As the sun set, and the mastership began to slow ever so slightly, Twilight and Shining chatted in one of the guest rooms, Spike hovering to the side with NoLegs next to him. The conversation went to a lot of things, from the developments of the former Greenwood to what little Luna had been able to relay on her end.

"Nightmares…" Shining said after taking a deep breath, letting the word hang in the air. "That's what we might be dealing with here."

"Discounting the undead, the trees, the timberdrakes, the golems, the slimes, the mutated snails, the nutjobs…" Spike rattled off with fingers spread on one hand and the other gauging the numbers as he went down his list, garnering an incredulous look from Shining before those white-furred shoulders slumped. Spike looked at Shining evenly, with a flat expression on his scaly face as he kept both hands raised. "What?" he asked challengingly, raising his brow ever so slightly as if daring Shining to counter him.

Twilight glanced between brother and assistant, holding her tongue for a moment. Everything she'd seen thus far on Fantasia slapped her upside the head full force, but she expressed little more than a wince at its passing. Some part of her was horrified that she was starting to get used to the Fantasian brand of crazy, and so screamed to none of the other facets of her in particular. "I'm going to side with Spike on that one," she deadpanned, causing her brother to sigh in exasperation with the utterance.

"Oh, and we can't forget Our Lady of the Partially Amputated Wings," Spike added, causing Twilight to shake her head and roll her eyes at the utterance. As much as a smart alec as he was being, she had to concede that one to him too.

That made Shining's brow furrow, and a hoof rose to his chin to hold it contemplatively. "Of all the things she could've hidden, why her alicorn nature?" he pondered, even as Sarah's tale about the Fantasian alicorns started doing laps in his head.

Twilight shrugged earnestly. "Maybe alicorns are just bad luck on this kooky planet," she suggested, albeit half-heartedly. "And since her wings were shortened, she might've wanted to avoid the deluge of questions that probably would've come after her if she walked in showing them off."

Shining nodded, seeing the logic behind that. The fiasco surrounding the Fantasians when they first walked in on Parliament was bad enough, nevermind Luna's feather-fondling; hell, that was probably circulating like the ashes of a wildfire back home now. "None of our alicorns are like that physically, so…"

"And then they'd have asked if she were born or ascended," Twilight added, frowning thoughtfully as her eyes gravitated to the ceiling. "Though her story might be as insane as some of those fiction books I've read in my spare time."

Shining grinned as a few foalhood memories came to the forefront of his thoughts. "Those awful red-and-black ones we used to laugh at, who discovered the Seventh Element of Harmony that nopony else can wield?" he proposed.

Twilight nodded with a smile of her own. "Those ones, minus the Seventh Element," she said. "I don't think Fantasia even has its own Elements."

"But that jewel in Greenwood… why would Lance take it?" Shining pondered, his raised hoof rubbing his left cheek as he mused about this.

"Matt said something about bad things happening if two others and the one in Whitefall were brought together…" Spike chimed in, hands on his hips as he reprocessed the information. "Maybe the Greenwood jewel's one of those two others?"

Shining's hoof dropped, and so did his smile. "Then Lance might be wise to hold onto that jewel then," he said, considering what he'd been told. "Do you know what sort of bad things would happen if the trio of jewels were ever together?"

Spike's head shook as Shining looked at him, hands still on hips. "Zero, zip, nada," he replied. Beside him, NoLegs meowed.

"So, another thing to press Lance about, greaaaaaaat," Shining mumbled, turning back to Twilight as she sat on her haunches. "What next, are we going to find where the rest of the Fantasian pegasi went?"

Twilight opened her mouth to retort to that zany proposition when the door opened and one Prince Blueblood trotted in. She turned to him and asked, "So, who upset you this time?"

Blueblood shook his head. "Strangely enough, nobody," he said bluntly. "But I couldn't help but overhear something about amputated wings… and as I was chatting with Lieutenant-General Windwood about our destination, I noticed some very strange markings stretching from her withers to stomach on both sides of her body." His face hardened. "And if you asked for my input… those look dubiously like scars where wings once were."

