Twilight regained consciousness, feeling particularly snug in whatever was holding her. The voices of the Amulet were severely muffled, but their rage was still itching at the edges of her mind. She tried to move her limbs - maintaining the steady breathing of a pony asleep - and found them held in place by a form fitting stone. She was upside down from what she could tell, floating inside a casing of stone that sealed her entire body up to her neck. She shifted her head slightly and smacked her lips, maintaining the visage of sleep as she brushed her legs against the interior of this stone casing.

She felt the indents of runes along the stony interior. Layers upon layers of magic suppressors, from what Twilight could gather. The average pony would be entirely powerless inside something like this. Ever so slightly, the filly opened her eyes and looked around to see where she was. She smiled broadly at the sight. She was quite happy that she had read up on these types of mobile prisons in her various studies.

Twilight had been shrunk down to the size of a Breezie while she had been unconscious. The Order of the Sun had a type of clay that they could use on their shrunken captives; a substance that would suppress their captives magical abilities as it hardened into a type of stone. Once fully hardened, it had a tensile strength comparable to that of steel. Not only was it extremely tough to break for a normal sized pony, the fact that the prisoner was shrunk down to such a minuscule scale, meant that they would have even less strength to attempt such a feat. To add redundancy to this prison's security, they had arranged Twilight’s limbs in such a way, that she could not get enough leverage to exert strength against her rough confines. Orbiting around her floating casing, was a growing succession of rotating rings, each of them progressively larger than the last and turning on a slightly different axis. They were also working to dampen her magic, and the fact that there were so many of them made Twilight feel a bit of pride at the fact that they had taken so many precautions against her.

The world outside of the most distant ring seemed a bit distorted, speaking to a fact that this entire prison was sealed inside what looked like a clear hollow crystal ball. From the position of the moon, she could tell she had not been unconscious for very long, meaning that they had to construct this little prison in a hurry. That was information she could use to her advantage. The miniature Twilight twisted her head to the side and peered down below her. The crystal that encased her mobile prison was placed on the top of what looked like a towering rod of metal, but in actually was probably just a staff.

A massive head moved into Twilight's view, revealing the gigantic visage of an albino Ram. From Twilight's perspective, Galia seemed almost as large as Catrina was in that one battle.

"Hello young filly. I see you've awoken. I hope you understand why we have to take these precautions until we remove that Amulet from you. We know you are not thinking clearly right now. We want to help you. Do you understand?"

Her voice sounded slightly deeper and louder now that Twilight was so small, but it still carried that motherly tone to it. The Ram seemed convinced that Twilight was simply some lost little filly whom was way over her head in trouble. Perhaps that had a ring of truth to it. However, it was this uphill battle, this struggle to break through the confines of normal mortal limits into that of legend that drove her onto this path in the first place.

"Oh, I understand Galia." Twilight started to giggle mid sentence at how high her voice sounded at the moment - it sounded like she had breathed in a large quantity of helium due to how utterly tiny she was - and that mirth carried on into the rest of the sentence, "I am going to kill you after all."

Galia let out a patient sigh as she continued walking. Twilight bobbed her head around playfully with a childlike smile on her face, discreetly scanning her prison with her studious gaze. She had seen diagrams of earlier versions of these prisons before, but this one was clearly a more advanced version of it. A prison like this had been used on Grogar once in his earlier days, and to this day he had been the only one to escape from its clutches. She relished the idea of not only being the second, but putting the necromancer's record to shame.

Still, she needed time to come up with how to get out of her current predicament, and what better way to pass the time than with conversation?

"Where is Spike?"

The Ram's jaw clenched at how happy the pony sounded. It unnerved her and her comrades how she had not reacted the way they had anticipated. Normally, the creatures they capture would thrash about, yelling and cursing as they tried in vain to force their way out. They knew how to handle that. This chillingly calm filly whom had almost killed them several times over though, she wasn't like that at all.

"Do you mean the infant dragon dear? He is with us. Don't worry, he is unharmed. I've never seen a dragon quite that young before. Wingless to boot."

