Manehattan

Starlight carefully chewed a piece of rock candy as she stared at the parade that was currently winding its way down the streets of the Rockhoof District, the gaggle of dragons breathing out a multitude of flaming trails as they tried to highlight their cultural heritage. She stared at the display rather apathetically, her face unmoving as she pulled up her ratty shawl to keep out the freezing cold that was permeating through the city. With Manehattan so close to the sea winds, it usually was hit harder by pegasus magic and so the hint of cold usually meant snow was somewhere close behind. She turned into a side street and pulled out her bag of trinkets. The weight of the little bag of artifacts was comforting to her. She had almost wanted to hide away at home and try to live out some modicum of peace and privacy when she had failed her mission- but fortunately she had groveled and begged the Storm King into one final attempt at redemption. It had been completely and utterly humiliating and a stain on her honor, but it reforged some frigid drive in her and she had risen reborn with a purpose of actually putting her spell to some fun little trickery of her very own.

She stared at the mass of dragons and lit her horn, the green glow enveloping it in a fine mist of ichor as she focused her "Want It Need It" spell towards the largest mass of dragons she could find.

"Hey, Newbie!"

The shout roused Zephyr from half lidded near slumber as he felt a bright thump on his back, his saber glinting rather menacingly in the early dawn light of Manehattan, the heady cheers of double celebration on the winds- the Dragon Festival and the Nightmare Night preparations. He silently threw a few choice words to his overbearing sister. She had been slightly the one who had set him up during this week for the training. If it was his choice he would have chosen early summer or late winter. Celebrations were less common during those times.

"What's up, buttercup?" He turned to see a slight framed unicorn mare in resplendent attire stare at him. He inwardly cringed at the stupid rhyming, slightly worrying about why exactly his mother had signed him up for speech classes to fix a rather bad case of stuttering, the sheer problems of synthetic meters and ending feet running through his head as he stared at the Commander of Manehattan, Sunny Flare, her light blue coat winking in the fall sun.

"Get to the post else you get two demerits. And chop chop, I'm running a ship here full of tightly wound cogs. If Princess Luna or Celestia pop up in Manehattan and see you drunken gay lot carousing around like mares in heat, I'd be on the hook. So go with the-" she tapped a hoof in thought- "the 57th and check on the dragons. They tend to get rather rowdy during their celebrations. We don't want any fires starting."

Zephyr gulped and hoofed it, his stuttering mind briefly trying to come up with any rhyme in time to find the most sublime comeback in halftime, but he couldn't. He just twirled his saber clumsily and hugged his bag of wing blades close to his chest. He had had the barest minimum of training with them the day before, but he was unsure what to do in a real scuffle.

"Go, else I tan your hide."

He ran faster, hearing the shouts of his no nonsense commander fade into the distance.

The Speaker of the Changelings, a Thorax by designation, ran through his mental checklist of what the designated helpers had gleaned from the dragons. He quickly ran through this Lord Ember's designation- tall, lanky blue scales, red eyes, a demeanor of terse coolness. Slight anger issues- play those up. And a mouth on the female. He sighed. He always grew a distaste for changing into certain things. Chrysalis, dear mother of all, had said it might be a slight aberration in his coding, a slight weakness gleaned from her attempts at fusing cell matter of every race with her own shadow self in breeding. He had a way with languages though, picked up in grubhood, and while he couldn't hold the female form for long- his reproductive glands being hard to change, he was a changeling in aspect, if not in perfection.

He felt the shift as his magic activated, the heat of envy encapsulating his form and shifting it into what his hive mind's eye desired. He stepped out of the green fire a few seconds later and stretched his limbs. He breathed out and let the air hit his face and let the syllables of the draconic tongue rush through his head, eyes shifting from compound eyes into the liquid type of most vertibrates he had studied. He ran a tongue through the teeth and smiled seeing his egg sibling, Pharynx, transform into the smaller purple dragon in similar terms.

He called out, his voice the timber of this Ember's vocal records. He didn't think he would have to know what her screams of pain were, but the little pink grub one was a thorough taskmaster for a pony. "Egg sibling, Spike, I mean, let us get ready to lead our dragons into Manehattan.

