Year 8 of the 2nd Diarchy, 4th day of the Southern Solstice
Personal Journal, entry 12

Yesterday’s memory augmentation attempt was a complete and total disaster. The test subject was lost. Although she survived physically, any and all trace of what made this particular pony who or what she once was has been completely stripped from her mind. It is as though her consciousness was simply removed.

This could possibly be called a partial success, in that the spell that was designed to remove memories did, indeed, do just that. However, the spell being tested took far too much.

For some reason I still seem to have access to the memories of the subject within my own mind. It is rather disconcerting for me to be able to close my eyes and have a memory of flight school rise to the surface of my thoughts. Although, they are not as clear now as they were yesterday just after the experiment was performed, and they seem to be fading quickly at this point. An interesting side-effect of the spell, to say the least.

I have been rechecking everything, but I am unable to find the root cause of the ‘accident’ as of yet. The calculations appear to be correct so far, although there are still many data sheets to go through. It is going to take several days at least to finish a thorough review.

My greatest concern at this point is that something may have been inherently wrong with the spell as described in the book. If this is the case, nothing that is written in that text can be trusted. This will be elaborated on in the next experiment set.

Another possibility is that the incantation may have been either completely incorrect, or I may have mispronounced it. The language has not been in regular use for more than 1,500 years, so the chances of a significant mispronunciation are very likely.

I ordered Fireshade to dispose of the subject. At this time, a breathing vegetable is of no use as a test subject. I also gave Fireshade instruction to bring two more ponies. I am probably taking an unnecessary risk in giving her another chance, but I believe that she can sufficiently complete these tasks.

As soon as the new test subjects are secured, we will begin testing the effects of Fireshade’s GL-c on the susceptibility of the subject to suggestion induced behavior. Concurrently, the second subject will be tested for the same effects while using magic based behavior modification as outlined in the book ‘Tactical Offensive Telepathy’.

While this experiment is being conducted, I will continue my research in unlocking the volumes of study 612718. Although they are important in understanding what exactly is going on in Section 5, I can’t allow these side projects to divert my attention from the true goal here. I will expose the truth, no matter what.

I’m interested to see what Fireshade brings back. Hopefully she uses a little more tact in her selection this time.

One day prior:

“And bring me two more,” Twilight said with an emotionless expression and a vacant look in her eyes. She then turned and left the cell.

Fireshade stood silently, dumbfounded by the quick change of heart of the lavender mage. A door slammed shut in the distance, signalling that Twilight had left the lab. The pyromancer, now left alone with her assigned task, looked down to the blue pegasus on the floor.

“Well… looks like it’s just you and me.” She moved towards the limp body and kicked at it with a forehoof. “Now what in Tartarus am I supposed to do with this thing?”

Moving around to the front of the pegasus, she sat down on the grey stone floor. She leaned her head down to look into the lifeless eyes of the shallowly breathing mare in front of her. “You know, this would be a lot easier if you would’ve just died,” she said while jabbing at the pegasus’ face with her hoof. “I can’t leave you anywhere that somepony might find you. Maybe we could just stick you in one of the other cellblocks deeper in the dungeons.”

The mage lifted her head and scratched at her chin for a moment as she pondered this possibility. “No, that won’t do… you’d probably just start stinking up the place. I don’t think Twi would be too happy about that.”

Lifting herself off the floor, Fireshade began slowly pacing around Quillfeather. “Hmm hm hmmm… damn it, why do I have to mess with this.” A fast-moving, yellow hoof made contact with the chest of the prone pegasus with a sickening thud. “Stupid… not… quite dead… thing!”

The body on the floor responded with a soft groan.

Fireshade quickly leaned in close to the face of the pegasus and squinted into its dull eyes. “Oh really? Is there a part of you still in there somewhere?”

The blue face continued staring at nothing through half-lidded eyes.

The mage huffed loudly. “I wonder if we can do that again,” she stated as she placed a hoof softly on Quillfeather’s neck and began to push.

She pushed harder and harder into the soft tissue of the mare’s throat. Fireshade was leaning nearly her full weight into the hoof when the pegasus twitched violently, coming loose from the mage’s deathly grasp.

Fireshade stumbled slightly as a small smile crept across her face. “Huh… that’s neat. Still programmed for self-preservation.”

A frown quickly took the place of her smile while the mage continued thinking about how best to dispose of the mare in front of her. Maybe I could just throw her in a river… No that would leave too much chance of her being found.

She sat down again with her back to the door, facing the pegasus. The sound of rhythmic tapping filled the room as Fireshade began drumming on the floor with her front hooves. The mage gasped and the monotone rapping suddenly stopped.

“Oh, now there’s a good idea.” She quickly turned her head towards the door and leaned far to the right to get a view of the clock on the wall above the workbench. “Still an hour before the sun goes down… Oh well, guess I’ll study up on this telepathy stuff while we wait.”

