A harsh breeze blew over me and made my mane dance in front of my face. The tickling sensation as my mane touched on my eyes and nose made me sneeze. I rubbed a hoof over my face and slowly opened my eyes to try and find whatever it was that had disturbed my sleep. As I took in the sights around me I had to stop and gape at the bizarreness of it all.

I lay in the middle of a large grassy clearing, the soft grass beneath me made for a perfect cushion. The clearing of soft grass stretched for a several hundred feet in all directions. At the edges of the clearing was a dense forest of evergreens so thick that I couldn’t make out a single detail past the initial circle of trees. A rolling thunder rumbled in the skies high above me. I looked up to see thick dark clouds blanketing the sky. The storm clouds rolled and seemed to twist together to a point directly overhead. Canterlot castle, or for that matter any kind of civilized society, was nowhere to be seen.

I worked my hooves underneath me and pushed myself to a standing position. Okay, this has to be a dream. It definitely feels like one of my more standard dreams. My hooves shuffled in place as I turned in a small circle to try and find some meaningful detail. Then a disturbing thought occurred to me and I glanced back down at my grey furred legs and black hooves. Wait a minute… If this is a dream, where’s my body? This is my mind, so I should be back to normal.

As I stood there trying to figure out whatever demented message my subconscious was trying to tell me, the clang of steel and the cracks of firearms sounded off to my left. I turned to face the sounds of combat and stopped to take in the scene before me. At the far end of the clearing were my few friends and comrades from Earth. My mentor McCoy, my half-brother Thomas, and the few friends I’ve made in the Chicago police force and in the Chicago’s small magical community. Even a few cloaked and faceless wardens stood among the group. They stood at the edge of the tree line, firing their respective weapons of choice against a continuous stream of humanoid Red Court vampires that were racing out of the trees at them.

They were fighting a losing fight. For every vampire they cut down, two more took its place. They were fighting against a hydra with multiple bodies instead of heads, they couldn’t hold out forever. But despite that, they stood their ground and kept on fighting. Guns barked from the policemen and fire flew from the wardens’ and McCoy’s staves. Thomas and one or two wardens stood at the front of the group and held swords high above them, ready to bring them down on whatever got too close.

Far off in the distance, past the dense forest, I could see the foggy outline of the tall buildings that was Chicago. Beyond those were massive shadowy figures playing puppet master to everything. Their outstretched hands hovered over the forest. Small silvery strings coming from their fingertips reached down to the vampires below, urging them to attack.

“Hells bells, hold on!” I yelled at the group, completely forgetting that this was just a dream.

I took a couple steps forward towards them but froze in place when I heard another sound behind me, opposite of the fighting below. I heard a soft cry, almost a whimper, coming from someone that was suffering from an intense pain. It was a much softer sound than the clangs of battle, but it still reached my ears and caused an irrational desire to protect whatever had made it.

I turned around and saw Twilight at the opposite end of the clearing. She was curled up on the grass with her back turned towards me and was shaking slightly. The edges of her form disappeared into a swirling haze, as though I were looking at her through a foggy mirror. My hooves began moving on their own, carrying me away from the combat and towards the distraught mare. As I drew nearer the haze around her dispersed, her form solidified, and her whimpers became louder and clearer.

As I moved further away from the fighting, I noticed a definite drop in volume, more so than simple distance should have done. I turned back around hoping against hope that my friends had pushed the vampires away. They had not. They were still fighting desperately against the growing horde, but the same haze that was around Twilight was now around them. The edges of their forms dissolved into a mist around them, as did the vampires they fought. In a panic I turned back around to assist, but again as I got closer to the fighting the mist vanished only to reappear around Twilight and began to make her disappear. The closer I got to one of the disasters, the more the other faded into oblivion.

I paced nervously in the center of the clearing, turning in a constant circle. My heart began trying to pound its way out of my chest as I looked between the scene of intense violence and the mare slowly falling into whatever hell her mind was conjuring, and becoming increasingly unsure of which I feared more.

“Well son, you’ve… grown,” said a deep and slightly amused voice from in-between the two scenes.

My father calmly walked out of the forest and over to me, his fingers interlaced behind his head as though he didn’t have a care in the world. He looked as he always had. He stood at around six feet with a mess of shaggy hair and wore a grey polo shirt and khakis. He smiled at me as he drew within arm’s reach, his fingers traced from my twitching ears to over my mane as he inspected me. I just stood there and stared at him, surprised by how real it felt. I had to remind myself that this was just a dream, but it was suddenly a little difficult to ignore the simple comfort in my father’s presence.

“You know, I can’t say I ever expected to be the proud father of a unicorn,” he said after he finished his base inspection. “But life can be weird like that sometimes.”

My mouth finally seemed to reconnect with my brain. “Dad, what are you-“

“Has your diet changed much?” he interrupted.

I raised a hoof and placed it on his chest, stopping him from perusing his curiosity. “Dad please, I know this isn’t real. I know that this is all in my head, but I need your advice.”

He finally seemed to notice the environment around us. He turned around to look at my friends that were still fighting the vampires, and then back over to Twilight. He frowned a bit at the latter. “You’ve found yourself in quite the predicament I see.”

“I don’t know… I don’t…” I ran the hooves of my forelegs through my mane, if I still had fingers I’d be pulling out chunks of hair. “What am I supposed to do? Just tell me what to do.”

He placed his hands on me and hefted himself up to sit sidesaddle on my back. My legs bore his weight well enough. I shifted a little to even out the added weight and I stopped noticing it altogether.

“What are you supposed to do? Have you forgotten what I told you last time already?” He patted my head like I was frightened child and leaned closer to speak into my ear. “Don’t ever stop protecting those you care about.”

And just like that, he was gone. His weight vanished from my back as he faded into a silver vapor and disappeared entirely. I turned around to try and see where he had gone, but a thick fog obscured everything around me. My friends, Twilight, the vampires, and even Chicago off in the distance were all swallowed by a thick fog that was closing in around me.

