The mines were vast, stretching deep into the ground. The walls were picked clean of minerals, leaving the mostly earthy walls barren and void of valuables. Various wooden support beams spread throughout the tunnels, and attached to them were light potions like the one Cloud had seen Bravura use back in Oregano.

A certain group of mercenary, assassin, archaeologist, and jackass were walking through the mine, each carrying a share of gold. Kufn carried a crate on his back, though it wobbled in risk of falling from how lithe his body was. No matter how much it teetered, however, it never failed to stay in place. Do hovered off the ground, and used ropes to carry one crate with her forelegs and a second crate with her hind. Cloud walked along with a Support Circle following him, carrying a lazily stacked three crates. In front of them all marched Mawr in her male Bison form, lugging along four crates on her back.

“This is where they got all the gold?” Cloud asked.

“Not all of it,” Do replied. “Some came from trading across Saddle Arabia, he had an almost obsessive mindset about collecting it.”

“Not all of it, lodes though,” Mawr smirked.

“Well yeah, I just said that.”

“No, I mean, 'lodes', not 'loads'-”

“[Wow, context is a thing you really take for granted,]” observed Kufn.

“[I know, right?]” Said Cloud. “[They're talking about how Ra got loads of gold from here.]”

“[Ahh…]” Kufn nodded in understanding. He smirked impishly. “[More like 'lodes', am I right?]”

“[Yeah, I just told you that.]”

“[No, I mean, 'lodes', not 'loads'-]”

Suddenly, a cloaked Diamond Dog exploded out of the wall.

“[You fools!]” He cried. “[You think you have defeated us! But you’ve yet to fight me, the mighty Ste- OH GOD-]” The Dog collapsed in a bloody heap. Kufn pulled his sword out of the Dog’s chest. He turned to Cloud.

“[Like ‘lodes’ with an ‘o’, y’know?]”

“[Yeah, ‘l’ ‘o’, ‘a’, ‘d’.]”

“[Nononono, like-]”

Twilight, along with the other Spirits of Harmony, were gathered at the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest. Their leave had been in secret to all but her brother and Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armour, and his twentieth squadron who had been ordered to go with them. Having protection from the nearby Ursa Major was understandable enough, but when Twilight asked why squadron twenty in particular was sent, Shining had told her that they were the least useful to the war effort. What he had not told her, was that this was because of Sight Watcher.

Not only had Watcher failed to train the squadron correctly, he was frankly a terrible squad leader. His troops were largely untrained, and several were suffering from malnutrition from their poor diets as he would simply not allow them to eat on some days. Unfortunately for Shining, Watcher was in a position making him very safe from being relieved of duty; he was a loose end. While Princess Celestia had suggested “taking him out back and putting him down,” else giving him to her to use as a subject in her secret labs, Shining held strong to his morals and vowed that said morals would never be broken, nor would he ever commit such a terrible act.

Little did he know, he would break this vow before the end of the month, and would do so by committing the greatest atrocity in all recorded history of every civilization in the world.

Due to Watcher was no help to the war preparations, Shining had decided that squadron twenty could be used in more direct ways, such as protecting the Spirits of Harmony, as well as taking them where they wished to go on their secret expedition. They had been taken via a VIP carriage, operated by several members of the squadron. They had left in secret, flown over the Ursa Major nest which had once been Ponyville, sailed over the treetops of the Everfree, and landed right outside of the Castle of the Two Sisters. Twilight and the other Spirits had quickly left the carriage and entered the castle, but Watcher, as usual, was being difficult.

“Men!” He bellowed for the seventh time that night. “I will repeat this again! Exit the carriage one at a time! I must perform a full body inspections of each of you!” Squadron twenty groaned for the seventh time that night.

Inside the castle, the Spirits of Harmony quickly and quietly headed for the lower levels of the castle, lead by Twilight.

We need to search the lowest levels we can find, thought Twilight, keeping their minds connected with a telepathy spell. As I explained before-

Then why are you explaining it again?

-don’t cut me off, Twentydie. As I explained before, we’re looking for a magical crystal. I went deep into my theory about Nightmare Moon collecting them at the club-

Wait, she collected them at a club?

No, when we discussed at the club-

When did we discuss being at a club?

Dammit Pinkie-!

I believe what she means to imply is that the matter of the crystals collected by Nightmare Moon was discussed while we were at the club, Pinkamena.

...Why did you call her by that name?

She’s always been called Nightmare Moon, silly!

No she wasn’t! She was called Princess Luna first!

Well, actually, her very first name was Wre-

Would all of you be quiet?! Silence fell among their minds. Are you all done jumping in?! Are you going to be generous enough to be quiet?! A few seconds passed. Finally!

What’s generous about being quiet?

DAMMIT, PINKIE-!

After a few hours of lugging gold, Cloud and co. finally made it back outside. With no time to waste resting, they soon headed south in search of Gaums.

“So… just straight south?” Cloud asked.

“Yeah,” Do replied, “just south.”

“...Is there... any more to it than that?”

“No, just south.”

