"You seek what life's in death~"

Coco was singing to herself as she hopped around the birch trees in the sunlight filtering through the canopy. There were a lot of large- petalled hibiscus like flowers twined around their spotty trunks in various shades of crimson, which she was delicately clipping with her teeth and weaving together with grass in an imitation of a scarf.
In the Patapon world were very few outlets through which Coco could vent her metaphorical fashion spleen on, and that unique sort of inflating tension that came with art related talents would threaten to make her antsy if she didn't do something about it. Thus the flower gathering.

"Now find it air once breath~"

At the moment, compared with her current general situation, being able to make dresses must have been one of the most useless talents ever. She paused in her fillyish flower play and stared at the scarf thing lying on the ground forlornly, thinking of what she would be able to do with the materials she would have at her Manehatten apartment and felt a pang for her fully stocked vanity table.

Her kitchen cupboard dedicated solely to cans of cream of mushroom soup and cheese. Her beanbag with the carefully patched up holes with those little round polymer balls peeking out. The page from the long forgotten yellowed magazine containing the best recipe for corn clouds she had ever heard of.

"New names unknown..."

She determinedly decided not to dwell on these things any more, as they would only hinder her and didn't help in any way towards her ultimate cause of going home. Discord, I do wish you'd hurry up...

"Old names gone..."

Coco plucked an especially mauve hibiscus, flicking her head to dispel those thoughts. I wonder if everyone in this land is as interesting as Kan? I wish I could- well, this is foalish- be all of their friends...

"Till time ends bodies-"

Oooh, this sunset scarf is actually coming along better than I thought!

"But souls, none~"

I wonder if I could give it to Kan and his company as a peace offering?

"Now, make haste,"

She slipped it around her neck, shifting it a little to avoid chafing her now rather delicate fur, enacting a little worried frown at this new problem. My health seems to fading faster than I believed at first.

"While you be-"

Wait, look at that black one over there!

"But steps to your eter-nity~!"

That would look so good if I tuck it in on the left of the grass thing- the more the merrier... She trotted toward the single black petal visible behind an untamed bush like a curious kitten, tilting her head and twitching her nose as she leaned forward. Smells like metal?

The moment she reached forward the bush exploded outwards without any warning or time to react, revealing something completely black and suspiciously Patapon-ish- whatever she could see if it, at least, before she was knocked on the jaw by a weapon bulky and roughly shewn like a club.
The impact wasn't enough to make her faint- it was actually harder to make somepony pass out than most stories would make it out to be- but it certainly left her very dazed as she toppled clumsily, her vision flickering once with a look of bemusion on her face.

It felt as if she could feel all the veins in on her jawbone and the rush of blood in them and her ears as she attempted to haphazardly collect some of her utterly befuddled wits in a panicky matter.
The only thought she could hear was a deadpan 'Whaaaaaaat just happened'. One second frolicking in the sunshine and now on her side with her legs unresponsive to any command, which she dimly knew was supposed to be very worrying but couldn't summon anything other than mild confusion.

Oooh, this is going to hurt, she thought regretfully as her field of view seemed to swarm with blurry, oversize dark wasps. That's annoying, stop it...

And then Coco felt her ears lighten and clear slowly. Sounds seemed to be coming from the bottom of a well, or through a layer of water, but it was better than the ringing she had been subjected to before. The white ceiling seemed to bulge and flap like canvas in the wind (once again, at least she could see it) and Coco could now get a hold on her limbs, stirring them feebly and flicking her ears as if to ward away a fly.

How long was I out? It had only felt like less than a minute, but she couldn't have somehow teleported to this wherever at that speed unless the Patapons knew more about magic than she remembered.

Panic splashed through her insides like a cold flood. Where am I- what in the -excuse me- hay just happened?
She raised her head on her stiff neck, feeling a spot on her her jaw suddenly give a numbing buzz as if it had the pins and needles effect and then let it go with a grimace. Pommel had to suffice with lying there helpless and motionless as her angled blue eyes darted around in a distressed manner.

Her skin was the next to have its nerves awakened and Coco felt the icy air it was being subjected to, but there was no draft in the structure she was residing in- the chill seemed to be frostily wafting from the floor. In fact, it was so cold that her body instinctively curled up into a ball despite its earlier protests and Coco distracted herself for the moment to pretend she was a smoking dragon, watching her blowing breath form curls of white steam.

The ceiling was now visible and Coco saw that it was apparently made of frosted glass with a pattern of cold vines and etched tiny blue flowers.
The walls were made of thick large white bricks made of unknown material, there was a set of spiralling glass stairs leading upwards and the floor was nothing but ice- however, Coco was spared from that discomfort by having been unceremoniously dumped on a random large red cushion instead.
After some thought she realized that everything around her consisted solely of delicately carved ice and snow.

She wasn't chained, there were castle-like open windows at eye level and there was a pair of cerulean double doors- the only wooden thing in there- that weren't chained either to the best of her knowledge. All in all, if this was some kind of kidnapping attempt, then whoever orchestrated it hadn't really thought it out properly (or believed that hit to the noggin would have done her in for quite a while).

Coco still felt her customary fretful tension linger anxiously in her system, but she was otherwise quite alright and actually rather internally bemused.
She carefully raised herself without aggravating any injuries so that she was on her belly in her favourite sphinx position and was quite thankful for her coat and her large scarf, which she adjusted to make maximum use of.

After half an hour of silent appreciative observation, she decided that she would head up to the second storey as nothing seemed to be happening any time soon. There no noise outside save for the whistling of the wind to which Coco listened carefully before moving on.
A lot of slipping, surprisingly well executed slides and landing on her tail later she managed to reach the steps and clamber up them in a rather ungainly fashion to avoid any more tumbles.

The roof of this storey was more elaborate than the last- it was shaped like an elegant domed cathedral roof made of what had seemed to be frosted glass but was really ice, had light blue ribs and was inlaid with the same plant pattern.
She spent some more time idly watching this before spotting a balcony fenced by ice the colour of her mane jutting out into the open, and made her way towards it with interest.

The pony gazed about with awe at the wonderland before her, a cream hoof reaching up to push down the flower scarf that was covering her muzzle and flittering in the high wind. It was a desert of snow- dunes of white sand dotted with great towering majestic forest green pine trees dusted with glinting flakes of light. The sun on the horizon matched her scarf, the weak yellow dawn sun bleeding out cerise and vermilion that washed the whole sky.
It helped the scene that Pommel was a fan of all things cold- rain, cloudy days, snowscapes like this. She was the only foal back in the day who accepted the dare to bathe in icy water and came out relatively unscathed.

