Hours passed, and as the sun started to set upon the horizon, a pinkish-mauve unicorn with three gemstones on her hips and a purple mane fiddled about with a small section of fencing surrounding a house. Her horn glowed brilliantly violet, and she was using her magic to adjust a peculiar plank at various angles until it stood upright. She released it for a few seconds, and groaned as it fell to the ground with a muffled clatter immediately after.

"Great, now I gotta buy a hammer and nails tomorrow…" she grumbled to herself, lifting a hoof and kicking at the stubborn plank before turning around to head for the opposite direction. "Note to self, make grocery list…" She turned to a fence gate that swung open in a passing breeze, which she trotted to and gently kicked closed prior to heading for the house.

She trotted to the door and lit up her horn before grasping the knob in a soft violet aura prior to flinging it open. Before she could set hoof inside, a set of galloping hooves reached her ears with such faintness she almost thought something was running away. The mare shrugged and trotted inside to a quaint living room with a table perched upon a rug, a couch beside that, and a small doorway that was closed at the far end.

A blond-maned unicorn filly sat in front of the table and scribbled on a piece of paper, using her mouth to hold and guide a pencil as steadily as she could. She stopped as the mare began speaking, "What'cha doing, Dinky?"

Dinky dropped the pencil and turned to the mare with a grin. "Sparkler, I'm doing my homework," she answered. She lifted a hoof and reached for the pencil, but stopped as her ears twitched and caught the growing thunder of galloping hooves. She turned to Sparkler, the pencil not even an inch away from her raised limb. "Is there another bunny stampede?" she asked, her smile fading in that moment.

"Last I checked, rabbits didn't have hooves," Sparkler answered as she raised a brow about an inch and turned back to the door. Said brow climbed up the rest of her forehead as she saw Twilight bumbling into view, who then skid to a halt at the fence gate. She blinked as her guest opened the gate with a hoof and immediately after made directly for the house Sparkler didn't quite finish entering yet.

"Oh, thank goodness you're still awake, Sparkler. Oh, you've no idea how much I've been running around Ponyville today," Twilight crowed as she trotted right up to her fellow mare with a smile on her face.

Sparkler returned the smile, though it faltered when she saw a faint sheen of sweat dotting Twilight's brow. "Was just gonna tuck in for the day, actually," she replied. "You need something?"

Twilight nodded. "Yes, actually. Would you be willing to care for Golden Oaks for a while?" she queried.

Sparkler's other brow rose up to join its mate. "Huh?" She eyed Twilight for some five seconds, blinking all the while. "Why?" she ventured.

Twilight's grin warbled a little, but she seized the muscles in her muzzle and cleared her throat before elaborating, "Well… to cut a long story drastically short, I'll be away for a while."

"How long is 'a while?'" Sparkler asked in a flat voice, brows dropping and then leveling so rigidly one could have rested a measuring tape on them.

"Anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. I don't know definitively. You see… I'm going on a diplomatic trip of sorts," Twilight deadpanned, her warbling grin fast dropping and fading with the grace of a cat that tumbled out of a wet bag.

Sparkler's brows shot up again. "To where?" she asked. All Twilight did to answer was lift a hoof and gesture skyward with it at a 45 degree angle, prompting Sparkler to look in the diagonal direction before gawking as she caught sight of the sister world. "You're pulling my tail, right?" she squeaked with pupils shrinking. She turned back to Twilight, only for her ears to fold back when she garnered a somber look and a shaking of the head.

"No, and I sincerely wish I was," Twilight replied in a low voice. Her face hardened and she added much more firmly, "But there's something wrong going on in Fantasia, and I only caught mere glimpses of it. There's hardly a compassionate, friendly soul there."

Sparkler's eyes went wide. She leaned in until she was muzzle to muzzle with Twilight. "Grouchy, or…"

"Worse," Twilight cut her off. "But I managed to run into a few friendly Fantasians. You saw the papers, right?"