Pharynx nodded, his eyes cold and distant. Mother said that Thorax took his voice. Oddly, she kept even the most defective ones of hers in chance they helped all her brood. She was merciful in her way and he silently thanked her for it.

Ponyville

Fluttershy stared out at the vista of her house, the sweep of hill and river, the cascade of clouds that were gathering. She didn't think Dash had mentioned a Nightmare Night snowstorm, but each day was a strange blessing in disguise and sometimes the nights involved some things that were better left unwritten in her book. She stared down at the manuscript, the sequel to her little book of wonders only a third of the way finished, plot threads slightly brought together in a weave of characteristic delight and whimsy, the sex scenes lightly sprinkled in when she decided they were best suited to the story, the love story slightly had evolved in her mind, pulling the plot threads from her breakout novel and darkening the plot itself, a weird reflection of her own life at the moment. Fluttershy mused on how she would even try to explain the insanity of the last few weeks of her life-

She heard a loud knock on the door.

Fluttershy put down her quill and got up, pushing the bedhead of her polychromatic mane as she went, carefully stepping over leaves and folios of her ideas and clopped down the stairs, her hooves echoing faintly on the wood as she crept into the downstairs of her small house, ever smaller with Tank's things in the corner of the downstairs, her little Angel's stash of carrots hoarding space in the pantry, and Dash's things flung haphazardly through the room like a hurricane had deposited them in some sense of abandon.

She opened the door carefully, noting the date as a day she'd rather be at home- far, far away from anypony who could even try to scare her- and she kept her eyes open just a crack to see the things that had broken into her faint sense of domesticity.

A large Diamond Dog peered down at her, bristling ever so slightly as he had two rather odd packages strapped to his chest. Fluttershy looked up and saw the gray eyes and recognized him at once. Even with the odd addition of the Cake Twins strapped firmly to his chest, there was only two Diamond Dogs she knew in Ponyville.

"H-hello, Fluffy." Her voice trembled as she was not too sure on how nice he was, what with Pumpkin pulling his fur and Pound trying to stick a large claw in his mouth, looking far too content for the dog's liking.

"Yes, hello. Glad Gray is gone. Fluffy no like small ones that much but with Gray One's family with special baking, Fluffy sit babies." He awkwardly paced on his padded feet as he looked at the small pony.

"That's. . .nice." Fluttershy didn't have a clue on what to say to that. It brought up the slight hurt of the last few days- the whole Twilight and Pinkie breakup issue was so fresh in her mind that she hadn't really processed how it affected other things. The Cakes, the town, all that.

"Is different than what dogs told me about ponies. Ponies no just start at big destructive forces that are cute." He smiled, a hint of a sharp tooth showing at his slight joke lost in translation. "But there are even smaller ponies that other ponies find cute. But strange looks are given when Fluffy walk around with them." He stretched out a claw and gently pulled free of Pound's grasp, the dog hastily offering a scrap of paper in response to the hint of tears in the pegasus foal's eyes. "Much ponies see dogs as scary. Big monster say they, but Fluffy no monster- no dragon, no tatzlwurm, no bear. Those monsters. Monsters are bad things from earth stuck with bad magic from deep. Fluffy seen things." The dog looked away into the distance, almost in a trance as he sculpted some hidden memory in his mind. "Things in deep bad." His mood shifted momentarily as he remembered what he was actually doing at Fluttershy's cabin all the way out in the far reaches of Ponyville. "Yes, Gray One supposed to give flyeers. . .flyairs. . .paper. . ." The dog shook his head at the unfamiliar word. "This is it."

Fluttershy was thrust a piece of paper- the colorful printing a hint of Pinkie's flair at designing the most rambunctious way to announce something loud. Fluttershy smiled as she could almost hear the last time Pinkie had sent her a friendiversary gift, the singed grass at the end of her lawn when the cannons and fireworks had shifted ever so slightly in the wind still were slightly visible if you knew where to look at. Pinkie had just shrugged and said something to the effect of 'permanent present' and Fluttershy had almost fumed at that. Almost. A leaf in the wind was more like it- a weak, impotent anger that had passed quickly when she knew the earth pony hadn't meant anything by it.

