When everyone filed to the tables, they found the tables were again piled with foodstuffs. However, there was much less in quantity now, as far as bread was concerned. In addition to that, one seat had a small, corked, and clear bottle filled with some bubbling orange-red liquid that was clouding up the glass from within.

Its rim was tacked with a note on it that simply read 'for Lance' in big bold writing. Lance filled in his seat and put the bottle on the table, and everyone followed suit after, though Lazarus had the luxury of sitting close to Katie. Armin and Alexander, both sporting bags beneath their eyes and some still-lingering bits of eye-crust, sat at his table and opened wide to release dual yawns.

Anna sat next to Lance and gestured to the bottle with the bubbling liquid, frowning at it in concern. "What's that?" she warily asked.

Lance looked at the bottle of liquid and sighed. "I'll let it sit for a few minutes," he answered, using his hooves to scoop himself a decent chunk of meat and vegetables onto a plate. At that, Anna shrugged and magically took a plate for herself.

Sarah came to sit between Lazarus and Katie, blocking the former's view of the latter as she tried in futility to reach for one scrap of meat without crawling on the table or using her tongue. The two made eye contact, and Lazarus grimaced when he saw Sarah's eyes. In response, she lifted a talon and upturned it rather invitingly. "So, new colt?" she asked, quirking up a small smile.

"Spending the night again, and I got the offer of the bloody century," Lazarus replied, hesitantly lifting a hoof up. The talon clasped his raised limb once it got in range and shook it, and relinquished its hold after a few seconds.

"Yeah, and I found my sister's in the military," Sarah stated, before her eyes widened when she felt something poking at her cutie mark. She twisted around and spotted Katie looking up at her from her seat.

"Could you get me a piece of…" Katie turned to look at a plate of ham and gestured to it with a hoof, "whatever that stuff is, please? I can't reach it with my hooves and I honestly don't want to make a scene."

Sarah nodded and deftly reached over to the plate of ham with a claw before picking it up and repositioning it so it sat well within Katie's pitiful reach. "Thanks," Katie chirped before she picked up a few slices that, when put together, were no thicker than a slice of toast. She popped them in her mouth, and her tongue undulated before coiling around the inside of her mouth to keep the ham slices from escaping. The sound of repeated slurping emanated from the torn maws, but there wasn't much anyone could do about it.

"No prob," Sarah chirped before putting the rest of the ham back on the table. With that, she turned to Lazarus again. She found him leaning over to stare wide-eyed at Katie, but a talon coming to rest on his shoulder soon had him turning back to its owner. "Don't mind the shrimp. She's… quite quirky for a changeling."

"A changeling… wraith…" Lazarus still seemed stuck on Katie's grotesque appearance. Sarah didn't find it in her to blame him; she did, however, find herself with a pressing question that she wanted to convey.

So she mouthed it, but not before lifting her claw higher to clasp Lazarus's chin to make him look her in the eyes, "She's the only changeling wraith I've seen so far. Is that not natural?"

Lazarus nodded back and mouthed in reply, "Very unnatural." Sarah let go of his chin and turned to gather foodstuffs onto her plate, though her eyes remained peripherally fixed in her new tablemate's direction. Lazarus turned to do likewise, though he used his magic in lieu of hooves. He craned his neck once he got a decent portion of food on his plate, idly stuffing a piece of cauliflower into his mouth as he spotted Matt and Natalie sitting at a far table.

Both were… nuzzling each other? Lazarus blinked and shook his head, if only to ensure his eyes were functioning properly. Nope. The nuzzling was brief, but genuine, followed up by the two laughing as they took plates for themselves. He turned away and started chewing his bit of cauliflower, grimacing as a slightly sweet taste graced his tongue. He swallowed and looked down at his plate's contents.

He'd just stabbed a piece of fish with a fork when Rainbow Dash came over to sit directly across from him. Just the sight of his acquaintance was almost enough to make him drop his fork; he'd seized it at the last second with a warbling magic aura. How didn't he notice her when he'd entered the church before, especially after she basically came in on his heels? "U-uh, hi," he stammered.

