Rarity opened her eyes, letting out a small yawn before gracefully leaving her bed. With a glance, she looked towards the clock on her counter, noticing the time.

“Oh my… it’s already this late? I still have work to do!” she muttered, quickly fixing herself up before making her way downstairs.

“Hmm, if I’m correct, I have a tuxedo for Hoity Toity, and I believe Minuette wanted me to ‘patch’ her dress for her dance routine…” she spoke to herself, walking down the stairs without much of a glance to anything, her instincts automatically taking her to the kitchen where she proceeded to prepare herself a small cup of tea; the usual green tea with a small portion of milk. “I must admit, today is going rather peaceful!” she commented as she drank. “Sweetie Belle is out with friends, orders that for a change aren‘t stress inducing, and I have absolutely zero plans for the rest of the day… Maybe those orders can wait till tomorrow; perhaps, I can simply s—”

Knock, knock.

“…—tart by answering the door,” she sighed, setting the cup down and lightly trotting to the door. “Coming!” she announced as she neared it, opening it swiftly with her magic. “Welcome to Carousel Boutique! You’ll have to excuse me, but we are not open tod-”

“Rarity!” her guest shouted, breaking Rarity’s focus.

“Oh,” Rarity mouthed once she took notice of Derpy at the door. “Why, Derpy, whatever is the matter?” she asked, noting the panic she seemed to be in.

“Trouble! John! Twilight! Help! Bah!” she shouted incoherently, but to her credit, getting the message across well enough.

“What? What happened to Twilight?” Rarity asked promptly, consciously ignoring everything else.

“Got a letter at post office! They are in Canterlot! Something happened! And Scootaloo is gone with them, and Rainbow Dash was hurt, a-an—” she was stopped as Rarity placed a tentative hoof on her snout.

”I believe I’ve heard enough. I’ll gather the girls, and we’ll be on our way,” Rarity groaned, feeling the calmness of the day instantly vanish in a fell swoop.

“O-okay! What should I do?” Derpy asked, wanting to help.

“Go gather the other crusaders and meet us at the station, I’m sure we can manage a train, and the girls should be thankful that we’ll manage to find out why their friend is gone too,” she explained.

“G-got it!” Derpy saluted, flying away at a speed Dash would be proud of.

“Now to gather the rest, Why do I get the feeling HE has something to do with this…” she thought as she locked her house and headed off to get her friends.

“Ugh…” Rarity whined, a piercing pain running through her head that only a Saturday night would bring. “Wait, it’s not Saturday, though,” she reasoned, opening her eyes, ready to meet the harsh glares of the sun through her window.

Only to find darkness, and the very peculiar smell of plant life.

“What in heaven-umf!” she was interrupted as an appendage covered her mouth.

“S-shut up!” a familiar voice hushed, she looked up, and found none other than John, sweating profusely. To his side, stood the young green colt they’d met at the castle. “If you don’t, it’ll hear us…”

“Who will?” she hushed back, just in time to notice a familiar creature right outside the bush, the sight of the wings and scorpion tail tipping Rarity of their location. “No, it can’t be…”

“Yes, we are in that dangerous forest, I know, quiet!” John hissed, as the manticore passed by.

They waited in silence in the bush, hoping that it had been long enough for the creature to leave, it was impossible to gather how much time had passed as no sign of change was apparent from where they stood.

“Ah fink be guited enuff!” Rarity mumbled through John’s hand which was then covering her snout once more.

“What?” John asked confused, removing his hand.

“I said I believe we’ve waited enough! Now unhand me!” she snarled in an attempt to escape his grip.

“Geez, sorry!” John apologized sarcastically, simply unhanding her and allowing her to unceremoniously fall to the ground with a thud.

“Why, I never! Ugh!” Rarity complained, holding her head as the pain returned.

“You never what?” asked Lemon, giving her a curious look.

“Um, it’s a figure of speech, sweetie, but never mind that,” she explained, simply waving any further inquiries aside. “Now, John, can you tell me, what in the wide world of Equestria happened? How did we end up in the Everfree?” she asked, pointing at her surroundings which housed trees as far as the eye could see, the place being illuminated enough by little natural light that peered through.

“We were attacked…” he began. “I saw this thing flying towards us from the train window. I suppose I might as well call it a mini-bomb. Anyway! After the explosion happened, I sorta fell, and well, you did too, you WERE sitting right across me when it happened,” he explained.

“But how did we end up here. And from what I can gather, far from the train?”

