I stood in the Apple family's house currently, looking at the two groups of foals before me. On one side was the Crusaders, Spike, and Sombra. On the other was Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, and Babs Seed. Currently in the MLP timeline we had gotten up to the point of the 'Bad Apple' episode. Of course, Sombra and Spike had gotten involved before Jen and I had the chance. From what we had pieced together, while Spike was showing Sombra around town today they had met up with the Crusaders shortly after they had lost their clubhouse to Babs, Diamond, and Silver. Sombra had asked about their problems, and immediately acquainted the issue with his own experiences. It seemed that before he rose to kingship he had often struggled with nobles. The incident in question was when he had lost a pet arctic fox named Foofie to a rival noble family, who had stolen him away when he was a colt (the first time that is). This had led him to the conclusion that the Crusaders were involved with a foals' Coup de Tat and thus decided that since they were friends with Spike (by the logic of 'a friend of yours is a friend of mine') that he and Spike would help them. This had led to Sombra making a military styled assault to regain control of 'Crusader Keep', using the best weapons of the age (i.e. water balloons, rubber bands, stink bombs, rocks, syrup bombs, and glitter bombs to be used after said syrup bombs). I was actually impressed that he had managed to lead such an intricate attack with only foals. One thing was true, Sombra definitely had a silver tongue to him. But that led to the current situation, where I, Jen and all of the respective sisters/parents/caretakers of all the foals involved were collected. The foals before me were covered in an assortment of messiness, from mud to dust to syrup mixed with glitter. As such I now had to work with Applejack, Rarity, Filthy Rich, Twilight, as well as two faces that I didn't actually know, Silver Shield (Silver Spoon's father and one of the town guards), and Rolling Wind (Scootaloo's mother and a pegasus courier alongside Ditzy Doo). I started the questioning.

"Okay... Do you kids know why you're here?"

"The noble's daughter hath began this quarrel, as did her servant and the traitor apple! We merely finished it!"

"No we didn't! They started throwing stuff at us out of nowhere, for no reason!"

"Yeah! Diamond and I didn't do anything!"

"Nuh-uh! Y'all took our clubhouse!"

"No we didn't ya filthy snitch!"

"Hey we didn't snitch! You guys are the ones who brought the adults in to make yourselves seem innocent!"

"ENOUGH!"

I cut them all off.

"Look we'll give you all a chance, individually, to present your sides of things. That way we adults can compare notes on all of your stories and figure out from the bits present in all versions what really went down. First off, Applebloom. The rest of you, step outside. I don't want any interruptions or attempts to mislead, so we'll be listening to each foal individually."

Silver Shield nodded. "Sounds good. That way we can get a fair perspective of all angles on this then determine punishments and such on our own basis."

Oh yeah quick note: Silver Shield is a HUGE believer in due trial and fairness. The reason he didn't show up in the show, from my best guess was that Silver Spoon did her best to avoid her father finding out about her activities since he wouldn't spoil her like Filthy Rich. He gave her a fairly big allowance but otherwise he treated her like I would expect any other parent to.

About an hour or so later we had managed to figure things out. Currently all of the foals would be grounded for the rest of the day and night, but after hearing all of the circumstances and then telling the foals all of what we had seen then Babs had made peace with the Crusaders, and thought that Spike and Sombra were 'pretty cool guys' and then Silver Shield and Filthy Rich (probably just Shield) were going to put the hammer down on their kids. And Jen and I had made (albeit cautious) friends out of Filthy, Shield, and Winds. Of course Sombra was still grounded but I did let him know how impressed I was with all of the planning put into his attack.

"Verily! I was a master of stratagems and such back during my reign over the empire! It was only against the princess Celestia, one  skill equal to mine, that I fell."

"Well you're still grounded. No gems after dinner and whatnot."

"WHAT!? I SHALL SLAY THE WRETCH NOBLE!"

"That's two nights no gems."

"I NO LONGER SHALL SLEW THE WRETCH NOBLE!"

"Better."

Jen and I had spent most of the day before all of that at the parade and festivities around the holiday. It was kinda like a big farmers market, and Jen and I had grabbed some cool stuff. I had grabbed a bunch of honey and stuff to try making stuff out of (for those few moments when I decided to actually cook rather than use the Inspiration Manifestation spell to create already made food from magic), and Jen had grabbed some bits of things people had made or collected, specifically necklaces with possible magical properties. Jen had managed to scan a whole ton of books from the library into skills stored in the back of her mind. Currently she was experimenting with alchemical magic (as she was robotic Jen didn't have any magical ability, at least from Equestria's understanding of magic). All in all it was a decent day, and we were one step further in the show's timeline. I led Sombra back home and Jen pocked my shoulder.

"Hey Kyth go ahead and take Sombra home, I'm gonna go for a walk."

I shrugged. "Sure thing Jen. Just don't be out too long, kay?"

She giggled. "Sure thing. See you later."

