The temperature in Ponyville was a very pleasant warm, though the breeze that came through occasionally would send a brief shiver down the spines of any pony that felt it. The sun was visible, but the clouds were steadily growing in number day by day. For Ponyville, this was usual for the time of year; they were slowly nearing wintertime. Despite the fact that winter wasn’t scheduled for another three weeks, the ponies started their preparations early, making it all the more easy when the time for winter actually came.

No matter the season or weather, though, the Cutie Mark Crusaders would continue on their quest to discover their cutie marks. After all, a different season meant more opportunities, right? The three young fillies had just finished with their most recent escapades throughout the Ponyville area and had decided to regroup in the club treehouse, and were sitting in front of a surprisingly large pile of assorted metal objects.

“Um, can someone remind me why we did this, again? I mean, it is kinda neat, but what was this supposed to accomplish?” Scootaloo asked.

“Remember, Scoots? Cutie Mark Crusader Metal Finders? Ah thought we went over that a bunch.” The response was permeated with the thick country accent that only came from a member of the Apple family.

“Yeah, yeah, Applebloom, but I mean, what was that supposed to do? It’s not like metal finding would be much of a job. We wouldn’t even be able to do anything with it. All we could do would be to say, ‘Eeyup, there’s some metal’, and then what?” Scootaloo was trying to show to her friends that they had possibly just wasted an entire day to get a cutie mark that she thought might not be too practical.

Sweetie Belle figured that she should interject before things got heated between the pegasus and earth pony. “Girls!” she said loudly. “I think we should look through what we’ve got here. Obviously, we didn’t get our cutie marks, but look at all the stuff we found! There’s got to be at least a hundred bits here, not to mention the rest of the junk. We might find something in this large amalgam of metal that could give us new ideas for cutie marks!”

“. . .” The other two fillies stared at Sweetie Belle.

“Ama-whatsit now?” Applebloom was rather confused.

Scootaloo shook her head. “You’ve been spending too much time around Twilight recently.”

“Who do you think taught me the metal detection spell?” came the white unicorn’s response.

“I don’t think you’ve got it all right just yet, Sweetie Belle. I mean, look here-” Scootaloo lifted up a small wooden wagon wheel “-your spell found this, and it isn’t even made of metal!”

“Well, it could just be the spell. When Twilight showed it to me, the spell said that I was made of metal, but how could that be right? I’m a pony. I just think the spell isn’t one hundred percent accurate. Anyways, back to the metal,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Sweetie Belle has a point. Who knows what we could do with this stuff!” The excitement and interest in Applebloom’s voice was obvious.

“Alright. I guess there’s bound to be something worth our while in here. Let’s get to it.” Scootaloo conceded the point.

The trio of fillies descended upon their confusingly large pile of assorted metal objects with gusto, sorting and tinkering with the motivation of a possible cutie mark.

Hours later found Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle looking at numerous smaller piles that had been organized using the large pile that they had somehow managed to get into the treehouse.

“Alright girls! Whatta we got?” The yellow filly had decided that an assessment of their stash was in order.

“Well, I counted a total of one hundred and two actual bits that we’ve found.” Sweetie Belle had been tasked with finding and counting the bits that they had recovered.

Scootaloo nodded and gave her report. “And I figured we’ve got about twenty kilograms of random metal that we can’t do anything with. I mean, where did this stuff even come from? Who just leaves a sheet of metal lying around?”

“How’d ya know how much metal ya got there?” Applebloom decided to voice the question that was on the minds of her and her unicorn friend.

“Well, one of the pieces of metal we found happened to be one of those old balance scales.”

“How’d we miss that?” Sweetie Belle said. “Well, what about you, Applebloom?”

“Well, ah gathered all the things that looked useful. We got ‘bout ten pots and pans, a few buttons, this weird golden cane thing, and a cool lookin’ urn.”

