Luna spent a few minutes explaining to Katie about the ability to travel through the dreamscape, as well as the odd locks and chains on some of the doors of certain folks' dreams that bled and kept her out. The wraith sat down on her haunches, listening with ears standing straight as the Princess rambled for minutes on end. The resulting one-sided conversation ground to a halt when Luna finished explaining herself, and a tense silence blanketed the still corpse-riddled landscape that not even the wind and whatever dust devils it wrought could break.

"Let me get this straight," Katie began, her orbs dimming as she rose a hoof and gestured to Luna, then herself with it. "You can trot in the dreamscape freely, and it somewhat correlates to you raising the moon and such? And to add to that, you want to help me and my own, but General Smartass and his crew brushed you off, and now you can't get into their dreams? This what I'm hearing?"

Luna glumly nodded, a sullen frown on her face. "In order, yes, and I can't get into the dreams of the other Fantasians as well. Yours was the only one I could access, after I managed to break the shackles that closed the door to…" She looked around and used a wing to gesture to the mess of bodies that surrounded them both. "Here," she finished.

"Sounds like everybody else and their mother has a problem, and that's coming from a someling with a bunch of problems," Katie scoffed, rolling her orbs as she spoke.

"'Has a problem?' Whatever do you mean by that?" Luna asked, her brow raising.

"Exactly what I just said," Katie replied, one ear and an eye twitching in sync. "Let me put it into a nutshell: the night I was found by General Smartass's crew and found myself a hitchhiker, I was playing possum. They slept, and had nightmares—two separate instances, I heard them babble about sinning."

"'Sinning?'" Luna pressed, her frown deepening.

"About what, I haven't the foggiest. I heard the soldiers ask their general what was wrong, as well as his unicorn trinity. Lance wouldn't say anything about it," Katie stated, shaking her head and dropping her hoof. "And when another had a dream-gone-awry of her own, he told her to not tell him anything about it. It's almost like they follow the mantra of 'don't ask, don't tell' as if it's gospel from a holy book or something. I'm not even sure if they know what their comrades dream about or not."

Luna took a minute to let the information soak in, and during that time her mind wasted no second putting two and two together. "They're bottling it up, whatever it is," she said in a solemn tone.

Katie tsked with a nod. "Bingo."

"Then… do you have a guess as to why the locks on your dream broke?" Luna inquired, her brow raising.

Katie nodded again. "I think it's time I came clean," she said, raising a hoof to gesture at the thousands of carcassas that littered the scene. "But I believe you're… perceptive enough to take a gander at what I'm currently talking about."

Luna sighed dejectedly, and again her mind quickly whirred. She understood in seconds. "You were one of many victims to… whatever that shadowy thing was?" she guessed.

"Yep, and that fucker left me with two parting gifts on my face," Katie answered, using her raised limb to gesture to her horn's remnants and then to her split grin. "However," she began, turning her head and letting her eyes narrow at where the shadow in question once stood before it took its leave. "I wish I knew what that thing was."

Luna's brow rose higher. "You don't remember whatever it was that severed your horn?" she questioned.

Katie turned back to Luna and nodded. "Much less what they look like. All I can remember is something cutting into what was once my cheeks," she stated, taking a moment to sigh heavily. "Hell, I don't even know why I'm still around—by all accounts, I shouldn't have been able to leave this… genocide..." She didn't finish her remark, and gave a faint shudder at the mere thought of what had transpired.

"And yet, you were able to," Luna finished for her, garnering another nod from her guest. "Do you remember seeing anything else before you died?"

"Apart from what killed me and feeling my face get hacked open, I remember seeing a white light," Katie answered, her ears flattening against her head. "But not much else, before I found myself turned into a wraith."

"Do you intend to… find whoever peformed this atrocity?" Luna sighed, again using a wing to gesture to the bodies that lay all around.

Katie shook her head. "One, they'd probably kick my ass again if they were still alive, and two, I don't remember them all that well. Three, they're likely stuck on Fantasia, if they are still at large. You might as well ask me to take on a bear alone. And while we're on the subject, I'm not sure if the perpetrator's still alive or not," she groaned. "For all I know, they could also be a wraith, doing Godcat knows what else, and I'd be none the wiser because I'm not there!"

