Several hours had passed since Tyler and the Masar Grinko had left the Changeling hive. Now, during these lonely hours of night, they both were sitting at a small fire made from a long dead tree somewhere from the mountains. While Grinko roasted some desert snakes over the little fire, he looked up.
“I hope you like desert snakes. It’s surely not the fancy stuff you civilization folks eat, but out here…”

Tyler looked up and shook his head.
“Nah, I’m fine. It’s not the first time I have snake for supper. Comes with being on survival trips. My stomach doesn’t churn because of this…”

As the Masar offered Tyler a done snake, Tyler accepted it and took several bites out of it. It was nothing special, but due to his hunger it tasted multiple times better. Grinko nodded at Tyler’s appetite and watched him eating.
“Where I’m from, we sing songs and tell stories at the campfire. Tyler Jones… It will take some time until the second batch of snakes are well done. In the meantime, tell me more about your kind. I never saw a being such as you. From your eyes and teeth I deem it you are a predator just as I, but you don’t behave like a hunter.”

“Actually my kind has stopped hunting a long time ago…”

Frowning at this sentence, Grinko arched a brow.
“I don’t understand… How do you get your prey then?”

“We raise cattle in order to fulfill our desire for meat. In the place I was born, we humans are so numerous we would hunt down all life of the planet if we would hunt in the wild.” Tyler explained to the big Masar.

But Grinko only shook his head.
“How many of you are there?”

“On this world of Equis there are four of us. On the world I call Earth? About 7 billion humans…” Tyler could see that Grinko couldn’t grasp this number, he may have had intelligence and intellect, but he wasn’t educated. Maybe if Tyler depicted it for him… “You know what a bucket is, right?” Grinko nodded as Tyler grabbed some sand. Slowly it trickled down through his fingers. “Every grain of sand is one human. Fill seven buckets with sand and you have an idea how numerous we are.”

Grinko’s eyes grew as he heard this.
“Your people are so numerous they could drink the rivers dry!” While Tyler nodded, the Masar prepared more meat of desert snake and looked at Tyler. “Please! Tell me more about the hunting days and the essence of your people!”

“Man, where to start? There are so many cultures to tell you about since we’re so diverse…” Tyler thought for several minutes, before he finally snapped his fingers. “Alright… Let’s return to the very basics. In the past, I mean before we knew of rifles and bows and all that, our preferred method of hunting was persistence hunting, where we chased animals until their body simply gave up and died. We can eat just about anything we find, which means that we don’t need to stop for food when chasing our prey. If we can’t find food, that’s fine. Our body will simply begin to eat itself so that we don’t have to stop chasing our prey. We walk upright, we sweat, and we don’t have much body hair, which allows us to radiate away our body heat. This means that excessive time or extreme environment won’t stop our hunts. If the animal fights back against us, we can take massive damage to our extremities and lose half our blood and still live. Our entire existence is owed to persistence, endurance and determination. When we put ourselves to a task, it gets done, period. And this instinct is still affecting us today.”

As Tyler had ended his little speech, Grinko nodded in silence.
“Impressive… most impressive… With pride I share my prey with you, from one hunter to another.”

Now Tyler nodded.
“Speaking of prey… I now live with ponies and have a zebra among my friends. If you are to follow me, you will have to find a way to eat meat without harming my friends!”

The Masar looked up, visibly surprised.
“No ponies anymore? But they taste so good!” Tyler narrowed his eyes and Grinko nodded, seeing the determination in his eyes. “Fine… If you will it this way, I shall do so… A pity, but I will comply.”

Tyler gave him a nod and took another bite out of the snake.
“So… How did you get caught by the Changelings?”

The Masar’s eyes then narrowed. Obviously he DIDN’T want to talk about it.
“Let’s just say that mimicry isn’t the usual thing we Masar expect from our prey… Nor do we expect it to be armored like an insect…”

“I see… They got you by surprise. Well, don’t be ashamed. Changelings brought down whole kingdoms, so a single hunter may be forgiven, if they overwhelm him or her.” Looking into the night sky, Tyler leaned back.

Grinko looked at him.
“Rest now, I will take the first watch.” As Tyler looked at him, the Masar nodded. “You trust me enough… do you?” Tyler nodded and then closed his eyes.

On the next day, they reached the outskirts of a zebra settlement. Back to civilization… It was balm for Tyler’s eyes to see some buildings again after this long walk through the desert.
“So… What is this settlement called? Mareitius?” As they stood in front of the village sign welcoming them in both equestrian as well as zebrican language, Tyler gently smiled at this outpost of life. “OK… Seems like a nice little village… A soft bed and plenty of water to drink are all I want now. And to take a bath… Oh, yes… A bath…”

Grinko took one of the sheets from one of the few gardens and wrapped himself up in it. This, however, prompted Tyler to arch a brow and cock his head.
“Uh… Why are you doing this? This is theft!”

“I will just borrow it for the time being. I’m a Masar, these are zebras… if they see me, one of their most feared natural enemies, then panic will rise. Thus I’ll have to go undercover…”

Thinking about it for a minute, Tyler nodded.
“Hmmm… Good thinking! Since you’re about my stature, no one would suspect anything. As long as no one is noticing the tail or these paws that is… Leave the talking to me then. Your growling voice might give you away.”

When they entered the village, the zebras looked at them with distrustful eyes. Tyler didn’t blame them. It was the same thing back at Ponyville when he was new there. Also Grinko was covered in cloth, so it wasn’t really playing with open cards. Suddenly a young zebra colt ran across the street and stopped right in front of Tyler, who took a step back.
“Careful!”

This word brought the colt’s full attention to Tyler and both looked at each other with big eyes.
“You look funny!” The colt suddenly said, prompting Tyler to shake his head in confusion as the colt shot his second question. “Where do you come from?”

