The Full House - Chapter II

Chapter II: Vaudeville

After the meeting, Princess Luna couldn't sleep. She tried, but thoughts and fantasies alike gnawed at her without too much self-resistance. She was so curious! She spent past thousand blasted years imprisoned on a huge rock that contained nothing more than ashes, rocks and even more ashes! But that wasn't all, ha! After her return to the royal court, she found herself pretty much out of the job – to be honest, Celestia immediately began a process that would return night under Luna's wardship, but it wasn't as easy as everypony would have guessed. There was bureaucracy now. A truly towering monstrosity composed of hundreds of ponies that shuffled papers, took notes and did a plethora of various important tasks, which only contributed to that form of organized anarchy known to the civilized world as "administration". Luna's snorted and rolled over in her bed. "Now they can't even add a single star to the firmament without filling up six different forms, creating a committee and arguing about it for like an eternity"  she thought with growing impatience.

Hence, life for Princess Luna in the royal court was full of Extreme Dullness with additional Boredom Strips added on the top. 'But not anymore!' she thought while pulling out one of her favorite books hidden below her bed. It looked rugged and cheap, with a wrinkled soft cover and washed up colors – the bold title proclaimed "The Mysterious Vagabond! Adventures with Spade and Honor." Oh, how very BAD this book was, filled with foolish ponies making foolish decisions and speaking idiotic lines. She loved it for its unreal story that was never likely to happen. But it could now.

Her horn glowed for a second in order to rise and ring her tiny bell. Her personal maidservant, young and beautiful unicorn named Mystique Wind entered the room with her head kept low. She gave Luna a quick bow and asked politely "Yes, my Highness?"
   
Luna smiled at the gorgeous unicorn kindly. "Please, go to the Intel Bureau and tell them that I want to take a look at the documentation considering the Full House team – all of it, including personal folders." Mystique bowed again, mainly to hide her expression of mild shock, and replied "Immediately, my Highness".

* * *

Twilight awoke suddenly with a loud gasp and a moan. She had a mighty headache and the constant shouting and yelling from under the floor didn't help it at all. Blinking a little, she tried to move, but her body was too exhausted and sore. She realized that the entire bed was wet from her sweat. 'What was that?' she asked herself, when realization of what had happened finally dawned in her mind. She still remember the echoes of that terrifying scream.

Somepony was coming up the stairs. Loud voices below ended a few seconds before, Twilight noticed, while she heard knocking on her door. "Twilight, you awake?" It was Rainbow Dash for sure, and she sounded concerned.

"I am." Twilight managed meekly. "Come in Rainbow Dash, please."

The door opened with a creek, and a sky-blue mare with a rainbow-colored mane entered with a serious muzzle that didn't suit her usually brash attitude. She tried to close the door behind her, but Spike quickly sneaked through, throwing himself beside Twilight and hugging her strongly.

"Enough Spike, enough, I am glad to see you too. Now please, give me some space. What happened?" asked the lavender unicorn after she nuzzled her baby dragon assistant and friend.

"Well" Rainbow Dash began "We thought it was you who's are going to tell us, Twilight." She said, raising her eyebrow. "You see, every unicorn in town suddenly collapsed, and well, they are all scared like hay, they are! Not me, of course, when it happened. Then I quickly gathered the pegasi to search for every horned pony in the town, to check up on them. Applejack and others soon joined the party Twilight." She said with a weak smile. "And I blitzed here with, eh, Icy Cold, to check up on you, 'cause you are my friend and all." She added, pawing her hoof on the floor, managing to look untouched by the entire situation.

'That's Rainbow Dash, all right!' thought Twilight with a smile and a chuckle that made the cyan pegasus frown and huff. "I don't know yet, Rainbow, but I will dig into it as soon as I can." She said, then cried suddenly. "Rarity! What about her! Tell me somepony is checking on her too!"

