112. As the World Falls from Grace

THE FORESTS OF THE LABYRINTH

As Sarah, Hoggle, Lancelot, Rarity, and Fluttershy (with Pester clinging to her mane) progressed through the forest, Sarah took note of their surroundings. "We have to be careful here," she cautioned. "There are terrible creatures that live in this part of the forest."

"Terrible how?" Rarity asked.

"They'll try to rip your head off and throw it around," Sarah explained.

"That's awful!" Fluttershy gasped. "Why would they do a thing like that?"

"They can take off their own heads," Sarah explained, "so they think it's something everyone can do."

"Hmm." Fluttershy thought on that. "I know that's bad for us, but I don't think it's all that terrible for them. It reminds me of a…friend I had. Somepony who thought that because he liked everything to be strange and chaotic, that it was fun for everypony else."

"Darling," Rarity asked, "after all this time, do you still think of him as a friend?"
"I don't know," Fluttershy admitted. "Probably not now. But I really do believe he was my friend once. For just a little while. I really do just think he's trying to have fun by playing with heroes and villains the way foals play with toys, and he doesn't see how much it hurts the rest of us."

"Well, I think he's simply dreadful, and I'm certain he's aware of the fact," Rarity huffed.

Before Sarah, Lancelot or Hoggle could ask who they were talking about, there came a rustling from the trees ahead. "Be quiet!" Hoggle hissed. "Or those Fireys will hear us coming and it will be off with our heads!"

"Hide!" Fluttershy suggested, diving into a nearby bush from which to survey the path. Sarah, Hoggle, and Rarity followed suit, the latter delicately so as not to tangle her mane on the branches of the shrub. Lancelot tried his best to stand behind a big tree that could conceal most of his bulk.

The source of the sound made its way onto the path. Instead of a pack of Fireys, the group consisted of two ponies, one human, and one very large and hairy creature. "Looks like we're back in the woods," Twilight remarked to Helena, Rainbow Dash, and Ludo. "I hope these aren't the same woods from around Lancelot's village. That would set us WAY too far back."

"TWILIGHT!" Rarity cried as she stepped out (again with care so as not to snag her mane) of the shrub where she was hiding. Fluttershy, Hoggle, Sarah, and Lancelot made themselves visible as well.

"Hey, everypony!" Rainbow Dash greeted. "Long time, no see!"

"Ludo?" Sarah approached the largest member of the party in awe.

"Sarah!" Ludo replied happily, and the two embraced, Sarah laughing with joy.

"It's so good to see you!" Sarah gushed once they'd let go. "When's the last time we saw each other? I missed you!"

"Uh…Fluttershy?" Twilight asked. "What's that thing in your mane?"

"This is Pester," Fluttershy replied. "He's a new friend."

Pester hissed.

"Where's Applejack?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"And Bastian and Richard?" Helena chimed in.

Eventually, piece by piece, the two groups were able to trade all their tales and catch up on the state of events.

"We should probably stick together for a while," Twilight suggested.

"A good idea," Rarity agreed. "Especially since I hear this part of the forest is home to some quite despicable creatures."

"They probably just think we're the weird ones for having our heads attached to our bodies," Fluttershy reminded her. It was strange to think that she probably would never have seen it that way before knowing Discord.

"Our heads?" Twilight repeated.

"As in 'we can kiss our heads goodbye if we don't keep moving,'" Hoggle clarified.

"How can you kiss your own head goodbye?" Helena pointed out. "Your lips are on your head. It's rather impossible."

"Let's just go!" Hoggle sighed, picking up the pace and leading the group on. As he passed Ludo, he smiled genuinely. "It's good to see you after all this," he remarked.

Ludo just replied with a gleeful grin.

The newly reunited group pressed on further and further into the forest, and the atmosphere only seemed to darken as the trees grew thicker. Soon, a new sound rang out through the woods, echoing off the trees. It was a song Sarah knew well. "That's them," she whispered. "We should go back."

"'Them'?" Fluttershy questioned, listening closer. "It sounds more like a 'him.'"

Sarah realized Fluttershy was right. There was only one singer (high-pitched and male). "There is only one," she observed. "Last time, there were more. I wonder what it means. It's probably still too dangerous – "

"But what if it means they need our help, if only one of them is able to sing?" Lancelot pointed out.

"He sounds pretty happy," Twilight countered.

"If it's only one, then we have him waaaaaay outnumbered!" Rainbow Dash realized. "If we checked in on the situation, we could totally stop him from ripping off any heads!"

"I guess you're right," Sarah agreed.

"We might as well look," Helena suggested. "We could sneak up on him so he doesn't see us."

"Maybe we should," Fluttershy agreed.

That was how the group found themselves moving quietly through the trees until they were at range to see a clearing where a small bonfire flickered and a single being danced around it. They kept behind the line of foliage, silent and undetected by the being doing his dance.

The lone Firey, lanky and red with patchy fur and a beaklike face, shimmied and kicked his way around the fire. "Ain't got no problems!" he belted out proudly. "Ain't got no suitcase! Ain't got no clothes to worry about! Ain't got no real estate or jewelry or gold mines to hang me up…"

His entire demeanor suddenly changed. His dance slowed until he simply kicked the dirt and sat down, dejected. "It just ain't the same," he sighed to himself.

The hidden group exchanged glances. Sarah gave a slight shrug to indicate that this was most certainly not the way she remembered it at all.

Fluttershy maneuvered herself closer to Sarah. "Should we talk to him?" the pegasus pony whispered. "He looks sort of lonely."

"I don't know – " Sarah began to answer.

"Wha?" The Firey's head snapped up, and he cast his glance around the woods. "Someone there?"

Sarah looked around at her friends. Hoggle shook his head no. The others all nodded yes.

Confidently striding into the clearing, leading the others, Sarah greeted, "Are you okay?"

"As okay as I've been for the last few years," the Firey sighed, not even looking at Sarah.

"What happened?" Sarah asked. "Did something change? I know there used to be more of you."

"Well, how would you know a thing like tha – " The Firey then got a good look at Sarah. "Hey! It's you! I remember you! You're the one who threw all our heads around! Two of us ended up back on the wrong body after that, you know!"

"Well, you were trying to throw my head!" Sarah replied indignantly.

"We only throw our own heads!" the Firey protested. "We were just takin' yours off for ya so you could throw it around!"

"My head isn't SUPPOSED to come off!" Sarah cried.

"Everyone's head's supposed to come off!" The Firey folded his arms. "How are ya supposed to have any fun if your head can't be up in the clouds sometimes?"

"We do it metaphorically," Sarah explained.

