"That…was something," Rainbow notes as they all walk the straightforward path to Manehattan. "So…really going to head back and enjoy life or something?"

"Huh?" Leone asks.

"Trial," Rainbow says turning to him. "You going to stay if you head back?"

"Eventually, if my job takes me that way," Trial informs.

"Great," Rainbow says quietly and sighs.

"At least the tough part is over. Now it's just this," Dusk reassures as they look at the almost barren wasteland all around them with mostly dirt and dried up weeds.

Trial laughs hearing that. "That was the easy part," Trial informs.

Dusk closes his eyes and breathes deeply. "I'm really tempted to knock you on your ass."

"You are the one who hired us through Sentire," Trial reminds.

"Trial, enough," Sentire spoke up before pointing to everyone who lived in Canterlot giving him a grim expression. "Now isn't the time. Let's at least get through most of the wastelands, make camp, and then you can insult his words."

"Would be grand, but we won't be about to for a good while. Something is tracking us and it ain't an equestrian citizen," Trial says, nodding his head a certain way.

They all turn to look and sees nothing out in that direction. "Right. Let's get moving. Better not waste time and at least make tracks," Rainbow says as she starts to walk with the others following and Trial and Leone look to each other before looking back to the dark head ducking under the rolling hills.

After a bit of walking, the sun had slowly started to set as Spitfire takes a peek back at the city and sees pillars of smoke still rising out of it. Fleetfoot grabbing her shoulder and pulling her back along the group as they kept going as far as their legs can take them.

Trial, spotting this as well, puts his hand on her shoulder, trying to offer some comfort as all of them kept walking as Trial noticed three teenage mares among the group. Two he didn't know and one he had met before.

The one known as Sweetie Belle, Elusive's younger sister and probably told to be taken at the behest of her older brother. While the other two were a mystery to him as one had an orange coat and purple mane with a baseball cap on her head while she carried a folded up board on her back with a bag. And the other wearing a scarf, stetson hat, and some farm outfit on that reminded Trail of Applejack, leading him to wonder if this is Applebloom that Applejack talked so fondly about.

"You will see your families again," Trial spoke to them and catches their attention. "I'm sure they would be safe as we all know they are tough enough to handle themselves."

"I know Rainbow is that. She is already a Wonderbolt," the orange filly says smiling to Rainbow who blushes and gives a chuckle.

"Oh, I know," Trial says suggestively and Applebloom and the orange filly blushes while Sweetie Belle looks confused at why they were giving that expression.

"Trial," Rainbow says blushing.

"I couldn't resist," Trial says.

"Not in front of Scootaloo," Rainbow warns.

"Oh, that's the name," Trial says, patting Scootaloo's head affectionately. "Is she your sister?"

Scootaloo, hearing this, makes a gasp before she gets the wide-eyed wonder look.

"Does she always get like this?" Trial asks as Scootaloo squeals happily at the word he said.

Rainbow chuckles nervously. "She loves being called my sister," she explains before leaning in. "She's my adopted sister. We haven't seen her parents for a long while," she whispered sadly. "Mostly living with me back there."

Trial looks sadly down to Scootaloo and sees her still starry-eyed before he puts on a smile and pats her head some more. "Well, you got a big brother now."

Scootaloo squeals happily and faints backward as the others watch them with a small smile. "I think you broke her," Applebloom says giggling as she pokes Scootaloo in the cheek while she twitches.

Rainbow smiles now and turns to Trial. "Thanks," she sighs as Trial picks up Scootaloo in his arms and carries her before they continue to walk.

"I want the foals to be happy. Can't leave them crying," Trial whispers to her, happy he got the fillies' mood back up again.

"You are a softy," Rainbow says smirking.

Trial chuckles a little as they continue walking. Hardly encountering any monsters, only pests of rats and dogs that were quickly killed off. But now the strain of walking was starting to hit the fillies and those inexperienced with slowing them down and sweating them to the point of needing more water than the rest of them. The point of even some of them carrying the fillies.

"We need a place to rest. The fillies can't take this much traveling," Trial spoke up as he carried Scootaloo on his back while Leone has Sweetie Belle and Zicoro has Applebloom. All the while, Dusk, and Rainbow look around the area.

"Got a lake," Rainbow says pointing ahead of them and they see a small lake in the distance with a very tiny stream coming through the almost desert-like land and hills.

"Sentire?" Trial asks.

Sentire leans up and tries to look around the lake. Her eyes narrow a little as she spots a few large rocks before noticing that one had a larger amount of cracks and lines that seem to make a shape of an animal. Her hand reaching behind her before taking out her scythe now.

"Why not try that spell you used on the tree?" Trial suggested as he wonders how far her spell casting can go. Happy though she hasn't used it when they took down the nest in front of the Equites.