She could feel the wind icing her fur, the sharp air in her lungs and she always knew this was the kind of place she had also wanted to go, like how other ponies would want for the sea- especially her mother, who said to her in one of her rare fits of wisdom- 'To see the ocean once is to learn how to miss it.'

She took a deep breath and then sighed, opening her eyes which she had closed to the breeze, and then regretfully turned around and drew her scarf over her snout again. Coco knew that this moment probably wouldn't last long, as the whole reason she was here in the first place was because she was taken hostage even if it was in a rather strange and seemingly messy method. This world was based on war- it could be some kind of trap.

Coco peeked from the stairs down onto the first floor, but nothing had visibly changed which encouraged her to carefully tiptoe down the steps and stand unsurely on the smooth cloudy ice floor. She craned herself to the side to look out of the one windows and saw nothing but a gale full of snowflakes and heard nothing but it's howling as it picked up speed, making her wind her grass garment around her body tighter.
Pommel briefly and sullenly wondered if she was placed here to freeze to death pointlessly in a metaphorical gilded cage.

Picking up her hooves in a way reminiscent of a prancing horse to minimize slipping, she trotted over to the fat red cushion she had come to her senses on and buried herself in it as deep as possible.
While Coco didn't feel bothered by cold easily, she was knowledgeable enough to know that it was always wisest to bundle up especially if there were windows one couldn't reach to close. She took off her scarf to make it cover as much of her back as possible.

Abruptly she stopped her nesting. Coco turned her head to the double doors, the only things made of wood, as she was very sure that she wasn't imagining someone cursing outside it...

The doors were slammed nearly off their hinges into the cold snow walls so hard that they cracked, making Coco squeal and duck her head instinctively as a flurry of flakes were blown, fluttering like butterflies into the building.

She peered over the rim of the cushion she was half hidden in to see the silhouette of something- someone- struggling to clear the knee-deep swathe of powdery white. She could see from the outline that whoever it was had an impressive set of glowing red claw weapons, which were usually a sort of metal knuckleguard with long knives on the knuckle bit- but these were like gloves with the claws on the tips instead.

The person managed to stumble through the last steps of snow and then calmly gathered the doors and slammed them shut once again with just as much furious force and a bang that rattled her stomach. Coco, on her cushion in the corner of the room, blinked and looked around a little wildly, trying to decide whether or not to react.

As the person thoroughly ignored her and started to pace to length of the room, muttering to himself with his hands behind his back, she contented herself with looking as small as possible and observing.

One thing about the fireplace legends that Coco remembered firmly was that there was the masked Patapon Hero in the later Patapon stories, and for a moment she thought this person was him- he had a mask, was male (but wasn't everyone, honestly?) and seemed to give off an aura of power.
She ruled out this suggestion because it just didn't seem to fit- the Hero that she had heard of was described as a little arrogant but noble while this person could immediately be seen as dangerous just from being in the same room.

Unlike the Patapons, the creature had an actual body- black with a white diamond on his chest, and Coco could just see that it was consisting of short fur.
His mask was dark red, full of sharp angles and fashioned in the design of a wolf- which being a sort of prey animal was good enough on its own to make her nervous- and he had a navy blue cape. Those claws were not to be ignored, either- they were fashioned too much after a predator's for her taste, but Coco supposed that it was the point of the design.

Is he just going to ignore me this whole time? Coco had unfolded a little from her frightened position to lay on her belly with her forelegs under her and her hindlegs close to her body. She was watching as he settled himself down two and a half meters away from her, crossed his arms tightly and leaned back, stoutly staring forwards and giving no inclination that he noticed she existed.

Coco looked away and then back again, a little discomfited and having no idea what to do in situations like this. Talk about the weather? He's already mad enough as it is about that... ask his name? He'll probably bite my head off if I look at him funny.

Then she thought a little more. The thing with being shy was that while talking up someone of their accord felt like and was as appealing as approaching a lion, there was much less resistance to someone coming up first. Maybe that's it, Coco thought hopefully. Maybe the scary wolf person is just shy.

As Coco was shy as well, it took what felt like half an hour of fidgeting and glancing to say something- whenever she would finally collect all of her courage and was about to speak the words would suddenly die in her throat.

"You're going to have to be moved somewhere else now because of this blasted snow," he stated flatly, not moving to look at her. His voice seemed to have the suggestion of a growl at the edges.

"Okay," Coco said.

His reaction was actually rather funny. With a sort of higher pitched 'Whahahaaa?' the creature toppled over sideways, and than scrambled to his feet only to stumble, slip, do a front flip and land on his chin. "Oof! You can talk?!" he said, snapping his head up to look at her.

"Yes," Coco said quietly. "I'm Coco Pommel. What should I call you?"

He managed to get to his feet, bracing himself against the wall with a claw and surveyed her suspiciously. "What is it to you?"

"It's impolite of me to keep referring to you as 'the scary wolf person," she answered.

".... Madfang... Ragewolf," he said after a time with some difficulty.

Coco processed that. "Um," she said, raising a hoof, "A-Are you mad as in crazy? Or mad as in angry?"

"Yes," he said.

"Okay..."

But he wasn't done. "Oh, and I'm not just any Madfang- I also happen to be the physical embodiment of pure rage itself!" Without any warning at all Madfang with one thrust of his arm blasted a crater in the wall of thick snow bricks and ice with the crashing sound of a set of crockery being dumped off a cliff.

He turned back to Coco. "And as you can see, I don't like the cold," he stated pleasantly, inwardly enjoying her reaction.

Pommel was momentarily stunned- she blinked and flicked her ears, rather relieved that she somehow hadn't managed to get on this Ragewolf's bad side. "Point... taken," she managed to say, nervously tapping her hooves together. "So... why am I here, exactly?"

Ragewolf huffed. "You've been kidnapped and taken hostage. Surprise."

"Um, okay. But why?"

"Oh give me strength!" he groaned. "You're so angelic compared to everything else in the land that it's blinding! And you reek ("I'm honoured," Coco mumbled) of power so much that the monsters themselves avoid you!"

So that's why I wasn't confronted by a single creature, Coco thought. But what is he even saying?! Me, angelic until it's blinding? Is everyone secretly a Sombra at heart or something?

"It should be counted as extremely lucky that none of the other Heroes have gotten to you first," Ragewolf said somewhat more darkly, looking away, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall next to the section he had destroyed.

"Um, three things, please?"

He grunted, sounding a little annoyed.

"Well, first thing. What does power smell like?"

"An annoying twat," he grumbled.

Coco sighed, ducking her head for a moment, but bore it patiently. "Next- how do you know all of that?"

"All of what?"

"I've never seen or heard of you- I'm new to this land-" That last part had made Ragewolf look at her quickly, seeming to catch interest,"- and I've only been here a few days, so how do you know I exist?"