“Well… Actually I crashed into the desert somewhere near the east coast and-”

In an instant the eyes of the young zebra grew wide.
“What’s that you say? You crossed the Brakal Desert?”

Forcing a smile not understanding the ruckus, Tyler nodded.
“Well, yes, but…”

Now the colt turned around on the spot and ran away.
“Zalala! ZALALA!!!”

Coming to Tyler’s side Grinko looked at him.
“You scared him…”

As the young zebra colt ran into the village, the other zebras followed him with their eyes.
“These strange storms are the work of evil I tell you, my friend. There are no storms like this in this part of the year.” An old zebra and a unicorn stallion sat together in a tent and were talking together before they noticed the young colt’s shouting. “What are you shouting about, Zefef my boy?” asked the old zebra.

“Zalala! On the edge of the village there are two bipedal beings, speaking the eastern tongue! One of them claims that he crossed Brakal!”

The unicorn looked at the colt first, then to the old zebra.
“Zalala, let me handle this. Maybe they’re minotaurs or something…”

Looking at the stallion, the old Zalala gave him a nod.
“Very well, Silver Tooth… You're more eloquent than we are. After all, you taught us the eastern tongue of Equestria since your arrival from the embassy in Mountania. You are a friend for us. Maybe you can clarify things.”

As he approached the two strangers, the blue unicorn stallion with amber mane gulped. Surely they didn’t look like these Masar he was warned about by the zebras, then again he never saw a being like Tyler before. He sure wasn’t a Minotaur. But this was not important right now. With a strong voice he approached the two of them.
“You there! You claim that you have come from the desert? No one has EVER crossed the Desert of Brakal on hoof!”

Tyler arched a brow.
“Where I’m from, a stallion introduces himself before he starts shooting questions! Or accusations…”

Silver Tooth’s eyes widened. This really WAS a being speaking the equestrian language. AND it demanded manners. How odd…
“True… Allow me… I am Silver Tooth, ambassador and linguist of Equestria. I am here on a five-year-mission in order to educate the locals and exchange culture.”

Tyler nodded and reached his hand out for a shake.
“My pleasure… Tyler Jones, former strategic advisor in Canterlot.”

Silver Tooth’s ears twitched a bit as he shook Tyler’s hand with both hooves.
“You are from Equestria?”

With a nod Tyler sighed.
“I used to live there before someone framed me. I was banished for a crime I didn’t commit. Now I want to hunt down whoever framed me to prove my innocence. But since I don’t have a clue where to find it, I’ll have to follow hunches…”

Silver now arched a brow and nodded slowly.
“I guess that’s a reason for being here… But what is it with you and crossing the Brakal Desert? It’s IMPOSSIBLE to go through that place on hoof and live to tell the tale.”

“That’s a longer story… I didn’t completely cross it… A storm hurled my ship into the desert and I think I only crossed parts of it before someone lent me a helping hoof…”

"A helping hoof…" After another nod, Silver looked over to Grinko. “And what is it with your companion? Why is he dressed all mummed?”

Tyler gulped and grimaced a bit.
“My… My companion has a very rare skin condition. The bright sun would burn his delicate skin. You know… Having so little coat sure can make you vulnerable to the sun, if your skin is weak.”

Looking at Tyler’s skin, the unicorn nodded, seeing the skin of bronze tan Tyler earned during the last few days.
“With this little coat, it’s obvious that you can have some issues with the sun. Alright, I will bring you to Zalala, he’s the elder of this village and his word has meaning.

As they entered Zalala’s tent, the old zebra greeted them welcome.
“Welcome to the village of Mareitius, oh stranger from the desert… If Silver brings you to me then you must be peaceful. What brings you here?”

Now Tyler was stumped.
“You don’t speak in rhymes…”

“Of course I don’t speak in rhymes. Only shamans speak in rhymes. But how do you know of the habits of our shamans?”

With a smirk Tyler rolled his eyes.
“A good friend of mine, a zebra called Zecora speaks that way… So I thought every zebra speaks in rhymes.”

"No, we don’t… Zecora… Now where have I heard that name before? Ahhh… I keep forgetting due to age… But back to my question: What brings you here?”

"I’m here in order to bring down the cause of these unnatural storms recently. I know where the cause is and what it does, but I need the help of a unicorn in order to charge me up."

Silver tooth frowned.
“Charge you up?”

“I’m a human that can absorb magic to some extent. That means I can also use spells another unicorn charges me with by performing it on me.” Once he said that, Tyler levitated a cup and placed it onto the table again. “Of course, you can deny me your help, then me and my companion have to travel some more before we can fight this threat.”

Silver Tooth now arched a brow.
“I’ve heard rumors about a shadow in the night lately, attacking unicorn settlers here in Zebrica… Can I trust you that you don’t attack me if I help you?”

This caught Tyler’s immediate attention. Someone or something was attacking only unicorns in Zebrica… Maybe he was closer to the perpetrator than he first thought… If that would be the case he had to help these zebras getting rid of this war citadel. Maybe this would help him getting closer to his goal.
“You can trust in me. I will take whatever you are willing to give and not a spell more. This is part of a vow I pledged to Princess Celestia.”

Now Zalala’s eyes widened.
“Shanira? You know Shanira?”

Tyler now arched a brow, not understanding a single word.
“Shanira? I don’t know anyone with this name.”

Zalala explained with a smile.
“Among our people, the being you and Silver know as “Princess Celestia” is called Shanira, bringer of light and warmth. The sun, both bringer of life and death in this land… She’s the one in control of it.”

This made Tyler smile.
“True… This is Celestia alright… And I think you may also know her younger sister?”

“We never met her in person, but we know her name… She’s Cherika, the great dreamer, bringer of the light in the night and Shanira’s younger sibling. Word has it that Cherika returned from her eternal slumber two years ago and vowed to watch over the slumber of every dreamer. We knew it when her face wasn’t on the moon anymore and her ever-watchful eyes didn’t guard us anymore.”