And here was Pinkie's scrawled hand, loopity looping through her mind as she read the letter.

"If you are reading this, I'm not here. I have a lot to say, but not a lot of time to say it in so I'll just say thanks for everything. I'm coming back. . .sometime. Don't know when but my Sense doesn't tell me I'm going to die. Isn't that funny? Granny said death was like a blanket, comforting. But whatever. Let's see. Shy, take care of Gummy, I'd have the Cakes do it, but Gummy got all philosophical about it and said Angel was a good friend. Whatever that meant. But see you around.

-P

Fluttershy stared down at the letter and felt something between sadness and joy and didn't know what exactly to do with that emotional mess.

"So where you want snake with legs and teeth?" Fluffy held out Gummy in a claw. The gator was silently licking his own eye as he stared blankly into the distance. Fluttershy sighed and pointed. An animal caretaker's job was never done.

"This is a bad idea."

Moondancer rolled her eyes, the jewel embedded in her chest whispering sweet nothings of murder to the nuisance that was this rather worrisome stallion. It whispered ways to lord over the pony that hurt her, made her this way, this completely ruined pony non grata that even the most interested archmages and researchers would shy away from. "We went through this. You know where Starlight is. I bring you to the most welcoming of ponies and you two get to talk about any number of things. I mean there's like three ponies interested in your work in the whole world and sadly one of them turned me into this mess."

Sunburst winced as he took stock of his companion. He had stared blankly out the window on the train ride here, trying not to see what his theories about gems and prosthetic magitechnology might be used for. Gems used as a power source that could interface with living tissue. The sheer idea of his own theories in living flesh right in front of him gave a slight pep to his step that he found distasteful.

The first rule of archmages was to limit the harm spells caused. Running through seven different failsafes, ten backup plans, and two lists of problems with said plans was what made archmages the first line of defense in any kind of magical attack. He stared at Moondancer and didn't see the black unicorn that she now was, but the second best archmage in current society- her theorems on Changelings were revolutionary, the failsafes against Canterlotian invasion a master class in strategic aims and-

"We're here."

Sunburst shook his head and coughed. "Yes, well. Uh, how should we do this? I mean do you want to knock in regards to rank or by-"

Moondancer stared at the stallion, her cheeks hot with annoyance. "Just knock. You are surprisingly worse than Twilight at coming up with a decision."

"Coming from a pony who is now tainted with dark magic. Is it the gem saying it, or you?"

Moondancer fumed. The pair of unicorns had come in hopes of explaining to Twilight Celestia's plans in a way that didn't cause the mare to hyperventilate herself to death by the appearance of one motherly alicorn to her door. Hopefully, Moondancer mused, her old friend wouldn't shoot the messengers. "Me. I take counsel from the gem, not outright actions."

Sunburst sighed. "Well, I had to be sure since a parasitic dependence on gemstones was part of my research and the few test subjects I could find were usually unstable within months of acceptance. Possible mental anguish mixed with dual mana sources- a mind splitting in twain as the new-"

"Which I won't do cause that'd be ridiculous. I am not the archmage for Canterlot for nothing. I have every eventuality planned out and with Twilight's help we could probably be fine."

Sunburst shrugged. "I just don't want you causing havoc in the midst of a battle. When that comes, I mean. If it comes. Didn't Celestia say she tried to send messages through the usual channels?"

"Fat lot that will do." Moondancer stretched and knocked on the crystalline doors of Twilight's palace, her hooves dark and full of purpose as she tapped a series of knocks on the door, some more forceful than others."

The pair of unicorns heard a groan come from inside and a series of spells unlocking the door, the increase of mana in the general area as the spells were let go and the world accepted the net gain with a pop as the pair watched the doors creak open and a bass tinged voice come from inside.

"Who is it? Rarity? Is that you? I told you to not come until noon, I-"

A purple wing popped out. A decidedly masculine purple wing.

"Oh."

Moondancer stood looking at a version of Twilight that had only been stuck in her mind, a masculine ideal of a stallion, large muscles tempered by a bookworm's innate want to read instead of work out, lines and curves all aflutter, wings large and prominent, and Moondancer's mind edited out the stallionhood that she saw in a brief glance. She swallowed. "T-twilight, how. . .very nice to see you. This. . .is Sunburst."