"There's a fool of a... Patapon called Kan who can't keep his voice down," Ragewolf answered, looking away once more.

"Oh, I remember him," Coco said. "Anyways, last thing, who are the other Heroes?"

"There's eight in all- me, Naughtyfins ("...what?" Coco said. "Just deal with it," Ragewolf replied)- Standoffish Sonarchy- Rottenlee Ravenous- Gluttonous Buzzcrave- Slow-moving Slogturtle- Miss Covet-Hiss- don't be fooled, he's actually male," Ragewolf rattled off, counting on the spines of his claw weapons. " Those are all of the Dark Heroes. The other one is the...Uberhero."

"I like your name the best," Coco said.

"I'm honoured, my lady," he growled.

"Why would it be bad if they caught me first?"

Ragewolf tapped his foot on the ice for a while before responding. "Ravenous would stuff you to make you last longer and mount you on a pedestal- he represents the Archfiend of Earnestness- and Buzzcrave would treat you like an animal or eat you. Sonarchy would find some way to suck the magic out of you to use it for his Bonedeth squad and same goes for Covet-Hiss, Slogturtle would probably lock you in a closet and forget to feed you until kingdom come and Naughtyfins would dress you in ribbons and call you something soppy."

He took a glance at Coco's terrified expression. "Not quite great to be you, hm?"

Everything about this world had suddenly been switched to a red filter for Pommel, who believed that she had really taken everything for granted. It must have taken an incredible streak of luck that the first entity she met was friendly and that she hadn't been mercilessly slaughtered in a gruesomely creative manner of ways. "Oh... Oh dear."

Her throat seemed to have constricted painfully for a moment, and she felt the cold truly hit her and soak numbingly through her stupid silly woven scarf and to her bones making her start shivering like an engine. "W-What about you and-and the other...other Hero?"

"I have my own agenda," he said. "I don't really want to keep you for anything- just to lure in the Patapons. The Hero, I don't know, I hate him either way. Some sort of maudlin knightly fairy speech before you're released again into the elements."

Coco hadn't thought about it before, but what if she was never retrieved?
If Discord had no idea how to bring her back- if she was destined to die horribly in a place she once used to treat as an unreachable fantasy haven, not missed by anyone, only a little shop salespony, a dressmaking nobody to be written a line about in the advertisement section of the newspaper in fine print under the other obituaries of ponies with grieving family- but then, wasn't that a good thing...?

If she died, she believed that nopony would be sad- for more than a day at least- and wasn't it better than having weeping scores sob over her? She didn't have anyone who would be crushed without her so she would no worries about disappointment and she wasn't pining for anyone in Equestria herself- well, not that much.

"Um, Ragewolf- I'm curious- what happens after you die?" she asked, her voice completely normal.

Suspiciously normal. He took one look at her and then pushed himself off of the wall. "Oh, no you don't," he said sharply.

"Don't what?"

"Your body rots in a horribly... unfashionable way," he said flatly.

Coco raised her eyebrows.

"Don't try me like that!" he snapped suddenly, and then he promptly strode over to the doors and wrenched them open letting snow-free air whirl into the room and increase Coco's rate of quivering. "Come on," he growled over his shoulder.

"It's not as if I was going to do anything," she mumbled defeatedly and then she rose to her hooves. Coco daintily picked up a hoof and took a step forward.

Almost immediately her legs seem to fold in as if there were dry twigs inserted into where limbs should be and with an utterly baffled "Huhwha?" she tumbled forwards, landing on her chin with a snapping sound as her teeth clacked together in her jaw. About half a second later Ragewolf also landed in the same way in front of her, arms outstretched, having leapt to catch the falling pony and then slipping halfway.

"I'm sorry!" she said, completely confused as she tried to slide her legs under her again. "I honestly have no idea how that happened!"

Ragewolf just growled in irritation and pushed himself up, and then touched her as if to pick her up before recoiling. "Yeowch! You're as cold as ice!"

"But I feel fine...? I think it's just your claws."

Reaching forwards more carefully now, he took her around her barrel and placed Coco on her hooves himself, and then motioned to her legs. "Did you catch some kind of frostbite?"

"No, in frostbite you can't feel your legs," Coco said. "They were under me anyways... I think it's because they wee the same position for so long?"

He didn't make any sound of agreement, just went back over to the doors and stood there, tapping his feet impatiently. Coco slid herself across the ice towards him and watched her hooves doubtfully- while they seemed to have some control, there was a peculiar feeling of being hollow on the inside that worried her as she hadn't felt it before.
Are they going to... fall off, or break away? Does this have something to do with the magic in this land or something?

Coco peered through the thick scope of snow that was laid out before her. In the thinnest parts it was a sixth her height and in the thickest it was knee deep- Coco stared at it with apprehension, attempting to cook up a plan to make it to wherever Ragewolf said they were going. "How will I clear this?"

"You honestly expect me to let you do it?" he said a little boredly, shutting the doors and then turning to her with his claws raised. With a twitch the lines and symbols that had been glowing very faintly now shone with inner red light, and steam curled from the crimson tips into the air from the heat.

"Oooh!" Coco said, pricking her ears. "How does it work?"

"Ways," he said dismissively and then moved past her. "Talk a little less, won't you?" Ragewolf swept as much snow as he could reach as if clearing a table of paper and immediately whichever snow came in close contact was turned to water, revealing dead grass underhoof.

"And here is the number one award winner for best manual snowblower," Coco said, peeking over his shoulder. "Maybe if you added two spikes over there and moved that one here, it would look as amazing too."

"Yes, yes, fashion babble and such." He disguised his satisfaction well. "Now I suppose you want to know where we're going?"

"Uh huh."

He started to walk, periodically flicking his claws to melt a way through. "The Plateau of Pompous Wings-"

"C-Can I interrupt?"

He huffed.

"The whaaat?"

"Named after someone who flew into the sun! Big long plain, some trees, grey fog, lots of round boulders, dead grass."

"Oh! I had spawned there, I remember now!"

"...Spawned?"

"Came into being, sort of."

"...I...I'll remember that. We're going to pass a big tower over there called....."

"Mhm?"

He glanced at her. "Well, it's a big tower. You'll know when you see it. If Naughtyfins is there... Yes, now what?"

"He's one of the Dark Heroes, right? A-Are you going to give me to him?"

"First off, Naughtyfins is a she."

"Oh! Finally, someone else too..."

"Secondly, no, I told you that I'll give you over to the Patapons and they'll let you go. Anyways, if Naughtyfins is there, we'll join up with her and then we'll move to the Plateau, and Sonarchy is going to be there and no I will not give you over to anybody! Take a hint!"

