Author's Notes:

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for all the support I got when I was in the hospital for most of June. It was a frightening time and while everything is getting better, it really threw my life off the rails the last three months.

Also thanks to my editors and all you readers for putting up with me for this long hiatus. It has taken me a long time to get my head back into writing as well as MLP. I'm just now starting to catch up on Season 7 and already find new ideas are flowing freely.

Finally a warning: While the scene in this chapter is not explict or graphic, there is a dark tone that is a lot closer to gore then the majority of my writing. So I'd like to leave this heads up here as a warning.

Thanks again, and I can't wait to see you all comment!

Fluttershy's cottage

A torrential series of angry noises woke Dusk with a start. Trapped in place under Fluttershy’s weight, Dusk found his slowly-awakening senses blurry. Focusing was a struggle made only worse by the distracting softness that was the mare half in his lap. Fighting to hold back a yawn while the noise grew louder, it was the violent beating of wings and the noise of metal mesh straining that finally kickstarted the more coherent parts of his brain.

Dusk moved to stand up, only belatedly realizing he couldn't get up without pushing Fluttershy off of him. Pausing, Dusk gently brushed his fingers through her hair, leaning in close to whisper in her ear. “Hey? Fluttershy? You should wake up. Something is bothering your chickens again. We should go check on them.”

Fluttershy gave him a soft and questioning “Smugh?” before attempting to roll over in his lap, curling her wings in tighter around him.

Smiling to himself, Dusk settled his hands on her shoulders, repeating himself while giving her a soft shake. “Fluttershy? I really do think that something's wrong with your chickens.”

Still dozing, Fluttershy nestled deeper against him, wrapping her arms around his neck while burying her face in his chest, muttering softly. “That's just the rooster. He does that every morning at dawn. Just,” she paused, yawning timidly into his neck before continuing. “Just let me get five more minutes. If he hasn't calmed down by then, I’ll go ask him what’s wrong.”

Realizing Fluttershy hadn't even bothered to open her eyes when she spoke, Dusk let out a heavy sigh. “Fluttershy, dear. I know I'm new to small town life, but I know about roosters. Now wake up, it isn't morning yet and I'm-”

Despite Dusk’s initial worry about Fluttershy’s slow reaction to the bird’s cries, he had to admire how swiftly she now rushed to her feet, racing over to the porch rail. Bracing herself, she leaned over it and stared at the hen house. When she spoke, her voice trembled slightly. “What? Oh no, oh no, oh no! That means Harry isn't back yet either! There’s no way he would've let us sleep out here if he got home and saw us on the swing!”

Still trying to catch up with the worried mare, Dusk simply continued to talk to himself even as Fluttershy stared into the darkness. “-going to check on him with or without your help… wait?! What?”

Flustered by Dusk’s confused thoughts, Fluttershy spared one worried glance back at him before leaping over the top of the railing and rushing across the lawn, calling back at him as she ran. “Hurry, Dusk! Charlie is screaming about Henrietta and the fillies! He thinks they attacked her!”

Flabbergasted once again at how Fluttershy so quickly flew into action, Dusk turned instead to the cottage door, rushing inside to check on the foals… and saw three empty beds and the abandoned couch. Trying to fight against panic rising in his chest, Dusk shook his head, muttering to himself. “Rarity is going to kill me.”

Somewhere in the Everfree Forest

Exhilarated by the chase through the dark forest, Apple Bloom ran as hard as she could. Twice she got so close to the little hen, she could practically feel the feathers. Yet every time she attempted to catch Henrietta, she wound up face down in the dirt. Still, she had gotten closer than Scootaloo had yet.

Lagging behind with Sweetie Belle and Dinky, Scootaloo cradled her arm to her chest, the first hints of a bruise already started to darken the skin near her shoulder. She had told them when they found her slumped beside a tree that she'd tried to jump Henrietta, but instead hit the tree by “accident”. To Apple Bloom though, it looked more like she was milking the attention she was getting from Sweetie Belle. The improvised sling that Dinky had made for the pegasus wasn’t helping with Apple Bloom’s mood.

The only thing that kept Apple Bloom from saying something to Scootaloo was the occasional trail of chicken scratches. Pressing on deeper into the woods using the glow of Dinky’s magic, Apple Bloom kept at the edge of the light. The deer trail Henrietta had followed twisted between deadfall trees and a dry creekbed. As Apple Bloom’s shoes sunk into the squishy mud with a noisy squelch, the shocked cry of Henrietta quickly grabbed her attention. The hen had lept out of the creek at the edge of the filly’s vision, sprinting down the broken trail before taking a turn to the right. Excited, Apple Bloom turned to the other girls, giddy with joy that they were getting closer. “Did you see!? She's getting tired, I'll catch her next time for sure!”

But even as she turned to look back, Scootaloo rushed up to her side, pointing to the other fork in the split trail, pointing down the path with her good arm while wrapping her wing around Apple Bloom’s shoulder and turning her back towards the path. “But we all saw her go down that way, Apple Bloom! Did you hit your head or something?”

Shaking her head a little in disbelief at what she had missed seeing in the dirt before, Apple Bloom did a double take, staring at the ground. Clear as day under the glow of Dinky’s spell, two different muddy trails of hen tracks split off and followed both paths, moving in opposite directions. “What! Bu- but I swear I saw Henrietta go down the other trail. Just... umm... Should we, um… so we split up?”

Stretching her wings out and glancing back at the unicorns, Scootaloo grinned, unable to hide her excitement as her tail lashed rapidly behind her back. “I’ll take the path I saw one chicken take, you take the other? And whoever catches Henrietta gets all the credit when we return them to Dusk and Fluttershy?”

Grinning, Apple Bloom took a few quick steps to rush over to Sweetie Belle, grabbing the little filly’s hands. “You think you can handle Dinky’s light spell? Cause me and you are the team that's gonna win!”

Unable to match Apple Bloom’s excitement, Sweetie stared wide-eyed around them at the trees and darkness, shivering and grabbing Apple Bloom’s hand with both of hers. “I- what? No! Apple Bloom, this is the Everfree!”

Chuckling at Sweetie Belle’s reluctance, Apple Bloom put an arm around her and gently started pulling her towards Dinky. “Don't worry, Dusk said you're really good at magic for a foal, right? So I'm sure you'll pick it up in no time!”