Sparkler stared into Twilight's eyes, her jaw quivering as comprehension started to dawn onto her. "... the diplomats?" she guessed.

Twilight nodded. "And I can tell they need serious help. With what… I don't know exactly. I'll have to delve deeper into that rabbit hole just to get to the root of whatever the problem is. And since you were the town organizer before I came to Ponyville… would you be willing to look after the library in my place starting tomorrow morning?" she asked, her tone taking on a slightly hopeful note that Sparkler couldn't have missed.

Sparkler nodded. She pulled back, her own face hardening. "You can count on me…" She shot a brief glance over her shoulder at Dinky, who waved at her with a hoof, "And Dinky, if she wants."

Twilight donned a smile, reared up, and threw her forelegs around Sparkler's neck. "Oh thank you so much," she cooed as Sparkler returned the hug. They broke the embrace seconds later and exchanged awkward smiles that twitched to the point they seemed more like grimaces.

"One question… will Owlowiscious be at the library?" Sparkler asked, her ears slowly lifting up from the back of her head. "Because Dinky's… ah…"

Twilight shook her head. "He'll be going with me," she answered in a soft voice. "I'll head back to Golden Oaks; gotta do some things before I head off to Fantasia." She turned and started trotting away from the house, only to pause at the fence gate and crane her neck to look at Sparkler one last time. "Can you keep this secret?" she queried.

"Can and will do," Sparkler replied. Twilight smiled at her again and turned back before she let her horn start glowing. An aura surrounded her, and before it embraced her in an explosion of purple light, she barely heard a "Stick a cupcake in my eye, I Pinkie Promise to keep this secret," from Sparkler as she vanished from the lawn.

She promptly reappeared in her library, and the first thing she saw aside from floating colored splotches were cloaks, masks, and saddlebags laden on her Fantasian guests. Nolegs stood next to Spike, who had a great horned owl perched on the side of his head. In addition to that, she also spotted Harry and Angel behind Fluttershy, both of whom chittered with each other fervently.

On top of that, she spotted Tank still perched on Shining's head. She also caught sight of an ornate blue box with golden trimmings, inlaid by several gems dotting all four sides and the top, tied onto Applejack's back by rope and cloth.

As soon as she cleared her throat once the splotches of color stopped swimming in her eyes, all other sets of eyes turned to her when their owners finally noticed her. The only sound that broke the silence was a hoot from the owl. "We're all ready, I take it?" Twilight asked.

A series of nods, many voices uttering "yes," and growls and chitters and hoots and a meow answered all in perfect tandem before half their owners returned right back to their conversations. She then turned to the owl specifically. "Owlowiscious, you promise me not to hurt NoLegs for any reason beyond 'accidentally?'" she pressed, garnering another nod and a hoot in return.

Twilight turned to Applejack thereafter and did not hesitate to inquire, "Did you get the Elements of Harmony while I was gone?"

Applejack nodded curtly, and lifted a front hoof to lift the lid of the box slightly, revealing six golden objects gleaming within. "Tucked away nice 'n tight 'till we need 'em," she answered.

Twilight smiled and turned to the door, which she immediately found that Katie sat in front of. She had her orbs fixated on the wooden obstacle, as if waiting for it to do something. "Sun setting yet?" Katie asked, keeping her cloaked back turned to everyone else.

"Just about," Twilight answered, raising her brow when a rustling of cloth and something rather slick-sounding reached her ears seconds later.

She subsequently flinched when Katie slowly twisted her head in her direction, without moving the rest of her body, yet causing the hood of her cloak to turn with her in doing so. Everyone caught sight of a long, thin, pale tongue dangling from under the cloth and porcelain copy of a pony's face. The slender thing was wrapped around a portion of the base of the hood, and it was what gently tugged it along as her head turned.

"So fwe cah leaf sooh?" Katie queried, her tongue fiddling with the cloak as she spoke.