Shining and Twilight shared glances, then turned back to their unexpected guest. "How can you tell?" Shining asked, raising a brow ever so slightly.

Blueblood waved a hoof. "Barring the other such markings on her body, as well as… the plant matter, I once had a servant in my youth who confided in me one day that he lost both his wings in a weather factory-related accident." He shivered and composed himself. "He took off his suit to show me silver-white markings very similar in nature to what I have seen. Said it was all that was left of his wings—nothing more than a distant memory, at his advanced age."

Shining's brow furrowed. "So you're saying… we may have another alicorn aboard this ship," he said.

Blueblood nodded firmly, muzzle scrunching slightly in what Twilight assumed was distaste. "A wingless one, but yes," he replied. Then his lips pursed as he considered the ramifications of what had just left his mouth. "... or would that no longer make her such, since... "

"Well… she had tree-wings, so…" Then gears span in Twilight's head as she recalled said tree-wings being ripped off. "Hrm… can she summon them again?"

"Given the Harmony Blast was called, I'd say 'not likely,'" Spike piped up.

"Regardless," Blueblood continued, seeming to have missed Twilight's musings and Spike's aside, "it still calls so much into question." He turned to Shining. "Tell me, what did you hear about alicorns from our escorts?"

"Best I can say is… 'tribe-wide vanishing act,'" Shining answered, slumping a little further. "And the few who made it out weren't exactly unharmed… but no specifics besides that crystal alicorn."

Blueblood began to scowl a little at that. "And yet," he began, voice softening, "we have evidence of alicorns. Aboard this very vessel. One without wings, and..."

"Partial wing-amputation without regeneration," Twilight proffered. She lit her horn and conjured an image of Natalie, wings spread as far as they could go. "Rainbow tried grilling her on a spit, and couldn't get much." Her horn dimmed and the image vanished. "But she confirmed herself it's basically a pair of battle scars."

"And Rarity told me Sarah had a false horn of wood…" Spike stretched his arms and put his hands behind his head to lean on them a little. "Which… now that I think about it… would be insanely stupid to slap onto a hippogryph, even for whoever decided to conjure up the Greenwood Blight."

Twilight turned to Spike, brows raised. "Greenwood Blight?"

Spike nodded. "Can't hardly call it much else, given what it did to ponies," he retorted. "But like I said: horns on a hippogryph. Who would, in their right or wrong mind, decide to do that? It's like making more princesses and princes; sooner or later there's going to be a fight over it."

That made Blueblood sigh, slump, and snort all at once. Amazingly, this did not make him facehoof. "That's as likely as a Fantasian draconequus giving General Boltwing a second and third pair of wings…" he muttered.

"Then again, Anna's a chimera," Twilight replied bluntly. "Tree, ivy, and kudzu if we really wanted to count those as part of her… and not to mention her already-mixed heritage on top of that."

"I'm starting to see why she's a teen soldier…" Shining grumbled. "She fits right into the ranks."

That made Blueblood facehoof. "It seems the General has a penchant for the oddballs and misfits…" he muttered, tone somewhere between lamenting and grudging understanding. "How he's able to manage his troops is beyond me…" He perked up when he felt tapping at his hind pastern, and craned his neck to find Heather's little one reared up and looking at him with tiny wings fluttering. Glancing further back, he realized he'd left the door open, and one of the village mares was standing in the frame with the absurdly young mother at her side, hooked to a fresh IV drip attached to a wheeled stand.

"Are you the one who got my niece and great nephew away from a cursed tree?" the mare asked.

Blueblood nodded, and hefted the little one in his magic up to his back. "That I am," he said. "Though, I wasn't the only one fighting the cursed trees that night." The baby squealed, wings beating as Blueblood slowly turned to the pair.

