Ta-da! this fic's not dead yet.

Packing took longer than the group had estimated, even with there being nine of them.

Twilight watched as the ninjas ran in and out of the library, carrying their possessions with them, occasionally directing a customer to a book. Twilight sighed, running a hoof along the wall, she did miss this place.

"Oookay..." Jay said after a few hours of arranging everything into easy to carry saddle-bags, "I think we're all good... Are we good?"

Cole's stomach growled, "Well... We could go for some food, I'm starved!"

"You're always hungry!"

"Yeah, but I work on a farm!"

The ninjas glared at each other before bursting out into laughter.

"Alright, dirtclod, let's go find some food."

Cole wasn't kidding when he said he was hungry as he wolfed down a hay burger, completely unfazed by everyone else watching him.

"Is he... Always like that?" Twilight asked Kai quietly, trying not to let the pony in question hear.

"Ever since he started working on the farm, he's a pretty bad example for Bloom."

Twilight smiled weakly, "I can imagine..."

"You gonna eat that?" Cole asked, pointing at Twilight's untouched meal.

"Well I was but, since you asked..."

"Nah, you can have it," the earth pony responded, waving a hoof dismissively, "You're gonna need to eat something if you're coming with us tomorrow... You are coming right?"

"Of course!" The alicorn said, "I want to help you find Lloyd!" Then added more quietly, "And I'd love to see how you deal with a crisis anyway, it'd be interesting to compare."

"That's Twilight talking!" Jay grinned, "Knew there was still the little geek in there."

Twilight smiled, turning faintly pink.

Night fell quickly after, wrapping Ponyville in a soft veil of ember orange.

The ninjas had decided it best to camp out in the library so they wouldn't have to make multiple trips to the station and back.

"Why not just use our dragons?" Nya had asked as she finished laying out her makeshift bed on the floor.

"You have to remember, Nya, not everyone can summon one, and not everyone would fit. It would also be far too conspicuous encase we are expected."

"I guess..." The master of water mumbled, lying down, "Budge up Jay!" She grumbled, pushing the blue Pegasus away from her blanket. He simply groaned and rolled over.

"Night."

"Night."

"Goodnight."

"Shut up an' go ta sleep."

"Night."

"Zane, did you set the alarm?"

"Yes."

"Okay, cool."

Twilight listened to the click of the light turning out and rolled over so that she could face the window from her temporary bed upon its sill. Everything was quiet. It was calm. The houses were dark, the birds in the trees and the sidewalks hopped along and whistled every now and again. After about ten minutes a cat came sauntering down the road.

It was strange how she never truly noticed how peaceful Ponyville could be, or how rarely she'd simply sat by the window and watched the world go by. There was always something she had to do... And now? Did she really have to do anything? The ninjas were the heroes here, the peacekeepers. The world would still turn without her and her friends, there would always be somepony else to save the day. What a comforting yet scary thought... What a comforting yet scary world.

"Hello?" The green alicorn called out as he cautiously wandered through the abandoned street. The town was small, so small that it couldn't really be considered a town... Maybe a village? Or a Hamlet? Perhaps this was a question for another time.

He glanced over his shoulder, checking to see he hadn't been followed. No one in sight. The green ninja didn't quite know if that reassured him or not. He sighed, kicking up a cloud of dust with his hoof, coating it in the stuff, turning it dusty green. Dusty green. Perhaps if he could blend in better, if he wasn't such a vivid colour, he'd be less noticeable, have a chance of escape so he could get back to Ponyville and tell the others.

Tell the others what? What he had found? Would they believe it? What the energy source really was. It wasn't random either. No. It had been deliberate. Someone had been trying to call attention to themselves... But for what purpose? He knew Twilight had been passing through here on a research trip to the crystal mountains... There hadn't been any news, but then again, Twilight could get so absorbed in her studies. At least, he certainly hoped that was the case.

Lloyd shook his head, 'Focus. Focus. Gotta get back to Ponyville... Gotta hide.'

But where could he hide? It was pretty much barren out there, and he couldn't just break down someone's door and say 'Royal ninja business!' As he had tried that once... And that did not go down well with Aunt Celestia.

Or he could use one of those spells he'd been trying to master. Invisibility... No, he had no idea how to do that uh... um... He took another brief look over his shoulder and to his horror he could see the silhouette of the ponies that had been chasing him. His heart beat frantically as he tried to think of what to do... Shapeshifting spell? Could he even do that? Worth a shot. He screwed his eyes shut and his horn let out a burst of light-

"Psst! Hey!"

Lloyd whipped around to face the source of the noise, a pony, motioning frantically to him behind a doorway.

"In here!"

He froze.

"Hurry!"

Deciding that his chances of evasion were better inside, he sprinted through the doorway and the pony bolted it shut behind them.

He turned around to face them, "Thanks," He said quickly.

The pony shook their head, "You really shouldn't've been out there at this time, dangerous ponies are out there."

"Dangerous... Ponies? Like the armoured ones?"

The pony peered through the blinds before turning back to Lloyd, "No. They're the good ones... But there'd been... An incident..."

"What incident?"

"You really aren't from around here, are you?" The pony smiled, their gaze falling briefly to Lloyd's flank, "Figures, you don't even have a cutie mark at all."

Lloyd flinched. Oh dear. This wasn't going to end well... He looked at his flank too, only to jump back slightly to see, instead of his spinjitsu, a blank space of navy blue. Weell... At least it worked.

"Uh... Yeah..." He said quickly, now realising he had no idea what he looked like.

"Hey, don't worry about it, around here we don't judge each other based on cutie marks or lack of thereof..." The pony replied. Only then did Lloyd see that their smile was a little too wide, the corners of their mouth twitching every so often.

His blood ran cold.

"Well, it was great to meet you but I think I need to get going now, nearly dark and everything so-"

The pony chuckled, "No no no..." They shook their head, the eery smile still plastered on their face, "No no no no no. You can't leave just yet..." From out of the corner of his eye, the green ninja saw the door slowly open.

"It isn't safe out there."

And everything went black.