Days melted into weeks, and on a fine afternoon Twilight sat in the middle of a library near a table, levitating a cup of tea to her lips in a slow languid motion. In front of her lay an open book, and she idly flipped a page with a hoof, sipping the warm brew and letting it soothe her throat. With the small glass emptied, she set it down on the table and started to read the book when the door to the library burst open.

"Twilight, you gotta see this right now!" a voice cried as said door flew open, causing the unicorn's tail to stand on end and her eyes to widen. She turned to the door and found Spike running up to her, a rolled-up paper in his claw.

"Spike, aren't you supposed to be with Rarity?" Twilight asked, before said purple-maned unicorn bustled into the library with a harried look on her face.

"Erm, yeah. I still am," Spike answered with a grin before it fell as he handed Twilight the paper. "But you gotta see that; it's pretty urgent."

Twilight groaned and unrolled the paper with her magic, instantly finding herself greeted by a news article. She couldn’t help but notice the enormous bold letters of the headline. "'Hotel in Canterlot closed due to accusations of sexual assault...' Wait, why would you show me this? You know I don't read this sort of stuff, Spike," the unicorn groaned, brow furrowing.

"Just wait until you get to the drivel that explains the mess. It wasn't just anypony who was sexually assaulted, according to that particular tabloid," Rarity piped up, ears folding back against her head as she spoke.

Twilight sent Rarity an unreadable look before nodding and begrudgingly reading the blasted thing. Her eyes widened as the article presented three pictures accompanying its words. The pictures depicted exactly three faces she hadn't expected to see on the forefront. Her visage paled, and she turned to the dragon and other unicorn before murmuring in a low voice, "The Fantasians are involved in the mess?"

"Three of them as victims, and the rest as witnesses," Rarity confirmed with a nod as the lavender mare turned back to the article. "It seems they've gotten into Celestia's mane now, and I fear for her well-being."

"Um... Rarity, it says my brother got involved, that there was a fourth victim in the mess, and that fourth pony became a wraith," Twilight murmured, eyeing the newspaper with still-wide eyes.

"Another reason why Spike and I rushed here as soon as we were able. I'm impressed the pale changeling had nothing to do with the fourth victim, considering what she is," Rarity replied curtly, donning a frown as the other unicorn shot her a look with eyes that betrayed a glimmer of worry.

"So, if there are wraiths... cropping up in Equestria..." Twilight trailed off, her face hardening.

"Things will go from bad to worse, going by what little that gryphon told us, and however much of that is true," Rarity finished for her. "Would you like me to get the rest of the girls?"

"Please do. They'll need to know this as soon as possible, in case we need to use the Elements of Harmony or something of that nature," Twilight replied, nodding. With that, the ivory unicorn bustled out of the library in a gallop, making sure to close the door behind her.

She turned to Spike when she heard a choked gasp come from the drake, sighing as his cheeks puffed up like a balloon before he knelt to the floor and belched. In a puff of smoke and green flame, a rolled-up piece of paper burst out and bounced for a bit, stopping long enough to roll and reveal a red ribbon secured with a gold pin keeping it shut. Twilight picked up the paper in her magic and undid the ribbon, unrolling it to reveal that something had been written on the parchment.

"What's it say, Twilight?" Spike asked with a cough, turning to Twilight with a brow raised.

"I don't know, Spike... let's see, 'Dearest Twilight,'" she read aloud, "'it would seem that our guests have wasted no time in getting themselves involved with Equestrian affairs. As I am sure you are aware, they have lent a hoof—claw, in the case of the hippogryphs, gryphon, and diamond dog they have with them—in exposing a highly corrupt business practice, yet three of them have gotten injured doing so.'"

The unicorn took a deep breath, absorbing the information, and after a moment she continued to read the letter, "'In addition to this, a problem has come to light. I had thought that during my rule of Equestria, the issue of the wraiths—which I'll explain in a moment—ceased at some point. However, the recent turn of events has taken my suspicion and shattered it into fragments.'"