* * *

Rarity awoke with a cough, burning pain in her lungs, and a lot of shoving. Somepony was yelling some kind of weird litany of "Comeoncomeoncomeonbealive!" while pressing her chest hardly – with each push Rarity coughed up a lot of water with another surge of agony. She was exhausted, wrecked; her senses dulled greatly, her vision clouded and hearing impaired. But she was alive, thank Celestia. With each breath the pain withered a little, and she began to recognize the voice of a shouting pony – Applejack.

The orange earth pony stopped pressing her friend's chest and gave a huge sigh of relief. Rarity's eyes opened slightly, and she started breathing again. The white unicorn tried to say something, but all she managed to do was a moan and a little cough. Applejack started throwing towels at her and said "Hush, Rare, hush now, don't ya try to talk right now, eh? Ya need to sleep, ya need to strengthen up a bit, deary." As Rarity was unable to move, Applejack did her best to dry her up, pull her gently from the wet floor, and then started to climb upstairs  to Rarity's bedroom. She dropped Rarity delicately onto her big, soft bed, yet the white unicorn still bit her lower lip in pain. Rarity was sore all over, her lungs still burning after the drowning. Applejack couldn't contain herself any longer, and started crying again, this time with a smile on her muzzle. She stroked Rarity's mane gently. "Shhh, sleep now missy, sleep now. Everything is okay, just catch some z's please" she reassured, only to noticed, that her friend was already fast asleep. Applejack smiled to herself, and collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily. "Ah hope Twi is all right. Ah hope she is."

* * *

The day was hot and dry, quite unusual for this time of year. Cloudless sky, relentless sun-rays, the buzz of bumblebees and crickets in the high grass – a fantastic atmosphere to make anyone drowsy and sleepy. The entire team was therefore relaxing on a big, slow cart on its way to Phillydelphia. The cart was in possession of a travelling jewel-maker, who was more than overjoyed to have them with him – with a team like this he decided to venture through Everfree Forest rather than around it to save a few days of his travel. Swash was always perplexed by a merchant's willingness to risk their entire fortunes to save a couple of bits, but he decided not to comment this time – a free and comfy way of traveling wasn't a thing he wanted to lose because of his tongue.

He was lying on the top of the cart among many crates and bags full of whatever a journeyman jeweler needed, catching some sun, drowsing, and thinking: he sighed to himself lightly. To somepony from the outside, he would seem like an egocentric buffoon and a ruffian, who fixes his problems with strength rather than guile –  and to be honest, he had worked for that opinion hard, so he was quite proud that he achieved it as quickly and as loudly as possible. He was a boasting braggart indeed, a marenizer, and a scoundrel – all these roles he played so well so far. And yet, while he was feeling proud of creating this fantastic persona which he used for disguise, he also felt a slight disappointment that only a few were able to see through it.

He was smart, and the very first thing a smart pony learns  is never to allow anyone to find this out. Also he sniggered at the thought that someponies need to learn the skill of 'cutie marks reading' – they are basically there to tell you about the specialty of a pony, for Celestia's Sake!  And no one (well, almost) had ever thought over why a rogue adventurer skilled with swords had a cutie mark that showed two theater masks: he chuckled again. Oh it is a shame that the scene lost him forever, but he didn't regret this decision – he still played his role, and this time the entire world was his scene, even if no one knew the screenplay and there was definitely no applause at the end of the show.  

Because he was very smart, he had a skill behind his persona to match – he had learnt swordsmanship and fencing from true masters of these arts. His body was like a temple to him, even if this particular temple was not devoted to some old, primordial god. He tried to treat it well and work with it - and the effects were visible: he wasn't big, but he wasn't a shrimp either, and he was ready to take a fight against anything. Scars scattered over his grey-coated skin proved that right. Oh, and it was a true blessing that his mane and tail were bright orange from the very beginning! No need to change anything to fulfill the picture.

