It was nice to feel rested, Ezikeal thought as he woke up, but frowned as he tried to focus on what just happened. One of the Princesses (Goddesses?) poked around his mind which he had been trying to shield from the world. He couldn't remember many specifics, but he knew it was her, he remembered her name. Luna. He also knew she now knew more about his powers than any other at this moment, and that knowledge forced an icy chill to settle in the pit of his stomach. He was doubtlessly in danger because of that, they would surely decide he was a threat and he would not blame them for that conclusion, but there had to be some way to convince them otherwise...

Whatever train of thought he might have been drifting down in that moment was interrupted when Applejack opened the barn doors and called up to him, "Ezikeal, we could use yer help," she said, sounding a bit annoyed, not at him, but in general.

"Did something happen?" he asked, quickly descending the ladder and joining her.

"It's some mighty frustratin' work ta fix up a dead tree, 'specially a weird one," she said, grabbing some tools from the barn. An axe and two big shovels, "Gotta dig up the whole thing ta make room fer a new one."

"Weird one?" Ezikeal asked as they began walking out to the trees.

"Yessir. It looks...off, that's all I can rightly say about it, noticed it startin' ta look bad a few days ago but we had other things ta do before worryin' about it," confusion bled into her voice as they approached. The sound of an axe hitting wood echoed steadily and they found Big Mac working on cutting the tree down. Ezikeal regarded it with a sense of dark wonder- the tree was most certainly dead, the leaves had all fallen or withered, and the bark looked pale and brittle, almost twisted around itself and tilted at an off angle. With each hit of the axe, loose splinters of wood flew off the trunk.

"What caused that..?" Ezikeal asked, looking around the area a bit more and unable to shake the feeling that this spot was...familiar to him somehow. Big Mac just grunted extra hard during a swing as his response to the question and Applejack shrugged.

"Not rightly sure myself, would grind me ta figure out somethin' fishy's been happenin' under our noses," she said flatly, not sounding pleased by that prospect. Ezikeal could sympathize with her discontent, to think that some kind of tampering or incident happened to their own property would no doubt eat at someone. Ezikeal walked closer to the tree, steering clear of the swinging axe and rested his hand on the bark.

This place feels...oddly familiar...not just the tree, but the area around it... He let his thoughts wander on that as he looked closely at the bark. It was a pale white, like the life was drained from it. Withered. He ran a finger along the rough material and knocked a chunk of the bark loose, taking a hold of it and frowning as he felt it turn almost ashy in his grip as he rolled it back and forth in his palm. His eyes followed the flakes of dead bark as they fluttered through the air as they fell to the grass, which caught Ezikeal's eye. A foot or so away from the very base of the tree a ring of pale white grass surrounded a small indent in the earth. Ezikeal turned to point out the strange sight to Applejack when the view from this angle froze him to his spot.

He could see the farm through the treeline from this angle, and a clear memory of his first arrival in this place cemented itself to his mind. Things slowly clicked together- the familiarity of this spot was because it was where he first arrived here. He remembered the cold of the night as he walked to her doorstep. This was where he arrived, which meant...what, exactly? He looked back at the tree now, appraising it in a new light. Had something come with him through whatever magic whisked him away? If that was the case, then this was bad bad. He stepped back, avoiding the tree as it fell down with a final hit of Big Mac's axe.

"Woah," Applejack said and Big Mac made a curious, suspicious grunt. Ezikeal nodded in silent agreement with their sentiments as his thoughts raced with what he saw inside the tree. Instead of the typical concentric rings that they had expected, the ones inside the tree now instead appeared to be warped, as if they all had been collectively pulled towards one side of the trunk in an unnerving display. Ezikeal looked at the lines, following the direction they were seemingly being pulled to lining up with the location of the small hole in the grass. Suspicion gnawed at Ezikeal, something must have been there that caused the tree to die.

