The group filed down the streets, the guards flanking their sides every step of the way. The purple-armored unicorn took point, with Matt following him close behind. "Sir, is it alright if we asked you some questions?" the half-Clydesdale asked as the troop rounded a corner fluently.

The lead guard tossed a glance over his shoulder. "You're already asking one," he quipped. "Still, I think it would be best to wait until we take you to the Princess. I am aware a lot is probably on your mind, but I feel your inquiry is for her ears alone."

"Well..." the blond-maned pony sighed as he trailed off, letting the words of the lead guard bumble about in his head for a bit. "That's... actually pretty sound reasoning. Alright, I'll wait."

"Are you nice ponies?" Maria asked, eyeing the nearest pegasus guard to Alexander's left.

The armored stallion looked at the filly who sat upon the gryphon's back and sent her a small smile. "I assure you, little one, we're excellent ponies," he replied before glancing back ahead.

"She's quite the curious foal. If her mouth opens, a question's guaranteed to come out of her mouth ninety-five percent of the time," Alexander chortled, grinning. "A mind that thirsts for knowledge is good, especially for growing fillies. It just has to be kept in check in a relatively stable environment, and all should go well."

"Here, here," the winged guard agreed, still grinning.

"Yeesh, this is a huge city. I'm almost tempted to ask if we're there yet," Natalie remarked, eying some of the buildings as she and the others passed them, while still being mindful enough to not let the sights draw in every ounce of her attention.

Another guard laughed. "It happens all the time, especially if ponies come in from as far south as Appleloosa," he stated.

"From where we come from, 'Appleloosa' would sound like a silly thing to name a town," Anna interjected, again causing the guard to laugh.

"Then again, we're not the ones who founded that place," another guard retorted.

"Eh, true enough, I guess," Anna conceded with a shrug.

"So, what's Fantasia like?" another guard inquired, his inquiry causing Matt to halt right in his tracks—followed by the rest of the group as they then ran into him and each other immediately after that.

"You wouldn't want to even know what it's like over there," the half-Clydesdale answered in an uncertain, although tight, voice.

"And why not?" yet another guard piped up as the troop stilled to a halt.

"Just... you don't wanna know," Matt repeated, frowning. "Don't we have somewhere to go?"

"Guards, stop pestering the Fantasians with questions that make them uncomfortable!" the lead guard barked in a louder tone than was necessary, which garnered the attention of some ponies who stopped at an intersection up ahead. He turned around and made a motion with his hoof before trotting onward, and both guards and visitors fell in step behind him in three lines. They stayed silent as onlookers started shooting glances from the sky, windows, and even an alley or two.

For another half-hour of walking, there had been no further incident. A few of the city's residents trotted by and eyed the cloaked group for a moment or so before going about their business. Some whispered amongst themselves; whether in awe, wonder, or worry, the Fantasians had no way of knowing. One stallion asked the lead guard if they were prisoners, but the guards merely gave a vague answer in unison and promptly shooed him off.

After another twenty or so minutes of trotting, Matt spoke up, his tone level, "So, mister..."

"Captain Shining Armor," the lead guard replied. "What is it?"

The half-Clydesdale quirked a brow, but ventured with words anyway, "Could you tell me... what... what this Celestia pony—at least, I'm a-assuming it's a pony—is like?"

Shining glanced over his shoulder with an unreadable look. "She's kind, gentle, understanding, and wise. There is no need to be nervous now," he stated coolly. "We haven't even reached the castle entrance yet; I'm impressed you've gotten uneasy now, given that little glint in your eyes. Most ponies aren't even stuttering until they're standing in the throne room, being asked by the Princess about what's so important that they need to see her."

"I've only spent... three hours at most here; thus, I-I-I remain skeptical," Matt spluttered, his tone uneasy and warbling before the last three words left his mouth. He stopped and flinched as he felt a thin, clothed form clamber onto his backside with a clumsy grace. Turning his head as he resumed trotting, he found himself face-to-face to Katie, who somehow cut in line.

