Cash blinked a few times, then swallowed: “Denansdor? Seriously?”

Sighing in relief that Cash had at least heard of the place, Speaker nodded.

“If Speaker is right and that these things can protect us, we have the chance to enter into a city that hasn’t had ponies within it since the changeling invasion that followed the great contagion, and its untouched by that too – If we can somehow gain control of the city while the bracelets still have power, we could set up a city state to rival the might of Lookshy and the wealth of Nexus!” Sunrise Glow triumphantly stated.

Red shook her head: “Now hold your horses there missy – to defend a city state you’ll need an army, we don’t have an army… yet”

“True, and if we deactivate the miasma somehow we’ll have to fend off legions of scavenger lords who’ll descend on the city with their mercenary forces, not to mention that Lookshy and the guild would probably go to war with each other AND us to gain control of it and its first age arsenal” Speaker noted, sounded notably less enthusiastic about the prospect of locking horns with Lookshy over control of Denansdor.

“Ahem” Said Sullen Hoof: “Could any of you kindly explain to me what this Denansdor place is, say, assuming that up until recently I had only been ‘educated’ in Nexus back alleys?”

Speaker and Sunrise elaborated, while Shimmer tucked away the bracelets into elsewhere much to Cash’s annoyance, and Red continued looking for the switch to open the roof. Denansdor was a famous city in scholarly circles, for up until the changeling invasion, known as the Baloran crusade to those who’d read about it, Denansdor had been the shogunate’s largest source of magical artifact production and craftsponies of unequaled excellence in every field possible, from master gem cutters to smiths who could hammer out swords worthy of kings.

Speaker added that it had been so, even back in the first age, with numerous twilight caste solars entombed in Denansdor after living there for millennia. According to him the city had even been built with several factory cathedrals: “They were sacred workshops of unparalleled productivity and sanctified creation. Thousands of ponies labored in sacred unison to create magical artifacts using crafting sutras written by the great maker himself.”

As for why Denansdor was known as the ‘dead city’ was due to the mysterious circumstances surrounding its ‘fall’ during the peak of the baloran crusade. It was known, mainly from records that Lookshy carried with them when the then 7th shogunate legion made a fighting retreated towards the blessed isle, that when the baloran crusade hit Denansdor some device in its first age arsenal was triggered or activated… and no changeling or pony left the city or its surrounding artist colonies alive. These days the city was known only for two things:

The first was madness, for any pony who ventured into the barren lands around the city would run out screaming moments later – or go completely insane, such was the mental trauma of exposure to the miasma of terror that had kept the city empty of invaders, scavengers and changelings for centuries up until present day. The second was death, the ponies that lived around the city told many tales of those who ventured into the dead city never coming out, or running out screaming, only to curl up and wait to die - just out of reach of those who might help them.

Both Cash and Sullen Hoof could see how this could easily net them wealth beyond imagining, although Sullen Hoof seemed far more curious in the artist colonies that surrounded the city. He didn’t know which one, but Sullen Hoof figured that there’d be a colony where artists of the culinary craft once congregated. Speaker noted that such a place was bound to exist – the trick would be finding it: “If we can find a map or directory of the colonies around the city it’ll be easy – but until then let’s focus on getting into the city proper… or just out of this place”

Looking around some more for the button to activate the roof proved futile. Either the button had been plastered over, in which case the circle would have to rip the entire place apart, or it had been disabled entirely and removed.

Ultimately Cash proved far too keen on getting to Denansdor, to which end he aimed one hoof up at the ceiling, shot a claw up into it – it firing itself from his horse shoe with a rattle of the crystal chain followed, then hoisted himself up to the ceiling by willing the chain to retract. A few good blows enhanced with essence and a magic martial arts technique later and half the roof was coming down over the rest of the circle: “My bad!”

Speaker hadn’t been hurt due to his elemental immunity charms making things like ‘rocks fall’ a non-issue. Shimmer appeared to have grown a second hide of thick armor plates that was already receding again. Red had dodged the stones. Sunrise… had broken half a ton of rock over her face, and didn’t have a scratch, although she did appear help getting unpinned.