“Oh, oh! Can I?!” Lemon chimed in.

“Knock yourself out, kid,” John groaned, laying back on the ground with a pained yelp.

“Well, I sorta slipped when the explosion happened! I fell on top of a tree but was safe! But I saw when you two fell, and Mr. John grabbed you in the air and held you! It was a pretty big fall, but after that, I caught up with him and you two were okay! Yay! Of course, he was running from the chimera with you on his legs.”

“Arms,” came the correction from John.

“Yeah, those! And then, we went deeper into the forest to avoid it!” he finished.

“Oh, I had no idea…” Rarity said guiltily. “I suppose I owe you my thanks,” she finished turning to John.

“You suppose?“ John harrumphed. “Whatever, I saved you, no big deal. What really has me worried is the others; we were lucky, but we don't know if they were,” the group seemed to visibly lose confidence as the other two’s ears drooped at the mention of their friends.

“W-well, nothing but attempt to get out of this monstrous place and find the others!” Rarity said, getting on her hooves.

“I agree,” John complied. “And for the record, I don’t recommend climbing trees, trust me: some shit will try to EAT YOU.”

“Ignoring your foul language, are you saying the chimera chased you into the trees?” Rarity asked surprised.

“Eeyup, funny how those wings on its back weren‘t just there an aesthetic look,” he whispered.

“Well, I suppose that just means that we have to choose a path on the ground and stick to it, correct?”

“Right,” John agreed.

They each looked to the side, and in a swift and synced motion, pointed in opposite directions.

“Let’s go this way,” they turned to each other and glared. “No, this way! Who put you in charge here!? Stop copying me! Gah!”

“Wooh! That was awesome! Do it again!” Lemon cheered, while the other two simply stared annoyed.

“Today is NOT my day,” they both thought at his words.

“Welp, seems like Ah’m going back empty-hoofed this time,” Applejack said in defeat as she returned to the meeting spot, in a paced run across the tracks to return to her friends, a rocky area with nothing more than… Rocks. That and the train which currently had a very apparent hole to the side of one of its passenger cars.

“So, I’m going to take you didn’t find anything, did you?“ Twilight asked once AJ had arrived, receiving a rapid shake from her in response. “Well, then, the answer is obvious then, isn’t it?”

“Yes… They probably fell on the Everfree,” AJ sighed. “Thankfully, that means they might have survived. Hopefully I’m correct.”

“Oh my…” Fluttershy said, cowering behind Rainbow Dash’s wheelchair.

“Great! So what are we going to do? I can’t fly, so I can’t even search the forest from the sky!” Dash exclaimed, while Twilight remained silent, an idea coming to mind.

“You can’t, but we have three ponies who can…” Twilight explained, pointing towards the three pegasi in the group.

“That’s a negative, Sparkle!” shouted Rough Patch who turned around from a corner, coming from the opposite direction from the engine. “I won’t allow civilians to get lost on my watch. “

“What!?“ Pinkie cried out loudly. “But our friends are out there!“

“Ah’ agree, we aren’t going to stand here, the forest is about as dangerous for them as it is for us!” Applejack added, stomping closer to Patch.

“Yeah, you can’t stop us!“ the dozen pair of eyes turned to meet Rainbow, who simply shrank back on the spot. “Okay, you can stop me, but that’s not the point!“

“Yeah! And that Lemon kid fell too! We can’t leave him alone!“ Applebloom shouted, joining the conversation.

“And my sister…” Sweetie Belle said sadly, looking into the forest under them.

“Yep! And there ain’t no way you are going to stop us, missy!” AJ declared, coming face to face with Patch as the pair simply glared to one another.

“Um, miss?” Guard joined in. “… Trust me, you don’t want to piss off Captain Patch,” he warned her.

“That’s enough!” Twilight shouted, getting everyone’s attention. “AJ, we don’t know this part of the forest, we’d only get lost, or worse," she explained. "That being said, I can see why Patch wants us here…” she said, turning to Patch. “This attack wasn‘t caused by anything from the forest itself, was it?”

Patch grinned. “Well, I’m glad somepony is perceptive enough here, even if it’s you, Sparkle.”

“Thanks… I guess,” Twilight groaned.

“Anyway, don’t worry, I was planning on sending my stallions to check the situation. Guard! Recon! Get over here!” she commanded, getting the two ponies to respond in a flash.

“Ma’am!” they announced, saluting her and standing in line.

