The sky darkened further, and the snow came in something on the scale between blizzard and hellish needles of ice that stung any unfortunate soul that dared to remain outside for more than two seconds. The church bell rung as a particularly strong gale jostled it, and everyone filed into rooms on the first floor via ladder after dinner concluded.

The groups found another door-laden hall, and the guards, sans Flash and Bartholomew, filed into one to find barracks with bunk beds waiting for them. Other rooms were more homely, sporting dressers and one or two beds and nightstands with lamps and picture frames.

In one such room with two beds, Matt looked out a window that sat next to a dresser, seeing Natalie and Katie behind him via a faint reflection. The latter was on one of the beds and she sported a very distended stomach, held in place by the former's magic as she kicked her legs feebly and constantly whined, "Make it stop! Please, make the pain stop!" A gurgling kept coming from Katie's swollen gut, yet no matter how much she pouted and flailed Natalie would not yield her magical grip in the slightest.

"Welp, now I know why she doesn't eat. Her body's simply no longer used to the concept of food," Natalie sighed dejectedly, loud enough to be heard by Matt through Katie's ongoing hissyfit.

Matt turned from the window, a small frown on his face. "How long do you think she's been starved?" he asked in a serious voice.

"... I haven't a clue." Natalie shook her head. "Don't have her exact date of birth, date of death, or how many years she's been a wraith since. Best guess? A decade at least. Her stomach must have shrunk enough for it to swell in such a way as to make her look like she's pregnant after only three biscuits."

"I'll take that as her body flipping out and going a little bit overboard on the acid buildup," Matt sighed, closing his eyes and lifting a hoof to rub his temples with it.

"You call looking eleven months pregnant 'a little overboard?'" Natalie questioned, her brow raising fractionally. "In this case, I think her entire system is outright overreacting and exploding in a spectacular fashion. She may as well be a yodeling firework display!"

Katie's wings began buzzing frantically, but all this accomplished was making her arch her back slightly. "Aest scrilaak— she began, only to have her muzzle clogged up with another intruding hoof in short order. This only made her thrash about more, to the point she was able to knock the pillow off the bed. Shortly thereafter, another bulge formed in her throat, and her gut shrank a little.

"Swallow," Natalie instructed, and for once Katie stopped flailing about and did just that. The bulge refused to shift, at least until Katie swallowed a few more times. "You need some nutrients, and there's only one way you can get them now." She saw a pale hoof rising up and added, "Don't struggle. It'll only worsen your pain and make you more likely to throw up."

Katie's orbs shrank to pinpricks. "From here on, you'll eat at least one biscuit or piece of fish or something like that. Consider it… tough love on my part," Natalie stated, her tone between motherly and stern. "The only way you can get strong and healthy is if you eat daily. Trust me, your body'll thank you for it."

"It's gonna be a long road for her, Natz. She'll have to get her gag reflex under wraps for starters, and we haven't even figured out what to do about that split grin of hers. She may have parasites, too, and we'd be none the wiser until we got Alexander to look at her innards or something," Matt pointed out, trotting over to the two with a frown.

"Then again, this wouldn't be the first time we've dealt with stick-thin shenanigans," Natalie sighed, turning to Katie to find the orbs still pin-sized. The jaws her hoof had parted moved slightly, and something akin to a hissing groan rumbled in Katie's throat. "Oh, yes, I've done this song and dance before… short of shoving hooves into faces. You're a more… extreme case, so the hoof-shoving's sadly necessary for the time being."

"That, and us feeding you will let us see… if you have any other problems with your system," Matt added, lifting a hoof and poking Katie's shoulder with it. He gestured to her stomach and poked at it, feeling it resist his hoof with every iota of strength it had. "Yeah, three biscuits have filled you up squarely. Gonna need to work on that."

Katie made a croaking noise. "He's saying you'll need to expand your gut if you want to take in more fuel. But that'll take some time," Natalie translated, frowning as she heard the swollen gut gurgle again. "Though, I doubt you have intestinal parasites since you're undead." She saw pale nostrils flaring, and the chest expanding a little. "You feel like you're gonna hurl?" Fractionally, Katie shook her head.

Only then did Natalie remove her hoof from the pale maws. Her frown deepened as the last few teeth Katie had squished and scraped themselves, before sticking to her limb on its way out, forming yellowed spots that blemished her cream fur. "Might wanna consider a set of false teeth. All I see now are gums and a tongue," Matt noted.