Twilight shook her head. "Not yet, and certainly not without your muzzle facing the same direction as your barrel," she replied. Katie nodded back and twisted her head around again, keeping her tongue on the small bunched-up bundle of cloth to reorient her cloak as she did so.

"Guess ponies are still out and about at this hour?" Natalie queried, garnering a look and a nod from Twilight.

"Not many, but there are some still out doing things on the route to the Friendship Express. Had to stop by and ask one of them something," Twilight answered in a soft tone. "Last thing we need any of them seeing is… ah…" She swallowed a lump before carefully finishing, "a cranium that can twist full circle with a long prehensile tongue on top of that."

"True enough," Lance piped up, his wings shifting a little under his cloak. He turned to Owlowiscious. "Does the owl eat meat around these parts?" he asked.

Twilight turned to him with a grimace, though she hesitantly nodded. "He usually hunts in the Everfree for his food, though," she answered in a low tone.

Lance turned to Twilight and sighed. "Oh, and before we hit the road and board the train…" He turned his attention to a shelf at the left side of the room, before zeroing in on Twilight again. "Got any books on weather manipulation? A little bird told me I would need some, and that you might've had a stock on that..."

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The Friendship Express rolled on into the night after it came to Ponyville, picked up a batch of train-goers and departed an hour after. Everyone had tucked away for the night, some still with their cloaks and masks on, with the exception of one lone soul who stayed up well into the midnight hour, several questions rolling through her mind as she sat on the edge of her bed. She scanned the pair of beds sitting directly opposite of her, never once taking her eyes off of them as their occupants softly dozed.

Sarah sighed softly, eyes more fixated on the sleeping form of Anna. "Took you three years to get your mark, huh…" she mumbled quietly, more to herself than to her sister. "There's something you're not telling me… is there?" Anna didn't stir in her bed, save for an unintelligible mumble leaving her lips.

She sighed again and turned to Lance, who was snoozing in the bunk above Anna with a book covering his eyes. "And how'd you recruit my sister… did you convince her of it, or is there something I'm not getting…?" she queried, half-expecting some sort of answer. "How did you two even meet in the first place?"

All she got was a snore and a murmur of "Pass the salmon" in return.

Sarah rolled her eyes and shook her head, her good wing twitching as she heard a rustling of blankets. She didn't bother looking towards the source, even as the noise persisted for a few seconds on end. In fact, it wasn't until she heard muffled thuds land upon the floor of the car did she tear her attention away from her sister and said sister's superior, frowning as she turned to the bed on her immediate right as paws landed against the floor.

A beak poked out a second later, followed by a pair of sable talons. Alexander yawned widely, the noise partially distorted by a sound akin to a keen, before he smacked his tongue against the roof of his upper mandible. Slowly, he looked to his right and then left, half-lidded eyes zeroing in on Sarah as soon as he caught sight of her. "What are you doing up?" he queried.

Sarah donned a small frown on her muzzle. "Half-tempted to ask you the same thing," she retorted.

Alexander yawned again. "If it's the 'I can't sleep' excuse, I won't argue. I've heard it enough times from my general and his small circle of second-in-commands," he snorted.

Sarah's lips twitched at their corners, and she managed a slight grimace at that. Her ears twitched as Alexander crawled out of the bed and gave his limbs a stretch, and she seized her facial muscles as she heard a few bones pop here and there. "General McGrouch got cranky one too many times?" she guessed.

Alexander shuddered and hesitantly nodded. "Yes. But Anna's worse than him some days, especially in heat…" he mumbled.

"How worse?" Sarah asked, her ears still twitching at the sound of another set of rustling sheets. She abruptly shifted her gaze towards her sister, who started flailing her back legs in her sleep.

Anna kicked off her sheets violently, revealing to Sarah that not all was as it seemed. Her sister's front hooves crossed awkwardly over her stomach as the rear ones kept flying every which-way they possibly could, prior to shifting up and back over her head. Her coat's hairs stuck out straight on their ends, and for some bizarre reason the flute of her cutie mark started to radiate a soft red aura that pulsed in time with her frenzied kicks.