“I know this is a bit off protocol, but I want you two to search the Everfree for signs of our missing passengers; two unicorns, and a human. You know them well enough. Guard, I need you to search the skies, and Recon, you search by ground. I don’t know how far they went, but be as through as posible—that is your mission. Now prepare, and stand-by for further orders.”

“Yes, ma’am!” they saluted, standing to the side to wait.

“How come we can’t go?” asked Derpy annoyed.

“Honestly? Most of you aren‘t really the best to search the place, and the fact is that danger you‘ll be in will be exponentially increased,” Patch explained.

“I imagine you have the same idea?” Twilight asked, approaching Patch carefully. “You think this was some sort of terrorist attack, don’t you?”

“That’s right, wouldn’t want to leave you guys with those things; they are likely psychos. There is, however, something you can do for me…” she motioned to Twilight.

“Anything that can help us, I‘ll bite.”

“How about you let me borrow you dragon for a bit?” she motioned, pointing towards Spike who stood to the side with a damaged scroll and quill in claws.

“Finally! I’d thought you’d never ask!” Spike said enthusiastically.

“You already have the letter, don’t you?” Patch realized with a smile.

“Eeyup! Wrote it as you guys were arguing!” he said sticking his chest out proudly.

“I knew I liked you for a reason. Go ahead and send it, champ,” Spike nodded rapidly, and blew fire into the letter, disappearing into a trail of flames. “Now…” Patch said turning back to the ponies. “Remember when I say how most of you couldn‘t go? Well, I meant it. Well, all but you,” the group turned towards Patch’s pointing hoof, noticing a rock.

“What are you pointing at?” Rainbow asked confused.

“Come on out, Flutterhsy,” Patch ordered, getting the Pegasus to jump out at the mention of her name.

“B-b-but why me?” Fluttershy barely managed to ask.

“Because you’ll be great help with the animals in the area; besides, you will be joined by Guard,” she said, pointing to the pony.

“I-I don’t know…” Fluttershy started with fear.

“Hey, don’t pick on Fluttershy!” Pinkie screeched, jumping in front.

“Nope,” with a quick sidestep, Patch was once again in front of Fluttershy, whose shaking only became worse the closer Patch got. “Come on, I know you can do it,” Patch said calmly, placing a hoof over her head and patting it. “I really do.”

Fluttershy’s eyes seemed to shrink as she stared at Patch. A tinge of realization plastered on her face, she closed her eyes, and released a heavy sigh.

“Wait, are you… I’ll do as you say, F-Captain,” Shy walked to Guard and nodded. “P-please take care of me,” with a curt nod, Patch gave the go-ahead, and the three ponies left together towards the forest.

“H-how did you do that?” Twilight asked confused.

Patch simply scoffed. “I don’t think that matters now, does it?” she finished arrogantly before walking away from the group.

Chirp, chirp

The sound of a bird reached the ears of John, Lemon, and Rarity, bringing a slight sense of panic as they continued. To their surprise, sunlight had begun peering through the trees as they made their way closer to their destination, everything seemed to be going according to plan, and a sense of comforting relief began oozing into them.

“Are we there y-”

“No, we are not doing this, kid. I’ll tell you when we are there,” John groaned, stopping Lemon before he managed to say something, causing any sort of calmness to leave John.

“Oh… Sorry,” Lemon apologized, drooping in sadness as they continued.

“John! He is just a kid, you cannot honestly not expect something like that,” Rarity reprimanded John, giving Lemon a comforting pat.

“He is the one who knows the way! In any case, he can do it all he wants when we get out of here,” he reasoned, increasing the pace.

“Oh, don’t worry, Mr. John! We’ll be fine! As I said, all we have to do is retrace our steps, and we’ll reach the exit in no time!” the colt explained cheerfully.

“I know, but I feel as if we are in danger…”

“We are in a forest full of danger,” explained Rarity. “No matter how often I’ve been here, I still cannot get accustomed to it!” Rarity continued with a wave. “By Equestria, you need to relax!”

“You know this is my first time here, right?” John replied annoyed.

“But it’s true, mister, it’s not too bad! I traveled through with Mr. Hilbert, and nothing bad happened!” Lemon jumped in with a smile.

“Kid, stop helpi-” Creak “W-what was that…?” John hushed, looking around frantically for the source of the noise

Rarity sighed. “Oh, come now, it was probably nothing, the forest always makes such no—” Rustle rustle “I stand corrected, what was that!?” she cried out silently, edging ever closer to John and Lemon.

