Spike groans and slowly opens his eyes. At first his vision is hazy, but he can make out little dots of sunlight poking through a green canvas, and with each passing blink everything becomes clearer. The trees become more focused, the leaves more lively, and the gorgeous pink mare laying next to him with her arm draped around him and a pleasant smile on her lips is a plus, too. He looks away from her to look at the surrounding forest to-

Spike snaps back at the pink mare with a scrunched eye ridge and a confused frown, and the earth pony's eyes open and flashes a satisfied grin.

“Good morning, beautiful,” purrs the mare in an overly friendly tone, finger trailing up and down his chest. “Did you sleep well?”

Spike screams and jumps up in the sitting position, bringing a very sharp pain in his ribs and stomach. He growls from the unpleasant feeling and lurches forward, trying to clutch the sore spots with one hand while the other keeps him up from getting a snout full of mulch.

The pink mare tsks at this and calmly sits up, wearing brown trousers and a long-sleeved, airy, burgundy shirt with the top poorly tied to expose the tuft of pink fur nested between her breasts. Spike immediately averts his eyes when she stretches out her legs and puts her arms behind her head as she leans against a tree, closing her eyes and smiling lightly in the process.

“You really should take it easy,” she says. “You got enough injuries to kill a pony.”

“I'm not a pony. I'm a dragon,” says Spike flatly, frowning when the mare snorts a laugh. He looks over her body and casual attire with some concern. “Did we... Do something?”

“Besides sleep together? No.”

“What!”

The pony opens one eye and smirks. “Yeah, you being scaly, you needed some warmth so we cuddled for a few nights. I like your muscles, by the way. They're nice and solid.”

Spike rubs his head, pretending not to hear that compliment that he likes hearing in a normal situation, but this is anything but that, therefore he does not want to hear it. The mare looks familiar, that much he knows, but he can't quiet place where he has seen here before, and everything starting with the fight with Gilda and beyond is a fuzz. The most he remembers, besides Trixie betraying and more than likely killing Twilight, is the fight with the guards and Gilda. The duel with Trixie's guards was quick and easy, but the one with Gilda? Quick and painful for him. Very quick. Very painful.

His injuries throb, and he clutches his stomach, feeling a faint scar through his blood stained shirt, as he glances at the pink pony suspiciously. “How exactly did I end up next to you?”

The mare rolls her eyes to the canvas of leaves, humming thoughtfully. “Well, I was fishing for seaweed when I found this big red circle in the water. I went over, saw that the red was blood and you were in the middle of it. So, I did what any good pony would do and fished you out of the water and tried taking care of you. You were on and off for a few days, usually cursing about something, but now that you're-”

“Wait, I've been out for days!?” shouts Spike, growling again when a sharp pain spears his ribs and lung.

The mare looks at him with a raised brow. “Didn't I tell you to take it easy?”

Spike stands up, fangs exposed with his determined snarl and using the tree to support himself since his legs nearly buckle from how much they are shaking. “I have to get Twilight back... I have to get back to the Lulamoon Sanctuary.”

The mare stands up and cracks her back, then reaches for a travel pack lying on the ground with a small war hammer and strange cylinder case next to them. “Well, I hate to be the harbinger of gloomy news, but you need to get to Armonia and warn Celestia about Trixie backstabbing you. And since you're a complete mess, good ole Pinkie Pie will take you there in a nice, easy and completely safe pace, fifty percent off normal fees.”

“But I have to get Twilight back!”

Pinkie Pie frowns and leans against her hammer, with her hands pressed against the bottom of its handle and her eyebrow raised critically. “And who is going to tell Celestia about Trixie's grossly mean move? She's not a goddess, you know? She can't see everything, so you have to tell her yourself.”

“But... Wait. How do you know about Trixie?”

Pinkie Pie taps the side of her head, smirking. “Intuition.”

“That does not answer my question.”

“Yes it does. You just hate the answer.” Pinkie Pie twirls her finger in the air. “Now, please turn around so I can change.”

Spike's jaw drops. “Why can't you change behind the tree!?”

“I am behind the tree.”

“No you're not! You're in front of the tree!”

“From your perspective.” Pinkie Pie jabs a thumb to a random tree behind her. “But I'm sure Sir and Madam Chickadee wouldn't want their chicks to see a nude mare changing into something else. Slowly. Sensually. And rubbing herself along the way in the most arousing way possible. Do you really want to expose children to something like that?”

Spike opens his mouth to counter, but snaps it shut and turns around with his arms folded across his chest, snorting smoke. As far as he is concerned, any mare that is as loose and nutty as her is impossible to reason with, and he really does not want to argue with her about the innocence of a chickadee.

Seconds later, Spike hears Pinkie Pie removing and discarding her clothing, and he rolls his eyes when she murmurs about misplacing something.

“Oh, for the love of the Holy Sun, will you hurry up!” snaps Spike.

“What do you mean?” asks Pinkie Pie, now standing directly in front of him. She is now fully clothed in a brown dirty, brown long coat, a vest over her shirt, now thankfully tied better, and her hammer clipped to her belt, among an assortment of small blades, and the odd package attached to her travel pack.

Spike stumbles back and falls to the ground, clutching his heart. “Sto diáolo!”

“Yeesh, you got a fowl mouth.” She tosses him a good sized piece of wood that he can use as a walking stick, then she turns on her heels and starts walking with a skip in her step. “Come on, Sir Dragon, we got an alicorn queen to see!”

Spike gets up with the help of the walking stick and walks after her with a twitching eye and a growing headache to add to his other sores. “The name is Spike! And you can go see Celestia and tell her about Trixie yourself! I will be going back to Twilight, whether you like it or not!”

Pinkie Pie stops and looks at him with a cocked brow. “So, you are telling me that even though you are a tooth close to falling over, you will storm a walled off city, possibly fight hundreds of guards, break into a prison, free Twilight, fight your way back out of the prison, through the courtyards, all the streets and alleys and back out of the gate that you have to get past in the first place, not including the challenges of possibly fighting Gilda or some abnormally tough guards?”

Spike blinks and his mind momentarily fuzzes out as he stares at the scrutinizing look of the pink mare in front of him. “I... That... Did you even have punctuation in there?”

“Punctuation is for the weak minded,” she says swiftly.

“....Okay. Suit yourself. But I'm going back, end of story.”

Spike starts walking with some difficulty and tries to ignore Pinkie Pie's devious grin and her equally unsettling chuckle as she sways back and forth against her weapon.

“Well, well, well, it looks like your undying loyalty to your cute maiden was not a ruse, after all,” says Pinkie Pie.

Spike stops with bulging eyes and his cold, lizard blood warming in his cheeks and ear flaps, and he looks over his shoulder at the grinning mare, soon meeting her smile with a frown and snort.

“I'm going to go now. Goodbye, crazy lady,” says Spike, trying in vain to force his blush away.

He starts walking again, wincing with every shaky step and failing to ignore the pain ripping apart his body, and he cringes internally when he hears Pinkie Pie sniff and start walking after him. Or, more accurately, skipping.

“My name is Pinkie Pie, self-exiled daughter of Clyde Pie the Nineteenth, Grand Lord of the Igneous House of the Mines of Marigold.”

“That's nice,” grumbles Spike.

“It is quite the mouth full, but you? Well, your valor to the one you love has inspired the goodness in my heart,” continues Pinkie Pie dramatically while placing her hand over her heart and now walking backwards so she can look at Spike with that big smile. “So I'll make you a deal. There is no way you are going to get Twilight back in your condition, so why not sit back and relax and let me handle it? Seventy five percent off normal prison break fees. That is if Twilight is there. If not, full price, which isn't too much since its only five gold.”

