With Fluttershy's mane fixed back to its long and smooth state, they set off down the road to the Moonflow, a large lake between Djose and Guadosalam. Newer fiends were seen on the pathway, easily taken care of with each party member's abilities. Up ahead, Spike growled as they caught sight of Garble and Clubba harassing a pink earth pony teenage mare with a violet mane with white streaks, tossing around a tiara that had belonged to her.

"Give that back!" the mare shouted as she tried to leap up to grab her headpiece back. "I swear, when my daddy hears about this, he'll sue you so hard your scales will fly off!"

"Gotta jump higher, pony!" Garble mocked as he held the tiara higher. As the two dragon bullies looked down the road, the red dragon dropped the headpiece, not feeling the teen buck his leg in frustration as she ran down the road to the Moonflow. "If it isn't ol' Spike. Want another round so you can fail again, you twerp?"

"He's hanging out with more of those ponies." The two laughed in mockery, angering the purple dragon.

"Wanna say that to my face?" Spike said, stepping forward.

"As much as I'd love to pound you into the dirt again, we don't have time to mess around. Elder Yiazmat's got us running errands, and you know not to mess around with him, Spikey." He growled at the two bullies as they rubbed salt in his wounds, reminding him of his humiliation. "Plus, we've been hearing summoners have been going missing. Heed the warning and don't lose that namby pamby pony summoner, or we'll just keep making fun of you for being a weak, pathetic, and wingless dragon!"

The two laughed again as they flew off, leaving the dragon more furious. "I hate those two..."

"We'll help back you up, Spike." The dragon turned to face Rainbow Dash, holding out her sword. "Next time they come around, I'll cut their wings off to get payback for you!"

Spike quickly swiped Rainbow's weapon out of her grip, glaring intensely at her. "Don't. Help. Me."

He dropped the weapon and march on ahead, running his spear through fiends to let out his anger. "...What they hay is wrong with him?"

"Dragons deal with their own problems," Twilight said as Rainbow picked up her sword, thankfully not broken or cracked. "A dragon's pride is important to them. If they can't find a solution to their conflicts, they'll keep finding on on their own. Without anypony's help."

"I would be more concerned with the disappearing summoners," Rarity said.

They soon continued their journey, and up ahead, Cadence was waiting for them as she rested on the side of the road. "Lady Fluttershy and her guardians! I heard you all took part in Operation Mi'ihen." The pink pegasus sighed, shaking her head. "Machina won't solve our problems. They'll only cause more of them, and Sin will fix it by destroyed everything around those deadly weapons.

"But, let's not dwell on the bad. I want to see just how much stronger you are. Another duel?" she asked.

"Sure," Fluttershy said, prepared for another friendly duel.

"Excellent. I'm going to use Odin this time." Cadence summoned an electrical spark from her hoof, a portal of electricity forming behind him. A moment later, a strange bipedal figure leapt out from the portal, wearing golden armor with a sword and shield, all expelling electrical energy from the metal on him. He stood twice as tall as Spike as held his shield out in defense like a true knight, prepared for combat. "Let's see who you'll choose."

Fluttershy decided to summon Ifrit, calling forth the flaming beast aeon as it broke out of the earth it called from, roaring at the opponent before him. As the two fought, Rainbow thought Fluttershy would easily win, but Cadence's Odin had a few tricks up its sleeve. It cast Haste on itself, increasing its speed and easily overtaking Ifrit. Along with its now lightning quick reflexes and shocking magical strength, Fluttershy's aeon fell as it disappeared. The same results happened with Valefor, too slow to evade and even land an attack on the bipedal aeon, quickly defeated.

"Oh no," Fluttershy said, disappointed at her loss.

"It was a good try, but I can see you have gotten a little stronger." Cadence approached the yellow pegasus, giving her a glowing red stone. "Take this Summoner's Soul. You can use this to increase your aeons' strengths and give them access to magical skills and abilities they can learn."

"Thank you, Cadence." The pegasus began walking down the path, awaiting the next time they would meet in the future.

"Aww man. I thought you had her, Fluttershy," Rainbow said. "That aeon of hers cheated!"

"Odin didn't cheat. It used Haste, a magical spell that increases the speed of the caster or its party," Twilight explained. "You could probably learn it since you're pretty fast."

"I'm a pegasus, not a unicorn, Twi," the cyan pegasus counter-argued, though everypony gave her an odd look. "...What?"

"Fluttershy knows White Magic. Healing magic. And she's a pegasus too." Rainbow scratched her head in confusion as Twilight shook her head, Mog and Smarty Pants mimicking her. "You need to study more on magic spells, Rainbow Dash."