"That's not what I was going to say... this plan- for how long have you plotted it out? It sounds as if there are a lot of details involved."

"Two or three days ago. Now when we reach the Plateau, we'll place you in a cage and you'll act as bait for him and we'll battle each other to the death!"

"Um...."

"I knew you would say that... nobody can truly die here, alright? They just come back somehow, depending on who they are."

"Will you? Are you going to be hurt?"

This question seemed to take him off guard. "Huh...? Well, I could die, but then I can be re-summoned."

"Summoned? Like a genie?"

"I am not a genie! Do not call me that!" he growled.

"Okay... so why do you have this plan?"

"It's a plan to divert his attention from continuing on his path of destruction and destroying him in a place where he is at his weakest. His head needs deflating anyways, that..." Ragewolf trailed off into mumbling curses.

"I knew a colt with a head that needed deflating," Coco reminisced. "I don't mean figuratively. He had gotten a balloon- summoning spell for his daughter.. and, well, his head needed deflating and then they...deflated it. I forgot the point..."

"How do you deflate someone's head?!"

"You see, it was a spell gone awry so it gave his head the illusion of looking bigger. All you had to do was dispel the illusion spell."

He paused, appearing to be in deep concentration, before throwing his arms up. "Argh...I can't follow that kind of 'logic'!"

"Well, I'm not a unicorn, so..." She shrugged.

This kind of conversation was kept up for quite a while as they walked across the snowfields, until Coco interrupted Ragewolf in the middle of an impatient lecture.
"Oh, Madfang! Look at that!"

"Oh, gee! A huge tower! I ne-ver would have no-ticed~!" he sang out.

Coco was too busy looking at it. The land around was a long, cold plain with shrivelled- looking various large shrubs and a mat of snow that was about five inches thick, with the notable feature being a huge dark tower shaped like a giant, spiny evil castle turret overshadowing everything. It was as big as a couple of large castles on it's own.

"It's big," Pommel said, her eyes wide.

"No kidding..." He seemed to be peering hopefully into the gloom, watching the entrance of the tower rather keenly. "Why won't she hurry up? She's had quite a lot of time already!"

Coco took this for impatience. "Well, she's a mare. I mean maiden. I think. There's a lot of customary... wait a second, you don't wear things. Nevermind..."

He paid her no heed.

She surveyed him. "Madfang. Your claws are burning the ground."
He lifted them a little, but otherwise his reaction was still the same.

"Ragewolf."

"Would you just shut up for a bit?" he snapped. "Constant nickering in my ears..."

They waited.

"Madfang, I'm sorry, but it's been half an hour. I don't think she's coming."

He turned his head to Coco and glared as if it was her fault that Naughtyfins was somehow absent, tapping the ground with his foot in a rapid beat. "We don't know that for certain! She needs someone to go with her across the plains!"

Coco flicked an ear. "Well, don't you have some sort of communication thingy? I mean, you were able to talk to her from a long distance, right?"

"Oh."

Coco wisely refrained from commenting on this, and watched as he seemed to stand very, very still for a moment, letting his claws trail dangerously close to the ground again. She fidgeted uncomfortably, watching the tower, and then after some looking from left to right shifted and drew her legs closer together, letting herself shiver freely now that nobody would be watching. "Brrrr...."
She briefly contemplated picking up one of Ragewolf's heated claws, but decided against as it was both creepy and those claws were hot enough to set her on fire.

"Hmm?" He seemed to snap out of it and whipped his head from side to side. "Who's there? Oh, it's you. Were you the one making a sound like a motor?"

Probably. Oh boy, it's cold... "No?"

"Well, we should get a move on already," he said slouching sullenly, and started to traipse off without her. "She won't be coming."

"Wait uuuup..." Coco ran after him as well as she could- why in the- excuse me again- hay am I so wobbly?- and slowed down to a bouncy trot by his side. "You know, my brother told it wasn't good to hunch your shoulders like that or you'd get a big lump on your back."

Very slowly, he turned his mask straight towards her, and then made his posture even worse rather pointedly.
"Sorry," Coco said, flattening her ears, and moved a little ways away from him. She tried to find something to look at on the landscape- but there was nothing but a big long grey plain and big dark grey clouds overhead. All of this grey is almost begging to be fixed...

They had been walking in silence for a while when Coco started to notice that there were stunted withery (grey, of course) trees now popping up here and there and serving to break some of the monotony (but not by much, because they were also grey).

Other than that, nothing.

The quiet, whistling windy noises, the cold and him ignoring her all made Coco feel lonely, as if she was a drop of water lost in a desert.

Coco turned to look at Ragewolf.

"Um... Madfang?"

He made no move.

"Uh, I spy with my little eye- something that's... grey."

No sound.

She flinched. Alrighty then, that was embarrassing. She then turned back to looking at the completely grey everything, seeking to find some kind of object worth looking at.

"Is it the rocks?" he said boredly.

Coco Pommel perked up so much that he couldn't have not noticed- but he made no sign either way. "What! Hey, you're so good at this- I thought that was difficult! Your turn."

He touched a claw to his face. "Oh, give me strength... I spy something that's not grey."

She was stumped. Coco looked everywhere, from the ground, to the trees, to the grass, to the sky- but everything seemed to be some shade of the colour. "Did we pass it already?"

"No."

She craned her head back to look into the snarls of cloud that was the sky. It was all composed of many contrasting and mixing very pretty shades of thick cottony grey, but it was still grey which immediately disqualified it. "Does white count?"

"Hmm...No."

She watched him trudge beside her, and then a bulb lit on in her head, the ingenuity of which made her puff up with triumph. "I know! It's you!"

"No."

She deflated. "What? But there's nothing else in this entire place that-"

"It's you, genius..." he rolling his head a little in exasperation.

"Oh." She spared a glance over herself- no, she definitely wasn't grey or white. "Aha..."

"Your turn."

Coco was quite pleased that he was playing along of his own accord, and was determined to make this last as long as possible. "I spy with my little eye... something that's... rutilous!

"It's my claws, isn't it."

She slouched. "Darn."

The back and forth game went on for about twelve turns each as they walked along into the gloom, until Coco broke off in the middle of spying whatever cleverly twisted grey thing she was about to spy. " I spy with my l- wait, look over there! There's one of those things that gave me a concussion!"

As they had been progressing through the ridiculous game, Ragewolf had seemed to have been steadily lowered his guard to a point Coco would have never thought he would able to do. She had even made him laugh when he guessed her tail for some other grey thing and she had hyperventilated- a loud, roaring sort of sound that actually wasn't unpleasant to listen to.

"Concussion?" he said.

Coco pinched her nose. "I'm completely alright..."

"I'm serious here, Pommel," he said sharply.