"Applejack, can I see one of those shovels?" he asked, and once she handed him one he sunk it into the dirt, feeling a thunk of the tool hitting something hidden from sight. A root. He scraped away the dirt on top of it, including the hole, and revealed what lay beneath. He stared hard at what he saw in the now uncovered earth. The root looked horribly withered, almost a black color as opposed to the ashy, drained white of the rest of the tree. The root almost coiled itself around where the small hole in the dirt would have been above it, as if drawn up towards it.

Something was there. There's no doubt about it now. Something drained a tree of life and disappeared... Ezikeal thought. Applejack frowned at the deformed tree root.

"Somethin' definitely ain't right with that," she grumbled, "looks almost poisoned..."

"Eyup," Big Mac agreed.

If something followed me from Azeroth I need to think, what could do this? Just drain the life from things around it by simply existing--oh no, no no no not that of all things! He looked over the tree again, panic swelling as he remembered his last moments on Azeroth. The fight against Gul'dan and the demons of the Burning Legion. Those demons were empowered by Fel, the corrupting substance that destroyed life, or enslaved others to the Legion's goals in exchange for power in a poisoned bargain. He remembered the scenery of the Broken Shore, the place was devoid of life, but remnants of nature did remain. Those trees were much closer to the black lifeless char that the root had compared to the ghostly white of the tree trunk. It wasn't too far of a stretch in assuming that the Fel caused this tree's death but was not potent enough to fully consume it like on Azeroth...But where was it now? Fel doesn't just go away without a trace like that.

Then it cannot possibly the Fel, can it? his thoughts whispered as he tried to puzzle the situation together.

The effect on this tree is undeniable... he shot back at his mind.

Yet Fel lingers. It stains. It doesn't get 'used up' as you think is the case here. You know this as well as anybody. Let it go, for now. Focus on helping your allies, friends. Ezikeal furrowed his brow at the way he phrased that to himself in his mind, but didn't give it too much thought as he started helping Applejack and Big Mac dig up the stump and clearing out the roots. The process was as Applejack described, frustrating, and since they didn't know for certain what had caused the tree to die and it was clearly not exactly natural, Applejack set out to dig up all of the roots to remove the chance of whatever happened to it from spreading to another tree or many. The end result was a large, almost crater like section of dirt having been dug up and put into a large pile nearby and a pile of brittle, almost disintegrating wood in a separate pile that Ezikeal was now helping them load all into a wagon to dispose of.

If it wasn't the Fel, which would be a worst case scenario, it was definitely something of a more unnatural variety, and if that was the case, Twilight might be able to use her own magic to detect what kind of magic did this to the tree. At least, that's what Ezikeal hoped would be the case.

"Hey Applejack, can I take this over to Twilight and have her investigate it?" Ezikeal asked, taking up the dead, black root from earlier.

"Yeaup...might be right ta get Twilight ta take a look at it, we'll finish up here just fine, only gotta put the dirt back and plant a new tree. Thanks fer helpin' out with this, Ezikeal," she said, much less agitated now that most of the work was done. He nodded, took the root carefully and set off.

Finding the library on his own wasn't very difficult, and he did notice a few people who were walking about giving him curious looks. A lot of faces he recognized, at least in passing, as someone who attended the party Pinkie threw for him-- which he still felt incredibly grateful that she would have gone through that effort for him. Others, who he hadn't seen at the party, looked at him with a more reserved caution, a look Ezikeal wasn't particularly unused to. He soon arrived at the library and after a brief conversation with Spike, was let inside to find Twilight surrounded by large piles of books and floating dusters as she organized and cleaned the shelves, the thoroughness of it was something Spike had assured him was entirely necessary.

"Hello, Twilight," he greeted, watching the books float out of shelves and back in after a thorough cleaning via feather duster.

"Ezikeal, hello!" she greeted back, not looking at him as she focused on checking over a book, the subject or content of which Ezikeal had no idea, nor the desire to pursue at the moment. He found her dedication to the action somewhat inspiring, seeing her eyes rapt with attention as they roved every detail of the cover and pages, scanning for any sign of damage.

"You'll have to forgive my intrusion, but I feel we may be in need of your magical abilities. Something peculiar has been found in Applejack's farm," he said. The book Twilight was investigating snapped shut and she looked at him quickly.

