> Graveyard Shift
>  by TDR
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Graveyard Shift
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Luna shifted in her chair, her wings rustling slightly. A soft sigh escaped her muzzle as she looked out over her balcony down at the city of Canterlot lit up before her. It was far later in the night than she had expected her little ponies to still be awake. 

It had only been a little over two months since she had been freed of the nightmare. She still felt weak and her body was having difficulties keeping up with a thousand years of cold seasons and  viruses attacking her all at once. She had not enjoyed the mass of vaccinations she had received to bolster her alicorn immune system, and the weak strains that had been put in her were the likely cause of her sniffles.

Granted dinner was currently what ailed her stomach. The refinement of food and drink was far richer than she was used to. And the portions, one could feed an entire village in her time on what a pony in this age considered a meal.

It had taken Tia at least three of such meals to realize that Luna was not eating the food because she was famished, but because there was so much of it and her instincts screamed at her to not waste a bite.

To say Luna was in shock when told what she didn't want would be disposed of was an understatement. While such was a common practice now, it would have been considered a jailing offense in the past.  Famine was always a near enough threat that the very thought of some one wasting a meal would earn ire of many and oft retribution as was shown by the inglorious ends of a number of nobles of her time.

Still.

That many diseases had been destroyed and hunger was barely a worry for any save the most destitute or lost was a great weight off her shoulders. The future was a wondrous thing, electric lights, nightclubs, more food and leisure time than was thought possible in the past. This future was indeed more glorious than she could have ever imagined. 

So much had changed that Luna wondered if she would ever understand it all.

But there were somethings that had remained the same.

There was still crime, still monsters that preyed upon ponies. Threats that were too much or two far for the Guard to sort out. Things that could well spiral out of control if not nipped in the bud before they were allowed to grow.

Tia expected that  if anything too bad happened, she could just send her student and her friends to deal with it.

Luna was not happy with that.

A seamstress, a farmer, a weather pegasus, a student, a baker, and what ever the yellow one was. Six 'normal' ponies. Despite her training, Twilight was not a combat mage, Rainbow Dash was not a Wonderbolt, and the others were not soldiers. There was  barely an ounce of combat skill or training among them all put together.

It was  little more than luck that allowed them to defeat Nightmare Moon.  If Twilight had not been clever in figuring out the last riddle of the Elements, the six would be dead and the rest of Equestria and Equss would have followed as eternal night froze everything.

As it stood Applejack was still in the hospital  from her injuries, Twilight Sparkle had lost an eye, Fluttershy would never fly again, and the others would have scars that would be with them until their final days.

That was not to say things had gone horribly. They had succeeded and Twilight had wised up and was no longer associating with Celestia save by royal order. Whatever connection they had was broken when Twilight found out Celestia machinations were what put her and her new friends into that position to stop the Nightmare. 

That discussion had been heated and had brought far more attention to them at the hospital than Celestia probably had wanted.

The conversation had also come to an abrupt end as purple hoof connected to white muzzle.

Luna was quite surprised at the resulting rant that followed, evidently Twilight had been bottling up some of her issues for a long time and the dam had finally broken when Applejack had nearly been killed, only the farm ponies ridiculous toughness had saved her life  and kept her going long enough to activate the Elements.

Despite Twilight's desire to stay in Ponyville, and have nothing to do with her former mentor, Tia was already making plans and tests for her former student, likely out of habit more than anything else.

Still the defense of Equestria had been under Luna's purview in the past  and with what she felt she owed the current bearers, she wished to ensure that they did not have to deal with every little threat as Celestia wished.

This had led to... sort of an argument between the two Princesses.

It was a heated discussion at best, one that both backed down from constantly, after so long apart neither was willing to fully argue with the other.

Still the discussion continued and in the end a compromise was reached. 

Celestia knew Luna did not like to sit idly by even while she was still recovering her magic and her former stature. And Luna  knew Celestia preferred to have everything orderly and organized.

So the deal was made that Luna could set up her own group to deal with threats and  dangers. And if this group managed to do what was expected of them, then Luna could expand it and the Element Bearers would only be called in for things that her team could not deal with. Luna would simply need to recruit the ponies for the team herself. A retired Guard and a noble were brought in to advise Luna on her choices and what would be needed and what was and was not allowed any more. 

After meeting with Ambassador Prince Blueblood, and  retired General Jer'rahd Kaisur Luna felt she could trust their opinions on matters despite their clear dislike of each other.

The first and largest hurdle had been every ponies reluctance to have anything to do with her. Guards were nervous, servants fled, the common pony bowed out of fear more than respect. The few she found that she would want refused outright, or made up excuses to refuse her.

Disheartened by the waking world, and how she was viewed there, Luna turned her search to the slumbering world, seeking out those of interest there.  

Those results came back much more favorable, and after a few nights she had found her seven founding members.

Now all she needed to do was collect them, convince them... and think of a name for the team.

Simple right?


TDR presents.....


A story neither in stone, nor about puppies....


Graveyard Shift
> In which a lazy dog is jumped over.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR






In which a lazy dog is jumped over.




There exists a thing called the Kotodama. It is the belief that certain words or tones can alter the very existence around one self. It is the explanation for why ritualized magic is so perfect when done correctly and so disastrous when it is not.

The Kotodama is truly a thing that exists, but it is not word nor deed that defines it.

The Kotodama is music.

Not such as one would hear from a band or bird song, though that plays into it.

The Kotodama is more than that.

It is the steady click of the loom as fate weaves, it is the scratch of the pen as the  story is told, it is the astral choir of the twinkling stars and the turn of the planets. It is the crackle of the suns energy and the faint popping and twang of a seeds growth. It is the first cry of life and the last breath of death and every heartbeat and draw of air between, it is all things and nothing.

Every soul that exists adds to the music, every one a different cord, a different chime adding to the music that few can hear for long. Perhaps they might hear the hint of it in bird song, or the wind rustling through the trees. It is often heard in the first wail of a newborn. 

But it doesn't take long for those who hear it to be distracted, to stop listening.

I have been listening to it for longer than many have been alive, seeking one tone, one note that I have been waiting for.







[ Wil 'o' wisp woods.] 


Dust coated the insides of the old shrine, centuries worth of  of cobwebs and grit coated everything in the small building. Everything from the  rotted wooden pews to the stone alter was coated in a thick layer of gray and brown.

The lone occupant of the room was not spared either. He lay across the alter unmoving as he had been the one or two times some intrepid explorer had come across this place in the past, found nothing of value and left. 

The last time he had moved was to close the door after one of them had left it open.

To be honest he wasn't even sure why he had bothered. She was gone, and no trick or ability he possessed was going to bring her back.

He remembered his time in the world. Centuries of  being free to do what he wished dancing to the music of the Kotodama. Nothing was a threat to him, most were beneath him and those who were not, were not as clever as he and he easily fooled them or tricked them to make his escape.

Still in time he had found his nitch in the world. A small village he could raid and a large forest he could hide in, the ponies knew of him and named their  forest for his lights, the little minions he had created, the fireflies that had been tasked to serve him, to lead the unwary to him.

He had feasted like a king in those days. Never culling to much to drive them away, or too little that they forgot him.

He never bothered to keep track of how long he lived like that, carefree and doing whatever he wished, playing in the forest, teasing the  powerful, and feeding on whomever he wanted.

That came to an end when she arrived.

She was a knight, yet not of one of the gods. A unicorn of brilliant pastel aqua fur and pure white hair. She carried a blade and wore armor of another land. The villagers told her of him, of the monster in the woods, and she set out to slay him.

What a delightful game that had been.

As expected she had failed in the end and he had a sumptuous meal of it.

Only that wasn't the end.

A generation later a white haired pegasus mare with pastel blue fur came to hunt him. The tricks from before failed and he received  the first wound he had in as long as he could remember. 

Such was his surprise and anger at this that he played no longer and destroyed her where she stood.

A generation later she came again, and again, and again. Every fight became more and more difficult as the mare seemed to learn from every defeat, despite the fact it wasn't the same mare.

Every generation brought him closer to death and he found he was no longer as carefree or as known as he was before, he was spending his time preparing for the new battle with this mare and at one point he realized that he had neither tasted pony flesh nor even appeared to the villagers in near a hundred years. There was no reason for a knight to constantly show up to fight him.

So the next time she came, he hid, removed any trace of his existence and watched to see what she would do.

Finding no threat she took up a watch over the forest, built a home and kept watch over the town. And when she died of old age, a generation later she came again and moved into the same house with near the same routine. When she passed and returned a third time he made his presence known again. Not as  one to fight but out of curiosity for why she kept returning.

Though she was prepared for conflict, he didn't seek it. He wished to know why she came after him  generation after generation. She had no clue of course, it was simply something that she knew she needed to do. The music of life that is the Kotodama does not tell it's players the song they are playing, it just allows them to play and conducts them on the proper melody.

Her soul was tasked to hunt evil, his was an evil soul, the pattern was there. Yet it had been some time since he last did anything that would raise the ire of the Kotodama, while the disharmonious tune that he played would not be forgotten, his instrument could be changed. 

It was not something he noticed of course, not until he had life times to sit and think to himself to realize it. So he stayed  near by, still causing annoyance and pain, but anything too far and she would reign him in.  And he found he listened.

Generation after generation she faded and returned.  On his whim he aided against some bandits or a famine, or  disease, and the locals that knew not of his past built him a small shrine. He found that his favored food was no longer palatable, though chicken was a delight he could not resist.

And then many many years ago, she stopped coming.

He waited of course, she had always come to confront the evil of the forest. Yet  three generations later she had not, then ten, then twenty. The sky went dark and the sun and moon fought and she did not return.

He had retreated to his temple, to wait. She would return, she had to.

It was then many years later, that he realized she was not going to return. 

Her soul was drawn to fight evil, to return over and over until it was defeated.

There was no evil left in this forest for her to need to return to.

Still he waited, he had nothing else to do, and the thoughts of doing anything else were never followed. The shrine grew forgotten and lost in the forest, the village became a city and he faded from memory and into local legend. But he didn't care, he was obsessed with the feeling, something he was unsure of what it was, something he could not shake and yet  stole his desire to do anything.

He did not like it, but it was all consuming.

Dust settled, plants grew over the old shrine and yet he did nothing but lay in the darkness of the shrine, listening, disinterested in anything but the music. And even that was only to hear the note of the soul he was waiting for again.

Until one day.





The door to the shrine was opened once more, and the moon itself shown through the opening.

She spoke words, told him of her desires and offered him a chance to seek what he was looking for.

After thinking himself clever, to look for the knight had never occurred to him. But there was something else in the voice of the moon. A music that he had not heard in some time, the Kotodama had not forgotten him and it played a new tune, one that drew his interest more than anything else had in a thousand life times.

The moon asked for his aid and she would offer hers in return to find that white maned knight.

His response was a Cheshire grin, and four vulpine tails stirring from the ancient dust of the shrine as he rose.
> Mother of abomination
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR








Mother of abomination




My mother died in foal birth. Bucking awesome way to start a story right? But it's the best way I can think of, it's when everything went to shit after all.

So yeah you can see where this is going. My mother died in foal birth and I didn't... Well... to put it nicely I didn't come out right.


I guess my foal hood was normal, if you didn't count the plethora of doctors who came to look over the freak, or how my father looked at me like I had been the one to kill his wife. Or how my grandparents disowned my father and I believing we were cursed.  Or how my father lost his job because of  it  and took up drinking as a hobby.

He started charging the doctors  and students to come look at the freak and so we scraped by. I went to a public school, was pretty much an outcast from the moment I walked in the front door. My first real encounters with other foals had them backed into a corner screaming.

Over time they got used to me, but when one of them demanded I stay out from under her bed, the nickname stuck. None of them ever called me anything but monster after that.

Monster.

I was just a foal with some physical deformities, but to them I was a monster. My real name never mattered.

Happy memories?

Maybe... the teacher was apathetic, he didn't care what I looked like so long as I did what I was supposed to, beyond that he let me be.  I rather liked school in truth. I liked learning things. Once I learned to read that's what I did constantly. It was my escape while I was being picked on at school, prodded by the doctors or listening to my father go on a drunken rant downstairs.

I could lose myself in worlds far from my own for days at a time. I could briefly forget how miserable everything was and imagine I was one of the heroes of the story. Saving the day, stopping the villain, solving the mystery, you know basic foolish stuff you think you want to do as a foal.

Nothing in my life changed as I grew older. The foals I grew up with continued on their merry way living lives I only wished I could have had.

By the time the first incidents started  most every one was used to me. I almost knew normal.

But then things started happening around me, simple at first,  some one would slip at an odd time, or trip over nothing.  Science class activities wouldn't work the way they were supposed to. A hoof ball might go the wrong direction from the way it was kicked. 

Simple things.

Then they started getting worse, items around me might get replaced with a different item all together, some ponies mane might change color or design in an eye blink. A desk might come alive and run out of the school house carrying a screaming pony with it.

And of course everyone blamed the monster despite many of the problems happened to me as well. I don't know what it was nor did I have any control over it, but they only happened when I was around so I was blamed..

My father didn't care, he just blamed me for it when ponies complained, blamed me for when the doctors stopped coming around to study me because they hadn't found anything new in a long time. Blamed me for his inability to keep a job, blamed me for his wife.

I just accepted it. What was I supposed to do. I was just the town freak, their monster, the one to blame for everything. I just pushed it all down and found a book to lose myself in until the next time some one blamed me for something.

I'd never been violent. It just wasn't in my nature. But every so often growing up I would manage to get into a fight. Some pony would push me too far or would get physical with their bullying and I would just snap.

It was all pretty much foal hood garbage. If some pony told you they never got in a fight as a foal they were either lying or sheltered away from other foals.  Any way the fight would get broken up, we'd both be punished, and I'd be left alone for the rest of the school year after showing my limit had been reached. Then the next year it started all over again as if they forgot the previous year and  the monster was a target again.

What I recalled from it however was that it felt good to let out all that anger that I had bottled up. All the suppressed rage at my lot in life.  To vent at the ones who had everything and still decided to try and make me feel worse than I already did.

At one point however it was no longer foals will be foals. I was barely 15 my father had been particularly bad with his screaming and carrying on and the day had not gotten any better with all the odd things happening around me. I was once again teased and set upon by some colt until I snapped.

The fight was more vicious than I recall. I received a bloody nose and he lost a tooth or two, clearly his whole goal was to beat the monster as he didn't let up and neither did I.

Of course in the middle of the fight, something odd happened. The colt fighting me suddenly became a filly. It only lasted long enough for every pony watching the fight to notice and for me to break his jaw and send him to the ground.