"Uh-huh, he sure is an interesting little guy," Twilight said a bit absent mindedly as her brain constructed a working blueprint of her prison. In her mind's eye, she saw the crafty prison broken down and reverse engineered, testing out theories as to how Grogar managed his feat of escape the last time. Naturally, the details of how he escaped were not granted to textbooks, lest others use and exploit them to their advantage. That's probably where the advancements in this particular prison had came from.

"May I see him?"

Twilight watched in amusement as the comparative giants exchanged glances with each other outside of her spherical prison. The nervous shift of the Zebra had told her who had the dragon.

"Maybe when we make it to our base. You'll be able to have your dragon back when we get that Amulet off of you, okay?"

The Zebra hissed towards the Ram. "This monster tried to murder us, scorching us with magic. If we killed her right now, I would not think it so tragic."

"D’aww, I feel the same way Mr Zaddock,” Twilight piped up with a mirthful grin. The Zebra thrusted his face towards her prison, his nostrils flared in rage as he glared down at the tiny prisoner.

"Speak one more threat to me little mare, keep on goading me if you dare!"

"Zaddock! Enough!"

"I like him, he's spunky. Catrina? Are you here as well?"

There was a muffled sound of assertion from behind her. Twilight swiveled her head till it was upside down and saw the Cat draped over the shoulder of the Minotaur, bound and gagged.

"Ah there you are. You holding up?" Twilight had to yell to have her small voice reach the Cat's ears, but she nodded in a bored manner. Being immortal, Catrina felt no sense of danger. Alas, that didn't make her bounds any less difficult to get out of.

"You are awfully jovial for someone who is our prisoner," Titania growled out as she adjusted the weight of the cat.

"Its nice to have the voices quieted down. Gives me a lot more room to think. I appreciate that, by the way. They can get quite agitating sometimes. Like a beehive, except the buzzing is replaced with demands of blood and death."

Twilight's hooves ever so slightly began tapping inside of her prison, each one in sync with a different ring floating around her prison, keeping track of their rhythm. Ponies were naturally musically inclined. They were known to burst out into a citywide songs sometimes, complete with choreography that none of them really practiced. It made finding rhythms and patterns far easier for them to do than other races. For a mind such as Twilight's however, this preternatural skill was put to the extreme.

She would have one shot at this before the prison's defenses clamped down on her, amplifying their restraints even further. She'd have to make sure it counted

"You didn't hurt Spike, right? He's just a baby after all."

"No. Like I said, he is fine. Just pacified until we figure out what to do with him,” Galia responded over her shoulder as she continued walking along under the moonlight.

"So, you are not going to let me have him after you, supposedly, get the Amulet off of me then."

Twilight grinned as she heard the Ram curse under her breath. They had clearly wanted to use the dragon as a bargaining chip, and now, that the fact they weren't going to give it back was on the table, they had lost that particular tool of persuasion. Twilight swayed her head to the light rhythm of her hooves and the rings around her, carefully constructing the notes she was going to use in her head. Musical magic was mostly used for entertainment purposes. Party Ponies could use it to raise the spirits of a crowd, though they couldn't really explain how they did it most of the time. Musical theory when it came to magic however, had many more applications than just making others feel good. The carefully arranged melody, infused with magic, could have nearly as many effects as her potion making, but it took a particularly practiced throat and ears to achieve the effect properly. She was still a novice in that regard, but she figured she had just enough skill. All she needed was the right arrangement, the right rhythm. Like feeling around for the right combination on a lock. In fact, exactly like that in this case.

"So tell me Galia, what is an Albino Ram doing in the Order of the Sun?"

"What does being an Albino have to do with my membership in the order filly?" Twilight grinned at the tinge of annoyance in the Ram's voice.

"Albinism makes it quite difficult to be outside during the daytime, of course. It's painful for their eyes. I'm sure that's why you take on these night patrols, hm?"

"What is your point young filly? My patience is starting to wear thin."

"Oh, I know: it's rather delightful to hear that doting mommy persona you're trying on me crack. That saccharine stuff must be so difficult to use on somepony who tried killing you earlier."

"By Nightmare Moon, may this filly be silenced soon," The Zebra growled as his eyes shot daggers at Twilight.

"See? The Zebra gets it."

