"How do you manage to do this?" Shining Armor growled at Camo. "This is like some horrible story! And you're the lunatic everypony hates because he just comes out of bloody no where, starts to cause events that don't even or shouldn't belong, and do the impossible!"

Camo Travels, flinching from the sound of Shining Armor's voice, shook what water was still on him, off and onto Spike where it merely sizzled into steam.

"You know, you could thank me." Camo said. "I did save us from being eaten."

"Thank you!? Thank you!? You're more dangerous than those stupid eels!" Shining yelled, his voice echoing in the cavern. "First, you nearly killed me and the changeling with that cave-in, you blew up royal property, you caused a massive flood, a swarm of eels, and you nearly killed all of us!" He finished with a stomp, shattering a few pebbles.

"And don't forget I've helped cut our trip in half at the most." Camo said. "Listen to me very closely, because I'm only going to say this once." He went right up to Shining Armor, so close that their muzzles were almost touching. "All you need to worry about, is getting your sister out. And as for me, I'll be retrieving something much more valuable to me, and that is the only cure for a friend of mine. Everything I do, everything I've done, and everything I will do, will be for your sister, and my friend's benefit."

"Some how, I doubt that." Shining said turning away. "And if you think for a second I'll let you stand in my way of getting my sister back, then I will hurt you."

"You say that now, Shining Armor," Camo muttered. "But you don't seem to grasp the whole picture. I'm only out here for two things, what was taken from my friend," he glanced back at his saddle bag where the clothed object stood out. "And to see Chrysalis cut her own throat."

"What was that last part?" Spike asked with wide eyes.

"None of your business." Camo said. "Drone, are you alright?" He asked going up to the changeling.

"Yes, Camo," it said looking at him. "I am unhurt."

"Nice to see you working on your vowels." Camo replied dryly. "Any idea as to how we get out?"

"You don't know?" Shining remarked a few feet away. "Now that's the largest surprise you've managed to make."

"Nevermind," Camo lit his horn and shot a blast of magic straight up. "I'm making an exit."

With a flood of momentary light, the roof opened up slightly to let in a downpour of sand. Quickly backing away, they all watched silently as the sand accumulated on the ground. As more pushed its way in, the hole up top grew to only let in more, and, effectively make a ramp to the surface.

Once it slowed down, surprisingly the first one to scale the sandy exit was Big macintosh, followed by Shining Armor, the drone, Spike and Camo in the back.

The light was nearly blinding from being in darkness for so long, so when they came out they all shielded their eyes for a second to let them adjust. Once they had, they all let out a collective groan.

"Alright, smart guy," Shining said putting a hoof out to the desert. "Would you care to show us where on the map we're at?"

"If you think you're so much better than me, then you navigate!" Camo said throwing the map on the ground. "Go ahead, captain." He hissed.

Shining, swiping the map away with a glare still aimed at Camo even as the stallion turned away, opened it up and began to look over it. Immediately, his eyes narrowed slightly as he saw the multiple markings spanning the map, some turning at the half point of it and others merely circled around the land and on water.

"What's wrong Shining?" Camo asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Having trouble reading my map?"

"You call this a map?" Shining growled pushing it against Camo's chest. "I asked for a map, not a page from a foals coloring book!"

"And is it my fault I've had to make tracks on my past adventures so, if I ever had to go back to an area with multiple paths along its own, I wouldn't get lost?" He said taking his map back.

"No, but I'm starting to think we don't need you telling us where to go. We have the changeling drone for that." Shining turned towards the drone. "Well, where to know?" He asked a little calmer.

It lit its horn and after a moment of it staring off into space again, it went to go past Shining Armor. As the others were following them, Camo gave a small 'humph' causing them to turn around.

"What is it now?" Shining asked. "A swarm of land sharks or a cursed temple in our path?"

"Neither. Why don't you try a mountain range instead." Camo in a snarky manner. "We could go that way-"

"Then I don't see a problem."

"But," Camo said. "Unless the changeling and Spike can carry us up sheer cliffs, magma ravines, and past the occasional dragon that happens to wander by, I doubt we can just go straight through. I suggest you, wait for it," he paused to smirk at Shining's look of anger. "You let me guide us through that. What do you say?"

"I'd say something, but Spike is to young." Shining said.

"Eenope."

"No. Your out of your mind." The drone said. "I said that right, didn't I?"

"After those stupid ideas of yours? Forget it! We'll risk it." Spike said as they all turned to leave.