"...Which other way did you tell them to?"

"To just capture you! Not to give you brain damage like they have themselves!"

She winced. "That was a little mean," Coco said awkwardly, raising her eyebrows and making Ragewolf fold his arms.

In an attempt to make him lighten up again, she said "It's not like I had anything to lose in here anyways." She tilted her head as two more of the black and green things popped up from behind a black wall with with white cement. "Oh! Do you know them? They're- kind of cute..."

"Rrrr...Bonedeths are not cute! They're meant to be fashioned after the skulls of the dead, not cats!"

"Sorry... I guess they're under your command?"

"Ah, but I can prove it to you," he said a little pompously, changing tack rather fast, and strode forwards towards the reinforced wall. There were now five undead soldiers peering down at him owlishly- the three in the middle bore no weapon and were smaller than the two flanking them, which had twin long angled black horns and the tips of a hilt visible at their sides.

They watched him approach silently and when Ragewolf reached the foot of the blockade suddenly snapped into a snazzy identical military salute. "Lord Ragewolf! Deth!"

They stayed frozen in that position until Coco trotted up next to him and tipped her head back to peek up at the Bonedeths, upon which they all slowly dropped their salute to look down at Pommel instead.
"Hello..." she said cautiously, keeping her voice low.

They all looked at one another and then began to immediately confer in whispers.

"Talking horse?" one said.

"New plans?" another said.

"Is it a Lady too?" one piped up.

"Well, you see," Coco said to them humbly, "I was once called a Lady, and I said that while it is actually my title by birthright- I was- I said that just Coco sounded better. I mean, Lady...Lady Coco makes me sounds like a..."
She looked to Ragewolf for some help as he seemed to have an extensive vocabulary of negative words- but apparently he had something different on his mind.

"Wait a moment, you're an actual noblewoman?! (Or noblemare, to be more precise...)"

"Um, well, see, the title may be important and all, but it really depends on how much wealth you have, so it isn't a big deal anymore, as...as it means nil.. in Equestria, half the p-ponies... don't look at me... but didn't the Bonedeths call you a lord?"

"Me- a lord? Oh... Yes, well-"

"Ahh... but that's exactly the point, Ragewolf. You... a lord? I can understand why even you yourself sound so hesitant..."

The new person sounded much different compared to Ragewolf's voice- while his was deep and rough and in general masculine, the newcomer had a lighter rich, cultured smooth slow drawl. Coco blinked in surprise and she turned her head to each side, swiveling her trusty ears to try and catch the position of whoever was making this unheard of sound- it was actually rather pleasant to listen to, having a sort of musical lilt to it as well.

And then she spotted him coming around the edge of the brick blockade. He looked to be the same kind of... thing as Ragewolf, only his mask was certainly much different- it was fashioned after what was obviously a black and yellow vampire bat with large spiny ears, luminous red eyes and a somehow cocky look. His haughtiness was reinforced by the way he walked, with his chest thrown out and his feet turned up and his chin up high.

Slung across his back in a careless way that must have taken half an hour to perfect was a weapon that Coco had heard Vinyl ask to be described countless times- a Dragonap tuba. It had two bat wings on it's sides, a pattern of spots and circles near it's base and the inside was striped with alternating black and lavender.

Ragewolf looked very displeased to see him. "Sonarchy."

"...It's the Sons of Anarchy?" Coco said blankly.

That innocent comment had two effects- Ragewolf doubling over in laughter ("Sons of Anarchy! Sons of Anarchy!") and Sonarchy looking as if someone had punched him in the gut, breaking his cool practiced act.
"W-What? It can talk?" he sputtered.

"Hello," she said politely.

"Oh yes," Ragewolf said, managed to get it under control. "Finally met someone prettier than you? Ooh, how's the burn, Sonarchy?"

"Keep talking and I'll put you to sleep forever, dog!" Sonarchy snapped angrily, hefting his rather intimidating large tuba.

"I-I'm sorry if I o-offended you!" Coco stammered quickly, stepping in between them both. "I don't think you're bad looking or anything at all! I mean, I like what you did with your ears- and I wouldn't be able to pull off a bat mask easily, but you did it alri- perfectly, and, um, you have a very nice posture... ahaha..." she quailed under their gazes.

"What kind of hellish witchcraft do you employ to have so many damsels trail after you?" Sonarchy said disdainfully.

"You could use some tips," Ragewolf retorted.

Coco started to look distressed again. "Hello? I'm supposed to be kidnapped here?"
They both looked at her again. "Do I, I don't know, just stand here and look pretty?"

"That's his job," Ragewolf interjected.

"Okay, okay! Somebody tell me the plan?" Pommel said desperately.

"Wait, wait, wait," Sonarchy cut in, holding up a hand. "Now, hold on a second. Why in the world are you so willing to go along with this? You're unbound and unharmed and there are no blackmail threats hanging above you as far as I know, yet you're still standing here and even waiting for orders! I believe that being kidnapped should raise some alarm bells, at least..."

"For once, I agree with the prat," said Ragewolf thoughtfully.

Coco blinked, looking from them to either side, feeling just as puzzled herself. Why hadn't she taken off? She had walked without complaint through literal snowstorms with a moody, easily irritated person that fit the name 'bad guy' in a number of ways. As she thought about it, the more clear her idea felt, but she struggled to put it into words.

"Hmm," she said thoughtfully, shifting a little. "Well, you see, I don't exactly belong here, you know? I'm like a button in a sea of beads, and nobody can string a bead into a necklace, so nobody would miss it when it's gone. I guess I'm just trying to be as useful as I can here where I'm really not needed."

They stared, rivalry momentarily forgotten. Sonarchy tapped his chin thoughtfully. "So in short, you're suicidal," he said drily.

Coco leaned back a little, frowning. "I hadn't thought of it like that..."

"But you had," said Ragewolf suddenly and pointed to her accusingly. "You had asked me in the Snowfields what the afterlife was like!"

"Well, I was being stupid at the time because you had scared me so much. What I want to do is go back to where I came from." She laughed a little, brushing her maneclip with a hoof as she did whenever she was feeling absentminded. "I fell from heaven, you know?"

Sonarchy and Ragewolf looked at each other. "'Fell from heaven'," Sonarchy repeated.

"'Go back to where I came from'," Ragewolf said in a low voice.

Coco Pommel was unaware of what she had said had sounded like. "Sooo.... My point still stands."

"What? Right! The plan!" Sonarchy said quickly, and turned to the Bonedeths watching the exchange apathetically, his supercilious air returning. "Bonedeths! Bring in.. the Cage!"

