The close encounter with the timberwolf had, understandably, shaken the three mares a great deal. Now, with almost every step they took, there was a sense of caution to them, as they frequently glanced about themselves, almost expecting another such beast to pop out of the undergrowth at any moment. That is, except for Twilight, who instead occupied herself with something else entirely. The night sky above them, so clear and full of stars, with the centrepiece of a bright full moon. It was a beautiful sight, to be sure, and yet, the circumstances of its presence here seemed to have her complete attention. Nopony said anything for quite some time, but eventually, it was Applejack who broke the silence between them, trotting along to stand beside Twilight before speaking to her.

"So...yer sure this is the way?"

Looking down from the sky at last, Twilight nodded, determination plastered upon her face as she replied.

"I am. For an entire region's sky to be altered like this, and for the change between it and our own to be that seamless...there has to be powerful magic at work."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Ancient magic. The kind our side of the world hasn't seen in...in centuries."

Slowly, she turned to the farmer.

"If nothing else, we know that somepony with access to great powers lies in this direction, alicorn or not. And that's as good a reason as any to press onwards if the Tantabus is still roaming free."

Applejack sighed, looking ahead at the path before them.

"Ah know that, but...what if it's a mistake ta come here? What if Nigh...what if she is even worse than the Tantabus?"

Looking ahead herself, Twilight's expression softened a bit.

"I guess...we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it."

Glancing at the two of them, Pinkie sped up a little, joining them and starting to speak up herself.

"Geez! Remind me not to come into a deep dark wood with you two ever again! The conversations so far have been pretty down."

Twilight looked to her, raising an eyebrow, only to be met with a slight smirk on the part of the party lover. In spite of herself and their circumstances, the spectacled unicorn couldn't help but laugh, and was soon joined in by both Applejack and Pinkie. Naturally, this did much to lighten the mood, but it was short-lived, as all of them continued to look on warily at the gloomy woods around them. Every once in a while, the clam and quiet of their surroundings would be interrupted by the rustling of tree leaves by the wind, or by the occasional flapping of birds wings high above, but for the most part, things were as uneventful as they came during their journey. But then, just as things seemed as quiet as they could be, Twilight stopped.

"Wait!"

The other two halted as instructed, looking to their nominal leader with both concern and curiosity. Taking a step forward, Twilight narrowed her eyes. Though it was undoubtedly dark around here, the light of the full moon actually did a lot to help her see ahead. And when she did, a look of surprise crossed her.

"I...I think...yes!"

She turned to her companions.

"There's an opening over there!"

She pointed ahead, and both of the other mares looked to where she had been looking. Sure enough, they could see that there was indeed some sort of clearing up ahead, evidenced by a less dense collection of trees. Though at first wary, a silent look at one another made it clear what was going on in their heads; this was their best sign yet of where to go. So, together, they made their way further ahead, passing tree after tree after tree until, finally, they reached the edge of the tree-line. Here, they stopped, crouching down behind some bushes that marked the edge of that part of the forest, and as they looked on at what was before them, their faces were marked with disbelief.

"Is that...what I think it is?" Pinkie asked.

Bathed in the light of the moon, the clearing beyond yielded a most unexpected sight this far from Equestrian lands; a farm. The open land before the three mares gave way to a rather large field, wherein a number of ponies were hard at work. From the looks of it, the crops they were tending to had only just been planted, given that few, if any, growths could be seen from the ground. But a farm was a farm, no matter the place, though the ponies who worked here did not truly seem to be like those encountered in Ponyville, given the more stoic faces they bore. There were many cooler colours here also, blues, greys and whites, rather than the warmer oranges, pinks, yellows or other such colours of the residents Ponyville. All the same, this was a sight Applejack was quick to comment on.

"Okay...ah weren't expectin this."

There were nods of agreement from her cohorts, leading to a rather obvious remark from Pinkie.

"Yeah. Big farm way out here? I mean, I guess other lands have them, but still, I was expecting the lands beyond the Everfree to be, you know...scary and stuff?"

Twilight frowned slightly, pointing ahead.

"Well...there's something we don't get much of on our side. Look."

The other two turned their attention to where their friend was looking, and it wasn't long when they noticed what it was. Though their garb were different, there were clearly soldiers of some description watching over the area. Their armour was that of dark blues and purples, with helm bearing what appeared to be ornate bat-like wings on either side. Unlike the helms of the Equestrian guards, however, these covered the entire faces of those wearing them, giving away nothing except the eyes, which looked on with vigilance at the ponies working on the farm-land.

"Huh...kinda...strict-looking, aren't they?" Pinkie remarked.

Twilight sighed.

"There's no question now. These are the ponies we need to speak to."

Immediately, both of her friends snapped their heads in her direction, looking to her as if she were insane.

"What?! If we go out there, they'll try and catch us or somethin!" Applejack said.

But Twilight shook her head.

"We have no choice, Applejack! If we need to find the other alicorn, we're going to need information. So we either talk to these ponies...or we find somepony else!"

The farmer looked to her, then to those in the lands nearby, then back to Twilight. Eventually, and after glancing to Pinkie, Applejack let out a long sigh.

"Okay...we'll do it your way."

Twilight nodded, standing up from her hiding position.

"But you're right about one thing, they won't be used to seeing ponies from our side of the line. If we're clever, we might be able to get some info out of them without causing alarm."