"Well, then, you're no fun!" the Firey remarked. "Offer still stands, y'know. I could take your head right off, and you'd never wanna go back to the other way again!"

"Don't you dare," Sarah warned.

"Why don't we stop talking about heads?" Twilight stepped forward to intercept the conversation. "You didn't tell us what happened to you. Where the others went and why you're so sad."

"The others!" the Firey reminisced. "We were the best and the baddest around!"

"Pardon me," Fluttershy asked, "but how can you be the best and bad at the same time?"

"It's a figure of speech, dear," Rarity quickly explained.

"Everybody wanted to chilly down with the fire gang, back in the day!" the Firey went on. "Guess I took it for granted that there'd always be a fire gang. We didn't have worries holdin' us down. Now, I don't have any worries holdin' me down, but I don't have anybody else to not worry with!" He stood up and looked directly at Sarah. "It was right after you left, actually. All of us went to sleep for the night, and I had this dream that we were standin' around the Goblin King in a circle in a dark room. He said somethin' real weird. Somethin' about how if he couldn't be happy, we didn't have the right to be so happy. Then it looked like the floor we was standin' on split up into five parts, and the other guys' floors all went flyin' away. I dunno what that Goblin King did, but when I woke up, I was all by myself, and I haven't heard from the others since!"

"That's terrible!" Sarah lamented. "Oh, and all because of me!"

"Because of Jareth," Rainbow Dash reminded her. "It was his stupid jealousy that made him do it."

"You must have had something very special, for Jareth to get that jealous," Lancelot pointed out.

"Yeah," the Firey sulked, looking down at the flames on the ground. "We did."

"Have you tried looking for the others?" Twilight asked.

"Sure!" the Firey replied. "But ya know what it's like wanderin' around this Labyrinth. Ya never get anywhere! Especially if you're tryin' to find somebody else!"

"What if…" Twilight looked to the small fire as well. "What if you didn't just go around looking on foot? What if you could send up a signal? Like that fire!"

"We would know each other by a big fire," the Firey mused. "Nobody liked to throw fire around like we did! Problem is, one Firey on his own can't make a signal fire big enough for anybody to see."

"What if you had help?" Twilight suggested.

"What kind of help?" The Firey was intrigued.

"I think I just might be able to make a fire signal that nopony can ignore," Twilight stated, summoning the staff of Yggdrassil. "On one condition, though."

"You name it!"

"Everypony's head stays on their shoulders. Except yours, if you don't want it to."

"Hmm." The Firey thought it over. "All right. No messin' with people's heads."

"Something Jareth would have done well to promise all of us at the very beginning," Hoggle muttered.

Twilight moved closer to the fire, lowering the staff's base to touch the ground near it. She closed her eyes, focusing on the magical energy that reached down to the core of the Labyrinth. She hit a lode of magic that startled her, causing her to flinch. She really shouldn't have been surprised, come to think of it. The entire world seemed to be a shifting mass of magic with a few fixed objects and a handful of living beings on it. To bring up energy for more fire took very little effort at all, and the bonfire suddenly rocketed upward into a flaming orange pillar that touched the sky, holding that position for thirty seconds before receding.

"WHOA!" The Firey was taken aback. "You sure got some power up your sleeves, lady!"

"I don't have sleeves," Twilight replied casually, "but I know a few tricks."

"So now what?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Do we just sit around here and wait to see if anypony responds?"

"The others from the fire gang might be drawn back here," Twilight pointed out. "It could take them a while to find the signal."

"All the same," the Firey said, "thanks for tryin' – "

From the west, another fire signal went up in the sky. "LOOK!" Rainbow Dash yelled, extending a hoof. An arrow, made of fire, pointing back at the site of the original flare. It flickered for a moment before disappearing.

"Somebody saw!" Sarah cried excitedly.

"I think that might be one of your friends coming here," Twilight told the Firey. "If nothing else…I think it was a sign that they are still out there, and they didn't forget about you."

"But what if it was actually something the goblins sent up?" Fluttershy realized. "What if it's a trap?"

"Chance I gotta take." The Firey shrugged, and now his head did roll off his shoulder, traveling down his arm as he let the shrug down until he cradled it in one elbow. "Think I'd rather meet up with the goblins than keep bein' alone anyway. I gotta thank ya for – "

Now there was a second flare, one from the east. Giant words made of flame appeared in the air, then receded:

FIRE

GANG

STAY

WHERE

YOU

ARE

I'LL

COME

FIND

YOU

"Somepony else!" Twilight beamed.

"I really gotta hand it to ya!" the Firey said gratefully. "This is the first time I've felt like somebody's actually out there in years!"

"Well, I'm glad we could help," Sarah said, and the others nodded.

"Sorry about everything with your head," the Firey told her. "Just promise me you'll think about what I said about why it's bad to keep it attached for too long."

"I promise," Sarah told him.

"We need to get a move on," Twilight urged. "Who knows how much time we have left to get to the castle?"

With that, the travelers forged on, leaving the Firey to await the approaching members of his old posse.

...

THE CANDY FIELDS, THE LABYRINTH

"He's tryin' to make the Labyrinth more like her," Applejack said in horror as she stared at the massive desserts.

"Are you sure?" Richard asked.

"Positive," Applejack said with a slight nod, her face still craned upward to look at the neon colored icing. "This is exactly the kind of thing Pinkie would love. This ain't good, fellas."

"There's only one thing we can do about it," Bastian reminded her. "Find Jareth and save Pinkie from him."

"You're right," Applejack resolved. "Let's get movin."

Applejack, Bastian, and Richard set out between the giant cupcakes, which were at first well spaced out but then closed in together like the walls of a maze. Soon, they did give over to the walls of another maze, this one made of graham cracker walls and decorated with peppermint and gumdrops.

"This just keeps gettin' weirder," Applejack remarked. "Guess if we're real hungry, we can eat the walls at least."

"I wouldn't do that," Bastian told her. "Haven't you heard the story of Hansel and Gretel?"
"I was thinking more about the enchanted food on the tables of the sorceress Circe," Richard brought up.

"I take it neither of those ended well," Applejack inferred. "All right. Nopony eat the walls."

They wandered for a while before finding themselves more or less lost. Since being lost was something so often experienced in the Labyrinth, it was becoming difficult to tell whether that condition was meant to be taken seriously anymore.

"Do you smell something burning?" Richard asked after a while.

Applejack took a big whiff of the surrounding air. "Not burnin'," she corrected, for she knew the scent well. "Roastin'. That's the smell of marshmallows."

"We should probably AVOID wherever there's a fire in this maze," Richard decided.