The other two Crusaders noticed the sealed urn that Applebloom had just mentioned. The object in question was rather different from the other pieces that the trio of fillies had found. It was fairly large, about half a metre tall and thirty centimetres wide. Though it was very dirty and had copious amounts of muck on it, it was very obvious that it was quite the ornate piece. There were decorative protrusions from the sides of the urn that gave the appearance of ivy vines winding around the container, eventually melding together towards the top to form two handles that connected to the lip of the urn. On top rested a lid, though it was sealed shut by multiple layers of rust and mud.

“Does anyone remember where we got it?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Applebloom responded, “Yeah, ah think it was given ta us by that big purple sea serpent in the river with the questionable hairstyle.”

“That’s not the only questionable thing about him . . .” Scootaloo muttered.

Applebloom trotted over to the urn and grabbed a handle in her mouth, bringing it to the other two. Dropping it in front of Sweetie Belle, there was a very distinct clack of something hard striking metal.

“Did you hear that, girls?” Scootaloo asked. “There might be bits in there. Looks like your count was wrong, Sweetie.”

“Oh come on!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed

“Well, let’s open this derned thing!” Eagerness was very evident in the yellow earth pony’s voice. She immediately set to prying the lid off using a combination of her teeth and hooves. After a minute of attempts with no results, Applebloom let go in defeat.

“Here, let me try something.” Sweetie Belle seemed to want to attempt to open the urn. Lifting it with simple telekinesis, she used her magic to lift the mud and dirt from the crevice around the lid. “Now try it, AB.”

Giving it a quick tug, the lid came off easily. Peering inside the now open urn, Scootaloo attempted to see what was in the urn that made the clinking noise. “Huh?”

“What is it, Scoots?” Applebloom asked.

“It’s . . . Well, it looks like a mask. Sorta.”

“What do you mean ‘sorta’?” Sweetie Belle responded.

“Here, gimme a sec,” Scootaloo said before reaching in to the jar and grabbing out a thin, round object. “See?”

Indeed, the object that Scootaloo had pulled out looked similar to a mask, but with very obvious differences. First was that the mask was far too flat for a pony. Where the muzzle would have been was only a small triangular protrusion, making the mask only a few centimetres thick when laid flat on the ground. The eyes were much smaller than that of a pony, and there was no way one would be able to see out of the mask, even if they managed to somehow get it on. The last difference was both simple and complex: the mask didn’t make sense. Looking at one side, the mask was a very pure white, with a large smile adorning it, with the eyes and mouth holes that went all the way through the mask. Turning the mask over, it was pitch black and sported a frown almost completely opposite its other side. The most confusing element was that looking at one side, it could be felt that the mask was only single-faced. Flipping the mask around to look at the back simply seemed to shift it into the opposite mask face. By all means, the mask should be double sided and impossible to wear, yet only one side could be seen at a time, and the side that wasn’t seen simply wasn’t there. The mask that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had found was impossible. Even if it was a magic object, it was no magic that had been seen before.

“Girls, I don’t like this mask. It don’t feel right.” Applebloom voiced her concerns after observing the mask.

“I get what you mean,” Scootaloo said, “There’s something off about this thing, weird shifting aside.”

“I get strange feelings when looking at it. I look at the happy side, and I feel . . . hopeful. Like everything is going to be alright. But the other side . . .” Sweetie Belle shuddered.

“Yeah, we’d better put this back. I don’t feel like it belongs here.” The orange pegasus filly stared at the mask.

Almost two minutes later and the trio were still rooted where they were, staring at the mask on the floor, not one of them having moved to pick up the mask.

“Umm, why haven’t we done anything?” Sweetie Belle broke the silence.

“Ah . . . Ah don’t know,” Applebloom said, “I know I need to, but I don’t feel like I want to. It’s like . . . I can’t.”

“Guys, I don’t like this,” Scootaloo said with a slight whimper. “I know I don’t usually say this, but, I’m scared.”

The other two nodded in agreement before Sweetie Belle spoke up.

