The four tensed, every fiber of their bodies going rigid as another hollow laugh echoed into the hall they'd still stood at the end of. Yet the source of the laughter, whatever it was, did not do anything else to let them know it was there; as if its owner were mocking them. Then, silence fell again, and the guards and hippogryphs exchanged worried glances amongst themselves. After a minute of tense tranquility passed, Zephyr spoke up, "Uh… should we head back to the guest rooms?"

"I don't think we should do that, not with—" Zircon stopped when another laugh rang out, and he waited patiently for it to end before continuing, "—whatever's making that incessant cackling running loose."

"So… we find that thing before I go back and clean my own vomit?" Sarah groaned, taking a moment to let her shoulders slump.

"We don't know what it can do," Zephyr stated, turning to Zircon and shaking his head. "Or if it'll attack."

"True, but it could still be a threat," Zircon replied, turning to his affiliate with a firm frown on his face. "And we have a little filly with us, for crying out loud! What if it takes us out, and we can't stop it from…" His voice lowered to a whisper as he finished, "performing unspeakable horrors, like what Sombra did to us?"

Zephyr stayed silent for what felt like a long while, letting Zircon's point sink in. He heard Maria whimper, and used one of his spread wings to gently caress her head reassuringly, sighing when she stopped making noise. Once the foal had stifled her soft mewls, the four flinched as they heard an echoing thud, punctuated by a distinct clang of metal.

"He has a point, as much as I hate saying it," Sarah said, her eyes narrowing. "A vomit puddle's one thing. Something that can and may hurt a foal's another."

Maria then sidled closer to Zephyr before climbing onto his back, using his outstretched wings as leverage. She tried not to hurt him, though he still winced before she got herself settled just behind the withers with her claws hanging onto his armor for dear life. "Sorry if I hurt you," she murmured.

"It's quite alright," Zephyr sighed, closing his wings slowly to avoid startling the filly into catapulting off of his back. "I can't control the fact that you have talons. Just don't poke me too much, okay?" he asked, turning to look at her and smiling as she nodded.

"Everypony set?" Zircon asked, turning to and then subsequently garnering nods from the other three. He nodded back and turned to the hall, using a hoof to gesture to the other end thereof. "Then let's stop dallying." With that, they made their way to the end of the corridor, all heads swiveling around in an attempt to detect movement the entire time.

They reached it without incident and turned down a corner at the left to begin going down another hall, though upon doing so spotted a blue-coated unicorn guard who was already lying on the floor a few paces away. "You alright?" Zephyr called out, his voice slightly wavering. His eyes widened when he didn't get an answer from the guard who was laying down. He turned to the others and got curt nods accompanying worried frowns.

They wasted no time coming up to the hapless sod, and then froze as soon as they saw the unfortunate pony, his face scrunched in pain and raspy breaths leaving a mouth that was slightly ajar. Bruises formed along his neck, blemishing his natural azure in purplish-black splotches that indicated something tried to strangle him, and in addition to that there was a peculiar metallic band around the base of his horn.

"Aquamarine! Are you okay?" Zephyr asked again, his pupils dilating as the blue unicorn shifted a bit.

Aquamarine forced his eyes open just a sliver, and he languidly turned his head to Zephyr. "Sh-shadow…" he rasped, his response so quiet it was nigh-unintelligible. "It… c-cut of my m-magic…"

"Shit…" Sarah grumbled under her breath, before she knelt down to look Aquamarine in the eye, being careful to avoid accidentally hitting him with the mop. "Think you can make it?" she asked, garnering a weak nod as a response.

Zircon's horn glowed, and his green magic embraced his fellow guard. Delicately, he slowly positioned the sod and then moved him to let him rest on his back, his legs briefly buckling when the stallion's weight was situated to where his falling off wouldn't be an immediate issue. "Just let me know if you need anything," he said, feeling Aquamarine nod against his neck.