The book that Twilight had left on the floor levitated above Fireshade’s head as she exited the cell and made her way to the workbench across from the doorway.

“You should see the stuff in that book, Quill!” Fireshade exclaimed to the brain-dead pegasus on the floor as she entered the cell.

The mage moved close to Quillfeather and looked her over with a scrutinizing eye. “Still breathing, eh? That’s unfortunate,” she said while poking at the blue mass in front of her.

“Anyways, did you know I can knock a pony unconscious with magic?” Fireshade asked the body. “Oh right… of course you didn’t. Don’t really know much of anything at this point, do you?” The yellow mare laughed quietly at her own joke.

She then lifted the pegasus with a telekinesis spell and a small grunt. “Jeez, Quillfeather, I thought pegasi were supposed to be light… How the heck could you even fly?”

Stepping out of the cell into the large common room with the blue pegasus in tow, Fireshade continued talking. “So yeah, I can knock somepony out easy as flipping a switch… apparently it’s possible to completely take control of a pony too, but the telepathy book is unclear about it… I think Twi has another book about that.”

Quillfeather responded by bumping her rear-end limply into the cell door and quickly spinning around, bouncing her head hard against the corner of the doorframe. This unintentional assault elicited a sharp, high-pitch squeak from the floating invalid.

“Oops.” Fireshade giggled and turned around as she released her cargo from the telekinesis. Quillfeather dropped to the floor with a muffled thud and a breathy groan. The unicorn leaned down to inspect the damage done to pegasus’ head. A profusely bleeding contusion ran from the outside corner of the mostly-dead pony’s eye up to the edge of her ear.

“Pfft… Why not? It’s not like I don’t have all the time in the world to deal with you,” Fireshade stated sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She then trotted to the supply cabinet on the far side of the room and removed a white metal box wrapped in a pale-orange aura with a large red cross emblazoned across the lid. “Can’t very well let you leave a trail all the way out of here, though.”

Just as the mare turned to take the case back to Quillfeather, she stopped and smiled as her eyes narrowed. “Actually… I don’t think we’ll need the bandages.” Placing the first-aid kit back in its place within the cabinet, Fireshade walked back over to the pegasus. She leaned down to Quillfeather and whispered gently into her ear, “Hey, if you’re still in there somewhere, this is going to hurt… a lot.”

The air between the two ponies became scorchingly hot with the pyromancer’s magic as she slightly backed away from the pegasus. Fireshade’s horn lit up with an orange aura as a tiny white flame slowly made its way along the large cut, cauterizing the wound and billowing grey smoke as it moved. The blue mare’s left legs began to flail wildly, as though she were trying to escape the pain of the tiny torch, causing the mage to lift an eyebrow. The flame reached the end of the contusion near the base of Quillfeather’s ear and continued on through the ear and up to the tip, bisecting the tissue with surgical precision.

“I think Twilight may have missed something when she was looking in your mind… I bet there’s more of you in there than she thought.” The mage breathed deeply through her nose and scrunched her face up disgustedly. “Ugh… that smells awful.”

Moving in close to inspect her work, she sighed. “That last little bit was special for you for making me deal with this in the first place.” Fireshade once again picked up Quillfeather in her magic and started towards the exit.

The unicorn stopped before making it halfway to the door, dropping Quillfeather to the floor. “You know what? I’m not going to waste this opportunity by just disposing of you.” Fireshade turned around to face the pegasus and kicked her in the gut. “Let’s try out that ‘knockout’ spell.”

Fireshade looked up towards the ceiling, scratching at her chin. “Probably be kinda difficult to tell if it worked or not considering your condition… Oh well!” The mage’s horn illuminated as she cast her newly learned spell.

A loud screech echoed through the lab as Quillfeather cried out, her entire body convulsing violently.

Fireshade quickly cut the spell short and took a step back. “Wow! That was completely unexpected… I think I might have done something wrong. Hold on Quill, lemme check the book.”

Walking to the book laid out on the workbench, the mage continued to talk to the librarian laying prone on the floor. “You know, I’ve been in this castle for a very long time. In fact, when I took you was the first time I’ve gone farther than the gardens since I got here, and I had to sneak out and back in. I’m not supposed to leave without an escort…” Fireshade’s voice trailed off as she pulled the spellbook open. She continued speaking, muttering softly. “…and no matter how many times I ask, they never give me one.”

Fireshade began reading the open book silently for a few moments. She turned to the next page and started to talk at the pegasus again. “I like you, Quill; you’re a good listener… You don’t talk out of turn, you don’t call me things. I’ve been called all sorts of stuff; freak, monster, sociopath… murderer. I’m not a murderer though, it was an accident. They took me, Quill, can you believe that?”

