The door that creaked open just a little closed, and the pony behind it backpedaled as if she were facing down the business end of a loaded gunblade. For a few seconds, Natalie shook as if on the verge of hyperventilating, but she calmed down a bit when she took in the possibility that Discord may have lied.

The possibility thereof was likely; after all, this was the same creature that gave a book the ability to obscure her vision with a literal pie to the face, complete with her horn puncturing the aluminum base for good measure.

Her eyes widened nonetheless, and she also took in the possibility that he was telling the truth—and if NoLegs was indeed a witness, then…

She shook her head and turned to the bed to find a snoring Matt still snoozing away the day, blissfully unaware of the possible predicament that had a good chance to boil over any second now. She cantered over and climbed on the bed to perch next to him, her front hooves flying to his withers as soon as she was seated.

"Matt, Matt," Natalie implored in a frantic tone, sporting pinprick pupils and keeping her forehooves on her bedmate's withers. She started to shake him vigorously, yet all she managed to make him do was mumble incoherently. Her response was to merely keep shaking him with her hooves, persisting even as his sleep-murmurs took a turn for the strange.

"No… don't bunch my tail into a bun…" Matt murmured, his face tightening a little. "Ginger doesn't… go there…"

"For crying out loud," Natalie grumbled indignantly, her eyes narrowing as she continued to shake Matt in the hope that she could rouse him. "Wake up," she pleaded.

"Stop…" Matt murmured, a back leg twitching uncontrollably. "I didn't… take the cupcake…"

Natalie stopped for just long enough to lift a hoof, let it connect with the bridge of her muzzle, and release a long groan of annoyance in that order. Her horn lit up, and a blue aura grappled Matt by the muzzle and held it shut. She jumped off of the bed and sat down, and it wasn't long—in fact, it was only a few seconds—before he flailed his hooves everywhere. As soon as he started his kicking throes, she relinquished her magical hold, watching intently as his front hooves flew to his muzzle.

Matt opened his eyes and hastily glanced around the room before his gaze fell upon Natalie. He lowered his hooves and sighed. "Can you not make me think I'm drowning?" he asked.

"I would, if it wasn't urgent," Natalie replied snappishly, eyes narrowing some more.

At that utterance, Matt let a brow stray up until it met with the hairline of his forelock as his roommate's statement sank in. "How urgent?" he queried.

"Enough to make Lance snap kind of urgent," Natalie replied, donning a frown.

"Oh, joy," Matt scoffed in a sarcastic tone, his ears folding back at the mere implications of his companion's remark. "What is it?" When Natalie explained to him what Twilight and Discord had relayed to her, his pupils shrank as soon as she finished a few seconds later. "N-no way," he breathed, his mouth drying out.

"NoLegs went with them, or so I was told. If we asked him to send us a telepathic message or something to verify it, then we'd likely be in deep shit if it is true," Natalie hissed with a slow nod of her head. She stood up. "Let's find Lance. He couldn't have trotted far."

Matt nodded and rose from the bed before he hopped off and landed on the floor, and he took a second or two to ensure that he wouldn't fall on his face before galloping over to the door and flinging it open with his magic. Both he and Natalie rushed out of the room, though the latter took point and started galloping down the end of the hall that was marked with the bend. Her companion followed her closely, trying to assume a calm face, albeit one that twitched constantly with barely-restrained horror.

They rounded the bend and rushed down a hall, only to skid to a halt with front legs trampling about as they slowed to a full stop just at a corner before they could run over a bluish-purple pegasus guard who was stationed there. Said guard turned to them with flared wings and wide eyes, only to relax as he saw that it was simply two of the castle's guests. "Do you two need something?" he asked, a brow raising in tandem with his wings closing.

Matt and Natalie exchanged glances, then turned to the guard. The latter spoke up, "Have you seen Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and a small, legless blue cat?"

The guard nodded, and spread a wing to gesture to his left. "They went around that corner," he replied, before closing the limb and taking in their haggard appearances. "Are you two well?"

"Just galloped for a bit. We'll be fine," Matt replied, a back leg twitching in place.

"Y-yeah," Natalie added with a nod of her head, barely able to keep her front legs from trembling. "W-we'll be on our way." With that, they darted off once more, rounding the corner the guard directed them to in another frenzied gallop. The guard watched them as they vanished from sight, merely rolling his eyes as if he just watched an anvil land squarely on his Emperor's head for the upteempth time.