"We'll have to get him to the guest rooms. He's gonna need to take it easy—sorry colt sounds like he has a frog in his throat," Zephyr groaned, turning to Sarah as she rose to stand once more.

"If whatever got him is strong enough to bruise him… and somehow bypass his neck armor in the process—" Sarah's ears began twitching, and she glanced around for a few seconds before her gaze fell on Aquamarine, "—then we'd best be very careful."

"Let's stay together." Zephyr, Maria, and Sarah turned to Zircon and raised incredulous brows. The unicorn in question turned to meet the triad of gazes and gave a small frown in return. "Our mysterious… specter may be working alone. It'll be more likely to leave us be than if we split up."

"But what if there's more than one of the bastards, and the one that pranced right past us just so happened to be one of a potential many?" Sarah retorted, her eyes narrowing. Zephyr and Zircon both froze at her utterance, sweat starting to bead on their faces and trailing down as it sank in. Another laugh bounced along the halls, reaching their ears and breaking them out of their trance, and hesitantly the group pressed forward with shaky steps.

A few minutes of silence passed, only filled by hooves hitting crystal and the occasional grunt from the guards. Thanks to the sluggish movements, the group had only reached the middle of the hall, and they paused when Aquamarine gave a particularly pained and shallow gasp. "Aqua, how are you holding up?" Zircon asked.

"F-fine," Aquamarine managed. He coughed for a few seconds, but started taking deep breaths afterwards. "Just… drained." The response made Zircon's brow raise, though he said nothing in response, and once again the group ceased stalling and moved towards the end of the hall. They still kept a vigil on the place even as they got to the end of the corridor, only to find it marked by another bend going right.

Sarah's ears twitched, and she decided to take point by striding through the bend. Zircon and Zephyr trotted near-silently behind her, though the occasional louder-than-expected thudding of their hooves as they briefly stumbled and caught themselves caused her ears to swivel back. She paused in the middle of the bend, and she outstretched her free claw to one side, which caused the guards behind her to halt just mere inches away from her. "Shhh."

Zircon and Zephyr stiffened, exchanging glances as Sarah lowered her claw slowly. Silence settled in, though only for a few seconds before a strangled cry broke it. "Get off of me!" a stallion's voice exclaimed, though the plea had only faintly echoed, accompanied by many dull thuds and the all-too-distinct clangs of metal.

Zephyr's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets as he heard the racket. "Flash Sentry!" he yelled, his wings spreading wide. "We gotta help him!" Before Sarah and Zircon could protest, the pegasus flapped his wings and bolted off down the rest of the bend, unwittingly dragging a startled Maria with him.

"Fuck!" Sarah exclaimed, her legs moving and propelling her onwards. She raced after Zephyr on her two hooves, dropping the bucket and clutching the mop in both claws like she intended to rush in and beat somepony into a pulp with it. Zircon took a few seconds to let a hoof connect with his face before he used his magic to pick up the discarded bucket and Aquamarine.

"Getting… sick," Aquamarine complained, his face turning green as Zircon turned to him.

"At least we have a bucket. Do your best to hold it in until we come to a stop," Zircon warned, garnering a weak nod from his wounded affiliate. Then, he too took off with said affiliate and the bucket in magical tow, bounding off after Sarah and Zephyr in a frenzied gallop. Upon finishing the bend himself, he could see Sarah darting ahead of him, as balanced as a kangaroo and as swift as a jackrabbit.

Past the upright gryph in question, however, he saw no sign of Zephyr or Maria, though he did hear the latter shrieking. The filly's cries became faint, and Zircon doubled his efforts as a result, yet in doing so had only managed to catch up to Sarah. "How do you run so fast on two legs?!" Zircon asked as they rounded another bend. Up ahead, Zephyr galloped on frantically before he turned down another hall, vanishing as fast as the two who followed him caught sight of his tail.