The village mare nodded, smiling softly. The look fell as fast as it had come, however, and her body wilted. "I had no idea my niece was alive when she and her parents vanished…" she muttered, turning to Heather. "It was supposed to have been a forray for food…"

Heather sagged under the look. "No food on trip, auntie… Ashwood made us hungry…" she muttered. "Tried going back… bad ponies used trees…"

Shining got a vague idea of what must have gone down next. "Are the bad ponies alive?" he asked.

Heather nodded glumly, ears turned back against her head. "Went to bad town called Redpine… made me go to Redpine... ran away, found big bad tree with lots of flowers after lots of running…" she muttered. "No find Greenwood…" Her body trembled. "Found lots cutie marks… and pony pieces…"

Twilight's tail twitched, her mind swimming in images of what she'd stumbled upon the night before. "Well… the big bad tree's been burned down," she said. And that was… technically true, if being burned down meant turned into a crater at the end of the day. "As well as the bad pony who lived in it."

Heather perked up, eyes glistening in wonder. "Big tall tree-pony, big wingies?"

That made Twilight's blood run cold. She was starting to grow concerned at the horrors everyday Fantasian foals were being exposed to, and apparently Maria was just the tip of that iceberg. But she nodded nonetheless. "He's gone. He can't cut ponies into pieces anymore," she replied.

The baby squealed again, and Blueblood set him down on the floor gently. The little one toddled back to the village mare, burbling as he tripped and got back up part way through the journey. The mare nodded and picked up the baby with her hooves, and escorted Heather away without another word as she pushed the IV stand along. The door gently shut behind them with magical aid, and for a few seconds silence held its grip before Blueblood turned back to Twilight. "So… what is it about this particular tree pony she asked about?"

Twilight wilted. "Tree. Alicorn. Madder than what I've seen on Fantasia," she said bluntly. NoLegs waved his tail, but stopped short of casting magic when Twilight waved a hoof at him. "Not until I'm sure Blueblood here can actually stomach it," she hissed.

Blueblood began turning a bit green around his gills again, and he faltered with a wince and shuffling hooves. "If it's worse than the wedding I've stumbled upon, let it be left unseen," he muttered, ears turning back at the sordid memory doing replays in his mind.

Twilight nodded in understanding. "Want the nutshell?" she asked. At Blueblood's shaky nod, she obliged him, "Serial killer's memorabilia, on top of being threatened to become additions to said serial killer's house." She crossed her forelegs over her chest as she added, "Let's just say he was beaten to within several inches of his life, and even then the Greenwood Blight kept him going somehow."

Blueblood took a few moments to get his protesting innards back under control, which tried to break free through his mouth only to be swallowed back down with several angry gargles on the return trip before he even tried to process what Twilight had relayed to him. His mind rewound a bit before catching something that managed to fly over his head the first time, "Wait, did you say alicorn?"

Twilight nodded. "Big as Celestia, maybe bigger, but less grace and more rage and secrecy," she confirmed. "Dubbed himself 'First Branch of Greenwood,' which would make him quite old if that's what I think it means."

Blueblood nodded as his stomach tried to cartwheel again, only to be held in check through sheer willpower seizing the helm. "And what else did you find?" he asked, hoping that could change the subject.

Twilight's forehooves dropped. "Well... that's where I ran into a problem: turns out, if I can even bring myself to believe him, our little ice wraithling's been sealed at some point after turning," she said. "Where, how, by who, when and why? Got nothing else on that front." A frown creased her brow. "And worse, Lance will probably wrangle that information out of her first. I'm not sure how much he's going to leave out whenever he tells us, but chances are good he'll play something close to his vest like a lot of his soldiers do."

Blueblood considered this, and nodded sourly as his stomach staged another valiant attempt at exiting his body, only to be routed by the rest of him and put in its place. "And?" he pressed, sensing there was something else plaguing Twilight's mind.

"Well… and here's where it gets sketchy… she's managed to land herself a title," Twilight muttered, looking Blueblood dead in the eye as she said that. "You're familiar with the term Cocytus, right?"

Blueblood nodded. "Yes," he said. "A betrayal so cold, there is no hope of redemption. It's also the name of a forsaken spell of ages past, lost to time itself."