Spike's frown deepens. “What are you, anyway? Some kind of bargain priced mercenary?”

Pinkie Pie hums in thought. “No, not really. I like to think of myself as a fortune finder, or a freelance helper. Odd job extraordinaire is a fun title, too. I travel a lot so I have to be willing to take whatever jobs come up at prices customers can afford. Oh! Like this one time, I got paid to lead a pack of wolves made of wood away from this town in Everfree called Sweet Apples using a flute-”

Spike groans tries to tune her out as she carries on with her tale of wood wolves. Her voice is just a never ending, bubbly run on sentence spewing everything from wooden wolves to shape shifters, to sirens and hippogriffs, and a war between thestrals and wereponies. This leads to sibling rivalry, which somehow goes into chemistry and incest and a whole slew of loosely fitted subjects that seem to only fit in her mind. Each word that leaves her leads to another like a water in a river collecting a never ending supply of waste in the hopes of creating a masterpiece by the time it reaches the ocean of an audience.

Seconds grow into minutes, and minutes become a big blob of syllables that may have turned into hours, but Spike has seriously lost track of time and has resorted to pulling his ear fins down. It does not stop the pink nuisance from talking, and right as Spike is about to tell her to shut her trap-

“I think there are some serious flaws in this guy's theory, though,” says Pinkie Pie in her same rambling tone that has been going on for only Father Time knows how long, “but if we really are related to horses, then we could be riding distant cousins! And if we are riding distant cousins, what if they have their own horse society with their own language and social and moral values? What if I gave away an intelligent horse to you for dirt cheap!? What if his name was Ed and he had a family of other horses!?”

Pinkie Pie suddenly stops, gasps and drops to her knees, looking at her hands, completely horrified as if she has dipped blood in them.

“By Faust! What have I done!” cries Pinkie Pie.

Then she collapses with her hands balled into fists and her back arched as she presses her forehead against the grass, shaking and muttering about how evil she has been. Spike does feel somewhat sorry for her, since she seems genuine in believing that she broke apart a family of dumb animals with bare minimal thinking abilities.

Spike sighs and puts his hand sympathetically on Pinkie Pie's shoulder, and softly says: “Look, I'm sure the horse you gave me-”

Spike pauses, blinks, then looks down, thinking about what he and her just said about the horse. A moment later, his memory returns like a professional gladiator punching him in the mouth. This pink nuisance gave him the horse for the dirt cheap price those many months back! And now that he is traveling with her and sees how nutty she is, he is really starting to think the universe is playing a horrible joke on him. Then another thought crosses his mind and he remains standing in his spot, scrutinizing the wonky mare as he pulls his hand away. It takes Pinkie Pie a moment to realize what happened, and when she does, she stares at him quizzically from her spot on the ground.

“You okay, Spike?” she asks.

“You gave me a horse,” says Spike.

“Yeah...”

“And you gave Twilight that scroll about the Amulet.”

“...And...?”

“And then you pulled me out of a river near where I almost died, even though me and Twilight told nopony where we were going.”

Pinkie Pie stands up and brushes the grass off her knees. “Yes, I did. You are actually pretty light for a dragon. I would suggest more rabbit and less rabbit food.”

Spike frowns and puts his hand on his blade hilt, and he picks up a redolent of fear from her as her fingers slide over the handle of her hammer. The fear is there, it is strong, like a nose full of garlic powder, but to those without a dragon's scent, she looks to be just curious about what happens next.

Spike grips his weapon's hilt tighter, ready to use it in a flash, and he suspiciously asks the mare: “Are you stalking us?”

“Duh! Of course I am!” replies Pinkie Pie jubilantly, her fear still there, but now dwindling.

Spike's hostile expression crumbles to wide eyed shock. He had not been expecting such a blunt confession. Maybe some word play to make her actions seem innocent, but nope. Full on confession with a big smile. Spike is so surprised by this that he makes no attempt to move, much less get a coherent sentence formed, when Pinkie Pie smiles sweetly at him and slides next to him. Once next to him, she links her arm around his and starts walking with him through the forest, the smell of fear from her is now faint and her hand moving up and down his arm, much like a focused massage.

“Don't you worry, child,” she says, “I can guarantee you that the guy who hired me to stalk you two has only your best interest at heart!” Then she points dramatically to the distance, which is covered by more trees and bushes. “Now, onward, Spike! We got a princess to save!”

And without releasing Spike, she picks up her pace, half-dragging and half guiding him to follow her steps. All Spike can do is sigh and follow her, and wish that he wasn't falling apart so he could get Twilight himself without this stalker's help.

A couple of hours later, Spike finds himself at the edge of the forest, at the crest of a hill, glaring daggers at the spire in the center of the Lulamoon Sanctuary. His muscles twitch under his scales and his fire glands are barely kept under control, and his hand grips his blade to where he can feel his own claws digging past his scales. The desire to go in there and burn the Sanctuary to the ground is a feeling he has never thought he would feel before. Right now, he wants nothing more than to see that farmland burn to ash and that fancy tower crumble with Trixie chained to the roof. His thoughts of murder and arson are put to the back momentarily when pink fingers snap in front of his pulsating eyes, though.

“Hey, snap out of it, I'm trying to show you something,” says Pinkie Pie.

Spike blinks and looks at Pinkie Pie irritably. She seems oblivious to this look, but his look of annoyance is shoved aside by shock when he sees Pinkie Pie carefully pulling out a wooden and metal object from her popped open container. To Spike, it looks like a wooden barrel with metal bands with a handle protruding from the bottom and a rounded end. He looks closer at the handle and sees a wick attached to a trigger, which looks to be attached a pair of flints used to start fires.

Spike glances at the open case and his eyes widen when he sees four very fat, round fire rubies with bags of powder in front of each of them.

Pinkie Pie huffs with a lot of exaggeration as she hoists the strange weapon on her shoulder. She then strikes a pose with one hand on her hip, one foot placed on a rock with the other stretched back, and she flashes Spike a toothy grin in the sunlight while the wind blows her cloak majestically. For some reason, Spike finds that sight to be appealing. Maybe it is how she looking at him with those half lidded eyes. Maybe it is how her teeth seem to be shining in the light. Or maybe it is because her slightly exposed chest and shapely butt is demanding his attention. Whatever the case may be, it is an image that he will be saving for later, despite her being a crazy, stalker, forest lady that gave him a horse for dirty cheap a while back.

“Say hello to the Party Cannon,” says Pinkie Pie proudly. She stops her pose and hops in front of Spike, her grin now closed to a smirk, but still mischievous, and her fingers drum on the cannon's obese barrel. “You are going to be using this guy to help me get your marefriend.”

“Huh?... Oh, yeah. Twilight. Cannon thing,” says Spike dumbly.

Spike reaches to grab it, but Pinkie Pie yanks it back and slaps his hand, making him recoil. Not out of pain, but out of shock. It still makes him angry, though.

“What was that for? You said I get to use that thing to get Twilight back!” says Spike.

“Unless you want to kill yourself, I think you need a quick course from Pinkie's School of Proper Party Cannon Usage,” says Pinkie Pie. “Now, then!”

Pinkie Pie opens up the back of the Party Cannon and explains how to put the fire ruby inside. It seems easy enough, especially since she just slips it inside and slides a small bar in place that keeps it from rolling out. After that, she grabs one of the bags of powder and puts it in a compartment in the butt of the weapon. She explains how the powder activates the fire ruby's destructive power and how it should only be pointed at something that needs to die or be broken. Once she locks the back-end, she hoists it on her shoulder for another display.