Shaking her head aggressively and unsuccessfully pulling away from Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle dug in her heels and built up her nerve to stand up to the older fillies. “Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, this is crazy! Even if there are two chickens out here, we can't split up! This is the Everfree Forest! Dusk and Big Mac don't go into the forest without somepony to back them up, right?! But if we split up, who's gonna watch our backs?!” Swallowing, Sweetie Belle looked to the other unicorn filly for help. “Right Dinky?”

Biting her lip, Dinky gave Sweetie Belle a nod while she took a moment to try and calm her breathing . “I think you're right, Sweetie. Let's just stick together and get one of the chickens, then get out of here quickly, before anything else goes wrong. I still can't believe we didn't notice a second chicken for so long!”

Feeling a little hurt by Sweetie Belle and Dinky’s lack of faith, Scootaloo tried to shrug it off, returning to the path Apple Bloom had picked. “Alright. Then if we gotta stick together, let's go after Apple Bloom’s chicken. She was closer than we were, so I'll take her word it was Henrietta. After all, I barely saw the chicken slinking through the grass from where I was.”

Feeling Sweetie Belle give her hand a squeeze, Apple Bloom straightened up and grinned at Scootaloo. “Then let's go! Maybe we can still get back before Dusk and Fluttershy even notice we're gone!”

Applejack couldn't help but swell up with pride as Winona silently held up a paw, the signal for them to stop. Waiting in the gap between two outcroppings of rock with Bronze, they watched the patrolling guard, Applejack’s whole body tensed as she waited for Bronze’s signal to jump the patrol of diamond dogs.

To her surprise, however, they held their positions as the dogs walked off down the tunnel. Applejack’s confusion only grew as she heard a soft sigh of relief from Bronze. Turning to the squire, she asked, “What’s wrong? You've already proved you're damned good with that sword. You humiliated the two that were guarding this tunnel. Why let this bunch go?”

Sighing as she sheathed her sword, Bronze shook her head before stepping in line with Applejack, watching as Winona waved for them to continue. “I wasn't trying to show off with those dogs. I just wanted to scare them off. There's no reason anyone needs to die today, most of all some random guard dogs who are just doing their job. I doubt they even know about Rarity. But there are so many patrols running around now, I just know one of them is going to stop and notice us eventually.”

Pursing her lips for a moment, Applejack eventually nodded, understanding the guard’s reasoning. “I'm get feeling bad for them, even if they might’ve helped kidnap Rarity... Most of the dogs we've seen so far… they look about as bad as Winona did when she came to Ponyville years back, looking for work.”

Scratching futilely against the armor on the back of her neck, Bronze mentally cursed the itch she’d developed. Glancing at Applejack, she shook her head, another sigh escaping her lips. “About that. They seem like the same ones the Wonderbolt Cadets had to deal with when we first met. You know, when Princess Celestia sent us to scare off the dragon? I’ve heard from friends in Canterlot that the Wonderbolts’ special forces chased them off again a few weeks ago. So why are they here so near to Ponyville?”

Winona had been listening to their conversation and stopped walking, her tension clear in her stance and the way her ears were still on the alert as she waited for them to get closer. Still watching the tunnel ahead, her tail drooped low. Her voice was quiet, and her speech seemed simpler, almost as if she had grown more feral as they had explored the tunnels. "I think they rotten to core. My tribe was same. No good alpha. Just violence and threats. I ran away because they all rotten. Applejack much better alpha." Wagging her tail just a little, the young canine girl leaned over to give Applejack a surprise hug before rushing ahead on silent feet. Her tail still excitedly flicked from side to side, though the blush she had was hidden from Applejack as the loyal hound disappeared into the shadows.

Watching Winona’s return to serious scouting, Bronze glanced at Applejack, offering a soft shrug. "So she used to be part of one of the Diamond Dog tribes? No wonder she understands them. I- well, I kinda wish I'd paid better attention to Deadlock Stronghold when she taught us about the dogs. I don't know nearly enough about their behaviour for this kind of mission.”

Applejack gave Bronze a friendly nudge with her shoulder, muffling her own laughter to avoid making too much noise. "Hey, I've been working with her for a few years now, and she's never been willing to talk about this kind of stuff. Maybe she's just as worried about Rarity as us and just doesn't want to show it."

Focusing on the broken tree branch in his hand, Dusk ignored the trickle of hot sweat that ran down his back. Fighting down the rising tide of panic in his chest, he focused on gently pouring his magic into the dead wood, watchful as it began to slowly glow, worried too much would destroy the fragile branch. As its glow began highlighting the trees around them, the still-green wood soaked up ever rising amounts of his magic, forming a powerful brightness to push back the engulfing darkness created by the canopy of branches overhead. When the light spell took root in the wood and fully stabilized, Dusk closed the spell, sealing it in place with a whispered prayer. “By Her Light, let it be.”

As Fluttershy swallowed back her mounting distress and took the vividly glowing branch from Dusk’s hands, she responded in kind, the conviction in her voice even more powerful than his. “By Celestia’s will.”

But she hadn't taken two steps into the fork in the trail before spinning around on her heel, the surety that had been in her voice gone as she called out to Dusk. “Are you sure this is the only way?! We're so deep into the Everfree, Dusk!”

Still standing at the fork, horn radiating his vivid raspberry magic for light, Dusk tried to stay calm, shaking his head. “Fluttershy, it's the only choice we have. The girls were all together in the dry creek. From the tracks, it looks like they’re still chasing Henrietta. But something big came through this fork, and I'm not good enough at tracks to say what it it is or which way it went. If we don't follow both paths as quickly as possible, whatever it is might catch up with the girls before we find it. You've gotta be brave and go. Quickly!”

Drawing another deep breath and inflating her chest, Fluttershy held the magical torch high over her head, turning a critical eye to the trail ahead. Dusk was right. Whatever had come down one fork and fled up the other had flattened the ground in a five foot wide swath that knocked down trees and squashed any plants that had grown too close to the narrow path. It almost looked like something had been dragging a boulder through the woods by sheer brute force. Squaring her shoulders and reflexively puffing up her wings to make herself feel bigger, Fluttershy marched into the darkness. Dusk was right, she had to be brave. “For the fillies”.