Sentire hums as she looks at the weapon in her hands before trying to remember the words. "In…" Sentire starts to say before coming up short. Her scythe then bursts into flames that surprised a lot of the group as Sentire's eyes are filled with the light of the licking blue flames. "In…te…gro," she slowly says and her blade starts to shine a flaming blue before Sentire shakes her head and looks at her weapon as it burns. She smiles before running up to the lake with her scythe held behind her, her arms swinging it in front, and then down onto the rock before a loud squealing is hard and the monster she stabbed started to writhe in pain, feeling the blue flames consume his inside and burn away the muck that is leaking out of the wound. Sentire groans as her legs buckle before she takes the scythe out and falls to the ground while using the hilt to hold herself up, the monster in front of her still writhing in pain before it stops and color starts to return to it. Leftover moss and muck on its body receding before it rolls into all of its legs and shows itself to be a large sandy rock colored turtle that pokes its head out at her slowly before blinking slowly and then turns and starts to walk toward the water.

"Oh, a turtle," Leone says.

"And that's what the corruption does to animals. Turn them into unrecognizable things. Now, onto more important things," Dusk says as they walk up to the lake as the turtle enters the water. "What the heck was that? When is she a magic user? And I doubt she's like you considering she is a normal mare even before all of this."

"That, we don't know," Trial admits shrugging. "She could have been magic for as long as I knew her and never noticed."

Sentire pants and looks up to them as they start to sit down and take a break, putting down their bags and start to drink eagerly. "I…don't know either," she pants as they fill their canteens and water supply before Dusk holds out one to her and she takes it before drinking. She stops with a gasp before taking a deep breath. "I honestly don't know where it came from and it…just happens. I'm sorry I can't explain it."

"It's fine. It's just…no one can cleanse this corruption and do it that easily. Maybe…you can try to teach me?" Dusk asks, giving a small smile.

Sentire smiles back as she is able to stand up now. "Sure…but it may be just me and a fluke," she says as Rainbow and Leone pet the turtle as it rested in the water while looking up to them.

"You are now Sir William," Leone says to the turtle.

The turtle blinks at her and lowers its head halfway into the water.

"Sir William?" Rainbow asks, looking to Leone.

Leone smirks. "Makes him dignified."

"Hole," Trial says simply as he points to the top of William's shell.

"Sir William," Leone repeats.

"No. There is a hole on top of his shell," Trial says simply while still pointing.

"He's so cute," Leone gushes over as she pets the shell.

"Let's…leave them alone," Spitfire says before walking off to the side and sits down, trying to not move her legs at this point while everyone else follows her example and just lay down and almost sleep.

"Still following us?" Leone asks.

"Yep," Trial informs.

"What following?" Spitfire asks, rubbing her legs.

"A monster. I am guessing a scavenger," Trial says.

"Big or tall and lean?" Leone asks happily petting the turtle.

"Too far to tell," Trial says.

"It has to get close soon," Sentire huffs before sitting down next to everyone. "And that damn mutt too."

"Oh yeah. Where's dinner?" Trial asks, looking around now.

"You're thinking of food now?" Fleetfoot tries to ask.

"No. Dinner as in our name for a certain pet," Leone explains.

"Yeah, our emergency food," Trial says smirking.

"You're planning on eating a pet as food?" Spitfire now has to ask as some of them look on in disgust.

"It's not really a pet. A pet is cute and loveable like Sir William here," Leone says now holding the turtle.

William blinks at them at that.

"And this other one?" Rainbow slowly asks.

"It's a huge wolf-like dog," Trial says blankly.

"That's…cute I think," Applebloom says.

"He would eat ponies if he could," Leone adds.

"And…how do you know that?" Dusk asks before Sentire slowly raises her hand and everyone looks at her. "You're joking, right? You got eaten?"

Sentire nods grimly. "That's the first time I died…"

"So she claims," Trial says, trying to not freak them out.

Sentire sighs as they all rested before her ears perk up and she looks to the side to see a black head duck behind a hill. She then shakes her head before looking at where they are headed before turning to the others. "Does anyone have a dagger I can borrow?"

"Take your pick," Trial says, bringing a few out, holding them like a hand of cards.

Sentire hums as she reaches out before taking a thin and long one. "Thanks. Can't swing my scythe in a hallway that easily," she says, looking over the dagger and tests her grip.

"How do you do that with the daggers?" Glide asks.

Trial smiles as he spins all the daggers around in his hand. "Long and hard practice filled with many mistakes."

"He is also a card shark," Leone informs.

"I won't have to pay back for it, right?" Sentire asks, holding up the dagger.

"I had Leone commission a hundred. Which are on my person," Trial says.

"You hold all one hundred of them at once?" Rainbow asks surprised.

"I throw a lot," Trial simply says as he puts the other daggers away into his cloak. "Besides, someone finally figured out pockets," he jokes, tapping his breast pocket on his cloak.