"Well… Katie's recent mission, before the Void cropped up, left a bizarre letter addressed to her and the twins… it called her the Envoy of Cocytus. And the tree-alicorn also used that moniker," Twilight began, rocking on her hooves unsurely as she reprocessed this information. "And she doesn't like other wraiths, and they don't seem to fancy her too much either…"

"Maybe she could be a traitor to wraithkind?" Shining proposed, frowning as he let that soak in. "Given her title… maybe she found the lost spell?"

"If she did, she can't cast it unless she stabs that broken horn into something; I doubt she even knows how to use the lost spell correctly," Twilight pointed out, shaking her head at the absurd notion. "Considering that same letter also mentioned Greenwood falling… which it kinda did…" Twilight took a moment to let her mental gears spin.

"Maybe the writer of that letter found out something bad?" Spike proposed.

Twilight considered that, nodded, and turned to Spike. "Bad enough I'm starting to think he went into hiding over it," she said.

"Oh yeah, that one," NoLegs telepathically piped up with a wave of his tail, his mental voice carrying across the room. "Looking back on it, yeah, that screamed 'shady shit's going on here,' didn't it?"

The door flew open again, and this time Rarity trotted into the room, magically carrying a cleaned, patched up Mr. Muffin at her side. "Oh, Twilight, so sorry to bother you at this hour, but I need to find Sarah," Rarity said.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, turning to her friend. "You patched up her toy?"

Rarity nodded. "Yes; he has never looked better!" she exclaimed, setting the plush down onto the floor. "But… I ran into something odd after repairing him." With a nudge of her hoof, the teddy bear sprang up to his feet and stood, looking around with an expressionless face. Though, Twilight got the sinking feeling that if he could, he'd have let his eyes widen. "The crystals in his body—which I've been told to keep in his stuffing—activated, and…"

Mr. Muffin ran up to NoLegs and looked him up and down slowly, crossing his repaired and fuzzy arms over his ribboned chest with a tilt of the head. A nod left the bear, and he promptly ran over to do likewise to Twilight, though he had to look up to make eye contact first. Then he scaled up her foreleg with incredible agility, sat on her withers, and pulled at her mane before dropping down and returning to Rarity again in the span of thirty seconds.

Twilight looked at the plush with widening eyes. "He's enchanted?!" she yelped.

Rarity nodded fervently, eyes shifting from wall to wall momentarily before settling back on her friend. "And, well… I wanted to consult you just in case the enchantments are malicious in nature. I don't fancy teddies stabbing my clientele," she said.

Twilight sighed and waved Mr. Muffin over with a hoof. She picked him up magically when he came back, tilted him around, and scanned him as much as she could. A faint resonance echoed from within the stuffing, pulsing with power that made him animate, yet whose it was she could not place. Some minutes passed before she returned him to the floor. "Nothing seems off about him, Rarity. He probably was just waiting to be fixed before springing to life again."

Rarity smiled at the news. "Considering the terrible shape he's been in before, I don't say I can blame him for that. Very well, I'll return him to Sarah," she said with another nod. Mr. Muffin ran back over with a spring in his step. "Have you seen her?"

"Besides at the mess hall, not really," Twilight answered with a shrug. "She's probably stewing somewhere." Rarity giggled and left the room with the plush, shutting the door on her way out. Considering Mr. Muffin's enchantments, she began to wonder if, perhaps, he truly did help Sarah get out of Greenwood when things took a turn for the south.

"Well… if teddy bears are enchanted…" Shining began, mulling it over, "then what are they enchanted for?"

"In Mr. Muffin's case, I really can't say," Twilight replied, pursing her lips even as they tried to go lopsided upon her face. "I don't know a whole lot about him."

NoLegs nodded and telepathically muttered, "I'll keep an eye on him in case anything goes wrong."

Shining turned to the cat, his expression neutral. "Good idea. At any rate—" He trailed off as the door flew open again, and Rarity trotted inside with wide eyes. He turned to her, expression unchanging as he asked, "What now?"