“Let’s hide!” John suggested, running to a nearby bush, hiding just before a pair of shadows creeped closer to the bush. “Crap…” John whispered, noticing the bird-like shadows. “They found us…”

“Wait, you know them?” Rarity asked with a growl.

“Hush! I‘ll explain later!” John silenced her.

“Um…” Lemon began, looking uncomfortable.

“Don’t make a sound!” John ordered him.

“B-but… I gotta go pee…”

“Oh, come on! Can’t you be a stereotype another time?” as John finished, the sound of something dripping started, causing him to instantly jump out in disgust. “Lemon! Gah!” he stopped, realizing what he had done, slowly turning to the side to find two figures, simply staring at him.

“I told you he was close,” one of them said with a grin.

“Um… Hi, guys… Nice to see you agai- Damn it…”

To Guard’s surprise, Fluttershy had been far more useful than he had expected.

Having shooed away roughly three manticores until then, there was no doubt on his mind that Fluttershy was really quite the animal expert.

Even if she wasn’t the most talkative.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Miss Fl-”

“Eep!” Fluttershy flinched, nearly falling out of the sky like a rock to the sea of trees. “S-sorry! Is something the matter…?” she asked, returning to her glide.

“No… Well, you seem a tad too nervous, and I feel talking might get your mind off things, I‘ll focus on things while we do,” Guard mentioned, keeping his eyes on the ‘ground’ of trees as he spoke. “Is that alright, Ms. Flutter?”

“Well, I guess so, but my name is Fluttershy, Mr. Guard, sir,” she corrected.

“Oh, I know that, but I feel that the name is a bit… synonymous to the way you act. Just want you comfortable as we talk, you know? Just forget anything else,” he explained, while Fluttershy nodded, looking down at the trees herself, wondering how their thickness made it able for Guard to be able to see through them.

“O-oh, I see, but, I don’t mind. I mean, it’s my name, and, well…” she began mumbling.

“I see. I would have imagined it made your life a bit difficu- Sorry! There I go again! Turns out that if I‘m not protecting a door, I end up blabbering!” he apologized embarrassed.

“It’s okay… I mean, you are right, it did make my life more difficult,” she began.

“Oh… Then I feel worse for having done so,” Guard said with regret. “I-I’m sorry, just forget I said anything.”

:”N-no! It’s fine! I’ve accepted it a long time ago, and my friend Rainbow Dash helped me a lot through those times, so I feel alright with it,” she explained giving him a smile.

“Well, if you say so,” he squinted his eyes at the trees under him, clicking his tongue in frustration, having difficulty keeping track of Recon. “Darn it, these trees are getting worse.”

“Maybe we should land?” Fluttershy suggested.

“Negative. Keeping track of creatures on the sky is a must, not to mention there can be signs of the three we are searching, and things like a flock of disturbed birds can help; besides, Recon is checking the ground,” he reasoned.

“Oh, I understand,” Fluttershy acknowledged with a nod.

“And well, I actually was going to ask you another question, miss?”

“Y-yes?” she replied nervously.

“Do you happen to know the Captain from somewhere? She sure seemed like she knew you, at least,” he asked, his curiosity having been piqued. To his surprise, Fluttershy simply remained silent for a solid minute before replying.

“I have no idea what you are talking about, sorry!” she apologized, her mane covering her eyes from view.

“Are you sure? You sure seem-”

“Gah!” came a cry from the forest.

“That must’ve been Recon!” Guard acknowledged. “Stay close to me, we’ll check it out,” he ordered Fluttershy, flying downwards towards the forest.

He didn’t wait for a response before he dove into the trees, passing through a small opening in the huge foliage, obtaining a few scratches on his way down as well as a few leaves to the face while instinctively maneuvering the branches in his path.

“Um…” Fluttershy mumbled as she watched him from afar. “I-I’ll be right there!” she attempted to shout, but without much success, fumbling her way through the same branches at a slower pace.

“Recon!” Guard called once he reached the ground, watching a strange scene in front of him; Recon was there, laid back on a tree, breathing heavily as a trail of blood ran down his cheek, but otherwise looking alright. To his side, laid an ummoving manticore, and just a few feet from him; a broken mess of a gryphon, laid facedown on a pool of what Guard assumed to be its own blood.

“Boss… You are late…” Recon joked, grunting in pain.

“What happened here!?” Guard asked urgently, approaching Recon to check his injuries.

