When they awoke, everything was gone.

Belove was first to wake, gingerly rubbing his sleep encrusted eyes with the back of his hoof. Still caught in the rift between dream and reality, the earth pony slowly sat up in his sleeping bag, expecting to hear the popping crackle of the, presumably, still roaring fire. The cave was silent. Vision still blurry, he felt nauseous at having awoken so quickly, blood racing to his pounding head. He slumped back down, letting out one long, deep sigh as his tired eyes adjusted back to dark surroundings, staring up at a blank ceiling.

A cold sensation pressed against his chest. A little surprised, his hoof shot towards the foreign feeling. Fumbling a little, he pulled his medal from deep within the confines of his sleeping bag, hanging limply from his neck by a pale blue ribbon.

‘Must have left it on overnight.’

The ribbon was silky and the gold of the medallion smooth to the touch. He held it in his outstretched hoof for a few minutes, admiring its quality craftsmanship, before he slipped the thing from his neck and, dangling it like a cat with a mouse, reached his other hoof over to his saddlebag.

His hoof groped around at empty air.

The guard was confused. He was sure he had left his saddlebag right beside him the prior to drifting off. He waved his hoof around blindly, brushing against nothing but the dusty cave floor, scattering small pebbles and pieces of gravel.

Panic creeping in, Belove sat up with a jolt. He pushed his hoof back into the thick, pure blackness, sweeping the area for his missing possessions. His search came back fruitless. In a cold sweat, Belove bolted upwards, almost entangling himself in his cocoon-like sleeping bag as he stumbled to all fours.

His saddlebag was nowhere to be seen.

“This is bad,” he muttered to himself, desperately scouring the floor for his rucksack. He hoped that his eyes were playing tricks on him, that the bag was cleverly camouflaged into the darkness, or perhaps that he was still asleep. A quick pinch on the cheek debunked his last theory. “This is very bad...”

Belove’s ramblings did not go unnoticed. Weatherstorm stirred under Belove’s groans and curses, first stretching his facial features into a wide mouthed yawn, then following suit with his forelegs, stretching them above his head with an audible crack. “Good morning Belove.” He croaked, his voice still groggy. His friend didn’t seem to acknowledge his presence, seemingly too preoccupied with whatever he was looking for.

Sitting upright with his lower half still tucked cosily away under his duvet, the Pegasus gave one flick of his mullet of hair and reached for his glasses.

He reached several times for his glasses.

He had no glasses.

This was an odd occurrence, by any standard. He was sure that he had tucked them away in their little case, like putting a foal safely to bed, and set the case upon a flat surfaced rock to his left. And yet when he reached out for them, there was nothing.

No case, no glasses, nothing but smooth rock. Had he perchance knocked them off of the edge during his slumber? It was unlikely. He was a peaceful sleeper, and rarely would he toss and turn, so the spectacles’ disappearance was obviously not due to an error of his own.

“Belove,” he drew out the name, turning his attention back to his scurrying friend. “Belove, I don’t suppose you have caught sight of my glasses as of late, have you? I really rather need them to see, you see.”

“I don’t believe it, but it’s gone.” Belove whispered back, only half listening to his friend. His slumped form was frantically pawing through the dirt, shifting and swaying in Weatherstorm’s less than sterling eyesight.

“What is?” Weatherstorm shot up, bringing his sleeping bag up along with him. He kicked himself free and flew over to Belove. “Please don’t tell me my glasses.”

“It’s... it’s gone.”

“What is?” Weatherstorm burst uncontrollably, grabbing the Earth Pony by his shoulders. “What’s gone?”

“EVERYTHING.”

“Oh no...” Weatherstorm tumbled back over to his sleeping bag which lay in a crumpled heap. He yanked the material from the ground and threw it to one side. Sure enough, the area was clear and devoid of his saddlebags. All his possessions, gone.

With a high pitched squeak of surprise, Weatherstorm darted to Cananor’s sleeping bag, which rose and fell with every breath its snoozing occupant took. He shook his unicorn companion gently but hurriedly, his hoof shaking in fear and confusion.

“Not now, Dad.” The sleeping Cananor mumbled under his breath, swatting at the air in discomfort. “School isn’t for another 2 hours.”

“Cananor!” The Pegasus hissed, snapping the stallion awake. “Wake up!”

Cananor took a moment to get his bearings, eyes spinning dazedly before locking onto target. “Oh, hey Weatherstorm.” He screwed up his nose at the sight of his red-faced, heavily panting friend leaning over his body in a worryingly provocative manner. “Uh... what’s going on?”

“I don’t want to panic you,” Weatherstorm spoke softly, calmly and deliberately, yet there was a wavering fear in his voice. “But I’m afraid we may have just been robbed.”

Cananor sat up and eyed Weatherstorm suspiciously. “Robbed? By who, the squirrels? I’m going back to sleep.” He lay back down and closed his eyes.

“Whilst I wouldn’t put it past those disgusting little rodents, I’m afraid to inform you that this is no joke. May you please check your rucksack?”

