The next morning, Gel and Rhino are sitting in the kitchen. The changeling broods, her head resting on the table. "...I know I shouldn't leave the house...but I don't like the thought of missing work..."

Rhino reaches across the table and strokes her mane. "And I don't like the thought of you getting caught, so I win. It's for your safety, love..."

She quietly sighs, nodding reluctantly. "...I know...at least I have company..." She turns to look at the kit next to her, smiling softly. "Isn't that right, little one?"

Mercury yaps once before rubbing himself on the changeling as the other two pets eat.

She pets his head, giggling happily. "Glad you agree." She turns to Rhino, smiling softly. "You'll have a good time without us, won't you?"

He sheepishly smiles. "Honestly... no... I'll probably be bored and constantly wishing to get back to all of you..."

She rolls her eyes, putting a hoof on his. "Well, when you get back home, we'll have some fun. Is that alright?"

He nods. "No problem... you'll be able to get your surprise too..."

She giggles, leaning over and gently kissing him. "I can hardly wait, love."

He kisses her back lovingly. "Good." He gets up from the table and sets his dishes in the sink. "Now, I need to get going. See you soon, love." He dons his saddlebags and walks over to give her another kiss.

She wraps a hoof around his neck, deepening the kiss a moment before breaking it. "See you soon."

***

The day passes by slowly and unremarkably for the stallion. Running the clinic by himself, clients going in and out, the usual blur of paperwork, and the ever present checking of the clock. With a brief comment to the sisters that 'Angel is at home, sick' he is out the door and onto his one, but vitally important, errand.

With a quick Res across town, Rhino soon arrives at the jewelry store. The grey coated stallion running the place is polishing some of his wares. Rhino clears his throat to get the jeweler's attention. "I had a custom designed engagement necklace that was due to arrive today."

The jeweler nods, bringing out a black box. "You're in luck. It literally just arrived." He opens it up to show the necklace to him. "I believe everything is exactly how you specified it."

The green stallion smiles widely as he carefully lifts the necklace out of the box and checks every detail. "Perfect... Thank you, sir. This is going to make her very happy."

"You're quite welcome." He nods once more before returning his attention to the ring he is polishing. "You have a good time with your mare, you hear?"

Rhino nods as he puts the box safely in his bags. "I will, and I'll probably be back at some point with her to pick out more pieces." He leaves the shop with a skip to his step, despite one of Twilight's towers reminding him of yesterday's events. He quickly powers up Res and heads towards home.

The house looms in the distance and Rhino can't help but look forward to being welcomed home. He unlocks the door and steps inside, half expecting Gel to be on the couch reading or something. Unfortunately, the sight that greets him is quite different.

The living room is a mess. Spots of water can be seen throughout the room, accompanying some burns marks also strewn about. He slowly walks through the room, noting the tipped over chair and the discarded book. "Ok... keep calm... maybe there was just a small accident with her magic..."

The silence that has been greeting him ever since he entered the house does little to ease his worries. Weakly telling himself that he will probably find Gel upstairs, he heads towards the staircase. Before he gets there, a small splash of blue catches his eye. He turns to it and sees a single strand of mane-like tissue hanging on a splinter in the door frame.

Now thoroughly disturbed, Rhino calls out as he quickly ascends to the second floor. "Gel? Gel, are you here?"

As soon as he calls out, there is the hurried sound of pattering paws running in the bedroom. The pets run into the hallway and straight to the stallion, the squirrel clinging to his neck and the other two tightly hugging his forelegs.

Rhino relaxes a small amount when he sees the house is not uninhabited, but he is still worried. He leans down and wraps the pets in a hug. "Hey little ones... what happened downstairs? Was there an accident?" He sincerely hopes the answer is yes.

The darkest one lets go and drops to the floor, chattering and motioning frantically at the unicorn.

The kit and kitten look at each other before rushing back into the bedroom.

Although he can usually get the gist of what Specter is getting at, Rhino is perplexed at the complex motions. "I'm sorry Specs... I don't know what you're saying."

He groans as the other two return, pushing the typewriter ahead of them. Selena begins typing, her paws flying over the keys. 'He says someone took mom. He saw the whole thing!'

Rhino freezes as he reads the message, all gears in his head grinding to a halt. As his brain tries to spark itself back into working, he simply stares straight ahead. Finally, after a full minute, his mind gets enough working to make him say a single phrase. "Tell me..."

Specter immediately starts hurriedly talking, gesturing enthusiastically. Selena tries to keep up, but she actually has to stop and put a paw on the squirrel's shoulder, mewing softly at him. He visibly forces himself to calm down before continuing. As soon as he's done, the Russian Blue nods and steps back from the typewriter, allowing the stallion to see the words.

'Mom was reading downstairs when this strange pony that looked like her, but orange, snuck in through the back. He used magic and made some kind of water bubble appear around her head. Mom tried to fight back but kept missing with her fire. He kept the bubble on her, then she passed out. He took her and left.'