Another page in the book turned as the unicorn continued simultaneously reading and talking. “My parents died, and the government took me because they’re scared of my magic. Those assholes made me wear a dampener on my horn until I was given my job in the lab, except for when I was allowed to practice controlling my magic…” Fireshade sighed deeply, and then whispered under her breath, “And I couldn’t do anything about it.”

The yellow mare turned to face Quillfeather. “I think I got it this time, Quill.”

The last time Fireshade had felt exhilaration like this was the first time she was with a colt, and the only time she had felt truly in control of anything was right now, in this moment. She moved forward towards the blue mare. “You know, Quillfeather, I’ve never been in control of my own life. There’s always been somepony there to tell me what to do and where to be… and how to be, but now, for once, I’m in control; Twilight gave that to me. I have the power to do what I want, when I want. I have the power to bring your pathetic life to a quick end…” The unicorn paused for moment as a slight smirk crossed her lips. “Or a slow and agonizing end.”

Fireshade let her magic loose on the pegasus, wrapping the blue mare in a dim-orange glow. “All I want to do right now is show Twilight that she can depend on me. She’s going to be the grand magus, and as long as I’m useful to her, she’ll give me the freedom that I really want. You know why she’ll do that, Quill? Because she’s my friend, and that’s what friends do for each other… At least I think that’s what friends do. I never really had friends before.” Wispy, white smoke began to rise off of Quillfeather’s coat and mane as the magic continued to quickly heat her.

“Twilight believes in me… she wouldn’t have asked me to do this for her if she didn’t. She’s my friend; not ponies like you that are just scared of me and call me horrible things behind my back! Am I mad or upset about that?” Suddenly, a shrill, mindless scream of pain echoed through the dungeon cell-block as Fireshade continued talking, oblivious to the pain being inflicted on the pegasus. “…Not really. Everypony’s entitled to their opinion, even if it’s wrong in every way. What’s so scary about me anywa—” The monologue stopped abruptly when the smell of burning fur entered the mage’s nose. She shook herself from an icy, trance-like glare to notice patches of Quillfeather’s fur and mane beginning to curl over from the heat.

“Oh! Oops…” Fireshade ended the spell she was casting and started brushing off the pegasus’ fur with a hoof. “I was supposed to be trying to knock you out, wasn’t I? Guess I got a little carried away.” The unicorn giggled while continuing to sweep the singed hair off of Quillfeather.

Fireshade stopped the superfluous act and turned to look at the clock. “Whatever, I guess I can try it out on the next samples. It’s time for us to go.” The mage picked up the damaged pegasus in her telekinesis once more and began trotting towards the exit.

After moving through the doorway, she didn’t turn left to the exit into the castle, but right, heading towards a narrow, unlit stairway leading towards one of many, long-disused dungeon exits to the outside world.

It felt as though her forelegs were going to rip out of their sockets. “Hnnnnng!” Fireshade’s front hooves were wrapped around the handle of a slightly-rusted steel door that—when compared to its surroundings—had been obviously installed recently.

With a rear hoof pressed firmly against the dirty, grey brick wall to the right of the entryway, the mare pulled hard against the handle as she pushed into the wall with all her might. She paused from her third futile attempt to pull the door open to catch her breath for a moment, while Quillfeather looked on from the floor behind the unicorn through lifeless, dark-silver pupils.

Dropping down to all four hooves, Fireshade looked incredulously to the plate-steel construct before her. She scratched at the back of her neck absent-mindedly, ruminating over what could be causing the door to be held fast within its frame.

“The hinges seem okay, I took off the lock-bar, I opened the latch… What is going on?” Just then, her gaze alighted on the seam between the door and frame, opposite of the hinges. Instead of the narrow gap that should have been there, a small raised bead of metal ran from the bottom of the door to the upper corner, effectively sealing the entry.

Fireshade sighed dejectedly. “Of course they would have welded it shut. Why can’t anything be easy today?”

She took a few steps, backing away from the door as she assessed the material. It had been years since Fireshade last practiced this particular spell, something that she thought would never serve her any practical purpose. Directing her focus to the top of the welded seam, she began casting.

Several seconds passed with no effect as the mage watched closely. Slowly, the rusted steel began to glow, cycling through varying colors of heat. A dull-red, then orange, and into a bright-yellow. Just before the welded seam turned white, she tightened her focus to a pinpoint directly centered on the seam and a shower of bright-orange sparks began to spew from the door, harmlessly bouncing off of the walls, floor, and Fireshade’s body. The door continued to submit to the abuse as the pyromancer shifted the focus of the spell slowly down the edge of the solid steel slab.

It only took a few moments for her to effortlessly slice the door away from its firmly secured state. As Fireshade stopped casting, the door lurched towards her ever-so-slightly. “That was easy enough,” she said through a beaming smile as she reached for the door handle.

A high-pitched yelp echoed through the derelict corridor. “Ow, damn it!” Fireshade screamed in pain while jerking her hoof away from the door. “That thing is hot!”

