Sarah stopped before she could reach the door. There was someone calling for the guards? Silence swept throughout the church, and with its coming it caused her mental gears to grind to an abrupt halt. But the gears jumpstarted once she heard an alarmed mew, followed by a series of hoots and chitters and low growls. She twisted around to find NoLegs and the other once-sleeping animals standing up and wide awake. All eyes panned around the room, accompanied by small frowns on their furry faces.

Rarity stood up and lowered her head, closing her eyes as a sigh of resignation left her mouth. "So much for peace and quiet," she bemoaned. "Well, let's see what the fuss is about… there's no use sitting around here dallying. Unless Natalie slips, or suffers some affliction that keeps her mouth running, whatever queries we have about her won't answer themselves."

Fenrir stood up, albeit slowly. "It is as you say," he conceded with a nod. "Yet…"

"Guards!" the voice from below yelled again, followed by the sound of another door being tossed open and that of still-scrambling hooves.

"Whoever is raising a ruckus might require some assistance, especially since the guards are on patrol as of now," Fenrir finished, turning to the door and sauntering his way towards Sarah.

Fluttershy stood up next, and with Rarity at her side, she cantered over likewise. Her ears fell flat against her head and she muttered, "Oh, I really hope it's not anything terrible. But why would someone just… waltz in and yell for the guards?"

"You could say that again," Rarity chimed in.

Fenrir snorted as he walked to the mares as Sarah opened the door. "For this issue, I'd wager a bunch of petty thieves having just gotten away with pillaging some unfortunate soul's wares," he mused with a wry grin forming on his face. "Either that, or a disturbing of the peace."

Sarah shrugged and strode into the hall, twisting around to face the ladder. "You never know," she mumbled under her breath. She trudged to the ladder, but stopped halfway down the hall before she could reach it when the sound of clanging metal hit her ears, and it was already repeating within a matter of seconds. Whether out of panic, anxiety, or some mixture of the two she couldn't tell.

At least, not immediately. Within seconds a blue unicorn stallion in a simple vest and bowtie came up to the second floor via the ladder, looking at her with wide eyes the very second he jumped off the railing and found solid wood beneath his hooves. "Wh-where are the guards?" he stammered, wheezing and panting between words. "And wh-why the hell is th-there a hippogryph in Whitefall?"

Sarah cantered to him; she decided to ignore his second query, and proceeded to answer his first, "The guards are out guarding the jewel at the northern side of town. They left as soon as they got done eating breakfast."

"A-and how do you know that?" the unicorn asked, his legs wobbling a little.

"They let me eat breakfast with them. Is it rude to not serve a guest?" Sarah retorted, frowning a little.

"But they… shouldn't serve…" the unicorn began, only to balk as he noticed Fenrir giving him a stare so level it almost seemed daring in itself. His breath, unsteady as it was, caught in his throat right then.

"They chose to serve us last night, thank you kindly. Now then: what do you wish the guards to do? It would seem you have something of dire importance on your hooves, considering you scrambled all the way to this abode by your lonesome," Fenrir stated, his tone calm and his voice clear. "So, tell us, please. We'll be sure to inform the guards in your stead."

The unicorn just stood there, letting out no more than a croak from his mouth. His gaze turned to Fenrir, and he only blanched further upon staring into his golden eyes, serene yet piercing all the same. It took him a few seconds to even open his mouth and attempt to articulate something coherent, but his jaw stammered so much on every word he may as well have been tripping over himself. "Th-the-the ba-bar… Ti-Tipsy T-Tankard… m-m-massive f-fight," were the only things out of his mouth that the group before him could hope to understand.

But that was all it took. Sarah lifted a talon and firmly clasped it on the unicorn's muzzle to keep him from rambling until he was blue in the face. "I think that's enough. You stay here and catch your breath, and we'll alert the guards, okay?" Sarah murmured in as comforting a voice as she could muster, making sure to accentuate her words with a subtle purr. The unicorn fixed his gaze upon her as she slowly lifted her talon from his muzzle.