“So, to aim this thing is very easy,” says Pinkie Pie. She flicks up a lens with two lines crossing over each other and a smaller circle in the center, grinning when she sees Spike's eyes widen and ridges raise. “This thingamajig is a crosshair. It helps me aim, and all you have to do is point the crosshair at the gate.”

She gives the weapon to Spike, and he carefully takes it and peers through the crosshair, which is aimed directly at the gate. He finds the simple device to be very nifty since he can see the major details of the gate, and if he really focuses, he can see the tiny guards patrolling. He really, really, really wants to pull the trigger just to see something explode, now.

Pinkie Pie grabs his hand, making him jump, and she moves it down to a wooden grip with pads made of leather and a soft interior reside. She then guides his pointer finger to a curved lever and has him barely touching it.

“The curvy thing is the trigger. When you see pink smoke, pull it and it will launch the burning ball of doom towards the gate.”

“Is that all?” asks Spike.

“Yep.”

“So, just point and... Pull?”

“I like point and shoot, it sounds cooler, but, yeah, point and pull. Advanced course will be next week! See you soon, Spike!”

Then she slips on a pair of gloves with tiny hooks on the palm and starts walking away, singing a cheerful tune about princesses and castles, leaving Spike to carefully examine the Party Cannon. However, when he registers what the words are-

Spike stops and stares at Pinkie Pie, watching her with a raised ridge as she half walks, half hops down the hill, her voice trailing and becoming fainter the farther she goes. When she out of sight and her voice is too faint to easily understand, Spike shakes his head and sits down on the rock she posed on minutes before.

“What a nut.”

Twilight Sparkle sits in a dirty cage with a horn ring, hands and ankles cuffed and bruises and cuts all over her face and body. She is still wearing the same clothing from her engagement with Trixie, and it is now torn in parts and covered in dry blood from the accumulated cuts and the dirt from her cell has grounded into the fabric, turning its purple color into shades of black and brown.

Twilight has been locked inside the dungeon for the past few days, with only stale bread and lukewarm water to eat, and a tiny window well above her height to let light in. She can hear the world outside, bustling with activity, completely oblivious the damnation they are being hurdled towards.

Somewhere down the hall, a door opens and shuts, and claps of metal boots on stone flooring echoes down the hall. Twilight cocks a brow and leans away from the wall in a lazy attempt to see which guard is making the patrol now, but who comes instead surprises her.

“It is always a shame to see such a beautiful creature broken and alone,” says a stallion whom she has never seen before as he steps in front of her cell.

His voice is deep, and his fur is dark blue, his mane made of green and white stripes, and his eyes bright gold. The basic leather armor he is wearing is a shade of red with a gold collar and dark belt holding an assortment of pouches with a pear-shaped buckle clipping it together. He is armed gold handled sword inside a sheath with an intricate pattern of sharp angles forming a face, and a crimson cape held to his armor by gold buttons that have pears imprinted on them. Tucked underneath his shoulder is a helmet with just an opening for his eyes and a sharp fins on the cheeks and forehead.

Twilight looks at the stallion cautiously as he looks down at her, smiling thinly and licking his lips while his eyes trace her body with animalistic desires. She stares at him defiantly, though, despite the icy force of fear freezing her body. When he drums his fingers against his helmet, she backs away from the cage slightly, still glaring and stiffening as the metal chains scrape against the cold floor.

“Who are you supposed to be?” asks Twilight, failing to mask her fear with defiance.

The stallion chuckles. “I am glad you asked, Princess. You do not know me, but I know you, your family and your allies, and what you are guilty of. Allow me show myself in my true form.”

The stallion steps back and his blue fur splits apart in wet, tearing noises, like rotten flesh being torn apart, to reveal a dark chitin underneath. His green and white mane turns to a darker shade of green and a jagged horn sprouts from his forehead as his teeth turn to fangs and his fingers sprout claws, and his eyes become pure gold and bulged like that of a bug.

Twilight's throat contracts with sickly repulsiveness, all while her heart threatens to jump out of her chest from seeing a creature she has heard to have suffered extinction after the Nightmare War.

“My name is Malerabus, son of Eros and High Lord of the House of Chrysalis, and direct heir to our Greatest Queen, Chrysalis,” says the bug-pony proudly.

“You're a changeling,” says Twilight in disbelief.

“Yes. I am glad you noticed,” says Malerabus dryly.

“You were supposed to be wiped out ages ago!”

“Supposed to, yes, and yet here I am. Here we all are, inside the Sanctuary, inside your villages and cities, hiding from prosecution and awaiting for our return to power.” He snarls to expose his dripping fangs that gleam in the dim light and kneels down so he is eye-level with the captured princess. “Ponykind has committed great crimes against my kin, and on my blood, I will see your nations burn just as our have.”

When Twilight lets her harsh stare and tight jaw speak what words cannot, the changeling snorts and resumes standing at his full height.

“Look at me like that all you like, Princess, but angry looks will not be enough to spare your people from my wrath or the wrath of Sombra,” he says with a growl. “But you yourself have nothing to fear for when Sombra's physical form returns, he will want a bride and somepony to bear his children. And he specifically chose you for your beauty and intellect.”

Malerabus smirks and licks his lips again, making Twilight sneer in disgust as the slimy tongue moves over his teeth.

“Though, I must say, I am curious to see if he will share your body with us,” adds Malerabus.

Twilight's eyes widen and she feels suffocation threatening her as she presses her legs tighter together and crosses her arms over her chest as she slides further away from the door. She wants to say something snarky to him, but she is powerless and knows it will not be wise to do such a thing. She gets more uneasy about Malerabus and her heart beats faster when he chuckles and beats his fingers against his helmet as his cape lifts slightly from his hidden wings buzzing in bursts from excitement.

“Shall I ask Madam Lulamoon if Sombra would mind if his loyal servants get a taste of you?” mocks Malerabus.

“None are to so much as touch her as long as she is in my custody!” proclaims Trixie from down the hall.

Malerabus quickly looks down the hall with Twilight and sees Trixie approaching with Gilda and six guards. Her hands are clasped behind her back and her eyes are narrowed on Malerabus, and he, in turn, flashes an innocent. Only when Trixie stops in front of the changeling that Twilight realizes how big he truly is. When she first laid eyes on him, she figured her spot on the floor made him appear taller than average, but now that there are full grown stallions near him, she sees he stands head taller than them with muscles that can easily snap a pony if he wished it.

“Madam Lulamoon, I was merely conversing with your guest about our arrangements,” says Malerabus.

“Your arrangements sound disgusting and differ from what we agreed,” says Trixie crossly, having to crane her head to look into his golden eyes. “Besides, Trixie believes that King Sombra would not appreciate you having first claim to a prize that is supposed to be his and only his for his pleasure.”

“Oh, but surely such a treat would do well to boost morale of my troops as well as yours.”

Trixie pulls her hand from behind her back to show off her gauntlet, and the fur around her eyes darken as she flexes her fingers, prompting the gauntlet to bath her hand in a green hue. That wipes the smile off of Malerabus' face and Twilight winces and rubs her forehead as a familiar buzzing returns to torment her.

“Stop talking, bug,” sneers Trixie, her voice being overlapped by the deep, rumbling voice from the chamber she and Twilight dueled in. “You are not to touch her. Your troops are not to touch her, just as my servants are forbidden to. If Trixie finds out that Twilight was violated in any way you can consider our deal voided and-” Trixie tightens her hand into a fist “-you will suffer the full wrath of your new king. Are we clear?”