She looked to her fetlock with disdain, a stripe of white, burned skin in place of where her fur once was. “Huh, as many times as I’ve burned myself, you’d think I’d know better.” The hinges groaned as Fireshade grasped the door in a telekinetic aura and pulled it open, exposing the blue-hued night of the world outside.

A limp blue pegasus flew from the doorway and crashed to the ground, skidding to a halt in the middle of a narrow path clinging to the mountainside, overgrown with knee-high grass and weeds. Fireshade stepped out of the dungeon, stopping momentarily to allow her eyes to adjust to the dimly moonlit surroundings.

The corridors of the artificial caverns stood deep beneath the city of Canterlot and were arranged in a manner that made it near-impossible to keep oneself oriented to the outside world. The mage turned to the cliff-face that housed the steel door and looked up, hoping to glean some information as to where the exit had placed her in relation to the city above. The moon gave her surroundings an eerie, bluish-silver glow, and just beyond the horizon of the mountainside in the distance she could make out the topmost portion of the brightly lit, gilded, spired crowns of two of the castle's tallest citadels.

"Those dungeons just go on and on and on, don't they, Quill?" Fireshade asked, turning back to the now bruised, battered and singed pegasus. "We're quite a ways out, but I think we should go up around the bend a little further."

She trotted by Quillfeather, enveloping the pegasus in telekinetic magic as she passed. Now dragging the pegasus behind her through the tall grass and across the disused path of small, sharp broken stone, Fireshade started to chat with her not-so-talkative captive. "I'm not very good at teleportation, you know. I mean, I can teleport myself just fine, but moving other stuff is hard for me. So I thought this would be great practice. It's practical. I can practice teleporting and get rid of you at the same time!"

The pair came around the corner and Fireshade came to a stop, Quillfeather sliding slowly to a halt next to her. A short distance ahead, the path widened and split into a Y. The left path hugged the mountain, continuing at the same elevation; the rightmost path doubled back on itself shortly past the split and descended quickly towards the valley below. The mage walked to the edge of her current path and looked down the hill at the lower road. It only continued for several hundred yards before becoming impassable, presumably having been destroyed as a tactical decision made long ago.

Fireshade trotted to the area where the path broadened. "I guess this is good. There's plenty of room to work here," she said, turning around in place and taking in her surroundings. To one side, a steep granite cliff rose high into the night sky; on the other side, a not-quite-so-steep incline sloped downward to the valley far below. A soft glow outlined the mountainside in the direction they had traveled from, showing the only remaining visage of Canterlot in the distance.

"Alright, focus on what and where…" Fireshade cinched her eyes down tight, simultaneously concentrating on the blue pegasus and a spot on the ground directly in front of her. A soft glow lit the area around the mage as she opened her eyes and looked up to the rock wall, watching the shadows dance amongst the dim, orange light.

Suddenly a white light flashed to her left and an indistinct pop sounded. The illumination of Fireshade's magic stopped and she looked to the ground in front of her. "Well, now where did that stupid pega—Oof!"

The unicorn, now laying in a crumpled mass in the middle of the path, craned her neck around to find what had knocked her off of her hooves. She came face-to-face with the cold gaze of Quillfeather. A moment passed while Fireshade thought about her problems with teleportation. She lifted the dead weight of the pegasus off of herself and threw the body towards the cliff face using her telekinesis.

“See what I mean? I just get distracted too easily…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed a bright-orange flower nearby. She plucked the flower with her magic and gently levitated it to her, placing it gently in her mane, behind her ear. “I just need to try harder.”

“Let’s try again!” Fireshade exclaimed excitedly just before letting her magic flow to the pegasus.

Quillfeather disappeared from her position and reappeared in the path—and on the ground—a short distance towards where they had started. “That’s better; let’s keep going!” A flurry of flashes began to light the immediate area in quick succession, and Quillfeather moved to a different location on the mountainside road with each subsequent cast of Fireshade’s magic.

A white light strobed from the direction of the downhill slope behind the mage. She jumped a very short distance off the ground, spinning in place to see nothing but open air for several miles across to the next mountain peak. Fireshade heard an impact and the sound of something tumbling heavily down the sharply sloping hillside below. She ran to the edge of the road and looked over the side of the precipice. “Oops.”

On the road below, she saw Quillfeather, lying motionless, the wing and back leg of her left side bent at awkward, unnatural angles and obviously broken. “Alright, enough screwing around, Quillfeather, get back up here.” In a flash, the blue pegasus once again appeared next to Fireshade.

The unicorn looked down at the bruised and bleeding husk of what was once Quillfeather. “Well, Quill, this is the part where you and I go our separate ways,” Fireshade stated as she turned towards the cliff-face on the other side of the path. “I would say ‘I’m sorry,’ but I’m not, so what’s the point?”