“Gryphon attacked me… Manticore came up and… Good distraction… Now there he is… Managed to stop the manticore, thankfully…” Recon barely managed to explain. “But no time! I heard him talk about other three Gryphon close by, they shouldn’t be too far! You gotta catch them! Check the body, maybe he has a map…”

“Well… Princess Celestia won‘t be happy about that one, that‘s for sure. Reports for you, buddy,” joked Guard at the morbid subject. “But what about you? I can‘t leave you here.”

“I’ll be fine, I’ll catch up, just gotta catch my breath first… Wooh! Damn that thing took my breath,” he complained with a pained laugh.

“Oh my goodness!” came the voice of Fluttershy who’d just arrived, noticing the chaos in front of her. “W-what happened here!?” she cried out, noticing the manticore on the ground. “Oh no!”

“It’s alright, miss… I simply… Knocked it out… It should be fine in a bit,” Recon explained, stopping Fluttershy on the spot.

“A-alright, but what happened!? And that gryphon, he… He…” she started, teary eyed.

“I’ll brief you later!” Guard interrupted. “We have to go. I think we may have found the others, come on!” quickly flying towards the dead gryphon, he rummaged through the stuff, easily finding a map on his pockets. "Got it. Let's go!"

The pair of gryphon gave John a piercing stare, their eyes being the only part of their faces visible through the masks they wore. John simply watched with fear, while Lemon watched them in awe, their green outfits filled with pouches in numerous places, the only thing not covered up being their wings.

“Honestly, John? Honestly!?” Rarity shouted, stomping out of the bushes and making a mad run to John. “Do you realize what you’ve done!?”

“What? Me!? The kid peed on me! It was a natural reaction!” he replied in defense.

“Not even I would be foolish enough to let it so that someone chasing me would find me!” she fumed.

“Oh, suuure! I mean, it didn’t happen to you, did it?” Rarity recoiled at the implied event, and growled.

“So, are you two done yet, or do we get you a room?” one of the gryphon said with a chuckle, getting the pair to return their focus to them.

“Lemon, stay back!” Rarity called, jumping to the front. “I will take care of these ruffians! I didn‘t train with Twilight for nothing!” her horn began lighting up, but it quickly subsided as she cringed, the feeling of her previous headache returning full force. “Not now…”

Ignoring Rarity, the first gryphon spoke again. “Thought you could escape, huh?” he referred to John. “I didn’t think you’d be able to struggle like you did, but trust me: it won’t happen again.”

Before Rarity had a chance to question his words, the gryphon dashed forward, and with a swift motion, smacked Rarity across the face, a powerful swipe that left her instantly out-cold, the force of the hit making her land with an unceremonious thud.

“Well… That’s one down.”

“Um…” John mumbled, looking between his friends and the gryphon. He gulped, and with a determined stare, jumped in front of Lemon. “Don’t hurt them!” he said, grabbing Lemon and holding him in his arms. He looked towards the unconscious Rarity and her horn, an idea forming in his head.

“Lemon!” he whispered. “We need to get out of here, can you teleport Rarity somewhere safe?” the colt simply looked up to John confused.

“Huh? Sorry mister, but I can’t do that,” Lemon replied.

John simply gave him a blank stare. “W-what!? But I thought you wanted to learn magic! You should know that one, right?”

“Well, yes, but I’m not an unicorn!” Lemon explained, removing his hat, and revealing a bare head with only his greenish mane under it.

John was speechless.

“Why do you even… We have to ru-” John started.

“I don’t think so, buddy,” gryphon one spoke, delivering an icy glare that caused even Lemon to shiver. “You are coming with us, unless you want your friends to be hurt,” he threatened, giving Rarity a quick glance.

“No…” John began. “I just went through this yesterday, please,” he despaired, closing his eyes in defeat, his mind running through baseless ideas that would do nothing to help him.

-Well, look who finally needs my help.-

"Huh?" John thought at the voice before realizing. "Wait, are you…"

-Well, seems like somebody finally acknowledges me, or are you going to tell me to go away again?- it said with an angry grunt.

"No, please! I’m sorry! Listen, we need your help!" John’s focus came back as he began backing up, attempting to get away from the pair in front.

“Come now, don’t make this harder than it should be,” the other gryphon groaned, seemingly annoyed.

-Well, I suppose that I might as well help you, unfortunately, it appears that brute force will simply NOT do against two of them,- the Voice explained.

"What!? Then what do I do!?" John asked desperately, closing in on the unconscious Rarity and picking her up.

-Just, follow my lead…-

“Why exactly don’t we just grab him, again?” the second gryphon finally asked.

“Because we don’t know what he can do; you saw what he did in Ponyville.”

