Pinkie stared blankly at the wall in front of him. He had no real clue where he was and he didn't really care. All he could hear was the labored breathing of Twilight in the next cell and a muffled talking that sounded like Rarity and Applejack. He felt numb as the thought that maybe he could have done something before Twilight had- That he could have done something in the minute before she got stomped into the dirt. He tried to sing or do something since Granny Pie had told everypony the importance of looking on the bright side of life and he tried hard. But it kept coming back to Twilight.

A loud banging woke him up from the bad thoughts.

"Pony, time for work." A large, hunched over diamond dog walked through and unlocked the stall doors. "No ideas cause I know you ponies are smart, but Fluffy is smarter." He growled as he stared directly into Pinkie's eyes.

Pinkie slunk out and looked at Twilight's broken form. "Fine. But please be good to my friend there."

Fluffy cocked his head. "You are very new. You must not realize, when I say no ideas, I mean no talk."

Pinkie felt the color drain from his face as he saw the diamond dog unhook a mace from his belt, it's curved and rusted pole hinting at many beatings that went on just a little bit too long. "Noted. Just going to zip my lip up right now." Pinkie mimed locking his mouth and throwing away the key.

Fluffy grinned, his jagged teeth and rancid breath worrying the pink stallion. "We have a smart pony, yes. The last few ponies that came into my place were not so smart. Now, if you be good all day, I might give hint to the cook that maybe dead pony there be fed. Otherwise, no dice."

Pinkie vaguely nodded. Usually he would be less compliant, but Twilight was the main priority here and while he had to swallow some horrible tasting medicine and take his dignity just a notch, it just might be worth it.

Fluffy coughed, hacking up big hunks of bone. "Sorry, sometimes I do that. Ponies taste ever so good." Pinkie's eyes bugged as she saw the small bits of white bones. "Now, be good. Go mine white rocks for food."

Pinkie nodded. Just imagine it was the rock farm once again. That was easy peasy since he still had dreams where he was stuck on the farm. This time it was real though.

Fluffy's ears twitched, picking up sounds from far away. "Good." Pinkie was ready to leave before the dog reached over and placed a paw on his shoulder. "Let's say hellos again. I am Fluffy, son of Bear of the order of guard dogs." Fluffy scratched his ear and whined. "sorry about mean hello, hard to be nice to ponies when the dark ones come around. Alpha says to act mean cause they get that feeling. But being mean is hard when Fluffy thinks ponies are- what is the word? I want word that means squeeze and hug to death but also not cause that bad. Oh yes, past prisoners called that 'cute'. So Fluffy thinks ponies are cute."

Pinkie cocked his head. "Is this a prank?" Pinkie looked through the bars to see if there was a camera or something. "Cause I, for once, am really, really not in the mood for pranking." Pinkie glared at the much larger dog. Pinkie just had his marefriend thrown in a corner and beat to near death. On the Pinkie Pie list of things that were not okay, that was way on the top of the list. That and breaking promises and not eating things Pinkie made his friends. But Pinkie didn't care about semantics about where that fell, he just wanted Twilight to wake up and stop making Pinkie doubt himself.

"I do not know how to prank. Not dog way. Dogs loyal to alpha and alpha loyal to dogs. Good relationship." Fluffy nodded, his tail wagging at the thought.

Pinkie huffed. "Celestia's mane, fine. I get it, scary monsters are bad and you are acting?" She breathed in. "But it doesn't make it right to just not have some kind of tell so somep- something can get the joke. Else it's not funny. See, not laughing." Pinkie frowned.

Fluffy cocked his head. "Not understand funny, but understand laugh. Laugh is what happens when belly rubs are done." The dog's leg kicked as he thought about the feeling. "Rubs good."

He glanced back at Twilight, silently praying that alicorns could heal themselves. "Yeah, I'm laughing now." He frowned as he was led out by the dog who was happily bouncing around him.

Rarity groaned as she lugged carts laden with silver white rocks. She knew enough of gems and precious metals due to her innate ability of gem location and her skills at creating a fashion statement that would turn heads. She grimaced as she lifted the cart with her magic and began sorting the piles into perfectly good facsimiles of order. She tossed the gems she would normally keep for the projects she pined for. Rubies, agates, quartz, diamonds.

Palladium, that was what she was searching for.

As she worked her muscles, she heard happy music being piped in and Starlight's chipper voice echo through the caverns.

"Rule one of mining, follow rules. Rule two: no speaking. Rule Three: Be happy. Rule four. ."

Rarity rolled her eyes. "When I joked about having a bad time with diamond dogs, I didn't expect the whole place to be infested with them."

A deep humming from the bowels of the earth as diamond dogs poured out of the holes surrounding her workstation and loped into other cracks in the stone. Rarity had tried to get the memory of dogs wriggling through the deep and dark earth for years. And yet here she was right in the middle of them once again.

