The sound of hooves hitting crystal reverberated ceaselessly in the moonlit library, with a faint halo shining in from the glass overhang above. The silver light refracted upon the various surfaces of crystal, making the area seemingly glow in the faintest of rainbows. Languidly trotting right into the moon's illuminating gaze were Twilight and Zecora, with the former sporting Spike on her back and an armored, dagger-carrying NoLegs on her head.

The four paused at one edge of the light, slowly swiveling their heads around when they heard the faintest sound of shuffling hooves. NoLegs sniffed the air a few times, and with a face morphing into a scrunched scowl that revealed bared teeth and ears pinning back, he let off a low growl. The resulting noise was quiet enough to not echo around the expansive shelves that lined either side of him and the others, but it was loud enough to garner a glance from Spike.

Zecora, likewise, immediately looked at the cat that seemed to be on the verge of a hissyfit. "What is wrong? Are these halls too long?" she asked in a whisper, garnering an immediate shake of the head from the feline.

The sound of shuffling hooves reverberated around them once more, and this time the growling cat bristled, the fur on his tail puffing out as if he were scared out of his mind. "I think we might have another visitor in these rows of books…" Spike murmured, garnering a wide-eyed look from Zecora. He turned to meet her gaze and used a claw to gesture to NoLegs as he added, "And I think our Fantasian feline here has smelled them out and decided he doesn't like them, whoever they are."

NoLegs stopped growling, and for a full minute the library fell absolutely silent. His ears slowly lifted until they were standing straight, only to swivel erratically in tandem with his whiskers twitching. His head snapped to the left and then to the right, before his body fluffed out some more as he hissed in that direction. Spike turned to where the cat had hissed, eyes narrowing as he barely caught sight of a fleeting darkened form that tiptoed around a corner of a shelf. "Twilight, you think NoLegs might be onto something?" he asked, worry flickering in his irises.

"I'm going to assume he smelled a pony that didn't bathe in a while… or something," Twilight replied, her voice breaking when the words 'didn't bathe' left her mouth.

The utterance prompted Spike to lift a claw and let it connect with his forehead. "I would have smelled it by now if that were the case, and you would have too," he grumbled indignantly, dragging his claw down his face and letting it slide off of his chin. Once it was off of his face, he wasted no time turning to NoLegs, who turned back and mewed with a nod of agreement.

"I believe he's being wary." Zecora rose a hoof and gently poked NoLegs on the tail with it, causing him to look at her. "Do you use your blade to parry?" she asked, garnering a hesitant nod accompanied by a mouth that shifted like the cat wasn't sure whether he wanted to smile or not. He jumped off of Twilight's head as a magenta light started shining from her horn, and he landed right behind Spike in that single bound.

"Let's just see if we can find a book on Starswirl's travels, and if we come up short, we could try again tomorrow," Twilight murmured, her shoulders slumping for a bit before straightening out. "We shouldn't stay long, though." Her form tensed a bit as she turned to Zecora, and she saw said mare nod in agreement, as well as Spike and NoLegs from the corner of her eye.

Spike felt his makeshift mount tense, and moved his claws to let them rest on her withers as she and Zecora began trotting shoulder-by-shoulder and out of the moonlight. He smiled when NoLegs scooted closer to him and rubbed his cheek on his back, careful to avoid letting his little helmet scratch at the scales. Spike returned the gesture in kind, raising one claw up and over his shoulder simply to rub at the back of the cat's ear. His smile widened when he heard a soft purr that came as soon as the digits started gently scratching the feline's head.

The group trotted on, passing by tiny slivers of more moonlight as they went, with only constantly-shifting shadows and the soft clip-clop of their hooves to accompany them on their way. At seemingly random intervals they paused, with Twilight shining her light on the rows of books that surrounded her and her group, reading aloud the various titles for just a minute. No more, no less than a minute.

