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Hearts and Hooves Day | Chapter 8: A Heart for Derpy | "Oh please don't be there, please don't be there," Derpy said, she was a grey pegasus with a blond mane and beautiful golden harvest eyes, she was special though, while her eyes were golden, they also were crossed. Due to this, many of the ponies called her names and she had a very bad childhood, but she was happy. She had friends and a good job as a mail mare. And thankfully she had a day off. While she was happily relaxing, she hoped today of all days was the day she wouldn't find a letter. She always delivered one letter a week to her house, unfortunately for her, it was a love letter. She never liked the thought of a secret admirer, so she always anticipated when opening her mailbox.
"Hi Derpy!" a voice behind her said, making Derpy shriek and fall.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya," Derpy opened her eyes and saw (partially) a teal-colored pony with mint colored hair with white highlights.
"It's okay Lyra, I was just thinking," Derpy said, getting back up on her hooves.
"About the letters again? What does it say?" Lyra asked, coming up to the mailbox.
"I don't know, I haven't opened it yet," they both looked at the mailbox for a while before Lyra went up to the mailbox.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Open it."
Derpy took a few more steps and carefully put her hoof on the door. She looked back at Lyra who nodded her head and opened her mailbox, looking in and seeing the letter. She took it and breathed in, but soon turned around to Lyra and held the letter to her.
"You read it, I just can't see all of the mushy stuff he said this time," Derpy said, hanging her head in defeat.
"Alright, if you're sure," Lyra said wondering what all the fuss is all about, "I'm sure Lyra, please just read it," Derpy said forcingly.
"Alright," Lyra read through the letter out loud, "My dearest Ditzy Doo, I know this is a bit far out there, but these letters are just not working out for me..."
Derpy looked at Lyra with the hope that these letters may stop coming to her.
"I have thought about you ever since the letter delivery, and I want to meet you in pony, to let you finally see my face, to show you how I feel. Please meet me at the hill where the stars shine the brightest, after the Festival of Hearts. I can't wait to see you, your secret admirer" Lyra finished and saw that Derpy was blushing, many thoughts went through Derpy's mind at that very minute.
"OMC, this pony wants to see me! I can't believe it, no pony had ever wanted to meet me before, maybe this pony does like me for me," her thoughts were broken by a concerned Lyra calling her name.
"Honey you don't look too good, you're a bit flush, maybe we should..." she was cut off by a frantic Derpy pulling her to her face where they were muzzle to muzzle.
"We need to figure out who this stallion is and we need to figure it out now!"
Lyra was taken aback by her words, never had Derpy raised her voice except in determination.
Derpy took out a box with all of the previous letters that her admirer sent, Lyra looked at the box and was confused that she had kept track of the letters.
"I thought you were uncomfortable with the letters he sent you," Lyra said looking in the box.
"Yes, I do feel a bit uncomfortable with the letters he sends, but I'm always organized with my letters," Derpy said shuffling the letters around.
This wasn't that big of a surprise to Lyra, ever since she was a mail mare she had become so organized with everything.
"So, how are we going to find out who this stallion is?" Lyra asked as Derpy took a few of the letters out.
"We are going to find out by looking at the letters he sent previously, that way we'll find out about his character and who he is," Derpy said smiling at her plan.
"That's a pretty good plan, Derpy, but how will you know who he is when we find out his character?" Lyra asked as more letters came out of the box.
"You know my sixth sense Lyra, you know I know the ponies of Ponyville by their letters better than any pony," Derpy said, taking the last letter out.
"Yes, but are you sure you can guess who he is by words on paper?" Lyra asked doubting her sixth sense, Derpy ignored her comment and read one of the letters instead,
"Dear Ditzy, I just want you to know that I saw you at the market and you looked ravishing with your hair up, I hope I can see you tomorrow like that, it was different to see you without your hair in your eyes I might bump into you tomorrow so I can see your beautiful eyes on mine. Stay like you, your admirer." Derpy took a minute or two to look at the letter then she looked at Lyra with a reassuring smile, "This means that he is thinking of me as beautiful with my hair up, and it also means he is very descriptive with his words, and since he saw me at the market and was going to see me again, this means he goes out a lot," Lyra looked at Derpy with eyes of astonishment, she did have a sixth sense in ponies letters.
"Wow, you do know ponies by their letters," Lyra said amazed,
"He sent a letter about himself so I could guess who he is, I just ignored it like all of the others," Derpy said, realizing what she was doing to these letters. Had she just ignored the letters this pony, this pony who liked her, had sent, she found the right letter and read it, "My dearest Ditzy, I have sent these letters for a month now and have learned much about you, but now I think it's time you learn about me. To summarize, I am a strange pony who you see at times you have talked to me before while ordering a muffin, but I also am a pony with a brown coat, I also have blue eyes, and I think fondly over you, this probably won't help you much, but I know you can figure it out. You are a really smart pony and I hope to find you soon." Once Derpy finished her letter she remembered why she ignored these letters, and Lyra knew it, too.
"Wow, he wants you to know him," she said as Derpy looked nervous.
"This is why I hate love letters," she said, "They always seem like stalkers to me when I read them all,"
Lyra now understood why Derpy didn't want to read the letter today, now she knew why she was getting nervous about meeting him. Lyra held Derpy in her hooves to comfort her.
"Don't worry Derpy, whoever this pony is we'll find him... or her." Saying these words made Derpy get out of Lyra's reach and panic at the thought of the admirer being a mare.
"OMC! What if it is a mare! What will I say if it is! Will I be able to? Will she be mad at me? Am I overreacting? Maybe I should just calm down and think again," Derpy calmed down at her own words and breathed in, after a few long breaths she walked to the letter and thought.
"Well, we have a bit of a clue on what he or..." Derpy shuttered before she continued, "She looks like. Now we just need to go out to the festival and ask a few questions," Lyra looked at Derpy in a determined manner as they walked to the door, "Well then, let's go find this stalker!" Derpy looked at Lyra with a 'look' that indicated Lyra should shut up right about now.
The Festival of Hearts was unfortunately very busy for Derpy and Lyra, they couldn't find the direct pony the letter described, all around them were different kinds of ponies with brown coats. They took a break for a while to catch their breaths, leaving Derpy to give up hope.
"It's hopeless Lyra, we've asked all around for clues and came to another dead end." She said slumping down and crossing her forehooves.
"Don't worry, we've only searched for at least half of the ponies at the festival, and we still have more to search around for," Lyra said trying to cheer her friend up.
"We've narrowed it down to at least four ponies, the sales pony,"
"probably worried I am going to ruin his shop," Derpy said looking at the flaws of all the contestants,
"Okay, how about G Strings?"
"Probably will think I'll ruin his music,", "Well then how about Island Wonder?"
"Was making fun of me when I was young," Lyra rolled her eyes at Derpy's remarks and thought of an idea.
"How about looking at the positives of the last pony," she said, trying to help her friend out, Derpy thought about it for a second before nodding her head.
"Okay, what about Crescent Moon?" Derpy put her hoof on her chin to think about the pony.
"Well he'd never made fun of my eyes, and he use to be my partner in flight training, and we always got along, but we drifted apart after training, maybe it is him?" Derpy smiled at the thought of Crescent Moon liking her, making her blush and noticeable.
"It seems like we have a winner," Lyra said smirking and making Derpy blush with embarrassment. Derpy then had a horrible realization as her blushing turned to disappointment.
"What's wrong? Did he do something wrong in your past?" Lyra asked, looking concerned at some bad thoughts of what he could do.
"No, it's just, I think he might have a mare friend," Derpy said, saddened by the thought. Lyra looked at Derpy and tried to think of what to do.
"Hey, at least that crosses out one of them from the list," Derpy felt a little bit better knowing this but was still pretty sad not knowing who it is.
"Maybe I should just face it and find out who he is tonight," Derpy said getting up from the bench and walking away.
"Are you going to freak out when you know who he is?" Lyra said questionably.
"If he knows me that much, then he'll bet I will," Derpy said turning around and walking to her house, waiting for the biggest surprise she'd ever receive.
Nighttime usually made Derpy relax, with the stars aiding her way to the tree that she loved so much, following the North Star to the hill she saw her first meteor shower, but now the walk to that hill is making Derpy more nervous by every step she took. Thoughts running through her head as she tried to imagine who this stallion (or mare, shutters) is.
"Does he want to talk? Will he think of me as boring once he meets me? What if he doesn't like me and just wanted to make fun of me, I can't have that happen again."
Her mind drifted off to that awful day when she thought the stallion she had a crush on liked her, but she was heartbroken when he met her to say that no pony would ever like her in front of his friends, and they all laughed leaving her to give up hope that all ponies would just hate her for who she is. The thought kept running through her head.
"What if he is like the colt I liked, it may just be another pony in Ponyville telling me that I'm nothing and no pony will ever love me," she found the hill where her questions were about to be answered, but she found no one sitting there.
"I knew it, he must've been too scared and ran away, or he just was leading me on to this very moment just so I can have my heart broken again," Derpy said as she looked up to the sky getting the bad memory in her head.
"Again? Well I guess if it was that bad then I shouldn't have sent those letters," a voice called out behind Derpy, she turned around and (Thankfully for the bright huge moon) saw a tall stallion with a brown coat, just like in his letter, with a darker color of hair spiked up, making Derpy remember the mohawk phase of Equestria, he also had an hourglass for a cutie mark, nonetheless, he was a handsome stallion that Derpy couldn't get by, she wondered why this pony of all would send the letters to her. Derpy realized that she hadn't said anything while he was standing there, suddenly something snapped making Derpy mad at the stallion who had sent the letters, making her remember all the words it said
"WHY IN TARTARUS WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME!" she shouted, making the stallion flinch and back up from her.
"Alright not the reaction I was looking for," he said, she noticed he had somewhat of a Trottingham voice, making her more confused why he would be here and not there, she lowered her voice but was still in a stern manner.
"Have you been spying on me or something? Because if you are, your letters of not being a stalker are going in flames from your lies," Derpy said crossing her hooves as she hovered above him.
"Ditzy if you could please let me explain then I could-"
"No! let me explain. Do you know the restless nights I had trying to figure out who you were? I couldn't even focus on my job, which you probably already know by now, but why would you do that?" Derpy's voice calmed down as she let her words sink into the odd stallion, she was mad but reasonable so she went quiet so he could explain.
"Well, I didn't know you would react this way," he said, not sure how to put his words into place."But if it leads you to that much discomfort, then you should've told me, but why didn't you?" he asked making a sympathetic look causing Derpy to want to take back all of her words.
"I just didn't want to reply, it was hard for me to tell you to stop, from your first letter I tried, I did, but then I kept reading your words and it caught up to me that you liked me, and I didn't want to break your heart knowing what I said would do that. So, I read the letters and put them in a box at my house, hoping you would just stop noticing me, which I guess didn't work apparently." Derpy looked at the stallion with sorrow in her eyes, she looked at him and saw he didn't look hurt by her words. While feeling sympathetic, she still had one thing on her mind,
"What is your name?" she asked wondering why she didn't think of this sooner.
"Time Turner miss, pleased to finally meet you," the stallion said holding his hoof out to introduce himself,
"Charmed as well," Derpy said in a sophisticated manner, making Time Turner laugh, she began to snicker, too. Then she sat down and patted him to sit down as well. Time Turner was surprised about how fast her mood changed but didn't waste any more time before plopping down beside her smiling. They smiled while looking up at the stars, making Derpy relaxed and contemplated what she could ask next,
"How long?" she finally said causing Time-Turner to swerve his head to meet hers.
"Pardon?" he asked.
"How long? I mean when you started liking me?" Derpy said, looking directly at Time-Turner's eyes, making her slightly pink in her cheeks. Turner saw her and started blushing himself, trying to think of the words to say.
"Well, if I have to say from the start, I guess ever since I saw you crash into me. Do you remember that day?" Time Turner finally asked, waiting for her answer. Derpy thought about it for a while, trying to remember the day she crashed into some pony someday. She remembered crashing into many things but not into any pony. Derpy shook her head, making Time Turner laugh quietly.
"I thought you might not, but let me tell you that you did. And when you did, I felt something I have never felt for any pony before, like there was some kind of ticking time bomb that burst of pure joy." Time Turner began to get excited describing how he met Derpy, it made her nervous but smile at his words.
"So that means you must work at a clock shop then, doesn't it," Derpy said looking smug at her comment. Time Turner looked at her with astonishment and wonder,
"Ho- how did you know that?" he said, still amazed at her action.
"It's just a talent I've always had, you said you worked somewhere where the time is always right so I figured it out through that. It's like a-"
"Sixth sense?" Time Turner said, finishing her sentence, Derpy smiled and nodded her head. They both stared at each other, Derpy looking at his blue, beautiful eyes. She never knew how nice they looked, at first glance he just looked like a normal pony. staring at him, Derpy could see many of the wonders in his eyes, but she also saw a bit of pain, her sixth sense kicking into her (from some of the letters he sent he seemed mad and hurt when discussing his parents for a sentence or two), she could tell in only a few minutes, he had a rough childhood. Parents never home... abused siblings, and he ran away due to too much. All of this made Derpy see him with new eyes, she tried to focus her left eye but to no avail. She noticed he was laughing and blushing to make her smile at what she was doing.
"What, what is it?" she asked, still keeping a happy smile making him blush a bit harder.
"Oh! It's nothing," Derpy didn't look convinced and her eyes proved it.
"It's just, you always look so adorable when you do that. trying to fix your eyes and all, it just makes me realize how much more I want you." Derpy blushed at his comment, she felt so happy. And yet, so sad. The words "Trying to fix your eyes" kept ringing in her ear. All the thoughts of that stallion who mocked her about her eyes and how no pony would love her. These thoughts made her sadder by each word and second thoughts of Time-Turner.
"Miss Ditzy, are you alright?" there they were, the words she had remembered from her mother after that awful day. It was the day in which she thought some pony thought of her more than klutzy, and she came back with the same words over and over again.
"Did you think I would like you? Ha! She thought I did! Let me be clear, you will never find any pony to like you, you'll always be lonely, no pony loves you!" Derpy grew tears in her eyes, causing Time-Turner to quickly react.
"Ditzy you're crying! Was it something I said? Something I did?" Derpy now was starting to wail and Turner went up to hold her.
"It's okay, what did I do, hmm? Did I make you cry? What can I do to make it better," Derpy looked at those blue emerald eyes and was feeling a bit better. She sniffed and embraced him, making Time Turner blush with happiness. Derpy calmed down and carefully contemplated her words, and wondered with one question.
"Are you just saying all that, or do you mean it?" Time Turner looked at Derpy with worry.
"Now why would you think of a thing like that?" Derpy looked away from his eyes and thought about what to say.
"I guess, it's just..." she sighed, she didn't know if he could understand what she goes through, she didn't know if she could tell, but she also wanted to get this dark past out of her.
"Have you ever been told no pony would love you?" Derpy finally said looking up and seeing a concerned Time-Turner.
"Why would you ever ask that?!" he said, making Derpy have second thoughts of her question.
"I don't know, I just wondered because someone told me that before, and I kept thinking about his words and if you really like me or just making fun at me and-"
"W-wait, you mean to tell me some pony told you no pony would love you? Well, that's just messed up. I swear I'll..." Time Turner looked at a scared Derpy, realizing what he said must've frightened her.
"Sorry, I guess I got carried away there," he said, blushing in embarrassment, and Derpy took a while to say something. She was just so amazed that he would defend her, she couldn't help but smile with thanks at his words, and he noticed it.
"It's ok, I've never seen some pony defend me before. I was just... astonished." Derpy couldn't keep her miss-matched eyes off his, they seemed like he had so many secrets to tell, but she also saw many things he wanted to tell. Things she would have to ask. Derpy blushed hard. She realized it was getting late, so she would have to leave. But she couldn't, both for the reason he was still holding her, and also because she didn't want to. She didn't want to leave the grasp of his warmth, but tomorrow would be a busy day and she needed to get a good rest. Her mind was made up and she left his glance,
"I think I should go, I have a busy day tomorrow delivering mail to all the ponies and what-not," Derpy said sounding sad to go, she looked up at a disappointing Time Turner, she felt bad but knew it was for the best, she got up but was pulled back down by a brown hoof.
"Wait! Are you sure you have to go?" Derpy stared at him once again, not wanting to let go. "I know you don't want me to, but you also have a workday tomorrow, too. So I think we both should just go home," she said, not wanting to look at his sad glow, "Well, at the very least, I could walk you home," Time Turner said standing up and taking her hoof. Derpy didn't know if she wanted to walk home with a stallion she just met.
"Ok, but I should warn you it's a long walk," she said trying to get out of it. "Well, that's even better. Gives us more of a chance to know each other, come on let's go!" Time Turner said trotting away, making Derpy confused at how he was so positive. It took her almost half an hour to get here, and that was by flight, but she also was a bit relieved, she wanted to learn more about him. So many questions were about to be answered for her.
It seemed like only a few minutes before Derpy and Time Turner left the hill. Derpy asked so many questions, she thought she had run Time-Turners brain dry, but he answered each of them fluently. Derpy already knew a bit from his letters, though there was one question that made him think.
"So, who was in your family?" she asked.
"Well, I had a mother and father, obviously, but I had a big brother and sister who..." Time Turner paused, contemplating what to say. Derpy saw this and instantly felt bad asking that.
"I know," she said, causing Time-Turner to swerve his head in surprise.
"You do, really?" he asked, still getting the comment to his head.
"Sixth sense remember,"
"Oh right! Well, I'm glad you do, it's hard to tell ponies about them when all they did was ridicule me, hurt me, even locked me out of the house with no dinner or anything for the night. My parents were never home so my big sister had to foal-sit us, in which she never did, always was writing to her friends with her unicorn magic, so that left me with my, unfortunately, athletic wrestler, brother. You can probably guess how that turned out." Time Turner didn't shed a tear, but Derpy could tell he wanted to. She leaned up next to him, making him blush with embarrassment.
"Hey, I know what it's like to be abused my parents did exactly what your siblings do. My dad was never home, and my mom was ill so she had to take many drugs, making her mad, Especially at me. I never blamed her for it, I blamed the illness and the doctors who prescribed them to her. Anyway, I always wondered if they thought of me more than just who I look like. More than an abused child. I tried to talk to them after I graduated and found my place, but when I couldn't find them, I made the worst assumption that they..." Derpy stopped in her tracks, making Time Turner wonder what it was, but afraid to ask.
"D-do, do you think they did?" He finally muttered. Derpy sat down on her haunches to think of what to say.
"I don't know, I couldn't find them. I searched everywhere within a 50-mile radius but I couldn't even get other ponies who knew them well to find them. I just gave up recently. I still wonder why they left, but other than that I never could get a lead." Derpy hung her head. She had never mentioned this to anypony before, but something about Turner made her feel like she could say anything to him. she felt his fur on hers making her blush, looking to see he was, too. Once again getting lost in his eyes, she smiled and felt warmer than she ever had been.
"You know, there are more things I find in common with you than any pony I've been around," Time Turner said, making her blush more than ever.
"Me, too." They both got up from the ground and shared the awkward moment with silence as they continued until they reached Derpy's house.
"Thank you again for walking me home, I hope to see you again," Derpy said, unlocking her door and stepping inside, she stopped at her threshold and turned around.
"Um, I have one more question to ask you," she said stepping closer to the edge of her door.
"Well, ask away," Time Turner said in the cheery way he used to be.
"Well, of all the ponies you could fall for, why me?" Turner was taken aback by this question, he seemed so calm about the others, but this seemed to shock him most of anything, he was also blushing very hard, making him look cute to Derpy.
"Oh! Um, well I guess it's because... uh, hehe" he said stammering. This made Derpy smile even wider,
"Oh my Celestia he is so cute! No pony has ever been this nervous in front of me! I feel like I should say something, but what?" She thought she looked at Time Turner, who was still stammering and thought of saying something, but he beat her to it
"I think I like you because... this." Derpy looked confused at his comment, Turner noticed that she didn't understand.
"I mean... you. You're different, you're not afraid to just go for it. When you put your mind to it, you just do it." Derpy blushed so hard at his compliment. She tried once again to fix her eyes straight and say something, but he spoke before her again.
"And another thing," he said sternly, "Don't change those eyes, they're beautiful, they represent how different you are. They say it's stupid, but I think it's... stupidly adorable. And I love it." Derpy looked at Time Turner with astounding wonder, no pony had ever called her eyes beautiful. Let alone stupidly adorable. She liked it. Then a thought ran up in her head, "Wow, he does love me... wait... he does love me!" she looked at Time-Turner and was getting nervous to ask.
"T-Time Turner, d-do... do you... love m-me?" Derpy stammered, she didn't look at Turner until after a while, but when she did, she saw that he was more nervous than ever. He was sweating in the head and it made Derpy regret every word she said, she then looked at his eyes for possibly the 10th time tonight, seeing the clear answer. She saw that he wanted to say yes, but he was nervous too. She saw his mouth wanting to say, "say something, you idiot" but all she saw were tiny movements. She did not need a clear answer, she knew he loved her and made the first move she thought. Derpy leaned in and kissed Time-Turner. Staying still but soon feeling the passion he brought back. Sitting there, in the moon princess Luna provided, Derpy felt right, she felt like this was meant to happen, her sixth sense may not be able to tell the future, but she can tell that she and Time Turner would be happy. And no muffins in the world could keep her like this. While the happiness in her was wide, Derpy also had the strangest thought, "I wonder if anypony else had as weird a heart and hooves day like me?" |
Hearts and Hooves Day | Chapter 9: A Heart for the Princess | Princess Celestia's horn glowed as she lifted the bright yellow orb as she did every day. Today was the one day she did not have to file any taxes on the work of many sales ponies or having meetings with her staff for 3 hours or more. No, today was her day to relax. Though the only problem was, today she should be relaxing with her loved one, but she didn't have one.
Celestia stopped her yellow sparkling glow and looked down to the balcony floor. Her sister, Princess Luna, came in and saw just how sad she was.
"Sister? Why doth thee look so glum? Hath she did something wrong?" you know she cares whenever Luna speaks in her Royal Canterlot voice, thus making Celestia smile a bit.
"Has there ever been a point in your life, Luna, where you think you'll always be alone?" Celestia said, head still down. Luna looked at her elder sister with surprise,
"When hath she come up with these thoughts?" Luna could see the realization in Celestia's face. The sadness she could see of being alone, making her think of just how empty it was when she was banished to the moon. "No, I didn't, but if you want to know why it's because I always have you. I know it was hard for you when my... problems occurred. But I assure you, it will never happen again." Luna held Celestia as they slowly slid onto the floor embracing each other's warmth.
"How about this, we see if anypony in the royal chamber has a certain eye for you, then we will see who you can spend the day with," Luna said in determination to get her sister happy.
"I don't mean to displease you Luna, but I bet anypony in the castle would want to be with royalty," Celestia said, making Luna think once again and sparking an idea. "But I bet not one admits they have always had a feeling since the beginning of their time."
Celestia looked at her sister of the night. It was true, not one of the ponies who worked there could lie to the princesses. And if they do then the two would figure it out fast for their spell of telling the truth to others. Suddenly the doors burst open and a royal guard came out walking regally towards the princesses.
"I am sorry princesses, but I am afraid we are having a crisis in the royal kitchen, some of the bakers believe their cake is better than the other." Celestia raised high and mighty, though inside she was regretting having to deal with the problem. Today was the day not to do normal princess stuff, yet here we are.
"I will be back Luna, in the meantime, take care of some of the ponies in the corridor and see what you can do to help us... proclamation" Celestia said to Luna winking slightly making sure the guard could not see
Many of the colts in the palace came by just to see what the "proclamation" was all about. Some were worried their benevolent princess was in tragedy. While others were eager to see what the announcement was. Or there were others, who didn't really care what it was and just wanted to get out of the little spaced and warm room. They saw their princesses, both walking in with high praise as the group all bowed down and got back up. Luna was the first to speak.
"It has come to my understanding that my sister is in a predicament,"
The guards had on worried glances making Luna think that was a wrong choice of words.
"Do not fret ponies, it is a trifling affair that hath not been discussed before until now." this made the ponies confused at what she was trying to say, the princess of the night slumped down to try a new technique. Only thinking of one more.
"THOU SHALL PAY ATTENTION WHILE THEE SPEAKETH. THOU WILL UNDERSTAND THEE TO..." she could feel a hoof on her shoulder. Looking to see a smiling Celestia, Luna looked at her subjects who had scared glares making her think of one awful nightmare night that was helped by a new lavender princess that was now in the Crystal Empire.
"Hath I went too far?" Luna whispered to her equal.
"I think I can take over Sister, you did a fine job," Celestia whispered back. Luna looked happily to her sister, it was always like her to cheer her up with kind words. It made her wish the same thing for her sister. She deserves somebody who can take care of her. Luna went to the side to let her sister speak.
"It has come to my attention that I have not thought about a loved one for a while," the guards looked dazed at Celestia wondering why she would think of a 'loved one' for her when she had her sister to keep her company. Many were also blushing largely as she continued to speak.
"Yes, I know what you are thinking, 'why is our beloved princess thinking these predicaments?' Well, I shall tell you... a long time ago..." The guards' faces turned from fear to relief and boredom from her tales of her loneliness and woe from her sister being gone. Even Luna was rolling her eyes saying in her mind "here we go again" but smiling as she thought of the care of Celestia.
"I had to banish someone who was so dear to me and felt the loneliness like no other. Restless nights were spent thinking of our good times and what I could have done to help her out. But I was also comforted by many of you colts who said it would all be okay. And it made me feel pleased that you would care to leave aside your duty to help me out. Soon after she came back I was not lonely anymore, but there was still a placed hole in my heart. Now I understand that I require a love life to keep me sane from these thoughts. So who of you would want to volunteer to be with me... at least for a day?" Many of the stallions ran out of the room by pressure, but there was still a good amount who stayed in but blushed massively. Now it was time to see if they really wanted to spend time with Celestia, or if they just wanted to spend time with royalty. Either way, it would be a good and focused day.
Luna's aurora glowed as she cast her truth spell onto the first guard.
"Now you will tell us how you feel about going out with the princess of the sun!" she said forcefully to the scared guard.
"Luna you could at least try to be more official, you're scaring one of the royal guards," Celestia said quietly to her sister as they tried to get the truth from the guard.
"What another way could I get out of him rather than force? Tis the way I used to speak before using the spell." Luna said quizzically.
Back then before Luna grew jealous of her sister when there was a problem the sisters had to solve around Equestria, they learned that a few ponies were just saying those things just so they could see royalty. So they decided to come up with a way to know if the subjects were telling the truth or not. With their teacher, Starswirl the Bearded, they made a spell to cast onto the subjects. He trusted Luna with the job because he knew Celestia would just sweet-talk to all of the subjects and get nowhere, but Luna wouldn't be afraid to stand up to any of the ponies who lied. So she always used force to get the ponies to tell the truth before she cast the spell.
Celestia just looked at Luna with annoyance. That was over 1,000 years ago, but she was an understandable mare. She raised her hoof to let her sister carry on with what she was doing. They both looked back to the guard who was silent the whole time, waiting for the time to talk, he finally got that he should and said.
"I never implied to 'go out' with the princess, but if I am to be chosen I would be honored." The guard smiled brightly thinking of being a loved one to royalty. Luna looked skeptical and saw Celestia who looked the same, they kept the guard up while they turned around to talk.
"Do you think he is telling the truth sister?" Celestia whispered making sure the guard couldn't hear.
"I am not certain, he sounds like he is faking it, but we are to see what he is to say soon," Luna whispered back.
They looked back at the stallion who was looking uncomfortable. Luna sparked more of an aurora from her horn, getting ready for a loud truth.
"I FEEL LIKE I'LL BE USED IF I GO OUT WITH THE PRINCESS!" the guard shouted.
Even though she had improved the spell, Luna never could get rid of anypony yelling out there truth. She experimented it many times on herself but could never say her truth quietly. And it also led to many embarrassing things she mentioned, such as the crush she had on one of the royal bakers, or her many problems with Starswirls' essays. She eventually gave up and just let anypony shout while using the spell.
Luna slowly put the guard down and thanked him for his time and looked at Celestia who looked saddened.
"Do not worry sister, that was just one of many stallions who said no. There will be many more to go through" Luna said. Her words were confident enough to let Celestia continue as Luna went to another guard.
After many more shouted truth tellings of not wanting to go out with the princesses and other ones that included something about their butts, Celestia had lost faith, they were down to at least 4 out of the 50 that were in the room, and poor Luna could only continue for so long, they finally decided that this would be the last one.
"Now... tell us if you want... to go out with... the princess." The moon princess said, panting of the tiredness she felt. The guard, white coat and yellow hair, as all the others were, kept quiet and Luna sparked the last bit of the spell she could contain.
"I THINK PRINCESS CELESTIA IS GORGEOUS AND WOULD LOVE TO BE HER LOVED ONE." the stallion shouted making both princesses smile with glee. They had found their stallion.
"So what do you think we should do first, Silver Armor?" Celestia said looking at her guard, his name reminded her of a certain stallion in the Crystal Empire with his loved one. Silver Armor shrugged as he looked at the beloved princess he has known for years. It was true what he had said before, she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen when he first became a royal guard. And now with the feeling becoming more mutual. He was almost at the ridge of kissing her at first glance, but now he has an excuse for being with the princess.
"I guess we could go for a stroll in the center lot gardens, or we could eat a simple meal at the royal bakery, you can decide." Silver Armor said; he didn't know if he could speak for the princess when she was the highest part of Equestria's royalty.
"Silver Armor?" Celestia asked
"Yes," Silver Armor said, hoping this wasn't over already.
"I want to ask you to do a favor for me," Celestia said shrinking her body down at the worried stallion.
Silver Armor always could see how tall the princess was from him, but when she leaned down to him he almost thought she was kissing him. She stopped face in front of his and said quietly.
"treat me like one of your people,"
Silver Armor was dazed at her comment, "I'm afraid I don't understand, princess" he said. Celestia could see his face and thought of a better choice of words.
"What I mean is, don't act like I am a princess, act like I am a pony. A pony who is meeting you for the first time."
Silver Armor looked at Celestia with astonishment, never had she said such a favor before, and he was glad to provide it for her.
"As you wish." the guard bowed down but got back up quickly realizing he just broke his promise.
"Uh, what I meant was... hello, my name is Silver Armor, pleased to meet you," he corrected as he held out his hoof for greeting. Celestia took the hoof and shook it.
"Pleased to meet you as well, my name is Tia," Celestia said smiling as she remembered her name before Celestia.
They both laughed as the meeting was over. Soon they both were walking down to the garden talking about Silver Armors' life as a guard and Celestia coming up with her own story.
"I was born in Manehatten with a beloved family who supported me the whole way, when I went to college to get a carrier for my magical abilities I got full straight A's and went on to Canterlot to fulfill my destiny for raising the sun, then I finally learned the spell to raise the sun in which our founded princess "foustlestia," made me an alicorn and I became a special mare ever since."
Silver Armor looked at the princess with amazement, never had he heard a story so made up it sounded like it happened.
"Did you just come up with that? Because it sounds like it happened!" he said, trying to be calm about this.
Tia looked at Silver Armor, making him remember that he was supposed to be acting. He apologized and was okayed by the princess as they continued their walk.
"I must say though, you make some fascinating stories about your life, I almost believed you!" Silver Armor said in excitement.
They went out of the garden when Silver Armor's stomach grumbled, making Tia laugh.
"I see that you are getting a bit hungry, shall we go to the royal bakery and eat a nice and delicious lunch?" They both went inside as the greetings from the bakers were heard all around the bakery, along with many expecting waves from the princess, Silver Armor couldn't help but stare, she always looked so graceful when addressing other ponies, smiling and waving was one of many things he liked about her, but he also saw a bit of tiredness from her immortal face. They both found a seat while looking around. Silver Armor couldn't help himself when he was curious about things he didn't know. It was that which got him into the royal guard. He remembered like it was yesterday. He was just in the position of waiting at the door when the princess needed help with a case for who stole a royal artifact. He was the only one curious enough to find out what was going on, and with the help of a few friends he found out who the culprit was and was joined to become Celestia's royal guard.
"Prince-err... I mean, Tia, may I ask princess Celestia something?" Silver Armor said.
"Why yes you may Silver," 'Tia said grinning of the catching on he was getting at.
"While waving at the royal bakers, I realized that you looked quite, and forgive me for saying this, tired. Is there something you need to say?" Silver Armor looked away from the princess, not wanting to see her face of surprise. Tia was caught off guard by the question, she didn't know how to answer the curious soul, her mind wandered off to think of the question.
"Yes, my mortal, yes I am tired."
"Of what, your majesty?"
Celestia sighed and brought her face with a frown, "Just, everything. The loneliness of being immortal. The many problems I have to face. The fact that I'll be doing all of this alone!" Celestia stomped her hooves on the table and made the guard jump. He had never seen his beloved princess act so differently. He should have felt bad, but he felt joyous that the princess trusted him to talk to, instead of the royal therapist.
'Honestly, they have too many positions in this castle, I've been in that room and I didn't even see the degree in psychology' Silver thought to himself. He looked to see that Celestia had calmed down, quietly drinking her water provided of her. He needed to say something, but what? What do you do for a Princess!
"Silver?" the princess spoke before he could do anything
"Yes,"
"I sometimes wish I could be mortal, just to see what a normal pony does. It would just be for a day, but it would probably be the best day of my entire life," her face fell as Celestia looked at the floor. She wanted to cry but her princess manners were telling her otherwise. And Silver Armor could see this.
"Princess, if I may, I don't think you're lonely. You have so many royal positions for ponies who couldn't believe they could have the privilege. You aren't doing anything alone. You have them, princess Luna... and you have me." Silver Armor blushed at her reaction, but instead of surprised, all he saw was a smile. Not just any smile, but a real smile that he had never seen on the princess. He thought she looked so beautiful he was completely red in the face.
"Well, if our talk is over, I would like to bring back Tia so we can continue our date," Celestia said, still having the smile on her face. She got up, showing her royal posture and exiting the royal building. Silver Armor got up as well and was behind her, he couldn't help himself when he looked at her bottom side. He smiled as he continued. But soon bumped into the butt and turned to her front,
"What is it... Tia?" Silver Armor said getting closer to her face, he looked at her gaze and saw a beautiful flower out in the royal gardens, Tia's face looked at the flower with much interest. Realizing this, Silver Armor decided to go closer to the flower. Now close up, he sees how beautiful the flower is. The red mixed with blue and green along with tainted purple on the petals, with a gorgeous stem running down to the ground, it was so beautiful he almost was crying. He didn't even notice Tia was behind him, and he jumped when she spoke
"This flower was planted when Starswirl was here, he said that in time of our greatest day, it will bloom with so much beauty. He called it 'the flower of tears' because he said only the tears of joy will make it bloom. My sister and I never thought it would bloom, but when she came back, I went over to this flower and cried for joy of having her back. And now it seems like the time has come for it to bloom for all to see." Silver Armor was still looking at the beautiful flower while listening to Tia's story. He now understood why he wanted to cry of beauty. But the fact that it was tears of joy, made him all the more want to cry. Although he refuses because he is too honored to cry.
"This should be kept in a glass case, it looks too valuable to just be in a garden," Silver Armor breathed out.
"I agree," Tia said, glowing her horn and picking the flower from its ground. They walked to a convenient glass that was on a marble display. It reminded Silver Armor about a certain story regarding a beast with a beauty. Although for him it was a timberwolf and a pony. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful story. Tia put the flower of many colors inside and backed up to see the display. It was still beautiful just as it was on the ground.
"I don't think I have ever seen such a beautiful thing in my life," 'Tia' said admiring the prismatic flower.
"I have," Silver Armor said, still staring at the beautiful flower. Tia looked at Silver Armor with wonder in her face, he blushed as he continued.
"You, you have such an amazing and beautiful face that every time I see it, I just feel a waterfall of emotions. It's a feeling I have never felt before in my life. And it's all because of you."
Tia smiled at his words and blushed; she never heard these words to her except... her thoughts drifted off to Luna, how she helped her so much with everything. She felt remorse about how lonely her sister was, but ate that feeling aside as she remembered she was on a date.
"Shall we be off then?" 'Tia' said, breaking her moment with Silver Armor. He went out of his trance and answered her with a yes and they were off. Onto the next part of their date.
Luna glowed her horn to do her duty of the night, it was a big day to Luna to help her sister all she can, she was the one who helped get her sister date, and she also told the bakers to greet Celestia with tons of pride, but most of all she cried the best tears of joy for her sister and her newly found date for today. It thankfully was a lot of pride because she cried enough to open just in time before her sister and Silver Armor could see it. Now she wanted tonight to be a huge full moon with tons of romance within every corner of Equestria. She looked at her sister now walking with Silver Armor around the corridors of the castle and seeing the happy face Celestia bared. They came over to talk to Luna. she felt nervous about talking to someone that her sister was dating, she thought she couldn't speak to Celestia about it now, so she came up with an excuse.
"Hello there dear sister," Tia said with tons of cheer.
"Hello sister, I would love to chat, but I am needed to be in the royal chamber to talk to some regal doings, but I will do my best to talk later," Luna said walking off in her royal walk she always did when exiting a building.
Tia looked at her sister, 'why did she fake-out that royal chamber talk and not talk to me? Is she jealous I am not spending time with her? Why would she! She is my sister for my sake!' she thought. Silver Armor saw her face and was worried. And he knew exactly why.
"Cele... I mean, Tia ?" he asked
"Yes Silver Armor," 'Tia said, not fully paying attention to her date.
"I was thinking, maybe we should stop this," Silver said sadly. He knew if his gorgeous princess was feeling bad about abandoning her sister, then he shouldn't stand in between them. If it meant his princess being sad, then he wanted nothing to do with it.
"Why would you say that?" Tia said not understanding Silver Armor, she thought he was having as much of a blast as her but now was completely confused as to why stopping now.
"Because you have another to take care of," Silver Armor said sadly. "You have somepony else who requires your love, and that isn't me."
Celestia was now very confused, who else needed her love, she only had two people who would love her and that was him and... Luna. Celestia now understood what he meant, now understood why Luna did all of this for her, now understood that she didn't need a stallion to help her find happiness. And she hated herself for not finding out sooner, her sister just wanted Celestia's happiness with her. She was probably now sitting down and thinking of her happier times with Celestia right now, and that made her want to be near her sister even more.
"I am sorry that it didn't work out. You shouldn't feel bad about yourself, this is my fault. But you're right, somepony else does need me, and I should be there now, thank you for understanding Silvey," Celestia said with happy tears streaming down her face.
"Thank you... princess Tia" Silver Armor said with a wink.
Celestia went out of the room and went to find her wonderful sister. After much searching, she finally found Luna, though she was curled up into a huge ball and sleeping in front of a fire. Celestia loved seeing her sister relax and sleep for once on a night like tonight. Though she probably will have to do her duty soon so she couldn't miss this perfect opportunity. Celestia crouched down to rest next to her sister, she loved just relaxing next to her loved one.
"I love you sister," Celestia said, before closing her eyes and almost sleeping, but not before a strange thought entered her mind, "I wonder how my subjects' hearts and hooves went." |
Hearts and Hooves Day | Chapter 10: How It All Ended | Twilight Sparkle: was happy now that she and flash were a thing, she missed him a lot when she went home but she always wrote to him whenever she could, she made spike so tired he napped more than usual. they went on dates whenever she went to the Crystal Empire, or when Flash came over to Ponyville, which was a lot. Nonetheless, they both were happy and about a year went by and he finally asked her to marry him. The wedding was wonderful and Twilight couldn't have been happier about her life
Fluttershy:lived forever happily, Discord made huge impacts on her life and more. They married soon afterward and had two lovely children with both their parent's traits, now she is taking care of both her animals, her children, and her husband. She was happy though, Discord was happy too, he helped all he could with everything. After the wedding, he helped applejack with her farm, cleared skies with Rainbow Dash, had fun parties with Pinkie Pie, helped Rarity with her dresses (though she always told him he did it wrong), and twilight with her castle. Yes, lots changed for them, but in the end, they would do it all over again if they could.
Pinkie Pie: grew tired of the non-love life and began dating, though not with Flapjack. Instead her best party pony friend (BPPF) Cheese Sandwich asked her out and she happily agreed, though they aren't doing much now except the dating part, she knows her life will be better sharing herself with someone else.
Cheese Sandwich was a good inspiration in her life, he always told her she was worth it in the beginning. And every time it would always remind her of her first admirer. She hoped Flapjack was living happily with his life as a baker. But for now, she didn't think about that. All she thought about was her happiness and how it would have been different if she accepted Flapjack. But she also thought about what new possibilities she has with her new colt friend, and she didn't need anything to remind her of his love except him.
Rarity: is still looking for a loved one but is not that sad about it. She realized she doesn't need a stallion yet, maybe one day she will, but for now, the love of her friends is enough... until a certain stallion, she had met before in Canterlot, Fancy Pants, came to ask her out after his divorce with Flur De Lee. she humbly decided maybe now it is time to find a stallion to love. After all, no one should be alone forever.
Applejack: found happiness and fun with her little dragon boyfriend. They went out on dates and weren't afraid to kiss in front of other ponies. Many thought it wasn't possible for a dragon and a pony to be together but they proved them wrong. Spike soon engaged Applejack and they were living a happily married life. And Applejack found out that she was in the progress of pregnancy! They anticipated having a child on account it had never happened before. But after a long talk they calmed down and everything was normal, now Applejack is due any day, Spike helped her all the way and began to get a growth spurt along with a more confident heart. After marrying Applejack he realized he is more important than he thought, and now with Applejack at his side, he was a bigger part of the mane six than ever!
Rainbow Dash: couldn't keep up with Soarin and decided to break up with him, but after that happened she realized just how much she loved him. It was a little over a month while she talked most of this with Twilight, who helped her accept she loved Soarin more than ever. And when she told him she found out he felt the same way and they soon married and are at the process of having foals. It was taken away from them when they realized Dash couldn't produce foals. So they decided to adopt instead, they are still waiting for a response but are happy all the same. Tons of bumps in the road happened but it all led to a happy ending. They heard from the adoption area and adopted a son and a daughter and they are living with good money from the Wonderbolts and healthy lives.
Crusaders: are still too young to date but not too young to crush, they talked about who they liked and what they could do to notice them, they became the "Cutie Mark Matchmakers" after a while and tried to get a date altogether. But that failed after they were too embarrassed to talk to them. Now they are back to their destinies and living with their friendships, only waiting for time to tell them when they're ready.
Derpy: was still getting used to not getting letters from her admirer. She and Time Turner grew happy together but promised to take things slow with only a few dates a month. Soon though they took a step and started living together, that was when they realized they loved each other enough to spend their entire lives together. Proposing and accepting profoundly fast, their wedding is nearing and Derpy couldn't feel any happier with her life. Her friends helped her with everything she needed for the wedding and can't wait for her life to take flight
Princess Celestia: Never questioned if she was loved or not. With Luna by her side, she was always happy. The flower that bloomed over was represented as a symbol to her. But it not only is a symbol but a memory. She hoped that Silver Armor was doing well. They avoided each other for a while, but finally talked and sorted out that they could still be friends. She still wonders if there will never be a pony for her but in the end. She is always reminded that she has her sister to help her along the way.
Sometimes we see love as meaning like no other, it can mean love between a nation, love between two individuals, love for friendships, love for the weak, or even love for inanimate objects (weird, right) but nonetheless, they all mean the same. But now one question goes for all of you who celebrate each other's love. How does your Hearts and Hooves day end? |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | pre | "I mean, no one has visited. No one. I... I..." her gaze fell, as did a single tear. "You know how I came over through the portal, remember? I lied. I don't have any family here. My family is all back in Equestria. My Equestria, on the other side of the portal." Another tear. "My friends are the only family I have here. And I don't even have that anymore. Anon-a-miss took that away from me. They won't even talk to me. I'm all alone."
Shoulders shaking, the dam broke. Sunset's tears streamed, wetting her cheeks completely. Luna reached forward and pulled her into a hug. "You are not alone, Sunset Shimmer. You have us."
Celestia joined the hug. "We won't abandon you Sunset. You have us".
Crying gently, Sunset held tightly to the sisters, thankful for the gift of their friendship.
Several minutes and more than a few tissues later, the three sat back and resumed their discussion. "Sunset, if you are not staying with your family, who is looking out for you?" asked Luna.
"I've been living on my own. The girls... my friends... They helped me get a single room apartment, and I've been living there. I have legal documents. I filed for emancipation, so I am an emancipated minor. All the contact information for my parents, the numbers, email, it all goes to me. It ends up here on my phone." Sunset looked over to the phone on the edge of the table.
"So who's helping you now?" asked Celestia.
"No one. It's... just me." Sunset sighed sadly. "I've been trying to reach Princess Twilight through my Journal. But she's away for the holidays too! So, I haven't been able to reach her."
"Sunset, I don't understand why your friends would refuse to visit you. That goes completely against everything we stand for, and honestly seems a bit abusive if you ask me," said Luna. "Sunset, if Celestia and I offered to help you, would you let us? Would you be willing to allow us to help you, and care for you if needed? It's not something I offer lightly, but I offer it to you. Will you let us?"
"Yes, Sunset. I'm with my sister completely on this! Will you let us help?" Celestia looked into her student's eyes with a gentle smile.
Sunset's closed her eyes with a happy gasp. She cried again. "Yes! Yes, please! Yes," and pulled the sisters into another hug.
Dinner came, but rather than send them away, Sunset begged them to stay. They happily accepted, and two extra sodas and salads later, the three were happily laughing and sharing stories late into the evening. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 9 - Special Holidays - Shining Armor | Shining Armor
Detective Shining Armor, seated in Principal Celestia's office, looked up from his notepad. "So there is no security footage of the incident, nor of any activities in the surrounding area?"
Principal Celestia nodded. "That's correct. For privacy reasons, we don't have cameras in the interior of the school. The school board received intense push back from many of the parents when it was first proposed, so the idea was tabled. There is footage from the entrances, including the gym entrance, where the incident took place." Celestia sighed. "Unfortunately, someone damaged the camera to that entrance earlier that day. They managed to avoid showing their face in the process, but you're welcome to that footage too."
Shining Armor's eyebrow raised. "So that would imply this was planned and premeditated. Yes, please, thank you. In fact, we would like all the footage for the day of the incident. We may find something relevant, unless you have any objections?"
"No. I certainly have no objections. I'll have to pass the request through the school board and their lawyers, but I'll give it my highest recommendation. Anything that helps you find and prosecute Sunset's attackers has my fullest support." Celestia wrote a brief note to herself. "Is there anything else I can help with, Detective Armor?"
"The girl that was attacked, Sunset Shimmer? She still doesn't remember anything from the event?" asked Shining. "And can you tell me more about her? What type of student was she? And can you shed more light on this 'anon-a-miss' incident, and why you believe this may have been related to her attack?"
"Sunset is a model student. She has been an inspiration for many of the students here with her willingness to volunteer, and to help her fellow students. She's worked after school tutoring. She's the student lead on the Yearbook committee. She organizes and runs many of the student charities. And is a member of a fairly popular band with her friends, the 'rainbooms' I believe they call themselves." Celestia smiled. "They're quite good. I myself have enjoyed many of their songs. I hope they continue, I'd love to see more from them.
"That said, Sunset wasn't always the 'model student' she is now. There was a period of time... well actually a rather long period... When she first came to our school, she was popular, but... let's just call her... manipulative? Yes, manipulative. She was rather good at ingratiating her way into the different cliques and groups in the school, then turning them against each other and themselves."
Shining looked up from his notes. "She was disciplined for these actions then?"
Celetia shook her head. "No. We didn't know until later. She was very good at staying 'below the radar'. She never did anything overtly. She always staged things so it looked like someone else initiated the troubles. Most of the time it didn't even appear she was a part of it. We didn't realize she was even causing any trouble until the incident at the Fall Formal, when she stole the Formal's crown from the girl who won it instead of her." She bowed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose, then groaned. "Pardon my vernacular, but that was a shitshow... She went off the rails then. She stole the formal crown... There was a confrontation at the front of the school between the girl that won with her friends, and Sunset with two of her friends. A sledge hammer was involved. Somehow, near as we can piece together, the gas main in the front of the school exploded. We were extremely fortunate that none of the students were hurt in the explosion, though it did damage the front of the school, which had to be repaired."
Shining Armor looked shocked. "I remember that! It was in the news at the time. That was her.. Sunset Shimmer did that? Okay, noted. Wow. That's something," he scribbled in his notepad. "Anything else?"
Celestia nodded and continued. "Yes, after that, everyone knew of her actions, and she had a rather marked 'fall from grace' as far as the other students were concerned. She was disciplined of course, banned from further extracurricular activities, placed on in-school suspension, and was required to participate in the repair of the damage to the school from the explosion."
"She had to repair the school?" asked Shining, shocked. "I didn't think that was allowed. What about the rules against underage labor?"
"No, not like that... She wasn't part of the demolition or construction. We did make her do some token 'construction' work, supervised, the night of the incident, just to give her an idea of the scope of what she had caused. But she was never part of the actual work." Shining nodded his head, relieved. Celestia continued. "She did however have to assist the workers after school, running odd errands for them - getting coffee for their breaks, picking up food orders delivered for them, that sort of work. We also had her sweep up the worksite after they left each afternoon. Our goal was to show her what she had caused, and what was involved in recovering from it."
"I see," nodded Shining. "Please, continue."
"The students were rather cold to her after that. Except the friends of the girl who had won that night. They all pulled together, and included her in their activities. They even ate lunch together every day. When Luna and I saw that we were overjoyed. We had high hopes that Sunset would rise from the ashes of this incident, and become the student, the woman, we had hoped she could be from the beginning." Celestia's gaze drifted to the window. "She tried so hard. She threw herself into her work, excelling at everything we gave her. After we removed the restrictions on her activities, she volunteered tirelessly and poured her energies into helping her fellow students. They were slow to accept her at first, understandably given her past actions.
"The real turning point I believe was fairly recent. We had a school spirit event - a friendly competition called 'Battle of the Bands' where students could join and compete against their fellow 'Wondercolts' for the title of Best Student Band. Somehow what started as a friendly competition turned vicious, and once again the student body was fractured and divided. It turned out three of the girls competing, the 'Dazzlings' they called themselves, were using Sunset's old tricks to turn the students against each other and divide the school. Sunset and her friends found out, and faced them down, uniting the students against the hate they had sown. It was quite inspirational, and after that, Sunset enjoyed the admiration of her fellow students."
"So, how did she go from that, to this - to the events that culminated in her attack, and this 'anon-a-miss'?" asked Shining.
"She was framed," replied Celestia. "I'm certain that's the long and short of it. Someone... or someones, with their own 'ax to grind' created the account, and are using it to frame Sunset for all its slander and viciousness. I don't think they wanted to hurt her, not physically at least, maybe emotionally. We suspect they were possibly trying to force her to leave the school. They didn't get what they wanted. Clearly they got something far worse.
"We do not believe this anon-a-miss was directly behind the attack on Sunset. As for who the attackers were, we have no idea. Even suspecting they must have been individuals directly hurt by the anon-a-miss postings, that casts a wide net that includes nearly the entire student body.
"We do know that Rainbow Dash, the girl whose message led Sunset into the gym for this attack, was not involved. She lost her phone earlier in the day, though in hindsight it was clear it was stolen from her. Whoever sent the message used Ms. Dash's stolen phone to do it.
Celestia sighed. "So anything we can provide to help you find who did this to her, to our Sunset, we are happy to provide." Celestia turned to Shining Armor, looking into his eyes. "Shining, this girl is dear to us. We consider her family, Luna and I. That someone did this to her, hurt her so bad... It makes my blood boil! It angers me so much I want to call down the sun on their heads, and burn them from existence."
Celestia slumped in her chair. "I am ashamed to admit that. I consider myself a peaceful individual. I abhor conflict and violence. I won't tolerate neglect or abuse. But by harmony herself I would hurt whomever did this to that precious girl. Please find them Shining. Please.. Bring Sunset some justice." Celestia slumped, her face in her hands, elbows on her desk. "Please Shining. For Sunset. For Luna and I. Find them."
"I will Celestia. I promise!" Shining rose, then walked over to Celestia, sat on the corner of the desk and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll make it my top priority. I know how much this means to you. And to Luna. Sunset will get her peace."
They sat there in silence for several moments. Eventually, Celestia took a deep breath and turned to Shining Armor. "Thank you Shining. I know you will. I know Sunset can count on you."
"Absolutely Aunty Celestia!" replied Shining with a grin.
"You know I hate you calling me that," replied Celestia, with a grin of her own. "Besides, it's not true. I'm not your aunt until after the wedding. Even then, I'll be your aunt-in-law, not... ugh, aunty? That's not even a word! And it makes me sound so... old. I'll have you know I'm not that much older than you young man."
"What? No way, you're ancient!" joked Shining.
"Ha ha," snarked Celestia in reply. "So, how is your blushing bride to be? Are you two still coming over for dinner this weekend?"
"We wouldn't miss it. Yeah, Cadence is doing great. I'll tell her you said hello when I get home tonight." Shining grinned. "She misses you guys. But she's really enjoying her independence, and her show is doing well, so exciting times for her, right? 'Princess of Love, Cadence Cares!' seems to be taking off, maybe she'll be able to get syndication. We'll see."
"I hope so. She loves helping people, and sharing her hope and love. She's a shining heart in an ocean of cold indifference. We're so proud of her."
"And I'm her 'Shining Armor'," Shining grinned. "Me too. Yeah, she's a regular Princess of Love. I can't wait to see what she accomplishes. And I'm gonna be right by her side through all of it." Shining's smile beamed. "That's my girl."
Celestia placed her hand over Shining's. "That's our girl, you mean. We're in this together Shining. We're Family." |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 10 - Special Holidays - Luna | Luna
The break ended, and school once again resumed.
Anon-a-miss had taken a break over the holiday, suspending her toxic postings. With the return to school, however, she was right back to her old tricks, postings resumed as soon as school started. It was noticed that Sunset wasn't present. Bragging reports from a few students that she was beaten - quite literally - and driven from the school caused some confusion. How was she still able to find and post these secrets when she clearly wasn't present?
Two hours into the school day, the account suddenly stopped posting further fueling confusion. Less than thirty minutes later, Vice-Principal Luna announced there would be a mandatory assembly for all classes after lunch in the school auditorium. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 11 - Special Holidays - Canterlot Movie Club | Canterlot Movie Club
The girls of the CMC met in their meeting room during the first break. "This is bad. This is really, really bad!" gasped Scootaloo. "We are so caught. We are so in trouble."
"I heard she was beaten within an inch of her life and is on life support in the hospital. We are so going to be jailed - as murderers!" wailed Sweetie Belle, pulling her hair, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Ya all need to chill! We done goofed, but ther's no need ta panic," said Applebloom, pulling the girls into a hug. "Relax. Breath. We just need ta stop posting for a bit while we figure this out."
"Done!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle. "I'm not touching that account until we figure out how to shake ourselves free from this."
Scootaloo continued to hyperventilate, while Applebloom held her, repeating her refrain. "Just breath Scoots. Slow breaths. It'll be fine."
"We should just delete the account!" gasped Scootaloo, once she had caught her breath again. "Just delete it and pretend it never happened. No one will ever know."
"We can't do that, Scoots'' growled Applebloom. "We ain't got what we wanted, not yet. We need ta make sure she's really gone. Just hold up a bit. We can delete it if'n she really is gone and we got our sisters back."
"And if we don't delete it? And they find us 'cause they know it can't be Sunset now? We'd be so fried! We should just do it now, it's not worth it!" shot back Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle chimed in. "Hold on Scoots. I agree with Applebloom. Let's take it slow. We can delete it any time. Let's find out if the She-Demon is really gone first. Then if she really is out of our lives, and we got what we started this for, we can delete it."
Applebloom nodded. "Yeah, we can delete it then. Let's go to this meetin' first. See what they have to say, and find out what is going on. We can decide after that. But for now - no more postin'. Agreed?"
"Agreed!"
"Yeah, agreed!"
The three girls chatted for the remainder of the break, then returned to their classes.
Lunch was unusually quiet. The normally boisterous lunch hall was filled with nervous students, checking their phones while whispering to each other. Everyone noticed the queen bee responsible for the school's latest troubles was conspicuously absent. Her friends... Former friends sat at the table they usually shared, quietly whispering, casting nervous glances. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 12 - Special Holidays - Luna - The Assembly | Luna - The Assembly
It was time.
The student body filtered slowly into the assembly, still subdued. Gone were the usual boisterous banter and hijinks. Everyone quietly found a place to sit; with their friends, if they still had them, alone otherwise. Anon-a-miss had been rough on the school's friendships. More than a few long-time friends were currently not speaking with one another. Or near one another.
Everyone found their seats. The whispers died down as Vice-Principal Luna took the stage.
"Good afternoon Canterlot Wondercolts.
"I am sure you have all heard of the activities of a certain blogger, who has been targeting students in this school with cyber-bullying posts, disrupting our school spirit, and harming the emotional welfare of our student body."
"She should be arrested!" someone yelled out.
"She should be expelled!"
"She should be beaten!" yelled out another.
"Silence!" exploded Vice-Principal Luna. "Can you hear yourselves! Is this the way Canterlot Wondercolts behave!"
Luna glared at the assembled students. "Be silent!" Taking a deep breath, she continued.
"It has come to your Principal's and my attention that many of you believe you know the identity of the person making these posts. Some of you may have decided to take matters into your own hands."
"And good riddance!" shouted another voice from the back of the auditorium.
"I said silence!" yelled back Luna.
Complete silence wrapped the entire room. "Not one more word! I said silence and I meant it!"
Luna continued. "Sunset Shimmer, a long-standing student of this school, honor student, and friend to many of you was brutally attacked right before the holiday break on these very school grounds." A pin could be heard hitting the floor.
"She was taken to Canterlot General Hospital with serious, possibly life-altering injuries, and is currently there receiving treatment."
Scootaloo started quietly swearing. "Bacca bacca bacca bacca..."
"We will find out who was responsible for her injuries. And rest assured we will be joining Sunset in filing the appropriate charges for the brutal assault that was carried out on her person."
Luna paused. She took a deep breath. "Her person! A fellow student. A friend. Something clearly many of you here have forgotten."
"My sister and I have been visiting Sunset. And I assure you, she is not, nor ever was, this anon-a-miss many of you assume her to be."
Luna scanned the faces of her students, shocked expressions on most of them.
"That's a LIE!" shouted a girl to her right.
"I! SAID! SILENCE!" screamed Luna.
Shaking with rage, she clasped her hands to her head. Taking several slow breaths, she lowered her hands and continued. "I said silence.
"My sister and I have been visiting her throughout the holiday break. She did not, and would not post ANYTHING on that infernal account! This morning, while you were all reading this anon-a-miss person's latest trove of toxic filth, my sister, your Principal, was with Sunset.
"With her. The. Entire. Time! The entire time these posts were coming out, Principal Celestia was with Sunset Shimmer. She DID NOT post these posts! She IS NOT this anon-a-miss person. AM I CLEAR!"
Shocked nods and murmurs drifted through the assembly.
In the corner, Scootaloo passed out. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 13 - Special Holidays - Canterlot Movie Club Redux | Canterlot Movie Club redux
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle sat next to their friend in the school nurse's office. Scootaloo was laying on a bed, a cold compress on her forehead.
"Y'all right Scoots?" asked Applebloom, reaching out to her friend.
"I'm fine. Don't touch me!" groused Scootaloo, pulling back from her friend. "I told you we shoulda just deleted the dang thing."
Sweetie Belles' eyes went wide. She quickly glanced across the room to the school nurse, who was turned away. She punched her friend in the arm with a glare. "Ouch!" yelled Scootaloo.
The nurse turned back around. "Are you alright dear?" she asked.
"Uh... yeah, I'm fine. Just a cramp. Ouch," claimed Scootaloo, rubbing the arm. "Um... can I go now? I'd like to get back to my class if that's okay."
"Hmm.. let's give it another minute girls. Just to make sure the dizziness has passed. Do you need some more water dear?"
Scootaloo took the glass beside her and sipped it. "No thank you. Still workin' on this one."
A few moments later, the school nurse released the girls, satisfied that Scootaloo was in no danger of a relapse. They cleared out of the offices, and raced to their club room, then locked the door. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 14 - Special Holidays - Sunset - Dr. Quinn Explains | Sunset - Dr. Quinn Explains
Sunset Shimmer sipped her apple juice through a paper straw.
"I guess cafeterias are all the same, right?" she grinned, lifting the carton-shaped box that came with her breakfast. "Not going to lie - exact same thing where I come from. Probably haven't been around as long though. They were a new invention when I left."
Principal Celestia smiled as she gnoshed her croissant. "I wouldn't doubt it!" she snarked. "I'd imagine it was invented anywhere that had paper, and needed to put drinks into a kind of box." Celestia snorted. "I can just picture some future explorer uncovering a trove of ancient drink boxes." The two shared a laugh.
"Did you just snort? I heard a snort!" gasped Sunset, juice dripping down her chin from her unexpected chortle.
"What! I would never do something so undignified," decried Celestia. At which point they both dissolved into fits of uncontrolled laughter.
While they recovered from their fit of folly, Dr. Quinn knocked, poking her head in. "Hello Ms. Shimmer, Ms. Celestia! Have a moment?"
"Come in! Please, come in!" laughed Sunset, drying her face and clearing away her finished meal. "We were just finishing up. Come on in, please!"
"I should go," said Celestia. "I'll give you two some privacy." She got up and offered the chair to the Dr.
"No, wait, please? You don't have to go. You can stay." Turning to Dr. Quinn, she asked "She can stay right? She's family to me, she can stay if I want, yes?"
"Sunset, you are legally an adult. If you want her to stay she can stay. It's fine," replied Dr. Quinn.
Turning to her Principal, Sunset reached for her hand. "Please stay! Unless you have to leave, I'll understand. But please, if you can, stay, please?"
Celestia sat at the edge of the bed, next to her student, and took her outstretched hand. "I can stay Sunset. If you want me here, I'm not going to leave." She smiled, and squeezed Sunset's hand.
With a smile of her own, Sunset squeezed her back. "Thank you. Yes please. You can't imagine what a comfort it is to have you by my side. Thank you so much."
Sunset turned to Dr. Quinn. "Okay please, don't keep us in suspense. What's the good news?"
"I really admire your optimism Ms. Shimmer. It will take you far, I am sure, through life, and through your recovery." She smiled at Sunset, then flipped through the pages of her chart.
"Let's start with the good news. You're healing at an amazing rate. Not freak of science fast, but definitely well above what's expected. Your bones are mending, the fractures in your spine and head are set and closing well. We expect no complications from those beyond what you're currently experiencing, and those should clear up as well over time."
Dr. Quinn flipped to the next page. "Onto the swelling. Okay so more good news. The swelling in your brain is gone, no long-term negative effects there..."
"...aside from the missing evening..." interrupted Sunset.
"...aside from the missing evening," repeated Dr. Quinn. "Still nothing then? Okay, still not worried. Sometimes it takes longer for memories to come back. And sometimes they only come back after therapy and counseling, especially in cases where there was violent trauma involved. You may need to see a specialist in traumatic event recovery Sunset. I'm referring you to a colleague I've worked with. He has a successful practice and a world-class reputation in his field."
A few more quick notes to the chart, then she flipped the page. Dr. Quinn continued. "The swelling appears to be substantially reduced in your spinal cord. However, you still seem to have sensory and motor deficiency from L5 down. There doesn't appear to be a break in the nerve fiber itself, so we suspect your injury resulted in the demyelination of your spinal nerves, causing the issues you're experiencing."
"Wait what? What does that mean? So my nerves are fine, but some myeli-something got knocked out? So I'll still be fine, right?" Sunset looked apprehensive. "I don't get it."
"It's called Transverse Myelitis. Or TM for short. Basically, something happened, causing damage to the myelin sheath that wraps around the nerve fibers running through your body. That sheath allows your nerves to fire and communicate effectively with each other, so your brain can send your muscles messages to flex and relax, and your muscles and other sensors in your body can tell your brain when something is wrong, or how they are working."
"But I feel something. I'm in pain all the time. That means it's working right?" asked Sunset.
Dr. Quinn answered. "Sort of, but not really.
"Right now, your nerves are passing messages. But they're getting the message wrong. Without that sheath, the messages are all getting garbled. Instead of the wonderful symphony of messages usually passed through them, you're getting a terrible screech at top volume that your brain has no idea what to do with. When it doesn't know what to do, and it's getting something LOUD it doesn't expect, it falls back to the default. Pain. All the messages coming through are getting read as pain.
"And the messages to your muscles from your brain? They're wild and chaotic screeches of noise as well. That's why when you try to move your legs or toes, nothing happens. Or at best, something happens, but it's a spasm or spastic twitch.
"It's not all bad news though. First, those spasms can be useful. We can train your muscles to use them to get some limited functionality back. With a well-trained spasm you can hoble for short distances with a walker, allowing you to... get in and out of a car, or into a bathroom stall if needed. Or to transfer from your bed to chair without a transfer board, so you wouldn't have to deal with carrying one around to slide from seat to seat.
"Second," continued Dr. Quinn, "the myelin sheath has been known to regenerate. It's entirely possible given time you could make a partial or even complete recovery. We won't know for certain until enough time passes, but it's a distinct possibility. So have hope!"
"What are my chances for that?" asked Sunset.
"About 30%," answered Dr. Quinn. "About one-third of the time with a demyelinating injury similar to yours, there is some significant recovery of function, given enough time for the myelin sheath to repair. Roughly another third of the time there is no significant change. And a third of the time the function actually degrades over time, with significant ongoing loss.
"For what it is worth Sunset, the latter case it's usually because the underlying cause for the demyelination is systemic, meaning it keeps coming back. In your case, because this was something that was done to you, that's likely not the case, in my opinion."
Celestia took Sunset's hands in hers. "Sunset? This is good news, okay? Maybe not great news, and definitely not what we wanted to hear. But this is good! And you won't have to face this alone. Luna and I are right here. We're with you every step of the way."
Sunset looked into her Principal's eyes. "Okay. Yeah. You're right. This is good news. Thank you. And thank you for staying." They hugged briefly then turned back to Dr. Quinn.
The medicine woman continued. "I'm not going to sugar coat it. You've a rough climb ahead of you. But I am confident you will pull through it, and in the end, when you work through all this, it will not have defeated you. You are a strong and wonderful young woman Sunset Shimmer. You will survive this, it will not define you. You can do this."
"I can do this," repeated Sunset. "I can do this."
Dr. Quinn scribbled a few last notes into the chart, then rose to leave. "I think you're ready for the next phase of your recovery, Sunset. I can release you to a recovery home, where you can learn to function with your current deficits while working on your recovery. I'll write those referrals for you, then get started on your paperwork. I'll need you to return for Physical and Occupational Therapies, and continued workups so we can monitor your inflammation and nervous response. But other than that, I feel comfortable releasing you."
"So that means I can go home?" asked Sunset.
"Not home, so much as more like a group recovery home. Or a rest home."
"A rest home? I thought that was only for older people," commented Celestia,
"No, a rest home is a place that will provide the level of care Sunset needs to meet her daily functions... using the bathroom, bathing, cleaning up after herself, eating... all the little ins and outs of life that we normally take care of ourselves, but that Sunset can't at the moment because she needs help even getting into and out of bed. No offense dear - that's part of what you will be learning in Occupational therapy." Dr. Quinn turned back to Sunset. "For now, until you've mastered those skills, you just need that little bit of extra help."
Celestia looked to the doctor. "Dr. Quinn? My sister and I talked about this. We would like for Sunset to move in with us. We would be happy to provide that care for her, and we can make sure she's back here for her therapies and tests." Turning to Sunset, she added "That is, if you want this Sunset. Neither Luna nor I want to force anything on you. This is entirely your decision. And you don't have to decide now, take your time." Celestia hugged the girl gently.
"Yes! Yes! I chose yes! Thank you. Yes!" cried Sunset, clinging tightly to Celestia.
"Okay then!" smiled Dr. Quinn. "Give me a few, and I will get started on that paperwork." With that, she left the room, chart in hand. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 15 - Special Holidays - Twilight | Twilight
After finishing her cinnamon twist and mocha latte, Twilight left the bakery and returned to the school. Earlier, when she first arrived through the portal, she tried the doors but they didn't budge. The building was clearly locked up tight, with no signs of anyone present. She tried banging on the doors, yelling, even running around the hedges and jumping up, pounding and glancing into the classroom windows. There hadn't been a single soul there. At that point she decided to make the quick trip to SugarCube Corner, recalling Pinky worked there and it was only a short walk from the school.
On her return, things looked slightly better. There was an old pickup truck in the parking lot. Through the glass doors at the front of the school a light was clearly visible. Running up to the doors, Twilight tried once again opening them. They were still locked. Frustrated and emotionally drained, she banged on the doors hoping someone, anyone, would hear her and let her in. Nothing.
With a groan of frustration, Twilight again made the rounds of the building. After her second pass, she slumped on the steps to catch her wind.
"So frustrating! Why can't anyone hear me!" she groused. "I swear, where is everyone? Are they all still on vacation? They have their own holiday, I remember. Called it something else though..." Sighing, she sat and waited.
As the evening wore on, the sun set. The air started to get chilly. Twilight briefly considered going back through the portal to fetch something warmer to wear, but decided it wasn't worth the risk. What if she left, and whoever was inside came out? She would miss her chance to talk to them, and find out where Sunset was and what was going on. No. No, she couldn't risk it. It wasn't worth it. She was an Equestrian Princess, darn it. An Alicorn. The element of magic for pity's sake! She could stand a little cold. She would be fine.
Twenty minutes later, and that much colder, she felt she had more than adequate reason to rethink her decision. Shivering, she wandered over to the old truck hoping she could climb inside it to warm up. At least then she would be out of the wind that was picking up, robbing her body of warmth with every gust. And, she thought, congratulating herself on her cleverness... 'If I'm in the truck, they'll certainly see me! And then I can ask them all my questions!'
Her clever plans came to a crashing halt when she reached the truck. Both doors were locked, and the windows were fully rolled up.
"Ah sugar plums!" she swore, then blushed profusely at her indiscretion.
She was about to give up hope and head back for the school, when she noticed a large tarp tied down in the truck's bed. Climbing into the truck bed, and pulling the tarp from its ties, saw, thank harmony, not only was there a wonderful tarp she could use to keep the wind off, but beneath were two blankets she could wrap herself in to keep warm! Delighted with her find, she wrapped herself up in a blanket like a pupating moth. She wrapped the tarp around that and sat in the bed of the truck, waiting for whomever would come back. A while later, Twilight was still shivering. The wind was freezing her exposed face and head. She really didn't want to wrap her head in a blanket - how would she see then? Instead, she decided to lie down using the second blanket as a pillow. That put her below the wall of the truck bed, protected from the chill gusts.
Smiling at her cleverness, she snuggled into the second blanket - and promptly fell fast asleep.
Hours later, Granny Smith emerged from the school, locking the doors behind her. She'd come in for a bit to get things ready for the breakfast crew. Students were returning from break tomorrow, and for many of them, breakfast and lunch at school were an important part of their daily nutrition. Everything had been stowed and locked down for the holiday, so she wanted to ensure everything was prepped and in working order for the breakfast crew when they showed up bright and early.
As often happens, it was more work than she thought. So it was several hours later - in fact, darn near midnight - before she finally finished. With everything ready for the morning's breakfast, and a good start on the preparations needed for her shift with the lunch crew, she was proud of her work. And rightly so... but powerfully tired too. She stumbled to her truck, unlocked the door and climbed into the cab. Powering up the engine, she headed home.
Not once did she notice the little bit of tarp whipping up occasionally from the back of the truck.
When Granny got home, she pulled the truck into the barn, and shut everything down. She slid the barn doors closed, and entered the old farmhouse.
Her oldest grandson, Big Mac, was dozing fitfully in the living room rocking chair by the front door.
"Mac!" Granny yelled. "Mac! I'm home! Go to bed, you big galumph. Ya didn't have ta stay up ta babysit me. I'm a big girl ya goof! I can take cara myself!"
Blinking, looking around in a daze, Big Mac focused on Granny. "Oh, hi Granny. Yeah, okay. Good night. Glad ya made it home safe. See ya in the mornin'." Granny went up the stairs. Big Mac almost followed her, but decided he'd make a quick check before he tucked in for the night. Wouldn't be the first time Granny forgot to take care of something...
Heading out the door, he crossed to the barn and slid the barn door open. Granny had parked the truck in the middle of the barn. That was fine. He went over to check it and noticed the tarp, unfolded and laying in the back of the bed.
"Consarn it, Granny! Whadja have ta mess with the tarp for..." He pulled on it, and felt it weighed down by something. Bending over, he pulled back the top of the tarp and saw a girl's face.
"WHAT THE SAM HILL!" he started and swore, then bent down and looked again.
"Twilight?" he said. Shaking his head, he laughed. "Darn it all Granny. You might have mentioned you'd left Twilight Sparkle in the back of the darn truck!"
Carefully pulling the tarp aside, he gently lifted the snoring Princess of Friendship, still wrapped in her blanket, and carried her into the house. Taking her to the guest bedroom, he pulled back the covers, and tucked her, blanket and all, into bed, then turned out the lights. "Good night Twilight," he said at the door.
"Good night Spike..." mumbled the bundle of blankets. Big Mac laughed, then shut the door and went to bed.
Despite being up late, Granny Smith rose with the sun. A lifetime of early rising made the habit hard to break. She started making a nice farmers breakfast for everyone. While the biscuits were baking, she made the rounds, knocking on doors to get her kidlins' keisters up and pointed in the right direction.
"Up an at em girls! Back ta school today! No shirking! Up up up!"
As she passed the guest bedroom she could have sworn she heard a girls voice say "Five more minutes Spike..." Shaking her head, she continued back to the kitchen to finish making breakfast for her hungry family.
Big Mac drifted out of his room, pulling suspenders up over his woolen shirt. Scratching the back of his head, he headed downstairs, but seeing breakfast wasn't ready yet, decided to finish cleaning up the tarp and blanket from last night.
Back in the barn, while folding the tarp and blanket and putting them back under the tie-downs, he noticed the feed still out from yesterday. "Applebloom!" he muttered, then decided he may as well get an early start on feeding the animals, seeings as it was already out.
Grabbing the feed bag, gloves, and scoop, he headed out.
Back in the house, Applejack and Applebloom came down the stairs, drawn by the wonderful smells coming from the farmhouse kitchen. "Come and get it girls!" cackled Granny, serving up plates of biscuits and gravy with links and sausage to her granddaughters. "Where's your brother?" Granny asked as the girls tucked into the delicious food.
"Ah think ah saw him heading out earlier," answered Applejack between mouthfuls. "Must have decided to get an early start on the chores."
"That's Big Mac," smiled Granny. "Always thinking ah others."
The phone rang. Yes. The farmhouse had a wall phone. They really do still exist some places, I swear. And Yup, they had one. Anyway.
Granny banked her cooking, and reached across to answer the phone. "Hello!" She nodded a few times, then answered. "Okay, just hang on. I'll head on in. Go ahead and start serving up the rest of them. I'll sort it out in a bit when I get there. Okay, bye."
She hung up the phone. "AJ, I gotta head on in now. You and your sister ready to go?"
"Yes, mam!" answered Applejack. Applebloom just nodded as she stuffed her food into her mouth, swallowing as quickly as she could.
"Alrighty, girls. Get yer stuff and get in the truck. We're heading out as soon as I set this grub aside." Granny quickly scraped everything into a tin, placed it in the fridge, then scribbled a note on the whiteboard by the sink. She grabbed her purse and keys and headed out the door.
Upstairs, a very confused and tired Princess of Friendship drifted out from the guest room, still wrapped in the truck's blanket. Smacking her lips and yawning, she looked down. Realizing she was still in the blanket, she returned to the room, carefully folded it up, and placed it on the end of the bed.
Rubbing her eyes, it dawned on her exactly where she was. "AJ?'' she called softly. She stretched, then headed down the stairs looking for everyone. "How did I get here?" she wondered aloud. The last thing she remembered was being in the school parking lot, and laying down in the back of a truck to stay warm.
The kitchen looked like it had recently been used. There were dishes in the sink, the stove was covered in pans, and the smell was heavenly. No food though. She must have missed them. She wondered why no one had bothered to wake her up.
She walked out the front door, looking for anyone. "AJ!" she called out, heading towards the barn.
Big Mac, finished with the morning feed, was on his way back to the barn to put the feed away. Rounding the back of the barn, he noticed Twilight wandering around, looking out of sorts. "Twilight!" he called out, waving when she turned toward him.
"Big Mac? Big Mac! Where is everyone?" She headed towards him.
"Just a sec Twilight! Lemme put this feed away and I'll meet you in the kitchen." Twilight nodded, turned back to the farmhouse and went inside.
Putting everything away and quickly cleaning up, Big Mac joined Twilight in the farmhouse kitchen. "Get you anything princess?" asked with a smirk.
"Coffee. Please," groaned Twilight, face buried in her hands. "Ugh... feels like I could sleep for another few hours." Taking the proffered caffeinated gift from the gods, she scooped in some sugar, poured some cream, and stirred. "You wouldn't happen to know how I got here would you?"
Big Mac laughed. "Nope. Found you in the back of the truck last night when Granny got home. So I tucked you into the guest bedroom. I guess you were plenty tired, you slept through the whole thing."
Both hands wrapped around the mug, Twilight slurped her coffee, slowly waking. "Ugh. Thank you. Is AJ still here?" she asked.
"Nope." Big Mac replied. "Ya just missed her."
Twilight groaned. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 16 - Special Holidays - Sunset - Homeward Bound | Sunset - Homeward Bound
Sitting in her borrowed wheelchair, Sunset surveyed everything she would be taking home.
On her bed were several boxes, filled with supplies the hospital was sending home for her care. Packages of adult diapers, wipes, disposable nitrile gloves, and bed pads. Suppositories, creams and gels. A bed pan - she hadn't even known what one was a week ago, let alone what it looked like or was for. She shook her head.
Travel kits - an odd name for the small packages of soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash and deodorant placed in little plastic tubs. A walker - not that she was walking yet. But with help, she could stand for about thirty seconds or so, holding tightly to the walker, shaking the entire time. But progress. Progress, not perfection.
A transfer board. A practical name for the mobile butt slide, letting her glide from one seat to another. In practice, it was a literal pain in the behind. She was always afraid she was going to fall. And falling was now an uncontrolled flight to the floor, a painful one way ride she was determined to avoid. Her nurses and therapists had drummed into her head; falling was dangerous, killing many in her circumstance. It was to be avoided at all costs. Her hope was she could strengthen herself to the point she never needed the board, and could stand and shift herself to wherever she needed to go.
Folders and books, the most notable being titled 'Living with SCI', featuring an older couple sitting in wheelchairs while holding hands. It was large, thicker than she expected, and featured many pictures and diagrams. She briefly glanced through it, but put off reading it until later. An exercise packet she had previously reviewed while going through all the exercises with her PT therapist. She'd promised to keep them up, building on what they had started to keep her mobility, such as it was, intact.
A folder full of paperwork, including orders for full leg compression stockings - like nylons, but much less fashionable, and thicker. What they lacked in style they made up for in function - keeping her legs from swelling. An order for a block of foam to be used to keep her legs elevated while she rested in bed. Celestia promised she would get her a power bed, similar to what she was using here at the hospital. But until then, the block would do. Referrals to specialists, including the OT department downstairs, who would work with the vendors to order and fit her custom wheelchair. And the order for the therapist specializing in PTSD and trauma recovery. It was all a bit overwhelming.
She wheeled over to the cabinet that served as her hospital room's closet. Opening the doors, she noticed her backpack, buried under blankets tossed into the bottom of the cabinet. She placed the pack on her lap, and felt the pack vibrate. "The Journal! Twilight!" gasped Sunset. She quickly rolled over to the bed, pulling the vibrating journal from her pack.
Flipping to the last written page, she read Twilight's reply.
'Sunset! Hang on, what the hay is happening there? This sounds like it's become serious? Are you okay? Do you need anything? Sunset, please let me know!'
The messages continued, each becoming more distressed and urgent, up to the final one.
'Sunset, I am coming through the portal. Meet me at the base of the statue, and we'll work through this together. I promise, we will get through this! Yours in Friendship, Twilight'
"Horse Apples! When did she send this? Ugh... I've got to get someone to go meet her. Damnit..."
She grabbed her phone, scrolled through to Vice-Principal Luna's number and hit dial. "Come on Luna, pick up.... Please!" She got voice mail, so she left a quick message. "Ms. Luna, it's me, Sunset! I have a bit of an emergency, can you please send someone to the Wondercolts statue and pick up Twilight? I got a message from her, she is waiting for me there. But I have no way to reach her! Tell her I am coming, please?" She disconnected. "Ugh!"
"There has to be someone else I can call... who, who?" Sunset groaned, hands to her head. "Wait! Flash... I still have his number, right?" She scrolled through her contacts, found it, and hit dail. "Come on Flash, pick up, please..."
"Sunset?" came the answer from the phone. "Hey Sunset, where are you? Are you alright? No one's seen you all morning, and there are some really bad rumors going around..."
"Flash! Oh thank Celestia! Flash, can you help me out, please? And why the heck have you not responded to my messages all last week?!"
"Uh, yeah, sorry Sunset. I lost my phone making deliveries last week! I just got the replacement yesterday. I changed it overnight. I was going to call you honest! So where are you? What's going on? Vice-Principal Luna just called a general assembly, and rumor is it's about you. Are you okay?"
"No. No, I'm not okay. But Flash, I need your help! Princess Twilight is there, she came through the portal! Do you see her there? Did someone pick her up?"
"Twilight is here?! Ugh.. wha.. Twilight? Okay. Uhm... Wow. Yeah, no... There's been no sign of her here. One sec..." Sunset heard Flash in the background. "Mr. Doodle? I need to be excused for a moment. Family emergency, I need to go to the office.. Okay thanks!"
A moment later he was back on the phone. "Okay back. I'm checking the statue now. Need a moment." She could hear him moving though the hall then opening the door. "Okay, no sign of her. Checking around the building." He must've been running, she could hear his labored breath through the phone. A minute later "Sorry no sign of her Sunset. I'm going to check with the office. Hang on..."
Back through the door. "Ms. Raven? Vice-Principal Luna? Anyone?" called out Flash.
A moment later, Vice-Principal Luna's door opened. "Mr. Sentry, please come in." She turned, returning to her desk and sat down.
"Are you still there Sunset? I'm putting you on speaker. I'm heading into Vice-Principal Luna's office now..."
"Okay Flash. Thank you!" answered Sunset.
"Mr. Sentry! What can I do for you today? Is everything alright?" Sunset heard Luna greet.
"Vice-Principal Luna. Hi, uhm... no, actually I think something is wrong. Princess Twilight is here I think. Uhm... one second. I have Sunset on the phone here. She's on speaker."
"Sunset! How are you? Is everything okay? What's this about Princess Twilight?"
"Ms. Luna! Thank you! Thank you Flash. Ms. Luna, I got a message from Twilight saying she was coming through the portal, and would meet me by the Wondercolts statue. I'm not sure exactly when she sent it, but have you seen her? Is she still there?" asked Sunset.
"No, sorry Sunset. I haven't seen Twilight, and she hasn't come through the office. Could she have possibly gone back through the portal when she saw you weren't there?" replied Luna.
"Maybe? I don't know." Sunset groaned. "Flash said he didn't see any sign or her, and he checked the school grounds, right Flash?"
"Yeah. That's right, I ran around the building and looked. I didn't check the fields or anything but no, I didn't see any sign of her," responded Flash.
"And I haven't seen her in the office or around the school this morning either, Sunset. I'm sorry, but she likely tired of waiting and returned to her home," answered Luna.
Sunset sighed. "Okay. okay... one sec. Let me check. I have the journal right here." She put the phone on speaker, and set it on the table by her bed. She opened the journal.. "Pen... pen, where is it?" Digging through the drawers, she found a pen found and prepared to write.
'Dear Twilight. Where are you? Did you come here? Are you back in your castle? I'm sorry I couldn't get to the portal to meet you, long story. Let me know where you are and I'll ask someone to meet you. Thanks! Your friend, Sunset.'
"Ugh. I feel like an idiot. I should have done that first," grumbled Sunset.
"What's that Sunset? I couldn't quite hear you," responded Luna.
"Nothing... I was just saying I was an idiot for not responding to Twilight first," groaned Sunset. "I'll give her a minute or two to respond. And will definitely let you know if she says anything."
"Okay. Yes please. And Sunset? Don't worry, we will sort this out. I'll see you tonight when I get home," answered Luna. "Sunset, Mr. Sentry and I have an assembly to attend. I'll call you back after it's completed. We have to 'sign off' now. Goodbye Sunset."
"Okay. Goodbye Ms. Luna. See you soon. And thank you!"
"So Sunset, you're living with Vice-Principal Luna? That's cool. When did that start?" asked Flash.
"Not now, Mr. Sentry. We have to leave. Tell Sunset goodbye. Let's go."
"Bye Sunset. I'll call you back later. Take care, okay?" Flash hung up the phone.
"Ugh. So frustrating..." Sunset stared at the journal, willing some response to appear. Still nothing.
Celestia entered the room. "Sunset. How's it going in here? Almost ready? They're getting the final papers together now." She noticed the journal. "Ah, what's that? I've never seen that book before. It looks rather fancy."
"This is my Journal from, er.. Okay. you know how I came over through the portal from my Equestria, right? The world I come from is kind of a parallel to your world. A lot of the people here are also in my world too. Well not exactly... but I mean they are there too. Like the people here are people, uhm.... Well creatures? Anyways, they are creatures in my world too. Like parallel. I was a pony. A unicorn, studying magic, and I was the personal student of Princess... uhm. I was the personal student of your counterpart. Princess Celestia. She rules Equestria, where I come from. I was her student. And she gave me this Journal so I could communicate with her while we were apart, when she had to leave and couldn't be with me during my studies."
"Uh... Oh. Okay." The shocked look on Principal Celestia's face was priceless.
"So... uhm. Yeah. So I was your student... I mean your counterpart's student, back in Equestria. And this Journal lets me communicate with her... well not her. Not anymore. She gave it to Twilight. So now it lets me communicate with Princess Twilight. And we use it to talk. Like a phone.. But, well... not like a phone. But like text messages. You know," finished Sunset lamely.
"Okayyyy..... So what's going on then, are you talking with her now?"
"No. No see that's the thing. She sent a message she was coming through the portal to meet me. She wanted me to meet her at the base of the Wondercolt statue. But my Journal was buried in my backpack, and apparently covered with blankets.. Ugh.. whatever. But I haven't used it since yesterday afternoon! So I have no idea when she came over. It might have been yesterday, or today. But whenever it was, apparently no one was there to meet her! And she may have gone back. Or not. We don't know. Ms. Luna said she didn't see her, and Flash looked all over the grounds, and I sent a message back but she hasn't responded... and I'm starting to get worried." Sunset huffed.
"Okay, deep breaths Sunset. There's no point in letting this get you worked up. It will sort itself out." Celestia pulled the guest chair over and sat next to Sunset. Holding Sunset's hands, she gave them a gentle squeeze. "We'll sort this out. Together. Okay Sunset?"
Sunset raised her head, and looked into Celestia's eyes. "Yes. Yes, together. Thank Celestia yes! Together." She took a deep breath.
"Uhm. Sunset?"
"Yes?"
"Why do you keep using my name like that?"
Sunset groaned. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 17 - Special Holidays - Twilight rides the Rocket | Twilight rides the Rocket
Twilight pushed away her finished breakfast plate, savoring the taste of the scrambled eggs and biscuits she had just enjoyed. Nursing her coffee, she looked to Big Mac.
"Thank you for that breakfast Big Mac. That was wonderful!" she smiled. "Don't tell Spike, but I haven't had eggs like that in ages. And these biscuits are so light and airy. How do you do it?"
"Yup!" grinned Big Mac. "The secret is the mix. You can only get that mix locally, ain't nowhere else has it, and ain't nothin good as it anywhere. And them eggs are home grown. Just gathered 'em up this mornin."
"Umm. Well thank you Big Mac. That was a fantastic way to wake the day. Though... Can you get me back to the school? I was supposed to meet Sunset at the base of the portal. I can only imagine what she must be going through." She sipped her coffee. "Mmm."
"Sorry Ms. Twilight. Ya done missed Granny taking everyone to school with her, and the truck's the only car we got here on the farm. Though, if you're feeling up for a bit of adventure... we could take rocket."
"Rocket? Sounds dangerous... what's that?"
"Rocket's my pa's old motorbike. He used to race it when he was a kid. It got banged up a bit, and he put it in storage. Then, after Ma and he disappeared, no one touched it for years. Ah fixed it up when ah got older, and now ah use it to race around a bit when ah get a chance. Up for a ride and a bit of adventure?"
"Sure," grinned Twilight. "After everything else that's happened? What can it hurt?"
"Ahhhh!" screamed Twilight, arms wrapped around Big Mac, holding on for her dear life. "Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! I'm going to fall off and we are going So Fasssstttttttt!"
Big Mac grinned. "Hang on Ms. Twilight. We're almost there." He gunned the bike through another intersection, accompanied by Twilight's terrified screams.
Eyes screwed shut, face buried in Big Mac's shoulder, Twilight embraced Big Mac, holding tightly with a grip she hoped might defy death itself.
"We're here Ms. Twilight. Ya can let go now." Big Mac chuckled. Twilight didn't move. "No seriously. We're stopped. We're at the school. Really. Ya can let go."
Twilight opened her eyes, then blushed madly. She quickly scooted off the bike and brushed off her blouse and skirt. "Uhm.. eh... uhmm... err.... Thank you! Yes, thank you Big Mac. Ummm... yes, thank you so much for the ride. On your bike. I mean, the ride on your motorbike. Yes. on that. I mean. Yes. Thank you!"
Big Mac laughed. "Yer most welcome Ms. Twilight. Have a good afternoon now." He revved the bike's engine. Twilight flinched.
Grinning, Big Mac waved, then popped up the front wheel as he raced off through the school gates. "Sweet Celestia! How in the tartarus is that man not already dead!" gasped Twilight as she watched him speeding off.
She turned and entered through the school doors, and headed for the Principal's office. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 18 - Special Holidays - Luna | Luna
Vice-Principal Luna left the assembly, walking calmly back to her office. Inside, she was shaking with rage, angered by some of the responses during the assembly. That anyone could think so poorly of Sunset, after everything that had happened, was to her unfathomable. Sunset had suffered so much! They had no right to treat her like that! And to show such callous lack of sympathy, such complete disdain for Sunset's sufferings! Intolerable! She would not stand for this! When she found whomever was responsible for Sunset's sufferings, they would rue the day their mothers bore them!
Rounding the corner, she entered the school offices. Opening the door to her room, she stepped inside, and closed her door. She then took several deep breaths, bringing her arms out and in with each one, centering herself. "Calm, Luna. Peace... I am one with the stars. I am one with the planets. I am one with the cosmos." She took several more cleansing breaths.
'Nightmare Moon, Mistress of Darkness, may need to spend a bit less time on-line... rue the day indeed...' she mused.
A final cleansing breath later, and considerably calmer, she sat behind her desk. A knock sounded at the door. Flash poked his head in. "Ms. Luna? I mean, Vice-principal Luna? May I come in?"
Nodding, Luna pointed at the seat across from her "Mr. Sentry, come in, please." Flash entered her office, and sat in the chair in front of the desk..
Flash sat quietly, face in his hands, reflecting on what Vice-Principal Luna shared during the assembly. He too had been floored by some of the responses from the other students. "I can't believe some people can be such insensitive assholes..." he muttered quietly.
"Language Mr. Sentry, and quite agreed," responded Luna.
"Hello! Anyone here? Ms. Raven? Principal Celestia? Vice-Principal Luna?" a voice called out from the school office.
Flashes head snapped up. "Twilight?" he called out.
"Flash! Is that you? Where is everyone?"
"Twilight! It's Vice-Principal Luna! I'm here with Mr. Sentry, please, come in," called out Luna. A moment later, Twilight poked her head into the office, then smiled when she spied the pair.
"Oh thank Celestia!" she called out, then entered the office and took the seat next to Flash. "Hello Flash!" she greeted. "Haven't seen you in a while! How have you been?" A flush crept up her cheeks, as she turned her head shyly.
Flash blushed as well. "Hi Princess Twilight. Nice to see you too!" he grinned.
Luna raised an eyebrow, then smirked. "Well... greetings all around! Welcome Twilight. We've been worried about you. It seems after Sunset received your message, no one was able to find you."
"Ah.. yeah. Well... yeah. I kind of... got lost. Sort of. Long story. Anyways..... Here I am! So, what's going on with Sunset? Where is she, is everything alright?" asked Twilight.
"No Twilight. I'm afraid not. Everything is not 'alright'. Sunset has been attacked," replied Luna.
"Attacked! What! Where is she! I need to see her! Take me to her please? Where is my friend?" Frantic, Twilight leaned over the desk, both hands planted. "Please Luna, tell me... is she okay? Where is she? What happened, what's going on?"
A voice called out behind them from the door. "Twilight! I was so worried about you! When did you get here? You didn't have to wait long did you? I am so, so sorry I didn't get your message!"
Turning, Twilight saw Sunset sitting in the doorway. She was in a wheelchair, and behind, pushing her, was Principal Celestia. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 19 - Special Holidays - Principal Celestia | Principal Celestia
Celestia helped Sunset pack everything into the boxes the hospital provided. Eventually everything was ready and loaded on the cart. They waited for the staff to finish the release paperwork.
Dr. Quinn returned, paperwork in hand. "Okay Ms. Shimmer. We're ready. Sign this, and we will get you loaded up and heading out to your new life." She grinned. "Sign here, here, and here. And on this tab here. Initial this. And here. Also here. Right. Read this, then sign here and initial here, and here. Okay. Done. And Ms. Shimmer, please be sure to contact Dr. Discord, he specializes in trauma, and I am sure he'll be able to help you with your memories. Also don't forget I expect to see you back here twice a week for your evaluations and checkups. The appointment schedule is in right here, in the back of this folder. Do not forget please."
Papers signed, Dr. Quinn removed the back copies of each and placed them into Sunset's folder. The originals she placed into Sunset's chart. "All set then! I'll have a nurse come roll you out, and I'll see you, Ms. Shimmer, in my clinic downstairs in two days. Please arrive at least 15 minutes early, there's paperwork you'll need to complete before the appointment. Best wishes Sunset! I'll see you then."
With a smile and wave, Dr. Quinn left the room, heading for the nursing station. She chatted briefly with the charge nurse, then went into her office. The charge nurse tapped one of the shift nurses on the shoulder, and after a brief discussion the shift nurse headed to Sunsets room.
"Hello Ms. Shimmer. My name is Nurse Feelgood. I'm told you're going home now? Congratulations! I'm sure you are looking forward to that." Nurse Feelgood smiled, hands crossed before her. "If you're ready to go, I'll wheel you out now."
Grinning, Sunset replied. "Yes, please. I love you all dearly, but I am so ready to be home. Let's go."
Taking her queue, Nurse Feelgood stepped behind Sunset's chair and pushed her towards the door. "Where are we heading exactly?" she asked.
Celestia pushed the cart through the door. "Perhaps I should take the lead. We're heading to my car in the northeast lot. This way." She cleared the door and started down the hall towards the elevators.
"Wagons ho!" snarked Sunset, causing Nurse Feelgood to grin.
"Wagons ho it is Ms. Shimmer," she laughed.
Down in the parking lot, Celestia, Sunset, and Nurse Feelgood looked at Principal Celestia's sports car. It was a sleek and sporty two seater, with a swept top and a little tiny compartment in the back for a few bags of groceries or whatever else someone might put in a sporty car's trunk.
Looking at the boxes, then back at the opened trunk, Celestia sighed. "I think I'm going to need a bigger car."
Sunset face palmed. Nurse Feelgood burst into laughter.
It felt good to be out of the hospital. Strapped into the passenger seat of Celestia's sporty two seater, window down, Sunset enjoyed the breeze whipping through her hair. Behind her, strapped to the open trunk of the car, was her borrowed wheelchair, fronted by boxes and looking like something out of a scene from an old movie, with hillbillies and lots of horrid twanging music. She snorted out a laugh at the image, which she tried and failed to stifle.
"Laugh it up, Sunset. Laugh it up. I know where you live," growled Celestia. They both exploded in fits of laughter.
"Stop! Stop... don't make me laugh so hard! Oh ugh.." Sunset gasped. "You're horrible! When did you get a sense of humor?"
"I've been hanging around this girl who likes to snark at everything. I think it's rubbing off on me," grinned Celestia.
Sunset grinned. "Thank Celestia! I was hoping I would rub off on someone!" She laughed.
"Okay, seriously! What's up with that?" asked Celestia. "You do that all the time. So why is Celestia your apparent swear word of choice?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Uhm... Yeah, I can see where that would sound... .awkward? Okay. Yeah your counterpart? Princess Celestia? My mentor? She's not just the ruler of Equestria. There's magic involved..."
"Yes. And..." asked Celestia.
"Well. She's responsible for moving the Sun. Like, around. Every day. She brings the day. She used to bring the night too. But her sister returned. Long story. Anyways.... Yeah, so her sister? Princess Luna? She moves the moon. Brings the night. And like, the stars. And the planets. So, yeah... magic. Anyways... "
"Wait. What? So Luna has a counterpart too? And she moves the moon? And Celestia moves the Sun?" Celestia got a pensive look, then after a moment, pursed her lips in a moue.
"Uhm... Yeah. So that's why everyone says 'thank Celestia'. And thank Luna too, I guess? Don't know - that's new, she returned after I left, you'd have to ask Princess Twilight about that. Wait... what's that face? Why the pout? You're pouting."
"I am not pouting! I'm merely reflecting!" pouted Celestia.
"No. No, that's a moue. What's up?"
"I am reflecting. Reflecting... Reflecting that maybe, I got the shorter end of the existential stick here? I'm the Principal of the local High School. And my counterpart is a Princess, and a god? What the heck fate? Why do you hate me?"
Sunset laughed, then reached out and hugged Celestia. "Trust me, no one hates you. You're the real deal in my book."
Celestia laughed. "In my book too. Okay, driving Sunset. Need my arms... thanks!" Sunset leaned back into her seat, smiling. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 20 - Special Holidays - Canterlot Movie Club | Canterlot Movie Club
The girls were back in their room. Apple Bloom had her phone out, logged into the Anon-a-miss account.
"Delete it! Delete it now!" gasped Scootaloo. "We shoulda deleted it earlier! Darn it all... we shoulda deleted it ages ago.. We shoulda never done it. Ah crab apples!"
Fingers racing, Apple Bloom deleted the account, and removed the app from her phone. "Done!" she called out.
"Look," said Sweetie Belle. "We all need to just relax. No one meant for this to happen. We didn't tell anyone to attack Sunset. We just wanted her to leave. It's not our fault."
"Doesn't matter... '' groused Apple Bloom. "We started the whole mess. It's gonna fall on our doorstep no matter how it shakes out."
"Girls, we gotta own it. We need to fess up to it," begged Scootaloo.
"Are you crazy!" shouted Sweetie Belle. "Do you know how much trouble we are gonna be in if we get caught?"
"Nah, think about it Sweetie Belle. Scoots is right..." sighed Apple Bloom. "We're already in trouble. We did it, can't duck that. An' if we try and wait an' hope it passes us by, and we get found out later, it's gonna be a whole lot worse than if we just fess up."
Sweetie Belle face palmed. "We are so royally screwed...'' she groaned.
"Yeah, royally. That's a given" agreed Scootaloo.
"Okay, come on then. Let's get this over with." |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 21 - Special Holidays - Five Former Friends | Five Former Friends
After the assembly, the students were instructed to return to their homerooms and wait for further instructions. Luna was hoping that the news, coupled with a chance to quietly reflect on what they had learned, might motivate the responsible parties to own up to their parts in the events.
Apparently that was not to be, so as instructed by Vice-Principal Luna, the teachers informed the students at the end of homeroom they were released for the day, and that their normally scheduled classes would resume the following morning.
Pinky rounded up her friends, suggesting they head to SugarCube Corner to talk about what they'd just heard. They all agreed, so the group adjourned to their favorite booth in the back corner of the bakery.
"We done goofed," groaned Applejack, face hidden under her father's battered Stetson. "We shoulda' believed her, than none of this mess woulda happened."
"We more than 'done goofed' AJ.," sighed Rainbow Dash. "We left her hanging. I left her hanging. Tartarus sake, I left her out to dry. Some 'element of loyalty'. I might as well have beaten her myself." Rainbow hid her face in her hands and bowed her head. "How in the seven hells of tartarus am I ever gonna make it up to her?"
"..."
"I'm sorry Fluttershy. I couldn't hear a word you said there dear. What was that?" asked Rarity, gently putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.
Pushing back a strand of her bright pink hair, Fluttershy looked meekly at her friends, then spoke again. "We can't," she stated softly, then looked back down to the table, wringing her hands in her lap.
Morosely, the friends continued to stare at the table in front of them, lost in their thoughts.
The bell above the door clanged, and three young girls entered the bakery. Looking around, they spied their sisters sitting at their usual booth. Heads hung low, they walked over and stood before them. Apple Bloom spoke up. "AJ?" she called out quietly. No response. "Applejack." Nothing. Still clearly lost in thought, someplace else. "Sis!" she called out.
Applejack looked up. "Oh, hi girls," she said, then looked back down at the table. A moment later, she looked back up. "Apple Bloom, what ya need girl? We're kinda in the middle of somin' here."
The girls flinched. "Uhm.. yeah. AJ, we need to talk. We gotta tell ya'll somin."
The others all looked up. "What is it, dears?" asked Rarity.
"It was us," stated Apple Bloom.
"We're anon-a-miss," added Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo just hung her head in shame.
The five friends gapped. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 22 - Special Holidays - Sunset | Sunset
Gathered in Luna's office, Twilight related her 'adventures'. Sunset then explained what had happened, and what was currently going on. She told Twilight she couldn't recall anything about the events that lead to her injuries. She was sure, however, that Rainbow couldn't have been one of the ones responsible.
"It had to have been a setup. Even as angry as she was, there is no way Rainbow would ever have done that," Sunset added.
"I would certainly hope not!" stated Twilight. "Still though, we need to talk to the girls. Any idea where they could be?"
"They usually meet in the band room," stated Flash. "Or SugarCube Corner. They have a booth at the bakery where they hang."
Luna looked at Flash askance. "Mr. Sentry, I do hope you have not been stalking your fellow students?"
"Wha? Huh?" responded Flash. "What? No! I... no. I just know where they go because I ask them about..." Flash blushed profusely. "Uh... nevermind."
"No please, Mr. Sentry. Please elucidate us," requested Luna.
"Uhh. ugh. Okay. Yeah. I ask the girls a lot if they have heard from someone," answered Flash.
"Someone?" asked Twilight.
"Some.. uhg.. You. I ask them about you, Twilight," responded Flash, face buried in his hands in embarrassment. "I ask them if they have heard from you, or if you're coming back to visit."
Twilight flushed red with embarrassment. "Uh... Mhh... Uhg...."
"Flash, I think you broke our Princess!" snarked Sunset, grinning ear to ear.
"Mhg... ugh... hmmm," added Twilight.
Flash reached over, and placed a hand on Twilight's shoulder. "Twilight, are you okay?" he asked.
With a start, Twilight's eyes went wide. Snapping her head up, she looked to Flash, then shook her head, and smiled. "Hi!" she chirped.
Sunset face palmed. "Reboot!"
Luna cracked a slight grin, catching herself. Celestia let out a muffled snort.
"Okayyy...." said Flash. "That happened."
"Uh. Yes. Hi. So you might know where they are. Okay," continued Twilight.
"Yeah... um.. I'll be right back, let me go check." With that, Flash jumped up and bolted from the room.
She held out for as long as she could, but a few seconds later Sunset lost it, laughing so hard she nearly fell out of her chair.
Seeing that, Luna and Celestia joined in fits of laughter.
"It's not that funny!" stated Twilight, still beet red, squirming in her seat.
Taking a deep breath, Sunset replied. "Oh Twilight. Twilight Twilight Twilight... Don't ever change!"
The whole group exploded in renewed gales of laughter.
Twilight grinned. "Okay, fine. Yeah. It is a little funny. Ha ha ha." |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 23 - Special Holidays - Flash Sentry | Flash Sentry
Flash ran down the hall to the band room. His face was still flush, embarrassed by his inadvertent confession.
'Ugh. Really? Really really?' he thought.
Poking his head into the bandroom, he saw no one was there. SugarCube Corner it is then. Off he went.
'Why? Why did I say that? So not cool...'
His thoughts continued as he flew through the halls and out the doors, crossing the lot, then heading down the street to the bakery.
'Now she's going to think I'm the biggest dingus ever. Ahggg.. Who am I kidding.. I am the biggest dingus ever! I just admitted to basically stalking her through her friends. Creepy creepy creepy.. I'm so toast! She'll never talk to me again...'
Still lost in his thoughts, he entered the bakery. Looking up, he spied the girls sitting at their usual table. Their sisters were there too. Snapping out of his funk, he headed over to their booth.
"...we're anon-a-miss," he heard Sweetie Belle say.
'Wait, what?' he thought. 'They're anon-a-miss? The CMC is anon-a-miss?'
The table exploded in response. "What! How in tarnation are you anon-a-miss?" exclaimed Applejack.
"Sweetie... no!" gasped Rarity.
"Scoots.... Say it isn't so..." cried out Rainbow.
Everyone was shouting. The CMC were crying and yelling. The girls started crying too, and in moments the rest of the bakery had turned to them, all other conversation stopped.
Flash stepped up, and hugged the CMC, pressing them shoulder to shoulder before him. "Girls!" he shouted over their shoulders. "Girls! Listen up!" They still were crying and yelling, no one paying any attention to anything except their drama. Sighing, he hugged the girls tighter and whistled loudly.
Silence. Finally.
They all turned to him. "Girls. Twilight's here," he stated. "She's looking for you. She wants to talk about what happened to Sunset, and what's going on. All of you, come with me. I'll bring you to her."
Five girls nodded, while the CMC just hung their heads. "Come on girls, with me." Flash took Sweetie Belle's and Applebloom's hands, while Scootalo tagged behind with the girls. Flash led them out of the bakery and back to the office of Vice-Principal Luna.
Everyone in the bakery just sat there looking stunned. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 24 - Special Holidays - Sunset | Sunset
Stories shared, everyone was brought up to speed.
Twilight cried as she embraced Sunset. "I am so, so sorry Sunset! I never thought this would happen. Not in my worst nightmare. I am so, so very sorry."
"It's not your fault Twilight. I don't blame you. Please know I don't blame you for any of this," Sunset cried on the shoulder of her friend. "I know you would never have let this happen if you knew. It's not your fault."
There was a knock on the door. "Enter please," called out Luna, and Flash poked his head in.
"I found the girls. The CMC is here too, they have something they want to tell you." Saying that, Flash opened the door fully, stepping aside to hold the door open. The five friends and their sisters entered the office, lining up in front of the desk, heads hung low. Flash shut the door then joined them.
"Sweet harmony, Sunset! You look like 50 miles of bad road sugar! What tha heck happened to ya?" gasped Applejack.
"Long story Applejack. Long story. Short answer? I wish I knew." Sunset hung her head, still holding Twilight. Twilight brushed the tears from her eyes, then smiled at Sunset.
Luna looked to the girls before her desk. "Alright girls. I believe you have something to say?"
Applejack stepped forward, her hat in her hands. "Sunset. Ah was wrong to not listen to ya. Ah know ah ain't got no right to ask this of ya, but ahm here ta ask it anyhow. Can ya ever forgive me for not listening, and not giving ya the chance ya needed? Fer not giving ya muh friendship instead ah the horrible guff ah put ya through?"
Rainbow Dash stepped up to stand next to her. "And some loyal friend I turned out to be. Sunset, I don't expect you to ever forgive me for what I've done. But I am begging you please forgive me."
Rarity looked up, turning to face Sunset. "Darling, I was a complete ass. You have every right to be angry with me. I would completely understand if you never forgave me. But please dear, I am so very sorry. And I will never abandon you like that again."
Fluttershy looked down at her shoes. "I was wrong. You were a true friend. I was the one that was never a friend. Please Sunset. Please forgive me. I'm sorry."
Pinky Pie slumped down, hair flat, looking completely dejected. "I'm sorry. I should've never called you a meanie secret stealer. Sunset, please forgive me. I just want to be your friend again. I'm so, so sorry." Tears streamed down her face.
Leaning back from Twilight, Sunset palmed away her tears. She looked towards the girls. "Girls, I know you didn't do this to me. And I know you never expected this to happen. But it did, and now we are all stuck with these consequences." Their faces fell.
Sunset continued, arms outstretched to the girls. "But I do forgive you. And I still want your friendship, if you'll have me. I'm damaged goods now, but if you could forgive me for everything I've done, I could never hold this against you."
With that, the girls rushed forward and embraced Sunset and Twilight in a massive hug. Tears were shed, and hearts were mended.
After several tearful moments, Applebloom stepped forward.
"We're anon-a-miss," she said simply.
Sunset looked stunned. Twilight sighed. "I was afraid of that."
"Wha... huh?" Sunset gawked.
Twilight turned to Sunset. "Their counterparts did something similar a while ago. I'll tell you later." Turning to Applebloom, she only had one word. "Why?"
Applebloom looked down in shame. "Ah was jealous of all the time she was spendin' with ma sister. Ah wanted her ta spend the time with me."
"Me too," added Sweetie Belle. "I wanted Rarity back. She used to spend more time with me, but since Sunset came she hasn't had time for me anymore."
"I was missing all the time Rainbow used to hang with me. Even though we're not really sisters, she's been a big sister to me for as long as I can remember. I wanted her back too."
The girls hung their heads in shame. Sunset looked at the girls. "Girls, look at me," she said.
The three of them looked up at Sunset. Seeing her there, they were ready for her rage. She had every right to hate them. They had hurt her, hurt her badly.
But when they looked in her eyes, they saw something else. It wasn't rage. There was pain, there was confusion too. But no hate. Pain and confusion.
"Girls, are you telling us the reason for all this, for starting anon-a-miss, for spreading these secrets and hurting everyone around you, was just to get your sisters back?" The three girls nodded. "Did you talk to them? Did you tell them how you were feeling, that you missed them and needed them in your lives?"
Scootaloo shook her head, the other two nodded. Scootaloo sighed. "I was too ashamed," she said.
"Scoots. Ashamed? What did you have to be ashamed about?" asked Rainbow Dash, still shocked.
"I knew you'd think I was uncool if I acted like a little crying baby. So I kept my mouth shut," she answered. "I didn't want you to think I was a baby. I wanted to be cool like you. I wanted you to like me." Scootalo hung her head in shame.
Rainbow knelt in front of Scootaloo. "Scoots. Hey... Scootaloo. I would never think that! I'm sorry you thought that. Clearly I haven't been the friend you needed either." She groaned and face palmed. "Way to go Rainbow. Letting everyone down lately." Looking back to Scootaloo, she took her hands. "Scoots. Hey Scoots." Scootaloo looked up at her. "Scoots, I'm sorry. I messed up. I didn't realize you felt so abandoned. And then when all this started, I abandoned my friend Sunset. I screwed up Scoots. Big time. And I'm sorry. That was wrong of me. But what you did here... that was wrong too. Big time. You're gonna have a lot of work to do to set this right. It won't be easy."
Scootaloo's shoulders started shaking. Her head dropped. Silent tears slid down her cheeks.
"Scoots. Look at me." She raised her head again. "Scoots, this hurts. This hurts a lot. You're hurting. I'm hurt. Sunset is hurt horribly. And you got a lot of track you're gonna have to cover. But not alone. Scoots, I'm not abandoning you girl. You're not alone. I'm here, and I'm not leaving you. I'm not gonna leave you hanging." She pulled Scootaloo into a tight hug.
Sunset reached over, and pulled them both to her. "And neither am I. Come here girls." She hugged them tightly, tears spilling.
After a few moments, Sunset looked back to Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. "Girls, what happened? After you spoke with your sisters, why'd you continue this?"
"She pushed me off. She kept insisting everything was fine. She was busy, there wasn't time right now, it wasn't a good moment," Sweetie Bell answered.
Applebloom nodded. "It felt like no matter what ah said, it wasn't important enough to change nothing. Like anything ah was worried about was just not important. No matter what ah said or did, ah was just ignored. Ah blamed you for it, all ah it. But ah can see now, ah was wrong. Mah heart was bitter, and ah wasn't looking at the facts. Just mah hurt feelings and mah anger. Ah am so sorry Sunset. Ah'd give anything to take it all back, ah swear ah would, on ah stack ah bibles."
Sweetie Belle continued. "I blamed you. I blamed Rarity. I blamed everyone else. But now, I see it clearly. I made the poor choice to start this mess. And to continue it. And I let you get hurt by this, even though that's nothing I ever wanted. I am so sorry Sunset. I will do anything to make this right, even though I know I can never set this straight." Sweetie hung her head, still crying.
Holding out her arms again, Sunset called them over. "Come over here girls. Let's work together to make this right. We can't change the past. But we can build our futures, a better future, together, as friends." The girls stepped forward, and joined Rainbow and Scootaloo in the hug.
Sunset looked over to her former friends. "Group hug girls? As friends again? Can we do that? Can we be that again?" Her friends rushed over and joined them, all joyful tears and smiles.
Flash placed his arm around Twilight's shoulders. "Your padawan has grown so much, Obiwan."
Twilight looked over at him and smiled. "What? I don't get it."
Flash grinned. "Star Wars reference." Cocking an eyebrow, he spoke in a high pitched ragged voice. "I see your training is incomplete, my padawan. I must train you thoroughly..."
Twilight blushed and laughed. "Okayyyy... Not sure what that entails but color me intrigued. Maybe later?"
"It's a date, Princess," grinned Flash. "And it entails several hours of binge watching some awesome old movies, with lots of snacks and insightful discussion."
"That sounds like my kind of evening. It's a date," agreed Twilight, placing an arm around Flash and giving him a gentle squeeze. Smiles so wide they threatened to split their faces, they watch their friends tearful and heartfelt reconciliation.
Pulling away from the hug, Sunset grinned. "They grow up so fast!", Sunset snarked at Flash and Twilight.
Behind her, Luna snorted. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 25 - Special Holidays - Sunset Redux | Sunset redux
The group adjourned to SugarCube Corner, celebrating their reconciliation, and the joy and peace they found in the process.
At Sunset's insistence, the girls of the CMC were included. They knew they were facing severe consequences for their actions. Principals Celestia and Luna let them know, in no uncertain terms, there would at the very least be suspension, followed by a period of in school detentions. That was in addition to whatever punishments their parents enacted. However, Luna was quick to laud them for coming forward and admitting to their wrongs, and for their willingness to work to make amends, where they could, for what they had started.
Luna and Celetia promised to join them after they wrapped up for the day. "Recall Ms. Shimmer, I am your 'ride home' this evening," grinned Vice-Principal Luna. "I would be remiss not to join you."
Principal Celestia rolled her eyes, but grinned at her sister none-the-less. "Oh please, sister," grinned Luna. "You know you intend to join as well! You've never been one to pass up the chance to enjoy a well made slice of cake."
Principal Celestia gasped, affecting shock and outrage. "What? How could you say such a thing! The very thought!" She rolled up some papers and lightly struck her sister over the head.
"Have at thee knave!" grinned Vice-Principal Luna, rolling up her own stack of papers. She then proceeded to engage her sister in a mock battle of paper swords. As the two went back and forth behind the desk, the princess grinned and shook her head.
"I think that's our cue to exit. Ready Sunset?" asked Twilight, stepping behind Sunset's chair and placing her hands on the grips. "Last one there buys!"
"Let's do this!" shouted Sunset. Turning to Twilight, she snarked "I think you better go in before me though. They don't take bits."
"One time... Make a simple mistake one time.." groused the Princess.
"One time? Are you sure about that?" teased Sunset.
"Okay. Fiiiiine.... Maybe a few times. Maybe I still forget. Hay, I'm good for it. Sort of. Eventually." Twilight leaned down and whispered into her friend's ear with a grin. "Hey Sunset, can I borrow a few... uhm... whatever their calleds?" They both laughed as Twilight pushed Sunset out the door. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 26 - Special Holidays - Luna | Luna
Later that afternoon, Luna finished up her paperwork, looking forward to spending the evening with Sunset and her friends.
Looking over her desk, Luna nodded. Everything was caught up, reports filled out, requisitions signed and approved. Contented, she placed the completed work into a purple folder and locked it into the cabinet she shared with Raven, her and her sister's assistant. Another day's work completed.
Stepping out from behind the desk, she moved to the coat rack in the corner of her office, removing her purse and coat. The purse was a small and simple affair, dark purple, almost black in the dim light of her office, with a crescent moon emblazoned on its front. Luna had always had an affinity for the symbol, and found ways to incorporate it into her life whenever the opportunity presented.
Stepping out of her office, she called out to her assistant. "Raven, I'm heading out. Has Celestia finished for the day?"
"No. She's still in a meeting. Shall I tell her you left?" replied Raven, not missing a beat as she updated student reports from the sheets on the desk beside her.
"Yes, please. Still in there with Detective Armor I take it," said Luna as she crossed through the central office on her way to the door.
"I don't know why you two don't just call him Shining. It's not like everyone doesn't know he's marrying Cadence this summer - they already sent out the invitations. I know I've sent my RSVP," responded Raven, still typing.
"Just trying to stay professional. Appearances and all that my dear Raven. We have to keep up appearances," responded Luna, stopping at the door. Turning back for the moment, she added "Yes. Please let Celestia know I've already joined Sunset and her friends at SugarCube Corner for their celebration. Thank you Raven. Have a pleasant evening." She then stepped out and closed the door behind her.
The bakery was crowded, though that was expected. Besides Sunset and her friends having their celebration in the back corner of the bakery, there was the usual gathering of students enjoying the time away from school in the company of friends, surrounded by the familiar pleasant ambiance of the bakery. And of course the heavenly scent of the baked goods that had earned the bakery a fair bit of notoriety. Succumbing to the delightful temptations presented in the display counter, Luna ordered a fresh croissant, with dark berry jam, and a tall dark roasted coffee with honey, hazelnut and fresh cream. Once served, she headed over to the both where Sunset and her friends were gathered.
"Hello Sunset, Princess. Hello girls. Have room for an overworked Vice-Principal in your festivities?" greeted Luna as she approached the group.
Looking around, there wasn't a seat in sight. They had pretty much taken over that section of the bakery. Pinky Pie popped up, and bounced over to her. "No problemo, Vice-Principal Luna! I got this! I'll find a chair for you, one sec!" She bounced past, and through the service door to the bakery itself.
"I don't know where she gets her energy," observed Luna with a wry grin.
"It's one of life's little mysteries." laughed Rarity. "So glad you could make it Vice-Principal Luna."
"Please, just Luna here. We prefer to keep things less formal away from the school grounds and activities," replied Luna.
"Yes, of course Ms. Luna. Uhm... Luna. Sorry that just seems.. I'm not used to being this casual. Sorry Ms. Luna," responded Rarity with a frown.
"Any friends of Sunset are friends of mine. And my sister," Luna smiled at Rarity. "We consider Sunset family. She is dear to us, and holds a special place in our hearts. And as her friends, so too do you. So please, off the school grounds, no titles. Just Luna,. Or Ms. Luna if you must, whatever makes you the most comfortable."
"Ah... of course. Yes, thank you Ms. Luna," smiled Rarity. At that moment, Pinky reappeared, chair in hand.
"Okey dokey lokey. Here you go!" She placed the chair at the table, next to Sunset and Twilight, then with surprising grace bounced and flipped over the back of the both to slide back into her original seat, tucking into the treat still melting where she had left it. Smiling at her antics, Luna took her seat, and enjoyed a sip of her aromatic coffee.
Luna turned to Sunset. "Celestia is still meeting with Detective Armor. I imagine he will want to speak with you at some point as well. Don't worry though. He's an extremely nice person, a true gentleman. You'll like him, I am sure."
Twilight turned to Luna, latte foam hanging from her chin. "Wait, Armor? That wouldn't be Shining Armor would it?" she asked, her eyes lighting up.
"Yes, the very same I infer from your query you know him?" replied Luna, spreading her berry jam over her croissant and taking a small bite.
"Know him! Know him? He's my BBBFF!" gushed Twilight. "Or, I mean, he's my brother's other. My other's brother? My counterparts BBBFF? Yeah. That means he knows my counterpart. Oh! Oh oh oh. Have you met her? You know my counterpart? What's she like? Where does she go to school? Is she here? Can I meet her?" A manic glint formed in Twilight's eyes.
"Ah, know of him... Indeed. Yes dear. We know Shining Armor's sister. In truth, we thought you to be her when you first appeared. It seemed odd that you would be here at the time, when you were enrolled elsewhere. But then after the incident at the Fall Formal, when the whole 'portal to another world' thing was revealed, it was clear to us you were not her." Luna sipped her coffee.
"I would love to meet her. Can I meet her? Will she be here too?" Twilight enthused.
"Down girl!" laughed Sunset.
"Sorry!" blushed the Princess. "I just really would love to meet her. We could compare notes, and discuss the difference between our worlds. Just think of the discoveries we could make! We could advance science! And who knows..." Twilight got a distant look in her eyes and she zoned out, staring off into whatever distance she was imagining.
"And she's off..." snarked Sunset. "Equestria to Twilight... come in Twilight!" Twilight continued staring off into space with no answer, causing a chuckle from Sunset and Luna. "So glad you could make it. Thank you for coming" Sunset smiled. "I am so thankful for everything you and Celestia have done for me. I don't know where I would be without you two. I really, really am grateful."
"And so are we Sunset. So are we. You're more than welcome into our home, and our lives. Please know you will always be welcome." Luna smiled back, taking another bite of her croissant. "Mmm. These really are heavenly. I should come here more often." Luna moaned softly as she took another bite of the croissant, which she had almost completely eaten. "So flaky. So delicious."
"Thank you Ms. Luna!" chirped Pinky, appearing suddenly beside her. "I baked those this morning before school! They are delicious, that's a fact! It's an old Cake family recipe! The secret is in rolling out the layers of butter in the dough." She looked quickly from side to side. "But it's an old family secret... can't let just anyone know about it." She mimed zipping her lips shut, locking them, then throwing away the key.
Sunset laughed, while Luna looked at Pinky askance. "Okayyyy," responded Luna, drawing back slightly from the smiling teenager.
Twilight suddenly turned to face the counter at the front of the bakery. "I know that voice," she said. Moments later, Principal Celestia approached the gathering, Detective Shining Armor in tow. "Shining?" questioned Twilight.
Shining turned to Celestia. "Wow, you weren't kidding. She looks just like her!"
Pinky twirled between them. "Two more seats, coming up!" she cried out, and with a bow, disappeared again through the door at the back of the bakery.
Shining's eyebrows raised. "Um, who was that?" he asked.
Sunset laughed. "That's Pinky Pie. And that was just Pinky being Pinky."
Twilight grinned, "You get used to it."
Shining Armor extended his hand to the Princess. "Shining Armor, as you figured out. So wow, okay. You're my sister's counterpart! Or she's yours? However that works. Whatever. Pleased to make your acquaintance Princess. Princess right? Do I call you Princess? Or Princess Twilight. Or Your Highness. Highness? That's right, right? Or maybe your Royal Highness?" Shining got flustered.
"Just Twilight, please," smiled Twilight. "Sweet Celestia, but you sound exactly like my brother."
Shining laughed. "And it's uncanny how much you look exactly like my sister. Hair is different. Maybe a tiny bit taller. But if I didn't know better I would swear you were her." Just then, Pinky reappeared, two chairs in tow.
Placing the chairs behind them, she chirped "Make yourselves comfortable and stay awhile! The partys just getting started!" She then slipped under the table and popped back into her seat, tucking into her now very melted and messy strawberry banana split with extra everything. "What just happened?" asked Shining.
Twilight laughed at his confused expression. "Like I said. You get used to it. Pinky being pinky, am I right?" She turned to Sunset with a grin.
"Pinky being Pinky," Sunset nodded back, smiling at her friend.
"Okay... Noted." said Shining, pulling the seat up to the table and joining the girls. Smiling, Celetia pulled her own seat forward and joined them.
"Greetings sister, Detective Armor. Delighted you could join us," commented Luna. Turning to her sister with a grin and snarked. "I see you found the cake.
"Stuff it Luna..." responded Celestia between bites.
After the party, they parted ways. Shining Armor made his apologies, needing to leave to pick up Cadence from her shift at the radio station. The girls and their sisters accompanied Twilight and Sunset to the portal at the front of the school. Twilight crouched before Sunset, and took her hands in her own. "Sunset..." she looked down at their hands.
Sunset gave her a squeeze. "It's okay Twilight. Really. It's not your fault."
Looking up and into Sunset's eyes, Twilight's eyes misted. "I should've brought the journal with me. If I'd taken it with me, if I'd read it, and responded to your messages..."
"And if and if and if, yada yada yada... Twilight. What happened, happened. You're here now. That's what counts." Sunset pulled her closer. "You came. As soon as you could, you came. And stayed until you found me. And went through some crazy adventures... Seriously, girl. You are a magnet for crazy, you know that right?" She laughed.
Twilight laughed with her. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. One of the many things we have in common. You do it too, you know."
Sunset gave her a wry grin. "Don't I know it."
They hugged, then the girls took their turns. Twilight bid them all farewell, promising Sunset to stay in touch through the Journal. Sunset promised to contact her if she needed anything, even if it was just somepony to chat with. With a final wave, the Princess passed through the portal, returning to Equestria. The girls made their farewells as well, their sisters in tow. Rainbow took Scootaloo, promising to walk her home to her Aunts.
With everyone gone, the Royal sisters and Sunset made their way to the faculty parking lot. Luna helped Sunset into her car, and placed the chair in her trunk. Her trunk, that was considerably more spacious than her sisters - one of the advantages to driving a sedan, instead of the sportier but significantly more cramped vehicle her sister favored. 'Comfort over Style' was Luna's motto.
As they made their way home, Sunset turned to Luna. "Thank you again for taking me into your home. You've no idea how much I appreciate all that you and Celestia are doing for me. I really am grateful for it, and for both of you."
"And we are grateful for you Sunset. It's our privilege to share our lives with you. Thank you for saying yes and coming into our home and our lives. We consider you family Sunset. You're part of our lives now, and family is forever. You don't have to be alone any longer, not if you don't want to," Luna replied as she navigated their way home. She was loosely following her sister, but considering her sisters aggressive driving habits, was really not putting much effort into keeping up with her. Let Celestia have her fun, she thought with a grin.
"I've been alone enough thanks. I think I've had my fill of 'alone' for a while."
"I understand completely," replied Luna. "I too have spent time in solitude, and know the heartrending pain of being forgotten in loneliness."
"What? How? I'm sorry, not my business. I didn't mean to pry...." Sunset looked away. Luna reached over and took Sunset's hand.
"Sunset. I would not have mentioned it if I felt you were 'prying'. It's fine," she comforted.
Turning to face her, Sunset gave her a hopeful look. "When were you ever lonely? I'm sorry to ask, it's just that you and Celestia seem so close. I can't even imagine you two not together."
"We are close. I do believe we would die for each other, if it came to that. We certainly live for, and with, each other." Luna said with a smile. "But, it was not always that way. There was a time, when we were younger, where I let jealousy and hate cloud my heart. I felt my sister had abandoned me. She was always more outgoing, and popular, and never seemed to have difficulties finding and making friends. I was more introspective, and quiet. We drifted apart, though in my immaturity I saw only her abandoning me, not seeing my own actions in pulling away. My thoughts grew dark, my heart was clouded, and my visions turned inward, seeing only my pain and suffering."
Sunset's eyes grew wide in surprise. Luna continued.
"After a time, having pulled away from her, and thinking only of my heartache, which I blamed completely on her, I decided I would punish her. One night, I followed her to a party she was attending with her friends, and snuck into the house they were in. I stole the keys to her car. I was planning to steal it and leave it with the keys in some disreputable part of town, hoping someone would take it. It was her favorite thing, so I figured perhaps by losing it she would feel some of the loss I was feeling." Sunset squeezed her hand. Luna continued.
"It was a foolish endeavor. She saw me sneaking out of the house, and followed me. I rushed to her car, entered and started the engine. She placed herself before the car, hands on the hood, and called out to me to come out and talk." A tear fell down Luna's cheek, and Sunset's eyes misted as well.
"What happened? Was she angry with you? She was yelling at you then?"
"No Sunset. Not at all. I thought she was angry. But she was only calling to me out of love. She was worried, not about her car as I assumed, but about me, about what was wrong. She wanted me to come out so she could talk to me, to find out what was wrong, and why I was acting so bizarrely. But I only saw her yelling, bent over the hood, and I saw red. I decided to give her a good scare, and revved the engine hard. But in my anger, as I jerked my hand up to express my feelings to her with one of my fingers, my cuff caught on the shifter. In my rage I tried to pull it off, and wrenched my arm down. I accidentally threw the car into gear. It lurched forward, knocking my sister down and lurched over the top of her. I screamed, threw the car into park and ran to her."
Sunset was crying profusely. Eyes wide, she gripped Luna's hand tightly.
"It was horrid, Sunset. My sister was wedged beneath the car, blood everywhere. I tried to pull her out, screaming my head off for her not to die. Some of her friends with cooler heads pulled me away, and held me aside while they called emergency services." Luna was crying profusely too.
"They jacked up the car, and carefully lifted her out from under it. They took her away in the ambulance. She didn't move the entire time Sunset. Not a twitch. I was so scared! I thought I had killed her. I thought I had killed my sister. The police came, they cuffed me, read me my rights, and took me away. I was in a daze. I don't remember much of any of it. All I could think about was Celestia. All I could see was her face, covered in blood, moving only when the board bounced as they carried it to the ambulance. I lost it Sunset. I completely lost it. I howled in grief and screamed in the back of the cruiser on the way to the lockup. At one point I remember being tased as they tried to get me to calm down. It barely even registered. They left me in a cell alone to 'cool off'. I couldn't tell you how long I was in there. I didn't even care. All I could think of, all I could see was my sister's bloody face, dead before me. They brought me food, but I never even noticed. I didn't touch it. I didn't move. I just sat there, silent, lost in the memory of what I thought was my dead sister.
"Eventually, I was transported to another jail. They realized I was a juvenile, and given my apparently psychotic actions, decided I should be placed on something I believe they called a 'psych hold'. I was moved to the psych ward of the juvenile corrections center. The doctors came in, did some examinations, treated the few scrapes I had from trying to climb under the car, and the burns from the taser, but I never spoke. I barely acknowledged their presence.
"Our parents came to see me. I didn't acknowledge them either. At some point, I finally realized our mother was saying Celestia was alive. I finally turned to her. 'She's alive?' I asked quietly, and she answered yes. I turned away then, back into my fugue. They left eventually, and that was the last I saw of them until the trial. I thought they had abandoned me too, but they were actually spending all their time with Celestia, sitting by her bed, waiting for her to wake from the coma she had slipped into.
"She was in a coma for six weeks before she awoke. When I revved the car and knocked her to the ground she hit her head. The trauma caused bleeding and swelling in her brain. It was only an act of Harmony herself that she suffered no permanent deficits. Save one. Save one...
"Her lower abdomen was crushed when the car ran over her. Her uterus was so damaged they couldn't repair it. They had to perform an emergency hysterectomy. My sister can never have children, Sunset. I did that to her. I took that from her." Luna sobbed as she drove. "I took that future from her, with my selfish actions. With my blame. With my hate. I was her worst nightmare."
Holding tightly to her hand, Sunset sobbed as well. Several moments later she was able to speak again. "What happened then Luna? Were you alright? What happened to you?"
Luna continued. "I was right where I belonged. The therapist came, and with my lawyer present, they explained what had happened, and what would happen to me. I plead guilty to everything, not even bothering to ask for leniency, though my attorney did ask on my behalf. I felt I deserved whatever they threw at me. I wanted to suffer for what I had done to my sister. I did not feel worthy of any mercy. I felt I was beneath that dignity.
"The judge sentenced me to 1000 days, including time served. I served most of that in the psych ward, until the psychiatrists felt I was fit to return to the general lock up. Even there, I didn't speak with anyone unless I had to, and only then the bare minimum. I made no friends, I isolated. I stayed in my cell and kept to myself. My parents came to visit, but I never talked and eventually their visits became more infrequent."
Luna pulled into the driveway, and turned off the car. She turned to Sunset.
"I was released when my sentence was served. Our parents came to pick me up. They brought me home, but I was silent the entire time. I felt horrible, and didn't feel like I was worth their kindness. As soon as we got home, I went to my room and locked myself inside. For the next few weeks I only came out to use the bathroom, to clean up, and to eat the food they left for me in the hallway. In hindsight I don't know why they didn't just knock the door down and drag me out of there... but I guess they had more patience than I gave them credit for.
"Celestia had come home. After she was released from the hospital, she went through months of rehab. Then she went off to school to get her teaching credentials. She figured that even if she couldnt have children, she could at least spend her life helping children." Luna paused there, then started shaking. Her body wracked with the strength of her sobs.
Eventually the sobbing passed, and Luna continued. "That was always her way Sunset. My sister has a pure heart. She's always finding a way to give, even when she's hurt. Even when she has lost something precious. Even in her darkest moments. She inspires me Sunset. I want so much to be like her. To have that fire that lights her darkness. To have that love, that compassion that moves her heart to tenderness, even when others can only see pain and hurt...
"She finished her education. I had enrolled in adult education, and earned my high school diploma. Celestia was hired by the district, and given a teaching job in the local grade schools. She invited me to come live with her, and our parents encouraged me to move in with her, hoping it would help me, help us, to heal and move forward from this horrible mess I had bequeathed my family.
"I accepted Celestia's invitation. I moved in with her - we shared an apartment near her work. She encouraged me to go back to school, to move on with my life, not to be stuck in my past. I decided to follow in her footsteps and become an educator. I enrolled in the program at the local college, and on the strength of her recommendation, I was accepted. I threw myself into my studies, and Celestia was there for me every step of the way.
"She never once blamed me, or raged at me for what I had done to her. I expected it - I would have welcomed it! I felt I deserved it, deserved her hate, her scorn, her anger. But she never felt like that. She was happy. She was overjoyed that we were together again. She was delighted to have her sister back in her life. Eventually her love broke through my broken heart, and lit the way for my recovery. I owe her so much Sunset. I own my sister my life.
"While I was working my way though my program, our niece Cadence came to live with us. Her parents had passed, and she needed somewhere to stay while she completed her education and got her feet on the ground. With three of us, we needed a larger place to live, so we looked for a house. Celestia had already advanced to being an assistant principal at one of the local grade schools, so she felt we could afford to purchase a place of our own. We found this house. When she purchased it, she placed my name on the deed as well, even though I had no job and was in no position to contribute anything to the purchase.
"The three of us lived here. I completed my teaching certificate, and was hired by the district as well. Cadence completed her schooling and entered a trade program, interning at a local radio station. The program manager liked her attitude, and gave her a shot filling in for a late night program they had open. She did so well they gave her her own program and moved her into a better time slot. She and Shining got engaged. Now have their own place and are getting married this summer.
"Celestia eventually was put in charge of CHS, and requested me for the Vice-Principal position. So here we are, and here you are. And now, you're one of us. Sunset, welcome to our family. We know pain, we know heartache. But we know love and acceptance too. And you are welcome here Sunset. You are home here. You are family." She reached over and gave Sunset a tight hug.
"Welcome home, Sunset Shimmer." |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 27 - Special Holidays - Sunset | Sunset
Sunset moved into the guest bedroom. Cadence's old room. The irony was not lost on her. They contacted the local medical supply warehouse, and ordered a hospital style bed for her. They informed her it would take a few weeks to process before it was delivered. The sisters also assured her she had free reign to redecorate her room however she wished. They wanted her to feel it her own space, in her own home.
As they were putting away Sunsets wardrobe, they noticed a distinct lack of... well everything.
"Sunset, do you have other clothes besides this? You only have two outfits here," noted Celestia.
"Yeah, that's about right. I have another outfit back in the room I was staying in, and an old coat. And a really, really old laptop I've been using for some odd jobs online," replied Sunset.
"Oh, how enterprising! What jobs have you found Sunset? Coding? Web design?" asked Luna with interest.
"Oh, uh... haha, just stuff. Really just stuff. Nothing important..." replied Sunset, turning bright red in embarrassment.
"Stuff? What kind of stuff?" asked Celestia as she hung Sunset's two outfits and jacket in the closet.
"Er.. stuff... With a webcam. Webcam stuff," groaned Sunset, face in her hands.
Complete silence. No one moved.
Luna turned to Sunset, who still had her face buried in her hands. "Sunset... Sunset, what kind of 'stuff'? What kind of webcam 'stuff' were you doing?"
Sunset groaned. "I am really, really embarrassed and don't want to talk about it. Please don't make me say it."
Celestia looked worried. "Sunset, this sounds like something you really need to talk about. If you don't, it's just going to eat at you until you do. We promise, we're not here to judge you. We won't think any less of you no matter what you say. We care for you, and we are here for you. Whatever happens, we are here. You are safe. You can talk about this."
Celestia sat on the bed next to Sunset. "Sunset, look at me." She held Sunset's hands. "Sunset, no matter what you've done, no matter what has happened, it won't change this. It won't change us. We are family, and that isn't going to change. So please, go ahead. Tell us."
Luna placed her arm around Sunset. "Yes Sunset. We're here for you. Please, tell us what you meant."
Sunset squirmed. "This is so embarrassing. I ran a video blog. My subscribers could join and watch me playing with myself. I played with others too. It was fairly popular, but I really didn't have the following like some of the other vlogs."
Both Luna and Celestia went pale as ghosts.
"Sweet harmony Sunset! I am so sorry! I just.. I can't even... just... I am so sorry..." gasped Celestia. Luna, on the verge of tears, turned away.
"Oh it wasn't that bad! I do enjoy playing with myself! And some of the others I invited were pretty good! They played with me too, I liked that," Luna nearly fell over, reaching out a hand to steady herself. Celestia, tearing up, choked and started to have trouble breathing.
"I just wish I could have gotten as good as Nightmare Moon. What I wouldn't give to have her following... " Sunset said wistfully.
"Wha.. what? What did you say? Nightmare moon?" Luna's head whipped around, looking Sunset in the eyes.
"Yeah, Nightmare Moon. Now there's a player! Everyone loves her vlog. She's the best, I follow her religiously."
"Oh thank HARMONY!" shouted Luna, hand to her chest.
Confused, Celestia looked to her sister. "Wha... er... what?" she asked.
"I'm Nightmare Moon! That's my GAMING VLOG! Oh sweet harmony, thank you!" Luna gasped.
"Oh thank the maker!" gasped Celestia. "Wait - Gaming Vlog?" she turned to Luna.
"Wait wait wait! Luna, wait. You're Nightmare Moon!?" screamed Sunset.
"Yes, that's my gaming vlog, why?" asked Luna.
Sunset launched herself across the chair and wrapped her arms around her. "I'M YOUR BIGGEST FAN!" she shouted.
Wrapping her arms around Sunset, Luna hugged her back. "Thank you! Always nice to meet my fans." She leaned back a bit, and looked Sunset in the eyes. "So that's what you were so embarrassed about? You ran a gaming vlog?"
"Er.. yeah, why? What did you think I meant?" asked Sunset.
Luna looked over to Celestia, who only buried her face in her hands, shaking. She couldn't hold it in; eventually she exploded into loud, braying laughter. Luna joined her in peeling gales of heartfelt relief.
"Uh, what's so funny? Am I missing something here?" asked Sunset, looking back and forth between them.
After the sisters had calmed somewhat, and were able to talk without breaking into fits of barking laughter, Luna replied. "Sunset, we thought you were doing an Adult Vlog."
"Adult Vlog? I mean sure, there were adults on my vlog. I mean, I would play with anyone if they were good enough! Age didn't matter." At that, both sisters lost it, howling in hilarity.
"Seriously guys, you're giving me a complex. What is so darned funny?" groused Sunset.
Knucking tears from her eyes, Celestia gasped. "Sunset. Adult Vlog isn't about the age of your guest. It refers to what you do on your Vlog."
"Eh?" Sunset quirked her head in confusion.
Luna took a deep breath. "Adult Vlogs are Porn," she deadpanned.
Sunset's eyes got huge, and her mouth flew open. "Wha.. wha... WHAT!? PORN! OH SWEET CELESTIA NO! You thought I was doing PORN! Oh. no no nonononono... owh... bleah... " She looked sick. "No! Nope nope nope.. Not happening. No no...."
She buried her face in her hands.
Celestia and Luna lost it, rolling with laughter. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 28 - Special Holidays - Sunset redux - Canterlot Mall | Sunset redux - Canterlot Mall
That weekend, Luna drove them to the Canterlot Mall. At the sisters' suggestion they had asked her friends to join them later. Rarity was showing up earlier to help Sunset pick out more clothes to 'flesh out' her wardrobe, as Celestia put it. Honestly, she was getting a little tired of the porn jokes. She was beginning to understand why Luna occasionally called her sister 'Trollestia'.
They started at the electronics store, picking up a new computer for Sunset.
"Be sure to pick one out with a VHDI web cam. We wouldn't want your viewers to see you in anything less than your full radiant beauty," snarked Celestia. "Nothing should come between you and your viewers."
Sunset pinched the bridge of her nose. "Stop. Please stop... " she groaned.
"Fret not Sunset. I will aid in your efforts to repay these indelicacies!" snickered Luna.
"Please don't encourage her Luna," begged Sunset.
The sisters laughed, hugging Sunset. Luna mussed her hair. Sunset growled and smoothed it back, then laughed. "Fine. Whatever." She grinned.
At Luna's suggestion, they added an external monitor, mouse, keyboard, game controller and graphics tablet to the purchase. Finished, they moved on to the next task - Sunset's wardrobe.
Rarity was waiting for them in front of the boutique.
"Sunset! Darling, how are you?" She bent and hugged Sunset. "Principal Celestia, Vice-Principal Luna, so good to see you both!" she greeted.
"Just Celestia and Luna please," replied Luna.
Celestia smiled. "Hello Rarity. Thanks for joining us."
"Oh of course darling! I mean, Ms. Celestia. My pleasure. Always happy to help a friend. Especially a friend with a, ehem... fashion emergency."
"I wouldn't call it an emergency," groused Sunset.
"Dear, I mean this in the kindest possible way... I've seen your wardrobe. This is an emergency! This is perhaps the very definition of a fashion emergency. Not to be indelicate dear, but you need help. I love your look - that bad girl 'vibe' you're reaching for. But honey, two outfits are not going to cut it... Now, come with me! I've set up an appointment for us at the boutique. I've reserved the back room for us... And I've set aside several outfits for you..." Rarity continued as she walked off towards the store, locking arms with Celestia.
Sunset turned to Luna. "I'm really gonna regret this, aren't I?" she groaned. Luna laughed, pushing her after Rarity and her sister.
Several wardrobe changes later, Rarity had selected several outfits for her, as well as accessories and jewelry to compliment her new wardrobe.
One of the 'joys' of being in a wheelchair paralzed from the chest down, they discovered, was it really interfered with the whole 'quick change' process. Nonetheless, between the three of them, with the privacy afforded by the back room, they got through the outfits quickly enough. Sunset was happy with the selections, and ready to move on with the rest of their shopping 'adventure'.
Next on the agenda was new furniture for her room, and decorations.
Sunset had already picked out new colors for her room - light teal, with burnished red and gold accents, surprising absolutely no one. Her bed was already ordered, so she was looking to complete the rest of the room. She needed a dresser, desk, guest chair or chairs, lamps, poster and other art.
This was the shopping she had most looked forward to.
They rolled through the furniture store, browsing. An adaptive desk caught Sunset's eye. It was a corner unit, with separate adjustments for the back and front. It featured pop-outs for cable and power management, and an optional integrated power management system with battery backup. It was perfect for Sunset's computer and gaming system. They purchased the unit.
Sunset completed her room's furnishings with a room ionizer (Celestia's suggestion), a bookshelf; extra depth for her printer and scanner on top, and half height - a full height bookcase made no sense, as she wouldn't be able to reach the top shelves. Also purchased were a guest chair, a small couch, an umbrella floor lamp with red and gold accents, and a half height dresser.
Sunset fell in love with a lava lamp; red and gold lava swirled up and down, suspended in a slightly pinkish fluid. Rarity found it garish. Luna however thought it was 'definitely Sunset'. It was added to the cart.
Sunset found a Banksy reprint, one of his Mona Lisas. Sunset said it 'spoke to her', so into the cart it went.
At Luna's suggestion they added extension cords, electronic remotes, and adaptive switches, so the room's lights and fans would be easier to use for Sunset. They could be controlled from an app installable on her phone, allowing her, from wherever she was at, to set or dim the lighting, and to adjust the speed on the fans and turn them on or off. Sunset found that 'cool'.
Luna realized it would be ideal to include the house's lighting and many appliances too. The salesperson recommended a contractor they worked with frequently, and gave Luna their card. Luna agreed to contact them, thanked her, and slipped the card into her purse.
When they finished, it was nearly lunch time. They set out for the food court to meet the rest of the girls. They would eat lunch together, and afterwards Sunset could enjoy the afternoon with her friends.
Applejack caught sight of them. "Sunset! Rares! Over here!" She waved her hat. Rarity, Sunset, and the Royal sisters waved back.
Lunch over, Luna and Celestia bid Sunset farewell, with a promise from Luna to pick her up before dinner.
Rainbow wanted to catch the latest installment of her favorite franchise, 'Daring Do and the Crystal Heart'. Sunset was on the fence about it, as the book was one of the weaker moments in the series. Despite her misgivings, they decided to get tickets for the mid-afternoon show. While they waited for the show to let in, they went to the arcade to spend some quality time.
Sunset wanted to play DDR, one of her favorites, but was frustrated. Her favorite game was out of reach for now - the arcade version did not have a 'hands only' mode of play. She settled for a karaoke game with Rarity and Pinky, while Fluttershy watched. Applejack and Rainbow wandered off to find something a bit more physical.
When it was time for the movie to start, the girls raced to the theater. They all joined with Sunset sitting in the handicapped row of the theater. Rainbow zipped out to get snacks for everyone before the movie started.
Unfortunately, the movie failed to live up to the rest of the franchise, just as Sunset had feared. Nonetheless, she enjoyed every moment, entirely due to the company of her friends.
While the movie was letting out, she texted Luna, letting her know they were done for the day. The girls accompanied Sunset to the front of the mall to wait, chatting while they waited. Luna arrived, pulling up to the loading curb. While Luna loaded her into the car and placed her chair in the trunk, the girls bid Sunset goodnight. Smiling brightly, Sunset waved goodbye, heading back to her new home. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 29 - Rehabilitation - Book 2 | Book 2 - Rehabilitation |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 30 - Rehabilitation - Gilda | Gilda
Gilda Griffon ran her fingers through her short cropped white hair. "We are so screwed."
Sitting on the bench beside her, Lightning Dust groaned, her face buried in her hands. "I can't believe it wasn't her. I was so certain. I would've bet my life on it!"
"Crap. Don't know what we're gonna do. There were so many people there. Someone's gonna squeal. It's inevitable. Gonna happen." Gilda face palmed.
"We are so screwed," she repeated. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 31 - Rehabilitation - Sunset - Assimilate and Adapt! | Sunset - Assimilate and Adapt!
Sunset waited at the dining room table. The contractor was coming today to upgrade the Royal household with the adaptability aides they had ordered while on their Mall shopping trip.
Sunset was looking forward to using them. In truth so where Celestia and Luna - carrying Sunset up and down the stairs was a labor of love. She wasn't particularly heavy, but she also wasn't much help. Fortunately, both the sisters were in great physical shape - they were frequent users of the gym membership they shared. The gym even included some adaptive equipment that Sunset was able to use, so Sunset had joined them for a few sessions. They enjoyed having her and had a great time.
The doorbell rang, and Luna answered.
"Good evening Ms. Royal. Mary Fixit, contractor. Are you ready for us? I've brought my crew and equipment, and we're ready to get started, if that's okay with you." Mary held out her hand in introduction, clipboard clasped firmly in the other. Behind her, Luna could see her crew unloading boxes and tools from the back of a work truck.
"Come in, please. Yes, this is an excellent time. Allow me to introduce you to our foster daughter. She's the one we're setting all this up for." Luna shook her hand, then stepped back to allow Mary to enter.
Mary called back to her crew. "We're on! Stage it all then come on in for instructions. I'll be inside talking to the clients!" She turned back to Luna then followed her to the dining room.
Sunset was waiting expectantly. Smiling, she waved. "Hi! I'm Sunset Shimmer! Pleased to meet you!"
Mary walked over to Sunset and shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you Sunset! I'm Mary Fixit, and my crew and I are here to set up some aides that should help you out! I'd like to go over them with you if you have a moment."
Sunset nodded happily. "Yes please! Have a seat!"
Mary sat next to Sunset. Luna smiled, then left to go supervise the crew.
"So Sunset, first thing to go over, we are going to put a stair elevator in, which should help you with getting to your room on your own. I have a website with an instructional video I'd like to show you that explains the features and safety rules with using the elevator. It's not a toy, but I suspect with a young lady of your obvious maturity that shouldn't be an issue." Mary pulled out a tablet, and loaded up the video. "I'll give you the URL for this too, so you can go back and review it at any time."
Sunset blushed at the complement. She leaned in, and together they watched the video. She had a few questions, which Mary was happy to answer. It was simple enough - she needed only to roll onto the platform then hit the button. The lift then raised the lips of the platform to keep her from rolling off, then lifted her either up or down the stairs. It could only carry up to 500 pounds, but it was pretty amazing. It also included a battery backup, so she could exit the house even if the power was out in an emergency.
Mary also explained the appliance control devices they were setting up, as well as the security cameras being placed throughout the house so Celestia and Luna could check on her while they were away. The latter seemed a little creepy to Sunset, but Mary assured her access to the cameras was only through the app, and only people in her family with an account would have access to the cameras and security devices. So only Celestia, Luna, and herself would be able to use any of them. The cameras also included the ability to automatically record video, which could be enabled or disabled as desired, or as requested on demand for each camera. Mary also explained that by law they couldn't place the cameras in certain areas that were considered private; bedrooms, bathrooms, that type of area. They couldn't stop them from doing that themselves if that was what they wanted, but legally as contractors they were forbidden from doing it.
"Blech! Yeah no thanks. I really don't want anyone watching me sleeping or using the bathroom! Hard pass on that, thanks!" stated Sunset with a look of revulsion.
"I couldn't agree more!" laughed Mary.
Mary helped Sunset load the app onto her phone, and set up her account. She showed her on the demo setting how to set the temperature on the thermostat, turn on, off, and dim lights, use the different camera settings, and lock and unlock doors. There was even a setting in the appliances section where she could turn on the coffee maker. Sunset laughed. "If it didn't already have a timer this would be a great feature! Don't think we'll be getting much use from that one though."
While Sunset and Mary were going over the features and settings of the new security system, Luna was out front helping the crew with the installation. She opened the double front doors to allow them access, and showed them the stairs, thermostat and different places where lights and fans would need the updated switches. She worked with one of the technicians to enable wifi access for the security system control hub, enabling the internet control and monitoring features to the apps being installed on their phones.
Luna beamed happily at the work in progress.
A few hours later, the contractors and electricians were done with their work. They cleaned everything up and packed the boxes and trash into the work truck. "It all gets recycled," explained Mary. "We get carbon credits for reducing the amount of trash we produce."
With everything packed away, Mary thanked them for their business, and they drove off.
Turning to Sunset, Luna smiled. "Well Sunset, what do you think?" she asked.
"I think it's awesome!" smiled Sunset. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 32 - Rehabilitation - Trixie | Trixie
The Great and Powerful Trixie was greatly and powerfully troubled.
"Starlight, Trixie doesn't have anyone else to talk to about this," she whispered into her phone, hidden in her bedroom. "Trixie never thought it would go that far, and has no idea what to do now!" A tear rolled down her cheek
"Hey, at least you called 911 and got her some help. And it's not like you knew they were really going to beat her," replied Starlight Glimmer.
"True, but that really doesn't help Sunset. Trixie wants to help her, but if she recognizes Trixie, Trixie will be in deep trouble!"
"Trixie, relax. You're doing that third person thing again. Take a deep breath. It's going to be fine, okay? Deep breath."
Starlight could hear her friend breathing in and out through the phone. Moments later, she was back on. "Okay, thanks Starlight. That helped. So yes, I'm very worried about her. I want to talk to her, and make certain she is okay. But if she recognizes me and I get in trouble, I can't even imagine what the consequences might be. But I need to know if she's alright. I just don't want Gilda or her goons finding out I spoke with her, or thinking I am 'ratting them out'. If they thought that, I'm sure they would do to me exactly what they did to Sunset!"
"I hear you girl... Look, maybe you just need to do this secretly? Or, better still, I'll help! She doesn't know me, I don't even go to your school. I'll just chat with her, and mention you were concerned for her, and you wanted to know how she was doing. I don't even have to mention your name! I'll find out what's going on, and get back to you. Easy peasy! Sounds good?" asked Starlight.
"Starlight Glimmer, you're a lifesaver! Thank you!" gushed Trixie. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 33 - Rehabilitation - Starlight Glimmer | Starlight Glimmer
Starlight looked around nervously. This was the address; the sign over the door proclaimed "The Royal's Residence".
She had asked her friends at CHS, and found Sunset was staying with the Royal sisters; Celestia and Luna, the school's Principals. On-line sleuthing turned up their address; now here she was. She timed it to arrive while school was in session, hoping to catch Sunset alone. Clearly though, someone was still here. A sedan was parked in the driveway, and a video game could be heard inside the house. Nervously, Starlight rang the doorbell.
The game stopped. Starlight could hear footsteps coming to the door. Her heartbeat quickened. A bead of nervous sweat ran down her forehead.
The door opened. Vice-Principal Luna looked down at her. "May I help you young lady?" she asked.
Starlight's heart raced. "Uhm. Yes mam. I'm looking for Sunset Shimmer? Is she here?" she gulped.
"She is. And whom might you be?" replied Luna.
"No one mam! Just a friend! Hehe. We were worried about her. We just wanted to know that she was alright, and ask how she's doing?" Starlight swallowed nervously. She looked hopefully at Luna.
"I see," responded Luna. "Come in, please." She pulled the door back, waving Starlight over to the couch in the living room. "Wait here." She left, and went up the stairs.
Starlight could hear muffled voices. Luna returned, standing at the top of the stairs. "Sunset will see you, 'friend'." She turned, stepping aside, waving Starlight up the stairs. Starlight approached; Luna pointed to the open door just down the hall. "She's in there."
She called out down the hall "Sunset! Your 'friend' is coming in. I'll be in my room, just call out if you need me." She walked down the hall, entering the room at the end.
Starlight leaned into the open doorway, and knocked lightly. "May I come in?" she asked.
Sunset looked up from her desk. "Sure, come on in. Have a seat." She shut the laptop, and rolled over to the sofa. "I don't bite... much." She grinned.
"Hehe... okayyyy. Sure." she sat on the couch, hands clasped in her lap.
Sunet smiled. "I'm sorry. I don't believe we've met. Do I know you?"
"Sorry no, hehe. We've never met. I go to a different school. Crystal Prep Academy. Maybe you've heard of it?" Starlight replied nervously.
"Oh... actually yes, I have. Are you friends with Twilight?"
"Twilight Sparkle? You know her?" asked Starlight.
"No, not exactly. I've never actually met her. I know her brother."
"Ah. Oh, okay. Uhm... no. I'm not friends with Twilight Sparkle. Not that I wouldn't want to be! Just... she doesn't really travel in the same circles. Or well... in any circles really, I guess? She's kind of a loner. She doesn't hang out with anyone actually," answered Starlight.
"That sounds like Twilight. Yeah... okay, so pardon my asking, but then... why are you here?"
"Uhm. yeah. Hehe. Well, about that... I'm friends with some girls from your school. And they were kind of hoping to find out how you were doing? They hoped to see you at school, after hearing what happened, but, well... when they didn't, they asked me to stop by. You know, to see if you were alright, and what's happening." Starlight looked down at her hands. "They're just really worried about you, and wanted you to know they cared, and they wished you were alright."
"That's very sweet of them. Thank you Starlight, and thank them for me when you see them again," replied Sunset. "One question though... why you?"
"Why me? Why me what?" Starlight looked up in panic.
"Why you, Starlight. Do you live around here? You don't even go to my school. Why did they ask you to stop by, and not come over themselves? It just seems odd, don't you think?"
"Odd? No! No no no, not odd. Just, why not right? I offered to help out, that's all. Nothing odd here!" Starlight wrung her hands.
Sunset reached over and placed her hand on Starlights. "Starlight. It's okay! Just tell me. What's going on. Why didn't your friends come over themselves? Why did they ask you to see me? You can be straight with me. I won't mind. Just talk to me."
Starlight stopped fidgeting, and looked up. Her eyes misting, she looked into Sunset's eyes. "She's scared, Sunset. She's really scared, She doesn't want to get hurt. And I don't want her to get hurt! So... I kind of offered to come, in her place. She's worried about you, and she's scared."
"She was there, wasn't she," asked Sunset.
"Yeah. Yeah, she was there," replied Starlight in a small voice. "She was there, and she was horrified by what happened to you. And she's scared to death if she says anything, that the ones who did this to you will do it to her too! But she couldn't not know if you were alright! And she wanted you to know she cared! But she's scared. Scared to death."
"Considering what they did to me, I think she's a smart girl," answered Sunset. "But she has a very brave friend in you, willing to help her out." Sunset squeezed Starlight's hands.
"She was the one that called 911. She hid until they came. And she didn't leave until she knew you were going to be okay. She thought you were going to die. She was so scared. You were so hurt." Starlight looked into Sunset's eyes. "She'd do anything to take back what happened! Anything."
"Nothing can ever undo the past Starlight. What's done is done. But thank you for the thought." Sunset looked pensive. "Can I meet her?"
"Can you meet her?" echoed Starlight. "I don't know. If anyone finds out she was talking to you, she could really get hurt."
"No one needs to know. Just you, me, and her. Bring her by. I'd like to thank her. Tell her it's okay, I want to meet her, to say thank you. Can you do that Starlight? Can you tell her that? I can give you my number. We can set it up if she agrees."
Starlight nodded, then handed her phone over. Sunset typed in her number. Starlight saved it. A moment later Sunset received a message with Starlight's contact information which she saved.
"Okay. I'll let her know. Thank you Sunset."
"Starlight, why did you tell her? If they find out I said anything, they're going to kill me! Or make me wish they had." Trixie yelled at her friend. "Trixie trusted you Starlight!"
"Trixie, it's fine. Relax!" Starlight hugged her friend. "Look, I know you're frightened those thugs will hurt you too. I get it. But trust me Trixie... I would never let you get hurt. I talked to Sunset. She's not mad at you. She just wants to talk, and thank you for helping her. I'll be there the whole time. No one will know anything about it but the three of us. You'll be fine! And we both know - you need to do this. You need to talk to her about this. Or you're never going to be able to put this behind you."
"Are you sure she said that? Are you sure she isn't angry with Trixie?" Trixie asked.
"I'm sure. One hundred percent positive. Trixie, she's not that kind of girl. I got a really kind feeling from her. You can trust her!"
"Okay. Trixie is trusting you Starlight. Don't let me down!"
"Okay. So Trixie, here's what we're gonna do..." Starlight laid out her plan.
The next day Sunset received a text from Starlight. "My friend would like to meet you. Are you free this afternoon?"
Sunset texted back. "Sure. Come on over. I'll be here all day."
A few hours after lunch, there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it!" called out Sunset. She rolled out of the dining room and into the entry hall. Opening the door, she saw Starlight and Trixie standing in the entryway. "Hi Sunset." Trixie said quietly, looking down in shame.
"Trixie? You're Starlight's friend?" replied Sunset. "Huh... okay. Come in! We can meet out back." She backed up, letting the girls enter. Shutting the door behind them, Sunset rolled past. "Follow me." She rolled down the hall and into the dining room. "Luna, I'm going to the patio with some friends! Let me know if you need me!"
"Will do Sunset! Thank you!" called out Luna from the back of the house.
"Vice-Principal Luna is here!" whispered Trixie in panic.
"Trixie, relax! It's her house. We live here," Sunset reached out, taking Trixie's hand. "It's fine. Let's just go talk. So, do you girls need anything? A snack maybe, or something to drink?"
"I could use something to drink. What'cha got?" asked Starlight. Trixie just nodded, looking back and forth from Sunset to the hand Sunset was holding. Letting go, Sunset led them into the kitchen. She showed them the drinks in the fridge, and opening a bag of chips, dumped them into a serving bowl. Placing the bowl in her lap, she led them out to the patio.
They sat in the shade, around the patio table, chips and sodas in easy reach. Sunset took Trixie's hand again. "I wanted to say thank you." She nodded to Starlight. "Thank you both. I really appreciate your being here, and your talking with me, Trixie. Starlight, I can see you're an amazing friend. This has to be incredibly uncomfortable for both of you. It says so much that you're here, by her side."
Starlight blushed, but nodded.
"Trixie, you're incredibly brave! Thank you for coming here, and for coming forward to speak with me. I know you're scared. I am too! But I won't allow anyone to hurt you. I'd never want you, or anyone else, to go through what I'm going through. I'm just so grateful you're here." She squeezed Trixie's hand gently. "And I'm extremely grateful for what you did! Trixie, you may have saved my life. I'd definitely like to have you as my friend. Will you be my friend Trixie?"
Tears spilled down Trixie's cheeks. "Trixie would love to be your friend, Sunset," she said softly. Starlight poked her side. "I mean, sorry. Sunset, I would love to be your friend," she amended. Starlight grinned.
"Trixie, I would love to be your friend too. Thank you." Sunset beamed.
"So..." Sunset continued. "This is probably hard for you to hear... but I'll just put it out there. I have no idea what happened that evening. I mean, aside from the obvious... I was beaten within an inch of my life. But I really don't remember anything about it. The last thing I can recall was heading towards the gym looking for Rainbow Dash."
Tearfully, Trixie related what had happened... |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 34 - Rehabilitation - Trixie | Trixie
Trixie had arrived early, as Gilda suggested. Everyone was to quietly sneak into the gym and hide before Sunset arrived. Gilda had stolen Rainbow Dash's phone, which she used to text Sunset, inviting her to join them. Gilda told everyone, once Sunset entered the gym, they would jump her and hold her down. Then they would confront her, forcing her to admit she was anon-a-miss and to delete the anon-a-miss account. Once she had deleted the posts, they would let her go.
