While discussing on what to do next, with particular attention paid to the structure that Pinkie and Gray saw when they ran on ahead, the village went to sleep. The Fairy Tail group stayed up though to discuss some more plans before turning in themselves. When they finally did go to sleep, Crystal put her hand on Twilight’s shoulder and beckoned for her to follow her outside the hut the village was kind enough to lend out.

“What’s up?” Twilight asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she watched Crystal pace back and forth.

“Remember how I told everyone I was from another world?” Crystal asked, stopping her pacing to look at Twilight.

“Yeah, what about it?” Twilight asked, getting a curious look on her face.

“In that world, everything happening here with Fairy Tail, this island and possibly whatever happens after this, is all part of a show back home.” Crystal replied, giving Twilight a serious look.

“Wait, what?” Twilight asked.

“A show. It’s when you watch something on a weekly basis through a magic screen. That’s the best way I can describe it without going into too much detail. From what I’ve seen happening here, it is definitely following the plotline of the show but I only got partway through watching the arc after this one before I got Displaced.” Crystal explained, sighing and resuming her pacing as something else was brought forth.

“Before you say anything, there’s something else. I don’t know how to say this … but you remember that field you said Trixie teleported you to?” Crystal asked, stopping her pacing to look at Twilight.

“Yeah, what about it?” Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side a bit, making a mental note to ask Crystal about this ‘show’ thing sometime later on. “You said you would tell me about it the day after, except you were nowhere to be seen.”

Crystal nodded, letting out a shaky breath. “I got summoned to another Equestria. It’s bound to happen from time to time so everyone may as well get used to it.”

“Another Equestria? What was it like?” Twilight asked, her ears flicking up as she listened.

“The same as this, except with a lot less magical people around. Also, you, Pinkie, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack were ponies.” Crystal answered, stopping her pacing and leaned on the wall of the straw hut their group was staying in. “The one that summoned me was a dragon that could transform into a human as well as control the different elements. We had a good time until I got chased through a maze.”

“We were ponies in that Equestria?” Twilight asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest in disbelief.

“Seriously? I mention a shape-shifting dragon and you being a pony in that world is what you question?” Crystal answered with her own question, raising an eyebrow before raising her arms and shaking her head. “Nevermind. I’ll make this short so that we can rest up for tomorrow. That field where Trixie teleported you to is where I got pregnant with Freya’s eggs. That may explain a few things you found out from your time studying that meadow.” Crystal said as she breathed and closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Twilight had nothing to say to that so she chose to don a blank stare as she tried to process the information Crystal had told her.

“Great. While you try to process that, I’ll head to bed.” Crystal said after a few uneasy moments of awkward silence. She turned away and looked briefly up at the structure as a bright purple beam broke the night sky. Not thinking too much of it, she gave a few concerning glances back to Twilight before heading into the hut for the night.

“Which way is the structure again?” Crystal asked, placing a hand on her forehead to block out some of the sun as she tried to find it.

“Look up.” Gray said, pointing helpfully to the spire jutting out from what looked like the centre of the jungle.

“Now I feel like an idiot.” Crystal huffed, lowering her hand while walking in the direction of the building. As she, Gray, Levy and Cana got closer, they found it to be a gigantic temple in the shape of a stepped pyramid. Twilight and Pinkie had stayed behind to talk more with the villagers. They thought it would be as good a chance as any to learn more info about what kind of curse they were dealing with.

“Let’s head inside. It would be good to see if we’re dealing with anything out of the ordinary here.” Cana said and lead the way inside. Once the four of them were in, they decided to split up and to meet back at the entrance after a couple of hours of searching. For convenience sake, they all went by themselves in four different directions. Gray followed the slope of the temple until he hit some stairs that lead down further into the temple and most likely the island itself. Crystal moved to a set of stairs that lead up into the temple and began climbing them. Cana and Levy took off in opposite directions, both intending to move to the stairs when they finished looking around.

When Crystal made it to the top of the stairs, she took a quick look around and thought for a bit on how to proceed. She was currently in a corridor with stone walls and a stone floor. The walls were decorated with ancient paintings depicting some sort of ritual or other, leading her to think that this may have been the site of a cult.

‘This is either a cult, or something else entirely …’ Crystal’s thoughts trailed off when she rounded the corner and took the next flight of stairs up. She continued to follow the stairs until they ended on the roof. She heard voices as soon as she emerged from the stairs and went to hide behind a nearby pillar. While listening to them, Crystal realised that they were talking about some sort of magic ritual for Moon Drip and she thought she recognised a couple of them.