He shook his head as the sounds of two pairs of galloping hooves faded a bit and muttered under his breath, "Quirkiest bunch of visitors, I swear… they run like foals that are late to a birthday party." Then, he closed his eyes and mulled about, letting his mind swim from thought to thought in tandem with his breathing.

He jolted minutes later when a third pair of hooves rushed past and the resulting sound hit his ears, and his eyes snapped open as he saw a dark figure with something akin to a long garb flowing smoothly behind their form dart around the same corner that Matt and Natalie ran around. He instinctively spread his wings once the specter vanished and began flapping madly.

In a few seconds after that, he started flying in the direction that they took off towards before darting down some halls, following the sound of hooves hitting crystal and the dark form as it fled. "Stop!" he yelled, yet this caused the entity to simply gallop faster.

Nonetheless, he kept it in his sights, focusing more on the tail-end of the cloth-like object and less on the thing wearing it. He inched closer and closer to it in his pursuit, front hooves outstretched like mechanical cranes.

Right as he caught up to it, he snagged the cloth with his hooves and caused the thing to snap right into a halt. It turned to him, revealing a head concealed by a hood, and legs covered upon every square inch by what looked to be leather ribbons. It had one hoof raised, bent at a twisted angle, and it merely hissed at him—he flinched upon hearing it, as the noise was akin to a steaming kettle.

Then the shadow let a sickly orange glow embrace the long fabric, and a ripping sound filled the hall as the cloth started to tear at a seam close to its tail-end. The guard realized too late that he could smell rotting flesh as the blinding orange light grew from under the hood and promptly seized his vision when he made to let go of the cloth and lunge at the figure itself. The monochrome light wasted no time disorienting him and forcing him to land and close his wings, and the sod stumbled about as he heard the sound of retreating hooves and cloth tearing.

"You fool! You will regret trying to grapple with me!" the creature hissed as the sound of hooves faded while the light still assailed the guard's eyes.

When he managed to regain his vision a minute later, he scowled upon finding that the form had ditched him, and left a long thin sheet of worn and rust-colored cotton in its wake. His wings spread and he scooped up the cloth, and once more he flew onwards and darted up and down another series of corridors.

He could not find the accursed being, but in its stead he heard two sets of hooves instead of one echoing down another hall some minutes later. He barely caught sight of a long blond tail as it vanished down another corner as soon as the two sets of hooves on crystal reached his ears. He rounded it accordingly, and found the two Fantasian guests galloping ahead. He shouted, "Wait!"

The two skid to a halt and turned to him. "What now?" Natalie asked, whirling around to face the guard.

"Something rushed past me once you two left," the guard replied, a small frown on his face.

Matt and Natalie shared a glance, then turned to the guard with brows raised. "What?" the former asked.

"A dark figure. I couldn't get a good look at it, but it had a hood and a terribly-twisted front hoof. It smelled like garbage, too, and it ran like a yellow-bellied hen," the guard replied. "Could you two let me know if you see such a thing? And inform Shining Armor that Private Tanzanite saw a dark form running down a hall?" he asked, flying down to hand Natalie the fabric of red. "It also had this on it; it was all I managed to get from it."

Natalie nodded. "Can do," she replied with a small frown on her face as she took the cloth and made it vanish in a flare of blue light. With that, she and Matt took off running once more.

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

Lance rounded a bend, followed closely by Shining and Cadence, though Amethyst Maresbury wasn't with them. As they trotted down a hall, they were talking up a storm. "So now that we know why the Heart changes colors, tell me…" Shining paused, eliciting a shiver of concealed, bald wings as he spoke. After a few seconds, he finished, "how bad is Anna's curse?"

That managed to make Lance halt for just a second, and he turned to Shining with a brow raised. "How the—"

"She told me last night," Shining cut him off, a slight frown on his face. "Now, how bad is it?"

Lance began trotting again, though he didn't reply. Shining trotted faster to go shoulder-by-shoulder with him, and upon looking at the general's face thereafter he found a tight frown accompanied by a slanted brow and pinprick pupils. Silence seemed to firmly clutch the Fantasian stallion, and it felt as though something forced him to stare straight ahead with his face frozen in what Shining assumed was discomfort.

"Personal?" Shining pressed in a soft tone.

Lance mutely shook his head. "Did something happen?" Shining asked, and watched as the pegasus nodded that time. "How bad was it?"

"Almost… almost..." Lance replied in a low tone before he stopped and gulped heavily, and only now did the Emperor notice a tinge of red forming just under his eyes. His wings shuddered under his garment again, forming wrinkles in the black fabric as a result. "You do not want to know the specifics."