What made Sarah jump out of the bed and rush over to Anna in a heartbeat with widened eyes, though, was what Anna managed to utter. A single, ominous, shuddering whimper of, "Please… stop..."

One second Anna was on the bed, and the next a pair of talons grappled her by the shoulders and yanked her bodily to the floor. She jolted instantly, eyes snapping open and mouth opening wide for a scream, only for the same talons that grappled her shoulders to shoot and wrap around her muzzle with lightning quickness. This ended up clamping it shut as fast as it had opened. The hooves began flying again, though now the front ones were reaching for the claws while the back ones struggled to find purchase on the floor.

"Calm down," Sarah ordered in a low voice, right as Anna's front hooves connected with both of her tarsi. The hooves slid off a second later, and when the struggling ceased entirely thereafter, Sarah slowly let go of her sister's muzzle.

Anna shifted her hooves under herself and rose to stand as soon as she realized that she was awake. She narrowed her eyes at Sarah, and her irises briefly flashed red as her cutie mark pulsed again. "The fuck was that for?" she hissed.

Sarah shifted to stand on all fours, not once flinching in the slightest under the gaze she received from her sibling. "You'd have woken everyone else up had your nightmare been allowed to progress," Alexander answered before Sarah could open her mouth, causing Anna to whirl around and level her glare at him. "It was not my idea," he added coolly, shaking his head.

Anna spun around again, and for a few seconds longer returned to glaring coldly at her sister. When her cutie mark stopped radiating a red aura, her face eased. "Could you not… throw me to the floor next time, please?" she asked, her tone soft.

Sarah nodded. "Can do," she answered, her nose scrunching slightly as a very faint scent wafted into the air. What it was, she couldn't pinpoint.

The scent intensified greatly as Anna whirled around again, and it took in a rather bitter hint as she trotted to Alexander. "Could you… ah, move please?" Anna asked, her voice still low.

Alexander nodded and stepped out of the way, and as soon as the path between her and the northernmost door was cleared, Anna broke out into a harried trot. The door opened with the aid of a swift flick of green magic as soon as she reached it, and without a second thought Anna trotted through it and closed it behind her. The very instant she left the car was the same instant that Sarah turned her attention back to Alexander.

"D-did… you see her cutie mark g-glow, or am I the one who's still dreaming here?" Sarah asked, ears folding back as Alexander slowly nodded.

"Ever since she'd acquired it, in fact, though especially whenever she goes into heat for some reason…" Alexander replied, frowning himself. He lifted a talon to the collar of his cloak and adjusted it slightly. "And considering it just happened while she was still asleep, the gates to hell might have just opened."

"She was in heat when she got her mark?" Sarah guessed, grimacing as Alexander's frown deepened a considerable margin.

"Yes, she was. But she was more or less alright before getting her mark," Alexander replied, his tone a little bit somber. "After… I can't quite say whether or not she'd changed, mark aside. I wasn't in the same place with her when she'd acquired it."

Sarah nodded. She stretched her good wing and trotted over to crawl into her bed. "Should we stay up until she gets back?" she asked as she started going under the sheets.

"She should be back soon, but if you want to wait for Anna to return, then be my guest," Alexander replied, his tail swishing as he turned and likewise cantered over to his bed. He crawled in with a snort, and after some rustling gave an utterance that sounded as though muffled by a pillow, "I should've brought nose plugs."

Sarah kept silent as the utterance reached her ears, her face turning a twinge of green as what he meant clicked in seconds later. "Oh, if he did my sister, his beak'll be the first thing to go…" Her eyes narrowed at the mere thought of her sister being mounted by Alexander, and her face turned greener as her stomach started forming knots and doing backflips in her abdomen.

Sarah turned back to Anna's empty bed, scowling with a face as green as her mane. Then she turned up to Lance's bed, and thankfully found that the sod within was still snoozing away with the book covering his eyes. A series of lewd and disturbing images flooded her mind in short order, and she lifted a talon to her own muzzle to keep it closed as she felt the tell-tale sign of bile rising up her throat. She turned away, forcing herself to swallow her own bile just as it reached the top of the tunnel.