"You can blame my mom for passing that onto me," Sarah replied immediately, her claws clutching the mop tighter as she and Zircon continued their mad dash down the next hall in an attempt to keep up with the guard and foal up ahead. Their steps faltered, and they nearly tripped over their own hooves when they heard something screech, but caught themselves and pushed on when they heard Maria scream immediately after the screech registered in their minds.

They picked up the pace, desperate to stop whatever trouble was ahead before it could get any worse. The two—three, counting the still-levitating Aquamarine—reached the corner Zephyr ran past only moments ago to find him standing in another hall just ahead with Maria still on his back.

What was past Zephyr and the foal, however, caught their attention—there was a cloaked entity that had forced itself onto the back and had their hooves wrapped around the neck of one Flash Sentry, whose wings flapped madly. Orange feathers dislodged from the flailing limbs, and the shadow struggled to maintain its hold as the pegasus ascended and rammed his own backside into the ceiling, disorienting his attacker just enough that their hooves released his neck.

"Get the buck off of me!" Flash yelled, though his cry was breathless and strangled. He bucked his rear legs and angled himself at the same time, the sheer momentum of the movement causing his aggressive passenger to catapult off and land on the floor with a hard thud and sickening snap. The airborne guard huffed and wheezed, his eyes widening when his assailant just got right back up onto its hooves like nothing had happened.

But one front hoof slipped out from under its garbs, and he and the new arrivals could see that it was wrapped in ragged cloth that obscured its color. In addition to that, the limb was horribly twisted, dangling about at an unnatural angle. "This isn't over," it hissed in a hollow voice. "I'll get you all—every last guard, your so-called Emperor, and anypony else that gets in my way." Its hidden head turned to Sarah, and she could've sworn she saw a pair of eyes glaring at her under its cowl. "Mark. My. Words."

Before Flash and Zephyr could act, the figure turned to the nearest window and galloped to it on three legs prior to jumping out of it. "Wait!" Flash cried, darting to the window in an attempt to grab the entity before it could start its leap of faith, but he was just a second too late. The creature fell down, and Sarah and the other guards rushed to the window in time to see it finish its descent in an unusual way.

Some magical glow that looked purplish-black against the crystal street and in the moon's light embraced it before it could crash, halting its momentum like a spinning top being grabbed by a hoof. It then let itself down gently and immediately raced away down a few alleys thereafter, once again vanishing from sight.

"What a rotten load of horseapples!" Flash growled with narrowed eyes, stomping a back hoof and letting his wings slam shut in frustration. He felt a hoof on his armored withers, and turned to see Zephyr and Maria looking back at him.

"Take it easy. This is our home turf," Zephyr said coolly, donning a small smile. "That shadow won't be able to avoid us for long, not when the entire Empire's mapped out like a damn snowflake." He turned to Maria and added, "And sorry about that bumpy ride, kid. Guard instincts kicked in."

Maria nodded back, but she kept her gaze on Flash. "You okay?" she asked in a small voice.

Flash rose a hoof and rubbed his neck, wincing as he prodded at forming bruises. "I'm not doing so well…" he replied. "I'm definitely gonna take a nap tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I didn't sign up to get strangled by a cloaked stranger on my back."

Zircon let Aquamarine rest on his back again, using his magic to fork the bucket over to Sarah. "Should we get Emperor Armor, or what?" he asked, causing everypony else to look at him with incredulous brows raised.

Then they turned to Aquamarine when he spoke up, "Get… the Emperor." A pause, one brief and filled with confused grunts from both the other guards and the hippogryphs met his ears. Aquamarine huffed, "He'll know what… to do."

Zephyr and Flash exchanged glances, then turned back to Aquamarine. "Can you and Zircon return the guests to their rooms while we get the Emperor?" Flash asked.

Aquamarine languidly nodded. "Fhræm," he replied.

"What did he say?" Sarah asked, a brow quirked.

