Author's Notes:

Sorry about the break. Christmas hit me hard so I was busy with that for a bit but I should be on track now.

A loud thud sounded out throughout the guild as something heavy dropped. The various guild members looked in fear as they beheld an armored red-head dropping a giant horn onto the floor, effectively cracking it. Some of the guild members kept their faces buried in their mugs while others wondered what the woman was doing there.

“Why is Erza back so soon?”

“She carried that thing all the way back on her own?”

“She won’t like it when she finds out what Gray did.”

Erza wore metal armor covering her upper body. There were little flaps of metal extending from the piece covering her midriff that covered a navy-blue skirt. She wore metal gauntlets to cover her hands, wrists and forearms, letting part of the material covering the skin so that it wouldn’t chafe, show. She ignored the various whisperings of her fellow members and stared straight ahead at where she expected her master to be. On top of the bar counter, overlooking the guild. But he wasn’t there. Finding this slightly odd, she frowned and walked up to the bar, wondering where he could be.

“Mirajane, where’s Master?” Erza asked, looking at her while she cleaned a few glasses.

“Hello, Erza. Back so soon?” Mirajane asked with a smile. “Master Makarov had to attend a guild master meeting. He left yesterday so he should be back in a few days or so. It varies how long these meetings go for really.”

“Fine," she sighed and sat down on one of the bar stools. “Are there any S-Class jobs still available?”

“Yes, but you’re going to need to bring someone back from one.” Mirajane replied, leaning over the countertop.

“Who?” Erza asked, showing a bit of surprise at this. Usually the others would be able to handle themselves.

“Gray. He stole an S-Class job. We’ve sent Twilight, Levy and Cana after him but they haven’t reported back. Before he left, Master Makarov said if Erza, Laxus, Gildarts or Mystogan come back from their jobs, send them after Gray as it’s high time he was returned home.” Mirajane said.

“Gray? He knows the rules though. Why would he do such a thing?” Erza asked, wanting to get some more information.

“No clue. But he’s gone and we need to bring him back. You can take someone with you if you think it will help.” Mirajane said.

“Which job did he take?” Erza sighed, getting up and preparing to leave even though she just got back.

“The Galuna Island job.” Mirajane commented, giving her another smile before attending to another guild member.

“Guess I have no choice. Lucy, you’re coming with me.” Erza didn’t wait for a reply as she picked up the giant horn she was carrying and strode out the door with it, another thud sounding as she placed it somewhere just outside the door.

“What? Me? You want me?” Lucy asked, visibly shaking while going after Erza.

“Yes, I do. Your celestial spirits can help and I don’t want to overwhelm him unless absolutely necessary.” Erza replied, turning her head to look briefly at the blonde before marching off to the port.

“B-b-but … oh fine.” Lucy sighed, not wishing to incur Erza’s wrath. “How are we getting to the port then? The train doesn’t go there which is a really poor design plan.” She asked, finally catching up to Erza’s strict pace.

“We’re going to walk.” Erza said in a curt manner.

“Of course we are.” Lucy sighed, slumping forward and dragging her feet slightly. She was wearing black boots that reached up to just under her knees, a blue skirt with a brown belt to hold her whip as well as a keyring for the celestial keys. She uses the celestial keys to summon special spirits to either help her out with everyday tasks, or to fight battles.
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As Gray, Pinkie and Crystal talked about various things, a plan of how to proceed among the subjects, Crystal heard footsteps and crunching leavings a little ways of.

“Do you guys hear that?” Crystal asked, cupping her hand to her ear.

“Hear what?” Gray asked in confusion.

“Ooh! Do you have super hearing!?” Pinkie asked excitedly, looking at Crystal expectantly.

“Must have gotten that too when I jumped worlds.” Crystal mumbled, scratching at her ear as the footsteps got closer as well as a few voices chatting. “And it sounds like Twilight, Cana and Levy are here," she informed them.

“They’re here to take me back to the guild.” Gray sighed and stretched as he got up. “May as well get this over with.” He said, rolling his shoulders and immediately taking off further into the island.

