salt helps all

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Dean buried his face deep into his down filled pillow. He shut his eyes as tightly as he could and focused on sleeping. But Sam had other ideas. Earlier Twilight invited them over to her library to explain what was happening in Equestria. Somepony out there seemed crazy enough to want to steal ponies away in the midst of midnight darkness, and every pony that went missing was a blank flank.

"And look at this Dean, every time a pony was pony-napped it happened every two weeks or so."

"Will you stop with the pony logic? It's annoying. Everypony, somepony, pony-napped."

"We have to blend in with the locals."

"Yeah, well right now you and I are the only locals I see so cram it with the pony jargon." Dean buried his head back into his pillow and Sam stood silent for a while.

"So you don't want to help these..."Sam wondered if he should call ponies people to alleviate his brother's difficulty adjusting to this world.

"No Sam."

"But Dean..."

"No Sam, ok?" He lifted his head out of the pillow. "You heard their princess, they got their pony cops on the case and it's being solved. They don't need us, hell, the last two people they need on this job is us. We're hunters Sam, not detectives, even though we pretend to be sometimes."

Sam watched as Dean blew out the candle lighting up his half of the room and pulled the sheets over himself. Sam jostled the papers around on his bed into order then tried to pick them up. He failed several times before he remembered he had hooves now. He sighed and picked them up with his mouth. Putting them on the nightstand and blowing out his candle Sam got into bed and looked over to his brother.

"Don't you think it's just a bit weird..."

"Goodnight Sam." Dean said without turning over and Sam laid down. After several quiet moments passed he just had to speak up.

"Doodles?"

Dean smiled to himself.

...

Nearby Scootaloo and Applebloom sneaked around Rarity's boutique and tossed a pebble at what was supposed to be Sweetie Belle's room.

"Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle, come on." Scootaloo said quietly.

The backdoor slowly opened and Sweetie Belle stepped outside with a set of jewel encrusted opera glasses.

"What are those?" Scootaloo asked.

"Opera glasses, I couldn't find a telescope anywhere. What did you guys bring?"

Applebloom opened her saddlebag and pulled out a dusty old-fashioned telescope.

"Granny Smith's old telescope. I found it in the attic next to some rusty old horseshoes."

Sweetie Belle inspected the antique telescope. The lens looked a little cracked.

"Are you sure it works?"

"Yep, I used it to find the perfect spot for our stargazing camp."

"Okay? What about you Scootaloo?"

Scootaloo dropped a pair of binoculars on the floor.

"Rainbow Dash let me borrow her binoculars."

"How are we going to stargaze with binoculars?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Well how are we supposed to stargaze with opera glasses?"

"Girls, girls, what's important here isn't how were going to stargaze, it's that we get our cutiemarks. Because who are we?"

"THE CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS!"

Suddenly the window atop the carousel burst open and a green faced pickled eye monster jumped out.

"Can't anypony get a decent night's sleep!"

The girls screamed and ran off into the fields. Rarity peeled off one of her pickles and looked around.

"Hmph, that's more like it. It's getting so a pony can't get any beauty sleep around here." Rarity closed her window and made her back to her bed. Just then she heard a loud bang from downstairs and jumped six feet into the air.

"Aaah! What was that?" The bang came twice more and Rarity jumped into bed. "Oh, dear Opal. Somepony must be inside my boutique." She gasped. "Sweetie Belle." Jumping out of bed she picked up a hanger with her magic and galloped to the next room. Outside the wind picked up.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Rarity wasn't sure if it was her heart or the intruder as she threw open the door and jumped beside the small lump in the bed. "Sweetie Belle, wake up." She whispered. "I think there's a robber downstairs. Sweetie Belle?" Rarity drew back the covers and found a small pillow beneath them. The bang came twice more and Rarity didn't question her hunch. Instead she dropped the clothes hanger and strode confidently out the door, down the hall and stairs and into her kitchen. Sure enough there was the back door swinging freely in the wind and Rarity boiled over.

"Ooh, that Sweetie Belle. First she 'borrows' my opera glasses and now she's sneaking out at night? Oh, just wait 'til I get my hooves on that little..." BANG! Rarity screamed and jumped back. She sighed as she looked at the door and wiped off her mud mask. Lighting a lantern as she passed through the threshold Rarity made a note to get a quieter door.

"So Sweetie Belle, does your sister always wear that scary nightmare night mask to bed?" Scootaloo asked her as they reached the top of a hill.

"It's not a mask, well not really. It's a beauty regiment that's supposed to cleanse your pores and tighten your face so it doesn't look all droopy when you get old."

"Oh. How old's your sister anyway?"

"I can't tell you that she'd kill me." Sweetibelle's voice cracked as she said kill.

"Girls we're never gonna get out cutie marks talking about Rarity." Apple Bloom said before gazing back up at the stars. There was something wrong with the sky but she couldn't tell what.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Scootaloo said. "Heeey, but what if we talk about other ponies."

"You mean gossiping? Isn't that wrong?"

"Not if you're a reporter! Then it's just news." Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shared a laugh before Applebloom interrupted them again.

"Hey, come on girls. We need to get serious, there's something up in the sky."

The two fillies picked up their scopes and looked at the patch of sky Apple bloom was looking at. They noticed that something was moving through the stars and immediately got excited.

"Is it a comet?"

"Is it a meteor?"

Applebloom had been staring at the sky longer than her friends knew it wasn't anything remotely close to what they were guessing. Something was moving alright, but it was strange, like a wave. Then she saw it, something wasn't moving in the sky, it was the SKY that was moving.

"I think we should go." She said as she put down her telescope.

"Why? We just got here." Sweetie Belle asked.

"Because, IT'S COMIN' RIGHT FOR US!"

...

Sam was just leaving the bathroom and the confusing contraption inside which he guessed was the toilet, and if it wasn't he just made big mistake. He slowly clopped his way into bed and sat on his hindquarters. Looking over at his brother he slowly reached for his lamp and turned it on. He didn't realize it but he had just lit a candle with his hoof. Next Sam shuffled the papers around him and started reading all the headlines and stories about all the pony-napping's. He broke up between the stories to read about the health of the princess and her new assistant's failed attempts to revive her.

Sam flipped though the pages and started reading from the beginning again. There was just something wrong with this whole situation, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Or hoof. He sighed as he stared at the overgrown fingernail at the end of his new leg, then he saw it, for a split second beyond his hoof. Blank flank? He picked up the papers and shifted through them looking at all the headlines, crime scene photos, the equestrian digest, weather reports. That was it!

Then he heard it, all of Equestria heard it, a scream so loud it made him toss the papers up in the air and his mane stand on end. Dean woke up instinctively and jumped out of bed, "Let's go Sam!" He planted his rear hooves on the floor and took two steps before he toppled over. "Damn it!" Dean stood on all fours and looked at Sam. "Just get the door."

Moments later they were galloping in the direction of the screams, it took some practice to learn the right rhythm but they got it, and now they were closing in on the pony in distress. Another scream pierced the air and they knew they were practically on top of it, as a matter of fact Rarity came over the rise just ahead with the cutie mark crusaders right behind her.

"Sam!" He nodded in her direction and he saw it too. Above and behind the ponies was a large hazy mist chasing after them. Sam said 'Oh, no' for fear of what he thought it was. It looked so much like a demon he nearly tripped, he wasn't ready for this. "Get the girls out of here! I'll distract that thing!"

"No, you help them. I got this!" Dean didn't agree, but he knew Sam must've had something up his sleeve. After all he didn't strap on those saddlebags for nothing right?

"Alright." He stopped. "Hey girls! This way!" Rarity saw Chevy's silhouette and instructed the fillies to follow her. Meanwhile Doodles ran past her with a determined look on his face and she prayed he knew what he was doing.

"Hey you bastard! Come and get me!" Sam taunted the smoky fiend into following him away from the girls and further out into the field. It was a close race but Sam wanted the thing to catch up with him, it had to be close enough. Once Rarity reached Dean she looked back as he put her behind him, the girls also looked as Sam stopped and turned around to face the dark mist. They couldn't see from the distance they were at but he seemed to be reaching inside his saddlebags.

"What on earth is he doing? Why isn't he running?"

"That's not the way we do things sister." Rarity was surprised by his answer, despite her first impression of him, she thought he would be concerned for his brother as she was with Sweetie Belle. But then she saw it, like a spread of tiny snowflakes on an early winter's morning, Doodles shot a mass of white diamonds in the mist's direction. She was surprised once more when that horrible thing seemed to screech and dissipate a bit, then it made a loud menacing growling noise at him but Doodles stood his ground and even reached inside his bag for more. After another spread of salt hit it, the mist seemed to have had enough as it lifted into the air and rushed towards the Everfree forest.

Dean punched the air with joy and let out a good cheer as Sam trotted back to them. The cutie mark crusaders also cheered and rushed to Sam desperate to find out exactly what he did, Rarity remained quiet.

"Alright that was awesome. Where'd you get that salt from?"

"There was a tool shed back at the hotel."

"How did you know salt would work though?"

"Yeah, mister. Tell us!" Sweetie Belle said and the other two joined in.

"Tell us. Tell us. Yeah, tell us please." They said.

"Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Applebloom, enough. These two gentlecolts were kind enough, and brave enough to risk their lives to come to our aid in the middle of the night. I'm sure they are tired enough as it is and don't need you girls berating them. Now then we shall walk each of you home and get some sleep, and yes Sweetie Belle we will discuss your punishment tomorrow." The girls hung their heads in shame and collectively said 'Yes, Rarity'. Then she turned to the Winchesters. "As for you two I can't thank you enough. For you to risk your lives for us is absolutely admirable, we are forever in your debt. If there's anything I could ever do for you please do not hesitate to ask." Rarity smiled at them both and all they could do was smile back. What could they ask for from a unicorn pony? A hug, a magical comb, or maybe some form of magic? Actually that last one didn't seem to bother Dean so much, maybe she could open a portal back to their world.

...

After they had escorted Rarity and the girls their individual homes all that was left was to visit the Carousel boutique. It wasn't as easy as they had hoped as nearly everypony was awake now and wondering about the screams and strange noises. Most of them ventured out into the streets in groups of three or four and asked the same question to everypony who would pass them. Sam and Dean tried their best to steer Rarity and her sister away from these groups, but it almost didn't seem necessary as the few ponies that noticed them didn't seem to keen on asking them anything. They were strange ponies who probably had something to do with the whole matter, and given the current situation they didn't want to be seen associating with them.

"The horror, the horror."

"It was awful."

"A disaster. A horrible horrible disaster." Three mares said as they passed. By the time the group had reached Rarity's home the commotion died down a bit and the streets where lonely once again.

"Again, I cannot express how grateful I am to you two. If I had lost Sweetie Belle out there I don't know what I would've done."

"It's no problem. That's what were here for, I guess." Chevy said. Rarity smiled at him.

"Oh, no, no. I insist, now that you know where I live you can come visit if there's ever anything I could do for you, and before I forget..." Rarity gave them each a peck on the cheek. "That was for helping us. Well, now goodnight boys. Pleasant dreams." Sam and Dean stood aghast for a while before they turned and left.

When they were further down the street Dean wiped the smudge from his face with disgust. "Dude, I lived through some crazy shit, and now I just got smooched by a freaking pony. Somehow that tops the list."

"Yeah, it's kind of unsettling." Sam said as he mirrored his brother's action.

"Alright, now that all the kids are asleep you gotta tell me. How did you know what to do back there? I mean, I just thought some pony was getting mugged or something."

"Well see, wait, I thought you didn't want to help these ponies."

"Yeah, but that's kidnappings in another city bro. If someone needs my help here you can bet your ass I'm not turning them down."

"Huh, alright, I guess. Anyway, remember how earlier I was reading the newspapers?"

"Yeah."

"Well there were all sorts of stories in there. Not just kidnappings, I'm talking about daily gossip, horoscopes, you name it."

"And?"

"And?.. it turns out our favorite princess made the new, suffering from an unknown illness that nobody can seem to find the cure for. I'm talking about rashes, hallucinations, night terrors and all of it from an unknown source. Here's the thing though, none of this started until just a few weeks ago, the same time to ponynapping started."

"Kidnappings, please, and so what you think she's dying..."

"Dean I can't believe you of all people don't recognize these symptoms. I think it's ghost sickness."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa..."

"Wait there's more. We're coming up on a holiday known as Nightmare night, sort of our version of Halloween, and apparently like in our world this holiday is meant to celebrate spirits. One spirit in particular is Nightmare moon."

Dean looked at him weird, "Who's that?"

"Turns out none other than Princess Luna. See about a thousand years ago the princess became corrupted and tried to cover the land in darkness. But then her sister, the other princess banished her to the moon and there she stayed. At least until about two years ago when she broke free."

"Wait, so if she's evil why..." Sam stopped him.

"No she's not evil. Not anymore anyways. Turns out all the ponies we met today, Twilight and Rarity and everyone. They wielded magical items known as the elements of harmony to defeat her, and now she's good."

"Alright so what you think she's turned again?"

"I think so. See Nightmare moon wanted to cover the land in darkness, and what kind of moon do we have tonight?"

Dean looked up in the sky but saw nothing but stars. "None."

"That's right and I checked the weather forecasts for the past ten weeks too. Guess what kind of moon was in the sky the nights all those ponies disappeared."

"Well I'm guessing it didn't look like a big wheel of cheese."

"Right."

"One question though. Why kidnap ponies? Especially those without cutesie marks?"

"I'm not sure. My guess is maybe a sacrifice to extend her life? Blank flanks could be the virgins of this world."

"Well, this is just unbelievable. We get transported to a world filled with innocent happy-go-lucky ponies and we still have to deal with sick twisted bitches."

"Story of our lives."

"So all this time it was the princess...and here I though the butler did it."

"What?"

"The butler? You know, like in all those old-fashioned murder mystery movies." Sam shook his head. "Ah, you're no fun."

...

Well you made it to the end and for that you get a special prize. So here's a little preview of chapter 4 A New Hope...Q made me do it.

"Hey is that your cutie mark Chevy?" Scootaloo asked admiring Castiel's handprint on his chest.

"That can't be his cutie mark it's not on his flank." Sweetie Belle challenged her.

"Hey! I don't have a freaking cutie mark, alright? And stop badgering me already. Why don't you go bother my brother?"

"Then what is that thing on your chest?"

Dean thought about how best to put it. "Really bad sunburn."

...

Meanwhile in Twilight's library she and Sam rifled through stacks of books piled all over the floor.

"I wish we could find Zecora. She'd be really helpful right about now."

"Who's Zecora?"

"She's a zebra who lives in the Everfree forest. She knows a lot about all this superstition stuff, she'd be our ace in the hole right now."

Sam thought about Bobby for a minute, then he wondered if he was looking for them somewhere. Perhaps worried that they didn't answer his phone calls or finished off the troll dealer in Memphis. Just then he happened onto a law book.

"Say Twilight, can i ask you a technical question?"

"Sure."

"How does the ranking of the police work here? In Equestria?"

"Well, you have your local police around here. Then there's the Calvacade Calvary over them, Canterlot Official Police above them, and finally at the top you have the Pony Investigations Group. Why do you ask?" Sam leafed through the book. "Are you thinking about petitioning them for evidence?"

"In a manner of speaking." He stopped as he reached the section about the P.I.G.'s, a chuckle escaped him. But there in the pages was the seal of the P.I.G. and he showed it to Twilight. "Do you think you can help me make a convincing badge with this seal?"

"Whoa, no way. That would be fraud."

"Twilight if you don't help us out more ponies could get hurt."

"I'm aware of that. But lying isn't going to get us anywhere, if you and your brother are going to help us you're going to have to do it right." Twilight put her hoof down.

"Twilight, this isn't a matter of honesty. It's a matter of getting the job done. How often have you seen the justice system work in favor of an outsiders opinion? If you're not a lawyer or former judge they completely ignore you even if you have the most damning evidence in the world."

"I still can't do this. It doesn't seem right."

"Twilight somepony DIED yesterday. If we don't get to that crime scene the feds are just going to sweep up all the evidence and take it away to whatever vault they have and just let it sit there. But if we get there before they're through investigating and clean up we can figure out exactly what's responsible for all this."

Twilight sighed and turned away. Then with note of resignation she said, "Fine."

doctor?

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Dean woke up the next morning with the warm rays of the sun on his face and the sound of birds chirping in the trees. A breeze wafted through the window and brought the scent of morning dew to him. He sat up on his bed and rubbed his eyes, something was wrong. His back didn't hurt, he wasn't tired, and he was strangely clearheaded. This new morning routine seemed to bug him more than the fact that he had a tail. Speaking of rear ends he had to get up off his and plant it on a toilet.

A couple of moments later Sam walked in holding a plain white paper bag in his mouth and a newspaper in his left saddlebag, the other side still had rock salt in it. Sam dropped off the bag on his bed and wriggled out of the saddle.

"Sam is that you?"

"Yeah. I brought you breakfast, apparently these pony folk haven't heard of fast food so I dropped by Pinky Pie's bakery. I brought you a cupcake." Dean didn't respond. "Dean?"

"Yeah, I'm in the bathroom. I think." Sam walked over to the doorway concerned that his brother didn't know where he was.

"Dean, what's wrong?" Sam saw him staring down at the same strange contraption he had tangled with the night before. Truth be told he still wasn't sure if he did it right.

"Is this supposed to be the toilet?"

"Uh, yeah."

"How the hell am I supposed to use it?" He asked, more angry than confused.

Sam's answer came later than expected. "...Wing it?"

"Get out." Dean growled.

…...

'Welcome to Ponyville!' The cupcake had said in bright pink frosting. There was also a drawing of Pinky and what was supposed to be the Winchester's celebrating. Dean scarfed it down before leaving the room embarrassed by the fact that he was living out a little girl's dream. Now they were wandering through the streets, walking the beat and asking anypony if they had seen or heard anything strange apart from last night. Everyone had said no, until now the attacks were concentrated in Canterlot.

"Alright so we know it's the princess. Question is how do we stop freaking royalty? I mean it's not like back home Sam, we can't just sneak up on her lair and gank her with...what are we using again?" Dean asked as he wiped frosting from his mouth.

"I'm not sure. But we've gotten into tougher spots before right? And as for "ganking" her, we might not have to."

"You're thinking locking her in her room?"

"Yeah, on the moon."

"Oh, that's a real smart idea. We'll just walk up to her sister and say "Excuse us, we're two ponies you've never seen before and likely will never see again. But we think you're sister is the one behind the kidnappings and we'd appreciate it if you banished her off again." Dean smile mockingly at his brother.

"No, Dean. It's not going down like that."

"Then please tell me how it is going down Redman."

Sam rolled his eyes and started walking towards Twilight's library.

…...

Inside the library Spike was busy mopping the floor. It was amazing how much dirt could settle on the floor when nopony was around. 'Seriously how is this possible?' Spike asked himself as he started dragging the bucket of dirty water towards the door. Not knowing the Winchesters were just outside as he opened the door and threw the water out.

"...the one with the crown..." the water splashed into Sam's face. "thing."

Spike turned around and saw two tan soaking wet ponies, and while one's mane was long enough to cover his eyes, the other one wasn't, and he looked ready to kill him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry you guys I didn't see you there! H-honest." Dean calmed down while Sam struggled to wring the water out of his hair. He chuckled at his brother's awkward movements.

"Nah, don't worry about it kid. Sammy got the worst of it anyway."

"Sammy?"

Both the Winchesters eyes bulged when Spike said his name.

"Uh, yeah. Sammy. Old family nickname. But only family is allowed to use it, got it?" Dean frowned.

"Got it!" Spike straightened up, then laughed. "It's good to see you guys again."

"Yeah, I bet it is." Dean fist/hoof bumped with the little purple dragon. "Barney."

Dean and Spike became fast friends the day before. While Sam was off with Twilight learning how to read, he and Spike hit it off by talking about how girly ponyville was, and from there they covered a whole range of topics. Music, sports, food. Dean was surprised by Spikes love for Rock music, hell, he was surprised rock existed in this universe. Likewise Spike was amazed at how much Chevy liked sausage, Dean had to come up with an excuse, but considering he was from 'a far away place' it wasn't that hard. Dean had also dubbed Spike 'Barney' because of how much he looked like that annoying purple dinosaur.

"I told you to call me Spike."

"You gotta earn a name like shorty."

"Uh, Chevy? Remember why we're here?"

"Oh, yeah. Is Twilight in? My brother's dying for another date."

"Dude. Seriously?"

"What?"

Spike chuckled. "Yeah, she's upstairs in her room. Or should I say locked up in her room, said something about the fate of Equestria and started reading all sorts of dusty old books."

"What?" The brothers said together.

"Oh, don't take it too seriously. She's always going on about these sorts of things."

Sam and Dean shared a look as Spike walked away dragging the bucket and mop behind him. They knew the crazy ones were usually on to something, but if they followed this lead blindly it would almost certainly cause a decline in their status. Dean nodded his head toward the stairs and Sam followed through.

"Hey, uh, Spike. Why don't you try tellin me what Twilight is going all Leonard Bernstein about."

…...

Upstairs Twilight was busy flipping through countless old books, each bigger and dustier than the one before. She was running back and forth between shelves when she heard a knock on her door.

"I said not now Spike! Get to work on the kitchen!" Twilight said angrily as she used her magic to flip through the pages of yet another archaic book.

"Um, actually it' me...Doodles." Another softer knock was heard as Sam dropped his head on her door, embarrassed.

"Oh, I'm sorry Doodles but I can't give you another lesson right now. I'm too busy." Sam's muffled voice came through the door as he peered through the keyhole.

"Yeah, Spike said you were concerned about the fate of Equestria, or something?" He tried his best to sound nonchalant.

"Oh, no he told you that? Listen you just need to leave right now."

"Twilight I want to help." She stopped for a moment, not sure how to respond. She expected this from the moment she started, she turned to the newspaper laid out on her desk and instantly grew firm.

"No. You can't be a part of this. It's too big for somepony like you take in."

"What do you mean somepony like me?" Sam became offended but shook his head. "Whatever it is I'm sure I can handle it." He continued staring through the hole, when suddenly Twilight's own giant purple eye appeared. Sam drew back a bit, startled, but stuck his eye back into the keyhole.

"Doodles if I told you what was happening it would turn your world upside down."

Sam couldn't help but smile. "How so?"

"Because..." her eye disappeared. "That's what's happening to me!" She said somewhere beyond the threshold.

"Try me." He said as calmly as possible. He heard hoofsteps on the other side and Twilight's eye reappeared.

"Doodles, are you sure you want to know? It's pretty extreme."

"Sure, just tell me what you're talking about."

Twilight took a deep breath then said with a quiver in her voice. "Murder."

"Murder!" Sam stepped back as he heard several clicks coming from the door. It opened up and before he could say anything Twilight reached out and threw him inside. Sam toppled end over end and came to rest against a tower of books causing it to tip over on top of him.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." Twilight rushed to his aid after she finished locking the door. Sam got out from under them and rubbed his head.

"It's okay, I'm fine. Now you said something about murder?" Twilight reeled back.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. Some poor pony was found dead in Fillydelphia this morning. It was all over the papers." She pointed over at the desk and Sam made his way to the paper. The headline read "Dead Equine Found", that was it, short and sweet. Sam guessed they didn't have much experience with crime.

"I've decided to keep Spike busy with house chores all day long so he wouldn't hear about..."