Sunburst waved, his oblivious nature not noticing the sexual tension that Moondancer's jewel was giving off, her mind full of lewd ideas on how to show her oldest friend parts of her that she never showed anypony.

"Moondancer, is today Nightmare Night? What with all the things I had to deal with, it must have slipped my mind. I would invite you in, but it's rather a bit too formal for me. How about. . .no." Twilight shook his head. "Hayburger's too informal and Sugarcube Corner's too. . .busy, how about, what was it called. . .Aroma Palace? Spike took me there a few times. We can talk about. . .this."

"Okay."

Diamond Tiara stumbled through the Acres, her leg aching in pain as she tried to hide in plain view. She crept through as quietly as she could due to the niggling idea that if she was out here in what was Applebloom's house, even if she was hiding from whatever her mom was right now, it might cause a bit of an uproar.

As she was trying to compose herself and figure out what to do next, she held the dulcet tones of Sweetie and the rougher voice of Applebloom in the distance. Diamond Tiara awkwardly fell into a nearby hay bale, stifling her cry of pain as she landed badly on her leg.

"Sweetie, I'm a telling you, my sister ain't pregnant. Like I get how that could work with animals cause it's just sticking the dick into the vagina thing that Big Mac had to tell me about so I'd stop telling all of his friends about sexual things when I was like six- but they are both mares, it's functionally impossible."

"AB, and I'm saying that hearing what I did, it's kind of hard to say that she isn't. I mean I don't know how it would even work. Cheerilee's Sex ED class definitely didn't go beyond that weird rubbing stuff that two mares did- and that was only because she knew some of the fillies were already trying that out. I don't know, magic. They are friends with Twilight, it's not like she's found a magical law she hasn't broken yet."

Applebloom shook her head and sighed. "Mac's absolutely terrified of Twilight. Don't blame him really. But like it's a dick. That doesn't just pop outta nowhere."

Sweetie stretched and hummed to herself some tune that she was creating in her mind. "Yeah, but wouldn't it be cool to have like a family member? That's like related to both of us in some weird magical way?"

Applebloom rolled her eyes. "I got like a hundred cousins- it'd be cool, I guess, but just cause it's supposed to be impossible. Plus taking care of the foal might be our job, so like it's not a completely fun thing. Foals are work."

They went behind a tree, and the drifting conversation was lost in the ever increasing distance.

Diamond Tiara popped her head out of the hay bale and groaned as she extricated herself from it. She looked around gently and tried to find the best spot she could so she could finally rest her tired legs since she hadn't really slept in two days due to the mess she was thrown into. "Think, think, think." She tapped her head gently as she felt her filthy mane, the feel of it disgusted her a bit as she was used to cleaning it daily and combing it enough so it would keep its natural luster.

She eyed a rundown shack nearby. Quickly running down the ideas of hiding in it- desolate, out of the way, could fall down and nopony would even notice or care about it- she came to the conclusion to throw caution to the winds and walk right into it. It was far better than being out in the open.

Spoiled Rich opened her daughter's room, pillow in hoof as she walked in. She carefully had chosen the rattiest and filthiest pillow in the house just so when she would need to smother her daughter, she could throw out the evidence and blame some odd happenstance malady- asthma, heart problems, something- on her dead daughter. And then she would go through the grieving process and then she could move on with her life and just focus on living it.

Ponies wouldn't think bad of her if she lived her life then. They would just assume it was a parent in grief trying to think of better things, fill a hole that could never truly be filled. And then Spoiled Rich would be there- able to live her fantasy life that her horrible daughter stopped her from living. Getting railed by stallions every night, eating lavish foods, getting jewel encrusted gifts, flying all over the world. A real life. Not here in Ponyville in a failed marriage with money but no time to use it except on Diamond.

She crept to the bed and pulled the covers and immediately screamed in absolute rage as she saw a stack of pillows in the shape of her daughter and a rope made out of all the fantastically expensive clothes- how truly awful- that she had bought for her spawn.