This new information doesn't help Rhino's mental state. Instead of trying to get his mind straight, every time he gets a bit of willpower, it automatically subconsciously goes into showing him a flash of his nymph, overriding what his eyes see in order to show him what his mind and heart do.

Gel being happy.

Gel and he being together.

Gel reacting to the necklace still in his bag.

The vision they had of their future life together.

All of these things in his mind are suddenly taken over by tendrils of darkness, transforming them into new images.

Gel struggling to breathe.

Gel fighting against an assailant and ultimately losing.

Gel being taken away by shadowy figures.

Gel crying, and him being unable to reach her.

The stallion puts his hooves to his head as he groans, trying to reign in his rampant mind.

Gone.

Taken.

Failed to protect her.

The single strand of her mane on the door frame.

...they took her...

Things slowly start to click into place in his mind, but not in their usual fashion.

They took her.

His eyes harden, his usual smile is replaced by a neutral frown.

They took her!

The streak of blue in his mane and tail is taken over by a blood red.

"I'll get her back."

His voice isn't loud. The emotion behind it is undeniable though, as was the intent. It was a voice that said not even the princesses themselves could stop him.

As the pets watch on, Rhino moves quickly into his room and grabs the necklace he had made to keep track of her. He dons it and immediately his eyes dart towards Whitetail Woods, knowing she is in the direction but feeling her distance slowly increasing. He levitates a set of saddlebags out of the closet, though this is a survival set instead of a storage set. A leftover from the few years he spent in Colt Scouts, they even include a built-in water pack with a tube that hangs over the side so one can drink hooves free. He packs a few more basic tools before turning to his desk and the two books sitting there.

He levitates his spellbook up and flips to the second-to-last page. There lies a spell he had made just in case about a year ago, but had hoped he would never have to use. The urgency of the situation lending clarity to his mind, he quickly commits the formula to memory but stows a copy of the spell in his bag along with a few other spells in case he needs them.

He looks to the set of saddlebags he usually wears, tossed to the side as he entered the room. He slowly walks over and takes out the box containing Gel’s necklace. He pops it open and looks at it solemnly for a minutes before closing his eyes and snapping the lid shut. He sets it back in the bags before stepping over the pets and heading downstairs to pack food and water.

As Rhino is filling the water pack in the bags, he hears a knock at the door. He narrows his eyes as one of the kitchen knives floats of the drawer and follows a short distance away from him as he goes to the entrance. The knife floats, unseen, above the door as he opens it suddenly to see a familiar purple maned pegasus with her hoof raised to knock again.

Silk blinks at the sudden movement. “Oh, hello...” She notices the stripe in his mane and its new color. “Rhino...” She clears her throat before organizing her thoughts as the stallion simply stares at her. “I know I’m a bit early, but I thought since I was around, maybe we could all hang out?” Mittens can be seen on her back, poking his head around curiously.

The green stallion’s expression doesn’t change as he lets out a grunt and the knife quickly flies back to the kitchen before Silk sees it. “That isn’t possible.” He turns around and sees the pets at the top of the stairs before adding, “... though you could help me with something. Come in.”

She follows the stallion in, slightly unnerved by his attitude. “Is something wrong?”

He answers bluntly as he levitates a sheet of paper and pen, starting to write. “Yes.”

She flinches a bit. “Well, maybe I should come back later-”

“No.” He cuts her off, turning around as he folds the paper and seals it in an envelope. “I need you to feed the pets for a few days.”

Silk hesitantly nods. “Ok… but why? Are you and Angel going somewhere? Where is she anyway?”

Rhino tenses visibly every time she is mentioned. “...not here… I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone…” He droops for a moment. “Just… take care of them for me…” His head shakes and he regains his purposeful movements.

The mare reaches out a hoof, but thinks better of it and backs off. “I will… Rhino… what’s wrong?”

He doesn’t say a word as he grabs his bags and the envelope. Rhino goes over to the three pets and hugs them one last time before leaving out the front door. He pops the envelope into the mailbox as he passes it, a note saying he’ll be gone from work until further notice. The stallion checks the necklace on his neck is secure before lighting up his hooves with Res and quickly heading in the direction of Gel.

The journey is mind-numbing for the stallion. Hours pass by as he reflexively makes a beeline for Gel, dealing with whatever terrain is in his way. He skates over open land and water, never breaking stride. He winds through the trees of the woods. Sunglasses protect his narrowed eyes as branches whip past his face. As he comes across things that would require a massive detour for most travelers, fallen trees, holes, and one thin part of Ghastly Gorge, he simply Blinks past them, not letting them slow him down. A few times after a couple of hours of moving, he slows down to a power walking speed in order to drink, eat, and recover, but he never stops moving towards her.

