy? Hmmm,dial it in...I know!~"

He surprised her again by a long oratory.He sang hymns on that early morning. 

From memory he sang:
Abide with Me 
" Hold now your Word before my closing eyes.
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee;
in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me." 
was nice but only brightened at the last Stanza.

"Oh dear.Somepony woke in a terrible mood! I can't talk to them when they get that way, all bongy bongy!"

"Bongy bongy?"asked Marigold and the community of mares in her head, except the pink one.
Taking a break from the list she was making put down her quill and said"Bongy bongy!" pointing up to the ceiling.

"Oh bongy bongy!" That made sense and all agreed, including Marigold, who had no idea why that made sense!

"Doesn't matter how well they sleep, how pleasant the dream, how good the food, how well they are treated,how gentle the road, how interesting the journey, how nice you are to them. 
That flaw! 
No reason at all! 
Between living victoriously, around Chapters seven through nine, no apparent reason, they start acting like that! Totally random!"She felt a sigh."The tragedy is they don't have to choose that way, especially when they believe the truth!
Marigold,"He said." you say something.Try to make him look at things they way they really are, looking positively, feeding the good things. 
Practice! Marigold practice! Don't judge and be ready, for when you least expect....what did I tell you?"

"The preditor, looking for souls to devour.

"Very good. That fading shadow trying to ally with that darkness! Covering and hiding, deceiving. Only if you let it!"


Smudgie continued to sing.
"Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee
In life, in death, o Lord, abide with me."

"Again.Think on goods things."

"Abide with me."

"Not to feed the bad wolf." 

"abide with me"the stallion bellowed.

Smudgie had a scowl on his face as he rubbed first one side then the other, wincing, receiving little comfort also increasing his discomfort by accidentally scraping the sensitive areas with the nail of his hoof.

"Awfully serious, not the best way to start the day."The mare said to the stallion." Do you know anything else? You know, less a dirge?"

He rolled his eyes and began to sing again.

This is my Father's World!
This is my Father's world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas--
His hand the wonders wrought. 

"Hmmm..."he said, finishing the third stanza."Interesting, apparently any word! I just, sing it..."crooked smile crossed his face like the crazing of plaster in a wall, a  smile Marigold did not like at all. 
He took a deep breath about to belt his theory.

"...Ha,ha..."She interrupted afraid."Interesting theme." What strange thing he might say! Who might be made angry?"Um hu..Have to learn a little more!" She had the strangest feeling she was standing between them, her pauper and a king. Smiling, she, now trying to keep majestic graces, regality glaring down at them both. Her in rags as bad as his! 
Wow!
He was capable of getting angry!
Speaking again she asked"...know anything else?"

Come Ye Thankful  Come.
Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home;
all is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide
for our wants to be supplied;
come to God's own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home.  

Visions of fields and gardens and growing plants came to her mind.
"Oh I like that one."She said having forgotten all misgivings, Marigold sang.
Though strange this song, also, she being a florist and an earth pony, felt  more in common with that song.  

"Even so, Lord, quickly come,
bring thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in thy presence to abide;
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home."  

Harvest ! All the crops being safely gathered in.

When they were done she felt the darkness, within him had withdrawn by him climbing out.

"And singing keeps darkness and the devil away." 

Smudgie smiled in remembrance.Musing, he told to Marigold fairy tale from childhood home. 

The Magician's Nephew.(Note 1)
Founding of a place called Narnia.Telling her of Frank, a Hansom driver from London, who sang a song in darkness before Narnia's beginning with his horse, Strawberry .
Of Aslan singing, his song the tune of true beginning: his song of making, as the stars joined in fading, as light of that first day, of that new sun, revealing, Him.
Great golden lion singing.

"Good something positive."Thinking about what he said.

"My lion,"she paused for effect, "the sun hasn't risen."She pointed. "On that horizon,"she slowly swept her leg,"embers, a fire, throwing. See?  Just touching, smoky wisps, mountains framed in grey.
Warm on the fireside over there,"she looked to the embers on the fire,"cold the other,here."Patting the ground beside her."Come."she locked eyes with him,"I am unevenly warmed"She looked down again, drawing her hoof along the ground."against your warm side, please, let me rest, be my lion, warm my other side, block both cold and dark! "

It seemed good to him. Folding his legs again, he flopped down and rested beside her. Marigold snuggled into his warm rump and side. Looking atop his long neck at her, he straighten himself. There was a burning inside, familiar, with his girl by his side, he, male!(See note 2)

Yes...the stereotype!

Both napped till full sun above the mountains.

Sometime during the nap, she groggily looked over his cutie mark in examination. She followed hairs to root to the skin, pale, exploring paths in that forest. 
Strange glittered, partial symbols danced and hid among the roots of that forest. Coming up to her eyes, and danced before her face, swirling about nose and muzzle.

....and they danced.
They moved despite her breath, against the tide, in front of her nostrils being in almost as much wonder of her as she was of these glitters.A cloud.

Laying her cheek completely against his side she was among the cloud, they were circling the center. The cloud shrouded  light on his rump in twilight or a dusky cloud.A wandering  nebula galaxy!

These glitters.  

Marigold's eyes were golden watching them, twirl and spin and circle and dance...oh how they danced! To her the ones missing parts, her heart swelled for, were most beloved.
"Wow!" she said breathlessly.

"Ha,Ha. Marigold!"they sang."A riddle, a riddle! A riddle for Marigold! On the Mountains, they dance they dance as Gods! They do not dance alone, what will protect you? Knowledge or faith? What will protect you what will protect you? Oh, Marigold!"
"Faith." Marigold replied.(Note 3)

"Ha!Ha!"They sang.
Through all your days and all your nights, through storm and tears the riders cackle, depths and heights!
Gift! A gift, a gift! 
Given in love and never earned, but what rank shall our Marigold hold in the throng?
We the unmade, our partial forms, specific only to our parents in the earth declare: Join the dance, 
Follow!
Only one! 
The others? 
Not gods at all!
Jealously guard the center. 
They sing, 'Holy,holy,holy!' under wing!
For only one God, Only One Son, Only One Spirit!
Are One!
He!
Watches!
Watching, and sees all that is done!
He did, once and for all.
Look, see!" 