“I can’t.” I tucked my legs under me as I lay down and curled into the same position that I had fallen asleep in. “I can’t protect everyone.”

The fog reached me and washed over me. I clamped my eyes shut and tried to ignore the extreme cold. The moisture in the air settled into my fur, and the cold air combined with the sudden dampness began to make me shiver. I shook violently on my soft bed, unable to force myself still. My eyes snapped open again when a small drip of water worked its way into the corner of my right eye.

I was back in my room in Canterlot castle. Light flooded into the room from underneath my door. I craned my head to get a better look at myself. My fur was matted in several places from a cold sweat running over my twitching body. I regained control over myself and levitated a spare towel from my storage chest over to me. I stood up from my cushion on the floor and began running the towel over my damp coat as I turned around to get a look behind me.

Twilight had shifted during the night. She lay in my bed with her back facing the rest of the room. Upon closer inspection I noticed that she held the Smarty Pants doll firmly between her forelegs, the doll’s head rested underneath her chin. Twilight was still in an extremely deep sleep. Her face was completely slack betraying none of the processes that were running through her unconscious mind, if there were any at all. For her sake, I hoped that she was enjoying a dreamless sleep.

I straightened the covers over her and tucked the edges under her slightly. Her only notice she gave was to continue breathing as her sides gently moved in time with her breaths. Satisfied that she was at least comfortable, I turned to leave and get some much needed breakfast. The events of the previous night had left me completely starved.

I opened the door to my room as quietly as I possibly could and stepped out into the hallway, shutting the door quietly behind me. To my slight surprise all of Twilight’s friends, minus Rainbow Dash, were waiting outside of my door. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie were resting on various cushions they had brought into the hall. Rarity had somehow worked a large red ornate couch into the hallway and was laying on it as though she were an extra in a Shakespearean play. One by one they noticed my presence and got up from their respective resting places to crowd around the door.

Fluttershy spoke up first, “How is Twilight?”

I glanced back at my door as though I could see through it. “She’s resting. I was just about to grab some breakfast and then bring back something for her.”

“Actually,” Rarity interjected, “Princess Celestia wants to see us in the dining hall for breakfast. A messenger came by about an hour ago with the summons.” Rarity pawed nervously at the ground and looked at my door, “We thought it’d be better if we waited for one of you to wake up.”

I thought about that for a second before I nodded in agreement. “Alright fine, but Twilight’s staying where she is,” I stated as though it were simple fact. “And I want one of you to stay with her. The rest of us will fill you in later.”

Fluttershy, who was still wearing her medic gear from the night before, stepped forward. She looked like a wreck, every piece of clothing she wore was battered, frayed, and had the occasional splotch of blood. Thick dark circles hung under her eyes, indicating that she’d likely had little to no sleep since the fighting ended and had been working to treat as many injured as possible. Given the severity of the combat, that wasn’t really surprising.

“But… Princess Celestia asked for all of us,” Fluttershy whispered.

She cringed away a little as I turned to face her. Given how much stress they were all under, I had to remind myself to at least try to put on a gentler face. “Celestia’s wishes aren’t really near the top of my list of priorities at the moment. Twilight needs time to process, so that’s what she’s going to get,” I stated again, leaving no room for misunderstanding.

It was only then that I took the time to inspect the rest of my team, and saw that they looked nearly as worn and battered as Fluttershy. They had each discarded their gear and, presumably, had sent it off to be repaired as needed. Rarity’s, Applejack’s, and Pinkie’s fur were extremely unkempt and stood out in odd directions. Applejack in particular bore several nasty looking bumps and bruises that could easily be seen through her orange coat, though she made no sounds of pain or discomfort as she moved. Even though they were all clearly more ragged than Fluttershy, they had at least gotten some sleep. They still sported some baggy eyes, but nowhere near the degree that Fluttershy had.

Pinkie stepped forward and moved towards my door. Her mane and tail were still decidedly flat, although some color had been returned to them. “It’s okay, I’ll watch over her,” she said and reached out a hoof for my door.

I immediately raised a hoof to stop her before she could touch the door. “No,” I snapped at her, a little harsher than was strictly necessary. I took a moment to reign myself in, and looked over to the battered and bruised earth pony. “Applejack, would you keep an eye on her?”

Applejack stepped forward and nodded her head, “Sure thing. I’ll stop by the kitchen first though, and get us some food.”

I nodded in agreement and Applejack turned on the spot and galloped off to get some breakfast for herself and Twilight. My gut told me that Applejack was the best choice for support for Twilight at the moment. I didn’t know the details of her history, and I wouldn’t dare ask, but I remembered Applejack’s reaction when I’d revealed that my own parents were dead during the small party we enjoyed. Her reaction to that nugget of information was that of understanding and sympathy, which is what I felt Twilight needed most right now.

Pinkie took a few steps back and looked down at her hooves, shame or guilt apparent in her features. My thoughts on Pinkie were something of a mixed bag at the moment. I resented her for possessing information that I could have used to save Twilight’s parents, but at the same time I understood why she might not have revealed it. If I knew the exact position of Twilight’s parents and knew that they were in mortal danger, then I probably would have done whatever was necessary to get to them. Hindsight however told me that if I had pressed forward the necessary distance to get to them, then we would have been completely surrounded and we all would have died.

Depending on how developed Pinkie’s abilities were, she could have known exactly that and had chosen the path that ended in the least amount of death. Then guilt over hiding that information would be eating away at her. Or she might have had only a vague idea of the danger Twilight and her parents faced, and may not have been able to intervene at all. In which case the shame of not being able to do more would be weighing on her. Or maybe I’m trying to find meaning in a bunch of alternate futures that no longer existed. It would take a much wiser man than I to make sense of the powers of time that Pinkie was apparently connected to.

The only important details were that we were still alive, and that Pinkie felt horrible for her friend. I couldn’t hold that against her.

I rested a hoof on her shoulder and smiled at her. “Don’t worry, she’ll be fine.”

Pinkie looked back up at me, a little hope glimmering behind her eyes, “You think so?”