A hideous acidic taste greeted her tongue before she could get it back down her gullet, but she did not open her mouth or remove her talon even as the bile fought with all its might to get out and enter the world. Even as it managed to flood her mouth to the point her cheeks expanded to make room, she did not yield to her body's desire to expunge itself. Swallowing again, she took a scant few seconds to breathe through her nose and fill her lungs with as much air as they could allow.

Her stomach churned in protest, still twisting in a fit. A few minutes passed as it threw its temper tantrum before it gave up and let Sarah swallow the bile without trying to shoot it back up. It gurgled angrily, depositing its contents down the back door and causing cramps in the process. Satisfied that her system had more or less calmed, Sarah crawled out of bed again, careful not to make any sudden movements to avoid agitating her stomach again.

She glanced about, finding that nobody else had stirred. Sarah sighed as she turned to the northernmost door and cantered over to it, her stomach giving off another gurgle as she went. "I wonder where my sister went…" she murmured, lifting a talon to try for the doorknob.

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Anna sat in a small bathroom with only a sink, a toilet, a toilet roll holder tacked to a wall, and an oaken door behind her. She rested her back against the door as she fell to her haunches, face flushed to hell and cutie mark once more pulsing. Her rear legs shook, and her tail swished nervously in tandem with her mark pulsing red. She stayed like that for several minutes on end, gaze fixed forward yet staring into the middle distance; the exact amount of time passing unknown to her.

Her horn glowed and her flute appeared in a flash of light once a few more minutes passed. The instrument was, likewise, also shimmering red, though the color was somewhat concealed by the green aura holding it in the air. Anna caught sight of very small runes carved into the object, and she swallowed a lump that formed in her throat.

The runes glowed the longer she stared at it, softly at first. Then the glow gradually overtook her green aura over the course of thirty seconds, shining a bright crimson that was ominous yet somehow enticing. She dropped the flute and watched it clatter noisily to the floor, and at once it hissed and rolled towards her. Anna took a few seconds to look at her cutie mark, sighing as the flute therein vanished in a red pulse.

Then she turned back to the flute as it stopped at one of her back hooves. It hissed on contact, but did little else. "Not tonight, you enchanted instrument," Anna mumbled, eyes narrowing as she stared at her flute. "Not tonight."

She pushed it away by shifting the hoof it stopped against, shuddering as it rolled back a few inches prior to returning to her hoof seconds later. Her ears twitched as a faint scritch-scratch echoed into the room, in perfect tandem with a clip-clop of hooves. Her horn glowed again and she snagged the flute in her magic before making it vanish, lifting a forehoof to her temples to probe a little.

Still warm, but not much more than usual. Her hoof dropped and she stood up. "No more fucking around," Anna mumbled as the scratching and clopping started to get louder. She turned to the door and used her magic to fling it open, only to yelp and stagger back as the knob hit her square in the side of her nose. Her hoof shot up again to the now-aching spot once she stilled. "Gah, forgot it opened inward…"

The scritching and clipping not only doubled as she mentally kicked herself for getting attacked by a door, but it then almost entirely stopped almost immediately after. "Anna? You okay?" a feminine voice asked from outside, echoing slightly.

"I-I'm fine," Anna stammered in reply, grimacing as she caught sight of a dark brown talon landing on the floor outside the door, followed by the rest of said talon's owner.

"That's good. Can I borrow the toilet for a few?" Sarah queried, her stomach giving a loud grumble as she spoke. Anna nodded and let Sarah trot in before she dropped her hoof again and trotted out, using her magic to close the door behind her to let her sister have some privacy.