Trixie was angered by several posts directed against her. A video of her flubbing one of her tricks had garnered scores of mean, hateful, and derogatory comments. They demeaned not only her stage skills, but Trixie personally. Some posts even suggested she would be better off dead. She was humiliated. She was convinced Sunset was behind the posts, back to her vicious ways.
Everything seemed to go according to plan. Sunset arrived in the darkened gym; Hoops and Dust jumped out and grabbed her. Holding her down, the others come out of hiding to surround her.
"We know it was you Shimmer!" growled Gilda. "Just admit it already, and take down the posts! Do that, and we let you go. You can walk out of here. Don't do it, and we'll make you regret the day you were born!"
Tears streaming down her face, Sunset pleaded with them. "Gilda, I didn't do this!" Turning her head to the rest of them, she begged. "Please, you have to believe me! I would never do this! I've changed! I'm not that kind of person! I would never do anything like this! It wasn't me!" Crying, she looked down to the floor. "It wasn't me..." she wept softly.
"Damn it Shimmer! Stop lying! Just admit it! Delete the damned posts so we can get this over with!" Gilda grabbed her by her hair, shaking her head. "Do it Shimmer! Just do it!"
Trixie backed away slowly. This was not what she imagined. "Trixie thinks we should let Shimmer go..." she said quietly.
"Shut up Trixie! Or I swear I will shut you up!" roared Gilda. Trixie ran. "Damn it! Someone go find her! I don't want her screwing this up by blabbing to someone." One of the others ran after her. "Trixie!" yelled out Gilda. "I swear if you say ONE THING about this I will BREAK EVERY BONE in your body!" She turned back to Sunset. "And I think I should do the same with you Shimmer. How about it? Does that sound fair to you, Shimmer? Should we start now, Shimmer? Whaddya say?"
Trixie hid in the supply closet. Whomever was chasing ran past. Waiting a few moments, she looked out the closet door. Seeing no one nearby, she slipped out and back into the gym, hiding under the bleachers. She was shaking with fear, but determined not to leave until she knew Sunset was safe. And she needed to know. She needed to hear Sunset to admit she was the one that hurt her, that hurt all of them with these postings. But she didn't want this. She never even imagined this. She cried silently. "Please don't hurt her," she whispered softly.
The student who'd ran out to find her returned. "She's gone, I can't find her," he said, joining the others around Sunset.
"Looks like your time has run out Shimmer. Where should we start..." Gilda pulled her head back, and slammed her fist into Sunsets face. There was a loud crack, blood running from her damaged eye. Sunset slumped. Hoops and Dust dropped her to the floor, then gave her a few kicks. "Damn weaking... she didn't even last through the first punch." Glida drew back her boot, and gave her a swift kick in the ribs. Sunset twitched and groaned, but otherwise didn't move.
"Shimmer you worthless piece of crap. You have to be kidding me. Okay that's it! Everyone let her have it!" Gilda backed off, and everyone stormed forward and started kicking and punching her. Sunset didn't budge, not making a sound.
"Hold her arm out!" Someone yelled out. "See if you ever type something about me again you bitch!" She jumped on Sunset's outstretched arm, and there was a loud snap. Blood leaked onto the floor.
Someone else was straddled across her back, slamming her face against the gym floor. Others kicked and punched her back and legs. "Get off! Out of the way, nube. I'll show you how to do it!"
The girl on her back was lifted off. Another jumped on Sunset's back. They jumped up and down, slamming their feet into her back each time. Another loud snap was heard. "Take that bitch! She demon! Get up from that I dare you!" they screamed as they continued to jump. Blood trickled from Sunset's mouth and pooled by her chest.
Someone pushed her off, then started in, punching and kicking Sunset. Several hands reached down, and flipped Sunset over. More jumped in, punching and kicking. Sunset's blouse and skirt were covered in her blood, a pool gathering under her.
Panicked, Trixie kept repeating quietly "Stop... please stop... Oh sweet harmony please stop...." Tears poured down her cheeks. Looking away, she saw Rainbow's cell phone on the bleachers. Sneaking over, Trixie grabbed the phone, and ducked back under the bleachers
Trixie dialed frantically. "911, what's your emergency?" called out the operator.
"Hurry!! You have to hurry! Please help! A girl is being beaten! She needs your help!" whispered Trixie into the phone. "Please hurry! She's in the CHS gym!"
"Please stay on the phone. We are sending someone now..."
Pausing, Gilda looked over towards the bleachers. "Did anyone hear that? Sounded like someone talking." Straining to see into the darkness, she scanned the bleachers, seeing nothing. "Huh," she grunted, turning back to Sunset. "Continue!" she growled.
Trixie quickly hung up the phone, pulling further back into the shadows. "Give in yet Shimmer?" she called out. The kicks and punches continued. "Okay! Okay, everyone back off. Give her some room. I think she got our message." Gilda knelt, lifting Sunset's head by her hair. "Last chance Shimmer. This is your last warning. Take the posts down. Next time, we won't leave enough of you to bury. Don't let there be a next time. You dig me?" Slamming her head back into the floor, she got up. "Okay everyone, split! Not one word of this, hear me? Anyone squeals, I will find you. And I will mess you up worse than what we did to Shimmer here!"
Heads nodded profusely. "Now git!" yelled Gilda, and everyone quickly ran off. Gilda turned to Sunset, and gave her one last kick. "That was your warning Shimmer. Remember, next time, we end you. Don't make me do a 'next time'." Turning, she left the gym.
Trixie stayed hidden under the bleachers. After several moments, when it was clear everyone had left, she ran out and crouched down by Sunset. "Sunset!" she whispered. "Sunset! Can you hear me? Talk to me!" Feeling her neck, so felt a pulse, and could see Sunset's chest rising and falling, however slightly. "Oh thank harmony... she's still alive," gasped Trixie. She couldn't believe anyone could survive the beat down she had just witnessed. "Sunset, help is coming. Let's get you out of here." Trixie tried to help Sunset up, but she was completely ensensate. "We need to get you out of here, Sunset! We need to get you somewhere safe..." Trixie took Sunset's legs, then gently pulled her towards the Gym doors. "Come on Sunset... somewhere safe..."
Slowly they made their way to the Gym doors. Pulling Sunset past them, she took Rainbow's phone and placed it in Sunset's hand. "Hang in there Sunset. Help is coming!" Trixie heard a siren in the distance. Tears still streaming down her face, she ran down the hall, hiding in the supply closet. Peeking out the door, she watched down the hall.
The siren grew louder, then stopped just outside. A policeman pushed through the gym doors, looking around. He spied Sunset sprawled out on the floor. "She's in here, come quick!" he called into his shoulder, running over to Sunset. Kneeling down beside her, he touched her neck, then gently touched her head, pushing her hair back behind her ear. "Help is here, miss. Hang in there... Help is here."
Sunset groaned. Looking back into the gym, the officer could see a trail of blood that ended in a bloody pool by the bleachers. "Sweet harmony child... What have they done to you?" he gasped.
Trixed wept. She pulled the door shut, then hid behind some boxes in the back of the closet. What felt like hours later, the sounds outside the door were gone. Fearfully, Trixie crept out from her hiding spot, and looked into the hallway. Seeing it empty, she left the closet, and ran as fast as she could from the building, not stopping until she was home, safely in her room. She refused to come out, not even for dinner, and wept bitterly on her bed. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 35 - Rehabilitation - Sunset | Sunset
Trixie cried softly, hugging tightly to Sunset. In shock, Sunset gently rubbed Trixies back, while Starlight held her shoulder. Trixie's shoulders shook; she sobbed in guilt and grief.
Sunset took a deep breath.
She didn't recall any of it. Even hearing the horrific details, she could only listen in shock. It was as if she were hearing about something happening to someone else, somewhere else. Unreal. Unrelatable. Unbelievable.
Drawing back, she looked at Trixie. Her eyes were screwed shut, tears streaming down her face. Her shoulders shook, and her breath hitched in quiet sobs.
"Trixie." Sunset whispered. "Hey, Trixie... look at me. Trixie, look at me."
Trixie took a deep shuddering breath, and opened her eyes. She looked sorrowfully to Sunset. "Oh Sunset... I am so sorry.... Trixie is so very sorry. Please! Please forgive me Sunset... Please forgive Trixie.." She leaned into Sunset, holding her tightly. "Please forgive Trixie.." she cried softly on her shoulder.
Giving Trixie a gentle hug, Sunset replied. "Trixie, I forgive you. I forgive you. You've nothing to fear, and nothing to apologize for. You saved me Trixie. You saved my life. I'm forever grateful for that. Thank you Trixie."
Trixie shuddered, taking a deep breath. "Thank you Sunset. Thank you." She held on, comforted in the arms of her newest friend.
Starlight beamed. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 36 - Rehabilitation - Luna | Luna
Starlight left, taking Trixie home.
At the dining room table, Sunset sat across from Luna, sipping her coffee. Luna stared out the window, lost in thought. A tear rolled down Luna's cheek.
"So that's what happened. It's bizarre, but I swear I still don't recall any of it. Everything past walking to the gym is a complete blank." Another sip. "I promised Trixie and Starlight we would protect her, and keep her name out of things, so no one finds out she told me what happened."
Luna nodded slowly. She turned to face Sunset. "Understood. Yes, that would be for the best. I would hate to see another student subjected to the abuse you've survived. We'll keep her name private." Luna rose, pacing slowly across the kitchen. "We will of course need to report this. I'm grateful for Trixie coming forward as she did, and providing this timely information. I will inform Detective Armor of this. This is the break he needed. Perhaps now those responsible for your injuries will now be brought to justice."
Still pacing, she bit her lip gently, deep in thought. "We will need to include Ms. Lulamoon in the punishments. Not only for her part in your suffering, but to protect her from any suspicions. Please inform her of this, with our regrets." Sunset nodded.
"Okay. We have our plan of action. Sunset, I'm going to call Shining Armor. I'll need you to relate to him what you just shared with me. My sister must be informed as well. Together we'll plan our actions forward."
Luna left the room, phone in hand, dialing her sister. "Cele, I need you home quickly. We've found out what happened to Sunset. No, she didn't recall. A friend came forward. All will be explained when you get here. I am calling Shining now."
She hung up, then scrolled through to Shining's contact. Dialing, she waited.
"Shining here, what's up Aunty Luna?"
"Shining, how quickly can you get here? We've received information regarding the attack on Sunset... Yes, I called Cele just before you, she's heading home to join us.... Yes, that would be perfect. I'll see you then. Thank you Shining." She hung up. "Sweet harmony! Finally we can give Sunset some closure."
She returned to the table to wait with Sunset.
Celestia arrived first, Shining Armor right behind her. Coffee and tea were served. Gathered around the dining table, Sunset related the story again, as told her by Trixie. More tears were shed, while Shining took notes.
"I'll need to speak with Ms. Lulamoon directly, and get her statement. She'll need to sign the statement, but I'll keep it completely confidential to protect her privacy. How soon can I contact her?" asked Shining.
"I'll call her to my office under some pretense, and explain to her what we need then. Together we'll find a way to get her to you," agreed Celestia.
"Perhaps she can join us here for dinner? Surely she has some way to arrive unnoticed." enjoined Luna.
"I could ask Starlight to pick her up. She brought her earlier. I imagine she'd be happy to help her friend again." Sunset added. "We should invite Starlight too, she can help Trixie stay calm."
"Okay, sounds like a plan. Let's do this!" nodded Shining. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 37 - Rehabilitation - Sunset | Sunset
Sunset dialed Starlight. "Hi Sunset, what's up?" answered Starlight.
"Starlight, what are you doing for dinner the day after tomorrow?" asked Sunset. "Do you think you and Trixie could come over? Celestia and Luna would like to meet with her, and also Shining Armor. He's the detective investigating my assault."
Starlight's angry response could be heard loudly. Sunset responded quickly. "No, no it's okay! Starlight, he's promised Trixie complete anonymity. He'll keep her involvement completely confidential. That's why we're meeting here, so no one knows. I don't want anything to happen to Trixie either, I promise."
Starlight calmed. Sunset continued. "Okay, great. I'll let them know. Yes, 6 PM. Thank you Starlight! See you both then. Goodbye." She hung up.
"Okay, Shining..." she scrolled through her contacts and placed the call.
"Sunset! How're you doing?" he answered.
"Hi Shining! Better thanks. Look, I spoke with Starlight. She says she's fine bringing Trixie over for dinner tomorrow. Are we on for this? Okay. Yes, Celestia will talk to her first tomorrow at school to confirm. Okay, see you then. Thanks!"
Hanging up Sunset sighed. 'That's set. Now we just wait.' |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 38 - Rehabilitation - Trixie | Trixie
Trixie Lulamoon squirmed in her desk. She was nervous. Despite Starlight's promise nothing bad would happen to her, she could think of a thousand ways this could all go wrong.
Ms. Harshwinny's phone buzzed. She glanced at the screen. "Ms. Lulamoon? You are needed at the office for a project. You're excused, please head over there now." She resumed reviewing the papers before her.
"Thank you Ms. Harshwhinny," said Trixie. She left, heading for the school office.
Trixie notified Ms. Inkwell she was there to see Principal Celestia, then took a seat. A moment later, Ms. Inkwell informed her Principal Celetia was ready to see her, and sent her in. Gulping, Trixie rose and walked to the Principal's office.
"Come in Ms. Lulamoon. Please shut the door behind you." Principal Celestia stated as she signed papers at her desk. She then placed them in a folder. "Come in please, take a seat."
Knees knocking, Trixie shut the door, mading her way to the seat. "Yes Principal Celestia, you wanted to see Trixie?" she said meekly.
Folding her hands, Celetia leaned forward, sternly looking into Trixie's eyes. "Trixie, it's come to my attention you know the facts regarding the assault on one of your fellow students, Ms. Sunset Shimmer. Anything you can tell us regarding this attack would be greatly appreciated."
Trixie's breath caught. The room started to spin, then she saw stars.
Trixie woke, laying on the couch in the Principal's office. Principal Celestia sat next to her. Ms. Raven applied a cold compress to her head. "Darn it Cele, sometimes you come on too strong. You don't always have to be the heavy,'' groused Raven, brushing back Trixie's hair. Trixie's eyes fluttered. "Oh look, you're in luck, she's coming around. Hey kiddo, how you feeling?" smiled Raven.
"Trixie does not feel well.... Trixie wants to go home!" she closed her eyes again. "What happened?"
"That would be my fault Trixie. I'm sorry about that," apologized her Principal. "I may have frightened you a bit." She took Trixie's hands. "It's okay Trixie. Sunset told me what you told her about the night she was attacked. Trixie, I'm not angry with you. I just need to speak with you, for you to tell my sister, myself, and Detective Shining Armor exactly what you told Sunset."
Trixie screwed her eyes shut tight, tears spilling down her face. "Oh no. no no no no! They will hurt Trixie! Trixie cannot talk to detectives! They will hurt Trixie so bad!"
"Trixie. No one will be allowed to hurt you," promised Celestia. "Detective Armor will meet you in private, at Sunset's house. No one will see you or know. He'll make sure your name is kept confidential. No one will find out you spoke with him. Both Starlight and Sunset will be with you the whole time, so you don't have to face this alone. You don't have to be scared. Please Trixie. Let us help you help Sunset." Celestia rubbed Trixies hands.
Trixie took a deep breath. She opened her eyes. "Do you promise Trixie will be okay?" she asked quietly.
"Trixie, I promise. You will be fine," replied Celestia. "In fact, you'll be better than fine! You'll feel so much better about yourself. Your friends will be with you! You'll be glad you've done this. And we won't let anything bad happen to you Trixie. No matter what."
"Okay." Trixie dried her tears. "For Sunset... Trixie will do this for her friend Sunset. What do I do?"
That evening, Starlight arrived with Trixie in tow. They rang the doorbell. Sunset answered and led them to the dining room table.
Detective Armor and the Royal sisters were already seated, talking quietly. "They're here," announced Sunset, gesturing for the girls to take a seat. Sunset sat next to them.
"Thank you for coming Ms. Lulamoon. And you too Ms. Glimmer. Let's take a moment to let you know what we're about to do.
"Ms. Lulamoon? I am going to need you to tell me exactly the same thing you told Sunset before. I'm going to record it, and take notes. I may ask you to pause from time to time and ask questions." Trixie nodded. Shining continued.
"Sunset, Starlight, Celestia and Luna will be here too. But they won't be in the room with us. They'll be in the kitchen. They'll still be able to hear us, but we won't be able to see them. This is to keep them from influencing your testimony. If at any point you need to pause, please let me know, and we can take a short break. That said, the sooner we get through this, the sooner it's done, so it's better if we minimize any pauses. Do you understand this Ms. Lulamoon?"
Trixie nodded, then gulped. "Good. Okay then, let's get started."
Trixie related the story, just as she had earlier to Sunset. Shining stopped her at a few points for clarifications. They took a few short breaks to allow Trixie to collect herself; she was overcome with sorrow, especially while recollecting some of the more horrid moments.
Once everything was completed, Shining had Trixie review his notes for completeness, then sign the statement. After signing the document, Trixie slumped in the chair.
"Trixie can see her life flashing before her eyes," she groaned.
"Trixie, you know I won't allow anything bad to happen to you, right?" said Shining. "What you've done here is incredibly brave! I'm proud of you for being a true friend to Sunset." He placed a gentle hand on Trixie's shoulder.
Looking up into his eyes, Trixie smiled. "Thank you Detective Armor".
"Just Shining now, Trixie. You're among friends." Turning to Celestia, he smiled. "I'm starving! Let's eat!"
The next day, at the end of the general announcements, Principal Celestia added, "Students, there will be a general assembly after lunch. Please come straight to the auditorium immediately after the lunch period. Attendance is mandatory for all students. That is all."
The rumors started flying immediately.
'It's about anon-a-miss again.'
'It's about Sunset getting beaten!'
'They found who did it and they are all going to prison!'
The student body was on edge.
After lunch, everyone gathered in the auditorium. Principal Celestia, Vice-Principal Luna, and a younger man in a business suit were sitting on the stage, talking together. When it was time to begin, Principal Celestia stood and walked to the podium. "Everyone, please take your seats and be silent. We're about to begin." She waited a few moments for silence, then continued.
"As you recall, a short while ago, one of your fellow students was savagely beaten in the school gym after class. We now know this was in response to the 'anon-a-miss' incident, and have additional information regarding what happened, and those responsible."
At that point several students in the back attempted to sneak out, but were met by teachers at the doors with stern expressions and crossed arms. They slunk back to their seats. Celestia continued. "I have here Detective Shining Armor, of the CPD, to discuss what we've learned and what's going to happen moving forward. Detective Armor, if you please?" She stepped back from the podium, and the man in the suit approached.
"Good afternoon students! I'm Detective Shining Armor, and I'm the detective in charge of the investigation into the assault on Ms. Sunset Shimmer." He paused, sternly looking over the student body. "As you know, assault is a serious offence, especially assault against a minor. Coupled with the facts of the brutality of this assault, this is what is known as Felony Assault. Felony Assault means there is mandatory jail time for this offense, and that anyone convicted of this offence will have this on their permanent record. For the rest of their lives.
"We recently had a breakthrough in this investigation. Footage was found of the assault, and is being reviewed. We are processing the footage, and expect to be making arrests of those responsible over the next few days." He paused here, looking over the student body again. It was completely silent.
"I am here to offer those responsible a measure of mercy. Anyone wishing this mercy needs to come forward now, before we come for you, and confess what they have done. Anyone who does this will be given special consideration by the prosecutor, and will be in a much better position than those who choose to wait for us to come get them. And we will be coming, make no mistake there! So, anyone wishing for mercy, come forward now."
Shining stepped back from the podium, arms crossed, and glared at the assembly. No one moved. Several minutes later, still no one had come forward. It was clear no one was going to confess. Detective Armor returned to the podium.
"I'm disappointed none of you have accepted my offer of leniency! That is unfortunate. For you. I will be back, and when I return, several of you will be leaving with me. Permanently. So for those of you who will be joining me then, I only have one comment.
"Enjoy these moments of freedom. They will be your last."
With that, Principal Celestia took the podium and released them all back to their classes. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 39 - Rehabilitation - Dust | Dust
Gilda Griffin was angry. And when Gilda was angry, people got hurt. Right now, she was fantasizing wrapping her hands around some stool pigeon's throat, throttling the life from them, then snapping their neck for good measure.
"I'm not buying it!" she growled to Dust. "We checked for cameras. And we made sure no one recorded any of it. The only phone that should've been there is Dash's."
"I still don't know how the tartarus she managed to grab it and crawl outta there," added Dust. "When we left, I didn't figure she could even move. Hey, you think Shimmer told them? Maybe she snitched on us."
"Dunno. Maybe? But why the charade? Why now? She coulda just said something earlier... Nah, it doesn't add up," mused Gilda. "Know what I think? I think we have a snitch! I think somebody ratted us out."
"Well if it wasn't Shimmer who? We gotta plug this fast!" asked Dust.
"Not sure. But when I find out, they're dead!"
The next morning Lightning Dust was in the office picking up papers for her homeroom teacher. She noticed Trixie entering. Pretending to tie her shoe, Dust ducked down behind a desk, and watched as Trixie spoke to Ms. Inkwell, then went to Vice-Principal Luna's office. When no one was watching, Dust darted over to the office door, and pressed her ear to it.
"Vice-Principal Luna, Trixie is scared! Everyone seems to be staring at Trixie! They know! Everyone knows Trixie told! They will hurt Trixie! I have to go! Please Vice-Principal Luna! Let Trixie go home!" She could hear Trixie sobbing.
"Ms. Lulamoon. Trixie... if you leave now, it will only serve to make them more suspicious. Take heart, we've promised we will not let harm come to you. You may stay here for a while if you wish, but really you need to return to your classes. Stay strong, Ms. Lulamoon. We are with you; you will survive this." Dust heard Luna heading for the door, so she quickly pulled back and left the office.
"Damn! That little shit! It was Trixie, she's the rat! I shoulda known!" mused Dust as she made her way down the hall back to her homeroom.
She cornered Gilda during break. Dragging her off to a quiet corner, she whispered softly. "I found our rat! It was Trixie!"
"Damn that little snake! She's dead! And so is Shimmer! I swear I'm going to kill them both!" raged Gilda.
"Keep your voice down!" growled Dust. "Damn it Gilda, someone will hear you!"
"Right, right... screw it. I don't care! I'm going to rip their throats out!" whispered Gilda. "I'm going to grab Trixie when she leaves after school. Then I am going to give her what's due... I'm going to beat the living tartarus out of her!"
Gilda's plan was not to be. During the lunch break, a swarm of officers arrived, fanning out throughout the school. They arrest Gilda, Dust, and several others. As they were hauling them out of the school for transport back to the station, Gilda spied Trixie in cuffs being placed into a police cruiser.
"Trixie!" she yelled out, glaring daggers. Trixie cried hysterically as they placed her in the back of the car.
Arriving at the station, they were processed, then placed in separate holding cells. They were interrogated separately. After interrogation, they were placed into a common holding cell. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 40 - Rehabilitation - Trixie | Trixie
Trixie sat, crying and shaking, waiting in her cell. Even though she knew being arrested was part of the act to protect her anonymity as the informant, she was thoroughly terrified.
When her turn came to be 'interviewed' she was relieved to see Detective Shining Armor waiting for her in the room.
"Shining Armor! Please, please help me! Trixie is terrified! Trixie can't do this!" she wailed, clinging tightly to him.
Shining returned her hug, stroking the terrified girl's hair. "Trixie, it's okay! Remember, this is just part of the act. You're fine! You're almost done, then you can go home. We just need you to join everyone in the holding cell. Then when the others are processed into jail we'll bring you home. You can do this Trixie. Stay strong."
"Oh no! No no no no no! Trixie cannot do this! Trixie cannot face Gilda again. Gilda knows, Shining! Gilda knows, and Gilda will hurt Trixie!" sobbed Trixie, shaking in terror.
Shining continued to hold her, gently reassuring her, but Trixie remained thoroughly terrified. Eventually Shining relented, realizing Trixie couldn't face Gilda, and drove Trixie home.
"Trixie, I promised we would protect you, and we will. I'll have a car patrolling your house tonight. We are watching, and we will protect you. No one is going to hurt you Trixie. We won't let them," promised Shining Armor.
He walked Trixie to her door, leaving after her parents let her in.
Trixie ran to her room and curled into a ball on her bed. Shaking, she retrieved her phone, dialing her friend.
"Trixie, how're you doing? Did everything go okay?" asked Starlight.
"Trixie is not okay! Nothing is okay!" quaked Trixie. "Trixie needs you! Trixie is terrified!"
"Okay. Hang tight Trixie. I'll be right over." Starlight hung up the phone.
Shaking, Trixie laid on her bed and waited.
Shortly, Trixie heard her doorbell. Moments later, the door to her room opened. "Trixie?" called out Starlight. Trixie shot from the bed and wrapped her friend in a tight hug.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" she sobbed, hanging from her friend. Starlight wrapped her arms tightly around her friend and smiled.
"Of course, silly girl! What are friends for?" She led Trixie back over to her bed, and sat her down, sitting next to her. Starlight pulled her phone out, dialing.
"Hi Starlight, what's up?" came Sunset's voice from her phone.
"Sunset! Trixie is terrified! Please help!" Trixie cried out.
"Sunset? Yeah, I'm here with Trixie," added Starlight. "She's in really bad shape here. Can you come over?"
"Hang on! I'm going to call Shining to see if that's okay. One sec..." Sunset hung up.
"See Trixie! You're not alone! Your friends have your back." Starlight rubbed Trixie's shoulders. Trixie continued to shake, sobbing gently.
Moments later, Starlight's phone rang. She answered, putting it on speaker. "Hey Sunset. What did he say?"
"Girls, you need to stay put. He's headed over now." |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 41 - Rehabilitation - Gilda | Gilda
Gilda used her one phone call to call her parents. She made bail after her arraignment. Her father drove her home in silence. She was sent to her room as soon as they arrived home.
In her room, she locked the door, then called Dust. "Come on Dust, pick up!" she groused. When no one answered, she threw the phone on her bed and ran her fingers through her hair.
"Shit! Shit shit shit! This is all going to tartarus. Damn that Trixie! Damn her to tartarus!" she swore. Going back over to her bed, she grabbed her phone again and started typing. "Lulamoon. Last name Lulamoon. Where do you live Lulamoon?" Pulling up a search app, she typed the name in, scrolling through addresses. Lulamoon was an uncommon name, so she was quickly rewarded with a local address, which she used to map out directions.
"Okay Trixie. Time to pay you back for this shit. With interest!" she hissed. Ducking into her closet, she retrieved a 12 inch hunting knife from its hiding place. "I'm going to make you wish you had never been born, you rat bitch!"
She opened her window and disappeared into the evening.
A half hour later, she was at the address. Hidden in a hedge across the street, she scoped out the house. No sign of the popo, or anyone else hanging around. There was a car in the driveway, so clearly someone was home. After a bit, a couple emerged from the house. "We'll be back later tonight Trixie! Lock the door, we'll bring you back something for dessert!" The door shut. They got into the car, driving off.
Waiting a bit to be sure they were really gone, Gilda quickly ran over to the house. She tried the front door. Locked. Passing swiftly through the lawn, she circled the house, looking for an open window or door. In the back of the house, she spied an open window, leading into a study. "Bingo..." she whispered, popping the screen, sliding through into the house.
Exiting the study, she crept through the house, eyes and ears open. Passing the stairwell, she heard voices talking softly upstairs. "Gotcha rat..." crowed Gilda.
Creeping stealthily up the stairs, Gilda followed the sound of the voices to a closed bedroom door. Placing her head next to the door, she could hear Trixie and some other girl talking quietly. Grinning, she stepped back, preparing her grand entrance. Kicking the door in, she jumped into the room.
"Time to die Trixie!" she yelled.
Trixie was sitting on the bed with another girl wearing a purple beret. They both turned to face Gilda.
"Gilda," calmly stated Trixie. "You just made the second biggest mistake of your life."
Confused, Gilda pulled out her knife, brandishing it at the girls.
"Oh really?" she asked snidely. "And what was that Trixie? Care to tell me now? Or should I carve it out of you while I'm carving out your rat bitch heart!" She started towards the girls.
Trixie's closet door burst open. Shining Armor stood there, gun drawn, laser lead centered on Gilda's chest.
"That would be coming after Sunset's friends, Gilda. And your biggest mistake was ever coming after Sunset. Drop it!" he commanded.
Gilda slowly dropped the knife, then dropped to the floor. Officers rushed through the door behind her. She was quickly subdued and hauled off.
Trixie broke into relieved tears. "Thank you Shining Armor!" She hung tightly to her friend. "Please thank Sunset for Trixie too."
Shining smiled, and hugged them both. "Thank her yourself, Trixie. Sunset considers you her friend." |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 42 - Rehabilitation - Sunset and the Babysitters Club | Sunset and the Babysitters Club
Author's note:
Trixie's theme song is 'Your Place' by 'Zero7'. Look it up! (She especially enjoys the bridge at 1:50 and plays it at all her shows.)
Luna knocked on Sunset's door. Sunset looked up from her desk and smiled. "What's up?"
Luna smiled back and sat on the sofa. "Sunset, how would you like a chance to earn a little money, and meet the neighbors?"
"Sure, I guess? They pay people to meet them? That seems a bit strange..." Sunset mused.
Luna laughed. "No. No no, nothing like that! They're going out. They need someone to babysit their children. They asked Celestia and I if we knew anyone, and we thought of you and your friends."
"Ohhh. Okay! Yeah, that makes more sense," Sunset nodded. "Sure! My friends? Okay, what does that mean?"
"Well, the kids can be a handful. And with the pool out back, there's always the danger someone will fall in and need to be pulled out. I'm sure there's nothing you can't handle but... probably better to have someone that can literally dive into the pool and pull them out. I'm sorry to put it so bluntly, Sunset." Luna frowned.
"I guess that makes sense. I can deal with that. Hmmm." Sunset mused. "I think I have an idea. Yeah, let me call and see if they can come over and help out. When's this happening?"
"This Friday. The kids will be dropped off here after they're picked up from school, so about 2:00. They will be here for the rest of the afternoon and evening, until their parents pick them up probably late after dinner. I'll let them know you're available. Thanks Sunset!" Luna got up to leave.
Walking out the door, Luna added. "Let me know what your friends say, and anything you need for the evening!"
"Thanks Aunty Luna! I will!" called out Sunset, already scrolling through her contacts. "Trixie, what are you doing this Friday..." she mused.
She placed the call.
Trixie was hesitant. But when Sunset promised she could put on a Magic Show, volunteering to be her assistant, Trixie relented. Trixie wanted to include Starlight, which Sunset agreed to wholeheartedly.
"Thank you Trixie!"
Mr. and Mrs. Caring knocked at the door. Their children, Joyfully and Brightly, bounced in excitement. "Is there going to be a party?" enthused Brightly, the youngest. He was full of energy and couldn't wait to make friends with his new babysitter, Sunset Shimmer.
"No Bright! Remember, Mom said it was a Magic Show!" corrected his older sister Joyfully. "She is going to have a real Magician doing real magic!" She squealed happily.
"Yay! Magic!" bounced Bright. Mrs. Caring looked at her husband and grinned.
The door opened, Sunset greeted them. "Hello! You must be my neighbors. I'm delighted to meet you! I'm Sunset Shimmer!" She leaned down to the children. "And you two must be the adorable kids I've heard about. I can't wait to spend the afternoon with you both!" She booped them both on their noses.
"Please, everyone come in!" She rolled back to let them by, then led them to the dining room table. Bright and Joy were drawn immediately to the snacks Sunset had placed on the table. The Caring's sat. They shared their contact information, where they would be, and the best ways to reach them in an emergency, other contacts to try if they were unavailable, and rules for the children's behaviour. Sunset took notes on everything, then shared the basic safety rules they were following and her contact information, as well as Celestia's and Luna's. Satisfied, the Carings bid the children goodbye, with a final admonition to behave while they were gone. They left while Sunset led the children to their first activity.
"Joy, Bright, this is Starlight. She is going to play a game with you while I help our Magician friend setup her show. I'll be right back to get you all when it's ready. Okay?" Sunset asked the pair.
"Yay! Games!" Bright shouted enthusiastically, racing across the room to grab the beanbags for the bag toss game. "I get to go first!"
Joy laughed and joined him. "I'll help you aim!"
"I'm big, I can do it! Don't need no helping!" grumped Bright. He turned around and tossed the bags, laughing and dancing.
Starlight turned to Sunset. "Wow! They have a lot of energy, don't they! What did you feed them?" She grinned.
"Caught!" laughed Sunset. "I turned them loose on the snacks. And... they both had some of Pinkie's cupcakes, so yeah, they should be rocket fueled for a while."
"I'll get you back for this Sunset!" snarked Starlight. Laughing, she put a hand on Sunset's shoulder, leaning in to whisper. "Thank you so much for this! It really means the world to Trixie that you invited her here to do a magic show for the kids."
Turning to Starlight, Sunset grinned. "Anything for the Great and Powerful Trixie! Besides, what are friends for?"
Starlight and Sunset shared a hug. Starlight joined the kids. "Okay, practice time is over! Who wants to play for real? Here are the rules.."
Sunset wheeled away to find Trixie.
"Trixie, how's it going!" she called out when she got to the patio. Trixie was bent over a chest, her waist and legs hanging over the edge.
"I'm fine! Trixie is fine!" called out the chest. The chest bumped and jostled as Trixies legs kicked while the thumping continued. "Ah ha! Trixie has it!"
With a flourish, Trixe rolled back out of the trunk and held up a large magicians hat. "Behold! Trixie's magical hat of wonder! What magical feats shall be seen when the Great and Powerful Trixie enchants this Magical Hat of Wonder!" Smiling ear to ear, she danced, black cape bouncing behind her, over to the table where her tricks were laid out. She placed the hat on the table with them.
"Wow Trixie! You're really getting into this! You go girl!" laughed Sunset.
Trixied laughed, performing an elaborate bow. "The Great and Powerful Trixie always 'gets into it' Sunset Shimmer!" she grinned. She went back to the trunk and pulled out a sparkling gold outfit with a pair of shimmering gold rabbit ears. Prancing over to Sunset, she held them out.
"Ta da! Trixie even brought an outfit for her great and powerful assistant! You like it?"
Sunset took the outfit, holding it out at arms length. "Wow Trixie! This is great!" Holding it up a little higher, she observed "Not much to it though, is there... Trixie, I think I have swimsuits that cover more than this..."
"It matches the outfit of the Great and Powerful Trixie! Standard show fare. You get used to it," nodded Trixie.
"Okayyyy... Well I guess I'll wear it then. Thanks Trixie!" smiled Sunset. "Need any help with anything else?"
"Trixie does need to go over some of the tricks with you," nodded Trixie. Taking Sunset's hand, she led her over to the 'stage' and taught her some of the tricks they would be performing.
A few games and snacks later, Sunset rolled into the playroom, glittering in her golden outfit. Two golder bunny ears flopped on her head as she shook it side to side. "You like?" she snarked to Starlight.
Laughing, Starlight answered. "Better you than me girl!"
Sunset turned to the children, still tossing the bean bags. "Who's ready for a magic show!" she called out.
"Yay! Magic!" they cried, running over to her.
"Wow Ms. Shimmer. You look really pretty!" stated Bright.
"Thank you Bright! You're quite the sweetheart!" laughed Sunset.
Starlight rolled her eyes, taking the kids by the hand. "Alright everyone! Follow me to the Great and Powerful Trixie's Show of Magic and Wonder!" Sunset followed them to the patio where Trixie was waiting.
Starlight and Sunset got everyone seated. Sunset rolled up to the table Trixie was using as her stage. She placed herself next to Trixie. Trixie stood straight in her black cape, head bowed, magical hat on her head.
"Prrrresenting! The Great! And Powerful! Trixxxxxieeeeee!" called out Sunset, flourishing her arms towards Trixie. Smiling, Trixie raised her head and threw her arms out, revealing her glittering silver outfit, a match to the one Sunset was wearing, minus the adorable bunny ears.
"Greetings my wonderful audience! Welcome to the Great and Powerful Trixie's Show of Magic and Wonder!" Trixie called out. Taking a bow, she walked to the side of the table opposite Sunset. The children cheered and clapped, and the show began.
Trixie started with card tricks. Sunset had them pick a card from an oversized deck while Trixie turned away. Putting the card back in the deck, Sunset handed the deck to Trixie. Trixie then shuffled the deck, ending with a bridge where the cards arched over her head. She placed the cards down on the table, asking them to think of the card they had chosen. With a flourish of her wand she tapped the deck. Nothing happened. She tapped the deck again, still nothing stirred. Trixie took off her hat and scratched her head. "Where could that card have gone? Hmmm."
Reaching into the hat, she exclaimed "Ah Ha! Ta da! Here it is!" With a sweep of her arm she whipped the card from her hat. The kids screamed in excitement while Trixie bowed.
She moved onto illusions, including one that thrilled Joy. She showed them the hat was completely empty, and placed it on the table. She asked Joy what her favorite color was (it was teal - Sunset grinned happily). Trixie tapped her wand on the edge of the hat, and exclaimed "Presto Magico!" She reached into the hat, and pulled out a paper bouquet of teal flowers, which she handed to Joy to keep. Joy was overjoyed with the gift and clutched it tightly.
Several tricks later, Trixie was ready for her last and greatest feat of magic. She called her assistant forward.
"For her last trick, Trixie will cause her beautiful assistant to vanish, and appear in this magical chest. Sunset please, prepare yourself for this magical journey!"
Sunset wheeled into position next to the oversized chest, which had been extended high enough to hold a standing person. Trixie placed a black and white checkered curtain around Sunset, and asked if she was ready.
"Ready!" exclaimed Sunset, poking her head out from the curtain, golden bunny ears bouncing.
"Trixie's beautiful assistant is ready! Back in the curtain please, beautiful assistant." Trixie waved her arms over the curtain. With a smile and a final nod, Sunset pulled her head back and shut the curtain.
"And now, if you would all please concentrate! We will send my beautiful assistant Sunset your kindest thoughts, and she will begin her journey through the Realm of Magic! Abra Cadabra!!" Trixie tapped the curtain three times with her wand. The curtain fell to the ground. Sunset was gone!
The children gasped in shock. "Where did she go!?" Yelled Bright.
"Fear not, beloved audience! Trixie has only sent her assistant on a journey through the realm of magic. She will return to us shortly..." There was a bump from the oversized chest.
Trixie turned to the chest. "Behold, the now Enchanted Sunset! She has traveled through the Magical realms and returned to us, filled with the Magic of the cosmos!"
Trixie tapped the chest three times with her wand, and the sides all fell away. There, sitting in the middle of the chest in her chair, was Sunset. Eating popcorn.
She looked up to Trixie with a smile. "What? It was a long trip, I stopped for popcorn! I got hungry."
Starlight burst out laughing, while Trixie shook her head, hand on her forehead. "Sunset, that's not how it's supposed to go... Popcorn is not the Magic of the Cosmos!" she laughed.
The children ran up to Sunset, thrilled. Trixie took her final bow, laughing with them.
Begging a few minutes to clean up, the kids were sent off with Starlight while Sunset and Trixie changed out of their costumes. When everything was put away into the now normally sized trunk, Trixie and Sunset joined them at the dining room table.
Sunset had ordered pizza and pasta for dinner. The kids were served, then the girls served themselves. Everyone enthused over the show while they ate, to Trixie's absolute delight. When they finished, Sunset cleaned up while Trixie and Starlight took Joy and Bright to Sunset's room, where they'd prepared a movie for them. Leftovers put away and trash stowed, Sunset joined them.
Towards the end of the movie Mr. and Mrs. Caring arrived. They joined them in watching the ending. When it was over, they thanked Sunset and the girls for watching the children, and took them home.
Sunset high fived them both on the fantastic job they had done. "You guys ROCK!" gushed Sunset. "Trixie, your magic show was fantastic! And Starlight, you were awesome, keeping the kids busy and out of trouble. I couldn't have done it without you both!"
"Thank you for having us over! This was fun," said Starlight, leaning over to hug Sunset.
"Thank you so much! They were the best audience Trixie has had in ages!" Trixie bounced happily, hugging Sunset as well.
The three sat and talked happily for a while until it was time for Trixie and Starlight to head home. With a final hug goodbye, Starlight and Trixie left. Sunset went back inside.
"Best day ever!" she smiled. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 43 - Rehabilitation - Cadence | Cadence
Shining Armor took the plate from Cadence, dried it, and placed it into the cabinet. "She really is a sweetheart. We should get Twilight and her together. As smart as she is, I bet the two of them would hit it off."
Cadence smiled at him sweetly. "And it would be great for your sister too. That girl really needs to get out more! She spends so much time with her books... she needs to make some friends."
"I'll ask her if she's interested. I know mom and dad would be thrilled - they're as pushy as you are when it comes to getting her out of her 'lab' and out with other kids her age," agreed Shining, taking another plate.
"I am not pushy!" pouted Cadence, poking Shining in the ribs. "Just ask me - I'm the biggest sweetheart ever! And I only have others' best interest in mind."
"Oh absolutely! Only ever! That's why people are calling in droves on your show!" grinned Shining.
"You know, actually, they kind of are. Huh..." reflected Cadence, stopping for a moment with a pensive look.
"I know, I know, you were only kidding! But seriously, you do give good advice. And you have a scary good knack for cutting through issues, getting down to what's really going on, especially with relationships." Shining smiled at her. "I'd trust you with my heart."
Cadence grinned then poked his side. "You already did you dolt! And with your life as well!"
Setting the plate aside, Shining took her in his arms, pulling her in for a gentle kiss. "And looking forward to every moment." He smiled. Grinning, she kissed him back, then they turned back to finish the dishes.
"Seriously though, you should ask her," Cadence said.
"I will. Next time we're over I'll bring it up," he promised.
Friday evening, Shining picked up Cadence from the station, and the two of them headed to his parents house for dinner. They stopped to pick up a bottle of wine for his parents, then pulled into the driveway and walked up the entryway to the door.
While the 'estate' his parents owned was nice, it was really nothing compared to many of the other residences in the neighborhood. The yard was well maintained, the house was decently sized, but it was definitely a family house, not one of the more ostentatious mansions seen up and down the street. A nice three car garage was attached to the home, and you could hear the sound of splashing and laughter from the back.
"Sounds like they started without us!" laughed Cadence.
"Yeah, we should just go in." Shining tapped the code into the door. They walked into the house and out through the dining room. "Hi guys! We're here!" he called out as they walked out back.
"Shining! Hey BBBFF! Come join me!" called out Twilight, floating in the pool. Her puppy Spike growled and barked playfully from the side. Taking the ball beside her, she flipped it over her head, where it bounced off the fence and rolled to a stop next to the pool. Spike tilted his head, then scampered over to fetch it, dropping it in the pool next to Twilight. He resumed his energetic barks and jumps. "Okay okay, hold on Spike," grinned Twilight, taking the ball and throwing it again, this time with better aim. Spike bounded off after it, bouncing happily.
"Okay LSBFF, I'll go get changed. Be right back." Shining disappeared back into the house.
Shining's mom came over, taking the wine from Cadence. "Thank you Cadence! I'll put this on ice, so we can enjoy it with dinner." She headed into the kitchen.
"Hi Mr. Nightlight! Hi Twilight!" called out Cadence as she followed Mrs. Velvet into the house.
"Cadence! Cadence! Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!" called out Twilight from the pool.
Cadence swung around, poking her backside out and swung it from side to side. "Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" she called out to Twilight, then laughed and waved as she headed inside.
Cadence caught up to Twilight Velvet. "Anything I can do to help out mom?" she asked.
"You are so sweet dear. I like the sound of that. It tickles me pink that you and Shiny finally got together. You know he's been sweet on you since the first time he saw you watching his sister? That boy was nursing a serious crush on you for the longest time!" smiled Velvet as she filled the silver bucket from the ice dispenser.
"Still is!" grinned Cadence. "And it's more than mutual, I assure you."
"To see the way you two carry on, I'm sure it is," teased Velvet. "It's so sweet to see the two of you so completely in love. Reminds me of Nightlight and myself when we were your age." She placed the wine into the bucket, settling it down into the ice, twisting it a few times to get it settled in place. She took the bucket and set it on the table. "Cadence dear, can you get the wine glasses and set them on the tray? Thank you dear."
Cadence moved across the room, pulled the flutes from their cupboard, and placed them on the silver serving tray. "So... not to steal Shining's thunder, but he's found a friend for Twilight. Maybe. You recall the girl that was attacked over at CHS about two weeks ago? It was on the news."
"Yes, the school your aunts run. Horrible news that! I hope the dear girl is recovering."
"Yes. She is. She was hurt rather badly. Shining was talking with Celestia and Luna - they're taking care of her - and they think it would be good for both of them to meet and maybe get together," Cadence continued.
"Really? What makes you say that, if you don't mind my asking." Velvet pulled down a stack of plates, carrying them over to the table.
"Apparently they're both extremely smart. And nice," replied Cadence. "The girl, Sunset, could probably use some friends right now after everything that's happened."
"Well if Celestia and Luna vouch for her, and Shiny agress, you'll get no argument from me," nodded Velvet.
"Shiny is going to approach her about it while we're here. Just wanted to give you a heads up," smiled Cadence.
"Thank you sweetie! Deeply appreciated! And thank you for both for thinking about Twilight. I know she loves you both dearly," smiled Velvet.
"And we love her too!" Cadence smiled back. "Anything else to do here?"
"Let's go check on the chef, and see how he's doing," answered Velvet, heading out to the patio.
Shining jumped from the diving board arms outstretched, at the last moment tucking in to form a ball, spraying a huge splash of water over his sister and her dog. "Shining!" yelled out Twilight, sputtering and shaking her head, while Spike yipped and barked, shaking water all over.
By the grill, Nightlight was pulling off kabobs of grilled vegetables and meat, placing them on a serving tray. 'Kiss the cook - but he's taken' was emblazoned across his apron. Turning off the grill, he carried the tray over to the door. He called out "Dinner is served!" Cadence opened the door for him, and followed him into the dining room.
Shining climbed up out of the pool, then reached down pulling his little sister up and onto the patio. "Thanks Shiny!" she smiled and gave him a big hug.
"Good thing I'm already wet, you goofball!" he grinned at her, pulling her in for a hug. "Noogie time!" Slipping her into a headlock, he knuckled her head.
"No! Shiny no! You'll knot my hair!" she laughed, pushing him away. She grabbed a towel and tossed it to him, then grabbed another for herself.
"You're a knucklehead!" he teased.
"No I'm not - you're a knucklehead!" she laughed back, drying quickly and wrapping the towel around her as she made her way into the dinning room.
"Takes one to know one!" he answered, throwing the towel around his waist and following her to the table.
Dinner was fantastic. As always, Velvet knew how to put on a spread, and Nightlight was no slouch at the grill. The wine Cadence and Shining bought was the perfect compliment to the evening. Even Twilight had a small serving. Content and sated, everyone sat around the fire Nightlight had lit in the firepit, planning to enjoy some "'smores", once they'd had a few moments to let dinner settle.
Shining turned to his sister. "So Twilight, I was talking to Celestia and Luna, and we think we found a girl you'd hit it off with. She's staying with them now, in Cadence's old room. Want to meet her? She's really nice and very smart. We think you two would like each other."
Twilight turned her head, and looked at her brother. "Huh?"
Cadence reached over and smacked Shining on his leg, laughing. "Smooth Shining! Smooth!"
"Are you trying to hook me up?" asked his sister. "Cause seriously Shiny, I'm not even sure I swing that way. I'm not even sure I swing in any way really. I mean, really? Who can know? I mean, I studied it - we had to! They made us take a class in it. Seriously. A class. For that. Just for that. Anyway... I read up on the different genders. And gender identities. And personal pronouns... Still she/her for me, thanks! And I don't even know what I'd be, I mean what I am... Well no, I know what I am. I'm a girl. A woman. A human being. Yeah, and I'm really not sure about the rest of that...'' Twilight paused for a breath.
"Stop. Stop stop stop," called out Shining. "Yeah, smooth Shining..." he grumbled under his breath. "No! No, I didn't mean to imply that you should date her - not that there's anything wrong with that - no. I only meant that I think, er... we think the two of you could be good friends, and have some things in common you could, like, bond over, or something."
Cadence pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head, chuckling lightly.
Shining soldered on. "She's a really nice girl! She's just been through some rough times... But if you'd like, I can make some introductions, maybe exchange numbers or something, bring her over, or whatever, and you could hang out? Together. Hang out together. Yeah. If you want."
Cadence was shaking silently, a hand over her mouth, silently struggling to keep in her laughter. Shining pushed her knee and grinned at her.
"Yeah, nice. Thanks for the save Cady! Way to cut bait." Unable to hold back any longer, Cadence cackled.
"Okayyyy. Yeah, that just happened. Whatever that was... That happened," Twilight observed. "So... well.... Yeah. Sure, I'd love to meet her. As a friend. To meet her. I mean, as a friend to meet her. Not meet-meet her. I mean, unless she wants to meet-meet? Meet-meet? Can you meet-meet someone? But if that's what she wants. To meet-meet, I mean. Whatever that means..."
Shining groaned, placing both hands over his head. Cadence howled, laughing so hard she cried. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 44 - Rehabilitation - Luna | Luna
Shining Armor's voice rang out from the phone. "So, anyways, yes, after everyone finished laughing hysterically and we got Twilight calmed down, she said she would be delighted to meet up with Sunset. So, yeah. If you want, I can pass on Twilight's number, or we can set up some sort of... I don't know, play date? Whatever, not sure what to call it, and I can bring Twilight by and they can just hang out. Whatever you guys decide. Just let me know."
Luna grinned. "Sounds like you had a highly entertaining evening Shining." She chuckled lightly. "Sure, I'll pass that onto Sunset, and call you back later. We'll figure it out."
"Okay thanks! Sounds like a plan. Later then!" Shining signed off.
"Later Shining!" called out Luna, then disconnected the call. She crossed through the hallway and climbed the stairs. Sunset was sitting in her room reading on her new computer. Luna knocked gently on the door. "Sunset, do you have a moment?"
Sunset looked up from her computer. "Hi Aunt Luna! Sure, come on in." She closed her laptop, and rolled over towards Luna. Luna entered and sat on the sofa. "Ah, longer conversation then... Okay, what's up?" asked Sunset.
"You remember Shining Armor, yes? And how he mentioned his sister, Twilight? Princess Twilight's counterpart?"
"Yessss... I recall that," answered Sunset. "And..."
"And indeed. He mentioned you to her, and she would really like to meet you. She's about the same age, she attends Crystal Prep, the same school Cadence and Shining Armor used to attend... anyways... She'd like to come over and hang out with you for a bit, if you're okay with that. The truth is, she doesn't have many friends, and Shining Armor, Celestia and I were hoping maybe you could help her with that. If you wanted," amended Luna.
"Well... yeah sure. Okay. I'm always happy to make a new friend. Not many friends huh... I've been there. Yeah, I'd be happy to help out! When would she be coming over?"
"We haven't really discussed times. If you'd like, I can get her number for you and the two of you can work it out amongst yourselves," replied Luna.
"Yeah sure! Just let me know. Sounds good!" said Sunset.
Luna smiled. "Okay. I'll get that to you. The two of you can let us know what you've decided." |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 45 - Rehabilitation - Twilight Sparkle | Twilight Sparkle
Twilight hung up the phone. "Well, that was awkward..." she mused.
Shining, her BBBFF (Big Brother Best Friend Forever!) had called, and told her she was invited over to Cadence's Aunts' house to meet their foster daughter, Sunset.
Sunset Shimmer, the girl that had been attacked in the gym recently at Canterlot High School. Twilight groaned and face palmed.
"Okay, that's a no... I can't think like that! I would be horrified to be known as 'the girl attacked in the gym'! Sunset. Sunset Shimmer. She's practically my cousin. Cousin Sunset."
Visions of girls in cowboy hats, shorts, boots, and flannel halter tops danced in her head.
"Okay, just... no. Cousin Sunset is right out." She shook her head to clear the bizarre imagery. "Just Sunset. Sunset Shimmer." She took a deep breath. "Maybe she would like to be friends. Shinny said she was very friendly. Celestia is always telling me to make friends... Okay. Friends. We could be friends, right?"
Twilight took several breaths. In slowly, out slowly, arms extended then pulled back to her chest with each breath. Calm. Okay. "Friends. I can do 'friends'.
Mind made up, she dialed her new friend. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 46 - Beginning of the End - Book 3 | The Beginning of the End - Book 3 |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 47 - Beginning of the End - Sunset and Twilight Sparkle | Sunset and Twilight Sparkle
Sunset sat at the dining room table, waiting to meet her new friend. Snacks prepared, a small cooler packed with ice and assorted soft drinks, all were placed on the kitchen counter awaiting her arrival.
"So she's Shining Armor's little sister..." mused Sunset. "And Cadence and he are getting married in a few months. I guess that makes us kind of related... Like, cousins sort of? I guess? Huh..." She stared out the window, looking over the pool to the clouds drifting past. Lost in thought, she started when the doorbell rang.
"I've got it!" she called out, and wheeled to the door.
Opening the door, she saw a rather shy version of her friend Princess Twilight. She was slightly shorter, had on short purple shorts, a light purple blouse, and had her hair up in a bun. And wore glasses. And was nervously biting a nail.
"Come in! Please, come in," said Sunset, backing up to let her pass. Looking down to her feet, Twilight entered. Sunset shut the door.
Still looking down at her shoes, Twilight stuck her hand straight out and said quietly "Hi I'm Twilight." Sunset smiled and took her hand.
"I gathered that," she laughed. "Welcome to my home, Twilight. Let's go sit outside, chat, and get to know one another. Come on, I've fixed some snacks we can grab on the way through." Letting her hand go, Sunset wheeled down the hall and into the kitchen. "Can you grab that tray and bowl of chips? I've got the drinks," smiled Sunset. She placed the cooler on her lap and passed into the dining room, then out the sliding door to the patio. Twilight picked up the tray and chips, piling them together, and followed Sunset out the door. Shutting the door behind her, she placed the snacks on the table and took a seat by Sunset.
Taking her hand, Sunset smiled. "Twilight, it's a pleasure to meet you. Your brother has told me much about you, and I'd really like to get to know you better. Please tell me about yourself!"
Twilight looked to Sunset like a deer caught in a car's headlights. "Uhh.... Uhh.. Umm...." she stated.
"Would you like something to drink? I wasn't sure what you liked, so I just put in one of everything. Here, you pick." Sunset opened the cooler and pushed it over to Twilight.
"Ah... Thank you! Yes, please," answered Twilight, pulling her hand back and picking through the sodas. "Oh! Grape! I love grape! I'll take this one! Thanks!" She pulled the soda free, then popped it open.
Sunset snickered and selected an orange soda for herself. She opened the snack tray and placed it by the chips. "Help yourself!" she said, and took a sandwich. Twilight grabbed a sandwich too, taking a large bite.
"Thish ish really good..." she said with her mouth full.
"Thanks!" Sunset sipped her orange soda. "It's Luna's egg salad recipe. I'm glad you like it."
Taking a considerably smaller bite of her own sandwich, Sunset continued. "Shining says you're quite the scientist!"
"Oh, yes! I love science!" gushed Twilight. "Can't have enough science! I even have my own lab over at Crystal Prep! That's the school I go to, Crystal Prep. My school. But maybe not for long... I've put in for Everton! You know Everton right? Their self study program? I would love to get into there... Then I would have so much time for Science! But I haven't been approved yet. You have to be approved to get in... they have to invite you. So I am hoping they invite you. I mean me! Me, I mean me. Invited... to Everton. But you could too right? You like Science? You like science, right?"
Sunset leaned into her hand, laughing quietly.
"You like... Sunset, are you okay? You're shaking, what's wrong?" observed Twilight.
Unable to hold back any longer, Sunset erupted in a fit of laughter.
"Is something wrong? No.. what's so funny? Did I miss something?" asked Twilight, clearly confused. Sunset leaned forward and hugged Twilight.
"Oh Twilight... you are absolutely precious!" laughed Sunset. "I think we will get along fantastically!"
Cautiously, Twilight hugged her back. "Okayyyyy. That would be great! Yeah. I'd like that. So, like, as friends, right?"
"Yes Twilight Sparkle. As friends!" laughed Sunset.
Taking her hand, Sunset and her friend enjoyed a good laugh.
They spent the rest of the afternoon catching up. Twilight shared about all of her studies, as well as her recent discoveries regarding some interesting energy readings she had observed centered on Canterlot High School. Sunset shared with Twilight stories about her past, including what had happened to her and why she was in her wheelchair. She left out the more horrific details, and made no mention of the portal nor of the land she had originally come from, not wanting to 'freak out' her new friend so soon after meeting.
"So you're saying there is another girl you know who has the same name and me, and is actually a real Princess? Woah," gasped Twilight. "I thought my name was pretty uncommon. What are the odds of that? Maybe we're related? Wow, that would be fantastic! I could be related to a Princess! Maybe I'm a Princess of something too! Woah..." Twilight stared off into space, lost in thought.
Sunset snickered. "Oh Twilight. Twilight Twilight Twilight, don't ever change." She grinned.
"Ah.. what?" said Twilight. "You said something?"
"No worries Twilight," smiled Sunset. "Thank you for coming over! I'm really happy to finally get to know you."
"Me too! I mean, me too, to get to know you. Not tutu. Too to. Two Two? Wait what..." drifted Twilight.
Sunset laughed and hugged her new friend. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 48 - Beginning of the End - Gilda | Gilda
Gilda was arraigned. It was decided due to her age and the nature of her offenses, she would be tried as an adult.
Her trial was quick. With the overwhelming evidence against her, she was found guilty of attempted murder and felony assult of a minor. She was sentenced to serve her time in the local penitentiary. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 49 - Beginning of the End - Dust | Dust
Lightning Dust pled out, was briefly placed in Juvie, but was quickly released for her exemplary behavior, and on recommendations from her parents' friends. It paid to have connections apparently.
Once Dust was released, she returned to school, doing everything she could to appear as a model student. Hearing that Dust was out, Gilda got messages to her through friends. They were not allowed to meet, but that didn't stop them from communicating and planning. Together they planned their revenge on Sunset.
It looked like Dust would need to make a new 'friend' to make this work. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 50 - Beginning of the End - Sunset | Sunset
To say Sunset was surprised was an understatement.
When Lightning Dust contacted her asking to meet, she was hesitant. She firmly believed everyone deserved a second, or even third or fourth chance. None-the-less, knowing how deeply Dust was tied to what happened to her, she felt reluctant to welcome Dust into her life.
She finally agreed to meet Dust, and arranged for her to come over late one afternoon. Sharing her scepticism, Luna arranged to be home as well, in case Dust intended anything less that wholesome or healthy for her foster daughter.
Sunset sat nervously in her usual waiting spot at the dining room table, Luna next to her. "Dearest Sunset. If she tries anything to hurt you, or you feel the slightest bit threatened, you need only call my name. I'll be in my room doing paperwork, but you need me, only say my name and I'll be by your side." Promised Luna.
"Thank you Luna," sighed Sunset. "It means the world to me that you care, and are here for me. I owe you and Celestia so much."
"Nonsense Sunset. We love you dearly. We're delighted to have you here with us, and for you to share our lives," countered Luna with a gentle hug. She smiled.
Sunset smiled back, and returned her hug. The doorbell rang. "Guess it's time. I'll get it." Sunset said, rolling towards the door.
"I'll be in my room. Remember, you need only speak my name, and I'll come," reminded Luna, heading up the stairs to her room.
"Thank you Luna! I will, I promise," said Sunset, as she answered the door.
"Hello Dust," she greeted. "Come in, please." She rolled back and gestured towards the dining room. "Take a seat, let's talk."
"Thank you. You're not alone, are you?" asked Dust. "Sorry, this just feels very awkward. And I am so sorry." Dust stepped in, then headed towards the dining room at Sunset's direction. Sunset shut the door and followed her to the table. Dust sat.
"Can I get you anything Lightning Dust? Are you thirsty? Would you like something to eat?" offered Sunset.
"Uhm. Sure, anything is fine, just something to drink, thank you Sunset," answered Dust. Sunset fetched them both a soda, and returned to the table.
"Thank you. Well, awkward as this is, let me just start. Sunset, I know I can never make up for what I did, and for the part I played in what happened to you. I was wrong, and even though I was just following along with Gilda, that will never excuse what happened or my decisions to be a part of that. I'm just here to beg your forgiveness, even if you never want to see me again. Please, forgive me if you can. I am truly sorry for everything I've done and all your suffering." Dust looked down at her hands, appearing truly penitent.
Sunset took her hands, and looked into her eyes. "I believe you Dust, and for what it is worth, I offer you my forgiveness."
Looking up. Dust's eyes misted. "Thank you Sunset. That means the world to me."
They talked for a while, Sunset asking Dust about her friendship with Gilda, and her plans for her future. Dust spoke of her childhood, growing up as Gilda's best friend. She told Sunset about the troubles they got into together. Eventually, she had Sunset laughing at some of the tales of their misadventures. Gilda had apparently always had a temper, was stubborn and opinionated, but from what Dust related was a loyal and true companion to her friends.
When the time approached for their visit to end, Lightening reached into her backpack. "Sunset, I know I can't ever make right what I did. But I wanted to give you something, just a small gift, to say how sorry I am." She pulled out a box, wrapped in blue tissue paper. "It's not much, but I wanted to say once again how very sorry I am. Here, please accept this."
Sunset took the gift and opened it up. It was a bass booster bluetooth room speaker. "I know it's not much, but I figured you love music, with you and your friends being in a band and all. Thank you for letting me come over and apologize."
Dust got up to leave, then turned back to Sunset. "Oh, it's also a wifi speaker. You can hook it up to the wifi and it will stream any of the internet music services if you have a subscription. Thanks again for seeing me Sunset. I need to get home, my curfew is coming up." Sunset walked Dust to the door, then bid her goodbye.
"Wifi huh? Guess I'll try it out later." She went to the stairs and took the stair lift up. Rolling over to Luna's room, she knocked on the door frame.
Luna looked up from her paperwork. "Well Sunset, how did it go?" she asked.
"It went okay. It went well actually... We even shared a few laughs. I don't think I'm ready to go anywhere with her, but it was a good first step," Sunset replied. "Oh, and she gave me a little gift, this speaker. I'm going to set it up and try it out."
"Ah, how nice. Okay Sunset. Let me know if you need anything. Celestia is picking up pizza for dinner. She ordered one half veggie, so you're covered. We'll come fetch you when she gets here. You can tell us all about your visit then," Luna added, turning back to her work.
"Sounds great! Thanks." Sunset headed into her room and shut the door. "Now, let's see how this thing works..."
Twenty minutes later, Sunset could be heard in her room. "Okay, trying this out. Beatbox, play playlist Rainbooms!" Moments later, the Rainbooms could be heard singing out from the room. "Sweet! This thing has good sound too! I'm definitely keeping this around." Sunset sang along with the music.
As she was reading through the rest of the manual, she saw the speaker had an impedance matching setting, allowing her to connect her guitar directly to it. "Ah sweet! I can use it as a personal amplifier!" She rolled over to her guitar, slung it on, and grabbed the aux cord. Wheeling back over to her desk, she plugged the cord into the box, and jacked up her guitar. She strumed a chord, which played over the top of the streaming music. "Sweet Celestia! I am so going to rock this!" She started playing along with the song, singing out, smiling ear to ear.
Downstairs, Celetia arrived. On entering the house, boxes of pizza in hand, she called out. "Luna! Sunset! I'm home! I've got dinner! Hope you're both hungry!" Luna emerged from her room, knocking on Sunset's door as she passed. The music stopped. Luna called out. "Sunset, Celetia's here. Come on down and join us for dinner."
"Okay, be down in a moment!" replied Sunset.
Luna went down the stairs and joined her sister, puting plates, napkins and drinks out on the table. "Welcome home Cele. How went your day?" she asked.
"It went well Lulu. Glad to be home though. How did the visit go? Well I hope? From the music and Sunset singing I gather it went well?" answered Celestia, sitting at the table to wait for the others to join her.
"It was surprisingly drama free. They seemed to 'hit it off' as it were. Ms. Dust left a gift for Sunset, which is what you heard earlier. Some kind of speaker. Sunset seems to be enjoying it."
Sunset wheeled into the room. "I sure am! It even has a setting so I can plug in my guitar and jam along. Sweet!"
"So I heard," smiled Celestia. Luna and Sunset sat at the table, joining hands and bowing their heads. "Thank the maker for this food and the harmony we share," canted Celestia.
"Thank the maker," replied Luna and Sunset. Both grabbed a slice of pizza and a drink.
"Yeah it was a bit awkward to start. But Dust shared some stories about her growing up with Gilda, and we hit it off, a bit. Not ready to call her a full friend yet, but it was a good start," responded Sunset between bites.
"I am quite pleased to hear that," responded Luna. "Hmm... This is good. Thank you for picking this up Cele."
"No problem Lulu. Anything for my girls!" responded Celestia.
They chatted a while, enjoying the dinner and each other's company. After a quick cleanup, Luna challenged Sunset to a battle royale, and the two were off for some gaming while Celestia went to finish up paperwork before retiring for the evening.
It was a good day in the Royal household. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 51 - Beginning of the End - Sunset Redux | Sunset Redux
Sunset awoke that morning feeling well rested. She had her PT this morning, then OT in the afternoon. As Celetstia had chosen to be the one to stay with her today, they loaded Sunset into her sporty car and headed out to her first appointment. At least this time Sunset did not have to watch her chair bounce around in the tiny open trunk. Celetia had purchased a rack that mounted on the back of the car. The chair was secured to that instead. It was much easier to use, and less likely to involve Celestia in a conversation with one of her future 'son-in-laws' coworkers.
After her PT was finished, they had some time to waste before her OT started. Celestia took Sunset to the Sushi shop that was near the hospital, where they enjoyed their lunch together. After the OT session, they returned home. Sunset again enjoyed her new speaker, playing along with her friends band virtually.
Celestia knocked on Sunsets door a bit later in the afternoon. "Sunset, I contacted the therapist recommended by Dr. Quinn. He had an opening tomorrow afternoon. I've signed you up for it. Dr. Discord, 2:00."
Sunset paused the music, and turned to Celestia. "Okay!" she smiled, then unpaused the song, strumming and singing along with the music. Celestia smiled and returned to her work. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 52 - Beginning of the End - Dr. Discord | Dr. Discord
The session with Dr. Discord was interesting, to say the least.
Luna accompanied Sunset to her appointment, it being her day to stay with Sunset. Arriving early to complete the ever present 'first visit' paperwork, they sat in Dr. Discord's waiting room. The walls were painted like something out of an Escher original. Sunset was getting a slight bit of vertigo just looking at it. The receptionist came to show Sunset in, wearing glasses with hypnotic black and white swirls on the lenses. Seeing Luna's raised eyebrow, she lowered the glasses and grinned over their tops. "It's a Dr. Discord thing. It's kind of his schtick." She pushed the glasses back up and accompanied Sunset back to Dr. Discords office.
"Ms. Shimmer is here to see you Dr. Discord," she announced, stepping aside to let Sunset enter the office. Sunset wheeled in, immediately noting the troupe reclined couch by his desk, and the crazy hypnotic pattern painted on the wall opposite.
"Good afternoon Ms. Shimmer!" greeted Dr. Discord. "Welcome to my clinic!" He turned to the receptionist. "Thank you Ms. Screwball." She nodded then returned to her desk outside his office.
"Pleased to meet you Dr. Discord. Wow, quite the office you have here!" greeted Sunset.
Looking to the couch, Discord observed, "A pleasure to meet you Ms. Shimmer! I would normally invite you to make yourself comfortable on my couch, but considering your situation, please feel free to make yourself comfortable wherever you wish."
"Awesome!" snarked Sunset. "I'm heading back to my bedroom. Nice meeting you Dr. Discord!" She pretended to head out the door.
"Hohoho! I'm going to like you Ms. Shimmer! Touche!" laughed Dr. Discord.
Dr. Discord had her stare at the odd wall in his office, while he droned on to Sunset in a droll tone, guiding her through some meditation. At one point she could swear the wall started swirling in on itself.
Then she was back outside the gym, dispassionately watching herself heading in looking for Rainbow Dash. She saw herself enter the gym, then being grabbed and held down. It all unfolded just as Trixie had described, though a bit more graphically. The entire time, Sunset just stood to the side and observed it unfolding, unfeeling and uncaring of the brutality of what she witnessed. When it was over, she watched as Trixie hid shaking in her closet while her body was carted off to the hospital.
She then was bathed in golden light, and woke feeling refreshed and at peace, but unable to recall much of what she had just experienced.
Dr. Discord assured her she was doing just fine. There was nothing wrong with her memories - they were clearly intact and functioning correctly. It was only her mind showing her kindness, protecting her from the grief and suffering she had experienced.
"You have an old soul, my dear. And in its wisdom, it knows you are not ready for these sorrows life has shared. So she is carrying them for you, for a time. Don't worry my dear, when you are ready, your soul will share with you all that it is carrying," advised Dr. Discord.
Slightly confused, but enjoying the feeling of peaceful serenity, Sunset nodded.
Luna had scheduled a follow-on session for the next week while she waited. They thanked Dr. Discord for his time, and returned home. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 53 - Beginning of the End - Sunset's Nightmares | Sunset's Nightmares
That night, Sunset's nightmares began.
She was trapped in the vision again. But this time, while she watched, she felt every terror, every blow, every break. She woke several times, crying and shaking, not calling out, but returning to sleep. And each time she slept, she returned to the nightmare, right back at where she left off.
That morning, she rolled into the kitchen, bags under her eyes, hair disheveled, looking weary and worn. She rolled up to the coffee maker, placed her mug in, and punched the Espresso button. Celestia looked up from her papers at the table. "Sunset, sweet harmony! Whatever happened to you?"
"Ugh... rough night," groaned Sunset, pulling her coffee from the machine and taking a long draught. "I had nightmares all night about the attack. It was horrid. And every time I would wake up, I would fall right back asleep and right back into the nightmare. I don't think I've had that wretched a night's sleep since the fall formal." She rolled over to the table, picking up a slice of tofu bacon to nibble.
"You don't think you were having a reaction to the therapy do you?" asked Celestia.
"Maybe? No? I don't think so. I don't know," groaned Sunset. Face in her hands, she rubbed her eyes, then looked over to Celestia. "I felt such peace after the session. I felt anything but peace last night. I can't imagine the two were related. But maybe? I just don't know." She shook her head. Taking another sip of the expresso, she mused. "I do know that was tartarus! I never want to feel that again. That was pure tartarus."
Celestia stood and wrapped Sunset in a tender hug. "Sunset, if that happens again, call out, please. I'll come get you. You don't need to suffer that alone."
Sunset hugged Celestia tightly. "I will, I promise. Thank you!"
That night, the nightmares returned. This time, when she awoke shaking and crying, she remembered what Celestia had promised the day before and called out for her.
Celestia rushed into her room. "Sunset, is it the dreams again?" Sunset nodded, tears flowing. "Scoot over sweetie. I'm not leaving." Celestia laid next to her, enfolding Sunset in her loving embrace. Sunset snuggled up against her and fell back asleep.
The next morning, they awoke, Sunset still snuggled tightly in Celetia's arms. She was sleeping soundly, but still had the occasional shake or whimper. "Sunset," called Celestia, caressing her head gently. "Sunset, it's okay. I'm here."
Sunset slowly opened her eyes, and seeing Celestia hugged her tightly. "More nightmares Sunset?" asked Celestia. Sunset nodded, face buried in her shoulder. Celestia gently turned her face to her, and kissed her forehead. "No more nightmares now, dear. Time to rise and greet the day. Come on, I'll make us pancakes." She kissed her forehead once more, then rose and went down the stairs to get started. Sunset stretched, prepared for the day, then followed.
That night, Luna declared she would stay with Sunset, rather than either of them waiting for her to call out. Holding her dear foster daughter close, the two fell to sleep quickly. Luna's dreams were troubled, peppered with scenes of her sister under the car once again, blood everywhere. Sunset was once again forced to relive the horridly wicked attack, but this time with the added trauma of watching and reliving every wretched act she had performed against her fellow students and friends, reminding her of why she deserved nothing but their scorn and hate. She felt she deserved every wretched unkindness she had suffered. She never woke once during the night, convinced instead she ought to suffer each and every torment to atone for the evil she had caused.
That morning, both Sunset and Luna awoke completely drained from their night of 'rest'.
"Sunset," stated Luna, holding tightly to her tearful foster daughter, "Were I of the superstitious mindset, I would swear your room possessed by some foul evil."
She helped Sunset get ready for the day. They ate breakfast together with several cups of the blackest coffee.
After breakfast, Luna received a call from Celestia. "Lulu, I need you to head to district administration offices. Director Neighsay has called an emergency meeting to review our funding. Apparently there are allegations we misappropriated funds while reconstructing the school after the fall formal. He claims to have some sort of proof that it wasn't an explosion to the gas main. Can you please head over and try to head that off? For Sunset's sake, that's not a road we want anyone treading."
Luna wholeheartedly agreed, and prepared to leave.
"Sunset, I have to attend an emergency meeting. I'll be back as soon as it's over. Celestia will be here right after school as well. Please stay safe." She hugged Sunset, grabbed her purse and keys, and went out the door.
Sunset tried to distract herself, but refused to go back in her room, feeling almost haunted every time she went near it. Watching videos on her phone, there was a knock at the door.
Answering the door, she was surprised to find Lightning Dust standing at her doorstep.
"Hi Sunset! How's it going? Sorry to stop by unannounced. I had the day off, and thought I'd stop over and say hi. How're you doing?"
"Hi Dust, one sec." Sunset answered. Rolling back, she replied. "Come on it. Can I get you anything?"
"Uh sure? Want to join me in a drink?" she replied stepping into the entryway.
"You've no idea... this way," said Sunset, shutting the door behind her. Together they went into the kitchen and pulled out sodas, then sat at the dining room table.
"Sunset, sorry, I know it's not my place to say but, you kind of look like crap. You okay?" asked Dust.
Opening her soda, she shook her head. "I started therapy. And I've been having wretched nightmares every night. I'm back in the gym each time, reliving the attack."
"Oh Sweet Harmony! Sunset I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have asked." Dust reached out to give Sunset a hug and accidentally knocked her phone to the floor. "Oh shoot! Let me get that!" she said.
"No, I got this... I drop it all the time anyway, don't worry about it." As Sunset leaned over in her chair to pick it up, Dust leaned over across the table. When Sunset leaned back, phone retrieved, Dust was back in her seat.
"Sunset, I am so sorry. Look, maybe I came at a bad time. I just wanted to say hi and check in on you. But maybe it would be better if I left and let you get a little rest," stated Dust.
"No! No thanks! No rest! Every time I rest, it's back to that damnable nightmare. No rest." Sunset shook her head.
"Okay. Well, if you want, we can just hang here and talk. I'm free the entire evening."
"That works for me. Tell me, what have you been up to?" said Sunset, sipping her soda. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 54 - Beginning of the End - Angel Dust | Angel Dust
Dust shared with Sunset what was going on at school, including the volunteer work she had taken on to try to atone for her misdeeds. As she spoke, Sunset felt herself slipping further and further into a disconnected state.
Eventually, Dust noticed she was fading. "Sunset, you okay? You seem to be spacing out. You sure you don't want to lay down for a bit?"
Sunset turned to face Dust. She could see lines of light radiating out from her, and heard her voice echoing as though she were in a far off canyon. "Dust, I don't feel so good."
Dust took her shoulders, looking into her eyes. "Sunset, I'm sorry, but you need to lay down. I think you're getting sick or something. Look, I'll help you up to your bed, and you can rest for a bit. I'll head back over to school and ask Ms. Celestia to come help you. Okay?"
"Okay," nodded Sunset confusedly. Dust rolled her over to the stairs and onto the lift. Once they were upstairs, Dust rolled her into her room, gently placing her on her bed. She leaned over Sunset.
"Sunset. Wait here, okay? I'll be right back. I'm going to go get Principal Celestia, and bring her back. Don't wander off, just rest. Okay? Can you do that?"
"Okay Dust," mumbled Sunset. "Okay." Dust smoothed Sunset's hair from her eyes, then left.
Sunset lay there, delirious. She heard the voices of everyone she'd ever tormented. Every friendship she had ever broken, they were there, standing in her bedroom, tears streaming from their eyes as they stared at her in silent rage. Her friends were there too, crying in betrayal.
"Sunset!" they called out. "How could you! We trusted you Sunset! You were family! How could you betray us!"
Sunset shook. She cried out. "It wasn't me! It wasn't me! I would never do that! I love you! You're my family! I would never do that!"
Writhing in anguish, she moaned and called out in grief. "It wasn't me! I would never hurt you!" She cried and wailed.
One by one, her friends turned silently and walked away. Soon, no one was left, the only sound Sunset weeping piteously.
An angel walked slowly into her room, calling out her name. "Sunset.... Sunset..." She turned towards the angel. "Sunset.." called out the angel.
Sunset turned to face the angel. Her face was bathed in a beautiful golden light. Her smile was peaceful and serene. Sunset reached out to the angel.
"Sunset, it's time for peace," stated the angel simply. She held her arms outstretched. "All of this suffering, all of this torment. It must end. It's time to end it. Come Sunset. Know peace."
The angel stepped forward, drying Sunset's tears. She gently pulled her up, and lifted her into her chair. "Sunset, let all of this go. Let this life go. Leave it behind you. Come, join us in Elysium Sunset. Time to leave the suffering of this life. Leave this torment behind, and know peace."
Sunset looked at the angle, and nodded her head slowly. "Peace," she breathed. She looked away to her desk, and said again "Peace."
"Yes Sunset. Let's leave this life behind. Come with me to Elysium and peace." The angle started to push her out of the room and into the hallway.
"Wait!" shouted Sunset, pointing back to her desk. The angel pushed her back into the room and over to the desk. "Peace," said Sunset. She pulled down her journal, opening it to the last written page. Picking up a pen, she breathed "Peace", and began writing.
'Dear Princess Twilight. I can no longer bear to live with the horrors I have committed in both this world and yours. I am completely unworthy of anyone's love and forgiveness. I'm sorry to have caused you and all my friends such complete pain and suffering. Please forgive me. I'll see you someday in Elysium. I love you dearly, thank you for being my friend.
Yours in Harmony, Sunset Shimmer'
The angel nodded. "Yes, that will bring peace. Well done Sunset. A note for our loved ones. Now come. It is time for you to know peace." Sunset placed the Journal on her desk, a beatific smile on her face.
The angel rolled her into the bathroom. Placing her next to the tub, she helped Sunset turn on the water. "Let the warmth comfort you on your journey Sunset, as the warmth of eternity prepares to enfold your soul."
When the tub was full, the angle led her over to the sink and helped her remove the blades from her safety razors. "Let the suffering flow from your body. Open your wrists and let the pain and torment leave, never to return."
Sunset smiled. "Peace," she intoned.
Gently, the angel helped her into the tub, placing the blades where she could reach them. "Release your pain Sunset. Release your suffering. Pour out your torment out into the cosmos, let your sorrows flow from you into eternity. Open your wrists, and let your suffering flow out from your wounded spirit!"
Sunset nodded. "Peace." She drew the blade across her wrist with a flinch. She looked curiously at the blood that flowed down her arm from her wrist. "Peace," she intoned again. She placed the blade in her other hand and drew it across her remaining wrist, once again watching the blood flow down from her hand with detached curiosity. "Peace," she sighed, then lowered both hands into the water, looking out the window.
The angel followed her gaze. Outside clouds drifted by slowly, carried across the small bathroom window by the gentle breeze. Children could be heard playing happily nearby. Sunset smiled serenely. "Peace."
The angel gently kissed her forehead, and tearfully backed through the bathroom door. "I will see you in Elysium, dear soul," she breathed, then left, never to return. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 55 - Beginning of the End - Faust | Faust
A white light surrounded her, lifting her gently from the world and carrying her through the cosmos. Cocooned in the beautiful light, she watched stars, nebulae, and galaxies float and drift past. She felt loved and accepted by the universe, completely wanted and cherished. A bright and colorful band of light grew before her, until she entered a vast field of grass and wheat, flowing and folding in the gentle breeze that gusted across it's endless acres. It stretched beyond the horizons in every direction, the skies covered in gentle clouds, and bathed in the purest of golden sunlight.
In the distance, she could see a herd of horses approaching, running joyfully, calling out to one another happily. As they grew nearer, she realized they were not horses at all, but ponies; unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies, laughing and playing together as they ran towards her. At their head was an alicorn, reddish main and tail whipping in the wind as she danced and played with the others. As the alicorn drew closer, Sunset noticed the quill and inkwell cutie mark. Smiling, Sunset gasped. "Faust!" she called in joy. This was the beloved Faust, mother to Celestia and Luna, spiritual mother to all of ponydom.
Sunset fell to her knees in joy, reaching out to her.
"Greetings my little pony!" Faust called out.
Tears of joy fell from Sunset's cheeks. The beloved Faust. She was being greeted by the beloved Faust! Blessed Harmony!
A small part of Sunset's soul observed with snark, 'So that's where she gets that...'
Rising from her knees, Sunset walked over to Faust and the ponies. Then she noticed. She was still human. Looking down, she could see her feet, shod in golden slippers, laced with golden thongs up her caves. A white toga with gold trim was bound at her waist. On her arms were golden wristlets, and from her forehead extended a brilliant horn, bathed in warm teal light. Turning to look over her shoulder she saw two large wings of flame, extending out, light shimmering from them but not burning. Turning back to Faust, she ran to her, and bowed deeply on one knee.
She asked only one word. "How?"
Touching her horn gently to Sunset's, Faust smiled. "My dear little pony. You've come so far, and done so much. You've suffered greatly on your journey. But my dear, I am sorry to say, you do not belong here."
Sunset looked up into Faust's large aqua eyes.
"I don't belong here?" she asked, anguish clear in her voice.
Faust smiled gently.
"No my little pony. You don't belong here. Not yet. Your journey is not complete. There is work still to be done. You have so much love left to give. So much care left to share. A heart as big as yours cannot be stilled so easily. You have Friends to make, Joys to share, and Love to spread. The magic of friendship is strong in you. Harmony flows through you like a river, watering a parched and dusty land. You have strength yet to share in your weakness, hope left to show in your hopelessness, and joy to shine brightly in your darkest hours."
Tears of joy streamed down Sunset's cheeks as she hugged Faust tightly.
"Thank you!" she breathed joyfully.
"Thank you my dear little pony! Know that you carry my heart wherever you go. And when your journey is complete, you will join me forever here, in your true form, to know peace and harmony with your loved ones forever. Go now, return to those who await you, and take up your mantle again until the day you are called to us once again for eternity."
Faust stepped back, joyfully smiling, her wings out regally.
Crying tears of pure joy, Sunset faded in a bright white light.
Elysium faded from her view. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 56 - Beginning of the End - Sunset | Sunset
Sunset heard crying. Someone was crying out her name.
"Sunset Shimmer! Damn you! Don't you dare leave me! Come back Sunset! Don't you dare leave!"
She slowly opened her eyes. She saw Luna by the bathroom door, talking loudly into her phone. She saw Celestia, in the tub with her, holding her head up, weeping, looking at her, radiating love and concern.
And Twilight. Princess Twilight was here. She was yelling at Sunset, tears streaming down her face. "Don't you dare leave me Sunset Shimmer!"
Sunset looked over to Twilight.
"You came," she said softly.
Twilight stopped talking and sobbed in joy. Sunet smiled. "You really came." Luna went silent and gasped. Looking at them all, Sunset glowed with joy.
"I love you all so much!" she sighed.
Then everything faded to grey. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 57 - End of the Beginning - Epilogue | The End of the Beginning - Epilogue |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 58 - End of the Beginning - Sunset's Reprise | Sunset's Reprise
Sunset awoke. She heard the steady beep of a life support machine. Opening her eyes, she saw a blurry vision of her hospital room. "Ugh... " she groaned. "I seem to be making a habit of this."
Blinking, her vision cleared. Looking around, she saw a bizarre sight. Both Twilights were asleep on a cot next to her bed, tumbled up together, snoring gently. Sunset snorted in quiet laughter. "Da-ahhh.... That's so sweet!" she said softly. The girls stirred.
Twilight opened one eye, and saw Twilight's head burrowed into her shoulder. "Uhh... Good morning Twilight," she mumbled. Twilight pulled her head off the shoulder, groaned softly, then looked up, eyes blinking. "Uh... Hi! Hi me. Good morning. Where am I..."
"Good morning girls!" snarked Sunset. "Sleep well?"
"Sunset!" both girls cried out, coming fully awake and turning to her. With a flurry of limbs and a few quick mumbled apologies, the girls awkwardly extracted themselves and rushed to her side.
"You're awake! Of course you're awake. You just said hello, so that means you have to be awake. So I don't need to say you're awake. Unless you weren't awake. You could be asleep and still say hello. But you're awake..."
"Sunset, don't you ever do that to me again! I thought I'd lost you!"
"Hello Twilight. Hello Twilight. Have I told you two how much I love you?" asked Sunset.
Twilight leaned in, grasping Sunset in a tight hug.
Twilight blushed and twisted one foot into the floor, head shyly askance. "Uh... hehe. Thanks?" she replied.
"Sweet harmony you two are adorable. I could die of diabetes!" chuckled Sunset.
"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed! "I'll go get Celestia and Luna! They said to get them when you woke!" Twilight ran out the door and down the hall.
Twilight clutched her tightly. "I'm never leaving you again, you blockhead! Stop trying to leave me!" she cried into Sunset's shoulder.
"That would be kinda hard with the whole 'Princess of Friendship' thing, Twilight," replied Sunset, gently stroking her friend's hair. "You know you have to go back." She kissed Twilight's forehead. "I love you too, you silly filly. You two are the sisters I never had."
Twilight held her tightly, gently crying.
Twilight came rushing back, Celetia and Luna in tow.
"Oh sweet harmony thank you! You're awake!" called out Luna, rushing to her side and enveloping both Sunset and Twilight in a hug. Celestia came over and hugged them all.
Sunset beamed. "I love you all so much!"
"I love you too Sunset!" Celestia beamed.
Luna smiled, hugging her tightly.
"We all love you Sunset!" smiled Twilight, drying her tears. Pulling back, Luna and Celestia extracted themselves from the group hug.
Twilight punched Sunset's arm lightly. "Don't you ever do that again!"
"Ouch!" grinned Sunset. "Got it Twilight. Won't happen again, promise!"
"It better not missy, or We'll ground you for life!" growled Luna. Celestia folded her arms, smiled and nodded.
"Okay. Group hug everyone!" Sunset threw her arms wide. Both Twilights and the Royal sisters obliged.
Shining Armor came by that afternoon to collect Twilight and get Sunset's statement. Starlight and Trixie came by for a visit, as well as her friends. Many happy tears were shed. Afterwards everyone returned to their homes for some well deserved rest. The girls took Princess Twilight back to the portal so they could wish her farewell.
"I'll be back tomorrow Sunset. Rest well!" Twilight kissed her forehead with a final hug, then left with the girls, Pinky talking a mile a minute. Sunset beamed at them as they left.
By the time evening came, Sunset was exhausted, and fell into a deep sleep. She dreamed of the fields of Elysium, her and and friends all laughing and running, playing with Faust, dancing through the endless golden fields.
Sunset smiled as she slumbered.
Sunset was released the next day, with a further referral to Dr. Discord.
When she arrived home, she found everyone waiting for her, Pinkie Pie having arranged one of her classic "Welcome Home Sunset! We're so glad you didn't die please don't ever do that again!" parties, with all of her friends and family invited. Both Twilights, the girls, Shining and Cadence, Twilight's parents, Trixie and Starlight - it was a full house, spilling out to the patio. Sunset made it a point to spend time with everyone, thanking them for being there and for being a part of her life. She was overjoyed to spend this time with all her friends.
Late in the evening, after everyone had left - Pinkie having done her usual fantastic job, including a near miraculous clean up at the end - Sunset relaxed with Celestia, Luna, and Princess Twilight. Sunset tried to stay up with them, but exhaustion soon claimed her. She bid them good night and retired to her room.
She again dreamed of Elysium's golden fields. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 59 - End of the Beginning - The Beginnings End | The Beginnings End
The days returned to some semblance of normal; her new normal.
Sunset continued her recovery. Within a few weeks, she was able to return to school. She was still in the wheelchair, but she had adapted. She no longer felt limited by her disability.
Dust stood trial for the attempted murder of Sunset.
During the trial, Sunset saw the footage of Dust moving through her home as she guided Sunset through her suicide. Sunset was deeply troubled when Dust left her room to wait in the hallway while she was experiencing the delusions caused by the PCP Dust had given her. Dust curled into a ball, clearly shaking and crying. She kept reaching out towards Sunset. Eventually Dust stopped shaking. She just sat there in a tight ball. She finally rose and helped Sunset into the bathroom, where Sunset tried to end her own life. Sunset was moved deeply by how troubled and damaged Dust was.
"Please Harmony, save her soul!" she breathed a silent prayer for the troubled girl.
Dust was sentenced to prison for her crimes. She was not placed in the same prison as Gilda, as it was felt she might find that a reward for her actions. Shortly after she was imprisoned, Sunset received a letter from Dust.
In the letter, Dust begged Sunset for forgiveness. Dust confessed she had come to love Sunset as a sister, and regretted all the suffering and horror she had caused her. She described how Gilda had rescued her from abuse as a child, and the unbreakable bond they shared as sisters from another mother while growing up and recovering from their shared abuse. The deep loyalty and love she felt for Gilda was what motivated her abuse of Sunset, to her lasting shame and sorrow.
After reading Dust's letter, Sunset was determined to show her she was forgiven, and resolved to visit Dust.
Sadly, when she called the prison to arrange the visit, she was informed that Dust had died in a prison fight.
Grieved by the news, Sunset prayed for her soul, begging Harmony to comfort Dust through eternity. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 60 - End of the Beginning - Dear Twilight | Dear Twilight
I love you so much! Twilight, you are my forever friend!
Thinking back on everything that has happened, I'm filled with deep Peace.
No, seriously! After meeting Faust, and meditating on everything that has happened to me, by me, and through me, I really see Harmony's Hand in this!
I was wretched. I tried to sow discontent and sorrow everywhere I went. I fooled myself into thinking it was some grand plan my superior intellect had concocted. But deep down, I always knew it was my bitterness striking out at happiness wherever I saw it. I was miserable. And even if I wouldn't admit it to myself, I wanted everyone else to be miserable too.
When I stole your crown, 'thinking' I would somehow ascend just by wearing it, I was fooling myself again. I was so jealous of you. I wanted what I felt you had taken, I wanted to be a Princess by Celestia's side forever. Seeing you with your crown and as an Alicorn broke something in me. My jealousy and hatred ate at me, until my thoughts were so scrambled I really believed I could take everything you had earned just by placing that crown on my head.
I was a fool.
And when you and your friends (now my friends too, THANK YOU for that!) defeated me with the Harmony that was always yours, always in your heart...
It stripped all the lies from me Twilight. I have honestly never felt so naked and alone as I did that night, looking up to you from that hole. I knew in my heart what I had done. I was covered in naked shame, with the knowledge that everything I had done had been in hate and bitter jealousy. I had sown disharmony with every action. I was evil.
I had no right to expect or hope for anything but damnation. When I looked up to you, when I told you I didn't know there was another way, the last thing I expected from you was forgiveness. Twilight, when you reached out to me, when you pulled me up from that pit, and introduced me to the girls who are now OUR friends, you changed my life! Forever. Forever Twilight. You saved my soul! You were my saviour in that moment Twilight, and I am and will be FOREVER grateful to you for that.
Twilight Sparkle, APBFF, I owe you my life! Thank you!
Hehe. (Alicorn Princess Best Friend Forever!)
Knowing all that, and after what Faust shared with me, I can see Harmony working through everything that has happened to me. I see how my suffering has affected everyone around me, and how by the way I face my trials, others around me are empowered to face theirs.
Trixie finally knows peace and forgiveness, and can grow and move on from her part in this.
Dust found a reason to hope, and I hope has finally found peace.
Celestia has a healed heart. The hole in her heart has been made whole. Who knew it was shaped like a Sunset?
Luna has been a kindred spirit. In helping me to overcome my sorrows, she has been strengthened in her own battles. She really is a kindred soul.
The others are works in progress. But the work isn't mine, it is Harmony's. I am just her willing and grateful servant, happy to do whatever she needs, wherever she needs, knowing that I am helping others just as others helped me.
It fills me with such joy to say that!
And most of all, I've realized that sometimes, even when life is at it darkest, the only thing left for me to do is face what's before me, with a joyful heart. With my friends when I can. With Harmony herself always.
When I come to those places, and there are many now, where I can't see a way around the hard road ahead, I know...
The only way out is through. And onward!
Your friend forever, Sunset Shimmer. |
Sunset Shimmer - Six Friends One Heart | 61 - End of the Beginning - Dust | Dust
Lightning Dust was enclosed in a white cloud, drifting through the cosmos. Ahead of her, a rainbow band of color stretched out from horizon to horizon. As she drew closer, she could see golden fields waving in a gentle breeze, stretching for as far as the eye could see.
In the distance, Dust saw a magnificent white horse cantering towards her. As she came closer, Dust saw her brilliant white wings spread wide. A majestic horn projected from her red main, glowing with ethereal aqua light. She drew up before Dust, smiling serenely. Dust noticed a mark on her flank, a purple inkwell with a golden quill. Her large auga eyes bore into Dust, with a gentle smile on her muzzle.
"You're magnificent!" Dust breathed, falling to her knees in awe.
"Greetings, my little child. I am Faust, and I have come to welcome you to eternity," smiled the alicorn.
"Thank you!" breathed Dust.
Her face fell, gazing in sadness at the ground before her. "I don't belong here. I'm an evil person."
"No my child. You do not belong here. You belong in a place of eternal torment and anguish." replied Faust gently.
She paused for a moment, to allow Dust to collect herself. "Fret not child. Mercy has been shown to you."
Dust looked up to Faust, barely daring to hope. "How?" she croaked. "How can there be mercy for me after all I have done? How is it possible anyone could find it in their heart to show me mercy?" Tears fell from her cheeks as she cried out in her shame.
"Harmony hears the cries of her children. She has heard your cries. And she heard the cries begging mercy for your soul from her precious child, whom you attempted to cut down in her prime," answered Faust.
"Sunset? Sunset prayed for me? She forgave me? She prayed for my soul?" whispered Dust, incredulous. She looked to Faust, hope lighting her face. "Sunset prayed for me?"
"Just so, my child. She prayed for you, has forgiven you, and begged Harmony you be released from your torment, to know everlasting peace instead of everlasting suffering. She begs you be allowed to roam the sacred fields of Elysium, here to wait for the day when she can join you in joyful eternity."
Smiling in joy, Dust rose to her feet and hugged Faust gently. "Oh thank the Maker! Praise Harmony! Thank you dear Sunset. Thank you Faust! Thank you!" she cried.
"Come my child. Join us in these fields of peace and harmony!" Faust stepped back, horn glowing in power, wings outstretched.
Dust bowed to her knees, arms outstretched. "With all my heart, yes!"
A gentle light enveloped her, and she floated before Faust. She was transformed in an instant, arms and legs to legs and hooves, head and hair to muzzle and main, and from her back sprang two wings, flapping genty.
When the light faded, Dust floated before Faust as a beautifly pegasus pony. "Welcome to eternity, Lightning Dust. Come share our joy!"
With a laugh, Faust sprang away, bounding joyfully through the fields. Dust flew behind her, laughing and calling out in joy.
THE END.... or is it. |
The Silent Shore | pre | She swore, spat as silence reached her...and no voices came back speaking of their pain...as the victims of the explosion, she worried, slowly succumbed to their wounds.
"Frickin' fog!" she yelled up to the sky, her face turning with malice. At once she resolved to end it, to lift away the carpet of grey that had consumed her thoughts and driven down her body since she had arrived here. She at once called herself "stupid" for ever wanting to come here...to spend even the smallest amount of time here by the shore. Why, why had she said that? She had a race to get ready for. What, she wondered, had made her to want to...
With that she stopped, shook, turned out over the sea...
...as a voice called to her by name.
The sound caught in the rocks, trembled ashore on the waves.
She breathed heavily, stared out into the waves that slipped beneath the grey haze. She grit her teeth even as her body shook, narrowed her eyes even as her knees became weak.
As the fog seemed to spin, dive in on itself...
...she roared out into it, screaming. She focused on it as she beat at the mist with her wings. She powered through it, bellowing through her own fear and frustration. Her cry went out over the waters as she raced over the surface, out into the waters beyond the shore.
Nothing met her, no stare greeted her...nothing.
"That's right!" she called, raising herself up, the gift of the pegasi alive within her, "That's what you get! You...fog! Yeah!"
As the fog whipped around her she rose up through it, climbed higher and higher.
"Nothing gets Rainbow Dash down!" she called, "Nothing pulls me out of the fight!"
At once she erupted through the fog, high up over it. She spun through the sky, felt the coolness fall in around her as she reached the pinnacle of her ascent.
"Nothing gets Rainbow Dash down."
She looked up to the sun, was surprised to see it already high above. Was it already noon?
She pondered this as she flapped her beautiful wings, hovering in the air high above the sea below. She panned around, began pulling in the magic of Equestria, began fueling her pegasus magic and her body for the act to come. She concentrated her power for the massive burst of energy she was about to expend to clear the fog, push it back beyond the nearby border...reveal the shipwreck and the injured who undoubtedly still needed, desperately needed, her help.
As she did she felt a tug...felt something pulling at her. She opened her eyes, looked to the trees of the Whitetail and Everfree beyond. Nothing, only the cords of fog that fell across the woods met her gaze. She turned to the sea beyond. Nothing, only the long white-capped waves that rolled in from far beyond and the peninsula off to her left.
She had been about ignore it, to return to refueling her magic and body. As she prepared to do so she blinked, took a deep breath and happened to glance to the fog below her.
At once the breath left her, pulled out of her in her scream of horror.
Faces looked up at her through the fog...dozens of them, faces straining up to her, beseeching her.
Their mouths moved, seeming to call her name over and over, begging her, pleading with her...the soundless words streaking through her body. As it did Dash's resolve left her. It streaked out of her, the terror and revulsion stealing out her breath, her power, and her consciousness...
Down, down, she went, her thoughts fading as dozens of tearful and distraught faces mouthed her name over and over...
Nothing pulled her down through the fog. Nothing dropped her into the cold waters. Nothing drew her down into the rolling waves that covered the sands of the bed below and rolled out as foam along the silent shore. |
The Silent Shore | Chapter 3: "The Elder Lord" | The Silent Shore
Written by The Descendant
Chapter 3: "The Elder Lord"
The water washed over her, filled her mouth and her nose. At once Dash felt her breath escape her. She pedaled hard, felt her hooves strike against something.
At once there was a feeling that she was being pulled, dragged. Something, something was tugging at her!
As the last bit of her air burned in her lungs she threw her head wide, felt it contact whatever was pulling at her. At once there was a cold feeling, and the rush of water around her ended and she immediately drew a massive breath.
She spun around in place, fighting to her hooves, attempted to look upon whatever had been dragging her...
...and saw the old hat and dearly familiar face of Applejack before her.
"R.D.?" asked Applejack, her own face seemingly ashen, deeply set and worried.
Rainbow Dash wobbled to her feet. She was as cold, wet, and confused as a newborn foal, and her knees knocked together both from the cold and the remains of the visions she had seen while high above...the faces that...
She went weak again, falling forward into Applejack's offered hooves.
Together they sat there on the silent shore, the mist covered reaches beyond the sea. As Applejack's warmth flowed into her friend neither Dash or Applejack spoke. Each seemed to sense the other wobbling in uncertainty and deep confusion...fear.
"Dash, you okay?" asked Applejack after a long while.
"You saved me," she said, turning to face Applejack, "A.J., A.J., I'm so...grateful, I'm..."
"You was only in about a foot ah' water," said Applejack, her face still emotionless, "I thought ya'd gone loco...too cold fer' swimming this time of year."
Rainbow Dash shuddered again, another great tremble went through her, this one composed both of the shuddering cold and the realization of what it meant that she'd not been so far out to sea...
"But, but I fell...I fell so far," she said, "If I'd landed on the beach, I'd...I'd be..."
No, no she'd fallen into the water. Deep water. It was the last thing that she remembered...remembered as the faces...
She shuddered hard once more, realizing that somepony...something...must have brought her up out of the sea. Must have laid her in the shallows...watched over her until Applejack drew near, kept her muzzle from the water...
The vision of the fog, the faces, around her unconscious body filled her with a new dread even as she wondered at what it meant that...that she'd been saved...
Saved by the dead.
Applejack saw Dash still shaking, still trembling. It was only when Dash looked up to her that she saw the expression across her face...an expression that she knew she must be mirroring.
"Dash?" asked Applejack, "There's no perytons to be found on this beach, and not a single stick of the wreck. But I'm tellin' you a fact, Dash. Dash, we ain't alone on this beach..."
Dash's expression went white, and Applejack feared she was about to be ill. Still she continued, needing, begging to know if she'd been alone in her travails.
"Dash...did, did you see anything, odd?"
Dash's shivering got worse, and Applejack moved closer, letting more of her body heat slip into the pegasus.
"A.J., I...I saw," said Dash, wavering, "I saw something I never want to see again..."
The two stared at one another, the wordless understanding flashing between them.
"Did...did you see, hear, anything?" said Dash as Applejack lowered her head. After a long moment she took a deep breath. Slowly the earth pony lifted her head and looked to her friend.
"Dash, I didn't see nor hear a single livin' soul," said the Bearer of the Element of Honesty, the emphasis on the last two words, "Not a single livin' soul."
Dash and Applejack sat there, the meaning of their statements clear to both of them. There may come a time for exposition but this was not it. Now was just the time to sit and shiver, to watch the waves roll in beneath the grey blanket.
"I don't wanna be here anymore," said Applejack, nuzzling Dash to stand. Together the two ponies began moving from tier to tier, moving much slower than when they had first arrived.
As they went they were silent, noiseless as they crossed the spaces between tiers with little jumps and slides, Applejack nursing her still raw cuts from her earlier experience.
At once their heads tossed in unison, and then they looked at one another in alarm.
A noise...they had heard a noise.
Together they stared not down towards the water, back out over the tossing sea, but instead up the beach. They looked towards the line of dunes beyond where the forest ended and the beach began.
The sound reached out to them once more.
Together they stood there, staring up the beach as the sound moved from ethereal to very, very, very real...clarion and clear.
Bells, the sound of tiny bells...and, hooffalls.
They gulped as the bells came nearer to them, as they saw nothing. Yet, the nothingness had it's own presence...it was so very real. They heard the hooffalls, heard the tiny bells jangling in time with the rhythm of the unseen hooves that went across the slippery rocks.
They heard the hooves draw nearer, their bodies tensing as it became clear that they were angled towards them. There came the sound of a great large creature planting hooves into the pools of the water that sat among the stones, but no water moved in them. The sound of the breath of an immense creature was amid them, yet the mist did not part...
...not until his head moved.
To Dash it was though the fog had left a memory...as it wrapped around the nothingness the immense figure of a peryton seemed to disappear through it. From the hole it left came a sound, words...words she did not understand, spoken softly...
"Tilgi meh..."
Dash lifted her hoof to her cheek as a soft feeling went across her face, a small wet spot that almost seemed a kiss. Her mind raced...it couldn't have just happened...
"Tilgi meh..."
Applejack too felt the little kiss, her heart racing as the nothingness moved between her and Dash. As the sound of bells began again they felt the presence move on...on past them, past where the waves broke across the stones of the beach...down into the sea, the vast rolling sea.
Great timbered halls and firelight. The snows across high mountain fields. The old song sung across deep woods. Loss.
With that, the fog began to lift, and the great presence disappeared from their senses.
Dash looked down, saw her own hoofprint in the small collection of sand below her. She let out a great gasp as she realized a large hoofprint of a peryton stood beside hers.
As the haze rolled away all that was revealed was the great stretch of the stony beach and the sky beyond in a deep shade of grey that fought with the blue.
There was a hiss behind them, one that made the jump in time, kicking like wild horses.
They turned to see the balloon touching down on the beach. Looking to one another sheepishly they slowly made their way to where the purple sat illuminated against the still-grey sky. As they did the first seabirds they had seen began to walk across the crevasses, darting their long thin bills into the spots between the rocks.
A seagull squawked overhead and more birds ran up and down the stones in advance and retreat in time with the waves. The earth pony and the pegasus looked over the lip of the basket and down into the still bleary, tear-filled eyes of the unicorn and the dragon.
"I don't want to talk about it," said all four in unison.
A short while later they had crossed over the outcropping, turning around the bend to make for the peninsula beyond. Three of the occupants of the balloon looked on in wonder as they crossed before a massive glyph, one bigger than the balloon itself.
They looked upon the great jade eyes that stared out over the sea. The figure of a massive peryton stag stood there proudly yet remorsefully. His vigil over the waters was as silent as the bells drawn upon his antlers.
The remembrance of the hooves upon the beach and the soft wet spot upon her cheek smashed through Dash, and at once she turned to Applejack.
"A.J., A.J., do...do you think..."
Yet, Dash could not continue. As she and the others looked down over Applejack all that they could see was how she had pulled down her hat, clenched her eyes, and covered her ears as she lay in the bottom of the gondola.
She knew, of course, that dragons eat meat. Spike would have to eat meat if he'd ever want to grow wings, become the vast and terrible dragon that she knew he would someday become. He was already bigger than most dragons his age, and soon he'd be molting again. Whatever her own feelings about it, she knew that eating a lobster would do him no harm.
It had been the money she was worried about. Her stipend saw them through many things, but it was hardly a fortune. With winter coming they'd need things, firewood, scarves...and so, she'd thought, maybe he'd be willing to forego?
But, as they had walked wordlessly into the restaurant in Nag's Head his eyes had lit up at the sign of the crustaceans in their bubbling tank. In that instant she'd gladly agreed to part with the bits if...if they kept his mind off of...
"Here we go, folks," said the waiter as he and his buscolt brought up the trays, "Here's a nice little dinner for ya'."
"Lunch, actually," said Twilight, looking upon the salad. It was too much...she couldn't even imagine eating this much. Her stomach still turned, flipped...thought of the cries in the darkened woods...
She looked up to see the same expression across the faces of Dash and Applejack. Only Spike's face was alight as the waiter cut open the bag of mussels and cracked the shell of the lobster for the whelp.
The waiter smiled to them all, his own heavy Old Northeastern dialect becoming more obvious as he saw the crestfallen appearances of his customers.
"We all are most glad you folks stopped on up," he said, trying to make polite conversation, "'Tis most likely our last weekend up her for the tourists, what with the leaves about to come down in the Runnin'. No more leaf-peekers! No one will be comin' up to the beach anytime soon, neither..."
"I can't imagine why," deadpanned Dash, her voice getting quieter as she looked down at her tiny piece of quiche, "We had such a great time..."
"Oh!" said the waiter, laying the corn beside the lobster as Spike drooled across the table, "Was you up to the beach today? Go on up to see the Standing Stone? Kin' hardly think you saw that much with how foggy it were..."
The four were silent.
"Standing Stone?" asked Twilight, noting how Applejack turned her head away as it was mentioned, "The great big peryton, in the stone, the glyph?"
"Tells the story right proper, don't it?" asked the waiter, laying the steaming crustacean before Spike. Spike however simply looked back up to him in surprise.
"The story?" he asked.
The waiter looked back and forth to them in confusion, then smiled. "You all didn't go see the Standing Stone without knowin' aboot' it, didja?"
They looked at the table, fought to understand his Old Northeast accent, tried to think of a reply.
"No, no we didn't...I, we don't know why we stopped," added Dash, weakly.
"That's a right shame. National treasure that is, one of the reasons we get tourists here in Nag's Head. It's a right wonderful thin' too," he said, smiling over them.
"Yeah...it's, interestin'," added Applejack.
He looked to them, saw them looking back at him in different shades of emotion. Worried that they're concern and confusion may lead them to forgo ordering desert he began to regale them with an old story. The few salty ponies at the bar turned around to hear the cherished foal's tale of their youth...
"T'was long ago, you see," he said, laying his serving tray across the stand, resting easily on three hooves as he lifted the fourth over them, "Back when Equestria weren't so old...back just after the War of the Witches..."
"That's thousands of years," said Twilight, looking to the girls, going quiet as the waiter looked back over her, "Sorry..."
"Not at all, miss," he continued, "This was when the last of the peryton tribes that had lived in the west came down into Equestria. They came to take their share of the promise made by the Sovereigns to the allied races that had stood before the Witches and their multitudes. Those that had stood with us in the war...had fought back against the invading army and the consuming blackness it unleashed."
"Now, only one more tribe remained here in Equestria, a small band, lead by a great and powerful Elder Lord. One of the majestic peryton stags, one with great rainment and many bells, symbols of rank, tied in his antlers..."
The four looked up to them as remembrances of bells sounding through the haze flit over them.
"These perytons, as all do, lived in the woods and fields in their lodges and got along quite well with the local ponies, as all do, good friends indeed. This was when Hofston and Manehattan and all that were still just villages, and just little homes beside the sea here and there made up the entirety of the Old Northeast...which weren't so old then, as I'd said..."
"Now, down across the border came a race...one that had served in the ranks of the Witches, a brutal people, or so the story goes...history they say is written by the winners...but anywho, we know that somehow they got past the Regular Army. You have to hope somebody lost their job over that one..."
"What, what did they look like?" asked Spike, his lobster yet untouched, "What race was it?"
"Who can say?" replied the waiter, adjusting his tray, "T'was so long ago...we know that they were long things, with great long legs and arms that were clawed..."
Memories of shadows of nothing in the haze sent Spike scotching closer to Twilight.
"...and that they were Bloodspillers."
"Bloodspillers?" said Spike, his arms crossing in front of him.
"Aye, the most fiercely devoted adherents of the Witches...ones who believed that they could use the blood of their enemies to pull the Witches out of the deathly sleep into which the Sisters had placed them."
Twilight, in reply, moved closer to Spike, the memory of dark magic hovering over the long low table reaching back into her mind.
"So, it was said," continued the waiter, motioning the buscolt to see to a distant table, "that when this race came over the mountains and through the Everfree they captured ponies that lived in the little homesteads along the border, began to...gather them up, the poor unfortunates, like lobsters for the boilin'..."
The scene of a family of ponies, a big stallion fighting, the mother uselessly trying to help her colt and filly escape down the road, filled Twilight's mind.
"Now, this last peryton lord, he was waitin' to go to Cervia, the land set aside for the whole of the peryton race...and his last ships sat here in the harbor and beyond the toe of the peninsula. The news came down in runners that there was a fell people aboot', the lantern bearers racing through the woods with the news...some killed, the last one running far, far, far out into the sea to drown in his attempt to signal the ships..."
Applejack's cup came crashing down to the table, her eyes wide.
As the waiter cleared it away he continued, "The bearer's sacrifice was worth it, though, for the Elder Lord of the perytons sensed the meaning. He asked for volunteers to go with him, and he sped out into the woods to try to save as many of the ponies as he could, save those who had helped his people."
"Yet, he was fighting an army, and as they battled towards the great stone circle..."
Twilight felt her heart go into her throat.
"...all of his lieutenants were killed, and he saw he was too late to save one family."
Spike reached for Twilight's foreleg. As he did she looked down to him. She saw his mouth move and his lips tremble. At once Spike spoke, Twilight gasping as she saw him lift his arms as he had when he stood inside the fog...beside the table.
Spike's face was distant, and his words silent, almost a whisper.
"E'er his noble blood spilt, ah'n his court cast down to death, Lukas Magnus lifted up his head. There amidst tah' foe did the Elder Lord invoke the word, and it became as light..."
"Very good lad!" said the waiter as some applause came from the bar, "You do know the legend! Ya' even spoke it nice an' properly!"
"Yeah", said Spike, wavering, "Yeah..."
"But," asked Dash, not noticing Spike's discomfort, "What does it mean?"
"It means, lass," added the waiter, replacing Applejack's cup, "that he called for help, called out to those who had promised to help the peoples who had saved Equestria...called for the Sister Sovereigns...the Princesses..."
Silence hung about the restaurant, only on the far side was there conversation and the tinkling of cups and plates.
"And let me tell you...they did indeed answer," continued the waiter, "If the story is correct. An', when the Sister's saw what the Bloodspillers had done...they were...a tad miffed..."
Twilight's mind raced back to the stone circle.
She saw light cascading through it, saw Celestia's eyes alight, a most perfect and holy rage racing through the elder sister as she scythed her light across those who had harmed her little ponies. She saw the very rocks being scoured by the light, ripping at their surfaces. She heard the reverberations of the words of the Firstborn Alicorn as her judgment upon them became death.
She saw Luna's dark and terrible countenance fall over them, saw the very life being strangled out of them on waves of darkness. The Nightbringer's powers smothered the black magic already at work in the place...killed it, punished it, had been punishing it over and over and over for millennia.
So great was the wrath of the Sisters upon this fallen race, Twilight realized in that moment, that the very souls of the Bloodspillers had been driven deep into the earth of Equestria. They had been unable to lift from it, go to their true judgement, until their victims were themselves free to splash in the waters of the Well of Souls.
"Oh," she breathed, the realization of these facts growing behind her eyes.
"So the myth says," added the waiter with a shrug, "Only Celestia and Luna know 'tis true or not..."
Twilight's mind flashed to the quills and parchment on her little desk back at the library. A look down to Spike made her realize he was thinking the same thing.
"Anywho, as this was happenin'," he continued, "The ship that was waitin' for the Elder Lord and his retinue caught fire..."
The eyes of all those in the booth stared back at him.
"Nopony knows why it happened. Some say it 'twas one last arrow, alight with fire, that that a dying Bloodspiller sent flyin' through the air. Some say it were a magic spell that came creeping out of the woods in want of vengeance...could be any of these, or none, but in the end there was a great explosion, you see...they heard it all the way Downwest in Hoftson, so great was it."
He looked over them, very glad that they seemed so enthralled with his storytelling, almost as thought they were living through it...had been there and seen it.
"It was so horrible that the perytons were all killed, and not just the ones on the poor boat, but also those perytons and ponies on the shore who were waitin' for a chance to escape...they were all killed too."
"What, what...did the ship, have a name?" asked Dash.
"Nopony knows after all these years, but we do have an idea of what it looked like, " he said motioning to a counter far beyond. There, under a dim light, stood a model ship...
...one almost exactly like the ship that had parted the fog before them.
The group sat quietly as he continued.
"Now, down to the shore came the Sisters, the ponies, and this one last Elder Lord. Now, you see...they all saw the carnage, the wreckage, and the silent shore gave them no replies when they asked if any creature needed help. So, the peryton stag, the lord who had sacrificed so much to save the ponies, had to suffer the death of his people..."
He stopped, went quiet. The ponies at the bar hung their heads as well.
"We've always been good friends wit' the perytons, you know, especially here in the Old Northeast," he added softly as the ponies at the bar and in the booth nodded in respectful agreement.
"So, this wounded Elder Lord," he continued after drawing a deep breath, "His grief became great, and though he fought to contain it...he could not. He wished to be with his people...and, even though the Sisters and the ponies there begged him not to he simply gave them each a kiss and said one wish to each in his native tongue..."
"Tilgi meh," said Dash and Applejack in unison, their hooves going to their cheeks.
"I thought you folks didn't know the story!" he said, smirking at how they had interrupted the best part of the myth.
"We...we've got a working knowledge of it," said Twilight, guessing at what had happened to her friends.
"Yes," the waiter said, lifting the tray once more, "'Tilgi meh'...'forgive me', he had said. With that his proud hooves fell across the sand, the stone, and through the pools as his bells rang out across the shore...
...as he went down into the sea, drowning himself with his kind. Thus ended the last Elder Lord of the Perytons to come over the mountains."
The booth was quiet, and the ponies at the bar turned back to face their drinks and make small talk with the barkeeper.
The waiter looked over the group of ponies and the young dragon in front of him, saw that they seemed to be lost in thought.
"Soon after the bodies were all recovered, and placed in a cairn. Today the ancient remains of that cairn sit beneath the Standing Stone, the image of the peryton lord upon it. The names of the perytons and ponies alike that were lost that day are written there. We get a few perytons who come to pay their respects, and not as many ponies as we'd like...shame that, it's a national treasure, really..."
"It's somethin' else," added Applejack, trying to lift her cup as she trembled.
"Oh yes...we get ghost hunters, too," he added, watching as the group suddenly all looked up to him. Ah, here's what they wanted to hear.
"They say that on foggy days you can still see them all...that the perytons who were killed don't know that they are dead, seeing as they died so fast. It's said that they still try to draw ponies down to the sea...to the safety of the ship. But, they don't know that the boats not there...so the ghosts draw them down to their deaths!" he said, attempting a haunting flourish.
"That's a damn lie!" called Dash, pounding her hoof on the table. He startled, nearly tipping the tray, and looked at her as the other patrons of the restaurant spun as well to look at the pegasus.
Dash quieted, returned to her seat.
"They'd still be saving ponies...lifting them out of the sea, if they were weak..." she said, seeming to hide behind her quiche.
"Maybe true, maybe not, miss," he said, forcing a smile, "'Tis all a bunch a whooey anyhow...made up for the tourists, I suppose, if you don't mind me sayin'."
He looked once more to the quiet group, realized that they hadn't eaten any of their dinner. With some small worry he looked upon the little dragon, saw that the whelp hadn't touched the lobster.
"Kin' I fetch ya' some more hot butter, lad?"
Spike put his arms across his belly and spoke in a fragile tone.
"I'm not hungry anymore..."
The balloon lifted from where it had sat in Nag's Head, the ponies and dragon now loaded up with little travel trays of the food they had barely eaten.
As soon as they were clear of any of the eyes of the village they tossed it all over the side of the basket. Each sat in a corner, unspeaking.
Dash stood, gave a low moan of displeasure, one that brought the others to attention. As she cursed they too looked out beneath the basket. When they saw what had brought her so much distress they too made unhappy noises.
The trees of the Whitetail Woods were now bare...the leaves having already been wiped from the branches by the magic of the ponies. The Running of the Leaves, and the Hofston Mare-athon that they had hoped to judge, announce, and participate in had already been run...it was over.
Beneath them the colors of autumn had failed, been removed and laid to the forest floor.
"How long were we on that beach?" asked Applejack, her words solemn and grave, "Twi...Twi, how long were we on that beach?"
"The waiter," she said, making a sudden realization, "He asked us how our dinner was..."
Dash turned her head to where the sun should be...to where Celestia's deep magic should have it if the time was still the early afternoon.
It was not there...it was lower, much lower, and far to the west.
"Twi..." continued Applejack, soon stopping as she saw the expression of worry that flew across the faces of the other occupants of the basket.
The balloon shifted course, now to the south, their purpose for coming now firmly ended. As the magic shifted around them the heat of the day seemed to fade, and as they came closer to the lesser mountains that ran like a spine down Eastern Equestria they seemed to pass into a shadow of doubt and confusion.
"Are...are you gonna write to the princess about all of this?" asked Applejack after a long while, after the sun had begun to dip across the western horizon.
"Twi, you gonna ask if any of this was...real?"
"No," replied Twilight, moving to where Spike had laid himself, wrapping herself around him to share their heat.
"Why not?"
"Because I'm afraid she might tell me."
Applejack looked out across the mountains, then to the forest below. It was stark, barren...lifeless. It was as lifeless and without sound as the shore had been, almost entirely devoid of any motion and life.
Thus, as she looked down at the expanse of black limbs below Applejack could not get the worry that something might be looking back at her out of her mind.
She moved to the center of the basket, nuzzled the two who already lay there, and joined them in their comforting embrace.
Rainbow Dash continued looking out over the edge of the basket for a long while, watching the blue of the sea beyond recede until the black of the forest consumed it.
As she watched she listened, listened very hard and with much intent.
No voices came back to her, and when she closed her eyes the faces were not there...as though it hadn't happened.
Yet, it had happened. She knew it had, and that fact alone made a shiver go through her.
She turned, looked at the mound of her friends nearby. They were not sleeping, simply huddling together against the cold that seemed to be reaching up into the balloon...the cold and doubt of their uncertainty driving them to one another.
With that she walked to them, and they parted for her, making a space.
With that the group joined together in wordless mutual support, the understanding that they had been witnesses to something beyond understanding. In that time and that place all they could do was offer each other their warmth, something denied to the dead who, they hoped, had now been freed from their cold walks upon the silent shore.
As the small group hovered above the Whitetail Woods the hiss of the burner sounded out at intervals, breaking the silence of the forest below.
Small breezes whispered through the dark, leafless branches, catching in hollows and sending up the dead leaves in little flips and tosses. Here and there a crow sounded out.
One crow listened as his caws echoed far down the rows of trees, as the sound bounced off the black, stark limbs.
He tossed his head, listening for a reply, staring off with his small black eyes.
Hearing none he raised his great black wings and lifted though the outstretched branches to the sky above. Here he moved to avoid coming near the purple balloon, banking away as the hiss of its burner illuminated the sphere in the skies that were drawing down into darkness.
Inside the basket beneath the four little figures huddled together silently and tried not to think about the vast expanse of the forest below, the great stark trees that seemed to be reaching up to them with pleas of mourning as they drifted on the cold air.
End. |
Legends of the Hidden Temple | pre | Dramatic music played, as Rainbow Dash flew up the steps. "There goes Rainbow Dash, into the temple!" Kirk said. "She's in the Crypt! She's in the Crypt!"
The Crypt had three skeletons, each one holding a book in its arms. Pulling on the correct book would open the door to the next room. The only way to win this challenge was by luck, and luck was not on Rainbow Dash's side, as a temple guard appeared.
"Oh, it's a Temple Guard! Give him your pendant!" Kirk said.
Rainbow Dash muttered something about how cheap it was to have a temple guard in the first room, then she handed her pendant over to him. This left her with only half a pendant. The other half was hidden in the temple somewhere, so it was possible for her to find it and have a full pendant.
The guard left, and Rainbow Dash pulled one of the books. Nothing happened, so she pulled another book. With a mechanical clunk, the door to the next room opened.
"She's at the Pit and the Pendulum!" Kirk said. "She needs to take the rope and swing to the other side of the room, then swing to the pillar!"
Rainbow Dash ignored these rules and flew straight at the pillar, knocking it down. This saved her at least ten seconds of time, and it opened the doors to the two rooms on the left. Since she was closer to the ground, Rainbow went to the lower room.
"She's in the Tomb of the Headless Kings!" Kirk said. This room had two decorated skeletons, seated on thrones. Green-colored ropes hung down from the ceiling; they were attached to some sort of ceiling net. Rainbow grabbed a rope and pulled it hard. A small scream was heard as the net came loose, dropping several things on the floor.
Rainbow took a moment to sort through the items. Most of them were props shaped like bones, but one was a head. She flew up and put it on the rightmost statue, but it didn't fit.
"Oh, no, try the other statue!" Kirk said. "You can do it, Rainbow Dash!"
Rainbow put the head on the other statue. Instead of opening the door to the left, which would have been helpful, the door to the ceiling opened.
"And she's flying up to the next room!" Kirk said. "No, wait, she's stopping. Why is she--oooh! She's found the second half of the pendant, on the side of the ladder! Good eye, Rainbow Dash! Now she has a full pendant, and she's in the King's Storeroom"
Rainbow Dash stopped inside the room and looked around. There were three pedestals with pots on them, but Rainbow couldn't remember what she had to do here. Olmec's instructions had been a bit of an information overload.
"Smash the pots!" Kirk said. "Smash the pots and find the key!"
"Right!" Rainbow Dash said.
Rainbow Dash grabbed the pots and threw them into the small indentation on the floor. This was conveniently located in the center of the room, so she wouldn't make a mess. The third pot had the key inside. She jammed the key into one of the holes on top of a pedestal, and the door to the next room opened.
There was a five-second shot of Fluttershy clapping her hooves, as Rainbow Dash went to the left.
"She's in the Room of the Ancient Warriors!" Kirk said. "She's only one room away from the Shrine of the Silver Monkey! Keep going!"
This room had three coffins against the back wall. Each coffin had a suit of armor inside, with levers on the side. Rainbow jumped into the first suit of armor and pulled the levers, but nothing happened. She jumped into the second suit of armor, and a Temple Guardian who had been hiding there grabbed her from behind.
Rainbow Dash would have nightmares about that later on, but at the moment, all she did was scream in fright. She picked up the Temple Guard and threw him off of the set. "Don't you dare sneak up on me like that!" she shouted.
"Uh..." Kirk said. "Rainbow Dash deals with the Temple Guard in a unique way. You still have to give up your pendant, though."
Rainbow Dash threw hew pendant on the ground and jumped into the third suit of armor. She pulled the levers, and the door opened! Unfortunately, this was not the door to the left, which led to the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. It was the door to the room below.
"She's in the Jester's Court!" Kirk said. "She's got a little more than two minutes left! Oooh! Keep moving!"
The Jester's Court had fancy designs on the wall. The main three designs were outlines of pony bodies. To get through the room, you have to put yourself up against the outline perfectly, hitting the buttons on the wall. Some of the smaller fillies had trouble with this challenge, but Rainbow Dash was a full-grown mare. Even without the use of her wings, she could easily line herself up against the wall and hit the buttons.
Rainbow Dash got it correct on the first try, which almost never happened, and she went into the dark forest. This room had spooky-looking trees, which didn't go away, even if you giggled at them. Rainbow was supposed to put her hoof into each tree, in hopes of finding the key to the door, but she decided to save time by going through the fake wall.
"She's heading into the Dark Forest now!" Kirk said. "She has to find the key and, no wait, she's smashing through the wall to the Quicksand Bog! Oooh! She skipped the trees completely, and now she's flying up the slide! She's going backwards through the pharaoh's secret passage to the Room of the Sacred Alicorns!"
The Room of the Sacred Alicorns was on the upper level of the temple. The wall here had a mural of the three alicorns: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadance. There was a small hole in the wall, where each alicorn's cutie mark was supposed to go. On a table in the center of the room were three tiles. One had a moon, one had a sun, and one had a crystal heart. Rainbow Dash picked up the tiles and put them in the correct holes, and the door to the right locked.
"SHE DID IT!" Kirk shouted. "She did it! She's in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey! That's where the hat of Starswirl the Bearded is!"
Rainbow Dash was feeling confident now. She had made it through all the rooms of the temple, in less than half of the three minutes. All she had to do now was grab the hat of Starswirl the Bearded, then leave. Rainbow Dash was somehow unaware of this rule, though, and she mistakenly thought she had to assemble the Silver Monkey Statue in order to win.
Rainbow was certain that assembling the Silver Monkey Statue would be a piece of cake. It was an incredibly simple three-piece puzzle, and she was confident she could solve it quickly.
[Cue the montage of people failing this challenge.]
"You gotta... No, you gotta turn it around. No, turn it around. Turn it around. You have to turn it around. Ok, now she's going out the wrong way," Kirk said. "Rainbow, turn the pieces around so they're all facing the same direction! How is that so complicated? No, turn it around! Don't...annnd she dropped the middle piece."
Swearing loudly, Rainbow bucked the incorrectly-assembled statue with her hind legs. Then she flew up and grabbed Starswirl's hat from the shelf on the room.
"She's got it! She got the hat!" Kirk said. "Now all the doors to the temple are unlocked! She just has to get back to the entrance in time! Can she make it?"
The crowd started chanting down the seconds left in the game. "Ten! Nine! Eight!"
Rainbow Dash flew to the right, through the now-open doors. She went through the room of the Ancient Warriors, through the King's Storeroom, into the Pit and Pendulum and through the Crypt.
"Three! Two! One!" the crowd chanted as Rainbow blew down the steps to the temple and landed in front of Kirk as the horn sounded.
*Bwooooomp!*
"Just in time!" Kirk said. "This is amazing, folks! Rainbow Dash has become the first-ever pony to win Legends of the Hidden Temple! At the very last second, she brought the hat of Starswirl the Bearded out of the temple, and--"
"I'm afraid that is incorrect," Olmec said.
"What?" Kirk asked.
"Rainbow Dash does not have Starswirl's hat with her," Olmec said.
"The hat!" Kirk said. "Where is the hat?"
"Back in the monkey room," Rainbow Dash said.
"You left the hat behind in the temple?" Kirk asked, stunned.
"Duh, I can't fly my fastest with a hat in my hooves," Rainbow Dash said.
Kirk facehoofed at this. "My apologies, everypony!" he said. "It seems that Rainbow Dash has not won the game! She failed to bring the artifact here in time!"
"What?!" Rainbow Dash asked. "The rules were that I had to get the artifact, not that I had to bring it with me!"
"Um, why would you get an artifact, just to leave it in a temple?" Fluttershy asked.
"Exactly!" Kirk said. "But you will get a special prize for making it this far! What's the prize today, Olmec?"
"For failing the challenge, you both get an 'I'm With Stupid' T-shirt!" Olmec said. "Let everypony know that you blame your partner for your team's colossal failure!"
"Not as good as Space Camp, but still very nice!" Kirk said. "Anyway, let's have a round of applause for the Blue Barracudas! They tried their hardest, and they almost won the game! Until next time, this has been Kirk Fogg and Olmec on..."
"Legends of the Hidden Temple!" Olmec said.
"Goodbye, everypony!" Kirk said.
The ending music played, while Rainbow Dash bewailed her loss. Fluttershy tried to comfort her, as the camera faded to black.
Ten minutes later, the crew was packing everything up, and Kirk had changed out of his work clothes.
"Well, I'm going home," Kirk said. "Too bad you can't come along for our guy's night out, Olmec. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Kirk, wait," Olmec said. "Hold on a second."
"Huh?" Kirk asked. "What is it, buddy?"
"You...you've never seen the backside of my head, have you?" Olmec asked.
"No, why?" Kirk asked.
"Just...come and take a look," Olmec said.
Kirk shrugged, wondering what this was all about. He walked around the side of the large Olmec head, then almost fell over in surprise. The back of Olmec's head had wires sticking out of it, along with a lever and four mechanical-looking buttons. A microphone was at the bottom of the equipment, and sitting behind the microphone was a male Earth pony.
"Hey, Kirk," the pony said. "Nice to finally meet you."
"OLMEC?" Kirk asked.
"My name is Dee Trotter," the pony said. "I do the voice of Olmec."
"You...but...Olmec is a machine?" Kirk asked, amazed.
"What, did you think he was real?" Dee asked. "There's no such thing as magical talking heads."
"My best friend is imaginary?" Kirk asked. He felt like bursting into tears. "I've spent months bonding with Olmec, and he's not real?"
"Hey, I'm real," Dee said. "And I'm your friend. You're a great guy, Kirk."
"No, no," Kirk said, rubbing his forehead with his hooves. "I'm having a hard time processing this. The whole time I was talking to Olmec, I was really talking to you?"
"Uh huh," Dee said. "And I've loved working with you. You said you wanted to have a guy's night out? Let's go!"
Kirk was taken aback. On the one hoof, this was a dream come true: he could finally spend time with his best friend Olmec, outside of the studio. On the other hoof, it was definitely not what he expected.
"Hold on a second, Dee," Kirk said. "If you're really Olmec, that means you and I can do the one thing I've always wanted to do."
"What's that?" Dee asked.
Five Minutes Later
"The choices are yours and yours alone!" Dee said, in his Olmec voice. "You have three minutes in order to get the artifact. Now GO!"
Kirk ran up the stairs to the temple, and went into the Crypt. "I'm gonna do it!" he said. "I'm going to win the challenge!"
"You can do it, Kirk!" Dee cheered. "Look out for the Temple Guards, though!"
And that's the story of the time Twilight Sparkle and her pony companions appeared on TV. It is also the story of how Kirk Trot became the first and only pony to ever successfully win Legends of the Hidden Temple.
The End |
Spike's Omnitrix | pre | Turbo engine
Solar Panels: To charge all equipment in the RV during the day.
Lunar Panels: To charge all equipment in the RV during the night.
Thrusters: Powerful jet thrusters deploy from the rear and sides of the RV.
Grappling Hook: A high-tensile strength cable with a spike at the end to attach onto things.
Electric Pulse: The wheels of the RV can discharge electrical currents.
Flamethrowers: The exhaust pipes of the RV can expel a superheated plume of flames.
Gyro Blades: Reconfigures the paneling along the sides of the RV to emit a powerful energy beam.
Laser Turrets: Turrets deploy from the back of the RV that fire laser blasts.
Plasma Cannon: A narrow cylindrical gear that deploys out of the side of the RV. It produces a powerful plasma discharge.
Hidden Gun Compartment: In the cup holder between the driver and passenger seats lies a hidden compartment that holds a gun.
Ejector Seats: Both cab seats can be ejected and have built-in parachutes for a slow descent.
Intergalactic Monitoring System: An advanced threat detection interface when something abnormal reveals itself.
Ram: The grill of the RV extends out and to the sides. It glows with energy and can ram objects with great force.
Rocket: A rocket launcher positioned on top of the RV.
Caltrops: Small spiked balls are deployed behind the RV to pop a pursuer's wheels or anything to prevent the chase.
Autopilot: A system that drives the RV autonomously.
"Doctor Whooves thought of everything in detail. Not much for me to explain when it's written. He is a mad genius at times."
"So, what is our first destination on this so-called vacation?" Spike does the quotation mark gesture with his fingers. He wants to know what kind of training is in session.
"Las Pegasus. I'll drive the RV there to inspire many engineering ponies to construct more vehicles after they bear witness to this RV," Shining Armor said.
"This thing will take weeks to get there," Starlight said.
"Which makes an excellent road trip. Also, you can use the time to practice your alien powers," Doctor Whooves bud-in the conversation.
"That's true. Who knows what else I may encounter on the road trip? Possible aliens, monsters, and villains that went unnoticed by the friendship map at the castle," Spike said.
"Spoken like a true plumber," Shining chuckles a bit.
"Dejà vu," Starlight said. She heard the same sequence with Applejack about speaking like a true camper.
Spike checks his watch, and it turns green. Spike twists the faceplate to start the initial count. After a few minutes, Spike wrote ten numbers on the paper. He labels the three names of the aliens he turned. Now, he'll wait to test out the others.
"Any aliens you're eager to try next, Spike?" Shining Armor asks after taking a look at Spike's notes.
"The four-armed alien and this alien that has balls as feet. I'll give them their names once I've tested their capabilities. So, when are we hitting the road?"
"In a few moments," Princess Luna teleports into the RV. "Doctor Whooves, I love the interior of this vehicle."
"Thank you, your highness," Doctor Whooves bows in respect.
"What's the status, Princess Luna?" Shining Armor asks.
"Princess Cadance has accepted Prince Blueblood's services. She has devious scenarios running amuck in her imagination."
"She doesn't like Prince Blueblood?" Starlight Glimmer thought he and Cadance has some fellowship.
"Prince Blueblood's character is irresistible irritation. Rarity is opposed to the presence of Blueblood. He pretended to be fearful of diaper duties and anything unpleasant and unclean," Princess Luna confirms.
"Which is why he's perfect to handle my hidden weapons at the Crystal Castle."
"Hidden weapons?" Starlight and Spike wonder what kind of weapons are undiscovered.
"Since the robots are after what you possess, the Crystal Empire will be subjugated since there's a Spike Statue. I don't think the Crystal Heart is capable of protecting the empire from intergalactic aliens. Prince Blueblood is the only pony with the training to use my weapons. He's the sole protector of the Crystal Empire unless his squad comes in stealthily."
"Oh crap! I forgot about the Spike Statue! Thanks a lot, Twilight for not bringing me to the Crystal Empire more often!" Spike groans in anger.
"The Crystal Empire is in good hooves, with Prince Blueblood protecting it in secret. Have fun with your training and Shining Armor," Princess Luna stares into Shining's soul.
"Y-Yes..?" Shining Armor stutters due to Luna's glare.
"Stay on course," Princess Luna refers to the map inside the RV.
"I-I-I but..," Shining Armor sighs in defeat. He was hoping to make a quick trip to the Crystal Empire. "Yes, ma'am."
"Good," Princess Luna steps out of the RV with Doctor Whooves. She pats the side of it to alert everyone. "Alright, everyone stand aside. The RV is about to depart from the station!"
All scientists gallop away from the RV, and signals on the floor light up. There are yellow arrows to help guide Shining Armor out of the hidden base. Spike and Starlight look out the windows to see everyone waving bye, wishing them good luck on their venture. Shining Armor uses the key to ignite the engine of the RV and uses his magic to drive.
"We're moving," Spike laughs in excitement.
"Hey, does the map say what pitstops we can make or take?" Starlight asks Shining Armor.
"First stop..," Shining Armor takes a look at the map. "Ponyville. We can buy rations for the long trip to Las Pegasus. Also, you and Spike can gather your belongings at the castle before Twilight returns."
"Uh, there's not much for me to get. I won't be needing my Power Ponies comic. I have a real superpower on my wrist. I need to stay focused and control the powers to help every creature."
"Wow, Spike. That's mature of you to commit," Starlight is impressed with Spike's decision-making.
"The watch is not a toy. However, that won't stop me from having a little fun once in a blue moon," Spike chuckles a bit. It scares Shining Armor a bit.
"Since that's the case, I just want to say farewell to my friend, Trixie. Will that be alright, Shining?"
Shining Armor smiles. "Of course. I'm sure Trixie will understand."
Shining Armor focuses on his magic to drive the RV smoothly. Following the yellow arrows, the RV rises from an underground chamber. The hatch closes and uses a mechanism to disguise itself as grass. The RV is below Canterlot near the waterfall. Spike and Starlight look out the window and see the sun rising. It's now the dawn of a new day and a new adventure. |
Spike's Omnitrix | Transitions | Shining Armor slowly drives the RV on the fresh meadows of Equestria. He's going twenty-five miles per hour to test the stability of Doctor Whooves' invention. During the simulation, Doctor Whooves urged Shining Armor to feel the engine of the RV and grow a passionate relationship as pony and machine. In due time, Shining Armor will gain the confidence to accelerate and fully tests the limits of the RV.
Starlight Glimmer is reading a book about the plumbers' history and the many encounters with strange anomalies throughout the lands. She jots notes about crucial information about certain aliens, including an unknown world conqueror. The name is blurred and scratched. She wonders if Doctor Whooves forgot to mention hoof-held weapons when an alien, monster, or robot starts running amuck, making any life miserable. Starlight hopes that Shining Armor can train her to use any weapon to the fullest.
Spike looks out the window and sees the green pastures. He relishes the feeling of embarking on a new adventure. One that doesn't include Twilight Sparkle, which is refreshing. Spike laughs a bit. He just imagined a horrible breakfast Twilight might cook.
When Spike said his rant last night, he meant it. He's through taking care of Twilight. He refused to allow history to repeat itself even after they hugged. Twilight was oblivious to Spike many times before, and she's more committed to her kind than another now that Spike thinks about it. Spike shrugs that thought aside despite his feelings saying otherwise.
Princess Celestia finishes raising the sun. She is highly upset by the story Twilight revealed about taking care of Spike. Twilight expects a scolding on how to treat another species, especially one living with her for many years since infancy. Instead, Princess Celestia made her decree permanent about Twilight losing custody. At first, it was supposed to be temporary, so Spike could venture into the world and practice his new weapon. Now, it's different. There are legal boundaries every pony must follow in Equestria. As a friend, Celestia will forgive Twilight for the misdeed and allow her to keep Spike. From Spike's testimony, Princess Twilight Sparkle committed child negligence and exploitation. Therefore, as a Princess, Celestia's obligation is to uphold the laws within her country, no matter how painful the sentence is.
Princess Twilight Sparkle is devastated. She asks Princess Celestia who'll be Spike's legal guardian since she no longer has custody of Spike.
"It's evident that Shining Armor has treated Spike like a younger brother; he and Princess Cadance will become Spike's new legal guardians," Princess Celestia answers Twilight's question with sympathy.
"So, that's it?" Twilight Sparkle is angry that Princess Celestia can't give her a warning. She starts to resent Princess Luna by asking Princess Celestia to make a bold arrangement. She's livid at Pinkie Pie for exposing a dark truth to Princess Celestia.
"Yes. I will make arrangements with Princess Cadance to allow you to make visitations with Spike. I'm sorry, Twilight," Princess Celestia reads Twilight's body language. She knows Twilight is fuming with the loss of caring Spike.
"I can't get a second chance to redeem myself?!" Twilight feels betrayed that Princess Celestia can't disregard a situation based on her actions of saving Equestria numerous times. "I helped save Equestria many times! I apologized to Spike, and he forgave me! You owe me this favor!"
"Spike is still relatively young for a dragon. You, of all ponies, should know about obeying the law," Princess Celestia coldly states. "You are the Headmare of your school with laws and constitutions that you created! I can't ignore what you've done to a child because of your heroic deeds. I don't owe you any favors for violating a law. You are a Princess, and as a Princess, uphold and learn from your failures."
"Oh, like you failed your sister, Luna?" Twilight heartlessly says. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash steer clear of Twilight's presence. It's a new side they have never seen in their friend and don't know how to cope with it. "Better yet, trusting a child with a superweapon. How professional," Twilight sarcastically says.
Princess Celestia takes a deep breath. What Twilight said about her sister hurt her, but she won't reveal her feelings. "I entrusted you to take care of Spike even after I sent you to Ponyville and make friends, not to abandon him once you made friends. I entrusted you to raise your relationship with Spike with your new friends. Not to let him rot alone in the library and castle doing your chores and having him take care of you. A child doesn't care for the grown pony. The grown pony cares for the child. You used Spike as a slave."
"A SLAVE?!" Twilight Sparkle is conflicted with that statement.
"Your claim as Spike being an assistant has turned into slavery. From what you told me about Spike, he's done the cleaning, the cooking, the running around, and subjugated for your experiments. That alone is a felony! You don't understand the gravity of the situation, Princess Twilight Sparkle," Princess Celestia sternly said in her royal tone, glaring rigidly at Twilight.
Twilight Sparkle pants heavily. She never thought of committing a felony, especially with supporting a young dragon. What Princess Celestia spoke is the truth. Now, if Twilight weren't a Princess, she'd be in worse circumstances than she is.
"Uh, Celestia?" Rarity interjects herself into the conversation. "What will happen to Twilight, now?" She cautiously asks after seeing how heated Princess Celestia is.
Princess Celestia glares at Rarity and sees her cowering in fear. She closes her eyes and releases a long sigh to calm down. "Princess Twilight Sparkle will resume her duties at the School of Friendship. She will learn what it takes to become a more responsible Princess and now parent if she chooses to bear a family. For the next three months. Princess Twilight Sparkle will care for herself at her castle. She won't receive any help, especially from the five of you. I expect full reports on what Twilight learned from stepping in Spike's footsteps. Princess Twilight Sparkle."
"Y-Y-Yes.., Pr-Pr-Princess..?" Twilight Sparkle nervously replies.
"If I receive word that you plan to stalk or spy on Spike during his vacation, I will strip you of your title as Princess of Friendship. Your wings will be removed as well. Do I make myself clear?"
Twilight Sparkle nods extensively.
"Good. Do NOT disappoint me," Princess Celestia turns away from Princess Twilight Sparkle. "You may leave now."
Twilight Sparkle leaves the throne room with her head down. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie follow in pursuit. Once the throne room doors close, Princess Celestia releases some of her emotions. She failed Luna and suffered the consequences. One of her greatest downfalls is a painful reminder.
It's been three hours since Shining Armor drove the RV. Many curious ponies swarm around the RV, taking many pictures and wanting entrance in front of the city hall at Ponyville. Shining Armor is fed up with the constant flashes of cameras. He honks the horn to make them leave, but the ponies are more interested in learning more about the RV.
"Any other ideas you have, Shining?" Starlight asks. She sees fillies and colts hovering by the windows, trying to get a peep inside.
"I could blast them. However, that's against protocol," Shining replies with a dark joke.
"Starlight, can you teleport me to the castle?" Spike asks.
"How would that help us?" Starlight turns to Spike. Then she sees what Spike's planning.
"I believe Ponyville will be much more interested in seeing their hero than this contraption."
"You got it!" Starlight ignites her horn and shoots a beam at Spike. She teleports him to the castle.
"It's hero time!" Spike activates the watch and twists the faceplate twice. Then he slams it down. Green lights flashes, turning into Diamondhead. "Alright, time to shine," Spike runs to the RV and gathers everyone's attention. "Alright, it appears this town is thriving better than I thought."
"It's Diamond Dude!" Pipsqueak shouts. He diverts his attention from the RV to Spike's alien. "Can I have your autograph?!" Pipsqueak unintentionally draws the group to get closer to Spike. He flies ahead of his friends to see Spike personally.
"It is him!" Lyra and Bon Bon squee loudly.
"We love you, Diamond Dude!" Many ponies chant.
"My name is Diamondhead. I'll allow my adoring fans to call me Diamond Dude," Spike poses in front of his peers.
Mayor Mare excuses herself to greet Spike's alien. "Mister Diamondhead. It's a great honor to have our beloved hero in Ponyville. We want to throw you a parade and a celebration in honor of your heroism when you fought that titan last night!" Many ponies around the Mayor agree in unison.
"Shining! Now will be a good time to drive us out of here!" Starlight urges Shining to use the opportunity before the timer of Spike's watch deactivates.
Shining Armor drives the RV out of city hall. He has decided to park it near several trees and a purple wagon outside Ponyville. Starlight sees Trixie lounging on her chair outside her wagon; Trixie is wearing her sunglasses, relishing the cool breezes of the first day of summer.
Starlight gets excited and leaves the RV. "Trixie!" Starlight shouts happily to grab her friend's attention.
"Starlight?" Trixie removes her sunglasses to see Starlight trotting up to her. She sees Shining Armor in the windshield of the RV. Shining Armor nods.
"Trixie, I've come to see you and let you know that I'm going away on vacation," Starlight honestly says with a smile.
"Why are you with Shining Armor? Why not with your friends?" Trixie asks out of curiosity. "You two are having an affair or something?" Trixie seductively asks.
"Oh, well.., you see..," Starlight blushes and rubs the back of her head with her right front hoof. She's having a hard time explaining the plumbers' business and Spike's watch.
Trixie giggles. "Sorry, Starlight. I couldn't resist. Especially with my commanding officer sitting in front of the RV."
"Wait! How did you know..," Starlight's eyes widen in shock. "YOU'RE A PLUMBER?!"
Trixie bursts into laughter, seeing Starlight's reaction. Starlight Glimmer's jaw drops. She didn't anticipate her best friend being a plumber; Shining Armor chuckles from the RV. He heard Starlight's surprised shout.
"Indeed I am, Starlight," Trixie hugs her friend. "It's against protocol to reveal my identity unless my commanding officer approves it. I'm part of Shining Armor's squad."
"Who else is part of it?" Starlight is keen on knowing who else is part of the organization.
"It's not for me to tell, Starlight," Trixie stops hugging Starlight. "We're supposed to be nonexistent. How did you wind up becoming a plumber?"
"It's all thanks to Spike," Starlight's eyes widen. "I have to go and get him!"
"What's wrong with Spike?" Trixie is worried about Starlight's expression.
"Shining will fill you in! I have to go!" Starlight gallops to Ponyville.
Spike is getting overwhelmed with many ponies wanting an autograph and to take a picture. He's trying to elude the crowd, but it becomes restless. Pretty soon, his time as Diamondhead will sound off. Starlight arrives in Ponyville after using her teleportation spell. She sees Spike backing away and devises an idea. One she'll regret if somepony exposes her. Starlight shoots a magic beam, hitting Sugarcube Corner and setting it on fire. Starlight hides behind a barrel in hopes that no pony has seen her.
"Fire! Oh, my gosh!" The fire spreads rapidly at Sugarcube Corner. "My husband and the kids are inside!" Mrs.Cupcake shouts horridly. She's afraid of losing her family.
"It's hero time!" Spike jumps out of the crowd and runs to Sugarcube Corner. Ponies follow to watch the extravaganza. Many colts and fillies start chanting It's Hero Time!
Spike sees Carrot Cake holding onto his foals. Spike looks up and notices the ceiling starting to crack. Carrot Cake coughs while the smoke gets to him. It's blinding his vision. Spike runs to Carrot Cake when the ceiling gives way. Pinkie's bed fall and Spike turns his right arm into a sharp-edge cutter to slice the bed in half.
"Are you okay?" Spike asks Carrot Cake.
Carrot Cake coughs. "Never better. Please, get my children out of here!" Carrot Cake coughs more. The smoke becomes overwhelming.
Spike picks up Carrot Cake, Pound Cake, and Pumpkin cake. He rushes out of the bakery as the whole building collapses. Starlight hopes no one saw what she committed for Spike to flee from his peers.
"My babies!" Mrs.Cupcake rushes to her family. Pound and Pumpkin Cake are fine. It's Carrot Cake that got the worst ends of the fire. Spike puts him on the ground.
"I'm fine," Carrot Cake coughs. "Thanks to Diamond Dude," Carrot Cake turns to him.
"All in a day's work," Spike poses. Then his hourglass symbol starts bleeping and blinking red. "That's my cue to help the next creature! Farewell!" Spike runs away. Every pony waves bye and hopes to see Diamond Dude once again.
Spike runs near a bridge and reverts to his dragon self from underneath. He walks out, sighing in relief. Starlight Glimmer comes out of hiding. She refuses to speak about her action to draw Spike's attention elsewhere. Starlight tells Spike that he did well for using the rest of Diamondhead's time to save the Cake family.
Starlight and Spike walk back to the RV. They see Shining Armor hooking Trixie's wagon to the rear of the RV. Starlight knows that Trixie will be tagging along on the journey. Spike is confused, but Starlight reveals that Trixie is part of Shining Armor's team. Spike's jaw drops. He can't believe that Trixie is a plumber.
Trixie comes out of the RV and approaches Spike. She observes the watch. "Wow, this technology is so advanced. Shining Armor told me you can transform into an alien."
"I just did. Shining Armor drove the RV into Ponyville, and we got swarmed. I turned into Diamondhead to alter their attention span. Right now. The watch is on red, meaning it needs to recharge."
"What color it's on for you to transform?" Trixie asks.
"Green. When my watch is green, I can turn hero," Spike explains.
"Get ready to hear Spike's trademark, Great and Powerful Trixie," Starlight chuckles.
"I know I'm great and powerful due to my training with the plumbers, Starlight. My whole Great and Powerful persona is deceitful, Starlight. I'm sorry for deceiving you with an annoying character."
"What?! Who's idea was it?" Starlight can't believe the magician's persona is a lie.
"Honestly, we pick a subject from a hat and dedicate ourselves to fit that character," Trixie said. "We undergo a lot of training for any outcome, including becoming somepony else."
"With Trixie tagging along, your training has become smoother, Starlight. She's hoofs-on using hoof-held guns and saddle launchers. Also, Trixie will gather rations and supplies."
"I'll get us good stuff in-" Starlight cuts Trixie's speech.
"The next town!" Starlight frantically says. She doesn't want her friend to find out that she started a fire in Ponyville.
"Good call. Ponyville has become destination Diamond Dude," Spike said. "By going elsewhere, less attention."
"Good enough for me," Shining Armor starts the RV. "Alright, onto Dodge City or Junction. However you creatures call it," Shining Armor drives the RV. Spike waves bye to Ponyville. Trixie starts talking about her involvement with the plumbers. Starlight starts taking notes and mentally prepares herself when her training arrives. Spike hopes to test a different alien at the next destination. |
Spike's Omnitrix | Wild West | It's been a slow five-hour drive for Shining Armor since departing from Ponyville. Trixie spoke story after story about encountering different creatures not native to Equus. Starlight becomes enlightened by the breeds and prowesses of each alien, monster, ghoul, and dormant entities Trixie spoke. Spike looks out the window and notices a town that looks deserted. Shining Armor stops the RV and figures this location is perfect for Spike to test his other aliens.
"Everyone, we're at our first pitstop," Shining Armor announces. He turns off the RV's engine.
"Where are we?" Starlight looks out the window.
"Gold's Village," Trixie replies after reading the broken sign above.
Gold's Village is an abandoned mining town where settlers and miners worked to dig gold back in the day. It has a western-type field with several buildings and shops, a rusted water tower, a mill, and a saloon.
"Why is it called Gold's Village?" Spike asks Trixie.
"Two hundred years ago, this location was a hot spot for gold. However, it ran out after fifty years. Ponies back in the day never rationalized what they got. Some hoarded their workers until a revolt happened that caused a semi-civil war. Both sides wiped each other out," Shining Armor explains the origins of Gold's Village. "With no pony or creature around, utilize the opportunity to analyze the rest of you aliens."
"With no one here, I'll do a little sightseeing before experimenting with my other aliens," Spike leaves the RV. He wanders around the town.
"I would advise one or both of you to keep an eye on Spike. I need to see how the shower works in the RV."
"Alright, Shining. Trixie and I will do just that," Starlight trots out of the RV.
"I'll keep you updated on any phenomenons around the area, Shining," Trixie said. She puts on her saddle bag.
"Carry on," Shining salutes Trixie and watches her leave. Shining goes to the bathroom to test the showers.
In the depths of space outside Equus' orbit, Vilgax has hired three bounty hunters worthy of delivering the Omnitrix to him. They are known as Kraab, SixSix, and Tetrax Shard.
Kraab is a fiddler mechanic crab with a goldish brown-colored armor, a sideways mouth, four scythe-like legs, and a large, powerful pincer for a left hand. Within the pincer, there is a power blaster combined with a chemical sprayer. He has orange lines running over his body, and his eyes had the same color as the highlights of his pincer. Kraab has enhanced strength, durability, and digging. The rest of his equipment features electric beams, gas generation, scanner vision, rotating head, and thermographic vision. Kraab is capable of hunting any creature or object in any climate, in scorching deserts, and underwater.
SixSix adorns a metallic jumpsuit armor. He has purple pads covering his central joints, a belt, and four central lines on his helmet to provide outlines for his face, which are his eyes and mouth. He carries many weapons and equipment such as laser guns, an energy buzzsaw, a jetpack, missiles, bombs, electric discs, energy whips, energy swords, a sonic weapon, a life support system, and now, an Omnitrix Radar.
Tetrax's attire features a shiny grey suit with a retractable black helmet. Under the helmet, the suit went all the way up to the bottom of his neck. This triangle was also on the center of his utility belt, and there were markings resembling it on either shoulder pad. He has enhanced strength, durability, acrobatics, speeds, and fast reflexes. He carries a hoverboard, energy gun, sonic device, and smoke grenades.
Vilgax watches how each bounty hunter annihilates his meager drones and robots with precision. He's impressed with the skills and technicality of each bounty hunter. Vilgax devises a game for the first to retrieve the Omnitrix will be abundantly rewarded. The three bounty hunters deploy from Chimeran Hammer to the world of Equus.
Spike enters a mill to see what was made and left behind in their era. He overhears Starlight and Trixie's hoofsteps and decides to prank them. He activates his watch and turns the faceplate into a silhouette of his liking. He presses the faceplate, and green lights burst.
Spike starts becoming intangible. Then his body becomes gaseous with claw-like hands and grey skin with black lines running all over him. His hourglass insignia peeks out of the skin on his lower left chest, and he has one pink eye with a black pupil.
"Whoa, this is freaky," Spike said in a faint and whispery tone. He looks at his reflection from the broken pieces of mirror on the ground. "I look like a ghost!" An idea pops into his mind. "Perfect," Spike giggles and goes into hiding.
"Spike? Where are you?" Starlight said. She becomes unnerved by an unfamiliar presence.
"We'll find him, Starlight. I'm sure Spike is standing still, trying to imagine the era of this town," Trixie enlightening says. "This is a town full of hidden secrets," Trixie hears rummaging near a mill.
"You heard that, Trixie?" Starlight said after hearing the rummaging.
"Shhhhh," Trixie quiets Starlight.
Trixie and Starlight slowly trot to the mill when Spike rises from the ground, scaring the two with his faint and whispery voice shouting. "BOO!" Starlight and Trixie hug each other and scream in pure horror at the sudden arrival of Spike's ghostly alien. Spike burst into laughter. "Hahahahahahaha!" Spike points at the two, hugging each other in pure terror. "You should have seen the look on your faces."
"SPIKE! THAT WASN'T FUNNY!" Starlight shouts in anger. She lets go of Trixie.
"You scared us to death, Spike!" Trixie shouts in annoyance. She examines Spike's new alien. "So, what is this alien called?"
Spike's pink eye moves within the black line to stare at Trixie. She's a bit creeped out by the moving eye. "Ghostfreak since I freaked you both," Spike chuckles. "I'm sorry for how I scared you. I couldn't resist."
"It's alright, Spike. I'll admit, you had me good," Starlight honestly states. "You should pull a prank similar to Shining Armor."
"Duly noted."
"How long ago you turned?" Trixie asks out of curiosity.
"A few minutes ago. Why?" Spike sees Trixie getting serious which is scaring him.
"Trixie, what's wrong?" Starlight asks with a level of concern. She sees Trixie's eyes scanning left to right, up and down.
"Deactivating cloaking mode," Trixie reveals her monitor visors that detect probes. "I'm picking up two signatures entering the atmosphere," She uses her magic to place a communicator mic on her ear. "Shining Armor. Inbounding bogeys at twelve o'clock."
Shining Armor receives the transmission from the RV. "Copy that. Return to base."
"Understood. Starlight, Spike. It's time to return to the RV."
"Right," Starlight nods.
"What's coming now?" Spike wonders if it's two more robots from last night. Then the ground starts quaking. Spike grabs Starlight and Trixie before a collision takes place. They're hovering in the air. "What is this?" He puts the two down away from the crash.
"Not what but who," Kraab emerges from the ground. He walks on his four scythe-like legs. His head pops to examine Spike.
"What is that thing?!" Spike and Starlight shout.
"Hand over the Omnitrix, and I promise you won't suffer.., much," Kraab pinches his metal claw.
"The Omni-what?" Spike is confused.
"He's after your watch, Spike!" Starlight warns her friend.
"Activating Saddle Launchers!" Trixie uses her magic to turn her saddle bag into laser torrents. There's one cannon on the left and right side of Trixie. The muzzles and barrels extend. Starlight's eyes widen in shock.
"You believe that little toy can scathe me?" Kraab laughs until Trixie blasts him with a laser blast. Kraab collides into a steel cauldron from the ceiling. Kraab falls face-first into the floor, and the cauldron lands on him.
"That was cool!" Spike said.
"I'll say!" Starlight is astounded to see the power of the laser cannons.
"No time in celebrating. We need to move! Now!" Trixie fires another laser at Kraab and gallops out of the mill. Starlight and Spike follows Trixie.
Kraab gets up and tunnels into the ground. He follows the heat signatures of Trixie and Starlight. He zooms past the two and rises from the ground. "You're mine!" Kraab opens his pincer and sprays Spike with a solidifying chemical, rendering him unable to go intangible.
"What is this stuff?" Spike tries to become tangible but becomes useless when Kraab uses his pincer to grab Spike and tosses him into a building.
"Stay away from him!" Starlight ignites her horn to shoot a powerful wave of magic at Kraab. He takes the hit, and smoke covers the area. "Did that work?"
"Only in your dreams, Starlight," Trixie straightforwardly said. She sees Kraab emerging from the smoke.
"That barely tickled," Kraab opens his pincer, preparing to strike Starlight with a laser beam.
"Proton Energy Shield deploy!" Trixie's left laser torrent shoots an energy shield, protecting Starlight from Kraab's blast.
"What!?" Kraab sees how efficient Trixie's cannons are. "I have underestimated you, creature. I better take care of you first!" Kraab hears horns honking. He turns to see Shining Armor driving the RV straight at him. The RV collides with Kraab, causing him to hurl into a building.
"Activating missile sequence!" The front bumpers open a hatch. Shining Armor uses his magic to fire several missiles at the building Kraab crashed into; it blows up. Shining sees a red flash to his left. Spike comes out with brown goo. "All of you, get in!"
Spike and Starlight waste no time entering the RV. Trixie sees the two bogeys altering their landing sequence. She gets in the RV, telling Shining Armor to floor it.
Shining Armor uses his magic to accelerate the RV's speed, leaving Gold's Village. Starlight sits down, panting heavily and questioning her magic power against powerful alien forces.
"Word of advice, Starlight. Magic alone is not strong enough against robots, bounty hunters, or aliens. They far exceed anything magic and use technology," Trixie said.
"That means Twilight and the others would be..," Shining Armor finishes Starlight's statement.
"Dead. I love my younger sister but foes that plumbers fight are more omnipotent than any other creature. That includes Lord Tirek and Discord."
"Wait? If they are that powerful, could you defeat Queen Chrysalis and her Changelings when they invaded Canterlot during your wedding?"
Shining Armor sighs heavily. "Yes," Spike gasps. "All those Changelings at the time were easily killable. Due to my prodigious training, my weaponry alone will make them bow before me. Even after Queen Chrysalis absorbed mine and Celestia's magic would be too easy. The only reason why I withheld my motives was to ensure Cadance's safety, and Princess Luna forbade me from revealing myself. Also, I didn't have my visors, and my team was outside the protection bubble Celestia wanted me to conjure. Luna and I couldn't go inside our hidden base with every Royal Guard stationed and patroling the castle daily. So, I had to stay in character and endure the whole experience."
Spike is speechless. This whole time, Shining Armor wasn't that hopeless or defenseless. It makes him think how powerful Shining Armor is compared to his Royal Guard status. "Are you more powerful than Twilight?"
"Yes. Twilight wouldn't go for the kill. She'll befriend the creatures even after they attempt to kill her. Twilight would make monologue speeches which would be her undoing. Alicorn or not, Twilight doesn't have a killer instinct or to subdue an enemy without mercy. Believe me; when I say this; most aliens, creatures, ghouls, or robots show no mercy. So, why should we?"
"Unless, of course, they are our allies," Trixie corrects Shining Armor's comment.
"I have a question for you!" Starlight wants to know if Trixie lied about her knowledge of magic. "When you came to the castle, and I helped you elevate your magic, were you holding your true potential?"
"It was refreshing to learn the fundamentals, Starlight. Yes, I held back my understanding of magic to pretense my character. If I had to compare my magic power with somepony, I would say we're equally matched, no pun intended," Trixie said.
"How was that possible?! You wore the Alicorn Amulet to overwhelm Twilight when she was a unicorn!" Spike remembers Trixie being a pushover with magic.