Leaving the slightly steamed stallion, they continued on. Sighing, he folded up his map and followed them through the sand. Looking around, he could see the sun blazing down, the rolling sand dunes, and the small glances he got from the others as they went.

The sand was hot, and having it occasionally blast against them wasn't helping the situation either. All of them, feeling hot in the face from how Camo had acted before, felt the heat more so than he did. Spike was the worst, seeing as how his body retains heat, he kept more than he could give off.

Big mac was fairing better than him. From the long days of work on the farm, he was used to some heat, but not the univalent to a desert. Looking around, the glare from the sun coming off the sand hurt his eyes enough that he had to shut them for a moment.

Shining was focused on the changeling in front of him, he didn't care about anything but finding his sister. Looking back briefly, he smirked a little to see Camo frowning. As he let off a little chuckle, he looked back to see if the stallion heard, but he had stopped and was staring above him. Frowning himself, he looked ahead and felt his blood start to boil.

"Shining, get a shield up!" Camo said rushing to the group. "Now!"

"What's wrong Camo?" Shining shot at him. "Afraid of a little sand?" He said raising a light shield.

"You idiot! Sand isn't white!" Camo yelled pointing at the cloud of white moving swiftly towards them. "That's ash from the mountains! Molten hot, burn the skin off you ash! As in the stuff that will kill us if you don't strengthen this paper thin shield!"

Shining Armor, looking back on at the approaching storm, immediately put more energy into his shield.

As the ash cloud drew closer to them, Camo started to add his own magic to the mix, helping Shining much to the stallion's annoyance. As the small group stared at it, the changeling's eyes began to glow a light lavender. Its horn suddenly gave off a faint purple glow around its usual green. Putting its own energy in, the air inside cooled dramatically as the shield was strengthened by its magic, and finally met the ash cloud.

The three magic users gave a small shudder as the ash swept over them, the air inside changed from the chilly atmosphere the drone had made, to a now warm quality.

As the force of the cloud died down, they all slowly let go of their magic until only Shining was letting the excess ash from the sudden burst slide off. Dropping the shield, they were all suddenly hit by a blast of hot air from the cooling flakes.

"Well, that could have been worse. For you all anyway, I would have been fine." Spike said.

"That's great to hear." Shining said. "Next time when one of those comes along, we don't have to keep you inside the shield with us."

"Whatever. So, did any of you notice the drone's eyes flash a different color when all that was going on?" Spike asked jabbing a thumb towards the changeling.

"Yeah, ah did notice somthin' like that." Big mac said. "What was that? Ah thought your magic was green?"

"Hive mind." The drone responded. "All who are connected share energy. That is why old queen wanted to take over Canterlot. She needed the energy to feed us."

"Please, don't mention her." Shining said. "The last thing I need is to be reminded of what she did to me."

"What happened to you?" Camo asked. "I heard about something involving a wedding, but that's the jist of it. A wedding."

"She ponynapped my bride, tricked me, and nearly took over the city." Shining said. "Is that clear enough?"

"Yeah, that does sound like her." Camo said with a roll of his eyes. "Well, if she's in a good mood."

"You keep mentioning her as if you actually knew her." Shining said narrowing his eyes. "Why don't you tell us about what she did to this friend?"

"Because, it's her own business. And why she's in a hospital in a near coma from a sudden surge of magic going through her brain, I doubt she would like me to tell everypony what happened to her." He snapped. "I'm just trying to save lives here. Your sister, and my friend. So, I'm asking you nicely, just back off about that subject. It's not something I like having to remember, but I make myself so I don't forget that that monster did." He flattened his ears and laid on his belly. "It's getting dark, I figured it would after we got out of the cavern."

"We don't have to worry about another one of those ash clouds, do we?" Shining asked.

"No, they're not really that frequent. It's actually pretty rare at this distance from the mountains."

As they all shrugged and watched as the sun slowly drifted down, they all, minus the changeling, slowly went to sleep. Their breathing was the only sound aside from the desert winds gently blowing warm air and sand onto them.

As the changeling turned away, Camo cracked an eye open to peer around. Seeing the changeling with its back turned, he slowly picked himself up off the sand. With a frown, he took off his prosthetic leg, raised it above his head, and gave a solid hit to the back of the drone's head effectively knocking it out.

Lighting his horn and opening a small rift, he reached in and pulled out four pairs of hoofcuffs. Closing the small rift, he cast a small sleeping spell to make sure they didn't wake up as he hoofcuffed them all together.