"Did something happen?" concern laced her voice and her eyes darted to the strange root in his hand, "what's that?"

"I was hoping you could inspect this with your magic. One of the trees at the farm was dead, Applejack said she had noticed it starting to wither a few days prior, but hadn't gotten around to fully investigating until it was too late. We agree that it doesn't appear to be from any natural causes," he explained, tensing marginally as a purple glow enveloped his hand, then just the branch and pulled it into the air. Spike had set off to continue the work of cleaning the shelves manually himself while Twilight occupied herself with investigating the root. Her eyes narrowed on it as she slowly made motions with her horn, twisting it in small runic spell patterns.

"This is concerning," she concluded after a minute of analyzing it with her magic, "very concerning, actually," her eyes were alight with worry, but a great curiosity lingered under the supposed dire circumstance she saw in whatever her spell revealed to her.

"What happened to it?" Ezikeal pressed, seeing her starting to lose herself in her own thoughts as she turned the root back and forth in her magic.

"Something with dark magic impacted this...it's been magically drained of its natural energies," she said, setting it on the table, "do you have any clues as to what happened?"

"Nothing of significance. There was a small patch of grass by the tree that looked similarly dead surrounding a small hole in the dirt that that root was beneath, but other than that, I don't think I have any solid insight on what it is," he said. It was technically true, there was no way for him to tell for sure it was Fel, even if the signs strongly pointed that way. Twilight hummed aloud, adjusting her posture in her seat.

"I would need to investigate the location itself to determine what kind of entity this magic sourced from," she concluded, "Spike, you'll be able to handle the library for a little while?" she called over to her assistant.

"Of course, Twi! You can count on me!" he called back, saluting dutifully.

Twilight was, for lack of a better term, very worried. The lingering magic in that tree root, while faint, reeked with magic of a dark nature, to the point where it was almost dizzying at first before she adjusted, not expecting such a potent negative force to enter her senses. She looked at Ezikeal, pondering the slight tenseness in his form and the guarded look in his dark green eyes as he walked with her towards Applejack's farm. The way he looked at her when he was asking questions, it was almost...expectant, in a way, and she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something she wasn't being told about this. It was another frustrating thing to add to her mental list of 'Things Ezikeal is Potentially Hiding from Us' but she trusted that if he knew anything that was going to cause immediate harm, he would speak up. He had good intent, she knew that much was clear in his voice when they spoke the other day. When they had reached Applejack's farm, she and Big Mac had almost finished covering the area in fresh dirt. Applejack smiled at seeing her and Big Mac gave a nod of greeting as he went to move the wagon full of dead tree away.

"Ah, heya Twi, I see Ezikeal got yer interest in whatever happened out here, huh," she said, glancing at their new friend before giving her a hug. She hugged back, smiling in the embrace before letting her expression fall as she looked around the area. She had work to do.

"Yes, I concluded that something magical happened here, but I wanted to investigate the location to see if I could get any more clues out of it," she explained, channeling magic through her horn as she mentally ran through the matrix of patterns to analyze the magic at play here, fine-tuning the spell to more specifically look out for dark forces since that was what was at play here. The result was a small orb of her magic forming in the air a few feet in front of her. It glowed brightly with magic and started to float around where she directed it. She saw Ezikeal eye the orb curiously, but his eyes flicked away to a different spot of the now clear patch of earth. She sent the orb to where he was looking, feeling for lingering magic through it.

A little bit of something here...

Growing more intense this way...

There!

She hovered the orb above a single location as she felt the intense presence of dark forces lingering in the inert magical energies in the air. It was...twisted almost, like some form of corruptive energy. She frowned as she felt the energies out in her mind through the orb, filtering the magic through to observe in her mind's eye.