Barb was flat on her belly, crawling close to the ground. She felt somewhat guilty as bits of the scout uniform tore off while she snaked across the tunnel floor. She stopped occasionally to grab any strips of fabric that were noticeable, her polished smooth belly scales sliding across the rough tunnel floor. Thankfully in the muted darkness, her purple scales served as a natural camouflage. With Bronze’s long dagger clutched in her mouth, the little dragon slipped from one rock to another, terrified that she’d be seen at any moment.

Pausing behind a stalagmite as a dog patrol crossed the tunnel, Barb twisted to one side, peeking out of the corner of her eye at the room Winona had pointed out for her. “Winona was right! It really does smell just like Rarity over here, and it's way stronger than in the last room! But there's so much blood in the air. Fresh blood… ohhh Rarity!”

When she could see the guards reach the far end of their patrol, Barb bolted out from behind the rock, sprinting the last ten feet flat on her stomach, rushing into the long and narrow tunnel that branched off from the chamber where the others waited for her report. The scent of blood was strong as she entered the path, and Barb had to take a moment to catch her breath, struggling to ignore the thoughts the crimson smell brought to mind. Had the monsters threatened Rarity? Attacked her for being unable to dig? She was so helpless, and Barb knew she had to be brave.

As she rushed to a safe spot right beside the cavern entrance, Barb thought the beating of her heart was so loud that she’d be heard immediately. Reaching her destination, she pinned herself between the wall and a pile of rags that reeked of blood. She then curled her tail in tight and used the rag pile as both a barricade and as a stool, leaning heavily on it for a brief second as she scanned the dim room.

Bent in half by a ragged bag full of gems slung over her shoulder, Rarity’s magic lit up the rocks at her feet. A busy dog repeatedly disappeared into a hole in the ground, popping up occasionally to throw a handful of fresh stones into the sagging sack. A guard dog and a puppy sat together not five feet away, talking too softly for Barb to make their words out.

But she'd done it! She'd crossed the room without being seen when even Winona had panicked and pulled back, and now here she was, not even thirty feet from Rarity!

The sudden mournful cry of the mare's voice made Barb shiver with rage, her words cutting to Barb’s heart even as the dragoness’ spines quivered. “Please!~ This sack is so heavy! Can't you take it and let me carry a new one, Spot?”

Rising on top of the stack of rags again, Barb watched as the big guard dog and the little puppy barked back and forth in angry tones, until at last the guard reluctantly rose to his feet. He was heading away from the other dog and towards Barb’s hiding place. Looking down at the rags to see if there was another bag nearby, Barb had to fight back the urge to retch as she realized why the bloody scent had become so strong after entering the room. The bundle of rags was another guard dog, a face she even recognized. He was the one Bronze had humiliated by shredding his patchwork armor with a few quick blows of her sword. Now his eyes were glazed over and almost half his throat was missing! Fighting back the need to vomit, Barb scurried back into the tunnel, away from Rarity. She had to tell the others! The dogs had started killing each other!

There was no more time for stealth, Rarity’s life was at stake!

The moment the flattened ground stopped, giving way to the unmistakable presence of bear prints, Dusk knew something was wrong. Freezing in place, his eyes moved rapidly, searching the ground for any hidden clues. There had to be something that he could use to understand what had happened between the bear and whatever other creature had created the flattened trail he had been following.

But then another thought occurred to him, where was the bear? Was it Harry?

Feeling his panic returning, Dusk’s mind raced, asking more questions that he had no answers to. Everywhere he looked he saw more puzzles, rather than answers.

The bear was heading towards the flattened trail. That much was clear. However, before the flattened path started, the only other marks he could make out where those left behind by a chicken’s scratching claws, and... what looked like a snake? The bear had turned several times, lurching and lunging around, as evidenced by the clawed trees and rocks... but had suddenly disappeared, its paw prints vanishing right where the flattened ground started. “Dear Celestia, just what happened he-”

The sudden cry of a reptilian voice made Dusk stop analyzing the tracks, instinct warning him to rapidly back away from the rustling bushes near his feet. Emerging with casual grace, the creature before Dusk’s eyes was both avian and reptile, with a lizard-like tail, leathery wings like a dragon and a matching lower body... yet it had a chicken's legs, torso and head.

Marching straight at Dusk’s feet, the little creature walked with a slight limp. Its distinctly acidic and arcane blood had dried over a single cut that ran down its right side. Barely a scratch, but the monster halted in place and turned its blood-red eyes up to lock gazes with Dusk, it’s shrill warning cry of aggression from the magical beast made his heart race.

Dusk’s curiosity burst forth, overriding all of his other concerns at the moment. There was something in the amalgamation’s eyes, its mysterious familiarity tickled at Dusk’s memory and lured him to crouch down and meet the chicken-lizard’s gaze. Staring with it at eye level, Dusk whispered to himself aloud. “There’s something wrong, my little chicken friend. Something about you I swear that I should remember. Care to tell me just what it is? Or are you just another quandary I'll not understand until I find a book about-”

A sudden, permeating feeling of paralyzation surged through Dusk’s joints, all of his limbs and every muscle stiffening up simultaneously. Realization coursed through Dusk, and in a panicked burst of momentum fueled by adrenaline, he managed to leap back, creating a few feet of distance between him and the beast. But his eyes were locked with the creature’s unrelenting, unblinking steely gaze. In a moment of desperate creativity, Dusk wrapped Shining Armor’s magic shield protectively over his head.

There was a moment where the pressure of the creature's petrifying gaze weakened, and Dusk whispered to himself. “Just like a basilisk, but half chicken. Dear Celestia, what are you?!”

But even as he spoke, the creature cried out in frustration and took a single step forward. Somehow, its gaze was unhindered by Dusk’s desperate magic, and again the sinking feeling of paralysis made Dusk's limbs tighten; he could even feel his heartbeat slow.

Now at last he had a concept for what he faced, but he still had no idea how to stop it without just killing the odd creature. Pushing aside his fear, Dusk poured all his mental effort into shifting through the still images in his mind, sorting through every memory that referenced magical beasts like this. As he searched, Dusk’s panic mounted. His toes were the first to lose all feeling, but in seconds the creeping paralyzation had spread past his ankles and into his legs. His hands grew heavy, numb and inflexible.