"Could you PLEASE stop giggling, chuckling, or simply laughing to yourself for a second there?" The polite question bristling with venom came from Ace Flush, who was sitting inside the cart, hidden from the hot sun and calculating their last reward. She was such a materialist. Swash loved her – he had to admit it to himself thousand times a day, probably because he would murder her with excessive cruelty if he stopped telling himself that he did. She wasn't the most beautiful mare there is, but she surely was quite exotic with her blood-red coat, curly light-blue mane and tail, and huge, hypnotic yellow eyes with two little demons hidden inside, always ready for the occasional mischief. But he wasn't into her looks as much as he was into her wonderful character – he once described her as a pit full of venomous snakes that ate too many poisonous spiders and now have a terrible stomachache. That doesn't mean she was a bad pony, oh no – she was simply a little harsh on the outside and so very hard to get close to without being bitten.

He recalled their first encounter, when she was running away from a band of thugs that she had robbed out of all their bits. When she ran into him, within a split second she turned towards her pursuers, gave Swash a huge kiss to the cheek and yelled something along the lines of "Aha! Now you must deal with my lover, you bastards!" Then she ran away, leaving him shocked, stunned and in front of five very angry stallions.

She wasn't expecting him to survive, so she was petrified when he entered the Saloon she was staying in. But she tried her best to play it well – and in a busy place like this, surrounded by colt and stallion admirers - why shouldn't she? Swash was bleeding lightly from a few scratches, but he stood firmly and even gave her a smile "Oh, Darling, here you are!" he said as her eyes grew larger in disbelief. But she quickly gathered her wits and replied with a flirty tone and a batting of her eyelashes "Oh, My Love! What have happened to you!?" Well, he wasn't expecting THAT. Swash giggled at his memory.

"I swear on Luna's moon, if I hear you doin' any more stupid vocals, I am going to cut your throat at night, my dear!" Ace proclaimed with a snarl from below. Yes, he loved that soulless bitch with all his heart.

* * *

The Wanderer grew weary. ITS new form suited its role perfectly, IT had no problems with gathering nutrients for ITS body now, yet IT still needed to spent almost all of ITS time hunting. It was better than being a herbivore for sure, but still wasn't effective enough. While IT was thinking (and the Wanderer dully noted that THINKING became a habit now) a delicate movement of nearby bushes alerted all ITS senses. IT slowly crawled towards them, encircling one from every direction with extended limbs that had grown from its form, each one more of a grotesque tentacle composed of muscles and sinews than a proper hand or leg. When he pierced the shrub, something strange jumped on IT. Interesting – IT knew that IT had become an ultimate predator in the forest, yet something attacked IT! Creature looked strange indeed, with a head of some kind of a bird and rest of the body reptilian with little wings. The weird little hybrid tried to stare deeply into the eyes of the Wanderer. IT felt a surge of magical power, raw energy bombarding ITS body from the eyes of the creature!

The cockatrice realized quickly that its stare did not work at all. The bulging, ever-changing monstrosity in front of it simply watched it with… curiosity? Curiosity that ended with a spasm of all of its many limbs that crushed the cockatrice into a bloody pulp, killing it outright. The Wandered devoured it, and felt something changing within ITS form – "YES," IT thought. "YES! This is it." This is what IT was looking for – a true source of sustenance, so simple, so raw. So effective. IT quickly adjusted ITS senses and found two extremely powerful sources of magical energy in a far distance.

The Wanderer began ITS march.

* * *

Princess Luna was reading with a blush on her cheeks. Her entire bed was covered with opened folders, scripts, photos, pictures… everything about the members of the infamous Full House team. It was amazing. All of them individualists, somewhat brought together, all of them free to roam the entire Equestria in the never ending search for more and more adventures! And the stories, ha, SO much better than the lousy writing she had been used to – stories of their achievements contained much more blood and broken limbs and teeth rather than soft kisses or rewards of entire populations being grateful, just like in the books she valued so much.