"G-go ahead… I-I won't stop you," the unicorn uttered. He stepped aside to allow access to the ladder, and Sarah more than happily pranced to it and jumped on the railing. Once she started going down the ladder, the stallion turned to look at Fenrir again. "I-I thought…"

Fenrir slowly raised a very questioning brow. "That diamond dogs were no more than fairytale fiends?" he scoffed, garnering a hasty nod from the stallion the very moment the query left his lips. Fenrir donned a small smile and sauntered to the unicorn, before dropping to all fours to stare him right in the eyes.

His tail swished once and in a way that the pony could see it, arched over his back and its protrusions glinting wickedly as they caught light. "I can affirm that I am very much real," he murmured lowly, his smile widening just a teensy bit as the pony's legs buckled and he fell to the floor in a cowering heap.

With that, he turned to peer down the ladder, finding Sarah in the hall below. She waved a talon at him urgently, and he took that as his cue to head down to the first floor. Fluttershy trotted to the shuddering stallion with a frown, tilting her head only once Fenrir had gone out of sight. "Excuse me, um… what happened to the diamond dogs around here? If you don't mind me asking," she queried, just loud enough to be heard, yet soft enough to be soothing.

"They… the d-dogs… don't e-exist," the stallion mumbled in reply, his eyes growing to the size of saucers when he caught a glimpse of Fluttershy's wings. "P-pegasi… sh-should have b-bound w-wings," he added.

Fluttershy took an involuntary step back when his horn started to gather energy. She turned to Rarity, ears falling back when she saw another horn glowing. Rarity trotted forward, using her magic to gently scoot her friend to the ladder, her gaze fixed on the stallion who more or less crumpled under Fenrir's gaze. "And why, may I ask, should anypony's wings be bound?" Rarity huffed, her eyes narrowing just a smidgen. "And in what sense, strictly speaking?"

The stallion just huddled there, still shaking, his gaze not shifting in the slightest as Fluttershy gulped and hurried on her way to get on the ladder and then down it.

"Well?" Rarity pressed, leaning forward, her gaze now taking its turn boring into the unicorn. Her brow raised when he swallowed heavily, before getting his hooves situated and making an effort to stand on uncooperative legs. He tried to stare into her eyes as he rose, yet his gaze averted from hers.

"Just… b-bound…" he stammered. Rarity shook her head and trotted to the ladder, pausing to glare at him just once.

"I'm still not sure what you mean by that. I'll let the atrocious comments you have made slide—but just this once," she huffed before continuing on her way to the ladder. Her mind began whirring as she descended; what did that stallion mean by 'bound wings,' and how bad was the 'massive fight' he'd mentioned?

She decided to push the thoughts aside for now, knowing there was a chance she'd find out before the day was over. But diamond dogs not existing? That was so ludicrous she started to believe the pony was legitimately insane; there was no other explanation for his notion about diamond dogs not existing.

Yet Fenrir had to affirm he wasn't just some proverbial boogeymare. Rarity made a mental note to ask about that later, for now she had more pressing matters to attend to.

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

The Tipsy Tankard had fallen deathly silent, save for labored panting. A wobbling Laz and shuddering Rainbow tried to stand stiff as boards, one leaning against his spear for support and the other with wings gone numb as they eyed the disaster sprawled before them.

The other patrons were now very heavily bruised and battered. There were a few who had their horns broken off, some more had black eyes with hoof-shaped indents, many more had a broken leg or two, and all of them were draped across tables and chairs without care. Every single drunken face had eyes screwed shut, mouths open in silent screams of pain. Not one of them dared to move. Not one gave so much as a breath louder than that of a whisper.

Pinkie had ceased shaking in her seat, her gaze distant and unfocused. Zecora had her eyes shut, though not to the point of scrunching them up. "The bloodshed was needless, yet could have gone so much worse. I sincerely hope the taverns in these parts do not suffer the same curse," she muttered grimly.

"These guys couldn't hold a candle to a little colt. Where'd they learn to fight?" Laz queried, trying his best to get his labored breathing under control. While it was steadying, he was still wheezing. "Damn… haven't felt this sore since my last go with Matt and Natz."