Worryingly for him, the whole time he travels, Gel maintains the same distance from him. While he is happy she isn’t getting farther away, he knows that it means her captor is making just as much progress as he is… and with a head start. Night falls and Rhino keeps going, being a night pony anyway along with the added adrenaline and focus means that he ignores sleep for the time being. As the moon is well into the second half of it’s journey across the sky, Rhino notices that he has been slowly gaining ground on Gel, as if her captor reached his destination. He sighs in relief.

As dawn breaks on a new day, about four hours after Gel had stopped moving, Rhino stops as he reaches a rocky plain. In the distance, he can see a spire of rock, easily the tallest among the other rocky outcroppings, but otherwise unremarkable.

If it wasn’t the source of where Gel’s signature was coming from.

He initially thinks maybe she is just on the top of the rock, but after circling it’s entirety from a distance, Rhino can tell the necklace is pointing a bit lower than that… almost as if the stone is hollow. Cautiously, Rhino Blinks closer, behind some rocks large enough to cover his form as he closes in. As he passes a certain radius from the spire, Rhino pokes his head out and spends a good minute trying to look at it and find out what he is missing. As the 60th second of his staring passes, the area in front of his eyes shimmers and suddenly the tower of rock is replaced by a dark chitin version with an obvious opening at the bottom.

Rhino gets within his Blinking range of the tower and charges up his horn to go in, only to stay in the same place, confused. The tower seems to be negating his ability to simply bypass its walls. He growls as he slides down into a sitting position and chugs water before reviewing his spells one last time. After hiding his things in the cracks between a few rocks, Rhino approaches the entrance.

He enters to find three of the changelings from before playing a card game. The nymph among them lays down her hand, grinning widely. “Full house!” The others grumble as she gathers up the bits, chuckling to herself.

But one of the drones stops, who wears a green scarf around his neck and is the only one facing the entrance. He slams a hoof on the table and points at the door, speaking in a rough, gravelly voice. “You!” The other soldiers quickly jump up, realizing just who the pony is.

The Corporal steps forward, a sly grin on her face. “Hello, there. What brought you to our humble outpost?”

Rhino, his stripes still red after almost twenty hours, narrows his eyes dangerously at them. “Take a guess.”

The smaller drone huffs, stepping forward, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. “How did you even find this place? It hasn’t even been that long since the Colonel’s been here.”

The stallion keeps switching his eyes between the changelings, making sure none of them gets the drop on him… and subconsciously comparing various ways of taking them down and debating how much he wants it to hurt. “Irrelevant, let her go.”

“We can’t do that.” The Sergeant Major shakes his head almost condescendingly at him. “She broke our number one rule - no one leaves the hive. Period.”

“I don’t care about your rules. She is leaving with me.” His eyes narrow more and his voice gains an edge. “Now… Let. Her. Go.”

The mare walks up to him, poking him in the chest. “Make us, mule.”

His horn almost instantly lights up and the hoof she poked him with suddenly snaps forty-five degrees in a direction it was never meant to. She yelps in pain, instinctively grabbing her broken leg. This has the side effect of her taking her eyes off of him. His horn lights up again and he roughly tosses her into the table, it and her tumbling toward the wall even as Rhino has not moved a muscle.

The drones immediately react, the larger of the two running to a nearby door while the other blitzes Rhino, trying to knock him to the ground.

As the changeling charges toward him, Rhino’s horn simply lights up again as he forces the changeling’s head into the ground, causing him to tumble end over end past the stallion. Rhino neatly picks up the changeling with his magic and tosses him onto the pile with the nymph and table before dropping a few of their chairs on them for good measure. He turns to the retreating changeling.

Only for it to turn out that he wasn’t retreating. He returns with a dagger held firmly in his magic, glaring fiercely at the stallion. “You won’t beat me that easily, punk.”

Rhino simply maintains his expression as he simply lights up his horn, once again, and his aura appears around the changeling’s neck, lightly squeezing. It’s enough to cause severe pain, but not enough to knock out… or worse.

The Sergeant Major scowls and bites his tongue, grabbing another dagger from a hook behind Rhino and smacking the unicorn’s horn with it. He pulls away from the aura, losing his scarf in the process, panting quietly and putting a hoof up to his neck. His magic presses the dagger against the stallion’s throat. “Leave now, or else. This is your last warning; the ones waiting for you will not be as kind.”

Rhino shakes his head and curses himself for taking it easy on him. He stares evenly at the changeling. “Neither will I.” Instead of using his horn, one of Rhino’s forehooves whips up and delivers a punch straight into his opponent’s injured neck.

The drone’s eyes widen in shock, his hooves clawing at his throat. He silently gasps for air but receives none, quickly losing oxygen due to his closed windpipe. He falls to the side with a loud thud, unconscious.

Rhino gets up, looking at the dagger that was against his neck and kicking it away, irritated. “Sloppy. Need to focus. Decency in a fight gets you killed…” He starts towards the set of stairs he can see. “This is too important to lose…”