The ponies quickly made their way through the dark corridors of the basement. The pitch blackness still pervaded the area, but the cold sense of dread had been lifted from the building along with all of the water. The group found their way into the large room and quickly walked through the door to the stairway before heading upstairs.

They were almost shocked to see the school had returned to its normal state. The lights had come back on, the surrounding walls and the ceiling were completely dry, and any sign of holes or murky pits of water had all but vanished. They turned to head towards the library, but were interrupted by the sight of Rarity approaching with two other ponies.

“There they are!” The white mare announced with excitement to her two companions before rushing over to her friends and smiling eagerly.

“Rarity, I see that you found help.” Twilight observed while noting the two medical themed cutie marks on the strange ponies the white unicorn had brought.

“Once we discovered that all the water had gone, we ran outside and called for help. Apparently someone had already noticed the school was in shambles, so paramedics were already on their way.” Rarity explained while looking to the injured pegasus filly floating gently in front of Twilight. “Oh my stars! Is she alright?!” She gasped in surprise at the state of the orange crusader. Twilight shrugged before gently handing the filly off to the unicorn E.M.T beside Rarity.

“She has lost a lot of blood… you should get her out of here as quickly as possible.” Twilight explained what knowledge she had on the filly’s condition to the two medics. They nodded before turning around and rushing down the hall while inspecting her further.

Rarity sighed sadly as she thought about the horrible events of the day. She couldn’t believe that such terrible things could happen to Ponyville, let alone to innocent children.

“Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are already on their way to the hospital… everyone else is just being checked here and released.” Rarity stated gloomily while trailing her eyes off.

“Did Applebloom wake up?” Twilight asked curiously with a concerned look on her face. Rarity lightened up a bit as she turned to respond.

“She did… she was barely functional, but she woke up. They think she and Sweetie Belle have concussions, Applebloom’s being a little worse than Sweetie Belle’s.” Rarity explained in a bittersweet monotone.

“*Sigh*… come on then. Let’s head back to the library and tell the others. I think that we can hold off on looking into those symbols we found in the cave and move on to investigating those strange hooded ponies Sweetie Belle talked about.” Twilight droned tiredly while shaking her head at the misfortune that had befallen them.

The others nodded and joined the unicorn in walking down the hallway towards the front of the school. As they approached the library and got closer to the front door, they could see various medical ponies or royal guard members comforting children and taking a look around. Ms. Cheerilee was wrapped up in a blanket while being interviewed by a group of investigators. She noticed the group walking by the library door and gave them a friendly wave as they walked past.

Twilight paused for a moment and waved back to the teacher. She managed a brief smile before turning to continue walking down the hall. The ponies quickly exited the school and took a deep breath of fresh air to cleanse their lungs of all the damp stale air they had been breathing down in the basement.

“Thanks for your help in there Tom… looks like you saved the day again.” Twilight turned to Tom and smiled shyly.

The human chuckled at the unicorn’s statement of gratitude. He patted her on the shoulder and smiled in return.

“You kidding me? You’re the one that broke the spell. If you hadn’t done that, I might still be getting free snorkeling lessons from Mr. Ugly.” Tom said in a praising tone.

The unicorn smirked in flattery as she thought about the role she played in dispatching the evil creature. She was surprised at how well she managed to face up to the bloody monster.

“I was just doing my part. We all did a good job in there.” Twilight stated while looking to her friends with a warm smile. The others smiled back as they recalled their own acts of valor in the school.

Rarity thought back to how she rescued Pinkie Pie and the two fillies from the clutches of the monster. Fluttershy remembered how she saved Twilight, and by extension herself from the creature. The more they thought about how close to death they had come, the more proud the ponies became that they triumphed by working together.

Without any further delay, the group made their way through town to get back to the library. The sooner they informed Applejack and Rainbow Dash about what happened, the sooner they could all go check on Scootaloo and the others.

The group eventually completed their journey through town and found themselves outside of Twilight’s home. The purple unicorn opened the door and ushered everyone inside. Once in the main room, the ponies were faced with four individuals talking around a table. Spike was sitting idly on the floor while talking with Rainbow Dash, and Applejack was talking with a certain dark blue alicorn.

“Princess Luna, what are you doing here so soon?” Twilight exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the princess of the night. The four stopped chatting and turned to see the rest of their friends approaching. Princess Luna smiled warmly and got up to greet the purple mare and her group.

