The Fantasian airship followed the Mythonian one closely, and in the pilot's steel-grey steering room which didn't have much inside, everyone had gathered. Lance multitasked. He operated a keyboard-and-steering-wheel-screen combination similar in build to that of the Valkyrie, simultaneously checking a corner on the lower-left of the built-in screen and monitoring the airship's vitals.

Behind him, circling a bolted-down table while playing a game of cards, Armin and Alexander bickered with Sarah and Fenrir about this and that. "Hrm..." Fenrir hummed, keeping his gaze not on the cards in his hand, but on the gryphon directly across from him.

"What's he going hard-faced over?" Sarah piped up, turning to the dark-coated gryphon with a perplexed twinkle gleaming in her eyes.

"You're asking the wrong one," Alexander retorted, shaking his head.

"Don't look at me," Armin interjected as the hippogryph turned her attention to him. He glanced at the cards in his right hoof and added, "Anyone have a two?"

Three consecutive 'no's answered the changeling in tandem, and he sighed before reaching over to a deck of cards in the middle and plucking one off of the top with his left hoof.

"Now, before I ask who has what, I must ask you something else, Lyregale," the gryphon began in an impassive tone. The green-maned hippogryph made an inquisitive purr as she turned to him, a brow quirked as her throat softly rumbled. "Maria told me this morning about some kind of Godcat-awful noise that she heard yesterday, and that it came from a harp. Since you're the only one on this airship with such an instrument, care to tell me what the young filly had the misfortune of listening to?"

Sarah flinched and donned a nervous grin. "Er, the rainbow-maned Mythonian—" she started, but the gryphon cut her off with a huff.

"You mean Miss Rainbow Dash?" Alexander asked, and at this, the mare fervently nodded. "Alright, then, please continue."

"Well, she... dared me to play a decent composition on the harp, after I snapped one of her friends out of some kind of trance before she could do who-knows-what with a magic surge. The harp's enchanted, and... let's just say it didn't like my attempt at said decent composition," Sarah summarized, grimacing at the memory.

"She attempted a harmonious piece, yet had instead attained a dissonant serenade of sorts," Fenrir elaborated, ears folding back as if he were preparing to undergo another phono-receptor-injuring racket. "The harp itself... its enchantments, whatever they are, only amplified my headache tenfold. One of the Mythonians accused the thing, instrument and weapon alike, as having been possessed. I wouldn't doubt it if that were the case, truth be told."

Alexander's brows shot up. "Oh goodness, that sounds worrying," he remarked.

"Just try listening to one of her compositions," Fenrir scoffed. "If the notes are off-key and played frantically, the songs sound relatively half-decent. If said notes were on-key and played methodically... the strings themselves screech like they are protesting."

"That's new: a bard who cannot play a single composition to save her own life. With that fancy weapon she has, I'd reckon she'd be better off as a knight or something," Armin remarked, a wry smirk spreading on his fanged maw.

"Either that, or a joust master," Fenrir conceded with a nod.

"Alright, do stop poking fun at the green-maned hippogryph. Does anyone have a jack?" Alexander spoke. A small smile spread on his beak as the other three plucked a card from their hands and gave him a triad of jacks. "Any sevens?" he asked, drawing a card from the deck when the others shook their heads.

"I'm hardly a bard, changeling. I can't even sing, let alone write a good poem," Sarah scoffed, sending Armin a glare full of daggers, her voice dripping with venom as she spoke. "Anyone have... eh, a three?" She drew a card when the others shook their heads, and the aforementioned changeling's smirk widened.

"Watch your tongue. I could easily end you," Armin retorted, his horn starting to flicker with emerald flames.

"And I could end you just the same," Sarah replied, one of her talons balling up into a fist.

"Enough, both of you," Fenrir interjected with a huff. "Would anyone happen to posses an ace?" And with that, the card game dragged on and on. It wasn't until the deck nearly ran out of cards before anyone spoke up again.