"There's a spirit dormant within the Alicorn Amulet that wants freedom. If no one wears the Amulet within a hundred years, the entity is free and can unleash carnage the world never saw before. The plumbers were monitoring the status, and the sentient was close to escaping its' prison when I came along. I knew I needed to put the specter to sleep for the next hundred years, so I had to become a willing host."
"A willing host?" Spike and Starlight say in unison. They want more answers from this story.
"The spirit within negotiates a bargain. He will give you the power of an Alicorn and fulfill your heart's desires in exchange for a body. Since my character faced a humiliation unlike any other, it was perfect to bestowed a revenge plan upon Twilight, knowing she would succeed in the end."
Spike is stunned by another truth bomb. He shrugs the feeling because another memory spoken by the Great and Powerful comes to his mind. "So that story about the Ursa Major? Can you slay it?"
"Of course, I can; I've done it in the past. A mad scientist took control of the Ursa Major, wrecking towns; I had to slay it with what I got. I retold my story and switched the images of an Ursa Major with an Ursa Minor in hopes of ponies believing in what I said. I convinced many ponies with my fictional story for years. It was a great cover story until Snips and Snails derailed my depiction."
"Wow, Trixie," Starlight is speechless. Yea, she helped every Changeling convert except for Queen Chrysalis, but compared to Trixie; Trixie has better feats than her.
Everyone hears a loud thud on the roof of the RV. Spike, Trixie, and Starlight look up to see a buzzsaw cutting through the ceiling.
"Trixie, take care of it!" Shining shouts as he drives the RV. He can't afford to lose concentration.
Metal claws pull and peel the ceiling. SixSix is above and dodges a missile from Trixie's cannon. That's when Shining Armor uses his magic to cease the RV's movements, causing SixSix to fall off in front of the RV. Trixie jumps to the ceiling and rolls on the roof; Shining Armor uses his magic to accelerate the RV's velocity, running SixSix over. It was a mistake. The wheels of the RV start to deflate.
"Shit!" Shining Armor didn't mean to curse, but he's happy Flurry Heart is not around to mimic the word.
Trixie looks back, preparing herself to fire another missile at SixSix. Shining Armor, Starlight, and Spike leave the RV. They notice an entrance into an abandoned mine.
"Go! I'll hold this guy back!" Trixie shouts. She's ready to beat down the bounty hunter.
SixSix speaks in his alien language. "This'll be quick." SixSix confidentially says.
The ground starts to tremble. Kraab emerges from the ground. "The Omnitrix is mine!" Kraab uses his pincer to slam SixSix.
"Take this!" Trixie leaps into the air, shooting laser blasts at Kraab. Kraab dodges the projectiles and fires back, intercepting Trixie's onslaught.
"Let's move!" Shining Armor places Spike on his back and gallops fast into the mine entrance. Starlight follows Shining inside.
Spike's Omnitrix is still red. He hopes the charge is complete before Trixie gets obliterated.
"Launching smoke grenades!" Trixie's cannons fire smoke grenades at Kraab and SixSix. The smoke covers the area.
"Have a little taste of your own medicine!" Kraab opens his pincer to spray thick dark smoke at Trixie.
SixSix speaks in his alien language. "Take this!" SixSix takes out his laser gun and shoots at Trixie.
Due to the smoke, Trixie's visors become blind. Then her left cannon gets neutralized from the impact of SixSix's laser beam. Trixie drops her saddle launcher and activates the detonator. She gallops inside the mining entrance, hoping the blast radius doesn't affect her, Shining, Starlight, and Spike inside.
"Say, how about we work together and split the reward?" Kraab asks SixSix.
SixSix speaks in his alien language. "Might as well. Those creatures protecting the user of the Omnitrix are putting up more of a fight than I'd imagine." SixSix accepts Kraab's proposal.
Kraab and SixSix were about to enter the mine when the sounds of a timer ticking on Trixie's saddle bag were explosive.
"SON-OF-A-" Kraab and SixSix shout in unison as Trixie's saddle bag explodes. Kraab and SixSix receive minor injuries and dents on their armors. "I'm going to skin them alive!" Kraab and SixSix go inside the mine. They are boiling in rage.
Trixie uses her visors to locate Shining Armor's plumbing equipment. He, Spike, and Starlight are near a chasm, looking around to find another exit. Spike is tapping on the Omnitrix; he starts to become a bit impatient.
"Shining! A cable car to your right!" Spike points at it.
"Nice find!" Shining Armor activates his visors. He looks back to see Trixie coming with Kraab and SixSix chasing her. "Great. Activating Saddle Machine Guns!" Shining Armor uses his magic to turn his saddle bag into sentry torrents on his left and right side. The barrels of each torrent extend. "Come to daddy," Shining Armor uses his magic to power up the machine guns.
Spike and Starlight get inside the cable car. Trixie gallops with SixSix and Kraab chasing her and shooting laser projectiles. Trixie sees Shining Armor positioned and rolls aside, allowing Shining Armor to shoot laser bullets at Kraab and SixSix.
"Trixie, inside the cable car, now!" Shining Armor commands. "Activating saddle thruster!" The right saddle back turns from a machine gun into a jetpack mode. Shining Armor flies and uses the left machine gun to fire more laser bullets at SixSix and Kraab. The two are taking cover.
"Geez, this guy is good!" Kraab admits while taking cover from Shining's onslaught.
SixSix speaks in his alien language. "Don't compliment the enemy, stupid!" SixSix uses his jetpack and flies out of range of Shining's laser bullets. He launches missiles of his own at Shining Armor.
Shining Armor gasps and flies out of range of SixSix's missiles. He shoots them before they explode near the cable car. "Trixie! Go without me!"
"On it!" Trixie uses her magic to turn on the cable car. She uses her magic to teleport to Starlight and Spike on the cable car, descending into the chasm.
Kraab sees the perfect opportunity to strike. "You're mine!" Kraab runs to the edge and leaps to the cable car.
Shining Armor is about to intercept when SixSix tackles Shining Armor, crashing into the rock walls of the chasm.
"Shining!" Trixie, Starlight, and Spike shout in horror after witnessing the impact of the collision. They turn to see Kraab about to pinch the cable car wire.
Spike hears a ping from the Omnitrix. It turns from red to green. Without wasting any time, Spike activates the Omnitrix and slams the faceplate without looking. It flashes green light.
Spike feels his body changing drastically and grows well-developed muscles, two pairs of four-fingered arms, and red skin. A black stripe goes from his chin to his lower lip, and he has four eyes, with the top pair bigger and a set smaller. Spike lacks ears and a nose. He has whisker-like spikes on each forearm; Spike wears a white T-shirt with a black line going down it, black pants, and fingerless gloves. The Omnitrix symbol is on his upper left shoulder. His eyes are yellow, and he has no hair. Spike's new alien is ten feet tall.
"Oh no, you don't!" Spike jumps from the cable car and uppercuts Kraab with his lower right arm; Kraab crashes into the rock walls hard. Spike's new alien gives him super strength. Spike grabs onto the cable car wire after the punch.
"WHOA!" Starlight and Trixie is shocked to see Spike's new alien. They can't believe Spike now has four arms.
"Be safe!" Spike shouts.
"We will!" Starlight shouts, speaking on behalf of Trixie.
Spike swings on the cable car wire, launching himself into the wall to punch and beatdown Kraab. That's when Tetrax swoops in on his hoverboard, taking Spike away from the conflict.
"Hey! What's the meaning of this!?" Spike punches Tetrax's helmet with his upper left arm; Tetrax releases his hold on Spike. The two are near several abandoned homes near another mining entrance.
Tetrax examines Spike's physiology. "Billions of beings on this planet, and the Omnitrix winds up on the wrist of a foolhardy youth."
"Foolhardy? Listen, punk. I may be young, but I'm not stupid!" Spike starts reading the body language of this alien in front of him.
"Hmm, the boy is attempting to learn my capabilities. However, I must extract the Omnitrix." Tetrax thought to himself.
"Just like those that came looking for me!" Spike lunges at Tetrax. "The watch doesn't come off!" He attempts to punch Tetrax.
Tetrax avoids Spike's feeble punch and gut-punches him. Spike stumbles back from the blow. "OF COURSE IT DOESN'T! Its power utilizes alien DNA, which binds to the host's own genetic structure. It cannot simply be removed like that!" Tetrax removes his helmet, revealing himself. Tetrax looks like Diamondhead.
"Whoa, you're the alien I turned into earlier today and last night," Spike now knows that he may encounter other species as his alien forms from the Omnitrix.
"More likely on brute strength, without regard for any strategy. Do you ever pause to consider your actions at all?" Tetrax demeaningly asks.
"I transformed into this four-armed alien not because of brute strength but to defend my friends from an incoming attack! I didn't look to see who I was choosing! I went with whoever I turned within the moment, hoping it was a good selection!" Spike defends himself with an honest reply. He sounds upset about being accused of reckless action.
"Defending his friends? Perhaps I underestimated him. I watched him having some fun before getting attacked by Kraab. However, he sounds genuine with the usage of the Omnitrix." Tetrax thought to himself. He's impressed with Spike's motives.
"Look, if we're done talking, I have to get back and make sure those punks didn't harm my friends!" Spike is about to take off when Tetrax grabs his shoulder.
"I'm coming with you. I had suspected you of abusing the Omnitrix when I failed to realize that you have good intentions. I'll help take down SixSix and Kraab," Tetrax said. He hops on his hoverboard and offers his hand to Spike.
"Let's roll," Spike said, grabbing Tetrax's hand.
Shining Armor is fighting SixSix with an energizer sword. SixSix is amazed to see someone else using an energy sword. Kraab continues to shoot missiles from the ground, hoping to kill Shining Armor or distract him long enough for SixSix to deliver the final blow. Shining Armor saw Tetrax taking Spike away from the battlefield. He believes the third bounty hunter reluctantly agrees to work with his allies rather than for self-interest. Trixie and Starlight are down below, watching the scenery. Trixie doesn't have any weapons on her. The wagon is too far to call upon her equipment to aid in battle by using her visors.
Tetrax travels swiftly, with Spike holding on. Spike jumps off of Tetrax's board, pummeling Kraab. Tetrax launches himself, removes his gloves, and punches SixSix. Shining Armor is confused; He uses the time to catch his breath.
Spike uses three of his arms to lift Kraab and toss him aside. He jumps and stomps Kraab's lower body; He dents the front scythe-like leg. He rips it off.
"Hey! I needed that!" Kraab uses his three scythe-like legs to get up.
"Not anymore!" Spike does a front flip. He jams the leg into the neck of Kraab by mistake. However, the tip leg impales nerve cluster and other components.
"AH CRAP!" Kraab starts sparking and going haywire. His movements become erratic.
"Here, have a seat!" Spike leg-sweeps Kraab. He falls on his back and continues to spark. Kraab is unable to get up.
After Shining Armor catches his breath, he sees Tetrax and SixSix fighting in the air. Using his machine gun torrent, he aims at SixSix's jetpack. Shining Armor fires a laser bullet at SixSix's jetpack. It connects.
SixSix speaks in his alien language. "Ah, shit!" SixSix flies unstably, allowing Tetrax to turn his arm into a sharp-edge cutter, slashing SixSix, and altering his direction.
Spike sees SixSix about to crash and runs away from the collision course; Kraab sees SixSix coming and swears that he hates Equus. SixSix lands on Kraab. Now, the two are not out of commission.
Spike's Omnitrix insignia starts flashing red. He reverts to his dragon self. Tetrax thought Spike was a filly. Seeing him as a dragon, who matured, makes him believe that the Omnitrix is with the right host.
Trixie and Starlight use their magic to levitate to the top after witnessing the final climax of the battle. Shining Armor lands next to them.
Tetrax lands near Kraab and SixSix. "You traitor!" They say in disgust.
"I was never a bounty hunter, to begin with; I am a noble warrior," Tetrax shoots an energy cube to detain Kraab and SixSix. He turns to Shining, Trixie, and Starlight.
"WHOA! HE LOOKS LIKE DIAMONDHEAD!" Shining, Starlight, and Trixie shout in awe.
"I'm Petrosapien. It's the name of my species, the same genetic code within the Omnitrix," Tetrax explains. "I came here in search of the Omnitrix and to retrieve it. It seems the Omnitrix is in good hands of mature, draconic youth. Forgive me for the misunderstanding of your tactics, Spike. I wasn't aware that you'll use the Omnitrix for the right reasons."
"It's alright. There's more to the Omnitrix for me to utilize to the fullest. I only had it for less than a day's worth. I plan on studying each alien to master every strength and turning a weakness into an offense."
"Spoken like a true warrior. I shall return. Farewell," Tetrax rides his hoverboard, leaving Equus.
Vilgax watched the whole sequence on his monitor. "A dragon wields my Omnitrix? When I recover, I shall extract the Omnitrix from his cold dead body!" Vilgax proclaims. He envisions the future of the galaxies in the palm of his hand.
"Hey, Shining? Do you have those saddle launchers in the van?" Starlight asks. She's eager to test and practice the plumbing equipment.
"We have different varieties for you to try, Starlight. Right now, I need a good nap," Shining replies.
"I wonder how Twilight and the others are doing at this moment," Spike ponders.
At this exact moment, Pinkie Pie is in front of Sugarcube Corner. She sees the building burned down, and her bed and private rooms burnt to a crisp. She's been sitting for hours with her mouth open wide. The Cakes have checked into a hotel until the repair ponies come and rebuild their bakery and home. Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash sit next to Pinkie to comfort her. They hear ponies praising Spike's Diamonded Alien in the background. Pinkie growls because whatever happened; was due to Spike's presence being in the wrong place at the wrong time. |
Spike's Omnitrix | Night One | Pinkie Pie has remained motionless since coming home from Canterlot. She can't determine what happened to her home, whether there was another fight or karma for blurring out Spike's rant when Princess Celestia asked about Twilight's condition. Her bed, party planning journals, and room are now dust and ashes. Pinkie Pie has nowhere to sleep and live.
Twilight Sparkle was about to offer residence when a guilty conscience clouds her mind. Princess Celestia told her to endure what Spike experienced for the next three months without help, knowing that Spike completed all his tasks in solitude. In the back of Twilight's mind, she was thinking about having Pinkie help her do some work in the castle before going to the School of Friendship. Also, Twilight is still mad that Pinkie Pie forced her into revealing compelling truths that made her forfeit any legal right to keep Spike's custody. For now, all Twilight can do is hope that any of her friends can propose for Pinkie to stay in their place.
Applejack offers Pinkie Pie refuge at Sweet Apple Acres since she treats her like family. Pinkie Pie accepts the offer and trots with Applejack to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack warns Pinkie about farm life when Pinkie reminds Applejack about the rock farm life.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash fly home. They hope things get better tomorrow with something more exciting and thrilling to do as friends, even if it's another day at teaching in the School of Friendship. If not, they'll plan something to enlighten Twilight's mood and strengthen her confidence.
Rarity says her bye and gallops home to check on Sweetie Belle. After witnessing Twilight losing guardianship of Spike, she refuses for someone to call the CPS and strip her of Sweetie Belle from negligence. She vows to spend more time with her younger sister.
Twilight Sparkle slowly lopes to her castle with her head down. Last night was supposed to be a fantastic night of hanging out with her friends, camping, and going along with her schedule. Instead, a new chapter began with Spike gaining advanced super technology from the depths of space. Yes, Twilight has forgotten about Spike throughout the years, and it was her fault for not including him; Twilight feels that Spike should have opened up and revealed his feelings in private than exposing them in front of her friends. Twilight couldn't stop thinking about Spike. She can't stop thinking about the watch, how it slowly burrows into her heart, and how it's causing calamity in her friends' lives. She wishes Spike's new weapon would have chosen someone else or gone to a different planet.
It's 8:00 at night near the remains of Gold's Village. Trixie has set up a campfire outside the RV to roast marshmallows and discuss what will happen moving forward. Spike uses his fire breath to ignite the campfire rather than turning into Heatblast. Shining Armor comes to sit around the campfire after he finishes repairing the tires that deflated earlier.
"What a day," Spike yawns a bit. "The first all-nighter without any sleep."
"I have to make modifications tomorrow with my cannon out of commission," Trixie said.
"Gosh, the way you moved with those heavy cannons, how were you able to maintain speed and strength?" Starlight asks. She has her notebook and pen to document what Trixie will say.
"Intense physical training, Starlight. Also, the saddlebags Shining and I wore is an exoskeleton that enables strength and speed with a flight mode."
"Before you get the exoskeleton, you need to gain muscle mass and durability; Getting hit with lasers hurt like hell. Anyone not trained will die from the impact, regardless of how powerful you are in the magic world. Lasers penetrate magic shields. Trust me, I've tested it myself," Shining said. "Spike, you remember my bubble shield during the week of my wedding, right?"
"It covered all of Canterlot. Canterlot is not a small town. It's the capital of Equestria," Spike replies.
"Any laser shot by those bounty hunters will go through, creating widespread chaos. The magic here can withstand organic or natural magics performed by other species. Ninety percent of the time, our sorcery will be unsuccessful against those not of this world. When I heard Starlight took out a lesser drone while you overused your power, I knew she was exhausted from the attack. Now, is my prediction accurate?"
"I was exhausted. I've never seen a drone that shot those lasers, terrorizing the forest and Spike when he turned into Wildmutt."
"Uh.., when Lord Tirek was on a powered-hungry trip, could you have stopped him?" Spike asks.
"Yes, I could have. Like before, Princess Luna forbade me from attacking Lord Tirek using my plumbing equipment. The same applies to Discord."
"ME?! MOI?!" Discord's face appears on the ground where Spike, Shining, Starlight, and Trixie are sitting. Spike and Starlight quickly get up, flinching from his sudden arrival, while Trixie and Shining remain motionless. His eyes are burning in rage, literally. "You have the efficacy on terminating meeeeee?" Discord is angry after hearing how casual Trixie and Shining sound for claiming to take him down.
"If Princess Luna deems you untrustworthy and greenlit me to exterminate you, I would have," Shining Armor calmly replies.
"Ditto," Trixie concurs. She's roasting a marshmallow.
Discord rises from the ground, moaning like a zombie. "You two; Stopping me? It took the Elements of Harmony to turn me into stone! What can you two do to me that the Elements could not?" Discord dares Trixie and Shining to make a move.
"This," Trixie flicks her right front hoof.
"A little flick of your wrist. How scary," Discord laughs while mocking Trixie. "OW!" Discord feels a slight pinch on his neck. He yanks it out to see a small but efficient yellow dart. "What is...," Discord slumps over and collapses. He snores in his sleep.
Spike and Starlight are dumbfounded by how quickly Trixie took out Discord. Their jaws drop to the ground.
"Wha-What did you shoot him with?" Starlight asks Trixie.
Trixie deactivates a cloaking mode for her hoof-held gun. "Anti-Magic Tranquilizer Dart. Nullifies all magic within any creature whether they're a deity or not."
"The dart is invisible to any eye regardless of magical prowess. Those with visors or different usage of scanners can see the dart coming. Since most of Equestria don't fathom the technology we use daily, they won't see what's coming," Shining replies. Then he places a collar on Discord's neck. "This collar is unmovable unless spoken with an authorized voice command. Any attempt to use magic will result in a painful jolt."
"Wow..," Starlight sits down on the ground. She can't believe how easy it took for Trixie to take down the Lord of Chaos. Then she starts jotting down what Trixie and Shining said.
"Despite the acclaimed title as the Lord of Chaos, his reality-warping powers don't frighten me as a plumber. As the Great and Powerful, I must display fear to keep my identity a secret. Creatures like Discord are a one-trick pony. Others out there are different and complex. Tricky and unpredictable. Guns blazing or straight-up rampage."
"Then why let everypony in Equestria undergo the suffering from these vicious villains?" Spike asks Shining and Trixie.
"Princess Luna's direct orders to ensure that Equestria can build a defense team to combat the inhabitants of the world. We engage the extraterrestrial, extrasensory, and extraordinary. Princess Luna wanted to bring down Discord, Lord Tirek, Sombra, and others but refrained from doing so. Princess Celestia envisions Twilight Sparkle as heir to Equestria someday. Rumor has it that she intends to retire and wants Princess Luna to join her," Shining Armor answers. He's watching Discord's body language in his sleep.
"If Princess Luna decides to retire, she's free to work with the plumbers in secret, undisturbed. However, Princess Luna is contemplating due to one major problem," Trixie notes. She eats her marshmallow.
"The hidden base," Spike answers.
"Correct. If Princess Luna follows Celestia into retirement, Twilight will scour the castle and eventually find the plumber base. However, if Princess Luna rejects Celestia's offer, Luna solely rules Canterlot and will have fifty percent, while Twilight gets the other fifty. I imagine many trips for dignitaries and royalists to meet with my sister during the day as Luna will uphold the responsibilities of raising the sun and moon."
"We can only hope that Princess Luna decides to remain in place while Celestia enjoys her retirement. Until then, we keep moving forward, protecting Equestria from the invaders in secret," Trixie said. She turns to Starlight. "Tomorrow, I'll teach you how to use the saddlebags, and we'll do some exercises."
Starlight sighs. "A twist of worlds. I helped you with your magic, and in return, you'll help me use weapons."
"Well, you helped my character gain confidence. So, I'll help the real Starlight gain wisdom and knowledge as a plumber."
"Thank you," Starlight hugs Trixie.
"What are friends for," Trixie smiles.
Spike looks at the Omnitrix. "Twilight knows I'm a plumber. The Omnitrix changes everything for m-m-m-" Spike burps two letters with the seal of L and C for each letter.
"Two letters?" Shining Armor sees them floating.
"One from each Princess," Trixie said after seeing the seals tied to the letters.
Starlight uses her magic to grab both. She opens Celestia's letter to read; Her eyes widen in shock. "Oh, my."
"What does it say?" Trixie and Shining ask in unison.
Dear Spike,
Today, I have announced that Twilight will lose full custody of you after hearing what has happened throughout your span with Princess Twilight Sparkle. Your job as an assistant is false, for Twilight has used you as a slave. You did not receive a pay raise & you did not receive vacation time. You are still relatively young. However, from Twilight's point of view and her honest description of your commitment, you took care of Twilight Sparkle. A youngling handling the responsibilities of not only one but many mares is unacceptable, a youngling who does everything only to be abandoned and forgotten. Twilight Sparkle has committed child negligence and exploitation. A felony. With that said, I hereby give custody to Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess Cadance. They will care for you from now on.
Shining Armor. I'm entrusting you to be the older brother to Spike as you once did before you began your training to become a Royal Guard. Do not make the same mistake as Twilight Sparkle commenced. I hope you enjoy your vacation, Spike & Shining. Hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
Starlight finishes reading the letter. Shining Armor is dumbfounded and upset that her younger sister committed a felony. Child negligence and exploitation are not cool under any circumstance. He covers his face with his hooves in shame. Spike looks down in sadness; He knows in his heart that Twilight treated him as a slave but refuses to acknowledge it. Trixie looks at Spike and sees how heartbroken he is. The trauma of being left behind and forgotten must have been devastating. Starlight is not sure she can look at Twilight Sparkle the same way.
"Spike," Shining Armor trots to Spike and sits by him, putting his left front arm around his neck. "When Celestia told Twilight she was losing custody was a ploy to have you come with Starlight and me undisturbed. You were supposed to return to Twilight once the vacation passed and trained with the Omnitrix on your wrist."
"But.., the letter..," Spike doesn't understand. However, he knows better. The letter sent to him is now official. Princess Celestia knows what he experienced during his tenure with Twilight in Ponyville. Otherwise, why would Princess Celestia write and send the letter to him and for Shining Armor to hear?
"It appears; Twilight confessed a dark truth and now has to pay the consequences of the law she broke. I promise you things will get better. I will be more involved with your life."
"You will?" There is one thing Spike fears more than dying. It's being alone in the darkness with no one to help him.
"Of course, I will. You are still my younger brother, and brothers stick together," Shining smiles to enlighten Spike's mood.
Spike sniffs. Spike becomes happy and can't wait to experience family-fun days with Princess Cadance and Flurry Heart.
"So, what did Luna say in her letter?" Trixie asks Starlight.
"Oh, right!" Starlight unveils the second letter and reads.
Dear Shining Armor,
I have informed your wife, Princess Cadance, about having legal guardianship of Spike. Also, I want to address a situation caused by Starlight Glimmer. While it was clever to set a building on fire to allure Spike to rescue civilians before exposing himself in front of a large crowd, I would consider not using that tactic. We plumbers have eyes and ears everywhere. We don't need citizens to get mangled in a deadly situation when we are sworn protectors in secret. Trixie Lulamoon, I want you to train Starlight Glimmer to your best abilities. She'll make an excellent plumber and teammate for Shining Armor's squad.
Spike, I'll visit you from time to time when I can. I still have my nightly obligations to uphold. Nightmares will be a hassle for the next few nights with the destruction of Sugarcube Corner and remorseful guilt wrapped inside Princess Twilight's mind. I want you to document everything in a plumbing audio log in the RV. We want to hear your discoveries and learn how we can devise special forces to correlate your aliens when newer threats arise. Please write to me if you have questions that Shining Armor cannot answer.
Sincerely,
Princess Luna
"YOU SET A BUILDING ON FIRE?!" Trixie, Shining, and Spike shout in shock.
Starlight sighs heavily. "Yes... I did it cause the crowd was overwhelming Spike like a magnet sticking to the metal. They pestered him and wouldn't give him breathing room."
"Which is true. However, when the Omnitrix blinker sounded and flashed, I told Ponyville that I was getting called to help another creature. They believed my claim and watched me leave."
Starlight Glimmer facepalms herself; she regrets setting Sugarcube on fire. "Oh, great. More guilt coming my way!" She flops and lands on her back. "I'm not going to hear the end of it, huh?" Starlight looks at her friend.
"I don't rub salt in the wound from any friend. Only those who I fight against; I'm not going to remind you of your misdeed. I'm going to encourage you to do better."
"Same with me, Starlight. We don't scold each other but learn. We take what we experience and apply that to our knowledge for future outcomes. If there is a time for a mirage, we will activate it. Until then, we search for other alternatives during a situation," Shining said to uplift Starlight's mood.
"Thanks," Starlight sits back up. "Thanks for understanding. I thought I'll get a scolding for sure."
"Nope. Instead, you'll have to train harder in the morning," Trixie said. "With the heavy backpack."
Starlight gulps a little; She's not looking forward to wearing something heavy on the first day of training.
Discord starts waking up from his slumber. He groans from the lack of magic that resides in him. "What the..?" Discord tries to snap his claw to conjure a chocolate milkshake. "My magic is..."
"Gone," Trixie answers Discord's status about his magic power.
"You.., defeated.., Moi?" Discord is in shambles when he realizes that a single unicorn took him down without using any magic. He feels something itching his neck. When he goes to scratch it, he feels a metal collar wrapped around it. "What is this?!" Discord attempts to pry it off when the collar gives him a heavy jolt, causing him to drop on his sides. "OOOOOOOOW! THAT HURTS!!!" Discord felt a hundred thousand bolts of electricity coursing through his body painfully. Normal creatures would die, but since he's immortal, Discord lives through the awful experience.
"You're wearing a voice command collar. No amount of magic will deactivate the collar. No one can simply remove it. It gives the wearer and those who attempt a jolt unlike any other. Do you yield, Discord?" Shining Armor asks. He sounds menacing to Discord.
"Yes, I yield! Get this thing off of me!" Discord demands. He doesn't want Fluttershy to think he got owned by plumbers.
"Remove nullification collar," Shining Armour commands.
"Voice recognition. Shining Armor. Collar remove," A security voice within the collar approves Shining's command. It detaches itself from Discord's neck and drops.
Discord snaps his paw, spawning a cactus. He eats the cactus for its' nutrients. "Oh, so satisfying," Discord burps the pine needles of the cactus out. "So, you won't tell anyone about this, right?"
"You're not going to tell about our business, right?" Shining Armor counters Discord's question with another, like a proposal.
Discord zips his lips, letting Shining and Trixie know that he won't reveal any evidence of their plumbing business to anybody. Then, he set his eyes on Spike's Omnitrix. "Well, well, well," Discord slithers to Spike, his eyes popping out to examine the watch. "What do we have here?"
"It's my Omnitrix, Discord," Spike replies.
"Can I try it on?" Discord uses his magic to remove the watch when a green aura zaps his eagle-claw fingers. "OW! That hurt!" He shakes the feeling from the shock.
"The Omnitrix chose me. It's not for anyone else to wear," Spike said. He did laugh when the watch struck Discord.
"This thing doesn't have more power than me!" Discord grabs a wrench and tries to yank the Omnitrix off of Spike. Once again, the Omnitrix sends a wave of green energy to zap Discord's claw. This time, Discord turns to ashes while his mouth remains intact. "Fine. I don't want that stupid watch anyway. It's just a kiddy toy."
"Say what you want, Discord. The Omnitrix is mine to wield."
"Whatever," Discord's ashes ride with the wind. "See you all later!" His mouth gets lifted by the wind.
Spike yawns. "I can get some shuteye," Spike becomes sleepy.
"Well, I think now's a good time to sleep. Tomorrow is a whole new day," Shining decrees. "Time for bed, everyone," Shining trots to the RV.
"Alright. I'm going in my wagon," Trixie said. She trots to her wagon and goes inside.
Starlight puts out the campfire; She and Spike enter the RV together.
It is now 11:30 at night. Princess Luna is on her way to the kitchen. She sees Princess Celestia grabbing a midnight snack; She turns to Princess Luna. Princess Luna reads her sister's body language.
"Luna," Princess Celestia walks up to her sister. She's not wearing her crown. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"
Princess Luna nods. "If you inquire about the plumbers, I cannot reveal such information to you."
"Why, Luna? Why can't you tell me?" Celestia wants to know what they do. She wants to know what else goes on in Equestria that she isn't aware of.
"There's nothing for me to say to you. I love you, Celestia."
Princess Celestia sighs in defeat. She knows not to interrogate her sister about her private affairs. "I love you too, Luna. Is there any way I can help?"
"Continue your duties, Celestia. Leave me be with my responsibilities. When I need you, I'll come to you."
"And inform me about the plumbers?" Princess Celestia smiles, hoping Luna would cave in a little.
Princess Luna smirks. "Not even in your dreams, Celestia. You have your defenders of Equestria. I have mine. Now, if you excuse me," Princess Luna opens the fridge to grab a box of donuts. "I have a long nightmare shift to attend to," Princess Luna leaves the kitchen with the box of donuts floating next to her. "Good night, Celestia!"
"Good night, Luna..," Princess Celestia's smile fades. She slowly trots to her bedroom when Twilight's heartless statement returns to haunt her about failing Luna in her time of need. |
Spike's Omnitrix | Changes | It's a beautiful sunny day in Ponyville. Twilight's alarm clock sounds off at 7:30. She uses magic to shut off the ringer and yawns. Twilight Sparkle did not have a good night's sleep; she'd practically cried herself to slumber when she realized she was all alone in the castle. "Spike, can you make me some breakfast!" Twilight instinctively shouts. A norm for her every morning throughout her time in Ponyville. "SPIKE!" She yells again after hearing no response. Twilight gasps with sudden realization. "Spike is not.., not..," Twilight groans bitterly. She was tasked by Princess Celestia to take care of herself for the next three months and to document everything.., every day.
Twilight grabs her pillow and wails into it. She's not looking forward to writing day one of feeling like Spike. She is not thrilled to hear Princess Celestia's response letter if she writes one. Twilight gets out of bed and fixes it properly. She trots out of her room and down the corridors. All Twilight can hear is the echoes of her hoofsteps. Since Starlight is with Spike and Shining Armor, it becomes eerie for Twilight. Did Spike feel disturbed when he heard his footsteps and nothing more when Twilight forsook him? Now more guilty conscience clouds Twilight's mind.
Twilight arrives in the kitchen and opens the fridge. It's half empty. "I thought I asked Spike to do groceries the other day!" Twilight is fuming, but she relents. Spike skipped his chores that day to go camping in solitude. "Am I a horrible friend?" Twilight shrugs the feeling and uses her magic to levitate eggs to the stove. She opens a cabinet to retrieve a pan to make perfect yokes. "Okay, a simple crack, then pour it into the pan. Should be easy," Twilight attempts to crack one egg, and it splatters all over the place. "HOW?!" She thought she had done it carefully. "What am I doing wrong?" Twilight goes forth to break the second egg delicately, and this time, it didn't chink. "OH, C'MON!" In frustration, Twilight flicks the egg across the kitchen, and it splatters.
She groans and trots to the fridge. "Fine, I'll have a bowl of cereal," Twilight grabs the milk and hovers a bowl and spoon to the table. She pours the milk into the bowl and trots to a different cabinet to get cornflakes. She walks back to the table to pour the cornflakes into the bowl. With a satisfying sigh, she sits down. "Okay, I'll have Spike take note of what I need to get. Spike!" Twilight shouts his name. Once again, no response. "Shit," Twilight's head slumps onto the table. "Another entry to document about thinking of using Spike for my gain, again!" Twilight uses her magic to lift a spoonful of cornflakes into her mouth and eats it. A second later, she spits out her food. "AH! THE MILK TASTES SPOILED! SPIKE! I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GET MORE GROCERIES! AAAAAAAAAH!" Twilight's anger gets the better of her. She huffs and puffs for having a crummy start. "This is going to be a living nightmare!"
Pinkie Pie wakes up after hearing Granny Smith calling her grandkids to wake up. She stretches and looks at a journal she thinks is a birthday journal. After flipping through the pages, Pinkie becomes upset. She remembers her home; her room got destroyed by the blazing fire. Her mane deflates a little. "Who attacked Sugarcube Corner and why? What did sweets ever do to someone that is coldblooded and vile?"
Pinkie Pie leaves the guest room and scours the morning of an Apple. She sees Big McIntosh and Applejack going over their early morning routine before she goes to the School of Friendship. Apple Bloom invites Pinkie to the clubhouse to hang out with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She cheerfully declines despite sounding sad. She hopes the School of Friendship can enlighten her mood. The idea of laughing during the darkest hour can still bring light that shines out of the darkness of sorrow. Granny Smith finishes making breakfast and offers Pinkie apple cinnamon pancakes. Pinkie takes five pancake stacks and drowns them with syrup. She gobbles down after tasting the sweet flavor from the first bite.
Applejack suggests visiting Twilight since she'll be lonesome for the next few months. Pinkie frowns, knowing that Twilight partially blames her for losing full custody. However, that won't deter their friendship. Right? Pinkie hopes that the Princess of Friendship can overlook an accidental blur. Pinkie Pie accepts Applejack's suggestion and hops to the Castle of Friendship.
At the Crystal Empire, Prince Blueblood strolls around the castle, taking in the beautiful scenery of the corridors. He observes the Crystal Guards when he hears Princess Cadance calling his name. Prince Blueblood has his visors on to detect hidden weaponry stashes that Shining Armor planted for emergencies since the plumbers believe the Crystal Empire will be an ideal location for alien activity. The visors are invisible and untraceable by all forms of magic.
Prince Blueblood knows where Princess Cadance is calling from, Flurry Heart's room near Princess Cadance and Shining Armor's quarters. Prince Blueblood trots inside to see Princess Cadance with a wicked smirk on her face.
"Would you be a dear and remove Flurry Heart's diaper?" Princess Cadance uses her magic to hover Flurry Heart with an overloaded stinky diaper.
Prince Blueblood cringes with every fiber of his body and quivers in fear. He detests cleaning up anything unclean, especially from a toddler. He gulps and slowly trots to Princess Cadance, sweating like crazy while biting his lower lip. He uses his magic to take hold of Flurry Heart.
"I must get going. I have a Crystal Guard meeting since Shining Armor is not present. I have to thank him for selecting an amazing helper," Princess Cadance strolls out of Flurry's room while laughing, knowing that Prince Blueblood is about to suffer the stench of Flurry Heart's behind.
Prince Blueblood hears Princess Cadance's hoofsteps radius out of reach and sighs in relief. "She believes this is torture? Please, I had to battle a hydra controlled by a crazed-up scientist. Diaper duty is nothing compared to searching for strange anomalies with my team." Prince Blueblood relaxes and hums a lullaby to Flurry Heart while removing the dirty diaper and tossing it away. He swiftly cleans Flurry Heart, who is behaving quite well. She sees the truth written on his face and knows that Prince Blueblood is not a bad pony. She doesn't understand why her mother treats him with disrespect.
After Prince Blueblood finishes cleaning Flurry Heart, he softly strokes her mane. "Maybe someday, you'll be an excellent plumber?" Prince Blueblood puts on the new diaper on Flurry Heart. "There you are, clean as a whistle," Prince Blueblood hears hoofsteps. He grabs a bottle to drench himself and bloodcurdling screams.
Princess Cadance returns to check on Prince Blueblood and Flurry Heart. She bursts into laughter, seeing Blueblood in a mess. She is somewhat surprised that Prince Blueblood managed to put a diaper on her foal.
"There's a shower in your room, stinky," Princess Cadance takes Flurry Heart away from Prince Blueblood and walks away. Flurry Heart frowns a little and looks at Prince Blueblood, smiling and waving before leaving the room himself.
"If only you knew the real me, but you had your chance when you rejected the offer of a plumber's position. How quaint of you, Cadance. Revealing your colors in front of your foal while relishing my character's misery. Your daughter will make a fine plumber if she chooses to become one of us."
Pinkie Pie hops to the Castle of Friendship. She hears Twilight screaming and gallops inside to see what's wrong. Twilight is flailing in anger with food on the floor; Pinkie smells it and gags, knowing the food is rotten.
"What happened, Twilight?" Pinkie sees a bizarre face from Twilight. It reads wrathful with the bloodshot eyes coming from Twilight. Pinkie steps back.
"My first day without Spike is a living nightmare! Because of you, I LOST FULL CUSTODY OF SPIKE!!!" Twilight grotesquely points at Pinkie. "ALL YOU HAD TO DO IS KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT, AND I WOULD HAVE STRETCHED THE TRUTH WITH PRINCESS CELESTIA ABOUT HOW I FEEL!!!" Twilight pants heavily. "YOU JUST HAD TO BLUR OUT SPIKE'S RANT, HUH?! YOU COULDN'T KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!"
Pinkie swells in tears. Yes, she mentioned Spike's rant when Twilight was uneasy, but in front of Princess Celestia, she understands it was unfortunate timing. "But, Twilight. Spike said he was through caring for you."
"SHUT UP!" Pinkie cowers with Twilight's enraged state. Twilight stomps up to her. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S LIKE TO HAVE SOMEONE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU OVER AN ACCIDENT?! OR BETTER YET, DO YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO LOSE SOMEONE CLOSE TO YOU THAT YOU ARE RESTRICTED FROM COMING CLOSE?!" Twilight grits her teeth.
Pinkie Pie balls herself. The outburst from Twilight is unlike anything she'd ever witnessed. Her mane deflates, her cheerful color becomes dread, and her high-spirit nature decreases with every bark spewed from Twilight's mouth. She shakes her head and sniffs, holding back the urge to cry.
Twilight calms herself down. Last night, she felt abandoned in her castle, with no one to talk to or vent to; Spike was always there for her when she needed attention. Starlight would have given her advice about loneliness. Twilight breaks down and cries. She calls for Spike and Starlight, wishing for their company and embrace. Pinkie Pie feels awful about her predicament timing; however, Princess Celestia needs to know the full extent of Twilight's feelings no matter the outcome. Pinkie Pie didn't anticipate this outcome from Twilight, who is now; broken.
Twilight Sparkle officially declares the suspension of the School of Friendship for a few days. She is not in the right mind to teach any of her curriculums. Pinkie Pie pursues to hug Twilight, and she grabs Pinkie, hugging her tightly, apologizing for what she's become in less than a week. The last thought that comes to Twilight's mind is Spike's watch. Because of that item, Twilight starts to deteriorate and anything her friends are going through. In the back of her mind, she feels the need to remove the watch.
It's 10:30 in the morning. Spike wakes up after having a goodnight's sleep. He looks at the time and panics, knowing that Twilight expects him to make breakfast. Spike notices the bed below and another across and sighs. He looks at the Omnitrix and remembers the letter written by Princess Celestia; Twilight Sparkle no longer has Spike's custody due to child neglect and exploitation. With that said, Spike thinks about his future mornings and days, knowing that a burden is off his chest.
"That's right. Also, I told Twilight I'm through taking care of her sorry ass," Spike chuckles to himself. "Who would have thought my words would lead to an official statement by Princess Celestia, freeing me from the chains Twilight has cast on my life?" Spike stretches and goes to the fridge. He grabs a fire ruby. "Hello, my beauty," The heart-shaped gemstone sparkles majestically. Spike takes a bite. "Mmmm, so good," Spike takes another bite. "I wished Rarity didn't sucker me into giving up the fire ruby I aged a week before my birthday. Although it was nice to give, she didn't ask for it, just using her charms to have it her way. Well, good thing I'm over her," Spike takes another bite when he hears sudden explosions outside the RV. "WHAT WAS THAT?!" Spike activates his Omnitrix and slams the faceplate, not seeing who he picked to fight the next invader.
Spike feels his body morphing. He grows black orbs on his feet, and his legs are blue. His dragon tail turns black with five blue stripes. Spike's claws become blue and bulky, with three fingers that can only open and close. He wears a black cone-like helmet with a protective visor that slides over his face. Spike's face is blue, his eyes are green, his lips are black, and stripes run under and in between his eyes. Spike wears a black bodysuit and a turtleneck-like shirt with a white stripe in the center. He appears to look like a semi-velociraptor.
Spike zooms outside to see what the fuss is about; Starlight Glimmer is fumbling around with the added weights on her saddlebag. The explosion was set off by accident when Starlight triggered the cannon sequence.
Shining Armor trots to the RV and notices the Omnitrix symbol on the chest of Spike's new alien. "Wow, Spike. What do you call this alien?"
"Hmm, not sure yet," Spike's voice sounds raspy. He runs to an old mill and back in seconds. "WOW! This alien is fast. I'll think of something unique later. Also, I want to say with this new alien. I'm faster than Rainbow Dash!" Somewhere in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash feels challenged, and she doesn't know why while moving the clouds over. "So, mind if I run to the nearest town to gather rations?"
"I do mind, Spike. As much as you're needed to test your aliens to the fullest, you can't be foolish with a weapon unlike any other. For needed supplies, we'll stop by different towns. No one is going awol on my watch," Shining said. "Plus, I need you to practice your aliens in the obstacle course I devised just for you."
"Very well. Then, I'll go and blow off steam until the timer runs out," Spike replies.
"Stay within eyesight so I can you in sight. We don't know what today will bring."
"Don't worry. I will!" Spike runs in circles, far away, and inadvertently creates a tornado. He runs in the opposite direction to deceased the tornado he made.
Starlight is doing a jogging exercise with Trixie. There are a hundred pounds on each saddlebag from last night's discovery as a punishment. Starlight refuses to complain about the weight holding her back. She knows the heaviness of carrying equipped cannons on each side of the saddlebag exo-suits regardless of the enhancers.
"Don't worry, Starlight. In a few weeks, it'll feel like nothing, and you'll move swifter than before," Trixie said. "All of us endured the same exercise."
"It feels like hours," Starlight replies. She's struggling to gallop as Trixie can.
"First, it's only been ten minutes. You are overexaggerating," Trixie straightforwardly responds. "Second, this is your morning routine. You'll have an afternoon routine and an evening one. Also, after the routines, you'll be practicing the weapons that'll suit you more."
"Eeeeeh," Starlight pouts a bit. "So.., how long will the morning routine take?"
"Until you finish. There are no standard time slots for a routine," Trixie said. "Now, let's get moving. We're doing twenty laps around the course Shining made for Spike's aliens."
"Aw, crap," Starlight groans a bit. She jogs while Trixie takes the lead with her galloping.
Shining Armor grabs his gear and strolls to the training course he made for Spike's aliens. There are target practices, gauntlets, and workout gear. It's half a block long with a built-in track to test the speeds of Spike's aliens. Shining Armor hears the groans of Starlight after he sees Trixie pacing backward to watch Starlight's progress.
Spike runs faster to test his new alien to the limits. A large trail of smoke builds up as he sprints. He halts himself and notices that when he stops, there is no whiplash of the effect. "I have full control of my speeds. This alien is amazing! I bet I can even run on water!" Spike's Omnitrix symbol blinks red and bleeps. He reverts to his dragon self. "One thing I find confusing is that my dragon wings are not added onto the aliens."
"I assume different DNA strands to aliens mean no mismatching whatsoever. Are there any aliens you have that fly?" Shining asks Spike out of curiosity.
"There's one. So far, I haven't turned into four other aliens. I have turned into six but only named five of them. Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, Grostfreak, and Four Arms. I'm still working on names for the alien I just turned into; Then, I have four unknowns."
"What alien are you willing to try or turn into when we commence your training?"
"I don't know, Shining. I'll start with one I haven't tried."
"Alright, then," Shining turns to Starlight and Trixie, jogging on the makeshift track. Starlight is panting while Trixie is showing off a bit. "This'll be a while."
Time passes, and Spike hears his Omnitrix bleep and turns green. Starlight falls over, begging for water which Trixie gives willingly. Trixie advises Starlight to enjoy a break session to watch Spike turning into an alien.
Spike activates the Omnitrix, and the faceplate rises. He scrolls left to see which alien to turn into next. "This one looks good," Spike presses the faceplate down. Green lights flash.
Spike's body starts changing color from purple to grey. He now has four-razor-sharped-fingered hands. Spike's Omnitrix symbol is a black patch over his left pectoral. The new body consists of many aquatic creatures such as eels, alligators, leeches, sharks, and anglerfish. Spike also has a phosphorescent light on his head.
"Whoa, I'm a fish?" Spike flexes his fingers and feels. He opens his mouth and believes he can compete with Pinkie in eating contests.
"An alien for the ocean..," Trixie gallops. "I'll be back!" She sprints to the RV.
"I don't think this alien can withstand dry land for too long?" With the scorching desert of the wild west, Spike slowly becomes dehydrated.
"Here, Spike," Starlight trots to Spike and dumps her bottle of cold water on him.
"Aaaaaaaah," Spike sighs in relaxation from the cold water. "Thanks, Starlight. You're the best," Spike starts moving to get acquainted with his new physique.
"Heads up!" Shining launches logs at Spike to dodge. Instead of avoiding contact, Spike uses his jaws to crush and snap one in half. "WOW!" Shining didn't think Spike could do that with his jaw.
Spike pants heavily and collapses. "Need...water....," Spike falls over. "Can't...breathe..."
Trixie returns with a bucket of water and splashes on Spike. He sighs in relief. "I knew that would work, and I have something for you."
"What did you bring him, Trixie?" Starlight asks.
"Here, Spike," Trixie gives Spike a supplement. "This pill will enable you to breathe the air. Once you ingest the air, it turns into water particles, allowing you to keep going on dry land."
"Really?" Spike grabs the supplement. He swallows it, and his body feels moist. "Hey, the air feels wet," Spike touches his arms and feels the coolness of the water. His sweat turns into cold droplets of water. "Amazing."
"Nice thinking, Trixie," Shining is impressed with Trixie's fast critical thinking.
"I would have never thought of that," Starlight astoundingly states. "Where did you get that supplement?"
"The RV has a three-dimensional printer with passcodes for sustenance. We take different pills that override any magic spells for environmental circumstances," Trixie answers.
"Will it affect only my aquatic alien or the rest of me?" Spike asks with some concern.
"Well, it should affect your alien. I made sure the supplement was for aquatic creatures and aliens only. When you revert, you should breathe air as usual. We will need to see if the supplement I gave you is temporary or permanent."
"Okay," Spike's Omnitrix symbol flashes red and bleeps. He turns to normal and takes a breath of air. It doesn't have any water properties. "I can breathe air. It doesn't affect my dragon self."
"Interesting. Hopefully, you can attempt to turn into that alien again," Shining said. He wants to test Spike with many different attacks on the alien.
"When I turned into that alien.., I'm naming him Ripjaws. It felt like I was Discord when I turned into Ripjaws. A fusion of multiple sea creatures into one entity."
"Nice name," Starlight compliments. She wouldn't have thought of that name for Spike's alien. It sounds cool to her.
"Alright, you head back to the RV. Trixie and I will continue to train Starlight Glimmer with our equipment. When your Omnitrix is ready, come back out."
"Sounds good. I'm getting hungry. I'll whip us some lunch while I'm at it."
"You sure, bro?" Shining doesn't want to have Spike resume his routine since he has to care for him.
"I enjoy cooking and don't worry about how I'm caring for you, Starlight, and Trixie. It's something I want to do on my accord. Usually, Twilight would ask me, and I just.., do it without hesitation. Wow..," An eerie thought came to him. "Not once I ever declined Twilight's command. Just do as she pleases and take advantage of..," Spike sighs. He looks at his Omnitrix. "You know, having the Omnitrix is the best thing that could have happened to me. I'm free of the bondage Twilight bestowed on my life, and for years, until I said my rant, she ignored me, turned her back, and used me," Spike turns to Starlight. "Can I be honest with you, Starlight?"
"Sure, Spike. What are friends for?" Starlight smiles.
"After the rant, even after Twilight apologized, I didn't really accept it. I pretended that I did because I didn't believe how sorry she was. She's only sorry cause she got into trouble. If I didn't say my rant, all Twilight would do is try to remove the Omnitrix and make sure things go back to normal. She never cared about me unless things got worse. Also, if she cared..," A daunting memory returns to Spike. It's a nightmare he dreads almost every night whenever he's sad. "She wouldn't have laughed at me with her friends when I nearly drowned in the lake during Winter Wrap-Up Day. The ice block I slept in was melting, and I got a cold."
"SHE WHAT?!" Starlight, Trixie, and Shining Armor are appalled and pissed off to hear Twilight, the Princess of Friendship, laughing at Spike's misery for drowning in a freezing-cold lake.
"Instead of resting, she made me write a letter to Princess Celestia about her friendship lesson. Due to that day, I have nightmares about dying with no one coming to my aid. I tried to sell the illusion that I was over it, but..," Spike sits on the ground. "I couldn't. I made several attempts to talk to Twilight about it, and she ignored me to hang out with her friends and handed me the list of chores to do every time. When I tried to send a letter to Princess Celestia about how I felt, I would get yanked into a predicament I wasn't fond of, then get used as an unwilling test subject..," Spike covers his face with his claws. "As I said, I acted fine but deep down, I was depressed. After all, I'm Twilight's number one.., slave..," Spike breaks down and cries. He has finally vented his feelings and frustrations to those willing to listen to him.
Trixie and Starlight comfort Spike while Shining looks at the sky. Shining can't believe that Twilight would ever do such a thing. Her younger sister, the Princess of Friendship, laughed at Spike for nearly drowning in a freezing lake and knowing wholeheartedly; that Spike is cold-blooded.
"I can't believe my sister did that... Twily..," Shining's jaw drop, and he sees how much Spike has suffered from the vent he spoke. It shows that Twilight didn't care about Spike's safety unless things got serious or she got exposed for neglect. The thought of Spike being alone with the nightmare included was too much for Shining. His brotherly instincts are now activated for Spike more than ever. As for Twilight, there will be much discussion. "I'll be back," Shining Armor trots to the RV.
"Where are you going, Shining?" Trixie asks as Starlight rubs Spike's back with her front left hoof.
"To the RV. I need to call the Princess," Shining Armor knows what he wants to say to the Princess.
Princess Luna comes out of the dream realms after battling a horrendous nightmare. Some colt dreamt about getting chased by a reaper pony seeking to harvest souls. Princess Luna yawns and wants to go to bed. She trots to her bedroom and spots her sister trotting down the corridor. Princess Celestia walks up to her sister, who has bagged eyes.
"You don't look so good," Princess Celestia said after observing Luna's body language.
"Some colt read too many horror books and was deeply distraught and horrified about the reaper pony. He believed the reaper was collecting souls to harvest for a sentient creature looking to plague all of existence. It was a joyous battle, to say the least. Most nightmares are effortless," Princess Luna yawns. "What time is it?"
"12:30 in the afternoon. I thought about inviting you for lunch, but I clearly see you need your rest," Princess Luna nods. "Luna, is there anything you want to tell me?"
"Nay, Celestia," Princess Luna yawns more. "Too tired to talk."
"Can I be a plumber?" Princess Celestia wants to learn what Luna knows. It's been eating her alive even before the banishment.
"I asked you long ago. You laughed, scoffed, and told me no."
"I was different back then. I've changed immensely."
"It doesn't matter, Celestia. You have more priorities to attend to; you've shown me your colors, and there's nothing to discuss. I love you, Celestia."
"Is it a grudge? Because I used the Elements of Harmony to banish you to the moon?" Princess Celestia breathes heavily. She knows Luna still has trust issues with her.
"It has nothing to do with my banishment, Celestia. Now," Princess Luna yawns longer. "I need some shut-eye."
A Royal Guard has a note written for Princess Luna labeled urgent. Princess Luna reads the letter, and her eyes widen in shock. The urge to slumber has dissipated with the shocking conclusion from a testimony. Princess Celestia wonders what has stunned her sister.
"Celestia. Did Twilight reveal any incriminating details about Spike?'
"Twilight briefed all the wrongs she'd committed during her tenure in Ponyville. All the times she made Spike do everything while acting spoiled and rubbing in Spike's face about the fun she endured. Especially leaving him behind during her birthday celebration here in Canterlot. Along with other festivities here and at the Crystal Empire."
"What about laughing at his misery for nearly drowning in a freezing-cold lake?"
"WWWHHHHAAAAAAAAT?!" Princess Celestia is livid about that excruciating detail. She takes the letter and reads what Shining Armor reported. "She never told me about that!" Princess Celestia turns to Luna. "Where is Spike?" She wants Spike to summarize his perspective about the treatment he received from Twilight Sparkle and now the Bearer of the Elements. She craves to understand the fulfillment of Spike's depression.
"I'll take you to him later. I need some rest," Princess Luna desires for slumber despite how she's feeling at the moment.
"Very well. We'll see Spike later tonight." |
Spike's Omnitrix | Unforgiving | Moments before sending the telegram
Shining Armor enters the RV and opens a hatch to a hidden room to make documentaries, audio logs, and emergency calls to any plumber base throughout Equus. He uses his magic to turn on the monitor. "This is Captain Armor. Plumber Number: 19-8-9-14-9-14-7 calling in about an urgent message to Princess Luna."
Within the hidden base of Canterlot Castle, Doctor Whooves answers the transmission from Shining Armor. "Shining Armor. What's the status?"
"Make sure the transmitter jots down every word I say and print it. It's vital newsworthy for Princess Luna to read," Shining replies.
"Very, well. The transmitter is active. Say what you need to express, and I'll have some pony deliver the message asap," Doctor Whooves activates the transmitter. He returns to his work until the transmitter uploads Shining's message.
Shining Armor inhales. "Princess Luna. I'm not sure if Princess Celestia had told you what Twilight could have done to Spike during her negligence stage throughout the years. We got the letter about Spike being freed from Twilight's custody indefinitely. However, I must confirm that the abuse Spike had to suffer was more severe than I imagined. Spike revealed that Twilight left him on a melting ice block in the lake while sleeping. She and the bearers laughed at his misery, especially drowning in the cold-freezing lake. The way Spike spoke, being free from bondage, hurt me. Hurt me in the sense that I, the older brother, failed my brother even though I had no clue what was going on in his life. I believe Twilight has done more harm than what she led on. Spike is crying. He broke down after reflecting more about his life after taking the first day without Twilight being there. Spike has been suffering from an endless nightmare about dying, with no one coming to his rescue. I believe Twilight Sparkle is not worthy of being the Princess of Friendship for how she treated Spike for years. She'd basically discriminated against a species without knowing it cause she forced Spike into accepting his role as an assistant and made him her bitch. There's no safeguarding what Twilight and her friends have done. I believe there's more to the story, and I will ask Spike what happened in his life. You are more than welcome to come and learn from Spike's point of view. If Celestia comes, let her. She needs to be more involved in Spike's life and understand the gravity of the situation."
Doctor Whooves and a few others heard what Shining Armor reported, and it's sickening. The transmitter printed the letter. Doctor Whooves gives the letter to a Royal Guard who is a plumber in disguise. He takes the note and leaves the hidden base, disgusted.
Shining Armor signs out and turns off the monitor. Now, he'll have to wait until later today or tonight to hear more in-depth about Spike's past in Ponyville. He stomps his front left hoof in anger. Shining Armor can't believe Twilight would be that cruel to Spike, a baby dragon that helped her in more ways. "Twily has taken Spike for granted. I'm glad Spike spoke up rather than allowing his depression to eat him alive. I vow to be there for Spike. The same vow I made to my wife and daughter. Spike is family. My family. As for Twilight, she'll have a rough road to walk through until she becomes a better pony." Shining Armor leaves to check on Spike.
Twilight Sparkle is in one of her many libraries reading a cooking book to prepare many meals until she can hire a chef. She has her list for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pinkie Pie had offered to help, but Twilight reminded Pinkie that Princess Celestia forbade any help to experience what Spike went through. It's not even the end of the day, and she's miserable.
With the School of Friendship suspended for the next few days, the Young Six wanted to visit Twilight and understand why she was disturbed and upset. Sandbar noticed Starlight and Spike weren't in the school, standing by Twilight's side when she made the announcement. Smolder and Ocellus believe something horrifying happened between the two. Like, both of them got sick, which made Twilight worried and over hyperventilating about a possible new plague to spread throughout the lands of Equestria. Yona suggests helping Twilight until school resumes. Gallus and Silverstream concur. What else can they do since there are no classes? In the Young Six's minds, they hope this'll grant them extra credit.
Luckily for the Young Six, the Castle of Friendship is a few minutes away from the school. They hope to find solutions to ease Twilight's pain. Silverstream becomes the first to knock on the castle's doors. Twilight hears the door knocking and wonders who wants to see her. In the back of her mind, she imagines Princess Cadance with Flurry Heart while Prince Blueblood suffers from diaper duties.
Twilight opens the door and is amazed to see Sandbar, Yona, Silverstream, Ocellus, Smolder, and Gallus by the door. "Can I help you?" Twilight asks. She wants to know if her students are that eager to learn about Friendship, like a private tutoring session.
"Hey, Headmare Twilight Sparkle," The Young Six say in unison.
"We were wondering if you are alright and needed help?" Smolder speaks on behalf of her fellow friends.
Twilight weakly smiles. "Oh... I wish I were alright, Smolder. Things as of late are changing, and I wasn't expecting to embrace it immediately," Twilight stretches the truth. She decides not to disclose any information about Spike and Starlight's sudden resignation from their jobs at the School of Friendship and losing Spike's custody.
"What happened to Spike and Starlight? Are they sick or something? We didn't see them when you made the announcement a while ago at the School of Friendship," Sandbar said.
"They're on vacation. Princess Celestia asked them to embark on a new quest qualified for them," Twilight stretches the truth again while sounding sincere.
"That means you have no help in your castle, right?" Silverstream asks out of curiosity. It's a painful indication that plagues Twilight's mind. The loneliness to endure in the castle for the next three months.
"Yes," Twilight looks down.
"Say, how about we help you a little?" Yona suggests to Twilight. That way, she doesn't feel lonely.
"As much as I would love your company in my castle, I decline the friendly gesture," Twilight replies. "I can't accept because Princess Celestia forbade me from receiving any help whatsoever."
"Well, don't take it as owing a favor, but maybe, count it as extra credit?" Ocellus said, hoping it'll entice Twilight into allowing them to help around and enlighten Twilight's mood.
"Extra credit?" Then it clicks for Twilight. Her eyes widened with a smile stretching from cheek to cheek. A face that made her look crazy and funny. "EXTRA CREEEEEEEDIT!"
The Young Six step back, believing Twilight snapped and doesn't look good.
Twilight's grin becomes nerve-racking. "Princess Celestia forbade me from hiring or asking for help for the next three months. She'd technically not decreed about having students perform extra credit for me!" Twilight uses her magic to pull the Young Six into a group hug. "I love the idea of extra credit! Thank you!" Twilight will now use extra credit as a loophole to bypass Celestia's decree. She will document some truths while maintaining some secrets. After all, not every Princess is perfect, and not every Princess is informative about revealing such secrets.
"So, how can Yak and friends help teacher?" Yona asks.
"Follow me inside. There is so much to discuss. Also, many group activities for extra credit!" Twilight uses magic to drag the Young Six inside the castle and closes the doors.
Shining Armor regroups with Starlight and Trixie. Spike continues to cry about his gruesome experiences. Shining Armor postulate Spike's past and how extreme it was. "Spike?"
Spike's eyes are red from the tears shed; he turns to Shining Armor. "Yes?" Spike sniffs.
"I promise you; things will get better from here and out."
"How?" Spike stares into Shining's eyes. He wants to know if Shining is honest and not his imagination running amuck, giving him false promises like he was with Twilight, hoping things would progress smoothly.
"By ensuring Twilight and her friends will never abuse or use you for their selfish gain or amusement. I've sent a message to Princess Luna, announcing that you suffered from an endless nightmare caused by the abandonment and near-death experience. Princess Luna will visit later today or tonight."
Spike sighs. "I might as well impart all I've been through to Princess Luna; that way, Twilight nor her friends can never bother me again."
"That would be wise, Spike," Shining Armor encouragingly says.
"I don't think I can look at Twilight the same ever again. Even the rest of the bearers, if I hear horrid atrocities. I will have to resign as counselor of the School of Friendship, knowing I'm working with a hypocrite."
"Would you be interested in working as my assistant for the Great and Power Trixie?" Trixie sounds like her magician self. The same pony Starlight befriended over a year ago.
"I would be happy to accept that proposal, Trixie. I'll be honored to work with a real friend rather than a child abuser," Starlight harshly said about Twilight. "No offense, Shining."
"No need for the apology. Twilight crossed a border no pony should ever cross. Even as a Princess that every pony turns to, I don't think I can look at my Twily the same after discovering hidden facts Spike will mention later today or at night. Right now, I'm not sure to call Twilight my sister."
Spike sadly sighs and lets go of Starlight's embrace. "I'm going to take a nap."
"Let's all head back," Trixie suggests. Starlight and Shining nod. They follow Spike to the RV.
Princess Celestia is in her room mentally preparing herself to accept the facts spoken by Spike later tonight. Also, a guilty conscience clouds her mind. The time she spam-mailed Twilight through Spike during the return of Discord's tyranny. She sent letter after letter, not understanding the possible torment on his fragile young body.
"Uuuuuagh!" Princess Celestia is angry at herself. More memories cloud her mind about the times Twilight brought her friends to Canterlot while leaving Spike behind. "I can't believe I was so stupid!" Princess Celestia facepalms herself. "I never bothered asking about Spike whenever Twilight and her friends came to Canterlot!" She groans bitterly. "He wasn't there at the Gala, the National Dessert Competition; Hell, he wasn't there during the Best Young Fliers competition. Twilight could have used that spell of hers to make Spike walk on clouds!" Princess Celestia continues to reminisce about seeing more of Twilight and her friends except for Spike; each memory unfolds with all the fun and life lessons without Spike's presence.
Princess Celestia walks in circles in her room. She excused herself from royal affairs. She's more concerned about Spike than any pony in Equestria. Also, one glaring detail is not allowing this sudden revelation to reach the Dragon Lands. Princess Celestia wants to avoid war with the Dragons; if word gets out about the mistreatment of a young dragon from pony kind, it will cause a rift with every creature affiliated with Equestria. |
Spike's Omnitrix | Revelations | Princess Cadance receives a letter from Princess Celestia. It's 3:30 in the afternoon at the Crystal Empire.
"Hmm, I wonder what Celestia wants me to know," Princess Cadance unveils the letter and notices Shining Armor's name at the top. "Huh?" Princess Cadance reads the letter thoroughly, and her heart sinks, her jaw hanging loose with tears overflowing at the awful trauma of Twilight and her friends laughing at Spike's misery for nearly drowning in a freezing-cold lake. "I can't believe her..," Princess Cadance is speechless. "PRINCE BLUEBLOOD!" She yells at the top of her lungs.
Prince Blueblood detects no danger and suspects that Princess Cadance has another diaper duty for him to handle. He strolls down to the throne room and sees the horrific look on Cadance's face. Something is amiss, and he wants answers.
"What seems to be the problem, Princess Cadance?" Prince Blueblood formally asks.
"I'm going to visit-" Princess Cadance gets cut off by the sudden explosions within the Crystal Castle. A towering forty-foot robot scans for any signs of the Omnitrix. Many Crystal Guards are on the floor, wailing in agony after failing to stop the robot's advances. Some Crystal Guards received scars from the laser strikes.
"Shit. It has started sooner than I anticipated." Prince Blueblood thought to himself. He recognizes the robot that plagued Ponyville the other night.
"Blueblood! Get my daughter out of here!" Princess Cadance springs into action. She flies directly at the towering robot. The robot uses its' left claw to grab Cadance and throws her aside like a paperweight. She crashes into the wall, landing harshly on the crystal floors.
The robot scans Prince Blueblood and shoots a laser from its claw. Prince Blueblood leaps behind the throne and slams the back of the chair. To his surprise, a hatch opens. It appears Shining Armor planted a saddlebag launcher inside the throne for safekeeping.
"Shining! You handsome blue devil you!" Prince Blueblood laughs, now having the upper advantage in this fight.
Princess Cadance gets up and cringes a bit. She feels her right Alicorn wing got bruised from the impact. "Okay, I'll use all my magic to defeat this titan!" Princess Cadance gallops to the throne room. She pauses and witnesses something she had never expected from Prince Blueblood.
"Activating Saddle Cannons!" Prince Blueblood uses his magic to turn the saddle bag into laser torrents. There's one cannon on the left and right side of Prince Blueblood. The muzzles and barrels extend, firing a laser beam at the robot. It stumbles back from the impact immensely. "Firing Grappling Hook!" The left cannon shoots a silver metallic grappling hook with a cable cord, piercing the left shoulder. "You're going down!" Prince Blueblood uses the momentum of the cable to swing closer. "Wahoooo!"
Princess Cadance is dumbfounded. The way Prince Blueblood sounded. He didn't sound like an absurd royal pain. He sounds like a genuine thrilling pony which is way out of character. She gallops and sees Prince Blueblood firing laser beams all over the robot. It tries to snap the cable; so it can stomp on Prince Blueblood, but he shoots the arms off, making it difficult for the robot to attack even more.
"Activating Saddle Bazooka!" The two torrents combine as one and are above Prince Blueblood's back. "Initiate Thrusters!" Prince Blueblood's bowtie vest is actually an exo-suit in disguise. It has a jetpack sequence that allows the wearer to hover forward or backward. Prince Blueblood releases his grappling hook cable to fly back and aim at the robot's chest. He uses his magic to charge the bazooka.
The robot jumps up and spins its legs like a tornado, hoping to collide with Prince Blueblood, injuring or killing him.
"Say hello to oblivion!" Prince Blueblood fires a plasmic beam of energy at the robot coming closer to him. Not only does the robot gets blasted by the bazooka, but it also crashes through the throne's walls and soars in the skies. It blows, and the debris disintegrates.
It dawns on Princess Cadance. With Shining Armor being a plumber, Prince Blueblood is one as well. She slowly trots to Prince Blueblood.
Prince Blueblood stops hovering after observing Princess Cadance's position. He lands on the floor with many Crystal Guard reinforcements arriving. "Deactivating Saddle Cannons," The bazooka splits in two and reverts to saddle bags.
Princess Cadance frowns a bit. She's approaching a pony that saved the Crystal Empire from a threat no pony could withstand. Her demeanor from earlier, laughing at his unfortunate moment with Flurry Heart, made her think she was the real royal pain.
"Blueblood.., I.., uh..," Princess Cadance sighs.
"I forgive you. I know all of this is much to comprehend."
"Why? Why the facade? Where did you get that weapon? I have never seen such a device," Princess Cadance inspects the saddle bag.
"Follow me to my quarters," Prince Blueblood trots to his quarters. Princess Cadance goes to Flurry Heart's room and brings her to Blueblood's room. Flurry Heart is soundly asleep and not disturbed by the unwelcome guest.
Princess Cadance walks into Prince Blueblood's quarters. She feels unnerved by his presence when she was taunting him earlier. "So, are you a..?"
"Yes," Prince Blueblood replies.
"How do I become a plumber? I need to understand what is going on with the upcoming invasions."
"To become a plumber," Prince Blueblood reveals his visors to Princess Cadance. "You must be willing to keep certain things away from the public hearing. That includes those closest to you."
"I can do that," Princess Cadance hopes by being a plumber, she'll understand more of Shining Armor's involvement.
"Now, since you are interested in becoming one of us. I need to take a photo of you for identification purposes. Please, put Flurry Heart on my bed."
"Of course," Princess Cadance places Flurry Heart on his bed. She made sure Flurry Heart was tucked in comfortably under the blanket.
"The flash might sting, but it'll create a code that the plumber base will detect and create your ID Number. Then, I'll train and teach you everything about our organization."
Princess Cadance's heart beats rapidly with excitement. She's finally going to uncover many mysteries that the plumbers withheld. Possibly anything related to Princess Luna's involvement since she's the one that took Shining, Starlight, and Spike away.
"Initiate Camera Mode," Prince Blueblood's visors take a snapshot of Princess Cadance. The flash knocked Princess Cadance out. She falls asleep next to Flurry Heart. "You won't remember this confrontation and conversation," Prince Blueblood's visors when it initiated the camera activates the amnesia protocol. Any creature caught in the flash will forget crucial moments. Princess Cadance will remember the letter sent to her and nothing more.
Prince Blueblood leaves the two alone and searches for every Crystal Pony that saw the robot to erase their memories from the assault.
Princess Twilight Sparkle has arranged three teams for the extra credit project. One group for cooking, cleaning, and gathering materials. Well, for the gathering part, Twilight corrects the term for a scavenger hunt. Twilight pairs Ocellus and Silverstream for cooking, Gallus and Smolder for cleaning, and Sandbar and Yona for the scavenger hunt.
For the past three hours, Twilight examined each group for their team effort; She tasted the exquisite cooking from Ocellus and Silverstream. They made buttermilk chocolate chip pancakes with scrambled eggs. Twilight gives Ocellus and Silverstream an A+ and mentions that extra credit will apply to their next exam.
Twilight walks with her clipboard to analyze Gallus and Smolder's cleaning project. Twilight notices several bite markings on the crystal columns. She deducts extra credit points from Smolder, knowing her bite marks are different than Spike's. However, Twilight inspects the rest of her castle. Everything is squeaky clean and sparkly. Gallus and Smolder are wiping the last windows outside. It catches the attention of Pinkie Pie when she's delivering cupcakes to every pony in town. They are Diamondhead theme cupcakes since Ponyville can't get enough of him.
Pinkie Pie hops to the Castle of Friendship. "Uh, what are you doing?"
"Doing some extra credit for Headmare Sparkle," Gallus replies.
"Since the School of Friendship got suspended and Headmare Sparkle looked depressed, we thought of cheering her up," Smolder said. She finishes scrubbing the windows. "There, we are done with our assignment."
"Extra credit?" Pinkie Pie tilts her head to the left. "I think Twilight found a loophole to Celestia's decree. I wonder how she'll document her day and send the letter to Princess Celestia."
Twilight comes outside and turns to Pinkie. Since Pinkie doesn't want any other problems from Twilight, she gallops away. "Smart move, Pinkie."
"So, how did we do, Headmare Sparkle?" Smolder asks. She and Gallus put the window wipers in the bucket of water.
"Gallus gets an A+ on his extra credit assignment. I recognized several bite marks on the crystal pillars in my castle, much larger than Spike's. So, I'm diminishing some extra credit points from you, Smolder."
Smolder slightly chuckles at her decision-making. In truth, the crystals inside the castle are delicious for any dragon's eyes. "So.., what's my grade, then..?" Smolder sweats a bit.
"A B+. Still, pretty good for cleaning with your partner to make the castle spotless," Twilight smiles.
"We're back!" Yona shouts while carrying a large sack of items Twilight wants Sandbar and her to grab. "Yona thought the scavenger hunt was challenging."
"Especially going through different stores in Ponyville, waiting in line, double-checking the materials and pricing, marking off each item on the list, which was a long list. I could only imagine the irritating intricate responsibility of someone managing the task alone," Sandbar said.
Twilight observes each item in the sack and nods with satisfaction. "Yona, Sandbar. You both get an A+," Twilight is impressed despite it taking Yona and Sandbar three hours to complete the job. Usually, Spike finishes his work in an hour or less, depending on the weather outside. Twilight will let it slide since Yona and Sandbar tackled the exercise for the first time. "You all did fantastic on the extra credit assignments. Now, run along and spend the rest of your day as friends. If you need more extra credit, even when school resumes, you know where to find me."
"Can do, Twilight," Smolder, Gallus, Yona, and Sandbar nod and concur in unison. Smolder decides to fly inside the castle to grab Silverstream and Ocellus, letting them know it's time to go and spend the rest of the day together as friends.
Twilight releases a happy sigh. With chores done for the day, Twilight can relax and prepare to write her letter about day one without Spike. Unbeknown to Twilight, Pinkie Pie was hiding in a bush when she overheard the extra credit continuation. She's not fond of Twilight taking advantage of her students to use as servants. For now, Pinkie will watch Twilight closely, hoping she doesn't succumb to eluding Princess Celestia's decree by any means necessary.
Spike is on his bed, taking a nap. Starlight, Trixie, and Shining Armor are in the living room of the RV. They are discussing the situation with the possible involvement of Princess Celestia in the midst. Shining Armor and Trixie will handle the procedures with Princess Celestia about the plumbing business. All Starlight has to do is take Spike to the RV after a debriefing. Now they wait until Princess Luna arrives.
It's 7:00 at night in Canterlot Castle. Princess Celestia decides to lower the sun and raise the moon for Luna. Princess Celestia is eager to know what Spike withstood during his time in Ponyville. It'll help her understand the mistreatment of species and friends by giving a lecture for Twilight and the Bearers.
Princess Luna wakes up after having a good day's rest. She stretches and yawns. "What time is it?" Princess Luna inspects her clock. "7:05?" She tilts her head and trots to her window. She sees the moon has risen. "Did Celestia raise the moon for me?"
Princess Celestia knocks on Luna's door. "Are you awake, Luna?"
Princess Luna opens the door with her magic and trots up to her sister. "I am now. Thanks for raising the moon for me."
"You're welcome. Now, can we visit Spike?"
"Yes. Follow me, and I'll guide you," Princess Luna opens her doors to the balcony and takes flight. Princess Celestia follows in pursuit.
Spike wakes up after taking a long nap. He smells the fresh aroma of salmon fish and onion rings; Shining is the one cooking dinner for Starlight and Trixie. He sees Spike coming to the table. Starlight and Trixie smile, hoping it'll ease Spike's emotions.
"Hey, Spike, how are you feeling?" Trixie asks.
"I'm good.., I think..," Spike sits next to Starlight with a lot on his mind.
"Spike," Shining turns to him. "I called dispatch to inform Princess Luna what you told me. She and possibly Celestia can arrive at any minute to discuss everything you've been through since transferring to Ponyville with Twilight."
Spike sighs. "Okay. What will happen after I testify?"
"I'm not sure. It's up to the Princesses' decision; If I had to guess, re-educating Twilight and her friends on the importance of treating a different species equally as they do with other ponies," Shining replies.
Starlight shudders at the mention of the term equally. It reminds Starlight of creating an equal village. "Please don't use that vocabulary around me. I still have daunting memories of the old me."
"Duly noted, Starlight," Shining Armor finishes making haystack fries for Starlight and Trixie to share.
"So, how did you like the afternoon and evening routines, Starlight?" Trixie asks her friend.
"Brutal. You saw how many times I've collapsed with those weights. I'm carrying two hundred pounds!" Starlight complains a bit at the table.
"We carry more than a few hundred pounds daily, Starlight. Plus, it's part of the punishment for setting a building on fire," Trixie reminds Starlight of her unfortunate deed.
"I thought you weren't going to put salt in the wound of your friend?"
"She got you there, Trixie," Shining said. "You told her yesterday about it."
"Hah," Spike chuckles a bit.
"What are you going to do to me, Commander? I already sleep in a wagon."
"Starlight will join you in your slumber tonight," Shining commands.
"What?!" Trixie and Starlight shout in shock. Spike couldn't help but laugh.
"I'm used to one snoring pony. I thought you should experience the same feeling," Shining smirks.
"I got too much junk in my space. There's no way she can fit," Trixie responds, hoping it'll persuade Shining Armor to insist on withdrawing his command.
"Adjust, clear some space to allow your friend to bunk with you for the night!" Shining Armor commands. He scares the daylights out of Trixie by using his Captain of the Royal Guard signature tone.
"Yes, Sir," Trixie said in defeat.
Shining Armor places the food he made on the table. Spike is curious about the salmon since Twilight makes sure he eats vegetarian. Sometimes gemstones, but not a lot. Starlight ponders why fish is on the menu. She never ate it before.
"What's with the fish, Shining?" Starlight asks.
"It's the main course. I have more steaming in case one isn't enough. Salmon is good in protein, vitamins, and minerals. Most ponies in Equestria don't eat fish, thinking they're more civilized. However, fish is a delicacy within the plumbing agency. Also, there is a meat chart that specifies what meat we can eat. Trust me when I say this, fish is good for you."
"You may need to bring a second or third one to the table. I highly doubt one is enough," Trixie advises, knowing that Starlight and Spike will have more than their fill.
Princess Luna flies swiftly in the night with Princess Celestia. Celestia sees a village she regrets ignoring years ago. Gold's Village. Princess Celestia wonders why Shining, Starlight, and Spike would be camping near a desert. One thing that catches Celestia's eyes is the RV with what appears to be a wagon behind it. Princess Celestia sees her sister descending, indicating that Shining, Starlight, and Spike reside in the RV.
Princess Celestia lands and scans the RV. "What is this contraption?" She hovers around it to get a better glimpse.
"An RV, Celestia," Princess Luan calmly replies.
"I've never seen such a vehicle. Are there others like it?" Princess Celestia imagines herself riding in style rather than in a carriage.
"Not yet, Celestia. In due time, more of its' features will touch the hearts of many engineer ponies to develop further into advancing technology. Right now, we're here for Spike's testimony," Princess Luna reminds Celestia about the true objective here.
"Oh, right," Princess Celestia got sidetracked. She couldn't help but stare at the RV.
Princess Luna knocks on the door to the RV. Princess Celestia smells an unfamiliar aroma that makes her drool a little. Princess Luna is a bit creeped out by Celestia's first scent of fish. Shining Armor opens the door before anyone is about to eat.
"Princesses, welcome to our recreational vehicle," Shining Armor pronounces professionally.
"Thanks," Princess Luna steps inside.
Princess Celestia steps inside to see how amazing the RV looks. She slowly looks around the rooms. "Wow." "This is what I need when I retire. A place to go around, undisturbed, while enjoying the best years of my life in peace." "What is that?" Princess Celestia sees the salmon on the table next to two plates of haystack fries and a picture of grape juice.
"Salmon," Spike and Starlight reply.
"Would you like to join us for dinner, Princesses?" Shining asks. He has more food in case they say yes.
"Of course; I would, Shining," Princess Luna sits with Trixie. Trixie scoots over to make room for Luna to sit.
Spike and Starlight move over to allow Princess Celestia to sit by the table. Princess Celestia takes a whiff at the salmon once more. It's a delectable not served in Canterlot or Equestria, for that matter.
Shining Armor cuts a piece of the salmon and gives a portion to Princess Celestia with some haystack fries on the side.
Princess Celestia takes a bite, and her eyes water with satisfaction. "Oh, my..," Princess Celestia eats another piece of the salmon. "It's so goooood!"
"I want to try now!" Spike and Starlight say in unison, eager to taste the new flavor.
"Coming up," Shining Armor attempts to cut another portion when Princess Celestia keeps the salmon to herself. Shining Armor and the other couldn't help but laugh. Now, he's glad he has more steaming.
Shining Armor goes to the kitchen to grab two more plates of salmon. Princess Luna opts to eat the haystack fries. She can eat fish whenever she wants. Although, she prefers to witness the sensation of first taste coming from Spike and Starlight. A smile before Spike fades when he speaks about his life in Ponyville.
Shining Armor returns with two plates of salmon for Starlight and Spike. Spike grabs a fork to taste his piece. He takes a bit, and his eyes go up.
"WOW, SHINING! THIS FISH IS DELICIOUS!" Spike gorges on the fish as he would with gemstones. Something about the texture and flavor brings much joy to Spike.
Starlight uses her magic to levitate a piece of the salmon. She chucks it into her mouth and chews on it. "Oh, my, Celestia," Starlight said while relishing the flavor.
"I'm right here," Princess Celestia said. She finishes eating her plate of salmon and burps loudly. Everyone by the table laughs while blushing in embarrassment. "Excuse me," She slightly smiles.
After a good laugh, everyone continues to eat dinner and enjoy each other's company. Princess Celestia knows that the RV is part of the plumber's technology. She wants to be more involved with Luna's life and her secrecy in being a plumber. It still eats her alive, knowing that her sister answers vaguely daily.
After an hour, Shining Armor advises everyone to have the meeting outside. Trixie is the first to leave so she can start the campfire. Princess Celestia and Luna mentally prepare themselves for the possible gruesome terrors Spike may reveal as a scary story told in the woods. Spike sits with Shining Armor and Starlight around the campfire. He uses his fire breath to ignite the flames once Trixie installs a few logs collected on the way. Princess Celestia and Luna sit next to each other and across from Spike. Trixie sits next to Starlight after gathering some marshmallows to roast by the flames.
Spike's smile fade. He just had a fantastic dinner with his friends and brother. Now, to confess his tale. It will take all night at best. "Where to begin..?" Spike sighs deeply.
"At the beginning, Spike, or where the abuse started," Princess Celestia said. She and Luna are concerned about Spike's mentality.
Spike groans and gets up. He feels the need to walk while explaining his story. "The big one was when I nearly drowned. After that, it got worse."
"How worse, Spike?" Shining Armor asks before the Princesses.
"I got bumps and bruises when Twilight forcefully made me a participant in the Iron Pony competition. Twilight suggested Applejack and Rainbow Dash use me as a guinea pig for the Bronco Buck and hogtying rounds."
"TWILIGHT EASILY HOOF YOU OFF FOR SPORTING?!" Shining Armor is appalled to hear that Twilight suggested using Spike as a dummy for sport. He's downright livid that his younger sister put Spike as an unwilling volunteer.
"DISREGARDING YOUR FEELINGS OR SAFETY?" Princess Celestia and Luna are disturbed hearing that confession. Spike used as a tool for the bearer's amusement.
"Applejack hogtied you, and she didn't think how hurtful that was?" Starlight is disgusted that her friend, Applejack hogtied Spike as cattle instead of using an inanimate object to resolve the issue.
"Did you land on something soft during the Bronco Buck 'cause I did shows near rodeos?" Trixie asks.
"When Applejack bucked me off hard, I thought I landed on hay, but it happens to be Rainbow Dash under it. Then, she had her turn, and I landed on top of the scoreboard, which was very unpleasant. Applejack hogtied me tightly with her ropes while showing off to many ponies that were coming to see the extravaganza."
"SHE DID WHAT?!" Princess Cadance arrives after hearing about Spike used like a dummy.
"Cadance?" Shining Armor can't believe his wife found him.
"I sent a letter to your wife, Shining," Princess Celestia informs.
"Oh, boy," Shining can only imagine the horrid face on his wife earlier today. Princess Cadance lands next to Shining Armor.
"That's beyond wrong, especially on a child," Trixie can't believe Twilight would put Spike in that situation.
Princess Celestia covers her face in shame. "Twilight never told me that. What else happened after that?"
"I can't believe Twilight forced Spike into a situation knowingly he'll end up hurt or injured," Princess Cadance now sees Twilight as a different pony than the one she knew long ago.
"Although I wanted to help Twilight, she did use me as her lab rat for her magic spells. There were a few setbacks where I received the worst ends of it. I got the bumps on my head to prove it. She once disregarded my feelings when she brought in a pet to assist her," Spike facepalms after reliving an awful stage of his life. "Then comes one of the worst nights of my life..."
"Worst nights of your life?" Everyone says in unison. They want to know but fear how severe that night went for Spike.
"I went to the Grand Galloping Gala for the first time with Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash. I was looking forward to spending time with all my friends. Instead, they departed. Dashed to do their thing while leaving me behind.., again."
"TWILIGHT LEFT YOU BEHIND KNOWING SHE TOOK YOU TO THE GALA?!" Princess Luna, Cadance, Starlight, Trixie, and Shining shout. They are outraged that Twilight, of all ponies, would leave Spike behind, knowing she's responsible for him.
"I remember that night. Twilight wanted to be by my side throughout the night. I had no regard for Spike at the time. I thought he would be with one of her friends, having fun. And Spike,"
"Yes?" Spike turns to Princess Celestia.
"I'm sorry I spam-mailed Twilight when Discord took over Equestria right after the Gala. I should have known better than a child's body cannot withstand an overloaded surge..," Princess Celestia sheds a tear.
"Now, that's one apology I believe to be sincere. I forgive you, Celestia."
"Thanks, Spike," Princess Celestia remembers how the night ended with laughter at Donut Joe's.
"So, what you ended up doing for that evening?" Princess Luna asks.
"I ate donuts at Donut Joe's for three.., four.., I lost track of how many hours. I was depressed that night until Twilight and her friends came looking for me, or maybe; they wanted to grab a bite at Donut Joe's, and I'm lucky they remembered me..," Spike sighs. "Honestly, even though I sounded okay, I want to say that I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time."
It's gutwrenching for every pony to hear. Calling it luck that Spike was in the right place at the right time.
Spike tells about Rarity suckered him into relinquishing a fire ruby gemstone he aged without asking. Rainbow Dash mocks Spike about being a dragon, with Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, and Twilight laughing at him. Being called a lame dragon when he made desserts for the girls to enjoy during the dragon migration. Many times he would carry every pony's luggage without any help whatsoever, piles of books falling and burying Spike. The relentless pranks Pinkie and Rainbow Dash pulled on him.
"I suffer from many whiplashes from Twilight's magic or getting tossed around like a punching bag. I get left behind at parties and social outings. Plus, Twilight doesn't bring me to the Crystal Empire. Just give me a list of chores, and I do it. I've helped my so-called friends, and they showed little appreciation. Rarity used me more and rarely thanked or rewarded me. I never heard the end of it when I wrote them to Celestia or heard Twilight boast about it. I'm the only one that cleans the Castle of Friendship and does everything else. You can use your magic to look further into my memories for answers. I don't think I can talk about it any longer."
Spike sits on the ground. Trixie tosses him a bag of marshmallow as comfort food; Spike takes a handful and uses his flames to burn them. Princess Celestia trots to Spike and uses her magic to see his memories. Princess Celestia sheds many tears while going through each memory in a moment.
"Celestia?" Princess Luna is now worried about her sister's condition, and Celestia may conduct towards Twilight and her friends of all the wrongs they have done.
Princess Celestia uses her magic to give every pony a share of Spike's horrific memories, including the nightmare he goes through nearly every night.
"No wonder why I didn't see Spike when Twilight came with her friends to the Crystal Empire to bring the Equestrian Games. I asked all her friends, and she excluded Spike!" Princess Cadance groans in frustration. "I should have asked to bring Spike..," Princess Cadance releases a pitiful sigh.
"I chose to care for their pets, Cadance. I wanted to make a gem cake, and I exhausted my supply. That incident was on me than Twilight."
"That's one time. As for the other occurrences, I inquired about Twilight and her friends..?" Princess Cadance shakes her head. "This is not the Twilight I remembered."
"Okay, using a bucket of water to wake Spike up for sleeping on the job is not cool. It's obvious he had no help cleaning the library," Trixie said. It's the first memory that caught her attention.
"I can't believe Twilight didn't invite Spike to help devise a party for Pinkie Pie and the many parties she got invited to, not once bringing Spike with her," Starlight said. "Not even to her own birthday party in Canterlot!"
"Or the fact Rarity used Spike as a slave! She used him as a pincushion, stomped on his tail in excitement, telling him he stunk after taking out her trash, literally suckering him into giving up a gemstone which I don't think Spike is eating much!" Shining is mortified about the ponies Spike hung out with despite being Equestria's defenders. "Rarity used Spike's love emotions for her personal gain!"
Spike frowns at the statement, no matter how true it is. "I'm over Rarity. I no longer have feelings for her in any way that leads to a relationship. I know there's someone specifically for me."
"I don't understand why Twilight didn't defend Spike from others who mock or tease him. If anyone were to disrespect my Flurry Heart, I would skin them alive," Princess Cadance snorts, making her statement clear.
"I don't understand how they are great at friendships when they discriminated against another species," Starlight said.
"If I were a pony, I would have been treated far better than anything," Spike said. He sees his friends concur and nod with that bold statement. "They better not show up on my birthday," Spike crosses his arms.
"Don't worry. They are forbidden to come in contact with you, Spike. I've seen more than enough in your memories," Princess Celestia officially decrees. "If you run into them during an emergency, it won't count. However, judging from what I saw that you didn't speak of, I will account for and modify adjustments to all visitations at the Crystal Empire and Canterlot whenever you come by for a visit.
"Shining..," Princess Cadance turns to her husband.
"Yes, Cadance?" Shining knows what his wife wants.
"Can I be a plumber?" Princess Cadance would be more involved with Spike's life if Shining allowed her.
"Luna?" Shining Armor turns to Princess Luna. Only she has higher authority than him.
Princess Luna stares at Princess Cadance and reads her body language. She's aware of the opportunity that was given to her and the report from Prince Blueblood on wiping her memory.
"Me as well, Luna," Princess Celestia asks again.
"Spike, Starlight. As you know, I shared valued information about my progress and reasoning. Should I allow them to become part of us?"
Spike and Starlight look at each other. Spike then looks at his Omnitrix. Being a plumber has a lot of value with responsibilities. Holding a weapon beyond the stars makes him think more about honesty and loyalty. Starlight reads Spike's body language after he inspects the Omnitrix. The two nod as they understand each other.
"Princess Celestia. Will you understand and keep the secret about the plumbers? No matter what happens, you can't be mad at your sister or disappointed?" Spike asks.
"Will you make sure that no one else knows about our involvement? Only those in the agency?" Starlight asks.
"Yes," Princess Cadance thought long and hard after those questions. "As a Princess, I will uphold my duties and keep the plumbers secret. I won't reveal crucial information to anyone. Including those closest to me."
"The same applies to me. I held many secrets in my life. One more wouldn't hurt," Princess Celestia said. Finally, she'll know what Luna has been doing for eons.
"Shining? Trixie?" Princess Luna turns to them.
"Deactivating Cloaking Sequence," Shining and Trixie say. They show their visors to Princess Cadance and Celestia. Their jaws drop at the advanced technology.
"Cadance and Celestia are truthful, Luna," Trixie confirms.
"No deception within their tone of voice and heartbeats," Shining affirms.
"Th-Th-Th-Those things can detect someone being a liar?" Princess Celestia and Cadance are shocked to see such technology advancing magic power.
"Yes. What we engage in are those more omnipotent than Discord. Magic power will not get the job done. Not even Alicorn Magic unless it's amplified through our technology," Shining explains.
Princess Luna sighs heavily. "What I'm about to show you will change your lives forever. Celestia," Princess Luna takes a deep breath. "Don't be discouraged from my memories and involvement. Everything will explain itself."
"I won't. Finally going to get the answers you eluded me for so long. I've been waiting for this," Princess Celestia said. She becomes ecstatic to become a plumber.
Princess Luna ignites her horn, zapping Princess Celestia and Cadance with a memory spell. Within a few moments, Princess Celestia becomes agitated.
"THE WHOLE NIGHTMARE MOON WAS A RUSE THIS WHOLE TIME!!?" Princess Celestia looks at the sky in disbelief. "FOR A THOUSAND YEARS, I SUFFERED FROM LONELINESS WITHOUT A SISTER, A PLOY TO MEET UP WITH THAT ALIEN?!"
Princess Luna expected this outburst from her sister. "You scoffed at the plumbers' proposal when I came to you about it; years ago. It was vital to gather the information, Celestia. What else I was supposed to say?"
Princess Celestia pauses and remembers her younger self's ambitions. She had no desire to be a plumber and laughed about the possibility of fixing pipes when she had Alicorn Magic. However, the term is misconstrued, and perhaps she should have listened thoroughly than judging a book from its' cover. Princess Celestia sees the different alien species Luna encountered as Nightmare Moon while having consciousness; that's more to life outside than within Equus.
Princess Luna approaches her sister, not sure what to do next. Princess Celestia grabs Luna and pulls her into a hug. "I'm not mad, Luna. I'm upset at myself. You protected Equestria far differently than I could. I should have listened to you than belittled you," Princess Celestia takes a deep breath. "I promise to be a better sister from now on."
"Celestia," Princes Luna steps back from the hug. "You're going to cancel many duties for the next few weeks," Princess Celestia's eyes widen in shock. "I'm going to teach you what you need to know. Your only duty is to raise the sun and nothing more."
"Except reading and responding to letters Twilight will send daily," Princess Celestia reminds Luna about Twilight's punishment.
"Besides that, I need to catch you up to speed. You may have more authority as a Princess, but I have higher ascendancy as Commander of the plumbers in Equus. Do I make myself clear?"
Princess Celestia double-takes a bit from the resurgence of Princess Luna's royal tone in an assertive tone. "Yes, Luna," Princess giggles, seeing the opposite worlds of chain in command.
"Shining. Since Princess Luna will teach Celestia, who will train me since you'll be on vacation?"
"There's already a plumber at the Crystal Empire. I'll send a direct message to his visor," Shining Armor sends a telepathic message to Prince Blueblood, alerting him about the new recruits. "Done."
"So, who is she?" Princess Cadance assumes the plumber to be a mare.
"Prince Blueblood, Cadance," Shining smirks.
"WHAAAAAAT?!" Princess Cadance can't believe Prince Blueblood is a plumber as well.
"My nephew is a plumber?!" Princess Celestia turns to Luna.
"Indeed. Prince Blueblood has been quite helpful throughout the years. I gave you memories of my involvement. I didn't give you the identities of all plumbers. We are to remain in secrecy, Celestia. This is not for the public hearing."
"How would I know who to trust?" Princess Celestia starts to second guess which of her ponies are plumbers in disguise.
"Trust me, Shining, Trixie, and Blueblood. I will help you every way I can."
Princess Celestia sighs. "Very well, Luna," She smiles.
"I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew another day. Right now, we got what we came for; more of Spike's testimony, and now we have his memories. Spike."
"Yes, Princess Luna?" Spike turns to her.
"Forgive me for not helping you with your endless nightmare. Being the Princess of the Night has its fair share of difficulties when battling other pony's dreams."
"I forgive you, Princess Luna. All is well between us."
"Good," Princess Luna flaps her wings. "Time to go home, Celestia."
"Is that a direct order?" Princess Celestia jokes with Luna.
"Yes," Princess Luna is serious about her command. "I have much to teach you."
"Sorry for the disrespect, Luna," Princess Celestia lowers her head in shame. She thought Luna was kidding when she wasn't.
Princess Luna and Celestia fly home to Canterlot. Princess Celestia has much to learn as well as devising methods to teach Twilight and her friends the importance of treating another species fairly than disrespecting.
"I'll see you later, Shining and Spike," Princess Cadance flaps her wings. "Please come by to the Crystal Empire when you can!" She flies back home.
"I will," Shining responds. "In a month or two," Shining still has to stay on course with the vacation plan. He gets a telepathic message from Prince Blueblood. "Oh wow."
"What?" Spike, Trixie, and Starlight turn to Shining Armor.
"Blueblood had erased Cadance's memory when a robot you fought the other day made an appearance. Things are going to be awkward on their end."
"I can only imagine," Spike said.
Shining Armor yawns. "Time to hit the hay," Shining trots to the RV with Spike. Starlight follows when Shining reminded her about bunking in with Trixie for the night. Trixie starts making room in her wagon, removing the magic items to make space for Starlight. Trixie is not fond of snoring ponies.
With Celestia and Cadance now part of the plumbers, Spike hopes Twilight and her friends do not become plumbers. He hopes for a better day tomorrow.
Princess Twilight Sparkle starts writing her letter:
Dear Princess Celestia
Today, I had a not-so-great morning. I called for Spike to make breakfast and yelled in frustration about not doing his job. I admit my many faults of taking advantage of Spike for all he does. He used to clean and cook for me. I tried making breakfast, and it backfired on me. The eggs wouldn't crack, and some food spoiled, making it inedible for consumption. I have never felt so lonely in my life during that morning, hearing my hoofsteps and no pony else around me. It was a terrifying experience.
I had to suspend the School of Friendship for the next few days. I need time to cope and adjust to my new life without Spike being with me. I know I took him for granted, and I have remorse for my actions. When I complete my task, I want to prove to you and me that I can be an exceptional friend to all creatures; That I'm not one-sided with my kind. I still have Discord, which is all creatures put together, Zecora, Cranky Doodle, Empress Ember, Thorax, and Prince Rutherford. The list of species can go on. I admit to mistreating Spike, but I have not forsaken Empress Ember. She and I are great friends.
I asked Spike to take care of the situation when I failed to realize that Spike is with my brother and Starlight. Once again, I called Spike for work. I've completed my tasks for the day in my castle. I had no help, nor did I ask for it. It took me hours, but I am satisfied with my progress. I hope you are pleased with my letter.
Sincerely
Princess Twilight Sparkle
Princess Twilight Sparkle finishes writing her letter. "Spike, can you mail..," Twilight screams in her room. She has Spike on her mind constantly. "How am I going to send the letter?" Twilight sighs when an answer comes to mind discreetly. "Post office. Right."
Twilight inserts the letter into an envelope and seals it. Twilight staples a seal of Celestia's initial on the envelope to make it an urgent delivery. She leaves the room and slowly strolls to her bedroom. Like this morning, her hoofsteps echo, making Twilight feel uncomfortable about solitude.
In her bedroom, Twilight looks out the window. She wishes Spike a good night's rest and prays that Spike will return to her and start anew. For now, one day at a time until her sentencing gets uplifted. |
Spike's Omnitrix | Omni-Log Part One | Shining Armor brings Spike to the monitor room, where he can make audio logs. Shining Armor gives Spike a switch to activate and deactivate the audio session since he doesn't possess magic. Spike thanks Shining and sit on a cushion on the floor, facing the monitor so the plumbers back in HQ can hear his progress.
Spike looks at his Omnitrix and decides to make each audio recording for each alien he turns into except Wildmutt. Spike wipes the sweat off his forehead and flicks the switch to start his audio logs.
{Audio Log #1}
Spike: "So, this is my first audio log. First, of many, I should say. I think; I should rename it into Omni-log since I have this Omnitrix."
[Spike views the Omnitrix in front of the monitor]
<End of Recording>
{Omni-Log #1}
Spike: "Okay, now that the log has the name changed, let me tell you something about my progress. I have tested each alien except for two; The one that looks like a being with big eyes and a winged alien. I will turn into seven of the eight aliens since one doesn't speak any language fluently. I doubt you or anyone could understand Wildmutt's language. Since I know everything stays within the plumber database and only plumber officials will hear of this, I mentioned my backstory to the Princesses, Shining Armor, Trixie, and Starlight. Twilight Sparkle and the Bearers don't know any testimony I spoke of last night. I prefer to keep it that way. Also, since having the Omnitrix, I reflected more on my life, and I'm happy that the Omnitrix broke the shackles of my life. I have a real purpose and an adventure of a lifetime. I could blab about my past, but I'm speaking about my new life."
[Spike activates the Omnitrix. The faceplate rises, and he scrolls to the right]
Spike: "Here we go!"
[Spike slams the faceplate down]
<End of Recording>
{Omni-Log #1.5}
Heatblast: "This is the first alien I turned into a few days ago. Back when I went camping in solitude since Twilight took her 'friends' and left me behind with chores. I made a wish, and the shooting star redirected itself and nearly crashed into me; Long story short. Curiosity got the better of me, and the Omnitrix latched itself onto my left wrist. With that out of the way, allow me to introduce you to the alien I am. I am Heatblast. An alien that consists of Magna rocks and fire that possibly rivals the sun itself. Unfortunately, I tested the raw power of Heatblast in the worst ideal location. A forest. I caused a forest fire after getting too excited due to Heatblast's capabilities. If it weren't for the help of Starlight Glimmer, I would have caused a wildfire that could wipe out the Everfree Forest. It's because fire from an alien differs from magic power. Discord attempted to remove the Omnitrix, and he's a deity with reality-warping prowess. The Omnitrix would not budge for Discord, and the protection of the Omnitrix turned Discord into ashes. Obviously, he was fine, but still. It makes you think about the true potential of the Omnitrix itself. With Heatblast's power, I need to be cautious of what's around me and control the fires to the fullest. It turns out that I can teleport by casting fires around me, but for a short distance. If I need to fly, I can use the flames as boosters on my feet or hands. If I want to get explosive, my flames can generate small or large flame combustions. One thing I notice when I turn into Heatblast or any of the aliens is that my wings don't fuse with the aliens. They disappear."
[Heatblast's Omnitrix insignia flashes and beeps, reverting Spike to normal]
Spike: "I guess using the time to talk shortens the time span of the transformation. When the Omnitrix recharges, I'll be back with the next Omni-Log."
<End of Recording>
Half an hour Later.
{Omni-Log #2}
Diamondhead: "So, my next alien is Diamondhead. Diamondhead is the third alien I turned into; the second was Wildmutt. I figured to turn into the aliens in the order I tried. In Ponyville, after two robotic drones attacked me, an alien-tech titan plagued the citizens of Ponyville because it was searching for me. The Royal Guards and many unicorns tried to defend themselves and slay the robot, but they failed miserably. So, I inserted myself into the battlefield and challenged the robot. It took me a while to figure out the weaknesses of my opponent. One thing was clear; I didn't sustain any injuries when the robot tossed me around like a ragdoll. Sure, it shot lasers at me, but being made of crystals meant I didn't have the flesh and muscles to feel the aftermath of the impact. A certain someone wanted to take my crystals as a fashion idea. Screw her ideas! My crystals are lethal weapons!"
[Diamondhead's arms become razor-sharp. The edges of each hand turn into cutters]
Diamondhead: "As you can see, I can slice anything like butter. I can burst a robot's hand and make them useless. I tested the cutting edge on Shining Armor's shield during practice. Let's say his shield popped like a bubble. Shining Armor's defense spell once repelled a swarm of Changelings that couldn't get into Canterlot even when Queen Chrysalis weakened him. Shining Armor's magic is unlike any unicorn in Equestria so testing my alien against his magic proved that Diamondhead's capabilities overpower any unicorn and possibly an Alicorn. Being an alien made of crystals allows me to redirect lasers, absorb energy and refract. I can shoot shards of crystals, generate crystals on the ground, and create a wall to protect myself or others from inbounding strikes. I do have enhanced jumping and acrobatics like Four Arms. Who is another alien I'll turn into later."
[Diamondhead's Omnitrix symbol bleeps and flashes red, causing Spike to turn back]
Spike: "See you in the next half hour or so."
<End of Recording>
An hour later.
{Omni-Log #3}
Ghostfreak: "Yes, I am a ghost in front of the monitor."
[The pink eye moves all over the black lines. Spike does that to see if some feel crept or freaked out by the sudden eye movement]
Ghostfreak: "So, I named this alien Ghostfreak. I scared Trixie and Starlight the other day when we were in this mill by Gold's Village. Little did I know that a bounty hunter would come searching for me. Trixie showed me her visors, and she was tracking bogeys. The bounty hunter sprayed me with this brown ooze that enabled him to land a physical blow on me. It made me vulnerable to phase through walls or the ground. I was saved by Shining with the RV and Trixie's quick thinking. I want to say that I have the ability to possess creatures of any kind and allow them to become tangible if I grab them and phase through walls. One moment."
[Spike goes through the wall and drags Starlight into the room. She is disturbed by the feeling of getting dragged into the wall while feeling nothing]
Starlight Glimmer: "Spike! What was that for?!"
Ghostfreak: "Testing my powers as Ghostfreak; it turns out you can phase through walls when I grab you. Pretty neat for hefty escapes down the road. Wouldn't you agree?"
[Starlight sighs]
Starlight Glimmer: "It is pretty cool to feel the effects of a ghost despite having a living form. Next time, ask before taking."
[Ghostfreaks' Omnitrix blinks and sounds off. Spike is normal]
Spike: "I'll remember that. Now, I'll take a break and watch you train some more."
Starlight Glimmer: "More like watch me stumble and fall before two hundred pounds becomes four hundred pounds."
[Spike laughs a bit. He follows Starlight out the door]
<End of Recording>
Two hours later.
{Omni-Log #4}
Four Arms: "My fifth alien. Four Arms. Pretty much self-explanatory by my appearance. I'm ten feet tall with brute strength, agility, durability, acrobatics, and much more. I turned into this alien when a bounty hunter was about to attack Trixie, Starlight, and me. I didn't think about who I wanted to turn into; I hoped I picked the right one for the job, and I did. This alien that looked like Diamondhead snatched me away from my friends and brother. He wanted to retrieve the Omnitrix and believed I was an uncaring child who exploited the weapon as a toy. Sure, I used it for fun, but I did it twice. One was to draw the crowd away from the RV in Ponyville, where I got showered with praises. The second was when I scared the daylights out of Starlight and Trixie. Either than that, I used the Omnitrix wisely. I used it to save lives from an alien conqueror or something vile that wants to use the Omnitrix for their purposes. I don't have all the answers. Perhaps Princess Luna can shed some when we have a private discussion in my dreams or a remote area. I don't know. With Four Arms, I tore this mechanic crab-alien and disabled his mechanisms by ripping off his leg that looks like a sharp-edge scythe or sword, and I somehow caused him to retract and malfunction."
[Shining Armor enters the room]
Shining Armor: "Spike, I'm about to start the RV. I finished packing our equipment and training course into the RV. You can continue the audio recordings."
Four Arms: "Omni-Logs."
Shining Armor: "Nice name. Anyway, you can continue with your Omni-Log. I didn't want to startle you when you feel the RV's movement."
Four Arms: "Thanks for the heads up."
[Shining Armor leaves the room]
Four Arms: "That was Shining Armor. Uh, letmethink, letmethink, letmethink.., where was I..? Oh, yea! The Diamondhead warrior guy says he'll return after taking the two bounty hunters away. I saw how awesome Shining was when he activated his saddlebag weapon. It was amazing! I can only imagine how Starlight will be with those cannons mounted on her sides. She will be a wiz at utilizing the full effect of the saddlebag launchers."
[Four Arms Omnitrix insignia flashes red and bleeps. Spike is back to normal]
Spike: "I think; I want to wrap up this audio log by explaining the last two aliens. When I heard a commotion outside the RV, I turned into this blue alien that ran super-fast. I want to say it is faster than Rainbow Dash's flight speed. Also, having complete control of stopping myself without the whiplash effect is stellar. When Rainbow halts herself, she crashes at times or causes what's around her to fling ahead of her. When I stop, everything stops. Trixie came up with a cool name for the alien too. XLR8. Her version for accelerate. That name fits so perfectly, and it's short. Shining and Starlight approved of the name. I told them if they come up with clever names for each alien I turn into, I'll keep it. I have two aliens left to try, so I'll hear what they'll call them."
[Trixie comes into the room]
Trixie: "Spike, I'm making dinner. You want anything?"
Spike: "Surprise me. Also, can you put a bowl full of gemstones? I'm craving for them."
Trixie: "Not a problem."
[Trixie leaves the room]
Spike: "The last alien I turned into is known as Ripjaws. He's an aquatic alien composed of different sea creatures merged together, like how Discord is part of every animal combined. Unfortunately, Ripjaws is not made for dry land. The heat and lack of water caused him to dehydrate. However, Trixie made this supplement for Ripjaws, enabling him to breathe the air. The air turns into moisture, the sweat becomes cold droplets of water, and the skin, scales, the physicality of Ripjaws become wet. I forget if Ripjaws has skin of scales. He is strong, and his teeth can shatter anything. As Ripjaws, I munched a log in half. I'll need to test Ripjaws in water to have a better thorough examination of his strengths and weaknesses. Until then, I'll have to wait and see where Shining Armor is taking us. This is Spike signing off."
[Spike flips the switch, deactivating the audio logs]
<End of Recording>
Spike leaves the monitor room. He sees Starlight and Trixie having fun making dinner. Spike walks to the front and sits next to Shining Armor. He watches Shining leaving the desert region of Gold's Village.
"Had fun with the Omni-Logs, Spike?" Shining asks while driving the RV with his magic. He sees a small bridge next to the train tracks and goes in that direction.
"I did. I had fun watching Starlight training when I took my break. Starlight moved better today than yesterday."
"Soon, two hundred pounds will feel like nothing. When Starlight removes the weights and tests her speed, she'll be amazed to see how quickly she can sprint than she usually does."
"So, where are we off to?" Spike asks.
"Well, we need to get rations for the next upcoming destination. So, I'm driving us to Appleloosa." |
Spike's Omnitrix | Learning Curves | Princess Celestia wakes up after having a good night's sleep. She raises the sun after Princess Luna lowers the moon; Celestia wonders what today's training will be like as a plumber. The excitement gets the better of her when some pony knocks on her door.
Raven Inkwell is the mare knocking on Princess Celestia's door with a long list of appointments, meetings, and priorities. Princess Celestia opens her door.
"Morning, Princess Celestia, we have much to-" Raven Inkwell gets interrupted by Princess Celestia.
"All of my duties are suspended until further notice, Ms.Inkwell."
"Wh-Wh-WHAT?!" Raven Inkwell doesn't have the training to react to such a command from the Princess. "Princess, reconsider. Think of the-" She sees Princess Celestia closing her door, making her point evident. "I don't get paid enough to do this job at times. How will I explain to the populous about the Princess' absence?" Raven Inkwell trots to the throne room to make a disappointing announcement to all citizens of Canterlot, including the scientists, royals, and generals. She is not thrilled about the moaning, groaning, complaining, and whining; every pony will blur afterward.
"Alright, with that out of the way, I wonder if the training will initiate now?" Princess Celestia mentally prepares herself for all scenarios Princess Luna may say or teach.
Three hours later. Princess Celestia is reading a book to pass the time. She often thinks about other recent events that were the plumbers' business. So far, the memory of Nightmare Moon stings her the most. After learning that Nightmare Moon was a ruse, she wonders about the other magical villains that friendship sought to disperse and correct.
Princess Luna enters Celestia's room after hearing a fallout in the throne room. Raven Inkwell tried her best to defuse the situation; however, Princess Luna used her royal tone to shoo and silence the uproar. Many ponies fled, not wanting to displease Princess Luna about Celestia's nonappearance.
Princess Celestia turns to her sister. Her adrenaline spikes higher than earlier. Years of waiting about the plumbing business and wanting to associate with their organization. One thing that caught her attention was the letter Princess Luna levitating to her left.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle's Day One documentary, Celestia," Princess Luna allows her sister to read the report.
"I expected much from Twilight to repeat her morning routines. She had a fiasco in the kitchen, which was predictable. I don't recall her making anything for herself besides tea and coffee. Suspending the School of Friendship is a wise decision. I give her credit for the new beginning in her life. How interesting about her friendship with those who are royal? What about those who aren't in their kingdoms? If Empress Ember were to discover the travesty of Spike's plight, would she still call Twilight her friend? Twilight completed her chores. That's something I need to examine with my eyes. I believe she had outside help. What do you say, Luna?"
"Empress Ember will disband her friendship with Twilight after perceiving Spike's status and mistreatment. That's a guarantee, Celestia. Second, I highly doubt Twilight would complete her tasks in a few hours. From Spike's memories, it took him all day and parts of the evening to complete his chores. I know Twilight may have found a loophole."
"How can you be certain?" Princess Celestia observes her sister's body language. She knows Luna can confirm her theory.
"Within the plumbing agency, Celestia. We have eyes and ears all over Equus. I have not disclosed all members within the organization. However, those listening report the smallest detail to the nearest plumber base. It's to ensure the safety of anything unusual and abnormal. Your nephew documents in that department and made sure that he and his team diminishes the threat in secret."
Princess Celestia gasps in shock. "Eyes and ears..? Who's in Ponyville disguised as a plumber?"
"I cannot reveal their identities. Some have requested to remain anonymous during their investigations."
Princess Celestia sighs. She has a lot more to learn about secrecy than she realizes. Then she asks. "What loophole have they discovered?"
"Twilight Sparkle is using students for extra credit work."
Princess Celestia's right eye twitches. "Extra.., credit..?" She sounds both pissed off and impressed that Twilight would resort to using an escape clause to bypass her decree about her punishment.
Princess Luna sees her sister wanting to take off and confront Twilight about using students as an alternative instead of embracing the penalty Celestia gave to her the other day. "Princess Celestia," Luna walks up to her.
"What?" Princess Celestia snorts in anger. She's overwhelmed with mixed emotions due to Twilight's lie in her letter.
"Before you take off and deliberate due punishment to Princess Twilight Sparkle, I suggest waiting a while. I'll notify you if Princess Twilight Sparkle perdue the usage of extra credit on more of her students. If she exceeds the number within the three months, you may do as you wish."
"What number would that be, Luna?" Princess Celestia is intrigued by Luna's strategy. Instead of facing Twilight immediately, she'll wait and scrutinize to entertain all of Twilight's excuses before revoking her title as Princess.
"Ten. The number of aliens Spike has in the Omnitrix. When Twilight surmounts the digit, do as you please. Until then, I advise you to work on your patience."
Princess Celestia takes a deep breath to calm herself. "Very well, Luna. I shall wait upon further notice."
"Good," Princess Luna uses her magic to spawn a book of records in front of Celestia. "It's time I train you starting with the foundations of the agency. After that, I'll show you our base, and you'll meet with ponies you may be familiar with; They'll answer any question."
"What about weapons training?" Princess Celestia wonders if she would wear the plumbers' tech.
"Armaments are too soon for you to handle, Celestia. I will thoroughly discipline you when the heyday arrives. Until then, you're learning the fundamentals as the Princess you are. Alicorn magic and plumber's tech do not correlate promptly. That takes years of practice and self-control," Princess Luna calmly answers.
"What if I don't have years?" Princess Celestia asks in case her time in Equestria was to cut short due to a probable attack.
"Then, you will not partake in the events of the battle. You will protect your subjects and help them evacuate!" Princess Luna bellows a bit. She needed her statement clear to Celestia about knowing what protocols to establish during any predicament.
Princess Celestia recoils a bit. She knows Luna is taking it seriously to another level. "What's with the seriousness, Luna?"
"There are two likely scenarios when imminent dangers arise; Acting in command as a Princess or acting as a plumber. If not armed when aliens, robots, bounty hunters, or anything not seen in Equus, it's your duty as Princess of Equestria to evacuate the innocents. When armed, engage in battle. Our magic has no effect against the invaders from off-world. Alicorn magic rarely tickles them. Their weapons and technology far eclipse us in any shape or way. I need you to understand your line of duty even when we train. It's not about being in charge of what goes on since you ruled for a thousand years. No one cares about your status as Princess of Equestria. You are not a commander, and I want to make that CLEAR. What I say goes, and you are not to document anything unless the agency hears it. We are to remain in secret."
Princess Celestia is shocked at how momentous Luna said. The weight added on and not to boast. Princess Celestia understands the severity of being a plumber and how much it means to Luna.
"Understood, Ma'am," Princess Celestia sees Luna as a different pony. Someone with more control and further understanding and wisdom. She bows with much respect.
Princess Luna smiles. She sees Celestia maturing nicely as a plumber. "Celestia. I love you as a sister dearly. That will never change. We can have fun, but we must be discreet with those around us."
Princess Celestia smiles. "Understood, Luna. So, when do we begin?"
"Right now," Princess Luna opens the book of records.
It's 9:30 in the morning. Prince Blueblood enters Princess Cadance's quarters. He alerted a Crystal Guard not to disturb Princess Cadance as he stretched the truth about a private discussion. Princess Cadance has Flurry Heart in her arm, feeding her milk from the bottle.
"Morning, Prince Blueblood," Princess Cadance welcomes with gratitude since she knows about Blueblood's involvement with the plumbers.
"Morning, Cadance," Prince Blueblood trots up to Flurry Heart. She giggles at him. "Adorable, isn't she?"
"Flurry Heart has a way of seeing the truth within any pony. I guess she knew you more than I, huh?" Princess Cadance chuckles slightly. She then sighed sadly for the crap she treated him.
"There is no need to apologize, Cadance. You treated my facade poorly, not the real me."
"Why did you play charades all this time?" Princess Cadance wonders why Prince Blueblood revealed distorted colors.
"If any pony were to discover my calling as a plumber, there would be no need for the Royal Guard or defense team in Equestria. Everyone would be reliant on the plumbers' assistance every time. Also, my character is to blend in with society whenever I'm off duty."
"So, were you mad that Princess Celestia didn't give you a kingdom to rule?" Princess Cadance knows that Blueblood earned his rank as a Prince, and Celestia was to test his confidence in leading ponies into prosperity.
"I have mixed reviews about Auntie Celestia's decision. She rarely spends time with me to get to know me thoroughly. She used her opportunities to be with you and train you. I didn't have the luxury of Luna to relay Celestia about my progress. I had no one. So, I took action. I went forth to discover lost kingdoms, hidden mysteries, and languages. I came across a crystal spike in the snowy region, which is now the Crystal Empire," Princess Cadance gasps. "However, by removing the crystal spike, I unleashed a creature buried in the snow, my first alien encounter. It discharged a cold breath that would have encased me and killed me from hypothermia. That's when the plumbers arrive out of the blue, shooting lasers from saddle launchers. I was amazed to witness the quickness of subduing the alien. It was like; they were waiting for the right time to oppose the alien. It was then they asked me a simple question. One that I agreed to; immediately after witnessing the fallout of the alien's demise through a precision attack. I've been with the plumbers for ten years."
"Ten years?!" Princess Cadance repeats Prince Blueblood's comment in utter shock.
"Now, to finish answering your question. I was devastated. Auntie Celestia trusted you to lead more than me. She loved you more than her nephew. Princess Celestia doesn't believe in a Prince to rule any nation since the King Sombra incident. Celestia feared that I might go rogue and rule with an iron hoof. Auntie Celestia tolerates Prince Rutherford and Thorax to lead with excellence, confidence, and humility since they are friends with Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends."
Princess Cadance looks down a bit. She feels remorseful about Blueblood's feelings. "I'm sorry. I.., I didn't know how you felt..."
Prince Blueblood exhales. "I'm not looking for pity. Celestia has her morals, and I have mine. I lead by example within my team. I trust them, and they trust me."
"Princess Celestia will know the real you soon," Princess Cadance hopes to brighten Blueblood's mood.
"There's no kingdom for me. Celestia is not giving me Canterlot to rule. She's transferring her authority as Princess to Twilight Sparkle when she retires. That's set and done. She valued her student more than me. My rank is a joke, and those royals laugh and scoff about me being a failure for elite status. Even in disguise, I'm sad, and I couldn't reveal those emotions while I'm an acting agent. Celestia will see a side of me she destroyed. I'm not fond of her being a plumber. I hope she's not registered with my team. That is the last I need, more headaches and discomfort. Before receiving the info last night, I was glad to move freely in Equestria to do my job as a plumber, undisturbed. At the time, having no kingdom meant fewer responsibilities to uphold. If I were to govern a nation, I would have access to move while managing my priorities as Prince and plumber discreetly."
"You had everything thought out?" Princess Cadance asks. She's burping Flurry Heart.
"Of course. I ran through thousands of possibilities; in case Auntie Celestia was to grant me power, even if it was temporary. I would have utilized what I got to the fullest. However, that day will never come. Celestia will anoint another mare with magic power over me in a blink of an eye. That's how she viewed me. That won't change regardless of my status as Commander of my squad."
Princess Cadance tries to see otherwise, but she knows Prince Blueblood is right. During her days with Princess Celestia, she had more time with her than seeing Blueblood. She was not fond of Blueblood's behavior because he was born with status, and she an orphaned. She thought Blueblood was a spoiled brat, but from his testimony, Cadance believed Blueblood was lonely and had no one but maids and butlers to attend to him occasionally.
"Do you wish to renew your relationship with Princess Celestia?" Princess Cadance nervously asks.
"Renew? There wasn't one, to begin with; she rarely saw me and thought about me. During the Grand Galloping Gala, all her attention went to her precious student, Twilight Sparkle. I was idly going around my business, waiting impatiently for any assignment from the plumbers' base since I wanted to separate myself from a boring showcase. This Rarity fellow desired to become my mate. She didn't want me for me; she wanted elite status. Spoiled in richness beyond imagination. I saw it within her eyes the moment she gazed upon me. Rarity is a Gold Digger seeking fame and fortune by trying to date some pony with noble status. She motivated me to exploit my character by having her resent me. It was fun, especially throwing a tantrum about getting dirty and having my fur coated cleanly."
"Why go in the first place?" Princess Cadance starts changing Flurry Heart's diaper.
"When not on duty, I continue the lifestyle as my character, so no pony gets suspicious. With the royals wholeheartedly knowing that I attend the preeminent festivities, the more social class will oblige and give my auntie the utmost respect. There would be a chain reaction if I were to step away from the revelment."
"I never knew you tolerated going to the Grand Galloping Gala each year. Here I thought you enjoy the praise and attention."
"Hmmph," Prince Blueblood scoffs. "I get praise and gratitude from my teammates and workers within the plumbers' organization. Other ponies dislike, deplore, and condemn me by any means necessary. You have shown me distorted colors."
"I know," Princess Cadance sadly states. "It was wrong of me to express vilely at you whenever I saw your face."
"I do attract all sorts of emotions. I practiced diligently to make myself irresistibly irritating. The more, the better results from those who despised me."
Princess Cadance giggles a bit. "You are a master in your craft."
Prince Blueblood smirks. "Thanks for the compliment."
"When do we begin my training?" Princess Cadance tosses the dirty diaper away and places Flurry Heart in her playpen after attaching a new diaper to her.
"In a while. I'm expecting a package from the base. A book of records since Shining Armor did not obtain the book when he moved here with you," Prince Blueblood said. "Which is wise of him with many Crystal Ponies around and a bookworm of a Princess soon to be arriving since the Brave and Glorious is not around," Prince Blueblood refers to Spike. He did his research after spotting the Spike Statue outside, where many Crystal Ponies took lots of pictures.
"Do the Crystal Ponies need their memories erased once they see Spike with the Omnitrix?"
"That's a question Princess Luna should answer since she's in charge of the agency. I can give you my opinion. Let Spike's ponies know he can protect them better with the Omnitrix. They view him as their savior, so that shouldn't change."
"Thank you for your honesty," Princess Cadance smiles.
"You're welcome. Right now, I'll train you to use saddle launchers. First, without using magic," Prince Blueblood uses his magic to spawn a saddlebag filled with two hundred pounds on each side. "Can you move around with this?" Prince Blueblood attaches the saddlebag to Princess Cadance's back.
Princess Cadance squints her eyes and grunts a bit. "It's a little heavy!" She stumbles back a bit by trying to move and falls. Flurry Heart sees and laughs. She groans bitterly.
"Get ready for the morning training with a jog at the Crystal Empire's arena, where they hosted the Equestrian Games."
Princess Cadance pouts a bit. She stands up and walks while carrying four hundred pounds. She pants a bit due to the heaviness. "Are these weights necessary, Blueblood?" Her knees tremble a bit.
"Yes. When four hundred feels like nothing, it gets doubled from there. Saddle Launchers are heavier than our eyes perceive them to be," Prince Blueblood states. "I would advise you to have a Crystal Guard babysit Flurry Heart for the next two hours."
"TWO HOURS?!" Princess Cadance is not thrilled with the time slot.
"When you get to the track, the timer begins. Now, no more complaints. You wanted to be one of us; now you'll have to train and work like us," Prince Blueblood lofty commands.
Princess Cadance groans and accepts Prince Blueblood's training methods. She asked to be a plumber now she has to endure their training physically and mentally. She wonders how Princess Celestia's day is going. |
Spike's Omnitrix | Appleloosa | Shining Armor parks the RV near the Buffalos' territory. Starlight and Trixie finish making dinner and call for Spike and Shining to the table. Shining Armor turns off the RV and walks with Spike. They sit together while Starlight and Trixie carry a bowl of salad, hayburgers, fish tacos, and new meat to try. Starlight and Spike look at what appears to be a small chicken coated in brown sugar sauce. Trixie and Shining can't wait to see the reactions of Starlight and Spike. The chicken smells delicious. It causes Spike and Starlight to drool.
"Here, Spike," Shining Armor uses his magic to hover a knife to cut a drumstick. "Try the chicken's leg."
"If fish tasted so good yesterday, I could only imagine the flavor of chicken!" Spike grabs the backbone of the drumstick.
"Celestia was the first to taste the meat before us, Spike. I was confused with Trixie for putting a bird in the oven."
"As I told you, Starlight. There are different meats we can digest; Chicken is an excellent source of protein. The sauce is my mom's world's famous sauce. Only I can make it," Trixie smiles in delight.
Spike takes a bite from the top of the drumstick. His eyes widen with astonishment at the flavor. He begins to eat more of the chicken without saying a word. That's more than enough to persuade Starlight into eating a piece. She loves eating chicken and cuts herself a portion to stuff her face. Trixie and Shining laugh, knowing a pair of friends enjoy eating chicken. They grab their plates and eat.
After an hour of eating and enjoying each other's company. Spike, Shining, Starlight, and Trixie lean back with satisfaction. Spike pats his belly. He enjoyed eating chicken and a bowlful of gemstones.
"Shining," Trixie looks at her commanding officer and friend. "Does Trixie need her Great and Powerful Assistant in the wagon tonight?" Trixie asks in character.
"Nay, Trixie. Here," Shining tosses Trixie new and improved earplugs. "It'll cancel Starlight and Spike's snoring."
"Guilty as charged," Spike admits that he snores in his sleep. He couldn't help but laugh.
"Okay, and I convinced my village we were attacked by bears," Starlight admits devising a story to draw out her snoring. Spike, Shining, and Trixie burst into laughter.
"Thanks for the soundproof, Shining," Trixie said. "Now, I can sleep well in my wagon tonight."
"Sleeping sounds good right now," Spike gets up and goes to the upper bed.
"Alright, everyone hit the hay. Tomorrow, we have a long day ahead of us," Shining Armor commands.
Shining takes the dishes and washes them as Starlight follows Spike to the bedroom. Trixie leaves the RV and goes into her wagon. After a few minutes, Shining sets his alarm and notices his visors detecting small tremors. Since the RV is near the Buffalos' land, he believes they're out on their run into their sacred land.
A few hours later. Shining's visors alarm and wakes up. The tremors are increasing dramatically. "Oh, no. Oh, nonononononononononono!" Shining Armor fears the worst is about to happen. "WAKEUP! WAKEUP! TREMORS ARE QUAKING RAPIDLY!"
Spike and Starlight get startled by Shining's yelling. They turn and see red flashes on his visors, indicating that something awful is awakening. Trixie enters the RV, suited for any imminent danger in Appleloosa or around them. Her visors say that tremors are amplifying immensely.
"What is happening, Shining?!" Starlight uses her magic to hold everything inside the RV; so nothing falls over.
"Is it hero time?" Spike activates his Omnitrix, preparing to turn alien to save the day.
The tremors stop, which worries Shining and Trixie; Then, the RV starts to rock. "Hold on tight!" Nothing happens after Shining gives the command.
"Uh, what happened?" Spike and Starlight ask after the one rockiness from the RV.
Everyone hears the door to the RV knocking. Spike walks to the door and opens it. He sees Little Strongheart for the first time in years. Along with some of the Buffalos.
"Spike! Oh, thank heavens you're here! We need your help!" Little Strongheart hopes Spike can assist the tribe with a calamity crisis.
"What seems to be the problem?" Spike asks.
"Follow us, bro," A light brown Buffalo said. He and his brothers charge toward their traditional stampeding grounds.
"Follow that herd, Shining!" Spike shouts.
"Right!" Shining sits in the driver's seat and uses magic to turn on the RV. He drives the RV, following the stampede.
Ten minutes later. Shining stops the RV from going over a cliff. Starlight, Trixie, Spike, and Shining see the devastation from the apple orchard. A crack stretches across the entire land where the Buffalos run their yearly traditional stampede. Several apple trees are uprooted and scattered.
"This is the first earthquake in the history of our nation's existence," Tribal Chief Thunderhooves said in awe. "My father; and his father; and his father before him; and his father behind him; and his father before him; and his father-" Little Strongheart nudges the Chief. The other Buffalos were getting bored with the backstory.
"They get the idea, Chief," Little Strongheart said; she was tired of the long thought-out stretch of Thunderhooves' forefathers.
The Tribal Chief sighs. "This earthquake was unlike anything we've ever felt before. We believe something is amiss with those settler ponies."
"Wait, I thought you had no conflicts with Appleloosa," Spike remembers the commitment of the Buffalos and Appleloosian to share the land.
"For eons, we had no worriment until they showed up and planted their trees. After the agreement, I sensed something malignant within each stampede to retrieve apple pies and fruit. We believe those ponies caused this catastrophe," Tribal Chief Thunderhooves acclaims.
"I tried talking with the Sheriff and some ponies in town about the presence, but they ignored us. They thought we were speaking nonsense," Little Strongheart bitterly explains.
"Now, they are blaming us for this disaster!" A red Buffalo angrily says.
"Alright, we'll help settle the dispute before it escalates," Shining Armor activates his visors in search of anything abnormal. "I'll investigate the fault line, Trixie."
"Yes, Sir?" Trixie waits for her command.
"Take Spike, Starlight, and Strongheart to Appleloosa. We need to find some pony that'll listen to reason," Shining said. He turns to Thunderhooves. "If it pleases you, Tribal Chief, allow me to command some of your finest Buffalos for my investigation."
"Very well, proceed to uncover the mysteries of the fault line," Tribal Chief Thunderhooves allows seven Buffalo to follow Shining Armor to their stampeding grounds. "You have earned my respect, unicorn."
"Thank you," Shining bows in respect. "Let's go," Shining Armor gallops to their native stampede ground. The seven Buffalo follow him.
Spike and Little Strongheart lead the way to Appleloosa. Starlight wonders if there are any plumbers living in Appleloosa. Trixie confirms since the birth of Appleloosa, plumbers monitored the area but did not settle in. She lets Starlight know about her concerns about being close to the fault line.
Ponies in Appleloosa are going along with their business as usual. Spike looks to his left and notices an elderly pony growling ferociously before entering his home.
"That's new." Spike thought to himself.
"Spike! Is that yooou?" Braeburn gets close and personal with Spike's space. He observes Strongheart, Starlight, and Trixie with curiosity. "Who are these friends, Spike?" Braeburn is aware of Little Strongheart.
"Oh. Uh. Starlight and Trixie," Spike points at his friends. Starlight is to his right, Trixie to his left.
"Weeeeell, hoooooowdy!" Braeburn shakes Starlight and Trixie's hooves so fast that he lets go; Trixie and Starlight's arms are still shaking. "What brings you, ladies, into town?"
"Braeburn, listen. There's a-" Braeburn interrupts Little Strongheart by nudging and pushing her, Trixie, and Starlight for the grand tour of Appleloosa.
"Something peculiar is wrong here. It's unlike Braeburn to interrupt someone's speech. I better turn into Ghostfreak to scour the town for clues." Spike activates the Omnitrix, and the faceplate rises. Spike turns to the left and slams down the faceplate. Green light flashes.
Spike starts becoming intangible. Then his body becomes gaseous with claw-like hands and grey skin with black lines running all over him. His hourglass insignia peeks out of the skin on his lower left chest, and he has one pink eye with a black pupil.
"There we go," Spike notices that the ponies around him didn't bat an unusual eye. "Now, to find anything suspicious," Spike goes through the wall and sees a different elderly earth pony mare minding her business and trying to swat a fly. "Looks normal." Spike sees the mare launching herself to the ceiling and eating the fly. "NOOOO WAAAAAY! I HAVE NEVER SEEN OLD FOLKS WITH THAT KIND OF AGILITY BEFORE!" Spike watches the old mare come down and rotates her neck, making bone-chilling neck cracks. It was more than enough for him to turn back.
Spike becomes invisible to the naked eye to wander around Appleloosa for more disturbing evidence. He sees two ponies in cattleman brown cowboy hats, one riding the wagon with a rug and the other dragging the wagon. Spike follows the two near a back alley. In the back, Spike can see the remaining apple trees still standing from the earthquake. He sees the front pony expanding his front limbs to vault over the fence. The wagon and pony go over the wall without any problems whatsoever.
"Perplexing." Spike phases through to see why the urgency of going over the wall rather than opening up the gate. He sees what appears to be a wine cellar. "A wine cellar? Something is awry, and I need to figure it out. More importantly, report to my friends and brother about what I found so far!" Spike hightails away from the scenery since he doesn't know how much time he has left before his transformation expires.
Braeburn wastes time blabbing about the richness of Appleoosa, the fun activities, and new buildings to bring in more businesses. Starlight shouts to get Braeburn's attention. She is infuriated with Braeburn's obliviously over common sense when some pony tries to get his attention.
"Sorry, I can get a bit carried away. I'm prideful of Appleloosa," Braeburn blushes in embarrassment for getting sidetracked.
"Look, Braeburn. You're the only pony that'll listen to us," Little Strongheart approaches him. "We are not the cause that shattered your apple trees. We buffalos had nothing to do with it."
Braeburn tilts his head and sighs. "I know you lot are not at fault. The Sherriff doesn't know who or what else to blame for the orchard's destruction. I tried speaking my mind, and he shrugged me off."
"What do we do now?" Little Strongheart turns to Trixie and Starlight since ponies in Appleloosa are lost-cause.
"Find Shining Armor. Hopefully, he uncovered the mysteries of the fault line," Trixie advises, knowing her commander performs explicitly under any circumstances.
Shining Armor and the seven Buffalos examine the fault line near an apple tree Applejack gave as a present. Shining Armor's visors detect residual alien activity. It scares him and creates an uncomfortable discussion with the Buffalos, who won't understand what aliens look like or their desirable plan to colonize. The Buffalos sense an ominous presence underground and back away in fear of the unknown.
"Alright," Shining Armor turns to the Buffalos. "I'm going inside the crack to explore the activity," Shining Armor places a small radio on the ground. "I'm going to document what I see, and you'll hear what I find. Understand?"
"Yes, Sir," The Buffalos nod in understanding. As they don't go down under, they'll do anything else Shining Armor commands.
Shining Armor hops down. The drop is steeper than he realizes. He activates his saddlebag thrusters to hover down smoothly. His visors bleep rapidly, detecting a higher frequency of alien development. Shining Armor lands on the ground, and he triggers the flashlight mode.
"Whoa..," Shining Armor sees the caves smeared in green ooze. "Alright, I'm in some cave underneath the orchard."
"A cave?" The Buffalos say in unison. They didn't think a cave would be under their sacred grounds.
Shining Armor looks around and feels his heart beating immensely. An eerie presence is lurking in the shadows. It moves, causing Shining to turn at the movement's sound. He pants while trying to calm himself.
Shining Armor trots to his right, hoping to find the source of the alien endeavor. "I see nothing but the green ooze on the ground and walls. I think I'm walking in the wrong..," Shining Armor sees a silhouette of a small shadow moving swiftly. "What was that?!"
The Buffalos start becoming scared of Shining Armor's progress within the caves. It's like listening to a horror story late at night. One Buffalo flees from the fault line from the description of the audio.
Shining Armor turns left and screams. The Buffalos scream and hightail away from the apple orchard. A green semi-humanoid blob attacks Shining Armor and wraps around him, subduing Shining Armor before allowing him to activate a homing distress beacon. His body gets dragged into the darkness.
Ghostfreak's Omnitrix insignia flashes and bleeps; Spike turns to normal with no pony in sight. He sighs in relief and needs to find Trixie and Starlight. He runs in search of his friends. Luckily for him, Spike collides with Braeburn, knocking him down by accident.
"Sorry, Braeburn," Spike helps him up.
"Apologies accepted, my friend," Braeburn sees the worry in Spike's expression. "Something bothering you, friend?" Braeburn pats Spike.
"Yea, Spike. It looks like you've seen a ghost," Trixie made a pun. She laughs at it, knowing about Ghostfreak.
"I saw something you guys wouldn't believe," Spike said, biting his lower left lip in fear.
"What did you see, Spike?" Starlight asks. Now she's worried about the situation in Appleloosa.
"Guys," Trixie's visors indicate Shining Armor's plumbing equipment went offline.
"What's up, Trixie?" Starlight turns to her friend.
"Shining is in trouble," Trixie knows whenever a plumber's visors go offline, it indicates that an ambush has happened.
"We need to go!" Spike gets on Starlight's back.
"I'm coming with y'all," Braeburn wants to prove the Buffalos' innocence to the Sherriff.
"Follow me!" Trixie gallops to the last location marked on Shining's visors.
During the trip, Spike revealed an old mare sticking onto the ceiling of her home to eat a fly, and a pony, extending his front legs to jump over a wall in the back alley with another pony riding a wagon where some apple trees were visible to the orchard. Spike mentions a wine cellar; however, Braeburn confirms no wine cellars in Appleloosa. There is nothing hidden from him. Braeburn knows everything about Appleloosa since he's one of the founding members.
The gang runs into six buffalos, fleeing for their life. Little Strongheart tries to calm them down and inquires about Shining Armor's whereabouts and status. The Buffalos say Shining Armor went into the fault line to prospect the area. They heard screams from the radio and ran from danger.
Little Strongheart thanks them and allows them to return to Tribal Chief Thunderhooves. She is upset that her brethren abandoned Shining Armor into the unknown but understands the predicament, not knowing what else to do.
Trixie picks up the pace to the orchard. She, Starlight, Spike, Little Strongheart, and Braeburn gasp at the size difference of the crack. From farther away, it looked smaller. Braeburn sheds tears from the devastation. Many apple trees didn't survive the carnage. Some uprooted, some snapped in two, and some apple-less. Little Strongheart extends her left hoof to rub Braeburn's back.
"Alright, this is the plan. I'll go down and search for Shining Armor. Braeburn and Strongheart. Go back and investigate the cellar Spike saw. It could lead to a base of operations," Trixie commands.
"Trixie, as much I admire your well-thought operation, I suggest a better one," Starlight said.
"And what would that be?" Trixie finds it a bit offensive that Starlight diminishes her idea. "In case you have forgotten, I have the equipment best-suited for the search."
"Exactly. However, you should go with Braeburn and Strongheart."
"Why would I go with them?" Trixie wants to test Starlight's brainstorming.
"Because I have teleportation magic. I will take Spike down below and conduct our search. When we locate Shining Armor, I'll teleport us back to Appleloosa lickety-split."
"Hmm," Trixie gives it some thought; her teleportation magic is on par with Starlight, but there could be an assault waiting in the cellar. If aliens are involved there, Starlight will not have the proper measures to fight them off. "Alright, Starlight. I'm trusting you and Spike to locate Shining Armor. In the meantime, I'll go with Braeburn and Strongheart."
"Thanks for trusting me," Starlight says with relief. She thought Trixie would reject her plan.
"What are friends for?" Trixie smiles at her friends. "Let's get moving," Trixie follows Braeburn and Little Strongheart back to Appleloosa.
"Think you can lower us down?" Spike turns to Starlight.
"Mmhmm," Starlight nods. She casts a magic bubble to hover Spike and her into the fault line. It's steeper than they thought.
Spike looks at his Omnitrix; it turns green at the right time. "Starlight, I'm turning into Wildmutt. You can ride on my back. I believe; I need a strong sense of awareness in the caves."
"Understood, Spike," Starlight was about to suggest Spike turn into Wildmutt. Great minds think alike.
Starlight lands on the ground and sees the green ooze plastered all over. Spike activates his Omnitrix. The faceplate rises with the image of Wildmutt in front. It's like the Omnitrix is navigating the choice for the alien selection. Spike presses the faceplate down.
Spike feels his body changing once more. He's turning into an orange dog-like creature with no eyes, ears, nose, or tail. He stands on all fours. His teeth are very defined, and his bottom jaw sticks out of his mouth. The various spines found across his body function similarly to whiskers with tactile sensing and are not fur. There's a shoulder pad adoring the hourglass symbol on the front left of Spike's arm. Spike roars after the transformation.
"I'll take that roar as a get-on-your-back-and-hold-on-tight," Starlight said. Spike nods and leans down, allowing Starlight to climb on board. "Okay, this feels exhilarating!" Starlight enjoyingly admits. Spike sniffs and runs down the path.
Braeburn, Little Strongheart, and Trixie return to Appleloosa. Many ponies turn to them awkwardly. Trixie's visors scan each pony and receive red flags.
"What are you doing with that raging Buffalo?!" The Sherriff approaches Braeburn. "Don't you know creatures like them destroy with their stampedes! Look what they have done to our land after agreeing to share!" The Sheriff snorts irately.
Little Strongheart is taken aback by the sudden hostility; She growls at the Sherriff. Braeburn is confused. The Sherriff is behaving like the days before the war with the Buffalos.
"Who are you?" Trixie prepares to attack the deceivers.
"Brae, why are you siding with these-" The Sherriff gets shot by a laser bullet by Trixie's hoof-held pistol.
Eyes widen for Braeburn and Little Strongheart. What they were wasn't magic. The impact of the laser bullet gave the Sherriff a hole in his left eye that regenerated swiftly. Braeburn and Little Strongheart horridly shout and are mesmerized to witness an abnormal sequence.
"Get back!" Trixie activates her saddlebags when she jumps back. "Activated Saddle Machine Guns!" The saddlebags on each of Trixie's sides sentry torrents. The barrels and muzzles extend, thus allowing Trixie to use her magic to change the mode of laser blasts into bullets.
The Sherriff and several ponies around transformed, turning into green-humanoid slime creatures with dark-pink organs visible. They have multiple eyes, extra arms, and fin-like protrusions.
Braeburn and Little Strongheart wanted to puke after seeing the booger-like hideous creatures that were disguising ponies this whole time. Trixie continues her onslaught on the aliens, but they easily dodge Trixie's maneuvers. Braeburn snaps out of his trance and attempts to buck the slob-like alien, but his kick goes through their bodies. The slime-like alien stretches its' limbs, grabs Braeburn, and tosses him aside. He crashes into a barrel of water. Little Strongeheart informs Trixie of bringing an army back. Trixie hopes the Buffalos are more than enough to drive these aliens away. Right now, lasers do not affect them.
It had been twenty minutes since Spike turned into Wildmutt. Spike continues to run into the caves with Starlight riding on his back. Starlight sees a gap and instinctively tells Spike to stop running before going off a small abyss. Wildmutt's Omnitrix bleeps and flashes red, transforming Spike to his original state. He falls over since Starlight is a bit heavy. They are a few feet away from the gap.
"Sorry, Spike," Starlight gets off of Spike and helps him up.
"It's alright..; whoa," Spike is in shock, and so is Starlight.
Down below, an enormous room with a massive spaceship in the middle and small green pods lining the entire floor. Starlight uses magic to conjure a bubble to hover safely in the area. Within the pods, it gives Starlight an eerie feeling about Queen Chrysalis and ponders if she's an alien all this time. Many of these pods have Appleloosian ponies submerged. Including one that went missing; the moment Trixie informed the group of Shining Armor's disappearance. Spike and Starlight see Shining Armor in a deep sleep within the chamber.
"Oh, there you are," Shining Armor approaches the two from behind, startling Spike and Starlight. He sounds calm and genuine.
"Shining, thank heavens you're here!" Starlight thought of the worse and figured Shining had outsmarted whatever creature captured the Appleloosian ponies.
"Everything is alright. We need to get moving before the invaders come and capture us!" Shining Armor warns Starlight and Spike.
"What about these ponies?" Spike asks Shining. He needs to hear if this Shining will think selfishly.
"I've called backup. Should be arriving soon," Shining replies. Shining won Starlight's trust.
Spike sees no tech on Shining Armor. Knowingly, Shining trusts his friends in the plumbers and is more revealing with his visors. "Call Princess Luna with those visors of yours. She will need to deal with this UFO."
"Oh, uh," Shining sounds hesitant, which is now more than enough for Starlight to blast the fake with magic. The fake's body split in two; however, the body turns into green ooze and molds into a green-humanoid creature. "It knows too much!" More of its' brethren arrive. "Get them!"
Spike runs for cover, hoping his Omnitrix recharge process is quicker than before. The glop-like aliens sprint after Spike, trying to seize him before things get out of hand.
Starlight shoots a magic beam at Shining's pod. He comes out, breathing heavily and waking up from a deep slumber. She casts a defense bubble to repel the aliens' advances.
"Damn, those things got me good," Shining Armor takes a breather. He sees them chasing his brother. "OH NO, YOU DON'T!" Shining Armor takes immediate action and uses his magic to teleport in front of the aliens. "Saddle Bazooka!" Shining Armor's saddlebags form into a singular cannon, blasting the aliens. To his surprise, the laser beam from the bazooka doesn't affect them in the slightest. Shining switches gears and shoots a flamethrower at them. It turns out the aliens are heat-resistant. Shining grits his teeth and change gears again, hoping that something in his arsenal can weaken the aliens.
Starlight flies around in her defense bubble while the aliens pursue her. They couldn't sink through her magic but decided to let Starlight be the damsel in this situation. Starlight sees Spike trips over a green puddle, which happens to be a trap devised by one of the aliens. Starlight flies to Spike, allowing him inside the bubble that turns out to be her undoing. Another alien was in stasis near a pod and lunged at Starlight, causing her to disable her defense bubble. Starlight gets pinned down by so many aliens that they start to encase her.
"Stop!" Spike sees the overwhelming numbers getting to Shining Armor; Shining tries to fire a lightning beam with his saddle cannon but gets overrun by the aliens. Spike hears his Omnitrix fully recharged and green. Spike activates the Omnitrix and slams the faceplate down, not seeing who he's choosing.
Spike's body starts changing color from purple to grey. He now has four-razor-sharped-fingered hands. Spike's Omnitrix symbol is a black patch over his left pectoral. The transformation is a fusion of many aquatic creatures, such as eels, alligators, leeches, sharks, and anglerfish. Spike also has a phosphorescent light on his head.
The aliens, Shining and Starlight, turn to see Spike as Ripjaws. Spike breathes in and feels his body moist. His sweats are droplets of cold water. "Ah, much better now," Spike turns to the aliens. "Release my friends and prepare for a merciless beating!"
The aliens laugh. "Buddy, your friends are hopeless. These ponies are worthless. Weapons and magic have no effect on us. What can you do to us!"
"You're going to find out!" Spike leaps at the alien and claws him. It screeches, and their brethren become timorous.
"What's wrong?" One of the aliens asks their comrade.
"Something about his skin, I felt something putrid like..," It doesn't want to reveal a crucial detail that can lead to their downfall.
"My skin?" It clicks for Spike. Since he's an aquatic alien, the air is moist, and his sweats are water. "Shining! Water is their weakness!"
"OH, NO!" The aliens panic.
Starlight smirks and uses her magic to teleport out of the caves. She knows about a water tower in Appleloosa and decides to bring some refreshments to the party.
"WHERE DID SHE GO?!" The aliens turn to Spike and Shining after seeing her disappearing act.
"Where she needs to be," Spike replies. He resumes his onslaught on the aliens. Since his body consists of water, they can't touch Spike. "Shining! Find pods inside the UFO and bring them out!"
"On it!" Shining Armor gallops to the UFO.
"OH NO, YOU DON'T!" The aliens go after Shining Armor, but Spike jumps in and attacks them. They scream and pull away due to the water dripping on his body.
Starlight appears in front of Trixie and Braeburn. They are trying to defend themselves from the onslaught of the ooze-like aliens. Starlight casts a defense bubble before they lunge at them.
"There's no stopping us! Give up now!" The aliens start striking the defense shield relentlessly. It cracks.
"Starlight? Any progress?" Trixie asks. She conjures a defense bubble to strengthen the hold from the attacks.
"Water is their weakness!" Starlight shouts with delight. The aliens growl and step back in horror after hearing the dreadful news.
"You don't say," Braeburn looks at the barrels aligned around town. "Care to give me a lasso?" Braeburn becomes excited and wants payback from the invaders that took his friends and family.
"One energy lasso coming up!" Trixie uses her magic to produce a lasso made of pure energy and laser from her saddlebag. She gives it to Braeburn.
"Kill them before they kill us!" The aliens prepare themselves once the shields are down to advance and subdue their enemies.
Starlight transport Braeburn to the nearest barrel behind the aliens. The aliens search around while maintaining focus on Trixie and Starlight. Using his new lasso, Braeburn grabs and tosses the barrel at the aliens. On impact, water covers them, causing them to shriek and rive in pain. Some disperse and go after Braeburn. He sprints to the nearest barrel.
Trixie and Starlight go their separate ways. Starlight runs to the water tower and hovers on top. She enchants the top of the tower and contains the water. Then she teleports back to Spike and Shining Armor. Trixie feels the ground quaking and sees Little Strongheart with Tribal Chief Thunderhooves charging with all of the Buffalos. Trixie alerts about water being the alien's weakness. The aliens flee from the Buffalos. They are more scared about getting pummeled than drenched with water.
A Buffalo helps Braeburn and puts him on his back. Braeburn uses his lasso to grab each barrel to chuck at the aliens. Water splatters, causing many to wail and dissipate. They see the majority of them running toward the wine cellar.
Trixie sprints in front and shoots a laser beam with her saddle launcher, creating an enormous hole for the Buffalos to chase them even more.
Shining Armor removes the pods within the UFO. He sees Spike taking down the aliens that try to swarm and multiply. Since they can't touch Spike, it's a futile attempt.
"I can do this all day!" Spike confidently shouts. He laughs at the misery of the aliens' agony. Then his Omnitrix symbol bleeps and blinks. "NO! NOT NOW!" A red light flashes, reverting Spike to normal. "Ah, shit!" Spike's confidence fades instantly.
The aliens are smiling now they got the advantage. Spike steps back while Shining Armor prepares to defend Spike as best as he can.
"All that talk, and now, you're at our mercy!" The aliens laugh in victory.
"Oh really!" Starlight is behind them with tons of water.
The aliens turn to see Starlight hovering with what appears to be a bomb in their sights. "Nono, no!" The aliens are waving their limbs then they see much of their race fleeing in fear.
"RETREAT! RETREAT!" The fleeing aliens cry while the Buffalos, Braeburn, and Trixie chase them. The aliens that fought Spike and Shining flee from the Buffalos and activate the UFO thruster sequence.
"Take this and never come back!" Starlight throws the magic bubble containing water at the UFO.
Most of the aliens shrill loudly when the water touches their bodies. The hatch closes with some aliens melting away. The UFO launches itself into the air and leaves Equus' orbit.
Every creature shouts its warcry now that they win the battle. Spike and Shining Armor sit back and relaxes. All of the Buffalos see Appleloosian ponies within the pods.
"We will help bring them to the surface and explain all that happened today."
"I can use a bath," Spike said. "A long hot one."
"You'll have to wait your turn. Being inside those pods was very uncomfortable," Shining said. "Being submerged by them was gruesome enough."
Hours later. The Buffalos unloaded the pods they carried on their backs and freed all the Appleloosian ponies from captivity. The Sherriff snaps out of his trance and remembers what attacked him days ago. Little Strongheart explains what transpired and the destruction of their sacred grounds.
Every pony is devastated that the land is beyond repair, and Appleloosa now has to relocate. The Buffalos wish they could run on their sacred land but know it'll take decades to fix naturally.
"So, what shall we do, Sherriff?" A local earth pony mare turns to him.
"Return to our families and find help with restoring the land. Hopefully, someone will lend a hoof," The Sherriff turns to Tribal Chief Thunderhooves. "I'm terribly sorry for the loss of your sacred land."
"No need to feel sorry. We're glad you and everyone are safe from the invaders," Tribal Chief Thunderhooves replies. "Perhaps we can work together on restoring the land."
The Sherriff smiles at the gesture. "That'll be great. I wonder why those aliens came after us and not you."
"Judging from those pods, I want to say those aliens had a craving for apple meat," Starlight theorizes, which made every Appleloosian pony cringe.
"Cousin Applejack told me that Changelings would harvest love from any creature as food. Maybe those things are distant cousins?" Braeburn suggest.
"Good Celestia, I hope not!" Shining Armor doesn't like the sound of that theory. "Also, judging from the ooze within the caves, they didn't look fresh. It's possible they were down there for decades."
"More likely they wanted to consume the Buffalos but were scared due to their sheer size and strength?" Spike comments on the possible conclusion.
"Maybe our apple tree gave them new nutrients and be subtle with us pony folk?" A random earth pony stallion says. Now everyone cringes at that circumstance which correlates to Starlight's suggestion.
Braeburn sighs deeply. "Hopefully, cousin Applejack won't mind us staying at their orchard for a while."
"She'll be devastated that her favorite tree got demolished," An Appleloosian bystander says, knowing how prideful Applejack can be with her apple trees.
"Also," The Sherriff and Tribal Chief Thunderhooves turn to Shining, Spike, Starlight, and Trixie. "Thank you for helping us," They say in unison.
"You're welcome, Shining, Spike, Starlight, and Trixie reply with gratitude. "We're happy to help."
"Also, if it's not too much to ask, can you not talk about our weaponry?" Shining Armor asks the Sherriff and Thunderhooves.
"My lips are sealed. Who'll believe a Buffalo speaking about lasers and missiles?"
"Alright, partner. We'll keep this silent. However, we'll say you four helped greatly during our crisis. Nothing more or less," The Sherriff replies. He shakes Shining's hoof to seal the deal.
"Thank you," Shining Armor bows to Tribal Chief Thunderhooves and shakes the Sherriff's hoof.
Shining Armor, Starlight Glimmer, Spike, and Trixie walk back to the RV. After an hour, Spike starts preparing dinner for his friends and brother. It's his turn in the rotation of cooking meals. Trixie and Starlight are preparing the table while Shining Armor answers a doorknock. Shining Armor sees Little Strongheart alone.
"I want to say thank you for coming," Little Strongheart smiles. "Please, give these gemstones to Spike. It's a sack full of turquoise gemstones."
"I will," Shining Armor uses his magic to lift the sack inside the RV. "You'll make sure to report to the agency for any other activity."
Little Strongheart looks around her and deactivates the cloaking mode on her visors. "They already know, Sir," Little Strongheart smiles and salutes to Shining Armor. She activates her cloaking sequence on her visors and gallops away from the RV. She doesn't want Tribal Chief Thunderhooves to send a wave of Buffalos to bring her back home.
"Shining! Dinner's ready!" Spike shouts from the kitchen.
"Coming!" Shining Armor closes the door and goes to eat dinner with his family. |
Spike's Omnitrix | Who's To Blame? What To Do Next? | "Uh oh," Big McIntosh said after receiving today's paper.
The headline reads: APPLELOOSA IN SHAMBLES! The newspaper documents the surreal earthquake fault line stretching across Buffalo's sacred land and the apple orchard. Apple trees are uprooted, scattered, and appleless. Pictures of several apple trees made Big McIntosh shed many tears and wonder how their families would recover from the crisis.
Applejack walks into the kitchen with Apple Bloom after taking care of their morning routine. Granny Smith is sleeping on her rocking chair.
"Morning, Big Mac! How's it going?" Apple Bloom turns to her older brother.
"Somethin' bothering you, Big Mac?" Applejack tries to read her brother's body language.
"Uh," Big Mac tosses the newspaper to his siblings. He couldn't utter a word to describe his feeling.
"WHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAT!?!" Applejack is more appalled at the headline than Apple Bloom. She's irate after reading more about the coverage.
"So, what happens now with Appleloosa?" Apple Bloom turns to her older siblings.
Big McIntosh shrugs. He's clueless about tackling the situation.
"Mysterious ooze and creatures stumbling around?! Nothing in Equestrian history about creatures dragging pony folk?!" Applejack sounds more angry than frantic as she reads more about the incident. "THIS HAS TO DO WITH SPIKE'S DOOHICKEY! SPIKE BROUGHT THEM THINGS TO APPLELOOSA!" Applejack loses her temper.
Apple Bloom and Big McIntosh are equally confused about Applejack's rant and claim. They wonder why Spike's involvement has anything to do with the current state of Appleloosa.
Granny Smith wakes up from Applejack's clamor. "Enough!" Granny Smith shouts with authority. It's more than enough to silence Applejack's complaint. "Now, I have no idea why the youngling would be the cause of Appleloosa's plight. Enlighten us, Applejack. Why would Spike jeopardize Appleloosian's apples?"
"Yea? What do you know about Spike and what doohickey he has?" Apple Bloom wants to know if it is related to Diamond Dude.
"Eeyup!" Big McIntosh concurs.
Applejack bites her lips. She fears her explanation would spread throughout Ponyville like Heatblast's wildfire in the forest. "Swear that none of you blab about what I'm going to say."
"Alright, Applejack. I won't speak to anypony," Granny Smith solemnly swears in honor of the Apple Family Name.
"Cross my heart, hope to fly! Stick a cupcake in my eye!" Apple Bloom performs the Pinkie Promise. She knows better than to break a Pinkie Promise.
"Eeyup!" Big McIntosh's signature reply also means he won't tell a soul about Spike's possible involvement.
Applejack takes a deep breath. She explains the watch Spike wears on his left wrist, enabling him to turn into an alien. Applejack mentions Diamond Dude being Spike the entire time. Apple Bloom smiles widely and leaps for joy, knowing that her friend is the one that saved Ponyville and everypony from a threat, not from this planet. Granny Smith is amazed to hear that Applejack's friend can help every creature as her granddaughter could. Big McIntosh will miss Spike during the Guy's Night Game Night. He understands that Spike now has newer responsibilities to uphold.
"Now that y'all know. Don't bombast anyone about Spike being the Diamondheaded alien."
"I won't, Applejack!" Apple Bloom responds. She performed the Pinkie Pie ritual.
"My lips are shut, Applejack. No need to fret," Bic McIntosh calmly replies.
"I won't say anything. However, Spike is not to blame for Appleloosa's demise since he uses the doohickey for righteousness," Granny Smith implores Applejack.
"Them aliens occurrences are a magnet to Spike, Granny! How can I not!?" Applejack retorts. "Who would you blame?"
"Those things could be underground for centuries, plotting and scheming. I say it's more on them than Spike. We don't know what happened, and not all the evidence gets documented in a single newspaper article!"
"She's right. I'm sure the Princesses came up with a cover story to hide all the other thrilling details," Apple Bloom replies. She understands the world of journalism through her experience.
"Whatever happened to Pinkie Pie? I haven't seen her for breakfast," Granny Smith asks Applejack.
"She slept over at Rainbow's house after going on a pranking spree, Granny. Anyway, I'll be back later. Going to visit my friends for a get-together," Applejack leaves her home. She's eager to know if Twilight developed some spell to pry Spike's watch and send it elsewhere to kingdom come.
Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash wake up to a bright and sunny day. They had a blast by fooling every pony into thinking Diamond Dude was visiting Ponyville to sign autographs, wasting everyone's time for half a day. The two get out of their beds and stretch.
"Man, that was an awesome dream!" Rainbow dreamt about saving the Wonderbolts from a wicked beast.
"I'll say," Pinkie giggles. She dreamt about being on an island made of candy.
"So, when do you think Twilight will reopen the school?" Rainbow asks Pinkie. She sees her friend with a blank expression. "Pinkie?"
Pinkie shakes her uneasy feeling since knowing the truth about Twilight using her students as servants, which Princess Celestia forbade her from receiving help. "Sorry, Dashie. I got sidetracked by something peculiar," Pinkie didn't mean to lie to her best friend, but she didn't know how to say something without troubling Twilight even further.
"What's on your mind, Pinkie?" Rainbow flies up to her friend to look her in the eye.
"It's Spike's watch," Pinkie lies to Rainbow Dash. She feels guilty but brings up Spike's aliens as an evasion for her deception.
"What about it?" Rainbow is suspicious about Pinkie bringing Spike into the conversation.
"I'm worried about who else may get impacted immensely with consequences. First, it was Twilight who lost custody of Spike for life. Then, my home with the Cakes gets burned down. I'm worried about an unforeseeable pattern that may affect the rest of our friends."
"Well, you did accidentally blur the mentioning of Spike's rant that led Twilight to cough up more incriminating details, Pinkie. Also, we don't know what sparked the fire at the Cakes' shop. We can't jump to conclusions about Spike's involvement. He's not the catalyst that initiates the suffering," Rainbow replies. With her element of Loyalty, she's showing that to Spike as her friend. She knows that Spike did not start a fire that wrecked Sugarcube Corner. From what she knows, Spike saved the Cake family. Also, she remembered Spike's rant that led to him quitting caring for Twilight.
"Oh..," Pinkie thinks it over, still avoiding her actual feeling about Twilight's ploy to use extra credit as a loophole for Celestia's decree. "I guess you're right..."
"C'mon!" Rainbow hypes Pinkie up with her demeanor. "Let's go meet up with our friends!"
"Yeah!" Pinkie becomes energetic. She hops out of the Cloudominium. She rides her balloon down while Rainbow Dash flies to the ground.
Upon arrival, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash meet up with Applejack. They see her pissed off.
"What's wrong, Applejack?" Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie ask with concern.
Applejack looks sternly at her friends. Some ponies around back away from her presence. "I rather discuss this privately," Applejack refers to the Castle of Friendship as an ideal location for any discussion.
"Okay," Pinkie and Rainbow nod in understanding. They follow Applejack to the Castle of Friendship.
Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity are preparing for a picnic inside the Castle of Friendship. A day to spend time with their pets since two creatures won't accompany them. Spike and Starlight. Fluttershy and Rarity hope this decision can clear Twilight's mind of losing Spike due to Celestia's command. Twilight struggles to find peace with everything that Princess Celestia stole from her. Losing Spike permanently still is a crushing blow. Learning to care for herself is harder while being alone in the castle. However, she's determined to prove herself worthy to Princess Celestia by sharing friendships with every creature else, not a one-sided friendship.
Applejack barges through the castle's doors, scaring the daylights out of Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity. They come out and see their friend distraught.
"What happened?!" Twilight shouts in shock.
"Why are you upset, Applejack?" Rarity asks.
"Please.., tell.., us..," Fluttershy said in a quiet but loud enough to hear tone.
"IT'S SPIKE'S FAULT!" Applejack bellows in the corridors of the Castle of Friendship. The echoes reach throughout the castle.
"What?!" Rarity and Fluttershy are flabbergasted by Spike's involvement with Applejack's dismay.
"What did Spike do?" Twilight trots up to her friend. She extends her left wing for an embrace and comfort.