"Actually…" Bastian rebutted. "If the fire is on marshmallows, someone probably set it on purpose."

"Maybe the food's edible after all?" Applejack suggested.

"Maybe there's someone here who knows the way out," Bastian emphasized.

"Well…" Richard shrugged his shoulders. "We might as well try."

They followed their noses, tracking the scent round every corner until they came to what had once been several puffy columns of white marshmallow. A large portion of the squishy mass had been scooped out, and a Firey was roasting it on a self-made bonfire, holding it out over the flames and turning it over and over, squashing it a little in his fingers just for fun. "Mm-mm!" he remarked to himself. "Dinner doesn't get any better than this!"

"I dunno," Applejack teased as she approached. "I think ya gotta have a few more nutritional things than just a marshmallow."

The Firey flinched, stepping back and wrapping his arms protectively around his marshmallow chunk before realizing that he was standing next to enough marshmallow to fill up all beings present and more. "I don't need that kind of stuff!" he eventually laughed. "This is good enough for me!"

"I hope ya don't mind me askin'," Applejack told him, "but my friends and I are tryin' to get outta this here maze and closer to Goblin City. Would you know the way?"

"Why would I wanna go to Goblin City?" the Firey asked in shock. "Jareth's the one that broke up my gang in the first place! I ain't gettin' no closer to him than I gotta!" He stuffed a handful of marshmallow into his mouth indignantly.

"Oh," Applejack replied, her face falling. "Well, uh…sorry 'bout yer friends."

"It's all right!" the Firey replied around a mouthful of sugary fluff. "Ain't seen 'em in years! Sometimes, I almost forget about 'em and the good times!"

Bastian leaned over to whisper in Richard's ear: "His story isn't finished. I want to help him finish it. But I don't know if we can."

"How do we even know his friends are still alive?" Richard whispered back.

"I just…have a feeling," Bastian replied. "There is a happy ending to his story out there somewhere."

Just then, the enormous column of signal fire rocketed up into the air, catching the attention of all. "The HAY?" Applejack cried.

"Tell me it's not another dragon…" Richard moaned. Bastian gently patted him on the shoulder for comfort.

"Was that what I think it was?" the Firey cried in surprise. "I think that just mighta been one of my gang!"

"How d'ya figure that?" Applejack asked.

"Because it was fire!" the Firey told her. "We're all about fire! See?" He added more flames to the fire on the ground at that moment with a flick of his wrist toward it.

"Lots of things can produce fire," Richard pointed out.

"But if it was one of his friends," Bastian told Richard, "how will we know unless we try and find out?"

"Yeah!" The Firey nodded enthusiastically. "We gotta go check it out!" He was already moving toward another branching path marked out by graham. "Let's go, let's go!"

"Wait!" Applejack held up a hoof. "How do we know that whatever made that fire will still be there by the time WE get there?"

"Right!" the Firey realized. "We gotta send up a signal of our own!" He flicked both hands toward his small fire, and it roared up to ten feet high before settling back down. Dismayed, he stared. "How'd he get that fire so tall…?"

"You can't do it on your own?" Applejack asked.

"Nope!" The Firey shook his head.

"Then whoever sent up that fire probably wasn't one of you either," Richard sighed.

"It might've been!" Bastian encouraged. "The other one might have been more powerful, or found some kind of spell!"

Looking at Bastian and seeing his determination to see the story through filled Richard with hope. "That is possible," he relented. "Hmmmm. I wonder if there's anything around here that can make our fire bigger."

"Somethin' magic?" Applejack asked.

Richard shook his head. "I was thinking something chemical."

"One of these candies?" Bastian suggested.

"It's all we have," Richard observed. "It's worth a shot."

Applejack, Richard, Bastian, and the Firey removed as many candy ornamentations as they could find from the walls, tossing them into the flames. Most just burned out to ash with a whoosh. Some stayed at the base of the fire, slowly melting. The fire hiccupped to a larger size every now and again, but for the most part, it remained steady.

"This ain't workin'," Applejack sighed.

"So what ABOUT magic, like you said?" Bastian suggested.

"Guess I could try some bard magic," Applejack told him. "Though I never was good at the fire. Guess it's a little ironic…fire was always Pinkie's thing."

She approached the small blaze, closing her eyes and concentrating on reaching down into the earth. She could feel the immense pulse of magic, but the fire would not come to her like it always did for Twilight or Pinkie. She broke a light sweat trying to call it before relenting. "Sorry," she said solemnly. "I got some smaller spells, too, but I dunno what good they'll do. And I'm not sure a whip's gonna help in this situation."

"I thought that whip was magic," Richard reminded her.

"It is," Applejack confirmed.

"Well, is it THIS kind of magic?" Richard pressed.

"N – " Applejack stopped herself short. "Well…I guess I ain't tried to do anythin' with it and fire. Lemme try somethin' out…"

She summoned her whip, cracking it at the fire. It lengthened, then caught ablaze. By jerking the whip sharply upwards, Applejack was able to cast away the burning rope; it disconnected easily, flying into the air before burning out in a bright, rope-shaped blaze.

"Aha!" Applejack realized. "I think I can use this to send that signal up! Might even be able to write somethin'!" She turned to the Firey. "Whatcha want me to try and write?"

"Hmmm…" The Firey thought it over. "How about…'Fire Gang, stay where you are! I'll come find ya!"

"Right!" Applejack nodded. "Here goes!"

She dipped the whip into the fire, snapping it upward and drawing it across the air to send up the first word: FIRE. One by one, she made the other words fall into line.

"There!" she said when she was finished. "Now they know to wait for ya!"

"All RIGHT!" The Firey pumped a fist. "Now we just gotta get outta here! Follow me!"

He took off running with no further warning; Applejack, Richard, and Bastian hurried to catch up. "Does this mean you'll tell us the way to Goblin City?" Bastian asked.

"Sure!" the Firey promised. "Once we make it outta this part, the road splits up! You wanna make sure to go through the Bog of Eternal Stench, so I'll send you that way!"

"The Bog of Eternal Stench?" Richard repeated. "That sounds…um…"

"Interesting?" Bastian volunteered.

"You sure that's the right way?" Applejack asked.

"It's Jareth's favorite place to torture people!" the Firey asserted. "Dip a toe in, and you'll smell forever! And it's rotten, just like Jareth!"

"Ya got a point," Applejack conceded.

...

GOBLIN CITY, THE LABYRINTH

The ballroom in Jareth's castle was about the same size as the one onboard the Starlight, Pinkie Pie observed, though its décor was rather rough. The dark color of the walls and floor made it seem smaller than it was.