"Pony, you smell familiar." He took a long sniff of her hair as she attempted a smile. "Boss told us of a white unicorn from the time before." He narrowed his eyes. "So every unicorn gets special treatment. Especially ones with rocks on body."

Rarity blinked. "And what pray tell does that mean?" Rarity felt his long and sharp claws dig into her and flip her upside down before carrying her further into the deep and dark mine. Rarity cursed her luck. She kept telling Diamond Dogs were no good and look where that got her. A mine full of them treating her like a piece of meat.

Starlight frowned. "Moondancer, we have gone through this over and over and while I love debating you on the ethics of what I'm doing here, it's all for the greater good." She felt pinpricks as a low headache started thrumming in her mind.

Moondancer sat there quietly.

Starlight tapped her hoof. "Stop being catty, so what if I didn't tell you that I work for the Storm King? At least in passing, true, but semantics be right damned. You would be surprised how expensive running the little slice of heaven here is. I mean I can't just run experiments without capital- honestly just think of what I'm doing like a grant. I get bits to do what I want while not focusing on the bad parts. And I'm not a complete monster. But also I'm not the one actually doing the bad stuff, technically. I'm a good pony."

Moondancer turned her head and stared at the pink unicorn. "I keep hearing you say you are a good pony, but usually ponies don't have to repeat themselves so others can hear it. They just know."

Starlight fumed. "I don't have to listen to Celestia's favorite hermit on morality. I know I'm good. And maybe I just like hearing myself talk, you even think about that?"

Moondancer laughed. "I did, but then I imagined you as a hot air balloon. and then a really dark part of me wondered if I had my magic, I could just reach out and touch you and slowly peel off your skin piece by piece while you try and beg me to stop. And I'd say no while breaking every bone in your body while figuring out if you could heal from that. And then I'd snap your neck. But that's just something I have to deal with after you placed this stupid jewel in my chest."

Starlight imperceptibly shivered. "And that's why I decided to not give you back your magic just yet. Cause I feel in your heightened state, you'd do things you'd regret."

Moondancer turned away. "I feel like Twilight might understand. And if she didn't, at least I'd feel better."

Starlight rubbed her head. Everything had been going so well. The town was being run perfectly with palladium shipments and other precious stones being sent out to the Storm King just fine. And honestly, if those bitches and that stallion hadn't come then it'd have been perfectly fine. But no, they came and ruined everything. And it was all their fault. She teleported out of the room, since Moondancer was being unreasonable and tried to fake a smile as she walked towards her two favorite ponies.

"Starlight. . ."

Starlight turned to see Double Diamond bowing. She wasn't in the mood to even hint at being fair. She quickly snapped at him. "What do you fucking want?"

She felt better when she saw him physically react as if she hit him directly in the face. "I just wanted to ask about the money we are getting from. . .places. I thought you said that outside help was illegal."

Starlight's eye twitched as she fired up her magic, it's red aura gripping on his throat as she squeezed his neck, feeling the cords of muscle shift in her grip like putty. "I feel like you might need some retraining in following commands." She fired up her horn again and mentally sighed as she shot her favorite spell directly into his brain. She could see Diamond's eyes glaze over as his body twitched.

"Pathetic." She tossed Diamond aside as he seizured in the corner. She fear a tear roll down her face as she watched him shiver and shake. "Every time I hope somepony would be able to just shrug off my spells, I get horribly disappointed." Starlight yawned. "Oh well, at least I have something interesting to care about." She smiled as she thought of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. "Now those two are so infuriating, but unlike you-" She looked at Double Diamond frothing at the mouth. "at least I care. Just a bit. I mean I try so very hard to keep all of you happy and you just keep annoying me."

Starlight stomped off in tired rage as she tried to calm down. It only had been a few hours since her guests had gotten into town. And it was far easier to attract bees with honey than vinegar.

She psyched herself up and walked into the room she kept her two newest and favorite prisoners.

Rarity always hated being kidnapped. She wondered why the world loved just picking her up in its talons and shaking her around. Kidnapping was boring. She mentally ran through the checklist of things they might say to her. First would come the gloating, then the pleading, and then finally the saving portion. She'd read too many romance novels to care about the idea of it. It just didn't make her nethers bloom with arduous passion like some mares.

Light streamed into the room that she was drug into, the walls full of diamonds lighting the room with shining grace. A large stone throne sat with a large diamond dog astride it, almost dwarfing it with his size. Or Rarity mused, maybe the throne was too small and it was a trick being played on her mind.

"Alpha, I have brought the smell to you." The dog heeled as he waited to listen for the diamond dog leader to speak.