The unicorn’s eyes honed in on a spot in the granite wall. Focusing intently on the piece of stone, she began to cast her final spell on the blue pegasus. Fireshade closed her eyes, still imagining the wall and the interior of the mountain beyond. The tell-tale light of a teleportation spell burst from the pegasus as she instantly dematerialized.

“All done. Now I can get to… work…” Her words trailed off to the sound of a fast successive thumping in front of her. Already suspecting what she would find, Fireshade slowly opened her eyes to the mountainside before her. A deep sigh forced its way across the mage’s lips. “Damn it, didn’t go far enough.”

The short walk to the bare rock cliff seemed excruciatingly slow as Fireshade closely watched the leg reflexively tapping the wall. The forward portion of the pegasus protruded from the granite like a gargoyle at the top of a Manehatten high-rise. Quillfeather’s head hung limply from her exposed shoulder, and to the left of the now barely twitching leg, a blue hoof jutted from the solid granite.

A yellow hoof gently cradled the pegasus’ chin, lifting her head up to look into the eyes of her executioner. “Always giving me trouble, eh Quill? Anything that was left in that pretty head of yours is definitely gone now.” Fireshade chuckled as she withdrew her hoof, allowing the lifeless head to slump back down to its gravity-laden position.

“Hmm…” Fireshade moved close to inspect the interface between the solid granite and the pony’s body, noting the seamless fusion between the two objects. “Neat-o.”

Guess I’ll have to teleport her out and try again, the mage thought as she positioned herself to stand directly in front of Quillfeather.

Fireshade’s horn glowed as she reached out with her magic and took notice of how the pegasus’ body was not just embedded within the stone, but was thoroughly intertwined at a molecular level. The unicorn’s brow furrowed and a frown washed over her face. “Well, that makes it a bit more difficult. I bet Twilight wouldn’t have any problem with this.”

A dim, orange light glowed across the face of the pegasus and the rough granite surface around her. Firseshade closed her eyes in intense concentration, preparing the spell that would untangle Quillfeather from the rock.

You got this, Fireshade. No problem.

The sound she heard was not that of a normal teleport. The ‘pop’ was there, but another sound presented itself along with the mundane report. The sickening sound of ripping flesh and crackling bone reached the mage’s ears at nearly the same time she felt a heavy, warm spray across her face and chest.

Her orange eyes shot open, assessing the scene laid before her. The portion of Quillfeather that had been hanging out of the cliff was now gone, replaced by a dark-crimson circle about the size of a pony’s barrel. The circle looked like rock, but it had been stained the color of blood and slowly wept trickles of sanguine fluid down the slope to the ground.

“Oh, shit…” Fireshade reached up and pulled a hoof through her messy mane. Slowly bringing the hoof before her face, her eyes widened as her foreleg came into view. The back of her fetlock was smeared with thick, red stripes, and small white flecks of bone were caught in her fur.

A shrill, high-pitched scream echoed across the valley below. Fireshade began spinning in circles and trotting quickly in place. “Eww! It’s in my mane! Gross gross gross gross!”

Panicked and unsure of what to do next, the yellow mare made a move to run back to the dungeon, but stopped short and turned around, taking several fast steps in the opposite direction. Now beginning to hyperventilate, she paced back and forth, nearly at a gallop, for a moment until she tripped over something soft in the middle of the path. Fireshade looked back to find the object that sent her flailing to the ground.

“You,” she growled while giving a fiery glare towards Quillfeather’s empty eyes. “This is your fault!”

Fireshade jumped to her hooves and turned to face the offending pegasus. “We’re going to take care of this the way I should have in the first pl—Oh sweet Celestia!”

Wincing as she quickly spun away from the scene, the mage forced herself to choke back the bile rising in her throat. She was intimately familiar with death, but not like this. Any ponies that died during testing in the lab always went relatively quietly and blood-free. Being so near such a gruesome end of a pony raised the instinctive reflex to retch from the deepest recesses of her mind.

Once her rebellious stomach was again under control, Fireshade—breathing deeply—turned her focus back to the task at hand. She surveyed what was left of the pony in front of her. A head, neck, partial chest, and left foreleg were all that remained of the pegasus librarian; the mage was unable to undo the physical entanglement of the rest of Quillfeather’s body, which remained within the granite wall.

Fireshade lifted the body in a telekinetic field and placed it on the ground near the bleeding portion of the cliff-face. “Would’ve been done by now if I had just stuck with what I’m good at,” the mage grumbled to herself as she stepped back as far as she could, her horn illuminating brightly, swiftly charging with energy.