Spitfire raises an eyebrow before pushing open his cloak to find knives lining it.

"Guilty," Trial says teasingly and pushes his cloak closed.

"Why do you need all of that anyway?" Spitfire questioned.

"See any blacksmiths or any communities near here?" Trial asks.

"Now it all makes sense," Glide says as they all take a peek around for themselves.

"Yeah. Always be stocked," Trial says.

"Truer words have never been spoken," Vinyl says laying on the ground now.

"Right…I am going to go see if I can hunt anything," Trial says.

"Good luck," they all murmur, except for Leone who is still petting William.

"He still isn't back," Applebloom says as they huddle around a campfire now.

"He will. Sometimes he wants to make sure he has enough food," Leone says, leaning against William as he laid nearby her.

"Moooo!" they all hear before they see a bull running their way.

"Uh…" Sentire tries to say before Leone gets up and taps her hoof against the ground as it charges at them before it jumps a bit and then falls and slides across the ground to a stop in front of her. "Okay," she could only say as they saw a knife stuck in the back of the bull.

Leone takes it out and looks over the engraving of "Knife to meet you."

"He ordered joke knives?" Spitfire asks as Leone twirls the knife around.

"A few," Trial says flapping down.

Leone giggles before tossing the knife for him to catch and put away as Leone starts slicing the bull apart.

"At least we have a meal," Sentire voices while Leone grabs some sticks and sticks the meat before roasting them over the fire.

"Finding it was a hassle in itself and it didn't want to run this way a lot," Trial informs.

"You sure we can eat this?" Sentire asks, looking to see if any gunk was in the body.

"Oh, yeah. I checked it quite a bit before I stabbed it in the flank to make it start running," Trial reassures as Leone starts passing out the sticks to all the mares first before just tossing them to the guys, but holds it out to Zicoro for him to grab off her hand while she gave a wink to him.

"Good…you ever figured out what happens if somepony does eat that stuff?" Sentire asks over to Dusk as they all start to eat.

Dusk hums as he chews. "We…haven't tested that part. Mostly to whoever was willing to do it. But we did a test on animals and, don't tell Butterscotch this, they started to barf it back up before the 'gunk' came out of their pores in just a minute and then covered them up, turning them into a monster. So, we concluded it's dangerous for us to ingest," Dusk finishes explaining while Trial and Leone lean against William and eat away at their own bites.

"Fair assessment," Leone says.

Dusk shrugs and continues to eat. "Just wish there was an animal immune to it. Really would help us out in finding a cure."

"Oh, there are immunities," Trial says.

"And what are they?" Dusk asks, taking a large bite in case he tries to blow him off.

"The skunk next to you," Trial says.

Dusk freezes before slowly moving his eyes and spies the skunk sitting next to him and obviously resting. 'Yep. He blew me off…shit…'

"So is that a pet or what?" Trial says, having no idea where the skunk came from.

"No…" Dusk says quietly as his horn lights subtly.

"Then you just let it sleep by the fire?" Trial asks.

Dusk frowns a little toward him before he makes an invisible wall between him and the skunk.

"Cute," Sentire says smiling a little as the skunk yawns and lifts its head before laying back down against Dusk's side.

"Oh. Looks like I was right. It is now a pet," Trial says looking to Barb for a reaction.

Barb just eats away, paying no mind to them all.

"Hey, Barb. Any ideas for Dusk's new pet?" Trial asks smirking.

"He already has one. Starts with an E and ends with chaos," Barb shrugs dismissively.

The skunk, hearing this, gets up and goes up to Barb.

Barb just keeps eating as it climbs into her lap and lays down again with her giving it a few pats while paying no heed to the fact that a skunk is on her lap. "What?" she asks to some of the confused faces while others slide away from her.

"Iron dragon," Trial comments.

Barb shrugs. "Iron enough to make a few stallions' dicks get hard. But good enough legs to break them if they get close," she agrees as she taps her claw on her thick thighs.

"And your new pet?" Leone asks.

"Eh," Barb shrugs as she feels eyes on her. "Back off big boy. These legs are off limits," she warns, pointing a meat stick to Zicoro who quickly looks away.

"So, Dusk, my brother says you were working on another experiment. What was it?" Sweetie Belle asks.

"A gender spell. Hoping for gaining more of the population back with a good robust program," Dusk summarizes.

"Details?" Rainbow requests, interested slightly.

"The program would change stallions into mares and once they are bred, birth out a foal, then they can change back. Thus, more numbers," Dusk explains. "Was hoping of doing it in Canterlot…but…"

"Oh, it can still happen. Just for the Equites faction," Sentire says.

"Was hoping for it actually. But now…well…I am hoping I can implement it in places where it counts. Unless the Equites grab a hold of the spell. Then we are fucked," Dusk laminates.