Anna found herself in the car lined with a row of doors on both sides, and she shrugged and trotted to the southernmost door with a bit of a harried pace. "No sense staying up all night," she murmured to herself as she flung open the door with her magic as she got within five feet of it. Wasting not a second more heading for bed, she closed the doors behind her and crawled into her bunk as silently as she could manage.

She'd just settled beneath the covers when a head poked from above and grumbled something unintelligible, and she gave a grunt as she turned from her pillow to the source of the sound. "Yes, Lance?" she asked in an irritated voice.

Lance huffed and took a sharp whiff of air, eyes narrowing as a bitter scent tickled his nose. "Season again?" he asked flatly, his tone low so as to not rouse anyone else. When Anna nodded, he gave a displeased groan. "Remind me to get you the chastity gear once we get back to Fantasia."

Anna's horn glowed and, in a flash of light that made Lance squint his eyes, summoned a thick metal belt that looked more like a pair of underpants with a smaller, partially rectangular hole and another small hole a few inches under it. Both of these holes were settled between the much larger ones meant for the thighs and hips, and the whole thing was beset by softly shimmering runes carved into the metal itself.

"Brought it with me in case I went into heat here; just didn't apply it yet," she snorted, lifting the covers just enough to slide the contraption snugly beneath them.

Lance nodded. "Just put it on before you get back to sleep," he grumbled. With that, he pulled his head back, and Anna turned to her pillow and threw her face into it with a sigh of resignation. She fumbled for a bit, twiddling her front hooves and delaying putting on the belt for some seconds before sliding it behind her rear hooves.

She lifted her rump, steadying herself as she slid a back hoof into one hole of the contraption and then following up with the other. Her magic dragged the cool metal up her legs shortly after, never once letting it snag itself on the sheets that covered her rear end. As it did this, the partially-concealed aura grabbed her cloak and moved it up her back to keep it out of the way. Seconds ticked by, and the belt stopped for a little bit as Anna grappled her own tail in her magic and guided it through the larger half-rectangle hole prior to lifting it up the rest of the way.

As soon as it was secured and snugly in place her rear dropped down to the bed with a soft plomf; Anna gave a muffled sigh as she felt the metal brush up against her inner thighs and more sensitive spots. She took a few minutes to let herself get used to the accessory she now wore, letting it absorb some warmth just to make it a little bit more bearable to wear. Then she adjusted the blankets and cloak with one last flick of magic, all the while trying to keep her eyes from fluttering shut.

Alas, it was a losing battle, and she fell asleep after another minute had passed. Yet she didn't have time to dream, because not one second later hooves and claws reached her ears and roused her before she could go into a deep slumber. Keeping her eyes closed, she slowly turned to the source of the soft ruckus and grumbled something unintelligible as she felt a talon coming to rest on her withers.

"Before I go back to sleep, Anna, answer me this," Sarah began lowly, pausing to cough and clear her throat. "How'd you get into the army?"

Anna snorted and frowned a little at the query. "Extenuating circumstances, partially of my own volition," she replied, letting her head flop back onto the pillow as she spoke. "Long story." She left it at that, causing Sarah to let go of her withers and clench her talon into a fist.

"Well, wasn't that just a bunch of argle bargle? It almost sounded like she pulled it from her ass," Sarah muttered to herself in a low enough voice that Anna couldn't hear her, eyes narrowing. She turned her gaze upward, almost glaring at Lance's slumbering form. "Maybe I should join the ranks to see what all the fuss is about…" She turned and cantered back to bed, grumbling something about her sister and spilled beans as she crossed the distance and crawled in.

As Sarah crammed her face into her pillow upon settling in the bed, she gave an indignant sigh. Her broken wing gave an ache of protest, but at this point it was just a minor inconvenience and nothing more. "Can't beat 'em, may as well join 'em… at least my sister and I are alive," she mumbled into the pillow, her own eyes drifting closed.

Little did Sarah know that someone in particular with longer-than-usual ears heard every single bit of her fervor with Anna, and every utterance she made thereafter. Someone that likewise drifted asleep in short order, waiting for the dream world to whisk her away.