"He said yes," Flash translated. He turned to Maria and added, "Oh, and get off Zephyr's back. You need to go back to your room." The foal clambered off without complaint, and she rushed back to Sarah thereafter. Then, both pegasi spread their wings and jumped out the window, the sounds of flapping limbs heralding their departure.

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

In an expanse of a mostly-empty street that was heavily blanketed by silence stood Shining Armor and a dozen guards that had only their helmets on arranged in a single file line, all armed with bows hewn of blue crystal and nothing but. They carried quivers filled with similarly-built arrows, and a good fifteen or so yards from them stood flat stone targets that were upright thanks to sturdy crystal stands. Each one sported three white lines painted on their faces, dividing them into six even parts.

The Emperor stood before the targets, eyeing all of the assembled ponies present with a cold gaze that kept them glued to their spots. Sandwiched between two burly earth pony guards was Anna, armed with her stone-and-crystal bow and quiver full of similar arrows. She was wearing the dress that Rarity had sewn for her, her mane tied back thanks to the red ribbon and drill-baubles. She fidgeted for a moment, trying to suppress a frown, but found herself unable to do so with the tranquility that lingered.

So she took the opportunity to look at each guard's exposed cutie mark, frown deepening when she found a distinct lack of any that had either a bow, and arrow, or both in the mix. Three had shields, four had pikes, one had a pair of horseshoes, and the last four boasted swords on their hips. A niggling feeling began to sink in, only to amplify when she turned to face of one of the guards to find him looking back at her. Immediately, she turned right back to the targets, as if pretending she didn't just witness something indecent.

The two burly guards, meanwhile, let their gazes dart back and forth from their Emperor, to the stone targets, then to Anna and back again. One of them, with a steel grey coat and a sword cutie mark, decided to pipe up. "Emperor, why is one of our Fantasian guests standing among us?" he asked with a slight frown.

"She and I are doing a joint project—I decided to add a new event to this year's Faire, but to do that, I would require help and some testing beforehoof," Shining answered without fail, giving the grey guard no more than a brief look before he turned to Anna and nodded to her. "That's where our guest comes in. I needed somepony in the field of archery to help me set up targets and such."

The other burly guard, this one sporting an olive green coat and the horseshoes cutie mark, went and inserted his two bits. "How's it gonna spice up the Faire?" he questioned.

Shining donned a smirk with a sly cast to it. "Well, a couple of weeks before the barrier broke, a few of the citizens told me they wanted to practice their archery skills. Almost all of them had cutie marks related to the activity," he began in a calm, rather convincing tone of voice. "And I've been at a loss at how to satisfy that small bunch—"

The olive green guard had the temerity to cut Shining off, "So, this is for them, then?"

Shining paused, and he gave a small chuckle. "You could say that, and then some. However, the bows you carry are enchanted—how, I'm not certain. Which is why I have you all assembled tonight, to see what the enchantments are and what they can do. If I deem them safe enough, then we can carry on with this experimental event I have in mind," he replied. This caused the guards to exchange glances with one another, with almost none of them paying heed to Anna's presence.

After a few seconds passed, the grey guard used a hoof to point at Anna. "Is she gonna be a test subject or something?" he asked.

"More to simulate an average citizen around these parts," Shining replied with an amused snort. "That, and to pose a bit of a challenge for you lot, since I've selected you bunch because you lack archery-related cutie marks."

"Doesn't mean we still can't be good at archery," the olive green guard huffed.

"You do have a point, Peridot," Shining agreed with a nod, still grinning like a conniving bastard. "So, who's up first? Any volunteers?" None of the guards answered with words or gestures, and Shining opened his mouth to repeat his inquiry when he saw a tan-beige hoof marked by a golden horseshoe rise up between Peridot and the steel-grey guard.

At this, he laughed as the hoof dropped and Anna trotted no more than three paces ahead of the row, her horn already glowing and her magic gripping her bow. "Oh goody," Peridot grumbled, his brow furrowing as Anna pulled out an arrow from her quiver and poised her bow in front of her.