For a moment everything seemed to align properly for me. That simmering rage I felt remained boiled over  and I couldn't  push it down anymore.

The teacher and faculty took the bully's side, gave him barely a slap on the hoof  while talking about throwing me out for good. I told them exactly what I thought of their punishment  and left, still simmering in anger at the injustice of everything. 

In class we had learned of how peaceful and harmonious Equestria was under Princess Celestia's rule.

All I had experienced of it was injustice and misery.

Where was any of that peace and harmony for me, for the Monster?

I made it home and made my way to my room, ignoring my father passed out on the couch surrounded by empty bottles. I opened a book and prepared to lose myself, to try and ignore the unfairness of the world. Daring Doo had a temple to raid and I was going to join her adventure.

I barely noticed the knocking on the door, nor that it woke my father as Daring swung from a vine to avoid vicious cats after her wing was injured.

I barely noticed the argument with what sounded like the School Guard and the Principal as Daring solved a riddle in a Minotaur labyrinth.

Daring was set to stop the curse from spreading beyond the temple when the door to my room was flung open and I was yanked out of  my fantasy.

My father had never been physically violent with me before. And his drunken screaming was as unintelligible now as it ever was from downstairs. From the little bit I made of it  he was livid. Not that I had been thrown out of school , but that the parents of the colt I had fought were forcing him to pay for the injuries their son had received from me.

I was still sore from my fight, still bloodied , and my father decided that wasn't enough as he laid into me as well.

Thing was.

I was still angry.

When he called me a monster. That anger boiled forth again.

There was no pushing it back. 

I was done fighting it.

All any one saw me as was a monster.

Why disagree?

The town was only about fifty maybe sixty ponies. A small farming town that occasionally saw more coming in to work the fields in the growing season.

The town isn't there any more.

There's a few odd shaped stones, hints of a road, but the farms were gone, the houses as well. What wasn't out right destroyed was turned into something else, something that the local wildlife either ate later, or rotted away.

In the center of it. Where my house used to be stands a lone tree.

It smells strongly of alcohol, bleeds when it's cut, and occasionally screams.

The rest of the town wasn't left any better. They all lived, but none of them are fully ponies any more.

I sought out every pony with a vengeance, the odd occurrences that happened around me  coming to my beck and call now as I rampaged. 

Part griffon.
Part fish.
Part llama.
Two fused together.
Stretched out like a giraffe
Scrunched down like a pug.
Extra limbs.
Flippers.
More eyes.
Less eyes.
Elephant ears.
Only speaks in clicks.
Bug parts.

I was called a monster by all of them for my deformities.

Lets see how they liked it.





That was three years ago.

I found a place. Found a little niche of my own.

On the other side of the foal mountains I came across a Diamond Dog warren.  For being allowed to live nearby and for meals and help building a home, they had me teach their pups the Pony language, how to read and other basics that would allow them to better deal with living in Equestria.

They saw me as odd, but they saw most anything that chose to live above ground as odd. As long as I did what I said I would, they kept their part of it.

It... it was surprisingly peaceful.

Sure the oddities happened around me, but most of the time it was but a mild curiosity. I never went into their warrens and nothing harmed their pups when I taught them, so every one was content, I was just this odd pony teacher.

I knew sooner or later some one would find me. Bring me to task for what I had done. 

My anger remained free, bubbling and simmering, far more focused now on the ones who would come to deal 'justice' for a colt defending himself.

I expected Guards and Unicorn mages and adventuring heroes to come and slay the monster.

I did not expect the dark blue alicorn.
> Werewolf of Long-Den
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR




Werewolf of Long-Den





The drip of water was the only constant in the stone room. No light came down this far save the sputtering lantern on the table on the other side of the steel door, the tiny slit at the top admitting the faint glow.

It wasn't as if she needed any light to see, there wasn't anything 'to' see.  The cell was three paces  from wall to wall, six from door to toilet. A bed had been placed in there was well though the low stone frame was barely a shelf built on the floor with some piled straw and a blanket tossed atop of it.

She'd been here for about a month now. Once it was confirmed that she was cursed any way.

The cold stone cell was the best place to keep her. She had agreed with that, though she hadn't known any cells under the courthouse existed until she was brought down here. Granted she had given them the suggestion, the cage she had made for herself in her home was fairly sturdy, but they didn't trust  anything she had set up her self to contain the beast.

She didn't understand why, she had contained herself just fine for the last six years.

Ginger Gold sighed  bouncing her head off the hay behind her as she kicked her legs in the air for lack of anything better to do.

She wanted to be out, to be in the woods, that was where she was supposed to be , not stuck in a cell. She was a ranger fer Celestia's sake. She was supposed to be in the woods, keeping the things  from Hollow Shades from waltzing into Long-Den and scarfing ponies up like they were popcorn.

Ranger, same thing her da was, same thing her ma was, same thing her brother was. Her da weren't about any more tah see this thankfully, when ma passed he took the long walk. 

Supposed tah be a right honorable way for a Ranger tah go. Walk into tha woods and take out all the beasties and critters yah can afore one of them finally gets you. Old tradition that, brought about  as a way to make what was in those woods be afraid of what was out here.  Mad as a hatter pony walks in and kills all yer big fanged toothy chums and starts screaming about how he's gonna wear yer hide as a hat and most of that blighters in there opt to avoid anything with four hooves for a while. Problem with a  Rangers Long Walk is yer not supposed to come back out. Yah keep going until yer done. Permanently done.

Da went in carrying ma's ashes. That was years ago, she'd made her peace with that. She hadn't understood it at the time, but now she was thinking she'd prefer it to staying here.

Her brother was some where else, probably hadn't even heard of her situation yet. Been about three years since she heard from him, blighter'd made her an aunt without letting her even meet the lass.  Last she heard he was down near tha Zebra lands all sorts a things tah hunt down there.

Didn't matter much. She had aunts and cousins and uncles everywhere in Equestria. S'what being an Apple was about fer tha most part.

Family.

Course. It was family that got her in this load o trouble. One of her cousins had a foal, and his sister was intent on going tah see tha newborn. Fergit the fact he married a Pear, no one in tha family really gave a crap about it cept tha old fogies. Heck half of um didn't even hear about it until tha second foal was born. This one was tha third.

Given tha mare was a bit on tha older side,  she needed an escort, and thus away went Ginger with her dotering and super excited aunt.  

Spending seventy percent of tha trip getting hounded about having foals of her own didn't sit well though. Nothing against foals, but she wasn't ready for that yet at tha time.

Still little Applebloom was the cutest thing she had ever seen. 

Bright and Pear still weren't slacking on their work though. They had a delivery of their crop to take to down the road a bit along the Everfree.  Small delivery, but tha bits would be needed with another mouth tah feed. 

Still being tha charitable soul she was, Ginger offered to pull it out there so tha new parents could stay with the new mouth. Talk of  not wanting charity was ignored mostly due to being family and demanding a jar of Zap apple jam as payment.

Things went pretty much tits up after that. Something set upon her as the cart rolled down the road.  What ever it was probably expected a tired mare or a stallion tied to the yoke that it could take out in a quick attack.

What it got was a young Ranger, who was pretty pissed about being delayed by some beastie.

To say the fight was epic was untrue. She lost hooves down. Nothing she did could hurt the blighter and the road and her weapons got soaked in it's blood and the thing barely seemed to notice.

The cart was destroyed though the crated apples survived, her crossbow smashed,and her sword chipped from blocking the things claws. 

She had been clawed an bit a few times bit once though that was barely a nick on her ear where she didn't manage to duck fast enough from the jaws, though she wasn't any where near going down. Still it might have gotten much worse had a Guard patrol  not come along.

The thing ran off after a couple of flashy spells from the unicorn in the group and she got taken to a doctor.

Doc found nothing wrong, gave her a couple band aids, and after collecting her aunt and the jam she set off for home not thinking twice on it aside from to warn Bright and Pear to avoid that route.

Wasn't until the middle of the following month that she found the problem.

See most mares when they hit their moon cycle get cranky, have cramps, get all weepy, or if their colt friend is real lucky, randy as a goat.

Ginger Gold found she got much larger , much fuzzier and significantly more wolf like and feral.   

It had taken her almost a year to get everything under control again. She mapped her cycle, built a house further into the woods at the guise of protecting the town better, set up a cage in the basement and tried to live her life.

She never knew what was going on after she blacked out. But after the first few times the destruction caused by the beast trying to get out of the cage ceased.

She probably would have lived the rest of her life like that, hiding for a couple days every month in her house out in the woods, but clearly it wasn't meant to be.

Seems there was another thing that could make her change.

An unblemished full moon in the middle of what was supposed to be the day.

She was in town shopping when it happened, what she had heard a few locals call the longest night.

She had transformed in the middle of town, a worst case scenario in her mind and immediately after...

The beast had scared the shit out of every pony and run off into the woods without so much as turning over a cabbage cart.

Of course when it was all over and she returned to normal and went home, the town Guard were there and took her into custody.

This of course started the comedy that her life had become, she hadn't actually done anything as a beast so they couldn't hold her, but they couldn't let her out because word of the transformation got out and now there were a number of 'monster hunters' running around  Long-Den looking to make a name for themselves taking out a lycanthrope.

So she simply sat in a cell and waited. She had been in here for a while and had even transformed again, though the beast seemed content to wait as well.




[ Long- den city hall, basement holding cells.]

“Hey Ginger , yah in there?”

“Where else would I be ya daft blighter?” Ginger snorted from the cell. “Out frolicin' in tha tulips?”

“No need tah get snippy, jus makin sure.”” the Guard muttered.

“Steel Plate, ah been rotting in a cell fer over a month now with naught but meself tah keep me company, and whatever idiot yah have that pulls tha short straw. Ah think ah got quite the right tah be a might snippy.”

“Ehh guess so.”

“So hows me cat?”

“What?”

“So help me if'n you lot fergot about me cat ah am gonna bust outta this cell and box all yer ears and then ah'll show you what a real beastie is!”

“Calm down. Yer cats fine. Got Steel Shield going out tah feed 'im. Tha only pony can get near that vicious thing.”

“Apocalypse Meow, is a loving little black bit of soot she is..... wait yah sent Shield!?” Ginger yelped. “ Yah sent yer son out tah my place!? GAH! He'll think ah live like a pig, ah ain't had time tah clean up proper a fore all this, and that dust....” 

“Whatcha so freaked out over that for? Steel Plate snorted.” Dun tell me ya were sweet on him too?”

“Yah old daft bastard. every mare in this town is sweet on him. Blokes a wall of solid muscle  moving like a dancer almost, yah ken just see it ripple under his silvery fur as he trots, and by tha stars them eyes is like endless pools, tha things I wouldn't do tah mount that one!”

“Hey! That's my son yer fantasizing about there!” Steel Plate snapped.

“ Yeah which makes um all tha more attractive cause even as old a codger as you are yah still ain't hard on the eyes.” Ginger laughed. “Jus think of how he'd look at yer age... woo.”

There was silence for a moment and Ginger thought the old Guard Captain had left after the teasing.

“Yah know he was interested in you right. Was for a couple of years afor he got married tah Belle.”

“Ah know.” Ginger sighed.

“So what happened? Pretty clear yah were interested back.”

“What do yah think happened yah daft idiot. Same thing that's got me sitting in a cell with a leaky shitter.” Ginger sighed. “ Life ain't real fair at times.”

“True that. Sorta brings up why ah'm down here.”Steel Plate explained. 

“What not just fer tha charm and wit of mah company?” Ginger gold chuckled.

“Mare ah was friends with yer Da and ah watched yah grow up. Charming an witty are two things that ah'd never use tah describe ya.” 

“Oof , there went me last bit o pride.” Ginger smirked.

“So as ah was saying yah got a visitor.”

“Shit, don't tell me my brother finally came around?” Ginger sighed. “Last thing ah need.”

Her response was not an explanation, but the cell door opening. She sat up squinting, as her eyes adjusted to the new influx of light, she could see the armored Steel Plate move back away from the door and a tall dark figure step into the doorway instead. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to take in the regal mare, but she easily noticed the wavy mane the mare had that seemed to be full of stars.
> A Story in Stone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR







A story in stone



There's an old saying in war. Cut off the head of the snake, and the body dies.  

It's usually to make a point about a leaderless army being sure to fail, and to aim for the leaders.

What most forget is that there's additions to the old saying.

The first is that to remove the head of the snake, you have to get close to the most dangerous part of the snake.

Another thing and this is perhaps more important.

The severed head of a snake, can still bite.

Nine hundred years ago the Gryphon Empire invaded Equestria under orders of Emperor Bockscar. The Emperor had noticed Equestria's flagging monarch and the nation was not yet recovered from fighting off the remenets of Nightmare Moon's army. The nation was tired, bloodied, and according to the Emperor, ripe for the harvest.

The Emperor was the sort that believed predators should rule, ponies were herbivores that made them prey.

In the mad rush that followed the initial invasion, the Gryphon Empire's forces pushed the ponies all the way  back to the Maneterhorn with Canterlot right on top. They then set up shop right at the base of it.

That was as far as they got.

See the Emperor forgot several major things. First and fore most of which is that ponies use magic. Griffons despite being better fliers, did not have the same abilities that ponies did. Sure a Griffon could make a storm cloud and work a weather system, but pegasi could build massive controlled storm systems and direct them to sweep the land clear of anything below with tornadoes and lightning or any other type of weather they wanted. They could then ride those storm clouds like battleships in the sky against any one they chose.

Earth ponies, despite not seeming as threatening, could shrug off wounds  that would cripple most other creatures. Their control of the land was enough that the term 'salt the earth'  began in Equestria. If the earth ponies didn't want something to grow in an area, it didn't, ever, until they let it again. Not to mention their strength was horrifying if properly directed, like towards an invading army.

And the less said about the madness of fighting against unicorn spell slingers the better. Forget simple energy bolts of fireballs. Magical armor that couldn't be broken, spells that turned weapons and armor to rust, spells that hurt and injured without killing.  Unicorns were the ultimate force dividers. Even a claw full of them could do enough damage that half a force would need to tend the other half of their force as some magic ailment or another ripped apart ranks.

They might seem weak and passive, but that was until you riled them up.

And all of this was nothing, when you compared it to their leader. And lets face it, nothing pissed off the Goddess of the Sun faster than her little ponies suffering because of some egotistical feather duster.

I've heard there is a very interestingly named crater where the mountain holding the Emperor's fortress used to be.

Of course I never saw that part.

