With a screeching roar, tendrils of Ink erupted from the depths of the destroyed home, sending splinters of wood and stone scattering about as the Bearers and Big Mac all turned to face the sudden expulsion of debris. Winona yelped in terror, turning tail and sprinting her way through a back alley nearby, her instincts demanding that she fled. Most of the Bearers looked on in shock as Dimmed Star crawled out from beneath the refuse, portions of her body still phasing through the bulk of it while the tendrils around her would toss aside what was left. Rainbow Dash, however, glared at the mare despite her rising and imposing form.

Growling angrily, Dimmed Star shook off what debris covered her frame as gashes across her body quickly began closing, the Ink within working its way through the edges of her wounds, sealing them closed. Turning to face the other Bearers, their eyes widened as they found that the right half of her skull was in the process of reconstructing itself, as though it had been crushed under a massive weight. Her left eye darted to each of them in turn, studying them carefully as her jaw readjusted itself to align properly with a sickening crunch.

‘I shouldn’t have phased through the house so much…’ She thought idly as she looked beyond the mares, each who watched her with varying expressions of disbelief and anger. Upon locating her quarry, Dimmed Star’s lips split into a grimace and she growled in disgust, the stallion was already dead. Her heart weighed heavily with her failure to end his life with her own hooves, her fury having once more been denied.

“What did you do!?” Her face having fully reformed, Dimmed Star snapped both eyes from the body of the stallion to the form of Rainbow Dash bearing down on her, ruby eyes furious as she stopped to hover just before the mare. Dimmed Star glared back unflinchingly as she glanced around to the others, taking in her current dilemma. From the outside, this certainly looked bad. Her next words would decide whether or not the situation could be salvaged. This would be a lot easier if Cheerilee were here to explain things. With a sigh of irritation, Dimmed Star turned back to Rainbow, making sure to move slowly as to not appear threatening.

“It’s not what it looks like Rainbow… well… not exactly… though… perhaps… ?” Shoot, the more she thought about it, the more this was exactly how it looked. Rainbow’s glare only grew in intensity as she flapped closer, the veins in her neck visibly bulging as she yelled.

“Not what it looks like!? I heard you, Dimmed Star! I knew that wasn’t thunder! Your crazy goo is all over his body! Why!? Why did you kill Scootaloo’s dad!?” At the mention of the young pegasus, however, Dimmed Star’s eyes grew dark as all pretense at keeping a placating facade was swiftly discarded. Rainbow Dash blinked for the barest of moments as she suddenly found herself staring up into the dark eyes of Dimmed Star, half shifted into her alternate form, the dark mare’s shadow cast over the pegasus that had just seconds ago hovered above her. Dimmed Star’s voice hissed out of her throat in a deep and rumbling growl as the prismatic mare felt her heart skip in fear, her wings taking her several paces away to gain distance between the two of them.

“Never... call that thing a father in my presence again…” Rainbow’s brow furrowed as she glared back at the dark mare. A moment of silence passed between the two of them, Dimmed Star’s cold eyes boring into Rainbow’s crimson irises.

A soft brushing against her foreleg snapped Dimmed Star from her irritation at the weather mare before her as she looked down and found Fluttershy there, stroking her foreleg and shushing the distorted growls that Dimmed Star hadn’t realized she’d been producing. The other Bearers now stood around them, Applejack taking up the space near Rainbow as she rooted her hooves and straightened her hat, emerald eyes carefully watching and calculating each of Dimmed Star’s movements. Rarity stood on the other side of Fluttershy, keeping a respectable distance from their friend in the event of something going wrong.

“Th-there, there, Star. I-It’s gonna be... o-okay…” Fluttershy choked out, her voice trembling as she spoke. The stains of blood on her hooves and forelegs from her attempts to stall the stallion’s bleeding were beginning to dry, crusting and flaking away little by little with her movements. Though she sought to soothe Dimmed Star’s anger, Fluttershy couldn’t help the sickness she felt in her stomach as she watched her crimson coated hoof with a morbid fascination out of the corner of her tear-filled eyes.