"Guards at the back told me to get my tail to the front and get to you, white-face," the wraith explained in a hushed whisper. "They said I was trotting too slow, so I had to go between everyone else's legs to get here."

Matt glanced ahead, his visage now adorned with a deep blue tint. His ears folded back as a guard asked, "Say, why're your ears, neck and cheeks black, but your horn, legs and muzzle white?"

"He's part Clydesdale earth pony," Natalie answered for Matt from behind. "His dad was a purebreed."

Said half-Clydesdale shakily nodded. "Y-yeah," he added.

NoLegs, who had been riding on Natalie's back and remained silent until this point, began mewing at one of the guards. The guard he mrrowed at, a white pegasus with gold eyes, shot the cat a quizzical look. "Is that furball tame?" he asked.

"I've helped raise him since he was a baby. Got him when I was about seven," Matt answered, his voice taking on a confident tone. NoLegs mewed again, purring loud enough for the guards flanking Natalie to hear.

"Well, at least the cat's happy," Natz remarked as said cat clambered up her neck to stand atop her head and rub his head on her horn. One ear twitched when the cat's tail brushed up against it, yet in doing so, it enabled her to catch the sound of something going on from behind as the group rounded a corner into another street.

"That was uncalled for!" Sarah shouted from the far back, her yell of what sounded like alarm causing the group and the guards to immediately halt in their tracks. Natalie craned her neck and found herself frowning, noticing that something had gone amiss right off the bat.

The guards flanking the rear broke formation, creating a solid front row of flesh and armor. Behind that, Fenrir and the others who kept to the rear formed another wall, each staring ahead at the ongoing ruckus. "What's the commotion?" a guard asked.

Natalie noticed that, amongst the second wall of ponies and such, one did not stand with the rest. Rather, the missing member seemed to be glaring at a red-pelted, silver-maned unicorn stallion who sneered at her before the assembled guards, and thus contributed to the aforementioned ruckus. "I don't know what it is I could have possibly done wrong," said silver-maned unicorn explained. "One minute, I am minding my own business, and the next, this mare starts shouting. I have no idea what in Celestia's name she's on about."

"You're lying!" Sarah hissed, pointing a talon at the stallion.

"Am not! And if I am, then pray tell, what could I have the sheer audacity, the nerve, to pull off to upset a rather plain mare such as yourself?" the unicorn retorted in a cold tone.

Natalie shook her head. She hadn't been sure about what to make of this development, however, until the voices began rising to rather shrill levels of volume—kickstarted by Sarah's response to the question.

"Dude, you just up and grabbed me!" Sarah shouted in an icy tone, wings visibly rustling violently beneath her cloak. "Don't you know any better than to grab random mares by their tails? And don't even think about uttering the 'I just wanted to see your cutie mark' excuse!"

Matt trotted to Natalie's side as the rest of the guards quickly joined their comrades. "Something tells me I should've brought popcorn for this," he sighed as the unicorn stallion Sarah still glared at muttered something about the color green.

"What is all of the commotion here?" Shining barked as he raced to meet up with the hippogryph and the stallion who allegedly accosted her.

"He reached under my cloak with his magic and lifted my tail so every soul in this city could see my rear end!" Sarah replied, face reddening.

"I did not!" the silver-maned pony replied, still sneering. "I don't know what you're talking about! Why, I don't fraternize with hippogryphs at all, let alone lift their disgusting tails. And yet, here's such a mare born of a pony who lost his head and a mangy gryphon giving unto me such baseless accusations!"

"And he plays the racism card," Katie whispered, positioning herself on Matt's back to stand up with a wobbling posture. "I almost wonder what the prick thinks of wraiths, especially those like myself."

"Don't go over there and tempt him. He's probably already making Lance want to beat his ass as is," Matt replied in an equally low tone.

"And Anna too," Natalie added, shaking her head. "At this rate, he's just cruisin' for a bruisin'."