Shining nodded and turned to face ahead as the three rounded another bend and started going down a lengthy hall that was connected to many more halls, the corners of which were all marked by crystal columns. He heard Cadence pick up her pace, but it wasn't until he felt her brush up against him with a wingtip did he turn to her as she came up alongside him. "That's worrying," she whispered, frowning herself.

Shining nodded again, and he opened his mouth to reply when Lance piped up, "I can hear you two; you're both in earshot, you know." Shining closed his mouth and sighed through his nose in resignation, and he turned to Cadence to briefly nod before he jerked his attention straight ahead as he heard a fourth set of hooves hitting crystal that was accompanied by the meow of a cat. The three slowed as the fourth set became louder, and stopped entirely when Twilight Sparkle bumbled into view with NoLegs and Spike on her back.

NoLegs turned to the three first and meowed, instantly causing Twilight and Spike to turn to Lance, Shining, and Cadence. Shining smiled at his sister, but the grin soon fell when she shuffled a back hoof like somepony was trying to tug on it. Spike frowned, and clasped his claws together before he started to twiddle his thumbs. "Is something wrong?" Cadence asked, garnering three nods in response.

"Yeah…" Twilight craned her neck to look at NoLegs. "Are you able to perform telepathy?" she asked, garnering a nod and a meow in reply. The cat's tail glowed, and he waved the limb about for a few seconds before a blue aura sprang to life and wrapped itself around the heads of Shining, Cadence, and Lance.

The three donned vexed looks at first, as their minds filled with visions of bookshelves that were warped by magic, and then reverted at various points. Then they frowned, when the books themselves turned into various objects ranging from oil treatments to lava lamps. When the field of azure released their heads and the visions died down, Lance staggered a little towards Shining before stopping himself and gathering his composure. "The fuck was that?" he asked, turning pointedly towards NoLegs.

Twilight answered for the feline, "I had Discord take me, your cat, and Spike to all of the other libraries in Equestria to save time and trouble."

"And?" Lance pressed, turning to Twilight with eyes narrowing just a little.

"They…" Twilight paused to swallow a lump in her throat, mentally bracing herself for the possible worst that she had no hope of avoiding at this point. "The other libraries had nothing." Silence fell immediately after, and it lasted for a few tense minutes. Twilight and Lance stared at each other, one with sparks of fear dancing across her amethyst irises and the other with very faint vestiges of anger crackling about in crimson voids that seemed to be turning redder by the minute.

Finally, though, somepony broke the silence. Lance sighed deeply and closed his eyes, his brow furrowing for a few seconds as he spoke, "So… you're telling me… that, had me and my crew gone to the other libraries, we'd get frustrated as fuck?"

"That's basically it," Spike answered for Twilight, frowning slightly. "You would've just wasted your time."

Lance opened his eyes and let his expression ease as he turned to the small drake and nodded once. "Well, at least you had NoLegs back up that claim," he said simply.

Twilight and Spike's eyes immediately widened. "Wait, wait," the former spoke, her pupils shrinking. "You're not… angry?" she asked.

"I'll be honest: I'm angry alright. But, what good would it do if I exploded here and now? I can't control the libraries of this country—going off would be counterproductive," Lance replied coolly, blowing out another sigh through his nostrils. "Besides, if NoLegs went with you and saw what you saw… I have little reason to doubt your words."

Twilight and Spike exchanged glances, then turned back to the general with wide-eyed flabbergasted expressions that made them seem like fish out of water. "Why… are you inclined to… to believe the cat?" Twilight asked in a skeptical tone.

Lance turned to her and frowned, though only slightly. "Ask yourself this: why does he have access to armor and a sword?" he retorted. "Go ahead, take your time. I'll wait."

Shining and Cadence exchanged glances, then they turned to Lance with brows raised. "The cat has a sword and armor?" the latter asked.

NoLegs meowed, and his own magic embraced him as he waved his tail about again. Materializing in flashes of light, his armor and sword appeared and both floated next to him before he put on the former and strapped the latter over his shoulder, causing Cadence to look at him with a jaw that dropped open. "Who would, in their right mind, arm a cat?" she asked, turning to Twilight as if she could provide an answer for the phenomenon she just witnessed.