Cananor grumbled in protest and sat back up. “Fine.” Without looking, he reached over to where his saddlebag was. “But I don’t appreciate being woken so soon, and...” He stopped short. “What have you done with my rucksack?”

Weatherstorm rolled his light blue eyes, which were much smaller than Cananor had remembered now they were no longer magnified behind square rimmed spectacles, and said, “Implying I value your collection of comic books enough to steal them. Let me say this again; we’ve been robbed.”

Cananor’s face twisted in horror. “My... my LIMITED EDITIONS!”

Belove sped past the duo as a crimson flash of red. “We need more light. Where’s Starfire?”

“Starfire?”

“Starfire?”

Starfire found himself at the gates of Canterlot, with no recollection whatsoever of how he had got there in the first place. The last thing he could remember was telling Derky not to let the fire go out, and then nothing. Had he slept-walked?

The very thought was staggering. Imagine, hiking the whole way through the expanses of the Everfree Forest to the capital city some few hundred miles away, asleep no less, with no memory of the incident? He COULDN’T imagine it.

The gates to the city were grand and welcoming, yet Starfire felt nothing but a strange sense of dread. It rose from his stomach like a case of bad indigestion, bubbling and stewing up a storm. The open drawbridge beckoned him inside, almost against his will. As he walked through into the city, the cast iron portcullis slammed shut behind him.

There was no denying that Canterlot was a fine city. Primarily inhabited by unicorns and the upper classes of Equestria, it reflected the mystic architecture of the buildings and golden hoof-paths. Starfire had only been to Canterlot once before as a foal, but it was an experience he would rather soon forget.

What struck the unicorn as odd was the emptiness of the place. Being such a large capital city, Canterlot was usually far from quiet and yet, the streets were absolutely deserted. Starfire, it seemed, was the only soul around.

“Hello?” he called out, the wind blowing his echoing voice through the narrow, winding streets. No reply came but for the creaking sway of a cafe sign.

The towering spires of high rise buildings enclosed him, watching his every move, leaning closer towards the solitary pony. A sheen of light suddenly blinded him, reflected from one of the shop windows. This was when Starfire looked up and, for the first time, saw the sun hanging high in the bright, afternoon sky.

He took a few seconds to process the sight of the huge, flaming star of hydrogen and helium. It seemed almost strange, after around 48 hours of black skies, to see the sun back in its rightful position, looking down at him with a burning desire.

He turned away as the sun blinded him, spots of orange and red drifting across his field of vision.

‘But if the sun has returned, that means Nightmare Moon...’

The feeling of teleporting was one that would make any unicorn nauseous, and Starfire was no exception. Teleportation spells were hard to master; not every unicorn could successfully perform them, and the results of doing them wrong could be...painful. Starfire knew this better than any other pony: as a foal, perfecting his magic took time, effort and true determination. He’d spent more than a few nights in Fillydelphia general hospital and even now he had practiced the complex spell to perfection, he rarely used it for fear of undesirable consequences and a few more broken bones. It was a spell that took an extraordinary amount of concentration, having to picture where you were and where you wanted to be simultaneously with no journey in-between, and nothing else, which was a feat far harder than it sounds. This was what surprised Starfire, as he found himself teleporting without warning, with no idea WHERE he was teleporting. He felt his horn buzz with electricity and his hooves tingle. He felt the bubbling and churning in his stomach intensify. He felt his body compress itself, pushing and squeezing and changing form into nothing but particles and then...

The floaters faded from his sight, and Starfire found himself standing in Canterlot castle hall. This was very odd indeed; teleportation spells were strictly short distance, usually amounting to no more than a few meters at most. Canterlot Castle was on the other side of the city. It was physically and mentally impossible to undertake such a journey.

The hall was crowded with ponies, bustling to the brim. Shakily rising to his hooves, Starfire felt the nauseous feeling in his gut intensify, and his head began to throb with such force it drowned out the cheering.

He swallowed whatever was rising up his throat and turned dizzily to the nearest pony, a light blue unicorn mare with a white striped mane and a gleaming smile. “You there,” he spluttered, trying to keep teleportation sickness at bay least he spit something undesirable in her open mouth. “I’m... I don’t know how I got here. What’s going on?”

The mare didn’t reply, nor did she even seem to see Starfire. She simply continued to stare forwards with blank eyes and a painted on smile. Her mouth didn’t move as she cheered.

“What the heck?” Starfire looked away from the unicorn, a little unnerved. Turning behind him, he saw, nestled amongst hundreds of other smiling faces, the couple he had met in line at the Summer Sun Celebration. The aqua green unicorn had her hoof wrapped around her marefriend’s shoulder in a loving embrace. Both stared straight ahead through Starfire, wide eyed and cheering.

“What are you looking at?”

Squirming to see over the heads of those in front, Starfire caught a glimpse of the throne. There, on an elevated platform in front of thousands of spectators, was Celestia. She was bowing humbly, her head lowered with elegant grace, eyes closed and her face stretched into the same grin as everypony else. Yet there was another figure beside her; another Alicorn. She was smaller in size, but retained wings and a horn similar to Celestia’s. Her coat was a dark, midnight blue and her mane a wispy cornflower blue. Like Celestia, head was bowed, eyes closed, and smiling.

Starfire fell back down on all fours, confused as to what he had just seen. Was that Nightmare Moon? Despite her youthful looks and gentle demeanour, there was a striking resemblance between the two.

Princess Luna?

Starfire’s headache grew more severe. He clutched at his scalp as what sounded like native buffalo war drums burst through his skull on a path of destruction.

‘What does this mean? Has Nightmare Moon been defeated? Has peace been restored?’ His head was literally pounding now. ‘Did we succeed? Did Twilight’s company succeed? Why can’t I remember anything?’

Starfire stood on his hind legs again for a better second look. The two princesses were side by side, looking up in admiration at a mysterious figure perched high on the throne. Although it were encased in black shadows, it was in a vaguely pony shaped form. It looked out across the length of the hall, red eyes scanning the hall hungrily, evilly. Black tendrils and tentacles erupted from the mass of shadows every now and again, twisting and writhing as the figure’s shape contorted and shifted, constantly changing. The light from the huge stain glass windows that ran the length of the back wall was blocked out by the colossal form as it grew larger, enveloping the entire throne and stage.

Starfire was horrified, not only by the anonymous monster which was growing at a rapid pace, but by the Canterlot citizen’s reactions to it, or lack thereof. Their expressions did not change, the cheery grins still plastered across their chillingly happy faces. They continued to stare straight ahead, chanting and cheering, glazy eyed and open mouthed.

Starfire shivered as the thing’s cruel eyes, nestled away in shadows, passed over him like spotlights. Scared but trying to avoid detection, he quietly turned back to the mare beside him and whispered from the corner of his mouth, “What’s going on here?”

No reply.

“What is that thing?”

No reply.

“What’s wrong with you?”

No reply.

“WHY WON’T YOU ANSWER ME?” He threw his hooves, balled into fists, at the unicorn, striking her on the side. Although he had barely tapped her, he instantly regretted losing his temper on a female. However, the mare’s expression didn’t change. In fact, she didn’t seem to even register the hit. Her face was still frozen in the same white-toothed smile as before, her eyes still locked on the writhing mass of black.

Then she began to teeter to one side. Her cheering did not stop. Her smile did not fade. She fell to the floor with a thump.

Starfire looked down at her body, and that’s when he realised, to his utmost surprise, that she was a cardboard cutout.

Not a real pony at all. She was literally two dimensional, lying on the floor with her painted on smile and hand drawn features, like a pony that had experienced an unfortunate accident with an industrial steamroller.

“W-what the...?” Starfire backed away from the cutout, nearly trampling her face with his hooves. He backed into another pony, a brown coated unicorn stallion whose mouth was turned up into that same, creepy grin. He too toppled before flittering gently to the ground, nothing but 2D cardboard.

Starfire jumped backwards, accidently knocking over the happy couple behind him. Both mares fell to the ground, still cheering.

Starfire lost his cool. “WHAT THE HAY IS GOING ON HERE?”

The black figure swivelled around to face Starfire instantly, their eyes locking. Still sitting atop the throne, it reached out one long, twisting tendril which split into sticky black fingers, and pointed at Starfire.

What Starfire assumed was the creature’s mouth opened in a wide, sneering grin, revealing jagged white fangs. It issued a low, gravelly growl in his direction. He wasn’t sure what it said, but it sounded like, “GET HIM!”

Starfire backed away, knocking over another inanimate equine. He couldn’t bring himself to look away from the black form as it began to twist and convulse, stretching and growing, shadowy spires of wispy smoke erupting from its body. It hissed again, baring its deadly fangs, and lunged.

Starfire ran.

Ploughing his way through waves and waves of paper ponies, Starfire burst through the doors and found himself back outside, in the winding streets of Canterlot. The dark presence was right behind him, churning itself into a tornado, ripping off the roof of the castle altogether. Evading the shower of bricks and tiles, Starfire didn’t dare look back as the evil force tore its way out of the building, and spiralled down the street after him.

Starfire’s chest heaved as he sped down the street, twisting this way and that in a bid to lose his pursuer... thing. He wasn’t sure which way he was going, but he knew he needed to get away: fast.

Ducking into an alleyway, Starfire peered over a low lying yellow-brick wall at the monster which was chasing him. The unicorn could barely call it a monster at all; it was more like a hurricane, which spun through the empty streets like a cyclone, tearing apart anything in its path. Shops and homes were literally obliterated in its wake, exploding in clouds of plaster and glass. It seemed as though he had lost it for the moment, the black mass of writhing tendrils thrashing past the incognito Starfire and disappearing down another street.

Starfire took a moment to regain his breath. “What is going on?” he said aloud. “And what is that THING?” He had never seen such a creature in his life, nor even read about such a creature.

Suddenly, the building in front of him exploded outwards in a smoke of bricks and mortar, and behind it hovered the creature of unspeakable. Its eyes cast a deadly green glow on the street below, capturing Starfire in their gaze.

“STARFIRE!” It spat with an un-earthly cackle.

It knows my name.

The student barely had enough time to clamber up the wall and throw himself down the other side before a thick, black tendril came thundering down upon it, spitting bricks in every direction. Starfire found himself back on the main road, running for his life as the thundering terror behind him edged closer and closer.

Starfire nearly stumbled as he launched himself over an overturned apple cart, which had spilt its load over the road. It didn’t seem to stop the unknown presence behind him, however, which simply consumed the cart, sucking it into its dark depths.

The unicorn didn’t have time to read the broken street sign as he skidded around another corner, the hideous monstrosity hot on his hooves. The sky was rapidly darkening much to Starfire’s dismay, the cheery blue skies overpowered by a rich, blood red. Sunset.

Or was it? Hurriedly crunching over loose bricks which lay scattered across the hoof-path, Starfire squinted into the distance and saw hundreds, nay thousands, of stars blazing in the dusk sky, each one burning brighter than the sun itself.

Blasting through grey thunderclouds, Starfire’s eyes widened in terror as he recognised the approaching objects not as stars, but meteorites, each one ripping through the atmosphere at incredible speed, leaving behind a trail of green.

Starfire dived for cover as the first comet thundered overhead, crashing with monumental force into the cafe across the street. The red and white striped banner was ignited instantly by the sheer temperature of the object. Wood and debris was torn from the building upon collision, flaming chunks of wall littering the ground below.

As if he didn’t have enough to worry about, this was just the motivation that Starfire needed to get the heck out of there, and fast. Scrambling forwards on his stomach and narrowly avoiding another meteor, Starfire clambered to his hooves and took off, destructive force still in pursuit. Meteors landed in front of him as he ran, barely managing to avoid a fatal fall into the smouldering hot craters in the road they made.

As he turned another corner, Starfire noticed the road ahead was blocked, the shell of a burning, collapsed building sprawled across the length of the street. Sensing the evil force behind him, he dashed through an open doorway to his left, galloping through the wreckage of a boutique, mannequins silently screaming as their plastic faces dribbled away into molten puddles at their inanimate hooves. The dark force followed him inside, choosing not to use the door but to tear the wall from the building, such was its raw power.

As long tentacle-like fingers grasped at his legs, Starfire managed to reach the other side of the store and throw himself through the back window, head first. He knew it was a stupid risk to take, but he was left with little choice.

He landed on soft, green grass. A yellow daisy tickled his muzzle. Confused, the unicorn opened his eyes to find himself back in the Everfree Forest. Had he just teleported again? Truthfully, he didn’t really care. The familiar scenery was strangely comforting to the unicorn, and even though it was still a hostile environment, he’d rather have been in Tartarus than Canterlot.

He breathed a sigh of relief. It was still dark, the moon out in full, but at least there were no comets lighting up the sky with their alien glow. For a moment, he even felt a little bit happy.

For a moment. A familiar, husky voice rose up from behind him. “Starfire...” it croaked. “Starfire...”

The student teacher tried to stand up, but to no avail. He felt himself being held down by some invisible force, as the black abyss closed in.

“Starfire...” getting louder, more aggressive. “Starfire...”

“No,” he whimpered, covering his eyes with shaking hooves. “Leave me alone.”

He felt himself falling, falling, falling into the deep, black darkness, an empty space, a dark void lost in time.

Clawed fingers scratched at his fur. “Starfire...”

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” He cried.

“Starfire!”

“STARFIRE!”

The unicorn awoke with a start, drenched in sweat. Weatherstorm sat over him, shaking him vigorously by the shoulders, calling his name and trying to snap him out of whatever nightmarish delusions he was having. The Pegasus sighed in joy as Starfire’s eyes flitted open, wide and darting.

His breathing was heavy and erratic, shivering yet sweating as he uncurled from his sleeping bag. He blinked a few times, trying to blink away the nightmare, and studied his trembling hooves.

He was alive. He was safe.

Just a nightmare. Only a nightmare.

Yet it felt so real.

He tried to control his breathing, but the expression on Weatherstorm’s face was one of concern and confusion, and didn’t exactly help sooth his nerves. “Weatherstorm...” he stammered. “What’s wrong? Was I making too much noise?”

“Listen,” Weatherstorm replied sharply. “There is no other way to put this other than... we’ve been robbed.”

Starfire jumped to his hooves in a flash. He instinctively grasped for his saddlebags, which to his unfortunate surprise, were not there. “Oh no... NO! WHERE ARE THEY?”

“I told you!” Weatherstorm said, trying to act calm and collected, acting out the little performance rather unconvincingly. “We were robbed during the night!”

“It’s always night!” Cananor’s voice chirped in from somewhere in the darkness.

“R-robbed?” The thought of being robbed was positively mind blowing. Back in the city, robberies were a fairly common occurrence. Although he lived in the higher class end of Fillydelphia, he wasn’t untouched by crime; Starfire’s house had even been burgled one night when he was a foal. But out here, in a dense forest barely touched by civilisation, who was there to steal one’s possessions? “By who?”

Weatherstorm snorted. “How do I know?” he shot back sarcastically. “They didn’t leave an IOU notice, would you believe it.”

“Don’t you see?” Starfire pushed past Weatherstorm, shooting him a distraught glare. “THE MAP WAS IN THE BOOK. THE BOOKS WERE IN MY BAG. SEE WHERE I’M GOING WITH THIS?” He paced the ground angrily, staring at the ceiling with bloodshot eyes. “This is not good. NOT GOOD!”

“Starfire!” Belove beckoned him over. He didn’t sound all that pleased and honestly, Starfire couldn’t blame him. They’d all been knocked for six. Getting robbed of your possessions isn’t something that should be taken lightly. “We could use some light over here!”

The unicorn obeyed, his horn carving a path of light through the darkness like the Equestrian Games torch. With newfound light, the four stallions, Starfire, Belove, Weatherstorm and Cananor, could fully see the extent of the cave-invasion.

Everything was gone. Not just their own saddlebags, but their entire supply was missing, vanished into thin air. Their rations of food, their flasks of water, Weatherstorm’s migraine pills...even the toilet paper was gone. The campfire had gone out during the night, no longer illuminating the vast expanses of the cave with its soothing warm glow. A few of the rocks, which made up the campfire, tumbled away from each other, clattering whilst they did so. Ash was strewn lazily about the campfire’s remains, twigs having burnt themselves out. It drifted through the night’s air like millions of little bugs, or stars against the black sky like canvas that was the cave walls.

Derky lay near the extinguished fire, slumped against one of the stalagmites which erupted from the otherwise bare floor.

He was out cold and snoring loudly.

Belove saw red, and it wasn’t just the red of his balled up hoof, raised in rage. “DERKY!” He bellowed, charging forwards with all the strength of a raging fire and all the force of a great typhoon. The Pegasus smiled in his sleep, smacked his lips, and then opened his eyes, only to be blessed with the sight of Belove charging at him like a bat out of Tartarus. His face said it all; he wasn’t a happy bunny.

“DEEEEERRRRKKKKYYYYY!” He roared so loudly that the cave walls shook and shuddered, loose rocks tearing free from the ceiling under the raw power of his voice.

The poor shaking stallion was unsure as to what to do as he saw the hulking great pony bound towards him, literally steaming at the ears. Should he run, or dodge, or roll? In the end, he just held his hooves up and said, “Whoa.”

Belove crashed into him with burning vengeance, lifting the confused Pegasus off his backside and launching his against the back wall. He had little time to recover before he was gruffly hoisted onto his hind legs and slammed back against the wall, Belove’s hooves entangled tightly in his chest fur.

Derky winced. “Agh, Belove... I’ve got a really sore head.” He tried to reach a hoof around to feel the back of his head. It was denied by a quick slap from Belove, forcing the hoof back down.

“YOU STUPID IDIOT!” Belove exploded shaking Derky again and again, rattling what brain he had around so hard that it could well have went sailing out of his ears and lost itself in the dense undergrowth outside. “HOW COULD YOU HAVE LOST OUR STUFF? HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID?”

Cananor couldn’t stand idly by and watch Derky take such abuse. It was like watching an elephant kicking a puppy. He literally had to tear the two apart with a powerful shove. “What the heck is wrong with you, Belove? Cool it!”

“C-cool it?” The Earth Pony stammered. “You’re telling me to cool it? We’ve been robbed! Our food, our water, everything we needed to survive in the wilderness has been taken from us, right under our noses! We’re going to starve out here, because he couldn’t keep his eyes open for longer than five minutes!”

“10 minutes, actually...”

Weatherstorm spoke up in Derky’s defence, but Starfire could hear the anger in his voice growing, not just towards Belove, but everypony. “Leave it be, Belove. It’s done, and you can’t place all the blame on one pony. It wasn’t Derky’s fault.”

Belove let a physically shaken Derky Bells fall to the floor.

“Oh no, it wasn’t Derky’s fault... it was HIS.” With that, he shot an accusing hoof in Starfire’s direction.

Whilst Starfire jumped back in shock like a common criminal, Cananor just sighed and counted to 10. “Please Belove, not this again.”

“Listen to me Cananor, our little ‘friend’ Starfire is...”

Cananor shook his head. “Belove, don’t...”

“Actually...”

“NO.”

“...A spy.”

There was a collective groan from the whole group, including the accused. “Belove, we thought you were over this...”

“He knew,” Belove continued to throw out accusations like they were going out of fashion. “That Derky was incapable of keeping guard the whole night. Then Icarus...”

Everypony groaned again, twice as loud this time. “Why is it always about Icarus with you, Belove?”

Poor Derky was huddled into the corner, scared of what Belove might do to him in such an emotional state. “I tried my hardest to stay awake, I really did. I don’t even remember falling asleep.”

“Yeah, well your best wasn’t good enough, now was it? And,” he continued, really letting loose on the defenceless Pegasus. “You’re darned lucky we didn’t get torn apart by Timberwolves during the night.”

Starfire stepped in. “Look here, Belove, you need to lay off Derky. It couldn’t be helped...”

Considering what Belove was to say next, and the instant effect it had, his tone was surprisingly calm and, one might say, dripping with malevolence. “You know,” he said, slowly. “It’s funny how you’re so quick to stick up for him, Starfire. I hope you both enjoyed yourselves with that little heart to heart you had last night, because innocent old Derky here hasn’t been exactly straight with you.”

Starfire narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

Belove rummaged around in the ashy shell of the burnt out campfire, finally producing a small hardback notebook from within. It was covered in soot and singed around the edges, but otherwise in good condition. “Last night, I was kind of hoping that the fire would have burnt this evidence to a cinder. I felt it was the right thing to do, for both Derky and yourself. But now, now I’m glad that the fire was put out. Saves me the bother of explaining.” He threw the booklet to Starfire.

With a sense of dread, Starfire levitated open the first page and blew the ash away. Despite having some minor burn marks, the page was readable. The first few lines were fairly irrelevant, something about sweet rolls, but the next page caught his eye. And as he flicked through more and more pages, his eyes grew wider and wider in both shock and horror. Able to read no further, he turned to Derky, still reeling. “You... you were spying on me?”

Belove sneered, content after dealing his soul crushing blow. “Aye, it doesn’t feel all that nice, does it?”

Derky rose to his hooves, flattened his ears to his scalp, and kicked at the floor. A pebble clattered off into the darkness, making a soft, distant thump as it reached the other side. “Starfire, I... I just wanted to come along. I didn’t want to be alone... We’re still friends, right?”

Starfire didn’t reply. Still reeling, he could neither deny nor confirm the question.

Sensing Starfire’s weakened state, the red earth pony lashed out. “I say we leave Starfire here and continue on without him. Who here is with me?”

He expected a show of hooves. To his surprise, there were none.

At first, Belove wasn’t exactly sure how to react. He felt shocked at first, then saddened at his friends’ fragile sense of comradeship, and then this slowly turned to not only anger, but disgust. He felt all of these emotions in less than a second, which was one second longer than he needed to say something he would regret later.

“So be it!” Belove hastily rolled up his sleeping bag. “I knew it was a bad idea bringing you. All of you. You’ve caused me nothing but trouble since we got here and frankly, I’m sick of it. If you’re going to stick with that traitor then fine, but I’ll not be there when he stabs you in the back. I’m going to save Equestria... alone. I would say good luck, but to be honest, I wouldn’t mean a word of it.”

By this stage, nopony even attempted to intervene, to talk him out of it. They simply let events run their course. Belove gave one last look back at his ex-friends, almost as though he wanted them to talk him out of his suicidal venture, or even better, apologise. They did not. He snorted, mumbled something under his breath, then left. The sounds of his hooves crunching against the soft grass faded into the distance.

Good riddance.

The cave was silent, and the air with thick and heavy and awkward. Cananor squirmed uncomfortably, Derky chose to avoid eye contact, ‘Stormy’s temper was brewing up a storm and Starfire just seemed... lost.

The lingering silence was sliced apart by Cananor’s voice. “Who needs him, huh?” His voice wavered, and didn’t come across as half as confidently as he would have liked. “I mean, he doesn’t even have a map.”

“Neither do we.” Weatherstorm replied sulkily, lowering to the campfire’s ashen remains and burying his head in his hooves.

“Yeah, but we never did, remember? Starfire here,” he put his hoof around the rather unresponsive pony’s shoulder. “...Is our map. He’ll lead us in the right direction, with or without Belove. Isn’t that right, Starfire?”

The student teacher couldn’t bring himself to tell the cold, hard truth. Not now. “I, uh...” He hesitated for a second, and gave Weatherstorm a fleeting glance.

“Listen, Starfire. It’s over. We have no book and no map. Just tell the truth.”

Starfire bowed his head, closed his eyes, and said what he thought was right.

“Of course I can.” He sighed, not daring to look up. His heart couldn’t take it. “I can lead you to Nightmare Moon. I can...” he paused for a moment. “...Sense her magic.” He whispered the last part, trailing off, defeated.

Weatherstorm jumped to his hooves. “Don’t you get it? I’m afraid it’s over, and if we’re to salvage anything from this train wreck of an expedition, we simply must trust each other. And that means being straight with each other. So either you kindly inform Derky and Cananor on our current situation, or I will.”

Starfire could tell by Weatherstorm’s face that he was near breaking point, and that was no mere empty threat.

Cananor forced a nervous smile. “What, uh... whatcha talking about, ‘Stormy?”

“Since Starfire is evidently happy to lead you down a pretty little primrose path of lies to your doom, it rests on me to deal out the cold, hard truth. You see...” The spectacle-less Pegasus gave Starfire one last look, as if giving him one last chance to come clean. Instead, the unicorn mouthed but one word.

Please.

“...Starfire has, to put it bluntly, no idea where in the world we are going. He can’t ‘sense Nightmare Moon’s magic,’ he can’t ‘envision the path in his mind’ and he barely even knows who Luna is. In short, without a map, we’re hopelessly lost.”

Cananor’s smile slowly faded. His chin wobbled. “Starfire, is... is this true?”

“You promised me you wouldn’t tell anypony.” Starfire mumbled. His eyes were still glued to the floor as his light diminished, once again throwing the cave into darkness.

“No, I promised that I wouldn’t tell BELOVE. And I kept to that promise.” Weatherstorm seethed.

It was then that Starfire realised just what sort of pony Weatherstorm was. Under the facade of a well mannered, gentle young stallion lay a manipulative and shady character, who used others to fulfil his own needs. A silver tongued devil, he believed the term was. He, like countless others before him he had no doubt, had been lured into a false sense of security by his honeyed words. His ‘word as a gentlecolt’ was made out to be a stamp of approval, perhaps a guarantee of safety and secrecy, as though his ‘word’ was law, fair and just. Little was he aware what his ‘word as a gentlecolt’ was actually worth. Starfire remembered what Derky had told him last night.

‘Weatherstorm was my only friend back then, and to be honest, I think he was only my friend to get close to my parents.’

He had just been using them all along, using them to reach his own fruitless objective of unobtainable love. Just as he had been using Derky all those years ago.

Perhaps he only had himself to blame: had he just listened to his common sense and not his heart, then he wouldn’t have even been in this predicament.

Starfire felt a strange, foreign anger build up in him. He swallowed, and raised his voice. “I can’t do right from wrong, can I? I try to help, and... this is the thanks I get? I get lied to,” he swung a hoof in Derky’s direction, “and deceived?”

Weatherstorm furrowed his brow. “Forgive me if Belove already said this, but it doesn’t feel all that nice, does it?”

The blast of magic was so powerful that it blew a smouldering hole in the back wall of the cave. There was a low, deep rumble as several pieces of the ceiling gave way, rocks and boulders dislodging and collapsing to the floor in a cloud of dust. It surprised Starfire how little effort it took to deconstruct, for a better word, half of a cave. He didn’t even know he could muster up such a powerful spell. Yet he had. He shook away his rage, dazed and confused.

“Hmm.” Weatherstorm nodded casually as he eyed up the now gaping hole in the back wall. Gaping holes were becoming quite the trend recently; no cave would be complete without at least two. “That about sums it all up now, doesn’t it? Now if you chaps shall excuse me, I have the love of my life to save.” He turned to Derky, the silent onlooker. “Come along, Derkington.” He commanded as though he were talking to a pet.

Derky began to protest. “But I...”

“I SAID COME ALONG.” The brown-coated Pegasus obeyed. He helped the half blind journalist find the exit, and with that, they were both gone.

Starfire collapsed to the ground. “I’m a real screw up. What am I even doing here?”

Cananor was unsure of what to say. He shifted uncomfortably from hoof to hoof as even the chirping crickets outside ceased, as though waiting in anticipation for his words of wisdom.

Truth was, he had none. He just sat by the campfire, and poked it with a stick. “It’s alright. We... we don’t need them.” If Cananor had learnt but one thing from this adventure, it was that he was very good at lying to himself.

Starfire couldn’t even bring himself to get up from the floor. What was the point? There he lay, like a beached whale, sprawled out with his hind legs jutting into the air. Had it not been for the sour events that took place, it might even have looked humorous. “Let’s just go home.” He mumbled. “It’s over. The fellowship was short lived. Now it’s crumbled. Let’s just go home.”

Luckily for Starfire, help comes from the most unusual of places. As Cananor awkwardly jabbed at the campfire, a face began to appear. It took him a few seconds to notice the ashes bond into one and slide into a vaguely familiar shape. Then the gravel, and the rocks... lastly, a snapped twig shuffled its way past and wedged itself in between two of the rocks, and then Cananor was looking down at Phoenix Flight’s slightly askew makeshift face.

“Phoenix?” Cananor stammered in disbelief. “Phoenix, is that you?”

“SHUT YOUR TRAP!” The inanimate griffon’s face commanded from a twiggy beak. “OF COURSE IT’S ME! WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE?”

“I...”

“NOW DIG THE WAX OUT OF YOUR EARS AND LISTEN!” He interrupted Cananor before he had a chance to utter another word. “YOU THINK THAT THIS IS IT, YOU’RE JUST GOING TO GO HOME?”

“I...” He paused, almost expecting Phoenix to interrupt him again. He did not. “...I didn’t say that. Starfire did.”

“AH, BUT YOU AGREE WITH HIM, DON’T YOU?” The unicorn shook his head, weary of some stony talon rising from the floor and slapping him across the jaw. Fortunately for his jaw, his anticipations were in vain. Instead, Phoenix spat a cloud of dust and ash at him, causing him to choke on the fumes.

“And how... how would you know that?” Coughed Cananor. He knew his lungs were taking a bit of a pounding.

Another cloud of dust was blown in his direction. “DO WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH THIS AGAIN, NUMSKULL? I’M IN YOUR MIND, DARNIT! I AM YOU!”

“I guess so...”

“DON’T BACK TALK ME!” Phoenix snapped, slanting his rock-brows. “IF I HAD A HAND, YOU’D BE KISSING THE BACK OF IT RIGHT NOW. QUICK, IMAGINE ME A HOOF OR SOMETHING!”

“What?”

“DO IT!”

A giant transparent brown hoof materialised out of thin air and punched the unicorn square on the nose. He winced in pain.

“NOW, AS I WAS SAYING, YOU OUTTA SPEAK TO STARFIRE THERE, GIVE HIM A LITTLE PEP TALK THAT’LL LIFT HIS SPIRITS. YOU NEED TO...” He stopped and turned toward Starfire. Cananor did likewise.

Starfire looked back at them with teary eyes in utter confusion.

Phoenix’s face shuffled closer to Cananor and whispered from the corner of his mouth. “OH JEEZ, HE’S LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU LIKE YOU’RE A REGUALR NUT-JOB. ACT NATURAL.”

Cananor leaned back on the rock he was sitting on and crossed his forelegs. He casually blew a strand of hair away. “Sup?”

“Who...” sniffled Starfire, still staring. “Who were you talking to?”

“I have NO idea what you are talking about.” Cananor winked at the campfire.

“Oh, by Celestia... you’ve got jungle madness.” Starfire sighed. “This is a right fine mess I’ve gotten us into. Let’s just go home before I hurt anyone else.”

Phoenix ushered Cananor to speak with him. Cananor did as he was told.

“Listen...” he sat down beside the sullen unicorn. “You didn’t hurt anybody. Sure, you told a few white lies, but they were in good faith. I still believe in you, and don’t go thinking that what happened tonight was your fault.” He pointed towards the door. “Belove and Weatherstorm are idiots, but not monsters. They’ll come around, you’ll see.”

“You don’t get it, do you?” Starfire croaked. “It’s my entire fault. I should never have come in the first place. I should never have lied. Not only is Equestria in peril, but I’ve cost a group of ponies their friendships... possibly their lives. IT'S LIKE EXAM DAY ALL OVER AGAIN, I MEAN, WHY CAN'T I JUST..."

Starfire had never been punched in the face before and it certainly wasn’t an experience to savour. Cananor’s hoof was still outstretched and wavering, having given Starfire the old hoof sandwich. The attacker looked back in horror to find Phoenix in his full embodiment, gripping Cananor’s hoof in his claws. He smiled down at Cananor and straightened his tie. “WHAT? HE WAS GETTING HYSTERICAL, AND THE ONLY CURE FOR THAT’S A GOOD PUNCH IN THE FACE!”

Cananor threw his hooves around Starfire immediately. “I’m so, so sorry...” He whispered, still in shock at his sudden actions, or rather, those of his ‘motivator.’ “I didn’t... I don’t...”

What he didn’t expect was for the student to laugh. “You know...” Starfire clicked his jaw a few times, just to make sure nothing was broken. “I think I needed that, so... thanks.”

Phoenix leaned in close to Cananor and whispered (which was still equivalent to a pony screaming at the top of their voice), “THANK ME LATER. NOW, GET MOTIVATING!”

Cananor took a deep breath. “Now I’ve listened to you mope on long enough, Starfire. There’s a time and a place to feel sorry for yourself and this is neither the time nor the place.” He looked back up to see Phoenix mouthing his next line. “Uh... sometimes, the world isn’t fair, and sometimes it throws you a bit of a curveball, but you don’t just admit defeat! You come back stronger, and you say, ‘World! Who the hay do you think I am! I am Starfire, the unicorn that saved all of Equestria from Nightmare Moon!’ So don’t you dare,” He gave Phoenix another fleeting glance. The griffon was telling him to keep the ball rolling. Cananor was still a little confused himself, but he had to admit that this felt good. “...DARE give up now when there are ponies out there, depending on you. Now you’re going to come with me, and together, with our combined strengths, we’re going to find the others, knock a little sense into those thick skulls of theirs, and save Equestria!”

Starfire’s lips curled up into a wide smile as he rose valiantly to his hooves. “You’re right.” He said with newfound confidence. “I can do no good if I let the world knock me down. I can still do my bit to help, as long as I’m willing. Thank you, Cananor.”

“No... no problem.”

The blonde-maned unicorn rubbed his hooves together. “We’re still lost, though. We really do need that map.”

Phoenix whispered into Cananor’s ear. He relayed the message. “Then we’d better get looking for it. And if there is no path, then... then we’ll carve one ourselves.”

Starfire smiled and nodded. “Let’s go, then.” He made for the exit.

Cananor followed but just before he left, he turned and said, “Thanks, Phoenix.”

The griffon, who was leaning against the wall in an ever-so-nonchalant way, shrugged. “DON’T THANK ME,” he bellowed. “I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING! THANK YOURSELF! NOW, GO!”

Cananor trotted off.

“ONE MORE THING!”

“Yes?”

“GO GET THOSE LIMITED EDITIONS BACK! I DON’T COME CHEAP, YOU KNOW!”

“Of course.”

“I’LL KEEP IN TOUCH!”

“Please don’t.”

With that, Cananor scurried off at record speed, for fear that the cave would close and seal him in with his antiheroic hero forever.

Phoenix laughed. He would make a stallion of Cananor yet. Or rather, Cananor would make a stallion of Cananor yet. He was just there to give him a little push.

Then he faded away into dust.