The talk died down, and the air was filled only by footsteps and nature. The jungle air was fresh in their lungs, if a little humid, and tasted delicious compared to the cramped, stagnant dust of the cave. The leaves glimmered in the evening breeze-

“It’s just that simple?” Cloud asked. “There are no weird hoops to jump through, so specific roads to take? Just south?”

“Yes.”

“Well… alright then.”

The group continued on in silence once again. Kufn began humming under his breath, then began to bob his head from side to side.

“[Welcome to your life...]”

Cloud grinned. “[There's no turning back!]”

“[I hate both of you...]” Mawr sighed.

“[Even while we sle~ep!]”

Deep in the bowels of the Castle of the Two Sisters, among the cracked brick walls and dusty halls, the six Spirits searched. Most were hasty and reckless in their searching, throwing aside old curtains and furniture without a care. Two were more careful, one of which being Fluttershy with Twilight searching in what appeared to be a lounge, the other one searching deeper inside the castle with Applejack in an absurdly large closet. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were searching a multi-level pantry, which was vertically large enough to connect to a dozen floors of the castle. The castle stretched deep underground, like an iceberg in the earth. The girls had been searching for a solid hour, but had yet to scratch the surface of how far underground the castle’s innards stretched.

As Fluttershy searched what she believed to be an bedroom with enough luxuries to look like a lounge, a particular couch in the corner of a room kept catching her eye. Throughout the room, deep blue decorations were spread. The tapestries, the skirting of the walls, even the handles of the doors were decorated with it. Whoever this room belonged to, they were fond of dark blue. This was all the more reason the couch caught her eye. Another major reason being that such a modern piece of furniture in such an ancient castle was rather strange to her. This couch looked new, modern even. Even as she noticed this, among with other oddities such as the lack of dust, the couch continued to slip away from her mind again and again. It was as if something was draining away her attention to it; like something didn’t want her to pay it any mind… Yet every time she looked away, tendrils of darkness seemed to lick at the corners of her eyes. She looked close, and could see some sort of shape underneath. It was long, and rectangular… it looked as long as a Pony… surely she could realise what it was… it was something… so familiar…

“Wow, this was uneventful,” said Twilight, holding up a magic crystal. Fluttershy snapped out of her trance, and all thoughts of the couch faded completely. Twilight yawned and shoved the crystal into the saddlebags she'd brought with her. “Well, back to Canterlot.”

After briefly gathering the other Spirits, they headed back to the carriage as the last of squadron twenty made it past Watcher’s checks. On seeing the Spirits headed towards him, he turned back the squadron once more.

“Men!” He bellowed for the eighth time that night. “Enter the carriage one at a time! I must perform a full body inspections of each of you!” Squadron twenty groaned for the eighth time that night.

The fellowship of the sing, after a few hours and an album's worth of songs, finally found themselves in a grassy clearing as the day neared dusk. Thinking herself unseen, Do smirked, then quickly tried to hide her excitement. Mawr, sick of all the singing, had long since removed the ears from her male Bison form. In a flash of fire, she returned to her normal form with the boxes stacked neatly beside her.

“[Alright, we're here,]” said Mawr. She stretched out quickly and efficiently. “[Get ready for a fight.]”

“[Wait, how can you tell?]” Asked Cloud. “[Also, why?]”

“[Ms. Do here thought she was being subtle,]” Kufn replied, drawing Riptide and startling Do. “[She thinks none of us noticed the ambush.]”

“[Ambush?]”

A roar from overhead silenced them. A pale blue Dragon swirled around them in the air above them, popping out against the sky stained orange by sunset. It slammed into the ground in front of them, and with a mighty inhale of air…!

“EYYY, WHAT'S UP MAH DUDES!” Screeched Gaums. “HOW'RE Y'ALL DOIN' TODAY?”

Cloud blinked in a disappointed manner. “Oh.”

“Gaums!” Whined Do. “You're supposed to ambush them and kill them!”

“YU KNO DAT'S NAT MAH STYLE, D!” Gaums continued, at the misfortune of all present. “I GATS TUH SCOPE 'EM OUT, YA FEEL?”

Mawr relaxed in disappointment. “This is the worst thing.”

“Ugh… forget it…” Do sighed. “These people want passage to Equestria too,” her voice was devoid of all motivation and monotone enough to rival Maud. “You’ll get more payment because they carried some. Will you take them with us.”

She didn't even pose that as a question, thought Cloud. Wow, good thing I pointed that out and brought a lot of attention to it, else I wouldn't have noticed. I’m so smart!

“AWW SHIET, D!” Gaims replied, flapping a claw at her. “YA KNOWS YA MAIN MAYUHN AIN'T 'BOUT NAHT HELPIN' DEM IN NEEDIN'!”

“[I don't know what's being said and I'm glad,]” nodded Kufn.

“LEMME GRAB ALL O' DAT SHINY SHINE AND WE GON' GIT GOIN'!” To the misfortune and pain of everyone, Gaums began to repeatedly dab on them. “YO YOU PEEPS BE FROM DAT QUESTIA PAD, YEYE? LEMME TELL Y’ALL ALL ‘BOUT MY FANFICTION ON DAT SHIT…!”

Cloud had secured a way back to Equestria, at the low low price of any hope of peace and quiet on the way.