As the guest loaded the drawstring and pulled it taut, the steel grey guard nudged Peridot with a hoof. "Look at the arrow," he hissed with a firm frown.

"Why should I do that, Tempered Stone?" Peridot groaned, his eyes nonetheless falling on the arrow itself. The color of the crystal fletching and head changed to a fierce red, briefly pulsing before it was launched. When the projectile firmly embedded itself into the dead center of a target just seconds later, red crystals erupted from the arrow and spread onto the entire face of the target. They stayed like that prior to turning black and then dissipating into vermillion flames, which left the slab charred black.

The entire platoon jumped back in surprise, and Peridot and Stone scooted closer to their fellows and away from Anna. "Th-th… she knows crystal magic!" one of them yelled.

"Dark crystal magic!" Peridot cried, his eyes bugging out of their sockets.

It was around this time that Anna turned her head to the guards and let a hoof connect to her face, but she didn't bother to close her eyes as they momentarily turned crimson in color. This ended up making the guards freak out more, to the point they drew their bows and loaded arrows into the drawstrings. All of the loaded projectiles fell in her direction before Shining could have a chance to object to the notion. "Sombra's influence has reached her!" Stone exclaimed.

"Enough!" Shining barked in a voice loud enough to echo in the streets, forcing the guards to lower their weapons with his magic. "There is no way Sombra's influence has reached her! The Crystal Heart destroyed him, if I recall correctly! Last I checked, not even his magic could so much as crack the barrier between the worlds! All of you, calm down at once!"

Reluctantly, the guards shuffled back into a single file line, with Stone and Peridot leaving a space for Anna to settle in between them whenever she felt like it. Shining nodded to them, still juggling their weapons in his magic, firmly frowning at them in disapproval. He turned to Anna as she slowly slid her hoof along the bridge of her muzzle, and he saw her red irises just seconds before they reverted back to their green hue.

"What… explains the red eyes?" he asked in a much softer voice, which caused her to turn to him for a few seconds.

Anna immediately turned away, forelegs crossing together for a few seconds or so. "I'm… hexed," she murmured in a tone so low that Shining strained his ears to even hear her speak.

"Beg your pardon?" Shining asked, still keeping his voice low.

"I'm hexed," Anna repeated, this time loud enough for everypony else in the immediate vicinity to hear her. She still kept her gaze elsewhere, as if the mere act of meeting anypony's gaze at this point had potential to send them into another panicked frenzy.

Shining trotted up to her and lifted a hoof to let it rest on her withers. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

Anna shook her head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you how I got hexed," she mumbled in reply, a gait of shame in her tone. "Besides, I'm getting the feeling that I am currently surrounded by idiots," she added, removing an arrow from her quiver using her magic and gesturing to the guards present with it.

Shining nodded and waited for her to put her projectile back into its container before he tenderly patted her on the shoulder and then dropped his hoof. With that done, he wasted no time turning to once more scowl at his assembled guards.

"Her bow is enchanted. Her curse, whatever it is, may or may not have anything to do with her weaponry. Do not aim another arrow in her direction again. Am I understood?" he barked. When his troops nodded, he relinquished his magical hold on their bows and watched intently as they put their arrows back into their quivers. "Good." He turned to Anna and nodded to her once more. "Continue, please."

He trotted out of her way, and Anna sighed begrudgingly before loading another arrow into her drawstring. This time, the fletching and point changed to blue, and she fired without further hesitation. The second arrow landed smack-dab next to the first, and a thin layer of frost immediately accumulated and covered a fraction of the scorch marks the earlier flames left behind.

After that, she unloaded a third whose crystals turned yellow even before she plucked it out of her quiver, and when it connected solidly with the target golden sparks erupted all around it for a full second only to die another second later. Then she loaded three more and fired them all at once, each one landing on the target at the same time before she finally trotted to stand between Stone and Peridot. She paused to give them both glares, making them stiffen in response.