On her stallion's warm side,she dreamed of many ponies, dark forms :mothers, theirs the foundation of civilization, the throne, supporting  behind, fathers, the guards the strength, the beaten earth, the vaulted sky paring couples, all the different marks, dancing, many in the light, some in the shadows others, dark.
"He is waking!"Sang the glitters.
"He is waking!"they cheerfully sang at the last chorus.

She looked up to the brown, green, grey, copper tower of his neck leaning the head over her with its auburn locks scattering. Its two grey lights, glowing a little.

"Do you like what you see?"he smirked seeing her intently watching his butt parting the hairs, pawing with her hooves over  his flank.

She lept up, to his surprise faces and mouths and noses to collide! 
No impact ,after he shut his eyes.
Only a deep long kiss, 
better than the others! 
Surprise!

Memories, though he had never kissed when human, helped him to participate. Such nostalgia helped disguising the tastes, making them merely exciting and exotic, pulling her back into the kiss, pleading for more to fill in the gaps of his cavernous loneliness.
She did not resist.

Again, she, pulling away to breath gasping for air, she tried to return.
Only to be avoided.
Eyes wide open met hers, stirred with great confusion and fear. Fear as before..only...Yes! Less than before!
Progress was slow in building.

He closed his eyes made a sigh, hers were open.
Muzzle crinkly, his lips stiff, gently placed upon her lips and softly kissed.
Leaping back, coughing! Not wanting to make eye contact, look at her, face flustered in confusion, but not as much as before!
He was trying...

Yes very trying.
Oh so trying!
Realizing he lost his saddlebag the same nonsense almost started from the night before.   
Marigold held it out for him stopping the rant mid sentence. He, placated. 

Overeager! Almost lunged to it to tear it away, but stopped himself taking a deep breath, put a hoof to his barrel. 
Such a bad impression. He deliberately took the bag and then gently pulled out a book out He held it tight and hugged it, again to barrel.

"That must be important..."she said a little jealous."Do you two want to be left alone?"she thought.
Marigold had seen it before, cracked it open, looked inside, its strange thin pages in a odd runic type text with badly scribble calligraphy sideways in the margins top and bottom of the pages, strange square orange and yellow( sometime blue or green) ran along so of the words; as if applied by a fine brush. 
Some thick pages awkwardly, yet, skillfully stuck in the front before the book began with titles. Under those, the first three words of the chapter in that strange tongue dutifully reproduced on the front. 
Pony make.

"It is not good to be alone...."someone replied.

"Oh it is.."he said.

"Still a work in progress!"

He let the book go, embarrassed clearing his throat."It was regifted to me by a dear friend..."

"What is it about?"

"About..."that he had never truly thought, but here in this world it was now the time to think."Its about.. a father, his son, their spirit...."he thought, then it struck him.

"Its about friendship!"

He then began to explain to her as best he could, a theology, she had no reference, grasping at straws himself. Not a good orator it came across as stilted contrived, but still she listened. She could tell that he knew enough of the philosophy, enough to go into error, to be puffed up.
To get hurt!
One substance, one being, three persons:a father, a spirit, a Son and sacrifice once for all.
"There was never a time they were not creating, never alone. And if I could be so bold, their talk and  thought made movement. Moments came and went at their will, before space and time...I was not there so I do not know."(see note 4)

This elicited a laugh from Marigold."You couldn't have been!"she said."Your here, now!"

"Oh!"said the rider in the form of a little girl."So you think you have it all figured out?"she said folding her hands, arms on the top of the stallion's head."A mystery scholars and angles have been puzzling for over three thousand years?"ugliest way possible, especially looking like a little girl.

Smudgie flopped his ears and rocked his head, in response the creature slid down his neck and gouged him in the sides, laughing like a puck!

Marigold scratched the top of her head, unnoticing the stallion bite his lip. It was confusing. Yes, obviously he knew a little more than her, just enough to be dangerous. 

The rider made a mocking sound.
"I will understand!"her spirit said glaring at the monster so that it hid itself.
To apprehend the truth: as a conquistador or a plunderer! 
He had not one will to do such in a long,long time. He withdrew as to not be part of the good quest he was against.

"What does the front of this book say?"she led off on a different tack.

He turned it over looked at it."'In the Beginning...'Its a quote, the printer was very lucky, deciding to use it..."

"Or led.."Marigold said quietly.

"...from the first chapter Genesis 1:1.
" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

"This spirit..."Marigold asked she felt an excitement inside.

"He labored with God together, the 'dynamos', the power of the Spirit...." 

"Is this the one you spoke before?"

"Yes..."

"So where is the Son?"

He, the father with Him, created everything for the Son and the Son worked with Him in creation.From time immemorial the father only ever had one Son.
He, the Son, is called the word or promise.Oh...you need more...right..right...
John 1:1-5
 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome.

"He was light?"

"He put on a cover a...veil. He came to his own to save..."

Marigold stirred the soil, "Well I'm not one of his own...."

"I would despair too except.
John 1:10-14
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

"The Word" became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
He seized a moment.
"Like this , like my book!"he exclaimed. "A tattered world...original cover torn off."A unicorn saved it from the fire? Smudgie shook his head."Brought to the binder! All the pages, put together into a single volume!" He then eyed a recipe, a rusted stain where a paper clip had once been, for Christmas cookies, from a magazine neatly orderly added. 
How did they get there?Turning it slowly, behind, on a scrap of brown, now, squared paper, there was a recipe for pecan pie, written in a familiar elegant cursive scrip, no longer stilted.
"Brought together, gathered from different places, a single unit"he talk slowly now."A family....."