"'Ancient Aqueducts: Basic Construction,' 'How to Make Crystal Strawberry Sorbet and Other Recipes…'" A brief pause, during which Twilight gave an exasperated sigh before starting anew. "'Biographies of the Empire's Royalty,' 'Variants of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,' 'Types of Aquatic and Cavern-Dwelling Creatures…'" Twilight snarled and turned away from the books, taking a moment to lift a hoof and let it connect with her face in quick succession.

"No dice?" Spike guessed, garnering a nod and the sound of a hoof hitting the crystal floor as his answer.

"No, Spike, I won a trillion bit lottery in Las Pegasus," Twilight snorted, with heavy amounts sarcasm dripping from her tone as she briefly turned to shoot a look with a tight frown and narrowed eyes at the drake. He smiled at her in return, causing Twilight to sigh again.

With that, she turned to the shelves again and continued scanning the titles dotting the book spines. Her visage morphed into a fierce scowl as she started lifting books from the shelves with her magic, opening the damned things, and reading a few pages before closing them and setting them where they were plucked from. After repeating the process a few times, she groaned and then tottered one entire bookshelf over and started plucking books all over again.

This dragged on for a good hour and an additional ten or so minutes. Twilight fell into a thorough, if simple, pattern during that time: pluck books, analyze books, return books, go one case over and try again. Rinse and repeat. Though each time she did this, she yielded no results, unless her utterances as she scanned the books counted as such.

"'How to Make Crystal Silk,' 'Arcane Spells for Beginning Mages,' 'Weather Control…'" Twilight rambled on, unaware that Spike and NoLegs had turned to each other and that the latter used his magic to conjure up a set of cards.

"Yeah, I get you, NoLegs. Twi's gotta be thorough—I should know," Spike sighed with a frown, garnering a mew from the cat as he began to shuffle the cards.

"Is it alright if I joined your little game? It could be a while; Twilight's anxiety, I cannot blame," Zecora interjected, cantering over. She watched as Spike and NoLegs hopped off of Twilight's back and sat down, and she followed suit as the cat simply shrugged and reshuffled the deck prior to distributing some cards.

After another thirty minutes passed by that the three spent playing a few rounds of go fish whilst keeping up with Twilight as she cleared and subsequently put the shelves back together, Zecora sighed in exasperation and lowered her set of cards. "Would you mind if I tried helping Twilight? I want to help her out of her self-afflicted blight," she murmured. Upon getting nods from the cat and drake, she set her cards down and stood up, waiting for the two to pick up her hooffull and shuffle them into the deck.

That done, Zecora then trotted to the opposite set of shelves of the most recent case that Twilight was busy tearing apart and began to scan the rows she could easily access. She hummed, a brow quirking up when a book on a shelf above her had a peculiar title that caught her eye. She reared up on her back legs with a front hoof resting on another shelf to get a better look at it.

"Twilight, come here, I think I found what we're looking for. Maybe this is what we need, though we may yet find more," she beckoned, causing the unicorn in question to turn to her and trot over after setting the most recent book she picked up away.

Twilight watched as Zecora used her non-supporting hoof to gesture to a particular, leather-bound book whose cover seemed worn and had a few holes in places along the spine, which unfortunately made the title illegible. Her magic plucked it out with ease, and she brought it to her face before turning it so she could see the title on the front cover.

The title was beset in what looked like runes, though somepony was generous enough to leave a subtitle that she could easily read. "Early Fantasian and Mythonian Relations, by Clover… is this genuine, a book written by a fraudulent translator, or a copy leftover?" she asked, turning to her companion with a brow raised. One of her front hooves flew to her mouth and her eyes widened when she realized she'd just rhymed, causing Zecora to chuckle.

"I see that my habits are rubbing off on you. I'd put the hoof down, before you go blue," Zecora quipped, dropping to all fours before raising a hoof to pry Twilight's own away from her muzzle.

Twilight grinned, though the expression faltered slightly. She opened the book and scanned a random page, sighing when she found that the scrawlings within may as well have been ancient hieroglyphs transcribed to parchment. She flipped a page, only to find more or less the same, and all subsequent ones after that sported similar texts she couldn't read. The book closed, though it remained floating in the air next to her.