She swore heavily as she looked at the trampled mud near the window and tossed the pillow aside. She no longer needed it for its purpose. Because once she found little Diamond, she'd take matters into her own hooves. Violently. Purposefully. Because she wanted to be happy. She kept being told that Diamond was keeping her from being happy. She needed to be happy at any cost.

Dash stretched and walked out of the bedroom, idly smoothing the plaits of hair that she had become slightly more used to. Mind she was still trying to beg Fluttershy to let her just cut her hair so the locks wouldn't keep blinding her awkwardly as she moved, but she just grinned and bore it slightly. She carefully sat down at the table and glanced around to see if there's any sense of food around.

She blinked.

Gummy blinked.

Fluttershy set down her pruning shears and stretched. Harry the Bear loved seeing his trees that he marked were well taken care of and while some of her friends would think it would be useless or strange, the maples had a secondary use as homes for birds and rodents that tried to survive in the harsh outside world.

A high pitched scream came from inside.

Fluttershy felt her heart drop in her chest and quickly chucking the pruning shears, carefully so as to not harm any creatures nearby for the moment, she zipped to the front of her house and as she opened the door, she saw Dash holding Gummy at broom length carefully balanced on the table, staring at the alligator with a certain sense of apprehension.

"Dash, what are you doing?"

"I was trying to eat breakfast and I wasn't. . .definitely wasn't expecting to get a face full of alligator at seven in the morning. Plus why is he here anyway? Wouldn't the Cakes be better equipped to handle Gummy?"

Fluttershy smiled and carefully took the defenseless alligator who was currently shaking like a leaf from her marefriend's terrified grasp. "I didn't expect you of all ponies to be scared of an alligator. Didn't you read that Daring Do story where she wrestled an alligator to a standstill? Plus Mr. Cake's worried Gummy would eat his foals. For some reason."

Rainbow blushed furiously at that. "Yeah, I wouldn't but being half awake and all makes my defenses all wonky. Totally technical term. I mean I pinched myself and everything just to make sure I wouldn't have those nightmares of Angel's head on Gummy's body or Opalescence's claws at my throat. I've had too many cider benders where those dreams happen. I'm fine, fine." Rainbow carefully stepped off the table and looked askance at the alligator as she passed. "I woke up and it's still too early to deal with this just to get breakfast."

"We could just go to Sugarcube Corner, I mean we were invited."

"Fantastic. Cause I think I just threw all of the breakfast I was planning on eating on the floor. So let me just. . .clean up the mess and I'll be out."

Fluttershy didn't mention that she could hear Dash throw some choice expletives towards the alligator as she went to grab the broom. She sometimes thought the hot tempered mare was rather cute in that way, able to speak her mind at the drop of a hat, while she usually had to guard some of her more choice words. She wondered if it was just an aftereffect of living far too long with Rarity's family when she came down to Ponyville- the Belles were not entirely free of such complaints and moods, but they were slightly dulled and refocused, or if she just was too much of a pony pleaser. She didn't let the dark worry come too heavily in her mind that she got that way because of her early foalhood. Being terrified that your mother would say some choice things about you in a slightly unsure way if she would back up her threats or not. . .she let that thought free as she watched Dash wipe up the mess expertly.

"Darling, please, tell me how I look." Rarity spun around on his hooves, the fashion designer coquettishly winking at his unprepossessing assistant.

"Rare, you look fine. Now stop being so frou frou about your look and get back to normal. Cause it's already sun up and I'm actually kind of tired. Plus, I can see your equipment downstairs getting some odd enjoyment out of this." Applejack rolled her eyes as she stared at her mare/stallion. It was rather hard sometimes to keep Rarity to not just flit back and forth between the two states to show off.

Rarity slid up and laid his head on his mare. "If only I could just make you into a stallion. Just this once. I mean I know we talked about it, but the idea of your coloring in a body shape that is just a complete unknown? The sheer possibilities of it are just making me die of anticipation."

"And you can keep drooling over that cause I ain't chancing the baby, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Even if Twilight might say it could be safe or not."