I barked out a short laugh and withdrew my hoof, “Definitely, she’s the toughest unicorn I know. She could probably kick my face in if she wanted to.” That seemed to cheer her up. A substantial amount of pink returned to her body and her mane and tail regained a certain amount of puffiness. They weren’t back to her usual levels of energy, but they at least didn’t look steam pressed any more.

With that out of the way, Rarity, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and I left to go and meet with the Princess of the Sun. Shortly after we started walking to the dining hall I craned my neck back to speak to Fluttershy, who was wobbling along behind me. “Hey Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash was sent to your ER right?”

It took her a good second or two longer to answer than she normally would, but Fluttershy eventually managed to shake herself from her sleep deprived state and responded, “Oh, yes she was. A unicorn and an earth pony brought her in right before things started to calm down. She had several cuts and bruises, and her right wing was broken. I set it back into place and bandaged it, but that’s all I could do at the time.”

“Is she still in the medical wing?” Rarity asked

“I think so,” Fluttershy responded. “She was awake when I saw her last and I told her to stay in her bed. Princess Luna actually met up with her in the ER. I think she came down for some migraine medication after the fighting and saw Rainbow there. When I left they were still talking to each other.”

We walked down the less used side hallways so as to avoid the large number of ponies still running about the main areas of the castle. One of these side hallways bore a large number of windows facing Canterlot. Celestia’s conjured star had long since dissipated and her proper Sun was cresting over the distant hills. As the Sun’s light fell over Canterlot proper I saw that it was actually relatively untouched by the combat. There was some visible rubble and a couple pillars of smoke still rose from various parts of the city. It might have just been my imagination, but most of the rising smoke seemed to be centered on the streets that we had traveled the previous night. Although on the whole the city had suffered minimal apparent structural damage.

We rounded a corner and neared the large double doors to the dining hall when Pinkie spoke up again. “I should probably get something for Twilight and Dashie. Maybe I could make them some cupcakes.” Pinkie suddenly gasped as some idea sprung up in her mind. “Maybe I could make one massive cake for all of Canterlot!”

And there goes my sweet tooth.

I sighed and mumbled over my shoulder, “Pinkie that sounds like a really bad idea.”

She pouted at me, her ears folded back onto her head, and her pupils grew to ridiculous proportions. “Aww, but I just want to help out all those sad ponies the best way I know how.”

The sheer amount of pouty adorableness she was shooting at me was nearly enough to give diabetes right then and there. I stopped at the doors to the dining hall and tried to cover my eyes with my hooves, “Alright! Alright, fine, clear it with Celestia before you do anything. Just please, stop looking at me like that!”

Pinkie beamed in response and pushed past me through the double doors. Rarity stepped forward to the doors just as they closed behind Pinkie. Rarity chuckled and smiled while giving me a sidelong look, “You know I don’t think anypony has been able to refuse her when she does that look.”

“I can’t imagine why,” I grumbled back. I placed a hoof on one of the double doors and pushed it open, holding it to allow Rarity and Fluttershy to enter first before I went in.

As I entered the wide dining hall, I looked around and took in the familiar sights. The long table had remained relatively unchanged, and was laden wide with a standard breakfast buffet of fruits, vegetables, grains, pastries. The attendees threw me off however. At one end of the table sat Celestia, patiently waiting for us to answer her summons. At the other end was Luna, who I wasn’t really expecting but was pleasantly surprised to see her there. In-between them sat both Michael, and to my enormous surprise, Rainbow Dash. Though I hadn’t been told otherwise, I had expected Michael to still be in the city helping out whoever needed him.

I guess Michael must have received a similar summons. But for the love of all things holy, what is Rainbow doing here? She was left broken and bleeding when I last saw her!

Beside me Fluttershy apparently was having similar thoughts. “Rainbow Dash!” she yelled and began flapping her wings to get some altitude over the multicolored pegasus. “Why are you out of your bed? I told you to rest there until your wing healed!”

Rainbow raised her forelegs to try and ward off the intense gaze the Fluttershy was giving her. “Fluttershy, relax. I’m perfectly fine. When Princess Luna found me in your ward, she healed me right up. The wing is all fixed and everything, look!” Rainbow stood and turned to present her right wing to us. Her wing was still actually folded to her body by a few rolls of bandages, but very few bandages were used and the wing was for the most part exposed. As far as I could tell it looked perfectly fine. There was no discoloration or apparent cuts on it, the feathers even looked freshly preened. Even the various cuts and bruises that she’d earned had completely disappeared, thanks to Luna’s magic.

Luna thumped a hoof against the table and shot Rainbow a disapproving glance. “What else?” she said in the same tone of voice that a mother would use on a child that was trying to worm out of a deal.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and sat back down, “But the muscles still need a little time to recover, so no flying for a day at least.”

Fluttershy looked between Luna and Rainbow and visibly relaxed after their explanation. She landed and took a seat next to Rainbow, “Alright, but if it starts hurting again I want you to come and see me immediately.” Fluttershy then turned her attention to Luna, “What about you, are you okay?”

Luna did in fact look extremely worn out. Her ethereal blue mane drooped down as opposed to floating behind her, and her eyes were so sunken and baggy that they made Fluttershy look energetic by comparison. “I’m just tired. Creating and maintaining a mild transformation spell for every guard and soldier in the city took a lot out of me.”

I hadn’t really considered that, but she was right. While Celestia’s conjured star probably took more energy to get going, it was largely a self sustaining process once it got going. Luna’s working was not. Luna had to imagine the exact change that she had wanted to apply to Canterlot’s protectors, and then apply that change to each individual pony in the city while ignoring the vampires. With the energy that must have required to start up and sustain, I was surprised she wasn’t comatose.

I hadn’t noticed it but during Fluttershy’s fussing over Rainbow and Luna, Celestia had gotten up from her seat and had moved next to me. “Applejack and Twilight are not with you,” she said just loud enough so that only I could hear her.

I jumped a little at the sudden presence of the sun princess, but I calmed down soon enough and responded, “Twilight’s resting and Applejack’s watching over her.” I spoke in a cold finality that I hoped sent the message that I didn’t want her moved.