"Did you write it down anywhere?" Trial asks.

"No. I had to modify extensively in a spell book and luckily," Dusk pauses as he digs into his bag and takes out a book with too many bookmarks in different colors and numbers written on them between the pages. "It's right here."

"Show us the notes please," Trial requests.

"He never wrote them down," Barb sighs. "He made this thing up almost on the fly and the only notes he made were calculations of population number…right?" Barb asks and Dusk flips through the book before chuckling nervously.

"We're fucked with the Equites, aren't we?" Sentire asks dryly.

Meanwhile

"I never expected to find a spell like this," a mage stallion general says, reading the few pages of notes before him. "A gender changing spell…we got our punishment ma'am," he says before looking up at the mare in the command tent of the Equites.

"Remember, you wouldn't have that if not for my men through searching," Fire Wisp says.

"Oh, relax," the stallion huffs to the mare to the side.

"I won't have my generals fighting, understand?" the mare asks.

"Sir!" they both saluted.

"Now then, get our prisoners, the nobles who stood against us, and those that need to be made of an example in our faction. Change them and show them what happens to those that cause discourse in our community," the lead mare orders, turning to them and they can't help but compare her looks to the rainbow mane one.

"Ah…ma'am," the head bodyguard of the mare says.

"Yes?" the leader asks back, her eye twitching.

"General Wrathful made them commit decimation," the bodyguard says.

The mare's eye twitches more noticeably. "Stop her and make the rest fit for these new punishments. We need numbers. We can't waste them now. If I want nobles dead, I will drive the sword in myself."

"Oh, ok…she also made preparations if they were to be sold into slavery," he says.

"No," the mare says simply. "As of now, numbers are everything. If they want slavery, it will be in the city only. Slaves can never be sold outside to others. We need the bits from that. Make sure that the tax system is robust enough for future expansion and numbers of the population to feed and care for. As for expanding, since the nest is over with, let's put half of them to good use and make it our forward base. The other half can breed a new line of soldiers and workers."

"Yes, commander," the three generals in the tent say.

"I'm so tempted to use this," Sentire says, holding up her scythe's bladed end at Dusk in his face.

"Phase two is complete," Trial whispers to Leone who giggles.

"So if they find those notes and figure out how to use them…" Spitfire says thinking.

"Didn't you also have a plan you we…oh, they most likely found your plan as well in the castle," Trial says.

Sentire pushes the blade further and touches Dusk's face.

"If they have that, they have the perfect program to use that spell in. Dusk, being a master at logistics, would have figured out the best timing and everything," Barb says frowning.

"Well…I think the Equites has a very stable future from the sounds of it. But in the long term, this may be a good thing for us," Trial says.

"How?" Spitfire demands.

"In our mission to discover the origin of these creatures and to destroy them, that is, the stronger they grow, the more territory they will be able to hold and clear of these monsters on their own," Trial says.

"But then they would kill any evidence we can work off of. Extermination would be their goal. Not study and permanently prevent it from returning," Sentire reminds.

"We don't need that Sentire. We just need to find ground zero," Trial says.

"And if we don't get there in time and they kill off the entire area? You won't get the pay," Sentire points out.

"You need to stop thinking of this as some great monster to kill. This is an infection. A disease. If it was so easy to stop by killing one thing, then they wouldn't have a need to hire us for the job," Trial informs.

"And if it's a fucking nest that they kill off first? The job was to find out the cause and end it. Us. And what happens if we fail?" Sentire warns.

"We die and our contract says nothing about us killing it. It is just end it. That can be done by any means." Trial informs.

"You have no care? Do you? You want to live in a world run by them?" Sentire asks frowning now as most of the group starts to slide away.

"Look, I talked to Iron for a long time and a lot she told us, and I know she wasn't lying, contradicting a lot of the bad stuff Dusk has told us. I know he isn't lying and she wasn't so that can only mean that Dusk was lied to as Iron is one of those in charge of the faction," Trial says unaffected.

Sentire groans before standing and grips her blade handle before dragging it away into the dirt in a random direction. "I'm going to find something to kill."

"Be on guard. The scavenger could still out there and could sense I was too strong for it so it didn't approach," Trial calls.

"Don't fucking care!" Sentire calls back.

Leone hums before swallowing a large piece of meat. "Testy…and so are you. Don't say it. You were both in the wrong mindset for who's the right way," she quickly says to his oncoming rant and makes him shut it. "We'll consider who lied to Dusk later. For now…" she ends with pointing towards Sentire as she turns to look at him, leaving him a sighing mess.

"Fine," Trial mutters while he grabs most of the knives on the ground before walking after Sentire.

Barb could only look at Dusk who ended up with his head in his hands as he has an idea who told him the lies and she, in turn, does as well while the others could only watch Trail go after Sentire.