"Um… not to be prudent, but… Mr. Muffin is brandishing a knife," Rarity muttered, ears turned back.

One could have heard several pins hitting the carpet in that moment. Spike was the first to speak, "Um… Rarity… that sounds silly, even taking into—" Then he heard the sound of steel clashing in the hallway, and with a bemused brow raised, strode past her to see what the fuss was about. What he found was less than stellar, though amusing for all the wrong reasons: Mr. Muffin, with a kitchen knife, fighting Lazarus a few doors down with his spear clutched in his hocks. Each strike from the spear was parried by the tiny blade, though that also had the effect of forcing Mr. Muffin to back up a step or two.

Behind Lazarus stood a changeling soldier accompanying a sitting Sarah, who had slumped and buried her face in her claws. "For the last time, Mr. Muffin, he's not gonna hurt me!" she grumbled into her talons, her muffled voice drowned out by another parried strike as Lazarus took a moment to study the animate plush with confusion swimming in his eyes.

"You didn't say shit about the plush being deadly!" Lazarus barked, turning to Sarah with a paling expression and sweat beading his brow as said plush lunged up and jumped with the knife's blade poised for his jewels. He turned back just in time to deflect the attack and knock Mr. Muffin back a few steps, lowering his spear enough to guard his vulnerables.

"... I stand corrected," Spike muttered, observing the scene with interest aroused. "Where'd he get the knife?"

The soldier waved a hoof. "Took it from my holster," he reported, tilting his head. Lazarus blocked another blow that would have at least scraped his hinds, almost knocking the knife from Mr. Muffin before the enchanted plush regained his balance and brandished the blade once more. Passing the knife from one arm to the next, Mr. Muffin seemed to be taunting the hapless crystal unicorn he was trying to cut up.

Spike's brow climbed higher. "How and why did you let the teddy grab it?" he asked incredulously.

The soldier sighed. "Fast little fucker. Couldn't grab him in time," he muttered with a hint of exasperation in his voice.

Spike nodded slowly, turning back to the scuffle as Mr. Muffin lunged, and was parried again. "Sure you couldn't," he hissed in disapproval. "Wait 'till Lance hears this."

"One word about the teddy with the kitchen knife," Lazarus barked, sweating harder as he knocked the killer plushie back with the butt of his spear, "and I'm never going to hear the end of it!"

Mr. Muffin waved the knife threateningly at Lazarus, canting his head in a way that screamed, 'Come at me!' Lazarus did not heed the invitation, instead just pursing his lips together as he tried to think of something to distract the plush. Then, as if realizing said plush was sentient for the first time, Lazarus pointed to the elevator with his spear with an exclamation of, "Holy shit, what's that! Is that Godcat?!"

To Spike's and Lazarus' surprise, Mr. Muffin actually fell for it; he turned his whole body with the knife poised in that direction in a heartbeat. Then the soldier intervened while he had the chance, lighting his horn and magically lifting the plush into the air as he simultaneously wrenched his knife away from the tiny and fuzzy arms that pilfered it. He was careful to avoid cutting Mr. Muffin, and returned the blade to its holster before making both weapon and container vanish in a flash of light before the teddy could realize the jig was up.

Setting Mr. Muffin down again, the soldier watched as Lazarus made his spear disappear and reverted to all fours. The two stared off before Mr. Muffin charged with arms windmilling, crashing against Lazarus' foreleg and clubbing it like his life depended on it. Lazarus chuckled at the rather adorable sight, even as he made a mental note to make sure there weren't any other knives or sharp objects in his bedroom before tucking in for the night.

Sarah stormed over and plucked the bear plush from his spot, and held him to her chest even as he still insisted on windmilling his arms. She puffed her feathers, which got the windmilling to cease. "That does it, I'm putting you in time-out!" Sarah declared, and Mr. Muffin wilted in her grasp as she said that. Well, Spike had to admit, the plush had some decency in his stuffing after all.