Celestia looked at me with an expression that I couldn’t quite place. She looked as though she was barely containing some strong emotion, and was unsure of what exactly she was supposed to do with it. “How is she?” Celestia whispered again. I arched an eyebrow at her in response. Her head dipped a bit before she explained, “I read the casualty reports. After the Red Court fled the city I was given a preliminary on civilian casualties, and saw that Twilight’s parents were on it.” She looked back up at me with a supreme look of concern on her face, “How is she?”

I looked around for a moment to make sure we couldn’t be overheard. Rarity and Pinkie had crowded around Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Michael and had undoubtedly begun telling them the specifics of what had happened last night. Luna, who grew tired of waiting, dug into her large salad. We wouldn’t be overheard.

I turned back to face Celestia and spoke under my breath, “I don’t know. I mean she’s a tough mare, but I have very little experience with this kind of situation. Both my parents have been dead for almost as long as I can remember. I never had the connection with mine that Twilight had with hers.” I shrugged my shoulders, “I could probably help her cope with her loss, but she has to come to terms with it first.”

Celestia sighed and nodded her head, a faint pained glint in her eye, “Very well. They will be given a burial befitting royalty. Hopefully that will help.”

We both let out tired sighs and moved over towards the table. Pinkie was busy reenacting some part of the previous night to her audience. Rainbow and Michael were watching with some measure of interest, and Fluttershy was busy trying to hide behind her while still drinking in every important detail. Rarity had given up trying to tell the story and took a seat next to Luna. I took the seat next to Rarity and began eating my own simple breakfast of hay and apples.

“And then the scary Red King stepped out of the fire. He looked all scary and melted and stuff, but he got better real fast,” Pinkie recounted excitedly. “We were all held against the wall, and he started choking Harry first. Harry made a weird face like this.” I looked up in time to see Pinkie’s face contorting into some ridiculous, almost comedic show of pain. I was fairly certain that I had never made a face like that in my life, and not just because I’ve only had the muzzle necessary for about two weeks. “But then Celestia came in, and boom!” She reared back and threw her forelegs in the air. “Celestia makes a mini-sun and the Red King catches fire underneath it. And that’s how we saved Equestria.”

“That was quite the story. You should be proud that you protected your home as you did,” Michael chuckled and patted a hoof on Pinkie’s back before returning to his own plate of food.

Rainbow let out a low whistle. “Dang, I kind of wish I could have seen that.”

Rarity nudged my side with her hoof and asked, “Harry, does that mean that you and Michael are going home now?”

Across the table Michael looked up from his plate and watched me carefully. His questing eyes and ears monitored me to see what I would do next. I opened my mouth to respond that I wasn’t certain that we were entirely done, but was cut off by a few loud thumps from the end of the table.

Celestia had stomped her hoof on the ground a few times to get our attention and now towered over us, a rather disturbing sense of seriousness radiating from the usually motherly princess. “Actually that is partly why I have asked you all to come here. It is my belief that the Red King yet lives.”

This statement was met with a not unexpected amount of shock. Pinkie and Rarity, who had actually seen the Red King burn, merely stared at the princess in complete and utter disbelief. Rainbow grunted and instinctively began tensing and relaxing her muscles, her now healed wing visibly strained against its restraints. Fluttershy let out a small squeak and seemed to visibly shrink away, as though trying to disappear from the conversation altogether. Michael looked at the princess with a certain amount of steely resolve where there had previously been the cheerfulness of victory. Luna didn’t react at all. She just kept eating her salad, her eyes were unfocused and half lidded.

I droned them all out and turned my thoughts to how Celestia came to that conclusion. My hooves tapped a steady rhythm as I thought. I only believed of the possibility that the Red King was still alive because I saw him change shape when he should have just burned. I remembered the odd haze leaving his body even as it shrunk from a stallion of Celestia’s proportions down to an average sized vampire.

But Celestia didn’t actually see that, so why does she think he’s still alive?

I had to ask myself what would immediately change with the Red Kings death. What was the one thing that we believed the Red King was responsible for maintaining. “The veil…” I muttered under my breath. I looked back up at the princess and spoke louder so that everypony could hear, “You tried to open into the Nevernever.”

Celestia nodded in confirmation. “Correct, Dresden. Shortly after the Red Court had fled I received a report that you and your team had conflicted with the Red King and that he was still in the city when I created the star. I was hopeful that would have ended all of this right there. Though the only way I could think of to confirm his destruction was to try and pierce the veil that he was holding closed around Equestria.” Celestia shook her head slightly, “Which, I’m sad to say, is still being held shut by Red Court magic.”

“But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the Red King!” Rarity countered desperately. “Some other vampire unicorn could have taken over the spell, or even recreated it if they had to.”

Celestia shook her head again, “No, the flow of energy in the barrier is the exact same now as it was when I first tried to open a Way.”

Fluttershy rubbed a hoof behind her head and whispered, “But I don’t understand, why does that mean that it can’t be another unicorn?”

“Because, no two practitioners work magic in the exact same way,” I answered for Celestia. Rarity and Michael at least seemed to understand what I meant, but Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow all watched me with clearly confused looks. I sighed and continued with my explanation, “All magic has a kind of feel to it, an aura if you will. Practitioners can feel that aura and, assuming they’ve felt that same aura before, can usually guess who specifically cast the magic. For example last night when that smog swept over the city and gave us all night vision, I extended my senses into it to try and get a clue of what it was.” I waved a hoof at Luna, who was about one warm glass of milk away from unconsciousness, “I could tell that it was Luna’s magic because I felt that same aura when she healed the cuts across my muzzle.”

“So if the magic holding the veil closed is the same now…” Pinkie started.

“Then whoever originally cast it is still maintaining it,” Celestia finished for her.

“While technically that doesn’t have to be the Red King, he’s by far the most likely culprit,” I added. “Of the original three he was the only one with magic. I suppose he could have gotten extremely lucky and captured and turned an exceptionally powerful unicorn in the first day or so since being here, but it’s more likely that the Red King made the barrier.”

