The Ambassador of Evil

by Queen Sanguine Dreams

First published 24th of July, 2016

The Ambassador of Evil, Garotte Wire, has alot of catching up to do after three years' imprisonment in stone.

Garotte Wire, Ambassador of Evil and destroyer of Canterlot and Cloudsdale (By releasing Lord Tirek,) is now freed from her three years' imprisonment in stone. She lives currently with Princess Twilight Sparkle until she can get on her own hooves, and is being taught lessons in trusting others and making friends by Twilight.

Unknown to Garotte however, pieces of her initial evil plan have yet to be tied up. Several clones of Garotte have learned of 'The Original' 's return, and have begun to seek her out.

*****

This story is a direct sequel to The Wedding Aftermath, and it is highly recommended that you first read that story beforehoof.

Yes, I also understand that some beginning chapters of The Wedding Aftermath are a bit crazy, but bear with me. I'm still a new writer, and everypony makes mistakes!

Cover Art provided by askdarlingadelaide on Tumblr!

The Trio, The Pink and The Monotone

Garotte Wire: Ambassador of Evil, Destroyer of Canterlot and Cloudsdale, and a Villain recently freed from stone. Her appearance was skinny yet athletic, as she had lived a life on the streets of the Griffon Empire and often resorted to stealing her food or working odd jobs for anyfeather willing to give her one. Her coat was a light grey, hooves an exposed darker shade of the same grey. Her mane was black from the roots to a slow fade of grey in the middle and further fading to white at the end. It was messy, strands of hair going anyway they chose that particular day, and Garotte liked it that way. She had neither the time nor inclination to 'make herself prim and proper', and she wasn't going to start soon. She absolutely despised any noble or aristocrat of any species on principle. The rich had more money than they knew what to do with, and not once in Garotte's entire life had those stuck-up, self-absorbed snobs ever given her a single bit. There was no way that Garotte was going to do a thing like fixing her mane to resemble them. At most, Garotte wore a Black suit with crimson shirt and grey tie. She was an Ambassador after all. The least she could do was intimidate the shallow pretenders with some class before she spoke. Princess Twilight Sparkle, her first friend and jailer, had been staring into Garotte's blue eyes as the villain was nursing a cup of Chai tea at her kitchen table.

How had this unicorn come to be friends with the Princess? Well, It's a long story. In short, the unicorn known as Garotte Wire was the Ambassador for 'The Forces of Evil' lead by a now unicorn King Aether, whom used to be an Alicorn. Also a long story, explained in another. During the Siege of Canterlot and the Destruction of Cloudsdale, Twilight Sparkle, a newly transformed Alicorn Princess, had confronted the villain behind all of it and offered her a chance to make things right. Twilight had needed the magic of Garotte's special talent in order to confront Tirek, A demon Centaur from Tartarus that Garotte had unleashed as part of her plan. The princess had needed the magic in the first place as she was holding not only the magic of Princesses Celestia and Luna, but Queens Chrysalis and Aze, as well as Discord and Nightmare Moon herself, and finally King Aether. The magics of Sun, Moon, Love, Harmony, Chaos, Shadow and Change had been waging an internal war of dominance, held back only by Queen Aze's Harmony for a short time and preventing the other magics from dominating the others through sheer force of will. The magic of Garotte's special talent, while not obvious to any that would see her cutie mark, (A loop of piano wire) is one of Unity. More specifically, Garotte's special talent is making others work together to achieve a specific goal, no matter how horribly the other beings may hate another or disagree.

With this talent, Garotte Wire was able to use the forbidden knowledge and talents of the Pink One to create an army of Mirror Duplicates. These mirror forms were imperfect copies of the original Garotte, and those that survived the Siege of Canterlot and Destruction of Cloudsdale had lead seperate lives. The common theme amongst them, aside from looking exactly like the villain that had caused destruction of so much, was the suits they wore. Each mirror had decided to differentiate themselves by a suit unique to their personality. Several had been arrested for their part in the catastrophe, while others had escaped. In total, there were over twenty surviving duplicates of Garotte Wire still living. Twilight Sparkle had yet to inform the original Garotte Wire of this, however.

For the past three years, Garotte Wire had been frozen in stone. When her magic was taken, her body had gone into a stasis to prevent its own death. After that time, the eight Demi-gods and deities had regained their power enough to return the magic of Unity to Garotte, and free her from her imprisonment. The mare had taken everything fairly well, which concerned Twilight. Garotte had been acting as if nothing was wrong and she started a new job working at the spa in Ponyville the next day. She knew very little about Garotte, aside from the few moments she had spent with the mare already. She knew that deep down, Garotte wasn't evil. That didn't stop the unicorn from calling herself the Ambassador of Evil, and claiming that Heroes were no better than the Villains they sought to stop in the end.

Twilight had been staring at Garotte for some time now, causing her to feel uncomfortable. While setting her tea down, Garotte asked, "Twilight? You've been staring at me for a full five minutes now. Something on your mind?" Garotte's default expression was usually one of a guilty pony caught in the middle of stealing; her ears were usually turned downward and obscured by her obsessively messy mane and accompanied by a wide eyed look of wonderment or surprise. Now, however, her ears were perked in interest or possibly concern. "I know you like to zone out about things, but you normally don't stare at me while you do it..."

"Oh!" Twilight jumped, broken from her thoughts and forced back into reality. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking about a few things." Twilight moved over to the kitchen table, bringing her own cup of tea in a lavender glow of magic and setting it down on a coaster. "Are you adjusting well to living inside of the castle?"

Ponyville itself had been razed to the ground three years prior, as part of the first 'attack' from the Forces of Evil. In the end, the entire situation had been a grand plot by Celestia to give hope to the regular ponies of Equestria by convincing them that there were problems they -the regular ponies- could solve even if something happened to the Elements of Harmony or the Princesses. The town was saved when an army of disguised changelings lead by Queen Aze had routed the Forces of Evil and quickly dissipated as if they were ghosts in a bright flash of light. The stories of the Attack on Ponyville had spread throughout Equestria of the ghostly protectors of the land, and ultimately giving Princess Celestia's plan a stamp of success. The downside to this plan was that a few ponies had taken the tongue in cheek messages of the Evil Overlords that lead The Forces of Evil to heart. One of those ponies had been Garotte Wire, who Pinkie Promised to the Pink One herself that she would be the greatest Evil she was able to be, and then immediately raised two armies, leveled two cities, released Lord Tirek from Tartarus itself, and then united all of Equestria through the hardships she had given them. The Pink One, known to her friends as Pinkie Pie, had never given an explanation for her actions other than 'I thought it would be good for the story!' All involved had long since learned to not question anything the Pink One ever did, as they were usually unable to understand her logic or lack thereof. During the destruction of Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle's library home had been burnt to the ground. For her ascension into an Alicorn Princess, Twilight had been given an artifact that later revealed itself to be a seed, which grew into a Crystalline castle on the outskirts of the newly rebuilt border town. She had lived there for a full year before Garotte had been released, and grown used to the vast empty halls that had been decorated by her friends to be more like a home than a science project.

"Well, it's spacious." Garotte simply replied, taking another sip of her tea with her ears drooping to their usual spot. "The tea is good though, thank you." she added quickly.

Twilight had been trying to teach Garotte how to trust other ponies and to make friends. She wasn't doing too well, as Garotte had been mistreated and neglected for her entire life. Griffons by nature were generally loathe to share or provide any sort of charity, and had ignored Garotte's existence at best. Raised in that kind of environment, Garotte had learned to rely only upon herself and to distrust everybeing on reflex. This had made her initial confrontation with Twilight all the more difficult during the attack of three years ago, but that was in the past.

"Do you have anything planned for today? We could walk around the marketplace if you're free." Twilight suggested, taking a sip of her own tea and idly wondering where Spike had gone.

"I'm trying to avoid going out into town if possible. Ponies still give me nasty looks or just gallop away when they see me. Besides, I'm more concerned about what The Pink One has planned for me than anything." Garotte shuddered, pulling her warm cup of tea closer to her muzzle and looking from the corner of her eyes at the dark places of the room.

"You know, you could just call her Pinkie Pie. Saying 'The Pink One' makes her sound like some sort of spooky ghost." Twilight giggled.

Garotte blinked a few times in disbelief at Twilight, before deciding that explaining the obviously terrifying abilities of the Pink One would serve no purpose other than to start an argument between them over whether her friend was to be feared or given a hug in apology. She then finished off her tea and scooted away from the table, levitating her cup towards the sink that had been made from a crystal that she wasn't familiar with. It wasn't Twilight's fault that she hadn't given The Pink One a closer look. Most ponies outright ignore anything that is too out of the ordinary for them to process, and Twilight would probably freak out if she had learned of the few abilities that Garotte had been given by the Pink One herself in order for her to complete her original Promise. Thankfully for everypony including Garotte, that promise had been revoked and she was free to be her own pony. Whom that was, however, was completely lost to Garotte. She didn't have to scrounge by to survive anymore, but she didn't have an official job as the Ambassador of Evil either. The Forces of Evil had been transformed along with their Citadel into another city unto itself, complete with all the trappings of a utopia.

Garotte sighed, having returned to the table yet refusing to sit. "You know what?" Garotte asked, looking to Twilight with a slight smile. "I might as well go outside. I'm not going to get used to Ponyville being stuck in your castle."

"That's great!" Twilight replied a bit louder than she had intended. "Now we can introduce you to ponies so they won't be so scared of you all the time."

Garotte made a scrunchy face. "Yeah, sure. 'The Ambassador of Evil and destroyer of homes is among us. Lets give her a hug!' " She snarked.

"Come on, Garotte. It won't be that bad." Twilight said convincingly, though Garotte knew that the Princess had just tempted fate, and her day was about to get interesting.

*****

"Hey, do I know you?" A stallion had asked with harsh tone, directed towards Garotte.

Yep. Called it. Garotte thought.

"Maybe. Have you see a statue, about yea high," She raised a hoof off of the ground to be on top of her head, "Bowing in sorrow, surrounded by garden related plant life for about the last three years?" she replied sarcastically, completely annoyed at both the tone and the repetitive nature of each of the encounters she'd had while outside. Twilight Sparkle had run off someplace to fetch somepony that she said Garotte would relate to, and had left the Ambassador of Evil to her own devices.

The stallion became more upset, walking towards Garotte with a disapproving stare. "Do you know how much pain you caused me and my family with your little stunt?"

Garotte set her hoof back on the ground, and rolled her eyes. "Yes. It is completely tragic how you now have a large home to live in with unlimited groceries and more room than you know what to do with. It must be so horrible." She deadpanned. After the destruction of Canterlot and Cloudsdale, the cities had been rebuilt in record time thanks to several impromptu singing numbers. The effect of songs has been well documented throughout history as being able to increase efficiency as well as strength, intelligence, durability and resilience in innumerable cases. The scientific theory was currently, 'If pony is exposed to song, then pony becomes ten ponies.' Following that theory, The two cities were rebuilt entirely in a month, and better than before. The funding had come Pre-Stasis from Queen Aze, whom had amassed a gargantuan fortune of bits that threatened to overwhelm the economy with its magnitude. Thankfully, the Changeling Queen was actually dependent on altruism to survive, and had donated a sizeable fund to Princess Celestia in exchange for her hive to be allowed to remain in Manehattan, where they offered friendship for food in both senses of the wording. Ponies would go into any of the stores run by Aze's changelings, and receive food in exchange for making friends with the staff.

"Yes it's horrible! My family and I were out on the streets for an entire month with nothing to eat but carefully planned meals next to a fireplace!" The stallion harrumphed. "Do you even understand the hardships that a six thousand square hoof home comes with! The cleaning bills alone!"

"Truly. A fate worse than death."

"We've even had to hire workers just to make us meals! I don't have the time that I used to for my hobbies!"

Garotte sighed, standing there and forcing herself not to strangle the obnoxious stallion before her. She could easily do it. Nopony else was around, as the idiot had caught her skulking around in an alleyway. Just two steps forward, rear on her hind legs, and hug the consciousness right out of him. Simple. But, alas, Garotte had said she would attempt to befriend ponies that she'd met. Using her abnormal strength (For a unicorn) to hug ponies unconscious wasn't making friends, it was getting rid of problems temporarily.

Besides, her ability to hug ponies had given her both her namesake and a job at the Ponyville spa. Apparently, it does wonders for the back when you have the life nearly crushed out of you. Maybe that's how massages work in general?

"Are you even listening!?" The stallion yelled, getting in Garotte's face.

"No. I wasn't."

The stallion growled in response.

"Your teeth are nice." Garotte said unexpectedly, throwing the stallion's train of thought far from the tracks.

"Wuh?"

"Your mane is also well styled." Garotte continued.

"What are you doing?" The stallion asked confusedly.

"Complimenting you."

"Why?"

"Because having you yell at me all day -like everypony else I've met so far- is annoying." Garotte replied matter-of-factly.

"We- but- um..." The stallion stuttered, and Garotte took her chance to walk past the stallion and continue on down the street away from him.

"Have a good day." She called behind herself, disappearing around the corner.

The stallion later turned around to see Garotte Wire had gone. Confused, he decided to continue with his daily routine when he was shocked beyond belief to see three more Garotte Wires all standing in front of him. From left to right, they had different suits on. White jacket with Blue shirt and black tie; Grey jacket with White shirt and black tie, and Black jacket with bright red shirt and black tie.

"Hello!" Blue said.

"We saw your little confrontation with our Garotte there." White added, adjusting her tie.

"Wouldn't want something like that to happen again, though." Red menaced.

"What do ya say there, champ?" Blue continued. The three were speaking as one, finishing each others sentences as if a single train of thought existed between the three of them.

"Are you going to leave Garotte alone?" White asked neutrally.

"Or are you gonna cause problems?" Red grinned maliciously.

The stallion in question had been darting his head between the three mares and grew more panicked by the second. With Red's last comment, he decided the best course of action was to scream and run away.

"I love it when they run!" Blue chirped happily.

Garotte Wire had used the Pool of Mirrors to create an army of herself during her time of evilness. Most of them were near mindless copies that served only the basest of purposes, while others had emerged from the pool complete with separate personalities. She had been informed of this pool by The Pink One when Garotte had explained that she couldn't do the evil she needed all on her own. With this knowledge, Garotte had raised an army of her clones and caused the destruction of Canterlot and Cloudsdale through clever infiltration and manipulation.

Unknown to her, the group that locals had named "The Trio" had been touring all across the globe and encountering as many activities and beings as possible to expand their knowledge of everybeing and thing they could. They had heard of the Original's freedom from stone, and quickly came to Ponyville to speak with their creator.

The Trio had originally been responsible for freeing the insane and deranged of Canterlot's Mental Health retreats, and releasing them onto the streets to cause as much mayhem as the crazies had felt like at the time. For the stories told after the battle between Princess Sparkle and Lord Tirek, The Trio were responsible for a few evil deeds here and there, yet mostly kept to themselves.

At least, until Garotte came back.

Now, they wanted to be the first copies to meet up with their original boss to see what she wanted them to do.

*****

"Garotte! There you are!" Twilight yelled across the marketplace, causing everypony to first look at the princess, and then scan around where she was looking for whomever Garotte was. Before the grey mare could be spotted, she quickly ducked behind a cabbage cart and tried to shrink as low as possible. To her dismay, the bottom of the cart was well off of the ground and revealed her poor hiding spot. The cabbage merchant was also not a fan of having the villain using her cart as a hiding spot, and promptly pushed it away from her. This revealed Garotte to the town in dramatic fashion when she quickly got up and leapt to another nearby cart that was unoccupied.

"Wow. She's almost as bad as I am." Twilight's friend mentioned within earshot of Garotte.

"Starlight, that's not a nice thing to say." The princess scolded.

"She reminds me of Fluttershy."

"Trust me, she's far from Fluttershy... at least when she's pressed against the wall."

Garotte peeked from the side of the cart, looking first at Twilight Sparkle and then to the pony on her left. The friend was a Unicorn mare with soft pink coat, styled and swirly mane of purples with a stripe of teal, purple eyes and makeup to boot. Garotte already didn't like her on principle.

"Oh, now she's glaring at me. This is going great, Twilight!" Starlight sassed.

"Gah, just give her a chance, will you?"

Starlight raised an eyebrow. "Getting frustrated? Not very friendly of you, Princess of Friendship."

Garotte then re-evaluated her initial findings on Starlight. Maybe she was another evil pony? With this in mind, she ignored the town ponies that had begun to gawk at the mild spectacle before them of two villains and the Princess of Friendship having a spat. Garotte began walking up to Starlight and Twilight, idly realizing their names were fairly similar.

"So, you're the friend that Twilight ran off to find?" Garotte asked cautiously, stopping a few pony lengths from the two mares. She may have been a friend of Twilight's, but no way was she going to trust that she was friendly just because of that. Even then, it's the friendly ponies you have to watch out for. They usually want something from you.

"Apparently, that'd be me." Starlight replied, a hoof on her chest for a moment.

"Starlight Glimmer, meet Garotte Wire! Garotte Wire, Starlight Glimmer." Twilight said officially, introducing the two.

Garotte and Starlight then gave appraising stares, raised eyebrows, and paced around each other in evaluation. This continued for several minutes with muttered remarks under each others breaths, and finally ended when they had made three full circles.

"I give her a four." Garotte mentioned.

"A four?" Starlight asked.

"On the 'Evil' scale. You're like... lukewarm evil."

This irked Starlight. She had been trying to better herself, but who was she to rate her evilness, anyway? "Is that so? And what does that make you?"

Garotte blinked in mild surprise. "Really? You haven't heard of me? I thought I would at least have been known from here to Minos by now."

"Never heard of you!" Starlight quickly shot. "Besides, who rates somepony's evil based off of appearance anyway?"

"I do. A lot of villains can be judged on appearance alone."

"And you are whom, exactly?"

"Garotte Wire, Ambassador of Evil, Destroyer of Canterlot and Cloudsdale, Jailbreaker of Demons and Army of One." Garotte smiled maliciously, raising a hoof for an offered shake.

Starlight looked to Twilight, who awkwardly smiled and nodded in confirmation. She then looked back to Garotte, whom had snuck up close to her face.

"And who are you, exactly?" she taunted.

Unnerved by the proximity, Starlight composed herself and proudly declared, "Starlight Glimmer, Tamperer of Space Time, Stealer of Cutie Marks and Cult Leader."

Garotte backed off, raising an eyebrow with an approving expression. "Tamperer of Space Time? Hmm..." She then rubbed her chin, looking at Starlight with a new perspective. "I adjust my previous rating. I'll give you a seven."

This took a bit of ego from Starlight. "A seven?!"

"Well, you obviously didn't succeed at altering space time in any meaningful way." Garotte smiled.

Starlight rolled her eyes. "Pfft, that you would know of."

Spike, ignored by all and bearer of the title 'The Frequently Forgotten To Be Present', then called from a nearby vendor of gems, (Which he was scarfing down after paying for, using his love of Gems to stave off his irritation in a futile effort to remain cheery) "Just kiss already!"

Both Garotte and Starlight then recoiled from their proximity to each other, which had subconsciously grown closer and blushed furiously.

"Spike!" Twilight hissed in disbelief, "How could you say something like that!?"

"Easy!" Spike replied through muffled gems in his mouth, "They're practically made for each other with how they argue."

Twilight facehoofed. "Spike, just because couples sometimes argue, doesn't mean that's why they're a couple."

Spike shrugged. "Could'a fooled me."

Starlight and Garotte had both taken up glaring at Spike and said in unison, "Seems like it did." under their breath, before both realizing they had the same thought, and looked everywhere but each other's general direction.

Twilight sighed in defeat. "Alright you two, let's go back to the castle. You can talk all you want to in peace when we get there."

"Sure." Starlight quickly said.

"Alrighty." Garotte replied as well, the both of them quickly taking up positions on opposite sides of Twilight with Spike running behind to catch up, arms filled with various gems.

Starlight then looked across Twilight's back at Garotte. "Did you really just say 'alrighty'?"

"Twilight, they're flirting agaaain." Spike complained cheekily.

Garotte looked away from Twilight and Garotte, using her mane as a shield to be embarrassed in peace behind. Twilight groaned in annoyance, and Starlight shot Spike a glare. Spike was oblivious to this, however, as he shoveled more gems into his face.

*****

In short order, the four had arrived at Twilight's sprawling castle.

"Alright, a few rules need to be said." Twilight announced, turning around in front of the door to address Starlight and Garotte.

Garotte patiently waited, and Starlight was giving a look of 'are you serious?' to Twilight.

"Firstly, no using magic to harass other ponies. Second, no hugging without consent. Thirdly, don't annoy each other on purpose. Good?"

Starlight had questions. "Hugging? Seriously?" She then noticed a warmth next to her, and was startled to find that Garotte had once again snuck up on her.

"I'll give you a hug if you really want it." She purred.

Seriously creeped out, Starlight squirmed away quickly from Garotte.

"Garotte, I'm serious!" Twilight protested.

Garotte was giggling at Starlight's reaction. "Alright, alright. Fine. That was worth it, though." she smiled. Starlight was still upset at the invasion of personal space.

Twilight was seriously reconsidering introducing the two at this point and grumbled to herself while fiddling with the door. She tried to open it with her magic, but nothing happened. "Oh come on, seriously?" She then looked at Spike. "Did you lock the door from the inside somehow?"

"Uh, no? Why don't you just teleport in?" Spike suggested.

At that, the door suddenly came ajar. It squeaked ominously inwards, (Against all fire code regulation,) and spooked Twilight slightly. She then shook her head. I'm reading too many murder mysteries, She thought to herself.