Sarah then turned around and marched into a room on her hinds, keeping the plush in one tarsus as she used the other claw to open the door. She went in and shut the door behind her, though not before Spike caught a glimpse of a scowl smearing her face. Lazarus turned to the soldier and asked, "What, she think time-out's gonna help?"

The soldier shrugged. "She might've gotten time-out when she was a filly," he pointed out. "Maybe it worked with her?"

Lazarus laughed, smirking humorously as he lifted a hoof to wipe the sweat from his brow. "Yeah, she's the last gryph I'd expect to become a parent for any reason," he retorted.

The soldier shook his head. "You never know." Then the soldier smirked. "Say, what do you do in your spare time?"

Spike pulled his head back into the room, looking at Rarity. "So the teddy can kill things, lovely. At least… things that don't see him as a threat," he muttered, frowning rather thoughtfully.

Twilight threw her forehooves up into the air dramatically. "Spike, that's like zombies wielding swords!" she exclaimed.

Spike arched an eyebrow. "And what stops wraiths from using weapons, then?" he retorted. "I wouldn't be surprised if Fantasia had brainless zombies alongside its intelligent undead. I'm pretty sure wraiths can form their own society if they wanted."

Twilight dropped her forehooves, mentally bucking herself for forgetting that wraiths existed, and… she glanced at Shining, scrutinizing his still-passive, flat expression. "Did you get anything from Luna about anymore possible Equestrian wraiths?" she asked.

Shining shook his head. "Parliament's been keeping her hooves tied. She hasn't been able to look into the issue as much as she would have liked," he said. "But she did find some more through her excursions in the dream world, and had the guards look into it. They should report back to her…" He lifted a hoof and tilted it as though he fumbled with a knob. "Soonish," he concluded.

Twilight nodded, turning to Blueblood. "And you?"

Blueblood nodded. "Same as him, though with the added addendum that a small group of those wraiths… are getting banished," he said. "Who, or where, or why, she did not say."

Twilight nodded, turning to Rarity. Rarity shook her head slowly, as though still absorbing everything she had seen and heard since last night. "Nothing particularly unusual," she reported. "Though… she was curious as to how Lance manages an army and how his base operates."

Twilight mulled it over, and sighed. "I'll admit, I am curious myself. And while we'll probably find out soon enough… I'm still wondering if there's going to be things he'll neglect to tell us about," she said.

"Let's see…" Blueblood began, frowning, "One crystal alicorn, wings intact to a given degree, a half-Umbrum, his own mutilated wings, and one suspected alicorn, wings gone." He leveled a flat look at Twilight. "I'd wager his secrets go particularly deep into the rabbit hole. Tied to Fantasia's deplorable state? Not likely. But he might be responsible for a meager fraction of it in the grand scheme of things."

"As far as I know, Lance went and initiated a war before he got his haunches handed to him," Shining said, still wearing his passive look. "What boggles my mind is why he was allowed to retain his rank and title."

An absurd thought hit Spike in that moment, and he proceeded to pop off with, "Maybe the Fantasians can embrace friendship, and did?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "I doubt Greenwood's gotten that memo," she said. She swished her tail a little, then stopped when she made to trot around everypony. "I'm going to the deck to see the Fantasian sky. I'll come back later."

Shining nodded. "Alright, keep your hooves behind the railing," he said.

Twilight smiled. "Don't worry, I will," she said. With that, she was out the door and trotting to the elevator. She glanced behind her; huh, Lazarus and the soldier were still chatting between themselves. She ignored them and went to press the button to jump in. She wanted to teleport, but dashed the idea again—more to avoid startling anyone else who might have been on the deck than overcasting herself during combat, really.

Into the hall downstairs she was deposited, and she trotted for a bit before making the turn that would take her to the second elevator leading to the engine rooms. Pushing the second button and climbing aboard to go down, she began to ponder. What had sparked the war that Shining mentioned? Who or what beat Lance and his forces into submission, yet let him keep his title?