“What in tarnation happened here, Star? An’ don’ go leavin’ out any details, Ah’ll know if’n ya do.” Dimmed Star looked away from their shy friend to find Applejack staring her down intently. Rainbow Dash bristled from beside the farmer as she tried to appear taller, her crimson eyes glaring. Taking a deep breath, Dimmed Star’s form slowly shifted back to her default state, shrinking down and causing Fluttershy’s soft strokes to slowly become a full-on hug as the mare trembled in her embrace. At first, Dimmed Star had a mind to push the mare off, until the image of a pink maned baker flashed through her mind. The vision of Pinkie Pie’s crying face as she snuggled closer into Dimmed Star’s fur just after her little… episode… left a clawing feeling of guilt in her stomach.

‘Pinkie…’ Raising a foreleg tentatively, Dimmed Star draped it around the back of the yellow mare carefully, before sighing as the slightest hint of warmth seemed to spread through her system at the contact. Taking a deep breath, she turned to the others as she began her tale. The simplest place to start was with her encounter regarding Cheerilee and the stallion on her porch. She had failed to recollect the pony’s name, as the only thing she cared about was why they were fighting on her porch. The thought that Cherilee would ever be in a brawl with another pony was hard to swallow, and though Rainbow appeared to want to say something, Applejack prevented the mare from speaking out of turn, allowing Dimmed Star to finish her side of the story unhindered. The dark mare recounted to them what she had learned and what she had done; the retelling of her trip through the dilapidated conditions of the home, the horrid mess of both it and that of its occupants therein, and the distinct lack of a certain filly whom Cheerilee had confirmed was absent from school.

By the time she was done, Rainbow Dash and Rarity were looking at her in utter shock and disbelief, while Fluttershy had only begun to tremble more in the embrace she shared with Dimmed Star. Taking a few moments to herself as she left them to their thoughts, she wondered how they would take the news. Would they blame her? Would they abandon her again…? The sound of a hoof stamping in the mud drew her away from her musings, finding Rainbow Dash glaring at her with tearful eyes as she now stood upon the ground, her wings spread wide.

“No! No, no, no, no! I don’t believe that! You’re lying, you have to be! Sh-she’s at school, she’s a-at school where sh-she’s supposed to be!” Dimmed Star spoke nothing in her defense, only watching as the pegasus began to lose her fight to remain calm.

“She ain’t lied once, RD.” Collectively, the group turned to the resident Element of Honesty as the farmer nodded to Dimmed Star with a hint of understanding in her watery eyes. For the briefest of moments, the dark mare wondered where such certainty had been back at the wedding rehearsal but chose to let it go… for the moment…

“Even if she was, ain’t like we couldn’t go ask Cheerilee ourselves…” Tipping her hat down a bit to cover her eyes, the Applejack looked down and to the side as her brother, Big Mac, trotted up slowly beside her, lending his side for the apple farmer to lean against as he kept his eyes on Dimmed Star’s form. Rainbow looked to the honest mare, her jaw trying and failing to form words before she fell to her hindquarters and stared at the ground, rivers of hot tears now pouring down her face as she hiccuped at first, then screamed her frustration to the cloudy sky above, slamming her hooves over and over again in the dirt. Rarity, bowed her head as well, her sapphire mascara beginning to run despite her best efforts at maintaining her composure.

Dimmed Star suddenly found herself feeling a bit colder as Fluttershy had changed targets, quietly stumbling her way over to their cyan friend and pushing past her flailing limbs, no matter how many times Rainbow tried to push her away, even striking out at her, Fluttershy would not be denied. The mare grappled with Rainbow until finally, the weather pegasus had either tired herself out or simply could no longer bring herself to struggle anymore. Collapsing into the animal caretaker’s limbs, Rainbow cried heavily into her chest while Fluttershy wrapped the both of them up in her wings, softly whispering something the others could not catch to the distraught mare, rocking them back and forth in place.

“Da-darling?” Taking her eyes away from the scene, Dimmed Star nodded silently at the alabaster mare, giving Rarity the floor.

“You… you said that you never found her… b-body… right?” Dimmed Star closed her eyes and thought back to before she let loose. Thankful once more for her photographic memory, she went back through her tour of the home. From the entrance to the hallways, the kitchen, and the bedrooms, even through the very walls themselves… nothing…

“No… There was no sign of her. There was a great deal of blood in the home, spilled along the floor and stairs. I only found one body, a mare. If I had to guess, it was Scoot’s mom.” Her eyes locked back on to the body of the stallion once more, her blood boiling from within just staring at him. Rarity raised a hoof to her mouth, shock in her eyes.