Rarity started shaking her head, “But that just doesn’t make sense. We saw him die, we saw him burn under Celestia’s conjured sun!”

This was where things devolved into frantic guesswork and it was entirely possible that I was wrong, but I had a good hunch that my guess was right. “No, I don’t think we did.” I leaned forward on the table, using my forelegs for support as I tilted forward, “I think we saw his puppet burn.”

Several seconds of confused silence followed this statement, broken first by Michael who asked, “Harry, what are you talking about?”

I sat back on my haunches as I explained, “Just before he caught fire, I saw a bit a bit of smoke rise from him and zip of into the distance. After the smoke left, his body changed and shrunk back into a standard size pony.” I scooted forward a bit on my seat, “I don’t think the Red King has ever set a hoof in Canterlot. I think he was acting through a puppet.”

“So he was what… possessing one of his unicorns?” Michael asked.

I shook my head, “Not exactly. Possessing implies that the thing doing the possessing doesn’t have a physical body of its own. It’s more like he was channeling his consciousness through a temporary host.”

“Is that even possible?” Rarity asked.

“Possible? Yes. Easy? Oh good lord no.” I ran my hoof over my still tender neck as I began running through my memories. “I’ve seen it done once before, although not to this extent. A while back at home I had a run in with a different flavor of vampires called the Black Court. The commander of the small group I’d run into actually spoke through one of vampires there and controlled his basic movements. I’m willing to bet the Red King did something similar, although to a much more intense degree.”

Beside me Rarity rubbed a hoof under her chin as she tried to process my theory, “That actually makes a little sense.”

Rainbow just flipped her mane at us in aggravation, “Well maybe it makes sense to you eggheads, but I’m lost.”

“Well darling, if the Red King has enough power to seal the veil around Equestria, then why didn’t he attack us with an actual offensive spell?” Rarity offered. “As much as I hate to say it he had us dead to rights, but he chose to do the deed with simple telekinesis. Why?”

I picked up on her logic chain, and was impressed by her understanding of very complicated magic. Her lessons with Luna were really paying off. “Because he wasn’t able to do anything more through the puppet,” I said as I pieced together the different facts into a workable explanation. “He was too focused on maintaining the connection and preserving the body to allow for any kind of complicated attack.” My stomach clenched around my freshly eaten meal as I realized the damage that kind of control would inflict on whoever it being was done to. “Hells bells. With the amount of power he’d have to channel through the host in order to change its body to suit the invading consciousness, it would almost certainly destroy the host’s sanity.”

Fluttershy began shaking in her seat across the table. “S-so he s-sacrificed one of his own just so he could safely take part in the attack?”

“Yeah, he sure sounds like a great boss doesn’t he?” I ignored Fluttershy’s uncomfortable shifting while I focused on the much more disturbing trait about the Red King. “While that’s all nice and demented, there’s still one thing I just can’t figure out.” I turned back around to face Celestia, who looked to still be processing our ramblings. “Celestia, the Red King had power, tons of it. He may not have been able to make full use of all of it through the puppet, but it was there.” I began shaking my head as I tried to imagine how he could’ve amassed all of that power without us noticing. “I know of one or two methods to amplify your power to a fairly insane degree, but they’re generally extremely noticeable processes. When I touched his power it felt like his own. I couldn’t feel any foreign entity, so I doubt there’s a spirit aiding him. I just don’t understand how a practitioner could get as much power as he had in a relatively short amount of time without somepony noticing something.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed in sudden concentration. Something about what I’d said echoed somewhere in the back of her mind. She frowned and her eyes began shifting slightly as she sorted through the many memories of her unimaginably long life. For a couple of minutes we all just sat there and watched as her focus grew ever more intense. I saw it when something finally clicked into place in her head as she finally made some connection. Her eyes grew wide with disbelief, and perhaps even a little fear.

“It can’t be,” she muttered to no pony in particular. “She’s dead, I saw her die.”

Many of us at the table exchanged worried glances, even Luna looked up from her tired daze to glance questioningly at her older sister. I cleared my throat to break the sudden silence to try and snap Celestia out of her reminiscence. “Would you care to share with the rest of the class?” Across the table Pinkie failed to stifle a giggle, I ignored it and focused on the princess.

Celestia seemed to ignore my statement and continued to mutter to herself. “I knew I’d seen bodies like those before. But how is this happening again? We destroyed everything.”

I struck a hoof on the stone floor, creating a loud reverberating tone that finally snapped Celestia out of her trance. “Hey, we’re still here. Now what in the world are you talking about?”

Celestia sighed and rubbed a hoof to her temple, “Those strange bodies, I know how those poor ponies died.”

“The ones without cutie marks?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head slightly.

Celestia nodded, “Yes, they were killed by a spell that was designed by a mad unicorn mare long ago.” She turned to look intently at me, “I believe you would have called her a warlock.”

Luna’s exhaustion faded as she finally spoke, “Celestia, what are you talking about?”

Celestia looked back at her younger sister, “This all happened so long ago. You were only a little child, you wouldn’t remember it. Quite frankly I’m surprised I remembered it at all.” She sighed again and her face became strained as she tried to comb through her memories, “The given name of this unicorn was lost with her sanity. Among those that knew of her existence, she became known as the Life Drinker, or some other such name.” Several mutters sounded around the table, and Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy gave each other worried looks. “This mare devised a spell that allowed her to assault the minds of her victims. Once she successfully broke their will, she drained them of all the energy in their bodies and added it to her own. She took all the energy their bodies needed to function and once it was gone they simply shut down, leaving behind a body with little physical damage and no cutie mark.”

My mind reeled at the implications, and shuddered at the demented thoughts that had created such a spell. “You had a unicorn that could eat a death curse?” my mouth said automatically. That earned me more than a few odd looks. Most every mare at the table glanced at me with confused faces. Only Michael knew what I had meant and began running through his own logic chain at what this could mean.

“What do you mean by death curse?” Rarity asked.

Yeah that figures.