"We're gonna have to take this one back to the palace," she murmured, her grin fading. "At least then, we can determine if it's the real deal or a hack written by somepony else who happened to be named Clover."

NoLegs meowed, garnering immediate looks from the mares and Spike. He made the cards vanish in a flash of magic, and his ears swivelled again. "What is it this time?" Zecora asked, trotting around Twilight just to get to the cat. Her ears twitched when she heard the sound of shuffling hooves again, although now they were very faint and accompanied by another, very dull noise—one she could've sworn that sounded like a bell jingling. "Is that… a chime?" she whispered, still straining to hear the noise as the library became as still and silent as a grave.

"I think that was a chime. We should head to the palace now…" Twilight groaned, and with that she handed the floating book to Spike, dispelling her levitation spell when she craned her neck to see that he had grabbed it with a claw. She flinched as he jumped up onto her back with the aid of the armored cat, who used his magic to do the job.

"Through the front door of the library, or to the stairs leading to the castle?" Spike asked, worry flashing in his eyes again. Twilight frowned, her mouth twitching at the corners as she contemplated for a few seconds, and she stared at Spike as NoLegs proceeded to join him on her back.

"Front door…" Twilight answered after a bit of hesitation. She began trotting down the rows of bookshelves again, with Zecora falling in step behind her. They went languidly, and with each passing second and hoofbeat, NoLegs sniffed the air and let his whiskers twitch, keeping his eyes and ears peeled for anything that could have made the sound of shuffling hoofsteps.

Yet even he detected nothing of the sort, so he relaxed after his makeshift mount and her zebra friend rounded a few bends, ascended some flights of stairs, and moved to trot shoulder-by-shoulder again. Minutes passed, filled with nothing but hoofbeats and the company of the Mythonians who'd come here with him as they further explored the expansive library. He relaxed some more, with a small grin forming on his face, as he continued to detect nothing out of the ordinary.

His state of calm gave way to soft purring, and his fluffed-out coat was slowly shifting to hug his body, as well as his tail starting to curl up at his hips. Spike heard the cat purring again, and glanced over his shoulder to look at him, smiling upon seeing a content look in place of a scowl on the furry face. "You doing okay?" he asked, garnering a nod and a mrrow as his reply. "Good."

"Twilight, where are we going?" Zecora inquired as they rounded another bend that led to a small hallway devoid of bookshelves, turning to her companion with both brows raised. "And just how long can you keep your horn glowing?"

"In order, out the front door, which should be down this hall. And I can keep my horn glowing for a good while, provided I don't cast any other spells on top of that," Twilight answered, picking up her pace. "But I can't keep it glowing for long—we have to move, quick."

Zecora likewise sped up to keep her friend in her sights, and before long they found a small lobby with chairs and a desk hewn of glimmering mahogany. To one side, and directly opposite of the desk, stood a set of double doors that gleamed a soft purple. These doors had a small silver bell stationed on their frame that rung whenever somepony left or entered.

Spike noticed that one of the purple doors was ajar. "Did somepony come through here already?" he asked, gesturing to the doors for emphasis.

"That would explain why we heard a chime earlier," Twilight mused, her gaze turning to the small bell before it fell onto the slightly-parted door. "Though I don't know who could have left through it before us."

"So, somepony left before we did, and produced the chime? Who else could have been through here, at this time?" Zecora murmured, her eyes also turning to the damned bell.

"Dunno, Zecora. But we have to be careful—if NoLegs was sent on edge earlier, then I have reason to think that our perpetrator was up to no good," Twilight pointed out with a friendly grin as she turned to her friend and rose a hoof to pat her on the withers.

"But we haven't seen the perpetrator, and we don't know if they did anything in the last few hours," Spike argued with a snort, garnering a look from Twilight in the process. "Hay, we don't even know who they are, and what they can or are willing to do—it's like the other Fantasians all over again."