My part in all this ended with three claw marks on Celestia's neck. Barely scrapes in truth, because she reacted far quicker than she should have and dodged.

The invasion was in truth a very large distraction. The goal was to use it to sneak some griffons into Canterlot as refugees. Then they could work out how to kill the Princess.

Cut off the head of the snake.

Military logic.

Warrant officer Memphis Belle.
Staff Sargent Manfred von Fokker.
Specialist Enola Gay.
And First General Lockheed. 

We were the blades, the ones sent in to end the threat, griffons who had rushed up the ranks through skill and cunning. Two females and two males posing as those fleeing the empire's incursion.

There were a few other griffons about ones who lived in Equestria, making the cover viable.

The plan was perfect, we arrived well before the main forces and hid in a quarter of the capitol.

It was there that things went bad. We were right before the head of the snake.

The Specialist was taken into custody early on by The Guard for questioning.

We never saw her again.

Belle and  Fokker were attacked by panicked ponies. A lynch mob was formed and they and a few other griffons were killed in the middle of the street by panicked civilians.

So it was, that alone I went after Princess Celestia. Getting past the guards was not that difficult. Most were already exhausted in dealing with the riots and from lack of sleep with the Empire's forces so close.

I didn't take out any Guards due to the high chance of alerting others with bodies or missing patrols. Slipping up to the Princesses balcony I moved in well after her lights  were out I expected her to be asleep. 

She was not. I managed one decent attack before she could react to an assassin. My clawed gauntlet cut her neck, three lines, the red staining her pure white fur.

Her counter attack blew me out of her window and set my gear on fire. I rolled with the blow keeping calm as I ditched my gear, only offering a flap or two to make sure I coasted past the city limits to fall over the side of the mountain. 

Looking back I could see Guard already in pursuit and I pushed myself to fall faster, seeking to vanish in the forest at the mountains base.

I made it and immediately stuck to the ground and shadows, my wings tender from the fire that danced over my body and sore from my decent, but I was other wise unharmed. 

I quickly fled as a game of cat and mouse started and persisted for hours in those  woods.  The Guard trackers were very good and I had a whole mountain to get around before I would be safe behind Gryphon lines.

I would have been fine perhaps. I couldn't fly without those in the air seeing me, but I could move through the forests and stay ahead of the hunting teams easily, ponies seemed to have no concept of stealth.

My luck however ran out not long before morning.

Slipping through the bushes I stumbled on a clutch of eggs in a nest on the ground, and by stumbled, I put my claw down right in the middle, crushing the eggs .

The mother of the eggs was not happy and put up quite a racket, drawing my pursuers as she attacked me.

At the time I had no idea what the blasted thing was. Some ground bird or another, something that needed to be silenced. 

I killed the bird without a glance at it and quickly laid down on my belly to hide. I took the moment to look down curiously at what I had killed, holding it up in my claw only for the red eyed corpse of the strangely reptilian bird to stare back at me.

The Gryphon Empire did not have Cockatrices.

It was perhaps one of the most terrifying things I have ever experienced. I couldn't advert my eyes and very rapidly I couldn't move anything, and I very quickly felt cold and stiff, until I was frozen as stone staring down at the corpse of a cockatrice in my hand with the same curious expression on my beak.

A snake's head can still bite.

The guards found me not long after that, the scent of blood from the beast more than enough to draw their attention. 

My cold stone body was brought back to Canterlot and presented to Celestia. The wound I had delivered her already faded to barely a scar.

I was supposed to stand trial, or be  ransomed off back to the Empire in a prisoner exchange. 

For the time being I was dumped in a locked store room and left there. Between bouts of actual sleep I counted the spider webs, made names for all the bugs and mice scuttling across the floor and did my best to keep my mind occupied.

And after a time ponies began to bring things into the room. At first it was little more than some extra tables or chairs, soon it was Holiday decorations, a spare throne or two, old furniture. My cell was being reduced to a an storage room.

I didn't know the war had come to a fiery end as the Princess dropped a bit of the sun on the Emperor, I didn't know hundreds of years had passed in my fits of sleep and wakefulness.  I didn't even know the Princess had completely forgotten about me.

I did know that one of the mice I had named Chewy was responsible for at least half the next generation of mice in the castle.

Eventually a number of ponies came into the room and looked the place over. Upon finding me they took a good bit of interest. They brought out a number of old furnishings and I was soon loaded onto a dolly myself and pushed out of the storeroom and out of the castle itself. The city had seemingly exploded in size, towering buildings, more ponies than I had ever seen before even in the refugee camps walked the streets around me as I was carted away from the palace.

It seemed a library had been built and a number of old artifacts from the castle were being brought in to decorate. I found myself set into an odd corner of the new building, a perfect fit for a odd corner between two support pillars.  Some one found it amusing to put a book in my upturned claw so instead of the cockatrice  that had long ago been removed  before it rotted, I was now looking at a semi open book. 

While it was a delight to actually read something after what felt like centuries, the fact I was in the open air in a public space was far more a marvel. My position overlooked a brightly colored rug and piles of pillows along with small bookshelves packed full of colorful books.

My curiosity on what sort of place I had wound was soon explained as a mare surrounded by a gaggle of foals took up the space on the carpet and the pillows and the mare started to read  to the foals. 
This took place most days around the same time which I learned was about three in the afternoon. Some days no foals showed up, some days no reader did. But those days were rare.

Time progressed and I found that occasionally I was dressed up  either as a book character or as whatever holiday mascot was relevant at the time.

It went on this way for years.

The Gryphon empire collapsed and fell into warring feudal states before being united by King Grover. This lasted fourteen generations before it fell back into ruin ruled by a collection of Barons only seeking their own personal power.

There was probably more to it than that, but between scant newspapers i could read over a parents shoulder or conversations over heard this was all I could peace together.

My country, that I had fought for, and it seems died for, had fallen not to some enemy storming the gate, but to petty bickering among ourselves. Were we truly that weak of a species that we couldn't even hold an empire together with out some stronger force holding us together. I lamented on this for some time, unsure what my place in the world would be anymore even if I was freed.

Time passed and I watched the foals that came in grow age and then occasionally return with a foal of their own.  At one point a teacher came up with the idea to let the foals read me a story. To give them an audience that wouldn't judge.

I found it rather amusing in truth. The little foals and once or twice a griffon chick, read to me until they were comfortable with it and then went along their merry way. Occasionally I had one read to me longer as it was more comfortable to them as they wanted me to know how a story or book series ended. A little purple unicorn I met was quite adamant about that. Granted she was reading much higher levels than the other foals so I got to hear stories a little more in depth than, 'one fish, two fish'. This Daring Doo sounded interesting.

Still I think my favorite thing was the time I was chick-napped and carried about Equestria by a pack of library interns who took my picture at various landmarks 'enjoying' myself, before returning me with the stack of photos  in a scrap book titled, 'my vacation'. How they convinced those pretty Griffon hens to pose with me like 'that' I will never know, nor will I forget.

At this point in my life I had given up being free and was content to simply watch the world pass, it wasn't my ideal Gryphon Empire, but back then there was not much of a retirement and old soldier could aspire too. There were no aches and pains in stone, no hunger of thirst. So long as there was something to occupy my mind it really wasn't that bad. I would rather be free, but , there were worse fates.

With that mindset I simply accepted it and hoped it remained mildly interesting at least.

It seems however, I thought that too soon, as the next day there was a strange dark alicorn  in the library looking at me.

Mildly interesting, I said MILDLY interesting.
> Centaur of Power
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR




Centaur of Power




[ In a town without a name, in a heavy down pour]

The wooden wall at the front of the bar exploded outward, flinging the large yeti like creature out into the down pour, it's chest sizzling from where the mana bolt struck.

On the other side of the hole stood an oddity. It's lower body was equine, with long thin limbs as if it was designed after Princess Celestia's torso. While the creatures lower body too had white fur, there was no cutie-mark, and it was striped black like a zebra. Where the head should be is where it looked wrong to most. An almost minotaur like upper torso rose from the striped body where the head of a horse should be. Thin dark red fur covered this part of the body the fur meshing seamlessly into the white fur of her body a faint blending marking a rind around her waist like a belt. It's upper frame was nearly as thin as the lower, though there was a surprising amount of strength in it's arms and legs. A dark gray poncho covered the upper torso hiding the twin bulges on it's chest that marked this figure as female. A scowling face with glowing blue eyes stared out of the hole into the night the long limbs ending in hands that were still poised, still crackling with energy.

She whirled around to the rest of the bar glaring, her short dark blue hair whisking across small black horns on her head as she snarled at the other patrons The thin tail she had whisking  with the  dark blue brush of hair on the end striking the table behind her.

“Does any one else not wish to take NO for an answer tonight!?” the centaur snapped, her voice clear though holding an ice like edge.

Several other creatures, Diamond Dogs an abyssal and some unknown hunched over figures in the back of the bar quickly went back to their meals or drinks ignoring the centaur barmaid. The only one who did not was large green pig creature behind the bar who simply glared at her.

“Locasta.” The orc growled lightly nodding to the hole in his wall.

“He was the one who persisted.” the centaur protested.

“Which is why I'm only telling you to fix the wall and not kicking you out.” The orc grumbled before going back to cleaning the glass he was working on.

Locasta frowned, though she turned back to the wall, ignoring the pained yeti outside that was dragging itself away from the bar, her hands glowed as the wall slowly rebuilt itself. It was draining and one of her more complex spells, but she could still do it, she simply hoped she wouldn't need to use anything else big tonight before she could recover.

Most of the nameless little town knew of Locasta. The little bump along the old road between the Equestrian port of Wilmingtrot, and the Zebraica border was situated in the scant bit of no pony's land in between the two nations that officially was Equestria. The old road was barely used any more since a newer path had been cut through a few of the nearby mountains so the long winding road was usually only used by the the occasional farmer, the lost, or the ones who didn't want to be found.

There was a pirate port along another path that led to the little town of barely thirty souls, but the locals ignored the ones who used that path, and any one who did in turn ignored the locals.

Locasta was a bit of an exception, she had come up that path and sought residence here, with only Gruthbar, the owner of the Drunken Wombat Tavern being willing to put her up for work rather than bits.

No one knew the whole story save Locasta, though the bar owner knew more than most.

The Centaur was a mage, something that was highly illegal in her homeland, casting spells of any kind was forbidden due to the ancient crimes of a former prince of the nation, Tirek.

Unlike Tirek, however Locasta didn't drain others to power herself, she had her own pool of power and had taught herself in secret once she found out she could.

She had some power, but it wasn't that big of a pool to draw from and she had very few spells she could cast, most of them ragged and wasteful of her energy.

She had claimed she was found out and banished after she used her magic to save a younger sibling of hers from a cragodile.

The old orc believed her, she didn't try to hide things, was blunt and to the point about what she wanted and unless she was playing some sort of overly convoluted long con, which made no sense, her goal was to simply get better with her spells. Given she was the only real caster in town, she got quite a bit of practice around here.

Despite living here for about a month now, everyone, especially the pony residents, were still leery of her. Legends of her kind were not favorable and deeply ingrained.

She had made attempts to head towards Zebraica or further into Equestria to look for a way to refine and learn more magic, though on both sides of the boarder she was turned away from the cities at best, or driven off violently at worse.

He had heard her a few nights after the last rejection considering heading home, at least then she could die on her native soil rather than be hunted down by whatever faction finally got up the nerve to come after her.

That she didn't consider the pirate point she had come in from as a valid place she could make her way from was of a mild interest, though the bartender knew she was a bit of an honorable sort.

Still he didn't know any way to help her, and even if he did, no one did anything for free around here.

Maybe he could convince her to stay on, he wasn't getting any younger and her help had been useful for the past month.

A crackling boom shook the whole building as  a blinding light flashed through the windows and the cracks between the wall panels.

Bottles and plates rattled on the tables and a more than a few curses and  nervous laughs sounded as the ringing from the near thunder bolt strike faded from everyone's hearing.

Locasta moved to the door glancing outside, giving the old orc a glimpse as well of the empty street. Clearly the yeti had left before the bolt struck, that she worried about that spoke volumes of her character and showed she was more of an outsider here than those who didn't live in town. The centaur nodded and moved back to gathering dishes and refilling mugs.

Everything was normal for a while though there were a number of other thunderbolt strikes out in the valley, none as close as the first however. Some of the patrons started counting, seeing how far away the strikes were from the flashes, hoping the storm was moving off

Suddenly there was a brilliant flash at the front of the building and many slapped claws and other appendages over their ears waiting for a massive boom, one that never came.

A moment or two after the flash of light a cloaked figure stepped through the front door.

At first glance it was a pony, a rather large one at that, with a dark blue muzzle and a spiraled horn of the same color that poked out of a mane of swirling stars that barely stayed still under the cloak's hood. A faint shift on her back under the cloak hinted at wings.

Half his customers fled out the back door at the sight of her.

The other half just used the closest window.
> Turn to face the strange....
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift.
By TDR







Turn to face the strange....





A warm breeze blew over me, bringing the sweet scent of some sort of tropical flower, I couldn't name it if I tried. The crash of the waves on a shore line fills my ears, along with the rustle of a thick tree canopy and the distance sounds of birds.  I can easily detect the smell of salt over the strong scent of the flowers adding credence to the sound of waves being what I heard. The warm sun beat down from above in a cloudless sky and heats the sand against my back.

Clearly I am dead and have moved on to Elysium. Praise Faust and all that.

I lift my head to look around.

“BUCK!!!” I scream out as the slight movement sends a torrent of pain along my body and fills the air with the thick coppery scent of blood as I reopen a wound .

“ Faust be damned...Okay, shit,... not dead,.... ow ow ow ow and again ow.” The rest of my pained rant turns into little more than a whimper as I then try and  do my best to make like a log, and not bucking move anything. 

Judging by the position of the sun it was getting close to evening. I didn't think I had been out here this long, but I must have blacked out and slept a number of times. Given I was a mess of burns and bruises it was little surprise I blacked out, it was more a surprise I ever woke up from the blackouts.

My scream had at least helped me in a way, The seagulls filling the air with the cries as they circled me were startled, and took wing further along the shore. Yay I get to keep my eyeballs for a bit more before they start fighting over them, damn sky rats.

If I wanted to survive this, and I was still debating on that part, I needed  to focus on something else other than the pain.

This was a problem as all I could focus on what how I got into this mess.. 

My name is Stigma. And I'm the best there is at what I do.... did.