The door opened as Twilight got lost in her reverie, letting her stride into the engine room. Some of the crystals flickered with her passing, and others flared brilliantly as if sensing her presence. Twilight scanned the magitek carefully, being mindful to step over the strewn and bulky wires that pulsed intermittently with a power that raced to and fro between the entire magitek menagerie. The room was dim, but not dark thanks to the light of the crystals, though she noted that some still exuded a darkness that blotted out the ceiling of the engine room.

The hall was long, though not tedious, and she reached the midway point before long. How long she didn't know, as time seemed a bit skewed in this room. She passed the charging panels, though not before giving them a once-over. The red crystals had brightened considerably on the leftmost one, and the whole she-bang had the dust knocked off of it. A few white feathers were scattered around the blue one, though all in all the panel looked alright.

Twilight continued on, a part of her mind wondering what went into actually charging said magitek. The panels certainly looked funny, now that she thought of it. But that was a question she could have answered later, after this whole kerfuffle had been sorted out and shelved in the annals of Fantasian ongoings.

But oh well, every day had its share of weirdness. Twilight would mark the animate plush and the engine room on the lesser end of that scale. Compared to the whole of last week, today was practically tranquil and serene. Twilight soon stumbled upon the ladder and sighed, internally wondering why this airship would need such a thing. She kept her complaints to herself as she scaled it all the same, and it went up and up…

The hatch above it opened, and she poked her head out to feel the wind making her mane fly. She hopped out, and looked around before spotting a lone figure at the starboard with his wings spread wide. Twilight would recognize that hat and coat anywhere, and trotted up to the owner with her mouth opening to ask something when her voice died in her throat.

Ahead, in the light of a full moon, stood an imposing mountain shrouded by a gentle fog, though at the distance it lay its true height and width still eluded her. Its whole foot was surrounded by thick woodland, though a large ring of said woodland had been cut out and converted into roads that tanks smaller, and less tacky than the Valkyrie Tank could and did traverse. Grand towers rose out of the rockface up the whole side that Twilight could see in the silvern glow, and likely some more on the other side.

At this behemoth's middle stood a thick ring of steel that held up a massive platform, built into the mountain and fused to the circling road below by thick beams, upon which a few airships of the fleet were already resting with plenty of room to spare. Above the platform, holes opening and closing in the rock face at random stood strange and twisted constructs that changelings used to enter and exit at their leisure. Some of these constructs were bioluminescent, looking as alive as the occupants it served. Others were metallic things, less contorted and more uniform, though they were still decked out with lights nonetheless.

Above all of that, on the peak of the mountain, stood a great city carved into the stone, jutting upwards into the heavens like a myriad of sharpened weapons, some of its buildings adorned with flags bearing four cutie marks she was very familiar with by now. Twilight could distantly see the forms of hovering gryphons entering and exiting as well, interspersed with some changelings here and there. Very few, if any, occupants dared to stay on the ground.

From what she could see, the city looked more magitek than any construct she could see being within the realms of the reasonable, more steel and copper gray than natural slate, pulsing with crystals large and small in a radiance that was all its own. Copious amounts of steam billowed out from some of the towers, clouding much of their chutes yet dissipating harmlessly into the air. While it certainly was no Crystal Empire by any generous stretch of one's imagination, it could at least hold up a candle to Canterlot, if Canterlot were built of metals instead of marble and poured out vapor from every other orifice.

Lance turned to Twilight, smiling faintly. "So you're the first to get in the sneak peek," he said warmly. He lifted a hoof and waved it forward. "Welcome to Irongrey Aerie."

Before Twilight could speak, a loud drone sounded from the Aerie. "Attention everyling and everygryph!" A burst of static filled the air as the mastership began its descent. Those that Twilight saw were flying had stopped in place, hovering as they turned to the mountain. "The General and his right hooves have returned! Get into positions, those of you on duty!"

Lance's smirk grew. "And there's our welcoming committee." He turned his head forward again. "I'll let them know to give you and yours the pass before we disembark, if Armin hadn't put in word in advance already."