This was too much.

Adopted?Absurdity! 
That a thing like him? A monster? Walking ..crawling on fours...him them? Saved like that?
Smudgie was about to burst out laughing, when Marigold spoke.

"One substance, three persons."she said thoughtfully."His will that everything, acknowledge, placed under, the only Son."she nodded."I have heard Him.I believe Him."She looked over to her husband. "Why didn't you start with the book first?"

Why was he looking at her like that?

"Saved...just like that?"he thought.

"U...usually..."he stuttered,fumbling, wandering crazy seas in his mind looking for bearings, excited, confused, dizzy." This guide," turning to the page, "gets me through most parts of the book in a year, nice of the binder to have made it part of the book! We can find out more, I can teach you my language you can teach me yours!"

"Sounds good to me."

She listened as they turned to his book, inside he read the story of Jethro and Moses starting from Exodus 18, asking many questions.

"What God is this? 
He told them everything He would do?" 

Misinterpreting, he thought she would mock, he nodded and hung his head.
Too good to be true....

Howevever:
She remembered all the contracts and when she bought her shop all the paperwork entailed.
"He had them write down everything, repeat everything, a binding legal contract! It was written down in stone. He subject to such laws?A God?" 

What she then offered next: a thoughtful commentary, as elegant as a sociology professor lecturing on peer dependency their social interaction and the negatives of group think resulting from cults.
"After giving laws the cult leader usually stays and ensures the laws are obeyed as we read when Jethro was talking to Moses before he left. But none of these norms were followed! Instead Moses leaves, representatives  placed in charge and goes up the  mountain, of course his representatives are unable to make the people obey! But that's what happens in mob rule, democracy pure!"

She was not dumb.

"Moses, left them and came back.
He  rallied the priests who became a "guard to enforce the law... it must have been quite a riot..."

She disseminated how Moses, then, had the strength to make the people eat the idol,
"... the power of God! You said Moses would come down having a veil hiding the glory that his face radiated? If God could do that then he could give him strength? 
This seems more true than anything I've heard so far! Were they able to fulfill the law? No...that's why he became mortal, as you said before, truly, so as to be subject as they were, to the law. Is this an illustration showing the Son became mortal...to...?"

No one had ever thoughtfully talked with him over this. He had wanted, desperately, all his life, someone to talk about this seriously. To sit with him, read with him, and truly thoughtfully talk it out.
To....

"To intercede....I love you."He said, it just came out, she was the one...maybe?

There was a heavy pause.
"Intercede sounds serious....make us part of the book, part of the family, working together as a whole, each page its own!"Excitedly exclaimed.
"Really I want to continue, I really do!"She kissed him,just a quick peck.He didn't shudder. "But we have a lot to do today and need to reach the city sometime." 

Books into saddlebags, then put aside, time for exercises.

"Walk around in circles." she said."I wanted to watch you walk then run ."
Disturbed by what she saw she bit her lip hard and urged him continue, he strutted around proudly.She was watching him! Unnoticed, seeing her pull something out of her saddle bag and work it with her hooves.

"Ok..."She said calmly"Come sit down beside me." she said patting the ground.  He sat down stupidly, like a puppy expecting a treat or compliment as before that early morning, and turned to look at her.  
Was something around her head and muzzle?
In an instant she threw it. Something fell about his head and ears, with a yank, secured. 

He bolted stretching the rope between them, as a struggling fish on a line! 
Halters!They both had halters on made from the cords tied round their faces!

"Smudgie!" Smudgie tore at the cord on his face."Ow.."Marigold tried not to fall over" your hurfing me!"the halter twisting  her face from the tension. 
His voice, despair lamenting. She listened, but it was that nonsense again from the night before continuing from last night.
What must have done wrong? Of course she would forgive him, she would make it up!

"Tasty! I have lashes of this one feast! Feast!!!"cried the rider like a maniac on Smudgies back spurring him on. Whispering in his ear.Delighting in the confusion of the couple.

His mouth opened eyes wide and there were tears streaming looking everywhere for escape. 
"Not an animal!" He screamed and something about studs,turkeys and chandeliers followed by Hern something and Pro something else. "Small shouldered males, hipless females," creatures big eyed and featureless all difference cut away!Covered in "ugly drawing swirling! Needles piercing!Not even peace in the factory of our making! Burning, cutting, slashing!"  Something unrelated about looking "new cures among primitives".  
Babel, corset predating, and total ignorance the rest..He was relapsing. 

Oh but that wasn't the worst of it!
"I thought you loved" him!Wild eyed darting about, as fish on the end of a line.
"This hell?An illusion? Am I real? Am I dead? None of this could possibly be real!!!!!!"
With branding? "Am I slave a marked," cattle, to traded"...worse! Political capital: das capital, destroying eternal truth, the past nations, family and self?"
Unnatural and dirty and repulsive! 

"Branding??!!"It bit right in when he had said back at the pens."Branding??!!!!" When he had said."You are not a saint!"
Idiotic!

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"said the monster on the stallion's back jumping up and down, doing backflips like an acrobat at a circus.

Now Marigold was infuriated more than she had ever been. 
"SMUDGIE PIE!!!!"she roared. 

That got his attention!

"SIT DOWN!" He fell on his hanches face cracked deep with a frown, ears laid back eyes wide staring at her.
"MY MOTHER ANd father did this with me when I was a foal!"She shook some loops of lose cord at him. 
Her voice became quieter as she calmed."I had to run around circling while ponies gawked at me! Father had to do it when he was a foal too!!!"She took breaths."We were pigeon toed, walked with a little too much exposure: leading to colds and sickness. Surely there is something in your book written on this?" Smudgie looked down hunched over his eyes closed.
"What about feeding the good or bad wolf?"she fumed."Do you believe what it says in your book or not??!!"she snorted pointing at the saddle bags.
"I don't believe it was half as bad as you say!"she glared at him."From the root to the trunk the tree is made good!"She snorted.
"Did it ever occur to you to pray for them?" She remembered old tactics told in Filly Delphi.