“Ah, Twilight Sparkle it is good to see you!” Luna commented in a friendly manner while giving the unicorn a hoof shake. “As soon as my sister arrived back in Canterlot, she explained what had happened and asked me to travel to Ponyville to assist you. As soon as I made sure she was alright, I came as quickly as I could.” The alicorn explained.

Princess Luna gave each of the ponies a warm smile before settling her eyes on the human next to them. She was surprised to finally see the person she had heard so much about. She was also surprised to finally get to see what a human actually looked like.

“And you must be this Tom fellow that my sister told me about. It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Greene; I am known as Princess Luna, but you can just call me Luna if you wish.” Luna smiled eagerly while giving Tom a firm hand shake. The boy was surprised at the level of strength and enthusiasm a regal princess could put into a friendly greeting.

“Thanks… you can just call me Tom though. Mr. Greene doesn’t really make much sense seeing how I’m dressed like a blueberry.” Tom added jokingly while rubbing his hand where the princess had gripped it a little too hard.

Luna chuckled warmly at the remark. She felt a little better knowing that the boy was at least aware of his odd attire.

“I like your sense of humor Tom… you seem friendly enough to fit into Equestria just fine.” The blue alicorn patted him on the shoulder before turning to the rest of the group. “So… how did your search at the school go? Spike informed me that you were looking for a book to decipher those symbols over there.” She asked quizzically while glancing over to a table on the far wall that held the rolled up piece of paper with the glyphs on it.

Twilight sighed as she looked to her friends sadly. She hated to be the bearer of bad news, but they needed to know what had happened at the school, especially Applejack. She then took in a breath to explain what happened.

“We didn’t find much of anything. When we got to the school, something… bad happened.” Twilight stated gloomily. Suddenly everyone in the room grew quiet and listened to the unicorn intently. “Apparently some odd ponies in hoods broke into the school’s basement and performed some kind of spell… They flooded the school with water and summoned this… horrible monster.”

Twilight shuddered nervously upon recalling the events of the school in her head. She could almost remember each individual experience she had there, from swimming in the freezing water to save Ms. Cheerilee, to almost getting killed by that creature when she first saw it with her own eyes.

“It tried to drown Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy and me. And after it figured out that we wouldn’t go in the water anymore, it crawled out of the water and tried to kill us on land… It attacked me first, but Fluttershy pushed me out of the way. Tom managed to heal her, but then we discovered that it attacked the cutie mark crusaders. They are on their way to the hospital right now.” Twilight said with a troubled expression.

Everyone gasped in surprise upon hearing the news. Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed especially affected by the discovery. Not surprising seeing how they both had close relationships with two of the fillies involved, Applebloom being Applejack’s sister and Scootaloo being Rainbow Dash’s resident super fan respectively.

“Sweet apple fritters! Are they ok?! Is Applebloom hurt bad?!” Applejack asked frantically while thinking about the many possible things that could have happened to her sister.

“What about Scootaloo? Is she alright?!” Rainbow Dash’s mind raced with worry upon hearing about the injured filly. Although they weren’t related, the cyan mare had grown to have a certain fondness for the young dare devil as she practically begged to be in the presence of her hero on a weekly basis.

“Scootaloo caught the worst of it… but the last time we saw them they were stable. We won’t know anymore until we check on them at the hospital.” Twilight tried her best to ease the two ponies’ fears. She completely understood their concern. If something bad happened to Spike, the unicorn might not be able to forgive herself.

Princess Luna adopted a more serious expression as she became aware of the danger this new threat posed to the citizens of Equestria.

“I am sorry to hear about the young crusaders being caught up in the middle of such a terrible event. We should investigate these strange hooded ponies and keep our eyes open for anything suspicious.” Luna instructed to the group around her as they listened intently.

“But where do we start looking? Between the monsters in the Everfree, and the school, we only had those symbols as a lead to go on. And I’m fairly certain those glyphs only pertain to the trap in the cave that we triggered.” Twilight fumed in frustration as she realized just how much of a dead end they had hit.

“Don’t worry about that right now Twilight… I should have something put together in the next day or so to help us out with this strange case. For now, you should head down to the hospital to check on the girls, and then get some well-deserved relaxation.” Princess Luna smirked knowingly as she thought about where to go next with the investigation.

The purple unicorn was confused by Luna’s statement, but decided to take her word on the matter. After all, Celestia had put her sister in charge for a reason.

“Ok princess… I think some relaxation would do everybody some good.” Twilight stated with a small smile. She then turned to her group of friends. Judging from the concern written on their faces, the unicorn could tell that they were eager to go see the three fillies.