"Good, leave us." The hulking diamond dog got up and hunched over immediately, his large upper body slumping him forward and dragging his lower half along. "I remember you, wailing diamond. You hurt my ears before."

Rarity cocked her head. "I haven't seen many of your kind, and I sincerely doubt you know me unless word travels fast about how painful loud noises are." Rarity tried being confident, but she felt she was being more self-depreciating about her voice at that snide remark.

The mastiff bowed his head towards Rarity's face. "Name's Fido, of the Stone Dogs." He breathed hot air on her, his drool pooling below him. "Its been years since I saw the heart of the pony lands, but small whiny pony called her friends."

Rarity's eye twitched. Of course it had to be one of the dogs who had abused her and treated her like an animal for days. What rotten luck. "Oh, I remember you."

Fido smiled. "I was lucky to get out of there with my tail between my legs. For how small and weak ponies look, they have a big punch." He laid down and stretched his back out. "I want to thank you for doing it."

Rarity did a double take. "You want to thank me for what exactly?" Rarity was very confused since she had always feared that the diamond dogs would come back and haunt her for escaping or something mundane. Thanking her was definitely not on the menu.

Fido scratched his ear with his back foot, the display putting Rarity in full view of his equipment down below. "I cursed Wailing Diamond for her voice and driving us out. But that was years ago. Fido has gotten stronger and bigger since then with a big number of bitches at his command. All thanks to you casting us out and fighting for scraps."

Rarity blushed, her mind reeling. "Yes well, this most definitely isn't the reception I expected when I got dragged this deep into the mine.

Fido cocked his head, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. "Fido does not understand."

Rarity facehoofed. "It's a pony culture thing. You might not understand."

The diamond dog nodded. "Yes, well pony group is weak. Diamond dogs are strong and lean, not fat and pudgy like marshmallow ponies." The dog howled with laughter. "We do not underestimate ponies anymore. Diamond dogs now all over the grasses and mountains. I'm head boss. We do well."

Rarity understood his broken Equestrian. "Um, I might think this is a bit forward, but can you let me and my friends go? I mean if I saved your whole clan or whatever you dogs call it, then by association I bet you could just pull a few strings and let us go so we can. . ." Rarity tapped her hooves together. "go far away from here and never come back."

Fido narrowed his eyes. "Diamond pony makes some sense, but Fido is sorry. Pink pony has us leashed to her through these beasts from across dog bowl of water. Also we hate her very dark grey color. Other ponies say that she is pink, but not understand. Closest thing the smart dogs can say is that pink is a very evil color cause it does not exist in dog brain."

Rarity laughed at the thought that diamond dogs couldn't see pink and wondered how Pinkie would take being the most evil thing in dog eyes. "Oh you have no idea about her. But if you need help to get out of this predicament, then that's easy."

Fido got up and scampered around the room. "How is that easy? Dogs tried to get out of mine but the big things and the ponies pushed us back."

Rarity picked up the large dog in her magic and gently set him near her. "Because we have an alicorn."

Twilight swam through the dreamscape, each stroke pushing her past the sea of dreams that caressed her mind and made her glimpse into the deep recesses of ponies thoughts. She could feel the crushing weight of everypony in Equestria dreaming all at once and yet the quasi synchronous echo of ponies all dreaming similar things made her comfortable. Rivers of money pushed her towards where she was seeking. A slight bump told her head that she had reached a more stable part of dreamland.

Twilight pulled herself out, her body vaguely aching as she could still feel her bones and muscles stitching themselves back together in the waking world. But she knew that wasn't where she was supposed to be. A unconscious lump of mangled sinew and bones barely alive and internal ruptures bleeding out. Twilight grimaced as she felt her stomach seal it's punctured lining as ribs shifted back into alignment, creating more internal bleeding as organs were unable to move out of the way.

Twilight never told her friends how unbelievably painful alicorn healing was.

She shook her head and walked down the path in a dark wood, choosing to take the road less traveled. Twilight groaned at the cliche leading her on, but Luna was usually a big stickler for traditional pathways to her inner sanctum. She lit her horn and felt her mind fall into the inky blackness of the void, dragging her hooves through the proto essence of thought, tiny motes of dream clinging on her tufts of fur. She could feel her mind racing through the eddies of worlds not thought about and dreams unrealized while taking a left at the thoughts of futures unattained.

She could hear the laughter of colts and fillies as she passed and she dared not look at the shores of dream, since Luna had told her to never fall too deeply into that daydream for its pleasures could be too much to bear for most souls.

She felt her body gain form and weight again as she blinked and saw a distant light beckoning her towards Luna. That or she was on the cusp of death and it was a mental trick to make her want to go towards the light, but Twilight chose the former choice as she could smell the overwhelming scent of flowers.