"I know this is just the Amulet talking. Once it is off of you, we can rehabilitate you." Each word was strained out of the Rams throat, as though she was saying it more to herself than for the filly's benefit.

"So here I am, floating here the size of a baby carrot, wondering what someone who can't be out in the sun would want to do with an order dedicated to it. It makes me think that, maybe, there is something drawing you to this order, something that is stronger than the pain of Sunlight's rays. Guilt? Shame, maybe?"

The Ram's ears flattened for the briefest of seconds and her head bowed slightly. She did not have a good poker face.

"Now, what would an upstanding Ram of justice like you have to be ashamed of? I doubt you've done a naughty thing in your life."

"You're damn right filly. Galia is one of the most respected members of the order." The way Titania said it was a bit too forceful, like she was trying to cheer up her team captain and silence Twilight at the same time.

"It is shame, though. Not shame for her own actions. Maybe a father? Grand father. Even further back, maybe?"

"Enough of this filly. I will fly into a rage if she is not gagged and quickly!" The Zebra looked like he was about to follow through on that threat, too.

"Zaddock! Calm yourself, move yourself and the dragon further ahead so you do not hear her. She cannot do anything inside the prison."

So it is certain, the Zebra had Spike. Twilight paid special attention to keep an eye on where Zaddock ended up as she continued to goad the Ram. She would need to enact her plan soon if the Zebra ended up getting too far away from her.

"So, judging from your reactions, I'm on the right track with my line of reasoning. Someone from your family's past brought a whole bunch of shame to your family, and you feel obligated to repent for that Ram's actions..." Twilight paused her sentence and then began to laugh in realization. The Ram's friendliness fell away as she succumbed to shame and anger.

"Yes! You figured it out. I am a descendant of Grogar. That vile, disgusting Necromancer that brought shame upon my entire family tree. Are you happy now? Do you feel satisfied in goading me?"

Twilight said her next word in a very particular way, holding each syllable in a clear resonating note.

"AB-SO-LUTE-LY!"

Her voice held in the air of the crystal, reverberating unnaturally off of the Crystal barrier until it was shaking violently, making a dissonant note of its own. Galia's eyes contracted in fright as she tried to turn on the Prison's defenses, but Twilight let out a rhythmic whistle before the Ram's horn could flair up with magic. The magically infused notes of the whistle shattered the crystal. The sound waves did not behave normally though, snaking through the air towards the Zebra, or rather inside of the Zebra's backpack.

The masculine Zebra squealed as something burst out of the pack, the mass of it swelling and swelling, pushing the muscular equine back as it grew in size. The Minotaur cursed out in anger and fright as she looked up at the rapidly growing monster, it's purple scales glistening in the moonlight as it let out a bone rattling roar into the night sky.

With the rings falling to the sand below, the voices slammed back into Twilight's mind like a tidal wave. She didn't want to argue with them though; if anything, they were in complete accord with her aims at the moment. The magic dampening clay vibrated violently, heating up and growing soft as it lost shape. Twilight grew slowly, grinning in the Ram’s face as the world seemed to scale back down to a normal size.

"Galia! Help me bring this dragon DowAGGGGHHhh!!" The Zebra screamed his last as a jet of green flame forcefully fired out of the engorged dragon's throat. Galia let out a pained cry as she yelled out the Zebra's name over the roaring sound of the fire breath. The Minotaur gave a roar of her own as she tried to leap after the dragon, but her momentum was halted in mid air by a glowing red force, splaying her out. Spike turned his hunched body around, stooping low and roaring menacingly, shaking the sand at its foundations as his powerful voice rang out throughout the desert. Twilight would not be surprised if nearby cities could hear her pet's cry.

Twilight whistled sharply, a single resonating note that fell in rhythm with dragon’s magic, making it even larger and more muscle bound. Its maw grew even larger and its teeth looked like they could rend through buildings.

"I call it The Melody of Greed. Do you like it Galia?"

Spike’s smoldering eyes were like two extra moons in the sky as they glared down at the comparatively tiny Ram. She swore uncontrollably, tearing up despite herself as she looked up at the floating filly as Twilight’s menacing smile gazed down upon her, her body silhouetted against the muscular belly of her titan of a dragon.