Pushing the door open, she was surprised when Garotte pulled the door away from her. She was then further surprised when she looked behind her to find Garotte there as well.

"Hey Twily!" The door Garotte chirped. "Long time, never seen!" This Garotte was wearing a blue jacket with Pink shirt and a white tie.

Garotte narrowed her eyes at the newcomer. "Pink? Is that you?"

"Boss!" Pink cheered. "Come on in! There's a whole party for you!"

Garotte cringed, and Pink quickly amended, "It's not a party from The Pink One, don't worry!"

Starlight and Garotte both heaved a sigh of relief, before giving each other curious glances for having the same reaction. The door then swung open to a well lit central hallway that lead to other rooms within the castle. Following 'Pink' through the castle, Twilight had questions.

"Pink, is it?" She asked uncertainly.

"Yeppers!"

"Are... you one of Garotte's copies?"

"Mhm!"

Starlight then whispered to Twilight, "She seems way more cheery than the 'original.'"

Twilight nodded in agreement before continuing. "Why are you here?"

"Well, Monotone and The Trio told me that the Boss was back, so I decided we should throw her a welcome back party!" Pink chirped, reminding everypony of Pinkie Pie a bit too much for comfort.

"Pink... have you been using the Pink One's powers too much?" Garotte asked nervously.

"Non-stop!" was her reply.

Garotte grimaced, closing her eyes as if in pain as well. "Pink. What did I tell you about using her powers?"

Pink then stopped, performed an about face, and recited, "Pink, whatever you do, do not abuse the powers that The Pink One has given us, or she will tear all of us a new a-"

"That's enough!" Garotte hastily interrupted.

"Wait... powers?" Twilight asked Garotte."

"Yep!" Pink replied, "The Pink One gave the Boss the knowledge of how she uses some of her powers so she could be better at her job. By convenient extension, all of her copies can use those powers as well, but with the same limitations!"

"Limitations?" Starlight asked.

"Wait, You're saying that Pinkie Pie has 'powers.'" Twilight asked in disbelief.

"I think you tried to figure out the source of them yourself, didn't you?" Pink asked, throwing a metal strainer with a bunch of blinking lights over her shoulder to land on Twilight's head.

"How did you get this?!" Twilight asked in surprise.

"Power~s" Pink replied ominously with accompanying ghost noises.

"What limitations?" Starlight asked.

"Oh, you know. No using the powers to directly harm other beings, no leaving Equestria with the powers, (Though manually leaving Equestria is fine,) and limit the use of them as much as possible."

"Which you ignored." Garotte commented.

"We're here!" Pink said happily, ignoring Garotte.

The group had finally reached their destination, and Pink pushed open the double doors to the kitchen. In said room was the Trio, and Monotone. Monotone was a special personality, as she always spoke mechanically; As few words as possible, no change in her pitch or tone, and revealing no emotion.

"You've arrived." Monotone stated.

"And you brought the Friend-cess too!" Blue added.

"And another minion?" White asked.

"At least tell me she's evil!" Red grumbled.

"I'm not a minion!" Starlight protested.

Garotte raised a hoof in the air to stop the stream of voices. "Come on, everywire. We can talk about all this later." She then lowered her hoof, and the Princess and Starlight walked in with Garotte, slightly at a loss. "Would you mind explaining why you're here?"

Monotone cleared her throat, and explained. "All of us watched Canterlot New News Network. We saw your return. We want to work for you again."

"Doing evil things!" Blue added.

"Or other things." White commented.

"Mainly evil things, though." Red said.

"What do you say, Bossy?" Pink ended.

Garotte bit her lip, looking between her crew and Twilight.

I could join them. Lead them all in doing evil things again, but why? All that happened the last time I was evil was getting turned into a bird's sitting spot for the last three years. Twilight's really been trying to help me adjust, and it isn't her fault that other ponies treat me the way they do. If anything, It's because of what I've done that they hate me. On the other hoof, my crew is practically all me, and they look up to me. I wouldn't need to make new friends if I went with them. Wait a minute....

"Why don't the five of you stay in the castle?" Garotte asked suddenly, looking to Twilight. "Would that be alright?"

Twilight was now in a bind. Her home was rapidly becoming a den of villains and she wasn't sure if she really wanted to reform that many ponies at the same time. Or if she even could. What was the alternative though; letting them go free and un-monitored?

Twilight nodded, "Yes. I'm sure there's more than enough room for your friends here."

Pink's eyes lit up with excitement. "She called us friends!" She then grabbed an un-enthused Monotone, shaking her vigorously. "We're friends, Monny!"

"Please stop."

Author's Notes:

From Monday to Thursday I'll be driving my car from Washington to Arizona, so I might not be able to add more chapters until I return.

The cover art will come sometime soon as well!

It'll be a picture of Garotte Wire

The Queens of Harmony and Love

Queen Aze: Changeling Queen of what was once known as the White Tail Woods hive. Now, the area once known as the White Tail Woods is referred to as Pyrelight; A stretch of land that is constantly burning with a magical orange fire that has yet to be countered. The young Queen of three years was forced into action with the Attack on Canterlot by Queen Chrysalis, and devised an initial plan of disguising herself and sneaking to Canterlot in order to beg for a peace treaty with Princess Celestia. This plan was immediately shot down in spectacular fashion when the first pony she ran into was The Pink One herself. From that point on, the Queen was taken under suspicion by the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony to Canterlot under the pretense of peace talks.

They were successful, if not completely exasperating for the Solar Diarch. The changeling Queen did not survive mainly from Love as Chrysalis had, but rather several emotions. Generosity, Friendship, and a state of Harmony. With those in mind, and a sizeable bank account left behind by Queen Ra, (Her mother,) She was able to buy the good graces of the nobility in Canterlot. Following that, she negotiated with the Crystal Empire for their favor as well. This involved several instances and back room deals she would refuse to discuss, were she still capable of holding a conversation.

Why is this, you ask?

Hark back to the Destruction of Cloudsdale and Canterlot, and you will find Garotte Wire. The Villain's release of Lord Tirek had forced the most magically able beings in the area to coalesce their power within a recently ascended Twilight Sparkle. All of the magics of those beings, (being Celestia, Luna, Chrysalis, Nightmare Moon, Discord and King Aether,) would have torn Twilight into lavender strips of messy pony bits were it not for Queen Aze's magic. The Changeling Queen needed Friendship, Harmony and Generosity in order for her and her hive to survive. Queen Aze's Harmonizing magic forced the other forces of magic to work together, if only for the briefest of periods in order to defeat Tirek and return to their original masters. For a changeling, the raw emotions of ponies are transformed into a refined vessel that is able to bring new changelings into the world, and in this case, reign in the foreign magics of so many gods and goddesses. The reasoning for this being that Queen Aze and her changelings are able to exist entirely on the emotional magic inherent in ponies. You don't believe there to be magic in emotions? Well, take one look at Twilight Sparkle when she is known to be angry, and her subsequent eruption into an avatar of flame, and you will have your proof.

Changelings take the emotions of ponies very seriously, as any mage would take an ancient scroll with the same gravity. When Queen Aze gave up the magic of Harmony that she existed upon, her body went into a kind of stasis. Queen Chrysalis also went into a different kind of biological stasis; however she was quickly revived by Princess Cadance, as she was the Alicorn of Love and not present during the encounter with Tirek.

Queen Aze, however, was not so fortunate.

Queen Aze is of an entirely different brood than Chrysalis, and this can be seen with an observant eye. The brood of Aze is devoted to infiltration, subterfuge and secrecy. Furthermore, they are not built with combat in mind, as Queen Chrysalis' brood is. Their fangs are less pronounced; their form is far more lithe and minimalistic. They have four wings, two of which are smaller than the others, much like a butterfly. They have a black carapace, but their shell is in front of their chest, arranged like an uppercase Y and connecting behind their neck. Their coloration is Purple or Amethyst for their mane and eyes, and they do not have Frills. In order to better disguise themselves and spare energy on maintaining their form, their hairs are like silk to the touch. They have only two organs, both of them being hearts. The first heart accepts emotional magic, and directs it towards the Changeling's horn. From there, it is filtered into a usable form, and directed towards the second heart, which fuels the rest of the body's needs. They have no digestive system as mammals do, and they have no lungs, kidneys, livers, or other such organs to speak of. For this reason, they are extremely lightweight, and usually disguise as Pegasus in order to avoid detection by their weight giving them away. Since their bodies are entirely dependent on the magic they harvest peacefully, their body has one last preventive measure to preserve their body in the case of a famine.

Their bodies transform themselves into Amethyst replicas of their original form.

This amethyst replica of the changeling Queen was currently resting in the Museum of Evil in Canterlot as an exhibit on the differences between perceived evil and actual evil. Her display was intended to remind ponies and other beings that not everybeing you see is evil just because of how they look, or what you've heard about their kind.

A final, crucial note about Queen Aze's hive, is the Hivemind. For the average pony, such a concept is as alien as it is bizarre. For a changeling however, it is as crucial as the ability to breathe, to blink, to walk or talk. It is their ground in stormy seas and their single refuge in the chaos of life.

And without Queen Aze to reinforce and maintain it, it was deteriorating. Fast.

*****

<Lanius, are you there?> Gaius asked into the Hivemind, in search of his brother and co-advisor. Gaius and Lanius had been the two main advisors that Queen Aze had sought out, and in her absence had become the defacto leaders and representatives of the hive.

<Lanius, I know you're there.> Gaius repeated, his concern growing. Normally anyling would immediately answer a call from across the Hivemind, but recently there had been a growing pain in the collective consciousness of the Hive and it had blocked out most communications.

Gaius had attempted several more times, and was growing more concerned by the moment. He then tried to contact other changelings within the hive, and received no reply. Stuck in Manehattan along with the rest of the hive, the Hivemind was crucial for organization and communication along with social interaction and information updates. In addition to this, changelings of Aze's hive had known the Hivemind to be a constant force of comfort for their entire lives. This was even more distressing for both Gaius and Lanius, as they had been alive since the days of Queen Ra over a millennium ago. To suddenly be cut off or numbed to the Hivemind was nearly panic inducing for the aged changeling, yet if he lost hold of himself now then there would be no hope for the rest of the hive.

What do I do?! I can't contact the Queen and simply ask; She's been frozen in Amethyst for the past three years, and nothing we've done has freed her from it! Gaius thought frantically, pacing his small apartment that was free from any furniture aside from a very comfortable bean bag chair. He couldn't relax now, however, as the growing silence from the Hivemind had set him on edge. What would Queen Aze do? Gaius asked the Hivemind, but something felt off. There was no voice, it was simply more of a specter of conversation instead of the words actually being said. As if there was noling but himself to ask, and this was making him even more worried than he had been a moment ago. There has to be something I can do! Gaius paced and worried in his apartment for several more minutes before an idea struck him. It probably wouldn't work, but Queen Aze had tried something similar and it worked out for them in the end.

He was going to send Princess Celestia a letter. If the Ponies have a Queen, and Chrysalis is a neutral party at best when it comes to an opposing hive, then it was his best bet.

*****

To the Solar Diarch of Equestria,

Greetings, your highness. I will skip further pleasantries and get to my point. The hive of Queen Aze is in jeopardy.

Our Queen has lain dormant for such a period that our Hivemind is degrading at an unsustainable rate. If this is to continue, the panic from the lesser changelings will cause a catastrophic incident. They are not born or trained in how to survive if the Hivemind were to end completely, and with the rate of degradation currently setting in, there is only one way that our hive can survive.

We must find a way to revive our Queen, or our hive will be doomed.

I understand if you are unwilling to risk the return of another changeling Queen, but see this from our perspective. Our Queen is more essential to our lives than the air you breathe. Were she to fully disappear or even perish, so too would the thousands of children that call her mother. I am one of those changelings, and I beg of you to find a way to revive our Queen. We have tried these past three years to harvest enough emotional energy to return our Queen, but to no success.

We have no idea what is required to bring a Queen from stasis, as this has never happened before in our Hive. At least for as long as the thousand years I've lived.

Your assistance is desperately needed, and anything you wish to ask of us will be repaid.

Advisor to the Queen,
Gaius

Princess Celestia, sitting on her throne in the midst of Day Court with the noon sun shining through, could only allow a slight eye twitch before producing her own quill and paper for a letter to somepony with more experience. This was going to go horribly for all she expected, but if anybeing knew a thing about changelings, it would be her.

*****

To Queen Chrysalis,

I do not ask this lightly. I request that you see Princess Twilight Sparkle immediately to prevent a catastrophe in Equestria.

I understand your actions during the Invasion of Canterlot were borne of desperation, and if you are able to resolve this situation you and your hive will be pardoned.

Further negotiations will be determined upon success of this request, should you accept.

Please accept.

Princess Celestia

Queen Chrysalis, currently staying within the Crystal Empire, could only chuckle at the absurdity of the letter she had just received.

When Queen Chrysalis had sacrificed the magic of Love to defeat Tirek, she too had gone into a stasis. Her form, however, was preserved within a chrysalis of her own make. This allowed her to return with much greater efficiency in event of a quick revival, which was brought from Princess Cadance as the Alicorn of Love. Immediately following Queen Chrysalis' revival, Princess Cadance fell ill from the siphoned magic. Seeing as the death of a goddess of love would be horrific for her hive, Queen Chrysalis herself nursed Princess Cadance back to good health despite the constant protests and glares from Shining Armor, the husband of Princess Cadance.

Since then, and with permission from Princess Cadance, Queen Chrysalis and her hive were stationed in the Crystal Empire seeing as it was a fountain of love enough for her subjects to be sustained indefinitely, so long as the crystal ponies were protected. With this deal, Queen Chrysalis' hive provided security and law enforcement for the Crystal Empire, as well as royal escorts.

"Caydi, come look at this." Chrysalis asked, floating the letter towards an expectant Princess Cadance. The Princess and Shining Armor had been busy with the urging of Queen Chrysalis, as nothing brought about more feelings of love than a new foal.

"What is this?" Cadance asked, taking the letter with her own magic as well as floating bejeweled glasses onto her face. They were styled like the Crystal Heart of their empire, and Chrysalis had mentioned more than once how poor of taste they were. Cadance didn't care, however, as she was amused every time she saw them.

"Aunty Sunbutt herself is asking me of all beings to help her. Asking!" Chrysalis exclaimed, even more amused than before. The Changeling Queen was the height of Celestia, and her fangs may have been less pronounced than the rest of her brood, but they still unnerved Shining Armor. Her shell went across her entire backside and wrapped underneath her barrel, giving her even more armoring than a normal Changeling. Her mane was a greenish teal, and looked similar to seaweed with holes in it. Her eyes were a three part of Emerald, a dark green and finally slit black pupils in the center. A large curved horn and large insectoid wings were also a part of her features, matched with the greyish black holed carapace of the rest of her body. In total, any pony that had not met the Queen would call her a monster on reflex.

Cadance was skimming the letter, growing concerned with the overall vagueness of the request. "What does she want you to do?" She then floated the letter to Shining Armor, whom was sitting beside her.

"Something to do with Sparkle and some imminent danger to the land. What I'm really interested in, is the part with pardon written all over it!" She smiled wickedly. She may have nursed Cadance to health, but she cared for her Hive above all else. More territory to spread her hive, the more the hive could prosper. Celestia giving her a pardon for whatever this was would be absolutely in her favor alone. She had no delusions towards attempting to take Canterlot again, however. She had everything she needed to survive in the Crystal Empire alone. What she wanted was to expand, to grow her hive further and stretch across the world. She didn't care for what purpose, so long as the future of her hive and children was secure for generations to come.

"A pardon?" Shining Armor asked skeptically. "You think she'd actually do something like that? You did try to kill her."

"Kill her? Oh please, that was a misunderstanding. The fool- I mean, Princess, was simply rusty. When do you think the last time she had to do anything related to a magic duel was? Starswirl the Bearded's time? Nightmare Moon's? Actually, I should send her a letter as well. She'd love the irony of Sunbutt herself needing my help, of all beings."

"Are you ever going to call her Princess Celestia?" Shining asked, annoyed.

"Only to her face, for political reasons." Chrysalis allowed with a slight wave of her holed hoof.

Shining sighed while rolling his eyes and looking to his love. "Cadance, what do you think?"

"Well, it's up to Chryssi to decide." Cadance replied.

Chrysalis' eyes narrowed a bit at Cadance. "Did you just call me Chryssi?"

Cadance smiled widely in challenge. "Yes I did, your Royal Queenly Love-bug-ness. What're you gonna do about it?"

Chrysalis lowered her stance, her wings buzzing in preparation for flight as she grinned evilly at Cadance.

"No pouncing! Foal on board!" Cadance yelped, covering her belly.

Chrysalis relented, happy that she had playfully spooked Cadance, and moreso at the glare she was getting from Shining. Despite every effort, that stallion still wouldn't trust her. She had long since given up, and now sought to annoy him from time to time just to keep him on his hooves.

"Well, I should go to Ponyville then. If you don't mind, I'm going to play a little joke on Twilight. I'm sure she'll tell you all about it at the first chance, from what you've told me of her." Chrysalis grinned, turning around and promptly trotting out of the room. She was tailed by two of her own Queen's Guard; larger changelings bred specifically to guard Queen Chrysalis with more durability and magical proficiency than regular drones.

When Chrysalis had gotten out of earshot, Shining gave a worried look to Cadance. "Are you sure this is going to be a good idea? What is Celestia thinking?"

Cadance nuzzled her partner, "It'll be fine, Shiny. Chrysalis isn't the Changeling we met on our wedding day anymore."

Shining returned the nuzzle, but had a scrunchy face of uncertainty. "I hope you're right..."

*****

"Monotone, would you please get down from there?!" Twilight yelled up to the clone, exasperated at her attempts to wrangle the five new Garottes that had taken up residence in her castle.

"I enjoy heights." Monotone replied. She was currently sitting atop the castle's massive fridge, wedged in crevice next to the ceiling.

"How did you even get up there?!"

"Magic."

"Gaah!" Twilight growled, deciding that she would deal with Monotone later. For now, her attention was focused on Pink's shenanigans of redecorating every picture of herself and her friends in the castle with pink mustaches. "Pink, I asked nicely! Please stop!"

"Not until you stop taking yourself so seriously, Friend-cess!" was Pink's reply as she swung overhead from a crystal chandelier wearing a top hat of pink with a white band around the center. "You're so boring with all your 'friendship lessons' and 'books'!"

"I am Twilight Sparkle. I hold a great fondness for books." Monotone agreed, placing reading glasses onto her face that had been on Twilight's head. The two of them had intruded on the Princess of Friendship's study time out of boredom, and were now taking turns harassing her for their own amusement. "Books are my life; my one true love. Books will never betray me, or call me fat." Monotone continued.

"Garotte! Your clones are out of control!" Twilight yelled towards the ceiling in desperation. "Help!"

The Trio then poked their heads though the door. Blue on top, White in the middle, and Red towards the floor like a totem pole.

"Is this a party?!"

"What's going on in here?"

"Why weren't we invited?"

"Noooo!" Twilight screamed, deciding to make a tactical withdrawal via teleportation away from the room. As soon as the Princess vanished, the chaos in the room came to a complete and abrupt stop.

"Mission accomplished." Monotone stated, pulling herself away from the fridge top and plopping onto the floor below. "Ouch."

"That was a lot easier than I expected." Pink added, looking at a hoof watch. "That only took all of four minutes! How did we even lose to her in the first place?"

"She must not be resistant to high levels of stress." Monotone continued, choosing to ignore the jab at their boss from Pink.

"No, I'm serious! How did we lose to an adorkable nerd with nigh godlike levels of power?" Pink then blinked a few times as her own words registered. "Nevermind." she grumbled. "We were destined to lose against that combination."

"Did we win?"

"What was the original purpose of this?"

"Did Garotte want us to do this?" The trio asked, in their usual order of Blue, White and Red.

"It was partially my idea, and partially Monotone's." Pink explained, "We wanted to see how well she did under pressure compared to the Boss, and she really needs a tutor when it comes to that."

"What will our goal be?" Monotone asked. "If we are to follow Twilight's suggestions and teachings, then we should attempt to improve her resilience. If we are to follow Garotte, we should undermine Twilight whenever possible."

"Aw, but she's really nice to us!"

"She has a predisposition to not throw us out on the streets as well."

"I like her mane?"

Monotone, Pink, White and Blue then looked curiously to Red, whom looked helplessly back at them.

"She can't talk out of turn." Blue explained.

"It's part of the speaking rules." White added.

"Otherwise we get all jumbled up and nothing productive happens." Red finished.

If anypony could tell, a slight shift in Monotone's stance would've alerted them to her interest. "You are unable to communicate unless it is in a specific order?" She asked, her voice still holding true to her namesake. "If one of you were to be separated from the others, then-"

"Don't you even joke about that."

"If you mention anything like that again..."

"They won't find what's left of you, Monotone." The three immediately threatened, all their faces contorted in anger and menace.

For her part, Monotone retreated slightly. "Very well. I will not speak of that subject." She showed no worry or concern, but Pink could tell she was shocked. It was part of the gifts that The Pink One had given all of them, though she was most attuned to them.

"Good!" Blue chirped, returning to her regular cheer.

"No harm done then." White added, adjusting her tie.

"Just remember, do not mention that again." Red grouched, as that was her role.

"Noted clearly." Monotone nodded.