His mind racing, Dusk dove into his memories, into classes with Celestia, studies with his father, endless nights alone in the forbidden parts of Starswirl University’s library. It was in a half-forgotten memory of Sunset Shimmer’s research of arcane creatures that he finally found what he was looking for.

He was only nine, but already his hunger to learn had outpaced Moon Dancer’s ability to educate him. That was when Celestia had decided to make Sunset Shimmer his new tutor.

At first, the change to being tutored by Sunset had been frightening. She was cold and short with him, but he learned that if he stayed quiet and listened, she put up with his company for a few hours at a time.

Setting down his math text, Dusk sighed, turning his gaze over to the massive tome before his older tutor. Its leather cover was worn and cracked from age, pages dry and cracked, crinkling every time Sunset flipped a page. But the pictures, they were what really stuck in his memory. Vivid drawings of animals he didn't recognize, including gruesome but incredibly detailed vivisections of the same creatures pictured on following pages. In fascinated horror, Dusk pointed to the picture of a lizard with its eyes being carved out. “It says that's a Bask-ilisk. But why are they drawing it as somepony carves its eyes out!?”

To Dusk’s surprise and delight, Sunset smiled at him, first correcting his mispronunciation, before reading out the entry on the creature. “Basilisk, Dusk. They're a very rare species of magical lizard monsters. This whole chapter is about them. Well, and their cousin the bird-like cockatrice, as well as a host of other related species with magical eyes. It’s so weird, they feed on prey turned to stone by their petrifying gaze. So powerful is their magic, that even after death, the surgeon has to wear special magical glasses that blocks out almost all light or risk being stoned while working on removing the beast's eyes. It's very dangerous work, so they rarely bother trying to dissect a basilisk. The Wonderbolts even have standing orders to aim for their eyes using ranged weapons if possible. A shame, as according to what I read last week, after dissection, their eyes are invaluable in alchemy; simply fascinating.”

Scratching his head, Dusk nodded a little, growing excited as he leaned over the table to read the book over her arm. “But what kind of magic glasses? Did Starswirl invent them!?”

To Dusk’s shock once more, Sunset laughed and shook her head, relaxing a little and letting him sit closer. Pointing to a line in the book, she gave him a genuine smile. “Dusk, how many times do I have to tell you? Starswirl the Bearded lived centuries ago. He didn't discover everything! The pony that made these was a blacksmith and glass blower: a unicorn named Dynamic Spectrum. He discovered that if you filter out all colours of light except the yellows and browns, you could protect a pony from the basilisk’s magic. Now, why not get back to your math book? Or did you finish it already?”

Dusk began pouring all of his magic into a spell that filtered the visible spectrum of light that hit his eyes, allowing in only the yellows and browns. It was a simple deduction, all he had to do was infer from his memories of Sunset’s book on Basilisks that there was a family relationship, and that this must be the cockatrice she had mentioned offhandedly. Dusk was both astonished and grateful as he felt a sudden reduction to the alluring attraction of the chicken-lizard’s gaze. The feeling of numbness in some of his limbs remained, however, but he was finally free to move his neck a little.

Glancing down, Dusk was horrified by how far the petrification had gone. Up to his knees and inches past, his body was swollen and gray. His arms up to his elbows were the same. Thankful for the cessation of its progress, the slow sense of feeling was returning to his body, flakes of stone falling away in bunches.

Now that the fight was at a standstill, the creature shrieked out a cry of anger. It refocused its gaze on him, but Dusk felt nothing change.

Outraged, the small monster turned its back on Dusk, flicking its tail in rage before storming off into the bush. Worried where it was off to, Dusk struggled to find a way to drive away the creature’s magic. He knew he couldn't just wait; he couldn't accept that only time would let him break free as the chicken-lizard’s magic faded.

It took all of Rarity’s strength to heft the sack of gems over her shoulder and down onto the guard dog’s head. Her stomach twisted at the noise the blow made, and the way the big dog went limp. He splayed out unconscious on top of the hole the digger dog worked in, trapping the tiny dog.

Rarity tried to ignore Spot as he lept to his feet, turning the air blue with curses. “Pony! Drop those shinies! Bad pony! Stupid pony! Ponies don't attack guard dogs! Pony gets no food, and a whipping now!” Wrapping the cord of his patchwork leash around his hand, Spot nearly shook with frustration and fear, scared by Rarity’s sudden defiance. “You very bad pony! Now come here, Spot give you much many lashes!”

Busy unsheathing the crude sword that looked more like a fire poker than a blade in Rarity’s eyes, she didn't even bother to acknowledge the little dog’s attempt to act menacing with the threatening lashing of the patchwork leash. With a practised flip of her wrist into an offensive grip, Rarity twisted the blade around and thrust its blunt tip into Spot’s face, resting the tip gently on the edge of his nose. “No Spot. You've been a very bad dog. You're not in charge here anymore. Now sit, doggy, and remember that you're a very lucky puppy. See, I need a guide dog to get back to Ponyville.”

Eyes going wide, the little dog rapidly pulled back from her blade. Whimpering, the pathetic little dog’s heartbreakingly pitiful appearance nearly broke Rarity’s heart, testing her resolve. She just needed to get the dog to guide her home, but forcing the poor welp after all she'd seen the other dogs do to him felt so heartless.

Spot’s voice was so soft, Rarity hardly noticed he was asking her a question until the first time he repeated himself, cautiously stepping closer. “So pony wants Spot to guide her home? Then Spot go free and you not tell Fido and Rover that Spot helped you escape?”

Grinning in spite of herself, Rarity gave the dog a quick nod. “Of course, Spot, darling. But I do have a second job for you. Bring that sack of gems. I spent my day helping your digger dogs find them, I should at least get to keep a share. It is only fair.”

The dog’s shoulders trembled a little at her words, but he offered her no argument, just a simple rebuttal. “If no other dogs see us, Spot will help you, but if Spot and pony get caught…”

Laughing despite herself, Rarity shook her head. “Then let's get going fast, Spot, before-”

The sudden roar of conflict erupted from the tunnel’s mouth, a sound that made both Rarity and the small dog cringe. They backed away when they saw two of the guard dogs retreat into the room.