"I'll show you what that varmint had done!" Applejack snorts. She pulls out her hat to reach for today's newspaper. "Take a look for yourselves!"
Twilight reads the newspaper to her friends. APPLELOOSA IN SHAMBLES! Twilight reads loudly about the destruction of the apple orchard and Buffalo's sacred land. Apple trees uprooted, appleless, and scattered. A fault line that stretches far and wide, leaving no room to undo the damages. Reports say that an earthquake caused the events. Also, mysterious ooze and ponies stumbling has every pony else confused; Nothing in Equestrian history about creatures dragging others into the unknown.
"That.., is terrible!" Pinkie shouts in sadness.
"Horrible," Fluttershy concurs with Pinkie's statement.
"Whoa, I guess you were right about Spike's watch, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash feels eerie about Pinkie's explanation earlier.
"What in tarnation did you say, Pinkie?" Applejack turns to the pink mare, wondering if she jinxed the rest of her friends.
"Well..," Pinkie sweats a bit. "I had a peculiar feeling that Spike's involvement with aliens may affect us severely..."
Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity groan loudly. Rainbow Dash believes nothing wrong will happen to her and the Wonderbolts. Twilight understands the feeling since she was the first to feel the wrath of consequences.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Pinkie grabs everyone's attention. "Why can't we have Discord restore what was damaged?"
"Because, Pinkie," Discord rises from the ground after hearing everything spoken. He stretches and pops every bone in his body in place. "These events are not mine to clean up and fix. Whatever happens beyond my magic is the ponies' problem. What Spike does with the Omnitrix is his business."
"Omni-what?" The girls look at Discord in confusion.
"Spike's watch. It has a name. Omnitrix."
"Cool name," Rainbow digs the name. She finds it twenty percent cooler.
"You met with Spike, Starlight, and Shining?" Twilight asks Discord. She's eager to know how Spike is doing.
"Oh, I have. Spike, Shining, and Starlight are having fun traveling the continent together. I saw them around a bonfire," Discord stretches the truth. He didn't reveal Trixie traveling with the crew.
"Say, Discord. Can your magic remove Spike's Omni-watch?" Applejack turns to the Draqonecuus, hoping his magic can bypass the protection on Spike's wrist.
"Can your and our magic be strong enough to remove the watch?" Twilight asks, knowing wholeheartedly that Princess Celestia, Luna, and Cadance will not be involved.
"I don't know. I never attempted to remove the watch, nor would I ever try. Spike is enjoying his life, so I shall not intervene. You can try it if you like. If it means no more alien involvement and ruining his life," Discord lies about his attempt. He knows the Omnitrix has an overpowering protection mechanism that his chaos magic cannot remove. Also, the time when Trixie and Shining Armor defeated him in seconds. Spike has his protection.
"No, no. We're not ruining Spike's life. It has nothing to do with that, Discord," Twilight replies.
"Then, what is it?" Discord is intrigued to know Twilight's true intention. Snapping his eagle-like claw, Discord spawns a bucket of popcorn coated in chocolate and caramel. "Enlighten me!" Discord said in a playful and taunting manner while grabbing a pawful of popcorn.
"Alien activity started spiking since Spike got the so-called Omnitrix, and they laid devastation, tracking Spike wherever he went and afflicting every pony, bringing misery. These aliens are detrimental, and their only objective is accroaching Spike's watch. If we efface the situation by detaching the Omnitrix, we could send it to another planet where those aliens would forage and leave us alone."
"Hmm," Discord didn't think Twilight would endanger another world to get the aliens to leave Equus alone. Discord reads Twilight's body language and knows something is amiss. The way Twilight detailed the Omnitrix being the cause is one thing. However, she hasn't explained the Spike portion. Where does he fit with her theory? "What about Spike? How would this impact him?"
"I'm sure he wouldn't mind making a sacrifice for the benefit of all life on Equus," Twilight is confident with Spike's intelligence and would relinquish the watch if it means saving all lives. "Also, he'll still be with Starlight and Shining on their vacation. Still an adventure."
"I don't know if Spike will be willing to sacrifice like that. He'd seem too attached and is improving his skills," Discord says, knowing Spike is doing better with his aliens.
"THAT VARMIT SHOULD NOT ALLOW HIS GREED TO CONSUME HIS MIND!" Applejack snorts.
"Applejack!" Eyes widen for Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Rarity. They are stunned to hear Applejack's rage speaking more than her stubbornness.
"How dare you call Spikey-Wikey a varmit!" Rarity is disgusted with Applejack's behavior.
"SPIKE HAS BECOME GREEDY BEFORE! HE GREW INTO A RAMPAGING DRAGON HOARDING ALL SORTS OF STUFF AND LOST HIS MIND! HE'LL DO IT A SECOND TIME BECAUSE OF THAT WATCH! IT'LL ONLY BE A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE SPIKE BRINGS AN INVASION CAUSING ALL CLOTHING TO GO OUT OF STOCK AND ANIMALS TO GO EXTINCT!"
"Applejack, you're going too far. Calm down!" Rainbow Dash closes her eyes and back-hoofs Applejack in the face to snap her out of the rage.
Applejack growls and pants heavily when she sees the terror written on her friends' faces. She steps back to recompose herself.
"Bravo!" Discord applauds. "What a show!" Discord throws roses at Rainbow Dash for snapping her friend back into reality.
"Discord!" Fluttershy raises her voice at the Draqonecuus.
"What?" Discord turns to his best friend.
"It's impolite to laugh," Fluttershy reminds Discord of what a friend should be doing in a crisis like this.
"If Spike continues to wield the Omnitrix, it could mean the end of us. Alien or not, his involvement will become problematic to replace your Chaos," Twilight firmly states to entice Discord into helping strip Spike's Omnitrix.
"Replace my Chaos..?" Discord knows Twilight is trying to coax him like an idiot. For now, he mustn't reveal the defense protocols of the Omnitrix. Otherwise, Twilight will succumb to madness. "Well, Twilight," An idea struck his mind, something devious that he couldn't pass up. "When the time arrives, I'll assist you in prying the watch. I hope, by then, you have something of greater power that'll remove the Omnitrix."
"Don't worry," An image of the Alicorn Amulet comes to Twilight's mind with the Elements of Harmony. "I'll have something by then."
"Twilight, you can't be serious?" Rainbow Dash is now worried about Twilight's state of mind now that Discord wants to help.
"I wouldn't want to make a decision you'll regret, Twilight," Pinkie urges Twilight not to pursue selfish ambitions since discovering the loophole the other day.
"Don't do it, Twilight. It's not worth the trouble," Rarity said. She's nervous about the consequences down the line.
"Please don't," Fluttershy frowns at taking something precious away from Spike.
"Despite how I feel during my enraged state, I say do it, Twi," Applejack wholeheartedly says while calming down.
"NO!" Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie shout. They are not thrilled with Applejack's advice.
Twilight shuts her eyes and exhales. "Think it over, girls. You'll see that we're right. A sacrifice must be made to stop an ongoing threat from coming." |
Spike's Omnitrix | Mutant Animals | "Ah, shit!" Shining Armor curses to himself as he realizes he took a wrong turn and turns off the map of Equestria.
"Shining, what's wrong?" Trixie approached Shining Armor after noticing his sudden change in demeanor.
It's been two days since vacating Appleloosa. Shining Armor and Trixie delegated Little Strongheart to discreetly clarify the details about the Buffalo's sacred land and Appleloosian Orchard's fallout. They obtained a transmission about the newspaper Equestria published yesterday from the agency. The news article records no aliens, only a bizarre creature the authorities managed to suppress without too much conflict, a more conceivable story than most ponies in Equestria would consider.
"The map glitched, and we're going the wrong way!" Shining retorts and gets up.
The RV's navigation system encountered a problem, and Shining Armor misread the map. As a result, they ended up further away from Las Pegasus and closer to Baltimare. Feeling frustrated, Shining Armor trots to the kitchen and opens the fridge to grab a soda can. After taking a sip, he feels his nerves and his tension ease.
Starlight is with Spike, playing parchisi to pass the time since Trixie permitted her to have a break day from yesterday's exercise session. She didn't want Starlight to become so overwhelmed that her body gave out, and the two turned to Shining.
"Everything alright, bro?" Spike asks as he hears Starlight rolling the dice.
"Hah! Five!" Starlight moves her third piece into the home sport. "One more piece to go!"
"Uuuuuh," Shining Armor groans first before taking a deep breath. "We'll be reaching Baltimare in the next hour or so. We'll be taking the more extended route to Las Pegasus."
"Sounds good to us," Starlight and Spike say in unison, not minding the change of plans.
"Wanna take a break and join our game?" Spike asks; he has three pieces on the board and grabs the dice, hoping to roll on a seven to even the playing field.
"I can't. Maybe later, Spike," Shining hovers his drink into the driver's seat. Taking another sip, Shining focuses and uses his magic to steer the RV on the pathway.
"So, what's the plan for Baltimare since we're here early?" Trixie asks Shining Armor.
"Go around and have fun. Maybe go to a game or concert or something. We're on vacation, so we should enjoy the festivities."
"Hmm, maybe the Great and Powerful can-" Shining interrupts Trixie.
"No!" Shining takes a deep breath. "As much as I marvel at your personality leaping into the concern, this is not the time for it unless all others fail us."
Trixie pouts. "No fair. The Great and Powerful Triiixie requests to showcase her mastery among her peers!" Trixie says in character, sounding irritated and childish.
Shining Armor rolls his eyes; Trixie's impersonation is so sterling Shining feels like driving off the cliff. Trixie knows how to burrow under any creature's nerves when it's time for bragging and demonstrating. Starlight and Spike overhear their exchange and start laughing. Spike rolls a seven and shouts with a fist pump. Starlight got anxious about losing her commanding lead, with Spike accumulating momentum.
Half an hour later. The gang arrives in Baltimare. Spike and Starlight are in a standoff in their game. The roll of the dice gave them numbers not needed to win. Starlight needs a three to win, while Spike needs a two.
"Hey guys, we're here!" Shining shouts with excitement. He can't recall the last time being in Baltimare.
"FIIIIIRE!" Trixie shouts, seeing the smoke rising from a burning building, an apartment complex at the corner of the street. Many ponies assemble in expectation of loved ones reaching out unharmed. There are no firefighters present to settle the problem.
"WHAT?!" Starlight and Spike drop the game and run to the windshield of the RV. They see the apartment complex's windows bursting and smoke rising into the skies. One pony took the leap of faith and landed harshly on the ground.
"Alright! I'm going in as Heatblast! I'll get through to anypony trapped in their rooms."
"Alright, Spike. In the meantime, we'll help stop the flames from spreading into the streets and other homes!" Shining Armor responds.
Spike activates his Omnitrix. The silhouette of Heatblast immediately appears when the faceplate rises. "You and I think alike, huh?" Spike talks to the Omnitrix, presses the faceplate down, then a green light flashes.
Spike's body becomes a super hot inner plasma covered by dark reddish-brown volcanic rocks. His body radiates high amounts of heat. His feet have a slight oval-like design with only two toes and one back toe. His tongue is also made of fire, while his collarbone resembles a volcano, which generates a fiery hair that covers his head, leaving his mask-like face visible with no nose or ears. The Omnitrix symbol is on his chest.
"It's go time!" Spike vacates the RV and uses his hands to shoot flames as boosters to fly in the air. Many ponies above see Heatblast and wonder what type of monster will plague their city. Spike arrives on the fourth floor.
"Mommy! I'm scared," A young blue colt said, hugging the front leg of his mother.
"Don't worry," The yellow earth mare leans down to hold her child. "Everything will be alright!" The ceiling starts to quake, causing the wood to collapse from above.
Spike lunges forward and catches the debris from plummeting and squashing. "Gotcha!" Spike tosses the rubble aside.
"Who are you?" The young colt looks in awe at his savior.
"Heatblast!" Spike extends his arms, hoping to see if he can absorb or put out the fire around the room. To his surprise, Spike manages to put out the flames, clearing a path toward an exit.
"WOW!" The mother and son duo said in astonishment. They are glad to have someone saving them from this disaster.
"Follow me!" Spike kicks the door open. The stairs crumble, and many ponies cry for help. "Crap!" Spike shouts in his mind; he doesn't want to scare the duo.
"What do we do now?!" The young colt screams in fear, not wanting to perish like this.
Spike skims around and glimpses a window. An idea comes to him. "I have an idea!" Spike shoots flames from his palms, piercing the wall around the window.
"Do you expect us to jump!?" The mother sternly questions, comprehending it's a drop that ushers severe harm.
"Not quite!" Spike uses his flames to disseminate him and the two ponies. The fire forms a tunnel beam that permits secure travel from out the window to the ground. The fire disbands, leaving the son and mother silent and intact. "I have to get back inside!" Spike uses his flames as boosters once more and returns to the floor.
The firefighters arrive and witness Shining Armor, Trixie, and Starlight putting out the flames and saving the lower floors' ponies. They felt embarrassed for coming a little late. The young colt welcomes his friends and notifies them about this anomaly that rescued him and his mother. When he mentioned Heatblast's name, every pony began chanting Heatblast's name for motivation.
Shining Armor gallops to the stairs and steps back when the wood gives out. He sees Spike on the fourth floor. "Heatblast! We've got the first and second floors secured. Check the third floor!"
"Will do, townie!" Spike held in his laughter before going to the third floor; he reviewed the rest of the fourth floor. No pony is up there, so Spike plunges to the third floor. He sees a horde of ponies gathering by the windows for air since the smoke sucked the oxygen. Some unlocked the windows, calling for help and huffing for breath. "Hey, everypony!" Spike shouts to get their awareness. Within the second, everypony screams in terror until one of them hears the chanting of Heatblast's name.
A stallion trots up to Spike. "Are you, Heatblast?"
The structure starts quavering. "Yes!" Spike shoots flames from his palms, incinerating the window and wall. He uses his fire to engulf the herd out of the third floor. As before, the fire didn't burn or give any pony any markings. Many ponies that witness the phenomenon applaud Spike for his heroics.
"MOVE!" Shining Armor shouts after detecting the structure of the building's deterioration. Everyone flees away as the apartment complex collapses. Shining Armor, Trixie, Starlight, and many firefighter unicorns combine their magic to create a protective bubble to protect everyone from the smoke and combustion of the building, especially with the boilers blowing up.
After a few moments, the burning debris clears. Many ponies are unhappy that they lost their home and possessions but are pleased they have their lives spared from a potentially torturous death.
Everypony gathers around Heatblast and thanks him for saving the day, causing Spike to smile at the glory he's earning when his Omnitrix emblem flashes red and bleeps; he tells everyone that his task is concluded and is needed elsewhere. He uses his flames to fly out of the neighborhood as many ponies wave bye and whistle. They hope to see their hero return to help once more.
"Hey, thanks for lending a hoof," Some firefighters extend their hooves to Shining, Starlight, and Trixie.
"You're welcome," Starlight smiles and shakes their hooves.
"We're glad to help," Trixie nods with respect and shakes their hooves.
"Well, it's part of my life's work to help and protect ponies," Shining Armor explains a little side story about being Captain of the Royal Guard. Then, he shakes their hooves.
Heatblast's Omnitrix's logo flashes red, reverting Spike to normal. He sees a gang of ponies ransacking a jewelry store and wonders if they started the fire as a diversion to attract a spectacle elsewhere. The robbers fled as the police proceeded in for questioning. They chase the robbers.
Spike returns to the RV. It's parked around the corner and sits by the table in the kitchen. Shining Armor, Trixie, and Starlight return a few moments later. Each of them inhales from their venture.
"Trixie wonders how the fire sprung in that apartment."
"Could be the robbers I saw after turning normal," Spike said since it correlates with the crime scene.
"What robbers?" Shining, Starlight, and Trixie are now intrigued by Spike's discoveries.
"A gang of them were burglarizing a jewelry store. Then the police showed up and started chasing them," Spike replies.
"In that case, we must leave it to the local authorities. We have our protocols as plumbers," Shining harshly commands since the plumbers still need to be secretive about their approach.
"Yeah," Trixie concurs. "We still have to stay secret unless Princess Luna says otherwise. Our priorities come first; however, since you have the Omnitrix, Shining and I are taking extra precautions to work and theorize appropriate management when working with you in public spaces."
"Well, I'm still a rookie, so I can overlook those precautions, right?" Starlight nervously asks, hoping to find a loophole with her involvement.
"Uh," Trixie turns to her commanding officer.
"No. Rookie or not, you are sworn to secrecy. Therefore, you'll understand that certain affairs are not for us to embark on. It's for Equestrian divisions to manage their predicament. We take care of anything unnatural outside magic."
"Understood," Starlight looks down a bit; though she is still learning the curves, there's more to sustain than she acknowledges.
"So, now what?" Spike asks since chasing the robbers is out of contention.
"Well, we can buy supplies at the Baltimare Mart. It opened recently; I'm sure scouting there could do us some wonders," Shining said; he opened the fridge to make himself a peanut butter sandwich.
"Oh, there could be other games and comics!" Spike shouts with glee.
"I thought you were through with the Power Ponies," Starlight reminds Spike.
"I can read other comics not based on them. I can get into horror comics or mystery comics. Something else to keep me entertained whenever I'm not practicing my aliens or not combatting any other species seeking to destroy and conquer."
"Fair point," Starlight calmly replies. She comprehends possible days of exhaustion from future routines she'll endure with Trixie as her instructor during her training procedures.
"The Great and Powerful Triixie could use new magic items for her Great and Powerful performance!"
Shining groans and face-hoofs himself. Trixie's character gets him every time. "I swear, your character is more obnoxious than Blueblood's."
"What can I say, Shining Armor? The Great and Powerful.., mmph!" Shining Armor shoves a peanut butter sandwich into Trixie's mouth.
"You won't receive milk until you drop the character!" Shining Armor is at his boiling point, an angry tic forming on the upper left side of his head. Trixie muffles, okay.
"Damn, Shining. I didn't know Trixie's character drove you to do that," Spike couldn't help but chuckle at the situation.
"She's a great performer; I give her that. However, I have my boundaries on tomfoolery. She knew better than to press my buttons," Shining Armor starts the RV.
"Are you alright, Trixie?" Starlight gives Trixie a glass of milk from the fridge. She's worried about her friend's position.
Trixie drinks it after eating the forced peanut butter sandwich. "I'm fine. It's not the first nor the last. We sometimes have annual events whose character is more credible with the cover story. Blueblood, and I tie every time."
"Really?" Starlight thought for sure her friend won every time.
"Yea. Blueblood, with elite status, creates the perfect cover-up on his character. I don't have that luxury, and I edge him slightly on certain topics."
Shining Armor drives the RV to the Baltimare Mart. Many ponies gaze at the vehicle and wonder where it came from and how to obtain it. Some took pictures of the RV in hopes of recreating it. The Mayor of Baltimare wants her mechanics to construct building one for her. She's captivated by the next stage of development with transportation.
The trip took an hour due to many ponies crowding the RV, trying to look into the interior from the windows. The only contrast between Baltimare and Ponyville ponies is that Baltimare has a stricter property policy. Since the RV belongs to Shining Armor, no one can come within a certain distance unless permission granted. The Mayor of Baltimare made that law evident after hearing about a Gabby Gums Column evading personal space and private affairs. Her sister, Mayor Mare, reported that ordeal days after she got exposed.
Shining Armor stays focused and operates the RV in the parking lot, where there are many carriages of taxis for shopping. Many ponies were ogling at the RV with amazement, wonder, and awe. They knew to keep their distance; they took many pictures and drew some sketches to create their own someday.
Spike, Starlight, Trixie, and Shining Armor leave the RV. They head inside the new Baltimare Mart to explore and find what they desire. The interior is massive, wave after wave of aisles full of hardware, supplies, and more. Spike and Starlight decide to stay together, while Trixie and Shining separate. They agreed to meet up by the register in an hour.
Starlight and Spike gaze upon the books in one of the aisles. Spike flaps his wings and flies to the upper shelves, hoping to locate horror comic books. He sees one with great interest and pulls, only to be knocked down by an enormous mutated frog with a griffon riding on top.
The griffon has pale green fur, yellowish eyes, white hair, and eagle-like claws that are black. The griffon is wearing a machine made of an odd-looking helmet and vest, also wearing a transmodulator and red goggle-visors. The mutated frog has two small horns on its forehead and two bone horns on the sides of its head. It has four red eyes and orange lumps. It has an olive, spiky tongue.
The frog leaps ahead of the two as panic fills the Baltimare Mart. Spike is in a trance, seeing a frog that huge; he's lucky that Fluttershy isn't here; otherwise, she would prevent Spike from harming the mutant animal. The griffon commands the mutated frog to hurry over to the electronics department.
"Starlight..," Spike is dazed to see a deranged griffon on the loose.
"I'll grab our friends. You stall for time!" Starlight shouts and gallops to Shining and Trixie.
"Right! It's hero time!" Spike activates his Omnitrix and scrolls to the right with the faceplate. He sees XLR8 and slams the faceplate down.
Spike feels his body morphing. He grows black orbs on his feet, and his legs are blue. His dragon tail turns black with five blue stripes. Spike's claws become blue and bulky, with three fingers that can only open and close. He wears a black cone-like helmet with a protective visor that slides over his face. Spike's face is blue, his eyes are green, his lips are black, and stripes run under and between his eyes. Spike wears a black bodysuit and a turtleneck-like shirt with a white band in the center. He appears to look like a semi-velociraptor.
"Alright, time to take down that creep!" Luckily for Spike, no one saw his transformation. He races after the mutant frog and griffon.
The griffon hops down from his mutant frog to gather much-needed supplies. In the reflection of some electrical components, he sees Shining Armor shooting a laser blast from his saddlebag torrent.
"Hold it right there, Animo!" Shining Armor aims at Dr. Animo's head.
"Shining Armor," Dr. Animo sinisterly laughs. "Just the stallion I've been itching to see!" Dr. Animo has been yearning to settle the score with Shining Armor after the many confrontations they endured. He's aware that Shining has aligned himself with the plumbing agency and failed many times to expose them.
Trixie is in a position to take out Dr. Animo with her saddlebag sniper cannon. She's aiming for anything suspicious from the Doctor. She's on a shelf a few feet away from Dr. Animo's eyesight.
"Will you come quietly this time, or will things get messy?" Shining Armor is holding his ground.
"Sic 'em!" Dr. Animo commands his mutant frog to attack Shining Armor.
The mutant frog's tongue grabs hold of Shining Armor and eats him, holding him captive in his mouth. It causes Trixie to divert her aim at the mutated frog, allowing Dr. Animo to flee elsewhere in the store. She shoots multiple laser blasts at the mutant frog. It leaps out of the way, causing Trixie to miss her target. She activates her saddlebag thrusters to fly after the frog and free her commanding officer.
Spike sees the mutated frog and uses its' momentum against it. Spike scratches the sides of the mutated frog with his claws, causing him to spit Shining Armor in green ooze. Shining Armor gets pinned to the floor by the sequence.
"Eeeew!" Shining Armor is disgusted. He hates that a green ooze covered his coat twice this week.
The mutated frog turns to Spike and tries to attack him with his tongue. Spike is too quick for the frog's advances. Trixie helps Shining Armor and uses her magic to remove the slob from him.
"Miss me!" Spike is to the right of the frog. He tries using his tongue to grab him. Spike moves to the left. "Miss me again!" Spike continues to toy with the frog. Then, he runs in circles around it, creating a mini vortex to raise the frog and ceasing his run, causing the swirling ends, slamming the frog hard on the ground. "Now, to go after the creep!"
"We're with you, Spike!" Shining and Trixie shout in unison, preparing to bring down Dr. Animo.
A startling, frantic scream catches the attention of Spike, Starlight, and Shining Armor; they see a mutated hamster and parrot chasing Starlight. Starlight's magic cannot defeat such behemoths when controlled by Dr. Animo.
"What are you?" Dr.Animo stops his pursuit and sees Spike in his alien form. He's on top of the mutated parrot.
"The guy that's going to end your reign of tyranny!" Spike declares. Then his Omnitrix insignia blinks red and bleeps. "Oh! Sh-" Red flashes burst, turning Spike to normal. "it."
Dr. Animo gasps. "A little dragon with that kind of power?" An idea struck his mind. "Let's go!" Dr. Animo commands his parrot and takes flight. It penetrates through the roof, creating a hole. The mutated frog and hamster are about to follow when Shining Armor and Trixie shoot them with their saddlebag cannons to subdue the mutant animals. The mutated frog and hamster land harshly on the floor with severe bruises and bleeding.
Starlight pants heavily and grabs a broken piece of pipe from the ceiling, impaling the mutated hamster and frog to prevent them from attacking again. Due to the impact, the hamster and frog lose their' transformation and die.
"Let's move! We have a Doctor to stop!" Shining Armor commands his squad, rushing them to return to the RV and pursue Dr. Animo.
"Who?" Spike and Starlight are confused about the creature they are pursuing.
"I'll explain in the RV," Trixie said. "Let's get going!"
Moments later. Shining Armor is in the RV, driving in hot pursuit of Dr. Animo's mutated parrot. Trixie explains the origins of Dr. Animo to Starlight and Spike.
Dr. Animo was once a respected and promising researcher in veterinary science who went crazy with the desire to rebuild animal DNA into superanimals. His career ended when the plumbers discovered that he was performing twisted genetic experiments on animals. He had hoped that his research would win him the Verities Award, which is an award in veterinary science.
Tree Hugger, an earth pony who uncovered a twisted genetic program involving the Breezies forged by Dr. Animo, reported to the authorities and condemned all scientific research. Dr. Animo lost his license, but the mad griffon refused to relent; He made it evident that griffons can outsmart ponies. What he sought before losing his certified documentation was the Verities Award. Another Doctor claimed that prize. Dr. Jelly.
"We had many encounters with the lunatic. Dr. Animo is the reason that a hydra exists. He's also responsible for the Chimera. Different hybrid species are Dr. Animo's demented research," Trixie takes a deep breath, finishing her explanation.
"The mad genius got inspired by Grogar's entitlement as Father of Monsters, and after reading documented history, he wanted to create his own for scientific research and purposes, but it was bullcrap," Shining Armor noted the explanation while following Dr. Animo's flight pattern on his parrot.
"If Animo's new contraption can turn any animal into a mutant, where would he go next?" Starlight asks Trixie and Shining.
Shining Armor and Trixie ponder likely locations where Dr. Animo may strike to plunder or worse. Trixie's eyes widen in horror, and Shining Armor immediately inspects the destination Dr. Animo is going.
"THE MUSEUM!" Shining and Trixie shout in unison after drawing the same conclusion.
Shining Armor uses his magic to increase the velocity of the RV to the Baltimare Museum like no tomorrow; he avoids the angry taxi ponies cursing at him. Trixie remembers reading an article about Baltimare's Exquisite Animals with a section detailing ancient extinct creatures; she explains to Starlight and Spike the possibility of Dr. Animo's attempt to conjure an undead or reanimate army. The notion made the duo more afraid, which caused Spike to rush Shining's driving.
With the gear Dr. Animo had taken, he adjusted his transmodulator while standing next to a mammoth. Shining Armor, Trixie, Starlight, and Spike enter the museum after noticing several feathers by the front doors, indicating that Dr. Animo is inside, preparing to unleash his wrath upon the populous.
"Animo!" Shining, Starlight, Trixie, and Spike shout in unison, preparing to defend and fight off Dr. Animo's monstrosities.
"Very persistent, are you," Dr. Animo turns to the group.
"This is where your vile experiment ends, once and for all!" Spike declares as he activates the Omnitrix, knowing who to select.
Dr. Animo laughs, initiating his transmodulator. "Sorry, dear boy. It has only begun! See! I only needed a few components to push my work into phase two: the reanimation of dormant cells!" Dr. Animo turns the dial twice this time. His transmodulator shoots beams into the mammoth, bringing it to life. It lets out a trumpet as it stomps down from its pedestal. "Behold the genius that is Dr. Animo!"
"Behold the display of -" Spike presses the faceplate down, transforming into Four Arms. "Four Arms!"
"Spectacular!" Dr. Animo is intrigued with stripping Spike's Omnitrix to further his genius of creating mutated alien-animal hybrids of his likeness.
"Trixie! Starlight! Let's bring down Animo before he reanimates every creature from dormant!" Shining Armor activates the saddlebag thrusters, launching himself into combat when the gigantic mutated parrot tackles him.
"Shining!" Starlight pants heavily after the sudden attack.
"Shining will defeat the bird; our objective is apprehending the mad scientist." Trixie reminds Starlight about their goal to end Dr. Animo's goal before he creates an unstoppable army. The duo chases after him.
Spike is wrestling with the mammoth, performing a superplex by holding onto the tusks. He reads the mammoth's body language and is determined to remove one tusk. The mammoth charges with the intent of colliding into Spike to trample him; however, Spike sidesteps to grab the left tusk, yanking it off after using his right foot for leverage when he stepped on the mammoth's front leg.
Hearing the mammoth's screeching in agonizing pain reminded Spike of Fluttershy's kindness. She wouldn't hurt nor harm any animal, even if given the opportunity of revival. He closes his eyes, imagining the heartache Fluttershy may read from the newspaper with the speculation of animals dying by his hands. It didn't matter with Spike since Dr. Animo would violate more of the animals he came in contact with if he'd escaped the plumbers' clutches. Spike uses the tusk to penetrate the mammoth's eye socket, piercing the brain to see if it dies, which it does.
Shining Armor activates the saddlebag machine gun on the left side, with the right torrent operating as the thrusters for his jetpack sequence. The parrot falls after succumbing to many wounds from Shining's assault. He sees Dr. Animo attempting to reanimate a Lochness Monster while dodging many magic beams and lasers from Starlight and Trixie.
Spike runs down the hallway after hearing the commotion of magic and laser beams firing at Dr. Animo; he sees him trying to bring a monster to his beckon calling. "Noooo!" Spike shouts, alerting Dr. Animo to turn to his attention, which was his undoing.
Starlight and Trixie take down Dr. Animo with their combined assault, causing Dr. Animo to collide into the wall near an exit. Dr. Animo sustained minor injuries from the impact and sees his opportunity to flee elsewhere to generate a new army to bring devastation to the plumbers; however, Spike grabs his transmodulator from his head and crushes it.
"Nooooooo! My life's work!" Dr. Animo watches his creation destroyed while Spike reverts to normal after the red light flashes. Shining Armor and Trixie aim their saddlebag guns at him, causing him to surrender.
"You will never corrupt or endanger any species now, you sick bastard!" Shining Armor punches Dr. Animo's face, knocking him unconscious for every monstrosity creation he made that plagued the world for a decade.
Trixie contacts the plumber base in Baltimare, informing them to send the authorities to apprehend Dr. Animo and create a cover story about the damages and recent mutations many ponkfolk bears witnessed.
Spike, Shining, Trixie, and Starlight leave the museum after the authorities arrest Dr. Animo; the plumbers disguised as the police thank Shining Armor and his crew for finally capturing the crazed-up griffon from creating more wicked beasts to unleash on the populous.
The gang returns to the RV after a long day; Shining Armor receives a thank you message on his visors from Princess Luna and Prince Blueblood since they failed to capture the mad griffon during their confrontations and can finally be at ease unless he escapes, which would be complex to achieve. Spike and Starlight return to their game while Trixie cooks a late dinner for everyone, her treat. Shining Armor decides now will be a good time to vacate Baltimare and resume their travel to Las Pegasus.
> Say What?!
It's 10:00 in the morning. Fluttershy is humming a soft melody while feeding her animals in her cottage while expecting Rainbow Dash at any moment, considering she finished her Wonderbolt training earlier today to visit and spend the day together as good friends should.
Rainbow Dash arrives at the front door lickety-split with the latest issue of Daring Do in her hooves and how she wants to spend the day reading with her best friend; however, when she turns to her left, Rainbow sees some pony she thought to never see again after sending him off to fulfill his dreams with mane therapy.
"What are you doing here?!" Rainbow Dash believes Zephyr Breeze quit his calling and decided to move back to Fluttershy's house.
"I have some time off and wanted to visit my sister," Zephyr Breeze responds calmly and attempts to get closer to Rainbow Dash. "No need to get - oomph!" Rainbow Dash shoves Zephyr's advances with her wings, creating breathing room. "No need to be harsh, Rainbow," Zephyr dusts himself from the ground.
Fluttershy hears the commotion from the living room and sighs, believing Zephyr has cheated himself from another opportunity and got evicted from his apartment. She sighed deeply and opened the front door, seeing Rainbow Dash glaring at Zephyr.
"What are you doing here, Zephyr?" Fluttershy unamusingly asks, considering her brother's reputation even after helping him a year ago.
"What's with the tone, Fluttershy? I can't visit my only sister from time to time?" Zephyr takes a few steps back to create breathing room for Fluttershy; he feels nervous about stepping inside her home.
Fluttershy sighs and stands aside. "Come in."
Zephyr enters first before Rainbow Dash; she feels uncomfortable being around Zephyr and hopes his visit is only short-term.
"So, did you quit again?" Fluttershy goes straight to the point to avoid any nonsensical excuse her brother may say to elude his calling in life as he previously would to bum around and do whatever he wants.
"I'm on vacation, Fluttershy, after performing wonderfully in Manehattan. The lights, the stars, the attention! The shop was overwhelmed with customers, and I sought to get the job done with every pony's mane according to their design!" Zephyr over-exaggerates his explanation, and Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash doubt Zephyr's claims but show some optimism to feed his crusade.
"Vacation, huh?" Rainbow Dash stares into Zephyr's eyes. "Are you sure it's a vacation and not an early leave? Hmm?" Rainbow knows Zephyr got fired from his job again.
"No," Zephyr shakes his head, responding to Rainbow's interrogating question. "I'm on vacation, and they gave me three tickets to Baltimare's exclusive animal exhibit featuring the prehistoric age; the exhibit would be open to the public in a few weeks," Zephyr reveals the tickets to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
"Say what?!" Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash examine the authenticity of the ticket.
"Fluttershy, these tickets are valid!" Rainbow Dash is impressed with Zephyr's honesty.
"And.., I ge-ge-get to see the animals of the prehistoric era before any pony else?" Fluttershy is stunned; she heard about the exhibit from her friend, Tree Hugger, in a letter she wrote months ago. Now, she has the opportunity to see it before any pony else.
"Mmhmm," Zephyr Breeze nods. "Call it a thank you present for setting me straight and not giving up on me."
"Wow..," Fluttershy couldn't utter any other word and turned to Rainbow Dash. "Would you like to join us..?"
"What else is there to do in Baltimare besides the exhibit, Zephyr? Got any more surprises?" Rainbow Dash wonders if Zephyr had any notion of making a move on her with something pleasing besides seeing the prehistoric animals.
"Well, later tonight, the Baltimare Mavericks are taking on the Vanhoover Broncos for game one of the Equestrian Baseball Championship.., which I have three tickets to sit at behind plate."
Rainbow Dash gasped and didn't think a wimp like Zephyr would have tickets to the championship game. She remembers how expensive going to a game would be and would have listened to the game on the radio.
"Here's the proof," Zephyr reveals the championship game tickets, fanning them in front of Rainbow Dash. Rainbow observes the authenticity, and she's amazed at Zephyr's honesty.
"Wow, Zephyr," Fluttershy smiles at her brother's success. "Sorry that we assumed the worst for you."
"Yeah," Rainbow nervously chuckles at her mistake of assuming the worst. "Sorry for doubting your new capabilities of success and your position in your job."
"Water under the bridge, Dashikins," Zephyr charmingly replies to gain bonus points for attracting Rainbow to be his mate.
"Haha, don't call me that!" Rainbow Dash reminds Zephyr about the nicknames that are not welcome.
"Oh, right," Zephyr chuckles lightly at his mistake. "So, are we ready?"
"Yeah, let's get going!" Rainbow is excited about today, and after it, she wants to forget about Zephyr possibly making some remarks to create a loving relationship.
"Okay, let me pack some things, and we'll get going," Fluttershy responds to her brother's question and starts packing snacks and drinks for the ride.
Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Zephyr trot to the Ponyville train station and hear that there are delays and maintenance at Baltimare Station, which causes headaches for every passenger. The rail pony informs everyone that the train will stop by the forests of Neigh York, allowing every pony to trot or take wagons to travel to Baltimare. The trio didn't mind cause the exhibit would open around 1:15 pm, giving them time to enjoy the wilderness and fresh air before entering a populated city.
The travel to Neigh York was swift for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash since the two talked to each other more while Zephyr attempted to hook up with a single mare on the train and miserably failed after she dumped her soda on his mane. The train stops at the makeshift train station near Neigh York; Royal Guards are standing in attention, observing the inhabitants and ensuring everyone's safety until Baltimare Station gets repaired.
"I need some water to fix my mane!" Zephyr whines about the stickiness from the soda poured on him earlier.
"On it!" Rainbow zooms into the skies, bringing a small white cloud, bucking it to rainwater and drenching Zephyr.
Zephyr feels relieved the soda washed out of his mane and coat; he fixes and readjusts his mane. "Much better, thanks, Dashi-" Zephyr gulps, seeing Rainbow's angry face about the nicknames, then readjusts his manner. "Thanks, Rainbow."
"Sure, no probs," Rainbow and Fluttershy follow the crowd, trotting to Baltimare with no wagons available.
During the trot to Baltimare, Zephyr tried to input himself into Fluttershy and Rainbow's conversation; they didn't mean to ignore him, but his advances with other mares and trying to hook up with one made it unbearable and embarrassing. Fluttershy and Rainbow want to subside the uneasy humiliation of Zephyr's behavior and focus on the fun they'll endure at the prehistoric exhibit and championship game.
Royal Guards positioned themselves tightly since the upcoming news report of ambushes had many travelers spooked, especially those transporting goods to Baltimare. Half an hour into the travel, tremors quake the ground, scaring everyone, including the Royal Guards. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy feel something is coming to attack everyone, and it may search for Spike.
A towering forty-foot robot scans for signs of the Omnitrix with two mechanized drones flying and shooting at all signs of life.
"Not these things again!" Rainbow Dash wishes to fight the robots but fears her hind legs and wings would break by the metal of the robots' physique.
"Retreat! Everypony! Retreat!" Several Royal Guards throw their spears at the robots, watching them bounce off, having no effect.
Everyone fled for their lives after watching the Royal Guards get defeated by the robots, taking heavy damage from the laser shots when they pierced through their shields like a needle popping a balloon.
"Rainbow, protect my sister!" Zephyr allures the robots' attention and flies deep into the forest. The robots scanned him and chased him, ignoring the fleeing ponies screaming at the top of their lungs.
"I can't believe Zephyr decided to risk his life for us!" Fluttershy couldn't believe her brother didn't think about himself for once during a crisis. She gallops with the screaming ponies to ensure their safety away from the carnage.
"I know!" Rainbow looks back and feels something is amiss about Zephyr's character, causing her to stop flying after a thought hits her hard.
"Huh?" Fluttershy sees her friend hovering with much on her mind. "Rainbow, why did you stop flying?"
"Your brother is tackling the robots..," Rainbow feels guilty about leaving Zephyr behind.
Fluttershy feels dreadful for following her instinct to flee even after the Royal Guards issued the command and failed to destroy the behemoths. "We have to help him!" Fluttershy uses her adrenaline to outfly and outmatch Rainbow's velocity to rescue her brother from certain doom.
Rainbow Dash flaps her wings, matching Fluttershy's flight speed to help Zephyr Breeze, while the thought of Zephyr Breeze hiding something crucial would explain his new demeanor.
Zephyr Breeze smirked and chuckled during the flight and turned around after feeling he separated himself from the herd of fleeing ponies and Royal Guards. "Activating Saber Wing Mode!" Zephyr's wings start glowing in aqua-blue plasma; then they become razor-sharp on the edges. "Deactivate cloaking mode!" Zephyr's saddlebags are now visible, and the towering robot stands back except for the two drones that fly closer to him. "Thrusters!" The saddlebags initiate the rocket boosters, allowing Zephyr to glide swifter, and he uses his wings to slice the drone in half. The plasma melts the metal of the drones, allowing microbots from the saddlebag to infest the robots and self-detonate. He laughs while relishing the moment to take down the titan Prince Blueblood had encountered in the Crystal Empire.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy shriek after seeing two explosions a few meters away; they believe the robots have killed Zephyr. Then they hear him laugh in bliss? They are confused and keep their distance due to the towering robot.
"Oh, you poor thing, I had expected something else running amuck in these woods, especially that necromancer with the charms! I was expecting to see him today, but you'll do," Zephyr knows what weapon to utilize against the titan. He whistles, calling for his favorite weapon. The bunny garden gnome flies and disposes of its' shell, revealing the long barrel for a - "Ion Cannon!" The saddlebag thrusters merge into a cannon, allowing Zephyr to use his wings to flap and hover in place, transferring the plasma energy from his wings into the cannon. The long barrel attaches itself to the cannon for a precision shot. Using a thought command, the Ion Cannon powers up.
The robot jumps up and spins its legs like a tornado with the urge to take down Zephyr before getting blown to smithereens by colliding with him.
"Too breezy!" Zephyr uses his last name as a pun, referring to too easy. "FIRING!" He shouts, firing a precision aqua-blueish-green ion plasma beam at the robotic titan's head. It implodes on contact while the rest of the body detonates from the attack.
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash are stunned, with their jaws hanging loose after witnessing Zephyr demolishing the robots the Royal Guards fell victim to. They slowly approach Zephyr with newfound respect and sympathy for their judgment of him after knowing little of the plumbing agency regarding secrets.
"Base, this is Zephyr Breeze, second in command of the abnormality squad, reporting a robot sighting near Baltimare. Two drones and a titan were sighted and destroyed, and I need immediate service for the reserves to observe all locations in Equestria for any other sighting of robotic activity; over?"
"This is Commander Luna, Zephyr. I accept your request since there have been countless activities with these robots recently. Many teams globally have reported defeating the drones and titans, over."
"Understood, Commander, I thought the spook of the day was the necromancer with the charms!" Zephyr wanted to fight him more than anything else ever since he was humiliated at the Starswirled the Bearded museum years ago.
"You'll get your shot soon, Zephyr. Now, return with your vacation before you get exposed. That explosion you made would draw more attention than the Grand Galloping Gala my sister throws yearly."
"Understood, Commander, signing off now," Zephyr is about to deactivate his saddlebag cannon and initiate the cloaking mechanism when he sees Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash drawing nearer. "Shit!" Zephyr didn't mean to curse in front of -
"Language," Fluttershy gets closer to Zephyr while being cautious with his weaponry attached like saddlebags.
"What are those..?" Rainbow Dash examines the saddlebags that held Zephyr's weaponry.
"I'll explain later, Rainbow," Zephyr doesn't sound himself but more mature than narcissistic. "Right now, I need to scour the area and ensure no other drone or titan made an appearance."
"Drone?" Fluttershy repeats what Zephyr says.
"Titan?" Rainbow repeats what Zephyr says.
Zephyr prepares to answer any question when he hears an echoing boom southern from their position. He activates his visors with the GPS, monitoring any nearby plumber getting overwhelmed by the drones or titans.
"What's happening?" Rainbow asks Zephyr since he knows what's happening.
"Him," Zephyr's voice becomes grim and zooms after the necromancer, causing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to catch up and see the spectacle of Zephyr taking down another foe.
In the southern regions of Neigh York's forest, another plumber dodges the attacks from Hex. Hex is a grayish dragon with black symbols on his shoulders. Hex wears a red and black dress, hood, and black pants torn beyond his knees. He also had black arm guards and long socks that didn't cover his heels or toes. His face paint is white and black to resemble a skull.
"Foolish pony, you have underestimated my newfound power with the Charms of Bezel!" Hex uses the Charm of Telekinesis to dislodge the plumber's saddlebag weaponry off of her, causing the plumber to crash into several trees viciously. He walks over, laughing triumphantly. "Now," Hex activates the Charm of Fire. "You will die!"
"Firing Ion Cannon!" Zephyr swoops in, shooting an aqua-blueish-green plasma beam at Hex, aiming to destroy his charms.
"You!" Hex growls and diverts the concentration of his Charm of Fire to Luck, evading Zephyr's best attack into striking several trees and creating a forest fire. Hex launches himself to attack Zephyr with all of his might.
Zephyr reacts and punches Hex's balled fist with his front left hoof; the collision sends a shockwave, causing the surrounding area to feel tremors and anything flying flung away. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy crash into the leaves on top of a tall oak tree.
"Take this!" Hex activates the Charm of Electricity to electrocute Zephyr's saddlebag weaponry before he can utilize their other combat systems.
Zephyr activates the conduit of his saddlebag, recharging his saddlebag and head-butting Hex; he grunts and uses the Charm of Fire to incinerate Zephyr. Zephyr dodges the attack and watches several trees burst into flames behind him.
"You've grown stronger, Hex," Zephyr releases his hair loop in his mane, allowing it to drop and dispose of his ridiculous hairstyle. He has a blond spiked mohawk flowing with electricity.
"The Famed Light-Fu Breeze," Hex recalls Zephyr's magistracy of combining Kung-Fu with lightning since pegasi controls the weather in Equestria.
"Saddle-Skeleton!" Zephyr's saddlebag readjusts his spine, enabling him to stand on two hooves instead of four; the lightning charged with the saddlebag conjures lightning fists in front of his hooves, now acting like hands.
"SAAAAY WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!" Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy watch Zephyr turn into a God with the weaponry he has. Light-Fu is legendary within pegasi history, with only a select few chosen to wield its' sacred power. Legend says only those who refuse to give up and have never doubted, even when there's less than a one percent chance, will undergo training to obtain the power of lightning merged with Kung-Fu; many have tried but failed because of the one doubt to become greatness.
"This is impossible. Zephyr always quits, always gives up too easily; how can he possess this kind of power..?" Rainbow Dash questions Zephyr's true identity because of the Light-Fu legend and knows Zephyr wholeheartedly for his selfish nature and quit-now attitude.
"Why was Zephyr lying to me about his persona? How did he become a plumber?" Fluttershy thought to herself about her baby brother's involvement.
Zephyr raises his left fist in the air, conjuring lightning from a cloud to strike him and channel the energy as a conduit. He lowers his left fist and charges a lightning ball.
"As much as I would love to battle the Light-Fu Breeze," Hex gazes at Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy's position on the tall oak tree. "I hate having an audience!" Hex smirks, causing Zephyr's eyes to widen with the possibility of his older sister and friend perishing by the claws of Hex's magic potency. Hex uses the Charm of Luck and Fire to incinerate Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
"Nooooooooo!" Zephyr discharges his attack and flies swiftly to protect Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash.
"Not this time, watch em' burn!" Hex uses his Charm of Telekinesis to repel Zephyr's flight, causing him to collide into a different tree to watch those closest to him rive in agony.
A green blur flashes when Hex's attack destroys the top of the oak tree, setting it ablaze and making Zephyr believe his sister and friend had perished with no sound of agony; An instant death.
Hex laughs victoriously and uses his magic to teleport away from Zephyr's presence with one statement for him to hear. "Soon, we'll fight, and you'll die."
"I've tasted a sample of your magic power, Hex, but you didn't win," Zephyr smirks and turns upward. "Nice work, Lightning Dust."
Rainbow Dash is quieter than Fluttershy when Lightning Dust uses her swift flight velocity to swoop in and save the duo from impending doom. She has so many questions about Lightning Dust's involvement than Zephyr. Lightning Dust lowers and allows Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to stand on their hooves after witnessing unimaginable events.
Zephyr and Lightning Dust laugh at Rainbow's face with her eyes widening and jaw hanging loosely.
"H-H-How..?" Rainbow Dash remembers Lightning Dust's erratic behavior when she was in charge during the Wonderbolt Academy Training and her recklessness. "How are you two -"
"Plumbers?" Zephyr and Lightning Dust are aware that Princess Luna has tried to recruit them; however, they reject the opportunity since Fluttershy has her animals to care for and her teaching while Rainbow Dash has her Wonderbolt career and teaching responsibilities.
"Yeah," Fluttershy and Rainbow say in unison, which begs to differ who else they've encountered were plumbers in disguise.
"Follow me," Lightning Dust leads Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to her hideout while Zephyr keeps surveillance, ensuring no trespassers or lurkers are spying on their whereabouts.
After a ten-minute trot, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy see a worn-down shack with a broken wooden door frame. The duo questioned the stability of Lightning Dust's hideout until she opened the door, revealing a staircase descending to the lower levels of her hideout, which features a housing unit capable of supporting a family.
"Now, we want some -" Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy gasp after seeing Lightning and Zephyr passionately kissing each other as a married couple would.
"Hey, wait a minute! I thought you were in love with me!" Rainbow Dash interrupts Zephyr and Lightning's kissing moment. They stop and turn to her.
"Well, Rainbow, Zephyr is my fiance," Lightning Dust answers Rainbow's question, causing Rainbow and Fluttershy to have a heart attack from the revelation.
"I was never in love with you, Rainbow; that was my disguised character's persona, not me."
"Our work ethnicity requires every creature to become a disguised persona to live life in Equus while we hunt down anything abnormal beyond Equus' understandings. In secrecy, we can have our love while defending Equus and Beyond from any off-worlders seeking to destroy our homes. We knew you'd rejected the opportunity Commander Luna proposed after expressing a distasteful thought of wearing a plumber's uniform and fixing pipes, in which your priorities were much higher than anything," Lightning Dust said to prove any accusations Rainbow and Fluttershy would have expressed, she relays an audio message Commander Luna recorded when she offered the position to them and Starlight.
"We were quite surprised that Starlight Glimmer had decided right then and there to accept the proposal, thus becoming a rookie plumber -" Rainbow interrupts Zephyr's speech.
"We want to be plumbers, now!" She shouts and stomps her left front hoof to make her statement evident in her determination to become a plumber and battle the robots and anything beyond Equestria's understanding.
"I've never seen this side of you, Zephyr, the real you: bold, brave, mature. I want that side of you, not the fake you," Fluttershy wants to know more about her actual brother than the fake persona he uses to facade the public. "We're ready to become like you."
"No disrespect, Dash, but I don't believe you can keep a secret, let alone understand the gravity of our situation," Lightning Dust knows Rainbow's character as being a show-off and would boast about being a secret agent for popularity.
"There's another glaring issue; you two are renowned as Equestria's saviors, which complicates things. We, plumbers, are meant to be unnoticed; we fear that either of you would keep a documented journal that would expose us to the rest of the world, including those who remain anonymous for many reasons we cannot discuss," Zephyr admits the fear of the plumber's agency whenever a notoriety desired to become one of them.
"That's so unfair! Also, why is a quitter like you an expert on Light-Fu?" Rainbow demands to know what makes Zephyr so unique.
Lightning gasps and places her right hoof around Zephyr while using her left hoof to grasp his chest. "Zephyr has never been a quitter; he's devoting, motivating, and pushing boundaries beyond limitation! Zephyr is the super-soldier every royal guard wanted to be; first colt in, last colt out!"
"Oh, and by the way, I'm about to miss your show," Zephyr reminds Lightning Dust about her new show debuting since her character got booted from the Wonderbolt Academy.
"OH MY GOSH! I HAVE TO GET READY!" Lightning soars out of the room to change into her new uniform and departs her hideout.
Zephyr chuckles. "There she goes, what a flyer."
"Ahem!" Rainbow gets Zephyr's attention. "Make us or at least me a plumber! We want in on these awesome adventures you go on daily, which is better than any other monster we've come across!"
Zephyr sighs in defeat and activates his visors. "Since you're demanding to become one of us, I need to take photos for identification, which will take a few minutes to create your I.D. number and to assign you to a team that will train you."
"Why can't you train us, Zephyr?" Fluttershy had hoped to be beside her brother during her training to become a helpful plumber.
"It's not my call; that assignment is for Commander Luna to decide, and she'll love two bearers of the Elements of Harmony beside her during the upcoming battles between unleashed in our domain," Zephyr stretched the truth which made Rainbow more excited than Fluttershy, she wants to be beside her younger brother and understand the real him and not the fake she led on to believe to be her younger brother. "Now, stand together so I can take this picture."
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy stand closely, nearly hugging due to their overwhelming excitement about the plumber's agency and maybe letting Twilight and the girls know about Spike's progress with his device that allows him to turn into an alien. Zephyr takes the snapshot.
"Initiate Camera Mode!" Zephyr's visors take a snapshot of Fluttershy and Rainbow; however, he doesn't warn them about the flash, knocking them out since he commenced the amnesia protocol. Fluttershy and Rainbow collapse onto the floor, snoring. "Sorry, Dashikins. I cannot allow you and my sister to become a plumber. You're already Equestria's Saviors, and that's all you'll ever be," Zephyr reaches into his saddlebag to retrieve a doorknob; he places it on the door he used to enter Lightning's hideout and opens it, revealing an entryway back to Fluttershy's cottage from her closet. He carries the duo inside and places them on the couch while the animal friends are outside having a party. "Be well, sis," Zephyr trots to Fluttershy's closet and shuts the door, removing the doorknob so there is no access to Lightning's hideout. |
Redeem Us In Our Solemn Hour | pre | I shiver. It's cold, and we don't have the same resistances to the elements that pegasi do. We handle snow and rain better than unicorns do, but so does almost everything. I rise and stand firmly on my hooves. I'm fine now. I'm fine.
I've never killed anything before. Not anything with a face that had eyes that thought and could talk.
When we fly in formation, I'm on the edge. So maybe I have killed something. I don't know. My job is to plow through whatever we hit and then make sure nothing gets away. But nothing ever gets away from the Rangers, so if I kill things I don't see them die. They die over there, and I can say--Lily got that one, or Soft Fang got that one. Or Knight-Commander. Anyone else. Maybe Ruby. But never Midnight. Never Midnight.
I can't stay here. I have to go. I fly back to the column. VI.
The Mitou were the last triumph of Winter's Grip for a reason. That reason is that the now deranged and dangerous old stallions of that place had forgotten a very important lesson that every little unicorn learns: Magic is dangerous. Another foal's lesson: Magic is not tame.
Magic is both physical and not. It creates a form, but simply because every other apple is one way does not mean one summoned from the air will obey the same laws. And in fact, it is not the same. An apple summoned from the air without anything else, like a bit of wishful thinking, will not nourish you. It will taste nice, but it will leave you hungry. One must let loose of some of the expectations of mundane experience.
And so, the Sages created with their hoary heads and dulled horns the forms of the Mountain Gods, and it did not occur to them to ask if they might also have built a home for...
Well, it is more simple to say that Spirit wants Form. Build the Form with magic, and if the magic is great enough, Form becomes a fire and Spirit becomes a wandering mosquito.
And the Spirits of the Mountain Gods were as close to raw malice as could be found. And she beheld them.
Let us be honest. They did not control her. They did not warp an untainted mind into evil. Let no one guardedly say that she was tricked and cajoled and manipulated into what came next. Potential only had to waltz out in front of her, and declare itself with a little smile. Hand over a card, and say: I'll be here when you change your mind.
If you could create something that did not suffer forever... or if you could change a living thing into something better...
Well.
And it would be different, wouldn't it? If it was done in love, with hope for the future? Wasn't that what parents did, really? Help their children grow? And sometimes growing looked painful and scary from the outside, didn't it?
Chrysalis, let us give her this small grace, did not quite believe it. But she stopped her destruction. She had time to think. The evils of Winter's Grip could be destroyed later, after all. When she had really thought about what she had seen. Understood it.
And when she closed the door to where the Mitou waited in martial readiness, every single horrible giant shared a joint smile. Every face the absolute same, with blank eyes and great toothy grins big enough to swallow a pony whole. A month, maybe two, and then they would march again. |
Redeem Us In Our Solemn Hour | III. The Dark Forest Where the Path Gives Out | When I had journeyed half of our life's way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray. I.
The ragged column of evacuees had a destination.
Of course, you'll say. It's obvious. But it is amazing what obvious things one can forget in panic. We say--don't go that way, it will just corner you!--but fail to remember that a mind pushed far enough thinks nothing but denials. It sees but doesn't see. It only wants to run.
Celestia's Pathfinders are the sort of ponies who never panic. They are implacable and unmovable as boulders. These are the ponies that mapped half the world and braved a thousand dark corners of creation. They are the pioneers. The first wave. And so, as always, they lead the way.
But they aren't soldiers. They don't know how to defend or take a position. In fact, beyond the ability to hold their own in a fight, they know nothing of war and never have.
So why are they here? For the same reason as the Rangers of Station Nineteen.
When the Crystal Empire reappeared, there were a lot of questions. Beyond the obvious (how? Why?) were the more practical--what happens when you cut a whole swath of land from the fabric of creation, cities and roads and ponies, and then deposit it all at once a thousand years later? Is it the same? Does the old overwrite the new or does the ancient find itself yielding to the modern? And more importantly, questions of maps.
And so, when the furor around Sombra and the Empire had died down, Celestia and Luna made a formal visit of State to their niece and her husband. They discussed the usual things--trade, agreements, stances, family--and then came at last to the troubling matter of the uselessness of maps. The diarchs of Equestria, wanting to communicate to the gun-shy crystal ponies that they wanted only the best for their new neighbors, offered their individual frontier agencies to aid the legions in the arduous but vital task of reconnoitering.
And thus it was that when the Mitou came down from the mountains, with horribly mutated and changed Changelings on all sides, they found a few hardy explorers and cartographers thoroughly unprepared for the onslaught of hell.
But Pathfinders, like Rangers, do what they can where and when they can. Soldiers they might not be, but it could not be said that they were cowards. And a pony in need was a call no true servant of Celestia could ignore. II.
I tried not to make a big deal out of it. I told them about the lone changeling and swore up and down that it was alone. If there had been another, it would have been on me when I was puking in the snow. But nothing got me, so there was nothing there. I didn't know why it was alone. I don't know why the wing yesterday was alone. I didn't have answers. The one thing about being an initiate that is good is that eventually people stop asking you questions after the third "I don't know".
Last Call seemed irritable, but not at me. I just nodded, thanked me gruffly, and then called Gale down and told him that we'd spotted changelings up ahead. He whispered it, but my ears caught it. They catch a lot.
They catch the things that the refugees say sometimes, but I try not to listen because sometimes it hurts. I don't want to hear about how cold they are, or how hungry they are, or how the little ones wish they could go home. I don't want to hear the sad little changelings chittering to each other. Even if it sounds pretty. Like birds.
When the patrol gets back a few minutes after noon, the column has stopped for its midday break and I'm poking the fire with a long stick. You'd be amazed what you find in the snow, sometimes. I guess before the big fax, when there wasn't an empire here, there used to be some trees. I would have liked there to be more trees. There were trees a few days ago, and Swift said there might be some nearer to Amethyst City. I hope he's right. The maps say there's a forest, but who knows anymore?
I think that Lily knows something is wrong with me. She looked at me when she gave me my bread and I mumbled to myself. "Luna..." it sounds like Protects. But it isn't. It's just a mumble. She nods at me as if I had said grace sufficiently and normally. Yet I feel her eyes on my back.
Ruby grins at me tiredly. "Nothing to see," she says. I sit by her. We are battle sisters. You eat with your battle sisters if you can. It helps. Grizlebrand told me that.
We lean against each other, back to back. I keep her from falling and she keeps me from the same. We keep our heads off the endless snow together. There's not much conversation. Just eating. Cornbread again. Cold cornbread, western style, a little spicy. I wonder if the batponies in the West, the ones who didn't follow Luna, eat this stuff as much as we do. Maybe they don't, and it was just like, one thing that anypony could make, and when we came here we were so homesick that we picked the easiest thing on the menu and ate it forever.
Maybe.
I sure am homesick enough to think it's probably true. I wonder, if I told Ruby, would she think it was true? Does she miss home? I am about to ask, but then I remember...
Her eyes are red. They say that batponies in the west all have red eyes just like that. I find it hard to believe--everypony having the same eye color? That's weird. But it is true that it is super rare with us, on this side of the ocean. The ones that followed Luna changed. She told me in Ranger School that when she was a filly, they teased her about her mother having gone back and... yeah, you can figure it out. So I don't ask about the lost tribes. (Or are we the Lost Tribes?) Because it might be a sore subject. But her eyes are pretty. I never understood why it was a sore subject for anyone. Red like--
I try not to think about what they remind me of suddenly because I would rather not be ill.
III.
Ruby stays with me and Lily when the second patrol moves out. Gale goes with them. He volunteered, which explains why Knight-Commander was so okay with letting Ruby and I have days off the patrol route.
I still think we could do it. I know I can. Flying that far for that long... I have the endurance. If I hadn't had the endurance, they would have punted me like a hoofball right out of Ranger School. But its not the flying that's the problem, and I get that. It's a mental thing. It's a fighting thing.
It's pretty damn painful, knowing you're a liability. I don't want to be useful, in one way. But I don't want to be deadweight. Because these are my friends and comrades. My battle-siblings, if you want to call them that. I shouldn't put them in danger. It's just... it's wrong. So I don't complain. Anything to keep them flying strong.
Ruby takes the front half and I take the rear watch. I haven't seen her in hours. I saw Lily a few times. I still felt like she was watching me. I hate it. Not her. Just the watching. I don't know what it means and I'm afraid she sees right through me.
I didn't ask to be here. I didn't want to do any of this. This isn't... it's not what we do! Even I know that. We're not supposed to be the front lines. Where are all the guardponies? Where the Lunars with their scary armor or the Solars with their shiny gold? Where are the fucking Crystal legions?
More and more, I think that we're all alone out here. It's hard to hold out hope that anypony is coming to help us. What if we're the only ones?
It's... not that hard to imagine. Those things out there, the big ones. They could have swooped down and crushed anything in their path. Or, just the changelings. Twice as strong as they used to be, and in the thousands. We can easily take a squad apart (they can, anyway) but against three or four, there would be no chance. We'd die like... like, I don't know. We would just die, what's the point of comparison? Dead is dead is dead. And there are thousands of them, I think. A whole army. A cloud of them, like locusts in the old stories.
It reminds me of the storyteller. Only this time he's talking about when Luna came and freed us from the Father. The great plagues he sent upon us. I think it's all bullshit. Or I did. Except for that one part, with the locusts and the running away. Because I saw the swarm for a few seconds two weeks ago, when we all burrowed in the snow and even Swift was whimpering about Luna. I heard him. We all did.
The fact that he didn't care. I remember that. I remember it making me more scared than before, as if that was worse somehow. Because Swift always cares what you think about him. Always.
I look down at the little bodies below. Ants on snow. I imagine that this is what they would look like to that huge swarm of changelings. I can almost hear the buzzing wings now, all around me in the sky. This must be what it would look like to be a part of that swarm before it swoops down and eats a whole Imperial legion alive. IV.
Soup. Broth, really. But it's warm, and I don't care. We eat quietly again.
The night patrol found nothing. I was the only one who killed anything today. Anypony. Knight-Commander got me to tell him everything I saw, but I lied to him and I didn't say anything about how I was sick, or about how suddenly it was just me and I couldn't pretend that he had done it. I didn't tell him what it smelled like or what chitin sounds like when you crack it open.
I think he already knows.
Lily didn't say anything out of the ordinary. When she gave me dinner, I thanked her and she smiled at me. When she left, I looked down at it and mumbled, "Luna provides," and then that was it for me the rest of the night.
We never say grace at home. I mean, we do when it's a holiday or something. But in the Rangers, you always do. Even if you never did at home, and I guess it's because you really do feel like she's watching you. Maybe because you really hope she does protect, provide, whatever. Or maybe it's just something you do. Like tradition.
Ruby Eyes tries to talk, but I just don't feel like it. I try not to be rude, but she looks so lonely. I don't know what to say. How do you say--I'm lonely too, but there's nothing we can do--or--I killed a pony today even if it was one of those messed up changelings and I can't stop thinking about how it smelled and felt and--
I'll go away again, next time. There will be a next time. I know there will be. I won't always have the wing with me. I won't always be able to shrug off what I'm doing onto them. Next time I'll just go away and maybe I'll stay away for awhile and just wait it all out.
It's hard to go to sleep. I can see the refugees and their little fires and their ragged little circles everywhere. I can hear them talk sometimes, and I can smell their bread and... and... V.
Screaming.
It takes me five seconds too long to untangle myself from the bedroll. By then, they're among us, and the screaming gets louder. I roll into the snow, looking for my duster with padded armor, and--
He hits me from the side, and I feel something sharp poking between my ribs and I scream. We go end over end into the snow. I can smell him--it--on me, trying to get better leverage to stab me again with his hoofblades. I throw the changeling off but he just comes back again. I kick at him with my hindlegs, trying to push myself back with my forelegs. Kick. Kick. Kick. He avoids the first two. He keeps hissing and hissing and then the last kick catches him square on the nose and I know my horseshoes hit because I can't take them off. The sound it makes is unreal. Everything is unreal. The sky is dark but its red like Ruby's eyes all around me and I think I can smell blood--I do smell it, everywhere, all over me and the snow and--the changeling gets back up. It's face is ruined. One eye stares at me like blindness and its mouth opens and it doesn't just have fangs, it has row upon row of teeth and I try to say something but I can't. It just keeps coming and then it's everywhere and it's so big--
My eyes open.
I don't jump and scream. I just lay there in the darkness. My first thought is that the cloud cover thinned enough to see stars. My second is that I'm still alive. My third thought is that I feel sick.
I roll over on my side, but thankfully hold on to dinner.
It's hard to get back to sleep. It is so quiet now. VI.
The forest is still there, at least. But more and more I think that might not be a good thing. That's kind of been the theme of this whole mess, really. The more I think, the worse it seems. The logical thing to do would be to stop thinking. But I can't. Sometimes, I try to stop thinking and I can handle it for a little while. Thirty minutes to an hour at the absolute most. And then I start feeling like somepony is watching me. Or I feel just how alone you are high up in the air. Or I close my eyes and I see... how awful the snow was. Changelings bleed green, they're supposed to bleed green but these monsters bleed black. It's not like normal blood. When you scrape your leg and you bleed a bit, it kind of oozes, right? But it's not like it's thick. That stuff is so thick, like syrup. Or honey. And then I just can't help but think about it, more and more, until I feel sick or afraid or just restless or nervous.
We stopped the column long enough for Knight-Commander Yuletide and Star Brand to have a short conference of whispers with the Pathfinders about the woods. We're all nervous about it, and for good reason.
Rangers aren't soldiers, but that doesn't mean we don't know a few things about war. After all, most Rangers were guards once. The ones like me who never went past basic training (and then, I only did that so I could qualify for Ranger School) are rare. Knight-Commander and Star Brand and Soft Fang all fought Zebraharan pirates when Equestria and the Khalifa of Tabir teamed up to one-two knockout buck those bastards. Lily and Swift were actually in Canterlot when Chrysalis attacked. The Ranger who retired a month after Ruby and I arrived at Station Nineteen was named Meadow. He told us about how he and a bunch of starved, water-crazy Zebra soldiers got stranded after a battle with bandits in the desert and had to fight and sneak their way hundreds of miles to the Zebraharan capitol. At first, I thought he was just bullshitting us because we were rookies, but the others seemed to treat his stories like they were true, every bit.
So, we aren't soldiers but in some ways we are. And even I know that forests can be great... or they can be death traps. If you're fast-moving, light, flexible, and--above all--smart, then you can use heavy wooded areas as the perfect cover. Every tree and bush becomes a hiding place and potential avenue of attack. Everything can work in your favor.
But if you aren't those things, and if you're a flier, forests can be a nightmare. They say that Celestia was almost captured by Nightmare Moon early on in the Schism when she risked a short route, going by forest roads with a large army. Nightmare Moon's batpony raiders began their attacks as soon as the sun started going down and they didn't let up for hours. Every few minutes, there would be another scream, another dead guardspony. The stories also say that Nightmare Moon's loyal batponies shrieked and made all sorts of outlandish noises and probably drank blood and worshipped dark gods, but whatever. The noises part is true, but ponies never seem to understand that its all about echolocation. Maybe if they lived in caves they would get it. Probably not. Dayponies are kind of slow, honestly.
So, forests are dangerous. If it was just the Rangers and maybe the Pathfinders, we would probably be fine. We can see in the dark and hear danger coming, and they can keep us from getting lost without having to risk breaking the canopy cover. We would make a great team. The problem is the refugees. These ponies and changelings aren't Rangers, Pathfinders, or Soldiers. They're just civilians. Just townsfolk who watched their homes burning not that long ago. They are slow, afraid, tired, cold, and hungry. We'll have a hard time hearing threats with them around, muddying up the sound, and we won't be able to move through the rougher terrain fast enough. Refugees means we have to stick to the road, and that means ambushes.
But there's nothing for it, and that's why they don't talk very long. We can't go around. Once again, Rangers could outrun the twelve wings--and that's counting pairs as one wing--behind us, but we can't get these poor ponies to outrun anything if we aren't making good time in a single direction. Trying to go around the forest and approach Amethyst City from the north will add a whole extra day. Except it won't because we'll all be dead. We've taken down two and a half wings of changeling mutants in the last two weeks. Every single one we isolated into halfwings and then demolished by surprise. In a drawn out fight, we'll lose at least one pony if there's more than a wing, and that's if we bail when it gets too rough. And we can't afford to lose any. They can throw away a hundred ponies and still destroy us. The Pathfinders can't help us in the air aside from their one pegasus, and even he's not much of a brawler. Too light.
So we're basically sort of fucked.
But at least there's a change in scenery.
VII.
Lily and I walk together on the snowy road. It's dark now--only about four in the evening, maybe five, but even with no leaves the trees above are thick. They soak up light, it seems like. I swear some of them actually look like they're made of crystals. It makes me nostalgic for when this was just a surveying trip.
I had really been looking forward to it. Mapping new territory! Discovering new things and meeting new ponies. Helping Luna and also helping the Empire. If none of this had happened, I would have come to this forest and found these trees. I would have been excited, if they are actually made of some sort of magic crystal. And, yes, I think they are. But I don't feel excited. I'm just... sad, I guess. We would have had a great day or two here, seeing how wide this patch of forest land stretched. Maybe Last Call and Ocean Gale could have worked with us. Together, we would have found the paths and the road and added them to the new maps.
A little behind us, I hear a chittering. It sends a shiver down my spine, but I don't turn. I try not to feel so freaked out, also. It's just the changelings--the normal ones, the ones who got their homes destroyed.
Some of them were in the Empire, just trying to live normal lives. Some are from smaller hives that Chrysalis wiped out on her way down from the mountains out of nothing but spite. Knight-Commander Yuletide called them together and asked if any were willing to help us in the woods. Changelings can see in the dark, though not as great as we can, and they have hearing that rivals our own. He promised we wouldn't force them to fight, and that they were free to run if we were attacked. Made all of us promise we would protect them. I think we all meant it. Maybe even Swift, even if he looked a little frustrated. Swift hates Changelings, but even he wouldn't leave these poor little lost souls for the likes of the monsters that are chasing us. Swift is a jerk and an ass, but he's not cruel. He and Lily just handled Canterlot differently.
Lily apparently handled it by just being unshakeable. She never seems to bend. She's always calm, always ready. She can go from mothering you to calmly talking about how many mutants we've killed and then remind you to say grace in about five seconds. It used to unnerve me a little, how collected and smiley she could be, but now it's a comfort. Lily never falters.
The changelings fall silent. We keep walking.
Lily hasn't said anything to me yet. About what I know she knows. Can she see my dreams in my face? Do they peek out of my eyes, perhaps? Hell if I know. I just know that I can't fool her.
Five of us here. Lily is the sharpest pair of eyes in our wing, and I'm a good woodspony, so we're here where we can see what's ahead. We have three changelings with us. I don't like calling them drones, so I don't. I'm not sure what else to call them. I don't know how they, you know. If they're he or she. I guess it doesn't matter. They seem nervous. It's probably a good idea to be nervous. I'm nervous, and I'm the big tough Ranger pony.
Swift and 'Fang are in the back, with two changelings. Knight-Commander and Star Brand are with the actual column. It's even more spread out now. It's really insane that we expect to be able to protect this many ponies with such a small wing.
The best part is that we're under strength. That's what really gets me, as we breach the forest's heart. Even if you count Ruby Eyes and myself as full-fledged Rangers (which we aren't) Station Nineteen's wing is still down at least one pony. They hadn't gotten around to replacing old Meadow yet. At the time, I figured that one of us would stay on and the other would go to a station that needed another Ranger. If you want a wing really at full strength, still counting us as something other than miserable rookies, then you would need two more ponies in the air. So, counting us, we're two down. Not counting us, we're four down. And we have to defend two hundred ponies and changelings. One other flier. Two earth ponies. That's it. That's all we have.
"Bit for your thoughts," Lily says quietly, just loud enough for my ears to hear. They twitch on their own. Damn, but she's perceptive, isn't she?
"Numbers," I say before I think better of it.
"Oh? Sounds like a grim subject."
She has a beautiful voice. It's prettier than Ruby's. It reminds me of my mom. "It is, I guess."
"What sort of numbers, hm?"
"You. Me. Ruby. Star Brand. Kn... Yuletide. Soft. Swift. Shadow Flier." I say each name carefully, deliberately. "Eight. Full strength is ten. It's only eight if you count Ruby and me."
She hums. "I would."
I smile, but I don't really feel like smiling. "If you add in Gale, it's nine... if you add the two rank amateurs."
I glance over and see her nod. "Yes. And you're thinking about the odds."
"No, I already know the odds. I'm just thinking about... numbers. This is really messed up."
"A bit," she allowed. "Do you know what I'm thinking about?"
"Sure," I say, hoping it's something good. Or at least something not about how we are all almost certainly going to die.
"Snow."
"Snow," I repeat.
"Yes," she says calmly, as if that is normal. "Snow. You know, when I was a filly, I loved snow. I still love it. I even like this snow," she says, sweeping her wing. "Snow is nice. Cold, yes, but in a... pleasant way. It has potential. You can walk in and see where you've been. Or, if you're a bit younger and have a fire in your belly--which you certainly do--you can make snowponies out of it."
"Used to try and use branches for wings," I mumble, half to myself.
But she hears me, of course. "I did too, when I was a foal."
"That's a weird thing to think about."
"Is it? I thought it was a rather natural thing to think about just south of the artic. Surrounded as we are by snow. In fact, the most natural thing to think about." She smiled as if this were funny, which it wasn't. Not really. "But, in general, I don't think much of numbers or most of the things you are thinking about. It's not going to help. I think you're a smart enough mare to know that."
"I guess."
"Grizlebrand still teaching the School?"
"Aye," I say, mimicking that over the top accent he has. "Yar, he be there."
She chuckles. "He would kick you into next week if he was here. You remember what he says, right?"
I sigh. "Do the job in front of you."
"Yes," she says, as if it was some sort of benediction. It's more like a sigh. "Do the job in front of you. And don't overeact when I say this, because I would like to not worry our already nervous tagalongs: there is something up ahead."
She says it without ever changing her tone. I just sort of blink at her, slow on the uptake. When I figure it out, I put my head on swivel. It doesn't take more than a second. There is something up ahead. Way, way up ahead. I squint.
"Ugh. It's either small or its far away."
"Far," she said, simply.
"Alive? Moving?" I ask, feeling an itch in my hooves. It was the itch I had the first time I crashed while flying. Like, really crashed, blood and sniffling and mom worried to death.
"No," she said. "No to both. If it's alive, it isn't terribly so. But I don't think whatever it is lives. It's awfully still. Good job, by the way. You're staying calm. It's the most important thing--it's vital to being a Ranger. Never panic. Always remain in control. It's impossible, but do try regardless."
It takes us another ten minutes before we can really make it out.
Up ahead, the road sort of bends around a little frozen creek. The changelings chitter, and Lily tells them that nothing is moving, but that they should still be careful. "Stay back," she says softly. "It'll be alright. If something is up there and still breathing, it'll be us they're after."
That doesn't make me feel any better.
And I could use something to make me feel better because it becomes readily apparent that we've wandered into what's left of a skirmish. The smell of death lingers slightly even in the cold. It's... it's hard to describe. Not that I want to describe it.
Most of the dead are in full metal armor: Legions, then. Most are Crystal ponies. A few earth ponies, one unicorn, no pegasi. Half of them are more or less still pony-shaped, which I find myself faintly surprised over. When we get to the bodies, Lily sends one of the changelings back with a message for Last Call. The other two stay with us, but don't hang back like Lily told them to. They're practically clinging to us.
It's sick and it's wrong but as I walk through the avenue of the dead, that simple fearful trust makes it worth seeing and smelling and imagining how they died. I'm so tired of ponies not wanting to be near me or look at me.
"You can go back," I say to the one on my left. She (he? It?) is just a step behind me. "It's okay, really. This isn't pretty."
It chitters at me. I look back at it for a moment to see the little changeling grimace for a moment, and then sigh. It looks at me as if it's asking a question, and I shrug helplessly.
That seems to be enough of an answer. It vanishes in a blur of green fire which startles me but doesn't melt the snow, and then it isn't a changeling at all but a batpony stallion. Handsome, by all accounts, but not in a dramatic way. He sighs.
"Changeling throats don't work well with pony words," he explains, looking pained. "I'm sorry. May I remain like this until we are clear of this place?"
I just sort of blink at him for a second. "Uh. Yeah, yeah sure. If it helps."
"It helps." He pauses. I realize now that Lily and the other changeling have moved on ahead aways. She's inspecting one of the bodies, Luna only knows why. The stallion speaks again. "When ponies see us, it makes us..."
"Nervous," I finish, my voice sounding strange in my own ears. "It makes you nervous. You don't like how they look at you."
"Yes." He (she?) looks at me strangely.
We keep walking. More dead. I catch up to Lily, who seems more solemn than calm now. She's been waiting.
In the snow is... I recognize it. It's a coat. I swallow.
"What... what wing?" I ask.
"Station Seven," she says.
"Did you know anypony in that station?" I ask, feeling helpless.
"Yes," she answers. "We can't afford to take him," she continues, more for herself than me, I think. "We can't. The body will slow us down, what if it has..." She swallows. "I can't identify him. He's been out here for too long. Frozen solid. We're going to stop for a moment, alright? We need to know if other Rangers died here."
She reaches down and plucks something from the corpse. Most of the poor Ranger is obscured in snow, which I'm grateful for. She shows me what she's collected: a tiny lunar emblem on a chain. I'll have my own when I finish my training. If I finish my training.
"If you find another... take this. It has a name carved on the back," she says. "Just in case. It's all we can do, but we need to do it."
I understand. I nod at her, because there's nothing I can say that wouldn't be monumentally stupid or really, really pointless.
The changeling-batpony and I began digging in the snow. Never very deep. Just a few centimeters at a time and then you move on. We find another body, and I almost lose it, but...
He comes up alongside me and gently pushes me away. I feel better. Calmer. He just looks kind of sick.
"You did something to me," I say. My voice sounds flat.
"I am sorry. You were in distress and it was like someone shouting in my ears."
"It's okay," I say, and it is okay. Everything sort of is. "I think you might have overdone it."
"Perhaps."
We keep looking. We find a ranger and I blink at her body. What's left of it. Head's gone. I don't feel anything but... No, I really don't feel anything.
"Could you stop doing it?" I ask him. "Just for a little while. Not all the way. I just... I shouldn't stare at dead bodies and be okay with it."
"I understand," he said.
It comes back, but not all at once. I feel disgust again first. Then an ache, between my stomach and my heart. I wonder what her name was. I bend down and with a grimace search for her emblem.
It's not hard to find. She had it safe in her duster's inner pocket and I withdraw with it cradled between my hooves.
"What is it?" the changeling asks.
"Luna gives us these," I say, looking down at it. The name is on the other side. I don't look. "The Princess, I mean," I continue, feeling strange. "When you become a real Ranger, you go to Canterlot and she gives you your emblem and talks to you personally. For like, a long time. She interviews every single Ranger. It's the last point you can bail. If you decide that you aren't up for it, she still gives you the medal and you can go home or back to the guard or wherever with no hard feelings. She even still talks to you."
He hums. It's not like a normal hum. It's the song the changelings sing to each other sometimes at night.
"What's your name?" I ask without looking up. I look at the little moon. It's silver on a black circle. Onyx, I think. Heavy. Ornate. Beautiful.
"Hard to say. As in, hard to pronounce," he adds when I don't respond. "The closest I can come is Mozxil."
"That's not so hard." I turn the emblem over. Her name was Primrose.
"I certainly do not think so, but when I am a changeling, I can add the undertones that make my full name."
We keep looking. I don't find another Ranger. Thank Luna.
Instead I end up finding a hat and a very, very dead giant.
The hat is a ushanka. It's wooly and warm, perfect for cold weather. It has ear flaps that remind me of a donkey. I pick it up and look at it numbly.
The mitou is dead. Very dead. Something gouged out its eyes, probably. I look at the hat, and then I look at the giant. Huge. Covered in coarse white fur. It's hands are big enough to fit around my body and crush me like a grape. I look at the hat. I look at its hands. I think about how black they are--you couldn't even tell how much blood was on something like that, could you? Maybe it belonged to a Ranger. Or a legionnaire. Or just a traveler in the woods. Anypony. I know it got them. Sometimes they pick a pony up and just bite it in two. Because they can. They don't even need to eat, I don't think. They don't seem to need much food. They travel light. A club or an old field gun that they carry like a rifle.
"I wanted to buy one of these when I was on leave," I say to nopony. But Mozxil listens. "But I didn't because I only had so many bits, and I was hungry. So I got food instead. When I heard we were shipping out for the Empire to make maps and explore, I thought to myself, 'Midnight, you really should have bought that hat,' and you know what? I really should have. It was a great hat. This is just like it. You can eat anywhere but you won't find a nice wooly hat with floppy ears anywhere but north of Vanhoover. I thought, since we were coming back and I had a stipend, I could spend the day off I was bound to get in Imperial Center buying a nice warm hat. Maybe a scarf. One with nice blues. Something pretty. It really looks just like that hat. Except that one had a little Sun on it and this one has a Crystal Heart, see?" And I know that I'm crying because I feel the cold wetness on my cheeks. "Mozxil, can you do me a favor?"
"Yes."
"Can you please, please, please for the love of Luna make me feel better again?"
"Of course."
VIII.
It's night now, and I'm thinking about the snow.
My ears are warm. I took the hat. I didn't want to let go of it, and I was too humiliated to explain. I just wanted Lily to stop looking at me. She's always looking at me. She sees right through me.
Mozxil was nice. I found out that changelings prefer "she" and they can be whichever. I wasn't really paying that much attention. I just asked her to tell me things and then asked appropriate questions to keep her talking. I asked her if she would show me how she shapeshifted on the road. Didn't seem to mind. Even did a pretty good version of Star Brand and Knight-Commander Yuletide. She doesn't have his voice down, though. Doesn't talk enough, I guess.
I asked her if she got tired of dayponies being afraid of her all the time. She didn't know what a daypony was, but I think she understood. She said that you get used to it. It's okay. Figure out a way around it. I can't shapeshift though. I'll always just be me. She said that the changelings weren't afraid of us, really. They just were afraid, period. It made me feel better. I still was afraid of how I would be when she wasn't actively sapping all my bullshit away.
When Lily wasn't looking I hugged her and it was incredibly stupid. But I was never in the Guard, and I felt like a child, and she was okay with it. I said I was sorry, and that I probably tasted gross, and she laughed and said that it was okay, and then we parted ways and then I got first watch and then I sat here in the snow. I found a nice sturdy tree and leaned on it. I'm still leaning against it. It really is a nice tree. I mean, it's dead and ugly, but it's big enough for my back and it's comfortable, and really that's all I care about.
Snow, I've decided, is potential. Lily was right about that. She's usually right. But I'm not thinking about snowponies and snowballs and tracks.
Mostly, I'm thinking about how things freeze.
Water freezes. Trees freeze, I guess. Bodies freeze, when they stop moving. Snow and ice really could be the opposite of potential that way because nothing happens anymore after they come. But then there's ponies like me, digging away. You could find anything under there. Looking at all of this snow, I can't help but think that all sorts of things might be under it. And eventually, the ice melts and the snow melts and it all ends up naked in the sun.
I shiver. It's cold. Even a pegasus would be cold in this weather. I pull the hat's ears around my cheeks tightly, like that helps at all. My duster's buttoned up and I probably look like a little hill of wool with a head on top. It's a really stupid image. I would laugh. In fact, I do laugh and it doesn't sound crazy at all. Probably.
In the distance, I hear something like a song. I flinch, but I don't get up because I recognize it. It's an old, old tune, one my grandmother said came from over the sea when we followed Luna. It's called "Do Not Destroy" which is a really morbid name for a song, but old stuff is morbid sometimes. It's a kind of signal in the Rangers, and they taught it to us in Ranger School. A catchy little melody, and you tell ponies who are in the know that everything is A-Okay. Shadow Flier told me and Ruby one night, after we'd cleaned the mess, about how he'd been captured by two thugs looking to get ransom after he got wasted on leave. When he knew there were Rangers looking, he started singing it just softly enough. Those bastards never stood a chance, and they were probably still in jail.
Lily trots through the snow. I know its her because she sings some of the words--
Do not destroy
The towers that I've built
The lovely spires of sweet Ulthar
My dear city
Where the cat is royal blood
Where the moon sings to me, sweet Ulthar.
I don't call out to her. No real reason to, and it would be stupid.
But she does call out to me when she's closer. "Midnight, and all is well," she says in a sing-song voice, trying to fit it to the tune. When she fails, I smile and continue shivering.
"Har-dee-har," I say, or try to say, but it comes out all chattery. "It's cold as balls, as my older brother used to say so cheerfully."
"That does sound like something a stallion would say," she replies like a diplomat being told that they used Celestia's portrait for toilet paper.
I giggled. Mostly because I was nervous and miserable and when you are nervous and miserable and want to go to bed, everything is a little funny. "Is it time to go home yet?"
"Of course," she says, so smoothly.
"Great. I was thinking I would tell Luna that being a Ranger isn't for me and then ask for a goodbye kiss and haul my floofy ass out to somewhere with sandy beaches and a bright sun. I'll become a slow, dumb daypony and learn how to surf."
"Sounds wonderful. Though I would adivse caution regarding Our Lady."
"It was just a joke," I said.
"Oh, I know." I look at her and see the dour expression I expected. And then it splits into a grin. "Rumor has it, and I do advise you to take this with a grain of salt, that she is a rather passionate lover. You might never escape the palace."
She surprises me into open laughter which I stifle only with difficulty, and then sits beside me.
"Welcome to my tree. It's sturdy, solid, cold, and also conveniently if you need to hide and wait to die, it's just big enough to ward off death for about three seconds," I say conversationally.
"Hm. Good to know. You seem to have taken to mimicking Shadow Flier."
"The little nest I built? No, I was doing that in Shady Vale. I went out and sat at the edge of the neighborhood once, at the mouth of the cavern. It was snowing, and I got a little cold, so I came back with a blanket and watched the snow fall."
"Sounds lovely."
"It was," I say.
"You aren't sleeping," she says. Finally.
"No."
"Nightmares." Not a question.
"Yes."
"I have them too, sometimes."
I look over at her, but she isn't looking at me.
"About what?"
"Canterlot," she says. "And about the Zebrahara. And about pirates. A bad scrape with a manticore near Ponyville. That time I almost hurled on Grizlebrand's hooves."
I smile. "Nice."
"I try," she says. "Do you need something to sleep? It won't make you insensate, if you're worried."
"What?"
"If you need to wake up, you will," she explains. "It's not anything magical. It's just an old recipe."
"Everything we do is some sort of old recipe," I say. "Does it taste bad?"
"Traditionally? It tastes like rancid butter, or at least I thought so. I experimented a bit after Canterlot. It tastes sort of like tea, if you forgot to take the tea bag out and it went cold."
"Delightful. I'd like some." But then I hesitate. "May I sit with you?"
"For a little while. You should go to bed."
"I'm not a child."
"You are not," she affirms. She looks me over. "How old are you? Nineteen?"
"Yes."
"How fitting." She smiles at me and it is a warm smile. "You think this is a test. Even if you haven't thought about it just that way, it's in the back of your mind."
"I know I'm not cut out for this."
"I wouldn't be so quick to say. You killed one of them all on your lonesome. It was well done, for a pony who was never in the guard."
"I keep seeing it come back. I puked."
"Not surprising. On either count." She was fishing in her duster for a moment, and when she found a little vial and held it out to me, I took it. "Here you are. Aunt Lily's Special Nightcap. Minus the alcohol. I would love some, personally. It feels nice and warm in the belly."
"Should I take it now or wait?"
"Take it now."
I did. It tasted bitter, but not unbearably so. "Thank you," I said quietly, and gave the bottle back. "I was thinking about Luna's interview and what I would say if I were ever going to have one."
"So quick to see the future. What would you say?"
"I don't know. I think I might say that I'm sorry I wasted her time."
"Anything that isn't self-effacing?"
"I think she's beautiful and I would ask if she was happy we were here for her return."
She looks at me and doesn't say anything for a moment. I feel like I'm being sized up and look away.
"That's interesting of you. I'm sure she was happy," Lily says after a moment.
"What did you say to her?"
I know she won't tell me before she answers. "I'm afraid that tends to be a private affair. Though some will say. I won't," she adds. "But not because it's you, pup. One day, you'll understand. When, and not if, you go to her yourself. I think that she will like you." And with that, she prodded me and I knew my time was up. I was glad. "Off you go." IX.
I wake again. It's early, but not as early as the night before. I had nightmares. I remember them, but not very well. Mostly I remember the feeling of being afraid, but its not intense. I'm sure it was at the time. But now its only hazy and indistinct. I didn't wake up in the night.
But my head feels sort of fuzzy. I blink up at the pale sky between the thick branches.
I wonder what time it is. Five? Maybe. I've been waking up early ever since the second day of basic when they levitated me out the window with magic and dumped me in ice cold water while I slept.
No reason to get up quite yet. I know that I'll hear the others move when its time to get going for the day, and in my hazy state, I think that it's nice to just enjoy my warm bedroll. Lazy mornings are so rare. And if I lay here long enough... I lose track of that thought.
I'm so busy enjoying the warmth and my own hazy drugged state that I almost miss it.
But I don't miss it. A sound to my right, out of the woods. Awareness cuts through the drugged draught as best it can. Originates from left of where I was on watch. Moving towards me, definitely moving fast. What is it? Continuous noise, like--
Wings. I'm already trying to escape my bedroll when I hear Shadow on last watch raising the alarm through the woods. My hooves are shaking--the medicine has me so off balance I can't open--there! I stumble onto the snow, thankful I slept with my duster wrapped around me, armor and all.
And as I put a hoof up to hold my hat to my head and look around for the foe, they are among us.
Before I can say anything or do anything, a changeling hits me in the side. I feel it biting down through my duster, just like the last one did. Panicking, I kick at its underbelly, my horsehoes cracking the chitin there. We fall apart, and before he can press the attack I rush him, hooves high--
I can't look, there's not enough time. You move on. You find the next one. You deal with it.
And I feel myself going away again, but that's okay. I already feel like shit. Just go away, Midnight. Go away. It'll be alright.
This is not stealth. It's raw speed. None of the Rangers have seen changelings move this fast, but none of them have seen changelings quite like this. These are new, freshly converted in Winter's Grip. Chrysalis the Forge-Queen has bestowed a new gift upon her fastest children.
Their eyes glow green and red in turn, and their doubled wings hum constantly. They have fangs, but in the back of their throat is a stinger that almost none of them know how to use yet. But they will. Oh, they will.
Midnight takes to the air, yelling warnings in a voice not quite her own. She draws their attention, and another comes. When it rises to meet her, she beats it back down to earth in seconds. There is no technique here, no cleverness. It is just raw strength and adrenaline. It tries to use its stinger on her and grazes her leg, but the Initiate gets lucky. She screams so loud and so high that briefly she dips into the ultrasonic that both of them hear. She catches its exposed stinger by the fleshy connection to his mouth. It pulls, and she pulls back. It is almost comic. Until she bites it off and screams again like a blind mare in a cave finding her way home with echoes.
Midnight is attacked again. She tries to overpower this one and it sees her coming a mile off. It does not use its stinger. It hits her on the back and she fumbles through the air before crashing in the snow, and then it is on her--biting at her duster. She tries to shake the changeling off, but it clings, hissing. She hisses and screams back. It abandons the duster and does what its bretheren could not: it finds a spot on the back of her neck and its sharp fangs pierce her skin and inject its toxin into her blood.
Midnight falls like a dead mare and lies uncomprehending, staring at the dark wood ahead. |
Redeem Us In Our Solemn Hour | IV. Unreal City | I.
It's a lot like a hangover.
When I was on leave in Stalliongrad, the day I almost bought that hat, our class went and partied pretty hard. It's tradition, and like most traditions, it is at least a little stupid. I threw up everything that night on the street and then my friends threw me onto a couch and propped my head up. The next morning, I felt like I had died, been dragged back to life... and then like I wanted to die again. Dying sounded awesome.
This is a little worse. Being hungover feels like every little bit of moisture has been wrung out of you. Your head hurts, your throat is raw. You feel weak, like you haven't eaten in days. But when I open my eyes again, I feel less like I've been dried out and more like someone has slowly been peeling my skin off. It burns. It being everything. My veins feel like they carry little blades that stab underneath my skin.
I groan.
That's when I see something over me. My sight is... strange. Wrong. Like what I imagine ponies who need glasses must see like. The world is fuzzy.
"Lily, she's awake!" Oh. Ruby. Hello Ruby.
Another shape. "Thank Luna. She protects." That would be Lily.
"She protects," softer, a little afraid. Ruby.
"You are lucky, pup," Lily says. I feel... I think she's touching my face. It hurts. I whine. "You're very lucky. It seems that the bitch goddess has not changed her children's venom. You will recover."
"Wha hap'n?" I say. Even in my awful state, I know it sounds stupid as hell.
"One of them jumped you and bit you," Ruby says. "I... I thought you were dead. But Lily helped me pull you back towards the fire."
"Go and tell the Commander," Lily told her. I wanted her to stay. I tried to say so, but my words were all big and strange. "In a few hours you will be fine. Some of the refugees are going to help us move you until the venom wears off. You are more lucky than I said before: if Yuletide hadn't found you and pulled the monster off, it would have gotten you with a double dose. You wouldn't have woken up for another few days."
I groan again, trying to talk. She makes shushing noises. "No. It's alright. Just go back to sleep. You'll sleep it off. It's fine."
And I do what she says. I can feel myself going. Not like when I fight. It's gentler. It's quieter. Like sinking into bed. I can almost feel the covers moving, and-- II.
The forward base of the Equestrian Guard in Manehattan is a place of blinding activity.
It's to be expected--this is a momentous occasion. If tragedy can be called that without shame, at least. Equestria has not seen an actual war for well over a century. Pirates, bandits, the occasional monster... but not a war of maneuver. Her tacticians are at wit's end. Her quartermasters are both the happiest and the most frustrated they have ever been and perhaps shall ever be, and her soldiers are nervous at best. Frightened, at worse.
But let it not be said that nothing is accomplished in the panic, for much is indeed done. Orders carried from one tent to another carry with them the force of thousands of hooves. Already, eight companies are crossing the border. Another four wait in Lunangrad for Luna and Celestia to lead personally. The combined levies of seven noble houses muster just north of Canterlot, late as always. A whole nation is moved to war. Or, in their hearts, is moved to the aid of a new friend.
In one of those tents, a small crowd is huddled around an outlaid map of the Crystal Empire. They are as one: furrowed brows, lines grim slashes, bodies still. None of them want to get right to the point, partially because they all already know the point. They know what's going to be said and what it will mean. Instead, they talk about everything else.
"If her highness is sure of moving the Third Army group towards the Expanse," began the one who was nominally leading this meeting, "than she... er, they, will need to maintain a rather tenuous line of supply. It'll be easily cut. I have informed their Majesties of this, and have been told in no uncertain terms that we have days to figure it out."
A general wave of discontent.
"I know," said the first. He rubbed his temples. He could feel a headache beginning right under the root of his horn. He hadn't slept in two days. Too busy crunching the numbers. How much bread and water feeds how many guardsponies? What is the correct amount of weight for a guard pony to carry when moving across unfamiliar but flat terrain in winter, possible snow becoming definite snow, so that he or she will be effective in combat several hundred miles after starting? It was all in the numbers, he'd been trained to believe. It's all in the give and take of ratios. Sacrifice a sliver of combat readiness for speed or the weight of supply, sacrifice some speed or equipment for a fresher force. It was all in the numbers and in the charts.
"That's not enough time--" one of the faceless crowd said, and the unicorn with a raging headache now continued to rub his temples. His name was Balanced Check and he had the absurd thought for perhaps the hundredth time that his name was incredibly stupid. Especially in light of the circumstances, wherein nothing was going to add up.
"I know," he said again.
"If we had Rangers..."
"But the Rangers are in the theater already," Check said. "Yes. Let's just... skip the parts everyone knows because they are obvious, alright? Let's skip to the part where we make it work."
Carefully but swiftly, he began to mark the map. "Alright. We have nine ranger stations in the north. Six were deployed to the survey mission. That leaves us three, hypothetically, that would be perfect to keep marauders off of any resupply."
"That's an insanely small force."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." He sighed. "Look, I get that. Trust me, I'm aware. But the Rangers aren't guards. They know this terrain. Rangers can cover ten times the ground with a tiny fraction of the ponypower. They've done it before. It's what they do. I'm not saying its ideal. I'm saying it's a start."
One of the logistics staff pushed back his eyeglasses and leaned in. "Where are the currently deployed wings? You're right, sir, that the Rangers are ideal for the situation at hoof..."
"But three wings isn't enough, yes." Check marked the positions of the remaining wings. He knew them all by heart. Most of this was going to be merely a rehearsal. "Stations Nine, Eleven, and Fourteen are our reserves. Stations Five, Seven, and Eighteen are here, currently attached to the Fourth Legion. Empire will hate to see them go, but I think the prospect of a few thousand Equestrian guards will make the loss more palatable. It'll also be more up their alley. That would bring us to..." he blinked and desperately wished for an apothecary. "I believe it's forty-six? That is assuming only the two casualties we've been informed of, obviously. That's forty-six rangers covering a hundred miles of ground."
"It's a lot," murmured one of the faceless officers, leaning in.
Check knew he wouldn't find anything. "Yes, but there's more to it than that. I've done some calculations regarding the Fifth and Seventh. Station Five has a unicorn whose dowsing ability is unreal and even with conservative estimates, worth an additional thirty ponies. Station Seven has another unicorn. Not as good, obviously, but still numerically their ability to lay out dowsing and detection spells should bolster the effective force estimate..." Is that even a term? He wonders. He is so tired. He had spent the last ten hours working the math, using formulas he hadn't thought about at all in years. "It evens out a bit. A bit," he stressed. Essentially, we end up with forty-six rangers who can do the work of eighty-five or more airborne batpony rangers. They can see in the dark, hear changelings coming long before anypony else can, and frankly they are frighteningly good at surviving. Now, if we can position them correctly, I believe we can keep the route from Lunangrad into the Expanse open long enough to move in elements of the First Army Group's pegasus..."
And then a question he had not anticipated: "What about Station Nineteen? They seem close enough that they might be able to move back towards the border."
Check hesitated.
"We... we aren't sure if..." he coughed. "We aren't sure if they're even alive," he admitted.
"You're right about the survival bit, sir," said the one who had spoken. Check honestly didn't remember his name. "Surely they might have? We could at least try to contact them."
"No go. No unicorn for communication. If they had a scrying globe at all it it's long gone--I was told in no uncertain terms that for all intents and purposes they are dead. I'm inclined to agree with you. They're close to the initial invasion route, hell, right on top of it! But..." he shrugged and pointed. "See that? Amethyst City? It's the only place in miles they could go. I want to believe that they rounded up some survivors from the border towns and moved their asses. Wouldn't that be something? But the only place to go is Amethyst City, and if they go there... well. They'll be in for a rude awakening."
III.
In Lunangrad, a near-immortal returns to the city which hailed her in Rebellion, and which was the last to surrender her cause. She finds her return to be... Strange. Like a half-remembered dream, the kind you aren't sure of when you wake. Had you dreamed something pleasant? Was it a nightmare? And your feelings are mixed and your brain is hazy so you like back down again, but Luna could not shrug her feeling off so easily.
Luna blinked wearily at the sun. Already she was tired, and no fighting had been done. She was almost tempted to think--Ah, but I am old now--but knew better. It wasn't age. When she had been a vagrant warrior, she and Celestia had roamed and quested and fought and she had not been weary. But that was before Ascension. It was before the Moon.
She had liked night before. Now she was Night.
Twilight Sparkle, horns and wings and all, accompanied her as she walked through the camp that had been set up in the city park. It was ad hoc. Faintly, Luna found it horrifying--Equestrian arms had rusted in her absence, it seemed. But at the same time, it was understandable. The arts of war had grown less needful. She supposed it was better this way. Maybe. The guards themselves were no lesser than the ones who she had fought in the long ago Schism.
"I've already checked our stores and the quartermaster says that the army's last shipment of cold weather gear came in this morning from Vanhoover," Twilight said, trotting beside her. Luna glanced over to see her levitating a checklist. How surreal. Checklists.
Checklists should not have a place in war, and Luna was certain of this. She found this new time strange at best, and wrongheaded at worst. As if the fury of the clash of arms could be made into a machine! How horrid.
"It is good to hear," she said, solemnly. "Has thou--ah, forgive me. Celestia, is she here? I would speak to her if she has arrived."
"I'm not sure that she's here yet, Princess," Twilight said. "She was supposed to be, but the schedules for everything are just..." she made the most adorable little sound of frustration. Luna wished she were in the mood to appreciate it.
"It is not your fault, and is not urgent," Luna said, shaking her head. "Later will be as good as sooner. As for now... I would advise you, Twilight, on the eve of battle."
"Y-you would... I mean, what?"
"Firstly, between us, let there be names and not titles," Luna said. "I will not march into battle with a newlyborn sister alicorn who calls me princess and not my name!" She chuckled. " 'T would be ill-luck, I think."
Twilight smiled. "Of course. I'm sorry, I'm a little on edge. This is... this is big."
"Aye." Luna looked about again. "I believe quarters were prepared for all three of us. Leave the checklist behind and let us retire for now. Celestia is the general here, not you or I. Let her be the one who is seen to take command."
Luna had seen a hundred battles. She had fought in five times that many skirmishes. She knew just as her sister knew what war looked like. It could not change. Not really. She ignored the hollow feeling in her gut.
Twilight nodded reluctantly. "Alright... I mean, if you're certain it would be better. The quartermaster was pretty organized, I suppose."
"Let the good stallion do his job," Luna said gently. "I am sure that he is capable, else he would not be assigned to the work."
They left the camp behind slowly, and not for lack of progress. It was simply massive, and much like a maze.
But it did eventually end, and the city was all around it. Lunagrad had been a solemn city in her own time, and she found that it had not changed in that regard. Sadly, she thought it shone less brightly than it had. But perhaps at night it still was like a living sea of stars. She hoped so. Another thing that you killed or left crippled in your wake, she thought, but masked her disgust from Twilight. Twilight would not understand.
The Governor of Lunangrad had practically prostrated himself before Luna when he had offered accomodations. Frankly, she would have preferred to stay in a tent. But Celestia had suggested she accept--being cautious not to overstep, but implying that it would go a long way to restoring her old bond with the ponies of the Valley of the Moon.
The servants bowed deeply and formally as they passed. Luna acknowledged each with a nod. It was hard not to ogle at the old tapestries--she wondered if they had kept the old ones... no, surely not. But they looked as if they came from her old world. She saw herself in many of them. Her old self. The Luna before the nightmare of despair. The Luna who deserved their love.
As if from the Aether where she walked at night came unbidden an old, old bit of doggerel: Luna protects. Luna provides. Luna sees all. She snorted. What nonsense. She certainly did not see all. She had failed to protect. She had failed even more dramatically to provide. IV.
Lily was right. By the time I woke, I was ready to be on my own hooves again.
Two of our civilians had offered to carry me between them. It was surprising, to say the least. When I woke up, I about near gave them a heart attack. Which was fair, because I was pretty freaked out at first too. But I thanked them profusely, and they didn't seem afraid of me. Maybe seeing me completely fail at being useful took all of that away. Or maybe its just harder to avoid looking at the scary evil batpony when she's right in front of you thanking you for carrying her.
I still feel a little woozy, but not enough to really be a problem. I can walk in a straight line and fly in a straight line, and as far as I'm concerned, that means I'm fine.
We've almost cleared the forest, or so the Pathfinders think. I'm glad to be rid of it.
As for the attack... Knight-Commander Yuletide himself filled me in. We lost Shadow. When he told me I just... sat. My legs simply gave out. Stopped taking orders. He never changed the tone of his voice. He simply continued. Shadow dead. Twenty-six civilians killed. Fourteen injured severely. A few dozen more with wounds minor enough to ignore. The fast movers got Shadow as he raised the alarm--he told me that they're damn well near silent, and that's bad for us. Changelings are hard to see in the dark, and we've been relying on our hearing to compensate for the difficulty. The ones with the stingers are the silent ones. Fucking monsters.
I walk alongside 'Fang. We're the rearguard now. Knight-Commander wanted me with somepony who had a level head, I guess. Because I'm a fuckup. I know I am. I went down after what, thirty seconds? Maybe? Damn near instantly.
What if somepony else had died? What if I had been able to get up and help Shadow? I was the closest. I know I was. Lily and Ruby and Swift all bunked on the other side of the column last night. Yuletide was on watch. Star Brand was on watch. I was the one who was supposed to be there for him. And I was just laying there, enjoying my warmth like a foal.
I haven't seen Lily since I woke up. Or Ruby. Only Knight-Commander and 'Fang. I wish I could have seen them, but I'm also afraid to. What if they blame me? They would be right, but I don't want them to.
'Fang says nothing, which doesn't tell me much. He doesn't usually say much unless there's a need.
I just want to go home, now more than ever. V.
Amethyst City, on our maps, is noted as being a walled settlement of moderate size. Estimates of the local population were tentative, but placed those within the walls at around six thousand. Our first breath of air after we'd put distance between the invasion force and ourselves, we had huddled around his flimsy parchment map, sheltering it and him from the cold, cutting winds, as he laid out our options. Or, well, option. Because we only had one.
Amethyst City was supposed to be our "base", if you will. It was a nominal staging point where we could resupply when needed and rest or convalesce in the event of an accident or an unfortunate encounter with wildlife. It wasn't because the place was special so much as it was the only place. There were small villages and towns, of course, but they were isolated and mostly consisted of subsistence farmers who had little to spare for a bunch of exploring Rangers.
This is the Expanse. Between the highlands around the capital city of the empire and the frozen eastern shore and another mountain range, you have a flat nothing. During the short but productive warmer months, the Expanse is a vast prairie full of flowers and grass and all that nice stuff. In the long cold months, the Expanse is a frozen wasteland that can and will kill you without having even noticed you were there to kill. There is nothing to eat, and its almost impossible to live off the land in what we would call Fall or Winter. Here it's all winter.
So Amethyst City is the only place in our survey zone with food and shelter to spare that we won't have to risk dying horribly in the snow to get to. And now it will be the same for the civilians we've picked up along the way. I hope.
Our first view of the city itself wasn't promising, but wasn't exactly damning. No movement, but with the way things are outside the walls, it makes sense. Don't draw attention. Keep indoors and keep watchful. Yuletide's ordered us all to keep visible from the ramparts when we leave the treeline, but to be ready for anything. We have to show we're not a threat, but if they're panicky... panicky guards are stupid guards.
We press on. I still haven't see Lily or Ruby, but 'Fang traded me off to Star Brand, and I moved up to the front again. We went ahead to spy out the city. So far, this has mostly entailed Knight Brand staring through his binoculars and grimacing while I scan the trees, feeling anxious.
"See anything?" I whisper, just loud enough for him to hear.
"No," he says. "And I don't like it. No guards on the walls that I can see."
"They might just be hidden behind the crenulations," I reply, but now I'm even more worried.
He grunts, as if to acknowledge that and simultaneously express what he feels the chances of that being true are. "Or they might all be dead," he said simply.
"Do you think the city's been taken?"
"It's possible," he allows.
"What would we even do? It's the only place we can take them," I say, a little louder now.
"We'll just dislodge them."
"You... wait, what?"
"Squeeze in and dislodge any occupiers," he said and then glanced back at me. "Fight anything inside that isn't friendly. I'm not sure how to say it more simply, Initiate."
"Er, sorry, I just... if it was a force big enough to take the city, what can we do against it?"
"Sound thinking under other circumstances. But wrong in this one. There is no great army waiting for us inside. Amethyst City had at most perhaps two hundred guards, constabulary, and other auxiliaries. Perhaps at the utmost it could have fielded a force of a thousand, with a quarter of those being warm bodies more apt to soil themselves and run than anything else. They would not need a horde to take this place if the mind controlling it was competent. And I'm beginning to suspect that the mind controlling them is, in fact, a genius"
"I'm still not sure why there won't be an army in there," I grumble.
"A few things. Think of it as a lesson. Firstly, there would be patrols if it were a sizeable force. Secondly, so far the tactic of the invasion has been lightning fast maneuver across the length of the Expanse. Stopping in a city so west would bog down a significant portion of the overall force that could best be used to attack the flanks of the responding legions. Lastly, if there were a full army in there..." and now he looks back at me and grins so that bears his fangs. "They would have killed us all already." VI.
I've not been in many cities. Stalliongrad on leave. Vanhoover, once, on vacation. Manehattan on a school trip. That's three, and only Vanhoover was more than a day or two. I know just enough to have a feel for how a city should be--namely, alive and full of ponies. There's a constant background white noise humming in your ears. At first, it bothers you, but then you just... well, ignore it. It's normal. I imagine that if you live long enough in a place with so much noise, you start to think that its comforting, being able to hear all that, all the time. Conversations on the street, the rolling of carts and carriages, the occasional slight thrumming of magic as some unicorn lifts something. The endless array of smells that is so maddening might one day become something to wake up to and smile, like my mother's cooking wafting through my open bedroom door.
Amethyst City was absolutely none of the things that those cities were.
It was dead. There's no other way to describe it. I could talk about the feeling of absolute stillness. I could describe the way the windows seemed like dull staring eyes with no ponies behind them. Empty streets where there should be crowds. Abandoned carriages with no ponies to ride them. Some broken windows. Dark patterns on snow-filled streets that are almost certainly old blood. The snow-filled streets themselves reinforce the death of this place. There isn't anypony left to clear the way.
It's like a whole city of that feeling I had when I saw the changeling die.
Soft Fang, Swift, and myself land on an old hotel, or what looks like an old hotel. From here, you can see all the way to the walls.
"If there are changelings, there can't be that many of them," I say, because talking is better than a dead city screaming silently at you about how fucking dead it is.
"Maybe," Soft Fang says.
"Girl's right," said Swift. He spat. "Midnight, you see bodies?"
I swallow. "I saw a few."
"Right. But not many."
"No."
"Yeah, I was wonderin' about it to," he says.
"Evacuation," Soft Fang murmurs, looking over the side. "Coulda moved them."
"Or maybe the mutated changeling fucktards eat ponies now. I mean, hell, they have stingers that shoot out of their mouths and shit."
I shy away from Swift almost without noticing. He's angry. I can feel how angry he is and there's a part of me that is sure that any moment now he is going to turn all of that on me.
"I... I don't know," I say, sounding stupid. Feeling stupid.
He turns on me, and blinks, and then sighs and sits. I stare at him.
"Sorry," he says. "Shadow."
I look down. "I'm..."
"We'll talk about it later, all of us," he says. "We'll remember him and we'll say the words. I need to be calm." He gives me a smirk like he did at the station. "Gotta show you the ropes, right?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. Well, we can't rule out pony-eating changelings, but I doubt it. I'm not seeing as much in the way of signs of struggle as you'd expect from that sort of thing anyway."
"Is it safe? Will they be okay here? I mean..." I take a deep breath. "We could hide them, right? Or find food or something. Anything."
"We'll know soon," Swift says, but the look on his face isn't promising. "Sit for a bit and rest your hooves and wings. Back in the air in ten. Oh, and drink, kid."
I nod and lie flat on my belly after retrieving my little canteen from beneath my duster. I gulp greedily at the water--when I filled up after waking, the water skin seemed uncomfortably light, and it made me even thirstier. My back aches and my wings feel heavy, but I can keep going for a few more hours without another break.
Absurdly, as I lie there, I can't help but think about Ranger School. Grizlebrand was ruthless. He would fly right behind us, that hook-for-a-hoof watching you on long flights, just waiting for you to lag behind. You didn't even have to stop and he didn't have to actually catch you. You just saw that thing and shivered and knew you were definitely not going to slow down. Ever.
Soft Fang sees me, grins slowly, and lies flat on his stomach. I repress a grin. It's not actually funny. We're just tired and nervous.
"Think the others found anything?" I ask.
"Honestly? No," Swift said, even though I didn't specify who I was talking to. He's always the first to talk. "And they'll be going back before us, so they probably aren't going to find anything after we get going again."
I cross my hooves and lay my head across them. The snow is cold, but I'm starting to not notice as much. Either I have hypothermia, which I doubt, or I just... don't care.
A few minutes later, we're on the move again.
The three of us sweep over the empty, abandoned streets. All of those neighborhoods, bereft of children and old ponies and mothers and fathers and...
I couldn't imagine the difference. I can't see the ponies there. I try to imagine what Shady Vale would be like with just me and its just a darkness that goes on and on underground without any lights to show you the way. None of it means anything because there aren't in ponies to name it and say what it means. This isn't a city.
VII.
Swift is on the roof in front of me. Soft Fang is in the alley, ready to come howling into the courtyard. I am flat on my belly trying to be as small a batpony as possible.
I hear it again--we all hear it again. The faint scratching coming from inside. It sounds like chitin but Luna forgive me, how do you tell? You'd think I would know by now but I don't.
We were right over this place when we all heard it, like nails on a chalkboard. We scattered, assuming they would come up from behind us and knock any close formation out of the sky, but nothing came. Just more scratching noises from the rectangular set of builds around a courtyard with a broken fountain.
My heart is racing. I can hear it beating wildly in my ears. I can feel it in my throat. Luna knows all. Then she can tell me what the hell is in there before I--
A changeling emerges. And then two more. Mutated. If it's not small and normal looking it dies.
We don't stop to see what they drag behind them. Swift falls on the one closest to him from his rooftop perch with a cry. I'm off my roof before I see Fang come out of the entranceway. No plan. I have no plan. I'm just in the air, wings flapping, mouth open. I'm screaming--it starts out normal and ascends to higher than ponies can hear and suddenly I'm even more aware of how wrong they are as the echo comes back, how wrong and awful and twisted and out of proportion. So close. The one in front of me turns and bears his fangs and I see the stinger beginning to rise in his throat. I don't have time to go away. I don't have--
I hit him with both forehooves right in the face and don't follow him down. It's like skipping. I just spring right off his face while I hear his chitin cracking and then I'm on the other side and I'm still screaming. I touch down but the snow trips me up, wasting precious seconds. I turn.
There's more of them. Two more were behind the ones we hit. Fuck! Soft Fang is ducking under a darting stinger. Swift is in the air, trying to throw off a normal one. I charge on hooves, wishing I had hoofblades or anything at all but horsehoes.
The newcomer I head for meets me halfway and throws me back. I land on my hooves--Luna, I have to, if I stumble I'm dead I'm dead--and when he presses the attack I'm ready. I put both of my forehooves down, like I'm trying to drill them right through the stone, and then pivot my whole body, just like I was taught. I buck both hindlegs into its unholy, ugly body and send it literally flying. For once, I'm glad we're heavier than pegasi. I'm going to enjoy having the advantage of weight.
Suddenly, everything shifts. Everything is just as frantic as before, just as awful, but I am no longer a quivering mass of reaction. My mind clicks, like a wheel find a groove, like teeth slicing through warm meat. I start grinning. Three of them are down. Two are up. No, four are down. All three of us are still up. The changelings use the fallen forms of their comrades as a barrier, hissing as they retreat back towards the door.
I don't want them to leave. I want to see them cracked and broken against the stones. I bare my fangs at them almost out of blind instinct, copying them, mocking them, I see yours but here are mine, step off.
"Midnight! Go low!" Swift.
I don't think. I act. I am all muscle and no heart, and so I think nothing of diving at the left one's hooves, right over the body of its bleeding-out companion. I try to knock them aside but the thing is kicking at me. It's hooves beat my back, the base of my wing. I flair my wings out so it can't hit all of one of them at once, and then I just wrap my legs around its legs and cling and pull. It makes an unholy scratchy noise of panic, and then I feel one of the others hit the monster up high and I hear the crack. It falls and I fall with it, finishing it off with a hoof-ful of blows to its head and chest, my cold iron against unprotected chitin. Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.
I jump off and turn quickly to find the next, but there is no next. There are just three panting batponies looking at each other in a quiet courtyard, blood pooling around them.
VIII.
Changelings feed in many ways. It's not so hard to believe, really. Ponies eat and drink, but they have invented so many ways to do both of those things. In a crisis, you can even pump nutrients in through a needle, they tell me. I remember shuddering about that when I was little. I've always been afraid of needles.
Changelings feed on emotion, that's the basic part. Some will say they feed on love, and that's right. They do. But its emotional energy that they need in general. They can absorb and find some sustenance in a variety of feelings--romantic or filial love, lust, friendship, happiness--and you'll be puzzled now and this is where ponies always ask the ultimate question: then why do what they do?
There are a lot of reasons. Love is like... it's like steak for a lion. It's fish for a pegasus or a batpony. It's the pinnacle, full of life and rich in nutrients. It will keep them going. Lust is like chocolate, friendship and happiness and general communal feeling like bread or daisies for smiling dayponies. But the kinds of emotions we tend to call negative can also feed them. Anger, sadness, panic... after all, ponies can still eat grass if they really, really have to, so why couldn't changelings do something similar? And they can live off of memories like we might live off of dried half-rations on a long road.
What ponies don't understand about food is that it is scarce. They're so used to everything being given them on a golden platter--the sun makes the flowers grow, the trees always have at least some apples, the wheat and corn are as high as a stallion's eye, and all's right under heaven.
But I understand it. We get it. We do.
When you live mostly below-ground, you become more aware of how precarious existence is. Cave-ins are rare these days, but every few years one happens and ponies get hurt. Or die. But not as often. The underground apple orchards work well, and are doing better all the time as our few unicorns get better at the magic that makes it all possible... but it wasn't always that way. And sometimes there are kinks in the spell and the apples aren't any good and you lose a quarter of the harvest and suddenly there are a lot less apples to go around and still the same number of ponies to feed. You have to get by sometimes on lichen-paste soup, fish stock and mushrooms and what's left of the wheat from the daypony farms on the praries.
Now imagine that your daily bread was dependent on the mood of those around you.
So they lived in fear of the fear of others. They hid and fed in secret, and then I guess it was just never enough and they couldn't take it anymore. They started to kidnap ponies, and like a chef stumbling on a miracle, they discovered something new: they didn't feed on emotions exactly, but on the very spirit of a pony. When they skimmed off the surface, not taking the emotion they "fed" on, they merely touched and fondled and were warmed for a day. When they grabbed and took, they found purchase on the soul in an emotion and tore at it and devoured a part of it whole. And what if they could keep that pony in one place? Well, eventually, you would have all the pieces, wouldn't you? And then what comes after? Isn't it obvious? Do you have to spell it out? Shouldn't you just... don't you just see what it looks like? Isn't it... I...
So I won't think anymore about the pods and the body in the courtyard that wasn't a changeling or the civilians with empty eyes in the bottom floor of the forum that I know Swift put out of their misery after he sent me topside.
I only know these things because when we were done and had brought them into the city I found Mozxil and I shook her until she told me why and how and she couldn't hold on to her disguise and she cried and I know I scared her but I had to know. I had to. I said I was sorry and I don't know if she believed me and I know a little bit of what the others feel when they see my fangs and think--you eat living things--and I felt it when she cowered before me and I thought--you eat the souls of the living--and I know it wasn't true but I couldn't see around the pods to see her I saw was them cutting open in the semi-darkness. I just kept seeing how the green oozed out and the bodies in stasis slumped to the floor and blinked at us and if you didn't turn them over they suffocated to death, just blinking. |
Redeem Us In Our Solemn Hour | V. The Gates of Hell Shall Not Stand Against | I.
We found the legionnaires eating cold pasta and cold cheese in a little dugout trench they had made in front of the Governor-Generals' compound. They just sort of blinked at us.
They looked awful. So did we, but they just looked pathetic. All dirt and grime, all cuts and bruises, helmets askew or missing, plumes ruffled or gone. There were eight of them and they had enough shootsticks to outfit a regiment stashed in the compound and about three dozen with them in the little hole they made. They called it a trench. Trenches have to be big enough for a pony to actually hide in. It was a hole.
We got the story out of them, and traded food. They didn't want any of our jerky, but they took the bread in Swift's pack in return for some of their cheese, which was actually pretty great, even if it was cold. Swift got a pouch of tobacco for something that Lily probably mixed for him. One, his helmet gone, said he would give me an honest to Luna apple for my hat. My mouth watered but I just sort of shook my head at him.
Later, I asked Swift why this just sort of... happened. He laughed and said that it was like a tradition, but one you didn't have rules about. Soldiers meet in strange lands, all of them on uneven ground, and trade little comforts. It's just what you do. And then he blew smoke in my face and laughed when I scowled at him.
Amethyst City was too close to the initial invasion. It couldn't be defended with the local guard and garrison, and there was really no hope of reinforcing it in time. It was doomed and everypony inside knew it as soon as the word got out. There was panic and anxiety of course it did, obviously, what else is there to do for a civilian or soldier in the face of death but to panic and die out of breath?
But the old Governor-General was a holdover from the days of Sombra. To call him crazy would be to sell the stallion short--he wasn't just crazy. He was batshit crazy, and he was good at it. II.
Imagine a city on the edge of revolution. An empire boiling over with discontent. Imagine ponies in the street casting dark glance up at you through the darkened windows of your home. The servants you pay--some you've known for a decade or more--won't meet your eyes, won't be anywhere near you. Is it fear? Is it worry? Or do they know that any moment knives will spring out of the dark and stab you to death and they simply don't want to be collateral?
That is what being Governor-General of Amethyst City was like. For two years, he found what had been a more or less easy, rewarding position in a minor city turning into a life-threatening morass of frontier intrigue and resentment. He had spent the first decade at his post chortling over the blindness of his fellow nobility, thinking they had it made in bigger cities, only to be deposed within a year or three for a minor fault in currying Imperial favor. They wore themselves out. Their revels were fringed 'round the edges with worry. But in Amethyst City, there was no great need to grovel before Imperial delegates. He had a single visit every year, and the beauracrats that came were always the new ones, bottom of the barrel, easily flattered and always impressed when they left. Minimal work, and he had no need for repression and control--the city controlled itself and he lived off of the cream on top.
Maybe he had always been a little unbalanced, and a decade of ease had only hidden it. Or maybe the suddenness with which Sombra's reign turned dark (for those who had not been paying enough attention) had left him high and dry, struggling to reconcile a breezy spirit with the cruelties he must now officially support. Or maybe the Governor-General had always been warped. Who knew? There wasn't much chance of asking him, now.
III.
The column is no longer a column because it is now a crowd. It piled into the Governor-General's mansion and gawked. Hell, I gawked. It's a pretty fancy place. Crystal chandeliers and beautiful tapestries... stained glass... gold and silver and rugs so soft you could sleep on them and it would be like sleeping on a cloud, and I'd know.
We moved the crowd deeper in and asked them to find rooms and stay put for now. The legionnaires helped us board up the windows, which was sad. Ruby and I rounded up all the food we could find.
Not that we found much. Larder was almost empty. Anything that would keep for a journey, gone, which fits with the story the Imperials told us. We found some wine in the cellars, which was poor comfort.
Mostly because when Ruby suggested looking, just in case... I feel my skin crawl. I try not to show it. "Alright," I say, not looking at her. "Go on first."
"Sure." She shrugged and stepped down. Stairs. Stairs leading down into the dark, only this time it was totally dark. I can see in there, I tell myself. I can see. It's just like home. But I keep thinking...
I follow.
Inside, wine, like I said.
Ruby and I sit in the corner, behind a rack. The bottle sits between us. "I kind of want to drink it," I say, feeling ridiculous. Feeling, also, nervous. Do changelings hide in wine cellars? Stars, I hope not.
"Me too," she admits.
"What the hell, there's tons. It'll never be missed." I pick it up and work the top off. I drink a swig--it's sweet, rich, not dry. I taste... I think I'm going crazy because I taste it like it's chocolate and strawberries. I giggle, which is absurdity on top of absurdity. "Taste it," I say and offer. She takes it and reads the label.
"Crystalberry wine," she says. I smile at her. "Well, never had that before."
She goes. Then me. Then her. Then me.
I feel warm all over. I'm not that much of a light weight, and I'm not tipsy. I'm just... warm. It's nice. I kind of forgot what being warm was like. "This stuff is pretty different," I say.
"Yeah. I like it."
"Me too. Guess we should stash it and go up."
She nods. We leave.
Up topside, we return to a sullen waiting. What else is there to do? Truthfully... it's not like we could really push these poor ponies much farther. Crystal ponies said that the Governor had some sort of communication line to the Imperial palace, but... well, no buts. It's really our only choice. Nowhere else to go, and nowhere we can hide this many ponies.
No fire tonight, but we won't need one. That's alright. When we meet up, all of our wing on the grand stairs with their red carpeting and their marble grace, I feel warm enough to go without one.
"I think I can skip some of the basics," Star Brand says. "Like, we're fucked, et cetra, et cetra." He chuckled. "I think tonight we'll sleep together like it's the station again, and then we'll have to start spreading out to cover as many weaknesses as possible. We need to be able to see anything coming before it even knows its over a city."
"Any more of those legionaries?" Swift asks.
"They say no. Or at least, they doubt it. If there are any others left behind, we are unlikely to find them. They'll be buried deep trying to keep out of sight, and honestly I don't blame them. Not in the slightest. One of those Imperials is a unicorn. That'll come in handy," he says the last to himself.
"So. Any plan?" Swift asks again, with a smile.
"Aye," Knight-Commander Yuletide says. We all turn to him. I was about to wonder why he hadn't spoken first... but his face. His strange look, his hard eyes filled with something I don't think I want to understand. "It is a plan worthy of us, methinks. Luna provide, of course. You will be hardpressed to find one more... explosive." IV.
So a worried and harried mind turned to questioning. Revolutions are tricky and messy affairs. Ponies get killed in revolutions, after all, worried the fat old crystal pony who they called the Governor-General. That wouldn't do. Especially when he was sure to be one of them.
Irony: the pony who had spent his whole life avoiding having a heavy hoof, who had done as little as possible to get by, the slow and calculating one in the back of the room--he was the one who understood what his peers had not. Idiots think they murder a few malcontents and everything stabilizes. Ponies aren't machines. They aren't a math problem to be solved. You line up those malcontents, and soon you've proven them right. Yesterday, they were overreacting and made their landladies nervous. Today they were perfect and holy martyrs murdered in the name of truth.
So he did not send the garrison of the frontier town out to intimidate the populace. He did not execute anyone (except for a murderer that not a pony missed) and imprisoned nopony (except for thieves and those who deserved it by the consensus of sense) and he upped the guard presence... but only slightly. Not enough for anypony at all to notice but those who were going to notice regardless.
And so grumbles stayed grumbles. But he kept hearing them. And so his order and decency slipped slowly toward a kind of dark genius.
Two plans came out of this. The first? Tunnels. Miles of them probably, some even beyond his remembering. Every government building, every popular landmark. Four dozen boltholes that led down and down into a single great vault of stores. They called it the Den. The Governor figured it would be called Home soon, when the tide came in. He would ride it out deep beneath the streets while they raged without aim or purpose to strike down a figurehead that could not be found. And then? Listen and wait. If the revolution prospered, which he highly doubted it would, then the last loyal ponies of Amethyst City would take one or many of the tunnels that loud out onto the plain and be gone along with food and as much treasure as they could ever wish for. But if Sombra crushed every spark as was the most likely outcome? Then the Governor's loyal guards would be thorns in the sides of rebellion, striking from the boltholes and shadows, harassing and harrying, keeping them from sleep or even from rest, and when Sombra came he would find a city waiting to be taken with ease from within. And Sombra would reward him.
Every plan needs a failsafe, of course.
He thought long and hard about it. What would ensure that in the worst case possible, he would not have been foiled without some last revenge?
The best answer lies in the one and only thing approaching crisis during his long tenure.
The Empire had had a bit of trouble with a ravening band of Griffons six years before. It was the start of the troubles, it was. Barbarians, dirty and uncultured, but they knew their bloody business well. Laden with treasures, they lumbered past Amethyst City, pursued through the ever-colder winter by (so the story was!) the Iron Bitch herself, Opal that was, Sombra's personal favorite and her Ninth legion.
There had been talk that the griffons might try and take the city to winter there and hold the Ninth at bay, make them sit out in the cold. The idea had horrified the Governor. He could barely comprehend it. And so he had prepared as best he could. For a coward and an innocent in the ways of war, he did not do such a bad job of it. The guard was on watch, the garrison prepared and stocked, the civilians organized, and above all, the cannons of the garrison well-maintained and her unicorn mages well-fed and warm and ready.
The cannons had been a sticking point. In his restless worry, he had discovered a new thing to angst over: black power has a problem of... exploding. Violently. All you have to do is set a light. He imagined griffons swooping over and finding the armory.
So he some of it stored elsewhere, and had the building fireproofed by strong magic. And then forgot.
Until revolution was in the air, and then he remembered that nightmare and grinned in the darkness of his bedroom. Of course. Of course. Fire! Fire and explosions and above all, victory. Tunnels. Spells. Fuses.
It took him hours. He worked through the morning with bloodshot eyes, running the numbers, giggling about it all. It was, frankly, beautiful. Many evil things are. An even distribution of black powder would keep the rebels from seizing it, keep them from using it against him... but it would also be his last laugh. If he was cut off or found or killed, then he would activate the trap. Fires would start in the ordained places, set by waiting magical circles, spreading along short fuses to barrels lying in wait. Chain reactions. Combine them with careful alchemical charges, the kind they use in mining, underneath the streets... yes. Yes, it would work.
Only a pony who loved a city could destroy it in a day. V.
"So you are going to use the failsafe the Imperials mentioned," Soft Fang says quietly.
"Luna have mercy," Lily whispers.
"Aye, ye say it true, Soft. Thee and Lily seem to be aggrieved."
"It's... they'll all die," Lily said, horrified. You could read it on her like a newspaper headline.
"No. There's still stores in yon Den, below us, and we'll send them on their way with Last Call. There must be a legion close enough for them to make it to. Perhaps even one of Our Lady's armies," he added, and then sighed. "We cannot outrun yon monstrous throng, and ye know it."
"Yeah," Swift says, and swallows. "Yeah, they would mess us over, all right."
"So they shall leave, and we shall stay." He pauses. No one says anything. I can hear the gentle echoes of ponies finding places to rest in the distance. "I do not need to say what this means."
No one says anything.
No "there's a chance!" or "we might make it out." Just... silence.
"Go. The Imperials will take the day watching. I will make sure their unicorn sets wards and a detection spell. Then, I shall be figuring out the former ruler of this place and his means of communication. Magical, I'll guess. It will be hard going," he says with a mirthless grin. "Lily, thee and our initiates should see to our charges. See if any of your cures are needed. Swift and Fang, you shall find us a place to lodge for the night. I would prefer some comfort. It would be fitting."
"Yeah," Swift breathes.
"Go. Luna provides," he says.
We all return the blessing with strange inflection. It sounds hollow. VI.
It's amazing.
Not the palace, though it is wonderful. It's amazing how you can be told something and it just... kind of wash off of you. "Tomorrow you are going to die." "Oh, alright," you'll say and blink, like they had just said, instead, "Lemons are ripe the sky," and you don't know what to make of it because it is nonsense. No I'm not. Death is something that happens to other ponies.
It is also kind of amazing how quickly the mind will defend itself before the danger even comes. Because of course there is rescue in the wings, waiting. Always. That is how stories go and life is a story, isn't it?
There were lots of candidates for a daring rescue. An Imperial legion crashing the gates. Or a division of the Equestrian guard overrunning startled changelings, scattering them. Maybe Celestia coming with the sun on the third day to save a few beleaguered nightponies. I'd live in the daylight forever if she did. Maybe the new one, that Twilight, coming with that adorkable manecut to save us all from madness.
Maybe Luna in the core of the night with her hammer high beating the funeral beat, not to save but to avenge. Isn't that how she comes in the tales, sometimes? To take the sinner and to smite the murderer? Out of the light of the moon, on a moonbeam, whatever, eyes like silvery fire? Isn't that what she is? Isn't that what she's supposed to do? But who cares about what comes after the murderer's knife is done? Or when the sinner has soiled his neighbor? Who cares? What's there left to... to... fuck.
I swallow.
Lily chats quietly with a weary looking crystal pony mare. Ruby smiles down at her foal.
"Your eyes are funny," says the kid.
Ruby chuckles. "Well, your mane is funny."
The colt finds this hilarious. I kind of just look at him.
If those Imperials stay we'll have... For some reason the number doesn't come. Like twice as many ponies. And a whole armory full of shootsticks, and that unicorn can load them and we can just find something hard and cut holes in the side and just live there until help arrives. Maybe that's the plan. Because there is a plan. The Knight-Commander hasn't told us, but he will. He has something planned tonight, probably some... I don't know. Maybe it's some Ranger tradition. But then there will be plans and I can do plans. Plans help. We can keep them away from us, shoot them out of the sky. Shootsticks suck. They can't hit anything past a hundred paces except in thick volleys and they smell awful and I'm bad at them. But if we just keep shooting them over and over we have to hit something, right?
"What's your name, little one?" Ruby asks.
"My name is Flourite," says the colt. "What's yours?"
"Ruby," she says.
"But you're not a crystal pony. That's a rock," he says with infinite wisdom.
"No, I am not. See?" She flashes her fangs at him and he cries out in delighted terror.
"Oh wow! That's scary!"
She chuckles. "Yes, aren't they? I use them to scare off the things in the dark."
"The changelings?"
"Only the bad ones."
"Hm. Why do changelings make those weird noises?"
Black powder stores still in the palace... He kept enough here just in case they got to him before he could get to his hideaway, enough to break out if they got lazy, probably. If we gather any of the other stores, we throw off the whole failsafe but I don't like the failsafe and anyway we don't need to blow up a whole city to kill like less than two hundred monsters. Just one big explosion could do it, right? If we could get them buzzing around us, unable to get in... maybe put barrels outside? No. But it could work, anyway, holing up in here. We could set up lines of defense, barricades, maybe even get a few volunteers from the refugees to help us board stuff up. Plot out a few routes of escape so we draw them in after us into this place where they can't fly and then pow! Pow! Pow! Black powder and smoke and we just make it impossible to get through the door. There's tons of chairs in this place.
"Hm? Strange noise?"
"Yeah! It goes like this," says the colt and he demonstrates. It is a very poor impression, and the look of utter concentration on his childish face makes Ruby chuckle again.
"Very good," she lies shamelessly. "I can tell you practiced."
The colt, who almost certainly had not practiced, was just old enough to look bashful about it. "Y-yeah."
"Well, to answer your question, Flourite, I do not know why. But I think that it is how they talk."
"But those aren't words!"
"Ah, but they are words to the changelings. Have you heard of a tri'knor?"
He shakes his head. "No."
"It is an old batpony word, and it means 'cave'. Specifically, it means a very tiny cave where you keep things you think are precious. It doesn't sound much like a word to you, probably, but it is a word. Does that make sense?"
"I don't know! Maybe you made it up," he says suspiciously, his little eyes narrowing.
Ruby, who has always loved children since she was old enough not be one herself, sticks her tongue out at him. "I did not. Maybe you're just not smart enough!"
I have to catch myself before I growl at them to shut the hell up. Because I need to think. But I don't, because instead, Lily tsks and we move on and Ruby gives the kid a little wave. What was his name again?
VII.
The room is nice. It has a painting. Our house in the cavern had a painting in the den. It was of sunflowers. I always thought that was the funniest thing ever and to be perfectly honest I still think that.
I choose my bed. Ruby chooses the bed next to me. Lily is the one on the other side. Swift at my head, Yuletide at my tail, Star Brand north of Lily, Soft Fang next to Swift. Shadow in the snow. Meadow enjoying his retirement. Luna is in the moon.
Gale came by wondering if he could eat with us, but Swift talked to him for a moment and he left, looking... weird. He looked at me for a moment like you look at foal about to be in a lot of trouble.
Rangers pick beds. It's like we're all eight again. We laugh. It's almost like we aren't all about to be horribly killed or something.
Ruby and I notice that everypony is acting strangely, but when I looked at her with a question she just sort of shrugged, and we haven't had any time to talk about it since it became really obvious.
Dinner is probably the best we've had this whole time. Swift saved an apple in one of those fancy stasis boxes, and he let Ruby and I share it. Lily makes tea and it tastes earthy and its warm, the mug's big handle fitting around my hoof and warming the frog, spreading its cheer up my foreleg. Ruby and I share a blanket and I know I look like a lovesick filly but it's nice. I can't forget, but its nice. And its weird. Soft Fang gives us the last of his jerky and I don't want to take it but he insists. Star Brand plays his harmonica. He hasn't done that in weeks. He plays "Do Not Destroy" and Lily dances a dance that to be honest is kind of not foal-friendly because it belongs on a table and Swift laughs at her and sings a different set of words and they're awful.
Ruby hums, and then when the song is over, she reaches into her saddle bags and pulls out one of the Crystalberry wine bottles. She holds it out. "We found some... I liked it. But we can have a little, right?"
They all gawk. "Well I'll be," Swift says.
"Think it's alright?" Soft Fang asks.
Lily: "Oh child, that is a find. If you offer it, I think we will all take some and be honored."
Yuletide chuckles in his deep, booming voice and then nods. "Yes. Pass it around, child, thee does well. It is a fine gift you give, when none is asked for--that is a Ranger's spirit, true." He stops, and seems to consider. "May I see it first, lass?"
She holds it up for him and Yuletide stands, shakes his wings, and takes it.
"It is time," he says. "Before I offer you this, I would have your answer."
He stands in front of Knight Brand. "Brand, your kenning?"
"Without hesitation."
"Then drink."
He does so, swallows, grins, and then smiles at us. Ruby and I look at each other, and then back at them all, confused.
"Soft?"
"Yes. Both."
He drinks. Swift: "Don't see a reason not to, honestly." Drink. Lily: "With all my heart." She drinks.
Yuletide sighs a deep sigh. "I accept all of your words, and add my own: I wish that it had not happened this way." He takes a drink and then gently sets the bottle down. "It is a fine vintage, young Ruby. Now, would the two of you come here? Stand before me, at attention."
Numbly, we obey.
He smiles at us, but it is not a happy smile. "Sometimes Rangers know that they may not have their talk with Our Lady, and so they take our oaths and our name before, to live and die as one of us. Will you be Rangers? The company accepts this."
I just sort of stare at him.
"What?" is all I can manage. "But..."
"Yes," Ruby says. "Yes, sir."
"Y-yeah," I get out, choking. "Yes."
He takes Ruby's cheeks and bends her head down as he pulls her in, and I watch with blank shock as he kisses her forehead. "Ruby Eyes, Ranger of Station Nineteen, Luna Redeems, but what do Rangers do?"
"Rangers fly," she says. No, she intones. Like a chant, like a worshipful moment.
He comes to me and I reflect on the fact that I am about to feel the lips of a male anywhere on my body that is not my father and it is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me. He takes my head. He kisses my forehead after he removes my hat with a chuckle. "Midnight Aria, Ranger of Station Nineteen, Luna redeems, what do Rangers do?"
I swallow. My throat seems like it will close up and stay that way forever. I don't... I...
"Rangers fly," I whisper and then I think I cry. |
Redeem Us In Our Solemn Hour | VI. Luna in Sulvam est, all's Right with the World. | I.
Check was not a pony without a heart. Often, others assumed so. Ponies often assume this about those whose heads are full of numbers. They see a trend and make it a characteristic--head full of numbers, head full of straw, no heart and no tears. Accountants don't cry (they say, though perhaps in the back of their minds they remember that they do tend to hang themselves from whatever will do in miserable apartments). But he had never understood this thought. Why should numbers and graphs seal his heart away? If anything, he found that they fed one another. He could weep over the invalid and the injured and would just as well as any poet, but while the poet described, he would count. He would know how many there were--how much medicine could be spread--how long it would take--how far he could take it. He could not described very well with words, but he could speak a language free from the pitfalls of words.
He couldn't sleep. His eyes felt heavy, sunken. His teeth ached from grinding, his greatest nervous habit. He kept thinking about the numbers. Food. Blankets. Marching hooves--ponies numbered in fours--distance. Inches of snow. A station lost in the night. Nineteen.
They were packed up. Tomorrow they would head north and meet the army on the border... not that far from Nineteen. He had noted this solemnly a few hours ago and whispered soft pleas for forgiveness. Sometimes you arrived too late even to make the decision to abandon.
He wandered HQ. The city slept and did not sleep around him. The streets were not empty but not full. There was life in this city, but for a moment, in the depths of his insomnia... it felt unreal. Like the city was a dream. Or a nightmare. No, not a nightmare. Maybe another...
So it was that he wandered by the Comm Office and stopped. And peered. And thought. He entered. II.
Luna did not always dreamwalk. She, too, could dream exactly as her subjects dreamed--insensate yet full of life, mind gone wild and heart casting a long shadow over desire. But tonight she dreamwalked, and beheld the tiny lights in a great roiling and misty ocean of night. How many thousands of points against the great blue and black and purple? How many tiny globes? Even she did not know, and she was their keeper. They shone and twinkled, now like stars, now almost like fruit that she could pluck. Or flowers to be admired, perhaps.
Luna enjoyed basking in their glow.
As always, she felt the disparate lights both as a single chorus and as a dozen fractured choirs. She saw the ones that glowed dimly--the old and the far too young for dreaming. The intense and chaotic dreams of the weary. The sweet, alluring, hypnotic dreams of lovers and desire. The bright dreams of foals and the darker dreams of their sometimes worried parents, the bold colors and the subtle ones, the imaginative and the dull. And nightmares. She felt the nightmares also.
She had once remarked to Celestia over dinner on some ancient highway that every happy or merely strange dream was unique. It was the nightmares that were all the same. Angry reds and cancerous black, she saw them.
And so Luna finished her strolling and began to steel her mind.
Long ago, she had sworn to do this. When she had returned from the shadows of Sulva, she had sworn that her dreamwalking would be a weapon to shepherd the ponies of Earth and protect them from unneeded pain.
And so it was that while she stood in the vast void, breathing calmly with shut eyes, readying herself to do battle... so it was that Luna heard a voice cry her name more loudly than the others did, and calling for her where all others simply cried out for release. She jumped, startled. Her eyes flew open and she turned astonished to find the sound. Had Celestia come? No, it was not her voice... Twilight was just beginning to Dreamwalk, it could not be her... The only alicorns left who could enter the Aether at all were...
She heard it again. Luna!
And then: Luna Protects!
And she stiffened. A terrible self-loathing crept its way into her heart. Luna protects. She growled wordlessly and took off after the call. Her name again and again.
It should not be so hard to explain why these words hurt her so. Luna protects, Luna provides, Luna redeems. But she had not done these things. She had tried and then she had undermined all of her work with the malaise that brought schism. She had returned, but what could a decade of work do? Not much. Almost nothing. Luna protects. Luna provides. It was like claws scratching on a blackboard. Luna redeems.
And then she found it, a tiny dream wrapped in the fires of nightmare, and Luna seized it and with a wrathful eye gazed within to find darkness. No, not quite--some light. It was deep into the heart of the night, and something stirred in every shadow. She saw a tiny figure--a pony, she surmised--sprinting in the shadow. She felt the presence of monsters but did not know their shapes. Perhaps they had no shapes. She tasted... blood. Smelled it. A shiver ran down her spine. The little pony cried out for her again.
Luna entered the dream.
She did not enter as herself. She never did, at first, unless something truly evil had taken over the dreams of somepony weak and hapless. There were such things left in the world that fed on madness, things she had not yet slain. But this was a normal nightmare, and so she grabbed ahold of the first form her dreamer gave her.
Luna found herself in the body of a mare. Batpony. Wearing... the bottom fell out of her stomach. A duster. This was a Ranger. One of her precious Rangers, her companions. Could this dreamer be... yes, it must be a Ranger, she knew immediately. She felt the truth of it echo back out of the dreamer's panic. This was a Ranger.
Her anger was gone, replaced by concern. Luna cherished the little ponies who watched the frontiers for her. They had made up for the loss of her companions, and now one of them was in trouble.
Well, she would not be for long.
III.
Sprinting. Stars. Luna!
They were dead.
I just keep running. I don't know where I am or how I haven't run out of room to run. Somehow I know I'm all alone. They've killed the others. They can't have but they have. Everything is gone. The refugees are all little bloody shreds. They murdered my friends. Ruby gone, Lily dead, Swift, Knight-Commander, Soft, Star Brand.
I'm crying and I think I'm bleeding. I can't let them catch up. God if they come any closer I'm dead I'm fucking dead.
And then there's a wall.
I turn and now I see them all. Chittering in the dark, their eyes lighting up. Gods how many? Too many. Dozens. My legs feels weak. Like at any moment, they'll just... snap. I'm going to die. They'll eat me alive. I whimper because what else is there to do? This is it, I--
"Stand your ground!"
And from above me comes Lily. Alive. Lily, standing beside me in a fighting stance. "We shall take them together, Ranger. Stay beside me. What do Rangers do?"
It's like a kick to the face and a shock to the heart all at once. Suddenly, my legs are solid, my eyes dry. Something in the air has altered. "They fly!" I yell, and we jump as one.
I take the first one with ease, and find out of nowhere that I have hoofblades. I grin at them, and when another jumps at me I take him out of the air with a kick that stabs the blades right up into him. Kick. Kick. Dozens of them. I get kicked in the chest, in the stomach, once in the head. A stinger goes by my eyes and misses by an inch at most--fangs bite at my coat but I'm too fast for them--hoofs try to bear me down but I am a whirlwind. I am the storms that blew over the tree tops, howling down off the snowy mountains north of Canterlot towards the treehomes of Hollow Shades until they blew over the entrances of to our neighborhoods. Once I feared the roaring that shattered our nights but now I am that storm, all hooves and blades and a high, keening cry.
Lily and I stand panting as the red falls from the world around me. We are back to back now, wings open and limbs both sore and ready.
And then... nothing. Nothing comes. Nothing is left, I think.
I sink down to the ground. "Thank Luna... Lily, I thought you were dead. How did you survive?"
When I turn to look at her, she is looking at me strangely. She is hesitating... and suddenly I feel nervous again.
"Luck, perhaps," Lily says. She smiles. "I could ask you the same. How did you?"
My chest is still heaving as I try to remember, but I can't. "I have no idea," I say, blinking in the dark. "But..." I take a step forward, my nervousness gone. I wrap Lily up in a hug and she stiffens with surprise. "But I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad you're alive. At least... at least it's just... I..." I try to catch my breath but it dances away from me. "Oh Luna... Luna, Stars, Ruby's gone. And all the others, and..."
Lily hugs me back, rocking me. "It's alright. It's alright, Midnight..." IV.
Luna retreated from the changing dream to collect herself.
Who was this pony? Luna had felt her beating heart in the dream's living thrum. How had she called so strongly?
She still felt the little pony clinging to her, even outside of the bubble. She often comforted ponies in their nightmares, both as herself and as others, and some had hugged her, yes. She had done other things... but something about that hug bothered her.
Perhaps because it was a pony who dreamt she was a Ranger whom Luna had not met. That should be impossible... well, almost. There were situations where a pony might not become a ranger through the normal methods. Only one thing necessitated this: the threat of almost certain death.
Luna, deciding she would need to dive again, steeled herself. But the nightmare was gone. The dream was quieter now.
Luna walked invisibly. She was in a cave, she knew it immediately. It was a curious sort, though. Dry, with smooth floors and the occasional support. Here and there you found a lamp or hanging enchanted lights, glowing out of crystals. But in general, it was rather dark, and Luna struggled to see ahead of her. But she found that there was no reason to fear. They had more or less paved away the sharp rocky floor here.
Luna began to notice the chill that was slowly, quietly creeping into her bones. The magic that kept pegasi from the icy grip of blizzards burned also in her heart, so whilst awake she would not have felt it, but in the dream? In the dream she felt as the dreamer might, and this dreamer felt cold.
Luna finally found her at the mouth of the cave. Or, at least, she thought so. It felt like the dreamer, yet her form was so different that it was hard to accept.
A little filly sat underneath a blanket at the mouth of the cave, facing outwards. Luna looked up to see what it was that she saw, and was surprised to find snow falling down. Snow covered everything--the grass, the trees, the bushes--and she thought to herself that she must be somewhere near Hollow Shades. Unless there were other woods batponies hid in, these days.
The little filly was so still. Luna reached in her mind and found it the same--
And was assaulted by words and actions and deeds. The smell of blood and the--
Luna shut off all but what she needed and then cleared her mind of shock. It was a learned habit, here in the Aether.
She felt herself become another batpony. This one was plumper, softer than the one before. Certainly no ranger. She wore a scarf and her mane was almost frighteningly long. Luna pushed it out of the way and then conjured hot chocolate out of the air.
"Midnight, honey?" she called in another voice. "What are you doing over here?"
The filly turned and blinked at her mother disguise with confusion. "Snow," she said, and then pointed. "I got cold, so I brought a blanket." When she said this, she used her hooves to spread her little mantle like a great cape.
It was strange, traveling through dreams. One moment, this had been a grown mare capable of surprising violence. The next, she was an adorable filly with little fluffy ears watching the snow fall with a little blanket cape.
"I see that," Luna said. "I brought you hot chocolate. Would you like some?"
"Is it the gross spicy kind that grampa makes?"
Luna rolled her eyes. She had tried to get them to abandon the worst of Western cuisine, but even the rebels had been stubborn about some things. A race of recalcitrants. "Of course not," she said smoothly. "I made it the way you like it. Creamy and chocolately," she added, and knew she was quoting as the dream supplied the words.
The filly's little face lit up. "Awesome! Yes, I would love some."
Luna sat next to the filly and gave her the warm mug and watched with a smile as she drank. It tugged at sad memories, ones so old they no longer hurt her, but still ached. Celestia was not the only alicorn who had wanted to have children the way that mortals did. She had simply... no, she would not lie in dreams.
Little Midnight leaned against her mother and offered her cape wordlessly, but her mother refused to be covered with a smile. "You keep it. It's your cape."
"Mhm." Midnight continued drinking.
Luna regarded the filly. It was not unheard of for dreaming ponies to don different shapes to reflect the things they dream. But sometimes it could be a sign of something very different. Luna felt at the boundaries of the dreamer's soul.
Midnight jumped, but didn't spill. She looked down at the mug, looked up at Luna, looked around her... and shivered. "I'm dreaming."
Luna, a little shocked, blinked. "What?"
"I'm dreaming... this... Thank Luna it's not a nightmare," she said, the same filly's voice and body playing host to an adult mind. "A dream... mother. Are you my mom? It's okay if you're just a dream... Because I miss you and this was a good dream. I think I might just stay here."
Luna just stared. Awake. She Awake. "But all I did was..." She took a deep breath. "What do you mean? That this is a dream?" she tried to keep her voice calm, probing. She touched this Midnight's aura again, and the little filly jumped shivered.
"I don't know..." the little filly frowned. "But I just... I know this is a dream. I can't remember where I was earlier and how I got here... I know I'm not a child anymore. This memory is old... I'm a Ranger now."
Ponies lucid-dreamed sometimes, but when they did, they could not feel the aether. Luna prodded, her heart quickening within her sleeping breast in response to her swelling hope. "Do you feel strange?"
"Everything feels weird. I... you aren't my mother. You're shining."
Luna let go of her disguise in shock.
The little filly stared at her blankly for a few moments. She promptly screamed, then cut that scream off with her hoof in her mouth, tried to back up, tripped into the snow, and then rolled over on her belly to lie prostrate. "Oh Lu--stars, oh stars starstarstars fuck I mean--"
"My little pony," Luna said gently. The filly cowered. With a sigh, Luna set her upright with her magic, which only seemed to make her panic even more. "Midnight, please be still."
Midnight stopped moving immediately. She went limp. "H-how do you know my name, Princess?"
"Because this is a dream, and you have perplexed me greatly." Luna levitated the little pony back inside and dried her coat, which only seemed to humiliate the little Midnight. Luna sighed. She took a deep breath, and put the slightest iron into her voice. "Impersonating a ranger is an offense, little pony. What is your name, rank, and station?"
The filly stood at attention and saluted.
"Midnight Aria, Ranger, Nineteen."
An arrow through her heart. "Nineteen? You... oh, my child, we thought you had all died."
Midnight's salute wilted. She sat. "I... no," she said. Her voice began to drift. "No, we're... I mean Shadow's dead. But I'm still here, and so are the others. For a while."
"I must ask you a question, but I think I already know... why is it I do not remember you, when I remember every other ranger?"
"I'm an initiate. I mean, I was. I've only seen you twice. Once when you visited Hollow Shades when I was little and my momma put me on her head so I could see. The other time when I graduated from Ranger School and you spoke right after Grizlebrand did."
Luna closed her eyes. "I feared that. And if they have elevated you without my word, that means..."
"We're in Amethyst City, your highness," Midnight said. Luna opened her eyes and what she saw almost broke her composure. This little filly looked up at her with such mixed hope and despair, her eyes watery and watching, her teeth biting her lip as she settled on what to say. Nothing seemed enough, so she just sagged and said: "We know nopony can get to us. It's o-okay. It's okay. But there are ponies with us. Like two hundred, probably. Knight-Commander Yuletide would know for sure. There are tunnels we can send them in, and they'll go east or south, but... Please, princess. You have to help them. Please. I don't want to stay here if I don't know they won't make it."
"My little... Ranger," she corrected. "I swear to you that I shall find them myself if I have to ensure their safety. I swear this on the moon and the stars." On an impulse, unbidden, the old language of Midnight's tribe sprang to her lips as she continued, "On the Mother of Sarnath and the Shining Caves, I swear it to you, or may I be struck down."
Midnight's eyes went wide, but Luna wasn't sure that she had understood any of the last bit. Some knew and some did not, but it did not matter. What mattered was that she meant it.
"You... you have a gift. Maybe," Luna began. "You are dreamwalking now, as I do. It may be simply an accident of time and place. You are, after all, in my service, and so perhaps I was simply attuned to hear you... but that is unlikely. Some have gained dreamwalking when I tested them under great stress, but never for long. It is most likely temporary. It may not be, but now is to early to say if you truly have the natural spark. What is important is for you to know that you can trust what you remember of this. Is there one pony you can trust?"
"Yes."
"Nineteen... is Meadow still there? A mare named Lily, perhaps?"
"Lily."
"Go to Lily and tell her this, word for word: Luna is in Sulva, and all's right in the world. Do not be concerned with what it means. It is simply something that will ensure she knows that you speak truly. Tell her that I will do my best to find and protect the refugees under your care. Tell her that I am coming."
"Princess..."
Luna had been looking slightly above her with her face set in fierce lines. She looked down, surprised.
"Yes?"
"I... I never had my audience."
Luna blinked. And then she smiled. She sat.
"No, no you hadn't. Will you have it now?"
"Yes." |
Redeem Us In Our Solemn Hour | VII. Precious In the Sight Of Our Lady, The Suffering of Her Loved Ones | I.
How do you prepare for battle?
There have been many answers to that question through uncountable years and uncountable words. Everything from grooming, polite company, light music... to an orgy of mead and drunkenness sometimes spiced with hallucinogenic. But neither of these are quite the Ranger's style. He is no aristocrat with disarming smiles, nor is he a barbarian fit to roll under the table nuzzling an empty tankard. He is something in between.
Which is fitting, really, isn't it? Not a soldier but not a civilian. Neither nightponies or dayponies but both. Rangers are like the twilight, the in-between. They carry few weapons, but train with them all. They aren't trained to fortify a position, but they know how to create shelter and sometimes it is the same thing.
Perhaps it would be more fair to say it this way: Guards defend, Luna's Nightshades attack out of the shadows, but Rangers simply do whatever they can when they can. II.
I followed in a daze, my eyes unfocused and my mind blank as it could be, given the circumstances.
The unicorn we had borrowed hummed as he worked. I felt him removing things from the heavy saddlebags I wore, but I didn't see what he was doing anymore. I was just a mobile toolbox and lumber source, really. I was alright with this.
When I was younger, I used to really envy unicorns their magic. It seemed so amazing, so fun. It still does, really, but it was nice to be able to fly, and flying took the edge off of that envy. For the first hour, I watched everything the legionary did with a sort of awe. But even miracles grow dull if repeated a thousand times. You can only watch the same pony bang on boards with magic and hammer so many times--and when you've seen one beautiful boarded-up window you've seen them all, really.
I told Lily what the princess said and she went white as a sheet. I don't know why... but when I told her my nightmares were still going, she quickly got over it. She started bombarding me with questions. I told her the truth--yeah, I felt like I was gonna hurl because I was nervous, yes my nightmares were getting worse, so on and so forth. She made me something and told me to drink it after lunch. It's after lunch, but I haven't had a chance to do much about it because the fortification is the important thing, isn't it?
An overview, as I blink at nothing in boredom:
The great doors have been bolted shut and then secured with chains brought up from the honestly rather creepy but blessedly small and empty dungeons. A few refugee unicorns helped us fortify the barricade with magic that will keep for another two days, making the chains twice as durable. Then, we shored it up with wood. To either side of the door, we boarded up the windows and left some small spaces to stick guns behind. Swift broke out some of the window panes, which hut our ears and hurt my heart, but it was needful. We have to see to shoot. That's the first line. Two Rangers and a legionary to reload will be there.
The second line of defense is the great hall. If the changelings can break through the door or windows, which they will eventually, then they'll find that we've brought in tables and turned the grand stairway into a kind of fortress of haphazard, repurposed furniture. Tables and chairs go along the bannisters, providing us some cover while Soft Fang and a legionary ensured that trying to fly into all of that mess is going to be nasty and sharp for the intruder. The rest of us will be here, waiting and shooting any stragglers that squeeze through until the first line can be abandoned.
When that inevitably gets too hot to handle, we move again. This is where things start breaking down. (I was right, by the way, because the Knight-Commander did in fact have a plan!) The lower rooms are wider and more spacious, but they have fewer windows. The upper rooms have tons of windows which have to be boarded up and defended, but tighter space. We'll be heading upwards, vulnerable to attack from all sides as we flee the great hall barricade until we can get through the last barricade, which is really one of several. If we can lure them into the tight hallways, then we have a chance. They'll come hurtling through, thinking they've beaten us and that we're on the run, only to crash into each other and be easy targets. Enough confusion and we can inflict massive casualties very quickly from the "sandbags" which are really some of the old sheets and pillows that we filled with random crap and then shored up with the wood we had left.
After that...
Well, nowhere to go that's planned or built up. Every time we fall back we come dangerously close to losing ponies and we don't have many to lose.
I've been awake since around right before sunrise, talking and building and walking. The refugees are all gone down below now, on their way to the Den under the city and then I suppose... elsewhere. Back out into the snow, heading east for Imperial Center or south towards Equestria. To be honest, I was still getting over my dream at that point.
It's real. The look on Lily's face confirms it. But...
But who cares? And why now? I saw Luna. I met her. We talked. But what does that do me here and now? An interview, and audience with Luna herself cannot save me if fangs or hooves do me in. If by some dark miracle they find a Mitou to crash through those doors, no amount of goodwill from on high will whisk me out of the danger.
And I can't even enjoy it, really. When I woke this morning, my head was spinning. I had talked to Luna! I had shared her dream! But hours and hours of sunlight slipping away in the business of preparing for death dampens any joy. The truth is, the sad truth, is that you can't be excited forever, not even over dying. Eventually, it rubs away and you're left with what's left... and sometimes what's left is nothing. If you're lucky, you have the thing itself, the core of your excitement. If you aren't? If you aren't you end up staring ahead while a unicorn finishes putting boards up on another window on the second story, wondering how long it will be until this is finished with.
I hear somepony coming and turn my head to see... Ruby. I smile at her automatically, and she smiles at me.
"Hey," I greet her warmly, and it isn't hard and it isn't a pretense because despite my general... whatever this is, seeing her does make me feel better.
"Why, hello there, Ranger," she says and then salutes. I chuckle, and then she joins me.
"Doesn't feel real," I say. "Not really."
She nods. "I understand... It's rather strange for me, as well. Do you not feel that you've earned it? We've seen more warfare in a few weeks than some see in years."
I press my tongue against the inside of my cheeks, and then: "Yeah, I guess. You're right, Ruby, but... I mean, there's more to Ranger-ing then just war. Hell, I think it's the smallest part of it."
She sits and then leans against the wall. She hums softly, and then speaks again. "That's true. You're a smart pony, Midnight. And I guess that... I don't know. I feel like what we've done should count. And there are parts of being a Ranger that we've grown in because of all this that aren't just fighting."
"Like what?" I ask, but my voice is soft. I'm interested, but not really... feeling up to conversation. On the other hoof, this is Ruby, and I'm sort of always up to talk to Ruby. Especially with... well. With how things are.
"Well, survival," she said, and then chuckled. I chuckle, and I'm surprised to hear the slightest laughter from the unicorn digging more nails out of my bags. "We've learned how to do a lot of work with light rations without falling out of the sky. We've covered a lot of ground. Saving ponies and saving refugees is kind of the same. And! And we've learned how to work together as a wing--"
"You kinda do that one in school," I grumble.
She sticks her tongue out at me and its so ludicrous to see her do it over the Lunar emblem pinned to her duster that I laugh.
"Yeah, yeah. But you see what I mean, right?"
"I do." I smile at her. "I hadn't thought of it that way, Ruby. Thanks."
"No problem, Midnight." She sighs. "They're figuring out who goes where downstairs."
"Any good news?" I ask. I don't like it when she isn't smiling. I wonder, idly, if that's selfish of me. Maybe her smiles are her own and her frowns are her own, and I can enjoy them but I shouldn't push them into being. "I hope I'm not on the front door."
"I think you might be," she says. "Sorry. You have good eyes and you're fast, so Star Brand says you have a better chance of doing good there than anypony else. Except maybe Swift."
I cringe. "Yeah."
I mean, I understand. He's probably right. But...
I feel like its being signed up to die first.
III.
The day wanes. The Knight-Commander sends out Swift to fly over the compound twice before sunset, and he sends Soft once after it. Nothing stirs in the unreal city, Amethyst that was, a lost husk on a lost frontier.