She faceplanted in the midst of a tropical garden, full of every flower imaginable in vivid hues rarely seen outside of dreams. Twilight spat out her mouthful of dirt and groaned as her mind filled in the chalky and musty taste of dirt, the grit hurting her teeth. Cursing her imagination gained from reading one too many books about geology, she stretched her body, feeling a wing pop violently in place.

"Luna? I love the garden."

A shimmering mist enveloped Twilight in small halting breaths as Luna slid out of the darkened garden, barely illuminated by the stars in her mane. "Twilight, how odd. Usually I keep my heart locked away from dreamers and yet here you are." Luna cracked a smile. "I really shouldn't have told you about this place."

Twilight laughed, her chest burning as lungs reinflated with air. "You know me. Celestia usually dealt with my curiosity by revoking my restricted section privileges."

Luna's smile faltered for a moment. "Yes, well, while I and my sister see the importance of teaching, I do enjoy a bit of danger in my training sessions. I hope your journey didn't case too much mental strain. The last few imagination reefs I set up to block some things away are rather intricately woven. Wouldn't want our sister's prized student fall prey to thoughts of future bliss." Luna chuckled softly.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Please, like I'd ever deal with kids."

"Well I do keep up with all of you in my own special way. Though Celestia called it 'an invasion of privacy.' I mean all I really did was pay close attention to your dreams and little hints of emotion pop up." Luna picked one of her garden's flowers and briefly stared at it.

"Great now I'll have to ward my dreams just so you don't get any thoughts." Twilight facehoofed.

Luna laughed and quickly picked off the petals of the flower she held, quietly pulling off each and every petal until there was just the stem. "I've already planted your dreams in my garden, so you need not worry about me finding out your favorite flavor of ice cream or your favorite way to get in the mood. And anyway I have to commend modern society for being so bland in their ways of wooing. So do not fret, I'm watching, yes, but I watch over everypony. You aren't the first one to have lewd thoughts about certain parts of anatomy." Luna walked closer to Twilight. "But what I have to ask, is how you got here."

Twilight ran a hoof through her mane. "Well, about that. . ."

Starlight smiled as she watched her most interesting experiments stare back at her. "Remember you two rather fun specimens of pegasi, I do keep my promises."

Dash draped a yellow wing over Fluttershy, who curled up next to her as close as possible. Dash could feel Shy's hot breath on her neck as Shy tried to hide from Starlight in this sparsely furnished room. "Yeah, well you sure have a way to freak ponies out while doing it. I mean Canterlot still looked like it was reeling from a massive hangover when we left. And hey at least you won't kill us, but our friends are fair game." Dash glared and wished she could use the Stare on Starlight just so maybe the unicorn could feel a portion of what she dealt out with her mind fuckery.

Starlight sighed. "Oh not you too. I just had to calm down our resident evil overlord in training. While I love that you are so very loyal, I just don't care what friends offer."

Dash clenched her jaw as she could feel her friend shiver at the cadence of the unicorn's voice. "I don't know what you've been smoking in your cult, but I feel like having friends is better than what crap you're selling cause I know what having no friends to speak of is like and it's empty."

Starlight rubbed her temple. "It's not garbage, I'm trying to do something special here. And it's cute you want to extol the merits of friendship, but I also know what being lonely is like and you know what? It wasn't my fault."

Dash rolled her eyes hard at that statement. "Is that your excuse for everything? It's not my fault? Oh look at me, I've never felt like I did something wrong cause everything's fine and dandy. I mean seriously."

Starlight felt red bolts of energy race across her fur as she picked up the bed the two were near and casually flipped it over. "It's not my fault. I just want to get back to being happy with my life and people keep interfering with it!"

Fluttershy mumbled something just audible enough for Dash to snap back at Starlight with. "Well, who went to Canterlot first?"

Starlight grit her teeth. "I did. But it was to look for someone and it wasn't my fault things went out of hoof."

Dash laughed. "I think it was you who cast that spell that turned everypony into zombies. Or am I forgetting a better unicorn that didn't need like fifty others to make a spell work?"

Starlight gripped Dash's throat as she shook the yellow pegasus. "I was looking for my only friend, you pompous ass. And he wasn't fucking there. It wasn't my fault things went to shit cause I wasn't the ones poking around and bugging me with 'I'm new to Canterlot and need some advice' bullshit." Starlight released her grip as she tried to regain composure. "But, uh, I just wanted to check up how you were doing and all. You didn't have to be so. . .moody about my methods." Starlight's fake smile faltered as she said those words.

Dash wheezed and hacked up a lung as she tried to regain air. "Well his dick must be rad if you mind raped a town just to find him." Dash barked out a laugh.

Starlight's calm face contorted in anger as she stormed out, quickly slamming the door and locking it behind her.