"Deth!" They promptly disappeared.
Coco tilted her ears forwards as she heard the sounds of creaking wheels and metal jangling with each bump behind the blockade. It stopped after a while, giving rise to a groaning, revving noise and then all of a sudden the wall exploded outwards in a rain of rock and pieces of brick and would have hailed down upon the unfortunate mare if she hadn't swiftly leapt to the side.

A cloud of white dust billowed everywhere and Coco and Ragewolf fanned the space in front of themselves, coughing and attempting to stop it from blowing into their lungs. Sonarchy imperiously refrained from committing such an act to add points towards his image and then dramatically turned to to the two, sweeping an arm towards the contraption brought in by the Bonedeths.

"The Cage of Inescapable Ensnarement," he said with notably impressive grandeur.

The Cage was made of black (What is with these people and black? Coco thought) metal and was mounted on wheels with strong spokes, tiny spines and an orange circle in the middle. The roof was thick and had bolts of the same orange colour screwed into the sides at periodic intervals, and it had menacing spikes as well adorning the sides.
The outer sides of the bottom had a painted amber line outlining it and a tangerine diamond on each of the larger sides.

Although it was well polished and cared for, the cage had a sort of old and nostalgic quality about it which Coco's sense of smell confirmed. She had that stirring feeling in her mind once more- this was not built anytime recently and must have been important enough to have a part in the fireplace stories.
But Coco was pretty sure that she had never mentioned a 'Cage of Inescapable Ensnarement'...

Ragewolf cleared his throat, making Coco start and look at him.
Both of the Dark Heroes were silently watching her watch the Cage with a vague look of focus on her face. She looked from the cage to them again, now feeling rather sheepish, and trying to decide whether or not to raise the issue with Sonarchy who could take offense to it due to his ego.

"It feels important," she ended up saying lamely.

"Only the best, for the best," Sonarchy said grandly, and Coco didn't have to be too smart to know that he was referring to himself.

Then she stopped and swivelled her ears to face behind her, perking up and narrowing her eyes as she searched the flat horizon broken up by stacks of boulders. "D-Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" said Ragewolf irritably, and then was given a shove by Sonarchy.
"Ssh!" he hissed at him when he started to protest. "I'm the one with the bat ears! Be quiet for once!"

"Yes, there is something in the distance..." said Pommel, turning around to face the direction fully and feeling a little bemused. "That's nice timing..."

"Nice timing?!" said Ragewolf. "But what about all of those traps and detours I set?! Ooh, curse you-!"

"Save the monologue for later!" Sonarchy snapped. "Get the horse into position! Now!"

"Horse?" he said dangerously.

"Fine, the victim! Come on!"

Ragewolf turned to Coco, who was already obediently perched inside of the cage. He then eyed the twin spokes meant to be attached to horses. "Where are those Bonedeths when you need them...?"
As if on cue four Kibadeths galloped in onto the scene and silently attached themselves to the Cage. Coco looked at the worriedly. "Am I really that... um, heavy?"

"Don't tell me you're anorexic too..." Ragewolf groaned. "Well, why are you looking at me? Take her to the fortress!"

As they set off and wheeled around sharply towards the fortress, Coco saw that it wasn't so much of a fortress as it was a sort of turret that was predictably black and had green windows and a Bonedeth flag fluttering from the peak.

The double doors (they gave her some nostalgia) opened slowly and apparently of their own record and then Coco was facing a flight of spiral stairs. The horse riders looked back at her anxiously.

"I'll be fine," she assured, and then yelped as she slipped back due to the sudden restarting of the Cage. As predicted, the ride up was very bumpy and made Coco feel like as if she had been sent for a round through a washing machine.
She was rolled into a room that she inspected after lying on her belly and groaning, briefly wondering how exactly they would take their horses (it was eerie being around non-talking horses) down the stairs again.

She raised her head to peer through a large window that was inconveniently facing directly away from all of the action, but Coco decided she was fine with it- It wasn't in her interests to watch them fighting and dying no matter how many times they would revive. If she would weep uncontrollably over the death of a random sparrow, then she had no business around sentient creatures.

She looked around the room. It was large, circular and had nothing else in it.
Coco felt absurdly like a princess in a locked tower waiting for someone to rescue her from the literal big, bad wolf. It was boring, though, and for once she found out that she didn't actually want to be rescued. The realization surprised her- it went contrary to what she had used to feel all the time back in her foalhood days.

I don't want to be rescued. It was more helpless and humiliating than she thought it would have been, and not really like the fairy tales at all. But that's it, she thought suddenly, pulling herself into a sitting position. The world isn't black and white- it's not the good people against the bad... Oh dear, look at how much I've changed just from being in this world for a week...

I wonder how much longer I'm going to be stuck here, and how much more it'll change me... I never thought I would want to be friends with the 'dark side', honestly. She turned towards the window and then sighed loudly. 'Hffff.....'

The day had been rather draining for her- getting kidnapped, walking for hours on end and trying to keep herself in check. She looked down at her legs derisively, remembering how she had embarrassingly fallen in front of Madfang in the ice cathedral. At least I have legs in the first place.

But don't you deserve a moment of weakness? Aren't you comfortable with the idea of being a damsel in distress? You were always so proud of your femininity.

No... not anymore. I find it pointless, unbearable, repulsive...uncomfortable.

So you reformed your personality in a week? Don't you think that's rather improbable?

I don't know what to think... it could have been that it was actually what I was truly like, but I didn't have the opportunity to let it shine through...

Don't flatter yourself.

Maybe I'm easy to fracture, but hard to break?
.... I just realized, I've kept all of these worries to myself. I haven't told a single soul and I even actively forced myself to act normal. I'm so hungry... and tired... and scared... Why is that?

I think... It's because you're afraid... of being a burden...

Yes- I'm sure it's psychological, as I've been one my entire foalhood. It must have carried over subconsciously.

Well, it was nice making groundbreaking realizations with you, but I think I'll just go now because you're talking to yourself.

Coco sighed, resting her head on the cold metal surface of the cage floor, watching the pale sun waver and try to break through the wet fog of the Plateau of Pompous Wings.

Well, I'm going to be here a while. Coco tried to count the bricks in the walls.

One, two, three, four.

Twenty five, twenty six... twenty seven, twenty eight.

Forty three, forty- forty forty forty four- wait, no-

Sixty nine, seventy, seventy one, seventy two.

A hundred and blue.... A hundred an' orange... A red....

I'm tired...

_______________

Coco stared unseeing at the floor of the cage, curled up like a cat and as still as a dead thing and blinking infrequently in a stupour of exhaustiveness. Her brain seemed to be working like a cog in molasses.
After staring at it for a very long time, she noticed that what she was looking at were words which she had to decipher one letter at a time.

M D N W A H E R E
Wuzzat mean...?