Rainbow almost had to force herself to lift her wings. She turned to Laz as her numbed assets came to close at her sides with a begrudging ache. "I think it's because of all the clothes you're wearing," she muttered. Unlike Laz, she was barely gasping. When he turned to her and cocked his head, she elaborated, "Lots of clothes… lots of body heat, in a warm tavern… you're more or less a sitting duck."

Laz smiled and gave a dry laugh, realizing that his body did feel much warmer than before, and lifted a leg experimentally. It was more sluggish, and partially numb, especially at his joints. "Eh, I'll live," he managed in a sincere voice. With that, he trudged back to his seat and sat down, but not before pulling his chair back in its place with magic. Rainbow followed him and sat in her chair, her gaze still lingering on the other patrons scattered all over the place. Some small part of her was expecting one of them to get up and do something, yet still the pathetic lot remained motionless and silent.

Pinkie turned to Rainbow and managed a small frown. "C-can we avoid th-the taverns from n-now on?" she asked. "B-because I don't w-want to see th-this again."

"On that front, I will not hesitate to wholeheartedly agree," Zecora answered with a nod. "We had best not get ensnared like this again, but should it happen I think it wise to flee."

The trio turned back to Laz, just in time to see his sclera return to a natural shade of white. Then, his irises became blue once more, before his spear vanished in a flare of light. After that, his shoulders sagged and he sighed. "Not fond of violence?" he asked, garnering hasty nods.

"I'm more of a fighter though," Rainbow chipped in. "But only when I need to be."

Laz gave a rather sluggish nod. "Oh, you'd give Matt and Natz a headache with the moves you've pulled. I doubt they could even catch you with their magic, given how fast you fly," he chirped, his grin widening. "Hell, I could barely track you myself!"

Rainbow gave a brief flinch of her shoulders, unsure if Laz truly meant everything behind his compliments. "Drunk ponies are easy to take down. Those two? I haven't seen much of what they could do," she muttered in earnest.

Laz jolted, his pupils shrinking as his grin fell. It took him a few seconds to process what Rainbow had just uttered. "Wait… you've not seen them in action?" he asked in a sincere tone of voice.

Rainbow shook her head. "Most I've seen was when they, their grouchy general Lance, and their friend Anna took down some wraiths," she answered with a shrug. "The wraiths barely even put up a fight."

Laz's eyes widened. "Anna? Oh… oh no. You need to watch yourself around that one." His tone was low and ominous, and the frown that tugged at his lips only gave the impression that he didn't like talking about Anna. "That one is nucking futs."

Rainbow raised a questioning brow. "Nucking futs? She didn't look that way when I first met her," she mumbled.

Laz's frown only deepened, and his head shook gravely. "That's because you haven't royally pissed her off yet. I've… heard unpleasant things about her. Once she's mad, and if nobody can stop her anger in its tracks in time, she could do serious damage."

Rainbow's brow only continued to climb higher. Something definitely wasn't right. "Define 'serious damage,'" she stated.

Laz gave a shudder, one that shook his hood. "I've heard of a few ponies who confronted her in the past; foolish souls, the whole lot of them. Trotted right up to Anna while she was training, sporting black armor and making insane demands for her to bend over in broad daylight in the middle of some unicorn-centric village. She snapped and killed them on the spot, but… she left no visible wounds on them," he hissed, lips twitching in an effort to keep from outright grimacing.

"My guess? She used magic to re-organize their internals in such a way they bled without coughing blood, but it's only a guess because I haven't seen her do something that drastic. That's just one of many unsavory tales I've picked up on her." Laz gave another shudder and his frown deepened. He added, "I've heard those ponies she killed somehow got right back up and trudged away. Their coats fell out not long after."

Rainbow's brow was now brushing up against the base of her forelock. "And how long ago was this?" she queried.

Laz gulped audibly. "I've heard she was only a private in a military then. The pony who told me this… said it was two years and ten months ago that this happened," he muttered. "And the thing my eyes did earlier? I've heard hers do it, too."

Rainbow balked. "I've seen her eyes turn red for a few seconds," she hissed. "I still don't know what that's about."