Her vision now rippled with waving distortions caused by the heat of the powerful spell she was currently readying. A drop of sweat trickled down the side of the mage’s face, quickly evaporating in the sweltering torridity. The tall grass around Fireshade’s target went limp and shriveled as it began to smolder, sending a thick, white smoke into the air around her. The tall grass around the unicorn began to rustle and bend in an artificial wind as she drew more and more fuel from the atmosphere and placed it in a gaseous ball above the pegasus. She compressed the ball into a column of volatile gas, then slowly lowered it.

A howling jet of flame exploded to life, easily rivaling the hottest blast furnaces in the foundries of Phillydelphia. The rocket-like stream of fire shooting seemingly from nothing expelled a near-blinding, bright-yellow flame into the ground and against the granite cliff. Several minutes passed, and finally having consumed all of the fuel Fireshade was able to gather, the massive torch abruptly extinguished itself.

Fireshade took a slow, tentative step forward, unable to see anything but a glowing red semicircle on the granite embankment and a large half-circle of burning embers in the grass along the edge of the charred area. She sat down in the middle of the mountainside trail and waited a few minutes for her pupils to catch up with the sudden absence of light.

As her sight returned to her, the full effect of her spell became evident. Quillfeather was gone and the area where her remains once were now took on the appearance of black-colored glass. The granite wall, which had been incessantly weeping a crimson liquid, donned a similar appearance, except with once-flowing ripples on its surface where the rock had sagged under the assault of the intense heat.

Standing up, Fireshade smirked and gave an approving nod. “Quick, easy, and highly effective. Now to go clean up and head to town!”

The mage trotted back to derelict entrance to the dungeon up the road. She passed through the doorway and closed the slab of steel behind her with a rattling metallic clunk. From outside, a red glow could be seen slowly trekking up the edge of the door as Fireshade resealed the entry.

A nearly full, waxing moon hung high overhead, giving off enough illumination that Fireshade could easily move through the Royal Gardens without any other light source. She wore a simple tan cloak over her back and saddlebag with the thought that if she was going into the city, she should at least cover her cutie mark.

Fireshade gazed at the massive topiaries and beautiful flower beds bathed in the dim moonlight as she trotted past on her way through the garden. She paid much closer attention to what was around her rather than in front of her, until the sound of clattering metal ahead caught her attention and she looked in the direction she was currently traveling. Two unicorns of the Royal Guard were walking the opposite direction on the same path that the mage was traveling.

Having already been spotted, Fireshade continued her journey towards the guard ponies, smiling the entire way.

“Halt!” shouted the white unicorn on the left, still quite some distance away.

The yellow unicorn’s smile faltered as she complied with the order. She flicked her head sharply to flip the bangs of her still-wet mane out of her eyes. As the guards closed in on her, the smile returned. “Hey guys.”

“Fireshade? What are you doing out here so late?” the dark-grey stallion on the right asked.

“So late?” Fireshade sidled around next to the stallion and put her forelegs around his neck. “Come on, Glaive, it’s only... what? Like eleven o’clock?”

“Midnight,” the other guard responded gruffly.

Fireshade leaned out to look around Glaive’s head and stuck her tongue out at his partner. “Pfft... whatev, it’s still not that late.”

“Regardless of your subjective definition of ‘late’, we still need to know what you’re doing out here.”

“Gah...” Fireshade unwrapped her hooves from Glaive’s neck. “Your friend’s no fun.”

“Bulwark,” the white guard stated.

“Whatever. If you must know, I’m going to go for a walk through the labyrinth.”

“In the middle of the night?” Glaive inquired.

“Well, yeah. Why not?” A mischievous grin crept across Fireshade’s face and she traced a hoof down Glaive’s armored chest as she continued in a sultry tone. “You could always ditch this colt and come with me... We could go have some real fun.”

Glaive blushed faintly, taking a step back. “You know I can’t do that.”

Fireshade sighed hard and looked to the grey unicorn with a pouty lower lip. “Fine... he can come with too.”

“What!? No, that’s not what I meant, Fire.”

Bulwark quickly jumped into the conversation. “That’s enough! Move along, Miss Fireshade, you’re going to have to go frolic through the maze by yourself tonight. Now get outta here.”

“Hmph... suit yourselves, then. See ya around!” She ran between the two guards, resuming her trek towards the labyrinth.

Glaive and Bulwark turned in unison, watching the pyromancer run off into the distance.

Without turning away from the sight of Fireshade running away, Bulwark spoke. “Wow, she’s strange... Labyrinth in the middle of the night, and what was all that about you going... with...” His words mired to stop as his jaw hung slack. The guard slowly turned his head to look at the side of Glaive’s face. “Di—Did you?”

Without flinching, Glaive answered apathetically, “Yes.”

“Well, no reason to let fear and common sense stand in your way,” the other guard chuckled. “You have heard the rumors about that filly, right?”

“Not until after,” the grey unicorn replied simply.

Bulwark turned to continue along the set patrol route. “Huh, to tell ya the truth, she scares the shit outta me.”

“Me too.”