His ears went back and his eyes opened wide as he bit his lip.

"They may have face you, and hit you from the front. But your God is above everything...couldn't you have prayed for them a tendering of the heart, a leading of the conscience, to open their eyes from blindness, for His conversation? 
Eyes once open they look around drop their weapons against the helpless and say.'My God! What have I done?"Smudgie looked away.
"I know that I'm different from talking to Him!"

"Awww....but I'm still hungry..."pouted, picking at stallion as one would with crumbs, the monster, as he faded into a less corporeal form. 
Now Smudgie was angry and growled at it, embarrassed that he had allowed the tempter to overwhelm him, attempting to swat at it. 
But even magical ponies don't bend that way!

"Quit fidgeting."Marigold scolded."Stay there!"as she began to gather the long cord in loose loops.
Saffron from the airship came to mind and the teachings of her mother.
This maybe the way her stallion would always be!
"like this?" she bit her lip considering."Was this his best or his worst? Could she take this, like this? Day after day?"

"oh.Oh. Marigold...I'm very sorry but you have yet to see his worst!"

She ignored her stallion for a bit as she mulled this, picking up cord, chewing her lips.

He was bent over eyes closed, head to the ground looking very similar to a drenched to the bone man, who had lost his shirt, his mind going to darker places still, over the edge thinking about all the good will he had just squandered how his hypocrisy and what a bad example he had been, imago dei, whose image had been made. He had again been called out by forefingers, and a pony no less! 
She was right.
"I am like Bree...no worse! Like Andrew Kirke."he heaved."Up to my dress rag collar buried in mud!"(See notes)"What had done?"(see note 5)
As for as he knew he was the only example of humanity there was. Failing that, he was the only good example of a christian there was!Such horrid stewardship...such a terrible witness good things. Opportunity, squandered.
He became afraid.
"Like Bree of Narnia...then he met a lion....so did Andrew."
He could hear the inhabitants of Narnia making sport of uncle Andrew, a tree they thought he was!

 "A tree, a tree!"he imagined them cry.
There was a voice....he imagined.
A voice that would not let him tumble off into darkness, not that far, it wouldn't let him go that far.
A barely discernible voice....was he imagining him /them?

"So what do you see?"
Voices...
"Will you look at that.Growing like a weed.just needed a little fertilizer."
"Oh my."
"What is it?"
"Ooooo.Something new!Not bongy, bongy!"
"It has a long way to go, though, darling!"
"The spark...words read, spoken now up from the hard,hard crust!"

As he looked up.
"You need to go."
They scattered and scurried away. Before him was a the vision of a little light it caught his eye, it was a little sprouting scrufling light/plant? He couldn't tell.

"The gold and silver sovereigns fell from the magicians pockets and became small trees." he remembered. "What was used to crown King Frank and Queen wife Helen!"(see note)

A crown to lay at the feet of a king.
Flickering light, barely an ember of a campfire, it  kept the darkness away...but as he said before,"the darkness understood/overcame it not." 

He did not ask where it had come..he knew.
All Wishes had shown as example, the intercessor. From that little kindness, he understood he accept the real intercessor. The one who spoke from this light, it gently whispered and groaned, to petition for the present situation, this new part of him.
He would not let him tumble over the edge.
"The burning bush."Thought Smudgie.

"No! The future is mine!"
Watching, the rider took form rose above, an ominous shadow."So small!" Wearing the garments armor and mask: farce medieval samurai, truly making him look the devil he was. 
"One blow!" A shuffling sound heard as he took a stance, one foot on the stallions rump the shoulder, raised an awful battle club from that era."One blow to utterly crush the pony, spirit, soul and sanity!"the riders voice a whispered hiss through the mask. 

He swung.

At the height, the top of the arch, there was a whistle flying past, it made the rider halt comically.

"Just because ye be out and about, outside, what makes you think the rules do none still apply?" said a cheerful voice. The rider jerked, spurs in, causing pain to the stallion."You will be paid in full all thems jib you give, but even try to crush him again..."there was the sound of stretching bowstrings."Next arrows nay shall miss!"

The rider looked above.

Like arrow slits high above him encircled, each with the tip point sticking out. Again the rider swore and threw the club away,and shook his fists and beat his cheastplate.
"I will crush his heart!"
"Aye the real, but not in spirit...that is told and "yer right" by prophecy as your kin to do, from the  beginning!"The shutters closed. " I do na have to like your choices!"

The rider hunched over and pouted...where there was the army...there was the commander, nothing against him he could do...bide his time till the opportune..yessss...

"My grace is sufficient.Even in discipline."

"Is this really discipline?"

"Feel the halter on your face?"

Smudgie looked up sighed, then calmed.
"Thank you for the example of All Wishes."He said.

"The one who saved you and my book from the fire? You're welcome."There was a slight smile in the voice before becoming serious."Yes...about my book,she's right?Actually there is something written."

"Uh Uh."stallion stubbornity coming back"Nope. Nothing."he said.

"You know there is."He said.

"No."Smuggie shook his head vehemitly.

"You need to say it."

"No!"smuggie pouted.

"If you don't say it, I will and I will say something else!"

"OH GOD!" Smudgie cried exasperated. "Reins for the horse, halter for the donkey and rod for the back of fools!"smudgie remebered.

"Fools despise discpline."he said gently. Smudgie wept.

"Neather hieghth nor depth can seperate you from that love above."

Marigild softly alighted beside."No pony likes discpline...but it makes you stronger..so you can endure!"

Maybe if she told him the leasons in the dreams...how to start. She lifted his head to look into the eyes, rembering the strange words.

"I had to discipline with cords.
Cheating, overturning, tables, markets, right in the middle of meet and greet with strangers. A place I designated especially for them, so we could be met well. A cattle market! I was so angry, but I reasoned: anger, remember, only, for the right reasons.Do not do wrong in anger, do not attack, do not be hasty."