‘Is that Lyon and Trixie?’ Crystal asked herself, leaning around the side of the pillar to see if she could spot the origin of the conversation.

When Gray made it to the bottom of the stairs, he found himself to be in a cave system with narrow, rocky corridors, glistening with moisture. He followed the path until it became an intersection of three interconnecting corridors, including the one he was in. At a whim, he chose the left path and walked down it, eventually coming upon a large room filled with water as well as a giant iceberg.

‘How did an iceberg get stuck in a cave like this? It should have melted ages ago.’ Gray thought to himself as he carefully navigated the rocky floor in an effort to see the iceberg better. Once he made it to the edge of the water, he crouched down and hopped into it, wading up to the iceberg’s edge. Peering closely into it, he saw the shape of an extremely large foot. Following it up, he stepped back until the hulking behemoth was entirely in his vision, making his eyes widen as he recognised the form.

“De-Deliora?” Gray whispered, fear and shock running through him at the thought of him possibly coming back to wreak havoc.

When Cana and Levy split up, they both headed in opposite directions at first, in order to cover more ground but that soon proved fruitless so they both met back up in the main room after finding that their respective corridors lead to dead ends and empty rooms.

“You find anything?” Cana asked Levy, who only shook her head in response.

“I think it would be best if we explored where Gray and Crystal went. You go up and I go down?” Levy suggested.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Cana drawled, heading upstairs while Levy took the stairs going down.

On her way down, Levy heard drips coming from somewhere down below. She quickened her pace and nearly stumbled on the last step as she ran full pelt down the rocky corridor. She hoped to catch whatever that dripping source was before it stopped completely. Coming up to a junction with three intersecting corridors, she took a quick breather to try and figure which one held the dripping. Thinking it came from the right, she took off down that way, slowing to a fast walk when needed. When she emerged at the end of the corridor, she looked up to find the dripping coming from the ceiling.

“There … should not be a leak. It’s solid rock!” Levy said as she squinted up at the dripping water. After a good while, as well as a good look around, she turned back up the corridor and went into the one opposite her when she came up to the junction. Following its twists and turns, she ended up in a rather large cavern with its dominating being an iceberg.

“How did an iceberg get in here!?” Levy shouted in surprise.

“Levy?” Gray called out, recognising her voice. He jerked his head up and looked over to the entrance.

“Yeah? Do you have any idea what’s going on around here?” Levy asked, making her way towards him, being careful not to slip on the wet floor.

“I don’t know what Lyon is planning, but I know it has something to do with Deliora.” Gray answered, pointing to the encased demon.

“That is huge!” Levy exclaimed, looking up at it.

“Yeah, it is. Do you know how Crystal and Cana are doing?” he asked her, looking up at the demon as well and trying not to think of how it got like that in the first place.

“No clue. They both headed upstairs.” Levy informed with him with a shrug.

“Up and up and up. These stairs seem like they could go on forever!” Cana grumbled, finally emerging into fresh air on the top of the temple. Looking up at the sky, it seemed to have darkened somewhat, signalling that sunset was near. “That sky is odd. I just hope that-” Cana’s ramblings got interrupted by a rather loud shush. Looking at the shusher, she found it to be Crystal, who was crouching behind a pillar. She made her way over and placed a hand on her hip.

“Why’d you shush me?” she asked.

“Don’t you hear them?” Crystal asked, pointing to the group up ahead.

“No, but I guess you can. What are they saying?” Cana asked, crouching as well so they could hear each other better.

“They’re muttering an incantation of sorts.” Crystal replied, peeking out from behind the pillar to snag another look at them. Soon as she did, they stopped their chanting. A bright pink circle appeared on the roof, with two more seemingly stuck in mid-air. Suddenly, a bright purple beam shone down on the magic circles, crashing down into the roof which surprisingly didn’t crack. “That’s the beam I saw last night.” Crystal breathed.

“It is?” Cana asked, looking at her in surprise.

Crystal managed to give a nod before ducking back behind the pillar as a ball of ice shot past her and over the roof. “Okay … Lyon is definitely here …” she said through shuddering breaths at the close call. She heard the pillar crack before it began to fall backwards onto the roof behind them. Both Cana and Crystal looked behind themselves slowly before waving. “Pizza delivery?”

“No-one ordered pizza … did they?” One of the acolytes asked the group at large, and they soon began talking amongst themselves.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie demands you all to be quiet!” Trixie shouted, lighting up her horn in a red hue threateningly.

