The city of Shirith was vast, so much so that the heights of its buildings competed with those in Manehatten and Canterlot. Even through sandstorms, over mountainous dunes and past the occasional boulder, Mawr could see the tops of Shirith’s buildings for three straight days of travel.

Still in the form of a Buffalo, and still lugging Cloud on her back, Mawr finally reached the edge of the city after two weeks of travel from the seemingly nameless town.

Though native to deserts, Buffalo were built to live in arid land. The seemingly endless deserts of sand Saddle Arabia presented were far more treacherous than the heated southern regions of Equestria. It was because of this that Mawr’s travel time was double what it could have been. Only being able to travel for six hours at a time slowed her pace to a crawl. Regardless, she had finally arrived.

Cloud had lost consciousness on the third day of travel, and was in very bad shape. His breathing was ragged, his body was grotesquely low on fat and he was so dehydrated that even a days more travel without water would surely kill him.

Mawr wasn’t doing much better; Cloud’s poor performance had barely given her a week's worth of energy. It was through sheer force of will (and Princess Luna’s horrifically intense training) that she didn’t collapse on the spot and quickly die. It was the same force of will which allowed her to trudge all the way to a hospital and transform back into her normal form before collapsing.

Ugh… I feel terrible…

Cloud opened his eyes to find himself, once again, in a hospital room. Here we go again…

To Cloud’s surprise, the hospital room looked very similar to the rooms in the Ponyville hospital. Other than a window showing a distant sea of sand, it wasn’t very dissimilar to Equestrian hospitals at all, at least to Cloud’s knowledge. Which is lacking…

“Ah, finally awake I see?” The voice was male and sounded particularly sly, as if its owner knew something which Cloud didn’t.

Turning to see the owner, Cloud spotted three Horses standing by the door to the room. Two were large, wearing tuxedos and sunglasses. The third Horse, standing between them, had a weedy look about him. He also wore a suit, along with an unsettling sneer on his face.

“Well then, let’s get down to business.” It was the third Horse who had been speaking.

“Where am I?” Cloud asked.

“Shirith General Hospital.” He replied quickly, as if knowing he’d ask.

“Where’s-?”

“Your Changeling friend?” His chuckle gave Cloud the sensation of teeth scraping along a chalkboard. “Well, that’s exactly what I wanted to talk about. You see, I happen to know who the two of you are.”

Cloud’s heart rate increased, as displayed by the cardiac monitor beside him. “You do?” Does he know about my past?!

“Oh, yes. Your little friend is responsible for the death of King Metamorph, ruler of the Changelings.” Wait, she did what?!

“Now,” the Horse began walking toward Cloud’s bed, the two larger Horses following closely behind, “I’m sure the Queen would be very happy if she were to get her hooves on the one responsible for killing her husband, happy enough to pay me quite handsomely…” As fascinating as this is, this isn’t what I need to hear!

“And what about me?” Cloud asked. This could be it!

“Oh, I know all about you.” The Horse sneered even harder. “You’re the Unicorn that killed those Canterlot Ponies and got yourself banished.”

Cloud sighed internally. Dammit…

“There are a few… things that I’d like you to do for me. Unless of course you want me to sell your friend to the Changeling Queen and ship you back to Equestria in a crate. I’m sure the Princesses wouldn’t be too happy to see you return.”

“Well, actually…”

“So what choice will you make? If you help me with my ‘chores’, I’ll let you and your friend go about your business. You can consider them your hospital bill. Hell, I’ve even pay you, I’m feeling generous.”

“I…” Don’t really have much of a choice. “Fine. What ‘chores’ do you need me to do?”

Somehow, his disgusting sneer grew further. “There’s a travelling merchant in town. He’s been… ‘selling’ in the wrong places at the wrong times; places and times that are causing my… ‘family’ problems.” Wow. This guy is almost as subtle as Pinkie Pie. “I need you to… ‘kill’ him.”

“I think you need to practice coming up with code words,” Cloud pointed out. “You could’ve said ‘dispose of’ or ‘shut him down’ or even ‘close up shop’.” He chuckled to himself. “Yeah, I like that last one.”

The Horse was frowning. At least that crappy sneer is gone.

“Fine, I need you to make him ‘close up shop’.”

“I cannot tell what you mean, you’re being far too subtle for my simple brain.”

The Horse snarled. “I won’t hesitate to send the bug to its grave.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Cloud rolled his eyes. “So what’s this merchant’s name?”

“Ghyr Muhimm.”

Cloud’s stomach did a backflip.

“You’ll find him in the market district.” The trio of Horses walked back towards the door. “You have two days. Don’t keep me waiting.” The three of them left.

“Well, shit.” I seem to say that a lot…

Beneath the Canterlot castle existed the Canterlot dungeons. It was here that the most heinous of criminals were imprisoned (save for those ‘repurposed’ by Princess Luna). There was only a single prison worse than the Canterlot dungeons, a prison designed for the truly monstrous beings - the ‘everyone dies if they escape’ type of monstrous beings. However, it was in the Canterlot dungeons wherein Spike was lying on his side, shivering in fear as laughter echoed through his mind.

What’s wrong, little Dragon? The voice in his head asked. Are you afraid I’ll take control again? Afraid I’ll make you hurt again? When Spike didn’t reply, the voice continued laughing.

“Help me, Twilight…” Spike whispered. There was no one to hear him.

He was alone in the darkness.