“O-oh my… but… doesn’t that mean there is a chance…? Could Scootaloo have… gone off someplace? Could she have es-escaped?” The choking sobs of Rainbow came to a sudden halt at this and the mare’s ruby orbs peered over the lemon-colored wings of her friend. The whites of her eyes were partly bloodshot and bits of snot trailed from her nose and down her muzzle, but the smallest glimmer of hope dared to shine in those desperate orbs.

“S-sh-she c-could be… a-alive?” Pushing herself to a standing position, the mare began to frantically look about at the debris around them.

“Th-then we go-gotta find something! An-anything that co-could tell us!” Her strength renewed, she finally broke free of Fluttershy’s constricting grasp and began to dig through the nearest pile of debris.

“Sq-Squirt! Can you hear me!” Dimmed Star and the others watched on solemnly as the cyan mare desperately dug through the remains of the home, calling out for the filly to show any sign of herself. Turning away from the heart-wrenching sounds of Rainbow’s desperate search, Dimmed Star felt her heart pounding heavily in her chest… it hurt to see one of her friends in so much pain, especially a pony who had always been so strong.

“I searched everywhere… she’s not here, Rainbow…” Whether the mare heard her or not, Rainbow did not respond as she leaped from one section of the home to another, clinging onto the hope that she so desperately needed. Applejack leaned closer to her brother as he laid a foreleg over her withers, burying her muzzle into his neck as she fought to keep her friends from seeing her own distress. How was she supposed to tell Applebloom that one of her best friends was likely gone?

Suddenly, the cyan mare abandoned her search as she took to the air, drawing their eyes to her in surprise as she rocketed away in a blur of cyan and rainbows, slamming bodily into the corpse of the stallion, skidding the two of them across the dirt.

“Where is she!? Tell me dammit! Where’s Scootaloo!?” The Bearers looked after the prismatic mare, mortified at her sudden and violent act. Applejack and Big Mac took off after her, trailed by Fluttershy as they attempted to pull her from the body as she screamed and beat the stallion’s head with her hooves.

“R-Rainbow! It ain’t no good! He’s dead, leave 'im be!” Dimmed Star watched from the rubble as Rarity sobbed nearby, the two of them watching as the three ponies struggled with their friend.

“No! Let me go! Wake up dammit! Tell me where she is! Where is she!?” Her cries continued long after the farmers had pinned her to the ground while Fluttershy dragged the stallion’s body further away, her aqua eyes clenched shut as she cried.

Rarity, no longer fighting the tears that poured freely, slowly moved closer towards Dimmed Star, her eyes pleading.

“Pl-please… tell us you have some way… some spell o-or ability that would help us find her.. to know for certain…?” The dark mare only shook her head.

“I don’t know any spells for tracking and my senses aren’t too much higher than a normal pony’s… They’ve been put to the test enough times in the Everfree for me to know their limits. I could maybe get her scent for a few yards, perhaps a quarter of a mile, but no further. Even then, we don’t know how long she’s been missing… the rain could have washed away her scent by now.” Dimmed Star’s eyes looked up towards the sky, her teal pupils studying the patterns of the rain clouds above. Although the storm had stopped and the wind was beginning to die down, it still felt as though it were raining… Unbeknownst to her, a single dark tear slid its way down the left side of her face, dripping to the rubble beneath. Rainbow’s enraged screams had devolved into a fit of sobs at this point, her voice echoing around the nearby buildings.

“I can track her…” The new voice startled her, drawing her eyes away from the clouds above and down below, finding the source with relative ease as he stood at the edge of the ruined home.

Spike twiddled his claws together quietly, shuffling his feet as his guardian and Rarity stared back at him. The hunched forms of Sweetie Belle and Applebloom could easily be seen trying to hide behind his tiny frame, their nervous gazes peeking around him as they watched the scene with fear and worry.

“Spike? What are you doing here?” The drake swallowed nervously, glancing around as though he’d been caught doing something wrong.

“I-I heard you… I heard your voice from the schoolhouse. I thought… I got worried… so I, uh, we came to help.” He glanced back to indicate the two crusaders who smiled up to her weakly. Sweetie Belle glanced back over to the body of the stallion, her face turning green as her eyes widened shakily. Seeing this, Rarity’s own protective instincts took over and she rushed to the fillies and drake, situating herself between them and the gruesome scene behind her.