“A death curse is common practice among the wizards of my world,” I explained. “It’s a spell that a wizard throws right before they die. Instead of using the energy in the environment, the wizard uses the energy that sustains their body. The energy that keeps the heart pumping, keeps the synapses firing in the brain, and keeps each individual cell in your body doing its job. All of that energy results in an extremely powerful attack that a wizard uses to try and kill whatever is about to kill them. You know an eye for an eye and all that.” I looked back over at Celestia, “But you say that there was a unicorn that could absorb that same energy?”

Celestia nodded in the affirmative, “Yes, but she was killed shortly after we began finding the bodies. She was careful, only performing the spell about once a week. But by the time we tracked down her lair deep in the forests, she had already absorbed enough power to be a significant threat on her own.” She sighed and shook her head, “It took two full battalions to stop her. Even then, when it became clear that she would lose, she released all of her power in one massive burst. She killed most every soldier I sent along with herself.”

“What about her things?” I asked. “You don’t make a spell like that and not take notes on it.”

“Her base was destroyed in the explosion, as well as several hundred feet of land around it.” Celestia grimaced and massaged her temples again, “We… We searched through the rubble and burned whatever we could find. I also ordered any public records of her to be destroyed in the hopes to prevent a curious pony following in her hoof steps, except for the sealed Canterlot archives of course.”

“That would certainly explain a lot,” I muttered out loud. “If the energy from all of those ponies we found were absorbed by the Red King, then that might explain how he’s remained relatively undetected so long. He must have gotten lucky and either stumbled across this safe house or turned somepony that knew of it.”

“Yes where is this safe house?” Rarity asked. “You must have just missed some secret room after the warlock died.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed again as she tried to remember, but whatever innate power that preserved what she’d already said had evidently run out. She grunted and shook her head in frustration, “I… I can’t remember. You have to understand, this all happened well over a thousand years ago. The land has changed since then, forests have grown and died, towns built and abandoned. I may be ageless, but my memory is as fallible as yours.” She looked over at a pile of boxes in the corner of the room I hadn’t noticed, “Information on the Life Drinker’s hideaway will be in the archives. All we need to do is locate it and then compare the maps from that period with their modern counterparts.”

I rubbed a hoof under my chin and eyed the boxes in the corner. “Well, it’s not much to go on, but it’s more than we had.” I looked back up at Celestia, “There are enough soldiers that know how to fight the Red Court now, they can teach the classes. I’d like to help search for information on this hideaway. If there’s anything useful to be had there, then that’s what I want to focus on.”

Celestia nodded her head, “Very well, I will make the necessary arrangements. Will you be joining the rest of the staff I’ve assigned to this task in the archives, or will you want to browse the documents from your room?”

I looked back across the room at the three large boxes, “Rest of the staff, what are you talking about? There are only a couple of boxes.”

She followed my gaze back to the stacked crates, and chuckled slightly, “Oh, no. That’s not all the documents that we have to look over, that’s just what I planned to go through today. We have to search through several hundred years of ancient archives, and a proper filing system has only been implemented about four hundred years ago. The information we need could be in any of the sealed archives.”

My breakfast turned into a brick in my stomach. “How many boxes of history are we talking about?”

Celestia shifted a little from her seat and pawed at the ground nervously, “Well…”

“About fifteen thousand,” Luna supplied absentmindedly, her head actually resting on the table for support. Luna straitened up a little as her older sister shot her a withering glare. “What? Was I not supposed to say?”

I don’t think I could have been any more shocked even if a bagpipe playing goat burst through the ceiling and beat me to death with my plate. “Fi-Fifteen thousand!”

“That’s going to take forever!” cried Rainbow from her side of the table.

Celestia raised a hoof to try and calm us, “Now now, it’s not as bad as you think. After you returned from Manehattan with the strange bodies, I immediately began searching through the archives for this same information. I’ve already had the top hundred best professors, scholars, and aids flown in from around Equestria to aid my search. Now that we know exactly what we’re looking for, the search will be even faster. All that we need is time, and after the Red Court’s defeat last night, time is exactly what we have.”

I was none too comforted by her words. I turned to look at Michael and muttered in a breathless tone, “We’re going to be stuck in Equestria forever aren’t we?”

Celestia’s magic aura surrounded two of the boxes and floated them over to sit on the table before me, pushing my plate out of the way as she did so. “Here, why don’t you take these for now and maybe you can join the scholars in the archives later.”

Now that I could inspect them up close, I could see that the boxes were larger than I thought they were. If I curled up tight enough I probably could have fit inside one, and they were completely full of random history. Both boxes were full of folders, small books, and loose reams of paper. My hope for any kind of swift resolution dwindled in indirect proportion with my workload. “I won’t be joining the scholars. I prefer to do research on my own. I’ll send for more boxes as necessary.”

Rainbow pushed away from the table and her empty plate, “I guess we’re not going home then. If anypony needs me, I’ll be back on the sparring grounds.” Fluttershy disagreed. Fluttershy immediately looked up from her own empty plate and glared at Rainbow with a gaze that I’d normally reserve for a feral vampire. Rainbow recoiled from her gaze and hastily said, “On second thought, I’ll be in my room resting. The sparring can wait until tomorrow.”

I looked at Rainbow and silently mouthed, “Wise choice.” Fluttershy still frowned, but at least looked content that Rainbow would have recovered by then.

Pinkie got up from her seat and made her way to stand next to Celestia. Pinkie wore a large hopeful grin and gleaming eyes that seemed to unnerve Celestia just as much as they did me. “Princess, I was thinking about how to help cheer everypony up, and I thought I could bake a large cake for everypony! I already asked-“

Please don’t, please don’t, please don’t.

“-Dresden, and he said it’d be fine so long as I asked you first!” Pinkie said excitedly.

Celestia looked at me with a mixture of shock and disapproval on her face. I merely shrugged noncommittally and silently wished that I could create a permanent soundproof bubble to envelope Pinkie’s head.