"This is not hell..."she said."For you are not alone. Remeber how you saw the stars? Remember how we laughed about the elephant dance?"she smiled he eyed her.

Then Smudgie saw something strange darting swipes of vission as if he were seeing through others eyes.
A blue mare, with orange hair seen bound tight with cords!
There was laughter of a charab and deep chuckles of a stallion.
"Ha. HA."she said through bound lips.
"Laugh it up you two..you may be my number one...rebrow."she said."But I will have to be a parent!"
Still heartily laughing, becoming breathless.
"Why don't you take a picture..."she closed here eyes as if relisting what a dumb thing to say. There was the flash of a camera bulb."Brewlhurf!" she creid as the vision faded away...as well as the laughter.

"I saw you happy."she said."I just saw you smile again!"
She lifted up a hoof took his and put it on his chest."This is not pergitory.."whatever that was."You're alive! You're here!
" 
An epethany, had she had all these dreams of him. Had they been for his benifit to?
"You must be loved,"she said." being given a chance to grow bigger than the seed you are." Taking his hoof and placing it on her chest."Can..can you feel my heart beating? do you understand?" she said as his eyes raised and looked into hers. Those grey eyes."I'm alive.."she said. "So I must be loved too!"

"It is said, 'Any who come to the father, will never be turned away...'"Smudgie said slowly.

The rider gigged him again.

They sat there looking into eachothers eyes for a long time. After the shuddering in the stallion lessened Smudgie spoke.
"So discipline we must,"he spoke slowly."Persaver for endurance so our character may be..."he spoke slowly"fulfilled?"

"I suppose."she never left his eyes. She reached up and adjusted the halter on the stallions face.

"Smudgie."she said, my bag is beside you."Could reach in? There is a little silver box with a twist lid."
While he did this, she adjusted the halter on her face with a wince.

He found it and gave it to her. She opened it and dabbed the salve on her face where the harness had chaffed.
"Think I this," she said."Mr. Pie...I think...you really need to consider your ways..." she taked carefully now."I think...that what you did was wrong..."

"Yes. It was called sin."he swallowed."It is a terrible thing."
After this  Smudgie was told she really didn't feeling like sharing here salve after his outburst," I really wanted you to think about what has been said...."

"I don't blame you, such deliberate willfulness causes cautious of the heart, dividing close friends, I will try not to do that again."
"I love you so very much."she said almost pleadingly."I know I do..."she said again for emphasis."and I promised to help you....but I can't have that behavior again!"she sighed looking over her eyes at him."If it does happen again..."she closed the small jar with a click. "I'll need to evaluate options."

"Understandable."Smudgie swallowed."Even in my world."

"Good!Good!"the rider chuckled, wearing a lab coat and holding a clipboard, opening a flip cap on the back of Smudgie's head."Cut the line. Shut down communication!Perfect!Build pressure!  Pressure build,pop! Can't wait. How long"he did some figuring on an abacus then a slide-rule."over twenty years!!!"He slapped the lid shut with the clipboard tossed it,bring down his heels gigging the pony in the sides again.

"Now..."she said smiling."What do you look at when you see a girl walking. Tell me everything!"

Smudgie turned red.

"What is she up to now?"grumbled the rider turning over on Smuggies back crossing his arms. He started and pulled a tag under him conected to the ponys back. "Reserved exclusively for Marigold, friends and relatives of the bride!"
"Mush!" the rider said brushing it aside knowing it could never be removed."How dare my reputation slandered so!"

All Smudgie could think of was when he was human what he looked at,what he looked at that he wasn't supposed to.
He told her.
So after an awkward conversation, telling her everything, turning a bright shade of red while she was a the very lightest shade of pink, she spoke.
"Well." She said. "Maybe I need to talk to the older mares...."

"You wanted me to walk?" Smudgie asked ask trying desperately to change the conversation.

"No! Heavens No. Stand up!"she said. Hoofing over to his one lifted hoof a coil of cord."I'll go first!I'm going to walk around you...watch me."

"Marigold I..."

She put her hoof on his mouth.
"Shhhh! No more talking!"she said."I'll start off with a walk, then a trot, then a run! All around in a circle. you just turn and watch!"

He looked at his hoof at the cord then at Marigold."Marigold... I don't think."

"I don't want you to think!"she said slightly raising her voice."I want you to watch!
Look at me!"

She began to walk around him.
"First the walk."She said string straight ahead.

"Marigold...."

"Quiet!" then after a bit."I go faster!
Let out the cord."

"MArigold...."

"Let out some line,make a bigger circle! 
Now a trot!"

"MAre..mari..gold..."

"Now a canter..."

"Marigold!"

"Next a Galope!"

"Marigold!"she ignored him.

"At last a run!"she ran as fast as she could, the cord was becoming taunter."Let out more cord my husband."she said rolling her eyes.

"MAR...MARR...MArIGOLD!!!WAAA!" hthud."Ack*"

She came to a stop. and slowly turned and looked at him. He had gotten tied up in the cord legs in the air. She walked over to him turning her head sideways.

They say most comedy is genius.

This? Pure comedy, yes.
Any genius no.....

Seeing her upside down as she slowly aproached he spoke."I'm not very good on three legs, let alone turning on them."he said quietly.

She closed her eyes and sighed.

"Can I take this damn thing off ?"he said looking to the sky.

She glared at him and growled.

"My face?The halter?"he said."Did I say that out loud?No...no...I..I..ment...um...um....the body!!!!!"He struggle exasperated against the cords."This stumpy thing!!!"

She wasn't buying it with expressionless face speaking through half lidded eyes.
"Its my body too...and it's very ruddy and handsome." she said touching his side.

"That's right!"he nodded vigorously snorting."My book says a husband's body belongs to his wife!"

"Really?"she said her expression lighting up sitting beside the bound pony.

"I said that out loud?Oh no.No no No NOOO!"thought the stallion.