Oh, it was so much better, for it was true! She giggled to herself, digging into another report about the self-proclaimed "Doctor" Cunning. It was interesting how each of them had unique stories, so different in mood and execution – it was hard to believe they were all true, but Mystique Wind assured her that Intel Bureau did not include anything unverified in their folders. So Swash Knack was a cliché adventurer, swinging on chandeliers, fencing with many opponents at once and saving somepony from another pony. It sounded lightheartedly, but descriptions were quite, well, picturesque. Like when he saved a little filly kidnapped from her rich father for ransom – Swash ended up with two broken limbs, after jumping from Way Too High, and with multiple deep wounds, after he butchered every single criminal in the building. He barely made it alive.

Luna could imagine how the little filly felt, when she saw her captors tore apart, pierced by furious slashes of the sword, blood covering everything in the entire chamber. And after that, a stallion appeared, crimson from ichor, who forcibly pulled her out of the corner to bring her to safety. The Princess of the Night shivered at the thought and cursed her imaginative mind.

Dr. Cunning was, however, an entirely different set of boots to jump into. His folder was the thinnest of them all, containing only a few blurred pictures and a couple of pages – he surely was eluding, no mistake about it! But the gathered Intel was creepy as hay, it was. Like the one about his visit in Manehattan, when he trotted inside one of the dens of a popular and well known crime-lord. How the music suddenly stopped. And how no voice, not a single squeak, got out from behind the door. After a few minutes, he emerged from the very door he had entered and trotted away like nothing happened. Then half an hour later an entire battalion of Equestrian agents stormed the place to find nothing. Cold dishes laid on tables and chairs were knocked down and that's all. Like he simply wiped out an entire mob from the face of Equestria.

Luna shuddered again. They didn't even knew what the so called Doctor Cunning looked like exactly. He was probably dark brown with a grey mane and always wearing something stylish and elegant and from last epoch. Two things were certain – first, that he had never revealed his Cutie Mark. Second - that his eyes were pure gold and, as one of the agents described it - "Colder than gates to the Abyss, pardon this comparison," Oh, the excitement!

"Well, I told you, dear Sister, that they are quite interesting."

Luna jumped in terror and squeaked startled, but quickly gathered her thoughts and snapped "How long have YOU been here!?".

Celestia chuckled a little with a mischievous smile, and replied "Long enough, I suppose. Getting a little excited I see! You want to meet them in person, I believe." That wasn't a question, as Luna noticed before she nodded.

"Yes, and why not?" she said with a grin. "I am bored, Sister, bored to the bones! and this, well, I don't want to lie to you, this is an opportunity! I can go and help them out, surely I can!" She jumped, agitated, and began prancing around the chamber "Think about it! Adventure, and a real one – danger, travel, um, romance…" she blushed fiercely under Celestia's soft gaze, but yet again quickly regained her royal composure. "Don't even try to tell me that I can't go!"

"I didn't meant to from the beginning, dear Sister." The Sun Princess said calmly.

"No, I can do whatev- What? You will allow me to do this?!" said Luna, shocked and standing still for a while with eyes opened wide. Then she frowned and asked "Why?".

"This is your life my sister, it will be your decision to make" Celestia said simply before she embraced her sister's head with her neck in a pony-hug. "Just try not to be disappointed when they do not agree." She added.

"Wha- What?" asked Luna, breaking free from the hug and with a confused look on her muzzle.

"Well, even if you want to go, they must still accept you to their team, don't they? And to be perfectly honest, I do not see that happening, dear sister, and before you speak" Celestia added quickly, when she saw anger building on her younger sister snout, "It is not because you are weak, foolish or not skilled enough, not at all. I believe you could be a great addition with your powers, but there is more than skills needed to form a good team – trust, for example, trust built within years of mutual adventures and misadventures."

Luna sighed heavily. Her sister was right, of course, she always was right, damn it. But this would not stop her from trying, nevertheless.