I waved to Kyth as I started walking off. I didn't really have a plan but I just sorta felt like going off on my own for a bit. I moved my pigtails into thruster mode and took off, flying through the air. Eventually I found myself landing in front of the empty cave from the 'Dragonshy' episode. I shrugged and walked in, looking to find something interesting. The front part of the cave held piles of gold and jewels, enough to make a man rich beyond all- You know what? Screw it, it was a shitton of treasure. End of story, no sequel. Nothing much caught my interest other than a simple pair of armored bucklers, crafted from an unknown green metal. I scanned them and I recognized it from Dox's world. Orichalcum. I raised an eyebrow and leaned down, grabbing the two and then wearing them both on my forearms. Might be useful later, for if something messed with my weapons and I couldn't access them. I took a scan over the cave, and I was about to leave when I finally found something interesting in my scan, or to be more accurate what I didn't find. At the end of the cave and then going down in the shape of a tunnel or a mine shaft there was a complete gap. Everything in that area was in that area was completely invisible to scanners. I walked to where the entrance would be, if it actually were a tunnel. I curled back and then brought my fist forward, busting through the wall and revealing a pit that my eyes alone couldn't see the bottom of. I tried my scanners again but I wasn't able to tell. It was like looking to find a black painted rock in space. I morphed out a blaster in my right palm and blasted down into the depths. I watched it go for a bit before seeing a small blast where it hit. I brought my pigtails into thrusters again and started slowly hovering downward. I looked around as I went down, morphing a flashlight out of my left hand and then keeping a blaster in my right. On the walls of the shaft were carvings in a language unregistered into my language database. That meant it was either alien, unique to Equestria, or something made up for an unknown purpose. I managed to use my scanners to at least record as much as was  visible by flashlight and record it. A few scraps of it seemed like Egyptian hieroglyphics, but not enough together to make any sort of functional translation. I landed after a few minutes, looking to see an ornately carved and decorated tunnel. The markings continued down the tunnel as far as I could see, and I shuddered in shock from seeing the bones of what I could identify  as diamond dogs, ponies, even griffins and a few teenage dragons. I tentatively walked forward, coming to the decision to look into this myself. The tunnel opened out into a massive chamber, and  saw a stairwell leading up to an altar of some sort. I used my thrusters and hovered up to it. The closer I got the more it seemed like it was meant to be a sacrificial altar, and when I saw it there was even bones sitting and tangled with chains. It seemed that was one of the unlucky beings sacrificed to whatever god or deity this was meant for. Whatever god this was meant for had to be some kind of seriously fucked up.

"Well that is a true fact, but he didn't mean all this. He just has that kind've effect on mortals with lower functioning mentalities."

I whirled around and locked my blaster on him.

"Easy there girlie, I'm not doing anything...Yet."

He gave off an aura like whatever material insulated the walls. By sight I could see him though and I did my best to get as much data as possible. He was human, or at least he looked like one. His skin was a neutral gray, but not in the way of a sick person though. His eyes were completely yellow, but with slit pupils like a cats. His teeth looked human as well but all sharpened to a fine point. His face lacked a nose, though it had a bump to give a slight impression of one. He had a mess of hair on his head going to his shoulders. It may have been white once but it looked to have been recolored with dust the same color as his skin, leaving it to be a mix of gray and white shading. His outfit looked fairly simple, composed of well-worn jeans, a pair of black sneakers, a black jacket which seemed to transition in materials on the arms (starting off normal in the shoulders and biceps, but then from the elbow to the end it seemed to turn into black denim, going past his hands slightly and looking to be raggedly torn), with a white T-shirt under. He looked to be about eight-ish feet tall, about the same height as Kyth. He had a look to his face that somehow seemed both knowing and curious. By human aging I pegged his appearance at about seventeen, but I knew that was only by looks. I yelled out when I saw him, startled.

"What the fuck!? Who the various hells are you!?"

"Calm yourself, child. As for who I am, I have been called many names in many places by many mortal civilizations. One that I use somewhat just for the sake of simplicity would be Messenger."

He held out a hand. I didn't take it. He sighed and rolled his eyes with a relaxed expression.

"Alright then, be that way."

"So 'Messenger', what are you doing down here? I had to punch a hole in a cave to find this place."

"Even if that were the only entrance, things like walls do not much affect me. As to why... Call it a bit of business."

I looked at him uncertainly.

"So what are you then?"

He chuckled and shrugged. "I'm... Myself. Not much else to be said there."

"So do you know what this place is?"

"A temple. One dedicated to an ancient void dweller that once visited this place. He came simply to observe, though the mortals misunderstood his meaning."

"Well that explains the altar. But what's the deal with all of the bones?"

"This place was sealed away from above, bound in a wall of stone and then treated so that none would be able to see through it. As such these beings were trapped for an eternity and slowly went into madness, and soon... Death. but enough of that, time to get to work."

"You mentioned that. What kind of work are you talking?"

"The kind that changes paths. I'm actually here just to speak with you."

I raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

"To give a warning."

He locked eyes with me and held an intense gaze.

"The Book of Death lost to time has been found again. The fallen queens will be as one, and bring destruction onto all in their reach. There will be pain, there will be blood, and the end of your path on this plane of being shall end. He will awake. He will return. And he will be reborn. I give this warning as a being that wishes to see this path continued to its end. And a final note..."

He turned around and started floating away from me. "His blood will bring life into ones who have fallen."

I narrowed my eyes and locked my blaster on him.

"Wait get the fuck back here! What the hell are you talking about!?"

He laughed and seemed to pass through the wall like it was an illusion. I started blasting, hoping to stop him. The chamber reverberated under the force of the blasts hitting the wall. I realized that the whole thing was collapsing around me.

"SHIT!"

I opened my wings and put away my blaster, swapping it for another flashlight to give me the equivalent of headlights.

I barely managed to get out as the shaft collapsed down behind me. I panted after landing, retracting my wings. I stood up uncertainly, both from the sudden escape and the warnings from Messenger. I looked around and blasted the wall, bringing more rocks down and burying the shaft entrance further. I took a moment to calm myself down, and started off to tell Kyth what had happened. Next Chapter: Chapter Eleven: Madness Vs. Chaos Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 37 Minutes