“Alright, we’re going down to the hospital now. Anypony that wants to come should get ready and join us.” The purple mare instructed while turning to head out the door. Everyone but Princess Luna followed the unicorn as she walked out of the library. They all eagerly headed in the direction of the local hospital to find out how the three fillies were doing.

Meanwhile, deep inside the Everfree forest, Cotton Quill was steadily limping towards the old mansion that his colleagues were using as a hideout. He walked with three legs while clutching a large gash on his chest with his hoof. He could feel blood trickling out of the wound and down his clean white coat.

“Ughh… This stings a lot more than it did before. I hope I didn’t get any of that filthy water in it, wouldn’t want to get an infection.” Cotton grimaced painfully while trying to ignore the harsh stabbing sensation around the gash.

Eventually, the unicorn found himself standing outside of the sprawling mansion once again. He quickly made his way over the crumbling stone path and up the stairs to the main entrance. Upon entering the large foyer, he saw several of the hooded ponies that had been with him at the school. Several of them were weakly leaning against a wall as they groggily examined dried up wounds. Others hyperventilated on the ground as they tried to cope with the severe wounds they had across their bodies that were steadily forming puddles of blood on the ground.

Cotton glanced over to the stairs to see an upset looking grey female pegasus frowning in disappointment at him from half way up the steps.

“You’re not supposed to be back this early Cotton.” Raincloud droned to him while trying not to lose her patience.

Cotton Quill groaned in annoyance as he took a moment to cope with the stinging pain he was dealing with. He then inhaled sharply before turning to the pegasus in slight frustration.

“Relax Raincloud… I have someone watching the school for me. Now could you give me a hoof and help me upstairs? … Ack!” Cotton yelped loudly as the pale mare walked up to him and roughly put an arm around his chest to help him walk.

“You know, you wouldn’t have gotten yourself cut up if you would have just listened to me in the first place.” Raincloud smirked as she chastised the unicorn cynically while walking with him up the stairs.

Cotton sighed in annoyance before glaring at her, albeit only slightly. Despite how annoyed he was with the mare, he knew that she could easily beat him up in a fight.

“I did what the book told me to do alright? Just leave me alone until we get to Raven Feather please.” Cotton whined pleadingly for the pegasus to keep her witty comments to herself. She sighed compliantly before falling silent. The two slowly made their way up the stairs and through the second floor of the mansion as they walked toward the library where their leader was.

Once they walked through the library door, the two could see Raven Feather reading over a book with her brother while various other ponies loitered around the room waiting to be needed. Raincloud pushed Cotton Quill against a wall forcefully and walked over to the brown colored pegasus sitting down across from Raven Feather.

“Hey dust, what’s going on up here?” Raincloud asked playfully while taking a seat next to her brother. The pegasus looked over to his sister and gave a small smirk.

“Not much… just waiting for you guys to finish up.” Dust Kicker stated in a bored tone. Raven Feather heard the two talking and looked up from her book.

“Ah, Raincloud… it’s good to see you’ve returned.” The black mare greeted the pegasus in a satisfied tone. She then glanced over to the unicorn that was bleeding while leaning against the far wall.

“And… Cotton Quill? I didn’t think you would be back so soon. I thought we agreed that you would stay to oversee the proceedings as they unfolded.” Raven Feather stated curiously while observing the injured unicorn.

Cotton Quill shrugged as he prepared to justify his reason for defying the orders he was given. He gingerly kept applying pressure to his wound while looking timidly to the confused earth pony.

“I know Miss Raven Feather, but a few unexpected complications arose. But don’t worry, I left someone capable to watch the school and report back to me.” Cotton calmly stated his excuse while hoping that the green eyed pony would not find any holes in his reasoning.

“Complications…?” Raven Feather stated quizzically while studying the unicorn's wound from afar. “What kind of complications?” She asked with an uneasy sense of curiosity while raising an eyebrow.

“After we completed the spell, some of us didn’t manage to perform the safety charm in time. The beast drowned or eviscerated around five of the ponies you sent to perform the ritual. Most of the others were critically injured, and are now writhing in pain downstairs.” Cotton explained while motioning out of the door with his hoof.

“Ah yes, I was wondering why there were several ponies bleeding to death in my foyer… Ah well, they were made aware of the risks.” Raven Feather stated nonchalantly before adopting a more serious expression. “Now then, on to the more serious matter of why you thought it would be a good idea to abandon your post.” She said in a more livid tone. Cotton gulped nervously as the earth pony stared at him menacingly.