Fluttershy popped her head up from Dash's wing. "Dash, I know we are currently in a really bad spot, but I don't think antagonizing the one pony who has us currently locked up is a great idea."

Dash rolled her blue eyes as she crossed her hooves. "Yeah, I guess you are somewhat right. But it did make me feel at least a bit better to say something. Cause look around you right now. I don't see our friends and I sure hope they are fine cause the mine can't be any better than here."

Fluttershy picked up the one nearby brush in her wing and stroked Rainbow's unkempt pink mane. "Well I bet there's one way to get out if you really needed to."

Dash leaned into Fluttershy as she felt the brush untangle knots she didn't even realize she had. "I don't follow. Are you talking about like rushing her and beating her up or-"

Fluttershy frowned. "Dash, sometimes I worry about you. And no, I meant just punch down a wall or pull up some boards. You know, easy stuff?"

Applejack felt a warm wetness on her face and neck as she blinked herself awake. She had been trying to buck her way out of here through sheer apple bucking strength and determination. What shed had got though was chipped hooves and bloody nose as she had tried pushing the bars aside with it.

She rolled over and saw light pouring through the cell, the bars wide open and a dog that looked way too familiar leaned over her and wiped off her nose with a brown paw.

"Great, I must've hit my head darned hard if I see my dog."

A husky feminine voice answered back. "Dogs don't usually bond with ponies, too stubborn. Or few dogs, since Roxie knows a few guard dogs love them. Must be respected if dog call you-" the dog spat out the word. "master. Can see why Whiny Diamond thought you were special. Dogs like free and open sky, not chains."

Applejack stared up into the decidedly feminine dog and picked up her hat that had fallen into the corner and placed it on her head. "Uh, well you see, Winona's not like you, I mean she's like a dog dog, not a diamond dog. Though now I really wonder how that must look to y'all. I mean are you related to dogs? Cause that raises a whole barn of questions."

The dog stared at her. "All dogs related to dogs."

Applejack rubbed her temple. "That's not what I meant, but sure that makes sense. Now can you take me out of here cause I really think I did a fair number on this wall and I don't want to have it come and rock my world again."

The dog glanced at the wall and toothily grinned. "Fluffy has an all gray pony that laughs at that small gash. But is impressive for weak, small pony like yourself."

Applejack's eye twitched. "Now listen here, I'm not gonna take that guff from you even if I think I hit my head a bit too hard and am imagining my dog as one of these diamond dogs."

The dog pawed at Applejack's chest and AJ quickly realized her gaffe. "Not fake though. Diamond said you might be a hard rock to break of things. Now what did- ah, yes. Sorry. Guess seeing the alpha bitch of rock dogs too impressive." Roxie smiled and stuck her tongue out. "Though maybe pony thought female dogs too strange since they do not go outside of caverns."

Applejack shook her head. "Now listen here. I just really want to get out of here and all and find my friends cause I'm going to have a stern whooping of those things that threw us in here."

The border collie leaned down and pressed her body on Applejack, who could feel every awkward curve. She quietly cursed in that she'd never look at Winona the same way again. "Roxie likes fire in pony. Rare. Like bismuth or palladium. Most ponies too scared of fighting cause they fat and small. Roxie can see you large and strong like boulder."

Applejack blushed. "I'm not fat, I think? Is that what you are saying?"

The dog pulled back in shock, her ears pressed down on her head. "Roxie says no, you like the scrappy pup that fights with the pack. Or pony version. Roxie can see you be a big wolf leader of clan. Can smell it on you."

Applejack's eyes bugged as she realized what that meant. "Oh Celestia, you can smell that I'm-" She glanced up and saw a wildly grinning border collie.

"Wailing Diamond said to trick you. And while it took Roxie a while to get what she meant, she learned a new trick." The dog winked as she stretched up to her eight foot height and turned, her naked form making Applejack stare at the ceiling or the floor just to make the journey to this Diamond whoever the heck it was.

Roxie led Applejack past dimly lit caverns that narrowed into barely passable places for the diamond dog and turned into a room full of gems. It blinded her as the fires that lit the room made the surrounding gemstones too bright to comfortably look at. She shaded her face with her brimmed hat and scanned the room until she saw one very smug unicorn.

"Rarity? Are you okay?"

Rarity waved a hoof. "Fine darling, though now I really have to reassess how I feel about dogs."

Roxie bowed at both her mate and Rarity. "Alphas, found Wailing Diamond's bitch. Can have reward?"

Applejack stared at the dog that looked way to close to her favorite mutt and back at Rarity's smug face. She quickly connected the dots as she knew far too well her marefriend's proclivities to complaining and- whining. "Don't tell me."

Rarity fired up her horn and smiled. "I would change my honorary name myself, but I guess that is impolite. AJ, be a dear, I really don't know how dogs like to be rewarded. You know. Much more a feline mare myself with all the unfortunate implications that gives off for my later years. So was the preferred spot for dogs the head or chest or maybe some weird lower area? I mean bipedal, intelligent dogs could really make this far more icky than I prefer. So I've been just giving them bones which I feel is just a stopgap measure." Rarity ran her hooves though her mane and sighed.

"Uh, well, I think Winona likes it behind the ears and then a belly rub and all. I'd say just do what the dogs want and that's fine."

Rarity rolled her eyes. "If this gets weird, I'm never letting you live this down. Yes, let's just pet the intelligent talking dogs, of course this won't turn into something out of Rainbow's issues of Playcolt."

The large border collie tilted her head. "So no reward?"

Rarity shook her head. "No, no, just working out how to, how did Twilight put it, work on our 'foreign diplomacy' skills." Rarity smiled as she fired up her horn and felt her connection to her magic come forth, unlike Twilight's flashy and rather large stick approach to magic, she knew finesse. She quickly conjured up a few rudimentary paws, detailing the size and shape of these rather interesting dogs. Testing out the claws in each, she quickly came up with a fun idea and changed the feel, imagining a silky texture. Quickly flexing the paws, she stroked the female dog who leaned into the gesture.

Roxie's tail wagged as she quickly sat down and rolled on her back. "That good spot there. But lower feels better."

Rarity and Applejack shared a look as they looked down and realized what that meant. Any lower and it would turn into a lewd display out of Twilight's stash of science fiction novels.

"The dangerous cave awaits, Applejack. I sure hope we don't get eaten up by its hungry denizens wanting some bone to eat. I really do hope it's a full and filling experience."

Applejack shot Rarity a look. "Hush you. It's not my fault this got weird."

Rarity's face turned crimson. "Whatever do you mean? You were the one who pretty much said do whatever they want. I'm just saying I told you so. I told you so."

Applejack facehooved.

Moondancer was filled with unavoidable rage as she stared at the magic cancelling ring in the mirror. Just sitting there like a disgusting piece of garbage right on her horn, it's design being ever more noticeable as the band of white and black now stood out like a gauche light right in her light of sight.

And she couldn't use magic to get it off.

She quietly tried to pry it off, her hooves skittering across the metal contraption. She grimaced as it shook her core as it burrowed deeper into her. She breathed in and out, the pain bringing her clarity, feeling the whispers of darkness in her mind talking to her as she gently rocked the ring back and forth. She had been trying this for hours ever since Starlight had trapped her in a room with nothing to do.

Except placing an unbeatable puzzle right on her head. And the easiest idea had been scrapped hours ago. While Moondancer wanted the ring off, she didn't want her horn to snap off. She had heard of bone fractures like that happening in medical literature and losing a horn, even partially was like losing your soul. Magic made unicorns stand out and without a conduit to connect to the leylines of magic, most cases withered away, went crazy, or committed sucide due to depression. She wanted payback, not a chance to become senile as her mind fractured under the weight of trying to contain her mana without a metaphorical bucket.

So she moved on, deciding that she had one leg up on the ring. From researching the rings, or at least similar magical artifacts discovered in the Abyssinian region, she at least had attempted to theorize a way to get this off. And while Twilight dabbled in every scientific and magical system known to ponykind, Moondancer's forte was in artifact requisition. Or as the laymares called it 'historical archaelogy.'

And while the Storm Empire was full of ingenuity, she prayed that they did not bone up on their magical systems through the dim ages.

Her horn hummed as she tried casting different types of magic spells. She tried at least faking an attempt at each at least, since her specialty was more in applied theory. Twilight had always been the creative one anyway. She could never hope to match the new alicorn at creativity. But she knew the ways other magic systems worked and could approximate the tensile strength of one ring. Moondancer quietly hoped this would work.

She breathed and tried to send mana to her core, her thoughts on the ancient and mostly lost art of hippogriff magic from the few remaining tomes of Novo the Relentless talked about how regulating one's breathing and creating pinpoint focus was able to move the greatest of mountains. And while Moondancer thought it was more hyperbolic than actual magical advice, she slowed her breathing and thought of what she imagined what flight was.

An empty black featureless void of self loathing stared back. Whenever she tried, it came back. Walking on the ground? Fine. Air? Nothing.

"Right, I can't fly. Moonie, you never cease to amaze me with your incompetence. I'm not Twilight Sparkle." She blithely laughed, "Thanks Dancer, though I feel like talking to yourself belies more of a slipping mental state. You should really get going so we can get back at that slut who hurt Twilight." She shook her head, the continuing corruptive influence of the amulet right in her nonexistent heart worrying her. Well she imagined she didn't have a heart anymore. She quietly whispered to herself about how she should get a checkup just in case one day. She how corrupted she was from somepony playing around in her guts all willy nilly.

She mentally crossed off gryphon claw magic and Breezie elemental magic since the tomes by Grendel and Flandersnatch respectively used wings as mana channeling points in some step of the process. Stupid race based magic.

Running though her remaining options, she decided not to do horse magic due to her current situation being not conducive to performing the Pony Sutra or the earth pony related hoof dances that brought out the exotic familiarity of their magic. She never could get the feeling of pins and needles deep in her hooves whenever she tried earth pony magic. Same think with donkey magic, though the hooves were the main focus there. They relied on vibrations in the earth to cast. Not the greatest choice while being stuck in a second floor wooden room. And zebras were out due to being way too similar to earth ponies with the added terrible cost of rhyming, and Moondancer remembered rhyme class in Magic Kindergarten. That was her one and only F. She'd rather die right here than rhyme. And while she would have loved to read about how Crystal Ponies cast magic and if it was marginally different than the Equestrian variant, she hadn't got many replies from the librarians in the Crystal Archives before being so rudely kidnapped.

She tried yak magic next as it's channeling was similar to unicorns, horn based and reliant on charging the particles around them with pride that radiated off them. Exciting the air around her was possible, but soon turned back to reality as she realized in her mind that blasting oneself with any kind of magic was dangerous, especially yak magic since the more daring were known to fire cannons at each other and deflect the speeding balls for fun. High risk, high reward was not on Moondancer's game plan.

Chaos magic was out since it was patently unstable and only Discord in his infinite idiocy could control it. She'd rather not cast a spell and make her head a telephone just because she didn't like the ring's colors.

She finally looked at four remaining options. Seaponies, mermares, changelings, and umbrum.

She glanced at her tail, it's red and purplish streaks feeling like a short comfort as the charred black color of her fur sat there. Just sat there like her ever growing red heart of darkness. She gave it a half-hearted swish as she realized how uncoordinated years of book learning had made her, her hooves stumbling over themselves in a paroxysm of dance moves that was more like a deadly display than a practiced samba. She angrily crossed off the mermares and the seaponies, their magic, more like a swim routine mixed with hyperfocused practice with controlling sea currents. too graceful for her plodding hooves.

"Curses."

She was left with the two most distasteful types of magic known to ponies, the changeling and shadow pony variants. Then remembering how horribly disfigured and how evil she looked she grimaced. "Fine, why in the name of Tartarus not? I mean what else do I have to lose? My horn?"

She channeled her emotions of this moment- fear, fury, sadness, despair into a condensed feeling and breathed it in deeply, it sat right where her heart should be- it's void of emptiness bringing clarity back to her frazzled mind. If she had opened her eyes, she would have seen her horn glow a sickening green hue, the black fur and stony protrusions of what felt like pure obsidian making a casual observer think she might have been some weird Changeling. She felt the ring move for a moment, the pressure of her emotions forcing it to shimmy and shake up her horn slightly, an inch or two at most. Quickly deciding to throw all caution to the wind, Moondancer cast a second spell, this time from first hand accounts of Sombra himself. Umbrum magic relied on the transitive nature of being, their bodies shifting between solids and gases at a whim, the unstable nature of their birth bringing abilities that most ponies should be unable to do.

Moondancer chuckled. Most ponies didn't have the Alicorn Amulet inside their chest. She cast the spell. and felt her body phase out of existence for the briefest of moments, her eyes gassy orbs of purple that floated above the rest of her, with the amulet floating like an atom in an electron cloud. She felt a prevailing sense of vertigo as her body adjusted to seeing itself as a formless cloud of black gas for a moment, quickly phasing back into physical form a second later.

She stumbled a bit, her gait unsteady as she felt like a passenger in her own body, her stomach roiling as it sat there, like a ship on a majestic ocean of vomit. She felt the hot, burning semi solid liquid travel up and out her mouth, pooling at her hooves and providing an acid stench that focused her back to reality.

She stared at the ring. Not on her body. She tilted her head as she marveled at how small it was and how long her mind had spent on possibilities built on enigmas built on riddles just for one tiny band of precious metals and stones. She breathed in and saw the fine crack that ran through it.

She wiped her face and nose and leaned back on the floor for a brief moment.

She stared up at the ceiling and grinned. She floated over the ring and hummed as she passed it through her hooves, trying to figure out ways to ruin Starlight's decidedly perfect plan. For Moondancer guessed the unicorn had a checklist for checklists- and that she planned out everything, for unicorns. She seemed like that- why else would she build a town like a ramshackle machine, parts welded together with magic and intimidation while not realizing she was standing on the shore watching the waves come in.