If something was needed, I got it, if some one needed to vanish they did. My success rate was rather impressive if I do say so myself and I do. I'm not fond of killing, but sometimes a foal napping just wasn't in the cards. If my boss had a problem, I was the one who fixed it, just like my master before me did  and their master before them. I was trained by the best, to be the best, and I was.

I had my quirks of course, the same ones my master developed and passed on from his master.

No foals, no pregnant females, all others were fair game, Don't draw out the kill, quick, clean, and as painless as possible.

Simple rules. On the procurement side of things, it was a take nothing that would harm the one to lose it.

Priceless family heirlooms did not count as that, someones blood pressure medication however, did.

It was a strange balance of life and death that I walked. Sometimes what I stole caused issues, sometimes it was to the betterment of everyone involved, the same could be said for my targets.

My Boss didn't use my skills often. She didn't like the killing either, but at times she knew it was unavoidable. If someone were to discover us, well that would be the end for us.

Strange that the end came not from discovery which everyone feared, but from some one who should have been trusted. 

Another in my bosses position, she ran another settlement further inland from ours. She was one that we had dealt with numerous times, the trades and deals were always favorable and we had a number of projects both sides worked on for the betterment of all.  This time however, it seemed she had gotten greedy and wanted what my boss had.

The attack, when it came, had been brutal and violent, scorched earth policy type stuff. Nothing salvaged, nothing spared.

We weren't attacked because they wanted something we had, we were attacked because we were in the way. In the end my boss, myself and her personal Guard were the last ones left. We had all pulled back to a fortified position, thought hat barely slowed them down.

Our whole settlement, from the little ones to the elderly, cut down. Even the scant few pets, they killed everything. Including my dog. Daisy.

The attackers burst into the room, soldiers, not simple defenders, real warriors cut down every one save my Boss and myself. Then the traitor stepped in, clearly she left my boss alive so she could gloat for a bit before killing her, real super villain stuff you know, acting like this was a comic book or some theatrical crap. 

My blade nearly ended it there.

She noticed me as I dropped down from where I was hiding above them. She managed to rear back and avoid my killing blow that would have taken her head. Instead I'm pretty sure I managed to take her left eye, and even if I missed that she's going to have a scar running ear to chin that she's never going to forget.

Still my miss meant it was over, I was blasted  in a instant. The soldiers with her gutting my Boss  as I was blown through a wall, the entire side of the structure blasted out as I was flung into the river at the base of the tower. My body still smoking as I hit the water.

Not sure how far I was carried, but I survived that and wound up at the beach. Probably washed into the out flow of the river and had the current and tide carry me here. 

I'm never going to forget the one who did all this to me. And if I survive this, I'm going to do more than take your eye next time.

Chrysalis... I will have your head.

She probably thought I was dead. But even taking that shot I remained awake long enough to see the river and make myself change to grow gills before I hit and was swept away. The underground river probably dumped me at it's outlet near the border of the Griffon and Pony lands a few dozen miles from  the remains of Bosses hive.

At this point I could barely move and it was going to take some sort of divine intervention  for me to even survive the night on this beach. I had no fantasy's about something from the sea or the jungle I was near coming out to scavenge a meal.

Seems I was doomed after all.

It was at that point I noticed a shadow had moved over me. Opening my eyes I expected to see something that would ensure I wouldn't make it even to nightfall.

What was looking back at me however , was a blue alicorn.
> Whips and boulders.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR






 Whips and boulders.






[ Eastern Zebrica jungle]

The hot steamy depths of the darkest jungle in Zebrica was home to countless civilizations and  temples of old gods.  But that was long ago, and amid the ruins and fallen idols the plants had reclaimed the land and countless creatures now called those old forgotten places their home. 

New species of animals were discovered in the forest every year, and it was unlikely the jungle that took up the eastern side of the country had revealed even half it's secrets.

Rain fell intermittently throughout the season and the area was pron to heavy mists and condensation dripping off the trees keeping most of the ground moist .

The cries of birds and the hum of insects went quiet as a heavy thudding filled the air. The crash of the underbrush signaled something larger rushing through the dense undergrowth. 

Bursting through a thick grouping of Viper's Bowstring, a royal purple furred earth pony crashed to the ground sliding in the mud, before he quickly pushed himself back up to his hooves with a panicked glance behind him.

Barely sparing a breath  the wine maned stallion took off galloping again, mud splattered against his sides and barrel, partially obscuring the odd looking hat cutie mark  he had.

The stallion thundered through the underbrush not seeming to have any goal aside from running from something.

The stallion darted around a large tree, pressing his back to it as he tried to control his labored breathing. His ears perked up as he shifted his blue gaze over the brush and trees behind him, searching for his pursuer.

His eyes widen as he drew a sharp gasp of air spotting a glint of brown and gold in the brush line.

With a grunt the stallion shoved away from the tree, galloping hard. The movement drew a hiss from the brush and something surged after him.

The river... there was a river around here, if he could make it to that he could lose this thing. 

The land dropped away sharply as he dove over  some tall mangrove roots landing in a puddle of water and sliding down a shallow incline of mostly mud. The river was lower this time of year, but it was still swift and deep enough that if he could make it to the middle he would be able to swim with the current and out pace his pursuer. With a heave he surged back to his hooves, the shadow of the creature looming over him for a moment  before he was back up and running. 

The river was in sight, he tumbled and slid, pushing off the muddy incline as he galloped and fell towards it, the way ahead was clear, he was almost there.

A loud hiss sounded behind him making him cry out with fear. The sound drown out by the crash of the brush as the creature surged towards him. 

He reached the edge of the water making a flying leap towards the faster flowing liquid in the middle of the river.

There was a scream and the stallion was yanked out of the air, pulled back into the clutches of the monster, his cries echoing across the water.





[ Hope Springs, Medical center. ]

A number of  tents of varying sizes and conditions were set up in a clearing in the jungle, not far from a small logging road that led out of the rain forest.

A number of ponies and zebras milled around the camp, some of them wrapped in bandages or standing in lines. Ponies and Zebra's in nurses outfits darted between the tents  rendering aid where they could.

The small field hospital wasn't much, but  it was all a number of local villages had for their medical treatment, and all things considered it was pretty well stocked and staffed. The camp was part of a larger collection of medical centers called the Queen's Cross, thus named after the first queen of Zebrica who had the first hospital in the country built. The organization grew to include Equestria  to set up and provide medical care to  many of the outlying villages and towns that were not large or populated enough to have their own hospital. The primary goal of the organization was to make sure every one they encountered was up to date with the latest vaccines and treatments, but the place was treated as a full service hospital as well.

A brown and white spotted unicorn, the namesake of this particular camp, was looking down at a zebra foal she had just given a booster shot to. She smiled holding out a small red lollipop for the colt being so well behaved. Before the foal had a chance to take it however, screams drew the unicorn's attention to the other side of camp and the colt was quickly grabbed by his mother and pulled back as the pair ducked into the main tent.

Moving past the housing that was set up nearest the forest was a large serpentine creature.  The figure rose over two pony lengths in height, with almost twice that length moving along the ground behind it propelling it forward. It was covered in golden brown scales across it's back and down the length of it's tail with a cream scaled underbelly that ran up to the under side of the creatures jaw.  Two large bulges of flesh hung about where it's chest was like a minotaur cow though they were covered  by a short toga. A pair of arms with three fingers at the end of each hand and a opposable thumbs gripped a rope that held a bag hanging over it's shoulder. Lastly a large frilled hood was partially closed behind it's head as it moved, hissing to itself, as it came into camp.

Hope Springs sighed, asking the mother to wait where she was with the colt before she trotted over to the serpent.

The large creature looked down at the pony approaching before slinging the bag off her shoulder and setting it down  gently before the doctor.

“Hope, you have got to get sssome one elssse to chassse down thisss idiot next time.” the serpent stated with a frown.” I have my own patientsss and every time he ssslipsss away you sssend me to catch him.”

The unicorn smiled. “Sorry Naunet, but you know as well as I do the only one who can catch  Louisiana Jake here when he panics at seeing a needle, is you.”

The serpent rolled her green eyes as another pony trotted up in a nurse hat with a needle for a tetness booster. Naunet opened the back a little grabbing the purple stallion as he tried to get out  and run again holding him steady as the nurse jabbed him.

“Honesssstly Jake, you are worssse than the foalsss.” The naga, Naunet, sighed letting the stallion go and watching him rush off again screaming. 

Hope Springs smiled. She had met Naunet the naga, about five years ago when the camp was set up in the south eastern part of the jungle. The naga tended to be a reclusive race that kept to themselves and were rarely seen, though Naunet had come up to camp as soon as it was set up and started poking her nose into everything out of curiosity. 

Despite attempts to  run her off, the snake stuck around and actually tried to make herself helpful to the camp. Hope wasn't sure who it was who started teaching her to speak Equestrian, but that quickly elevated into reading, writing, and basic medical practice. Despite her not having a horn, she picked up a number of healing spells and showed her skill with her hands. She had only preformed one surgery  herself, but had been an assistant in a few of them.

In truth Hope thought the naga was probably a better doctor than a number of actual doctors in the camp, but due to her race, there was no way she could get much further than this. The naga didn't have any sort of medical training program in their culture, and Equestria required years of schooling before they would allow any one their degree. Hope was also rather certain that the stuffed shirts where she had gone to school in Canterlot would deny entry to Naunet simply due to her not being a unicorn.

Hope Springs had unfortunately expected the naga would never be a real doctor to any one outside the camp, despite what Naunet had hoped for.

At least until today.

“Naunet don't worry about him for the moment, I've rolled your patient list into  Triage's for the afternoon.” Hope offered.

“What? Why? It never takesss me that long to catch Jake.” The naga frowned her hood flaring a little showing her annoyance.

“You have a visitor. She came by soon after you went to catch  Louisiana Jake.” Hope Springs smiled gesturing a hoof towards one of the main tents.

Standing there drawing a great deal of attention from the local foals who were practically swarming her, was a dark blue furred alicorn.
> The boss is watching, look busy....
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR






The boss is watching, look busy....




[Canterlot]

Ginger Gold was bored.

The opulent room she was in was some sort of study. Polished brass and what was some sort of fancy well varnished wood gave the room a rich reddish appearance. Mage light's filled the room with a soft flickering glow like real candle light, clearly the owner had either not upgraded to modern electricity yet, or didn't want to.

The whole left side of the room was a massive book case , one that spiraled up to the vaulted ceiling far above with a brass stair case and walkway that led up to the near second story of books. The air had a scent of wood , polished metal and the unmistakable scent of old tomes.

Across from the large doors on the far wall were two window doors that lead out onto a small balcony that wrapped around the back of a large slate stone fireplace. The fire place was not lit due to this being the middle of summer, but Ginger expected the whole room would be nice  and toasty with that lit in the winter.  Two stuffed armchairs rested by the fireplace with a thick rug before it covering the marble floor.

Various other chairs and couches dotted the room, acting as little reading nooks, or circled in a way for polite conversation. The vaulted ceiling showed a star filled nightscape in mosaic tile that seemed to shift and move, the little tiles lighting up in a slow pattern that to Ginger looked like the natural sky slowly rotating from one horizon to another. She was quite certain she had seen a few shooting stars cross the magic scene as well. Pretty impressive as it was day time outside.

A collection of various gargoyles sat in the odd corners and supports in the massive room, looming over the library as if staring at the occupants. She recognized a bat pony and a few others, but some of the gargoyles didn't seem based off any creature she knew.  There were also thirteen of them in the rafters which was a odd number, but likely related to superstitions . 

Still, whoever heard of putting those ugly rain spouts inside?  Privileges of the rich it seemed. 

Ginger was told the manor itself that she was meeting the others was to be their headquarters if they agreed with what ever it was the Princess of the Night was going to ask. There were a number of rooms, a big training yard, and a couple dozen servants scurrying around trying to avoid them. Most importantly to Ginger there was a fairly large forested area at the edge of the property.

She wasn't sure who the place belonged to but it had the scent and feel of old money. 

Ginger sighed trying not to fidget on the couch she occupied, her gold eyes darted over the rooms other occupants curiously. She had given the lot of them a curious glance to start with though she had yet to try and strike up a conversation with any of them.

The biggest thing in the room was the centaur. The zebra striped white mare, well Ginger expected it was a mare, she had never seen a centaur before, seemed a fairly friendly sort . Red fur covered the odd minotaur like upper body with a dark blue mane that fell back between a pair of small black horns. She also wore a dark gray shirt of some kind that covered her chest and back of her upper form and left her arms free.

Ginger been introduced to her briefly, her name was Locasta, though anything more than that was lost as the  as the centaur had seen the books and any further conversations were ignored. She had focused all her attention onto the books in the shelves, greedily devouring all the information within.

The centaur already had a small pile on the table next to her and as she read and that was only getting larger.

Another figure that had been more of a grump than anything else was a heavily bundled pony on another couch. His voice when he spoke had the light timber of a young stallion or perhaps an older colt. His unwillingness to remove his body concealing cloak despite the days heat raised a few alarms in her mind, but his short comments and responses reminded her of some of the 'edgy teens in Long Den.
There was also something odd about his scent she didn't recognize.

Curled up by the fire place was some sort of large orange fox. Ginger had thought the still beast some sort of giant fox shaped pillow until one of it's ears moved. Amber eyes opened to regard her a moment  and she was quite certain it smiled at her before it curled back up to continue to doze.

An odd pet to be sure, though something smelled very wrong about this fox and she kept her distance.

The other pony in the room was a dapper looking unicorn stallion. He had a number of bandages covering various parts of him and the black furred stallion almost looked like a mummy. At first she thought his mane and tail were red, though  looking closer it was closer to a wine coloration. His scent was odd too, he smelled a bit like the ocean, but also like charred flesh with an undercurrent of something she didn't recognize.

Given all he seemed to be doing was staring up at the gargoyles, she figured she'd try to see what his deal was.

“Oy, yah look like you were in a bit of kerfuffle there, yah doing alright?” Ginger Gold asked moving over to the stallion in the chair. He lowered his gaze to meet hers, his green eyes regarding her a moment before he spoke.

“I suppose I can say I have been better, but I am doing much better than I was a week ago when I met the Princess.” His voice had an odd cracking to it as he spoke, though it was still rather mellow, perhaps he hurt his throat too.

“Ahh, she scooped yah up tah bring yah here too huh. Any clue as tah why?”

“Fraid not. I was some what delirious at the time and what little I picked up was she has a job for me.”

“Yeah got that little speech meself when she posted bail.” Ginger smiled. “Ginger Gold, nice tah meet another who's at least a bit talkative here.”

“Stigma.” the stallion nodded.  “Forgive me if I'm a tad short of conversation, but I've been a bit weak since I got my injuries.”

“Sokay ah didn't expect a life story outta yah  Still can't help wonder what tha four of us are here for.” Ginger grumbled looking back at the others.

“Five.” Stigma offered.

“Well yah if yah count tha big ol beastie of a fox.” Ginger agreed.

Stigma looked over at the still slumbering creature  and raised an eyebrow curiously. “Six. I had not considered that one.”

“Six?” Ginger glanced around getting a head count again, before the doors to the room opened.

A pair of unicorn ponies strode in, the pair were instantly recognized by the group as they had already met the two advisers before. The white well dressed blond unicorn was a noble by the name of Prince Blueblood, Prince was his actual name, not his title. And a scruffy gray furred and amber maned unicorn stallion that was built like a brick house and had a heavy curved sword on his side was Jer'rahd Kaisur. Evidently he was a recently retired Captain of the guard that had been brought into  this to be a contact along with Prince.

Ginger tried not to drool, he had the sort of burly build that made her want to retire to her bunk.

Stigma looked at her strangely for a moment before looking at the door and rolling his eyes.

Another figure followed that made Ginger forget all about the beefy pony. The massive gold and brown figure of a snake shimmied across the floor behind them, seeming to have a bit of issue finding traction on the marble floors. 

“A naga?” Ginger  questioned tilting her head.” Ain't seem many of them this far north.”

Stigma again glanced at the earth pony mare as if reappraising her.

The centaur and the hooded pony as well as the fox regarded the naga a moment before returning to what they were doing, reading, sulking, and sleeping.

The former guard captain surveyed the room, his eyes pausing on each of the ones present , including the fox before glancing up into the rafters at the gargoyles as if checking out to see if there was anything up there.

“Terribly sorry for the wait, the Princesses should be along shortly. Princess Luna is explaining the situation to her sister at the moment. “Prince Blue Blood explained as he moved aside to let the naga in. “If you have any requests, I will be sure to have a servant take them...”

He paused as Ginger raised a hoof.

“No Hard cider miss Apple, not before a meeting with the Princesses.” Prince continued ignoring the mares exaggerated sigh. “Miss Naunet, if you would. Do let us know if there's anything you need.”

“Perhapsss a bit more carpeting.....” The naga frowned glaring at the floor she had slid along as if it was personally offending her.

Prince was unperturbed though Jer'rahd snorted a bit in amusement.” I will see what I can do.” Prince sighed and nodded lightly before turning to head out. 

Jer'rahd gave the gathered group the once over with another glance to the rafters as if he missed something before turning to head out after Prince.

“Soooo any one have any cards?” Ginger asked with a small grin.





“She's nuts.” Jer'rahd growled.

“That is not our place to say.” Prince sighed.

“I would think given our position it IS our place to say.” Jer'rahd retorted. “Every thing in that room is a disaster waiting to happen.”

The stallions were trotting down the hall each having their own thoughts on the matter.

“Would you prefer them to still be out and about where they could become an unknown threat?” prince offered.

“I've read the files, Blueblood, the only one who was a risk is the mare, and she's had her issues for years. The rest would have died or been killed where they were. With what that colt did alone, bringing them all together for this is a mistake.”

“I do not like it either, but we are not in charge. We are here to make sure it does not go wrong, with you overseeing this and my contacts the idea still has some merit despite how it looks now.“ Prince sighed. “Would you prefer Princess Celestia's plans to rely on those six mares?”

“This should be a guard task....”

“She doesn't agree with that... and neither does Princess Luna. Princess Cadence is staying out of it. Probably the wisest of the three.”

“No arguments there. Still with who she found, I can't think Princess Celestia is going to take this well.” Jer'rahd let out a grumble.”Especially with the colt and the bird.”

“On that we agree.” Prince Blue Blood nods.





“Are you out of your starry mind?” Celestia snorted as she stormed along with her sister.

“We sense that thee are some what upset sister. Mayhaps thou hast not found a stallion with enough length and girth to make it past thine posterior during a mounting?” Luna questioned.

“Luna......” Celestia growled.

“We informed thee we would be traveling Tia, the dreams we found were not all of those close to Canterlot.” Luna sighed seeing where this was going.

“You just got back, you have yet to readjust to the modern world and suddenly you're racing off  to who knows where without so much as telling a guard?” Celestia ranted. “ There are already those who suspect you are going to try and take the throne from me.... and those are the ones who didn't even know about Nightmare Moon. “

“Tia...”

Plus I just got you back and there's no telling what could have happened to you out there. The few places in Equestria you went were fine, but the Zebra are already a superstitious people and you are regarded as a dark omen to them. Then you went to a known town full of pirates....”

“We are fine sister. No harm came to us and we have found those we wish to make our offer to.” Luna sighed. “We owe thine student and her friends far too much to allow them to continue to to be the first to face danger. If these seven accept we can protect thine student  and perhaps even start in mending the rift that has formed between the two of thee. These seven will be trained and  know what they are getting into before hoof. We know what thee were trying with this student and we have heard tales of  thine former student. The last thou told everything and she abandoned thee, this one you told nothing and it worked perfectly, until she slugged you. This will not do sister.”

Celestia sighed. “ You should have just taken some guard for this assignment Luna. There was no need for you to be running off every where on your own.” 

“The Guard either all think we are still an enemy whom hast not shown her hoof, or an enemy whom has tricked thee. None would serve me.”

“I'll have a talk with them...”

“No. Let them believe what they wish, we do not wish any to be forced into serving us. Tis bad enough the young lord and the former Captain are in such a state, we do not wish for those we want to use to help to fear or hate us as well, they will serve if they wish , and they will be freed if they do not. We have promised them that already.”

“Fine.... You're almost as stubborn as me when I make up my mind. Let's see this crew of yours Lulu.” Celestia offered  her sister a smile.

Luna returned it.
> Run. Rabbit Run.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift

By TDR




Run. Rabbit Run.




[Canterlot]

Celestia was dying.

Of that she was certain.

The how, why, and when of that fact however was something she had no clue about.

It had taken her lifetimes to notice, but she was clearly weakening. At the time that she and her sister fought Discord there was little to nothing she couldn't do. She was every mortal's perfect image of a god. Supremely powerful, neigh unkillable, wounds that would have killed a mortal three times over were shrugged off and healed without a scratch in a matter of seconds, her sister was the same way.  

After Discord there had been Tirek, Sombra, and countless other creatures of darkness and chaos that had seemed to swarm up out of the wood work against the pair of them. And every one of them they beat down with hardly an effort.

Celestia had noticed however, every time they used the Elements of Harmony, every time they defeated a foe, she grew weaker. She was less spry, less powerful. Her wounds began to tell, and last longer.

Then her sister had turned on her, and it was only by use of the Elements that she was able to defeat Nightmare Moon at all.

She tested herself in the remaining thousand years of peace, and she was growing weaker still. She kept the information from her subjects, sued for peace rather than conflict, fearful that she might be killed somehow and  the sun would be gone forever, dooming Equss.

The Griffon conflict was the last she had participated in and it had taken her days to recover from the use of  her power that ended the war. 

There was still a scar on her neck as well from the assassin who sought to claim her life.

She was still far more powerful than any other living thing, and her grasp on the sun had neither wavered nor weakened. But she was far from what she once was.

Then Nightmare came back.

Celestia didn't think their fight even winded the demon that held her sister.

All her plans, plots, and cunning and she was defeated like a foal against a trained solider.

Her student was the one who saved everyone, and because Celestia had needed to manipulate her, to get her to go a certain way in order for the Elements to unlock, her student hated her. That bridge had been burned.

Not the first time either.

Celestia had expected  to be gone for years, to come back to a nation just freed from the rule of a tyrant.  That her student would have had the time to  figure out out the Elements of Harmony in a relatively safe place, a small town Nightmare would have overlooked after finding nothing there of interest.


That her student had found them and used them so swiftly was beyond her wildest plans.

Well.

Maybe not the wildest.

She did have that back up plan where Nightmare Moon would be defeated by Horsetus Fruit Pies.  

She had even brought an apple one with her into battle just in case.

But even so. When all was said and done, she had used her student for her own ends. She was rather glad it had been Twilight who did this. That only ended with her getting a sore jaw and a few loose teeth.

Had it been Sunset, she likely would have still been on fire, along with a good portion of Canterlot.

Despite the fact her former student, and indeed most of Ponyville did not like her, Celestia was already setting things up to  begin the next phase of her students training. To prepare her and her friends for the conflicts she knew were to come.

Then Luna threw a wrench in the works.

This 'Night Guard' she had planned were going to do the same thing Celestia was planning for the Element Bearers. A force to take on and beat the powerful threats to Equestria and the world itself.

Luna held a great reverence for the six who had saved her, and despite, or perhaps because of, what she had done to them as Nightmare Moon, Luna was going out of her way to find a way to prevent them further hardship.

Luna too was aware of her waning power. By her own admittance she should have recovered by now, but everything she used to be able to do or cast came with a strain, save her control over the moon and her dream walking.

Luna believed the cause of the drain was the constant use of the Elements.

Celestia thought it something else, but she had no proof either way.

It was for this reason that Celestia had allowed the formation of the prototype of what Luna's Guard could be.  She had assigned Guard Captain Jer'rahd, and Prince Blue Blood to over see everything and assist Luna in what they could.

Now the seven founding members that Luna had personally gathered were together, and Luna was going to introduce them to her.

Celestia actually hoped this would work out. She didn't want to keep using her former student and her friends. But to protect Equestria she would sacrifice them if it was the last resort.

Luna would let Equestria burn before she allowed any more harm to come to her saviors.

Celestia was looking to the greater good.

Luna was looking to the individuals well being.

Neither view was wrong, and compromise for both is what led to the formation of this unit. 

Celestia truly wondered what sort of individuals would have come to her sisters call to arms.





Celestia slowly blinked as she looked over the occupants of the room, a small twitch developing in her left ear.

There were two ponies. And ONLY two ponies.

One Luna introduced as a Everfree Ranger.

The other had introduced himself as a 'consultant.'

Celestia knew what it meant when some one made that reference and she planned to keep an eye on this stallion.

The Naga was probably the least worrying. They were a peaceful race that lived along the southern borders, while many ponies would have issue with her, Celestia had  had encounters with them in the past and they were usually pleasant, if brief.  Luna's explanation that she was a Medic was rather interesting.

The Centaur was worrying at best, catastrophic at worst. The last time she had seen any of that race it had been Tirek. That this one was a female did nothing to stop the images racing through Celestia's mind of what that monster had done last time. Luna's explanation about her being an aspiring mage had  cranked her feelings from worrying to concerned.

Then there was the Kitsune.

And it had to be THAT stars damned Kitsune.

Celestia had to restrain herself from blasting that smug ass of a fox right then and there. She remembered Mesa. The damn beast was infuriating when she had tried to hunt him to protect her little ponies. How Luna had convinced the blasted beast was beyond her. Celestia had been hoping he had died some where after he vanished. Of course her sister would recruit the damn thing.

Then there was the other one.

She forgot completely about the Kitsune when she saw him.

The colt couldn't have been more than 18 or 19, His face was a royal blue coloration, a rather fine color, but despite all of his fur being that color, only his face and head was of a pony.  A kirin horn sprouted from his head flanked by a pair of rabbit ears, his body was longer than it should be, looking somewhat like an otters when counting the thick tail which ended looking more like a crocodiles. He had twin rows of dragon spines down his back. His rear legs were from a minotaur or a bull. His forelegs were little better, ending in paws like a  sphynx. His eyes were a mix of brilliant blue green in the left , and amber bright enough to be gold in the right. 

Luna forcing him to reveal himself to her clearly upset him, as did some of the surprise that came from the others. Still none of them seemed afraid of the Discordian, which was more than she could say for herself.

It was the seventh member of the group that made Celestia turn and storm out, dragging her sister behind her.

Celestia didn't even need a introduction. As soon as the massive stone griffon dropped down from the rafters above with a impact that shattered a number of  intricate tiles on the floor, Celestia knew who he was.

The stone griffon didn't say a word and simply glared at Celestia as she left.

Lulu was going to get a stern talking to.





“Are you out of your moon touched mind!?!?” Celestia swore in a hushed shout.

“Thou are going to need to be more specific.” Luna frowned rubbing her ear with a hoof after the shout rather glad she had raised a bubble of silence.

“You recruited a centaur, two assassins, one of which tried to kill me, that damn fox, and a Discordian!?!?” Celestia ranted. “ The only ones I'm alright with are the naga and one of my rangers!”

“The ranger is infected with lycanthropy. Thine laws usual response to such infected individuals dear sister is to execute them before they disease spreads or they harm any pony else.” Luna stated flatly.

“You think that makes this better?” Celestia snapped.” That only leaves the naga.”

“We have brought together a group that is willing to aid us. A group we were forced to chose simply due to the fact that there were no others willing to aid us. What we have promised them in return is a pittance compared to what they can do for us.” Luna frowned.

“They are a collection of monsters,Luna.” Celestia snapped.

Luna stared at her sister her frown deepening

“Yes dear sister, we have eight monsters now. Eight monsters who have gathered here for the good of all Equestria. Mesa has not been the same creature he was for longer than we were sealed away. He seeks a lost friend We are going to help him find her.”

Luna moved closer to her sister.

“Millstone was treated as an abomination his whole life and simply wishes to either be left alone or cured, and while we cannot do the former we are more than willing to do the latter for him and absolve him of what he did out of self defense.”

Luna glared at her sister.

“Ginger Gold  of the Apple Family was cursed while doing her duty to protect others, a duty she has upheld for her entire life and still has done for years despite her curse. Now that it is known due to our own involvement she is to be put to death by thine own laws despite not harming a soul when the opportunity was presented. is this how years of service to the crown is repaid in this era?”

Luna stepped closer.

“Locasta was exiled from her tribe for the crime of saving a life with the power she was born with. She is NOT Tirek, she does not seek the knowledge for the sake of power, she is like your former student in that regard, but the Centaurs have such disdain for what one of their kind did that she may never return to her homeland or she will face death.”

Celestia stepped back as Luna advanced her sisters cool teal eyes blazing.

“Stigma's entire tribe was murdered by someone they trusted. He nearly lost his life to that attack as well and all he wishes is to end the threat she poses to everyone and gain a measure of peace with his loss.” 

Celestia's rump bumped into the edge of the silence barrier.

“Naunet wishes to be a doctor, but we both know that is impossible given how your medical community favors unicorns. It borders on tribalist practices, and she is not even the same species. For aiding us was shall ensure that she receives the training she desires so she can continue to help save lives.”

Luna was nose to nose with her sister now.

“Yes Lockheed attempted to kill thee, but so did we. He was sealed away and forgotten gaining neither a trial nor sentencing. His entire race is naught but ner-do-wells, stuck up nobles and a dying flock that cannot even survive without Equestrian aid. Everyone he knew is dead and they died thinking him lost, perhaps even a traitor. He is also stuck as a mobile statue because of the age on the spell that turned him to stone.”

Celestia blinked looking for something to say.” That was seven...”

“Indeed. The eighth monster is one who tried to cast everything into darkness and seeks to redeem herself, but she finds her sister neither trusts nor listens to her even now. Something she should have already realized was what caused her sister to seek the darkness in the first place.” Luna turned, walking back towards the room.

“Luna...” Celestia started to say.

“Do not! You are my sister, and we care for you, but you have made your decision on those we have selected quite clear.It is clear thine does not trust me as thee say thee does.  As such unless thou decides to overrule my decisions and inflict thine 'justice' on my group, something which we will contest fully, with force if need be, then stay out of our way.” Luna snapped trotting back into the room, slamming the door in her sisters face.
> Black Knights and Dark Side Battle cries
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR


Black Knights and Dark Side Battle cries




[ Two months later]

Luna smiled a little looking over the reports for the training her group had been going through.  Jer'rahd had brought a few extra drill sergeants together and put a training class for the group that took advantage of and stressed their unique abilities and body types.

Despite being assigned to the task by her sister, Luna took note that Jer'rahd rather enjoyed the challenge of designing the odd training. 

Much to the groups anguish.

The exercises and courses he set up were more than enough to work all of them, including Mesa. Luna was unsure how he did it but she was actually rather glad Tia had assigned him to the unit.

After two months even the most fit among them was showing signs of built muscle and loss of any excess fat they might have had, well save Mesa, Lockheed, and  Millstone. But one didn't expect them to change. 

The two months had also lead to some interesting discoveries involving the group of them as Jer'rahd and his team put together a much more complex bio's of all seven of them.





Ginger Gold.

The mare had changed twice in the time she was in training.

The first time she was kept under close observation as well as remaining contained. The large form she had changed into was very reminiscent of a normal wolf, only much bigger. It's fur color was the same  as Ginger's though more course. In all she simply looked like a massive wolf, albeit one the size of Princess Celestia. 

Luna brought an entire team of highly skilled magi in to have a look at her. 

In wolf form Ginger behaved much like a normal dog sniffing her new environment, before finding a place to lay down. Despite the fact the change only lasted three days before she turned back it was still enough time for the magi to isolate a number of things involved with the curse. In particular the part of the curse that spread it to others. 

Luna included Twilight Sparkle, Moon Dancer, and a number of other individuals from her sisters school in the investigation, sending them the documents and information. Nearly all of them returned with the same things pointed out.  

Utilizing that information the magi were able to enchant an item  that  would repress the curses ability to be spread. Meaning she wouldn't be able to infect any one else.

Ginger had the item put into a self adjusting collar, then accused any one who brought it up of kink shaming.

The second time Ginger changed, Luna herself ventured into the enclosure. Rather than finding her as a wild animal as expected the changed Ginger simply seemed indifferent to the Moon Princess, not even seeming to mind or care if Luna touched her unless it got personal. Further investigation showed her reaction was much the same when any one else in the magi group or her team did the same, save for three exceptions.

First she tried to eat Mesa.

No one was surprised, nor in much of a hurry to stop her from going after the annoying fox.

Secondly she seemed rather wary of Stigma, she didn't growl or attack him , but she did her best to keep some one else between him and her. This was some what odd as Ginger and Stigma got along quite well when she wasn't a wolf.

And lastly she seemed rather interested in Millstone. Going so far as to scoop up the flailing discordian and carry him around by the nape of his neck like a lost puppy.

Millstone was not thrilled about that.

Despite resolving to keep an eye on her, Luna did not think Ginger was any sort of danger provided she could be trained to work with the team even when cursed. That sort of training would be explained and tested when she changed again.

Outside of her curse Ginger was exactly what one would expect of a Celestial Ranger. She knew countless bits of information on a wide variety of monsters, was skilled in the use of traps, swords and crossbows. She could easily survive in any environment she was tested in, and displayed the lack of issue with killing that most Royal Guard still had after all her time hunting down threats to pony kind.

Psychologically she was one of the better adjusted of the team, save she wasn't a fan of working with others or big cities like Canterlot. 

She was also a shameless flirt according to at least three of the trainers, including Jer'rahd.





Millstone

The colt is another interesting one and perhaps the biggest wild card in the group she had.

Discordians by their nature are odd. They are born randomly in random places and none of them ever look the same save for the occasional part coming from the same sort of creature, but it's always a different side or limb than any other who had a part from that creature.

The main theory was that they were remnants from the Chaos war where Celestia and Luna beat Discord. There had been perhaps a score of them born in the time between when Discord was defeated and Nightmare Moon appeared. In the thousand years after that Celestia only was made aware of three, including Millstone. That was not counting the sixty five abominations that were created by this particular discordian.

Evidently two of the others while Luna was away went on a rampage as well. One killing  eight or nine ponies before killing herself, and another sinking an entire city into a swamp, though the last had no proof.

In the past many of them were killed by horrified parents, or fearful villagers. The few that survived into adulthood usually only did so by hiding themselves away or being sold to a circus as a freak. Which despite what many think, was a strong environment and a rather tight knit community that they often thrived in. Several of them had children themselves which had no sign of any of their parents problems.

Millstone it seemed had grown up in a time where science knew about birth defects and he was treated as a curiosity by doctors, but a target by every one else for being different.

One of the main problems with ponies was anything that was not a pony was something to be feared or shunned. Luna  was not happy that Celestia had let it progress beyond what had driven her to become Nightmare to begin with.

Millstone's physical skills were not that great. The training helped him receive a level of coordination he had other wise lacked, but strength training and endurance training did not seem to do anything for him and in these fields he lingered behind every one else, save Mesa who intentionally skewed his testing.

His magic was likewise hard to get a read on.

It is incredibly powerful, but it didn't have any sort of focus. In fact the more Millstone tried for one result, the more likely the magic would wind up being a chaotic mess and do what it wanted. 

But if his attempts and intent were vague enough, the result would be the same. For example if he tried to turn a bowl of oranges into apples, he might wind up with a bathtub full of baboons. 

But if he tried to turn the bowl of fruit into other fruit without specifying or focusing on anything he might want beyond the most vague terms, the oranges would wind up changing into other fruit, granted it could be anything from apples, to wax fruit, and in one very odd case, a very dandy stallion was teleported from his home to take the place of the fruit. But it was still fruit. He could get the results he wanted, but not exactly.

The more vague he tried to make something the more likely it would do as intended. Simply desiring to destroy the training dummies might cast a fireball, or summon a swarm of straw eating butterflies.

This of course was a different story when he got angry. 

The angrier he got, the more potent his powers became. This was missed at first  because the teen was already a furious ball of angst most of the time. The few times he wasn't, his powers were much weaker, until the frustration of his powers being weaker drove him back to being a seething grump again.

Getting him to a peak of rage where something could be done was a risk in of itself. A risk one of the researchers decided to take.

The unicorn Phase Shift was a stallion with a reddish brown coat and orange and yellow streaked hair.

Phase shift was now a three year old female mountain goat, with saxophones for horns  and a coat that changed color depending on her mood. The testing area  where Phase Shift decided to egg Millstone on  was now a chaotic mess of food, candy, and singing fish that lived in the custard walls. Some how the room retained it's structural integrity and didn't rot. It has also become something of a holy ground to those studying chaos magic.

Millstone was eventually calmed down and as since had undergone psychiatric evaluation.  The poor colt has a number of issues, everything from simple trust issues and anger issues all the way to feelings of inadequacy and an ever present fear of what he can do and what others might do to him. 

He is most comfortable with his books and has seemingly at least formed a bit of a bond with the groups other book lover, Locasta, who also knows what it's like to be targeted for what she is.

He is also the only one who Mesa will not directly pick on or prank.





Locasta.

The centaur is the most willing to deal with what ever she is put through in this training. 

She is already fairly strong with a good endurance, but she did not take well to any of the weapons training. She's certainly passable, but given Jer'rahd couldn't find any trainers with her body type to assist, passable is the best she might be able to muster unless she practices on her own, something she has no interest in.

The magic training on the other hoof, was something she took too like a duck to water.

Her power pool was not that great, though she was never trained on how to exercise it to strengthen it. It was found that she did indeed draw magic from things, but she did so like a number of other known creatures, pulling their power from the environment around her. This made casting spells in her vicinity more difficult, the range was measured at about ten feet around her, but a skilled caster had no issue getting past this. 

It was also tested to see if she could drain the magic from objects or ponies.  She tried, but evidently was unaware of the technique or ability that allowed one of her kind in the past to do so.

Mentally she was in fairly good shape, though the fear of failure and the depression of being banished from her homeland were noted. Perhaps in time Luna could fix that, but for now Locasta seemed content to study. 

She and Millstone talk sometimes about what they have read, though given Millstone prefers fiction and Locasta prefers factual books, their interests rarely overlap.

Her focus is such that if Mesa decides to mess with her, the results tend to be fairly big in order to get a reaction.





Naunet

The naga was another who took to the training well. She was likely the most physically fit out of the lot of them save Ginger though her movements gave the training course designers bigger fits than Locasta's body did.

She also refused weapon training completely, going so far as to take hits from her sparing partner rather than attempt to harm them. Most of the fights either wound up with her wandering off, or if pressed binding her partner up in her coils until they couldn't move. Evidently something she had been forced to do to help those who didn't think they needed help in the past.

As a medical practitioner however she knew enough that  more skilled doctors needed to be brought in to train her. It took some time to find those that were willing to do so as most of the unicorn doctors in Canterlot thought it beneath them.

A few earth pony and pegasi doctors were brought in and a griffon surgeon was found who had time to teach some one, though his temperament was a tad harsh.

Naunet learned quickly and was proven to be quite capable and steady with her hands when administering aide.

Mentally she had no real issues save her pacifism That she was sheltered in the jungle for most of her life left her in awe of many things in the city, and anything that is technically advanced. 

She is also the closest to Mesa as she finds the foxes antics amusing most of the time and often will come to his defense if he angers some one else.

Mesa will tease her, but it's little more than light ribbing here and there as even the annoying fur ball knows it's not wise to make the healer of the party angry at you.

Her biggest weakness is a strong aversion to the cold. The one time Mesa hit her with a snowball, she grabbed him and used the fox himself to clean the cold off her scales like a dish rag much to Mesa's protest.





Stigma

The changeling is the only one aside from Ginger and Lockheed who seems to have any military training at all. While he is quite skilled in a straight up fight, infiltration and information seem to be his biggest strengths.

Jer'rahd has caught him at least twice in his office looking over the notes taken on the rest of the group. Jer'rahd actually suspects it has been more than that, and that Stigma allowed himself to be caught at least one of those times just to ask a question about something he read that he wasn't supposed to.

Magically, Stigma was about as powerful as the average unicorn, knowing a few personal tricks beyond light and levitation.

The biggest issue came when he was told to reveal  what he was. 

Jer'rahd and the other trainers were not happy with the idea that a race like his existed. Prince was less thrilled.

The rest of the group reacted differently.

Locasta and Naunet sought to study him. 

Lockheed seemed to reevaluate his opinion of the pony.

Mesa thought it was fascinating and set out to try and figure out how to make him involuntarily change as a prank.

Millstone seemed indifferent.

Ginger continuously tried to badger him into taking forms  that would later feature very prominently in dreams she had later on that Luna refused to talk about.

Luna did force all of them to swear to silence about this, invoking a horrid promise featuring cupcakes, that while none understood, all of them with magic ability could feel when it was completed.

Mentally Stigma was a hard read as information on what  his race was normally like was unknown. Revenge was a very high priority for him and he did his best to keep every one at forelimbs length. Whether  or not this was due to his own perceived failings or a death wish he had that he didn't wish to drag others into was unknown.





Lockheed.

Physically he looked as he did the day he was turned to stone, including still being stone.

Reversing the cockatrice's stare was proving far more difficult than expected simply due to the length of time he had spent as a statue. Standard depetrification spells did nothing and only with an alicorn level version of animate object was he even able to move at all.

He doesn't eat, he doesn't breath, he talks with more of a telepathy spell that had been reworked to his beak by Luna. This caused a problem at first until he managed to work out the difference between what  he wanted to say and what he thought.

He can't be exhausted, and most spells that would affect living creatures have no affect on him at all.

Of course there are large down sides.

He cannot fly, and his weight keeps him from jumping or climbing well. Really no one knows how he got into the loft to be able to jump down near Princess Celestia and he simple smiles when asked.

Another issue is he cannot be healed normally. And just moving around tends to cause hairline cracks in his body  and odd wear. There are some workarounds for this and a simple 'mend ' spell works like healing for him.  A problem as well is despite being stone, it is less natural stone and more like concrete, bits can flake off and he is not as sturdy as he should be.

That his training had him more of a striker that relied on his speed is causing all sorts of issues with his retraining.

Mentally he is almost as big a mess as Millstone. Trapped unmoving in stone for so long has given him a number of complexes including claustrophobia, cleithrophobia, and minor panic attacks for seemingly no reason if he stands still for too long. 

He has a strong if justified hatred of Princess Celestia, and cockatrices, yet he also has a strong distaste for his own country and how it seems to be operating.

Of an interesting note however his mind has not faded or cracked from his long imprisonment beyond the development of  the phobias. Jer'rahd has found he has a very keen mind still and has a head for strategy and logistics and has suggested him for more of a planner and strategist than an actual combatant on the team.

He is Mesa's favorite target as he tends to have the worst reactions to the foxes pranking.





Mesa.

This fucking kitsune.

There is no way to get a read on the damn thing. At times he's stronger than anything else , other times he's weak enough that a stray breeze blows him over. He seems smart as he can be and clever at times then other times he's dumb as a rock.

Mesa takes far too much delight in messing with everyone in the group and the training unit. There are only three he will listen to. 

Naunet and the fox seem to have become friends, but he only listens to her some times.

If Princess Luna tells him to do something he will generally do it.

And given on their first meeting and the prank that was played on Jer'rahd, the Guard Captains first response was to put the kitsune through a wall in reprisal.

When Mesa pulled himself out o the hole, Jer'rahd asked if he would like another.

Mesa politely declined.

While he no longer pranks Jer'rahd, he also only sporadic listens to him.

Another thing is that he tries to avoid Millstone. When asked, the cryptic thing simply stated the boy had been through enough, he then placed a taxidermy cockatrice on Lockheed's back without the griffon noticing at first.

Words were shouted that were not fit to print when he did notice.

The fox is clever, and while getting him to prove this is difficult as the damn beast is more chaotic than the discordian nothing he does is outright malicious or harmful. Princess Luna states this is a great improvement on the way he used to be.

Mesa has shown rather potent magic as well, though all of it seems musically based as the fox either sings, hums or beats a time, on several occasions he has some how spontaneously activated a heart song in a group of others who carry on with the song despite no one knowing what the song is about as it is often in some foreign tongue.

Because of this we know Mesa, Locasta, and Ginger have lovely singing voices. Naunet tries, Mill stone does not. Lockheed has a terrible singing voice which he is annoyed by, and Stigma sounds like hooves on a chalk board. 

Mentally there's no way to get a read on him as he acts like he has the attention span of a four year old and while new things will hold his interest once in a while, they won't for long. Hence why most of the training courses are fully changed every week or so just to keep testing Mesa.

If not for the fact he can do some rather interesting things with his singing, and his pranks tend to have the added bonus of amusing whoever is not the target, and most importantly Princess Luna vouches for him, some one likely would have mailed him to another country by now.





Princess Luna sighed shifting in her chair. 

She had not spoken to her sister about her team since their argument about it two months ago.

Granted that was fine with her as no attempts had been made to break them up, or arrest any members. Well aside from Mesa, but the fox couldn't help tease the nobles in the neighboring villas. Luna saw no reason to stop him so long as no harm was done and what ever he did could be replaced. The fox earned pay for this but had no use for it so it was simply placed into a fund for prank repair.

She really needed to come up with a name for the group. She had tossed around ideas a bit , everything from the Lunar Guard, which was already taken by those Royal Guard who thought to protect her, to Moon patrol which was stupid and dumb.

The team worked together fairly well, with a few exceptions and Jer'rahd reported them as being as field ready as he could make them.

She had the perfect starting mission for them as well. It was a simple eviction, but the one needing to be removed was a fairly large dragon camped out on a mountain near the Everfree.

Prince had already reported that her sister was preparing a letter to ask Twilight and her group to remove the slumbering beast before the smoke he expelled caused problems with the weather as thick as it was.

Luna planned to act first and have her team do it. 

If only she could think of a ahhh....

That would do.

It was a newer term, one she had never heard before, but it was used as referencing working the wee hours of the night on a third shift. The term itself was vaguely threatening as well, while remaining vague enough to not cause issues. 

It gave her a small measure of joy to find there were some ponies who preferred working these hours and being up and awake in her beautiful night, and that was not even including the oddly termed Canterlot 'night life'. She had yet to go to one of these 'clubs' but it would be something to check on later.

For now her 'Graveyard Shift', had a mission.
> And the fear still shakes me.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR



And the fear still shakes me.


[Sweet Apple Acres]

Applejack frowned watching her family and her friends move around the orchard harvesting the apples that were ready.

She closed her eyes and let out a small sigh, shifting a little in the wheelchair she was in. She hated this thing and wanted out of it, but her parents, brother, and the doctors were adamant she was to do nothing of the sort for at least a month.

Applejack hated that. She could walk, she could get around fine, she wanted to get back to tending the trees and the orchard. Instead she was told to stay put and not move. Heck they had Pinkie Pie keeping an eye on her. She'd never get anything past that one. She didn't want to listen to her ma chew her out if she tried anything again either.

Had she known she would have been laid up like this for stepping in the way of all those attacks the Nightmare sent at Twilight she would have....... probably done the same thing anyway. 

She had been one of the ponies that saved the world, it was hard to wrap her mind around that. Something intent on killing every pony had shown up and she was there to help face it down, heck they even beat it after a hard won fight.

Then the Princess had shown up and revealed who the Nightmare really was. 

That set Twilight off and despite her injuries she laid into Princess Celestia for playing them like she did.

Applejack had passed out about that point from blood loss, internal bleeding, a punctured lung, and a whole lotta broken bones as her adrenaline and the after effects of using the Elements wore off. 

She was told later that Twilight had a solid right hook though.

“Are you over here brooding again darling?” a voice asked.

“Maybe.” Applejack snorted. “Ah should be out there doing that.”

“And you will be again, but not if you do not allow yourself time to recover.” The white mare strode up beside her wearing cream colored scarf wrapped around her neck, her purple mane and tail was cut a little shorter than usual, the curled locks swept over the left side of her face hiding it from view.

“So how are you holding up then Rares?” Applejack asked. “Glad yah could make it.”

“Better than you it seems.”Rarity scoffed. “ I told you I would come out here, though I do not like the idea of sweating for some apples.”

“Still a prissy little thing aren't yah? “ Applejack scoffed with a smirk. “But you know that's not what ah meant.”

Applejack lifted a hoof flicking the hair out of the mares face, showing the burn scar that ran  from her jaw down the side of her neck marring her other wise pristine white furred coat with an ugly mark. A portion of it was hidden by the scarf, but the rest was just under her mane.

The reaction was instant, Rarity's horn glowed yanking her mane back to cover the injury.

“Do not do that.” Rarity stated her voice as cold as ice.

“Like it matters to any of us. We all saw it happen an helped treat it. It ain't anything to be ashamed of, yah earned that scar saving tha world. Ain't no one but some shallow idiot is gonna care about how it looks in the face of what yah did. Yer the only one of us who managed to actually attack back with anything.” Applejack huffed.

“I care about it.” Rarity offered.” Not all of us are coltish enough to want to flaunt our wounds like you and Rainbow Dash are.”

“Well yah shouldn't. And Dash always liked scars like that, she'd be singing a different tune if her wings got hurt though. Still ah heard you even turned down that ticket cause of that scar. Not wanting yer 'prince' tah see yah.”Applejack commented. “That's stupid.”

“Believe what you want I wouldn't expect a brute like you to understand. A scar like this is a horrible thing for a proper lady to have.”Rarity frowned.

“Ehh whatever, least it made Twilight feel better. My reason to go was kinda dumb, You back out due to yer own vanity, Dash refused cause she ain't gonna upset the others, and Fluttershy didn't really want to bother if it made Twilight mad. Though her and Pinkie Pie are still looking to go since the rest of us refused.“ Applejack explained. “Still think you should go with how much you were whining about it.”

“There were only two tickets.” Rarity scoffed.” And Pinkie and Fluttershy have the ones that were sent.”

“Like we couldn't get more.”

“I would not dare ask Twilight to try and get more from Celestia, the poor thing had her whole world upended. I can't believe the Princess is still sending her messages to her. It's as if she doesn't think she did anything wrong to the poor mare and is still testing her for something.” Rarity sighed.

“Wasn't talking bout asking her. We got two princesses now.” Applejack offered.

“You don't mean.... how can you think of asking her after what she did?”Rarity gasped.

“She ain't tha Nightmare and yah know it. Ya got the letters same as me ah'm sure. Hoof written by some mare who wants tah be forgiven.” Applejack sighed. ”Least she's trying, unlike Princess Celestia.”

“There is that.” Rarity sighed looking over at the purple unicorn mare working  to carry buckets of apples back to the cart. Her mane had been cut short, barely with any sort of style, but what hadn't been burned away by attack spells was cut to make it even. The scars along her flank were easy to see , though thankfully not deep or as debilitating as Applejack's, though she had a bit of a limp. The worst of the damage was hidden by an eye patch over her right eye, the purple orb having been shot out of her head by the shrapnel from an exploded marble pillar. The same pillar that took off Fluttershy's wing about halfway.

“ I will consider it.” Rarity offered, sparing a nod to Applejack before trotting off to join the others.

That fight had been vicious, The Nightmare doing her best to try and kill them. The trip up had them attacked by monsters, had cliffs dropped from under them, and had a whole forest turned into a fear spell. Had it not been for Pinkie Pie that spell would have wound up with all of them having a heart attacks and dying as the fear would only build and build until they dropped.

The battle when they finally came face to face with her had been much worse, the fighting had destroyed nearly all of what remained of the old Castle of the Two Sisters. Somehow Twilight had managed to figure it out and activated the Elements of Harmony. The rush of that magic coursing through them had made Applejack forget how badly wounded she was for a time, it didn't heal her wounds, but she was quite certain it was the only reason she survived. All of them had been hurt with Pinkie being the least injured  having only light burns on her forelegs. Twilight and Fluttershy had the worst, the yellow mare could hover a bit , but not fly at all with the loss of much of her wing, and Twilight had lost her eye. Sure Applejack was the only one still in the hospital, but she would recover and be fine in time.

Twilight had moved into the library here in town and set out to try and make her own way. The six of them had been set up with a paycheck from Canterlot  for their actions, while it wasn't much , it was more than enough to live on in this little town and help out those who needed it. 

The bits weren't coming from Celestia however. Princess Luna had set up the accounts and wrote all of them letters nearly every week since that time. Applejack wasn't sure if any of the others read their letters, but she had, the dark princess was highly apologetic in all of them. She wrote about a number of difficulties she had faced coming back, not as some sort of 'give me pity' situation, but generally just as trying to tell them about how she was doing. The funds were coming from her account, and she was doing something to try and keep them out of danger. Applejack had no clue what that was though, she had considered writing back at one point to ask. 

Applejack had no idea if she was the only one reading the letters, though the talk with Rarity hinted at least the white unicorn read them.

Applejack was considering how to broach the subject with the others when something caught her eye, a great cloud of black smoke  was growing thicker in the air floating out from a distant mountain.

“What in tha world?” Applejack muttered.
> Far beyond the moonlight
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR


Far beyond the moonlight 





“Doot, doot, doot, doot.” Ginger hummed to herself hopping up the rocks without a seeming care in the world as the earth pony mare climbed the mountain.

“Must you be so chipper?” Stigma muttered.

“What?” Ginger paused looking back at the rest of the group.

Stigma wasn't far behind her, the Changeling, or whatever he called himself, was in the form of a black furred and red maned unicorn. He had been climbing as long as she had, and for a bit of the trek she had taken a position not far behind him, cause watching those muscled flanks work was was a joy into itself. He had quickly caught on and told her to take the lead. Granted she had taken the time to wiggle her rump in his face, so it was win win in her  eyes.

A bit further back was Locasta. The centaur was not doing as well and was panting quite heavily as they climbed. Due to how odd her body was, she had to stop every so often and orient herself  to try and keep her upper body lower to the ground on the steeper slopes. Their training had helped, but the book worm wasn't going to win any marathons at her pace.

Behind her was Lockheed, the stone griffon had no trouble with the climbing, but due to his body being stone, his speed was greatly reduced. 

The furthest back was Millstone. The discordian wasn't weak by any means, but his odd body was giving him more trouble that Locasta's climbing and he was thus bringing up the rear.

“Ey.. where's Naunet an tha pest?” Ginger questioned.

“WOOOOOOHAAAAA!!!!” Mesa cried out  as the naga came into view, zipping and curling along the rocks at a speed some of the best sprinters would have difficulty matching on flat terrain.

Mesa was of course on her back enjoying the ride.

Stigma simply gestured as the pair tore past them zipping up the mountain then around it every where.

“Fergit ah asked.” Ginger sighed.

“I am certainly glad this is not a stealth mission!” Lockheed growled.





[Much later]

Ginger sighed as they made their way back down the mountain, most of the group in silence.

Locasta because she was thinking, Millstone because a quiet sulk was his usual state, and every one else because of how ridiculous that whole event was.

Mesa of course was laughing his fool head off and Naunet was still blushing.

They had shown up to combat the creature and drive it off, but all it seemed to have taken was their medic to bat her eyelashes and the dragon was tripping over himself to help her. 

Locasta had pointed out there was a theory about a link between naga and  dragons, though while Naunet had no idea what that might be, the dragon was evidently old enough to remember what the connection had been and seemed quite pleased about Naunet being around and the news of there being other naga. 

The dragon had collected his horde and then took off heading south towards the zebra lands after the talk.

Lockheed wondered if they were going to be sent there later to run him off again.

Locasta was pondering if the connection could be used to ease the tension between the dragons and everyone else.

Millstone was wondering why they had even bothered to come out here.

Stigma was wondering much the same as Millstone.

Mesa was wondering if this would ever stop being funny.

Naunet wondered if what the dragon suggested to her was even physically possible.

Ginger was wondering if she could still get drunk, because the bloody snake was getting more interest from the males than the fine specimen of equine flesh that she herself was.

“Oll right, we're making a pit stop a'fore we're heading back.” Ginger snapped suddenly turning a little and heading down the mountain side in a different direction.

“Where are you going? We have to report back..” Lockheed demanded.

“Tha princess got eyes and ken bloody well see tha smokes stopped and tha scaly bastards buggered off, no offense Nau. Ah got family round here ah ain't seen in far too long an ah'm gonna fix that.” Ginger snapped.

“I don't think we will be much appreciated going through the town.” Locasta offered. “ A lot of these smaller settlements are quite speciest.”

“We ain't gonna go through tha town, farms on tha other side of it....gotta couple of cousins that own a farm out there, Ah heard their daughter got hurt an ah'm gonna check onner.” Ginger offered. “Maybe snag a cask ah cider.”

“Well you have my attention.” Mesa chimed up at the mention of cider.

“Figures ah'd get agreement from you.” Ginger sighed.” Come on , it's time tah take a break for a bit. Prolly git a meal outta it and ah dunno bout you but gitting stuck inside a castle until we git tah go risk limb an life again dun sit well with me.”

Stigma considered, family love was rather filling.... he shrugged.” Alright, color me curious about what sort of family spawned some pony like you.”

“What about you yah grump?” Ginger asked.

“Whatever.” Millstone responded.

Locasta shrugged as Lockheed grumbled about the changing of plans and his time line.

“Come on now, yah won't regret it. Or maybe yah will. Heck ah ain't a bloody gypsy with a crystal ball.” Ginger snapped and led the way  down the mountain.




[ Sweet Apple Acres]

Mesa sat at the edge of the group his ears flat to his head at  all the chatter going on between  Ginger and the two ponies identified as Pear Butter and  Bright Mac.

“The accents..... by the stars. They are doing things to the modern word that physically hurt.”Mesa whined.

Millstone glanced down at the fox , though he took note of what was said, perhaps Locasta could use the information later to get back at the kitsune.

The arrival of the group had brought about a rather strong reaction. Evidently the  Apple family had brought in some helpers to assist with the harvest. 

One of them, a purple unicorn, had taken one look at the group and run away screaming.

A yellow pegasus had  hidden behind a white unicorn who looked torn between trying to flee or  stay where she was.

A pink earth pony had waved at them, seemed to consider something, waved again, then took off like a shot, also screaming.

The rainbow maned pegasus seemed ready to fight them, though she  to have a interest in Lockheed.

The orange mare in the wheel chair and the two older ponies out there had immediately recognized Ginger as she walked up and then the butchering of the ponish language had begun.

The rest of the group stood around, rather out of place as Ginger and the other ponies chatted, though by the same token the remaining assistants were doing the same.
Millstone gave up and sat down to read a book he fished out of his cloak.

Lockheed looked the group over curiously. 

There was the orange mare in the wheel chair, she clearly wasn't happy to be in it, though he could tell she had a number of wounds all over her body. That must be the younger cousin of Ginger with the way she blended right into the conversation with the older ponies. The way she fidgeted in the wheel chair however made him think she was close to getting out of it, or had just been put in it, and none of the wounds seemed that new so he expected the former particularly as her lower and upper limbs shifted and moved without any clear issue, so she obviously wasn't paralyzed.

The blue pegasus had a few scars as well, though she seemed better off than the earth pony. She also hadn't stopped glaring at the others, though when her attention shifted to him, the glare softened a bit, which was odd. 

The white unicorn didn't seem injured at first, though her purple mane didn't perfectly hide the burn scar on her neck and cheek, the scarf didn't do that good of a job covering it either. Granted Lockheed was looking for something and any detail he could a casual look might not have noticed it. It was clear though the mare was doing her best to hide it, Vanity and all that  it seemed. It wasn't his place to decide what the mare wanted to do.

He didn't get a good look at the purple one before she ran off screaming, aside from seeing she was a  unicorn with an eye patch. Her reaction seemed to be to Naunet.

The pink earth pony he got a better look at, she also had some scarring on her legs and barrel but her fur hid most of it.

The yellow pegasus hiding behind the white unicorn was another curiosity. She was pretty he supposed for a pony, though a fair portion of her left wing was missing.

There had been something going on here and Lockheed was curious as to what, there was a niggling detail at the back of his mind and he just needed to clarify.

“GINGER.” Lockheed snapped, cutting off the horrid butchering of equish. “While I agreed to stop in, I didn't agree for you to leave the rest of us standing around staring at the wall while you chit chat.“

“ Oy gimmi a moment we're jus getting caught up.” Ginger snapped.

“And while you are doing that the rest of us are simply standing around trading looks with the other ponies here.” Lockheed stated.” The least you could do is follow proper protocol for this situation”

Ginger glared at him.

Lockheed stared back with no real expression on his face.

The two ponies with her looked confused.

The wheel chair bound pony looked annoyed.

“Now then. Are you going to introduce everyone or are we supposed to continue to pretend to be lawn decorations?” Lockheed questioned.





There was a lot of fear in this group.  From the yellow mare in particular.  There was anger from the blue one, but the others were full of fear.

Honestly Stigma wasn't surprised, even the two older ponies that had been introduced as Pear Butter and Bright Mac had a trace of fear in them, though it was much less than the others. Evidently the presence of Ginger calmed them down considerably.

The purple mare had felt like a blind panic, all of it directed at their naga before she ran off.

Probably scared of snakes or something.

The pink one..... she felt joy before she ran off. He had no idea what that was about, and that worried him.

“Roight.”Ginger sighed  rolling her eyes as she glared at Lockheed. “This is mai cousin Bright Mac, his wife Pear Butter, their daughter Jacqueline.”Ginger pointed a hoof at each in turn. “No clue who that lot is over there hiding, aside from their friends of  Jackie here.”

“Right, tha ones that ran off was Pinkie Pie and Twilight. Dunno what happened with Twi, but Pinkie's likely gonna throw yah a welcome tah Ponyville party.... that's sorta her thing, just roll with it.” Jacqueline explained from her wheel chair pointing a hoof at the others as she introduced them. “The girls remaining are Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy.”

“Okay this lots  Lockheed, tha great interrupting stone chicken he is, Stigma's tha stallion next ta him, tha great big lass there is Locasta, she's a centaur.” Ginger pointed out as Locasta waved slightly. “Tha grump in tha cloak is Millstone, dun mind him he's an alright stallion, tha naga's Naunet , and tha fox thing is Mesa...... bloody buck, where's tha damn fox?”

Stigma took notice of the flares of emotions when Jacqueline listed off the names, particularly the one of the tasty variety, though like the others his attention immediately was focused on the search for Mesa. There was literally no telling what that damn creature would get up to if left to his own devices.

“Aww aren't you cute?”

“Yes, yes I am.”

The groups attention snapped over to the four tailed kitsune lying on his back allowing the yellow mare to run her hoof in his belly fur as she cooed over how adorable he was.

The entire team stared at the fox as if waiting for the other horse shoe to drop, though  for the moment there didn't seem to be one coming. Mesa seemed quite content to be pampered and petted by the yellow mare.

Stigma blinked feeling the emotions coming off the one known as Fluttershy, the fear she had was gone entirely as her attention was focused on the fox.

Stigma glanced to Lockheed as a small surge of panic ran through the stone griffon.

“Something wrong?” Stigma muttered.

“I recognize the names. These are the bearers of the Elements of Harmony.” Lockheed muttered back as Ginger started up the conversation he interrupted again.”

“Got it, I'll let the others know to be careful. And I'll have Naunet watch Mesa closely.” Stigma offered.

“And this is why I wanted you as field team leader over Ginger.” Lockheed pointed out.

“And you know as well as I do why that won't happen.” Stigma responded, stepping back to talk to the others.
> Eminence Front
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Graveyard Shift
By TDR


Eminence Front




Millstone perked one ear at the squee coming from the group further in the orchard. That was either Naunet, or Ginger. Honestly he wasn’t sure which, nor did he really care at the moment. Skulking off had been easy. Ginger tended to draw all attention to herself  and then drag everyone nearby along for the ride. Lockheed wasn’t going anywhere, simply to make sure nothing happened, Mesa was still enjoying the attention of the cute yellow Pegasus and the others were likely hanging around due to having nothing else to do.

Millstone had a book he had brought along to read, and wasn’t a fan of other ponies anyway. He got along somewhat with his teammates, but he got easily annoyed around others and needed to seek solitude in order to calm down if he got too overwhelmed. Honestly the others all understood and Locasta did the same at times, though she was much more intent on being seen and accepted than he was.

Finding a tree within ear shot, but far enough away he could only hear them as more than muffled voices if they yelled, Millstone settled back against a tree, his spine curving in a way most would wince at but was comfortable for his somewhat elongated form, before he drew out the book  from his hooded robes and started to read. 

The book was a newer retelling of an old Sherlock Hooves story, though admittedly one he had never read before.

Still it was easy to lose himself in the mystery and forget everything that was going on in the world and just let himself be drawn in, it was an ability that served him well for years, tuning out that which sucked to focus on something enjoyable.

It was due to this that he didn’t notice the mare until she spoke.

“Don’t turn the page yet.”

Millstone blinked looking up from the book  letting out a yelp and flinging the book away as he dove away from the tree. There was a purple unicorn mare hanging by her back legs from the tree he was leaning again, reading over his shoulder.

A purple glow surrounded her horn and she caught the book and the page he was on before it hit the ground.

“Hey be careful how you treat the book.” The mare chided, her one good lavender eye regarding him with a bit of a frown.

“The book!? Mare you nearly gave me a heart attack, don’t read over peoples shoulder like that!”

“I was already in the tree when you sat down.” She sighed tucking a bit of paper he had been using as a book mark back into the page he stopped before closing the book and offering it back. “And I haven’t had a chance to pick this one up yet. I’ve read the original, but I wanted to know if the reprint changed anything.”

“Right, still a little warning would have been nice.” Millstone grumbled taking the book back and tucking it away, noting how the mares eye seemed to focus on his paw as he took the book.

“Yeah sorry. Not really used to being around other ponies yet. I’m, Twilight Sparkle. I think I saw you briefly in the group with Applejack’s cousin. At least before I spotted the sna…. The ….. the long one…..”

Millstone raised an eyebrow at that as the mare stumbled over the existence of Naunet. Seemed like a phobia of some kind. “Naunet won't hurt you. She's the team medic in fact, she tends to take that oath of theirs seriously.”

“Logic and knowing something do nothing to calm a phobia.”Twilight huffed.”Trust me I've tried.”

Millstone shrugged a little, the effect odd. “Not sure what to tell you aside from not to bother with immersion therapy, that often makes the situation worse.”

“I know I've read quite a few books on the subject and it's a bit horrific.“ Twilight sighed. “ Any way sorry about that. Like I said I'm Twilight Sparkle.”

She offered a hoof and Millstone stared at it a moment before sighing and reaching out  to accept the shake he then tensed as she noticed his paw.” Millstone.”

“Are you an Abyssinian.. but your face is equine. Oh this is interesting, a chimera of some kind or mixed parentage? I'm curious can I see.. what's that?” Twilight asked feeling some sort of magic.

“Fuck off.” Millstone snarled turning and storming away pulling his hood closer around his head.

“What?” Twilight blinked watching him stomp off. ”What did I do?”

“You expressed interest in his condition. He has issue with that.” A voice stated before a dark furred stallion stepped out of the tree line.

“What I wasn't picking on him or anything.... who are you?” Twilight frowned.

“Stigma, I'm one of his team mates, came over here at the yell. He has issues with his condition, it drew a lot of attention when he was younger and he's hated it since. Thing is he doesn't react like a normal pony, he gets angry rather than depressed or anything else, and it's a bad idea to actually get him angry.”

The stallion points to the tree Twilight had hidden in. Twilight looked up her eyes widening as the apples that had covered the tree were now strawberries, the leaves a cream color and the bark a faded pink.

“Luckily his control seems to be improving as you are not a strawberry yourself.” the stallion smiled showing off a pair of fangs. Twilight raised an eyebrow at that, curious on this one too, not that fangs bothered her, she had seen Spike eat since he was a hatching after all.

Stigma closed his mouth raising an eyebrow at her for some reason.

“I wasn't trying to do anything....” Twilight began. “ I didn't mean...”

“I know that, and you know that, shards, he might even know that, though with what little I know that he's been through that's not much of a factor he can control well.“ Stigma sighed. ”Much like your fear of snakes in fact. I'll go have a word with him and we'll head back to Canterlot.  You may want to stay away from the farm house for a bit, Nahnet is still there.”

Twilight frowned as the stallion started off in the direction  Millstone had gone.

She pondered a moment before coming to the conclusion she couldn't let this stand. Friendship had defeated Nightmare Moon and she had just screwed it up.  

She needed to fix this.





“So you're looking for some pony?” Fluttershy asked glancing over at Rainbow Dash who was pestering the stone griffon.

“Indeed fair one, a soul that I lost long ago. One that I was quite partial too after our repeated encounters. But it was I suppose centuries ago by your recollection that I last caught their tune.” Mesa considered. “Occasionally I have caught a hint of their music, but little more, as if something in passing has chanced upon the soul I seek and is humming the tune they heard.”

“Do you think you can find them?” Spike questioned.

“Perhaps. Though what they may be in this era is any ones guess, they might be a pony, a bird, or perhaps if I am cosmically lucky, a nice young vixen, but my song is in no way that good.”

“I am sorry you mentioned music a few times, but I don't quite understand.” Fluttershy offers.

“Ahh quite alright. I speak of the Kotodama. It refers to the belief that mystical power dwell in words and names. Equestrian translations include "soul of language", "spirit of language", "power of language", "power word", "magic word", and "sacred sound". The notion of kotodama presupposes that sounds can magically affect objects, and that ritual word usages can influence our environment, body, mind, and soul. “ Mesa offered.” At least that is the definition as spoke by those who only wish to document and not really feel. The Kotodama is the music that guides the universe. Everything has a song, every blade of grass, every beast, every soul that exists has it's own song and all of this together is the grand song of life, the Kotodama. Each tune is different and easy to tell apart for any that choose to listen.......”

Naunet sighed. “I hope you have the time. He will go one with thissss for quite ssssome time.”

“Sokay it seems pretty interesting so far.” Spike shrugged as he leaned back against the naga's coils to listen.  

“It issss the firsssst dozen timessss one hearsss it.” Naunet rolled her eyes at Spike's seating arrangement, the little dragonling was lucky he was small and cute.





“So yer working fer her?” Applejack asked watching Rarity talk with the centaur further out in the grove with her eyes narrowed before she glanced back at her cousin.

“Pretty much, Celestia dun like it, but pfft what ever. S'ides a paycheck ah ain't never had much tah do with her, even as a ranger.” Ginger offered.

“But isn't she.... “ Bright Mac frowned and looked at AJ. “How ken yah trust her after she did this?”

Applejack rolled her eyes.

“Welp given she's supposed tah be cured from tha nightmare whatever, from what ah ken see she's doing is trying tah right thing.” Ginger offered.” Can't ask more than that in truth.”

“Ain't enough?” Bright Mac huffed and Pear Butter nodded slightly as well.

“Then what would yah have her do? Banish 'erself fer a few more millinia? Jump in a volcano and leave her sister tah handle everything?”Ginger sighed.”From what a'hm hearing from Jacky here is Celestia sent an untrained mare with no idea what tha Tartarus was going on down here tah save tah day. Add in tha fact that Celestia wants me an mai crew pretty much dead or banished or dead where ever she's gonna banish us too? Ah'm inclinded tah trust tha one trying tah do something directly with a trained Guard unit, rather than some young thing straight outta school.”

Bright Mac remained annoyed as he glanced between Apple Jack and Ginger.

“Ain't no easy solutions cuz.” Ginger sighed sparing a glance around noting the only ones left in the farm yard were Mesa, Locasta, and  Naunet of her team, as well as the yellow pegasus Fluttershy, Rarity, and a sleeping Spike. “Looks like mai teams waited around long enough. Nice talking with yah'll, but we gotta report back. Ah'll try and stop by again sometime when ah can, prolly around cider season.”

Ginger smirked at that sparing a glance to the scowling Bright Mac and the frowning Pear Butter. Applejack at least seemed to be considering her words. Not that she could blame the parents for wanting to protect their daughter or being angry at the one who hurt her.

“Locasta time tah go, Naunet grab tha fox, we're heading home.” Ginger called to a relieved looking Nahnet, Mesa had been going on for hours.