“Th-this is no place for fillies and colts! You all need to head back to the school this instant!” She did her best to give them a disapproving glare. The foals and drake had the decency to look sheepish at this, looking anywhere but to the irate mare.

“There’s no point, Rarity. It’s already the middle of the day and Cheerilee has been… well, I don’t know where she is now, but I doubt classes will be taking place. That aside…” Dimmed Star stepped down from the pile of refuse that she had been standing on, slowly approaching the younglings. Glancing over to the body of the stallion, she wished she had dealt with the corpse sooner so as to have spared the foals such a sight. Turning back to the drake, she dipped her head as she approached and nuzzled his brow as he leaned into her.

“Are you sure, Spike? Do you think you can find her?” Spike nodded slowly, grateful for the comforting motion of his guardian. As she pulled away, his eyes took on a determined look, their reptilian pupils sharpening.

“I want to try.” Dimmed Star smiled down at the drake, her pride in the youngling growing every second.

“Pl-please…” The two of them turned to find the prone form of Rainbow Dash, still pinned beneath Big Mac’s hooves. Said mare was now looking at them, her eyes begging as she struggled to speak through her sobs.

“Pl-please fi-find… find he-her… please…” Dimmed Star bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to tear flesh as she watched the mare. Applejack stood close by, nursing a few bruises and scrapes caused by the pegasus’ struggles as Fluttershy sat next to the cyan mare, holding her head in her hooves as she wept into her prismatic mane. Dimmed Star turned back to the drake as he trembled, watching the desperate mare as she tried to reach a pleading hoof out to him, begging him to find the filly all the while. Placing her Ink stained hoof upon his shoulder, Dimmed Star turned him away from the heartbreaking scene, pushing him towards the rubble as she glanced to Rarity who watched on while holding tightly to the two crusaders.

“Keep an eye on them… we’ll find her… I promise…” The alabaster unicorn nodded as she watched them go. Dimmed Star took one last look back at the group before she trotted after Spike, her horn alighting with its dark aura as a familiar saddlebag blinked into existence and hovered next to her. Stepping up beside Spike, the bags lowered themselves to his claws as he reached up for them. Pausing momentarily, Dimmed Star hesitated to give the bags to the young drake. His emerald eyes looked up to her curiously as he waited.

“Star?” The dark mare struggled with the weight of this decision. If Spike could track the filly… what would they find at the end of the trail? Would she be okay? Would she be dead? Her eyes traced the scaled features of her charge, could she risk him seeing such a thing? Her thoughts trailed back to the body of the stallion nearby… A nameless corpse was one thing, but the body of a dear friend?

“Spike… I need you to promise me something.” Nodding slowly, the drake watched as his guardian chewed her lip in thought, before continuing.

“When we get close, I want you to wait for me while I go ahead, understood?” Spike looked to her in confusion.

“But, I want to make sure Scootaloo is okay.” His quiet voice only just reached her ears as he mumbled his desire to see his friend. She understood how he felt. Although the filly and she had not interacted much more than the times she had come over and studied with them, she was one of few ponies that had begun to accept her again. The bright, smiling face of the filly intruded her thoughts, forcing her to shake her head to clear it away and focus on their task. It would do no good to dwell on what was, if there was a chance that she could still be alive somewhere, now was the time.

“I know, Spike, but it’s something I need you to promise me.” Placing a hoof beneath his chin, she raised his head so that their eyes would meet. Sniffling slightly, Spike nodded his acceptance and she smiled softly at him.

“Thank you, Spike. Now, don’t push yourself.” Levitating the bag of school supplies into his claws, Spike lifted the top and began to dig through its contents. The first thing he took a big whiff of was the bag itself, taking care to try and single out any defining scents. Nodding, he reached into the bag and began taking out several items, each ranging from books to pencils and paper, he took long sniffs of each, trying to single out a single scent that wouldn’t lead him astray. The final few things to be pulled from the bag were a few near-empty vials, causing his eyes to widen as he turned them over in his claws.

“I thought so…” Catching this, Dimmed Star stepped closer and peered over his shoulder to get a better look.

“What is it, Spike, makeup?” The drake nodded in affirmation as he took deep sniffs of the vials.