She had merely wandered in as a course of her exploration. She stood in the middle of the room for a while, looking around, wondering what it must have looked like when there were actual dances in it. She hoped they were as raucous as the dances to be had in the throne room.

When she turned her head toward the door, Pinkie found Jareth standing before her, observing her with curiosity.

"Uhhhhh…hi?" Pinkie greeted.

"Do you like it?" Jareth asked.

"It could use some fixing up," she admitted, "but it looks like you could have some real fun here."

"That is what you appreciate above all else," Jareth stated. "Fun. Laughter."

"It is my Element!" she reminded him proudly.

"It suits you," he complimented. "It makes you creative. Hard to predict. I wasn't sure what sort of dream would best appeal to you." He withdrew a crystal sphere from seemingly nowhere. "This is an old one. Perhaps it is a classic. I believe you will like what you see in it, though it may be lackluster in comparison to what you're used to."

"You're telling me that little ball is a dream?" Pinkie said suspiciously.

"See for yourself." Jareth held out his hand, offering the crystal to her.

Pinkie approached him, taking the crystal into her own hands, peering within. As though it were a decorative globe, she could see a whole scene inside of it: a much more pristine and elegant ballroom, all whites and golds, with humanoids wearing various formal clothing – all ruffles and tails and petticoats and puffed sleeves and pantaloons – dancing slowly over the floor, either in pairs or by themselves. The longer Pinkie watched them gracefully twirling and swaying, the more she was immersed in the scene, and it filled her vision. For a moment, she could have sworn she was there in that very ballroom.

When she looked up to make a remark to Jareth about it's beauty, she found she actually was there. The people danced around her, an ebbing and flowing tide of gowns and coats. Jareth was nowhere to be seen. From somewhere, a slow tune was playing, one that struck right to the heart, directing the flow of the dance.

Pinkie took a step forward only to realize that she was now clad in a ball gown that put all the others in the room to shame: bright pink, with a multilayered skirt that achieved a diameter of several feet when ruffles were accounted for, its sleeves enormous and its bodice lacy. Tiny pink gemstones, perhaps quartz, studded it up and down. Beneath all the layers and layers of skirt, Pinkie's feet were sheathed in comfortable flats: all the better to dance with.

"Jareth?" Pinkie called out. A few people turned their heads to look at her briefly, only to look away and return to their dance; they weren't who she was looking for. "Hmmmm," Pinkie mused. "Jareth was right. This IS slower than I'm used to. Let's spice it up!"

Her dance ignored the tempo of the mysterious music, her heels kicking and her arms swaying as she rocked and rolled. The frenetic dance drew some stares, but once again, the people were quick to ignore her and move on. Over the floor Pinkie went spinning like a top, her skirts billowing out even wider, until she finally came to a halt, and her hands rested neatly in those of a waiting dance partner.

Jareth was clothed in a grand blue coat, ornate and lacy. When he took a step, it was in sync with a slower waltz, and Pinkie followed his lead, joining with him in the much more tranquil dance than what she'd been doing.

"I had thought it wouldn't be enough for you," he remarked. "It seems I need to store new dreams."

"Well, it's not bad," Pinkie told him. "I like it. It could just be a little faster, that's all!"

"You make everything much faster," Jareth told her as they slowly rotated across the floor. "It seems you do belong here, much more than anyone I've ever taken in. Your friends may find you yet, but do you really want to leave?"

"I've been asking myself that question," Pinkie admitted. "But if they really, REALLY do want me back…then I'll go with them. Otherwise, staying here might not be so bad after all. You're not that bad to talk to, you know. I actually really like it now. And I like that you showed me this dream. That was thoughtful."

"And you would rather endure their scorn than stay here with me?" Jareth posed. "I have no scorn left for you, Pinkie Pie. Everything you've done has been fascinating. If you stayed here, I would have no more reason to be dissatisfied with this world."

"Really?" Pinkie's eyes sparkled. She quickly brought herself down to earth, or as much so as she could be in the situation. "But…they need me. And they don't ALWAYS scorn me. They're just…looking a little scornful right now. You still brought me here when I didn't want to be. And besides! I have a home! And there are so many other worlds out there that need my help! I wanna see all those worlds, and I wanna go back to Corona with Rapunzel, and I wanna go back to New York to see how Jan is doing, and I wanna show off all the bard magic I learned to Phil in person…I'm sorry I have to leave you here, Jareth, but there are just so many reasons out there for me not to go! Couldn't I just promise to come back and visit?"

"And make me wait for you, wondering every day if you would return and keep your promise or if you had simply decided to leave?" Jareth's tone grew angry. "After all I've done for you already?"

"What have you done for me?" Pinkie asked. "From what I've seen, it really hasn't been much!"

"You haven't seen the half of it." Jareth let go of her hands, producing yet another crystal sphere. This one grew to the size of a basketball, hovering between them. Pinkie saw several scenes in it: the field of enormous cupcakes. A meadow made up of the bouncy surfaces of trampolines, where disco balls hovered in the air, spreading multicolored flecks of light over the elastic ground. A brightly lit fairground stood against a background of night, its roller coaster and Ferris wheel running with mechanical clicks. Then the sphere evaporated into nothing.

"Those were parts of this very world," Jareth told Pinkie Pie. "The world that I am rewriting for you. Once, it was written for another, but I cannot let her have power over me any longer. Say it, name it, and I will make it so for you. This world is ours to create, Pinkie Pie, and whatever you desire will be real by my hand!"

"Wow…" Pinkie was amazed. "All that stuff I like. You REALLY made all that just for me?"

His intense eyes were locked on hers. "And I will make more."

Pinkie swallowed hard. What happened next, she didn't even realize she was going to do. She found herself leaning in, her face growing closer to his, closing her eyes.

When Jareth realized what she was doing, he was stunned as he was pleased. He closed his own eyelids, letting Pinkie Pie kiss him long and slowly.

But when she was finished, she jerked away sharply. "I can't!" she squealed, causing the most of the other dancers to stare at her yet. "I just can't! You kidnapped me! I'm one of the Elements of Harmony! We barely know each other! I just CAN'T stay here! Not with Equestria and the Seven Deserts and Corona and who knows what else…and my FRIENDS out there!"

"There is an answer to that," Jareth said calmly. Now there was a cupcake, frosted pink, in his hand. "One bite from this will take away all of your memories from before. You can begin again. Simply be a part of the Labyrinth, as though you always were here. It will save you from the pain of saying goodbye."

Pinkie shook her head. "No. I can't forget about the rest of my life just to be with you. I'm sorry, but…there's just no WAY!"