Tyler smiled a bit. Obviously the zebras had their own little tales of what happened to the moon and Luna. But it was good folklore, no need to destroy this beautiful little tale for them with telling them the real story.

***

In the meantime, Rachel entered the Ponyville library where Twilight and the other Rangers sat together.
“Alright, folks… new orders from Canterlot!! Sam? Flynn? Go and pack, boys, we’re taking the next ship this evening.”

Flynn nodded and stood up.
“Any suggestions what to take with us?”

"I guess we should pack lightly. After all it IS a hot climate near the desert. Let’s see… jeans, a shirt, bandana and several bottles of water…”

Twilight looked up to Rachel as she made some notes.
“I want to come with you, Rachel. Tyler is my herd mate! Sometimes I feel really cooped up in this library when I think about him!”

But Rachel only shook her head while she was packing.
“Sorry, Twilight… This is a task for us Harmony Rangers only. The Elements of Harmony stay in Equestria. I think Princess Celestia wants you here to have an eye on things while we’re elsewhere…”

“But…”

Rachel now looked to the unicorn and patted her shoulders.
“Don’t worry; I’ll get that idiot back to you. One way or another, OK?”

“Rachel, he’s not just an idiot to me… He’s the one I love!”

Holding it now, Rachel knelt down to Twilight and looked into her eyes.
“Hey… Listen… Why don’t you go and tell AJ that I will find the father of her foal and will bring him back to you two, hm? And in the meantime you girls go on as usual and don’t worry, OK? Everything will be alright. No need to worry yourself sick about it. He wouldn’t want that, don’t you think?”

Reluctantly, Twilight nodded and went down into her laboratory in the cellar. There she sighed and looked at a vial of human blood from Tyler. Right now it was so lonely without him.

Meanwhile two unicorns stood together under the window of the library and whispered.
“Did you hear? The Harmony Rangers are leaving Equestria… Tell the others! Our chance to strike might be very close…”

At noon, the Harmony Rangers went towards the western port cities in order to get to their ship.
“It’s a pity the girls are a bit busy right now… I thought they would come to say goodbye to us.”

Flynn looked back at Ponyville for a second. “Come to think of it, Rainbow said something about a letter from the academy that should come today… I wonder if she’ll get accepted. Maybe they’re just waiting for the mailpony?”

With a shrug Rachel went on.
“If that’s the case they are excused. It would be horrible if she wouldn’t get accepted. She would need their support more than we do need farewells. Then again… why wouldn’t they accept someone like her? I mean that mare is more in the air than every other Pegasus.”

“I guess we’ll-” Sam was interrupted as a gushing wind almost blasted the three of them from their feet.

With widened eyes the humans stared at the direction the immense yelling came from.
“What in the name…?!?”

Rachel slowly got up.
“Was THAT Pinkie Pie?”

“That CAME from Ponyville no doubt…” Flynn said with a grin.

Sam only shook his head.
“But that’s miles away!” Looking at each other, the three of them chuckled along and went on. there was no point in questioning Pinkie. Two hours later, they reached the port of Las Pegasus. Looking around, the humans searched for their ship. “So Rachel, what’s the name of our ship?”

“It’s the… Alisia… That’s a pretty name! I’ve bought us three tickets. That’s more comfortable than to work on a ship. This should be a two day trip I guess. Ah! And here it is!”

In front of them was a black frigate with a group of unicorns and bat ponies repairing some minor issues. Flynn nodded at the sight of the ship.
“It sure has a cool dark color…”

As the Rangers approached the ship, several bat pony mares were conversing.
“Well, the Alisia is a good ship, but she sure isn’t the Aritania.”

“True… But for now, we should be grateful to have a ship at all. I mean, after all that happened…”

“If you put it that way, we should consider ourselves lucky of being alive!”

As they came closer, Flynn recognized the bat wings of the mares.
“Wait a second… You’re not Pegasi!”

With rolling eyes one mare looked over to her crewmates.
“No flies on the human…” This prompted the other mares to chuckle along.

“Well, you have bat wings… Does this mean you are…?”

“We’re bat ponies, right. Is this a problem for you?”

Flynn shook his head hastily now.
“No, I’m sorry. It’s just… I didn’t know that bat ponies exist. I thought there were only three kinds of ponies.”

The mare shook her head.
“I see… We bat ponies are not so common like the three main species. We’re considered a minority, but we take personal pride that some of us work in Canterlot as well under Princess Luna, who’s quite fond of our kind.”

“Uh-huh. Well it doesn’t mean much to me. Pony is pony, right? Diversity is always good.”

“Ha! I like your attitude, man… So, you folks are our passengers to our trip to Zebrica?”

Rachel nodded.
“That’s us alright. Here are our tickets.”

The mare shook her head.
“You go show these to the commander, he’s up on deck.”

After showing the tickets to a stallion named Will the Rangers were showed where to rest and where to put their stuff. What they noticed where the odd familiarity these bat ponies showed to humans. On deck, Rachel looked around as the ship was in open waters now after two hours of sailing.
“Guys? This crew knows something! The way they look at us, the way we’re so normal to them…”

Sam arched a brow.
“You think you have a hunch they could know something about his whereabouts?”

“Maybe… But then we’ll have to stay stubborn and ask every one of-“ Suddenly there was a commotion below deck. As the Rangers looked up, the bat ponies came from below and brought Lyra with them.

This prompted Sam to jump up.
“Lyra! Damn it, what are you doing here?!?”

Looking at Sam in an angered manner, Lyra approached him and looked up to him, determined and angered.
“Accompanying my special somepony? How dare you leaving me behind in Ponyville?”

Searching for words Sam stammered angrily at Lyra before he turned to Commander Will.
“Commander, we have to turn around!”