“Yeah, I thought I smelled it whenever Scoot was around, but I just always thought it was something that rubbed off of Sweetie Belle or something.” Taking another deep sniff, the wind began to pick up at that moment, causing him to turn his head suddenly and drop the vials. Looking between him and the contents of the bag, Dimmed Star felt an inkling of hope as she alighted her horn and collected the items, placing the bag upon her back as she followed after the drake as he took off, the two of them rushing away from the ruined home as the rest of the Bearers, Big Mac, and two fillies watched after them.

Everything hurt… why did everything hurt?

Scootaloo’s consciousness faded in and out as she blinked away the sleep from her tired eyes. The only thing she could see was a ceiling of ringed wood? Oh, she must be at the library… maybe she had fallen asleep on the floor again and had slept wrong. Her vision grew blurry for a moment as if her eyes were struggling to see. Trying to sit up, the pain in her body screamed at her and she found herself unable to move as she lay there, her mouth opening in a horrified expression, but no sound escaping.

A shadow passed over her and the sound of somepony talking could be heard, but it seemed distant and muffled. Who was that? Why couldn’t she see or hear them? A hoof brushed against her forehead as another pushed her back into the soft blankets below. Scootaloo could feel something cold being placed upon her burning fur and skin above her eyes, trails of a cool liquid dripping down from the sides of her brow. The shadow hovered for a moment longer, before it stepped away and out of view.

‘No… please, come back…’ Scootaloo begged for the shadow to return, for it to tell her why she hurt so much, why her body felt as though it were on fire. The edges of her vision began to darken once more as her eyes slowly closed, her consciousness fading…

Spike jumped over the rise of several large roots, his breath escaping in gasps as he pressed onward, following the scent of cheap makeup. The crunch of the roots he’d just cleared told him that Dimmed Star was still very much in pursuit. The dark mare barely seemed winded, although it was hard to tell if such strenuous exertion would tire her out like it used too.

How long had they been following the trail? About an hour now, maybe more? The canopy of the trees above did little to help him tell the time as they blocked out much of the light that would have filtered through. Though he could at least tell that the sky had grown considerably less grey, the occasional ray of golden light beaming down through a gap in the foliage. Slowly coming to a stop at one such ray of sunshine, Spike leaned over and huffed, the pulsing of his heart in his ears.

“I told you not to push yourself.” Looking back, Dimmed Star stepped out of the dark trees and into the patch of light, her eyes watching him worriedly. Waving her off, Spike stood up straighter and gave the mare a forced smile.

“I-It’s no problem, Star. Just n-need a breather is all.” Spike gasped for air repeatedly as he spoke. They had mostly kept a sedate pace through the forest at first, but every now and again he would get what seemed like a stronger hold of the trail, leading them to these small sprint sessions where they would run until he ran out of breath. Sighing at him, Dimmed Star closed the distance between them, leaning her muzzle into his chest as she pushed him back into a seated position.

“H-hey!” Placing an Ink covered hoof in front of him, she prevented the drake from rising as she gave him a stern glare.

“No, you need to rest, Spike. We can keep going after you’ve got your strength back.” Sitting herself down on a nearby fallen tree, Dimmed Star watched the drake for a moment, making sure he remained seated and caught his breath. Spike took deep and controlled breaths, both to help expedite his recovery as well as to keep the scent’s trail as fresh as possible. The rain had diluted it a great deal, sometimes causing him to second guess himself.

After she was certain that he would take his time, Dimmed Star allowed herself to relax a bit, the events of the day were slowly beginning to catch up to her. The sound of water trickling caught her ears and she looked down to see a small trail of it pouring from beneath the log she sat upon. It pooled into a small puddle, its rippling surface reflecting the light that shone down upon it. Watching the water calmly, Dimmed Star raised a hoof and dipped it into the surface of the cool liquid, lazily allowing it to soak.

‘What an exhausting day… First, I nearly kill Pinkie Pie… she may never speak to me again, much less look at me… then Cheerilee brings all of this to my doorstep… and now here I am with Spike, scouring the Everfree for Scootaloo, who could be dead by now…” Looking around to the shadows that encircled them, Dimmed Star thought of the many creatures that made this enchanted forest their home. Timber Wolves and Manticores, Chimeras and Cragodiles… any of those wouldn’t hesitate to snatch up a runaway filly… And she wouldn’t hesitate to separate their heads from their bodies should that be the case. Though a Hydra would be trickier… had she ever eaten Hydra before?