There is a moment of tense silence between the two, and Twilight can barely watch them because the pain is becoming more intense with each passing second to where all she can see is a cloud of tears. Though, after blinking and sniffling a few times, she looks back at Trixie and Malerabus and sees the giant changeling staring at Trixie with a deep scowl and Gilda's fingers have tightened on her sword's hilt.

“Are we clear?” repeats Trixie.

Malerabus' snarl evolves into a smile and he offers a courteous bow. “Of course. Forgive me for my trespassing, Madam Lulamoon.” He straightens out and takes a deep breath. “I must be off. The end of my vacation draws near and I would not want to keep my family waiting. Give Sombra my regards, if you will.”

“Dully noted.”

“Good. Pleasant evenings to you, Madam Lulamoon and Madam Grizelda.”

Gilda rolls her eyes and Malerabus turns to Twilight smiles at her one last time before he strolls down the hall, his pony disguise reforming with his steps. After the bangs of the door fade, Twilight looks at Trixie and sees her staring at the floor, scowling at no one in particular as the gauntlet agitates her fingers into twitch.

“Trixie,” calls Twilight softly.

Trixie's ears flick, but her scowl softens to that of a scared filly who is fighting to appear brave in front of her allies. Twilight calls Trixie again, and this time the azure unicorn glances at her out of the corner of her eyes, and she grabs the bars and presses herself against them so she can get as close as she can to the lost pony.

“Trixie, please, you don't have to do this,” says Twilight. “You don't have to send me to Sombra. I can still help you. I can still save your Sanctuary from Sombra and the changelings. Just let me out and let me help you.”

Trixie shakes her head, her eyes going back to the floor and her hands going behind her back.

“Not even Faust can save us,” she says somberly. She spins on her heels and walks quickly down the hall with her head down and her hands behind her back. “Come, Gilda.”

Gilda snorts and follows Trixie's steps without another sound, and Twilight presses her face against the bars to get a better look at her former friend leaving the hall. Specifically, her eyes lock onto the gauntlet around the mare's hand, and her eyes narrow when she Trixie's fingers flex uncomfortably and the gauntlet release a faint, green mist.

After Trixie rounds the corner with her escorts, Twilight sighs sadly, slumps against the corner of the cell, as far from the cell door as she can, and places her arms over her knees and rests her head against them.

“I'll free you one day. I promise.”

Pinkie Pie strolls through the farmland surrounding the Lulamoon Sanctuary with her hands in her pockets and humming a tune as bright as the afternoon sun. The workers close enough to see her stop and give her looks that can best be described as chary. As she walks, she nods towards them and offers them bright smiles.

“Good morning, Madam Wheat Grass. How do you do, Sir Flax Seed,” she says cheerfully as she slips on a pair of gloves with tiny metal hooks on the palms.

The two earth ponies she spoke to stare at her, with the one known as Sir Flax Seed growing increasingly more uncomfortable.

“She knows my name,” says the stallion in disbelief.

Pinkie Pie keeps walking until she reaches the gate, which is guarded by a pair of guards wearing the standard leather armor with the azure star stitched on their shirt shoulders and armed with spears. She notices that on the wall, some archers watch her, and one of them whispers something to a guard next to him. The guard then runs off, but Pinkie Pie keeps walking and only when she is twenty feet away do the pair of guards step forward, with one holding up his hand and the other gripping his spear tighter.

“Stop right there!” barks the guard with the extended.

Pinkie Pie holds up her hands, but keeps walking, anyway. “Easy, gentlecolts, I'm just here to see a friend.”

“I said stop!”

Pinkie Pie stops and glances at the wall, noting how the arches now have heir weapons trained on her, then she looks back at the pair in front of her and flashes an easygoing smile.

“Nice day, huh?” she says.

“You can't be here,” says the guard.

“I just want to see a friend,” says Pinkie Pie, now casually reaching behind her back, but stops when the guards tense. “It's okay, boys. I'm just getting some water.”

She slowly pulls out a canteen from behind her back and tags a swig of delicious, lukewarm water. Once she has her fill, she locks the lid back in place and clips the item back behind her.

“Now, lookie here, I got a friend who lives here and I heard she got in some trouble, so I just wanted to check up on her,” continues Pinkie Pie. “That, and I want to make sure Trixie got those apology cards, because I have a feeling that she is still mad at me.”

“You know you can't be here for any reason! Turn back now before we force you to!” says the guard.

Pinkie Pie sighs and lowers her head, stuffing her hand back inside her pockets. “I'm guessing Trixie didn't get those apology cards, then.”

“That does not-”

Pinkie Pie looks at the guards with sad puppy eyes. “Will you let me in if I ask nicely?”

“The answer would still be-”

“Then it looks like I'll have to count to five, then!”

Before the guards can say or do anything, Pinkie Pie suddenly pulls out a yellow tube with a red bottom from her pocket, jams her thumb under it, shrouding herself in a pink smoke, and darts forward. An arrows whizzes past her ear and another barely misses her foot, but within a fast set of seconds, she is upon the guards, snarling viciously with her hands balled into a fist and her eyes focused on the closest guard.

“One,” begins Pinkie Pie.

Spike pulls the trigger of the Party Cannon as soon as he sees the pink cloud rise into the sky. The resulting explosion of smoke is ejected from an exhaust pipe located in the back, but the weapon's kick nearly knocks him off his feet. It takes him a moment to regain himself, but after he is done staggering, he watches the flaming ball of glory and its red exhaust trail streak across the field with a widening grin on his scaly muzzle and childish joy sparkling in his eyes.

“Whoa...”

Pinkie Pie punches the first guard in the mouth, and as he staggers back, clutching his bleeding mouth, the second guard jabs his spear at her.

“Two.”

Pinkie Pie spins and grabs the attacker's spear with one hand, then brings her other hand up from underneath in a blur of motion. The guard yells and steps back, pale from shock as half of his spear twirls away.

“Three.”

The guard with the bloody mouth swings his sword at Pinkie Pie and she casually slams both of her palms against it, stopping and trapping it between her hands. Again, the guard is left flabbergasted, and she smirks at his state, then kicks him in the gonads. His eyes bulge and as he moans in pain and drops to the ground holding himself, she turns back to the one with the broken spear as he hastily draws his sword.

“Four.”

The guard swings at her and she rams her palm against his wrist with a loud crack and a howl of pain from the stallion. The sword falls from his grip, and she shoves her fist under his jaw, which sends him off his feet and he lands on his back on the grass, moaning and twitching. After that, Pinkie Pie spins on her heels and does a dramatic bow for the peasants that watched her beat down the two guards.

“Aaaaaand five!... Sixseveneightnineten!”

A burning ball of red flies over everyone's heads, screeching and whistling with a trail of sparkling exhaust, and it impacts the gate. The peasants scream and dive for cover as the gate is reduced it to a gaping hole in a second by the ball's flash of light, and fiery smoke and debris engulfs Pinkie Pie, the guards and the whole front entrance. During the explosion, rubble bounces off of Pinkie Pie and leaves her mane and clothing slightly burned, but she ignores it for the most part. The chunk of broken stone that bounces off her head, however, is just a little too painful to ignore, but she still keeps her position steady.

“Ow...”

Twilight stands on the balls of her feet, her face pressed against the iron bars of her cell window and her hands wrapped tightly around it. She can barely see anything from her position. All she can really see is smoke billowing into the sunny sky, but she can hear the alarms and shouts of guards clearly.