The defenders of the compound are meager and haggard. There is no military polish in them, and that is just as well. Seven rangers, none of them initiates. Nine legionaries, hungry and cold. Two refugee unicorns with nowhere to go. One Pathfinder unlooked for--Last Call, ready to throw his weight, refusing to leave and sending Gale on ahead over his many protests. Nineteen. Midnight didn't notice until the afternoon and she and Ruby laughed themselves hoarse over it. Oh, irony. How fitting. How awful.
The windows were boarded, the doors reinforced, the old city watch's primitive shootsticks supplemented by slightly more slender Legion muskets. Hoofblades from the Governor-Generals' private armory had been passed out. Barding small enough for Ruby and large enough for Last Call. Torches all along the streets. The walls treated by unicorn magic to make them resistant to flame both natural and magical. Dusters enchanted to resist puncture.
Star Brand and Swift huddled over cards, leaning against the door. Soft Fang talking slowly with the two refugee spellcasters, speaking comfortingly, speaking of them in glowing terms. Midnight and Ruby sharing a blanket and talking to legionaries. Legionaries and Last Call putting torches outside, wondering how useful they will actually be when night comes. Yuletide upstairs next to the scrying globe he can barely operate, weeping softly beneath it, his head in his hooves. Lily huddled in a corner, staring at receding with her skin in rebellion.
How do you prepare for death and what is it? Do those questions haunt you? Should they? That is the line of thought in every head that snakes around and around. And like a snake it bites anything that stays still long enough, or it chokes it if it struggles, every other thought or feeling.
If death is a door it is wide open. IV.
Lily shook all over.
Today was the day she was going to die. Or, well, tonight was the night she was going to die. It didn't really matter. She knew this not because the changelings would swarm down on them tonight, but because she had run out of supplies.
Supplies. She wanted to spit in fury. She loathed herself. Supplies. Call them what they are.
Ratios. Supplies fulfilled ratios, ratios fulfilled "needs" needs fulfilled days days fulfilled the term of her service her service fulfilled life her life fulfilled--
One part Lunar Amaranth--Selena Anthos--there are four dozen uses for it, it was the basis of all batpony medicine. They'd brought it over the sea. One part piper methysticum. This was a tropical plant, and she'd spent a lot of bits keeping in good supply. Together they made Lily.
But as soon as she'd seen Midnight, Lily had known this would be her last night on earth as herself. Or, really, her last morning, for she was slipping. Midnight had looked exhausted. Bags under her eyes, drooping ears, dull coat, everywhere signs of exhaustion and malady. She was young but that didn't mean she was invincible. She needed the Anthos more than Lily did. She was so young and she wasn't strung along. She could survive. The flower could be mixed with other things, and then... but as soon as she'd gone to work she had started shaking because she knew she only had enough left for one more dose for her and it was all gone now and she was sweating like she was in heat.
One part... one part amaranth from across the sea... one part...
She tasted her own bile in her throat. Another wave of shakes. She had to ride it out. She had to endure. Just a little longer. She couldn't let them see her like this. They knew Lily, but they did not the one underneath and she would die as the right Lily if she could. V.
Swift paced. The night was coming with a vengeance and the changelings had not swooped down to tear and devour and he was very, very ready for that to change. Not because he wanted to die, because honestly he didn't think much about death. He was just ready for anything that wasn't waiting. Waiting is the worst thing. Waiting is boredom that continues. To not be useful, to not be in movement was not just sinful--it was boring, and ponies often underestimate the power of mere boredom to wear away at a perfectly good soul.
Soft Fang and Star Brand were on watch. He hadn't seen Lily or the new Rangers in awhile. No, he took that back. He'd seen Ruby eating with some of the legionary fusiliers, chatting. She was really a charming young mare, and he wished fervently for a world where she could have space to learn to put steel in her spine without haste squeezing that gentle spirit into nothingness. A Ranger who could talk down a pony and comfort one in need of rescue was almost as important as one who could fly a crippled one to safety or take down a timberwolf with a well placed kick. Ponies like Ruby really could keep a whole station working and living and going strong.
Midnight. He liked her. She was a good kid--and he caught himself ruefully. Neither of them were foals, and he couldn't think of them as being initiates anymore. They wore the emblem same as he did. Midnight in that weird hat she'd picked up Luna knew where and Ruby around a chain on her neck (or had she pinned it? He forgot now). They'd been admitted by unanimous vote. Midnight was born to stalk a mark, trail them with sharp eyes and sharper ears. She was a shadow in the darkness. He appreciated a pony who could do her work without being seen or heard.
Star Brand would be watching out some window, even if he wasn't technically on watch. They understood each other--Brand wanted to be doing something, same as him.
He tried to hum as he walked the great hall, but it came out tuneless and a little soulless, so he stopped.
On a whim, he turned and walked away from the great hall, towards the armory. He was happy with the hoofblades that he had found, but he could always look for another set...
So it was that he came across Midnight slumped against a wall. He opened his mouth, about to greet her with a joke, but then stopped. Her body sagged, like she was asleep... or hurt. He was about to spring to her aid, but yet again he stopped. Swift's eyes swept over her quickly and he recognized what he saw.
Staring into her eyes, her wide, dilated eyes, he knew. And he shook the startled Midnight. Before she could complain, Swift drug her into a side room and pushed her in as he slammed the door closed.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing? How did you get into her stuff?"
Midnight stared at him. He truly saw her now. Not just the symptoms but the mare herself--confused, unknowing. "I don't understand, she--"
"Lily needs this. Did you even know?" He was furious but more than that he was terrified. He always knew.
"What are you talking about?" she shook her head. "What did she give me? I feel all... all weird. I feel great but also kind of dizzy..."
"She... shit." He sat and rubbed his temples. "Shit. Dammit, Lily. Luna... dammit."
"What did I do?" Midnight is close now, trying to get him to look up. "What did I do? What did she give me? I'm sorry!"
"Lily's been drugging herself since Canterlot," he said dully. "She told me she was running low. Have you seen her?"
"N-no..."
"Probably because she's out, now. You... there's no way you could know. This is fucked. Just... what did it taste like? Did she say what she gave you?"
"It was... blue?"
"Eh. Probably... yeah. Just... Just walk it off. You'll feel great, but it's not what she gives herself. Gods, I'm glad she didn't do that. I'm going to find her. Don't tell anypony she gave you anything. Try to act normal... and for Luna's sake, Midnight, don't look anypony in the eye for a few hours."
And he left her there, confused. VI.
Night has fallen. Swift sits with Lily as the shaking stops. Yuletide with dry eyes turns one of the legionary muskets over and over. The others eat or wait.
The changelings have not come. Will they? In each heart burrows the tiny light of hope: "Maybe they won't come at all!" But then that hope dies hard when the alternative is pondered. Where else would they go? Probably after the refugees they have chased for so long.
The Rangers are beginning to get worried that they have left the refugees to die and inadvertently saved themselves. There is no relief in that potential salvation.
Why do you choose to stay behind in the first place, after all? What is the motivation for sacrifice and self-immolation? Who chooses to die swarmed by changelings? They all ask themselves this.
Legionaries do what they must, what they promised, and besides--where would they go? Last Call's reasons are his own. The refugees saw their families die before their eyes, victim's to the excess of the conqueror's joy. Yuletide and Star Brand live duty. Lily and Swift do not wish to be alone. Soft Fang believes in doing the job in front of him.
And the youngest?
A confused and worried Midnight waiting with a quiet Ruby, both thinking of what they almost hope is coming. And they are at peace with it, as much as they can be, because...
Midnight doesn't know. She feels like there is a big reason, and it is convincing, but she doesn't have the vocabulary for it. She doesn't know how to put it in words. Maybe it's just loving your neighbor as yourself. Maybe it's just that Ruby is here.
Maybe it is because she's always known that every single pony has a hill to die on and this one is hers forever.
VII.
Twilight understood and did not understand. She knew the panic of tardiness, of being too late, but when Twilight had been late in life, it meant a docked grade or a friend she could apologize to. Her brushes with death and ruin had always been in a group, and she had never truly lost. She couldn't afford to. Celestia couldn't afford to.
Apparently, it was all Luna could afford. She had flown all night without stopping--she had flown from practically the moment she had woken up, only pausing long enough for a startled Celestia to be told in monosyllabic exhalations that there was another duty she must attend to. The only things that followed her besides a wing of Nightshades was Celestia's calls and a confused Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight struggled to keep up. Already, she had been helped along by Nightshades and eventually somewhat gruffly bullied into resting on Luna's back. She lay there now.
She had pieced together only some of the story: the lost station she had heard about in passing (it had been a sad fate) was not lost at all. The situation was dire, and while they lured the enemy in with the promise of an easy victory, innocents fled towards safety. But she was confused why Luna was soaring through the air at a speed she had once thought impossible for anypony who was not Rainbow.
"Princess, I don't understand. Why are we going? Couldn't you send your nightshades?"
Luna grunted. "Because they are mine!" she shouted over the howling winds.
"So are the guards! I know you care for them, but why are you going? There's an army to lead!"
And she got no answer.
Luna sped northwards towards an unreal city as the dawn begins slowly to shine.
VIII.
I sit by the windows, looking at the darkness outside. The stars shine overhead--the cloud cover has broken--and everything seems intense and beautiful. Everything. I feel like I've guzzled a gallon of coffee, except that only communicates a fraction of what I feel. Colors are on fire. My body is electric. I feel my heart so loudly in the quiet. The cold steel of the musket barrel makes me shiver and I love it. I feel like the quickest thing in a slow world. I am the quickest thing in a slow world and that is right there are only the quick and the dead.
Ruby is in the barricade by the stairs. Swift is with me and so is the legionary unicorn with his grim face set just so. Swift lights the last cigarette he bartered off of the legionaries and takes a drag. I flinch at the sound of his match against hard hoof and the tiny scream of his fire and the whisper of his breath over his teeth grating and sliding through his coat over his lips.
I shiver. He eyes me, but doesn't seem angry anymore. He sighs. "Don't think too hard," he whispers for me to hear and for our reloader not to hear.
I don't know what she gave me but I know this: I am not afraid anymore. For just right now I am not afraid. I am nervous but in a fighting way I want to do things. Restless. Restless, that's the word.
I wish Ruby was here. I look back and see her staring at me. Lily is talking to her. She puts a calm, unshaking hoof on Ruby's shoulder and smiles and Ruby laughs. I wish I was there making Ruby laugh but I am here. Lily looks up at me and salutes and I salute back. It is weird moving my hooves across my eyes.
More and more I wonder if maybe we've been passed over. What if they went home? What if the invasion is over and all of the Mitou are under the snow and Shining Armor has swept them away like a reaping blade for a full harvest? I saw him once during basic training and I know he could, his magic fierce his eyes full of steel his grin fearless and his body keen.
I shake my head. I feel the cold worse now but don't want a blanket. My duster is enough. Ruby made me wear barding underneath and some leg-guards but they are stupid. But she seemed happier when I agreed and I wanted her to feel better so I did it.
Luna. Luna Luna Luna where are you? I wish I could sleep so I could talk to you. I wish that you would come flying down to save us. If they come can anything happen but death? Them and us, fire and then a lingering silence?
Luna, why do we say these things about you? Who are you? Who are we, who talk about you and trudge in snow for you and die for you? Or are we? Maybe Rangers aren't dying for Luna at all. Maybe there is something else worth dying for and maybe there is nothing worth dying for and it is all stupid in the end. But when I think about that I see Ruby smiling at a foal while I can't think of anything but myself and I know that to watch that be ripped out of the universe by anything is wrong. It's wrong. Lily singing in the snowy woods or dancing. Yuletide gruff but proud. My changeling friend who worried about me and did not know my name.
I am not afraid of death. I am afraid of not being. I am not afraid of pain, only of silence. I am afraid of the silence of others. What if all the sound was blotted out? What if just some of it was? What if the sound of Ruby humming as she cooked was silenced?
I shiver again. The wind picks up outside. The torches flicker. The stars twinkle and we all pretend to be brave.
I think that we aren't running away because there's a reason not to. The reason isn't Yuletide--he gave an order but only one we would have given for him. No one complained. Rangers don't have the same attitude about the chain of command.
It isn't glory because Rangers are all about staying alive and maybe glory later. You do your job and the real glory is that nopony can do what you do. Anypony can die.
It isn't because we hate the changelings because I think I wish they would just go home. I don't hate them. I can't because it hurts to. I just want to be in a world where they didn't do bad things and they weren't all messed up and mutated and there weren't any Mitou and hating them makes this world the only one because hating something is investing yourself into it.
It isn't to be heroic because nopony will see us and they may never know. They will not stop looking at batponies with a little fear in the back of their minds. It isn't about me and it isn't about Ruby.
I just want to love my neighbor. I grip a musket built a thousand years ago in a foreign empire and I wish I could just love my neighbor. I wish we could all live on a single street that goes on forever, that we could share the same cave neighborhood, that we could let out children play in the common cavern and walk under the apple trees and the silver "daylight". I wish I could show the dayponies how beautiful a deep dark pool can be, or how the blues and silvers of our lighting casts everything in dreamy shades. I wish I could know ten million names and ten million faces and love them all and I know I could. I know we could but it won't happen and it can't happen because it's all gone wrong now. Everything is wrong and I never wanted to be here.
And I want to be angry about that. I want to be furious but I can't be because of the fucking drink Lily made me all in my blood and brains and everything, making me feel warm and cool and like I've never felt anything but on the top of the world forever.
I want to go home. I want to learn how to make dreams do things with Luna. I want to kiss Ruby and look at her crimson eyes forever. I want to hear Lily sing and I want to show mom my hat and sleep in my cot at the station and be in Hollow Shades to see Luna's arrival for Nightmare Night and... and...
I want to go home. IX.
There's something apocalyptic about the night. Not this night in particular but night as a whole, all of it, the universal night. The small things we call "night" are but pieces of it and they are all pointed towards the end of the world. Silence. Silence is the thing.
Silence... and then movement.
The changeling wings cover the rooftops like flies on rotted meat. They are waiting... waiting...
Until their mother, far away, tells them that now is the time. |
Redeem Us In Our Solemn Hour | VIII. Martyr | Luna pushes through the night and into the morning. She is going faster than she has ever gone before.
Why?
Twilight is too exhausted to ask her anymore and Luna knows she will not like the answer.
Because I never arrive on time, Twilight Sparkle, she would have said. I never do. I try every time. I try and I try and I never get there in time. They always leave. Live long--oh and you will you'll learn one day--you'll know what its like to be left over and over and over. You'll find out their names and then in a flash they are gone. Imagine it. Imagine the trauma of that. Play it out forever. Thousands of years. Imagine being stuck in the moon for a thousand years and then you know everyone is dead but your sister and you want to love each other and you do but there is always a gap.
Imagine if you will, bright new baby alicorn, darling on your "mother"'s lap, who knows nothing of the world you are stepping in to--imagine if you will that one day all of your friends are going to die. And you will know they are going to die but you won't know when. Do you think you will make it in time to say goodbye? Do you think that you will be able to do that six times in a row? Twilight, I've found that it's hard to do it even twice in a row.
I know her name, Twilight. I can't pretend that I do not. Alicorns have exceedingly good memory, considering. You'll find that out too, won't you?
I can't do it again. Even though I know there is no hope.
But I'm so tired of this.
Luna provides, but I didn't. Luna protects, but I cannot. Luna watches, but I do not see until it is too late. Luna redeems but what have I redeemed?
I need to save one, Twilight. Can I not save just one? One brave little mare who could have asked of me anything and wished only to talk? Can I not save the only true Dreamer I have met in almost two thousand years? Can I not save one miserable bit of sand from the tides?
Midnight, in Amethyst City
I saw it burn but not away, the torch light steady against the wind as it began to blow hard on the streets. It blew and blew and burnt and burnt and my mind was strange and twisted still with Lily's potion.
This is my battle so I must give it in as I feel it, in the dying.
Swift sees the first one. Or he sees the first ones, because they don't come one or two at a time but in whole wings, swarming down like nightmares from the rooftops, filling the skies, maybe on the street. He yells and fumbles for the musket. Mine is up. It has been up for an hour and I have not moved.
Everything is focused. I catch sight of one as it lands, ready to take a running start at our barricades. Time is slow and so is the monster--I can see it flex its unnatural body, I can see its eyes as they move on its slow turning head--I am quick and it is dead. I fire the first shot and the ball catches the beast in the face and then there is no face and it falls out of the light.
I can tell you about the chittering that turns into a wall of clacking and the yelling and the cries--Reload! Reload for Luna's sake give me a fucking weapon--Swift, up high!--There's one coming through the top of the windows!.
I can tell you about how I didn't even have to ask for a reload. As soon as I fire another musket is in in my hooves. I level it out the hole between the boards and I fire again. The smoke is in my eyes but I stare right through it. I feel nothing. I am not sure I feel pain anymore as I am. My teeth grind together and the percussion of the musket is like somepony stabbing me in the ears but it can't hurt me because nothing can. I crow as I fire again. Again. Once more. Minutes have passed. I don't know how many.
A changeling dies with his hooves and teeth tearing at the boards. A changeling dies ramming his body through the glass and into the boards, shredding him but breaking a hole near the top. Another dies when Ruby shoots it as the creature tries to enter through the breach that is just a little too small and its body lies in the gap. One manages to get one of its stingers through a gap and it grazes the reloading unicorn's cheek.
Changelings divebomb the great doors. They shake the ancient portal. I hear some of them using magic to do... do whatever the hell they can but nothing works and the doors just shake and shake and shake like trees in a gale.
Swift knocks a changeling out of the sky. They crowd the doors now like flies, pulling at the boards, ripping at them with their fangs until they lose the fangs, pulling at them with tortured hooves until we stop them with a musketball. The unicorn work feverishly. I can hear his panting in my ear loud as a screaming baby. I can smell nothing but smoke and ash. One of them pulls at the boards at my firing spot and tries to worm in and it also falls, dead or alive, as I pivot and catch its face with both backlegs and then it is gone.
They rip more and more boards off. A dozen of them are in the air now. Ruby and Lily keep divebombers off me but I don't know where. I only know what is front of me. Lily's drug keeps my focus so sharp I could cut through solid steel with my eyes. Another one. I hold out a hoof. The next from the pile is passed me. It is still hot but I do not find it any discomfort. I look for another changeling. I fire--miss--again. Again. And then there isn't another gun in my hoof and I just wave my leg around for the next--
One of them falls on me from above and it begins kicking madly against my barding, trying to get at my belly and bite and tear. I push it off, but it keeps coming.
So when it comes back my head meets its head and the thing's horn misses me only barely and it falls back, holding its head. I am on it in a flash, beating, screaming. Another one knocks me off, and I am a whirlwind of blows.
I only remember my hoofblades for the third one. I kick them out and then do a half-kick that catches it midway and stops the bastard cold.
More pour through, dozens of them, jet black, cancerous, chittering and hissing, teeming with awful life. I turn to face the next one and find Swift running, his wing half-out, the air rife behind him. I follow, never having heard the call to fall back--
This is my battle, and so I tell it as I know it: I tell it by the deaths.
Swift
The first Ranger to die in Amethyst City is Swift. It was a lucky blow, a perfect juxtaposition of time and space. The reloader with us had been grazed by one of the stinging mutants and gotten enough venom to weaken him, and he was managing to push pre-loaded weapons into our hooves while also trying to reload the ones we shot, all while keeping himself out of the clutches of any of the enemy that broke through. It was too much. He got slower and slower and then he passed out. Swift caught him as he fell, and then yelled hoarsely for me to come back with him, that we needed to leave. The changelings were everywhere. The great doors were lost, and let them be. Everyone that broke through flew right into the firing zone. When I didn't hear him, he kept calling and shrugged the unicorn onto his back.
Swift didn't see me go under in the melee. He thought I was right behind him but I was not.
If he had known, he might have turned. He might have chosen the unicorn reloader over me, but he might have chosen me over him. If he had known... if he had known what things he could have done! But he did not know.
He also did not know what killed him. As I turned to see him, he was pushing back towards the barricade and a changeling fell on him. It's stinger lashed out. Once. Twice. Three times. And he never moved again. It was a matter of seconds. First he moved and then he did not move and Lily was screaming and then the creature exploded and a barely conscious unicorn was crawling away, woken by the fall.
The unicorn from the Crystal legions was the second pony to die in the siege. I ran towards him but two changelings fell on him, picked him up, and threw him down. He missed the barricade by an inch, but he was dead and nopony retrieved him.
I pulled at Swift. I begged him to run but then I let go because his face was gone and caved in, the puncture wound in his chest... he wasn't there. There wasn't anything left of him now. I ran.
Ruby hopped over the side of the barricade and helped me climb over, my hooves frantically looking for purchase, my eyes wide, my heart beating in my chest. I felt like my whole body was on fire and I didn't know if it was the drug anymore. The monsters swarm around us, diving and then pulling away, trying to get close enough to grab the groundpounders or hit the rest of us with a stinger. Some of them have hoofblades, long and serrated, and when they dive down only quick motion saves your head.
The attacks come in stages. There is a huge initial rush, perhaps thirty or more of them, all swarming the entrances and divebombing down at our barricade. At least one is caught on the spikes. We fire, a few fall, they swipe, we lay low, it begins again. They linger, diving in pairs and trios while the rest run interference, keeping up a steady pressure. And then they disperse. The mansion is full of them by now, at least the bottom floors. Everywhere is full of them.
How many die? Perhaps half a dozen every attack. Swift and I accounted for about nine by ourselves, but the lgeionary reloader lies flat on his back in the middle of the barricade, his eyes unfocused and glazed over, his limbs limp. The refugee unicorns are quivering, miserable ruins, pleading for their lives, hooves on their heads, as they do their best to keep up with how fast we fire. It takes the legionary unicorn twenty seconds to prepare one of their muskets and about three seconds to supply a shooter with a fresh one, pre-prepared or otherwise. It takes these two about forty seconds to load. They spill powder but not much.
A legioanry dies when one of the stingers shoots right through his barding and pierces his shoulder. He shakes, shocked, and tries to pull away, but by then it is too late and the poison is in him and he begins to scream only for his voice to die in gurgling as he falls convulsing to the floor as his killer returns to the sky with a hiss.
Three dead in Amethyst.
Yuletide
Another legionary dies before him on the fifth attack. An hour in, and the guns are hot and the smoke never fully clears and the great hall is littered with bodies but never enough.
A mutant grabs her right off the barricade as she leans over to balance her musket and get a better shot. She screams and screams, flailing like a fish torn from the water or a baby from it's mother's breast. Yuletide, Knight-Commander of the Nineteenth, jumps up after her, his wings opening. The changeling only rises long enough to throw her down and it meets Yuletide in midair.
The commander is distracted by the falling legionary, her legs useless in the night air, her back hurtling towards the floor. He reaches out--
And a hoof catches his face and twists his head around and he falls right after her. Two more dead in Amethyst. Five gone in the first hour.
The barricade is in ruins by hour two.
Last Call fights upon the torn remainder, roaring his invincible fury. He kills four of them before they bowl him over and a spike catches him. He tries to move but before he can they fall upon him with fangs and hooves, even as we try to pull them off.
They come in waves because it is how they avoid too many casualties. We can't use a volley to break their swarm. We have to pick targets. More than half of our shots miss. We slow down to two a minute. We've exhausted the pre-loaded guns. The loaders are cut and bruised and whimpering.
One of the loaders dies during the third hour. He's grabbed and carried off into the air, and nopony can grab him fast enough to stop him from going. He's screams. He cries. He begs us to save him and then a hissing mutant throws him back down at us and his head lands first and there is an awful snap and blood pools out of his mouth and his eyes.
One dives for me in the third hour and I step to the side and watch its stinger shoot by me in slow motion, my strange intoxication making it all play out so slowly. Ponies dying in hours instead of minutes or seconds. They just linger on. They seem alive longer for me. I push one leg up and my hoofblade catches the changeling's stomach as he flies overhead and that is another dead and the black, thick, syrupy blood runs down my... my...
How long does it continue? They come ess frequently now but more urgently. They've lost so many but so have we. Another legionary dies. How many are left? Only one reloader who isn't reloading anymore because he's too busy crying and the legion one finally passed on by hour three.
Soft Fang
We use a lull to gather up a few muskets and flee up the stairs to the turns and that is where Soft Fang dies.
Ruby first, then me, then Lily, then the legionaries that are left, then the last reloader, blubbering a shaking, then Star Brand and then Soft Fang.
Sprint up the steps, fast as you can. The lights all swimming around you, the sound like a parade in your head, some foreign force driving you to strange thoughts and unwelcome feeling. Time gets closer to normal flowing all around me and that I am glad because of what happens next.
We are safe until Soft and Brand are hurrying us through the hallways and trying to re-shut the door we had come through to buy a little more time. But as they push,, the changelings that had been waiting in the wings broke cover and swarm over the bannister.
We cannot go to them and they cannot come to us.
They begin their final battle. Soft Fang keeps three mutants from grabbing ahold of him, dancing out of their reach, ducking under their blows and their teeth, kicking them hard when he can. His blades come out--he catches one--the others dive in but he is ready. He pivots on his front hooves like I do--for who taught me it but he in the practice field of Station Nineteen?--and catches them both with his powerful backlegs. They go flying back over the bannister. One of them tries to fly and catch itself but ends up ramming its face into the chandelier and falls regardless.
We try to keep running but also to look. The Rangers lag behind as the others continue. We yell for Soft and Brand to run. Maybe they do not hear us but maybe they do--I like to think they do not, and I think it even as I yell, for if they heard my voice why would they not answer? What would keep them from breaking off and fleeing to the safety of our company?
And maybe they heard the song we would all hear soon, the very beginning of it.
Star Brand rolls out of sight, locked in battle with a changeling. Soft has taken down seven. The eighth is on his back as he bucks the seventh with his hoof, burying his hoofblades in the thing's neck. He tries to shake the monster off and then it bites him. He falls and rolls and the thing hisses loudly as its chitin cracks under the weight and the force, and then Soft is kicking down at it. But he grows slower. He turns and seems to see us at last and he starts to walk, slowly and surely like his voice even measured, and then he is swept away by two, maybe three fast moving black shapes and we see him no more. Star Brand jumps through the doorway out of nowhere and then bucks it closed with a cry and rushes for us with wide-eyes and blood weeping from his face.
"For fuck's sake!" He pushes Ruby and I onward.
The door behind us groans and buckles. The dark hallway fills with the sound of changelings.
Hour five finds us firing out of the barricades. The changelings begin to make themselves scarce and our reloader has the last of Lily's other drugs, much milder. He mumbles to himself about the mad things he sees that are not there and loads slowly but deliberately.
Star Brand
Star Brand dies a little after the fifth hour, poisoned during his close encounter. Ruby holds him as he dies and sings a wordless tune over him as he tells us that he is tired.
The sixth hour and we are almost out of shot. One of the barricades was half-dismantled but I got to it in time and beat the attackers back down the hallway. We close in, pull back. Lily and Ruby and I are alive. Two legionaries by the sixth hour are alive. The reloader, crying and staring in turns, is left.
I can't say anything. There isn't anything to say.
The barricades are too hard to defend--too many angles, too few of us, no way to use our muskets effectively with hooves to load. We retreat through rooms, holding doors as long as we can. The sun is rising outside.
An image: Ruby and I, side by side, our backs holding a door from breaking. Lily with our last musket over our heads, waiting for a hoof, anything, to break through that door. It does--right above our heads--she fires, and the sound is like thunder and there is the soft yet frightening sound of connection and then the stench of their corrupted blood but the door does not stop shaking and bowing inward.
How many have we killed? Thirty? Forty? More? I don't know. I don't know anything. I'm crashing. Lily knows it she sees it in my eyes I know she does. Ruby is fading. The refugee doesn't cry anymore. We found a table to place over the door as we lie flat on our stomachs in a room of beautiful furniture and abandoned things.
No changelings. Not right now. They will return. Any moment now they'll be back, hissing and pounding. We couldn't hold the barricades in the hallways with how few we had left... and now there's nothing but running.
I catch Ruby's eyes and I crawl on my belly over to her. She reaches out a hoof with a smile and I touch it with my own, and then I bury my face in the rug. I'm not sure what happens. It's a cross between a sob and dry heaving. She touches my mane with her other hoof.
I try to say something but words are beyond me and maybe that's better. What am I going to say?
I just want to go home. I just want to go home.
Lily
Lily dies in the seventh hour, with morning bloom. We are on the run, moving from room to room. The civilian got seperated. He's dead. The legionaries split from us half an hour ago--we went right and they went left, us deeper into the compound and them making a break for the back gate. I do not know if they survived but we heard changelings looking for us.
Lily dies when she pulls a changeling from Ruby's back and the monster turns on her. They are locked in battle, rolling together and then she comes up--Lily, a fierce mother who would save her child from the precipice of hell, the potion maker, the healer, Lily with the the kind eyes--a changeling barrels into her and she loses her balance. She does not scream. It knocks the air out of her.
They tumble out of a tall, broken window and I do not see what happens.
Lily was the one with the trigger for the powder.
Ruby and I running back through the grand hall five minutes after Lily is gone. The remains of the attacking force chase after us, and we are alone except for them.
She never had my stamina. She lags behind by a step. I call for her to hurry, gods, please hurry, but she just can't anymore. She just can't.
One of them knocks her down and falls on her with a gleeful hiss. I turn and do my pivot-kick one last time.
Morning light streams through the windows like divine grace, and so now we all see each other without the night in the way, in a full array of color. I see their ugliness and their twisted wrongness, and they see my boneweary despair perhaps, or my anger, more likely. Or how alone we are.
Ruby
I bring Ruby to rest in the cellar. The swarm, what is left, is waiting outside. They've lost at least half of their number and they aren't in any hurry, so why come in after me? Perhaps I could work some trap and still triumph. No, they'll starve me out or wait until I try to escape.
Ruby mumbles as I carefully let her fall from my back.I try to ease her up against the wall, but she whimpers when I move her. Waiting for changelings to burst through, I stroke her mane.
"Ruby? Hey, Ruby?"
"Hey."
Her voice is so soft.
"Ruby, he was all over you. I..."
She hums. She tries to look up at me.
"Ruby, I'm sorry. Ruby? Ruby, please say something. I love you, please say... say..."
Ruby dies quietly in the cellar.
I sit in front of the cellar door, waiting to die.
Soon, they'll come to me. Or, alternatively, I will go to them.
Eventually, I think I doze for a moment, and I see Luna there before me. She is dark and lovely, and her eyes are alight.
"It's okay," I say.
"No... no it isn't. You will not survive."
"No one else didn't either," I say, feeling like I might fall over. "I'm coming down from something. Ruby is dead. She won't move anymore."
"Child... child, you are done. You cannot continue."
"I can go a little longer." She comes closer and I feel cold. I shiver. "Maybe not," I say. "Maybe... I can't keep going. Help me."
"I could give you a final grace. You could fall asleep and fade into painlessness for when they come. You need not suffer. Please, please take it."
I stare at her. "I was too awkward to say this but I think you might be the most beautiful mare in the world," I say. "I don't want to stop feeling. I don't want to forget even for... for a few minutes."
"You're going to die. Please, I can't--"
I open my eyes. I am lying flat on the cold cellar floor and only I am here. And Ruby.
Why are we here? Why am I alive, when all the others are dead? Am I faster or stronger? No, I think that I'm just lucky. Very lucky. I could have died so many times, and I didn't. I could have died days ago when I went one on one with that changeling. I could have died from a freak accident in Ranger School. I could have died as a child. I could have died at any time and maybe that means that it is stupid to ask why I have to die now when I didn't so many other times.
It's so wrong. I never wanted to fight anyone. I didn't want to kill anypony. I wanted to help... I wanted to save foals in snowdrifts and keep timberwolves away from villages.
But I did anyway. I hurt and killed. I killed with my hooves and a musket and blades but I think the most I killed with my heart. I killed, and not the things I held or wielded. They were only the how because the what was me, Midnight. Midnight Aria. I killed them.
I didn't want to but I did. So maybe I did want to.
My friends are gone and I will be too and now I don't even know why. Ruby is gone and I never said that I loved her until she was dying. Lily is gone and I can never thank her again.
Luna, Ruby... sweet, sweet Ruby.
Where are you, Luna? Why aren't you here? Where is your protection? When do you provide? But maybe you don't do these things always just like I couldn't protect and I could not provide, even though I tried so hard to do so. You talked to me. I know that you can't be indifferent to us.
Maybe you try just like we do. Maybe those words aren't guarantees but rather promises of a slightly different sort. That you will try. That you will always try. Please, always try.
I just want this to mean something, and I'm also afraid that wanting it to mean something will make me force a meaning that is wrong. But it has to mean something.
Luna, please keep trying. If you cannot protect or provide this time, redeem. Redeem us in our solemn hour. I don't want the gift you offered, if I really saw you at all. I don't want to sleep away the last moments I'll ever see. I want to be alive. So instead, redeem us. Please make something of what we have done. Make it mean something. Whether that is saving those civilians or something else, redeem our suffering.
Redeem us.
Midnight
In the ninth hour, as the sun blazed over the frozen plains and on an unreal city, a pony emerged from the cellar where the Governor-General had stored his finest wines.
Her duster and barding were torn and stained with blood. Her hat was askew and her mane was wild and soiled. Her face was... strange. Her eyes not quite focused. She wore no hoofblades. She wore no barding. Her emblem she wore around her neck, with another one which bore another pony's name.
She walked quietly into the grand hall and was not disturbed.
There were changelings there. They lined the bannisters. They covered the floor, dead and alive. They surrounded her, buzzing and chittering. She stared at them.
They did not strike the first second. Or the second.
There were many dead. Perhaps more than half of them.Midnight thought she had killed at least seven herself, and the others? They looked almost afraid of her, as if she might take another ten at least when she finally went.
They may have noticed that she bore no weapons and feared this also and what it might mean.
Midnight looked out past all of them, towards the sun that shone through the broken glass. She thought to herself that it was lovely, wasn't it? So beautiful, so bright. Everything was so much brighter up here.
She had feared the storms that came down from the mountains once. They had swept down from Canterlot and when the winds howled across the mouth of the caverns they were like a roaring dragon. She had feared that sound more than anything. She had feared the storm; she now became it. She smiled.
"Rangers Fly, you poor bastards."
She flared her wings and flew for the sun.
And then without any warning, they fell upon her. But they could not keep her. Midnight sailed through the holes in the boards they had made. They followed, hissing at her heels, as she flew over an unreal city towards the sun that burned in her eyes. Was this what is was like to be a daypony?
They followed and she chased. Batponies aren't as fast as pegasi, but what is? They were as fast as changelings easily. And she was a ranger.
And she began to scream wordlessly, full of anger and full of something worse than loss and then eventually they caught her and she went hurtling down, fighting them off the whole way, falling falling falling down towards the snowy plains, and then they were off of her and she pulled up or tried as the white raced up to meet her. |
Redeem Us In Our Solemn Hour | Epilogue: Redeem Us | Luna would find their bodies one by one. Poisoned, crushed, cut. She would find the trigger and after a few hours have pieced the whole desperate plan together. She would cry when Twilight was not with her, after they had been collected and laid out together below the steps, dusters over them like funeral shrouds. She collected their emblems and kissed each one.
She found every Ranger and she gathered them under her wing like children, for weren't they, in a way? Did she not know their names, each and every one?
Twilight and Luna sat amidst the dead. The changelings had been moved outside and burnt. Luna had wanted to dump them in a hole, but Twilight had insisted. Flames were traditional. It was a small mercy.
They said nothing for some time. Twilight felt sick and unhappy. Luna's feelings were not describable.
"I wish I understood," Twilight said at last.
"Understand what, Twilight?"
"Any of this... I mean... " Twilight sighed. "Why are we fighting? Why would anyone hurt changelings and make them into these things? Why would they be okay with it? Why would ponies choose to die? Why would they kill? And even when the why makes sense, the how boggles the mind. I can't imagine..."
Luna watched as she trailed off, her eyes unreadable.
"Twilight, you do not understand many things, and I know that. It is... it's alright not to know," she managed. "There are many things I wish you did not have to know. I have killed so many ponies in my long, weary life that I have lost track of them. The same can be said for the friends I have lost to age alone, not to mention accident, disease, famine, and war. I do not think it will ever make sense."
"I thought we would be in time."
Luna barked a laugh. "I never am, no matter how hard I try. I can only ever seem to save in part."
"But..."
"And now there will be silence in this accursed city. After death comes a lingering silence for those who are left. You will think, at first, that it is a question, but it is not a question at all. The silence after death is as final and decided as it is unnerving. Like a corpse. What do you do after? You try not to think too much. You try to run on past death and not to think, because if you think then she will find you a few days early, perhaps. That is the feeling."
Twilight shivered. "I've seen enough for a lifetime."
"And this is only the beginning. A never ending cycle. The centuries of peace my sister has given you are not the real world, Twilight, or rather they are only a part of the realness. They are a sliver of creation.
"War is always with us in one way or another. I have seen the records--peace in Equestria, except. Except is always the operative word at the borders of history. The Pax Equus--Except. Pirates and brigands, monsters and invaders. Civil conflicts overseas and divisions at home. War and the rumor of war. Even when all is peace it is not well, and you will remember this and you'll know that I am right."
"So everything is ruined forever," Twilight said sourly.
"No. Not at all. Not even I can say that."
They looked at the fallen Rangers.
"They should make some sort of monument here," Twilight said. "With their names. Somepony should remember them."
Luna, repressing a growl: "Because you do not know, I will forgive you this thought. No monuments. No statues and no great memorial walls. Do you think that they do anything? They cannot honor the dead, for they are beyond our ability to help. They commemorate for a time and then they are either little more than a pretty rock or worse, a tool in the hands of calculation. You cannot do anything for these, Twilight Sparkle. Nopony can. They have done the thing that did not need doing, that the world would have gone on without, for no other reason than that it should be done. Let them speak often of the martyred station, but I spit upon the hubris of those who knew nothing of what this was. There are no survivors worthy to build the cairn."
And then she looked down at Midnight, her eyes shut.
Luna stroked her soiled mane, wet from the snow and drenched in blood. Luna parted the mess to see her eyes. The hat she had laid upon the young mare's stomach, her hooves resting on it. She looked asleep.
"I touched her mind, Twilight. Do you know... in a different world, what if I had found her first? I believe she could have been for me what you were for Celestia. I would have taught her the art of dreamwalking, and what her innate magics could do. In another world... but I live in this one. She thought about those ragged few we flew over, the ones I sent my nightshades to. She begged me to save them, and I have. Perhaps that is the meaning of this. Do you know what the meaning is?"
Twilight thought. She thought for a long time.
"No, I don't," she said quietly. "I want to say that it was to get the refugees to safety, but they couldn't have known. I want that to be the answer, but now that I've actually seen them... It just..."
"It sounds hollow, even though you do not think it is."
"I suppose, Luna. Why did you not go after the last few?"
Luna stroked Midnight's mane again.
"Only mercy makes injustice just again," she said woodenly. "Perhaps. Celestia said that once. Still seems foolish to me, but my heart reacts to it, so... Her meaning was that she wished to love her neighbor--the ponies she was with, the ponies she might yet meet. I want her meaning to be mine, because it is a thing I think even princesses could live or die for."
She looked up at Twilight, who bit her lip.
Twilight said, "Will she make it?"
"Yes. But I do not know... I do not know how well she will recover. I have done what I can, but Celestia was the one who healed. I had too harsh a touch for it. I too wished to love my fellow pony. But how? I do not know, Twilight Sparkle. I hope that young Midnight knows, but I do not think so. Maybe we do not know and we try regardless. When I touched her mind during a moment of exhaustion I felt... I..." Luna took a shuddering breath and was silent.
Everything was silent. It lingered, like a crowd watching, waiting. Holding its breath for an answer but finding none presented. Only another question.
Or rather, everything was silent but for the slow and steady breathing of a scarred mare wrapped in the duster of her office, laid in state yet still alive, clutching two beautiful Lunar emblems beneath a furred cap. |
Monster Urge Mansion | pre | "... PRUNEY FINGERS!"
Rarity then pull up her arms and show her friends the state of fingers. They were indeed wrinkly and they look like the hands of a little old lady. Sunset and Twilight was taken aback, fully expecting something worse. They could see why Rarity would be upset about this and why nobody would want them, but they can't get too engaged about something that is only a temporary predicament. But then, when Sunset and Twilight got over Rarity's problem and look past it, they literally look past Rarity's hands and saw her exposed breasts. She too was naked and Sunset and Twilight was left stoned. When Rarity saw they weren't looking at her hands and see what she's NOT wearing any clothes, she quickly covers her breasts and scream.
"EEEEK!!"
But then, after the screaming, a voice was suddenly heard from the bathtub behind her.
"Will You Stop Screaming Rarity! You Are Bursting My Ear Drums!"
Everyone jumped with surprise and they soon see Rainbow Dash appearing out of the bowl. She did her morning stretches, the ones you see after waking up, and untie all the knots that were stored up in her body. After that, she finally opens her eyes and see the people who were in the room.
"Oh! Sunset! Twilight! Uh... Fancy seeing your here."
"Likewise," Sunset replied.
However, the two smart girls could see that Dash also wasn't wearing any clothes. At first, they didn't know what was going on. But after noticing the scattered clothes on the floor, Rarity's pruney fingers and their own predicament from last night, their painted a... colorful picture in their heads.
Twilight hesitantly asks: "Wait? Did you two... slept together in the bathtub last night?"
Her question was instantly met with denial.
"W-What! No, don't be silly..."
"Yeah... He-he. Why would we every... do something... like that?"
However, despite how much they try to deny it, Sunset and Twilight already knew that how it went down. And despite how they don't want to, Rainbow and Rarity could see no other way but to admit the truth.
"Ok yeah. That totally how it went down."
"Put It Wasn't Our Intention!" Rarity proclaims. "First; it was giving Rainbow a bath for her tail. Then I grow there adorable little cat ears. After that..." She stutters. "Well... I don't know what came over me?"
Rarity instantly slump over and look depressed. It was like she was ashamed of herself with what she did and Rainbow Dash looks like she was feeling the same way. However, knowing that it will make them feel better, Sunset soon admits: "Don't worry you guys. Me and Twilight... are in the same boat as you."
Rarity and Rainbow Dash look up at them and says: "What!" in confusion.
"Yep. Twilight was turned into a snake person and was a phoenix-bird, angel thing. And then..."
When Sunset couldn't continue speaking any longer, Twilight butts in and says: "But it's like what you said Rarity; we didn't what came over us. It's was like were possessed or something."
Upon hearing that, Rarity and Rainbow Dash felt a little better. However, that only left them even more confused and they began asking why they were turned into monsters. But as they thinking, Rainbow decides to get out of the bath. And as she was stretching out her legs...
"Hey! My legs are back!" she happily says out loud.
Rainbow's friends were sort of glad that dash was happy. However, they didn't like that she became distracted. "Good for you dearie" Rarity flatly commentated.
A few moments later, on the ground floor of the mansion, Fluttershy was rolling around on the floor in pain. Clenching her stomach and groaning and moaning, she was not having a happy morning experience even without the memories from last night resurfacing. This cause much worry from Pinkie Pie and Applejack who are standing over her (who were still very much naked like their friends upstairs).
"Are you ok Fluttershy?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Ooooo-owwwww-aaaaaii!"
"You better give her space Pinkie Pie. Maybe give her some water if she need it."
"Water! Got It!"
But before she would run out to the sink, Applejack grabs her arms and reiterate: "Only if she needs it Pinkie!"
When AJ pulled her back, Pinkie then became upset and crossed. "Huff" she sounded when she crossed her arms.
Applejack tells her: "Don't get too upset Pinkie Pie. It isn't your fault."
"But it sorts of is" she refuted. "If I hadn't let Fluttershy eat my delicious jelly and have slimy-sex, Fluttershy wouldn't be rolling on the floor with a tummy ache."
But then, Rainbow Dash's voice appear behind them and says: "Ok, I don't know what you three did last night, but I probably don't want to know." When Pinkie Pie and Applejack turn around, they saw that all their friends have arrived (all half-dressed).
When they soon notice Fluttershy, a worried Twilight ask out loud: "Oh My Gosh Fluttershy! What happened to her!?"
As the others rush to Fluttershy's side, Applejack jokingly admits: "She... kind of have too much to eat last night." They didn't know what she meant by that, but like Rainbow Dash, they aren't keen to find out.
About couple minutes later, all the girls came together in one of the living rooms (now slightly more dressed). They all don't look particularly happy and were trying to hide away the shame that they did last night. And the worst was Fluttershy who sipping a glass of water and looks like she had a hangover. However, despite how everyone want to leave the mansion, they still hadn't done the job that they went out to do and was trying to stick it out. In the middle of the group, Sunset went over the facts.
"Ok, so from what I gathered, we- "
"-Were turn into "monster girls"-" Twilight interrupted.
"-Became sex fiend addicts-" Rainbow Dash continued.
"-And made out friends very, very sick" finished by Pinkie Pie with Fluttershy trying not to upchuck.
After waiting a minute to see if her friends are gunna interrupt her again, Sunset says: "Yeah, we now know what this mansion can really do now. The question is now is: How do we stop it?"
When she said that, everyone around the room became stumped. They have no clue on how or why the mansion change their behavior like that or that they became monster girls. But as they were thinking back to when they transformed into those monster states, Applejack finally recall something that she seen last night.
"Hang on a minute! I think I remember seeing a glowing rock down in the basement!"
Everyone instantly turn to her when Applejack said it out loud. "A glowing rock!?" Sunset asked out loud rhetorically .
Rainbow Dash says: "You don't think..."
"The Magical Geode!" Twilight finished.
Remembering the magical geodes that they found at summer camp, they instantly thought that what Applejack's rock is. Seeing that this could be the problem that they have been looking for (and as a possible redemption for they did last night), all the girls rush off their seats and head downstairs to the basement. However, when they saw Fluttershy slowly getting up from her chair, they all halt their charge.
"Are you ok Fluttershy?" Twilight ask her. "If you still feeling sick, you can stay here."
However, in an unexpected turn of events, Fluttershy began to look healthier and says: "Actually, I think I'm feeling better." Her friends were surprised by this but was ultimately glad that she was ok. But then everyone suddenly heard a large rumbling and Fluttershy suddenly feel... something. "Oh!"
"What is it!?" Rainbow asked.
Clenching her stomach and doing a little dance that says "I got to go", Fluttershy stutters: "I, I, I think all The FOOD is finally going down my..." But before she could finish, there was another large rumble and something was quickly welling up inside of her. "Excuse-Me-I-Got-To-Go!!"
In a burst of speed, Fluttershy barge through the group and began running through the hallway looking for a restroom. Her friends couldn't decide if they were still feeling sorry for her or was just glad that all that stuff will be out of her system.
Moments later, all the girls (sans Fluttershy) was in the basement and hunting for Applejack's strange rock. The exploration seems much easier with light outside were seeping and reflecting into the basement for all of them could see. It didn't take them for them to find the mysterious glowing rock... through a metal grate on a steel door that was protecting it.
"Is that it?" Rainbow ask curiously as her eyes were piercing through the grate.
Moving her aside to have a proper look, Applejack replies: "Yep that the one."
At first everyone was glad that they found it and was 100% certain that this rock was the cause of the phenomenon. They could feel the corrupting magic radiating from it. The only problem now was to open the steel door which, basing by how sturdy and imposing the appearance is, looks like it might be hard to move.
Since Applejack was the residential strong person in their group, they let Applejack to opening. She more than happy to oblige... until she gave it a tug. "UFF!" She gave one large pull on the handle and the door didn't even give an inch. AJ was shocked by this but this made even more determined.
As Applejack keeps on tugging, an impatient Rainbow Dash asks her: "What's taking so long!?"
"Hold your houses!" AJ yelled back. "This thing... UGH!... is a bit tough to move."
"Tough to Move!" Rarity gasped. "This coming from the girl who were tossing boulders in Camp Everfree."
"Well this is being uncooperative! I don't know way but I feel like I can't activate my powers."
"Do you think it's because of the rock on the other side?" Rainbow suggested.
That doesn't sound too hard to believe. Maybe it was interfering with their magic and making them inoperable. But as they were thinking that, Pinkie suddenly thought of a tangent.
"Isn't it strange that none of us was turned into centaurs is something?"
Everyone did realize that was sort of strange... but they didn't pay too much mind to in.
Meanwhile, as Applejack try to get the door open with Rainbow, Rarity and Pinkie Pie beside her, Sunset was standing in the back and trying to make sense all of this. Now how or why the rock turn them in the monster girls but more along the lines of "Where did this rock came from and how did it end up in the basement?" But as she was thinking, she felt a slight tap on her shoulder. When turn around a look, she saw Twilight.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" Twilight ask nervously.
Sunset replies: "Sure Twilight."
Twilight took a quick glance towards AJ and the other and see they were still preoccupied with the door before she pulls Sunset further away from them. Whatever it is that Twilight want to talk about, Sunset could tell that it must be important.
When they were far enough away, Sunset silently asks: "So what do you want to talk about?"
"Do you remember what we said to each other last night?"
It took Sunset a minute to think about it since she didn't want to remember last night. But when she remembers what they said, she realizes what Twilight was talking about. Their... proclamation of love for each other.
"Yeah..." she hesitantly replies.
Twilight took a minute to breath and to fight through her nerves. When she was brave enough, she tells Sunset: "Those... weren't my true feelings." She explains that: "I see you as my closest friend, but not anything like that. I mean, I don't want to hurt your feelings but..."
"No, it's ok Twilight" Sunset quickly responds. "I'm totally ok with it."
Relieved, Twilight then says: "Really!? It just that I remember what you said to me and... I know that probably wasn't. I just thought that maybe... the mansion had release a deeply suppressed emotion or something."
Seeing Twilight still worried, Sunset tells her: "It's like what you said; those weren't your true feelings and those weren't my true feeling. It's just that putting twisted thoughts in our heads."
"Woo" said Twilight as she breathes a sigh of relief. "So... were're still best friends who don't have any feelings for each other, what-so-ever?"
"What-so-ever" Sunset replied. After they had their talk, both felt a massive sign of relief as both were happy to resolve that issue. They felt so happy, they give each other a hug.
"Still no feelings?"
"Still no feelings."
But after Sunset and Twilight had that reassuring moment, a ring tone suddenly went off. Everyone jumped when they heard it and look around to see where it came from. Turns out it came from Twilight whose phone was ringing in her pocket. "Sorry" Twilight apologize awkwardly to her friends. She pulls out her phone and answer the call. "Hello?"
When she answers it, everyone heard a loud voice shouting over the phone. Twilight was scared when she recognizes the caller and the caller didn't sound happy.
"Dad! No-No, I'm ok. I was just... Uh huh... Uh huh... Ok, I'll be right there."
When she closes her phone, everyone had a worried look for Twilight. She turns and tell them: "That was my dad. He is super mad at me for staying out all night."
At that moment, it dawns on them: they have been out all night. They told their parents that they would return home before midnight and now they must be worried sick about them. some even have important commitments that they have to do today.
"Oh Dear!" cried Rarity. "I promise Sweetie Belle that I would make her outfit that she wants by this evening!"
"And I promise Big Mac that I'll help harvest the early morning apples!"
The girls look around with a panic expression as they couldn't believe that their mission went longer than they expected. Even though they are so close to finishing what they accomplished, none of them want to be late. When she saw her friends worried faces, Sunset came up with a decision. She didn't like the decision but she had enough.
Grabbing her friend's attentions, Sunset tells them: "Hey, let's call it quits and come back later."
Surprised, AJ asks: "Are you sure about that?"
"Yeah, I'm sure" she sternly replies. "Our families must be worried sick about us, the mansion is doing weird stuff without heads and Fluttershy is crapping her pants off upstairs. Let's leave and we'll regroup later."
After hearing that, none of her friends want to argue back. They all aren't having a good time and they would feel more than happy to leave. Some (particularly Rainbow Dash) feels this would mean defeat but they felt like cutting their loses. And when Applejack silently let go of the door, they had officially given up.
They had mix feeling over this. They didn't like giving up, but they couldn't stand being there any longer. They round up all their stuff and met up with Fluttershy upstairs. They told her they were all going home and she was happy to do so. When all of them ready, they head out of the mansion and began walking down the path. Sunset took one more last look at the mansion, filled with anger and frustration that they couldn't solve the problem. However, she knows that this isn't the end of it and she is determined to come back. |
The end of an era | pre | "Are we not mentioning the dead pegasus?" Trixie asked quietly.
"She isn't dead," said Twilight. "The kind of power required to destroy New Pegasopolis fast enough to catch a pegasus in it as well, is rather beyond the unicorns here." Twilight saw Ivory's eyes tense. "More than likely she's in hiding, or flying back to Equestria," she added, noting the relief in Ivory.
"Then we shall make efforts to find her if she's still in the country," Lord Hayfield said diplomatically.
Fleur smiled and nodded, "We'd appreciate that, thank you. I think it best we talk more tomorrow once we've all had some rest. I'd rather not ruin a fine meal by having an argument. Goodnight all."
Fleur stood and departed, the filly, Octavia, and Summer following after her. Twilight was about to keep talking when she felt the pull of telekinesis on her leg, and found Fleur giving her a meaningful look, her horn glowing as she pulled on Twilight's leg again. Taking the hint, Twilight smiled at the council, "Goodnight." Following Fleur, Twilight looked back at the council, just catching their expressions of relief before they were hidden again.
"That was weird, right?" Trixie asked once they were out of the room and alone.
"Which part?" Twilight sullenly asked back.
"All of it! Besides the fact that they possibly killed one of our pegasi while they casually destroyed New Pegasopolis, they're hoping to set up a country spanning irrigation network in time to not starve because they got rid of all the pegasi. I'm no engineer, but I know impossible when I hear it."
"They said they'd manage," Fleur reaffirmed. "What reason have we to doubt them?"
"What reason?" Trixie looked at Fleur like she'd just sprouted a second horn. "Have you lost your mind Fleur? There's no way they could do that! And you know it!"
Fleur glared angrily at Trixie and Twilight," You two are unbelievable, you know that. They said they can set up an irrigation...thingy, then they can do it. Stop insulting them by saying they can't."
"And what about New Pegasopolis?" Trixie retorted. "You know there was no real need for them to tear it down! What kind of message is that going to send to pegasi outside the country? Especially considering this country's rather rocky past where ponies with wings are concerned!"
"If the griffons took the city it'd become a flying fortress," Octavia half shouted, adding her own voice to the argument. "They were right to do that!"
"Not if they hadn't kicked all of our pegasi out of it," Twilight said evenly, not wanting to raise her voice at her friends, even if they weren't so bothered by doing so. "Even if the griffons were going to invade, which they very likely aren't, not even they would attack a city full of Equestrian citizens and risk war with both Mareitania and Equestria at the same time."
"Equestria doesn't even have an army Twilight!" Fleur said back. "If the griffons really wanted to, what would stop them invading us, huh? I'm sure they'd find some way to coerce the princesses into raising the sun and moon, so that wouldn't be the problem. Maybe they could find some way to do it without the princesses at all."
Twilight took a step back, "What are you getting at Fleur?"
"I- I don't know..." Fleur delicately rubbed a hoof up and down her forehead, "I have a headache. Talk to me again tomorrow when you've hopefully become more reasonable. Come on filly, we need to do your therapy before we go to bed."
"Uh, sure, be right there." The filly spared Twilight and Trixie a pity filled glance before running after Fleur. Octavia followed as well, not saying a word, while Summer smiled weakly and wished them a good night.
"What is up with them?" Twilight asked rhetorically. She then reached a hoof up and scratched her horn, "And why does my horn feel like it's full of ants? It's enough to drive a pony crazy."
Trixie cocked her head slightly, "What are you talking about?"
"My horn's felt funny ever since getting here. You and Fleur didn't seem to be affected, so I didn't bother mention it."
"Twilight, I haven't felt my horn do anything much in months. Much longer and I might start thinking I'm an earth pony."
"Right, I guess it's just me then." Twilight rubbed her horn again, then dropped her hoof to the floor. "I wish I knew what was going on here."
"Maybe we should have a look around? See what dirty little secrets they're hiding?"
"They shouldn't have any dirty little secrets." Twilight paced backwards and forwards, grumbling under her breath. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're right. There's something going on here, and I want to know what."
"Okay!" Trixie said happily. "I go upstairs, you go downstairs?"
"No. I'm sorry Trixie, but I can hide using my magic. You can't, and I really think getting caught would be very, very bad."
Trixie's ears flopped back as she sighed, "Oh..."
"I really am sorry. Could you go keep an eye on our friends and tell me if they behave any weirder than they are already?"
Trixie snorted, her ears still back. "Sure, I guess even a magic-less pony like me could do that."
"Trixie..."
Trixie waved Twilight off, "Oh...don't. I got nopony to blame except myself. And all the other ponies involved. Can't forget them!" Trixie sighed again and started to slowly trot to where the others went. "Stay safe Twilight."
Twilight smiled after Trixie, and held it until the blue unicorn was well out of sight. Then she slumped, and rubbed her horn again. "Here goes six months of almost being a normal pony, straight down the drain." She started walking, her hoofsteps slow and heavy, "This country is seriously bad for my health."
-0-0-0-
Twilight hid out of sight around a corner, staying quiet as she listened to the sound of hoof beats growing quieter as they moved further away. Then she slipped around the corner and followed after them, making sure to keep her own hooves stayed as quiet as possible.
This sort of thing was what the last hour of her life had consisted of, and Twilight was seriously beginning to think she was an idiot. She didn't know where she going, or what she was looking for, and certainly didn't know to what end she was hoping to use whatever she found. Most of the rooms she found were also locked, and while she could solve that problem with force, it would only create another problem later on.
Twilight stopped at the next corner to peek around it. It led to a stairs with two guards posted at the bottom, and she quickly ducked back before she was spotted. Clearly there was no more progress to be made that way, so she started heading back the way she came, creeping past doors that gave her an infuriating lack of information as to what was in them.
"We'll have to go over the plans again tomorrow, okay? Okay. Goodnight." Twilight froze at the voice ahead, and panicked as the unmistakable sound of hooves started to draw nearer, all while she was stood like an idiot in the middle of the corridor, guards one way, and whoever was approaching the other. Twilight jumped to the closest door and pulled at the latch, only to find it locked, as were the next two. She fought to keep a squeal of fear from escaping her mouth, and desperately cast a spell that would render her invisible, cursing herself for not doing it sooner.
She closed her eyes, the two things the spell didn't seem to make invisible, and tried not to move as movement would cancel the spell. She needn't have bothered putting so much effort into it though as the pony she was hiding from walked straight into her, knocking her over, and revealing her. Twilight scrambled to her hooves and prepared an attack, expecting one back.
"Twilight?"
Twilight stopped casting and slowly turned towards the owner of the voice, first afraid, then confused because of the lack of shouting. In fact, the owner of the voice seemed to recognise her well enough to be on a first name basis. Standing further up the corridor was a earth pony mare, light yellow mane and tail, with a darker yellow coat, and much to Twilight's relief she recognised who it was. It was Honeydew, an expert on steam power that defected to the rebels during the civil war.
"Honeyd-!" Twilight started to say with airy relief, only to wind up almost choking on the hoof that was rather inelegantly shoved halfway into her mouth.
"Shh!" Honeydew whispered harshly. "What are you doing here Twilight?!" Twilight's eyes flicked down at the hoof that currently occupied her mouth. "Right, follow me."
Honeydew withdrew her hoof, giving Twilight a chance to try and scrape her tongue on the back of her own hoof as Honeydew sorted through a small ring of keys that she pulled out of her bags which seemed to be mostly full of rolled up papers. She stuck a key in the nearest door and unlocked it, waving Twilight in after her into a dark room.
"What are you doing here?!" the mare hissed once they were inside.
"Nice to see you too Honeydew," Twilight replied sarcastically, lighting her horn up to give them a light to see by. The walls were covered in designs, leading her to suspect that this was Honeydew's own office that she'd been dragged into. "Wait, what is this?" she asked, spotting some familiar designs in the chaos.
"No! Don't look at those!" Honeydew squeaked. She dove for the designs, but Twilight plucked them off the wall with her magic before Honeydew was even a third of the way to them.
"Are... Are these steam tanks?" Twilight glared accusingly at Honeydew, "I thought these went back to Equestria! How do you have them?"
"Those are new," Honey admitted weakly. "I remembered the designs easy enough, even without the originals."
"But I thought you hated steam tanks?"
"I do!" Honeydew shouted back, quickly dipping her head in embarrassment at how loud she'd shouted. "I do," she repeated once they were sure nopony was coming.
"Then why make new ones?"
"Because the council ordered me to." Honeydew looked around surreptitiously, "Twilight, you need to get out of here."
"Out of this room?"
"No, out of the keep! Something really wrong is going on here, and you need to get out of here before you get into serious trouble!"
"Not until I get an explanation." Twilight sat and folded her forelegs, making it very clear she wasn't going anywhere until she'd heard everything. "The faster you tell me, the faster I'm out of your mane."
Honeydew appeared to wrestle with herself for a moment, then stamped a hoof. "Fine. What do you want to know?"
"I think the entire thing would be a good place to start, but how about you tell me why they sent all the pegasi back to Equestria."
"That I don't know. The council asked to see me a couple of weeks back, asking me to start work on a large scale irrigation network, and told me to have a series of reservoirs built by the winter."
"But the land would dry up within at least three months. Nothing would grow, and ponies would starve long before the winter."
"I know!" Honeydew said with exasperation. "I have no idea why they're asking me either! I'm not an architect, or a builder, or whatever the hell they need me to be for this! And it's not like I don't have enough on my plate with getting the railway up and running, as well as building more of these fucking steam tanks!"
"Keep it down!"
Honeydew sucked in a breath and released it slowly. "Sorry."
"It's alright, really. So you're saying this all started about two weeks ago."
Honeydew shook her head, "Things started going weird about four months ago, not long after Princess Celestia left, and not long after the Viscount's trial."
"The Viscount's trial? What happened there?"
"The Viscount was to be put on trial as the last surviving member of his family. Every crime imaginable was put on his shoulders, even ones that there was no possible way he could have committed, but ponies didn't care. They just wanted him to pay for what the Dukes' had done to this country."
"I'm guessing they hung him." For a second Twilight was a little annoyed that she wasn't more bothered by that. She was certainly bothered by what Honeydew said next.
"No, he was never hung. He did something. Made some kind of bargain for his life in exchange for something, but I don't know what. The point is that the council agreed to it, and hat's when things started to change. The council started holding meetings in secret, and putting motions through the parliament that should never have passed, but each one passed almost unanimously."
"What kind of motions?"
"I wasn't there to see them, but I know a lot of them involved the military, and national security."
"Because of the griffons?"
"No," Honeydew said quietly. "Almost none of them were about the griffons, while at the same time a lot of anti-Equestrian sentiment popped up almost overnight and started spreading amongst ponies."
Twilight was surprised, "What did we do? We helped this country!"
Honeydew nodded, "I know, but when I try to remind ponies of that, I usually end up getting some trite along the lines of, 'We could've done it without them.' I know we couldn't, and not long ago they knew they couldn't."
Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing about any of this, and her suspicions were throwing a few things her way that seemed unlikely. The Mareitanian's had been keen to work with Equestria at one point, even if it was all mostly by trade. Now they barely seemed able to tolerate having Equestrians in their country if the sudden removal of all the pegasi was any indication. None of this made sense to her. Why would the council let this happen? Were they the source? Twilight needed to find out.
"So you have no idea what happened to suddenly make everything like this?"
"No, not really. The Viscount made a bargain, ended up getting spared, then things started changing. I try to keep out of it now. I'm having enough headaches lately without adding a few figurative ones to them."
"Headaches?"
"Yeah. They started not long after the Viscount's trial, and I have no idea what's causing them. I try to spend as much time as I can in Stalliongrad now. They don't come as often there."
That didn't seem like much of a coincidence to Twilight. "Has anypony else had these headaches? Or any other feelings like unicorns having itchy horns or something?"
"A few of us here have had the same headaches, but I haven't heard any unicorns say anything about itchy horns."
"Great, so that's still just me." Twilight frowned and tapped her hoof irritably. This whole thing was just giving her more questions, and not a lot of ponies willing to give answers. As helpful as Honeydew had been so far, she didn't seem to know the reasons for what was going on any more than Twilight did herself. She also doubted the council would be any more forthcoming if they were involved. Perhaps she'd have to consult an unexpected source.
"Where's the Viscount now?"
"In the dungeons I think. While his bargain kept him alive, the council were wise enough to keep him locked up."
"Was his trial supposed to be public?"
"It was."
"Then how did they explain away their decision to let him live."
"Something about letting him live out his days in misery. Apparently death was too quick and easy an escape for him."
Twilight barked a bitter laugh, "Likely story." Honeydew shrugged in response. "Thanks for telling me all this Honeydew."
"If anypony can fix this, it's you," Honeydew said, giving Twilight a hopeful smile. "Seriously though, you need to get out of here now, before we're both caught."
"Right, of course." Twilight stood and cracked the door open to look along both ways along the corridor outside. Thankfully the coast was clear. "Try to stay out of trouble, okay?"
Honeydew smiled weakly, although it was as much a grimace as it was a smile. "Don't you worry about that. I'm far too useful for them to let something happen to me."
"Still, take care of yourself."
"You too Twilight."
Twilight gave a final nod to Honeydew, then slipped out the door to hurry to her next destination. Hopefully, when she went to see him, the Viscount would be feeling talkative.
-0-0-0-
At the very least Twilight felt she could be thankful that the entrance to the dungeons were exactly where she remembered them being. She suspected she might have swore loud enough to give herself away if they had actually gone through with the immense amount of effort it would take to move it, cut out of stone as it was. It did seem they'd put a door in the entrance though. A rather solid one, unlike the revolving door the former occupants of the keep would likely have needed if they had bothered to put one in at all.
There were also guards, but they didn't seem particularly alert. Maybe even they thought only an idiot would attempt to break into the dungeons. Unfortunately for them, Twilight was just the idiot they weren't expecting. The question was how to do it without being spotted, or raising suspicion.
Last time she'd been required to break into the dungeons at High Rock, she'd transformed herself and her friends into breezies, and snuck in through a drainage pipe under the dungeons. She had no reason to think that would happen so easily a second time though. Not that it'd really been that easy the first time either.
After waiting several minutes, and weighing up her options, only to conclude she had few, Twilight shrugged, squeezed her eyes shut, and teleported to the other side of the door. The lack of guards shouting in surprise gave her enough confidence to open an eye far enough to see that she'd successfully teleported to exactly where she'd meant to go. "Phew."
Breathing a sigh of relief, Twilight started trotting down the cold stone stairs into the dungeons, her horn providing the only source of light, and being the only thing between her and not falling painfully down the stairs.
The dungeons themselves were only slightly more lit up than the stairs. A few lanterns dotted around illuminated the path between the rows of cells on both sides of her, while the last one lit up the cell in which a rather haggard Viscount lay on his bunk and peered up at her through the gloom.
"Hello Francis."
"You aren't a pony I expected to see," the Viscount replied, his voice rougher than Twilight remembered it being. It was also considerably less full of itself.
"Neither are you, but here we are."
"And to what do I owe this visit from royalty?"
"I want to know what you gave them in exchange for your life," said Twilight, trying and failing to keep the edge out of her voice. "Everything's going wrong since you did, and I want to know what it was."
The Viscount chuckled darkly, "My my, is Equestria finding themselves less in control of Mareitania as you thought you did? What if I told you I merely gave them an idea?"
"A simple idea from a pony like you would hardly cause this much trouble."
The Viscount smirked at Twilight, his eyes glinting in the light of her horn. "Never underestimate the power of a idea Princess, or it might just tear your world from under you."
"And you'd like that, wouldn't you."
"Oh very much yes," the Viscount grinned. "And sometimes, wishes do come true."
Twilight glowered at the smug stance the Viscount adopted, then decided to even the playing field a little. "So," she began, drawing the word out, "I'm guessing you were hoping for more than just being allowed to live in exchange for what you gave them. Or is being stuck in here exactly what you wanted?"
"Consider this proof that your council can't be trusted. Yes I pleaded for better accommodations in the keep, but once they had what I gave them they threw me back in here."
"No more than you deserve."
"You stole my country away from me! If anypony deserves to be in here, it's all of you!"
Twilight didn't even try to contain her disgust, "That's more like the Viscount I remember."
"Duke!"
"Whatever. The fact is you're still in here, so clearly your plan wasn't as great as you hoped."
"I don't know," the Viscount said, suddenly calm again. "I got one of the things I asked for, and I'll have the other soon enough, and under the circumstances, two out of three ain't bad."
"I'm guessing one of those things was your life."
"Correct."
"I have no idea what the other thing could be though."
"Oh, it's not something I asked for. It's just something I want, and will have soon enough."
Twilight rolled her eyes, "And what might that be?"
"Revenge. Payback for what you and your country did to mine!"
"Uh-huh. So, what idea could you possibly give them that would spell the undoing of Equestria?"
The Viscount stretched out on his bunk as he grinned up at Twilight, "Why Princess, all I did was reward their faith."
"Reward their faith." Twilight felt the last reserves of her patience start to crumble, and what was mean to be a calm question, came out a lot louder. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"
"You're supposedly a clever mare; you'll work it out."
"You're right, and when I do, your little scheme will be over."
"Not that easily I think. Goodnight to you Princess."
"Francis," Twilight returned with a rigidly polite nod. Keeping a pretty tight lid on her frustrations, she left the Viscount to his dark hole, not feeling the slightest bit of pity for him. As far as she was concerned, the fact that the council kept him in the dungeons was a sign that not everything was broken around here.
Once she was out of sight though, Twilight felt no compunctions about showing her annoyance. "Why Princess," she mimicked in a squeaky voice, "all I did was reward their faith. You're supposedly a clever mare; you'll work it out." She shuddered with suppressed anger, "Asshole."
She stopped at the bottom step of the stairs back up to the keep, and tried to think for a moment before climbing. What did he mean by idea? Rewarding their faith isn't an idea, it was an action, but they had no faith in him to reward. If anything, Twilight was surprised that they bothered to listen to him.
"Besides, the only faith ponies have around here is-" Twilight froze, then turned and jumped into a glide that swiftly carried her back to the bottom of the stairs, from where she set into a hard gallop that carried her past the Viscount's cell fast enough to not let her hear too much of his mocking laughter.
Twilight slowed as she neared her destination, and slowed to a complete stop when she found that the entrance to the lower cells was exposed, and had a pile of rubble around it. There were even some tools left here, discarded after whatever had happened. Twilight felt her stomach tie into a knot. If all this was here, there was no way they didn't find what was down in the dark below.
Taking care to not trip on any of the chunks of stone scattered down the stairs, Twilight quickly descended into the darkness, her horn the only source of light in the inky black of where she was going. It was the same once she reached the bottom, and whereas there had once been a glow from the furthest dungeon to provide some illumination, that was now gone, confirming for Twilight that the worst had happened. The cell door being slightly ajar only confirmed it further. The worst had come to pass. Faust was free. |
The end of an era | 3. She who would be queen | Twilight must have stared at the open door of the cell that had formerly contained the single greatest threat to Equestria, as well as the world, for more than ten minutes. During those minutes she'd sat, almost had a panic attack, and now did nothing as her mind just failed to comprehend the enormity of the situation.
She did eventually manage to pull herself together, and crept into the cell. As soon as she stepped onto the rune covered metal of the cell the room lit up with a pale blue glow as the magic nullifying runes were activated by the light coming from her horn. Apart from that though, the room was empty, with not even a source of water to be found, as Faust had said when Twilight first met her around a year prior. All there was, was the faintest hint of a breeze coming from the corridor beyond through the now opened cell door.
It wasn't missed by Twilight that inside that cell might well be the safest place in the world now that Faust was free.
Twilight's mind danced on the edge of panic as she repeatedly failed to think of what to do. A horrible fear had settled onto her mind, and again and again she failed to conjure up a response to any of this. The idea of Faust being free was something that had haunted her since she originally met the self-proclaimed first alicorn, and now that it had come to pass, Twilight had nothing. Well, she had panic attacks, but they weren't helpful, apart from to break her out of her dumbstruck stupor.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Twilight gasped between heavy breaths, a shaking hoof clasped to her trembling chest. "It's okay Twilight, just breathe, in and out." Following her own advice, Twilight tried to steady her breathing. "That's it, nice and steady. Everything's fine...except it isn't! How could this have happened?!" Twilight looked around the cell again, ignoring the shivers worming their way through her body. She knew what she needed to do, and that was to get back to Equestria, but not before doing a few other things.
Feeling that most of her wits had rattled back into place, Twilight left the cell, making her way back up the stairs and through the dungeons until she came to the Viscount's cell, where she stopped. "How long did you know?"
"About the alicorn?"
"Of course the alicorn!"
The Viscount smiled up at the ceiling, "Does it matter? I've known about her for a few years. My father showed me in the hopes I might realise how much of a burden our rule carried."
"Then why didn't you release her before now?"
"Do you really think she would've been any sort of ally? She despised us as much as she does you."
"Then why release her at all?" Twilight asked weakly. She already knew the answer, but still wanted to hear it anyway.
"Because, leading up to my trial and inevitable execution, I had absolutely nothing to lose, and a whole lot to gain."
"But this won't return you to power!"
"I know, but seeing Equestria knocked of its pedestal is well worth it."
Twilight shook her head in disgust, "You don't even realise what you've done, do you? You've damned the entire world just to get some petty revenge, and to save your slimy hide!"
"If I'm the kind of pony to have a slimy hide, why are you so surprised by my efforts to preserve it? And as for the world... It can burn for all it affects me." The Viscount pushed himself up onto his elbows, "Yours and Equestria's days are numbered Princess, I suggest you spend them wisely."
Twilight slammed her hooves up against the cell door, "I should kill you right now!"
"Except you won't, because you're a better pony than that."
Twilight laughed bitterly, "I used to be. Months of being haunted by the nightmares this place gave me hasn't exactly improved my attitude, and you just made one of those nightmares come true. Now give me one good reason I should let you live."
"I can tell you where both Faust and your pegasus are!" the Viscount said quickly.
"I'm listening."
"They're both here in the keep. For some reason Faust is keeping the pegasus close to her, which is probably why she isn't down here with me any more."
"What does she look like?"
"Like a pony with wings?" The Viscount flinched as Twilight slammed her hoof against the door. "What? There are probably only four ponies in this country with wings right now, and you, Faust, and my pet are three of them. I assume she's here since you are?"
"Her name," Twilight growled, 'is Summer."
"Of course it is."
"Now tell me what this pegasus looks like!"
"She was a dark purple-grey colour, with a dingy green mane. Or at least I think it was. Apart from that, the only thing I really remember was that she kept some sort of pink bow in her hair. Cried for a day when they took it off her. Or that might have been the torture..."
"They tortured her? Why?!"
"I couldn't tell you. Her screams were too loud for me to pick up anything useful."
Twilight slammed her hoof against the door again, then fell back onto all fours. There was only one pony Twilight knew with that colouration, and also wore a bow in her mane, and that was Flitter, a native of Ponyville. There was a chance it wasn't her, but knowing who the pegasus might be only made her feel worse.
"So are you still going to kill me?" The Viscount tried to sound confident, but it wasn't hard to hear the fear behind it.
Twilight shook her head dismissively. "I was never going to kill you," she said. She set off into a canter that carried her away from the Viscount, whom she really hoped she wouldn't be seeing again soon. Once she was far enough away she teleported, hoping nothing bad had happened to her friends while she was gone.
-0-0-0-
Twilight slammed the door open to Trixie's room, causing enough panic in the blue mare to throw herself off the side of her bed in a shrieking panic. "Wah-hah-hah-haaa! Twilight! You scared the crap out of me! And ow. That too," Trixie added, rubbing the back of her head after its collision with the floor.
"Trixie, listen to me. We are in serious trouble, and we need to get out of here."
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?"
"Possible evisceration by an ancient alicorn."
Trixie pursed her lips and unwrapped the sheets from around herself, "That's a new one. Are you sure though? Because I don't remember seeing a lot of ancient alicorns around here during our last visit. Apart from Luna anyway, but I'm guessing you don't mean her."
"Trust me Trixie, there is an ancient alicorn here, and she is not a fan of us."
"Why not? I'm sure we have many fine qualities that she might like."
"Because-" Twilight stopped, realising that she was going to have to explain the entire thing about Faust. She also realised that she didn't want to have to do it multiple times. "Look, it's complicated, and big, and might warp your view on a lot of things, and I'd rather explain it to you all at once. Go get Octavia and Summer, and bring them to Fleur's room."
"If she's even speaking to you at the moment. She said some very unkind things after you left earlier."
"Just...do as I asked. Please."
"Ugh, fine..." Trixie left, muttering under her breath too quietly for Twilight to hear over the sound of her own heart beating in her ears.
"Okay, I'm sure Fleur will be perfectly reasonable. And definitely won't shout at me. Straight away." Taking a deep breath, Twilight left Trixie's room and knocked on the door to the room Fleur was sharing with the filly. She didn't get a reply, but considering it was pretty late at night, that wasn't a surprise. "Fleur? Can you hear me?" she asked through the door.
"Wha' the fuph you wan'?" was the muffled reply she got.
"We're-" Twilight groaned and entered the room, "We're in trouble Fleur, big trouble, and I need you both to get up right now."
"What the hell did you go and do now?"
"I- What? What the hell is your issue with me Fleur?"
"My issue? My issue is that you're going around being such a damned... Equestrian about things!"
Twilight blinked blankly at Fleur's words, "Huh?"
"I don't know either," said the filly. "She's been like this ever since dinner. You'd almost think she was possessed or something."
"Possessed huh? Or enchanted..." Twilight jumped up onto Fleur's bed, and stood over the mare, using her weight to trap Fleur's legs under the sheets. "This is going to suck for you Fleur, and I'm sorry for that."
"What are you doing?! Hel-!" Fleur's call for help was cut off as Twilight clamped her mouth shut and focused her magic on Fleur. Twilight didn't know exactly what she was doing, but she needed her friends on her side if they were going to get out of there.
Twilight began by scanning through the magical frequencies around her. She was familiar enough with Fleur to know how her magic felt, so all she had to do was find an unfamiliar magical presence, and eliminate it. Twilight almost fainted when she found it, and the itching in her horn intensified until it felt like her horn was on fire. The magic affecting Fleur wasn't just in her. It was everywhere, permeating every inch of the air and building around them. Whatever spell was affecting Fleur was mean to affect everypony in the keep all the time.
"You're hurting her Twilight!" Twilight's attention snapped back into the here and now as the filly shouted at her. Beneath her, Fleur's eyes rolled back in her head as she struggled weakly against Twilight. Not wanting to prolong things, Twilight isolated the frequency, and placed a spell on Fleur that would hopefully block the effects of the magic around them, at least for a time. With the enchantment permanently surrounding them, her counter spell would possibly degrade after time, meaning she might have to recast it if they were here long enough. Sure that the spell was working for now, Twilight jumped off the bed and released Fleur, who immediately reached up and clutched her head in her hooves.
"Nnnnngh! What. Did. You. Do?!"
"I'm sorry Fleur, but there's a spell being cast in here, and it's affecting everypony in the keep. I had to stop it from affecting you too."
"It feels like you jammed a knife in my head! And why's my horn so fucking itchy?"
"It is?"
"Yes! Seriously Twilight, I know we told you about casting unwanted spells on ponies."
"Like you would have let her if she'd asked," said the filly.
"Oh yeah? And why aren't you taking a magical jackhammer to the skull?"
"I-" The filly frowned thoughtfully, "I don't know. Twilight?"
"Maybe the spell affects ponies through their own magic, or relies on a pony having an intact magical system in their bodies, and since you don't have your full wings yet, your innate magic might be too screwed up for it to work. That might also explain why it didn't affect Trixie either, because of the inhibitor she's wearing."
"But Summer and Octavia are probably under the spell too," said the filly. "Are you going to have to do to them what you did to Fleur?"
Twilight winced, "Yeeesss...but I know what I'm doing a bit better this time, so it should be a bit nicer for them."
"Lucky them," Fleur groaned bitterly.
Twilight swallowed nervously, "Are you with me Fleur?"
"Yeah, I'm with you. My head still fucking hurts though. And how come you're not affected by whatever this spell is?"
"It should pass. As for the other thing, I have no idea why I'm immune."
"I call alicorn shenanigans," said the filly, eliciting a shrug from Twilight.
"Perhaps. It doesn't matter right now. All we have to do now is wait for Trixie to get the other two, and hopefully fix them. Although, if you two could get ready to grab Summer in case they aren't cooperative, that might be good."
"And why aren't you grabbing Summer?" Fleur asked sullenly.
"I'll be grabbing Octavia. You know, the big- Okay, not big, but definitely strong earth pony. I should probably only cast this spell on one pony at a time, so it's probably best I do Octavia first."
Thankfully they didn't have to wait long for Trixie to return with Octavia and Summer. They walked into the middle of the room, and Fleur and the filly walked around them back to the door, blocking it as Fleur whispered something into Trixie's ear.
"What do you want Twilight?" Octavia asked coldly. "I don't appreciate being woken up like this."
"How do you feel about Equestria?" Twilight asked cryptically.
"Equestria? Equestria's a- Equestria's- Octavia rubbed her head and grimaced, "Why are you asking me that?"
"Would you say you're a fan of Equestria?"
"What? No, of course not... Wait. What am I saying? What's going on Twilight? Why are you asking me this?"
"You're under a spell," Twilight explained calmly. "One meant to twist your views against Equestria, or something like that. I can stop it if you let me."
"It's for the best Octavia," Fleur added.
Octavia seemed to consider it for a moment, then backed off, her eyes darting about wildly. "No! I'm not letting you mess with my head! Get away from me!"
Twilight sighed, "Grab them." Fleur and Trixie pounced on Summer, pinning her to the ground. Octavia jumped to her aid, but found herself unable as Twilight grabbed her head with magic, and forced Octavia to look at her. A flash of magic, and Octavia collapsed to the ground, holding her head and groaning.
"Octavia!" Summer shouted, wriggling a leg free to try and crawl towards the fallen mare. "What did you do to her?"
"You can find out in a moment," Fleur grunted. "Twilight, a little assistance please?"
"Yeah yeah, hold your horses."
"What do you think we're doing?" Trixie hissed. Twilight cast the spell on Summer, and motioned for the other two to get off her while she groaned and clutched her head. "You're not going to do that to me are you?" Trixie asked as she watched the two stricken mares.
"No, you seem to be protected by your inhibitor."
"Really? For once I'm actually happy to be wearing it then." Trixie poked Octavia on the ribs, "Y' alright there?"
"Why am I so blasted itchy?" Octavia asked back. "And what in the world was that about?"
"There's a spell being cast throughout the keep," Twilight explained. "I'm not sure what it does specifically, but it seems to twist a ponies thoughts into hating Equestria. Or something like that anyway. I think it's at least partly responsible for what's happening around here."
"What do mean 'partly?' What else do we have to blame this on?"
Twilight bit her bottom lip, and her chest convulsed with words that fought to not be said out loud. It took her a moment, but she did eventually say it. "The Lady of the North." The blank stares everypony gave her did not encourage her.
Fleur was the first to speak. "Please tell me you're joking, because this is a really bad time to lose your mind."
"I wish I was, and I hope you're ready for this, because I'm about to do some serious damage to what you thought you knew." Twilight took a deep breath to steady herself before attempting to explain. "When we came here to rescue you Fleur, I found a lower set of dungeons, and in the one occupied cell I found her, an alicorn, the Lady of the North, except she calls herself Faust. She'd been locked up down there by Princess Platinum not long before the exodus."
"So she's real?" the filly asked, not really sure what Twilight was saying.
Twilight nodded, "She is."
"And you left her locked up down there? Why would you do that?!"
"I was going to release her, but when she confessed a desire to see Equestria destroyed for what Platinum did to her, I rather changed my mind. I thought I'd let Celestia and Luna know first, and see what they thought."
"Why would Princess Platinum lock this Faust up like that?" Octavia asked. "It doesn't seem like something she'd do."
"And how'd she do it?" Trixie asked as well. "I don't imagine Princess Platinum as having the power to defeat an alicorn."
"She didn't," said Twilight. "As Faust put it, Platinum used her father's 'attack dog' Sombra to subdue Faust."
"Sombra," Fleur said flatly. "As in King Sombra? The mad, dark king of the Crystal Empire?"
"The very same," Twilight said with false cheer.
"He would at least be a match for an alicorn," said Trixie. She looked down at the floor, "I should know."
"Actually, he wouldn't have stood a chance. Faust is... Well, she's a lot more powerful than me, Luna, and even Celestia. In fact, even if Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and I combined our powers, we'd still probably not compare to her. She's in a league of her own, and the only comparison I can think of in terms of power is Discord, but even then..."
Trixie cocked her head in confusion, "Then how the hell did Sombra beat her?"
"He didn't; she surrendered. She was pregnant, and she surrendered in case their battle harmed her foal. Of course, if she'd known that it was her child that Platinum wanted, she might not have given up so easily."
Fleur shook her head, "This is ridiculous Twilight! How are we supposed to take any of this seriously? Platinum wouldn't do any of that!"
"Maybe you can ask Faust herself when we go and find her," Twilight said coldly. "Ask her about her one thousand five hundred year imprisonment, and about her vendetta against Platinum and Equestria, and about her daughters Celestia and Luna! I know how ridiculous this sounds, but I'm not lying!"
"Celestia and Luna were her daughters?" Fleur said back weakly.
"Celestia is what Platinum wanted. She knew the time was coming for the three tribes to unite, and since Faust was responsible for holding the Windigoes back, capturing Faust released them and triggered the exodus that led to that, which was a rather happy-ish accident. Platinum wanted Celestia to raise to become the ruler of the united tribes, which I know sounds altruistic, but isn't when you consider that Celestia was raised for that position by Platinum herself."
Octavia gasped as she worked it out, "She wanted to maintain her line of power, and what better way than to put your immortal daughters on the throne. So she stole them from Faust..."
"Actually, Luna was born later and given away." Twilight looked each of them in the eyes, "You speak nothing of this to anypony, you got it?" Twilight waited until she had at least a nod off all of them. "Good. Celestia's father was Starswirl the Bearded. I don't know how that union really came to be, but there we are. Luna though, was conceived later, while Faust was in prison, and it wasn't willingly. Faust took Luna away as an act of mercy, but never had any intentions of letting her rule. It was Celestia that insisted they rule together, much to Platinum's annoyance I might add."
Fleur had to clear her throat before speaking, and even then her voice was weak. "You mean to tell us that Luna was conceived through...rape?" Twilight nodded weakly. "Who? Who was it?"
"Sombra." Twilight shut her eyes as they all expressed their disgust.
"At the same time though," Trixie said thoughtfully, "I can't help but feel like that makes a certain kind of sense. And just how old are Starswirl and Sombra? If what you're saying is true, then Starswirl had to have been at least seven hundred and fifty-ish, when he was last seen."
Twilight shrugged, "Something like that. Dark magic might have sustained Sombra's life, but how Starswirl did it I have no idea."
Octavia sat hard and hugged herself, "I can't believe the entirety of the Hearthswarming story is a lie."
"It's still true," Twilight said to her. "It's only the motivations of some of the characters that have changed."
"This is insane," Fleur muttered.
"It doesn't matter how insane it is! The fact is that Faust hates Platinum, and wants to see Equestria destroyed in revenge. And it gets worse, because she hates Luna, and because she was raised by Platinum, hates Celestia too. Well, probably. She also wants to enact something called 'the plan,' whatever that is. I'm guessing it's nothing good, and she wants to do it to the entire world. Do you see why I left her locked up down there now?"
Trixie frowned at Twilight, "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because we were in the middle of rescuing Fleur, then we had to get her back, only to find Puddingarde under siege. Oh, and I died, lest I forget. We all had enough going on without me adding that to the list, and after I told Celestia and Luna about it they asked me to keep it a secret. There was also the thing where the Church of the Lady might have found out and released her. Seems I was looking at the wrong ponies though, because it was the Viscount that told the council about her in exchange for his life. Basically he's damned the world just to keep himself alive."
"And you think this Faust's behind all that's going on here?" Octavia asked as Fleur slumped onto her bed.
"I know it. The missing pegasus is with her too, according to the Viscount."
"Why the hell did you leave her down there where she could be found?" Fleur groaned.
"Because we had nowhere where we could contain her power. The cell she was in was lined with the same runes that the anti-magic armour was made of, and they restrained her with metal bands covered in those runes. Even with all that, and over a millenia of starvation, I could still feel how powerful she was. Until we had somewhere to put her we had to keep her here, although I have the feeling Celestia might not have been as honest about that as I thought she was."
The filly held up a hoof, "I have a question."
"Yes filly?"
"What the fuck are we supposed to do now?"
"That...is an excellent question." Twilight absent-mindedly rubbed her itching horn. "The only thing we can do is try and save the pegasus, then use my beacon to teleport back to Equestria. The problem is, is that the pegasus is with Faust, so we're going to have to go see her, which I doubt they want us to do."
"Is the pegasus that important?" Trixie asked. "I mean, is it worth risking all of us just to save her?"
"Yes," Fleur answered quickly, raising her head off the bed. "You all did it for me, so why should she be any different?"
"Fleur's right," Twilight said in agreement. "There's also the fact that this pegasus might have a lot of useful information we could use."
Trixie held her hooves up in surrender, "Okay, I was just checking. Trixie wasn't about to tell you not to save them. What I do want to know is how we get to this Faust pony."
Twilight shrugged her shoulders to loosen them. She hadn't realised how tense she'd become as she told them about Faust. "I think we need to go have a chat with Daybreak."
"What kind of chat?" Fleur asked suspiciously.
"A not very nice one."
"Couldn't you just use your spell on him?"
"Hmm..." Twilight considered it for a moment, but shook her head as she decided against it. "Not yet. Apart from being unsure how he'll be affected by my spell after prolonged exposure to Faust's, I also don't want him acting suspicious to the others here, mostly for his own protection."
"But you can't let her control him! Or any of them!"
"Look," Twilight said sharply, her aggravation spilling into her words, "I wish I had some way to fix this, but I don't. We need to save the pegasus and get back to Equestria where we can hopefully think of a plan. Saving Daybreak and the others might have to wait." Twilight stopped, expecting an argument back, but got none. "Let's go find Daybreak and hope this doesn't end with us dead or captured."
-0-0-0-
"This'd be easier if we knew where Daybreak's room was!" Trixie whispered harshly into Twilight's ear. "Maybe if you thought of that before making us wanted mares."
Twilight smacked Trixie across the chest with the back of her hoof, then pushed the unicorn up against the wall. "Firstly, we are not wanted for anything. Secondly, I am trying my very best to not have a freak out, panic attack, or some other kind of episode right now, and I would appreciate it if you didn't keep yammering on at me!"
"What's going on here?" Both of them turned guiltily towards Fleur, who had just come around the corner with the others in tow.
"Twilight's being a bitch!"
"Said the pot to the kettle."
Fleur rolled her eyes, not really caring. "Whatever. We found Daybreak's room."
"You did?" Twilight and Trixie looked at each other. "How?"
"We asked a guard," said Octavia.
"And he told you without asking why you needed Daybreak in the middle of the night?"
"Uh..." Fleur grinned uneasily, "That does seem a little suspicious now you mention it."
Twilight nodded emphatically, "Ya think?" Twilight sucked in a deep breath and exhaled it slowly, "Nevermind. It doesn't matter if the vipers know we're about to walk into their nest. Lead on," she said to Fleur.
It turned out that they hadn't been far from Daybreak's room at all, and it took barely thirty seconds for them to reach it. Twilight hesitated with her magic on the latch, then released it. "You guys should go back to your room for now."
"What?" Trixie burst out, annoyed that after dragging them all together, Twilight wanted to split up again. "Why?"
"Because Daybreak might react better if he thinks you're not working against him, that it's all just me. He might see it as less of a threat to Faust if there's only one of us confronting him over it too. Don't worry, I'll still come and get you before we go see Faust."
Fleur covered Trixie's mouth before she could refuse outright. "Are you sure? You're not going to get violent are you?"
"Mildly threatening at most."
After a moment Fleur nodded, "Okay, but you better come and get us."
"I will, and not just because I might need to know where you all are to make a swift getaway."
"Alright then. See you in a bit."
Twilight waited until they were gone before making a move. She retook the latch in her magical grip and prepared herself for whatever came next. "Alright," she said to herself, "time to make some friends into enemies." She pushed the door open, and let a gentle light spring to life on her horn as she entered the room. Daybreak was sound asleep, so she shut the door again and unceremoniously poked him on the chest. "Wake up."
"Whassat? Wha's going on? Agh, bright." Daybreak cracked an eye open to glare balefully at Twilight. "What are you doing in here?"
"Where is she Daybreak?"
"What? Where's who?"
"You know exactly who I mean. Where. Is. She?"
"And I'm telling you I don't know who she is! What the hell is this Twilight? You come in here in the middle of the night, and-"
"Shut up!" Twilight stood up against the bed so she towered over Daybreak. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, so stop fucking with me and tell me where Faust is!"
Daybreak sighed and gave Twilight a long, cool stare. "You know, she was right about you Equestrians. You're all nice and friendly as long as you're getting what you want, but as soon as somepony says no, you get vicious."
"She's just trying to turn you all against us! We've done nothing but help you ever since me and my friends set hoof in this country."
"Oh? And was it helping when you tried to hide our Lady from us? Huh? Was it?"
"She is dangerous Daybreak!" Twilight shouted, stamping a hoof on the side of Daybreak's bed in frustration. "I know she hates Equestria, and while I can't really fault her reasoning, the pony she blames for all this has been dead for centuries! Are you really willing to let your country be dragged into a war with Equestria just because she hates us?"
"This is about more than that," Daybreak growled. "This is about protecting our identity as a country, and you're trying to change us. And at what point did I say we were going to attack Equestria? Now you're saying I'm delusional too?"
"B-but that's what Faust wants... She wants to destroy Equestria, and force the world to change into what she thinks it should be."
Daybreak stared blankly at Twilight, "What are you even talking about? All she wants is Mareitania to be safe, and even though she told us what happened to her, she hasn't once suggested attacking Equestria. She wouldn't be able to either since she doesn't rule this country. I really think you ought to check your facts before making accusations Twilight."
"Wha'?" Twilight felt as though the carpet had been pulled from under her. In her mind Faust had already declared herself as supreme ruler of Mareitania, and was building up to her war against Equestria and the world. Apparently that wasn't true, and it actually bothered her more. "What about the military build-up? What's that about?"
"I told you, it's for national security. The griffons are a threat, and we'll be ready for them should they try anything."
"And sending the pegasi back? There's no way you can get that irrigation network up and running anywhere near in time."
"And we won't need to. Our Lady has proven herself capable of controlling the weather all over the country. We didn't need your pegasi any longer, so we sent them back."
Twilight dropped back onto all fours and backed off muttering to herself. "This is all wrong..."
"Maybe it's wrong because you're trying to make it wrong," Daybreak said back.
"She is dangerous!" Twilight insisted.
"And to her, you're dangerous. And yet she wants to see you, and I can't for the life of me think why when you wilfully left her locked up to rot, and even sealed over the entrance to where she was kept."
"She does?" Twilight wasn't going to say it out loud, but she thought this had trap written all over it. Then she thought about the other thing Daybreak said. "What do you mean sealed over?"
Daybreak shrugged, "It is what it sounds like. Either you, or Luna, or even Celestia completely sealed over the entrance, and tried to make it look like it wasn't even there. Since you seem surprised, I guess it wasn't you."
"No," Twilight replied in a tiny voice. While she knew Faust was still here, she hadn't been aware of the lengths Celestia had gone to hide the entrance. It made it sound a lot more permanent than Celestia had said it would be.
"At any rate," Daybreak continued, unaware of what was going through Twilight's head, "she wants to see you and your friends. Can't imagine why though."
"When?"
Daybreak shrugged again, "Now, if you want? She doesn't seem to sleep much lately, always working on something. Nothing malicious, if that's what you're thinking."
"O-okay," said Twilight. After all her aplomb in trying to force Daybreak into talking, to hear that Faust not only knew they were here, but wanted to see them, was supremely unnerving. The desire to flee was building in Twilight quite rapidly. "None of this explains why you kept one of the pegasi."
"Faust merely wanted to ask one a few questions."
"So you tortured her?"
Daybreak was stunned for a few seconds, "We did not torture anypony!"
"That's not what the Viscount said."
"And you'd believe him of all ponies? Really? Besides the fact that we would never do anything like that?" The incredulous look Daybreak gave her told Twilight that he might have had a point.
"Okay, so maybe you didn't do that, but she is still a citizen of Equestria, and is being held here unlawfully, and she will be returning with us."
Daybreak rolled his eyes but nodded, "I suppose that can be done. I'm sure our Lady has all the information she desires anyway. Now, are you going to see her, or do I have to have you escorted up to her?"
"We'll go."
"Excellent. Follow me."
-0-0-0-
Dread was turning Twilight's stomach into smorgasbord of unpleasant sensations as Daybreak led her and her friends up into the higher reaches of High Rock keep. While she wasn't quite convinced they were being led to their deaths, it still felt like they were being led into a manticore's den.
Eventually Daybreak stopped outside a door that didn't seem any more distinguishable from any of the others, and turned to face all of them, his expression serious. "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here, letting you see her like this, so you even think about harming a hair on her head..." Daybreak left the threat open ended, which was fine in Twilight's opinion as it didn't need an end.
"Are you kidding?" Fleur said happily. A little too happily in Twilight's opinion. "I can't believe we're going to meet the actual Lady of the North! This is so exciting." The wink she gave Twilight was enough reassurance for the alicorn that she wasn't being serious.
"At least some of you are excited," Daybreak said darkly, directing a dark glare at Twilight. He pushed open the door and led them into the room beyond where, lay upon a large padded dais at the rear of the room, was Faust herself, smiling kindly at them. "My Lady, sorry to disturb you at such a late hour, but the ponies you wanted to see wished to meet you now."
"It's quite alright Daybreak," Faust replied in a warm voice, quite unlike the one Twilight remembered from their first meeting. "I've been looking forwards to this. You can leave us."
"But-"
"Please."
Daybreak bowed deeply, "As you wish my Lady. I shall be outside if you need me."
Faust held her smile until Daybreak was out of the room, then let it slip a little. "I must say I was surprised when I learnt all of you had arrived here. I was certainly expecting a diplomat, but all of you? The heroes of the liberation?" Faust smiled again, "At the very least I should thank you all for your part in freeing Mareitania from the Duke and his ilk, as it led to my freedom as well, so, thank you."
"You're welcome!" The filly said cheerfully.
Twilight studied Faust, and while the alabaster alicorn was still painfully thin, she did seem to be filling out a little. Her coat and hair was smoother and cleaner apart from the short patches where the rune laden bands she was forced to wear had rubbed her coat away. Her ribs were showing less, and her legs seemed to have a bit of meat to them, but she was still a long way from being fully recovered. Twilight doubted that any of that really affected Faust's magical ability. She could feel the power radiating off Faust, and magically speaking, it was like looking at the sun.
"You're looking well," Twilight said after a moment.
"Freedom agrees with me."
"Does it agree with the pegasus you're keeping here?"
"Ah, you speak of dear Flitter. I dare say she must be wanting to spread her wings and fly by now."
Twilight lowered her stance and flared her wings. "Give. Her. Back."
"Gladly." Faust cleared her throat, "Guard? Could I have your assistance please?"
Barely seconds later a guard burst into the room, "Is everything alright my Lady?"
"Certainly. I was hoping you might bring Flitter here so we might talk with her?"
The guard bowed deeply, "At once my Lady."
Twilight scowled at the departing guard, then turned it on Faust. "I know what you're doing, and I know about the spell you're casting on everypony here, trying to make them think what you think."
"What I think?" Faust laughed pleasantly, making Twilight scowl deeper. "Not quite. You can actually attribute the way everypony is thinking to your good friend Snowbright. Not that he's aware of it of course. It's his belligerence towards Equestria that I'm using to turn everypony against you. Interestingly, if I use the spell on him it only reaffirms what he thinks, making it even stronger, which I can then use again. It's a vicious circle, and eventually the only catharsis these ponies will have is to destroy Equestria in my name."
"You're not even going to deny it?" Fleur asked, shocked.
Faust gestured towards Twilight, "One of the reasons I'm doing this is sat right in front of you, so why should I bother."
"Trixie's wondering how she plans to do all that just by making the ponies in here crazy."
They were surprised when Faust tutted in disgust, "As loath as I am to even associate myself with them, the Church of 'the Lady' shall be doing more than spreading my good word."
"The spell," said Twilight. "You're going to use it to spread your influence. But how?"
Faust shrugged, her skin shifting horribly over her bony frame. "Excuse me if I don't tell you all my plans."
"Why are you telling us this much?" Octavia asked, echoing what the rest of them was thinking.
"Just so you realise how helpless you are. You can't stop what's coming, and I hope that thought comforts you in the weeks and months to come." Faust looked up as the guard re-entered the room with a pony cowering behind him. "Ah, thank you kindly."
"My Lady," the guard said back before leaving again.
At first glance Twilight couldn't see anything much wrong with Flitter, save for the bags under her eyes from sleep deprivation. A closer look revealed more. Faint bruises covered her body, barely visible through her coat, and her mane looked like it had been torn out in places. Her wings were almost threadbare, showing signs of feathers having been pulled out. The most telling sign was when Flitter opened her mouth to speak, revealing that the front teeth on both her upper and lower jaw had been removed. Likely painfully so.
"Princess Twilight," whimpered Flitter, her ears falling lower than they already were. She lisped slightly from the loss of her teeth. "I-I'm sorry! I d-didn't want to tell her!"
"You tortured her!" Twilight shouted, her anger reaching a new high. "You fucking tortured her!" Twilight teleported Flitter behind her, as the mare seemed too afraid to move herself in Faust's presence.
"I'm afraid so," Faust sighed. "I assure you that if she'd been more forthcoming with what she knew, we wouldn't have had to do a thing to harm her, but she was remarkably resilient. More so than her appearance would suggest."
"I really didn't want to," Flitter cried. "I'm so sorry Princess!"
"It's okay Flitter, it's not your fault." Twilight shushed the tearful mare and let Fleur and the others comfort her while Summer checked Flitter's injuries. Twilight faced Faust and spread her wings in a protective wall between Faust and her friends. "Why would you do that to her? What could she possibly know that required you to torture her?"
"I didn't lay a hoof on her myself if that's what you were thinking."
"You might as well have! And why her? Is it because I know her? Are you trying to get under my skin by hurting the ponies I know?"
"Nothing so perverse, I assure you. After having ponies ask around the other pegasi here, I discovered I needed a pony from Ponyville, and Flitter here was one of only four from there that took part in the weather program. It was simply her misfortune that she was the one we decided to question."
"Question about what?!" Twilight's wings twitched irritably, her desire to attack growing each time Faust dodged the question. "Tell me!"
"About you, actually."
"What?" Twilight's wings drooped slightly as she stopped putting any thought into what she was doing with them. "About me?"
"Not just you, but you're certainly a pony of interest. I didn't really realise you were an ascended alicorn until dear Flitter told me, but I should have suspected as much since the magic of the Tree of Harmony flows through you." Faust smiled amusedly, "Seems the tree has chosen its own champions."
"You know about the Tree of Harmony?"
"Certainly. I did create it after all, from a heavily modified seed of the Tree of Life. Or the golden tree as the legend here would call it. I planted it far away where I hoped the greed and foolishness of ponies wouldn't cause it to wither like its parent. Apparently I didn't go anywhere near far enough."
Rather than be shocked that Faust had created the Tree of Harmony, Twilight actually found herself relieved. "If you know about the Tree of Harmony, then you know we have the power to stop you." Her confidence didn't last long though as Faust started to laugh.
"Oh my, you are vastly mistaken. I put a lot of myself into that tree, and I'm sure I don't need to tell you what that means."
Twilight's heart sank. Magic cannot be turned on itself, and if there was a lot of Faust's magic in the Tree of Harmony, "The tree won't harm you..."
Faust rolled her eyes and scoffed, "The Tree of Harmony doesn't 'harm' anything, Twilight Sparkle, but it will go to great lengths to restore the balance of the world. The Tree of Life failed because it tried to maintain order rather than harmony, but unfortunately chaos is far too prevalent in everything for that to work. The Tree of Harmony takes a much broader view. Broader than even my own. You are correct that it wouldn't 'harm' its mother though."
"Then what is this all about? You tortured Flitter just to be told what you already know?"
"Just because the powers of the Tree won't affect me doesn't mean it isn't a threat to my plans. What I hope to achieve will be the pinnacle of Order and Harmony, but the road to that destination is wrought with chaos. The Tree is likely to oppose the things I must do, and so I had to learn how to counter it, and to do that, I had to learn about you. Then it turned out it wasn't just you I had to learn about."
"Please," Flitter cried softly from behind Twilight, "I'm so, so sorry."
Twilight felt her chest seize as she figured out where this was going. Faust wanted to stop the Tree of Harmony, and the Tree of Harmony acted through herself and her friends. Even the loss of one of her friends might break the chain. "Don't you dare hurt my friends!" she wheezed through a throat that had become almost too tight to speak.
"I'm not a monster Twilight; your friends will be perfectly safe and well cared for. But don't be mistaken in thinking you can protect them from this. Honestly, while I was concerned at first, you being here was actually a blessing in disguise." Faust raised her head, the beginnings of a spell forming on her horn. "Don't worry, you'll be seeing them soon enough."
Twilight acted before Faust could finish her spell, and in her mind was already swinging her enchanted blade Swordy before she'd even fully materialised it inches above Faust's head. The blade appeared and whistled through the air, barely even slowing as the fantastically sharp blade sliced through Faust's horn, cutting it off cleanly a few inches above her forehead.
Faust's scream of agony almost shook the walls, and a second later her guards scrambled into the room, a unicorn and an earth pony, pausing with their weapons ready as they saw Twilight standing over a dehorned Lady, a thin sliver of blood dripping from her sword. Their hesitation didn't last for long, and Twilight quickly teleported between them and her friends, Swordy flashing from side to side as she destroyed their weapons.
"What did you do?!" Daybreak shouted in horror as he followed the guards in and saw the bleeding and weeping form of a now hornless Faust.
"She tried to attack me!" Twilight shouted back. "Daybreak, she is not what you think she is! She tortured Flitter!" Daybreak glanced fleetingly at Flitter, but didn't seem to really see her. Instead he started shouting for guards as loud as he could.
"Twilight!" Trixie half shouted, half whispered. "Cast the spell on him and get us out of here!"
It took Twilight a moment to work out what Trixie was talking about. As soon as she did she fired the spell she used to free her friends from the influence of Faust's magic right at him. He howled in pain and fell to the floor clutching his head, but Twilight had no way to really tell right at that moment if what she'd done had actually worked. Instead she used the short moment of confusion to knock the guards back, and slam open the nearest window.
She jumped out and took flight, hovering outside the window. She could hear the shouts of ponies getting closer, and urgently waved for her friends to follow her. "Come on, come on, come on!" she urged, catching them in her magic as the filly and Summer jumped out, followed by Trixie.
"Stop right there!"
Twilight erected a shield, catching the blast of magic that sizzled through the air towards Octavia and Flitter. Seeing that their time had run out she dragged the rest of her friends out through the window and flew away as fast as she could, out of range of the anti-teleportation field around the keep. She looked back as blasts of magic and arrows followed them into the dark, and as she prepared to teleport them back to Canterlot, she was surprised to see the top half of High Rock keep was lit up like a beacon in the night as every anti-magic rune glowed with power, trying to contain Faust's magic.
"Twilight!" Fleur cried, a flash of magic from the keep narrowly missing her. "Get us out of here!"
Twilight refocused herself and concentrated on the thread of magic that connected to her teleport beacon in Canterlot. She gave the keep one last look, then released the spell, leaving but the merest sparkle of magic behind as she and her friends vanished into nothing. |
The end of an era | 4. Bold moves | Celestia and Luna sat side by side on their private balcony overlooking the city of Canterlot, enjoying each others company in that short time they had where their respective duties met. In the west the moon sunk out of sight, Luna bidding it goodnight as Celestia greeted the sun in the east, happily watching it spill its golden light across the land, and across others beyond Equestria.
"You know sister," Luna said after a while, "I cannot for the life of me remember why I grew to resent this sight. It's funny really. It used to pain me to do this, but now I'm glad to do it each and every day."
"While I'm happy to hear that," Celestia replied cautiously, "I can't help but wonder why the complete change of heart."
"Because the night sky is best enjoyed at night," Luna replied playfully. "Honestly though, without madness clouding my thoughts, the day is just as lovely as the night, only for different reasons. I guess being productive does work better when one can see what they're doing."
"If only we all possessed the aptitude for the night that your thestrals enjoy."
"It's the bat wings isn't it? They do look pretty cool."
Celestia rolled her eyes and smiled, "And now I can cross hearing you using the word cool in that context off the bucket list."
Luna smiled unsurely at Celestia, "What in the world are you doing with a bucket list? It's not like you'll be dying any time soon."
"And it's things like what you just said that become famous last words."
"And when do you plan on completing your bucket list?"
"I don't know, ponies keep inventing new things for me to add on. The world will likely have ended before I get around to finishing it."
Luna consolingly patted Celestia on the back, "And that is why I don't have a bucket list, and not just because such things were unheard of before my banishment. Now if you'll excuse me, I wish to use the gym before showering and going to bed. Good morning to you Celestia."
"And good night to you Luna." Celestia contained her amusement over Luna going to the gym, as it seemed to make little difference to the health and wellbeing of alicorns. Frankly, a millenia of feasting on cake had done little to damage Celestia, save for giving her a more curvaceous figure, so she reasoned there was little risk of dying from it, and an even littler need to work it off.
Sadly though, as much as she wanted to stay where she was, musing over lifes little intricacies, she had a country to run. She stood and gave the sun one last, longing filled glance before heading into the throne room where her assistant Raven would have a cup of tea ready and waiting for her. To Celestia's everlasting lack of surprise, there it was in its usual place by the throne. It was her fervent hope that one day Raven would surprise her with a coffee, but that would be far too daring for a mortal to do to their immortal princess.
"Good morning your highness."
"Good morning Raven. I don't suppose you've heard anything from-"
"Waah! Oof!"
Celestia raised an eyebrow as six- no, seven ponies appeared from thin air in the middle of the throne room, landing in a pile, and causing a ripple to appear in her tea. Then the other eyebrow joined its sibling as Celestia worked out who it was. "Twilight?"
"Help Flitter!" Twilight shouted as she pulled Fleur and Summer off herself, and teleported out of the room.
"Twilight!"
-0-0-0-
A series of rapid teleports accompanied the fastest flying Twilight had ever forced herself to do, and yet Ponyville still seemed painfully far away. She needed to be in Ponyville now, and it felt like she was trudging through molasses trying to get there. A cry of anguish accompanied the tears flying off her cheeks as she pushed herself even harder.
After a journey that felt like hours, but was only minutes, Twilight slammed her hooves onto the dirt road in the middle of Ponyville, and ironically found herself totally unsure of where to go. All of her friends were possibly in trouble, and she was only one mare.
"Twilight!"
Twilight almost collapsed with relief as Rainbow Dash zipped through the air towards her. "Rainbow! Thank goodness you're alright! I thought..." Twilight stopped as she saw the semi panicked expression on Rainbow's face. "Rainbow? What's happened?"
"Some creeps just attacked me while I was sleeping! A bunch of unicorns blew holes in my house, then they tried to catch me with some kind of net! I would've fought them off, but there was too many, and I had the feeling they knew what they were doing, so I thought I'd come find you until I remembered you were in Mareitania... Wait, why are you here?"
Twilight grabbed Rainbow by her shoulders, "Rainbow, I know you want to know what's going on, but we're in big trouble. I need you to go check on Fluttershy and Applejack, while I check on Pinkie and Rarity. Can you do that?"
"But why would they attack us?" Rainbow asked, looking back over her shoulder towards her house.
"Rainbow Dash, please!" Twilight's voice cracked, "Can you do that?!"
Rainbow hesitated at Twilight's behaviour, but swiftly nodded. "Yeah, okay; Applejack and Fluttershy, got it! Be back in a jiffy!"
"Tell them to go to my castle when you find them!" Twilight shouted after Rainbow, "And everypony with them too!"
"But Fluttershy's on her own."
"I know!" Twilight shouted. "And I really hope she still is," she added to herself, saying it loud enough for only herself to hear. Twilight watched the rainbow trail of Dash's flight dissipate for a second, then shook herself out of her stupor. She spurred her legs into action, her wings temporarily forgotten, and headed towards Rarity's place as it was marginally closer than Pinkie at Sugar Cube Corner. Her heart sank as she got closer and saw the front door hanging off its hinges.
"Rarity!" Twilight cried as she galloped into Carousel Boutique, slamming the door aside with her shoulder. Inside was a mess, with furniture and cloth scattered around from what appeared to be a fierce fight. Whoever had caused it was long gone though, and likely Rarity with them.
"Rarity!" Twilight shouted again, hoping against hope that the fashionista was still here having fought off her attackers. "Rarity! Please...answer me."
Twilight's ears perked up as they caught the sound of a sniffle, but it was rather squeakier than she was used to hearing from Rarity. "Sweetie Belle?" There was no reply, so Twilight followed the sound to the cupboard under the stairs and pulled the door open. She found Sweetie easy enough, half hidden under a shelf and behind a mop bucket, curled up and trying to cry as quietly as possible.
"Sweetie, it's me, Twilight."
Sweetie uncoiled enough to look up at Twilight, then sprang up to grab Twilight around the neck in a hug that bordered on feverish, "Twilight!"
Twilight returned the hug, "It's okay Sweetie, I've got you." She patted Sweetie on the back, comforting the young filly until her cries turned into whimpers and her hold around Twilight's neck loosened. "Are you okay Sweetie? They didn't hurt you did they?"
"N-no, but they took Rarity!" Twilight closed her eyes, her worst fear confirmed. "You have to get her back Twilight! You have to!"
"And I will, I promise, but there are other ponies in danger and I need to help them as well. I'm going to teleport you to my castle where you'll be safe. Just look for Spike and he'll look after..." The way Sweetie seemed to shrink made Twilight stop talking, and when Sweetie couldn't look her in the eye anymore she almost cried herself as she remembered something important. Spike usually stayed with Rarity when Twilight was away without him. "What's wrong Sweetie?" Twilight asked anyway, hoping it was something else entirely.
"They got Spike too," said Sweetie. "They put him in chains, and said they'd h-hurt Rarity if he even tried to breathe fire..."
Twilight closed her eyes, unwilling and unable to express in front of Sweetie Belle how much she hurt right now. Sweetie needed her to be stronger than that for a little bit.
"Then as long as they're together I'm sure they'll be fine," she said weakly. Sweetie looked about as convinced as Twilight felt. "Look, I need to go help other ponies that could be in trouble. I'm going to teleport you to the castle, and once you're there I want you to stay in the throne room until either I, or somepony else you know comes in."
"On my own?! I'm not staying on my own!"
"Sweetie Belle please, it's the safest place for you to be right now."
"But what if the bad ponies are there as well?"
"A-" Now she thought about it, her castle would be a good place to lay a trap for any of her friends that fled their homes. Maybe sending Sweetie there wasn't the most prudent decision.
"Alright, you can stay with me, but if I tell you to do something, anything at all, you do it, and you do it fast. Do you understand?"
Sweetie Belle nodded without hesitation, "U-understood."
"Good." Twilight lifted Sweetie up onto her back, and wasted no time in galloping out of the boutique and heading to Sugar Cube Corner, Sweetie hanging on for dear life.
Twilight could hear the ponies within before she even got there. The crying of the twins along with the desperate pleas of Mrs Cake for them to be quiet were the predominant sounds, but the clink of chains could also be heard under the racket the twins made.
Twilight slammed open the stable door that led into Sugar Cube Corner, and froze at the sight of two unicorns putting chains on Pinkie, as two more unicorns, as well as two earth ponies held the Cake family at knifepoint. It was fairly obvious to Twilight that they were Shades, part of the Mareitanian intelligence network set up by the rebellion during the civil war, and they certainly had no business being in Ponyville, or Equestria for that matter. They also seemed surprised to see her, and not the happy kind of surprised. It was the kind of surprise you get when one of the deadliest ponies you know catches you doing something that they don't want you to do.
Twilight didn't waste time shouting, or making demands that they give Pinkie back and don't hurt anypony. Instead she teleported Pinkie and the Cake's safely behind her. The chains that were holding Pinkie clattered to the ground without the mare they were meant for to support them, and Twilight almost grinned as the Shades backed away from her. She did grin at the looks on their faces as she summoned Swordy.
"Pinkie, get Sweetie."
"You're not going to...kill them, are you?" Pinkie asked as she slipped Sweetie off Twilight's back.
Twilight was about to say they deserved it, but as she looked back at Pinkie, she didn't see fear, or anger, or anything that she might have expected to see. Instead she saw worry and concern, although whether it was for the would be abductors, or Twilight herself she couldn't tell. Either way, it was enough to stay Twilight's hoof.
Twilight sighed and dismissed Swordy, "No, I'm not going to kill them, but I might have to hurt them really, really badly, until I can capture them, or they surrender." Pinkie didn't say anything, but did nod before averting hers and Sweetie's eyes. It was unnecessary though, as Twilight closed the doors behind her, which would save their eyes, but not necessarily their ears.
Twilight loosened her shoulders, suddenly relishing the chance to get a little payback on the ponies that would dare hurt and abduct her friends, and had no qualms about threatening foals to do it. Not that were any right alicorns to pick a fight with, but these ponies had definitely picked the wrong one. "So, who's first?"
One of the unicorns, a mare, held up a hoof, "Ma'am, please, we were just following orders. We really didn't know you kn-"
"Don't care." Twilight picked up a chair and smashed it across the mares head before the mare could even get so much as a hoof up to block it. She went down cold, and Twilight didn't waste time worrying about her any further.
The other five Shades were a little more cautious than their unconscious fellow, and spread out around Twilight to try and attack her from all sides. It was a wasted gesture on Twilight as she teleported from the middle of them to behind the other mare in the group, and bucked the earth pony hard enough to send her flying into one of the other Shades.
A knife flew towards Twilight, held in the light green magic of one of the other unicorns. She dodged it, then grabbed it in her own magic, fighting a very brief battle of wills as the unicorn tried to keep control of the blade. He failed, and the knife flew straight back at him, hitting him above the knee of his front right leg hard enough to go straight through the bone.
Twilight turned as he collapsed, her side catching the brunt of a magical blast that sent her sliding across the polished wooden floor. Her return blast was rather more effective, smashing the unicorn against the wall, and taking him out the fight as he didn't get back up after.
Having taken three of her attackers down, Twilight moved herself so she could keep an eye on all of them. The mare she'd bucked was crying with pain, and seemed unable to stand, making Twilight think that she may have broken something of the mare's. Counting her out of the fight, Twilight had two unicorns left, both armed with knives.
Twilight didn't attack immediately, and stood there giving them the silent hint that they could give up and surrender. They mustn't have fully understood her intent though as one threw their knife at her, hoping to distract her as the other ran in close.
Twilight snatched the blade out of the air and unexpectedly rammed into the unicorn running at her. He fell, winded as her shoulder barged into his chest, and she swept the knife across his back legs, just above the middle joint, and deep enough to severely damage the ligaments there, if not completely sever them. He was still dangerous being a unicorn though, and she took a moment to knock him out.
The remaining pony, whether through determination or fear, took up one of the fallen blades and charged towards Twilight as she was distracted. He swung the knife, scoring a deep gash on Twilight's side. Then his world went sideways in a serious way as a pulse of telekinesis knocked him away. He scrambled back to his hooves, then screamed as his original knife was forced through the middle of his horn and twisted, splitting it in two. A hoof to the back of his head temporarily ended his pain.
Twilight cursed herself for getting sloppy as she took a moment to compose herself. A quick scan with her magic confirmed that her attackers were all still alive, which was one less thing she'd have to explain, then she thought of something else. Although she wasn't a true fan of the genre, Twilight had read enough spy thrillers to think that she maybe knew a thing or two about it. To stop them leaking information, a spy might be given a false tooth containing a poison capsule to kill themselves with in the event of capture. A thorough inspection of all their mouths confirmed that she was indeed dead wrong about them thinking to do such a thing.
Satisfied that nopony was about to start foaming at the mouth and die, Twilight limped over to the exit. The looks on everyponies face as she opened the door wasn't one she liked, but otherwise paid it no mind.
"I don't suppose any of you have some rope or something? Two of them won't be walking in a hurry, but it'd still be best to immobilise them. Horn inhibitors would be good too, but I suspect that's asking too much."
"Tw-Twilight," Pinkie stammered, "you're- You're bleeding."
"I know," Twilight said dismissively. "I'll be fine. I really do need some rope though."
"B-buh..." Pinkie looked like she could cry as she saw the carnage inside the shop.
"Pinkie!" Twilight snapped, dragging Pinkie's attention back to herself. "Pinkie," Twilight repeated softer. "Can you find me some rope please. I promise you I didn't kill anypony, and that they'll all recover, but I need to tie them up before they all wake up." Technically not true, as she could make them sleep for hours if she wanted, but Twilight felt they deserved every second of pain they got.
"O-okay. Rope, okay. Uhh..." Pinkie looked around, then perked up as her eyes settled on a building site up the road. "Ooh! I bet they have rope that we could borrow! I'll be back real quick, okay?"
"Thank you Pinkie." Twilight sat heavily as Pinkie galloped away. The adrenaline that had carried her this far was starting to wear off, and without it she could feel her wound, along with a few bruises that she'd not really noticed receiving. She could also feel her worries come back into focus without something to distract her. Rarity was gone, along with Spike, and she really hoped Rainbow came back with good news about Applejack and Fluttershy.
A breath tickled her ear, "Here you go."
"Yah! Pinkie!" Twilight glared at the pink pony that had appeared behind her, "Really not the time."
"Sorry," Pinkie sheepishly said back. She had a few coils of rope around her neck which Twilight took off her and tested, pleased with what Pinkie had bought her. "Twilight, who are these ponies? Why'd they try to take me away?"
"They're..." Twilight sighed and shook her head, "That's a hard question to answer, but you're not the only one they went after. They've got Rarity and Spike, and they attacked Rainbow at home, but she got away. I've asked her to check on Applejack and Fluttershy."
"W-what about the other ponies here? Are they in danger? Did they take Flitter away too?"
"It's just us they want Pinkie, and they did have Flitter, but she's safe back in Canterlot now."
"Oh. That's good, I suppose."
"I suppose," Twilight echoed. Pinkie said nothing more, and stared blankly at the floor, unable to really process what was going on. Twilight left her to it to go tie up the ponies in Sugar Cube Corner before they woke up. She also had to think of what to do without inhibitors for the unicorns. She could do the second best thing and use dark magic crystals to nullify their magic, but honestly, she was past that stage, and did the third best thing and removed the issue altogether. She was on a roll with dehorning things today, and didn't see why she had to stop.
Some of the unconscious ponies were starting to stir by the time she finished, and all four unicorns would be waking up to a special kind of agony, so she felt that perhaps it was best to keep them, as well as those still conscious, from being trouble for at least a little longer. She'd just finished casting the sleep spell when Pinkie called her name.
"Twilight? Princess Luna's here with a load of bat ponies in armour. Should I tell them you're busy and that they should leave a message for you?"
"No, I'll be right out." Twilight limped back out to the sight of several dozen of Luna's Nightguard, resplendent in their purple armour. The effect was slightly ruined by the large amount of them that were squinting in the morning light. Slightly more resplendent, and considerably less squinty, was Luna, bedecked in a bright silver armour that might have been half the reason the thestrals were struggling.
"Luna! I'm so happy you're here!"
"I came as soon as I was able Twilight, and thought I should bring backup." Twilight caught her thestral friend Shadow wink and salute at her. "What's happening here?"
"There's Shades here. They've got Rarity and Spike, and tried to take Pinkie too, but I got here in time to stop them. I have Rainbow checking on Applejack and Fluttershy, but she's been too long and I really need to go find them. Could you take care of things here while I go looking?"
"Of course Twilight."
"Oh thank you Luna. I have prisoners in Sugar Cube Corner that need moving to my castle, or Canterlot. Whatever, I don't care."
"Your castle will do for now. Captain?" A burly thestral stallion stepped forward and saluted to both princesses. His name was Greywhisker, and on their first introduction a couple of months ago, Twilight had been impressed to learn he was near six hundred years old.
"Orders mistress?"
"Secure the prisoners in Twilight's castle, then have most of your ponies begin searching for our stolen ponies and dragon while the remainder protect the village."
"At once mistress."
"Twilight, go do what you have to do."
"Thanks Luna. Pinkie, please stay with Luna." Pinkie nodded listlessly, which was good enough for Twilight at that moment in time. She launched herself into the air and orientated herself towards Sweet Apple Acres, since it was the closer of the two places she needed to go. She was only halfway there when she found Rainbow coming the other way.
"Twilight! Thank goodness! You have to come quic-" Rainbow's voice broke, and Twilight saw the tears her friend was shedding, which was unlike Rainbow.
"What's wrong?"
"It's Big Mac. He's hurt Twilight, like really bad. Come on!"
Twilight chased after Rainbow, and was either fast enough to keep up, or Rainbow was slowing herself so Twilight could keep up. Twilight suspected the latter.
The situation at Sweet Apple Acres looked the same as it had been at Carousel Boutique and Sugar Cube Corner, with the doors smashed open and the inside being complete carnage. The difference here was that Big Mac lay in the middle of it, blood pouring from several stab wounds as Granny Smith and a sobbing Applebloom tried to staunch the bleeding as best they could.
Twilight froze for a moment, then shook it off. "Big Mac, can you hear me?"
"Nnngh...eeyup." Still being conscious was a very good sign if Twilight remembered correctly.
"Please be okay Big Mac! Please be okay!" Applebloom wailed, fighting the urge to wipe her tears to keep her hooves pressed on a blood-soaked towel.
"Hush Applebloom, stay strong fer Big Mac." Granny Smith looked to be on the verge of breaking down herself, and nopony would've blamed her if she did.
It didn't take more than a few seconds for Twilight to work out that there was nothing she could do to really help, not without her healing device. Big Mac's best chance lay with getting him to the hospital.
"Okay, I'm going to have to teleport us to the hospital because this is too much for me. Rainbow, you fly and meet us there." Rainbow was out the door as soon as Twilight said so. "The rest of you, hold on."
Big Mac was not light, and seemed to possess enough mass for three ponies, but that wasn't a major issue. Twilight's horn sparked, and with a flash they appeared in the main reception of Ponyville hospital, shocking the ponies that had been clustering around the main entrance, trying to see what was happening in town.
"Help!" Twilight shouted, which seemed to be enough to shock the hospital staff into action. Nurse Redheart eased Applebloom to the side and took over trying to staunch the bleeding, while another nurse took over for Granny Smith. Doctor Stable took one look and immediately shouted for a trolley, although they had to rely on Twilight to lift Big Mac on when it arrived.
Both Twilight and Granny Smith had to hold Applebloom back as her big brother was wheeled off into the depths of the hospital, but not before they heard Doctor Stable's departing words. "What I wouldn't give for an S.h.d right now."
Rainbow also chose that moment to crash through the entrance and skid to a halt just before she reached the patch of red on the floor where Big Mac had lain. "Is he going to be okay?" she asked once she caught her breath.
"He should be," said Twilight. "Doctor Stable said he wished he had an S.h.d, although I don't know what he meant by that."
"Really?" Rainbow threw her legs into the air, "A healing device Twilight! How could you possibly not know that since you invented them?! Why aren't you getting one anyway?!"
"They have one, don't they?"
"Seriously Twilight?! You're betting in them 'maybe' having one?"
"...Be right back." Twilight disappeared with a flash, and true to her word, reappeared moments later with the prototype healing device that she built in Mareitania. Unfortunately that meant she was the only one that could use it. "Rainbow, come with me."
"Uh, sure, but...why?"
"Just come on!" Twilight raced through the hospital, heading to where she remembered the operating theatre to be. Big Mac was already hooked up to oxygen, and the medical staff were prepping themselves for surgery when Twilight ran in.
"What are you doing?!" Doctor Stable shouted. He started to run to move Twilight away from Big Mac when Nurse Redheart held him back.
"Just wait."
The Doctor's eyes lit up as Twilight set up her healing device and started to feed magic into it. "I didn't realise you had one of those Princess. I was about to send Coldheart to go get ours."
"It's the prototype," Twilight answered. "Only an alicorn, or a really powerful unicorn can use it, which is why I still have it. Now please, I need to concentrate.
A hushed quiet fell over the operating theatre as they let Twilight do her thing. A few minutes after she started, the bleeding from Big Mac's wounds was stopped, and Twilight heard more than a few sighs of relief from the assembled ponies as Big Mac's chances of survival grew exponentially.
Twilight regretted asking for quiet though. Operating the healing device only required a pony to act as a battery, and very little else. Without something to focus her attention on, Twilight found herself thinking, and with that came all the horrors the day had given them, and it was barely six in the morning.
Twilight didn't bother to ask if the Shades had gotten Applejack, as the cowpony would be right there with them if they hadn't, but there was one other pony that she didn't know the fate of yet.
"Did you find Fluttershy?" The small shake of Rainbow's head was enough to tell her the answer. The tears said a lot more.
-0-0-0-
An oppressive silence hung over the throne room in Twilight's castle, occupied as it was by three ponies instead of six. Pinkie sat hunched over the map table, and had barely said a word in the hours since learning that four of her friends had been kidnapped, and why. Rainbow wasn't much better. She kept twitching her wings, and pacing back and forth as she desperately sought for some way to fix everything. Twilight forbade her from joining the search, as flying into the hooves of the enemy wasn't the best idea they had.
Twilight supposed it didn't really matter any more though. The longer the search went on, the less likely they were to find anything. The Shades had probably escaped with their prizes, and Faust had gotten her way and had effectively neutralised the Elements of Harmony from interfering with her plans. What would capturing one more pony really mean to her now, other than to be another mouth to feed? No amount of thinking could tell her why they kidnapped Spike as well though.
"This is your fault!" Rainbow shouted at Twilight after a while. "Ever since you went to Mareitania nothing's gone right! Now you're telling us that there's some crazy alicorn that hates the world in charge of that place! You should never have gone there!"
"They went to help ponies," Pinkie said quietly. "You can't hate them for doing that."
"Like fun I can't!"
"Dashie please, don't fight."
"Then tell me how to fix this! Tell me where to go to get my friends back and I'll forgive everything!"
"They aren't just your friends," Pinkie reminded Rainbow.
"Well they sure as hell aren't Twilight's! Fluttershy could barely stand to be around her after she told us what she'd done. And now Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike are who knows where because of what she did!"
Twilight closed her eyes and sighed, "I'm right here you know."
"Are you? Really? Because I'm pretty sure that for the last six months I've only been talking to the ghost of the Twilight I used to know!"
Twilight's eyes snapped open, "And how well would you have coped, huh? Forced into a situation where you became a monster while trying to help ponies, or become one by leaving them to suffer!"
"Better than you!"
"Girls, please..." Both of them ignored Pinkie.
"And you're such hot shit that nothing ever bothers you? Rainbow Dash has to kill a pony and she just shrugs it off as no big deal? I can tell you now that that is how psychopaths are made!"
"No it wouldn't be nothing! But I wouldn't let it tear me apart like you did! You can barely wake up in the morning without falling apart-" Rainbow gasped and struggled to breathe as she felt something cold stab through her chest, and looked into Twilight's eyes as the alicorn's horn blazed.
"You feel that Dash? That is what I feel every time I wake up. And you know why I feel it? It's because, to my p.t.s.d addled brain, the difference between waking up in the morning, and waking up as a cold body in a morgue after having died, is the temperature I wake up at. You try waking up with that feeling every day, and see how well you cope!"
"Twilight!"
Twilight released Rainbow and backed off, suddenly very aware of just how far past too far she might have gone. To Rainbow's credit, she didn't attack, or run away, but watched Twilight warily. "I'm sorry Rainbow, I shouldn't have done that."
Rainbow licked her lips to get some moisture back into her mouth after what she had just felt. "You really feel that every morning?"
"Occasionally I'm really lucky and wake up feeling refreshed. Those are the best days. Truthfully, I was so preoccupied back in Mareitania that I never thought about a lot of this stuff, but ever since I came back I've have nothing but time to think about everything that happened, and it's made it worse. And now the past's coming back to both haunt me, and bite me on the ass."
"What?"
"Guys, the ponies in Mareitania followed me to free their own country. Now they're being twisted to hate us and all we stand for because of a mare that can't see past her own revenge. These are ponies I know Dash, friends that I once trusted with my life, and now... Now they've become the monsters that'll haunt other ponies dreams, and it hurts. And now they've stolen Rarity, Spike, Fluttershy and Applejack..."
Twilight slumped over onto the map table, and started crying softly, a sound that tugged uncomfortably on Rainbow's heart. "Aw nuts... Twilight, I never meant to yell at you. It's just that you've been so distant ever since you came back, and now this has happened, and... And I don't know what to do. I shouldn't have taken it out on you, and honestly, we've been rubbish friends to you while you've been struggling with all this as well. Can you forgive me?"
Twilight yanked Rainbow into a hug, "There's nothing to forgive Rainbow, and I really don't want to lose any more friends today. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for everything too. You were right when you said this was my fault, because partly it is."
"Don't say that. How were you supposed to know any of this would happen."
Both of them released their hug and looked up to find Pinkie giving them an extremely watery smile. "Can I have hugs too?" Pinkie almost cried with relief as Twilight and Rainbow hugged her from both sides.
"We'll have to have a proper group hug when we get the others back," said Rainbow. "I guess it's just us 'til then."
"Yeah," Twilight said wistfully.
"How do we get them back?" Rainbow asked hopefully, making Twilight sigh.
"I guess we can only hope that Luna and her Night Guard can find them before they leave the country. That's a slim hope though as they've got to have prepared for us searching."
"And? Can't we find them using this?" Rainbow patted her hoof on the map table. "If this can find friendship problems, surely it can find our friends?"
"But I don't know how to do that. I don't even know if it can do that. I haven't gotten it to really do anything since we discovered it, apart from those problems in Manehatten, Griffinstone, and the Smokey Mountains." Twilight didn't say there had been a forth instance, mostly because it involved her. For the last four months the only thing the map had shown was her friends cutie marks circling around where they were now.
"You can still try though," Rainbow insisted.
"Rainbow, I-"
"Twilight! Please! Just try."
Twilight wanted to refuse, but the sheer desperation Rainbow displayed stopped her. Instead she used her magic and activated the table. As predicted, it showed the same thing as it had for the last four months. "That's all it does," said Twilight as she averted her gaze from both the map and her friends.
"Wh- What is this Twilight?" Dash looked closer at the image of hers, Pinkie's, and the others marks rotating around Twilight's castle.
"Remember when you all came running here around four months ago because your cutie marks were flashing?"
"Yeah, you told us it was a false alarm, which we found kinda weird, but why would you lie t-" Rainbow frowned as she worked it out, "You did lie to us, didn't you. How could you do that Twilight? Is this why I feel like something's wrong every time I'm around you? Because this map is sending my flank messages telling me so?"
"I'm sorry, but I didn't want you all to worry about me, to think I was hurt and broken, and that our friendship needed fixing. I'm supposed to be a princess, to be strong and able to deal with anything. The map showing me as a friendship problem just made me feel like more of a failure, so...I lied. I wanted to fix it myself. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it made things worse."
"You- You- Arrgh!" Rainbow shouted her frustration into her hooves, then slammed them onto the map. "For being the smartest pony I know, you really are incredibly dumb sometimes!"
"You shouldn't be afraid to let us help you Twilight," said Pinkie.
"I know," Twilight whispered. "I-" She lowered her head to the map and hid her face under her legs. "I'm such an idiot."
Rainbow nodded heartily, "You really are, but you're still our friend, and we do still love you despite your many, many flaws."
"Thanks, I think."
"Now is this really all this map will show us?" Rainbow tried to touch the circling cutie marks, hoping that something might happen. The images phased harmlessly through her hoof.
"I wasn't lying when I said I don't know how to make it do anything else."
Rainbow threw her hooves up in disgust and slumped back in her seat. "Then it's hopeless. I guess we'll just have to go to Mareitania and get them back the hard way. You guys with me?"
"I wish it was that simple," Twilight said before Pinkie could speak. "They'll be taken to High Rock, which is a highly defensible and mostly magic proof keep. We struggled to capture it from a hooffull of demoralised and half starved earth ponies, so trying to take it from a experienced army of thousands of earth ponies and unicorns who have back-up from an insanely powerful alicorn like Faust? We might as well shoot spit wads at them, make rude gestures, and say unflattering things about their mothers for all the difference it would make."
"Then tell me how to beat her!"
"Beat her?" Twilight laughed despite herself, "If we knew how to do that we wouldn't have been so worried about her escaping in the first place!"
"So not even all you princesses could beat her?"
"I don't know. It's possible I suppose, but I wouldn't bet on it, and that's in a favourable situation. Attacking her where she's strongest at High Rock would be suicide."
"Not if all four of you went!"
Twilight could hear the need in Rainbow's voice for them to be able to beat Faust and get their friends back. "We aren't unbeatable Rainbow. Far from it. If we all died and got captured... Equestria definitely wouldn't survive. As it is we have some time to come up with a plan to beat Faust and stop Mareitania."
Rainbow deflated, but still nodded. "Okay, I get it." Twilight doubted Rainbow really did. She could almost see Rainbow thinking that this'd all be sorted out by the end of the week, and they'd have their friends back and make everything okay again. Twilight didn't have it in her to crush that delusion.
"Why are we all talking like our friends are gone?" Pinkie asked. "There's no way they could have left Equestria yet! Those nasty Shades were still here when you got here Twilight."
"They only need to capture one of us to stop us using the Elements," Twilight explained. "If they attacked each of you at different times and split up for their retreat, their chances of succeeding increases significantly. Honestly, they could have kidnapped just Fluttershy and I doubt any of us would have noticed until they were long gone because she lives so out of the way."
Rainbow sat back up again, like she'd thought of something. "Where do you think they'd go? I mean like, which way?"
"Logically they'd head back towards Vanhoover to use the land route to Mareitania, but that's so obvious even I wouldn't do it. They could head south and meet a boat, or hide out in the Everfree forest until the heat dies down, then escape. Or they might have some sort of stored teleport that they could use to travel straight back to High Rock. These are just the options off the top of my head Rainbow, and I'm sure I could think of more if I keep trying."
"Rrgh!" Rainbow slumped back again and smacked her head against the back of her throne, "I hate feeling like this! Our friends are in danger and we can't do diddly-squat!"
A knock at the door punctuated Rainbow's shout, and the thestral Shadow Seeker entered, her helmet held nervously to her chest. "Sorry to disturb you Twilight."
"You!" Rainbow jumped into the air, "Tell me you found them!"
Shadow shook her head, "Nothing. We found a lot of tracks around Fluttershy's cottage, but they head in two directions, and become impossible to track around the Everfree. There was hardly anything to go by from Sweet Apple Acres, and tracks lead everywhere in Ponyville, so tracking Rarity was never really an option to begin with. I'm sorry."
"What now then?" Twilight asked as Rainbow sunk deeper into despair. Her own voice was tight with the definite news that her friends were gone.
"Princess Luna's calling off the search and heading back to Canterlot, and she requests you three join her there to discuss what to do. We'll worry about the prisoners Twilight, so all you have to do is get there."
"Oka-" Twilight swallowed as her voice broke. "Okay. What about the families of those missing? Are they getting help?"
"I'll mention it to the Princess."
"Good. Thanks Shadow."
Shadow gave Twilight a small, tight smile. "I wish I'd done something to be worthy of thanking."
Pinkie started sobbing as Shadow left, and Rainbow surreptitiously wiped some tears of her own away. Twilight didn't have any more tears to shed right then. All she felt was numb. Even so, she still got up and embraced Pinkie as the earth pony cried for her lost friends. A moment later Rainbow joined them. |
The end of an era | 5. More importantly, how do we fix this? | "Twilight!" The sound of Trixie shouting her name being brought Twilight out of her thoughts long enough to see Trixie, Fleur, Octavia, and the filly running towards her as she, along with Pinkie and Rainbow, entered Canterlot Castle. "Are you alriiight... Ahem, I mean, what can we do to help?"
Twilight managed half a smile as Trixie almost asked the one question they had learnt during their time in Mareitania to never ask. Twilight wouldn't have minded though, even though she suspected they already knew the answer would be a resounding 'no.'
"I could use a hug," Twilight answered weakly, and almost started crying again as they all piled in. Instead she distracted herself by asking where Summer was.
"She's gone back to Ponyville," said Octavia. "She wanted to make sure that Nightglider was okay, as well as Vinyl. I thought I'd wait for you to come back here."
Twilight leaned into the hug towards Octavia to show her appreciation of that. "Thanks," she said, before breaking the hug off. "What's going on here?"
"Luna and Celestia are shouting at each other while they wait for you and Princess Cadence to arrive," Fleur replied. "Almost like they weren't expecting the ancient alicorn hidden beneath High Rock to ever become a problem."
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but-"
Fleur shushed Twilight with a hoof. "I'm not mad Twilight, I'm just... Alright, yes I'm mad, but it's nothing we can't look past since you had plenty of reasons to keep it a secret. Anyway, I was going to tell you that there's also a pony here to see Pinkie."
Pinkie pulled herself out of her misery long enough to look up. "There is?"
"Yeah," the filly confirmed, "and she is super boring. Like super, super boring," she added in a monotone.
"Filly," Octavia said warningly, as Pinkie whined in the back of her throat, "don't make fun of her sister Maud like that."
"Snnrrkt! Sister? Hah!" The filly's laugh died off as she saw they were all serious. "You're serious? Wow. How did-? Uh, sorry Pinkie."
"'s okay, I hear that a lot. Where is she?"
Fleur nodded at the filly, "Could you show her please?"
"What? Ugh, fine..."
"And stay with them until I come and get you."
"Yes mom."
"And don't call me that!" Fleur watched as the filly led Pinkie away, "Cheeky little shitbag. Anyway, I guess Celestia and Luna want to see you now," she said to Twilight.
"All of us," said Twilight. "Unless you don't want to that is. That includes you Rainbow."
"Don't worry, I'm in."
Twilight smiled at her friends' support and led the way to the throne room, stopping for a moment to listen to the raised voices within.
"Even if they hadn't kidnapped three of the bearers of harmony, there is still the fact that this is an attack on Equestrian soil by a hostile foreign nation! You cannot seriously expect us to simply take it and do nothing?"
"And what do you propose we do Luna? We find ourselves under threat from a heavily militarised nation, and you want to place your focus on three missing ponies?"
"Three missing po-? Those three are more than just missing ponies Celestia. They are an important part of our country, not to mention being a huge defensive asset against threats like, hmm, psychotic ancient beings of unfathomable power?"
"We have no idea if the Elements would even work on Faust. I too dearly wish to secure the return of those ponies that we both consider friends Luna, but we cannot place all our hope on a plan that might not even work."
"I'm not saying we rely entirely on them, but having them returned is important enough to consider."
"Quite the discussion they're having in there."
Twilight and her companions all jumped at the voice that came from behind them, and they all turned to find Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armour stood watching as they all eavesdropped on Celestia and Luna.
Twilight winced guiltily, "Sorry Cadence, but we didn't want to disturb them."
"We're sorry about your friends Twily," said Shining. "It seems impossible to think that they could get stolen right from their own homes like that." He nuzzled Twilight and hugged her, joined a second later by Cadence.
"We'll get them back Twilight."
"I know. I guess this means you both know what's going on."
Shining nodded, "We just had a briefing off Equis, although it was a little sparse. Frankly I'm getting a little sick of the secrets Celestia and Luna are keeping."
"I kept it too," Twilight muttered.
"What's Equis?" asked Octavia.
"Equestrian Intelligence Service," Twilight answered her.
"Really? And where the bloody hell were they when we were in Mareitania?"
"They didn't really exist then, as such. It used to be two separate branches of the Royal Guard and Night Guard, and used the guards themselves as agents. However, after the relative successes of the Shades in Mareitania, Luna convinced Celestia to merge the two branches into a new body consisting of specially chosen members of the Royal and Night guards, along with room for some other non-native Equestrians like zebras, griffons, Saddle Arabians, and whatever else might join eventually."
Fleur rolled her eyes, "To spy on our neighbours I assume?"
Twilight shrugged, "I don't know, and honestly, I don't really care."
Trixie's nose scrunched as she thought intensely, "Wouldn't the abbreviation of that be E.I.S?"
"It is," said Twilight, holding back a sigh. "The agents themselves started calling themselves Equis, and tend to use it in the third person a lot, so you should like them."
"Ooh, she's getting snippy."
Twilight tensed at Trixie's offhoof comment. "Snippy? Three of my friends, and the dragon that's like a little brother to me have kidnapped, and you're calling me snippy?! Are you actually fucking kidding me right now?! Do you really think I want to answer inane questions while they're subjected to goodness knows what? Really?"
Trixie squeaked in the back of her throat, then stopped and tried to speak again. "Sorry Twilight."
"At least Celestia and Luna know we're here now," Cadence observed as Twilight's shouting ended the argument between the two sisters. She was proven right as the doors to the throne room were opened by the guards a moment later.
Twilight stormed in, her frustrations building to a head. While she knew she was partly to blame, there were two more ponies in the throne room she blamed more, and one of those was more to blame than the other since she was meant to take care of the problem. Celestia gave them a tiny smile, turning Twilight's frustrations into lava that coursed through her chest.
"You lied to me!"
Celestia took a step back at Twilight's outburst. "Excuse me?"
"You sealed Faust away in her prison for good! They had to break through rock to get to her! Rock that only you could have put there! You never intended to release her, did you!"
Celestia closed her eyes and sighed, "I'm sorry Twilight, but I had little choice. Faust refused to listen to reason, and without somewhere here capable of holding her, I had no other options but to leave her where she was for the time being. I was going to ask for your help in devising a way to contain her once you'd recovered from your time in Mareitania, but it seems we weren't the only ones who knew about Faust if they managed to find her so soon."
Twilight glared at Celestia, wanting to punch her in her perfect fucking teeth, then shifted her ire to Luna, who had less punchable teeth, albeit they were still perfect. "Did you know about this?"
"I'm...afraid so Twilight. While I'm not proud of the choice, if Faust wouldn't give up her crusade against the world, then we would have to keep her where she was. As much so to keep her hidden from the Mareitanians than any other reason. Their belief in her would make it much easier for her to manipulate them."
"Nah, she's just straight up using magic to do that," said Trixie.
"She is?" Luna hummed to herself. "While I was hoping she'd play the long game and attempt to win the Mareitanians over to her cause, using magic could be a weakness on her part. It certainly suggests a lack of patience."
"That depends on the nature of the enchantment," said Cadence.
"If you have input Cadence, we would gladly hear it."
"Oh sure," Cadence said happily, before turning her voice and expression cold. "First though, I have a few things I want to say to you."
"Now is hardly the time to air your personal grievances Cadence. I realise that-" Luna stopped as her sister touched her shoulder.
"I think she's earned it this time Luna."
"Thank you auntie." Cadence theatrically cleared her throat, "Okay, so firstly, I am very disappointed in you two for deceiving Twilight after all she's done for you. She deserves better than that. And secondly, when are you going to stop keeping secrets from Shining and myself? First you send Twilight off to Mareitania, and only told us when you couldn't keep it a secret any longer, and now there's a threat to the world that I'm hearing about now from intelligence ponies that only found out themselves from you this very morning, while Twilight's friends were being kidnapped! As a princess of Equestria, and co-ruler of the Crystal Empire, I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be informed of issues that could potentially be a threat to both those things."
"Cadence, I-"
"Stop keeping secrets from me, stop lying to me, and stop treating me as though I'm an inconsequential lump of pink fluff!"
Celestia nodded, thoroughly cowed. "Understood Cadence, and I'm sorry to both you and Shining for treating you like that. I assure you, from now on you'll be a part of all of this."
"Good. Now about that enchantment, if it's magic based, it should be easy enough to break, but if it's emotion based, it's much harder. It's no great feat to make ponies love or hate something, but once that feeling is in a pony's head it's much harder to get out. The problem is that from the sounds of it, an emotion based enchantment would be far more subtle and likely to work for what Faust wants."
"It affects a pony through their inherent magic," said Twilight. "I could block it easy enough."
"Block it? But spells like that aren't permanently cast! You cast them, and then they work until they're cancelled, or removed!. That's it, otherwise you're constantly having to cast the spell. And these spells affect you through the heart and mind, not your magic!" Cadence rubbed the side of her head and groaned, "I guess that means we're dealing with a kind of magic that we've never seen before."
"Or is so old we've forgotten it," said Twilight.
"Either way, the source of that spell must be an object rather than a pony since I doubt Faust would wish to keep casting it constantly."
Twilight shrugged, "She couldn't anyway, not after I lopped her horn off."
"Quite," Cadence mumbled. "Still, unless we plan on counter-spelling everypony in Mareitania, I doubt there's much we can do beyond hope she doesn't spread its influence in other countries as well."
"So that closes that avenue," Luna muttered to herself. "Then our only hope might be to rescue the taken bearers of Harmony, and hope to defeat Faust directly."
Twilight's chest seized, caught between her desire to get her friends back, and to tell them that the Elements would have no effect on Faust. She knew it was fruitless to throw their efforts into something that wouldn't work, and may only damn them further in the long run by distracting them from other, more effective avenues.
"That won't work. The Elements I mean, they won't work against her."
"How can you be sure of that?" asked Celestia.
"Because Faust told me so herself. She created the Tree of Harmony from the last seed of the Tree of Life, which was the original Golden tree of Mareitania. The Elements wouldn't do anything to the pony that created them."
"Then why take our friends at all?" Rainbow asked loudly.
"So we can't use the Elements against her army or followers," Twilight replied weakly. She hated herself for talking them out of saving her friends, but it was for the greater go- Twilight sighed, unable to finish justifying this even to herself. Her friends were right about her. She had changed, and not for the better if she was able to throw them under the bus like this.
Rainbow looked at Twilight with obvious confusion, "What are you saying Twilight?"
"I'm saying-" Twilight swallowed to keep her voice from breaking. It didn't stop the wave of self loathing that hit her though.
"She's saying that putting all our effort into rescuing your friends might only end up hurting all of us in the long run," Shining finished for Twilight. "We should put our efforts into other avenues that have a better chance of working."
"What? No!" Rainbow squeaked, her voice cracking. She grabbed Twilight and forced the alicorn to look at her, "You don't mean that! Tell me you don't mean that!"
"I'm sorry, b-but I do. Getting them back is almost impossible, and the cost would be far too high just to end up with a weapon that doesn't work. I wish it wasn't so Dash, but it is."
"They're not weapons Twilight! They're your friends!"
"Rainbow!" Twilight pried Rainbow's hooves off her, "If we broke them out, Faust would only come after all of you again, and next time she mightn't try to take any of you alive!" Twilight gave Rainbow a moment to let that sink in. "While our friends are in her possession, she has no reason to kill them, or come after the rest of us! And if we rescue them, and end up with no way to stop Faust..." Twilight didn't finish, letting Rainbow's imagination do the work of filling in the gaps. It clearly worked too as Rainbow released her and sank to the ground.
"But there has to be a way to get them back! Maybe... Maybe Discord could do it?"
"Rainbow, I really-"
"Discord!" Rainbow raised her head and shouted towards the ceiling, "Discord! I know you can hear me!"
"Rainbow!"
"You rang?" The doors to the throne room slammed open, knocking the guards over, and a wave of rubber ducks flowed in through the open doors with Discord surfing at its head on a wheel of cheese. It was entirely unnecessary, but that was Discord for you.
Rainbow was stunned for a moment, "I can't believe that actually worked."
The wave petered out and stopped just short of the gathering of ponies, Discord jumping off to give everypony a cheery smile. "My-my, the faces in this place are longer than usual. It's a good thing you called me." He pulled out a stethoscope and pressed it to Luna's chest, "Hmm, still have a heart of stone I see."
"Discord!" Rainbow zipped up and into Discord's face. "Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike have been kidnapped!"
"Really? How odd. I usually notice things like that." Discord stuck a finger in his ear and jiggled it about, "My sensors must need calibrating. Wait, did you say Fluttershy?"
"I'm being serious Discord! We need you to get them back!"
"And what do I get in return?"
"Get in return? Are you serious? They stole our friends! They stole Fluttershy!"
Discord nodded thoughtfully, "You make an excellent point. Very well, let us sally forth and rescue these fair maidens!" Discord jumped onto Shining Armour's back and pulled a lance from his nostril, Shining remaining remarkably nonplussed through it. "Hi-ho Shining away!"
"Get off me."
"Gosh you're all boring." Discord slid off Shining and into a puddle on the floor. "Very well, let's be reasonably sensible about this. Where are they, and who took them?"
"They're in High Rock Keep in Mareitania," said Celestia, a slight glimmer of hope in her eyes. "They're being held under the orders of an alicorn called Faust."
"Did you say alicorn?" Discord snapped back into shape. "Unless I'm mistaken, save one bubbly, bitesize bundle of destructive potential, all the alicorns in the world are currently residing within this room."
"Apparently there's one more," said Luna, "and she's old. Possibly even older than you, and claims to be the first alicorn."
Unexpectedly, Discord's eyes widened and his ears folded back, confusing the others in the room since Discord had always been nothing if not cocksure in most things he did. "Describe her."
Luna pulled a face as she thought. "Tall, white, with a...reddish, I think, mane and tail. Has an inkpot and quill for a cutie mark."
Discord stepped back, shaking his head and mumbling to himself. "No, it couldn't be her It couldn't be."
Twilight looked up at Discord, "Are you alright Discord?"
Discord's focus snapped onto Twilight, and he seemed to regain his awareness. "I... I need to go," he said curtly, and promptly vanished with none of the showmanship he usually displayed.
"Discord!" Rainbow shouted as Celestia and Luna exchanged nervous glances. Anything that rattled Discord was definitely worth getting rattled about themselves. "You get back here! Discord!"
Twilight sighed at the empty space Discord had occupied, "He's gone Rainbow, and I doubt he's coming back any time soon.I've never seen him look so worried."
"But he has to save our friends! He- He has to!" Rainbow slammed her hooves on the ground and screamed up at the ceiling again, "Traitor!"
"He hasn't betrayed anyone," Celestia said gently. "Frankly, if Faust worries Discord so, then that only proves how much of a threat she is. We need to find a way to stop her."
"And you guys can't just beat her?" Rainbow asked, her voice crackly after shouting like she had.
"Highly unlikely," said Luna. "In a fight between us and her, I fear she could easily pick us off one by one."
"Then why not put all your magic into Twilight again? It kinda worked against Tirek, and Tirek beat Discord easily, offense fully intended."
"Tirek caught Discord by surprise," said Celestia. "I doubt it would have been so easy if Discord had been prepared for it. I'm afraid to say that if we put all our magic into Twilight, and Twilight lost, we would all lose. Equestria would be utterly defenceless against Faust without us. I'm afraid this is a foe we know very little about, and I feel we must first learn about her to adequately counter her."
"Discord sure seemed to know something about her," Rainbow said bitterly.
Luna raised a hoof, then lowered it again as words temporarily failed her. "We cannot count on Discord after this. I'm afraid Celestia is right, as I am also afraid she doesn't realise the full implications of what she says. Finding even a smidgen of information on Faust could take months, or even years if it's even possible in the first place. Faust is currently weak and wounded, buying us some time, but once she is able, her war will come, and we must be prepared to hold out as long as possible until we have a way to defeat her."
Cadence was horrified, "You can't be serious Luna! You can't expect us to go to war over this!"
"Cadence is right," said Celestia, giving her sister a hard stare. "There's been no war in Equestria for over a thousand years now, and I won't condone preparing for one that might never come."
"And what if it does? Do we roll over and show our bellies, hoping she shows mercy?"
Shining cleared his throat, edging his opinion into a conversation that he felt was mostly for the princesses. "Can't we ask our allies for aid?"
"It's unlikely they'd help at this junction," Celestia said tiredly. "Our actions in Mareitania drove many nations to treat us with suspicion, and are afraid that we might do something similar to them."
"There is also the issue where we firmly established to the world that Mareitania is our ally," Luna added. "What Mareitania does would be viewed as something we fully support. Therefore, many would see their military build-up as a threat from both them and us. I'm afraid that our actions have only played to Faust's favour by leaving us isolated. Our only option is to defend ourselves until we can stop Faust."
"The other nations suspicions would only become worse if we built up an army of our own," Cadence pointed out. "They may not help at all even after Mareitania attacks if they still see us as a threat."
"Yes," Luna agreed, "but once Mareitania attacks us the truth would be revealed regardless. Without an army of our own we would be extremely vulnerable. I fear we're damned if we do, and damned if we don't."
"Our other option would be to let Faust win without fighting," said Twilight.
"That could be the favourable option here," Cadence said before Twilight had a chance to say otherwise. "It would certainly reduce the loss of life. How would we even build an army anyway?"
"Out of volunteers," Luna answered. "We have a lot of the industry necessary to supply an army already in place, with some adjustments anyway, so the biggest task would be recruiting and training."
"And if we don't have enough volunteers?"
Luna didn't answer immediately. She didn't want to. "Conscription," she replied after several moments.
Cadence pushed away from the table in disgust, "I can't believe I'm hearing this. Why waste all these lives in a war that we might not even win? We should be putting all our focus into stopping Faust before a war can even begin."
"But that could take a very long time," Twilight said to Cadence. "There may not even be an Equestria left by the time we find a solution. If we can find one."
"So now we're fighting a war we might not win at all! This is just getting better and better!" Cadence stared at a point somewhere in the air above them, before looking at Celestia. "You're being awfully quiet."
"The stakes are higher than you realise. Faust has a plan for the world, although we don't know what that plan is. Equestria is likely first on her list of conquests simply because she despises us, but once we are defeated, the world will follow. As much as I wish it wasn't so, I'm afraid Equestria will have to stand as a bulwark between Faust and her goal, even if we have to stand alone."
"So you support building an army," Cadence said flatly.
Celestia seemed to shrink upon hearing the question, "I don't support it, and the thought of war in Equestria sickens me, but I'm afraid we might not have a choice. Faust must be stopped, and it's our responsibility to do so. We must fight."
"And what do you think Twilight?"
Twilight started as Cadence spoke to her, and realised she was trembling. The thought of going through another war was terrifying, but the thought of what Faust might do if she won more so. She knew they had to fight, if only for their own survival, and that of the world. "I agree with Luna and Celestia. We have no choice but to fight, Cadence, as much as I don't want to. Equestria might be the only thing between Faust and a dark future for the world."
"Shining?" Cadence turned to her husband, hoping to find one last little island of sanity in the ocean of madness she currently found herself treading, but only found resignation on the face of her beloved.
"I don't think we have much of a choice here," he said weakly. "Fight at the cost of thousands of lives, or surrender at the cost of so much more. It's your decision whether the Empire gets involved honey, but I say we fight."
Cadence looked around the room, but found the same resignation on the faces of most of the ponies there, except for Rainbow who seemed angry yet determined, and Luna, who met Cadence's gaze with one of pleading, which Cadence hadn't expected. Spending lives to save lives was an idea that seemed patently absurd to her, yet there was only two options, and the other was apparently not much better. Then there was Flurry Heart to consider, and what kind of world she would grow up in. One with war, or one with whatever plans Faust has for it? Which was worse?
Ultimately Cadence knew they had little choice. If they fought and won, at least the world would have a chance to return to the peaceful and prosperous one it was before. "We fight," she said at last, in a voice weak with disgust for what she was saying. "The Crystal Empire stands with you."
"Thank you Cadence," Celestia breathed. Frankly she was disappointed in herself that it took so little to sway her own opinion, and she was glad Cadence had held out for longer.
"So, what now then?" Twilight asked. "Where do we even begin planning something like this?"
"I'm afraid you don't," said Celestia. "We have something else in mind for you if you're willing. Something that will keep you out of the war."
"What? But you- you can't keep me out of this!"
Luna smiled at the smaller alicorn, "Twilight, what you're about to do instead may be the difference between us winning and us losing."
"What? I don't... I don't understand."
"Twilight, we are putting you in charge of finding a way to defeat Faust."
"Me? But I don't even know the first thing about her! How am I- How are any of us supposed to find a way to defeat her when so little is known about her?"
Celestia shifted uncomfortably, drawing attention to herself. "There was one pony that we suspect knows plenty about Faust," she said. "Starswirl the Bearded. My father."
"No he doesn't!" Twilight blurted out. "I have read most of his literature, and his journal that you gave me. Nowhere, not even once does it mention Faust."
Luna took over from Celestia. "Not in his public writings, no. He purposely bequeathed his journal to us before we saw him last, so he might have made a point of not mentioning her in it."
Twilight's gaze alternated between Celestia and Luna, "Where are you going with this?"
"Starswirl had a secret retreat," Celestia revealed. "Somewhere where he could perform his research in peace, and do whatever he did. Even we don't know what he did there. More to the point though, if there was anywhere in the world where information on Faust could be found, it would be there. For all we know he could still be living there."
Twilight brightened up, a tiny smile forming at the thought of finding the treasure trove of information Starswirl must have hidden away. More exciting was the prospect of finding Starswirl himself. "Where is it?"
Celestia and Luna shared an awkward glance. "That's the problem," said Luna, "we don't have the slightest idea where it is."
"I tried to find it several times over the centuries," said Celestia. "Unfortunately my duties here prevented me from staging a proper expedition, and I was reluctant to give the task to somepony who wouldn't appreciate what it was they were looking for, which is why I never mentioned it to anypony."
"So how am I supposed to find it then?"
"That is up to you," Luna told Twilight. "You will be granted full access to everything Starswirl ever wrote in the hopes you could glean the location of his hideaway. Use whatever methods you wish to find it Twilight, or all may be lost."
"Yeesh," Trixie snickered, "no pressure."
Twilight ignored Trixie, and not because the unicorn was one hundred percent correct. "Alright, I'll do it. You with me Dash?"
"If it gets us closer to getting our friends back, heck yeah!"
"I'm afraid Rainbow can't go with you," said Luna.
"What?!" Rainbow flared her wings threateningly, "Why not?"
"Because you're a Wonderbolt," Luna said simply, "and we are effectively at war. I'm afraid your commitment to the Wonderbolts and the safety of Equestria overrides anything else right now. I'm sorry."