Rainbow nodded to Lazarus. "Hey," she greeted, using her hooves to scoop far more vegetables than anyone else at his table onto her plate. "Did the barkeep give you grief?"

Lazarus shook his head and quickly stuffed the piece of fish he'd stabbed into his mouth, and only when it was between his teeth did he allow himself to drop the fork. He chewed and swallowed before daring to look Rainbow in the eye. "I found out the ponies who broke the bed and nightstand were…" He shuddered at the mental imagery and the revelation of who the ponies he spoke of were related to. "Oh Godcat, why…" he whined, ears folding back as he felt himself quickly losing his appetite.

Rainbow winced, immediately seeing what had Lazarus distressed. Armin bit into a carrot and turned to Lazarus, shaking his head and slanting his brow. "You poor bastard…" he muttered through his food.

Alexander tore into a piece of bacon, and did not speak until he polished off the bit of meat, "Sounds like somepony needs to see a therapist."

Rainbow turned to Alexander after having stuffed a few pieces of broccoli and lettuce into her mouth. She talked with her mouth full, "I dub fink a ferapish woulb helb. I ofth for frain fleach."

Katie, having finished and swallowed her ham slices, uncoiled her tongue until it reverted back to its standard resting length. She reared up in her seat, resting her front hooves on the table so Rainbow could see her. Only then did she speak, "Good luck finding a therapist who offers brain bleach. That service is as rare as a hippogryph hen with a cutie mark." That got her a whap across the back of the head from Sarah, to which she'd barely flinched at.

Rainbow turned to Sarah, raising a brow and swallowing the mush that remained of her broccoli and lettuce. "Hen? Hen? Are my ears working right?" she asked.

Sarah nodded and sighed in exasperation. "And male hippogryphs are called cocks," she replied. She leaned back in her chair and popped a piece of lettuce in her mouth before shoving it into one cheek with her tongue and adding, "Technically speaking, my sister's a hen."

"Oooooh. So it's like mare and stallion…" Rainbow murmured, eyes widening as she got what Sarah was alluding to.

Sarah nodded again and started chewing on her lettuce. "Mhm," she hummed. Upon swallowing, she turned to Lazarus and smiled at him. "Now, what's this 'deal of the century' here? Somepony's hoof in marriage?" she asked, albeit jokingly.

Lazarus shook his head. "I wish," he scoffed. "That'd require me to know who I was marrying on a very personal level before I'd taken that offer."

"That's just as likely as Lance doing Sarah's sister," Katie snorted loud enough for everyone to hear her, earning herself another whap upside the head from Sarah, who now turned to growl threateningly at her. Katie turned to meet the stare head-on, finding narrowed eyes, a face turning green, and bared teeth.

The utterance also caused a few choking sounds to come from the other tables, followed by a few more incredulous stares in her direction. Katie turned to Anna, finding her red-faced and red-eyed before adding, "Oh, please, you're more likely to perform gyromancy to summon Godcat or something."

She turned to Sarah only when the stares retracted a full minute later. "Besides…" Her voice dropped to a low whisper, "Lance isn't attracted to Anna. You've nothing to worry about on that front."

Sarah nodded and turned away, still glowering as she went back to eating. Nobody dared to speak for several minutes, instead merely eating their food and shooting wary glances at Katie every now and then. It wasn't until the door to the church unexpectedly swung open did anyone speak as the rest of the guards filed in and took seats. All except one soul in the platoon sat down. "Where's the bread?" Noah asked, looking at the tables with a frown.

Natalie piped up, "A lot of it is still baking. I helped mom prepare everything else. So if you want your baguettes, you're gonna have to wait." She turned away and grumbled something about there not being enough chili peppers to Matt, who nodded with a small frown.