"I'm sorry," he said. "But this is something I need to do alone. I'll give you a fair chance," he gave a small smile and took out the small black box with Soul Song trapped inside. "Just let me make a quick note, and she might not kill you all. Maybe one or two of you, but hopefully not all of you."

He set the small box down in front of Spike, just barely disturbing the ash for it to lift up and back onto the ground.

The morning after

Spike was having a nice dream; him, Twilight, his friends, the princesses, and the town were all celebrating Twilight's escape from Chrysalis. He would have continued to have the dream if it we not for Big Mac shouting at him.

"Hey!" Spike whined. "No need to yell, I'm up. I'm-why are my arms shackled to the changeling and you?" He asked the red work horse. "He didn't. Did he?" Spike asked. The look Big Macintosh gave him answered his question. "That figures."

"I can't-no! I should have expected him to do this!" Shining raged. "He left us out here to die so he can go out and finish his stupid little quest on his own! Unbelievable..."

"Now calm down, fussin' ain't gonna help us none." Big Mac sternly. "Spike, what's that by your tail? Looks like a note from here, but ah can't quite see it."

Spike, looking down at his tail saw a note atop a black box. Reaching forward, he grabbed it by the edge and opened it.

"What's it say?" Shining asked. "Is he gloating? Mocking us? Or is it his grocery list he left to spite us with a false sense of hope?"

"No, it's an actually note. An apology and instructions. It reads, Dear friends and changeling, as you may have guessed I have left you in the desert. I apologize for that, but it was necessary, and it gave me a good head start plus a good time to stretch my wings. If you're wondering about that part, it was back when Chrysalis had me prisoner. The same thing happened to me, as with Twilight. Listen, Soul Song is in the box in front of you, just open it and try and persuade her to find me, and in turn, you'll find Twilight. So, sorry and all, and good luck."

"... He's a changeling?" Shining muttered to himself. "Why do I always get tricked by changelings!? No offense to you, you've actually been a great help." Shining said turning to the drone.

"None taken." The drone replied back.

"So, should we open the box? Or roast out here?" Spike asked.

"Open it." Big mac said. "Trust me, ah've got an idea."

"I vote on teleporting us out of the shackles instead of releasing the ticked off supernatural creature." Shining said attempting to use his magic. "I'm going to kill him if the banshee doesn't first. He put a magic inhibitor ring on my horn." He grumbled. "That was smart on his part, I'll give him that before I buck his head in."

"So, are we opening the box?" Spike said reaching for it.

"Eeyup." Big mac said. "Just let talk to her, ah think she's gonna want to hear what ah have to say."

Spike, grabbing hold of the small box, gulped as he reached for the small latch. As soon as it made it off the surface, it flew open all the way and a nauseating scream filled the air. Shaking it off, he dropped the box as a black fog poured out. Now in front of him, a aqua figure came out from inside and slowly rose upwards until it was looking down at him with black eyes, her own blue pupils looking more like marble than organic matter.

She stretched her fore-legs, each hoof having three claws that could easily tear through him and the others. She turned her heads towards him, silver teeth standing out against the lightness of her coat.

"Ma'am," Big Macintosh said drawing her attention to him. "Ah don't think ya want to kill us."

"And why is that, pony?" She tittered as he flinched from her sudden appearance.

"Cause' we all have somepony in mind that we, mainly Shining and ya, want to hurt. Camo Travles."

Her eyes widened at the name and she gave out a scream, her bottom jaw lowering itself far more than what should be possible. As she calmed down, the fog disappeared and in her place was a normal looking mare with blue eyes, and a angry smile.

"I'm listening," she said. "You want to kill him too?"

"Yes!" Shining shouted. "I personally do! They probably just want to hurt him."

"And what is in it for me?" She asked. "You have heard my scream, and whoever hears a banshee's scream is destined to die by her claw. Why should you change that?" She asked narrowing her eyes.

"Well, for one, we can both kill the idiot as slowly as possible. Two, you get your revenge on him. And three, I can get my sister back from Chrysalis." Shining said.

"Ah, the changeling queen." Soul Song hissed. "Your first two suggestions intrigue me. Deal, I help you find that waste of air, and in return I can finally finish what I started. Now, this may tickle." She laughed as the fog enveloped her and the others.

"This can only end badly." Spike said before being enveloped by the black fog.

Author's Notes:

Camo is not a villain, and he's not a bad guy. I'm just throwing it out there.