NoLegs stopped purring and mewed as the already-hostile conflict between the silver-maned pony and Sarah began to escalate.

"My father, insane, and my mother, mangy?" Sarah asked, her tone almost like that of a high-pitched squawk. Her glare hardened as she added, "Well, judging from your behavior, your parents are pompous, arrogant, self-entitled, racist pigs!"

The silver-maned pony flinched and took a step back, his sneer morphing into a scowl. "And your parents are uncivilized brutes, if I were to base any assumption I make simply by how you're acting!" he declared, raising a hoof as if he were going to point it in her direction. When instead he gestured to himself with that same hoof, he went on, "Why, you little peasant, you don't know who it is you're speaking to! I am the son of Canterlot's finest composers; the best of the best! I'll have you—"

Sarah cut him off before he could finish his little tirade, "Spare me the horseshit already, you elitist, grey-maned snob."

"G-guh?" the silver-maned pony spluttered, setting his hoof down as he noticed the hippogryph's cat-like pupils shrinking and becoming meager slits in irises of evergreen.

The Fantasian mare huffed, "You heard me. Shall I repeat it again just so it doesn't go in one ear and out the other a second time?"

The red-coated unicorn's visage hardened. "So be it," he snorted. "I've seen that a harp's part of your cutie mark, and since you’re clearly too simpleminded to listen, I hereby challenge you to a composition duel!"

Sarah quirked a brow. "Is there a catch to this? Because if there's something very outlandish for this possible catch you may have in mind, then I'll have to turn you down and be on my merry way," she replied.

"No, other than what happens when one outdoes the other. Since I am Chanson Cheval, the best composer in all of Canterlot, if you lose—which I can guarantee—you'll have to mend my hooves, mane, and tail for a day," the self-proclaimed 'best of the best' composer answered, once more sneering.

"Anna, gimme my harp and whatever composition you have handy," Sarah stated, a small smile cropping up on her face.

Fenrir immediately went wide-eyed, his ears falling flat against his head. "Don't do it! I implore you! You have no idea what horrors you have unleashed upon us all!” he cried.

"Mean horn-pony, stop! I don't wanna hear the harp screaming again!" Maria pleaded, yet both pleas fell on deaf ears.

"Harps don't scream, you hideous whelp! A peasant child has no right to tell me what to do, especially one who isn't even passable as a maid, and nor does a dirty diamond dog, for that matter!" the red-coated unicorn snapped, briefly sending the filly a cold glare. She flinched back with a silent gasp, and the pony turned his attention back to Sarah as the diamond dog began snarling at him.

"You're gonna be singing an entirely different tune once this little contest comes to an end," the hippogryph mare hissed as Anna summoned the harp and a piece of parchment. Both objects flew to her rising talons eagerly, as the red-coated pony conjured an electric, though cordless, guitar that sported reds and silvers in its paintjob.

"The fool has no clue what dark forces he's going to invoke," Fenrir snarled, reaching up to cover his ears.

"It's the mean horn-pony's fault we're all gonna have hurting heads," Maria grumbled, slipping off Alexander's back before covering her ears. The diamond dog pulled her close, covering her ears with his paws afterwards. His face contorted to display an agonized, scrunchy-eyed expression as Cheval fueled his instrument with magic, plucked at his strings and procured the first series of horrible notes that sounded more akin to metal grating on metal.

Fenrir winced as the song went on for another moment longer, gritting his teeth as the notes devolved into something between a demon burbling and a banshee wailing; incomprehensible, high and low-pitched simultaneously, and terrible to listen to. As the song dragged on, the rest of the Fantasians in addition to their Mythonian pseudo-escorts made to cover their ears. In the case of NoLegs, the cat began incessantly hissing louder and louder, as if he were trying his hardest to drown out the noise.

Even Sarah found herself getting a growing headache as the guitarist played on for a few painful moments longer, blood rushing through her head and pounding in her ears as she patiently waited for Cheval to finish his Godcat-awful crescendo. Her wings flared from reflex as the unicorn decided to turn said crescendo into an overture, the guitar strings screeching as his magic continued to power the song.

Shining Armor threw up a pink-colored shield around himself, his fellow guards, and the Fantasians who stayed behind the platoon. He relaxed as the shield blocked the outside noise, but stiffened a moment later when cracks began forming in the frame of the pink dome. Yellow embraced the shield, forming another layer, and immediately after a red encased that layer. He turned around and spotted Natalie and Matt, their horns glowing. "I take it you can't stand it, either?" he asked in a pained voice.

"Make it stop already, I can still hear it!" Katie wailed, cloth-covered legs wrapping around her head.

NoLegs ceased his hissyfit, moving to clamber down Natalie's neck to curl up on her back with a series of weak, pleading mews.

Armin pointed accusingly at the silver-maned unicorn and proceeded to prattle off, "Good gracious, the guitarist is terrible! If he's 'the son of Canterlot's finest composers,' then how in fuck does he play so bad? Who's idea was it to let him in a band of any sort? The bastard seems to be tone-deaf! Look, he's not even wincing, despite the fact that his racket's still being played!"

"Chanson Cheval—the stallion with the guitar—sadly isn't tone-deaf. He's just playing this bad on purpose," a guard sighed, shaking his head while a crack appeared in the red layer of the shield.

"Why? Why torture everyone's eardrums like this!" Lance barked, eyes narrowing low as he turned his attention to the silver-maned pony.

"I reckon he's doing something sneaky—by playing bad, he'll likely discourage her from performing a good composition. He's trying to make her think it's a waste of time just so he gets an easy win out of it, if the grin on his face is anything to go by," the guard replied, sighing.

"Did he do this before?" Alexander asked, rubbing one of his ears.

"Several times. My armor will fly off if his opponent somehow outdoes him," the guard answered again, faintly smiling as Cheval finally ceased playing. The triple-layered dome dissappated, and everyone sighed collectively in relief.

"So, how was it?" Cheval asked, donning a sly smirk as Sarah sat there staring at him with a dazed, pained look on her face.

It took several moments for the hippogryph to regain her ability to listen clearly, and another few to even process the question. When she did understand what her musical opponent had asked, she articulated a snappish response, "It's so terrible I'm wondering who in fuck decided it was a good idea to hire you as a composer. Either you're tone-deaf, which I wouldn't doubt in the slightest, or you cheated."

"I'm not tone-deaf. You're just envious of my skill, you sniveling bitch!" Cheval hissed, his smirk turning upside-down as he went on, "And besides, I doubt that a filthy hippogryph who should be tilling the wheat fields of her backwoods town in the most uncivilized corner of the world could outdo me in a performance!"

Sarah's eyes narrowed, and she unraveled the parchment she held all this time to study it for a moment or so. She proceeded to hand the paper off to a guard before firmly grasping her harp, starting her piece off with a low, deep snarl worthy of a lion. Cheval took a step back, eyes widening from the sound of that growl before the first thrums of the harpstrings filled the air.

"Mayhaps you could form another barrier, please?" Fenrir asked, gently nudging Shining with a hand right as the harp's notes began distorting into the terrible, unearthly shrieks thanks to its innate magic. Shining nodded and made another barrier, frowning as the harpist's song devolved into a shrill, incomprehensible jumble of ear-splitting volumes.

"How is a harp able to do that?" Shining asked, turning to Fenrir with a hoof pointing at the playing harpist.

"It's enchanted. The exact nature of this enchantment sadly escapes me," the diamond dog huffed, "but a unicorn laid a hex of some sort on it, as far as I can hope to understand. Unfortunately, as of now, there is terribly little information to work with."

The song dragged on, for far longer than Cheval's own, because after a few moments the innate magic of the instrument reacted vehemently. It threw the hippogryph aside, floating in the air and playing itself as though punishing her—as well as any unfortunate passerby who had the misfortune of simply trotting by the street the harp floated above—for playing so terribly.