The hood on Laz's head shifted, giving the impression of ears folding back. "Whatever you do around her, if you do run into her again…" He swallowed heavily. "Don't. Enrage. Her. Once her handle on that… fiend she keeps consigned to the deepest pits of her mind goes off, she won't rest until whatever awakened it has been either been taken into custody, has managed to somehow incapacitate her, or failing any of those things, gets impaled by thorns."

"If her eyes turn fully red, whites and all, I'd suggest running. As far as you can. Godcat help you if she manages to snatch you," Laz warned, grimacing as the words left his mouth. "I don't know how strong she is exactly, but she should not be taken lightly. Don't let her unleash her full power if you can help it."

Rainbow could only nod, wondering why Laz was so keen to tell them all of this. Regardless, she stood up from her seat, and so did Zecora and Pinkie. Both also gave mute nods, still processing what he'd just relayed. "We'll watch our cutie marks. It was…" Rainbow paused, pursing her lips as she racked her brain for a way to finish her sentence, "strange, but a little nice talking to you."

Laz nodded back and waved them off with a hoof. "I'll stick around to endure the barkeep's bitching. You three had best head off." The trio didn't need to be told twice; within seconds they hurried along to the door, carefully stepping around unconscious patrons as they went. They opened the door upon reaching it and trotted out into Whitefall, but not before looking back at Laz to find him nodding once more.

Once the door closed behind them, and they were in the street again, Rainbow sighed as she and her group turned to start trotting back to the church. A palpable silence fell on Whitefall; the foals and adults they'd seen earlier seemed to have vanished without trace, save barely-noticeable prints that were filling in with another fresh wave of snow. Had they, perhaps, heard the fighting patrons and gone home? Or did the barkeep tip them off the very moment he bolted from the scene?

Rainbow shuddered, her wings fluffing a little as she, Pinkie, and Zecora rounded a bend. Either way, a feeling of unease settled deep within her gut, twisting her stomach into a cramping knot that sent painful tingles through her nerves with each step she took. The pain was dulled only by the snow crunching beneath her hooves. She turned to Pinkie and frowned. "Say… do you have any idea why Laz just started spouting? His talking about Anna was really creepy," she mused.

Pinkie turned to Rainbow and shrugged. "I haven't the foggiest, Dash. Anna doesn't seem like a pony who would be a terrible monster in secret. Unless you're a wraith, and then she'll hurt you," she replied in earnest. "Or if you hurt a foal while she's there."

"Regardless, I think we should heed his warning. Otherwise, we could be in potential mourning," Zecora intoned, punctuating her statement with a very reluctant sigh. "She can drive the Everfree's clouds away with but a flute-song; who knows what else she could have have done if that song had prolonged."

Rainbow sighed, nodding in mute agreement. She'd only seen a small blunder of what Anna could do. Whether or not Laz was right, it was best to take some measure of caution nonetheless. "Do you think we could ask her for a demonstration? Because now that you mention it, I dunno what other spells she could know," Pinkie piped up.

Rainbow leveled a vexed look at Pinkie, both brows twitching in a threat to climb up her forehead. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. Maybe we'd have to talk to Lance first; he's the one who gives the OK to his troops," she replied.

"On that I agree. I'd rather avoid any damage that can be foreseen," Zecora added with a feverish nod of her head. "And while we're on the subject, I don't think asking Lance would be wise. It could very well be a death wish in his eyes."

"True enough," Rainbow agreed with a nod and a fanning of her wings. One wing curled forward, and a primary feather brushed up against her chin almost like a tapping hoof. "That, and we don't know what he gives the OK to, apple-bucking help and removing foals from terrible places aside." A smile graced her muzzle as an absurd idea crossed her mind. "Maybe he advocates tribe unification or something."

They rounded another street, and Pinkie groaned. "Dash, that's implying Fantasia hasn't had a unification yet. We still don't know whether or not the tribes are doing awful things to each other," she pointed out.

Rainbow's wings flared indignantly. She turned to Pinkie with her smile turning upside-down. "But we know that they could be doing it; how and where aren't as important as the did! Lance's wings are proof enough of that!" she exclaimed, her face twitching as she struggled to keep a scowl at bay.