Rarity smiled. "A stallion can only dream. But back on topic. With that last creative push, we're done. That's two possible outfits for Pinkie at major cost to myself with the idea that two different costumes would be preferable in order to highlight the best features of both sexes. One for Twilight in order to highlight her Princess stature and newfound grace. One for me since I want to show off Twilight's little spell during the one night that flights of fancy are allowed, one for you. Oh, and decidedly switched costumes for Dash and Shy to mess with most ponies- and to accommodate their switch in personality and taste. Even if a small part of me would just figuratively kill to see Rainbow Dash in frilly pinks and borderline pastel colors."

Applejack stretched her limbs and shook her head. "And it only took like ten hours. That I could have slept. Let's just call this a 'you owe me thing' and be done with it. 'Specially cause I'd rather just not argue and go to sleep."

Rarity mock bowed at Applejack and beamed at the earth pony. "Of course, mademoiselle. I'll write down that in my book and just let you choose any number of our next dates. . .barring it doesn't have mud, or bugs, or. . ."

Applejack raised an eyebrow.

Rarity waved his hoof. "Fine. A complete free pass. For all the next dates for. . .a month?"

Applejack nodded. "Sounds like a deal. Now I'm just going to head on upstairs and sleep. And don't you be getting any ideas about nothing either while I'm up there cause I'm not in the mood right now. Would be, but I'm totally exhausted what with you and all my family hounding me about the last week and where I've been without scaring them half to death."

Rarity smiled as he saw Applejack leave. He let his horn glow and he dropped the spell, his body turning feminine once again. Rarity breathed, letting the feeling of having all her faculties not completely engulfed by a rather lewd part of her stretched and hummed gently to herself. Applejack drove a hard bargain. Though it helped when Rarity, for her part, didn't mind all that much. The orange mare helped ground her and keep her focused on the bigger picture of everything, and while she would have to steel herself for the worst kind of dates that Applejack could come up with, the reality of finishing costumes in time was more important.

For Rarity hadn't mentioned to the farm pony that while creating all these little costumes for her friends pro bono was rather fun and let her creative muscles flex without fear of a customer reneging on their payment due to disapproval. . .it would have taken multiple days to make it by herself.

She was just one mare and she knew exactly how generous Applejack had been. Of course she would do anything for her. Rarity stopped humming as she felt her mind conjure up her worst fears of what Applejack would do. Camping, roughing it, crawling in bug filled areas, mud. She shook her head. Well almost anything. And on the things she would absolutely despise, she would act with complete honor and do her duty to make Applejack happy. For that was what one did when dating a mare so unlike oneself.

Try to compromise.

Moondancer stared at the food in front of her and groaned. Not because she hated Prench cooking, no the aromas and the textures of the food were to her liking, just Twilight was being a complete idiot. She knew the Princess could be an idiot. Sure, any pony could be an idiot- she had a few moments she could chalk up to a lapse in judgement, but Twilight was undiluted in her idiocy right now. ca

"Wait, so you are all 'Twilight the mare Princess is fucking dead because you got sad that your marefriend left you? Did you lose your mind?"

"Now Moondancer, can we please hear what Twilight has to say? I mean her. . .his predicament does sound rather logical in a sense. I mean high stress levels and everything might cause a dissociation within the personal core of his ego."

Moondancer glared at Sunburst and his smiling face, his stupid cheerful manner, and growled."Let the mares talk, Sunny, else I'm going to tie you up again and torture out more information about your psycho ex and last time I was nice." She turned back to Twilight and set her with her best red eyed glare. "Change back."

Twilight set down her spoon and set aside his onion soup to stare at Moondancer as well, his purple orbs keeping pace with the red fired ones in the black unicorn's face. Cool and dispassionate ones- for he had time to think on things. The hurt was fresh and raw and way too painful just to flip a switch just to come back to herself as before. Pinkie had been part of his worldview for multiple years, he had shared secrets and dreams with Pinkie about his past and what he wanted to do in the future.

"I'm not going to do that. Sorry, Moondancer.

Moondancer set her face in her hooves and stared at Twilight, red eyes glittering with barely contained anger. "I would love to be able to just flick a switch on and off to change back from this. . ." Moondancer briefly paused to let that hang in the air. "but I can't. You can. So just. Do it."