Catrina stared up at the filly, her eyes looking at this young creature in a whole new light. Before, the feline had thought the girl just an amusing pastime. When she had been captured and placed inside that prison, she had thought the adventure was over. She had been disappointed a bit that it had ended so quickly. Yet, looking at the triumphant mare as she was now, she had to concede that if anyone was capable of achieving her objectives, it would be this terrifying demon of a child.

"You...you won't get away with this, you vile dog!" Galia wretched out, screaming through tears as she reached for her magic. Or at least, she tried to. Suddenly, she couldn't feel her power anymore. She looked at her body, and saw that moving along it were little nullification runes, creeping along her fur.

"I am so happy I met you Galia. I got so much valuable research in on binding and nullification magic while I was in there; I have so many notes I need to write about it, it just makes me giddy with anticipation. Right now though, we have other business to attend to."

The Ram fell backwards as Twilight rushed towards the warrior in a blur, going from high in the air to muzzle to muzzle before the Ram had a chance to speak.

"You, an ancestor of Grogar, and you are a part of the religious order that fought him the most? For some strange reason, I think you know where his crypt is. Is that correct Ms Galia?"

"Don't tell her anything! Don't give this bitch the satisfaction!" Titania roared out as she was held suspended in the air.

"Ms Titania! It's rude to interrupt a conversation!"

The Minotaur let out a primal cry of pain as she felt her hip bone snap in half, grinding against active nerves as it nearly turned her brain off in agony.

"STOP! DON'T HURT TITANIA!"

"Oh, don't worry, I can heal her." The hip bone reformed back to how it was before harshly snapping again, hitting the Minotaur with a fresh new wave of agony, "And I can do it again! Thanks for that healing spell by the way, brilliant stuff. Way better than what I was working with."

"No...I won't tell you where his crypt is, you will have to kill me. No way I'd let something like you inside there."

Every single nerve in the Ram's body flared into action, giving her the sensations of burning and freezing at the same time. She gritted her teeth against the onslaught, her eyes nearly bulging out of her sockets as she tried to not break under the pain. While she was distracted, Twilight had casually let Catrina loose from her binds. She didn't seem all that keen on getting close to Twilight while she was working though.

The Ram collapsed to the ground as the pain was released, giving her a feeling of warmth and the feel of blankets as she recovered. She knew what the filly was doing. She was trying to make her feel good just to make the pain that much more unbearable.

"I… I really had believed… you were innocent..." she gasped out.

"I know, it was precious. Now, chop chop, where is the crypt."

"I'm not telling you."

"Maybe I'm not saying it right. How did that Zebra do it again?"

Galia blanched as she instantly knew what she meant. His spell of suggestion. She could not have figured it out so quickly. In her hooves, the devastating effects would be catastrophic. The Ram kicked up to her hooves and started to gallop as fast as her hooves would carry her. She needed to warn the order. She wasn't thinking clearly anymore. All she knew was panic as she tried to flee. Twilight watched her with a grin, bobbing her head from side to side as she let her pray get just far enough away that she could have hope.

"Stop!"

Tears fell freely from the Rams eyes as her legs slowed to a stand still. She couldn't fight against that single word. She wanted to die. She was going to doom the world with her knowledge and there was nothing she could do about it. She winced as she heard her friend scream in a mix of terror and rage. She struggled with her neck, forcing the locked muscles to move just enough to look back. In the periphery of her vision, she could see the minotaur in the claw of the gigantic dragon, just in time to see her body bitten in two.

"NOOOOO!" Her heart was thumping so fast as she felt the filly drift towards her through the air. She screamed her protest over and over again, fighting her own body with all her might as she struggled to even take a few steps forward. She had never known fear quite like this until that moment.

"Ms Galia~," Twilight sang out in her childish voice. The ram looked up at the filly as she drifted into her line of sight, pressing her muzzle into the Ram's own. The Ram could see the horrified expression on her face in the reflection of the filly's eyes, coaxing out a fresh new wave of tears.

"I have a little question for you...before you go… Like I said..." she leaned into the Ram's ear as she whispered, her voice distorted into a deep rumble as she repeated, "I am going to kill you after all…"

Author's Notes:

Special thanks to AleaJactaEst for editing this chapter.