“Maybe . . . I could try my magic and move it back into the urn?”

“S-sure. Yeah, you do that,” Applebloom said. None of them had moved their eyes from the mask.

Sweetie Belle slowly worked on concentrating on levitating the mask. It was a slow and difficult process, with Sweetie Belle still working on getting her magic control consistent. After half a minute, she started sweating and panting, the mental effort seeming to show through her physical state. Slowly, a light green aura wrapped around the mask, lifting it many centimetres off the ground, and started to move it back towards the urn. Suddenly, Sweetie Belle let out a pained cry and broke the magical link, sending the mask clattering back to the floor. The cry from Sweetie Belle seemed to bring Applebloom and Scootaloo back into focus as they rushed over to where their friend was laying on the floor, breathing heavily.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” Scootaloo asked worriedly.

“Yeah, ya ain’t hurt, are ya? Applebloom followed.

“Not anymore, but it did. It was like, the more effort I put into it, the harder it got to lift it up,” Sweetie Belle said, “Then, all of a sudden, it felt like a spike was shoved in my head. It hurt so much, I couldn’t keep up the magic. It was like . . . like it didn’t want to be moved.”

“That would be because it isn’t yours.”

The three fillies immediately froze. That wasn’t one of their voices. That had been something else. Something that wasn’t there before. Slowly, Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle turned towards where the mask was, about two metres away. Upon finding where the mask had been, they soon noticed it was no longer there. In its place was something much larger and much more ominous.

Standing where the mask had been moments ago was a very large creature, entirely concealed by a similarly large grey cloak, with its hood drawn up, obscuring where its head was with an empty cavity. A long arm surrounded by a sleeve was visible, extending from the sides of the creature’s upper body, and ending in what looked like a fleshy, five-digit claw, similar to that of a minotaur. In that claw was the mask that had been the source of the CMCs troubles for the past several minutes. The three fillies could only stare in open-mouthed shock, frozen in terror. What was this thing? It was most definitely not there a minute ago. There was no sign of teleport, like a flash or a pop. The thing was very tall, needing to duck its head so as to not hit the ceiling. How had something so large gotten in without making a sound?

“We are going to have to ask that you not scream. We have not come here with the intention of harming you. That, and we absolutely hate screaming children.” The voice that came from the creature was odd. It was deep and obviously masculine in tone, and had a strange echoing effect, with each echo carrying a different pitch. When it spoke, it gave a sense of calm reassurance, yet also had the contrasting effect of being very foreboding. “Now, we hope that you can be calm in asking your questions, of which we are sure you have many. First though: no, we are not going to harm you.”

Applebloom was the first one to snap out of her shock. She stepped forward tentatively, as if attempting to see if the creature would make any moves to hurt her. True to its word, the creature did not make an attempt to harm Applebloom, much less move at all. Once the farmer filly was within four hoof-lengths, she looked up at the creature’s hood, trying to see if she could spy a face within the blackness, but alas, she could not.

“How’d ya git in here?” was the first question from Applebloom.

There were several seconds of silence after the question had been aired before a response was received.

“Magic.” The deep echoing voice once again sounded forth.

“Yeah, but like, how?” Scootaloo had regained her surefire attitude after seeing Applebloom attempt to interact with the intruder.

“It is magic. We do not have to explain anything.”

Sweetie Belle looked as though she was about to protest, mouth open in preparation to speak, but after a second of thought, promptly closed it. A few moments later and she decided to say something different.

“You talk a lot like Princess Luna used to. Do you know her?”

Once again, a heavy silence remained before the creature spoke. It slowly turned it’s cowled head in the direction of Sweetie Belle, thoroughly creeping her out.

“Princess? We must say that we do not. However, considering that you three are merely small children, it would be nice to meet such a figure of authority. Could you take us to her?”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders blinked in confusion. They certainly hadn’t been expecting a response question such as that. How were they even supposed to go about doing that?