Sunburst carefully set down his fork and pushed aside his plate of asparagus and eggplant quiche with a brief knowing glance between the two ponies. "So, to cut this horribly dreadful problem betwixt you two, let's push this little spat sometime else. I have a fantastic idea. . .well, acceptable idea. Cobbled together through so many different classes on how to interact better with ones' peers. Let's go around the table and say our favorite subject in Celestia's School. I'll start. Applied Thermoneutics and Theories of Explosives. Particularly the theory bit."

Moondancer and Twilight shared an odd look.

"Interrogation Tactics."

"History of Magic."

Moondancer laughed. "I so hated History of Magic. I mean Studied Practice and his lectures were terrible."

Twilight sighed. "But the sheer fact of learning about the Paradise Valley Civilizations and the fall of Tambelon was rather interesting to me."

"Yeah if you liked reading fragments of fragments of fragments of information. It's more fantasy than reality at that point. Just Stele 19 said, "Tambelon fell" and Grogar this and that."

Twilight grinned. "Coming from the mare who holds a bank of magical Tambelonian artifacts. World ending ones, you said."

Moondancer swiped a hoof. "That's concrete evidence. . ."

Sunburst smiled as he watched the pair bicker nicely to one another. Cadance had told him about Twilight. Not her life story, but hints of things, a broad strokes picture that was rather unlike reality. Though nothing was like reality. Moondancer for one. He let out a small probing mana touch and felt the seething rage underneath her facade of nonchalance and strength, the boiling rage that was only held back by willpower. He had actually coasted through most of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns- except for Applied Thermoneutics and Theoretical Explosions. He just didn't have the knack for destruction magics that some of his peers had.

He stared at the red jewel that was pulsing with life in Moondancer's scarred chest. The sheer fact of being within seven feet of both a corruption of his values of do no harm and, yet, a working prototype for prosthetic limbs and artificial hearts made his own heart flutter. Though the fact of it being implanted in haste caused some issues. Corruption being one of them- his Mana Sight picking up spikes of Umbral energy radiating from Moondancer like a mini sun. It hurt to look at when you knew where and how to look.

"Sunburst? What is your opinion on mind control. Since your girlfriend did it."

Sunburst's heart went cold at that.

"Uh, the conventional wisdom is that it-"

Moondancer's eyes stared at him. "Real opinion, not some book's opinion. Not the Magical Warfare Act,"

"Don't like it. Feels wrong. And if I was here, would you think I'd agree with Starlight?"

Moondancer's eyes narrowed. "Dunno. What with my knowledge of Changelings and magical illusions, I could say you could do a lot worse. And with Celestia mentioning that all able bodied ponies- or at least all militarily focused ones- will be called to serve. . . .I just wanted to know that you wouldn't stab me in the back without telling me first."

Twilight's face paled as she caught that news. "Celestia said what?"

"I mean shit's bad in the East." Moondancer sighed and rubbed her face with her hooves and stretched out to her full length as she tried to think what to say. "Everyone's pitching in. That means all mage units. All Wonderbolts. All Guards."

Twilight's face blanked as the realization of full and complete mobilization. "But that means most of my friends would be. . ."

Sunburst sighed. "The Elements fall under what most would term a military weapon. Even if your friends aren't in the military- they count as a military force. You've saved the world far too many times to just sit this one out. Though Celestia did try and plead your case in the War Council. It came down to a rather split decision. Sorry."

Twilight looked down at the food she had in front of her. The beautiful greens and yellows of his salad didn't interest her anymore, the sense of hunger he had felt at that moment dissipated as a dense sense of dread slowly sunk into his stomach.

Twilight turned and saw Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in the distance, happily talking to one another as they passed him by, barely taking notice of her. Fluttershy bobbed her head in recognition, the prismatic colors of her mane hitting Twilight as something oddly beautiful at that moment. He could hear the hustle and bustle of the town- busier than usual due to the festive nature of the day, and he felt the wood grain of the table, whorls of solidness under his hooves as he rubbed it in thought.

Twilight swore, not caring about who heard him.