They continued walking down the road as Rainbow was lost in her thoughts. She recalled Pinkie saying something about a Sphere Grid back on her ship, something about upgrading stats and learning new abilities. The thought was tossed aside as she had listened to an Al Bhed mare that seemed to defy any sense of logic. It also made her wonder if she was still alive after Sin had suddenly attacked them that day.

After facing more fiends and walking down the path, they reached the Moonflow, the massive lake that seemed like a boat ride to Guadosalam, where Blueblood lives. Rainbow stared in awe at the nearby lilies floating on the surface of the water, seeing what looked like the same glowing lights that came from the fiends they killed and the spirits of the deceased.

"Wow...This place is cool," Rainbow said.

"These are moonlilies," Twilight said. "There was a study somepony made on this lake, the small lights of the pyreflies gather in large groups in the night, making the surface of the Moonflow look like a sky filled with stars."

"Neat...Ooh! I have an idea!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"We're not waiting until nightfall," Rarity said, diminishing the pegasus's excitement.

"...Ok, then. After we beat Sin, we're coming back here!" Though Rainbow Dash was eager to see the starry spectacle of the Moonflow, the others didn't seem as cheerful. She noticed the depressing expressions on their faces, even Fluttershy's. "Come on, guys. It'll be cool!"

Ignorant of their sudden sadness, they headed off to what appears to be a harbor of sorts, though on a lake was confusing to Rainbow. Suddenly, they saw one of the largest creatures she had ever seen, a large blue creature with a long snout and black eyes. The cyan mare was in awe at the sight of it.

"Shoopufs!" Fluttershy exclaimed, fluttering toward the giant beast to pet it.

"A shoo-who?" As she looked up at the creature, she imagined a few different names to call the Shoopuf.

"A shoopuf," Rarity corrected. "Hmhmhm. A funny story about them ten years ago." Rainbow groaned as she was about to hear a boring story from the unicorn. "Jet Stream met his first one here. He swung his sword at it and hurt it pretty bad."

"Drunk?" Rainbow asked, knowing that was the only reason her father would attack a docile creature.

"Mhmm. He thought it was a fiend." The unicorn looked over at the shoopuf, looking at a large scar on its right hind leg, strange blue bipedal water beings taking care of them. "Seems like the one he struck is still working. We had to offer every piece of Gil we had to pay for the damages. Jet vowed never to drink again."

"Pth. Like I'm gonna believe he quit drinking cause he hurt something," Rainbow scoffed, still resenting her father.

"Shoopuf ready for launchin'!" the strange blue being said to alert passengers. "All aboardsh!"

"...Are those things shoopuf babies or elders?" Rainbow asked, curious of the amphibious, yet sentient, beings.

"They are called Hypellos. They take care of the shoopuf here." The others grouped back up as the Hypello only allowed Fluttershy and her guardians access to ride, their pilgrimage important than the other passengers.

As the lift raised them up to the howdah on the shoopuf's back, the creature headed off to the lake and swam across the Moonflow, one of the Hypellos guiding the gentle giant. Unfortunately, this was one of the slowest creatures to ever glide across the water, making Rainbow groan in irritation. Sighing in boredom, Rainbow looked down at the water, nearly falling overboard as she saw what looked like a sunken city down below.

"Hey, guys! There's a city in the lake!" Rainbow said.

"Eyup. That's a machina city from a thousand years ago. Built it over the lake, thinkin' they can defy nature," Applejack said in disdain. "Who in the hay is that stupid to think they can build a city over water like that!?"

"Uhh, convenience?" Rainbow asked. "I mean, free water, maybe food if anypony liked to eat fish? Besides, you use machina too, like in the stadium."

"That's different, Rainbow," Twilight said. "Faust approves only certain kinds of machina, and the ones used in Operation Mi'ihen are the prime example of machina nopony should ever use."

"That's...That just doesn't make any sense," Rainbow said, highly confused. "Machina is bad, but some are ok? Then what's the point of having any if it's supposed to be looked over by Faust!?"

"War." She looked at Fluttershy, immediately ending her eventual frustration, questioning everypony's beliefs. "Over a thousand years ago, ponies used machina to fight and kill others. Some of them were rumored to be so powerful that they could end up destroying Spira...Then, Sin came...and destroyed the machina cities, along with the machina they created."