“Yes, but he would have done something by now if that were the case, so it lends itself to reason that he can’t, at least right now,” he astutely replied.

“… Fine! Shut it, let’s just knock him out and grab h-”

“Don’t!” John shouted, surprising the pair. “Don’t come a step closer, or something that you two will regret will happen!” he threatened, getting the pair’s attention.

“Whatever you say, hue-man,” gryphon one laughed, leaping closer, however, he cut his jump short, noticing John’s hands. “What are you…?”

John stood with a piece of rock by his neck, the sharpness of it piercing into his skin just enough for the slightest hints of blood to peer through, to his relief, the pair stopped.

“Mr. John?” Lemon called, looking up at him terrified, but John simply continued as if uninterrupted.

-I know that you need me alive, that’s why the bomb you used did so little damage and why you rescued me as I fell,” John continued, simply repeating the lines from the Voice in his head. “Either you back off… Or this ends in you two losing your target!” he shouted dramatically.

-Well, I say, that was quite a nice delivery, I didn‘t take you for an actor,- the Voice praised.

“Guess that fear is a good motivator for instant learning…” John barely managed, his mind a jumbled mess.

“So… What do we do?” Gryphon two asked, looking at his partner. “We can’t let him die, can we?”

“No,” he replied. “But I am very good at stitching stuff back together,” he replied with a sadistic smile, jumping at that point, and extending his claw at John, who only managed a surprised stare.

"No…"

“Oof!” time seemed to have slowed down, John watched the gryphon being smacked aside, a distinguishable form that stopped in front, then, just as fast, the gryphon suddenly returned to normal, rocketing to a close tree, smashing through with incredible force.

“I don’t think so, buddy!” came the familiar voice of Guard.

“G?” John called unconvinced before he could register anything else, just as sudden, he felt his shirt being tugged, and looking to the side, he found Fluttershy as well.

“C-come on! We have to run!” she shouted, grabbing the terrified Lemon.

Without thinking about it, John pushed Rarity into his arms and ran after Fluttershy, simply happy to escape the situation.

“Good luck, G!” John shouted before disappearing into the bushes with the others.

“No…“ the final gryphon simply stated, staring at the spot where his partner laid, ummoving.

“Well, this one is down,” Guard noticed as he watched the spot as well, his eyes widening at the odd angle the gryphon's neck was placed. “Crap, guess I‘m joining Recon on that report…” he turned to meet the remaining gryphon, but failed to notice him already leaping at him, his claw in the path to his face.

Without a second thought, Guard attempted to dodge, but was unable to do so completely, donning a few scratch marks and being tossed aside by the power of the hit, doing a painful bounce before stopping a few feet from him.

“Grr!” the gryphon roared, jumping back to the downed Guard, who with a swift roll, got out of the way before the hit, jumping to his feet and taking off, flying up pass the trees and towards the sky.

“Come back here!” the gryphon roared, taking off after him.

“Woah…” John said as he watched from behind a bush. “But wait, how are the o—… thers.” he had turned to meet Fluttershy, realizing she was nowhere to be seen. “Umm, Fluttershy?”

Meanwhile, the gryphon flew pass the masses of branches, simply cutting his way through with his claws, and without much effort, exiting the forest itself and to its skies where he found nothing but the clouds.

“Where are you!?” he growled again, looking around vigorously. “Come out and fight!” he reached into a pouch to his side, his claw coming out with a small knife.

“Oh, I don’t need to,” came Guard’s response. “Fluttershy, now!”

“Wait, wh-”

“Sorry!“ Fluttershy apologized, and before the gryphon was able to notice, there was a flash before two bolts of lighting hit him, causing him to twitch uncontrollably as the electricity flowed through his body.

Then, he fell, tumbling through the same trees he’d cut on his path, hitting himself on the way down constantly before finally hitting the ground, his body literally a smoking mess.

“Well, that’s that,” Guard said while descending, followed by Fluttershy who shook her head in disbelief.

“I, ehat did I do…?” she said in horror, noticing the gryphon as she neared the ground.

“Helping make this fight a lot less bloody than it would have been, trust me, you helped a lot,” Guard said, trying to comfort the shaking Fluttershy.

“Woah…” John said in amazement once they were back down. “That was fast!”

“We are not done yet. Hey, you!” Guard started, looking at the burned gryphon. “For a terrorist, you sure were careless,” he joked.