"... somepony who won't take any chances?" Twilight guessed, a hint of disbelief in her voice as she looked back at Cadence. "Either that, or… or somepony drafted the cat for some inane reason…" Her eyes widened at the mere thought of a legless feline being drafted, and slowly, she turned her gaze back to Lance. Her front legs twitched and almost buckled when he slowly nodded. "Why would you…"

"To cut a long story short, he proved himself," Lance replied, noting that Twilight looked as if he had the temerity to slap her right across the face. "It's… very complicated."

"The cat is part of your army…" Shining murmured, and he closed his eyes for a few seconds, standing there and just letting that bit of information soak in. "Sometimes I want to know what goes through that head of yours, Boltwing."

"You wouldn't want to know," Lance replied with a huff.

"Have you thought about drafting diamond dogs? You already have a gryphon and a changeling working under you," Shining stated seriously, turning to Lance with a hardened face. When Lance shook his head, a brow rose. "And why not?"

"That in itself is a long story. I'd probably have to drag you around Fantasia before giving it to you in a nutshell," Lance replied, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Shining donned a smile, one which sent shivers up Twilight and Spike's spines. "Then so be it," he replied. "I've let you into my territory, after all; you should let me into yours sometime. It's only fair."

Lance blew out another sigh. "Before I do that, though, I still have some business over here to take care of," he replied. He turned to meet Shining's gaze and donned a wry smile. "Is that alright with you?"

"Be my guest," Shining replied with a nod. "Just don—" he couldn't finish as he heard two more sets of galloping hooves rapidly approaching, and he barely turned around as a harried-looking Matt and Natalie rounded a corner homing in towards him.

He was wrapped in a blue aura and lifted into the air, turning to Cadence to find her horn glowing as she started madly flapping her wings to take to the air. Lance merely side-stepped out of the way, and Twilight did likewise as the two new arrivals skid to a halt and promptly crashed into two separate crystal columns barrel-first.

"Watch where you two are going!" Lance barked, an eye twitching as the two unicorns peeled themselves from the columns with sluggish nods of their heads. "Great googly moogly, what got you two worked up?" he asked.

"T-Twilight… told us… about the libraries," Natalie croaked as she fell onto her haunches for a few seconds. She stood up and turned to Lance on wobbly legs, her breathing ragged and her face turning a little blue.

"I was just informed myself," Lance replied with another huff.

The remark caused Matt to whirl around to stare at his superior with wide eyes. "Y-y-you were…" he stammered, but a curt nod from the pegasus managed to silence him.

"There's honestly nothing I can do about it. At most, I could raise hell at Celestia herself, but that would probably end badly," Lance stated, watching as the two slumped their shoulders. He gestured to NoLegs with a hoof. "It's a good thing NoLegs actually helped Twilight out, even if they yielded nothing."

"How so?" Matt asked, a brow raised.

"The cat and Twilight and Spike saved us a lot of hassle," Lance replied, a small smile forming on his face.

"And a lot of potential riots," Shining added with a wave of his hoof.

Twilight and Spike shared another glance, and both gulped in unison.

"Oh, and Shining?" Natalie asked, causing the stallion in question to look at her. When he nodded and motioned with a hoof to continue, she summoned up the sheet of cotton with a flash of magic and stated, "A guard named Tanzanite saw a dark figure running through the halls, one with a badly-hurt front hoof that reeked like rubbish. And apparently, it was running around with a bedsheet."

"A dark… figure… with a bedsheet. And a hurt front hoof..." Shining frowned immediately. "You sure of that?"

"Ask Private Tanzanite, not us. We were just told to relay it to you," Matt replied with a nod.

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

Night came without further incident, though now the halls seemed to be filled with tension. Private Tanzanite and Private Zircon were stationed along the guest rooms—just them, in addition to Flash Sentry, Zephyr Bolt, and Aquamarine. They had spears in their front hooves, and additional backup in the form of bows and quivers full of arrows strapped to their middles, with each weapon faintly gleaming as they shifted from time to time.

With them were Katie, Fenrir, Spike, NoLegs, and an undisguised Armin, with all sans Fenrir and Spike armed in case some hostile entity decided it was a good idea to pick a fight with one of them. Everyone had scowls set into their faces, and their ears constantly strained to scour out even the faintest of sounds.

Silence held firm, though the guards constantly eyed Armin and some strange, copper-colored, cannon-like object that he had strapped to his side. It was a strange contraption that sported tarnished gold gears and a clock face, with one of the clock hands warped, enlarged, and elongated. Said warped clock hand pointed outward, settled beside a gaping hole that served as the thing's muzzle.