As she said this, the scene fell apart, shattering. Gone were the whirling dancers. Gone were Pinkie Pie and Jareth's elaborate clothing, as was the cupcake in Jareth's hand. They were dressed in their previous attire, standing in the middle of the empty and dark castle ballroom.

As soon as she realized she was free of the confines of the dream, Pinkie turned and ran, losing herself in the hallways yet again. But not doubting that eventually, she'd end up back with Jareth again. He was becoming a plague on her mind. She couldn't allow herself to go through Loki all over again, but something about him seemed so different. And his offers had been tempting. In her lonely state, one where she couldn't even be sure her friends were coming for her, the thought of becoming a world-warping queen didn't sound half bad, especially with someone who was already giving her so many dreams. But so long as there was hope that her friends were coming, she would hold to what she'd said. She couldn't trade her life and her friends away for a beautiful Goblin King.

But every time she lost herself, she'd come back to him.

And he was counting on that. He didn't know where she'd go, but he knew she'd return sooner or later. And his offer would still stand. He'd meant every word of it.

All Pinkie could do now was hope that Twilight and the others would return soon. And, on top of that, apologize. She didn't want any doubt left in her heart that staying with Jareth was the wrong decision, and she didn't want to be left with regret, should she be able to leave.

...

THE BOG OF ETERNAL STENCH, THE LABYRINTH

Sarah, Helena, Lancelot, Hoggle, Ludo, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy found themselves on a path that seemed to lead along the parapet of an old fortress.

"Do you smell something…weird?" Twilight asked. She had wondered if it might be rude to bring up – if the scent she'd picked up was in fact one of her traveling companions – but the intensity of the odor made her doubt it. It was something bigger and further away.

"We're getting closer to the Bog of Eternal Stench," Hoggle explained. "Last time, Jareth threatened to dump me in it if Sarah ever kissed me. Well, guess what she decided to do!"

"It was just a thank-you kiss," Sarah protested. "It was innocent. Just on the forehead…"

"Well, innocent or no, it was enough for Jareth to put a trap door in the ground here that led right to the bog," Hoggle went on. "Good news for us is, I'm guessing that's the way Sarah actually wants to go, since that's the way she knows."

"You're right," Sarah confirmed.

"And if we're lucky, Jareth won't have found any reason to take that trap door away!" Hoggle announced. "It should be just…about…"

Another three paces, and he tapped his foot lightly against a stone. It opened up into a great maw of a downward passageway. "Here," Hoggle stated. "It's a slide, and it'll try to dump you right out into the Bog. You don't want to touch the Bog. If you so much as touch it, the eternal stench becomes part of YOU! So be careful on the way down!"

"If I may," Rarity suggested, "could some of us not try to continue further down THIS path? I think I speak for a few of us when I say we don't have much of an interest in becoming drenched in stench."

"It does sound pretty dangerous," Fluttershy added.

"We might get there faster!" Helena contributed, walking past the trap door, avoiding its pitfall, and trotting backward down the path as she looked at the others. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Ludo were soon to follow her.

"I think that's a great idea, actually," Twilight stated. "You all see if THAT way is more direct while the rest of us go check out this…Bog of Eternal Stench."

"Good luck!" Rarity called back before she, Fluttershy, Helena, and Ludo were on their way.

That left Twilight, Sarah, Lancelot, Rainbow Dash, and Hoggle looking at the trap door. "Well," Twilight resolved, "looks like our way is down. How about I go first and see what's there? When I see how bad the dropoff is, I might be able to reinforce the end of the slide with magic to keep us from falling."

"If Jareth lets you use magic without consequences," Hoggle reminded her.

"Another reason for me to go first," Twilight argued. "If my magic DOESN'T work, I'll be the only one to take the fall. Besides, how bad can it REALLY stink?"

"You're nowhere near up close and personal to it," Hoggle warned her.

"Here goes." Twilight walked up to the edge of the gap in the path, taking a deep breath before throwing herself down in. She landed right on a slide that careened her down a dark and twisting tunnel, momentarily disorienting her before suddenly ending and attempting to throw her off a ledge over a sharp drop. Thinking quickly, Twilight teleported just a few feet back, out of the air and back onto the ledge edge, where she could dig in her hooves to stall her momentum. From there, she could get a better look around.

Hoggle had been right to caution her. She very nearly gagged when the stench hit her at full force. And she was still at least twenty feet up over the bog given where the ledge stood. She tried for a moment to think of how to describe the smell. There was something natural about it – it definitely came from the earth – but that didn't make it any better. Had Twilight had anything substantial to eat over the last few hours, it probably would have ended up being regurgitated.

The bog itself bubbled below, a putrid shade of green. At least, Twilight would have described it as "putrid." Perhaps her adjective of choice was colored by the invasive scent. Looking over it, Twilight saw parts of it that were watery, soupy, sludgy, and chunky. It was constantly in motion, with air that carried pure odor on it blurp-ing up from patches of sludge and water. Thankfully, there appeared to be patches of dry land down in it, enough to make a rough path. The ledge Twilight was on appeared to slope down enough to eventually connect with it. There was a way through without touching the acrid slime.

First, there was the matter of getting everyone else down there with her. She conjured a quick wall, only five feet high, that blocked off the edge of the ledge so that if someone was sliding down, the way she had, that someone would just hit the wall and not fly off into the sludge. Twilight then put her head back into the tunnel, calling up, "I FIXED THE TUNNEL! YOU CAN ALL COME DOWN NOW!"

One by one, the other pony, the dwarf, the bear, and the human came sliding down, ending at the stopping point Twilight had put up. "Is everypony okay?" she asked the group.

"Fine," Sarah answered as they all got to their feet, dusting off and arranging themselves on the narrow path in single file.

"All right," Twilight declared. "Now all we have to do is get down this path to the ground."

"EEEWW!" Rainbow Dash cried. "You weren't KIDDING about that Eternal Stench!"

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight suggested. "Parts of the path look broken up. Could you maybe fly ahead and let me know what I'll need to patch over with magic?"

"Sure thing!" Rainbow Dash zoomed around to the front of the group, surveying the path ahead. "Augh, gross. That smells DISGUSTING."

As per Twilight's suggestion, Rainbow Dash pointed out what parts of the path could use reinforcement, and Twilight was able to fill the gaps in with her magic. Hoggle, Lancelot, and Sarah followed. They continued in this fashion until the path deposited them on solid ground, fenced in on all sides by the stinking bog. At this distance, the group could hear the squelching sounds of the shifting mud.

"All right," Sarah stated. "Now all we have to do is – "

"HEY THERE!" a familiar voice called out over the sounds of sludge.