"That's it?"

"What?" Twilight was genuinely surprised.

"I mean..."Sam shrugged. "I can see you're disturbed but one murder hardly seems to justify you freaking out over the end of the world."

Twilight stood silent for a moment, mouth open.

"Hardly? A pony's been murdered! In all of the history of Equestria there has never been a reported incident of a murder! Don't you get it? This is the beginning of the end!" Twilight raised her forelegs over her head as she said this.

"Twilight, calm down."

"How can I calm down when the very fabric of society is falling apart!" Sam looked out the window. The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and ponies everywhere were smiling at each other.

"Uhh..."

"The princess needs to know about this. But this is national news so she should already right? Oh, but what if I don't inform her and she thinks I didn't take notice? What if she thinks I'm not mature enough to handle a situation like this! What if..."
"Twilight!" She jumped as he raised his voice. "Sorry. Twilight you seem to be the only one who knows about this and what's more, you seem to be the only one who can help my brother and me.

"What do you mean?" Sam explained what had happened last night.

"So anyway that's about everything. Me and my brother sort of have experience in this field but I just think it would go so much easier with your help."

Twilight stood frozen for a moment, taking in what Doodles had just said.

"I understand if I'm asking too much."

"No, it's fine. I'll do it."

"You will?

"Yes if it really is the princess then you will need my help. I'll have to ask the princess for the elements of harmony, they're the only way we can banish her again." She sighed. "I really thought she changed."
"Hang on Twilight. We're not a hundred percent sure it's the princess behind the murder. Right now the best we can do is to look at the evidence and try to piece together what's going on."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Yeah, unfortunately we don't have our stuff with us so I'm going to need your help," Sam drew an uneasy breath "forging some police badges."

…...

Back downstairs Dean was teaching Spike how to play poker.

"Alright see, three of the same suit is good but if I have a straight, then you're screwed."

"Boy, this game sure is hard."

"It's even harder when you play for money. Or years."

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Hey Twilight. Doodles." Dean didn't hide his smile as the two made their way down the steps. "So what's going on?"

"Uh, Spike? Doodles and I sort of made a mess in my study, could you go clean it up."

"Fine. It was nice seeing you guys again."

"Yeah, catch ya later barney."

As soon as they heard the door close they got down to business.

"Sounds like you two lovebirds had a good time. You know you where gone for almost ten minutes."

"Dean."

"Who's Dean?"

Sam panicked. "Uh, nobody." Dean shot him a look. "Anyways, Chevy, turns out there was a murder last night, in Fillydelphia."

"So?"

"So I think we should go investigate it."

"Doodles you already know my feelings to foreign affairs."

"Would it help if I told this was the first murder in the history of Equestria?"

Dean became silent.

"What if I said I could only use the elements of harmony against Princess Luna if I have sufficient evidence?"

"And we're are you going to get this evidence?"

"We're going to get it. The way we always have."

"This goes against my better judgment, but if it's the only way I can't say no." Twilight's horn glowed as she brought out the fake badges. "These badges are for the Pony Investigation Group, they outrank local police and will grant you immunity from the princess's guards if they find you."

"P.I.G. Huh? Awesome."

"I sent a message to my friend Rarity to make some uniforms for you guys. Doodles said it would help a lot if you looked the part. She works fast, so if you leave now she should have them ready, and you just might make the 10:05 Friendship Express to Fillydelphia."

"The what?"

"The friendship express, Chevy." Sam looked away from his brother.

Dean opened his mouth. Of all the things he could say right now, none would be appropriate. He stayed that way for a long time before he shook his head and said, "I'm just gonna go."

…...

"I don't feel right about this." Sam said as he got off the train

"Tell me about it. Riding on The Friendship Express? I feel like putting a bullet in my skull just saying those words."

"No I mean, what if it was that spirit that killed this guy? Maybe it got so pissed at me for challenging it, it went and started slaughtering ponies?"

"You're a real pessimist you know that Sam?" Dean said as he walked through the crowd. Everybody seemed nervous and traveled in groups greater than three. There was large gathering nearby that caught his attention.

"Hey, what do you think?"

"Could be, lets go"

The brothers made their way through the crowd holding their badges in their mouths.

"What do we got?" Dean asked as he reached the front. One of the police ponies immediately started pushing him back.

"You can't be here, step back behind the line."

"I don't think you know who you're talking." Sam stepped up and presented his fake badge. The officer took one look at it and apologized.

"So who's in charge here?"

"That would be Sheriff Mountie sir." He pointed out a beige pony with a red coat.

"Thanks." Dean went on to talk to the sheriff while Sam hung back.

"Uhh, what happened to the body?" he asked the pony

"We moved it to the morgue at the hospital. We thought considering the circumstances we should move it right away."

"Considering the circumstances I'd think you'd be wise enough to leave the body where you found it unless you're willing to risk destroying evidence." Sam put on a tough face.

"Sorry, sir. But it was the sheriff's orders." Sam nodded and went off to join his brother.

"So what you're saying is this black cloud just came out?" Dean asked

"That's what the witness recounted. You'd think if she were telling a lie she'd thought of a better one, ay?

"What is this about a black cloud?"

"Witness says she was out for a late night walk with her husband, when this black cloud comes out of nowhere and starts hassling them."

"Don't forget, that's when the magical zebra showed up." Sheriff Mountie added.

"Did you just say magical zebra?"

"That's right I did. Don't ask me where the zebra came from, but the witness said she's the one that killed her husband."

"Then the black cloud just came out and vanished. The zebra did too and the wife just fainted."

"Tell me sheriff, did you by any chance procure any forensic evidence from the body before sending it to the morgue?"

…...

Sam and Dean entered a familiar white tiled room filled with row after row of lockers. The cool air chilled their flanks and caused their breath to hang in the air before disappearing. There were several names written in pony over the handles of each handle signifying which were occupied or not.

"Figures the one place that reminds me of home is a room full of dead people." Dean said. Right away a beige pony with a brown spiky mane and a lab coat entered the room.

"Right then boys. You're here to see Mr. Stone?" He said with a British accent.

"Yes, we are. Agents..."

"Yes I know. Agents Boulder and Gully, P.I.G. The local police informed me when they called me over from ponyville. Let's have a look shall we?"

The pony made his way over to a drawer and pulled it open with his teeth. A white sheet covered the body and again he removed it with his teeth. Sam was about to make a comment about his personal hygiene but the pony's body stopped him.

The report said the pony was somewhere in his mid-thirty's and very athletic, but the pony that lay in front of him was wrinkled, saggy, and otherwise bloated. His eyes were clouded over, his mane was gray and patchy, and his wrinkled lips were pulled back in a sick smile that revealed a mouth pockmarked with decaying and missing teeth. The smell was unbearable, but nothing new to the Winchesters.

"There he is, in what's supposed to be the prime of his life." The Doctor said in a grim voice then he looked up at the both of them and saw they were studying the body carefully. Not a trace of disbelief or shock on their faces, rather they looked intrigued and even decisive about what had happened to him. One of them pointed out a distinguishing mark on the body and the other lowered his head to inspect the injury more carefully.

"Pardon me for asking, but are you boys familiar with this sort of work?"

"We're at the top of the food chain bro, um, pony...brony?" Dean said while Sam moved to the lower extremities which showed significant wear. "We deal with this on a day to day basis, trust me."

"I'm sorry it's just that, these sorts of crimes don't happen all that often in Equestria. I can't help but wonder what else would happen in the course of your work day."

Dean was at a loss for words. What else could he do but say "uh". Thankfully his brother came to his rescue.

"Hey, Boulder check this out." He called his attention to the horn. "Doctor is it normal for unicorns to have such deep cracks in their horns? Even at old age?"

"No not likely. What does cause cracks in the horn is the strenuous use of magic."

"Well that explains the list." Dean said.

"The list?" The doctor asked.

"Yeah, in the forensic report they found traces of magic all over the place. Protection spell, shield spell, fire spell, spear spell, blinding spell and about thirty other types of spells, and that was just the first page."

"I see. Well what of these two punctures on the neck, what do you make of them agent Gully."

"I've seen this before." Sam said as he hovered over the wound. "It bears resemblance to the bite of a vampire bat. It's supposed to encourage bloodletting for feeding purposes, but I've never seen a bat big enough to cause this." He shot his brother a look.

"Well, that seems to make sense. Now what do you think might've caused such a bite?"

"Hard to say, but whatever did it must've sucked the blood essence out of him."

"Blood essence?" Dean and the Doctor said jointly.

"You mean you don't know?" He asked more of his brother than the doctor.

"Blood essence is what is believed to be the very energy or life force that drives all living beings. Ancient druids, uhh, that is to say druid ponies, believed that it was possible to obtain eternal life by boiling and drinking the blood of others. So whatever or whoever sucked this pony dry enough for him to age this severely probably did so to extend her own life."

"Her? You mean to say you have a suspect already?"

"We may have someone in mind. You ever heard of Nightmare Moon doc? We think she's making a comeback." Dean said.

"Hmm." The Doctor pondered on this for a second. "Gentlecolts, we may have a common goal in mind. Though your pony anatomy could use some corrections. You see agents, ponies here don't have a single drop of blood in their bodies."

The brothers remained silent.

"And in all the history of, well, EVER, there was never a mention of any so called 'druid ponies'. Which makes me suspect that you two aren't from around here at all." Sam and Dean shuffled a bit. "If anything I'd guess you two are from out west, am I right? Beyond Appleloosa?"

"Yeah, that's right." Sam said.

"Yes, well, back to the topic. As I said your understanding of pony anatomy is quite off by a few veritable degrees. Though we Equestria ponies do not have a blood we do have an essence within us, as you have so conveniently put it, a life force. You see pony bodies aside from not having blood also do not have much in the way of a skeleton."
"No skeleton?" Sam asked.

"Bone structure would be a better way to put it. A pony's skeleton is largely comprised of a jelly like substance that conducts this magical energy that gives us our life. Our bodies are also not comprised of flesh or muscle, but a rather elastic sinew that cushions any blow we receive allowing us to bounce back from any attack."

"So what you're saying is you got a body full of cartilage that carries magic all over the place like electricity through a wire? And I bet their hooves are made from the same stuff as their horns. You know acting like a ground to keep from getting... I don't know shocked or something. Right?" Sam gave Dean a funny look. "Shark week dude."

"Very nicely deducted Agent. Though I'm afraid that only pertains to unicorn ponies." Dean shrugged. "But you're not far off from coming to the conclusion as to why pegasus ponies can fly and walk on clouds." He looked at Dean expectantly.

"Oh, um..." Dean scratched his head. "Yeah, I don't know."

Dean smiled awkwardly as the doctor looked from him to Sam.

"I'm going to guess their bones are hollow, like birds? I don't know how they walk on clouds, I didn't even know they could."

"Well if you don't mind the biology lesson." Sam and Dean shook their heads." The fur is hydrophobic in a sense repelling microscopic particles of water that would otherwise cling to their coats and weigh them down, like us. Also much like our fellow here the hooves are quite unique for pegasus ponies as they contain small air pockets that act as a cushion from the static in the clouds." The doctor turned and slipped on a surgical mask. "Now what do you say we finish examining this body."

Sam and Dean took their time with the doctor examining the body, mostly because not one of them could keep a hold on the scalpel or any other medical instrument. As it turned out besides the horn and hooves being cracked, the body also seemed to have unusual bruising along the abdomen that branched out over the body. They spent what seemed like hours before the doctor admitted defeat as the scalpel slipped his double hoofed grip.

"Oh, what's the use with these bloody things. I couldn't hold my sonic screwdriver much less this outdated savage instrument."

"What?" Sam looked at the doctor surprised.
"Sorry I'm late boys. The trains seem to be running slow today." Twilight walked into the room wearing Rhinestone cat glasses and dressed in a similar suit and tie as the Winchester's. "Good afternoon sir, my name is Constance Peril. Why don't you fill me in on what I've..."She paused as caught her first glimpse of the dead pony. "...missed out on."

The doctor took a short time to explain everything they covered in the past two hours. After he was done. Sam suggested that she help them in performing an autopsy on the pony.

"You're a unicorn, so you can use your magic to cut him open right?"

Twilight was visibly disturbed by the suggestion, but she took a deep breath and agreed. She lifted he scalpel off the tray and began making the incision over the stomach, right over the mysterious bruise. Twilight wasn't alone when she gagged as the cut burst the stomach and sent out a small burst black slime.

"What the hell is that?" Dean asked as Sam and the doctor drew closer. Twilight continued the incision and oozed more of the slime along with the intestines. She dropped the scalpel immediately and turned around.

"Stiff upper lip, mum." The doctor said as he dove into the mess with his gloved hooves. Dean pointed out something strange among the ooze that looked like a worm. "Well now that is strange isn't it?"

The Doctor reached for it but drew back startled as he slipped on the cold floor. Sam helped steady him and he got back to separating the strange object from the ooze only to have it split in half.

"I say could you give me a hand Agent Peril. Just lift this thing over to the tray would you?" Twilight did so with one eye shut to avoid looking at the carnal mess, surprisingly as she did the object seemed to attach itself together. The slime also seemed to solidify as well and change in color from black to blue grey.

"Stranger even, it seems to react positively to your magic agent." Sam reached for the weird thing when he got a shock.

"Ahh, that stung."

"Hmm, gentlecolts it seems as though whatever killed this fellow also liquified his skeleton. Or at least the part that conducts magic."

"Makes sense. Take the venom out of a snake and what do you got?" Sam and the doctor looked over at him. "You got a belt." Dean smiled.

Sam shrugged of his brother's lame joke and went back to the body. "You know if magic gives these ponies life I wonder if the heart and lungs are missing. Uhh, Constance? Could you hand me that pry bar?"

Twilight regained her composure enough to manually hand Sam the metal bar. She studied enough anatomy books to tolerate some of this operation.

"Thanks."

She might even be able help Doodles look at the pony's insides and help him find the heart. So she took a deep breath and watched as he stuck his hoof tenderly over lower ribs and then slip the pry bar beneath the ones above. It looked easy enough, and now she could say to the princess that she did take matters into her hooves. She wasn't afraid of any challenge that presented itself. Sam grunted loudly as he lifted his head and split the ribs with a sick crunch.

"Well the heart seems to be okay. Lungs are alright."

"Will you relax already. We're dealing with a killer pony not a werewolf."

"A what?"

"Hey what's this? Constance hand me a...Constance?" Sam looked around but couldn't find Twilight.

"Looks like she made like that ribcage and split." Dean laughed loudly at his originality, and even the doctor partook with a small chuckle.

Outside Twilight paced back and forth as she took deep breaths trying desperately to get the image out of her head. She didn't dare close her eyes for fear of imprinting it on her mind so instead she just watched the floor. Eyes on the floor, always watching the floor, even when she ran into a gray pony and ended up on the floor.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Said a girlish voice. "Oh, hey Twilight!"

Twilight looked up from her daze and saw Derpy.

"No, I'm sorry Derpy. I wasn't watching where I was going. What are you doing way out here in Fillydelphia?"

"Oh, I'm here for the doctor. I'm his assistant you know."

"Assistant? When did this happen?"

"Before last year's Sun festival."

"I didn't know you had an interest in medicine. What made you want to become a nurse?"

"Umm, I don't know. When did I become a nurse?"

"Didn't you just say you were the Doctor's assistant?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Well..."

"Well what?" Derpy smiled awkwardly. Up to this point in their conversation her eyes faced forward, but no longer as she was confused by Twilight.

"Ooh, there he is!" She trotted over to the hospital entrance where the doctor emerged with the Winchester's. "Heya Doctor Whooves! Are you ready to go?"

"Ah, yes assistant. Allow me to introduce you to Agents Boulder and Gully, P.I.G. Something tells me we're going to be working together in the near future.'

"Hello Agents! I'm Derpy."

"Hello."

"Hey."

"Anyway Gents I'm afraid my time is up here I must return to my workshop."

"Whoa, wait workshop?" Dean asked.

"Yep, he calls it the Tar-T-Tard...oh I forget."
"The Tardis assistant."

"Oh, yeah. That." Derpy said with a wide smile.

"The Tardis?"

"Yes. Now if you'll excuse me gents I have work to do. Ready assistant? Allons-y!" And with that he took off with Derpy flying hot on his tail as she waved good-bye behind her.

"That was weird."

"Yes. It was." A stupid grin came across Sam's face.

"Hey, Twilight why did you come over here?"
"I thought you might need some help if the badges didn't work. But I guess you didn't. Now I'm starting to regret it."

"Listen, I know how this may seem a bit crazy but..."Twilight cut him off.

"No, it's okay. Could you just give me a minute to walk this off. I'll meet you two back at the train station." Twilight walked away leaving them alone.

"Wow, not even lunchtime and the kid's ready to quit." Dean said. Behind him one of the nurses walked up to Sam and informed them that the doctor was ready to help them examine the body.

"The doctor was busy with a house call all day but now he's all yours."

"Thanks, could you tell him we'll be right in?" The nurse smiled and walked away. Dean nodded to his brother and they bolted.

"What the hell? I thought the other guy was the doctor?"
"Maybe he was maybe he wasn't."

"What are you talking about he had a lab coat on. He didn't even give us a fake name."

"That's because he didn't have to. He was The Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Exactly."

pie

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"I'll say one thing about these ponies. They make a decent pie." Dean said as he scarfed the last crumbs off his plate. Sam was nibbling on a salad as he looked over the police report. After their little run they found a restaurant, and their appetite. Sam just finished his third leaf of lettuce when the waiter came over.

"Did you two gentlecolts enjoy yourselves this afternoon?"

"Sure did. Say can I get some more of this pie to go?"

"Certainly, and how will you be paying for your meal?"

"My friend will get this one." He motioned to his brother and the waiter gave him his attention.

"Sir?" Sam looked up. The waiter asked again and Dean nodded to him.

"Oh, right." He smiled. "City Health inspector, we're here on a surprise visit."

"W-what?" The pony became wide eyed as Sam flashed his fake badge. "I didn't know about this."

"That's why it's called a surprise." Dean said. "Can I get ice cream on that pie?"

…...

Twilight spent the better part of an hour walking around staring at the floor hoping to get the image of the mutilated pony out of her head. Just the thought of its milky white eyes made her stomach...

"No, no. Get a hold of yourself Twilight, you can do this. Think, change the subject. What would Starswirl the Bearded do?" Twilight stood silently for longer than she anticipated. "Oh, who am I kidding?"

Just then she heard a familiar flapping sound, she picked up her head and saw Owlicious's form appear over the rooftops. Twilight perked right then just seeing a familiar face amidst the hustle and bustle of the city.

"Owlicious! What are you doing here?"

"Who." The owl hooted as it landed on her back and dropped a scroll.

"What's this? A letter from the princess!"

'My Dearest Twilight I hope I am not troubling you by bringing this to your attention, but as you probably already know there has been an unnatural death in Canterlot. Do not be afraid for I suspect the murderer is only after ponies without cutiemarks. As it is Princess Luna's condition seems to be worsening and I'm afraid her best assistant is at a loss of what to do for her. So I am asking you as my most faithful student to pay a visit to Canterlot and help however you can and please don't be shy about bringing your friends, I'm sure you know how much better a friendly face can make you when you are feeling down.'

Yours Truly,

Princess Celestia

"Princess Luna has an assistant? Wait, Canterlot? That's almost a whole day from here, I better find Chevy and Doodles. Thanks Owlicious you have no idea how glad I am to see you." She snuggled the Owl and took off for the train station. Of course she didn't get too far before she heard Doodles calling her name.

"Twilight! Hey Twilight! Where are you going!?"

She stopped instantly and turned around. There were the brothers standing in front of a resting train next to the conductor clipping tickets.

"Train station's back here sister." Chevy said with a sly grin on his face. Twilight's ears drooped as she realized where she inadvertently walked too.

"I guess that's why it was so crowded a few seconds ago."She smiled awkwardly.

The train heading to Canterlot was completely deserted, save for the attendants and added guards. Sam and Dean settled in the middle of a car an equal length from each of the armored pegasi at either entrance.

"Dean can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Could you cut back on the jokes just a little bit?"

"Why?"

"It's just, I don't think these ponies get your sense of humor, besides they're not even funny."

"Someone's gotta lighten the mood. Plus it takes me a long time to think up those jokes."

"Yeah, but for you a long time is two seconds."

"Cut me a break will ya? I'm stuck in ponyworld."

The door opened up behind Dean and Twilight stepped through with owlicious, who settled on the headrest. The guard insisted she show him her ticket before letting her continue.

"I'm sorry I had to leave like that, but no matter how many anatomy books you read it just doesn't seem to prepare you for something like that."

"Don't worry about it, you handled it a hell of a lot better than I did my first time. I almost puked my guts out and couldn't sleep for a week." Dean said as he looked out the window. Sam nudged him. "What?"

"What my brother is trying to say is that it's never easy, but you get used to it over time." He shot a look back at him. Twilight breathed deeply before she spoke.

"Alright then, should we continue?"

Sam nodded as he flipped past the photos of the dead unicorn. Post-op. He didn't stop until he landed on the list of spells. "Okay so this is where my brother and I picked up the case. All these spells are just reamed in here together." He passed the papers across the table to her.

"Okay lets see what we got here. From what I read on police reports, they always list the most important or prominent things first. So if we look at the first spells we should get a picture of how the situation first escalated."

"Alright, uh, first spell is...Projection."

"So what, somebody beamed Scotty on board?" Sam looked at Dean with the same look as before, but felt the need to correct him. "That's teleportation."

"What's a Scotty?"

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Sam covered up, and before Twilight could ask again. "So Projection, did somebody find it necessary to make themselves look bigger?"

Dean stifled a laugh.

"Um, no. Projection is a defensive spell that is meant to expel any impurities from yourself or other ponies."

"Um, what kinds of impurities?"

"Well usually it would mean something small like a nymph or other parasites. But judging from the report the projection spell used was far too powerful for a common ailment."

"So whoever used this spell wanted to remove something bigger than a booboo."

"Precisely."

"Something as big as say a psychopathic vampiric princess?"

Twilight fell silent while Sam looked up from the report and slowly turned to his brother. Dean defended himself.

"Like you can come up with something better."

Sam turned back to the report. "Whatever, I think I found something here we can use. The witness said that the spells used weren't what we would consider 'normal' pony magic."

"Yes, these are all curses." Twilight flipped her papers. "At least half of these required some form of witchcraft I'm not familiar with, and I never even heard about most of them."

"Right, the pony opposite Mr. Stone used a really powerful dark form of magic. I guess they felt they had to going up against royalty and all." Dean took a few papers from his brother as he started feeling useless.

"Witness also reports hearing strange voices chanting in an incoherent language. Felt a sharp decrease in air temperature, no surprise there. Looky here Will-o-wisps showed up right before the fight broke out."

"Guess that explains the names." Sam lay a paper on the desk and pointed out a line with his hoof. He shook off the unfamiliar feeling before continuing. "It says here quote, 'I will call upon ancient names, powerful names, to vanquish this evil of lesser fame.' end quote."

"Well I'll be, sounds like good old fashioned voodoo."

"Is that a type of magic?" Twilight asked.

"Yep, and the most powerful type to boot. You probably never heard of it because it's from..." Dean stopped before he said 'Africa', but then it hit him. "Hey, didn't that Mounty Sheriff pony say something about a zebra?"

Twilight perked up.

"Yeah, he did. It's in the report too, but it was wearing a hood. Not like it matters."

Dean shifted his gaze to Twilight. "Hey, uh, Twilight, there wouldn't happen to be any zebras living around these parts would there?"

Twilight thought about Zecora, and the way she always rhymed everything she said. Then thought about what these two strange ponies might do to her if they caught up with her. She shunned the vision of the dead pony from her mind before talking.

"No, there are no zebras living around here, and I don't know of any that are."

"Yeah, I thought as much."

Twilight's owl hooted and started nudging her, but she just shushed her.

"You know if Voodoo worked against this thing maybe we should stock up on some things."

Owlicious hooted louder and started hopping side to side on her perch.

"Sure I'll call up the nearest pottery and see if they have any spare brick dust we could have."

"That's Hoodoo, Doodles."

Owlicious finally had enough and jumped off the head rest onto the table, snatching the report from Sam. "Hey I was reading that."

Sam looked as the bird as it twisted its head a full 180 degrees and stared at him. "Give it back."

The owl seemed surprised as it twisted its head back to Twilight and dropped the sheet in front of her, pecking at a very specific line in the report. Twilight knew what Owlicious was trying to do, but she couldn't risk Zecora's life.

"Twilight what is that bird doing?" Dean asked as Twilight tried to calm her down.

"She's just, feeling a little cooped up I guess." Owlicious hooted in protest as she picked up the paper again and returned it to Sam. "Oh, now I see." She said faking surprise. "I forgot to write a letter to the girls telling them to meet me in Canterlot. Excuse me a moment." Twilight got up to leave as the sweets cart rolled in.

"Okay Twilight, now please step aside." Dean said eying the tray as it drew closer.

"Why hello there! You know I wasn't sure anypony was on this train."

"Well I am, and I'll tell you what I've been hankering some pie all day long. Can I get a slice?"

"Sure thing thing hon, and how 'bout you sweetie?" The cart pony asked Twilight.

Twilight felt a bit peckish after skipping breakfast, and lunch. "I guess I'll just take this apple fritter. Oh, Doodles do you want anything?"

Sam looked up from the report long enough to say, "No, thanks." Then got back to reading. Twilight paid for their meals and darted off to another car as the trolley pony moved along. Sam was left alone again in the train car with the guards at either door and his brother delighting in his fourth helping of pie that afternoon.

"Really?" he finally said.

"Wha..?"

"I just find it hard to believe that a pony's diet consists of nothing but flour, sugar, and what looks like maraschino cherries."

"We're in pony world Sammy, your human rules don't apply to me anymore."

Sam shifted in his seat.

"Is it just me or is this trip taking longer than the ones we usually take?"

"That's because we don't have any music. Hell even your whiny annoying emo rock music would seem good right about now."

"What's wrong with Green Day?"

…...

The train ride continued well into the night. Sometime before sunset Twilight let owlicious go near Manehattan where her flight would be shortest back to ponyville. Sam and Dean camped out in the dining car while Twilight napped in her bunk. While Sam took a final look at the paperwork Dean came back around from his transition from pie to cake. Sam rubbed his head.

"All this paperwork is giving me a headache. Remember when we used just drive the Impala. Picked up the pieces later?"

"I remember I used to drive the Impala." Dean licked frosting from his hoof.

"I'm just saying we might be well prepared when facing the princess, but wrapping my head around all this pony anatomy and magic is giving me a killer headache."

"That's 'cause you're thinking like you. You should think like me."

"You're right." Sam said much to Dean's surprise. "I should just put this out of my head and fill it with frosting and sugar."

"You'd be living the dream." Dean slid his next piece of pie over to him and raised an eyebrow.

Sam thought seriously about tossing the papers over his shoulder and digging in. The powdered sugar that dusted the cinnamon crust and melded into the caramelized apples sure looked good in the moonlight. A shadow passed over his pie while he pondered.

"Dean."

Several footsteps resounded on the metal roof overhead.

"They're headed for Twilight."

Sam and Dean ran down the car and into the next one. They kept going until they were stopped outside the bunk car by one of the night guards.

"Where do you two think you're going?"

"We're going to sleep Einstein what do you think?"
"No passage without your tickets. Ponies are asleep in this car and they trust me with their safety."

"Listen if you're concerned with their safety you have to let us through."

"No."

"But we heard footsteps up on the roof."

"The only footsteps I've heard all night are yours. Now please either present your tickets or go away."

"Alright fine, let me just go get them." Dean turned around and kicked the guard's face as hard as he could.

"Dude!"

"I got no fists Sammy."

Sam didn't question him any further and threw his weight into the door falling into the other car. Dean walked around him and started checking all the beds. Twilight reached down and helped Sam to his feet from her bed.

"Twilight!"

"Twilight?"

"Chevy, Doodles? What are you two doing here?"

"We came because we thought someone would be after you."

"Who would be after me?"

"Well that's what we're here to find out." Dean searched around the car.

"What are you looking for Doodles?" Twilight asked Dean.

"I'm not looking for anything, I'm right here."

"Oh. Sorry it's dark."

Dean didn't notice as he searched everywhere for anything that seemed strange or out of place. All the beds were made, but that didn't mean someone could've placed a hex bag, if they had them here anyway. He kept searching.

"Twilight you haven't heard anything in the past couple of minutes have you?"

"How could I? I was asleep."

"Huh. Anything else strange maybe you had a bad dream or felt like you were floating?"

"No. But I am feeling a little bit safer with you here." Twilight batted her eyelashes at Sam.

A little further down the car Dean pulled back the curtain on a top bunk and found a very messy bed. There was a badge and a wrinkled suit and tie stuffed in a corner, and the window was open. Dean stuck his head out and looked around. Several cars down he saw a gathering of flying dark shapes being shot down by a purple unicorn using her magic. He brought his head back in and looked back at his brother. Twilight was bringing her head closer to his and in the moonlight he saw her eye glint in a green color.

"HEY!" Dean shouted more to the fake Twilight than to his brother. Sam turned, his eyes were glowing a faint green.

"That's not Twilight!" Sam shook his head breaking free from the changeling's spell and when he turned back the fake Twilight hissed at him with it's new fangs. Sam drew back as it broke through the window behind it and flew into the sky.

"Sam those things took Twilight. They got her up on the roof."

"What the hell are they?"

"Who knows but she's putting up a hell of a fight."

Twilight was growing tired having to shoot down so many changelings, she could feel her magic draining away. Another changeling came down in front of her and charged, fangs ready. Twilight cast a magical bubble to protect herself when Dean tackled it and threw the changeling over the side. Sam came in behind him and started pushing her back.

"Twilight what happened?"

"The changelings are back. I think Queen Chrysalis is trying to take Canterlot again."
"Changelings?"

Two cars behind them the guard regained consciousness and was investigating the broken window. Cautiously he peered out and withdrew quickly as a dark shape flew past him and hit the ground. His duty obligated him to investigate, so he grabbed his spear and flew out. Racing alongside the train he came up just in time to see one of the two ponies that assaulted him being overpowered by those dastardly changelings.

Dean couldn't handle three changelings at once, each one was reaching for his neck with their fangs. While he was under them strange things came to his mind, nothing weird, but memories of him and Sam as kids. Old memories of when they weren't hunting monsters or training, but when they first visited the beach and saw their first topless woman. Or the time when Sam's first tooth fell out and he thought he was falling apart. Even when the storm hit in Colorado and the hotel lost power, their dad turned on a flashlight and read them exorcism spells from the bible. He couldn't help but feel warm inside.

That's when the first of them buried it's fangs into his neck and drained all the warmth out.

"Ah! Son of a bitch!" He punched the changeling as best he could with his forehoof just as the guard flew in and tackled the three of them off of him.

Dean stood up and looked as the changelings started going after the new guy.

"Go! Get the lady to safety, I'll handle these miscreants."

Dean didn't waste any time. "Alright you heard the man let's move."

"Dean, these things are changelings."

"Seriously?"

"Come on, we can get back inside by using the emergency hatch in that cherry up ahead."

Dean looked from Twilight to the cupcake car further down. "Seriously?"

Sam was first to jump the cars, then Twilight and Dean. As they kept moving three changelings buzzed overhead and turned into Sam running next to him and pushing and shoving each other so they all fell in one big heap. They all stood up with the same expression on their face.

"Oh, crap not this thing."

"They're the imposters I'm the real me."

"No he's not it's me."

"No, me.

"It's really me."

The four Sam's kept arguing with each other while Dean tried to figure it out.

"Wait, I know a spell that'll show us the real Doodles. It'll take some time but, oh no..." Dean covered her mouth and stared at the four Sams.

"I know a better way." Dean waited for just the right time before speaking while Twilight was struggling and waving her arms frantically. The changelings and Sam were genuinely confused, until at last. "Sammy duck!"

Dean hit the floor with Twilight and only the real Sam ducked in time to avoid the rim of the tunnel entrance.

After several tense moments in the tunnel they emerged on the other side covered in soot.

"Nice plan dude!" Sam yelled over the sound of the locomotive.

"What can I say?!" Dean shouted back.

"Um, guys? Look!" Twilight pointed at a large tree that was being chewed by more changelings.

"Move!"

Sam opened the cherry and hurried Twilight in, then Dean and himself. The changelings managed to chew through the tree just as the train was passing by. Sam, Dean, and Twilight meanwhile were running frantically through the empty cars and just entered the kitchen when the tree shattered the roof above them. Dishes, baked goods, and sparks flew everywhere as the force of the collision threw them all to the ground.

Behind them the tree jammed the rails and forced the cars to crash into each other. The first few closest to the impact zone were sent flying off the tracks, the ones that lagged behind crashed into each other. Like a telescope folds into itself the train cars forced themselves into each other. Wood splintered and metal groaned nearly twice as loud in the dead of night, it was a mass of confused noise that was impressive enough to deafen Dean to his brother's words but he could see him shoving something.

"Hang on, Sam." Dean joined him in pushing the object to the edge of the severed car until it snagged. Dean started putting his weight into as he tried to shoulder it free when Sam pulled him back. Sam turned and kicked a hose free from the bottom. In the moonlight Dean could just make out an oven as it tumbled off the car and disintegrated on the tracks. He also saw the swarm of changelings bearing down on them.

"Dean move!" Sam said as he picked up a lantern. Dean rushed Twilight out of the car as Sam smashed the lantern against the floor as the changelings landed in the train. They barely had time to hiss before the gas pipe burst into flames. The resulting explosion was enough to demolish what was left of the car and leave a gaping hole where Sam stood only moments before. The fireball rose slowly into the air and dispersed the remainder of the swarm that wasn't incinerated in the initial blast.

The planks smouldered as the air rushed past them, Sam and Dean bumped hooves as they took a breather. Twilight dropped her flank in the nearest seat and looked at the two of them already making small talk over the changelings.

"I guess...you two really have a lot of... experience dealing with changelings." She was having a hard time catching her breath.

"Since we were kids. Sammy here actually was born into it." Dean said as Sam nodded.

"So, Sammy, and Dean?" Twilight inquired as both of their eyes grew wide. "Are those you're real names. I can understand if you lied, this is a pretty," Twilight paused, "Interesting job."

Dean walked closer to Twilight.

"Now hang on it's not like we wanted to lie. We just thought with our names wouldn't really blend in, y'know?" Twilight nodded. "So we just introduced ourselves, to your friends, with fake names."

"I didn't even get to choose mine." Sam said almost pensively.

"Would you mind telling me your real names?" Dean looked at Sam, who nodded.

"My name's Dean. Dean Winchester and..." Sam interrupted him.

"I'm Sam. Or Samuel if you want to get more technical."

"Really?"

"Yes." Sam was curt with him.

"Well, um, Dean and Sam. Thank you for saving me."

"All in a day's work."

Several guards entered the room and were stunned by what they saw. Twilight took the initiative and explained what had happened. The guards took turns looking from Sam to Dean and back again. One was bruised and bloodied, the other was covered in ash and smelled of smoke. Twilight kept talking until a familiar whistle sounded their arrival to Canterlot.

"We're approaching the city. Miss we must ask you and your, party, to follow us into the security car. Nightwatch, Lockdown, patch up this hole immediately." The captain said as he led them out, while the two guards exchanged irritated looks. "Let's thank Celestia nopony else was on board, at least something good came of this massacre."

…...

"And then what happened?" Rainbow Dash was hanging on to Dean's every word. It was mid morning the day after their adventurous train ride and the rest of the gang had just arrived from ponyville. Twilight invited them to their room in the east tower while they waited for their audience with the princess. Applejack took notice of his black eye and commented on it, while Rarity nearly fainted at the sight.

"What happened? They booked us a room at the Straight Bar Motel for the night. Poor Doodles was scared out of his mind."

"Oh, dear. Is Doodles alright?" Fluttershy pleaded him.

"He's fine."

"Whoa, you guys are like action heroes, they even gave you a free room for the night!"

"Actually Dash I think he means jail. That's where they took them last night."

"What? You save everyone on the train and they send you to jail? Not cool."

"You're telling me."

"Oh, you poor dears. How did you two ever manage?" Rarity embraced Dean. Dean chuckled nervously before pushing her away.

"It wasn't that bad."

Rainbow flew in. "I heard they give you only stale bread and warm water to eat and drink."

"I heard they force you to sleep on a damp stone floor without any hay." Applejack said.

"The worst I've heard are the cold showers with lye soap and no hair conditioner."

Dean was dumbfounded by all their responses, were they really this innocent?

"You girls haven't seen many prison movies have you?"

They all shook their heads.

"The crime rate in Equestria is largely non-existent, not many prison movies have been made outside of public service announcements in movie houses."

"Bummer."

There was a knock on the door and Twilight answered as the others kept their attention on Dean.

"Shining Armor! It's so good to see you!" Twilight hugged her brother.

"Hey Twi, I just stopped by thank the guys responsible for saving my favorite sister."

"I'm your sister."

"True, but that doesn't mean you're still not my favorite. So is the young colt responsible?"

"One of them, yes. Shining Armor say hello to Chevy Impala."

Rainbow chuckled. "Sorry, it's still funny."

Dean and Shining Armor shook hooves.

"So Chevy, tell me how it feels to have saved the sister of the Captain of the guard."

"I don't know. Same as everyday I guess." He shrugged. Shining Armor was surprised.

"You don't feel honored? Proud?" Dean took some time to think before he shook his head and said not really. Shining Armor was not impressed.

"It's okay Shining Armor, he says he's done this type of thing a million times before. I'm sure it just comes as second nature to him."

"Right. Well, I guess we can adjourn to the throne room, the princess has decided to take advantage of this opportunity to award these ponies medals of exceptional bravery."

"No way we're getting a freaking medal?"

Shining Armor beamed. "So how do you feel now?"

"I don't know." Dean smiled. "Pretty weird, actually."

Shining Armor frowned. "We should get going, the princess doesn't like to be kept waiting."

…...

Sam just finished taking his second bath and sniffed himself. He smelled like lilac, and roses, and smoke, but more flowers than smoke so he decided he was clean enough. It was a challenge scrubbing himself with hooves but found that it wasn't completely impossible as they were very dextrous. He took extra time to relax in the hot water hoping it would calm his headache. He figured the stress from the paperwork, their exciting night, and the fact that he hadn't actually eaten anything until just a few hours ago were contributing factors.

The detention cell they were taken to was actually more comfortable than most of the motels they had slept in the past. Cleaner too. Sam looked at himself in the mirror and inspected himself closely. There was something off about his appearance that he just couldn't put his finger on. He turned his head this way and that trying to figure out what it was that bothered him so much. It was staring at him in the face when Dean knocked loudly on the door.

"Hurry up in there, it's time to meet the princess!"

Moments later Rarity was fussing over Dean's tie as they waited to be let into the throne room. Surprisingly Twilight was also tidying Sam's coat. She insisted on them looking their best in front of the princess. Shining Armor was still visibly upset with Dean, and he was ignoring Sam as well.

"Alright, when you see the princess be sure to bow to her and don't get up until she acknowledges you. When she does she'll probably ask you a question, and it might have to do with your job. Just make sure you're truthful in your response she's very good at spotting lies."

"Twilight please, we have a lot experience in pretending we're law officials. I think we got lying pat down just right."

"Yeah, we're experts liars. Hell, we're lying to you right now."

"You are?" Twilight's heart jumped in her throat.

"No. See how good we are?" Dean smiled as trumpets started to blare overhead. Shining Armor started to grow belligerent but Twilight assured him they were okay. As the doors opened a bright white light blinded them for a second before their eyes could adjust. As they stepped through Sam and Dean kept blinking their eyes until they arrived at the foot of the princess's throne. Twilight nudged them and they bowed to the princess.

"It is good to see you again Twilight, and it is my privilege to welcome your friends as well, both the old and the new."

Sam and Dean rose with the rest of the group and looked at Princess Celestia with uneasy eyes.

"Dude." Sam said.

"Yeah."

Twilight's smiled also vanished as she looked from the princess to the blue unicorn smiling down at her.

"Trixie?"

the great and powerful

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"Twilight Sparkle, so good to see you again." Trixie said smugly as she looked down her nose at her. Twilight was in awe as she stared at her, mouth open wide. Trixie the famed self declared most magical pony in all Equestria was sitting on the princess's right hand side. The same Trixie who botched against the Ursa Minor and had half of ponyville destroyed with the help of her fan club.

"You should close your mouth Twilight, a bug might fly in." Trixie teased her as Sam and Dean regained their composure. They were going to have a extensive discussion later on that night, it went without saying. It took Twilight longer than she cared to admit to recover from her shock, and only fully understood what was happening when Celestia spoke.

"Twilight, I'd like you to meet my sister's star student although it seems you two already know each other."

"Why, yes princess Celestia. Twilight and I did previously engage in a contest of skill and strength."

"Yeah, a contest that you lost!" Rainbow Dash flew up into her face, but Trixie didn't lose her cool.

"That's enough, Rainbow Dash. I'm happy to inform you that Trixie has reformed herself. In fact she has become quite adept in her studies, so much so my sister has appointed her as her newest apprentice."

"WHAT!?" The girls spoke in unison. The news came as a genuine shock to them. They're disbelief was not lost on the Winchesters as Dean jumped into his brother's arms in fright. It didn't take longer than two seconds for Dean to start fussing and for Sam to drop him.

"Princess?" Twilight began, "Are you saying that Trixie is trying to heal princess Luna?"

"It's more like she's lending a hoof. We're all trying to help out anyway we can, which leads me to the reason I invited you over." Celestia said with a smile.

"Don't worry Princess, you can count on us to cheer up Luna." Twilight said confidently.

"Good, now perhaps you can introduce me to your two new friends?"

"Of course, Princess I'd like you to meet Doodles and Chevy Impala they're detectives from... uh..." Twilight stopped mid-sentence unsure of where they came from.

"We're from out west." Sam said. "Where exactly isn't important."

"How dare you speak that way to the princess. I demand you tell us where you come from at once."

"Sorry toots, that's top secret." Trixie grew angry as Dean responded, but the princess interjected."Now Trixie, if these colts don't feel comfortable giving out delicate information we shouldn't force them too."

Trixie sighed. "Very well Princess, as you say." She said with a refined air as she lifted her nose.

"Good. Twilight my sister is in her room resting right now and I think she might be pleasantly surprised to see you all. You can stay with her as long as you wish, but remember that I've arranged a small soiree in honor of your friends tonight."

"We wouldn't miss it for the world. Oh and about the..." Celestia stopped her.

"There will be a time and place to discuss such matters. For now let's just try to make Luna comfortable. Trixie could you show them the way please?"

"Of course, your majesty." Trixie bowed deeply along with everyone else and led the way out of the throne room. "Walk this way." Pinkie caught up to her and started mimicking the exact way she was walking with her head held high. Rainbow Dash chuckled as Dean took a last look over his shoulder at the princess, trying to discern what she really looked like even if his eyes bled out.

…...

"We're here. I know the princess said you could stay as long as you wanted but the princess tires easily so you'll have to keep it short." Trixie stopped in front of a large door with a large crescent moon over the threshold.

"What's wrong with her Trixie? Do you know?" Twilight asked.

"If I knew, don't you think I would've been able to cure her by now?"

"Depends on who you're asking. Last time you came through our town you were just a prancing little show pony showing off your magic and making up stories." Applejack said.

"I can assure I've surpassed all previous expectations I set for myself thanks to the help of the princess."

"That's another thing, how did you become Luna's top student? I didn't even know she ran her own school of magic."

"Twilight I would love to entertain your quizzical little mind all day but we are on a tight schedule. Now wait here until I call you in." Trixie said as she stepped through the door. "Your highness you have some visitors."

From outside the group could hear Luna's weak voice ask who wanted to see her. She sounded tired and groaned a bit as if she were in pain. Trixie called them in and they had their first look at the princess's bedroom.

Princess Luna was laying on her fluffy silken bed with the veils closed around her, glinting any light they could find like little diamonds. The windows were shut and the curtains drawn, a small fire was burning in the fireplace. There was an easel set in a corner and a pile of papers stacked on a nearby desk. A large bookshelf was next to the desk with several books missing and displaced which were placed on the floor dogeared and open to specific pages with highlighted passages. Sam and Dean were already taking in all the information they could without asking questions.

Luna shifted in bed and pulled back her veils, her face instantly lit up as she saw Twilight and all her friends. As she spoke to them Twilight noticed the great difference in her voice from the last time they met. Her once proud royal voice which boomed from her mouth was now more of a hoarse whisper that she could hardly hear.

"Twilight Sparkle, it does me good to see you all again. As you can tell I'm not quite as lustrous a ruler as I once was, you'll have to forgive my appearance." It was true, Luna's hair had stopped flowing in its usual hazy form and had regressed to her old mane, which was tangled and unkempt. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her ears were drooping.

"Don't worry princess, that's what we're here for, to help you feel better any way we can."

"I am glad, just seeing you all has already lifted my spirits."

"Aw, buck up princess. You'll get through this soon enough." Rainbow Dash flew over next to her.

"Yeah, why shoot I bet you'll be feeling better faster than roadrunner going down a steep hill with butter on it's feet."

"Yes, and while you're on the road to recovery perhaps I could help tidy up a bit around, and perhaps comb your mane for you too, it is looking a bit drab."

"Rarity." Twilight scolded.

"Well, it's true."

"Ooh, and I could look after the nocturnal animals for you, princess. It's not everyday I get to work with bats, and owls, and possums, and oh there's just so many."

"Don't you worry about a thing princess. We all know you're going to get better, and when you do we're going to throw a BIG party to celebrate!"

"It is good to know I have such good friends who all want me to feel better, and rest assured I won't let you all down. With the help of my assistant I'll be back on my feet in no time." Luna smiled again but blushed when she finally noticed the the two strange colts in the room. "Oh, and who may I ask are you?"

"Princess, I'd like to introduce you to Doodles and Chevy Impala, their special agents who have come to investigate the recent kidnappings in Canterlot. They also came here to see if they could use their special talents to aid your recovery."

"My, it is good to make acquaintance agents. You'll have to forgive my appearance I don't usually receive gentle-colt callers."

Dean withheld a comment but acknowledged her anyways. "Princess how long ago did you start feeling sick?"

"For an eternity it seems, but I suppose it's only been about two months."

"The day you fell ill did anything unusual happen?"

"Unusual?"

"Yeah, did you maybe smell a strange odor like rotten eggs, or maybe felt some cold spots around your castle?"

"Actually, I do remember the day I fell ill I felt this unusually cold atmosphere."

"Was there anyone with you when you felt this cold?"

"No, I was alone in the middle of the night, as I usually am. Not that many ponies can stay awake long enough to accompany me." Sam walked over to the easel and started looking through the stack of papers. Dean kept talking.

"Princess this might seem like an odd question..."

"Odder than asking her about rotten eggs, agent?" Trixie broke in, but Dean ignored her.

"Princess, do you know if you have any enemies or, um, ponies, who might not wish you well? Maybe someone who wouldn't mind laying a curse on you?"

"I would hope not. It is true several of the ponies in our kingdom are still adjusting to my new demeanor but none seem to be so belligerent."

"Agent Impala, I don't think anyone around these parts would be brazen enough to just outright curse the princess."

"Really? Because it wasn't two days ago we were looking at Equestria's first bonafide murder." Twilight became quiet along with everyone else in the room, even Trixie was left aghast. Sam paused in between pages.

"You draw much princess?" He asked as he turned around and displayed the easel to her. Luna blinked as she drew her attention from the grim agent to his partner.

"Y-Yes, I'm constantly trying to find new constellations to fill the night sky with."

"And how do you do that exactly?

"Whenever I want to create a new constellation I just rearrange the stars in the sky. Sometimes I'll change them according to the seasons, others I'll just change on whimsy."

"Do you draw anything else?"

"I'm afraid I don't see artwork as much of a hobby, it is mostly for the stars." Sam nodded and motioned to the books on the floor.

"I take it reading is your hobby. What kind of books are you interested in?" Sam walked over to the books and picked one of them up. It seemed to be a book on practical magic. Basic diagrams of several symbolic structures, magic squares, and seals were inscribed with what he recognized as arcane words from the time he spent studying with Twilight. Suddenly the book glowed pink and floated up to a space in the bookshelf. Several other books also started floating upwards and settled in their own places. Sam tried to read the title of the book in the low light before turning to see Trixie's horn glowing.

"I was the one reading those books agent Doodles. You see the concept of a disgruntled pony did not escape my mind either. Those books are filled with counter-spells and charms that I initially hoped would help the princess, but as you can see I only met with disappointment so far."

"Trixie, was it? Can you tell me how long ago it was that you were appointed Princess Luna's assistant?"

"Apprentice, and I have been serving my princess for the past year. I do believe I will regret asking this but why do you ask?" Sam glanced over to Dean who gave him a quick shake with his head, Sam understood and took a different course in his questioning.

"No reason."

"I thought as much." Trixie said as Luna put her hoof to her head. "Now if you'll excuse us the princess's migraines are starting up again, when she gets like this she experiences some rather lucid hallucinations."

"Just one last question before we leave. Since we're working with practically nothing here. Princess, where were you exactly when you felt that cold spot?"

"I was out, hnng, in the courtyard."

"No more questions you'll have to leave now."

…...

Back in ponyville Spike was busy arranging books helter skelter in the living room when a knock came at the door. Spike had just picked up a pile of books and made his way over to the door.

"The library's closed come back tomorrow!" He said through the door. "Don't know why you're coming to the library in the first place." He mumbled.

"Spike it's me open up!" Scootaloo shouted. Spike put down the books and opened the door.

"Hey, Scootaloo. What's up?"

"Applebloom, Sweetie Bell, and I are going to go visit Zecora in the Everfree forest. I just stopped by to see if you wanted to come, you must be pretty bored without Twilight around."

"Actually I was kind of busy."

"Busy doing what?" Spike stepped out of the way and showed Scootaloo his book fort complete with watchtowers, a moat, and even a little purple and green flag with his face on it.

"I just finished up the game and was getting to work on a secret passage to the bathroom."
"You did all this in one morning?"

"Actually I've been awake all night! I tried some of that coffee stuff Twilight made for Chevy and Doodles. It tastes gross but it gives you so much energy! I only had to sleep once today, for two minutes!"

"Spike that's crazy. Can I have some?"

"Sorry I finished it all. So why are you going to visit Zecora?"

"All the adults in town have been acting weird ever since yesterday morning. So we called an emergency meeting of the Cutiemark Crusaders and decided that the only one who could help us was Zecora. I thought you might want to come with since Twilight is out of town."

"Why me?"

"You work with Twilight all the time. I'm sure some of her ideas must've rubbed off on you."

"Gee, I don't know the Everfree forest is pretty dangerous."

"Oh, come on. We go into the forest all the time it's no problem."

"Still it's pretty scary. Maybe I should just stay here and finish up my fort."

"Hey are you a baby or are you a dragon?"

"What? I'm both, I'm a baby dragon."
"So aren't dragons supposed to be scary and dangerous?"

"Uhh, well.."

…...

Sam and Dean stepped out into the courtyard with determination, their eyes sifting through the scene trying to lift clues from wherever they could. Several trees lined the walkways, and the walls on either side were topped with towers set half-way down the length of the yard. There were birds chirping in the afternoon sun as a large fountain gurgled at the end of the walkway. The Winchesters set out slowly, looking at every detail as they went along.

"We didn't ask the princess exactly where she was standing did we?"

"Nope. We're gonna to have to find this thing ourselves."

"What are you guys looking for?" Rainbow Dash flew in above them.

"We're looking for anything that doesn't fit. There probably isn't anything left though."

"You need any help?" She flew upside down as she talked to Dean. Dean was about to tell her to buzz off before it hit him.

"Actually, yeah. Yeah, fly up there and get us a bird's eye view of the courtyard." Rainbow saluted and flew off.

"Looks like we got our own air support Sammy." He said as he watched her fly this way and that looking at the towers, and the walls, and everywhere.

"Yeah. Hey Twilight what can you tell me about the history of this castle?"

Twilight came around to them and started her lecture. "This castle was founded around one thousand years ago. Just around the time princess Luna became imprisoned in the moon. It's almost an exact replica of the original castle which was and is still in the Everfree forest. Princess Celestia had it built a few hundred years after Discord's first fall, because until then the Everfree forest wasn't as dark and mysterious as we know it today. It was Discord's curse which forced her to move here to the mountain. A little known fact is that the princess actually commissioned for pieces of the castle to be torn down and moved here brick by brick. The gates we walked through were originally made of silver but have been replaced by pearl about two hundred years ago when..." Dean stopped her.

"Hold on, you said parts of the original castle were moved here?"

"Uh-huh."

"Is this courtyard one of those parts?"

"Yes, it is. Actually just those two towers. But seeds from the grass that was in the original castle were used to create this fertile grass. Oh, and I almost forgot the fountain."

"Alright bro, I'll check the fountain you check the towers."

"Why do I have check the towers?"

"Because I called the fountain." Dean smiled and started walking down the path. Sam sighed and shook his head.

"I can help you check the towers if you want."

"Thanks."

"Well, now hold on just a gosh darned second did y'all happen to forget about us?" Applejack crossed her legs.

"Yeah, we wanna help too."

"Alright, I guess. Um, Applejack? You and Pinkie Pie search the grounds, look for anything that seems suspicious or out of place. Shutterfly?"

"Fluttershy." Twilight whispered.

"Sorry, Fluttershy, fly up there with Rainbow and see if she misses anything. Rarity..."

"No, no that's alright. I'll help your brother search the fountain." Rarity trotted away happily. "Oh, Chevy, wait for me-e."

Sam chuckled a bit before Applejack called his attention.

"Y'know sugar cube it sure would be nice to know what we're looking."

Uhh, yes it would be. To be truthful we won't know until we find it, but until then just look for anything that looks like maybe a small cloth bag, or maybe a doll with pins sticking out, just anything weird like that." Applejack looked surprised but nodded anyway and said 'Got it' before moving out.

"Alright, Twilight you take the left tower I take the right?"

"Oh, I thought we would be searching them together." Twilight pawed at the ground before quickly saying, "But you're right. It would be more efficient to search the towers separately." Twilight trotted away leaving him alone with his thoughts which seemed to only consist of two words, 'Damn' and 'It'.

…...

While the girls were searching they let their minds wander. Fluttershy was busy worrying about all the little animals that lived in the courtyard who left their nests empty. Rarity couldn't help but lose herself watching Chevy dive in and out of the water searching for who knows what while she pretended to look for hidden switches in the inlay of the fountain. Applejack wondered about how many little fillies would wander into this particular courtyard and lose their dollies before remembering about Applebloom and hoping Big Mac was enough to keep her in line. Twilight kept beating herself up as she climbed the steps in the tower for jumping the gun like she did, she was honestly just trying to tag along to learn what he had to teach, so why did she feel so embarrassed? There was no telling what went through Pinkie's mind, and Rainbow Dash was finding it difficult to resist plunging headfirst into the big bull's eye in the middle of the courtyard.

"Hey are we done here Chevy? This is starting to get boring."

"Did you find anything!?"

"Nothing but a big bull's eye."

"Then keep looking!" Rainbow Dash flew in hot and landed next to Dean in the fountain splashing water his way.

"We've been searching this place for a half hour and we haven't found diddly squat. What use is there in us looking anymore."

"You might've missed something."

"I didn't miss anything, I told you all I found was a circle in the grass."

"A what?"

"Hey Chevy!" Sam shouted from the tower.

"What!"
"We got a fairy ring!"

Moments later everyone had assembled in the middle of the courtyard. Sure enough there was a large circular ring of new grass growing around and under the walkway. Applejack walked up to it but Dean stopped her from stepping into it.

"And just what the hay is wrong with a circle in the ground? It ain't like it's going to jump up and bite anypony."

"This isn't just some circle in the ground, it's a fairy ring."

"Beg pardon?"

"Fairy rings are made when sprites, or fairies, or what have you start dancing around in celebration of a full moon, and sometimes they leave behind a magical residue in their rings. Anyone who comes in contact with these things while they're still fresh have all kinds of crazy crap happen to them."

"You and Rarity walked over it and nothing happened."

"Good point. Doodles help me lift this thing." Dean stepped into the ring with no incident and stepped on one side of the cement square covering the middle of the ring and stuck his hooves under it. When Sam was ready they heaved together. Their straining seemed to be in vain as the block refused to budge. Dean urged his brother on and soon they managed to lift the block off the ground far enough to destroy the bond of mud that kept the cement glued to ground. Sam and Dean continued to struggle with the block, the muscles in the legs and chests bulged from the strain. Finally they succeeded and dropped the block onto the walkway and started catching their breath.

"My, is it just me or has it gotten warmer here?" Rarity said as she fanned herself rapidly.

"It's just you." Rainbow Dash teased before heading over to the brothers along with everyone else. Sam and Dean had apparently uncovered a strange glyph carved underneath the block. It was a strange combination between a T and a J surrounded by circle inscribed with several other strange words written in pony. At either side of the glyph there was also a picture of two unicorn heads facing inward with bridles having only one word carved into them.

"So what do you make of this?"

"Doesn't look like any seal I've ever seen. Twilight?"

"Whatever it is I'm not familiar with it. I haven't studied this type of magic, it seems really old and cryptic. I might be able to make it out but I need a reference." Sam thought about the book Trixie tried to hide from him.

"Twilight, does this castle have a library?"

"Of course it does."

"Would it happen to contain a book called um, Sunbomb's atlas of magic?"

"You mean Sunburst's Magical Atlas of hexes and hoaxes? I'm sure it does."

"Good, because that was the same book Trixie was reading for the princess."

"You saying she's in on it?"

"Wouldn't be the first time."

"Alright, so we just need to ask her what kind of spell this is when we find it right?"

"No, we don't need her. I can decipher this myself."

"I'm sure you can Twilight, but if Trixie already knows what this is we're going to save a lot of time."

"You don't know Trixie like I do. If you thought she was rude before you haven't seen anything yet. She'll probably send us on a wild goose chase just so she can show me up."

"Listen Twi, if you don't trust her then fine. I get it. But we're going to need her help if she knows what this is."

"I just don't believe she can be trusted." Pinkie popped up next to her and ruffled her mane.

"Oh, Twilight. You can be so silly sometimes."

"What?"

"Don't you get it? If she were your friend you would trust her no matter what."

"But she's not my friend."

"But you can make her a friend. Ponies make friends everyday." A reprise started up out of thin air and slowly grew louder.

"Where the hell's that music coming from?" Dean asked as Pinkie started singing her song.

You know the world is big and wide,

and you wont make friends unless you try.

Our friendship's true, you bet.

But a stranger's just a friend you haven't made yet.

New friends to make.

So many new friends to make.

New friends to ma-a-ake.

So many new friends to make.

A new chum you met in school,

Or an amigo to help you look cool.

A gal pal for a rainy day,

Or just a friend to tell you its okay.

New friends to make.

So many new friends to make.

New friends to ma-a-ake.

So many new friends to make.

A companion for a walk.

A bud to just sit and talk.

A bump with an unexpected fellow,

Could lead to a pal to help keep it mellow.

New friends to make.

So many new friends to make.

New friends to ma-a-ake.

So many new friends to make.

A sidekick for a prank,

a partner to wash off the stank.

A mate to share your thoughts

A comrade to help you in a precarious situation

An ally that arrives in the nick of time

They may not rhyme but they're quite possibly...

Newest friends to make.

Newest friends to make,

Newest friends to ma-a-ake.

So many new,

So many new friends to make.

Always be Friendly

A message from Pinkie Pie

The girls ended the song by falling into each others arms and giggling together as they lay on the grass. Not that far away however Sam and Dean were looking ghastly. Their stomachs churned at the cuteness and they felt bloated and disoriented.

"Dean, I don't think we belong here."

"Yeah. I'm going to puke." Dean walked away to a nearby bush and waited. Sam just kept staring at the little ponies smiling and laughing together before he turned around himself.

"Mind if I join you?"

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The girls were waiting outside a locked room with worried expressions. Fluttershy was cowering behind Applejack as she tried to calm her down. Rarity and Pinkie Pie both had the same sad eyes whereas Rainbow Dash seemed oddly enthused. Twilight walked up to the door and was about knock when another loud crash was heard followed by muffled profanity.

"I'm sure they won't be long." Twilight smiled nervously. "They must be running out of stuff to..." CRASH "break."

"What's gotten into them?" Dash asked.

"I don't know, Doodles just said he couldn't look at me."

"Maybe that there fairy circle messed them up while they were pulling up that block."

The door opened and Twilight stepped back as she saw the two disgruntled ponies calmly walk out. Sam took a deep breath as Dean cracked his neck.

"Okay. Okay, we just had to get that out of our system." Sam said as his brother muttered something under his breath looking away from the ponies. Sam ignored him and continued his explanation, "See where we come from people don't usually burst randomly into song and dance. And, well, seeing you all in that condition made us a bit... uneasy."

"Bastard."

"Assface." Sam shook his head. "Sorry, we just needed some time to regain our manhood and release some of this stress we're under."

"By tearing apart a room?" Dean muttered something else about tearing apart a face and Sam didn't take to kindly to it.

"Dude, we agreed to drop it back there."

"It's your fault! I wanted to take my chances in the forest!"

"If it's anyone's fault it's Castiel's! He dropped us here and hasn't even bothered to come back for us!"

"Because he can't find us you idiot!"

"He can't find us because he's not looking!"

"Now hold on there fellas, this is starting to get out of control."

"Stay out of this!" They both yelled at Applejack.

"You know Sam it really is your fault. I wanted to stay out of these damn ponies business, but you had to go and act like a freakin' hero."

"Oh really, what about back in Nebraska? I told you we should've let Castiel deal with that demon that possessed Jennifer, we wouldn't be here if we had just left Douglasville when I said so. It's not my fault Dean, it's yours, for thinking with your dick all the time instead of your head!"

A tense moment followed as the ponies watched in awe as the Winchesters had a stare off. They let slip some information that confused them, and it wasn't just about trying to decide who was Dean and who was Sam. Each of them was right and they both thought it was them. Twilight was about to speak to try to bring peace between them when Dean nodded and said softly 'Alright'. He turned his head as though to walk away but then punched his brother as hard as he could with his curved hoof.

Sam flew back and knocked over a table with a vase full of flowers, as the girls gasped Sam stood up and tackled his brother to the floor. Sam started pummeling his brother before Dean rolled him over and headbutted him. Dean took a hit to the nose and stumbled back as Sam turned around and kicked him in the mouth. Rage building up Dean grabbed his brother by his mane and slammed him against both walls before throwing him back out into the courtyard through wooden railing.

Sam hit the floor hard and felt the wind get knocked out of him. He opened his eyes and saw spots in front of his eyes, his headache intensified and concentrated on a single point in his forehead. He felt a heavy weight drop on his chest and as his vision cleared he saw Dean sitting on top of him blocking out the sun, pulling back for another punch, blood dripping from his own forehead before a pegasus flew overhead.

"Stop this right now!" Sam and Dean both looked up at surprised as Fluttershy floated over them looking very angry. "How dare you two act like this. Get off him right now!" Dean was so perplexed he actually obeyed. "You two are brothers and you're supposed to love and care for each other, how would your mother feel if she saw you two behaving this way!?" Fluttershy put her hooves on her sides and scowled at the both of them.

"That oughta straightened them two crazy ponies out."

"Yeah, Fluttershy is pretty scary when she needs to be."

"I'm not going to sit here and get my ass handed to me by some pussy prancing fucking pony!" Dean shouted as he started to walk away.

"Where the hell are you going?"

"Who gives a shit!" Dean stormed his way out of the courtyard and shoved several other ponies out of his way. Sam looked after his brother before being joined by the rest of the ponies.

"Um, Doodles, Sam? Can I ask what that was all about?" Sam sniffed as he touched his bleeding nose and spat blood on the ground.

"It's better if you don't know. Do me a favor and a get a rubbing off that block while I go clean up." Sam said before also walking away.

The girls watched in silence as he made his way down the hall they had both fought down and past the room they destroyed before disappearing around the corner.

"Anyone bring any paper?" Twilight asked.

…...

Several hours had passed since the confrontation and the gang had retreated to the library to assist Sam and Twilight in finding Sunburst's Atlas. They found it sometime after noon as well as several older language textbooks for reference. Sam proceeded to tear pages out of it and build himself a nest much to Twilight's distress. It didn't take long for Rainbow Dash to lose interest in the whole thing and took off with instructions to call her when they were done. Rarity also didn't take long to find an out, she decided she would assist the castle decorators with the decorations for the party later on. Pinkie followed her out.

Applejack and Fluttershy stayed just long enough to get all turned around and upside with history lessons and endless essays written by important ponies she had never heard of before. Fluttershy wasn't faring well either but the tipping point came when Twilight decided to recite Starswirl's essay for the Visionary Future of Magic and Alchemy which filled up enough pages to create a small novel. Applejack excused herself along with Fluttershy claiming that they would only slow them down in their research.

So Twilight and Sam were left alone in the empty cavernous room, their only company a solitary librarian who sat in the middle of the room. Every so often their silent meditative study would be broken by the sound of book stamping. Twilight counted thirty stamps before she worked up the nerve to ask Sam about his fight. It was then the doors were thrown open and a familiar bruised figure walked through the doorway. Dean stopped short of Sam's nest and looked at it, slowly turning his way from one side of the wall to the other. Twilight held her breath.

"There's not a drop of damn liquor in this hellhole. So what do you got?"

Sam nodded and started filling him in. "Okay, uh, well we deciphered the words 'danger' 'close' something that sounds an awful lot like 'chaos' and surprisingly 'love'."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Anything else?"

"Uhh, no. We just basically hit a wall with that."

Dean grunted and turned to Twilight. "Say have you ever heard of Horseshoe Jack?

"Yes, Horseshoe Jack was a blacksmith who went mad one day and started writing horrible stories. Why do you ask?"

"Start looking for his entire collected works."

"But Horseshoe Jack was a madpony. I don't think anyone's been able to make sense out of his rants. The only reason his stories were even published was because princess Celestia commissioned them as part of a historical reference of ponykind."

"Trust me on this one. I went to pay a visit to our dear friend Trixie."

"You went without us?"

"Yeah, I stopped by on my way over here. Start looking."

"We don't need to look. I know exactly where that book is."

Twilight led them to the back of the room past the rows of modern pony literature and behind the Starswirl section. They kept walking until they found and old dusty bookshelf propped up against the back wall. Twilight brushed some of the dust clinging to the plaque.

"Here it is, 'Tales of Shock and Awe.' This bookshelf contains every scary story not even grown ponies want to hear about a campfire. But what can a scary story tell us about this?" Twilight said as she pulled down a dusty old book with a tattered cover.

"Horseshoe Jack wasn't just a madman. He was a prophet."

"A prophet? Here?"

"Yeah. Just look for the story called 'The Witch Queen' Prescence'. And start near the end, we don't need to hear the rest."

Twilight flipped through the book and found her place. "...And she will take to the hearts and minds of the ponies. Her might will be eternal and her life everlasting as she draws from the pure and unspoiled. All the powers of evil will follow her in her rise to power and her presence will grow like a shadow over the land, settling the world in darkness until the light of love shall banish her."

"Flip back a couple of pages. Look familiar?" Twilight flipped back and found a similar drawing to that of the rubbing she took from the courtyard.

"That's the same seal we saw outside, only it's not just a seal, it's a calendar."

"A calendar?"

"Like the Aztecs, they foretold about the end of the world and so did Jack."

"So if it's like the Aztecs that would mean that Horseshoe Jack knew when Nightmare Moon would come back right?"

"Not just that, Trixie figured this thing out a long time ago, Nightmare Moon is back, that was the next to last thing on that calendar."

"What was the last thing?" Twilight asked as Dean smiled.

"The end of the World."

zecroa

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knew it. I knew it was only a matter of time. Sam I told you!" Twilight started hyperventilating as she dropped the book. "First it was the kidnappings, then the murder, and now a madpony from long ago confirms my worst fears."

"Don't worry about this, if half the prophecies I heard before were true the world would've ended at least six different times by now."

"It's gonna be seven by the time we get back." Dean said. "There's a specific date on that calendar too, I'll give you two guesses."

"Nightmare Night?"

Dean nodded and Twilight became even more frantic. "Nightmare Night! That's less than than a week away! What are we going to do!?"

"You know this does put us against a deadline."

"So what? We'll get the Elements of Harmony off Celestia tonight and rocket her sister's ass back to the moon. Sunrise, Sunset."

"Even if it were that easy we're still not sure it's Luna."

"Well, if it's not her I'm sure Sparkle Jam here can just free her again. You can do that right?"

Twilight stopped pacing just enough to answer. "I'm not sure. The Elements were meant to be used in times of distress, I'm not even sure we can use them to imprison Luna just from suspicion."

"Great. Now you tell me. What about the princess? Can't she boot her ass back to space?" Dean turned to his brother. "I'm just saying we got leverage on one of them. Why not use it?"

"And what about Trixie? How do we know that she isn't the one behind this and framing the princess?"

"Then we'll banish the both of them. Clean slate."

"Dean don't you even want to look into this?"

"I already have. I've looked into it way too much and now look where we are."

Twilight stopped pacing again, this time for good. She feared one of them would reprise their fight from earlier. Though she half-expected it would be Dean to start it up. Sam took caution and rubbed his chin with his hoof.

"Hey, Twilight try reading that story from the beginning and see if we can't use any of it. Dean can I talk to you for a second?" Sam and Dean marched a ways off as a wary Twilight looked out at them from the corner of her eye.

"Alright, Sammy now what? If we can swing this we can go home a lot faster and I'm positive that princess is our only way out of here."

"Dean we agree that we know more about this than Twilight right?"

"Yeah."

"We know that more likely than not Princess Luna will bring about the pony Armageddon right?"

"Right now I'm rootin' for her."

"Okay, good. We need Twilight to help us get rid of her, and the fastest way we can do that and spare everyone anymore trouble is if we rush her into it right?"

"You mind getting to the point?"

"In this world Dean we're like the angels. We know the end is coming and we want to get the job done quick, at least you do. And Twilight is like us, she might not realize it yet, but she doesn't want to go our way. Sound familiar?"

Dean stood speechless for a while. The only hint that he gave that he was mulling this over was a flicker of his ear, though unintentional. He looked back at Twilight who turned around quickly and frantically flipped through the pages of the ragged book.

"Dean, all I'm saying is that maybe we should give her the same chance we're asking from the angels."

Again Dean took his time to think until finally he let out an audible discontent sigh and said, "Damn it. Fine, Sam, you win. Just because I don't want to be like those assholes."

Sam smiled.

"Great. You want to break the good news?" Dean rolled his eyes and walked towards Twilight.

"Hey, Twilight." Twilight turned guardedly.

"Yes?"

"We've decided to go another way. If we can stop Luna the Witch Queen without using the elements we'll do it."

"What do you mean?"

"Listen I know from first hand experience the quickest answer isn't always the one we're looking for. Maybe we can find some other way stop her."

Twilight seemed confused at first but then her eyes lit up.

"You mean you found a way to save Princess Luna without banishing her?"

"I didn't say that. But I did say if we can find another way to win this fight we'll try it."

"Thank you-thank you-thank-you!" Twilight repeated as she jumped to hug Dean. "I knew you were the right ponies for the job! I'll do anything to keep the princess safe! Even if it means working with Trixie."

She let go of Dean.

"Maybe we should pay her a visit right now. If she knows this much about the prophecy she must know something else. Thank you again Sam and Dean, or should I call you by your nicknames?"

"Dean's fine."

Twilight smiled one more time before leaving the library, taking the book with her. Dean shook his head when she was gone.

"What?"

"Twilight, is supposed to be like us?" Sam looked confused. "If anything she's more like you."

"What?"

"You're both bookworms, eggheads, dorks."

Sam didn't like being compared to a dorky purple unicorn pony. "Well, if I'm like Twilight...You're like Princess Luna."

"What the hell-"

"Guys come on. I thought you were right behind me the whole time!"

"Shhhhhh!" The librarian pony shushed.

"Oops, sorry." She made a motion for them to follow her.

"Come on we better get going." Sam galloped away.

"Hold up." Dean said keeping pace with him. "How am I anything like that princess?"

"You both caught ghost sickness."

"So?"

"So that's all I need. Besides, I bet you scream like her too."

…...

Meanwhile back in Ponyville the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike were headed along a path into the Everfree forest. However, while the girls were chatting excitedly Spike couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive at the sight of the darkened oaks and willows that grew around the entrance of the forest. His stomach growled and felt bloated. He felt sleepy but at the same time he couldn't sleep.

"I think I overdid it with the coffee."

"Come on, Spike. I bet Zecora will fix ya up. Just like she fixed my chipped tooth."

Spike felt a deep rumble in his stomach. 'No, please.' he thought to himself as he felt the rumbling die down. "Phew."

When he looked back up the girls had already crossed the threshold into the forest and were being swallowed by the darkness. It was make it or break it time and he didn't want to seem like a chicken in front of them, so he swallowed hard and forced his way into the forest.

Deeper in the forest a cowled zebra was just breaking through a clearing when she noticed three pairs of glowing green eyes in the darkness beyond. She whisked her staff from off her back and held it in front of her ready to defend. Two of the pairs separated from and flanked her on either side. They moved swiftly, almost ghostlike, through the undergrowth hardly making a sound but for their soft growling.

Zecora removed her hood so it wouldn't impede her peripheral vision and procured a small bag. Before they could make their next move she threw it on the floor, bursting with a bright green flash it creates a thick green cloud. Once it settled Zecora was backed by two doppelgangers, each of which wielding a staff of its own. The timber wolves step out from under the shadows and start circling her, trying to decide which of the them was their real quarry.

The apparent leader barked out a command and all three wolves pounce on the three zebras only dig their snouts into the ground. The two lesser wolves started snapping at each other for their incompetence when the leader overtook them. Whining, they started sniffing the floor looking for her scent. It didn't take long before they bound after her.

Zecora ran as fast as her legs could carry her, treading around various poisonous plants and hoping the wolves giving chase would be stupid enough to stomp through them in their eagerness. Unfortunately even with the thirty second head start the wolves were now on her heels, and they too seemed to have knowledge of the local flora. They followed her exact trail through the forest, which upset her even more as they had done so with more ease than she had.

It wasn't long before one of the wolves matched her pace and was running alongside her through a thicket of bramble. But she knew once that stretched ended she would have to...and she did. The wolf leapt through the last few bushes to get at her, paws outstretched and jaws wide, but she tucked and rolled beneath his attack. It slammed into a solid oak tree and she took pleasure in hearing it whine. It meant he was hurt, and wouldn't be joining the chase again anytime soon.

Zecora knew this part of the wood too and so she turned left and headed toward a bat cave she often visited to collect guano. It had a small stream running through it that was birthed from a spring running down into the cave. She would approach it from the side, where the earth gave way easily. Expecting this she jumped and slid on her flank down the slope before continuing into the cave itself, behind her the wolves tumbled into a confusing muddy heap. Growling in anger the subordinate frees itself faster from the trap and chases after her in the pitch black cave.

Bats flutter around his face and clutter his sight with visages of grey and black shapes. All the while he knows he's on the right path as he hears her hooves splashing in the stream ahead. Suddenly he is blinded by a bright light at the end of the tunnel, against which is the visible silhouette of the Zebra. It disappears into the light and he bounds ever harder after it not wanting to give it any breathing room.

He is certain of his footing as he bursts out into the sunlight and drops off into space. The cave opened out into a steep hill, nearly vertical. Zecora had taken care to step lightly and rather than continue running paused by the mouth of the cave to watch this next one take the plunge, literally. It tumbled down the hill and smacked against a large rock here and there, knocking off a limb or two at some points, leaving behind a trail of sappy blood that oozed over the terrain.

Zecora had wanted to see the second wolf tumble after her, but she heard its pace slow from within the cave, and soon heard the cautious sniffing that forewarned her this one would not be so easy to fool. She made her dangerous trek up the hill, knowing fully a clawed toe would have more of a footing than a smooth hoof.

She just made it to the top when the beast lurched after her and nearly nipped her tail off. It was in vain however and it slid back down several feet. Zecora made a move to reenter the forest hoping to lose it in the brush. Her hooves pounding again on flat ground, she thought she would just about make it when the first wolf pounced from the unknown and made for her neck. She had enough time to pull out her staff but not much else, what was meant to be an attack instead blocked the jaws from closing. Though she was knocked on her back she was confident she would be able to break free.

This wolf seemed to be young, its teeth and claws were very sharp but it did not yet know how to use them properly. His body was thin and lightly built, and though his jaws were very wide they still smelled of puppy breath. A treacherous scent of wild flowers and morning dew. Just as she was preparing to push him off her another head appeared at the top of her line of sight. The second more mature wolf had finally reached her.

It snarled but before anything else could happen a strange wind blew. Strong enough to make the old boughs on the ancient trees shudder and creak. The wolves were taken aback from this and even Zecora, who was strangely allowed to stand. From somewhere above them an evil laugh carried itself in the wind. Suddenly the forest burst alive as the rocking of the trees grew more violent, an earthquake, and the birds and rodents hidden in the underbrush leapt into view.

It was nearly impossible that such a host of creatures would occupy the forest, but they did, and they ran. The cause of such a disturbance was unknown but it was great enough to instill fear in the wolves and Zecora as they joined the stampede. The earthquake seemed to grow in intensity as she ran, or stumbled, and for a moment it crossed her mind that perhaps she was running toward the epicenter of it all. But no, animals ran away from danger, and these were scared out of their wits.

A bright light destroyed all manner of shadow in the forest, making it seem less terrifying than it really was. But then the light grew too bright, the heat too intense, and then all was quiet. She had gone deaf, her limp body flying through the air grazing the highest branches from which all leaves seemed to have been stripped. Then darkness, as she felt a tremendous weight slam her back down to the ground, she continued to feel the ground rumble in her dreams.

…...

Miles away the spectacle was not caught by the ponies as it descended against the sunset. Besides the ponies in Canterlot were all excited as a celebration was being organized for the evening tying in with the Nightmare Night festival. Sparklers and other small fireworks were already being sold in the shops, being bought by both the young and young at heart. Even if their spouses disapproved they were easily won over when they lit a few of their own.

Streamers were being hung, paper lamps, and banners all decorating Mane Street. All of this Pinkie observed from the windows in the palace ballroom, her eyes gleaming with delight at the prospect of the entire city celebrating this occasion. She bounded away happy as can be as she turned her attention to the activity around her. She liked Princess Celestia's definition of a small soiree.

"Hey did you guys hear that?" Sam stopped short of the hallway which led down to Luna's bedroom.

"Hear what?" Dean frowned, worried something was about to happen. But Sam only shook his head and continued following Twilight who didn't seem to slow down. Rounding the corner they found two guards posted outside Luna's bedroom who promptly raised their spears at the sight of Dean.

"Halt. You are not allowed on these premises."

"Excuse me, Sirs?"

"No one is to disturb the princess by order of her assistant."

"Trixie? Why does she have you guarding her?"

"The princess is resting and the apprentice did not wish anypony to disturb her again."

"Oh. Do you know where she is?"

Down in the garden Trixie was busy among the herbs that grew at the edge of the perfectly trimmed forest. She had just pulled up an herb with a yellow flower when Applejack and Fluttershy came up behind her.

"Say Trixie, ya do know that there's an onion there, right?"

Trixie's eyes grew wide but she kept her voice level. "But of course, you didn't think I was simply pulling out weeds did you?"

"Well, no."
"I'm looking for herbs to create a curative tea for the princess. Though I must admit some of these plants are unfamiliar to me."

Now it was Applejack's turn to be surprised. Trixie admitting that she didn't know something? That was a big change from the first time she saw her.

"Well, if ya reckon ya need any help ya might want to look at that there lily. Looks just like the one Granny Smith uses for body aches and such."

Trixie looked to her right and found the flower. "It is the mark of my desperation to help the princess that I take advice from you."

'Well at least she isn't a know it all anymore' Applejack thought.

"Now unless you know which plants cure Fever, hallucinations, nausea, migraines, or stomach aches, I must ask you to leave."

"Humph, some ponies. Come on Fluttershy."

"Actually Applejack, I know what cures all those things."

"You do?" Applejack and Trixie spoke together.

"Um, yes. All kinds of animals come to me when they're sick and I always use herbs from the Everfree forest to cure them."

Trixie grimaced in her direction before returning to her work. "Very well." She put simply. Applejack leaned over to Fluttershy and whispered, "I think that's all we're gonna get."

Fluttershy walked over to her and asked if she could use her help.

"I do not require your help. But if you wish to lend your aid to cease the princess's suffering you are more than welcome."

Applejack urged Fluttershy on by my nodding her head and rolling her in Trixie's direction. Taking the hint Fluttershy floated into the air and picked some moss off the branch directly over Trixie's head. She was about to explain what kind of moss it was when the Twilight and the brothers galloped up behind them.

"Trixie!" Twilight was as surprised as she was at the amount of enthusiasm in her voice. Twilight smiled in spite of herself as she stopped just short of her while she caught her breath. Sam and Dean were coming up to join her when Fluttershy flew in front of them, blocking their path.

"Where do you two think you're going?"

"Not this again." Dean sighed.

"Yes this again. You two aren't going anywhere until I hear both of you apologize to each other for that ruckus earlier."

"We already did, um, Fluttershy. We're all good now." Sam smiled convincingly.

"I want to hear you. Right here and now."

"We don't have time for this." Dean said containing himself, but Fluttershy got in his face insisting they apologize to each other in front of her.

"I know you're parents brought you up better than this, and just think how your poor mother would be in tears right now. And your father would have every right to give you a stern talking to."

Dean breathed in very deeply and got a wild look in his eye. He looked around trying to make sense of what this pony had just said to him. He was truly trying not to yell at this animal because she didn't know, but he also wanted to rub her nose in it.

Before this could escalate to anything though Applejack quickly said, "Fluttershy can I talk to you?" and yanked her by the tail, Fluttershy squealed. Leading her away from the small group Applejack started to fill Fluttershy in as she regained her composure.

"Fluttershy ya can't just go talkin about these boys' parents anymore."

"Why not?" She asked in an innocent voice.

"Uh, how do I put this?" Applejack tried finding the right words. When she spoke it was in a somber voice. "Ya know how a few years back our orchard lost two good apples?"

Fluttershy was shocked and covered her mouth with her hoof.

"Applejack I'm so sorry."

"It's alright." Applejack said, though she had removed her hat when she told her and just now replaced it. "Well, now ya see Fluttershy, for a couple of months after that I couldn't stand to hear no one talk about them. Why sometimes I got so frustrated I just plum went loco. Ya understand what I'm saying here Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy thought for a moment and then she came to the horrific realization and gasped putting both hooves up to her mouth this time.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Applejack nodded her head. "Oh, but Applejack are you sure about this?"

"I can recognize that look anywhere. Puffy cheeks, wild eyes, twitchin', those are all the signs that someone is fed up with ya and won't take much more of what you're sayin."

"Oh, dear. I just feel so awful." Fluttershy started tearing up.

"Now, calm down sugarpie. You had no way of knowin. I'm sure they'll forgive ya if we just talk this over, 'course they may not want to talk about this so it might be best if we just drop this whole thing."

Fluttershy sniffed one last time before nodding and giving Applejack a mousy teary faced smile. "Alright now, let's get back and hope he's all calm again."

While Applejack and Fluttershy were talking in private Sam and Dean had their own little pow-wow. Which mainly consisted of Sam saying "Dude" and Dean replying with "Shut it," and just like that they settled the matter. When the girls came back Twilight was explaining to Trixie all of their latest findings. Applejack stood in between Fluttershy and Dean, but it wasn't for Fluttershy's safety. By the time that Twilight was catching up to the current events Fluttershy was staring long-fully at Dean, who during the entire time pretended not to notice her until he couldn't help himself.

"What?" He asked with an aggravated tone. Applejack knew the time had come but was unprepared for Fluttershy's burst of speed. She was left confounded as Fluttershy leapt over to Dean and hugged him.

"Oh, you poor thing! I'm so sorry for all those mean hurtful things I said!" She cried out. Dean got a look on his face that was a cross somewhere between horror and confusion.

"What the hell is this!?"

"Sorry pardner, I had to tell Fluttershy 'bout your secret."

"What?"
"I know from experience." Applejack looked away and Dean understood what she was saying.

"Then tell her to get off!"

"No can do. Fluttershy won't let go 'til she's good and ready."

Dean tried to pry her arms off of him when he caught sight of his brother.

"It's okay, Fluttershy. I'm fine, really." Dean looked down at her with a smile, one that she reflected poorly but sincerely. "But my brother, he's a total mess."

"What?" Sam's blood ran cold.

"You know he was only six months old and never even got to know our mom." Fluttershy let out another cry as she left Dean and wrapped her arms around Sam.

"Damn it, Dean." Sam managed to utter.

"So if there's any other way you can help us we'd greatly appreciate it." Twilight said anxiously.

"Twilight I am would to help you in any way I can, but I refuse to work with anyone who would hire thugs who take advantage of the princess's hospitality and muscle their way into her room."

Twilight was taken aback by this latest accusation. What thugs did she hire? Sam and Twilight arrived at the same conclusion together and turned to look at Dean, who whistling an innocent tune.

"Dean?" Sam was barely audible.

"I was pissed off what do you want me to say?" Dean was quick to defend himself. "I walked out into the garden to wash the blood off and cool down a bit. I figured maybe getting back on the job would get my mind off that damn singing so..."

"So he burst into the Princess Luna's room and ransacked the place!"

"Dean!" This time it was Twilight who implored an explanation.

"Besides, ransacked is a pretty hard word. I just tossed some books on the floor, picked through the garbage can a bit, and maybe took a few pages off that easel. Y'know for the constellations."

"You also threaten to burn down the entire castle if I didn't read you the side note in that tattered old journal."

"Is that how you learned about Horseshoe Jack?" Sam asked finally getting Fluttershy to release her iron grip.

"She made a mention at how crazy I was acting so I took a chance. On the way to the library I found Rainbow Dash flying low and asked her to keep an eye out for the constellations Luna had arranged."

"What do constellations have to do with any of this? I'm telling you, Twilight, these two are nothing but trouble. Why the Princess hasn't kicked them out of the kingdom already is beyond me."

"Why did you take those drawings Chevy?" Twilight reverted to the nickname because she no longer felt as confident in him as she did before.

"You believe in prophecies right? So try to follow me, I know Sam will." Dean shifted on his feet and pulled out a little slip of paper from his breast pocket. "Nightmare Night is coming up, that's our version of Halloween. Sam remember 'The Curse of Michael Myers? Halloween 6? Where the man in black kidnaps Jamie Lloyd and carries her baby away? Remember the scene where he's lying on a pedestal and those cult freaks are standing over him watching the stars. I know it's not much to go on but I found a newspaper in the trash and thought maybe there might be a little more to your new moon theory."

"Then what's that?" Sam asked eagerly. Dean handed the torn slip to Twilight who used her magic to levitate in front of both her and Sam.

"It's a receipt, dated about two and a half months ago, from some merchant selling back alley magical goods. I did a little asking around, turns out this merchant is a notorious pilferer. An expert in acquiring difficult to obtain items. A thief."

"What were you doing dealing with a thief?"

"I'll tell you what she was trying to do. She was trying to show you up." Dean started circling Trixie. "I bumped into Rarity after I washed up at the fountain and she filled me in on your last little get-together. You used your major magic skills to save the town from the screw up Trixie's little friends set up. On the way to the library I asked one of the guards to read the receipt for me and he filled me in on the dirty little secret.

Turns out Princess Luna's newest apprentice took some liberties with the law using her name. The guards didn't tell me that it was Luna's second and third best students, they don't seem to like you much on account of how much you get away with. Buying and selling magical items that aren't exactly approved by the school board, but she doesn't use them in class, oh no. Private magical studies aren't moderated by the board, and Luna helps you when she can. Providing a few perks her other students don't enjoy, like say making shady deals in the hopes of advancing your abilities."

Trixie stepped onto his path and stared him down.

"Agent, not only were you excessively aggressive in your search of the Princess's bedroom, you also asked the most dimwitted guards in all of Equestria for help. After which you interviewed the only two students in the entire class who envy me so much that they would of course say anything they could to hurt my reputation. Then you accuse me of name dropping so I could smuggle illegal goods past the guards to improve my studies, which you think me so petty as to assume that I, The Great and Powerful Trixie, am only doing so to settle a score with a former rival?"

Dean opened his mouth as if to go on another rant but settled for, "Yeah, pretty much."

"Trixie..."

Sam had read all the items he could from the receipt and thought of only one thing.

"Exactly what were you trying to do with these ingredients Trixie?" Dean pressed on.

"I was trying to find a cure for Princess Luna's sickness. What else?"

"Really? Because this receipt is dated thirteen days before Luna caught the sickness." Trixie became wide eyed and stammered for an explanation. "Not only that but these ingredients; Wormwood, Nightshade, Monkshood, Belladonna, Thyme. 'Round these parts throw in a few puppy dog tails and you got yourself a pretty decent summoning spell."

"A-are you accusing me of something? I don't seem to recall a summoning spell needing so many ingredients, and what does this have to do with the princess getting sick?"

"Everything. I've summoned demons before Miss Great and Powerful, I know what you need and how to do it. I also know the repercussions of a summoning, if you didn't sell your soul you made some other kind of deal in return for whatever it is you wanted. So Trixie, who or what did you summon and what did you trade?"

All eyes were on Trixie as she regained her composure. Sam's headache came back and he started rubbing his head. The pain fixated on a single point in his forehead again and when he moved his hoof to rub it he came to a surprising realization, but was he right?

"I assure you I have summoned nothing, much to your disappointment, especially not a demon. Whatever that is. Whatever has happened to the princess was none of my doing."

"Then why all the kidnappings? You can't deny the fact that they started up at the time the princess got sick. She also said she felt a chill run through her body..."

"Which would explain her flu like symptoms." Trixie interrupted. "I know it's hard for your tiny little mind to wrap itself around the obvious, Agent, but sometimes the simplest answer is the correct one."

"Sure alright. Then would you mind telling us why'd you have that tattered journal with entries about Horseshoe Jack, and how is it you knew so much about him when any other pony would think twice before reading up on him? It was my understanding that nopony, damn it, wanted to hear about him. Isn't that right Twilight?"

"Yes." Twilight blinked rapidly at the mere thought Dean would acknowledge her at this point.

"It may surprise you to know that same little seal scrawled in the journal was found in the courtyard where Luna said she felt the chill. Sam." Dean nodded and his brother unfolded the piece of parchment and presented it. "Look familiar? It should, seeing as how you had a ribbon on that page when I opened it. Want to know something neat? Those four stars around the seal aren't just there for decoration. They're there because its trying to show us that these aren't just sigils." Trixie eyed them questioningly.

"They're constellations! I recognize them now!" Twilight said.

"Constellations? The papers then, you knew?"

"Sure as hell took me a while to catch on. It wasn't until I bumped into Rarity and she told me some of the constellations looked familiar. She found four of those symbols etched into the fountain we were searching earlier in the courtyard. Those are the ones I asked Rainbow Dash to keep an eye out for." Dean took a step back. "So you see, these constellations have everything to do with what's going on."

Trixie's eyes darted back and forth while her nose scrunched up as she contemplated everything Dean had just said. At first she looked exasperated, her mouth hung open. It took several moments before she managed to close it and gave him a look that showed how surprised she was by this new relevant theory a pony she thought unfit for duty put together. A breeze blew through the trees of the garden carrying the sound of the festivities already underway. A Nightmare Night melody was being sung by the local children that culminated just as Trixie accepted her fate.

"You appear to be smarter than you look Agent. Yes, I did purchase those items and yes I did use them for a summoning charm." Twilight was surprised but Dean simply smiled and gave a curt nod as if to say 'Damn, I'm good.' "Summoning spells of this type are forbidden however so I hoped to carry it out in secret."

"What kind of summoning spell were you trying to cast?" Twilight asked. Sam looked at his brother who stared back. Meanwhile Applejack and Fluttershy seemed a bit lost. Applejack leaned into Fluttershy's ear.

"You followin any of this hooey?" Applejack whispered. Fluttershy shook her head.

"It is a complicated spell, and one that was performed successfully only once in all its history. It is called the "Ghosts of the Past" and is meant to communicate with ponies who are...no longer with us." Twilight gasped.

"You mean you're studying Necromancy!?" Applejack had no idea what Twilight was talking about but she had enough sense to know something wasn't quite right.

"Hold on there Trixie now you gone too far."

"No." Trixie, Sam, and Dean spoke together. They looked around at each other waiting to see who would explain.

"Agents." Trixie looked away.

Sam shrugged his shoulders. "You're on a roll."

Dean took a breath.

"I'm assuming you already know what necromancy is. Right?" Twilight nodded but her friends shook their heads. "Good. Trixie isn't trying to bring anybody back from the dead, she'd need a lot more equipment. What she's trying to do is talk to ghosts, or spirits, still not very smart. Spirits can turn angry for waking them up, ghosts can hurt you."

"I'm assuming you have experience in that as well?" Trixie asked.

"You have no idea." Dean said with a grim expression. "So who were you talking to?"

Trixie cleared her throat.

"Nopony special, just my Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-gr eat..."

"Get on with it."

Trixie stopped talking to reform her words. "I was channeling the spirit of my ancestor, a great and powerful wizard in his own time. Master of the arcane, conductor of all things magical, creator of over two hundred spells."

"Hoo, boy here we go. Even her ancestors were showy."

"Wait, she can't mean..."

"Starswirl the Bearded!"

Twilight was shocked, Applejack was speechless, Fluttershy was happy for her.

"Oh my, is that why you thought you were so gifted before?" Trixie became enraged, terrifying her.

"What do you mean thought!?"

"Hey, lay off her." Sam stepped in and Trixie back away. "So you summoned this pony wizard. What then?"

"To be honest, I didn't quite succeed in summoning his spirit. The spell sort of backfired." Trixie rubbed her foreleg and cast her eyes down.

"Were you in the courtyard when this happened? Two months ago?"

"Yes, I was." Trixie picked her head up. "But you know as well as I do that a summoning spell, even when performed incorrectly, does not have that kind of effect on ponies."

"You got me there." Dean nodded.

"Still, something happened to Princess Luna." Twilight dared to break the silence. "And whatever it was, it seems now that it was meant to happen. So, if we ever want to have hope of saving her, and all of maybe all of Equestria, don't you think it would be wise to work together? We could sure use a descendant of Starswirl the bearded on our side."

Twilight smiled tentatively, trying to make Pinkie proud. Trixie took a quick glance at the ponies around her. Three of the six ponies who wielded the elements of Harmony, the ones who had successfully turned Nightmare Moon before, and imprisoned Discord, no doubt they could've also banished the Changelings. They were the ones she knew would be able help her fix her mistake. Then there was the Agents, she had no idea where they came from or how or why they were investigating these strange turn of events, but they seemed quite apt. Trixie took a deep breath.

"Very well, Twilight Sparkle, I shall help you." Twilight's smile broadened, though Fluttershy and Applejack seemed less excited. "But on one condition."

"What is it Trixie? Anything you want."

"I work with you and your friends only. I don't want to be involved with these agents in any way."

"Oh, well..." Twilight's smile began to fade.

"Fine with us. We work best by ourselves anyway. Come on Starsky." Dean said as they walked away. "Let's roll."

"Where are you going?"

"We're gonna go figure some stuff. We'll catch you later."Dean stopped and looked back over his shoulder. "Oh, and Trixie? Next time you want to call me a thug, just remember. I make Sherlock Holmes look like Inspector Gadget." Dean turned away smiling.

"You know they're not going to get that reference, right?"

"They don't need to Sammy."

"Uh-huh. So when did you decide to bust out that detective crap? I've never seen you do that before."

"You may have gone to law school Sammy, but I've been playing this game for years."

...

Soft voices echoed in the darkness. Zecora felt as if she were floating on a cloud, her mind was foggy and she could understand why she was laying down. The voices grew continually louder and clearer.

"...that white light?"

"How about we give her..."

"...think that'll work."

"Guys, she's not breathing!"

Zecora finally felt her body plummet to the ground as she sprang up in bed and took a long gasping breath. She continued to breath heavily for some time before realizing that Applebloom and her friends were standing at her bedside.

"Zecora are you okay?" Applebloom asked.

"We didn't find you home, so we went looking for you and almost got trampled." Sweetie Belle added.

"Yeah, we found you knocked out in the forest so we brought you back to your house." Scootaloo pointed at the door. Zecora tried to recollect her memory. "Were you caught up in that blast we saw? It rocked the whole forest!" Spike waved his arms. Zecora got up out of bed on unsteady feet.

"If such a blast it turned out to be, why did you come looking for me?"

"Well, actually we were already looking for you when the blast happened. We were running to your house when we saw another pony in the forest."

"Yeah, he was just standing sort of strange-like, and when we called him he didn't budge."

"So we went up to him but he disappeared into thin air! He turned up somewhere further away and we followed him but he just disappeared again."

"That's how we found you Zecora. If it wasn't for that strange disappearing pony, we wouldn't have known what happened to you."

"Surely such a sight filled you with dread, but tell me, how is it I woke up in my bed?" Zecora asked Sweetiebelle

"You have Spike to thank for that. Luckily dragons are really strong, even when they're babies."

"Yeah, that's true." Spike said.

Zecora smiled and thank them for helping her, then she walked to her shelves which had been upset by the quake. She started arranging a few things and pulling out bags filled with mysterious ingredients.

"Tell me my little ponies, that pony of which you kept losing sight. Could it not have been Twilight?"

"I don't think so Zecora. See Twilight and ma sister are visiting the princess in Canterlot right now. It couldn't be her."

"Not unless she learned how to transport to really far places. Besides that pony never turned to look at us, we only saw him from behind. But I know he had wings." Scootaloo said.

"No he didn't." Sweetiebelle said. "He had a horn. He was a unicorn pony."

"What no way. He had wings, I saw them."

"He had a horn." Sweetiebelle confronted her.

"He had wings." Scootaloo went toe to toe with her. They pushed each others face with their own, trying to make themselves taller in order to win the argument. Spike was the one who broke them up.

"Guys, guys. That doesn't matter right now. Besides he was wearing a coat."

"See." Sweetiebelle stuck out her tongue. Scootaloo scowled back at her.

"But this is the Everfree forest. Tons of spooky stuff happens here. Maybe you just thought he had a horn?" It was Scootaloo's turn to gloat.

"See." She stuck her tongue out and Sweetiebelle gave her the same look.

"Spike's right. It might not even have been a pony. It could been a ghost."

"Ahh, there's no such things as ghosts. Twilight said so."

"Twilight relies too much on her books and wits. You'd do well to believe in ghosts and spirits." Zecora started packing her ingredients into a burlap sack. She also picked up a mask from the floor and retrieved a second staff from the corner.

"Hey, Zecora. Ah been meaning to ask you." Zecora put on her mask but pulled up from her face to look at her. "Where were you all this time. I mean nopony's seen ya for a while."

"My presence has upset you little Applebloom, but I have been trying to stave our doom."

"Our doom? Whaddya mean?"

"I will explain to you soon, but now we must move. I sense the danger is still not out of sight, so I will ask you Spike to send a letter to Twilight."

Spike wrote down the letter explaining to Twilight all about the explosion, the earthquake, how they found Zecora and that they would all be waiting for her at the library. He sent it to her and they left the forest behind. It was frighteningly quiet as they moved, even more than usual, and that scared them. Zecora assured them they were safe and that there was still a chance of salvation from the return of darkness.

The letter drifted through the canopy of the forest in a magical puff of smoke that twisted and furled in the wind. It kept rising until it was level with Canterlot than made a beeline for Twilight. Not far off two ponies watched it drift across the evening sky. The first few stars were just coming out, the stars that everypony in Ponyville cast their wishes upon. They would wish for peace, for tranquility, for an end to whatever madness transpired earlier and for it never to return.

These worried wishes were nearly outweighed by the innocent wishes of little fillies and foals who wished for a new scooter, or lifetime supply of candy, and even a snow day to enjoy. All these wishes filled the ears of two strange ponies who stood atop a cliff. Their wings were tucked over the trench coats that covered their bodies. Their horns glowed softly as they caught the last rays of the setting sun. Their eyes icy blue glowed in the moonlight without aid.

"We have traveled too far looking for them, our presence nearly leveled this entire forest. We cannot remain here for long." Castiel turned to his partner. "Are you sure this is where you sent them?"

The angel pony beside him nodded his head feverishly.

"You better hope Malachai finds them in time. I'm afraid the Winchester's may also be altering the fabric of this world simply by interacting with its inhabitants." Castiel looked back and spread out one of his wings. "I hope Dean is holding out well."

dammit b.....

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"Sunshine, Sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake." Twilight and Cadence fell into each others arms and giggled. They spotted each other earlier and couldn't resist running across the room to say hello. Trixie hung back and tried her best to appear the least awkward she could in the room full of pink hearts, sparkly dresses, and a multitude of photos showing her and Shining Armor on a beach in Califor-neigh-a.

"So how was your honeymoon Cadence?"

"It was wonderful, Twilight. Shining and I really lit the place on fire, metaphorically speaking that is." Cadence winked. "Though he set a bush on fire."

"Well that's good to hear. Oh, Cadence this is Trixie, Luna's prized pupil in her school of magic."

"Oh, yes how do you do."

"Fine, thank you. Twilight if you've gotten your hello's out of the way we I do believe we're here on business."

"Oh, right. Cadence we're looking into a prophecy that could be fulfilled in a couple of days. It said the one way to stop it was with the light of love. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"

"Hhmm. The light of love? I've never heard of that before but I do have a number of spell books about love. Maybe you could find something there?"

"It's worth a look. Don't you think so Trixie?"

"Maybe, but we're going to need more than just books about love. What else do you know about ancient schools of thought? Maybe if we can understand the mind of this Horseshoe Jack we might be able to comprehend the prophecy better."

"I think I may have something from my university days." Cadence started handing them a multitude of books as a gathering of seamstresses entered the room chattering excitedly about different designs. "Oh, dear I forgot. Could you excuse us girls, everyone seems to insist I wear a different gown for every occasion."

"Of course, Princess. We'll be outside if you need us." Twilight piled the books into a saddlebag and left promptly with Trixie at her side.

"Princess Cadence is the leading authority on love. If she can't help us, nopony can."

"Let's just hope for our princess Luna's sake she can."

The streamers were set, the balloons were inflated, the food was all laid out, the lights were dim and the music was playing. It was only her second time in the palace gala ballroom but Pinkie Pie felt as though she had never left. She was especially happy to help with the decorations hoping that they would cheer up the mean fussy agent mister that attacked his own brother. But something wasn't quite right. Sure the decorations were fine and the music was being played by a 30 piece orchestra, but it all seemed too stuffy. Secret spies were already stressed out enough because of their jobs, what this party needed was something fun and exciting.

"Oh, Pinkie Pie dear you haven't seen either of those two ruffians have you?"

"No, Rarity. Ooh, but I was just thinking about one of them." Pinkie gasped. "Do you think we could be psychic?"

"Come now, you must be jo-"Pinkie's tail twitched and she shoved Rarity aside quickly as a pegasus dropped a box of decorations where she was standing seconds before.

"I'm so sorry. The box just slipped." He said as he came down to pick it up.

"It's okay. Anyway Rarity what were you saying?" Rarity trailed off a bit before regaining her composure.

"It's just that those two are meeting the princess and they're all dirty and horribly disheveled. You know I saw one of them earlier and he was still such a horrid mess. Sure he cleaned his face a bit but he is completely unpresentable."

"Which one did you see? The one with the funny name, or Doodles?" Pinkie turned her head on its side.

"Err, the handsome one. Che'vee I think his name was." Rarity mispronounced his name hoping to make him more exotic, and it worked as she imagined him speaking in a foreign accent.

"Rarity why are you blushing?"

"What? Oh. Oh! I was just thinking about how furious I am because they dirtied my clothes. I simply must find them, nobody wears clothes by Rarity when they're in need of a good hem and wash."

"Why don't you try looking for them in garden?"

"You really think they'll be in the garden? What makes you so sure?"

Pinkie's faced scrunched up.

"Hmm, let's just call it a hunch because I'm not sure what it is." Rarity stared at her astounded. "Also I saw them talking with Applejack earlier."

"So the stars are going to predict the pony armageddon? That's a,uh, new one?"

"Yeah, tell me about it. When was the last time a prophecy was fulfilled on a regular schedule?" Dean pretended to open an envelope. "Telegram for the Winchesters. 'World's gonna end. Stop. The stars are aligned. Stop. Also need more ink toner and-. Let's just end that right there."

"Alright so we got the when, we got the who, so what about the where, why, and how?"

"Aren't you forgetting one?"

"The what?" Sam asked. "What about the 'what'? I can't think of any."

"Maybe what set this all in motion? Maybe what exactly is going to go down? What that frilly white pony is doing coming toward us?"

Rarity walked in front of the both of them and frowned, not saying a word. Both of them waited a fair amount of time before they broke eye contact.

"Um, need something dollface?"

Rarity's frown lessened at the sound of the word dollface coming from Dean's mouth but she didn't break it completely.

"Do you two have any idea how long I slaved over your outfits? How many hours of hard labor I poured into making a pair of suits that would make you two seem like convincing detectives?"

Sam kept quiet recognizing this as a rhetorical question, but Dean didn't.

"A half-hour maybe? Didn't you throw these together at the last minute?"

"How dare you!" Rarity's scream nearly toppled Dean over. "Here I am putting myself at risk of getting arrested for helping you two commit fraud and what do you do? You go and get into a big messy fight with each other and...well, just look at yourselves! All torn and muddy and, ick messy!"
Sam and Dean inspected their suits and saw the various rips and tears Rarity was referring to, along with the mud and their undone ties.

"You two cannot possibly go before princess Celestia, or any pony of high society looking like that!"

"I guess we could clean up a bit." Sam said and Dean nodded.

"Clean up? A bit? You can't be serious can you?" Sam shrugged. "No, you two are coming with me for a complete overhaul."

Rarity walked away as her horn glowed and the Winchesters felt a tug on their ties. Startled at first they realized that Rarity was leading them inside to work on them.

"You don't need to do this you know. We could just take showers and walk around naked. Hell, doesn't everyone walk around naked around here?"

"Hhmph, it's obvious you two haven't been taught the first thing about appearing decent in front of a crowd of sophisticated ponies."

"Looks like you got us there." Sam looked at Dean before they entered what looked like a sewing room.

"Perfect, this place will do as I get started on some new designs." Rarity let go of their ties and moved some other things around with her magic. Measuring tape, scissors, an iron, chalk, and thread all floated around magically in front of their eyes and in the center of the room she placed a stool.

"Up." She said simply. Neither of them moved until they were sure who she was talking about. Turning around she looked at Dean and spoke again. "Now, we don't have all day and it'll be a miracle if I actually pull this one off."

"Why me?"

"Because it was your fault you two fought."

"Hey, he provoked me."

"Up. Now." Rarity pointed at the stool and stared him down until he complied. Of course she did have an ulterior motive. After having so many of her friends model for her it would be a refreshing change to have a stallion model for her, and what luck that it was Chevy who was her first.

"Now hold still dear, I wouldn't want to poke you."

"Oh you don't have to worry about him, Rarity. My brother's got buns of steel."

Dean shot him a look and Rarity had to resist the urge to shiver as she began measuring him.

…...

Rainbow Dash was busy relaxing on her sofa cloud until it was dark enough to see the stars. After the sun had set she started searching for and found all the constellations that Chevy asked her to look out for, all that was left was to report back to him. Rainbow shot back down to earth and searched the grounds for him but to no avail. She did spot Twilight and Trixie however and thought she should pop in just in case Trixie wanted to start trouble.

But when she got down there she was surprised to find them working together, comparing notes and star maps.

"Hey, Twilight. How's it going?"

"Well, we're doing our best to try and figure out what these constellations have to do with anything. But we're coming up blank, Cadence said she heard stories about something like this but can't quite remember. We're also working on trying to decipher the rest of the words on the seal. We think we might be able to find someway to counteract it's spell."

"Excuse me, 'we'?"

"Yes, 'we', it might've been your idea but we're a team now remember?"

"All I know is that I'm the one who's making more headway than you."

"Ugh, can we just keep reading? Fighting isn't going to get us anywhere."

"So things are good here? Alright, I guess I'll see you later I gotta get these constellations over to Chevy. You don't know where he is do you?"

"Last I saw he and his brother were heading to the southern gardens where the party is going to be held." Twilight said not taking her eyes off her book.

"Wait, what about those constellations? He made a big deal about them."

"Oh, he just wanted me to write down where I found them in the sky. You know south, east, west, all that stuff." Rainbow Dash handed over the paper she was carrying with her. "Why would he want to know about this sort of stuff anyway? Is going to geek out with Twilight?"

"No, but it does confirm it." Trixie said as she stared at the notes. "All the constellations are together in the exact place the prophecy foretold."

"Prophecy? What, now are we going to have to fight a giant space worm or something?" Rainbow Dash joked but Twilight's attitude stopped her fun. "Oh, great. Who do we have to fight this time?"

"Nightmare Moon." She said.

"Are you serious? Isn't princess Luna like the biggest victim out of all this?"

"Yes, but it seems she is also the culprit. I'm not sure how just yet, but the tale of the Witch Queen must have something to do with this."

"The what?"

"We don't have time to explain this to you. Just take your notes and pass them along to that detective, let him do all the talking. We have to find a way to save the world."

"Trixie's right, Rainbow. Chevy explained it all to us so I guess he's the best pony for the job."

"Right. I'll leave you two eggheads to your books."

Trixie gave her a mean look as she flew away but Twilight brought her back and they continued to read.

Rainbow found Applejack first and they ran into Pinkie who told her she saw the super secret undercover agents head into the castle with Rarity. Being the fastest pony in Equestria paid off as she flew from room to room looking for them until she knocked on the last door and heard Rarity's voice telling her to go away and a small yelp.

"Rarity it's me. Is Chevy in there with you?"

She heard her scuffling around until she opened the door.

"Yes, he is and so is his brother. Come in, I'm almost done with my latest work."

"Latest work?" Rainbow Dash walked in and found Doodles standing on the stool in an awkward position. She immediately felt sorry for him.

"Ow, can we get this over with now?"

"Hush now, your brother didn't make so much of a fuss. Why must you?"

"Maybe because you weren't trying to turn him into a pin cushion?"

Rainbow looked around the room for Chevy and saw him straightening his bow tie in the mirror. Apparently Rarity's newest creation was a tuxedo with coattails that hung over his flank. A small red flower accented his breast pocket and he had a new clean white shirt underneath.

"Lucky for me I got buns of steel. Ain't that right Doodles?"

"I really wish I wasn't here right now." Sam said when Rarity started sewing his inseam.

"I feel your pain buddy." Rainbow suppressed a laugh.

"Oh, hey Rainbow Dash." Dean said looking at her reflection in the mirror. "What do you got?"

"I found all those constellations you asked for. Twilight and Trixie said something about a prophecy being proven right? Usually that means we have to kick butt."

"Ain't that the truth." Dean looked at the paper she gave him and after a while threw it over his shoulder.

"Yeah but we already turned princess Luna good, and not to mention how we kicked Discord's sorry flank, and the changeling queen."

"Yes she was a bit overzealous wasn't she? Could you imagine a world without love?" Rarity asked as she turned from Sam to Dean. "I certainly couldn't."

"Uh, yeah me neither. Listen Dash, how about you tell me more about that other thing I asked you about? Outside, right now?" Dean pushed Rainbow Dash out the door and closed it behind him breathing a sigh of relief as he leaned against it.

"What other thing? You didn't ask me for anything else?"

"I know. I lied. I just had to get out of there."

Rainbow took some time to figure out why he was uncomfortable.

"You know usually stallions can't resist Rarity's charms. What's with you?"

"Oh, yeah. See the thing is your friend is..." Dean wanted to shout out 'She's a freaking horse! I'm a human! What the hell do I look like some kind of backwoods inbred hillbilly donkeyfucker!?' but instead settled for. "...not really my type."

"Huh. So what is your type?"

'Oh, I don't know. A HUMAN!'

"Well you know, my perfect gal has to be...'hot'...cute and uh...'easy'...nice. She also has to have...'a decent pair of double D's'... a decent personality, you know not something over the top. Like your friend back there. Is she that way with all the guys she meets?"

"No, sometimes she chases them down with a net."

Dean laughed a bit at the sight of the cartoonish pony chasing down some poor horse with a bugs bunny type of net. The door opened and he fell backwards onto the floor.

"Che-vee don't you dare, not after you saw how hard I worked."

Dean picked himself up and saw his brother wearing a nearly identical suit with a yellow flower.

"Nice suit bro. And it's 'Chevy', not whatever it is you just said."

"Oh, boo." Rarity pouted. "Che-vee sounds so much more sophisticated. Now then take my hoof and escort me to the courtyard. The party is sure to have started by now."

"Take your what?"

"My hoof, you honestly didn't think the princess would expect us to arrive alone. Isn't that right, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity put special emphasis in her words. Dash didn't know what to say until Rarity nodded at Dean and got the message.

"Uh, yeah." She giggled. "It's a, uh, policy or something. All mares have to be escorted by a stallion to these fancy dinner parties."

"Seriously?"

"You know Dean, it's one thing for a guy to show up at a party alone. But a girl? Come on, be a gentlecolt and take Rarity to the party." Sam let a wide grin spread over his face.

"I told you about the language."

"Come now, we're wasting valuable dancing time. Oh, and Dashie dear I laid out some things for you and the girls to wear, nothing too impressive just something I whipped together in two seconds." Rarity walked out of the room completely and showed off her bright new gown. "Yours will look the same but with a different color scheme of course. You know how embarrassing it can be to wear the same outfit to the dance. Come now, Che-vee, let's mingle."

Rarity held her hoof out expectantly and Dean swallowed hard before taking it and walking down the hall with her. Sam and Dash were left behind.

"There isn't a dating policy is there?"

"No, but you know I wouldn't mind going with someone." She leaned close to him. "Just as a precaution."

"Oh, uh..."

At that moment Soarin came around the corner.

"Oh, hey there Rainbow Dash. I'm glad I found you. I was wondering if you wanted to go to the party with me?"

Rainbow's jaw dropped. She turned to Sam and said, "Tough break kid. Better luck next time. Hay yeah, I'll go with you Soarin. Just give me a second to get dressed." She flew into the room and shut the door in the blink of an eye. Sam turned to Soarin and nodded his welcome.

"Hey."

"How's it going?"

Rainbow Dash came back out and took his leg as he offered it. "Oh, you can tell the girls about their dresses right Doodles? Thanks." Rainbow dragged Soarin behind her as she tried to catch up to Rarity.

"No, problem." Sam said. 'No dating policy? Great.' He thought as he was left alone in the hall.

…...

"Twili, there you are. Cadence told me you wanted to borrow her copy of Arisaddle's conversations and arguments. You know the party just started maybe you and Trixie should take a break and head on over." Shining levitated the dusty old book over too her.

"I don't think so. We only have a few days before Nightmare Night and that's supposed to be the time when the prophecy is fulfilled."

"Come on Twili lighten up, remember the last time a prophecy was fulfilled you fixed in no time at all. It'll all work out in the end."

"Yes but this time it's more serious. You don't understand we have to keep working." Twilight became short with her brother.

"You're not going to get anywhere if you keep stressing yourself out."

"Your brother's right Twilight." Everyone looked up as Sam trotted up to them. "If you don't take a break now and then it's going to get to you, and then when the time comes you won't have the energy or metal stability to face it."

"I think your friend here has a point. Go to the party Twili, you too Trixie, and both of you just have fun." Shining said as he tried to take their books away only to have both mares tug back at them.

"Thanks both of you for your concerns but I think we can manage." Trixie said.

"That's right. Doodles I know you think you know what's best for me but this is what I do best."

"I get it, really I do. I know you may not know this from what my brother pulled off today, but I'm usually the brains between us. And for the past couple of years I did what you two are doing right now and my brother was always the one getting me out of my funk by telling me to enjoy life while I still could."

"See even his brother worries about him, and his brother is a train destroying-fight-picking-room-pilfering maniac."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what did you just say?"

"Are you going to deny that he's a bit off edge?"

"He may be off but that's only because it's the way he was brought up. Our dad taught him to be strong and resilient because we didn't come from the same Candyland board game you did."

"Shining don't say those things about his brother. Besides it was Doodles who blew up the train, you have no idea how may changelings there were after us."

"You blew up the train?" Sam nodded. "You couldn't some other way to defeat them?"

"Could you?"

"Yes actually, the first time those changelings came to our kingdom my wife Cadence and I used the power of love to banish-" Shining stopped short because of Sam's laughter. "Something funny?"

"You used the power of love? You and your wife? I'm sorry that just sounds ridiculous."

"But Doodles I saw it happen. They joined their hearts together and used their love as a weapon against them."

Sam was dumbfounded, his mouth hung open wide enough to let in a mach truck.

"Wow." Sam blinked a few times before letting out a huge breath of disbelief.

Shining continued.

"Apparently love is a foreign concept to you seeing as how you fought your own brother and then let him ransack Princess Luna's room."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. We both had to blow off some steam and that was the fastest way."

"I suppose you're going to defend his thievery then as well?"

"No, but I suppose I will." Trixie spoke up. "Truth be told I had almost all the pieces of the puzzle before he burst in. However he and his crazy speculations did serve a purpose in the end, which is why we're here now."

"That's right and we're not budging one inch until we figure out more about this prophecy or how to prevent it."

Shining Armor sighed.

"Suit yourself then, I'll send over one of the butler's with some food at least. Wouldn't want you working on an empty stomach. As for you," Shining looked at Sam. "keep an eye on your brother, and try not to ruin your own party with another fight."

"Don't worry about it." Shining walked away after pointing his hoof on his eyes and then at him in the universal I'm watching you sign.

"So you don't want to go to the party?"

"I've made up my mind."

"Oh, that's too bad. See your friend Rarity made these dresses for you and your friends to wear at the party."

"She did?"

"Yeah, and she and Rainbow Dash told me about this dating policy. Apparently you can't attend if you don't have a date, and I was going to ask you but..."Sam shrugged. "I guess I'm going to have to find somepony else."

Twilight's eyes lit up at the mention of the dating policy because there was no such thing. She knew because she had studied and memorized all of the rules, laws, bylaws, treaties, and policies Celestia had ever passed in Canterlot. This had to be a ploy by Rarity to get Dean, or Chevy, to take her out on a date and if Doodles had fallen for it too now could be her chance. Sam started to walk away and she panicked, jumping to her feet.

"Wait!" She said louder than she meant to. "Uh, ahem, that is if Rarity made a dress for me I guess I can't let her down by not wearing it to the party."

"She did say she worked hard on it."

"Right, and the um, dating policy you mentioned?" Trixie looked up at her suspiciously. "I can't let you go alone can I? It would be a shame if you had to go alone all dressed up in your snappy new suit."

"So you'll go to the party then?"

"Yes Doodles I would love to go out with you."

"He invited you to a party, not a date."Trixie spoke softly behind her.

"Shush." Twilight promptly shushed Trixie, surprising her. "So where's the dress?"

"It's up there somewhere. I'll take you." Sam shared a smile with Twilight as he led her away. Twilight hid her ecstasy well as she trotted alongside Doodles. Thank Celestia for her stallion crazy friend Rarity, if she hadn't come up with that dating policy at the last minute she might not have had a date tonight. Luckily Rarity's little fib gave him the nerve to ask her out when she didn't know he was even interested.

'Doodles, you may be the brains of the operation. But you're definitely not smarter than Rarity.'

Sam in the meanwhile couldn't really explain his feelings. Not wanting to attend the party alone he had asked out a horse on a date under the pretense of sham policy. It was lucky for him that Rainbow Dash came up with it when she did, that made it easier for him to ask out Twilight. It would also help him later with Dean if and when he asked why he voluntarily took an animal on a date. Sam wasn't without his own arguments though. Sure the bible forbade bestiality, but he wasn't having relations with this animal, it was just a mutual attraction of minds and personality. Had Twilight been a human he wouldn't have though twice about asking her out, and aside from that these ponies were capable of consciousness thought which set them apart from regular animals by light years. So after all is said and done he had nothing to be ashamed of right? He was a pony at the moment too right? So there's no reason to be ashamed.

'Twilight I really hope you don't read too much into this. But if you do, I guess I can adjust.'

"Who's ready to party?" Pinkie Pie hopped around the group as they made their way through the trellis. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack were following behind Sam and Twilight in their new dresses all chattering excitedly. A flash caught their attention, up ahead there was a photographer taking pictures of all the ponies. Applejack held out her foreleg and stopped the other two ponies in their tracks, Pinkie and Fluttershy giggled quietly when they realized what she was trying to do. Earlier Twilight had helped Sam search for them in the gardens and told them about the dresses for the party and invited them to accompany them in a group wanting to keep the phony dating policy a secret. But Applejack knew something had to be up, Twilight wasn't one to be interested in asking boys out on dates. Shoot just a few years ago she wasn't even interested in making friends with any of them and now look at her, so chuck full of friends they're hanging back to let her get a picture alone with the stallion of her dreams.

Applejack chuckled a bit as she saw them reach the photographer and telling her invisible friends to smile. The photographer snapped the picture and she turned around to find her friends nowhere in sight. From the distance they were set apart AJ could see her blush as Doodles ushered her away, now it was their turn. The girls came up to the unicorn and laughed uncontrollably when he told them to say 'Cheese'.

Farther away Dean desperately trying to lift a cup of punch to his mouth with both his hooves when Sam and Twilight came up behind him.

"Hey Dean, your brother tells me you were cornered by Rarity."

Dean turned around still struggling with the cup.

"Yeah and he wasn't much help either. If it wasn't for this dating policy you ponies had around here I would've come stud."

"Oh, yes. The dating policy, you know that's how Doodles and I ended up together tonight. He came to tell me about the dresses and decided to kill two birds with one stone. Metaphorically speaking of course."

"Yeah, I get it." Dean's cup slipped from his grip and started to fall to the floor when Twilight stopped it with her magic and returned it to him.

"That seems a bit unfair don't you think?"

"What does?"

"That you unicorns can use your magic to drink. How am I supposed to drink from cup when I can barely hold it with my hoof?" Dean held the cup again with both hooves giving it a mean look when a blue hoof came into view. It took the cup from out between his hooves and lifted one of them straight up then set the cup in the middle of it. Dean looked up and saw Rainbow Dash hovering next to him smiling before she set down besides him.

"Yeah, the trick is to hold it in the palm of your hoof. Makes it easier to hold things don't you think?"

Dean became speechless holding his mouth slightly ajar.

"You okay bro? You look like your having an epiphany all of a sudden."

Dean didn't say a word but kept looking at the cup until his brother spoke up.

"Yeah sure. It's like I'm seeing colors I could never see before." Dean thanked Rainbow Dash and drained the cup before getting another.

"By the way glad to see you worked up the nerve to ask Doodles, Twilight." Rainbow said. "You know all this time I thought he was gonna be the one to ask you out. You know you two make a cute couple." Dean spit out a bit of the punch back into his cup.

"Well first of all Rainbow, he was the one who asked me. And secondly, can I talk to you in private?" Twilight led her away from the Winchesters.

"Bro you asked her out on a date?"

"Only because it was policy. You heard Rarity back there, and I told you we had to fit in around here."

"Yeah, well sometimes fitting in isn't important. How the hell is Cas supposed to find us if we act like these damned ponies. Isn't it enough he carved us up with angel radar scrambler?"

"But we have no idea how long it'll take him to find us here, for all we know he's looking for us on the other side of the globe right now. It could be weeks before he finds us."

Dean shook his head.

"Fine act however you want to act. Just don't get too cozy. It'll break my heart if I have to be the one to tear you two crazy kids apart."

Sam wasn't very amused.

"Okay, Rainbow here's the story. Doodles is a really great guy and I like him a lot. But I could never ask somepony like him out because I have no formal training in romantic courtship. So when he asked me out it was an opportunity too good to waste, the trouble is he only did it because of a fake dating policy Rarity made up. So he can't know that otherwise he might think that I'm not worth his time and just walk away."

Rainbow Dash listened to her story and smiled a bit at the end.

"Don't worry Twilight, something tells me he isn't going to go anywhere anytime soon without you."

"What makes you say that?"

"Just the fact that you two have so much in common, you both being eggheads and all."

"Rainbow!"
"Wait, wait here's the good part." Rainbow cleared her throat. "He knows the dating policy is a scam. He was there when Rarity made it up to trick Mr. Big tough scary guy over there to take her out. He even asked me if there was an actual dating policy. Uh, speaking of which...there really isn't one, is there?"

"No, there isn't." Twilight gasped. "There isn't, and he knew, and he still asked me out." Twilight blushed as she looked over to Sam who was talking to his brother.

"An egghead too shy to ask out another egghead out without having to make up something about a dating policy. Geez it's almost like it's out of some geeky love story. If you need me I'll be with the wonderbolts, Soarin asked me out without needing a fake policy." Rainbow Dash took off and left Twilight trying to hide her face from Sam as he walked over.

"Hey what were you guys talking about?"

Twilight took a deep breath trying to lessen the red in her cheeks.

"Oh, you know, girl stuff."

"What, she lost an earring or something?"

"Yeah, or something."

"Right. So you want to dance? Dean already got dragged out there by Rarity."

Twilight looked over his shoulder and saw Dean struggling to dance on his four hooves. He was constantly stepping on her toes as he moved his body in awkward directions and bumped into other ponies on the dance floor who reproached him only to be scorned into submission.

"I suppose we can't let him embarrass himself, but I certainly hope you're a better dancer than him."

"Slightly better, which means I may need some instruction, or a lot. I'm not too familiar with pony dance moves."

It wasn't long before both Rarity and Twilight decided to give up on trying to teach them how to dance. Twilight stopped teaching Sam after his head began to hurt again whereas Rarity stopped for her own protection. Dean walked over to the refreshments table and stocked up on a variety of cakes, pies, and brownies. He picked out a table and started digging in to Rarity's disgust. She started lecturing him on the importance of having a crisp, clean suit at a social function and started to wipe his mouth and cheeks with a napkin. Much to Rarity's surprise she began enjoying wiping his mouth and remarked about how good she was at taking care of him and how good she could be at other things. Dean stopped mid brownie, shivered a bit, and started eating more considerately.

Twilight took Sam and sat him down at a different table to help him with his headache.

"Just stand still and I'll use a spell I learned from Cadence. It really helped my brother when he was protecting Canterlot from the changelings."

"It's not going to hurt is it?"

"No silly it's a healing spell." Twilight's horn started to glow and brought it down onto his head. When she did Sam felt a bit of relief at first but suddenly felt a sharp pain so intense it shot down his spine. The pain was so great he had trouble breathing so he shoved Twilight back and unintentionally fell to the floor panting.

"Doodles? Sam, what's wrong?" She asked but it was apparent Sam was having trouble speaking. Twilight went to fetch him a glass of punch and held it up to his lips. Sam sipped a bit and started to come back around.

"That hurt."

"I don't understand it was supposed to be a simple healing spell how could I have messed it up?"

"Don't blame yourself, it worked for a bit but, oh wait a sec- Yeah, it's going away. I guess it was just getting all the bad out of the way." Sam lied, in truth his head was still splitting but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. He rubbed his forehead and felt a large lump beneath his hoof.

"Really? I'm so glad. But that wasn't supposed to happen, healing spells don't make the pain worse it just makes it go away."

"Go figure. Hey what are those ponies doing over there?" Sam pointed over at some well dressed, if slightly eccentric looking ponies gathered around a telescope.

"Oh, those are some of the top scientists in Equestria. Come on I'll introduce you to them, I don't mean to brag but I actually worked with a few of them for paper a few years back." Twilight started without Sam, for which he was glad as he swayed heavily as he stood up. When he caught up with her she was already talking to a tan pelted, blue eyed pony with a wild grey mane.

"Oh, Doodles this is professor Stargazer he's with the Baltimare Research Organization, department of Newfound Yore Studies. Professor I'd like you to meet Doodles he's a..."Twilight couldn't decide what his profession was.

"I'm a lawyer, just passed my bar exam as a matter of fact." Sam offered his hoof to the professor who shook it vigorously.

"So nice to meet you mi-boy. Lawyer is well met career, well met. I always knew Twilight would meet a fine young stallion." Sam's eyes were spinning in his head by the time the professor let go of him.

"Oh, professor we're not dating. We're just good friends, right Doodles?" Twilight asked feeling her cheeks burning again. Sam though didn't catch any of that as he held his hoof to his head to steady the dizziness he was feeling.

"So, um, what are you guys doing over here?" He managed to ask feeling like his old self again. The professor grew excited again and wrapped his leg around his neck and led him to the telescope.

"Feast your eyes mi-boy. Our subject of discussion is the universe with all its hidden wonders!"

"Oh, yeah?" Sam peered through the telescope and saw the planet Saturn. "Hey, what planet is that?"

"The one you're looking at? Why that's Saturn of course. Please tell me your time at law school hasn't wiped your memory of elementary science class."

"No. No it's just I haven't really seen it before except on the pages in books."

"Oh so that's your problem eh? You haven't lived your life as one should. You've had your nose in your books all this time. No wonder you chose a desk job, you want to play it safe all your life."

Sam couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, I guess I should get outdoors more often. So you're an astronomer I presume?"

"Precisely, my focus of study is in the movement of the stars and the effects of their gravitational pull on other objects in our galaxy. Lately I've been struggling with the most impervious of obstacles as I seemed to have found an empty region of space from which no light is visible. It is very strange."

"Wow that sounds interesting. But tell me, exactly what kind of effects do you think the stars gravity have?"

Several tables away Dean had just finished his smorgasbord of sweets when Pinkie Pie came over and sat down with him.

"Hey, how's it going?"

"It's going marvelous dear. Che-vee and I were just resting our aching hooves, we've been dancing for the better part of the night."

"Is that what you call it? It looked more like you two were trying to wrestle with each other, and Chevy was winning."

Rarity turned her nose up.

"Yeah and I guess your a real swell dancer."

"I'm okay I guess. I'm better at having fun, just ask anypony around here who the life of the party is and they'll tell you it's me."

"It's true dear. It's just like everypony says around here, there's no party like a Pinkie Pie party."

"Yep, whenever I throw a party we have all kinds of cooky fun. We eat cake, play games, dance...oops." Pinkie smiled at the look on Dean's face. "Sometimes we even have contests to see who's the greatest party goer-er is. But I usually end up winning. Last time I won a pie eating contest by two whole pies!" Dean sat up at this highly interested.

"A pie eating contest you say? And you won by two pies?"

"Yep, I don't think there's anypony out there who can beat my record."

"Is that a fact?" Pinkie glowered at him sensing danger.

"Yes, that is a fact."

"You know I've been known to down a couple pies myself. I once ate eight pies in one night."

"Respectable."

"Course that was when I was a kid. Now that I'm all grown up I'm sure I can fit three times as many pies in there."

"You know I bet you could, you look like a lightweight."

"Excuse me?"

"My record stands at thirty pies, and when I was a filly I ate twelve pies every night before I went to bed. I'm sure you can understand what I'm saying."

"Is that a challenge?"

"I don't know, is it?" Dean felt his coat tight around his waist.

"Well I did just eat my weight in sugar." Dean unbuttoned his coat. "But I reckon I can take you to school. You're on!" Pinkie and Dean faced off before Rarity split them apart.

"Oh, no. You two are not going to ruin my newest creation before they even had the chance to survive the night."

Dean and Pinkie looked at her and then nodded to each other as they took off their clothes and tossed them at Rarity. They left her behind to grudgingly fold up their clothes as she spat her concerns.

"And that is why many ponies nowadays believe that if we can somehow harness even the most minute amount gravity produced by the stars at this distance we can travel at the speed of light and on to new and marvelous new worlds. Oh, I'm sorry I didn't lose you did I?" The professor smiled at Sam who was rubbing his chin and frowning.

"Doodles, do you want me to explain it to you?" Twilight quipped. Sam shook his head and looked back up at the professor.

"Actually no, you didn't lose me. Everything you just said makes perfect sense to me."

"It does?" The professor was astonished.

"Yes, it helps me to understand a theory I heard not long ago from an astrophysicist friend of mine. My guess is that you want to travel through time and space using specific chains of gravity and anti gravity produced by these stars. But you're not sure how to harness them, my friend told me that these chains would be better defined as constellations and thus why we believe they hold special meaning. These constellations though," Sam looked up at the night sky. "would have to be in specific places from where we can see them before we could arrange their patterns onto a sort of device that would then direct us in the desired direction."

Sam looked all around him as he counted the four constellations Dean told him about earlier.

"These constellations though wouldn't direct us anywhere though if we didn't have a ground, or single neutral location identifiable by itself. When that happens you have full access to the universe at large through a device known to the ancients as a Star-gate."

"Fascinating. And where is this star-gate?"

"They're actually all over the world in different continents and varied in design. The one thing they all have in common though is that they were said to be used by the ancient gods and priests that existed in those days. All kinds of stories were built up around them as well as doomsday prophecies." Sam stopped and looked back at the castle. "Some tribes even hold them so sacred as to protect them with their lives. Twilight where exactly did you say that fountain came from?"

Twilight felt a bit blindsided by the question.

"What? From the old kingdom, but what does that have to do with star-gates?"

"Maybe everything. Was it moved there from anywhere else?"

"I'm not sure. I never looked further back into pony history, we mostly concentrated on Celestia's rule after Discord was banished. Why Doodles, what are you thinking?" Sam nodded slightly at her words.

"I think I have to find my brother."

"Fifteen!" A guard shouted as he kept track of Dean's pie count.

"Sixteen!" Shouted another as Pinkie tried to keep her lead.

Sam and Twilight came galloping into the crowd of disgusted yet excited ponies. They went around the most crowded part of the group before coming up front.

"What is he doing?" Sam asked as he saw his brother tossing aside an empty tin and gobbling down another pie.

"Sixteen!"

"I think they're having a pie eating contest."

"Ugh, and you would not believe how rudely they treated my clothes." Rarity walked next to them along with Fancy Pants. "Oh, but where are my manners. Fancy Pants this is Doodles, that ruffians more docile brother."

"How do you do?"

"Fine. Nice to meet you too. So how did my brother end up in a pie eating contest."

"Oh, Pinkie mentioned she ate pies for a living and he just went off the deep end."

Sam shrugged.
"Dean does love his pie." He said under his breath. "This is ridiculous we have bigger problems than who can have the biggest stomach ache. I'm going to get him away from that table."

"Oh, Doodles please try not to get anything on your suit."

Sam nodded as he walked up behind his brother.

"How's it going? You holding out?" Dean nodded sharply as he shoved another pie in his face. "That's great because I think I just figure out the what."

Dean swallowed and through a mouth full of dough said. "What?"

"I know where the Queen is going to make her grand entrance. I figured out what she's going to use."

Kinda busy at the moment." Dean continued to eat as the guard announced his tie with Pinkie at nineteen.

"Fine just listen, I was talking with a pony professor earlier and he went off on a tangent that got me thinking about where a being of darkness could come from."

"Twenty!" The crowd let up a roar.

"Listen I think princess Luna could've been possessed by something that came out of a star-gate that could be here in the castle. You remember that fountain you searched earlier? I think that might be it, and if we can find a way to exorcise whatever is possessing the princess and get it back through that gate we can go home a lot faster."

Dean stopped eating as he turned to look at his brother, chewing and swallowing what he had in his mouth.

"So as soon as we ice the demon or whatever's inside her, we go home?"

"Maybe. And maybe we need that star-gate for Cas to find us. Those things are basically wormholes to other worlds, but that's where it gets confusing."

"Twenty-One!"

"What? Oh, damn!" Dean went back to ignoring Sam and dug his snout back into the pies.

"Dean forget about this, we have more important things to do." Dean ignored him. "Dean this is stupid just let it go." Still nothing. "Dean-"

"Twenty-One!"

"Sam if you don't leave me alone I'm going to pop you one."

"Oh, yes please do. We all know know how well that turned out last time." A new voice suddenly rose over the guards and resonated around the gardens. All the ponies and the guards looked around to find the source of it. Twilight and her friends didn't have to look around though, they knew exactly who it was. Instantaneously all six girls looked up to find Discord floating in the air above them, chuckling to himself.

"Discord." They said together.

"Who?" Dean asked standing up.

"Oh, you haven't heard of me? Then allow me to introduce myself." Discord swooped down and shook Dean's hoof. He set hilarious pitfalls, booby traps, and corrupted every guard that came his way as he began his introduction.

"My dear new friend you don't know my name

But with this nifty little rhyme you'll find I'm quite tame.

Whereas most baddies these days just want conquest and fear,

I hold all life close, and sacred, and all of it dear.

But ask what I want, because I do have my desires,

I want to leave all ponykind in a miserable mire.

Ask me how I'll do it and the word's not mum,

Because all that I do is the utmost in fun.

You see I like a good laugh, a nice chuckle or two.

How I get my jollies well that's up to you.

If you stick around I'll put on a show,

I'll tell you my favorites on the word go.

I love pranks, and tricks, and gimmicks, and twists.

I love mischief and chaos in all forms and fits.

I love playing with pony feathers, horns, and hooves just plain.

I love hearing their voices when they call me insane.

I love playing with emotions, I love playing with fate

I love playing with couples whose Aunt Flo comes too late.

I love hearing their pleas, I like hearing their shouts,

I love hearing them cry and watching them pout.

All these games and more I love them all the same.

I am Professor Chaos of General Disarray fame!

But my friends call me Discord."

Discord flew off and spread more chaos throughout the courtyard sending silverware flying and bringing the tables, dishes, and chairs to life. Dean started to understand who this guy was pretending to be but he wanted Sam to confirm it.

"Let me guess, he's the god of..?"

"The god of malice and chaos. A trickster."

"Yes, yes a trickster. That describes my personality to a T. Oh, it's so good to finally meet someone who understands me." Discord teleported next to both brothers and shoved cigars in their mouths. "Here have a smoke on me." He said as he lit the cigars with a fire hose. "If it weren't for you two I'd still be a living monument to all things mischievously comedic and evil in the world."

Discord teleported again and the Winchesters threw away the cigars before they blew up in their faces. Laughter reverberated around as Discord's disembodied voice continued to mock them.

"Poor little Twilight you truly thought you had won last time, now look at you. You don't know whether to take me on yourself or try to save Luna from her fate."

"What do you know about Luna, Discord? What are you doing to her?"
"Me? What makes you think I'm the one responsible for her current state of transformation? And if you ask me I think she looks rather ravishing as a creature of the night."

"Show yourself Discord!" Twilight said as the tables and chairs came to life all around them and began running around them. Plates, cups and ladles started flying around as well accosting the party goers.

"I would Twilight but I just don't think that would be in my very best interest at the moment seeing as how you would like to trap me again. And I am very much enjoying my newest prison break to have it cut short by you and your friends."

The girls gathered around Twilight as Discord continued to laugh around them.

"Whatta we do Twi? The elements of harmony are in the safe next to the Princess's throne room, and we're a long way off from there."

"We'll have to get to them somehow, maybe Shining Armor and the rest of the guards can hold him off long enough for us to-"
"You can stop trying to plot against me Twilight I won't stay for very long. I have other things to do to prepare for my mistresses arrival."

"Mistress?"

"Yes, my mistress. Of course you'll have to wait to meet her until after she gathers her power again, which shouldn't take more than five minutes past midnight." Twilight heard his fingers snap and the moon moved in its place. "And would you look at that, midnight already. I won't keep you any longer I'm sure your friends are just dying to help, especially the dopey looking one he seems quite eager." With a final cackle and lightning strike that started warping the ground beneath them Discord flew away.

"What's happening Sammy?"

"We have to get to the courtyard. Now."

Sam led all eight of them to the courtyard which was oddly easy to find as everything else around them turned into some strange living portrait. It was also the only place that didn't seem corrupted by Discord, everything was exactly the way it was earlier that day. Sam led them all past the fairy circle and brought them to the fountain.

"Alright Rarity, where exactly did you see those carvings?"

"There were four of them and each one was across from the other. Here's one." Rarity pointed one of the carvings out and Sam followed it across the fountain. Wading in the water he found the other three and continued searching all the while explaining what he had just put together with the other ponies.

"Sam you sure about this? Isn't this something that would normally involve aliens, because the last time I checked we weren't marines."

"I'm sure of it. We just have to find the fifth carving that's meant to be the ground for this world."

"Hold it right there!" Shining's voice boomed as he and a garrison of guards marched into the courtyard. "As captain of the guard I am placing you under arrest for the liberation of Discord. It's obvious you and all your violent behaviour is the reason why he was set free. I hope you come quietly but I'm almost positive you won't."

"Go home, chuck. We're busy."

"I knew it. Guards, seize them!"

Twilight stepped in front of them.

"Just a minute!" She proclaimed with authority. "These two ponies seem to know more about what's happening than you do. If you arrest them now we may never know why Discord was set loose, who his mistress is or why Princess Luna is suffering so much. Doodles is very close to understanding, uh, something very useful."

"And what might that be Twilight because we're really starve for information."

"It's this fountain. I think this might be a way that Nightmare Moon might try to come back. I think that's why Luna has the ghost sickness, Nightmare Moon is draining her power until she gathers enough to come back."

"How can Nightmare Moon drain power from the Princess when they're the same pony?" Shining asked.

"Not anymore, at least I don't think so. I think that maybe there was a personality split somewhere, now the princess and Nightmare are separate from each other."

"Separate? Split personality? So she's not a ghost then, she's a tulpa."

"Maybe, ghosts only carry out unfinished business and hurt whoever gets in the way. But this time it chased others and more importantly outside the castle where I doubt there's any personal belongings of the princess."

"My how deductive. Discord was right about you."

A harsh wind ripped through the courtyard that forced everypony to the ground. Dean couldn't lift himself off the ground until he heard his brother choking. Looking up he saw him floating twenty feet above the pool of water, held in place by the magic of Nightmare Moon. She complimented on discovering the location of the gateway and touched him with her horn. Sam started screaming as she delivered her magic into his body.

"But you're not entirely correct, Luna and I were never truly split apart. I was just hiding in the darkest corner in her mind, waiting for the perfect opportunity."

"Let go of my brother you bitch!"

"My there's no need for such language you feeble colt." Nightmare moon zapped him back into the guards with her magic as Sam continued to scream. "You should be honored. Your brother has been chosen as the fifth catalyst for my mistress's return."

"What mistress? Why do you need Doodles?" Twilight yelled.

At that moment Sam screamed louder than before as a large horn grew out of his head and lost consciousness.

"This one has the most untapped potential of all, he will serve our mistress well." Nightmare Moon let a lifeless Sam topple into the pool below that became dark and wispy. Once he crossed over the fountain exploded with a dark purple magical hue. The blast blinded them all with its flash and sent up a fog too thick to see. Within the cloud though they heard a heavy breathing and two bright glowing purple eyes opened up to look at all the ponies around them. Before anypony could take action the figure they were attached to took off into the sky without a sound.

"My mistress lives and you shall all know pain and misery the likes of which you have never experienced!" Luna transformed into her mist form and flew over the heads of the guards to taunt them, Dean stood up and chased her down the hallway she passed through. He kept up the chase as she went down one corridor and came out another thanks to Discord and his tricks. Dean didn't give up and continued to chase her as she came out of castle and took a physical form again to declare her return to the world. Dean was just on her flank when he decided to jump at her and bring her down when he felt suddenly heavy and fell to the ground just short of her tail. Nightmare Moon took off and cackled as the ponies below her shouted in fear. Dean turned around and saw Shining Armor on top of him.

"Get off me!" Dean shoved him off. "What the hell are you doing!? I almost had her!"

"Are you crazy? One pony alone can't take on Nightmare Moon! Even my sister had to team up with her friends to take her down!"

"I don't give a rat's ass!"

"Chevy! I mean Dean!" Twilight came up behind her brother with her friends and guards.

"Dean?"

"I know you're worried about your brother but you can't act rashly at a time like this. We'll get your brother back but first we have to find out how."

"I know how, gank the bitch and cut her open that's one way."

"Dean we can't do that. Whoever she is we don't know anything about her or how to defeat her. We're going to need Princess Celestia's help if you want your brother safely returned."

"Princess Celestia? Princess..? The princess can kiss my ass!" Everyone around him gasped. "God knows she can't kiss her own since she sits on it all the day long!"

"Watch what you say about the princess around me you jerk!"
"Oh, yeah? What are you going to do, hug me to death? Sing another one of your fruity songs? That worked wonders the first time." Dean and Shining were staring each other down when two wisps appeared in front of Twilight and transformed into two letters.

"Look two letters, one from Zecora. The other from the princess!"

"Read Zecora's first." Dean said. "I'm willing to bet she'll be a bigger help than your precious princess."

Twilight opened Zecora's letter and began to read uneasily as she watched her brother and Dean square off.

"It says their was a disaster just outside Ponyville in the Everfree forest. She has no idea what's going on but she senses it's a bad omen. Spike and the girls are okay, they're with her right now and are taking refuge in my library." Applejack and Rarity were visibly relieved. "She wants us to go back as soon as possible because she thinks a new evil is about to rise. This was sent only a couple hours ago."

"And the princess?" Shining asked.

Twilight opened the letter and began reading, but halfway through she stopped and her ears drooped.

"She can't make it to the scene, can she?"

"The princess writes to tell us that she's in counsel with an old friend of hers. He's going to help her capture the evil being that escaped imprisonment and," She swallowed hard, "she sends her condolences but..."

"What did I tell you? They're all the same aren't they? No matter where you go they won't help because they say they can't. Twilight do me a favor and write a letter back to the princess and tell her I said 'Piss off because I got this one.' She won't get off her lazy ass to do something I will." Dean started walking away as Trixie finally made it to the group, she was panting and out of breath but managed to find Twilight. The guards lowered their spears at Dean but Shining Armor stopped them.

"At ease boys. Let him through. If he wants to make the biggest mistake he'll ever make then let him." The guards lifted their spears in unison as Dean walked between them. "I'm calling it the biggest mistake you'll ever make because it's going to be the last. If you walk up to Nightmare Moon you're as good as dead and you won't help your brother any. Is that what you want? Are you willing to lay down your life for your brother?"

Dean stopped walking.

"Do you want to die a senseless death for your brother?"

There was a stony silence as Dean took his time. Trixie in the meanwhile pulled Twilight aside as she gathered her breath.

"I already have." He said darkly, before walking away.

Shining wasn't sure if he heard him right but disregarded it and called the guards to his attention and commanded them to secure the non corrupted areas of the castle and to evacuate everypony they could, when they all left he turned around and made his way to his sister.

"There was a mistranslation in the books that we read, Twilight. We thought we were reading the word presence and that is what slowed us down. The word actually has another vowel in it that was rubbed off almost completely, it doesn't read presence it reads 'Crescendoe'."

"The Witch Queen Crescendoe, why didn't we figure this out earlier we could've prevented so much."

"Don't blame yourself Twili, there was a prophecy, you said so yourself. There was no stopping what happened today."

"Yes, but we could've at least warned them. It's all my fault."

"Hey, it's not your fault. I told you to stop thinking like that."

"He's right you know. If anything it's that thug's fault for barging into the princess's room and finding out about those constellations. I was in the 2nd floor corridor when Nightmare Moon made her entrance. If he wasn't so concentrated on those etchings he might've been saved."

"And he grew a horn too. Why?"

Trixie didn't have an answer.

"At times like these it's best to retreat to a safe location and plan a new strategy."

"You're right Shining Armor, we'll go back to ponyville and talk with Zecora. But first we're going to need the elements of harmony if we want to stand a chance against Discord and Nightmare Moon, and something tells me Queen Chrysalis is in on this too."

"Gee, Twili, you really think so?"

"Without a doubt. I just hope Dean is up to it."

…...

Later that night the train that left Canterlot station and was just about to arrive in Ponyville had all its cars filled to the brim with soldiers, all except for one that was set apart for the mane six, Dean, Trixie, and Shining Armor. Dean sat alone and hunched over his table as the girls theorized what would happen if they didn't stop the Witch Queen in time.

"Maybe she'll summon flying monkeys to take over the world?" Rainbow said.

"Not unless she turns the sky gray and makes all the pretty colors in the world go away!" Pinkie chimed.

"Oh, what if she starts hurting the animals?"

"Girls we can't think this way. We're going to stop her in time, we have the elements of harmony, an entire army, and Trixie has turned into a powerful unicorn. We're going to win this."

"Alright, stallions we're about to pull into the station. Get ready to move out." Shining Armor said as he walked into the other car. Dean stood up and walked over to the window, the girls joined him to watch the station come into view.

"So I guess you're pretty amped to find this Witch Queen and give her the business huh, Dean?" Rainbow Dash broke tried to break the ice but Dean remained quiet.

"Uhh, hey Dean, me and you didn't finish our pie eating contest thanks to mean old Discord. How about before we head out we try it again?" Pinkie's words fell on his indifferent ears as the train started slowing down. Trixie stepped between them and cast her die at trying to strike up a conversation with the pony who didn't speak a word the entire trip.

"I suppose you also think we're doomed. Out with it, let's hear your theory."

Dean shifted on his feet before he opened his mouth.

"A trumpet will sound, signaling the end of times. A burning star will fall from the sky and catch all the rivers, oceans, and lakes on fire. The fire will spread to the trees and crops and burn them down to the ashes causing famine. The ashes will float on the winds and choke every living thing before spreading to the sky and blocking out the sun. The damned will be tossed into the fiery pit and be tortured by demons for all eternity and abandon all hope." Dean turned around to see the shocked faces of all the ponies behind him, including two guards who walked in on them. "The world will die and there won't be a damned thing you can do to stop it. Not if you give up."

The train came to a stop and the doors opened to the platform. Dean stepped out, leaving the girls to fathom what he meant to say.

It was close to two in the morning when Dean found Applejack on the same lonely country road he was walking. She was walking with Big Mac and carrying a sleeping Applebloom on her back.

"Well, looky here. If it ain't mister optimism himself. That was quite a scare you gave us back at the train station."

"Yeah."

"Well, Twilight and Zecora have started plannin for tomorrow. Just so you know. Says you can bunk with her tonight if you don't have nowhere else to sleep."

"Yeah."

"Well, we're heading over to our home. Sweet Apple Acres? Ya'll are welcome to come by and spend the night with us. It's closer than Twilight's.

"Yeah."

"Sis, why don't you take Applebloom and let me have a talk with this feller. Seems he's fallen on hard times."

"Sure thing Big Mac." She yawned. "Been a big day for all of us. Well, goodnight Dean."

"Yeah."

As soon as Applejack was out of earshot Big Mac walked up to Dean and whispered in his ear.

"Ya know, I got something that might fix ya up."

"No thanks, I've had my fill of hugs and sunshine that'll last a lifetime."

"I'm not talking about a hug ya fool. I'm talking about whiskey."

Dean picked his head up and lay both hooves on him.

"Don't play with me."

Moments later both of them arrived at Big Mac's secret distillery where he made his secret moonshine whiskey. Big Mac lit a lantern and they stepped inside, Dean found himself in heaven as he saw casket after casket and barrel after barrel Big Mac assured him were full of the sweet liquor.

"Been brewin this here moonshine since mah pa felt I was old enough. This here's called Applejack Whiskey, made with apples we grow ourselves."

Dean found the nearest tap and turned it all the way until the whiskey poured forcefully into the ground and put his mouth under it.

"Hey now don't waste it." Big Mac grabbed a couple of mugs he had hidden and shoved Dean aside. He filled them both and turned off the tap. "Here this oughta be enough for what ails ya."

Big Mac sipped from his own cup but Dean chugged his down in a matter of seconds. Big Mac was astonished at his tolerance.

"Oh, God that's smooth. You never drank with me before partner," Dean filled his cup again, "so you better learn to keep up." Dean chugged the second mug as Big Mac got over his surprise and chugged his cup as well. Dean had been in desperate need for a drink since the day before and now that he got it he wasn't going to stop.

The next morning the birds were chirping and the sun was shining but his hangover made everything a hundred times worse. His head hurt like it hadn't hurt in a long time, his memory of last night was gone, his throat burned and his mouth felt stuffed with cotton. He heard voices arguing in hushed tones but they still carried daggers to his ear drums, turn his head he saw through blurry eyes several figures on all fours. Dean remembered why he drank the night before and decided maybe he ought to get out of bed and look for his brother. Again Dean had no memory of this place and groaned loudly as he shifted in bed, his back was incredibly sore and the new movement sent a shock wave of dizziness and hurt to his head.

"He's awake." He heard one of them say, probably Twilight, he didn't care.

"I told ya'll already. Just let me at him."

"Applejack, no. He looks really hurt."

"Well I'll hurt him some more for what he did to my brother."

Dean felt nauseous just trying to remember when and where he got drunk.

"The kid's not hurt, he's just being a pansy." Dean heard a familiar gruff voice say. "What's the matter princess, can't hold your drink?"

Dean's eyes shot open despite the glaring white light that surrounded him on the hospital bed. In front of him was a brown pony wearing a baseball cap with a scruffy beard and all the complexion of a worn out baseball mitt.

"Get on your ass Dean." Bobby said. "We got work to do."

boby...pin?

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Chapter 9

Every happy little chirp the birds made sounded like a squawk from an angry crow to Dean as he lifted the sheets off himself and climbed out of bed. He planted his hooves on the ground and tried to stand up, immediately he felt an incredible pull of gravity forcing him to fall forward. In a blind panic he stretched out his hands and caught himself before his face hit the ground. He was surprised his body was level though and not in some awkward downward dog position that he had grown accustomed to when he drank too much.

Opening his eyes he saw the floor spinning below him under some weird looking legs, it took a while before he realized what it was that he was actually seeing and turned to face the grouchy looking pony in the room.

"Somebody get this kid a bucket he looks ready to blow."

"Bobby?" Dean could hardly believe it though mostly because he saw three ponies who all bore the same resemblance. The shock of seeing him in that condition worsened the dizzying he was feeling and the room started to spin faster. Losing his balance he started tilting back and forth uncontrollably he felt a rush of air beside and leaned against something soft and warm.

"Oh, you poor thing. Whatever happened to you two last night?"

"Ah'll tell ya what happened. Him and Big Macintosh got into the hard cider is what happened, I told him to get rid of that stuff the last time I saw him all tipsy like."

"Cider did this to them?" Twilight asked.

"Goofy juice is more like it. That cider went bad long ago, it messes with your head and leaves ya like..."she nudged her head to the ailing Dean. "'Course it doesn't seem too dangerous, but drink too much of it and ya wind up here."

"What can I say? I never turn down a free drink."

"You keep quiet! Applebuck season is coming up and I'll be danged if I have to harvest all the apples myself again. Just look at the how ya left mah brother."

Dean heard a moaning coming up ahead of him and looked up quickly, all this talk about brothers had his foggy mind thinking Sam was in the bed next to him all along. His head started to clear up as he saw Big Mac tossing and turning on the bed next to him.

"Ah swear if you hurt my brother..."

"Stop." Dean said taking his weight off Fluttershy. "You don't give your bro enough credit. I know I don't. He'll be fine." Dean took several uneasy steps towards Bobby. "Now hows 'bout you tell me exactly how the hell you got here.

"Easy enough. Castiel woke me up from a nap and told me he needed help finding you two, told me no time to pack, not even the bare necessities."

"And he booted your ass here? Why the hell couldn't he come looking for us himself? He forget where he parked the angelmobile?"

"He didn't forget so much as he didn't drop you off here."

"What?"

Twilight interrupted them.

"Um, excuse me, who's Castiel? Is he somepony who can help us defeat the Witch Queen?"

Bobby looked at the purple pony and tried to steer the conversation away from witches. Castiel warned him not to intervene with the affairs of the this world's inhabitants.

"Castiel's just a cab driver." He looked at Dean. "A couple nights ago this idjit and his brother got into some trouble and tried to call him up for help." Dean started to pay close attention. "But he was busy so he sent a new guy at the company to pick him up. Being new he got turned around somewhere and ended up dropping them off here. These boys are a long way from home and I'm just here to take them back. So where's Sam anyway?" Dean stood staring at him with a sorry look on his face and Bobby grimaced, "Balls!"

"It all happened so fast, uh, mister...?" Twilight started.

"Name's Bobby darlin'. Now what were you saying?"

"There was a problem Chevy and his brother were helping us look into a few nights ago, something so bad we ended up having to go all the way to Canterlot. While we were there we found out that the culprit behind all the kidnappings Equestria's seen lately was actually someone we thought we trusted and more so she was working for somepony else. But we didn't realize that until it was too late."

"Too late?" Bobby said exasperated. "Don't tell me..."

"Oh, no Sir. We think Doodles is still alive but is most likely being held captive. Nightmare Moon did say he would serve her mistress more than the others. I guess now we're just trying to formulate a strategy to..."

"Hold it right there." Bobby stopped her. "Doodles? Chevy? Nightmare Moon? Who are you talking about?"

"Me and Sam, Bobby." Dean said. Bobby didn't know what to say and Dean walked him out of the room. "Give us a minute."

Closing the door behind him Dean let out a sigh of relief knowing he wasn't going to be stuck alone with these ponies like he thought.

"Alright, what the hell's going on?"

"I wish I knew. One second me and Sam are cornered in a burnt out factory being chased by demons and hellhounds and the next." He motioned his hoof to his body. "I prayed to Castiel as a last resort but I didn't think he'd make it. Now I kind of wish he didn't, but wait a minute you said he sent a new guy in?"

"Not really. I didn't really ask what happened all I know is what I overheard. Apparently a rookie angel was scouting that factory by luck and heard you praying I guess. Don't ask me how he found you all I know is he did and I guess he panicked and skipped a few dimensions between here and there before dropping you off. Now it's my turn, what the hell are you doing getting into these ponies business for?"

"Hey it's not like wanted to alright, but there was this thing chasing kids outside our hotel. Kids, Bobby, what did you want me to do?"

"Fine, I guess. But what's this about a Witch Queen?"

"Oh, that's a long story. Turns out this place is some kind of happy go lucky kid's fantasy world where everything is perfect and corny. So then this pony gets decapitated one town over and Sam wants to look into it, that's when things just sort of went their usual way. Then last night some prophecy became reality and we ran into a trickster and I guess this world's version of a Tulpa that ended up manifesting and she dropped Sam into a fountain he said was a Stargate. I guess whatever came out of it is the Witch Queen everyone's talking about."

"Why did she drop Sam in the fountain?"

"She said he had the most untapped potential and then he grew a horn out of nowhere."

"A horn?"

"Yeah, like that unicorn in there. But I don't get why, I mean unicorns use magic in this world but Sam's never..." Dean stopped as a horrible realization dawned on him. "Oh, shit."

Bobby read Dean's expression and knew where he was going with it.

"You're thinking he still has demon powers don't you?"

"What else could it be? I mean they were abducting ponies without cutesie marks, and then that unicorn that got killed." Dean slammed his hoof on the floor. "Damn it, they took more unicorns."

"What the hell are you talking about? What cutesie marks?"

"You see that thing you got on your ass?" Dean pointed at the image of a hair pin cutiemark. "That. Sam thought that the ponies without those marks were the equivalent of virgins in our world. They were pure, and now that they took Sammy the unicorn count is three to two. They sapped the magic out of that dead unicorn, they were looking for sources of magic and Sam's got powers better than magic." Bobby shook his head.

"All Castiel said was get in, and get out. Don't mess with the locals he said, now you two went and fucked it all up."

"Well excuse me for doing what I was trained to do since I was four years old. Besides what does it matter if we mess with the locals it's not the end of the...oh, wait."

"Castiel said we don't belong here, everything we do will change this world for the worst, and seeing how the bad guys ended up with a human death ray I don't think we're helping much just standing around."

"So just bring Castiel down here. You don't have the sigils carved in your gut. He can see you right?"

"No can do. Angels are too powerful in this world. Hell you should see the landing pad we made coming down here last night. Damn near blew the forest to shit."

"That was you?" Twilight poked her head through the door. Bobby and Dean turned to her sternly which caused her to retreat a bit. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just wanted to check on you. Is everything alright?"

Dean nodded to Bobby. "It's cool she doesn't know everything."

"How much does she know?"

"Enough to have helped us out. We'll be back in a sec, close the door." Twilight did as she was told and the two were left out in the hall alone again. "Sam's been hanging around with her and picked up some things, so did she."

"Like what?"

"Just what our jobs are. Our real names. A little bit of history. She doesn't know we're not real ponies." Dean whispered.

"Good because Castiel was real anal about that last part. So any ideas what we're going to do about Sam?"

"Not yet. We don't even know where it took him, Twilight's a real wiz though just like Sammy. She'll find something out."

"Twilight?"

"The purple unicorn you just saw. 'Twilight Sparkle'." Dean said matter of factly.

"I get it, and your name is what? Hunter?"

"Chevy Impala." Bobby raised an eyebrow. "They caught me off guard."

"And Sam?"

"Doodles." Again Bobby disapproved. "Oh, you think you can do better? What's your fake name going to be then?"

Bobby took a moment to stare at his ass then looked back. "Bobby Pin. You already gave up my real name."

"Bobby Pin? Alright, fine. Got any other gems off the top of your head?"

"Box cutter."

Dean blinked a bit. "Alright yeah that would've been a good one."

"Alright now try to explain everything to me again but with them. I need to report back to Malachai."

"Who?"

"My guardian angel. He'll let Castiel know what's going on."

"Let's head back then." Dean sighed and leaned over to open the door. "You know I really wish I thought of Box cutter, for some reason they liked 'Doodles' better than Chevy."

my little supernatural

by thepinkparty

ponies seriously?

new life

salt helps all

doctor?

pie

the great and powerful

end of days

zecroa

dammit b.....

boby...pin?