Noah's frown deepened. "Alright." With that, he trudged to a corner of the room, using magic to close the door behind him as he went. He decided to idle as everyone else either began or resumed eating, though soon the feasting slowed as, one by one, all eyes panned over to him with curiosity igniting in each and every iris. Most gazes fell back to their plates, though a few lingered in Noah's direction.

"What's with him?" Lazarus asked, his question causing Armin to wrinkle his nose a little.

"I haven't the foggiest. I slept through almost all morning to let my accumulated love digest," Armin answered, his eyes slightly narrowing when Noah began to grin. It was a slight smile, but noticeable nonetheless. At that, his gut began to twist even as he shoveled a piece of sausage into his mouth, though he gave no more than a wince at its protesting.

Katie, on the other hoof, had her orbs firmly locked onto Noah. Having had her fill, she didn't concern herself with the others, at least for the moment. He merely grinned back at her, and even rose to stand on his rear legs, plant his back to the corner, and cross his forelegs together in that order. He went about this with motions so slow it was as if he'd wanted her to see him doing so and be certain her eyesight wasn't playing tricks on her.

Sarah turned to Katie and nudged her with an elbow. She did not avert her orbs in the slightest, but did twitch an ear and nod to let her know she was paying some attention to her tablemate. "He's grinning," she muttered, causing Sarah to turn to Noah.

The very split-second before Sarah looked up, Noah donned his frown again. She turned to Katie and gave her a bemused frown that seemed to be more of a grimace, accompanied by a raised brow. "No he's not," Sarah stated.

"He was just a second ago, I swear," Katie murmured in reply.

"If you say so…" Sarah muttered, turning back to her food to resume eating. Katie sat down and crossed her forelegs together with an irritated grumble, though not before she turned to glare at Noah again. Once her glare connected, he smiled at her once more, this time smugly.

"Frathalk-creschilt eust ma'areus machelsc…" Katie hissed to herself in swarm-tongue, the fringes of her split grin twitching as though about to curl in onto themselves. Her eyes narrowed some more and her orbs dimmed. If she had any teeth left, she'd have loved to start grinding them together right about now.

"Yes he is," Armin agreed in a low mutter.

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

Night had fallen after some hours, with Sarah, Katie, Lazarus, and Armin gathered into one room. They listened as everyone else rushed outside to file someplace, hearing several sets of hooves clattering noisily against wood. The door to their room opened, and Lance and the rest of his troops, followed by Fenrir, Maria and the Mythonians, waltzed in before closing the door behind them.

Clasped in one wing, precariously between two of the joints, was the bottle of orange liquid. It had ceased bubbling, looking more like a stew that had solidified a little around the top than anything. The other wing shifted to clasp the bottle by its cork, and as it began twisting about in an effort to remove it, Lance turned to Lazarus. "It's a good thing we got you up to speed on the horsey hives issue." At Lazarus's nod, he donned a small smile. "So while I open this bottle, could you care to tell us what you know?" he asked.

All eyes fell onto Lazarus, and his ears folded back at the multitude of gazes that began boring into him. He swallowed heavily, trying to compose himself in front of his audience, before pursing his lips. He balked when Maria cut in, "Is it anything like the bad hippogryphs?"

Lance stopped trying to open the bottle, spreading his cork-grabbing wing to wrap it around Maria. He briefly broke away from staring at Lazarus to shake his head at the filly. "No, it isn't. Besides, those hippogryphs are probably ice cubes anyway," he answered, prior to turning back to Lazarus and mouthing an added, "For the sake of this filly and Godcat and everybody, don't go into too much detail if you can help it."

Lazarus nodded and let himself relax, taking in a deep breath before starting, "Standard legend aside, there is something I've found to be left out of most of the tales I've heard as of late. It isn't much, but this one tidbit isn't spread around with as much frequency, so pardon me if I sound half-assed." When his audience nodded in unison and hopefully understanding, he sighed and took just a few seconds to gather himself a little more.

