"Oh my, that wasn't supposed to happen," Insight said with a gulp. The orange unicorn pushed a button on his goggles and the red lens popped in to be replaced with a blue one. “This isn’t good at all,” he murmured to himself.

Twilight forced her tired eyes open, almost stumbling with the apparent effort. She then blinked several times, to ensure that she was seeing this right. The two ponies were stood on what appeared to be a rocky outcropping overlooking a vast sea of magenta. As far as the eye could see was an ocean of thick purple fog. If she squinted she could make out a few other rocky islands suspended above the ocean of mist. The sky itself was a greyish cyan which was strange enough, but Twilight did a double take when she realised something. There was no moon, no sun, no stars, no clouds, no rainbows; no weather at all! Not even a breeze! The unnaturally still air was going to take a bit of getting used to. It was then she remembered her current companion who was still fiddling with his goggles.

“You! You did this, didn’t you?!” Twilight spun around and shouted at the awkward unicorn.

“Well… uh… you see…” Insight began to babble as he backed away slowly.

Twilight rounded on him, jabbing him in the chest with her hoof accusatorily, “What. Did. You. Do?!” With each word another sharp jab, eliciting a pained expression from her cohort.

“I didn’t mean for this to happen…” Insight blurted out quickly as he backed away from the furious mare. His hoof almost slipped as he reached the edge of the floating island, small rock that his hoof had disturbed slid over the edge. With a heavy gulp he tried to swallow his fear, and confront Twilight. “Uhh… look here… Missy. It’s not entirely my fault… uh… what happened here that is. You… you were the one who didn’t want to destroy that Trixie!” His voice fluttered along with his confidence jumping from loud and angry to meek and apologetic.

“You were going to kill her?!” Twilight shouted, “You were going to use my magic to take another life!” Twilight looked as if she were about to explode with flame, her body shook with barely constrained rage.

“It’s the only safe way to banish a pride demon,” Insight mumbled weakly as he shrank from her gaze.

“You’re despicable,” Twilight said vehemently before turning around and trotting off.

Insight pulled himself back to his usual height and trotted away from the edge. With a hoof, he brushed away the dirty imprints on his golden coat, when he suddenly jumped. “Wait! Where are you going?!” Insight shouted after the purple mare.

“Home,” Twilight said with a sense of finality.

“You know a way out of here?!” he shouted after the retreating figure of Twilight.

“Not really!” she shouted back.

“Do you have a plan?!” Insight returned, desperation edging into his voice. Twilight stopped in her tracks and Insight breathed a sigh of relief.

“It can’t be that hard to get out of here. Unless, do you know where we are?!” Twilight spun around.

“I have an inkling,” Insight began when the purple unicorn suddenly appeared in front of him again, causing him to stumble back to the edge once more in shock. “Don’t do that!” he whined.

“Look here Mister Insight. It is becoming readily apparent that you know a lot more about this situation than I do. So, how about you share what you know and I don’t abandon you… wherever we are. All… alone,” Twilight said with a much rougher edge in her voice than usual.

“I think that we’re inside Trixie’s consciousness…” Insight mumbled.

“What?!” It was Twilight’s turn to take a step back, her eyes wide with shock.

“Trixie’s consciousness!” Insight shouted it this time.

“How?! How could we possibly be here!”

“Because you went and…” Insight began angrily but stopped when he saw the look on Twilight’s face. He sighed sadly before continuing, “Normally I eliminate the demon and the host, it’s the only way to deal with lesser demons, they kill the host on possession. From the powers this individual exhibited I could tell it was a pride demon. Pride demons are the strongest kind but a pride demon can be removed without killing the host, they prefer to keep them on hand for “entertainment”. When you lent me your magic, you must have somehow altered the spell I was casting so as to take the non-lethal action. Your magical ability seems to far exceed my own.”

Twilight blushed at the compliment while her brain attempted to work with this new information. “Are we literally inside her mind or is it just our consciousnesses?”

“Well… uh… I don’t actually know. Hmm. I’ve got my goggles so we could possibly really be here but… to be frank, I don’t have a clue.