But the sight of two guard dogs falling back into their little mine was instantly trumped by two awe-inspiring sights. The first came as a third dog flew into the room, accompanied by the ringing noise of metal on metal. The echoing ring was a tinny reverb that sent shivers of hope down Rarity’s spine.

The second sight was the powerful presence of Applejack and Bronze striding into the room, both armed and heavily armored. Just behind them was Winona and Barb, the latter of which held a knife of all things!. Then came a blur of speed that Rarity knew could only be Rainbow Dash, who rushed overhead into the larger cavern, barreling straight at the two guard dogs who were still cowering away from Applejack’s warhammer. Wielding her lance sideways, the athletic mare raced past the guards. She then whipped around at the far side of the room, returning to collide with the distracted guards from behind, landing rapid blows with the metal shaft of her lance, knocking both dogs out.

With hours of her fine work dedicated to tricking the dogs into thinking she was too fragile and too much a damsel to worry about escaping all little more than a waste, Rarity normally would have gotten upset. However, the sight of her beloved Applejack and cute little Barb storming in all heroic-like softened her heart. Sheathing her crude sword in the belt loop she had added to her fashionable exploring gear, Rarity rushed into Applejack’s arms, just now feeling the repressed urge to cry bubbling up, drawn out by the stronger mare’s arms holding her tight. “Applejack! You all came here just for me?! Oh thank Celestia! We just have to escape before those alpha dogs notice you’re all here!”

There was a momentary pause as Applejack’s eyes hurriedly took in the state of the room. The slumped over body of a guard dog, a little dog staring wide-eyed at them with a heavy sack over his shoulder, and the staring eyes of another dog watching them from a hole under a guard’s prone body. But Rarity’s pure joy and Applejack’s relief at having her lover back safely allowed her to push away all of her concerns for a moment. “There there, sugarcube. I’m just happy to have you back whole.”

With impressive agility, Barb lept onto Applejack’s armored back, creating a loud clatter of noise as her claws scratched over the armor. Settling down on Applejack’s shoulder, the little dragon reached down, brushing a claw through Rarity’s mussed bangs. “We were all worried about you, Rarity. Did they hurt you? I’ll maul any of them that did if you want, promise!” Stretching out her neck, Barb glared around the room as she growl under her breath exposing plenty of teeth, her fierce eyes staring at the remaining, if unconscious, guard dogs in the room.

Gently chuckling under her breath, Rarity reached out to scratch the little dragoness under her jaw, teasingly dragging nails in the soft spots she'd learned Barb liked the most. “Ohhh! That's very brave of you, Barb! But I think we would be better off sticking together. Besides, I wouldn't want to have to explain to Dusk that we let you get kidnapped immediately after you went to all the trouble of rescuing me!”

Barb purred under her breath with pride as Rarity’s nails scratched across the scales on her throat and around her muzzle. The little dragoness arched her back and stood taller on her perch, proudly puffing up her scaled chest. “No way I'd let any of them catch me off guard again. My dragon’s honor is already bruised enough as it is!”

But as Barb arched her body higher, Rarity caught sight of the badly damaged filly guide’s outfit, her eyes widening while she gasped in concern. “Oh dear, Barb! Whatever happened to your cute little filly guides outfit?! Don't tell me you got into a brawl with those brutish dogs!”

Blushing darkly and trying to shirk away to hide again on the far side of Applejack’s broad shoulders, Barb sheepishly explained. “The guards were patrolling so thickly in this hallway, and Winona didn't think she'd be able to sneak past them all. But I'm smaller than her, and my scales blend in with the cavern better then her fur! So I crawled all over the place to find you. But by then I saw how much danger you were in and l knew we had to save you! So we kinda just stampeded the patrol when we had a chance to overw-”

The little dog Spot, hearing what Barb had said, interrupted the explanation. Pointing a hand at Rarity, he struggled momentarily to spit out accusatory disbelief. “You all attacked the guard dogs!? B-but Spot can't cover that up! Can't talk out of so many guards getting lost! Rarity set Spot up! They'll maul Spot!”

To Rarity’s surprise, the little dog bolted away to the far side of the room, diving for a small crevice in the wall. But they were all shocked as Winona dropped to all fours and raced after the fleeing dog. Snapping her jaw shut over his tail, Winona dug her paws into the ground, growling deep in her throat.

Bronze cried out a warning to the dog girl, shaking her head as she tried to heel in Applejack’s assistant. “Let him go, Winona, I don't think we have anything to fear from him! He said it himself, he can't go back to the tribe. If they find out half of what just happened, even ignoring how Rarity got him to help her escape, the other dogs will maul him as a traitor.”

Winona’s eyes narrowed as she firmly held her grip on Spot’s tail, the smaller dog dug aggressively at the small opening in the wall. She turned her gaze back over her shoulder, looking from Applejack to Bronze and back. There was a whimper that came from the depths of the girl's throat, but when Bronze gave Applejack a nudge, the serious whistle from the farm mare ended the argument. Releasing Spot, Winona watched as he crawled on his belly the rest of the way into the hole, the sound of his panicked digging against stone fading quickly as he dug deeper into the distant cavern wall.

Sighing contentedly, Rarity clung to Applejack with one arm, her tail coiling around her lover’s. She turned to Rainbow Dash, who was keeping a careful eye on the dogs she’d knocked out. “Dash, darling, is there any chance you can carry that sack of gems for me? I've been lugging it around for a few hours now, and it's rather exhausting.”

Giving the dogs one last long look, Dash easily lifted the shoddy sack of gems Rarity had pointed out to her. At her side, Winona let out a little whimper, the pitiful noise emanating nervously from the base of her throat. Pausing as she was about to join the group to start making their way back out into the tunnels, Dash looked at the dog girl. “C’mon, you're better than me in the dark, Winona. You can at least tell me what's got you by the tail.”

Turning to watch the others for a moment, Winona tried to offer Dash a halfhearted smile, scratching the stone floor with her sharp toenails. “Can still smell him. He smelled nice. Not all angry like the bigger dogs. Lots of scared though. I remember feeling scared like that.”

Giving Winona a sympathetic nod, Dash started towards the tunnels to catch up with the others, her lance still held casually in one hand at her side. “Well, maybe he'll escape the tunnels on his own. You did really well, right? So maybe he’ll do the same.”