Pinkie deflated a little, frowning as she considered Rainbow's argument. "You know… that makes me wonder… why's he the ruler of his roost, and not Matt?" she asked, tilting her head. "Especially since the tribes might not have unified yet, or have but are still not comfortable with each other… it doesn't make sense."

Rainbow's wings closed, and her face stopped twitching. Pinkie had raised a very valid point. She sighed, deciding to not ask any more questions. Things were already confusing enough, and asking questions left and right would only take her so far. She turned to face the road, with Laz's warning echoing in her mind. "Don't. Enrage. Her."

If a stranger that could barely pass as acquaintance was the one giving the warning, then how bad was Anna truly? She shuddered again, only to halt in her tracks as a loud, masculine scream rang out, piercing the once-quiet air of Whitefall. "What the?!" Rainbow flared her wings and took off towards the source of the noise, giving herself no time to prepare for what she was about to find. Zecora and Pinkie bolted after her, having heard the noise as well. They, too, would be caught off-guard.

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

Anna and her group stopped just feet away from the chainlink fencing and looked up as a portal formed in the sky, crackling with lightning that was strangely plaid-colored. "What in the name of Godcat is that?" Anna asked.

"I am now under the impression that space can be warped, and time can thus be bendable," Katie stated, shaking her head as a familiar two-horned goat head poked out of the portal. "Alright, what do you want?"

Discord grinned, and thrust out a paw that was clasped around the leg of a dangling, half-rock stallion that had Anna tensing the moment she saw him. "Just wanted to drop by and say that Celestia decreed this pony's banishment. Oh, and she also told me to let you know that, because of the hotel incident, she'll make sure to have a room in the reserves next time you guys drop by," he answered, unceremoniously dropping the stallion before watching him land face-first in the snow.

"So that's why we had to sleep in a hellhole?!" Lance barked, turning to Discord with narrowed eyes and grinding teeth. "Because there were no other places left?!"

"There were so many nobles and delegates from Yakyakistan and Griffonstone and Mareitania that there wasn't any room left for you and your bunch. Canterlot's smaller than even Ponyville, on account of being built upon a mountain, my dear General. Half the nobles in Canterlot are stuffy and not particularly willing to share on top of that," Discord stated with a sigh, turning to look at the stallion he dropped for a brief second.

"I'm willing to bet one of those stuffy nobles vacated that particular hotel just for you lot the very moment you showed your faces. Of course, if they did, then Celestia might've found out by now. Perhaps somepony else ratted them out; I don't really know, I'm not a politics kind of guy," he added, turning to look at his paw's nails. "The delegates got free housing, and Celestia had to boot one out to let you in. The one that got the boot was going home anyway, so I'd heard."

Katie turned to the stallion Discord dropped, instantly recognizing a half-buried gemstone cutie mark. "Why banish this fuckface? He could do more damage!" she pointed out, turning back to Discord and thrusting an accusing hoof in the stallion's direction.

Discord donned a small frown, further framed by half-lidded eyes. "Because he's a wraith, and an immortal one at that. Any conventional punishments for mortals is pointless. That, and the moon's too good for him, so I figured I'd let you guys deal with him again. I shall now go back to watching Fluttershy's animals. Ta-ta now, and be good," he answered. With that, he pulled back into the portal and it closed seamlessly behind him.

The group turned to the seemingly-stunned form of one Chocolate Soufflé as he laid there in the snow. It took him some seconds to even move, let alone shift his hooves under him to make an effort to stand. Katie noticed that his bad hoof was simply gone, and in its place was a vaguely-hoof-shaped hunk of black crystal fused to his leg.

Lance ignored Chocolate for the moment, instead directing his scowl at Blueblood. "Is what Discord said about cramped housing true?" he hissed.

Blueblood nodded slowly, and sighed as he turned to face the music. "Yes. Before you were escorted into the Parliament, some of the other nobles… suggested that Equestria and the other Mythonian nations shouldn't even attempt to contact a Fantasian leader. But alas, that went up in smoke," he answered.