"Touché," Twilight conceded with a nod. She then set her hoof down from Zecora's withers as she grasped the doors with her magic and flung them wide open, prior to turning to them and then galloping out into the street beyond. Zecora followed suit, and both found that they had to first trot down a small flight of stairs that were white, with gryphon statues sitting at either side of the flight upon stone rails. The lavender magic grasped the doors again and shut them gently as the four went out.

The two mares glanced down both sides of the road they had found themselves in, and so did Spike and NoLegs. None of them noticed anything odd; the streets were empty with the exception of a green-coated guard that stood a few buildings closer to the palace and themselves, and a serene silence had blanketed the area.

The lot exchanged glances with each other and trotted to the lone guard at a sluggish pace. As they got closer, they noticed that all he had on him was a helmet, a quiver full of arrows, and a blue bow. "Excuse me, sir?" Twilight asked as she stopped in front of him, though her utterance sounded more like a statement. "Where is your armor?"

"At the blacksmith's," Peridot replied with a huff. He glanced down and sighed upon seeing Twilight. "Want me to escort you back to the palace?" he inquired.

"Before you do, what's with the bow?" Spike asked, pointing at the weapon in question.

Peridot stiffened a bit, but then relaxed. "None of your concern, Great and Honorable Spike," he replied.

Spike and Twilight shared a glance, both sets of brows raising. Then they turned to Zecora and NoLegs, both of whom shrugged with their brows likewise going high. After that, they turned back to Peridot. "You sure of that?" Spike inquired, a slight frown forming on his face.

"Positive," Peridot replied with a curt nod. He watched as the group trotted on towards the palace without asking him anything else, and for a few good minutes he contemplated whether or not to accompany them on their way.

He was unaware of a cloaked form watching him from a nearby alley, waiting until the quartet managed to get to the Crystal Heart before it started making its move right towards him.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Two pegasi flew high over Equestria, their eyes trained on the ground below. One of them had a small closed horse buggy with a door on one side and a small window on the other attached to him by a harness, filled with sealed boxes that gave off various sweet scents. Both ponies had scarves around their necks whose tails billowed about as they flew. In addition to that, they also sported safety goggles that currently didn't cover their eyes but rather rested high on their foreheads.

The two stared at a set of tracks going northbound, and followed said tracks as best as they could. Green and amber irises shined in the moon's light, in addition to very pale blue and yellowish-orange feathers as they dislodged and fell from the wings of the airborne ponies.

"Soarin, are you sure we're going in the right direction?" a feminine, scratchy, and agitated voice asked. The pegasus in question let his eyes avert to his companion, a yellow-orange mare with a mane as scarlet as fire. He nodded curtly.

"Yes, Spitfire. Rainbow told me last night that she and her friends were heading to the Crystal Empire," Soarin replied, his eyes averting back to the tracks below.

"Why?" Spitfire questioned, eyes narrowing slightly. "This had better be good."

"She and the other Bearers of Harmony were tasked to keep an eye on the Fantasian guests," Soarin replied, a small frown forming on his face. "And the Empire is where they're at."

Spitfire allowed herself to frown. "Safety precaution, I assume?" she inquired.

"Just about right," Soarin said with a nod. "I've seen… four of the Fantasians myself."

"What are they like?" Spitfire asked, a brow raising high as she briefly glanced at Soarin again.

"They help each other out, but prefer to keep to themselves, from what I've seen of them. One of them… has a whole list of reasons to do just that," Soarin explained, taking a few seconds to swallow heavily. "It's… her case is complicated, Spitfire. Complicated."

"If it's complicated, then just tell me what the list of issues is in a nutshell," Spitfire snapped, her frown deepening.

"She's a wraith who starved," Soarin replied without fail. "All skin and bones."

Spitfire halted mid-air, hovering in one spot as the remark reached her ears. Soarin saw this in the corner of his eye and turned around, before he circled her once and stopped to stare at her unblinkingly. "Starved… a wraith?" Spitfire repeated, her eyes widening like the stallion just finished bashing her to within an inch of her life with his wagon.

Soarin nodded once, though he did so slowly. "One of the other Fantasians put a spell on her to hide it… I just… I can't get the image out of my mind once I start dwelling on it," he murmured, ears pinning back.