It only took a few minutes for Fireshade to find her way to the outer wall of the maze farthest from the castle. The shrubbery at this point in the maze abutted against the stone parapet that surrounded the castle grounds, making it an easy spot for Fireshade to teleport to the outside world.

With a flash, the lush, green topiary that was in front of her dissolved, only to be replaced by a stone wall built of precisely cut granite blocks. Fireshade turned around, looking directly over the Mid District, with the factories and looming pollution of the Lower district far below. She pulled the hood of the cloak over her head and began the journey to her destination: the Mid District commercial sector.

Fireshade reasoned that this would be a perfect place to find some suitable test subjects. She had heard stories of this area from her coworkers; it was the heart of the night-life in Canterlot, so there would be plenty of ponies to choose from. Not to mention, many of them would be drunk, making them easy targets.

It took Fireshade twenty minutes to make a trek that would normally be a five minute jaunt from her position just outside the rampart of the original, centuries-old fortress-city of Canterlot. She skirted around the edge of the district, sticking to the shadows of the surprisingly clean alleyways behind the outlying buildings and doing her best to not be seen.

The attenuated rhythmic thump of music could be heard through the wall of the building she currently stood behind. The mage looked up to the rectangular windows near the roof; they were dancing with light, quickly changing color in time with the undulations of the bassline. The thought of the ponies inside the nightclub entered her mind. Dancing, laughing, and carrying on without a care in their own daftly limited view of the world.

“Pfft... Idiots.”

Fireshade shook off the thought and walked slowly to the corner of the structure, stopping short to lean forward and peek down the alley towards the road in front of the building. Small groups of ponies could be seen passing back and forth on the well-lit street. First a stallion and mare passed by, leaning against one another. Then a group of four mares walked by, stopping for just a moment to laugh with their intoxicated friend who had just stumbled over her own hooves. Then another group of ponies wandered past, and another, and another. It quickly became obvious to the mage that this area was much too busy to serve her needs.

Ducking her head back behind the corner of the nightclub, she sat down on the cool cobblestones of the back-alley. Since her original plan seemed to be inherently flawed, she continued to sit for a moment, pondering her next move.

A grin appeared across her lips as she stood. “Guess I just gotta go somewhere less busy,” she said softly to herself and began her journey to the Lower District.

Fireshade wandered aimlessly through the mostly-deserted industrial sector of the Lower District. Stopping in the middle of an intersection, surrounded by massive, groaning and smoking factories, she looked both ways up the crossroad, trying to determine which direction would suit her better. The unicorn arbitrarily chose left and continued her journey.

The roads here were not lit nearly as well as the pathways through the Mid, leaving many areas shrouded in shadowy darkness. Now she just needed to find some ponies.

She stopped and pulled her hood down to scratch at the back of her neck as she looked at a glowing blue and red sign in the distance, just beyond the end of the factory to her right, yet still too far away to read. Fireshade began moving at a canter towards the sign.

As she moved closer the brightly lit letters became readable: Crimson Hoof Tavern

Well, there’s gotta be ponies there.

A movement from the space between the factory and the bar caught Fireshade’s eye, and she jumped to the side, pressing her body against the red brick construct. An earth pony stepped out of the alley slowly and nervously glanced back and forth several times before trotting off in the opposite direction of the mage. Fireshade watched as the pony disappeared into the darkness.

That’s odd, she thought to herself as she moved away from the huge building and began walking towards the bar once again. She slowed her forward movement as she passed the end of the factory and slightly moved her head to the right, in order to catch a discrete glimpse of what was in that alley.

A large smile broke out across her face. The indistinct, shadowy outlines of two ponies stood in the pathway between the buildings. She thought it wise to stop and think about how to best approach the situation; so she continued by without slowing down further and entered the already open door of the Crimson Hoof Tavern.

It wasn’t overly crowded, but it wasn’t deserted by any means. The room was uncomfortably warm and an overwhelming smell pierced Fireshade’s senses. It reeked of sweat, grease, and coal smoke; the smell of hard-working factory employees. Several ponies played cards at a table in one corner, a few were seated at the bar, and a dozen more ponies—scattered throughout the room—idly chatted with each other while sipping their various drinks.

No one seemed to take notice of her until she sat down on a stool and the tan unicorn behind the bar walked over to her with a slight limp to his gait. “Not too often we get such a pretty filly in here; what can I get for ya?”

Fireshade unwillingly blushed at the compliment and smiled. “Cider, please!” she chirped in a girlish, high-pitch squeak.

“Sure thing, it’ll be two bits, darlin’.”

A few silver coins levitated from Fireshade’s saddlebag to the top of the bar as the bartender hoofed over the mug of hard cider. She took the cup in her hoof and brought it to her lips, only to be interrupted by a caressing touch across her cutie mark. Looking down, the mage found a maroon-haired hoof rubbing her upper thigh. She could smell the whiskey on his breath well before he spoke.