“Gray! Get back here!” Pinkie shouted, running after him.

“Why does this happen to me?” Crystal groaned and slouched after them, walking quickly to try and catch up to Pinkie at the very least. She glared at herself though when she heard someone shout her name. Knowing it was Twilight and the others, she turned around and gave them a smile. “Hi, guys. What’s up?” she asked nervously.

“Taking the three of you back.” Cana said dismissively.

“Three? I’m the only one here. Can you see anyone else here?” Crystal asked, gesturing around them to show that there really was only the four of them.

“Well, no, but we know for a fact that three of you are here.” Twilight answered, placing a hand on her hip.

“Of course you do.” Crystal sighed and turned, walking after Gray and Pinkie.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Levy asked her.

“To go after Gray and Pinkie. That a problem?” Crystal asked, blinking as she turned back to look at Levy.

“No, I was just wondering if we could follow.” Twilight suggested, looking at Crystal expectantly.

“Sure. I don’t see why not. I failed in stopping Gray from coming here so I don’t see how you can succeed where I failed.” Crystal shrugged, and walked on, leading the three of them behind her. “Did Makarov send you to do this?” she asked after a bit of silence.

“Yes he did and I intend to keep that promise.” Twilight answered, nodding primly. “He also said I could choose a couple of people to help so Levy and Cana are here because of that.”

“When were you meant to report back?” Crystal asked, slowing a bit to walk side by side with them.

“We were meant to report back? He didn’t say anything about that.” Twilight said innocently, looking at the three of them in confusion.

“Oh boy. He’ll probably send an S-Class after us then.” Crystal said as she blanched at the thought of having to possibly face Erza. “I really don’t want to face any of them at the moment.”

“We were so busy trying to get here, I guess we forgot.” Levy said with a sheepish smile.

“You forgot.” Crystal repeated in a deadpan manner, giving her a blank stare.

“We had to get up at dawn and onto a ship to get here.” Cana answered, mirroring Crystal’s look.

“You couldn’t report while you waited to get on the ship?” Crystal asked, scratching one of her ears as she thought she heard a far off shout.

“We were too busy trying to figure out where to stay for the night, and then Cana managed to break Twilight.” Levy answered, smiling at Crystal. Crystal looked Twilight over at this, trying to discern if she had any broken bones or not. After seeing that she was fine, she raised an eyebrow.

“Cana broke her brain?” Crystal asked.

“Drinking when you’re thirteen is not legal!” Twilight fumed, crossing her arms. the other three chuckled at this, knowing full well that Twilight wasn’t going to drop it.

“So? I still did it.” Cana smirked, replying to Twilight and Crystal while moving some branches out of the way. “Where did Gray go?” Cana asked, trying to get them to focus back on the mission.

Crystal pointed in the direction they were going in. Walking quickly ahead of them, she brushed apart a bunch of foliage that was in her way, nearly smacking into a wall made out of extremely tall and wooden spikes. Mouth gaping at the sudden wall, she looked both ways and found it extended far out to either side, curving off the farther away it got.

“That’s a big wall.” Cana commented, walking past Crystal and heading off to the left.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Levy asked, following Cana. Not believing they had any choice, Twilight and Crystal followed after.

“Where else? To the entrance to see if there are actually any people here.” Cana said matter-of-factly, grinning at them while taking a swig from the flask she had fished out of the satchel she was carrying.
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“Gray! Slow down!” Pinkie shouted, running after the ice mage and unintentionally leaving Crystal behind.

“I’m not going back! Not until I’ve confronted Lyon!” Gray shouted behind him, giving a quick glance back before deftly dodging to the side as he saw a chunk of dirt flying towards him. Most likely an effort by Pinkie to stop him.

“At least let me- oh. Nevermind!” Pinkie said happily, suddenly appearing in front of Gray, causing him to crash into her and making the both of them tumble down a small slope. At the bottom, they were a tangle of limbs that had a hard time of getting each other apart.

“What was that?” Gray asked, having finally extracted himself from her.