“How’d you do that?” Speaker wondered, looking at Sunrise Glow as he and Red tipped the stones away. He could see how the rest of the circle had avoided being hurt, but he hadn’t thought Sunrise capable of defending herself with anything other than words…

Sunrise wasn’t impressed: “Oh come now Speaker, I know the same protection charm you do – and Zenith caste solars are meant to be resilient to withstand the trials and tribulations of this world. I know more advanced shield charms than the simple one you can do”

Speaker made a note to learn those charms as well, in addition to the perfect balance charm, Red’s weapon summoning charm and Sullen Hoof’s jumping charms. Red joked that Speaker wouldn’t be satisfied until he knew all the solar charms around.

Shimmer began to conjure her cloud, reminding the rest of the circle that before they went to Denansdor they had a small bit of monster hunting to perform. The circle ascended through the hole Cash had knocked in the ceiling, surprising some already very shocked ponies who were up on top of the mans, apparently working as lookouts.

“None of you saw us! The roof just exploded for no apparent reason – so says the prophet of the holiest holies” Sunrise shouted, her caste mark flaring as essence spun her words into undeniable truths that the ponies on the manse roof could do nothing but accept.

As Shimmer’s cloud brought the circle out over the scavenger lord camp, making it appear as if the manse was leaking a cloud of vapor, it became obvious for the circle that the camp down beneath was still on alert.

Tiny ponies that appeared to be the size of ants from the cloud scurried around the camp with torches, Cash Charmer figuring that they were doing a headcount to check for anypony missing.

“Any clue where the monster that attacked them earlier is? I mean, it couldn’t have gotten that far” Red wondered as an open question.

The sun hadn’t dawned yet, so it was quite dark aside from the lights down in the camp, making it difficult if not impossible to spot a creature hiding in the jungle down below. Shimmer said that if she wasn’t piloting the cloud she could have gone down and tracked the thing by scent – but with the cloud that wasn’t an option.

“Circle around the camp, let’s see if we can spot it” Sullen Hoof suggested, already looking down at the thick jungle canopy around the clearing the camp was built in.

Speaker was quick to note that the jungle was too dense to reveal motion on the ground to anyone up in the air, but Sully persisted, pouring essence into his sight. On the cloud’s second pass around the camp Sully suddenly perked up and said that he’d spotted a tree that was shaking.

“Shaking?” Cash wondered, looking down at the endless jungle and only seeing a sea of green.
Sullen Hoof noted that it was a big tree, meaning that whatever causing it to shake had to be really big and heavy – yet able to climb up in trees: “Oh, like say… a tiger?”

“Would make sense if it’s a tiger attacking the camp – it would drag its kill up in a tree to avoid having to share with all the bugs at the jungle floor” Shimmer added, Speaker agreeing.

Shimmer quickly maneuvered the cloud down to the canopy, allowing Red, Sullen Hoof in his white magic chef’s coat and Cash in his dirty silks to leap onto the branches, Red’s armor swirling around her as it magically applied itself to her body. Speaker once again marveled at how they all could balance so effortlessly on such impossibly frail footing. Shimmer laughed: “I take it you haven’t learned how to perform the graceful crane stance?”

Speaker nodded, saying that it was very much on his to-learn list.

Red and Sullen Hoof both quickly disappeared under the thick foliage, which prompted a fearsome roar from underneath. The unmistakable sound of fighting ensued – the grunts, heaves, shouts, the sound of blood spraying on leaves and Red’s armor ringing out the jingle of claws on lamellar plating.

Then there was a single pained yowl, followed a few seconds later by a wet thump further down on the jungle floor. Red called the all clear.

“You go have a look, verify what it is – I need to stay here and keep the cloud going” Shimmer said, looking annoyed that she couldn’t go have a sniff of the beast herself.