The racket increased tenfold as the harp's accursed enchantments kicked into overdrive, both increasing the volume and further descending from incomprehensible jumble to what could best be described as a tone-deaf pony's dream come true.

The barrier started forming cracks in its surface again as the harp went on and on, and not even Matt and Natalie throwing up two more layers could hope to stall the racket from reaching their ears. All three layers cracked in unison as the harp dropped to the ground, letting off a shrill note that sounded more like a banshee's echoing wail. Both composers lay on the ground, hooves and claws covering their ears, faces set with tight expressions of pure agony.

For a full half-hour, the guards, Fantasians, and Cheval remained in that street, the final note still ringing in their ears as they struggled with the blood rushing through their heads and drowning out almost all else. Natalie, the first to cope with the headache and damage to her phono receptors, cast a spell, her horn glowing a soft white in color. The glow jumped from her horn, then one pony to the next, dulling the headaches and helping the rest of the afflicted regain their ability to hear as the mana swept over them. It then moved from Sarah, to Alexander, and so forth, until her magic finished its roundabout and healed the cat and wraith.

"That was so bad I think my vision went white. Oh sweet Godcat, what did I do to deserve that auditory punishment?" Katie whined, her tone pained and somewhat childish.

"I know the feeling all too well," Fenrir conceded, growling as he spoke.

"I don't like harps," Maria complained as she clambered onto Alexander's back, her lips pulled into a tight frown and ears flattened on her head.

"Guards, secure the harp. It's too dangerous to wield," Shining commanded, though his tone was low and soft. The nearest armored pegasi nodded and carefully made to scoop it up, with one tucking it beneath his left wing.

"What're you gonna do with the harp though?" Lance asked, frowning as the captain craned his neck to look at him from over his shoulder.

"Find some way to get rid of the enchantment, or make it less dangerous. Given what it just did, I don't know if the high mages of Canterlot will be able to succeed," Shining answered, turning his attention back to the composers as they both started to haul themselves from the pavement.

Cheval shot a glare at Sarah, his posture wobbly and his breathing ragged. "So that's what it is," he started, his tone dark, "you came from the sister planet's population of loons, didn't you?"

"Me and my, for a lack of better words, companions as nothing more than members of a group of loons? We're not crazy in the slightest. We're foreigners; you're definitely right about that. What's it to you, you ketchup-colored, boastful, talentless hack?" Sarah snarled back, equally as snappish, her tone just as ominous as that of her opponent's. Her wings flared wide, dragging the cloak up from her body, talons spreading apart on the walkway as though she were preparing to pounce.

The hippogryph went on, eyes narrowing to slits, "You told me you were born of the finest composers around here, and then what do you do? You go and give everyone headaches with a composition worse than mine, and I used an enchanted harp that does not like my attempts to play. Care to explain yourself, or are you gonna shimmy away and try to make me out to be a sore loser?" She then hissed at him like a cat, rising to stand on her back legs, talons balling into fists as she finished producing the hiss.

Cheval let out a wordless howl and surged towards the hippogryph, a hoof shooting up and smacking her straight in the chin, causing her eyes to screw tightly shut. She stumbled back, trying to maintain a steady balance on two legs, only to yelp as two more punches connected with her chest and stomach in quick succession. The mare reverted to all fours, and found herself sprawling on the ground as a hoof connected with her cheek in a solid right hook. She cracked an eye open upon landing as the stallion reared up onto his back legs, front hooves poised to arc in a sharp downward strike.

Before the hit could land, though, a pink magical aura gripped the silver-maned unicorn's form and hoisted him into the air, a pair of shackles appearing from a ball of light and clasping around his front hooves. "Chanson Cheval, you are under arrest for aggravated assault on one member of Princess Celestia's expected audience, and involuntary using music-based magic to assault both Royal Guards and foreign delegates alike," Shining bellowed, noticing the stallion's horn glowing.