"Namely, two things are ignored in most standard tales: the crystal ponies, and the changelings of old." Lazarus paused just long enough to see both Natalie and Katie flinch at that, followed by exchanging wide-eyed glances. His horn glowed briefly, and a bluish-red aura embraced his body before fading as fast as it had come, and within seconds his body began to gleam like crystal. "Or rather, one particular tribe of changeling," he added, the utterance causing Katie to turn away and relax a little.

Natalie's ears folded back at the display, but her horn likewise glowed and her magic embraced her body, revealing her own crystal coat. Lazarus turned to Lance and sighed, his sheen dimming a bit. "Tell me… have you found any other crystal ponies?" he asked.

Lance shook his head. "They're as scarce as a cat with legs," he replied glumly. "Unless you went to Mythos; they're abundant there."

Lazarus closed his eyes and frowned. "Well… here goes." His eyes opened seconds later, but his gaze seemed distant as he began his recital, "Before Godcat and Faust had their second confrontation, the crystal ponies of old started collaborating with a particular changeling tribe led by a ruthless king and a powerless queen on a solution to keep the situation from escalating."

At that, he glumly shook his head, his eyes glinting with regret. "The changeling king, cruel as he was, saw that even he could not withstand another struggle between Godcat and Faust, and so tried to set his differences aside with the crystal ponies. Unbeknownst to him, the other tribes had caught onto what he was attempting to do, and most of the crystal ponies wanted nothing to do with his proposed plan of action. They came in a stampede and wiped his whole hive out, long before the changelings within could enact their solution."

"What happened to the crystal ponies?" Shining asked, eyes narrowing a little.

"... they stowed themselves away. But it didn't do them much good because they were led by an alicorn, supposedly," Lazarus replied, his voice low. "Godcat found them and spared none, save a very sparse few who were bold enough to reprimand that alicorn for her cowardice. But she took away the gleam of those few—not to punish them, but to hide them from their pursuers."

Lance, having gone back to trying to open his bottle, looked at Lazarus with a slanted brow and his own torn ears folding back. "Did… it work?" he asked.

Lazarus gave a chuckle once he'd heard the query, although one that was hollow and joyless. "Evidently no, considering I can regain my luster at will," he replied. "But mayhaps it did either way."

"What was the changeling king's idea of stopping the feud?" Twilight interjected, frowning.

Lazarus turned to her and shook his head, gaze still distant. "There are a few theories, none of which have been confirmed, but… more than half of them involved him draining his own kingdom of its love. The remainders, though, had the hive already starving beyond the point of no return, him included. No matter which way you slice it… that hive was doomed from the word 'go.'"

Twilight grimaced, and her ears pinned back. Chills ran up her spine at the notion of a king draining his own subjects of resources, although said king starving with his subjects didn't sound particularly pleasing either. "C-could you elaborate?" she asked.

"One theory… is that he went through with draining his subjects, leaving them crippled against the other tribes' onslaught. The queen also fell to this tactic, and rumor has it she was granted a quick death. Though after the feud between Godcat and Faust concluded with them being sealed… there've been sightings of the queen, all of which have went unconfirmed for millennia," Lazarus began, his eyes very slowly turning to Katie. "Though, none could be bothered to describe the queen in question."

"I'm just a mutated worker," Katie muttered once her orbs locked with Lazarus's eyes.

Lazarus nodded and turned back to Twilight. "What about the barrier?" she asked.

Lazarus donned a small smile at that. "That took several powerful unicorns on both planets to create, way back when unicorns had only then stopped moving the sun and moon for some reason. Among them was an old fart by the name of Starswirl," he replied. "I heard he'd used ancient, cat-constructed airships to travel to and from Fantasia before that."

Everyone in the room balked in unison, and some faces had jaws dropping open. Lance nearly dropped his bottle, but his whole wing came to clasp around it at the last second. Lazarus turned so his back faced them all.

"Where'd… you find out about that legend?" Sarah asked, her pupils dilating to the size of pins shafts.

