Twilight winced. Her eyes slammed shut. A thousand thoughts went through her mind in the course of less than a second. She got somewhat nostalgic for the sand tornado back at the start of their quest. Both times ended with something wanting to ruin her day. Except this time, there was no rope to hold onto. Poor Spike never got his amethyst dinner. And if that rocket exploded—when it exploded—there wouldn't be anything left of them for Rainbow or Fluttershy to remember them by.

She didn't have time to consult with her friends. It did explode. When it did, Twilight felt no pain at all. If this was the end, it had come swiftly and without anguish. She was grateful for that.

But then curiosity got the best of her. Why exactly did she have the need to cough so badly?

She was daring enough to open her eyes, not immediately realizing she should have been too dead to have that option. The room before her eyes had changed drastically. The altar, Leader, or even any of the torches weren't in sight. Everything was veiled by a thick haze, impenetrable by pony eyes. The entire room had been doused with smoke.

The turn of events caught up with her friends at that moment as well. They began wheezing, trying to expel from their mouths smoke and the fumes that went along with it.

"Is everyone all right?!" Twilight shouted over the panic.

"Where'd he go?" was Pinkie's response, her voice muffled by the hoof she had placed in front of her face.

A stream of warm air passed directly over Twilight's head, blowing her mane around in all possible directions. The fact that that didn't do a very good job at clearing the area of smoke let her know just how much of the stuff had been in that fake missile. She came to the conclusion that it was Leader flying straight over the group. Unfortunately, she couldn't voice the discovery before a different pony found out about it the harder way.

There was a loud-pitched squeal. Right after that, both the sound of the jetpack's motor and the screaming began fading away downstairs. Twilight's visual was near nothing, but she could guess what was happening. "Pinkie!"

"I can't see anythin', Twi!" Applejack yelled, evidently still having trouble breathing. "What happened to Pinkie?!"

"Leader got her! He's heading down the stairs. We've got to head after him!"

AJ turned herself around, still hacking, but determined. "Yer darn tootin' we are! C'mon, Rarity!"

Three sets of hooves poured out of the room they had worked so hard to reach. Smog had even started billowing down the pathway, making traversing stairs rather dangerous in its own right. It was a necessary evil, however. Soon, they regained their sight. Not long after that, they found themselves in a room too familiar—that dreaded arrow room. Leader was waiting for them at the bottom of the staircase, just before reaching any of the still-flying miniature spears. He held his rocket launcher in his left foreleg, and Pinkie's tail in the other. The mare was dangling upside down, her two front legs crossed in frustration.

"Boy, if I had a nickel for every time this has happened..." she moaned.

The Element of Generosity was the first to move forward. "We must insist that you put her down this instant, you bully. Kidnapping a lady is in horrible taste."

The werebear held out the paw that was gripping Pinkie, showing her off like a brand new toy. She remained entirely unamused, if not somehow unconcerned. "We will trample through Ponyville on our way to Canterlot. This single pony's life means nothing."

Forfeiting a fine opportunity to hurl another smoke-rocket, Leader used his jetpack to bolt forward, through the swarm of arrows. A few of them bounced off of the machine's metal plating, while a couple more struck him directly; he showed no signs of noticing either one of those things. Pinkie Pie, however, wasn't as invulnerable, and Twilight knew it. The librarian watched her friend closely with bated breath. An arrow drove a solid line from one side of her mane to the other. The poor lock was pierced, but luckily, Pinkie wasn't.

Both of them made it past the entirety of the traps, but they never stopped. There was a large broken wall sitting on the opposite side of the room waiting for them, and with a fully functioning jetpack, it would make just as good of an exit as the actual entrance did. Night was beginning to arrive in full force, so Pinkie and her captor vanished from sight as soon as they left the building.

"What're we supposed to do now?" Applejack wondered, sounding impatient.

Rarity readily responded, "Stop him from destroying Ponyville, that's what."

"That too, but I meant a lil' more immediately. We can't waste time duckin' around a hundred o' these arrows!"

