Ocellus quickly locked the bathroom door behind her, holding back her fearful tears. She turned to Starlight, accidentally letting a few of those come loose to streak down her cheek. “D-do you think they’ll be okay?”

Starlight smiled in a motherly way and pulled Ocellus into a small hug. “I’m sure Gallus and Silverstream will be alright, Ocellus.”

“Well..” Smolder murmured honestly, “I know for a fact those snakes aren’t normal; and I’ve seen a lot of snakes in Miss Fluttershy’s classes.”

Sandbar, Terramar, and Yona each gave their own murmurs of agreement.

Sunburst hummed in thought. “You know, Smolder may be on to something.. I felt a weird pulse of magic emanating from the rattlesnakes earlier.”

“I felt it, too!” exclaimed Starlight.

Trixie opened her mouth to contribute, “I...” She drew out the vowel in uncertainty and then frowned. “..Don’t understand what you’re both getting at.”

The peach unicorn sighed. “It doesn’t feel like dark magic.. But it does feel-”

Sunburst added, “-oddly..-”

The two unicorns finished in unison, “Chaotic!”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, chaos magic!” she said mockingly before turning serious. “It doesn’t exist!”

Starlight frowned. “Well, maybe it-”

Ocellus gasped and interrupted Starlight. “I’ve got it!”

“What changeling friend got?” asked Yona.

“Thank you for asking, Yona!” She smiled. “Now, do any of you remember that one history class about the villains from the pre-Celestial Ages? You know, the one in Headmare Twilight’s class?”

“No offense, but what does a history lesson from four years ago have to do with us being in danger on an airplane two days before Hearth’s Warming?!” Smolder shouted, small bits of smoke flaring from her nostrils.

Ocellus deadpanned, “If you’d let me finish, maybe you’d find out.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, remember reading the passage about a villain named Discord?”

Sandbar nodded. “Yeah, about how he used his chaos powers for evil, and then the Princesses used the Elements to turn him to stone.” He gasped in realization. “Wait, are you saying--?”

Ocellus nodded. “Yep. Somecreature resurrected him from his thousand-year stone-sleep, and now he’s free to roam modern Equestria.” She winked and giggled, signaling it was a joke. “But that’s just a hunch, guys. I doubt that would really happen.”

Terramar blinked and realized it was a bit quiet outside of the bathroom; a little too quiet.

“Hey, guys, I think it’s safe to get out of here,” the hippogriff suggested.

Everycreature murmured their agreements, so Terramar slowly unlocked the door. He then opened it completely, glanced around the surrounding area, and nodded to the rest of the group that it was safe.

One by one, everycreature tiptoed out of the bathroom and relaxed at the peaceful atmosphere of the place.

All was silent until finally, Sandbar remarked, “Hey, the lights are back up!”

Indeed, the electrical engines seemed to be working again.

Ocellus nodded while smiling. “And those rattlesnakes are gone, too!”

That was also correct. No rattlesnakes were to be seen in the airplane.

Trixie trotted to her seat and took a peek out of the window. All she saw was the right wing of the airplane, and the night’s pitch-black background behind Luna’s beautiful moon.

“Huh. That shadowy creature has disappeared as well.” Trixie flipped her mane and turned away from the window, smirking. “A disappearing trick gone-right, if you ask moi.”

Terramar gasped in realization. “Speaking of disappearing, where are Silverstream and Gallus?!”

Sandbar frowned. “I.. don’t know, dude..”

Ocellus solemnly looked to the floor. “Maybe they’re.. already gone..?”

“No!” shouted Terramar, “They can’t be gone! I know they’re okay!”

Suddenly, Starlight spoke up from the rear end of the plane, “Uh.. actually..” She pointed at something in front of her, to which nocreature could see what.

Everycreature trotted over to see what Starlight was staring at, and instantly were in shock. There lay a lifeless Silverstream and a barely-alive Gallus.

The blue griffon lifted his head slightly in Terramar’s direction. He had a hard time breathing, but he got the message across clearly: “I’m sorry.. I broke.. your promise, Terramar..

“I wish I.. could’ve done.. more..

“But.. Silverstream was gone so.. quickly...”

Gallus paused for a few moments and looked up towards the ceiling, and calmly whispered, “I’m coming.. Mom, Dad..”

And with that, the griffon became still, just like the pink hippogriff beside him.

Silence followed this moment.. until Smolder took a step forward.

The dragon breathed a heavy sigh. “We’re gonna need to store their bodies somewhere safe until we land in Ponyville.”

Starlight and Sunburst each nodded. The two unicorns used their magic to lift the corpses safely into a locker, which was the only place suitable to keep them at the moment.

When they did this, Ocellus murmured a small prayer, all the while trying not to break down in tears there; and Yona crossed her heart before undoing her braids, as it was yak tradition when someyak - or in this case, somcreatures - very special passed on; Trixie was too stunned to do anything to help.

As for Terramar, he sat in his own seat, dumbfounded. That orphan griffon had just given up his own life to keep a promise and save his friend. Now if that wasn’t loyalty, Terramar didn’t know what was.

Starlight and Sunburst had finished storing the bodies by the time the airplane’s speakers started chiming that tune.

Smolder groaned. “Does it have to play that song every time?”

“Hello, my lovely passengers! I have two pieces of news for you all!” The captain cleared her throat. “First off, we fixed those pesky electrical engines.

“However.. there is a new problem: we are losing a significant amount of our oxygen supply.

“But don’t worry, everycreature! I can assure you that we have oxygen masks ready for you.”

As if on cue, oxygen masks simultaneously popped out of the small compartments above a few selected seats.

All at once, everycreature rushed around the airplane trying to supply themselves with a mask to survive. Sadly, after all this commotion ended, everycreature noticed that Yona wasn’t able to get herself an oxygen mask.

The yak desperately tried to breathe, but to no avail. It was no longer than that when she passed out.

Everycreature gasped as they witnessed what happened.

“Yona!” shouted Ocellus and Sandbar in a worried unison.

The two rushed to lift Yona up, and - of course with some help from Starlight - succeeded in hauling her onto her original seat. The yak lay there peacefully, not breathing.

After that, Sandbar and Smolder were walking towards the airplane’s rear to spend a few moments in private to process everything that had just happened--

Up until Trixie let out a blood-curdling screech, signaling everything was just going to get worse from here.

Author's Notes:

Happy New Year, everybody!

---

Ocellus is crackin’ up on her conspiracy theories, am I right? She could be a detective if she wanted to pursue that career, like daaaang.

But yeah, there goes three of the young six in one chapter. Well, I had to get rid of some creatures, right? I mean, there isn’t death without erasing some of my favorite characters, heh..