“And there’s the Vastly Underpowered Trixie.” Crystal muttered, standing up with Cana doing the same.

“Do you have a plan?” Cana asked tentatively.

“Nope. I usually just wing it.” Crystal grinned and crossed her arms.

“Great.” Cana sighed, taking a swig from her hip flask.

“Seeing you again gives me the perfect opportunity to do this!” Lyon shouted, moving out from the group to stand out more. He looked to be wearing a white helmet with curved ram’s horns and a fancy blue sigil on the forehead. He also wore a white overcoat, over his attire from when he attacked Ponyville a couple of days earlier.

He raised up a hand pointed it at Crystal. Concentrating on his magic, he shouted, “Ice-Make: Diamond Cage!” A blast of ice formed from his outstretched hand and barreled towards Crystal, sealing her inside a diamond-esque sphere before she could react.

“I got to get away before this destroys my body!” Crystal said in a panic, trying to waddle but realised it sooned proved to be useless. Giving a huff, she then slowly fell to her side and began to roll, heading straight for the stairs. She knew that fire wouldn’t work on this kind of spell so she didn’t really bother with it until she managed to get herself far enough away from Lyon.

Cana brought out her deck of cards and chose three cards, seemingly at random.

“This is no time for card tricks!” Trixie protested, shock evident on her face at the mage’s actions.

“Before I deal, why did you encase Crystal in ice? She can just breathe fire onto it.” Cana asked with a slight slur.

“This type of spell, she cannot. It’s nigh unbreakable! Speaking of which, Trixie, can you see she stays within the temple? It wouldn’t do well for her to break out of the cage I placed her in.” Lyon asked Trixie kindly. Trixie merely rolled her eyes before giving a huff and teleporting in a flash of red light.

“Um, second question. What’s that light behind you?” Cana asked him, picking a card out of the three she had in her hand and placing the other two back in her deck.

“That? I don’t see why I shouldn’t tell you. It’s Moon Drip. What that means, is that it can melt unmeltable ice, such as the ice made from Iced Shell. You’re going to have to ask Gray about that one.” Lyon said with a chuckle before shouting out a spell, making eagles fly forth and straight towards Cana.

Cana’s eyes widened and she dodged to the side, only for the eagles to swoop around and crash into her back. She gasped in pain and crouched forward before slapping her chosen card onto the roof. It depicted a fountain with water gushing over the sides. She activated it with her magic, sending multiple lethal currents of water towards Lyon.

While Lyon was distracted, Cana ran back down the stairs after stumbling for a bit, hoping that Crystal was okay. Lyon, for the most part, dodged the currents of water before one of them managed to stab him in the chest, making him cry out.

“Reitei, are you alright?” A pink-haired woman asked, having only seen the ending of the brief battle, along with her two companions.

“Yes, I’m fine. I just want the three of you to go to the village and destroy it. Completely. I believe these intruders have learned a bit too much. Do you have that, Toby, Sherry and Yuka?” Lyon asked, clutching his chest as he glared at the three of them behind his mask. The three sighed and nodded, heading back the way they came.

Toby, a fairly well-built man, has dog ears on his head, a small dark nose and the lower part of his face resembled the muzzle of a canine. He has shoulder-length brown hair and usually goes topless. The lower part of his body is usually covered with light blue jeans and dark brown loafers.

Yuka, a young man with spiky blue hair and a green tracksuit, walked beside Toby and Sherry with his hands in his pockets. “I don’t think Angelica will be able to help with this one,” he muttered.

“Shouldn’t Angelica be able to help out?” Toby asked Sherry, pointedly ignoring Yuka for the moment.

Sherry was wearing thigh-high black leggings, a black corset-type dress with a pink material underneath the tied up lace on her chest.

“She’s licking her wounds but once she is done, we will be able to destroy the village as Reitei commands.” Sherry answered, giving a massive smile at the mention of Reitei. She was even on the verge of having lovehearts appear in her eyes before Yuka brought her back to reality.

“See? Told you she wouldn’t be able to help.” Yuka countered.

“Yes, she can! She just needs another hour. Besides, I know what we can do in the meantime.” Sherry proclaimed, speeding up her walking by a fair bit.

Author's Notes:

More info on the spells:
Lyon -
Ice-Make: Diamond Cage - http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Ice-Make:_Diamond_Cage
Ice-Make: Eagle - http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Ice-Make:_Eagle

Cana -
The Prayer's Fountain - http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/The_Prayer%27s_Fountain