“So you’re the only demonologist in Equestria, but you’re still completely hopeless?” Twilight asked rather snarkily.

“Ouch, low blow. But to be fair it is traditionally only done by zebras. All the texts I have on it were translated from Zebrican texts, and their language is really hard,” Insight said in his high-pitched whiney tone.

“My heart bleeds,” Twilight said flatly. “Now, just tell me the way out of here,” she added irritably.

“We could just leave,” Insight said plainly before leaning in and adding, “or we could save Trixie.”

“So we can remove this demon from here?” Twilight asked, a confused expression on her face.

“That’s what I said,” Insight replied snidely.

Twilight brushed aside the comment with a false smile.

Insight was waiting for a proper reaction but after five seconds passed he continued, “We fight through her memories and try to restore her psyche. Depending on the pride demon, we should either be able to quietly restore her to entirety or at least provoke him into reacting. The demon feeds on positive emotions so we need to focus on severing its connection with sources of this. Just be aware that demons attract other demons and have the power to enthral lesser beings. I know a spell to protect us both from the mind control, but we’ll still have to fight any minions we come across.”

“You want me to fight demons?” Twilight asked incredulously.

“It’s not hard here. In this plane the demons are vulnerable to physical and magical attacks. It may not come to that though, we keep our heads down and act like we’re meant to be here. Demons tend to get enveloped in their own fantasies, it furthers their experiences and such,” Insight said almost casually.

“So we just blend in? Are they really that ignorant?!” Twilight asked disbelievingly.

“Demons cannot always distinguish between what is real and what isn’t,” Insight stated as if reading it straight from a book before hesitating and adding, “Then again; we can’t either, so.”

“Great, so we’re trapped here in Trixie’s subconscious with an army of demons,” Twilight stated throwing her hooves up in protest.

“I’d hardly call them an army…” Insight began awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with his hoof.

“A mob of demons,” Twilight corrected, fixing Insight with another hard glare.

“Look, this is exactly what you wanted! A chance to save Trixie from her inner demons.” Insight chuckled at his own joke.

Twilight was not amused. “Don’t you realise how much trouble we’re in?” she asked, putting a heavy emphasis on the word how.

“I have some idea, one of the few translated texts is from Zevran, a zebra shaman who singlehoofedly saved an entire tribe from a pride demon after it infected their chieftain,”

“Wait! There’s only one account of this?!” Twilight shouted, her rage surfacing again.

“Pride demons are even rarer than accomplished Demonologists. They’re the least documented species! In fact, all I know is from Zevran’s writings,” Insight said defensively, not backing away this time and actually meeting her eyes.

“Fine, let’s just get started then shall we?” Twilight said with a heavy sigh.

“Fine,” Insight retorted pettishly.

“Where are we?”

“Trixie’s consciousness, we covered this…” Insight began with a groan.

“No, I mean where in her consciousness are we?” Twilight restated, gritting her teeth.

“Oh,” Insight said as he turned around and observed the areas. “Let’s see here… Cyan sky, purple sea of fog, floating island…” he began to mumble mostly to himself.

Twilight started tapping her hoof against the ground impatiently but Insight remained unperturbed.

“I would surmise that we are currently in the central node of the consciousness. You see that huge island in the distance?”

Twilight strained her eyes gazing into the distance before replying with a curt, “No.”

“Really?! Oh wait, here put these on,” Insight said as he unhooked his goggles and handed them over.

Twilight gazed through the blue lens and suddenly everything was even bluer. “Great, they turn everything blue,” she said sarcastically.

“No, no. They can pick up residual magic in the air, typical of demons. Look closer and in that direction, you should see a large structure made of darker blue clusters where the magic is concentrated,” Insight advised.

Twilight gazed hard at the advised area and sure enough there seemed to be a castle made of dark blue energy in the far distance. The magic seemed to be gathering on the other islands too although in nowhere near the same quantity. “Oh yeah, I see it now. What of it?”

“I suspect that’s where the demon’s holed up. They’re a stickler for tradition, I expect it’s proclaimed itself emperor or whatever in this world. Just keep an eye out for any magical constructs, they’ll probably be modelled after ponies but some demons like to customise their minions,” Insight once again took the role as mentor, he was loving having some pony to finally talk to about this kind of stuff.