"Applejack?" Rainbow Dash turned to get a good look. Applejack, Richard, and Bastian were forging their way through the bog, making sure not to touch any of the mud or water.

"I was beginnin' to think this wasn't the right way after all," Applejack sighed. "But if y'all are here…"

"Then this has to be the right way!" Bastian said enthusiastically.

"Phew," Richard sighed. "It stinks bad enough. If this ended up being the wrong way, too…"

"This is the right way," Sarah assured them.

"Where's Rarity?" Applejack asked. "How 'bout Fluttershy?"

"They went with Helena and Ludo to explore another path," Twilight informed them. "Though at this rate, it looks like we're all moving through the Labyrinth at the exact same speed, giving how often we keep running into each other."

"Mind if we travel with y'all for a bit?" Applejack asked.

"I think it would be best if we did stick together for a while," Lancelot suggested.

"From here out, we have to be careful," Sarah informed them all. "We can't touch any part of the bog."

"We heard," Richard affirmed. "I'm not really interested in smelling like THIS forever."

"You'd think if you smelled it long enough, you would get used to it!" Bastian moaned. "But that's apparently not how it works!"

Twilight looked up to Sarah. "Lead the way," she commanded.

Sarah beckoned; "This way!" She set off down a precarious path, and the newly reunited group tentatively followed.

"So what'd we miss?" Applejack asked.

This led into another trading of stories. Sarah's contingent spoke of the lonely Firey, which inspired Applejack's triad to relate their own Firey-related experience. "Guess we helped each other out on that one," Applejack realized.

"So you were the one that sent up the text flare!" Twilight was glad to have that identification. "Now I just wonder where the arrow came from. Actually, if my sense of direction is right…I think it came from around this area."

"You can't go trusting your sense of direction in this place!" Hoggle warned.

Lancelot nodded. "There are days the stream has disappeared entirely, leaving me nothing to fish for and nothing to sell. Other times, it's the same distance from the village as it's always been, just in a different direction."

"Speakin' of things changin'…" Applejack said sheepishly. "We, uh…we found somethin' that spells out bad news."

"Worse than us having to go through a Bog of Eternal Stench?" Rainbow Dash asked her. "I'm STILL not over this smell."

"Jareth's makin' the Labyrinth more like Pinkie Pie," Applejack informed the others.

"WHAT?" Twilight and Sarah cried in unified shock.

"Didn't wanna believe it myself," Applejack told them, "but we just came here from a field of giant cupcakes and candy. She woulda loved it."

"But that means…" Sarah paused. "Is he…thinking of her the way he thought of me?"

"I dunno," Applejack answered.

"But that does seem like the logical conclusion," Richard added.

"But – " Sarah was about to comment, but shut herself up. It made no sense that the first thing she would feel was not horror but jealousy. It was always a little flattering to hear that a world had been built around you. Selfish as it was, Sarah disliked that such a thing was being undone in favor of someone else. She recognized her thoughts as petty, forcing herself to concentrate on the situation at hand.

"This is bad," Twilight agreed. "Sarah, are we close to Goblin City? I want to know how close we are to her."

"It's not far after this," Sarah confirmed. She then came to a realization: "…I think."

"You THINK?" Richard repeated.

"But you've been through this place," Bastian reminded her. "You know all about it…"

"There's one part where I wasn't awake to know where I was," Sarah explained. "Hoggle was ordered by Jareth to give me a peach with some kind of sleeping spell in it."

"And not a day goes by I don't regret it," Hoggle sighed, only for Lancelot to put a reassuring paw on his shoulder.

"I was taken to some kind of dream," Sarah went on. "When I woke up, I was off the main path. I had to take another way, through a junkyard. That's not going to happen to us when we get out of here, so…I actually don't know which way to go after this."

"I do," Hoggle told her. "Well, the rough idea of it. Just stick with me. Imagine! Me, the one who was paid to lead you the wrong way all those years ago, being the one who knows the right way to go now!" He was incredibly proud of this concept.

"And if nothing else, we can try some other paths too," Twilight brought up.

"First, we'll have to get out of this bog…" Hoggle's tone turned sour. "Without running into HIM."

"Oh, come on, Hoggle!" Sarah urged. "He's not that bad! I thought you two were friends!"

"We are," Hoggle grumped. "Conditionally. Nine times out of ten, I'd rather NOT hear his frilly, long-winded boasting about this battle and that sacred oath!"

"I think you're just mad because he beat you at Scrabble last time we all met up," Sarah retorted.

"HE CHEATED!"

"Well, he's going to be there," Sarah reminded Hoggle. "You know that, right?"

Twilight had a choice between asking who they were referring to and asking where "there" was: "Where's 'there'?"

"Right there!" Sarah pointed to a strip of bog water that stretched out before them. It seemed that once, a bridge had led to the other side, but now it had crumbled, and in its place was a series of rocks that studded the water and provided safe crossing, provided one could get from rock to rock.

"And who were you talking about?" Bastian asked.

Before Sarah could answer, the question answered itself, as the sound of someone crying "STOOOOOOOOP!" rang out through the air.

Its crier was a very short anthropomorphic fox, though there also seemed to be some squirrel in him. His left eye was covered in a black patch, and he was clothed in a brightly colored tunic, crimson and gold and green, capped off with a royal blue hat studded with a lemon-yellow feather. He leapt out before the group, standing between them and the collapsed bridge, brandishing a long brass staff. When next he spoke, his voice was as grandiose as he could possibly make it: "None shall pass this area without my permission! Such I have sworn in my sacred oath – "

"Sir Didymus!" Sarah interrupted, smiling brightly. "It's me!"

Sir Didymus halted his speech to get a good look at Sarah. "Sarah? Sarah Williams? It IS thee!"

Sarah knelt, and she and Sir Didymus exchanged a brief hug.

"Here we go," Hoggle groaned.

"What brings you to these dire and dangerous parts?" Sir Didymus asked. "A quest of incomparable valor?"

"Actually, yes," Sarah said as she stood up. "My new friends had someone taken from them by Jareth."

"That CAD!"

"So now we're trying to get to the center of the Labyrinth all over again and save her," Sarah wrapped up.

"Then by all means!" Sir Didymus gestured to the rocky crossing. "You have obtained my permission long ago! You and your dwarven brother in arms may pass!"

"Thank you!" Sarah said gratefully.

Rainbow Dash made to fly ahead, but Sir Didymus thrust his staff into the air, putting it right in her way. "HALT!" the bridge guardian commanded. "I have NOT given YOU permission to cross this way!"