None of the guards asked, though Flash's twitching mouth acting in tandem with his eyes darting to the strange contraption every few seconds indicated that he at least wanted to. Armin's horn briefly glowed and his and the other guards' heads were wrapped in sickly green for just a second as his voice echoed into their minds.

"It's a massive gun, built from scraps back home. It's what me and my fellow soldiers call the Accelerator," Armin telepathically said. He added, "My general would usually carry it himself, but his wings have compromised him. So it's in my hole-riddled hooves for the time being."

The assembled guards nodded, and took a few seconds to look down both ends of the hall. Only darkness greeted them, and it came with still more silence. Yet they stood vigil, always watching for any sign of life that could come from either end, hostile and otherwise.

Katie's ears twitched near-constantly, and her orbs dimmed at random intervals, as though she struggled with keeping them bright for longer than a few seconds. Even she could not hear anything coming or going, no matter how much her ears shifted about like satellite dishes. Spike repeatedly balled his claws into fists, his nose twitching with the occasional plume of smoke leaving his nostrils. His tail swished behind him like a club that was being tested for weight and efficiency.

NoLegs betrayed minimal movement, though the tip of his tail constantly hovered close to the hilt of his blade, just barely twitching as though he longed to stab something. Fenrir lay next to him, his body flush against the floor, his eyes almost fully closed and his forepaws sitting next to his head. The dog seemed to be asleep, but every once in a while he cracked an eye open and scanned the hall with it, like a duck keeping watch.

When a full hour passed and nothing dared to break the peace and quiet, Spike spoke up, "I'm starting to think we're on watch for nothing."

Tanzanite turned to Spike, a brow immediately raising as high as it could go. "Why do you think that?" he asked.

Spike turned to Tanzanite and snorted, which caused a few sparks of emerald flames and smoke pillars to climb out of his nostrils. "We're out here waiting for something… yet whatever it is, it hasn't shown up," he replied.

"Perhaps this unseen adversary of ours is lulling us into a state of false complacency," Fenrir piped up, the fur along his back briefly bristling as he spoke.

Armin turned to Fenrir. "So, something along the lines of the 'waiting for us to drop our guard and then striking' kinda deal?" he asked.

Fenrir nodded. "And for a few of the other guards scattered here and there, thus far they've succeeded. If our little obsidian-garbed mongrel wishes to seek further trouble with us this night, then that is simply where their buck stops," he replied, his brow furrowing.

"Because we're armed and there's, like, ten of us in this hall?" Katie guessed, turning to Fenrir with a brow raised.

"Precisely. Even if you and NoLegs were overwhelmed, the perpetrator of the attacks on the guards thus far would still very likely be subdued," Fenrir answered, his eye averting briefly to Katie as he spoke. "But that is if the entity who preys on guards when they have their backsides turned decides to meddle in our affairs."

"And a big if at that, if they have more than half a brain," Armin scoffed, his wing muscles shifting in a way that they buzzed, but the wings themselves didn't flap once. "Which would be likely, considering the few skirmishes happened in the last few days ended in their favor."

"I'm willing to bet it's our Wise Guy," Katie interjected. When Armin and Fenrir turned to her with brows raised, she rolled her orbs and added, "But then again, Wise Guy and Guard Fondler might be two separate beings."

"Guard Fondler?" Flash inquired, his wings ruffling a bit as he parroted the words.

Katie turned to him with a nod. "The pony or whatever that knocked some of your fellow guardsponies out," she elaborated. Then she turned to Armin. "You able to pick up any traces of magic?" she asked.

Armin flinched, his wings snapping upright as he turned back to his fellow changeling. "Y-yes?" he stammered.

"You think our Wise Guy might be a unicorn?" Katie continued, and made to speak further when she heard one of the guards clearing his throat. Both she and Armin turned to Zircon, who stared back at the latter.

"I saw our cloaked assailant use magic to stop themselves from becoming a bloodstain on the street after taking a leap of faith," Zircon stated, his eyes narrowing at the thought.

Flash turned to him and frowned. "At least that was one less mess for us to clean up," he pointed out.

Tanzanite spoke up, "And the bastard left me with a bedsheet and temporary blindness. They used an illumination spell that made my vision go orange."

Flash turned to his fellow pegasus. "Yeesh, that sounds bad. Were you close to nabbing 'em?" he asked.

"Oh, so close. My hooves were inches from its body," Tanzanite replied with a nod and a snort.