Speaker tied some rope to the cloud, a weird enough accomplishment, then rappelled down to into the jungle. The sight that met him down on the jungle floor was Red in damaged armor, the claw marks and torn lamellar plates clearly showing where the monster had swiped her, but at least she wasn’t hurt. Sullen Hoof and Cash were still up in the trees, Cash quickly latching on to Speaker’s rope and beginning to climb back up to Shimmer – no reason for him to get down into the dirt and mud.

The monster had not been a tiger. To an untrained eye it might look a bit like one, it clearly being a big feline carnivore, but its paws were wrong… they were unnaturally long and it had four eyes.

Speaker quickly realized what had happened to this beast: “Wyld mutations. There’s probably a wyld pocket around here – the mutations aren’t that severe, but they probably made the thing more aggressive, prompting the attacks”

It was then the ground started shaking a little. Shimmer shouted down, asking if everypony were alright. Moments later she shouted: “There’s something BIG coming at you guys! It’s knocking over trees!”

Speaker, having seen the beast, and Cash who didn’t want to get dirty were both going up the rope to the cloud when the approaching giant monster started to stomp through the undergrowth, attracted by the noise and the irresistible smell of blood. Then the Speaker and Cash suddenly felt the rope they were pulling themselves up by coming lose.

This was quickly followed by a small pony in white robes falling through the canopy. A golden sheath of brilliant energy enveloped her as she fell silently – most ponies would usually scream during a hundred foot drop, but she didn’t say a word, merely holding her hood in place with her hooves. Sunrise Glow landed on her back against a gnarled tangle of roots, an impact that Speaker instantly recognized lethal – but while he only fell a few yards and got a nasty bruise, allowing Speaker to get up quickly and run to Sunrise’s aid then the young mare just got up and began wiping dirt off her robes.

The sound of branches creaking and leaves being brushed aside at an ever increasing pace quickly got Speaker to look upwards: Shimmer was leaping from branch to branch, silvery claws of essence protruding from her hooves allowing her to swing around like a monkey as she made her way down to the ground, meeting an angry Speaker as she landed.
“I do something wrong?” Shimmer hesitantly asked.

Speaker was beyond words for Shimmer’s recklessness and was about to shout at her to never ever drop pony from the sky like that – but then the monster approaching the circle burst through to them out of the thick foliage. It was a giant thirty foot tyrant lizard. Huge red scales covered its side and back, while leathery greenish scales covered its belly. It walked on two thick scaly legs, while its two comparably short arms appeared mostly vestigial, although both its hands and feet sported long curved claws well suited for rending flesh and pinning down prey – or possibly picking your teeth.

Tyrant lizards were known throughout creation. Outside of the central or south-east they were mythical monsters known to stalk the eastern jungles. In the east they were the kind of pony-eating monsters that mares told their foals would come and eat them if they didn’t say prayers or do their chores. While uncommon in the scavenger lands, due to pretty much every forest having been purged by various military forces and nobles over millennia to allow for more useful wild game or logging industry, then the surrounding wild jungles outside of civilized areas still had tyrant lizards stomping around.

Looking up at the monstrous lizard Speaker quickly did the one thing that normal ponies do when they see something with a large maw of six inch fangs and a mouth big enough to swallow a pony whole: He shat himself and froze in paralyzing fear.

Red was quick to summon her sabre again – but Shimmer shouted for her not to do anything: “Stop, wait – you can attack it, but I need to make the kill”

Looking somewhat confused and perplexed in the face of the giant predator barreling at them. Shimmer hastily said something about her wanting to take the form of the lizard, so she had to be the one who killed it.

“Shimmer! What are you talking about? Don’t you have to hunt it first?” Speaker shouted, him just as confused and increasingly desperate - . It was bizarre.

Shimmer quickly glanced around at the circle before turning into her half bird half pony form, this time it growing twice as large as usual – the tyrant lizard still dwarfing her, but making Shimmer twice as big as normal pony: “I’ve always wanted to hunt one of these – I’ve dreamt about it for so much that I don’t even need to hunt it anymore!”
What happened next didn’t take more than twenty seconds.