As if to cleanse everywire's palette of the drama that had just occurred, the main door to the castle announced a newcomer with resonating booms of sound. It was explained to the guests that it was hard to hear anypony knocking if there wasn't magic sound amplification runes on the door knocker, and having them would ensure that anypony would be heard. It still made everybeing in the castle nearly leap out of their coat when it happened, however.

The clones looked between themselves as if asking who was going to answer the door, when their Boss came down the steps with a distressed Twilight in tow.

"Alright, we're all going to have a 'family chat' after this door pony gets dealt with." Garotte snapped at the group, immediately making them feel bad. Garotte stopped to look disappointingly at her crew as Twilight walked past. The second she had, however, Garotte broke into a massive smile and patted Monotone and Pink on their heads. "Good job!" She whispered happily with a wink. Relieved, Pink smiled back and Monotone nodded to Garotte.

The door then squeaked open and Twilight exclaimed, "Princess Celestia?!"

Garotte's head whipped around faster than it probably should upon hearing that name, and immediately ducked towards a nearby couch seeking cover. The other Garotte's soon took the hint, and vanished with equal haste.

"Twilight Sparkle, It is good to see you. May I come in?" Celestia asked politely with a motherly tone, as if reminding her student of her manners.

"Oh! Yes, of course!" Twilight quickly replied, standing out of the way and allowing her old mentor to walk through the door, accompanied by two stout looking earth pony guards. "What's the occasion, if you don't mind my asking?"

Celestia walked to the center of the room, looking around approvingly of the castle before replying. "There is a matter of great importance occurring in Manehattan, and you are needed to fix it."

Twilight was confused by this. "Do you mean a friendship problem? Why me?"

"Would you sit with me, Twilight?" Celestia asked, motioning to the nearby couch with her horn. Pink could see her Boss sweating gemstones of worry, and her internal debate of the worth of simply bolting from the room at this point.

"Of course! Would you like any tea?" Twilight asked, already levitating a teacup and teabag of Jasmine.

Celestia shook her head slightly. "That is alright, Twilight. This should not take long to explain."

Slightly concerned by the decline of tea, Twilight set down the cup and bag. "It must be pretty serious if there's no time for tea." She stated.

"Is anypony else in the room with us?" Celestia asked.

Pink, Monotone, and The Trio all made silent shooshing gestures accompanied by panicked expressions. Twilight then took this as her moment of delicious revenge for the shenanigans not a few minutes before. "Well, yes. There's about six other ponies in the room with us." She smiled maliciously.

"Six? They are not your friends, then?" Celestia asked, and Twilight nodded.

"They're Garotte Wire and her clones."

Celestia's eyes narrowed in thought, looking to the side for a moment before she spoke again. "Meh, that should be alright then."

Twilight was immediately confused by the change in demeanor of her mentor, and was then horrified when Celestia burst into green flames along with her Royal guards. The flames quickly spread across her body, and eventually revealed a very familiar Changeling Queen.

"Chrysalis!" Twilight hissed, hopping off of the couch in anger and ready for a fight.

"Oh, calm down Sparkle. You have to admit I pulled that impersonation off flawlessly!" Chrysalis cheered herself, wings buzzing in approval.

"What do you want, Chrysalis?" Twilight barked, still unnerved by seeing what she thought was her mentor transform into the first Changeling she had ever met, and the changeling that had attempted to replace her foal sitter and mind control her brother.

"Twilight, seriously. Calm down." Chrysalis insisted, her good mood vanishing in annoyance with Twilight. "I really did need to speak with you for a serious matter, but it seems that Sun Butt has yet to inform you."

Garotte Wire poked her head over the edge of the couch experimentally. Upon seeing Not-Celestia in the room, she picked herself off of the floor and dusted herself off. Clearing her throat, she made herself known. "So! What brings you here?" She asked nervously. Queen Chrysalis may have been a villain by pony standards, but for Garotte, Chrysalis was one of the beings that had given their magic in order to stop her. She fully expected some form of retribution from the Changeling, but with Twilight in the area she was more willing to confront this problem head on. Besides, she and the crew could probably win if they rushed the Queen and her guard all at the same time with Garotte Hugs of Doom tm.

With raised brow, Chrysalis looked behind her at the Garottes coming out of the Crystal-work. "Do you lay eggs as well, or is this a one-time thing?"

"One time thing!" Pink chirped in reply, her tone and cheer immediately causing Chrysalis to recoil.

"What are you, then?" She asked, annoyed. Something was wrong with those clones, and she couldn't place a hoof on what it was exactly.

"We are mirror copies of the original Garotte Wire." Monotone explained.

Chrysalis walked towards Pink, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Getting too close for any normal pony's comfort, Chrysalis was muzzle to muzzle with the copy. In perfect range for Pink's next move.

"Boop!" Pink suddenly announced, a hoof pressed into Chrysalis' muzzle and causing her to recoil a bit from the unexpected move.

Blinking away her disbelief, as well as the near resetting of her brain from the unfathomable nature of what had just occurred, Chrysalis then refocused her ire on Pink, whom was giggling madly and holding a hoof to her mouth.

"What's funny?" She snapped, and looked towards the other Garottes. All but Monotone soon tried to hold back giggles. She then looked to Twilight, whose expression had melted from suspicion and anger towards Chrysalis to one of amusement. "Seriously!"

Garotte Wire then held up a mirror she had pulled from her mane, somehow, and presented the Queen with it. In her reflection, Chrysalis saw a large and poofy pink mustache on her face just below her nostrils.

With a knocking at the door, any retort the Queen could've made up at that moment was abruptly thrown from the mind. The Queen, Princess, Crew and Garotte along with the Queen's Guard all looked to the door in unison. Chrysalis' mustache causing Pink to giggle once more, and was soon answered by a sweeping hoof from Chrysalis that caused Pink to fall on her face. To the Queen's annoyance, Pink broke into laughter.

"Hello?" Twilight asked, opening the door as soon as she spoke.

Then, in the doorway stood the real Princess Celestia.

"Twilight, we must have words." She said abruptly, pushing her way past in haste before stopping at the odd scene before her.

Celestia and Chrysalis stood there a moment, staring at each other.

"I can explain?" Chrysalis offered with a raised hoof.

Author's Notes:

Took awhile to write this chapter due to Caffeine withdrawals. Should have another chapter at some point relatively soon!

Thank you for reading!

Let me know your opinions with comments!

The Study of Friendship, Fire and Apples

Celestia took in the imagery of a slightly embarrassed Queen Chrysalis wearing an extremely poofy pink mustache and promptly chose to ignore it. "I would ask for an explanation, if we had time. However, a matter of dire consequence has presented itself. I am in need of your council, Queen Chrysalis." She acknowledged. "I also need the assistance of Princess Twilight Sparkle, and those we deem helpful with the situation."

"Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked, "What's wrong?"

"You are familiar with Queen Aze, of the White Tail Woods?"

Queen Chrysalis made a face of disgust before quickly composing herself. She and Queen Aze had a 'friendly' banter that went back for as long as Queen Aze had lived. Even if that was a measly three years before she was turned into an amethyst statue. Aze had made several sniping remarks about Chrysalis' invasion plan and had also shown her up in the area of diplomacy, rendering Chrysalis' desperate invasion plan to be both embarrassing and foolish even after the analysis from various ponies about the 'Canterlot Cringe' as it was dubbed.

"What about her?" Starlight Glimmer asked, joining the group after she had heard the commotion.

Celestia gave a curious glance to Starlight before looking to Twilight, whom nodded that she was allowed to be present. "I've received a letter from her advisor that their 'Hivemind' is degrading in her absence. If it were to be nullified completely, the changelings of her hive would go into a confused frenzy all over Manehattan. I cannot allow this to happen, and time is short." She looked amongst the ponies and found one she was searching for. "Garotte Wire, please step forward."

Garotte had been hiding behind a couch when the real Celestia had shown up, and being called out by her had made all the hairs on her coat stand on end. She had no illusions of being able to come anywhere close to defeating Celestia in any kind of fight and since she was an Alicorn on top of that, held Celestia with the greatest respect as well as fear. Poking her head clear of the couch, she sheepishly moved in front of the Solar Diarch expecting some kind of punishment for blowing up Canterlot and Cloudsdale, which would include the Royal Palace.

"Y-yes?" she asked in a small, terrified voice.

This bothered Celestia. She wanted all of her little ponies to be happy when they saw either her or Luna, not to cower in fear of them. "You can relax, Garotte Wire. I am not going to punish you. You've already been frozen in stone for three years, and that was after you had already seen the error of your ways and sacrificed yourself to atone for them." She said in a soothing tone.

Garotte wasn't going to accept that olive branch if it was made out of gold and fulfilled wishes. "If you say so." She replied, able to look up in Celestia's direction and focusing on her chest ornamentation.

Celestia sighed, "I have a task for you, Garotte Wire." This caused Garotte to look up in surprise, before quickly averting her eyes. "You are to go with Starlight Glimmer and Twilight Sparkle to discover if there is anything that will aid us in reviving Queen Aze in her original Hive, in what is now called 'Pyrelight'."

Queen Chrysalis raised a hoof. "Question!"

Celestia, Starlight, Garotte, Twilight and the clones all looked to the Queen.

"What am I doing here?"

The Princess of the Sun gave a slight smirk. "You are going to assist me in reviving Queen Aze."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "Yes, I understand that, but how? I know how my own hive works, not Aze's."

"We will have to figure out a way then, won't we?" Celestia snarked back.

Garotte kept her mouth shut, not wanting to protest having to go along with this adventure in front of a pony that could turn her into a black smear on the crystalline floor with a thought. Starlight was grumbling to herself about having to do something with Garotte, and Twilight was eager to help.

"Excuse us,"

"Princess Celestia?"

"What do you want us to do?" The Trio asked.

"I am also interested in any contribution I could provide." Monotone added.

"Besides, being in the castle all day is boring!" Pink announced from the ceiling fan.

Celestia looked upwards to see Pink swinging around on the rotating fan blades, and decided that it wasn't worth the effort to address the absurdity of what was flying above her. She instead looked to Twilight expectantly.

Seeing Celestia patiently looking at her as well as a few other ponies, Twilight got the hint. "Oh! Well..." She tapped her chin before replying with a noise of inspiration. "I want all five of you to seek out my friends and get to know them as part of your lessons in friendship!" she declared officially.

"Aww." Pink pouted. "We don't get to go into a blazing death trap to explore a hidden changeling hive deep in an abandoned burnt out forest?"

"It appears we have the equally daunting task of befriending the Elements of Harmony." Monotone countered. "This includes The Pink One."

Pink dropped from the ceiling fan with an accompanying, "Oof!" She then picked herself up and continued, "Well, I guess that's not so bad."

"Wait, we just remembered something!"

"Boss, there's a problem."

"What about your job at the Ponyville Spa?" the Trio announced.

Garotte sat on her haunches and held both of her forehooves up like scales. "Hmm, let's see. Saving Manehattan from changeling swarms, or hugging somepony I don't know for bits I don't need." she sarcastically asked nopony. "That's a pretty hard choice!"

Starlight clonked her on the back of the head. "Come on, Greymane. We have hero things to do."

Rubbing her neck, Garotte complained with "Ouch! Watch where you swing your hooves, Glitter!"

"It's Glimmer!" Starlight shot back.

Twilight facehooved. "This is going to go great."

*****

Starlight, Twilight and Garotte had spent the needed time to gather supplies that they might have use for in their task. Starlight brought food, water and blankets. Twilight brought scrolls, writing implements and more scrolls. Garotte brought a fire-pony jacket and an axe. The three of them were walking away from Ponyville in the general direction of the White Tail Woods, lead by Twilight.

"Seriously? What are we going to need an axe for?" Starlight asked incredulously. "Are you planning on chopping down any trees?"

Garotte nodded. "Yep. Lots of 'em." she then swung her axe around in a lazy arc around her head with her levitation magic, grinning gleefully.

"You're serious. Twilight, she's serious about bringing an axe with her!" Starlight announced with alarm.

"Uh-huh." Sparkle absently acknowledged, looking at a map and using some kind of mathematics to plot their course. Garotte stuck her tongue out at Starlight having succeeded in obtaining permission by lack of saying that she couldn't bring a fire axe from Twilight.

Starlight decided she would need bandages as well now, due to an axe being involved and not trusting Garotte with the sharp object she now wielded. "Do we know how we're going to get into Pyrelight? I don't think that we can just teleport there. Garotte here doesn't seem to like using her horn for anything above telekinesis."

"What, you need anything more than telekinesis?" Garotte countered. "I leveled two cities with just telekinesis! What've you done with all your fancy spellcraft and years of learning?"

"You released Tirek to level two cities, and he did it with magic!"

"That's a technicality!"

"Would you two stop arguing!?" Twilight yelled, her mane becoming slightly frazzled as she cradled her head in her hooves. "I'm trying to get us to a hive that nopony's ever been to except for my brother, and that was three years ago!"

Garotte and Starlight then both realized they were close to another again, and hurriedly backed away before anypony could say anything again.

"My bad." Starlight apologized.

"Yep, her fault." Garotte agreed, pointing to Starlight.

"Garotte, that's not how this works!" Starlight exclaimed with a stomping of hoof.

"No arguing, Starlight." Garotte replied with condescending smugness, annoying Starlight further.

Starlight groaned in exasperation. "Twilight, do we at least know where your brother is so we can talk with him? He could tell us something about where we're supposed to go, and make this journey easier on all of us."

Twilight whipped around with a happy expression. "That's a great idea! I'll send him a letter!" She then proceeded to do just that, whipping out a scroll and quill. Garotte waited for Twilight to finish before she would point out the mistake with this logic.

"Twilight." Garotte requested with a raised hoof.

"Yes, Garotte?"

"Where's Spike?"

Starlight and Twilight both looked around themselves as if they would find Spike hiding someplace out of sight nearby.

"No Spike, no letters." Garotte pointed out.

Twilight facehoofed and Starlight glared daggers at Garotte, whom countered with a disinterested shrug. "Just saying facts, is all."

"Then where's Spike?" Starlight asked everypony present.

*****

"-And right over there would be Carousel Boutique. That's where Rarity lives and works." Spike pointed to the decorated storefront with a stubby claw, aiming Monotone's vision in the proper direction.

"What kind of work does she pursue?" Monotone asked in her characteristic monotone voice.

"She does a lot of clothing design as well as decoration. Pretty much anything that needs to look fancy, you visit Rarity for." Spike explained.

"Does she tailor suits?" Monotone pointed to her own suit, which happened to be entirely grey. The description of her suit had escaped everypony's notice until now because of how plain it was.

"I'm sure she would be willing to do something for you, Monotone. We could check and see if she's in!" He excitedly said, moving towards the door with Monotone in a half enthused pursuit behind him. She arrived as Spike had knocked his second time on the door.

"Coming~!" Rarity sing-songed from inside the store. Monotone let out a single 'Ha' of amusement from this, confusing Spike. She didn't explain the reason for her amusement. A bit of rattling accompanied by the sound of furniture being moved across a wooden floor were heard from the other side of the door, followed by a loud bang and a surprised yelp.

"Everything okay in there, Rarity?" Spike called through the door.

"Just fine, darling!" Rarity replied. Monotone gave a blank look at Spike, whom had given a nervous look to Monotone.

"I'm sure she's fine." Spike said unconvincingly.

Another loud clang was heard from the other side, soon followed by hoof steps approaching the door.

"Do I look nice?" Monotone asked Spike.

"Wha-?" Was all Spike could say in reply before the door swung open to reveal a slightly unkempt Rarity holding the door open with her magic.

"How can I help you?" She asked, breathing heavily but attempting to control herself.

"I was wondering if you were available to suit a tailor. For me, I mean. The suit. Wait, I meant tailor a suit. Not to find a romantic partner for a tailor, which would be you. I'm going to stop talking now." Monotone stumbled embarrassingly with her words, in monotone of course. Her face remained a perfect mask of null expression, but her eyes told a different story of melting anxiety.

Rarity gave a curious glance at Monotone before finally realizing that the clone was in fact wearing a suit, even if it was so grey that it blended in with the rest of her body and gave the impression she wasn't wearing anything to begin with. "Of course, dear! I just have to fix up a few things in my boutique before I'm ready to help you. Would that be alright? It shouldn't take more than a moment." Rarity eventually replied with her best customer service voice. Due to Garotte's disdain for the nobility or literally anypony that looked fancy, the two of them hadn't gotten along well at all. She had been expecting the villain's clones to behave in the same way, but Rarity picked up that this one was actually nervous around her to the point of mixing up her words.

"Thank." was all Monotone could say before her voice decided it felt like not working anymore for the moment. She attempted to speak a few more times, her nervousness denying her best efforts. Eventually, she simply motioned with a hoof to ask for entrance.

"Oh, right this way!" Rarity caught on swiftly, sweeping a hoof towards the center of her shop which now contained a couch in the middle of being moved.

"What's with the furniture, Rarity?" Spike asked, following Monotone inside the boutique.

"Oh, I'm just holding on to some furniture for a friend of mine for the time being. I was in the middle of moving them to the basement for storage when you two arrived." She explained.

Monotone was about to explain that keeping furniture in a typically cold basement in an environment that was likely to rain would allow mold to grow on the furniture if it were ever to get wet, but her mouth wisely decided to continue it's lack of helpful vocalization and spared everybeing present the boredom of having to listen to her comment. She instead opted to look around the boutique at the dresses on display, her blank expression making Rarity assume that her designs were boring her.

"Having trouble finding something you like, darling?" She asked, her face slightly betraying her worried state.

"All nice. Pretty." Monotone stumbled again with her words, pointing at a sapphire colored dress. Spike was beginning to grow suspicious of Monotone's change in behavior at this point.

*POOF!*

Twilight Sparkle had appeared in the middle of the boutique, just ahead of Spike with Monotone and Rarity in front of her. "Rarity, have you seen Spike?" She quickly asked.

"Behind you, dear." Rarity replied calmly, pointing towards Spike.

Twilight then whipped around to come muzzle to snout with Spike. "Perfect! You're coming with me!" she happily announced, cutting off Spike's protest with another-

*POOF!*

Monotone stood there, blinking in confusion at what had just occurred.

"It's alright, dear. Twilight does that from time to time." Rarity replied as if to wave off Monotone's concerns.

Monotone then realized she was all alone with Rarity now, and began to grow even more nervous.

"Uh." She helpfully said.

"Well, let's see what you like, shall we?" Rarity continued, helping Monotone along with a polite guiding hoof towards the tailoring and fitting part of the store.

Monotone gulped nervously, her throat suddenly becoming dry.

*****

*POOF!*

"Hey, they're back!" Garotte announced, drawing the attention of Glimmer. The two of them had argued once again while Twilight was off searching for Spike, and Starlight was sitting on a log facing away from Garotte in her annoyed state. Garotte had chopped down a tree in the meantime and constructed a campfire in the span of the five minutes that Twilight had been away.

Spike was slightly disoriented from the sudden teleport, but Twilight immediately spoke up. "What happened here? I wasn't gone that long, was I?"

"Garotte Wire was bored." Starlight grumbled, shifting herself to face the group next to the campfire.

"I was also productive, helping us survive the harsh wilderness you know." Garotte pointed out, irking Starlight.

"Really, you two are destined to be with each other." Spike said after he regained his bearings.

"Spike! Stop saying that!" Twilight whispered to Spike.

Garotte and Starlight were avoiding each other's looks again; Garotte busying herself with the fire and Starlight looking up past the treeline they were situated in.

"Okay. Spike, I need you to send a letter to Shining Armor." Twilight finally addressed to Spike.

"Oh, that's why you needed me?" He asked without annoyance, more surprise than anything in his voice. "Alright. Do you want me to read the letter out loud first?"

"No, I triple checked everything so it should be fine. Thanks, though." Twilight levitated the scroll to Spike, whom prepared to immolate it with his dragon breath.

"Twily! There you are!" A familiar voice called through the treeline, causing Spike to let out his held breath and incinerate the scroll. The smoke trail then moved several hooves over to Shining Armor and the scroll re materialized, impacting him in the side of the face. "Ouch." he complained.

"Shiny? How did you know where we were?!" Twilight asked in surprise.

Shining Armor looked at the scroll that had fallen to the mossy ground next to him. "Do I still need to read that?" He asked jokingly, returning the scroll to his sister, Twilight.

Garotte, meanwhile, had seen fit to hide from sight the second she heard the voice of the Guard Captain and unofficial King of the Crystal Empire. Shining Armor was a hero, she was a villain, all that business. This amused Starlight, whom reclined slightly uncomfortably on the log she was resting on to watch the coming exchange.

"How?" Was Twilight's helpful question.

"Princess Celestia thought that you might need help getting into Pyrelight to find the hive. Since I'm skilled with shield magic and I've been to the hive before, she sent me out to find you." Shining explained.

Twilight facehoofed. "Oh, of course. That would make getting around the fire a lot easier if we could just ignore it." she grumbled.

"Twilight, you should get that looked at." Garotte couldn't help but call from her hiding spot of a nearby sticker bush. Her fire-pony coat helped with the discomfort, but she had been through worse than a sticker bush before. Besides, who hides in a sticker bush? "I'm pretty sure that smacking yourself stuff's caused head trauma at this point."

Twilight removed the hoof from her face with growing annoyance that she did her best to wish away. "So, do you know how close we are to the hive?" Twilight asked Shining.

"Well, we're on the wrong side of the forest where I was dropped off at with Queen Aze when I visited her hive before."

"Why did she let you into her hive?" Starlight asked from her easy-log.