Katie flinched, and her nose wrinkled a little. "Give me a tooth maker first and I'll be willing to bite," she groaned, tossing her head to the side. "Sweet Godcat, I still ache…"

Natalie shifted her hoof and patted Katie on the head, being mindful of her horn stubble. "This is going to sound really weird," she began, turning to Matt as she spoke, "but would it be feasible for Armin to share some of his love with Katie?"

Matt shook his head. "He couldn't collect any in Equestria. He'd need to do a little draining before that could happen. That, and he could think we mean something else entirely with 'share his love,' if you get the drift," he sighed.

Katie lifted a hoof that shook and threatened to drop back down. "I concur. That sounded wrong on so many levels," she stated. "That, and we changelings don't share love; we hoard it like dragons." Then her hoof dropped and she trembled as her stomach burbled again.

"We'll see if that claim is true," Matt muttered, and with that he turned to the door. He trotted to it, opened it, and went out into the hall prior to making a beeline to the room right across from the one he left. He lifted a hoof and knocked the instant he reached it, tapping no more than three times before backing off. He waited for a full minute before the door opened and Alexander poked his head out.

"Hrmmmmmyes?" Alexander asked, a brow raised.

Matt donned a small smile. "Where's Armin?" he chirped. The smile fell when Alexander's brow tabled.

"Lance gave him permission to hunt, on the grounds that he tread with someone that can rush him back here if things go south," Alexander replied with a sigh.

Matt frowned again. "Who's with him?" he asked.

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

Snow-carrying winds howled around Armin and Twilight as they pushed on through the pine forest, and both felt the chill despite being dressed in thick fur coats complete with boots on their hooves and wool-knitted hats on their heads. Both were armed, with Armin having the Accelerator slung across his back and Twilight letting a light-forged blade hover next to her in a reasonably close proximity. They strained their eyes for any other sign of life in the woodland, yet nothing turned up except for the trees and the whistling of the wind.

Armin snorted before recoiling as he managed to accidentally inhale a bit of snow through his nose immediately after. He shook his head, sneezing in rapid succession prior to getting the telltale tinge of brainfreeze. Despite that, the only thing he managed was nothing more than a grimace. "What's it take to find a morsel up here? There's plenty of trees to hide in," he grumbled.

"Maybe these 'morsels' are underground. Several animals hibernate or hide around this time," Twilight remarked, taking a second to glance about their current surroundings as the snow and winds let up for a few seconds. She caught sight of a silhouette sporting many protrusions on its form, though their purpose or what the thing was eluded her as it slinked past some trees to her left. "What was that?"

"Huh?" Armin turned to Twilight to find the back of her head turned to him. Then he too caught sight of something slinking past the trees, further away from them. A toothy grin spread on his muzzle. "Oh boy, free food in aisle tree!" With the giddiness of a foal he surged towards the slinking form, making Twilight sigh and roll her eyes before she took off after him with a shake of her head.

Twilight was honestly tempted to warn Armin of the possible danger. She opened her mouth to make such an utterance, when her brain caught up to the fact that he was a soldier employed under a pegasus who wasn't afraid to kill wraiths at the very first sign of trouble. She shut her mouth before the cold air could thoroughly chill her gums and teeth, and she simply plodded behind him with her sword inching just a little closer to her as she went.

Armin licked his lips in anticipation as he followed after the silhouette, a trickle of drool running out of the corner of his mouth as he trotted onward. His horn gave off minute green sparks of mana, briefly making it seem as though his face had taken on a demonic cast. He kept going, his pace picking up despite the cold and snow all about him.

Five minutes passed before the silhouette turned to him, and he cast a green light to find he'd run into a giant arctic blue slime with a massive hunk of ice growing out of its back, a big pair of eyes and a mouth to match, and three smaller, disjointed pieces of slime acting as limbs. Atop the frozen spire were two white bush-like creatures sporting piercingly blue eyes that stared him down. Armin only let his grin widen, to the point it made him look maniacal. It was at this point Twilight caught up to him and stopped at his side.

"That's… what we were going after?" Twilight asked uneasily, her brow slanting as the slime and bush-like creatures continued to give them the thousand-yard stare.