What followed was an uncomfortable discussion on biblical marriage, where marigold came tho understand. She didn't have to obey or respect him, but he had to love her!

"In the New Testament it says, one married, the husband, is concerned of the things of this world because he wants to please his wife..."he stopped talking, the connotations! Was he only here to please Marigold? There had to be more than that!

"...and a husband is to love his wife, better than his own body...to protect and shield her..."she was looking at him."But we are equal! Yoke fellows to the same cart!"he tapped the harness on his face with his hooves."You believe the same as I we can't possibly be unevenly yoked!"he swallowed.
" Marigold," he spoke gently."I will never tell you to do anything that is wrong!"he struggled with the bonds."Have I even ask you to stop this game or untie me? I know you are only doing it because its necessary."He looked her in the face."It is necessary isn't it?"

"It is." she said quietly.

She saw something. A couple of things.
His tail?Good! Covering up! He was learning she was pleased with this.

"What's this?"  she noticed a bruising on either of his sides"What happened there?" 
She was about to say something. 
She was startled, a face! 
A horrid face! 
Darting around the stallions neck! She was about to ask him, however, it wasn't the time for something remarkable came to her attention!
Two things.
Two things that should not be on a male stallion! 
Why had she not seen them before? 
Small and circular, like moles, like buttons....

"Smudgie..."she asked causiously."You were talking crazy about surgeries earlier."she asked chewing her lip."Have you always been a stallion?"

"Have I always been a...." his head shot up fro his reclining posittion where he had been hitting the ground."What kind of question is that?!!"
He began to grumble again."Off all the.....I...I..I."

She gently pet him, over one of those buttons. He was cut off and just stared up to the sky quietly.Then closed his eyes. Memories, memories of being human came back to him, when his heart beat, when he was excited, or scared, eating or sleeping, good things. 
He was quiet, he was stilled. Marigold had never seen him so calmed.

"Shhh...shhh..."she said.

Smudgie almost feel asleep.
"My heart!"he realized."There is nothing different about my heart!Same heart! I can still feel my heart, just where its always been!Beating just as she said."He thought under that that late morning sun in the sky.

He starterd to feel the way he did when Marigold was by his side at the morning fire.

" Maybe I'm dreaming...yay...I'll open my eyes and be sitting with some drop dead red head! Surely!"
His eyes snapped open.

Nope.

He stared again, the world, the form before him!
Ears laid back, pupils shrink, and he began to pant and sputter. 

"What?"Marigold remember their talk, Imago Dei.
Quickly Marigold brought her face between him and the rest, blocking the view. After blinking, the stallion calmed.

"Is this going to happen every time you open your eyes?"she asked.

It was real all of it, including....

"Umm please...would...would you stop that?Maybe you like doing that and the guys here may get a kick out of it...hrummm....."he said rolling his eyes."But, uh where I'm from...we need to get to know each other just a liiiittle better OK Marigold? Hmm....hmmmmnu!"

"What?!!"she said forgetting all about the face the bruising as he stared at here.
"...all the guy...their all like this? But stallions don't have...what creature has been brought, what will happen if we...?"


"Living Souls!"He laughed."Now its your turn Marigold!"
"Understand his perspective!"

"Uhhum!"said Smudgie.

She was still petting him.
"Oh sorry!"She began to unbind his legs to get her mind off the whole odditality,"If something is wrong, I can always let him go...""She sighed"He's right, does need me, things he doesn't know, he won't survive not knowing them".she sighed again"He speaks of things I don't full know."

He stood up.
"Shall we go again?"He asked

After Marigold had taken a breath...."First, we're going to learn how to walk on three legs."
> Fawning Verdi Dance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"One two three.One two three.One two three...."marigold said leading."Come on Smudgie turn with me.
Much better!"

Yes, it was a dance of sorts.Something easy, something a little fillish, something traditional....something that could be done on three legs!

"Dip with me...no.."they almost fell over again."Trunk to trunk, you told me last night. Remember, the 'Elephant Dance.'"See note 1

They rose up again."How do you remember that?"He asked."Is this going to a verbal thing..?"he grinned."I know more about writer Ruybee Kip than you!"

"I remember prayers..."and oh how she earnestly need to do that after what she had seen."Was he a teacher or prophet from your book?"

"Oh..."he said."Just a freind from a lessor book....you can always mine out some truth."he said with a sigh."Just a guide, when your lost in the jungle, something to remember, sometimes a reminder, where lie the sighnposts..."he clicked his teeth.

"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be ....... son!See note 1
He quoted, strugling at the last.

"Sounds a good earth pony proverb."Marigold said pleasantly.

Here is another.
"NOW this is thelaw of the jungle, as old and as true as the sky, And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree trunk, thelawrunneth forward and back; For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack."See note 1

"Herd..."

"What?"

"The strength of a pony is the herd...friends..."she blinked."Why wolves again?"

"Not all wolves are bad."

A thought struck the stallion, an image of Pernas dancing with his wife, before he met Marigold.A perfect ballet! Centered, under the music bubble made by a unicorn,all eyes on them, ...before...before Pernas broke down, fell, eyes fixated on his front hooves. His wife gently shushing him, hurriedly leading him through those doors. Smudgie shuddered shaking his head changed his mind. 

"Wolves...."she said sarcasticly streching it out the sun making her eyes glow.

"Some say they exist on the borders of time and the universe."

"Shh!None of that!"she said anoyed." No more talk of wolves!You almost syepped on my tail, again." 

His wife had said/agreed:
"What thing are true,noble,virtuous, of good report....on good things taught you. Think on these things..."He thought somemore."First submit to the Lord, resit/resisting the devil/darkness/wrong thing aka bad wolf and it will flee/run away/ retreat."a big goofy grin came on his face."Doing everything to stand, stand anway."

They turned again.
Smudgie asked,"So..."he clicked his tongue."is this our wedding dance?"