Standing up herself, Pinkie raised an eyebrow.

"How?"

Looking over to her, Twilight suddenly seemed a touch nervous.

"...Act."

Naturally, that remark did little to alleviate the others' concerns, and they watched as the young unicorn began to head off out from their current spot. After a short moment of hesitancy, both of the others started to follow. It wasn't long before they were in the farm proper, but, fortunately for them, nopony working the fields seemed to pay them much attention, instead content to simply carry on with their various tasks. This earned at least a touch of relief from Twilight, who did her best to simply look ahead and try not to get herself or her companions noticed. However, as anypony would have expected under such circumstances, this lucky streak did not last long.

"You there!"

The three mares stopped dead in their tracks, turning together to see an older unicorn stallion approach them. He had a dark blue colouration to him and bore a badge, the shape of a crescent moon, upon his chest, clearly indicating some position of importance. His horn was aglow as he drew nearer, levitating what appeared to be a clip-board of some kind. The expression he bore was a stern one, which was further reflected in his tone as he finally reached the three of them.

"What are you doing out here?"

The mares looked to one another, each hoping the other would have some sort of response. But all they could manage were a few mumbled and hesitant words from Twilight.

"Um...well, we..."

But she was halted by a raised hoof from the stallion.

"You know the rules. All new workers are to report in with me before they begin their tasks!"

A pause, and when it ended, Twilight, while doing her best not to sigh with relief, put on a nervous smile.

"Right, yes, sorry. I guess it just...slipped our minds?"

The stallion narrowed his eyes, then let out a sigh.

"Never mind. We can just register you here, I suppose."

He levitated the clip-board right in front of himself, obscuring his face from Twilight as he spoke once more.

"I've been waiting all day for some extra help, so let's make this quick."

Pinkie and Applejack cast each other worried glances, but said nothing, instead looking to Twilight, who herself remained silent as the stallion carried on.

"Okay then, which of you is from Crescent Town and which is from Shade?"

There was a brief bout of frantic concern as the mares glanced to one another, before Twilight simply blurted out her answer.

"Erm...I'm from Shade."

The stallion nodded, writing that down on his board, and in the silence that followed, Twilight, perhaps driven out of nervousness from her situation, spoke up before he said anything further.

"So, um...just out of curiosity...how are things with our great leader at...wherever she lives?"

The other mares looked to her with incredulity, and Twilight responded to that by giving an apologetic look for that, admittedly, rather terrible attempt at subtle questioning. Fortunately for all of them, the stallion hadn't noticed, and instead simply grumbled to himself as he kept on writing.

"Hm? We'll talk personal stuff after you finish your shift for today. In the meantime..."

He stopped, lowering his board and holding out his hoof to Twilight. Looking to it, the unicorn mare put on a small smile, reaching for it and giving it a friendly shake.

"And it was nice to meet you, Sir."

She let go of him, leading to a look of confusion on his part, as he glanced to his hoof briefly before looking right back to her.

"No...I mean I need to see your transfer papers."

Twilight froze, as did her friends, and while the stallion waited patiently, the former started to fumble her words again.

"T...transfer papers?"

Again, the stallion nodded.

"Yes. I'll need them for our records."

Twilight's eyes darted about, and small beads of sweat started to roll down her forehead.

"Yes...transfer papers. Well...um...you see...funny thing is...we kinda...forgot them?"

She chuckled nervously, leading to the stallion narrowing his eyes slightly. Twilight did her best to try and cover herself, which went about as well as one could expect.

"You see, we were going along and, wouldn't you know it, there was this...um...big gust of wind! Blew the papers right out of our hooves! Really inconvenient!"

To that, the stallion looked past Twilight, giving a silent gesture to some of the guards which were nearby. Immediately, they started to make their way over, much to the dismay of Twilight and her friends. Soon, they were surrounded by about half a dozen of them, and the first stallion took an imposing step towards Twilight.

"I think you need to come with us."

Twilight gulped, but before she or anypony else could say or do anything, a confident voice called out from above.

"That won't be necessary, Overseer!"

All of them looked up, and saw a trio of pegasi silhouettes against the bright full moon. They darted down, landing with ease nearby, as all looked to them. While they were clad in the same blue armour as the other guards, it seemed more ornate, though the one who led them, a mare from the looks of her, had less of it, revealing the cyan fur she had along her legs. The Overseer frowned to this, stepping towards this new arrival.

"Captain Dash? I hope you have a good explanation for this interruption."

The peagsus nodded, lifting a hoof and removing her helmet. Twilight now saw her, and widened her eyes at her unusual mane, which, while much shorter than she was used to seeing on mares, was coloured in stripes of green, blue and purple. But there was a snarkiness to her expression as she glanced over at the stallion.

"Sorry to interrupt your busy schedule..."

The Overseer frowned to that, but said nothing as she continued.

"...but I'm afraid I'll have to take these strangers with me instead."

The Overseer hesitated for a moment, then let out a sigh.

"Of course, Captain."

The other nearby guards stood aside, allowing this Captain to approach Twilight and her friends. After a brief moment of her looking the unicorn over, the cyan mare narrowed her eyes.

"I'm Aurora Dash, Captain of the Night guard."

Her smirk returned as she pointed straight at Twilight's chest.

"And you, Twilight Sparkle...have been summoned by our Queen."