“I panicked a little bit… alright? The creature lashed out at me and gave me this horrible wound.” Cotton added dramatically while removing his hoof to show off his injury. Raven Feather rolled her eyes in annoyance as the unicorn continued.

“I left someone there to report back to me when the creature was done with its work and I left. I didn’t think much of it at the time.” Cotton explained with an anxious tone.

“Of course you didn’t… I mean after all, it’s not like I put you there for anything important... say, preventing anyone from discovering and or breaking the pictogram… silly me for thinking you could handle such a difficult task.” The black mare droned sarcastically while growing more agitated with the nervous unicorn.

Cotton Quill started sweating as his temperature started to rise. He could feel everyone in the room staring at him with annoyance and disappointment.

“But…but Raincloud left too! She didn’t even stick around to see the creature at work!” Cotton stammered nervously in an attempt to shift the blame from him to the pegasus. Raincloud furrowed her eyebrows and glared at the unicorn angrily. She started to speak up in protest when she was interrupted by Raven Feather.

“Raincloud’s task was not to stay behind and oversee the creature’s progress… her task was to make sure you didn’t screw up the ritual, which she did a rather nice job of if I do say so myself.” The earth pony smirked coyly at the pegasus. Raincloud let a devious smirk creep across her face as she returned the black furred pony’s sinister compliment.

“Thank you Raven Feather.” Raincloud made a faux bow before glancing over to Cotton Quill and chuckling. This made the unicorn uneasy as his argument was being shot down in flames right before his eyes.

Raven Feather straightened out her face and returned her cold and calculating expression as she stared intently at Cotton Quill.

“Now as far as you and your workers are concerned, I gave you the proper safety measures, you just lacked the diligence to perform them properly. I almost feel bad for those poor things downstairs. They trusted in you to teach them how to protect themselves, and you fed them incorrect information that almost cost them their lives.” The black mare stated coldly. The cynical remark only worsened the feeling of dread that was slowly filling up Cotton Quill. He wasn’t sure if the light-headed feeling he had was from his blood loss or his nerves. He expected to hear her order his execution any moment from how she was glaring at him.

“M-my apologies Miss Raven Feather… I won’t let it happen again.” The unicorn gave up on any hope of coming out in the right with his actions and instead decided to return to his tried and true method of brown nosing.

“For your sake, I certainly hope you don’t. I also hope that nothing bad happens to interrupt our plans at the school in your absence… Now come over here and let Grimwood take a look at that wound of yours.” Raven Feather lightened up her death stare and motioned for the injured unicorn to step forward.

Cotton Quill looked over to the younger earth pony apprehensively. He wasn’t sure why, but he felt a little bit intimidated by his cold yet innocent exterior. Perhaps it was because his older sister could terrify him to his very core should she so choose. Grimwood got up from his seated position and sighed before walking over to a spot with more room and light. He waited patiently while the unicorn slowly limped towards him.

“That looks pretty nasty… I guess that monster worked out pretty well, just on the wrong people.” Grimwood commented while examining the deep gash.

“Yeah well… those protection charms aren’t the simplest things you know.” Cotton Quill stated to make conversation with the colt while he waited for him to finish looking over his wound. The earth pony suddenly stopped what he was doing and shot Cotton an annoyed scowl that looked very intimidating despite his childish appearance.

“You just had to light paper on fire, and say a few words. How much simpler do you need it to be Cotton?” Grimwood asked in a disconcerting tone of voice. Cotton Quill couldn’t believe that he was being reprimanded by someone nearly two thirds his size and half his age.

The unicorn avoided answering the question posed by the young pony, as well as avoiding eye contact as he awkwardly remained still for the colt to finish looking him over. Grimwood finally stopped poking and prodding the wound and looked up to Cotton Quill.

“Alright, this looks like a quick fix. I Just need to use a little shadow power to patch you up and you’ll be good as new.” Grim explained while holding up one of his hooves. Cotton Quill watched nervously as the colt’s hoof was engulfed by translucent black shadows that pulsed and shifted around his arm.

Although he knew that Raven Feather had taught her closer circle of followers how to use shadow energy for various purposes, Cotton was unsure of how said energy would feel when used to touch his skin.

Cotton Quill flinched and closed his eyes as the young pony slowly brought the hoof closer. The unicorn started whining softly in preparation for whatever feeling he would experience. Grimwood rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Stop being such a big baby… I haven’t even touched you yet.” Grim chided the wincing unicorn while pausing briefly. Being told to man up by a young colt made Cotton Quill feel slightly emasculated; he opened his eyes and chuckled nervously in an attempt to keep whatever small shred of dignity he had left.