Spitfire closed her eyes and sighed. "And what of the other three?" she asked, softly.

"All unicorns, two mares and a stallion. They could self-levitate, and had… odd cutie marks. Though I guess Fantasian marks would be different from Mythonian ones anyway," Soarin sighed with a shrug.

Spitfire opened her eyes and flew effortlessly around Soarin and his buggy, briefly glancing behind her to find that he turned around and went after her to keep up. "Tell you what, when we meet the Fantasians proper, we'll talk about them then?" she asked.

"Sounds like a plan," Soarin chirped, donning a small smile at the suggestion.

The two flew on for a few more minutes that then spanned to a half-hour in silence, getting ever closer to the faintly gleaming city in the distance that was the Crystal Empire. "Soarin," Spitfire began, taking a few seconds to let a front hoof stray to her scarf. She adjusted it and spoke when she saw the stallion look at her in the corner of her eye, "I've been meaning to ask: what's with the wagon?"

"I promised Rainbow I'd deliver the Fantasians some pies. Better now than never," Soarin replied with a shrug. "That, and I have a bag of bits with the baked goods, in case the pies suffer some casualties. Besides, who wouldn't want pies?"

Spitfire took a second to consider Soarin's point. "Apart from maybe the starving wraith you told me about, I can't argue there," she agreed with a nod. "But you only ran into four of them without taking the time to meet with the rest of the bunch. They might not like pies, and I'm going to bet one hates pies as much as you adore them."

"Another reason I'm bringing a cart full of pies," Soarin countered with a grin, "is so I can rectify that issue."

"Just don't give Rainbow a pie. She skipped out on her training the entirety of last week, and I'd like to have some words with her about that," Spitfire said, eyes narrowing a little more. "And if she doesn't come up with a good excuse as to why she skipped out, the next time she shows up at the training grounds, I'm gonna stick her on the Dizzitron at maximum speed."

"Duly noted," Soarin chirped, his smile widening. With that, the two kept flying, though this time they descended a bit to better see the tracks below to make sure they were headed in the right direction. The wagon jostled at the change of altitude, and the stallion to whom it was attached slowed a little to let it stabilize in the air. He let his front hooves stray to the harness that kept the wagon on him, and sighed when he found that they were tightly bound to his middle and secure.

A chill wind blew right in his and Spitfire's faces as they pushed onward, and though they shivered in response, they still flew in defiance of the nipping cold. It took a good hour or so before the Empire could be seen up close from their aerial vantage point, and at this time of night the moon was at its apex. Its silver light was shining straight unto their target, with the palace that sat dead center serving as the beacon in the overall snowflake-like shape that comprised the streets below.

"You ready?" Spitfire asked, lifting a front hoof to her goggles before pulling them down over her eyes. Her inquiry immediately caused Soarin to double-check the wagon and the harness he had on his being.

As soon as he was certain the wagon and its contents were safe and secure, he turned to Spitfire and nodded. He likewise lifted a hoof and pulled his goggles down, though he also made sure to check that the strap was tight enough. "Affirmative, Captain," he replied with a fierce grin. The grin dropped when a pained cry reached their ears from far below, but it was just faint enough to sound more like a bird than anything. Nonetheless, he looked around for the source, as did Spitfire.

"I dunno what that was, and I don't think we'd be able to find the source by dallying. That's of course assuming if we manage to find it," she admitted with a shrug once the cry had died down. She turned to look at Soarin again, and this time he turned back to make eye contact with her. "Still ready?" He mutely nodded again. "Good."

With that, Spitfire angled her body so that her muzzle faced straight down before folding her wings shut and performing a steep dive. Soarin followed after her, doing the same maneuver, albeit a bit slower since he also had to contend with a loaded wagon.

The two fell at least several miles down, wings closed and letting gravity do the work for them in two minutes that felt as though they stretched to an eternity. Soarin's heart pounded in his chest, the wind howled relentlessly in his ears, and even with the protection of his goggles he found himself letting his eyes squint as the structures came closer and closer. The wagon rattled incessantly behind him, as if threatening to break at the very seams, and he felt its contents shifting about as he continued to plummet.