Quietly resizing the ring, Moondancer slid it back on after she broke the spell dampening charms that were inlaid within. Taking a glance at the mess in her room, she cleaned up her little cage, teleporting the vomit to outside her window and watching it drop slowly to the ground.

She could have just teleported herself to Starlight and had her way with her, but that was the amulet talking again. And while the thought of it excited her, she knew Twilight would think it was wrong. Anyway, messing with Starlight after what felt like the worst day possible? It sounded way more satisfying than just killing her. Then she could watch as Starlight's dumb idea fell apart as she tried to fruitlessly pick up the pieces.

"You really shouldn't have beat up Twilight, cause she's important to me." Moondancer blushed as she wondered if Twilight had a marefriend cause if she saved the day, then it'd be the perfect time to check that out. She hadn't seen any mention of a marefriend in the Friendship Journals, so there was a high chance she was single.

Moondancer smiled at the thought. "That'd be perfect." The Alicorn Amulet glowed with an intense red light as the lewd thoughts of Twilight started coming to the forefront of Moondancer's mind. "Though maybe that's a bit too forward, I mean asking a princess on a date? That'd be ridiculous."

Moondancer blushed at the thought.

"But Twilight's brother married a princess, so it's possible."

Starlight downed a bottle of wine as she stared out across her domain. She levitated over her magical staff, which was decidedly a sham, and waved it around. Her magic flicked and shook with red flakes as she felt all the emotions she tried to keep nice and tidy in her head bubble up as she thought of ways to fix everything.

Moondancer acting rowdy and annoying? Check. Those pegasi causing her to just break enough to start slipping into some unforeseen territory? Check. Those other ponies from Canterlot? Check. Her own ponies? Check.

Everything was decidedly not fine. She always had plans on top of plans thought. That's how she got out of the previous failures and this was no exception. If one way to Sunburst closed, she always had ten open. Hard to lose when you don't use all your special toys on the first attempt. Running her hooves through her mane, she groaned, trying to run through the next days in advance.

"You got this Starlight, don't worry. Okay, okay. Just mind control Moondancer. I mean honestly she's functionally an earth pony with that ring on so the whole thing should work. Then just have her cast a spell on the two pegasi so you can finally figure out what's stopping you from doing your magic. Then just wait for the other four ponies get eaten by those mutts and chewed up by the remaining Storm Beasts and you are totally in the clear. Bing, bang, boom." She felt happy for one of the few times in her life- being so close to just fixing everything enough and finishing her work.

She levitated her notes over and ran through her gift she had been writing for years. The gilded leaf cover showing two names. 'Star and Burst's Experiments' Starlight hugged the magic journal close, years of projects sat there written about deep within its faded cover. "So close."

She breathed out, her breath hot and heavy with emotion as she just needed to get through the next few days and then she'd be free of everything. Everything would be finally worth it, the jabs that ponies who didn't understand what she was doing gave her, the years of toil in the Storm Empire, everything.

She rubbed her body against the hard wooden rod that she held lovingly in her hooves. She knew it wasn't Sunburst, but it worked okay for the more difficult days. It almost filled the hole in her heart that made the sunshine gray.

She just needed the next two or three days to work out fine. She was trying to give the Empire what they wanted and sadly the Empire was coming to pick up the final batch of gems for some stupid weapon in two days.

Everything would work out. She stared out out into the moonlight night and saw the stars twinkle to life as the inky blackness winked its lights on. Starlight tossed the empty bottle of wine and heard it roll on the floor. Better than it shattering, she mused. That would be a mess she wouldn't be able to fix all that well.

She laid out the eight artifacts she had taken from Canterlot and laid out a scroll. If the Storm Empire Archives were correct, the Pillars of Equestria and Meadowbrook as the magic theorist of the group, helped Starswirl helped create the most secret spell in all of Equestria.

She slid on the bee mask and saw writing unfold across Meadowbrook's invisibility sash. "Well look at that, I knew there had to be a reason why Sunburst thought you were the best Pillar. Even if I'd expect him to choose a fucking unicorn and not an earth pony but here's good stuff. Sad though that no mages thought 'hey how about mixing artifacts? That sounds fun.' But I guess that'd be dangerous."

Starlight whistled as she unwrapped the next six artifacts to see the spell matrix unfold. She'd never plan on using time spells cause those tended to be dangerous, but if everything fell apart and she was at rock bottom, why not? But that'd never happen cause Sunburst loved her. He told her that before in his letters.

If she pulled off some legendary spell- that had to fill the hole in her heart somehow. Then she'd know Starburst would have to congratulate her for her hard work becoming as good as him. Then they'd live in some little cottage somewhere just teaching others magic. It'd be nice. She quietly hummed to herself some jaunty tune as she transcribed Starswirl's time magic.

She felt something close to happiness as she thought about all the futures she could have with Sunburst.