"Well, this is worrying," Luna thought, blowing out a sigh. She extended her hoof to the small wraith before her, and immediately a pale leg rose and clasped around it. "Will you help me… address the other Fantasians' problems, whatever they may be?"

"I can't force them to do so, but that doesn't mean I can't at least try," Katie replied, taking a moment to let her wings buzz. "Considering what I heard of Lance's ramblings in his sleep, it may be a while yet. And from what I've seen of Lance's no-longer-hexed wings, and a myriad of other things, their problems might be physical as well as mental."

Luna nodded. "That, I can understand. But how will I know when they're ready to speak to me about their issues?" she asked.

"Damned if I know. They may tell me, one of these days," Katie replied with a shrug. "Or they may not."

"True," Luna agreed, nodding once more, this time languidly. "Perhaps they'll just… spill it?" she asked with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

Katie mutely shrugged again. "I'll let you know when I get something out of one of them," she said. "Until then, I'll just follow General Smartass and his crew."

Luna chuckled and began smiling. "Why are you calling the general names?" she inquired.

"Because he's a smartass," Katie replied with a chortle, her orbs brightening.

"And you mentioned his wings being no longer hexed?" Luna pressed, smile broadening. "Care to elaborate?"

Katie nodded with a giggle. "He no longer has that cursed metal on his back, but he's bald from withers to flanks, wings included. Looks like he got waxed," she chirped.

Luna nodded, still smiling as her horn began to glow. "That is excellent news to hear," she stated. "Now, then, would you like to have a trot… somewhere more pleasing in the dreamscape?"

"Hell, I'll take anything over this massacre," Katie stated, nodding fervently as she spoke.

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

Sarah languidly sat up, eyes squinting as a faint light shone in through the guest room window. Some drool trickled out of the corner of her lip, but she ignored it and glanced down to find a pillow resting between her claws with a few small lacerations visible on the outer fabric. She lifted the pillow and flung it over her head, barely registering a soft thud when it hit the bedframe and landed on something.

A grumble tore her out of her trance, and she glanced to the side to find Fenrir sleeping next to her with the discarded pillow covering his eyes. "... my… my tail is not… a toy," he murmured, his muzzle scrunching just enough that Sarah could see bared teeth.

Sarah blinked, and she languidly rose a talon to wipe the accumulating drool that still dribbled from the corner of her mouth. She continued to watch the slumbering dog mumble incoherently, waiting until his lips covered his teeth before releasing a heavy sigh. She flinched when he turned so that his back faced her, which enabled his tail to swing towards her just enough to poke her with the protrusions that made it club-like.

Fenrir continued grumbling, "... you could… hurt yourself…"

Sarah dazedly rolled her eyes and shook her head, using a claw to brush the limb away while making sure that it didn't snag on the sheets or any part of her body. She made to climb out of the bed once that was dealt with, her movements slow and delicate, though she could not stop her talons from making tiny dull taps upon impact with the floor. She froze before her hooves could leave the bed, partly because Fenrir snarled and partly because the minute sound her claws made hit her ears.

"... you want… to what?" Fenrir growled, following up his reply with a throaty snore.

"N-nothing," Sarah murmured, garnering another snore as a response. She carefully slipped her hooves out of the bed, flinching when they made a set of dull thuds that were barely heard when another snore ripped through the room.

"... really?" Fenrir grumbled, shifting to lay on his back as his roommate turned to look at him. Immediately, Sarah went green in the face upon seeing a tent forming at the dog's loins, raising a claw to hold her muzzle as bile rose in her throat. She turned away and scampered to the door on two hooves and one claw, still clutching her mouth shut in the hope that she could keep her stomach's contents down.

Alas, she could only keep her mouth closed for so long. Right as she reached the door, she lifted her claw from her mouth and wound up vomiting upon the floor in quick succession. The splattering of the bile and the hippogryph's retching and heaving as she emptied her stomach reached Fenrir's ears, echoing just enough to rouse him from his slumber.

"... are you alright?" he murmured as soon as Sarah finished puking.

"N-no," Sarah groaned, backing away from the mess she made without turning around to meet Fenrir's gaze.

"What seems to be the matter?" Fenrir asked sleepily, sitting up in order to better look at his roommate in an attempt to figure out what her problem was.

"T-tent," Sarah croaked, and as soon as the reply left her mouth, she began retching again. Fenrir rose a brow, and lifted a paw to rub his eyes when it brushed against something under the cloth that made a small jolt run up his spine.

Fenrir slowly turned his muzzle downward, and his eyes widened as soon as he saw the tent that stood at his crotch. "I-I-I—" he stammered, his mouth drying out the longer he stared at the perpetrator that announced itself via lifting the blanket a few inches up. As he tried and failed to articulate something even remotely coherent, Sarah stopped gagging and managed to collect herself, though she still kept her back turned.

"Spit… it out already," Sarah groaned, frowning as Fenrir continued to stutter instead. She waited for a few moments, mentally preparing a response for whatever excuse he could conjure from under his tail, unaware that his gaze had moved from her to the puke that blemished the floor in front of the door. It wasn't until he spoke a full minute after seeing that puddle did her eyes widen.

"I... cannot control whatever primitive urges I have that may arise while I totter about in the realm of dreams. Answer me with sincerest honesty: have you found yourself able to do likewise, regardless of whether you are awake or in slumber?" Fenrir asked, crossing his arms and ignoring his concealed erection for the moment.

Sarah took one glance at the puddle of vomit she'd made and mutely shook her head, her face returning to its natural beige as she did so. She stiffened thereafter, ears perked and waiting for Fenrir to make another remark of some sort, only to be greeted with silence that began settling in—the uneasy sort that made her mouth dry out. So she decided to break the tense tranquility in a quivering, raspy voice, "U-um, a-are you going to… uh…"

Fenrir cut her off before she could finish, "I'll let it recede on its own. I'd advise you to find a bucket and mop before going back to sleep." Sarah nodded and made her way to the door again, swallowing heavily when the stench of her bile tickled her nostrils in such a displeasing manner that her face began going green again. She carefully stepped over it and opened the door before bumbling out, finding an assortment of unicorn guards that turned to her as soon as she waltzed out of her room.

A particular one with a yellow coat and a metallic band affixed on the base of his horn decided to pipe up, "Miss, are you well?"

Sarah shook her head. She glanced at each and every guard before asking, "Any of you know where the nearest cleaning supplies are at? I… kinda puked on the floor."

Her utterance caused the guards to exchange glances that betrayed worried flickers in their eyes and small frowns painting their muzzles. The one with the band around his horn was the first to turn back to the roused and green-faced guest before he sighed dejectedly. "I am afraid I don't know where the nearest cleaning supplies are at. I sincerely apologize for my ignorance," he said in a solemn tone.

"Likewise," almost all of the other guards chimed in unison. Sarah's eyes darted this way and that, and she spotted a lone pegasus that shook in place, his lilac wings twitching erratically.

"And you?" she asked the lilac guard, her pupils briefly dilating as she took in his shuddering stance.

"Zephyr Bolt knows," the yellow guard with the horn accessory piped up.

Zephyr stopped shaking and began seething on the spot, his head turning to the pony who dared open his claptrap. "Zi-Zircon! I-I don't know shit!" he snarled.

"Then why were you shaking?" Zircon asked incredulously, his eyes going half-lidded as he stared at Zephyr.

"I-I wasn't—" Zephyr began, but stopped when another door opened. Into the hall bumbled Maria, who strode in on two hooves and one claw, with the other claw rubbing at her eyes. Instantly, he turned to the filly and asked in a soft tone, "Are you alright?"

"Can't sleep," Maria replied, lowering her claw with a yawn leaving her mouth. "Had a bad dream."

Sarah tottered over to the foal with the green on her face once more receding and sighed. "Wanna take a walk with me for a few minutes?" she asked, frowning when she got a cringe of dusty brown wings as her answer. "I'll make sure nothing hurts you, alright?"

Maria stood there, wings still shaking as she contemplated this for a few seconds. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"Just to get a few things," Sarah answered, chuckling when Maria sat down, lifted a back hoof, and used said back hoof to scratch at the back of her ear. "You do realize you can scratch your ears with your claws, right?"

Maria dropped her hoof and grinned innocently. "Oops," she murmured.

"It's alright," Sarah chirped with a nod and a roll of her eyes. "Sometimes I do that, too. Now, wanna come with me?"

"Will it make the bad hippogryphs leave me alone when I sleep?" Maria asked, her grin faltering.

Sarah blinked and took a moment to glance at Zephyr and then Zircon. Both nodded to her, with the latter raising a front hoof reassuringly and the former stretching his wings like he had the urge to leave his post. Then the older hippogryph turned to the younger and answered, "Yes, it will."

"Okay," Maria chirped, and with that Sarah turned to Zircon and Zephyr before giving them a nod each. The two guards in question nodded back before they grouped with the hippogryphs and began tottering down the hall in unison, shoulder-by-shoulder. The quartet rounded the bend and cantered down a few moonlit halls in silence, with only the sound of hooves hitting and talons scratching at the crystal floor permeating throughout the air. It went like this for a few minutes.

"So, Zircon," Zephyr began, breaking the silence that had settled in, "why'd you get put back on guard duty? I thought you got in trouble."

Zircon sighed, a tight frown forming on his face as they rounded another bend. "The Emperor told me I was to fill in for Solid Step," he replied. "Something got him in a chokehold and knocked him out, or so I heard."

Zephyr's eyes widened. "Wait, something… attacked another member of our ranks?" he asked disbelievingly.

Zircon nodded. "I don't know the rest; don't press me for any more details," he stated with a shrug.

Sarah decided to interject, "Whoa whoa, back up. Something is loose, and took out a guard? This what I'm hearing?"

"Afraid so," Zircon confirmed with another nod. "Emperor Shining's not taking any chances."

Zephyr took the chance to snicker. "He'd rather have a clumsy pony whose horn's been in so many places keep watch than a serious threat running loose. Now that's a treat," he stated with a snort.

"I tripped, alright?!" Zircon began, in an attempt to defend himself.

"Yeah, and you caused one of our other guests to go crazy for a while! I heard all about it!" Zephyr chided, still snickering.

"Both of you, hush," Sarah cut in again with a snappish tone, rolling her eyes with a snort. The two guards shot incredulous looks at her, and she met their gazes with a narrow-eyed glare before she added, "It's in the past. Best to stop dwelling in it, unless you're going to poke fun at yourselves instead of each other." To punctuate her point, she turned to them both and bared her teeth at them, revealing flat molars accompanied by fearsome canines that glinted in the moonlight and a low snarl to go with it.

Both guards shuddered at the display, but only momentarily. "You heard the hippogryph," Zircon stated smugly, smirking at Zephyr as if he'd just won an argument with a vast majority of ponies all at once. The pegasus scoffed, but he said nothing more, and down a few more halls and to the second floor the quartet went without uttering another word. It wasn't until the latter stopped before a door at the eastmost end of one of the halls and opened it to reveal an assortment of cleaning supplies did anyone pipe up.

This time, it was Maria who spoke and pointed a talon at a broom simultaneously, "What's that stick thing?"

"A broom. But what I'm looking for is a mop and bucket," Sarah replied, her brow slanting slightly when Zephyr shot a look at her.

"It's probably dried up by now… unless you'd spend the elbow grease scrubbing it off the floor?" Zephyr asked with a slight frown on his muzzle.

"While I'm not a kitchen mare, I'd gladly clean up my own vomit if it meant removing the awful smell," Sarah replied with a nod. Zephyr nodded back and dove into the closet, trying his damnedest to find a mop and bucket or something even remotely close to the two objects in the inky darkness, but he stopped when Maria whimpered after a minute he spent searching.

He craned his neck and found the foal clinging to Sarah's left forelimb, ears pinned back and a wide-eyed look of terror on her face. Zircon was looking around, scowling as if he'd just seen something that could bring harm to the smallest of their current group. Sarah herself did likewise for a few seconds before lowering her head to nuzzle Maria tenderly. "It's okay," she murmured.

"What's wrong?" Zephyr asked, a brow quirking up.

Zircon turned to his affiliate. "Thought I just saw something ghost around a bend," he replied.

"'Something?'" Zephyr parroted, his brow going higher.

"B-black, l-looked scary," Maria piped up, shaking in place like she was bald all over again.

"It won't get you," Sarah said in a reassuring tone of voice, nuzzling the foal again. "Not while I'm here."

Zephyr shrugged and turned his attention back to the closet's contents and began rummaging through the stash once again. This time, however, he kept the act of trying to find a mop and bucket as quiet as possible, his ears folding back in case any other sort of noise came from behind. Aside from Sarah's well-intentioned murmurs and Maria's whimpering, in addition to the softened cling-clang of utensils as he continued to scrounge around and through them, the hall once more became deathly silent.

The very instant he let his hoof stray towards an object in the corner of the room, one whose figure was covered by his shadow at that, did he hear Zircon groan. "Zephyr, let's trade places. I can search the closet; you keep watch," he stated.

"But you're wearing a damn magic inhibitor!" Zephyr retorted, turning around to shoot a glare at Zircon.

"I can take it off for a few minutes. Besides, it's not like I could harm a fly just by casting a spell or two," Zircon said, turning to shoot Zephyr a small frown. The pegasus made to argue, but the instant he opened his mouth the unicorn lifted a hoof and deftly removed the inhibitor on his horn before letting its tip glow a bright green in color. Zephyr stumbled back a bit and shut his eyes tightly, momentarily blinded and barely registering the sounds of objects being lifted in the air.

"Oh, hey, there's a mop and bucket," Sarah piped up. Zephyr opened his eyes just a sliver, and sighed when he found that his affiliate had indeed gotten hold of a mop and bucket with a green-tinted magical aura, though the container in question was empty.

"Eh, looks like you're gonna have to fill it up," Zephyr remarked as Zircon shoved the objects into Sarah's claws, forcing her to both stand on her hooves and to shake Maria off of her left forelimb in the process. Then the unicorn reapplied his inhibitor with a hoof, causing the bright green light he made to fizzle out like a lit fuse of a dud bomb.

"I don't mind filling it up, really," Sarah stated with a shrug. She lifted a talon from the handle of the mop and gestured to the other end of the hall the group was in. "Shall we?"

"Let's," Zephyr replied with a nod, and he eagerly trotted out of the closet. He used a wing to grip the door handle and caused no less than two of his primary feathers to suddenly angle sharply downwards as he dragged the obstacle shut behind him. He released the knob as soon as the door was fully closed with a click reaching his ears, before he heard a coo and turned to Maria, finding that she gave him a set of raised brows and wide eyes.

"How'd you do that?" she asked, using one of her claws to gesture to the door knob in question.

"Now that I think about, I'd also like her to know about that sort of thing. Seems like a nifty trick to do with just your wing," Sarah piped up, also turning to the guard who used said limb to close the door behind himself.

Zephyr chuckled and donned a small, though serene, smile. He stretched his wings as wide as they could go and flexed them a bit, before doing something odd: he let them bend around the primary feathers, causing them to fold up like dextrous digits. The wings curled up like balled fists that were enlarged, and amidst the lilac protrusions, Sarah could faintly see long and finger-like joints.

The guard in question and held his gaze with the filly, letting his wings fully unfurl again, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "Equestrian pegasi have the wing equivalent to claws—we can grab, hold, and even carry things with our wings. It's an evolutionary… advantage, I guess you could say," he answered, his smile widening. When Maria tilted her head, he added, "Think of having large claws with a lot of feathers on our backs."