"I should hope not!"Marigold said.

Right now, Marigold was not even sure she wanted to keep her promises after what she had seen!

...........
"Its my body too...and it's very ruddy and handsome." she said touching his side.

"That's right!"he nodded vigorously snorting."My book says a husband's body belongs to his wife!"

"Really?"she said her expression lighting up sitting beside the bound pony becoming now sideways to his view.

Smudgie's eyes suddenly became the size of dinner plates.

"What else does it say, aside from why you needed laws written down because your hearts had been so callous,hmmm?"

Smudge sighed in resignation."That a male leaves his parents house to find her. They become one."

"I have heard of the metaphysical joining, the older dames talk about it once in a while. What else?"

"In the new testament it says, one married, the husband, is concerned of the things of this world because he wants to please his wife..."he stopped talking, the connotations! Was he only here to please Marigold? 

The more.
"Your holding something back..."the mare said squinting her eyes.

"Dating: as far as I'm concerned, and courting; is a long and diplomatic process."He struggled on his back against the coils round his hooves. "Compromises made, understandings agreed upon...."he grunted.

"Well Celestia gave you to me, so I have to take what comes....."

He hit his head on the ground willfully in frustration, daring not to say out loud what he thought.
"I have been conquered and taken as spoils of war!"

"What was that?"

"Nothing!!"

"So out with it..."

"No student is above his teacher...can be like his teacher....can be equal! Like...like...two, pulling a cart...yes."

"You're off point..."Margold sing song said gently pushing his redened checks making his head rock.

"The point is...I need you."He said closing his eyes." If what I say you don't like...maybe I'm wrong!"

"Out with it."

"Please don't leave me tied up!
That a wife is to submit to her husband, respect and obey him."

The look she gave him.
"...and a husband is to love his wife, better than his own body...to protect and shield her..."she was looking at him."But we are equal! Yoke fellows to the same cart!"he tapped the harness on his face with his hooves."You believe the same as I! We can't possibly be unevenly yoked!"he swallowed.

"I won't leave you tied up...promise."

Thus assured.
" Marigold," he spoke gently."I will never tell you to do anything that is wrong!"he struggled with the bonds."Have I even ask you to stop this game or untie me? I know you are only doing it because its necessary."He looked her in the face."It is necessary isn't it?"

"It is." she said quietly.

She answered this way because she saw something. 
A couple of things.
His tail?Good! Covering up! He was learning she was pleased with this.

"What's this?"  she noticed a bruising on either of his sides"What happened there?" 
She was about to say something. 
She was startled, a face! 
A horrid face! 
Darting around the stallions neck! She was about to ask him, however, it wasn't time. 

Something remarkable came to her attention!
Two things.
Two little things that should not be on a male stallion! 
Why had she not seen them before? 
Small  circular, like moles, like buttons....

"Smudgie..."she asked causiously."You were talking crazy about surgeries earlier."she asked chewing her lip."Have you always been a stallion?"

"Have I always been a...." his head shot up fro his reclining posittion where he had been hitting the ground."What kind of question is that?!!"
He began to grumble again."Off all the.....I...I..I."

She gently pet him, over one of those buttons. He was cut off and just stared up to the sky quietly.Then closed his eyes. Memories, memories of being human came back to him, when his heart beat, when he was excited, or scared, eating or sleeping, good things. 
He was quiet, he was stilled. Marigold had never seen him so calmed.

"Shhh...shhh..."she said."Quiet now."

Smudgie almost feel asleep.

"See the power you have!"spoke another voice coming from where Marigold had seen the face earlier.

"Never!"she thought"I'm doing it because its something the married would do, something nice, he seems to like it..."

Maybe now he would calm down, be grounded, reasonable...Sensible pony!

Nope.

He stared again, the world, the form before him!
Ears laid back, pupils shrink, and he began to pant and sputter. 

"What?"Marigold remember their talk, Imago Dei.
Quickly Marigold brought her face between him and the rest, blocking the view. After blinking, the stallion calmed.

"Is this going to happen every time you open your eyes?"she asked.

His eye slowly accepted the reality around him as he spoke.

"Umm please...would...would you stop that?Maybe you like doing that and the guys here may get a kick out of it...hrummm....."he said rolling his eyes."But, uh where I'm from...we,uh, need to get to know each other just a liiiittle better OK Marigold? Hmm....hmmmmnu!"

"What?!!"she said forgetting all about the face the bruising as he stared at here.
"...all the guy...they're all like this? But stallions don't have...what creature has been brought, what will happen if we...?"


"Some stallions do."
Marigold head was full of doubt. 

She saw a vision.
High above snowy trees, pines, she was flying. A river of lights in the night traveling in two's, lit up in a band below her. One broke off, a crariot with beams ahead alone on the road. Something glinted in the woods, a flash! Through the flash she went.
"Those that have them, keep."
Before a portal stat Celestia, beside her a Pegisus stallion, his face obscured by the portal's light but he was familiar. He took his wings and embrace another stallion, his son she knew!
"If only I were so lucky, to be called...but I'm too old! Too old to go a youthful case with Mordred at my back again!"
That voice! She couldn't place it, so calm in the face of losing what he cared most deeply about. There was a very, very light slur in his speech giving Marigold a pang of deep guilt when he spoke.
Why should that be?

There was a cackle, a monster on the back of a creature-puzzled. She knew them! Where? 

In a confused land the puzzled beast, on a throne, grabbed a golden pony by the necklace in his magic and brought her to his face!

"Oh this again!"snarled a monster."The foolish things come make sport the wise!" Rolling it eyes.
"You! That face! I know that face!"said the monster on the beasts back!"Apples taught this on to lie!"It laughed.
"Help me!"cried the puzzle-thing, chains for a halter the monster gouging its legs into his sides.Other ponies joined the one floating, nearby in the air.
A purple unicorn, with a crown, grabbed them into a bubble and brought them back. The bubble settled, the checkered land land became grass benighth their hooves again.
Helix of rainbow flew from them and blasted the puzzled thing. The rider was pulled away by the chains, flying away in bits. A crust washed away under a high stream, and the beast turned to stone as he looked in fear to a towering figure over all.