"I was part of the Crystal Delegation to see if her hive would be allowed to stay in Equestria when it was revealed. Queen Aze let me accompany her back to the hive while she returned some eggs she had laid back in Canterlot."

"Eggs?" Garotte asked.

"She was only a Proto-Queen when the peace talks started... and I may have flipped her over myself into a dresser at some point, causing her to lay an egg and start a chain reaction where she laid about fifty in total that same day." He explained abashedly.

"You flipped a changeling queen into a dresser, and she didn't immediately try to obliterate you?" Starlight asked with great interest, mixed with incredulity.

"She's a really nice queen?" Shining helplessly shrugged.

"Wait, what was happening with Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis? You must've been near them when they called you to find Twilight." Garotte pointed out, losing her sticker bush disguise and joining the discussion properly.

"Well..."

*****

"At least she reflects the light nicely." Chrysalis commented.

Princess Celestia and Queen Chrysalis were standing in the center of the Museum of Evil, next to Queen Aze's display. Celestia had cleared out the entire museum on her request before they arrived to avoid any drama that would be caused by Chrysalis wandering around with her. Queen Aze sat regally, encased entirely in Amethyst atop a crystalline throne and surrounded by a protective magi-glass case.

"Without her assistance, we would all be slaves to Tirek right now, you know." Celestia replied with a hint of annoyance.

"I helped too, you know." Chrysalis snarked.

Celestia sighed. "This isn't helping our situation. We need to find a way to release Queen Aze from this... stasis."

"Isn't that what Sparkle and her 'friends' are doing?"

"I sent them to Pyrelight to help with her studies in friendship more than to assist with Queen Aze. If they can help, that would be a generous bonus. I'm sure the second she finds anything remotely helpful, she'll send me a letter about it."

"Then what was the meeting in the tree for?"

"Well, she wanted a role and to have a purpose. Now she has both for this, and doesn't feel left out. Besides, there's always the good possibility she will find something faster than either of us can. She has a knack for that sort of thing." Celestia winked.

Chrysalis and Celestia both looked to Queen Aze, with differing degrees of thoughtful expression.

"Have you tried giving her a hug? That worked with Garotte." Chrysalis halfheartedly asked.

"A lot of ponies have attempted it. We're obviously not sure what it takes to release her, and her hive has been trying almost everything they could think of the past three years."

"Well, standing here and talking about how we have no idea what we're doing isn't going to help. Have any ideas?"

Chrysalis and Celestia then stood there, thinking intensely about their options.

"I should probably send Twilight more help. Fire tends to burn, right?" Celestia asked Chrysalis.

"You're serious? You don't know how fire works?"

"I stare directly into the sun to see if it's sick on a daily basis. I don't let my anger show because it would melt the palace. No, I don't know how fire works, Chrysalis." Celestia snarked.

"The sun can get sick?"

"Yes."

"Care to elaborate?"

"No!" Celestia smugly chirped in reply, turning her head away from an annoyed Chrysalis. After a moment's thought, she realized just the pony she needed to help Twilight.

"Letter time!" She announced, pulling an ink well and quill from her ever flowing ethereal mane.

*****

Dear Shining Armor.

Twilight needs your help entering the Hive in Pyrelight. She'll probably be somewhere close to helpful, but not quite useful for her adventure.

Just look around, I'm sure you'll find her.

Toodles,
Princess Celestia
Tia

*****

"That's seriously the letter she sent you?" Twilight asked, re-reading the letter for the fifth time.

"Yes, Twilight." Shining replied tiredly, having answered that question already a great many times.

"You're sure it wasn't Chrysalis?"

"Yes."

"Really sure?"

"Yes."

This continued for several more minutes before Garotte had enough with Twilight's mental loop, and promptly smacked her across the face with her hoof.

"Ow!" Twilight yelped, nursing her cheek. "What was that for?!"

"You're annoying when you're confused." Garotte explained, promptly walking next to Starlight and plopping herself down on the log. This caused Starlight to become slightly uncomfortable and she shifted a short distance away from Garotte. Shining was annoyed that Garotte had smacked his sister, but felt that it was needed anyway. Still he would've rather been the one to do it.

"So, what do we do now?" Starlight asked. "We could wait for the sun to come up again, since it's getting dark, or we could wander around in a magically lit eternal forest fire looking for a lost hive in the middle of the night."

"I vote sleep." Garotte yawned, laying on the ground and curled up with her fire-pony jacket as a makeshift blanket.

"You know... one of us should've brought camping equipment.

"Don't worry, I'm sure your bandages will keep you warm." Garotte snarked.

Starlight grumbled and was about to retort when she was cut off by Twilight. "Enough! Just get some sleep everypony, alright? We'll deal with all of this in the morning."

"I'll stay up for the first few hours to make sure that the fire doesn't head this way, then we can switch out so that everypony gets enough sleep." Shining Armor announced.

Spike was already passed out, because he is a baby dragon. Baby dragons need their sleep if they're going to grow up and become big, strong and greedy dragons.

"Thanks, Shiny." Twilight yawned.

Starlight chose to stay up with Shining and sat next to him. "So... do you know that shield spell well enough to teach it? It would be helpful if we had a backup, just in case."

"Yeah, I know the spell inside and out." Shining smiled, approving of what he assumed was Starlight's need to protect others. In actuality, she simply wanted to make sure she didn't burn to a crisp if everything went horribly wrong. Even more, it was another spell she could lord over Garotte not knowing.

*****

"Pony dig!"

"Pony dig."

"Trio, Trio, Trio!" The Trio happily chanted, attacking the ground with shovels in Applejack's orchard. The three had asked the farmer if she needed help with anything, and explained their task of making friends. Applejack needed spots for some new trees to be replanted, and had given them shovels in order to help out. She now looked across her orchard, noticing a great many holes in perfect lines spaced enough for planting and idly wondered how the three had figured out what they needed to do. She was also a big unnerved by their habit of finishing each others sentences in a particular order and their vigor with physical activity, them being unicorns.

She took this opportunity to lounge in a folding chair, sipping apple cider with Rainbow Dash.

"Ya think this whole 'rehabilitation' thing is gonna work out?" Applejack asked, pointing towards the Trio.

"Probably. It sort of worked with Discord, right? If we can help somepony like him, then why not Garotte and her clones?" Rainbow reasoned.

Both of them sipped their cider in unison.

"Yep. Probably." Applejack agreed.

"Uh, Applejack?" Big Macintosh, her brother, asked in his deep voice. "What's with the unicorns out in the field?"

"Oh, hey Big Mac!" Rainbow said happily.

"Howdy, Rainbow." Big Mac nodded.

"Those three wanted to help out and become friends, so I told em how they could help out. I didn't know they'd take so quickly to it, though." Applejack replied. "There are three of 'em, I guess."

"Still, can we even manage that many new trees?"

"It'll be fine, Big Mac. Applejack and you've totally got this!" Rainbow reassured him.

Big Mac grumbled as the Trio dog-piled onto a cart filled with apple seeds and began throwing them around the field like rice at a wedding.

"If you say so." He conceded uncertainly.

Author's Notes:

A Monotone and Rarity ship? RariTone or MonoRity. Hah, puns.

Also, GlimmerWire or GarotteLight as well.

Sorry for the long wait, and thank you for your patience! It shouldn't take me nearly as long as this chapter did to put out more content for you all to enjoy

Let me know what you think about the chapter! It's been awhile since I've written for these characters.

The Campfire

Near the height of the moon's rise, it was Garotte Wire's turn to watch the fire. Shining Armor and Starlight Glimmer had already completed their shifts and were tiredly snoring on the ground nearby. Twilight had the most sleep of anypony thus far, but it would be her turn to wake up next when Garotte's shift had ended. The knowledge that it was only two hours didn't help her however, as she could only watch magical orange flames flicker in the distance so long before becoming incredibly bored.

The first thing she attempted to amuse herself with was swinging her axe at an imagined assassin, rolling quietly around and making clashing and clanging sounds with her mouth and whisper shouting at nopony. A few times she nearly rolled into a sticker bush or squashed some unfortunate wildlife, but somehow her rough housing hadn't alerted anypony enough to rouse them from their slumber. Soon she grew tired both from the physical exertion and the coming lack of entertainment value of fighting imagined specters, finally sauntering back to the middle of the campsite to look around for something else to entertain her.

She soon spotted something crawling around on the ground and pressed herself against the leafy undergrowth next to it. A tiny caterpillar was making a steady, wavy advance towards whatever goal it was that caterpillars strive for and gave Garotte something to do by coincidence.

"Hey little guy!" She whispered eagerly to the oblivious creature. "How are you?"

The caterpillar had no reply as it could not speak Equine and had important caterpillar things to do.

"Are you cold?" Garotte asked the tiny thing, slightly poking its bristles with her hoof and causing it to stop in place. The caterpillar hoped that whatever had poked it would go away soon. "You seem cold..." she decided.

Garotte looked around for something she could use as a makeshift blanket and spotted the bandages from Starlight's saddlebags. "That'll work!" She quietly exclaimed to herself with excitement. She had become so bored in the short time she was awake that this amounted to an adventure for her. Lifting a roll of gauze from the saddlebag in her magic, she floated it over next to the caterpillar and set it down in front of the creature. "Hold onto this for me, would you?" She asked, amused with herself.

She flipped her axe around so that the blade was facing upwards to the sky and secured by a few rocks so that it wouldn't move. She then took the gauze from the caterpillar's care and unraveled a small portion of it, pressing the taut bandage against the sharp edge of her axe in order to cut a small square from it. She then stealthily placed the gauze back where it had come from in Starlight's bags and folded her new gauze blanket to accommodate her caterpillar friend. With the blanket ready, she looked excitedly towards her pet caterpillar.

"Where'd you go?" She asked, looking around where she had left the bug not a moment before and finding that it had somehow disappeared. "Seriously?" she whispered to herself in disbelief, "How did you even get away; you're like this big!" She held her hooves a small distance apart before setting them down on the ground so that she wouldn't fall over. Disheartened, she set the small blanket aside just in case her caterpillar friend decided to return.

Now Garotte had to find something else to do, and watching the fire provided all of five seconds entertainment before she grew bored with the eternally light orange inferno constantly sweeping across nothing and shifting in an unfelt breeze. She decided that anything else that would be watching the fire would see their camp silhouetted in front of it and looked towards the treeline that surrounded them.

Trees...bushes....plants... wait, glowy? Since when do plants have glowy? Garotte thought, having scanned the treeline and finding two glowing pink orbs hovering nearby. Something about this set her coat on edge, making it poof out slightly in anxiety. She stood up from her sitting position and readied her axe, just in case something were to come charging out of the treeline at her. After a few tense moments, she was both relieved and disappointed that nothing had happened. She still kept her axe at the ready, but she didn't want to go exploring after some strange floating orbs all alone.

"Twilight!" Garotte whisper shouted in the Princess of Friendship's ear and shaking her slightly with a hoof, peeking over her back where the orbs continued to make her uneasy. "Wake up, Sparkle!"

"Guh' 'way. Sleeps time." Twilight grumbled, shifting away from Garotte in her sleep.

Garotte redoubled her shaking efforts. "Twilight, get up!" she insisted.

"Whaaat?" Twilight tiredly grouched, opening her bleary eyes to see Garotte. "What is it?"

"Floaty orb things in the trees!" Garotte explained while leaving out a few key details that may have helped their situation.

"What?" Twilight asked, rubbing her eyes to wake up faster. "Orb things?"

"Yes, right over..." Garotte hissed, pointing towards the treeline at the... nothing. "What?! Seriously!?"

"Garotte, you need some...aaah... Sleep." Twilight yawned.

"I'm serious! There was something right there that was being all spooky and glowing pink! It looked like eyes!" Garotte insisted with more hoof pointing towards where she had seen them last.

"I'm sure its just some random forest creature from the White Tail Woods wondering what we're doing." Twilight replied, yawning once more.

"Since when does the White Tail Woods have anything spooky in it?" Garotte questioned in her whisper shouting. "This place is like the daycare forest of forests on the spooky factor!"

"Maybe it has something to do with the magical fire?" Twilight drowsily suggested, flopping back down onto the ground in an attempt to regain the precious moments of sleep she had just lost. "I wouldn't worry about it, Garotte."

Not worry about it-- Are you on salt?! Garotte yelled in her mind at the disinterested Princess. I guess if you've defeated gods and you're an alicorn then you're not spooked by floating eyes! She snarked internally.

Grumpy but also alerted by the excitement of the night, Garotte stood watch with nervous anticipation of conflict. She had expected that whatever was watching her would leap out of the forest at any moment to attack her and she constantly shifted her position while pacing to compensate. She hoped it would give her an added second to react if anything dramatic happened.

To her dismay and ultimate boredom, nothing was happening. She decided that since she was already half way through her shift, nopony would mind if she searched for her caterpillar friend for a few minutes. She took great care to look for glowing pink eyes in the night and edged further and further away from the campsite in a spiral search pattern. Eventually and miraculously, she happened upon the same caterpillar as before.

"There you are!" she cheered quietly, bringing her muzzle down next to the insect. "How did you run off so fast?" She asked, not expecting an answer.

Then, she looked up suddenly all around her in a wide circle and was disappointed that nothing had snuck up on her while she was temporarily distracted. "Come on, that was the perfect time to start a life or death brawl!" She grumbled to herself, kicking a twig. "Stupid monsters not wanting to attack a unicorn with a fireaxe."

"Hissssssss..."

It had come directly behind Garotte, and her coat nearly leapt off of her back as she whipped around to see Starlight's face illuminated by her horn's magic. "Boo!" She quietly exclaimed.

"Starlight!?" Garotte barked in both fear and exhasperation. "What is wrong with you?!"

"Come on, you have to admit that was perfect." Starlight giggled.

"I could've hit you with this axe!" Garotte whisper yelled while swinging the axe around in her magic for emphasis.

"I learned a shield spell while you were asleep. I'm pretty sure I can handle an axe, Garotte." Starlight countered.

"Oh yeah? You want to test that theory?" Garotte threatened in annoyance and brandishing the axe towards Starlight.

"Stop... arguing..." Twilight mumbled in her sleep, shifting away from the two.

Both Garotte and Starlight sighed in unison, before getting annoyed that they had done the same thing.

"So, why are you awake?" Garotte asked Starlight.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Really? You stay up with Shining Armor to learn a shield spell, then you go through your own shift and barely sleep an hour before you wake up again?" Garotte asked with either concern or praise in her voice. Starlight couldn't be sure which.

"I also organized my bags as well." Glimmer added happily.

"I think Twilight is rubbing off on you more than you know." Garotte mumbled.

An awkward silence passed between the two as Garotte continued to survey the surrounding area. Starlight was rummaging around in her bags for something which caught Garotte's attention.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just looking for your dignity." She sniped out of the blue.

"What do you mean by that?" Garotte asked in annoyance.

Starlight then imitated Garotte's voice poorly, making it sound more like Fluttershy's soft voice than Garotte's slightly deeper soft voice. "Oh Twilight, you have to wake up! There's spooky monsters in the forest and I'm scared!" she added hoof movements to go with her act as well, making the whole scene very melodramatic.

"I don't sound like that!" Garotte quietly complained.

"Twilight, Starlight is making fun of me!" She teased again in her imitation of Garotte.

"I'm gonna throw this axe at you if you don't stop, Starlight." Garotte threatened.

"Psst, please." Glimmer waved with a hoof. "You leveled two cities and took the time to evacuate everypony before-hoof. Like you'd actually hurt anypony."

"You..." Garotte was about to counter before her brain decided it was better to shut up at the moment. "...whatever." she grumbled, crossing her forehooves and sitting down.

Starlight smiled in smug satisfaction for having won an argument with Garotte, her eyes closed and muzzle pointed haughtily skyward.

"Pampered Panzy." Garotte mumbled.

This drew Starlight from her smugness. "What did you just call me?" She asked with a bit of surprise. The two had argued, but it usually ended before attempted insults were thrown about.

Garotte pointed to a flower in the distance. "They call that one a Pampered Panzy." She explained, her demeanor suddenly changing.

"Oh... I thought... wait, why does that matter?" Starlight asked. The flower that Garotte was pointing to looked similar to a rose combined with a fly trap, several vines behaving like snakes around the stem of it with unblossomed buds for heads.

"Just made me think about something is all." Garotte calmly replied.

Starlight debated whether it would be worth it to hear what sounded like a story from Garotte. Apparently, Fluttershy had been told a story about how Nightmare Moon came to be evil from Garotte's point of view once before. She wasn't certain if the grey mare had told anypony else a story since, and decided she was going to start 'making friends' as Twilight wished her to, she should probably start by extending a metaphorical olive branch to Garotte. "Do you want to talk about it?" Starlight asked.

"What, so you can have something else to make fun of me with?" Garotte growled back, moving away from Starlight.

Starlight had only been joking around with her teasing, but now she realized that she had unintentionally struck a nerve with Garotte. She didn't want any bad feelings to be between them when they were going into a blazing forest full of mystery and potential monsters lurking about. "I'm sorry for teasing you, Garotte." She said sincerely.

This caused a surprised reaction from Garotte whom looked at Starlight with some suspicion. "Sure." She finally spoke, turning her attention back to the flower.

"Did you want to talk about what's on your mind?" Starlight asked, committed to the change in conversation and also to pass the time.

"That flower," She pointed to the Pampered Panzy, "Is the deadliest flower in Equestria."

Starlight blinked in surprise. "Really? Why do they call it a 'Pampered Panzy' then?"

"Because it only comes alive if the conditions are just right. It lays in wait for days, months or even years for its choice of prey and only strikes when it will take the least amount of effort to do so. Some of them live to be centuries old without a scratch on them."

"Why would they have scratches?"

"Because it's carnivorous." Garotte explained.

"The plant eats... meat?"

"You haven't heard of that before?" Garotte asked Starlight.

"Eh... I know more about spells and rituals than herbalism." Starlight admitted while scratching her neck with a free hoof.

"I would've thought you needed some plants in your spells at least."

"That's a more specialized field of magic that I'm not interested in, really."

"You want to hear why I mentioned the flower?" Garotte asked.

"Sure. What's special about the flower?"

"The special condition it needs to come alive? Yeah... I think we met them." Garotte replied, standing up suddenly and readying her axe in a grip of magic.

"Garotte?" Starlight asked, joining her as she walked towards the flower. "What are you doing?"

"Nullifying the conditions." She replied cryptically, hefting the axe above her head. The two of them were steadily approaching the flower, its vines swirling lazily around it.

"What conditions?" Starlight asked.

"Warm area, aggravated or scared prey and conflict." She replied, her axe looming over the flower. "Get your shield up for us, Starlight." She ordered suddenly.

Starlight complied, creating a barrier between Garotte and the plant.

"Can you make a dome?" Garotte asked, looking over her shoulder at Glimmer.

"It's just a plant, Garotte."

"It's just a plant, she says." Garotte scoffed.

"Fine, I'll make a dome shield." Starlight rolled her eyes.

Garotte then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her axe still hovering above the plant on the edge of the shield. Then to Starlight's immense surprise, the Ambassador of Evil began chanting in a language she had never heard before, her horn crackling with a dark purple, black and green magic.

"Plantarum in tortis mortem redite ad infernos, ut numquam reverti." She droned in a dull voice, raising the axe higher. "Plantarum in tortis mortem redite ad infernos, ut numquam reverti." She took a step forward from the shield, the plant's attention being attracted to Garotte exclusively as its vines actually hissed at her.

Garotte's magic then crackled with a lightning bolt of power towards the axe she wielded, causing it to burn with a magic that Starlight had never seen before. Dark black crystals began spreading across the surface of the sharp blade as Garotte's voice became suddenly filled with anger and conviction. "Uno ictu finis est malum, ut éxeas ab hoc pulchra terra!" She very loudly shouted, startling the ponies that had been sleeping, yet more importantly using all of her weight and magic to drop the axe atop the Pampered Panzy.

The reaction from the plant made Starlight's jaw drop involuntarily. It looked as if ethereal wraiths were pouring out of the plant as it screeched loudly into the night, forcing her to cover her ears.

"Keep that shield going, Starlight!" Garotte yelled, the force of the magical reaction causing her mane to whip around her face in an unseen wind.

Shining Armor and Twilight saw the commotion and added their own magics to Starlight's shield, reinforcing it. The plant itself was shooting large thorns at it in desperation as the purple, black and green magic performed its spell.

"Tandem ut finiatur mortis passione fecisti, daemonium habes!" Garotte shouted as loudly as possible, the plant shrieking in such a way that everypony's coats and mane stood on end if they weren't already. Even Spike decided to hide behind Twilight, shivering.

Garotte raised the now crystal covered axe for a final blow, the plant letting loose a jet of orange flame at Garotte which was mercifully deflected by their shield. Striking downwards, a final explosion of magical energy sent Garotte and the others flying backwards towards the campfire and skidding along the grassy earth.

A final dying shriek announced the end of the Pampered Panzy, its husk shriveling and dying on the spot where Garotte's axe had embedded itself.

"What, was that?!" Twilight asked, breathing heavily in shock. "What just happened!?"

"Is everypony okay?" Shining asked, looking between everybeing present.

"F-f-fine!" Spike stuttered, still clinging to Twilight's rear leg.

"Yeah, fine!" Starlight added, picking herself off of the ground.

"Garotte?" Twilight asked, looking around in search of her.

"Yep!" she coughed, "Totally fine!"

Everypony breathed a sigh of relief. "What even was that thing?" Starlight asked.

"I told you; Pampered Panzy."

"Whoever named that thing needs to get their head checked!" Starlight complained towards the sky, as if asking for it to be changed on the spot.