"Applejack's right," Twilight spoke up. She gulped as she regretted the words she was about to say before they even left her mouth. "We can't go around them... so we'll need to go through them. You two stay close to me, all right?"

Before letting them respond, Twilight's horn lit up. At first, it was a misguided spark or two; with just a little concentration, a pinkish-purple bubble enveloped her and her friends. Being on the compact side of things, it wasn't made with comfort in mind, but it should do its job just fine. The three would be able to walk through the barrage of arrows with the shield taking every hit for them.

The other two nodded at one another. They seemed leery about their unicorn friend's safety, but resisting the temptation of an expressway to the exit was difficult. Huddled close together side by side, the trio started off.

Most forms of magic were simple. Casting light or levitating something were almost built-in tricks for unicorns. Harder spells—such as teleportation—took more effort, but their results were usually instantaneous. A shield like the one they were using had the worst effects of both. Not only was it draining to summon the object in the first place, it was necessary to keep it active while it took speedy arrows from close to every single direction. Failing meant the entire party gets painfully pinned to a wall. No matter how much strain Twilight found herself under, she wasn't going to let that happen.

It seemed like whenever they blocked an arrow from reaching its destination, the technology involved recognized it and shot two more arrows to take its place. Twilight couldn't tell if that was just her imagination or not. After only a few steps, she could already feel exhaustion seeping into her. She bowed her head and closed her eyes, now concentrating on nothing except getting them safely across this floor.

"Keep it goin', Twi..." Applejack muttered.

Rarity whispered, "Stay strong, darling, we've almost made it."

She wished they wouldn't stop encouraging her. It made the trip much easier.

Struggling, Twilight began panting from her magical endeavor. As much as she wanted to deny it, she knew that her magic was going to give out before much longer. But it couldn't. And before it did, she felt a different sensation on the side of her neck. It was a hoof, placed there gently. Then she felt the same thing on the opposite side.

Twilight wasn't about to stop trusting her friends now. At their cue, she opened her eyes. Whether she wanted it to or not, the protective bubble vanished in an instant. She was relieved beyond words even her vocabulary could come up with to see that they had made it to a safe zone. Specifically, the safe zone right in front of the exit.

While the unicorn was given a moment to rest up, the three of them peered out the broken wall Leader and Pinkie had exited through. They weren't about to survive a jump down from here, so they would just need to descend the way that they came from. Twilight thought she had seen the moon's reflection on Leader's jetpack as they entered the In Snare forest, but she was too exhausted to be able to confirm it. It didn't matter. They weren't nearly close enough to put a stop to all of this.

"Come on, girls." Twilight wanted to stay here and rest a little more. She knew, however, there was no realistic chance of that happening. "We got some work to do."

-TRS-

There was no questioning that it was dark out, but if one stood in the right spots, things could still be visible. Nowhere in the In Snare Jungle was a "right spot."

Since there was so little to do about it, Pinkie merely hung around as Leader carried her through the wooded area. She had to work extra hard just to get a hit in on Sam when they were having a fair fight; trying to struggle against someone bigger and much meaner than the other werebear was potentially suicidal. She couldn't see a thing, apart from when Leader's jetpack flared up to increase his altitude, which gave her a short spark of fire to gaze at. At least the werebear had good enough eyesight to see in the dark so they wouldn't crash. Her hearing was getting damaged, too. Every dozen seconds, Leader would howl, "We attack tonight!" undoubtedly grabbing the attention of every single werebear in the forest.

The pony wasn't positive where she was being taken, but she thought this was the direction Zebrica was in. That could be tragic. "Where are we going?" she inquired just as Leader opened his muzzle to sound the alarm again.

"Zebrica, pony," he hissed back.

Yep. That could be tragic. It was bad enough that she had missed out on the reverstone—the entire point of this quest—and she wasn't about to deal with violence to boot. "You better not even touch a stripe on any of them! They let you live peacefully in this jungle right next to them for a bajillion years! If you got a problem with ponies, fine, but leave— "

"Do not insult us," he said, though he didn't really sound that insulted. He sounded more like he was glad he could finally vent to somebody. "Werebears will seize the world. Equestria is only our first goal. Whether Zebrica falls first or last is hardly important."