"So, little hippogryph," Armin began, sneering.

"What now?" Sarah groaned, rolling her eyes.

Armin began smirking again, propping up a foreleg and resting his chin upon his hole-riddled fetlock, insectoid eyes glinting with some kind of carnal joy. "If you can't play your harxe, why don't you peddle your little tail back to the kitchen?" he asked, snickering as the gryph stood up on her back legs, slamming her empty claw upon the wood with a wordless snarl. She spread her wings wide, as if about to lunge, but the sound of the general speaking up halted her before she got the chance to make another move.

"Matt," Lance huffed from the steering wheel. "Come over here and control the airship for a minute or two..." he trailed off, his voice laced in anger. Instantly, the half-Clydesdale obliged and gripped the steering wheel with his magic as the pegasus relinquished his hold on the thing. Said pegasus then stood on his back legs and walked upright all the way to the table, towering over Armin as the snide changeling found himself with a shadow overhead. He turned around, only to flinch as he fell beneath a scrutinizing glare of crimson.

And immediately after that, said changeling found himself getting a metal-covered hoof right across the face that hit him with enough force to send his body sprawling onto the floor sideways. "Don't you ever let me hear you make such a horrid remark again," Lance hissed coldly.

"Y-yessir," Armin weakly groaned before spitting up some green liquid in addition to a couple of teeth.

Lance turned to Alexander and spoke up again, still standing upright, "Alexander, could you cap his horn for a few days?"

"I'll have to retrieve a magic inhibitor and maybe dig through the cloth boxes to find one, but that should only take a few minutes. Consider it done." The gryphon nodded and, after setting his cards down onto the table, got up and walked out of the control room.

Sarah sat back down and gathered the cards on the table, while Fenrir handed her what was left of his and Armin's respective hands. She assembled the deck and piped up just as Lance made to turn around, "Do you always reprimand him like this?"

Lance glanced over his shoulder and nodded. "I don't want him stepping a hoof an inch out of line. One, your sister's one of my advisors, and any disrespect towards her relatives is instant disrespect to her and, by extension, to me. Two, it's imperative he keeps his magic and mouth in line, especially since I've been made aware that we're probably going to be under whatever scrutiny the leader of this 'Equestria' has," he answered. "I've made a bad impression with said leader's friends; I'd rather not fuck up my chances any more than I might already have."

Sarah quirked a brow. "Wait, you made a bad impression on the Mythonians?" she inquired.

"More than that: they flipped when they saw my ears, accused me of torturing the wraith we have with us, glared at Armin like they wanted his head on a pike, and then called us barbarians after a small battalion of wraith unicorns showed up and basically went, 'Hey, kill us, please!' Oh, and Rainbow Dash thinks we should eat an all-green diet, something I can't do," Lance replied with a huff and a face starting to turn verdant around the bridge of his muzzle.

"How do you do that?" a young voice piped up, and Lance directed his gaze downward to see Maria in front of his rear hooves. She looked at him with a glint in her eyes, and a head tilted slightly to one side.

"I walk upright very carefully," Lance answered before walking around the filly and reverting to all fours in one fluid motion. "It comes to me as naturally as a swivel of my ear."

"What's a swivel?" Maria asked, garnering a chuckle from the pegasus stallion.

"It's where your ear or your leg turns," he answered, turning to her and gently patting her head with a metal-covered hoof.

"She's going to be a handful," Fenrir muttered under his breath, looking at Sarah and gesturing to the filly at the same time. The green-maned hippogryph nodded in agreement, glancing at the foal with a soft, if exasperated, smile.

"Matt!" Natalie cried from the other end of the room, inadvertently causing said stallion to flinch behind the steering wheel. "Did you give Katie shrooms, and if so, how the fuck did you manage that? She's sitting here mumbling something about you dying your coat bright pink and prancing on seven-colored strips in the sky!"