Twilight mumbled in agreement before asking, “What do the other lenses do?”

“Hmm… oh, the other lenses. Well the red spots demonic energy but it’s only effective up close, blue spots magical energy as you know, yellow, spots life-signs; even false constructs will exude one of these, and green is for use in the dark; it amplifies light levels in low-light conditions,” Insight retorted counting with each hoof as he read them off.

“Fascinating piece of equipment, you said it can spot life signs?” Twilight said, mesmerised by the marvel of technology.

“Yes, all life gives off a certain energy and these goggles can spot that, unfortunately it can’t distinguish between plants or animals or ponies so they’re only really useful in situations like this,” Insight said with a nervous laugh. “Can I have them back?” he asked politely. Now that both ponies had mellowed out he was regaining his confidence.

“Sorry,” Twilight said with an apologetic smile before unfastening and handing over the brass contraption.

“Quite alright,” Insight said returning the smile.

Twilight’s smile then soured again as now that the goggle distraction had been disposed of; there was nothing to distract her from the task at hand. “While we’re here is time still moving?” she asked offhoof.

“Yes, this is all in real-time,” Insight replied a little confusedly.

“So the ponies are going to wake up and then think us dead,” Twilight said flatly.

“No, we’ll still be breathing, just unconscious… like a coma,” Insight said in what he thought was a reassuring manner. It wasn’t.

“Will Trixie wake up?” Twilight asked urgently.

Insight hesitated at this point and visibly paled, “I… I don’t actually know,” he replied staring into space.

“If she wakes up and kills us, will we die here?” Twilight continued in the same urgent manner.

I don’t know,” Insight mumbled.

“If we die here, do we die out there?” Twilight was beginning to grow annoying.

“I don’t know!” Insight shouted; he was beginning to break out into a cold sweat.

Twilight did not take this as a good sign. “Should we hurry then?”

“Yes!” Insight shouted uncomfortably loud and appearing to physically rise to the challenge. “But where?” he added, shrinking back down a bit.

“I’m assuming we island hop?” Twilight hazarded.

“Yes!” Insight shouted again reflating his ego. “Each island should have a means of transportation to the next island; demons had to move around too,” Insight reasoned aloud.

“But where? The island appears to be completely cut off,” Twilight said, gazing around the small island.

“The goggles!” Insight suddenly shouted, replacing them on his head and staring through the blue lens. “There! A blue hole! Look, right here!” Insight said stumbling forward, hoof outstretched.

Twilight watched him grope around like an idiot yet she was still intrigued by the idea of invisible, magical portals despite their inherent ridiculousness. Insight appeared to trip over a stone and fall into nothing. He just suddenly wasn’t there anymore. Twilight approached the space where he had vanished cautiously. “Insight?!” she shouted but there was no reply. She poked forward with her hoof and watched as it vanished into nothingness. With an all or nothing shrug she jumped into the nothingness and emerged on the other side. They were on another island, in front of her she could just make out the island they were on, the only island in that direction.

“Hey, Twilight!” Insight called from slightly further over, he was crouched to the ground and looking at something.”

Twilight trotted over to the bent over unicorn. He appeared to have found a bookcase. Lying discarded on the floor, its books scattered around it. Twilight picked up one of the books with a spurt of telekinetic energy from her horn. She opened the cover, written in an elegant script that rivalled even Celestia’s calligraphy was the title, “Trixie’s Life Volume One: Conception.” Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise once more and she flipped onto the first page out of curiosity. Her face turned as red as beetroot, she firmly closed the book before fitting it onto the broken bookcase.

“What was that?” Insight asked eagerly.

“It was nothing,” Twilight said awkwardly before trotting over to another bookcase that was still standing. The majority of the books were still on this case, their spines clearly labelling them all as more volumes of Trixie’s life. They passed into the thousands and kept going. Twilight looked along the dirty ground and took a step forward. Her hoof made a loud clopping noise as it hit the marble ground, Twilight recoiled, everything had changed instantaneously; what was once dirt was now marble, what was once air was now towering stone walls.