Celestia turned back to face Pinkie and spoke with a calm air of authority, “Pinkie that sounds like a really bad idea.” I snickered at Celestia’s exact copy of the words I’d said to Pinkie, earning a frosty glare from Rarity next to me. I bit back my tongue out of respect for Pinkie’s personal brand of coping, and out of fear for being smacked again by Rarity’s judgmental hoof. During all of this, Pinkie gave Celestia the exact same look of pouty adorableness that she had offered me, and it was having about the same effect. Celestia shifted uncomfortably but couldn’t seem to break eye contact with Pinkie, “Fine, you may pass around pastries to the wounded in the hospital wing of the castle. Will that satisfy you?”

While it wasn’t exactly what she had wanted, Pinkie beamed anyway and bounced over towards the large double doors. “Don’t worry, I’ll get all those hurt ponies smiling again!” she cried as she vanished from the room.

I broke the following silence first by admitting aloud, “She scares me sometimes, and not just because I have no idea where she got her hammer.”

“She actually mentioned that to me once,” Michael offered. “She said it’s a family heirloom, and is some kind of tool used on a rock farm.”

The words ‘rock farm’ just didn’t want to mesh with my brain. “Why would you…“ I stopped and threw up my forelegs, “You know what, I don’t want to know.” The two large boxes before me became wrapped in my deep red magic, and floated into the air beside me as I got up from the table. “I’ve got work to do.” I looked at the three remaining members of my team, “If you need anything I’ll be in my room.”

I turned on the spot and left the dining hall and its occupants behind me. As the large double doors closed shut behind me, I could just make out Luna speaking to Rarity. “Rarity, I would have your help with arranging some royal announcements. You can practice your illusions while we work.”

I ignored their mumblings and carried my work back with me to the barracks. Again I stuck to the side passages of the castle to try and avoid the frightened eyes of Canterlot’s citizens, but I couldn’t avoid all the larger passages altogether. My roundabout route forced me to cut through the main entry hall of the castle to get at the corridor nearest the barracks. As I passed through the main hallway I saw a large crowd of citizens I hadn’t noticed on earlier. The ponies in question were mostly curled up on scavenged cushions and blankets, exhausted as they were from the fear of an attack. Many were awake and were looking around the room to satisfy themselves that they were safe.

The citizens that were awake seemed to be calmer than I would have expected. They were still very much afraid, but it was a much more manageable fear. They were not feeling the intense and twitchy fear that demands immediate action, which I had witnessed the previous night as they fled into the castle. They experienced instead the nervous but restrained kind of fear most children experience from the safety of their parents bed after they have a bad dream. The nice thick walls of Canterlot Castle offered them all a sense of safety and well being, and were probably the only reason we weren’t dealing with widespread panic and riots.

I managed to carry my boxes pass the crowded entry hall without attracting questions and quickly entered the barracks. The barrack was still mostly empty. There were a few guardsponies that were worn ragged and moved slowly for the barrack’s sleeping quarters. One or two of them noticed my presence and waved at me before returning to their precious beds.

I went up the nearby staircase and moved over to my own room, the two large boxes of history still floating behind me. I stopped outside my door, unsure of how best to proceed. I decided to play it safe and knocked a hoof against my door. There was a slight shuffling sound from the other side of the door before it cracked open just enough for one of Applejack’s large green eyes peek through. After she saw who was at the door, she opened it wide enough to slip into the hallway and closed it silently behind her.

I cocked an eyebrow at her odd behavior, “Is Twilight still sleeping?”

Applejack shook her head, “I’m not sure. She was awake a little bit ago, but she’s lying back down on the bed again. I thought I’d be quiet just in case.”

“How is she?” I asked.

“She ate some food at least,” Applejack offered. “I tried to talk to her, to get her to open up a bit, but she hasn’t said a word so far.”

Well, at least she’s eating. That’s a good sign.

I nodded at Applejack, “Thanks, I’ll take it from here.” I hesitated to think for a moment, “Go find Rarity, she’ll fill you in on everything we talked about. She should be with Luna for a while.”

“Alrighty.” Applejack turned to leave, but paused for a moment and looked back around, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

The two boxes of loose history floated into the air around me again, “That depends, how good are you at combing through countless documents for a specific piece of information?”

Applejack blanched a little and looked back at my door, “No, that’s… that’s more Twilight’s thing. Give me a call if you need anything.” With that said, she turned and left down the staircase to go and search for Rarity.

I heaved a sigh and pushed open the door to my room and entered, the two boxes following me inside. Upon entering the room I noted that it looked more or less how I left it. The loose assortment of furniture was relatively untouched and Twilight was still lying on my bed with her back to the rest of the room. Although I did see that there were two plates that had been picked clean of food and were sitting on my desk. I smiled at that and sat back down on the cushion I had fallen asleep on.

I didn’t want to bother Twilight whether she was sleeping or thinking. She would sort through her troubles soon enough. So with that in mind I began doing what fills about ninety percent of every wizard’s free time. Research. Tedious, mind numbing, want-to-dig-out-my-higher-brain-functions-with-the-end-of-a-sharpened-stick research.

For hours I sat there just shifting through paper after paper and book after book, looking for the one piece of information that was supposedly hidden in there. During my search I found many nuggets of information that, under normal circumstances, I would have loved to investigate further but instead only served to aggravate and irritate. I found studies detailing the growth of specific plants, reports on the movement and stability of foreign powers outside Equestria about five hundred years ago, and I even found a book on the popular cultural stories of zebras.

I searched for several hours before anything else managed to register in my mind. A loud knocking resounded throughout the room as somepony knocked on my door. “Come in,” I said as I set down a report on the underground discoveries and tunnel systems of creatures called diamond dogs.

One of my battalion poked his lime green head into my room and looked over at me, “Commander, are you okay? It’s well past noon and none of the others have seen you in the mess hall.”

That thought had confused me. I had been busy researching true, but I could have sworn that I had only been there for a couple of hours at the most. My stomach disagreed on that matter. Now that I paid attention to it I could feel my stomach growling loudly, forcing me to add a few more hours to my perceived work time. “Uh, right, I’ve been a bit busy. Could I get you to bring a lunch tray to me?”