"Well… I found a few dusty tomes in an ancient language in a temple near Glacier Valley," Lazarus answered with a shrug. "I had to have a translator with me, and even he couldn't crack much information about those tomes. Tragically, I couldn't take the tomes with me."

"Glacier Valley… Anna, remind me to tell Delta Unit to change course first thing tomorrow," Lance murmured, garnering a nod from Anna as he continued to try to pry the cork from the bottle.

"Cat-constructed… airships?" Blueblood began, his eyes widening and his mind boggling at the notion. "Cat-constructed airships?" he repeated. "That sounds as outrageous and asinine as a changeling king draining his own subjects and queen!"

Lazarus nodded. "Yes, it does sound asinine, but bear with me here. Before ponies came into power, cats ruled almost all of Fantasia. But when Faust took away their legs, it wasn't the only thing she did to spite them. She destroyed most of their technology, as it far surpassed that of ponykind," he answered. "Honestly, I thought cat-made airships were myth… until somepony in this very room unearthed them three-ish years ago."

"Who?" Pinkie asked, one of her legs beginning to twitch.

"He's the only one among us with crimson eyes," Lazarus replied.

Lance sighed as all the gazes, save Lazarus's, turned to him on the spot. He perked his ears before going back to trying to open his bottle, and this time he succeeded with a swift tug on the cork. "I was tryin' to see if anyone else had found that jackpot. Short answer's 'no,'" he grumbled before lifting the bottle to his lips and clamping around it. He tossed his head back and downed the bottle's contents with a grimace and a face that turned a twinge of green.

As he ingested the liquid, crimson mana began to pulse across his wings. The few feathers he'd already accumulated rapidly expanded in size, before being followed by more that burst forth from the swollen feather tracts with a vengeance.

Darker orange secondaries went askew, oddly crimson primaries jutted forth with a rigid grace, and layers and layers more sprung up in between and overlapped with the rhyme of a messy bedroom. Then, more feathers grew along Lance's neck and back, stretching from just where his mane ended right to his croup. Some even grew from his shoulders and barrel, as well as just above his cutie marks. The excess feathers were as small as thumbtacks and blended in almost seamlessly with his coat, though some jutted out to give themselves away.

The whole process took less than thirty seconds to conclude, from the first drop of liquid to the last. Lance gently set the bottle down on the floor and shook himself as if he'd been soaked in water, which only caused his already-messy feathers to take on a more hectic arrangement. He turned to Zecora and flashed her a smile. "Thanks a bunch," he chirped.

Zecora nodded back to Lance and smiled. "It seems I haven't lost my touch yet. Although, your feathers haven't seemed to set," she intoned. "But why do you grow feathers on your chest and haunches, pray tell? It would seem very odd, especially for somepony who's otherwise well."

Lance's grin widened. "I was like this before being plucked," he answered. He flexed his wings, which were now easily larger than before—to the point they could reach Fenrir's shoulders with their tips at full mast—thanks to the feather influx, prior to closing them at his sides. This caused him to, unwittingly, hide his cutie marks again, in addition to a good portion of his flanks. On top of that, his primaries jutted a few good inches past his tail, their tips barely touching in their current position.

"By Celestia's gilded hooves, your wings are huge! Are you gonna have trouble flying?" Rainbow asked, gawking at Lance with an expression between dumbstuck and awed. Which of the two was trying to take precedence on her visage, Lance couldn't tell.

"I'm gonna take it easy for a week. I don't want my feathers falling out too early," Lance replied with a shrug. "Besides, once we finish up here, flying'll be out of the question anyway."

"Ectoplasms?" Rainbow guessed, garnering another nod and a mutter from Lance. She could've sworn she'd caught 'tree branches' in there somewhere. Then, she turned back to Lazarus, finding that he'd turned to face Lance sometime during the whole feather regrowth spectacle.

Lazarus, who'd gone wide-eyed, was gawking at Lance with a paling face. "I haven't seen a plucked pegasus recover that fast from becoming bald… what the hell did you drink?" he asked incredulously.