Insight whistled with admiration as he trotted up to Twilight. “Something has noticed our presence here in the hall of memories and judging from the detail of this apparition it’s something powerful,”

“Isn’t that very bad?” Twilight asked, her lower lip trembling with fear.

“Partially, the fact that we aren’t dead but instead being entreated to this probably means that this demon isn’t hostile, it could be a demon of Inadequacy or Obsession,” Insight said, smiling despite the matter at hoof.

“And how is that good?” Twilight said in a curious mix of rage and fear.

“Demons of Inadequacy are so self-conscious that they’ll do absolutely anything to impress us, as long as we refrain from insulting them then we should just be able to pass through. Demons of Obsession are extremely single-minded and are very likely to strike a deal with us if it corresponds with their focus,” Insight said coolly.

“Oh… okay,” Twilight replied, her voice wavering as she said it.

“That is unless it’s pretty much any other demon… then we could be in a lot of trouble,” Insight said with a gulp. He switched his lens back to red and peered through it around the area. “Can’t see anything,” he said reassuringly to himself.

Twilight looked around too, this reminded her a lot of Canterlot library, the massive bookcases towering in each area, the bookcase that had collapsed was suddenly fully repaired and standing upright, all its books neatly in order. The library was well lit by a plethora of candles hanging from the ceiling in candelabras or mounted on the wall. Twilight took another step, once again it clopped out loudly off the marble floor, reverberating around the white stone walls. She began to trot directly down the centre of the bookcases.

“Hey! Where are you going?!” Insight shouted nervously before galloping after her.

“We are going to find this demon and see if it will help us, I cans see no other option,” she tried to announce confidently but her voice failed her towards the end.

“But what if it isn’t?” Insight asked with a squeak.

“You just said yourself that the demon knows we’re here and may be negotiable,” Twilight said exasperatedly.

Insight shrugged in reply. Twilight couldn’t even be asked to give him another hard stare. The two ponies continued the journey in silence.

A few minutes later Insight finally opened his mouth. “Look, the bookcases here are empty,” he said. Twilight looked and sure enough he was right.

“I hadn’t noticed, I’ve been staring at that banner in the distance we seem to be approaching, trying to gauge this demon’s allegiance,” she whispered conspiratorially.

“Huh, actually didn’t see that,” Insight mumbled in reply. Putting on his goggles he switched to the green lens and examined the banner. It was clearly red satin with gold embroidery. The stitching appeared to be in the shape of a stylised griffon. It bore a striking resemblance to the Trottingham coat of arms. “It looks like the old heraldry that Trottingham used to have back before they joined Equestria proper,” he said to his companion.

Twilight took a long, hard look before breaking into a nod. “I see it, except it’s missing the sword and crown,” she replied thoughtfully.

“Wait, do you hear that?” Insight asked.

Twilight strained her ears and there was some-sort of scratchy sound that she was oh-so familiar with. It reminded her of home and, more specifically, Spike. “Sounds like the scratching of a quill on paper,” Twilight mused.

“Huh, yeah I see that. Sounds like it’s coming from around the corner,” Insight replied with a half-hearted nod.

The two ponies rounded the corner by the bookcase and found themselves face to face with a very, very, very old looking griffon. It appeared almost corpse-like, its skin sunken and sallow, its feathers patchy and grey, its eyes wrinkled but oh so bright. In its decrepit claw was a quill that scratched loudly against the book as he scribbled furiously. He seemed so absorbed with his work that he didn’t even register their presence.

Twilight looked to Insight who just shrugged in return, earning an eye roll from the purple unicorn. Insight switched his goggles back to red and peered through, nothing changed. Surprised he switched along to yellow and looked through again, once more there was no signal being emitted off him. He looked at Twilight and she was bathed in a bright yellow light, yet the griffon was giving off no such signal. He then switched to blue and peered through, the griffon was encased in an almost blinding aura of blue light. Insight wrenched the goggles off and blinked trying to clear his eyes. Twilight looked at him with an angry glare. A sudden cough made them both look up.

The griffon was staring straight at them, his quill neatly lain on the open book so no ink would leak from it. “Would it be wrong of me to presume that you are the two interlopers in my domicile?”

Twilight gave a nervous nod whilst Insight seemed to switch back to his yellow lens and stare through it.

“Would it also be wrong if I was to opine that you two equines are the paladins that have come for my mistress?” The griffon asked once more, his voice was surprisingly clear and powerful despite his weak frame.

“So you serve the demon of pride then?” Insight murmured weakly, his face paling.

The griffon burst out in a roaring display of furious laughter, it seemed to roll off of the walls and fill the room with a sense of cheer and mirth. Insight and Twilight couldn’t help but begin to laugh along with him. “You think that I, Lord Featherheart of Fairwind would deign to answer to a cacodemon like that fiend!? The very thought is just absolutely preposterous,” the griffon laughed again.

“Then… uh, what are you doing here?” Twilight hazarded.

The griffon’s mirth vanished in a heartbeat to be replaced by a forlorn look of regret. “I… I was once a member of The Order of Feather and Steel in his Majesty, Prince Exalted Talon VI’s service,” he announced with all the necessary pomp despite the sadness now present in his eyes. “I was given lordship over the settlement of Fairwind. The town was a nice boon but it wasn’t enough for me, I had selflessly given the best fifty years of my life, served in countless battles against all matter of evil. My rival, Beaksley, was given the resplendent city of Eyrie in the Icecap Mountains. I… grew disillusioned, began to doubt that I was getting what I deserved, and then it spoke to me, that incorporeal voice. It promised me my own kingdom, all I had to do was rebel against my Prince. I did. My body was quickly slain before the demon had a chance to completely drain me so here I am, kept alive in this wizened state for its amusement. But now I have found a kindred spirit, this Trixie. She understands what I went through and I offered my allegiance to her, she tried to talk me out of it but eventually relented. Together we were going to attempt to overthrow this daemonic beast and free ourselves from this nightmare. That is until I detected you two show up, we’ll need all the allies we are going to get if we hope to stand up to Flauros,” Featherheart spat out the name and rose to his paws.

Insight looked at Twilight then back to the griffon, “You want to team up?” he asked surprisedly.

“Of course, together we stand a much greater chance of triumph,” Featherheart cheered and attempted a heroic pose, but all this did was highlight how past his glory was. His beak was upturned in what he imagined as a dazzling smile but what appeared to the two ponies as a beaky grin.

Twilight pointed to Insight’s goggles with a hoof and a nod of her head. Insight nodded and crossed his forehooves. Twilight nodded back and put on a polite smile. “We would be honoured to serve with the esteemed Lord Featherheart.”

“Verily,” Insight said in an overly elaborate tone that wouldn’t feel out of place in Canterlot.

“Forsooth I did not think that you would agree so readily, but let us go to Trixie lest we flap our tongues ‘til they fall out,” the aged griffon cheered before turning and walking down the corridor behind the desk.

Insight and Twilight walked behind him but whispered between themselves. “Something is definitely wrong with him, no demonic signs but no life signs either. To top that off though, he is surrounded by a colossal field of magic,” Insight told Twilight.

“Maybe he is the real deal, that story seemed pretty realistic,” Twilight whispered back earning a look of disbelief from the orange colt.

“Don’t believe anything you’re told here, demons are the trickiest of the tricky. They think they’re so clever compared to us “mortals”,” Insight replied, his voice almost physically dripping with disdain.

“Buy you said so yourself that he was clean,” Twilight stated.

“I said my goggles weren’t picking anything up, I don’t trust him but if he’s taking us to Trixie,” Insight said shrugging at the end to illustrate his point.

“How will we know it’s Trixie? It could be another demon,” Twilight asked anxiously.

“Good point,” Insight replied, fear edging into his tone again. He bit his lip lightly as they continued to trot.

Featherheart was whistling jauntily to himself as he walked, or at least what could have been misconstrued as jauntily.

Insight finally sighed and poked his goggles with one of his forehooves. “We just have to hope the goggles tell us,” he surmised thoughtfully.

“They aren’t picking up Featherheart,” Twilight replied flatly.

“He’s a unique case, these haven’t let me down yet,” Insight said snidely, glaring at the purple mare who had the gall to insult his beloved contraption.

“They have now,” Twilight replied with an in-your-face smile before trotting forwards to walk next to Featherheart. “So, you’re from the Griffon Kingdom?” she asked eagerly.

“Not quite my equine chum,” Featherheart replied with a deep yet dusty chuckle. “I hail from the Principality of Talonreath; an antediluvian realm that stretched from the Icecap Mountains to the ancient Forests of Woodmore,” Featherheart said rather grandiosely.

“Talonreath? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the place… wait did you just say Woodmore!?” Twilight shouted as realisation crossed her face.

“Yes I did, what of it?” Featherheart asked with anticipation.

“Woodmore hasn’t been called Woodmore in ten thousand years! Not since the settling of Trottingham by Chancellor Puddinghead!”

“You know of Chancellor Puddinghead? That old mare was a tricky one. I recall this one time where she arrived on a diplomatic visit dressed as her envoy Smart Cookie dressed as herself! A brilliant if completely pointless disguise,” Featherheart said with another hearty chuckle.

“You knew Puddinghead?!” Twilight asked incredulously, her eyes filled with the sparkling of awe.

“Our Principality bordered the fledgling Republic of Equestrians. My town of Fairwind sat on the other side of Woodmore. As the local lord of the town it was my duty to meet with the occasional dignitary. I remember Commander Hurricane, the brutish pegasi who almost caused a war along if it wasn’t for Corporal Pansy,” Featherheart was practically gushing now, it seemed all those years of loneliness had left him with a bit of a social void.

“You mean Private Pansy,” Twilight corrected automatically.

“Hah, maybe once, Corporal Pansy was head of Cloudsdale’s Diplomatic Division and represented the Pegasi in all diplomatic missions. I spoke with her may a time but I only met Hurricane once. He demanded I execute a Pegasi prisoner we captured stealing from our market. I obviously refused and handed the prisoner to the Equestrian Council who ruled imprisonment instead. Hurricane was so furious he almost slew me where I stood. Thank the divines for Pansy,” Featherheart said, his voice improving as he did, the raspy old griffon was sounding younger by the second.

“How about Princess Platinum?” Twilight asked excitedly, she was astounded that she was speaking to someone from history. Just thinking about the wealth of knowledge that he could tell her was reason enough to follow him to infinity and beyond.

Featherheart stopped and seemed to wrack his brains for a few seconds. Insight almost walked into the back of him but stopped millimetres from his back. “The name sounds familiar but I can’t place it.” Featherheart eventually replied.

“The settler of Canterlot?” Twilight ventured.

“Oh! You mean King Rhodium’s spoiled brat!” Featherheart said with a click of his talons. “I thankfully never dealt with her but she frequently sent over Clover the Clever for frankly ridiculous requests. I liked Clover, he couldn’t tolerate his mistress either, although he just referred to her as “She Who Must Not Be Named.” Ah, fun times.” Featherheart couldn’t help but laugh again. He then became silent but his eyes stayed alight and his ears stayed alight.

Twilight looked at him and motioned to say something but stopped herself. He looked peaceful, happy as he walked along the overly long but still dead straight corridor.

Insight continued to trot in short bursts, looking everywhere as he did with his prized goggles. The walls, floor and ceiling all had a faint blue glow about them, when looked at through the blue lens. All the furnishings did too: candles, chairs, closed doors; all of them were magical constructs. Insight still hadn’t mind up his mind about Featherheart, he had heard snippets of his conversation with Twilight. The fact that he seemed to be speaking from some degree of personal experience pointed towards him being real, unless you considered the possibility that he is a demon that was active around that time period. Right now the two ideas seemed to be battling it out around his head, dodging each accusation due to lack of evidence. He isn’t showing up on the life scanner one voice seemed to say, scoring a hit. The other quickly returned with a jab to the face. He isn’t showing up on the demonic energy detector.

“We’re almost there,” Featherheart called out as the marble tiles began to spread out and grass came up beneath them. The walls and ceilings were full of holes and seemed half-destroyed.

Insight shook himself from his imaginary boxing match. Pity, he’d had seventy imaginary bits on the red guy.

Twilight could see the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel. She picked up the pace then slowed down again when she remembered they didn’t know if this was the real Trixie up ahead or a demonic representation of Trixie or they might not even bother with the Trixie. Featherheart sounded genuine but Twilight maintained a healthy suspicion.

The group emerged from the tunnel onto another rocky desolate island. Only dirt coated the floating chunk of ground, dirt and a small campsite.

“This island is the final landmass to not be under demonic control. The demons get stronger as you get closer to the end,” Featherheart explained as he began to walk towards the tent.

Insight switched to the red lens and scanned the area, still no demonic signs. The blue lens then told him that all of the objects here were slightly enchanted as well. The yellow lens picked up two signals. Insight breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Two life signs, not including my own. No demonic signs are telling me that the pony inside that tent is alive and, quite possibly, the real Trixie.”

“Featherheart, is that you?” a weak voice called out from the tent. A light greyish blue unicorn stumbled out looking almost as bad for wear as Featherheart. Her eyes were sunken and her fur looked as if almost all of her colour had drained out from her. She was covered in bandages and plasters, an especially large one holding together her cracked horn. Both her eyes still shone the same deep purple but they were unusually active, darting in all directions with a hint of fear.

“Mistress,” Featherheart bowed widely. “As I suspected, we have recruited two new companions to our cause,”

“New companions?! Can they be trusted?! Are they friendly?! Are they here to kill us?! Tell them that we surrender!” Trixie began to hyperventilate as she squeaked furiously to her companion, before turning to flee.

“Trixie,” Twilight said flatly as she emerged from behind Featherheart along with her golden associate.

“M…m…m…Miss Sparkle?!” Trixie mumbled awkwardly. “Featherheart, they can’t be real, do something!” Trixie screamed, her entire body quivering with fear.

“I can personally vouch for their integrity. I’ve been here long enough to tell the difference between fake constructs and flesh and blood ponies,” Featherheart announced confidently.

“Real? Then that must mean…” Trixie trailed off, she had stopped shaking violently but made sure to keep Featherheart between her and the two newcomers. “Am… am I dead?”

“Dead? Good heavens no, you’re just in a state of suspended limbo, possibly for eternity,” Insight said enthusiastically.

Trixie processed this information with a brief, “Oh.”

Twilight gave Insight a glare for what must have been the tenth time in an hour, before turning her attention to the distressed mare. “We’re here to rescue you Trixie!”

“Rescue me? Me? I’m not worth it, I’m just going to stay here forever,”

“Mistress! We discussed this, there is no point in remaining here,” Featherheart sighed exasperatedly. “There is finally enough of us to pose a real threat to our warden.”

“You can’t all risk your lives for me. I’ll be fine here, just go on and get out of here,” Trixie said with a sigh, she went to wave her hoof but cried out with pain at the effort.

“Look at you! You’re not the Trixie that we all know and lo… well, uh, tolerate actually,” Twilight said in as reassuring a manner as she could.

“She’s fragmented. It appears that the demon has completely broken her psyche. That probably means its leaching off her. If we cut its access to the sources of these traits then she’s going to strengthen whilst the demon weakens. If we’re quiet we could completely avoid a physical confrontation with the pride demon,” Insight told the rest of the group.

“That would probably be best,” Twilight said with an appreciative nod. She then turned to Trixie and said, “You’re coming with us then, Trixie,” she said in a non-negotiable tone of voice.

“No… no! You can’t make me! There are demons out there!” Trixie squealed when she found herself in Twilight’s magical field. The ramshackle group approached the edge of the island where Featherheart stood on his hind legs and spread his talons outwards , whispering something. A sudden blinding light appeared then vanished just as quickly revealing a sturdy stone bridge in its place.

“Let’s go then,” Insight said with a shrug as he began to trot across the bridge.

“Let us earn our freedom!” Featherheart shouted triumphantly before charging over the same bridge.

“It’s time to get back to the real word Trixie!” Twilight shouted enthusiastically before tailing her comrades, dragging Trixie along with her magic.