“Uh, mister,” Applebloom said, “sorry, but we can’t. Ya see, the princess is off in Canterlot, and that’s mighty far to walk. There is a princess in Ponyville though! We could take ya there, seein’ as we’re just outside town.”

They couldn’t tell if the silence meant that the creature was thinking, or if it was waiting for more, due to not being able to actually see anything through the thick grey cloak.

“Yes. That would do fine. Take us to your leader.”

Eyeing the tall figure before her, Applebloom said, “Right. Jes’ make sure ya follow us and don’t get lost.” With that, the trio of fillies exited the treehouse, Scootaloo beckoning the large cloaked figure to follow. Once they were on the ground, the Crusaders turned around to face the ramp that they just stepped off of, but the tall figure wasn’t following them.

“Uh,” Sweetie Belle said, “where’d he go?”

“I didn’t see him follow us out,” Scootaloo confirmed.

“Are you looking for us?”

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all simultaneously screamed and whipped around at the sound of the creature’s voice coming from behind them. It was about four metres away, simply standing just as it had been in the treehouse, not moving a muscle. Assuming it had any. It was rather hard to tell.

“How the hey’d you get down here? You didn’t follow us!” Applebloom sounded both agitated and confused.

“Magic.” The response received a deadpan stare from the three small fillies. “Shall we go?”

“Fine,” Scootaloo said before starting off down the road toward Ponyville, the three others close behind her.

Several minutes had passed before there was any speaking, what with the creature’s lack of speech seeming to remove the desire to talk from the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Eventually, Sweetie Belle broke the silence.

“So . . . what exactly are you, um, mister?” Her question was one that had been on the minds of everypony since they first discovered the tall hooded figure.

“Not a pony.”

“Well, we can see that, but what are you?”

“Different.”

“You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Have you ever seen us before?”

Scootaloo stopped abruptly. “WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT AND ANSWER HER QUESTIONS ALREADY?!” she shouted, having turned around to face their follower.

“But we have been. You simply do not like the answers.”

The annoyance and anger in Scootaloo’s eyes gave the impression that she was on the verge of attacking the strange creature. Seeing that, Applebloom stepped in front of Scootaloo.

“Scoots, now ain’t the time. Let’s jes’ git ta town, let him meet Twilight, then we can be back to crusadin’, alright?”

Scootaloo took a few deep breaths to calm down, continually shooting the stranger a stink-eye. Turning back around, she continued the pace on their way to Ponyville, with the rest of the trip passing in silence, barring the sounds of nature that could be heard along the way. They eventually reached the edge of town, the first buildings several metres away.

“Would we be correct to assume that this princess lives in the large crystal tree?” asked the creature.

“Eeyup,” Applebloom said, “Now, we could take ya there, and introduce ya to Twi -- hey! Where’d he go?” She had turned around in order to speak more directly to the grey companion, but he had disappeared, leaving no trace of ever having been there.

Scootaloo spoke up. “You don’t think . . .”

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle responded, “Magic.”

At that, the trio of fillies turned back to face the castle that was situated at the other end of town.

“Uh oh.” Applebloom sounded very concerned. “Girls, maybe we should . . .”

“Eeyup,” was the response from both Sweetie and Scootaloo.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders immediately took off towards the Castle of Friendship, hoping they would get there in time to explain to Twilight why there was a mysterious hooded creature in her house.

After five minutes of the fastest galloping they’d done since setting part of the Apple family barn on fire, the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally reached the doors to Twilight’s castle. Pausing briefly to catch their breaths, the filly trio tried to figure out what to do next. Sure, they had planned to get to the castle as fast as possible to explain to Twilight what had happened, but they hadn’t thought about how they would go about doing so.

“Do ya think he’s in there?” Applebloom asked.

Scootaloo put an ear up to the massive crystalline doors. “I don’t hear anything, so maybe not.”