“I guess… I was…” the gryphon responded to the surprise of the others, looking to the side at the now dead gryphon who had accompanied him. “You know… you killed my friend,” he said simply, and to Guard’s surprise, got on his feet

“Trust me, I didn’t want to, but sometimes push comes to shove,” Guard explained. “Not that I’m going to apologize for it, I did what I had to,” he watched as the gryphon shakily kept himself on his feet, trembling constantly as small jolts of electricity occasionally ran through his body. “Please, don’t make me make you join him.”

“Kill me? Please, I know Celestia‘s troops aren‘t killers, just show,” the gryphon said in anger. “Know what? How about we made a deal… You go easy on me, and I give you info, how does that sound?”

“I-”

“Why are you after me!? Who send you?” John started, bursting out from the bushes with a scowl. “You could have killed us!”

“Well, aren’t we curious,” the gryphon laughed, ending with a cough that released some smoke from his mouth.

“John, be quiet, we’ll get our answers soon enough,” Guard ordered, glaring at the gryphon. “You have no room to negotiate with us, but you never know—you could get off easier."

“I guess that's as good as it's gonna get," he sighed. "But I do know cool stuff. For example, I can answer h—” he suddenly stopped, the smile on his face disappearing in a flash.

“Huh?” Guard stared confused, watching as the gryphon stopped talking. “You alright? The electricity wasn’t enough to kill you.”

“You… Lying… Pony…” the gryphon simply uttered, a trail of blood suddenly dripping behind him, and without any further comments, collapsed on the ground, a sort of metal blade stuck on his back.

“No!” came the voice of Recon, suddenly appearing out of thin air in a noticeable magical explosion, landing on the ground with a grunt. “Darn it! I missed him!”

“Recon! Report!” Guard quickly ordered.

“There was another gryphon, and I followed him but I missed him! Then I tried to teleport to catch him, but he was too fast!" he stopped suddenly, taking a gulp of air. "He used some sort of thrown weapon like… That one on that gryphon? What happened here?”

“Focus!” Guard ordered angrily.

“Sorry! The point is that he escaped! Before I noticed, he was already gone!” he finished in a rush.

“Damn it!” Guard roared. “Come on, maybe he is still around!” without any further comments, they ran towards the direction the knife had come from, leaving the group on their own.

All while Fluttershy was busy, attempting to bring back Rarity into consciousness.

“Rarity? Rarity, please, wake up…” Fluttershy called, shaking Rarity lightly, and after a few attempts, she finally stirred, opening her eyes mere seconds after.

“W-what happened?” she asked in a slur, twisting in pain as she held her damaged head. “Oh no! What happened to young Lemon!” she shouted, looking around.

“Oh, Rarity…” Fluttershy cried happily, hugging her friend. “Lemon is fine, he is right here,” she said, pointing to the scared colt.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine, Ms. Rarity. And so is Mr. John! And the guards and Ms. Fluttershy came to rescue us!” he explained in a rush.

“O-oh, that’s good… what happened? And the others!” she asked confused.

“You were out cold, but luckily Mr. Guard and I got here," Fluttershy explained. "And everypony is fine, they were just worried about you guys."

“Really? No one was hurt?” John asked.

“Yep, you were lucky…” Guard sighed, arriving then, his small injuries now treated. “We sure weren‘t though, he got away,” he lamented, sighing in defeat.

“What now, Captain?” Rarity asked.

“We leave. We’ll send a team to gather the bodies… ” with a sigh, he began walking, the others following without objection.

The trip continued for a couple of minutes in silence, the ponies and human simply gathering their thoughts over the events of the day, most of them remained in front, with Lemon having passed out on top of Fluttershy, while Rarity stayed behind with her headache, something that John quickly took advantage of to stay behind as well.

“Hey, Rarity?” he began.

“What do you want?” she asked with a hiss.

“I was just wondering how you are doing, is all…” he explained nervously.

“Well, I would be better if you hadn’t blown our cover. If apologizing is what you were attempting to do, I supposed you are forgiven,” she groaned.

“What? No! That was a…” he stumbled to find the right word.

“A mistake committed by you while blaming a young child who was probably terrified? Yes, of course,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Is that all? I really do not feel like talking right now.”

“Okay that’s it!” John shouted, finally having had enough. “What’s your problem? Practically since I got here, you’ve been nothing but unpleasant to me! I do admit that I haven’t been doing a good job to make up for it, but come on! You aren’t helping!”

“Oh,” Rarity simply scoffed, looking at him with narrowed eyes. “You want to know, don’t you?”

John simply went with a reluctant nod. “Why do I feel like I’m going to regret this.”

