Chapter 11

“Chaos Theory”

    “Kaos?”

    “That’s the name his allies called him by,” Trixie answered in a subdued tone. Princess Luna’s expression had been dark since the unicorn had returned and given her report. The younger Princess paced her office, her silver shod hooves barely making a sound on the thick midnight blue carpeting. The bay window behind the Princess was partly open, capturing the afternoon sun in such a way that it rendered the Lunar Regent as no more than a silhouette as she paced. The thick mahogany desk gave off a reddish sheen in the sunlight, and a pair of silvery cushions were set facing it from the office itself. Luna herself had a far more plush cushion for herself, facing her currently inactive computer. She stepped around her desk and made a slow circuit of her office, behind Trixie to the bookshelves filled with heavy tomes, past the closed door to her office, and back around the other side. Luna paused for a moment at a decorative table, her hoof lightly nudging a silver tchotchke resting upon it as she chewed this information over.

    “Are you positive the individual you saw with him was Zilch?” Luna asked after several minutes.

    “Positive,” the cyan unicorn immediately replied. “He even asked her, by name, to teleport them away.”

    “And he took the diamond dog and pegasus with him?”

    “Yes, ma’am,” Trixie confirmed, “it was the opinion of myself, Spectrum, Thunderhooves, and Sparrow that the pair were acting as a distraction, to take away our full attention away from… something.”

    “Do you have any suspicions?” Luna asked, still facing away from the unicorn, the small item on the table clicking repetitively.

    “Trixie does… er… I do, Princess,” the unicorn noted, correcting herself. “I cannot confirm it, but it seems to me that the zebra was intentionally splitting up the team to prevent us from capturing Zilch. That would indicate this ‘Kaos’ has need of her.”

    Luna sighed and shook out her ethereal mane. “That is the only conclusion I’m coming to as well, and that does not bode well for us, especially since he must have somehow known of Zilch’s presence in the Northern Reaches before we did.”

    “Flourish was successful, then?” Trixie asked hopefully.

    “In a manner of speaking,” Luna said, her voice thoughtful. “I received her report just ahead of your arrival, and the correlation bothers me. Zilch attacked the Crusaders in the hospital, and Flourish was successful in driving her back. Clockwork’s knack for coordination and Flourish’s talent for teleportation allowed them to track her to her lair. Due to your activities in the south otherwise occupying Skillet, Clockwork set up a localized network for them to utilize, and Flourish was quick witted enough to record a conversation between Councilpony Marmalade and another pony. It seems that she was using the threat to turning Zilch over to my sister to ensure the suited mare stayed loyal and did what she was told.”

    “But that’s… blackmail!” Trixie cried, smacking her hoof on the desk.

    “Yes, it is,” Luna agreed, and wandered away from the table and back to her desk. She almost casually drew out a rag from one of the drawers and wiped away the smudge Trixie made. “Clockwork forwarded the entire recording to me. The other pony implicated, a Special named ‘Jett Storm’, is happily turning on Marmalade. Additionally there are all sorts of evidence to the Councipony’s underhanded dealings within the hideout they found, and even additional doses of the poison that was used on Scootaloo. But that’s not what is bothering me about this situation. A portion of the recording indicated that the Gryphons went to the Unregistered Colonial Council over the winter to give them an ultimatum: cut all ties with the Ponylands or be invaded. Councilpony Marmalade may have been horribly evil in how she did it, but her motives are surprisingly earnest.”

    “I assume she will be brought up on charges?” Trixie asked, unable to hide the disgust in her voice.

    “I don’t know,” Luna sighed, “I just don’t know. The Council has the final word of the policies in the Colonies, and Celestia and I have both agreed we would allow them to handle such things on their own. Marmalade is… a long time member of the council with a lot of powerful allies among them. I do not know if their rule of law is strong enough to overcome that sort of cronyism.”

    Trixie frowned darkly and looked away, taking a slow breath to try and release the spike of anger that surged through her. Luna didn’t interrupt, understanding fully, and allowed the unicorn to take a deep, cleansing breath before looking back to the Princess. “I understand,” Trixie said, her voice tight. “I do not like it, but I understand. What is our next move?”

    Luna answered with a frown, “Right now, we must inform my sister. She was the one who wished Zilch be recovered unharmed, and she will need to know of this. I fear it will sadden her greatly.”

    “And of Kaos?” Trixie pressed gently.

    “I don’t know,” the Princess answered truthfully. “What little of his powers Flourish witnessed and reported seeing seemed to defy the laws of physics. A level of mystic manipulation that we know of only one creature capable of, and I hazard to say that Celestia will be far less happy than I to consider he may have somehow escaped his prison.”

    “I… see,” Trixie said slowly.

    “No, you don’t,” Luna said knowingly as she headed for the door, “but you will shortly. We will need to bring the entire team up to speed if he is truly escaped. Even if he hasn’t, the others will still need to be informed what to expect, or what not to expect. For now, Trixie, we will see my sister. Come.”

    Trixie climbed to her hooves at the order and trotted quickly to keep up with the Princess’ longer stride. She only barely noticed the pair of royal guard who fell in step with them as they left Luna’s office and trotted briskly through the cavernous halls of the castle. Trixie caught glimpses of palace staff quickly skittering out of the way, the Princess’ purposeful stride and eyes never straying side to side to them. It was rare for the Princesses not to acknowledge the staff when they rushed past, but in this instance the ponies were left bowing, with no release to rise and continue their business again. They simply watched worriedly as Luna brusquely moved through the hallways from the “night” wing of the palace to the “day” wing her sister frequently resided in, and made a bee-line towards the office her sister had been occupying of late.

    The unicorn kept pace as best she could, but paused when she caught one of the scullery maids and whispered a quick instruction for her. If things were as bad as all this, Celestia herself would likely need something to soothe her frazzled nerves, and Trixie knew just the remedy. She may not have been the Solar Regent’s apprentice for long, but she knew enough to piece this one together. With the maid nodding her understanding, Trixie galloped off to catch up to the rest of the procession. The guard glanced at her as she rejoined them, which she acknowledged with a nod, just as Luna rapped a hoof on a large and stately door.

    “Come in,” came a weary voice from inside the study, and Luna pushed the heavy wooden door open, ignoring the usual protocols and niceties. The room inside was a whirlwind of paper and plans, most of them from the military, and many of them budgetary in nature. A single glance from the unicorn made her realize the figures were well beyond what she could even envision in even her wildest fantasies! A greedy little part of her couldn’t help but rub its hooves together as it wondered exactly how many bits the Princesses had in the royal treasury…

    “Sister, it’s me,” Luna announced, stepping around a stack of paper nearly as tall as she was. The younger sister only glanced at it before looking to the bedraggled Celestia behind the usually stately wooden desk, which was presently covered with stacks of papers.

    Celestia smiled wearily and rested her head on one of those stacks as if they were a pillow. “You have no idea how glad I am for this intrusion, Luna. I am starting to see numbers whenever I close my eyes.”

    “Do we not have the budget?” Luna asked worriedly.

    “We have it,” Celestia sighed, and groaned as she sat up, popping her back in a few places, “but it will be a near thing, assuming my numbers are correct. It will be worse if there is any significant damage or prolonged fighting, and you know how our little ponies will scream bloody murder if we have to raise taxes.”

    Luna snorted, “Such is the price of freedom.”

    “You know better than to assume they’ll see it that way, Luna,” Celestia answered with a sad smile. It was then she noticed the unicorn with her sister, “Oh! I didn’t realize you had returned already, my pupil. I trust things went well? Did the both of you make it back safely?”

    “Spectrum opted to stay there for a little while to assist with the clean up,” the unicorn answered, giving her mentor a brief bow. “That said, things were a bit… strange. We suspect that the action in Las Pegasus was purely a distraction, something designed to split up the team in different directions.”

    Celestia groaned softly, “Just went you think things cannot get worse. Bring me up to speed, my pupil.”

    “The pair was quite a formidable team. Junkyard, the diamond dog, and Crosswind were everything that Thunderhooves claimed they were, and their teamwork was nearly flawless. Together with the Upstarts we managed to fashion a plan that seemed to work initially, only for them to turn the tables on us. We prevailed in the end, but they escaped,” Trixie explained.

    “I see,” Celestia sighed, “we will hear from them again, I suspect.”

    “That’s the catch, Princess. They were extracted, quite literally, by a zebra in a rather sharp suit and… and Zilch,” Trixie finished, watching Celestia’s eyes widen.

    “Zilch?! But I thought she was in the Northern Reaches? Luna, was the assassin another pony?” Celestia demanded from her sister.

    Luna shook her head and said, “No. It was the same. I have the report from Flourish, and this zebra came for Zilch to remove her from the reaches and to take her… somewhere. According to Flourish, he offered her a spot on a team he was creating.”

    Celestia chewed her lip thoughtfully for a moment. “Do we know who this zebra is? Is he registered at all?”

    “No,” Luna answered, “I’ve already searched the database. We have no record of a zebra with his name or abilities on file.”

    “Name?” Celestia asked, blinking. “You know his name? How?”

    “He told Clockwork when she challenged him,” Luna responded.

    “His allies also called him by name,” Trixie added.

    “And…?” Celestia asked expectantly. Luna and Trixie looked to each other for a moment. Luna steeled herself and answered….

    “Kaos.”

    The reaction in the elder sister was immediate. Her body went rigid and her eyes became pinpricks as she stared at an unknown point well beyond the confines of the room. For several moments she sat like that, unmoving, until Trixie was about ready to call for the Palace doctor.

    The alicorn then became a whirlwind of motion, clambering to her hooves and rushing past them, knocking over stacks of paper as she careened out the door and galloped down the hallway as fast as she could. Luna frowned and bolted after her, leaving Trixie struggling to even keep them in sight as she chased after in the company of a pair of shouting and confused guard ponies. It was only a few twists and turns before Trixie was brought up short at an open window overlooking the palace gardens, and the sight of the alicorn sisters winging their way down towards it… very specifically towards the statue garden. One of the guards, a pegasus, launched himself from the window after them.

    “I don’t know what’s going on,” Trixie told the remaining guard between pants, “but have a squad ready to go. I’m going down there…”

    The guard gave a sharp nod and dashed away, but Trixie wasn’t paying any attention. Instead she closed her eyes and let the magic surge through her, “winking out” and teleporting as close to the statues as she was willing to risk. Fatigue made her stumble, she was still drained from returning from Las Pegasus, but she forced herself past the exhaustion. Worry etched her features as she rushed to catch up with the Princesses, even though only Luna noticed her. Celestia’s pace had hardly slowed, and she rushed towards the tall statue of a chimerical creature that Trixie had never paid much attention to in the past. The creature was mismatched in every way, with a goat head, a long serpentine body, a gryphon-like arm, and a feline arm opposite that. Legs were similarly mismatched, as were its horns, ears, and even eyes. It was as if a sculptor decided to take elements from every race in the world and mix them together in one single statue.

    Celestia launched herself at the statue, knocking it from the pedestal to the lush grass below. The elder Princess towered over the statue, as if she had somehow defeated it, her expression fierce as she glared down at it. “What did you do?” she demanded from it in her most commanding tone. “What did you do before they captured you? Did you take an apprentice? Did you let them capture a simulacrum? Are you just playing possum?”

    “Sister--” Luna tried to insert, only to be drowned out by her sister.

    “What did you do?!” Celestia shrieked at the statue, slamming her hooves down on it with enough force to shake the ground and make Trixie stagger, and yet the statue didn’t even crack. The white alicorn reared back for do it again, her wings flared and her expression a mask of uncontrolled rage when she was suddenly tackled by a dark blue form.

    “Celly!” Luna cried at her sister, pinning her writhing sister down to the ground. “Celly, please! If this is his doing, you’re only giving him what he wants! You’re feeding him!”

    The elder sister attempted to toss the other off her, wrestling with the smaller but more physical Princess before she finally went limp. Celestia’s body shuddered as she looked up at her sister with wide eyes. “Y-you… you are correct,” she managed in a strangled voice, her self control beginning to reassert herself.

    Luna relaxed visibly and stepped back, letting her sister climb back to her hooves. Celestia spent the next few moments meticulously brushing the grass from her coat and mane, studiously ignoring everything around her as she ordered her thoughts.

    “Princess!” cried a stallion, and nearly two dozen guards galloped or flew towards them. The lead guard was about to call out again when Luna flared a wing, cutting him off. Silently she moved and gently braced her sister, who seemed to almost melt into the support with relief.

    “This is a private matter, Sergeant. Insure my sister and I are not disturbed,” Luna instructed the guard, who snapped a salute. He immediately directed the guard away from the Princesses, setting up a respectful perimeter and instructing the pegasi to cover the sky above.

    “What… is this?” Trixie finally asked, poking the statue with a hoof.

    “That is Discord,” Luna answered softly. Trixie’s eyes widened in comprehension and she skittered back a pace, as if expecting it to bite. “He is perhaps the one thing that could threaten Equestria that is far more dangerous than even The Nightmare.”

    Trixie blinked widely at the statue before answering, “I… only heard of him. I was in Baltimare when he was reported to have escaped, and we only saw the fringe of his sphere of influence right near the end.”

    “It was slowly growing from Ponyville, where he had placed his seat of power,” Luna responded. “His sphere of influence steadily began expanded from that point after be believed he won against the Elements of Harmony.”

    “Wait, I thought Twilight and her friends just swooped in and bombarded him into nothing with the Elements of Harmony?” Trixie asked, confused. She poked the statue again with a hoof. “How did he end up…?”

    “The true story is more convoluted than that, my pupil,” Celestia answered in a thinly controlled voice. “Discord nearly won the day, working his foul magic to corrupt each of the Element Bearers in turn. We… had the unfortunate knowledge of when each of those bonds were broken via a magic resonance my sister and I could both feel, thanks to our own connection to the Elements. In the end, only Twilight was hanging on by the barest of threads, and I acted. All those friendship reports I have you write may seem silly, but on that day the reports Twilight Sparkle wrote saved Equestria. I sent them back to her, and they allowed Twilight to reconnect to her element, even after the thread was broken. She then moved and reconnected her friends to their elements, reversing the corruption Discord placed upon them each. But, as I’ve said before, the Elements of Harmony are not a weapon, but a tool of purification.”

    “So… they didn’t kill him?” Trixie asked, looking at the statue with a newfound respect.

    “No, they imprisoned him,” Celestia answered.

    “Just as they had when we used the elements against him,” Luna added.

    “I do wish Twilight and her friends managed a more attractive pose though,” Celestia joked weakly, wrinkling her nose.

    Luna sighed in relief and used a wing to hug her sister. “I will agree with you, but then I doubt he was quite so dismissive of the Elements that second time. The first time he thought the rainbow was funny, and acted like he was singing in the shower…”

    The elder sister snorted softly, trying not to laugh. “I still remember that horrid song of his…”

    Luna smirked and used her magic to lift the statue back into its place on the pedestal, its horrified expression and outstretched arms taking on a new meaning to the cyan unicorn. With a sigh, the sisters stood side by side before the statue, looking up at it even as Trixie joined them, standing at Celestia’s other side.

    “We should check on him,” Luna said softly.

    “We should, and check to make sure that our failsafe is still functioning properly,” Celestia agreed. The sister Princesses’ horns began to glow as the pair wove their magic together. Leaving Trixie to watch as a flare of magic formed at a point between their two horns. It glowed for several moments, the pair almost as still as the statue they were facing before the elder Princess flinched visibly, her eyes flashing open. Celestia stamped a hoof on the ground in annoyance as the spell fell away.

    “He always did know how to get under your skin,” Luna noted, trying to hide her smirk. “However, we can be sure that he’s still there now.”

    Celestia frowned and nodded. “You are correct, sister. But I think perhaps he is growing mad… well, more mad.”

    “Possibly,” Luna admitted, “he grows more angry and more bitter with each meeting, and steadily more violent. It is almost as if he were becoming less intelligent and more animalistic.”

    “All the more reason for keeping him locked away,” Celestia answered. “However, ‘Kaos’ is far too large a call out to ignore. It is as if he were trying to get our attention, slapping us in the face.”

    Luna clucked her tongue as her horn continued to glow. After several moments she seemed satisfied and turned to them. “The spell leeching his power away is still working perfectly. Even if he can somehow manage to get free, we would see nothing at the level of chaos he caused last time.”

    “Wouldn’t he just be able to take the gem if he wakes?” Trixie asked, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

    “No,” Luna noted with a smile, “the gem is only leeching it away; it’s not storing the magic.”

    “Wait… according to the laws of magic/energy conservation, magic cannot simply be destroyed, it has to go somewhere,” Trixie thought aloud. “But if that’s the case, where is the magic going?”

    “Very good, my pupil,” Celestia said, beaming proudly. “You are correct, the magic, even as chaotic as Discord’s magic is, needs to go somewhere. And given how powerful Discord is… was, that is a great deal of magic to leech away.”

    “The solution was to feed it into the planet itself,” Luna added, tapping the pedestal beneath the statue. “Housed inside this pedestal is a gem we both ensorcelled, which draws his magic down and into the land itself, where it can be dispersed harmlessly over the entirety of Equestria, and beyond. This has lead to some unexpected occurrences, but to date they have been minor in all ways, and in some cases they were even beneficial.”

    Celestia snorted, “Chaos is still chaos.”

    “This is a subject of many discussions and arguments between Celestia and myself,” Luna stage whispered to the unicorn with a chuckle before answering. “Order without any variance is stagnation. There simply must be some chaos for the world to survive.”