But can I identify a source...did something cast a spell of this nature here... her horn glowed brighter as she altered her spell a bit. It was one thing to detect magic, a skill that she had a decent bit of practice in now since the Changelings were a constant nuisance, but it was a different level of challenge entirely to determine the source of a magical disturbance, something she only had to do a few times in uncontrolled environments with mild to relative success. She closed her eyes, focusing on what the orb of her magic was able to discern from the environment around them before a pang of sensation hit her through the orb's "eye" and she narrowed in on a different location entirely. Her eyes snapped open and she looked to where she felt the disturbance from to find...nothing there? She raised an eyebrow, not taking any time to answer the unasked questions she saw in Applejack and Ezikeal's faces when she glanced at them, and the orb floated over to that location. It was in the air, about three feet above the ground.

"Hm..." she chewed the inside of her cheek, lost in curious thought now as she felt a different type of magic from this location entirely. This was weird, two magical anomalies in the same location, both of a different type of magic. One was of dark, chaotic forces and the other she had yet to discern. She had a read on the anomalies and their locations now and dismissed the orb scanning the area around them, watching it turn into small sparkly particles before fading from existence. This called for a more direct investigation now.

"Anythin'?" Applejack asked, surely seeing in Twilight's face that there was something but wanted to get an idea herself about it.

"There's a second anomaly here, very different from the other. I can't get a good understanding of what this other magic is yet, though," she said, approaching the spot of the midair anomaly and letting her horn light up with magic once more. She needed to take a more direct analysis of this now, so instead of summoning a secondary spell to scan through the magic and filter what she saw through that orb, she decided it was time for an unfiltered adventure into unknown forces. Her horn, glowing with magic, pressed into the location of the anomaly and she cast a more powerful observance spell. Surprisingly, she felt whatever it was deflect her attempts to observe it, as it she were pushing a mismatched key into a lock. She furrowed her brow, that meant something was still here! That changes her approach entirely, and gave reason to investigate this even more thoroughly. She mentally shifted the magical matrix of her spell to go from simply observing, to slightly prying at the unknown force in front of her. Slowly, carefully as to not cause some catastrophic magical feedback, she eased a sharp prod of magic into whatever force still lingered in the air. What kind of magic lingered and acted as if it was locked...she racked her brain for a moment as she went through the mental motions of countering the magical flow redirection that she was encountering with the anomaly, instead forcing her magic to channel back into the anomaly again with even more force. Her goal was to eventually overwhelm it with more magical force than it was able to reasonably push back against (without causing an explosion), and her horn glowed brighter and brighter until...

Her eyes widened and she wrenched her head to the side violently, cancelling her magical prodding as soon as she realized what was happening-- as soon as she felt a deep, disturbing chill rip through her form as something was forced to open, just a crack before violently snapping shut again once even a little bit of her magic exertion was lost from it. She fell backwards, landing on her back and gasped at the sensation.

"Twilight!?" Applejack let out at her startle, and Ezikeal made a sound of similar surprise.

"Portal!" she rasped, shaking her head as she sat up, "there's a portal!" her head throbbed a bit from the sudden, violent dispersion of magic as she cancelled the channel. While her curiosity and desire for information and knowledge were limitless, her rationality was not going to allow her to simply open up a random portal leading to potentially anywhere or anything.

"There's a what now on my farm!?" Applejack exclaimed and looked at where Twilight had been focusing her magic. Nothing could be physically seen, but Twilight was sure of what she had encountered with her magical senses teetering on the very edge of a vast expanse on the other side of that anomaly, the extent of which she couldn't be sure of unless they fully opened it but something was keeping it forced shut. The amount of magic needed to open it just that sliver was a notable exercise in magical exertion, but Twilight knew it would only get harder to open it further than that. A hand took hers and helped her to her feet-- Ezikeal, she noticed, and she thanked him with a nod before getting her bearings back.

"Yes, a portal exists right about here," she waved her hand through the air at the spot, "and my theory now is that something came through that portal, resulting in whatever landed in the dirt and destroyed your tree. Whatever came through was of a chaotic dark magic but I can't pinpoint the origin...this could be really problematic, Applejack, I think you'll need to hold off on planting another tree here for the time being while I figure out how to handle this thing, I'm sorry," she said apologetically, knowing how important it was to Applejack to have everything running smoothly on the farm. Applejack looked a bit frustrated about it, but seemed to understand the significance of a random portal in her farm and seemed to weigh that risk over having one less apple tree.