Rainbow wilted under the weight of Luna's words, and her wings sagged to the ground. "B-b-but Twilight needs me! My friends need me!"
"Equestria needs you."
"My friends need me more!"
Luna growled under her breath, really not in the mood for such petulant whining when there were far bigger things to concern herself with. She was immensely grateful when Twilight spoke up instead.
"It's okay Rainbow. What Luna's asking is far more important. All you'll be doing with me is reading through dusty old scrolls, which I know you'll hate. If you stick with the Wonderbolts you'll be in the thick of things, making sure there's still an Equestria to save, and be first in line to save our friends when the time comes."
"But what about you? And Pinkie? I don't want to leave you guys!"
"I'll be fine Rainbow, and Pinkie will either come with me, go back to Ponyville, or maybe go home with her sister. Whichever she does, she'll be fine too. You're the one that's most in danger here."
"Then why are you okay with me going to fight?"
Twilight didn't answer for a moment, wanting to formulate a reply that didn't make her sound like she wanted to get rid of Rainbow, which she really didn't, but didn't also make her sound like she was emotionally dead inside and okay with her friend risking herself like Rainbow inevitably would. She was actually halfway to begging Luna to let Rainbow come with her just to avoid the issue.
"I'm not," Twilight replied eventually, "but we both know it's the right thing to do. We're all going to have to make sacrifices before this is over, and this is just one of them. Keep Equestria safe for me, yeah?"
Rainbow rubbed her eyes and nodded, "Fine, but you better take care of yourself without me."
"So had you." Twilight hugged Rainbow, and they both held each other tightly for several seconds until they broke it off. Rainbow then faced Celestia and Luna and saluted.
"What are your orders?"
"Nothing for now Rainbow Dash," Celestia said kindly, knowing how hard this must be for the Element of Loyalty. "You can stay until the meeting is over to say your goodbyes."
"Okay. Thank you."
Twilight sighed with a mix of sadness and relief. She knew Rainbow only wanted to protect what friends she had left, but her uses would be limited in the expedition to find Starswirl's retreat. That didn't make it easier though. Leaving her friends behind was one thing, but telling them to stay behind was another. Still, they all had a job to do, and they would do it.
"Beg pardon," said Shining Armour, "but who's to be in charge of Equestria's defence? Apart from what exists in the Royal and Night guard, and the Wonderbolts, we have no real command structure."
"We are yet to determine any of that as yet Shining," said Celestia. "Ultimately though, leading the defence of Equestria falls upon us, the princesses. We can either choose to share command, or nominate one or two of us to lead our forces in battle. As I feel my skills are better utilised elsewhere, I'm nominating Luna as leader."
"In that case I also nominate Luna," said Twilight. "How about you Cadence?"
"I'm hardly the right pony to lead an army Twilight, so I agree with Luna being in sole command."
Luna dipped her head in a small bow, "Thank you for your confidence. If it's acceptable with you Cadence, I'd like to borrow Shining for a little bit as his knowledge from his time as Captain of the Guard would be most useful."
Cadence looked at her husband, who shrugged back, "I'm yours as long as you need me."
"Thank you. Celestia, I think it's time to make the declaration."
Celestia nodded sadly, "Very well. I'll make the public announcement tomorrow morning; Equestria is now under threat of war."
-0-0-0-
"This is insane," Rainbow muttered, leaning back into the padding of the sofa she shared with Pinkie and Maud. "Equestria is really at war."
Twilight nodded, having never thought she'd see it happen either. She wanted to think that they should never have gone to Mareitania, but then she just felt guilty at the thought of leaving all those ponies to suffer under the Duke. What she certainly didn't think it was, was fair. Two countries getting dragged into conflict because of Faust. It made the idea of beating her all the more delicious.
"Why did Celestia say we were at war?" Fleur asked. "Mareitania hasn't actually attacked us, or declared war on us, or anything?"
Twilight rolled her eyes and prepared herself to explain. "After Equestria demilitarized itself centuries ago, laws were written for what situations an army could be raised in. First is if we are attacked. Second is if we are threatened with war, and third is in defence of an allied nation. The third option is off the table, so to legally create an army, we have to be under one of the first two conditions, and it'll be too late to do so once we are actually under attack."
"Oh..."
Twilight wanted to explain further, but felt it would only confuse the issue. The only reason she knew that much was because she'd had to learn these things as a princess. Otherwise Celestia kept a firm lid on all things military, apart from the E.U.P, which wasn't really an army. It just looked like one.
She was stirred from her thoughts by a knock at the door, followed by Celestia entering through it. She wore her usual impassive smile, but it wasn't hard to see how troubled her eyes were.
"Sorry to disturb you all, but I have a task for Rainbow." Celestia held a letter up in front of Rainbow that the pegasus took in her hooves. "Take that to Captain Spitfire please. It's a summons to a briefing Luna will be holding with Shining Armour tomorrow."
"Okay, gotch- I mean, yes ma'am." Rainbow saluted for emphasis. "I guess that means it's time for me to leave then." She stood and embraced Pinkie, causing the pink mare to start crying again, then hugged Twilight. "You two better take care of yourselves."
"And you," Twilight said back. "What you're doing makes my job sound easy."
"Yeah..." Rainbow started to leave, but kept looking back, unwilling to make the final steps towards leaving them for good. She stopped, her hoof on the threshold, "Bye guys," she whispered.
"Bye Rainbow."
"B-b-bye..." Pinkie fell against Maud and sobbed as Rainbow went out of sight.
Twilight's eyes lingered on the doorway for a moment, before she turned to Celestia. "What about me?"
"Canterlot's about to become a very busy place, so I've ordered the transfer of all Starswirl's writings to your castle in Ponyville. Apart from that, I'm leaving it all to you to decide how you go about this, what ponies you use, and where you go."
"Okay." Twilight wanted to say more, but seeing Celestia still raised her hackles enough to make her need to bite her tongue around her fellow princess.
"I wish I could talk more, but I think you understand that there is much for all of us to do, and that we need to do it. Take care of yourself Twilight."
"You too," Twilight said back, at least capable of being genuine in her sentiment that time.
Twilight waited until Celestia was gone, then sat back and sighed before turning to Pinkie. "Are you sure going back to your family farm is what you want to do?"
"I-I-I'm sure. I'm not a smart pony like you, so I won't be much help with what you're doing, and the thought of being in Ponyville without any of my friends..." Pinkie shook her head, "I'll be safe at home, and maybe I can find some other way to help while I'm there." Pinkie smiled as bravely as she could.
"As long as you're sure." Twilight pulled Pinkie into a hug, then looked at Maud as she impassively watched, "Please take care of her."
"I promise."
Twilight held the hug a little longer, then let go, allowing Maud to pull Pinkie to her hooves. "Let's go home Pinkie."
"'kay. Bye Twilight."
"Goodbye Pinkie."
Twilight waved until Pinkie was out of sight, then let her hoof fall to her side as she found herself wishing both Rainbow and Pinkie could come with her. But she knew that Rainbow couldn't, and she understood Pinkie's reasons, even if she disagreed that Pinkie wasn't smart. Pinkie was a lot smarter than she ever gave herself credit for.
She was disturbed as a white body, a grey body, a blue body, and a small yellow body surrounded her on all sides and held her, reminding Twilight that while her Ponyville friends were gone, she was far from alone.
"Thanks guys." She sniffed and wiped her eyes, trying to get herself to at least look normal, and capable. She did still have a job to do after all. "So, the quest is before us. Who's with me?" Fleur and Octavia immediately looked guilty.
"I want to Twilight," said Fleur, "but this sounds like it's going to involve a lot of travelling, and there's no way I can do that with my leg; I'd only slow you down. That and Swift can't interrupt her treatment or her wings might grow back wrong."
"Hey!" the filly squeaked, "Don't drag me into this! I want to go with Twilight!"
"Filly, you can't."
"But Twilight could do my treatment easy!"
"Do you really think Twilight has the time to do that? And drag my slow ass around? I'm sorry filly, but we can't go."
"How about Twilight decides then?" The filly looked up at Twilight, her eyes large and dewy. She stuck her bottom lip out as well. Twilight swallowed nervously as the lip trembled.
"I'm sorry filly, but Fleur's right. Your treatment has to come first." Twilight started to sweat as the trembling intensified. Fleur must have been giving her lessons.
"Pleeease?"
"Oh alr- No! No, I'm afraid you cannot come." Twilight almost collapsed as the filly released her from her grip.
"You guys fucking suck."
"Noted." Twilight wiped away the layer of sweat that had built up on her brow. "How about you Octavia?"
Octavia shook her head, unable and unwilling to look at her friends. "I... I can't..."
"Why the hell not?" the filly asked.
"Because- Because I just can't, okay! I'm sorry, but I just can't put myself through that again."
"We're getting away from the war this time," Trixie pointed out. "In fact, I might say what we're doing is pretty damn safe in comparison. Safer even than staying here."
Octavia didn't agree. "You have no idea what you're getting yourselves into," she said, her hooves starting to tremble. "I can't bear the thought of getting any more blood on my hooves, so please, don't make me go."
"It's okay Octavia," Twilight said soothingly. "Nopony is making you go."
"Okay, I just- I-" Octavia ran a hoof back through her mane, "I'm sorry, but I just don't have it in myself for another big adventure. I'm also not saying this entirely for myself. If I go, Summer will go, leaving behind the life she just started to build for herself. Please don't ask her to go too."
"I won't," Twilight promised. She couldn't fault Octavia for not wanting to go on another adventure after Mareitania, and she didn't want to tear Summer's life apart either. That didn't mean that theirs and Fleur's refusals didn't sting, but she could mostly understand.
"You guys suck," Trixie said, accurately echoing the rest of Twilight's thoughts that didn't understand. "The fate of the world is hanging in the balance here, and you're being all 'boo-hoo-hoo, I can't do it.' What the actual fuck guys?"
Fleur rolled her eyes and smirked, "I take you're going then?"
"Oh hell yes I am! I've got nothing better to do, have no responsibilities, and-"
"Am completely emotionally dependant on Twilight?" Octavia suggested.
"What? N-no I'm not! Why would you even say that? Idiot..." Trixie blushed, but persevered, "Besides, I think the whole 'fate of the world' thing is the major overriding factor here."
"I wasn't lying," said Fleur. "I'd jump right into this with you if I could, but I'd only slow things down, and the filly can't interrupt her treatment. I also think Octavia having a mental breakdown might slow things down as well."
Octavia rubbed the tips of her forehooves together in a circular fashion, "You didn't have to say it quite like that you know. Fleur isn't wrong though Trixie; we really aren't the best ponies for this."
"Fine, whatever. I'm going anyway."
Twilight smiled at Trixie, happy that at least one of them was coming. "Trixie, they have good reasons, so stop it." Twilight pulled them all back into a hug, "I'm going to miss you guys-"
"While we're off saving the world," Trixie added. "But, I guess I'm going to miss you too."
"Good luck you two," said Octavia.
"And take care of yourselves," Fleur said as well.
"And bring back souvenirs," said the filly.
"Okay," Twilight said back to all of them. She sank deeper into the hug, and was suddenly struck by the feeling, surrounded as she was by her friends, that after all that had happened there was something she was forgetting. |
The end of an era | 6. Old friends | Twilight blinked in the harsh daylight as she and Trixie walked out of Canterlot castle. With the amount that had gone on that day it was bizarre to think it was barely midafternoon.
"Boy have these ponies got a surprise coming," Trixie commented idly. It took Twilight a moment to work out she was talking about the ponies walking by, each of them painfully unaware of the coming storm.
"They'll find out soon enough," Twilight said back, mostly for the sake of having something to say.
"So, where do we begin with all this? I don't think the two of us are quite going to cut it."
"Oh? Is the Great and Powerful Trixie admitting to not being up to the task?"
Trixie shrugged, "Twilight, I barely know the first thing about Starswirl the Bearded."
"You know how to read though, don't you?"
"Yes Trixie knows how to read!" Trixie snapped back. "I'm just thinking that it mightn't hurt to consult an expert or two about the mysterious pony we have to find."
Twilight smiled sideways at Trixie, "Starswirl's been my idol for most of my life Trixie. Trust me when I say that there's not many ponies that know more about him than me. The only pony that might know more is Moondancer..." Twilight jolted as a memory struck her, "Moondancer! She was an even bigger fan than I was! I bet she'd... Oooh..."
"What?"
"It occurs to me that I haven't spoken to her in over two years... I get the feeling she might not be very receptive to me asking for her help."
"Over two years? You mean when you moved to Ponyville?" Twilight nodded weakly. "You mean you moved to Ponyville and cut ponies you knew from Canterlot out of your life?" Trixie playfully batted Twilight on the side, "Some princess of friendship you are."
"I know, I know, and I didn't intentionally cut them out. I just barely paid attention to them while I was here, then never looked back after meeting..." Twilight swallowed back the lump that formed in her throat as she thought of her Ponyville friends. "The point is... The point is that I was a terrible friend to those ponies, and it might be too late to fix that. I don't even know where Moondancer lives."
"Do you know anypony who does?"
Twilight thought about it for a moment, and remembered something about a different obnoxiously loud blue pony she used to know. "I might."
"But?"
Twilight anxiously chewed her bottom lip, "But they are also one of these friends I horribly neglected. I don't think going 'hey you, do you know where Moondancer lives?' is going to go down well. In fact, it might be better to give up on this idea altogether."
Trixie rolled her eyes are Twilight's weak attempt to get out of reconciling with her past. "Twilight, we need ponies that know about Starswirl, so swallow your pride, raise your tail, and take it like a mare."
"Easy for you to say."
"I've been taking it like a mare for the last six months Twilight! I'm sure you can manage doing it for a little bit."
"Fine... Let's go find Muh... Mih... Minuette! Yes, Minuette. She'll probably know where Moondancer lives."
-0-0-0-
Barely a thing had changed about Minuette's house in the last two years, save that it was now being graced by the presence of a purple pony that was on the verge of an anxiety attack. The little window boxes were the same, the hourglass shaped door was still the same colour, and the cheery humming coming from within was hauntingly familiar. Once again Twilight was left feeling that only she had changed while the world remained oddly static around her.
"You know, this'll go faster if you stop staring and go knock," said Trixie.
Twilight whined in the back of her throat, and begged her heart to slow down a little as she edged towards the door. She raised a hoof to knock, then froze as the humming within changed tempo, becoming even more upbeat. Twilight suddenly felt guilty for dragging her problems here and started to back away when Trixie ran up, knocked on the door, then jumped away again as she grinned at Twilight.
"Coooming!"
"Trixie!"
Trixie smirked up at Twilight, "No backing out for you, Sparkle."
"But I wasn't ready!" The door opened and Twilight snapped her head back around and put on her best rictus grin, "Hi Minuette!"
"Twilight! Oh my gosh! Of all the ponies I was expecting to see, you certainly weren't one of them! And look at you, being a big alicorn princess and everything now! You know, my co-workers thought I was lying when I told them we were friends back in the day!"
Twilight awkwardly rubbed the back of her head, "Uh, yeah... Well that's me now, a big alicorn princess, and everything, heh-heh." Twilight swallowed her embarrassment and tried to focus on the point of why she was there. "Look, I'm sorry to disturb you but-"
Minuette's eyes lit up as he thought of something. "Wait-wait-wait! I know what'll prove we used to be besties back in the day! Wait right there!"
Twilight sighed as Minuette ran back into the house. This was really not what she wanted, or needed right now. "Maybe I should have gone to look for Lemon Hearts." She re-donned her grin as Minuette ran back out with a camera floating in her magic.
"Okay! This will prove once and for all that you and I used to be totally best friends! Uh..." Minuette spotted Trixie and waved her closer, "Hey, do you mind taking a... Wait..." Minuette squinted as she scrutinised Trixie. "Do I know you?"
Trixie's eyes darted about, and she grinned uneasily as remnants of a life she no long lived came back to haunt her as well as Twilight. "...no?"
"You sure? You look just like some magician I saw once who was a little bit full of herself. The something and something...Triskie I think?"
"It's Trixie!" Trixie blushed at herself. "I mean, that's what she'd say her name was, if she was here to correct you. Yep. Totally. Different. Pony. Who is not me."
Minuette squinted at Trixie a little longer, then shrugged. "I guess I'm wrong then. Still, it's uncanny how much you look like her. Where was I... Oh yeah! You mind taking a picture of me and the princess?"
"Of course! No problem! No problem at all." Trixie took the camera in her hooves, and took a moment to let Twilight's put-upon smile to grow a little shakier before pressing the button. She was interrupted though as Minuette suddenly had an idea.
"Wait! Twilight! How about you spread those wings of yours? You know, really fluff 'em up!"
Twilight spread her wings, trying to keep her smile in place as Minuette spread her legs out parallel with Twilight's wings. This was so far off the beaten track of how she had wanted this to go that she was expecting to find a lost tribe of pygmies at any moment.
"Oh that one is definitely a keeper," Trixie said happily, pushing the button that would immortalise this moment for the rest of time.
Minuette took the camera back into her magic and bounced with joy, "Eeee! Thanks Twilight! Thanks...you!" she said to Trixie. "This'll really show those doubters who's right!"
"You're very welcome," Trixie said back, ignoring the death glare Twilight was giving her.
"So, what can I do for you anyway?" Minuette asked. "It's not like you to just come here for no reason. And where's Spike now I think about it? Isn't he normally with you?"
"Spike's... Spike's gone away for a while," Twilight answered hesitantly. It wasn't a lie as such, but it hardly felt like the truth either. Truthfully Twilight found it easier to think like that as well.
"Aw, that's too bad. I would've loved to have seen the little guy again."
"Me too..." Twilight caught herself and shook away the misery that was creeping up on her. "Yeah, uh, I was wondering actually if you knew where Moondancer was living these days? I really need to talk to her about...a special research project Princess Celestia has me working on. I thought Moondancer would be the perfect pony to work on it with."
"Moondancer? Hmm..." Minuette cocked her head and look up at the sky as she thought. "To be honest it's been over a year since I've even talked to her. I see her going to the library sometimes and wave, but she never waves back." Minuette shrugged, "Maybe she just needs new glasses or something. I don't know."
"Yeah, maybe." Twilight doubted it though. She and Moondancer had been very alike before she left for Ponyville, and usually spent their time nose deep in a book. It wasn't hard to think that maybe Moondancer had forgotten to look up every now and again.
"I'm not totally sure where she lives though, but I know where her sister works, and I bet she knows! Come on! Let's fly! Y'know, fly, because you have wings? Tee-hee!" Minuette bounced off into the distance, leaving Twilight to direct a groan at the pavement.
"Twilight?"
"You're enjoying this, aren't you."
Trixie nodded and smiled, "You bet I am, and you can't stop me. Now come on, let's 'fly!' Y'know, because you-"
"I get it! Shut up!"
-0-0-0-
Twilight and Trixie had silently elected to hang back as they let Minuette do the talking. The scowl that Moondancer's sister had given Twilight as they walked into the coffee shop she worked at was more than enough to inform them that Twilight was not high on her list of favourite ponies, and frankly she possessed the kind of eyebrows you didn't argue with. When they scowled, you prayed for your life.
Minuette trotted out of the coffee shop and held up a napkin with an address scribbled on it. "Okay, so she was a bit reluctant to give me Moondancer's address for some reason, but when I told her that you wanted Moondancer's help for a research project, she seemed a bit more willing. Weird right? Anyway, Moondancer lives out by the stadium, which isn't too far from here."
"Thanks Minuette; you're a lifesaver."
"Uh-oh."
"What?"
"That sounded almost exactly like 'thanks for the help, now I'll take it from here.' Come on Twilight! You're not just going to love me and leave me are you? We could get the gang back together, go find Moondancer, and have a proper catch up. It'll be great!"
Twilight tried to hide her grimace, and was fairly sure she failed. "As much as I want to catch up with you, Lemon Hearts, and Moondancer, I-"
"And Twinkleshine."
"Yes! Her! And her, yes. The fact is though-"
"And Lyra Heartstrings, but she lives in Ponyville now, so you probably see her all the time anyway."
"Uh, yeah... All the time." I really am an awful pony. "The thing is, this research project is big, and very, very important-"
Minuette gave Twilight an appraising look. "How important? Like 'suddenly run off to Ponyville without telling anypony to defeat Nightmare Moon' important? Or merely, 'I'm Twilight, and I love research to the exclusion of everything else' important?"
Trixie grinned at Twilight, "They have a scale. Did you know they have a scale?"
"No, I did not," Twilight hissed back. "And truthfully Minuette, it's the former-"
"So long as it's not as bad as Discord or Tirek then."
"Why?" Trixie asked. "What did they do to you?"
"Well, Tirek stole my magic, which was really kinda sucky, and Discord made it so I could only see behind me."
"Really? How'd you cope with that?"
"By walking backwards of course. How else?"
"Of course," Trixie deadpanned.
Twilight took a deep breath, "Okay Minuette, I get it; I was a terrible friend to all of you, and I didn't even say so much as goodbye before leaving, and I'm sorry for everything, I really am, and I promise I'll try and make it up to all of you once the project is over. Truthfully though, what I'm doing is really important for the future of Equestria, and I really can't drop it for a reunion, no matter how much I want to."
Minuette smiled sadly, "I get it. Once a hero, always a hero. I'm going to hold you to that promise though, and I won't hesitate to drag the girls to Ponyville to see you if you won't come here."
Twilight smiled and choked out a laugh, "Okay, but the project might take a while. I'm sure you'll understand once you hear the news tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? Why tomorrow?"
"Because tomorrow, everypony will find out. I wish I could tell you, but until tomorrow it's-"
"Top secret princessy stuff," Trixie finished for Twilight.
Minuette rubbed her chin and hummed, "Top secret princessy stuff does sound important... Very well Twilight, I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow then. You take care of yourself, and give Moondancer my love. Bye-eee!"
Both of them stayed quiet as they watched Minuette leave with a hop in her step. Twilight hated herself for various reasons that stifled her desire to want to say anything, and Trixie was just straight up confused.
"I know she seems like a happy pony, but I'm pretty sure there was some serious barbs hidden in what she was saying."
"That's Minuette," Twilight sighed. "She could make the death of a loved one sound like fun."
"Speaking from personal experience, I really doubt that." Trixie kept watching after Minuette until the mare turned a corner and went out of sight. "Anyway, let's hope Moondancer isn't as emotionally crippled as Minuette was after you abandoned her."
"You do realise I could send you back to the hospital right?"
"I'll be good."
-0-0-0-
The sight of Moondancer's house filled neither of them with optimism. The boundary wall was crumbling, the garden was overgrown, and the roof sagged. It seemed too much to hope that the pony this building housed put more effort into her own upkeep than she did her abode's.
Trixie summed it up thusly, "What a shit hole. What are the odds she's actually dead in there and nopony's noticed yet?"
"Don't say that."
"You know I'm right though. That is exactly the kind of house where ponies see it everyday, yet ignore it until some curious kid goes in one day only to find the skeleton of its owner surrounded by the skeletons of two dozen cats. The same cats that ate their loving owners face after they weren't fed for-"
"Will you shut up Trixie!" Twilight shouted, stomping a hoof in annoyance. "You are really picking the wrong day to push my buttons, so unless you want to go back to the hospital with several broken bones and a concussion on top of a case of crazy, I suggest you shut your Luna damned mouth!"
Trixie raised a hoof, then slowly lowered it again. "You make a valid point. I'm sorry."
Twilight sighed out through her nose, "Thank you."
"Still, if she is dead in there I totally called it."
"Ugh." Twilight made her way up the surprisingly intact path, mostly because stones possess a certain durability, and stopped in front of the front door. Lacking a lot of other options now she was there, Twilight knocked, breaking a chunk out of the aging door that had all the apparent durability of tissue paper.
"Yep, that's totally going to endear you to her."
"Oh for the love of... Seriously Trixie, get off my case. You've been doing your best to annoy me ever since we left the castle, and I really wish you'd stop."
"What? I've been in hospital for six months, and I have a lot of time spent not annoying you to make up for, so I'm trying to compress it all in now so I don't distract you during something important later."
Twilight stared deadpan at Trixie, "Really?"
"It also helps to distract you from your woes."
Twilight had to consider that for a moment, and couldn't deny that getting annoyed at Trixie did distract her from the crushing reality that three of her friends had been kidnapped, and-
"What do you want?"
"Dah!"
Trixie sighed and pouted at the bespectacled pony glaring at them through the now opened door. "Damn it, I was so sure she'd be dead. Good job we didn't make bets."
"Moondancer!" Twilight gasped, "I-um... Hi. It's me, Twilight." Twilight grinned hopefully, only for Moondancer to groan and slam the door shut in her face. "I'm sorry about the door. I can pay to have it...fixed..." Twilight groaned quietly, "I was expecting this to go better."
"I don't know. I think this is going perfectly..." Trixie cut herself off as Twilight glared at her, her eyes giving promises of violence if silence wasn't immediately achieved. "Shutting up now."
Twilight made a zipping motion across her mouth at Trixie, then turned back to the door to peek through the hole she'd made. "Look, Moondancer, I'm sorry I haven't been back to see you for a while, and I know that what I'm saying now won't make up for that, but I need your help. Equestria needs your help, so won't you at least hear me out?"
The door creaked back open, showing the entirety of Moondancer. Trixie had to clamp her hooves over her mouth to stop herself laughing at the ridiculous topknot she wore in her mane. Or at the scruffy black turtleneck she wore that had buttons for some indecipherable reason. Or the eyebrows. The glasses weren't great either. They had tape in the middle of them.
"What's wrong with her?" Moondancer asked as Trixie's eyes bulged from suppressed laughter.
"Just ignore her. Please. As hard as it might be."
"Uh-huh. Look,Twilight Twinkle, as much-"
"Sparkle."
"Whatever. As much as I would love to entertain your fantasy of Equestria possibly needing my help, I'm far too busy studying to waste time on you. Good day." Moondancer slammed the door shut again, temporarily befuddling Twilight at how she managed to do that without breaking it.
"And that's that," Trixie said cheerfully. "We tried, we failed, we moved on with our lungs still blissfully intact."
"Starswirl's secret retreat," Twilight said loudly. She waited, and in her head she could hear Moondancer fighting against her own curiosity, and felt incredibly vindicated when the door creaked back open.
"What did you say?"
"Starswirl the Bearded's secret retreat. That's what we're trying to find, and there is nopony I know that knows more about Starswirl the Bearded than you."
"I've never even heard of that. You're making this up."
"I swear I'm not. Celestia told me about it earlier, and told me that it may contain knowledge crucial to the future of Equestria. The problem is she doesn't know where it is, which I why I was hoping you would help me find it. Come on Moondancer, you know I wouldn't lie to you."
"That is just one of many things I thought you wouldn't do to me," Moondancer said back, her voice laced with bitterness. "I want first credit with finding it if I help you."
"Uh..." Twilight looked back at Trixie, who shrugged in return. "That's not the point behind us finding it, but if that's what you want it's all yours."
Moondancer considered it for a moment, then nodded. "Very well, but this doesn't mean that we're anything more than research partners."
"I can accept that," Twilight said back. Truthfully, she was just glad to have Moondancer on board.
"I'll go pack."
"You can catch the train to Pon-" Moondancer was already gone though, leaving her door wide open, allowing both Twilight and Trixie the perfect view of inside. An inside that was stacked high with books and takeout boxes.
"Holy crap," said Trixie. "How can a pony eat that much takeout and not be the size of a house? Anyway, you better shut the door before all her cats escape."
"She doesn't have cats!"
"And what makes you say that?"
"Because she's allergic to them!"
"Y'know what, that makes total sense now you say it," Trixie guffawed. "She does look the type to be riddled with allergies."
"Trixie, will it absolutely kill you to be nice to Moondancer? The last thing we need is you being a complete jackass to her and chasing her off."
"Fiiiine... But if she wiggles those ridiculous eyebrows at Trixie a little too much I won't be held responsible for what I might do. How'd you know telling her about what we're looking for would work anyway?"
"Because I know myself very well," Twilight replied morosely.
"But she's not you..."
"I know."
"I'm ready to go."
"Dah!"
"Moondancer," Twilight said once her heart had slowed a little. "I was going to say you could catch the train to Ponyville tomorrow instead of packing now. Don't you have to inform your landlord you're leaving, and sort your rent out, and other things?"
"My parents own the house and pay the tax on it, and I don't earn enough to pay taxes elsewhere. Frankly I think they bought it so they didn't have to look at me." Moondancer locked the door and deposited the key in her bags. "Nopony's even going to notice I'm gone."
"Well that's horribly depressing," said Trixie. She started walking back down the path, then stopped to look back at the other two. "Shall we?"
-0-0-0-
Moondancer looked up from the journal Twilight had given her to catch her up on everything that had happened in Mareitania since it was relevant to what they were doing now. Trixie had to look away as Moondancer raised her eyebrows at Twilight.
"You died."
"Uh, yes, yes I did."
"But you got better again."
"I... Yes, that is also true.
"Uh-huh." Moondancer glanced back down at the journal, "How is any of this even remotely connected to finding Starswirl's retreat?"
"If you got as far as me dying, then you must have read about what I found in the dungeons when we rescued Fleur?"
"Faust, the Equestria hating super alicorn you were telling me about earlier?"
"It's a little more complicated than that, but a lot of it is rather personal to Celestia and Luna, so I didn't write a lot about her. The point is she's free, and we have to find a way to stop her."
"And you're saying Starswirl knew the most about her, even though he never mentions her in his writings."
"Right."
"So," Moondancer delicately cleared her throat, "to sum up, we have to find a place that nopony is even sure exists, to find information that might never have been written down by a pony that's likely dead, to stop an all powerful alicorn that for all intents and purposes, cannot be stopped."
Twilight winced, "It doesn't sound so good when you put it like that..."
Moondancer snapped the journal shut and stood suddenly, "I've changed my mind. Stop the train, I want to get off."
"Moondancer please, I'm not asking you to get into a fight. Even if all you do is give me an area where I can start looking, that'd be more than enough. You could go home after that."
"Or you could do something with your life," said Trixie.
"Excuse me?" Moondancer growled as Twilight's hoof smacked against her own face.
"What is it you actually do with yourself?" Trixie asked Moondancer.
"I study."
"Study what?"
"Science, magic, history, economics, pottery. Stuff like that."
The flat and emotionless delivery of those subjects really made Trixie question just how much Moondancer really enjoyed them. "So, what? You're going to become a professor or something?"
"No."
"A...teacher?"
"No."
"A quizmaster?" Moondancer shook her head. "You're really planning on just spending the rest of your life studying? Wow Twilight, you really did break her."
"Trixie..."
"My point is, you can spend the rest of your life being a sad loner, studying at home, or you could be the pony credited with finding the lost retreat of Starswirl the Bearded. A literal treasure trove of ancient knowledge that could massively benefit the future of pony kind, and not just by helping us defeat Faust. Come on Moondancer! Isn't being the pony to discover all that worth a little risk?"
Moondancer rubbed a hoof up her leg, "I don't know..."
"I'll tell you what. You do this, and I'll buy you a really nice pair of tweezers. How about it?"
"Tweezers? What would I need those for?"
Twilight clapped a hoof over Trixie's mouth before she could say why. "And that's enough out of Trixie." Twilight smiled awkwardly at Moondancer, "She's not totally wrong though. Finding Starswirl's retreat could be the opportunity of a lifetime, and it would certainly win you the respect of the academic community, and make you part of history. Is that really not worth helping us?"
Trixie pulled Twilight's hoof away from her mouth, "Also the future of the world. That's important too. You can't study when Equestria's been destroyed!"
Moondancer sank back onto her seat, "You're not actually giving me much of a choice here, are you."
"Moondancer, nopony is making you do anything."
"It's just that not helping us might spell disaster for the world."
"Trixie!"
"What? I'm being honest here!"
"I know, and it's not helping!"
Trixie grinned at Twilight, then glanced at Moondancer, and was surprised to see a hint of sadness in her expression, although it was soon buried by the disdain that was her usual expression. "You alright there Moondancer?"
"I'm fine, although I have no desire to keep listening to your childish bickering." She picked Twilight's journal up in her magic and harrumphed, "If you need me, I'll be over there, reading the most ridiculous story I've ever encountered."
"Okay. Just wait until the bit where I go utterly mad with dark power. It's a cracker!" Trixie kept smiling as Moondancer walked away, tutting all the way. "Yeah, she's totally on board."
"And how can you tell that?"
"Because she's desperately lonely, and this is the only way presented to her so far that allows her to reach out to another pony in the hopes she doesn't die alone after a sad and cat-less existence." Trixie cocked her head slightly and looked at Twilight with puzzlement, "You mean you didn't pick up on that?"
Twilight shoved Trixie over, "You're insufferable."
"Moondancer will be as well for a while until she gets so crushed under her own emotions that she has no choice but to open up. It'll probably be a real tear jerker when it happens." Trixie sat back upright and smoothed her coat down where Twilight had pushed her, "Anyway, who else are you going to sucker into helping with this?"
"Who else? How many ponies do you think we need?"
Trixie shrugged, "I don't know. I just thought that if Celestia's going to be sending you everything they have on Starswirl, that it had to be a lot of stuff, so the more ponies we have reading, the quicker it goes. And I'm not going to deny that I'm perhaps not exactly research assistant material, and am slightly more suited to the physical aspect of this mission. Surely there must be some other pony you know that had a fancy education like you, who maybe knows a thing or two about Starswirl the Bearded?"
"Maybe there is..." Twilight said, a certain person coming to mind. She concentrated, and a book popped into existence in front of her, its cover emblazoned with an image of Celestia's cutie mark.
-0-0-0-
Twilight held her arms around herself as she waited by the statue at Canterlot high school, or at least what was left of it after her humanoid counterpart did her best to destroy it. She tried to tell herself that it was because she was cold, and certainly not because her anxiety was telling her that Sunset didn't need to get involved in any of this.
Not that she wasn't cold though. It might have been nearing summer, but the weird, hairless, vaguely simian bodies these humans had always felt cold to her without a coat of hair to insulate them.
"Twilight!"
Twilight looked up and managed half a smile as Sunset ran towards her, along with six others and a purple dog in tow. Twilight held still as six of the seven people piled around her in a group hug, her counterpart thankfully keeping her distance, but she felt no joy from it. She was simply too tense.
"Oh Twilight, I'm so sorry about your friends. Are you alright?"
Twilight didn't look at Sunset. Or rather not at four of the people there that stood behind her. She felt bad for not looking at Applejack, Fluttershy, or Rarity, but looking at them felt ten times worse. The fourth person was the one that looked just like her, but that was purely because she found it plain weird. She was also holding her own Spike, fully completing the mockery Twilight felt she was experiencing by being here.
"Not really," she answered after a moment.
"That's fair, I guess. Look, whatever you need Twilight, I'm here for you."
"Thanks Sunset."
"And if you need our help too," said the human Fluttershy, "you know we'll be more than happy to help after how much you've done for us."
Twilight forced herself to look up at the human approximations of her stolen friends, and gave them a shaky yet sincere smile. "Thanks guys, I mean it. I take it Sunset told you everything?"
"She did indeed," Rarity confirmed, "and I must say that Faust sounds like a terrible danger, although I must admit I feel somewhat sorry for her too. Hopefully she'll simply realise what's she's doing is wrong."
"As nice as that would be, it's not something we should really count on." Twilight dropped her gaze back to the floor again, "Are you really all okay with Sunset going back through the portal to help me?"
"Sure we are Twi...light?" Applejack looked between the two Twilight's and frowned. "Pony Twilight? Princess? We shoulda worked this out beforehand. Anyway, what I was gonna say was that helping you is important to all of us, and that Sunset'll only be on the other side of that portal if we need her."
"Yeah," Sunset agreed. "Ooh! That reminds me." Sunset slipped her backpack off and dug into it, pulling out the book that bore her cutie mark. She wistfully brushed a hand over its cover, then pressed it into Rarity's hands, as Sunset trusted her the most to not lose, break, or otherwise misuse the book to message her ten times a day. Especially since there wasn't much room left. "You can use this to keep in touch with me if you want. I probably shouldn't take it with me anyway, in case it stops the portal from opening whenever we want, or something. I don't know." She also took her magic necklace off and gave it to Rarity. "I suppose you better have that too."
Rarity smiled at Sunset and slipped the book into her own bag. "Don't you worry Sunset, I shall take good care of them. Now come here. You might be gone for a little while, so it's only appropriate we say goodbye properly."
Twilight couldn't watch as Sunset's friends piled into a group hug, including her doppelganger. While she was glad Sunset had agreed to help, separating Sunset from her friends to help get her own friends back was too ironic for Twilight to not feel guilty over.
She was still looking away when Sunset tapped her on the shoulder. "You okay Twilight?"
"Huh?" Twilight blinked, then realised she had tears in her eyes and quickly wiped them away. "Sorry. Are you ready to go?"
"All set."
"Okay then." Twilight started walking back to the portal, then stopped. "I think it's only appropriate to give you fair warning that we'll have a Trixie with us."
"The Trixie I read about in your journal after you came back from Mareitania?"
"The very same."
"The same Trixie that made my own dalliances with dark magic look like a joke in comparison?"
"Yep."
Sunset smiled awkwardly, "I'm sure she'll be fine. I mean, the Trixie here might have locked us in a dark room under a stage with the intention of leaving us to die, but I know she's a good person really. I'm sure pony Trixie can't be that different."
"I think it's only fair to say she's no worse than me." Twilight stepped aside and gestured to Sunset, "After you."
"Okay then." Sunset stood before the portal and squared up to it. "Nothing to be scared of Sunset," she said to herself. She gave her friends one last wave then stepped through into a vomit inducing whirl of ridiculously bright colours, before being spat out the other side. She tried to balance on her hind legs, then fell onto all fours. "Okay, right, four legs and hooves. Four legs, and hooves." She jogged on the spot and smiled as it all came back to her, "Yeah, like riding a bicycle."
"What's a bicycle?"
"Huh? Oof!" Sunset fell forwards and smacked her chin on the incredibly hard crystalline floor as Twilight smacked into her rear, having come through the portal behind Sunset. She also slid a few meters as the incredibly hard crystal floor was also incredibly smooth.
"Crap! Sorry Sunset."
A purple hoof waved in front of Sunset's eyes, and she took hold of it to pull herself up. "My fault. I should've moved."
"Seriously though, what's a bicycle?"
"It's something humans ride," Twilight answered while Sunset stared at a blue pony that could only have been Trixie. To the side of the room was another pony with a cream coat and glasses, but Sunset didn't recognise who she was, and the mare seemed too busy reading to even acknowledge the ponies coming through the inter-dimensional portal.
"Uh-huh," Trixie said back to Twilight's answer. "That explains nothing." She held a hoof out towards Sunset, which the yellow pony shook. "You must be Sunset Shimmer."
"You've heard of me?"
"I have indeed."
"All good I hope?"
"I daresay that stealing an Element of Harmony, turning into a demon, and enslaving an army of teenage 'humans' to wage war on Equestria was hardly your best moment. And frankly it's the dumbest plan I've ever heard, and that's from the pony that's gone mad with dark power twice, and covered Ponyville in a giant fishbowl while she enslaved children to pull wheel-less chariots."
Sunset blinked, "What?"
"My point is I can hardly judge you."
"What?"
Trixie bowed before Sunset, "The significantly humbled, and currently powerless Trixie, at your service."
"...what?" Sunset looked at Twilight as the alicorn consolingly patted her on the shoulder.
"I tried to warn you."
Sunset pointed sideways at Trixie, "Is she trying to out evil me or something?"
"Hah!" Trixie laughed, "That's hardly a competition."
"I don't know," Sunset said back. "On top of what you know about, I did terrorise a high school for years. I did...also try to kill Twilight."
"Oh please, hooves up who hasn't tried to do that at some point." Moondancer, her nose still in her book, raised a hoof, while Twilight's hooves all stayed on the floor."
"I'm counting 'got myself killed' into this, since I'm the only one to actually succeed at killing me." Twilight said in return to the way Sunset was looking at her. "And truthfully, Trixie did put a lot more effort into it than you."
"I've also successfully killed hundreds of ponies," Trixie said with an odd mix of pride and shame. "Does that make me the most evil out of us?"
"Sounds like it?" Sunset said slowly, really unsure as to how this topic had ever come up.
"Nope," said Twilight. "If the number of ponies killed is what we're going by, then I win by a landslide."
Trixie raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "Oh? How so?"
"Destroying Caverndown alone nets me at least a thousand ponies killed. Then there's the ponies I killed myself, and the ponies I ordered other ponies to kill, and then there's the ponies I sent to their deaths with orders to kill those other ponies." Twilight fell quiet, really wishing she hadn't gone into this. "Sorry. You guys keep making introductions."
"Right." Sunset was still extremely unsure of what she'd just brought herself into, and watched Twilight nervously as the alicorn hugged herself and trembled. "You're not evil Twilight."
"Open to debate," Twilight muttered. She vaguely waved a hoof towards Sunset, "Just give me a minute."
"Ooookay then." Sunset trotted over to where the one pony she didn't know was still sat reading. "And who might you be?"
"Moondancer."
Sunset nodded and waited a beat, but no more information seemed to be forthcoming. "Okay, so are you a friend of Twilight's?"
"No."
"Oh, okay." Sunset waited again, but Moondancer had chosen to become mute again and hadn't so much as looked at her through their entire exchange. "It's...nice meeting you anyway."
"Mmhmm."
Sunset left Moondancer to her reading, and found Trixie smirking at her while Twilight continued holding herself. "It's been while since I've been the most normal person, or pony, in the room," Sunset said to herself. She froze as Trixie sidled up to her with an overly seductive walk.
"So, Sunset... The way Twilight described you and the things you've been up to, I was half expecting you to be an alicorn."
Sunset frowned at Trixie, then looked at her back, finding it totally devoid of wings as she had fully suspected it would be. "Why would you think that?"
"Because you turned into a..." Trixie turned to Twilight, "What did you call it again Twilight?"
"A friendship seraphim," Twilight said without looking up.
"Yeah, one of those, whatever they are. But she said you grew wings!"
"Yeah, but they were made of magic rather than actual wings." Sunset looked sideways at Twilight, "Just how much exactly has she told you about me?"
"Loads. It helped take her mind off the guilt of dragging you into her crap, and the way she described it all... I think I might have discovered who Twilight's really been gay for this entire time."
"For fuck sake! I'm not gay!"
Trixie smiled smugly at Twilight as the alicorn angrily stomped up behind her, "Welcome back."
"What?" Twilight was almost surprised to find that she was no longer a trembling wreck. "That's so not fair. Anyway, is it wrong for me to be impressed by Sunset's achievements?"
"Not at all. I bet it takes a lot of work to get a flank that fine."
"That's not what I meant! And maybe I should be feeling bad for dragging her into this strange little dynamic you and I have."
"And maybe it's your flank I'd rather be thinking about," Sunset said to Trixie in a saucy enough tone to make any stallion blush. It was certainly enough to send Trixie into panic mode.
"Heck no, you do not get to think about my flank! Trixie's flank is very much off limits. To mares anyway."
Sunset winked at Twilight, "So she does speak in the third person."
"What?" Trixie looked between Twilight and Sunset, finding them both grinning at her. "Oh, great. So this is how it feels to get ganged up on. Figures it had to happen at some point."
Twilight smirked at Trixie, "Yes she speaks in the third pony, although she does it a lot less than she used to."
"Wait... Are you referring to the song stealing Trixie through that weird portal?" 'Song stealing?' Sunset mouthed to Twilight. Twilight shook her head in the hopes Sunset wouldn't ask further. "What's she like? Wait! What are her parents like?"
"Her parents?" Sunset rubbed a hoof down the back of her neck, "Her parents are actually...gone."
"They are? How?"
"Uh..." Sunset looked pleadingly at Twilight, but she seemed just as curious. "Alright then, they were caught up in some gang thing where a gang wanted revenge for something, I don't know what, and burnt their house down, only it wasn't their house that the gang was supposed to target. They...didn't escape the fire, except for Trixie."
"Oh..."
Twilight nuzzled Trixie, "I'm sorry Trixie. I wish I could be surprised, but that world runs with a strange parallel to our own."
"I know. I guess I just wanted to think that Trixie at least had a happier story than my own, even if she is a song stealing harpy. Did they at least catch the ones that did it?"
"Most of them yeah. The only one to get away with it was their leader, some guy who called himself the Duke."
"Mother-fucker! Is he still alive?"
"Trixie, I'm not letting you go there to kill him for your revenge."
"But-"
Twilight stomped a hoof, "No."
"Aww..."
"It wouldn't matter anyway," said Sunset. "I think he got killed not too long ago, but I have no idea how."
"That's something at least." Trixie stared at the floor, then sighed explosively. "Whatever, I don't care. How about we start thinking about what we're supposed to be doing."
"Uh..." Twilight looked around the room, then remembered that they weren't actually in the library. "I don't have much of Starswirl's work here, but I guess that can get us started until all the rest of his work gets sent here from Canterlot. Follow me."
Since the library was right next door, it wasn't exactly what you could call a long journey. As Twilight had predicted, Trixie was utterly unimpressed, but she was at least pleased that the sight was enough to make Moondancer look up from the book she had been reading even while she walked.
"All these belong to you?"
"Yes and no. Most of them are government property, and are replacements for when the Ponyville library got destroyed by Tirek."
Moondancer turned on the spot, taking in the entire library. "This is a public library?"
"That's right."
"Then why can't I see any books missing from the shelves?"
"I'm afraid you'll have to ask the ponies of Ponyville why that is," Twilight grumbled with a pout. "Anyway, let's get started." Twilight picked a book off a shelf and held it front of Trixie. "Trixie, you can have the abridged biography of Starswirl the Bearded to get you started."
"Yay..."
"The rest of us, pick a book and see what you can find."
Sunset looked over the shelves, finding quite a number of books on Starswirl. "Not that I want to question your methods Twilight, but what should we even be looking for?"
"Oh! Right. I guess that if his retreat was somewhere in Equestria, we'd have found it a long time ago, so we likely can rule that out. Perhaps we should look for mentions of places outside of Equestria, with places being mentioned multiple times, or in multiple sources, being the more likely. I imagine we won't find much without Starswirl's own writings, but this should at least get us warmed up."
"That hospital doesn't seem so bad now."
"And you can definitely consider no whining as one of the rules Trixie."
"Bitch."
-0-0-0-
Twilight awoke with a start, and felt about her chest for something that wasn't there, but that time it was mostly out of habit. A deep, rhythmic banging that echoed through the castle had awoken her, and it took her a moment to realise it was somepony knocking on the door, and therefore nothing she could blame Trixie for. She had no idea why that was currently her 'go to' explanation for unknown noises though.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Twilight struggled out of her bed, tripping over a front hoof that had become tangled in her sheets overnight. She teleported, hoping to save herself from a unfortunate meeting with the floor, but only succeeded in moving the inevitable somewhere else, and her face smacked into the ground right by her front door instead, which was no softer.
Grumbling, Twilight stood and rubbed her pained nose, then pulled the door open to find Octavia smiling nervously, along with some Royal Guards, and a cart stacked high with books under a tarpauline. "Octavia? What are you doing here?"
"These fine gentleponies offered me a lift home after I missed the last train back to Ponyville last night. I would have come with you, but you and Trixie left so quickly I thought you wouldn't want me to come with you..."
"Huh? Oh! Oh Octavia, you didn't have to think that."
"So you're not mad at me? Or Fleur? Or any of us?" Octavia drooped as Twilight took a moment to answer. "You are, aren't you."
"No! Not at all! I'm just..." Twilight ushered Octavia to the side so the guards could start moving the contents of the cart inside. "I'm just used to having you guys around when things got rough. I understand your reasons for not coming, but I have to admit I was a little hurt by it at first. It's fine though, really. I've found a couple of ponies to help me out besides Trixie, so I'll be fine. Besides, I thought it was very sweet of you to think of Summer like that."
"She needs stability Twilight, and uprooting her to go piling after you is the opposite of that."
"I know, but if there's a war coming to Equestria, then stability isn't going to happen I'm afraid."
"I know." Octavia smiled bravely, "Fleur and I talked about it, and while we won't be of much use to you, we have decided to help in other ways if we can. If Equestria is going to build an army, then they'll need medics. I might not have it in me to do the task itself, but Summer and I can at least teach. And Fleur wanted to talk to Luna about assisting Equis if she could. At least then we'll still be doing something to help."
Twilight nodded, pleased that they weren't trying to get out of the coming fight. Even if was only in a small way, the fact that they still wanted to help was nice. "Sounds like a great idea. Your skills and experience would be more use elsewhere anyway since all we'll be doing for the next few weeks is reading. Although, if you want to help with that, I'd appreciate it."
"Of course. I want to head home to see Vinyl and Summer first, but I'll drop by when I can."
"Great! Thanks Octavia." Twilight waved Octavia off as she made her way into town to her own home, then made her own way back inside, making sure to give the guards plenty of room to do their work, even though she could do it all herself in a fraction of the time. Trixie, Sunset, and Moondancer were all waiting by the library, watching the pile of literature grow with varying emotions. Trixie looked like she wanted to die, while Sunset grew more apprehensive the taller the pile grew. Moondancer though, was acting like a filly on Hearthswarming.
"I didn't know half these books even existed!" she said excitedly to Sunset.
"I guess you never made it to the Starswirl the Bearded wing in Canterlot Castle then?"
"I applied for permits once, but it was denied because curiosity wasn't a good enough reason apparently."
"Yeah, they are pretty strict about who gets to see inside that place. Still, I'm sure the unfettered access you get now is probably worth the wait." Sunset looked over as she noticed Twilight arrive out of the corner of her eye. "Morning Twilight. I guess Celestia wasn't kidding when she said she wanted you to go through all of Starswirl's writings."
"Actually, judging from the amount here, I'd say this is only half of the collection from Starswirl's wing."
"What?!" Trixie shouted. "You're fucking kidding right?"
"And I doubt she'd send the spell scrolls either," Twilight continued.
Trixie stared blankly at the growing pile and groaned, "How did Starswirl get anything done if he spent this much time writing?"
"A question for the ages," Twilight replied offhoofedly. "At any rate, we have our work cut out for us, so we better get started." |
The end of an era | 7. Stand together | For once in her long life Celestia was reluctant to raise the sun. Although any clock you looked at would tell a different story, for her, raising the sun reinforced the fact that through the inexorable process of time, tomorrow had become today, and today she had to tell Equestria, and the rest of the world, that they were under threat. A threat so huge even she felt that she struggled to comprehend it fully.
The problem was that the rest of the world probably wouldn't listen. Even if she hadn't unintentionally done her best to alienate Equestria's neighbours, many of them would still see a rogue alicorn as a pony problem, and therefore a problem for ponies to fix. Even the more far flung pony nations like Saddle Arabia and Mustangia would likely say so because they don't have alicorns, and don't understand the threat one like Faust poses. Equestria could very well face this crisis on its own.
Celestia twitched an ear at the faint clop of a hoof on the marble floor right next to her, and looked around to find Luna standing almost next to her. "You snuck up quietly."
"I've been shouting your name for the last five minutes sister. You are almost ten minutes overdue on raising the sun. Ponies will start to worry soon."
Giving in, Celestia lit her horn and teased her sun up over the horizon, heralding the completion of turning tomorrow into today. "I can't believe this is really happening Luna. Equestria hasn't seen a war in a thousand years. Can our ponies even cope with such a thing?"
"They must Celestia, or all may be lost."
"And what makes you think that? Perhaps Twilight could find a solution regardless of what we do, and we could be throwing thousands of lives away for nothing."
Luna wrapped a wing around Celestia's shoulders, "Were it that simple. You said yourself that Equestria will have to stand as a bulwark between Faust and the world."
"I know what I said Luna, but none of this is the fault of the ponies here, so why should they suffer for it?"
"And who do you blame?"
"Platinum. The Dukes of Mareitania. The ponies that released Faust." Celestia sighed heavily, like her heart was breaking. "Us."
"Us? This is exactly what we tried to prevent!"
"And in our arrogance we assumed that we were the only ones that knew about Faust, and in doing what we did, we only gave the Mareitanians further reason to turn against us. We are as much to blame for this as anypony else."
"Let us not forget the Viscount, since he's the one that told the council of Faust."
"Indeed."
A taut yet companionable silence surrounded the two sisters as they watched over the lands before them, thinking of what was to come. Luna was imagining the victory of Equestria over Mareitania, while Celestia could only see loss, even if they won. While she could rationalize all day long about why she wanted Luna to lead the war effort, the truth was one they both knew; Luna was simply better at it.
-0-0-0-
The throne room had been filled with row upon row of seats in preparation of the announcement. Seats that had been slowly filling up with diplomats, prominent members of the E.U.P, and a large number of press ponies whose unfortunate task it would be to spread the news to those places beyond Canterlot, and possibly even beyond Equestria.
The one pony Celestia couldn't see from where she could observe from the side of the room, was Cadence, and asked her assistant Raven where she had gone.
"She making her own announcement to her ponies," Raven told her. "I also suspect she was a little upset with you for various reasons, if it's not too bold for me to say, your highness."
"As ever I appreciate your candour Raven." At the very least Cadence had left Shining Armour behind as Luna had requested. His experience, as well as that of many others, would be crucial in the days to come.
"I find myself at an unexpected loss," said a voice from behind Celestia. She turned to find the Griffonian ambassador Deetra standing there, almost looking bashful at disturbing Celestia. "I never thought to see the day something like this would happen in Equestria."
"And how do you know what's happening?"
"There are only a few conclusions to draw here Princess, and after the hasty setting up of this announcement, the most likely is that Equestria is under threat. Rest assured that I have said nothing to the others here."
"Good." Celestia said nothing for a moment, wondering why the griffon wasn't gloating. She couldn't ask outright, but there was something else she wished to know. "If I might ask Deetra, what was yours and your country's opinion of my actions in Mareitania?"
"Both the Emperor and I thought it was rather bold actually, and frankly, historically speaking, we've often wondered why you let the sorry state of that place continue for so long."
Celestia was surprised by the answer, although she didn't show it. She was so used to being the only one to deal with Mareitania for so long, she didn't think others might have had opinions on how it was ran. "Is that so? So you were more surprised by my inaction?"
"Now that our two nations are no longer at each others throats, it's been an observation of ours that while you are a master at statecraft, you avoid conflict wherever possible. The number of conflicts you were involved in shrank considerably after the unfortunate banishment of your sister, and while I can only read historical documents on the matter, I can only assume it was because of her loss that change came about."
Celestia chuckled humourlessly, "Am I truly that obvious?"
"Not really. All I can say is that you and your sister appear to be two halves of a greater whole, and you need each other to balance yourselves out. Not that your approach didn't work of course, and I doubt the world would be as it is without your constant diplomacy, but there are times where conflict cannot be avoided."
Celestia nodded sadly, "Very true, but I originally asked what your opinion was of us interfering with Mareitania. Were you not bothered?"
The griffon thought about it for a moment. "I won't say I wasn't bothered, but I will say that I wasn't worried. I'm sure you would know the consequences of interfering with Griffonia well enough to not make such a risk."
"Of course I do," said Celestia, keeping her face carefully impassive.
"Anyway, I had best be taking my seat for the announcement." Deetra bowed before Celestia, "Princess."
Celestia nodded back, "Ambassador." She watched the griffon head to her seat, and silently cursed the griffon for working out what the announcement was about before the time. In all fairness though, the griffons spies seemed to know more about Mareitania than she did herself.
"I do like how she always makes time to talk to you when you least want it," said Luna as she walked up to Celestia, having watched the exchange from a distance.
"Then you'll also like that she's worked out what the announcement is."
"I doubt she's worked out everything. There's no way she could possibly know about Faust."
"No, and I'm not sure if she will."
Luna raised a sceptical eyebrow at her sister, "Explain."
"Obviously I won't be telling anypony of our connection to Faust, and I may decline to mention what one of the founders did to her publically, but how do we explain what Faust is without scaring ponies? How can we hope to win against such power?"
"So you're going to lie."
Celestia shook her head, "I don't know if I should or shouldn't. That's why I'm asking you now."
"I think the simple solution is to simply neglect to tell them exactly how powerful Faust is. Not telling them about us and Platinum I agree with, but you cannot really hide what it is we're fighting against. Lying has not exactly served us well lately, so I feel that minimising that would be advantageous."
Celestia closed her eyes and nodded, "You're right of course. Let us hope that Cadence keeps her own announcement in the same tone as ours then." Celestia stood tall and stretched her wings out before letting them fall back into place. "It's time," she said with the grace and composure the ponies of Equestria expected from her.
"I'm right with you sister."
Celestia stepped out into view of the ponies in the throne room, and the flash bulbs of the press ponies lit up the room as each one vied for the best photo of the two princesses. Celestia hoped they didn't try to go for before and after pictures.
Together they waited, stood side by side before the throne as the paparazzi slowly took the hint that they should stop. Anticipation filled the room at what this announcement could be about, and Celestia found herself looking at Deetra, the griffon doing something unique to a small number of species in the world. The griffon was giving her two thumbs up.
"My sister and I would like to thank you all for coming today, although it is with heavy hearts that we stand here before you. I am sure many of you have heard of the rumours that have come out of Ponyville yesterday, and it is with no reluctance that I can confirm that that those rumours are true. Yesterday morning, an attack was made on Equestrian soil on both its ponies and a princess no less, resulting in the abduction of three ponies and a young dragon. Those ponies were none other than Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, who may be better known to you as three of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. The dragon was called Spike, and is a close personal friend to all of the bearers of Harmony."
Whispers started spreading around the room, and Celestia raised a hoof until all was silent again. "As tragic as this news is, I'm afraid the bad news does not end there. The attack was carried out by Mareitania. A Mareitania that has fallen under the control of a previously unknown alicorn named Faust, who has manipulated the leadership of Mareitania into not only forgetting the kinship and friendship our two countries briefly enjoyed, but has also succeeded in turning them utterly against us here in Equestria. She has made her intentions against Equestria, and furthermore the world, very clear, and her abduction of the three bearers of Harmony is merely the first move in what can only be a prelude to war between our two countries."
Celestia didn't interrupt the uproar this time, and stood patiently as ponies shouted questions at her. Luna wasn't so inclined to wait though, and stomped her hoof three times, giving the hint that Celestia wasn't done yet. Slowly order returned to the room, giving Celestia a chance to keep speaking.
"I can appreciate how shocking this is to hear, especially after all the support we as a nation, gave to the uprising within Mareitania, but I should make it clear that the alicorn Faust is the one you should direct your ire at. However, that doesn't change the fact that Equestria is now under threat of war, and that in response we will have to take up arms to defend ourselves. Starting upon these words, Equestria will begin efforts to create an army to defend our lands from an all too possible attack from the army of Mareitania. In the coming days we will begin recruiting volunteers willing to do what must be done to protect our homes, our friends, and our families, and I would implore those of you able to, to sign up to protect all you love. There are dark times ahead, but I know that if we all stand together, we can prevail, both for the future of Equestria, and of the world."
The clamour returned as soon as Celestia stopped talking, but this time no effort was made to halt it as plenty of ponies here clearly had questions that they would want answered. Picking at random, Celestia pointed at one of the press ponies waving and shouting for her attention.
"What do you mean by us being under threat of war? Is that really justification for building an army?"
"Threats have been made against Equestria, and the alicorn Faust wishes to see our country destroyed. If we are lucky, we could hopefully resolve this issue without resorting to war, but if not, Equestria needs to be ready, or we could be overrun within weeks of an attack."
"And what of the alicorn Faust? How could you have not known of her before she took control of Mareitania? How can you know of her intentions when it's only happened so recently."
Celestia struggled to find an answer, and was relieved when Luna stepped up instead. "We do not know the origins of Faust, and have only become aware of her very recently. Whatever her reasons are for attacking Equestria, they are irrelevant in the face of the threat both she and Mareitania presents. Suffice to say, she has made her hatred of us very clear through both words spoken to us, and actions taken against us."
"Will you be leading us against them Princesses?"
"Princess Luna will be lea- ahem, leading our forces on the battlefield," Celestia answered to the blurted out question. She rapidly swallowed, hoping to chase away the tremor that was starting to creep into her voice, and she hoped the ponies gathered here didn't notice.
"And what of Princess Twilight? We she be taking any part in this?"
"Princess Twilight will be heading up a special research division in the hopes of ending this war before it can begin. She will be playing no part in military actions." Celestia stopped as Raven trotted up to her, and whispered nothing in particular in her ear. Its only purpose was to give them an excuse to cut things short. It was a gesture she strongly appreciated. "I'm afraid our time is running short here, so we will only answer one more question." Celestia pointed to a pale mare wearing a green beret, who had her hoof raised.
"After the upset caused by your decision to interfere in Mareitania, do Equestria's allies still stand with us?"
"The Crystal Empire has confirmed that they will stand with us, but we cannot speak for any other nation at this point due to how recent these events are." Celestia hoped to hell that one could fly. "I'm afraid that's all we have time for. My assistant Raven will answer any more questions you may have. Thank you."
Celestia left the throne room, and slumped against a wall as soon as she was out of sight. "Honest opinion Luna; how do you think that went?"
"Better than I imagined actually. All we have to do now is brief the E.U.P, and hope to convince our allies that we do need help, and are still worth helping."
"The briefing is all yours Luna."
"As are the diplomats yours. Hopefully they see the threat that Faust is, and see the benefit of aiding us against her.
-0-0-0-
Celestia had managed to restore her composure by the time she had made it to where she was meeting the ambassadors from other nations. Those of them that showed up anyway. Minos, the secretive nation of the minotaurs, had cut off ties once the news of Equestria's dealings in Mareitania had become public, although that was the only nation that had. All the others just made their displeasure known in as loud a way as was possible, save the Yaks, who didn't seem to care about what outsiders did to one another. So far they hadn't even bothered to send a diplomat, which was both a problem and a blessing in so many ways.
"Thank you all for agreeing to meet with me," Celestia said to the assembled diplomats as she entered the room. "Equestria is in dire need of allies at this time."
"And you would have us fight this war for you?" asked Zehran, the zebra stallion representing Zebrica. A couple of others nodded with him.
"I'm not asking you for anything as yet, but I said that Faust is a threat to the world, and I meant it. While her conquest might start with Equestria, believe me when I say she has designs for the rest of the world as well."
"And why should we believe that?" said the mare representing Mustangia; a young cream and violet earth pony called Overture. "For all we know you could be manipulating us into fighting this war with you, when she poses no threat to us at all."
Celestia sighed at having reached this point in the conversation already. "If you seek proof of her intentions, then I can provide none, but rest assured that I am not wrong in my assertions. Faust considers the world to be... tainted, and wishes to enact something that we've only heard called 'the plan.' While I don't know what that plan is, I doubt it's something we wish to see come to pass."
"And how are we to know this is not just an imagined threat?"
"Because Faust told me as much herself."
"Then you've spoken with her?"
"I have." Celestia took her place at the table in the room, and waited for the ambassadors to take their place. "I hope you know well enough to keep this information away from the public?" Celestia waited for them all to agree before continuing. "Faust hates Equestria because one of our founders, Princess Platinum, wrongfully imprisoned her before the exodus of my ponies to Equestria. Platinum then left her in that cell as the exodus began, and Faust remained there until the founding Duke of the Duchy of Mareitania claimed Unicornia. He didn't release Faust either. She's been imprisoned for one and a half thousand years."
Amira, the pink and dark blue ambassador of Saddle Arabia tutted disdainfully, "How could one of you own founders perform such a heinous act?"
"I don't know," Celestai lied, "but it doesn't change anything about what is about to happen. War will likely come to Equestria, and very little will change that, but if you stand with us, she can be stopped before she becomes a danger to the rest of you as well."
"What is it you actually want Princess?" Amira asked. "Are you asking us to use our own soldiers in your war as a substitute for your glaring lack thereof?"
"While military aid would be appreciated, I will gladly accept anything that could help our cause, be that supplies, weapons, or even textiles to produce uniforms. I know I damaged your trust in Equestria when I supported the uprising in Mareitania, but-"
"Exactly," Zehran interrupted. "You created Mareitania as a problem for yourself, and I see no reason why my country should put anything into helping you out of your own mess. I will put it to the Council of Elders, but I very much doubt they will disagree with me."
Celestia buried a sigh, "I understand, and I hope the Council will at least consider sending aid if nothing else."
"I too will put this to the Sultan," said Amira, "but he feels even more strongly about your actions in Mareitania than I do. I would not get your hopes up."
Overture banged a hoof on the table, "Is this Faust really so big a threat? Why can't you and the other princesses deal with her directly?"
"Because she's powerful, and has an army of thousands at her disposal. She is also very well protected."
"More powerful than you?"
"Yes," Celestia replied bluntly. "A means of defeating her is being found, and I have full faith in the pony finding it, but there's still an entire army between us and her, and that army cannot be so easily beaten."
Overture looked down and nodded thoughtfully, "Alright. Equestria has never done wrong by Mustangia before, and I see no reason why you should now. If this Faust is such a threat to all of us, then I say we're better off standing together."
"Hah!" Zehran smiled cruelly at Overture, "No offense to you ambassador, but the army of Mustangia is no bigger than Celestia's Royal Guard. What difference could you hope to make?"
"Mustangia may be small, yet we still have a larger standing army than Zebrica." Overture turned back to Celestia, "Rest assured I will do everything to convince King Garland to sent whatever military aid to you we can."
Celestia bowed her head, "Thank you ambassador Overture. I appreciate your efforts on our behalf."
"What about you?" Zehran said to the one occupant of the room that had remained quiet so far. "What is Griffionia's take on all this?"
Deetra smiled grimly at the ponies around her, "I'm afraid the Emperor has the final say on what military aid we might send, but owing to the history between Equestria and Griffonia, the chances that he would agree are slim to zero."
"Because no problems a pony has would ever concern a griffon," Overture grumbled. "Griffonia would have been all over Mareitania in the blink of an eye if their pact with Equestria hadn't stopped you."
"I'm afraid the Emperor simply doesn't see Mareitania as a threat to Griffonia, and no longer has the same interest he once did. However, I will do my best to ensure that Equestria has access to whatever information our intelligence services gather from Mareitania."
"Thank you," said Celestia, semi sincerely. It didn't take a genius to work out that the Emperor wanted to see who was going to win the fight. It was an issue she could deal with later.
"Is Griffonstone going to join Equestria?" asked Amira.
"Since the dissolution of Griffinstone's monarchy, Griffinstone has no military to speak of," Celestia answered her. "As part of Equestria they will of course be welcome to join our army, but Griffonstone's inhabitants aren't known for their altruistic nature."
"They're a bunch of mean spirited, money grubbing jerks," Overture translated. "We can't count on them for anything, except maybe to loot the fallen."
Celestia winced at Overture's words, but made no effort to correct them. Griffonstone's inhabitants were famous for one thing, and that was being greedy, opportunistic misers. There wasn't anything she could say to change that since the griffons themselves took a fierce pride in it. They also charged through the nose for mercenary work.
"Are you planning on insulting everyone in the room eventually?" Zehran snarled at Overture. He raised a hoof to cut off her reply. "I have heard enough. I shall relay Equestria's request to the Council of Elders, Princess, but do not expect much from them. Good day."
Celestia held her stance as the zebra left, followed by Amira. Deetra followed them out shortly after, along with Overture after a short attempt at trying to find something to say. Once they were gone, Celestia slumped forwards onto the table, sighing with a mix of anger and resignation.
"Three allies, and the griffons, and the one that helps us is the one you can kick a hoofball across."
-0-0-0-
Luna held back on showing how much the dozen ponies in the room disappointed her. Not for anything they had done, but simply because they were the entirety of Equestria's command structure. Of those dozen, three of them were Wonderbolts, which wasn't helpful either. Celestia had really let Equestria's defence fall to ruins.
At least the job most of them had to do was simple. Before anything else, an army had to be raised, and that at least was something that Luna could wash her hooves of. Her concern was strategy, leaving the creation of the Equestrian military to her sister, and to most of the ponies in this room. Now if she could convince them of the merits of teaching unicorns combat magic, she might feel happier.
To be honest, things were actually going fine, so to speak, and she was content to let Shining Armour do all the talking, since he actually knew a lot more on the subject of Equestria's modern military practices a lot better than she did. In fact, she was almost tempted to pull Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts, aside for a private discussion, as they, along with her own Night Guard, and whatever Royal Guard that weren't swallowed up in training soldiers, were currently Equestria's greatest defensive assets.
Now she thought about it, they were Equestria's only defensive assets, at least until the Crystal Empire's legions were deployed, whenever that might be.
"The training that the unicorns in the Royal Guard receive isn't going to be enough," Luna caught Shining say, dragging her out of her thoughts. "I've had that training myself, and I can tell you now that a hooffull of spells to immobilise a single target, and create a directed light, isn't going to cut it this time."
"Excuse me?" Luna said as she re-joined the discussion. "You mean to tell me that no unicorn in the Royal Guard knows a spell capable of taking a life?"
"They have weapons for that your highness," said Captain Stormguard, the pegasus leader of the Royal Guard after Shining Armour left the position.
Luna stared at the captain for a long time until he shifted uncomfortably. "Do you think I need a weapon to kill you right now?"
"No, your highness," the captain replied, impressing Luna by how precise an answer it was in the face of what was asked, and who asked it.
"And do you think the Adepts of Mareitania need a weapon to kill you?"
"I suspect they don't your highness."
"And you would be correct. The Adepts were trained to use their magic as both their weapon and their defence, and had a sword only as a last resort. They, along with the pegasi, were the Mareitanian Liberation Front's greatest weapon during the uprising, and believe me when I say that spears aren't going to phase them in the slightest. Magic is going to play a big part in this war should it come, Captain, and the side with the strongest magic will have the advantage. So tell me again what you propose."
"I propose we teach every unicorn possible how to use combat magic, beginning with the unicorns in the Royal Guard."
Luna smiled and nodded, "Very good Captain, although I feel it is not yet enough. The Royal Guard recruit and train earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi, all in almost the same way, which is fine for guard duty, but flawed for much else. While you can train a pegasus to fight like an earth pony, you cannot train an earth pony to fight like a pegasus, just as a pegasus or earth pony cannot be taught to fight like a unicorn. Training them all together limits their potential, so propose we separate the training for each kind of pony."
Shining Armour frowned, "You sound like you want to dissolve the E.U.P."
"Not at all. I do however, wish to define it better. Captain Spitfire, I will be holding the Wonderbolts separate from this, as I have other uses for you."
"Yes ma'am."
"Good. Now what I want is to recreate the Mage Corps, and have them act much as the Adepts do in the Mareitanian army. Any unicorn with potential will be moved into the Mage Corps to learn combat magic and shielding spells, while other, less magically capable unicorns will be taught how to use weapons with their magic. Earth ponies will be taught to fight to their own strengths in the Earth Corps, and the Air Corps will consist of pegasi, with exceptional fliers being moved into the Wonderbolts. They will of course be taught mixed pony combat as well."
"What of the Royal Guard and Night Guard?" Shining asked, a small but noticeable frown marring his features.
"The Night Guard will remain under my command, while the Royal Guard may be shrunk to move ponies that volunteer into the army. Otherwise they will continue to exist as they are now in their essential roles. Obviously none of this is final, and may be changed if it is unworkable. Flexibility is important. Now, Shining Armour will continue with the briefing, as I have my own briefing I wish to give the Wonderbolts." The collected ponies saluted Luna, making her smile. "As you were."
Luna gestured for the Wonderbolts to follow her, and they left the remaining ponies to discuss matters. Matters that Luna felt she didn't much help with. As soon as they reached where Luna was leading them, Luna sat down on the ground around a table, and groaned.
"I get the feeling I rather confused them in there. Perhaps I should have explained things better."
Soarin cleared his throat, "Begging your pardon Princess, but if a unicorn isn't in the mage corps, are they in their own group? Or what? And why don't the earth ponies get their own special unit?"
"It's a work in progress," Luna said a little bashfully. "I do hope you at least got the gist of what I was trying to explain?"
"More or less, I suppose," said Spitfire. "It's just that the only breakdown of units where we've seen that is in Mareitania with the Adepts. Are you sure fighting them using their own military doctrine is the best idea?"
"Certainly," Luna replied with confidence. "Mareitania lacks fliers, so we already have an advantage there, and Equestria far surpasses them in terms of magical knowledge, so hopefully the Mage corps will maintain an advantage over Mareitania's Adepts. Some thought has been put into this Captain, and even the griffon army where all members have the same ability is split up into different groups to serve different roles."
"As you say then ma'am."
Luna rolled her eyes, "You hardly need to be so formal around me. You certainly weren't in Mareitania."
"You weren't exactly a princess in Mareitania, your highness, and I do believe you're to be our commander from now on."
"And yet I am still Luna, as I ever am, but I shall not force you to adopt an informal stance with me. I will however have an informal conversation with you." Luna smiled at the third Wonderbolt in the room, "I see you now have your wings back Fleetfoot. I take it you only returned to active duty recently?"
Fleetfoot spread her wings and flapped them once before holding them open. "I was declared fit by the docs' a couple of weeks ago. Just in time to get thrown into another conflict...
"Would that we could avoid it," said Luna. "If you feel you are unfit to participate, th-"
"No," Fleetfoot said with finality. "this is different, and I won't abandon Equestria when it needs me."
"And I assure you it needs you." Luna gestured for the Wonderbolts to join her around the table, and waited as they took their seats. "I suspect you're wondering what my special task for you might be?"
The three Wonderbolts looked at each other for a second, then nodded. "Yes ma'am," Spitfire confirmed.
"Then I shall tell you. It's not exactly hard to see that Equestria is woefully unprepared to fight any conflict on the scale that Mareitania threatens. I don't know by how much they intend to build their forces further, but it isn't unrealistic to think that they could attack us as early as tomorrow if they wished. While that's unlikely, there is still the possibility of an attack coming soon, and while we have only minimal forces to confront them with, we will lose. That is where you and your Wonderbolts come in."
Luna's horn flashed, and a map of both Equestria and Mareitania appeared on the table, side by side, and she ran a hoof along the thin sliver of land that ran around the north of the Luna bay between the two countries. "Currently we don't know enough of our enemies plans to know how they would attack, but there's only one land route between our countries, and that would be the most likely avenue they would use, at least for their heavier forces such as steam tanks. It would be wise to concentrate our defences around that bridge, and around Vanhoover. However, we should not count on that being their only avenue of attack. That is where you come in for now."
Luna moved the map of Equestria aside to focus on the map of Mareitania. "We have no real idea of what is going on in Mareitania. While we might ask the griffons for information, there is no way we rely entirely on them as they could easily mislead us for some reason. Your first task will be for several of your members to create a comprehensive picture of what is happening in Mareitania."
"And the rest of us?" asked Fleetfoot.
"Training. The Wonderbolts will have to be expanded rapidly to deal with this new threat, meaning you will have to teach a lot of ponies how to fight."
Spitfire fought hard to hide her wince, and thought she had until she saw the way Luna was looking at her. "What new ponies might these be ma'am?"
Luna held her gaze for a moment before speaking, "First off, your replacements that were allowed to stay on after your return from Mareitania will have to be taught how to fight since I believe they missed that part of the training at the time. Then there's the reserves, who will be given a choice to join the Wonderbolts."
"A choice?"
"The reserves aren't actually a part of the E.U.P," Luna explained. "While they will be happily accepted into the Wonderbolts, we can't order them to, so it will have to be entirely voluntary. Further to that, every trainee that somehow failed to get into the reserves for reasons other than poor performance, or mental health issues, will be approached with an offer to join. Again, voluntarily. I will also be screening some of the pegasi in the Royal Guard to join you as well."
Spitfire was speechless for a moment at the idea of having to train all those ponies how to fight, and more importantly, how to kill. "Is there a purpose to doing all this training so fast?"
"Yes there is." Luna tapped a hoof on the map of Mareitania, "Once we know what's going on in Mareitania, that is when our biggest task begins. Working in conjunction with my Night Guard, it will be your job to sabotage, delay, and otherwise do whatever you possibly can to slow down any impending invasion of Equestria."
-0-0-0-
Luna stayed quiet as she slunk into the private quarters she shared with her sister. It had been a long couple of days, and she didn't want to make a noise in case Celestia was sleeping on the couch again. She needn't have worried though as Celestia was still very much awake, purely with the intention of speaking with Luna, and the flare of her horn as she filled a second cup of tea for her sister was the only announcement of her presence she gave.
"I thought you would be sleeping," said Luna, accepting the proffered cup in her own magic. "Thank you." Her nose wrinkled as she recognised the smell of camomile.
"I wished to talk to you before I retired, to see what your thoughts on all this was."
"My thoughts?" Luna sat down on a large cushion next to her sister and made herself comfortable. "My thoughts are you're asking me because things did not go so well with you."
"Mustangia stands with us."
"Mustangia?" Luna snorted dismissively. "A pony can spit across Mustangia. The few soldiers they could provide won't make much of a difference. What of Saddle Arabia? Surely they would at least consider helping?"
"I impression I got from them was that they don't think we're really in the danger we claim to be. The griffon ambassador was the only one who seemed to take the threat seriously, but there would be no way the Emperor would give us military aid. She did say that she could get us access to Griffonian intelligence on Mareitania, but I suspect you would rather rely on your own sources."
"You suspect correctly. I've given the Wonderbolts their orders, and in a week we should hopefully have all the intelligence on Mareitania we could ever want, except for what it is that Faust plans."
"Isn't that rather the whole point of gathering intelligence?"
"Then I shall have them go and ask her if it makes you feel better."
Celestia half smiled as she sipped from her cup, "The only thing that would make me feel better is if Faust decided to give up her entire idea of revenge on us, went into hiding, and never showed her face again. I'm afraid that might be some rather wishful thinking on my part though."
"Perhaps. Nevertheless, once we know the basics of what Faust plans against us, we can start buying ourselves some time. If she attacked in even a month's time, we would have no hope of standing against her army."
Celestia was silent for a moment, thinking to herself as to what the repercussions might be for making the first strike. She suspected that the aggression would only make the beings of other nations think even worse of Equestria. "Are you sure sabotaging the Mareitanians is really the best idea Luna?"
"Cease thinking like a politician for a moment sister, and consider the fact that we are horribly outnumbered. We need every little advantage we can muster Celestia, and while we have a little time what with dear 'Mother's' unfortunate dehorning, we should push for that advantage as much as we can."
"Yes, but..." Celestia sighed placed her cup down. "This is why I wished for you to lead the war effort. What you see as necessary steps to surviving this coming war, I see as needless aggression that will only serve to drive others further from us, and make winning this war harder. The only question there is which one of us is right?"
Luna smirked at Celestia, "Me, naturally, since our only allied country in this is the size of a hoofball field. They allied with us for their own protection if you remember?"
"Of course I remember, just as I remember you wanting to aggressively co-opt the Crystal Empire into Equestria after we had defeated Sombra."
"It would hardly be aggressive, and after the loss of their princess, the crystal ponies would have needed firm, fair, and strong leadership. I thought we would be doing them a favour. Not that it mattered in the end anyway, just as how driving away allies that already refuse to fight with us is hardly a big issue."
Celestia shook her head, "I still think that you're risking too much by making the first move. A strike on them could make them retaliate against us in a way we can't defend against."
Luna didn't reply. She knew what they were doing was a risk, but so was inaction. Frankly everything she might do now felt like a risk. There was one possibility that she hadn't mentioned before that could prevent what Celestia feared would happen. The problem was that it wasn't a plan that she was comfortable with herself.
"There is a third option," Luna said after a while. "I suspect you won't like it though."
"It must be drastic for you to even consider saying that to me." Celestia refilled her teacup, "Let's hear it."
"There is an idea that could stop us from looking too aggressive, slow Mareitania down, and prevent the loss of life amongst our own citizens."
Celestia raised an eyebrow at Luna's reluctance to simply tell her what the plan was. "Is there a reason why I wouldn't like any idea that can do all that?"
"Yes, because it involves provoking a war between Mareitania and Griffonia."
There weren't many situations where Celestia could be genuinely surprised, let alone surprised enough to perform a spit take, but as tea dribbled down Celestia's snout, and the window in front of her, Luna was at the very least pleased that she still possessed the ability to make Celestia do that.
"Absolutely not!" Celestia shouted once she had recovered enough to form coherent sentences. "What in your right mind made you even think of that?"
"Griffonia has an interest in Mareitania, regularly sends scouts over it for some reason, have their own army, and have an Emperor that tends to reply to slights with vengeance." Luna took a delicate sip of tea as she let her sister think about that. "The pieces are all there Celestia. All we would have to do is find a way to provoke the griffons into attacking Mareitania, especially now Mareitania is no longer under our protection. The easiest way would be to make it look like the Mareitanians had attacked a griffish patrol, and then make them think that Faust intends to come after them once she was done with us. The Emperor would never take such aggression lying down."
Celestia rubbed her head, unsure of what to think. "I'm not sure what's worse. That you thought of this plan in the first place, or that I listened to it without stopping you."
"You'll at least consider it then?"
"No. As much as I'm tempted to agree simply to save our ponies, I will not agree to such a plan. The griffons aren't responsible for Faust's release, just as they are incapable of stopping her. I will not condone the wholesale slaughter of griffons just to save our own skins." Celestia stood and started walking to her room, then stopped. "I will hear nothing more of that plan, understood?"
"Not a word will be said of it." Luna watched as Celestia nodded and continued on her way. Once the taller mare was gone, Luna poured her tea away, considering the vile stuff to taste reminiscent of lava. As much as she wanted to be a good sister and listen to Celestia, she was also not against ignoring her, and if the Wonderbolts returned with dire news, she was not against taking matters into her own hooves, and going completely behind her sisters back. |
The end of an era | 8. Special training | Rainbow opted to stay quiet as Spitfire led her, along with Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser, the others to have stepped up to replace Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot while they were in Mareitania, to a part of the Wonderbolts headquarters that Rainbow had seen plenty of times before, but had never been into; the mysterious hangar three.
Truthfully Rainbow didn't much care as she understandably had plenty of other stuff on her mind. Not least that she'd been asked to pack up a lot of her life and move to the Wonderbolts' headquarters, as she was now stationed there, or something. Even that paled in comparison to her friends being kidnapped, Twilight going off somewhere, and Pinkie... Rainbow wasn't sure what Pinkie was doing, but she was doing it without her friends, which she knew had to be crushing the poor mare.
"Why are there so many other ponies on base Captain?" Cloud Chaser asked as they flew towards the hangar. "I mean, some of them aren't even in the reserves."
"As of Princess Celestia's announcement yesterday, the reserves, some retirees, and even some washouts, are to be given the choice to become full members of the Wonderbolts. Equestria might be at war soon, and the Wonderbolts will be ready to do their part."
Thunderlane and Cloud Chaser shared a look, "What do you mean they'll be given the choice?"
"I mean just that. The reserves, and anypony else, get a choice over whether they want to join or not."
"But we didn't get a choice," Cloud Chaser said, sounding unsure.
Spitfire smiled without sympathy, "That's because you made your choice when you joined the Wonderbolts and took the oath. From that point on you were in both the E.U.P, as well as the Wonderbolts, meaning you recognised the possibility that you might be called to serve like you are now."
"Oh..."
"You aren't trying to back out of this, are you?"
"No!" Cloud Chaser said quickly. "I mean, no ma'am. I just- It's... just a bit scary. Don't worry Captain, Thunderlane and I have some payback to give for what they did to our friend Flitter."
"Alright," Spitfire glanced at Rainbow and shrugged, "but don't let your need for revenge cloud your judgement, or make you reckless. We're a team, remember." Spitfire landed in front of the hangar and opened a small door set in the larger one. She led them in and stepped aside to let them all have a look around. "Welcome to hangar three."
Row upon row of shelves filled the hangar, full to the brim with armour, weapons, and every conceivable thing a Wonderbolt could need to complete any mission.
"Woah..." Thunderlane looked up and down the shelves, "So, is this the Wonderbolts' armoury or something?"
"That's right," said Spitfire. "In here we have pretty much everything the Wonderbolts need to fight, except for enough armour since our numbers are being bumped up. But apart from that we have combat armour, hoofblades, some explosives we kept over from our time in Mareitania, smoke canisters, incendiary bombs, and a bunch of other stuff." Spitfire pointed sideways at Cloud Chaser as the mare teased a liquid filled glass orb out of a box, "Really, do not drop that, and not because it's probably older than your great grandmother."
Cloud Chaser carefully returned the orb to its place, "What are those?"
"Ogres and oubliettes nerds might call it alchemist's fire, and it does pretty much the same thing. Put simply, the stuff in that orb catches fire when it comes into contact with air. You throw it, it smashes, and boom! You got fire."
Cloud Chaser took a rapid step back from the box, "What the heck do we need that for?"
"At the moment, nothing. All that should concern you right now, is what I'm about to show you." Spitfire led them between the shelves, idly inspecting everything as she went. Apart from a bit of dust, everything appeared ready to go, which was good if the rest of the Wonderbolts returned with bad news. She stopped by the armour racks, picked up a helmet with attached muzzleguard, and tossed it at Thunderlane. He almost fumbled the catch, but managed to get hold of it, and noticed the marks on each side of the helmet.
"It has my cutie marks on it."
"That's right," said Spitfire, tossing another helmet at Cloud Chaser with her own marks on it. "Each Wonderbolt gets their own set of combat armour made the moment they join. For most Wonderbolts, the only time they ever wear it is during combat training, but it seems those times are about to change, and since you three skipped over your combat training when you joined, you're going to have to learn now instead. Spitfire threw another helmet to Rainbow, "Try them on."
Rainbow stared at the front of the helmet for a few seconds, then turned it around and slid it on. It fit perfectly. She clipped the muzzleguard in place and pulled the goggles down, finding the mix a bit claustrophobic, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. A moment later a full body suit with built in armour landed in front of her, Thunderlane, and Cloud Chaser.
"Suit up," Spitfire told them. "We have to go inspire some ponies to join us in a bit, so lets at least try to look the part."
The three of them wriggled into the suits, learning how to put them on with only sparse instructions from Spitfire as she was busy squeezing into her own suit. Rainbow pulled the final zip shut, and jigged up and down, pleasantly surprised by how light the whole ensemble was. It was probably going to drag a little, but otherwise it didn't restrict her movement in the slightest.
"Okay." Spitfire placed her own helmet on her head, "We have one more stop to make, then we'll go meet our new recruits. She led them back down the shelves towards the exit, and stopped in front of another set of racks containing hoof blades. She gave a set each to Rainbow, Thunderlane, and Cloud Chaser, then picked up the pair that had seen her through the war in Mareitania. Sure they might have broke her leg that one time, but they were still hers.
Cloud studied the weapons for a moment, seeming confused by them, "So we're not using wing-blades?"
There was a thunk as Spitfire gently head-butted a shelf. "Where do you ponies get these ideas about wing-blades? They're hard to make, hard to teach how to use, harder to learn how to use, and can be just as dangerous to the user as they can to their enemy. I think the griffon emperor's honour guards are the only ones to even use them as standard any more, and they're mostly just ceremonial.
"Oh. Sorry ma'am."
Spitfire strapped her blades into place on her back legs, put on the bracers on her front legs, then pulled one of the sturdy blades free. "Those blades are now yours, meaning that you maintain and clean them yourself while we're on deployment. They're made of toughened, stainless sky iron, and even though they aren't anywhere near as tough as thunder iron, they can take a beating before they break, and are more likely to break your leg first, as I found out the hard way. Feel free to customise the sheaths and bracers as you see fit, and even engrave or enchant the blades if you can find a unicorn capable of doing so. As I said, they are now yours."
"Neat." Cloud Chaser nudged Rainbow, "I bet Princess Twilight would be happy to enchant yours for you if you get the chance."
"Uh, yeah, sure, I guess."
"Are you okay Rainbow? You seem kinda off today."
"Considering what's been going on over the last few days, I don't know how you aren't." Rainbow pulled one of the blades out, "It doesn't matter how I feel about it anyway."
"I...suppose not."
Rainbow chose to ignore her as she slid the blade back into its sheath, then strapped the blades into place. She just started strapping the bracers on when Spitfire stopped her.
"Wrong way Dash. The bit that holds the blade goes on the front of your hoof."
"They do?" Rainbow spun the bracer around on her hoof. She didn't know a massive amount about hoof blades, but she was fairly sure you attached them to the back of your hoof. "Why?"
"They had a bit of a redesign after we got back from Mareitania. The old way was better for diving, but not much else. It'll make sense during your training, trust me. Anyway, get those on, and let's get moving; the new recruits should be gathered on the runway by now." Spitfire paused, "Okay, I say new recruits, but you know what I mean."
The short flight back to the runway was conducted in silence as each of them adjusted to flying in their armour. As Rainbow has expected, the armour dragged a little, but that was inconsequential to what she didn't think it would do. The insulated suit stopped her feeling the air moving over her body, which she'd never really thought about before. The display uniforms didn't have that issue, but the armour did, and as she wore it, Rainbow felt strangely detached from her movements, like her personal awareness was limited only to what she could see and hear.
"I guess that's why training in it is so important," Thunderlane said to Cloud Chaser as Rainbow caught the end of a short conversation. Clearly they were having similar issues to herself.
Stood in three rows on the runway were slightly less than fifty ponies, a mix of reserves in their uniforms, retirees from the Wonderbolts, and ponies that didn't quite make the cut to keep their place in the reserves. Rainbow wasn't surprised, although she was aghast, to see a turquoise pegasus with an amber coloured mane and tail standing amongst them. Rainbow was about to ask Spitfire why Lightning Dust had been called up here, but changed her mind as she remembered the mare was an exceptional flyer. It was just her attitude that sucked.
They landed in front of the gathered ponies, and waited a beat for all of them to snap to attention. Rainbow met Lightning Dust's eye, but rather than anger, or hatred, or any of the other emotions Rainbow expected to see on Lightning's face before the mare looked away, she saw shame. Rainbow wasn't about to give Lightning the full benefit of the doubt, or any really, and didn't think it was worth making a fuss over yet.
"Good morning everypony," Spitfire said after a few moments. "I'm not going to beat about the bush here. All of you should know the reason why you've been summoned here today, and if you don't I suggest you read a newspaper sometime. Equestria is in danger, and the Wonderbolts will be doing their part in whatever comes. However, to do that we will be expanding our numbers, and all of you will be given the option, yes, option, to join us if you so wish, because as reserves you are civilians, and I can't order you to join. This is entirely voluntary."
Spitfire stepped back and pointed at the white dotted line running up the middle of the runway. "Any of you that wish to join the Wonderbolts and fight with us through whatever comes, step forwards over this line. Before you do though, I want to remind you that we are a force of elite fliers in service to Equestria and its princesses, and if it comes to war, we will be in the thick of it. It will be tough, it will violent, and ponies will die. If you can't handle the thought of that, do not cross that line."
A hoof was held up, and Rainbow recognised it as belonging to Sky Stinger. She cursed internally, because if he joined, Vapor Trail was sure to follow, and she was...soft. Rainbow felt bad thinking it, but Vapor Trail was shy, demure, and almost as softly spoken as Fluttershy. Rainbow couldn't imagine her in a battle.
"So you're saying that if we cross that line we become Wonderbolts? No questions asked?"
"If you think you have what it takes, then yes. Bearing in mind that you will be soldiers, and you may be required to take lives in the execution of your duty." Spitfire stared hard at Sky Stinger, "I suggest you keep that in mind as you make your decision."
"Heck, as soon as I heard that they would be asking for volunteers to form an army, I was going to sign up anyway. At least this way I get to be a Wonderbolt too." Sky Stinger stepped forward over the line, then grinned back at the ponies behind them. "Best of the best, am I right?"
With the first pony over the line, others soon followed, and to give these ponies their due, there wasn't many that didn't. Among those that did were Vapor Trail, much to Rainbow's concern, and Lightning Dust, to her annoyance, but all of the washouts had seemed keen to join. Rainbow hoped that they decided to not repeat whatever got them kicked out in the first place. It seemed odd to her that the ones that didn't cross the line were a half dozen reserves.
"Okay," Spitfire said once it became clear that those on the far side of the line were staying there. "Those of you that joined, welcome to the Wonderbolts. Or welcome back," she added for those that had retired. "Those of you that didn't volunteer, you are dismissed, and can leave your uniforms at the barracks."
"What?" A pale brown mare with a bow in her red streaked hair waved her hoof for attention. "You never said anything about getting kicked out!"
"Sorry Angel Wings, but there are no reserves now, so if you didn't cross the line, you aren't in the Wonderbolts."
Angel Wings quickly stepped over the line, "I volunteer!"
"Too late Angel. The fact that you didn't cross that line already tells me you don't have what it takes to be a Wonderbolt."
"B-but, I-I-I can do this! I can!"
Spitfire sighed, then smiled gently at the distressed pegasus. "Maybe. Maybe not. Look, if you want to have a chance to join us again, enlist with the regular army, and after some time to prove yourself there, you'll definitely be considered for a place with us. The fact is though, you weren't immediately willing to cross that line to do your part to defend Equestria, and I don't want any pony that might cut and run at the first sign of trouble."
"But I wouldn't do that!"
"Sorry Angel, but my mind's made up. Do what I said and you'll have your chance again. But until then, you're dismissed."
Rainbow watched impassively as the now ex-reserves trudged off, and found herself a little jealous of them having the choice. If she had the choice, she'd go get Pinkie, and go with Twilight. She knew she still could technically, but she knew that would be extreme, even for her.
"Alright, for the rest of you, we have two weeks to turn you into the greatest fighting force Equestria has seen in centuries, which means your training starts today. Unfortunately we don't have enough uniforms for all of you yet, and we don't have enough training blades, so we'll be splitting into two groups. Fire Streak, you and the other retirees already know all this, so if you can start drilling half of them on combat manoeuvres, I'll start on the weapons training."
"Why aren't the other Wonderbolts doing this?" Fire Streak asked. He looked around the area, not seeing a single other Wonderbolt, except for Spitfire, Rainbow Dash, Thunderlane, and Cloud Chaser. "In fact, why aren't they even here? I don't see any of them."
"They're on a mission, so it's just us for now. Anyway, I want two even groups." Spitfire walked through the group, splitting them into two, "Group A will be doing manoeuvres and close quarters flying with Fire Streak, and group B's with me. Dash, Cloud, Thunder, you're with me as well. Dismissed."
Rainbow started following after Spitfire, and missed Lightning Dust falling into step beside her until the other pegasus spoke.
"Uh, hey, Rainbow."
"Lightning," Rainbow said back tersely.
"I just wanted to say congratulations on becoming a Wonderbolt. You really earned it."
Rainbow finally decided to look in Lightning's direction, and found that she was actually giving Rainbow a convincingly sincere smile. Rainbow didn't buy it for a second. She wasn't about to call Lightning out on it though. Not yet.
"Thanks," Rainbow said when she realised the pause was becoming a bit long.
"So, uh... You're friends with the princesses and stuff right? Is it really true about what they said about Mareitania turning on us? That we might be at war soon?"
"Do you really think this would be happening if it wasn't true?"
"I guess not, but this is kinda huge, you know?"
"Yeah, I do. And that means we'll be having to do everything we can to fight, which means working together. Don't think for a moment that I've forgotten anything you did at the academy, Lightning. You messed up bad, and if you think of acting like that again, I will be giving Spitfire my personal recommendation that you be kicked out again, you got me?"
Lightning took a step back, surprised at Rainbow's aggression. "I've changed Rainbow. I'm not like that anymore."
"Oh yeah? I guess we'll soon see how different you claim to be." Rainbow stepped up her pace and left Lightning behind. If she'd have known that Spitfire was going to invite her, she would have argued against it from the start. Hopefully Lightning's crappy attitude got her kicked out soon enough.
"Alright," Spitfire said, getting their attention while behind her the moustachioed ponies that seemed to hang around the academy set up straw training dummies, and wheeled out a rack of training blades. "Today you'll be learning how to dive, which is the simplest method of attacking a ground based target. However, get it wrong, and it can be just as deadly to you as it can your target."
Spitfire pulled some training blades out of the rack, and attached one to her bracers. "Now, for your safety, these are as blunt as hell." She swung the blade at some dandelions growing beside the runway, and failed to cut through most of them. "See? Unfortunately we don't have the new type of bracers for the training blades, so you'll be learning with the old ones on the back of the hoof, which are better for diving anyway."
"Actually," Cloud Chaser said nervously, "I was wondering why you don't have a blade attachment on the front and back of your hoof, so you can change your blade from front to back, depending on what you're doing."
Cloud Chaser grinned nervously as Spitfire spluttered, "That's... That's crazy talk. Who in their right mind would..." Spitfire waved one of the ponies setting up dummies over, and whispered into his ear for several seconds, whereupon he pulled out a note pad, jotted something down, then ran off. "Yeah... Anyway, I would normally talk you through a demonstration given by one of the others, but since I'm the only one here that knows how to do it, I guess you'll just have to pay attention."
"Captain?"
"Yes Rainbow?"
"I've been told how it's done by Princess Twilight, and I'd like to have a go if you don't mind?"
"By all means Dash, go ahead. Slide your bracers around so they're like the training ones first."
Rainbow did so, then flew straight up, the feeling that she was about to make a fool of herself creeping up on her as everypony watched from below. It took a few tries for her to reach back and slot her own blades into place, then once she was ready, she dived towards the dummy on the ground. The wind whistled in her ears as her target rapidly grew closer, and she swung her rear around so she was leading in with her back legs, bringing them down in the middle of the dummy's back, and plunging her blades into the shoulders of the dummy that collapsed beneath her and slammed into the ground. Hard.
"Aah!" Rainbow yelped as something went pop in her back legs, and she fell back so she ended up sitting on the dummy. "Ow!" Her ears twitched at the sound of slow clapping, and her cheeks burned as she saw it was Spitfire doing it.
"I gotta say Dash, that was the worst good attempt at that that I've ever seen, and was a great example of how to not do it. It was also only half a demonstration. Want to know what you did wrong?"
Rainbow flapped her wings until she hovered a few meters above the ground, and sheathed her weapons. "I came in too fast."
"Not really. As long as you can slow yourself enough you can do that as fast as you like. But you barely slowed yourself at all. You also forgot to take off again after, which is pretty important. In all fairness though you did lead in with your rear correctly, and I couldn't fault you on the stab, so I'll give you a c-minus for that. Good effort. I'm all out of gold stars though, so you'll have to imagine one."
"Yes Captain." Rainbow landed again, and squawked with pain as she put weight on her back legs. She collapsed onto her rear, and whimpered.
"And that is why it's so important to nail the landing," said Spitfire. "This method of attacking is pretty hard on your legs when you're doing it right, let alone doing it wrong. You okay Dash?"
"Yeah, I just need a minute."
"Alright, while Crash takes a minute there, I'll show you how to do it properly."
Rainbow stayed sat and idly massaged her throbbing hooves as Spitfire executed a perfect dive attack. Seriously, that dummy didn't know what hit it. Spitfire ran through it again just in case they didn't get it, then pointed at her first victims to have a go.
"Alright Sky, show me what you got."
"Sure thing." Sky Stinger soared up and readied himself to dive. He fumbled about for a moment, then dropped one of his blades, which fell right onto the dummy, barely disturbing it as the blade stuck in its back.
"That's one way to do it," Spitfire deadpanned. "How about you spend a minute there working out how to draw your weapons without dropping them while Vapor has a go." Ponies chuckled as Sky's cheeks burned with shame.
Vapor managed to draw her weapons first time, and set into a smooth dive that wasn't too fast or too slow. She swung her rear into the lead, and flared her wings to slow herself before landing neatly on the back of the dummy and stabbing it just in front of her own hooves. She then overbalanced and fell forward, bumping her nose on the ground. "Oof!"
"Nice try, but your stab was too near your landing point, which is why you fell over there. Get yourself together and have another go in a minute."
Spitfire pointed at Thunderlane to have a go on a different target, leaving Vapor to try and get up on her own with her blades still attached. She tried to stand, failed, then flapped her wings once and groaned. Rainbow was about to get up and help her when Lightning trotted over and helped her up into a sitting position.
"You alright there...Vapor?"
"Yeah, I'm okay." Vapour wrinkled her nose and sneezed cutely, making Lightning chuckle. "Sorry."
"Don't be. That was freaking adorable."
"Voted the greatest sneeze in Stratusburg," said Vapour, blushing.
"Yeah, I can believe it. I'm Lightning Dust."
"Vapor Trail. I don't think I've seen you before. Are you in the academy?"
"I...was. It's a long story."
"Oh, okay. I guess I better have another go at a dive. Nice to meet you Lightning."
"And you." Lightning held a smile as Vapor flew off, and kept holding it, as much as it confused Rainbow. She expected Lightning to make some little comment insulting Vapor or something, but nothing happened until Spitfire called Lightning up for her own go. She nailed it perfectly.
-0-0-0-
"Okay, nice work guys. Tomorrow we'll be trading places with Fire Streak's group, which is going to be one hell of a workout for some of you, so get rested. Wake up call's at six in the morning. Don't miss it."
Most of them collapsed to the ground as Spitfire flew off, including Rainbow, but that had more to do with a desperate need to get out of her armour. As light as it was, it really did get a bit much after a while, and seemed to collect sweat. Once she had it off, she gathered it in her hooves and chased after Spitfire. "Spitfire! Wait up!"
"Is there a problem Dash?"
"I... I wanted to talk to you about some of the ponies here. Are you sure all of them are really what you're looking for?"
"Anypony you particularly have in mind?"
"One or two," Rainbow admitted guiltily. "No offense to any of them; they're all great fliers, but I don't think they're all made of stern enough stuff for what we're going to be doing."
"And you are?"
"Huh?"
"I know what you've done Dash, and I know you've had some experience in a fight, but you've never had to take a life, have you?"
"No, of course not."
"Then to me you're no different to any of the others here. Who knows how you'll react when push comes to shove, and you find yourself having to kill or be killed." Spitfire sighed as Rainbow looked down at the ground, "Look, I know not everypony is cut out for this, and I imagine we'll have a few drop out before the end of the week, but right now, you're all equal, and I won't be taking anypony out unless they either want to, or simply can't keep up with what's expected of them."
"And what about Lightning Dust? You know what she's like! Do you really think she's capable of working as a team through this?"
"Ah." Spitfire chuckled slowly, "So that's what this is about. I'm not going to lie Dash, I had second thoughts about asking her to come here, but all things said, she was an excellent flier. If she's still a reckless glory hound, then she'll soon find herself out again, but so far she's been nothing but helpful and decent to the other recruits. Maybe she learnt her lesson after last time? Give it time Dash, and we'll see if she's still the pony we remember her to be.
-0-0-0-
Five minutes after closing her eyes, it was dawn. Or at least that's what it felt like as they were rudely awoken by a bugle being sounded right outside the barracks. A second later the door banged open, and Spitfire entered, looking far too pleased with herself over what she was doing.
"Up and at 'em ponies! We have a long day ahead of us, so let's get moving. I want you all up and out on the runway in the next forty five minutes! Normally I'd do an inspection, but I think we can skip that today. Tomorrow though... Not a chance. Now get moving!"
Rainbow calmly got up and made her bed as ponies scrambled around her, the fear of Spitfire powering their every action. She wasn't so worried though, and stayed that way as she washed and breakfasted, and still managed to be on the runway before most of the others. They'd learn.
"Keen to get going Dash?" Spitfire asked playfully.
"I'll never learn to sleep on my hooves if I keep sleeping in bed instead."
"Well you must be asleep now because you seem to have forgotten something."
"I have?" Spitfire patted her armour, then nodded at the display uniform Rainbow had put on. "Aw shoot! Be right back!"
By the time Rainbow had forced herself into her armour, strapped on her blades, and found her helmet, she was very definitely the last there. All the impatiently watching ponies made that very clear. "Sorry."
"Uh-huh," Spitfire grunted. "Now that you're all here, good morning! I hope you're all ready for a fun filled day of activities that that will be lasting until the sun goes down." Spitfire grinned evilly as the assembled ponies groaned. "Welcome to the Wonderbolts ponies. Fire Streak, your group will be on weapons training, while my group, we're going to having some fun. Fall out."
Spitfire waited as Fire Streak led his group away. "Now they're gone, let me explain what we're doing. Close quarters flying, or c.q.f, is the skill of flying through narrow spaces. Now I can almost hear you thinking 'that sounds easy,' and it is, but it is also very necessary. If you find yourself fighting in a urban environment, you'll be thanking your lucky stars for this. Follow me."
Spitfire led them to a hole in the ground on the edge of the plateau. "I'm sure you're all familiar with this from the flag hunt we do in the academy, but this is just part of a larger system of caves that go all through the plateau. We've set up a course that you'll be flying, three at a time, while another three fly it in the opposite direction. Your objective is to stick together, make it all through the course, and not collide with the team coming in the opposite direction."
"That's insane," one of the ponies there said quietly to another.
"Hardly," said Spitfire, who heard them perfectly well. "In combat in a city, you will not be aware of where all the other flyers are, and you may well find yourself having to very quickly make enough room for oncoming ponies, while not hitting the sides of any buildings. This is about as close to that as you can get without learning about it firsthoof. Now let's get going. Cloud, Dash, and Thunder, you're up first, against Sky, Vapor, and..." Spitfire smirked at Rainbow, "Lightning Dust. Pick who's leading you, and get ready."
"Alright Dash, you're the best flier here, so I think you should lead," said Cloud Chaser.
Rainbow was about to accept when she thought of the other team, and who was in it. "Actually, I think you should lead Cloud. You're better at cornering, and I know I'll go too fast with them coming the other way."
"Really? Wow. Okay then."
They waited as the other group picked their leader, and Rainbow was surprised to find Lightning being quiet, neither asking to lead, nor suggesting others to lead. Sky Stinger was less so, but agreed on letting Vapor lead in this case.
Their leaders decided, they took positions on either side of the hole, and waited for Spitfire's signal. "The tunnel splits left and right past here. Cloud, you're going right. Vapor, you're going left. Follow the markers through the caves, and don't crash." Spitfire held her whistle up to her mouth and blew a shrill signal to begin.
All of the ponies leapt up and dived into the hole, alternating between ponies on each team so they didn't collide. Rainbow ended up going last, following just to the side and behind Thunderlane, just as he followed behind Cloud as she navigated the way through the steep dive that came out of a cave into the open air halfway down the side of the plateau.
A marker on a cloud pointed straight up in a steep climb that led to a narrow, vertical entrance, that they had to loop around and fly into sideways to enter. The tunnel opened out on the other side, and they found themselves gliding down a gentle decline with a few horizontal and vertical pillars of rock that they had to dodge around. It occurred to Rainbow that none of these cave formations could be natural.
At the bottom the tunnel went flat, and they caught sight of the cave going left in an impossibly tight turn, but they went past it into a dead end with a flat surface at the end that had a U-turn arrow painted on it. All of them shifted in the air so their rear legs hit the giant sign, and they used it to launch themselves in the opposite direction, and followed the signs that pointed up the tunnel they missed. A tunnel the other group was coming down.
Rainbow threw herself to the side, rolling so her stomach almost scraped the rock, and even then she felt the tip of a feather run down her back as the others squeezed through whatever space there was. Then, in the blink of an eye, the other team was past them, and Rainbow fully understood why this was so important, and thanked Celestia none of them were holding their weapons.
With the other team having passed them, Cloud upped the pace a bit, and quickly led them up a curving incline that eventually turned back on itself, so they had to roll to remain level to the ground. Then there was only some narrow bends that they had to quickly bank from side to side to get through, and then they found themselves flying up through the exit at the top of the plateau.
"Nice work you guys." Spitfire checked her stopwatch, "Hardly an academy record, but still pretty good. How'd the pass go?"
"Pretty hairy," said Thunderlane. "I think I smacked Vapor in the face with the tip of my wing."
"Mmhmm," Spitfire said thoughtfully. "And that would another reason why we don't use wingblades, Cloud Chaser."
"Yes ma'am. No kidding ma'am. I thought smacking my head against Sky's ass was bad enough."
They all looked up as the other team soared up and out of the hole and looped back down to the ground. Spitfire checked her stopwatch again and frowned, "I know it wasn't the point of the exercise, but that was a little slow there guys."
"Sorry," Vapor murmured. "I got nervous about the others coming the other way, and slowed down a bit too much."
"I figured. I'm going to say this now; a slow pegasus is a dead pegasus in battle, so you're going to have to push yourself a little. Still, this was your first time, and there was no serious collisions, so good work all of you. Next teams!"
The first six took a break as two more teams took their positions and flew into the course. Rainbow stretched out onto her back, enjoying the break they had, however short it might be. She was about to congratulate Cloud on getting them through it, when she overheard Vapor.
"I'm sorry I didn't go fast enough guys. If this was a real battle I'd have gotten you killed."
"Hey, no worries," Lightning said as Sky side-hugged his best friend. "This is training right? This is what training's for. A bit more practice, and we'll be through there in no time."
"Really?" Rainbow said before she could stop herself. "You hate going slow!"
"And I still do, but I'm not the only pony in this team, and I'm not like that any more! Sure, the old me would've insisted on leading, gone too fast, left the others behind, and not cared as long as I got through. And the old me would've failed the course. Seriously Rainbow, get off my case."
-0-0-0-
"Okay, I hadn't planned on this today, but apparently some antsy folks took my request for some Royal Guards to train with very seriously, because they're here already." Spitfire gestured back at the dozen grey unicorns in their golden armour, "Any guesses what they're for?"
Nopony said anything, or held up a hoof, until Rainbow hazarded a guess. "Is this to do with those unicorn soldiers in Mareitania?"
"Partially," said Spitfire. "The Adepts are a dangerous bunch at the best of times, but, for anypony that knows the basic rules of pony versus pony combat, they are especially dangerous for pegasi. While they have range, nothing short of a tornado is going to worry them against pegasi. They can shoot us at distance, then shield themselves as we get close, and basically give us a very hard time. We are going to be learning how to counter that as best we can."
With a signal from Spitfire, the guards drew into a circle and raised their horns, forming a silvery shield that Spitfire flew over and stood on. "We'll do the simpler thing first, and learn how to bust shields. And I mean it when I say simple." Spitfire jumped up and slammed her hooves on the shield, barely even touching it. "On your own you have no chance, unless you've rediscovered the ancient art of throwing lightning off your wings. In a group though..."
Spitfire picked out a dozen of the trainee Wonderbolts. "You want to concentrate on as small a part of the shield as possible for greater effect. All of you concentrate a kick at the top of the shield."
The dozen ponies she picked out kicked at the shield, focusing at the point Spitfire said. The shield shimmered, and cracks formed in it, but it didn't break. The cracks filled back in as the guards repaired the shield.
"Okay, now do a dive and kick." Spitfire waited as the trainees complied, and grinned as the shield collapsed. "See? What did I tell you? Easy peasy. Of course, half as many earth ponies could kick that shield down twice as easy, but we aren't going to able to rely on that. Now, the rest of you have a go, and we'll move onto the fun stuff."
Once everypony had a go, they were obviously pleased to discover that the fun stuff would consist of being shot at by the guards. "A pegasi's greatest asset past their wings, and maybe legs, is their eyesight," Spitfire started to explain. "We can see things coming other ponies might not, including magic. As fast as it is, a sharp eyed pegasus can easily dodge incoming magical blasts, which is good, because these gentleponies here are going to spend the next five minutes trying to hit you. Have fun!"
"Wait? Are you serious?" Rainbow asked Spitfire, only to find the other mare cheerfully flying away. Then the sky became remarkably busy as bolts of silvery magic started shooting up into the sky from the guards below. Several quickly found their targets, and there were a few short screams until they worked out the magic being directed at them was totally harmless, and didn't so much as tickle. Then they started trying to dodge them.
Rainbow dodged to the right, narrowly avoiding being hit, then dodged to the right again as another bolt of magic almost hit her. "Fly around," she said loud enough for the others to hear. "We're sitting ducks like this!" To make her point, Rainbow started flying around, keeping an eye on what came from below, as well as the other trainees.
"Damn it!" one of the others cursed. "They're still hitting us."
"They're predicting our paths," said Lightning. "Try flying around randomly."
After a few minutes the hits ponies took grew less and less, until it was mostly by luck that the guards were hitting them at all. Spitfire called a stop to the activity to promise them even more fun.
"I see you've all mostly mastered not getting shot at a distance. Bravo. Now it's time to put it all into practice. Dodging at this distance is easy enough, but it gets harder and harder the closer you get, which is why we're going to make it a bit of a challenge for you. You'll be divided into squadrons of twelve, and your objective will be to take those unicorns down. Gently, mind you."
Spitfire took an inkpad off one of the instructors, "This will be your weapon. When one of those guards gets a hoofprint on him, he is out of the fight. On the other hoof, their magic will now sting, and you will know when it hits you. If you get hit anywhere on your body and wings, you're out, otherwise the rest is entirely up to you. Hits on tails are allowed."
Rainbow found herself teamed up with Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane in their little trio again, while Sky Stinger, Vapor Trail, and Lightning Dust made up another wing of their team. The other six were a mix of ex-retirees and reserves, whom Rainbow hoped knew their stuff. They each dipped a hoof in the ink pad, and took to the skies.
"What's the plan Fire Streak?" Rainbow asked, hoping that the retiree's experience might help them out.
"Split up into your wings and attack from all sides. The more spread their attention is, the better. They'll switch to their shield once we're close enough, so we'll need to work together to bring that down. Past that though..." Fire Streak shrugged, "All you have is luck then I'm afraid."
Sky Stinger scoffed, "And what is that supposed to mean?"
"You'll find out soon enough."
A whistle from below informed them it was time to begin, and they split up into their wings. They spread out and flew away before looping back around to converge on the ring of guards. Rainbow dived down then flew low, weaving side to side as randomly as she could, hoping the lower trajectory would confuse the guards. She was horribly wrong, and Thunderlane squealed girlishly as a blast of magic hit him on the side. Elsewhere other pegasi were squeaking as they found the shorter distance between them and the unicorns much harder to dodge in.
Rainbow pulled up as they got much closer, ready to work together with the others to slam down on the shield, only the shield never came, and two more pegasi were taken out as the unicorns kept firing. Lightning shoved Rainbow out of the way of a bolt of magic, surprising her.
"Attack them! Now!" Lightning shouted before diving back down. Rainbow and the remaining members of their squadron quickly followed, and made to attack the unicorns. It didn't work as they hoped.
One of the unicorns grabbed Cloud Chaser in his magic while another blasted her, quickly taking her out of the fight. A trio of guards shot Lightning down, but not before she could slap her hoof on a fourth. Rainbow caught sight of Fire Streak as he rolled low to the ground and slapped his hoof on the ass of a guard, but another caught him and dragged him to the ground before taking him out of the fight.
With most of their squadron taken out, Rainbow decided she could at least take one or two with her, and flew as fast as she could towards one of the guards with her hoof outstretched. She almost reached him when she felt something tug at her, stopping her almost immediately. Then magic grabbed her hoof and very purposefully pressed it against her own face.
One of the guards stood in front of Rainbow and grinned as she remained frozen on the spot. "Poor, poor Wonderbolts. You think you know everything," he said before blasting her point blank on the chest.
"Eep!" Rainbow squeaked as the magic stung as much as was promised, and she flopped to the ground and curled up as the guard released her. She remained there until she saw Spitfire standing over her and tutting.
"That's just embarrassing Rainbow. In fact I dare say this entire thing was embarrassing. A dozen of you against a dozen of them, and they lost only three, while you were wiped out in seconds. And Rainbow, you don't attack unicorns low. They have a much harder time looking up and aiming than they do against what you did. Now get yourselves up so another bunch can have a go."
Rainbow took the hoof Thunderlane offered her, and let him pull her to her hooves. "I guess that could have gone better."
"No kidding." Rainbow tried to rub the ink off her face. "This better not stain." She stopped rubbing as she saw Lightning pull one of the others up, and surprised herself by feeling guilty. Lightning had pushed her out of the way of a magic bolt. If this had been real, Lightning would have just saved her life. "Aw nuts. Lightning, can we talk?"
"Uh, sure, I guess." Lightning sounded as surprised that Rainbow was asking, than Rainbow felt by asking. "What's up?"
"Okay, first I want to apologise. I just assumed you would be like you used to be, and I'm sorry for not accepting you might change. I mean, if this was real you would have saved my life by pushing me out the way of that magic."
Lightning shrugged lazily, "Hey, no worries. All that stuff that happened is in the past, right?"
"Yeah, I guess." Rainbow laughed nervously, "Funny you should say it like that though. What happened to you since I last saw you? I thought you'd hate my guts if you saw me again."
"Oh, I did, don't you worry. If I'd have known where you lived I might have paid you a visit if you know what I mean. From my perspective, you got me kicked out of the Wonderbolts, and completely crushed my dreams. Believe me when I say I might well have hospitalised you if I saw you again."
Rainbow grinned cheekily at Lightning, "You could have tried." Rainbow smiled as Lightning rolled her eyes, "So what changed to make you stop hating me?"
"I did. My life basically crumbled around me. I had nothing to look forward to, or work for, or anything. The one thing I wanted above all else was gone, and all I had left was my hatred of you. And maybe Spitfire. I stopped going to work, I stopped paying my bills, and I stopped washing for like a month, which was pretty grim. I was solidly sitting on rock bottom, and I reached the point that I was so consumed with ineffectual anger I had to either kill myself, or accept that maybe... just maybe, you were right about me."
Rainbow was shocked, and it took her a moment to get herself together enough to speak. "You tried to kill yourself?!"
"No... I admitted you were right about me..." Lightning pulled a face at Rainbow, "Are you even listening?"
"Yeah, sorry. I just-" Rainbow shook her head, "Sorry. Carry on."
"There's not much more to tell. I got help dealing with my anger, and tried my best to start becoming a better pony. A pony more like you. Got another job, started paying rent again, and tried to build a life for myself where I wasn't a Wonderbolt. Of course, I still love flying, so when the news about Mareitania and the possibility of war came out, and I got the summons from Spitfire, I knew this was my chance to really prove I'm a better pony now, and do something good, y'know?"
"A pony more like me huh?" Rainbow sighed as Lightning blushed and nodded. "You might want to aim a little higher than that, because I'm very capable of being a total jerk."
"Yeah, I've noticed, but at least you realise when you're doing it, and apologise."
Rainbow thought of the way she'd sometimes treated Twilight over the last six months, and silently disagreed. "Not always. Still, I gotta say I like the new you, so is it okay if we give being friends another go without either of us being jerks?"
"Sounds good to me." Lightning held out a hoof, and Rainbow bumped her own against it. "I'm still faster than you though."
"Oh yeah? In your dreams Lightning. How many sonic rainbooms have you done lately?"
"That doesn't count."
"Sure it doesn't."
Lightning was about to retort when Spitfire shouted at them. "Hey, lovebirds! You're up again, so get back into your squadron, and get moving!"
"Yes ma'am!" they both responded together.
"Come on Rainbow, we'll get them this time."
"Yeah we will."
-0-0-0-
Spitfire watched with increasing despair as the unicorn guards once again picked apart and utterly defeated the Wonderbolts attacking them.
"It's going to be a long two weeks," she sighed. |
The end of an era | 9. Ponies with questionable intelligence | Fleur straightened her uniform. The uniform that she was very surprised to be wearing. When she approached Luna about the possibility of working with Equis, she hadn't expected anything in particular about the group, and in hindsight suspected she should have. She thought they'd be more like the Shades in Mareitania, which were far less formal. Equis however, at the very least required their liason to the princesses and other branches of the military to wear a dress uniform, with an extremely well starched collar.
"You look decidedly uncomfortable," the filly said conversationally.
"I'm pretty sure that if I bend my neck too far this collar is going to cut me."
The filly rolled her eyes, "That's not what I meant in the slightest. I was referring to you being the bearer of bad news to the princesses. Just what you want in your first week on the job."
Fleur fiddled with her collar one last time, then sighed explosively, "I guess it was foolish to think they'd give me some safe little job somewhere, shuffling papers around. Especially after they found out I worked with Luna and the Wonderbolts in Mareitania."
"Look on the bright side! Now you can talk like Trixie and be all 'Equis reports,' and 'Equis can confirm,' and stuff!"
"A tendency to talk like Trixie is hardly something to aspire to filly."
The filly sat up and smiled at Fleur," Look, I can tell you're nervous. Perhaps you'll feel better about it if you practice what you're going to tell the princesses on me first?"
Fleur flicked the filly on the end of her nose, "Nice try filly. You know I can't tell you any of this. Quite frankly I don't know why they let you come with me this far as it is. I'm also still incredibly unimpressed you got yourself suspended just to come and support me."
"Oh pfft, whatever. The filly lazily waved a hoof in Fleur's direction, "I hardly need practice crossing my i's and dotting my t's, and what's the point of learning about ancient history when you now know half of it's a lie. Seriously, all the time spent learning about Equestria's founding was really not time well spent."
"Education is kinda important, especially considering what you just said."
"And how much education had you had by my age, huh? I'm almost the same age you were when you left Mareitania, and look how you turned out. Quite frankly, you could hardly read by my age according to you, and now you're working for Equestria's intelligence service." The filly sighed and crossed her forelegs, "And frankly, no amount of telling me is going to convince me algebra is necessary for anything."
"I'm sure it's useful for something filly."
"You could just let me go with Twilight. I'm sure I'll learn loads with the Princess of books."
"She's also the Princess of flashbacks, panic attacks, and having loads to do without you pestering her. You aren't going, and that's final."
"Please? You could make it an early heart's warming present."
"It's hearth's warming, and no. Really filly, I don't know why you keep asking, because the answer is no, and will always be no."
"But it's so boring here! I mean it! Even with the random monster attacks, Equestria is just so safe and... saccharine, it sickens me!"
Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes as the filly tried to look serious. "And struggling to survive day after day was so much better? Really? Stop being a dick about this filly, because Equestria might be at war soon, and we'll all have more excitement than any of us ever wanted."
"You say that like you've never been in a war before."
"Yeah," Fleur waved her scarred leg at the filly, "because I certainly don't have something to remind me of that every damned day. Now shut up, stop asking, and stay here because judging by the guard watching us with a weird expression, I have to go work now."
"Fine, fine..." The filly shooed Fleur away with a hoof, "Go do your thing. I'll be right here when you're done."
"Fleur raised a suspicious eyebrow at the filly, "Really?"
"Yes really. Twilight would only send me back at this point, so there's no point in me trying to sneak off after her. I'll be right here when you're done doing that thing you're going to go and do."
"Good." Using her magic, Fleur picked up her bag containing all the papers she needed for her briefing. "Now wish me luck." Fleur smiled at the guard, then followed after him as he led her through Canterlot Castle, making sure to keep her breathing under control so as to not betray how nervous she was.
The guard stopped at a door that had very recently acquired a new shiny brass plate saying 'War room,' which Fleur could only take to mean was a room meant for sitting around talking about war, rather than a special room for getting into fights in. She waited for the guard to open the door, then walked in. The room was mostly empty at this point, apart from a large round table in its middle, around which sat Princess Luna, Captain Spitfire, and Captain Greywhisker.
"Good afternoon Fleur," Luna said as Fleur entered and laid her papers on the table. "I see Equis took my advice and made you into our liason."
"You suggested this?"
"But of course. We know each other Fleur, and I know you won't sugar-coat anything just because I'm a 'princess,'" Luna said, adding air quotes for the final word. "I also figured it suited you better than fieldwork, or anything along those lines. Now come and tell us the good news, should there be any."
"Actually, the news isn't as bad as initially thought. I don't know how much Captain Spitfire has already heard from her Wonderbolts, but if she hasn't told you already, Mareitania is far from ready to attack us with a full scale invasion."
"Actually, my Wonderbolts are sworn to secrecy," said Spitfire. She blanched at the face Fleur made at her. "What? I'm not about to give away the fact that I've heard all this before that easily."
"Uh-huh."
"I also had to deliver a sensitive piece of intelligence directly to the princesses, so, yeah, I've heard some things."
"Oh? So now we're skipping over Equis entirely?"
Luna cleared her throat just loud enough to stop then haranguing each other. "Actually that had more to do with the special nature of what they found, and how it affects ponies."
"Yeah," said Spitfire. "The fact that we had to wrestle it out of Sun Chaser's hooves told us enough about it being dangerous."
"Really? So are you going to tell me about it? By me I mean Equis, of course."
"Certainly," said Luna. "Once you have delivered your briefing."
"Now?" Fleur looked around at the three other ponies in the room. "Aren't we going to wait for the others to get here?"
"There are no others," Luna told her. "Up until the point that Equestria has an army to deploy, the only ones actively engaged in Equestria's defence are the Wonderbolts and my Night Guard. Everypony else is busily working on building said army, and have hardly even begun recruiting as yet."
"Okay, so I should just get on with this then?"
Luna nodded once, "Please."
"Okay then..." Fleur placed a large scroll on the table, then unrolled it to show a large map of Mareitania. On it she placed several photos at various points. "Y'know, I really am glad somepony thought to give the Wonderbolts cameras for this. Uh, anyway, I want you to bear in mind my complete lack of formal training for this."
"You did fine in Mareitania," said Luna. "I'm sure you'll do fine here too. Now tell us what these pictures are for."
"Uh, let's start with this one." Fleur pushed a photo towards Luna that showed an aerial view of Puddingarde keep. Within its grounds were a few hundred ponies. "As far as we can tell, Puddingarde is still being used as a training ground for their military. As you can see, there are plenty of ponies there, but not as many as predicted."
"But there are hundreds there," Spitfire pointed out.
"Yes, but there could be thousands. Whatever Faust has planned to get all the ponies of Mareitania on her side, she clearly hasn't done it yet, or it's not as effective as she hoped. Either way, it's slowing her down."
Luna studied the photo for a moment, then nodded. "How many soldiers do you think she has?"
Fleur placed a photo in front of Luna showing High Rock keep, and all around it was a mass of tents. "The highest estimate we currently have between what's at High Rock, Puddingarde, and other places around Mareitania, is fifteen thousand, which brings it back up to what it was when the civil war ended. How many of those soldiers are totally on her side though, is an entirely different matter. The point is that they have enough to invade with, but not very quickly."
"Yes..." Luna studied the two photos side by side. "A good defence could hold them off for some time if we put it in the right place. I doubt it would be that simple though."
"It isn't." Fleur slid another photo over to Luna, depicting a factory in Stalliongrad. Outside it were dozens of steam tanks. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you how those are bad news."
"A counter will be found," Luna said dismissively. "Besides, without the explosives I produced for them, those things are less terrifying than they appear to be."
"There's nothing saying they haven't learnt to mass produce their own explosives."
Luna froze for several seconds, then sighed bitterly as she supposed Fleur could be correct. "Even so, a counter will be made for them. Frankly, without magical fire and pegasi to supply them with water, they will suffer the same problems as when the Duke fielded them against us."
"Not...necessarily." Fleur cringed under Luna's gaze. "These tanks do appear to be larger, and although we have no way to confirm this, we suspect that the extra room might be used to store water and coal, allowing the tanks to operate for longer."
"Marvellous," Luna said dryly. "Still, as I said before, a counter will be found. Now perhaps you can tell us of any other weapons they might have developed."
"Apart from the net launchers to use against pegasi, none that we know of. Of course that doesn't mean there aren't any, but the Wonderbolts could only see so much."
Spitfire pointed her hoof at a picture to the north-east of Stalliongrad on the map, showing a blurry image of a few dozen ponies standing around a few tents. "What are they doing there? Another secret project like the steam tanks?"
Fleur raised an eyebrow at Spitfire's question, "You mean you don't already know?"
"Misty said she only spotted it by chance, and she didn't know what it was either."
"Y'know, your Wonderbolts really need to review just what exactly 'sworn to secrecy' really means. They shouldn't all be telling each other what they found like they went on a sightseeing tour of Mareitania."
"Just tell us what you think it is," Spitfire sighed.
Fleur eyed Spitfire for several seconds before speaking. "Honestly, we don't know either, but judging by where it is in the mountain's north of Stalliongrad, and the mostly civilian presence, we suspect they're simply surveying for further mining opportunities."
"Then why have soldiers there at all?"
Fleur shrugged, not knowing why either. "Protection from wild animals?" she suggested. "Or the army likes to have its hoof in every pie that affects their war effort. I'm afraid I'm just the messenger Captain, not an analyst, so I don't really know."
"So we can conclude it's likely not important," said Luna. "Perhaps we should keep an eye on it at least. Apart from that though, are there any imminent threats we should know about?"
"Imminent, no, but there is something we should definitely do something about before it becomes imminent." Fleur placed another picture in front of Luna, showing dozens of ocean faring ships lined up along the banks of the Mareissippi river, the place of which she also highlighted on the map.
"Good heavens," Luna murmured. "They're assembling an armada. That could easily land a couple thousand soldiers anywhere around the east coast of Equestria within a couple of weeks."
"And they're still building more," said Fleur. She passed over another picture showing a set of very basic dry-docks. "From what we were told by the Wonderbolts, and from some griffon intelligence, these dry-docks are at Whiplash, or Brayside, whichever, and that they're using prison labour to build them."
"Prison labour? They would need a lot of ponies to build that many so quick, so I suppose that makes sense." Luna studied the pictures for a moment, and saw that they looked like many of the merchant ships that Equestria had been sending there before the current crisis arose. "They copied our ships."
"It looks that way," Fleur agreed. "I imagine these are the first ocean faring ships built in Mareitania in over a millenium, so I guess it made sense to copy our ships. At the very least they can't easily get a tank on them, so that's something."
"That's irrelevant," Luna said sharply. "These ships need to be destroyed. That way we force them to attack us over the pass around the north of Luna bay. It seems we have our first target to slow their invasion."
"Actually," Fleur said slowly, "Equis has some recommendations if you're willing to hear them out?"
"Of course," Luna said kindly. "Anything to slow our enemy down."
"Okay, first we suggest tearing up the railway between Equestria and Mareitania. At the moment they could put a train full of soldiers into Vanhoover within the day. They can also use a train to transport their tanks at much higher speeds than the tanks could go themselves."
"A fair observation," Luna agreed. "I shall begin having them dismantled before the day is out. Was there anything else?"
"There is. The wood to build their ships is coming from the forests around Hoovendale. We recommend hitting their lumber operations there as well as the dry-docks around Whiplash. Destroying both of those would bring their ship building efforts to a standstill for weeks."
"Yes, very good. I think we all kn-"
"We also recommend not destroying the ships." Fleur cringed as Luna glared at her.
"I hope you have a good reason for that patently absurd suggestion."
"I do, or at least Equis does. The idea was to wait for them to set sail, then burn their ships at sea..."
"Thus killing thousands of their soldiers in one fell swoop..." Luna sat back and breathed out slowly as she tried to wrap her head around the idea. Considering the disparity in numbers between Mareitania and Equestria, taking out a large number of their soldiers without loss sounded ideal, but such mass killings were hardly the nicest idea. "This is a truly dark suggestion you are giving to me Fleur."
"I know, and I really don't blame you if you ignore it."
"Surely," Spitfire spoke up, trying to keep a tremor out of her voice, "if that was the idea we went with, surely it would be better to let them build more ships to put more soldiers on?"
If Luna was surprised by Spitfire's suggestion, she didn't show it. "You support this idea?" she asked the pegasus quietly.
"I- I'm not sure. It's drastic, but drastic might be the only thing stopping us from being overrun before we're ready for them."
Luna sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "I daresay that if Celestia, Shining Armour, and anypony else were here they'd dismiss this idea as too extreme. I however, cannot deny the attraction of it, as reprehensible as the idea might be. You said that their army is not ready to attack yet Fleur?"
"They could, but we don't think they're willing to do so until they have the numbers to truly overwhelm us."
"Even though they could already," Luna muttered. "The longer they wait, their numerical advantage shrinks, not grows. With the Royal Guard, Night Guard, Wonderbolts, Crystal Legion, and the soldiers from Mustangia when they arrive, Mareitania still outnumbers us two to one. Surely their plan cannot be to wait for us to build an army and grow stronger."
"Perhaps Faust showed her hoof too soon Mistress," said Captain Greywhisker, the first thing he'd said since the meeting began. Fleur had been beginning to think he was mute.
"Possible. She has displayed impatience in using magic to control Mareitania, so perhaps she had thought herself to be more ready than she actually is. It matters not. We cannot risk them building more ships. Captain Spitfire, Captain Greywhisker, prepare your forces for an assault on Hoovendale and Whiplash. I shall have made a decision on whether to destroy their ships by this time tomorrow. I shall be in touch."
"As you wish Mistress." Greywhisker bowed his head while Spitfire saluted, then both stood up to exit the room.
"Wait," Fleur said before they went too far. "Didn't you say you had some information for me? Something about Sun Chaser?"
"Ah yes." Luna nodded at Greywhisker to continue, and gestured for Spitfire to return to her seat. She then lifted a padlocked metal box onto the table, unlocked it, and pulled out a small wooden figurine. It was one Fleur was familiar with from her time spent in Mareitania, and depicted an alicorn, rearing up with her wings spread and her head bowed; the symbol of the Lady. Straight away Fleur's horn started itching, and she rubbed it idly. "You can feel it, can't you?"
Fleur nodded slowly, her eyes fixed on the idol, "That's the same magic Faust uses to control ponies, isn't it?"
"Not control, but influence. Otherwise yes, that magic is what you can feel."
"And where did Sun Chaser find this?"
"She saw it while doing recon in Bitmark," Spitfire explained. "It was sitting in an open window, and she said she felt drawn to it for some reason, so she stole it. She refused to give it up too, and fought three of us off to try and keep it."
"Did she start to hate Equestria too?"
"Uh, not yet, and Luna counter-spelled her, and the rest of us, so she's fine now."
"That's a pity," Fleur sighed. "It would have been nice to work out how this magic affects a pony. The ponies in Equis have tried asking the ponies Twilight took prisoner in Ponyville questions, but they seem particularly tight-lipped about everything, and we definitely aren't going to resort to torture. Still, when I was there I was affected by the magic within hours, and started feeling negatively about Equestria soon after. The magic in the statuette must be weaker."
"Without Twilight to make a full comparison we couldn't tell," said Luna. "Still, judging by yours and Sun Chaser's experiences, I dare say you might be correct."
"Can I have a look at it?"
"Certainly." Luna levitated the figure over to Fleur who took it in her hooves to have a closer look. It was much tidier than the ones she remembered ponies having back in Mareitania before the civil war, when worshipping the Lady was very much illegal. If she were to guess she'd say it was also carved by magic, rather than by hoof.
"What's this?" Fleur rubbed her hoof over a near invisible seam going around the chest of the figurine, like it had been cut in two then put back together almost perfectly enough to not be noticeable. It didn't make sense to Fleur to make the figure in two pieces, so her only conclusion was that there was something inside.
"What are you doing?" Luna asked when Fleur started trying to pull the two pieces apart with her magic, huffing and puffing as she strained.
"This... thing, comes apart, and I want to-ack -know why! Nngh! Come on you fucker! Break! Apart!" Fleur strained some more, then slammed it down on the table in defeat. "Luna, do you mind?" Wordlessly, Luna picked it up and pulled it apart with little effort. "There was a reason I didn't become an Adept in Mareitania," Fleur grunted. "Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Fleur picked up the two pieces and inspected them. The top half was flat along where the seam was, so she discarded it, but the bottom half had a small hollow carved into it, and was lit up by a sickly green glow. Fleur tipped it up, and a small gem fell out that was the source of the glow, and she slammed a hoof down on it as it bounced across the table.
"What was that?" Luna asked, her interest piqued. Fleur lifted her hoof off the gem, and picked it up so the could all see it. "I'm guessing that must be the source of the enchantment. I wonder what kind of magic that is?"
"It looks like changeling magic from the colour," said Spitfire. "Wait, is Faust really Chrysalis? Is this all her doing?"
Luna shook her head, "Changelings merely use a kind of mind magic. They certainly aren't the source of it at any rate. Still though, it does look remarkably similar to changeling magic, so one has to wonder which came first, the magic or the changelings? Faust could easily be old enough to predate the changelings, and might have had a hoof in their creation if what Twilight told me about her first meeting with Faust was true."
Fleur looked between Luna and Spitfire as they both stared intently at the gem. "Does it matter?" she asked after a moment.
Luna considered it and shook her head, "Not really. If Faust were really Chrysalis in disguise, we'd know simply because her power would be recognisable. Although, I while suspect that the love and adoration of an entire nation could empower Chrysalis greatly, I doubt it would amplify it to the point of matching Faust's power."
"Again, how does this help?"
"Merely idle speculation," said Luna. "You've seen Faust, and did she seem like a changeling to you?"
"Well, no, but surely the point of a changeling disguise is to very much not appear like a changeling?"
"True, but a changeling cannot disguise their magic so easily, nor can they maintain that disguise without their horn. If Faust truly were a changeling, then her disguise would have broken the moment Twilight removed her horn." Luna smiled awkwardly at Fleur, "Sadly that means Faust is who she claims to be."
"Oh."
"Still, we've learnt that Faust is utilising a form of mind magic, likely similar in nature to changeling magic, which is at least something. If only we knew more about changeling magic we might better learn how to counter Faust's."
"I think we have a bigger problem than that," Spitfire said slowly. "I'm guessing the point of these figurines is to have one in each household in Mareitania, right?"
"I expect so, yes," Luna agreed.
"Those gems could be put into anything though," Spitfire continued. "If Faust somehow got loads of those into Equestria, our entire country would turn on itself."
Fleur snorted dismissively, "If that's what Faust planned, then she should have done it before we stopped trading with Mareitania."
"But we still trade with other countries," Spitfire pointed out. "We've already seen that Mareitania's Shades are more than capable of operating outside of their country, so they could plant those gems in their trade goods. Then, when they're found, ponies would be drawn to the gems, or what they're hidden in, and would want to take them home where their friends and families would be affected. They'd start supporting Faust, and would turn against us. In fact, given enough time, Faust could turn the entire world against us."
"Would it work like that though?" Fleur asked. "I mean, apart from us, and the ponies of Mareitania, nopo- no-one really knows who Faust is. Can they be forced to love somepony they don't even know exists?"
"You raise an interesting point," said Luna. She thought about it, but soon realised that even if ponies, or whoever, didn't fall in love with Faust, or the Lady, then the spell could still turn them against Equestria. At the very least it was still worth being worried about. "I shall inform my sister of this news, and let her warn our neighbours if she so wishes. Apart from that, we shall have to station guards at all our ports and similar places, to scan for these gems. Thankfully they really aren't very hard to detect. Now was there anything else Fleur?"
"I think we've covered it all Luna."
"Then I shall wish you good day. I imagine the filly is probably whining about being bored by now."
"If she's not wandered off somewhere." Fleur nodded to Spitfire as the Wonderbolt passed by, then gathered up the map and photos. "So, how did I do Luna?"
"Back in the day we used to point at a place and say 'we attack there!'" Luna smiled at the unsure expression on Fleur's face. "Alright, perhaps there was a little more to it than that, but we certainly didn't have cameras, or even a fully worked out concept of intelligence gathering. Because of that, I'll say you did fine. You told us what we needed to know, and we hopefully have a plan to move forwards with, although I still need to decide on the boats."
"Thanks Luna. I look forward to working with you more."
"Likewise. Now, if you'll please excuse me." Luna placed the two halves of the figure, as well as the gem, back into the metal box, then picked it up in her magic. "I imagine it best that this not be left lying around."
Fleur half bowed to Luna as she left, then released a breath that she felt like she'd been holding since entering the room. "I guess that could have gone worse." She picked up the map and photos, and shoved the whole lot into a saddlebag that she slung over her back. "I still felt like an idiot though," she muttered as she exited the room and closed the door behind her.
"Ahem."
Fleur froze at the polite, yet annoyed sounding attempt to grab her attention, then turned on the spot to see Spitfire lounging against the wall. Thankfully the pegasus appeared to less annoyed than she sounded, but Fleur knew for a fact that Spitfire was fully capable of hiding her emotions.
"Can I help you Captain?" Fleur asked as politely as she could.
Spitfire pushed off the wall and walked up to Fleur so they were almost face to face. "I do believe you can. Do you really think having the Wonderbolts sworn to secrecy from each other is either necessary, or practical? Sworn to secrecy to others outside of our unit, sure, that I can agree with to stop things getting out, but to each other? You risk damaging our own effectiveness on future missions when we don't all know the facts."
"Look, I'm not the one that ordered you keep everything secret from each other. I'm also not the one that'll be telling anypony that you not only failed at that, but also didn't even try, and did in fact break that order on purpose. I agree that it's a stupid order, but I'm the new mare in Equis, and have absolutely no influence whatsoever, so I can hardly ask them to rescind that order. I will however recommend you keep breaking that order so long as you do only keep it in the Wonderbolts."
Spitfire stared at Fleur for several uncomfortable seconds, then cracked a grin. "So long as we understand each other. Seriously though, you ran the Shades for a while in Mareitania. Why the hell are you just some glorified spokespony to the princesses?"
"Because Luna requested it, and Equis already knows more about how the Shades work than I do, so what I know is already irrelevant. I think the only reason they gave me a position was because I had Luna's blessing. Otherwise they might have laughed at me and told me to fuck off, like I sort of wished they had done. I was an idiot to think of asking to join them."
"Yeah, well..." Spitfire shrugged, "After all we did to help the Mareitanians, I think all of us that went there are idiots. Look at what our hard work and sacrifice has brought us to; war between Equestria and Mareitania. Really makes it all seem totally worth while, doesn't it?"
"You can say that again," Fleur sighed. "Look, I'll ask to try and get Equis to review some of their policies on what you said, but that's all I can really do as it's totally out of my hooves."
Spitfire nodded in appreciation, "That's all I'm asking. Now come on, I thought you had to find your trouble-maker?"
"You mean Swift?"
"Swift?"
"Swift Wings. It's the filly's real name."
Spitfire winced, "Ouch..."
"Yeah, it's not surprising she decided to not use it. But we kind of have to now because ponies aren't allowed to not have names here."
"She's having the same treatment that Fleetfoot had isn't she? Shouldn't she have her wings back soon?"
"Yeah, but it's still going to be months until she can even attempt a flying lesson. Thankfully she's not too bothered about how long it takes. I just hope she can still get the treatment while Equestria gets dragged through the shitter. Anyway Captain, how are things with you?"
"Still training all the new Wonderbolts up to scratch. Now the rest are back it's going a lot quicker, giving me a lot of time to worry about pointless bullshit like the reserves I dismissed because they didn't join us. Judging by the way Prince Shining Armour yelled at me, it wasn't the right thing to do, so I've given some of them a chance to join again if they want. Only two of the six I dismissed joined, while the others want to sue for unfair dismissal, even though it wasn't a paid job, and the reserves have been disbanded for the duration of the war, so they have no grounds, and no reserves for them to sit around in. It's like they just wanted to be stunt fliers without all the responsibilities of being in a military unit, or something."
"Oh..." Fleur looked sideways at Spitfire, "That does sound like a heaping pile of bullshit."
"It does when you consider that I've always had the authority to dismiss anypony I wish from the Wonderbolts and the reserves as long as I have adequate reason." Spitfire shrugged, "I guess that isn't the case any more."
It wasn't a long walk back to where Fleur had left the filly, and as Spitfire and herself made it there, she wasn't sure whether to be ashamed of being surprised that the filly was exactly where she'd left her, albeit rolling around on the seats whining about being bored.
"Swift?"
"Huh?" The filly snapped upright at the sound of Fleur's voice, then relaxed as she saw who it was. "Oh, you're done. About time too. And as you can see I am exactly where you left me, having resisted the overwhelming urge I had to disappear somewhere purely to piss you off." The filly looked up at the pony next to Fleur, "Hey Spitfire."
"Hey filly. You seem to have the beginnings of wings again."
"I know right! I can't wait until I have the ends of them too! Then I'll be a real pegasus!"
Spitfire almost choked on her next words and looked sideways at Fleur, "I can't tell if that was sarcasm or not."
Fleur swivelled a hoof back at Spitfire, "Eh, who knows with her? Anyway, get your shit together filly, because we're done here, and I'm pretty sure that means I can't just sit around the castle looking pretty any more."
The filly looked around with exaggerated slowness, "Yeah... I didn't bring anything with me. And don't you have to drop all that stuff off with Equis? I'm pretty sure you're not meant to carry it around with you all the time."
"I'll drop it off on the way out-"
"Aren't you supposed to inform Equis about the gems and the statue things?" Spitfire interrupted.
"...fuck, I guess so." Fleur groaned towards the ceiling, "Why did I want to do my part in all this again?"
"My guess is it's because you're an idiot," said the filly. "I also guess I'll continue to acquaint myself with this rather plush seat I've been sat on for the last hour." The filly grabbed a cushion, and nuzzled it with a sigh. "Oh cushion, you are my only friend."
"Drama queen."
"I guess I better get going," Spitfire said as Fleur and the filly glared at each other. "It was good seeing you again Fleur, and I guess I'll be seeing more of you in the future."
"Assuming I don't get fired first."
"Assuming that, yes. See ya."
"Farewell Captain." Fleur watched Spitfire leave, then collapsed onto the seat next to the filly. "Y'know, if you'd just gone to school you wouldn't have to sit around here."
"And what? Learn more lies about Equestria's history, then find out what new method those assholes at school have come up with to torment me? Sure, sure, sounds like good times. I'll be sure to recommend it to all my friends, if I can make some."
Fleur smiled sympathetically and ruffled the filly's mane, "Come on, it'll get better."
"Yeah, maybe they'll all get killed when Mareitania invades."
Fleur was stunned for a second at the sheer vitriol on those words, and fervently hoped the filly didn't really mean them. "Don't even joke about that."
"Who's joking?"
"The amount of crap you put up with as a kid, and a bunch of schoolponies are getting you down? Really? I thought you just normally kicked your way out of trouble." The filly turned her head away from Fleur and snuggled into the cushion. "Okay, this is clearly something more serious. I'm going to report back to Equis, then you and I are going to have a talk about this."
"Whatever."
"I mean it. Something's just triggered this off, and I intend to find out what."
The filly turned her head back enough to peek at Fleur out of the corner of her eye, "Can we have ice-cream too?"
"Are you paying or me?"
"Har-har Fleur."
Fleur smiled at the filly then patted her once on the back, "Chin up filly. I'll be back in a bit, so keep on keeping out of trouble."
-0-0-0-
The head of Equis was a unicorn stallion affectionately known as Muckraker, although Fleur had no idea if that was his real name, or if it was actually affectionate in the slightest. He'd formally been a reasonably high ranking member of the Royal Guard, and had been entirely involved in their intelligence department before being made head of Equis when the two units merged. His second in command was Eclipse, the thestral mare that had been head of the Night Guard's intelligence. Again, Fleur had no idea if that was her real name, and was frankly too scared to ask as the mare had the most piercing gaze she'd ever encountered. It left Fleur with the feeling that Eclipse knew more about her than she knew about herself.
It was that gaze Fleur found herself failing to meet as she stood before Muckraker's desk, reporting on how the briefing with Luna went. Eclipse stood off to the side, frowning as she passively tore the secrets from Fleur's head, while Muckraker had the temerity to smile at her like she hadn't delivered the worst briefing possible.
"So the Princess is at least considering our proposal," Muckraker said to nopony in particular. "That's good. A shame that she decided to keep the statuette instead of letting us have a look at it, but hopefully she gives it to the right ponies to study. Learning how to counter that magic sooner rather than later could change the course of this war before it even begins."
"We shouldn't even begin to rely on that," Eclipse said to him, drawing her unforgiving eyes away from Fleur long enough to do so. "Even if we could counter that magic in any meaningful way, we have no idea whether it'll change how the ponies of Mareitania think."
"Of course." Muckraker gave Fleur a friendly nod, "Good work Fleur; you're dismissed for now."
"Actually I have one more thing to ask on behalf of Captain Spitfire concerning the level of secrecy required within the Wonderbolts. She wants to lessen the restriction on discussing matters with other Winderbolts."
"Absolutely not," Eclipse replied almost before Fleur had finished speaking. "She might be foolish enough to trust every pony within the Wonderbolts, but there are ponies in there that could easily betray knowledge to the wrong ponies, even unknowingly. The less they all know, the better for the rest of us."
"Isn't that a little paranoid?" Fleur asked slowly, earning herself the full intensity of Eclipse's gaze. "She accepts keeping the information within the Wonderbolts, but thinks keeping what they know from each other to be a hindrance to what they might be doing when they're in Mareitania."
"Some of the Wonderbolts were civilians a mere fortnight ago," said Muckraker. "I realise our restrictions seem a bit harsh, but with Mareitania's Shades being fully capable of operating within Equestria we have to be careful about who knows what, because the newer recruits might not be very careful with what they say. If the Shades found out that Princess Luna intends to strike the shipyard at Whiplash, and the lumber mills around Hoovendale, they could turn it into a trap for the Wonderbolts and Night Guard, and cause serious harm to our ability to strike them in their own country."
Fleur nodded. She could see their point perfectly well, and had no intention of trying to make them change their mind. She very much doubted whether Spitfire would have any intention of accepting that though. "Understood."
"Good. We'll be in touch."
"And Fleur," Eclipse said coldly, "don't bring your daughter to work again, or you may find yourself out of a job."
"She's not my dau- Ahem. I mean, yes ma'am."
-0-0-0-
"Huh... that was quick." The filly quickly jumped up to make room for Fleur as she flopped onto the sofa beside her.
"I hate my boss. Bosses. One is overly nice to the point I can't tell whether I did a crap job or not, and the other just scares me. What the hell possessed me to think this was a good idea in the fucking slightest?"
"Maybe we should have gone with Twilight."
Fleur rolled her eyes at the extremely casual way in which the filly said that. "Nice try, but the answer is still no. Now get up; ice-cream was mentioned, and I think I need it more than you do at this point."
"You don't have to tell me twice." The filly bounced once on the seat, then down onto the floor to stand impatiently in front of Fleur as the older mare dragged herself up. "Come on! Move those sweet butt cheeks."
"You're fifteen; don't say stuff like that to me, it's creepy."
"Was it creepy before I became your quote, daughter, unquote?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was."
"Oh. Well I'm not going to apologise."
"Didn't think you would. Come on, let's get out of here before I forget where the exit is."
The walk to the exit was conducted in silence, because it was really only two minutes away, and that was literally the longest the filly could go without talking when it wasn't a life or death situation. Instead Fleur smiled politely at the guards, who, rather than adhering to the protocol of staring stoically ahead, followed the former supermodel with their eyes, simultaneously wondering why she was there, and why did she have to leave? Also, who was that kid following her?
Outside was a much different story. Normally Canterlot was an incredibly vibrant city, bustling with activity. Since the announcement of a possible war with Mareitania though, it had changed drastically. Tension filled the air, and ponies didn't go about their lives with the same happy, carefree attitude that they normally did.
Fortunately that didn't prevent ponies from remembering that they still needed to make bits to live, regardless of the doom and gloom that had settled over the city, meaning that every store, cafe, and restaurant was open for business as usual, including the ice-cream parlour that sat almost exactly halfway between Canterlot Castle and home. Its position also afforded them a pretty good view of a lot of the city.
"So, what's up with you?" Fleur asked once the waitress had delivered their desserts.
"Am I a real pegasus Fleur?"
Fleur paused with the spoon held halfway to her mouth, "Excuse me?"
"Am I a real pegasus?"
"Yeah, that still doesn't make sense to me. Do you not feel like a pegasus?"
"I guess so." The filly poked her spoon at her icecream, "It's just that the kids at school have started telling me that I'll never be a proper pegasus, even if I get my wings back. For some reason it actually bothers me when they say it."
"You do realise that what they're saying is totally absurd right? You're a pony, and you have wings. And since you aren't an alicorn, or a thestral, that leaves you with the singular option of being a pegasus, no matter what a bunch of idiots tell you. Now, what are you filly?"
"'m a pegasus," the filly murmured quietly.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"I'm a pegasus," the filly repeated a little louder.
"One more time."
"I'm a pegasus!"
"Damn right you are!" Fleur grinned at the small bulges that formed under the filly's bandages as she tried to flare her wings. If she acted like a pegasus, thought like a pegasus, and had the wings of a pegasus, chances were she was a pegasus. Or a thestral, but the lack of cat-like eyes argued against that one. "Now stop being silly, and eat your icecream before it melts."
"Only on the condition that you tell me what's bothering you."
"Fair turnabout I suppose." Fleur ate another mouthful while she composed her thoughts. "I feel like an idiot."
The filly nodded thoughtfully, "Nothing new there then. Good talk Fleur."
"Hah, funny. What I mean is that I feel horribly out of my depth in Equis, and I have no idea why. I practically ran the Sh-" Fleur stopped as she remembered they were in public, and probably shouldn't say such things out loud. "I practically ran that group in that place we were in, and even though I didn't really know what I was doing, I still felt like I knew better then, than I do in my current role as a glorified... whatever I am. I just feel really stupid for even asking to join them."
"Uh-huh." The filly swallowed her mouthful and wiped her mouth on her leg. "Do you think the problem might be because you're not in control? Back when you ran 'that group,' you were in the thick of everything, and knew what was going on. You were also part of Twilight's inner circle. I mean, fucking hell Fleur, even I was part of the inner circle, just by sheer dint of knowing you guys. Now though, you're a glorified 'whatever,' and it bugs you to not know what's going on, and to be at the bottom of the pile, when you were once on top of it."
"...damn, filly."
"Was I right? My other suggestion was that you have gas."
"Sort of right. I think it's because this whole thing feels bigger than what we did in Marei- that place. Back then we were pretty much answerable only to ourselves, whereas now we have princesses, and superiors, and all that jazz. I think I miss the rather informal nature of what it was back then, and don't like the pressure of now knowing exactly what happens if I fuck up."
"But that's not your job," the filly pointed out. "You just give briefings to Luna. Getting the information is other ponies jobs."
"And? What if me being sloppy completely negates the work they do simply because I miss something out?"
The filly shrugged, "Then quit if you think you aren't up to it."
"I-" Fleur wanted to say she couldn't do that. She knew she couldn't really, because she had to do something to help Equestria, but she also couldn't deny that quitting sounded really good. "I don't know. I think I'll just have to get used to it. Maybe something will come up that I can do instead, but until then, I'm the glorified messenger pony to the princesses."
"Tough life, ain't it." |
The end of an era | 10. First strike | The royal air yacht was a level of comfort that Rainbow had rarely had the luxury of experiencing before, save for her few visits to Canterlot Castle. Sure it was a little dusty from being kept in storage for so long, but that hardly detracted from how nice it was. Rainbow hadn't even been aware that there was a royal air yacht until it had pulled up at the Wonderbolts headquarters the day before, and had been told that it was used exclusively by the princesses on long trips abroad, the last of which had been thirty years prior.
The only reason Heaven's grace had been brought out of retirement now was because of the sheer size of it. Despite being nearly a hundred years old, it was still the largest airship in Equestria by far, and its enchanted hull negated its own weight, meaning it easily housed the Wonderbolts, and three hundred of the Night Guards, as well as the equipment they needed for the mission. At least it did if you didn't mind sharing rooms. Even so, it certainly beat flying to Mareitania and back in one night.
Rainbow sat on deck, leaning over the guardrail and watching the ocean twinkle with the last rays of the soon to be setting sun. She been there for the last hour, just quietly contemplating the fact that she was about to go and kill ponies in the first strike of a war that hadn't technically begun yet. She finally felt that she understood Twilight now that she was having to do these things, not because she wanted to, but because she had to.
"Hey Rainbow, looking for company?"
Rainbow didn't need to look to see that it was Lightning Dust that had spoken to her, and she was almost tempted to brush her off, but she didn't need Lightning to think that Rainbow was giving her the cold shoulder mere hours before they launched their attack.
"Sure." Rainbow still didn't move as Lightning sat beside her, both of them ignoring the activity around them as the others mentally prepared themselves for their mission. Some of them were pumping themselves up, while others exercised quietly to prepare their bodies. Others were like Rainbow, and kept to themselves.
"So, you ready for this?" Rainbow snorted a sigh at Lightning's question, telling Lightning more than enough. "You're not going to back out of this are you?"
"Of course not. I'm just scared alright? Is that a problem?"
Lightning quickly held up her hooves in submission, "Dude, no. I'm not going to lie and say I'm not scared just to try and impress you or something. What we're about to go and do is crazy, and I think you'd be nuts to at least not be concerned. Heck, even Spitfire's wigging out about it, and she's actually got combat experience. The only ones that seem fine with it are the bat ponies, and who the hell knows what they're thinking?"
"Got something against bat ponies?"
"Only the ones in the Night Guard. They always seem so uptight, and devoted to Luna. It gives me the creeps."
Rainbow looked back at where some of the Night Guard were quietly talking to each other. "Say what you want about them, I'm happy to have them on our side. From what Twilight told me about them, they could probably wipe the floor with us in seconds."
"That good huh?"
"They can live to be up to eight hundred years old or more, and looking at some of them, yeah they seem younger than us, but could easily be two or three hundred years older. And they're part dragon, which makes them tough as hell. Some of those guys have probably had more combat experience than us in the time before we were even born than we'll ever have in our entire lives."
"Woah..." Lightning looked back at the thestrals with a newfound respect. "Wait, how can something be part dragon? Did ponies breed with dragons at some point? Is that even possible? Don't dragons lay eggs? Do bat ponies lay eggs?"
"Don't ask me. I'm just telling you what Twilight told me. They're mostly pony, part dragon, and part bat. She wouldn't tell me how they came to exist, or why there's no mention of them anywhere before the whole Nightmare Moon thing."
"So it's a secret?"
Rainbow shrugged, "Maybe? Who cares? They're on our side, and that's good enough for me."
"I guess." Lightning hooked her forelegs over the side of the airship and looked in the same direction as Rainbow as the sun dropped below the horizon. In a few hours they'd be in Mareitania, and would be making ready to begin their mission. "Rainbow?"
"Yeah?"
"If you die, can I have your blades?"
"No."
"Aww."
-0-0-0-
"Hooves in the air in fifteen minutes ponies!" Soarin shouted as he trotted around below decks. Fleetfoot would be telling ponies the same even lower, while Spitfire waited up top. "That means to move your keisters!"
Rainbow checked the zips on her flight suit were all done up, then started the surprisingly awkward process of strapping her blades into place on her hind legs. She pulled a blade out of its sheath before she started, checking the two small runes on either side of the blade still glowed with the purple of Twilight's magic. It felt comforting to have a small bit of Twilight with her.
She slid the blade back into its sheath and strapped them on, then hovered in the air as she drew them to check that her bracers were on solidly. They were, so she sheathed her weapons, stuck her helmet on her head, and sighed because she was ready, and this was actually happening.
"Maybe you should get a haircut," Thunderlane said to Cloud Chaser as she put her helmet on. "Maybe then you'd be more comfortable."
"No way! This is like my signature hairdo! No way am I cutting this off."
"Then you could at least have the decency to stop whining about your helmet being too tight?" Thunderlane placed his own helmet on his head, and did the strap up while Cloud pouted angrily at him.
"You whined for days about that thing squashing your mohawk during training."
"That's different."
"I hardly see how it's that diff-"
"Guys," Rainbow interrupted. "Quit chatting and get ready. We'll be taking off in ten minutes."
"Sorry Dash," Cloud said as she squashed her mane into her helmet and strapped it on. "Ready to go."
"Okay, you guys head up top. I'm going to go see if Lightning and her wingmates are ready." Both of them saluted lazily at her, then walked off while Rainbow headed in the opposite direction. She stopped a few doors down and knocked before entering, finding Lightning and Sky Stinger holding Vapor Trail on both sides. "Are you okay?"
"We're fine," Sky answered flippantly. "Vapor's just a bit nervous."
"And I don't know how you aren't," Vapor snapped breathlessly at him.
"Me? Nah. I'm pumped up, y'know? Totally ready to go and kick some ass!"
"I hope you're not so pumped up and busy kicking ass that you forget about us," Lightning said snidely.
"No worries you guys; you can totally count on me."
"I hope so." Lightning squeezed Vapor a little tighter, "You good Vapes?"
"Yeah, I'm good. I can do this." Vapor breathed in deeply, and exhaled slowly, "I can so do this."
"Atta girl." Lightning released Vapor and rechecked her gear, while the others did the same. "I get the feeling I've forgotten something. You guys go ahead, I'll catch up."
Rainbow stood aside to let Sky and Vapor pass, then raised an eyebrow at Lightning. "Have you really forgotten something?"
"Nah, I just thought you wanted to talk."
"I was only going to ask if you really think Vapor's up for this?"
"Vapes? She's fine. It's actually Sky that bothers me. Either he's putting on a big show and is actually going to crumble when the mess hits the fan, or he's going to do something stupid and get himself hurt. Even worse he might get me and Vapor hurt too."
"I thought you were the leader?"
"Yeah, but that only makes me obliged to save him from himself." Lightning shook her head and tried to put it out of her mind. "Whatever. There's only one way to find out what he does, and that's by doing this. I guess we better head up."
"After you." It was only a short trip to the top deck, and most of the other Wonderbolts were already waiting, although they still had to wait a couple of minutes for stragglers to arrive. The bat ponies of the Night Guard were assembling below decks, and were receiving their own briefing off Captain Greywhisker, while Spitfire would give the Wonderbolts their briefing on the top deck.
"Alright ponies," Spitfire said loudly once they were assembled. "I'm going to go over this again for those of you that are hard of hearing. We will be hitting the shipyards at Whiplash first. Most of you will be providing cover for our bombers." Spitfire waved at the two dozen Wonderbolts that wore their display uniforms because their own combat armour hadn't been made yet. "Anything that takes a shot at them, you take them out. Your secondary objective is to stop ponies putting those fires out. Once we're done there we'll be moving south towards Hoovendale, firebombing the ships they've built along the way. At Hoovendale it'll be the same deal, but there should be less resistance by a long way."
"What about the bat ponies Captain?" one of the Wonderbolts asked.
"They have their own mission, although I've not been told what that mission is. What I have been told is that they'll make a distraction, and if we're lucky they'll draw most of the attention away from us, otherwise what they do makes no difference to us. Now do you all know what you're doing?"
The gathered Wonderbolts all replied at once, "Ma'am, yes ma'am."
Spitfire nodded her appreciation, "Good. This is your first taste of real combat for a lot of you, so keep your heads, stick together, and above all else, kick some ass! Altius volantis Wonderbolts!"
"Altius volantis!" they all cheered back. Spitfire pecked Soarin on the cheek, clipped her muzzleguard into place, and gestured for everypony to start taking off.
Rainbow started running and jumped off the edge off the edge of the airship, Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane following after her, joining her in her short dive to give themselves momentum. They pulled back up, joining the rest of B squadron as they formed up around Fire Streak. Lightning, Sky, and Vapor fell into position beside them, while ahead of them A squadron formed up around Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot. Soon after the remaining squadrons formed up behind them.