“No! We’re already in open waters…” The commander growled at Lyra before he approached the captain’s cabin. “I will report you to the captain…”

As he peeked inside the captain’s cabin and mumbled a few words, Lily’s voice became audible as she came on deck.
“What?!? A stowaway hiding on my ship??? Now where-“ When Lily saw the other Rangers, she shook her head. “Oh, you have to be kidding me… MORE humans?”

This question prompted Sam to arch his brows.
“You know us?”

“Oh, I knew ONE of you… I can’t say that it was boring around him. But right now I’m more interested in this stowaway on my ship!”

Sam sighed.
“I’m sorry, Captain… Actually she should have stayed in Ponyville and out of harm’s way! We will pay for her ticket as well of course…”

“Fine! We will handle things in the port of Mountania.”

Sam leaned over to Flynn and lowered his voice.
“How many bits do we have left after buying another ticket?”

Flynn shook his head in defeat.
“Almost nothing…”

With a smirk Rachel approached the Captain.
“You mentioned a ‘him’? And was this ‘him’ human, about this size, had dark hair and a straaange sexual affection towards ponies?”

In the next moment Sam slapped the back of Rachel’s head.
“Shut up!”

Lily shook her head slightly confused, not knowing what these new humans were talking about. But she then nodded.
“He DID have dark hair and was about that size. He went by the name Tyler Jones.”

“Yeah! That’s our man!”

Lily now cocked her head.
“Really? Then you shouldn’t hope to see him again…”

“Why is that?”

“The last time when we saw him, he was on deck when our ship was lifted out of the water and tossed into the desert of Brakal, 50 miles inland. And it was sheer luck for me and these few bat ponies left of my former crew that we headed the right direction. The chances are slim for a flying pony. But on hoof… Let me tell you this:” Lily now pointed her hoof at the Rangers. “Nopony ever alive trotted into this desert and lived to tell the tale. Nopony!"

Hearing this made the Rangers stare at Lily in disbelief. Flynn only shook his head.
“This can’t be happening… Tell me that she’s joking!”

Sam gulped.
“She seems serious…”

Rachel, however, slammed her fist onto Lily’s desk.
“NO!!! I refuse to believe this crap! And so should you guys! We are talking about Jones here! I hate this guy, but if there’s one thing I know, it’s that he would find a way! A persistent shithead like that doesn’t die in some godforsaken desert!” She gritted her teeth. “He’s not dead! He can’t be… He’s got… some girls that wait for him at home…” She now looked up to Lily. “I won’t stop until I find his body, either dead or alive…”

* * * * *

Meanwhile in Mareitius, there was a little celebration. There was bread and wine and although Tyler ate with the zebras, Silver Tooth looked over to Grinko.
“What about your companion? He doesn’t want anything to eat?”

Tyler grinned nervously.
“Oh! He’s… He’s trying to lose some weight, you know…” As no one looked, he leaned over to Grinko. “How are you?”

“Have you ever seen your favorite dish dancing and singing in front of you? My stomach grumbles…”

“Come on, Grinko… We’ll go out for a walk later and you can try to fish something. Bear with me for now.”

The Masar nodded.
“I will comply…”

Then, the dancing and singing stopped as Zalala raised a hoof and approached the campfire. The fillies and colts were sitting around eagerly as Zalala began to throw some powder into the fire. As far as Tyler understood it from the excited shouts of the children, the old zebra stallion was trying to tell the future, looking for pictures in the campfire. As he stood in front of the flames, the old stallion raised his front hooves, began to stand on two legs.
“Oh I see evil… evil born deep beneath the ruins of ancient times… far from the light of day. I see it growing safe beneath giant domes of steel. Scheming in the dark, gathering strength! And now… Oh… now the evil spreads. It sends deadly storm bringers over the land above. Across the world, reaching towards this very place!”

Tyler didn’t know whether or not to smile at this. What were the chances to see something in flames? Then again, he knew from Zecora that zebras had their own special way of knowing things the mere eye couldn’t see. After all, it was Zecora’s advice that he had to make an important choice. So it might be proper to humor them for a while.
“And what does this evil want here?” the human now asked.

But the zebra began to stare at Tyler and pointed a hoof at him.
“Oh, my strange bipedal friend… I fear… I fear the evil wants YOU!!!”

That was when Grinko’s ear twitched.
“Tyler! Something’s coming! I can hear it.”

Zalala turned around and looked into the sky as the approaching sound grew louder.
“The evil… The evil is nearly here!” Tyler, however, frowned at this. It sounded more like the humming of a very strong magic sphere than the flapping wings of a demon as the sound approached the village. But in the next moment all hell let loose anyway. Magic detonated on the village place and several magic projectiles were fired down into the streets. As everyone began to flee, Zalala’s and Tyler’s eyes met when the old zebra yelled over to him from across the street. “Run, friend Tyler! Run!!! Hide from the evil!”

Then, as soon as it started, the shooting stopped and a metal craft landed in the center of the village place. As a hatch opened, ten unicorns stepped outside, their horns already charged to attack. One of them looked at the frightened inhabitants of the village and sneered.
“Whoever is in charge here, come forward. NOW!!!”

With careful steps, Zalala came into sight from his cover.
“I am the leader of this village. We are peaceful folks!”

With an annoyed look, the unicorn in command glared at Zalala.
“Bring him here!”

The Descendant nodded.
“At once, Commander Tycho!”

As Zalala was brought before Tycho, the unicorn inspected the old zebra and smirked.
“We’re looking for somepony. Somepony who doesn’t… belong here. A foreign stranger who killed many of us! We want to… bring him to justice.”