Something made an echoing clang from what seemed to be the bottom of the stairs as if someone had kicked a bucket.
Not that kind of bucket kicking... wow, whoever is either really urgent or really heavy.

There was some muffled cursing and thuds that got farther away, leading her to believe that whoever it was had fallen down the stairs in their hurry. Some smashing sounds and then harder footsteps and more cursing directed towards the length of the castle stairs.
She rolled her head a little upwards to look at the doorway, unwrapping her tail slightly from her kittenlike position as something came into her field of view, sliding a little with a screechy sound from the sudden stop. The whatever stormed towards the dozing pony in the cage.

"'Sup?" she said, and then wound her forelegs across her head in a belated attempt to conceal a loud yawn. "Yhhhh...."

For once, her speaking didn't seem to faze the newcomer in the slightest. "What happened to you?!" it- now proved to be a he, of course- barked out.

"I fell asleep. Imagine." droned Coco, pushing herself up and then tried to fix her fuzzed mane. "Wuh, my hair is horrible..."
She just seemed to smooth it down with her hooves before dropping them and then staring at it morosely. She blew a strand out of her face, only for it float gently and annoyingly straight back into place.

Coco stuck her tongue out at it defiantly.

"...Can I keep it?"

"What?"

"What?"

Coco shook her head, trying to clear the sleepy gauze that fogged up her thinking processes. "You said something."

"I did not! Keep your nose where it belongs, I wasn't talking to you..." Ragewolf snapped.

Wait a what whodee now. "Madfang?! Is this some kind of plot twist? Are you secretly the Uberhero?"

"Do not accuse me of that again. I have limits."

"Okay..." Coco looked around, reminding herself to mention the Uberhero as few times as possible with him. "Sooo, how's the weather?"

She placed her head on the floor in exasperation. "...Don't answer that." Coco then tilted her head back so that she was resting her chin on the ground and looked up at him standing in front of her. "Why'd ya come up? Other than my stellar personality."

"Who are you and what have you done to Coco Pommel?" he asked flatly.

"Where?" She looked around in a bit of a panic.

He put a claw on his face in vexation and let out a long breath. "Grrr..."

"Really- I thought you were doing whatever with... um, I forgot... the plan, I thought you were following the plan?"

"I-"

There an almighty crash from the bottom of the tower, making the two flinch. Coco's systems were suddenly kick-started with a tide of fear and she shot up to her hooves and slammed into the side of the cage. "Ouch! Wh-What was that?!"

Ragewolf slammed the floor of the tower hard enough to break it in fury. "Of course, because why not?!" He suddenly did a one-eighty to face the pony. "You," he said lowly, raising a claw to point at Coco, "stay here."

"I-It's not as if i was going anywhere," she stuttered, shaking a little. "U-Um..."

"What?"

She felt stupid. "Don't let him eat me. Ahah... You know, I don't want to go to the Patapons so much anymore.."

"...I don't know what to say to that," he said after a moment of surveying her, and then turned towards the stairway as a another minor tremor went through it. "If he doesn't stop that, it's going to fall and kill both of us!" He then started to sprint down the stairs.

"Ragewolf!" Coco called out.

He came back up. "Oh, for the love of... Yes?"

"I thought the plan was to give me over?"

"Change in plans," he said, and then vanished. She could hear him leap down the stairs at the rate of three at a time.

Coco looked around the barebone room more uneasily now. The false sense of security being taken away had left her becoming rather befuddled and she felt herself coming up a hundred scenarios and starting to fear the future, which to her was filling with pointy things.

She inspected the bolt on the cage, trying to figure out whether or not she should bust it and just run away before coming up with all sorts of scenarios for that as well, the primary one being I'd land Ragewolf and the others in a lot of trouble.
She had to find a way to open the lock anyways.

Another, larger tremor rattled and echoed through the base of the tower, making Coco cry out and brace her hooves against the floor in rising, choky panic. Am I going to die? Is this what an earthquake feels like? Will I be hurt?

Pommel considering bucking the cage bars until either she or they would give in and then jump out of the window. From a glance, however, she could see that it was at least something like a two- dozen foot drop and would end up with her breaking something.

She turned towards the stairs against as there was the splintery painful sound of a door being bashed in. Coco decided that it was against the chances for it to be Ragewolf again and anxiously waited as someone started thundering up the steps. Um, um...

She quickly looked around to have something to do so she wouldn't look like a fool, and decided to stare out the window at the whole lot of grey nothing. Wow, so very.. um. Grey. Okay, how about I lie down like a deer? Oh yes, wow, I'm so, um, majestic and all.. help.

There was a muffled crash and fading thuds. Coco stared down the stairways in some mixture of bemusement and disbelief, wondering if they rigged somehow to make whoever tried to go up fast fall down like some sort of punishment for breaking a rule.

On the other hoof, this showed that whoever it was wasn't Ragewolf as there were no curses this time. The complete erasing of that possibility made Coco feel more fidgety and nervous.

There was some more walking noises and then finally the person simply collapsed on the last stair with a whump and a groan. Coco's anxiety gave way to her soft-hearted concern, and she got up to her hooves and blurted out, "Are you alright?"

He (of course) raised his head, and then turned it towards Coco.

Unlike the other two masked people Coco had seen that day, this one didn't seem to be modelled after any sort of animal. It was orange and (of course) black, full of sweeping curves and points. He also had another another distinguishing factor- hair, which made Coco feel self-conscious of her own.

For a while they both just surveyed each other. Coco wondered if he had the strength to talk- he looked rather winded and not just from climbing the stairs.

Apparently he did possess some energy, for he managed to say in a low voice, "You can... talk?"

"Yes," she replied quietly. I get that a lot.

A pause in which he looked away briefly. "Are you... an angel?"

...These people aren't very creative. "People do keep calling me one..."

This seemed to bolster him. He struggled for a while to stand but did manage eventually and then turned to face her once more. Coco Pommel could see that he was lacking a weapon- presumably it had been taken or discarded at some point.

"Do you need...help?" he asked as if he was talking to glass that could shatter if he spoke too loudly.

"Well, I'm kind of locked up in a cage, so in most scenarios that would count as affirmative," Coco said cheerfully in an attempt to lighten him up.

It did work to some extent- he laughed weakly and came forwards towards the bolted door, picking up the latch. He seemed to frown down at it and then at Coco. "This.. this isn't bolted very...well."

She raised a hoof and an eyebrow.

Another small laugh while he slid the bolt a little slowly out of it's socket and then stepped back to let it open and give her room to come out.

Coco experimentally tapped the cold stone floor with a hoof and then exited the cage, stood out in the sunlight filtering through the large window and shook herself all over as if she was scattering drops. "Brr! Are you the Uberhero?" she said to the person standing meekly against the wall, seeming to be uncharacteristically unsure about what to do.