"But we're WITH Sarah!" Rainbow Dash protested.

"And I have sworn a sacred oath!" Sir Didymus protested right back. "Written in blood! To be defended until the day I die!"

"So what do we have to do to get your permission?" Twilight asked. She then noticed Sarah mouthing the words "just ask" at her. "Or…can we have it right now?"

"I don't think that's going to…" Richard began.

"But of course!" Sir Didymus stood aside. "After all, you are accompanying Lady Sarah on her valiant quest!"

"But I SAID that!" Rainbow Dash groaned.

"You should come with us!" Sarah encouraged Sir Didymus.

"No he shouldn't," Hoggle hissed.

"Who knows what danger we'll run into on our way to Goblin City?" Sarah pointed out. "We could use a warrior like you. And besides…you're my friend. I want you to come."

"Then by all means!" Sir Didymus resolved. "How can I turn down such a request?" He whistled and called out, "AMBROSIUS!", rolling the R hard.

A sheepdog, previously unseen, galloped out from a nearby copse of trees. "Ambrosius, my valiant steed!" Sir Didymus greeted. "It seems we must yet again mount an expedition to the Goblin King's domain!"

"But what about the bridge?" Bastian asked. "Who's going to carry out your sacred oath if you're not here?"

"Hmm…" Sir Didymus thought it over. "'Tis a fair point!"

"Well, that's it!" Hoggle resolved. "You're too busy with the bridge! You can't come with us! You'll just have to stay here!"

"There is an alternate solution!" Sir Didymus pointed out. "For the time being, until our quest has come to an adequate resolution, EVERYONE shall have my permission to cross! Temporarily."

"But doesn't that defeat the purpose of the…" Richard tried to argue. He knew before he could finish the sentence that it wasn't worth asking; he wouldn't get a satisfactory answer. "Never mind."

"ONWARD, AMBROSIUS!" Sir Didymus commanded, leaping nimbly onto the back of the sheepdog. Ambrosius took a running leap over the bog, landing on the first rock, and bounded from stone to stone until he was on the other side. Sarah followed not long after, leaping across the rocks, and Twilight, Hoggle, Bastian, Applejack, Lancelot, and Richard came next. Rainbow Dash simply flew over the patch of bog, turning up her nose at the scent.

Once on the other side, the group set to walking and talking. "So you were one of the ones who helped Sarah out the first time she came here?" Twilight asked Sir Didymus.

"That I was!" Sir Didymus confirmed. "I daresay that were it not for my courage and skill with a staff, she may never have retrieved her dear brother!"

"How good ARE you with a staff?" Rainbow Dash asked, interest piqued and ready to think about anything besides the Eternal Stench.

"I have but one parallel in combat!" Sir Didymus bragged. "And that is the brave and talented Sir Ludo, my brother in arms! Er…where is he, at the moment?"

"Exploring another path," Sarah answered. "But don't worry. I'm sure we'll meet up with him again. We seem to be doing a lot of that: separating and then meeting up. I'm starting to think all the roads led to the center to begin with."

"Sooooooo…that means he's the only one who's ever beaten you in a fight?" Rainbow Dash went on.

"As a matter of fact, yes!" Sir Didymus confirmed. "I have yet to find a challenger as worthy as he!"

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow Dash's voice was filled with mischief.

"Rainbow," Applejack cautioned, "we really don't got time – "

"Well, I challenge you to a fight here and now!" Rainbow Dash said playfully. "You versus me! Staff versus…uh…" Her sword would be rather overkill, she thought, comparing it to the staff in Sir Didymus' hand. "Branch!" She lowered herself to stand with all fours on the ground and used one wing to hoist a thin fallen tree branch off the ground, balancing it on her back and rolling it from one wing to the other.

"I hope you are well aware of what you have gotten yourself into!" Sir Didymus told Rainbow Dash. "Prepare to be defeated! Ambrosius, stand by!" He sprang off the sheepdog's back, staff at the ready.

"You're not REALLY going to waste this time messing around, are you?" Hoggle groaned.

"Rainbow Dash," Twilight added, "we have to – "

"EN GARDE!" Sir Didymus brandished the staff at Rainbow Dash.

"YOU'RE ON…GARDE!" Rainbow Dash retaliated, transferring the branch to hold it between her teeth.

When they clashed, Sir Didymus had the immediate advantage. Rainbow Dash underestimated just how quickly and wildly he could swing the staff. There wasn't much precision or coordination behind it, but he did have rapid speed. It took her a moment and a few near misses to get into the groove of parrying his frenetic blows with her tree branch. Once she'd worked herself into his pattern, she began to strike back, only for Sir Didymus to nimbly step right out of her way each time with a "Hah!" or "Hyeah!"

Once he realized Rainbow Dash had him temporarily matched, Sir Didymust tried a different tactic. He backed up three steps before taking a flying leap over Rainbow Dash, somersaulting in midair and gleefully yelping before landing behind her. He made to strike at her flank, but she was fast to spin and parry. She hit once, twice, thrice incredibly hard, and on the third strike, she sent Sir Didymus toppling backward, stumbling and nearly losing balance; behind him was a bubbling pool of bog water.

Hurriedly and horrified, Rainbow Dash took to the air, dropping her branch to zip around behind Sir Didymus and hover over the bog, pressing her hooves against his back to stop him falling right before he would have been condemned to a permanent stink. "Gotcha!" she cried triumphantly.

Regaining balance, Sir Didymus turned to look at Rainbow Dash in awe. "Not only have you bested me in combat," he stated reverently, "but you have shown me clemency in not letting me succumb to a fate of eternal stench! This day, I have learned that there are TWO equals to myself in battle!"

"I think anyone here could have taken him," Richard whispered to Bastian.

"You're probably right," Bastian whispered back.

"Might I know the name of my new sister in arms?" Sir Didymus inquired.

"That's Rainbow Dash!" the pegasus said proudly as she landed back on terra firma.

"Well, then, Lady Rainbow Dash – "

Rainbow Dash interrupted Sir Didymus: "Ugh. Skip the 'lady,' please."

"Rainbow Dash," Sir Didymus started over as he climbed back up to his seat aboard Ambrosius, "I shall be sure that the stories of your prowess are told the world over!"

With that out of the way, the group was moving again. "So why'd you take a sacred oath to guard that one bridge anyway?" Twilight asked.

"Because he's insane!" Hoggle grumped.

"Hoggle!" Sarah scolded.

"The only thing 'insane' about myself is my insane devotion to my cause!" Sir Didymus boasted. "'Twas an oath I swore decades and decades ago, during the great Goblin Wars that occurred when Jareth came into power!"