“Hey, sweetheart, you wanna g—waaah!”

An orange glow wrapped the pegasus stallion’s hoof, which in turn was wrapped around his back, bent awkwardly backwards up over his shoulders.

Fireshade turned her head to look him in the eye. “No. I don’t… and if you ever touch me with that again, I will not only remove it from my body, but yours as well.”

“Okay! Okay! P-Please, lemme go, that really hurts! I’m sorry!” shouted the offending pegasus desperately, causing the other patrons of the tavern to turn and look at the source of the commotion.

The aura dissipated from the pegasus as he nearly fell over and clutched his shoulder, limping away. The other ponies—some chuckling at the scene—returned to what they were doing, and Fireshade turned back to the bar. She grabbed her drink and guzzled it down in one go. The mage slammed the mug onto the counter, stood up, and then made her way to the door, smirking menacingly to the pegasus she had accosted not a minute prior.

“Thanks for stopping in!” a voice called out from behind her as she passed through the exit.

Immediately as Fireshade left the small tavern, she turned left, and then left again, entering the narrow alley. The claustrophobic backstreet between the buildings was completely shrouded in darkness, the looming brick construct next to her completely blocking out any signs that a moon even existed in this place.

After taking several steps, Fireshade paused to lift her hood up over her head. She squinted into the nearly pitch-black scene ahead of her, trying to find the figures she had seen earlier, before continuing down the roughly paved alley. It only took a moment at a slow trot before somepony stepped out from behind a dumpster and directly into her path. As Fireshade approached, the first thing she noticed was the absence of wings or a horn.

“Howdy there, you uh... lookin’ fer somethin’?” asked the voice of a mare with a definite drawling accent.

Fireshade glanced up the pathway beyond the pony in front of her and noticed the movement of another pony a short distance up the way. “Well actually, I am,” she answered with a crooked smile.

The two stood, watching each other for a moment, until the earth pony tired of the stand-off and spoke. “Well? I ain’t got all night, so let’s make this quick... We got dust, aurora, reaper, and dragon’s breath. What did you want?”

Looking up the alley one more time, she thought she saw the thin outline of a horn on the other pony. Fireshade turned her attention back to the pony directly in front of her and slightly tilted her head to the side.

“Yeah, he’s got yer stuff, I’ll take yer money. Now what in Tartarus do ya want?”

“All of it.” Fireshade smiled.

“Wha—” The earth pony didn’t even have a chance to finish her first word when the telekinetic blast hit her mercilessly in the chest, sending her flailing into a nearby brick wall. She bounced off the masonry building and landed hard on the cobblestones below with a groan.

Fireshade spotted the telltale glow of a charging spell several dozen paces ahead of her. The mage quickly cast her own spell, erecting a barrier in front of herself just as a blue bolt of magic collided with the shimmering wall of energy.

Allowing the barrier to fall and taking off at a gallop, she ran as fast as she could towards the stallion. The large unicorn responded by taking several stumbling steps back, away from Fireshade. Just as she came within striking distance of the intended victim, the yellow mare disappeared in a white flash.

The stallion spun around, expecting an attack from his rear. The attack never came. He turned slowly in-place, wondering where the cloaked assailant had teleported to. The unicorn just finished his first full circle when his vision filled with an orange hue; then promptly faded to black as he lost consciousness.

“Oh wow, it worked! That is so cool!” called a voice from above. Fireshade stood on the roof of the Crimson Hoof Tavern, looking down at the two ponies she’d pummeled into submission. “That was kinda boring, though. They’re obviously not trained to fight.”

In a flash, Fireshade returned to the alley. She lifted the limp, unconscious earth pony in a telekinetic field and moved her further into the dark alley, setting her near her partner. A black, cylindrical piece of metal with a hinge on one side floated out of her bag. It opened lengthwise like a clam and promptly clamped around the unicorn’s horn, rendering his ability to channel magic nearly non-existent.

This is perfect. A couple of drug dealers... only ponies that will notice them missing are their doper customers.

The mage floated a piece of chalk out of her bag and began scrawling two circular geometric patterns on the ground.

Sure glad Twi showed me how to use these things... Had a hard enough time getting one pony to the dungeon, would’ve been impossible to bring two back without this magic.

As soon as the arrays emerged, she placed each pony in their respective circle. Fireshade let her magic flow to the arcane runes and sigils, causing two concurrent, bright blazes of burning white energy to briefly illuminate the dark alleyway like it was the middle of the day.

The moment the two ponies were gone and assumed safe in their new homes in the Canterlot dungeon, Fireshade hurriedly swept away the chalk outlines with her hooves. Once she was satisfied that the arrays were destroyed, she pulled the cloak’s hood off of her head and started trotting down the alley—away from the tavern—making her way back to Canterlot Castle.