Spike’s heavy breathing had slowed down considerably and he was able to more clearly focus on the scent he’d been following for the last few hours. Giving Dimmed Star a cautious look, he quirked a brow at seeing her mouth begin to water slightly, her dark saliva dripping from the corner of her lips, and began to wonder what she was thinking about. Probably food… hunting did seem to be one of her preferred pastimes these days. Chuckling to himself, Spike leaned back and sighed deeply. Star had been right to force him to relax, the two of them hadn’t eaten since morning as it was and he’d left his school bag back at the library. Frowning, he thought back to how he and the other two crusaders had arrived there first, only to discover that nopony was home.

That hadn’t stopped him though; dropping off their saddlebags at the library, Spike had followed after Dimmed Star’s scent, whereupon they came across the destroyed home. Had they arrived any later, he worried that any chance of a search for the filly would have been cut short without him offering to try and sniff the filly out. Taking another deep breath, Spike breathed much more easily now that his heart wasn’t struggling for oxygen. However, something seemed different about the air this time. Blinking in confusion, Spike took a few more tentative sniffs, before standing up and following the trail around the small area, his brows furrowed in concentration. Noticing the drake’s odd behavior, Dimmed Star rose from the log and trotted over to him.

“Spike?” A raised claw halted any further questions, the drake concentrating on his task. Watching him carefully, Dimmed Star noted that he repeated the same actions a few times, going back and forth between three paths in the trees.

“There’s… something off with the scent. Here, this is the path we were following. Scoot’s scent is strong this way.” Stepping up to one path, he pointed down the trail for a moment before moving back to the second.

“And this is the way we came… but here…” As the drake approached the third path, he sniffed the air again, taking deep breaths as he closed his eyes.

“I can smell her this way too, but… it’s as if it’s masked by something else… like herbs and spices of some kind… maybe incense?” The more the drake thought about it, the clearer the image became in his mind as he and Dimmed Star looked to the path in surprise, their thoughts culminating into one as they looked to one another.

“Zecora!” Without missing a beat, the two of them raced down the trail, the Zebra Shaman’s home now their next destination.

Continuing to hum quietly, Zecora stepped over to a nearby table that held a stone bowl and pestle. Several clay pots and jars sat around it, their lids open and contents exposed to the air as they filled the room with the smell of various herbs and medicines. Sitting at the hoof woven cushion, the zebra took hold of the nearest jar in her teeth, tilting it just enough to pour a few of the dried leaves into the bowl. Calculating eyes watched carefully as the leaves fell, measuring out the exact amount before halting in her actions and proceeding to do the same with a few of the other jars around.

From leaves to chopped roots and tiny seeds, the shaman worked to grind the ingredients into a thick paste. Her task took up much of the day, keeping the shaman busy as her patient slept. Every once in awhile, she would rise and return to her charge, carefully replacing the wet cloth that helped to keep the filly’s fever in check as well as to change any bandages that needed it. A trash bin at the filly’s bedside was almost overflowing with the remains of muddied rags and past wrappings; a single sleeve from what had once been the grey hoodie that the filly had been wearing dangled over the lip of the bin from underneath the myriad of used bandages.

A glass vial sat on the nightstand near the bed’s headboard, shards of a dark glass refracted the light of a nearby candle. Occasionally, Scootaloo would wake and her pained cries would fill the small home, drawing Zecora away from her tasks as she helped to soothe the agony that the filly was in. It was just after one such instance that the herbalist decided it was time to change Scootaloo’s bandages again, as the ones around her throat had grown spotty with a bit of fresh blood.

“Shhh… I am sorry for the pain that you feel, little one. But I fear that this agony has only just begun…” Her ears folded back in guilt as Scootaloo cried, her purple eyes seemingly distracted as she fought to keep them open in her bouts of pain, but it needed to be done if the filly was to recover.