Pinkie took a moment to let that sink in. "But... I don't get it." She made a gesture to her entire surroundings. "You guys have a pretty sweet pad here! Imagine all the tree houses you could make! What do you need world domination for?"

"We are second to none!" he shouted, regaining some of his characteristic anger. "We shall be treated as such!"

"Oh..." mumbled Pinkie, though it might not have even made it over the roar of the jetpack.

"We have waited over a thousand years for this moment," he went on, "and we wait no longer."

Suddenly, Leader raised his right foreleg up. That was most noticeable, as Pinkie's tail was still clamped inside of that claw. He swung the ligament downwards and released her at an angle, dropping her hard on the ground.

Pinkie rolled over twice. Her hind leg and her side (the same one Sam had gotten to) took the most pain from that throw, but she still managed to stop her momentum before tumbling any farther. She immediately realized that the grass she was hurled onto wasn't nearly as tall as it should have been; looking around, she realized that they had made it out of the pitch-black jungle. They had made it to Zebrica's main city. And the hard part was just about to start.

Evidently, their entrance had been a terrible sneak attack. Though between the buzz of the jetpack and Leader shouting every other word, that wasn't very surprising. Rainbow Dash, Muzzo, and a couple other bulky zebras were taking their last steps (or in Dashie's case, last wing flaps) to meet up with them. Seeing that she still hadn't gotten to her feet yet, Rainbow slid in front of her fallen comrade in the defense of her.

"What is the meaning of this?" Muzzo demanded to know, making direct eye contact with Leader. The striped creature was unmoved by the bear's intimidating form.

"Tonight," Leader began, "the werebears challenge the world. If they don't come to us, we will come to them. We start with Zebrica."

If it was possible, Muzzo took that explanation and... became calmer. He didn't speak as loud in reply, but his words were much clearer. "You are a proud fool. Zebras have allowed you to live here in peace and privacy for many generations. We were never allies, but if you wish to finally become enemies this night, we will make it so."

Something about that seemed to make Leader fume. There was a clink as the werebear's razor-like nail slid onto the trigger of his rocket launcher. "Allowed us?! Be grateful we did not destroy your kind centuries ago, zebra!"

That might have continued, but Pinkie stopped paying attention to it if it did. Seeing that apparently the attack wasn't going to be immediate, Dash turned around to inspect the damage. Pinkie was offered a blue hoof and a small smile. "You okay, Pinkie?"

The cyan fur got blended with pink as the earth pony accepted the help up. She got to three and a half legs—it wasn't broken or anything, but she would need to be careful with the hind leg that she had landed on. "I-I'll be okay. The others are coming, too. I just took a shortcut." She didn't want to show any weakness—not in front of the super cool Rainbow Dash—which made her feel even worse when she habitually put some weight on that leg. She cringed and muttered, "Owie..."

If she noticed, she didn't care. The pegasus turned around to glare at Leader, though she continued talking only to Pinkie. "I don't know what this guy's beef is, but I don't like him already. He even has to use some crazy contraption just to fly! Err, no offense, Pinkie."

"None taken!" she jubilantly responded.

"Besides, I don't see much of an army backing him up. If he thinks he can take—"

Rainbow prematurely cut her own sentence off when there was some rustling behind that bush over there. A paw broke out from it, then another one, and then a head... Another body appeared from behind that tree way over there. A third from that small clearing there. All of them were oversized black-furred bears. Not quite as giant as the jetpack guy here, but they made a good effort.

"... All right, he's got a small army. I'm still not impressed though."

"First, Zebrica," Leader stated. "Then Equestria."

Rainbow Dash immediately took action. She sprung off of the ground, building up plenty of momentum to launch herself at the hovering bear. "You psychos aren't going anywhere near Eques—"

Her sentence got lost when Leader swung his arm around. He looked entirely unfazed by the assault; it was stopped early when the back of his claw struck Rainbow's skull, anyway. She got swatted away and stumbled through the air, but recovered in time to land on her hooves. Still, she had barely gotten Leader's attention with that, much less hurting him any.