The soldier nodded and began to withdraw, “Of course.”

“Wait!” The soldier stopped and looked back at me. I craned my neck to look at the unmoving Twilight, “Bring two trays of food.”

“Yes, Commander,” the soldier said and then withdrew properly.

I sighed and returned to my research. I dove back into the report on the diamond dogs, hoping to try and find some clue that might lead to rediscovering the location of an underground warlock den. My stomach was left unhappy for only about ten minutes or so. Right as I reached a segment of the report that detailed the construction of a diamond dog city, there was another knocking at my door, followed by the distinct noise of hooves moving away from my room.

I heaved myself up from my cushion, enjoying several popping joints as I did so, and moved over to my door. I pushed it open with a hoof and looked around for the soldier I had seen earlier. Except for me, the hallway was completely empty. I looked down at my hooves and noticed two trays of food in the same plastic containers that I had seen the other day. But on top of the stacked trays, was a plate with a single cupcake with pink frosting.

I smiled at the gesture. It was great to know that Twilight’s friends were keeping their distance but still wanted her to know that she had friends nearby.

I lifted the meals and the cupcake in my magic and retreated back into my room. As soon as I backed up and closed the door, I turned around to place Twilight’s meal where she would notice it, and froze in place. Twilight was sitting straight up on my bed and was watching me with a piercing gaze. The Smarty Pants doll sat in-between her forelegs.

I stepped forward and placed one of the meals on the floor near my cushion and the other with the cupcake on the bed next to her. “Hey, you okay?”

Her only response was complete silence. Her eyes tracked the meal as it landed next to her, and a small smile played across lips as she noticed the cupcake. The small plate with the cupcake drifted over to my desk as Twilight popped the lid off her lunch.

I decided to proceed with the age old and perfectly healthy practice of putting your personal problems on the backburner. “I was meeting with the princesses earlier, we talked and we actually have something of a plan now. Want to hear?” She only answered with more silence. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

I heaved a sigh and took a quick bite of some grains. After I sated my angry stomach, I began recounting everything that was discussed earlier in the dining hall. I described our theory on the source of the Red King’s power, how he might have found that source, and what we were doing to try and fight him. Throughout the entire explanation Twilight remained stone faced and her calculating eyes focused on me, I could practically see the gears moving in her head as she processed. The only times her face betrayed any kind of emotion were when I mentioned the Red King. Whenever I did this, her eyes narrowed slightly and something much darker than her usual curiosity flashed across her features.

“So now I’m looking through a mountain of paper to try and find the one piece that is actually useful,” I said while throwing up my forelegs for a sense of dramatic frustration.

I set my hooves back down and drew the half empty box I was going through closer. I looked at the couple of pages on the top to try and see if there was anything that caught my attention. Just as I gave up and picked a paper at random, Twilight’s Smarty Pants doll floated over and sat down on top of the box.

“Where did you get that?” Twilight asked in a carefully level voice.

I looked back up at Twilight. Her face had returned to its expressionless mask, but her eyes were wide with the desperation for an answer. This was a conversation that I really didn’t want to have, but it was a conversation that Twilight evidently needed. “I bought it. The other day when I was in the Canterlot market, I met up with Rarity and I found it in a thrift shop.”

“Why,” she said simply.

I averted my eyes and shook my head a little, “I wasn’t thinking straight at the time. Remember that was the day where my head wasn’t quite right.”

Those words struck a chord in her head. Her ears perked up and her eyes narrowed at me, “You never said that whatever happened to you lasted for the entire day. We could only assume that it was instantaneous. You bought the doll when your thinking was altered, but then hid it when you were restored. Why?”

I could feel a large brick being dropped into my stomach. I hadn’t counted on her being able to catch a slip on the tongue like that, but now that she had I couldn’t exactly worm out of it. “I forgot.”

“Lie,” she growled.

I waved a hoof dismissively, “You misunderstand. I forgot everything, everything before two weeks ago.” I stopped right there, unwilling to elaborate any further, but evidently I didn’t have to.

Twilight immediately began running through her own logic chain as she processed what I had said. She looked down at her hooves and began mumbling to herself as she thought. I tried to listen in on what she was saying, but only caught the words “A conflict of interests,” before her eyes widened somewhat as if coming to some realization. She looked back up at me, an odd blend of sadness and curiosity on her face, “Is the Red King really still alive?”

I blinked at that, my thought process completely derailed by the sudden change in topic. “Uh, yes, we believe so. There are other possibilities, but he is the simplest and the most likely.”

The Smarty Pants doll and the second crate I had brought in were both enveloped by a lavender aura and floated over to sit down in front of Twilight.

“Good, then there’s still something I can do to help,” she said as she took out various pieces of paper and began looking through them.

“Wait, what?” I sputtered. “Twilight, no. Go be with your friends. Take some time and clear your head.”

“No!” she yelled at me, her face betraying the first hint of true rage I’d seen in her thus far. She reigned in her temper and her face became much softer as she looked at me, “I don’t want to leave just yet. I like research. It calms me and helps to order my thoughts.” The cupcake on my desk also became shrouded by Twilight’s magic as she lifted it into the air and separated it into two even halves. “And I am with a friend.” One of the halves drifted over to me, and I happily accepted it. “Besides, every paper we go through brings me closer to sticking my horn through the Red King’s twisted heart,” she finished, her voice becoming steadily angrier as she voiced her last thought.

That last statement made it abundantly clear that she had changed, whether she was entirely stable or not remained to be seen. I felt horrible that she had been maneuvered into the situation that she was in. The pain that she had taken was more than any should have to endure, but at the same time I was a little proud. I relished the thought of standing beside her and throwing our combined power against the Red Court. I knew that Twilight would fight to her dying breath against those that had wronged her. With her raw power, fine control of delicate magic, and newfound personal vendetta against the Red Court, she would be a true terror to behold when she next confronts a vampire.

I’ve said it once before, and I’ll say it again: The vast majority of the time, a monster’s worst enemy is one of their own making.