"Don't worry 'bout me, Twi, s'long as we can figure out what the hay this is doing here and how ta get rid of it. I don't wanna see some wild creatures comin' out ta 'cause if that happens it'll be more than just a me problem, won't it," she said. Twilight was grateful Applejack was always so understanding and nodded in response.

"Can you tell where this portal leads to?" Ezikeal asked. Twilight shook her head.

"No, and since I cannot tell and it's possible there's more of whatever did this to the tree is on the other side, we need to be very cautious about this," she explained, noting the strange expression Ezikeal was failing to conceal but brushing it off as pressing him about it was likely to lead to nowhere. The truth of her own statement wasn't lost on her, if they didn't know where it was, it was not impossible for it to lead to some long lost part of the planet, or possibly even another one. Whatever made the portal itself, and was able to sustain its position here as if it was some sort of rift, would have to have tons of magical power. That fact alone was concerning her, but the fact that whatever remained on the other side of this portal likely brought some kind of dark chaotic magic through was on another level of concern. She had to send a letter to Celestia and Luna about this, they'd be able to help close it, surely.

Ezikeal was trying to process what this all meant. He knew what the portal was-- he strongly believed so, at least. A portal from Azeroth to this world, made of the same force that dropped him into this world having reformed his shell of a body into something livable as it went. A second implication also gripped him with this knowledge, because assuming this was the same pathway that dropped him into this world, that meant that on the other side of this invisible portal was the Tomb of Sargeras, and opening it would surely spill demons through to try and conquer the place. Twilight, thankfully, seemed to have a reign on her exploratory senses and understood the risk of opening the portal, even without him having to divulge more dangerous information, meaning that they were all safe, for now at least.

The second thing Ezikeal was very sure of now, was that some trace of the Fel followed him through the portal now. It all mostly made sense when laid out plainly. He died in the throes of demonic conflict, a portal opened in the last specs of his fading undeath, pulled his soul through, and somehow some kind of demonic essence followed him. Did Gul'dan see the portal and send Fel after him through the portal? That didn't seem too far fetched...he wouldn't be able to understand all the intricacies of what had happened without delving into mysteries he felt were best kept hidden.

This left the question, however, of where the hell did the Fel go? Fel was essentially demon blood, and it lingered for a long time whenever it was spilled upon the ground, usually requiring some kind of purging to be done of it. Assuming the amount was only enough to fill that small hole by the tree roots, there should still have been some kind of trace of it. He frowned to himself some. He was no mage, but maybe there was a chance that traveling through the portal destabilized the Fel enough for it to dissipate over time...he couldn't think of another way that it could disappear.

As long as the portal stays closed, then, we should hopefully have no issues... he hoped to himself.

"So what's our next steps?" he asked. Yes, that was a good question, he needed to know what the others were thinking about this as well.

"Our next steps, right," Twilight started, "The next thing we have to do is determine if we can remove this portal from here, I have a bad feeling about this, random portals are usually not a good sign of anything, and given the circumstances we found this in, I hope you can agree?" she asked, earning a nod of agreement from Ezikeal and Applejack both.

"Good, then I'll need to take a little bit to get prepared with some equipment and possibly some magical help from others knowledgeable about these sorts of things-- I can send a letter to Canterlot to see if Celestia or Luna has any insight on the matter, they have deeper magical knowledge than anyone I know and then I want to study it to find what caused this and understand how to more easily open and close these types of portals if possible," she spoke quickly as she thought it out, a quill writing down what she was saying on a peace of paper that had appeared from her bag as she made a list of tasks. At a glance, Ezikeal saw she had made two columns labelled "necessary" and "want" to organize her thoughts and priorities. He was a bit apprehensive about getting the Princesses involved, as he didn't know what they were thinking of him, what Luna was telling Celestia, or how they were planning to deal with him.

