In a land where everyone was supposed to be happy, nice, and most of all, not in dire need of therapy, things were not going to plan. Nova slowly looked over the motley group of ponies and owls he had assembled. Attempting to look like he had some clue of what he was doing, the unipeg tried to do a brief rundown of the events.

"Alright. So, Horus, Vesper, and Riptide still haven't come back yet. Chipmunks are still on the loose here, and we aren't quite sure of what they're quite capable of. And the lot of us are all here, trying to figure out what's going on while no one else has a clue about what we're doing."

The group nodded, looking around to see who else was in the group. Nova shook his head with a sigh.

"So, now that we all know what we're doing, and I can't think of any other trouble we might have.."

At that moment, Wraith suddenly swooped down from one of the higher caverns, a scroll in his mouth. The pegasus nodded a greeting to Nova, dropping the scroll.

"The messengers just got this-ambassadors from Dream Valley are coming today. Where's Horus and Riptide? They mentioned needing to talk to some of them."

The unipeg flicked his ears back, shaking his head again.

"Both of them and Vesper went out on a patrol yesterday. We haven't heard back from them since."

Wraith nodded slightly, galloping out of the cavern and calling back as he took to the air.

"I'll check around the rest of the caverns-maybe someone else has seen them recently."

However, the trio had not yet arrived back at Icestorm Point. Instead, they were collapsed on the branches of a large tree, panting from lack of breath. Riptide slowly lifted her head up, watching the surrounding forest warily.

"Do..you..*huff*..think..*puff*..we lost it?"

Vesper lifted her own head up, shaking her forelock out of her eyes.

"Well..*pant*..it's..not..chasing..*puff*..us..anymore.."

A pile of leaves rustled as Horus stuck his head out with a snort.

"Not..for..*huff*..the moment, anyway.."

Taking comfort in these facts, the trio flopped back down on their respective branches, still attempting to catch their breath. The surrounding forest was calm, with only the wind gently whistling past the leaves. All was safe.

Snap.

Horus' ears shot forward in alarm at the sound, quickly lifting his head up and glancing around.

"Did you hear that?"

The mares nodded slightly, staying silent as they joined in the hunt for whatever caused the noise. Aside from the whistle of the wind, the forest was silent. There was no movement below, and the forest seemed to have returned to its previous tranquil state. Heaving a sigh, the ponies sprawled against the tree branches again, although Horus' ears remained pricked forward.

"Probably just a chipmunk.."

Exhausted from the chase and feeling the effects of too much adrenaline, the trio slowly drifted off to sleep. In the distance, there was another snap of underbrush. Followed by even more snaps.

Back at Icestorm Point, the motley crew wander through dimly lit caverns, everyone except for the owls having to squint to see through the shadows and near-darkness. Nova sighed as he glanced around.

"Stormbringer, would it kill you to wait to do the wiring?"

The green pegasus flapped out of a cavern, hovering above Nova.

" But we're nearly finished-once we finish getting all this wiring done, we won't have to use torches and lanterns anymore! No more worrying about setting fire to the temple or the library!"

The stallion just shook his head, sighing again.

"Look, I'm very happy that you're doing your best to keep this whole place from burning down. But it's rather hard to chipmunk hunt when-"

Stormbringer blinked at the mention of chipmunks, hurriedly flapping back into the cavern.

"Hey! Keep an eye out for those rodents! We don't want 'em to chew up the wiring!"

With the groan of someone at the end of their rope, Nova led the group out of the cavern.

"Maybe we can find them in a cavern with less electrical work being done.."

Snap.

Crack.

Hssss..

Vesper stirred slightly in her sleep, slowly opening an eye at the low sound. An ear twitched slightly, and she attempted to focus on the blurry object.

"Hm..wha..GREAT RAINBOW!"

The unipeg skittered backwards, bumping into Riptide. The darker blue mare shook her head, raising an eyebrow at Vesper.

"What'd you do that fo-Horus? We have a problem here."

Horus jerked awake, glancing around.

"What? What's-"

The stallion jumped several feet in the air when he saw what that mares had seen. Crowded around the base of the tree were ponies-one of which who was the creature that chased them the previous night. Saliva hung from their gaunt muzzles, and all the ponies looked more dead than alive. They looked hungry, as well. Horus flared his wings slightly, nervously pacing on the branch.

"Well, at least they can't fly.."

As if on cue, one of the ponies below suddenly leapt upwards, jaws snapping dangerously close to the branch the golden unipeg was standing on. Riptide stamped a hoof.

"But they /can/ jump. Do you think they could grab us out of the air?"

With a snort, Horus shrugged, flaring his wings again.

"They might be able to-but giving flying a shot is better than waiting around to see if they have any other attack ideas."

Vesper and Riptide nodded, flaring out their own wings and leaping off the tree's branches. The skeletal ponies below leapt up and down, jaws snapping and sending saliva flying. Missing their targets, the herd hissed and squealed angrily, stamping their hooves and snapping their jaws. Flying for their lives, the unipeg trio quickly flapped towards Icestorm Point, the herd hissing a final time before slinking off into the brush.

Nova shook his head as the chipmunk-hunting group wandered off, having found nothing yet. The unipeg trotted back to the library, grabbing his reading glasses and starting to search through the scrolls. He frowned as he squinted at them, adjusting the glasses slightly. His studying was interrupted by the sound of frantic wingbeats behind him.

"What in the Rainbow's name-"

Nova raised as eyebrow at her glanced at the now rather ragged looking unipeg trio.

"What happened to you three?"

Riptide landed first, moving her wings in a shrug and responding matter-o-factly.

"Salivating zombie ponies. I think they wanted to eat us."

Horus and Vesper landed, nodding in agreement. Vesper tilted her head to the side.

"Are there any scrolls on that sort of thing here?"

Nova flattened his ears back, turning away with a snort and a shake of his head,

"I'll look.."

The trio nodded, and flapped out in search of a place to rest without risk of being attacked. Nova just sighed again, spreading out some scrolls and clicking on the desk lamp Stormbringer had installed.

"Chipmunks. Supposedly predatory ponies. What's next? The furniture coming alive?"

He smirked, chuckling slightly as he continued to read through the scrolls.

"Or maybe I'm just getting too stressed by all the bizarre things we go through.."

Adjusting his glasses, the unipeg went back to reading in silence, focusing the ancient text. And very slowly, the desk lamp opened one eye, attempting to join in the reading when Nova wasn't paying attention.