* * *

Twilight was doing research, still in her bed, since Spike pretty much forced her to stay in it to -  as he put it, "get better." Silly him, she was feeling quite well, the psychic trauma long gone already and her entire body in much better condition, thanks to a long, steady sleep. She obeyed Spike's "commands" simply because she didn't want to hurt him, and he was obviously dead serious and greatly concerned about her well-being. Probably he felt guilty for what happened to her, even if he couldn't do anything about that – she figured out that his overacting may be a way to vent it out.

But she insisted on starting her research on the subject, and with a lot of grunting, mumbling, and whining Spike provided books she wanted to check. So far all her efforts had been useless – it was a shame, but her vast collection of books did not have any  titled "Mysterious Psychic Screams, and How to Work Around Them" or anything even close to that topic. During the day she quickly read dozens of different books, trying her best to pinpoint any useful tidbits of information, but the results were less than satisfying. She sent urgent notes to her friends in the morning, asking all of them to gather in Carousel Boutique to discuss the matter. Usually that sort of meeting were held in her library, but poor Rarity was still too weak to walk by herself.

Twilight was proud of the citizens of Ponyville. When the crisis struck, earth ponies and pegasi quickly checked over every unicorn in the entire town to make sure they were all right. A few unicorns were saved from death by this rapid action, like Rarity for example. Dragged out of bathtubs or taken out of smoke-filled kitchens… it could have been tragic. It probably was, Twilight thought, even if not in Ponyville. There were bigger cities in Equestria filled with unicorns that had no one to help them. She shed a single tear that went down her cheek before she sighed and called for Spike.

The small dragon entered her bedroom after a quick dash upstairs and asked "Yes Twi, what do you need?" Twilight broke into a smile as she got up from her bed. "You shouldn't get up yet, you know…" Spike frowned and crossed his arms.

"Well, how otherwise am I going to attend our meeting? The meeting, that I initiated?" she pointed out, slowly trotting downstairs to the main hall of her precious library. Spike sighed, defeated, and went behind her "Well, did you at least found somethi –" he stopped, his cheeks puffed greatly and he belched with green fire and smoke.

"Oh! It MUST be from Princess Celestia. To be honest I wondered if she is all right, but I can see she is, fortunately!" said Twilight, a little surprised, but nonetheless happy to see the royal seal of her Highness. Spike broke the seal, read a first line to himself, and handed it over to the lavender unicorn.

"It says here its private and for your eyes only Twilight. It must be important."
Twilight became graven for a second and caught the scroll with her magic to quickly read the ominous letter. Spike observed how her muzzle jumped through entire range of emotions, ending with bewilderment. Twilight nodded to herself while rolling up the scroll.

"Yes, Spike. It is important."

* * *

The ride through Everfree Forest was uneventful , probably thanks to Lagro's presence – it seemed that predators of the wild shared the common pony's willingness to know him. When their cart freed itself from the shadows of the grim forest, a beautiful sun eagerly poured over them with warm beams yet again. Three days of travel started to make them all bored and exhausted. Well, Swash was bored, that was sure. Ace was dangerously silence, and that only meant that she was brewing inside – never a good thing in her case. Doctor, the hay with him. Swash was unable to decipher his muzzle, his pose… Cunning gave no give-aways – not a single change of his face, not the tiniest of frowns or even raise of his brows. He was either a living mannequin or a souless zombie, and Swash decided that there was a solid chance for a hybrid of both. But good ol' Doc wasn't bored, or at least didn't looked like it, being currently occupied by a discussion with the jewel-maker about some "interesting" aspects of "diagonal diamond cut", whatever that meant.

Doctor Cunning. Swash didn't meet him like the others, somewhere on the road by sheer accident. In fact, it was Doctor that looked for HIM. Swash still remembered this cold, rainy day in Canterlot, five year ago. It was a good day – after their latest successful bounty, he and Ace were partying hard and spending their bits frantically on entertainment. He smiled to this memory of youthful idiotism – he didn't spend his earnings now like that for sure, but well, that was five years ago. He remembered the steely gaze that pierced him and instantly evaporated every drop on alcohol in his blood.