“What was what?” Pinkie asked innocently, sitting up and giggling.

“You, teleporting. That’s what!” Gray answered, standing up to look at their surroundings better.

“So? I do it all the time. Everypony in Ponyville are so used to it, they wave when they see me pop by.” Pinkie shrugged, smiling and jumping up, placing a hand on her forehead to look around. Spotting a structure in the distance, she pointed it out to Gray. “Was that there before?”

Gray simply nodded and sighed, holding his head in his hands as he realised he would have to put up with Pinkie for the entire way there. “Yes, it was. We need to find a village first though and rest up before we continue on.” He suggested, placing a hand against his forehead to look at their surroundings.

“If it’s a village you want, then there’s one we ran passed back that way.” Pinkie supplied, frowning at the far-off building before turning and marching in the direction of the village. She stopped after a bit when she noticed Gray wasn’t following. Turning her head slowly to look at him, she gave him a quizzical look. “Something up?”

“Just thinking. Why would Lyon come here? Why didn’t he just slink off and join a guild or something?” Gray wondered, finally getting it into his head to follow Pinkie rather than just stand and stare at nothingness.

Pinkie had no answer for this so she resorted to clicking her tongue against her teeth.

“Can you stop?” Gray asked after having listening to her tongue clicking for the past ten minutes.

“It’s fun when I do this though.” Pinkie protested, poking her tongue out at him, feeling a bit peeved at not being told to do something she considered fun.

“If it’s fun, then try to do it quietly. I’m trying to find that village you said we ran passed.” Gray said, placing his hands in his pockets and slouching a bit. Pinkie obliged and tried to click her tongue quietly but it ended up being the same volume so she eventually stopped doing it. “I think that’s the village. Is it?” Gray asked, perking up a bit at seeing the giant wooden spears stick up out of the ground, making a makeshift fence. Fantastic defense if anything couldn’t fly.

“That’s the one. I think I see the others there.” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down as she tried to get the others group’s attention, not noticing Gray sporting a big blush at her movement.

“Where did you two run off to?” Crystal asked once she and the others had walked over.

“No idea. We ran, and ran, and ran until eventually stopping. We found a building in the far-off distance but Gray decided to rest up at a village, so I pointed him back to this place.” Pinkie explained.

“I’m glad you did. I have a few questions to ask him before we take him back anyway.” Twilight levitated a scroll and quill from out of her pocket, clearly intending to start right away.

“Why don’t we get into this village first before you start interrogating him, hm?” Cana suggested, jabbing a thumb at the nearby fence.

“Sounds good to me.” Levy agreed and without any further talk, the group walked up to the entrance and called out, waiting for someone to answer.

“No-one’s home. I suggest we bust it open.” Crystal said with a grin after having stood there in silence for a few minutes and lit up her hand in preparation.

“What? No! We’ll wait a bit longer for someone to answer.” Twilight argued, much to Crystal’s chagrin.

Gray had his eyes squinted at the top of the spikes, waiting for something to poke their head out to see what the commotion was about.

“‘Keep Out’ … they certainly don’t want any visitors.” Levy said, looking up at the sheer size of the gate. “It’s definitely got some good defense capabilities.” Levy said, impressed by it, even if it was a bit primitive.

“Who goes there?” a voice called out from above their heads, causing Gray to smile at it.

“Finally, someone answers,” he muttered and called out to the person. “We’re responding to the job request you sent to Fairy Tail!”

“Fairy Tail? Then why didn’t we get any notification of it having been accepted?” the person asked, feeling suspicious at this random group of possible mages.

“Probably a mix up with the paperwork! That sort of stuff gets mixed up all the time when politics are involved!” Crystal called out, answering him and giving a thumb up to Gray.

“Then show us your mark!” He called back, getting another guard to come closer and help verify them. Once he did that, he looked back to find four different-coloured marks, placed on various locations of their bodies.

Levy’s mark was on her left back shoulder blade, Cana’s was just above her left hip, Crystal’s was on her right bicep and Gray’s was just under his left collarbone.