Bartholomew and Andrew exchanged glances, before turning to Blueblood for an explanation as to what happened. Blueblood saw them in the corner of his eye and waved a hoof in their direction. "It's a particularly long story, and I'm not sure how to sum the whole thing up in a nice and tidy nutshell," he stated.

All eyes then turned to Chocolate as he finally got himself situated, finding a pair of red-orange orbs spinning in their black canvases and a mouth that had fully split at some point. The lower jaw dangled seemingly uselessly, but what caught Katie's attention in particular was a black crystal that jutted up before the stump of his horn. It had grown a great deal, sporting a good few inches on its own, seemingly a horn in its own right now. "Look, a defective bicorn!" she jeered.

Chocolate didn't seem to hear the remark. He stood there, orbs still spinning, looking relatively dazed. It wasn't until Anna trotted over and waved a hoof in front of his face did he shake his head and look around. As soon as he noticed who was standing next to him, he lifted a hoof—the one that wasn't crystal—and struck her right across the face with it, causing her to stumble back.

Anna hissed, "That sure brought back some unpleasant memories." She turned to glare at Chocolate, her horn glowing. "Either beat it, or take an arrow up the ass." Several blasts of light exploded around her, conjuring a few dozen or so crystal-tipped arrows. "Your choice."

Chocolate rolled his orbs and reeled in his jaw. "You're making the vast assumption I even have an ass anymore," he snarked.

Anna didn't falter in the slightest. Her irises began turning red at the very centers. "Like hell that'll stop me," she scoffed.

Twilight turned to Lance, but grimaced as she found him shaking his head. "Given his banishment, there's not much I can do," he stated. "Let them sort this out."

Katie nodded hastily when Twilight turned to her. "Nope. He dug himself into this hole. He'll fucking sit in it," she hissed, watching Chocolate study the assortment of arrows poised in his direction.

"Daddy, why does that pony have rocks on him? It's making him look funny," Maria piped up, causing Chocolate to seize up and sputter on the spot. "And I thought his small—" Katie flew over to Maria in a heartbeat and stretched her tongue out as far as it could go before wrapping a good third of it around her muzzle to keep it shut.

Lance turned to Katie as she came to rest behind Maria and nodded approvingly. "Remind me to talk to her about that later," he stated before turning to Chocolate. "Nonetheless, she does have a legitimate question: why the hell are you growing rocks?"

Chocolate shook his head to snap himself out of his stupor before leveling a glare at Lance. "That's none of your concern, you cock-blocking mongrel!" he hissed.

Lance slowly raised a brow. "I don't think I deserve the term 'cock-blocker.'" He snorted, and his eyes narrowed to slits. "Now answer my foal's question: why are you growing rocks?"

Chocolate turned away, facing Anna again. The arrows were still poised to strike. "What? You gonna turn me into a pincushion?" he snarked.

"I'm impressed," Blueblood interjected, his utterance causing Chocolate to turn to him with a questioning brow raised.

"Impressed? Over what?" Chocolate asked, tilting his head a little.

"That she's even showing a modicum of restraint. And considering your atrocious act has reached every newspaper in Equestria's four corners… that says quite a lot," Blueblood snorted derisively. "It's almost as if…" He studied the still-floating arrows for a few seconds, "dare I say, you're not worth her ire."

Bartholomew and Andrew looked between Chocolate and Anna. Twilight saw them doing so from the corner of her eye. "I'll tell you two what he did later," Anna mumbled before Twilight could even open her mouth.

Chocolate decided he wasn't going to stand around doing nothing anymore. He charged towards Anna, his second horn leveled at her throat, closing the distance before skidding to a halt when she vanished in a flash of bright green light. He shook his head, orbs widening when he saw she left nothing more behind than a set of hoofprints; even the arrows went with her. "Wh-what is the meaning of this?!" he stammered, immediately glancing around in every direction he could, even whirling around to scan the surrounding landscape in full.