Manehattan

Lightning Dust sighed and pushed a mojito across the bar towards yet another customer. She really didn't like being a bartender, but it paid the bills and after her little outbursts with the Wonderbolts, she didn't dare to apply to most jobs that involved anything to do with the weather teams or anything. She was possibly a third stringer, fourth more likely with how she still limped after that fight.

The bar itself was an okay place- being in the best place in the city, the worst bar was still a three star establishment. Better than the other boroughs, she mused. Hooflyn was okay, if a bit run down. The Bronco District was a bit shady. Royal was growing, but separate from most of the other districts. And finally, the Narrows were just there. Five districts, five different tones of the city, all vaguely combined under "Manehattan" proper.

"What are you looking at, Dusty?"

Lightning Dust looked over to see the quiet performer staring at her. She had some R name, something repetitive, but with how she worried ever so much about her brother fucking up his first day, the name escaped her. "Nothing much, just thinking that I love watching most of the ponies here drink their cares away."

The earth pony shrugged. "They want to relax. Plus, pot meet kettle. Don't you drink more than most of the customers or have I misheard Cherry J complaining about her stock. There's not many mares with that name."

"Shove it, Rara, I don't pay you to give me advice."

The unicorn giggled. "You don't pay me, but I definitely don't need the money. Practice, yes. Money, no."

Lightning rolled her eyes at the enigmatic unicorn. She got ponies into the bar, to be sure, but she was sometimes a little opaque on what she did outside of the bar. Something with music probably with how her cutie mark looked, but Dust wasn't all that into music. She placed the glass she was cleaning down and almost replied back, when she heard the first screams from nearby.

The Dragon Festival was going rather swimmingly, all things considered. For a first day it wasn't all that bad. Zephyr scooted through the throngs of ponies, careful to not poke an errant passerby with his blades or take up too much space in the cramped streets of the old section of Manehattan. The narrow corridors of the old and decrepit section were perfect for dragons, the tight caverns almost a similar feel to the dragon lands, he thought. If that was so, and if Blue Moon hadn't been pulling his leg, he thought he would hate going there. Possibly he was claustrophobic.

Zephyr sighed and turned through the parade, seeing fire jugglers play with dragon fire, and dragon food stalls on every block. The smells of cooked meat hit his nose, a strong pungent smell that almost made him gag on principle. He tried to breathe through his nose as he turned down his final route, making sure that Sunny Flare's directions were correct and circumspect.

"It's not like something bad-"

A quiet pop from behind him stopped him from speaking, a faint repetitive popping noise filled the air as he turned. He tried to run through the guard manual in his head in iambic pentameter. He gave it up as he turned into the road and saw the chaos in front of him.

"Svent wer jiviri!" A medium sized dragoness was screaming to the rest of the dragons, a faint green mist enveloping her as she spoke. "jaseve thric survivors nomeno ui hesi charric" He didn't know draconic but the tone itself showed menace. The blue dragoness' claws showed more- they dripped crimson with blood and the stench of corpses hit his nostrils. He quietly tried to leave, his guard duties be sent to Tartarus. It was supposed to be an easy job. No worries. Not a thing.

He stepped back and slid on the slick cobblestones, his footing betrayed him and he fell hard on the street and bumped into a burned husk.

It screamed in agony, a rattling death scream as the charred flesh tore away, blood welling through the blistered mass. He gagged. It smelled like meat. Cooked meat. He shivered as a part of him briefly wondered if the meat smell he had smelled earlier was just meat or if, he felt bile rise in his throat, if it was the beginning scent of this.

He threw up his breakfast.

A throng of dragons turned, their eyes glowing green with malice and determination on Zephyr. He shivered and turned away, his body acting on sheer impulse as he shunted every thought away as he became pure instinct. The only thoughts that hit him, as he shot off into the sky was that he dropped his weapon and that he felt wetness as he lifted off, a sent of fear hitting him in the nose, pungent and worried.

He turned to look and saw that Manehattan was already starting to catch fire, each block a mess as he could see different troops fighting what looked like a menagerie of things. Tatzlewurms swam up and down side streets, hippogriffs fought against unicorns, even a few ursa minors. And the reek of burning hit his nose.

He had to be dreaming.