Armin nodded, another trickle of drool seeping out of his mouth. He licked his chops again. "These things could feed the entirety of Delta Unit for months, and still go strong," he answered, lifting a hoof and gesturing to the slime in particular. "They're also used in non-fatal production of chitil."

To emphasize his point, his horn flared brighter, and his magic seized the slime and bushes before they could do anything. It was a weak, feeble hold at first, flickering dangerously as Armin opened his mouth as tendrils of pink energy started seeping from the slime and wafting towards him. He eagerly sucked in the energy right into his gullet, which to Twilight seemed green at first. Though as he sucked it in, his hold on the slime and bushes became stronger with each passing second, the aura brightening to match the light he'd cast.

Five minutes passed, and Twilight watched on warily. The slime's eyes widened, seemingly realizing that it was pinned and being drained. It lifted its disjointed limbs and thrashed wildly, but all this accomplished was a minor shaking of the ground that only sent faint tremors up Twilight and Armin's legs. It followed this up by inhaling deeply before blowing out a hefty puff of air that chilled them a little more, yet still did nothing to dissuade them.

Two minutes after that, the hold on the slime died down, but not before it grabbed a disjointed limb and swiftly tore it away. The limb vanished in a green flash, and Twilight turned to Armin to find him very bloated in the gut, to the point he almost looked pregnant. "Are you done now?" she queried in exasperation.

Armin nodded. He gestured to the slime as it regrew its lost limb and growled at him. "See? Slime's not harmed by it. Now let's go, before it decides it wants us for dinner." Twilight nodded and her horn glowed, and as a bright purple light wrapped around them the sword she had dissipated into thin ribbons. These ribbons coiled around the two, only adding to the spectacle before they were engulfed and vanished from the scene.

Seconds later they reappeared in the dining room of the church, just inches shy of Eve. "Oh? Back so soon?" she asked, with nothing more than a smile and a brow raised.

Armin turned to her, trying to blink the spots out of his eyes as he nodded with a dopey grin forming on his face. "I fed well tonight," he chirped.

Eve's smile widened. "Alright, but your legs are trembling a little. Get some rest you two," she stated, and Armin and Twilight sheepishly looked at their legs to find that they indeed shook in their boots, if only slightly. They exchanged a glance and started ambling for the ladder before Eve had the chance to tell them twice. The inside of the building helped warm their legs as they moved, though they paused at the ladder.

"Can you climb up that, looking like you're six months pregnant?" Twilight asked in a sincere voice, using a hoof to gently poke Armin in the gut for emphasis.

"Not the first time I've overstuffed. I'll need to expunge the excess love soon," Armin replied, shaking his head. "Can you do the flashy… spell again?"

Twilight grinned. "One teleportation, coming right up," she chirped, her horn glowing again. She gripped herself and Armin in her magic and promptly teleported them both to the floor above, right into the hall to find Lance and Matt in said hall, chatting with Maria sitting between their forelegs. The three gave the barest of glances to Armin and Twilight as soon as they'd arrived and went right back to their fervor.

"She's bloated like a whale? And bedridden?" Lance asked, a brow raised.

Matt nodded with a snort and a frown on his muzzle. "That's just what three biscuits do to her system, Lance. Biscuits," he replied. "Natalie's suspecting a very bad case of the trots in the coming hours." His nose wrinkled at the notion. "She barely managed to keep her from puking."

Lance's shoulders sagged a bit, and he dropped his head before releasing a groan. "Great, the frost wraith's allergic to everything on the local menu," he mumbled. "What next, she gonna get hay fever too?"

Matt turned to Armin and noticed his bulging gut. "Did you raid the fridge?" he asked.

"No; I pillaged a slime," Armin replied, using his magic to summon the detached slime limb in such a bright flash of light that even Lance squinted his eyes under the intensity.

"Seriously, you could convert the simple act of summoning an item from the friggin' thaumic plane into a flash grenade," Lance hissed, turning to Armin and lifting a hoof to rub at his eyes and make the spots dancing in his vision go away. He too eyed the fact that his troop had a swollen gut. "How much of the slime did you eat? How big was it? If it was another large one, then it looks like you've slurped a third of it up."

"Just its accumulated love, and it was huge. Though I went… overboard," Armin replied, his lips twitching slightly.