“You do realize that the doors are made of solid crystal, several centimetres thick, and the castle is huge. Even if you could hear through it, they might be in a different part of the building,” Sweetie Belle responded, hoping to make the orange pegasus filly see some sense.

The castle doors opening before Scootaloo could respond made up their minds for them. Cautiously edging their way forward, the three fillies slowly made their way into the giant crystal tree.

“H-hello?” Applebloom called out.

“Applebloom?” The Cutie Mark Crusaders heard Twilight call out. “Is that you?”

“Eeyup. Sweetie and Scoots ‘re here with me, too.”

“Really? It’s the wrong day for your Twilight Time; is there something that you needed?”

Scootaloo responded to Twilight’s question with, “Sort of. Could we talk real quick?”

“Of course, girls. I’m in the study. Second floor, third door on the left of the middle hallway.”

Seeing the stairs, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo made their way up to the second floor. Once there, they started down the middle hallway, approaching the third door on the left. As they walked, Sweetie Belle asked, “Thanks for opening the door for us, Twilight! I don’t know if we could have opened them on our own.”

“That’s silly. They’re enchanted so that they aren’t very heavy; just one of you would be able to open both of them. Besides, I didn’t open it for you.”

Confused, the CMC finally reached the entrance to the study, and stood in the doorway, turning to look at Twilight. Once they did, all three fillies froze in shock. Twilight was sitting in her chair at a large desk, writing on an enormous scroll. Standing not one metre behind her was the large grey cloaked creature, towering over Twilight like an ominous statue. The worst part was that the violet alicorn didn't seem to notice it at all.

Seeing the looks on the trio’s faces, Twilight asked, “Girls? Is something wrong?”

“Just wondering, Twilight,” Sweetie Belle said, “do you have any protective wards on the castle?”

“I don’t know what that has anything to do with, but yes.”

Scootaloo asked next, “And do those wards keep out unwanted visitors who don’t enter through the doors?”

Now slightly more concerned, Twilight responded, “Yeees . . .”

“Then how’d he git in here?” Applebloom finished, pointing at the figure directly behind the alicorn.

Twilight froze. “What?” It came out as barely a whisper.

“We believe they would be speaking of us,” a deep baritone voice said.

With a shriek, she spun around and flapped her wings, sending her hovering in the air a couple metres from where she had been, opposite the source of the voice, horn already charged with a stun spell ready to go.

“Who are you?!” Twilight demanded firmly, glaring at whatever it was that had snuck into her castle.

There was a long pause before the creature spoke, much like it had whenever speaking with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “We are surprised that the three young ones did not ask this of us whatsoever. We find it amusing that you are the first to ask, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Do you know this thing, girls?” Twilight questioned, not turning away from the cloaked figure she was facing, for fear of what may happen should she look away.

“About that . . .” Applebloom said.

“It’s kinda what we came to talk to you about,” Scootaloo finished.

Twilight, directing the focus of her words back to the grey being, said, “You still haven’t answered my question!”

“No. We have not.”

Thinking that she’d not get anywhere with that particular question, she asked another. “How did you get past my wards?”

“Here it comes . . .” Sweetie Belle said in the period of silence before the uninvited guest spoke.

“Magic.”

“That can’t be possible. The only ones who could bypass my spells are the other Princesses themselves. Therefore, you must have used something else.” Twilight was growing frustrated, the creature not cooperating with any questions in a rational way.

“Whether we were lying or being truthful is up to you, Princess Twilight; you will be correct either way.” As with most other answers the cloaked figure gave, it only created more questions. “You may cease with the spell now; we intend no harm whatsoever. Not that it would do anything to us, of course.”

Twilight was skeptical. “How do I know I can trust you?”

“You cannot. We are a being that has bypassed some of the strongest magical security ever seen, snuck up on you unawares, and you know nothing about us. There is no rational reason why you should trust us, but the choice is still yours to make.”