With no more words exchanged, Leader began flying away from the small group. He was heading towards the town, and all of his werebear squadron—few in numbers, but not lacking in bloodlust—followed him. Both of the unfamiliar, bulky zebras galloped ahead of them, likely to go warn their friends and family. The leader of the zebras turned to follow them, but stopped when his name was called.

The three left in the location turned back to the In Snare Jungle. A small team consisting of three ponies were rushing out from the brush and towards them, clearly exhausted, but keeping pace the best they could. Twilight looked the most tired of all, which worried Pinkie, but the other insisted on getting the first word in.

"Muzzo..." she panted. She looked up to the tall zebra in what looked like both physical and emotional pain. "I'm... We're so sorry. We didn't know they would attack Zebrica—"

Muzzo turned his back to her. At the angle she was at, Pinkie was the only one able to see his expression. It was unreadable. "It is not your fault, Twilight Sparkle. You were only doing what you were told to do by your princess. Now, you must excuse me. I must defend my tribe."

It must have been a habit. With everyone else gone, the group of friends wasted no time in turning to Twilight Sparkle. She was practically the Freddy of the group of them, after all. If anyone had a plan, it was her. The librarian, however, wasn't the first to get any words out.

"We are going to crush these guys, right?" Rainbow asked, using a tone that was almost daring anyone to tell her otherwise.

"O' course we are," replied Applejack in what must have been the first agreement with RD in a month.

Rarity spoke next. She heavily disliked fighting, but she sounded as though she had completely accepted that it was going to be inevitable. "At least, we're going to try. Isn't that the plan, Twilight?"

The purple mare gave herself one more moment before answering. "We're the reason this town is in trouble in the first place, so we're definitely going to do anything we can. Rainbow Dash, can you go make sure Fluttershy knows what's going on?"

Dashie hardly looked bothered at all by the rejection Leader had given her earlier. She dug her hooves into the ground, then barely managed to shout "On it!" before bouncing up and ripping through the sky.

"Pinkie Pie, I think that you and I should try to keep Leader distracted. Are you with me?"

Being faced with a mission of such importance was a great way to get revitalized. Pinkie's expression became one of determination. "Just call me Daphne!"

That earned her, for a long moment, three quizzical stares. Applejack opened her mouth during that time, but shut it without having said a word. Finally, Twilight broke the spell of silence and turned to the last two ponies. "... A-anyway. You two know what to do. Make sure everyone is safe. Don't let these monsters have their way!"

"We'll do our best," Rarity said. She proceeded to follow after Applejack, who had already started on a run towards the oppressed town.

Lastly, Twilight turned to her own partner. She must have caught sight of the babying Pinkie was doing to her hind leg, as she stared straight at it. "It's imperative that we stop as many of those smoke rockets as we can," she said, her eyes still on that leg. "Will you be okay? You look hurt."

"I'm fine," Pinkie stated, daring enough to wiggle the leg somewhat to prove her point. It hurt, somewhat, but the mare had an escape plan from the topic anyway. "Hey, Twilight, I had a think."

"A thought, Pinkie," she corrected. "What is it?"

Unbothered by the assault on her grammar, Pinkie went on, "What if the werebears' weakness has something to do with reverse?"

"Like... kicking their butts?"

"Sort of, yeah."

Twilight tapped on her chin in thought, but soon shook it to the back of her mind with a rattle of the head. "It's worth keeping in mind, but we'll need to work on it as we go. We got to put a stop to this!"

The pair of them raced off. Pinkie wasn't able to keep up as well as she would have liked, but nothing could be done about that. Twilight, perhaps somewhat worried, compensated for her. This fight was going to be dangerous, but it was a worthy cause. Maybe she couldn't have the reverstone, but Pinkie wasn't about to let a swarm of bullies get their way.