Maria turned to Sarah, her eyes widening some more and twinkling with awe. "Can I grab things with my wings?" she asked.

"Not if you don't have multiple digits in your wings," Zephyr answered, his smile faltering a little bit. He turned to Sarah and decided to venture further, "Say, can hippogryphs do what I did to the door? I don't think Fantasian gryphs and pegasi could do that, no offense."

Sarah smirked and let go of the bucket, only to spread her good wing to catch it before it could land on the floor. The handle was snagged on a feather-clad joint, causing some feathers to bend and reveal bare skin that marked said joint. She tilted her wing at a 45-degree angle and let the bucket slide further along by the handle, causing it to pull some feathers out in the process. In seconds, it stopped upon reaching an exposed fork in the limb signifying the presence of at least one more finger-like joint. "None taken," she chirped.

Zephyr took a few seconds to let the sight sink in. "I stand corrected," he stated, taking a few more seconds to chuckle heartily.

Sarah gave a faint wince, more at having some feathers pulled out by a bucket than the chuckling the guard had made. "Say, does the general have multiple wing-digits himself?" Zircon asked, turning to Zephyr with a grin on his own face.

"I saw his wings! He had four… uh, um…" Maria began, jumping up and down and flapping her own wings eagerly, humming as she struggled to mentally piece together an appropriate way to describe the wing-joints.

"He does have the wing-digits?" Zircon asked, turning to the filly who then eagerly nodded and ceased jumping.

"So does she," Sarah piped up, her now-freed claw forming into a fist with one talon pointing at Maria for emphasis. She then turned to said filly and added, "And not yet, as far as lifting things with your wings are concerned." Maria sighed, but she didn't argue, and off the four went once again.

They retraced their steps and made it to the third floor without incident. Though as they rounded their first bend of said floor, they paused upon hearing a fifth set of hooves echoing as soon as they stopped. Sarah glanced around once the fifth set of sounds faded seconds later, frowning. "Is that another guard?" she asked.

"Maybe," Zircon replied with a shrug. He made to speak further when the sounds began anew, this time louder and faster, as if their owner were galloping. For a minute or two, that was all they heard—until a dark silhouette darted past them from behind and right to the other side of the hall they stood in with one fluid, almost spectral motion. It vanished around another corner as soon as it had reached it, twisting as if it were a corkscrew that gained sentience in the process.

The only sound it made was a set of hooves hitting the floor, with some black fabric draped over its form that obscured most of its features as it came and went. Maria shrank and sidled closer to Sarah as soon as she caught sight of the fleeting form. "Wh-what was that?" she asked with wide eyes.

Zircon and Zephyr stiffened for a bit, before they scooted a little closer to the hippogryphs accompanying them. "I don't know what that is," Zephyr replied, his eyes narrowing as he let his gaze wander every inch of the path the form had taken.

Zircon frowned. "Stay close. It may he hostile, whatever it is," he warned.

Sarah nodded, and clutched the mop's handle tightly with one claw and a scowl set into her face. "Can I bash it, if it tries picking a fight with us?" she asked in a low hiss.

Zephyr shook his head, turning to her thereafter. "You'd be risking greater injury that way. Let me and Zircon handle it, should it try anything suspicious," he warned, now frowning himself.

Maria made to wrap her claws around Sarah's rear hoof, but froze before she could do so. "Is it… bad?" she asked in a trembling voice. The three adults turned to her, and saw her shaking once again. They opened their mouths, only to close them soundlessly as they realized they didn't have a definitive answer to give to the foal, much less evidence to back up whatever they could have said in that moment.

The three felt chills run up their spines when a hollow laugh, distant and low, rang out through the hall. Their ears fell back when they felt that someone—or something—began watching them, and they looked around to detect the source of the laughter, only to find nothing but faint moonlight shining through whatever windows it could and sparse shadows that had little to hide. Claws clenched tighter around the mop handle, a magic inhibitor was removed with a hoof, and a pair of lilac wings flared wide as they waited for any sign of life that had ill intentions.

Yet none came in the silence that had followed.