It has already been a couple of minutes since the breach, but she has not heard anything that sounds like a massive battle. In fact, all she has really heard was the explosion and alarms. No sounds soldiers clashing, so buildings crumbling from catapult assaults, no smoke from relentless flames swallowing everything. It is as if the attacker decided to do blow up the gate and then run.

However, Twilight pulls away from the window and runs to the cage door when she hears a commotion down the hall. The metallic clangs of swords beating against each other and screams of agony and fear echo down the hall, and she jumps in her spot when a pair of guards with drawn swords run past her cell.

She presses her face against the bars again and watches guards go to the corner. They stop, yell ferociously and charge whoever the intruder is, only for their war cries to come to a sudden end with a pair of THWACKs. With one of the thwak's, there is a cry of pain and some wood breaking, and with the second thwak, the other guard flies against the wall and slumps to the ground, motionless.

Twilight gulps and steps back, hands shaking and throat sealing as her heart thumps speedily in her chest, for coming around the corner, humming a bright tune and carrying a hammer is a vaguely familiar dirty mare twirling a set of keys with the guard's blade tucked between her belt and pants. From the mare's dirty, careless appearance, small array of weapons, ranging from her hammer to an assortment of small blades and a survival pack hidden by her cloak, Twilight guesses that she is looking at a Wild Folk. Or, as the proper title goes: Ranger of the Wild.

The pink mare continues her humming, but drones to a stop and grins widely when she sees Twilight staring at her from her cell.

“And there she is!” cheers the pink mare.

The outsider's steps turn to big skips and she jumps to a stop in front of the cell with her face pressed against the bars, making Twilight recoil with a short yell.

“Hey there, Twilight, you remember me?” asks the Ranger excitedly.

Twilight stares at her rescuer with big eyes for a few seconds before her expression shifts to curiosity, then her eyes bulge again. It is the exact same mare from the Canterlot archives!

“You!? What are you doing here!?” shouts Twilight.

The Ranger shrugs and leans against the bars as she casually flips through the keys on the ring without much sense of urgency. “I was bored, so I decided to bust a princess out of a prison. Or, as I like to say, Tuesday with Pinkie!”

After she finds the key and unlocks the door, Pinkie Pie swings it open and continues the carefree attitude as she frees Twilight's wrists and ankles from their cuffs. After the metal braces fall to the stone floor with a metallic clack, Twilight rubs her wrists and smiles thankfully with a healthy does on anxiousness at the mare.

“Thanks...” says Twilight slowly.

“Here you go!” chirps Pinkie Pie.

The Ranger hands the guard's sword Twilight, and while she is grateful for the weapon, she is still confused about why the mare is here, much less how she knew she was here. Besides, there is also the painful prank that transpired last time she was in the company of this cooky pony.

“What's wrong?” asks Pinkie Pie.

“Last time we met you tied my shoelaces together,” replies Twilight, sparing a fraction of a second to see if her laces are still tied like they should be.

“...Oh, that?” Pinkie Pie seethes and rubs the back of her head. “Yeah, I was bored and I haven't tied laces together in a long time and needed to brush up on my skills.”

Twilight's jaw drops.

Pinkie Pie stares at Twilight.

Twilight stares back.

Pinkie Pie blinks.

Twilight's mouth closes and she shakes her head. “I don't... Let's just go.”

“Oki doki loki! Follow me, Princess!”

Pinkie Pie turns on her heels and bolts down the hallway, and Twilight follows close behind, struggling to keep up with the mare who is so fast that she seems to barely be touching the ground as she runs. When Twilight rounds a corner the Ranger went, she is going so fast she slams into a wall with her shoulder, and she winces as she pulls away and continues running.

“This way!” hollers Pinkie Pie.

Twilight groans and is about to mutter some profane laced sentences, but after catching up with Pinkie Pie, she realizes that the mare has led her to a room with dozens of locked chests. And she has just broken the lock of a cabinet full of keys with her hammer and is now rummaging through them, muttering under her breath as she tosses key after key to the floor.

“Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.” Pinkie Pie says constantly.

Some of the keys she flings away almost hits Twilight, which she narrowly avoids and glares at the earth pony for nearly hitting her, but seeing as how the strange rescuer has her back turned, she cannot see this. Besides, Twilight does not really care in the long run because she sees a chest marked PRISONER BELONGINGS and a hopeful smile spreads across her muzzle as she runs to it.

She slides to a stop in front of the chest, uses her sword to pry it open, not caring that she splintered the wood in the process, and she starts doing what Pinkie Pie is doing. Flinging worthless crap everywhere.

Twilight finds jewelry, fake digits, a drawing booklet and some small clothing items, but none of those things interest her, and the deeper she goes, the stronger her panic becomes. Right as she nears the bottom, her hands are shaking and tears snaking down her cheeks as her breathing becomes short and raspy.

“No, no no. No. No. No no,” whispers Twilight anxiously as she claws through the contents with tears flowing down her cheeks. She grabs one of the few remaining odds and ends in the chest, and right as she is about to scream in anguish, she sees them. The pendants her father gave her before she left Canterlot. She snatches them up and holds them tight to her chest as she hops up and down screaming for joy. “YES! I FOUND THEM!”

Suddenly the door bursts open and a dozen guards rush inside with their weapons drawn and all of them sporting trained snarls.

Twilight's joyful smile turns into a very angry scowl. “Crap.”

Pinkie Pie stops rummaging and looks over her shoulder at the guards and offers them an uneasy smile. “Hey, do any of you happen to have keys for a horn cuff on you?”

The guards step forward and Twilight quickly stuffs the pendants in her pocket, picks up her sword and backs up to Pinkie Pie. The earth pony adjusts her grip on her hammer and both mares end up going back to back as they are almost completely surrounded by the Sanctuary guards.

“So, how good is your fighting without magic?” asks Pinkie Pie.

Twilight swallows and grips the blade tighter until she feels like her bones will crack. “I think its decent.”

“Oh, okay. This shouldn't be too hard, then.”

The first guard roars and charges forward, and the other eleven follow suit right after, and when he swings his weapon at Pinkie Pie, she ducks under the gleaming blade and elbows him in the kidney. The guard expels a pained gasp and before he can take a full step, the Ranger spins and slams her hammer against his back. He falls to the ground without a sound and a large indent in his back, and Pinkie Pie turns her body and hammer just in time for its metal handle to block two swords that nearly sliced her arms off. Sparks. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees another guard lunging at her, and she takes a breath and sacrifices her footing so she slips between the two guards she blocked, falling on her back in the process.

The two guards stagger forward and run into the third guard, making all three of them fall in a pile of thin armor and fancy uniforms.

As this happens, Twilight backs up, eyes darting between three guards approaching her, all three grinning wolfishly at their easy prey as she shakes in her boots. When her back presses against the cold brick wall, she gulps and tries very hard to remember the proper procedure for engaging in sword fight, but all she can think of is engaging in fencing lessons with one person, not three.

Twilight starts sliding along the wall, glancing out of the corner of her eye to see one of the guards spinning head over heals in the air from one of Pinkie Pie's swings, and he lands right on a table. The table breaks, and Twilight realizes that there is a table near her, too!

She takes one last look at the guards, then at the table full of plates and goblets, then she runs. The guards shout at her as they give chase and she rolls over the table, spilling the food and drinks all over when they try to grab her. One of the guards manages to grab her purple striped tail, though, and with a painful yelp, she is pulled back. However, after a quick snarl and slamming the butt of her sword's hilt against the guard's hand with a loud crack, he quickly releases her, howling in pain clutching his broken hand.