When Tyler looked around, he saw no more sign of Grinko. Was he hit by one of the many magic projectiles from before? As he looked more and more around, the Descendant interrogated Zalala. Then, Tyler found Grinko, seemingly not even with a scratch, on top of the craft the Descendants used to get from the Citadel into the village. Seemingly Grinko got up there without the slightest noise, had shed his cover for better agility and went into position. Rude shouting, however, brought Tyler’s attention back to the commander and Zalala.
“WASTED ENOUGH TIME!!! Give us the fugitive criminal or we’ll kill everypony! Starting with you, gramps…”

Tyler gulped as he hastily counted the Descendants. There were ten of them. The old Zalala, so it seemed, was right. It was Tyler they wanted. As he stepped forth, Zalala shook his head.
“No, friend! Don’t let the evil take you! Run!”

The Descendants nodded as they identified Tyler.
“It’s him, sir!”

Commander Tycho smirked as he nodded towards Tyler.
“Take him!”

Slowly and calm Tyler approached the Descendants.
“Evil had come to this zebra village just as you said, Zalala...” Tyler then looked at the Descendants. “But only to fight this evil here.” With that he looked around into the darkness. “Don’t you think so, Grinko? How about some tasty pony meat?”

A growl now echoed through the darkness of the village.
“You mean these ten who spit threats out? I may feast upon them?”

Tyler now looked at the Descendants before him.
“Please… Don’t make me do this…”

But the commander sneered at Tyler.
“The only thing you will do in a few seconds is lying in your own blood!”

Closing his eyes, Tyler shook his head slowly.
“In that case I’m sorry… DINNER IS SERVED!" In the next moment Grinko’s roar sounded through the village as he jumped at the Descendants. Commander Tycho was the first to go as Grinko bit his throat to pieces, before jumping at two more who he tackled into darkness. And there their screams let the others imagine what horrors waited for them. Tyler himself now raised his hands and shot several magic projectiles at the remaining Descendants, who were still paralyzed by surprise and shock.

Now, as fast as the fight had started, it stopped and Grinko stepped into the light again, his claws and mouth covered in blood.
"I took out three of them. And you?”

"I took out six… One is missing."

“T-that’s right!” The last remaining Descendant held down Zefef and was pointing a pistol at the colt’s head. “D-don’t move or the colt gets it!”

Tyler held his hands up in order to calm down the unicorn stallion who kept the young zebra hostage.
“Enough of this… Tonight there has been spilled enough blood. Don’t you think?”

“I… I don’t know… I only want to go home now…”

Tyler nodded.
“Then let the boy go… I won’t harm you anymore. I swear…” Gulping for a bit, the Descendant then let the zebra colt go free. In the next moment, the pistol was shot out from his magic grip and Silver Tooth held a rifle in his hooves. Now falling backwards, the Descendant crouched away as Tyler and Grinko slowly approached him. “No! You… You said you wouldn’t harm me anymore!”

Tyler halted and looked over to Grinko.
“I said that?”

The Masar nodded.
“Indeed you did. You said that you wouldn’t harm him anymore and made it an oath.”

Tyler then looked back to the Descendant.
“Alright… That will be an oath I keep. I won’t harm you. Grinko, you kill him…” As Tyler went back to Zefef to look if the colt was hurt, the screaming of the Descendant ended in a gargling sound as Grinko ended him in a swift move. Shaking, the young Zefef looked into the darkness, where Grinko was. But Tyler shook his head. “Don’t worry… He won’t harm you or any zebra here. I promise!” When the colt looked up to him, Tyler smiled gently. “You just saw that I keep my promises, right?” Although still frightened, the young zebra nodded before Tyler stood up and Grinko came to his side.

Tyler looked up to the Masar’s face.
“I’m sorry. I treated you like a dog that’s there to be unleashed when its master wishes it to fight.”

“No!” Grinko growled before he cleaned his coat and face with some water. “I deem it good and proper that you tell me what ponies are prey and what ponies are no prey. There are ponies who fight without honor and want to bring misery to others. I must learn this in order to stay at your side. If you now excuse me… I have to get these corpses outside of town, or the pre- I mean zebras see them in daylight. It already became too bloody this night.”

Mere moments after Grinko disappeared into the darkness again and Zalala confronted Tyler.
“You brought a Masar into our village! This is outrageous! I thought we were frien-”

“We ARE friends!” Tyler interrupted him. “This Masar is in my debt, I saved his live. And he just helped saving you from some ponies who wanted to kill everyone here, starting with you...”

“True, but…”

“But nothing! I am responsible for Grinko and will look after him.”

Silver Tooth wanted to say something, but Zalala held him back. “Hold it, my friend… Tyler may be a stranger to us with strange ways, but even if we don’t like it, he speaks the truth. These minions of evil wanted to end us all. Maybe the way to fight this evil is with confronting it with another kind of evil.” He then looked up to Tyler. “You saved Zefef… And your Masar friend strangely behaves… As long as he behaves, I will tolerate him… even if this is very hard for me. Tyler Jones? You are a friend, but your ways differ from ours. Please don’t make me regret in trusting you.”

* * * * *

After one and a half day of sailing the Alisia entered the port of Mountania. While Sam paid for Lyra’s ticket, Flynn conversed a bit with one of the bat ponies.
“You know… I had a pet bat called Tilly once… Those little wings of leather were more than cute. She really liked strawberries. Do you like strawberries too?”

The bat pony mare, Flynn by now knew that her name was Elise, inspected him with a smirk.
“Oh, you charmer… I bet you say that to every mare. If you would feed me with fresh strawberries… all the things I would do to you…” Flynn’s eyes widened and he blinked two times. What was she talking about now?

He gritted his teeth as Captain Lily harrumphed behind them.
“Flirting with the passenger, crewmate?”

In an instant, Elise stood attention with a heavy blush.
“No, Captain! I would never do that!” In haste, she continued her duties on deck.