"I haven't seen ya get this worked up over somethin' in a minute, Twi," Applejack said, smiling fondly as Twilight had transitioned from explaining things to them to muttering to herself as her quill blurred over the page. She paused, looking at Applejack and smiled.

"There hasn't been anything magically interesting that's happened in what feels like forever, Applejack, and while this is an incredible opportunity for discovery and exploration, I am making sure to temper my expectations on what we will be able to do because this is a legitimate security threat to Ponyville, too, you don't need to worry about me getting carried away," she said, rolling up the paper and sliding it back into her bag.

"It sounds like it's goin' ta be busy 'round here fer the next few days, huh?" Applejack said, seemingly put in a much better mood at seeing her friend's uncontrolled excitement.

"Yes, I promise we won't disturb things around here too much, Applejack," she nodded, giving Applejack a hug and Ezikeal a nod before going on her way to get started on her work.

"Well, I'm gonna finish up over here, Ezikeal. I got nothin' more fer ya to do at the moment, take a load off, will ya?" she said. Ezikeal heard the tone she spoke with, noting she sounded a bit exhausted, no doubt from all the work, but still left him no room to argue so he simply nodded and retreated to the barn, looking at the evening sun as it had started to lower.

It was morning when Silver Spark found herself walking with careful attention through the central market of Ponyville. She, like a few others, had been stationed in the town by Princess Celestia to help keep a reign on the Changeling threat and to watch for anything suspicious. With that as the goal, she welcomed the surprise of Celestia's esteemed student, Twilight Sparkle, being so eager to help the guard strengthen security on the town. One measure she had taken with the unicorn guards, like herself, was to establish experimental pylons around the town that would signal those attuned to them of any Changeling magic being present in an area. When they went off, it was like a soft buzzing in the back of her head, pulling her towards the triggered pylon.

That alarm was currently buzzing in her mind in the market, meaning a Changeling was present or someone had inadvertently triggered the alarm somehow-- they were experimental after all. Regardless, being the disciplined guardspony that she was, this was to be treated as 100% true and thus she was now on the lookout for suspicious looking Ponies. She had signaled the other few guards in the area that she was investigating so that they could continue on their own patrol routes around town. The morning market was alive with the townsfolk, stands of fresh product were all around them. Everypony was looking at, bargaining for, or selling something, and she smiled knowing that she was, even if it was just a tiny bit, responsible that this was able to continue in undisturbed peace.

It was with that knowledge of her role in society that she continued so resolutely to do the best she possibly could, which helped in her having spotted one pony in particular that looked out of place. She was tall with deep blonde hair, wearing a vibrant green shirt and blue skirt. She shuffled among the others in the market, but didn't seem to be interested in any of the products on display. Rather, she was looking at the other ponies, resting an almost appraising gaze on them as she passed by them.

Silver Spark narrowed her eyes a bit and followed at a distance, noting how this behavior continued for several minutes. She didn't even have bags or anywhere to store her bits in, which was unusual for someone browsing the market, perhaps not so much out of ordinary for a spy browsing ponies. Suspicion fueled Silver Spark's actions as she slowly circled around the crowd to intercept the suspicious individual, and the two nearly bumped into each other when they crossed paths.

"Excuse me, Miss?" Silver Spark said, noting mentally how the other pony practically recoiled in surprise at the sudden appearance of a guard addressing them, "do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

The other mare shifted nervously, "Um, actually, yes, I am in a hurry, actually, is this something truly important?" she said, making her tone sound rushed. Silver Spark raised an eyebrow. She knew for a fact that this pony wasn't in a hurry as she had been watching her for the past ten or so minutes. She considered her suspicions well-founded now.

"Of course, I wouldn't bother you with something I didn't think was important, miss...?"

"Violet Song," she answered, "please, really I must be-"

"Right, Violet Song," she said, cutting off any further excuse from the other mare, "I'm sure you're aware now that there's been an increase of Changeling activity in these parts, aren't you?" Silver Spark asked, noting how the tension in the other pony was only growing as she narrowed in on the root of her suspicions.

