With Nondis completely passed out, Stanton and Celestia both shared the load in carrying the unconscious man to his room. Stanton walked with him on his back, Celestia making sure to help take some of the weight off and keep him balanced. I and Alex followed the pair towards Nondis' room. And once we got there, we started thinking about if there would be any instances of Umbra trying to get him back. We suggested to the princess to maybe have some security present for any possible danger of him being abducted.

She went even further.

As soon as Princess Luna entered the room, I knew that Nondis was going to be in good company, and not just physically speaking, but also mentally speaking. She stood by Nondis' bed and surveyed his memories through Celestia, who only grew more and more upset with each one she uncovered. She would speak much of it other than her generalization from earlier.

Stanton looked down at his older brother and expressed his amazement. "Didn't think it would be that awkward to carry a guy the size of an NBA player. But that's what happens when the guy suddenly dwarfs you by eight inches."

"With those guys in the NFL, I didn't think there would be much of a difference." I stated.

"Trust me, there's a difference. Us football players may be built for bursts of speed and strength, but basketball players are framed for verticality and endurance. He might not have the vert, but the conditioning is there for him." Stanton explained before placing a hand on his brother's bare chest, observing the scars on his body. "But with the increase of height, you'd think he'd look and feel skinnier. But it's the opposite this time. He's way heavier than before."

"You'd think that he'd have stretch marks from the rapid expansion of his limbs, but then again that healing factor can play a lot of roles." I pointed out.

Alex couldn't really bear to look at his younger sibling with all the surgical scars on his body, almost appearing as though he had been unquestionably dissected. "I hope that healing factor works for the mental also. I have a feeling he's gonna be dealing with some demons that even grandpa couldn't live with."

"You heard what Celestia said, suicidal thoughts." I recalled. "I mean he's also been throwing that out there, but now we know in what ways he's been messed with."

Alex walked away, feeling pity for his sibling. "Our Nondis is gone. This is the one we have to live with from now on.... Mom and dad are not going to be happy about this one."

Meanwhile, Luna sat quietly next to the sleeping human, her horn glowing a deep sapphire blue. Celestia continued to show remorse for the workload she placed on her younger sister. "I am so sorry to have you do this Luna."

"It is our only option, sister. His mental state is beyond fractured. There's no coming back from any of what he's experienced." Luna replied. "And you say he was awake for one of his surgeries?"

"For a short while."

Luna groaned with displeasure, understanding the mental distress one would have in watching themselves getting cut open like that. "...I have a lot of work to do. You've done your part, now go and rest sister. You will need the energy for the upcoming conflict."

"Be careful, sister." Celestia said to her younger sibling before walking out of the room.

"Hey..." As the others left the room, one guard entered and stood watch over the soon-to-be spatially-unaware princess. Meanwhile Stanton and I remained to ask a final question. "Do you think he'll be somewhat okay when he wakes up?" I asked.

"That all depends on him." She answered quietly. "I can try to talk to him, get him to understand that none of what he's manifesting in his mind will ever come to pass. But a lot of the damage from his experience will haunt him for the rest of his life. And sadly, I will not be able to visit his dreams every night, as I do have an entire kingdom to witness."

Stanton shrugged, seeing very little we could do at this juncture. Instead, he kissed his brother on the forehead and gave him a careful pat on the shoulder. "Just do what you can, I guess. We can only thank you for trying and being open to it."

Luna was set to begin her work, speaking one final time. "You all get some rest. You will need it for the coming days."

***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

All of my worst fears had become manifest. I was being chased by the image of Jasper heading the creature that chased me down the hallway. I tried to use my magic, but my hands had been cut off by a hatchet thrown my way by the gruesome creature itself. There were no turns, there were no hiding spots, no unlocked rooms to barricade myself in. It was just me running down an endless hallway that only seemed to have a semblance of a door at the end. But when I reached out for it, I started to realize just how small the door was, only big enough for my foot to fit through.

I kicked against the small door, trying to hopefully worm my way in somehow. But I was dragged back out before I could sneak myself through. I was tossed around much like a ragdoll before slammed to the ground like a wet mop. I struggled to stand up, at least trying my best to regain my bearings to fight off the creature who snatched me back up again. But instead of being Jasper who was heading the creature, it was my own dad. "W̴̟̗͐h̷͙̬͌́y̷̤̫͌ ̶̈́̚͜d̵̠͕́̉i̷̘̎ḋ̴̘̤ ̴̨͙̀͛y̷̩͂o̵̰͇͐ǘ̵͔͜ ̵̒͜͝d̶͓̰̂o̴̩̱̕ ̴̡̩͂ţ̷̍̃h̸͍̞̀̀ḭ̷̈s̴͇͓̈ ̵̺̈͠t̵̯̄o̴̢̲̓̽ ̶̤̑̐m̵͓̭̊̕e̵̢̮̔̀?̷̣̬̇" He questioned. "̷̲͚͋͝Ï̸̦̓ ̷̨͕̾͂t̴̳͐͂ḧ̴̩̙̔ơ̵͖̖ư̸͚̤̅g̸̯̑͋h̸̨̍t̸̹̏ ̵͉͗ý̷͖o̶̘͖͆u̵͇̰͠ ̷̯̈́w̵̯͚̆ȩ̸̳̅r̶̠̘̕e̸̢̘̊ ̵̖̎m̸͚̃̏ÿ̸̳́̂ ̸̜̳̌ș̷̈́o̶̢͑͒ͅn̴͇͋̎.̸͌͜"

Then the face of my mother took over his and spoke her reply. "I̶͇̿ ̸̰͇͒̽t̴͇̩̑o̶̖̺͝l̶̼̐̀d̷̘̏̚ ̴̹̓y̸̫̚ó̸̢̹͑ů̶͔̠̎!̷͙͂ ̸̇ͅI̸̟͙͗̒ ̶̻͐t̵̖̂͝ò̴̘͓̏ĺ̵̳͕̓d̸̜̲̅̕ ̷͖̾y̸̨̓o̶͎̿ủ̸̙͇ ̸͙͗t̵̥̐h̶̲̮͋i̷͙͌s̷̼̭̈́̒ ̸̲̿w̸͍̲̾ò̵̻̻̇u̴̦̜͗l̴͓͊d̴͚̖͐ ̴̠̹͝h̸͈̓a̷̛̖̞p̵̟͚̓p̵̮͈̓͘e̸̠͒̈́n̸̞̍͝!̶̙͑͝ ̷̜̉N̷̦͊o̶̰̯͗̿w̴̬̓͝ ̵̥͔̽͠l̷̲͖̊̀ö̴̠́̿ŏ̸̤̮k̵̯̓ ̴̝͂ͅã̴̟̟͘t̶̛̺̦͋ ̷̫̏ẅ̶͉́ḣ̶̻a̸̜͘̚t̸͎̽ ̵̘̄ͅy̷̭̎o̷̡͔͂u̷͇̇'̶̡́̿v̴̩̉̓ȇ̸̳̃ ̵͖͍̄͑d̷̞̙̎̓o̵̡̞̽͠n̴͔̑̍͜e̴̱͗̉ ̶̖̱͐t̸̺̳̅o̴̱͊ ̸̛̝̕ù̷̡s̸͈̣͘!̶̘͓͝"

I wanted to issue my apology, but tentacles of various skin colors wrapped it's cold flesh around my lips to prevent me from speaking. I was slammed to the ground before being trampled on by the creature, who spoke in Mel's voice. "Y̶̳̮͒ö̵̳̣́u̶͇͍͂̃ ̵̙͕̕ķ̷͔͋̄i̴̭̩͆l̵̝̍̍l̸͊̆͜e̴̩͍̓͛d̸̳̚ ̸͎̇̾ù̵̱̈́s̶̱̪̊͑!̷̹͛̈́?̸̘͗ ̵̩̬͐Ẁ̴͚̦e̵̍͜ ̸̯̈ŝ̵̙͔́a̸͖̓̾v̸̗̣͐͝ȇ̴̻̩d̵͉̪̐̅ ̷̫͖̀̈y̷̞̅̃ō̷̫̖ụ̴͝ŕ̸̤͛ ̵̠́ḷ̴̀i̴̲͐f̸͓̒̽é̵̜̍ ̸̺̟̈́̕ä̴̲̩̊n̷̝͈͌̈́d̸͓͌̈ ̴̗̍͝y̷̬͐͋o̶̬̖͋u̶̗̩̍̒ ̸̳́̉s̶͔̲͊̃ä̶̳͎́y̸̧͙̌͋ ̴̠̫̀̑ț̸̱̅̍h̷̜̊a̶̭̚n̷̮̈ǩ̴̺s̴̰̲̊ ̸̝͋̍b̴̤̓y̷̢͉̆ ̶̢̨̅K̷̳̈́I̵͔͂L̴̲̚L̷̤͘Ì̷̗̒N̴͈̮̏́G̸̢̗̅͑ ̸̨̝͌u̸̲̒s̸̨̜͝!̴̪̐?̶̞͘͝ ̶͙̄W̷͓͊͌ḧ̶͕́a̶̝̼̓t̸̬̆ ̷͖̿ǐ̵͔s̶̺̑̔ ̸̮͓̏͝w̴̯̘̾̃r̵̠̞͝o̷̪̺̍n̶̤̔ģ̵̦̕͝ ̴̺̤̚w̷̨̒͘i̵̛̝̓t̸̪͛h̴͓͆̉ ̴̦͎͂y̵̱͔̍o̶̬͂̋û̴͖̄!̸̫̿?̸̟͑̆"

I was thrown to the ground yet again, but this time I didn't feel the impact of hitting the ground. I was falling out of the sky, still being flung towards the ground that seemed to never get any closer. I struggled to break myself free, only to find myself landing next to a billboard sign warning me of severe weather. My phone had gone off and issued the message of a tornado warning. I looked up and saw a multitude of funnels roaring in the distance, some small, some large, some sweeping up barns and cars, others taking down entire skyscrapers and launching them to the countryside.

I looked behind me, seeing nothing chasing me but a growing dust cloud to indicate a funnel touching down. I ran as far as I could, as fast as I could, trying to beat the speed of the growing cyclone. My feet remained anchored as I saw everything I passed by get uplifted by the winds of the twister. My clothes were even swept off of my body, leaving me naked. Blaring sirens that sounded like a trio of angels howling out a dark harmony to accurately illustrate the apocalyptic scene taking place all around me.

I ran into an apartment building, seeing some other people taking shelter for their lives. One held their dying baby daughter, begging for anyone to help. I shut my ears as the mother's wails and the baby's screams started to magnify greatly. I ran out of the room to get a break, only to hear more families mourn their lost loved ones in the disaster. But then one of the nurses screamed at me. "Hey, what are you doing here!?"

"Please, there's a tornado outside! You have to get out! Get everyone out of here!" I ordered, trying to save their lives.

"You're the one who caused this! Look how many people you killed!" She screamed out pointing to a hallway full of dead patients.

I pleaded my innocence. "I just got here! How did I kill these people when I wasn't even here!?"

"You killed them! This is your fault!"

Another voice called out to me further down the hall. "You murderer!"

"God is coming for you, murderer!"

I clenched my ears shut, but the shouts of accusations only got louder in them. I just continued running, running until I came into a room full of corpses hanging from the ceiling. Each of the departed humans looked at me as I passed by them. I apologized as I bumped into a few of them, at least until a hand grabbed me to hold me in place. The bodies surrounded me and started whispering the words 'God is coming for you'. Without any hands, I could not fend them off properly, they all just pulled and tugged at me, their cold hands tearing the skin off of my body as though it was clothes.

I screamed one final time, begging for help. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! God, forgive me! I'm so sorry!"

A pair of hands appeared on my cheeks, pulling my head up to see the image of a cloaked mare looking back at me. "Nondis! It took me forever to get to you."

I continued to apologize. "I'm sorry! I'll do whatever you want!"

"Nondis, look at me!" She called out as she allowed her horn to glow a deep blue. She glared at the chaos taking place around me and shouted in a mighty voice.

Her voice echoed throughout the dreamscape, silencing the chanting whispers and cleaning the entire room of the corpses that surrounded us. Though there was banging on all the doors leading into the room. Noticing the place had calmed down considerably, I thanked the hooded figure. "Thank you so much. But we gotta get out of here, those tornadoes are going to rip this place to pieces."

The mare took off the hood to reveal herself. "Nondis, it is I."

The banging on the doors came to a halt as I noticed who it was that saved me. "Luna? Wait what are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" She answered, reaching her hoof out to touch the ground, transforming the tiled floor into an endless mirror pool. "This is the dream realm. None of this is real."

I fell to my knees, expressing some relief as I watched my hands slowly come back to me. "Oh, thank God. It's just that a lot of what I dealt with for some time has felt like a fever dream gone wild, everything going wrong all at once."

Luna approached me slowly as she spoke. "All dreams after trauma feels much like what you've suffered. Sometimes, your mind wanders on it so much that you don't actually sleep."

"Well I'm in the dream world, so that's the former situation and not the latter." I replied.

"Only because Celestia had to put you to sleep. You started behaving erratically, and thus needed to be sedated."

I glanced down to my phone, realizing that it was nowhere near me. I couldn't even check the time. "Oh... I just started thinking about some stuff, and then the memories came flooding back, and not in a usual way. It felt like I was being force-fed those images."

"Possibly some psychological trauma and Umbra reactivating his spells on you." She explained. "Discord took the time to break those spells on you again, at least giving you the chance to be able to think freely without dealing with the more painful consequences."

"Okay. Well I guess that's a good thing. Doesn't really change much in the grand scheme of things." I stated.

"You'd be surprised of what it does change." She argued softly. "You'll be unlikely to have a sudden episode like the one you had. And in the coming years, you will learn how to better deal with your trauma, sometimes even making light of them. I won't say that it is to be made light of, but you may allow that to happen if you so choose it to help you cope with what has happened to you."

"So in the end I can either choose to live in regret and fear of it, or learn to laugh back in it's face." I thought aloud.

"For some few, they will sometimes fetishize the issue to help them process the memory that plagues them. But I doubt that will be the outcome you choose."

"No, it's not fun being jumped on." I said before my mind started replaying the memory of what happened to me. Before I knew it, I heard myself screaming in the distance. I turned around to see myself being strapped to the post, my wrists red and bloodied from struggling with the restraints, my ankles swelling from the attempt to escape, the dripping fluid that ran down my legs. I promptly looked away. "No... I am not fetishizing that."

Luna looked to me with sadness. "I am so sorry."

"Don't be. You didn't do it." I replied as the image soon dissipated. "I guess this will be one of those things I take with me to the grave."

"If that is what you choose to do. But if I can, I'd like to apply some input, not that you have to listen to what I'm suggesting." She said before changing the dreamscape once more to a much brighter scene, a bed of flowers in a serene garden. "Sometimes it is better to share that pain with the ones who you know you can trust, who can walk along with you in your recovery process. It's a rarely discussed topic, but I believe there is some catharsis in being able to reach out and talk. Perhaps that would be a better way, but it is your choice to make, on your own time. So don't feel pressured to discuss anything, don't open up unless you truly feel that you can, and do not force yourself to push through it as though it didn't happen. There's no better way to damage one's self than to move the damaged limb as frequently as though there is nothing wrong."

As the scene continued to change for the better and brighter, I nodded back at the princess. "...Thank you... Luna."

My eyes opened up to see the light filtered into my room from the window across the way. It was morning, and the room I was in had been warmed to a comfortable level. I sat up to see Solemn Oath standing guard next to my bed. "Good morning, captain." She said in a soft and friendly tone.

I instinctively reached for my nightstand, thinking to grab my phone off of the charger, but I had remembered in it's absence that Umbra had taken it somewhere I couldn't summon for it. "What time is it?" I asked the guardsmare.

"It is sometime after eight on this Monday morning." She replied. "We are currently undergoing our second shift change of the day."

"Second shift?" I questioned. "I thought that was supposed to be sometime at ten."

"The princess issued more changes in the shift, maximizing security within the castle. Instead of having six hour posts, we now have four, utilizing each half of the current security squads you've drafted. So instead of having 4 shifts per day, we look at six, but with each squad being split down the middle and staggered for maximum effect. Basically there are twelve 'shifts' now."

"Isn't that a little stressful on the sleep cycle?" I questioned.

"It's only temporary." She answered as she walked over to my workstation. "And this here also helps with the shift management. We can see who goes in and comes out wherever and whenever. This is some pretty good stuff."

"It's human tech, that's just par for the course." I responded as sat up and realized that I had on no clothes. I opened my nightstand and pulled out a pair of boxers briefs. I held the sheet up while I put on my underwear before moving on to finding more clothes. "Sorry I look a bit primitive here, I'm just getting ready. I'm gonna hit the shower."

"The princess highly recommended that you'd bathe today." Solemn Oath replied. "She wanted to make sure that you were thoroughly cleaned after your recovery on yesterday evening."

"Okay." I answered with a sagely nod. "I see what she means─"

"And by bathe, she wants you to visit her and enter the royal bathing pool." She interjected.

I stared back at her, in some mode of discomfort. "I... guess..."

The guardsmare watched as I gathered my clothes for the day, as well as grabbing a few bits of temporary attire for my walk through the halls. She remained silent up to the point where I was about to put on my pants. "Sooooo.... Next Tuesday is actually Hearts and Hooves Day."

"Hearts and Hooves, I think that's the Valentine's Day for Equestrians, isn't it? What about it?" I asked.

"Well... nothing extremely major. I just wanted to know, or maybe it's probably too soon for me to even ask."

I shook my head at her. "I might have plans already. Though that depends on if I'm even in any mood at this point."

"Oh." The mare appeared mum for a while. But as I reached out to the door, I noticed that her magic had barred me from leaving the room. I looked back as she appeared to try and motivate herself to say something. "...I understand a lot has happened. But..." I quirked my brow at her, wondering what it was she was going to say. She still appeared nervous in trying to verbalize it for a little while. But when she did, she appeared very stout in her delivery. "Please give the princess your undivided attention on that day."

My eyes widened for a moment as I had realized that she had potentially found us out. I initially tried to deny her suspicions. "What is it with ponies thinking me and Princess Celestia are a thing? It's just a bunch of rumors."

"It wasn't just Iron Hoof and Senator Damper Trot who made mention of it, but even Umbra hinted at it. Princess Celestia herself confessed to it." She replied, sitting on her haunches as her magic continued to seal the door shut. She chuckled to herself before continuing. "I guess I should've seen the signs sooner. You get excused for everything you do wrong. You get special privilege to paid time off when you've exhausted far more than you're on schedule for, especially for being a rookie. You knew of her personal issues long before anyone else and elected to keep it a secret. You pretend to be crass and informal like the two of you are at odds, and she pretends to be indifferent and cold to whatever you say. Your special assignment has a lot of merit, but also a lot of ulterior motives. She's called in sick more times in the past two months than she ever has in the time she's been recorded as princess to the realm. When you report to her chambers, she doesn't snore after a long day of work like she usually would, she stays up for even longer. You're the only one who has unmeasured access to the secret passages of the castle, making your sneak-about even easier. And Monday morning of last week, she wouldn't stop smiling or prancing around until you were mentioned, where she'd act cold and mostly unresponsive, all while giving you a free pass to do whatever, which is like the strangest thing to do for somepony you supposedly see as annoying and irresponsible."

"Are you sure that's what you heard?" I questioned the mare.

She walked up to me and answered in a quiet voice. "She says she'll love you no matter how broken you are."

The features of my face softened. Something pinged inside of my chest when I heard those words. I knew it wasn't anything Solemn wouldn't just say out of the blue. They were pointed, intended for me to hear and receive. I couldn't help but to feel a bit of moistness develop in my eyes. I wiped them dry on the spot. "Yeah, whatever. You're just talking."

She smiled as she then said. "As long as you love each other, it shouldn't matter what the world thinks. Love is love, you know?"

I found myself smiling at her kind words of acceptance. "...Yeah. I guess that's true." I said as I finally came clean about it. "I guess the cat's out of the bag. I'm definitely in trouble now if she exposed that to you."

"She never really said it out loud, if you know what I mean." She pointed out.

"Yup, she has a habit of doing that." I replied as I looked to the guardsmare. "...I know it's probably a little weird to hear, but─"

"My loyalty is to the princess." She interrupted. "If anything, all I do is to protect her and her well-being. So if she sees happiness in being with you, then I'll protect that happiness with every breath in my body. If Iron Hoof had shown me anything at all, it's the value of having unrequited loyalty and admiration. Not just his false brand of it, the superficial appearances with shady intentions, but rather the true essence of it." She then mugged at me playfully. "So don't get too cocky, or your secret may go out to more than just me."

Her magic dissipated from the door knobs, allowing me through. After hearing her confirm that she would be willing to keep our relationship a secret, I showed appreciation for her. "Thank you. I know we got off to a rough start, but I really do hope that you get the recognition you deserve."

"Whatever." She said, fanning me out the door in a hurry. "Now get moving. She's waiting for you in the dining hall when you finish. I'll probably see you there."

"I'll be quick then."

As I stepped out into the hall, she walked out of the room and flagged me down for one more piece of advice. "Also, there's another thing I should warn you of before you go walking down the halls today."

I looked at the mare curiously. "And what's that?"

The press.

While the past few days have been harrowing for the public at large, especially with news of the situation expanding further than just the battlements of Canterlot itself, many sought to try and find any kind of scoop to break a story of how this all came to be. However, there were some press members who were still in the castle at the time Shining initiated his spell. So with them being stuck, most of them grew pretty antsy and groggy over not being able to go home. That made their patience and demeanor much worse than it should be. Granted, it was easy for their stories to get out of the walls of the keep, it was virtually impossible to get back in once they were removed. As a result, many elected to stay behind and try to pull together a story.

Which leads me to say how much I didn't miss being at the center of their attention.

On my way to my bath, they started few in number, maybe one or two skipping the formalities for questions. When I finished and headed to breakfast, that's when their numbers swelled to about fourteen of them trying to get a scoop of something I wasn't in any mood to elaborate on right then. I just wanted to see if I would still process food normally, much less hoping for some of Celestia's pancakes. Them all just diving head-first into questions had irked me with every step they matched my pace. When I managed to get myself inside the dining room, they weren't too thrilled to see me walk off into a restricted area without answering a single question. They were like bees waiting for a submerged target to surface for air.

Everyone was already seated, not a single plate was on the table as Shining Armor greeted me. "Hey, you look a little more relaxed."

"Are you feeling okay?" Cadance asked gently.

"Ease up, you two." Crescent replied to the married couple. "We're not those sharks out there looking for answers. Let's give him his space."

Luna sat at the table, but appeared to have fatigued deeply set in her eyes. "Well I can guarantee that he slept considerably better than at any point this weekend."

"I'm sorry to tax you so bad." I replied to the night princess.

"I would like for you to not apologize for what was out of your control." She said sternly.

Mel pulled out a chair and walked me towards it. "You know, we weren't going to eat anything without you. So we're pretty glad you came around. Some of us are pretty hungry."

I looked to Alex, thinking back of our time in the lab. "How'd you sleep?"

"Dude, I saw someone's severed head sitting on a shelf. You expect me to close my eyes on that shit running through my brain?" He replied as he yawned.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep either." Rickey cosigned.

"None of us did." Melanie said as she slid my plate over to me. "I'd be lying if I told you that I was comfortable seeing Jasper the way I did then, and more so seeing those pictures of you during that operation."

"I don't think we should dwell on that topic for too long." Blueblood suggested. "There's still the psychological trauma that would ensue."

Some part of me had started to grow more uncomfortable, especially with the aforementioned pictures being floated around. As it started to show on my face, Solemn Oath herself only grew curious. "Wait, what pictures are you guys talking about?"

Everyone in the room stared at her as she only wanted to know the context of what was going on. Shining and Cadance both wished to know of what we were discussing. "Actually, I'm quietly wanting to see what it is that's got you all so on edge about these supposed pictures." Cadance replied.

"I'm sure whatever they are, they aren't pretty." Twilight murmured.

Rainbow then asked to Melanie. "What was it a picture of exactly?"

I then answered. "Probably of that operation he tried on both me and Jasper."

"But wait, I thought you said that Jasper was dead." Twilight replied.

"He is. Very." Rickey answered grimly. "Humans don't live without our heads, that goes for a lot of living things. We saw Jasper... and I don't really want to think on that for too long."

I turned to Solemn and moved my shirt to reveal the scar on my neck. "This scar here looks pretty surgical. That's all the way around my neck... and through it. If I recall correctly, he said something about cutting between the cartilage of C4 and C5. In his words exactly 'lift, move, attach'." I looked to my empty plate, already imagining myself sitting on it. "...I'm not supposed to be alive by any means."

Solemn's eyes bulged as she observed the scar on my neck, her jaw slightly ajar. "Oh... That's... not a good thing to remember."

"Yeah, that's the run of things." Alex interrupted. "Now can we please change the subject?"

I myself had no qualms with my brother's request. I didn't want to think of myself being a detachable item for much longer than I needed to. Mel jumped in to start with another topic. "So has anyone ever checked in on that one senator in the dungeon? I know the last time we heard of him was him screaming down the hall."

"Let me guess, he wants to be free or something of the sort, right?" I asked.

"Oh he's been freed of something." Stanton replied with an eyeroll.

"It ain't the freedom he was looking for, but it's freedom regardless." Cliff added.

"So I take it that I might have missed something with Damper. What happened and what is he free of?" I asked.

"Well, he is free to choose his own gender." Alabaster answered, sitting back in his chair. "And he's free to choose if he'll either cooperate with any future investigations or not. I mean Crème is already on the bandwagon and he's spilling out absolutely everyone he's seen visit the lounge, or even worked on Project Congregant. Politicians who don't fess up are going to be facing some hard time, possibly worse."

"Honestly, if you hadn't brought him into holding like you did, we would've never had the chance to verify where the new location of his hideout was, meaning we would've never gotten to you as quick as we did." Blue stated. "It's a good thing you nailed him on what he did or else we'd still be looking for you."

"Well that's good." I said calmly. "So where does that leave us for now?"

"You tell us." Melanie replied. "I mean you're our leader as of the moment the elements became a factor. You're the guy who started the whole us six having a glow-up."

"Oh yeah speaking of which, I have some concerns about some of the things that happened as a result of said glow-up." Rickey began as he hunched under the table for a moment before propping his foot on the table. His toes and the bottom of his feet were red, and not in a usual human way. "Yeah, I don't think that's supposed to be normal."

"Yeah, my eyes haven't changed either." Cliff stated as he shrugged. "But at least you can wear some socks or something to hide it."

"I have pink strands of hair now, but they're pink from the root. The deal is that they've been multiplying throughout the night, and I've tried dying it out, to make it a little more of a highlight here and there, but the dye just washes right off. I might be going to pink altogether."

"I dunno, you've been a pinkie-head for a month." Pinkie said with a snorting giggle. "You might as well embrace the pink."

"I think it's a pretty color, you'll be beautiful no matter what happens." Fluttershy cosigned.

"Well that may be great, but my fingers have turned orange." Stanton replied. "Might be great for the transfer, but I don't think I'll love having a perpetual case of Cheeto fingers."

"Yeah, and I work in a professional environment. Tattoos aren't really a good thing for my workplace, and my wife is gonna kill me." Alex noted as he pulled back his sleeve to reveal a purple and white tattoo depicting diamonds reaching from his wrist to his elbow.

"Dayum, I want what you got." Cliff said enthusiastically.

But as he showed his enthusiasm, I looked further at something that flashed blue in his mouth. "Hey Cliff... can you open your mouth for a sec?"

"What for?" He questioned.

"Just do it for a sec."

"Uh, okay?" He said before opening his mouth up wide for me and the other to see that his entire tongue had turned blue.

Pinkie giggled at the man. "Hee hee! You look like you've been sucking blueberry rock candy!"

"Dude, your whole tongue is blue." Mel pointed out. "And I don't mean the kind of blue where you've been sucking on a sucker for some minutes. Like your shit looks pretty exotic."

"Ayo, what am I supposed to do about that!?" He questioned.

"I guess we have to play it all off somehow." Stanton said. "I mean my hands aren't always going to be in gloves for the rest of my life."

"Dude, you got magic. You ain't got nothin' to worry about." Cliff called out.

I looked to my younger brother and asked him. "Wait, you really have magic? I thought that thing you did in the lab was like a one-time thing when the elements got activated."

"Bro, I smashed a whole-ass hardwood bedframe without even touching it. I straight up couldn't control my shit. And just maybe Saturday night I got to where I could pretend to move something like I'm using my hands, and then moving it over to you." He said as he demonstrated with his teacup. He levitated the cup on top of my plate. "See?"

I couldn't help but to share my enthusiasm for his newfound ability. "Dude, that's awesome!"

"I know, right!?" He hollered out, causing everything small in the room to spontaneously levitate before he quickly corrected himself. "Oh right, sorry. Emotional control."

As all the smaller items landed back on the table, I stood amazed at my younger brother. "Dude, you are waaaay farther ahead than I ever was. It took me getting shit thrown at me to be able to lift more than one book at a time, and that was over the course of a week."

"Yeah, it took me a bit of shit getting thrown my way too," He said, glancing over to Alabaster. "But at least I know if I ever do retaliate, I need to guard my balls before they get bitten off."

"Stanton, he's not going to bite your dick off, chill."

Cliff shook his head as he argued against my take. "Nah, he'll suck your dick like it's scripture and collect like it's tithes and offerings. Then he'll rip your shit off like a rich televangelist. Trust me, I've seen the nigga do it."

I looked to Alabaster. "Really?"

"Well I did say that Damper was free to choose his own gender." He replied, covering his muzzle.

I gawked at the stallion and looked back to Stanton, who nodded in slow acknowledgement. "We are all witnesses."

While I was still gawking at the stallion, the doors opened to reveal Kalimba walking through the door on her own strength. She looked up to me and immediately galloping to my direction, even tackling me out of my chair and hugging me, burying her face in my chest. I strained from the pain of landing on my elbow. "Geez, you could've at least slowed down a little."

She didn't respond to me at all, just hugging me and listening against my chest for a heartbeat. She breathed as if she was distressed to see me walking around, nuzzling me as she just stayed there to listen. Crescent spoke up as he and his wife entered shortly after she did. "She was a bit of a mess to look after when we saw what became of you. Umbra showed us pictures."

"So I've heard." I said before getting a prompt tug at the collar of my shirt. As I was lifted, I felt a pair of wings and hooves wrap around me.

I looked back to see Celestia nuzzling up to my cheek tenderly as she welcomed me to breakfast. "You don't even realize how much grief we had to fight through, do you? We had to operate as if we had seen the evidence of your death. I am more than thankful that you are indeed not."

As I stood back up, I noticed that she had carried in some pancakes, many of which with various fruits and whipped cream decorations depicting smiling faces. The mare placed my plate down before anyone else's. "When I saw what became of you, I did not know what to do." Kalimba said as she clenched to my legs. "From now on I stand with pride, never to once leave your side."

"Poor girl became suicidal when Umbra showed us what he did." Blueblood explained. "Offered to buy us time against that monster, only to get swatted to a nearby wall."

"Well I'm glad that you're okay." I said to the zebra as I sat down before my plate. "I guess you're more like your father than you think."

The zebracorn eagerly grabbed a chair and sat herself next to me. "You would have made me dat way if you had not lived. I would have lost my mind, trying to escape to a time where you would exist to me. Abeg, do not ever leave me dat way, ever."

"You are your father's child." I muttered as I hugged her back. "Guess we all dodged bullets except me."

"Oh no, Nondis. You forgot what party you crashed in on yesterday." Stanton replied. "That son of a bitch was about to Hannibal Lecter me. He would've had me eating my own brain if he had the time. And each one of our asses was on the chopping block too."

"Did you get chopped up like I did?" I questioned. Stanton remained quiet, knowing he couldn't say anything to equate. "So consider that bullet dodged."

The athlete dug into his plate of pancakes in conceding his argument. "Point taken."

After breakfast, Solemn Oath had dismissed herself to the barracks, already devising several methods to which the guard could defend the castle if anything else were to happen. And considering what she had just seen yesterday evening after the rescue, she decided to take a more proactive approach to getting things done. And since the humans were trying to put some effort into learning how to use the elements, it left a lot to be desired in the lower chain of command.

When she arrived, there were already a bunch of other guards looking to polish up and clean off their weapons for their new patrols. A lot of the ones who were still assigned to the castle were still relatively new, some fresh recruits, some with one to two years under their helms, and very few with over ten years of servitude. Most of the higher ranks were all outside of the bubble out of request of being stationed elsewhere. And without their orders, many of which were left to wait until the barrier around the castle had either subsided or fell. Most of the recent situations and efforts over the weekend had dissuaded many from wanting to come in for work, as they did not wish to have to deal with dead bodies and pissed off citizens. And with the captain presumably missing in their eyes, they felt it was better to not try to come in until a change of status was announced to the masses.

If the captain got swallowed up by something in Canterrot, leaving long-deceased corpses in it's wake, why even try then?

However, not all long-tenured ponies had gotten out of the castle grounds before the bubble went up. Some officers still remained on post, other high ranking enlisted guards were present, but they were few and far between. Solemn Oath was one, and she would soon run into the other three that she knew.

"Solemn!" Dress Right called out cheerfully, dressed up in her armor. She ran over to the guard and welcomed her with a hug as her other two friends joined her in the greeting.

"Holy hell, I thought you would've been one of the lucky ones who dipped out before all this mess started to boil over." Cobalt Blue said.

Solemn hugged the others as she questioned them. "Girls, it's good to see you. What's been going on here?"

Gleaming Brass then explained what happened on their end. "Well Celestia's called out an all-hooves-to-the-armory order. So our punishment's been deferred until the call is rescinded."

"I'm just glad you girls are safe. This whole week's been a madness. I haven't really slept because of it all." Solemn said to her friends in a quiet tone.

"I heard." Cobalt stated. "One of the senators get murdered in cold blood, some rotten bodies show up in town, a large creature smashes the main checkpoint, and the captain's nowhere to be seen during it all."

"Honestly, it's been a pretty eventful weekend for him to just suddenly disappear." Dress Right said, speaking critically of the aforementioned officer.

"Probably went to take another few days off while Prince Shining Armor does his job for him." Gleaming Brass said with a sarcastic chuckle.

Solemn wasn't as comfortable to hear the trio speak ill of the captain. While they weren't made aware of what happened to him, she knew to some degree of the trouble he's had over the weekend. "Have any of you actually seen the captain lately?"

"Nope, have you?" Dress Right answered with a snarky disposition.

"Don't tell me you're actually going to go to side with that cocky loser after what he did to you and all of us." Cobalt replied with irritation written all over her face. "He got us all demoted, and we have to deal with all of this mess, plus the punishment we have to go through once this is all over. I couldn't care less what he goes through."

Solemn tried to stress to her friends the seriousness of the situation, all while they continued to make light of it. "Girls... he had a pretty rough going."

"Rough enough to skip town during the most eventful weekend we've had in months?" Gleaming Brass questioned.

"You try being tortured for forty-eight hours and tell me about it." Solemn argued, growing worried that her friends had very little compassion for the captain.

Cobalt stepped up to Solemn, arguing in favor of the experiences she and the others shared. "Tortured, we've been tortured for a little over a week now. You wanna tell me about being tortured? Try being sleep-deprived and going through rigorous PT like you're a damn rookie! We're over thirty, we can't just get up and go like that anymore! How much sleep do you think we get!? Do you know what kind of gruel we've been forced to eat!? How long do you think it'll take us to even get back our ranks!? For all I know, the captain's had the good life all while we've been reliving basic training. You of all ponies should know that having to wait two years and some change is far too long to even try to get back our ranks, especially when we should be going up! How does what he went through excuse any of that!?"

Before Solemn could rebut her friend's argument, a guard called out from down the hall. "Captain approaching! Present Arms!"

While everyone had snapped to attention, Solemn whispered out the side of her mouth to Cobalt. "You're gonna see why in a sec."

Many of the guards who saluted watched as I walked past, some looking back at me as I strolled down the hall. I didn't really get much of a chance to look myself in a mirror, I just cleaned up the best I could out of habit and walked out the door to try and get some auxiliary work done. When I approached Solemn, she was conversing with her friends, whom I'm sure weren't too thrilled to see me regardless.

I instead addressed the mare who I confided in. "Solemn, been meaning to ask you something before I get back to getting harassed by the press."

The mare stared up at me, not saying anything for a while before speaking. "Shoot away."

"It's about the bodies you guys found. How many did you all run across?"

"Forty-five." She answered quickly. "Why?"

I then asked her yet another question before giving her my reason for asking such a grim question. "Okay. So there were forty five bodies recovered. Were there ever a record of the ones collected, identification, stuff like that?"

She didn't hesitate, she summoned a manila envelope with all the records detailing the efforts of their work on Friday night. "Here's all the information we gathered from then on."

As I collected the records, I then answered the 'why' portion of her inquiry. "Thanks. I'm trying to prepare for a press release and I don't want to answer any questions until I know for certain what all happened while I was away."

Solemn was firm in condemning my intentions. "Sir, you don't have to strain over something like that."

"They're going to be asking questions all damn day, I might as well answer something. At least explain what's going on."

"What can you answer, how do you answer for where you've been?" She asked, seemingly to be in defense of me more than trying to be critical of my decision. "If I were you, I'd follow the princess' advice and get some rest."

I knelt down and quietly responded to her. "Solemn, I know it sounds strange, but being in a quiet room by myself is the most fear-inducing thing I can think of right now. So please let me just work this one out until I can get comfortable."

"We just don't want you to have another episode." She warned. "Yesterday didn't exactly exude confidence in the ranks. Most of us were scared shitless when we saw what you had devolved into."

I placed a hand on her shoulder, her eyes etching out the various surgical scars on my fingers. "I'm fine. Staying busy is how I'm trying to process shit, I don't need a single moment of silence to let my thoughts stir. Otherwise, that thing that happened yesterday might happen all over again. I appreciate your concern, but let me work this one through."

As I was standing up, Cobalt stepped out of line and spoke out. "Permission to speak freely, sir."

While I could understand how upset she is in seeing me, I still felt that she deserved some answers. At least she'd probably ask the main question that many long-tenured guards would ask. "Alright. Shoot."

"Equestria is in a chaos, where have you been?" She questioned firmly.

The thoughts began to stir in my mind, I didn't want to stew on them for too much. So I answered her in one simple word. "Busy."

She didn't accept my answer. "How is it that you are busy when Equestria desperately needs your attention? The ponies out there are in a panic because of what happened, we're on red alert, and you're just walking around looking for notes for a press release. What excuse do you have for being busy during a time of crisis?"

"Cobalt, can you chill!?" Solemn quickly sprinted to my defense. "The captain's had a rough weekend as it is! Just let him work for a change! He's already trying to take responsibility for something he's not in control of, and then he's about to go out there and save the world, maybe you need a bit of a briefing yourself so that you don't get lost with what's going on here! There's some guy out there doing bad things, terrible things. He killed a senator and most of his family, cut his daughter's eyes out, I had to work that scene and I haven't slept in days! Do you see me complaining about my experience!? Then there's what happened on Friday night where not only did I help in the cleanup, but also having to take a trip to Canterrot in the same hour. We had to interrogate another senator, who we found out is conspiring against the crown, and then we get the captain back, only to realize how truly messed up his weekend has been."

"Are you serious right now?" Cobalt angrily replied.

Solemn almost grew confrontational as she poked her hoof into her friend's chest. "ARE YOU SERIOUS!? The princess needs our cooperation, he needs our help with the smaller stuff because he's got way bigger fish to fry. Wanna know how big that fish is?" She asked as she raised my left hand to reveal my palm. Embedded in the skin of my palm was the Element of Magic. "There! That's how big!"

"Solemn." I called out as she continued to hold my hand up with her magic.

She pointed to the jewel to further make her point. "That there is one of the Elements of Harmony. And it's not there because he stole it."

"I think that's enough." I urged.

While the other two gasped in disbelief, Cobalt shook her head in complete denial. "No way."

I reached out and quenched the unicorn's horn with my free hand, freeing my wrist in turn. "That was not something I wanted to put out there, Solemn."

"Equestria needs to know what you are to it!" She said, focusing her newly mounted frustration at me. "Just be real with us! You're not just some random human who just popped up on the scene. You're a guard, now an element bearer! You and your friends have went from being a protected species to protecting Equestria's future! How can I be quiet when I know what you are and what you're going to fight!? You don't even realize that by the end of all of this, you and your friends will be on a WINDOW! Your chapter in Equestria's future is all but immortalized at this point. And it's time you stop seeing yourself as nothing less than THE leader we need to hear from. The press out there want to beat you up and call you incompetent, I'm sure you don't want to tell them the hell you went through, I'm sure they don't care! Your cause is greater than answering a bunch of questions to appease some grouchy leeches known as so-called 'reporters' trying to break a story."

"That's a lot of speaking freely, don't you think?" I informed her, trying to find a nice way to tell her to shut up.

"With all due respect, sir." She replied in defiance, but not out of disrespect. "But I think you should go out there and lead by example, not pander to a bunch of columnists and press." She then refocused her frustration towards her friends. "And he's going to need all the help he can get. And not one of us are going to get in our petty feelings and step in the way. So if there is a problem with him leading us, just say it so we'll know who not to use. Not only Equestria is on the line, but the human world is too! That's why they are element bearers, because their world depends on them to defend it. And if they defend us by extension, we fight beside them because that's our job! So if you can't get over yourself for Equestria's sake, then don't even wear that armor anymore!"

After hearing Solemn take such a firm stance, the other guards in the hall looked to each other and silently made their decisions. Many responded by remaining stationary, keeping their armor on, and awaiting any further orders to be issued. Only the trio of higher-ranked mares stood as the only ones to not make a visual commitment.

Gleaming Brass looked at me and spoke out. "Permission to speak freely, sir."

I rolled my eyes and nodded. "Sure, go ahead."

"You look really ghoulish." She pointed out as she summoned a pocket mirror. "I don't think you really took the time to look in a mirror this morning, so I'll give you mine to─"

"Please don't." I knelt down and closed the mirror, shaking my head. "The last mirror I looked into broke, and it was quite expensive. So please don't."

Gleaming Brass acknowledged my request and put the mirror away as she spoke to her friend. "Solemn, we stand with you."

"You're our friend, of course we'll be right here with you." Dress Right added. "We serve together, and serve one another. That's what we always said, every single day."

Cobalt looked up at me before looking to Solemn. "I hope any of all of what you're saying is true, because we're all scared for our lives here. We trust you."

Solemn's expression did not change. "I know you girls are here for me. But I'm asking you all to be there for him this time."

Cobalt walked up to me and pointed at me. "I know times are dire, but we don't think it's fair to do all of this and then have to go back to being punished afterwards. So we want a reduction of our punishment."

I shrugged at her request, openly acknowledging the mess that she and the others probably had to go through as a result of this mess. It was only fair that I'd cut her punishment in half, possibly add more incentive. "Considering what's coming, I'll give you a week's paid leave and fill out the paperwork for six months of therapy. Soon as you're done, drop the request, I'll have it signed the next day."

Cobalt appeared confused by the seemingly generous offer. "I don't know what that therapy's all about, but I'll take the vacay." She cheered but stopped short to negotiate one additional condition. "Vacation starts after you sign the waiver."

"Done." I replied.

The mare puffed out her chest proudly as she stood with her friends. "You're a pretty cool guy to negotiate with, if only you had shown us that sooner we wouldn't be so cold to you. And all we thought you were gonna do was play that stupid game with all the boys in the tavern."

A moment of horror flashed before my eyes as I heard the word play. I shook my head, ridding myself of the image of the filly and her monster that nearly took my life. "Sometimes appearances are deceiving." I quietly warned.

Cobalt stood firm, proudly saluting me. "So, Captain Save-The-World, what are we going to be fighting against. sir?"

Outside The Castle Walls...

With the patrols continuing to survey the active and damaged checkpoints, a moderate-sized group of unicorns had gathered outside of the battlements. Numbering to around twenty or so guild members, they stood nearby in a dark alleyway where they could not be seen converging.

From there, Umbra laid out his intents and scheduled their plain for what he had envisioned next. A stallion leading the coalition had struck a hoof against the magenta barrier that protected the walls of the keep. "So you want us to try to tele on in that bubble and try to find any weaknesses?"

"I would like for you to not disappoint me." Umbra replied with a smile to his subordinates.

The leading stallion smirked with confidence and walked towards the direction of the damaged checkpoint, hoping to find an area where he wouldn't be seen as quickly upon his entry. He gazed around until he saw a statue sitting close by the royal garden entrance. His horn shone brightly as he responded with pride. "Teleportation's an easy go."

He disappeared into the checkpoint, showing up exactly where he intended. Umbra began to count to himself quietly as he started to see the same black magic crackling around the unicorn's body. Without him wishing it, he was suddenly dumped back where he had teleported from.

He looked back at the barrier with confusion. "Hey, what gives!?"

"Ah, so it's made to where it doesn't matter if it's me or someone else. Guess this should be an easy way to stress test this unusual little caveat." The sneering doctor replied as he summoned his cane to hit against the barrier, only being as effective as the once-confident guild member's hoof.

"What's unusual is how many of us you got trying to zap ourselves into the castle." One of the other guild members presented.

Twirling his cane, Umbra responded. "Sometimes you need to brute force a method to further prove it's effectiveness. Perhaps you lot wouldn't mind making this happen for a few more drinks, possibly another week on me?"

Not wanting to turn down the generous offer, the group of unicorns all ignited their horns with the intention of doing what was proposed to them. "Hell boss, all you had to say was fine eating for the night and three days tacked on, But another week of unlimited rounds, I'll be in a fucking coma!" Said the leader of the group, who further cheered the others to join him. "Well you heard the Doc! Another week of drinks if we make this shit work!"

"For the Doc!" One guild member called out.

"FOR THE DOC!" The group called out before all disappearing at once.

But just as easily as they pressed themselves in, they all found themselves being piled up in a confusing bunch upon rejection. Umbra watched with amusement as the group continued to try their hoof at being the lucky one who would be able to break through. And as they were struggling to make that remote possibility a definite for at least one of them, a small little filly's head poked out from the wall of one of the buildings, prodding from a dark shadow. "Daddy, what are they all doing?"

"They're doing exactly what I want them to do, dear." He replied calmly, petting the young filly atop her head.

"So what do we do now?" She questioned in a curious manner.

Umbra looked to the filly then looked to the same place where his first volunteer tried to go. An idea came to his mind as he pondered on the possible exploits he could find and use. "Can daddy borrow one of your dolls, sweetheart?" Without even having to answer, she dumped a body from her collective out of the wall and left the corpse before him. It was the archdeacon who he eliminated yesterday. "Ah, thank you much."

The filly turned her head up to the top of the barrier, measuring out it's height. "That big bubble is so shiny. It looks like the one from years ago that turned the sky pink."

"Well you aren't wrong. It is the same spell, the same caster, the same everything but smaller."

As Umbra levitated the corpse from the ground, the filly made note of the deceased pony. "I'm sad that Mr. Sacred Ark is a doll now."

"Don't be sad. He's just helping daddy out in a different way now." Umbra replied as he eyed the exact corner where his volunteer had tried to enter.

The young filly started to show some excitement. "Is he going inside to help us get big brother back?" She questioned.

"Indeed he is." He said, teleporting the body inside. But a few seconds later, the body was unceremoniously dumped right back at the stallion's hooves. "Or maybe not."

"Do you want me to try, daddy?" The filly questioned, starting to phase herself from out of the wall completely.

Umbra held a hoof up to deny her. "No not yet, let's wait until the sun goes down. We'll start when most of them have gone to bed. For now, get back home and get your rest. When you wake up, I want you at your best for playtime."

"Okay!" She replied, morphing back into her shadow and retreating into the darkness.

Umbra looked down at the corpse and watched as it soon disappeared beneath his hooves. He then glanced back to the barrier with a moment of thought towards the young prince who cast him away. "Let's see if he can keep this up."

"Sir!" A voice called out from further down the alley, catching the stallion by surprise.

He looked back to the guild member that approached him, namely a batpony mare who wanted to make a report. "What do you want?"

"It's the city mortuary, we've secured the morgue and have captured the guards on patrol there. What are our orders?"

The stallion hummed with approval at the mare's report. "Keep the armor, have some of the guild infiltrate the castle defenses. I'll need that to accomplish one of the things on my sweeping checklist of items to have done for this week."

"And what of the guards sir?" She asked.

Umbra turned to her and walked up to her, placing a hoof on her chin, asking with an icy glare. "What do you think will become of them?" He quirked a brow and tilted his head at the mare, who shuddered in response.

"Y-Yes sir." She replied before she galloped away.

Looking back at the group who tried to teleport their way into the keep, he saw more and more of them getting launched back out onto the cobblestone road. For that moment, his amusement had dissipated and he began to appear bored with what was taking place.

He sighed. "I'm almost beginning to lose my patience."

Meanwhile in the Castle...

As Twilight sat with her family, Shining started to scream out in pain, holding his head as his horn continued to spark uncontrollably with the alicorn magic he used in his spell. Both of his parents stood up to try and see what was wrong as the young prince winced and snarled as the magic began to issue it's toll on him.

The young princess questioned her brother worriedly. "Shining, what's wrong?"

He continued to soldier through his pain, answering her question. "The spell, it's going crazy. I thought I would have to do this until Umbra gets bored or something, but it feels like there's more than one of him trying to get in."

"Shining, you might have to stop casting that spell." His wife warned.

"Sorry, Cadie. I have to protect the castle." He responded.

The pink princess argued his decision. "Shining Armor, if you use that spell enough, the magic will consume you. Stop this."

"And let Umbra in? Which would you rather have happen, me needing a dose of rainbows to the face or you and our unborn daughter being in danger?" He questioned.

"I would rather face off against him than to see you become consumed!" Cadance replied as another pony entered the room, mainly to see what was the cause of the disturbance. "Blueblood!"

"Oh what is it now?" The seasoned royal questioned.

Shining was about to answer, but another surge of the magic he used had become so bad that he had to deal with a surging migraine. So Twilight answered in his place. "Shining's spell is backfiring. It's activating so rapidly, it's draining his magic. Soon it will consume his mind."

"Is there a possibility that Umbra's using multiple bodies to try and get in?" Blueblood inquired.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it needs to stop." Cadance answered with a look to her struggling husband.

"I'll look into it." The blond prince said as he quickly left the room.

The young prince screamed out once more as the magic surged through his body, sending surges of electricity throughout his body. Cadance hugged her husband, urging him to be strong. "The alicorn magic is manifesting far too frequently now. Shining can't handle it."

Twilight jumped into action, looking to try and take some of the load off of her brother. Her horn had glowed with the same dark aura, her eyes briefly transforming with it. She looked to her sister in law. "I'll try to help him. Unlike Shining, I can handle the magic a lot longer. You go with Blueblood and see about that disturbance that's causing the spell to trigger so rapidly."

"Hopefully it ends soon. I don't want my husband to become another King Sombra." Cadance complained.

"He won't. The worst that will happen is that he'll be driven mad by it." Informed the younger princess.

"Mad with power. It's forbidden for a reason, Twilight." Cadance continued to argue, this time warning her.

"I know. But it's our only option right now." She replied.

The mare hugged her husband and gave him a peck on the lips, her ears folding down with worry. "Shining Armor, you stay upright and sane, that's a wife's order."

Still struggling with some residual pain, the young prince smiled for his spouse. "A wife's order means that comes from the top. Can't refuse that."

"You look after him." Cadance said as she galloped out of the room to join Blueblood.

"Be careful out there!" Twilight hollered out before the doors creaked closed behind her.

After a visit to the barracks, I held a brief press conference. And by brief, I mean within the first thirty seconds, one of Celestia's assistants walked up to me and whispered that I were to not make any direct statements to the press for the time being, and that all interviews would be conducted through her and no one else.

I felt it was an odd move, Especially with what all has happened. I couldn't understand why she wanted that restriction, probably because she wanted to appear to have sole accountability? Even then, it's not really her fault that this happened, everyone is accountable for their own actions. And if Umbra wanted to ruin the lives and emotional security of hundreds of thousands of Equestrians, then it's his decision to do so knowing full-well what the consequences are.

Still, I had more answers to give to the public if they needed them, and this was the perfect time to actually provide that. But with the gag order being in place, I'm sure that many details would only come out after the fact. It was a decision I didn't agree with, one that greatly confused me. And if I had my phone, I would've typed up an Instagram message to her trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

Regardless, that press meeting ended before it could begin. And what happened as a result of me getting that order was pandemonium. I inadvertently drummed the hornets nest, and now they were chasing me down the halls like I was obligated to explain everything. And there was no rest in their pursuit, they were relentless and loud.

That would only last so long, some of the guards on post had ran security for the residential quarters, restricting access to both the guest residency hall and that of the royal family. I took that one turn and they were all left at the corner, under threat of arrest if they were to break the boundary. And on that note, I finally got back into my room, where all of the others had sat there to entertain themselves for the time being.

Melanie had stood in the bathroom, wearing her pants and a bra as she tried to bleach her hair. Cliff was gurgling mouthwash while holding a toothbrush. Rickey was sitting on the bed, holding his foot to try and see if the red could be cleaned off of it. Alex just gawked at his new tattoo. And Stanton manned the security feed to see the crowd of reporters gathering at the end of the hall, almost a good thirty to forty hoping to break a story.

I walked by him and looked at the live footage. "Yeah. It's getting pretty bad."

"What's getting pretty bad?" Rickey questioned, still observing his foot.

"These ponies out here trying to ask questions." Stanton answered for me. "How the hell does a bunch of reporters start acting like a gang? Give them a gun, they'd be holding us hostage and shit like they're interrogating us for the bank vault codes."

"Well they don't have guns, so yay for us." Melanie said from within the bathroom. She pulled the towel off of her head, hoping to see some semblance of blonde. Instead, it was as if the rest of her hair had reacted to the color that started to mutate in her head, and the peroxide she used only worsened it. So instead of having numerous streaks of brown and pink, she just had a full head of taffy pink hair. She slammed her fists into the counter and conceded defeat. "Ugh, I just want my brunette look back."

"Mel, you look beautiful." Rickey sounded out trying to reassure her.

"I like it, but what am I going to do when I go out there trying to be a cop with pink hair?" She questioned as she walked out of the bathroom with only her bra on, every guy in the room except for him averted their eyes.

"You could always wear a wig." I suggested.

The woman kissed her teeth and rolled her eyes. "And make my head hot as hell while I'm chasing people all over Austin? Do you not remember how hot summer gets?"

"But it's winter now." Rickey pointed out.

"Yeah, and I am looking at not just my future here, but ours as well." She replied.

Rickey then slammed his foot to the ground, flexing his toes. "Melanie, I got red toes. Can you please tell me why I'm not an any mood to be upset with what's going on?"

The woman groaned with frustration and sat herself to the ground, not wanting to argue anymore. "All of this is just a lot, isn't it?"

"You can say that again." Rickey said as he tossed her a shirt to wear. "Hell, just yesterday we thought Nondis was dead."

"You aren't lying there. The pictures were enough to haunt me for the rest of my life." She replied as she finally dressed herself. "I mean, thank God that wasn't the case, but... I just don't know what we're going to do now, well aside from saving the world probably."

Cliff walked off to the bathroom and spat his mouthwash into the sink, observing his mouth. "Cliff, you okay?" Rickey questioned.

"Nigga, I am trying to get this blue out of my mouth." He replied with his own growing discomfort. "Like how am I supposed to go out there singing with a blue throat like I'm the damn diva from The Fifth Element?"

"Well I think we're shit out of luck, sir. I tried to bleach my hair, peroxide has officially dyed the rest of my goddamn hair pink, it's like my natural brunette thing was the dye all along."

"At least Alex got a cool looking tattoo." Cliff called out.

"I work an office job, Vanessa doesn't like tattoos. She is going to hound me over this." He said as he rolled up his sleeve, revealing a growing pattern of purple diamonds with silver highlights extending the length of his forearm.

"Oh yeah, like a little bit of clothes can't hide your shit. I have to walk around with gloves on." Stanton replied, holding out his hands. "Everywhere I go, I'm gonna look like I've had nothing but Cheetos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Hell any more orange and I'll be a great stand-in for a young version of Donald Trump."

"I didn't know that using the elements would've had these side effects on us." Cliff said with a sigh. "So how about you Captain Hero, what's your claim to misfortune?"

I raised up my left hand, revealing my palm and the element imbedded into it. "Attachment issues."

"Ow, that looks like that hurts." Melanie said with a cringing expression.

I tried to demonstrate by curling up my hand, only to stop with all of my fingers pointing upwards, unable to bend any further into a fist. "I don't feel a thing until I ball my hand into a fist, then it's painful and cumbersome. I can't really grip a sword with this hand anymore, much less a rifle for recoil control." I looked in the corner, noticing a silver-tipped spear with some embroidering in the shaft. "I probably might have to get used to that spear Luna gave me way back when."

Melanie picked up her phone, not daring to go through her messages after yesterday. "So in speaking of control, where's Twilight? Wasn't she supposed to be giving us our crash course on being element bearers or something to that degree?"

"She might be busy with God-knows-what. We should probably head out to her and see what's up." Alex suggested.

"And head out there to that onslaught of press? I don't think that's a good idea." Stanton rebutted.

"I mean, you're not wrong about the 'onslaught' part." I mumbled. "I think we might have to figure this out ourselves."

"Nondis, do you really think that's a good idea?" Alex questioned.

I looked into the palm of my hand, seeing the gleaming white jewel sitting in my hand. "I don't know, something's telling me that we shouldn't really look outward to what we're supposed to do."

"So what, we just supposed to look inward and find 'the magic within' and use 'the power of friendship'?" Mel asked sarcastically.

A light pulse of energy emanated from the jewel, reverberating through my body as if to confirm her question. "Yeah, I know, sounds corny. But that is how these magic maguffins operate, at least from what I was showed in a vision on Friday night."

Everyone in the room stopped and looked at each other, appearing to not have anything to say but acknowledging the word that was spoken. Alex pointed at me and asked. "Wait, you had a vision too?"

"Okay, so you wanna elaborate on that one?" Rickey requested.

"Ummm..." I said, closing my eyes to think back on the moment before I had to fight the Congregant. "So I think I remember what all I saw, just moments before I was about to go out onto the arena floor. I think I saw six ponies erupting into six powerful pillars of magic, then there was a bright flash. Next thing I saw was six similarly-shaped jewels being divided among two ponies standing by one another, they faced a lot of adversaries, solving a lot of problems, and going on a lot of adventures... until one day one of the ponies turned against the other. Then the other of those ponies took the remaining three elements from the first and used all of them to banish them... to the moon."

Stanton laughed lightly in disbelief. "Yikes. Ain't no air up there, so that pony must be very dead at this point."

I quickly corrected him and continued. "Actually, those two ponies I can safely assume are Celestia and Luna. And with Celestia being the one who was ruling Equestria for all these years, Luna was banished to the moon for equally as long. But she wasn't really herself, per se. She was consumed by a swelling darkness, an entity birthed from her own envy, Nightmare Moon. She broke out of her bindings after those thousand years went by, and she attempted to cover all of Equestria into an eternal cloak of night. But there was a group of six ponies who defeated her, saving Princess Luna and purging the evil within her. Of course, we know who those six are."

"Okay, nice history lesson. But what does that have to do with what we're about to do?" Mel asked.

"I guess it's really more of what we do to protect our world, who's fate is joined to Equestria in turn. I think that's one of the reasons why the elements as a whole selected us." I answered.

Rickey then brought up a good point. "But there were already bearers, and they still have their little friendship connection thing going on. Why do we have to be the ones to save the world from whatever this clusterfuck of a situation is?"

"Well, we know that if bad happens here and gets to our world, the people in our world are going to try to find out how that bad got to them. And I'm sure Umbra will be pointing his cane back to Equestria with all of humanity at his beck and call, especially if he's going to portray himself to be the Antichrist." Everyone looked to one another and nodded as if to confirm a theory they've had. "Look, we all live in Texas, we've all seen the movie Left Behind at some point, we as Christians are expecting all of that to happen. And if we go by the whole Mark-Of-The-Beast theory, let's look back to what he was about to do to all of you." I then added.

"Aw hell, thanks for that very graphic image of us being that thing that little filly is." Melanie said with a chill running up her spine.

"Exactly the reason why I panicked yesterday." I confessed quietly. "Last thing I want to do is look at my own family and friends as literal extensions of limbs. Combine that with all the body horror I suffered and being in that thing's literal shadow..."

As soon as my eyes started to widen, Alex yanked me back to the present with a clap of his hands, which had startled me, but brought me back from being too far gone. "Okay, change subject. So we somehow activated these powers yesterday. What did we do to have that happen?"

"Wasn't it triggered by Umbra trying to blast Fluttershy?" Mel guessed.

Cliff nodded his head. "Yeah, but shouldn't it have been you who started the chain reaction instead of Nondis? You're the one with her element."

"I think the reason why it started with Nondis is because he tried to reach out with his magic to help. And since he tried casting a spell to help her, it could've trigged the elements to go online." Alex surmised.

I looked back down at the jewel in my hand. "The elements don't just turn on and off like an app. If they did, we wouldn't have any issue using them individually. Trust me when I say it, having it and depending on it to save your ass in a pinch is about as useful as telling a depressed person to just be happy. You'd find more results in telling them to jump off a bridge."

Stanton looked at me oddly. "That sounds like that came from experience. So which one was it, the depression or the trying the element on it's own?"

"Yes." I bluntly answered in deadpan. "But the main difference was that I didn't try to use it to save my own self the second time like I did the first. I was also fighting with a collapsed lung and several broken ribs to compliment that desperation."

"Yikes, how did that happen?" Melanie asked.

"Friday night after I tried to get back to the castle, that thing dragged me back to the arena through the city streets and slammed me into the ground chest first."

"Ooh, you should've been dead." She replied in awe.

"Yeah, but Umbra's desire wasn't to see me die." I explained before returning to the subject. "But yeah, I reached out to save Fluttershy and that's when the fireworks began."

Cliff raised his hand as though he was in a class. "Question, what stopped Twilight from doing the same thing?"

"The magic inhibitors." I answered. "Those things are a bit different when they're already affecting her and her ability to cast the mass teleportation spell."

"But she's an element bearer, so what stopped her?" He asked once more.

"I think it was the elements themselves not being in their possession. If we hadn't had the elements there, I don't think Fluttershy would be in the castle today."

"That and we'd probably have a raging draconequus on top of all of that." Melanie added.

Stanton folded his arms, pointing out the obvious truth. "All things considered, those elements sure came in the clutch."

"Not only that, but it was like we already knew what to do and how." Alex stated in a vocal thought. "Maybe there's some sort of mind control thing when we use them."

"No." I said, trying to rationalize what really occurred. "I think it was some sort of projection. Maybe it was what the girls would've done, maybe the memories of the bearers themselves are imprinted in the actual elements. If I go back to my vision when I first ran into this thing, I could see the vague shadows of the previous wielders. But if I know who's shadows they belong to, I can tell you who used what."

"So maybe when you reached out, you somehow did what Twilight would've done?" Alex inquired.

"No. I just did it because she was my friend." I responded.

Melanie shook her head. "Nondis, you can barely use magic now, how the hell else do you think you were able to make the magic rocks go supernova?"

"No, I'm not joking." I said firmly. "I just had a blank moment and put out my hand to defend her, at least move her away from him. I didn't know I was going to be using the powers of fate itself."

"So you don't know what you did outside of save a friend?" She asked slowly.

I sighed in defeat, unable to completely verbalize what it was that allowed for the elements to activate the way that they did. "That's all I remember trying to do. I didn't call to the element, no incantations, no none of that. It was just a blank moment that should've ended in me dropping my hand and looking at an unresponsive pony on the ground."

"So in short, we don't know how to use these damned things, we got only a day to learn how, and we're already throwing shit to the wall to see if anything sticks. Well we sure are some heroes, aren't we?" Alex said with a discouraged expression.

Again, my hand pulsed. I looked back to the jewel and recalled Twilight's words when I was still undergoing my magic studies, namely after our spar. "Guys, I know it sounds stupid, but can you trust what I'm about to say?"

Stanton pointed back at me. "Okay, what?"

"I know it will sound corny, but let's look inside of ourselves. What about ourselves align with these elements, what do we see in one another that we know definitively matches the bearers we borrowed these from? In what way do we actually bring purpose to one another in our lives? And in what way do you think you have the characteristics that reflect into those elements?"

Melanie folded her arms and tapped herself in thought. "All we know is that there are six things that the girls are known for. Loyalty, laughter, generosity, honesty, kindness, and magic. Like how does any of that really apply to all of us outside of Cliff, who we know can make us laugh at a bad time?"

"Damn, I'm that easy to pin out?" Cliff asked sarcastically.

"Not a bad thing in this case." Alex answered. "But how does that get us all these weird changes to our bodies?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should ask the girls if any of their bodies changed with the powers they've gotten." Stanton responded.

I started to think to myself in ways that the girls' bodies could change and alter in some ways when the elements are used. I do remember them being able to transform, Rarity showed me that it could be done individually, but probably not for long. I had received an initial power boost when fighting that thing on Friday, but it wore off as I was running away. But in short, I remember Rarity's appearance altering in a drastic fashion. "Wait, they do actually." I whispered to myself, earning the attention of the entire room. Once I saw that everyone was looking at me, I decided to save that conversation piece for a later time. "Don't worry about that right now, those are individuals who've mastered their shit. Let's stay focused on us."

I'm sure the topic would come up as soon as our current exercise came to an end, but we did as I suggested. Stanton was the first to vocalize his thoughts. "Okay, so Cliff is our laughing agent. But in what way am I honest, outside of telling girls that I'm only into meetups instead of relationships?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't quite pin you down for that one." Mel replied.

"So what would I be then? I have to be honesty if I'm Applejack's element." He responded.

Alex then brought up a fair point. "Maybe it isn't quite what the girls are exactly to the letter. Like I'm not exactly charitable or fashionable, not even nearly as much as Rarity is."

Mel groaned out a confession on herself. "I haven't really been kind to others, I'm not gonna lie. I definitely showed my ass that first week in Ponyville, like I was not pleasant to be around for a little while."

"And I might be able to use magic, but that's not my forte." I pointed out about myself.

"Damn, and here we thought you were the one with all the answers." Alex joked at my expense.

"Like how have I been loyal?" Rickey asked himself.

Mel turned to him and smiled. "Actually, you've been pretty persistent in trying to get us back together."

"I mean that's to one person, how long have I really been like that?" He asked again.

She counted off on her fingers the way she knew him to be of that trait. "Your family, your frat, your undying fandom of the Dallas Cowboys, your dedication to me, even your efforts to help me find Nondis when he went missing a little over a year ago, and especially when you saw what Jasper did to me. You were about to pick a fight with both him for abusing me, and Nondis for not being there quick enough." She stood up and grabbed his hands, giving him a hug for appreciation "You may not give yourself any credit, but you've been a pretty decent anchor to the cause. That's why I gave you a second chance."

"You've been there for my family by being there for Nondis. Can't drop that one either." Alex added.

Cliff shrugged and replied. "You have a pretty good track record when it comes to sticking out for any of our frat brothers. I'm just saying."

"I'm not loyal, I'm just dedicated is all." He replied, as he chuckled to himself. "And you do bring some kind of humor into the situation, no matter what we're in. I swear something stupid or bad happens and you just bust out in song."

Mel started to snicker and her cheeks grew pinker as she tried not to laugh too hard. "Well, except that one time where we were in the abandoned castle."

"Look, we ain't talking about that one!" He demanded in an elevated tone.

"Aw, he's still shy about his first glory hole experience." She said as she clasped her hands together.

"You know damn well that should've been you." He replied to the woman who joked at his expense.

She continued to poke fun at him. "Well thank you for being there to take the brunt of that situation. And I also wanna give a special shoutout to Stanton who really carried the load on that one."

"I'm sorry, what?" Alex said in a double-take to Stanton.

"Ay, timeout, I'm lost! What happened here?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"Nothing we are going to discuss." Stanton said as he looked to Cliff, who instinctively looked at his hair.

"I had to scrub my dreads for two fucking hours. Two fucking hours to make sure that shit was out." He stressed emphatically.

I wasn't really going to laugh at him, but the others were more than inviting to do so. "Okay, so we know two of us. What about the rest of us four?"

Alex pointed to me and answered in a plain tone. "You're the leader, so there."

As he finished his blunt assessment by slapping his hands on his pants, I wasn't exactly firm on that being my trait. "I don't think it's that easy."

Stanton then reinforced Alex's sentiment, going a lot further than he did in his explanation. "No dude, you led a whole damn country in song and dance over the radio. Like I don't know if you really even remember that or not, but you had the world listening to you, ready to dive into battle with the way you spoke. And even then, you have that ability to draw others to listen to you and rally to you. The guard can't shake the influence you've become to them. You've led us on a number of things, you've taken the lead when it got rough, you barked out orders and instructions, you saw the shit that could scare lesser men shitless and still threw hands. You don't ever let anyone get into a situation you yourself don't get out of. Like you legit don't even know how powerful that is. You got men out there who can't coach a little league team, you got entire armies ready to run through brick walls chanting 'I believe that we will win'. Like who does that?"

Alex tagged in and added another point. "Nondis, leadership is the one thing you've continued to have in spite of anything going bad. That thing chose you because you proved yourself to be the one who leads outright. If you managed to get the princesses of a nation to follow your cue, then you've got the juice."

For the moment I initially didn't see exactly what he was looking at. But then I looked back at everything that happened in the year I spent here. I looked at the events that lead up to this moment, from when I was trying to get used to pony society, to the first time I got beaten up in an alley for standing up for a friend, then the military training I suffered through in spite of the degradation of my character that took place, the way I stood up to Shining Armor, how I fought in Canterlot and Ponyville, leading rescue efforts, rallying troops, riling politicians, and yes even challenging them on the legislative floor, I've done all of those things in one way or another. In hindsight, everything they say does have a lot of merit behind it. "Huh, never thought of it that way."

Alex pointed back at me and said. "Well now you do. So at least act like you know you got it, because you do."

Melanie nodded as she transitioned back into thought. "So, that's three of us. How about the others?"

I looked back at the woman and started pulling some parallels between her and the mare who held her same element. "Actually, I might see some similarities between you and Fluttershy."

Mel broke out in a laugh as she dismissed my viewpoint. "How?" She asked. "The only thing you might can say now is that I have pink hair. So what do you think is the thing that makes me even remotely comparable to that girl?"

"How you care for others." I simply replied, causing her to initially become skeptical. "Like seriously, you talk about me not knowing what I am and you're in the same boat. You braved out the idea of cutting open your best friend to save his life. And in all reality, you could've just been petty and said I'm not going to help this guy anymore after I got injured from fighting Jasper in the arena. You could've just said 'he will be okay' and left it alone, but you took time out of your day to be my doctor, not just once or twice, but every time I've been injured."

Rickey tabbed in with his own perspective of her. "That and she stood up for Blue at the gala when she didn't have to. She volunteered her time on Sweet Apple Acres on some mornings, offered to help Ms. Landlady over at the inn for breakfast and dinner, and she helped Alabaster and Blue with some stuff in the VIP Lounge, that was another situation where she didn't have to butt in, but she did. She couldn't bear to see those two get berated like they were and jumped right in to put a stop to it."

"But I didn't even stop that, Kalimba did when she put a bullet in her ass." She quickly replied.

"You still stepped in." Stanton added. "And when mom and dad started to give up hope in finding Nondis, you cared enough to keep looking, no matter what anyone else said. That's not just loyalty, that's compassion."

I also drew up more parallels between her and her elemental counterpart. "Fluttershy shows a lot of compassion for animals. You show a lot of compassion for people, for ponies who you grow to know, and you stand up for them because you care. It's pretty much in the foundation of who you are. Think about it, did you not show me compassion after me and my dad had our fight?"

Once we made our point loud and clear, she finally stopped combating the idea of who she was, looking more within herself through hindsight as I did. "Well... that's a lot of looking back to do."

"Okay, so that's four. What about me and Alex?" Stanton questioned.

"You are the element of dumbass." Alex joked in a brotherly manner.

"Shut up!"

I looked to Stanton and started nailing down some of his more personal traits. "Actually, Stanton's got a drive in him that I don't think any one of us carries in our own selves. Like think about it for a second, what do you think is his passion in life?" I asked to the group.

"Football?" Rickey guessed.

"Dreams of making it to the NFL?" Mel quizzed.

"Hall of Fame career." Alex estimated.

All of them were true enough, but that wasn't the answer I was going to point out. "Hell, getting into the league is already a lofty goal by itself, his foot's in the door with his performance over the holidays. But you know what else I see in him aside from that internal drive that keeps pushing him towards his dream?"

"What?" Alex inquired.

"I see the similarity of Rainbow Dash trying to be a Wonderbolt. I see her constantly cursing herself out when she doesn't nail a drill, when she comes out of a loop too soon or too late, or even a rough landing that isn't pitch perfect on skid. How many times have we watched Stanton after school run drills until he passed out from exhaustion? How many routes do you think he ran to make every catch in every situation? How many times has he asked us to foolishly try and stop him from making a catch? How do you think he keeps on fighting for every yard of every down, it isn't because of how awesome he is."

"Yeah, but that's not my element." He pointed out. "I'm not holding onto Rainbow's element, I'm holding on to Applejack's."

I turned to him and replied. "I know. But do you know what the difference is between you and Rainbow Dash? The difference between you two is that Rainbow will answer a statement of praise with self-flattery. You always answer a statement of praise with what you've could've done better. You uplift everyone else around you and call it a team effort as opposed to making it about yourself. I mean sure you can boast about a solid catch, a nasty juke, or even a big gain, but at the end of the day you call out your team's strengths and stay humble with the weaknesses you have. You're real and upfront with everyone you meet, even the girls you talk to, knock down, and leave in a timely fashion. But you don't let those things stop you. Even when you help me, you could be three hours out of town but you never let anything stop you from showing up. You have drive, a grounded mentality rooted in self-evaluation. But not once have you ever let that stop you, you keep pushing with the determination to succeed. And that energy you give off bleeds to everyone around you. You don't believe it, but I learn a lot from you and Alex. And determination is the one thing I learned from you growing up."

In hearing my description, Stanton looked away and kissed his teeth. "Jeez, lay it on thick why don't you?"

I then turned my attention to my older brother, basing my observation on his personality as well. "Alex, you jump into every fight we have. You've been that way since we were kids. You made sure if anyone messes with the Haines brothers, you were waiting right there at the bus stop with every intent to send them home with some bruises and a story to tell. But when we got home, you'd chew us out for getting into trouble. You never minded the repercussions of getting into what gramps would call good trouble, you always stuck up for us. You stuck up for me even when dad and mom started campaigning for me to come back home, you defended my name when I couldn't even speak for myself, you set the record straight with anyone who would ever endanger your family and friends. You're going to be a hell of a father, and Vanessa is lucky to have someone as affectionate as you."

"I'm just thanking God you're in one piece, man." He said quietly.

Mel pointed to every human in the room and spoke out. "Dedication, optimism, compassion, determination, affection... and leadership." She ended off with me. " So now all of humanity rest on those six attributes we found within ourselves."

Stanton looked to me with uncertainty. "Do you think that's what we're really all about, especially for these things to work?"

I looked to the jewel embedded in my hand as it gave off a faint pulse. "I got a good feeling that we'll be just that. I couldn't think of another six things to better personify the good in humanity."

"We're glad you're still with us, man." Said Alex who patted me on the shoulder.

"I'm thankful you guys even came back for me." I answered as we all started to gather together.

He then chided me over my statement. "You just went through all of that talking to point out what I'm all about, and you think I won't still be that for you? You must've lost some brain cells while you were stuck in that lab."

"No, but I nearly lost my mind, and almost a lot more than that." I said as then extended that show of appreciation to everyone in the room. "Thank you, all of you."

Rickey placed his hand out balled up to a fist. Cliff placed his right next to Rickey's. Alex and Stanton did the same. Melanie punched hers in as well as she looked to me. "We got us."

I nodded and placed my hand with the element on top of each of them, the element pulsed warmly as I answered with one word. "Together. We do this together."

We all took a moment to look at one another and silently verify our qualities, and in that moment I began to feel a warm comfort I hadn't felt in a week's time. I was beginning to feel confident, finding hope in the company of the friends I've made along the way, the family that shared in my journey, and all the the ones who made me into what I am today. I was empowered.

"...Hey, so do you think we'll be getting paid for this?"

We all looked to the one responsible for the comment, quietly counting down before the inevitable slap upside his head by Alex. "Stanton, can you not ruin a good moment?"

"Well it is kinda cheesy." He said with a shrug.

Melanie chuckled in response. "Yeah it is.... Hopefully all that cheese works somehow."

Outside The Castle Walls
Later That Evening...

Umbra, who had just finished a recent excursion to the morgue had finally finished with a few other errands he had set aside for himself. Once he returned to the checkpoint, he noticed the group of guild members all lounging in the alley. They appeared tired and mentally despondent.

The mad stallion questioned the group and it's leader. "You lot are tired already?"

"Sorry, boss. It's like they've been kicking us out all through the course of the day. We've found ourselves gradually being able to stay a little longer, but what good is a measly five seconds?" The leader replied.

A subjugate also spoke out to give another update. "Plus Princess Cadance and Prince Blueblood are helping out in kicking us back out. We can't keep up with an alicorn's magic."

The hatted stallion tilted his head and clicked his tongue in frustration. "Disappointment abound. I guess that's the order of the day."

Seeing their boss' expression, the leader of the group bowed his head to the cobblestones they walked on. "We're sorry, boss."

Umbra wafted his hoof in dismissal. "No, I can't be completely mad at you lot. In fact, it's more of a testament to how strong their defenses are, how well-prepared they are to defend their keep from intruders."

"If only we could drop that barrier and it's source somehow." The guild leader said as he looked to the shimmering magenta bubble encapsulating the castle.

Umbra grew a slight hint of a smirk, an idea already brewing in his brain as he started to think more of his recent acquisitions. "You know, we could stress test that idea now. The sun has gone down and the night is rife for a surprise visit from our newly crowned Beast of the Week."

The entire group of unicorns raised their heads, their ears pinning back and their faces running cold with fear. "Wait boss, you mean you're bringing that thing here?" One of the guild members questioned.

Umbra raised his hooves as if he were advertising a grand event to take place. "Of course! And I'm expecting it to be a bit stronger than the last time you've seen it. With some fresh new bodies and a few more hours of rest, we can expect my dear creature to be at it all night."

The guild leader looked to his subordinates and voiced a proposal in their stead. "Uh, shouldn't we just scamper off until that thing is done doing it's business?"

Umbra snickered. "Why don't be ridiculous. I'll need you all to be ready for when the barrier goes down."

Not wanting to offend him, the guild leader humbly brought about his concerns. "I don't know if we can do that right now, sir. Our magic's pretty exhausted."

Umbra's countenance was unchanged. "The guild isn't completely comprised of unicorns, you know. There are griffons, changelings, earth ponies, bat ponies, pegasi, mules and donkeys alike. Do you think they are any less capable of doing what you unicorns can?" He summoned his cane and placed the red jewel underneath the stallion's chin. "Well do you?"

"No sir." He replied quietly.

The seemingly smiling doctor removed the cane from under his chin and started twirling it as he spoke. "Then stick around. The show won't really start until sometime after midnight. You'll have plenty of time to rest and recoup your magic. But when that shield comes crashing down, I expect you all to be giving it all you've got left." He stopped twirling the cane, looking back to the leader with a modest frown on his face. "Though I'm sure you bunch won't disappoint me again with later tonight, will you? Because if you do, I'll be sure that my dear pet has more unicorns to play with."

Striking fear in the group, the entire lot had bowed their heads into the cobblestone path. The leader followed suit and bowed once more to his boss. "We won't fail you, sir."

Gently, Umbra ran a hoof against the stallion's chin and started speaking in a soft and sweet tone, as though he was speaking to a friend. "Now, I honestly hate threatening good ponies, especially good guys and gals like yourselves. We share drinks together, we laugh together, we fornicate besides one another, and we have a good time. But sometimes there's a place to be the figure you love and follow, and then there's a place to be the figure you fear and obey. I don't like having to be the second figure, so see to it that I stay the first." A smile slowly appeared on his face as he pull the stallion's muzzle down to place his face against his, making full eye-contact. "Because if I am the second, your corpses will be just another brick in the wall of my Congregant. Clear?"

"C-Crystal, sir." The guild leader whispered breathlessly.

"Very good." He dropped the stallion's head and walked away to return to where he had come from, but throwing a final warning to the group. "Rest up, we have a long night ahead of us. I expect nothing less than the standard from you all."

As Umbra disappeared into the darkness, the guild leader slowly rose to his hooves. While his face remained firm, his tail had hugged against his trembling hind legs. One of his subordinates pointed out the foul disposition of the wayward unicorn. "The boss is really serious about this one."

The guild leader turned to the group and quietly issued an order. "Let's rest up and get our magic back, savvy?"

As he found himself another place to sit and rest, the others looked as he appeared mortified. "Like we have a choice."

Canterlot Castle
Four Hours Later...

Nighttime had fallen over the city. Word from the outside have noted a sudden silence in the streets, as though everyone had gotten scared to be out past the sun's going down. Many local businesses closed shop as they saw the barrier go up around the castle. The world outside was drastically quieter than anything I've ever had to behold. It didn't make much sense to have anything open when there's a visible sign of a security threat taking place. The only thing you can do is grab your kids from school, cut your workday short, have your shopping and financial affairs in order, shelter in place.

Slowly did the news from the outside trickle in. Reports from several surveillance groups have noted that there was very little activity going on in the areas surrounding Canterrot. And word from the church only reflected the same level of dormancy. Nothing came from the mortuary where some other guards were assigned, and that could only be one of two things; A sign that the guys over there are really busy with disposing of the backlog there, or there was bad news afoot. Either or, I can expect Umbra to make a move on that with our communications limited to the passage of a few notes and whatnot through the barrier.

While the press was still being aggressive in their pursuit of information, their numbers had dwindled along with the light of the sun. So us newly-anointed element bearers made our way to the ballroom where we were informed of Twilight's location.

Upon us entering, we saw both Shining Armor and Twilight together, holding their magic strong as they tried to keep the barrier up and anyone trying to teleport their way in out of it. But Twilight looked a lot less stressed than her brother, who appeared to be holding his head a lot more often. Mr. and Mrs. Sparkle along with the other girls were present as well, watching quietly as the young prince suffered his stress in silence. I called out to him as we all walked in. "Shining, you look like you went through hell."

The stallion continued to rub the side of his head. "Well that's the price I pay for using alicorn magic, and not being an alicorn while using it."

Rarity offered another report to go along with the slew of others I've received. "These ruffians around here have been trying to break through the barrier. Seems like some hired goons all trying to teleport into the courtyard. But Princess Cadance and Prince Blueblood have been pretty good about helping Shining Armor out."

Shining offered his own status. "It's help lessen the pressure on me. But alicorn magic is hard to use, and even harder to resist it's corruption. Twily's been keeping me surfaced, but any more of that and I might have to stop using the spell altogether. However, that would only put Cadance at a greater risk."

As far as what I'm hearing as of now, I needed to put together a force to help reinforce the area of greater resistance. In other words, I needed to be up and back moving. "I'll call for more forces to be in the courtyard."

"You need to rest, Nondis." Twilight said quite firmly.

"Like hell I can. By definition, we're under siege right now. And I've been off post for two days now, it's time for me to get back to work."

She stepped towards me, trying to get me to do everything but get involved in the conflict. "But what about you six trying to find your connections? That's the main thing you should be doing if you want to do any kind of work."

"Dedication, optimism, compassion, determination, affection, and leadership. There's your six right there." Mel called out confidently.

"Are you sure that's what you feel in your heart for one another?" Rarity questioned.

"We couldn't be any more certain." Alex answered.

"Twilight, we've had six months to certify that. If anything, all this does is make it even more official." I responded to the young princess.

Rarity sighed, realizing that I was more than willing to take my position in the courtyard. "If that's what you feel is right for you, darling."

Fluttershy turned her head towards Mel, who had nothing to hide her now full head of pink. "I guess your hair is completely pink now, how do you feel?"

Not wanting to offend anyone, she gave a conservative response of her opinion. "I guess I'll rock it for now, but we humans don't have naturally occurring pink hair, especially law enforcement officers, they don't do the whole dye look either."

"Welcome to the pink-mane club!" Pinkie cheered on the new pinkette, yanking in Fluttershy and suddenly pulling out a ton of pictures out of her mane. "I mean you were already on a list of pink-maned ponies and associates, but now we get to make you an official member. You'll be joining the ranks of me, Fluttershy, Scootaloo, Mrs. Cake, Mrs. Posey, Mr. Gentle Breeze, Nurse Redheart, Sparkleworks, regular ponies like us. But there's even prominent ponies like Mayor Mare in Ponyville─though she dyes her hair gray, high-fashion model Fleur De Lis, even Princess Cadance and Princess Celestia!"

Mel quirked a brow at the mare. "I thought that Princess Celestia had a little pink in her mane. Not really enough to qualify."

"There's pink." I replied. "In fact, her white coat is actually the lightest shade of pink, and her mane changes according to her mental state. So yeah, there's some pink... and then there's moments when she's full-pink."

"Full pink, since when does that happen!?" Twilight questioned as though she wanted to know since when her mentor would be able to don a full head of pink hair.

I shrugged and remained tight-lipped on what exactly brings it out of her. "Classified: Top Secret. Can't reveal royal emotional state, gag order 452B." While the others weren't in any way aware of what I said, Crescent, Shining, and Twilight gawked at me as if I had more than broke the space-time continuum.

Shining gave a single nod of understanding. "Copy that."

Pinkie disregarded her friends reaction and went back to speaking to Mel for a bit. "Well either way, welcome to the club. You might be a human, but you're gonna rock that like you own it! Now you can be the prettiest and pinkest and most awesomemest cop out there! Trust me girl, your do is fabulous." She zipped over to Cliff and giggled at him. "Cliff, you look so silly with your mouth covered in blue!"

He initially tightened his lips before responding. "I just hope Sunset don't mind it."

Rainbow Dash hovered by him with her response. "She's a pony, you're a human, I'd think that having a blue mouth is going to be the least of her concerns about you." She gave him a wink and a nudge. "All that matters is if you can still get the job done when she's in the mood for it."

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity called out, chiding her friend for such an implied statement in a public setting.

"What? We're all adults here, we can be open about it." The pegasus replied.

Applejack also approached Cliff and offered her peace. "Ah think what Rainbow meant was that the two of ya'll already different in many ways, despite having the appearance of something else in a different place. She's a pony by birth, yer a human by birth. She ain't gonna mind a little change here or there if she's really along for the ride. Just as long as you are you deep down, she's gonna be happy to be with ya. An' besides, it'll probably go away after all of this."

Rarity focused her attention to me. "Darling, you've just had a rough out. I'm sure ponies won't mind you taking it easy for a day or two. Are you sure you're going to be okay giving out orders with all that press stalking about the castle?"

Shining quickly answered her question. "Interfering with security affairs is an arrestable offense. I doubt they'd be that stupid."

"We still have ponies trying to bust into the castle grounds. That's an arrestable offense too." Rarity pointed out.

On that note, I verified my status. "And that's what I'm going to focus on right now. We have a skirmish brewing and our forces are scattered throughout the grounds. And given that many aren't experienced in any way other than patrolling the halls, this will be their first blood. We need to coalesce our forces into larger groups. focus our attention on the path of greater resistance. The more we allocate to that, the less Cadance and Blueblood will have to work to keep them out."

Almost on cue, the doors opened to reveal Princess Cadance and Solemn Oath who walked into the room. Cadance galloped to her husband's side. "Shining Armor!"

He didn't show any reservation in greeting her, running to her to meet her halfway. He held his wife close as he kissed her. "Cadie, are you okay?"

"I should be the one checking in on you! Sending a few ponies back out of the boundary is easy compared to trying to maintain the barrier AND dealing with alicorn magic."

"Nondis says he's gonna try to put more of our specialist up front to help you and Blueblood out." He informed her.

Cadance broke off of her husband, walking up to me with careful concern. "Are you okay with working right now?"

"What is it with you two and wanting me to take a break during a siege?" I asked a little annoyed. "I'm fine, we got work to do, I've got a position to maintain, and we've got some ponies to keep out."

Cadance wasn't fond of seeing me going to work so soon, but she briefed me on what I was going to be dealing with. "These ponies are magically gifted, or at least highly well-trained. They've been persistent for most of the day, but they haven't tried to come in for the better part of the past four hours. I gave Blueblood some time to recover for watch duty, he's now relieving me to do the same."

"Then this is a good time to shore up our defenses. Let's try to make 'em hurt." I replied before calling out to Alex. "Yo, what time is it?"

"9:47." He answered.

As I heard the time, I looked at the makeshift bandages on my wrists and undid them. As they fell, I could see large scars striping my entire wrist. They no longer ached. I flexed the one hand I could use and observed as Twilight spoke to me. "You be careful out there."

I nodded at her as Cadance also offered some advice to me. "Princess Luna has been resting throughout the day as well, Princess Celestia has been pretty much running all of the press and political stuff today, so she's tired. Celestia might not be in any condition to fight right now, but Luna should be available to help if you find that you need it."

"I hate to condemn a bunch of kids to some nightmares for a night, but we might need all hooves on deck. If you can get her to join me up front after she does a quick dream run, I can make sure that whatever comes for us will get sent right on back."

"We want to help, Nondis." Said Melanie.

Accepting their request, I started formulating in my mind how I planned for all of this to go. "Okay. Alex, Rickey, you two will be my lookout. Stanton, you're up front with me since I could really use your magic here, plus I can teach you a thing or two about it. Cliff, Mel, you two take care of any wounded you find and try to make sure that they get the medical attention they need. With supplies cut from the outside, we might find ourselves operating in triage. The good thing about the castle is that medicinal magic staff here are strong enough to prevent a lot of fatalities. Triage should be our final option, but we are to save those who can get back in the fight sooner. We'll need our numbers to stay strong. Cliff, I'm putting you over the security of the medical ward."

"Aw shit, here we go again." He murmured.

"So we're taking another trip to the armory?" Melanie questioned.

"Fuck that, we ain't got time." I said as I held my hand out in an attempt to summon a large amount of weapons, but when I envisioned the massive amount of ordinance, I felt my wrist crackle with pain. I looked down to see the magic acting like a disrupted current. "Yeah hold on." I closed my eyes again, trying to bring out the weapons I wanted for everyone to use, but in trying to do that, a most disturbing memory came back to my mind. All I could think of was my firing many weapons into the shadows, only to hear the screams and howls of the dead. With that resurgent memory, I snapped out and dropped my spell completely. I couldn't concentrate enough to bring anything here. "...Okay, scratch that earlier statement. You five get to the armory and I'll get to the front gate. We'll meet back up in our positions and try to keep to the plan."

Twilight, who understood what it was like to try and cast a summon under duress and trauma, spoke to me softly. "Try not to push yourself too hard."

While I was more to myself in disappointment, Rarity stepped up and tapped me on my side. I looked over to see her, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash lined up. "Care to borrow a lady and her time, darling?"

"You might need some reinforcement, sugarcube." Applejack said as she stood proudly.

"And eyes in the sky." Rainbow added as she flexed her wings.

For the time being, I knew that Rarity and Rainbow were already skilled fighters, and Applejack was incredibly strong. I wasn't going to refuse their help. So I agreed to their proposal. "You three can come with me right now if you want."

"Pinkie and I will be over in the medical ward with Cliff and Melanie. We should be able to help there." Announced Fluttershy.

"I'll stay behind and help Shining with the barrier." Twilight confirmed.

With all of our directions carved out, we moved ahead. "Alright people and pones, it's showtime! Let's move!"

Outside the Castle Walls
Three Hours Later...

The guild's forces had completely swelled up in numbers as the hours ticked by. Many found different ways to reach their location, and with very few ponies on the streets, many just walked to the designated meeting point while looking as auspicious as possible. But for some others who didn't quite fit the usual makeup of the greater Canterlot populace, they had to arrive in cloaks.

Soon, there was a small army gathered with a number of weapons with wagons full of bombs and ill-concocted potions to lob over the walls. Some found some food to snack on to pass the time, others sharpened their weapons, those who could summon weapons were freshly recovered from trying to teleport into the castle grounds. All of the assembled forces had numbered to well over eight-hundred, consisting of every single faction of the guild. Beast-tamers, assassins, guardians to the alleyways, security to the arena, vendors, prostitutes, drug dealers, mercenaries, baristas, 'sanitation' workers, and especially some champions of VIP members were all in attendance. They all showed themselves to be eager to get their hooves, claws, and other appendages into the young and inexperienced forces of the castle.

Umbra walked past many of the gathered forces and tapped his hoof against the barrier to see if the caster's magic had weakened by any measure. To his surprise, it felt more solid than ever. "Hmm, the field of this barrier seems to have been reinforced. I suppose we'll be putting some work into getting this to shatter."

Recharged on his magic, the guild leader questioned his boss. "How much work do you think it'll take, sir?"

Umbra tapped his cane against the barrier, humming a tune as he estimated the force needed to break the barrier. "About a thousand bodies worth."

"We don't have that many guild members present, sir." The leader replied. "If we could somehow rescue some of the members that were arrested by the captain, we could have almost eight-fifty, but it still won't be enough."

"Who said I was talking about the guild?" Umbra replied with a smirk.

As the leader was about to answer the question, a darkening shadow consumed the ground where he stood. A putrid odor started to overtake his position. "Augh! Who died around here!? It reeks!"

Umbra looked down to see the hungry shadow consuming much more of the ground than he had anticipated. He quirked a brow and looked behind him to see the young filly approaching from inside of a wall. "Ah, so you've paid a visit to the morgue we've recaptured." He asked her, judging her off of the significantly larger base she now had.

"I found all kinds of dollies over there, daddy!" The filly replied as she phased from within the wall completely. "The mean ponies were trying to burn them all."

Umbra smiled down towards his frightening creation and patted her atop her mane. "Well it's a good thing that we stopped them from doing that, isn't it?"

She glanced over to the barrier, looking to the top of it. "Daddy, if I break the bubble, do I get ice cream?"

"Why of course! No good deed deserves to go unrewarded." He replied to the filly, who grew so eager that tendrils started to sprout up from varying spots of her shadow. "But that's only if you break the barrier. So do you think you can do it?"

"Ȉ̶̙t̴̙͠'̴̖̈l̸̳͐l̵͓̀ ̴̞͘b̸̪̽e̸͈͠ ̶̯̐e̵̩̓a̶̛͜s̴͉͑y̸̰̎,̶̦̔ ̷̗̋ḑ̷̈a̸͝ͅd̴̠͊d̶̜̈y̷̡͊!̸̞̀ ̵̭̊Y̵͇̅o̶̰͂u̵͔̽'̷̖̿l̶̙͝l̴̓͜ ̵̛͍s̷̭̔e̶̞͑ë̷̡!̶̾ͅ" She excitedly replied as her voice distorted.

Umbra took great pride in seeing her become so antsy and full of life. "Your enthusiasm is quite inspiring today. I hope to see you do well, my dear."

The guild leader dodged a smaller tendril that tried to snag at his hind leg. He had his muzzle covered as he didn't see the two ponies walking up from behind him. "It's as if the entire city is rife with the dead."

Umbra chuckled as he tapped his shoulder. "Surely you wouldn't mind to greet my dearest creation." He said, pointing his head in the direction of the young filly.

As he came face-to-face with the very mind controlling the harbinger itself, he couldn't fathom the thought of something so small having so much control over something so nightmarish. The filly looked to him and smiled. "H-h-Hi there." He said nervously.

A long tendril featuring many faces and hooves surfaced from her side, extending out to greet him in a hoof shake. "H̸e̸l̵l̵o̸ ̵m̷i̶s̷t̶e̷r̸,̴ ̴w̸h̷a̸t̴'̴s̴ ̴y̵o̵u̵r̵ ̷n̸a̷m̸e̷?̴"

The tendril pointed to him with a hoof massed to the end of it. He started to back away instinctively. "Uh... I-I'm... I'm─"

He felt another hoof stop him from walking back further, looking back he could see Umbra holding him as he spoke to the filly. "Unimportant, my dear. It's time to be up and about." He briefly turned his head to the guild leader and said to him a statement that chilled his very soul. "Besides, dolls don't talk. Isn't that right?"

Feeling as though his fate was all but sealed, the stallion felt a nauseating shiver. "N-No sir, I suppose they don't."

Umbra let him go and pointed his cane to the barrier one last time. "Alright my dear. Sing for those in the castle."

I still didn't quite get in front of a mirror, but I dressed myself to play the part of my captain role. I pulled my hair back and tied it to where it was out of my face for the fight. I slapped on a bullet-proof vest, layered up for the cold, took up my spear, oversaw some of the defensive positions the guards were taking inside the castle, and shoved myself right out the front door.

A number of young guards had appeared to be somewhat excitable on the account of being under my command, probably from the testimony of a few guards surviving their deployment to Arimaspi Mountain. But almost all of them didn't have any clue as to what they were going against. I'm sure they were thinking that this was some rag-tag group of militia trying to make a statement, that they could just armor up and bust their heads in. But even I knew that there was going to be some casualties tonight, fatalities will be certain, and I might not be able to prevent that with the speed of how this situation has evolved. If those ponies out there were going to try and break the barrier, I'm sure they'd have some sort of spell they could cast in unison to do it. And with Umbra's likely involvement, I can assume that these ponies will be more than capable of committing a successful siege.

I didn't have any encouraging words to speak for the moment, no speech in mind to prepare them, nor did I have any honest expectation as to what was to come. I only knew that I had my friends behind me, and that alone made me feel more secure in myself.

One of those friends dusted off my shoulders as she had me kneeling down, giving my face a little extra life as she complimented me. "Looking pretty official in your garments, darling."

"Thank you for having it cleaned before this." I said, referring to the black and purple jacket I wore.

The fashionista put away her makeup and spoke. "Darling, I was not going to let that thing continue to smell like the dearly departed."

"Well hopefully I don't get thrown into a locker full of dead bodies again." I said as I got back to my feet.

"How did you get put in there in the first place?" Rainbow asked.

"That thing he made, she trapped me in there."

"Well that thing ain't gonna show itself out in the open air." Solemn said confidently. "That would be one way for it to get taken down."

"Don't be so sure on that." I murmured.

Stanton came running in from the barracks, holding a small side-arm to protect myself. "How's this one? Not too much kick, not terrible on the wrist, good ol' reliable."

"The old Glock. That'll do." I replied as I carefully observed the safety and holstered the weapon.

Solemn also brought up a fair question. "Quick question, what do we do with the ones we kill?"

"We keep them away from him." I replied. "Same goes for our dead. I'm sure their guys and our guys are on the same side when they see what might become of them if they keel over."

Stanton pointed up to the top of the courtyard entrance. "Alex and Rickey are set up on the third floor right now."

I looked up and felt that they were still too close to the action, possibly to get noticed and attacked. "Tell them to go higher."

"I'll text them to see how far up they can go before they lose track of us." Stanton replied as he pulled out his phone.

In a scamper both Cobalt Blue and Dress Right ran up to me with a salute. "Captain, we're all set."

"All unicorn specialists are in place, sir!"

"Very good. I will need each and every one of you for the job ahead. We're going to repel any and all intruders here at this checkpoint." I said as I noticed Blueblood walking up from behind them. The blond prince didn't seem nearly as sarcastic or cynical as he usually would be. "Blueblood, seems like you've had a tiresome day."

"I could be much worse off." He said, looking to me. "I could talk about the makeup on your face, but you needed the powdering up."

Cobalt walked beside me as she questioned once more. "Sir captain, if you don't mind me asking, what is it that we're going to be facing off against tonight?"

Blueblood answered the question before I could. "A bunch of thugs looking to make a madman happy probably. The last thing we need to do is let those guys get in somehow. And if Prince Shining Armor's spell goes down from anything, we'll probably be in for a serious fight."

"But Shining's spell is reinforced by Twilight's magic. How could anything break that?"

"When there's a will, there's a way. Better to be prepared in any eventuality." Solemn replied.

As we continued our setup, we could hear the sound of one of the guards losing their lunch all over the ground. Then came another, and yet a few more who gagged and vomited. Soon, the source of their revulsion reached our noses. Cobalt smacked her hoof against her muzzle, trying not to smell the putrid odor. "Ugh! What in Equestria is that smell!?"

"Yikes, it smells like a morgue!" Dress Right replied.

"Something must've died in the area over the weekend, maybe a body we didn't collect?" Solemn questioned.

"Something died alright." Gleaming Brass muttered as she gagged.

Applejack too was just as disgusted. "Ah don't hold up too well on stuff like that. Ain't really my preference."

"It does reminds me of Friday evening we had collected the bodies for the princess to cremate." Blueblood replied quietly, seemingly undisrupted by the odor. "You don't suppose..."

"Ay, yo!" Stanton replied loudly. "That's exactly what that smells like! Hey Nondis, do you smell this shit!?"

"I can taste it." I answered, stepping further into the smell, the familiar stench momentarily reminded me of the last time I came into contact with this distinct level of filth. Worse off, I was reminded of the clammy and slimy remnants that gripped at me to snag me back into captivity. I froze in place, a deepening chill ran up my spine. "I can still feel it."

"Nondis?" Stanton called out.

Solemn tried to get my attention, but to little avail. "Captain, what's wrong?"

"Why is the captain shivering?" Cobalt questioned to her friend.

Rarity tapped me on my side, finally getting me to look away from the checkpoint. "Nondis dear, what's wrong?"

I looked down to her and answered quietly. "I'm not going swimming again. I'm not going back... not in that place, not again."

A weak cry sounded from outside of the walls, only to grow significantly in number and presence. What had sounded like a solitary soul howling out to the sky had suddenly turned into a mournful chorus of voices that instilled fear into the very hearts of every guard on the castle grounds. "What was that sound?" Solemn asked.

"The howls of the conjoined." I answered softly.

"I'm sorry, what now?" Stanton inquired.

"Here's something I didn't know until Friday night, something you didn't know until today." I started to briefly explain. "Your vocal cords are still active after death. The body in moving will still draw and expel air, and in expelling that air, the vocal cords will still vibrate, producing moans and groans." I looked to Solemn Oath and asked her quietly. "So if you had a backlog of bodies in the mausoleum, hundreds even, what do you think each of them are still able to do?"

Solemn shivered, Cobalt's draw slowly fell as the smell closed in around us.

"Exactly." I replied. "They're still going to moan, whisper,... and scream."

Everyone turned to me slowly as the words echoed throughout the entire city. Stanton looked at me with the growing fear in his eyes. "Nondis?..."

"The song of the Congregant Child... That thing is here."

Meanwhile in the Castle Ballroom...

Shining and Twilight both looked to one another as murmurs around the castle grew with the singing of the song, reaching the ears of everyone in the castle halls. Eveyrone in the room had grown confused as to what was going on.

"What's that?" Cadance questioned.

"Why it sounds like a little foal singing." Velvet answered before seeing her husband standing in a cold sweat. "Crescent?"

"Dad?" Shining whispered to his father before the stallion looked to his children and gave a chilling answer.

"It's here."

Pinkie quirked a brow and asked in an exaggerated manner. "What is that?"

"Sounds creepy." Fluttershy whispered.

Cliff took only seconds to realize what it was that echoed throughout the medical wing. "FUCK NO!"

"Oh my God." Melanie mewled in fear. "She's here, that thing is here."

Meanwhile in the Castle Courtyard...

As the song ended, a singular tendril comprised of several hundred departed rose in a helix-shape, twisting and rising high in an effort to eclipse the moon itself. The absent-yet-present faces of ponies who met their ends appeared to have looked down on us, each of them wearing the same zombie-like expression. They moaned with the rising of their conjoined form, the growing figure casting a great shadow onto the courtyard.

Every guard present were at a complete loss for words. Many had already started to consider not taking their post any longer. And I couldn't blame them for wanting to haul ass back into the castle. Applejack's face grew pale. Rainbow shrank in seeing the horror growing before her very eyes. Rarity only showed pity for those who could not save themselves in the mass. Gleaming Brass screamed in terror, holding on to Dress Right who did the same. Cobalt began to hyperventilate and shake, now realizing what it was we were set to face. Solemn had tried to remain strong, but even the panic was evident in her voice. "Captain, orders?"

As the tendril came to a standing halt, the massive tower of flesh swayed ever so slightly in the mountain wind. The moon was nowhere to be seen in it's presence. Stanton gripped his rifle tightly, praying to himself. "Oh lord in heaven, forgive us for our sins."

The slight sway had came to a halt, only this time the very outer extension of the tendril swirled upwards and appeared to be collapsing under it's own weight. However, that was not the case. In truth, it began to howl and scream. I knew then what was happening, and I finally snapped out of my fear to give Solemn one word. "Incoming."

She looked to me as my eyes widened with the deep breath I took. "What?"

"INNNNNNNCOMIIIIIIIIIING!"

Meanwhile in the Castle Ballroom...

The howls and screams sounded loudly from outside, their voice being able to reach past the windows of the extravagant ballroom.

Cadance could only ask but one question. "What's all that screaming?"

The sound akin to thunder sounded around them, followed by the labored screams of the two ponies who held the barrier in place. Shining and Twilight both collapsed from the intense impact and pain that they mentally shared from the impact that sounded throughout the city. Shining's horn began to crackle and pop, indicating that his magic couldn't sustain another hit by his lonesome.

"Shining! Violet!" Velvet called out to her two offspring.

Twilight got back up and shouted in disbelief and pain. "What was that!?"

"Whatever it is, it's strong!" He answered as he winced.

Cadance looked outside of the ballroom, seeing the tip of a massive tendril curl from the impact it made before gathering itself to rise into the sky once more. "That thing, it's hitting the barrier, isn't it?" She questioned.

Crescent sighed in resignation. "The barrier won't last."

Meanwhile Outside the Castle Walls...

The young filly giggled as she proudly observed her work, seeing the glistening white cracks in the barrier form underneath her might. Around her stood a great number of pillars consisting of bodies she collected to do her bidding. In the midst of her work, she cheerfully hummed the melody she sang to the world.

Unable to remove himself from the great shadow stretching out to as far as fifty feet from the filly at the center, the guild leader watched speechless as the Congregant readied for another attack on the barrier. Some of his subordinates whispered amongst themselves. "That's truly terrifying."

"And you're saying that if we fail, we get eaten by that thing?" Another asked.

"Doc's orders." Yet another answered.

The guild leader, seeing himself already in the mass of corpses, wished not to find himself being apart of that collective. He tried to strengthen his resolve by offering some words to rally the guild. "We're going in there and mowing down every guard we see."

"Not every guard." Umbra replied with a smile, very much enjoying the filly's work. "Just the ones who stand on four legs. Those other ponies are fair game, so feel free to go all-out on them." He warned before his ears popped up to another idea that sprang up in his mind. "Also, if you happen to run into some royal bastards and bitches, please feel free to report their heads to me for a paid membership to the VIP Lounge. Common married-in's, one month. Lowly princes, six months. Annoying intermediate princess naggers, one year. And if you do happen to get the top prize, any sun or moon variant, you win."

The entire army grew wide-eyed at Umbra's request. Not from the prospect of being potential VIP members, but rather the directness of his intention. Many of them never anticipated taking the life of a royal in this attack, but it wasn't lost on deaf ears. In fact, many were growing anxious of being able to commit that act of execution themselves.

But the guild leader still had a remaining concern. "And if we run into any humans?"

Umbra shrugged and shook his head. "I'd suggest not running into any of those if you want to live. Dying means that you'll have to pay me for my services in your burial. And since none of you will have the bits to pay the toll this instant, nor have you taken up any life-insurance policies, you'll be paying me in your flesh. So please don't die, I would hate to demean your memory by making you work in the afterlife."

The army called out in fearful acknowledgement. "Sir!"

Meanwhile in the Courtyard...

The massive tendril coiled up as it erected itself into the air once more. As it rose, we could see the pinkish white fractures in the barrier above, appearing as a batted web around the point of impact. As the second hit was being charged, we could see the fracture lines slowly heal themselves and try to reunite the sections that threatened to break apart.

Stanton and I hid just under the castle parapets along with the others, looking up to watch as another hit was threatening to come down upon us. "I don't know if that shield will hold for much longer!" Gleaming Brass announced.

"That means that thing will be coming after us!" Cobalt shouted.

While I was stricken with fear, there was no way I could let this thing be the force front-lining the incoming wave of insurgents. In my brain, I tried to weave a plan as to void that thing's presence, be it some sort of distraction, or even another losing skirmish. In all cases, I could not let this thing be present for any losses. "You leave that thing to me!" I called out, still just as terrified as the others.

"You sure?" Stanton questioned.

"Who else is going to distract it for long enough for us to try and hold the perimeter?" I rebutted.

"Captain, that thing is way too big to fight." Solemn replied as the sounds of terrible screaming came about.

More ponies scrambled throughout the yard, seeking cover incase the barrier came down on it's incoming swing. "It's coming down again!" A guard shouted as they dove underneath the battlements.

In another fell swoop, the impact sounded as if it was a synthesized thunder clap, the cracks themselves sounding as though they had formed under the surface of a frozen river. More streaks of white revealed themselves among the faults of the barrier, the point of impact growing with each massive impact.

"That shield is gonna give way at any moment!" Dress Right screamed.

"Twilight." Rarity murmured quietly, watching with growing anxiety over what was taking place.

"We still gotta hold strong here, girls!" Said Applejack, trying to provide some morale to the group.

Rainbow in seeing the tendril slowly slithering off the barrier for another hit hovered up into the air. "I'm flying up to survey their forces! I'll be back down before that thing comes in for another hit."

As she zipped off to do as she intended, Rarity called out to her friend. "Be careful, darling!"

While many of us weren't too invested in trying to see how many were waiting to storm the keep, Rainbow braved the pressure of the next charging impact. Her eyes darted around, quickly taking note of how many had gathered. She then looked back up to see the tendril climbing back to it's apex, and wisely decided to come back down before the next impact. "I'm counting up to over eight hundred!" She announced.

"Well that's doesn't sound like much, but the castle probably has four hundred guards available right now. We're outnumbered two-to-one!" Solemn added, causing some of the nearby guards to quickly lose morale. Some even made their way to the door in an attempt to flee to the inside.

"We still have reinforcements outside of the castle!" Blueblood added.

"How do we get in contact with them!?" Cobalt questioned.

"If they don't know what's going on by now, they probably won't even think about coming this way with that thing bearing down on us!" Solemn responded as yet another wave of screaming sounded above us.

Another guard yelled out as he continued to take cover. "It's coming in for another hit!"

Meanwhile in the Castle Ballroom...

Both siblings who held the barrier up, collapsed to the ground as the third impact stressed their minds greatly, so greatly that they could not speak for several seconds as their parents called out to them, urging them to come to. The shock of the impact subsided after some time and Cadance assisted the pair to their hooves.

Velvet called out to her children. "Shining, Violet, let the damn thing go already!"

Shining replied in a weakened voice. "If we give up on the barrier, who knows what they'll do to us."

"You two are Equestria's greatest defenders right now. Keeping that thing up is only going to cost you the rest of your magic, as well as possibly your lives! Don't be foolish!" Crescent called out.

"Dad, we can hold things here. Just try to get out." Twilight said as she supported her brother in his effort to maintain the spell.

"I am not leaving my babies behind!" Velvet screamed at them, pleading for them to abandon the barrier. "Shining, Violet, let it go!"

"Mom, we got this!" The young prince weakly replied once more. But before he could completely stand tall, another impact sent the both of them back to the ground, the fourth hit completely knocking out their magic. Twilight groaned in pain as her brother was slow to get up. But as he rose, blood began to drip from his nose, his eyes opened and one of them became bloodshot. "That thing hits HARD!" He screamed laboriously.

Crescent picked up his son and became firm with his words. "How long will it be before you don't have it anymore!? How many more will it be before you don't have anything left!?"

"We have to protect the castle!" Shining replied.

Twilight tiredly cosigned with her brother. "And if we don't, that thing will come for Nondis and his friends again! We'll lose the element bearers!"

Cadance, not able to watch her husband suffer any longer, used her own magic to sustain the barrier for a short while as she tried to convince her husband to cast his efforts aside. "Shining. Let go."

His horn sparked unsteadily as he tried to reapply the spell. "I won't abandon─"

"Shining Armor." She placed a hoof on his horn, quenching his magic. "You have a daughter. Live for that."

Twilight also tried to ignite the spell, only to have her horn quenched by the pink princess in turn. "But what about─"

Cadance began to reason with them both. "When their time as element bearers come to an end, who will defend Equestria and it's problems? Do you expect them to keep it moving while you sacrifice it all on tonight? They have another world to protect. That is why they have the elements, to protect what's theirs. When it's all said and done, we can't expect them to come save us with every villain we face, they have their own lives, families, friends, their own world. I know it sounds selfish, but Equestria needs you both, don't give that away."

Twilight took a more educated thought into what her sister-in-law spoke on. She found herself seeing the greater picture of her friends being unable to stop any future dangers because of her decision to maintain the barrier. She lowered her head and let not another sparkle of magic flow to her horn. Her brother however fought against that thought. She called out to him also. "Shining..."

Velvet spoke to her son, begging him to stop. "I know that shield on your flank means a lot to who you are and what you can do, but your magic is already wearing thin. Either let the paling drop and live for a bigger fight, or keep it there for a short while, suffer the consequences, and have it fall shortly after anyhow. The only difference at this point will be maybe one or two more strikes. Choose which way makes more sense to you."

Shining looked to his wife, who shouldered the entire load of the barrier on her own. But it came at a cost, for a fifth impact sent the pregnant princess to her knees. She breathed heavily as the impact weighed her entire body down. The young prince hugged against his wife to keep her from falling. "Cadie!"

The mare looked to her husband. "I'm doing this for you, and if you won't let go, then neither will I."

"Cadie, you're pregnant!" He chided her.

"And right now my future is in your hooves. Either stop this or I will cast in your place." She answered adamantly, matching the dedication her husband wished he could provide in his weakened state.

The young prince shook his head. "You're crazy!"

The mare smiled back to her husband. "You've known that when you married me."

Yet another impact landed, Cadance screamed out in pain as the magic in her horn sparked out with a loud pop. Shining cared for his injured wife and carried her carefully on his back as to not be a discomfort to her and their unborn foal. He looked to his dad. "We can't just let that thing get Nondis while he's out there."

"Then allocate your magic for that, a cause that can still be won rather than a lost one." Crescent answered.

Shining closed his eyes and grew angry with himself. He sparked his horn for one more go, only to find himself being too weak to replenish the barrier. It was then where he finally acknowledged defeat. "I'm sorry, Nondis." He whispered before looking to his wife. "I'm so sorry, Cadie."

The pink princess rose to her hooves, recovering quicker from the impact after not having to deal with as many strikes. "You made the right decision. Now rest up, you'll need your magic back in full stride to fight."

Twilight looked outside, seeing the shadow swallow the entire castle yet again. She looked back to her father and spoke softly. "I hope you two are right about this."

"We are your parents. We haven't steered you wrong yet." Velvet replied.

Crescent then thought of the current captain. "If he's any bit of the fighter we know he is, he'll hold that thing off somehow."

Meanwhile in the Courtyard...

The tendril raised high into the sky. It remained there for a little more time than it normally would. Judging from the white glowing cracks in the barrier, it appeared that there was no signs that the barrier would ever recover. Instead, there was a looming silence as we acknowledged the next hit being the final one. "The shield is faltering!" One guard called out.

"Twilight, no!" Rarity said, covering her muzzle.

"We might be in fer a long night, girls!" Applejack began to breathe heavily, mentally preparing herself for the possible hell to come their way.

"No matter what, we face it together!" Rainbow said as she huddled her friends in against her and covered their heads with her wings.

Cobalt screamed at the top of her lungs at me. "Captain! Orders!"

"I gave you your orders. Stick to that over anything else. I know it sounds ridiculous, but try to remain calm."

As the massive tendril swayed in the wind, Stanton looked over to me with his rifle in tow. "Nondis?"

I calmly ask my brother. "Stanton, how strong is your magic?"

"Break an oak bed frame without even trying." He replied.

I nodded my head. "Good. I'm gonna need you to do the same with anything that comes our way."

Solemn gazed up at the tower of decaying flesh, trying her best to remain collected. "So what happens when that thing breaks through? What then?"

"...Playtime." I answered.

The screaming started slowly, the tip of the tendril didn't flop down with it's impact, but rather jettisoned towards us instead. It appeared to strike with extreme precision. "It's coming down!" A guard screamed from across the yard.

I shouted back to the entire yard one command. "BRAAAACCEEEEE!"

The tendril didn't just shatter the barrier, it knifed it's way through and stopped shy of running itself through the face of the castle. In doing that, we were given a closer view of the many faces that looked our way, as if to condemn us for merely exhibiting our ability to independently draw breath. Magenta mega-fragments fell from the sky akin to shattered glass, evaporating into smaller fractals that soon evaporated into the air. The tendril pulled back and fell behind the castle walls, complete with all the screaming that ensued with every movement. The giant tower of dead rescinded much of it's presence until there was naught a single condemned soul screaming. The shadow extended from over the walls, swallowing much of the courtyard entrance. There was a silence, and then we had saw the faces of our enemies standing in awe at the force that brought down the barrier. They soon turned their attention to us.

Stanton chambered a round in his weapon and took aim. "And here we go."

On the outside of the castle walls, the forces of the guild gawked and stood silent in the might of the young filly who brought the barrier down. Umbra gleamed with pride and rubbed the foal's head and showered her with praise. "Now that's a way to make an entrance. You've done great, my precious little Congregant." The filly giggled at the stallion's praise.

The guild leader still stood in shock over what he had witnessed. "The shields gone! That thing actually did it!"

Umbra screamed to him and pointed his hoof to the open courtyard. "Well what are you standing around for? Get your asses moving!"

"Yes sir!" He replied.

They appeared frozen, both our forces and theirs. I'm sure both sides had marveled and feared the presence that brought the barrier to it's brilliant end. But unlike our forces, theirs started moving first, walking slowly into the courtyard as though they had nothing to fear in their advance.

Many situations I had to wing it through, especially since my tactics heavily replied on the sole advantage of human weaponry. We had that advantage to a degree, but not nearly as much with the current situation. And with others in the line of fire, our shots had to be that much more precise. But that wasn't the problem, it was the morale of the guards.

I couldn't just say that I'll take that thing on in front of everyone knowing that I won't win in an upfront contest. They know that I won't win when I haven't won before, and with as massive as that thing is now, there's no human weapon that we have to be able to put a dent in that thing. Plus it's made mainly of the dead loved ones of others, a few of those glaring faces possibly being familiar to some of the young, homegrown guards here. And if they could identify them, then they knew it would be themselves who would join their friends, family, and comrades in death, or worse in this case.

Even fresh out of basic training, I was sent here to patrol. And that's not just some coincidence, that's the preliminary assignment. This was the destination for young aspiring protectors to have their day in the halls of the castle, to learn the greater protocols of protecting the princess. Here was where they furthered their training, learning the discipline and decorum worthy of her majesty's forces. And after eight months, you either get bored and request a post elsewhere on the map, or you become motivated enough to stick it out in Canterlot a little longer.

But since that is the case, hardly anyone here knows how to adapt to real-time conflict, much less death and psychological warfare. I saw many faces crawling up those entrance doors, all of them covered in armor. Some ponies had began to trample over their own in efforts to hole themselves inside. Instead of screaming from above, it was screaming on the ground, mainly from those pleading for the others to get off of them, as they were constantly stampeded over in the crush.

Blueblood was having none of it. He conjured all of his magic to levitate every guard trying to break into the castle to face the forces that began to mock their display of cowardice. And the blond prince had no reservations to how he felt about them. "You spineless cowards! You'd sooner kill your own than to fight the horde in front of you!? Have you no valor, no oath to uphold!? Where is your strength!? Who do you protect with your tails tucked into your rectums!? You'd sooner protect those than your fellow guards you trample over!?" The prince then looked to me. Though he was officially designated with no military power, I still acknowledged the authority and experience he had as he spoke. He urged me to take action. "Captain, line our forces before they get ran over!"

I wasted no time. "PHALANX! FRONT RANKS!"

A chaotic sounding chorus called out in broken unity. "SIR!" Instead of being a pristine force that seemed to be at the top of their discipline, they had devolved into a bunch of civilian-minded recruits, I couldn't really blame them, most of them were new. The magic casters took to the front, providing barriers for their front line. And with that, crossbow-wielding pegasi loaded their weapons and remained behind the cover their unicorn comrades provided. Earth pony guards positioned themselves to remain directly behind the unicorns, their spears pointed well past the shields that were provided.

As more began to file inside of the courtyard from the cramped opening, seemingly with no protection up front, I issued the order to open fire into their forces. "VOLLEEEEEEY!" The pegasi leapt into the air for a moment in a bid to maximize their aim and range. "LOOSE!" The sound of twine snapping under the duress of their wooden loads was accompanied by the whistling of arrows that darted across the courtyard. As those who fired took their cover, another group loaded their weapons for another volley to send.

But as the first volley made their hits, injuring more than a few who initially broke in, the others behind them had begun to cast their own barriers to protect their forces. It wasn't as grand as Shining's, but it was just as effective with the given group effort. "They've got shields of their own sir!" Cobalt called out.

Blueblood looked to me and urged me to move forward. "I know that rules of engagement require that you stand from a safe position─"

"I already know." I replied, chambering a round in my weapon. "Stanton, I'm going in. Give Alex a call and tell him to get my back."

"Okay, don't do nothing stupid." He replied as I walked away.

As I began to approach the front line, the crowd of guild members stopped and gawked at my appearance. Some even pointed, others murmured to one another. "The captain's alive!?" One called out loudly.

"I thought he was dead!" Another shouted.

I hollered out across the grounds my response to their theories. "Oh yeah, I was dead! Now I came back from hell to hand out some free tours!" I said as I lined my shot for the first one that stepped in the furthest. With a pull of the trigger, the stallion that was once protected by a shield had watched as the magic before him shattered completely and his life cut to black as he fell to the ground in a tumbling thud. "You first."

Another few shot rang out, but from far above me. It sounded as though it was a rifle in single-fire mode. The bullets whizzed by me, aiming for some of the others that stepped into the grounds. Another five fell to the ground, three clutching themselves as they soon realized where they were hit. "What in Equestria was that!?" A batpony mare questioned as a unicorn stood in front of her to defend her with his magic.

Unfortunately, his efforts were made completely fruitless on his own account. While the mare flew into the air to avoid being targeted as the others were, the stallion who protected her had heard a thunderous blast from the tower, the report knocking some dust off of the parapets it sounded from. In the fraction of a second, the mare went from seeing him standing in place to seeing his head and neck being virtually vaporized, followed by another pony who's chest had exploded from the impact of the high caliber round. "His head's gone!" One exclaimed.

"Yeah. It took a whole two days for me to find mine!" I said as I fired another set of rounds into the crowd. The group of guild members backed away as they saw their magic being incapable of defending against such fast projectiles, especially with them being so hard to see. While the arrows had a lethal speed, bullets were much more potent against their defenses. And in seeing that, they began to back away slowly. "So who wants next!?" I called out.

Seemingly someone who appeared to represent them stood out and called to me in a raspy, deep voice. "We're only doing what we've been told to do! The boss wanted us to take the royal family! We don't have any business with you, so can we just let bygones be bygones, and we all go about our respective assignments?"

I then replied. "Sorry, but if you're not like that thing that crashed the barrier, you don't get the option of just walking away."

While many had begun to fear any further approach, there were some who appeared irrational and charged in regardless of the circumstances. "He can't kill us all!" One hollered out before a bullet from Stanton's rifle sent them crashing to the ground, writhing briefly before their life slowly faded away.

Stanton called out in response. "No he can't, but move one step and you'll find out just how quick a few of you will meet Jesus on the pavement like your friend did!"

I glanced back to show appreciation for my younger brother's well-placed shot and raised my firearm to the intimidated army in front of me. "There's eight hundred of you! In the past forty-five seconds, you've probably gathered around twenty casualties from just four people! So you can either go on back behind that there checkpoint, or you get a Texas helping of death for as little as the price of a pack of gum! Choose which way you wanna go, because I can assure you that you will not make it back home... And you all saw exactly why!"

The pack of ponies began to look and back away slowly. I walked towards them, trying to enforce my position. While I had surmised that the guards would back me up in my advance, I did not hear so much as a bit of armor clatter behind me in close distance. But what I did hear was the blood-curdling scream of my younger brother. "NONDIS!"

I snapped around, seeing myself standing alone. Our forces had also appeared to back away. When I looked around, I began to see why. Down at my feet was an enormous looming shadow that engulfed almost twenty feet from the very point where I stood. I stepped back to a set of hooves hugging me at my leg.

"Big brother?"

...My breathing ceased.

I looked back to see the young filly grasping at my leg, happily wagging her tail with excitement. She called up to me as she appeared as normal as she could be. She looked to me with glossy eyes that barely had any shimmer in them, her pale face wearing a smile. "Big brother, it's me! Daddy has been looking everywhere for you!"

Slowly, very slowly, my breathing resumed and I vowed to not make any sudden movements as to alarm her of what I was going to do. I slowly turned myself to the side, not daring to reach down and risk being captured again. Though at this point, she could very much take me under if she wished to. And I was certain that any attempt to run would be met with that response.

Solemn called out to me. "Captain, do you know that little filly!?"

I raised my hand slowly, then curling all but one finger, lifting my elbow and turning my wrist until my index finger pointed down to the filly. I didn't turn my head to where Alex was positioned, especially to not give him away. From there, I mouthed the words in an exaggerated manner where he could read my lips through the scope. "Send. It."

While I was sure he received my message, I could assume that he was trying to line himself a shot that wouldn't endanger me in any way, though that would be virtually impossible right now. The filly, however, was not privy to what I had said or meant to do. I just looked down to her and waited. "Am I it, big brother? Is that why you're pointing at me?"

I put on a fake smile, at least a very strained attempt of one. "Yeah. Tag." The sudden sound of the sniper rifle going off had startled me, but in that fraction of a second, I watched as her entire top torso had performed a disappearing act. I felt her hooves drop completely from around me, and I darted as fast as I could out of the shadow. When I cleared it, I simply emptied the clip into the mound of remains that was her body. I even instinctively pulled the trigger twice after, thinking I had more. After that, the adrenaline started to wear off a bit and I had to collect my breath. "You're it."

While I knelt down, I heard Solemn run up to me, screaming. "CAPTAIN, THAT WAS A FILLY!"

Cobalt quickly joined in. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

Gleaming Brass covered her muzzle and looked away. Dress Right averted her eyes also, dropping to her knees. "OH FAUST BEYOND!"

While I could understand their perspective of seeing me open fire on a young foal, they were not aware of the truth of the situation. So instead of trying to argue against them, I merely muttered back to the quartet. "Wait for it."

Cobalt continued to lay into me for my decision. "WAIT FOR WHAT, CAPTAIN!? YOU DIDN'T GIVE THAT POOR FILLY A FUCKING CHANCE─"

"Ooowwwwuh!" The filly's voice suddenly spoke out once more. Cobalt froze in place as she heard it just like I did. She slowly turned her head to see the decimated corpse of an unknown filly lying in place of where Alex had took his shot. The shadow grew to over twice it's size, reaching out to fifty feet instead. Blueblood didn't expect for the shadow to be as big as it was, so he and the others also found themselves inside of it. They began to smell the brunt of the decay that once hinted through the air just earlier. I expected her to pop back up where she was slain, but instead of surfacing through the ground, she appeared from one of the pillars by the front door. She walked out as though she had simply gotten smacked with a newspaper. "That hurt! Why did you do that big brother!?"

"Your shadow's bigger." I observed quietly.

The filly grumbled at me initially, but her mood shifted as the topic changed. "That's only because daddy gave me more dollies to play with! Do you wanna see them!?"

Blueblood's eyes expanded as mine did, Stanton wanted to shoot her, but grew worried that he would piss her off if he did. So he just kept a finger on the trigger with the barrel aimed for her skull. Solemn and her friends stood behind me as I questioned the filly. "Where did you get those 'dolls' from?"

Slowly, she pushed up five ponies from within her shadow, turning and twisting them as if they were on display. Cobalt shrieked as one in particular had grabbed her attention. And judging from the scar on his neck that looked similar to mine, I saw exactly what had made her so distressed.

There before her very eyes, Iron Hoof was being modeled in front of her. On his face was the same expression of rage he had in the moment his head was cut off by Celestia. The haunting image of his reappearance had disturbed the mare so intensely that she had urinated where she stood.

"Daddy let me visit the old place with all the dollies in the cold rooms! This place had like over a thousand of them! But the mean ponies there wanted to burn them all! So I turned them into dollies too!" She pulled another ten from the shadows, featuring an even more haunting presentation.

It was almost as if she had treated them as ballerinas with the way they were posed with the various holes in their bodies, some not even having holes but with various portions of their bodies torn off completely. Many of the guards she held up had still wore their armor, but instead of being a glistening gold as they usually would be, they were tainted by sludge and decay. Their color still remained, indicating their relative freshness in contrast to the other corpses she had in her possession. All of them wore the faces of tortured souls who endured much in their demise. Fear, resignation, anger, hatred, bargaining, pain, and sadness, each of the guards' final representation of their emotions had been etched firmly into their faces, being modeled as ballerinas to the tune of a poorly-maintained music box.

"See? They're pretty boring, but they're some of my newer ones! Maybe we can have some new ones for you to play with!"

In seeing their fellow guards being displayed in such a manner, every guard in the courtyard screamed in fear simultaneously. Solemn looked to me, her voice breaking and trembling as much as her body did. She whispered to me in a tremolo. "Captain?"

While I was disturbed to a degree, it was par for the course. I simply replied to her and the others. "Yup. That about sums up my entire weekend."

Gleaming Brass began to cry against her friends chest mournfully, Cobalt remained motionless as she stood in a puddle of her own urine. Solemn clutched onto me as the filly asked me in a sweet and innocent voice. "Are you coming back big brother?"

Stanton raised his weapon, his fingers becoming increasingly sweaty as the smell of decay around him threatened his gag reflex. I held my hand up to try and dissuade him from taking the shot. I looked around and saw the obvious truth, there was no way in fresh hell I would be able to get these guards to defend the castle as long as she remained here. After all, if I couldn't beat this thing on my own, I could at least drive it away and possibly lose it somewhere else, someplace large and expansive. A place where she would easily get lost, where I could get lost myself if I wasn't careful, maybe even fall to my death in the dark.

That's right, there is such a place, a place filled with many more restless souls who met an unfortunate end, a permanent grave for many who labored there trying to repay an outstanding debt. A place where a pair of princess had to climb and claw their way out of. And that place was well within the crystalline walls of a mountain. If I could provide anything for these new recruits, it would be a fighting chance. With five other humans, one of them having magic also, they would stand the same chance as though I was here.

I moved Solemn aside and answered the slowly filly. "Let's play a game."

"It better not be boring, big brother." The filly replied.

"It won't be." I assured her. "But first you gotta count to a hundred slowly, okay? But only when I say that I'm ready."

Stanton looked at me as though I had lost my mind. "Dude, the fuck are you talking about!? Are the scars on your body not enough for you!?"

I quickly walked over and whispered to my younger brother. "Stanton, I know it's crazy, but that thing cannot stay here. If it does, we lose by default. Someone has to take that shit away from here. And if I'm the thing this girl wants, then I'm gonna make it hard for her. So do me a solid, and think about that motorcycle I have and where it is exactly in the armory. Can you picture it being here right now?"

Stanton looked to me and pondered over my idea. He quickly saw the base of the plan lay out before his imagination. His playmaking skills had started to shine as he understood the route I had hinted on. "That thing would probably help you out a lot, wouldn't it?"

I slung my arm over his shoulders and whispered to him in a low voice. "That's why you're here. I'm combining my magic with yours to bring it here. Once I get on that thing and rev up, I'm gonna try to drag that thing away from the castle as fast as I can haul ass into the mountain. And when that happens, you get these ponies to the foyer and hold your position there. Because psychologically speaking, we've lost the courtyard. They can't fight here, not after what we saw just now. I'm sure Shining or Blueblood may have some idea on what to do next, they can handle it from here. Just do as they say and stay safe while I buy you guys time."

"How long do you think you can buy us?" He asked.

"I'll give you maybe four hours, five at most. If I'm not back by dawn, don't look for me."

Stanton pointed at me and gave me a firm warning. "Don't get captured again, dude. We can't come back for you this time like we did before. First time we got lucky."

"I already know it." I replied.

Stanton took out his phone and checked the time. He went through his security settings and loosened the restrictions of his access before handing me the phone. "Take it."

"I'm not taking that, you need that to stay in touch with Alex." I replied.

"You need it more than I do." He insisted.

While I was about to give the phone back to him, a secondary thought came up and changed my opinion. So instead of giving him back his phone, I pocketed it and thought of the chief benefit of having it. "Okay, I get what you're drawing up now." I said as I looked to the filly, who stared at me skeptically. "I'm about to have one hell of a game of hide-go-seek."

Stanton hugged me, patting me in the back of my head. "You just be careful, bro."

The filly was starting to become impatient, I could tell from the growing number of tendrils that started to slightly peek from within the shadow she casted. Time was running short, I had to get that motorcycle here and fast. "Okay, quick lesson. Close your eyes, think of the bike."

He did as I instructed, his hand began to radiate with an orange aura. "I think I see it."

I placed my left hand over his, my magic also glowing brightly in conjunction to his own. Before my eyes, the motorcycle materialized and sat idle. I walked away and opened the side compartment and grabbed my keys. "Okay, it's here."

Stanton had not been aware of the fact that he had helped me summon the bike, as his eyes were still closed. "What?" Upon opening them, he finally saw what had happened. "Oh wow, that worked?"

I nodded to him. "A quick little magic lesson before I leave. Use that to your advantage and get as many weapons as you'll need, ammo, all that, whatever you can carry, just remember where you put it when you put it away."

"Okay." He acknowledged.

I looked to the terrified mares and grabbed their attention quickly, as the tendrils were slowly growing in presence and size. "Ladies, can you clear that checkpoint for me? I need an open lane when she starts counting."

Blueblood stepped in place of them and nodded in affirmation. "You leave that to me. Let these girls get inside, they weren't ready for this kind of song-and-dance. Our forces will need time to mentally readjust."

"I wish I could put you in charge, you know what you're doing." I said before turning to Solemn. "Hey, what he says goes. Do it. That's an order."

The blond prince then issued a loud command to the forces barricading the doors. "Open the doors! All forces fall back to the foyer!"

The guardsmare temporarily shook off her fear and went to issuing orders to her subordinates. "Orderly fashion, get all injured to the medical ward, including that of our enemies!"

Guild members who stood at the gate watched in silence as some of the guards hurriedly avoided all the tendrils protruding from the ground and grabbed their wounded members to take inside of the castle. In a bid to collect their dead, the guild members tried to quietly levitate them from the ground. But several tendrils shot out of the shadow and snagged the non-living ponies and dragged them under. Responding out of fear, they dared not to approach further as the filly looked to them with stingy disapproval. She even began to seek out the ones who were already injured and grab them before they could make it inside. Those that she did capture, she brutally bashed them into the ground head first to kill and then assimilate them into her collective.

Once she preemptively collected the newly-dead and injured, her tendrils turned to the guards who tried to flee into the castle. I screamed out to her in an attempt to distract her from carrying on with her carnage. "Okay! Let's play! Quick round of hide-go-seek!" The tentacles that threatened to puncture and maim some of the retreating guards had completely frozen in place. I hollered out again. "One-two-three-not-it!" The tentacles fell into the shadow as she turned herself at me.

She stamped her hoof in protest. "No fair! I wanted you to be it! I got you last time!"

I then replied. "But I can't be it, you're too big! I could just step on you and call you it, how fair is that!?" As I continued to buy our forces time, I watched as Blueblood teleported himself in front of the guild to clear a path.

"I'm sure you lot want that thing gone as much as we do." He muttered to the guild leader. "And she's going to run this way, I suggest you lot clear the road."

The guild leader rapidly nodded. "CLEAR THE ROAD! MAKE WAY!"

Blueblood disappeared from in front of them, I placed my keys into the ignition as I explained the rules to the filly. "So here's the deal, if you tag me, I'm it! But if I make it back to those doors, I'm safe! But here's two golden rules. Number one: No hiding or searching in any of the buildings in town! I'm not gonna hide there, you're not gonna look there! Number two: No hurting anyone else, we all wanna have fun, but let's do it safely! Now I'm gonna start running, you're gonna start counting!" I still saw her looking at me with some skepticism, but it was slowly being replaced by growing excitement. I then offered to sweeten the deal. "In fact, I'll make this a bit fair! Lets knock down your countdown, fifty seconds! And if you win, I'll get you an ice-cream cake from my world!"

Her face started to show an irrational exuberance, even her voice distorted with the newfound excitement. "I̴̼̔ć̷͎e̶̫̔ ̴̰͘c̴̱̈r̵̡̓ẹ̵͑a̷̼͋m̸͝ͅ ̴̹̏c̷̰̽ȃ̴̮k̶͓͐e̵͕̋!̴̩͆?̵̱̈́ ̸̻̈́F̵̡͗r̴̗͌o̷̰͆m̵͉̉ ̴͈͒y̴̘̎o̶̞̍u̸͍̓r̴̤̔ ̸̹̅w̸͙͊õ̸͜r̶̪͐l̶̮͐d̷͎͘!̷͍̌?̵͇͆ ̷̜̓İ̶̢ ̶̲́ẅ̷̺́ä̷̲́n̴̛̥n̸͙̈́a̵̙͆ ̸͔̋p̴͉̚l̴̟̾a̴̭͗ý̵̰,̷̻̿ ̷̡̓Ī̴̭ ̶̘͗w̸̢͝ȁ̷̹n̵̨̋n̶̝̆a̶̖͠ ̶̖̊p̷̱͛ļ̷̄ȃ̷̬y̴̨̒!̴̤̔"

Finally grabbing her full attention and participation, the creature sent her tendrils back under and she quickly ran over to one of the open doors. "Now no peeking! Are you ready!?"

"Y̷̼͒ĕ̴̬a̵͖͝h̵̺̀!̷̻̅" She called out.

I cranked the engine and revved the throttle. I prayed to myself for a brief moment and took a deep breath. With a clear path ahead, I gave myself the green light. "Okay... GO!"

The wheels of my vehicle screeched against the cobblestone before I took off with a boost of speed. "O̸̟͒n̶̼̈́e̵̘̚.̸͇̓.̶̡̋.̸̦̌ ̵̥̄t̷̘̽w̸̠̿ơ̵̟.̴̇͜.̶̥͗.̸̪͊ ̵̤͛t̶͓́h̶̢̿r̷̰͗é̴͔e̶͈͊.̶̯̉.̵̥̐.̷̳̓ ̸͑ͅf̸̱̊o̴̢͋ų̴̇r̵̯̐.̴̹̅.̷̗̐.̸̱̀"

By the time she could count to five, I was already out of the courtyard and down the main avenue. I shot myself all the way across town, only looking ahead to dodge whatever was in the road. It wasn't until I had gotten to the bridge outside of the city gates when I had finally looked back, seeing nothing but stars in the sky and the slowly shrinking Canterlot skyline. And since I told her to count slowly, I had a little more than fifty seconds to clear the city. But when she finished her countdown, she made sure that the whole region could hear it.

***Point of Perspective: Twilight Sparkle***

Shortly after a break of trying to hastily recoup our magic energy, we made our way to the location where the most commotion was being caused. Upon arriving, we could see that not everything had gone according to plan. In fact, it appeared that our forces had gotten quite the shellacking. You would think with the way that they appeared, they had watched the captain go down in front of their very eyes.

That also brought my attention to who all had filled the lobby.

It seemed as though our forces were relatively healthy, but they all appeared stunned. Many just sat in place murmuring to themselves and bemoaning the idea of fighting. But as I walked through, I started to hear the murmurs around me.

As we came to the front doors of the foyer, I could see Solemn Oath vomiting by the door, being assisted by Stanton. Nondis was nowhere to be seen. Trailed by my family, I immediately asked of his whereabouts. "Stanton, where's Nondis?"

"He's gone to buy us some time." He replied as he also used his magic to help Blueblood barricade the door shut. "That thing that broke the barrier just ran off from here."

"Wait, why is it going away from here?" Dad asked. "We heard it say 'Ready or not, here I come.' The whole city heard it. How is it that it just left instead of breaking down the doors and making a big mess of the foyer?"

He promptly responded. "Nondis is leading it away, he says he's going to take it inside of the mountain to try and keep it distracted."

"HE WHAT!?" I shouted.

"Didn't we just get him out of this mess?" My brother asked, walking up from behind me.

"He's giving us more time to shore up our defenses and file off all of these other guys." He answered. "If you ask me, we were off to a pretty good start until that thing came along and played show-and-tell."

"Show and tell?" Cadance questioned.

Stanton grimly answered with a deep breath. "Show off the new acquisitions and tell us about what they were doing at the time. I.E.: Those guards you guys had stationed over at some morgue, she modeled them off for us."

My heart immediately sank in terror and sadness for those who fell victim to the ponies that were killed. Shining winced and closed his eyes. "Fuck's sake."

"Those are our guys and gals, we have to give them the respect they deserve." Dad said quietly.

"But how!?" Solemn questioned loudly. "How in Equestria's sake do we get our wounded and dead back from that thing? We saw how it treated those thugs out there, and it's supposed to be on their side! She killed the ones who were wounded by the humans and dragged them under the shadow like some sort of swamp monster! How do we get ANYTHING back from that!?"

One of her friends cosigned alongside her. "That thing had Lieutenant Colonel Iron Hoof!"

Another one of her friends then erupted in a panic. "We're all gonna die!"

Some guards began to scream, others started crying, a few just sat against the walls and stared into the nothing in front of them. Some who were covered in blood had appeared caught in a daze. The few that were still actively working had either moved some of the injured insurgents to the medical ward or helping shore up the door.

Seeing that their morale was completely shot, dad brought his attention to Blueblood. "Okay, so what's the real update here other than the guards being scared shitless?"

"We're trying to hold the doors, but they've got other ways of getting in." He replied, looking up to the stairs where both Alex and Rickey walked in from.

They both walked in shaking their heads. "On tonight's episode of 'How Fucked-Up is Fucked-Up'. Yeah, that's fucked up." Rickey stated.

"I hate that Nondis had to be the one to drag that piece of shit out of here." Alex added. "But he took off on the bike, so he should be at least faster than that thing." He then asked his younger brother. "Hey, what did Nondis say he was gonna do out there!?"

"Drag that thing through the mountain!" He answered.

"The mountain!? The mountain is dangerous if you don't know how to navigate it!" Cadance replied.

"Well that's what he said he was gonna do." Stanton replied with a helpless shrug. "At least Little-Miss-Poltergeist is gone from the playing field."

I looked towards Rainbow Dash, who still maintained some level of composure. "Rainbow Dash, what are their numbers looking like?"

"Eight hundred plus. Sixteen are dead now." She answered. "Four of their wounded have been recovered. Two have fallen unresponsive en route to the medical ward."

"The rest was taken in by that hideous thing, darling." Rarity supplemented.

Applejack shook her head. "Ah ain't sleepin' fer a week, sugarcube. That out there, that ain't right."

"I'm just glad you all are safe." I answered as I reached in and hugged my friends.

Dad looked around and tapped his hoof, looking at the mentally decimated forces around the lobby. "Well, it's apparently a good thing that the barrier is broken now."

"Dad, how is the barrier being broken a good thing? We're in this mess because the barrier's gone." I asked.

He simply answered my question. "We can call for reinforcements."

"Oh." I said dismissively at first, but then realized that the strategic advantage had shifted with the breaking of the barrier. It ended up being a double-edged sword as opposed to a one-sided victory condition. I planted my own hoof firmly into my face as I pleaded with my father. "Why didn't you say that earlier!?

"Our situation's changed, Violet." He answered. "At first, we were preparing for more ponies to try and invade en masse using teleportation. We were looking to halt any and all advance through those means, but then that thing came along and changed the playing field. It broke the barrier, but it also allowed us a means to communicate with the outside. Though in spite of that opportunity, it was a tremendous risk with that thing out there to intercept anyone flying out of the castle grounds. As of now, we're not looking at fighting that thing anymore either. So now we have a tactical advantage, but we need to use that advantage now before they box us in."

Alex rubbed the side of his head, working away a potential headache. "Well at the very least, nothing else can scare these guys shitless like that thing did when it showed up with some familiar faces."

"Other than having Celestia wake out of her sleep to fight, nothing else indeed." Replied the blond prince.

Cadance rolled her eyes and chided the annoying prince. I was deeply annoyed with his statement. "Blueblood, don't you think that's a bit rude?"

He scoffed and said. "Believe me when I say it, you don't want her up and at it when there's a siege. She will not be the mentor you've grown accustomed to seeing."

Alex looked to the prince and asked him casually. "Well captain number 2 in the archives, what do you suggest?"

The blond prince quickly replied. "We need an armed envoy to send to Cloudsdale, have all of our aerial forces converge on our position." He said as he used his magic to simulate a hologram-like illusion of the castle grounds. "From there, we hold our internal positions until the forces outside can reach us. They may be a few hundred strong with relatively elite units, but if my experience in the civil war tells me anything, elite units can still become exhausted by sheer numbers at the end of the day. Remember they are on OUR grounds, WE have the advantage here."

"Seems like you're calling the shots here." Shining noted.

"Well this isn't anything new for me." He said before bringing his attention to my dad. "Night Light, I hate to pull you out of retirement, but I'll need you to serve as our escort for the evacuation measures. Make sure they get to the passageways as safely as they can. All maids, reporters, politicians, and visitors are to clear the premises through the dungeon path."

"On it." Dad answered with a salute, pulling mom away and guiding her to where she had to go.

He looked to my brother and issued an order to him as well. "Shining Armor, your abilities will be useful in keeping our more prominent positions better defended. And since Celestia is our primary issue, we will need for you to protect that room like your life depends on it. Remember, never wake the sleeping giant."

"Copy." He said before teleporting off.

He brought his attention back to me and barked out some more orders. "Princess Twilight, your abilities are useful in the offensive order of things, but they will not be used for combat on the front. I will need for you to hold the position in the portal room." He also turned to the humans and gave orders to them. "As for you humans, you have a much more important task."

Stanton sought to argue against his proposal. "Wait, I thought we were─"

"Too important to use for the front line." He interrupted. "Your weapons cannot get in the hooves of those ruffians out there. Your priority is to clear that armory before they're able to get to it. If they get any bit of that ordinance, we'll all be in the morgue for Umbra to experiment with. Secure those weapons and have them moved to the portal room. Your post will be to defend that place at all costs."

"I'll go get Cliff and Melanie." Rarity said before running down the hall.

"What if Umbra comes for us then?" Alex questioned.

Blueblood pointed to me with confidence. "That's why princess troublemaker will be right there with you. Her friends are all element bearers also, they have some residual power to use as well. Any of that being used to stave off Umbra is key to our success here. And if his aspirations are to take over your world, best believe that he'll use all of this as a distraction while that will be his primary target."

Without warning, we heard the sound of my father's voice shouting from down the hall. "Hey! Evacuation route is the other way!"

To our surprise, both Alabaster and Blue galloped towards us and panted when they came to a rest. "So, what's this about an evacuation?" Alabaster questioned.

"What are we evacuating for?" Blue asked alongside her brother.

I answered the duo. "Well for starters, that thing attacked the castle and demoralized our guards. So our safest alternative is to evacuate should the situation get any worse. Also, it may be possible that Umbra is using this as a distraction to possibly get into the portal room. There may be a confrontation."

Both of the siblings looked to each other, Blue being the first to speak. "So we're off to fight the doctor?"

"The horrible doctor from hell." He confirmed.

Dad interjected. "Alabaster, Blue, I was going to have you lot evacuated!"

"No, we're staying here to help." Blue insisted strongly. "We won't tuck tail and run when we've been the witnesses to his crimes. He hasn't just caused harm to our family, but he's hurt our friends. We owe it to Nondis to assist in any way we can. There will be no alternative, we're in.

Alex was quick to vouch for their involvement. "Actually, we could really use them on tonight. Blue can use that same spell she used to get us into both the arena and the lab unannounced. If our M.O. is to grab our shit and bounce before they get it, it would be better if we had that to help. Besides, all those weapons and shit aren't going to be light work."

Blue continued her argument. "If there's any way to help move the weapons quickly, it's by magic. Having three of us instead of one will mitigate that task to be done almost thrice as fast. Plus with my magic, we can get those weapons quickly, discreetly, and without incident."

"More magic, less trips. I like that idea." Alex said with a thumbs up.

Stanton turned my way. "Hey Twilight, when you get a hold of Fluttershy, have her tell Discord to visit my phone for the day."

"Why?" I inquired.

"Because Nondis has my phone."

I smiled as I started to feel more comfortable about how things were being strung together. Between my dad, Blueblood's experience, and everyone else's pre-planning, it was hard to become discouraged. "Great thinking. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to do him a favor for what he did for Fluttershy."

"That was kinda the idea." Stanton replied.

Galloping in from much further down the hall was a detail of night guards, all of whom accompanied the Princess of the night. "Princess Luna!" I greeted her.

"I suppose the pleasantries could be saved for later. Right now, we have a mess to clean up." She responded before taking in the sight of all the dispirited guards. "Why do they appear defeated?"

"That thing Umbra created paid us a visit." I informed her. "It showed them a few of their guards in arms, and then absconded with many of the wounded out on the scene. Nondis led it away to buy us some time, but he's going into the mountain. He's not here to give any orders, it's been pretty much Solemn Oath and Blueblood working together, her issuing the commands while he's offering his input."

"That kind of system doesn't seem sustainable." She muttered.

"Well I don't have military powers, that's why there's been a deference." Blueblood explained.

"That changes now." She stated before calling out loudly to the guards throughout the castle in her Royal Canterlot Voice. "Attention all guards, hear my emergency decree!" The entirety of the lobby paid close attention to the lunar princess, who pointed a hoof to the blond prince. "Captain Nondis has made himself available to draw away the greater threat to us! As such, there will be a temporary grant of power to a leading officer to assume the role! Prince Blueblood will be issuing you your orders from this point onward until the captain has returned to his post! Please see to it that his requests are to be acknowledged as your superior officer! Also, all civilians are to report to the west wing for immediate evacuation! This is not a drill! Please locate a guard who will escort you to the mandated location, where you will evacuate in a safe and orderly manner! That is all!"

While we ponies knew what to expect with Princess Luna, the humans did not. They covered their ears for the majority of Luna's speech. Once she finished, they uncovered their ears and looked to the princess with amazement. "Wow, to hell with a megaphone."

Luna gave her attention to the humans now. "Please point me in the direction where our current captain has gone."

"Down Main Street, moving at about sixty to seventy. He's was well out of the city by the time that thing finished counting." Alex notified her. "It was still looking through the city streets by the time he crossed the bridge over the ravine."

Luna gave the man a nod in acknowledgement. "Very well, that is where I shall go."

"I'm coming with you." To our surprise, Cadance volunteered herself to make the trip to help Nondis.

"You are with foal, I cannot allow that, Cadenza." Luna sternly replied.

She remained just as firm on her choice. "I'm a princess first, and a mother second. Nopony knows those caves better than I do. And no one has crystal sealing magic like I do. If you want your best chance to mitigate the severity of our situation, we'll need to work together. That thing cannot stand, it must go down, and our powers combined will do just that."

The night princess still had her reservations against having the expecting mother in harm's way. "Does your husband know you're wandering off?"

"He will know later. For now, we have an element bearer who needs our help. We cannot just let him do this on his own again."

Luna tilted her head and glared to the pink princess. "I don't want to hear a thing from your husband, so be sure not to miscarry."

Cadance confidently replied. "Believe me, I won't."

The Mt. Canter Crystal Caverns...
***Point of Perspective: NONDIS***

Upon the moonlit crags and open winter sky, I walked my bike behind a boulder nearby. In the far-reaching shadows of the mountain I was given a sort of grace, a moment to take in the majesty of the mouth of nature's beast. If it were living, I'd be staring back into the maw of a greedy beast, it's towering fangs made of diamond and sapphire, the grounds latent with granite and quartz. It was a gross deposit of minerals, all designated to back the wealth of the royal crown. While many would seek a vault containing of such illustrious riches, here is where many were dared to simply come and get them. This was the fortune of the nation, the forever open vault that displayed the limitless wealth held by the crown princess.

But all of that wealth comes with a terrible price.

While many were sentenced to labor here in these mighty halls of unrefined splendor, there were the significant fraction that would never leave this place, as they would find fate awaiting them through at least one of these caves. Weakened foundations, loosened anchors, partially excavated quarries for hundreds of years only to erode in the many winds that has cut and swept through the whistling mountain halls, cracked faces and broken stones, it's only a matter of time before the weight of the ceiling above comes bearing down. One wrong turn, one errant step, one vibration too resonant, one mighty roar and it's the end for all of those who enter.

"She's frustrated." I murmured.

It's been only fifteen minutes since I've started my tour through the mountain. And with all the trains dead, I was afforded the privilege of using the rail tunnels for my journey. One such rail, a now-defunct line, gave way to a beautiful open sinkhole, one that I walked the bottom of. I could see the peak of the mountain from here, looking up to the crystal clear sky and the twinkling stars above.

There was an air of finality with this place, I felt it. It was the perfect place for me to make my stand, to give myself the fighting chance to hide from the Congregant's many eyes, it's looming shadows, and the cursed filly's growing impatience. It was the perfect place for a life-defining game of hide-go-seek. If I were to lose here, then my fate is certainly sealed. But at the very least, that thing would have to fight it's way back to the outside, something I'm sure that even that filly would not be able to do very easily in the hazardous spaces provided.

I pulled out my brother's phone, checking the time. It was 2:18. "Three hours, forty-five minutes." I said to myself, noting the time I had to keep her distracted until dawn.

Her roar sounded once more in the distance, she was that much closer. There was no more time to lose. An odd tune filled my head as I gripped the silver spear in my right hand, saw the faintly-glowing element in my left, and looked to the swallowing darkness of the caves ahead.

"Ready or not... Here I am."

Howdy, it's been a while. It's pretty much without saying that there will be a lot of work to do for the next chapter. And with it being as such, I must keep myself mentally relaxed and go through these passages a lot more frequently. This next chapter will be THE most challenging one to write, the reason: Well I can't spoil that for you either.

Next month comes not only the welcoming of spring, but also the final battle.

I sure hope some of you have at least gotten immersed in the music I've provided, I fell that they add a bit of atmosphere with the scenes that come after them. Though there was also a piece of music that I pretty much had throughout the course of this arc, maybe once or twice you've heard it throughout the course of the story.

It is Erik Satie's "Gnossiene 1".

I believe the first time I've implemented this piece was for the moment when Kalimba and Nondis were doing away with the rotten body of Count DuMoneé, burning away not just his corpse but also the shed where Kalimba was staying in with Prod. I wanted to implement it much sooner, like when Umbra was first introduced. But given the scene that was to develop, I decided to save it for a later time. That scene where they're burning Count's corpse was the moment that I chose.

The second time was when Umbra had sat in his lab, finishing off his extracurricular activities with a young mare and began to observe Jasper's body. It was slowed a bit, mainly because he wanted some music that sounded nostalgic and a bit more to his tempo of how he liked to work. He works slow, as patient as he wanted to be because all he had at that point was time. With all of his dolls doing the dirty work for him, he allocated many of his tasks to them while attending to some personal interests of his. That was made all the more apparent in his time with Nondis.

This will be the third time you've heard of this one. But instead of being the regular or slowed down version, it's a more atmospheric version to better suit the mood of what's going on. While Nondis was being operated on, it could be assumed that the music was playing as Umbra worked on his body. After all, he does like a tune or two as he's cutting open a patient and/or corpse. But in this instance, both the Congregant and Nondis are patients of his work, while there are many corpses to follow. With the music playing, you'll notice that some parts are clearer while others fade in and out. For me, it's a perfect representation of the dichotomy of the two parties, the one hiding, and the one seeking. The one hiding has the general idea of what he wants to avoid and accomplish, the one seeking is merely becoming all the more frustrated as they don't know where their prey is, hoping to eventually swallow them whole. One is hoping to make it back home, the other is guessing where their prey is hiding. And with the crystal caves being the setting of this game, the situation becomes all the more haunting.

I will hope to see you all next chapter. Until then, stay safe.

P.S.: The next chapter is going to have a monster of a word count.