"Now Marigold..."said the figure."You need to finish what is started."gently filling the necklaces with rainbow again, patting each pony on the head.

Those that don't, don't have to worry.
Back to the vision.
The youth joined three others, taking a mare by the hoof."She's lovely...marigold thought looking at her formed silhouette together they passed through the portal. Marigold followed.

"If they go over to that world though...for protection," Bipedal forms, four, two male, two female, hairless dark against the snow. The males, took to their knees, cried out, clutched their sides, looking at one another, with little time to comprehend as one of the females curled up with a scream.
"What's wrong?!!"raced one of the males to her side as she clutched the claw appendage of the other female.
The other, with familiar grey eyes, took charge."Its the baby. She's coming."
"Its only been nine months! Not even a year!"
"I'm a doctor."said the other stallion.
"He's a doctor!"said Marigold proudly with a smile.Why?
"Quiet!"said grey eyes.He listened...the sound of medium wining and swishing could be heard.
"Follow that sound!"he commanded."Bring help!"he look again to them with jaundice jaw."Don't get run over!!!
Another female grabbed the second male's shoulder."We're not doing any good here, we need to hurry! We need help."the male looked at the female glaring."He's the best choice to leave behind!"Looked as if the male were to throw punches."We trusted him in the testing, the leg breaking, the isolation, the cruel town, can't we trust him here?" 
They, together, raced through the trees, they didn't have to go far, came to a road and waved down it solitary chariot. 

Brakes ground, seeing the plucked forms before  him in the beams. He grabbed a medical bag and followed them.
They brought the girl to the car and Marigold watched atop the back seat as the grey eyed youth took instruction from older man and helped in delivery.

The baby girl cried as she was handed to her mother.
I had them, they've have them too and forever keep them...that's the way it is."

All wrapped up in blankets and put on the back seat as the car drove away. 
They drove into town.
Slowly pacing by a building, cars pulled back and forth with flashing blue and red white lights. The older man parked the car, turned it off, and turned looking at its occupants. They, from looked back making contact with their large eyes. The driver turned back, started the car.
He had everything medical a baby would need and these people, yes, little people, hadn't done anything wrong...they need a place to stay, sleep....get some clothes... 
"See? This stallion can empathize!"

The man picked up a newspaper and sighed.
"Fear tactics. Same game, over and over!"he rolled up the newspaper."How they hate Reagan so!"

Up a long driveway to a comfortable mance, with figures of dancing fawns carved in wood and wrought in iron. He opened the door for the little poeple, the inside old warm and inviting. "Welcome to Verdi Green!" he anounce as the little of the house caught his shadow making look like a noble stag.

Then marigold saw a mirror.  
Through this portal marigold saw another stallion, he had grey eyes like the others. Marigold wanted to comfort the shaking form as he pounded with his hooves against the mirror. He was so far away. 

A small and very young Luna gently put a wing around the colt as he cried.

The vision fled away.
Marigold chewed her lip.What had she just seen?

"Uhhum!"said Smudgie.

She was still petting him.
"Oh sorry!"She began to unbind his legs to get her mind off the whole odditality,"If something is wrong, I can always let him go...""She sighed"He's right, does need me, things he doesn't know, he won't survive not knowing them".she sighed again"He speaks of things I don't fully know."

..........

"I mean," she though,"I have ever good reason not to be involve with him. It was a fling of emotion from a quickened mare! Allponies get it at this time of year! "she just"Maybe ...no..."she did not imagine Him! "Making a promise..."should she really keep it? She was tempted in her thinking.

"Why not?"said the stallion.

"Why not what?"asked his wife startled as if he had read her mind.

"Why not this!"

Immediately he caught his wife up with him and the rose from the ground. Liker a spiral. There was a music that came from the air.He twirled her many times. She did not resist. Maybe she heard the music too.

Lyrics

Why do birds suddenly appear(see note 2)
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

She gasped as the diped and turned.

Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time you walk by?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

"Believe me it was long time coming down in the sky! Or so I'm told...."


On the day that you were born the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue.

Marigold"Oh that isn't true!"

"It must be I was told so!"Smudgie.

That is why all the girls in town
Follow you all around
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

They both pivoted on two hind legs, each, spinning together like two spheres on a steam engine's governor.
"Physics is a little strange here!"

Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

She laughed joyfully, till at last he brought her back close, her checks were pink as she looked into his eyes.

Wa, close to you
Wa, close to you
Ha, close to you
La, close to youSee note 1

This! This was what she wanted! To be in a relationship, to be swept away...to have fun!
  
The cord loosely surrounded them, not binding, but surrounded.

"Don't think this will save you! I'm still mad."spoke her through sly eyes.

"You need it."he said."I needed it, blue eyes!"

"True..."her eyes softened."What I really need now"she said. Pain was coming up through her rear, up her legs and back.    
"I need, down."

"Is this love?I don't know!I've never been there or can't I remember?!"He thought."What else have I forgotten, destined to history repeat???"The rider snickered gleeful of the stallions doubt.
"I don't want to forget" He said his voice starting to crack" who I am,what I'am"gritted teeth"...where I'm from."

"Oh....sweetheart."she said as a dove. "You won't forget!
What do I say to that?"

Say this:
"When we get to my city, others will be along the way, together,all, you will remember. 
Again we will rise, in air,we too, on two, I will lead the way. You, follow( touch the skies!) and, like me, others follow you."
Touched, he turn his cheek to her."Please,please.Do come back down to me."

It was enogh he gently brought her down again.

"You and He! Always spoiling it for me!!"said the rider as marigolds ear twisted as if hearing...something.

"Ok....so you can dance."she said with a deep sigh."Now....watch me run...watch all of me!"