"A wraith issue?" Spike interrupted, his brows shooting up.

"That's what the letter says. I'm just reading it," Twilight sighed, then resumed reading. "'Ponies—and possibly changelings, taking into account the pale one the Fantasians brought with them—are morphing, clinging onto life when they should perish. For reasons I do not entirely understand, the Fantasian wraith would not tell me anything about the phenomenon, which leads me to the conclusion that she'd rather keep something hidden.'"

Spike interrupted again, with a heavy sigh. "Okay, I thought Celestia could get anypony to say anything," he stated with a frown.

"I don't understand, either," Twilight groaned, turning to the drake with a shrug of her shoulders. She cleared her throat and went on, "'As such, I strongly feel that I have little choice. Due to several complications stemming in Canterlot, I have arranged for the Fantasians to come to Ponyville by train later this evening. Even when they join you and your friends, be on guard. The guests have searched every shelf in the royal library for some kind of information—what that is, I cannot say, as they refused to elaborate. Your faithful teacher, Princess Celestia. P.S. The Fantasian mares have taken to yelling Shining Armor's ears off during their stay every time they saw him, which fortunately only happened thrice. It had something to do with him leading them into a bad situation or something of the sort,'" she concluded.

The unicorn dropped the letter, turned back to the table, and slammed her face into the wood before letting off a despondent groan.

"Great, we gotta deal with those loons again," Spike stated in a sarcastic tone, eyelids partially drooped to frame eyes that did not gleam and arms going slack against his sides.

The door burst open again, and Twilight turned to it to see a zebra mare with gold accessories run inside and skid to a loud halt on her hooves. "Twilight Sparkle, I need you to come with me! I found a mare suffering in the Everfree!" she bellowed, eyes wide and tone riddled with alarm.

"Suffering in the Everfree Forest?" Twilight asked, standing up and approaching the zebra with a brow raised. "What... kind of suffering are we talking about here, Zecora?"

Zecora's eyes averted every which-way for a moment, her legs trembling as she spotted the flicker of worry in the unicorn's irises. "The mare, she... clings to life when she should have passed," she replied, pausing to swallow. "When I found her, she was dead, but her state changed, fast."

Twilight's eyes widened. "Is she a... wraith?" she murmured, her tone hushed.

"Yes, a wraith, and one who has lost all four legs," Zecora stated as she nodded. Her ears fell flat against her head and she added, "I need you to see her, for company she begged."

The unicorn sighed and turned to Spike. "If the girls arrive while I am gone, tell them Zecora wanted me to see something," she murmured.

Spike nodded. "Can do, Twi," he replied. With that, the zebra and unicorn went out the door, making sure to close it behind them. They trotted a ways through a small town, winding through streets paved in dirt roads and framed by houses with mostly straw roofs. Some ponies nodded and waved, others came up to ask the two what had been going on, and more still came to utter a brief but polite 'hello' and go about their routine.

After a few moments, the two diverted down a road that lead them to a thicket of wood where the trees and undergrowth sprung up like weeds that had been given a growth hormone, through which a small path cut across. Said path had a small strip of sky that could be seen from above, revealing the blue sky beyond.

This path the pony and zebra took for a few moments longer, staying on the dirt trail with eyes peeled. Zecora veered to the right after stopping for a second, diving into a dense thicket of trees. "This way, if I remember right, if she’s not hidden out of sight," she beckoned. Twilight reluctantly followed, silently praying that the zebra had been making things up.

The two found another clearing in moments, and in the center of this spot Twilight saw a pitiful earth pony mare with naught but a head and torso, legs torn clean from the sockets of hip and shoulder to reveal still-oozing wounds, grunting and groaning in a hollow tone. The eyes lit up like bulbs in the canvases of black, a very soft green in hue that starkly contrasted the natural bright red of her coat and the darker hue of blood. A trussed up pale green mane framed the pony's face, ending in loose and dirtied curls.