“Hehe… it won’t hurt though will it…? Will it Grim-Ack!” The unicorn was interrupted by Grimwood quickly shoving his hoof onto his wound. The hoof felt icy cold to the touch, making Cotton jump in surprise. He breathed in a few times to weather the chilly sensation as he watched his wound slowly close up.

“Does that answer your question?” Grimwood stated impishly as he watched the wound close up entirely. He then removed his hoof from the unicorn’s chest and shook it to dissipate the energy he had gathered.

Cotton Quill rubbed his chest for a moment to test out how it felt. He smiled in satisfaction before he turned to notice another hooded pony quickly entering the library. The unicorn’s pupils shrank to dots as he recognized the pony to be the scout he had left at the school.

“Cotton Quill, I have some bad news for you.” The pony stated, uncaring of the audience present, while entering the room and approaching the unicorn. Raven Feather raised an eyebrow and looked to Cotton Quill curiously.

“Cotton… who is this?” The black mare asked quizzically while eyeing the unicorn.

Cotton Quill gulped nervously and started sweating again. He rubbed the back of his head and avoided eye contact with the green eyed pony as he spoke.

“That’s uh… that’s the pony I left to watch over the school Miss Raven Feather.” Cotton explained uneasily and tried his best to think of a possible positive reason why the scout would be back so early.

Raven Feather shrugged in irritation before turning to the hooded pony. There was no way in Equestria that he had a positive reason for being back so early.

“Then by all means… go right ahead.” Raven Feather instructed while motioning with her hoof. The pony nodded before turning back to Cotton Quill.

“The spell has been broken and the creature has been eradicated.” The stallion explained nonchalantly and to the point while having a serious expression on his face.

Cotton Quill’s heart skipped a beat when he processed the words that he was hearing. His face paled as he looked over to see the black mare stoically staring forward while processing her thoughts. He could almost swear that he could see her eye twitching slightly.

Meanwhile, Raincloud’s jaw hung open as she stared in a mixture of shock and disbelief upon hearing the news. She looked over to Cotton Quill and shot him an almost grimly sympathetic look, as if he had screwed up so bad that nothing she could possibly do to him would amount to whatever punishment he would receive.

“Shadow Mist…” Raven Feather suddenly closed her eyes and announced loudly. A pony from across the room got up and walked over to her. The pony was an earth pony stallion that appeared to be a little bit older than Raven Feather. He had a bright shade of red for fur and medium length black hair. His cutie mark appeared to be a lantern with a candle inside that was blown out with smoke coming off of the wick.

“Yes Raven Feather?” The red furred earth pony spoke before waiting for his leader to continue. Judging from the way he addressed her, it almost sounded like he knew Raven Feather personally, or at least more personally than most of the hooded workers.

“I have a new task for you…” Raven Feather stated in an agitated tone while placing her hoof over her eyes. “See Cotton Quill over there?” She asked calmly while pointing over to the unicorn without looking. It was like she couldn’t even bear to see the white pony. Cotton Quill started breaking out into a cold sweat as the red stallion eyed him.

“I want you to help him out with the next project of ours… He has proven incapable of operating by himself, so you will act as his overseer. Whatever plan he picks out, you make sure it works out and that he doesn’t screw anything else up.” Raven Feather shrugged in frustration as she put her hoof up to the side of her head to prevent herself from seeing the unicorn.

“Yes Raven Feather, right away.” Shadow Mist nodded obediently before walking over to Cotton Quill and sitting down.

Raven Feather then turned back to the scout pony and looked at him quizzically. She could at least count on him to be honest about how badly Cotton messed up.

“How much energy did the creature gather before it was destroyed?” The black mare asked with a hesitant sense of curiosity.

“A fair amount, but not as much as it would have had the elements of harmony and the slayer not intervened.” The stallion explained while staring straight ahead. Raven Feather felt her face tense up upon mention of Twilight Sparkle and her human guard dog.

“The slayer… *Sigh* figures.” Raven Feather shrugged in frustration before turning back to Cotton Quill. “Look Cotton… as much as I want to string you up by your tail and hang you from the rafters, we need another plan put together. Just go do whatever you need to and have something in front of me within a few days. I am going to take the others and do a little research on our newfound annoyance.” She instructed to the unicorn with an agitated look on her face while getting up and motioning for the others to follow.

“Right away Miss Raven Feather… I will bring you something as soon as possible.” Cotton Quill stated obediently as he watched the others leave the room. He then turned to Shadow Mist and motioned for him to follow as he went over to a book shelf to research.