“All but two. Should we let them in?” the guard who called out asked his companion.

“They must be with them for a reason. Let them all in but keep a careful watch on the Unicorn and her pink friend. There’s no knowing of what they can do,” he suggested, signalling one of the other citizens to raise the gate.

“Why do I get the feeling we’re walking into a monster’s mouth?” Twilight said nervously, following the group as they went inside as she watched the gate rise up, revealing that they were spiked on the bottom as well.

“No idea, but this is all very familiar to me.” Crystal whispered to Twilight, not wanting the others to overhear. “If it helps, I’ll tell you why when everyone’s asleep,” she added, silencing Twilight for the time being.

“Fine, but I’m holding you to that.” Twilight said sincerely, both girls jumping a bit at Pinkie’s sudden intrusion.

“You two must Pinkie Promise on it!” Pinkie declared, causing Crystal to screw her face into confusion.

“What the hell is a Pinkie Promise?” Crystal asked.

“You must cross your heart, hope to die, stick a cupcake in your eye. If you break it, I will hunt you down forever.” Pinkie said happily, not fitting the tone of her words at all.

“She’s scary.” Crystal muttered once Pinkie was out of earshot. With their little conversation finished, Crystal looked at the villagers and nodded her head at them. “Definitely familiar,” she groaned, casting her eyes downward. “You all have demonic features, don’t you?” Crystal asked, surprising the entire village as well as her friends.

“How did you know that, young one?” a wizened elderly with a dark green coat, snow-white mane and tail as well as wings, marking him a Pegasus, walked up to Crystal, hands clasped behind his back. He even wore a white, full-length robe to cover his body up with.

“Gray, Pinkie and I ran into one of you at the docks. He helped us get here after vanishing. Oddly enough, he didn’t give out a name.” Crystal explained, pointing to Gray and Pinkie as she mentioned their names. “I just figured the lot of you were the same. Do you know why you’re like this?” she inquired, sitting down on the ground, cross-legged.

“The moon,” the village collectively answered, pointing up to a purple moon.

“I don’t think it’s meant to be that colour.” Levy whispered, the others gazing in stunned silence at it.

“It’s not.” Crystal agreed, waiting for who she assumed was the village chief to speak again.

“The moon has cursed us to grow demonic at night. See for yourselves,” the elder said, tossing aside the white robe he wore. A clawed hand that was dark blue in colour was revealed. The other villagers did the same, showing off an assortment of demonic features such as horns, claws, wings and scales in some cases; all of them a different colour than their coat colour made it out to be.

‘Figured.’ Crystal thought as she gauged her friend’s reactions to it. All of them appeared to have varying degrees of shock, with Twilight being hit by it the hardest.

“How does this count as a curse? It’s look more like a birth defect … a village-wide birth defect.” Twilight said, her rational side winning out as the rest of her brain shut down from the revelation.

“Trust me, my dear, when I say that this is most certainly a curse. From that cursed moon you see above you, right down to our hideous features, it definitely is a curse,” the elder proclaimed.

“What’s your name?” Cana asked.

“I am simply known as Elder. Apparently that’s how I became the leader of this village but I’ve done a good job of it for the past twenty years or so.” Elder answered, shrugging.

“Wowzers, that’s old!” Pinkie exclaimed, jaw hanging as her arms dangled by her sides.

“Pinkie, hush.” Twilight said, placing a hand in front of Pinkie’s muzzle.

“Mmfmmfmfmf!” Pinkie said, her voice muffled by the hand.

“Do you think we can stay here while we try to sort this curse thing out?” Gray asked, pointedly ignoring Pinkie’s antics.

“You may. We’re going to have to keep a close eye on your two friends though, just in case they get out of hand.” Elder said, watching Pinkie and Twilight closely.

“I assure you we won’t do anything rash. Right Pinkie?” Twilight asked, jerking her hand back when she felt something wet glide along it. “You licked me!”

“Don’t worry! We won’t!” Pinkie said, saluting Elder and grinning innocently at Twilight.