Lily, however, inspected Flynn.
“A word of advice, young man… Bat ponies deem fruits not only food, we deem them an aphrodisiac. Maybe you shouldn’t offer too much in a foreign culture… All the situations you might land in…”

With a heavy gulp he nodded.
“Thank you for the kind advice, Captain…”

With a grin Lily nodded towards the pier.
“You should go now; your friends are waiting…”

Rachel yelled from the pier up to him as she stood there with Sam.
“Come on, Flynn! Enough flirting with ponies!”

Five minutes later the Rangers began to ask around in the port district of Mountania. One zebra stallion arched a brow.
“Tyler Jones? Yeah, I know that guy… He still owes me two bits. If you see him, tell him to bring them to me as soon as possible.”

An earth pony mare smirked as she looked at Flynn.
“Tyler Jones? Oooh yes… I know him… You can tell him one thing from me:” With that she bitchslapped Flynn. “Nopony says no to Marisa Angelbottom! NOPONY!!!”

Flynn held his lower jaw.
“Man… She almost took out a tooth! Ow!”

Rachel’s fists clenched and a strong vein pulsated on her forehead.
“Dead, huh? I knew it! That asshole is alive and kicking! I’m going to slap that guy to death!”

With a grin Sam arched raised a finger.
“Uh… No, you won’t. Luna asked us to bring him to her alive. So if you don’t want trouble with the princess…”

Gritting her teeth, Rachel looked at Sam like she was at the brink of detonation.
“Sam?”

“Yes, Rachel?”

“Shut the fuck up!” she snapped at him.

Sam and Lyra grinned.
“You’re just happy that he’s alive and you can throw him some more punches, admit it!”

A few hours later, Tyler was in a makeshift laboratory and dripped a few drops of a blue potion into a vial of blood, only to cork it at once. Holding it away from his body for five seconds, he slowly opened his eyes and looked at the vial. Nothing seemed to happen. With a sigh, he grabbed a pen and wrote ‘timer’ on the vial’s label. In the next moment, the door was kicked open and Rachel growled at him.
“Jones! You bastard! Do you have ANY idea how hard it was to find you? We had to ask around in half of Mountania only to find out that there was some guy buying laboratory stuff!”

Tyler looked at Rachel in disbelief.
“Rachel? What are YOU doing here? You should be in Equestria!”

But Rachel didn’t listen and grabbed Tyler by the shirt.
“Listen to me, you…” After a breath, she backed off and held her nose. “Man… How long has it been since you had your last bath?”

Now Grinko’s voice sounded from the other room.
“You tell me… My nose is better than yours. And the stench…” Rachel frowned as she heard Grinko talking. It was an unfamiliar voice and in an unfamiliar tone as well. “Who’s the female, Tyler? Someone you know?” As Grinko entered the room, Rachel jumped up with a scream and maintained some distance between her and the Masar.

Tyler harrumphed.
“Would you relax, girl? He’s just a Masar…”

Recollecting herself, Rachel began to cope with the new situation.
“Yeah… A big kitty-cat on two legs… For a moment, I thought a tiger was stepping inside.”

“As for the bathing thing, I was busy and one sweats here anyway…”

“So… That’s a human female…” Grinko sniffed at Rachel’s face three times to get accustomed to her scent. “Interesting aroma…”

It was then when she pushed him away.
“Back off, kitty! Or I’ll make a bedside carpet out of you!”

The others now entered the tent, Flynn was the next to come.
“I think she went in here, Sam. Her yelling was – HOLY JESUS!!!” Going backwards at the sight of Grinko, Flynn stumbled over Lyra and fell into the arms of Sam, who gulped at the sight. “Tyler? Is that thing dangerous?”

Lyra looked up to the Masar with big eyes.
“I’ve heard rumors, but I never actual saw one of this kind…”

Grinko looked at Tyler and the human shook his head.
“No, they’re not there for you to eat, Grinko.”

Rachel then shook her head.
“Well, whatever you do here with your new buddy, you have to stop it. There have been new pieces of evidence in Equestria! We now have proof that you are not the culprit of these cases of murder.”

Tyler nodded with a smile.
“That’s good news indeed. But I can’t go as of yet. I found out who’s responsible for the storms we’ve heard about. They’re here, in this desert.”

Shaking her head, Rachel only looked at him.
“Would you kindly explain to me WHAT you’re talking about? You’re not making sense!”

Tyler nodded.
“I won’t explain it to you… I’ll show you! Come…”

After an hour of travel the Harmony Rangers reached a place where they could see the war citadel in broad daylight. Flynn’s eyes became big as plates as he saw the giant object.
“Holy shit… That thing is the cause of these strange storm rumors we read about in the newspapers?”

Rachel’s eyes narrowed as she gave the citadel an analyzing look.
“It’s huge… How do you expect us to destroy a thing like that?”

“With the same stuff that let me blow up a complete mountain: my own blood.” Tyler said with a sober tone and held one orb up. “I’ve collected my own blood into orbs for some days now… orbs of three kilogram weight.”

Sam observed the orbs.
“It looks like the little marbles I put into my paintball rifle. Yet these one are much bigger… The size of an apple.”

On the way back into the village, Rachel looked over to Tyler.
“OK, you want to detonate the thing… How do you expect us to get up there? Levitation? Teleportation?”

After a brief description about the incident in the zebra village, Tyler explained.
“They had a small craft when they came here. Sort of like a ferry, a mini-citadel. If I put plenty of magic into effort, I could get the thing flying. It’s a mixture of levitation and magic sphere. If I charge those spells alone, I should be able to fly the thing for one hour.”

In the village, Tyler unveiled the ‘aircraft’ the Descendants used to enter the village from above. It was a small craft, only large enough to hold two pilots and eight passengers. What was more was that this thing was made out of mere iron plates around a frame.
“Here you go! Our way to get up there.”