Sarah clenched her claw into a fist, slammed it on the table, and threw her head back to howl with laughter all at once. Fenrir turned to the furthest corner, quickly spotting a cream-colored mare with narrowed eyes and a dazed wraith muttering inaudibly to herself. He shook his head and rubbed his temples as he sniffed the air and found a new smell intermingling with the stench of halted necrosis.

"Matt, once this ship lands on Mythonian soil, you got some explaining to do," Lance stated, smirking as the half-Clydesdale groaned and slumped behind the wheel.

"I'm gonna grab your nutsack, rip it off with my stubby horn, and then replace your eyes with your balls!" Katie exclaimed in a warbling, dazed tone of voice before a pale tongue lolled out of her mouth and extended until the tip reached the floor. She went on, biting her tongue as she spoke, "Anf fen, I fill schofth a hairbwusth uf your asf!"

"How did a wraith get high, exactly?" Lance asked, turning to Natalie with a snicker.

Natalie threw her forelegs in the air and waved them frantically as she spoke, "You tell me! I ain't got a fucking clue!"

Katie, whose tongue still hung out of her mouth, looked around the room for a moment or so before she caught sight of Anna inching her way to the table. "Ey fere, sesthy," she began, now slurring her words, "cah I polith your fluth?"

At that, Anna froze, her eyes going wide and jaw soundlessly opening. She trembled in place, staring straight ahead at the table, her visage turning a dark shade of azure as the wraith's words sank in. A few seconds later, sweat dribbled down her body like liquid bullets, forming a small puddle wide enough that it could've easily been mistaken for an excess of rainwater after a terrible storm.

Katie lurched towards the archer with a stumbling gait, almost tripping over her own hooves as she approached the frozen, sweat-covered mare. The stump of her horn pointed this way and that as the head it had been attached to swayed about, akin to a drunkard failing to pin the tail on the donkey correctly. Her tongue retracted in her mouth, and Katie spoke clearly once more, "I wish I had a nice ass like that... can I stick my hoof under your tail?"

Only then did the petrified mare move; she levitated herself and careened around the table and found herself latching onto Lance. "She's scaring me," she mumbled, leaning closer to the pegasus, which forced him to lean back a bit.

At that moment, Alexander came into the room—just in time to see the dazed wraith slip on the puddle of sweat, spin into the air for a few seconds, and land with her back to the floor. "Water spells are cheap," she groaned, feebly thrashing all four of her legs in the air as she struggled to get up.

"And now she's a turtle," Natalie sighed, her hoof connecting with her face and sliding down the bridge of her muzzle. She shook her head and turned to the gryphon. "Katie's stoned off her gourd, and someone on this ship may have assisted her to let her get into that state," she explained. "My money's on Matt."

"I'm impressed the dead changeling amongst us somehow got drugged," Alexander groaned, rolling his eyes after he turned his attention back to Katie and noticed that she had still failed to stop her flailing upon the floor.

"She tried to do reverse-necrophilia on Anna," Lance called from the other side of the room. "Tie the wraith up until the high spell passes; I do not want her molesting anybody, as that would be very weird and not to mention gross."

Alexander's eyes widened. "R-reverse-necrophilia?" he asked, his voice but a high-pitched squawk.

Lance nodded, and turned to Anna. "Can you let go of me now? I need to take the steering wheel back from Matt, if you please," he groaned. The mare nodded and released her hold on him, quickly using a spell to summon a towel and patting him down with it. She did this to dry him of the sweat she inadvertently gave unto him when she first clung to his form. He nodded nodded once the archer finished cleaning him and began trotting to the steering wheel, shoving Matt aside as soon as he reached the wheel and panel.

The bulky unicorn stumbled no more than three hooves back. As soon as he stopped himself from going backwards any further, a blue-tinted aura grabbed him and very slowly dragged him to Natalie.