"Mind explaining what all of that was about?" Shining asked Garotte, helping her stand.

"Yeah. Big nasty plant was close by, had to deal with it. No biggie." She replied non-nonchalantly.

"NO BIGGIE?!" Starlight shouted. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

"Yeah. There's worse in the Griffon Empire and abroad. You should get outside more, Starlight." Garotte said, dusting her suit in reply.

Starlight was almost speechless. "W-worse?"

Garotte walked over to Starlight calmly with a smug smile on her face. "There's a lot worse things than magic and time travel, Starlight." she said cryptically.

Garotte then walked off and promptly sat down next to the fire, before falling backwards with her hooves sticking in the air. She then loudly snored in exhaustion as a forehoof twitched.

"Is she serious?" Starlight finally asked everypony. They returned looks of confusion or bewilderment. "She can't be serious!"

"I'm actually pretty impressed she fell asleep that fast." Spike commented, his nerves having finally settled down enough to talk.

"What was with that spell? I thought she didn't learn any magic!" Starlight asked Twilight in a mixture of both concern, awe and a bit of jealousy.

"That's not like any spell I've ever seen... but from the looks of it, it takes a lot out of the pony casting it." Twilight noted, before looking at the remains of the Pampered Panzy and the crystalline axe. "Did you get a good look at the spell in action? I was only awake long enough to see the end of it."

"Y-yeah..." Starlight stammered, refocusing her attention. "It had black, dark purple and green coloring, with sparks of lightning moving around it."

Twilight turned around suddenly, her face becoming concerned. "You're sure?" She asked, walking towards Starlight. "Absolutely," moving closer, "Positively," Way too close for comfort, "Certain that it looked like that?" Twilight asked in a very worried voice, her muzzle pressed against Starlight's in a very uncomfortable manner.

"Yes!" She squeaked.

Twilight swiveled around on the spot before looking at the axe and plant with more concern. "This doesn't look good... I've actually seen that kind of magic before."

"Really?" Starlight asked.

"Actually, it did seem kind of familiar." Shining commented, also looking more closely at the axe.

"Doesn't this remind you of..." Twilight trailed, looking at her brother.

"King Sombra." Shining nodded, before looking with concern at the slumbering Garotte Wire. "Where did she learn a spell like that?"

"I don't know, but we're going to have to ask her at some point." Twilight replied quietly, and the three ponies and dragon huddled together away from Garotte in worry, whispering to each other in concerned tones.

This left them none the wiser of the pink eyes that were watching them from behind.

Author's Notes:

Please leave your comments and thoughts! I live off of comments!

Also, here is the beginning of the 'adventure' the story alludes to! I hope you enjoy the mystery!

The Glowing Eyes

"Are you three going to be alright if I leave to gather some firewood? I don't think I'll be able to sleep after what just happened." Shining Armor asked Starlight, Twilight and Spike. They had all been focusing on avoiding conversation about the Pampered Panzy or Garotte Wire, but Shining finally decided to stop lollygagging around while waiting for daylight.

"I'm sure we'll be fine." Starlight replied after looking to Twilight, whom was staring at Garotte Wire's absently twitching body that was passed out nearby. "Well, eventually." Starlight added lightly.

Shining looked unconvinced for a moment before realizing that not only was his sister an Alicorn, but Starlight was alluded to be the most powerful unicorn in Equestria by Twilight as well. On top of that, Spike was there. Baby dragons are useful, right? "If anything happens, just holler or do something flashy to drawn my attention." Shining offered, lighting his horn with magic so that he wouldn't trip over any forest brush or branches.

Starlight gave a very exaggerated, mocking salute to Shining. "Yes'ah!" She cheered in her best over-the-top Trottingham accent.

Shining smiled and rolled his eyes before stowing himself to investigate the nearby forest for anything useful, slowly watching out for tripping hazards or more of those terrifying plants laying in wait for him.

Meanwhile, back at the camp, Starlight was beginning to grow concerned for Twilight's fixation on Garotte. "Are you alright, Twilight?" she asked, jabbing Sparkle in the side of her ribs with a pointed hoof. She received no reply. "Twi~light." She singsonged, moving in front of the Princess and waving a hoof across her field of vision. "Yoo~hoo, Friendship Princess."

Twilight looked like she was about to say something, but instead shifted into a more comfortable position of 'Garotte Observation' on the forest floor with a look of deep concentration on her face and mutterings under her breath.

Starlight sighed in boredom. "Great, she's gone full nerd."

Twilight's ear twitched in response.

"Guess I'll just have to wander on over to the Pampered Panzy to take a look at it ~myself~." She called like a siren to Twilight, further agitating her. "Wouldn't want anypony else to ~eat the flower~ before I do!"

"DON'T EAT THE FLOWER!" Twilight screamed, startling some nearby wildlife that had come to investigate the ponies interacting in the moonlight.

"There you are!" Starlight announced in a foal-speaking voice. "We've missed you, Sparkle flank!" She added sarcastically.

Twilight looked around as if exiting a trance. "Wait, where's Shining Armor?" She finally asked.

Starlight waved a hoof in Shining's last known vague direction of travel. "Somewhere that way, I think. He'll be fine."

"He'll be fine!?" Twilight panicked, rising swiftly from her prone position and marching towards Starlight. "FINE!?" She yelled. "There's strange evil flowers all over the place and you let him go off alone because he'd be FINE!?"

Spike was covering his ears at this point, having nothing useful to add to the conversation as usual.

"What, that flower is going to be so scary that the Captain of the Royal Guard and King of the Crystal Empire can't handle them?" Starlight defensively replied. "Even Garotte dealt with one, and she only uses telekinesis!"

"Did you completely forget about whatever spell she cast to kill the thing!?"

Twilight and Starlight were now pressed against each other, Twilight's habitual lack of personal space awareness coming to the forefront of the situation in a time of stress. This caused Starlight to shove against Twilight's chest in an effort to gain some sort of air that wasn't contaminated with Sparkle Breath.

"I didn't forget, but I don't think that was magic!" Starlight retorted, having gained some much needed space. "Since when does anypony chant something when they cast a spell?"

"I don't know what that was, but this isn't the time to go wandering off in every direction! We need to find Shining Armor and figure out how to wake up Garotte." Twilight responded with determination.

Twilight and Starlight's ear twitched at the same time, a sound from the forest alerting them to danger before they could register what happened.

"Uh, guys?" Spike nervously asked, "You hear anything?"

The two shared a look at each other before forming up flank to flank and slowly moving in a circle near the center of the encampment. "I don't know, but you need to find someplace to hide, Spike." Starlight said, focused on her mental list of spells for whatever situation would present itself.

Then, a rustling of leaves came from nearby, causing the ponies to shift their horns towards the possible assailant.

To their relief and disappointment, it was Shining Armor. "What happened? I was barely gone for five minutes!"

Starlight pointed to Twilight. "I got her to wake up." She replied with mild annoyance.

"She was going to eat the flower!" Twilight protested.

"I was not! I only said that so you would stop being in your weird trance."

"Twilight, Starlight. It's fine. We're all okay, nothing happened. Just take a deep breath, and let's sort this out." Shining said in a calm tone, motioning with a hoof to relax.

Twilight took Shining's advice, taking deep breaths. Starlight snorted and decided to move next to Garotte and lay down on her log-couch. Garotte was still snoring loudly, shifting around a bit and nearly falling sideways before her tail balanced her body subconsciously.

"Does she always sleep like that?" Starlight asked, pointing to Garotte.

"As far as I know. This is the first time I've seen her sleep." Twilight mentioned, her previous alarm having been warded off. "It's kind of strange, now that I look at it." she added with a furrowed brow and upraised ears of interest.

"Really? I thought you were wondering how she slept like that the entire time you were staring at her." Spike replied.

"You used to sleep like that when you were little." Shining commented.

"What? N-no I didn't!" Twilight blushed with concern that Shining might not be trying to tease her, and actually be speaking the truth.

"Don't we have something better to worry about than how Garotte is sleeping?" Spike asked with a pointed claw in question.

The three conscious ponies then looked to Spike before remembering that there were more important things to discuss at the moment.

"So..." Shining began. "Who wants to talk about Garotte's special brand of crazy magic?"

"The fact that it's in a language I've never heard?" Twilight added.

"Or that it transformed a fire axe into black crystal?" Starlight contributed.

"Or that she passed out immediately after casting it?" Spike mentioned.

"What about the flower?"

"Or the black, purple and green magic arcing around her horn?"

"Okay, okay. We have questions." Shining mediated. "I don't think we're going to get any answers or make any progress with our mission until we wake up Garotte."

The three ponies and dragon then looked to Garotte's sleeping form.

"Is it just me, or does her clothing never get anything more than dust on it no matter what she does?" Spike commented.

Starlight and Twilight both looked to Spike. Starlight with annoyance at deviating from the subject that they had just agreed to talking about, and Twilight with interest.

"What do you mean, Spike?" Twilight asked while moving towards Garotte.

"Well, It just seemed weird to me is all. She's gone through the same forest as the rest of us, slept in the dirt like the rest of us, and fought a plant monster. Her clothes look like they just came out of a wash!" Spike explained. Now Starlight and Shining's interest was taken.

"Why is that so strange?" Shining asked.

"Well, it only leaves a few explanations. One of them being that she's just really good at taking care of her clothes..." Twilight offered, and received impatient looks of disbelief at that theory. "Or, she knows how to enchant things."

"Enchant?" Starlight asked.

This surprised Twilight. "Really? I thought you of all ponies would have at least read something about enchanting."

Starlight shook her head. "Didn't really find anything in my studies while I was in that town stealing cutie-marks." She smiled abashedly.

"Right..." Twilight sighed. "Well, I've only read a few very old tomes about the subject. Most of them were in Zebrecan, so I wasn't able to learn all that much from them and I abandoned the subject altogether to research more practical spells like teleportation."

"What does enchanting do?" Spike asked.

"Well, all I know is that it cam imbue an item with a spell, sometimes permanently."

"So... she enchanted her clothing with a 'keep it clean' spell?" He asked.

Starlight snorted. "Wow, a cleaning spell on clothing. Super effective use of potential." she snarked.

"Why does her clothing matter? Enchanting seems fine and everything, but we have a mission to get to and I don't see clean clothing helping us get there." Shining pointed out.

"Well, Garotte already knows spells we've never heard of or seen, and now she's probably enchanting her clothing for fun it seems. I'm just worrying about how much of her actions were carried out from borrowing Pinkie Pie's 'powers'..." She grumbled, not believing her party pony friend had anything of the sort, "...And how much of them were actually spells that she knew."

"Which is all the reason we should wake her up, right?" Spike asked, moving towards Garotte's hind hoof with an outstretched claw.

The other three shared a look before gathering around Garotte in agreement.

"So. How do we wake her up? Shake her?" Starlight asked.

Twilight carefully stretched a forehoof out, poking Garotte in the chest.

She sneezed in response.

Recoiling, Twilight quickly withdrew her hoof. "Well!" She set her hoof down. "I didn't expect that." She calmly stated.

"I think she's allergic to friendship, Twilight." Shining joked.

"Ha, ha." Twilight playfully replied.

Another airy explosion of sound, followed by a loud impact.

"Wait, did she just sneeze out something?" Twilight asked, returning her focus to Garotte in concern.

"Um, everypony?" Spike muttered nervously.

"Twilight... I don't think that was Garotte." Starlight added nervously as well, backing away from Garotte.

Shining was looking around, which drew Twilight's attention.

"Everypony, make a shield!" Shining ordered, his own shield being overlapped by Twilight's and Starlight's. The three of them made a triangle around Garotte, facing outwards. Spike was hiding in the center along with Garotte whom was still soundly asleep.

"Did anypony hear where that came from?" Starlight asked, her eyes nervously flicking around.

*Pshew!*

Something then impacted Shining's shield and splintered off. "This direction!" Shining shouted.

*Psh-pshew!*

Twilight's and Starlight's shield both rippled from separate impacts. "Mine too!" they both announced in unison.

"Form up closer!" Shining ordered, the three of them slowly backpedaling. "Form a single dome shield!"

Shining dropped his own shield for a split second, switching to a larger and more protective dome around the five of them. Twilight and Starlight then dropped their own shields and added their concentration and magic to Shining's own, emboldening and fortifying it.

"Okay... so what now?!" Twilight loudly asked over the humming of the shield.

"Spike, wake up Garotte!" Shining quickly ordered, diverting some attention from the shield spell to come up with a plan. "Does anypony see what's attacking us?"

All of them squinted, only to see shifting figures in the shadows that darted from tree to tree with impossible agility. "I can't get a good look!" Twilight replied.

"They're moving way too fast!" Starlight agreed.

Meanwhile, Spike was frantically shaking Garotte in an attempt to wake her up. He was about to resort to slapping her in the face with his claw when he felt a building pressure in his stomach.

"Oh come on, not now!" He complained, holding his mouth.

"What is it?" Shining asked in concern, redoubling his efforts to maintain the shield that was now being peppered by sharp thin objects from their speedy assailants.

Spike then belched, a letter falling out of the dragon flames and anticlimactically plopping on the ground. "Letter." He groaned.

"Read it!" Twilight urged.

"Seriously, right now?!" Spike asked in bafflement.

"Just do it!"

Spike rolled his eyes while scratching past the official looking seal on the scroll and unraveled it in his claws. "Ahem."

Spike then read aloud:

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

Be sure to watch where you travel carefully and pack lots of food, blankets and water for your trip.

With warm regards,

Princess Celestia.

He then hucked the scroll past the shield at the last position of the blurry monster that was attacking them. "Thanks, Celestia! I would never have thought of that!" He roared with annoyance and disbelief.

*Clak-Crakkakakak* sounded the shield as more objects pelted the the group. A small pile of the things were beginning to form around the dome shield. They looked like four inch long spikes, an inch in diameter and sharpened to a lethal point.

"Uh, everypony? You really need to keep that shield going as long as it takes!" Spike urged, redoubling his own efforts to wake Garotte. His methodology involved viciously shaking her head as much as possible while bouncing on her chest with all his might and tugging her ears. Thankfully, this proved to be effective when Spike was thrown off of a wildly flailing Garotte Wire when she returned to consciousness.

"Aaaah!" Garotte yelped in fear, sitting bolt upright and looking around in confusion. "What the hay is going on!?"

"You're finally awake!" Starlight strained. "Get this thing to leave us alone!"

Garotte's brow furrowed in confusion as she took in her surroundings, spotting the figure with pink eyes that had been darting all around them. She looked around for her axe and found it far out of reach, embedded in the slain Pampered Panzy. "Alright," Garotte loudly announced, standing upright. "I don't know what this is going to do, but hold onto your flanks!"

Shining, Starlight, Spike and Twilight all looked with confusion at Garotte, whose horn now began to crackle with the dark magic she had used previous. Her eyes were shut, yet small strands of purple were escaping from the sides of them. A chill crawled up Twilight's spine as she remembered King Sombra's eyes in the Crystal Empire and sincerely hoped that it was just a random theory that had crossed her mind regarding the source of Garotte's magic.

The inside of the dome shield quickly began to swirl with a thick black fog, tiny sparks of green and purple arcing between the ground and the shield itself, causing it to expand steadily outwards. The constant hum of the shield now intensified, becoming a high pitched whine as more of Garotte's magic poured into the dome shield that was sustained by the others.

"Do you think it's working?!" Shining called over the maelstrom of magic.

"I don't even know what's happening!" Twilight shouted back.

"Make it stop!" Spike pitifully cried, hunkering down beneath Garotte.

Garotte then opened her eyes again, their Iris' becoming red with a green background in addition to the tip of her horn color shifting a red and scorched black near the base. She was straining immensely under the pressure of the spell she was casting, her legs wobbling as she attempted to remain upright.

What Garotte yelled next took everypony off guard.

"Nopony expects the Evil Inquisition, Hahaha!" she cackled madly, a final burst of null-light striking the top of the dome shield and causing it to expand with explosive force outwards. Everypony's horns were overloaded by the feedback from this, but the resulting blast was enough to level the forest in a large circle around them. Splintered trees and hurled underbrush were send flying in every direction as a sweeping wall of dark magic annihilated anything it came into contact with from sheer force alone.

This feat was not without cost, however. Garotte was once again rendered unconscious and flopped down on the floor, her face in the dirt and kicking up tiny huffs of dust. Her horn was now a black scorch mark where it had once been a concrete grey, and the last wisps of dark magic left her eyes.

"Is everypony okay?" Shining asked, attempting to stand too fast and falling back onto his flank. "I mean, aside from the obvious?" he added with a groan.

"I think that dark magic needs to go home for today. Too much wizardy." Starlight babbled, her head slightly spinning as she tried to hold it in place.

"I second that motion, carry forward to trial. Dark magic is bad for my headcase." Twilight tiredly added, trying to sit upright.

"Uhg, I think I'm gonna be sick." Spike groaned, holding his stomach.

"Another letter?" Shining asked, still sitting down and taking deep breaths.

"No..." Spike clutched his stomach and doubled over. "Too much... dark... guh..." He trailed off, curling into a ball.

Shining looked down to Garotte, whom was passed out again like before. "That really can't be healthy." He commented, dragging himself nearer to the mare. "You still alive?" He asked, poking her muzzle.

He didn't get a reply, but he could feel hot air coming from her nose. That was a good sign!

"Twilight, do you see that thing that was attacking us anymore?" Starlight asked, pushing the front of her body up from the ground and looking around tiredly.

Twilight responded by flopping on her back. "Don't caaare. I'm never going to be anywhere near dark magic ever again after this..." she groaned.

Garotte snorted in her sleep, her leg slightly twitching.

"I'm surprised that we weren't affected as badly as Garotte was from that spell. We were all boosting the strength of the shield, and apparently anything else that decided to latch itself onto the spell matrix of it as well." Twilight mentioned, rolling over onto her side to get a better look at Garotte, Shining, Spike and Starlight.

"Think we won?" Spike asked, his claws crossed.

Everypony collectively held their breath, listening closely for any sound that would announce victory or defeat.

"Hissssss! A loud scratchy voice cried out in the distance.

Twilight tried to push herself off of the ground and failed miserably. "Nope..." She pouted, attempting again to stand.

"Come on, We've got to get ready for it to come back!" Shining urged them, also straining.

"Why won't the sun come up already!?" Starlight complained, leaning on Garotte's body for support. "It feels like we've been fighting this thing for eternity!"

Then, everypony's attention was drawn to the sound of scratching, scraping, chittering and hissing drawing closer. Their heads all shifted to view whatever monstrosity had been chasing and attacking them, coming face to face with the glowing pink eyes.

Shining tried to cast another spell, but his horn sparked uselessly and caused him to wince. Starlight attempted to hurl something at the monster in vain, as the twig she had managed to find ended up glancing off of its side. Twilight tried to shove it away with telekinesis, yet it stood firm and as if nothing had happened to it. Spike even tried to immolate it, to no effect.

It simply stood there, observing all of them.

For some reason, the creature had decided that it didn't want to finish them all off. Twilight took the opportunity to mentally catalogue everything she could see in the moon's waning glow.

Slightly larger than a pony, possibly female if the figure is anything to go by. A mixture of chitinous shell, plant matter and bark for its outer layer. Eyes are amethyst in color on closer inspection and hold no pupils. They're very similar to changeling eyes, now that I think about it. Twilight thought. No visible wings, yet a horn is present. Moving upwards, the creature's mane seems to be alive. Several vine-looking appendages are swirling around its head like a gorgon from Minos. Overall, this creature seems to be largely plant based. Its mane is both the living vines and a mixture of leaves and flower petals. The tail is similar, with more living vines swirling aimlessly around 'her'. Do the vines have a mind of their own, or are they like a limb to the creature? The hooves look to be moss, possibly to absorb water? Coloration is largely shades of green and deep red. Dark green body, darker hooves, Mane shifting from rose red in the back to various shades of green along the leaves of its remaining mane and tail. The tail itself has a single section of rose coloration.

While Twilight was busy brandishing her inner scientist and taking notes, it slowly advanced towards Shining Armor. For his part, Shining was attempting to shuffle backwards towards Garotte in a protective way. "Get back!" Shining barked in warning.

The creature stopped then, one of its hooves was even raised mid-step before it reversed and stood its ground.

"Wait, that actually worked?" Starlight asked incredulously after shielding her face from what she had expected to be imminent doom.

"It can understand us!?" Twilight cheered excitedly, her previous fear about the creature soon vanishing in a cloud of academic possibilities. "Can you talk?" She asked urgently.

The creature replied by performing what could best be described as an attempt at a smile. Two sets of vicious looking thorns occupied the space where one would normally expect teeth. Its face even attempted to contort in an appropriate manner to express happyness, but the hardened outer layer only allowed it to have a rictus grin that set everypony on edge.

"Oookay, never mind!" Twilight replied after she had recovered. "Umm..." Twilight was at a loss for words. What should she say to a new form of life that could probably understand her?

"Hey, plant pony. Why aren't you trying to kill us?" Starlight asked, still using Garotte's body like a sandbag.

"Starlight!" Twilight anxiously snapped, returning a nervous smile to the plant monster before realizing her mistake, as the monster smiled back again. She spoke from the corner of her mouth towards Starlight. "Don't antagonize the killing-machine plant-monster!"

The plant's head shifted sideways as if confused to Twilight.

"Okay, this is getting really weird." Spike confessed. "This thing was trying to hurt us like... a minute ago. What gives?"