Some time passed in silence, and the little digger dog had settled down in his hole under the unconscious guard dog. Passing the time by grooming himself, he was jostled back to reality when Spot barked into the hole to get his attention. “Dig dog? Why you still sitting there? Why not dig your way out? You want Fido to crunch on your bones?”

Pausing with one leg over his head, the dig dog slowly and deliberately straightened himself. Looking up with a smug grin, the dig dog gave a happy yip. “If Fido find, he be too mad at guard dog for sleeping on job. Fido slow. By time he think of me not dig, he be old bones. But Spot have no good story, yes? Better Spot run than join down here. Fido not slow for Spot. Run now, and Spot can find new place better fit Spot. Dig dogs will miss Spot. Spot not so slow like Fido.”

Growling a little under his breath, Spot yipped an answer to the shockingly smart dig dog. “Spot liked you dig dogs too. But Spot no give up. With Spot smarts, Spot will outsmart Fido. Just you see. Spot will be back.”

The sight of the giant rock that filled the entire deertrail between the looming trees made even gentle-hearted Fluttershy curse under her breath in annoyance. “I know some species of monsters that live in the Everfree have odd habits, but leaving boulders on a busy trail? That's just rude!”

Leaning on the large round boulder from behind, Fluttershy gave the six foot tall obstruction a futile shove. Struggling to push it forward a few inches at a time, Fluttershy grunted with effort, doing her best to push it past an overhanging tree branch that had blocked the path. It took all her strength, but after a long and exhausting effort, the branch popped back and swung out of the way.

Glad to finally take advantage of the free space on the side of the boulder, Fluttershy paused for a moment to catch her breath before rushing back up the path to grab Dusk’s enchanted tree branch. As she lifted it overhead, the slight movement of something in the bushes to the side of the path caught Fluttershy’s attention.

Calling out gently to the shy creature she couldn't make out, Fluttershy cooed. “Oh, dear! I'm very sorry if I woke you up with all this noise. I'll get out of your way now, little friend. And don't worry, I'll bring back Applejack and Big Mac when we all have some time in the next few days and move this boulder, okay?”

The bushes rattled again, and when the little creature hissed, she was surprised that she couldn't make out much of what it was saying. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Fluttershy ducked her head behind her wing. “Oh, my. I'm very sorry, but I can't really understand you. Are you sick little one? I can probably help if you need it.”

The hidden creature’s response was a loud hiss and pacing movement under the bushes. It was getting mad, even territorial. Despite not being able to understand it that well, she knew better than to stay too close to defensive creature. Circling around the boulder to give the defensive creature some space, Fluttershy took a deep breath before trying to call out more confidently. “It's okay, little one. You have all the space you need. Why don’t you come out? I'll keep my distance, I swear.”

There was a flustered hiss, then to Fluttershy’s confusion, a bawk, like an inquisitive chicken. Resting against the far side of the boulder and standing on her toes, Fluttershy was just barely able to see over the boulder. The oddly-shaped rock had an uneven surface that pricked at her stomach through her shirt, but she didn't let that distract her, too fascinated by the discovery to worry about it. The bushes shook a little, then parted, and the oddest creature Fluttershy had ever seen marched out into the open. With its wings spread wide open and head held high, Fluttershy would have at first sworn it was a lost rooster. But as soon as it began sniffing around at the boulder where Fluttershy had been standing, the rest of its body was revealed, and the leathery wings and scaled body came as a shock to her. With a forked lizard’s tongue and reptilian eyes, the scaly hindquarters looked so odd standing on chicken legs. It held its tail high, hissing at her one more time when it locked eyes with her as she was leaning on top of the boulder.

Despite her best efforts to keep balanced, there was something in the strange hybrid’s eyes that turned Fluttershy’s stomach inside out. Nauseous, she slipped backwards off the boulder and landed in the grass, rubbing her rolling stomach with a open hand. “Ohhh… dear Celestia, what was that!?” The outcrop that had been pressing into her belly looked so oddly familiar, and for a moment she traced the lines over a face she couldn't help but see in the oddly-shaped stone. Even the deep black eyes were just- just like-

“Harry!?” she exclaimed, beginning to shake as her horror rose. Her friend’s normally smiling face was twisted in pain, but she could still see the determination in his eyes. Somehow the proud giant bear’s noble features had been reduced to a simple stone statue, every single fine detail still featured in his face. It seemed an impossible horror that rocked Fluttershy to the bones.

But as terrorized as Fluttershy felt, it was still nothing compared to the rolling horror of nausea that formed in her belly when she was what happened next.

The little chicken lizard extended its beak and licked the hair on Harry's leg just once before biting down on the wet stone.

The crunch of rocks being ground down into gravel in the toothless maw left Fluttershy shivering in revulsion, fighting the urge to empty her stomach at the sight. Even as she watched it bent forward, its split lizard's tongue dragging again over the stony flesh revealed by its first bite of Harry’s fur.

Something inside of Fluttershy’s body reacted to the sight of the creature about to hurt Harry; that gentle, loveable bear that was always so helpful and so nice to everypony he met, despite his fearsome demeanor. She didn’t even notice she was moving until the magical torch Dusk had made her hit the avian-lizard creature in the ribs, knocking it back twenty feet from the deer trail and into a tree at the edge of the light.

Fluttershy was panting for breath as she stepped into a very uncomfortable stance, ready to fight, holding the thin wooden branch in front of her with two hands. She desperately tried to remember exactly what it was that Bronze had been trying to drill into Pinkie’s head for hours a few weeks ago in the orchard.

“Grip your weapon with both hands. Keep them as close together as you can, and put your feet shoulder width apart. Make sure to bend your knees a little, and keep light on your feet. And most importantly, keep your eyes on your opponent.”

Fluttershy struggled to stop herself from crying at the idea of attacking a little animal, half-hysterical that such a innocent-looking creature would dare attempt to hurt Harry. He was the biggest softie she’d ever known, even if he did like fishing!

She found herself shouting as the little creature started stomping through the tall grass, heading towards her and Harry again. “Just go back to the mountains! You’re not gonna hurt Harry! He’s my friend! I won’t let you! I-I promise you... Now just-just go away!”