Beaming now, Flynn inspected the craft in front of him.
“Nice! They seem to have copied the Betty and propelled it with magic…”

Rachel leaned back and shook her head.
“Hold your euphoria, Flynn… Don’t praise these suckers, they’re the bad guys, remember? And why do I feel a ‘but’ coming on, Jones?”

Flynn frowned at first, and then he looked at Tyler who nodded before he continued.
“But we don’t know when the vessel that landed here was supposed to return. So even if we manage to land on that citadel, we will have to fight through approximately 200 unicorns.”

Rachel now nodded.
“I thought so… And what exactly are we going to look for? It’s not good to go up there without a plan. I mean, you want to go up there to blow up… what?”

Tyler rubbed his chin for a while. Shiria couldn’t provide decent information about the interior of the fortress, only info about the vague number of the crewmembers.
“Well… Such a big object needs to be held up by many unicorns. So I suppose we are looking for one or several rooms where unicorns are gathered and perform levitation magic.”

Flynn seemed to make a mental note for himself.
“Blowing up magic engine room… Got it!”

Tyler pointed a finger at Flynn.
“You better memorize the way in. The magical timer is set on two minutes. This is one of Twilight’s more advanced spells suited for me. Once the ‘engine room’ is out, the whole thing should crash into the mountain rocks or the desert sand. Doesn’t matter where, the thing will be crippled beyond repair and the unicorns in it will be dead.”

Sam now raised his hand.
“Wouldn’t it be better to get a hold on that thing in order to study it?”

Rachel shook her head.
“We don’t have the manpower for this, Sam. And I think right now proofing that this monster fortress CAN be destroyed is better for everyone.”

Tyler nodded.
“I think so, too. If it can be destroyed, it’s not so frightening anymore. If we blow that thing up, these war citadels will lose their infamous status. We fly tonight, so you better get some sleep and prepare yourself.”

Lyra approached Tyler and looked up to him with determination in her eyes.
“I’ll go with you, Tyler!”

In an instant, Sam shook his head.
“No, she won’t! Lyra! Honey, this is way too dangerous and I don’t want to put you in danger!”

She then glared over to her herd stallion and harrumphed before looking back to Tyler.
“What if you folks get shot at in midair and you have to maneuver and go out of spells? Then I’m the only one who has levitation magic in order to help you out!”

Tyler nodded.
“I see you have a point there, Lyra… Sam? Do you trust Lyra?”

Arching his brows and cocking his head Sam spread his arms.
“Ah, come on! You both know it’s not like I don’t trust her abilities, I simply don’t want her to be harmed!”

The unicorn mare now arched a brow with a smirk.
“If you leave me behind, I will never forgive you, Sam!”

With a sigh, he then bowed his head and shrugged.
“Fine… But you stay at my side! At all times, so I can protect you!” With this he went away with a grumble.

Tyler smirked at Lyra.
“Let me guess: You sneaked in in order to keep an eye out for him, right?” With a giggle, the unicorn mare winked at Tyler, causing him to chuckle.

Later that night the Rangers entered the shuttlecraft and Tyler took place into the pilot seat.
“Flynn? You take a seat as the copilot, I have no experience as a pilot, I simply hope to levitate this thing instead of crash-landing it…”

Flynn nodded and looked around.
“Well there are no instruments that could help me finding myself anywhere… But maybe you should tighten the magic sphere around the shuttle in order to…”

As he looked at Tyler he saw that he was completely without an idea to do that.
“Flynn! I’m not a unicorn! There’s no way I can alter the magic within me!”

Grinning a bit, Flynn then waved the thought away.
“Alright… In that case, a sphere it is!” As Tyler accumulated more and more levitation magic into the shuttle, it slowly started to fly. Mere meters above ground, Tyler added the magic sphere around it. The wobbly flight now stabilized and he could steer with far more ease.

A few minutes later they approached the citadel.
“You know guys… if they don’t fall for it we have to escape and quite fast, too. They fabricate storms with magic; I don’t want them to perforate this craft while we’re in it and in the air…”

Tyler nodded.
“I’ll get us down safe and sound.” He looked at the citadel. “Seems to me there should be some sort of hangar bay…”

“There it is!” Rachel said as she pointed towards an opening, which only came in sight quite slowly.

Tyler nodded and steered for the hangar bay as he grabbed a communication crystal. It had been quite some time since he last used one of these. Thinking for a moment, he then grabbed it tightly and began to speak into it.
“War citadel Sagarod, this is the delayed shuttle. We ran into some difficulties, but we managed to make them comply. No signs of Tyler Jones.”

Shortly after, the response was muttered through the crystal.
“Understood. You’re clear for landing.”

Tyler now arched a brow and nodded, before he put the communication crystal away and looked at the others.
“OK… Just as I thought. Everyone follows plan B, alright?” The others nodded and slowly the shuttlecraft landed in the hangar bay. But just as it had landed, a magic force field blocked the way out. Three floodlights were pointed at the shuttlecraft.

An officer of the Descendants stepped in front of twenty unicorns.
“Welcome! Welcome, welcome… And here I thought we would have to send another shuttle with more ponies after you… Good to see you came all by yourself, Mr. Jones… Would you kindly step outside now? It’s over…”The hatchet opened and Tyler, Rachel, Sam, Lyra and Grinko stepped outside. Several rifles and charged horns were pointed at them.

Rachel looked over to Tyler.
“Swell… Now what?”

The officer smirked satisfied.
“And you brought the other Harmony Rangers with you! This saves me the time searching for...” But when the officer in command saw that there were only three humans, he frowned. “What? I was told of FOUR human Harmony Rangers! This isn’t a Ranger, it’s a Masar!”

It was then when Lyra, Grinko and the Rangers put on blindfolds. The Descendants frowned at this first, expecting some attack, but then laughed.
“What is this? Are you readying yourself for your own execution?”