"You're complaining that we're not being horribly injured or killed by this... pony?" Shining asked incredulously, forcing himself to call whatever the thing in front of him was, a pony.

"Somepony wake up Garotte again..." Starlight sighed in defeat. "I can't take much more of this 'dark magic' any longer."

Spike made an effort towards that goal, shaking Garotte's hind hoof. He received another sneeze in reply. "Seriously?" he grumbled.

He then turned his attention from Garotte back towards the plant pony, and found himself face to face with the glowing eyes of the creature with it's mouth wide open, nearly as large as his face was tall. "Aaaah!" he screamed, falling backwards onto his rump next to Garotte.

Then the plant monster's expression changed and its smile went away. It edged itself closer to Spike, whom was attempting to climb over Garotte and away from the thing.

"Don't let it eat me!" He cried, scrambling atop Garotte.

Twilight was about to cast a stun spell on the creature when it stopped moving and looked directly at her. She quickly let the spell that was charging in her horn die out in the hopes that it would leave her alone. To her surprise, she was right. No sooner did the magic dissipate than did the Plant's focus shift once more to Garotte and Spike.

"Shiny, I have an idea!" Twilight whispered over-loudly.

"What is it?" Shining replied in equal manner.

"Don't use magic!"

Shining and Starlight both blinked in disbelief at Twilight.

"Are you serious!?" Starlight loudly whispered. "Look at this thing!" She motioned to the slowly creeping plant thing with both of her hooves.

"Trust me!" Twilight insisted. She then stood up and struck the ground once with her hoof.

The plant monster whipped around instantly towards Twilight, its face an expression of attempted confusion. Twilight extended a hoof towards the plant thing, causing everypony and dragon else to flinch in fear.

"Come on, I won't hurt you!" She cooed, coaxing the thing closer to her. "Come on!" she urged in an embarrassingly sweet voice. "Who's a good plant monster?" She waved her hooves towards her own chest with a smile on her face. "You are! Yes you are!"

"What is Twilight doing?" Shining whispered to Starlight.

"I haven't the foggiest idea." Starlight replied.

The plant monster was now nearly on top of Twilight, what passed for its muzzle within poking range of Twilight. "Come here, planty! Come on!"

"Planty?" Spike scoffed. "That's what you decided to call it?"

Twilight flashed a look of annoyance to Spike, which promptly shut him up for the moment.

"We aren't keeping this thing, are we? It literally was trying to kill us not five minutes ago!" Starlight protested.

"We also don't know why it isn't attacking us right now. We can't let it stay with us or it might turn on us at the last moment!" Shining agreed.

"I think its kind of cute." Spike mentioned non-chalantly, not expecting the reaction of all ponies present and including the Plant to look at him with absolute confusion. "What? She has pointy teeth, I have pointy teeth. She has some strange hide that protected her from whatever Garotte's spell was, and I have dragon scales."

"Stop... while... ahead..." Garotte grumbled from her position before the snoring took her once more.

"Yeah... way too much information there, Spike." Shining added.

"I mean, if you want to go out with the crazy plant pony that tried to kill us, be my guest. Just don't get me mixed up in all of it." Starlight piled on, causing Spike to flush.

"It wasn't like that!" He insisted.

"Sure it wasn't." Shining winked at him conspiratorially.

As if to save Spike from further embarassment, the first few rays of sunlight then struck everybeing directly in their eyeballs and caused them to cry out in both pain and surprise.

"Finally!" Starlight cheered. "Praise the Sun!"

"Don't let Luna hear you say that." Shining warned.

"Stuff Luna's Moon!" Starlight replied, sticking a tongue out at Shining and melting on top of Garotte, resting her chin on the grey mare's side.

Twilight refrained from rejoicing, as her attention was entirely focused on the Plant pony in front of her.

It was directly facing the sun, the vines on its head having all pointed themselves towards the solar body. The plant's hooves were spread wide at their base, and it stared unblinkingly directly into the sun. Then, its body began to convulse.

"Uh... Everypony?" Twilight nervously grabbed everypony's attention. "The plant is doing weird things."

They all then observed the plant pony's shaking and shivering with growing concern.

"What is it doing?" Shining asked.

"Plant-ing..." Garotte commented, shifting in her sleep.

"Oh come on, I know you're awake!" Starlight growled, smacking Garotte with a hoof on her horn.

"Aaaah!" Garotte complained in pain, holding her horn. "Why would you do something like that!?" She cried.

"Explain what's going on!" Starlight demanded, pointing to the plant pony.

Nursing her now aching horn, Garotte looked at the plant pony. "Well..." She began, "She's doing plant things."

"Plant things?" Spike asked.

"Absorbing sunlight?" Garotte pointed out as if painfully obvious.

"Do you know why?" Twilight asked.

After a pause of silence, all gathered looked to the Amethyst eyed plant monster. With a final shudder, it stretched its back and popped off what looked like half shell, half tree bark. This soon revealed a pair of Green and red wings that buzzed experimentally a few times before the plant looked horrifically (Excited) smiled at them.

"It can FLY!?" Spike yelled in complete resignation. "That's it! I'm done!" He announced, and began trudging his way off immediately.

"Spike? Where are you going?" Twilight asked in surprise.

"Home!"

"But what about-"

"Nope! I'm done! Good luck, Twilight!"

"But-"

"Too far away! Can't hear you!"

"Spike!"

"Caaaan't Hear youuu!"

Author's Notes:

Please let me know what you think in the Comments!

Hopefully this chapter wasn't too dramatic!

Budding Relations

Twilight called after Spike a few more times hoping that he would come to his senses and return. Sadly for Twilight, Spike was absolutely sincere in his refusal to continue any further.

"Uh, Twilight?" Garotte asked nervously.

Twilight thought that maybe Spike would return later, after he had collected himself perhaps.

"Twilight?" Starlight also asked in a worried tone.

Twilight knew that it wasn't like Spike to... alright, it was completely like Spike to run at the first sign of danger, but he usually stayed nearby at least. Maybe all of this was just getting to be too much?

"Twily..." Shining warned.

Sparkle felt something warm on the back of her mane and sighed. "Yes?"

"Whatever you do..." Garotte began.

"Don't make any sudden movements..." Starlight continued.

What? thought Twilight.

"-And don't freak out." Shining finished.

"Why would I freak out?" Twilight asked, looking quickly behind herself to find the plant monster directly behind her, breathing heavily. Its mouth was open, yet not only that... the sides of its mouth had opened like a blooming flower. Well, if a flower's petals had razor sharp thorns dotted alongside of it with a throat opening that looked like a meat grinder made from plantmatter.

"Aaaah!" She freaked out, backpedaling away quickly with the monster in dogged pursuit. "Get it away from me!"

"I thought we were making it our pet?" Starlight asked, readying a spell.

"Don't use magic!" Garotte warned a little too late; A stun spell from Starlight was sent hurling into the monster.

The teal colored blob of a spell struck the side of the plant pony, causing it to rock to the side slightly and right itself. A ripple of moving bark and shell coursed over its body like a wave before slightly changing the coloration of its own foliage. The monster's attention was then fixated on Starlight, and it made another slow yet terrifying advance towards her.

"Why is it moving so slow?" Shining wondered aloud, moving between the monster and Starlight protectively.

"Believe it or not, I've seen this kind of thing before! Well, I mean in plants, not in whatever the hay this thing is supposed to be!" Garotte loudly shouted, trying to get the attention of the plant.

"Where would you possibly encounter a plant like that!?" Sparkle shouted while pointing at the plant monster pony thing.

"Zebreca?" Garotte replied unconvincingly with a shrug.

"Everypony, we don't have time for this!" Starlight spoke up worriedly. She and Shining armor were both moving backwards and away from the pony, its mouth wide open and looking very much like it could eat an entire pony's face off in one bite. It was less a standard pony mouth, and more akin to the Upper and Lower jaw a pony would normally have, dislocated, with the cheeks peeled outwards with their own set of thorns. The tongue looked to be whip-like and coiled similar to razorwire, snaking around the outside of its mouth as it hissed.

"I'm starting to think that Spike had the right idea!" Shining yelped, moving himself and Starlight to the side to avoid the slowly approaching terror.

"But... something doesn't seem right!" Twilight insisted. "Wasn't it moving a lot faster when it was attacking us earlier?"

"Twilight, now is not the time to play botanist!" Starlight snapped, weaving underneath a fallen tree log as the creature flew to the top and renewed its advance on her.

"Everypony, I'm going to try something!" Twilight announced, charging a spell.

"What did I JUST say about using spells!?" Garotte yelled in exasperation.

A lavender-purple bolt of magic zapped out like lightning to strike the monster, the force of the blast sending it careening into the clearing beyond Starlight and Shining. A black trail of smoke followed the wake of the creature and allowed the four to regroup.

"Everypony okay?" Shining asked.

"Not for long, if you idiots keep giving that thing more magic!" Garotte harshly replied.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" The creature roared in the distance, the plants nearby flinching away from the sound itself.

"Oh, that can't be good." Twilight worried.

"Of course it's not!" Garotte immediately responded. "You just gave that thing even more magic, right after I told all of you not to!"

"What was I supposed to do, let it eat me!?" Twilight defended.

Garotte thought for a minute, scratching her chin.

"Are you seriously considering that it eating me would've been a better plan!?"

"Kind of, yeah." Garotte replied to Twilight honestly.

"What the hay is that thing?" Starlight asked, scanning for any sign of the monster.

"What happened to being friends with it, again?" Shining asked.

"It was scary, okay!? I panicked!"

"No more freaking out! We gotta stay calm if we're going to survive this." Garotte insisted, pulling all of them into a huddle.

"Shouldn't we be watching out for the-" Shining asked, before Garotte's hoof on his lips interrupted him.

"Shush," Garotte said to Shining. "Alright, here's the plan." She looked over her shoulder quickly to check for the creature. "Okay, this thing is behaving a LOT like a Mana Ward. It's a special kind of flower that grows in the Saddle Arabian desert, used mainly for storing healing spells from unicorns to use in hospitals or on traveling caravans when there isn't enough unicorns to go around. DO NOT, I say again, DO NOT EVER, use any kind of spell on that thing or it will become Immune to it. Mana Wards are normally harmless, but just looking at that thing, and the fact that even my 'special magic' only annoyed it at best, we're dealing with something entirely different."

"How do you know so much about foliage?" Twilight asked, interested.

"I had an interesting fillyhood." was Garotte's vague answer.

"So, if we can't use magic, what do we do?" Starlight asked. The idea of not being able to use her library of spells for every occasion left her far and away from her comfort zone, as she usually had a spell for everything.

"We can do a few things. Option A, Run. Option B, Outmaneuver the insanely fast and flying monster to get to Pyrelight. Option C, uh... both?"

"That's not very convincing." Shining deadpanned.

"Heesssss...." A before unseen fifth member of the huddle agreed. Everypony looked to each other with wide eyes before slowly looking downwards to find the monster 'smiling' at them while laying upside down on the floor.

Everypony then gulped in unison.

"Twilight." Shining rasped.

"Yes Shining?" She whispered.

"Is that the monster?"

"It seems like it."

...

"Run?"

"Most definetly."

The four of them then took in a deep breath and shouted, "Aaaaahhh!!" At the top of their lungs, fleeing in every direction.

The monster, still laying on the ground, rolled over and stood upright.

"Raaahhhh..." It sighed with sadness, its foliage drooping as it followed after the closest pony with some resignation.

*****

Meanwhile in Ponyville, things were going about as well as Monotone could have expected. She now had a new suit that was hoof tailored by Rarity. A deep green jacket, silver name-tag and tie followed by a sky blue dress shirt. Rarity mentioned how she normally didn't like the color green, but that was specifically for certain shades of the hue that didn't work well with some pony's coats. Monotone had tried to discuss the subject, but her voice caught in her throat every time she tried to speak to Rarity. Thankfully, the fashionista simply assumed that Monotone wasn't a pony of many words, and the two were able to get along.

The clones of Garotte Wire were all inside of the Crystal Treehouse/Castle owned by Twilight, sharing a morning breakfast of pancakes, and strawberries straight out of their container. Monotone was in her now usual spot on top of the fridge as she genuinely did prefer heights. Pink was sitting at the table properly, like a normal pony for once. The Trio were attempting to outfit each other with sterotypical farming outfits complete with straw hats and some kind of wheat for them to hold in their mouths. White had actually eaten the plant several times without realizing, and it was agreed that she was not allowed to have any more decorative wheat.

"Why are you three wearing farming outfits?" Monotone asked, levitating a strawberry with her magic curiously while keeping half of her attention on the them.

"Spending the day with Applejack again!" Blue replied.

"A lot of farm work to be done." White added.

"We figured it would be fun to dress up, too." Red admitted, receiving looks from the other two that promised reprisal. Red shrugged in reply.

"What will you be doing, Pink?" Monotone asked, nibbling the strawberry before discovering it was better than any food she had tried before. She was soon eating the berries by the double, savoring it however long she could, blank expression still upon her face and revealing nothing about the newly found comfort food she had just discovered.

"Well..." Pink replied hesitantly, turning around in her chair to face Monotone. "I have to... visit the Pink One today..."

Everypony stopped what they were doing to freeze, and stare at Pink.

"You're serious?" Blue asked, starting the chain.

"Are you worried?"

"What if the Pink One punishes you for... you know?"

Monotone simply ate another strawberry for her part.

"I'm not sure, but there's only one way to find out if I'll be banished to another dimension where everything isn't as fantastic as it is here!" She cheerfully replied, offsetting the mood in the room that had quickly become grave to one more optimistic and up-beat. Her expression soon deflated afterwards however.

Monotone chose this moment to float a strawberry over to Pink, and nudged her lips with one. "Strawberry?" She offered.

Pink lazily opened her mouth, for Monotone to place the strawberry inside with her magic. Chewing, Pink's eyes soon widened.

"Holy Hay, this is really good! What is this?" She asked delightedly.

"I just told you; strawberry." Monotone replied with her (of course) monotone voice.

"I need to get me some more of these..." Pink mused, before turning around to drop her hoof on the side of the plate, sending the pancakes flipping into the air directly above her. Pink then leaned forward and... did not eat the pancakes. She allowed them all to impale themselves on her horn, and pushed herself away from the table. Syrup was dripping onto the crystal floor.

"Did you mean to do that?" Monotone asked.

"Yeppers! Now I can snack on the go!" Pink explained. She then gasped, and pointed at a nearby window. "Look! What is that!?"

Everypony looked to the window with alarm, yet saw nothing. Then they looked back to find Pink was gone, including the syrup she had dripped.

"She really should just use the door." Blue commented.

"Using the powers of the Pink One is just going to make her more upset."

"Who knows, maybe it's really fun?"

Everypony then looked to Red.

"Probably." Monotone admitted, eating another glob of strawberries.

****

Meanwhile yet again, on the outskirts of Pyrelight ran Twilight Sparkle through the underbrush. Hopping over logs and ducking under branches, forgoing the use of her wings in case it would alert the monster to her location. She didn't know where the others had gone, or how they were doing, but she also didn't hear anypony or anything following her. She figured that was a good sign.

Well, up until that 'good sign' turned out to be the only sign that something wasn't right. Were she able to be present, Garotte would have pointed out that dead silence in a forest usually means that all the common animals have had the collective sense to avoid where ever you were currently standing as if it was a death sentence. Twilight was oblivious to this however, and chose a small covered log to take a breather.

She scanned around the nearby treeline, her head darting in every direction and flinching at the slightest movement or scratch. She was certain that she had lost the monster, but it had snuck up on their entire group before without making a sound. Twilight knew she had to remain vigilant or--

Or something might just wrap around her hind hooves and drag her out from her hiding place.

"Aaaah!" Twilight screamed, desperately trying to dig her forehooves into the ground as vines constricted her hindlegs. "Let me go!" She pleaded.

It was no use, as she was soon pulled from her hiding spot and held upside down in the air, a few hooves off of the ground and staring at the monster from her awkward angle. Its mouth was closed, at least. Twilight tried to flap her wings, but that only earned her a slap in the face from the monster's vine/snake-like mane/tentacles. Twilight could swear she heard somepony snickering at her expense somewhere, but she was more concerned with what the monster was going to do.

They both stood or hung there for a moment, looking at each other. Twilight observed with concern and worry, as she now knew that her magic would only make matters worse. She was also not the most physically capable unicorn, and didn't want to aggravate a monster that was capable of moving faster than her vision could even register.

The monster, however, simply looked at Twilight with confusion and curiosity. None of this could be accurately portrayed by the monster's face, so it appeared blank. Then, to Twilight's surprise, it attempted to speak.

"Haaa...oh." It awkwardly sounded, moving its head and neck around to attempt the correct noises.

"Um... Hello?" Twilight replied uncertainly.

The monster's face opened its horrific four part mouth while nodding, making some strange hacking noise. Twilight cringed in fear, but after a moment she realized the monster hadn't made a move to attack her.

"Hello?" she attempted again, still holding her hooves close to protect her face and horn.

"Haa-oh!" The monster replied excitedly. Its voice was very airy and raspy, as if it didn't have the correct organs to even speak in the first place.

Twilight gave a small smile, and instantly regretted it. The monster attempted to smile in return, but it only revealed the rows of thorns that replaced any teeth or seeming spare space inside of its mouth. After Twilight steeled herself, she peeked from her hooves to find the monster was still waiting patiently.

"So..." Twilight started awkwardly, "Could you... let me down?"

The monster stared unblinkingly at Twilight for a moment, before placing a hoof on what passed for its chin. It was about to speak, then canceled that thought. It then attempted to speak again.

"Uaau..." it tried, before hissing and stomping a hoof in annoyance. It looked back up to Twilight, and she almost felt sorry for it.

"You?" Twilight tried.

It looked to Twilight and shook its head in the negative. Then, some of its mane vines whipped around its head for a moment, circling around the nearby ground as if looking for something. Twilight waited patiently, and they eventually found some twigs and brought them to the small clearing they were standing in. To Twilight's surprise, it started scratching out symbols in Equiss.

"Y - O - U N - O R - U - N." It sketched out in very sharp chicken scratch on the ground. It looked up at Twilight, apparently concerned. Again, the monster's face made it difficult to tell.

Twilight thought about agreeing and then immediately flying away or running, but that left her in an even worse position than she was in now. She had been caught fairly easily after her first attempt at fleeing, and this creature was showing no intention to harm... at least right now. She looked to the monster, debating if she could call for help or any other option. None came to her.

"Okay." Twilight agreed. "No running."

The monster made another kind of hissing noise, higher pitched and less menacing if at all possible for it. Twilight was startled when she was slowly lowered to the ground. She stuck her forehooves out to brace the rest of herself for a landing, and was gently set down on the grass. The Princess and the Monster then stood there, silently regarding the other and watching for whom would make the first move.

*****

Monotone adjusted her tie while standing outside of Carousel Boutique. She had been meaning to speak with Rarity again, but she kept coming up with excuses or reasons to avoid doing so. First it was the timing of it, then it was nerves, then it was strawberries. Now, however, Monotone had no excuses left. She would have to speak with Rarity about... alright, maybe not about her feelings, so much as if she would like to... get a drink perhaps? That dramatic explosion of conflict miraculously avoided by yet another artful dodge of logic, Monotone took a deep breath and prepared to knock on the door.

She then promptly turned around, and decided that today was not the day to confront or even see Rarity. Her face remained as passive as ever, but her nervous breathing and shifting eyes betrayed the anxiety that bubbled beneath the surface of her calm mask. Monotone was thankful that Rarity was typically consumed in her work and hadn't noticed her hesitation to knock on the door.

She then turned back to look at said door, afraid her thoughts had just tempted fate. Pausing for a moment and taking in the scenery that was filled with the typical sounds of a yawning village, she sighed in relief.

"Monotone?" Rarity asked, causing Monotone to whip her head forward and spot the fashionista returning home from the merchant quarter. "Was there something wrong with your outfit, darling?"

Monotone gulped, and replied in her typical method of speech. "N-no." She stammered in monotone (of course).

Rarity was floating several bags. Some contained fabrics, some food and others held what Monotone assumed were some kind of gemstone. She also wore a very wide brimmed white hat with a purple feather sticking out of it. Monotone thought it looked nice, which impaired her ability to speak coherently even further.

"Is something the matter then?" Rarity asked with concern.

"Nuh..." Monotone managed.

"Darling, you're shaking!" Rarity moved her items to her left side, taking up Monotone on the right with a free hoof wrapped around her shoulder. "Come with me," She offered, "I simply can't turn a blind eye to whatever is bothering you!"

Monotone had very mixed feelings about this situation, but physical contact with Rarity had already sealed her fate. "N-um... buh... I'm..."

"Oooh," Rarity cooed, "You're a nervous wreck, darling. Even if your voice never actually expresses anything, I can tell!" She leaned in conspiratorially, whispering into Monotone's ear with a cupped hoof (somehow). "Rarity knows these things."

Monotone did her best to control the involuntary responses of her body, but alas, she could not control if she blushed or not. Now she glowed like the strawberries she had for breakfast.

"Darling, it must be serious if you're changing color! Come, come!" She started off towards the Boutique, "I'll not have a friend catching a cold or fighting off... whatever this is all alone."

"It's... I'm-f... fine." Monotone stammered, shakily walking after Rarity with wobbling hooves and a flurry of emotion inside of her. Her throat had suddenly become very dry again, and she gulped in an attempt to relieve the irritation. It only got worse as she drew nearer to the Boutique.

"Nonsense darling, you're shaking in your steps!"

Monotone felt a rush of blood to her head all at once, and swayed on her hooves.