“I am one of the strongest magic casters since Starswirl the Bearded. Why wouldn’t my spell affect you?” Twilight asked, horn still glowing.

“Magic.”

“Aargh! Give me a straight answer for once!” Twilight practically shouted, her frustration boiling to a peak.

“We cannot. Sound waves are just that: waves. To have a straight answer would be to speak with a soundwave at equilibrium, thus contradicting itself.”

Twilight’s eye started twitching. “You know what? I’m just going to call Princess Celestia, and let her deal with you. I don’t like where this is going, and I’m afraid I might just end up testing out some new spells I’ve been experimenting with.” At that, Twilight summoned a piece of parchment and quill, writing quickly on it with her telekinesis, before sending it off with a flash and a pop.

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, still standing in the doorway, decided that instead of wait, they would try to talk with Twilight about what they’d originally came for.

“So, as we were sayin’,” Applebloom said after trotting into the study, “we kinda tried gettin’ our cutie marks in metal finding. We spend the day collecting all the random metal we could find with Sweetie Belle’s metal finding spell, and took it back to the clubhouse.”

Scootaloo continued, “After spending forever sorting it all, we found this cool looking urn! When we figured out that something was inside it, we opened it up, and we pulled out some mask-looking thing. It kinda freaked us out, but none of us could put it back, so we tried having Sweetie Belle use her magic to get it back in the pot.”

“It didn’t react too well with my magic,” Sweetie Belle said, “but when it backfired, this guy showed up, and took it. He still has it, I think. Anyways, we decided to bring him here to talk with you, because he said it would be nice to talk with a member of royalty. When we got to the edge of town, he just disappeared.”

Twilight returned to standing on the floor, trying to piece together what the she had just been told. Before she had a chance to respond, the room lit up with a brilliant flash of white light before fading, leaving a newly arrived Princess Celestia and Princess Luna standing in the middle of the room, directly between Twilight and the cloaked figure.

“Twilight Sparkle?” Luna was the first to speak. “You sent a letter requesting our presence. Might I inquire as to what for?”

“I must agree with my sister, Twilight,” Celestia said, “You weren’t specific as to why you needed us so urgently.”

“Well, the reason I called you here was because of that.” Twilight pointed at the large figure behind the two royal alicorns.

Turning around, Celestia and Luna eyed the odd creature up and down. After a brief moment of inspection, realization seemed to dawn on Luna’s face.

“Ah! My sister and I sensed a very large magic disturbance from somewhere in Equestria, though we have not been able to pinpoint exactly where it came from. It must be this odd statue that you have found,” Luna said to Twilight.

“Well . . .” Twilight started, only to be cut off.

“We are no statue, Vessel of the Dark Miasma; we can assure thee of that.”

Both Celestia and Luna tensed and immediately froze, shock plastered on their faces.

“What . . . what did you just say?” Celestia’s response was a hushed whisper, one that carried a volatile undertone of anger and worry.

“We said that we are no statue, Carrier of the Prometheon Flame.” The voice coming from the cloaked creature seemed to increase the amount of dread that it inspired. The three fillies shivered, wondering just how the voice of one creature could do that to a pony.

Celestia’s eyes widened, along with Luna’s. Those titles had not been said in a long time. A very long time. Luna growled aggressively and set herself into a fighting stance, ready for what she perceived to be an imminent attack. “Where have you heard those titles, creature?”

“We wish to inform you that we are not the source of the magic disturbance you have felt. We also wish to say that we shall not harm any of thee, nor shall we engage in violence. We are not a threat.”

Celestia managed to compose herself back to her usual self. “Luna, relax yourself. He speaks truly. We shall, however, continue this discussion later.”

“Sister, how can you be so sure there is no trickery?” Luna questioned.

“If this creature wanted to harm any one of us, it could have done so already, as it has obviously been here with these four for a short while already.” She turned to Twilight and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Might I ask as to how you came across this being?”