He soon spotted a flash of light, which then revealed the tell-tale splash of green standing on a shingled roof a few paces away. The arrows, however, were not with her now—yet her horn was still aglow. Shaking his head again, Chocolate galloped to the house Anna was now standing on, his orbs fixed on her location.

Lance idly looked up as Chocolate charged onward, spotting every single arrow Anna conjured levitating in the sky in a massive cluster. Each point slowly turned as he ran, tracking his every move. He turned back to Chocolate and could not stop himself from grinning as Chocolate skid to a halt before the house, finding that he ran into a little problem.

Namely, he couldn't simply scale the house to reach his quarry. So Chocolate did the next best thing: he reared up on his back legs and thrust his front hooves onto the wall of the house standing before him. With all of his might, he shouted, "Get down here and fight me, you cheeky cunt!"

"What're you gonna do, grow a crystal dick and try pegging me again?" Anna taunted, donning a wry smirk as she looked down at Chocolate just in time to see him punch the wall in futility. "That wad of ginger you shoved up my ass was thrice as big! And that legitimately hurt!"

Chocolate's eyes narrowed, and the rocks comprising his second horn, hoof, and stomach pulsed with crimson mana. "You mean to tell me…"

Anna cut him off with a nod, and her smile widened. "Only reason I was panicking was because your little rocking-horse schtick reminded me of somepony else I'd much rather forget," she scoffed, and jerked her head just once. Within seconds, the hovering arrows surged onto Chocolate, sticking themselves all across his back and into his thighs with a vengeance. It took him a few seconds to register that he was feeling something akin to a thousand stingers, but when he did his orbs shrank to pinpricks.

Blueblood turned to the spectacle, and his jaw dropped as Chocolate released a guttural howl of anguish when red crystals began growing from his backside where every single arrow had landed. "What in the name of Faust…?!" he exclaimed as the crystals continued to grow, forming a shell-like shape that soon overtook the screaming Chocolate. A green magic aura sent him staggering away from the house, and kept nudging him until he was in a perfectly solid patch of snow.

"Fire in the hole!" Anna cried just seconds before Chocolate ceased staggering, though he was still screaming as the red crystals exploded into a veritable column of fire. It took a full minute for both the flames and Chocolate's caterwauling to die down, but that only left embers coating…

"... he finished turning into crystal?" Lance asked, his pupils shrinking. Chocolate didn't burn away as anypony anticipated; rather, a sort of darkened shell of crystal comprised his entire body now. A glowing patch on the hip formed his cutie mark, somehow still tinged in green. He turned to Anna and hollered, "I think you turned him into a golem!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence!" Anna replied before teleporting down to the now-likely-golem Chocolate. He looked at her with a scowl, whereupon she responded by lifting a hoof and poking him on the snout with it. "Next time you do something to anypony else like you did to me, I'll fucking smash you to tiny pieces. Capische?"

Chocolate's eyes narrowed fractionally, and he opened his mouth to reveal that its inside was still comprised of flesh. Scorched flesh, but functioning nonetheless. "How are you going to do that?" he challenged, his voice now raspy.

Anna channeled a little bit of mana into her raised hoof, which sent a pulse of green across his shell. She applied just a little pressure at that moment, and grinned deviously as cracks formed within seconds. "Isn't crystal, I dunno, brittle? I think you can guess," she retorted firmly. With that, she dropped her limb and cantered past him, leaving him to turn and stare at her.

Katie retracted her tongue as Anna made her way back to the group. "He looks like he'd been glassed! How did you manage that?" she queried.

Anna opened her mouth, but didn't have time to answer as Rainbow, Zecora, and Pinkie hit the scene. "What the hay is going on here?!" Rainbow yelled as she came in for a landing, sending snow everywhere in her wake.

Anna snorted and rolled her eyes at Katie. "His body just attracted hydrogen and methane before I was even lighting the spark. Or at least, I think it's hydrogen and methane; at this rate I am not really sure. I more or less accelerated his… er, transformation," she chirped. "All I know is it seems incredibly fragile at the moment, like a pure diamond."

"Erm... what?" Pinkie asked, before turning to Chocolate as he cleared his throat. She frowned as Chocolate grimaced before bolting from the scene.