"Are you alright?" Rarity asked, the voice sounding like it was underwater to her. "Monotone?" She asked again with concern.

Monotone's vision then decided to go skyward as she fell on her flank and toppled backwards into blissful unconsciousness. That would be the first time she had ever fainted.

****

Back near Pyrelight, things were becoming complicated fast. The monster and Twilight had been awkwardly staring at each other for some time now. Long enough, in fact, that Starlight and Shining Armor had both re-located Twilight and approached the standoff cautiously.

"Twilight... what's going on?" Starlight asked nervously, her horn charged with a spell reflexively and subconsciously.

"I... don't really know." Twilight admitted. "I know it can talk, or that it at least understands what we're saying, but its own speech is really limited."

"You've been playing scientist with this thing?" Starlight scowled, still terrified of the creature and very much on edge with the whole situation.

"Well, not exactly..." Twilight sheepishly grinned. "I was hiding in the tree log over there," She pointed to it with a wing, "and... it found me. Dragged me out of the log with its vine-tentacle things, and talked with me. Well, tried to. It eventually just wrote on the ground with sticks."

"It can write?" Shining asked, somewhat relaxing. "Okay, we know it can talk, and it can understand us. What now?"

"Try to make friends with it again?" Twilight offered uncertainly.

"Because that worked out so well last time." Starlight snarked.

"I messed up, alright? I'm just glad nothing bad happened to anypony." Twilight countered.

"Hey, speaking of anypony, have any of you seen Garotte?" Shining asked the group.

"I've been busy with the... pony, here." Twilight salvaged nearly saying 'monster' again, finding it rude all of a sudden.

"I was too busy running- I mean, trying to find Twilight." Starlight replied, fizzling out her spell.

"I was looking for the both of you..." Shining ended.

The 'monster' then waved a few vine-tentacles in the air at everypony.

"Um... yes?" Twilight asked.

All the vines pointed in one direction, towards the orange magical flames of Pyrelight. The creature nodded vigorously, its mouth uttering some kind of scratchy cackling that set everypony else on edge again.

"That's where Garotte is?" Twilight asked again, creeped out by the noises the creature was making.

The monster growled, dropping to its forehooves like an excited puppy while its vines swished around hazardously, some of them exposing their projectile thorns underneath.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." Starlight sighed.

"So... lead the way!" Twilight decided, putting more pep and excitement in her voice than she really felt.

The creature then lept into the air, zipping off through the treeline and making some horrific screeching noise the entire way as its voice Doppler-ed out of sight.

"We're really following it into a blazing inferno?" Starlight asked skeptically.

"Yep." Twilight replied simply.

"Why?"

"What other choice do we have? It seems to want to help us, and it had plenty of opportunity to hurt us." Twilight pointed out.

"Well, what if its just trying to turn us into more of... whatever 'it' is?"

"I... hadn't thought of that..." Twilight admitted. "Still, It's my duty to make new friends, even if they're as terrifying as Planty."

"We're not calling it 'Planty', Twilight." Shining mandated.

"Well we have to call it something other than monster." she grumbled back.

"How about 'Leaf' ?" Starlight suggested.

"Hmm..."

"That works for me." Shining agreed.

"Alright." Twilight agreed as well, thrusting a declarative hoof in the air. "We dub thee, Leafy!"

"I said 'Leaf'."

"Leafy!"

"Whatever, Sparkle." Starlight grumbled.

Author's Notes:

Please, please, Pleaaaaase leave a comment about what you thought, even if it's "I liked it!".

Thank you for reading!

Meanwhile

Across Equestria, still observing the statue of Queen Aze, Queen Chrysalis and Princess Celestia had come up with nothing.

"I thought this would be simpler." Chrysalis grumbled.

"Returning a petrified changeling queen from their amethyst catalyst was supposed to be simple?" Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow at the queen.

"It was for me." She pointed out.

The results of their efforts lay scattered about haphazardly and with total disregard for safety. All manner of amulet, scroll, incense and even gobbledegook were present. This also included a couch made out of changeling resin made by Queen Chrysalis to watch Celestia metaphorically bash her head against a wall.

"You could always lend a hoof at any time." Celestia grumbled.

Chrysalis waved a dismissive hoof. "It's far more entertaining to watch you try and solve this on your own, Tia."

Celestia took a deep breath to calm herself down. She knew it was just in Chrysalis' personality to try and rile her up, and she didn't want to melt the entire room with her own anger. Her stress vented from her nose as scorching steam, melting a small wax sculpture that had been originally used in an attempt to foster some sort of 'kindness', somehow. Things were desperate, it's complicated, not much time, you understand.

Chrysalis noted the hot breathing and decided to tone down her behavior a smidgen. "You know, we could always contact her advisors for some assistance. They might have a list of things they've already attempted."

"I would have already called them here, Chrysalis, were it not for the possibility of their link to the hive mind separating under the stress of returning their queen before the collapse of their entire hive drove them insane, forcing us to 'subdue' them."

"You mean launch magical bolts of energy until they don't move anymore, right?"

"Yes. That." Celestia groaned.

"It wouldn't hurt to be more direct, you know. We could always travel to Manehattan ourselves and 'deal with the problem', as you would say."

"I am not going to start a war with Aze's hive. They've done far more than our peace treaty had even asked for, and their economic boon to Equestria is second only to the joy they bring my little ponies in their daily lives. I am not going to gallivant around the city, blasting every changeling I see because bringing back their queen is hard, Chrysalis." Celestia huffed with annoyance, bringing her temper down before speaking again when she was more calm. "I should have brought her back sooner."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "Oh, wonderful. Should I bring out the 'pity parade' banner and some fruit punch?" She then stood from her couch and walked towards Celestia. "This isn't the time to wallow in past mistakes. What's done is done."

"You would know." Celestia sniped.

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You tried to kill the sun, remember?"

Chrysalis blinked. "We promised not to talk about that again."

"Well I wouldn't be upset enough to bring it back up, if you would actually assist."

"I have been assisting this entire time." Celestia gave Chrysalis a look of 'Oh, really now?' and she quickly explained. "Not directly; through my hive."

"What have you been doing?"

"They've been looking around for her pet, the duck she always took with her?"

"Goose? What of him?"

"She was friends with it, correct?"

Celestia thought for a moment before the full force of realization struck her in the face, accompanied by her own hoof. "OF COURSE IT HAD TO BE THE DUCK OF ALL THINGS!" she shouted in immense frustration, realizing that her days of effort were completely worthless next to the true friendship that would've been easily provided had she simply looked for Queen Aze's pet this entire time. The floor was beginning to crack and melt beneath Celestia's upset figure, her hooves dissapearing beneath the molten slag that had once been tile.

"I'm..." Chrysalis backed away from the upset Solar Diarch, pointing a hoof towards a nearby door. "I'm just going to step outside for a moment."

*****

Pink Wire stood outside of the 'newly' rebuilt Sugarcube Corner. It, along with the entire town of Ponyville had been razed to the ground during an attack from the Forces of Evil three years ago. Pinkie Pie, along with the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony, had been gifted a large sum of money directly by Queen Aze prior to the attack out of good will, and because the queen had more currency than she knew what to do with. Pinkie Pie also had additional income from her relatively short time as 'Dread Pirate Pie, Scourge of the Eight Winds'. The new and improved Sugarcube Corner was complete with four stories height, four balconies that each served different kinds of pastry, a landing pad on the roof in case she ever decided to contact her pirate crew and go off on an adventure, and was completed by all kinds of different foodstuffs on each floor. In part, it had become the mall of the town. The outside market area would provide visitors and townponies alike with a variety of wares to choose from, and every culinary delight would be found within Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie had kept the decorative theme relatively the same as the 'old' Sugarcube, and it brought a certain kind of cheer to the those that saw the building itself.

Pink Wire, however, was anything but cheerful at the moment. The Pink One, also known as Pinkie Pie to her friends, had given Garotte Wire and her clones a few select abilities that she possessed in order for them to accomplish their role in being 'evil', thanks to the convoluted planning of Princess Celestia to give the regular ponies of Equestria the hope that they wouldn't need Princesses or magical artifacts to defend themselves all the time. Celestia's plan had worked in the end, and her little ponies now felt more safe and secure in the knowledge that they could fend off the Forces of Evil all on their own if the time came. What was bothering Pink, however, was the fact that the powers of the Pink One came with limitations.

Limitations she had completely ignored.

She would gain the ability to teleport without the use of magic, so long as nopony was looking at her. This is why she distracted the other Wire's in the castle by pointing at nothing. She also gained hidden knowledge of things and places that nopony should have the right to know, unless they wanted to become insane. Pink had weathered the storm of information better than most of the other clones, the majority of whom became nearly catatonic and simply lost the ability for higher brain function. The main clones of Garotte Wire had been the best overall, as they all had the knowledge of the Pink One. The rest, locked away for various medical and Equinitarian reasons, had not been so fortunate.

The gift of the Pink One was intended to be used sparingly, if at all. It was even explained that this would be the case by the Pink One herself, and dire consequences would follow any that abused her trust. Pink had used her 'gifts' nearly non-stop, for everyday things. Abuse would practically become her middle name, if it would make any sense.

"Pfft. Pink 'Abuse' Wire. That's so silly!"

Pink shrank to the ground as much as she was able, cringing and hoping against hope that what she was thinking wouldn't become a reality.

"Don't worry, Pink. I'm not mad." The Pink One replied directly behind her. "I'm just..." She rested a hoof on Pink's shoulder. "Upset." She hissed in Pink's ear.

"Eeep!"

*****

Meanwhile across town, Applejack was up to her neck in stereo-typically garbed clones of Garotte Wire. The problem wasn't so much that she didn't appreciate the attire, but that they had all completed not only the day's work of chores, but the week's. Any other pony would normally be very thankful of the free time they would have, but not Applejack. Her hobby and life was her farm. Not only had these clones showed up and done a better job than she could, but they had been pointing out flaws left and right with how she told them to do everything.

"Ya know, if y'all don't want to help out, ya don't have to." She grumbled, adjusting her stetson to properly view Blue, White and Red.

"Actually, it's kinda fun!"

"Dirty, but fulfilling."

"I like hitting the trees."

"Uhg." Applejack groaned, facehoofing. "Do ya think there's somepony else to help out in Ponyville? I mean, I appreciate your help n' all, but now I've got nothin' to do for a whole week!"

The three clones looked between themselves as if communicating somehow before replying.

"Red has an idea!"

"You might like it."

"What if we destroyed your barn, so you could spend the week rebuilding it!" Red happily offered.

Applejack was about to protest the cost of rebuilding the barn yet again, when she realized that after the razing of Ponyville, she still had more money than the entire Apple family knew what to do with. She had rebuilt all of Sweet Apple Acres and even bought more of the surrounding land to give her more to do, yet rebuilding the barn wouldn't even put a noticeable dent in her funding.

"Well..." She rubbed her chin with a hoof. "Ah mean I'd have to talk with Granny and Big Mac about it..."

"Take your time!"

"We'll be waiting."

"With sledgehammers!"

Applejack made a scrunchy face at the last remark before wandering back to the main house to seriously consider blowing up a barn as an excuse to keep her workaholic worth ethic in check.

*****

Meanwhile, inside of Carousel Boutique...

"Do you really think we should dump water on Monotone?" Sweetie Belle asked her sister, Rarity.

Rarity, the unicorn in question, was holding a steel bucket of water over Monotone's slumbering head in her magic, seriously debating her life choices at that moment.

"I mean, what if that makes things worse and she never wakes up because you scared her so bad?"

Rarity would admit that she had no idea what she was doing, were she not the older sister. She was supposed to know everything, right?

"I'm sure this will work out perfectly fine, Sweetie Belle." She replied with false certainty. "After all, everypony knows that water is the surest way to wake somepony up!"

Monotone, oblivious and twitching slightly in her passed-out state, was soon doused from mane to tail in water on the floor where she lay. Her eyes shot open from the shock of the unexpected cold, her clothing now clinging to her soaked fur and her mane plastered onto her face. She didn't utter a single word or sound, however. She simply stated...

"Why."

Normally, this would send chills down a pony's spine to hear. Everypony knows that if you've gone so far to offend somepony that they reach a transcendent state of tranquility, you are certainly about to be on the receiving end of a most righteous beat down that is worthy of storybook legend. For Monotone, however, this was her normal way of speaking.

"Why this." She repeated, her brain still not fully working correctly from both the jolt of being drenched in frigid water, awakening in a basement, and being painfully uncomfortable.

"Ah..." Rarity muttered, quickly levitating the bucket behind herself.

"It was her idea!" Sweetie blurted, selling out her sister and bolting for the stairs out of the room.

Rarity stared open-mouthed at Sweetie as she galloped out of sight, before guiltily smiling at Monotone. "It was... an error in judgement?"

Monotone registered that Rarity was talking after a few mind-clearing blinks, and immediately began to heat up. Literally. There was steam coming from her body, evaporating the water that clung to her.

"Is that... normal?" Rarity asked nervously, backing away a bit and accidentally knocking into the water bucket behind her.

"Y-ye-eh..." Monotone stuttered in her characteristic Monotone, making her sound like a broken golem. Her face was flush red and her pupils dilated as she looked at Rarity, her ears folding downward while her tail sought refuge in her forehooves where she sat on the floor. Her face, however, remained blank. "Heh..."

Rarity knew the signs of what was happening well enough to see what was going on with Monotone right in front of her face, and bit her lip. Was was she to do? She was in pursuit of a handsome and gallant prince, not a mare, certainly. The poor clone was crushing immensely, and it was plain for any to see. If she confronted Monotone directly, it would break the mare's heart! Rarity couldn't be so cruel, but what ultimately was the kinder option of the two? If she strung Monotone along in a false relationship, only to dump her later on down the line when the lie couldn't be sustained, she would be even more devastated. If she cut it off immediately, or perhaps when the timing was better, then the damage would be grievous, but minor by comparison. Yet, looking at the adorably inexpressive mare shivering and steaming in front of her on the basement floor, she couldn't bring herself to confront the problem; not yet, anyway.

"Monotone, dear..." Rarity asked softly, moving towards the clone. "Would you like a blanket or something to help warm you up?"

"Y-you." Monotone blurted, before quickly covering her inexpressive face, causing her tail to go between her legs. "I mean, yes." She quickly amended behind her forehooves.

Rarity chose to pretend she didn't hear that slip of tongue, and laid a hoof on Monotone's shoulder. "Come with me, dear. We'll get you something warm to drink. Maybe a soup, or some cocoa?"

Monotone's eyes glazed over in response, staring at Rarity with her mouth slightly open.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." Rarity sighed, picking up Monotone in her magic and carrying the soaked mare up the stairs with her.

*****

Meanwhile in Manehattan, a pony enters the dark confines of a block apartment.

"Gaius, are you home?" A mare's voice called out into the advisor's home. "I haven't heard from you in days, are you okay?"

Gaius himself, was not okay. His link to what remained of the hivemind had been getting weaker and weaker with each passing moment. He was on the verge of losing it entirely, in fact. It took all of his concentration to maintain a link with the others of the hive that he could.

"Gaai~us?" The voice called again. It was one of his friends from work that he had gotten to know on a more personal level over the years. A shy mare that wouldn't dare visit his house unless her concern was great enough to overcome her anxiety. The fact that she was here now was heartwarming. "Please tell me you're okay..." She mumbled worriedly.

Gaius' apartment was sparse; A single beanbag chair in the main living room, a refrigerator for guests' food and a lamp. It didn't take long for his friend to find him. "There you are!" She said happily, though he could feel immense concern, anxiety and the cold bite of fear from her. "Are you... okay? A lot of the other changelings have been behaving really strangely..."

"Our queen..." Gaius rasped. For the life of him, maintaining his link to the hivemind was too strenuous to allow him the space to recall the mare in the room's name. "She has been gone for too long."

"Queen Aze?" The mare asked, walking towards him slowly. "Gaius, do you need anything? You look terrible! I mean, I don't mean that in a bad way, like I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but..." She stumbled.

"You have to write a letter for me, to Celestia."

"C-Celestia? Like 'Princess Celestia'?" She asked incredulously, her anxiety peaking with an accompanying spike of fear. "B-but she's-"

"Please." Gaius interrupted. "For the sake of all my brothers and sisters, you must." He insisted.

"A-ah..." She looked around nervously, biting her lip while her eyes flickered, searching for a way out of directly contacting the solar diarch.

"Please."

She looked at Gaius in his frail state, her campfire orange eyes seeming to glow in the dark room. Traitorous thoughts of simply abandoning him right there entered her mind, fighting alongside her anxiety and fear of the Princesses. They were swiftly countered by her loyalty to her friend and her need to help others at nearly any cost, including complete strangers if her courage held up. Gaius was no stranger, however. He was a dear friend to her, and he needed her help. She gulped, her eyes focusing with steely resolve.

"O-okay... What do I need to do?" She softly replied, her voice not finding its full strength after barely overcoming her own fears for the moment. She would have a panic attack later; for now, she was determined.

"Get a quill and some ink. They're in the cabin-- Augh!" Gaius growled in pain, wincing and holding his head.

"Gaius!" the mare squeaked in alarm.

"They're in the cabinet!"

The mare held a moment of indecision before moving to the cabinets above the stovetop, her orange-red magic reminding Gaius that she was a unicorn. Soon enough, quills and ink wells flew out from the cabinet along with the parchment he had forgotten to request.

"Okay, what now?" She asked, the materials floating around lazily in her magical aura.

"Write this: Dear Princess Celestia..."

*****

Dear Princess Celestia,

Time is of utmost importance now.

The hive of Queen Aze is deteriorating rapidly, and I am on my last legs. So many already have been completely severed from the hive mind, and I fear that they may be driven to acts of violence in their pain. You must find a way to rescue Queen Aze with all speed.

Um... Okay I have no idea what I'm doing, but Gaius just passed out. I was writing this for him and... Oh no, I'm blabbering to the princess! Why am I writing this! Just hurry, please?

Oh no, she's going to send me to the dungeons or something!

Please help!

Gaius and Sanguine,
Manehattan
Urgent!

Queen Chrysalis had been reading over Celestia's shoulder. "Well, seems like we should probably hurry." She snarked. "Not like we weren't already trying."

"Chrysalis, this isn't the time. Lives are depending on us to solve this problem!" Celestia chided.

"They weren't already?" Chrysalis countered with the equivalent of a raised brow. Celestia glared at Chrysalis while going over her calming exercises, giving Chrysalis the chance to communicate with her hive.

<Anything yet?>

<In persuit, mother!>

<You've found the bird?>

<Yes!>

<You're certain it's the right bird, this time?>

<Absolutely!>

<If it isn't, you'll be able to tell the grubs all about it for a decade.> Chrysalis threatened.

<Yes, mother!>

Celestia had now calmed down, and Chrysalis chose this moment to inform her. "Well, it looks like things are getting better already."

She sighed. "What now, Chrysalis?"

"It seems my children have found Goose."

*****

"You've got to be kidding me!" A changeling from Brood Chrysalis yelled, ducking under another tree branch that the duck had flown past. "This thing should be a Wonderbolt!"

Goose, the impressive duck that he was, had been giving 'the slip' to a whole mini-swarm of changelings for the past two hours in the Everfree forest. They had tried everything from covering the forest from above, to flying as a large wall to smack into him. All had failed under Goose's prowess and smarts. Chrysalis wasn't big on spending the resources for intelligence or wit in her hive, and the results showed.

"Just grab it already!'

"I'm TRYING!"

"Try harder!"

"You try harder!"

"I'll try you straight up a tree!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"You're a sense!"

"Least I've got more than you!"

"Oh yeah, well... you're a bug!"

"You're a bug!"

Goose was now perched on a branch as if he was a hawk, looking with his head sideways at the arguing group of changelings below him. He reached under his wing with his bill, pulling out a Banana he had swiped from a market stall near Ponyville. This was going to be good entertainment, he could tell.

*****

"Are you sure we should be following after Leafy?" Shining asked. "We don't really know where it's taking us. None of this area looks familiar."

"Well the whole place has been on fire for the past three years. I don't think it would." Starlight sassed.

"We still have to find Garotte Wire. I'm not leaving her out here all alone in a burning forest." Twilight insisted, searching around for Leafy. "If only we could find where Leafy flew off to..."

In the distance, a loud scream was heard. The three ponies looked between themselves worriedly. "Do you think that was Garotte?" Shining asked.

"Something tells me that it was." Starlight replied with some concern.

"Well, we should hurry then!" Twilight urged, picking up her pace to a gallop.

"You think she's alright?" Shining asked, pacing out his breaths and keeping up with Twilight.

"Knowing Garotte, it would take Tirek coming back from the sun to do anything to that mare." She replied sincerely.

"You're kidding. She doesn't even use magic!" Starlight protested. "What's so special about her?"

"Has she ever hugged you?" Twilight asked seriously.

"Uh, no?"

"Good."

Something about that made Starlight miss a step, though she quickly recovered. "What do you mean by that?"

"How do you think she got her name?"

"Her parents?"

"She never met her parents. She gave herself the name after she strangled a griffon. On accident. As a filly." Twilight emphasized.

"Is it wrong that I'm actually more concerned for Leafy now?" Shining asked with a frown.

"Did the griffon survive at least?" Starlight asked hopefully.

"After three of her friends pulled Garotte off of her, and she was rushed to the hospital, yes."

"Okay, I really don't want to get on Garotte's good side, now." Starlight replied, slightly shaken.

"Trust me, I'm going to make that one of your friendship lessons!" Twilight cheerfully shot back without missing a beat.

"Gaaah!" The voice shouted, much closer now.

"That must be her!" Shining exclaimed.

"Garotte, where are you!?" Twilight called out. They had run into a clearing with a nearby cave entrance, the surrounding foliage was set ablaze by the glowing orange magic of Pyrelight itself and obscured their vision with black smoke.

"Stick close to the ground!" The voice called. "You'll choke to death if you don't!"

The three did as they were instructed, their bellies pressed to the ground. "Okay... now what?" Starlight asked rhetorically.

Then, vines reached from all around them, wrapping around their hooves and began to drag them through the grass, ash and dirt.

"Not again!" Twilight complained loudly.

"What!?" Shining and Starlight yelled in unison, completely confused.

"It's Leafy! She's done this before!"

"She!?" Starlight protested. "What makes you think it's a She!?"

"I think it sounds better!"

Shining tried to face hoof, but his legs were wrapped in vines. "You've got to be kidding me, Twily. Seriously?"

"Leafy is a She-eeee!" Twilight responded loudly, before a sudden drop caused her to shriek.

"Aaaaah!" Starlight and Shining yelled soon after, descending into a dark abyss below them.

Author's Notes:

Special Thanks to: TheEngie

For posting a comment that gave me enough motiviation today to write out the rest of this chapter! Thank you!

Comments that re-assure me that people genuinely want to see more of the story greatly help fight off my depression and apathy, helping me to keep on writing. All comments that either helpfully critique my work and tell me how to improve, or just simply give a mood boost are greatly, GREATLY adored, needed and crucial!

Thank you all very much for reading! I hope you enjoyed catching up with everypony else in this chapter ^.^

The Hive, Part 1

Author's Notes:

Recommended listening for this chapter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVhZMcBOPWE

There will be links to specific sounds for narrative purpose. Look for the green wording and Control Click them to avoid leaving the page. Please only listen to the first few seconds of each clip presented.

"---aaaaAAAAAAA--Oof!" Twilight landed with a soft thud.

"-aaaaaaAAA--Oof!" Went Starlight and Shining.

They were surrounded by pitch black, nothing visible and not even the sounds of flame from Pyrelight could be heard anymore. Little droplets of water were falling from the hive's ceiling, a thick purple mucus that was slimy in texture.

"Eugh!" Starlight complained. "Where the hay are we?"

"I can't see, but I'm assuming its--" Shining began, before a blinding light interrupted him.

"This better?" Twilight asked, her horn alight with magic and providing a lavender glow around them. The 'floor' of the hive was also slimy; lifting their hooves took some effort due to the adhesive nature of it as well. There were ridges everywhere, like a great network of interlinking skeletal spines weaving throughout with intricate patterns. The place was hauntingly vacant of any life excepting the three, scattered debris from the hole above giving some small comfort they hadn't been dropped into an alien world.

"Uh, no. Not better." Starlight whimpered. "Can I go back to being blind now?"

Whispered groans followed throughout the hive, setting everypony's fur on edge as well as their nerves.

"Nevermind! Light is good!"

The three decided to stand, taking in their surroundings further. They had dropped into what appeared to be a large ante-chamber, small and barely noticeable amethyst gems were slotted into the walls at regular intervals, attracting Twilight's interest.

"What do you think these do?" She asked everypony, pointing them out with her hoof.

"The last time I was here, they lit up the hive so I could see." Shining explained. He had visited Queen Aze's hive three years prior as part of a peace talk envoy. He was the only pony allowed into the hive until this day. "I don't know why they're dark, though."

"Maybe they just need a boost?" Starlight suggested, wrapping the gemstone in a field of magic, causing it to glow brightly with a purple hue.

A loud crashing was heard in the distance, accompanied by another groan that seemed otherworldly.

"I hate this place already." Starlight grumbled, her previous elation at discovering another light source being dashed by the hive itself.

"Where do we even go?" Twilight asked, looking around. The ante-chamber was very wide; about the size of Ponyville's market plaza. The ceiling stretched all the way out of sight into a great void above, like a starless night sky. "HELLO?" Twilight yelled, causing her voice to echo a short distance along the walls before being eaten by silence.

"Okay, please don't do that ever again..." Starlight asked nervously. "This place is creepy enough without echoes."

Twilight nodded. "Okay, never doing it again, got it." She walked towards the single illuminated lighting gem on the slimy walls. "Do you think these would give us a path? I mean, the rest of them probably aren't turned on, so we should be able to see where we've gone."

"The last time I was here, Queen Aze gave me an escort to show me around. This place was crawling with changelings everywhere I looked. To see it like this, completely empty? ... I just want to get out of here as soon as we find what we're looking for."

"What are we looking for, anyway?" Starlight asked.

"Something to help return Queen Aze from her stasis?" Twilight answered uncertainly. "There's got to be something here, right?"

"You mean we went into this creepy, spooky and dead hive, on a hunch?" Starlight hissed incredulously.

"That's how my plans usually go, and they work out!" Twilight hissed back.

A distant shuffle of dirt distracted the two from their arguing, reminding them of their surroundings.

"Okay, whatever. Let's just find Garotte, find whatever we need to for Queen Aze, and get out of here!" Starlight conceded, looking around anxiously as if expecting something to leap from the walls at her.

"Lets just go along this... hallway... and see where it takes us." Twilight decided, earning an eye roll from Starlight. Shining was determined to protect the both of them and was on edge for whatever lay ahead.

They trudged through what they could only see as a hallway, lighting gems along the way as they went deeper into the hive itself. Windy groans and rumbling of dirt nibbled on their nerves, causing them all to bunch up for what comfort it would provide. Twilight's horn provided most of their light, the wall lighting being dim at best.

"Shouldn't those things be brighter? How does anypony see down here?" Starlight asked, her eyes darting around and searching the void ahead of them for anything that lurked on the edges of the light.

"I don't think they were made with pony eyes in mind, Starlight." Shining offered. "This place was only a little brighter than it is now, and that was when every one of these wall gems were active."

"Oh, great. So we're wandering through this hive nearly blind while who knows what stares back at us?"

"Hey, if it makes you feel better, changeling eyes glow. We'd know if we're being watched."

Their walk through the hallway ended, opening into another large chamber that held an array of gems creeping up the wall, carved specifically with hexagonal slices into the surface of it.

"I think I've been here before." Shining spoke up, walking ahead of Twilight and lighting his own horn to brighten the room a bit more. "Yeah... this is one of their Lairs."

"L-lair?" Starlight stuttered nervously.

"It just means sleeping area, Starlight." Twilight explained.

"Not helping!"

"Well, it doesn't look like there's any changelings here." Shining continued, looking up towards the ceiling. "I mean, none that are alive at least."

"REALLY NOT HELPING!" Starlight whisper shouted, not wanting to hear another echo become devoured by the creepy noise of the hive.

"Let's just keep going. I'm sure we'll run into something eventually." Twilight suggested, leading the group onwards.

"That's what I'm afraid of..." Starlight mumbled to herself quietly.

Their travels through the hive continued for a while longer, encountering more Lairs and Ante-chambers along their route. The hive itself went from areas of soggy wetness to completely parched, the 'spines' of the changeling's construction cracking and snapping underhoof. Twilight likened them to old bones in an archaeological dig she had went on as a filly, which helped the mood none for the other two present. They moved deeper and deeper into the depths of the hive, finding nothing of note for the most part...

"This is ridiculous!" Starlight blurted out, her nerves on edge. "Where are we going? We haven't seen anything but the same two or three repeating rooms for hours!"

"Well, we could always go down one of the unlit corridors that doesn't have pathway lighting..." Shining suggested. "Most of the hive is built around how changelings move, so there's also the vertical that we haven't looked at either."

"Vertical?" Starlight asked.

"Changelings can fly. Why would they build only horizontally?" Twilight rhetorically asked.

"Oh..." Starlight whimpered, her ears folding downward in worry. "But wait, how are we going to follow you, Twilight? We don't have wings."

"Easy! I'll fly ahead, make sure it's safe, then come back and teleport all of us."

"I don't know, Twily. That's going to get tiring really fast. Should we just split up?"

"No-no-no-no-no! We're not splitting up, no way, no how, not now, not ever!" Starlight protested, clinging to the both of them.

"Starlight, I'm touched." Shining joked.

"Shut up! This isn't a place ever meant for anypony, ever!"

"Well it is a changeling hi-" Twilight was explaining before being interrupted.

"Shut! Up!" Starlight insisted.

A loud crashing was heard nearby, like something fell from the ceiling.

"What was that!?"

"I dunno." Shining helpfully answered.

"Let's go see!" Twilight cheerfully replied.

Starlight was seriously beginning to question the sanity of Twilight and Shining, but followed along anyways lest she be left all alone.

Their path went down a corridor with no gem lightning, casing the oppressive and ever present void of darkness to close in around them. The hall had become claustrophobic, bearing down on them as well with its smaller ceiling. The hall eventually opened after a tense walk through it for several minutes. In the center of the room they had now entered was a large crystalline object; amethyst of course. Everything in this hive was amethyst.

"What is that?" Shining asked.

"Wait, you mean you didn't see that before?" Starlight worriedly questioned.

"Starlight, this hive is meant for three thousand changelings. I don't think I've even seen a tenth of it."

"Not helping." Starlight complained in a tiny voice, the enormity of their situation swinging full force into the glass vase that held her hopes and dreams.

Twilight had already moved ahead to examine the large crystal, her hoof hovering close to it in a moment of indecision. She finally lowered it to the ground, deciding against poking the large and unfamiliar object.

"I'm not sure I even want to know what this is, but what if it's the key to saving Queen Aze?" Twilight argued with herself, rubbing her chin and immediately regretting it. She spent the next few moments using her magic to anti-muck her face from all the debris and slime that had accumulated on her hooves. "Blehck." she complained.

"Maybe it's a really big glow light?" Starlight suggested hopefully.

"We could find out..." Shining added.

Twilight bit her lower lip in thought. We don't really know what this does, but the alternative is to wander around aimlessly and hope we find something that we do. In a changeling hive that nopony even knows what we're doing. With a time limit. "Okay, let's do it!" Twilight blurted, sending magic through her horn and into the large crystal.

Starlight made nervous muttering noises and Shining kept watch.

"I don't think I have enough power!" Twilight strained, pouring another layer of magic into the gem.

"You mean an alicorn can't power this thing!?" Starlight asked incredulously.

Twilight dropped her attempts, nearly falling to the sticky ground. "Whew!" She exclaimed, sweating. "Okay, what's the deal with this?"

She stared at it with curious interest, placing her hoof on the surface of the large fallen amethyst crystal. She received a slight shock accompanied with a purple arc of energy into her body, making her mane frazzle. "Eeep!" she yelped in surprise.

"Okay, don't touch the crystals. Got it." Starlight noted sarcastically.

"Maybe we're looking at this wrong?" Shining offered. "What if we're not supposed to charge it with magic?"

"What else would we charge it with?" Twilight asked, her head tilted in confusion.

"Well... Aze's hive works off of harmony, right?"

"... Yes?" She replied, not understanding.

"So, what if it's like the shield we used in the forest? What if we all need to power it at once, in harmony?" Shining explained.

The three looked to the crystal, the noises of the hive and perpetual groans of weakening structure hastening their decision making process.

"Alright, let's do it!" Starlight agreed, moving towards the crystal. "Mysterious crystal thingy, activate!" she cheered, hoping this would help them somehow and charged her horn.

Shining and Twilight joined at her side, also charging their own horns.

"Okay, everypony ready?" Twilight called, all of them adding another layer of magical overglow.

"Ready!" They replied.

"Three... Two... One... Now!" Twilight shouted, three bolts of magic flying into the center of the crystal and causing it to glow immensely.

"Hey, it worked!" Starlight cheered, doing a small happy dance.

Then a sound of building power, whirring, electricity and distant whaling came from the crystal.

"Uh..." Twilight blurted.

"Uh oh." Shining added.

zzzzZZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRR--*POOF*

The three of them were blinded by the light of the crystal activating, taking them a while to clear their vision.

"Twilight?" Starlight called. "Shining?"

Nothing.

After a while, her vision returned and she lit her horn. "Hello?" She asked into the void that crept around the glow of her magic. "...Anypony?"

*****

Meanwhile, Shining Armor was in a similar situation. He had found neither Twilight nor Starlight with him. He was in a completely different area of the hive than he had been a moment before.

"This can't be good." He said to himself, lighting his horn. He was in a blank area of the hive meant for through-traffic to other areas. It looked like a centerpiece in the hive's construction. "Was that thing a teleporter?"

He shook his head. "Doesn't matter. I need to find Twily and Starlight." He said with determination, looking around and finding no obvious pathway to... anything, really. "Somehow..."

*****

Twilight was also alone. She had been dumped into a pool of thick liquid that made her desperately want to be anywhere else. So much in fact, she teleported blindly away from it and nearly smacked into a wall.

"Aaah!" She yelled, "Get it off, get it off!" She madly scraped at the liquid with her hooves and her magic, frantically flinging the liquid from her fur as best as she was able to. She resorted to shaking herself off like a dog, sending more bits of liquid away from her until she was able to calm down.

"W-what was t-that!?" She stammered in a panic, her back to a slimy wall. She was more concerned with the liquid she had been dumped into. There appeared to be several of these pools that she could see, all with differently colored liquid that she couldn't identify for the life of her. The one she had just teleported from was a yellowish green, almost like snot. "Eugh..." Twilight walked closer to it, peering over the edge at the goop.

It moved.

"Aaaaaah!" She shrieked, falling backwards and nearly landing in another pool. This one was reddish orange in coloration and viciously lashed out towards her. "AAH!" She doubled in fear, squirming away from that pool as well. She held her hooves close to her body, trapped between the two pools and not wanting to move for the moment.

"I'll just... just um... here is good, yeah." She babbled, her composure shattering from exposure to the liquids she was still wet with. "Hehe... um, everything will be fine!"

*****

Starlight, meanwhile, was frozen with a different fear.

Uncertainty.

She hadn't moved a single step from where she teleported in at, and was having no issues keeping it that way. She was all alone now. No Twilight, no Shining. Just her.

Alone.

This feeling wasn't helped by the fact that the void of darkness was ever-present in the unlit hive, causing her paranoia to spike and render her motionless.

"Ah... maybe they'll come and find me?" She tried convincing herself. "I mean, it's only a hive for... three... thousand..." she squeaked.

Not helping.

*****

Shining Armor had pressed on, navigating his way through the cross section as best he could. The entire area was arranged with small resting pillars stretching across the room like a net, presumably to allow passing changelings a spot to rest their wings before carrying on. He had been traveling along these pillars, doing his best to not slip and fall into a bottomless pit. Shining's hoof slipped, sending some dirt noiselessly below him and causing him to pause.

"Hooo-kay. Time for a break." Shining decided, lowering himself down onto the pillar he was walking on and laying down. His horn was providing some light, but from his view he appeared to be in the center of a great nothingness, walking along amethyst encrusted spines of grey and black that cracked under every step. For now, however, he was able to listen to the dripping of what he hoped was water and the wind going through the hive.

"Now that I actually took a moment to listen... this place is creepy." Shining realized.

*Snap*

Shining looked behind himself quickly, almost wrenching his neck as he stood unsteadily on the pillar. "Who's there!?" He yelled, his voice being swallowed by the void.

"Spoooky ghooooosts!" A familiar voice taunted from the darkness.

"Garotte?"

"OOoooOooooO!!" She continued.

"Where have you been?" Shining asked of the darkness.

"I dunno, around?" Garotte replied, hiding from sight.

"Are you gonna come out where I can see you?"

"Nah."

"Why not?"

...

"Garotte?" Shining asked.

...

"This isn't funny!"

Shining's plea was answered by a pair of glowing amethyst eyes appearing before him, growling ominously in a way that made his entire body crawl in fear.

*****

Twilight was laying on her back between a pool that made her fur tingle and another that made her want to scream in rage.

"I need to get out of here!" She yelled in frustration, teleporting herself upright and quickly moving between the two pools towards a wall. Taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down, she eventually leveled herself out to a normal state.

"Okay... what the hay just happened?" she asked herself, her analytical mind taking over. "One moment, everything was fine. We were all channeling magic into the big crystal and suddenly, Poof!" She waved her forelegs to encompass the various pools of questionable content. "What are these things even for?!"

"Fun!" A familiar voice called out.

"Garotte?" Twilight asked, lighting her horn. "Where are you?"

"Around!" She replied.

"Seriously, we've been looking all over for you! Where are you?"

...

"Garotte?"

....

"Hello~o?"

*****

Starlight had decided that enough was enough, and took a single step away from the crystal.

"Hi."

"Aaah!" Starlight yelped, retreating to the safety of the crystal. "Who's there!?"

"Garotte."

"Wait, really?"

"I dunno."

"Garotte, you scared me half to death!"

...

"Garotte?"

...

"Don't leave me!"

She was answered by a wet growl that immediately caused her body to sprint. "AAAAAAHHH!!"
*****

Twilight, to her surprise, heard two very familiar screams in opposite directions running towards her. "HEY, I'M OVER HERE!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

"TWILIGHT!?" She heard Shining yell.

"GET IT AWAY FROM MEEE!" Starlight screeched in panic.

Both of them had their horns alight, giving Twilight a bearing on just how large the room she was in actually was. Setting her own horn as a beacon, the two began a long sprint towards her, looking over their shoulder for something. The room itself held countless pools, vats, chrysalis' and containers that looked to be made from living material. Sometimes a pool would lash out towards Shining or Starlight; other times it would retract away or make bubbling noises at their approach.

"Twilight! Get me out of here!" Starlight yelled, still only halfway to Twilight at this point. The room itself was larger than Sweet Apple Acres was!

"Is anything following me!?" Shining also yelled, looking behind himself.

"No? What are you two talking about?" Twilight hollered back.

"Monsters!" They both shouted in return.

"Do you mean like Leafy?"

"NO!"

They were now just past half way to Twilight at this point.

"What do you mean, then?" Twilight yelled.

"THIS ISN'T THE TIME, TWILIGHT!" Starlight screamed as a nearby pool lashed out towards her. She narrowly avoided contact with it, thankfully.

Twilight decided to stay quiet while the two made their way to her. After a few minutes, they had finally arrived and out of breath.

"How did you two find me?" Twilight asked.

"Didn't... find... scary... ran..." Starlight huffed.

"Monster... glowy eyes... never again!" Shining added helpfully.

"Shining, do you have any idea where we are?" Twilight asked.

Shining took a moment to catch his breath, looking around what could be seen of the current room. "No idea...Twily." he answered between breaths.

"I fell into one of those pools... the one with yellow and green? I haven't had the urge to run away that bad in my entire life..." Twilight commented.

"What do you think... they are?" Starlight asked, almost recovered.

"I have no idea, but I know they aren't anything good."

"Why have them, then?" Shining asked.

"Maybe its only good for changelings?" Starlight suggested.

"Maybe... All I know is that we're not going to get any answers by waiting around here." Twilight decided, standing to help the others.

The three stood side by side, staring out into the void that was barely illuminated by the pin-prick of light from their horns. Twilight took the lead, navigating between the pools of mystery liquid that each reacted differently to them as they passed along. They were of every color and hue, every consistency and viscosity, some were even see through... or just empty. For some reason the empty ones made all of them even more nervous.

"Okay. So... we really have no idea where we are now, do we?" Starlight asked quietly.

"No, not really." Twilight admitted.

"How are we going to get out of here, then?"

"We'll find a way." Twilight replied confidently, turning back to smile reassuringly at her friend. To her confusion, her brother and Starlight looked extremely frightened. "What? Did I say something?"

"B-b-b-behind y-y-ou!" Starlight stammered, pointing a hoof.

Twilight quickly turned, finding glowing amethyst eyes staring at her from the void ahead.

"Raaaaahhhhhrrr!"

"Leafy?" Twilight asked the void.

The eyes blinked, disappearing from sight for a nerve wracking moment and reappeared closer.

"Twilight, I don't think that's Leafy!" Shining urged with a cautious tone.

"Come on, that's definitely Leafy!" Twilight replied, unphased.

Shining decided his sister was being stupid and threw up a shield between the three of them and the eyes in the dark.

*Tap, tap* went the shield.

"Shining, what else is going to be down here with us besides Leafy and Garotte?" Twilight asked.

*TAP, TAP*

"Twilight, I'm telling you, that isn't Leafy!"

*TAP, TA-CRACK*

"We have to get out of here, Twilight! Shining can't hold the shield much longer!"

"Pssh." Twilight scoffed. Her horn then charged with magic suddenly.

"Twilight, don't!" Shining begged.

*POOF*

Twilight re-appeared a few spaces behind the eyes. "Alright, play times over, Leafy!" She declared, brightening her horn to almost blinding levels.

...

"That isn't Leafy." She declared simply.

What stood before her was a hideous mesh of plant, changeling and amethyst. It was coated in various colors of what looked like the fluid and liquid in the room, and didn't look too friendly either. It's jaw parted very similarly to Leafy's, however it didn't hold any of the subtle charm that Twilight would have associated with her pet leaf-monster.

This thing just looked like it was hungry... very hungry.

"Everypony run!" Twilight yelled.

*POOF*

She had teleported the three of them to the opposite side of the room, leaving the new monster very confused. Its purple eyes glared at them from across the room before an ear splitting shriek came from it in anger.

"RUN FASTER!" Twilight urged, the noise from the monster causing her body to flood with adrenaline and carry both Shining and Starlight in her magic while she flew blindly through the halls even faster than before.