At that, the four ponies regaled what had happened up to that point to Celestia, hoping it might clear things up. After having listened, the solar princess turned around to once again speak to the hooded figure.

“I shall cast a truth spell on you, and you will answer our questions honestly.” Celestia’s horn lit up a vibrant green. The hooded figure still did not move. “Is what these four ponies said correct?”

“Yes.”

Celestia’s horn switched to red. Then back to green. Then red. The truth spell was flashing rapidly, switching colors several times a second.

Celestia frowned. “You say that you are not a threat. Are you?”

“We are not.”

Again, the spell began switching rapidly.

“Are you the source of the magical disturbance?”

“We are not.”

Once more, the glow blinked rapidly in both colors. Seeing this, Celestia cancelled the spell, having figured that it was no use.

“We know the cause of the magical disturbance that you seek,” the hooded figure said.

Luna turned toward the large grey being. “Can you tell us?”

“Yes.”

The six ponies waited nervously for the creature to tell them. After a minute of silence, Twilight spoke up.

“Will you tell us the source of the magical disturbance?”

“Now that, Twilight Sparkle, is entirely up to your superiors. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, We have knowledge of what it is you seek, as well as the ability to assist you. What say you?”

“We ask that you tell us what we wish to know,” Celestia said formally.

“Before We tell you, We must say something first. This source is a great power, and likely to change Equestria forever.” The ponies in the room were shocked at this. “What do you wish? The knowledge and assistance to combat it, or the knowledge and only that?”

Twilight, Celestia, and Luna all turned toward each other, each trying to think of what to do.

‘Sister? Twilight?’ Celestia said telepathically, ‘what do you think? Shall we obtain the aid of one who obviously knows more than we do about it?’

‘I’m not sure, Princess,’ Twilight responded, ‘It could be a very helpful thing to have aid.’

‘I disagree wholeheartedly!’ Luna all but shouted mentally, ‘I do not trust this creature. We would be better off just getting the information and leaving it at that! Then we could question this being more thoroughly.’

‘Luna,’ Celestia said, ‘just because he makes you uneasy is no reason for hostility. Besides, should we enlist his aid, we will be able to keep a closer eye on him. There is something very off about it.’

‘Celestia, Luna, I think we might want to do that. Even though the spell said that he was both lying and telling the truth when he said that he was not the source of the magical disturbance, he was most definitely telling the truth,’ Twilight said.

‘How are you so sure, Twilight Sparkle?’ Luna asked.

‘Feel for his magic, Luna. There isn’t any. That being has no connection to a single leyline. He is completely devoid of any magic.’

After sending out a thaumaturgical pulse, a look of concern flashed across Luna’s features. ‘Then how, might I ask, did he bypass your wards?’

‘That’s what I want to know, Luna. That’s why I think we should keep an eye on him.’

‘I must agree with Twilight, Luna,’ Celestia said, ‘I say we obtain his help, if at least for assurance that our little ponies will be safe.’

‘I concede. We shall do as you say.’ Luna all but sighed.

Breaking out of their mental conversation, Celestia turned back to the creature and said, “We have reached a conclusion. We request the knowledge and the means to combat this growing evil. Thus do we contract thee.”

There was a heavy silence that hung in the air once Celestia had made it known what the plan was. Moving for the first time since entering the room, the creature slowly reached into its robe and withdrew a medium sized coin. Moving swiftly, he flipped the coin into the air and caught it on its way down. Looking at the side facing up, the figure returned the coin to within the robe. The ponies thought they saw the likeness of one of his masks on the coin, though which one, they couldn’t tell. Reaching into the robe once more, the creature withdrew the mask that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had found. Turning it around so that the white smiling side faced the ponies, it brought it into the cavity of the hood, the mask disappearing in the blackness. Once the figure had pulled its arm back to rest at its side, it spoke once more.

“Kai étsi archízei.”

Author's Notes:

Eeyup. Stuff is a' happenin'. Onwards!