"This is gonna sound weird," Matt interjected, looking at Armin. When he felt insectoid eyes fall onto him, he elaborated, "Think you can share some of the love you've gathered with Katie?"

Armin's eyes bulged. "C-come again?" he asked.

"Well, it's… follow me," Matt replied tersely, mentally facehoofing himself and outwardly sighing as he turned to his room door.

Finally, Maria spoke as she likewise turned to the door, "Is nice wraith okay?"

"According to your Uncle Matt, that'd be a no. But I've yet to see whether or not…" A shrill and hollow cry of pain cut through the air from behind the closed door Matt was looking at, cutting Lance off before he could finish his statement.

Armin flinched before he hurriedly cantered to the door as another wail sang through the air. "That sounded like she got her legs torn off," he grumbled, seeing Matt make a beeline for the door before flinging it open with a swift hoof. He swiftly made the wad of slime vanish before following after him.

The lot filed inside in short order, only to shudder as Katie thrashed on the bed with wild abandon, screaming for all it was worth. Though they also found Natalie holding her to the bed with magic, it did little to keep her from floundering about madly.

Matt turned to Armin and gestured to Katie with a hoof. "That's why," he said curtly.

"Definitely not okay. I'm wondering if we'll need to sedate her," Lance grumbled. Armin sighed and trotted over to the ailing Katie, who kept screaming and struggling in pain.

"Share my love, right?" Armin asked, averting his gaze to look at Matt. As soon as he got a slow nod, his horn began glowing, and his now-bright emerald aura wrapped around Katie. For just a second she slumped, panting and shaking and groaning, only to start anew as soon as Armin opened his mouth as wide as it could go.

Pink tendrils seeped out with the aid of green magic and slipped their way into Katie's wide-open muzzle, and for the barest of seconds her barrel gave an odd, heart-shaped glow that was as blue as her orbs that turned redder by the second. Armin too had a glow on his barrel, bright and barely-concealed by his thick coat of added fur.

Armin's swollen gut shrank as he kept giving her energy for five minutes, until it looked only slightly distended. Katie on the other hoof had swollen even more, as if she'd managed to eat three watermelons whole, before the glow died and a blue pulse of mana accentuated by pink highlights shot across her body and made her gut shrink. Only then did her kicking and yodeling die down, and she turned to stare at the ceiling dazedly as her stomach compacted even more.

"Will… it help her digest the biscuits?" Matt queried warily, looking at Katie as another pulse rippled upon her body.

"It'll do more than that, but she'll need a nice and loooooooong nap in the meantime. I'd say… about eight hours, maybe twelve if she's still sickly," Armin replied, smiling. He turned to Lance and asked, "Want me to cast a nighty-night spell on her?"

"Looks to me like she tuckered herself out," Natalie piped up, her own magic receding from Katie's stilled form. "I'm impressed her stomach still works."

Twilight fell onto her haunches, gaze fixed on Armin and Katie. "You two glowed when you shared your love… not in that sense, of course." She turned to Lance. "Have you seen your other changelings glow like they just did?"

"On occasion, but I'd have to be near a bunch of them to see that glow whenever they share the spoils, so to speak," Lance replied with a nod, turning to Twilight with a brow quirked. "Why do you ask?"

"Sparkletop… muffins…" Katie croaked from the bed, shakily lifting a hoof before dropping it back on the bed. The others briefly turned to her, only to roll their eyes as she gave a throaty snore rivaling that of a bear.

"And Katie can still eat and breathe and wail like a normal changeling, even though she's undead…" Twilight's eyes started to gleam as she fixed her gaze on Armin again. "Would that mean wraiths preserve themselves somehow, enough for bodily functions to work?"

"She told me and Fen that she's immortal. I'd bet ten bits and a sweet roll that 'bodily functions' was included in her immortality package," Armin chimed in, turning to Katie as her gut shrunk again with another pulse of mana. "Yeesh, that extra love I gave her is already going to town."

Twilight's eyes widened as soon as Armin said 'immortal.' "Okay, that would actually explain a lot…" she mumbled before getting back on track. "And she can use her magic via… horseshoes…" She pondered some more, and lifted a hoof to rub her chin in thought. A second later and her hoof dropped as fast as it had risen. Twilight turned her eyes on Lance again, this time grinning. "I think I know what this calls for…"

Lance turned to Twilight again, frowning slightly. "'For' what?" he pressed.