"Woah," Thunderlane gasped as he looked back at the airship. Rainbow did the same, and was inclined to agree as the Night Guard streamed out of the side hatches of the ship, vanishing into the darkness below. "I wonder where they're going?"
"Doesn't matter. Let's just focus on what we're doing."
The town of Brayside lay before them, a thousand tiny lights lighting up the streets, unaware of the danger that silently glided through the night. The town wasn't their target though, and neither was the massive building to the north that Rainbow could only assume was the prison. Their target lay between the two; the half dozen wooden structures on the river banks that held a half dozen ships that ranged from a basic structure, to almost fully built.
Even though no work was being carried out at night, the dry-docks were still lit up, showing the ponies guarding them. A couple dozen at most by Rainbow's estimate, although that was liable to change as the alarm was raised. By all accounts it was an easy mission with an easy target. All Rainbow had to do was go down there and kill some ponies. Easy. It sounded easy anyway.
Spitfire wheeled to the left, then circled around the town, the rest of the Wonderbolts following her, even as they went further away from the dry docks. Rainbow looked back at her wing-ponies, both of them shrugging back at her. Were they waiting for the distraction? Was it late? Was it coming at all?
As if in answer, a flash of light lit up the night, followed swiftly by a thunderous boom that Rainbow felt through her feathers as much as she heard it. Fires on the roof of the prison highlighted the plume of smoke that rose into the sky, just about covering the dark figures that slipped into the prison through the hole they'd blown in the roof.
"As distractions go," Lightning muttered, "that's definitely in my top ten."
"Blades out Wonderbolts!" said Spitfire, managing to both shout and whisper at the same time. Alarms started sounding as the thestrals attack on the prison progressed. It also drew some of the guards from the dry docks, but there were still plenty left. Rainbow clipped her blades into the diving position, and waited for the signal to attack, which came sooner than she both wanted and expected it to. "Dive, dive, dive!"
Spitfire's squadron went in first, diving sharply towards the docks. In seconds they'd taken out a hoofful of guards, cutting them down with ruthless efficiency. Then came B squadron's turn. Fire Streak started the dive, everypony following after him, then splitting up slightly as each wing picked their targets.
Rainbow focused on a unicorn that was trying to hide behind a stack of boards on the scaffolding around the dry-dock. Apparently she was making more noise than she thought because he looked up and saw her coming, and in that moment she locked eyes with him, and saw the same fear in him that she felt herself as she dove towards him, the first pony she was going to kill.
Rainbow couldn't go through with it, even without him pointing a weapon at her, and as he brought his crossbow up, Rainbow tucked her left wing and rolled, breaking off the attack. He didn't break off his attack though, and a split second later he fired into the space where Rainbow had been. A space now occupied by Cloud Chaser.
"No!" Thunderlane shouted as Cloud Chaser screamed, plummeting down onto the scaffold and crashing into the stack of boards the unicorn had been hiding behind.
Rainbow turned in midair and pumped her wings, fighting momentum and gravity to get back to Cloud Chaser as fast as she could. Thunderlane got there first, thudding down onto the wooden planks as Cloud Chaser cried in agony, her hooves wrapped around the shaft of an arrow buried in her gut. The unicorn stepped out of hiding, and the two stallions froze as they spotted each other.
Thunderlane was quicker, and still had his blades drawn. Driven by adrenaline and his fear for Cloud Chaser, he pumped his wings to push himself forwards, and punched at the other stallion hard enough to pierce his blade straight through the armour he was wearing. The unicorn stared at Thunderlane in horror, then slowly keeled over, pulling himself off the blade, and falling over the side of the scaffold.
Rainbow hovered in the air, breathing rapidly as Thunderlane clumsily sheathed his weapons and scrabbled back to where Cloud Chaser was still wailing in pain. He stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do, yet totally sure of who to blame. "What the fuck did you do Rainbow?!"
"I-I-I-," Rainbow stammered, words escaping her.
"Why didn't you get him? Why'd you break off?"
"I- I couldn't-"
"Ngghh!" Cloud whimpered, her breathing sharp and rapid. "It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"
"Rainbow!" Lightning swooped down and tackled Rainbow onto the scaffold, "Don't just hover there you idiot!" She looked up at Cloud, then back at Rainbow, "What the hell happened?"
"That bitch," Thunderlane shouted, "broke off her attack and got Cloud shot because she's too fucking chicken shit to go through with this!"
Rainbow closed her eyes as Lightning glared her. "I'm sorry..."
"Can it," Lightning growled. "We need to get Cloud back to the airship. Vapor!"
Vapor landed lightly on the scaffold as Lightning shouted her name, "Yes Lightning?"
"Help Thunderlane get Cloud Chaser back to the airship, and quick, because those fire bombs are going to start falling soon." Vapor nodded, and picked Cloud up on one side, while Thunderlane picked her up on the other. Cloud screamed as they picked her up, but they ignored it as they flew her away to safety. "Rainbow, you're coming with me."
Rainbow kept staring at the patch of crimson where Cloud had lain, unable to think of anything else. She'd fucked up, and Cloud might have gotten killed because of it if that unicorn had aimed slightly upwards. Was this how Twilight felt? With every action she'd taken in Mareitania resulting in ponies getting hurt? How did she live with it?"
"Rainbow!" Lightning smacked Rainbow around the side of the head, her hoof stinging as it collided with Rainbow's helmet. It had the desired effect though as Rainbow looked up her in shock from being struck. "We need to move, Rainbow!"
"R-right." Lightning half dragged Rainbow to the edge of the scaffold, and jumped off, pulling Rainbow with her. Giving the choice between falling to the ground below, and spreading her wings, Rainbow chose the latter, although her instincts had already chosen before she'd even thought about it. The simple action of flying had a galvanising effect on her, opening her mind to everything else around her, and by the time that Sky Stinger fell in with them, and they made it back to B squadron, Rainbow was far more aware.
"Where's Cloud, Vapor, and Thunderlane?" Fire Streak asked as they formed up with the rest of the squadron.
"Cloud got hurt," Lightning told him, saving Rainbow from having to. "Thunder and Vapor are taking her back to the airship."
"Damn it, and there I was thinking we'd got through unscathed. Will Cloud make it?"
"I should think so sir."
"Good, good." There was a tinkle of broken glass below them, and a Fwoosh as the first fire bombs were dropped on the dry docks. The flames quickly started to devour the dry, tar smothered wood, and within minutes the entirety of the dry-docks was ablaze, even as ponies below started to try and extinguish the flames.
Shields sprung up around three of the most complete ships, suffocating the flames that had reached them, and protecting the wooden vessels from the conflagration around them. A dozen unicorns stood nearby, most of them shielding the ships, while the remainder shielded the unicorns.
"I'm betting those are Adepts," Fire Streak said thoughtfully. "Spitfire!"
"I see them. We'll take out the shields, you follow us in and take out the unicorns." Spitfire wasted no time in putting her words into action, and dived with her squadron towards the shielded Adepts. A few bolts of magic raced up towards them, but with most of the Adepts focused on their shields, they were few and easy to dodge. Spitfire's squadron reached the shield and kicked at it in unison, destroying it utterly and staggering the Adepts, then flew off while B squadron attacked.
Rainbow kept behind Lightning as they dived in, then pulled off as Lightning slammed down on the back of a mare, plunging her blades between the unicorn's shoulder blades. One of the blades must have stuck, because as the unicorn fell, Lightning was dragged down with her. She fought to free her blade, and panicked as one of the other Adepts turned to attack her.
"No!" Rainbow shouted as the Adept's horn lit up. She charged and tackled him with her shoulder, the spell he was about to cast at Lightning shooting off into the air instead. He tried to kick Rainbow off, and unlike the first pony she tried to attack, this pony wasn't fearful. He was determined, and knew full well it was kill or be killed. Now, Rainbow knew it too.
With a cry born of fear and desperation, Rainbow reared up and slammed her hooves down on his chest, her blades piercing through his armour like a hot knife through thin ice thanks to Twilight's enchantments. She reared back up and stabbed him, again and again, splashing herself with his blood with every fresh attack on his corpse.
"Rainbow!" Lightning braced her rear legs against the body of her victim, and pushed, freeing her blade. A quick check told her that Spitfire's squadron had looped back to help them, and that the unicorns were all taken care of, giving her a chance to talk to Rainbow.
"Rainbow, you can stop. You got him." Rainbow kept stabbing the corpse, either ignoring Lightning, or not hearing her at all over the sound of her own rapid breathing. "Rainbow! Stop!"
Rainbow paused in mid-stab, then slowly fell to her rear. She looked at Lightning, then back at the body, then scrambled away from it like it was the first time she'd seen it. "A-are you okay Lightning?"
"I'm fine Rainbow, thanks to you." Lightning bumped an elbow against Rainbow's shoulder, "You saved me."
"I... I had to. I couldn't just let him kill you."
"I know, and I hope you realise that I'd do the same for you. We all would."
"Yeah, I guess." Rainbow smiled weakly at Lightning, not that Lightning could tell through the muzzleguard.
"Now come on, I don't think Wonderbolts are supposed to spend this much time on the ground."
"Right behind you," Rainbow said, and meant it. She'd just had to kill a pony, but she did it to save Lightning. She realised that maybe she'd been thinking about this all wrong. She thought that to kill a pony you had to enjoy it on some fundamental level, which she knew was probably wrong to begin with, and a horrible thing to think about Twilight, but couldn't see another reason why. She never thought that you did it to save yourself, or your fellow soldiers, or your loved ones back home, or because sometimes you simply had to. It wasn't all about the killing at all, but could be about saving those that pony might hurt later. It was still a bitter pill to swallow, but she felt it was one she could swallow again and again if she had to.
"Alright," Spitfire said, looking over the carnage they had wrought once they had reconvened in the sky. The dry-docks and their contents were burning strongly, and were well beyond being salvaged. "I think that's part one well and truly over. Time to start heading south."
"Captain Spitfire!" A shape loomed out of the darkness, turning into the thestral Shadow as the light from the fires illuminated her. She tossed a salute in Spitfire's direction, "Good to see you again."
Spitfire returned the salute, "Likewise. You want something in particular?"
"We've completed our mission, so Captain Greywhisker is letting us assist with yours if you want us to?"
"Sounds good. Head back to the Heavens Grace and order them to start heading south along the river. You can burn their ships along the way, while we head on south to Hoovendale."
"Okey dokey!"
"Let's move Wonderbolts."
-0-0-0-
The flight to Hoovendale took half an hour, which was plenty of time for the events at Whiplash to sink into ponies minds. Most of the Wonderbolts flew in silence, contemplating just what it was that their first battle had turned them into. Others seemed far less worried.
"Did you see that dive I pulled off going after those Adepts?" Sky Stinger said for the third time. "I mean, wow! What a rush, y'know? That mare didn't know what hit her!"
"A thousand pounds of ego by the sounds of it," Lightning said to Rainbow out of the corner of her mouth.
"And that flip I pulled as I pushed up off her! That was intense!"
One of the other former reserves, a pink mare named Meadow Flower, who was also in B squadron, flew up into Sky's face. "Do you even hear yourself?" she shouted angrily. "You just killed a pony, and you're going on about what acrobatics you pulled off! What is wrong with you?"
"What's my problem?" Sky shoved Meadow Flower away, "What's your problem?"
"My problem? My problem is that you're a psycho!"
"Really? You sure you're not just jealous of how much better I am than you!"
"Rrrgh!" Meadow Flower launched herself at Sky with the obvious intent to attack. Rainbow threw herself in Meadow's way as Lightning held back Sky.
"Knock it off!" Rainbow shouted as Meadow tried to push her off.
"Let her fight me! She'll just lose anyway!"
"Hey!" All of them froze at the sound of Spitfire's shout. She hovered beside them, with Soarin and Fleetfoot to either side of her. "You think that because I'm not in your squadron I can't hear what's going on? Meadow, get back in your wing, and Sky, for the love of Celestia, please shut up. We can all do what you did, so stop acting like it was some amazing thing only you can do. And maybe show a little consideration for those around you."
"Sorry ma'am," both of them intoned. Spitfire nodded and returned to the front. Meadow returned to her wing, while Fire Streak glared at both her and Sky.
"Knock it off the both of you. If I see you causing trouble, or boasting like an idiot, or getting Spitfire's attention like that again before we complete this mission..." Fire Streak left the threat open, but none of them needed to guess that he meant there'd be trouble. He pointed a hoof at his eyes, then at the two of them.
Rainbow groaned quietly as the flight continued without incident. We wasn't sure why Sky Stinger's ego had come back, but it had, with a vengeance. She'd hoped her intervention between him and Vapor back at the academy had fixed that, but it seemed she couldn't have been more wrong.
Five minutes of blissful silence brought them to Hoovendale. The small village was surrounded by massive clearing of felled trees, when previously the lumber operations there had been fairly small scale during the uprising. Various bits of machinery dotted the clearing, while the sawmills themselves sat in the middle, surrounded by piles of wood.
"That looks nicely flammable," Spitfire commented cheerfully.
"Almost like it was meant to be," Soarin agreed. "Those machines are going to take a bit of work though."
"Nah, the explosives on the Heaven's Grace can take care of those when they get here. Let's take out the guards for now, if there are any. We'll be done in no time if we split up into wings."
Rainbow followed Lightning as they picked a direction and flew. She had no idea what they were expecting to find as the place did seem completely deserted, which suited her just fine. If they could do this without getting into another fight at all, even better.
"You guys see anything," she asked as they looped around for another pass.
"Nah," Sky said boredly. "Pity-"
"Don't," Lightning warned, directing a glare at Sky.
"Fine..."
They could see the Heaven's Grace as they came back around, and the dozens of ponies flying back and forth from it. Most went to the sawmill, while some flew to the machines around the clearing. Spitfire hovered in the middle of it all, a satisfied look on her face.
"What's going on?" Rainbow asked as they made it to where Spitfire was.
"Well, since there doesn't seem to be any resistance here at all, we've decided to do something a little special with the help of the thestrals."
"Like what?"
Spitfire grinned, "You'll see. Head back to the ship and prepare yourselves for a show."
"Yes ma'am." Happy to be dismissed, they flew up to the airship, although Rainbow insisted they went slow as she tried to see what it was the thestrals were carrying. They were carrying black metal orbs with a protrusion, from which a white cord snaked. Not even she had to guess what they were as she knew they were explosives.
They settled on the deck and stripped their helmets off, relishing the cool air blowing against their faces, and keeping watch as the thestrals did whatever they were doing below. Sky wandered off to do whatever he did, leaving the two of them alone. Feeling that now was the best time to do anything, Rainbow had something she wanted to ask Lightning.
"Why'd you send Vapor with Cloud?"
Lightning looked at sideways at Rainbow, a small frown on her face. "What's that matter?"
"Cloud was my wingmare, so I should have gone with her."
"I don't know if you noticed, but you had almost gone catatonic. Cloud needed help, so I sent Vapor."
"You're protecting her, aren't you?"
"What? No, I-" Lightning stopped at the way Rainbow was looking at her, and grunted under her breath. "Fine, you got me. I'm just not sure Vapor can handle this, y'know?"
"She couldn't be any worse than me. First contact with the enemy, and I totally chickened out, flubbed the attack, and almost got Cloud killed."
"I saw what happened Rainbow, and I think you're being too hard on yourself. If you kept on your course, he probably would've hit you instead. While it might've been you chickening out, doing so might have saved your life."
Rainbow disagreed. "It should've been me that got hit."
"That's stupid talk, and you know it."
"Says the pony protecting Vapor from all this."
"...nngh... fair point. Still, why aren't you going to see Cloud?"
"I will as soon as I know we're done here. If I go running off just for us to get attacked, and somepony gets hurt because I wasn't there..." Rainbow shook her head, "No. No way am I letting that happen."
Lightning kept watching Rainbow out of the corner of her eye, then shrugged. "Alright, whatever you say."
A few minutes later Spitfire flew up with most of the thestrals. She landed, then waved at the helmspony to get his attention, then made a circling gesture and pointed east once she had it. A moment later the entire ship lurched and started to turn, it's propellers humming through the air.
Spitfire looked east towards the distant light of a sun not yet risen, and nodded to herself. "Alright Shadow, give the signal."
"Signal?" Rainbow asked, only for her ears to buzz as Shadow opened her mouth and emitted a noise far beyond any non-thestrals range of hearing. A moment later Rainbow's ears buzzed again as an answer came from below, or several answers, although she had no idea how she could tell that. She was proven right though as several thestrals flew up from around the sawmills.
"Any moment now." Seconds later a flash lit up the clearing, followed by a bone shaking boom that made the entire ship vibrate. Soon after it happened again, and again, as the various pieces of machinery exploded into pieces. A pattern soon emerged that sort of spiraled anticlockwise around the clearing, growing closer and closer to the sawmills in the middle, before that too exploded into a fireball that rose up into the sky as bits of building rained around in a large circumference.
Almost as if it wanted to see what the fuss was, the sun rose and peeked over the mountains to the east, shining a dim light over the area that showed how complete the destruction of the sawmills was. And it was complete. Almost nothing remained except for what had failed to get thrown about by the explosion, and what was still whole was burning instead.
Spitfire sighed happily, "I love the sound of explosions in the morning. Now lets wrap this up and get back to Equestria."
-0-0-0-
Rainbow waited until they were past the border of Mareitania and out over the ocean before finally deciding to even try and relax. Most of the other Wonderbolts had gone below decks, leaving her alone with the Night Guard, most of whom were chatting quietly. None of them seemed too bothered about what they had just done, and in the end Rainbow had to go before she yelled at them for being so nonchalant about it all. She also had to go and see Cloud Chaser, which she knew she had been putting off, mostly because she knew Thunderlane was going to be there too, and he was likely to be far more vocal about how unhappy he was with her than Cloud would be.
She stepped down through the hatch into the well lit interior of the gondola, and immediately gagged at herself. Now she was in the light inside she could see just how much blood she was covered with, and it was a lot. She swallowed down her disgust and ran to the small room she shared with her wingmates. Thankfully, and unsurprisingly, it was empty, meaning there was nopony to complain as she threw her helmet into the corner and wrestled her weapons and bracers off, not even bothering to properly undo them in some cases. The flight suit was tougher, and Rainbow was almost frantic as she pulled and tore at it, trying to peel it off herself as fast as she could without having to touch anything with blood on.
"Get off of me!" Rainbow rolled onto her back as she struggled her way out of the suit, and finally managed to get it past her hips and down her legs, allowing her to kick it into the corner. She got up and sat panting as she stared at the suit, willing her breathing to slow, but it only seemed to grow faster in line with her disgust. Her stomach churned, and she threw up before she could even think of finding something to to throw up into. Her stomach heaved again, but nothing came out. There was nothing to come out, but that didn't seem to matter to her stomach as it kept heaving and heaving for several minutes.
Slowly her stomach calmed, and she wiped her mouth in the hopes that she was done. What surprised her the most was that she wasn't crying through any of this, and she was almost tempted to hate herself for not being more upset about that. As much as she could justify it, she had still just killed a pony, and felt that she should be more bothered about that. As much as she tried though, the mental image of the pony that had tried to kill Lightning, the pony that she had killed, just didn't worry her as much as she felt it should, which only worried her in a different way. What kind of pony was she if she was okay with this? Was she okay with it? She honestly couldn't tell at this point.
Rather than sit there for any longer, dwelling on it and hating herself for not being something she felt she should, she found some paper towels to clean up her vomit with, and as she tossed the sodden paper into the trash she wondered how the others were dealing with it. Lightning had seemed rather capable during the attack, and didn't seem to have any issue with killing, which only made Rainbow wonder how Lightning was so okay with it. Was Lightning actually more torn up about this on the inside than she was showing? That still wouldn't explain how she was able to cut a pony down so easily. In fact, it seemed to Rainbow that most of the Wonderbolts had an easier time of it than herself. Was she the abnormal one?
In the end Rainbow decided to stop thinking about it. They were at war, and she'd have to do her part to protect Equestria, as must all ponies, regardless of how she felt about it.
Rainbow turned to go see Cloud, but paused as she caught sight of herself in the mirror above the sink in the small bathroom. Blood speckled her face, and for a moment she felt her disgust rising in her throat again. She looked away from the mirror, then back again, and sighed. She'd probably better wash before going to see Cloud, and that would involve having to look at the blood on her face.
She let the tap run for a moment, letting the system heat the water a little before splashing it onto her face and scrubbing the blood away with her hooves. She looked back up at the mirror and watched the pale red rivulets of dirty water run down her face. She rinsed her face again and looked at herself once more, and found herself to be looking more like the Rainbow she usually saw in the mirror, although the usual Rainbow didn't frown quite so much. She tried to put a smile on, but it lasted mere seconds before vanishing again, so she gave up and dried her traitorous face before heading out to the medical bay.
The ship was not as quiet as it seemed to be from within her room, and Rainbow found herself walking slowly, not so she didn't disturb anypony, but so she could hear what was going on in some of the other rooms. Some were silent, either because they were empty, or because the ponies within them had decided to try sleeping, but others contained the hushed words of whispered conversations, or the sound of a pony trying to cry quietly, maybe while being comforted by their wingmates. As much as Rainbow felt guilty at the thought, she was glad she wasn't the only one struggling with this.
"You can't turn ponies into soldiers in two weeks," said the voice of Fleetfoot from one of the rooms around Rainbow, who stopped moving altogether to try and home in on where it came from. "We had months and months of training for this, and even then we struggled at first. I remember screwing up my first attack in Mareitania, then seeing one of the pegasi we trained carry it out just fine because, well, they're different to us. Let's face it Spitfire, ponies in Mareitania are just made of sterner stuff than Equestrians."
"She's not wrong," said Soarin. "Even the more experienced Wonderbolts weren't exactly at their best tonight. Blaze pussed out on all of her dives tonight, and I swear Surprise was crying the whole time. What kind of example is that going to set for the rest of them?"
Spitfire sighed deeply before replying. "I know what you're saying guys, but we don't have longer to turn these ponies into soldiers. They're either going to have to learn quick, or we are going to have to declare ourself unfit as a unit to do what's being asked of us. Tonight was easy compared to a lot of the stuff we had to do during the uprising, and yet we had so many cock-ups it's almost unbelievable that it went as well as it did, with only a half dozen injuries, and amazingly, no fatalities. Hopefully now they've got some experience they'll step their game up."
"We got lucky," Fleetfoot said harshly. "There's no other way to describe it. Cloud Chaser got taken out seconds into the fight, and frankly she's damn lucky to not be dead. If she hadn't tried to pull up that arrow would have got her in the face, and this unit would have had it's first casualty in this war. Doesn't mean she shouldn't have followed Dash instead though."
"Too bad it couldn't have been Sky Stinger," said Soarin. "I swear, if that little prick had kept boasting the way he was, I might have punched him myself. I bet he's going on about how great he is to Vapor right this very second. I don't know how she puts up with him, let alone why she wants to jump on his gigglestick."
"I don't get how he's so oblivious to it," Fleetfoot laughed. "Back when we were cadets, making goo-goo eyes at somepony and giving them an invitation to the showers meant nothing to do with getting clean."
"Obliviousness and boasting aside, he did do well tonight," said Spitfire. "I just hope he doesn't get too cocky and get himself killed."
"I hope he gives a thought to what he's actually doing at some point," Soarin sighed. "Doing a wicked dive and a backflip when killing somepony is all well and good, but not if you completely forget the part where you did actually kill somepony. Meadow Flower was right to get pissed at him."
"I know," Spitfire agreed. "If it looks like his antics might risk somepony other than himself getting killed, something might have to be done about it. Until then though, we need him, so I'm just going to leave it. Mostly because right now I'm beat." Spitfire yawned and smacked her lips. "I'm going to bed."
"Does that mean..?"
"To sleep, Soarin."
"Aww..."
"Yeah... I'm not sticking around to hear you two go at it, because I know you will," Fleetfoot said with a small shudder of disgust. "You two have fun. I'm just going to check on our wounded before going to bed."
"But I just said I'm going to sleep."
"I know what you said."
Rainbow froze as the door next to her opened, and grinned sheepishly as Fleetfoot saw her. Rather than make an issue of it though, Fleetfoot said nothing as she shut the door behind her, then nodded for Rainbow to follow after her.
"So, how much of that did you hear?" Fleetfoot asked after a moment.
"Enough to know we aren't as great as we think we are. And that Soarin thinks Sky is a prick."
"He's not the only one. Feel free to tell Sky that, but the rest of it you keep to yourself."
"Are we really that bad?"
"Honestly, no." Fleetfoot smiled faintly as Rainbow looked at her with surprise. "I'm not saying we were great either. This was an easy target where we had the element of surprise, a numerical advantage, and a distraction, yet we still had five ponies seriously hurt, and at least half of us unable to go through with what was asked of them. Even those drafted in from the Royal Guard flubbed a few of their attacks."
"Then how are we not bad?"
Fleetfoot shrugged, "Because what we did was perfectly normal for a first time. I'm not going to lie though, in a serious battle, we would not only have lost, but I imagine a lot of us would've been killed too. If the Wonderbolts are going to not only survive this war, but make a real difference in it, we need to get a lot better." Fleetfoot smiled at Rainbow, "Don't sweat it right now though."
"Kind of hard not to," Rainbow sighed."
Fleetfoot stopped Rainbow outside of the medbay, "Look, Rainbow, I can see you're kicking yourself about Cloud, but you really can't keep blaming yourself for it. In fact, I'm willing to bet Cloud herself doesn't even blame you."
"How could she possibly not blame me?"
"You'll see." Fleetfoot opened the door and gestured for Rainbow to enter. Although she was reluctant, Rainbow did so, only to meet the angered glare of Thunderlane.
"What the fuck are y-" Thunderlane cut himself off as Fleetfoot entered the room behind Rainbow, and backtracked mentally as she walked up to him.
"Is there a problem Thunderlane?"
"N-no ma'am. I simply think its insensitive of Rainbow to come see Cloud right now."
Fleetfoot looked at Thunderlane funnily, "Insensitive of her to come see her injured wingmate? Thats a new one."
"Beg pardon ma'am, but its Rainbow's fault that Cloud's here in the first place."
Fleetfoot chuckled quietly, although it seemed more theatrical than genuine. "You're in for a surprise." Fleetfoot turned to Cloud, who was watching the exchange owlishly. She was wrapped in bandages around her middle, and was on a healthy dosage of painkillers fed through a drip. "Cloud Chaser, perhaps you could tell Thunderlane and Rainbow exactly what it was you did wrong."
"You're blaming her?" Fleetfoot held up a hoof in front of Thunderlane's mouth, and gestured for Cloud to speak.
"I followed too closely behind Rainbow," said Cloud, her voice slurred by her medication. "That unicorn was about to attack her, she pulled out, and I was too close to react in time, so I got hit."
"But that's not why she pulled out!" Thunderlane shouted. "She pulled out because she couldn't go through with it!"
"It doesn't matter why she pulled out," Fleetfoot told him. "In the situation it was the right thing to do, and it certainly wasn't Rainbow's fault that Cloud was too close behind her."
"But you taught us to bunch up!"
"In tight spaces, yes, but even then we never said to fly right behind one another unless it was the only option."
"But none of this would have happened if Rainbow had gone through with her attack!"
Fleetfoot growled under her breath, annoyed at Thunderlane's stubborn insistence that Rainbow was to blame for this. "If Rainbow had gone through with the attack, she might be here right now, or worse she might be dead. Stop blaming her for something that she couldn't help."
"But-"
"Thunderlane!" All of them looked at Cloud as she shouted Thunderlane's name, surprised at her outburst. "It's not Rainbow's fault! Stop blaming her for my screw up!"
"I-uh... I" Thunderlane looked around at all of them, and gave in. "Alright," she sighed. "Alright, I'm sorry for blaming you Rainbow."
"You don't have to apologise."
"Well, I have, so just accept it so we can move on."
Rainbow was about to refuse as she felt Thunderlane had nothing to apologise for, but decided to that it wasn't worth arguing with if it meant an end to the problem. "Apology accepted." She smiled at Thunderlane who only nodded back, leaving her with the impression that perhaps he really did still blame her, but hopefully he'd calm down on his own.
"Okay, I'm going to go check on the others," Fleetfoot said once she thought the situation was under control. "You guys play nice, and try to get some sleep at some point."
Rainbow watched Fleetfoot as she went other to the next bed, happy that she'd been there as Rainbow knew she couldn't have defended herself even if she hadn't been thinking it was her fault Cloud had got hurt. She still thought that a little, but not enough to make her want to sob apologies to Cloud.
"How you feeling Cloud?"
Cloud smiled dreamily, "I don't know what they put in this drip, but it's some good stuff. I get to stay on it too, at least until the S.h.d is freed up to use on me."
"You mean you aren't the most injured here?"
"Nope. Mad isn't it? Lime Jelly got hit by a spell that took a massive chunk out of her. Apparently she's lucky we have a S.h.d, because she'd be dead by now if we didn't."
While Rainbow was surprised that Cloud could talk about a fellow Wonderbolt almost dying so easily, she suspected the drugs made it easier. "Are they still using it on her?"
"Yeah, and I have no idea when they'll be done. I'm next in line though."
"That's good, and I'm glad Lime Jelly's going to be okay."
"Mmhmm. Now how about you tell me and Thunderlane what happened after I became a pincushion? Surely we must have missed something good judging by all the explosions."
-0-0-0-
Spitfire stepped off the Heaven's Grace as soon as it docked at the Wonderbolts HQ, and saluted Princess Luna who stood quietly waiting for them to arrive alongside two of her Night Guard, as well as Fleur, who wore a dark suit. "Mission accomplished."
"Very good Captain."
"I can't speak for your Night Guard though."
"Captain Greywhisker will fill me in later. For now though, I simply wished to be here for your debriefing, and to hear what happened during your mission. It might be important to hear it myself in case there are any improvements that could be made for your next mission."
"Of course. If you would follow me to my office ma'am, I'll tell you everything."
Rainbow watched quietly as Spitfire led Luna away, leaving the rest of them to disembark in their own time. Rainbow was at least thankful that Luna didn't want to talk to her, because she didn't want the Princess to think she wasn't up to defending Equestria.
"I know it's been pretty hush-hush," Lightning said from beside rainbow, her own wingmates beside her again, "but have any of us actually asked what exactly the thestrals were up to? It seems odd that they'd attack a prison. Were they rescuing somepony? Or breaking all of the prisoners out? Or what? I hate not knowing stuff."
"I'm pretty sure that anything done by Luna's personal guard isn't supposed to be known by the rest of us."
"I know, but, y'know... whatever. I'm going to go hit up the showers, then get something hot to eat. You coming with?"
Lightning suddenly thought of her wingmates and quickly decided to clarify something. "No homo."
Rainbow sniggered at Lightning, but nodded. "Sure, sounds good."
"Hey, we should do that too," Vapor said hopefully to Sky. "A nice hot shower would be amazing."
"Hmm, nah," said Sky, totally oblivious to the nature of the invitation, and to the way Vapor slumped as he rejected it. "We're going to have to work on getting even better for our next mission, so I'm going to go get some practice in. I'll see you all later."
Lightning patted Vapor on the back, "He'll work out what you really mean some day."
"What? I don't know what you're talking about." Vapor blushed coyly and looked down at the floor. "I-uh, I need to go. See you later."
Lightning grinned after the rapidly retreating Vapor, "Heh, they're so adorable. Now come on, I'll race ya!" Lightning jumped over the rail and sped off, leaving Rainbow still sat on the airship with no intention of racing anywhere as she thought back to what Lightning said about the Night guard's private mission. There was only one reason she could think of as to why Luna would risk them attacking the prison, and since nopony came back with them, it was pretty clear that whoever Luna was looking for wasn't there. Clearly her friends were being kept in High Rock keep.
-0-0-0-
"You did what?"
"I hardly feel as if I really need to repeat myself Fleur."
"I know, but..." Fleur sighed and tried to think of how to explain this to a being that was older, considerably more powerful, and hopefully wiser than herself, without sounding like she was talking to a child. "You're the one that suggested the formation of the Equestrian Intelligence Service, correct?"
"That is correct," Luna confirmed with a nod.
"Then why would you order your Night Guard to attack the prison at Whiplash without at least informing us?"
"Because it was a last minute addition to the mission, and I didn't have time to inform you before they departed."
"But you had all day after that!"
Luna fixed Fleur with a cool stare, "I have command of all military activities carried out by Equestria, do I not?"
"Of course you do Luna."
"Which includes the activities of Equis, yes?"
Fleur winced uneasily, "...yes?"
"Then I imagine I am capable of doing things without having to inform Equis until I am good and ready."
"But that's not the point," Fleur whined. She could see Luna's point though, as misguided as she felt it was. "It just makes our job harder."
"Do you wish to hear what they were doing there, or not?"
"Apologies Luna, please continue."
"Their primary objective was to release the prisoners while providing a distraction for the Wonderbolts and their mission."
"Free the prisoners?" Fleur had no idea why Luna would order her Night Guard to release all the prisoners, especially after the lengths they went through to get them all in there. "Why would you do that?"
"Any trouble we can cause for the Mareitanians slows down their efforts against us. Time and resources will have to be spent repairing the prison, and recapturing the escapees."
"Isn't this just creating a problem for us further down the line?"
"Compared to the problem we currently face?"
Fleur had to admit that maybe Luna had a point that future problems really did pale in comparison to the current ones. "Very well. I also suspect that, due to their continued absence, that the captured Elements of Harmony weren't being held in Whiplash."
"Indeed not, but we suspected that all along. It's safe to say that for now, they are well beyond our reach."
"Understood. I hope those poor girls are okay." Fleur skimmed through her notes and nodded. "Unless you have more to tell us then, I think that's it. I'll report your mission for the Night Guard's and the Wonderbolts' success, back to Equis, and see if we can't find some other ways to slow Mareitania down. See you soon Luna."
"Farewell Fleur." Luna sat back as Fleur left, and pondered the Night Guards true failure. The attack at Whiplash had utterly failed to attract a single griffon.
-0-0-0-
"Applejack!" Rarity shouted in a whisper, pressing her face up against the bars of her cell so she could see. "Applejack, are you there?"
"Rarity, you better have a good reason to be whisperin' my name so loudly."
Rarity gasped with relief that Applejack had answered. "Oh thank goodness! I was terribly afraid they were going to do something terrible when they dragged you away like that." Rarity gasped again as Applejack stood where Rarity could see her, as well as the black eye and bruises she'd been given.
"It ain't that bad Rarity."
"But why would they do that to you?"
"Would you believe that I have no idea? And I'm the one they done it to. Anyway, I've been back fer hours, so how could you not know I was here?"
Rarity prodded a hoof at the bags under her eyes, "I'm afraid I may have fallen asleep. Being trapped in this place is surprisingly exhausting. But enough about me, what did they do to you?"
"Well, first they gave me a nice hot meal. Said it was courtesy of the Lady. They let me eat in peace, then as soon as I was done they asked me what I thought of the Lady. Now you know I ain't gonna lie, so I told them she's still an evil harpy fer locking us up in here." Applejack gingerly poked her black eye and chuckled. "Don't think they liked that very much. Kept telling me I'd learn to love the Lady one way or another."
"Oh Applejack, you could have lied to them."
"And end up trapped in that lie? No thank you. I'm almost more afraid of what they'll do if they think we do actually love the Lady. Besides, didn't they do something like that to you yesterday?"
"Not like that. They-uh... gave me a choice. They told me they only had three meals for us, and that I would have to pick which one of us went hungry. I hated the thought of one of you going hungry, so I... chose myself."
"Oh Rarity, y'all didn't have to do that."
"Ah-ah, not a word Applejack. It's important that you all keep up your strength if we're to make it through this."
Applejack sighed and nodded, "Fine, but it ain't no good for us if you waste away givin' all your food to the rest of us. Y'all need to eat too sugarcube. Still, at least you ruined their fun by not being selfish. Guess they just don't know about you and your generous nature."
"Just as they don't know you if they think you're going to lie."
"Darn straight." Applejack turned her head to look further down the passage. "Hey Fluttershy, ya alright? You're being awfully quiet."
"'m okay. As okay as I can be."
"They haven't done anything bad to you have they?"
There was a long moment of silence before Fluttershy answered. "They made me pick an animal to kill!" she cried. "Forced me- Forced me to pick an animal for them to kill in front of me, and- and- and said they'd k-kill one of you if I didn't! I- I-" Fluttershy wailed, sucking in deep breaths, just to squeeze them back out in as she cried louder.
"Aww shucks..." Applejack raised her hoof to her head to remove her hat, only to remember she'd not been wearing it when she was abducted. "I'm sorry Fluttershy. I guess I got nothing worth complaining about."
"I want to go ho-o-o-ome!"
"We all do," Rarity said quietly, brushing her dishevelled mane out of her eyes. "Spike darling?"
There was a clinking of chains as the occupant of the cell next to her moved at the sound of his name. "Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"I'm chained up, and forced to wear a mask so I can't breath fire." Spike let that reminder sink into Rarity's head. "All things considered, I'm not bad though. Almost feels like they've forgotten about me."
"Or they don't care because you ain't got an Element bound to you," Applejack sighed and nodded at the inhibitor on Rarity's horn. "I don't suppose you're any closer to getting that do-hickey off your horn yet Rares?"
"I think it would rather defeat the purpose of wearing it if it came off that easily. I'm afraid the only way I can think of to remove it would be to break my own horn, which for obvious reasons, I'm not going to do. Not least because it would still leave me without magic."
"Figures."
"Are you not tempted to try bucking the door down again?"
"After my last try, not so much." Applejack banged a hoof against the thick bars of her cell door. "I hate to say it, but this place is locked up tighter than a house with no doors. Still, I don't think we should give up on getting out of here entirely."
"You sound like you have a plan," Rarity said hopefully.
"'Fraid not, but I did hear somethin' interesting while I was getting beat up. Apparently there was some attack on that prison place down in... Whiplash, I think they said? That's gotta be ponies lookin' for us, right? Maybe even Twilight!"
"It has to be!" Rarity frowned as a thought hit her. "But how could she possibly hope to get us out of here? You've seen this place Applejack, and that Faust. There's no way she could get us out of here."
"I know, but knowing Twilight, she ain't gonna give up easily."
A deep chuckled echoed from nearby, "Is that what you think?"
"Oh lordy... Shut up Francis! We don't wanna hear it! Twilight kicked your sorry ass, so she's sure as heck gonna kick Faust's! I betcha she has a plan on how to do it already!"
-0-0-0-
"Twilight?"
"Yes Trixie?"
"You've been staring blankly at that page for like an hour now. What are you doing?"
Twilight blinked a few times, then stared at the accusing blob of saliva she'd left on the priceless, one of a kind tome written by Starswirl himself. She sighed, and turned to face Trixie.
"I have no idea. I'm going to bed." |
The end of an era | 11. Hitting the road | Twilight stirred at the sound of her door opening as quietly as possible, and her ears twitched at the sound of hooves tapping gently on the floor as somepony made their way around the side of her bed. It took a lot of mental wrestling to wake herself enough to the point she was able to speak, but she managed it. "Ngh, who's ther-"
THWAAARP!
"YAAAHH-AHH!" A wave of telekinesis pulsed from Twilight's horn in her panic, throwing aside everything around her, and smashing the pony assaulting her ears against the wall, along with her bedside table, breaking it to pieces. "What the fuck?!" A quiet chuckling from by the wall alerted Twilight that her attacker was very much still there, and she scrabbled to her hooves to find that, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Trixie, lying on her side, and not moving much. "Trixie!"
"Ehehehe... Ow. You know, after six months of being in hospital, I'd almost forgotten what pain feels like."
"What the hell Trixie? I could've seriously hurt you! What were you thinking?!"
Trixie reached a hoof out towards the offending noise maker, but couldn't quite reach it, so gave up. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I had a look around your castle and found an air-horn," she said by way of explanation. "So I thought I'd give you one of our good old fashioned, stupid wake up calls." Trixie slowly rolled onto her chest, "I seem to remember them hurting less though."
Twilight growled, then started the short process of reassembling her bedside table, while taking care to not reveal some of its contents. Just because she wasn't inclined towards ponies in a certain way, didn't mean she didn't sometimes have needs. "You know, that wasn't funny back in Mareitania, and it isn't funny now. I could have really hurt you."
"I think you might have..."
"Pull that crap again, and I'll be inclined to find out if this place has a dungeon I can lock you in at night." Twilight nodded with satisfaction as she fully repaired her furniture, then hopped off the end of her bed. "I'll go start breakfast," she said, leaving the room in a huff.
"Wait," Trixie called after the departing alicorn. "Carry me."
"No!"
"Why do you even have an air-horn? Twilight? Twilight? Are you ignoring me?" Trixie turned enough to see out of the door, but Twilight has gone. Instead, Moondancer was there, looking annoyed, but she always looked like that.
"You deserve every moment of suffering you get."
"Oh please, you say that to me every day."
"And every day it's true," Moondancer said back before leaving.
"Wait! Moondancer! Will you carry me?"
"No!"
"Aww... Sunset?"
"Not a chance Trixie!"
-0-0-0-
Twilight held her healing device over Trixie as all of them ate breakfast, with Sunset helping Trixie since her legs weren't feeling too clever, and her magic was still inhibited. Hopefully this morning would be the last time that she tried something like this.
Twilight realised what she'd just thought and dismissed it immediately.
Twilight cleared her throat, "So, girls... First I want to thank you all for helping with this. Octavia too if she were here, but even so, I'm afraid time is becoming an issue. It's been two weeks since we started, and I really think we ought to start looking for this place, rather than sit here and read books. We really cannot spend any more time on this, so I think we need to point out some possible locations."
"Well none of the books I've read have even mentioned this secret retreat," said Trixie. "Are you even sure it exists?" Trixie turned nervous at the way all of the others had started looking at her. "What? Is that not what we were doing?"
"We were looking for commonly mentioned locations in his writings," Twilight told her in a tight voice. "Not for mention of the retreat itsel- You know what? Forget it. What'd you find Moondancer?"
Moondancer pushed her glasses up her nose as she consulted her notes. "I found quite a few mentions of the Crystal Empire, and the frozen north, but we know it's not in the Empire itself because Starswirl wouldn't have been able to use it while the Empire was banished. All the mentions of the frozen north concerned the windigoes though, and no actual studies of them, so I'm not sure we should include them or not. Other than that, I have him as having spent a lot of time studying the ancient temples around the Tenochtitlan Basin and the Forbidden jungle, which is odd, because I thought that place was fictional."
"It's very much real," said Twilight. "And every bit as dangerous as the Daring Do books make it sound."
"You've been there?"
"Once, about two years ago. I can see why that place would interest Starswirl though. Anywhere else?"
"There was a few mentions of the Badlands, Minos, the centaur homeland, and a few mentions of lands in the far south, but nothing to the degree that it seemed relevant since he never went to visit a lot of those places."
Twilight nodded thoughtfully as she jotted these places down, "Okay, good. Sunset?"
"Same as Moondancer about the Tenochtitlan Basin, and there was a few mentions of the Badlands, as well as Saddle Arabia. Then there was the three whole books he wrote about the Circen desert."
Moondancer looked inquisitively at Sunset, "Isn't circen old equish for round?"
"Round?" Trixie sniggered. "Why the hell would it be called a round desert?"
"Because it's a square, obviously," Sunset replied sarcastically, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "According to Starswirl the desert is pretty much a mathematically perfect circle, centred on the ruins of an ancient city. He spent years studying this place, trying to discover its secrets, so I think it's good to add to the list."
"Yeah..." Twilight noted it down, then looked at the major culprits they had so far. The Badlands, the Forbidden jungle, the Frozen north, and the Circen desert. The biggest outlier in those four was the Frozen north. The entire place was inhospitable, and she very much doubted Starswirl chose that place to create his retreat. The problem was that the desert was likely inhospitable as well.
"What about you Twilight?" Sunset asked.
"Hmm?" Twilight looked up as Sunset spoke to her, "Oh, uh, yeah. The notes Octavia left me mentions a few of the same places as you, but included a few attempts at studying the Dragon-lands, which fits in nicely with what I discovered. I really doubt he built his retreat there though, since dragons aren't exactly known for being welcoming."
"So that leaves us with the Badlands, the Forbidden jungle, and the Circen desert as our main culprits." Sunset tried to count them off on her fingers, then blushed as she remembered not having any.
"Yeah, but I get the feeling he never built his retreat in the Circen desert either, since it's just as inhospitable as the Frozen north."
"Not always though," said Moondancer. "If there's the ruins of a city there, then it must have supported life at some point. If anything, I'd say the Badlands is unlikely since pretty much everything in that place is hostile."
"Lots to study there though," Sunset pointed out. "What do you think Twilight?"
"Truthfully, I don't think he built it in any of these places," Twilight said tiredly. "Celestia's own research to find the retreat all came up with the same ideas as us, and they're all silly places to build his secret retreat. What she does mention though, was that he managed to research these places, and be of service to Equestria, all at the same time, and looking at some of the dates on these books, I have to agree. He'd finished writing a paper on the indigenous creatures of the Badlands two days before he started one on the significance of the frescoes in the temples in the Tenochtitlan basin. Then a week later he started researching something else in a different place before he'd properly finished that, all while being at Celestia's beck and call. How could he have possibly gotten around that fast, and still be available to Celestia?"
Trixie waved her hooves in circles, "Magic."
"Well, obviously. But he couldn't possibly have the power to teleport around like that on his own. Not even alicorns can do that!"
"Then he must have had some kind of teleport network set up," said Sunset. "He was a master of portals, and stuff like that. It's the only logical solution."
"That's what Celestia thought. If we find his teleport network, we can find his retreat."
Trixie looked around at the others as they all agreed with that assessment, while she didn't. "I think you're getting too excited. If he did have a teleport network, then surely he'd have a way in Equestria to travel to it. If so, why hasn't Celestia found it?"
"She did mention it," said Twilight, "but thinks that it either broke at some point, or was intentionally sabotaged. She's never found anything anyway."
"So, what? We're going to go traipsing off to wherever in the hopes of finding some ancient portal to Starswirl's secret retreat?" Trixie threw her hooves into the air as Twilight nodded, "This sounds even more improbable than finding the retreat itself!"
"It's all we have Trixie."
"The great hope of Equestria and the world..."
Twilight stomped a hoof angrily, "Unless you have a better idea Trixie, this is pretty much the only chance we have of finding a way to defeat Faust!"
"And how about we just fight her! I fought you just fine when I went nuts, so surely you and the other princess could fight her!"
"I was holding back against you Trixie!"
Trixie felt like she'd been slapped, "You were?"
"Of course I was! The problem I had fighting you was that I didn't actually want to really hurt or kill you, which kind of limited my options."
"Oh, I see. Then that makes you even more powerful than I thought, so fighting seems like an even better idea."
Twilight shook her head, "Even if that were true, the fact is that we don't think we can defeat Faust, hence why we're going for this desperate kind of plan."
Trixie dismissed the idea, "I really don't think she could possibly be that powerful. The only thing I can think of as being that powerful is Discord."
"And Discord ran away as soon as he heard about her. What does that tell you?"
Trixie was quiet for a moment, "It tells me that if this desperate plan doesn't work, we're so fucked."
Twilight slumped in her seat, "And Bingo was his name-o."
"What about other ideas?" Sunset asked. "How about stealing her magic like Tirek stole all yours?"
Twilight shrugged at the suggestion, "And put it where? Tirek was the only one capable of containing that kind of magic, and I really don't think he's willing to share his secrets. And even then, he could probably only steal something like hers or Discord's power when he was near his full strength, and we have no idea how he even did it."
"Couldn't you contain it?"
Twilight almost laughed at the suggestion, "I could barely contain the power of Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. Faust's power would probably burn me from the inside out. I'd rather not find that out, y'know?"
"So..?" Sunset said hopefully.
"So we have this plan, and this plan alone."
"...bummer."
"You said it." Twilight quickly cleared the table of stuff, and summoned a map of the world, with Equestria sitting rather egocentrically at its middle. "So we're agreed that the Frozen north is to be excluded?"
"I think we'd have to be even more desperate than we are now to risk an expedition there," said Sunset.
"Right, so that leaves our best chances of it being the Badlands, the Tenochtitlan basin, and the Circen desert." Twilight placed at marker on the map for each of those places, finding that it made a nice curve heading southeast from where they were now. It also cut through the middle of Saddle Arabia. "Didn't one of you mention Saddle Arabia?"
"I did," said Sunset.
"Then I guess we get to have a look around there too." Twilight stared at the route they had to take, then shrugged. All they had to do now was follow it, and hope they found the proverbial needle in a haystack.
"The odds of this working are stupidly low," said Moondancer.
"I guess that means you aren't coming then?" Trixie asked.
Moondancer glared icily at Trixie, "A walk through some of the most dangerous places in the world doesn't sound like fun."
Trixie blinked at Moondancer a few times, "I can't tell if you're joking or not."
"Well, I'm in," Sunset said proudly.
Twilight jolted in surprise, "You are? But what about your friends? What about your whole life you have in the other world? I'm not asking you to come and leave that all behind Sunset, you know that."
"And you don't have to. Equestria is my home Twilight, and it's in danger, along with the entire world. What kind of person, or pony, would I be to just walk away from that?" Sunset grinned cockily at Twilight, "I'm in Twilight, and you better accept that."
Twilight swallowed and nodded, trying to keep the torrent of thank yous she wanted to say under wraps. "Thanks Sunset, glad to have you on board. What about you Moondancer?"
Moondancer looked from pony to pony, then sighed heavily. "I never wanted this, but if me coming with you increases your chances of success, then I'll come. Especially now that there's a pony I actually like going."
"Aww, I like you too."
Moondancer scoffed in disgust, "I really wasn't talking about you Trixie."
"Pfft, whatever."
"Anyway," Twilight said to change the subject, "thank you both for coming. Since we have a long way to go, we better start getting ready if we're going to leave by tomorrow."
"You'll have to leave me out of that," said Sunset. "I'm going to have to go back through the portal and sort my life out before I can come with you. And explain all this to my friends." Sunset sighed and smiled weakly, "I can see this being emotional."
"Yeah. Speaking of your friends..." Twilight walked over to a small chest and pulled a couple of books out of it before presenting them to Sunset. "I know you didn't have much room left in your journal, so I made these for us so we could keep writing. I guess now you should give one to your friends instead so you can keep in touch with them."
Sunset took one of the books and hugged it to her chest as she started to choke up. "Thanks Twilight. I- I can't believe I'm almost crying already. I'll try to be back by tomorrow morning. See ya!"
"Give them my love too!" Twilight shouted after Sunset as the mare practically ran out of the room. While she was ecstatic that Sunset was coming, Twilight still felt horrible for separating Sunset from her friends, even if it was Sunset's choice.
"Hey! Equestria to Twilight!"
"Hmm?" Twilight realised she'd been staring at the door Sunset left through for a while, and that she also had tears in her eyes that she quickly wiped away. "Sorry Trixie, I was just thinking."
"Uh-huh. Maybe you could tell us what we're going to be doing instead."
Twilight nodded as she quickly ran through a mental checklist of everything they might need. "First we're going to need saddlebags. Good ones. And a book of enchantments for preserving things. Then we're going to need a lot of food."
"Yes, those sound like normal requests."
Twilight smiled at Trixie, "Wait until I tell you about the bottomless canteens I devised."
"And when can I see those?"
"As soon as I make them."
-0-0-0-
Trixie idly played with the ring in her ear, then drummed her hooves on the counter in Twilight's kitchen once that got boring, while doing her best to annoy Moondancer as she sorted through the shopping list Twilight had given them. Moondancer seemed impervious to Trixie's attempts to irritate her though, and so she started making popping noises as well, before giving up when that achieved nothing either. "Are we done now?"
Moondancer narrowed her eyes at Trixie's question, "Done? What have you got to be done with? You didn't do anything!"
"Trixie showed you where the shops are."
"I know where the shops are!"
"And I provided moral support."
"Doing this with you has been absolute hell!"
Trixie pouted at Moondancer, "Would it hurt you to be a little nicer?"
"Yes! Now go away! I'm sure Twilight might have some inane task for you that won't surpass your meagre capabilities."
Trixie was stunned, and found herself unable to reply for several seconds. "Wow, that actually hurt my feelings. Bravo Moondancer, bravo."
Moondancer rolled her eyes and continued sorting through their purchases, only stopping after Trixie not only failed to leave, but sat there staring, her bottom lip jutting out slightly. "What?"
"I'm waiting for you to apologise."
"As soon as I'm made aware that hell has in fact frozen over, or is otherwise filled to the brim with flying pigs, I will get right back to you. Until then, please leave me be so I can get this done."
"Ugh, fine..." Trixie flopped to her hooves and dragged herself out of the kitchen, making her way through the castle to where she'd last seen Twilight. Thankfully it was easy enough to find the alicorn, mostly due to the flickering purple magic that came from the slightly ajar door. Trixie pushed the door open, and averted her eyes as what Twilight was doing threatened to blind her. "Dude! That's fucking bright!"
Twilight pushed her welding goggles up as Trixie squeaked, and let the heat dissipate off her horn for a moment. "Perhaps I should have put a sign up saying 'do not enter.' Are you alright?"
Trixie blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the after images she had floating around in her vision. "Were you welding? With your horn?"
"Yes. Why? Is that a problem?"
"No, I just didn't know you could do that until just now." Trixie blinked again as her vision cleared, then looked at what Twilight was building. It looked like an oversized water cooler, if water coolers had glowing, purple, spinning things attached to where the water came out. "What the hell is this?"
"This is our bottomless canteens. Basically it teleports water straight into our canteens as we use them. Then I've connected it to the water in the castle, so it refills itself. Neat huh."
Trixie studied the contraption intently, not sure where to even begin if she had to build one herself. "And you didn't think to make one of these when we were in Mareitania?"
"Firstly, I didn't know how back then, and I wouldn't have had time. Mostly though, Mareitania was, for want of a better word, a 'civilised' country with clean water available in most places, so this would be unnecessary. In the Badlands, and the Circen desert though, not exactly a lot of water, and I imagine the water in the Forbidden jungle isn't exactly problem free."
"Uh-huh." Trixie looked at the rough wooden frame holding it together, then at the spinning... thing, which was a mess of bits and bobs that held four gems, none of which were the same size, shape, or colour. "Why do all your creations seem really haphazard?"
"Really?" Twilight deadpanned. "You're criticising that?"
"Yes really! Apart from this thing, your healing device was a confusing bunch of wires and gems glued onto what looked like a fold out lampshade, and that crap around the portal looks like a half dozen afterthoughts slapped together."
"I work with what I have in the time I have to build things." Twilight plucked a sapphire out of what she knew was a amplified teleportation matrix, and held it up in the air. "If you keep on you won't be getting any nice, clean water on our travels."
"Alright! Sorry! Sheesh!" Twilight placed the gem back in the matrix, which seemed to suck it back into place. "So how come you can teleport water halfway around the world, but not us?"
"Because it's in small quantities, I can use an amplifier, and it isn't a quartet of complex, living organisms. Does that answer your question?"
"More or less," Trixie nodded.
"Good. Now why are you here, pestering me, instead of helping Moondancer like I asked?"
"Because she's being mean to me."
"And did you deserve her being mean to you?"
"Well, yeah, probably. That doesn't mean she had to call my capabilities meagre though."
Twilight slid her goggles back into place so she could finish welding the pipes that refilled the tank together. "You'd be more capable if you took that inhibitor off," she said as she started casting again.
"Not a chance," Trixie said as she averted her eyes from the bright light that Twilight was producing. "What if I take it off and turn evil again? The last time I used magic I tried to kill you! What if I end up trying to do that again?"
"Then I'll kick your ass again," Twilight replied dismissively. "Really though Trixie, I think you're being a little paranoid about this. Your magic isn't going to do anything you don't want it to. Just avoid dark magic and you'll be fine."
"But I'm scared Twilight!"
Twilight sighed and stopped what was doing. She pulled her goggles down to hang around her neck as she thought of how to tell Trixie she was being silly, without telling her she was in so implicit a way. "Look, I know none of us liked what happened with you back in Mareitania, but you can't hide from your magic forever."
"Yes I can. I've managed without magic just fine for months now, and I don't see why I should start using it again if I don't want to."
"So walking into some of the most naturally hostile places in the world isn't a good enough reason?" Twilight nodded with respect, "You must be a brave pony to do that."
"Uhh..."
Twilight smiled kindly at Trixie, "Look, I know you're nervous, and considering you have eldritch beings claiming ownership over you, I can't exactly blame you, but there is nothing you can do that we can't fix unless you really wanted to do it. Or go on a murder spree, as unlikely as that is. You are in charge here Trixie, not them."
"I don't know Twilight. This sounds like a bad idea."
Twilight stood and hugged Trixie, the blue mare going stiff before accepting and returning it. "Do you trust me?" she whispered into Trixie's ear.
"Twilight, you're almost as big a bag of crazy as I am."
"That's not what I asked. Do you trust me? Or do you at least trust me to wipe the floor with you on the off chance you do get taken over by dark magic?"
"Is it 'destroy Trixie's confidence day' or something? I might, possibly, beat you-"
"Trixie!"
"Yes! Yes I trust you!"
"Good." Twilight grinned and held the inhibitor up in front of Trixie's face, "Because this would be totally awkward if you didn't."
"What? No!" Trixie snatched at the inhibitor, but Twilight moved it away too fast. "Give it back Twilight!"
"Not a chance."
"Please!" Trixie started hyperventilating, and pulled on her mane as panic took root in her mind.
"Trixie, the more you think something bad is going to happen, the more likely it is to happen. Calm down, and think for a moment. I took it off the moment I hugged you, and you didn't even notice. There's been no surge of dark magic, and you've not lost control, or anything. In fact, your horn hasn't so much as made a spark. You're fine."
"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm absolutely fine." Trixie kept repeating the words as she forced herself to calm down. As much as she wanted to though, she wouldn't, and soon worked out that it was because she was angry rather than panicked, and that Twilight was its target. "You fucking bitch!"
Twilight stepped back as Trixie swung a hoof at her, "I am, I know, and I'm sorry, but look, nothing bad has happened in the slightest."
"Raargh!" Trixie leapt at Twilight, knocking her over and standing over her. "That! Wasn't! Funny!" Trixie screamed, punctuating each shout with a slap to Twilight's face.
"It wasn't meant to be! And I'm sorry! Now please calm down!"
Trixie didn't move, remaining standing over Twilight as she decided whether to slap her again, her rage not abating for one moment after the stunt Twilight had pulled. Then it slowly started to occur to her that even though she was angry, her dark magic hadn't so much as stirred.
"This seems unnecessarily sexual," Moondancer said from the doorway, having caught a heavily breathing Trixie standing over Twilight, who lay on her back. "Anyway, I was just going to tell you I'm done. All you have to do now is whatever you were going to do to all that stuff Twilight." Moondancer blushed and shuffled away from the door, "I'll leave you two to it."
Trixie groaned and punched Twilight on the chest. "Ah! What was that one for?"
"That was for Moondancer thinking we're lesbians."
"If it helps, she doesn't now since she's still stood outside the door."
"Eep!" There was the sound of rapidly retreating hooves.
"Well that's creepy. Seriously though Twilight, what the hell made you think that was a good idea?"
"I really am sorry Trixie, but you needed to see that nothing bad was going to happen. That would never happen if you were too afraid to take the inhibitor off."
"If you'd just said you were going to take it off I might have reluctantly agreed! Because, y'know, I trusted you! What a mistake that was!"
"You would have let me take it off?"
"Yes!"
"...Oh. Now I feel like more of an asshole than I did anyway." Trixie groaned and moved off Twilight, allowing the alicorn to roll onto her chest and poke her tender face. "That's going to bruise."
"Shut up!" Trixie snapped at Twilight. She rubbed her temples and tried her best to calm down. "Why did you have to make me angry Twilight? You know what used to happen when I got angry."
"It's not happening now."
Trixie turned to glare at Twilight, "Believe me it's really fucking tempting." Trixie sucked in a deep breath and released it harshly. "Princess of friendship my fucking ass," she grumbled to herself. "Princess of no interpersonal skills more like. Is it that hard to ask for permission sometimes? I don't think it is. This is way worse than the coat dye incident, and that was already pretty fucking shitty."
"Is it?" Twilight asked weakly.
"Yes! It is! You stupid, shitty..." Trixie sighed as Twilight shrank back and looked down at the floor, "Adorably well meaning pony. Fuck!"
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah, you said that."
"And I mean it!"
"Noted." Trixie gingerly touched her horn, like she expected it to explode if she was too rough with it. In the privacy of her head she was a little bit terrified of the bony protrusion on her forehead, and wanted nothing more than to put the inhibitor back on. She also knew that she'd lied when she said she might have let Twilight remove it, and truthfully just wanted an extra reason to be mad at her because what she did was still a shitty thing to do. At the same time though, the lack of reaction from her horn was upsetting in a way.
"Why isn't my horn doing anything?"
"What do you mean? What were you expecting to happen?"
"I don't know! Just, something! Some magical surge, or flash of light, or something to show that my power's been unleashed again."
Twilight managed an extremely weak smile that hung nervously to the corners of her mouth. "It really doesn't work like that. After so long your magic might take a little time to work again. Have you tried using it?"
"Are you crazy?! Of course I haven't!"
"Then perhaps you should." Twilight picked a screwdriver out of the toolbox she'd used to build her water tank, and placed it in front of Trixie. "Try to pick it up."
"Oookay..." Trixie focused on the screwdriver, trying with all her might to pick the tool up off the ground. Try as she might though, she couldn't find the slightest sliver of magic with which to do it. She couldn't even manage a few weak sparks. "Great! So now I can't even do magic at all!" She kicked the screwdriver away, "You think I'd be happy about that."
Twilight picked the screwdriver back up and returned it to its place in front of Trixie. "It just needs a little time Trixie. Don't give up, and try not to get frustrated with it. The last thing we need is dark magic stepping up in your normal magic's place. Keep practicing while I finish this off, and it'll soon come. You'll see."
-0-0-0-
The sound of a sword being drawn echoed through Twilight's mind, and she burst into wakefulness, shouting as she felt about her chest for a wound that wasn't there, while her heart thundered in her chest. A chest that had a rapidly fading sensation of cold stabbing through it.
She slumped back in her bed, gasping for air as her sweat covered body worked out that she was uninjured, and in no danger of dying. It had been a while since she'd woken up like this, and the sweat drenched sheets she was entangled in were but one reminder of how much she hated it. Who knew that dying could leave such a mark on the psyche?
Groaning quietly to herself, Twilight picked up her alarm clock in her magic, only to find it was due to go off in ten minutes anyway, which did at least mean that she'd gotten some sleep last night, even if waking up like this left her exhausted. She was tempted to try for another half an hour in bed, but the damp sheets weren't exactly the most comfortable, and she did plan on leaving today, so perhaps it really wasn't worth it.
A quick wash later, and Twilight made her way out of her room. She could hear an alarm going off down the hall from Moondancer's room, so she'd be up soon, while the door to Trixie's room was wide open, and her bedding undisturbed.
Concerned about what Trixie might be up to, Twilight kept going, checking the more obvious rooms for signs of the blue unicorn. The most obvious one she found was the throne room, whose door was ajar, letting the flickering light from within shine into the corridor. Wondering what was causing it, Twilight pushed the door open, and recoiled at what she found.
Dark purple and black flames burned in patches around the floor, and danced between the roots of the Golden Oaks library suspended above the table. A dark sigil covered the table itself, glowing with unnatural light, and behind it, sat on Twilight's throne, was Trixie, her eyes leaking smoke as her horn bubbled with dark magic.
"I lifted the screwdriver," Trixie said in a cold voice that sounded like several ponies speaking at once. "Lifted it right up."
"Trixie! What are you doing?!"
Trixie stood and slammed her hooves on the table, "I warned you Twilight! I warned you this would happen!"
Twilight danced back as Trixie threw the screwdriver onto the floor before her. Like a lot of the room, it burned with dark fire. "Trixie, stop! You can't let this magic control you! You're better than this!"
"Am I?" Trixie slid out of her seat, and stalked around the table towards Twilight, moving with a catlike grace. Twilight froze as Trixie sashayed towards her, too entrapped by her own horror to do anything else.
"What's the matter Twilight? Scared? You shouldn't be. After all, you made this happen." Twilight flared her wings as Trixie walked behind her, brushing against Twilight's tail before coming around the other side. "Oh Twilight, I've been looking so forward to this." As Twilight tried to get some moisture back into her mouth so she could speak, Trixie grinned nastily and raised a hoof which she gently pressed against Twilight's nose.
"Boop."
Twilight had no idea what was happening, shown succinctly through her total inability to form a complete word, let alone sentence, as she flapped her mouth uselessly while fixated by her own nose. "Huh?"
Trixie cocked her head, maintaining her grin. "Whatever is the matter Twilight? Has booping you been your weakness this entire time?"
"I... What?"
In a flash the dark fires and sigil were gone, and the magic on Trixie's horn faded to a soft pink as the smoke from her eyes dissipated. The grin didn't go anywhere though, "Gotcha."
"...Wha?"
"By the way, I don't know when it happened, but my illusions have gotten a lot better."
"Nngh." Twilight rubbed a hoof along the bridge of her nose, "Does this make us even now?"
"Not even close."
"Oh come on! You almost gave me a heart attack! And I've already almost had one of those this morning as it is."
"So you admit that you were thoroughly rused by all this?"
"Yeah, you got me alright. Bravo, good job. Now please don't scare me like that again."
"Oh please, it wasn't that bad."
"I already have serious hang-ups over having to fight you the first time Trixie! Having to so something like that again is literally one of my greatest fears." Twilight took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, hoping it would help her calm down. "Not that I've ever told you that."
"In my defence, I didn't know that," Trixie said imperiously. Then she thought of something. "Hold on. If that's one of your biggest fears, why were you so keen for me to remove my inhibitor?"
"Because I knew that you'd be in control. Because I trusted you."
"Oh. Shit." Trixie sighed to herself, "Can we just move on from this? It's turning into one of those confusing situations that I don't care for. You're still a bitch, and a shitty pony for taking off my inhibitor like that, just so you know, since that was my biggest fear."
"And I'm sorry for that."
"I also lied when I said I'd let you take it off if you had asked," Trixie admitted.
"I'm minutely less sorry, but still very sorry."
Trixie nodded, glad to put this behind them for now. Hopefully Twilight might at least learn a thing or two about asking permission. "So, why is fighting me your biggest fear?"
"Actually it's fighting any of my friends like that."
"Okay, but I still want to know why?"
"I don't like hurting my friends."
"Wait, so you're not worried about losing?"
Twilight grinned at Trixie as cockily as she could, which at that moment wasn't cocky at all, "Never even crossed my mind."
-0-0-0-
Trixie watched idly as Twilight enchanted their bags with spell that would preserve anything kept within them. There had been some long winded explanation about the bag freezing time within themselves, and Trixie had wanted proof of that, but had been told that the spell ended as soon as the bag was opened again, and resumed when it was closed, so she had no way to tell if it worked or not. She only had the assurances of Twilight that it did.
Then Twilight started shrinking all their food, so that you could fit a week's worth of meals into your hoof. The whole process was rather bizarre, and beyond Trixie's ability to comprehend, so she decided to not worry about it. Chances are that if it's magic, and Twilight's casting it, it probably worked. This did raise some other questions though.
"Why are we doing all this travelling by hoof? Can't you just shrink us and fly? With the time thingy spell-"
"Time dilation.
"That. I won't even know we've been flying, so no freak-outs."
"No can do I'm afraid."
"Why not?"
Twilight stopped what she was doing to explain. "Firstly, the effects of casting a time dilation spell, and a shrinking spell, on a pony at the same time is entirely untested. I'd rather not find out if it has negative effects in the middle of this. Secondly, Moondancer has a metal plate in her head, so I can't shrink her."
Trixie turned to look at Moondancer, who blushed as she furiously pretended to not listen. "How'd that happen?"
"I fell down some stairs, and cracked my skull," Moondancer hissed between her teeth.
"Lame. Still, why does that stop you from shrinking her?"
"You know that thing where we had to remove the-uh, nails from Fleur's hooves when we rescued her from High Rock."
"I seem to remember that you chickened out, so I had to do it."
"Well, yes," Twilight mumbled. "The point is we had to remove them because metal shrinks at a far slower rate than organic matter, or not at all in some metal's cases, and the nails would have torn her hooves apart. The same would apply to Moondancer, except having your head torn apart is probably even less survivable."
"So we're having to walk because of Moondancer?" Trixie glared at Moondancer, who was still pretending to not pay attention. "Gee, thanks Moondancer."
"I'm quite happy to stay here if not for the fact that you'll probably need me," Moondancer growled back.
"Does that mean you can't teleport her either?"
"Actually, that's no problem. The amount of magic it takes to teleport a living creature is more than is needed to teleport metal, so the plate in Moondancer's head won't matter in the slightest."
Trixie snorted a laugh. "Boy, that sure is convenient," she said, make Twilight smile brightly at her.
"It is, isn't it. Anyway, I'm only enchanting one of our bags each with a time dilation spell, so if I have to I can still shrink you and Sunset, and carry Moondancer. Besides, how are we supposed to find what we're looking for if I'm just flying us around everywhere?"
"Point poorly made."
Twilight finished shrinking the last of the food, and placed it in Sunset's bag, placing that next to the others. "Okay, that's food sorted. At least until we can hopefully buy more in Saddle Arabia if we need to. What else is on the list Moondancer?"
Moondancer consulted the checklist Twilight had given her the previous day. "We have food, water, and bedding sorted. One of the new healing devices that we can all use, as well as one of the prototypes. Sun cream and sunburn lotion. And rope, for some reason. All that's left then is personal effects, and an entire Sunset that's still not back. I'm not seeing Trixie's brain on this list either."
"When you're as brilliant as me, you don't need one."
"Sure. Anyway, apart from those two things, I think we're ready."
Twilight nodded thoughtfully as Moondancer listed the things off. "You've already brought what you need Moondancer, and I suppose you have too Trixie, except for one thing."
"What's that?" Trixie asked in confusion, pretty sure she could fit her current possessions in a shoebox.
"I'll show you." Twilight led them out of the kitchen, including Moondancer since she was also curious, and back to the portal room, which tended to double as a room for assorted knickknacks. Towards the back of the room was a chest that Twilight dragged into the middle of the room. "Open it," she said Trixie.
Trixie did so, but not without trepidation as she eased the lid open. Her eyes went wide, and she slammed the lid fully open, squealing happily as she saw what was inside. "My armour! You didn't throw it away!" She picked up the helmet and placed it over her head, "Still fits too!"
"Of course I didn't throw it away." Twilight smiled happily as Trixie assembled the armour around herself, although it was more because Trixie was happy than anything else. The armour itself certainly wasn't a reminder of happier times. Quite the opposite. "Even if you never used it again, I thought you might want to keep it."
Trixie struck a pose towards Moondancer, "Neat huh?" Moondancer merely rolled her eyes. "This, I think, is worth forgiving you for Twilight. I thought I'd never see it again."
"I was going to keep it as a surprise until you were better, because I wasn't sure how you would react to it. Now you might need it though."
Trixie lost some of her joy, "That's an understatement. Still, thanks Twilight."
Moondancer watched with interest as Trixie removed the armour and made it vanish. "Do we all get a suit of armour like that?"
"If you can find me a suit of armour to enchant, I will happily teach you how."
"You enchanted it to make it tougher, right?"
"...yes?"
"Think you could do that to my glasses since they're the only pair I have, and I don't want to lose, or break them."
Twilight thought about it, then shrugged. "I don't see why not."
-0-0-0-
"So what's that one do?" Moondancer asked, pointing to one of the runes around the enchanting circle Twilight had drawn with chalk on the floor.
"That's strength. That'll make them really hard to break. Then there's resistance, which will basically keep them clean forever. And summoning, so you can summon them to yourself, even if you lose them. All you have to do now is let me engrave your glasses, and then you can enchant them."
"Okay." Moondancer passed Twilight her glasses, and sat squinting at everything around her. Her eyesight was terrible at best, and diabolical at worst, and even a few meters away was little more than a blur of colours. "Will this take long?"
"Only a few minutes."
Moondancer nodded, and waited quietly until the peculiar whir of machinery behind her pricked her ears. She turned around, seeing various purple flashes that were very hard to decipher without her glasses, but quickly became very obvious as there was a final flash which produced an orange blur that hurtled towards her. She had unwittingly sat in front of the portal.
"Aaaahhh!" Moondancer and Sunset both screamed as Sunset flipped head over heels, bringing her rear into a collision with Moondancer's face, and sending them both flying into a pile of books that collapsed over them.
"Ugh, ow," Sunset groaned as she pushed books off of herself. "Sorry Moondancer."
"No, I guess it's my fault for sitting there," Moondancer said back grumpily. She'd never been slapped by a pony's entire ass before, or even part of one, and didn't much care for the sensation. What she cared for even less was when she sat up and Trixie started laughing. "What?"
"Oh my fucking Celestia!" Trixie howled, "Her mane looks just like yours Twilight! Ahahaha!"
"What?" Moondancer quickly felt the top of her head, finding that the bobble had fallen out of her mane. "No!" she shouted, scrabbling about in the books to find it, "Where is it?!"
"Looking for this?" Sunset found the bobble and held it up for Moondancer, who snatched it out of her magic to quickly fix her mane. "Why does your mane look like Twilight's?"
"Shut up! I don't want to talk about it!"
"Why? We already know you have a stripe like hers, so why is it an issue?"
"I said I'm not talking about it!"
"Alright, alright," Sunset said while Trixie was still chuckling to herself. Sunset heaved herself out of the pile of books, then offered a hoof to pull Moondancer out, which she accepted. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Moondancer replied, exasperated. "Twilight, are my glasses ready?"
"Sure." Twilight placed the newly engraved glasses into the enchanting circle. "Now I just need you to feed your magic into the circles, and you'll be done."
"Twilight, I can't even see the circles, let alone feed magic into them."
Twilight waved a hoof in front of Moondancer's face, "Can you see my hoof."
"Just about." Moondancer followed Twilight's hoof as she moved it down to the ground.
"Just aim your magic an inch past the ends of my hoof. Moondancer squinted harder, and could just about see the chalk circle if she really tried, and started feeding her magic into it, making it light up.
While Moondancer worked on that, Twilight turned and smiled at Sunset, "How'd it go?"
"About as well as you'd expect," Sunset sighed. "They cried, and I cried, so they cried more, and then I cried more, sooooo... yeah, it was a mess. On the practical side of things though, Rarity and Applejack agreed to store most of my stuff until I come back, and I gave up my flat, which was a hole anyway, so no loss there. I also talked to Principal Celestia about my finals, and she said I can do resits, or make up tests, or equivalency exams, or whatever, so I'm not totally boning my future."
"Well, that's... good." Twilight looked at the portal, feeling guilty. Again. "Sunset, are you totally sure about this?"
"I am. This is way more important than some exams for me not to Twilight."
"I was talking more about your friends."
"Oh, yeah, right." Sunset floated the other of the two books Twilight had given her the day before over to herself. " I gave them the book, so we can still stay in touch. Speaking of books..." Sunset plucked the book with Celestia's cutie mark off the pedestal above the portal, closing the portal completely, and brought it down to hold in her hooves. "No point in inviting trouble by leaving the portal open, " she said before passing the book to Twilight.
"Agreed," Twilight said back, placing the book on a shelf. "Anyway, we're all packed, so now you're back we can get this show on the road. By road I of course mean train to begin with. The closest place in Equestria to the Badlands is Dodge Junction, so that's our first stop."
"Sounds good." Sunset squinted and shielded her eyes as a flare of magic from Moondancer's horn lit up the room for a second before dying completely.
"Did it work?"
"Let's find out." Twilight picked up the glasses and gently tried to bend them, and nodded as they didn't flex in the slightest. Then she smacked them against a shelf and threw them across the room.
"Hey! Stop that!"
Twilight picked the glasses up and inspected them. They weren't bent, broken, or even scratched. "I think it worked," she said before eyeing Trixie up across the room. "Hey Trixie, grab one of those big tomes behind you and go long!"
"Don't you dare!" Moondancer's horn flashed, and the glasses vanished from Twilight's magic to reappear in front of her and drop to the floor. "Oh. I guess that works," she said, picking them up and putting them on. "Honestly, could you try not destroying my only pair of glasses?"
"Sorry Moondancer. I knew they'd be fine though. Anyway, we're all here now, and we're all packed, so I think it's time we were off."
-0-0-0-
Using her magic, Twilight sealed her castle from intruders. Having some kind of key would be easier, but the tree that had built this place had neglected something so simple as a lock. Still, using her magic did mean that she didn't have a key she could lose, which was a small silver lining.
With the castle on lockdown, Twilight adjusted her bags, took a deep breath, and turned around to take the first step of their journey. She stopped before she began though, as she saw Trixie pouring the water out of her canteen, shaking it up and down as the last drops fell out.
"I thought this thing was supposed to be bottomless."
"Close it, wait thirty seconds, then try again," Twilight told Trixie, before setting off, her head held low at Trixie's antics. Thirty seconds later there was a splashing sound as Trixie poured the water out of her canteen again.
"Well I'll be damned..." Trixie closed the lid and waited before opening it again and pouring the water out once more. "That modern fusion of magic and technology eh? Marvellous."
"Are you going to do that all the way?" Moondancer asked sarcastically.
"With this I shall bring water to the desert, form a lush oasis, and become as a god to the primitive natives of the land. They shall grovel at my hoof, or suffer my wrath."
"Or we could get on and do what we're supposed to do," said Twilight.
"Well, yeah. Afterwards though, I shall be known as Trixie the Almighty, Goddess of the Endless Waters!"
"Except it comes from here, and isn't endless, and would pull Equestria into a drought as you teleported the water elsewhere, as well as bankrupt the treasury trying to pay my water bill, so no, you will not be Trixie the Almighty, Goddess of the Endless Waters while I'm here to smack sense into you."
"And so ends my reign before it even begins," Trixie sighed. "Thanks Twilight."
"Any time. Really." |
The end of an era | 12. Semper Pie | "Is she still sitting there?" Limestone growled, pointing an accusatory hoof at the back of Pinkie as the pink mare stared listlessly out of the window with Gummy perched on her head. "I don't work my hooves to the bone on this farm just so she can spend all her time staring out of the window!"
"She misses her friends," Maud replied laconically.
"So? And that suddenly pardons her from ever doing work again, while we slave away to put food on the table?"
"You spend twenty bits a month on hair products, just to maintain your mane spikes," said Maud. "That's two hundred and forty bits a year."
"And? What's your point? I work for those bits!"
"No point."
Limestone growled again, and looked around the room until she spotted their other sibling, sitting in the corner where she almost blended in with the wall. "You're with me aren't you Marble? You think Pinkie's just being pathetic sitting there, don't you?"
"I-I-I think... that she-"
"See? Even Marble agrees with me!" Behind Limestone, Marble leaned against the wall, wondering why she even bothered to try and have an opinion since Limestone would only ignore it anyway.
"What do you propose then?" Maud asked, still having not taken her eyes off Pinkie. Sometimes it was quite hard to tell if she was still breathing she was sitting that still.
"What do I propose? I propose that she gets off her butt, and does some work! What? Were you going to say we should go ask them in Mareitania if they would pretty please give her friends back?" Limestone mockingly fluttered her eyelashes at Maud, then returned to her usual scowl. "Don't be ridiculous."
"We could go and ask," Maud said back, mostly ignoring Limestone's sarcasm, "but I think we'd need to join the army to do it."
"Really? Can you really see Pinkie joining the army? Could you see yourself, or Marble joining the army? I know, let's give Marble a sword and see how tough she looks!" Limestone stomped over to Marble and dragged her out of the corner, "Go on Marble, go tell Pinkie she should go join the army to get her friends back. You're her twin, so she'll definitely listen to you!"
Marble started to stammer a refusal, then stopped, and steeled herself as she decided that she was going to do exactly what Limestone told her to do, purely to spite her bossy, bullying sister. Pinkie might be a motor mouth that spoke over her, and for her, ninety nine percent of the time, and totally destroyed her social skills, leaving her with only 'mmhmm' to cover the other one percent, but at least Pinkie was nice for all one hundred percent of the time she spoke over Marble, whereas Limestone, not so much.
Marble walked up behind Pinkie and gently tapped her on the shoulder, causing the pink mare to turn her head just enough so she could see Marble smiling bravely at her. "Hey Marble. Sorry I haven't been much fun lately."
"Th- Tha-"
"I knew you'd understand." Pinkie sighed and turned back to the window. "I don't know what to do Marble," she said, her head bobbing up and down as her chin rested on her leg. "Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike have been taken away, and now Twilight has to go on some big mission to save the day, while Rainbow fights in the Wonderbolts. Both of them are so brave, but me? I'm useless."
"Y-you're nnnn-"
"Aww," Pinkie giggled, "it's nice of you to say so, but it's true. I'm not as brave as Rainbow Dash, or as strong as Twilight. She might have done some horrible things, but I know those things still hurt her now. Even so, she's still able to keep going, even without her friends."
"You sh- sho-"
"You're right, I should do something to try and get my friends back, but what? What could I possibly do?"
"M-m-maybe you cou-"
"Join the army? I don't know Marble, that sounds a little extreme. I mean, fighting ponies? Kill-" Pinkie swallowed hard as her voice stuffed up trying to say the word. "Killing... ponies? I don't know if I could do that Marble."
"Ra- Rain-"
"I know Rainbow has to. Twilight can too." Pinkie started to frown as thoughts began percolating in her brain. "I bet none of my friends would be afraid to stand up to a bully like Faust. Even Fluttershy. So why should I be any different? Why should I be the one afraid to do what has to be done. If beating Faust and Mareitania would make ponies happy again, and get me my friends back, then I should help, right?"
"I-I-I-"
"Don't try to talk me out of this Marble! My mind's made up. Pinkie Pie is going to join the army, beat the bad guys, and get her friends back!"
"Are y-y-"
"Yes I'm sure!" Pinkie bounced up and grabbed Marble in a hug, "Thanks for the talk Marble. You really are the bestest little sister by two minutes anypony in the world could ever ask for!"
"You're wel-welc-"
"Everypony, I've made a decision! I'm going to join the army, and get my friends back!"
"What?!" Limestone screeched. "Marble, I was joking!" Limestone glared at Marble until she looked away, for all of two seconds. "Pinkie, you can't go and join the army! It's dangerous! You could get killed!"
"I don't care. It's just as dangerous for everypony else going to fight, so why should I avoid it when they don't?"
"I- No! I forbid it!"
"That's not your choice," Maud told Limestone.
"And you agree with this?"
Maud nodded once, "I do, and I'm going with her."
"What? No!" Pinkie shouted. "You don't have to join just because I do!"
"I know, but I still am. Protecting Equestria is the right thing to do." Maud twitched her mouth up at the corners as she smiled at Pinkie.
Limestone looked back and forth between Pinkie and Maud, unable to work out what was going on. "Have you both lost your mind? You can't join the army! And if you won't listen to me, perhaps you'll listen to mum and dad!" Limestone almost ran over to the stairs, and shouted up it. "Mum! Dad! Pinkie and Maud are saying they're going to join the army!" Limestone smirked at Pinkie and Maud, confident that their parents would soon talk them out of it.
"Then may providence see fit to guide them safely through the conflict ahead," their father, Igneous shouted back down a moment later.
Something snapped within Limestone's head, and she stared blankly for a moment. "Wha- What did you just say?" Limestone backed away from the stairs as her parents descended. "Did you just agree with them?"
"Let it not be said that the Pie family neglected to perform their part in the protection of our beloved homeland," Igneous said to all of them. "If Pinkamena and Maud wish to defend Equestria, then they doth go with our blessing."
"Yes!" Pinkie cheered. "Parental permission! Come on Maud! Let's go to the recruitment booth in town!"
"Fine!" Limestone interrupted with a shout. "Just go! It'll just be me and Marble like it has been ever since you and Maud left!"
"Okey dokey captain grumpy. See you in a few hours!" Pinkie pushed open the door outside when a high pitched squeaking stopped her. All of them looked around, trying to discern its source, until they all looked at Marble, who seemed fit to burst. "What's up Marble? Don't you want us to go? You're the one that talked me into this!"
"N-n-n..."
"Don't worry Marble! I promise you we'll be fine, and we'll take great care of each other, won't we Maud?"
Maud nodded at Pinkie's words, "Yes Pinkie. You don't need to worry Marble."
"No, I-ack!" Marble gasped as Pinkie swept her up into a bone crushing hug."
"I'm going to miss you while I'm gone too Marble!" Pinkie released her sister and patted her on the head. "We won't be going yet though, so we can do our proper goodbyes later. Come on Maud, let's get moving!" Pinkie bounced out of the door, Maud walking at her usual pace behind her.
"I can't believe this is happening," Limestone muttered as they all followed them out to see them off. She turned to Marble to berate her for talking Pinkie and Maud into this, but stopped as she saw Marble going red in the face as she anxiously trotted on the spot. "Marble? What are you doing?"
"Take me with you!" Marble shouted as loud as she could. "Please!"
Pinkie and Maud looked at each other, then walked the short distance back to where the others were standing. "Are you sure you really want to come with us?" Maud asked their youngest sister.
"Yes! Yes, I am!" Marble looked to her parents, seeking their approval. "Can I?"
"Of course," her mother said with a stiff but loving smile. A smile that grew as Marble hugged her.
"No..." Limestone ground her hooves into the dirt, and stayed that way even as her sisters left. "How could you do this?" she angrily asked her parents, "How could you let them go?"
Igneous and Cloudy Quartz shared a look. "Art thou more upset that they hath gone without you than thou wouldst admit Limestone?" Igneous asked his daughter.
"What? N-" Limestone bit her tongue before she could lie to her parents. What she wanted was for them all to stay on the farm where it was safe. What she wanted least of all was to be left on the farm without any of her sisters at all. "They could get killed!"
"And that thought weighs heavily upon us," Igneous replied somberly. "But if it is fate that the protection of Equestria claim the lives of our beloved daughters, then so be it. We shall both mourn their loss, and celebrate their bravery."
"If you wish to go with them, you would have our blessing," said Cloudy.
"Indeed," said Igneous. "It would be hard, but your mother and I can take care of the farm whilst you art away."
"Of course," Cloudy continued, "if you wish to stay it would be most appreciated, and without Marble, it would fall to you to aid me with the treatment of my fungal hoof infection."
"Uhhhhh..." Limestone looked back and forth between her parents and her sisters in the distance, and made her decision. "Hey! Wait up!" she yelled to her sisters. "I'm coming too!"
Igneous leaned towards his wife as Limestone kicked up a cloud of dust as she chased after the others. "I thought thine hoof troubles had been cured several moons ago."
"They were," Cloudy said back. "I endeavoured to keep up the illusion because Marble didst enjoy the time away from Limestone. I never really required that Marble assist me in the first place."
"Then why encourage Limestone to go with them? I would be elated should she have remained just so she might be safe here."
Cloudy smiled sadly, "Because she would be miserable if she remained, and we agreed we would support their decision to join the military if they so wished." Cloudy watched her husband nod in sullen agreement. "I also feel that having somepony yell at her for a while would do wonders for Limestone's manner."
"Thou art a shrewd mare, wife."
-0-0-0-
There was already a short queue of ponies at the recruitment stand in the small village of Rockton that sat a few short miles from the Pie family rock farm. In this part of Equestria there were predominantly earth ponies, but there were a few unicorns and pegasi dotted about too.
"I can't believe we're doing this," Limestone grumbled as the four sisters joined the end of the line.
"Then go home," Maud told her.
"I can't. If any of you got killed, mum and dad would be devastated. I'd be devastated. If me coming with you means we all come home alive, then that's what I'll do."
"That's nice," Maud said with a tiny nod. "Unrealistic, but nice."
"We'll be fine," Pinkie said, care free. "After all, we have plot protection!"
Limestone stared blankly at Pinkie for several seconds until the need to blink grew too strong. "I know I shouldn't ask, but what are you talking about?"
"Plot protection. Four sisters, going off together on an adventure, facing unknown dangers and stuff, and if they stick together and look out for each other, they all come back! Just like in a story!"
Limestone stomped a hoof and growled, "This isn't a story Pinkie! This is the real world, and we could very easily get hurt, or killed. There's no such thing as plot protection!"
"Y'know, when we all come back after rescuing my friends and saving the day, you're going to realise exactly how silly you sound right now."
"And you're going to have a real nasty wakeup call Pinkie," Limestone said back.
"Next!" Behind them, the next pony stepped up to the booth.
"At least we're not the only ponies here," Pinkie said conversationally as they shuffled along in the line. "Think how many ponies there must be joining up in places waaay bigger than Rockton."
"Then they clearly don't need us," said Limestone. "We should just go home, and stay safe until the war's over."
"Not until I have my friends back," Pinkie said back, full of determination. "Are you going to be a party pooper the whole time? Because you can go back home if you want?"
"Either we all go home, or none of us go home."
"Alrighty," Pinkie shrugged, "but it's only you saying that."
"Next!"
Pinkie saw that she was next in line, and pronked up to the two Royal Guards manning the booth. She slapped a hoof on the flimsy wooden table they sat behind and smiled at the both of them. "Hi! We'd like to join one army please!"
The grey unicorn guard on the right raised an eyebrow as Pinkie's sisters gathered around. "All four of you?"
"Absolutely!"
"Alright then." He nodded at the other guard, a pegasus, who produced four forms and placed them on the table. "Fill out these forms, then take them into the village hall behind me for your physical and psychiatric evaluation. Should you pass both of those you'll be given further instruction." The stallion placed four pens on the table, "Please return the pens once you've filled out your form."
"Okey dok-"
"Next!"
"Yeesh, some ponies." Pinkie picked up her form, and quietly filled it out, poking a few holes through it with the pen until she decided to use Maud to write on. Similarly, Marble used her back, Limestone used Marble's, and Maud used Limestone's, so they ended up sitting in a square.
"Do you think they want my full name?" Pinkie asked after a few minutes.
"Yes Pinkie," Maud replied.
"But only it's mum and dad that even use it. Maybe I should just put Pinkie Pie."
"Put your full name Pinkie."
"But it's so boring, and strict sounding."
"Put your full name Pinkie," Maud insisted.
"Alright, alright. You don't have to be so pushy Maud."
"Sorry Pinkie, but it does say to put your full name."
After the brief altercation about Pinkie's name, the rest of the paperwork was done in a surprising amount of silence considering who was doing it. "Fin-ished!" Pinkie sang, while on her back she could feel Marble come to the bottom of the last page. "All done Marble?"
"Mmhmm," Marble answered affirmatively.
"Awesome! How about you Limestone?"
"This thing is asking for way too much personal stuff. And some of these questions are weird."
"I'll take that as a yes. How about you Maud?"
"I am finished."
"Alright! Then let's go do the next part!"
-0-0-0-
Pinkie hummed to herself as she sat in a curtained off section of the building they were directed into. She had no idea why they couldn't just call it the village hall since that was exactly what it was, but she figured that the guard ponies were mostly right in that it was, most definitely, a building.
"I'm not sure how being a three time saviour of Equestria counts as being an occupation," the pony that Pinkie assumed was a doctor said after a few minutes.
"It would be five, but Fluttershy stopped the dragon that was smoking up the place, and beating that nasty old King Sombra and saving the Crystal Empire was totally all Spike."
"I see..." The doctor picked a pen up in his magic and scribbled out most of what she wrote, leaving just 'baker' behind. Then he thought about it and added 'Element of Harmony,' since he did actually know full well who Pinkie was. "Now then Miss Pie-"
"Just call me Pinkie!"
"I'm afraid I won't be doing that Miss Pie. Now, you aren't on any medication are you? For either physical or mental conditions?"
"Nope!"
"And have no disabilities?"
"Nope!"
The Doctor noted a few things down on his clipboard, then paused when he saw the section on vaccinations, seeing that Pinkie had put 'do all the needles I had to have jabbed into me as a kid count?' He decided that was probably close enough to being a yes to not worry. "Could you stand on the scales please?"
Pinkie bounced off her seat and onto the scales in one movement, and stood there as the doctor wrote down the result. "Very good. Now I'm going to ask you a question, Pinkamena, and I want you to answer honestly. Why do you want to join the military?"
"Because those meanies kidnapped my friends and took them back to Mareitania. I figured that joining the army would be the best way to get them back." Pinkie cocked her head at the question, "Why does that matter anyway? I thought you wanted ponies to join?"
"I'm required to ask," he said as he wrote down why, figuring that somepony on a higher pay grade could work out what Pinkie actually meant. He knew most of this would be worked out in the training process anyway. All that was required of him was to make sure a pony wasn't joining simply so they could hurt or kill other ponies. Even with that small caveat, he was told to be pretty flexible because they needed the recruits.
"Okay, everything seems to be above board here, so I'm approving you to move onto the physical test."
"Yes!" Pinkie hoof-pumped, "Nailed it!"
The doctor picked up a stamp and pressed it against Pinkie's form, then gave it back to Pinkie. "If you could make your way out to the playing field behind the building and give that to one of the guards, they'll carry out the physical test once they're ready.
"Okey dokey! Thanks doc!" Pinkie popped the form into her mane, and waited for the doctor to open the curtain before bouncing out. Maud was waiting quietly in the corridor between curtained sections, staring straight ahead. "Hey Maud. You still waiting to go in?"
"No, I'm finished. I'm waiting for you and the others."
"Ohhhh, okay." Pinkie cocked an ear at the sound of a nearby 'mmhmm,' that could only have been her baby sister, while further away she could hear Limestone grunting short, sharp replies before sweeping the curtain aside and storming up to Pinkie and Maud.
"Apparently I'm slightly overweight," she growled. "Like it's my fault I had a big breakfast!"
"Maybe if you ate food for breakfast," Pinkie said slightly nervously, knowing how sensitive Limestone could be about her weight, "y'know, instead of rocks."
"Don't tell me what I can and can't eat Pinkie!" Limestone sat down hard, the faint clunk of rocks coming from her stomach as she did. "They passed me anyway, so I guess it didn't matter that much. Besides, I'm more likely to pass than Marble with her shyness, and that stupid stutter."
"Hey!" Pinkie half shouted. "You take that back! Her stutter is adorable and precious!"
Limestone rolled her eyes, "Sure. I would ask her opinion on that, but she'd only tell me I'm 'mmhmm,' and that I should 'mmhmm.'"
"Uh! Why are you so awful to her?"
"Me? What about you? You always talk over her, even when she's talking to you! I'm just trying to toughen her up."
"I fail to see how forcing her to eat worms that one time counts as 'toughening her up,'" Maud said flatly.
"Oh yeah," Limestone sniggered, "I'd almost forgotten about that."
"It was only three weeks ago."
"Was it? Wow, how the time flies." Limestone looked up as a curtain opened and Marble walked out. "So, you ready to go home?"
"Mm-mm," said Marble, holding up her papers for them all to see. There was a pass stamped onto it.
"You've got to be kidding me," Limestone grumbled as Pinkie cheered and hugged Marble. "Just how desperate for ponies are they?"
"They let you in," Maud said flatly.
"That better have been sarcasm."
-0-0-0-
"Good afternoon everypony," the guard on the playing field said loudly enough for the twenty or so ponies there to hear him. "Now that you've all proven that you're at least bright enough to pick up a sword without hurting yourself nine times out of ten, it's time to see if you're fit enough to do a little exercise without dying. We will be doing pushups, or wing-ups for the pegasi, sit-ups, and a little light jogging, or flying, in what will be your first little taste of military life. Any questions?"
"Yeah, will the disparity in strength between earth ponies and unicorns be taken into account?" Pinkie lowered her hoof as everypony looked at her. "What? I just want it to be fair for everypony."
"There's only like, two unicorns here Pinkie," said Limestone. "I'm pretty sure it won't matter."
"Actually, the pink pony is right," the guard told them. "A unicorn scoring slightly lower on the physical test is acceptable, as it is for pegasi. Now, because I lack ponies here to help me with this, I want you all to pair up and help each other as you take it in turns. We'll be doing pushups first, and you'll all have two minutes to do as many as possible. Choose your partners."
Pinkie automatically went for Maud, then stopped as she thought about the way Limestone had been talking about Marble, and how it wouldn't be nice to leave them together. "Hey Marble, do you wanna be my partner?" Her younger sister nodded eagerly, glad to not be with Limestone. "Okay, you go first, and I'll count."
A shrill whistle blew, signalling the start of their two minutes. Marble set into action, pumping out push-up after push-up at a wholly unsustainable rate, that she slowed down considerably from after the thirty seconds. "You can do it Marble! Best pusher-upper ever!"
"You're supposed to be counting Pinkie," Limestone grunted, not taking her eyes off Maud as she also did push-up after push-up, not even seeming to be winded in the slightest.
"And I am! She's on twenty seven- no, twenty eight, twenty nine, now thirty, thirty one, thirty two-"
Another whistle cut across the field, and a moment later the guard asked for the scores. Internally he sighed at some of the lacklustre results, which were verging on a fail for some of the ponies here. He instructed them to swap over, and blew his whistle again.
"Come on Pinkie!" Pinkie shouted at herself for encouragement, "You can do it!" The world turned into an alternating blur of up and down as Pinkie performed push-up after push-up, not stopping until the whistle blew again. "Phew! That was tough. How'd I do Marble?"
"Mmhmm-mm-hmm."
"Thirty seven? Aww! I thought I did way more than that!"
The results of the sit-ups were much the same as the push-ups, except that it seemed to involve a lot more grunting for some reason. Still, everypony at least scraped through by the lowly standards the guard was given to pass them on, and they moved onto the final test.
"Ten laps of the playing field as fast as you can," the guard said as they all lined up. "Or thirty laps flying for the pegasi. Trotting is permitted for non-pegasi but your score is determined by how fast you do it. Also, you must not leave the track, or you will be disqualified. You must not touch any of the others to even help them up if they fall, or you will be disqualified. If you simply cannot run that far, you are... that's right, disqualified. However, if you are disqualified, you will have a chance to do it again until you are qualified."
The guard blew his whistle, and watched sullenly as they all set into motion. There was no real way any of the ponies here should fail for fitness reasons, because ponies were literally built for running. Some of the overachievers would inevitably do it as fast as they could, but that was always the case. Most of them settled into a canter, and stuck together through the course, which is what he preferred to see.
Naturally the pegasi finished first, even with the extra laps, and he quietly stamped an approval onto their papers, followed by every pony that finished. Nopony left the course, or interfered with each other in any way he could see, so simply because they were all able to do it, they all passed. He'd be more excited if the standard to pass on wasn't so low. While some were doing thirty to forty push-ups, the pass was fifteen, and push-ups weren't all that hard for short pony bodies. The pass for sit-ups was to do ten, hopefully without bitching too much about it, and the laps simply had to be finished. Even a thee legged pony could fill those requirements.
"Congratulations ponies, you've all passed the required fitness test," the guard announced, trying to put some enthusiasm into it. "That means you've all qualified for boot camp, and induction into the Equestrian army. Your training will be taking place at the newly built Camp Freedom at Rainbow Falls, to which you will be going tomorrow morning. You will be given papers as you leave here that you will need to keep with you until you arrive there, and you will also be given a list of items you will need, or want to bring with you, as well as a list of things you can't bring with you. Everything else you need will be provided. Other than that, be at the train station at eight a.m, and welcome to the army. Dismissed!"
Pinkie immediately grabbed her sisters and smushed them into a hug, "We did it girls! We all got in!"
"Yay," Maud and Limestone said together, equally monotone, while Marble smiled, cheering on the inside. She was finally getting away from the farm, even if Limestone came with her.
"I know right? Exciting! Come on, lets get our papers, then go tell mum and dad the good news!"
There was only one way off the playing field that didn't involve going back through the village hall, or flying for those capable, and by the small gate there was a pair of tables with two more of the identikit Royal Guards. One of the tables was stacked with papers, with the other was covered in empty green duffle bags.
"Name?" the first guard asked boredly as Pinkie walked up to it.
"Pinkie Pie!"
"There's no one by that name here. I have a Pinkamena Diane Pie, but that's it."
"That's me!" Pinkie cheerfully told him.
"Then please use your full name." He placed the papers in front of Pinkie, "Keep hold of these until you're asked to give them at the training grounds at Rainbow falls, and make sure you sign them before that. Losing them will mean you having to do this again, so please don't. Also take one of the bags provided."
"Yeah, what's the deal with those?"
"Standard issue. If you can't fit it in the bag, you can't bring it, so I suggest you pay close attention to the list of what you can and can't bring with you."
"Okey dokey! Thanks mister guard sir!" Pinkie grabbed the papers, as well as a bag, and sat nearby as she waited. To pass the time she read the list of things she couldn't bring. Apparently they didn't really want you to bring anything save your papers and toiletries, as everything else would be provided. She froze as she eyes fixed on something. The list said no pets. "No pets? What is this madness?!"
-0-0-0-
"I'm sure they won't notice if you bring Boulder," Pinkie said to Maud as she helped her sisters pack. "He's small, and well behaved, and he totally wouldn't get into any trouble, not like Gummy."
"No Pinkie, the rules are there for a reason. Besides, Boulder will be much safer here with mother and father."
"And Gummy."
"Yes, and Gummy."
Limestone eyed the both of them, not seeing what the issue was. Gummy was about as much fun as a rock, and Boulder had a weird tendency to stare unblinking at you, which was odd for something without eyes. They were better off without them.
-0-0-0-
"Now Limestone, I implore thee to be kind to thine sisters," Igneous said, embracing his eldest. "You will need to look out for each other."
"Yes father."
"And you should not be afraid to speak up for thineself," Cloudy told Marble.
"Mmh-" Marble caught the stern yet loving gaze of her mother, and decided to use her words. "Y-yes mother."
"And Maud," said Igneous, "worry not how the others treat you. Thou art perfect as though art."
"Yes father."
"And Pinkamena," Cloudy said at last to Pinkie, "try to be good."
"Uh! When am I ever not good?"
"Pinkamena..."
"Yes mum."
"Now gather ye all around, so that we might embrace." The entire family piled into a rather stiff, but no less loving group hug. The train had already been at the station before they had arrived, and the time was quickly approaching when they would have to leave. "I beg of you all, stay safe. Now get ye all upon the train."
The four sisters picked up their luggage, slung it over their backs, and made their way onto the train. It was mostly empty, so finding seats wasn't an issue. Pinkie picked the ones nearest their parents, and slid the window open as the conductor shouted "All aboard!"
"We're going to miss you guys so much!" Pinkie shouted to her parents as the train slowly started to eke its way forwards.
"And we you," her parents shouted back, somehow without actually shouting.
"And take good care of Gummy and Boulder! Bye-eee!" Pinkie made room for her sisters so they could all wave to their parents, doing so until they were out of sight of each other.
Cloudy sighed sadly and leant against her husband, "I do hope they stick together and remain safe and well in the times ahead."
Igneous nodded stiffly, wishing the same. He also had other concerns. "Beloved, how exactly does one care for a toothless baby alligator?"
"I hath not the foggiest. Thankfully Boulder's needs are relatively low, save that we not accidentally lose him. I'm more concerned about how we two can run the farm. We art not as young as we once were."
"Mayhaps the unicorn Trixie Lulamoon is still available to hire," Igneous said thoughtfully.
"Her?" Cloudy replied scornfully. "No offence my beloved, but she was flipping useless."
-0-0-0-
Pinkie ducked down as she realised that the train was not only going into Ponyville, but also stopping too. "Uh oh."
"What?" Limestone asked, unamusedly watching Pinkie's antics.
"We're in Ponyville."
"And?"
"And ponies know me here!" Pinkie raised her head so she could peek over the lip of the window as the train pulled into the station.
"I'm really failing to see the problem here."
"Actually, so am I." Pinkie sat back up to look at all the ponies on the station. There were easily two hundred, if not more, and she idly began listing off their names, not that she thought her sisters were listening. Pinkie herself was more concerned about whether to be happy so many ponies she knew were going, or worried that so many ponies she knew could end up getting hurt when the fighting started.
"Pinkie?"
Pinkie turned away from the window at the sound of her name, finding the mint green unicorn Lyra standing by them, looking at her with perplexity. "Oh, hey Lyra! Are you going to go fight too?"
"Yep," Lyra said morosely. "We all got to do our part, right?"
Pinkie looked up and down the train, but didn't see the pony she was looking for. "Isn't Bon Bon with you?"
"Bon Bon... Bon Bon's..." Lyra sighed, "I don't know what Bon Bon's really doing, but she's definitely doing something. I just have no idea what that is. Anyway, I thought that if I join then there's more soldiers, so the war ends faster, so we can be back together sooner."
"Absolutely," Pinkie agreed. "I'm joining to go get my friends back."
"I guess we're all doing this for the ponies we love then. Anyway, good to see you here Pinkie. Hopefully we can see more of each other through training."
"Yeah! That'd be great!"
Lyra stumbled as the train lurched back into motion, "Heh, better find a seat somewhere. See ya later Pinkie."
Pinkie waved after Lyra, then turned back to the window, still unsure of what to make of all these ponies she knew joining up. Plot protection couldn't cover all of them.
-0-0-0-
"I'm guessing those are the Rainbow Falls," Limestone said as she looked out of the window at the massive rainbows cascading from the clouds above a large plateau.
"It would seem that way," Maud agreed. "I've never been here before. I wonder how this plateau was formed?"
"Pretty sure they won't give you the time to perform a geological survey."
"That's a pity."
"Yeah, sure. I'm just glad we're here because this train is getting pretty crowded." Limestone gestured idly to the dozens of ponies around them. The train had stopped several more times between Ponyville and Rainbow Falls, and each time up to at least a few dozen more ponies piled on, sitting where they could, and standing when that wasn't possible. That was still only a portion of the ponies they saw around the station as the train rolled in to its final destination.
"Wow-ee!" Pinkie pushed her face up against the window to try and see all the ponies there. "Look at all those ponies! There must be hundreds here!" Pinkie pulled back from the window as Marble tapped her on the back and pointed out the window on the other side, towards a forest of tents, and hundreds, possibly even thousands of ponies around them, running around and performing drills. "Woah... That's a lot of birthdays to remember."
"That's your biggest concern?" Limestone rolled her eyes and grabbed her luggage, throwing over her back. "Whatever. Let's just get on with this."
Limestone bulled her way through the crowd, and Pinkie brought up the rear, partly to make sure Marble didn't lose her nerve and get lost in the crowd, and partly to apologise to all the ponies that Limestone shoved aside. Slowly they filtered their way through the crowd to an open sided tent, with a dozen harried looking ponies sat behind desks, asking the recruits for their papers.
Limestone split off to a desk, leaving her sisters to split off to one of the other desks. Pinkie chose one, and was immediately asked for her papers, which she produced from her mane. The unicorn quickly skimmed through it, and stopped at the occupation section before shrugging. "So, you're a baker?"
"That's really only my job description. Baker, Element of Harmony, saver of ponies... I've done it all."
"I see. Unfortunately we have plenty of cooks already, so your baking is going to go a little underutilized for now." The pony wrote Pinkie's name and a number on a tag, and attached it to Pinkie's bag, "Move onto the next section for tent assignments."
"Okay! Thanks muchly!" Her sisters were already waiting for her by the time she was done, and together they moved on to a bunch of ponies standing around a sign saying tent assignments. "Hi!" Pinkie said brightly to one of the ponies standing there in a green uniform, "We're looking for a tent."
"Go stand with those ponies there," the mare said, pointing to a group of half a dozen ponies, all mares, and each carrying their own luggage as well as a look of trepidation. "You and you," she said, pointing at two other ponies, "go with them."
Pinkie smiled as one of the other ponies that were pointed out was Lyra. "Hey again Lyra. Maybe this means we're going to be roomies!"
"Looks that way," Lyra laughed. "It'll be nice to be with a pony I know."
"Speaking of, this is Maud, Limestone, and my twin sister Marble." Pinkie pointed at each of her sisters as she said their name. "I forgot to make introductions back on the train."
"And I forgot to introduce myself." Lyra smiled and waved at Pinkie's sisters, "I'm Lyra Heartstrings."
"Hello Lyra," Maud said as Limestine grunted and Marble smiled shyly back.
Before anything more could be said, the mare that directed them to the group walked up to them, "If you'll follow me I'll show you to your tent. That's actually an order by the way, not a request. Along the way I'll explain the very simple rules. First, keep your tent clean and tidy, because they will be inspected regularly. That means no rubbish, no dirt, and roll your sleeping mat up every morning. Secondly, anypony caught stealing from ponies in yours or other ponies tents will be severly punished, and possibly even discharged. I assure you there's no reason for you to do this, and will not be tolerated. Keep to those two rules, and things will go a lot nicer for all of you."
"Is sharing stuff allowed?" Pinkie asked.
"If you have something you want to share, sure, but make you you bring enough for everypony. Nopony wants to be excluded after all." The mare stopped outside an empty tent with a tag stitched above the door displaying the number two hundred and forty two. "This is it, your home for the duration of your training, so I suggest you remember that number. If you'll leave your bags here, I'll show you to the comissiary where you'll get your bedding and uniform. It's also where you'll be able to buy things during your time here, but we request you to not do that until we have all the ponies here situated. Now leave your bags, and lets get going."
Pinkie entered the tent, and let her sisters pick their places before choosing hers. Limestone and Marble claimed the far end of the tent, placing their bags so they were opposite each other, while Maud placed her bag next to Limestone's. Pinkie placed hers next to Marble's, and jumped as a bag landed beside hers.
"You don't mind do you?" Lyra asked. "I'd rather be by a pony I know."
"Of course I don't, but I'm betting we'll all know each other by the end of the day." Pinkie smiled at the others claiming their spaces in the tent, "This is going to be so great!"
"Get a move on ladies!" the uniformed mare shouted before Pinkie could start asking names. "I have a lot of other ponies to show to their tents, so I need to get a move on."
Not wanting to annoy the pony, all the mares quickly picked their places and trotted back out of the tent, which the uniformed mare took as a sign to start moving again. She led them to a large marqee and stopped the entrance, "Here's where you'll be given your bedding, uniform, and other things, including instructions on what will happen next. Good luck recruits."
The group started filtering into the tent, and was immediately fed into a queue, moving from section to section as each pony was given their bedding and unforms, all starting with two ponies in the same green uniform that asked for their names. "Name?"
"Pinkie Pie. No, wait, make that Pinkamena Diane Pie."
One of the ponies, a unicorn, started sorting through papers until she found Pinkie's, and showed it to the other pony who started making adjustments to a device of some kind. A minute later, two small metal tags on a length of thin chain was placed in front of Pinkie. The tags both displayed her name and that number from earlier. "Make sure to wear those at all times."
"Why are there two?"
"Just move onto the next section please."
Pinkie shrugged and moved on to where a Royal Guard in his golden armour was inspecting each pony that stopped in front of him. Some ponies passed him without issue, while others were directed to a area where a dozen barbers were set up, trimming back the length of ponies manes and tails. Pinkie stopped in front of him, and let him have a look.
"Mane seems fine, but tail is a little long. Head through there to get it cut."
Pinkie nodded and started to walk in when a whimper from behind her stopped. Marble stood there, nervously eyeing the barbers, giving Pinkie an idea. She ran a hoof down her mane until it straightened out, "Actually my mane's pretty long too. Can I have it cut?"
The guard shrugged, "If you want."
Pinkie smiled back at Marble and walked into the barber section. A second later she heard the guard order Marble in after her. "Don't worry Marble, we'll both get mane cuts together." Marble smiled in appreciation, then looked back as Maud and Limestone joined them.
"My tail is too long," Maud explained.
"And they're going to mess with my mane!" Limestone growled.
"It'll be fine girls-"
"Next!"
"-You'll see." Pinkie jumped into an empty barbers chair, "Just a little off the top."
"Uh-huh," the barber hummed, indifferent to what Pinkie said as he picked up a scissors and started trimming down Pinkie's mane, hacking great big chunks out of it. A few minutes later he was still working on the same spot as Marble sullenly walked to an empty chair.
"Seems I have my work cut out for me," the barber said cheerfully, picking up a pair of sheers and removing most of Marble's mane in one go. "Don't worry hun, I'll give you something nice, you'll see," she tried to reassure Marble as the first sign of tears built up in her eyes.
True to the barbers words, the mane cut suited Marble quite well, ending up quite similar to what it was before, but much shorter. Marble gave the barber a shaky smile as she was shown her new mane style in a mirror. "See? It's not that bad! Now just let me trim a bit off your tail and you can be on your way."
"I don't get it," the pony cutting Pinkie's hair said as he kept working on Pinkie's mane. Besides finding some rather odd objects at times, no matter how much he cut off, there never seemed to be any less. He'd tried to brush it out straight, but the mane had fought back by eating the brush. "How am I supposed to do anything with this?"
"Hold on." Pinkie pulled her mane out and twisted it in a spot. "Cut it right there." The barber did so, and the mane sprang back into a short straight cut.
"...what?" The barber watched as Pinkie did the same with her tail, and cut it where instructed. "This makes no sense. Anyway, I guess you're done."
"Thanks!" Pinkie jumped out of her chair just as Marble climbed out of hers, "Looking good Marble! I can't even remember the last time I saw both your eyes at once."
"Th-th-thanks Pinkie." Marble flicked the end of her mane with her hoof and sighed, "I feel naked."
"I guess we can fix that once we get our uniforms. Come on!"
"W-what about-"
"Maud and Limestone?" Pinkie looked back at where Maud was quietly having her tail cut shorter. Limestone on the other hoof, was glaring death at the barber, and growled every time she moved the scissors close to her mane. "I think Limestone might be a while. We'll catch up with them later."
Together they left the barber section, rejoining the queue just in front of where ponies were given their uniforms. Why they really needed uniforms was beyond Pinkie since they never usually wore clothes, but she assumed that the answer was more to do with making ponies more camoflaged than their usual bright colours.
"Size?"
"Huh?" Pinkie blinked, then remembered where she was. "Oh, uh, medium I think. She's the same," she added, pointing to Marble. "We're twins!"
The stallion she was talking to looked incredulously between the pink and grey mares, "You don't say. Anyway, here's your uniforms," he said, placing two dirty-green shirts and trousers down in front of them, as well as two belts. "We'll get spares to you as soon as we have more delievered as due to demand we're a bit short at the moment. Until then, it's your job to wash and take care of those. Now move along and grab your bedding."
-0-0-0-
Pinkie lay back on her bedding, and looked up at the roof of the tent. So far nothing much of note had really happened, and while being given gifts was great, even if they were all the same greeny-brown colour, she was expecting to have to give something back for them. Still, she'd had some time to meet the rest of the ponies in her tent, and was happy to learn she even knew one of them from Manehatten; Azure Velour, one of the dancers from the club above Rarity's boutique there. Aside from her, there was Top Spin, Pyrelight, Amber Delight, Sweet Deal, Crystal Moon, and Dusty Breeze. She hadn't learn much about them as yet, but it was only a matter of time.
"How much longer are they going to keep us sitting around here?" Limestone whined, much like she had ever since she'd returned from the barbers. There was hardly any difference to her mane, but Limestone loudly and obnoxiously reassured all of them that there was.
"They have a lot of ponies here," said Maud. "I'm sure they'll get around to us soon enough."
"Exactly!" Pinkie said in agreement. "I'm sure they didn't ask us to come here just to sit around all the time."
"Maybe y'all should enjoy the peace while it lasts," said Dusty Spring, one of the few pegasi from Appleloosa. "I'm sure they'll have us all running around like idiot soon enough."
"Not all of us," the unicorn Pyrelight said in a rich Canterlot accent. "I've already passed approval for entry into the Mage corps since I was a student at Celestia's school for talented unicorns, so while you're all running and flying around, I'll be honing my magic to defend Equestria with."
Crystal Moon, another unicorn, but from Vanhoover, laughed at her. "I really don't think you know what you're talking about there. What makes ya think that just because you've got fancy magic that ya haven't got to use your legs eh?"
Pyrelight scowled at Crystal Moon, "I'll have you know that I did not join the military just to go slogging through the dirt. My magic-"
"Is just a benefit," said Sweet Deal. "If you were really going to be set apart from the rest of us, I'm sure they would have given you a tent with the rest of the unicorns joining the Mage corps. Hate to say it Pyre, but chances are you're doing the same as the rest of us."
"Besides," said Lyra, "how do you know you've already passed for entry to the Mage corps? I graduated from the same school as you, and nopony's even mentioned the Mage corps to me."
"Well, one would just assume that a graduate from Celestia's school for talented unicorns would be granted immediate entry to the Mage corps."
Top Spin sniggered at the haughty mare, "Do all pegasi get entry to the Wonderbolts just because they can fly? I don't think so."
Pyrelight looked away from Top Spin and raised her nose in the air, "You're just jealous, Top Spin, because earth ponies don't have a specialised unit like the Mage corps."
"Don't need one when you're all the best to begin with," Top Spin replied with a grin.
"Not talking for anypony else here," said Amber Delight, spreading her wings and glancing nervously at their tips, "but I'd rather not join the Wonderbolts, or their equivalent. What they're doing must be way more dangerous that what the Air corps would be doing."
"Don't see why there isn't a special unit for earth ponies," said Azure. "Once again, earth ponies get the short end of the stick."
"Actually, we expect earth ponies to be able to do it all," said a voice from outside the tent. A moment later the tent flap opened, and a Royal Guard entered the tent. "Now I want you all on the parade ground asap for orientation. You've got ten minutes recruits, so get moving."
"You heard him!", Pinkie shouted gleefully, glad that something was finally going on. "Let's go so we can meet all the new ponies!"
Pinkie led the way, weaving through the field of tents to take the shortest route to the parade grounds. Plenty of other ponies seemed to be doing the same, so it was easy for her to conclude that all the ponies there would be going. She was wrong though, and after reaching their destination and waiting a few minutes, only a couple of hundred had turned up.
"What a bloody shower! Look at you all standing around willy-nilly. I want you to stand in nice, even rows recruits!"
Pinkie moved in the confusion, doing her best to stick with her sisters in the confusion as the recruits all tried to form rows at the same time. Slowly they formed some semblance of rows, but it was still far from desirable.
The brown stallion that had shouted at them to get into rows sighed and rolled his eyes theatrically, "I can see we're going to have to start with the very basics with you lot, such as forming straight lines, standing still, and perhaps even walking without falling over more than once every hundred meters! I am Drill Sergeant Knocks, and for the duration of your time here I will be both your best friend, and your worst nightmare. Not even Princess Luna could hope to save you from me recruits!" The drill sergeant smiled nicely at all the recruits, "I'm sure we'll all get along like a house on fire. If we're lucky there might even be survivors." |
The end of an era | 13. Not a place to bring your family | The burning sun in the sky, the hot breeze, the dusty roads, the faint smell of cherries that permeated everything... Actually, that one wasn't too bad, and while Twilight might once have been reluctant to say anything against the sun, they all agreed that Dodge Junction, with its uncomfortably warm southern location, left much to be desired, like some shade, a cool drink, and a train ride somewhere else. Sat in the singular inn that Dodge Junction had, they had at least two of those things, but the third was definitely off the menu.
"I'm pretty sure it's only going to get worse from here on in," said Twilight. "I've never been to the Badlands, but I'm fairly sure it didn't earn its name by being a lush and vibrant land. Not to mention the creatures that live there, as well as the changelings."
Moondancer pushed her breakfast around on her plate and sighed, "I'm not going to pretend to not mind, but after freezing all of last night, I now feel like I'm sweating my own body weight every hour. How could ponies possibly live here?"
Trixie rapidly chewed the chunk of toast in her mouth, and swallowed. "Y'know Moony, you could maybe, possibly, remove that rather thick and noticeably black turtleneck you insist on wearing."
"I am not taking my sweater off, and stop calling me Moony!"
"But it's cute! And it works so well with the group; Sunny, Moony, Twily, and Trixie. Perfect!"
"I think you can leave out calling me Sunny as well," Sunset said quietly.
"Why? What could possibly be so bad about that?"
"My parents called me Sunny, and we didn't exactly part on good terms."
Trixie rolled her eyes, "Great, so now we all have tragic back-stories. And here I thought that yours would at least have a nice start."
Sunset shrugged, "I'm not going to go into it as I made peace with it long ago, but the fact is I hate my parents, so don't use their pet name for me."
"Oh pssh," Trixie scoffed, lazily waving a hoof at Sunset, "it's just a name, and hating your parents hardly sounds like a good reason to get snippy at ponies."
Twilight leaned forwards and rested her chin on her hooves as she smirked at Trixie, "Is that right... Lulamoon?"
Trixie stopped and narrowed her eyes at Twilight, "Now why did you feel the need to call me that?"
"I don't know what you mean Trixie," Twilight said innocently; "it's just a name. That, and only my brother gets to call me Twily."
Trixie threw her hooves up in the air, "Fine! I guess we'll all just go around calling each other by our proper names if it makes you all feel so much better!"
"I knew you'd unders-"
"That still doesn't explain why Moondancer won't remove her sweater. Are you horribly disfigured under there or something?"
"Of course I'm not! I just don't want to take it off!"
"Strip!" Trixie started to chant, "Strip! Strip! Strip! I'll give you ten bits if you do!"
"Rrrgh!" Moondancer snatched her breakfast up in her magic and stormed off to another table, putting her back to the rest of them.
"Nice work Trixie," Sunset said sarcastically, while Twilight glared at the blue mare.
"I gave you one simple instruction Trixie, which was to be nice to Moondancer. Care to explain that?"
"She'll feel better if she takes it off."
"Even though she doesn't want to."
"Exactly! Clearly she doesn't know what's best for her, and I'm trying to help. That, and I want to see what's under there." Trixie looked at Moondancer as the unicorn sullenly ate her breakfast, "I'll get her naked some day."
Using her magic, Twilight grabbed Trixie's nose and pulled it around until they faced each other. "Ignoring that comment, unless it gets to the point that she's about to suffer from serious heat stroke, you are going to leave her alone, is that clear?"
Trixie rolled her eyes at Twilight, "Crystal, your highness."
"Good! Now eat up! We have a long journey ahead of us, and I'd like us to actually make some progress on it today."
-0-0-0-
Twilight placed some bits on the bar to pay their bill, and lifted her gear onto her back as the others did the same. The time had finally come to go walking into one of the few places in the world that's ponies had no real business going. To say that they were excited about the prospect would be highly inaccurate.
"This is the worst idea in the history of ideas," Moondancer grumbled, making both Trixie and Sunset snigger to themselves. To them this barely even ranked in the top five.
"It'll be fine," said Twilight, trying to sound confident. She held the door open for the rest of them, and joined them on the dirt road that led out of town, and eventually out of civilization. "If we're careful the changelings won't even know we're there."
"And if they do find us?"
"Then they better outnumber us pretty good."
"Actually," Sunset said, unsure, "I was thinking it might not be a bad idea to look for somepony who could guide us through the Badlands. I'm sure there must be somepony in this dustbowl crazy enough to have been there before."
"I wouldn't count on it," Twilight said back, dismissing the idea. "There's never really been a reason good enough to warrant taking the risk of going in there. If it wasn't for the fact that Equestria is in a bit of a situation, I'd suggest bringing an army with us, or not going at all. All the same, the Badlands are surrounded by cliffs on all sides, with two entrances, so the odds on getting lost if we follow the cliffs are nil."
"The trick is to not get caught?"
"Exactly," Twilight nodded. "Now come on, dithering and putting this off won't make it any easier."
"What are we even looking for in there?" Trixie asked.
"Moondancer?"
Moondancer looked up and adjusted her glasses as Twilight said her name. "Right. Starswirl's journals on the time he spent here said he made camp on a small plateau amongst the cliffs on the west side of the Badlands. He also said the outskirts of the Badlands were the only places not always affected by a massive magical dead-zone that covers most of the area."
"What did he say about the changelings?" asked Sunset.
"Almost nothing. He studied a lot of the flora and fauna of the Badlands, but there's barely even a mention of the changelings, apart from the occasional feeling of being watched, which I can only assume was about the changelings."
"That's decidedly unhelpful."
"He was probably not including them in case ponies found out about the possible connection he has with them, if Faust's to be believed," said Twilight. "I doubt ponies would think well of him if they found out he created the changelings."
Trixie shook her head bemusedly, "That still sounds like a steaming pile of horse apples to me. While he might have been powerful, he was still only a unicorn, and I really doubt he possessed the ability to create life."
"I know," said Twilight. "I'd like some answers to that as well. Still, we're not going to find anything out by hanging around here."
The journey south was mostly done in silence, save for the chirping of insects and the occasional complaint. The other major sound was the laboured breathing of Moondancer, who started to lag behind after a few miles.
"This is exactly what I was talking about," Trixie said to Twilight. "She'd probably feel way better if she took that stupid jumper off, plucked her eyebrows, and changed her mane style." Trixie blanched as Twilight glared at her again, "Fine, but I'm still right about the jumper."
"As afraid as I am of the idea," said Sunset, "I think Trixie might be right."
"See! Unnecessarily insulting, but at least she agrees with me."
"Fine, I'll go talk to her." Twilight trotted back to where Moondancer was slowly plodding along, her chest heaving with every breath. "Hey Moondancer, are you struggling a little?"
"Too hot," Moondancer said bluntly. "I'm not used... to carrying... this much weight... in this kind of heat."
"Uhh..." Twilight glanced back up the road to where Trixie was nodding vigorously at them. "Maybe it would be a good idea to remove your jumper, so you don't overheat."
"No," Moondancer stated firmly. "Is this Trixie's plan? To get you... to ask me?"
"No, it's my plan to stop you from getting heat stroke and being seriously ill."
Moondancer stared flatly at Twilight for several seconds. "Even if I believed that, the fact is that I burn in the sun way too easily, so I'm keeping it on."
"But we have sun block."
"No! No! No! Stop asking, because I'm not taking it off!"
Twilight took a step back from Moondancer in surprise, "Okay, sheesh, I won't ask again. If you think we're getting too far ahead, give us a shout, and we'll slow down to let you catch up."
Moondancer sniffed haughtily and adjusted her gear before trotting past Twilight with her nose held high. A second later she gasped angrily as Twilight trotted past her with ease.
"Yeah, she's not taking it off," Twilight said to Trixie and Sunset once she caught up to them, falling into step with them as they started to walk again.
"She's not going to be a problem is she?" asked Trixie. "This seems horribly familiar to what happened with Octavia when we got to Mareitania. I doubt we'll find many kindly old mares to nurse her back to health out here."
"I think you'll find this is almost the polar opposite of what happened to Octavia, but you're not wrong either." Twilight looked back at where Moondancer was slowly trudging along behind them. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to dump some water on her once in a while."
Slowly the land on both sides of the road started to rise, meaning that within a few hundred meters they were walking down through a canyon, that did at least afford them a little shade from the glaring sun. It also showed them the warnings daubed onto the sides of the canyons, warnings of the dangers ahead, and a few friendly suggestions that they turn back before it was too late. Not that they weren't going to ignore the warnings anyway, it certainly would have been easier if it weren't for the fact that most of the signs were written in a dark red.
"Is that blood?" Trixie asked a little sceptically. "It looks like blood. I didn't think ponies were into writing things in blood. Maybe if there were a few skeletons around, still lying where they fell, desperately trying to finish their warnings before their life ended I'd believe it, but there's nothing."
Sunset turned around to look at the dozens and dozens of warnings written on the canyon walls, "I'd believe it more if there was only one warning. I really doubt ponies would need more than a few before thinking coming down here's a bad idea." She looked up at the warnings that were several times higher than she could reach. "I also doubt that dying ponies had the strength to fly and write messages in their own blood."
"But who would write fake messages?" Moondancer asked once she caught up.
"The changelings I bet," Sunset replied. "Who else would have an interest in keeping ponies and whatever out of the Badlands? I imagine if this was Celestia's doing she'd use actual signs instead of this."
"But is it real blood or fake blood?" Trixie asked.
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and say fake," said Twilight. "I doubt Chrysalis would sacrifice a meal just to do this."
"Even after she's sucked all the love out of them?" Moondancer asked with a shudder.
Twilight thought about it, then shrugged, "Love isn't a finite resource, so I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that. Come on guys, let's not dwell on these obviously fake warnings, and get on with this."
Twilight marched stoically past the blood red warnings, and within another hundred meters she passed out through the end of the canyon, and into the dry, rocky, sun-blasted confines of the Badlands. She also staggered sideways as the full strength of the sun blasted against her, reminding her that down here in the south was a horrible place to be for oh so many reasons.
"You think Celestia does this just to piss Chrysalis off?" Sunset said as she shielded her eyes from glaring sun. "I want to think not, but too much of me says it's true."
"I wouldn't put it past her," Twilight muttered. She looked back as Moondancer groaned, "You okay there Moondancer?"
"Are we in hell? It feels like we're in hell."
"No, but this is probably the closest thing you can get to it."
"What's that?"
Twilight shielded her eyes and squinted in the direction that Trixie was looking, trying to discern through the shimmering heat what had caught her attention. It looked like a spire made of rock, but seemed too smooth and rounded to be a natural formation. There was also dozens of black dots hovering around it. "Oh dear."
"What?"
"I do believe that's the changeling hive."
"Oh. Shit." Trixie dropped her own hoof back to the ground, then shrugged. "I guess we're not going on a whacky adventure where we try to kill Chrysalis then?"
"Not on your life. We'd fail miserably, get captured, and probably have interesting things done to us. Very interesting, and very horrible things."
"How interesting, and how horrible?" Moondancer asked nervously.
"Lets just say my brother goes into a nervous sweat whenever he sees a bug in the castle, and leave it at that. He has to get Cadence or one of the guards to deal with spiders now."
"But the changeling invasion was almost three years ago now."
"As I said, very interesting, and very horrible things." Twilight grabbed her canteen and drank greedily from it as she thought. There was no real way to hide from the changelings, so she wasn't going to bother. The best they could hope was that they weren't spotted, as they likely couldn't defend themselves, not only because the changelings possessed highly superior numbers, but also because their magic was limited. Even holding her canteen in her levitation seemed to be taxing her more than it should.
"We should try and get to that plateau as soon as we can."
-0-0-0-
Trixie upended her canteen over her head, drinking as it splashed over her head, soaking her completely. "This endless water thing is incredible. Best invention ever!"
"Do I need to remind you of the magic dead zone we're in?" Twilight said, annoyed. "The magic on that canteen might stop working at any moment, and then you'll have no water. Or you might strain the enchantments making it work even here on the edge of the dead zone, and break it completely."
"Alright, I'll stop, sheesh."
"You're also washing your sunblock off."
"Trixie sweated that off hours ago, so that's hardly the issue."
"Put more on then!"
"I did! I sweated that off too."
"Guys?" Sunset said quietly, her throat too dry to shout. She opened her canteen and drank to fix that.
"Then keep putting more on!" Twilight continued, amazed that Trixie wasn't currently as purple as herself from sunburn.
"We're going to run out if I keep using it that fast. I'm pretty sure we should save some for that circle desert place as well."
"We can buy more supplies in Saddle Arabia Trixie, so don't worry about that."
"Guys!" Both of them stopped and turned to Sunset as she shouted at them, Sunset in turn pointing back at Moondancer in the distance, sat unmoving, and barely visible through the shimmering heat. "I think Moondancer's in trouble."
"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Twilight gasped as she trotted back past Sunset towards Moondancer.
Sunset directed a flat stare at Twilight's rear end, "Because I didn't think it was my job to keep an eye on Moondancer perhaps? I only just noticed." Sunset sighed bitterly and followed after Twilight, Trixie just behind her.
"Moondancer? Are you okay?" Twilight asked as she reached Moondancer, who was sat on the ground, panting heavily. She still had enough focus and energy to glare angrily up at Twilight.
"Do I look like I'm okay?! I'm too hot, I feel sick, and the ground is burning my hooves."
Twilight sighed and pulled Moondancer's bags off her back, "You've got heat stroke. I warned you that you could overheat if you didn't take that jumper off."
"And I'm still not taking it off!"
"Oh come on! What is it that's stopping you from taking it off? Are you determined to make yourself ill?"
"I'm not taking it off, and that's final!"
Twilight stared at the obstinate Moondancer until she started to get uncomfortable. She also made a decision. "It's not final."
"Excuse me?"
"You have heat stroke, you are making yourself ill, and you're slowing us down in what could possibly be the worst place to do so! Either you take that jumper off willingly, cool down, and try to get better, or I'll take it off you by force!"
"She will too," Trixie warned Moondancer. "She has issues with personal space."
Moondancer gawped up at Twilight's steely glare, shocked at the sudden aggression that she'd shown. "You don't mean that."
"Fucking try me Moondancer."
Moondancer stared up at Twilight a little longer, then growled. "Fine. Fine! You wanted this, so now you can deal with it!" Moondancer lit her horn and raised her legs, pulling the jumper off as fast as she could and throwing it to the ground, although Sunset caught it before it landed. "Are you fucking happy now?!"
"Uh... Yes?"
Moondancer was shocked. "Aren't you going to say anything?"
"About what?"
"About these!" Moondancer shrieked, pointing at all the small, evenly spaced scars running up and her front legs. "Go on! Take a good long look!"
"Maybe you should stop shouting," Trixie suggested, only to be ignored.
"So you have some scars. That's hardly worth making a big deal of right now in place that we are."
"Twilight," Sunset said nervously, "you do know what those are, right?"
"Yes I know what they are!" Twilight shouted at Sunset, making her flinch. "And I also know that I'm probably the reason she put them there!"
Trixie frowned as she felt the ground tremble beneath them. She was fairly certain that wasn't normal. "Uh, guys, maybe you really should stop."
Moondancer stared open mouthed at Twilight with tears in her eyes, "So you know what these are, and what they're about, and you won't even acknowledge them?!"
"Guys, I really think you should stop shouting."
"Believe me Moondancer, they are incredibly acknowledged, and internally I am loathing myself quite severely, but right now we are in a place where we could be easily captured by changelings, stung by something poisonous, or eaten by something much bigger than us!"
"Guys! Shut up!" Trixie shouted as the tremors suddenly intensified.
"Or what Trixie?!" Twilight shouted back, only to fall silent as her brain suddenly registered the quaking earth. "Oh."
"What is this Twilight?" Sunset asked nervously, only for Twilight to throw Moondancer's bags onto Sunset's back, and her own onto Trixie's.
"Run."
"What?"
"Run!" The urgency in Twilight's voice spurred them all into action, and they began running as fast as they could in the opposite direction they came from. Seconds later the ground burst open where they'd been standing, and a massive, pink, worm-like creature rose up through the rock and dust, opening its maw to reveal the wriggling black tentacles in its tri-jawed mouth, and roared.
"What the fuck is that?!" Trixie screeched in shock, putting on a burst of speed as the creature lurched towards them.
"Tatzlwurm!" Twilight shouted back, only just being heard over the sound it made as it crashed onto the ground. "Keep going! I'll hold it off!"
"Are you serious?!"
"Yes! I am! Go!" Twilight spread her wings and used her momentum from running to lift herself in the air and loop back around to where the tatzlwurm was pushing itself along the ground like a snake. A massive, ten ton snake. Due to its size it didn't look like it was moving all that fast, but it wasn't only matching Trixie's, Sunset's, and Moondancer's speed, it was catching up to them.
"Oh no you don't!" Twilight dived towards the wurm, firing blast after blast of magic at it, scorching its scales and making it roar in pain. It reared up to confront its attacker, shooting its tentacles out to try and snatch her out of the air. Twilight deftly dodged them, and looped back around, only to be surprised as it coiled up like a spring and launched itself into the air.
Massive jaws snapped through the air, far too close for Twilight's comfort, but thankfully the beast had all the grace and manoeuvrability of a rock in the air, and it was easy enough to dodge. She looped back around and conjured a telekinetic blast that blew the wurm sideways into the cliff with a bone shaking crash.
The tatzlwurm fell back to the ground in a shower of rocks, and it took a few moments to shake itself loose. Twilight watched as the wurm shook its head in a daze, and thought it was about to give up when its tentacles snapped back out again, wrapping around her rear leg, and dragging her back towards its tooth filled maw.
"Get off!" Twilight fired blast after blast at the tentacle, which thankfully didn't seem as invulnerable to her attacks as the thick scales that covered the rest of the wurm. After a few tries she successfully blasted through the fleshy tendril, and pushed herself back into the air, the spasming remains of the tentacle still firmly wrapped around her leg.
The tatzlwurm wailed in agony as Twilight kicked the remnants of its tentacle off her leg. It coiled up defensively as it shifted backwards, trying to get away from her, but couldn't find a hole to escape into, not when it thought Twilight might still attack it. Then it looked sideways towards where her friends where still running, and it, along with Twilight, saw Moondancer lagging behind, struggling to run at all. A much easier prospect than Twilight.
"No!" Twilight shouted as the tatzlwurm squealed with delight and crashed face first into the ground, vibrating its scales so it less dug through the earth, and more swam through it, almost as fast as it could travel on the surface. It didn't go very deep though, as Twilight could see the earth cracking as it sped in a beeline straight for Moondancer.
As fast as it was though, Twilight was faster, and she overtook it just as Sunset and Trixie came running back towards Moondancer. Twilight slammed down on the ground behind Moondancer, grabbing her with magic to throw her towards the other two, both of them catching her in their telekinesis just as the tatzlwurm burst up through the ground, right underneath Twilight, smacking her up into the air. She formed a shield around herself, that the tatzlwurm clamped its jaws around, trying to crush her.
Twilight could hear her friends frantically shouting her name, and could feel the thud of magical impacts hitting the tatzlwurm's scaly hide. Logically she knew it should head back underground to safety, but as that hadn't happened she suspected that it wouldn't until it could close its mouth, which her shield was preventing it from doing. It wouldn't take long until it could though, as its mass of razor sharp teeth were already splintering her shield. She couldn't go back, and couldn't stay where she was. She could teleport out, but that could mean the wurm going back after Moondancer, so that left her with one option.
Twilight pushed herself past the teeth, and into the wurm's gullet before collapsing her shield, and sliding down into the warm, slimy darkness around her.
-0-0-0-
"Twilight!" Trixie screamed as the tatzlwurm's mouth finally snapped shut on Twilight. It keened with delight and started retreating back into the ground with its prize. "Twilight! Get out of there! Teleport! Blow your way out! Something!"
Sunset fired another bolt of magic at the tatzlwurm, "Maybe if you helped me!"
"I- I can't! I don't want to go crazy again!"
"But Twilight's in there!"
"Twilight can't die! I can!"
"Perhaps not, but it's going to take a long time to recover from becoming worm poop!"
"It's too late anyway," Moondancer said as the wurm vanished out of sight. "It'll never come back now."
"Not until it's hungry enough to come after us anyway," said Sunset as she collapsed to the burning ground with a sigh. "What the hell do we do now?"
"We find Twilight," Trixie said firmly, unwilling to bridge any argument. "It's kind of a cliche to say this, but we can't do this without her. We find the wurm, save Twilight, and get the fuck out of this place."
"And how do we do that, huh?" Sunset asked harshly. "How are we supposed to find that thing in the entirety of the Badlands?"
"I don't fucking know!" Trixie shouted back. "Why am I the one that has to have ideas?!"
"I think I know how to find it," Moondancer said during a lull in their argument.
"Oh yeah?" Trixie asked hysterically, "How's that then?"
Moondancer gestured at a pebble in front of her that was bouncing around as the ground shook again. "I think we find it when it comes back for us now."
The ground burst open barely a dozen meters away from them, and the tatzlwurm stretched up into the air, screeching as its tentacles writhed around frantically. The display would have been terrifying, if it wasn't for the smoke that poured from its open mouth. Seconds later a red mark appeared below its head where its throat was, below the red crest that surrounded its head, and traced around the wurm's neck. Immediately after that, its head fell off.
"Fuck!" Trixie shouted, grabbing Moondancer and diving out of the way of the spray of blood that came from the wurm's body. The body collapsed to the ground, still writhing in the wurm's death throes, just as the mouth on the head kept opening and closing. The body smashed hard into the ground, and Twilight tumbled out of it, along with Swordy, covered head to tail in blood.
"Did I get him?" Twilight asked once she'd stopped rolling, her voice a little slurred. "I think I got him."
"Twilight!" Trixie started to run towards Twilight, then stopped at the edge of the pool of blood that still poured from the writhing body of the wurm. "Twilight, you're alright!"
"So I did get it then. Oh good."
"Twilight! You're alright!" Moondancer gasped, still shocked at Twilight's sudden return.
"So it would seem." Twilight tried to stand, but slipped on the blood all around her, smacking her face on the ground, and getting a mouthful of dirt and blood. She quickly spat it back out, "Urgh! Aargh! Bleh! Pfffeh... yuck. Yay me." She stood and walked out of the blood, "Somepony give me my canteen please, I really don't want this to dry on."
Trixie wordlessly passed Twilight her canteen, a little unsure what to say to the blood soaked mare as she sat and tipped the water over herself.
Twilight sighed as she scrubbed at her coat with her magic, "Well this seems like an auspicious beginning to our journey. We've barely started, and I'm already covered in blood."
"Is that all you're going to say?" Sunset said to Twilight, still stunned by the sudden turn of events.
"What would you like me to say?"
"I don't know! But I do think that you'd say something after killing one of the biggest creatures I've ever seen!"
"Actually, the females are even bigger," Moondancer said timorously.
Sunset blinked incredulously at Moondancer for a few seconds, "You mean this isn't the biggest they can get?"
"Oh no, this is just a male. You can tell by the crest around its head. The females don't have that. Also, they're bigger."
"How are you so calm about this?" Trixie asked Moondancer as she sat there dispensing knowledge.
"I'm not calm! You're calm!"
"Ah."
"And how are you so nonchalant about this, huh?" Sunset said to Trixie accusingly.
"Do you really want to know the answer to that?"
"Yes!"
Trixie patted Sunset on the shoulder, "Kill a few hundred ponies, and then you'll understand."
"Oh you did not just play that card."
"Girls!" Twilight shouted as she poured water through her tail, trying to get it at least reasonably clean. "As much fun as having an argument sounds about now, we can't stay here if we're going to reach the plateau before sundown. If you two keep carrying our bags, I'll carry Moondancer."
"But I don't want to ride you; you're all gross and covered with blood."
"Tough. You've given yourself heatstroke by being so stubborn about your jumper, and believe it or not, I didn't just throw myself down the throat of a tatzlwurm because I thought it'd be fun. I did it because I want you to be okay. So I'm going to carry you, and you're going to like it."
-0-0-0-
The journey continued in a strangely awkward silence after that. None of them seemed to want to broach the subject of Twilight killing the tatzlwurm, and none of them, save Trixie, knew what to even think about it. Trixie herself didn't care, and would've been humming happily to herself if it wasn't for the fact that she was quietly dying in the heat, and from the extra work carrying Twilight's belongings. At the very least, she was coping better than Sunset with Moondancer's stuff, thanks to being fitter.
Since nopony was bringing up the tatzlwurm, and the silence was making Twilight feel guilty, like she'd done something wrong in saving them from it, she decided to poke the other elephant in the room. She knew it was likely to start another argument, but it possibly beat trudging slowly in silence.
"So," Twilight said after a while, "do you want to talk about it Moondancer?"
"Talk about what?"
"About the scars."
"What's there to talk about? You know what they are, and why they're there. I thought that you didn't want to talk about them."
"I do! I just-" Twilight stopped, unsure of how to go about this. "I know I fucked up when I left Canterlot. I left without saying so much as a goodbye, and I'm sorry for that. But you know what I was like back then! I'd get sucked into things, and barely even notice the world around me. I'm sorry for just up and leaving Moondancer."
Twilight prepared herself for getting yelled at, or tears, or even the most unexpected thing, an acceptance of her apology. What she hadn't prepared for was silence, of which there was an awful lot. If it wasn't for the fact that she could feel Moondancer going tense, she might have thought Moondancer had flat out ignored her. "Moondancer?"
"That's it? You really think that's what this was all about? You really think that you leaving without saying goodbye was enough to make me do all this?"
Twilight winced guiltily, "I'm guessing it's not?"
"Of course it's not! You were my best friend Twilight, since we were little fillies! We did so much together! Then you left, just like that! You discarded me like a piece of trash! Like I was nothing to you!"
Twilight winced again, "And I'm sorry, I really am."
"On the day you left I was throwing a party Twilight. Sure it was only small, with you, Minuette, Lemon Hearts, Twinkleshine, and Lyra invited, but it was a big deal to me! Do you remember what you did?"
"I didn't go," Twilight said quietly.
"You didn't go! My best friend, whom I invited weeks before, didn't go! The first time I was really putting myself out there, after all the time it took the others to convince me that ponies might like me, and want to be my friend, and you, my best friend whom I've looked up to for years, didn't come!"
"Moondancer, I-"
"And then a year later, there came another huge kick in the teeth when I saw you parading through town at your coronation, the friends that you threw me away for right beside you! Then not long after that you were named the princess of 'friendship.' Friendship? Don't make me laugh! I've never been so hurt in my life Twilight, and I never wanted to be hurt like that again! Which is why, even though we're working together now, we are far from friends."
Trixie sighed and rolled her eyes, "And how many ponies do you know that would let themselves get swallowed by a tatzlwurm to save your life? I bet the number is pretty low."
"Stay out of this Trixie," said Twilight.
"Fine..."
"Do you know what I was doing when I missed your party?" Twilight asked Moondancer as Trixie sulked silently.
"Reading, I bet."
Twilight almost blushed at being caught so easily, "Yes actually. I was doing the research that would lead to the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and the return of Princess Luna. Then Princess Celestia told me to go to Ponyville to oversee preparations for the Summer Sun celebration, and also to make some friends. I didn't plan on leaving myself at all.
"But you had friends!" Moondancer gasped as she realised something, "You never even told the Princess about us? We were in the same class together! A class taught by the Princess herself sometimes, and she didn't even know we were friends?!"
Twilight lowered her head, in both shame and irritation. "As I've said, I was crap at the whole 'friend' thing back then. But my point is that I was sent away by Celestia, and it led to the defeat of Nightmare Moon. If I had gone to your party, we'd probably be on year four of eternal night about now."
"Okay, fine, I won't deny saving the world from eternal night was a nice bonus, but you still never came back after! Yes you missed my party, and yes you moved to Ponyville, but you could still have come back and apologised for missing my party, and said goodbye, and all the other things that would have gone a long way towards not completely tearing my heart out!"
"I know, and I'm sorry! I really am, but what were you thinking pinning all your hopes of a social life on me? Relying on me for social validation? Me, the pony that once forgot to go to her own birthday party? Me, the pony whose mother had to remind her of her friends birthdays and other things? Me, the complete social retard with only the most basic of social skills required for survival? What were you thinking?"
Moondancer went stiff, "You're blaming me now? Really?"
"No, I am still incredibly at fault here, but you picked the worst pony possible pony to build your social life off of. And why did me leaving suddenly stop you from talking to your other friends?"
"Because I didn't want them to hurt me either! Lyra left just after you did, and I thought the others would go too, so I hid. I locked myself away, and threw myself into my studies, and did everything I could to save myself from getting hurt ever again! And then you rocked up to my door with that- that- fucking... bitch, Trixie-
"Hey!"
"-And acted like nothing had happened! Like you hadn't left me the shattered remains of a mare that once thought she could have been somepony worth being liked! Right now I'm not sure what I should hate you for more, leaving in the first place, or coming back and dragging all these feelings back up!"
Twilight sighed and nodded, "And because of what I did, you ended up self harming."
"From the sound of it, you should be glad that's all she did."
"Shut up Trixie!"
Trixie jerked as Twilight shouted at her, "What? That wasn't me!"
"No, it was me," Sunset said, glaring angrily at Twilight. "What the actual fuck Twilight? How could you have done that to her? If that had been me in her position, I probably would've done the same thing she did. The fact that you could point out that she was wrong to be friends with you in the first place is just the icing on the cake."
"I'm not sure if you've noticed," Twilight growled, "but I have said plenty of times that I was a crap friend. I was crap at being friends, and I am so, so sorry for hurting you Moondancer, and I would do absolutely anything to try and make it up to you, but I really can't accept that you thought of me as your best friend when I did nothing to deserve you calling me that."
"You liked the same things as me, Moondancer explained. "In fact, you even introduced me to the classics. Sure our other friends were nice, but you were the only pony that I could talk to about these things. Don't you remember spending hours talking about the latest magical theories? Or the time we spent trying to work out some old alchemical recipe one of us had found? Don't you remember any of what we did together?"
Twilight stopped walking and closed her eyes as memories started replaying themselves in her head, all of them revolving around her childhood with Moondancer. They really had done so much together, but at the time she hadn't known what she had, and certainly hadn't appreciated it. Looking at it with what she knew now though...
Twilight sat hard, tipping Moondancer off her back, and when she opened her eyes again, they were brimming with tears. "We spent three hours arguing over the implications of Morari the Maneless' writings on magic's affect on non-magical materials. It turned out my book had a typo, saying that a magicless material would nutrify the magic's effect, instead of nullifying it. I always found that a bit strange until I saw your copy. Nopony else in the class would have even known who Morari the Maneless was."
"Mmhmm."
"Oh Celestia, what have I done?" Twilight turned to look at Moondancer, "I know I've said it before, but I'm so sorry Moondancer. Could you ever forgive me?"
"After you threw me away like old garbage? No." Moondancer stood and walked past Twilight, glaring at her as she passed, "Now you know what I lost when you left, and how it feels."
"That still doesn't explain why you cut yourself," Trixie pointed out.
"Because I wanted to feel something other than pain."
"That... doesn't even make sense."
-0-0-0-
Twilight stayed behind the group on her own for the hours after Moondancer had given her a verbal thrashing. Moondancer herself was at the head of the group, stoically leading the way despite how ill she felt. Trixie and Sunset stayed with Moondancer, which Twilight was fine with as she didn't need Trixie being sarcastic at her, and Sunset she knew was pissed at her for what she said to Moondancer. Twilight didn't even know why she said it. Sure it was a fair observation on her part to point out that using a pony like Twilight as the focus of your social life was a terrible idea back then, but it didn't need to be said. Honestly, after Mareitania, it was a terrible idea now as well.
"Great job Twilight," Twilight muttered to herself, berating herself again for what felt like the hundredth time. "Moondancer is understandably pissed at you, but Sunset? That was a masterful move indeed. Just what we need to make this mission a success."
Twilight didn't notice that the others had stopped until she almost walked into them, although she definitely noticed the dirty look Sunset gave her. "What's going on? Why have we stopped?"
"I think that's the plateau," said Moondancer, pointing a hoof up at a ledge that jutted out, halfway up the cliffside. "Even if it isn't, it's probably a good place to stop for tonight."
Twilight looked up at the sky, checking the position of the sun. By her own reckoning, it should have been another few hours until they reached Starswirl's plateau. Still, if it wasn't what they were looking for, Moondancer was right that it was a good place to stop, especially considering her condition.
"Fancy going to check it out, little miss wings?" Trixie said, nudging Twilight on the side.
"Uh, sure." Twilight spread her wings, and winced as a lot of her feathers stuck together with dried blood. Clearly she hadn't paid enough attention to them as she was trying to clean herself. She was not looking forward to preening them.
Her wings were still capable of flying though, and she lurched into the air, wobbling slightly as her sticky feathers didn't move like they should have. She compensated by flapping harder, and was almost exhausted by the time she reached the plateau. "Should've just teleported."
The plateau itself was empty, and was barely big enough to warrant being called a plateau. Six ponies could probably sleep here comfortably, but more than that would be risky. Still, it was shady, and probably well protected from anything below that didn't have wings. If there was just some sign that Starswirl had been here it'd be perfect.
"There's nothing up here," Twilight shouted down to the others.
"Then maybe you could fix that by bringing us up there!" Trixie shouted back. Twilight did so, teleporting them up in a violet flash. Trixie staggered and blinked away the dots in her vision before looking around. "Huh, there really is nothing here."
"Floor's been magically smoothed," Sunset observed, running a hoof over the mostly flat surface, "so I dare say this is the place."
Twilight ran her own hoof over the ground, and nodded, agreeing with Sunset's assessment. "Still, you think there'd be something here. Even just a circle of rocks where his campfire was."
"Probably not a good idea," said Trixie. "A fire would be visible for miles around. It would definitely be spotted by the changelings," she concluded, pointing at the massive hive in the distance.
"It's the right place," Moondancer said firmly. "Starswirl described what he could see from here in his journal, and I think it matches up. With the ground being made smooth with magic as well, I can only conclude that we're in the right place."
"And there's nothing here," Twilight sighed. Realistically she knew it was silly to think they'd find what they were looking for right off the bat, but it would have been nice.
Trixie groaned and slumped to the ground, "Typical. It would have been nice to not have to go running all over the world to find what we're looking for." She levitated a miniature apple out of her bag and restored it to its original size before viciously sinking her teeth into it.
Without saying a word, Moondancer walked to the middle of the plateau, set her bags down, drank from her canteen, then lay down and rested her head on her bags. A minute later she was asleep, her chest rising and falling slowly. They could only conclude that she was exhausted to be able to do that.
Trixie pouted at the sleeping Moondancer, "Wish I could do it that easy."
"She could always do that," Twilight said wistfully. "Every time she stayed over at one of the others houses, the goal was to stay up all night, but every time she was always the first to conk out."
"And you never noticed, because your nose was buried in a book?" Sunset said, raising an eyebrow at Twilight. Although it wasn't said viciously, the accusation was obvious.
"No," Twilight answered, hanging her head. "I never went. I always thought they were kind of silly, even though Moondancer begged me to go every time. Because she wanted me to go..." Twilight sighed, "I know I've hurt her, but I had no idea how much until now, because I never realised how much she cared about me."
"And then you blamed her for that."
Twilight closed her eyes at Sunset's words, "I know. It was stupid and cruel of me to say that, and I wish I hadn't. Doesn't make it any less true though."
"Twilight!"
"You didn't know what I was like back then Sunset! The fact that I was totally oblivious to how Moondancer thought of me should be enough to give you a hint. I really wasn't born the Princess of Friendship, and- and- I don't know. Sunset, can I talk to you in private please?"
Trixie scoffed at Twilight, "And what am I? Chopped cabbage?"
"Sorry Trixie, but Sunset... has a better perspective on these things than you do. You keep a eye out for trouble."
"Ugh, fine." Trixie stood and walked to the edge of the plateau, laying down and hooking her hooves over the edge. They could still hear her grumbling as they walked to the rear of the plateau, which narrowed down into small crevice, in which Twilight saw something twinkling in the built up sand. She picked it up and inspected it, uncovering more pieces as she did.
"A broken mirror? Why is there a broken mirror here?"
"Maybe it was Starswirl's shaving mirror or something," Sunset said irritably.
"I'm pretty sure Starswirl the bearded wasn't called so because he shaved." Twilight picked up a few more fragments and twirled them in her magic. "Maybe-"
"Twilight, I'm hot, I'm tired, and I'm fairly pissed at you for what you said to Moondancer. Say what you're going to, so I can finally have a break."
Twilight looked at the mirror shards for another few seconds, then dropped them. "Alright, I'll be quick then. How do I fix things with Moondancer?"
"I don't think you can. Good talk Twilight."
Sunset started to rise, and Twilight pulled her back down. "Please Sunset, I'm being serious!"
"You might well be Twilight, but what you did was cold, even by my ex-villainous standards. If I'd have done that to a pony, I would have at least got some malicious glee out of it, but you were so unthinking that you didn't even realise how much she needed you, let alone how much you hurt her. And then to blame her for latching onto you as a friend, especially when you two had so much in common..." Sunset shook her head, "That's a special kind of fucked up there."
Twilight stared at Sunset for several seconds, "Wow Sunset."
"What?"
"You've read about what I did in Mareitania, and you know how that's affected me, so could you please consider that, yes, I am a little fucked up at times. I know that's no excuse for what I said to Moondancer, now, or in the past, but still."
"You're also the 'princess of friendship,' remember? If anypony should know how to fix this, it's you."
Twilight nodded sadly. She knew there was no point in pushing Sunset for an answer when she was angry. "Okay, then could you at least do Moondancer a favour and try to be her friend. She deserves as much." Twilight quirked a small smile at Sunset, then stood to go join Trixie.
"You know you almost had her friendship back today," Sunset said as Twilight started to walk away. "You helped her, and carried her when you could have made her walk. You saved her from the tatzlwurm, and all of us I suppose, which makes it really unfair for me to be angry at you." Sunset grinned apologetically, "Anyway, if you hadn't blamed her for wanting to be friends with you, you could have been friends now. I suggest you keep on being nice to her, and showing her that you care, and hopefully she might soften towards you."
"Okay, I'll do that. Thanks Sunset."
"You're welcome."
-0-0-0-
The arrival of night was a curious thing in the Badlands. The air turned cold, but the rocks held the heat, so in the end you were glad for the cool air as it gave respite from the heat from the ground, and yet you were thankful for the warmth of the rocks for saving you from the chilly bite of the cold night air. It didn't seem fair.
Gradually the cold won though, and as the chill grew, they started to feel it. Moondancer was still fast asleep, and shivered occasionally, so Twilight unrolled Moondancer's bedding, lifted Moondancer, and placed it beneath her without disturbing her sleep. She even got a small smile in return as Moondancer snuggled into the warm material, which was nice.
Not given much else to do, and not yet inclined towards sleep like Moondancer and Sunset, she went and joined Trixie on the edge of the plateau as she kept watch. "Seen anything Trixie?" A tiny snore answered her, telling her that Trixie had very much fallen asleep. "Trixie!" she whispered harshly, smacking the blue unicorn on the side.
"Snggkt, mnah... What?" Trixie asked, opening her eyes just a crack to look at Twilight.
"You fell asleep."
"Mmn? Cool story bro..." Trixie closed her eyes, then yelped as Twilight levitated her into the air. "What the hell Twilight?"
"Go to bed Trixie. Now. I'll take watch."
"Don't have to tell me twice. G'night."
Twilight sighed irritably as Trixie sauntered away, grabbed her bedroll, and half unrolled it before falling asleep on it. She couldn't quite understand why the others were as tired as they were, because she'd done just as much walking, carried Moondancer for a while, and fought and got eaten temporarily by a tatzlwurm. While the obvious answer was the whole alicorn thing, it still seemed unfair, even if it was convenient.
Twilight put it out of her mind and turned said mind towards keeping watch. Luna's moon shone brightly over the barren expanse of the Badlands, illuminating everything. Even at the distance she was, she could still make out the changeling hive, it's sides lit up almost silver in the moonlight. She wondered briefly what it was made of as it obviously wasn't natural, and concluded it must have been made in much the same manner as termites built their nests. Then she stopped thinking about it as that was a little bit gross.
A flash of movement caught her eye, dragging her attention back to the area around the plateau. She couldn't see anything, save for dozens of pony sized rocks that just lay about the place. The problem was that she wasn't able to remember them being there when they arrived. Sure she wasn't paying a huge amount of attention at the time, but she was fairly certain that that would be something she would notice. She also really doubted moving rocks were really a thing.
Feeling paranoid, and yet rather silly, she picked one of the rocks up and floated it towards her, and was immediately struck by a sense of wrongness. The rock felt far too light for its size, and had a strange, almost organic feel about it. She turned it over a couple of times, and bounced it in her magic, confused about what her magic was telling her. It was telling her the rock was alive.
Fully ready to dispute that, she wound up her magic to toss the rock away when it opened a pair of pearlescent blue eyes and chittered at her. "Eeeyaaah!!" Twilight tossed the rock away, but it flashed green, changing form into a chitinous black pony-like creature, that she knew full well was a changeling, and caught itself on its wings, soaring back up towards her as the area around them lit in with an eerie green fire as the other rocks turned into changelings.
"Changelings!" Twilight shrieked, hoping to wake her friends. She erected a shield over the plateau, and turned to her friends, only to find changelings stood over them, baring their fangs at her. Fangs that dripped with venom. "No!" Twilight shouted, only to feel a weight slam into her and clamp its own fangs onto the back of her neck, followed by another on her shoulder. Straight away she felt dizzy, but despite that she kicked the changelings off her and crawled towards her unresponsive friends.
More changelings piled on to Twilight, and she tried to use her magic to blast them away, but whatever the changelings fangs had injected her with destroyed her focus, and her horn lit up in a uncontrolled mass of sparks that quickly fizzled out, having done nothing to deter her attackers as more jumped on her, biting her again and again. Black creeped in around the edges of her vision, and her limbs felt leaden as she tried to fight the changelings off, and in the end she couldn't fight it, or them, any more. She flopped onto her side as her eyes drooped shut, and the last thing she remembered seeing was a pair of dragon-like eyes, and a big, fang filled grin. |
The end of an era | 14. The mild peevedness of the swarm | A sharp smack to the nose rocked Twilight's head back so it impacted on the rocks behind her, rapidly returning her to consciousness in a rather hurried and unpleasant way. Twilight groaned as pain blossomed in both places that had been struck, and she tried to reach up and rub her nose, only to find herself totally unable to move as she felt her entire body was enclosed in something that seemed almost rubbery. It was certainly strong enough to stop her from moving, although she struggled anyway, earning herself an amused titter from something standing right in front of her.
"Ah, there she is," a sibilant voice hissed with a strange double tone that Twilight recognised all too readily. "About time too; I was beginning to think I'd been misled about the vaunted durability of alicorns."
"I really don't fucking need this right now Chrysalis," Twilight grunted, still keeping her eyes shut against the pain that throbbed through her skull. Much to her small delight, it took several seconds for Chrysalis to muster a response.
"Quite the potty mouth you've developed there Sparkle. Most unexpected for a princess of Eque-"
"I'm going to stop you right there," Twilight interrupted, finally cracking her eyes open to see the black, chitinous mockery of pony-kind before her. "My name is Twilight. Twi-light. It's really not any harder to say than Sparkle. Also, my potty mouth is hardly the issue here when you seem to have abducted us."
Thwap! Twilight's head hit the rock behind her again as Chrysalis back-hoofed her. "Disrespect me again, and we shall see just how durable alicorns truly are." Twilight wisely kept her mouth shut, but still glared daggers at Chrysalis. "Better. And for your own edification, it's Queen Chrysalis."
"Very well, your highness. My point still stands. You have kidnapped us, and I would like to know why." Twilight looked down at herself, finding herself to be completely cocooned, except for her head, in a tough, yellow-green substance. Knowing what she did about changelings, she decided it best to not to think too hard about what it was made of.
"Did you truly think I would not notice your passage through my lands? Do you really think me to be blind? Even if I hadn't known of your presence the moment you arrived, the fact remains that I would have found out the moment you murdered one of my pets!"
"Pets? You mean the tatzlwurm? You own those things?"
"I do," Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at Twilight, "and I do not look kindly upon those that would harm my little darlings, let alone kill them."
"Forgive me your highness, but it attempted to kill us. I only did what was necessary for our own survival."