Doctor Cunning surely knew how to made an entrance. He simply walked towards them. He didn't push away any of the hangers, he didn't need to, since they made way for him, driven by the instinct of survival. Drunken Swash just tried to focus on the strange stallion with ridiculous clothing, but even in his state he could feel the change in the atmosphere – he knew that feeling perfectly well, a feeling that somepony extremely respected and well known just entered the premises. And guess what, ponies like that rather don't get that much respect for being very polite to elderly and donating to charity.

Then he met the gaze of the strange stallion. Swash, however inexperienced and young, already had fought his deal with various enemies – from the wild beasts of the wilds, through hired thugs to crazed psychopaths. Each of them had something unusual in their eyes, either primordial rage or simple indifference to suffering of others. The stallion in front of him had golden eyes that were pretty much telling him that Swash was a speck in the history, a little dot in one of the multitude of tomes called Life, and that he didn't matter at all. The strange stallion was watching him like a regular pony would watch a hammer or a mug – "there is an object, and I observed it". End of story.

Swash cleared his throat unnervingly and asked sternly, blinking "Yeah? You need somethin' from me?" Oh, why the hay had Ace left him alone in his boasting and bragging to nap somewhere? She would know how to react – she probably would spit venom like a cobra at these eyes, she would!

The dark-brown pony just sat down, took his top hat off and raised his hoof to his right eye, placing a monocle there. With his grey goatee, simple but well preserved mane in the same color,  black coat that covered his cutie mark, and cream collar - he should look hilarious. He didn't.

"My name is Cunning. Doctor Cunning, to be exact. I am a specialist, and I am willing to greatly improve the capabilities of your duo, Mr. Knack, by making it a trio." he said quietly with a serious snout. Swash was shocked by this claim, and asked with a distant voice the first thing that burst into his mind "What kind of specialist, exactly, Mr. Cunning?"

"Doctor." The brown stallion reminded gently "and what kind of specialist do you seek for? Because I am all of them." It wasn't boasting – Swash knew boasting by heart, and this was a simple declaration of a fact.

"But we don't even have a team!" Swash said, still dazzled. But Doctor simply flashed him a fast grin and said. "You have now."

The Full House team was born then. He never learnt why Doctor wanted to join them in the first place. Ace was furious with Swash for a few days that he added some stranger and made their duo a trio without first discussing it with her, but she quickly got over it after a few tasks and bounties. Doctor proved to be more than useful in many situations – he was a brainiac, he was precise and he knew everything about anything. Being creepy as hell was a bonus feature.

Something landed heavily on Swash, hitting him badly in the stomach and promptly shaking him out of his memories. He yelped and opened his eyes to see a beak and pair of brilliantly emerald, ever curious eyes in front of his muzzle. Pinion sat on him with a smile and asked with her chirpy voice "What'cha doin' Swashy?". Swash rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless – it was hard for him to be mad at the little griffon "Well, I was relaxing and recalling a bit, until someone dropped on me like a ton of bricks, that is!" he replied and ruffled her roughly. She tilted her head in a very bird-like gesture "Recallin' what?" she asked again.

"How we all got together." He answered after a moment of solemn silence. Pinion dropped her smile and lowered her eyes. "Oh" was all she managed to say.

"Oh, Indeed, Pinion" He said with his good humor fleeting away as he patted her on her head before giving her a hug. "Oh, Indeed".

* * *

The Wanderer came to a halt in the middle of the forest. IT made many miles in a span of a single day, but like always, there must be more effective ways to move around. Also, when IT came closer and closer to ITS target, IT began to feel confused. It was so unusual, that the Wanderer decided to stop and THINK about it, to figure out why ITS mind was not in agreement with itself. The energies –the two most powerful on this plane, bright and alluring from afar – were moving: and changing. This meant that this energies were contained in a living creatures, and therefore able to use it, quite possibly to a great extent. So, Wanderer thought again, this is Logic. A way to take different pieces of data and assemble them together to create a "wider perspective." Interesting.

IT could not hunt them now. IT was powerful, but ITS form was not. The meal of a strange creature contained some raw energy that made ITS body buzz with different reactions, but IT wasn't nearly enough to allow IT to deny even the most basic rules of this plane. The Wanderer needed more of it to free ITSELF from at least some of the constraints. Fortunately for IT, there were plenty of smaller energies nearby the two biggest one, like moths flying around two big fires. IT would feed on them as good start. This was a plan. It felt good to have a plan.

The Wanderer left the wilds and began its crawl towards Canterlot, shrouded by night.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle entered the Carousel Boutique with a ring of the doorbell and smiled to everypony inside. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity were there already, and welcomed her with a choir of "Hi!", "Hello!" and "Good yal'right!". Only poor Rarity didn't jump to welcome her, as she was lying on a big cushion, still too wrecked to move much. It was painful to see her in such state, but she was alive and that was the most important bit. Twilight stepped towards the white unicorn and gently nuzzled her cheek.

"Glad to see you are all right, Rarity. I hope you get well soon" she said softly.
"Thank you, Darling. I will not exaggerate if I say I am here with all of you thanks to Applejack," said Rarity with a sincere and wide smile. Applejack blushed and looked like she wanted to say something, but Rarity didn't allow it "Hush there, dear, it is true. Don't be modest about it for I am forever thankful. I am glad to see all of you, truly, but Twilight surely gathered us here for a reason. It would be very sweet of you, Twilight, to tell us this reason now." She finished, and nodded to the purple unicorn.

"Yeah, spill it Twi!" said Rainbow Dash, landing on the ground.

Twlight looked around at the trustful gazes of her closest friends, each awaiting for her to lay some knowledge on them that would make the matter clear and manageable. She took a heavy breath and began. "I got a letter from Princess Celestia about this entire situation. It seems that everypony in  the entire Equestria heard this unearthly scream in their heads. Pegasi and earth ponies took it lightly in comparison to Unicorns everywhere, as we know from our own…" she shivered "experiences." Scholars in Canterlot still don't know what could have made such a psychic backlash around the land. They are not even sure if there is anything or anyone behind it, to be honest. But the Princess is positive that if there is a scream, there must be someone behind it – and she fears for our safety."
"Wait, what now?" Rainbow Dash interrupted. "We are not a bunch of little fillies, we can take care of ourselves!"

"Um…" Every muzzle turned to yellow-coated Pegasus. Fluttershy lowered her head and tried again. "Um, but, well, why she, I mean Princess is worried about us?"

"Because we still hold the elements of harmony, silly!" shouted Pinkie Pie, bouncing in excitement.

"Yes. That is correct Pinkie, thank you." Twilight glanced over to Applejack nuzzling Rarity, and cleared her throat to gently pick up their attention. Both ponies raised their heads and blushed a little with awkward smiles. "As we are, indeed, hosts for the elements, the Princess decided that we need extra consideration. Don't frown like that Rainbow, I don't like the idea of someponies watching us practically everywhere, but it is for our safety, I assure you. We still don't know anything about the nature of the being that caused all of this mess, but are you willing to take any risks?"

"The hay I am!" Rainbow dash proclaimed, stepping into an heroic pose. "I don't want any of these royal guards around me, they are no fun at all!"

Twilight smiled to herself. "The Royal Guard will not bodyguard us Rainbow. Princess Celestia decided to hire a group of well-known adventurers and mercenaries to do this job. The Princess herself wrote that they are professionals and they will do their best not to hinder us in any way, and I trust her. They are called "The Full House" If I recall it properly."

Rainbow Dash gasped and extended her wings in excitement. "THE Full House team!?"