Once he and Spitfire were fifteen yards from the nearest street, they angled themselves at a sharp 90 degrees, aiming themselves at the palace before U-turning and circling in the air for a minute in order to decelerate. Once they slowed down, they descended to the end of a random street and landed safely on their hooves, both with grins on their faces and a loud thud from the buggy. The stallion turned to the wagon and dislodged the harness from his body before cantering around to peek inside the small window.

He sighed dejectedly upon seeing the whole interior caked in crusts, smashed fruits, opened and abused cardboard containers, and liquids that intermingled so much he couldn't tell what they had originally belonged to. Amidst this, he spotted a medium-sized leather satchel that was closed, though it was soaked in gunge.

Soarin pushed the window inward with a hoof, frown deepening when it creaked and rose up, before crawling in as much as the opening would allow. He flailed a hoof about once he managed to squeeze himself in up to the wingjoints, trying to reach for the satchel. He let off an "Aha!" when he managed to grab a leather strap, only to groan as it managed to slide off of his limb thanks to the goo that coated it.

He heard hooves coming around to the opposite side of the buggy, before the door opened to reveal Spitfire sending him a look with half-lidded eyes and a tight frown with a hoof outstretched. "There's a door, you know," she scoffed, sighing when Soarin grinned sheepishly before she dove into the mess with one leg and managed to successfully yoink out the satchel.

She slammed the door shut and waited for the stallion to get out of the window and fly around the buggy before she turned to him and waved the satchel like she was going to make off with it, noting the distinct sound of a series of small metal objects clinking as the pie-covered bag moved. "This your bag of bits?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's it," Soarin replied with a frown. "Probably gonna have to clean it up, though." Spitfire nodded to him and tossed it up into the air, aiming it towards him. She smiled when he caught it with his teeth without letting it hit the pavement first.

"Don't drop that," she warned. When Soarin nodded to her, she took a moment to look around the street and frowned when she realized it was empty. She simply shrugged it off as everypony in the area having fallen asleep already, and turned back to her companion before pointing at the buggy with a wing. "What should we do with this? This is sorta your mess."

Soarin took a minute to slide the satchel around his body and secure it before answering, "Maybe we could have it cleaned out? It is kinda late."

Spitfire rolled her eyes. "In any case, that'll have to wait until tomorrow. Just drag the buggy somewhere, and make sure it doesn't run over anypony who happens to be out and about," she ordered. Soarin nodded and flew to the harness, grabbing it in his front hooves before adjusting himself a bit so the buggy wouldn't go off-kilter. Spitfire trotted onwards to the palace at a brisk pace that bordered on galloping, and her companion followed her with the buggy in tow.

A good few minutes passed before she stopped, seeing a group of ponies up ahead. Two of them were standing over one that had fallen, and one of them seemed to sport odd protrusions from its back. "What the…" Spitfire lifted a hoof to move the goggles out of her eyes, blinking to get a better view of whatever had happened up ahead, only to find that she could see just the silhouettes and nothing more. "Soarin, stay close. We may have trouble."

"Trouble? Here?" Soarin asked, eyes widening. "But doesn't Prince Shining's guard unit keep trouble from happening around these parts?"

"I haven't visited the Empire without first being on weather duty until tonight. I'm not certain," Spitfire huffed, her brow furrowing. With that they were on the move again, though this time they went slowly. As they crept closer and closer to the scene, she could make out two purple forms, a black-and-grey striped form, another green form with what seemed to be a quiver that had been emptied, and something else that sported a reflective, polished surface.

When, a minute later, did they come close enough to fully inspect whatever damage had been done, their eyes widened and they gaped. A guard with only his helmet lay on the street with fresh wounds oozing blood that dotted his cutie mark and legs, his form quivering with pain.