"Wh-who are you?" Twilight asked, eyes widening as she examined the laying pony from a distance.

The pony looked at Twilight and rolled onto her side, exposing a gnarly wound that stretched from withers to rump. "Crimson... Gala," the legless mare groaned.

"Do you now see this mare's awful bout? Surely, of her agony you have little doubt?" Zecora murmured, turning to Twilight with a flicker of sadness in her eyes.

"What should we do? She's in pain, and we can't leave her laying there," Twilight replied, slowly nodding her head.

Zecora closed her eyes and lowered her face, her tone somber as she answered, "I'm afraid we'll have to stain our hooves in her blood. Only severing her head will end this legless bud. Nothing else can truly end her life, I’m afraid. Do you happen to have some kind of sharpened blade?”

Twilight frowned. "I don't have a blade on me," she sighed. "But, how do you know what can end a wraith and what can't?"

"I've ran into them, in my time before taking residence in the Everfree. Time and time again they have risen, and all I could do was turn my tail and flee," the zebra stated, eyes opening to reveal a worried flicker in the irises. She turned to Gala, who looked back at her intently, and added, "Twilight Sparkle, I must ask, before we begin this dark task. Have you run into a wraith before now, and if so, when did you end them, and how?"

"I've... met wraiths weeks ago, but I didn't kill them. A few other ponies who were there when the wraiths came did," Twilight replied in a low tone. "Only one of them was decapitated, and another had his mana flow cut off and it overloaded his system. Another five got turned to ashes."

Zecora jerked her gaze back to the unicorn, pupils shrinking to tiny dots. "W-where? When did this event transpire? Please tell me how things got so dire," she questioned.

"In... Fantasia," Twilight stated, shaking her head. "The populace has its own wraith problem, and it's gotten pretty bad over there." She trotted to Gala and knelt forward to be eye-level with the legless form on the grassy ground. "Do... do you have anything you want before you..." she trailed off, the last word that could complete the sentence stuck in her throat. She could not utter it no matter how hard she willed it, and during this bout of silence the wraith's eyes dimmed momentarily.

Gala shook her head. "Just make it... painless," she answered in a weak voice, one so low that Twilight almost didn't hear it. The unicorn nodded and shut her eyes, her horn glowing for a moment, only for the flow of magic to cease once a revelation set in.

"Twilight Sparkle, is something wrong? Crimson mustn't suffer all day long!" Zecora groaned, trotting up to the unicorn who looked at her rather despondently.

"Well... I don't exactly know how to decapitate her without making it painless. You didn't give me enough time to bring a sword or something of the sort..." Twilight trailed off, before a revelation sparked in her mind and her eyes went wide with a glimmer. "Wait, that's it!"

"What is it? Tell me now, so we can make this quick!" the zebra begged, jumping when Twilight turned back to Gala and started charging another spell without answering. "Perhaps we can make something out of these old and dead sticks!" she intoned after a few branches snapped from the surrounding trees and floated to and around Twilight, embraced in magic as they formed a very crude and dull sword. The wooden blade started shimmering in a white light, but the glow ceased as fast as it had come.

Twilight dropped the bundle of twigs, which scattered upon impact with the ground, and once more looked at Zecora. "I saw a spell in Fantasia, and I just tried to replicate it... and yet, it didn't work," she murmured. "It happened when one of the wraiths got decapitated. The pony who did it had a sword that gleamed with a pearly white sheen instead of normal steel."

Zecora sighed and looked at Gala. Carefully, she hefted the wraith into a crude sitting position with her front hooves. "Then we take this suffering mare out of this clearing to my hut. Perhaps I have something that can get her out of this painful rut," she stated.

"I'll carry her with my magic. Otherwise she could—" Twilight paused as Zecora lifted Gala and placed her onto her back, whereupon the wraith immediately slid off and face-planted in the dirt. "—fall..."