Flash sighed, and then he directed his attention to Armin, noticing his ears falling back. "If they're using magic, and you can sense it…" he trailed off, frowning for a bit. "Then… maybe we could stop their rampage this week, but I'd like it to cease before the Crystal Faire."

Armin blinked, and then he frowned. "Suppose that I get their magic signature befuddled with another pony's signature," he retorted, his brow slanting. "Or that they might be disguising their signature with some sort of anti-tracking spell."

Flash's frown deepened. "So, it's… unreliable at best, then?" he guessed.

Armin glumly nodded. "Most I can recognize, magic signature-wise, would be my superior's unicorn trinity and your Emperor's traces."

He fidgeted for a bit before continuing, "And I require love to power my spells. Thing is, I haven't eaten so much as a tablespoon's worth with what little magic I have left. My best shot would be, should we find our little Guard Fondler or Wise Guy—if they're different entities and your Emperor and my general actually allow it—to drain some from them."

The guards exchanged glances amongst themselves, prior to casting wary gazes on Armin. Zephyr piped up, "And they'd likely deny you permission to do so?"

"Yes. Which leaves tracking out of the question," Armin replied with a nod. "Besides, they'd probably taste bad."

"But the Crystal Empire's full of love right now, thanks to the recent Crystalling," Zircon stated, his ears falling back.

"Even changelings have their reservations. If I have to feed, I'll ask first. Besides, I'm not becoming skin and bones yet," Armin retorted.

"How weak is your magic right now?" Tanzanite ventured, a brow raised.

"Yeah. If it's as bad as you say it is, then maybe you should feed more often," Spike piped up, waving a claw as if to dismiss the thought that Armin's magic had gone sour.

Armin sighed and turned to Spike. "My general tends to be fussy about who I feed on. That, and I'm in your adoptive uncle's kingdom. It ain't that simple," he replied, and proceeded to let his horn glow, summoning forth a brilliant light of sickly emerald from its tip.

He maintained it for some seconds, but as they passed, his eyes closed, his brow furrowed and sweat started to bead on his forehead. When a full half-minute passed, his legs buckled as his mana fizzled out in a hissing series of sparks, and the glow died with.

"That bad?" Katie asked, garnering a shaky nod from Armin.

"O-okay," Armin managed, his voice a little raspy. "I-I may have underestimated… needed love intake." He took a few breaths and straightened his posture thereafter.

"It happens," Katie replied, her orbs brightening when Armin looked at her with a frown on his face. "I underestimated needed intake too, once. That's a mistake I won't repeat."

NoLegs meowed, and turned down towards the bend, only to hiss in that direction. Everyone whipped their heads around and froze for a few seconds as they saw a dark figure standing there, facing them in a rigid posture. Then it ghosted to the other end of the hall so fast and so suddenly that all they saw was a shadowy blur, and they turned their heads as it passed in an attempt to get a better glimpse at the damned thing. As it fled, it left an acrid aroma in its wake, though it was faint.

"Was that the figure?" Katie asked, being the first to turn to the other end of the hall as the thing vanished out of sight. She started pounding a hoof upon the floor, producing an echoing clang that resonated as a result.

"Very likely it," Flash replied, spreading his wings. "If we don't dally, we may find out who they are soon enough."

"I smelled necrosis, barely masked by several different ponies' scents as it moved past us," Fenrir snarled, rising up to stand on all fours. His head turned to where the thing had gone. "I could have sworn I smelled pegasus on its body."

"Is it alright for me to use my fire breath on them?" Spike asked, a firm frown settling onto his face.

"If they touch you and we can't block 'em fast enough, then go for it," Zephyr answered with a nod. "Bastard's cloaked anyway; I doubt your fire breath could harm them that much."

"Ooooh, I want to repay that cloaked bastard for trying to strangle me!" Aquamarine seethed, eyes narrowing to thin slits as he scraped a hoof against the floor several times, akin to a bull getting ready to charge. He glanced at the others just once as NoLegs grasped their spears in his magic and made them vanish, and took a few seconds to lift Spike from the floor to settle him on his back with his magic. "Let's get 'im before 'e attacks again! Zhæmf fhelsch khag avuut mortælik!"

The other guards whinnied in unison and parroted, "Zhæmf fhelsch khag avuut mortælik!"

The Fantasians, however, didn't need to be told twice—and all of them snarled at once. In seconds, they prepared with a few deep breaths and shifted into pouncing positions before they all took off running after the possibly-cloaked form.