Arrows were scattered around the scene, and to one side a bow lay in at least four different fragments. Some blood droplets were in places up to a foot away from the pony, and a smaller one formed in a puddle from his back legs. Some parts of his body were caked in a thin layer of frost, though it was already melting. All in all, trouble did indeed happen in the area, and Spitfire and Soarin waltzed right into its aftermath.

The unfortunate pony made to scream as a purple aura yanked out an arrow that had been firmly wedged point-first into his shoulder, but a bubble of purple surrounded his head to keep the sound from echoing into the street. A white aura sealed the now-open wound shut and forced the accumulated frost there to melt, though not without causing the stallion to flail his legs in agony.

Then the two pegasi looked to what had made that purple aura, finding Zecora standing right next to the source. "Twilight Sparkle?" Spitfire asked, her pupils shrinking. "Wh… what happened here?"

 

Twilight shot a brief glance at Spitfire, her eyes already wide as saucers. "S-s-somepony attacked this g-g-guard and attempted to fatally wound him. H-h-he needs help, and I'm tr-trying to stop him from b-bleeding out," she replied in a panicked tone.

Spitfire turned back to the sorry bastard, and relaxed as Twilight used a spell to manually stitch the last wound she could see closed. Then the magic grabbed him and carefully flipped him to to let him rest on his other side, making Soarin flinch as the act revealed that one particular arrow managed to stab the guard's sheath very close to the base whilst hugging his stomach. On top of that, there was a layer of frost that coated the area to his middle and inner thighs. Both pegasi promptly turned away.

"Sweet Celestia, I feel sorry for him," Soarin murmured with his ears pinning back and his rear legs cringing in sympathy.

"I don't blame you, not one bit," Spitfire agreed, her voice briefly cracking.

"So, uh, how'd this happen?" Soarin asked, his eye averting just in time to see the offending arrow get smoothly yanked out of the sheath, causing the guard to haplessly fling his legs every which-way in amplified agony before magic seized them and kept the limbs still.

"I don't know; I heard a scream earlier and found him like this," Twilight replied, focusing more mana into closing the unfortunately-placed wound and melting the frost. When that was done a few seconds later, she scanned Peridot for any more arrows, frost patches and wounds she might have missed, though luckily a quick search yielded nothing more of the sort. She turned to look at his face and mouthed, "Are you okay now?"

Peridot frantically nodded, mouthing back "I want to go home" in teary-eyed reply. Twilight made the bubble around his head disappear, and she watched carefully as he slowly stood up, his legs constantly threatening to buckle with every inch that he hauled himself up off the ground. A lavender aura picked up the scattered, non-bloodied arrows and placed them back in their quiver as soon as he was on his unsteady hooves.

He turned to Twilight with a tear or two running down his face, to find her holding the crystal bow that had gotten into four different pieces—five, counting the drawstring. Then Peridot turned to Spitfire. "Uh, m-m-m-ma'am? Wh-what… is your b-business h-here?" he asked, his legs shaking and his voice cracking so much it sounded like he was on the verge of bawling his eyes out.

"I… came to see Rainbow Dash. I… I heard she was here," Spitfire replied after swallowing heavily. Her ears pinned back, and her wings shivered.

"Sh-she's at the p-palace," Twilight interjected, garnering the attention of the two pegasi. She turned around and lifted Peridot in her magic and began trotting back to the palace with Zecora falling in step behind her and the guard floating at her side.

"Do you need an herbal brew for the pain?" Zecora asked with worry flickering in her eyes and ears folded back, watching as Peridot frantically nodded again. "I understand; from your agony, you've nothing to gain."

The two pegasi both fell in step behind Zecora. Since he was flying, the buggy-dragging stallion could see Spike and NoLegs on Twilight's back, with the former holding a book in one of his claws. "Twilight, why is there an armored cat with a dagger on your back?" Soarin asked with a brow raised.

"Long story," Twilight replied with a dejected sigh, craning her neck briefly to glance at Soarin.

"I can vouch for that," Spike agreed with a dismissive wave of his claw. NoLegs meowed, looking at Peridot with ears pinned back and wide eyes.