"Ow..." Gala groaned into the dirt, ears flat on her head as a magic aura embraced her and hefted her into the air.

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

"Tell me more about these Fantasians you have met, if you please. If you keep mum of them I shall not press you by any means," Zecora said, scrounging around a small room filled with corked bottles held on shelves. A cauldron sat in the middle, and on a pile of hay rested Gala, who opted to curl up and doze.

"Well... I really can't describe them without showing them to you, which isn't possible at this time. Four of them are regular ponies, two are hippogryphs, one's a legless cat, and there was a gryphon and diamond dog with them..." Twilight trailed off, sitting next to the snoozing wraith with a hoof rubbing nervously at the other leg.

"Speak only of the ponies, then. Once I hear enough, I shall say 'when,'" Zecora replied, plucking a round green bottle with a hoof and trotting to the cauldron on three legs. She set it down at the foot of the gargantuan metal bowl before trotting back to the shelves to examine the rest of the bottles.

"One of them's... a general. He leads gryphons and changelings in Fantasia, and has somehow gotten his hooves on war machines," Twilight began, her statement causing Zecora to almost knock a hoofful of bottles over as she jumped from the shelves with her front legs flailing about.

The zebra turned to the unicorn, eyes widening to the size of saucers. "A general who leads gryphons and changelings, you say? Now I understand why you haven't talked of them all day."

"And the funny thing? He's a currently-flightless pegasus whose wings are so busted up that, to show me how bad they are, would cause my late great-grandmare to shudder from what he told me," Twilight added, the remark eliciting a set of shrunk pupils from Zecora.

"How in the name of all things pure is that possible? Surely, such a thing would be truly illogical!" Zecora murmured in a hushed whisper, eyes glinting with worry as the information sank in.

"I wish I knew," Twilight answered, shaking her head and waving a hoof in defeat. "He wouldn't tell me. Then again, I only stayed two and a half days in Fantasia; not much time to gather information."

"I see. Indeed child, I see. Is there more to share with me?" the zebra sighed, returning to the shelves yet again.

"He has three unicorns with him, and they all tagged along. From what little I've been told, and this is all I know, he'd acted way out of line one time. The unicorns are with him just to make sure that doesn't happen again, whatever it is. Something tells me he's trying to hide something big, and I find myself rather skeptical of his words," the unicorn sighed, watching Zecora as she scooped up a few more bottles and placed them at the foot of the cauldron.

"Oh... oh dear, this isn't good," Zecora groaned as she started going up and down the shelves, hastily prying bottles off of them for one moment before returning the containers back where she had found them. "I need one more ingredient, much more than I should."

"One more?" Twilight asked, both brows rising. "What is it?"

"An item that is very hard to obtain. If I cannot retrieve it, there will be much pain," Zecora replied, turning to Twilight with a heavy sigh. She gestured to Gala with a hoof and continued speaking with a hint of sadness in her tone, "I could take the scarce item from her here and now, but it would not be as useful, and I cannot explain how."

"Huzzuwha?" Gala murmured, her body writhing as she came to. "What about how?"

"We're working on it, don't worry," Twilight replied, gently petting the legless wraith on the head with a hoof.

"Alright," Gala sighed with a nod before curling up to nap once the hoof stopped touching her.

"Such a conundrum, it is indeed. This, I sorely wished I had foreseen," Zecora lamented, closing her eyes for a moment before looking at the cauldron forlornly.

"So, what're we gonna do now? What are we going to need?" Twilight asked, standing up and quietly trotting away from Gala.

"We must find a wraith whose body is whole, so that we may at last release this old foal. A strand of mane would do very well this moon, but it is not easy to find one so soon," Zecora murmured, lightly tapping a hoof on her chin. "A complete wraith is very hard to come by. They keep getting their forms mangled, and I know not why."

"Oh, boy... so, until we get the strand of mane from a wraith that hasn't lost a thing, what will happen to Gala in the meantime?" Twilight mused, turning to the snoozing wraith and sighing as a set of red ears swiveled about, accompanied by soft murmurings.

"A very fair point, you do make. She'll stay here and rest, for everypony's sake," Zecora replied, eyes on the sleeping wraith as she muttered something about chocolate. "I'll hide Gala in a thick pile of hay by late afternoon. I would rather she didn't get seen by Apple Bloom."

Twilight nodded. "I guess I'll head back to Ponyville then, but I will come back later tonight to check on Crimson. Is that alright?" she asked.

Zecora nodded back, a hint of a smile blossoming on her face. "I would like that very much. So would Gala, I am certain of such."

Twilight smiled and made her way out of the hut, silently closing the door behind her to not rouse the snoozing wraith within. She trotted through the woods, though a chill ran up her spine when she noticed a good twenty minutes later all she could hear was the sound of twigs and grass crunching beneath her hooves. She immediately stopped, whereupon a thick silence had enveloped the patch of wood she stood in.

"Wraiths... in Equestria... Celestia talked about them in that letter like she knew about them all along," Twilight murmured to herself, her voice unable to crack the tranquility that settled. She rose a hoof to rub her chin in thought, pausing to tap it a few times as the gears in her mind spun. When, after a few moments she idly stood and tethered on the brink of rubbing her chin raw, she set her hoof down and sighed before trotting on again.

She found herself on a familiar dirt trail after a while of weaving around the trees without further incident, and charged into Ponyville in a gallop. She raced in a frenzy, eyes staying peeled for anything that might obstruct her way, yet nopony seemed to be out at this time.

Twilight paused again once she registered the phenomenon. She looked to the sky and found it to be still daylight. Looking to her left, she spotted a parchment taped to a lightpost, bound in a layer of clear plastic. She trotted to it and inspected it. "Huh, really heavy rain with a chance for hail today... that's why nopony's out," she murmured, then shrugged and went about her merry way.

She just barely made it to a great oak tree with a door built into the trunk when the storm hit. At first, nothing but a small drizzle of rain hit the window, yet after two minutes passed and she got inside the torrent came, accompanied by tiny clear pellets that bounced around for a bit after landing before melting in the rain. She turned to the room and eyed the assorted books on the shelves before her gaze fell unto the table, noticing a wooden carving of a horse's head and one lone book, splayed open and begging to be read.

Twilight strode to that lonesome book and sat on her haunches, finding where she left off with relative ease and resumed reading. Her brow furrowed as she flipped the page when she finished it, this time with a simple levitation spell, and she went on to read the next. As page after page of information got a good thorough look-over, Twilight's face contorted gradually. First, her brow furrowed some more, then a frown spread on her muzzle.

Once she managed to get through the rest of the book, she groaned and slammed it shut with a hoof before returning it to a barren shelf with a fling of magic. The mare pounded her hooves on the table in frustration, only to stop and take a few deep breaths before she could explode further. When the drumming of the rain and hail outside intensified to the point the noise faintly echoed throughout the library, she stood up and went to the window to investigate why.

Her pupils dilated as she spotted the accursed falling ice balls, landing with hard thuds and somehow not shattering with impact on the ground. The things had grown to the size of tennis balls, and she could see holes forming in the nearest straw roof at a breakneck speed. "What in the name of Celestia... oh no. Tonight's gonna be bad."

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

As soon as the storm had settled, Twilight and her friends gathered in the library. All were looking at Rainbow Dash with frowns on their faces.

"I'm telling you, Twilight, I didn't know the hail was going to be that huge! Neither did the rest of the weather team!" Dash exclaimed, flying in mid-air and waving both front hooves frantically.

Twilight groaned in exasperation. She gave Dash a level look and asked, "Do you know of anypony who did make the hail?"

"No. All the other weather ponies told me was that the weather’s been screwy since the barrier broke. I heard it's happened in other cities, and it got way out of control in Canterlot," Dash replied, firmly shaking her head as she waved her hooves again.

"Could the Fantasians have had something to do with it?" Rarity piped up, garnering looks from the other mares as she spoke.

"As far as we know, none of those crazy ponies can control weather. We saw how bad it was over in Fantasia. There was no way it was them," Pinkie chimed in, then she turned to Dash. "You said the weather ponies told you it was bad since the barrier broke, right?"

"Like two seconds ago," Rainbow huffed, nostrils briefly flaring as she crossed her forelegs. "Not even Spitfire knows what's going down, and she's the leader of the Wonderbolts! I think that says a lot." She turned to Rarity and, with a glower, added, "Rares, why would you accuse the Fantasians of causing the weather to get messed up? You might as well start running around saying Pumpkin Cake did it."

Rarity sighed and rubbed her temples with a hoof. "I suppose you're right," she murmured. "I have no real proof that they could have done it. Oh, Twilight, do you still have the newspaper?"

"Yes. And a letter from Celestia," Twilight answered, procuring both parchments with a flash of light. She handed the letter to Rarity, and the newspaper to Applejack.

"What in tarnation are you hoofing me this for?" the orange earth pony asked, a brow raising as the newspaper found itself resting in one of her front hooves. She read its contents for a moment before throwing it at Rainbow Dash, who caught it with both hooves after fumbling with it for a few moments just trying to grab it.

The cyan pegasus read the article, and her tail stood on end. "Wait, wait, back up!" she exclaimed, pupils shrinking to tiny dots that hovered in magenta canvases. "I thought there were no wraiths in Equestria!" With that, she hoofed the paper to Pinkie Pie, pupils still dilated.

"Aside from the pale Fantasian changeling, I thought so, too. Then Celestia sent that letter," Twilight groaned, shaking her head as she spoke with a slightly bitter tone.

"I wonder why the Princess would wait until today to send this letter. But then again, there was a mess in Canterlot regarding a hotel, so... I'll just assume that took up most of her time," Rarity added, handing the letter over to Fluttershy.

Pinkie slammed her front hooves down on the table, causing a loud thud to echo in the room and simultaneously hush the others. The rest of the mares turned to her and shivered as her visage set in a scowl, a spark of anger alight in her eyes. "I hope the ponies who hurt them never, ever get the chance to make somepony else frown again," she seethed in a quiet, angry tone. "The Fantasians may have done some bad things, but what the hotel ponies did was ten times worse."

"Well, they probably won't get that chance again. The ponies who ran that hotel did some very bad things, and according to that tabloid, my brother got involved in the mess too, somehow. I wouldn't be surprised if Celestia decided to banish them," Twilight replied, noting that her words eased the burning flame in Pinkie's eyes. The pink mare slumped a bit, and the lavender unicorn added, "And there's a bunch of witnesses—foreign ones, but still—against them. The hotel staff are pretty much in boiling water."

"Um, Twilight?" Fluttershy interjected, a hoof raised well before a set of amethyst eyes turned to her. Before the unicorn could so much as utter a word, the yellow pegasus continued, "If the Fantasians come here, don't we have to keep them hidden? I wouldn't want the Cutie Mark Crusaders to see them. If you don't mind, that is."

"Flutters has a point. The wraith they have with them would give Apple Bloom some mighty fierce nightmares, and I don't even want to think about how lil' Maria would act around my sister," Applejack conceded, nodding when Twilight turned to her.

"Dearest Applejack, it couldn't be that bad if the hippogryph foal got some more interaction with other children her age," Rarity countered, sending the orange mare an unreadable look.

"That kid knows what a cock is, and I ain't talking about the kind that wake you up every morning," Applejack retorted, returning Rarity's gaze with a face that had a small frown and slightly narrowed eyes. "And she told us she lost her Ma and Pa. What would happen if my sister brought that up with the little gryph?"

Rarity flinched and her shoulders sagged. "Nevermind," she sighed in a low tone.