"Goblin Wars?" Bastian repeated. "That sounds like an interesting story."

"I remember the Goblin Wars," Hoggle reminisced. "That was when I first began my contract with Jareth. He simply wouldn't stop until he had it all. It wasn't enough that he already ruled this world; he had to show it off by sending goblins to every part of the Labyrinth to claim it all in his name! Those were dark times. Come to think of it, I agreed to work with him back then because I was afraid for my life!"

"'Twas more complex than that, my friend!" Sir Didymus went on. His tone became unexpectedly somber: "There were those of us who demanded a revolution. That we wished for Jareth to stop choking us with his iron fist. That perhaps we could instill new leadership that was fair to all! My own people led this revolution."

"Now I remember!" Hoggle realized. "All sorts of your type on the battle frontlines! Now, if only you'd actually WON and put an end to Jareth's nonsense!"

"My people fought valiantly," Sir Didymus said with a nod. "Our elite knights were stationed about the Labyrinth at key strategic areas. The Bog of Eternal Stench was a common road to Goblin City, so it became my domain to protect! And protect it I did! Acting upon my sacred oath, I let no goblins pass without my permission, though fight they did, not to gain my permission but to remove me from the bog altogether! And I managed to send every single one fleeing in defeat! Though…not without a cost." He fingered his eyepatch to let everyone know exactly what he'd paid.

"So what happened?" Bastian asked. "Did you win?"

"Look at the state of this place," Hoggle sighed. "Does it look like they won?"

"Unfortunately, we were…not victorious," Sir Didymus lamented. "And as for the rest of the elite knights…well…they were done away with. But in their names, I soldiered on, and I have not abandoned my oath since then, even after the end of the Wars!"

There was a silence over the group for a moment. Then Hoggle said, "Compared to all that…I acted like a coward. Throwing in my lot with Jareth to save my own skin. All this time, and I'd never known about you."

"I'm sorry ya lost yer family," Applejack said solemnly. "I think I speak for all of us on that." She was affirmed by a host of nods.

"'Tis a tale of times past!" Sir Didymus assured her. "The time for grief has long past. Now is the time for deeds of valor! Such as retrieving your friend in distress!"

"You really are brave," Sarah told him. "I always knew it."

"Why, I thank thee, my lady!" Sir Didymus responded. "No foe can intimidate me! Though I wish I could say the same for Ambrosius. Why, only mere hours ago, a Firey came running through the bog, igniting a dangerous amount of marsh gas in order to draw an arrow of fire in the sky! I had WANTED to charge forth upon my loyal steed in order to inform him that he was not to be trying any funny business on my watch, but my loyal steed had other ideas, and refused to move until the Firey had simply run off altogether!"

Ambrosius whimpered in shame.

"I KNEW that arrow came from over here!" Twilight muttered.

"I wouldn't really blame him," Lancelot pointed out. "I hear Fireys are known for beheadings."

Ambrosius nodded, glad that someone sympathized with his end of the tale.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash realized. "Everything doesn't stink anymore!"

"We've left the bog!" Sarah announced.

They were back in a forested area, and two roads split before them (reminding Richard of a certain famous poem). Sarah, remembering what Hoggle had said earlier, turned to him; "Which way now?"

"THAT way is the way I know leads to the city," Hoggle announced, pointing down the left-hand path, which looked more well-worn. "I've no idea where THAT one goes." He gestured offhandedly to the right-hand path.

Richard still had the poem on his mind. "We should stick to that one, then," he stated. "But I wonder where the road less traveled goes."

"I think we should try that one," Bastian suggested.

He and Richard looked to each other. "I'm…a little afraid of what would happen if we don't stick to the sure thing," Richard stated.

"But you're the one who showed me that poem – " Bastian interjected.

"I know," Richard sighed.

"What if we take separate paths now," Bastian suggested, "but we promised to meet up again, no matter what? I've never read a story where lovers made that promise and didn't at least see each other once. Even Romeo and Juliet got to see each other's bodies, if the other was unconscious at the time."

"You…think we're ready to be called 'lovers'?" Richard blushed furiously.

"Well…" Bastian flushed pale. "You know…we are together now…"

"Wait, WHAT?" Sarah interrupted.

"Looks like Rarity doesn't have to eat any of her hats now," Applejack remarked playfully.

"You two are dating?" Sarah broke into a great smile. "And you didn't tell me!"

"We only started about an hour ago," Bastian informed her.

"I'm really happy," Sarah told them. "You always did have so many books in common. And I think you're right. I'm SURE if you split up now, we'll meet again."

"I have to know where that road less traveled leads," Bastian told Richard. "It might even get us to the Goblin City faster."

"It's worth a try," Twilight added. "I'm taking that one too."

"You all know the way without me," Hoggle told the rest. "I'll be seeing what's down that path, if only so that next time someone asks, I can tell them it's nothing!"

"And the rest of us will take the path that's the sure thing?" Sarah inquired.

"Right there with ya!" Applejack told her.

"I think that's our best bet," Lancelot added.

"Goblin City, you better get ready to deal with Rainbow Dash, legendary warrior of the Labyrinth!" Rainbow Dash boasted.

Bastian gave Richard a quick kiss on the cheek. "I promise I'll see you again," he vowed.

"I…uh…" Richard was at a complete loss for words. He remained that way until Bastian, Twilight, and Hoggle were already a ways down the road less traveled.

On the other path, that left Sarah, Rainbow Dash, Lancelot, Richard, Applejack, and Sir Didymus, who steered Ambrosius out front of the group, pointing down the road and crying ,"ONWARD!"

...

Chapter 112:

· And the award for most pretentious chapter title goes to… I knew this was the chapter where I had to incorporate the imagery from the "As the World Falls Down" sequence. However, when I went to write the ballroom scene, I accidentally discovered the song "Agony" by Paloma Faith, and it was so fitting that I couldn't stop looping it until that scene was over, so I mashed the lyrics of both songs together.

· I was originally going to have the Fireys be more of an obstacle, but going over "Chilly Down" again, I realized they're pretty much only situational villains who have a little Blue and Orange over the decapitation thing. I felt they deserved a more sympathetic portrayal this time around.

· Sir Didymus is my freaking favorite. He's also a character who, much like Tony Stark, I constantly worry about getting wrong in my writing.

· I had the Didymus backstory planned for a while. While I know he does appear as a plushie in Sarah's room, I actively went back on my own rules for that because I wanted him to have been a part of the Labyrinth since before Sarah showed up. I started with the question of "How did he lose his eye?" and the idea of the Goblin Wars came to me.