“It should be obvious to say, but I don’t like you,” she started.

“I believe that has been established<“ John replied irritated.

“Can’t this wait?” Guard commented from the front. “Please.”

“I thank you for saving me, Mr. Guard, but I must get this off my chest now; it was a long time coming,” she stopped for a second, taking a deep breath. “Fluttershy dear, would you be so kind to go ahead? I will be with you in a bit.”

Fluttershy simple stared, sighing in response. “O-okay. Don‘t take long, please.”

Rarity waved at Fluttershy, and after a few seconds of waiting, she finally turned to John. “Tell me John, what makes you so special?”

“Pardon?” John asked.

“What makes you so special that you would convince Twilight to bring you here? I’ve heard your story, and as tragic as it is, I never thought that it required you to move into a completely different world.”

“W-well…” he started, attempting to bring up a valid argument.

“Yeah, keep thinking about it, I’ll continue,” Rarity hissed. “Now, it lends itself to reason that Twilight actually helped you come out of your shell, and you were doing just fine, which begs the question: why did you come?”

John simply remained silent.

“I see… You don’t know, do you?” she began walking around him, her eyes never leaving him. “A poor creature, a terrible event ruined his life, but with the help of another creature, he was able to recover… And he did. But instead of turning his life around, what does he do?” she asked, turning to John.

“Um…”

“Well?”

“…”

“I thought so," she groaned, not bothering to hold her voice back anymore. "And then, instead of turning his life around, he simply tosses it aside, practically leaving every single one of his friends and family! All without a single goodbye!”

“B-but my mother hated me!” John retorted, remembering that certain part in his memory list.

“Did she now? But of course, you will never know if that would be the case forever, would you? Perhaps a reconciliation might come, and you two would be even closer because of it!” John simply shook his head.

“Why do you care!?” he shouted, loud enough that birds in the forest flew from the trees.

“I don’t,“ Rarity replied simply, taking a deep breath.

“Then why!?“

Because I cannot simply respect someone who probably hurt those he loved on a whim! Twilight would have gotten over it soon enough. As much as it pains you to hear, you only knew each other for a week, she would recover… As would you.”

“I’m still waiting for your point,“ John began, his mind drawing a blank.

“The point is: what happens when you get here?” she didn’t wait this time, practically running up to him. “You freeload! You cause Twilight to be cursed! I mean, what have you even done here for her? For anypony?”

“…”

“It may not be of my business, but Twilight is my friend. With all that you‘ve caused, I believe it‘s obvious,” she stopped, taking a deep breath, and looking at him with a fake smile. “I hope that answers your question, darling!” she trotted ahead, nodding to Guard. “I’m sorry for the delay, Mr. Guard, we shall get going!” she announced, skipping ahead without another word.

“… Er… Take your time, John, I’ll wait just ahead,” Guard said awkwardly, shaking his head. “Ouch…” he whispered as he got away enough.

-Oh my… That was rather harsh, don’t you think? Are you going to take that?- the Voice asked.

John said nothing.

Author's Notes:

AFTER 6 MONTHS IT MAKES ITS... MEDIOCRE RETURN YAY. I had to quadruple check to make sure this chapter was at least on acceptable levels and that details were set correctly. Took me WEEKS. In any case, this closes that arc at last.Anyway, this is still a mostly slice of life story, and it will return to that, so that's good!

Needless to say, a LOT of things happened, and well... It MIGHT be a bit much for some, mah nogging be cooking up stuff for certain characters and future (and I do mean FUTURE) chapters beyond what it currently is.

Basically, this is the start of something bigger, and I hope you guys will stay through it... The shark has yet to be jumped!

Spoiler Notes 29 - 06/06/18

Alright, this one was fun to read through again. I'm happy enough, all things considered. A bit on insight into what I had for my notes, but it was actually VERY difficult to get the final bit to be said to John at some point. I had planned it for a long while, since it was something that needed to be said, but it was clear that I had to find a reason, and: ta-dah! Rarity felt like a character who would be good for this! It's just that it took a tad longer than I expected to be implemented, and it soured her for me for a while, so I'm glad I got that out.

On the other hand, the biggest whoops that has ever whoopsed has to be given in regards to the author's note I left back then. So, yeah, I was a bit over ambitious with what I was doing, but don't expect the crap I was gonna pull, as that has been rewritten. Not a big loss, as it was VERY subtle.

11 chapters left, and I'll be done catching up. And yet, it only gets harder from here.