I walked along, following behind Twilight and the rest of the girls through the desert, following Twilight's lead. Amber was currently hiding, doing her entire ‘ninja’ thing. I had no clue how she did it, the landscape was mostly flat. I had given her orders to stay out of sight.

Twilight peered down on the map and then shifted our path a bit to the right.

I was more than happy to let her take the lead on this one, she was the Princess after all. I was along as the dream expert.

“Well?” Sunset asked from next to me, her eyebrows raised.

“Huh? Did you say something?” I asked with a blink.

She rolled her eyes, “I was asking if you felt something.”

“...Not sure it works like that, Sunny,” I shook my head. “And no, I'm not.”

“Hmh,” she said and then nodded, trotting up to walk next to Twilight, keeping an eye out as she adjusted her saddle bags with her magic.

We kept on for another hour or so before we reached the top of a rocky hill. Seeing Twilight and Sunset duck close to the ground, I follow the mares' examples along with the rest of the Elements. I quickly crawled up next to Twilight, peering over the tip of the hill.

There was a small town there, some twenty houses maybe, all following a straight street through the middle of the village. There were ponies moving around down there.

I frowned slightly and tapped my hoof against the ground in thought. From here things looked normal.

“What do you think?” Twilight whispered. “Seems nice enough from here. Everyone is smiling.”

“I know smiles. Those are not smiles,” Pinkie Pie said and glared down at the village. I glanced at her and frowned, looking back to the village again.

They were smiling, but... I couldn't tell from here. Was she right?

“Forget the smiles, look at the cutie marks,” Twilight said, her voice filled with worry.

...What the fuck?

They were all the same. An equal sign on each and every one of them. Okay, something is seriously fucking screwed here. Now when I noticed that, I picked up on other details I didn't before. Like they were all wearing the same mane and tail styles.

“Okay, That's weird,” Rainbow said with a frown.

“An entire village with the same cutie mark? How can that be?” Twilight asked as she looked to Sunset who just shrugged.

“I bet there is some big monster behind it,” Rainbow said as she floated in the air. “Seems like a monster thing to do.”

Well, she was not wrong.

“I reckon we should head into town and talk to some locals,” Applejack said with a shrug. “See what's going on.”

Rainbow nodded, “Great idea. Let's go!” and then she was off down the hill.

“Might as well now.” I sighed and got up, trying not to be annoyed at her. That was the next step, even if I wouldn't exactly have recommended doing it like that.

Twilight nodded and got up as well and then we started down the hill as a group as I studied the village below. Sunset was whispering soundlessly to herself as she walked along next to Twilight. I didn't catch most of it, but I did get enough to understand that she was going over spells. Combat spells.

She was clearly nervous about this and who could blame her, I was too. As much as I disliked admitting it, defeating Tirek had been about thirty percent skill and seventy percent luck. If everything hadn't gone exactly as it did, I would have been mush on the floor right now.

Alicorn now or not, Sunset was stronger than me in pure magic. Not by much admittedly, but she was.

It didn't take long to get down to the town.

“Welcome!”

“Welcome!”

“Welcome!”

Those big smiles, those greetings. Yeah, this wasn't creepy as fuck at all. So, what do we have here? Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Fear Her, Stepford Wives or pod ponies?

“Welcome!” a grey stallion with darker grey hair said as he stopped in front of the group. “Pardon my forwardness, but are you an Alicorn?”

Great deduction skills there, Sherlock. What could possibly have given her away?

I renewed my illusion with a quick lighting up of my horn, just in case.

Applejack nodded. “That there is the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle,” she explained, while Twilight looked more embarrassed than anything else.

The grey Stallion smiled and nodded, “Well, you certainly have come to the right place for friendship.”

Oh good Luna, did he have to say it in that tone of voice and that smile?

A white coated stallion interrupted before he could get anymore creepy, “What brings you to town?”

“We're not entirely sure,” Twilight said with a shrug.

“Well, I see. Well, all are welcome here in our little village. I'm Double Diamond and this is Party Favor,” the white coated Double Diamond said and motioned to his companion.

...The grey one’s name was actually...

Good lord. That's an unfortunate name.

Applejack nodded and quickly made a round of introductions to us all.

Double Diamond smiled and looked closer, saying, “And you all have your own unique cutie marks...” before smiling wider.

Twilight frowned, “If you don't mind, has there been any sort of trouble here lately?”

“Trouble? Why, I don't think we have ever had trouble in our little village,” Double Diamond said with a big smile.

“It's true,” Party Favor added as he looked at Twilight, “You'll see.”

...I'd rather not if you didn't mind.

“Perhaps you care to speak to our founder, Starlight Glimmer?” Double Diamond said and motioned for us to follow him.

I shared a look with Sunset as we followed the rest. She raised an eyebrow and I nodded slightly in return. Something told me that whatever was going on here, this Starlight Glimmer was in the middle of it all.