He nodded rapidly. "Do you know of... somebody by the name of Kan?"

She bobbed her head. "I'm only curious- why did you traipse all the way here?"

The Uberhero spread his hands. "Kan told me and the others... about an 'angel horse' he had met. Forgive me- I am sorry to say that... we didn't believe him until Ragewolf issued us a challenge to... 'come and get it', so to speak."

Coco noticed that his voice had a sort of warm sunlit sound that both Ragewolf's and Sonarchy's lacked- in fact, it seemed to be a more well-meaning somewhat mix between the two. He also seemed to pause throughout, seemingly exhausted by the effort of having to talk.

"I really don't think you're so well," noted Coco, tilting her head at him. "Should we go down?"

He didn't say anything, only nodded, and then walked over to the arched stone doorway and gestured towards it. "...Ladies first,' he said courteously.

Coco blinked. "Wha-? I'm hardly a lady..." She flushed and ducked her head, embarrassed, for a moment, holding a foreleg as if to shield herself from something bright. "Alrighty then..."

They both descended down the stairs side by side (it was harder than it looked for Coco) and she trotted through the mangled double doors of the tower, and then stopped dead at the sight of the plains. "Uh..."
There were large singe marks that Coco had noticed on the first time she had visited the plateau ringing many of the places which used to hold grass, and for some reason ice coating patches of the ground. There were the ends of arrows and the broken hilts of swords everywhere and the crumbled ruins and traces of foundation of walls and those Bonedeth towers. The sky had turned smoky.

She walked over to the tattered and burnt remains of a Bonedeth flag and nosed it, not pretending that she wasn't worried about the fates of Ragewolf and the undead cat skull creatures. At least they hadn't gone down without a fight, judging from the condition of the Uberhero.

Then there was the other thing. The Uberhero was hurt and she was worried. If Madfang was hurt, she would be also worried. Same would go for the Bonedeths and the Patapons. The polar way she had heard wars described as in Equestria were thrown into sharp contrast by this new development.

There was always a good and a bad in those battles- Sombra was evil, crystal ponies were good. Discord was... not evil, but considered the 'bad guy', and the Princesses were good. Tirek was evil, and Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and the rest were good. I don't know what to think anymore. The longer I stay here, the more I get twined with the futures of the inhabitants- if I were to go Equestria, how would these changes affect me?
Would I be alright with leaving them like this?

She blinked her eyes hard in defiance. I'm not an important piece of the chessboard, she thought angrily. It's just like I said- a button in an ocean of beads.
A random thought popped up to her. To see the ocean once is to learn how to miss it.
Be quiet! I don't know what that means and it has nothing to do with anything!

"Over there!"

Coco turned to see the Uberhero being assaulted gently by four Patapons in an assortment of weapons and armour. It made her feel strangely.. what, nostalgic? That couldn't be, as she hadn't experienced that before.
...Lonely. Gee, I'm getting sick of that.

She debated on whether or not to approach them and essentially ruin their moment, when all of a sudden they made her choice for her- she looked a little alarmed as four things were running up to her rather fast, waving their weapons like toys with a fifth following at a more sedate pace.

They all sputtered to a stop in front of her and while they had certainly come forwards with enthusiasm they seemed to have now become momentarily lost for words. Coco turned to the recognizable one with the familiar shiny bow.

"Is it just me, or are there more of you now?" she said, tilting her head and squinting at him.

"The talking white and blue angel pony!" said Kan 1, waving his arms.

"It's- It's the goddess Epona! Hide me!" yelped Kan 2 and hid behind Kan 3.

Kan 3- the real Kan- simply beamed at Coco, who had guessed that he had been planning this kind of thing. "Lady Coco! This is Ton, and-" he stepped aside to reveal the wide-eyed Patapon, "- Chin! I thought I wouldn't be seeing you again!"

"A lot of things happened," Coco admitted. "For example, I was kidnapped, held hostage, dragged all the way from the snowfields to this Plateau and then was stuffed in a cage and put in a castle." She shrugged. "And I learned a valuable lesson too."

"Oh?"

She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "...Ragewolf is good at 'I Spy'."

"That's an interesting development, even it seems to have no apparent use at the moment in battle," said Ton matter-of-factually. "I like you."

Chin looked from one Patapon to the other, then quailed at Coco. "W-Well, if you would be so insistent on... making friends you've a lot to live up to!"

"I called Sonarchy 'Son of Anarchy' and got off without a scratch," she offered.

"W-W-What?" said Chin in horror. "You're meeting all of my high standards!"

The last Patapon had been observing her quietly, not wielding any armour and holding his black (but of course) banner in a rather protective manner, and now took the opportunity to speak. "Hey, guys! The flag's acting all funny!"

They all looked at him. The flag certainly didn't look any different, but it was seeming to pulling at it's holder and Coco could hear an eerie hum that was almost beyond her range, as if it was vibrating at a rate they couldn't see.

"Do you think..." Kan trailed off, connecting Coco and the flag with an invisible line using his hand.

In response the flag- holding Patapon leaned the flag forwards and as Coco tilted her head up to look at it touched her muzzle. The banner didn't really do anything impressive, but it did stop buzzing.

"What does that mean?" Coco asked.

"If it's your superpower I don't really think much of it..." Chin muttered.

The Uberhero seemed to be struggling to recall something, staring down at the ground and crossing his arms and presently he looked up at the fidgety pony. "Are we going to be standing out here all night?" he asked drily.

"Right!" said Ton a little bossily, and then turned around and promptly marched a step before turning around again. "Wait. What about you?" he said to Coco.

The question took her off guard. "What? Um-" she looked to her right- the scarred remains of the grey plateau- and then to her left- a long bit of nothing. She quickly tried to think of something intelligent to say. "Well. Ah.."

They all watched her expectantly. "Weellll... free spirit?" she offered weakly, feeling the prickly feeling of going pink. "Heh, heh..."

The four Patapons converged on each other and started to communicate in whispers, before drawing back. "If you say you're a free spirit, then it shouldn't be any problem to come with us," Chin chirped.

Coco started. "Come with you?"

"To the Hideout," Ton said.

"You know, big cave? With the bats and things?" Kan added.

Pommel stared at each of them in turn, and then up at the Uberhero, who simply shrugged.

"Um...."

"Yeah?" said Chin.

"Uhh..."

"Yes?" said Ton.

"Welll..."

"Come on," complained Kan.

"Weeelllll...."

They all gave her a deadpan look, and Hatapon tapped the end of the flagpole on the ground.

Coco sighed in mock defeat. "Oh, if you want me to so much, I guess I can't refuse."