An orange aura encased Sarah's tail and hoisted it up, but the captain's horn glowed brighter in response. A circular-shaped magic inhibitor appeared from another ball of light and clasped around the base of the the red-coated pony's shimmering horn, causing the glow around the hippogryph's tail to dissipate and the green mass of hair to drop.

"You mean to tell me this bitch is a foreign diplomat!" Cheval barked, gaze affixed on the captain while his chained hooves began rattling as soon as he pointed them accusingly at the mare he assaulted.

Shining nodded. "I'm also adding attempted sexual battery by use of magic to that list of charges. You were stupid enough to lift her tail in front of me of all possible ponies, and in broad daylight while you're already under arrest to boot," he stated coldly.

"Why do you think he's trotting with me and the other cloaked ponies in the first place?" Sarah groaned as she started to stand up once more. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, a bruise forming from where the hoof connected with her cheek. She rose a talon to rub the wound and added, "I wouldn't call myself a foreign diplomat; I'm just tagging along with my sister and her companions."

"Guards, half of you will escort Cheval to the dungeons! The other half will stick with the Fantasians and continue to escort them! You two, with the harp, take it to the high mages, at once!" Shining Armor shouted in a raised voice, and at once the guards took up three formations. Four unicorns and two pegasi circled Cheval and magically restrained him, toting him away from the scene and ignoring a long string of curses he sent Sarah's way. The two who scooped up the harp likewise left, flying on ahead and keeping the instrument held in a pair of front hooves as they vanished from sight.

"Do you need a helping hoof? You appear to be pretty badly battered," one of the remaining guards stated, looking at Sarah with concern flickering in his eyes.

The hippogryph looked at him and sent him a weak smile. "I've... I've handled worse. I'll live, but I'll let you know if the pain becomes too much," she answered, wincing as her claw moved to feel her chest and stomach. "Damn, I think he cracked a rib."

"The sun's setting," Matt noted, muzzle pointing towards the red-and-orange sky that had begun turning a shade of violet on one bare edge of the vast expanse. "I wish I could stay and watch the last rays of daylight paint this city's golds and purples, but we've already wasted enough time as it stands. Shining Armor, can we please get a move on?"

"Let's," Shining started, only to pause and turn his attention back to Sarah.

"Is it alright if I flew the rest of the way? My claws still hurt from playing that harp," the hippogryph mare asked, still sporting a weak smile on her face.

"But you've been assaulted!" a guard pointed out, eyes widening as he turned to the mare.

"Grey-mane didn't damage my wings in the slightest. He went for my face and stomach, which aren't even remotely close to my wing joints. 's fine," Sarah retorted, wings flaring wide again.

"You can rest on my back," Fenrir offered with a toothy grin, standing on all fours. "If your claws are aching already, it won't be long before your wings decide to take a similar route. Besides, for a hippogryph, your wing muscles look rather weak. For how long are you able to sustain your weight in the sky, hrrmm?"

Sarah flinched, ears folding back against her head as her grin morphed into a nervous smile. She let off a hitched, uneven laugh as she blurted out, "O-only a f-few minutes."

"Then I strongly suggest you hop on. Otherwise, you'll wear yourself down faster than our hornless changeling can possibly hope to trot," Fenrir snorted, his stature unmoving until the hippogryph begrudgingly complied with his demand a few moments later.

"Hornless changeling?" Shining parroted, turning to the diamond dog with a brow raised.

"On my back. She's the almost-foal-sized one with the facial injury covered by the mask," Matt piped up, garnering the attention of the purple-clad unicorn.

"Huh. I guess I didn't notice the hornless part. Then again, a scar that wide on the muzzle tends to draw more attention," Shining murmured under his breath as the remaining guards took up a two-line formation, with the Fantasians once more jostling to form a third line between the two rows of armored ponies. As soon as the group finished its arrangement, he trotted around to take point once more.

"Onward, and let us try not to attract any more attention to ourselves while we're at it!" he barked, and with that, the bunch as a whole trotted in step behind him as he led them towards another street that ended in a golden gate adorned with a sun and crescent moon.