"Which is why Sin's our punishment for our ancestors goin' berserk usin' them ungrateful things." Rainbow shrank back in her seat, not wishing their words were true. She lived a thousand years ago, and there was no dangerous war that was going on, or machina weapons used to kill. Maybe Zanarkand wasn't involved in this war, and everypony in the city was oblivious to it. "And that's why the Al Bhed keep makin' a mess of things far worse than ever! Always usin' machina when we ain't supposed to!"

Rainbow was about to retort, telling her they aren't all bad, but was interrupted when a rumbling shook the shoopuf. Everypony looked over the sides to figure out what was going on.

"Fluttershy, darling, sit back down," Rarity ordered.

"S-Sorry." Suddenly, an Al Bhed stallion leapt up onto the shoopuf, Fluttershy yelping as he dragged her overboard and into the Moonflow.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow and Applejack dove off and chased after the Al Bhed.

They lost sight of the stallion in the underwater ruins, both mares worried about Fluttershy as she couldn't hold her breath as long as they could. The two searched around the ruins, looking around for air pockets they might be in. Rainbow Dash and Applejack met back up, having no clue where they disappeared to. What they didn't notice was, floating above them, having hidden very well with the rest of the underwater ruins, was a machina in the same shape as the blitzball machine the cyan pegasus, Twilight, and Spike fought, only it was made to submerge in the water. On top of the machina was Fluttershy, inside of a protective dome that allowed her to breath.

"Applejack! Rainbow Dash! Look out!" Fluttershy warned too late as the machina dropped salvos underneath it.

The explosions knocked both mares back to the bottom of the lake, disorienting them as the surprise attack also temporarily blinded them. While unable to see, the machina took the opportunity to shoot them with missles as they tried to gather their bearings. Rainbow was the quick to recover after the surprise attack, swimming toward it at incredible speed, slashing into the metal chasis of the machina. She tried to slash the dome Fluttershy was in, but the glass was far stronger than any metal, even stronger than the metallic captor it rested on.

Applejack, growing sick and tired of seeing machina, kicked her blitzball hard into the machina, punching it repeatedly as it ricocheted off the enemy. They were able to finally avoid its missles and stay clear of its dropped charges when it tried to swim above them. After smacking and hacking the machina enough, it began to shake as sparks shot out from its body. It exploded, detaching the dome keeping Fluttershy captive as the body sank to the bottom of the lake.

Water had flowed into the dome, Fluttershy taking a deep breath as she was submerged into the water. Rainbow Dash swam toward her and helped her back up to the surface before she could drown, Applejack swimming after them. They breached the water, the summoner taking a deep gulp of air as she sputtered out water. Rainbow helped Fluttershy back to the shoopuf, the creature lifting her back onto the howdah with the others.

"Ish ebullipony ok?" the Hypello asked as Applejack and Rainbow Dash climbed back up, feeling sore after getting blasted by the machina.

"Yes. We're all on board," Fluttershy said, wringing out her soaked mane.

"Okie shmokesh! Shoopuf, full shpeed aheads!" The shoopuf began moving again now that the unexpected attack had been dealt with.

"Consarn them Al Bhed!" Applejack shouted. "The hay do they want with Fluttershy?...Wait, are they mad because they lost the tournament!? No, wait! They're mad about Operation Mi'ihen!"

"Applejack, I don't think they can be sore losers at blitzball, or fault us for Sin being too powerful for the machina they used." Twilight began to ponder as the ex-blitzball captain fumed. "Those two dragons warned us about summoners disappearing...Were the Al Bhed the culprits they were talking about?"

"So they were behind this too!?" Applejack questioned, only further escalating her anger. "Them no good varmints! Sin should kill off every single Al Bhed on the face of this planet!"

The furious mare didn't notice, but saying she wanted the Al Bhed dead hurt Fluttershy. She was half Al Bhed, and was considered a member of those ponies that use machina. They didn't harm her the first time, only taking her hostage, without bounding or gag her. Either they must know her in some way, or they don't intend to harm their captives.

"...AJ, don't sweat it," Rainbow said, hoping to get the earth pony's mind off her prejudice against the Al Bhed. "As long as we're Fluttershy's guardians, we won't let anything bad happen to her. That's good enough for me if we can bring her back safe and sound. Isn't that what matters the most?"

"...Ah guess you're right." Applejack relaxed a little, though her mind wasn't deterred by her hatred to the Al Bhed.

Fluttershy uttered a small thank you to Rainbow, who gave her a wink, helping keep the summoner's lineage a secret to Applejack. The group relaxed the rest of their shoopuf ride to the northern wharf, which was less then a mile away from the Guado city of Guadosalam. Next Chapter: Chapter 23: Pinkie Joins!...Finally! Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 28 Minutes