"How did you get the wraith to start tripping balls! Aren't dead mares unable to ingest drugs, much less absorb them into probably-non-existent bloodstreams and most-definitely decayed organs?" Natalie shrieked, horn glowing with the same blue aura. Sweat began beading her brow as the half-Clydesdale kept trying to firmly plant his hooves in the floor. This went in tandem with grabbing himself using his magic and making many attempts to tug his entire body away from her.

"It wasn't me, Natz!" Matt replied, his hooves dragging back and forth along the floor as he struggled to keep himself from going any closer to the mare who was magically accosting him.

Sarah and Fenrir watched the ongoing tug-of-war that went on for a few moments, exchanging but one glance as the unicorns reached a point where, no matter how hard one tried, the other simply could not be moved against his will. "So... who do you think is going to give out first?" the former asked.

"The red-maned unicorn is struggling; she's glistening in sweat and her horn is giving off sparks. I believe she'll cease soon," Fenrir replied, shaking his head. "I hope they do not behave this childishly when we reach Mythos."

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

"What's that?" Maria cried, jumping up and down in an attempt to see what the screen had shown. Said screen detailed a vast continent, one stretching north, west and south, and another eastern landmass whose edge just barely became visible as clouds swept over it. The edge of this second continent had been separated from the edge of the first by an ocean. In the center of the huge continent, a tall mountain jutted up, like a hoof reaching for the heavens.

"I..." Lance paused upon seeing the Mythonian airship pick up momentum, speeding faster and faster towards the larger of the two land masses. "I don't have the foggiest clue," he answered. A vibration shook the ship as it continued to follow the first, and then another tremor came after that. "Guys, you might wanna head into the lounge! We're about to reach terminal velocity!" he barked as the ship once more rumbled.

Everyone filed out of the room in a frenzy, except for Maria, who stopped jumping and began clinging to the pilot. As soon as Lance heard the door click shut, another tremor forced him to land face-first in the crook of the steering wheel, giving him a bloody nose. The gravity shifted, and he could not lift his head as the Fantasian ship descended onto Mythos, hounding the first ship as the foreign atmosphere of the sister planet felt as if it grew heavier and heavier.

Another rumble reverberated throughout the ship, and he could hear the others raising a unified fuss as the ship tilted sharply downward at a 45-degree angle, gritting his teeth as gravity increased its pressure tenfold. Maria clambered onto his back, digging her tiny claws into his withers, adding another ounce of pressure that made it hellishly difficult to control the airship.

The continent came closer, and closer, and a panicking Lance saw the Mythonian ship swerve violently, jutting up at an angle before it straightened itself out. His eyes began burning with a flame, and adrenaline coursed through his veins as the ship once more tilted, the figurehead pointing straight down at some hapless structure that had been too far away to properly identify. Maria began screeching in his ear, giving him both a headache and another rush of blood going through his front hooves.

Releasing his face from the wheel and letting off a cry of sheer determination, he jerked the wheel back, causing the ship to swerve with enough force to send him all the way past the table. Maria shifted and let go, rolling away on her side with a pained yelp. Lance staggered to his hooves, his muscles having gone numb from the pressure he had felt earlier. Forcing himself to stumble to the wheel, his eyes widened at what the screen had shown him.

"Oh fuck me! I am not going to crash the Scylla into the mountain!" he cried, flinging his hooves onto the wheel and jerking it violently to the side, scraping the wings on the right side of the ship as it veered away from the mountain. For a few moments, the ship circled in the sky above some unknown expanse, slowing down all the while. Once it had slowed down considerably, and feeling in all of his muscles returned, Lance hesitantly glanced at the corner showing the ship's vitals, which had three separate bars all glowing bright green.

"It's gonna need refueling on the magic front, and two wings are slightly damaged," he groaned, frowning. Lance smiled, though, before adding, "At least Matt, Anna, and Natz don't have to power this thing 24/7. Hooray for engines including magical reservoirs."

Maria rose onto her hooves and talons before shuffling to the pegasus. "I don't like flying ships," she complained with a sniffle.

Lance laughed, yet the sound held very little mirth in its tone. "I understand why you say that," he replied. "At least we won't have to do this again for a while yet." He turned to the filly and asked, "Say, how are you holding up?"

"I hurt everywhere, and I think my wings popped," Maria replied in a weak voice, frowning.

Lance sighed. "We'll get your wings checked once we land," he mumbled. He drove the ship for another few moments, sitting in silence as he observed what Mythos had to offer. Forests, dense and mighty, stood proudly to one side and spanned across much of the continent, with a few mountain ranges here and there in the distance. To the other side, cities grew and expanded, but there had still been plenty more forests to dot the land with still more mountains.

And then there was the big mountain range the Fantasian ship almost crashed into. On one side of the rock face, a grand city had been built, further accentuated by a waterfall that seemed to go all the way down to the foot of the towering stone behemoth. The rush of water stopped, turning into a tranquil pool on the outskirts of a small town. In the sky, higher than the ship's current altitude, a mass of clouds floated idly by, with several small shapes flocking in and out of it. It oozed what looked to be like liquid rainbows that fell from the mass in much the same way as the waterfall on the mountain.

"Hot damn," Lance stated, inhaling deeply. "This entire continent... it's a lot better than running circles in a winter wonderland for weeks on end."

"I wanna see!" Maria chirped, once more jumping about. She caught sight of the cloud mass with the seemingly-concentrated rainbows dripping from it, and her eyes glittered with awe. "Pretty!"

"After seeing the colors white and grey for so long, I have to agree. The others are missing out," Lance replied, nodding with a small smile. A thought occurred to him, and his smile widened as he turned to the hippogryph filly. "Hell, now that I think about it, I don't see any ectoplasms around here. You think Sarah could stretch her wings and fly higher?"

"I dunno," Maria answered as she shrugged.

"Huh. Remind me to ask Rainbow Dash about the clouds in the sky that make prismatic waterfalls one of these days," Lance sighed, his smile fading a bit. "Alright Maria, hang tight. I'm gonna see if I can find a place to land this thing at." The filly nodded and clung to his back again, and the ship ceased its circling to lazily glide across the sky. Turning the ship towards the mountain with the city set into its face, the pegasus spotted the Mythonian airship not too far away, parked in the city, and caught sight of what looked like a large boarding dock further down the mountainside.

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

"So, why didn't you land where the Mythonian ship landed?" Matt asked Lance. A few moments passed, and the latter looked around the small room he and his subordinate stood in. It was a waiting lounge with few windows, couches bolted down between the windows, and to one side a nearly-empty wooden crate stood next to a staircase going down. To the other side, the gangplank had been lowered, leading to the outside. Aside from this, there hadn't been much else in the room.

"I circled the mountain once and looked real close. There's a city where the Leviathan landed, packed chock full of ponies. I swear, some of them had armor on. Something tells me we're about to enter a potential wasp’s nest, so I figured we'd better tread carefully. It's a good thing all we brought with us, aside from weaponry, are cloaks and masks," Lance sighed. "Speaking of, did you put my gunblade and ammunition pouch inside of your magical cargo crate, and are Armin and Katie sufficiently covered?"

"Yes, and yes," Matt replied, nodding. "You might wanna take off your uniform and get a cloak too. If we're about to head into a wasp nest, then we're gonna have to look as inconspicuous as possible. Anna has also taken a hold of Sarah's harxe, though she had to detangle the halberd from the harp to do so. Said something about making it easier to carry if it's in two separate pieces."

Lance nodded and removed his horseshoes before taking off his coat. As he slid off the shirt with the vest, he sighed, "Does Maria also have a cloak on?"

"Just about everyone does, except you and I. Good thing for you, there are four left. We can use two just to wrap your wings and keep convincing Dash and her friends that your wings are fucked up at this time," Matt answered, nodding again. A small smile crept on his lips as his horn glowed the moment the pegasus had fully shaken off his clothes. The uniform and shoes vanished in a golden light, and two brown sheet-like cloths were lifted from the open crate. They floated to Lance, and wasted no time in wrapping around his midsection, effectively concealing his wings and simultaneously holding them down.

A third emerged after that, wrapping loosely around Lance's neck and draping down his back, covering everything behind his front hooves. A hood slipped over his head, hiding his torn ears, yet keeping his visage out in the open. Matt pried out another cloak from the crate and draped it over his frame, adjusting it with his magic to let it rest low on his neck. His hood remained off of his head, enabling his blond mane to drape itself loosely on his withers and past his shoulders.

The two filed out of the airship and onto the boarding dock, where their companions awaited them, all draped with cloaks. Armin and Katie also had extra cloth on their legs, and white porcelain masks completely covering their faces. The changelings' hoods concealed much of their masked visages, including the eyes and the horns. Maria also had a cloak on, with a scarf wrapped around her neck, the bundle tied very neatly to further hold her garment in place.

"You two finished?" Natalie asked as the two stallions rushed up to meet with the rest of the group.

"Just about," Matt said, grinning. "What, you want to head into the maybe-it's-a-trap-city immediately?"

"The sooner we get it over with, the better," Sarah piped up, sitting on her rump and crossing her talons. Her wings shifted under her cloak as she added, "Let's just hope nobody grabs our garbs just to try to assess what we are."

"Has anyone seen NoLegs? I don't think he—" Matt began, only to stop speaking as Natalie's horn started shimmering a soft blue. In a flash of glittering light, the legless cat had appeared, mewing as he hopped onto her back. "—nevermind," he sighed, smiling at the cat.

"Alright, let's just follow that path there. Keep close, and stay away from the edge of the cliff," Lance commanded, moving past the group to trot ahead of them. "And someone hide NoLegs's armor and dagger. Last thing we need is Mythonian ponies asking us why the hell a cat is armed."

Maria clambered onto Alexander's back. "Does the mountain have nice ponies on it?" she asked, eyes glinting inquisitively.

Lance turned to the foal as everyone caught up to him and donned a frown. "Maybe, but I wouldn't risk it. Don't talk to any pony or gryphon or whatever else is in that city unless it's us, alright? We really don't want a... a bad pony to catch us blindsided and get their grubby hooves on you," he replied.

"Okay," Maria answered and nodded. Lance shifted one of his hooves and patted her on the head whilst walking on the other three.

Fenrir took to walking on all fours, eyeing what surrounded the mountain he walked upon. "I wonder if there are other diamond dogs here in Mythos, like me," he murmured to himself, ears perking at a gust of wind as it blew past. He drew a heavy sigh, keeping silent most of the trip. The diamond dog stopped at one point for a moment, finding a poster tacked to a small wooden pole in front of the rock. It depicted a mare who lacked wings and a horn, with a gold-colored mane and pale grey coat with sea-green eyes. On the parchment, the words 'Missing: Silk Fabric, was last seen at Canterlot' were printed out in big letters.

He stared at the poster for a minute before turning back to the path ahead and bounding onward to catch up, slowing to a trot as he found everyone else in the group, who started chatting amiably about what the city they were heading towards had in store for them.

"It's huge, isn't it?" Sarah asked, a frown on her face.

"Looked it, yes. Might've even had a castle as part of the structure somewhere, but I couldn't tell since towers were pretty much rampant throughout," Lance replied, keeping his gaze fixed on the path ahead. "And for some reason, the architecture was loaded with stars, suns, and moons, and it's all gold and ivory and purple. Now that I dwell on it, since the Mythonian airship sported the same colors, we might be approaching this continent's capital city."

"Hey, what the hell is that up there?" Natalie interjected, her inquiry causing the group to halt. They turned to her, noticing her hoof pointing at something, and followed said hoof to lay eyes upon the cloud mass with the liquid rainbows. When she began squinting her eyes to get a better look, Anna noted several things amidst the converged bits of white.

"It... looks to be a cloud city of some kind. I think I can make out houses from here," Anna answered, a brow raising at the anomaly. "Now that I think about it... one of Rainbow's friends mentioned something about a Cloudsdale and pegasi," she added, eyes glinting for a second before widening. "Wait, how did they make clouds into houses to begin with, and how in hell do they make rainbows?"

"Don't know, don't care at the moment, let's hit the road," Lance snapped, his tone set in anger. With that, the group went on the move again, going up and up the winding mountain trail until they spotted the city, noticing that gates barred their path. The gates were great golden things, standing tall and proud, and behind it an entire array of towers jutted out, obscuring much of what lay within the walls. The waterfall passed the gate in a small river, which a drawbridge had been lowered over so ponies could enter and leave as they so well pleased.

Stationed in front of the drawbridge stood a couple of armored unicorns, one sporting coverings of iron and the other bearing gold plates on his frame. The iron-armored one's horn briefly glowed as the group approached them in a slow gait. Before any of the Fantasians could speak, the armored pony said, "I have just caught telepathic wind that Princess Celestia is to be expecting a few visitors."

The gold-plated one spoke up, his horn also glowing for a moment, "And I have a message from Celestia's pupil to keep watch for a group that includes a pony with torn ears, a gryphon with dark feathers, a diamond dog, and a hippogryph mare." As soon as he finished speaking, Lance pulled back his hood, revealing his ears to the armored duo. Sarah stepped forward and unveiled her talons to them in a non-threatening manner, keeping the claws low out of respect. Alexander and Fenrir stepped up as well, gazing at the guards impassively as they stared back.

A few more armored ponies, consisting of more unicorns in addition to some pegasi and earth ponies, trotted out from behind the city gates onto the bridge towards them. A particular white one in purple armor lead the way, eyes as blue as ice surveying the lot. "Are you the Fantasians my si—Twilight Sparkle has told me about?" he asked in an impassive, commanding tone.

The group exchanged glances amongst themselves before Natalie turned back to the purple-garbed pony and spoke up, "Yes, we are. May I ask what's with you and the other armored ponies?" She caught a glint in the white unicorn's eyes and she hurriedly added, "Nothing's wrong or anything, it's just that we didn't expect this kind of welcome."

The white armored unicorn nodded. "About that, we're to provide you something of an escort service. I heard you bunch are... dangerous when provoked, and I'd rather you be cooperative for everypony's safety," he answered. "We're to stay together until you meet with Princess Celestia in the flesh. The formation will be such: with me and my fellow Royal Guards forming two lines outside, and you filing in single file between those lines. Is that understood?"

Once more, the group exchanged another series of looks with each other. Then, Matt stepped forward. "On one condition: we stay cloaked as we are now. Me and my group don't want the extra attention, especially if two lines of guards flank us on either side," he replied in a level tone.

"And why is that?" one of the armored pegasi asked from the back, his voice barely a shout.

"I really don't want to do this, but... Katie, come here and take off your mask for a sec," Matt ordered, turning to the wraith who trotted up to the guards. The dead mare shook her hood off before sitting down and raising her front hooves up, prying off the mask and letting her azure orbs glow. The guards stared at her for a moment, some flinching and others with their eyes widening.

The purple-garbed unicorn didn't flinch in the slightest, but his eyes betrayed a spark of some kind of emotion. "Please put that back on," he said coolly. The wraith did as she was asked, donning the mask and then tugging up the hood, the orbs in her black abysses ceasing to glow once her face had been shielded again. "I understand fully your reason for the cloaks. Would anypony else in your group have sustained such... injuries?" he asked.

"My wings are broken, and bad enough they can't be exposed to the elements until my routine preening. We also have a hippogryph filly with us, incapable of flight for the time being," Lance answered, his visage set with an expressionless look.

"Understood. Guards! Flank the visitors. We must make haste!" the blue-eyed guard shouted in the tone of a drill sergeant, and at once, the rest of the troop formed two lines on either side of the Fantasian lot.