Tyler now began to grin as magic balls formed in his hands.
“Not quite…” In the next moment the entire hangar bay was bathed in bright light. Just as the flash ceased, the Rangers took off their blindfolds and began fighting. Within a minute the Descendants were dead on the ground while Lyra began charging Tyler again for the flight back.

Sam however frowned.
“How could you know they didn’t fall for all this and set up a trap here? I mean… You had the name of the citadel and the reason why they were out there…”

Tyler shook his head.
“I could only guess their real intentions. Maybe I got that right, but what alarmed me was the fact that they didn’t ask for security codes. A military base with no security codes? No, they’re not THAT stupid!”

Rachel smirked at Tyler.
“Who gave you those fancy flash grenade spells? They come in handy; I want some of these too.”

With a gentle smile Tyler looked down on his hand.
“Someone great and powerful…” As he looked to the roof of the shuttlecraft, he saw the opened hatch and smiled. “Seems to me Flynn is already on his way. Let us clear and secure the hangar bay while he’s gone.”

* * * * *

Flynn Marshall was already several levels above the hangar bay and approached one Descendant from behind, threw one of the orbs at him.
“Hey! Catch!”

“Whoah!” in surprise, the unicorn stallion juggled the orb a bit for he knew the potential danger it would cause once it would break. Losing his balance, he fell down, but managed to catch the orb. With a frightened look did the stallion inspected his catch. The orb didn’t break. With a sigh of relief, the Descendant closed his eyes, only to open them again as he heard the glass crack. With a whimper did he witness that the orb began to sparkle. One detonation later, Flynn peeked into a hallway where bright light was emerging from a room. As he carefully entered the room, he looked around. Below him were thirty unicorns who all conversed together as if they were trying to calibrate their magic efforts.

Orders like “A little more!” – “Not so much!” – “A little less!” were muttered all around. The unicorns above him sat still and silent in their places, seemed conditioned to perform continuous levitation magic. Silently, Flynn got to a pillar in the center of the large room, connecting all three levels and placed the bag there. He then searched for a marked vial with the label ‘timer’ and opened it. As soon as it was opened, the dark blood in the vial began to bubble a bit and he carefully placed the vial inside of the orbs. What did he do to this blood? But Flynn knew he had to go now. After exiting the room, he made haste towards the others.

Meanwhile Tyler shook his head.
“He’s overdue! I will go and look for him.”

Sam shrugged.
“Maybe he had to evade some action?” In the next moment, the alarm began to howl in the citadel.

Tyler now looked to the ceiling and gritted his teeth.
“Or maybe he IS the action!”

Flynn then stopped at the side of Tyler and the other Rangers.
”Everyone here? Good! The charges have been placed at some sort of engine room. At least that’s what I think it was. Several unicorns were performing magic on a level above me and below me, maybe to hold this thing in the air. I placed the orbs in a section right between them.”

Tyler nodded satisfied.
“Good! How many?”

But this only made Flynn arch a brow.
“What do you mean with ‘How many?’? I just dropped the bag with the charges and activated the timer!” He then grabbed Tyler and growled. ”You moron! You could have told me that two kilogram are not enough to disrupt their magic!”

Tyler looked at him with widened eyes, slapped his hands from himself and began to run hastily towards the exit.
”NOT ENOUGH? IDIOT!!! RUN!!! THIS THING’S GOING TO BLOW OUT OF THE SKY!!!"

Rachel’s eyes widened.
“Is he serious?"

Sam only shook his head.
“That guy knows his blood! RUN!!!”

As the Rangers now ran towards the hangar bay, Rachel looked over to Tyler.
“So what blast do you expect?”

“A HUGE one!!! Two kilogram shouldn’t produce a detonation of atomic proportions, but the blast should-” With this Tyler was interrupted in midsentence as a detonation struck the citadel and tore the structure into two with a ring-like detonation blast. While the lower part fell like a stone, smashing into the desert sand, the upper part of the citadel began to wobble. Without the balance of the lower unicorns, the ones in the remaining levitation room struggled to keep the imbalance in check, but already it was too late. Sinking down into the mountains, the citadel was already doomed. While the Ranger ran towards the exit, Lyra galloped behind them, before Tyler grabbed her and collected each one into one large magic sphere. By now the citadel’s floor was in a 45 degree and whoever was left inside, began to stumble over another. Tyler’s sphere escaped the citadel just in time before the huge fortress crashed into the mountain, several magic detonations ripping it apart even further.

Landing on the soft desert sand, the group then sat down as smoke filled the air behind them. Rachel began to grin.
“You know what I am in the mood for now? A smoke…”

Lyra arched a brow and looked at Sam.
“What’s a smoke?”

“That’s… a bad habit humans have. I quit it a long time ago”

Flynn looked over to Tyler and shook his head.
“OK… HOW did you make a timer out of your blood?”

Tyler rubbed his neck and grinned sheepish.
“Let’s just say that zebras know their potions… One of them, they call it Mafanim, can explode when exposed to oxygen. I had to tinker a bit, but after some time I had a full vial of blood mixed with a bit of that potion. The tiny bit wasn’t enough to blow up at once and I had to brew it inside my blood, but the result is dynamite!” Tyler now rested down in the sand. “Alright… One less thing to worry about… Now… a bath… with ice cubes! Fuck! I smell like a polecat!”

Lyra chuckled at this first, then looked in front of her, frowned, shook her head for a bit, looked again and then her eyes widened in disbelief.
"Sam? Who is that?” She asked, pointing at the object of interest.

As he looked the way Lyra pointed, Sam’s eyes suddenly opened. Right before them stood another human, black as a Changeling. His eyes glowed in a fierce green glow.
“I am Mimesis of Changeling. And you, whoever you are, have the privilege of being my next victims…”

Next Chapter: 23 - Boss Fight - Fighting a Nemesis * Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes