“I really don’t get it,” Rainbow said. She and Pinkie sat under a gentle raincloud that she had produced, with some effort, while, in another room, Twilight worked with Big Mac and Fluttershy on a plan to get the Element, and Rarity was on the deck, telling Applejack, Octavia, and Whooves of her encounter with Vanilla Cream.

“It’s hard to explain, Dashie.”

“Yeah, uh, well, that makes sense. Personal stuff can be tough to talk about sometimes.” She thought of Twilight. “I would know.”

Pinkie smiled.

“Why’s it so scary? Let’s start there.” Pinkie kept smiling, and Rainbow flapped once. “Like, with me, it’s really weird, ‘cause I never thought of myself as someone who could do much with just my brain. I’m not saying I think I’m stupid, but, eh, you know, mental stuff isn’t really my bag.”

Pinkie snickered.

“I don’t even think about it all that much, which makes it really freaky when I suddenly remember that I can do magic now. It’s like rediscovering something super huge, you know what I mean?”

“Not really,” Pinkie said, shaking her head.

“Well, so what’s it like for you? When you think about it.”

“I dunno. Like… well, I don’t really think about it much. Like you.”

“But?”

“But… well, I also always had it, I guess. I never thought of it as anything special. Things just happened for me, circumstances came together, whatever. I never gave it that much deep consideration, like Twilight would. Or Fluttershy.” She looked quickly at the sound of prancing hooves over their heads.

“I don’t think you need to, though.”

“No, probably not.”

“But what scares you?”

Pinkie sat in consideration for a long time. For Rainbow, it was strange to see her friend so taciturn, so serious. With the others, she was used to it, but Pinkie was a shock—and, more, she realized that it had been so for a long time. She wasn’t sure when it had started.

“When everyone starts talking about the princesses.”

“What about it?”

“Goddess-like power, Dashie. Remember back in Canterlot, when Princess Celestia first figured out that I had, uh…”

“Won the genetic lottery.”

“Yeah, that. If I can think it, I can do it. That’s what she said.”

“I remember.”

“I don’t want that.”

Rainbow thought she knew what Pinkie was trying to say, but Pinkie went on before she could respond.

“Princess Celestia can level cities if she wants to, Princess Luna can alter the flow of time. Both of them are basically indestructible.”

“Yeah?”

“That’s not me, Dashie. I don’t wanna be able to do that stuff.”

The raincloud purred thunder, and Rainbow’s fur stood up.

“No one’s saying you have to.”

“But isn’t that what happens? What if I try to do something nice, and it leads to something bigger? And that bigger thing leads to other even bigger things, and then even bigger things? What if it doesn’t stop?”

“Why wouldn’t it?”

Pinkie frowned and curled up on the floor. Her drooping mane splashed quietly in the rain puddle. “‘Cause there’s always some bigger problem. That’s why we need goddesses now, isn’t it? Octavia’s always talking about how she has to pay attention to the greater good, or the bigger duty. On paper, it sounds nice, but look at what it makes her. She’s my sister, and I love her, but anyone with eyes can see she’s miserable all the time. All the time, Dashie.”

“So… you don’t wanna be like her?”

“I don’t want goddess magic, or whatever this is. Unfiltered, pure, magic potential, whatever, I don’t want it.”

“What do you want?”

“I just wanna make ponies happy. I wanna do what I’m good at. I want to throw parties, and make desserts, and blow up balloons. You know what I was doing to help Lumb back in Hoofington? I wanna do that kind of stuff.”

Rainbow’s thoughts strayed to the cloud. Without realizing it, she enlarged it, and the rain grew cooler and harder.

“No goddess magic. Just fun.”

“Pinks… uh, I mean…”

“What’s wrong?”

She batted the raincloud away, suddenly angry. And then, she was suddenly not. “It sucks, Pinkie. It sucks a lot to hear you say that. If I had a shred of your power, I’d be about the happiest pegasus in Equestria. Look at me. I have about enough magic on my own to push a bit across a table, and I can only whip up wimpy stuff like this cloud by using Vanilla’s… whatever. I would give a lot to be in your position. If I was you, you know what I’d do? Slap a couple turbo chargers on this stupid airship, grab the Elements in a week with some sort of enhanced Element-finding thing, and—you know what? I’m positive you know that spell.” She got up and tried to re-summon her cloud, but only lowered the ambient temperature again. “Everything would be cake, ‘cause I could do whatever I dreamed. Yeah, goddess magic comes with a lot of responsibility, but, hey, you know what, we’ve got a big responsibility.”

Pinkie only looked at her.

“It sucks to see one of my best friends so unhappy to have something I’d gladly trade with her.”

“It’s not that easy, Rainbow.”

“Isn’t it? Infinite potential, and you can’t do anything with it?”

“It’s hard, okay? I still have to focus and do all the right things! I still have to pay attention to all the right stuff, and think the right things. There’s no just doing something.”

“You used to just do parties.”

“Parties are different,” she said in a small voice.

“Different how?”

“They just are. Maybe ‘cause I grew up with them. They’re easy.” She frowned and looked at Rainbow, her eyes hard. “This isn’t.”

“Oh, wow, really? Gee, I didn’t know. I was wondering when things would start getting hard to deal with.”

“What’s that mean?”

“I don’t know!” She slapped the wall with her wing, immediately regretting it.

“Well… okay, Dashie.” Pinkie’s voice was quiet again, and Rainbow could feel her anger draining away. “What do you think I should do?”

“Can’t you practice magic with Twilight or Rarity? I’m sure there’s a couple easy spells you can learn that’ll really help out.”

“I suppose I could.” She brightened. “I can still do that ground-pull-together trick, if Twilight helps me out.”

“Yeah, I dunno when we’re gonna need to do that again. I’m starting to feel like we’re not the only ones who can do it after all.”

“I heard Rarity and Fluttershy talking about that too. They think there’s other unicorns who take it on themselves to fix their little sections of Equestria.”

“I never thought about it, but I guess that doesn’t surprise me.”

Everyone assembled on the deck for Twilight to cast her spell. Weaving her own magic together with one of Rarity’s shields, she would produce a bubble of air-filtering magic over Big Mac’s head. He had volunteered to go into the swamps, reasoning that he was the toughest of them all, and the strongest; he would be the least likely to get caught in mud, or stopped by dense foliage. Meanwhile, Fluttershy would fly above him, guiding him toward the Element.

“Here comes the hard part,” Twilight said, watching him intently with her horn alight. “Steady, Rarity?”

“Perfectly,” Rarity said.

Twilight cast the spell slowly. It had to be done in increments, or else she might overdo the filtration spell, and leave Big Mac with nothing to breathe at all.

“This is quite exciting,” Whooves said, watching close by. “Is there always this much preparation? When was the last time you got an Element? How did that go? What did you do? Which one was it?”

“Will you be quiet?” Applejack asked, not looking at him. “Twilight needs her concentration.”

“Not anymore,” Twilight said. “I stopped casting.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Take the shield off, Rarity. Something’s going on.”

“What is it?” Big Mac asked. “Am Ah gonna be okay?”

“Just hang on,” Twilight said, floating a book over to herself. “I don’t think it’s serious, but there’s something very weird here.”

“Elucidate, Twilight,” Whooves said. Turning to Applejack, he winked. “That means ‘explain’.”

“It appears that your brother may be enchanted, Applejack.”

“What?” Big Mac said.

“Enchanted? By Discord?” Applejack cried. “Twi, yer sure?”

“Am Ah gonna be okay?”

“You’re fine, you’re fine,” Twilight said quickly. “At least, you have no reason not to be.” Her horn glowed again, and she surrounded him with her purple mist. “You’ve been enchanted for a while now.”

“An’ how long is a while?” Applejack asked, advancing.

“Months.” She frowned at Big Mac. “You didn’t tell us?”

“Ah didn’t know,” he said sheepishly.

“What kind of enchantment?” Rarity asked. “Surely it can’t be dangerous. If it were, we’d have already seen it in action, yes?”

“Unless it is subtle,” Octavia said.

“Am Ah gonna be okay?” Big Mac asked. His voice had not risen, and he just looked at Twilight earnestly.

Twilight thought, and paged through another section of her book before covering him again in her magical sheath. Big Mac laughed, and Twilight looked at him.

“Kinda tickles.”

“Right, so it’s nothing active.” She glanced around. “Meaning it’s nothing that’s going to happen suddenly. He’s not going to blow up, or anything.”

“Great example, sugarcube,” Applejack said.

“Let me try something else.” She looked at a paragraph and then cast another spell, lighter and longer. “Hmmm, not only is it a passive enchantment, but it’s hardly there. It’s small.”

“How small?” Big Mac asked.

“Er… well, magic is difficult to quantify in that way. If I had to put some comparison to it, I’d say it’s like an idea was implanted into your head.”

“From months ago?” Rarity said.

“So Ah woulda been in Appleloosa,” Big Mac said.

“What happened there, big bro?” Applejack asked.

“Nothin’. Visitin’ with family.”

“What idea went into him?” Whooves asked.

“Working on it,” Twilight said, going through the book again. For a moment, she was quiet, and everyone stared at Big Mac uneasily, as though Twilight’s assurance that he would not explode held no authenticity. “Bingo. Let’s try this.” She snapped the book closed and faced Big Mac. “Look me in the eyes, and everyone else be quiet. That means you, doctor.”

“I? I wouldn’t dream of disrupting—”

“Good, then don’t,” Applejack said, marching over and smacking him lightly on the wither.

Twilight looked into Big Mac’s large, green eyes, for the first time noticing their size and their depth. She lit her horn, focusing on a thin, gentle spell, and cleared her throat. “Big Mac, what is your purpose?”

He shrugged lightly. “Dunno, Miss Twilight.”

She blinked and dimmed the spell with a muttered curse, and then tried again, careful to keep her own magical center stable. She repeated the question, her voice softer, with an edge of kindness that had not been present the first time.

Big Mac smiled. “My purpose is to do everythin’ Ah can to become close friends with y’all.”

She kept her face serious, though excitement jumped in a corner of her mind. “Why do you want to be our friends?”

“Ah don’t know.”

“And who charged you to be our friends?”

“A white unicorn, a stranger.”

“Describe the white unicorn.”

“He had pure white fur, a long horn, an’ blue eyes.”

“What was his cutie mark?”

“A great, black circle.”

“Vanilla!” Applejack shouted.

Twilight flicked her eyes over, and the spell ended.

“Shoot, sorry Twi.”

“It’s fine. I got what I needed,” Twilight said, straightening. “Big Macintosh, you have been glamoured. At some point, Vanilla Cream visited you in Appleloosa, and put a glamour on you. Do you remember what you said?”

“Eeyup.” He shook his head. “Ah’m a little dizzy.”

“Sit down, get some air. Someone get him some water.”

While Rainbow went downstairs, Twilight explained.

“A glamour is a kind of mild enchantment, meant to be long-lasting, but harder to notice. They’re very easy to break, and difficult to detect. As you all saw, I had to put him under mild hypnosis to reveal it.”

“So Ah’m gonna be okay?” Big Mac asked.

“Yes, you’ll be fine. It seems all Vanilla wanted was for you to get close to us.”

“Why would he want that?” Rarity asked. “Isn’t it rather arbitrary?”

“I’m not sure.”

“And Ah doubt he’ll be too forthcomin’ if we ask him,” Applejack said. She turned to Whooves with a smirk. “That means ‘talkative’.”

“A well-earned rejoinder, Applejack,” Whooves said, laughing.

“But that’s all it is?” Rarity pressed. “Just be friendly?”

“That’s all it is,” Twilight said. “It’s odd, but it’s… fine. It’s fine.”

Big Mac sighed, and Twilight smiled at him.

“Yer okay, big bro,” Applejack said.

“Copacetic,” Whooves said, glancing at Applejack.

“So the question,” Octavia said, “is what to do now. The glamour is harmless, but do we leave it, or break it anyway? You said that would be easy, Twilight.”

“I’d just need to hypnotize him again and tell him to forget about it,” Twilight said, shrugging.

“Why would we, though?” Rainbow asked, coming back up, a glass of water on her outstretched wing.

“Don’t,” Big Mac said, shaking his head.

“Don’t break it?” Rarity said.

“Let it stay.” He thought for a moment. “Ah remember now, y’all sayin’ Ah wasn’t myself, back then. Sayin’ Ah wasn’t how Ah was in Ponyville.”

“Much less shy,” Applejack said.

“Eeyup. So Ah say leave the glamour. Let me keep bein’ helpful.” He rolled his eyes. “Celestia knows, if Ah go back to my old shy self, Ah won’t be any good out there.”

“Are you sure that is wise?” Octavia asked.

“If things start to go bad, Twilight can always just break it,” Rarity said.

“She’s right. I can do it pretty much any time I need to,” Twilight said.

“Might you take away Vanilla’s, and just give him the same one, but from you?” Octavia asked.

“I’d rather not. They’re easy to break, but hard to cast.”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Whooves said. “I daresay you’re familiar with that one, old sport?”

“Um, I’m really sorry, but can we get on with the Element now?” Fluttershy asked. “I think Big Mac’s okay.”

Twilight looked at her for a moment, and Fluttershy blushed and hid herself behind a wing.

“Yes, let’s,” Rarity said, bringing back her shield. “I do love it when mysteries turn out to have friendly solutions, don’t you?”

Big Mac stepped into the giant shadow under a cypress tree, half his attention on the dirty, unclear water that was up to his knees, and half his attention on Fluttershy, above. She was his compass, but could not come closer than the treetops. There was no way to know how far up the toxic gas extended.

Small fish darted around his hoof as he took a step, and he smiled to himself. Their tiny currents on his short fur were pleasant.

“I wonder which Element it’ll be. Maybe loyalty. Rainbow’d like that.” He smiled at the thought of bringing her back her Element. “Fluttershy and Applejack, so far. I wonder which one’ll be the hardest to find. This is pretty easy so far.”

“You’re veering off course, Big Mac,” Fluttershy called faintly.

He corrected himself and climbed over a rotting log, his thoughts again on Rainbow.

“Shame about her sexual orientation. I really like her.” He stepped into a pool of sunlight through a break in the canopy. “At least I know what I was to her, though. Poor mare trying to prove a point to herself. Wasn’t personal.” It was a well worn thought, one he had worried frequently while the others conversed, passed time, or accomplished important things. He had plenty of time, as often as he was a background character to their lives, to contemplate.

“Kinda funny, I have to admit. A stallion like me losing to someone like Trixie. That pony wouldn’t know hard work if it knocked on her door and hung its hat on her horn.”

“Hold on, Big Mac,” Fluttershy said. “I need to check ahead. Stay where you are.”

“I shouldn’t think about her like that. I don’t know where she comes from.”

“Okay, turn up by that little pond,” Fluttershy called. “Hard right. How are you doing down there?”

“Just fine,” he said, looking up. Fluttershy looked nice from below, he recognized, but the sight did nothing to interest him.

“Kinda surprised no one else’s tried anything out on me. Twilight’s too shy, I guess, and Fluttershy too. Pinkie must not be into me, or she’s afraid. Hm, maybe ignorant. Doesn’t strike me as the type, though. Whooves, though. He seems a bit suspect; I’ve caught him checking my flank out a couple times.” He frowned; the thought bothered him, and he rolled his eyes as he moved into a deeper pool.

“Whoa,” he mumbled, his hoof catching on something. He stepped over a concealed root and into a shallow puddle, sending a cloud of gnats into the air. The shield kept them from his face, and he was grateful. Though he had spent most of his life outdoors, it was in the relatively dry rural area of Ponyville. Humidity, and all the life it brought with it, was not something he had encountered.

“You’re close,” Fluttershy said.

He nodded and stepped around another cypress, his hooves squishing in fetid mud. The shield kept him from smelling anything, so he could only imagine the filth he was picking up. He was sure Rarity would have something to say about it on his return.

“Stop there. There’s something up ahead. Give me a second.”

Big Mac resisted the urge to sit down. The ground was wet all around, and he wanted to keep at least part of himself clean.

“Straight ahead, Big Mac. You’re almost there.”

He moved through a small clearing and crossed an expanse of green gray mud, speckled with algae and dotted with lily pads. Across a clearer section of water, which he suspected was deeper, he could see a large spindle shape, obscured somewhat by stunted trees. He slopped through, batting at the mosquitoes and flies in the air reflexively, though the shield pushed them away easily.

“It’s in there somewhere,” Fluttershy said. He looked up to see her pointing at the spindle before him.

He approached the figure. Most of it was in shadow, and covered in creeping briers, but he could see enough to deduce that it had been in some way constructed. Trees bent at harsh angles to create a vaguely conical framework, topped with a moss-covered nodule of what appeared to have once been rope. Branches were snapped to form rough bracings for the trees, themselves braced by thinner, more uniform slivers of shadow inside the structure. Water trickled all around.

He moved around the structure, trying to get a good angle to see inside. Under the thin water, he could see buried ends of wood, rotted to cruel apple-core shapes, connected to larger blocks of disintegrating material. He stopped after a while, seeing a brief shine as sunlight caught something in the scaffolding. He brought his hoof up to touch the piece that had attracted him, and held it to the material for a moment, not sure what to think.

Metal.

“Did you find it?” Fluttershy called.

“Not yet, but Ah found somethin’,” he said.

He tapped the metal plate, and brushed at a skin of lichen. It was uneven, as if once embossed, but he could discern nothing.

“Can you please try to hurry? I don’t like you being down there.”

“Is there anythin’ around me?”

“Not that I can see, but still. Please.”

He shrugged and kept pacing around the structure. “Just as well I listen to her. I guess my purpose is to do whatever I can to make friends with everyone. That’s why I was so happy to help Pinkie plan that masquerade with Lumb. What a great party. I’ll have to attend more when we get back home.”

He found a more open spot, and, wishing Fluttershy could give him more precise direction, knocked on a beam with a hoof. The whole structure groaned.

“How does the glamour work if I know about it? It’s supposed to make me do something, but if I know it, then I can work against it. I can leave at the next town and ruin Vanilla’s whole plan, whatever it was. Not that I would—maybe that’s it. Maybe I would just never have the guts to go through with the decision, whatever it might be.”

He pressed on the beam, earning another groan, but nothing else.

“If this thing collapses, I’ll never find that Element. How do I get inside?”

He walked a little longer, and stopped at a small arch, half submerged. “Great,” he murmured. “In Ah go.”

He crouched, keeping as much of himself out of the water he could, and shimmied into the cone, once bumping his head on a branch and freezing for several seconds, expecting the whole thing to crash down onto him.

“So what’s my decision, and what’s the glamour, I wonder? Where do I draw that line? If I’m being nice to everyone, is it because I’m a nice pony naturally, or because Vanilla made me to be that way?”

He stopped with his eye at another fossilized loop of rope and looked around, searching for the Element. He saw more metal within: joints, he realized, for whatever wooden constructions had been cannibalized to create the wooden cone. He idly brushed something at his hooves, and looked down, seeing a dislodged wheel, nearly whole. He looked up to see what looked like a bare axle.

“Twilight and Doc are gonna be plenty mad to have missed this thing,” he thought with a tiny smile. He took another tentative step, ducking under the rope and an extending branch. “Where is that dang Element?”

He looked around again, up, and down at his hooves. He was certain he was deep into a field of toxic gas, and it was a strange thought to him, that the only thing keeping him alive was a thin bubble of magic, its casters close to a quarter mile away.

“None of us would have found this thing the first time. What were we thinking?” He looked up again and stared into the cradle of ossified ropes, resembling a clamshell with all the overgrowth. Something glinted from within, and he angled his head.

“There we go. Now how to get it?” He smiled, the solution occurring immediately, and then laughed a little. “Heh, Big Mac smash.”

He picked his way back outside and looked up at Fluttershy, who was circling slowly.

“Ah found it, but Ah gotta knock this thing down to get to it. It’s gonna get loud down here.”

“I’ll watch for anything dangerous,” she replied.

He grinned and searched for a weak spot in the structure. “Probably won’t even hear her if something does decide to come my way.” Selecting a pair of thin branches joined by rotting rope, he gave a swift kick, snapping the wood. The cone creaked and moaned, but did not fall.

“Okay,” he mumbled, moving along its side to a thicker beam. It snapped almost as easily as the branches, and the structure tilted inward dangerously, its top swaying. He thought he could see the Element, but wasn’t sure.

Glancing back at Fluttershy, he struck a similar beam, and then backed away, splashing through thick mud and nearly falling on his face in his haste to escape the collapse. Through an effect of the light, and the thick air, he had felt hemmed in, and realized as he watched the tower’s top sink toward the ground that he was much more in the open than he had thought. The only noises were small splashes as pieces fell into water or mud, and a slight protest of bending wood. Most of the structure remained intact, merely tipped over.

He went to the top and was able to put his front hooves to it, standing gracelessly for a second to drag it down to his level. Smacking the rope tangle away, he was able to loosen it enough to uncover a dirty, purple gemstone in a black and brown-streaked golden frame.

“The castle will show us our destination faster; time is precious,” Twilight said. She was studying the dried fur in the shower, looking for signs of enchantment that Vanilla might have used to frighten Rarity. She had found nothing.

“That is what he told me,” Octavia said. “He said he did not know where it came from, only that he knew he had to deliver it to me, and in that location.”

“I think he’s a precog,” Twilight said.

“He never said anything about that.”

“It’s possible he doesn’t know it. Not everyone notices their own insights.” She picked at a long, purple hair. “He might just dream these things, and think it’s some kind of higher intuition or something. It happens.”

“Regardless, that is what he told me.” She paused a moment, picking up a toothbrush with her magic and then putting it back down. “I am getting better. Do we trust his intuition?”

“I think so. He knew where to find us, and when to find me in the mansion. He had a pretty consistent habit of being in the right place at the right time overall.”

“I agree. But what does it mean? Our destination is Applewood, is it not?”

“Yeah, and the castle—I have to assume he means Draught Castle, Discord’s base of operations—is several days east of that.”

“Perhaps he was speaking of our more general destination.”

“What’s that?”

“Discord’s defeat.”

Twilight left the shower and looked at herself in the mirror.

“Or something to hinder him greatly.”

“With only three Elements, we can’t do anything to him.”

“From what I have read in your books, and what I have heard, and seen myself, he very well could have some kind of secret in that castle, something he does not want us to see.”

“Oooooh, now that’s something,” Twilight said. She angled her head and brushed at her mane with a hoof, one side and then the other. “Maybe we can’t hurt him, but we can ruin whatever nasty plan he has in there. Set him back.”

“Ah, the portent, is that what we’re discussing?” Whooves asked, entering.

“Yes,” Octavia said.

“Mysterious words, that, utterly baffling. I must confess, I feel we’re rather without a rudder right now.”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Twilight said. “We might be able to—”

“I heard, yes, take out his secret weapon, if such a thing exists. I daresay, it probably does. He’s a nefarious sort, he is. Tricks and illusions, his bread and butter. I’d rather like a moment to talk with him, actually. Such a labyrinth he must conjure in dialogue!”

“You might get the chance,” Octavia said. “He appears from time to time, to frighten us.”

“Oh?” He sobered. “We must also consider that our esteemed Lumb was being more literal. The castle could serve as some unexpected waypoint to the great city of Applewood.”

“It is a thousand miles west of Draught Castle. That would make no sense.”

“Ah, but does not our malefactor work in mysterious ways?”

“It’s not his prediction,” Twilight said. “It’s Lumb’s.” She froze for a second. “He couldn’t be working to misdirect us, could he?”

“A spy, perhaps?”

“Discord has no need of a spy,” Octavia said. “He has shown himself capable of seeing our progress in the past. I imagine Vanilla Cream is watching us far more frequently than he would have us believe.”

“Does his binding force him to tell Discord everything he sees?” Whooves asked.

“Discord would be a fool for it not to,” Twilight said. “And that’s an easy condition to apply to a binding spell, too.”

“I have known Lumb since I first started living in Hoofington. He has always been strange in his mannerisms, but never sinister, nor dishonest from what I could tell,” Octavia said. “I am strongly inclined to trust him.”

“So it’s agreed,” Whooves said. “The castle?”

Twilight frowned at him in the mirror. “We can’t just go to his castle, you know. He’s going to have it defended somehow, maybe even hidden.”

“You can do that?”

“There is magic to mask a structure of that size,” Octavia said.

Twilight smiled at her. “Sharing my books?”

“I did not think you would mind.”

“I don’t.”

“Can we not do the same thing, though?” Whooves asked. “Make ourselves invisible?”

“We’d need more than that,” Twilight said. “We’d need to mask the sound of our approach, as well as any smoke that we produce. Plus, if he has his own magical defenses, or surveillance systems, we’ll need to find ways around those.”

“Something about the castle?” Rainbow echoed, entering the bathroom. She looked at them. “What’s going on in here?”

“Let’s do this upstairs,” Whooves said. “I’m sure the others would be happy to contribute. Dash, join us?”

“Yeah, in a minute.”

“Hey! He got it!” Applejack called from above.

Flitter and Cloudchaser struggled to drag a massage table up the spa stairs, so they could tumble it out on the path outside. Foxglove had put boards over the windows and painted the words “out of business” in menacing black.

The princesses were preparing Canterlot for a third battle, which, Foxglove said, probably seemed like a lost cause to the remaining members of the Canterlot Guard. Luna, however, was preparing all available Daturas to support the city, which required a migration of hundreds from all over Equestria. Ponyville was only a few days away from finding itself full of foreign Daturas, and they came with a plan.

The spa, Ponyville’s best base of operations, needed to be empty and ready to become something its original architect had never intended. While the pegasi removed furniture and supplies, Allie and Foxglove cast spells and laid sigils around and within the building, to aid with secrecy and movement inside.

Stopping inside the reception room with their burden, Flitter and Cloudchaser stepped outside for fresh air. A dark mare was picking through what they had already tossed out, and Cloudchaser hailed her.

Her name was Limestone Pie, and she had followed Colgate from the rock farm without thinking about where she was going. In Ponyville, she met and made quick friends with Berry Punch and Lemon Hearts, whose house she shared. They confided in Cloudchaser that they pitied Limestone; she was a runaway from somewhere, obviously with no idea of what life was like outside her home—or perhaps just feeble-minded, they weren’t completely sure.

Limestone approached with neither a smile nor vocalization, but Cloudchaser liked to think that she was happy to be greeted by another. She looked at them blankly, waiting for one to speak.

“Feel free to take whatever you like,” Flitter said. “We don’t have any use for this stuff anymore.”

“I have no claim to these things,” Limestone said. Her voice was soft and raspy, as though she had not much experience using it.

“You do if you want it,” Cloudchaser said, shrugging. “Hey, I’m hungry. Let’s go get lunch.”

“It’s a little early,” Flitter said, scrutinizing the sun.

“I was up early. Limestone, you want to come with us?”

Limestone gave a short, sharp nod that made Cloudchaser smile.

They got the massage table out on the path and then walked to a café across the main town square, where they got seats outside.

“This is where we were when Colgate showed up with that first black eye,” Flitter said.

“Great, Flitter. That’s what I need to remember,” Cloudchaser said. “I hope that psycho got put away.”

“I apologize for interrupting,” Limestone said, “but who are you speaking of?”

“Some crazy pony who used to live here.”

“We were friends at one point,” Flitter said. “She did a lot of really bad things, though.”

“She wasn’t straight in the head, Fox—our friend told us,” Cloudchaser said.

“Totally nuts.”

“I understand,” Limestone said. She considered for a minute, her blank stare going through Flitter’s menu. “What did she do?”

“Pretended to be the victim of abuse to frame an innocent pony,” Cloudchaser said. “Which worked. Then she faked a public apology, and even went to therapy, and pretended to be better. Then she tried to sabotage one of our other friends.”

“Which almost worked,” Flitter said.

They placed their orders.

“She sounds pathetic,” Limestone said.

“How do you say that?”

“She did not cause trouble by strength or use of resources; she lied and hid. That kind of pony deserves twice what she creates. It sounds like you did not have a chance to do very much in return.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Cloudchaser said, “but I guess you’re right.”

“No chance,” Flitter repeated. “That’s an interesting way of putting it.”

“Is it correct?” Limestone asked.

“Yeah, I’d say so. She really… well, no one expects that kind of thing from somepony.” They didn’t speak until their orders came, and then Flitter continued. “I think it’s when we confronted her, when her mouth was full of blood, that I realized things were more serious than I think we all thought.”

“Blood?”

“She hit herself in the mouth a bunch, when she noticed us approaching her house,” Cloudchaser said. “To unnerve us.”

“A sick mind,” Limestone said. “That cannot have been easy for you to deal with.”

“We try not to dwell on it,” Flitter said. “But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t leave us kind of shaken.”

While the Ponyville spa was being purged of its supplies, Colgate could feel her body being purged day by day. It was her third day off medication, and she woke up just in time to lean out of the bed and vomit into a saucepan she had placed on the floor for that purpose. Nausea, headaches, and wild swings between depression and acute focus had beset her the last days, and she wondered whether she would begin improving as she slid out of bed and shuffled to the shower.

There was the sound of a bathroom door opening, and Powder Rouge’s voice. “Room for one more in there?”

“Go for it,” Colgate said.

Rouge stepped into the shower and let out a long sigh. “Oh, yeah, this is where it’s at. Feeling okay? I heard a wee little spewski just now.”

“Same as usual.”

“Dang, that bites. Maybe this is the day? Hey, oh, crap, Cole, did I tell you what’s going on today?”

“Maybe. I don’t remember.” She stepped away and leaned in the corner, savoring the cool walls.

“Okay, so don’t freak out, but Fancy Pants is coming by for an inspection this morning.”

“Inspection?”

“Don’t worry, it’s just a formality. His expectations are in the dumper. As long as we’re sober for it, we’ll be fine.”

Her eyes were closed, her head swimming. “It’s good to know the Datura expects so much of its members.”

Rouge laughed.

“Why do they keep us here? Why not just kick us out properly?”

“I dunno,” Rouge said, moving to lather up Colgate’s back.

“I thought I was supposed to be shaping up here, but all I’ve done is messed around at bars, watched you drink yourself stupid, and get sick.” Colgate bowed her head and let the water stream down her mane. It felt vibrant and electric in her nauseous state, and she wasn’t sure what to think. “I’m starting to wonder if this is some elaborate kind of punishment.”

“You’re just adjusting from Ponyville, is all. I can tell. Don’t worry; once the Big Pants comes by, you’ll see. Everything is okay, really.”

When Fancy Pants did arrive, Colgate was sleeping on the couch, and Rouge bolted from the living room to let him in, sweeping a huge mock bow. “Good afternoon, Mr. Pants! How’s the Datura life?”

Fancy Pants stayed respectfully outside, though his eyes seemed to take in the room’s every detail. Nothing showed in his toothy smile. “Busy, as always, but never busy enough for me to neglect my favorite team. Where’s the new recruit? I’d love to meet her.”

Colgate groaned and let herself flop off the couch, and he looked at her.

“Are you at all well?”

“It’s psych med withdrawal, sir,” Rouge said. “She’s gone off her crazy pills.”

“Ah, yes, I was told about this.” He turned to address Colgate. “I have, of course, been informed of your condition, and the circumstances surrounding your transfer. Most unfortunate, my dear; you have my utmost condolences.” His dazzling smile resumed. “But I didn’t come here to talk of your failures. I came to speak of more positive things. Rouge, what news do you have for me?”

“None at all, sir! We’ve been doing exactly what you told us, and no one’s opening up.”

He shook her hoof. “Keep up the good work, Rouge, and you, Colgate. Do you have a mark?”

“Yeah, we’re both following someone. He doesn’t talk much, though.”

“Keep at it. Everypony cracks.” He smiled. “Well, everything looks good. House in order, everyone happy, et cetera?”

“Hundred percent!”

“Jolly good! I’ll leave you to it, then.” He turned and left, and Rouge helped Colgate up. “Told you. He’s the coolest. The coolest, Cole.”

“He wasn’t even here for five minutes. He’s our team leader?”

“Not just us. He oversees a lot of teams here.”

Colgate shook her head. Her thoughts were buzzing uselessly, like dreams that had been trapped and left to continue in wakefulness. “He didn’t even sound like he was paying attention to what you said.”

“He has a lot on his plate.”

Colgate closed her eyes painfully and slumped.

“Ooop, puke time? C’mon, let’s hop to it! I don’t wanna—”

“Quiet,” Colgate snapped. She jerked out of Rouge’s grip and lay on the carpet. “Headache. It’ll pass.”

It was four more days from the swamps to Draught Castle. Rarity, who had found with no small amount of joy that Vanilla had nearly tripled her magical allowance, had scrubbed her Element clean, and fashioned a box for all six, when they should be finally found. She didn’t like the idea of them loose in their luggage, as they were when their bearers weren’t wearing them—uncommon.

Twilight had been surprised at how little conversation there was to be had about Lumb’s prophecy. There was little resistance when she first proposed they turn off course for Discord’s castle, and, though she could sense the fear in some of her friends, no one tried to force a change of direction.

For three days, they moved over waning swamps and grassland, the only shadow crossing over rumpled miles of swales and hills. Occasional toy villages appeared below, and Rainbow said she once saw the ponies retreat into their houses before the ship got too close.

On the fourth day, it was sunset before Draught Castle became more than a hazy shape. The grass had given way to trackless wasteland, the only variance in their view a large lake fed from the swamps. Twilight had kept up a nearly constant set of surveillance spells, but found nothing on their approach. From what she could tell, the castle was completely undefended by anything but its walls, and whatever waited within. Rarity suggested that perhaps Thunderhead had patrolled the area, when she was still around. The thought buoyed them all.

Draught Castle, an abandoned fortress from which the princesses had ruled in a time of fear of attack, was a simple building caught between two large towers, with a thread-like bridge connecting them. There were no banners, and no decorations, only plain stone. From aloft, they could see a green triangle of courtyard inside, and nothing else. Nothing moved inside, and they could see neither ponies nor armaments along the walls or towers. Surrounding the castle were three concentric walls of solid stone, with no visible entrances.

“We’re going to have to get through those,” Whooves said, heart audibly sinking. “I knew there would be something. Simply flying up to him would never have worked. Hmph, three barriers and a castle, standing between us and Discord. Imagine that!”

“Uhhh, am I missing something? Why can’t we just fly over them?” Rainbow asked. She stood up front with Applejack, forehooves on the gunwale to lean out into the dusk air. It was growing chilly, despite the fading sunlight.

“There is no way he would leave the air above his castle undefended,” Octavia said.

“Checking for that now,” Twilight said, horn alight. She only needed a second. “Yeah, no way. If we tried to float over those walls, we’d be swatted out of the air like a moth. I think, hang on… ooh, yeah, those walls move all right.”

“Move?” Fluttershy asked.

“It’s actually a very creative spell he has. The walls can rotate in their bases whenever he wants them to, or retract, or shoot out. We’d get up to the edge of one, and it would clip us in half.”

“But they’re huge,” Whooves said. “Can such a thing happen? Something so large move so quickly as to bifurcate our dirigible?”

“Gimme a break,” Applejack mumbled.

“In short, yes,” Twilight said. “Applejack, land us outside. We’re doing this on hoof.”

“Whoa, whoa, hold up,” Rainbow cried. “Right now?”

“Yes, right now,” Octavia said. Her eyes were particularly bloodshot, and the sunset reflecting in them, combined with her purple irises, made her eyes look like dying embers in the soft gray charcoal of her face.

“Unless he saw us coming with his own eyes, he doesn’t actually know we’re here,” Twilight said. “We didn’t find any other magic, remember? Whether on purpose or by accident, he hasn’t put up an alarm system, and I intend to take full advantage of that.”

“What about Vanilla?” Applejack asked.

“We can’t worry about him. I’d like to know where he is, but we can’t. We might as well not think about it.”

“I’m not so sure he would let Discord know anyway,” Rarity said. “He might conveniently forget to mention something like us coming to his doorstep.” She giggled. “I’m actually rather excited! He’s been such a pain to us, it’s about time we give some back.”

“That’s the spirit, Rarity!” Whooves said.

“Have you ever done somethin’ like this, doc?” Big Mac asked.

“You mean faced a god outside his own stronghold? No, can’t say as I have, old chap.”

“Discord’s not gonna let us just walk around outside his castle,” Rainbow said, still looking on as they approached the ground. “He’s gonna fight us, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he came out of nowhere. Twilight, are you sure about this?”

“We’ve fought him before, Rainbow.”

“Yeah, but… not outside this.”

“Are you scared, Dashie?” Pinkie asked, bouncing in place.

“No! Well, uh, not really.”

“I think I know what it is,” Whooves said. “It’s the scene. Sunset, empty country, approaching the single, monolithic bastion of our enemy. Even though it probably isn’t, this feels like the final fight.”

Rainbow swallowed. “Yeah. That.”

“We are more powerful now than before, and there are more of us,” Octavia said.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Especially Rarity,” Fluttershy said. “Now, I mean.”

“And I have been practicing with shields,” Rarity said. “So we should have enough time to react to whatever weird thing he throws at us.”

“See, Dashie?” Pinkie asked. “We’ve got this!”

“Ah think we oughta have an escape plan, just in case things don’t go well,” Applejack said.

“Uh, run for it?” Rainbow offered.

“And what if he decides to give chase?” Octavia asked.

Rainbow was silent.

“Twilight, do you have a spell that can attach the ship to us?” Whooves asked.

“What do you mean, ‘attach’?” Twilight asked.

“So we can’t be separated from it. Oh, confound me, I don’t know the word. So it can follow us, if we go far from it.”

“Oh, you mean imprint it. I don’t, but I know exactly where to find one. Be back in a moment!”

While Twilight searched below, they came to a soft landing on the dirt outside the castle. The walls stood thirty feet over their ship, the sunset gilding their surfaces. “Ah s’pose it’s good you thought of that,” Applejack said.

“Always happy to lend a helping hoof,” Whooves said, fiddling with the ramp. “How does this blasted thing work?”

Octavia set it down for him and walked onto the dust, Rainbow right behind. She put a hoof to the wall. “It is only now hitting me how far away from civilization we truly are.”

“Sixteen days out of Hoofington,” Whooves said, trotting down to meet them. “Quite the travel, if I say so myself. I can’t wait to get back to the hustle and bustle of the city. Ah, Applewood, Equestria’s shining beacon in the middle of the desert! An almost orchestral—”

“All right, that’s enough out of you,” Applejack said, coming up beside him. “We can’t have Discord catch on to us ‘cause of yer yammerin’.”

“I dare say, Applejack, a clearer voice of reason there never was. I shall henceforth only speak when spoken to!”

“That’s more like it.”

“Here we go,” Twilight said, meeting them and looking around furtively. A book floated before her, and she placed it on the ground. “One minute, and I’ll have this ship imprinted onto Applejack.”

“Me? Why me?”

“You’re the pilot.”

“But why just her?” Rarity asked.

“Easier,” Twilight said simply. “And no chance of it getting caught between ponies.” Her horn glowed a bright magenta that turned the walls’ golden sheen into that of blood, and the ship returned her illumination like a grounded fireball.

“Simply breathtaking,” Whooves muttered.

Applejack cast him a dark look as Twilight finished.

“So what now? How do we start?” Applejack asked.

“We search for an entrance,” Octavia said. She looked along the wall both ways, and started walking. The others followed her without a word.

“Hang on,” Big Mac said. “AJ, get back on the ship.”

Applejack scoffed. “Big Bro, Ah know you wanna protect me, but—”

“So you can follow us,” he continued. “An’ so it’s ready fer us if we need to get away.”

“Unless you can get it to follow us of its own accord,” Whooves said. “Can you do that yet?”

“Ah can…” Applejack said. “But Ah’d like to be up there anyway, just in case. Gimme a sec.” She boarded the ship again and brought it a few feet off the ground, following them noisily and slowly. Her hooves didn’t touch the wheel.

“So there goes our cover,” Rarity said. “Not that I feel we had much to begin with.”

They walked steadily out of the sunset, single-file, no one looking straight forward for more than a minute. All around their walk, they found no possible points of ingress into the wall, or signs that there had ever been any.

“If he catches us by surprise, I will attack first,” Octavia eventually said. “I will hit him fast and hard. Twilight, I think that you should be beside me.”

“I’ll keep us protected,” Rarity said.

“Anythin’ Ah can do?” Big Mac asked.

“Keep your distance. There will be a lot of magic flying around,” Octavia said.

“Yo!” Rainbow stopped to point up at the top of the wall. Where the sun caught the edge, sending a sharp line of shade down the wall’s curve, they could see a thin band of light, long and slender, like a thread of silk. It did not appear to move at first, but, as they watched, Applejack bringing their ship closer behind, it wiggled and gyrated in its place, slowly moving down the wall.

“Shields?” Whooves asked nervously.

“Only once I see what it is,” Rarity said.

“No, put them up now,” Octavia said.

“I don’t want to waste my energy.”

The ribbon stopped to hang at the wall’s midpoint, high above them but close enough for them to clearly see a serpentine form.

“I think now is rather a good time,” Whooves said, his voice weak.

“Discord!” Rainbow shouted, and the light he emanated vanished. He crawled down the wall like an insect, mismatched arms, legs, and wings splayed out in a catastrophic pinwheel that gripped imperfections in the stone that the ponies could not discern.

Rarity’s shield sprung up in a thin bubble, rippling dust around them, just as Discord slipped from his vantage and landed before them with a heavy, liquid sound.

“Now!” Octavia shouted, dashing forward with an explosion already erupting. It had been a long time since she had used one, and no one was quite ready for the sound that crackled out into the dry desert air. Fire flickered momentarily at Discord’s face, but his only reaction was to straighten his long hair as it blew back. He looked at them.

Twilight, grunting with exertion behind them, flared her horn, producing a rapid bloom of magenta blasts, pounding at the draconequus’ face and body. Concussive bolts, raw telekinetic power, were something that nearly every unicorn could produce but that Twilight could create with such intensity as to leave a trail of sonic booms as she ripped her magic through the air.

As magic slapped out of thin air at his upper body, another tail of dust shot up at his legs as Octavia ignited the ground, and Discord was hidden in the mess. Rarity’s shield remained untouched.

“Stop!” Applejack shouted. “Ah said stop!”

With a furtive glance in her direction, Twilight arrested her spells, and Octavia followed her lead. Discord still stood, arms crossed derisively, eyebrows quirked, an unamused look on his face. He waited for the dust to settle, and everyone stared at him. Any movement on his part could set them into another flurry of attacks, and his expression suggested he knew it.

At last, he spoke. “Is that it? Half your Elements, amazing powers, and the unassailable magic of friendship, and this is what you bring me?” His serious countenance cracked, and he cackled, a more familiar sound, and almost comforting in the strange armistice. “You’re bouncing off my shield like flies. I could just stand here and watch, and you’d probably destroy yourselves for me in all the confusion you’re producing. I mean, come on.” He laughed again. “I’m the god of chaos, not,” he waved his paw and talons at them rapidly, as if swatting at flies, “you all. Am I not supplying enough disorder for you? Are you trying to tell me that?”

“We’re more powerful than ever, Discord!” Rainbow shouted.

His laugh dwindled to a chuckle, then a self-satisfied smile. “Clearly. You took me by surprise once, but I’ve since adjusted my strategy. I suggest you do the same. Relying on the most powerful mares doesn’t seem to be working for you anymore.” He stretched and laughed a little more. “Maybe you should find a way to dispel shields, Twilight. Force me to use my wits and my reflexes, rather than a wall of magic. It really is too easy when I can just put up a barrier and let you wale on it.”

“It don’t matter none, Discord. Once we got the Elements, it’ll be a one-sided fight,” Applejack said.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right. I guess I’d better hurry up and conquer Equestria before that, hm? For now, begone!”

He snapped his fingers one last time, and they all pitched forward.

The sky spun over Twilight’s swimming eyes. She rolled over and took a deep breath, but the fresh air did little to clear her head. She felt as though she had collapsed through the ground, only to tilt back and snap into her prior position after a second of disorienting weightlessness. The others wore expressions that suggested that they felt similarly.

The same desert landscape surrounded them, broken only by a navy blue stripe of river nearby, but there was no castle in sight. The airship hovered above, its captain looking around slowly.

“What the hell happened?” Rainbow yelled from behind.

“The same thing that always happens,” Applejack said.

“He cast us away,” Whooves said, more offended than alarmed.

“Every few freaking weeks, it’s the same damn thing!” Rainbow continued, taking to the air. “We’re making progress somewhere, and then we just get pushed away. Vanilla, Discord, whatever! Twilight, we can’t go on like this much longer.”

Twilight rubbed her eyes. “I hear you, Rainbow. I hear you.”

“Darling, could you land the ship for us?” Rarity asked sweetly. Her smile was pained.

The ship set down gently, and they climbed on. “Do we at least know where we are?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes. We are a few miles southwest of Applewood,” Octavia said. “Lumb was correct.”

“Applewood? Where, where?” Pinkie cried.

“The only town in sight, Pinks,” Rainbow sighed, looking out at it. “It’s big.”

They all watched the city swing into clear view as the ship turned. Applewood glittered like a pan of gold in the desert, much of it mirrored and diminished in the river’s reflection. To one side, a line of bright buildings formed the middle of a dense web of light, a pocket of jewels in the gold; on the other, a tawny curve of stone blocked the river.

“It hardly looks damaged at all,” Rarity said.

“They’ve had enough time to pick up the pieces, so to speak,” Whooves said. “Enough time to get the dam fixed, even.”

“There’s a dam?” Pinkie said.

“Sure. This river here is the Whitewater Stampede. It starts in Trottingham and runs directly through Applewood, and the Applewood Dam, powering the whole city. They’ve obviously got electricity again, so the dam must be up and running.”

“Fluttershy, do I recall you saying you know someone here?” Rarity asked.

The airship purred to life, and they were gaining height. Fluttershy nodded reluctantly.

“Who is this friend?” Twilight asked.

“Well, um, I’m not sure if I want to call him a friend,” Fluttershy said.

“Him? Why, Fluttershy, I’d have never guessed,” Whooves said.

“It’s not that. Um, and I’m gay anyway. He’s, um, well, more of an old acquaintance.”

“We’ve got no reason to barge in on him,” Rainbow said. “Uh, or it sounds like it.”

“It’s no one who can help us?” Pinkie asked.

Fluttershy blushed. “Um… I don’t really know.”

“Unless he has some kind of knowledge of what Discord’s doing, he’s useless,” Rainbow said. “So let’s just drop it, okay?”

It was nine o’ clock when they crossed into the Applewood city limits, the sting of Discord’s dismissive banishment well soothed by the prospect of landing in a new location. The city spread farther than they could see at their low altitude, a fishnet of scintillating highways, shops, apartments, and houses. On the eastern end, they could see the great curve of suburban residences like a speckled cape laid over the desert, pinned and flattened to the ground by the shining, black band of river, its surface scratched with boats’ occasional white arrowheads.

On the west end, the city was altogether different. Giant dominos of hotels stood amidst and over countless points of textured and colored light, each individual building anonymous in the mist of moving lights. The only names that they could read from their ship were those of the hotels, all lined along one artery of pure, golden electricity. Apogee and Perigee stood on opposite ends of The Bright Road, dignified and bathed in somber, blue and turquoise light from their signs. Streams of gold and silver light pulsed up the walls of Inspire while a triple-decker fountain erupted on its rooftop, while The Comet Tail proclaimed itself with a bold, art deco meteor, below which ponies tromped across a courtyard of tiles made to resemble a red and yellow starburst. At the very back of the city, they could make out a bright orange cowpony clasping an electric lasso in her teeth on the front of The Frontier, while a white snowflake coruscated on the face of the Whirlwind.

“This is the city I am most comfortable in,” Octavia said. “I have played here more times than I can remember.”

“This place is huge,” Rarity said, awestruck. “Of course I’ve read of it, but I never dreamed I would actually be here. It’s… it’s larger than life.”

“Ah didn’t know it was possible to even build things that big,” Big Mac said. They were passing directly over a silver cylinder, gleaming black windows spiraling up its sides, where the building became a flowering sequence of overlapping balconies and ramps, from which hundreds of ponies watched as they flew slowly by.

“You should see the dam,” Whooves said. “I’ve had the pleasure once or twice, and I must say, it is quite the marvel of engineering. Just enough to knock one’s socks off, if one were to wear them to begin with.” He chuckled.

“I have performed atop the dam,” Octavia said.

“No way,” Rainbow said. “Seriously?”

“The entire Manehattan Royal Orchestra was allowed up to play. It took three hours for the technicians to set up our equipment, and, as I recall, three or four ponies simply to move each amplifier.”

“How’d you do?” Pinkie asked.

“The media called it my most successful show, but I suspect that that is because of the setup, rather than the performance. I thought that my playing was average. Good, but average.”

“That’s average fer you,” Applejack said.

“Yes.”

“So the question is,” Rainbow said, leaning her entire front half off the ship, “where the heck do we stay?”

“I have always preferred the Apogee,” Octavia said. “That one.” She pointed to a dark blue box with a large replica of the moon hanging half off, as if ready to fall and roll comically down the street at any second. “It is close to the middle of The Bright Road, which is where, I suspect, a lot of us will want to be.” She smiled a rare smile. “In between casting your spells, there will be plenty to occupy you, much more than in Hoofington.”

“Holy cow! Twilight, look at that!” Applejack shouted, pointing. Coiling around a different hotel, somewhat off The Bright Road, a train of lights and screaming voices thundered through the air. It took Twilight a second to see the rails beneath.

“That is The Hurricane. It is less popular, but has the advantage of being accessible by that giant roller coaster.”

Pinkie joined Rainbow at the rail, speaking so quickly they couldn’t understand her.

“I never really cared for it.”