The tyrant lizard had heard prey, now it had found prey. It went for the weakest and easiest kill, which turned out to be Cash – who’d fallen from the rope just like Speaker, but from a greater height. He hadn’t broken anything, but was woozy and had a lot of nasty scrapes and surface wounds, nothing serious, but it had put the scent of pony blood in the air.

The tyrant lizard completely ignored the mutant tiger carcass – it probably didn’t even register as edible to the predator – as it lunged for Cash who was still trying to get up on his hooves.

Red leapt at the monster, her blade trailing a brilliant rain of golden light behind it as she buried it in the monster’s neck. The tyrant lizard roared and blood flowed from the wound, giving Shimmer a perfect opening to claw at its throat, but its scales were too thick. Red also appeared to have trouble pulling out the sabre. A quick whip crack from the giant monster’s tail sent Red flying into the surrounding undergrowth.

Sullen Hoof suddenly came out of nowhere, dropping from a tree branch down on the monster’s head. Standing with supernatural steadiness on rough scales, the stallion assumed a stance of burning purpose, his eyes blazing with passion and fury, as well as golden flames. He drew a slightly rusty meat cleaver from elsewhere and with the precision of a master chef attempted to slice at the giant lizard’s eyes – but despite its size its eyelids closed, covering the melon sized eyes in inch thick leathery scales that he just couldn’t slash hard enough at before they moved, which only presented Sullen Hoof with more thick scales to cut through.

Speaker, without Gift ready, didn’t see many options for him. Having wrestled control of his body back from his fear he gauged his options: with the tyrant lizard ready to goble up Cash who was busy slipping around in a mix of his own blood and mud, his fall having hurt him too much to allow quick reactions, saving his friend seemed like the only thing he could really do, besides running away – which honestly didn’t seem like that bad an idea.

Rejecting his impulse to run away, Speaker threw himself in front of Cash, barely managing to will forth the essence patterns that strengthened and informed his thousands gears wound form in time. It didn’t do much since Gift wasn’t in play, but the essence patterns toughened his skin and hooves just enough so that holding off the dagger-sized teeth of the tyrant lizard bare-hoofed wouldn’t hurt Speaker, as he desperately held his ground against the tyrant lizard who was now trying to close its giant mouth around both Speaker and Cash.

“Brilliant – hold it right there!” Shimmer shouted, running around the giant beast and into its mouth, her body half-way through another shapeshift.

Speaker struggled to hold the monster’s maw open, especially as he saw Shimmer turn into some tiny little fish the size of a mouse that slithered down the monster’s throat.

Feeling his strength fail him, Speaker gazed horrified into the maw that was about to overtake him. The worst part was that he knew from how he was reared up at the moment, holding the monster’s mouth open with both forehoofs and his right rear leg, while bracing himself against the ground with his left rear leg, that if the tyrant lizard managed to chomp down on him he’d get half his flank caught in the teeth… which would shatter his hips, probably rupture or cut open his bowels… not to mention the lower jaw of the monster cutting into his nads – ok, this wasn’t not a fun train of thought!

Speaker suddenly felt the tyrant lizard pulling away, the pressure on his legs quickly fading – making him fall over face first in the dirt – as the tyrant lizard started to twist and turn around, Sullen Hoof now appearing to have difficulties in staying up on the monsters head, despite his ‘I can stand firm on any surface’ balancing charm. The tyrant lizard then started feebly clawing at its throat, not where Red had buried her saber, but further down.

It made a pained bubbly groan – then lurched backwards for a split second before bulging grotesquely – and exploding in a meaty shower of giblets, gore, blood, sharp bits of bone, organs torn asunder and… a fourty foot long, twenty foot tall shark with an oddly familiar purple triangular pattern on its skin, as well as moonsilver tattoos, covered in blood, which appeared to be chewing on the tyrant lizard’s heart: “Tastes like chicken!”

The aftermath of the fighting mostly consisted of Shimmer sniffing out a stream for everypony to wash off in. Speaker was still angry at Shimmer for having dispelled the cloud and dropped Sunrise out of the sky, but Sunrise insisted that she’d consented to it, noting that with her advanced self-shielding charm she could render herself invulnerable for a brief moment, namely when impacting the ground: “As long as I stand firm in both belief and body, even mid-fall, and keep my composure, nothing can harm me unless I allow it”

Speaker patched up Cash’s wounds from having fallen, noting that Cash must have fallen on some sharp rocks – but finding none where the rope had hung. Returning to the remains of the tyrant lizard, Cash pointed out a patch of bamboo shoots, which were always pointy when at ground level to allow the plant to burrow up through tough layers of dirt or move aside stones to reach sunlight. Sullen Hoof backed this up, saying that in Nexus isn’t wasn’t that uncommon as a cheap torture method to tie a pony down over a fresh bamboo shoot and leave the pony there – it could pierce and grow through an adult pony’s chest in less than a week: “Nasty way to make anypony talk, but it works…”

Beyond what little harm the circle had suffered, Red seemed to have lost the most: Her sabre had been flung far and wide by the explosion. It wasn’t for any sentimental value, but more the fact that Red felt naked without her weapon. Speaker promised that he’d make her one that’d make even war gods envious.

Shimmer, feeling very much invigorated from the event, began shaping up a new cloud while Cash tried to talk Cash into somehow recovering the tyrant lizard’s skull: “Come on, it’d probably sell for a fortune in Nexus!”

Speaker, the only of the ponies present with a weapon strong enough to even make a dent in the tough hide of the dead monster, its head and neck having been blown off in one whole piece, declined, reminding Cash that they had what was basically an untouched first age city, last visited by mortal ponies at the fall of the shogunate, waiting for them.

The circle got up on Shimmer’s cloud and was racing north high above the endless jungles in no time at all, with everypony else except Shimmer sleeping until noon. Around sundown Shimmer’s cloud reached the scavenger town known as The Node. It was about ten miles south of Denansdor, set up just outside the ‘dead zone’, along with two other small towns that lived off the stupid, the brave or the desperate ponies who dared venture into the madness.

It was a strange sight when viewing The Node from up above. The tin mine to the east of the town that gave the place its name was a big bare spot of dirt in the otherwise endless jungle. Shimmer set the cloud down out of sight of the town. Cash argued that she should just have put them down in the middle of town: “It’s not like there’ll be an immaculate shrine in a place like thi- damnit”

From the edge of town one could see a bright white stone shrine with draconic decorations, denoting that it was dedicated to the immaculate dragon of earth, Pasiap.

“I’ve seen immaculates convert entire villages in days after arriving – unicorn mind-control charms take a little time, but mortal ponies are powerless against them, especially if they’re always tired from work. You have no idea how much work a single diehard immaculate monk can ruin in just a week” Shimmer pointed out, sounding very much like she’d had this happen to her before.

“I’ll bet you all I could undo that in an hour – they’ll be tearing the shrine down by sundown” Cash said with a sly grin.
Shimmer gave Cash a look as if to dare him to try it. Sunrise Glow cleared her throat: “As the actual priest amongst us – I consider it my duty and burden to de-program these ponies and show them the light of Celestia”

“Well actually, the no moon caste of the lunars are the priests of Luna by divine right – I don’t use it often, but it happens” Shimmer noted. Speaker didn’t pick up on it, but both Sunrise and Cash noted that Shimmer very much sounded as if she didn’t want to talk about this.

Speaker’s inability to pick up on subtle social cues striking again, combined with his memories of the first age, bid him point out a strange ‘flaw’ in Shimmer’s statement: “Hold on, the Waxing Moon caste are the lunar priests – not the no moons”
Shimmer stepped back from the bushes they were standing behind, the faint shouts of joy or frustration of foals playing around from the town coming closer. A leather ball flew overhead, followed by more shouting.

“The unicorns hounded us – all the lunars that survived the usurpation hid in the wyld for centuries. Anyone that had died at first and reincarnated in creation were killed by wyld hunts. We hid, tried to rescue any newly exalted lunar we could get our hooves on, but hiding in the wyld for centuries did… something… to our exaltations. They destabilized. The stories from the elders who lived through this are horrible. Their castes would literally change according to the phases of the moon. It took our best sorcerers over a century to come up with the moonsilver tattoos to stabilize and lock down our castes” Shimmer explained.

Speaker was horrified to hear this. Sunrise Glow was intriqued. Shimmer explained that when a lunar exalts they become what they call casteless, their caste mark and anima shifting according to the phases of the moon. That much had always been normal, but usually a lunar would grow into one of the castes, depending on their personality and behavior: “…but what happened after the usurpation was that lunars starting reverting to casteless, and never stabilizing. Today they never do, unless you cover your body in moonsilver tattoos, like mine, to nail down your true form and caste. Lunar elders hold trials to see what caste you should be locked into”

“I can’t imagine how horrible that would be” Speaker said, giving Shimmer a big hug.

As the two hugged a group of foals came running up behind the bush. At first they seemed surprised, then they began shouting “Strangers! Strangers!” and running back to the town.

The confused and frightened look on Speaker’s face said it all: Were the foals going to gather a mob to run them out of town? Were the- why was everypony else smiling and looking at the village?

The rest of the circle gazed calmy as the town assembled a welcome party – stallions and mares in plain clothes came out of their houses, holding knick-knack and other wares obviously meant to be sold to would-be explorers and scavengers venturing into the dead zone… and judging from the variation in quality, deterioration, colors and markings then a lot of the gear was from previous explorers and scavenger ponies who had ventured into the dead zone.

The towns-ponies came up to the circle and sure enough, the sales pitches began. Speaker instantly recognized a lot of the equipment as useless: Trinkets and baubles, small wooden effigies painted in bright colors and other knick-knack now being sold as ‘mystic wards’, ‘blessed amulets’ and ‘divine fetishes’ all supposedly protecting their owners and wearers from harm. All of it obviously meant to suck as much money out of anypony passing through town.

With but a single gesture and a stern “Begone. You should tend to your homes and families, not leech of travelers!” Sunrise somehow had them all returning to their homes. Even Cash was impressed how she pulled that off with none of the townsponies objecting.

“Ok, so what now? Why not just put the bracelets on and head in?” Red wondered, looking anxious due to the loss of her saber. To her chagrin none of the townsponies had tried to sell them weapons.

Shimmer was very clear on what to do. She wanted at least two or three days to gather her strength: “I’ve been doing a lot of sorcery the last two days… and not very much sleeping - if you lot want to fly a cloud both in AND out of Denansdor, I need to rest”
Cash looked as if he was about to get angry again – but looking around at the town he began nodding, seemingly accepting that even exalted ponies had to rest after a couple of days of potentially deadly adventures.

The circle settled into a rickety tavern, a leaky building like everything else in the town: Bamboo strips woven together to make square wall sections that looked like wicker, tied together to form houses, and roofed with large palm-leaves. It was leaky, drafty, and the smell of sour mold was everywhere.

“Just like roughing it with the Arrow Root’s Scale, good times” Speaker noted, reminiscing of back when he had been in the 7th Legion of Lookshy, scale being the common term for a unit of twenty-five ponies-at-arms.

The rest and relaxation Shimmer wanted apparently meant turning into a bird and sitting perched on treetops. This left Speaker down on the ground looking for something to pass the time. Looking at Sunrise Glow getting into shouting matches with the local immaculate monks at the immaculate shrine was more than enough entertainment to begin with.

The local immaculate monks didn’t include any actual unicorns, although the priest in charge did claim to be a dragonblooded pony who had simply not ‘received the dragon’s blessing’ yet. Sunrise, displaying her own blessing, was of course accused of being nasty evil demonic anathema, but the locals didn’t seem willing to form into the prerequisite armed mob needed for an impromptu wyld hunt. It was hilarious to see the monk try to intimidate the locals with threats of incarnating as lower beings in their next lives, while the locals started to flock around Sunrise as she spoke of Celestia’s glories. That Sullen Hoof was experimenting with local water fowl and cooking up things that smelled wonderful and tasted even better, to hand out at Sunrise’s sermons, didn’t hurt either.

Speaker figured that he could do some good as well. Sure enough, with the tin mine – a guild operation – there were plenty of old ponies, crippled by decades of backbreaking work, their teeth ruined by a lifetime of holding pickaxes to break out tine ore, or local hunters injured by wild animals. Speaker helped every pony that wanted help, and rumor quickly spread that there was a healer in town. Sunrise Glow wasn’t slow to capitalize on Speaker’s medical services, holding her sermons outside whatever hut Speaker would be visiting to fix a broken leg or restore someone’s teeth. Speaker couldn’t object to Sunrise doing so: It helped keep the few diehard immaculate supporters left in town away from him while he worked. Cash chose to let Sunrise do her thing largely alone, focusing more on resting to allow his wounds to heal while enjoying the evening show:

By sundown the immaculate shrine had been torn down. By sunrise the shrine had been rebuilt as one dedicated to Celestia.

Beyond undoing three dozen ponies’ crippling conditions, Speaker found himself approached by Sullen Hoof on the morning of their third day of ‘rest’. Sullen Hoof had a very specific request.

“I want to learn how to read and write” Sullen Hoof said dryly, while tossing veggies and meat from local wildlife around in a big stir-fry wok over a large open fire.

Sullen Hoof had apparently been working up his courage to ask for this, his honor and pride having stood in the way – plus he didn’t want to ask Speaker anywhere near Cash. Speaker congratulated Sullen Hoof on letting reason stand before pride, then told Sullen Hood to meet him after dinner.

Sullen Hoof found Speaker a while later, Speaker trying to climb a tree. It was a largely futile effort, but Sullen Hoof offered Speaker a deal: Writing lessons in exchange for learning the essence focusing techniques needed for the graceful crane stance. Speaker readily accepted and tapped Sully on the forehead with his hoof.

Looking up at the hoof on his forehead, Sullen Hoof was about to ask – but then Speaker channeled a torrent of essence and wisdom, letters and words, motions and movement patterns of quills and brushes into Sullen Hoof’s mind. Sullen Hoof fell back on his flanks, sitting still with a dumbfounded look on his face, his mouth agape.

Speaker found Sullen Hoof sitting on the same spot the next morning, drooling. A little poking ‘woke’ Sullen Hoof up. Getting up, Sully dizzily staggered around for a moment, getting his bearings. Speaker informed Sullen Hoof that he would need to wait a week before his mind had fully internalized what it had been given.
Speaker’s training began after breakfast.

Two days later the circle gathered outside south of The Node, the villagers this time not looking upon them with hungry eyes for what they might loot off them – but instead they were begging the circle not to enter the dead zone.

“They’re talking as if it’s a shadowland” Speaker mused, gazing into the jungle wilderness. Sunrise noted that the locals didn’t know any ponies who ventured towards Denansdor that didn’t die… and the few who came back weren’t really ponies anymore.

Looking understandably worried, Cash inquired into this ‘not being a pony anymore’.

“They say that if you don’t just come run out screaming, or curl up and die, you go mad. The immaculate monks here would usually catch them and put them out of their misery…” Sunrise elaborated. She also noted that she’d told the townsponies to keep doing so, especially since the majority of the mad ponies that came out of the dead zone were often either ravenous or raving and trying to eat, kill or rape anything that moved – or sometimes a combination of all three. Speaker noted that this explained a few of the injuries he’d treated in the town, as some looked like pony bite marks.

“I’ve instructed some of the town elders, initiated them as acolytes. They can sanctify the graves of the mad ponies, to put their souls to rest. Last thing this town needs is hauntings by mad ghosts” Sunrise Glow noted. She did not sound particularly pleased.