Twilight runs again and jumps over another guard that Pinkie Pie defeated, narrowly avoiding the Ranger's hammer that finds its landing spot on the face of one of Twilight's pursuers.

“Watch it, Twilight! I almost hit you!” scolds Pinkie Pie, now somehow holding another guard in a headlock and sparring one handed with her hammer against two other guards with very awkward, sloppy results.

“Sorry!” yells Twilight apologetically while looking over her shoulder.

This leads to her getting a gut full of a chair back that pushes all the air out of her. Twilight gasps painfully and falls over the chair, dropping her weapon in the process and falling over with it with a very unpleasant feeling of her elbow and cheek crashing into the floor. Twilight groans and pushes herself on her hands and knees as her face and arm throb, only for a beefy arm to suddenly wrap around her waist and hoist her up. Twilight yelps and tries to free herself as she lifted off of the ground, her legs kicking wildly at the air and her hands trying to pry the massive arm off, but she stops struggling when a blade is pressed against her throat. Her eyes shrink to dots and a small whine escapes as the hot breath of the stallion blows into her ear.

“Stop right there or I'll slit her throat!” barks the guard.

Pinkie Pie stops her advancement on the guard with the broken hand, and stares at the pair from her position, which is in the center of a ring of defeated guards. All are bloodied and beaten, but some moan and shift weakly on the ground while the good majority remain silent and still. It only takes Pinkie Pie a second to to scoff and points at Twilight with her full hand.

“Really, Princess!” says Pinkie Pie. “Getting captured once isn't enough for you?”

“Oh, ha ha!” sneers Twilight. She wraps her fingers around the wrist of her captor and tries to push the blade away, but the guard tightens his grip around her waist and presses the blade harder against her neck. She swallows, which makes the blade dig in deeper and shave off a thin layer of her lavender, and starts vibrating the guard with her shakes. She looks at the guard out of the corner of her eye and says: “You do know that Trixie wants me unharmed, right? So you really need to release me before more bad things happen.”

“More bad things, huh?” mocks the guard, now sliding along the wall and keeping Twilight as his meat shield while glaring at Pinkie Pie. “You royalty types always think the world revolves around you, and if something were to happen to you, bad things will happen. Well, because of ponies like you, Princess, things are worse than before! Now, tell your Ranger to lower her weapon unless you want your throat cut out! And no funny business with those knives, either!”

“Okay,” says Pinkie Pie casually as she throws her hammer down and sits down on a chair, draping one leg over the other and resting her chin on her fist, with her elbow propped against her knee. “Now what?”

Twilight balks, and even the guard looks surprised by this easy negotiation.

“Pinkie, at least show some defiance!” says Twilight angrily.

“Relax, I got plenty of defiance left,” counters Pinkie Pie carelessly, getting a loud groan of agony from one of the guards instantly after. She then points at the guard, speaking as she leans against the table Twilight rolled over, finger tracing a fallen bottle that has spilled its red contents everywhere. “As for you, what are you going to do in the next five seconds?”

Twilight notices that as Pinkie Pie taps the bottle, she extends another finger, going from one, to two, to three, and she hears the guard gulp as the Ranger smirks devilishly at them.

“That-”

The guard does not finish, for before his next word can even begin, Pinkie Pie smashes the bottle against the table and throws the shard right at his eye, slicing it open. The guard shriek in agony and releases Twilight as he drops his weapon to clutch his destroyed eye. He collapses on the floor, sobbing and thrashing with blood pouring past his fingers, and as Twilight steps back from the terrible scene, the Ranger picks up her hammer and approaches him. Twilight's colors drain from her face when she sees how cold and merciless the pink mare's eyes have become in just a second. Even her footsteps are meticulous and predatory.

“You wench! You whore!” sobs the guard. “Curse you! Curse you and your family!”

Pinkie Pie stops by the guard and snorts. “Already done.”

With a bloodthirsty yell, she brings her hammer down on his head, popping its bone and brain contents all over the floor in a splash of gore. Twilight yells and stumbles back until she falls over, then she backs up on her hands and feet until her back is against the wall.

As Pinkie Pie stands above the corpse, panting with dots of red all over her, she looks at the guard with the broken hand and warns him with: “You should get out of here before we hurt you.”

The guard nods and wastes no time in running out of the room, having to kick the door open on his way out. When his steps are gone, Pinkie Pie sighs, pushes her mane out of her eyes and looks at Twilight with an unimpressed frown.

“You told me you were decent,” she says, now kneeling down to wipe the blood off of her hammer, using the headless guard's uniform.

“Well, I might have exaggerated a bit,” admits Twilight, her voice and body shaking as she looks at the carnage that Pinkie Pie caused, and she starts worrying what how badly she will end if the Ranger turns against her.

Pinkie Pie sighs and runs her fingers through her mane, now slightly flatter with strands sticking to her forehead and neck from sweat, and she looks at all the incapacitated guards and the blood around them.

“We need to fix that, Princess, with a very rigorous course of Pinkie's School of Proper Epic Magicless Dueling,” she says, now searching her last victim for something. She mutters a quick praise and removes a key with an emerald gem on it attached to a clamping ring, and she walks towards Twilight, spinning it in circles on her finger. “But first thing's first, I'm going to need you to give me your horn.”

Twilight jumps up and backs away from Pinkie Pie with brisk steps, heart racing and finger trembling as she points at the Ranger. “You are not touching my horn!”

“I have to get your horn cuff off somehow.”

“Yes, we do, but I don't like anypony touching me horn! And I really don't want you to touch my horn!”

Pinkie Pie sighs irritably and rolls her eyes up to the ceiling, shoulder sulking and hands tightening, and before Twilight can suggest she get the horn off herself, Pinkie Pie strikes. She wraps her arm around Twilight's neck and she forces he to bend over, despite her protests. Twilight yells and claws at Pinkie Pie's arm as the earth pony slides the key into the cuff's lock, then with a quick turn, the cuff pops loose and falls to the floor with a metallic clatter.

Pinkie Pie then releases Twilight, nearly making the unicorn faceplant the floor, and she spreads her arms out, saying sourly: “There, your horn is free and still in one piece.”

Twilight scrambles to her feet and jabs her finger at Pinkie Pie, growling through her grinding teeth and heart racing from panic. “Don't you ever do that to me again!”

Pinkie Pie steps back with her hands raised defensively. “Hey, I freed you from jail and got your horn cuff off. The least you could do is thank a big kiss or a bag of money!”

A portion of Twilight's anger evaporates, realizing that she does have a point. Pinkie Pie did free her, albeit in an incredibly gruesome way, and there is no way she could have done this herself without her magic.

Twilight looks down, shamefaced and rubs her arm, nodding. “You're right. I'm sorry for being rude. I just don't like my horn being touched... But, thank you for... For freeing me.”

Pinkie Pie smile shrewdly. “You can thank me with a bag of money.”

Twilight's gaze snaps up to the pink pony with a raised brow. “What?”

Pinkie Pie turns on her heels and starts towards the door, hopping over a fallen guard along the way, her mood becoming noticeably bright with each passing second. “I said, Spike's waiting for us.”

Twilight blinks in surprise, then runs after Pinkie Pie, hand outstretched and a smile of relief growing. “You have Spike with you?”

Pinkie Pie nods and when they near the end of the hallway they entered, she says: “Yeah, he's waiting for us at the edge of the forest by this big rock I posed on. Nice guy, too.” She looks at Twilight curiously and reaches for a door leading a staircase. “Are you two in any serious commitments by any chance?”

Twilight stops next to Pinkie Pie and her smile fades as her eyes narrow suspiciously. “Why?”

Pinkie Pie shrugs and opens up the door. “No reason.” She starts walking down the stairs, her voice bouncing off the stone walls. “Come on, Twilight, we don't want to keep your boyfriend waiting.”

Twilight's cheeks flare up. “What! He's not my-” She groans and clenches her fist and teeth before running after the Ranger, being sure to use the handrails. “He's not my boyfriend!”

“So, can I have him, then?”

“No!”

Minutes later, Twilight and Pinkie Pie burst out of the jail, being welcomed by the brightness and warmth of the sun, the comfort of the wind, the taste of fresh air and the orchestra of a dozen arrows being pulled.

The two mares dig their feet into the grass, eyes bulging and lips sealed to lines as the dozens of guards keep them enclosed. The guards are either armed with bow and arrows, spears or swords, and all of them are pointing their weapons at the two. A void of silence comes between the mares and the group of guards, and Pinkie Pie and Twilight look at each other as a random bird chirps cheerfully nearby.

“Inside?” suggest Pinkie Pie.

“Inside,” agrees Twilight.

They turn to run back inside, but the ground rumbles and they scream and almost fall over as the ground shifts under their feet and explodes in front of them, covering the door with a wall of crystals. Twilight whirls around and watches with growing despair as the guards part to allow Trixie and Gilda to get front row seats to their inevitable slaughter.

Trixie's gauntlet is glowing and her fur has darkened around her eyes as she glares at Twilight with a deep frown.

“The point of being imprisoned is that you stay put,” says Trixie, her voice carrying across the field.

“Trixie, this has gone on long enough! Let us go now!” orders Twilight.

“Foreign social rank means nothing to Trixie. Sombra wants you, Twilight, and Trixie will give him you.”

Pinkie Pie glances at Twilight with a raised brow. “A dark lord made of pure evil has a crush on you? Awkward.”

“Pinkie, please, not now,” chides Twilight. She looks back at Trixie and says: “Trixie, I am not going to the Frozen North! I'd rather die than be with Sombra!”

“Pity you have no say in the matter!” Trixie then glares at Pinkie Pie and squeezes her gauntlet hand so sparks of green energy snap at the air around her hand. “As for you, you menace, Trixie has made it very clear that you were no longer welcomed here!”

With that unpleasant display, Pinkie Pie winces and slides behind Twilight.

“I think she's still mad about that cherry pie thing,” says Pinkie Pie nervously.

Twilight narrows her eyes as she adjusts her stance between the earth pony and Trixie. “Do I even want to know about the cherry pie?”

“Maybe not all of the details, since something similar happened to Shining Armor with some cake. That got him kinda mad, too,” says Pinkie Pie uneasily, adding in an anxious chuckle at the end.

Twilight shoots Pinkie Pie a glare. “What did you do to my brother!”

“I swear it was all an accident, just like the cherry pie!”

“You two have caused Trixie enough problems!” yells Trixie furiously, prompting the other two mares to look at her with mixed expressions of fear and anger.

“Oh, come on! I apologized like fifty times about the pie thing!” shouts Pinkie Pie.

“Not helping,” grumbles Twilight as she looks at Pinkie Pie out of the corner of her eye. She then looks at Trixie and adjusts her stance when Pinkie Pie presses her back against her, and she hears the strange mare muttering something when Gilda and the guards start circling around them. “Trixie, release us and nopony else has to get hurt!”

“Hurt? Pies!? You speak hurt and pies when you killed Trixie's servants by your hands! Killing is worse than hurting and pies, you harlots!”

“Way to go, Princess, you got her mad,” says Pinkie Pie sardonically.

“Don't you start on me!” snaps Twilight.

“Princess, if you so desire death over destiny, then so be it! Your debt to the Sanctuary will be paid one way or the other, and it will be by Trixie's hands and her hands alone that will make you do so!”

“Please tell me you can use your magic, because I think we are about to get a lot of boo-boos very soon,” says Pinkie Pie nervously as she brings her hammer closer to her chest as Trixie's gauntlets shoots out more sparks in an increasingly more violent display of power that burns the grass and sends a thin veil of dark green energy rising from her body.

Twilight swallows, drops her sword and brings up both of her trembling hands. “I don't think my horn has fully recovered, yet, after being cuffed for so long.”

“Well, that kinda really sucks very bad.”

“DIE!” roars Trixie.

Trixie slams her gauntlet hand on the ground, and Twilight's eyes snap wide and her breath disappears at the unpleasant memory of the azure unicorn's devastating move resurfaces. Around them, the light darkens and bolts of bright green energy snap over and through the ground, shooting up jets of burning dirt and spawning sharp crystals. The crystals spark with energy that burn the air and land around them, and Twilight yells and claps her hands together, blinding her and everyone else with a flash of bright purple light, and then she feels every part of her body disintegrate and then she implodes on herself.

Spike fidgets on his spot with the Party Cannon between his legs. Why it is called such a thing is beyond him, but he certainly will not mind using it again after seeing it blow apart the Sanctuary's front gate with just one shot. That being said, while he got some satisfaction from blowing up the gate, it is barely a fraction of what he wants to do to the place. That, and he's not certain about Pinkie Pie's true intentions. She admitted very easily that she had been hired to stalk him and Twilight, but now he is curious as to who would do such a thing as well as why. Those kinds of questions have been swirling in his mind, and he really does not like how he is not able to think of anything logical. In fact, everything he thinks of is comparable to logic's completely opposite brother that others pretend to like. It is all just a big, nasty headache, and he swears that when Pinkie Pie returns with Twilight, he's going to get to the bottom of this mystery.

And lo and behold, right as his thought finishes, there is a blinding flash of burning, purple light that Spike has to shield his eyes from. Once that is clear, his heart soars at the sight of Twilight and Pinkie Pie standing in the grass. However, that smile disappears when Twilight collapses on her knees with one hand clutching Pinkie Pie's shoulder and the other pressed against the grass. Then she starts coughing violently, and her back arches as tears roll down her cheeks from her rib snapping hacking.

“Twilight!” Spike runs over to Twilight's side despite the throbbing of his wounds, slides next to her and puts his hand on her other shoulder while the unicorn presses both hands on the grass. He can see light purple smoke rising from her horn and hands, and her whole body is quivering to where her arms almost buckle. “Twilight, are you-!”

Before Spike can finish, Twilight pukes all over the grass, splashing its green color with orange and half digested prison food. As repulsive as it is, Spike keeps rubbing her shoulder and with the help of Pinkie Pie, she is kept from falling in her own puke.

“What happened!” demands Spike, shooting the earth pony a vicious glare.

“She teleported us out before her horn fully recovered from being cuffed,” says Pinkie Pie, her hands rubbing Twilight's spine and arm.

“What!”

Pinkie Pie looks at Spike crossly. “It was either that or get butchered. Take your pick.”

“We... We need to... We need to get to Armonia,” wheezes Twilight faintly in between her panting and gulps for air. “That's where the... Amulet... Celestia... Bed...”

“No, we can't go anywhere with you like that! You need to rest!” says Spike.

“Then she can take a nap on my shoulder!” says Pinkie Pie, grunting as she puts the now limp Twilight over her shoulder like a rug. “Get the Party Canon! We're getting out of here, right now!”