"Would you mind me doing a little research on Armin and Katie? I promise I won't probe them; I need only study into that odd glow they make when they share love…" Twilight began in a sweet tone, the kind that dripped with enthusiasm and curiosity in equal measure. "Because I've seen changelings drain love before, but sharing it… not only seems odd, but yields an even stranger effect."

"I wouldn't mind, but you'll have to wait for Katie to wake up. Considering she's only fed tonight on both food and love, I'd wager she'd be a wee bit sluggish in the morning. But I'll look out for any other side-effects as a precautionary measure." Armin lifted a booted hoof and gently nudged Katie in the withers with it, and she responded by mumbling incoherently. "Yep, she's out like a light. Looks like I don't need to cast a healthy helping of nighty-night magic yet."

"What is… this 'nighty-night' spell you keep going on about?" Twilight asked, her eyes glimmering even more.

"Well… I'd have to be around another changeling to use it, but if you want, I'll demonstrate it tomorrow if Katie proves restless," Armin answered with a shrug. "Or if she decides to try and tangle with Lance again."

Twilight's brow rose. "She… tried to tangle…" For but a moment her thought processes halted, unsure as to what Armin meant.

"Decided it was a good idea to punch me," Lance snorted in response, shaking his head at Katie's sleeping form. "She hit me… with hooves so soft I almost thought a baby slapped me."

Maria fluttered her wings and she turned to Lance. "Daddy, what's sharing love?" she asked, the question almost instantly causing his eyes to bulge and his throat to start issuing a choking sound coupled with an attempt at sputtering something coherent. On top of that, Matt and Natalie turned to the foal with blushes painting their faces, jaws agape and likewise producing noises that made Twilight think the air of the room started attempting to strangle them.

"Sharing a special energy-based food between changelings, using thaumic energy," Armin answered as Lance, Matt, and Natalie continued to flounder on each and every attempt to utter a response. Maria turned to him and opened her mouth again, but he cut her off with a firm, "And no, it doesn't have another meaning."

"Okay," Maria chirped, tail swishing for a second. "What's thaumic energy? That sounds weird." That made Lance, Matt, and Natalie slump and sigh with relief in unison.

"You know, you almost sound a lot like me when I was a foal. I wanted to gain knowledge, and you're going down the same path with a few twists of your own," Twilight remarked, turning to Maria to give her a warm smile. "If you want, I can teach you what thaumic energy is."

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

Blueblood and Flash Sentry stayed up well into the midnight hour, having themselves a small table between them and a spot of tea with ceramic cups. The only light in the room came from a small flickering scone, casting an orange glow about the room as the duo sat in silence. As they sipped the tea, they looked out the window in unison, seeing the snow outside continue to pile it on thick. Ironically, because of that, they could see a few buildings a trot or two away from the church, already closed up and with lights off.

From what they could see of Whitefall Town, it looked relatively peaceful. "For all of his banter that several things were amiss on the face of Fantasia," Blueblood began slowly, continuing to observe the impassive scene outside, "the General somehow found a great place to start his little 'tour.'"

"What'd he do, rattle?" Flash queried, turning away from the window to look at Blueblood.

"More or less," Blueblood replied after a few seconds, taking his time to continue staring out. "And yet… I cannot help but feel that something is quite… off, to put it mildly." He turned away and used his magic to lift his teacup and put it to his lips. Sipping at the liquid, he frowned slightly as he realized it was starting to turn cold. That made him take another sip, hastily at that.

Flash mutely nodded and turned to the window again, feeling his wings twitch as he caught sight of a cloaked form slinking past the houses he could see, and it shuffled and swayed and twitched without rhyme or reason. Its legs were done up in black garments, though they seemed to sag slightly as it moved. "I see something," he stated grimly, eyes narrowing slightly as they watched the creature just amble about past houses.

Blueblood finished his drink and turned to the window again, his brow furrowing as he too caught sight of the odd, and painstakingly obvious figure. "I hope to Faust that isn't a drunkard out there. Yet it's unseemly gait and aimless shuffling are signs of such," he snorted, frowning. "I hope that pony, if it is one, gets home before…" Words died in his throat as, abruptly, the figure stood on a pair of lanky back legs and turned rigid on the spot.