"Soup," Lance replied cryptically. "Of a sort."

Lazarus continued to stare at Lance incredulously. "'Soup' my ass," he scoffed, his eyes narrowing a little.

"It's a rejuvenation brew, tweaked specifically for bald wings," Zecora interjected, causing Lazarus to turn to her and raise a brow. "It was initially an experiment, but now I feel confident in aiding other ailing things."

Lazarus blinked. "Such as?" he pressed.

Zecora lifted a hoof and gestured to Sarah with it. "Broken limbs, fractured bones, chipped teeth… just about anything magic can feasibly fix within its reach," she replied.

"She's still working on it," Sarah translated with a roll of her eyes.

"So… an alchemist, then," Lazarus guessed.

"More like tribal shaman," Lance interjected, fluffing his wings as he spoke. He felt one of them snag on something, and looked around before averting his gaze down to find that Maria had taken hold of the limb. "Yes?"

"Do your wings feel funny?" Maria asked, letting go of the wing she'd grabbed.

Lance pursed his lips, realizing he felt a sort of tingling sensation that spread pretty much everywhere feathers grew on his body. He hesitantly nodded. "I guess my mana's just getting itself back into gear is all," he answered as his wings gave a very dull, faint pulse of red.

Maria nodded back. "Okay," she chirped. She turned back to Lazarus and asked, "Do you like daddy? You keep staring at him…"

Lazarus's eyes bugged out and he gave a choking sound in response, followed by stomping and scraping a front hoof when at least one of his legs threatened to buckle. "N-no! I-I'm a ladies' colt!" he stammered.

"Don't mind her," Katie interjected, lifting a hoof and using it to gesture to Maria for emphasis. "She's asked a married couple if they rolled under the sheets… as they were kissing. Made them break apart faster than one could shout 'Faust is coming!'"

Lazarus took a shuddering breath at that mental imagery and turned to Lance with his face turning beet red up to the ears and tip of his horn. He pushed the thought aside and fell to his haunches. "I'll… uh… join your ranks, I guess," he stammered. "Just hold off on ordering me around for a bit, because I probably won't be able to sleep tonight."

Lance nodded in understanding. "Duly noted," he chirped. When Lazarus continued to stare at him, he added, "And no, there aren't any other catches." With that, he turned to leave. "And one more thing. Don't let Natz challenge you to a drinking game." Then he trotted out, and everyone else sans Sarah, Armin, and Katie filed out.

Once the door shut behind them, Lazarus turned to stare at Armin. "Natalie drinks? Since when?" he asked.

"She's been doing it on and off with her beau since Anna joined the ranks, though usually under some supervision," Armin answered with a shrug.

"So… what should we do about the horsey hives issue?" Katie interjected, causing her roommates to turn to her with perplexed brows raised. She crossed her forelegs and added, "One of the guards was grinning smugly at me. I think he knows something about this that we don't."

"He wasn't smiling," Sarah scoffed, only to be met with a holey hoof rising in front of her face and waving dismissively.

"Yes he was, except when you or anyone but me and Katie turned to him," Armin cut in, frowning and shaking his head as he lowered his hoof. "Katie's got a point. That guard is onto something."

"So… we have a weasel… but only two changelings can see him for what he really is…" Lazarus took in a deep breath. "Is this what I am hearing?"

"That's the gist of it," Katie chimed in.

"Well… sorry to be the devil's advocate, but I won't believe you until I see the guard in question smugly smiling for myself," Lazarus sighed, shaking his head. "Burden of proof is on you."

Katie's eyes narrowed, and her orbs dimmed again. "Burden accepted," she hissed in reply. She spread her wings and buzzed furiously before launching to the window and peering out of it, seeing Noah standing around in the street below, without even taking the courtesy of donning a cloak to protect him from the fresh wave of cold air and snow-fueled winds outside. "But first, I'll need a few things…"