    “We did perfectly fine for a millennium,” Celestia noted simply, her eyes never leaving the statue. “We had peace the likes of which ponykind never knew before. With the exception of the Lunar War, we were at peace…”

    “We were stagnating,” Luna retorted, “with only minimal advances magically, scientifically, or socially. Aside from some culture shock when I returned after a millennium, the world was very much like the one I left when I was banished. New inventions and ideas were few and far between, and the ponies simply lived the same way they always had for thousands of years, never looking for more.”

    Celestia shook her head. “What you call ‘stagnation’ I call ‘idyllic’. The world was as it should have been; why should it have sought to change?”

    “Not to interrupt,” Trixie slipped in before Luna could answer, even if she really was trying to end the argument before it could truly gain any momentum, “but is it possible that this Kaos might be inspired by Discord instead of actually being of or from Discord?”

    Both sisters looked at the cyan unicorn with mildly confused and thoughtful expressions. “Please elaborate, my pupil,” Celestia prompted.

    Trixie motioned to the statue as she spoke, “What if this zebra is really a Special, but with a special attunement to Discord’s type of magic? In dispersing it as you have, it’s possible it affected him in some way, and he adopted the name in a sort of homage to the source of his powers, and potentially his inspiration?”

    The sisters seemed to consider that, their faces growing thoughtful for a moment. “I can see that, Trixie,” Luna answered. “More, it would explain the similarities to his style of magic, even when he does not have a horn to cast with... not that Galaxi hasn’t already proven that is possible.”

    “It could also be possible that the magic is seeking a new host, turning this zebra into an inheritor of Discord’s powers,” Celestia added softly, “But, as you once said about Zilch, this is all just theory and speculation. Until we have more to go on, this is all just conjecture.”

    “I agree,” Trixie stated. “For now, however, we should probably get back inside before we give your Royal Guard a heart attack from you both being out in the open like this. I’ve already asked the kitchen to send up a nice kettle of your favorite tea to your office, Princess, and it should be waiting for us when we get back.”

    “Then we should get going, before the tea gets cold,” Luna chuckled, and lead the trio back towards the castle.

    Celestia cast a harsh glare at the statue before following.

    “Is it finished, Professor?”

    The orange unicorn looked up from his workbench and nodded. “Ya, it iz. It waz… interezting to work with zis material. Thank Zilch for allowing me to ztudy and repair it,” the Professor said as he held out the white suit to the zebra, the large gash now mended. The new seam was almost completely invisible to the eye, differentiated only by a slight thickness in the material and a few small discolored spots.

    “This is perfect, thank you,” Kaos answered with a smile. “I think, perhaps, that thanking her in person would be a wise idea. However, she refuses to come out of her quarters until the suit has been replaced.”

    “I zuppoze zere is a good enough reazon for zis modezty,” the unicorn said as he levitated his tools into their storage box. “I notized zhe putz out a zmall amount of radiation az zhe iz. Ze zuit iz lined, holding zat radiation back.”

    “Is the radiation harmful?” the zebra asked.

    “Neigh,” the unicorn answered dismissively, then reconsidered. “Well… maybe if you were exposzd to it conztantly for a month or zo, zen you might develop a zmall tumor. But ze amount zhe expelz iz minimal at bezt. Ztill, I wizh zhe waz not zo reziztant about being ztudied, zhe iz a fazcinating zpecimen.”

    “She has her reasons, Professor,” Kaos stated, letting the subject drop with that. “You had best head for the central meeting chamber. Now that everypony is present, we can begin phase two of this operation. I trust your power armour is ready?”

    Professor Burner frowned and looked across the open cave that served as home for the past six months or so to the manticore-like suit he had been building. Computers littered the floor about it, each plugged into a separate area of the hulking mechanism, the scorpion tail arching up over the back threateningly. “Honeztly, I am not zure. I replazed ze flame thrower on ze tail with a lazer cannon for additional range but… vithout field tezting, I am juzt guezzing now.”

    The zebra smiled enigmatically, “Some of your teammates won’t like it, but I planned to do that anyway. Your suit needs testing, and the entire team needs to practice working with each other. I doubt we will ever reach the level of coordination that Crosswind and Junkyard possess between the two of them, but it is my hope that we might come close. Regardless, for now, go ahead and meet your new teammates. I will deliver this to Zilch and get her suited up.”

    The orange unicorn watched the zebra leave the cave, and lifted a hoof to brush a bit of his silvery streaked mane from his eyes with a sigh. The Professor turned to his creation, the Mechanized Attack, Neutralization, Targeting, and Infiltration CORE Mk I, or the Manticore Mk I for short, and shook his head. He lightly stroked a hoof over the fierce feline mask of the helmet, the eyes glowing baleful amber with a pulse of energy in a way that seemed to regard him in return. In his mind, it was almost questioning, as if to ask “Is this it? Is this what I was created for?” Burner shook his head to clear it, checked a few of the diagnostic terminals, and, satisfied that all the readings were within tolerable ranges, slipped out of the cave he adopted as his own.

    The empty stone halls echoed his hoof-steps as he trotted along, following the cables that he had strung up. They connected to the generator he spent the first month or so installing to provide power for the entire aerie, even abandoned as it is. Admittedly, a majority of it he himself used with the work on the Manticore armour, but that was as much due to the fact only he and the zebra were the only residents for many a month, as well as the unseen and enigmatic “Prince” that seemed to be in charge, as anything else.

    Professor Burner turned a corner and trotted along another in a seemingly identical maze of corridors. Unlike most gryphon aeries, this one was mostly exclusively a spiderweb of interconnecting tunnels. The start of a central meeting ground existed, but it was only the size of a large hall and lacked the usual worked stone inherent in gryphon architecture. Burner couldn’t help but wonder why it was abandoned at that point of construction, but the zebra had given no answer.

    “Who’s the featherhead?” The unicorn winced at the first words his new “teammates” drifted down the corridor to him.

    “Back off,” somepony answered with a throaty growl.

    “Now that’s no way to introduce yourself,” the first voice taunted. “I know, we’ll call you… Dingus.”

    “What?!” the voice asked incredulously. Burner couldn’t have agreed more as he stepped into the central hall, which was lined with a handful of monitors linked to the camera and security system he installed, and a large circular table that seemed far too massive for the small team the zebra gathered. Overhead a series of lights had been anchored into the ceiling, and the long cables caused them to sway slightly in a strange breeze. For a moment, the unicorn was struck by how much it looked like a villainous lair from some comic book.

    “I said… oh hey, another pony,” the voice said, and with a sudden flurry of motion, the orange unicorn found himself confronted by a pegasus grabbing his hoof and shaking it energetically. “I was beginning to think I was the only pony on this operation, no offense Junkyard. Nice ta’ meetchya, I’m Crosswind! That there is Junkyard and Dingus….”

    Professor Bunsen Burner was momentarily knocked off balance by the pale blue pegasus, his cropped red-streaked mane fluttering with his energetic motions. Burner noticed that the breeze he felt seemed to emanate from this pony. Staggering from the “energetic” greeting, the unicorn managed to reach the edge of the table to steady himself. Across from him a rocky gray diamond dog chuffed, his black nose quivering amidst the loose folds of his bulldog-like muzzle and features. But his chocolate brown eyes were keenly aware, betraying a sharp mind hiding under the relatively dull exterior decorated only by a simple vest.

    “My name is not Dingus!” the other voice Burner had heard shouted, an oddly powerful undertone accenting his words, and the unicorn was able to put a face to the voice. While they had met briefly before, Alto was looking much healthier after a night’s sleep, some decent food in his stomach, and the Professor’s own inexpert medical treatment. The gryphon wore nothing but his own feathers and fur, all of which were colored a lovely silver-white, and punctuated by a pair of piercing amber eyes.

    “You are looking better, Alto,” the professor put in, trying to defuse the situation before the pair came to blows. Alto reminded him of a moody teenaged colt, while this “Crosswind” immediately put him in mind of a high school bully or clown. He suddenly felt very old next to these… foals.

    The gryphon grudgingly accepted the change of subject and gave Crosswind a parting glare. “Thanks Doc. I appreciate the patch job you did… I didn’t realize that scrape was getting infected.”

    “I am no doctor,” Burner answered with a wave of his hoof, “but I keep zome of ze bazicz around. You would be zurprized how many lacerationz and contuzionz a pony can get while working on complex equipment.”

    “Still, I appreciate it,” Alto said with a wan smile, “I hadn’t gotten--”

    Further conversation was interrupted by hysterical laughter from above them, where the pegasus barely managed to keep himself airborne from the fits of laughter wracking his body. “A-are you serious?!” he cried incredulously. “Come on, that accent has to be fake!”

    The diamond dog rolled his eyes even as the orange unicorn drew himself upright, “I will have you know zat my accent has lezzened and zmoothed out over the yearz!”

    The flying pony laughed even harder for a moment before drawing himself up in the best pretentious pose he could manage. “Zat iz vhat zey all zay…” Crosswind teased before devolving into laughter again.

    Alto shook his head at the pegasus’ antics. “Ignore him, Doctor. I will admit, however, that your accent is rather thick. Where do you hail from?”

    The unicorn glared at the pegasus before straightening himself, “I am from ze northern zity of Zpurlin, eazt of Stalliongrad, juzt pazt ze mountain range zat I believe iz home to one of ze more zouthern gryphon clanz.”

    “I think that’s the old Cliffracer clan home,” Alto noted, studiously ignoring Crosswind, who was laughing so hard now he was crying and hanging off the stone faced diamond dog.

    “Dare I azk if ze zilent one there iz Junkyard?” the unicorn asked, warily eying the diamond dog. The canine answered only with a nod as he pushed Crosswind off him and straightened his vest.

    “I don’t think he can talk,” Alto said to the unicorn, “at least, I haven’t heard him say a word since we met.”

    “He c-can talk…” Crosswind answered, gasping for breath after his laughing fit. “He jus’ don’t like to.”

    “Iz zere a medical reazon?” the Professor asked worriedly.

    “Nah,” Crosswind answered with a dismissive wave of a hoof, “he just don’t say nothin’ unless it’s important. He’s just a dog of few words and all that, ain’t that right Junkyard?”

    The diamond dog looked at the pegasus for a moment, crossed his arms across his barrel chest, opened his mouth, and answered with a solemn nod. Crosswind looked at his partner for a moment, then began to laugh again. “Aw man, every time I think you’re gonna actually say something…!”

    “Given the laughter, is it safe to say that introductions are going well?” the zebra asked, his hooves echoing as he entered the hall, followed by the eerily silent Zilch. The Zebra was a startlingly average sized member of his specie, if a bit on the handsome side. Of course, that might be influenced by his preference for wearing a navy blue suit-coat, white silk shirt, and burgundy tie, all of which seemed custom tailored to fit him perfectly. Even so, the Zebra paused to reflexively adjust his tie as he sidled up to the table. Zilch filled in the final spot at the table, seemingly the only mare present, but Professor Burner knew better now that he had glimpsed what lie under that white suit of hers. She had no mane or tail, just a body of white fabric that even covered her mouth and nose, open only at her glowing white eyes. The only change in the uniformly white suit was the large “O” with a diagonal slash through it, a number zero, placed directly where a cutie-mark should be.

    “Given this is the first time you have all met each other as a group,” the zebra pressed onward, not giving the others a chance to answer, “I feel we should get to know each other. We will need to know what your powers are, in addition to your preferred name. Since Zilch cannot speak, I will begin for her. She is known as Zilch, as you may have already guessed, and she is capable of teleporting via portals. Most of you have already experienced this, and she will serve as our method of conveyance and melee support. Despite the fact her knowledge of martial arts is fading with the separation from her previous… ‘teacher’, she is quite capable of fighting and using her unique teleportation in unusual and unexpected ways.

    “Junkyard? Why don’t you go next.”

    The diamond dog seemed to consider the instruction, and slowly stood up. With one broad hand he held it above the stone floor at about waist level. To the rest present, save Crosswind, it was a surprise to see a short column of rock rush up to meet his hand. The canine smiled and looked over those present before speaking in a low, rumbling voice that seemed barely above a whisper, yet echoed clearly about the hall, “I control rocks. My density and strength increase when I am in contact with the ground.”

    “Whoah, big guy,” Crosswind crowed, “that’s the most you’ve said in a week!”

    Junkyard shrugged and moved to sit back down in his chair, the thin column vanishing back into the stone floor.

    “Have you had any luck correcting the fractures in the foundation that you found?” the zebra asked.

    The diamond dog answered with a nod, and seemed content to leave it at that.

    “Excellent. Now then--”

    “I’m up!” Crosswind interrupted, swooping out over the center of the table. “I’m Crosswind, Junkyard’s my partner, and I can control the very air you breathe!” The air began to whip around the table in a mini-cyclone as the pegasus spread his forelegs, cackling as he spun about. “Fear me!!”

    Junkyard rolled his eyes and reached a big hand out to grasp the pegasus’ tail and, with a quick yank, pulled him to the ground. The wind immediately died off as the diamond dog leaned on his partner, pinning him down.

    “Let us not forget,” the Zebra added with a crooked smile, his suit and mane not even ruffled from the mini-hurricane, “that you also lose all your powers if you are forced to the ground, much as your partner loses his if he ever loses direct contact with the earth beneath him.”

    Crosswind made a face and pushed at the stronger canine to try and get up off the ground. “Huh? Well yeah, if you want to make us sound lame…” he grumbled and tried gnawing on Junkyard’s arm, which earned him a swat from the diamond dog.

    “I guess I’m next then,” the gryphon said. “I don’t have any sort of fancy name or some such, I’m just Alto, and…  I guess I’m a special too.”

    “Hi Dingus!” Crosswind piped up, followed by an “OW!” as Junkyard swatted him again.

    “Zis iz not a zupport group, Alto,” Professor Burner spoke up, knocking his hoof on the heavy table. “Being a zpecial is nothing to apologize for.”

    The gryphon blushed a little, “I’m… sorry. I’ve been hanging around the gryphon clans too much lately, and had to keep it a secret for the past few months. Anyway, I can project my voice in a wave of force. I’m sure there is more but… well, I’m still new at this.”

    “You will get the hang of it, with practice,” the zebra put in reassuringly. “How about you, Professor?”

    The orange unicorn frowned, but he was to the last one left, save the zebra himself. “I am ze infamouz Profezzor Bunzen Burner. I am not a special like ze--.”

    “Wait, if he ain’t a special, why the buck is he here?!” Crosswind demanded, having finally wriggled free of his friend’s grip.

    “If you would allow me to--” Burner started.

    “Seriously, what the hell do you expect him to bring to a squad like this?” Crosswind demanded, poking the orange unicorn with his hoof as he faced the zebra. Burner took a slow breath, trying to calm down when he was poked again. “What, are we just going to throw him at the Guard and hope they’ll be so distracted in arresting him that--”

    “Zat iz enough!” the unicorn bellowed angrily. Crosswind frowned at him, but Burner met his eyes evenly. “You want to know what I bring? Azide from zome much needed maturity, I bring a power armour zat I have been dezigning for ze past six months, zpecifically dezigned to take on Clockwork Key and her Dragonfly armour! Your little wind tricks might zlow her down, but her armour iz capable of breaking ze rainboom barrier. Zhe could easily turn you into zo much glue, and her airborne ztate would make her a hard target for your partner az well! Alto might have a chanze, but without help, thiz team would not ztand a chance without my Manticore armour. I will neutralize ze Dragonfly.”

    “Well said, Professor,” the zebra slid in, cutting off Crosswind before he could make another cutting remark. “Now then, as for myself, most of you know my name is Kaos, and I am the appointed leader of this team. My powers are unusual, as I possess an ability to alter reality in without about a twenty foot sphere of myself. Localized reality manipulation I believe the Professor called it.”

    “Wait, wait… appointed leader by who?” Crosswind demanded. “I don’t remember votin’ for anypony!”

    “I muzt confezz zat I am curiouz az well,” Burner added.

    “Yeah, and who is this mysterious ‘Prince’ I’ve heard you mention?” Alto added to the mix. Even Junkyard and Zilch looked on curiously.

    The zebra stallion held up his forehooves and smiled, “Please, the Prince has asked to remain anonymous, for now. However, I have arranged for him to speak to you briefly via the monitors.” He spread a hoof wide to one of the larger monitors mounded behind him, where the silhouette of a pony appeared as a static image, the chosen “avatar” of the Prince. Next came the sharp, reedy voice of the Prince himself oozing from the monitor’s speakers.

    “It seems my little ponies aren’t so patient, are they Kaos?” he asked sardonically.

    “Hey, what’s with the whole anonymous crap?!” Crosswind demanded.

    “Simply put,” the Prince answered, “I have my own secrets to protect. Further, if this fails, this means the Princesses cannot find out who was guiding you, and that is far more important to me than you might realize. For now, suffice it to say that you are my agents. Your eventual goal will be to challenge the very team that stands at the heart of Equestria and the Ponylands…”

    “Project Moonbeam… ze element bearerz,” Burner put in.

    “Correct! Score one for the Professor,” the voice joked. “Quite simply, you six have the tools needed to defeat the Princesses’ little team of mares. To that end, you are going to need some time to practice as a team. You have the powers, now you need to learn how to use them.”

    “Junkyard and I are just fine--” Crosswind started.

    “And yet you almost lost to only two of the six members of Project Moonbeam,” the Prince cut in. “Oh certainly, your teamwork with Junkyard is impeccable, but even you can be beaten, my overconfident little friend. You can not handle all six of them. Steelwing, Dragonfly, Flourish, Galaxi, Tome, and Spectrum… these mares are your targets. But for now, you need to train, learn how to coordinate with each other, and learn about your targets. Yes Crosswind, I said learn, because you will need to know every one of those ladies inside and out. Their capabilities, their weaknesses, what they had for breakfast. By the time we’re done, I want you all but crawling into their skins and… wait, that’s kinda creepy. I think that analogy got away from me.…

    “Regardless, I want you each to know who you are on the team to neutralize. Burner is here to face Dragonfly. Junkyard will be handling Steelwing, while Crosswind keeps Flourish at bay. Zilch, you’re here to make Galaxi’s life miserable, and Alto, you will keep Tome from casting her spells. Kaos, that leaves Spectrum to you. But any plan is due to change thanks to screw ups, problems, and unforeseen circumstances. That means you each need to be ready to handle any of those ladies, even you Alto, though I would strongly recommend against facing off with Steelwing again. No offense, but you just don’t have what it takes to handle her.” Alto scowled at the monitor, but didn’t argue the point.

    “My role during these training sessions will be to act as your coordinator,” the Prince continued. “This means that when you’re given the headsets that Professor Burner is in the process of thoughtfully creating for each of you, I’ll be one of the voices at the other end. Kaos is my field commander, and he takes his orders directly from me. In the field, what he says takes precedence, however. He’s the one in the field, not me, and despite the fact we’re gunning for Princess Luna’s precious little team, your safety and health are paramount. Withdraw rather than die, hell, withdraw if you think you’re going to be captured! While we can break you out of the dungeons, it’s not that easy a feat, and I would prefer that the Princesses not get the opportunity to pump any of you for information. With luck, we won’t have to cross paths with them until you’re good and ready.”

    “Now then, Kaos? Set everyone up and get into the field for a test run. Time to see what these foals can do,” the Prince stated before the monitor flickered and went dead. The zebra looked to the rest of the team.

    “Let’s go see what you can really do.”

     She wiped a foreleg across her brow.

    There was just nowhere in this infernal cave to escape the stuffy heat, or the sulfuric stink that accompanied it. It didn’t help that the little gryphoness couldn’t clearly remember how she got there, or why she felt compelled to continue cleaning up after the abhorrent little beasts that had been hatched from the eggs. While her father and mother seemed to be the ones training them, she got stuck cleaning up their… offal. Dragon dung was hardly pleasant to collect or dispose of.

    It didn’t help that the rest of her family seemed completely content with the change of scenery of the last few days. Father took immediate charge to act as a sort of second-in-command to the strange Eclipse, and Mother took naturally to seeing to the dragons after they were hatched. Verdigris got stuck cleaning up after them, while Pyrite and Fracture traded shifts guarding the cave entrance… not that there was much of an entrance there, just more tunnels. And then, of course, there was Eclipse himself.

    The dark gryphon bothered her in a way she couldn’t put her claw on, aside from the weird menace those glowing eyes of his held. Those eyes bothered her, because every time they met hers, the gryphon lost hours of time and only vaguely remembered doing whatever he told her to do. It was like thinking through a fog or a haze, as if her mind was so overwhelmed by him that she couldn’t remember anything more than the most basic of events. It seemed worse for her family; it was almost like they completely accepted whatever it was Eclipse was doing to them.

    Verdigris was scared, and had no idea what to do about it. Sure, she was treated alright for the moment, but that seemed to hinge on something she couldn’t quite grasp. Instead, the caves seemed primarily designed to store the massive quantity of large speckled eggs of a large variety of colors. She considered trying to sort them by color once, but vaguely remembered being told that moving them around too much would be bad for them. Still, they were the most colorful things in this dismal cave. The walls and ceiling of it were coated in black soot over the jagged rocks. The “floor” had been worn smooth by use, but was uneven in the most unexpected places, and she had stubbed her claws and even fallen over multiple times from it. The series of interconnected caves were lit by the glow of lava from the volcanic vents, casting everything in an infernal red glow that did little to improve her dark mood.

    She tossed the most recent bag of offal down the deepest of these vents, then  backed up and covered her beak with her other claw to avoid the monumental stench as the lava melted it down to nothing. Thankfully the stench was only momentary, but she made the mistake of watching it the first time… the smell of burning dragon dung had been so overpowering that she lost her lunch.

    With that done, she paused to find something to wash her claws with. Water was in short supply in the cave, and was generally saved for drinking, but the other gryphons didn’t have to dispose of dragon poop. She squeezed one of the waterskins and ran the warm water over her hands to clean them as best she could. She found herself wishing she were back at the river with her sister, able to take a dunk and splash about in the cool water without caring about--

    “Don’t waste the water,” a rumbling voice interrupted her thoughts.

    “I won’t, sir,” she answered, shaking her claws off, but refusing to turn and face the dark gryphon who spoke. She wasn’t sure why, but whenever she glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye, she saw a large pony, not a gryphon. She was at a loss to understand it, but she had another reason for not wanting to look at Eclipse… she didn’t want to risk meeting his eyes again.

    “I suppose it’s near time for you to take a break anyway,” Eclipse continued, his gaze boring in on the back of her head like a physical pressure.

    “Yes, sir,” she answered simply, and took a pull from the waterskin to slake her thirst. It amazed her how she never noticed how thirsty she was down here until she took a drink. Normally, she’d attribute that to some sort of heat exhaustion, but she hadn’t seen any other symptoms. If anything, she and her entire family seemed abnormally resilient to the heat, and she guessed this was due to some sort of magic from the magus protecting them.

    “Fresh meat is in the storage locker,” he said simply. “Do remember a majority of it is for the growing dragons.”

    “I remember,” she answered flatly.

    “Good.”

    Verdigris didn’t turn to look as she heard his claws clicking away as he left, and she felt some of the tension bleed from her. She hung up the waterskin and contemplated the meat locker with a grimace. As usual, the meat was just thrown in haphazardly, the freshest resting on top, but the lowest now charred from the ever present heat and starting to smell of rot and decay. She took a claw-sized hunk and choked down the heavily salted raw meat. It made her miss the sweet taste of the fruit she had the pleasure of trying just a few days ago.

    It was hard to believe all that happened so recently… it felt so very far away.

    With a sigh, the gryphoness considered trying to find a hiding spot to get a few hours sleep, about all she could ever manage in this damnable heat, when she heard voices. One was the deep rumble of Eclipse’s voice, the other sounded like the thinner, reedier tones of her father. For a moment she considered dismissing it, and even began to turn away, when a niggling curiosity pushed its way forward in her mind. Common sense told her to ignore it, but…

    Careful not to let her claws click along the surface of the rock, she moved to the edge of the cave entrance to try and listen in, her head tilting slightly as the odd acoustics of the caves worked in her favor, for once.

    “…problem. We’ll handle everything!” her father, Shale, was saying.

    “I’m not overly concerned with that,” Eclipse responded in that rumbling voice of his. “I simply want to make sure that you follow my instructions while I am away. Do not hatch any additional eggs, stick to the half-dozen you are raising right now. The magic I am using on them will render them as no more than beasts, but it is possible they may grow quite a bit while I am away.”

    “Not to question you…” her father wheedled, “but I don’t know how much bigger they can get before we run out of room entirely. They’re already the size of large dogs, and the largest is bigger than my daughter… they might start crowding the other eggs, potentially even breaking them.”

    “I wondered when you would notice that,” Eclipse chuckled. “I’ve handled it. There is a magic portal in the back of the chambers, which I finished only recently. It will transfer you and the dragons to a large cave with an opening off of a Cliffside. Since the dragons seem adept at learning to fly on their own, they will need to learn to hunt. I expect you to teach them.”

    “H-hunt?!” her father stammered, sounding oddly excited.

    “Yes, hunt,” Eclipse stated firmly, and she heard her father gasp. She could almost envision the magus meeting his eyes, and her father’s expression going slack as he mesmerized him. “The dragons are becoming old enough that continuing to hunt for them would be impossible. They will need to learn to hunt on their own. They need to bloody their claws.”

    “Yes, sir,” Shale answered, his voice sounding flat and drained.

    “Good boy,” Eclipse answered, “now get to work.”

    Verdigris slipped away and into one of the room’s shadows as she tried to think of where Eclipse might have placed this portal he mentioned. She tapped her beak for a moment, and it occurred to her Eclipse was a control freak, perhaps even more-so than her father. It would be only natural he would put the portal where he could control it, in his chambers. With a destination in mind, she made her way towards the smaller side caves that Eclipse had claimed for his own.

    To say it was smaller was still to ignore the fact it was large enough to fit a claw-full of tap dancing elephants with room to spare for the grand finale. Still, Eclipse had chosen it as his place to set up shop, and the lines he’d carved into the ground in a large number of mystic symbols made it easy to recognize, as did the now midnight blue glowing portal at the back of the chamber. The young gryphon slowly closed on the glowing portal, unsure exactly what to make of it as she approached, and hesitantly reached out a claw towards it. Cold bit at her claw-tips and she withdrew her foreleg quickly, eyeing the swirling energies warily.

    Behind her she heard voices, Eclipse and… Pyrite she thought. It was hard to tell, but there was one thing that wasn’t difficult to identify, they were headed this way! Verdigris frowned and considered bolting from the chamber, but was sure she’d be spotted. Trying to hide was out; if Eclipse stuck around for any length of time he would easily find any hiding spot she came across. Swallowing sharply, she realized she only had one option left, and clenched her beak as she dove through the portal.

    Cold. Her first realization was how cold it was. What she had taken for the magic of the portal was actually the air on the other side, which felt positively frigid! After wrapping forelegs and wings about herself to contain her body heat, she cast her eyes about the large and dimly lit cave. There were plenty of shadowy spots to hide in, and she immediately dashed towards one of them, just in case Eclipse came through the portal behind her.

    She was halfway to her chosen hiding spot when her eyes saw it, something she felt like she hadn’t seen in ages, even if in reality it had only been a few days. Almost in a trance her dash came to a stumbling halt as she made her way towards it, her head arching upwards to stare in awe at what lie over her head.

    The moon hung in the sky like a pearl dangled amidst a sea of stars. Her eyes swam over the surface of the world below, and she could see hints of a deep ravine just before her claws, a roaring waterfall nearby that managed to cast tiny little rainbows with the moonlight. Trees rest serenely along the edges of the valley, and the night-time breeze ruffled their leaves like a mother might ruffle the feathers of a child.

    “That’s why I’m cold,” she whispered huskily, “he really did do something to make is easier to handle the heat.”

    “Figured that out, did you?” Eclipse asked from behind her, and the gryphon ducked her head guiltily. “Not thinking about trying to fly away, are we?”

    “Couldn’t,” she answered simply, and flared a wing. “Our wings are clipped… with luck the feathers will grow back sometime in mid summer, early fall at the latest.”

    “Look at me, little one,” he ordered.

    “I’d rather not.”

    “Oh? And why is that?” the magus asked in a bemused tone. She could hear his claws clicking along the stone behind her as he approached.

    “Your eyes are… weird,” she answered softly. “They make it hard to think, I barely remember what happened after and… it feels like I’m losing a little piece of myself every time you do it.”

    “You’re overthinking it,” Eclipse snorted dismissively. “Now look at me.”

    “No.”

    “That was not a request,” Eclipse growled, and Verdigris fought the urge to run away from that dark voice. If her wings would have supported her she’d have taken to them, fly free from this nightmare. With luck they were still in the Everfree Forest somewhere, and she’d be able to fly to the settlement and call to her sister for help.

    “Don’t care,” she answered shakily. “I don’t know what you did to momma and the rest of my family, but I know once my sister finds out…”

    “You mean the one who keeps trying to flirt with me?” Eclipse asked amusedly. “She can’t do--”

    “No, not her, she’s a sister in name only. My real sister… Filigree.”

    Eclipse paused for a moment, the sound of his approach pausing as if he was caught offguard. “Filigree?”

    She nodded and felt a surge of confidence. “Yes, Filigree. She freed us from enslavement in the gryphon clan, and she’ll come for us again!”

    A large claw closed about her neck and yanked her back suddenly, sweeping the smaller gryphon from her claws and into the air with a surprised squawk. She flailed reflexively, but Eclipse’s foreleg was far too long for her to reach him. She shuddered as he tightening his grip about her throat, clawing at his forelegs futilely, trying to loosen the grip as it stole her breath.

    “Never, ever, speak that name here!” Eclipse roared at her, causing her to recoil even as she struggled to breathe.

    “Don’t kill her,” a voice said in the back of his head, one Eclipse recognized. “You’ll wake up the rest of her family if you do, and then you’ll be back to square one.”

    Eclipse frowned, but loosened his grip enough to let the small gryphon gasp for breath. He considered ignoring it, that annoying voice of Sunset Sparkle, but he had a point. An emotional shock would potentially wake “them” up. Instead he yanked the cub forward until she was beak to beak with him.

    “Look at me,” he commanded, and she answered with a weak shake of her head and clenched her eyes shut. He growled in annoyance and in three quick strides and he had her at the edge of the cliff, holding her aloft and over the open air. “Your wings are clipped, and you can’t fly. You have a choice: I drop your feathered ass to the bottom of this ravine, or you open your eyes.”

    The gryphoness writhed in his rock steady grip, and pried open her eyes, looking anywhere but at him. She quickly verified her position, her wings fluttering uselessly as she panicked, her eyes going wide…

    It was foal’s play to capture her gaze after that, and he forced his will upon hers. Blue eyes were lost amidst the glow of his turquoise ones, overwhelming her will until she was another vessel to command. Her struggles slowed, growing less energetic, until they finally ceased entirely. He carefully set her down inside the cave again and patted her hip. “There we go, isn’t that much better?”

    “Yes, sir,” she answered mechanically.

    “Now get back to work,” he ordered, and watched her disappear back through the portal. “She woke up again… the rest of her family hasn’t yet, but this is becoming monotonous. I might have to remove her before she comes to her senses completely,” he grumbled to himself, pacing across the now empty cave. “Maybe I’ll kill her when I return, and tell her family that she ran away…”

    Eclipse waved an errant claw of his shape-shifted form. “I’ll handle that when I get back… maybe sooner if they turn out to be a disappointment. Still, they might be a useful, Filigree’s family, and right under my hoof too…” he considered. He took to the sky out the opening to the cave, only to transition to a mist before ever clearing the valley.

    “Aww man, I missed all that?!”

    “Eeyup, ya’ll sure did,” the elderly Apple Bloom assured the other pony. The mood of the hospital room had vastly improved over the past few days as Scootaloo recovered from her poisoning. Only her metabolism issues, those beyond being a “Special”, had kept her alive in the face of the nearly untraceable poison. But the moment the samples had been recovered in Zilch’s “lair”, the doctors immediately went to work on a treatment, and Apple Bloom turned to her alchemy to craft a cure of her own. In the end, it led to the orange pegasus with the white streaked purple mane slowly recovering in the clinic hospital bed. Of course, that made her a captive audience for Apple Bloom’s retelling of the entire chain of events that led up to that moment. Not that it seemed to bother her, other than the fact she hadn’t been able to participate in all the excitement.

    Sweetie Belle hovered close by, almost as if afraid to leave her two friends alone, even after the bulk of Scootaloo’s family had spent the previous night celebrating their matriarch’s return from the brink of death. While they recovered it gave the Crusaders some rare time where they weren’t inundated by their pegasus friend’s massive family. If the sheer number of cards and flowers still littering the room were any sign, she’d be digging out from family well wishing for months.

    “Man, the most exciting things happen when I’m sleepin’,” Scootaloo joked wanly and hoof-punched Apple Bloom’s shoulder.

    “Well, if it weren’t for Clockwork an’ ‘er friends, I dun’ think we coulda’ done it at all,” Apple Bloom noted, motioning to the trio of ponies that were keeping to themselves. Clockwork raised her head at the sound of her name, and Galaxi nudged her lightly. The little khaki mare got to her hooves and wandered over to hospital bed Scootaloo was still laid up in, only to get caught unexpectedly by a hug from the elder pegasus. For a still sick mare, Clockwork was impressed by how strong she still was.

    “Hey, thanks,” Scootaloo said, then stopped Clockwork from responding to continue. “No, I’m serious, this is a big deal. You and your friends saved my life here, saved all of our lives if what Bloom is saying is right. I know I doubted you in the past, thought maybe you were just dancin’ on the Princesses’ strings, but you really came through for us.”

    Clockwork answered with a smile, “I’m glad I was able to help. I wasn’t so sure how much good I would be when I first arrived up here, but I’m glad it worked out in the end.”

    “Mostly, anyway,” Sweetie Belle added softly.

    “Yeah, mostly,” Clockwork answered, her gaze slipping away and expression souring.

    “Now hold on right there you two, don’t ya’ll dare ruin th’ mood!” Apple Bloom cried, pointing first at Sweetie Belle, then at Clockwork Key. “Ya’ll done a great thing here. Regardless that it ain’t worked out perfectly, ya’ll did somethin’ great an’ saved Scootaloo’s life. Don’t sweat that Zilch stuff, I’m sure ya’ll will have plenny o’ time ta’ deal with her later. Fer now, jes’ relax an’ enjoy yer victory.”

    “You’re right, of course,” Clockwork answered with a forced smile. She didn’t feel ready to relax, there were still far too many questions hanging over things. Who was that zebra who called himself “Kaos”, and why did he want Zilch so badly to even set up a secondary distraction to prevent all of them from capturing her? Worse, what about Councilpony Marmalade? So far, the council was showing very little desire to punish her for her crimes, despite the public outcry over the attacks on the Crusaders.

    “Unfortunately, we can’t rest much either,” Sweetie Belle told her teammates as she leaned on the foot of the hospital bed. “We still have to find a way to contend with the gryphon’s threats. We’re the largest proponents of reunification with the Ponylands, and the Clans have outright threatened to attack if we continue down that vein. How in the hay do we respond to that?”

    “You’re talkin’ about Marmalade’s ‘motivation’ for tryin’ to kill us?” Scootaloo asked, then made a dismissive noise. “As if I’m going to let a bunch of featherbrains scare me into chickening out.”

    “I hear ya Scoots,” Apple Bloom chuckled, “but we ain’t the rest o’ the colonies. I hate ta’ say it, but we might haveta’ back off a bit. There’s just too many danged many innocents an’ non-specials who might get hurt in the crossfire.”

    “And the Princesses don’t have the pony-power to cover the colonies,” Clockwork added. “Princess Celestia already confirmed that for us. They’re struggling to reinforce the northern border as it is, it’s just too broad. Worse, we’ve lived peacefully with the gryphons for generations, since long before the Nightmare and the Imps invaded. It’s a bit of a shock to find out they’d been plotting this for so long against us, and how heavily equipped they were.”

    “You know, there’s somethin’ that’s bugging me,” Scootaloo said, pointing a hoof at the smaller mare. “How did the Gryphons get alla that gear?”

    Clockwork shook her head. “We don’t know,” she answered truthfully, “the Princess said she was looking into it, but…”

    “I wonder…”

    “Scoots?” Apple Bloom asked and shifted her cowpony hat back. “Ya’ll got somethin’ there?”

    “A sneaking suspicion,” the pegasus answered and rubbed her chin. “Do you girls remember that special unicorn ironsmith in the colony way out to the east?”

    “The one who could heat metal with his hooves while working it with his telekinesis?” Sweetie Belle asked.

    “That’s the one,” Scootaloo confirmed. “I seem to remember he had an adopted gryphon kid there when we last met him.”

    “Ya’ll are thinkin’ that he’s behind some o’ their new gear?” Apple Bloom asked, leaning against the bed thoughtfully.

    “Yeah, that’s what I’m thinkin’.”

    “It couldn’t hurt to check…” Sweetie Belle added.

    “Let us know if you find anything, okay?” Clockwork slipped in.

    “Not gonna stick around?” Scootaloo asked with a knowing smile.

    Clockwork sighed, “I might want to, but with the gryphon thing going on, and a potential invasion looming, the Princesses want us back in Canterlot as soon as possible. I begged off for a few days to make sure everything was okay here, I didn’t want to just up and bolt the moment we got everything wrapped up, but they’re starting to get antsy with three of us up here so close to the gryphon’s territory. We need to get going.”

    Apple Bloom nodded and adjusted her hat, “I’ll see ya’ll off then.”

    “I’ll need to stop and pick up the deployment sled and our luggage as well,” Clockwork noted. “Wouldn’t do me much good to have the chariot without the Dragonfly Armour, it’s how I fly the thing, after all.”

    The unicorn member of the Cursaders got to her hooves and lightly hugged Clockwork. “Don’t be a stranger, okay? If you have the chance, come back up for Hearthwarming Eve, we’d love to have you.”

    “Oh! That reminds me…  Um, Flourish?” Clockwork stammered, surprising the ponies present.

    “You want me to get something, don’t you?” the gray unicorn snarked from where she was dozing on the empty hospital bed. Clockwork nodded sheepishly and Flourish uncurled herself, making a big show of stretching out, and heaved an overdramatic sigh. “What do you need?”

    “Just… my saddlebags, back at Apple Bloom and Twist’s,” Clockwork said, feeling guilty about asking now. “I mean…”

    Flourish was gone before Clockwork could say more. The gray unicorn was gone for only a few moments before she reappeared in a flash of pink smoke, the leather saddlebags held in her telekinesis. “Flourish’s delivery service… where you get it in less than 20 seconds or it’s free!”

    Clockwork smiled and thanked the unicorn, who yawned in response, and sorted through the bag before pulling out a small package and handed it to Sweetie Belle. “I didn’t get the chance to give this to little Tempo, but I hope he’ll enjoy this little invention of mine.”

    The elder unicorn looked confusedly at the wrapped gift as she took it. “Do I want to know what’s in it?”

    Clockwork smiled. “It’s nothing bad. Just let me know how he likes it.”

    Sweetie Belle sighed and nodded. “I’ll let you know, whenever his mother lets him continue his lessons.”

    “Is that worry wart daughter of yours at it again?” Scootaloo groaned.

    “I c’n see that, aftah that there attack from Zilch,” Apple Bloom added.

    “Yeah,” Sweetie Belle sighed, “Tempo is still her little colt, and it doesn’t matter that he saved my life. As far as she’s concerned he should’ve run away.”

    Apple Bloom winced. “I unnerstan’ what she’s tryin’ to say but… that there is mighty cold.”

    “I know,” the unicorn answered, her expression unreadable.

    Clockwork hugged the unicorn this time. “I wish I could stick around to help you work it out.”

    Sweetie Belle laughed weakly and shook her head. “You wouldn’t be any help. My daughter isn’t a special, unlike her son, so she doesn’t really get it. I’ll get her to calm down, but…”

    “..but that there is gonna be tough ta’ overlook,” Apple Bloom answered for her. “I ain’t sure how fast I’d be ta’ forgive a statement like that either. If ya want, I could go have a talk with that there filly.”

    “That would only make it worse, and you know it,” Sweetie Belle retorted with a wan smile. “Thanks for offering though.”

    “Clockwork,” Galaxi said softly to her teammate, “we really should get going.”

    “Yeah, unless you’re plannin’ to spend another night with Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo put in, looping a foreleg over Clockwork’s shoulders amiably as she moved past, pulling her in for another quick hug, “you girls should get going.”

    Clockwork nodded and smiled a bit as she pulled back. “I’m just glad it all worked out.”

    “So am I, believe me!”

    The trip back through town towards Applebuck Orchards was a fair bit more relaxed than it had been when Clockwork first arrived.

    She was actually able to admire the almost storybook-like town the colony had made for themselves. It really was reminiscent of ages past, when ponies weren’t quite so high tech and relied mostly on their own abilities to get by. Houses were made by those in town, the food was all grown in town; almost everything the town needed was done in town. There were exceptions, of course, products that no amount of local talent could recreate, or even the need to occasionally look for experts outside of the city limits. But overall, ponies here were simpler, and more removed technologically from the high tech city that Canterlot was becoming.

    Of course the entourage of Clockwork Key, Galaxi, Flourish, and Apple Bloom garnered a number of looks themselves. Followed by the hovering deployment sled like some sort of futuristic luggage carrier, which the girls had put all their bags on to use it exactly as such, they drew plenty of stares. Apple Bloom drew her own fair share of attention as well, as ponies dashed up to her to tell her how sorry they were to hear about what Councilpony Marmalade did, and commiserated about how she might get off unpunished. It wasn’t until the entourage cleared the outskirts of town and were lazily trotting down the dirt path that connected it to the Orchards that they were finally left alone.

    Or so they thought.

    “Two ponies to the left,” Galaxi said softly to the others with her, “I don’t recognize either one, but they seem to have strong hostile feelings towards us… specifically you, Clockwork.”

    The mare in question sighed and looked around a moment. “Where?”

    “Further to your left,” Galaxi directed, “on the hill.”

    Clockwork Key, along with Flourish and Apple Bloom, craned their necks to look. Galaxi didn’t have to; her special “sight” allowed her to see them clearly. Still, Clockwork groaned softly as the pair, when seen, started to head their way.

    “Ya’ll’d think they’d have done learned by now,” Apple Bloom sighed, adjusting her hat.

    “Who are they?” Galaxi asked simply.

    “Local toughs,” Clockwork answered. “Snakeskin is the skinny colt, looks like the broken nose I gave him is healing. The unicorn with the leather fetish is Bittercup.”

    The pair had seen better days, that was for sure. Snakeskin, a skinny gray stallion with a limp green mane that hung over his eyes, had most of his lower face still bandaged and his jaw wired shut after his collision with Clockwork’s hooves. While she only suffered numb legs and some shoulder pain, the impact had shattered the bones of his lower face, and reconstructing his nose and jaw had been an arduous task to say the least. Clockwork was surprised to see him out of the clinic, to be honest.

    Bittercup got off the easiest of the trio thanks to being tackled by Apple Bloom, and managed to walk away with a shiner that nearly swelled her left eye shut. The pink unicorn with the lavender mane was still struggling to make herself as un-cute as possible with as much black leather as she could layer on herself. In an odd way, it made her look like some sort of fetish model in one of those “exclusive” Canterlot stores to Clockwork.

    “You bitch!” Bittercup screamed at her from a good twenty or thirty feet away. In a way, Clockwork was glad she kept her distance, but likely they hung back to stay well out of range of her hooves. “Do you have any idea what you did to us?!”

    “I reckon’ she done handed ya’ll a whuppin’,” Apple Bloom answered with a lazy drawl. “As I recall, I done whupped yer tail myself, Bittercup.”

    “Do you realize what you DID?! How the buck are we supposed to--” the mare began to scream when an explosion of pink happened just in front of her.

    “Hi there,” Flourish chirped, appearing nose to nose with the other unicorn, who in turn backpedaled furiously. Snakeskin watched with an odd calmness that bordered on supernatural as Flourish continued, “You must be the locals that Clockwork ‘whupped’. I gotta admit, you got guts trying to face Clockwork down… she’s mean when you piss her off.”

    “Who the buck are you?” Bittercup screamed at her. “You weren’t there, you don’t know what happened?!”

    “What makes her so special?” Snakeskin asked through his wired jaw, ignoring the hysterics of his “friend”.

    Flourish grinned, “She was one of the mares who took down the Nightmare. I should know, I was there too, and so was Galaxi there, the blind one with the green mane. Wave hello Galaxi!” Galaxi answered with a tepid wave of her hoof, perplexed at what Flourish might be doing.

    “Oh spare me! That’s just a bucking myth, created by the Princesses to…” Bittercup shouted before getting a mouthful of her partner’s hoof.

    “Be that as it may, she did a lot of damage to our friend,” Snakeskin said softly. “Full facial reconstruction, her skull was fractured in multiple places, permanently blind in one eye…”

    “And the point of telling us this is…?”

    “The point is that the Sheriff may not be pressing charges, but we’re willing to get some representation and find a court that would allow us to sue on our behalf for damages…” Snakeskin hissed.

    “Yeah,” Bittercup mumbled about the hoof shoved in her mouth before pulling free. “My daddy will--”

    “Lose,” Flourish interrupted simply. “Your father would lose, Buttercup, yes I know that’s your real name. You see, I’m a former palace guard, and I’ve seen and heard enough of what went on to know that you and your group were at fault. While my friends were helping out the Crusaders, I went and looked over the records the Sheriff had on our friend’s time here…”

    “You did what now?” Clockwork asked from behind her.

    Flourish grinned, “I looked into the records. I saw what was reported, and from what Galaxi told me, you might have really bucked someone up out here. However, Snakeskin was it? A lawsuit would be a waste of money for you. Want to know why? Because Clockwork Key is on the payroll of one Princess Celestia and one Princess Luna, which means she has access to the best lawyers in all of Equestria. No offense, but you two don’t seem quite up to snuff on the bits, which I’d wager is the entire point of you coming out here and making your ‘I’m going to sue you’ speech.”

    Snakeskin hissed softly through the wired jaw and lowered his hoof. Bittercup was seething, but said nothing for several moments. “It’s the last card we had to play,” Snakeskin admitted. “We’re broke, and the medical bills are piling up. Bittercup can only wheedle so much of her daddy’s money before…”

    “So you thought you’d put Clockwork on the hot-seat for the costs,” Flourish finished, and the gray stallion nodded. Flourish wandered back to the group, dug through her bag, and pulled out a scroll. She turned and hovered it over to them until Bittercup took it in her magic. “I’ll warn the Agency you’ll be writing. Make sure you include copies of the medical reports and the bills. I can’t promise we’ll cover everything, but I think we can come to some sort of settlement… on one condition.”

    “Dare I ask what?” Snakeskin hissed.

    “You find legitimate employment,” Flourish answered. “I’m serious here; you need to give up this bullshit about being some sort of enforcer for the money. At the least try to help ponies with those powers of yours. You’ve got the Crusaders right here in town, and I’m pretty sure they would leap at the chance to expand with some fresh blood… They can’t live forever, no matter how much we want ‘em too. A new generation is going to have to stand up and take their place eventually.”

    “You cannot be serious!” Bittercup cried, but Snakeskin looked more thoughtful.

    “I don’t think Lily Pad will be up for this,” he hissed. “She’s just doesn’t like to play by the rules. But maybe I’ll… I’ll need to think this over.”

    “Lemme know if’n ya do,” Apple Bloom put in from the side, “’cause th’ filly is dead on the money. We ain’t getting’ no younger, an’ there ain’t no pony done stepped up yet to take our place.”

    “We’ll be in touch, one way or another,” Snakeskin hissed and used a hoof to steer the excitable unicorn away from the group, leaving Clockwork to stare on in surprise.

    “Holy Celestia, how did you--” Clockwork started once the pair were out of sight.

    “Don’t think you’re off the hook,” Flourish stated darkly, pointing a hoof at Clockwork. “I was going to wait until we were back in Canterlot to bring this up, but I will be reporting this to the Princesses. Despite what I told those two, I can’t see Princess Celestia or Luna turning down the medical costs for damages you caused. You overstepped your bounds, Clockwork, and you’re going to have to take responsibility for that. We can deal with it when we get home, however.”

    Clockwork watched Flourish with a slack jaw as the mare trotted away before gulping visibly, feeling oddly like a filly who was just told by her parents that they would deal with her when they got home.  It took Clockwork almost a full minute to shake it off and start travelling again.

    “It’s so easy to forget she used to be a guard,” Galaxi said softly, bracing Clockwork from the side, which the smaller mare leaned into. “She’s so light hearted much of the time that it’s always a shock when her serious side shows.”

    “She done defused that there situation in a hurry,” Apple Bloom whistled softly as they followed Flourish’s lead and headed towards the barn. “That coulda gotten real ugly, real fast.”

    “Clockwork!” a cry came from behind them, and the khaki mare’s ears drooped.

    “Great, what else is going to go wrong?” she growled softly.

    “I dun’ think that’s the case this time, sugah’,” Apple Bloom noted, turning to face the direction of the call. “That there looks like Twist. Ya’ll done remembered to say yer so-long’s to her, right?”

    Clockwork nodded. “Before we left for the hospital, remember? I also said a quick one when we picked up the deployment sled.”

    Twist managed to trot up to the group, gasping and panting for breath. “I ain’t… the filly… I used to be…” she managed get out.

    “Now sugah, if ya’ll wanted to see Clockwork an’ them off…” Apple Bloom started.

    “Not that,” Twist answered as she gulped down a few more breaths. “I got a… a scroll for Clockwork… in the mail. I was hoping that, if I hurried, I could catch up to you girls before you left.” Twist reached into a small saddlebag and gave Clockwork the scroll before leaning against the nearby fence to recover.

    Clockwork sat on the dusty path and carefully pulled open the scroll, noting briefly who it was from. Her eyes widened as she read, and read it again in shock. Her expression became wild, almost uncontrolled as she threw the scroll down and tipped the deployment sled, dropping all the bags onto the grass. She ignored the frantic questions and cries from the mares present, as she leapt onto the deployment sled, the suit beginning to form about her even as Galaxi rounded up the tossed luggage.

    The moment it was done, Clockwork launched off the sled at top speed, forcing the ponies to brace themselves against her backwash. She raced for the barn and slammed the doors open without even pausing, diving inside a split second later.

    “I hope the doors were unlocked…” Galaxi noted worriedly. Then she heard the whine of engines and her eyes widened in realization. “Flourish! We need to get aboard, now!”

    Flourish appeared in a burst of smoke. “What’s the rush?” she asked.

    “Because if we don’t, she’s going to leave us here!” Galaxi cried, and Flourish’s expression darkened. A look of concentration crossed her face as she tried to grab all of the luggage and her friend, and after a moment they all managed to vanish in another explosion of sweet smelling pink smoke. In the next second, Clockwork’s Chariot burst from the other end of the barn, hurtling off towards the south.

    “What in tarnation was that all about?” Apple Bloom fussed, trotting up to inspect the damage on the barn.

    “I don’t know, love,” Twist answered honestly, before pausing to collect the discarded scroll. She trotted up to her mate, who was tsking over some scorch marks and a damaged hinge. Still, given the mare’s panic, the damage was minimal. Twist sighed and sat down, looking over the scroll in her hooves.

    “Anythin’ interestin’ in that there letter?” Apple Bloom asked after a few minutes.

    “Looks like it’s from that ‘Bottle Rocket’ stallion she mentioned, but… the message doesn’t make sense to me,” she admitted. “Is the barn okay?”

    Apple Bloom sighed, “It’s seen better days, but most o’ th’ damage ain’t Clockwork’s fault. The hinge was loose before she banged it, she was just th’ last straw. She bucked open the otha’ side first, so there ain’t no real damage there. Aside from a lil’ scorched paint there ain’t much to complain about.” The elder pony sat down by her mate and looked curiously at the letter in her hooves. Twist hoofed over the letter so she could read, and Apple Bloom scrunched her face, confused by what was written there.

    “What in th’ hay does ‘Tonight’s the night. All of Canterlot will see my fireworks’ mean?”