A full minute passed before Shining spoke up again. "Private Peridot, you're up," he barked. Peridot frantically nodded and trotted three steps ahead, putting the bow vertically in front of him and craning his neck to grasp the non-business end of an arrow with his teeth. Greenish-blue mana pulsed from his hooves and resonated through the street at first, before small crystal formations popped up with tealish power and gripped the bottom of the bow, keeping it upright.

"Good, for earth pony standards," Stone called out, chuckling when Peridot grumbled with the arrow still in his mouth. He watched as his affiliate loaded the projectile into the drawstring and pulled it taut, taking no more than a step back to ensure that he could actually fire the damned thing safely. The bow bent almost to breaking point, its string straining to hold itself. Both entities briefly glowed a bright blue, right until the very moment the projectile was released.

It whistled through the air and thunked on another target that was unmolested until then, and ice formed rapidly on a decent chunk of the stone surface. "Huh." Shining trotted to the target and inspected it thoroughly. "Frost arrows…" He thought this over for a minute. "Alright." He turned his attention back to the guards. "Let's have another few test rounds, just to be certain."

"Throhilte-chrischalkhit fhezhiit khomæcht," Stone grumbled as Peridot fell back into the line, leaving his bow where it was. Anna heard what he uttered and turned to him with a brow raised.

"What'd you say?" Anna asked, tilting her head when Stone turned to look at her. "I don't understand ancient alicorn."

"I didn't speak in ancient alicorn," Stone growled, unaware that Shining turned to look at him. "I spoke in my native tongue—it's Diamæntian, for your information."

"What did I hear?" Shining snapped, galloping over and skidding to a halt. The action grabbed Stone's attention, and he went wide-eyed as his Emperor glared at him.

Sweat began dotting Stone's brow. "Uh… nothing, Your Highness," he replied in a wavering voice.

Anna glanced between Shining and Stone, as if unaware of the fact that the pony next to her began oozing liquid bullets. "Can somepony fill me in here, please?" she asked.

Shining turned to her and sighed. "I could've sworn somepony called you a 'dark-crystal-making bitch' in a native tongue just now," he replied.

"I-it was Peridot!" Stone exclaimed, lifting a hoof and pointing it at his affiliate. Shining turned to said pony, who frantically shook his head and pointed back at Stone as if silently saying, 'Nu-uh, he did it!' with the gesture alone.

"Nyætch nogh!" Stone yelled when Shining turned back to him with another glare.

"Mhæ vherzi whuugh thofiigh, khamæ vriik khafriiveo dhimivræ hractæ!" Shining yelled back, watching as Stone's ears pinned back and his brow slanted, bullets of sweat now dripping down his face. "Ghreziilki?!" When the guard nodded, Shining's glare softened, but only a bit. It was then that he looked to Anna for a moment.

"I told him he'd undergo disciplinary action if I heard another peep out of him, and asked if he understood," Shining stated, garnering a wide-eyed look from Anna. "You don't understand Diamæntian?" he asked, getting a nod as his answer. "I see. Remind me to have a translator on hoof whenever I start going off in ancient tongue." He then turned to the palace, and could've sworn he saw something launching itself from a window, but it was too far away for him to properly discern what it was, let alone where it landed.

Then he found two more somethings launching from that same window, and his brow rose as they weaved around the palace in the air for a moment before homing in on the gathering. As they approached, he realized that they were two pegasus guards who were heading directly for him, one lilac and the other orange. His eyes widened when he saw that one of them sported fresh bruises on his neck as they got closer.

"What now?" Shining grumbled as the two pegasi swooped over in a smooth circle and landed in front of the targets. He turned to them and saw harried looks painting both faces.

"I-it's urgent, sir," Zephyr began with a shaky voice. "A-Aquamarine has been incapacitated, and Flash Sentry was a-attacked."