"I'm not sure of anypony who hasn't, ma'am," Violet said, shifting in place and looking warily at the ponies around them now, a few had stopped to watch what was happening with intrigue.

"I just noticed that you didn't seem to be in the market looking to buy anything, and now that would make sense since you've said that you were in a hurry to get somewhere, mind if I ask where you are off to?" Silver pressed.

"I'm going to see my friend, Ivy, at Sugarcube Corner," the lie rolled off her tongue, clearly practiced, Silver noted at how confident it was compared to the rest of her demeanor. She had caught this one off balance, likely they hadn't expected such thorough guard activity, or to be found out so soon after setting foot in town. She'd have to report to Twilight Sparkle on how well the pylon worked to detect the Changeling. In any case, she was confident enough to press on, certain she had caught one outright.

"That's strange, Violet, because Sugarcube Corner is that way, and you're heading almost opposite that direction," she said, her horn began to glow with the spell she had been taught to undo a Changeling disguise. A small rush of entertainment sparked through her at the other pony's widening eyes, but faded rapidly when she noticed that they quickly changed to barely restrained anger as she went to fully cast the spell on them. A flash of bright light blinded onlookers for a moment as the spell cast.

Something wasn't right, Silver Spark thought, looking at the Changeling-- it was definitely a Changeling, a dull green natural armor adorning its form as opposed to a usual black was odd, but that wasn't something that concerned Silver Spark. Something was horribly wrong, alarm bells were ringing in her head and she heard several panicked gasps and a faint scream...her hearing was muffled a bit with the sound of her own heartbeat...why? She narrowed her eyes at the Changeling, whose eyes glowed with green energy as it coldly glared daggers into her own, and she followed the line of its form with her eyes, trailing down its arm as it was outstretched out towards her...

Oh.

Her struggled breath caught in her throat as she looked down, seeing the Changeling was holding what looked like a knife. A knife that had been worked through one of the partings in her plate armor and was currently sunk deep into the side of her torso. With a insectoid hiss, the Changeling ripped its arm away, the knife with it and then the pain started.

Silver Spark let out a loud cry as she fell to her knees, one arm reaching across herself to press against the wound, but unable to reach her skin through the armor. She was trained about what to do in case of a puncture wound-- she needed to stop the bleeding with pressure and fast. She didn't care that the Changeling's wings began buzzing as it started to fly away, she needed to get her armor off to stop the bleeding! She needed to...her vision started to blur as she clawed at the straps of her armor as she fell to the side. The weight of another pony suddenly supported her as she was about to hit the ground, holding her up and she saw in the corner of her eye a head of rainbow hair.

"Rarity!" a voice practically screamed, but she couldn't make it out clearly enough. She felt hands quickly, shakily working at the straps of her armor.

"Hey, hey hey hey, it's going to be okay, it's going to be okay, alright," a muffled, distant seeming voice that sounded like it was trying to be soothing spoke, but sounded on the verge of breaking down as she felt her breastplate get worked off and a hand press against the wound. It was around her ribs-- that was bad, she knew that much. It was hard to breathe, she noticed, a raspy sound accompanying her exhales with a coppery taste on her tongue.

A second force worked on her body, she felt magic lift her, and a new hand pressed against the wound. She heard this new pony exchange words with the other and then she was left with one tending to her. She felt herself being carried quickly by magic somewhere, she assumed the hospital, that is where she needed to go right? She couldn't think straight anymore.

"C-cold..." she choked out, shuddering, ashamed of feeling so weak and useless. A second later the magic enveloping her seemed to heat up, responding to her pathetic, soft utterance for aid. How did she let this happen to her? She should have been ready for anything...but she wasn't expecting a Changeling to get...murderous, that just wasn't how they were...they wanted ponies alive, didn't they? Nothing was making sense and as she saw a blurry white sign indicating they were, in fact, approaching the hospital, the little sliver of consciousness she was holding on herself faded to nothing but darkness.

Another chapter down, hopefully I get one more out before the new year.

Happy Holidays to you all.

Feedback welcome as always, I'll see you guys in the next one.