Removing the thick covers from the top of the filly’s body, she began unwrapping several of the foal’s limbs, cleaning the wounds beneath them before rubbing more of the deep green salve that she had spent the day making upon their surface. Chanting in her native tongue, the zebra worked calmly but quickly to minimize the filly’s suffering. Once the small pegasus’ limbs had been tended too, she looked above the filly’s head and let out a sigh at the bandage there. The top portion of Scootaloo’s right ear had been removed for the sake of the filly, it had been dead for some time and only served as a catalyst for infection at that point. Cutting it off had been excruciatingly painful for the filly, causing her to scream as best she could with her damaged throat and neck. It hadn’t been any better when the medicine mare had set the broken ribs in her barrel either…

Shaking her head in sorrow, the striped mare continued her work as she began to unwrap the bindings over the filly’s throat and part of her face, wincing as the shredded flesh beneath came into view. Taking solace in the fact that the swelling had diminished considerably, Zecora wiped away the old salve and replaced it with the new batch as she had done for the filly’s limbs, chanting all the while as she prayed for Scootaloo’s rapid recovery.

A loud humming came from a nearby pedestal as a large stone upon its surface began to tremble, the rune carved into its surface glowing with a golden light. Looking away from her work, Zecora eyed the stone critically before sighing.

“I suppose it was only a matter of time, though I wish-” She found herself being cut off as something slammed into her home’s barrier, the humming of the stone now reaching a crescendo as it pulsed outwardly. Turning to her door, the shaman glared as her eyes began to shine with the same golden light for a brief moment as if permitting her to see something beyond the wooden portal. Pursing her lips, Zecora turned back to the filly and quickly placed a few sterile wrappings over the open wounds to prevent further infection before she stood and trotted over to the pedestal and covered the stone with a dark cloth that rested beneath it, muffling its irritating noise for the sake of the sleeping foal. The glow of her eyes began to fade as she took a deep breath and made her way over to the door, her features stern and apprehensive.

Dimmed Star and Spike burst through the treeline as they entered the clearing that led to the home of the Everfree’s resident Shaman. The many decorative pieces of Zecora’s homeland that littered the area would have normally sparked Dimmed Star’s intrigue as they had done in the past, every time she had come to visit it would seem like more and more of the objects would appear, but this was not a social call.

Bounding past the many decorations, Spike huffed as he caught his breath at the door to her home, carved out within the body of an ancient willow. Reaching to knock on the door, a flash of golden light from behind him and a screeching roar called his attention away.

“Star!?” Looking behind him, the drake was surprised to find the dark mare rising from the dirt and mud from several paces away, as if she had been thrown back. Dimmed Star’s eyes were livid as she hurried back to her hooves and approached the home once more, confusion and anger in her features. Just like before however, as she trotted up towards the door, a wall of golden light appeared and blocked her path. Although it did not eject her as viciously as before when she had run headfirst into it, the wall did force her back several steps.

“What is this!?” Dimmed Star growled as she stared at the barrier in confusion and frustration. What was this? No magic had had any effect on her since her transformation! At least not since Celestia had blasted her to pieces back at the wedding, but that had been a fluke, right… right!? Spike watched from his place on the doorstep, worry in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Looking around him, the drake stepped down from the few steps that led up to the zebra’s door, tentatively reaching out to where the barrier had appeared, only to be yanked back as something took hold of his tail.

“Although you are quite persistent, not all magic are you resistant.” Spike turned to find the shaman just behind him, his tail pressed firmly to the ground with her hoof as she glared out past the invisible barrier of her home, turquoise eyes carving daggers into the growling and enraged form of Dimmed Star as the dark mare stared back. For the first time since her transformation, fear crept its way into Dimmed Star’s heart.

“Alas, I did not prepare any tea, for tonight I had no plans to entertain company.”

Author's Notes:

Confetti and streamers are blasted into the air

Shaded: "I hope you guys have had an excellent 2019!"

Twilight: "And we hope you have an even better 2020!"

Dimmed Star: "From our twisted little family to yours~"

Shaded/ Twilight/ Dimmed Star: "Have a Happy New Year!!"

Shaded Blood does not own MLP: FIM or the Equinox ponies. A special thanks to Kuunlehti for proofreading and editing! Also a special thanks to Neonyoshi, Umbra Animo, Morior (Discord) and Ancientarchdemon (Discord), for Test reading and providing great Feedback! If you are enjoying the story, leave a like and comment, also don't forget to follow for blog updates. The link to the Discord, Twitter and Facebook pages will be below!

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The Power of the Equinox