Twilight moans about feeling woozy, and Pinkie Pie pats the unicorn's thigh while saying something about the feeling wearing off. Then she starts walking at a quick pace for someone who has a hammer and full-grown mare in her inventory. The sight is something Spike did not expect to see and remains stagnant for a while, amazed at the mare's insane strength.

“Hurry up, Spike! We need to get out of here before they find us!” shouts Pinkie Pie.

“Right. Coming!” yells Spike.

And he starts walking after Pinkie Pie, but quickly backtracks, packs up the Party Cannon, then runs after the mare, wincing with every step. But now his rage is replaced with worry, and now he wants nothing more than to see Twilight safe instead of Trixie burned alive.

When the smoke settles at the Sanctuary jail, the crystals Trixie used are shown to have ripped the ground into a mess of burnt, churned dirt, and a huge portion of the jail tower has been blown out, leaving its stone chunks scattered all over. However, there is no sign of Twilight or Pinkie Pie anywhere, and Trixie's angry, blood-crazed expression devolves to fear as her colors drain and her ears droop. Then her eyes shrink to pinpricks and tears roll down her cheeks as her gauntlet hand twitches in response to the feeling of icy fangs gnawing at her forearm and wrist.

“Unworthy,” growls a low, terrifying voice.

Blood trickles down Trixie's covered hand and drips to the grass from her finger tips. Her legs give out and she falls on her knees, whimpering and trying to comfort her bleeding arm through the armor as the blood dribbles on the grass. She hears Gilda barking orders and the guards rushing past her, but it is all obscured, like listening to the world from under water. Her vision also begins to waver and her head feels like it is filling with air as she sways in her spot, unable to stay steady with the shakes and feeling of lightness going through her. Then she collapses on the grass, trembling and gripping her covered arm as tight as she can as the pain of fangs curving into arm and ripping at her flesh torture her.

Trixie squeezes her eyes shut and screams in agony through gritted teeth as her fingers uselessly claw at the armor around her arm

“Unworthy wench,” rumbles the voice in her ears.

Trixie eyes slowly open, and she looks up to see an imposing, equine-like monster made of all ice standing before her, with its elbows, shoulders and knees sprouting sharp spikes and its clawed hands clenched into fists. Even if Trixie had been standing it would still tower over her by at least three feet, and its bright green eyes stare down at her, devoid of any mercy. When it opens its mouth, there is a swirling haze of green and purple that seeps past its jagged teeth and its voice shakes the earth around it while the ground sprouts jagged, icicles that point int random directions.

“You failed me,” growls the monster, his voice still echoing Trixie's, as it stomps forward, cracking the ground and ejecting purple and green haze.

“I-I'm sorry, my lord,” stammers Trixie, still curled up on the ground, too afraid to move.

“You tried to kill the bride I ordered not to be defiled. Now she is gone.”

“I'm sorry... I-I was angry for what happened. I can- I will-”

Trixie shrieks in pain when it suddenly extends its sharp hand and yanks her gauntlet hand forward, jerking her body upright and dragging her feet across the hardened grass, breaking some in the process. The demon, lifts his hand up, pulling Trixie in the air using the gauntlet until she is eye level with him, letting her feet dangle and her flesh rip under the gauntlet.

Trixie screams louder and thrashes while trying to claw the gauntlet off, begging through her painful sobs to stop, but it falls on deaf ears. Her cries and begs are silenced when the thing's freezing claws grip her throat, reducing her cries to gags and desperate gulps of air. The demon then brings her muzzle towards his frozen snout, polluting her nose with the stench of death and poisonous fumes, and it snorts a haze of purple and green that is unintentionally sniffed up by Trixie. It makes her nose burn, but all she can do is tremble and choke while her tears freeze to her face.

“Either reclaim Princess Sparkle or find me another bride worthy to be my queen and bear my children,” says the monster. It then brings Trixie even closer so their noses are touching and says: “Do not fail me again or it will be you that holds such a fate while your Sanctuary burns.”

Trixie nods quickly and gags out: “I-I won't... I won't fail you again... Lord Sombra.”

The ice demon growls and throws Trixie to the ground, and as soon as her head cracks against the frozen ground, she blacks out.

After what seems like minutes of darkness, she opens her eyes again and finds herself laying on her bed with the curtains pulled shut and a small fire going in the fireplace. Trixie groans and seethes as she sits up and presses her back against the headboard, using the pillow as a cushion. She then rubs the throbbing on her forehead, but stops when she realizes that not only is the gauntlet still on, but her normal attire replaced with a loose, white shirt and pants. The blood on her hand has also been cleaned off, but she still feels the scabs and the pinprick throbs of her wounds underneath.

“We tried to take the gauntlet off, but the nurse had her hands burned off,” says someone next to her.

The sudden voice startles Trixie, but when she sees that Gilda is sitting next to her bed, solemnly sharpening one of her blades in a dark blue shirt and brown pants, she relaxes. Somewhat. The unicorn sighs and slouches in her bed and rubs the space just above her eyes.

“This has been a terrible day,” mutters Trixie.

“You think?” scoffs Gilda, halting her sharpening and pointing her whetstone at Trixie, scowling. “You know this whole thing could have been avoided if we just left that stone and gauntlet in the cave, right?”

Trixie glares at Gilda out of the corner of her eye. “Trixie is fully aware of her own stupidity, thank you very much. Now, are you going to say something informative or are you going to continue to pester Trixie about stuff she already knows?”

Gilda slips her stone back in a pouch strapped to her belt loop, puts her sword in its sheath, and stands up and looks down at Trixie with her arms folded across her chest. Admittedly, the unicorn feels intimidated by the griffin's stature, with her being taller, more muscular than an earth pony stallion and a razor sharp beak to go with her talons on top of all that. Then here is the ruler of the Lulamoon Sanctuary, feeling weak and broken, and absolutely terrified to where she can't keep her shakes under control.

“Well, for starters, whatever happened to you knocked you out for a few hours, and I had to seal this place. And I already told you that when we tried to get that gauntlet off, it burnt a nurse's hands,” says Gilda.

“How badly was she burnt?” asks Trixie.

“Down to the bone.”

Trixie seethes and clutches her blanket as her ears droop. “Anything else?”

“I sent a small army to look for Twilight and Pinkie Pie, and I told them to kill the annoying pink one and return the snotty purple one back to us. Then we got Malerabus going back to Everfree to mobilize his changelings and the outcasts for the next part of the plan. Oh, and the nurse whose hands are now bone is traumatized for life, by the way. I hope you're happy.”

Trixie's grip tightens around her blanket, and she quietly says in choked words: “I'm not. I should have never taken the Seeing-Stone or the gauntlet, but I did and now I have seen into Sombra's mind and know what he is capable of... And what he plans on doing.”

Trixie looks at Gilda, begging with her bloodshot eyes for her friend to understand.

“I have to protect this Sanctuary at all costs, Gilda, you know that, and if that means making a deal with Sombra, then so be it,” says Trixie, her voice quiet and cracking.

Gilda stares at Trixie. Her gaze is hard and unforgiving, but she is still loyal, Trixie can see it in her eyes. However, how far into Hell Gilda will follow her is something that Trixie does not know, but now that they have entered the first ring, she hopes that her long time friend will remain by her side so she will not bear the burden of her mistakes and future tribulations by herself.

After a moment of intense staring, Gilda snorts and walks away and Trixie looks at the blanket covering her legs. She flinches when Gilda yanks the door open, and flinches again when it is slammed shut with a loud thud. After the door closes, Trixie bows her head and tears bleed past her closed eyes, and she sniffles as her grip tightens on her blanket.

“I hope Faust understands.”

Author's Notes:

That only took too long.