But the creature didn’t back off. It snaked ever closer, barely moving enough to leave a path in the long grasses on the side of the trail. Fluttershy’s nervous grip on the glowing wooden stick only grew more fidgety as, in her panic, she set her feet, turning from side to side to face the way the creature made noise as it moved through the tall grass, centering all her weight on her feet. Then, all in one massive rush, a thousand things happened all at once.

Dusk burst free of the trees from the east, the stallion snapping branches and twigs as he somehow managed a shocking pace despite his stiff movement. Dusk’s right leg was bloated and gray, petrified up to the knee, but he moved with impressive agility thanks to the drive of adrenaline and the desperate need to help Fluttershy. Leaping between the mare and the creature that Dusk was now sure had to be a cockatrice, the unicorn threw up a shield spell, spreading it out from their bodies to expand as widely as he could manage while keeping it intact to drive back the monster. Pushing the sphere of protective magic, Dusk drove it ten, twenty, then forty feet back into the woods, until the pair couldn’t see it anymore.

Fluttershy was so relieved at Dusk’s sudden intervention, she fell to her knees, using the magical torch as a crutch against the ground to keep herself up as she gasped for breath and tried to calm the pounding of her heart. Letting go of the branch with one hand, Fluttershy shakily rose to one foot, and wrapped her free arm around Dusk’s waist, pulling his body hard against her. As soon as she spoke, she realized she was far more frightened than she’d initially believed. “Dear Celestia, thank the goddess you’re here, Dusk! What is that creature?! What happened to you?! Did you find the fillies?! Can you carry Harry with us?! No, wait, can you help him?! Surely you know something!”

Leaning against Fluttershy as she clung to him from the side, Dusk squeezed his eyes shut and let out a long sigh of breath. Around them, barely visible in the darkness, the sphere of magic that formed from his use of his brother’s impenetrable shield began to flicker and thin out at the very edges. As Dusk felt the spell begin to break up at its perimeter, he reopened his eyes, and put a free hand on Fluttershy’s, giving her hand a tight squeeze.

“Sorry Fluttershy, but I don’t know if I can help Harry right now. I think this is a cockatrice, and if I’m right that means that it’ll come back, and soon. They’re a relative of the Basilisk; dangerous, rare magical creatures that eat prey their magical eyes have turned to stone. I think it got hurt by Harry... it must have been hungry to attack something as big as him, and now we’ve both made it very mad. But I think I’ve figured out how to fight it. Its magic is in its gaze, its eyes. But I need you to find the fillies, Fluttershy. Just… find the girls and head back to your cottage, alright? I-I can handle this.”

‘I think,’ Dusk added mentally.

Shivering at the thought of leaving Dusk alone to fight the creature that had hurt Harry, Fluttershy, let out a sharp breath, trying to remind herself that Dusk needed her right now. As his magic failed and he stumbled, sucking at the air for breath, in the distance she could already hear rapid movement through the brush, maybe a hundred feet away. Nodding to herself firmly, she gave his waist another tight squeeze. “Alright… But please, please be careful, Dusk. It got…” She sniffed, trying not to cry, not to think about it too hard. “It got Harry. I couldn’t… I wouldn’t be able to take it if you got… got...” She shook her head, sniffing again as her voice failed her.

Squeezing him one more time, she climbed to her feet and ran through the bushes away from where the creature was coming from. She had to find the fillies - she had to.

Watching Fluttershy as she fled into the forest, following the path past Harry, and hopefully onto the trail of the Crusaders, Dusk couldn’t help but smile to himself. “I promise, Fluttershy. I’ll do what I can to protect you.”

As he looked at the massive stone boulder that was Harry, Dusk heard skittering in the bushes as the cockatrice started to crawl closer. Stiffening twinges in the joints of Dusk’s still-petrified leg almost seemed to tell him the creature was drawing closer, and a moment of inspiration came to him.

Rushing into the woods directly at the magical beast, Dusk ignored the growing pain in his mostly-numb leg. “If its magic is powered by its presence, I just have to distract it deeper into the woods. The further I can get it away from Harry, the better chance he might be able to break free of the magic. I just have to keep moving... Find the foals, Fluttershy. Find them, and get back home!”

It took all of Fluttershy’s courage to leave Dusk behind, to ignore the sound of him moving into the bushes where his magic had thrown the cockatrice. Trying to draw from some of his bravery, she tightened her wings against her back and rushed through the deer trail, following the tracks the fillies had left behind. Something in the playful ignorance of the fillies simply out on an ‘adventure’ was heartwarming, despite the terror of the situation and how much danger they were really in.

Pushing herself to run faster, she ignored the way that stray bushes cut at her dress, pulling at her legs and knees as she ducked to avoid the low-hanging branches of trees that had overgrown the path. She came to a bend in the trail, rounded the twist in the path, and…

Fluttershy felt her body lock up at the sight of Apple Bloom inching closer to a chicken-like figure that poked out of the bushes. Its lower body concealed by the shrubbery, but her worried mind flooded with questions. “Oh Light, how can there be two cockatrices?! Or did the cockatrice escape from Dusk? Why don’t the fillies fear it? And how did they corner it?”

Exhausted and breathless, Fluttershy couldn't even manage to yell out a warning before Apple Bloom triumphantly plucked the… perfectly normal hen, which Fluttershy just now recognized as her dear friend, Henrietta.

The earth filly tucked the protesting but exhausted chicken into the crook of her arm before walking over to Sweetie Belle and Dinky. “Well, I guess Scootaloo was right! Henrietta really did come down this path after the dry creek. But I’m still the one who caught her. Let's-”

Overwhelmed as she realized the girls were all alright, Fluttershy couldn't help herself. Sniffling as overwhelming flow of tears of relief began to fall, she cried out, shocking the fillies. “Oh, girls! You're all alright! We were so worried about you!”

“-get back before Fluttershy notices we're missing… oh, pegasus feathers.” As Fluttershy rushed to her friends, pausing to scoop up Sweetie Belle and Dinky with one arm, Apple Bloom wilted with worry, raising one hand defensively while backing away towards Scootaloo. “I'm sorry, Fluttershy! It ain't like we were running away or nothing, it's just… well... We saw Henrietta escape from the hen house and wanted to show you we were responsible enough to rescue her! We didn't mean to cause you to worry!”