"Now that's utter foolishness if I've ever seen such an act," Flash muttered, shaking his head as the creature dropped to all fours and started milling about without even a smidgen of purpose again. "Only other soul I know of who'd do that at least has an excuse; she's undead."

"Perhaps that's a wraith, then," Blueblood scoffed, eyes still fixed on the figure as it continued to look like a fool. "But I can't see anything past that garment it donned."

The figure rose on its back legs again, and for but a brief second a crisp, forest green light flashed from the top of its head. In that same instant it was gone, leaving no hoofprints in any particular direction whatsoever. All that remained of it as the light faded were the hoofprints in the snow it had already left before deciding to put on a split-second light show.

"Looks like we got a teleporter. Guess the sod couldn't stand turning blue any longer," Flash sighed, turning back to Blueblood again. "You think we should tell Shining and Lance about this?"

Blueblood shook his head and returned the look. "It didn't do anything noteworthy, unless tottering about like a complete buffoon constitutes as noteworthy," he replied solemnly. His stomach twisted a little, sending cramps of pain through his abdomen, and for a few seconds he was silent. With a wince he added, "But, I suppose we should play it safe and inform the others in the 'morrow."

Flash nodded. He lifted his own glass and took a sip before setting it back down a second later. "You think they'd be on the lookout for a cloaked teleporter with a magic aura as green as a pine tree's needles?" he asked in a low, serious tone.

"They may, or they may not. Their prerogative either way, and tragically so if they choose not to and it proves to be a threat," Blueblood answered with a rather slow shrugging of his shoulders that came off as more a bare twitch. "But we don't know why it was here, why it stumbled about, or even if it was faking something out." A flash of green burst from below, and he turned to the window to find that the figure was back again, once more tottering about aimlessly.

Flash turned to the window and lifted a hoof to slap his own face with it. "Oh here we go…" he grumbled as the hoof slid down his bridge. "I hope it doesn't perform a samba…"

"Whatever it is, it is simply too incompetent to perform a samba. I will bet a million bits that the General could muster up something better with his wings out in the open," Blueblood snorted, his face contorting into a glower as he watched the figure below stumble and tumble with the grace of a sick duck.

Flash dropped his hoof and snickered at the thought of Lance performing a samba, and he shook his head to rid himself of the thought. "What should we call that dude's attempt at dancing, besides incompetent?" he queried sincerely, his voice carrying an amused note.

"I'd wager, on account of teleportation—" Blueblood stopped for a second as the figure reared up, summoned another flash of light, and promptly vanished from sight again. "—that the attempt should be henceforth dubbed 'Shoddy Lightshow Special,'" he finished, a slightly smug grin on his face as 'Shoddy Lightshow Special' rolled off his tongue. "I have seen my fair share of performances, and that was the worst yet."

The lit scone flickered dangerously, and Flash turned to it to find that it was on the verge of burning out. He sighed and made to blow it out, but stopped just shy of opening his mouth as it went out by itself, immediately sending the room into a darkness so thick it seemed to be corporeal. Silence hung in the room, yet Blueblood continued to stare out that accursed window, as if waiting for something.

A howling gale blew outside, strong enough to make the bell toll and the window to briefly rattle. Flash looked out through the glass pane again, just in time to witness another green light flash into the snow-laden street below.

But the figure that came back did not stumble about after that, nor did it revert to all fours. This time it stood upright and turned to the window itself, the very same one through which Flash and Blueblood watched it, revealing that its barrel was likewise draped in sable cloth. Both could barely see a pale muzzle grinning up at them, only accentuated by twin glowing orbs of forest green and the cloak overshadowing its head. A horn barely poked out of the garment, aglow once again.

In one last flash of light, it was gone. Yet as soon as it disappeared, an aged wooden sign sporting a green glow about it flew up and affixed itself to the window from outside, both startling the duo and cutting the sole source of light off in an instant. They strained their eyes, and grimaced as they slowly made out a message that was carved into the obstruction.

"I know you have her. Return her to my hoof at once."

Blueblood's eyes narrowed. "I don't know who that pony was, or who they were referring to with 'her,' but I will not yield to their whims," he scoffed.

"Nor will I. That pony isn't getting 'her,' whoever 'her' is," Flash agreed with a slow nod, frowning deeply.