Backed into Scootaloo, Apple Bloom’s knees knocked together as she swallowed the lump in her throat. In a rush, Fluttershy rushed over to them, her wings spreading wide, and then…

With a joyful cry, the pegasus scooped the remaining fillies, as well as the rambunctious hen, up in her other arm, shielding them with her wings as she hugged them all close. “Oh! Apple Bloom! I'm just so glad you managed to find Henrietta and stay together! The Everfree Forest is no place for foals! Now let's get home. Dusk is… is… keeping watch for us, so …” She seemed to almost freeze in place for a moment, distracted by her thoughts, before pressing on. “...so it should be a quick little jaunt back to my cabin. I'll leave punishing you four up to your families.”

Turning back towards where she’d just come from, Fluttershy glanced down the deer trail, turning away from it with a shake of her head. “Better stick to the shortest path, get home quick, and avoid running into the cockatrice again.”

Just as Fluttershy started to take the first few steps towards the safety of her cabin, easily controlling the struggling bundle of fillies who protested being trapped in her arms, the bushes shook. From them the frightfully familiar sound of a chicken’s bawking call warned Fluttershy of the danger. The next thing she knew, a chicken's head rose up above the bushes. It blinked owlishly before strutting out of the bushes. For just a moment, Fluttershy couldn't help but ask Apple Bloom the obvious question. “There… there isn't any chance that you saw two chickens escape the hen house… is there?”

Confused, Apple Bloom struggled to look over the protective barrier of Fluttershy’s wing, unable to hide the doubt from her answer. “Did a second hen got out? No way! I did like Big Mac and A.J. taught and checked the fence. There's no way two chickens coulda escaped.”

Barely able to whisper to herself, Fluttershy herded the fillies behind her protectively before beginning to back away from the approaching hen, its razor beak and gleaming eyes locking in on her. “Oh dear Celestia… no, Dusk. No.”

It frustrated Rainbow Dash beyond words to have to stay back and watch the tunnels behind her friends, searching blindly against the pitch black tunnels. All the while, the howling of the Diamond Dogs made her hair stand on end, and sent a chill down her spine. But she'd promised Bronze she'd cover their backs, and now had to bite her lip to ignore the tense standoff only twenty feet away.

It was nerve wracking. To be forced to watch the way the Diamond Dogs crowded together in the mouth of the tunnel. They were only held back by Bronze Feather and Applejack’s aggressive defense. Swifter or stupider dogs, Dash couldn't decide on which, would drop to all four legs and scoot forward, moving with impressive speed in probing attacks. Every time they tried, one of the two mares caught them. Those nipped by Bronze's blade were left with shallow, smarting wounds. Those that Applejack landed even a glancing kick or blow with her hammer on flew at least a few feet. When she got a proper wind up, the dog flew clear across the tunnel. There was a growing pile of dogs that had ‘chosen’ to sit out the fight, regardless of how much the two bigger dogs berated them.

Dash couldn't help herself but get lost in watching the way Bronze fought. This wasn't an excuse to compare herself with the competition anymore, but the guard mare moved so casually with a sword. It made her wonder if all the Royal Guard were trained to use so many different weapons as easily as Bronze. It was even more of a wonder since Bronze herself said she was more comfortable with a spear than a sword.

Behind her, somewhere in the darkness, the faint rake of nails cutting into stone made Dash jump and spin around, shifting her feet as she rushed to turn back to her abandoned post. She braced her lance into the familiar fighting stance that had been drilled into her over the past few months, keeping the cool stone wall at her back. Straining her eyes, she searched the endless darkness ahead of her, hunting for the source of the noise.

But as far as Dash could see… There was nothing there.

Nervous muscles tensed subconsciously as Dash adjusted her stance, still gazing into the darkness. There was nothing to see in the darkness… but Dash grinned to herself.

The distant sound of the tiny scrabbling of rocks was such a quiet signal that she almost missed it against the loud noise of the ongoing fight behind her back. With no other choice left, Dash readied herself in the middle of the tunnel, bracing her lance under the crook of her elbow, she leaned down to set Rarity’s bag of gems left on the ground by the tunnel wall, out of her way.

The sudden rush of movement from the darkness came as a blitz, almost the moment that Dash set aside the bag. But Dash had prepared herself for this, twisting her stance to face the rushing shadow outlined in the darkness. The real shock came at how low the dog was, running straight at her on all fours. Dash was forced to drop to a knee as she braced for the charge. Only her sense of fair play made her cry out a single warning to the dog, to let him know the ambush was pointless. “Stop right there! I see you, so jus-”

The jarring, wrenching impact the dog made as he more or less blindly struck Dash’s heavy metal lance chest-first twisted knots in her stomach. Her warning had come too late, and now the small dog - ‘He’s no bigger than Winona!’ Dash thought - writhed on her lance. He had impaled himself through the chest, and was so close now that she couldn't help but see every gruesome detail as somehow, he still struggled despite a foot of bare mithril ripped through his broken body.

He gave a gurgle, like he couldn’t breathe through his ruined chest, and Dash felt blood splatter on her cheeks. The dog's weak voice cried out, “My… shinies… mine!...”

It took a second for Dash realize how quiet things had become. The pitched battle at her back fell silent as the dogs caught sight of their vivisected ally. As one, a mournful howl rose to fill the tunnel, but none of the guard dogs stuck around for long. The vast majority of the pack fled, most grabbing wounded friends and dragging them away. Soon only the two big dogs remained, screaming orders at the backs of their fleeing brethren.

For her part, Dash watched in horror as the small dog on her lance slowly slid backwards, still tightly holding the bag of gems that Rarity had given her. His breathing was ragged, his broken body struggling in vain to hold tight the bag that he’d taken, even as his life’s blood pooled at Dash’s feet.

When he looked up at her, Dash saw only anger and defiance in his eyes. He managed out a strangled, “My shinies!” He pulled the bag closer to his ruined front, now a dark crimson as it soaked up his blood. He coughed again, spraying blood once more.

As the tiny dog gripped the bag further and further into his spilled-out guts, Dash could hear his breathing growing slower and slower. His eyes bore into hers, accusing and resentful. After what seemed an eternity, they finally softened, and the small Diamond Dog gave out a pitiful, high-pitched whine. Dash heard his voice one last time, his voice so soft she wasn’t sure if she was imagining it.

“Cold...”

His voice drifted off, and he gave one last, gurgling breath, then lay still.