"Just as I do what is necessary for ours," Chrysalis said back. Her horn lit up in a sickly green colour, and she held up a small object that Twilight knew had to have been pilfered out of her bags. It was the speaker stone, their sole method of contacting the other princesses, and of calling for aid. Chrysalis grinned, and with a flex of her magic, crushed it to near dust.
Twilight swallowed, hoping to play off how important that one small item had been. "And now you've killed my pet rock, so I guess that makes us even."
"Do you think me stupid 'Twilight?' I have created and used enough such devices in my time to know a speaker stone when I see one. How else do you think I contact my children when they are out in the world?"
"Uh, hive mind telepathy?"
"Hive mi-" Chrysalis shook her head slowly, "The things you ponies think about us. No, we use the same methods as everybody else. Well, everybody with magic. Anyway, now I've destroyed your speaker stone, you can no longer contact your precious Celestia and call in the army you're building."
"Call in our army?" Twilight laughed as she worked out what it was that Chrysalis was thinking. "Oh boy, you have got this so very wrong. The army we're building isn't intended to attack you, it's to defend ourselves from a hostile invasion."
"An invasion? An invasion from where?"
"Mareitania."
"Mareitania? I thought Mareitania was an ally of Equestria?"
"It was. It no longer is."
"Explain."
"No. I don't have to tell you anything Chrysalis, not after you attacked and abducted us. Tell me where my friends are, and I might at least consider it."
Chrysalis chuckled and stepped aside. Now that her immediate view wasn't filled with black chitin and weird, membranous hair, Twilight could see that she was in a round room, hollowed out from bare rock with only a small, circular entrance. She could also see her friends. Sunset and Moondancer were stuck to the wall in cocoons much like Twilight's own, while Trixie, also cocooned, hung from the ceiling. All of them had the same stuff their cocoons were made of covering their mouths.
"See? Perfectly unharmed," said Chrysalis. "I suspect you thought that I'd be sucking the love out of them. Not so." Chrysalis pointed at Sunset, "While that one has much love to share, the other two are somewhat harder. The white one buries her love quite deeply behind very thick walls, and would take much digging to share it, while the blue one, for all the messed up love she has for you, is very angry to the point that it's hardly worth the effort. However, if you were to tell me why you are trespassing in my land, I may consider being merciful." Chrysalis brought her face close to Twilight's, "Tell me why you're here!"
Twilight regarded Chrysalis coolly for several seconds, deciding whether to tell her or not. She figured that it didn't really matter if Chrysalis knew their purpose here, while telling her might potentially aid their way if Chrysalis let slip any knowledge she had.
"We're looking for Starswirl the Bearded," Twilight said eventually.
"Starswirl the Bearded?" Chrysalis scoffed "He's dead."
"Maybe, maybe not, but either way he has knowledge that could be used to defeat our enemy."
"Mareitania?"
"No. Faust."
"Faust? Faust..." Chrysalis repeated the name several times, looking around the room as she did. "Faust. Why does that sound so familiar?"
"She's an ancie-"
"Silence!" Chrysalis started pacing around the room, muttering to herself. "I know I've heard that name before, but why? And where?" She stopped pacing suddenly, and turned to face Twilight. "I will return shortly Sparkle. There is something I must do."
"Could you remove my friends gags before you go?" Twilight winched at the angry glare Chrysalis gave her, "Please, your highness?" Chrysalis started to leave again, but a second later her green magic surrounded the gags of Twilight's friends, tearing them off.
"Yeowch!" Trixie squeaked, wrinkling her muzzle after the gag tore an unpleasant amount of hair off. "Dammit Twilight! You were supposed to be keeping watch!"
"Really?" Twilight said back, totally deadpan. "I hadn't been on watch five minutes when they attacked, having used your... inattentiveness, to sneak up close."
"I'll have you know I was highly attentive the entire time."
"You fell asleep!"
"I was lulling our foes into a false sense of security."
Twilight looked around the room they were in with exaggeration, "Good job then." Twilight rolled her eyes as Trixie stuck her tongue out, then looked to Sunset and Moondancer, "Are you guys okay?"
"I'm fine, physically," Moondancer replied sullenly, squinting in Twilight's direction due to her glasses being missing.
"Sunset?"
Sunset grinned weakly, "I want to say I've been in worse situations, but this is really taking the biscuit."
"I know. We'll get out of this, somehow." Twilight looked back up at Trixie, "Are you okay Trixie?"
Trixie struggled in her cocoon for a moment, making it swing back and forth, until she gave up and slumped, "I have never wanted to stretch so badly. Any ideas on how to get out of this?"
"Not really," Twilight admitted. With their magic nullified, her ideas were limited. "Barring the unlikely possibility of a friendly changeling saving us, or the even less likely scenario of Chrysalis releasing us, I've got nothing."
"Are friendly changelings even a thing?" Moondancer asked.
"We have one documented case that currently lives in the Crystal Empire," Twilight told her. "He sometimes foal-sits my niece. There's also some other one that turned up at a wedding in Ponyville, but I only heard about that second hoof. At any rate, I really don't think two's going to be setting a precedent for friendly changelings though."
"Can't you break out of that cocoon using your freaky alicorn strength?" Trixie asked a moment later.
"I don't think so." Twilight tried to break out, but with her front legs trapped beside her, and her rear legs pulled out straight below her, she couldn't push in the direction a pony's strength naturally lay. "Nngh! Nope!" Twilight relaxed and panted, "Not a chance."
"You need a changeling to get out of that," a voice said from the door. It was noticeably feminine, and possessed a not unpleasant hum to it.
"Please be friendly, please be friendly, please be friendly!" Trixie prayed quickly.
"Who's there?" Twilight asked towards the entrance of their cell. A moment later a small changeling entered, and sat down in the middle of the room, giving Twilight an appraising look.
"This one thought you'd be bigger, like your Princess Celestia."
Twilight raised an eyebrow at the unusual comment, "And this seems rather brave of you, coming in here like this without your queen knowing," she said to their visitor.
"Why be afraid when you have nothing to lose?" the changeling said back. It sat there for longer, carefully studying Twilight, just as she studied it back. Visually, it seemed no different to any other changeling, save for its smaller stature, but maybe that simply meant it was a young changeling for all she knew.
"You mentioned a changeling that lives with ponies. Do you speak of Thorax?"
"Yes!" Twilight answered with a shout, hoping that they had indeed found an ally. "Are you a friend of his?"
"Thorax is an abnormality. This one would like to study Thorax, to see what makes Thorax different. See why friends are more important to that one than hive."
"Study Thorax how?" Sunset asked.
"Through scientific method. Also kill Thorax and remove brain to study, just to be sure." A smile formed around the changelings fangs as they all gawped at it. "That was a joke. Killing Thorax would render the tests meaningless. Much simpler and less messy to just ask."
"Great," Trixie groaned, "we managed to find the one changeling that's as much of a nerd as you three. You're not going to study us are you?"
"This one already is. Is not too impressed by what it's learnt so far."
"Gee, thanks..."
"However, the amount of venom required to render an alicorn unconscious was of much interest. It required six times as much as regular pony, even though alicorn pony not much bigger. Celestia sized alicorn may require even more."
"Did you factor in her adrenal response?" Moondancer asked. "Since she was awake and prepared to fight, her adrenaline may have countered your venom to a point."
Trixie groaned again, "You guys are unbelievable."
"Her adrenaline response was considered, yes, but the conclusion was still the same. A single dose of venom, or maybe even a double dose, would not be sufficient. A triple dose might work, but would take more time to affect an alicorn, and would wear off faster. Fascinating really. This one wishes she could study it more in depth."
"Why do you refer to yourself as 'this one,' and it?" Sunset asked, although she wasn't going to point out the changeling's rather stilted speech. She didn't want to offend their only chance of a rescue too soon.
"After the departure and betrayal of Thorax, Queen banned use of pronouns, to help maintain hive coherency. Queen says the individual is the enemy of the hive. Queen, for once, may not be right because policy going down about as well as pony eating meat."
"Does she at least let you have your own names?"
"For sake of identifying each other, yes. You may refer to this one as Mayfly."
Moondancer frowned at Mayfly, "Don't mayflies have really short life spans?"
Mayfly shrugged, "The Queen is not without her sense of humour, even if it is at this one's expense. Siblings find it funny because this one is smaller than them, and was not expected to survive for long, but this one proved them wrong by being smart."
"Well I think it's a lovely name," Sunset said, directing meaningful looks at the others. "I'm Sunset, and these are Twilight, Moondancer, and Trixie." She gestured with her head towards each of the ponies as she said their name. "I also get the feeling you're not a huge fan of Chrysalis. If you're willing to get us out of here, we'd be happy for you to come with us. How about it?"
"Not possible," Mayfly stated bluntly. "Ponies can't disguise themselves, so escape highly improbable. This one isn't willing to risk itself for little chance of success."
"I could introduce you to Thorax," Twilight offered, a little desperately. "I'm sure he'd be delighted to tell you why he left."
"Bribery doesn't make your escape any less improbable."
Trixie delicately cleared her throat, "Please?"
Mayfly cocked her head slightly as she looked up at Trixie, "How odd, this one wasn't expecting to hear manners in this situation."
"So you'll help us?"
"Of course not."
"I'll let you feed on my love if you help us."
Mayfly stuck her tongue out at the offer. "Much love, but much more anger, like bad taste in food of ponies. This one doesn't wish to become sick. Love of yellow unicorn much more palatable."
"Then I'll let you feed on her instead!" Trixie tried to bring her hooves up to beg, then gibbered to herself as she remembered she couldn't actually move. "Just, please let us out!"
Twilight couldn't mistake the desperation in Trixie's voice, and worried about it as it wasn't exactly something she was used to hearing from Trixie at all. "Are you alright Trixie? You're starting to sound a little freaked out."
Trixie shuddered and tried to slow her breathing, "I might be getting just teeniest, tiniest bit claustrophobic, being trapped in this cocoon and all. Kind of reminds me of those damn fetters I had to wear. I hate not being able to move."
"This one could administer venom to knock you out if you wish?" Mayfly offered.
"Y'know what, I'm actually tempted."
"But due to cocoon, venom would have to administered via your face."
"And now I think I'll pass."
"Ponies are odd."
"Yes they are." All of them cringed at the sound of Chrysalis' voice. All of them cringed more as she folded her lanky frame through the narrow opening of their room, followed by two guards in blue armour. "I don't remember giving you permission to talk to our prisoners, Mayfly. Explain yourself."
Mayfly bowed before Chrysalis, but it was easy to tell from the way she almost ground her face against the floor, that there was far more fear in her action than there was respect by a long way. "Apologies queen, but this one was curious about the ponies. This one has never seen one before."
"Well maybe if you learned to speak sensibly, you could be sent to gather."
"But inability to use pronouns confuses this one's speech patterns." Mayfly jumped and squeaked as Chrysalis stomped a hole-ridden hoof by her head. "Please forgive it, it meant no disrespect."
"Say it with me. The individual is-"
"Is the enemy of the hive. This one remembers."
Chrysalis bent down until her face was almost level with Mayfly's. "That one better not forget," she said before straightening up and roughly kicking Mayfly towards Twilight. "Now cut them loose. I have something I need to show them."
"Are you certain Queen? They could be dangerous."
"They're harmless without their magic, now do as I command."
Twilight watched with both fear and fascination as Mayfly crawled up her front and dribbled... something down the front of her cocoon that dissolved the tough, rubbery material like hot water through ice. She squirmed as the substance reached her coat, then relaxed again as it did nothing. It was still pretty gross though.
"Enzymes in saliva only react to cocoon," Mayfly explained. "Nothing to fear."
"Okay." Twilight waited as Mayfly crawled away and up the wall towards Trixie, then pushed forwards. With the strip missing out of the front of her cocoon, is was easy enough to push her way out, although it was hardly elegant as she flopped to the floor, her legs protesting from being held at such unnatural angles for as long as they were. Chrysalis was watching her intently, so she decided to play it safe, and sit on the floor as non-aggressively as was possible as Mayfly lowered Trixie to the ground.
"Ooohhh... that is almost sexual," Trixie moaned as she stretched out her legs and back like a cat. "So, Chrysalis, how come you can use pronouns, but your minions can't? Isn't 'the individual' the enemy of the hive?" Trixie flinched back and closed her eyes as Chrysalis' fangs snapped shut mere inches from her face, then peeked an eye open to see Chrysalis still only inches away.
"I am the hive," Chrysalis answered. "And I suggest you keep your pretty little mouth shut as I only need one of you alive."
"Okay," Trixie squeaked nervously, then grinned nervously at the way Twilight was looking at her.
"Idiot," Twilight muttered, still waiting as Mayfly freed both Sunset and Moondancer. As nice as it was that they were being released from their immediate captivity, there was still the huge and all encompassing question as to why? Chrysalis was watching her intently, ready to react to any aggressive moves Twilight might make, forcing Twilight to decide that perhaps she should just wait for answers instead.
"Follow me," Chrysalis commanded, folding her lanky frame back through the exit. The rest of them had no problems, apart from pony hooves not having all that much grip on the smooth, rock like material that the hive was made of, and whatever that was still wasn't worth thinking of too about. Twilight was already of the opinion that changelings made too many weird substances by far.
"What of this one your highness?" Mayfly asked once they were out of the room.
"Go find their belongings and bring them to the entrance, then wait there." Mayfly bobbed her head in compliance, and rapidly buzzed away as Chrysalis started leading the four ponies through the hive.
Twilight gasped in amazement at the cavernous interior of the hive. It was fairly obvious from the lack of stairs that it was meant only for changelings to traverse, and would actually be a nightmare to attack if that had really been their intent. No stairs, lots of open space for the changelings to attack in, and- Twilight jumped to the side as the round doorway she was passing suddenly closed itself, and another opened further up the in the hollow. Apparently the hive could move of its own volition, like it were alive. As if changelings weren't already weird enough.
"Are you seeing all this?" Trixie said out loud, not quite sharing Twilight's sense of disgust. Even the hum of hundreds of changelings around the hive wasn't enough to quieten her. "How does it move like that? Super weird."
"I can't see anything," Moondancer grumbled, squinting at everything around her as she followed the most colourful blurs in front of her. "You don't make it sound like I'm missing much though."
"At least it's nice and cool down here," said Sunset. "At least compared to outside anyway," she added as the hive wasn't exactly cold either.
"For the comfort and convenience of its inhabitants and visitors," Trixie said in a nasally voice, "the hive is maintained at a pleasant twenty degrees centigrade at all times."
"Don't you ponies ever know when to shut up?" Chrysalis growled. "I will never understand how a species so insufferable became so successful."
"Perhaps if you told us where we're going instead?" Twilight asked. Since Chrysalis was leading them deeper into the hive, the question was becoming more and more prudent.
"The Font of Queens," Chrysalis told her.
"And what's that?"
"A source of great knowledge," Chrysalis answered, giving the word great a negative emphasis, "as well as a massive pain in my flank."
"Uh-huh..." Chrysalis didn't seem to be any more forthcoming on what that was, so Twilight decided not to ask. Not that she could anyway while a cacophonous screeching filled the air as they passed by a chamber filled with small black and white grubs being attended to by several harried looking changelings. Twilight fought down her need to gag, and kept following after Chrysalis.
Eventually they reached their destination, although that could only be assumed as Chrysalis led them into a large, darkened chamber that was lit up by an eerie green glow that originated from the gelatinous green pool in its middle, that had a thick layer of mist wafting over it.
"Is this the Font of Queens?" Twilight asked, keeping back from the pool. She didn't know if it was a trick of the light, or real, but the pool looked impossibly deep, and there were things moving about in it, ghostly images that Twilight swore were looking right at her. She didn't think it possible, but the bar for changeling weirdness just got set a little higher.
"I've brought the ponies as you requested," Chrysalis said to the pool. "Now tell them whatever it is you want to tell them, so I can get on with my life."
The ponies jumped back as the mist over the pool suddenly billowed upwards, assuming the form of a changeling queen like Chrysalis, but with some notable differences, like the shape of the horn, and the pattern of holes in her legs. It was hard to tell if she was a different colour due to being made of mist, but it was enough to assume not. At any rate, the weirdness bar went up yet another notch.
"Ah, so the usurper has returned with our guest," the ghostly image cackled. "I half expected you to murder them out of your spite for us."
Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the ghostly queen, "If the need for them to live wasn't so dire, I may well have. Now tell them what you know, so we can end this farce."
"Very well. Gather round ponies, and let me have a good look at you."
Twilight took a few tentative steps towards the pool, and tried to straighten up, even though her gut was telling her to run a mile. "Who are you?"
"I am Primum, first queen of the changelings, and you are Twilight Sparkle, princess of Equestria, are you not?"
"That's right. We've come to the Badlands hoping to find Starswirl the Bearded, and-"
Primum waved a ghostly hoof, "I know why you're here. The usurper had the decency to at least tell me that much."
"Why do you call her the usurper?" Trixie asked, earning a snarl from Chrysalis in return.
"Don't you dare answer that!"
"She defied the cycle!" Primum boomed, as did a mass of other voices from the pool. "Rather than give her body and knowledge up to the pool at the end of her hundred year reign, she chose to instead murder her successors as soon as they are born, and keep living. Now the changeling race stagnates under her rule!"
Chrysalis stomped her hooves and fired a beam of green magic at the image of Primum that barely caused a ripple in the mist. "I will not condemn myself to an eternity in that accursed pool!"
"Then at least rule my changelings better than you are! The way you're going, a simple cold could wipe out our race before long." The two queens faced each other down, before Primum turned back to Twilight. "I believe you seek a way to defeat Faust, correct?"
"Yes! Do you know how?"
Primum shook her head, "I never met Faust. Starswirl spoke at length about her in the early days, but after she went missing he left, and didn't return until centuries later, where he kept his distance. Hopefully out of shame for his failure."
"So Starswirl did create the changelings?"
"He broke us! Before his meddling we were a race of simple shape-shifting bugs, that used camouflage to feed on the energy of larger beings! Then he came with his magic that wasn't his own, and changed us into what we are now; a race that feeds on love, but does nothing to engender it!"
"But I thought he sought to remove the excess of negative energy from the world by creating things that fed on it? Why would he create you to do the exact opposite of that?"
"He left, before he completed us, and I was forced to adapt before his incompetence destroyed us completely. I know what we were supposed to be, but without him, or his borrowed magic, I had no choice but to become what we are now, or die."
"What magic are you talking about?" Sunset asked as Twilight thought about what she had heard so far.
"Starswirl called it the Gift of Life. Faust gave it to him to continue their great work after she was forced to contain the Windigoes, their first great failure. If Starswirl was to be believed though, not even Faust knew from whence the Gift came."
"And what did it do?"
"It creates life," Primum answered. "Magic could create a body with sufficient power, but it cannot bring it to life without a soul. The Gift of Life can do that. However, it can also alter what already exists, as it did to us. It can also prolong the life of its user considering how old Starswirl was at the end."
Moondancer squinted up at the ghostly queen, although all she could see was a pale blob, "Why didn't he come back and-uh... finish you?"
"I'm afraid you'll have to ask him that yourself, if he still lives."
"As fascinating as this all is," said Trixie, "and it really is, none of this helps us to either find Starswirl, his retreat, or to defeat Faust."
"I know," Twilight sighed. "Are you sure you don't know anything about where Starswirl is? Or how to defeat Faust?"
"I'm afraid I know not of where Starswirl is, but I can tell you that the mirrors are the key. I don't know why he was so fascinated by them as portals, but he used them to travel around. If you can find one of his mirrors, you will find him."
"I think we already did," said Twilight, looking sideways at Sunset. "Unfortunately it was broken. I'm sure it's safe to say that any mirror left out in the wild would be."
"Perhaps, but I'm sure it's not too difficult for a great alicorn for yourself to mend a mere mirror so long as you have enough pieces."
"Enough pieces..." The primary question in Twilight's mind was 'would that work?' Repairing a mirror was easy enough, but using different pieces of different mirrors less so. She could think of ways to do it, but the magical proponent confused it. Theoretically the mirrors all led to one place which would act as a nexus, otherwise Starswirl would've needed a dozen mirrors in each place, so the spell in each mirror shouldn't be an issue because they'd all be the same. But would it still work to combine pieces from several mirrors? Twilight didn't know, and was worried that without an original frame to hold the mirror, it'd be a waste of time to even try. Still, if things got so hopeless that she'd be willing to try it, she might as well have the components she would need.
"Okay," Twilight said after a few moments of frantically thinking about it. "Thank you Primum. Is there anything you can tell us about Faust? Anything at all?"
"From what I've heard about Faust from the usurper is true, and that she seeks to attack Equestria, then she is already far from the kind and gentle pony Starswirl always described her as. I know she's powerful, and I know that she likely won't look kindly on us changelings. If you cannot defeat Faust, more than just Equestria is doomed, which is the only reason we are aiding you."
Trixie raised an eyebrow, "Aiding us? By not keeping us as prisoners?"
"Or by killing you," Primum said amusedly. "I grow weary. It takes much effort to speak to you like this, and I must rest. Chrysalis, give me your word that these ponies are to be released unharmed to complete their mission."
"You expect me to give up my prize? Are you even serious?"
"In the best interest of the changelings, yes, now give me your word."
"You have my word," Chrysalis said begrudgingly through her teeth.
"Excellent. Best of luck to you Twilight Sparkle, you'll need it." Primum's image lost coherency and slowly collapsed back into the pool, leaving four stunned ponies, and one mildly irate queen of the changelings.
"You are going to get out of my hive, get out of my land, and you are going to do it by tonight, or I won't have any issues about sending my pets after you. Is that clear?"
"Very," Twilight said, looking up at Chrysalis. "Show us the way out, and we will gladly get out of your mane."
Chrysalis grunted and started walking back the way they came, the four ponies following after her. None of them said a word as they went, sensing that aggravating their host when she was already unwillingly releasing them, probably wasn't the beat course of action. Even Trixie sensed the mood enough to keep quiet.
A blast of heat told them they were nearing the exit, and as Chrysalis had ordered, Mayfly was there with their belongings, which Twilight was relieved to see hadn't been tampered with. Perhaps the changelings had left the bags behind on the plateau at the time because they were more interested in their captives. Either way, they still had food and water, so that at least wasn't going to be a problem.
Chrysalis snatched the bags off Mayfly, and threw them at Twilight. "There, you have your things, now get out of here before I change my mind."
Twilight looked at Mayfly as she averted her eyes from Chrysalis, and wondered briefly what she could do about that small issue, besides the obvious. Then she shrugged mentally as the obvious often worked.
"Actually, I don't really know where we are now," Twilight said, purposely sounding unsure. It wasn't exactly a lie either though. The sun was in front on them, so they were at least facing east or west, but that left a fifty percent chance of picking the wrong direction.
"And what do you expect me to do about it?" Chrysalis asked sneeringly.
Twilight glanced briefly at Mayfly, "Perhaps you could lend us a guide until we're out of your lands? Just so we don't get lost, and so we don't run into any more of your pets."
Chrysalis followed Twilight's eyes back to Mayfly, and growled. "Don't think I can't see what you're trying to do Sparkle. You think you can take Mayfly with you, save her from my 'wicked' grasp."
"Not at all! She can come back once we're away!"
"Hhmph, plenty of time to convert her to your ways." Chrysalis grabbed Mayfly and threw the diminutive changeling to the ground before her.
"My Queen, I don't- Aah!" Mayfly squealed as Chrysalis smacked her and pressed her head to the ground with a hoof, pinning her and grinding her face into the dirt.
"What have I told you about that word?! And don't you dare think that I haven't heard of your disquiet, your... malcontent. I have eyes and ears everywhere within my hive, Mayfly. I know these ponies bargained for your help in escaping, and I know it was only your fear that stopped you, not your loyalty."
"I seek only to obey my Queen!" Mayfly cried fearfully.
"Chrysalis, stop!" Twilight shouted, a bit bewildered by how the situation had suddenly hurtled in this direction. "How does killing Mayfly help anything?"
"I'd rather see her dead than turned into another traitor like Thorax!" Chrysalis applied more pressure, making Mayfly cry in pain.
"But she's one of your people! Your children! Doesn't that mean anything?"
"The lives of all my children are in my hooves Twilight Sparkle, to do with as I wish! If I should execute a traitor, it is my right to do so!"
"Then- Then-" Twilight looked around desperately, trying to think of a solution that would end with Mayfly not being killed. The hundreds of changeling eyes she could feel on her didn't help, and only made her wonder where their mercy for their sibling was. Then it struck Twilight that perhaps there was something else that Chrysalis would be willing to kill in Mayfly's place.
"Kill me instead," Twilight said as strongly as she could. "Let Mayfly go, and kill me."
"You?" Chrysalis said back, sounding disgusted. "You would give your life for a worthless drone like this?"
"I would," Twilight nodded. "But if she is truly worthless to you, you have nothing to gain by killing her, and nothing to lose by letting her go. Don't you at least have enough of a heart to do that?"
"I certainly have a heart Twilight Sparkle, but it looks nothing like your weak pony one! I'm more inclined to kill her now just to spite you than for any benefit it may bring me!" Chrysalis started putting weight on her hoof to crush Mayfly's head when Trixie's voice interrupted her.
"Then perhaps we should let fate decide."
"What?" Chrysalis spat at the blue unicorn.
Trixie reached back into her bag and pulled out a single golden bit. "How about it hmm? Toss a coin for the fate of Mayfly?"
"No deal."
"Then I'll sweeten it. I toss the coin, and if it comes up heads, you kill both Mayfly and Twilight. If it comes up tails, you let Mayfly go, which quite frankly should be a relief. How about it Chrysalis? All you lose is a hungry, worthless mouth to feed if you lose. Hardly sounds like losing at all, does it? Honestly, I'm not sure why we want that burden either, but there we go." Trixie grinned at Chrysalis, "Princesses, am I right?"
Chrysalis eyed Trixie for several seconds, then nodded, easing the pressure off Mayfly's head a little. "Very well pony, I'll play your little game. Killing both Mayfly and Twilight sounds like too good an offer to pass up, even though I could easily kill them, and you, and the others if I so wished."
"Excellent choice", said Trixie, a little nervously after what Chrysalis had just mentioned. She flicked the coin into the air, watching it flip over and over before deftly catching it in a hoof and covering it with the other. "The moment of truth," she said, slowly uncovering the coin again to reveal it lying tails up. "Tails. Mayfly and Twilight get to live."
Chrysalis screeched with rage, and for a moment it seemed like she was going to kill them all anyway. Instead she lifted her hoof off Mayfly's head and stamped it on her thin, gossamer wings, twisting it, and tearing her wings to shreds. "You are banished!" Chrysalis shouted at Mayfly as she screamed in agony. "If you ever return here I will kill you, slowly, and painfully. The same goes for all of you blasted ponies as well." She released the tattered remains of Mayfly's wings and took a step back, "I suggest you get out of my sight!"
Chrysalis turned and disappeared back into the darkness of the hive, leaving four stunned ponies, and one crying changeling, as well as a few hundred observers. Twilight hurried forwards to help Mayfly, but recoiled as the changeling bared her fangs and hissed viciously. "I'm sorry Mayfly! I never meant for anything like that to happen!"
"But it did! Stupid pony!" Mayfly hauled herself to her hooves, and stood on legs that shook as she buzzed her tattered wings, sending a few bits of lose gossamer flying away. "I wanted to leave, see the world, and maybe bring back something of value to the hive to prove my worth! Earn Queen's approval! I didn't want to leave forever, and I certainly didn't want to be banished!"
"I'm sorry, but from the way you were talking before, I thought you wanted out of this place?"
"You thought wrong!"
"Please, let me help you." Twilight moved towards Mayfly, then jumped back as the changeling bared her fangs and snapped at Twilight. "Please, I'm only trying to help you!"
"Don't need the help of stupid pony!" Mayfly shouted before walking past Twilight, hissing at her as she passed. After a few moments she stopped, "Are you not coming stupid pony? South is this way."
"You're helping us?"
"It's death to stay here, and am not welcome in Equestria, so best to go south into jungle, which is where you are going. Besides, tricky pony saved this one, so this one at least owes her enough to get her to jungle."
Trixie looked between Twilight and Mayfly, not sure what to do or say. "Actually, my name's Trixie," she mumbled.
"But what about your wings?" Sunset asked as Mayfly started walking again.
"They return on next molt. Is no big issue."
"But..." Sunset looked to the others as Mayfly kept going, but they had nothing to add to the situation, being just as confused by it as everypony else. "I have no idea what just happened. Really. Chrysalis just let us go."
"Seems our enemy is enough to scare the changelings into not stopping our mission," said Twilight. "Believe me, this was not something I could have ever predicted happening." Twilight thought for a moment about how bad Faust had to be if an ancient and long dead queen of the changelings could coerce Chrysalis into releasing them. It proved a worrying though, at least until Moondancer provided a distraction as she searched through her bags and started to panic.
"My glasses aren't here! I need my glasses!"
"You really can't see anything?" Trixie asked as Moondancer frantically searched through her bags.
"Well, instead of a big dark blur, I can now see a big light blur, but that's just because we're outside." Moondancer's horn sparked as she tried to summon her glasses, "I can't summon them either!"
"Queen's throne creates big no-magic zone that blocks all magic except changeling magic," said Mayfly, having returned because nopony was following her. "Could we maybe get a move on before Queen returns and murders us all?"
"But I need my glasses. I can't see without them!"
"They must still be at the plateau," said Twilight. "I need to go back there anyway to get the mirror fragments we found, so I can have a look for them while I'm there. Mayfly, which way is west?"
Mayfly pointed in a direction. "West is that way stupid pony," she said.
Twilight bit her tongue to stop her shouting at Mayfly about calling her stupid pony. "Okay," she said brightly instead. "I'm going to fly there, then head south. I should hopefully meet you there." She spread her wings, then stopped as her feathers all pulled at each other. "What the..?" She inspected her wings, then almost gagged as she saw that on top of the dried on tatzlwurm blood, they were now covered in changeling cocoon goo. "That's just nasty."
"Winged ponies can't really fly here anyway," said Mayfly. "Needs magic, and Queen's throne cancels that magic too."
Twilight sighed and nodded, "I guess I'll have to run there then." She took her canteen off her bags with her hooves, and looped its strap over her neck before checking its contents. It was only half full, meaning the no-magic effect was preventing it from refilling. "There goes washing my wings." She wondered briefly if it would be simpler to tear out her feathers and regrow nice, new clean ones. "Guess I'll have to run the entire way. Trixie, could you-"
"Take your bags, I know. Get going."
-0-0-0-
"I'm curious," Sunset said as they put distance between themselves and the changeling hive. "Why did Primum call Chrysalis an usurper for breaking 'the cycle?' What did she mean?"
"Old Queen not know what she talking about," Mayfly said dismissively. "Queen Chrysalis is one true queen."
"But there is a cycle?"
Mayfly nodded, "Changeling queen get replaced every hundred years in old days, and old queen adds herself to font to preserve knowledge for future queens. Queen Chrysalis doesn't want to do that."
"So we gathered," said Sunset. "How long has it been since she broke the cycle?"
Mayfly shrugged, "No one really knows, but it might be many centuries since she did. She killed many of her daughters and absorbed their essence to maintain rule and health."
"That's pretty brutal," said Trixie. "Couldn't one of you replace her?"
"A drone?" Mayfly burst out laughing, "Funny!"
"I'm being serious."
"You are?" Mayfly saw the look on Trixie's face, "Oh. In that case I make this simple. Only queens can lay eggs, not drones. Drones don't even have gender. Can imitate orifices and protrusions of both males and females for intimacy with targets, but neither are for use in reproduction. In short, a drone cannot replace a queen."
"But you sound female," Sunset pointed out.
"Matter of choice, I assure you." Mayfly cleared her throat and banged a hoof on her chest. When she spoke again it was in a deep and definitely male baritone. "Can imitate many voices to complete deceptions." She reverted back to her usual voice, "Be silly if big male sounded like this."
"Oh." They walked on in silence for a little longer, until a burning question prodded at Moondancer's mind.
"If there's a changeling queen, does that mean there's a changeling king?"
"No king, only queen."
"Then how can Chrysalis reproduce like she does."
"Queen chooses to reproduce asexually, to keep changeling race pure."
"What do you mean she chooses to do that?"
"Old queens gathered genetic material from unwitting males to reproduce with. Queen Chrysalis doesn't do that, to keep changelings pure."
"So you're all pretty much carbon copies then? That's ridiculous. Not to mention dangerous."
Mayfly cocked her head at Moondancer, "Dangerous? How so?"
"Without genetic variance, your kind could become very susceptible to illnesses. Basically, a single disease could wipe out your kind because it would be able to affect you all the same way, and spread very easily."
"Oh..." Mayfly looked at floor for a moment as they walked. "Suddenly, reasons why old queens angry at Chrysalis make much more sense. Perhaps separation from hive will protect this one in such a case."
"Y'know," Trixie said, having been listening with half an ear as they walked, "you seem a lot less upset about this than you did an hour ago. What changed?"
"Am changeling, am adaptable. Already imagining new possibilities presented by banishment from the hive. One of those may include curing the plight of the changelings if Queen continues to rule as she does. Questions for Thorax may have to wait until after that. Stupid pony still stupid for making this happen though."
"Can't argue with that," Trixie said happily.
-0-0-0-
"This was... a stupid... idea!" Twilight panted as she galloped through the sun blasted land around her, her hooves kicking up great clouds of dust. If there were any more tatzlwurms around, they'd definitely find it easy enough to locate her.
For all the things Twilight had done of late, it seemed bizarre that the greatest challenge she was taking was running flat out through the Badlands. Endurance running hadn't been high on her list of things to prepare for, yet here she was doing just that, in the worst possible place. She was sweating buckets, and her water was running dangerously low. One of the many dangerous things currently figuring in her life.
Twilight skidded to a halt as something large, hairy, and eight legged scuttled out of a hole in the ground in front of her. "Nope!" she said loudly, taking a wide berth around the arachnid. If she'd had her magic it would've been a very different story. Snakes were bad, but at least they didn't scuttle.
"Fuck! Everything!" Twilight screamed as she accelerated away from the spider, feeling slightly better as she did. Still, she could see her destination now, as best as she could through the shimmering heat. She slowed, and once again swallowed the contents of her stomach, unwilling to waste any liquids.
It was still satisfying to feel her canteen grow heavier as she reached the base of the plateau, and even more satisfying to teleport up to it, whereupon she immediately regretted not bringing her bags because she now had nothing to transport the mirror shards in. She sat and groaned loudly, and waited for the next piece of bad news.
Nothing became apparent, so she sifted through the built up dirt in the crevice she first found the mirror shard in, and found several fragments, and even a few gem stones. What she found was still well short of an entire mirror though, and suspected that the rest must have been too small to survive, and either wore down to near nothingness, or got blown away. Even so, it was a start on what was an already more desperate plan than the first two iterations.
On top of that, there was the issue of transporting what she'd found, at least until she got back to her bags. "It's fine, I can transmute a rock into a bag. No biggy. It's only altering materials at the atomic level." Twilight looked down over the edge of the plateau to the ground below, where a glint caught her eye. "Moondancer's glasses!" She levitated them up towards her, then slowed as something clung to them. It was another spider.
"Gross, gross, gross!" Twilight flicked the glasses as hard as she could, sending the spider tumbling away to land on the rocks below with an audible splat! "Where were all these spiders yesterday?" Thinking nothing of it, and rightfully so, Twilight picked up a rock, turned it into a bag, and dumped the mirror shards, gems, and Moondancer's glasses into it, then prayed that the no-magic zone didn't turn it back into a rock while she was flying.
Or running, Twilight thought as she inspected her wings again. At this point she wasn't sure she could even get them clean without actual soap, and hours to wash them in. Perhaps Mayfly could get the cocoon remnants out, if she were willing, but that still left everything else, including a lot of dirt and dust that had stuck to them. At this point it really did seem easier to strip them bare and grow new feathers. One of the upsides of being an alicorn.
"One at a time, or all at once?" Twilight mused, sorting through and separating her stiff and soiled feathers. She plucked one out, and flinched at the stinging sensation. "Ow. Perhaps it might be better to do them all at once." Twilight braced herself, grabbed all her feathers in her magic, and pulled.
-0-0-0-
Moondancer's ears twitched back and forth, trying to determine what direction what she'd just heard had come from. "Did any of you hear screaming? I swear I heard screaming."
"This one too sensed something, but is not sure what."
Trixie rolled her eyes and dismissed their concerns. "We're like the only ones around for miles and miles. Maybe you're just delirious from thirst or something."
"I don't know," said Sunset. "Last time I heard something like that, I tore a bunch of feathers out of a pegasi's wing." She blushed as they all looked at her, "What? I was a total jerk back then, I don't deny it."
-0-0-0-
"Ahh-ha-ha-hoowww! Ah-ha-ha-howww... owww... Mother fucker! Why the hell in Celestia's name did I think that was a good idea?" Twilight lay on her stomach, not really sure of when she ended up on it, and blinked the tears out of her eyes. Even as she watched, the blood dripping from her wings slowed and stopped, allowing her to gingerly wash the blood off, renewing some of the pain.
Twilight hissed through her teeth as she washed her bare wings, this time the water running red with her own blood. She was barely two days into this venture and she was already beating herself up, on top of everything else that had happened. "What's retirement age for an alicorn?" she asked out loud, getting no answer in reply. "It better be the same age as everypony else."
-0-0-0-
It was some hours before Twilight wearily trudged into the small camp that had been set-up by her friends in the canyon leading south out of the Badlands. Somepony had been kind enough to set up her sleeping bag for her to flop onto bonelessly. Almost as an afterthought she threw Moondancer's glasses towards Moondancer, managing to hook their arm into the neck of her jumper.
"Ah ound y' gla'es," Twilight mumbled into the soft, inviting padding of her sleeping bag. It was so very soft, and so very inviting, like a big, fluffy, bundle of comfort, waiting to take her into its embrace.
"Uh, thank you Twilight."
"So, is you pulling your feathers out some kind of anxiety thing?" Trixie asked as Moondancer fumbled her glasses onto her face, forcing Twilight to abandon her descent into sleepy land.
"I knew I recognised that scream!" Sunset shouted triumphantly. Then her ears wilted as she scuffed a hoof in the dirt in embarrassment. "Yeah, I just heard myself, so you don't need to tell me just how insane I sounded."
Twilight rolled her head to the side so she wasn't speaking into her bed. "Wings were too goobered up with stuff to even try flying, and I can't properly bath them. I figured it was easier to pull them out and grow nice clean ones." Twilight's spread her skinny, featherless wings, grossing the others out, but also showing them the pointy nubs of newly growing feathers. It actually made her wings look rather deadly. "A couple of days and they'll be good as new."
"So not an anxiety thing?"
"No, Trixie," Twilight sighed. "Not yet anyway." Twilight twisted her head and smiled up at Moondancer, "So, what do you think about your first couple of days adventuring with us?"
Moondancer removed her glasses and cleaned them, more out of habit than actual need as she found the motion soothing. "I think that it's a fair introduction to your lives. Honestly though, I'm really trying to not think about it."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm so freaked out about it that I'm not freaking out at all, because it's not possible to freak out that much at once."
"Oh. Well, good. Sunset?"
"Nah, I'm good. Changelings are a new one, but this is all par for the course really."
"Fair enough." Twilight searched about for their newest companion, but couldn't see her. "Where's Mayfly?"
"She said she wanted to go think about some things?" Sunset told Twilight.
"But was she okay when she said that?"
"It's hard to tell, and not only because she seems impossible to read. After a little bit she seemed excited about the new opportunities she had, so I'm erring on the side of optimism."
"Tha's good." Twilight yawned deeply, sucking in air for several seconds before forcing it back out. "Maybe she can tell me about it tomorrow, because today's already been too weird for me to want to continue it. Goodnight."
"Goodnight Twilight," said Sunset, along with the others.
"Oh, and Trixie?"
"Yeah?"
"If we get captured, or attacked, or anything before tomorrow morning, I'm holding you personally responsible, and will do my best to make sure you die first. Is that clear?"
"Oh Twilight, you say the nicest things sometimes."
-0-0-0-
Sunset hung back, chewing nervously on her bottom lip as she trotted alongside Twilight and Twilight alone. She'd silently encouraged the others to give her and Twilight a short moment of alone time, because needed to ask Twilight something. The problem is that Twilight was walking with her head level with her body, which was a sure sign that something was bothering her. Still, progress was never made by timid ponies, so, gathering her courage, Sunset pushed ahead.
"Twilight, can we talk?"
"Sure," Twilight grunted with all the enthusiasm of a dentist's patient. "What about?"
"About you, actually."
Twilight straightened up to look at Sunset, "Why do you want to talk about me?"
"Because I... firstly want to apologise for coming down so hard on you the other day about Moondancer. What you said was still wrong, but I should have thought that you aren't really the pony you used to be. But that only leads me into wondering why you aren't the pony you used to be? What happened Twilight? What happened to that happy, loving pony you used to be, that always put her friends first?"
Twilight looked sideways at Sunset, not trying to hide her scorn. "Well gee Sunset, you might as well ask why I'm such a miserable sack of shit these days?"
Sunset sighed harshly, already hating how this was going. "Well, fine, if that's the way you want to play it. Why are you such a miserable sack of shit Twilight? And don't just say 'because Mareitania.'"
"Then what do you want me to say? Is this even purely about Moondancer? Because it doesn't feel like it is."
Sunset went quiet for a moment, surprised that Twilight had caught on to her so easily. "No, it isn't. I think it's about all your friends Twilight. Don't get me wrong, I will always be thankful for what you did for me, and I will always try to be there for you in return, but I look at you now, and I don't see the person that gave me a rainbow flavoured bitch-slap, then pulled me out of the pit of my own making with promises that things could, and would get better, then giving me the best friends I could ever ask for. Instead I see a person that would kill me in a back alley somewhere to save herself the inconvenience of having to put up with my crap."
Twilight stopped in her tracks, her jaw hanging open at what Sunset had just said. "Are you kidding me? Are you actually fucking kidding me? I- Well, besides the fact that you think you can say stuff like that to me and think it's somehow okay, you couldn't be more wrong. From my current perspective, I would probably steal the crown back, leaving you to you own devices on the other side of the mirror, or set a trap to capture you if you tried to steal the crown again. Especially since Celestia would also beg me to not hurt you, not that I would have set out to do so anyway. I certainly wouldn't kill you unless you put me in a situation where I had no other choice! Also, bearing in mind that you had tried to kill me, this seems a little judgemental."
Sunset quickly back tracked on her thoughts, because Twilight was actually right, and Sunset felt like a bitch about it. "Sorry Twilight. I guess that... I don't know. You killed that tatzlwurm and barely even said a word about it, so I guess that's how I thought you treated everything you have to kill."
"To a point, it is, because dwelling on all the death would crush anypony. The thing is, if I could have scared it away, I would have, but I couldn't hurt it very much, then it went after the weakest of us, and then it ate me, so I didn't see what alternatives I really had that ended with all of us alive. If I had scared it away, I bet it would have only followed us and attacked us later, so I did what I thought I had to. I didn't actually want to kill it all."
"I see."
"Is that how you see me now? As a killer? A horrible, uncaring killer, who offered to let herself be killed so that Chrysalis would spare Mayfly?"
"No Twilight! No! I..." Sunset sighed, not seeing how to go about what she was trying to say anymore. "I'm going to be honest here Twilight. You pretty much sacrificed the world in your fight against Tirek to save your friends, and Discord, who had betrayed you. Now though, four of those same friends are trapped in prison, and you're leaving them there, and I don't understand it."
"What's there to understand? You think I don't want them back? That I don't spend hours everyday just thinking about them? That they're likely going to hate me because instead of rescuing them, I went off on a big adventure to stop the stupidly powerful alicorn preventing me from saving them? That same alicorn that's threatening everything else I love and care about? You think I'm not worried about Rainbow fighting, or Pinkie if she gets caught up in this? How about my friends from Mareitania, huh? Because I'm worried about them too, believe it or not."
"Then why do you never mention any of this?"
"Because I can barely function as a pony as it is! Do you really think I need to smother myself in all my fears and worries all the time as well? I'm already hating myself for what I did to Moondancer in the past, and more now for what I said to her yesterday, as right as I still think I am about it. Do I have to worry about losing you as well because you look at me and no longer like what you see?"
"What? No! Of course not!"
"Then what do you want me to do Sunset?" Twilight stopped and sat, wiping away the tears that had started to leak from her eyes. "If you have some way in which I can save my friends, stop Faust, protect the world, fix all of my mistakes, and maybe me with it, I would really, really love to hear it. Otherwise we're stuck in this situation where there is no right answer to any of that."
Sunset silently wrapped her legs around Twilight's neck in a hug, holding the alicorn as she silently cried. "I'm sorry Twilight, but I had no idea you thought any of this."
Twilight sniffed and wiped her nose, "It's fine."
"No, it's not fine. Far from it. The thing is I don't know what to do about it either."
"Keeping on being my friend would be nice. I really don't want to lose you as well Sunset."
"And you won't, barring some really awful, and hopefully unlikely behaviour on your part. Really though Twilight, you can't keep going like this. I'm actually starting to see what you said to Moondancer as a subconscious attempt to push her further away, to save her from your crap."
Twilight laughed weakly, "Maybe it was for all I know."
Sunset hugged Twilight a little tighter, "I'm here for you Twilight, so if you ever want to talk, or shoulder to cry on, or even a just a hug, don't hesitate to ask."
"Can you help me patch things up with Moondancer?"
Sunset made a face as she looked down the road to where Moondancer, Trixie, and Mayfly was waiting for them to start moving again. Unsurprisingly, Moondancer had her back to them. "I hate to say it, but even if it's possible, it's going to take time, and pushing it won't help."
"I know, but even if she keeps on hating me, she shouldn't let that stop her from having friends." Twilight looked at Moondancer, then Mayfly, followed by Trixie and Sunset, before closing her eyes and sighing. "Everypony needs friends Sunset."
"And don't I know it," Sunset grinned. She released Twilight and pulled her to her hooves. "I guess if we're going to do this and get your friends back, we better keep moving."
Twilight nodded, and managed a smile. "Thanks Sunset, although if you call me a killer like that again, I might have to say nasty things about you behind your back."
Sunset laughed, "Brutal Twilight, brutal." |
The end of an era | 15. Bon Bon voyage | Fleur walked intrepidly down the corridors of Canterlot castle, heading towards the one place there that she had only grown to despise further with the more time she spent there. The offices of Equis, plain and unassuming as they were, housed, in Fleur's opinion, the laziest bunch of ponies ever. She never saw them doing anything, and if she wasn't involved in some capacity, she was sure they'd never do anything at all.
She also knew that was likely wrong, and that she was just being a grumpy old nag. There was surely some rule where only those at the top knew everything. It was a stupid rule.
Still, Fleur kept her thoughts to herself as she entered the Equis offices, unless Eclipse did in fact possess mind-reading capabilities, in which case she was probably about to get fired. For thinking. Fleur sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to banish the crap crowding her head before knocking politely on the door to Muckraker's office.
"Come in."
Fleur half opened the door and stuck her head through, seeing Muckraker sat behind his desk as he always was, while Eclipse stood nearby. "You wanted to see me?"
"Quite so Fleur. Please, come in and take a seat."
Fleur did so, not sure why she felt so nervous about it. Maybe they were going to grant her deepest desire and fire her for gross incompetence.
Muckraker smiled pleasantly at Fleur, "We've been very pleased with your work so far." Muckraker paused as Fleur sank in her seat. "Fleur?"
"Sorry, but it's such a... relief to hear that," Fleur said to him, hoping nopony was picking up on the stream of curses coursing its way through her head.
"My apologies if you thought you were doing poorly," Muckraker said back. "Anyway, in light of your exemplary work, we've decided that you're the perfect pony to work on a very important mission."
Fleur quickly jerked back up in her chair, "You know I can't do fieldwork!"
Eclipse grunted at Fleur, "We are well aware your injuries sustained in Mareitania prevent you from fieldwork, and frankly your... below average magic capability would remove you from that possibility anyway. We have something else in mind, for which we think you would be highly suited."
"It didn't last time..." Fleur mumbled darkly.
"Indeed," said Muckraker, not hearing what Fleur said. "What we will be asking you to do will be little more than an extension of your current duties. Tell me Fleur, have you ever heard of Smile?"
"Only in that it's something I try to do as often as I can," Fleur said, still smarting from the below average magic comment. Judging by the expression Eclipse now wore, it was definitely not the right answer.
"And so you should," Muckraker said with a smile of his own. "And don't be surprised you haven't heard of it. Smile, S.M.I.L.E, or the Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria, to give it its full name, was an agency that gathered information on, and combatted the various nasties that exist both inside, and outside Equestria. Changelings, bugbears, hydras, you name it, they fought it."
"Dragons?"
"Even dragons, except usually it was only the juvenile ones they dealt with. Full grown ones tend to be beyond the average group of ponies, no matter how well trained and equipped they might be. Anyway, the group was disbanded after a botched mission involving a bugbear resulted in a half dozen civilian deaths, as well as almost blowing the cover on their existence."
Fleur raised an eyebrow, her interest caught. "Is that why monster attacks seem to happen more in the rural areas now?"
"Quite so," said Muckraker. "I also suspect that the changeling invasion of Canterlot might have gone very differently had they still been in operation. However, Celestia wanted complete deniability, so after their botched mission Smile was disbanded and its members sent to live as civilians."
"Okaaay..." Fleur drew the word out because she really couldn't see where this was going, or why it might involve her. "Unless we're about to go monster hunting, I don't see how this is relevant."
"Oh no," Muckraker said with an amused chuckle, "we deal with nations and their inhabitants, which are monsters of an altogether different kind. No, the point I am trying to make Fleur, is that after much begging, wheedling, and cajoling, I have been granted access to some of Smiles' former agents, to aid our own activities."
"If it's such a big secret, how did you know about Smile?"
"It's our job to know such things," Eclipse said curtly. "Just as it's now your job to keep what you know of Smile to yourself." Eclipse left her usual spot, and knocked on a door that led to a side room. A moment later four ponies entered, three mares and a stallion, all but one of them an earth pony, while the other was a unicorn.
Muckraker smiled at the newcomers, who didn't smile back. "Fleur, I want you to meet Rocky Road, Creme Brulee, Tootsie Roll, and their leader, Sweetie Drops-"
"Also known as Bon Bon," Fleur deadpanned.
Bon Bon froze, "You know who I am?"
"You live in Ponyville. You make sweets for a living."
"Um..."
"You know agent Sweetie Drops?" Eclipse asked, for once looking surprised, much to Fleur's secret delight.
"No, I know Bon Bon, sort of. I've been to Ponyville to visit Twilight enough times to pick up a few things. The monster hunter Sweetie Drops thing is a total surprise though."
"Keep it to yourself then," said Muckraker.
"Why do they all have cake and sweet based names? Do bakers have special skills perfectly suited to monster hunting?"
"Well we certainly know how to give something a good beating," Rocky Road, the big brown earth pony stallion said with a good natured chuckle.
Fleur stared at him blankly for a while, her brain failing to come up with an adequate response. "Okay, I'm going to cut to the chase here. Why do you need them, and why does it involve me?"
Muckraker gestured at the four newcomers, "These former agents are highly trained, and highly skilled spies, assassins, warriors, and-"
"Bakers?"
Muckraker coughed with embarrassment, "Yes, that too. They've also agreed to work with Equis on a very special operation. We hope to insert them into Mareitania to carry out various acts of sabotage, and whatever else, that can't be handled by the Wonderbolts or the Night Guard. Due to your experience with Mareitania from when you lived there, and during the uprising, we want you to be their handler."
"Their what?"
"Handler," said Bon Bon. "Basically, you're in charge of us. You give us the missions, tell us the best plans, and other similar stuff. Handler."
"And how does that work when they're in Mareitania, and I'm here?"
"That's all been taken care of," said Muckraker. "For now, all we need you to do is prepare them as best you can for life in Mareitania, and also to think about the best angle of insertion into the country. Nothing too complex for now at all. We expect to hear back from you at the end of the day with your plans. Dismissed."
"But-"
"Dismissed," Eclipse reiterated, nowhere near as pleasantly as Muckraker had.
Fleur sighed and stood before leaving without protest. The four agents filed out after her, none of them saying a word until several minutes later when Bon Bon noisily cleared her throat just to get Fleur's attention. "Ma'am?"
"It's Fleur. Not ma'am. Fleur."
"In that case, could I request that you continue to call me Bon Bon?"
"Sure, whatever. Rolls off the tongue easier anyway." Fleur glared at the four ponies before her, not sure what to make of them. Bakers turned secret agents, turned back to bakers, before once again becoming secret agents. Some ponies clearly had death wishes. "So what do you want to know?"
"What do you mean?" asked Tootsie Roll, the other earth pony mare in the group. She was a pale blue with a shock of cherry red hair for her mane and tail.
"Well that's just it," said Fleur. "How am I supposed to prepare you for life in Mareitania? Am I supposed to go on about how much of a shit hole it is?" Fleur pointed at Creme Brulee, the unicorn in the group. She was a rich cream colour, with a caramel coloured mane and tail that grew darker towards the tips. "Do you want to know how badly unicorns used to get treated there?"
"I already read ze briefing," Creme said in a thick prench accent. "I already know 'ow badly ze unicorns were treated, and ze pegasi. What I don't know is 'ow it was to be one of zose unicorns or pegasi."
Fleur stared deadpan at Creme, "You're kidding right?"
"It would 'elp my character greatly to know zese things."
"No, I mean you're kidding about that hammy prench accent right? Sorry, I mean 'fancee' accent," Fleur said with air quotes. "Literally nopony in Mareitania talks like that, at all, in the slightest."
"But I was told that fancee was the same as prench, and that prench was a language used in Mareitania," Creme said, suddenly sounding normal again. "Was that wrong?"
"No, you're right about that," said Fleur. "What you're wrong about is the silly accent, and the fact that prench isn't that widely spoken, even in the city of Prance where it originated. And those few that do speak it also speak basic Equestrian, so by speaking it, and by 'zounding like zis,' you're just drawing attention to yourself."
"But you used to speak like that," Tootsie Roll pointed out.
"Yeah, and it did wonders for my modelling career, sounding all exotic. If anypony had heard me speaking like that in Mareitania though, they probably would have thought I had a speech impediment, and maybe brain damage." Fleur jabbed a hoof at Creme, "It isn't going to work, so don't do it."
"See, it's things like this that we need to know," said Bon Bon. "It's because of this that you were selected to be our handler. The more you can tell us about Mareitania, the higher our chances of success."
"Alright," Fleur nodded, seeing what she had to do, and how much effort it would take. "Then let me first say that Mareitania is a shit hole."
"You already said that," said Rocky.
"And I cannot emphasise it enough. Sure things have probably improved since the uprising, but from the way they're planning to attack us, it's not too hard to imagine that things are still pretty fucking shitty."
-0-0-0-
It had been a long few hours, trying to tell them how to simply fit in in Mareitania. They almost knew more about the military aspects of the country than Fleur did, so clearly they had read the briefing thoroughly, but didn't realise something so simple as a unicorn that badmouths an earth pony in the wrong company could easily find themselves dead in a gutter, with their horn acting as a plug of sorts.
"It couldn't really be that bad, could it?" Rocky had asked in surprise after hearing that.
"Oh no, that's just if the ponies you said it to took matters into their own hooves. The fact is, under the Dukes' laws, the unicorn would still be punished if they were reported. I know the laws are different now, but sadly the ponies aren't. Badmouth the wrong earth pony, Creme, and you'll find out just how bad some places treated their unicorns, regardless of how illegal their actions are now."
Creme swallowed nervously, "So how should I act to avoid such things?"
Fleur rotated a hoof idly as she thought, "Honestly, just be quiet, and if you can, act slightly submissive to everypony, like you haven't gotten used to the new ways without the Duke. Even to your friends here if you really want to sell it. Basically, be a sad little doormat, and disappear into the background."
Rocky slammed a hoof on the table they were gathered around, "You can't seriously expect her to act like that?"
"It won't matter so much down south around Neigh Orleans," Fleur said with a shrug. "Up north though, around Stalliongrad especially, she really will need to be careful. Back before the uprising, a unicorn could find themselves short of a horn just for looking at an earth pony in any way, let alone the wrong way. I doubt attitudes have changed up there that much since the war ended."
"Sounds like a real fun place to go," Bon Bon sighed.
"You have no idea." Fleur steepled her hooves and looked over them at the others. She knew there was no real way to prepare them for life in Mareitania, other than hope that they react to things in ways that won't draw attention to themselves. That, or hope Mareitania had gone through a social revolution in the last six months, where all ponies were actually treated as equals. It sounded laughable, but a pony could dream.
Moving on from that though, there were still other matters to which she felt she should give some thought, such as how to get them into the country. This was all a bit of a moot point if they couldn't even do that.
"So moving on from the societal nightmare that is Mareitania, have any of you put any ideas into how to infiltrate the country?"
"We were told you would be the best pony to ask about that," said Tootsie. "They pretty much told us to ask you about everything."
"Seriously? An entire intelligence unit to use, and I never see any of them, and they never seem to do anything."
"Actually," Bon Bon said, giving Fleur a sympathetic smile, "I bet most of them are busy on counter-intelligence, especially after the Shades managed to infiltrate Equestria, and leave again, undetected, along with three of the Bearers of Harmony. Who knows how active they really are in our country? Honestly, for the lack of an actual conflict happening at the moment, I bet there's one being fought in the shadows."
Fleur stared stupidly at Bon Bon. What she'd just said made an awful lot of sense, but that was no excuse for making Fleur think of these plans. She was a liaison, a giver of briefings, not a plan maker. Still, it wasn't like she didn't know how to do these things after having run the Shades herself at one point. Maybe, she thought, she should quit bitching and get on with it.
"Alright, so walking in, or taking the train are both out of the question. Equestrian ships are no longer travelling to the country, so our options are down to two as I can see it. Flying in, or swimming."
"I think I prefer the idea of flying," said Creme. "Swimming sounds like a lot of effort."
"That depends on whether we can get the resources together to do a pegasus airdrop," Rocky said thoughtfully. "That's also a long way to have pegasi fly with a chariot."
"It's a long way to swim too."
Fleur rolled her eyes, "I was wasn't going to make you swim all the way Creme. I was thinking a small airship could get close enough to drop a dinghy off, allowing you to get close enough to swim in underwater."
"Why underwater?" Tootsie asked.
"Because there's a giant wall on both sides of the river from back when access was blocked to Mareitania, and if I were the kind of pony to think of Mareitania's defence, I would definitely have that well watched. All the same, I think we should definitely go with flying you in first. I'll run it through with Muckraker, and see what he says."
-0-0-0-
"He didn't go for it," Fleur said as she re-entered the room after her short conversation with her boss. "Something about minimising air traffic over Mareitania, apart from military operations. Unfortunately we can't exactly wait for the next one of those, so we're going with plan b."
"Totally saw this coming," whined Creme.
Bon Bon looked sideways at Creme, then back to Fleur. "Not that I'm terribly against plan b, like some, but is it really the best way?"
"Maybe, maybe not," Fleur shrugged. "The fact is that it can get you into Mareitania a lot faster than hoofing it."
"So could flying," Creme grumbled.
Tootsie elbowed Creme on the side, "Seriously, shut up," she said before smiling at Fleur. "Is there really no other way though?"
"None fast enough. At any rate, Muckraker's already making the arrangements, so we're going with it. All that leaves is giving you a few other preparations."
"Such as?" asked Rocky.
"Such as the mind control magic that is pervading quite large portions of the country. If you're going there, we'll need to make you immune to it, and that's a little bit tricky."
"Why?"
Fleur pulled a face, "There's a counter-spell for the mind control, buuuutttt... we don't know how long it lasts. It could be permanent, it could only last a week. At the moment, only pegasi on scouting missions are entering Mareitania, and they only go for a few days at most, and are counter-spelled every time. You don't get that option."
Bon Bon nodded her head towards the unicorn in the group, "Couldn't you teach the spell to Creme?"
"We could, but there's always the risk of her being killed, or captured, or compromised by the very spell she's supposed to counter. In that situation, which is already less than ideal, you could end up getting screwed alongside her. I'm afraid we can't count on Creme. Instead we can enchant a small gem with the spell instead, which leads to a mix of good and bad news."
Tootsie grinned hopefully, "What's the good news?"
Fleur grinned back, but far less genuinely, "The good news is that it works."
Tootsie nodded slowly, "Okay, I assumed that already, but yeah, okay. What's the bad news?"
"Well, originally they planned to place the gems into jewellery, but then they thought that not all ponies wear jewellery, and that jewellery can be lost, or broken, or in the event of capture, taken off you. So they devised a new method where they... implant the gem under your skin somewhere it won't be noticed."
All of them leaned back and groaned. "I want to have a word with 'they,' whoever 'they' are," growled Rocky. "I think 'they' could benefit from some education along the lines of not putting things into ponies."
"It's only like the size of a pea," Fleur said, not that she disagreed. "You won't even know it's there. I'm also to tell you that you don't get a choice, and that they need to do it now if you're to leave in time. Sorry."
-0-0-0-
"I should have told Lyra where I was going," Bon Bon sighed, idly rubbing the small lump on her chest where the implanted gem was, near the inside of her leg where hopefully her leg would hide it. "I hate to think of her sitting at home wondering where I am."
"Lyra," Rocky said thoughtfully. "That's your... marefriend, right?"
Bon Bon lashed out with a hoof, punching Rocky in the stomach, totally winding him so he collapsed to the deck of the airship. "That's best friend, asshole."
"Hwee... got it," Rocky gasped. "Touchy -hwee- cow."
"I see you haven't lost your touch," Creme giggled as she leant against the guardrail around the airship, the light of the moon painting her coat in pale greys. "Rocky always did love your tender caresses."
"And what about your touch?" Bon Bon said back. "Can you still tie a knot in a cherry stalk with your tongue?"
"Even better. I can tie a knot in a cherry stalk... with my hooves." Creme blushed as the others stared blankly at her, "What? It's a big deal for a unicorn, alright? Fuck off."
"I see you've gotten swearing like true Mareitanians down," Fleur said as she trotted up to them. "I've just talked to the helmspony, and he says we're only a few minutes from your drop off point."
"But you haven't even told us our mission yet?" Bon Bon said to Fleur.
"You'll get your missions as and when I have them to give to you. As it is, you do have a mission, but it's fairly simple. Primarily, try to fit in without getting caught, which hopefully is as easy as it sounds. Once you've done that we want you to get a read on the ponies of Mareitania. We can fly over the country and track their military actions as much as we want, but none of that tells us what the average Mareitanian thinks of the possibility of war. We want you to tell us if they're in favour of it, or against it. Apart from that, keep your ears open."
"Sounds simple enough," Bon Bon agreed. "Are we to just focus on Neigh Orleans?"
Fleur nodded, "For now at least. Once we have more information, we'll start expanding your field of operation. With the new rail system they've set up, travelling around the country as you need to should be simple enough. Of course, if you have anything for me, get Creme to use the speaker stone. I'll keep the other one on me at all times. And try to only use your short range ones when you really need to. Otherwise, keep them hidden."
"What about supplies?" asked Tootsie.
"You have money to buy food with, so that's fine. Anything else you'll have to beg, borrow, and steal if possible. If not, get in touch, and we'll see if we can't have a pegasus airdrop arranged for you."
The airship shook as the gondola dipped into the ocean. Thankfully the design of these things, where somepony had put serious thought into making a boat fly by tying a giant balloon to it, almost meant the gondola could float, which would at least be handy if it crashed at sea. Once it was steady, a couple of crew members lowered an inflatable dinghy into the ocean, and dropped a rope ladder to it.
Fleur smiled at the poor ponies that were being sent to the one place that no Equestrian would want to go. Even she felt too close for her own comfort. "Right, this is it," she said as Creme lowered the large bag containing their gear into the dinghy. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you what to do from here, so take care, and good luck. I'll be in touch soon."
Fleur kept watching as they all climbed into the dinghy, and started to row towards the distant shore, barely visible in the moonlight. "They are so fucked."
-0-0-0-
"We are so fucked," Rocky said as he rowed, letting him look back towards the airship as it lifted out of the water and turned back for Equestria. "Why the hell did we agree to this? Apart from the huge pile of steaming horse-apples this already is, our handler is greener than grass."
"Did you even read what the briefing said about Fleur?" Tootsie asked, giving Rocky a cold stare. "She ran the Shades at one point, got horribly tortured at another, and still kept going. Frankly, I wish she was coming with us."
"You would, wouldn't you? I admit having a pony that easy on the eyes would do wonders for my morale, but not if she ends up being a dead weight with that scarred up leg of hers. Princess Twilight on the other hoof, she sounds like a mare that could get things done."
"She sounds like a mare that would get us caught within days," said Creme. "She's probably one of the most recognizable mares in Mareitania at the moment, along with Fleur, and the others that went."
"Will you all shut up?" Bon Bon said, directing a sharp glare at off of them. "It's just us, and we need to focus on doing our job."
There was a short moment of silence, broken by Rocky. "How much focus do you think I need to row us to the shore? I'm telling you, it's not much."
"There were times after Smile was disbanded that I missed you," Bon Bon said sternly to Rocky. "I can't for the life of me remember why."
Rocky grinned dashingly at Bon Bon, "Was it my good looks, or my stunning personality?"
"It certainly wasn't your ability to lie." Bon Bon smiled as Rocky dropped his grin. "In all honesty though, if I were to find myself on a secret mission in a hostile nation, then I'm glad it's with you guys."
"Hear hear," Creme cheered.
Bon Bon turned to face in the direction the were travelling, and found that they weren't too far off the coast. Technically it was part of Mareitania, so they could have legitimately said they'd made it into the country, but since there was nothing on the coast it would be a pretty hollow victory.
She was still thinking about that and other things when the dinghy slipped up onto the sand of the coast. Bon Bon jumped out and grabbed the short loop of rope on the front, dragging it up onto the beach, which got considerably easier once the others jumped out. She kept dragging it until she met the narrow band of solid land that lay between the sandy beach and the mountains that apparently sounded most of the country.
"Creme, keep an eye out, and Rocky, deflate the dinghy and hide it in case we need it," Bon Bon ordered as Tootsie hoisted the bag containing their gear out of the dinghy. "And try to remember where you leave it this time Rocky."
"That was one time," Rocky grumbled quietly. "Just one measly time. There's a big rock over there," he said, pointing along the beach to where a large rock sat at the end of a furrow. "Take a good look, and remember where it is yourself."
"Fine... Tootsie?"
Tootsie opened the bag and pulled out four small air canisters connected to mouthpieces. She checked them and nodded at Bon Bon, "Scuba gear ready to go Chief. Everything else is accounted for as well."
"Good." They waited a few minutes while Rocky deflated and rolled up the dinghy, placing it into a plastic bag to bury it behind the boulder. Once he was done, they moved out in a steady canter towards where the river Mareissippi met the ocean, and their way into Mareitania.
As much as Bon Bon wanted to deny it, and wanted to hate herself for it; as much as she enjoyed her life in Ponyville, and loved her best friend, it was stale, stagnant, and boring. She was banned from involving herself in the vast majority of things that happened to Ponyville, which was a lot of potentially interesting stuff. The truth was, that right now was the most alive she'd felt in months, if not years. She silently apologised to Lyra.
Sand flicked into the air off hooves as the four ponies galloped up the beach towards the river outlet, the only sound being the breaths they drew as they pushed themselves along. It didn't take too long to reach the outlet, and eventually the one end of the wall. As Fleur had predicted, the wall was guarded, with spotlights set up to shine over the river. What she hadn't predicted was the rope gate stretching across the river to the wall on the far side, blocking ships from going in or out.
"They're really taking this a bit too seriously," Creme whispered as they hid out of reach of the spotlights. "Equestria doesn't even have a fleet to sail up here. I mean, I understand being cautious and all, but sheesh."
Bon Bon held a hoof up to her lips to shush Creme. Her main concern was how far up the river these defences reached. Had they turned Neigh Orleans into a fortress to protect against an incursion from the river? Was the place actually teeming with soldiers? Even if it was, she supposed it didn't change anything.
Bon Bon gestured for Rocky to crouch down so she could get into the bag on his back. She pulled out their breathing apparatus and tossed one to each of her team, along with a pair of goggles, before sealing the bag back up. "These things should be good for at least twenty minutes," she said as she slipped her goggles around her head. "We'll stick to the shallows as best we can, but we will need to be underwater to avoid detection, which means keeping breathing to a minimum around the wall. Once we're past the wall, we'll stay submerged for five minutes before taking a look around. Now follow my lead."
Bon Bon kept low as she moved quickly and quietly towards the waters edge. She paused briefly as she stepped over a scattering of charred wood, then grinned around her mouthpiece as she realised they must have drifted down river from when the Mareitanians fleet was destroyed. Still, she had no time to dwell on it, so she kept going, slipping quietly into the water and trying not to make a sound from the shock the cold water gave her.
She kept her head above water until the rest of her team was in, then gave them a nod before dropping below the surface. Thankfully the spotlights shining on the river provided a small bit of light to see by, but it was only a little. Navigation was mostly done by feeling her way along, and hoping that the others followed her through the murky darkness. She knew they were on course when the dark silhouette of the wall appeared out of the dark, and she kept a hoof on it as she went around it.
Bon Bon's lungs started to burn from the lack of oxygen, so she risked taking a small breath, releasing a stream of bubbles that rushed up to the surface where they hopefully wouldn't alert the guards. With the water deadening every sound from the surface, she wouldn't know if they'd been detected until they surfaced again, which was why she wanted to be well past the wall when they did.
One of the lesser known tendencies of bakers, and especially fate-bound ponies with baking cutie marks, is time keeping. Leave something in the oven too long, it burns, or not long enough and you risk making ponies ill. So when five minutes had passed, they all pretty much felt it in their guts, and surfaced at around the same time, walking up the river bank enough so that they could at least keep their rear hooves on the ground, and their heads above water.
"I think we're clear," said Tootsie, turning on the spot to see all around them. There didn't appear to be any extra activity coming from by the wall, so hopefully that meant they'd made it into the country totally undetected.
Bon Bon took the air canister in her hoof, and spat the taste of rank river water out of her mouth. "Ugh, nasty," she spluttered, sliding her goggles up over her eyes, and holding her sodden mane out of her sight. As Tootsie had said, the wall was still quiet, so Bon Bon turned her attention up river, towards the not too distant glow of civilization. "That must be Neigh Orleans, so we should near the bayou."
"You mean that big swampy tree thing over there," Creme said sarcastically, splashing water to her left. "How'd you miss that."
"I didn't, and shush. We'll head into the bayou and find somewhere to stop for a few hours to dry off and rest until daylight. I'm pretty sure turning up in Neigh Orleans at this hour, soaking wet when it isn't raining, is going to look a bit odd."
-0-0-0-
Bon Bon whined under her breath as somepony nudged her into wakefulness. It had barely felt like ten minutes since they'd climbed into one of the larger trees in the bayou, removed the snakes, and managed to finally get her eyes shut. It must have happened though, because the sun was up, and the swamp was almost humming with the sound of everything that lived in it. Including things that liked to bite.
Bon Bon slapped a hoof on her side as something tried to make a meal of her. She missed, and overbalanced, getting a sudden reminder that they were in a tree, and quite far from the ground as she started to slide off her branch. Only the quick intervention of Rocky saved her from having to murder the collection of alligators that had gathered below.
"Careful there Chief," Rocky chuckled cheerfully as he pulled Bon Bon back onto her branch. "I'm not sure how we could explain you falling to your death on the first day."
"We'll just tell 'em it was your fault Rocky," Tootsie said, grinning at the stallion. "It used to work all the time back in Smile. Anyway, I would say the coffee's hot Bon Bon, but we have no coffee, and nothing to heat it with, sooo... yeah. I think that the sooner we get into Neigh Orleans the better."
"Sounds good." Bon Bon looked around blearily as she noticed something was missing, "Where's Creme?"
"Out scouting a path to the unimaginatively named Swamptown," Rocky told her. "I mean, it's a town, in a swamp, so yes I understand calling it Swamptown, but they could have used a little imagination."
"And what would you suggest?" Tootsie asked Rocky as she made the final preparations of their gear. Most of it was for the insertion and had passed its used. The rest could be broken down into their components, meaning that it would pass mostly unnoticed. Hopefully.
"I dunno, just... something else. What do you think Bon Bon?"
Bon Bon rubbed her eyes and stretched languidly, "You're asking the mare that lives in Ponyville? Besides, I thought if a place wasn't named with a pony pun, it wasn't allowed to be put on the map."
"Oh har-har," Rocky said slowly. "You know that's an urban legend."
"Really?" Bon Bon said back brightly. "Show me where Rockton is on a map then."
"Rockton? There's a place called Rockton?"
Bon Bon winked at Rocky and grinned playfully, "Exactly."
"You're fucking with me, right? She is fucking with me isn't she Tootsie?"
"Rockton is indeed on the map," Tootsie informed him. "It's a small village to the south east of Canterlot, and was built up around the train station that was built there to serve the rock farming community."
"Ah yes, rock farming," Rocky said sagely. "Remind me again why that's a thing?"
"I would, but I don't have all day, and I can see Creme coming back meaning we'll be moving soon."
The tree shook as Creme jumped onto the branches, and a moment later she dropped down into the hollow in the branches where they'd holed up. "Morning Chief," Creme said cheerfully to Bon Bon.
"Morning Creme. Find anything good?"
"Yes and no. There isn't a decent path through the trees from here directly to Swamptown, but there's sort of a path to a place not too far that has it's own walkways leading to Swamptown, so our best bet is to head there. It's a tree house surrounded by hundreds of colourful glass bottles, so it's pretty easy to spot. We might have to swing across some gaps though."
"Good enough," said Bon Bon. "No point hanging around here, so let's pack it up and get moving. Tootsie?"
Tootsie zipped up the large bag they had with them, leaving only their scuba gear in it. Everything else had been disassembled and packed into a quartet of saddlebags. "All good here Chief. Just need to hide this in case we need it later."
"Just secure them to a branch up here and leave them. I doubt many ponies come up here since we had to use a grapple to do it." Bon Bon slid her saddlebags over her head and secured them as Tootsie secured the stuff they were leaving. Once she was done Bon Bon turned to Creme, "Lead the way."
Creme jumped up out of the hollow and onto a wide branch that pointed deeper in the bayou. When that soon ran out she jumped to another, agilely leaping from branch to branch with all the surety of a pony that had been born to do such things. She wasn't of course, hailing from Canterlot, but at the moment she really looked like it. Bon Bon followed after her, equally adept at what they were doing, while behind them Tootsie and Rocky took a little longer as both of them definitely preferred being on solid ground.
Progress was still swift though, and with the added bonus of none of them falling off, they soon made it near their destination. "There's the treehouse with all the glass bottles over there," Creme said, pointing through the trees at the shining mass of glass bottles that lit up the area around it like a colourful disco ball. "We'll need to swing across to the next tree, then across again to the walkways leading to Swamptown. Simple."
"Yeah, simple," Bon Bon said flatly as she pulled a small grapple on a thin rope out of her bags. She swung it around a few times and let it fly upwards, where it found purchase on a branch in the canopy above. A couple of tugs confirmed that it was solid, and she swung across, making it to the other side with ease. She waited a moment, then a pale glow took hold of the rope and pulled it back to where the others were waiting.
While the others swung across, Bon Bon made her way along the branches to have a look at the treehouse, wondering just why exactly somepony would live this far apart from anything, and why they would surround their house with hundreds of colourful bottles? It didn't seem to serve any purpose she could think of.
She was still trying to figure it out when the grapple and rope was held up in front of her in Creme's magic. Bon nodded and took hold of it to throw it again, landing it in the branches not far from the house. She took the lead again, and swung across, gripping tightly until her hooves thudded down onto the moss covered planks of the rope bridge. She swung the rope back, and waited.
"Interestin' way t' travel."
"Ah!" Bon Bon turned to face the source of the voice, finding a wizened unicorn mare sat in a rocking chair at the treehouse, gently rocking back and forth as she looked directly at Bon Bon with eyes that were clearly blind. "Give me a heart attack why don't you?"
"Heh, not my intention girl, but it's not everyday that you see somepony swing onto your porch from the trees. If anything, it should be you giving me a heart attack like that."
"Uh-huh." Bon Bon braced herself as Tootsie swung over, and caught her before Tootsie swung too far.
"And now you're bringing frien's?"
"That's right," Bon Bon replied idly as she swung the rope back.
"Who's this?" Tootsie asked.
"No idea."
"The name's Mama Brew, though you can just call me Mama," the elderly unicorn replied to Tootsie's question. "And who might you two-" Mama raised an eyebrow as Creme landed on the walkway. "Make that three. Who are you three?"
"Just passing through," Bon Bon said before Tootsie could reply.
Mama chuckled darkly, "Funny sounding name that. Are ya all called that?"
"That's right," Bon Bon said with a grunt as Rocky swung into her hooves.
"I get the feelin' you're being disingenuous with me. There ain't no need to be so hostile."
"You're right, there isn't." Bon Bon waited for Creme to pull the grapple out of the tree and coil it up. She shoved it into her bags, and gestured for the others to start moving. "Nice meeting you Mama."
"Uh-huh, you young-uns always in such a rush." Mama shrugged to herself, "Good luck with your mission."
Bon Bon froze, then shook her head ruefully. "Nope, I'm not getting sucked in. Let's go guys."
-0-0-0-
Swamptown. It wasn't much of a name to live up to, yet somehow it did it perfectly. It was not only a town in a swamp, but also a town that was swampy. If anything, it surpassed what it's name would have you expect. It was damp, mossy, and more than a little odorous, along with its inhabitants. Inhabitants that had a questionable taste in what was and was not edible. Frankly, Bon Bon and the others hated it, and so wasted no time in finding transport to Neigh Orleans with a mare that managed to hold at least three conversations with herself at the same time as she pushed her boat along.
"Well that was an experience," Tootsie said, shaking her legs out after sitting in the small boat for as long as they did. "What now Chief?"
"I'm not exactly sure," Bon Bon admitted. They'd been told to discover the general populations opinion on the possible war, but short of sitting in a bar somewhere and hoping somepony talked about it near enough for them to hear, she wasn't sure how to go about that. Or why it really mattered really. "Let's just go for a wander and see what turns up."
Picking a direction, Bon Bon started walking, the others falling into step with her as they started their winding journey around the city. She wasn't sure why, since the two places were very different, but the mixed wood and stone building, and the general feel of the city, reminded Bon Bon of Trottingham, although the ponies living in the two places couldn't have been more different.
Still, as places went it wasn't too bad. Many of the buildings showed signs of recently done work, which she suspected had been part of the Mareitanian Republics project to revitalise the parts of the country that the Duke's regime had deemed unworthy. There was also a friendly vibe to the city that they hadn't been told to expect, with music being played all over the place. Ponies exchanged friendly greetings, nopony yelled at somepony else for having a horn, and it certainly didn't feel like a city gearing up for war.
"Hey, look at that," Creme said suddenly, pointing to the right towards a large open area with a monument at it's middle that stretched on for several meters. "That must be the city centre, where Princess Twilight started the uprising. Let's go have a look."
Not having any reason to say otherwise, Bon Bon agreed, and they followed after Creme into the square. The pedestal that had once held the statue of Duke Ironhoof, the founder of the Duchy of Mareitania, was still empty. It's plaque still held the description it once had, saying who the statue was of, but without the statue itself it seemed silly to leave it as it was. It could be supposed that finding a replacement wasn't exactly a high priority, especially with all spare funds the country had likely being funnelled into preparing for the upcoming war.
The statue wasn't the point though. Behind the statue was a black stone wall, with hundreds of names carved into it, the names of all those from Neigh Orleans that fell in the war to free their country from the Duke. It might have felt more poignant if that country hadn't decided six months later that Equestria was their enemy. At least the Duke confined himself to his country, content to rule it and it alone, even if he was tyrannical despot.
Bon Bon shook that thought away as her eyes skimmed over the names. Princess Twilight had no idea what lay hidden beneath High Rock Keep when she started her mission here, and couldn't have stopped it once she did know, not that stopping a civil war like that would be so simple. If she had abandoned the war, and the war continued to the conclusion it had anyway, they'd probably like Equestria even less than they did now.
"Guys," Rocky said slowly as he drifted away from the memorial to the sides of the square. Sides that were plastered with posters. Anti-Equestrian posters. "I think I found that thing we were looking for."
Bon Bon didn't reply as her eyes took in the sight before her. Dozens of different posters, spread out over the walls where there was room, and sometimes overlapping where there wasn't. She stopped at one of them, depicting Celestia and Luna as dark and evil, with Luna looking rather reminiscent of Nightmare Moon. Both of them reared up, laughing over the caged form of a beaten and broken Faust, while below it said 'Don't let them cage our Lady again.'
"Well shit," Bon Bon muttered as she moved onto the next poster where Celestia and Luna were the same dark figures, holding depictions of the sun and moon in their hooves, while behind them Faust reached out, her eyes running with tears. "Take back what the usurpers took from us," Bon Bon said quietly, reading the words on the poster. "This can't be good."
"The Lady protects us," said Tootsie, looking at another poster depicting a beatified Faust surrounded in golden light, "shouldn't we protect her too?" Tootsie took a step back in disgust, "This is just playing into what that magic is trying to do to the ponies here. Love the Lady, protect the Lady."
"These ponies definitely have a strong propaganda game," said Rocky. "Depicting Celestia and Luna as the monsters that imprisoned their precious Lady is a nice touch."
Creme shook her head at what Rocky said, "Perhaps, but what's missing from those posters? What's not there?" Creme waited a few seconds for them to make a guess, but none were made, so she told them. "Where's Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence in all this? I could understand them not really knowing about Princess Cadence, but doesn't it strike you as odd that Princess Twilight isn't shown as evil here? Ponies here must still regard her to be the hero that freed them."
"No, she's depicted alright," Tootsie said as Creme stopped talking. She pointed to a poster with Twilight in chains. Chains held by a cackling Celestia. "Your hero is the usurpers slave. Fight today to end her torment," Tootsie read from the poster before sighing deeply. "I guess using Mareitania's liberator as a victim here is just the icing on the cake."
"But I thought the dossier on Faust said she hated Twilight as much as she did Celestia and Luna?" Rocky said, his words hestitant with confusion. "Why would they depict her this way?"
"To get ponies to fight," Bon Bon told him. "Nothing more. I imagine Twilight's fate will be just the same as Celestia's and Luna's if Mareitania wins. Cadence is the only outlier here because we simply have no idea what Faust thinks of her. The fact that she's not shown here once says a lot." Bon Bon scanned along the wall, seeing plenty of other posters besides the ones they'd seen already, but they all showed things along the same lines where Equestria and Celestia and Luna were bad. Then there was some graffiti saying 'They were right about pegasuses.' She could only assume that the poorly spelled graffiti was in response to the recent attack on Whiplash and its ship building facilities.
"Hey there," a voice said cheerfully behind them, making them jump. It was as much as Bon Bon could do to not turn around and clock the stallion that had spoken. "Oops, sorry, didn't mean to scare you."
Bon Bon glared at the cheerful white stallion that had disturbed them, "Can we help you?" she asked, silently observing the small symbol of the Lady that he wore around his neck.
"Actually, I was thinking we could all help each other. I couldn't help but notice you looking at all the posters we have around here. Tell me, how do they make you feel?"
Bon Bon cast an eye back at the posters, then mentally smirked. "Pretty angry I guess. These can't really be true, can they?"
"Oh but they are," the stallion said sadly. "It's true that those vile 'princesses' stole the sun and moon from our beloved Lady, and it's true that they cast her deep beneath the earth, trapping her for over a thousand years."
"And what of that one?" Tootsie asked, pointing a hoof back at the poster showing Twilight in chains.
"That one is the most tragic of all. The revelation that Twilight Sparkle, the beloved leader of the ponies that cast the Duke down, and the envoy of the Lady herself, was in fact a slave of the vile rulers of Equestria, shook us all to our very cores. Should we not fight to correct the wrongs committed against her as much as the ones made against our Lady?"
"I'm pretty sure she couldn't have been wearing chains during the uprising," said Creme.
"Not all chains are worn on the body," the stallion said sagely. "Some are worn in the mind, and are perhaps even more insidious for it."
"Please, we have a lot to do today," Bon Bon told the stallion, trying to sound impatient. "Could you please tell me what this is about?"
"Certainly. As you can tell from these posters, our great country is in danger. The usurpers Celestia and Luna have learnt of the Lady's escape from the imprisonment they placed her is, and they are not pleased. They attacked us in our own country not even a week ago! They fear that our Lady is free, and they would attack us for doing what is only right."
"And what is that?"
"To elevate the Lady as the one true and just ruler of both our nations. To cast them down as they cast her down long ago. To free Twilight Sparkle from her enslavement and place her back to her rightful place at the right hoof of the Lady. Mostly though, we fight for the survival of our very way of life."
"By attacking Equestria?" Rocky said sceptically. "I'm pretty sure that they'd leave us alone if we left them alone."
"Not true," said the stallion. "Even now they build their army in preparation for their war against us. To quash us and cast our Lady back into darkness, and take her country for their own."
"Then why order their slave to defeat the Duke?"
"To weaken us, by having us fight ourselves until we cannot fight them."
Creme snorted a laugh, "Even though Mareitania is stronger now than it ever was? This is ridiculous."
Creme froze as the stallion narrowed his eyes at her, "You sympathise with the Equestrians then? You think we are in the wrong to destroy them before they can destroy us?"
"No, of course not," Creme said defensively. "It's just that for them, it would have made more sense to attack the Duke, if what you're saying is true. He would have been far easier to defeat than we are now."
"Just another sign of the usurpers folly I assure you. Now what say you? Do you have what it takes to fight for what is right? Would you join the forces of our nation to help us do what our Lady cannot do alone?"
"You're an army recruiter?" Bon Bon asked, genuinely surprised.
"I am simply a stallion doing what he can to help," the stallion replied. "Will you not at least consider my words and think about joining?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. We'll-uh, definitely think about joining up." Bon Bon smiled at the stallion. "I think we should all do our part after all."
"So we should," said the stallion, "so we should. The army has a recruiting centre around the corner on Winder street, so if you are serious about doing your part, you might want to consider starting there. Thank you for your time, and Lady bless you, whatever you should decide."
Bon Bon held her smile until she felt the stallion was far enough away to not hear her sigh in disgust. "I guess that taught us as much as it could. 'Join the army, and if you don't we'll brand you an Equestrian sympathiser.'"
"Do you think he even knows how wrong he is about things?" Tootsie asked. "Or is that the version of events that's been given to the ponies here? Either way it's all kinds of messed up."
"Either way I think we've seen enough for now," said Bon Bon. "Let's find a hotel, or inn, or something, and report back all the wonderful things we've learnt in the last ten minutes." Bon Bon laughed bitterly to herself, "And here I thought this was going to be hard." |
The end of an era | 16. A Royal visit | Celestia dropped the report her sister had given her and sighed, disgracing the breakfast table with her worries. "Are they really depicting us as villains?"
"You seem surprised sister," Luna replied cheerfully.
"I am, especially after we helped them. Now they're painting us as the ponies that imprisoned Faust back before the exodus."
"Which again, doesn't surprise me as it is at least half true."
"H-half true?!" Celestia spluttered. "What are you talking about? It's not true at all!"
"No?" Luna smiled at her sister, "I imagine that they, or perhaps Faust herself, is keeping it a secret that we are in fact the offspring of Faust. Then if you include the fact that we are the 'daughters' of Princess Platinum, the pony who did actually imprison her, well... it doesn't take much work to blame her crimes on us. Then there's the simple fact that we agreed to leave her locked up where she was until we could contain her ourselves."
Celestia nodded slowly, seeing the sense in Luna's words. That didn't stop it from stinging though. Still, that was hardly the only thing that was annoying her about these propaganda posters. Faust wasn't the protector of anypony, and was in fact dragging their two countries into war. Celestia and Luna didn't steal the sun and moon from anypony, and Twilight... Twilight was most certainly not a slave in any way, and certainly didn't need saving. She supposed that with Twilight still being a hero of Mareitania it made sense to show Twilight as a victim of Celestia to turn the Mareitanians further against Equestria, and herself.
"Are you not going to read the rest of the report sister?" Luna asked, pulling Celestia out of her sullen thoughts.
"I don't think I have the stomach to," Celestia murmured. "Just give me the basics."
"The basics, hmm? Very well. Our agents in Mareitania were told to ascertain how the ponies of Mareitania viewed the possibility of war, and honestly, it's not all bad news. Yet."
"Yet? What do you mean yet?"
"Those posters are mean to play off the magically enforced love for Faust that has been spread throughout the country. A pony not yet affected by that magic can likely see them for what they really are. Now either this magic isn't hugely widespread yet, or isn't as effective as Faust might hope, but opinion on the war is split."
"Okay," Celestia said with a hopeful tone. "Now tell me about the the 'yet.'"
"That will only likely change as Faust's magic spreads. Even so, while not everypony supports the war, at least in Neigh Orleans, there doesn't seem to be any real opposition to it either. Whether that's because there just isn't any opposition to speak of, or because the ponies of Mareitania are just used to doing as they're told, I couldn't tell you."
"Oh," Celestia sighed, "of course. I doubt we have little chance of garnering sympathy with the ponies of Mareitania then."
"Even less than that I'm afraid. It seems our attack on Whiplash has only hardened their hearts against us, and especially against the pegasi. Our agents reported seeing graffiti saying 'they were right about the pegasuses.' Aside from the atrocious grammar, I have no idea who this 'they' might be, but I suspect it refers to the country's former rulers."
"That does make the most sense," Celestia agreed. "I suppose knocking back the Mareitanian view on pegasi is the least of our worries though. Is there anything else in the report worth taking note of?"
"Not really. Our agents simply haven't been there long enough to learn much more than that." Luna picked up her mug of coffee and took a sip, "Honestly, I'm not sure what I was expecting for any of this. Perhaps I should put more concern into how our own ponies feel about the war."
"At the moment recruitment is exceeding expectations," Celestia said glumly. "We can't even fully equip half of them as yet."
Luna laughed once, "Celestia says jump, they ask how high?"
Celestia glared angrily at her sister, "It isn't like that at all!"
Luna met Celestia's gaze, then smiled sadly, "Isn't it though? How many ponies in Equestria truly believe in the princess brand? How many of them think we'll safely see them through this because that is what we princesses do? How many will die before they realise having a horn and wings doesn't make us any less fallible than themselves? You can tell me that isn't the truth, and you'd be right only in that it isn't the whole truth, but still true nonetheless."
"I suggest we change the subject right now," Celestia said coldly.
Luna shrugged indifferently, "Hardly the words of a pony willing to argue their point, but very well. I also have some news from much closer to home if you wish to hear it?"
"Far be it from me to stop you saying whatever pops into your head dear sister."
"Pinkie Pie has joined the army, along with her sisters."
Celestia didn't react straight away, and honestly struggled to take in what Luna had just told her. "Pinkie Pie," Celestia said slowly, just to make sure she had heard correctly. "As in the Pinkie Pie. Notably pink, loves parties, and happens to be a Element bearer?"
"The very same."
Celestia had to make a mental effort to prevent her jaw from hitting the table, "What in the world possessed her to do that?"
"To get her friends back most likely," Luna guessed, pausing to take another sip of her drink. "Shining Armour sent me a message telling me about it in case I wanted to pull her from service."
"Then yes!" Celestia said urgently, "Yes you should do that!"
Luna shook her head, stopping Celestia. "I don't think that is the best thing to do."
"Why ever not?" Celestia gasped, surprised at Luna for even thinking that, let alone saying it.
"We practically forced Rainbow Dash to keep serving in the Wonderbolts. What kind of hypocrites would we have to be to force Pinkie to not fight? I think Pinkie should serve if she so wishes."
"But what if she gets hurt? Or killed?"
"Then she is in the same boat as most of the other bearers," Luna said simply. "Save Twilight of course. Honestly, I'd be surprised if there's actually a pony or weapon capable of stopping a pony such as Pinkie Pie."
"This is wrong," Celestia said weakly. She couldn't imaging a world where a pony such as Pinkie would have to fight and kill ponies. Now she had found herself thrust into a world where that was in fact a thing that was happening. It was more than a little jarring.
"It is the way of things now," Luna said, not without sympathy for her sister. "Moreover, even if I were to think that pulling her from service was the best course of action, I do not have the heart to tell Pinkie she can't fight to save her friends."
"I suppose not," Celestia conceded. "Perhaps we should have found a purpose for her, rather than let her find her own." Celestia sighed and pushed the remainder of her breakfast away, "I suppose I should ask what your next move is against Mareitania?"
Luna raised an eyebrow at her sister, "Now she asks? I really think you should wonder about what I'm planning a little more than that. Have you truly lost your stomach for this after a thousand years?"
Celestia looked away from Luna. "There was never really a thousand years of peace Luna," she said in a tired voice. "Not even close."
"What?" Luna was stunned at the revelation, and perhaps more so to hear it coming from her sister. "Explain yourself."
Celestia crossed her forelegs on the table before her, "Have you never thought about the meaning behind that? A thousand years of peace in Equestria. In Equestria. What about outside it? What was the rest of the world doing? They certainly weren't playing happy families."
"What are you saying Celestia?"
"I'm saying that the one thousand years of peace was perhaps the greatest lie I ever told, even to myself. For the most part I either stayed out of the issues of other countries, acted as a mediator, or if things came to the worst, I chose my allies wisely, and I made sure they won." Celestia laughed bitterly, "A thousand years of peace in Equestria is far from a thousand years of peace just because the conflict never reached our soil."
"Then why are you so opposed to participating in the war we now find ourselves falling towards? If anything, you sound a more capable commander than I."
"I never fought in those wars, but merely stayed here while others fought them in my stead. There was a reason I ensured war never reached Equestria, and that was because I couldn't face it."
Luna cocked her head to the side and tilted her ears back, showing her confusion. "I don't understand sister. You had participated in much conflict before then, so why the total change of heart? I know you were always the diplomat, but something must have led you to do what you did."
"You did, Luna."
"Me? I... I don't understand Celestia. How did I do that to you?"
"I banished you to the moon Luna," Celestia said, her voice growing heavy with suppressed emotion. "After that, I lost more than just my beloved sister. I don't need to tell you of the pony I was after that, but as I came to terms with it, I found my will to fight had gone. I strived to create a thousand years of peace, not because I felt I had to, but because I couldn't face fighting a war without you. I just couldn't do it any more. Of course I had always preferred diplomacy, but I made some horrible agreements over the years if it meant not having to fight. I'm just thankful it all worked out in the end, because my hesitation to fight could have led to Equestria's downfall plenty of times."
Luna blinked a few times as she tried to process what she'd just been told. Back before her banishment, she had always been the fighter, and Celestia the talker, so to hear that Celestia gave up fighting at all after her fall into darkness... it left Luna feeling like it was her fault they ever had to fight a war at all.
"Luna?"
"It would seem I am but a magnet for conflict then. I come back, and suddenly every villain possible starts rearing its ugly head. A thousand years of peace, ended by my return."
"No Luna, that wasn't the point I was making at all! The peace would have been built anyway, with or without you, but it was me losing you that pushed me into creating it. It was my fear of fighting without you that made it happen, not your absence."
Luna went quiet, then shrugged and smiled at her sister, "I suppose it matters not. I shouldn't concern myself with what was. If you must know I plan on striking their manufacturing in Stalliongrad, to slow or stop the production of their tanks and such."
"Huh?"
"You asked my what my next plans for Mareitania were."
"Oh, yes, right!" Celestia blushed, but quickly turned serious again. "Are you sure you're alright with what I just said?"
"Of course," Luna said with a genuine smile. "I don't know why I would even get so worked up about what was only a good thing for the ponies of Equestria. We should focus on making sure those good times return instead."
Celestia smiled back at Luna, "Exactly. So you plan to slow their production of war materials then?"
"As best I can. It might be quite the task though, so I will be leading the efforts myself this time. I've also started planning defensive strategies now that the forces from Mustangia have arrived."
"It's a big wall on the strip around the Luna bay isn't it?"
"There's a little more to it than that," Luna blustered defensively.
"Mmhmm."
"Oh, silence your mocking tongue Celestia. Perhaps I should be asking you if you've heard anything from Twilight?"
Celestia sat back and sighed, "I'm afraid not. If I'm honest I'm beginning to get worried."
"Twilight is more than capable of taking care of herself and her companions."
"I know," Celestia said anxiously, not even trying to hide it, "but her last message said they were heading off to go through the Badlands. The Badlands, Luna. You know who lives there."
"I do indeed, but I have faith in Twilight's ability to get through."
"I do too, but I still worry."
Luna watched Celestia chew on her bottom lip, and decided to move the conversation on. Celestia wasn't the only one to worry about Twilight, but Luna perhaps knew better that Twilight wouldn't let anything stand in her way. "What are your plans today then sister?"
Celestia eyed Luna, seeing through the sudden change of conversation, but appreciating it nonetheless. "Haven't you seen my schedule?"
"...No?"
Celestia rolled her eyes at Luna's coy behavior. Neither of them really knew what the other was up to at the best of times. "I've been encouraged to take a tour around the factory in Manehatten that produces the armour the Wonderbolts use."
"So, by encouraged, you mean forced?"
"That's what I said. They'll also be producing the armour for the air corps, and I was told that a visit would do much to bolster their productivity."
"Were you also told that they're producing a fine, lightweight armour for our mage corps?"
Celestia's expression went flat, "Really? Since you already know so much about this, why aren't you going on the tour while I do the thousand other things I could do?"
"Oh no," Luna laughed, "I'm the no nonsense military leader, and you're the pretty face for the cameras, so you get to go make ponies happy, while I stay here and make serious faces."
"You are the best at serious faces," Celestia teased.
"Exactly! I-" Luna stopped herself as what Celestia said sank in. "That wasn't actually a compliment, was it?"
"I don't know what you mean." Celestia grabbed a napkin and wiped her mouth free of any lingering crumbs, then stood quickly enough to make the table jump. "I'm afraid I have a chariot to catch, so I must away. See you later?"
"Assuming I haven't forced you out of the castle and taken the throne for myself, yes, certainly."
"You know I don't like jokes like that."
Luna folded her hooves under her chin and fluttered her eyelashes at her sister, "And you know I enjoy dark humour. See you later sister. I expect my hoof cleaning at nine p.m. sharp, and I expect your tongue to be spotless in preparation." Luna winked at Celestia, leaving the larger mare to fume as she stomped towards the chariot bay.
"Sisters are the worst."
-0-0-0-
The journey to Manehatten was conducted mostly in silence. Celestia sat in her carriage, watching the clouds drift lazily by, wishing more than anything that she could be as free as they were.
Soon they'd be landing, and the real Celestia, that only her sister, her guards, and her friends, saw, would be hidden behind the mask she had been forced to don far too much lately. Celestia couldn't put a hoof on where exactly she'd starting having to wear it at all, but could easily say it at least started around the time she sent Twilight, with a mission, to Mareitania. A mission that had led to every problem they now faced. It hardly seemed fair to have their good intentions twisted up and thrown back at them so utterly.
Perhaps even more she now regretted not being more proactive with the Mareitania situation in the past. Maybe Faust might have been a bit more amenable had Celestia found her after five hundred years, rather than Twilight after one and a half millennia. Or maybe if she had never bothered at all. Celestia silently laughed at her self, agonising over what she could have done differently, rather than face what was actually happening.
"Your highness?"
Celestia started as her assistant Raven spoke to her, and took a moment to shake away the clouds that had started to gather in her mind. "My apologies Raven. Are we almost there?"
"Almost. I thought you might like a few details before we landed?" Celestia nodded, and Raven smiled, pulling up a piece of paper to read from. "The owner of the factory, and the pony giving the tour, is a Mr Tough Nut, an earth pony. His wife, Fair Weather, who's a pegasus, is currently pregnant with their second child. She's due soon, so won't be joining us."
"Okay, good," Celestia said, committing those facts to memory for now. "And the factory?"
"Usually makes protective clothing for industrial purposes, with a small side-line on the armour the Wonderbolts use. However, with the war, production has been shifted mostly onto armour, and they've taken on dozens of ponies just to try to even get close to demand. He's also trying to find more factory space."
"Well, we certainly appreciate his efforts. I take it he's being well compensated?"
"The contract was quite lucrative for him."
Celestia nodded idly, "Thank you Raven. I don't suppose you happened to purchase a gift for the little one once... she's..." Celestia trailed off and smiled as Raven held up a gift-wrapped box, "You truly are a marvel Raven."
"I try my best, Princess." Raven shrieked suddenly as the carriage lurched into a descent, then blushed with embarrassment. "I'll never get used to that."
"Believe me, I was like that for the first hundred years," Celestia joked, trying to set Raven back at her ease.
"So I'll never get used to it then," Raven replied grumpily.
"There's no thrill in being used to everything, I assure you." Celestia peeked over the side to see that they were getting close to the ground, then took a deep breath as she set the mask in place. "How do I look?"
"Regal as always, your highness."
Celestia fought the urge to roll her eyes, instead waiting patiently as the carriage wheels gently touched down onto the road, stopping directly outside the factory. A dozen ponies were waiting there, thankfully with none of the fanfare she usually received. Celestia stepped out of the carriage as they came to greet her, and she smiled at the middle stallion which she assumed to be Tough Nut.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Tough Nut."
"Not nearly so much as it is to meet you Princess," Tough Nut said back, falling into a bow that the others around him mimicked. "It's a great honour that you'd come and see the factory."
"With what you and your ponies are doing to aid Equestria at this time, it's the least I could do." Celestia raised an eyebrow and moved her head to the right as she caught sight of a young colt peeking out from behind Tough Nut's legs. "Oh? And who might this be?"
"This little rascal is Hard Nut," Tough Nut said cheerfully. "Say hello to the Princess Hardy."
"H-h-hello Princess."
"And hello to you Hard Nut," Celestia said back, crouching down to the colt's level to offer him a hoof to shake, which the colt did, albeit nervously.
"The lad got so excited when he heard you were coming to see the factory, I could hardly deny him the chance to meet you."
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet the both of you. It's a shame Fair Weather couldn't join us, but I do believe she's almost due with your next foal?"
"Uh, yes! Yes she is! The midwife says that she should be ready to go in a couple of weeks."
"And I hope you're both thrilled to meet your new son or daughter. In fact..." Celestia teleported the gift between herself and Tough Nut, "I may have got a bit excited myself and bought them a little something."
Tough Nut's eyes lit up, and he took the box into his hooves. "You didn't have to do that!"
"I know, but what fun is there in not being able to spoil a child every now and again? However," Celestia smiled apologetically at Hard Nut, "I guess I wasn't totally prepared. So, instead, how about... I let you ride my back as we tour the factory?"
"Really?!" the colt shouted, all his nervousness forgotten. He turned to his dad, his eyes shining. "Can I dad?"
"Well I think it'd be awfully rude to refuse the princess, don't you?" Tough Nut smiled as his son cheered, then smiled more as Celestia picked him up in her magic and placed him on her neck, giggling as he wrapped his little legs around her neck.
"Shall we?" she asked, giving Tough nut his cue to lead the way into the factory, leaving behind two guards at the factory door, while two more accompanied her, along with Raven.
As soon as they entered it was hard to miss the noise. Industrial sewing machines, and other, larger devices, clacked away as the ponies in the factory rushed to construct suit after suit of armour to feed Equestria's burgeoning war machine. Even knowing what they were making, Celestia couldn't help but be impressed by the industriousness of her ponies.
Rather than head towards the factory floor though, Tough Nut led them upstairs and into his office where refreshments had been set out. Initially, Celestia was confused, but kept it to herself as a generous helping of cake was placed in front of her.
"Firstly Princess, I want thank you for considering us to fashion the armour for all your pegasi and unicorns. I really hope we live up to your expectations."
"You've never disappointed us before, so I doubt you will now." Celestia lifted a forkful of cake to her mouth. It was buttercream, with raspberry jam, and it was wonderfully moist. Rather simple compared to what most ponies would provide on a royal visit, but that only made Celestia appreciate it more. "I take it things are going well enough with production?"
"We've just about wrapped up on making the Wonderbolts' uniforms, but that's about it. I hate to say it princess, but it's our suppliers that are struggling to keep up with our demand, more than we're struggling ourselves."
"But Equestria has quite a substantial textile industry."
"It's not the cloth, it's the armour material. The material we use in the pegasus armour is produced magically, weaving a spell into it to make it almost weightless." He nudged a short section of it on his desk towards Celestia. "Give it a try."
Celestia did so, picking it up and flexing it in her magic. As he had said, it was almost weightless. It was also fairly flexible, despite how tough it was. "And how long does it take to produce a piece this big?"
"That big?" Tough Nut hummed, "A few days at least. This is our problem, because the amount we get in a week is only enough to produce a half dozen suits at most, and we burned through both ours and our suppliers stockpile pretty quick."
"And there are no alternatives that could be used?"
"Some," Tough Nut shrugged, "but none good enough. If you want lightweight, flexible, and most importantly, effective armour for pegasi, that stuff is the only real option."
"But the armour my guards wear are made of metal, and they're perfectly light and flexible."
"They're segmented pieces, not as light, and are vulnerable from below, which isn't great for a flier. I don't mean to be rude your highness, but your guards' armour is mostly ceremonial rather than effective. I'm taking my wife's judgement on this, and I believe her."
"I see." Celestia placed the segment back on the desk and turned to her assistant, "Raven, take a note of his supplier, and see if there's anything we can do increase supply."
"Thank you Princess," Tough Nut said as one of his own assistants searched out the supplier to give to Raven. "I'm sorry to lay these worries on you, but I wasn't sure who else to go to."
"It's more than alright Tough Nut. I'd rather you ask for help instead of struggling on. Now then, is there anything else that I could be of assistance with?"
"No thank you Princess."
"Then perhaps we should press on with the tour. I'm quite keen to see how the armour is made." A total lie if Celestia was honest, as even a pony half as old as her would pick up a passing knowledge on pretty much everything. She just figured it'd be more interesting than sitting in this rather crowded and stuffy office, and it would be nice to meet the ponies outfitting their fighting pegasi.
"Uh, of course Princess," Tough Nut said, caught a bit off guard by Celestia's apparent keenness. "If you'll follow me." Tough Nut led the way back out of his office, and turned left onto a walkway that lined one side of the factory. Then he stopped. "This is it really Princess, the entire factory."
"Oh," Celestia said, a little confused at the lack of substance to the tour. "That's... nice. You have a lot of ponies working here?"
"Seventy four in all. I would take on more, but the supply issue would just make them unnecessary."
"Seventy four hmm? I would very much like to meet them. What do you think Hard Nut? Do you want to go have a closer look?"
"Ooh, yeah! Can we Dad? Pleeeease?"
Celestia smiled at Tough Nut as he silently gave in. Clearly he hadn't actually put a lot of planning into her arrival here, judging by the way he thought overlooking the factory counted as a tour. Still, at least he had given in easy enough, but that sort of thing always left Celestia wondering if that was because she was good at out-manoeuvring ponies into these things, or if they were simply afraid to say no. Not a huge issue, but it still bothered her at times.
Things were also helped as Tough Nut at least had the sense to start the tour where the production process begun. "This is the cutting room, where the materials for the suits are cut out according to the patterns provided to us by yourselves." He picked up a swatch of the material they were using, and held it up to Celestia to inspect.
"I have to admit that I don't recognise this material," Celestia said, feeling the cloth with her magic.
"It's a tightly woven cotton overlaid with the same flame retardant material that firefighters uniforms are made of," Tough Nut explained. "It insulates the user, and protects them from most hazards that the armoured parts aren't made to deal with, such as environmental hazards, and obviously fire. Sadly though, pegasi wings have to remain uncovered, so there's always a risk."
"I see." Celestia watched as a mare cut shapes out of a length of cloth, her own eyes twitching back and forth between her work and Celestia. "I take it that once the sections are all cut out, you assemble it into the suit, and the armour is built around that?"
"Half right your highness." Tough Nut placed the cloth back in its holder, and patted the mare cutting the patterns on the shoulder, the mare having almost frozen up from Celestia watching her. "Let's move onto the next part and leave these girls to it."
"Did you say that we provided you with the patterns for these?" Celestia asked, not entirely sure when that happened. So many papers needing so many signatures.
"As a base, yes. Recently though, we employed a skilled seamstress who made some improvements to the designs. In fact, she may as well be our next port of call since she works in the sewing area."
Perhaps one of the strangest observations Celestia felt she could make as she was escorted through the factory, was that out of the dozens of ponies she'd seen working here so far, only three of them were stallions. Whether there was a reason behind that, she didn't know, but it was still noticeable, and therefore not a surprise when she was led to a pink mare working behind a sewing machine, looking like the world had wronged her quite significantly.
"Princess Celestia, meet Suri Polomare. Possibly the finest seamstress we've ever had work here."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Polomare."
Within the fraction of a second the expression of generalized despair was gone, hidden expertly behind what Celestia could only describe as an over-keen shopping assistants face, ready to sell literally anything, including their mother and a case of crabs.
"It's so nice to meet you Princess, mmhmm. I never thought you'd come and see me specifically."
"Tough Nut tells me you're one that adjusted the designs for the flight suits?"
"Well, the design was quite outdated, mmkay, and no longer matched the materials used to make it, so I made a few suggestions, to improve productivity, mmhmm. I'm also quite involved in the rest of the production here, mmm."
Celestia nodded vaguely, seeing Suri as what she really was, trying to climb the ladder for a promotion to get more pay for less work. She also wanted to hum a mmhmm back in sympathy every time Suri did. "I'm glad they have employees here as capable as you," she said, noting the way several other ponies directed short glares at Suri once she said it.
"Why thank you your highness, mmhmm. I'm just glad to be doing my bit for our country."
"Suri, perhaps you could tell the princess about the rest of the production process since you know more about it than I do?"
Suri's eye twitched once, but she smiled and nodded, "Of course, I'd be delighted to! As you can probably tell Princess, this is where we create the basic flight suits."
"And then everything else is attached afterwards?"
"That's right, mmhmm. The armour plates are stitched into a sort of harness, which is then sewn onto the suits themselves, mmkay? Would you like to see how it's done?"
"I'd love to, mmh-" Celestia realised what she was doing, and quickly turned it into a cough. "Oh, excuse me."
"Mmm... are you okay Princess?"
"Yes, I'm fine thank you. Please continue Miss Polomare."
Suri hummed an affirmative and led them further along the factory to where a group of ponies were creating the sections of armour to sew onto the flight suits. "This part is probably the hardest part, mmkay, because you can't actually sew the armour itself, and the material holding them is also quite tough to sew. We just got a new shipment in if you want to feel it for yourself?"
"Of course."
Suri smiled at Celestia, then walked over to a small stack of crates, pulling the topmost open. There was a clink, and a mechanical ticking started as she pulled the box open to reveal some short red tubes, nestled in padding. "What the-?"
Boom.
Celestia tried to get a shield up over the crates as quickly as she could, but she was nowhere near fast enough, and what little shield she had made was quickly destroyed as the force of the explosion flung her back. She crashed into the wall, turning the world into a confusion of light and pain as the heat from the explosion seared her flesh, and shrapnel peppered her right side.
A wave of flame roared over her for the merest seconds, then it was gone, leaving behind a symphony of death and agony, witnessed best by the one pony that it had likely been made to kill.
It took several seconds for Celestia to make even the tiniest amount of sense of the world. The right side of her face was a mass of pain, along with most of her body, and her eye wasn't working, while her left eye only showed her the blinding afterimage of the explosion. Her ears felt like they'd been filled with cotton wool, and it took several moments for her to even pick up on the sounds of screaming, the blare of alarms, and the crackle of fire burning.
She tried to pull herself up, only for her hoof to slip on something, sending her crashing back to the ground. It was blood, and she stared at it dumbly for a second, before realising where it had come from. Raven lay next to her, her front almost mangled beyond recognition.
"No! No-no-no!" Celestia ignored her pain, and crawled around enough to reach Raven, shaking her to try and wake her up. There was nothing though, no sound, no breath, nothing, she was just... floppy. "No, please... Raven..."
Celestia looked around, begging for help to unhearing ears, as around her were only more bodies and the sounds of ponies in pain. Her guards had been spared the worst ravages of the explosion thanks to their armour, but the concussion alone was enough to kill them as close as they were. Tough Nut also lay nearby, similarly unmoving, as well as several other ponies. Of Suri there was no sign at all, or of Hard Nut, at least until she turned around and found his crumpled form next to the wall in a small puddle of blood. He'd been mostly spared from the explosion, only to be crushed by Celestia as the explosion flung them into the wall.
Celestia howled in anguish, and cradled the small body in her legs, begging to whatever gods might have been listening to spare one as young and innocent as a child, who had no place being killed like this. Agony flared in her face and eye as her tears seeped into her wounds, and her blood flowed heavily from the dozens, if not hundreds of cuts she bore, but she couldn't have cared less. A child was dead because of her, and she was surrounded by the bodies of innocents. If there was any justice in this world, they'd all be alive, and not her, the mare that had caused this.
The heat of the fire drew closer to her, so she placed Hard Nut next to Raven, then pulled Tough Nut over to sandwich the child between them. Then she stopped, not even knowing what kind of a grim tableaux it was that she was trying to create.
"Princess! Princess, where are you?"
"I'm here," Celestia croaked at the sound of her surviving guards shouting her name. She waited as they honed in on her, their wings blowing out the smaller flames.
"Princess! Thank goodness you're alive! We need to get out of here..." The guard stopped as he took in the injuries Celestia had. There was barely a patch on her right side that wasn't burnt, blackened, or bleeding, and it was hard to tell the extent of her facial injuries, covered as it was by the singed remains of her mane. Her right wing was barely there any more, little more than a skeletal limb covered in the burnt stubs of feathers.
"Not without them," Celestia said as her guards stared at her in horror, pointing her head towards the three bodies she'd assembled.
"Princess, they're... gone."
Celestia struggled to her hooves, renewing the agony in most of her body. She almost collapsed from the pain, but refused to if it meant her guards helping her. "I'm not leaving them."
"Princess, we need to get you out of here! That is our first priority, everything else comes after." The guard flinched as something collapsed behind him, hidden by the smoke. "Please Princess!"
Celestia started limping forwards, and tried to bring herself up to her full regal height, but she just couldn't. "Bring them," she ordered in a voice that bridged no argument, before she started limping away through the detritus of the factory.
Yet more bodies lay in her path, having landed where the explosion had thrown them, and gone no further. Worse still were the ones that had lived long enough to die in pain and fear, their faces frozen with the terror of their last moments, begging for help that would never reach them in time. Past that was only screams as ponies caught on the edge of the explosion clung to life.
Celestia wanted to help them all, but she just couldn't. She could barely walk, and her horn, scorched by the explosion, hardly worked. A mare trapped under fallen machinery cried out for help, and Celestia could only turn away and choke on her guilt, no more able to help the mare than she was able to help Raven, or Hard Nut.
Sirens were already screeching away outside as Celestia staggered through the exit, and she almost screamed in fury as a dozen ponies, firefighters and paramedics, ran over to her, trying to help her before anypony else. "Help them," she said weakly, just wanting to be left alone.
"But Princess, you're hurt!" one of the paramedics insisted, trying to guide her away.
"I'm fine," Celestia insisted, pushing him away. "Help them."
"But Prince-"
"Help them!" Celestia screamed, shocking the mare into stepping back. "Forget me, help them!" She pushed through the group of ponies, aiming for a narrow stretch of grass that lined the edge of the pavement, and collapsing onto it. Seconds later her guards laid the bodies she'd ordered them to bring next to her.
"Princess, we really need to get you seen to."
Celestia shook her head, "Go help the fireponies, please, before any more ponies die. I promise you I'll be fine." Celestia looked up at them imploringly as they glanced at each other, "Please." They hesitated briefly, then nodded to each other and bounded off towards the factory, leaving Celestia blissfully alone.
"I'm so sorry," she said breathlessly, her tears threatening to fall again as she kept vigil over the three bodies, one of which was a dear friend that she'd known for many years now. Was this the price ponies would have to pay for standing by the princesses now? It was far too steep a price if it was.
Time crawled by as she kept watch over the bodies, with seconds passing in hours with her slowing heartbeat being the only thing to keep count by. She didn't care. Instead she was consumed with why this had happened. She knew technically why, but it still burned at her. This was meant to be a simple visit, and yet, through the machinations of the vilest ponies, it had turned into a day of blood and horror.
Celestia sobbed, her chest hurting with each sharp movement, and her right eye, unseeing as it was, burned with the fresh tears. The pain she felt on the outside barely even compared to the pain she felt on the inside, and then she could only call that a fraction of the pain a lot of ponies would be feeling tonight as the news got out, and they found their loved ones cruelly taken from them. More so for Fair Weather, the wife of Tough Nut, and the mother of Hard Nut, who in one short moment had lost both her husband and son.
It was almost a relief when darkness creeped in around the edges of her vision, and robbed her of first her ability to see, then her ability to think. Oblivion sounded nice about now. If only she could stay there.
-0-0-0-
Celestia gasped into wakefulness, a burning agony shooting through her face as the rapid movement pulled on her bandages. She blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the bright light around her, and as she did she came to realise that she was actually in a hospital room, white and clean enough to blind her.
"Welcome back sister."
Celestia searched about until she found the dark blue shape of her sister, her starry mane wafting in an unfelt breeze. "Luna." Celestia sank back and sighed, "Did I..?"
"Die? No, you didn't. You merely fainted from blood loss. I wish the same could be said for all those poor souls. I'm sorry about Raven."
Celestia sniffed, a single tear escaping from her good eye, leading her to investigate the other with her hoof, finding it covered in bandages. For a moment she wanted to ask how bad her injuries were, but concluded that it didn't really matter, and she didn't care. There was nothing that could be done to her physically that was worth worrying about.
"How many? How many died Luna?"
"Sister, I really don't think-"
"How many Luna?!"
Luna sighed, seeing her sister's thoughts turning on herself. Rightly or wrongly, Celestia always blamed herself. "Nineteen dead, thirty three injured, eight seriously. Which only makes me wonder how you survived being so close to the explosion?"
"I tried to contain it, but I wasn't fast enough. All I did in the end was shield myself from the worst of it." Celestia choked as she thought about Hard Nut, "I killed him."
"Killed who?"
"Hard Nut, the colt. He... He was riding on my back when the explosion happened. I saved him from the explosion, only to crush him as I landed. I killed him."
Luna was there immediately as Celestia started to cry again, hugging her and shushing gently as Celestia choked and sobbed. "It's not your fault Celestia, you know that. There was no way you could have stopped that, and no way you could have known. No part of this is your fault Celestia."
"I killed him Luna! I killed him!"
"Faust killed him Celestia! If it wasn't for her none of this would have happened! Don't blame yourself for things you have no control over, and blame the one that made it happen!"
"But we did make this happen! We're the reason Faust is free! We're the reason Equestria is under attack! We're-"
"Not the reason Faust is attacking us though," Luna said calmly. "Please sister, I know you wish to blame yourself for what happened, but it simply isn't true."
"Yes it is. If I hadn't had gone there, they never would have set up that bomb to try and kill me!"
"And that likely isn't true either. Celestia, the Mareitanians know that alicorns can't be killed, so trying to assassinate you would likely be seen as a pointless endeavour. The factory though, is producing armour for our soldiers, marking itself as a military target, and therefore worthy of destruction. You being there when it went off was simply a coincidence."
"You don't know that for sure."
"Not long after I had received the news, and had a bit of time to think about it, I ordered ponies to search other facilities producing arms and armour for our soldiers. We found a similar device in a factory making weapons in Filidelphia."
"And nopony got hurt?"
Luna half smiled, "The bomb has been deactivated and disposed of accordingly. Nopony has been hurt. I've also increased security at these facilities using some of your Royal Guard, leaving them a bit stretched here in Canterlot, but there is little we can do about that. I also have Equis focusing on finding the culprits behind the bombs."
"That still won't bring those that died back."
"No, it won't." Luna didn't know what else to say. Neither of them had the experience necessary to deal with this. Bad enough was the revelation that their enemy had access to explosives, and the know-how to cobble together an effective trigger. Worse was the thought that the Shades were still running rampant throughout Equestria, and could plan further attacks. If the Shades managed to take out their manufacturing, Equestria could lose the war before it even began.
"Can we really do this Luna?"
"Do what?"
"Win."
"You know winning was never the point. The point was to buy Twilight enough time to find a way to stop Faust. If we give up, Faust will start hunting Twilight, and if she's found before she has a solution, it's all over."
"But fighting to lose is just throwing lives away for nothing! Faust doesn't know where Twilight is! We don't even know where she is! Can we really justify buying her time when she can't be found?"
"You want to surrender?" Luna growled, unable to hold back her disappointment. "You want to sit by and watch as Faust subjugates Equestria and the world, changing it all to fit in with her 'plan?' You want us to languish, forgotten in a cell somewhere for the rest of time?"
"We don't even know what her plan is! What if it's actually a benefit to the world?"
Luna scoffed, "Can you even hear yourself Celestia? Do you even know what you're saying? You are talking about the plan of a pony that has no issue with kidnapping, bombings, or the mass brainwashing of countries! She clearly doesn't care for ponies if she can do that, so how could you even consider the possibility that her plan is of any benefit to anypony but herself?"
Celestia closed her eye and sighed, leaning back into the comfort of her bed. Of all the phrases she'd heard in her long life, damned if you do, and damned if you don't had always been one of the more prevalent. It was almost the perfect description of this whole situation, because as much as she might want to think that Faust's plan might not be terrible, if Luna was right it very easily could be. The cost of stopping it though, was high, even if it was the only realistic option.
"What do we do now Luna?"
"Leave that to me." |
The end of an era | 17. Dashed hopes | "Dash! Hey Dash!"
Rainbow looked up from polishing her gear as Lightning ran into her room, a newspaper held by her wing which she threw down in front of Rainbow. Rainbow spared it the merest glance, then looked back up at Lightning. "What am I looking at exactly?"
"Didn't you read it? Somepony tried to blow up and kill Celestia yesterday!"
"Really? No way! Did it work?"
"What?" Lightning looked at Rainbow with disgust, "Is that what you think? Don't you even care?"
"Yeah, of course I do, but alicorns are immortal, as in they, like, can't die. Or they do, but they don't stay that way." Rainbow tapped her chin thoughtfully, "I really should have listened to Twilight more about that. Anyway, my point is that Celestia could have eaten the bomb and she'd come back, so I'm actually a little more concerned that they blew up a bunch of ponies in the factory that makes our gear."
"Uh..." Lightning's eyes twitched back and forth as she tried to figure out Rainbow's nonchalance about the news. "You've lost me Dash. Even though she survived, Celestia's still probably really hurt."
Rainbow sighed and dropped her armour onto her bed in preparation to explain this. "You know Princess Twilight?"
"Well yeah, of course."
"To date she's died three times. Once when she became an alicorn, and twice more since." Rainbow fought the urge to grin as Lightning tried gawped at her. "Death for alicorns just isn't that big a deal. I bet that in a couple of weeks Celestia will be totally healed to the point that you couldn't tell she'd ever been attacked."
"Huh. Well, the point is that they attacked her! In Equestria! Doesn't that mean a thing to you?"
"Of course it does! But do you know what also means something to me?" Rainbow quickly read the paper until she found a number, "Twenty two. Twenty Two dead ponies killed in an attack on the factory that makes armour for the Wonderbolts, and-" Rainbow placed her hoof on the paper further down, "- they found another bomb in the place that makes our weapons. This isn't an attack on Celestia, Lightning, it's an attack on us. Celestia was just in the wrong place at the wrong time by the sounds of it."
"But why would they attack us?"
"Because we burnt their ships, blew up their lumber mill, and did whatever it was the bat ponies did in their prison?"
"How are you working this out so fast?"
"Eh," Rainbow shrugged, "it's a knack. I'm also guessing that's why we're bringing our next op forwards, which is why I'm prepping my gear."
"That's not what I meant. What I meant was, how do you know this wasn't an attack on Celestia?"
"Maybe it was! So what? It says they were going to bomb two places, both of which are important to the Wonderbolts, and the bombs were apparently in crates set to go off whenever somepony opened them, so Celestia being there when that happened was probably a total coincidence. Would they be making as big a deal about this if Celestia hadn't been there?"
"Proba-" Lightning went cross eyed as she cottoned on to what Rainbow might be trying to say, that the number of deaths, and the loss of the factory, were getting swallowed up by the fact that Celestia, an immortal, got hurt in an attack that might not have been even aimed at her. "Damn."
"Do you get me now? That the paper-ponies are too busy focusing on Celestia instead of the other stuff?"
"Yeah. I guess knowing the princesses can't die makes it easier to see through that kind of stuff."
"Believe me, I think I was a lot happier before I ever found any of this stuff out." Rainbow started polishing her gear again, but gave up after a few seconds, her heart no longer in it. "This is only going to get worse, isn't it? Have you heard anything off Spitfire?"
"Not yet, but she flew off to Canterlot this morning, so we won't until she gets back. Rumour is though, that Luna might be involved in our next attack."
"You mean, like, leading us?"
Lightning shrugged, "No idea. It's possible I suppose. Might be something worth seeing if it is."
"Kinda suggests that we'll actually be working with the Night Guard again if it's true."
Lightning picked up one of Rainbow's blades, pulling it out and turning it over and over in her hooves. "Are you going to be down with going on another mission?"
"Are you going to try and protect Vapor to the point she does nothing?"
"No, there's no point if things are only going to get worse. We're all going to have to be at the top of our game when that happens, including Vapor."
"And what if it's not enough?" Rainbow asked. Lightning didn't answer.
-0-0-0-
"You can't be serious," Soarin whispered, casting an eye back at the Wonderbolts assembled for their briefing. "What Luna's asking, it's insane!"
"I don't see what your issue here is Soarin," Fleetfoot whispered back. "Taking out their tank production, and their tanks, sounds like a good idea to me."
"But they're in Stalliongrad, and that place is a fortress!"
"Not for ponies with wings."
"But it's proven they have explosives now, and what's saying they haven't made their own anti-pegasus weapons like the Duke did? Stalliongrad was a shit of a place to invade even without those things."
"Doesn't matter," said Spitfire, cutting off any further arguments. "Luna thinks that after the successful attack on the armour factory, they're only going to get bolder. She also suspects it to be a prelude to Mareitania's actual invasion. The forces from the Crystal Empire, as well as Mustangia have been positioned by Vanhoover along the land route, but Equestria's forces are still far from ready, so more time needs to be bought. That's our job."
"Besides," Fleetfoot grinned at Soarin, "with Luna leading the attack, what could go wrong?"
"Famous last words," Soarin grumbled. "I still think it's a mistake to attack like this, right after they attacked us."
"Noted and filed away for later consideration," Spitfire said, giving Soarin a sympathetic smile. "If it's worth anything, I really hope you're wrong."
"You and me both."
Soarin's concerns in mind, Spitfire turned to the assembled Wonderbolts, preparing to fill them in on events. It felt like a lot had changed since the morning, and yet the situation they were in had hardly changed at all.
"Good afternoon Wonderbolts. By now I'm sure that you've read the papers, or at least heard the news, and I'm here to inform you that most of it is true." Spitfire stopped as whispers started spreading amongst the assembled ponies, and waved them back into silence. "What the papers have wrong is that it was an intentional attack on Princess Celestia. It wasn't, and her involvement is purely poor timing."
"Told you," Rainbow whispered to Lightning.
"So any of you thinking of getting revenge for Celestia," Spitfire continued, missing Rainbow's small moment of triumph, "put it out of your mind. Celestia will make a full recovery within weeks, and doesn't need you being stupid for her. If you feel like avenging somepony, avenge the twenty two ponies that died when we next go to Mareitania, which will be sooner than you think."
"After this attack, Luna thinks that Mareitania is drawing closer to launching their invasion of Equestria, which only makes what we do even more important. Tomorrow, in conjunction with the Night Guard, we will be launching an attack against the facility in Stalliongrad producing Mareitania's tanks, as well as taking out the tanks there. It's hoped that by taking out this facility, their plans could be set back by weeks, buying us enough time to field enough ponies to mount an effective defence."
"For the most part, the Night Guard led by Princess Luna herself, will be carrying out the bulk of our objective, while we will be flying cover and hitting a few secondary targets around Stalliongrad. Each squadron will be briefed by your leader on your specific tasks during the mission during the trip to Mareitania on the Heavens Grace, which will be leaving in three hours. I want you all to be prepped well before then, but the time is more or less yours until we leave. Dismissed."
Spitfire, Soarin, and Fleetfoot left the room, leaving the rest of the Wonderbolts to talk amongst themselves about what little they heard. Some of them were less than impressed by that.
"Well that was the shortest briefing ever," Lightning said, leaning back in her seat between Vapor and Rainbow. "Hopefully the one Fire Streak gives us will actually tell us something."
"It feels to me like we're being left in the dark," Cloud Chaser said from Rainbow's left. "Maybe what they're asking us to do is way worse than the last time."
"Of course it is," said Lightning. "Last time was probably a test to see if we were up to it. Now we're going to have to step it up a bit, bring our A-games."
"Hey, no problem," Sky Stinger said confidently. "There isn't anything we can't do!"
Lightning sniggered at Sky, "What's the square root of sixty four, Sky?"
"What? What's that got to do with this?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing at all."
"Besides, it's sixteen, because you divide it by four, because a square has four sides."
Lightning raised an eyebrow at Sky, "I'm not sure whether to be disappointed that you got it wrong, or impressed that you can accurately divide sixty four into four. Whatever, let's go get our stuff ready. See ya later guys."
"See ya," Rainbow said back before turning to her wing mates. "We should go get our own stuff ready as well."
"Already have," Cloud Chaser said with a sly grin. "I'm so ready for this."
"Are you sure?" Thunderlane said with obvious concern. "I just thought you'd be a bit nervous after last time, after you got hurt."
"Oh heck no, I'm not backing down because of one mess up. I was declared fit ages ago, and I'm not going to make the same mistake again. This time they won't know what hit them."
Rainbow nodded in approval, "Damn right! This time is going to go way better than last time, I promise you. Especially if Princess Luna's going to be there as well."
"Exactly," agreed Cloud Chaser. "Stop being such a worrywart Thunderlane."
"Can you blame me? I just don't want to see you hurt again."
"I think we're in the wrong profession to be worrying about that." Cloud chastely kissed Thunderlane on the cheek, making him blush, "Your concern is appreciated though."
-0-0-0-
The journey over to Mareitania was very different this time compared to the first time. The first time was done by ponies who were apprehensive yet confident they would ace the whole thing. This time it was done by ponies who had seen the truth, and didn't like the way it looked.
Rainbow had again secluded herself after Fire Streak had finished his briefing. A, and B squadrons had been given the dubious honour of providing protection while the other squadrons hit the other targets around the city, including the steelworks. Luna herself was leading the attack on the tank factory with her Night Guard, as that was deemed the toughest target.
If Rainbow was honest with herself, she'd much rather be on one of the squadrons hitting a target, as her current assignment would be the most likely to bring her into a direct fight with the enemy, which she wasn't sure was something she actually wanted. Demolition sounded much more fun.
"Girding thyself Rainbow Dash?"
"Huh?" Rainbow looked back to see Luna standing behind her, her eyes soft as she smiled at Rainbow. "Oh! Uh, sorry Princess, I didn't hear you coming," Rainbow babbled, surprised to have one of the rulers of Equestria, and her military commander standing behind her. "Can I help you?"
"Calm yourself Rainbow, I only wish to enquire how you are. I haven't seen you since the unfortunate events that precipitated this whole situation we find ourselves in."
"Oh, uh... yeah," Rainbow said, not entirely sure what it was that Luna had said to her. "I guess I'm okay. Still trying to get used to the whole fighting thing."
"Ah yes, that. You're not the only one to struggle with that here, and you certainly aren't the only pony to ever do so. All I can say is that it gets easier. You aren't the only one of your friends that will have to get used to it though."
"You're talking about Twilight?"
"No actually. It is Pinkie Pie of whom I speak. She signed up to join the Equestrian army little more than a week ago, along with her sisters. I feel it only fair to inform you."
"What? No!" Rainbow shouted, taking Luna totally by surprise. "You have to take her out!"
"And why, pray tell, should I do that?"
Rainbow stared at Luna like she'd grown a second horn, "Because she could get hurt, that's why!"
"And how is that any different from yourself?"
"It- It-" Rainbow stumbled over her words, trying to find an argument that didn't sound like a childish outburst. "It just is, okay?" she said, failing utterly.
"I think you'll find that Pinkie has as much a right to fight to get her friends back, and protect Equestria, as you do."
"But Pinkie isn't like that! She can't fight, or kill!"
"Neither could you as of a few weeks ago," Luna said calmly. "Neither could Twilight until she was forced to. I'm afraid in times like these, the ponies we are, and want to be, are irrelevant to the ponies we need to be. I discussed Pinkie's joining of the military with my sister, and we agreed that she be allowed to fight."
"Argh! Great! So now all my friends are in danger, except for Twilight who knows how to fight better than any of us!"
"I think Twilight will find dangers a-plenty carrying out her vital task." Luna sighed as Rainbow turned from her in anger, hanging her hooves over the guardrail of the airship. "I apologise if this news has disheartened you Rainbow, but I only felt it fair to tell you."
"Because you need every soldier possible, I know."
"That isn't it at all Rainbow. One mere soldier isn't going to sway the outcome of a battle, so if it were simply that, I would keep Pinkie out of military affairs. However, that would only be unfair to Pinkie when she wants to do something to help end this and get her friends back, including yourself. I couldn't in good conscience deny her that." Luna watched silently as Rainbow continued to sulk, "I am sorry Rainbow Dash."
"It's fine, I get it." Rainbow said nothing else, and after a few awkward moments she heard Luna sigh and walk away. She wanted to feel bad about treating Luna that way, but the feeling never came. Instead she could only begin to see an inkling of the issues Twilight had with the rule of Equestria after her return from Mareitania. Admittedly, Twilight had saved those issues purely for Celestia, but Rainbow herself couldn't be bothered to make the distinction between Luna and Celestia when both of them wanted the same thing, and were willing to spend ponies lives to get it. Rainbow wanted that thing too, but she suspected her reasons were different than the two princesses' reasons. Perhaps Pinkie's were too.
A stab of guilt finally hit Rainbow. She had no idea why she felt this way, and what did it matter if Celestia and Luna had different reasons to fight as long as they all got what they wanted; a free and safe Equestria. "Aww, feathers." Rainbow turned to apologise to Luna, but the alicorn was long gone. Instead she resolved to do it later. And it would have to be later she observed as they passed over the mountains and into Mareitania.
-0-0-0-
Stalliongrad was not how Rainbow had imagined it. The way Twilight had described it in the few times she was willing to talk about it at all, had left Rainbow thinking of it as some giant walled bastion of unspeakable evil. Instead it appeared to be a large, circular city with a reasonably high wall around it. The evil of its inhabitants was still open to debate though, if the stories were true.
Rainbow looked down over the railing of the Heavens Grace as it slowly drifted closer to the city, its engines cut to silence their approach. Lights twinkled in the darkness as streetlights lit up the roads and alleyways of the city, and, well, it didn't look threatening in the slightest. Only Rainbow knowing that it was making deadly machines of war clued her in to the real threat it presented, otherwise it looked totally normal.
Brayside had looked normal. Rainbow shook her head, determined to not fall into that trap again.
Rainbow was pulled out of her thoughts as Cloud nudged her side and gestured up with her head towards the bow where Spitfire was stood, silently waiting for the right time. The whole thing was being done in silence, so as to not alert anypony below until the attack was well under way. Rainbow found it creepy, but wisely said nothing for reasons other than necessity.
She also wondered briefly where Luna was, but concluded that the Princess was likely below decks with the Night Guard. Rainbow had seen Luna earlier, wearing the same armour that she'd worn when she came to Ponyville after her friends had been kidnapped. Given the time to reflect on it, Luna, Rainbow concluded, was not a pony to mess with, and that was without seeing the two glaives Luna used to fight. Perhaps with Luna leading the attack, things might not go as bad as Rainbow was afraid they might.
Spitfire raised a hoof, then started waving it, signalling them to start taking off. Rainbow did so, jumping over the railing and catching herself on her wings. Immediately she felt in control of the situation, as she always did when she flew. As much as she loved her earth-bound friends, she always felt slightly useless when she wasn't flying. Not that she'd ever say that. Ever.
Rainbow banked left, following the lead of Fire Streak as their squadron escorted another to a textiles factory that was producing uniforms for the Mareitanian army. The other targets, besides the tank factory and steelworks, were a train depot where stream trains were built and kept, and a factory that produced steam powered machinery for use in factories and suchlike. Rainbow was a little iffy on that target, but could see enough wisdom in destroying it to not question it. They were also hitting these places at night to minimise civilian casualties, at least giving them the moral high ground over those that bombed the factory in Manehatten.
The Heavens Grace was already pretty small in the background as Fire Streak signalled them to circle around and keep an eye on things as the squadron they were escorting swooped down towards their target. The textiles factory was pretty out of the way compared of the rest of the targets, having no need to be close to the steelworks for supplies, which is why their squadron was covering the one destroying the factory. Again Rainbow wished she was doing that instead, even if to just put the bit of demolition training they'd received into practice.
"Anypony else feel like this is too easy?" Fast Clip, one of Fire Streak's wing ponies asked. "There's not even an alarm going up anywhere."
"That means it's all going to plan," Fire Streak said back. "Now cut the chatter."
They kept circling until the demolition squadron exited the factory and flew back up to their escorts. "Timer set for two minutes," their leader Wind Speed told Fire Streak. "Better get out of here if you don't want to feel it."
"Good idea. Let's head back to the others..." Fire Streak trailed off as a piercing cry like an eagle's sounded in the distance, followed by another, and another, growing louder and more frequent until it was almost constant, when just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. "What the hell was that? That sounded like-!" An explosion boomed around the city, but it wasn't from any of their targets. "What is going on?"
"Sir!" Pizzelle shouted, suddenly panicked as she looked into the distance. "The Heavens Grace is on fire!"
"What!?" As they turned back towards the airship, a trail of flame arched up from the city, and collided against the airship's massive balloon, lighting up the area around with a flash that illuminated dozens of figures, half of them bigger than the others, flying around the airship in what appeared to be a vicious dogfight. Occasionally one of the figures would fall from the fight to the city below, confirming their fears that they were under attack.
Fire Streak was about to order that they head to the Heavens Grace when another eagle cry cut through the air, much louder than before, and from above. He had barely a moment to think about it when a griffon clad in mismatched armour swooped down with a sword in his claw that neatly removed most of the left wing of his wingpony Lime Jelly, who screamed as she fell, crashing with deadly force onto the rooftops below before he could even think to try and catch her.
"Ambush!" Lightning shouted as Fire Streak stared dazedly after Lime Jelly. More griffons dived from above, their cries for blood deafening the Wonderbolts. "Scatter!"
Rainbow wasted no time in doing so as Fire Streak didn't seem to have the wits to order them to scatter himself, and only just managed to avoid getting cut down as another wave of a dozen griffons struck from above. Rainbow rolled left and dived, drawing her blades ready as a trio of griffons split off to come after her and her wing mates.
"We should go for the city Rainbow!" Thunderlane shouted. "We can probably out manoeuvre them in the streets!"
Rainbow quickly looked down at the streets, then back at the griffons, with their larger stature, heavier armour, and larger wingspan. She quickly concluded that Thunderlane was right, and shouted back her agreement before setting into a steep dive that quickly brought them down to street level where they put their size, manoeuvrability, and training into good use, flying through narrow streets, and around corners that the griffons simply couldn't handle.
There was no satisfaction in hearing the griffons cries of frustration though as they eluded their pursuers though, and Rainbow was simply relieved that they were getting away. She knew just what griffons were capable of, and the Wonderbolts' aerial combat training had been left a bit sparse in favour of attacking ground based and magic capable targets, meaning that there was a distinct possibility that the griffons could easily outmatch them. The rest of their squadron was still out there though, having to fight for their lives.
"I thought the griffons were staying out of this?" Cloud said as they stopped in dark street to catch their breath. "Why the hell are they here?"
"I don't know!" Rainbow said back, far more aggressively than she meant to. "I don- I- Argh! What the fuck are we supposed to do now?!"
"We can't stay down here forever," said Thunderlane. "I say we head back up and attack the griffons from below while they're distracted fighting the others."
"We should also go help defend the Heavens' Grace," Cloud added.
"I know, I know!" Rainbow reached up to rub her head, then remembered that not only was she wearing a helmet, but her rather sharp blades were still clipped to her hooves. "Fuck it. Let's go help our squadron, then go help the Heavens Grace. We'll hit the griffons hard from below like Thunderlane said. You ready?" Both Cloud Chaser and Thunderlane drew their blades to show their readiness, "Alright then, let's go!"
All three pegasi pushed themselves back into the air and back towards the rest of their squadron, who seemed to be having mixed odds in their fight. Most of them seemed intent on getting away from the griffons instead of fighting them, and the griffons seemed to be having trouble fighting an enemy that refused to sit still and fight back. None of them saw the three Wonderbolts coming from below.
Rainbow rolled onto her back as she rapidly approached a griffon hen that was chasing after one of the others, and sank her blades into the griffons chest, angling upwards from below the ribcage to avoid the griffon's armour. The griffon screamed in pain, and looked down at the pony attached to her chest before going limp and falling out of the air. Rainbow soon saw her mistake as the angle she attacked at made it difficult to pull her blades back out. She was far too close to the ground for her comfort by the time she did.
Another griffon fell to the ground as Rainbow pulled back up, meaning that either Cloud or Thunderlane had taken one out, increasing their odds even further. Rainbow flapped harder, trying to get back to them, swinging her blades at a griffon as she passed, scoring a lucky hit on his wings that sent him tumbling out of the sky. "That was for Lime you bastard!" Rainbow screamed after him, even if it wasn't the same griffon that had killed her.
Even with three griffons down, the fight was hardly won as their own squadron was scattered and disorganised. Lightning and her wing mates were nowhere to be seen, and the others were just flying scared, desperately trying to not get killed by an enemy they didn't really know how to fight. The only viable option Rainbow could see as she joined back up with Cloud and Thunder, was to take out a few more griffons, then try to reorganise the squadron into something that could put up a bit of a fight.
If there was one advantage to this fight, the griffons were too focused on their chosen targets to notice another of the Wonderbolts moving in to attack them. Rainbow used this to great effect on the griffons chasing after Meadow Flower, Pizzelle, and Sightseer, attacking them from above, plunging her blades into the lead griffon's neck while Cloud and Thunder took out their targets.
"You guys aren't dead!" Meadow Flower gasped as they stopped fleeing, their pursuers dropping to the ground far below. "We saw those griffons chasing you to the city and thought you were done for!"
"Not yet," Rainbow said, trying to sound confident, but not quite able to hear it in her own voice. "Look, we need to start fighting these griffons, so draw your blades and get ready."
"Incoming!" Thunderlane shouted. Rainbow looked up in time to see the three griffons that had chased them down to the city coming back for another try. One of them went down quickly to the combined efforts of Cloud and Pizzelle, the latter distracting the griffon while the former looped around and slashed her blade across the back of the griffon's neck hard enough to sever the spine.
The second griffon flew off after Sightseer, with Thunderlane giving chase, while the third went straight for Rainbow and Meadow Flower. He swung what looked like a cross between a sword and a spear at Meadow, striking her across her chest, then crashed into Rainbow before she could move to help, grappling her and hugging her to his chest, squeezing her hard enough to stop her breathing. "Time to die little pony."
As much as she struggled Rainbow couldn't break free. The griffon was simply too strong to break his hold, and the way he was holding her stopped Rainbow from getting her back legs up high enough to kick him off, while her blades scraped ineffectively over his armour. She fought for as long as she could, but her struggles lessened as darkness started creeping in around her vision. Then she was falling, the griffon having released her as a Wonderbolt slammed into his back, burying her blades deep.
Rainbow felt herself get caught, and as she started to regain her senses she realised that it was Lightning and Skystinger holding her. "You're alright! Wait, where's Vapor?"
"I'm here," Vapor said shakily, hovering nearby. She had her blades drawn, and they had blood on them, telling Rainbow more than enough. She caught Vapor's eye and gave her a nod, Vapor returning it after a moment.
"You alright Dash?"
Rainbow turned back to the pony that had saved her, finding it was Spitfire. "Y-yeah," she replied to Spitfire's enquiry. "Thanks for the save." Rainbow noticed Soarin nearby, a heavily bleeding Meadow Flower held in his hooves. "Is she alright?"
"She will be if we can get her help in time," said Spitfire. "We've taken out or chased off the griffons attacking you, but we really need to get back to the Heavens Grace. The Night Guard are putting up one hell of a fight, but we're outnumbered two to one, and we're suffering for it."
Rainbow pulled herself from Lightning's and Skystinger's grip, and saluted Spitfire, narrowly avoiding her head with her blade. "What are your orders ma'am?"
"Form up on me and get ready because we're going in hard."
Rainbow checked her bracers as she waited for the signal to attack, finding that they were still holding solidly even after the rough treatment she'd given them.
"Are you really alright Rainbow?" Lightning asked, looking at Rainbow with concern.
"I'm sure I'll have plenty more opportunities to almost die before this is over." Rainbow had meant it jokingly, but the silence she got back told her it wasn't the right move. Thinking about it, it didn't feel like much of a joke. "What happened to you when the griffons attacked?" she asked to cover her awkwardness.
"I was going to follow you, but we had griffons on our tail, so I decided to fly to the airship in the hopes they'd kill the griffons chasing us. Surprisingly it worked. Then I convinced Spitfire to come back to help the rest of you."
"Good thinking. I was worried when I couldn't see you still up here."
"You guys are being super gay right now," Skystinger said to Rainbow and Lightning. "Seriously."
Rainbow looked around Skystinger to where Vapor was still hovering uncertainly, then shook her head at how oblivious he was being about his supposed best friend. She didn't get a chance to say anything on it though as Fleetfoot shouted a warning.
"Griffons headed this way!"
"This is it ponies!" Spitfire shouted. "We're going to fly straight through them and back to the Heavens' Grace. If you get a chance to take one out, do it, but don't risk yourselves until we get back to the main fight. Those carrying wounded, head straight for the ship, drop your ponies, and get back to the fight. Princess Luna will keep them safe. Now go-go-go!"
Rainbow swallowed nervously as the wave of griffons rapidly drew nearer, then met. Both groups were going far too fast to really do anything to the other as even in full armour, colliding at that speed could be deadly. Rainbow just focused on getting through to the other side and accelerated away from the griffons towards the airship where there was a considerably larger fight going on.
Thestrals, pegasi, and griffons zoomed about in a maddeningly confusing display of aerial acrobatics. The griffons were being the most aggressive of the flyers, while the thestrals concentrated on taking down isolated griffons. As for their own fight, the Wonderbolts here seemed more focused on surviving rather than fighting. It didn't look like they needed more fliers to add to it anyway, even though that's exactly what was happening as the arrowhead of Wonderbolts cut into the battle.
Rainbow dropped as a griffon swung a battle-axe at her, keeping herself well below the blade as one of the thestrals used the distraction to quickly take the griffon out. There wasn't much time to think about that as they flew into the melee proper.
The noise was incredible as metal rang against metal, griffons unleashed piercing cries, and thestrals answered with cries that transcended sound to become a physical force. There was also a strange, deep booming sound, that took Rainbow a while to work out was coming from a massive shield that Luna must have put up around the airship. With the Princess distracted with that she was likely unable to fight.
There wasn't any time to dwell on it though. Flying through the battle was like flying through a storm full of razorblades, with most of Rainbow's efforts going into dodging and weaving instead of attacking. That seemed to be the same for most of them though, as hardly anypony around her got a hit in, being far too busy with not getting hit themselves.
Rainbow growled in frustration. In a matter of minutes this whole situation had gone seriously sideways. They were supposed to destroy their targets and leave, nothing more. None of that suggested the possibility of getting into a giant fight with griffons of all things. And now she felt useless as ponies got hurt all around her.
Rainbow snarled and roll out of formation, aiming for a griffon hen that was fighting claw to hoof with a thestral. She charged in, barely even bothering to slow down, and plunged her blades into the neck of the griffon, avoiding her armour. Or at least she almost did. Rainbow's right bracer caught on something as she and the griffon fell, and Rainbow had to brace herself against the griffon's chest and push before coming free with a tearing of cloth. Rainbow took a moment to recuperate, nothing a neckerchief made of black cloth had become trapped in her bracer, and it didn't want to come out.
"What the hell are you doing Rainbow?" Thunderlane demanded to know as he and Cloud chased after her, then dragged her back into motion before any griffons could catch up. "You know you don't fly off on your own like that!"
"I'm sorry, but this is really stupid! How is anypony, or griffon, supposed to win if we're all just avoiding each other all the time?" All of them flinched as the shield around the airship boomed as it was struck again. Not that it mattered much as the shield filled up with smoke from the burning vessel.
"The only thing that could turn this fight now is Princess Luna," said Cloud. "We'll lose the ship and everypony on it if she does that though. We need to get out of here."
"Retreat? Are kidding me? We can beat them if we just try harder!"
"D and E squadrons are almost gone Rainbow!" Thunderlane shouted angrily. "We've lost two, unless Meadow pulls through, and I bet C squadron's lost ponies as well. Fuck knows how many thestrals have been killed, and the Heavens Grace is pretty much lost. We lost Rainbow. We lost bad."
"But..." Rainbow didn't get their point. The griffons weren't that tough, were they? Her wing alone had taken out over half a dozen at least. Unless they'd got lucky in their ambushes, while everypony else was just trying to stay alive.
Before Rainbow could follow her thoughts through to their conclusion, the shield around the airship collapsed with a force that sent anyone close enough tumbling through the air. A series of smaller shields then formed, carrying two dozen ponies, either wounded or non-pegasi, away from the burning wreck. Blasts of magic flew out from beside the shield, picking off a couple of griffons as Luna manoeuvred her shielded ponies to safety.
"Retreat!" Luna shouted in the royal Canterlot voice, being heard for miles around, "Retreat to Equestria!"
A mad scramble started as ponies started to flee the battle, and as the two forces started to separate Rainbow saw what she couldn't before; there were a lot more griffons than there were ponies, and a significantly smaller number of ponies than there was originally. They had lost badly.
Rainbow led her wing up in an arc that re-joined them with the rest of the Wonderbolts as Luna flew amongst them. "Take the orbs," she commanded. "There is one last thing I must do." Rainbow kept to the side as others started pushing the orbs containing ponies away from the battle. She wanted to see what Luna was going to do. She was very surprised when Luna started attacking the airship, riddling the envelope with holes, and cutting through the lines connecting the gondola to the balloon.
The two sections separated, and a blue glow took hold of the gondola as the envelope shot upwards, now unencumbered by the weight it normally carried. A second later Luna threw the gondola at their original target, the tank factory, then shot at a few griffons before teleporting away back to the retreating Equestrians.
Rainbow watched as the massive hull raced through the air, utterly unstoppable, and smashed through the roof of the factory, destroying both itself and much of the factory. She did wonder why Luna would risk destroying the ship like that, but soon realised that destroying it was much better than letting the Mareitanians get it, and at the very least the factory was significantly damaged.
It was hardly mission accomplished though as they fled as fast as they could.
-0-0-0-
The griffons soon gave up trying to chase after the retreating ponies after Luna proved that magic bridged a huge gap in airborne battles. That left the Equestrians with a few hundred demoralising miles left to fly. Luna guided them north to the only land route as getting exhausted with no place to land would only lead to more unnecessary losses. The fact that plenty of ponies there looked like they were fine with that fact was irrelevant.
"Get the fuck off me!" Rainbow cursed, shouting at the blade that was stuck on her hoof. The cloth stuck in her bracer was jamming the release mechanism, and the added frustration was pushing Rainbow over the edge when she already wanted nothing more than to throw her gear away and feel the soothing chill of the wind over her body. "Rrgh!"
"Calm yourself Rainbow," Luna said, her attention drawn by Rainbow's shouts. She pulled the blade free of its bracer, and sheathed it as she pulled the cloth free. "I hear you did well today Rainbow. You alone killed four griffons, while many failed to kill one."
"If I'd done well, we'd have won," Rainbow growled. "Where'd those griffons even come from? Does this mean the griffons have joined Mareitania?"
Luna unfolded the black cloth she'd pulled from Rainbow's bracer, revealing a small symbol. She held it up in front of Rainbow, "Do you know what that symbol is?"
Rainbow squinted at the symbol that was embroidered onto the cloth. It was a fan of three brown feathers, their ends covered in blood. She'd never seen it before. "I have no idea what that is."
"It is the symbol of the Bloodfeathers, a mercenary group associated with neither Griffonstone, or the Griffon Empire. They tend to operate in the far south in the more lawless regions of the world where a mercenary army can always find work. It seems that they have come into the employ of Faust now."
"But, how?"
"How indeed?" Luna sighed and tucked the cloth into her armour. "There is many a question I wish to have answered once I return to Canterlot. I wish I had more to give you Rainbow, but I know not these things myself. Instead I suggest you tend to your friends."
"Is Meadow Flower going to be alright?" Both of them looked at the pink and blonde mare in one of Luna's bubbles. She was unconscious, and her breathing was shallow.
"If she can hold on until we make it to the blockade, she should survive, but until then I shall make no promises. I am sorry Rainbow Dash."
"Yeah, me too," Rainbow said listlessly before drifting back towards her friends. Cloud hugged herself as she flew, while Thunderlane just seemed to be in his own world now the fight was over. Lightning, Skystinger, and Vapor flew nearby as well, to two former flying each side of the latter as she cried softly.
"How you doing Rainbow?" Cloud asked as she noticed Rainbow's return.
"I want to say I'm fine, but we both know that'd be a massive lie. What about you though? Are you okay after, y'know, killing?"
Cloud was silent for several seconds before sighing guiltily. "I want to say no, but I'm more shaken by the fight than anything. I know this probably sounds really specist, but I don't think I'm as bothered by the killing because- because-"
"Because they weren't ponies?"
"Yeah. Is that wrong?"
"Maybe? I don't know. I think I'm too angry at them being there to care that I killed four of them."
"You know we got lucky, right?" Thunderlane said unexpectedly. "If we hadn't ambushed them, we probably wouldn't have been able to get any of them."
"Then how do we beat them?" Rainbow asked back to what Thunderlane said. All of them looked up as Spitfire flew over.
"You don't," she answered for them. "Historically speaking, most aerial battles tend to go like the one we just had, with two sides whittling each other down until one gives up. If the griffons are going to be involved in the fighting, the most we can do is distract them while our ground forces do their thing. You guys did well today, just so you know."
"But we lost!" Rainbow said, exasperated at hearing the same thing from Spitfire that she did from Luna.
"Don't let our defeat sell short your performance. I will say you were pretty reckless at times, from what I saw, but I'm afraid I don't feel like arguing with results right now. Speed and agility are the only advantages we really have over griffons in this case, and sometimes you really need to push your advantages." Spitfire frowned as Vapor sniffled, "You alright there Vapor?"
"Y-yes ma'am."
"First kill?" Vapor nodded listlessly. "Yeah, that's always tough, and so is losing ponies. I can get you somepony to talk to once we get back to base?"
"I-uh, I'll think about it. What's going to happen to all the ponies we left behind?"
Spitfire looked down to the ground, not really wanting to answer. "We'll inform their families, but that's all we can really do apart from hope the Mareitanians treat our dead with respect." What Spitfire didn't have the heart to say was that considering the Mareitanians history with pegasi, that seemed more than a little unlikely.
"That's horrible!" gasped Cloud.
"I wish we could do better for them," Spitfire sighed, "but we can only deal with the fact that we couldn't bring them with us. Believe me, I already feel like I failed them enough. I never prepared any of you for aerial fighting."
"And what's going to happen to D and E squadrons?" Skystinger asked.
Spitfire winced at Skystinger's question. D and E squadrons had bore the brunt of the griffons ambush, and had lost over half their members in the first minute of the battle, and took more casualties in that time than the Wonderbolts had ever lost in their entire history up to that point. At the moment they didn't even have enough ponies left to build a squadron between them.
"Forget that," said Lightning. "What about us? Are we going to be expected to go back there knowing there's hundreds of griffons waiting for us?"
"I... don't know. Let's just focus on getting back to Equestria before anything else. Once we're there we can worry about the other stuff. We will definitely be training in aerial combat though, if griffons are going to be involved in the war. I wish I could talk more guys, but I have plenty of others I need to talk to as well. Are you all at least okay for now?" Spitfire waited until she got a nod from all of them. "Okay, good. Just try to focus on flying for now."
"Easier said than done," Cloud said as Spitfire flew over to Pizzelle and Sightseer, Meadow Flower's wingmates.
-0-0-0-
Hours passed, and the distance to their destination grew shorter, although it was still far too long for some of them. "Meadow Flower's gone," Thunderlane said quietly, watching the medic give up the fight to save her.
Rainbow closed her eyes and sighed as the others either cursed or cried. The cries of Meadow Flower's wing mates could be heard not too far away. "This is so fucked up. I should've gone with Twilight, I should've-" Rainbow pulled her helmet off and wiped her eyes, "Fuck! We're miles from Mareitania and they're still killing us!"
"Rainbow," Lightning warned. "Stop, please."
"No, I'm not going to stop! How could those griffons do this? Just kill so many of us, and for what? A few bits, or whatever it is they use?"
"We killed plenty of them as well."
"Not enough! We're just trying to defend our country, but those griffons killed us for money! Doesn't that make you sick? To think that our lives, and their own, hold so little value to them that they'll fight and kill for money?"
"Yes," Lightning said as calmly as she could, "but why they do it doesn't change anything, so stop shouting, please; ponies are trying to hold it together, and they don't need what you're doing."
"But-" Rainbow groaned and slumped, almost dropping her helmet. "I don't know what to do Lightning. I don't even know how I'm supposed to feel about this, and that just makes me angrier."
"I get it Dash, I do, and I'm telling you now, the next time we meet griffons, hopefully we're going to be ready for them."
-0-0-0-
Nopony got in the way as Luna stormed through Canterlot castle, a scrap of black cloth held in her magic as she made her way to the one individual she felt could shed some light on their new situation.
Luna burst into the private quarters of the griffon ambassador where the ambassador herself was sitting quietly at her desk, writing a letter until Luna burst through the door and slammed the neckerchief she took from Rainbow down on the desk in front of her. "What is the meaning of this?" Deetra squawked, both shocked and terrified by the sudden intrusion by the livid alicorn.
"Did you know?!"
"Know what?"
Luna slammed her hoof on the scarf, "About this! Griffon mercenaries ambushed us in Mareitania, and I want to know if you knew about it!"
Deetra peered at the symbol on the scarf, "Bloodfeathers?"
"I know the Emperor likes to keep tabs on these groups, in case they ever get used against him, so if anyone would know about the Mareitanians hiring them, it would be you. So I'll ask again, as calmly as I can despite the fact that they killed forty-three of my thestrals, and sixteen Wonderbolts, did you know they were there?"
"No, of course not! Last I heard a month ago, the Bloodfeathers were being employed to expand the frontier in the far south around Abyssinia. They weren't even in the same hemisphere as us, so I have no idea how they ended up in Mareitania."
"Then would you care to hazard a guess as to how a country that shouldn't even know the Bloodfeathers exist, let alone where to find them, managed to employ them to fight?"
"There are dozens of mercenary groups in the world Princess, and I don't find it unreasonable to suggest that they could have put the Mareitanians in touch with the Bloodfeathers. All I can really say is that whoever did it really has something against Equestria."
Luna narrowed her eyes at the ambassador, "Someone like the Emperor for example?"
"No, he wouldn't, I can assure you of that. He hates the Bloodfeathers far more than he hates Equestria."
"And why should I believe that?"
"If you're looking for proof, I can provide none. What I can give you is a promise that our intelligence service will look into whoever it is that got the Bloodfeathers and Mareitanians in contact."
"That same intelligence service that failed to realise and inform us that a thousand griffon mercenaries turned up in Mareitania?"
"I realise you're angry and want someone to blame Princess, but you're looking at the wrong griffon. I'd like to remind you that your own reconnaissance failed to discover the presence of the Bloodfeathers as well. Now I promise you I will do my best to find the culprit behind the Bloodfeathers being in Mareitania, but that's all I can help you with I'm afraid."
Luna relented, not unwilling to believe that the ambassador might actually be telling the truth, and without proof Luna had nothing to accuse the Griffon Empire with anyway. At the very least they might be able to find who was behind the Bloodfeathers employment.
"Very well, I thank you for your understanding of my frustration, and I hope your investigations turn up something quick. In the meantime, I have somepony I have to meet with. Good day."
"Good day, Princess," Deetra said, a little bewildered by what had just happened. She picked the scarf up in a claw and looked closer at the symbol. As much as Luna might insist otherwise, she genuinely had no idea the Bloodfeathers had become involved. She could only hope that she was correct in her assertions that any griffons in the Empire weren't involved either.
-0-0-0-
It had been a long time since Luna had felt the rage she was feeling now, and the feeling simmered beneath the surface as she made her way to one of the many meeting rooms where she'd arranged to meet with somepony that might be able to help. It was therefore a great relief to her that the pony had answered the summons, especially at such short notice.
"Thank you for coming so quick," she said to the white coated and blue maned pegasus before her. "I was worried you wouldn't come at all since none of you volunteered to fight."
Windy Rush leaned forwards and smiled at Luna. "No problem at all 'Selene.' You had my interest the moment you said you wanted us to fight Mareitania. Besides, we have an interest in protecting Equestria as well now, and we'd rather die than see it become another Mareitania."
"How many of the other Mareitanian pegasi are willing to fight?"
"Plenty. Trust me about that." |
The end of an era | 18. Cleanup | "Another griffon flight just went over," Rocky said, peering out of the window of the train carrying him and his companions to Stalliongrad. "This country suddenly got a lot more interesting very quickly."
"I just want to know how many griffons there are," Creme said back. "I've not really paid attention to groups like the Bloodfeathers, and have no idea if they're a thousand strong, or two thousand... five thousand?"
Tootsie looked up momentarily from studying the map of Mareitania they'd been provided with before arriving in the country, "I thought they tended to recruit as they needed, don't they? Luring young griffons in with promises of wealth and adventure? Plays havoc with the Griffon Empire's national service if I remember correctly."
"I doubt that's the reason the Emperor doesn't like them though," Rocky said, lowering his voice as a pony walked past. "He does sound like one to take offense at anything though."
"The Emperor doesn't like them because he employed them once," Bon Bon said, breaking her silence. "Then when he tried to stiff them for the rest of their payment they kidnapped his son to ransom him for the money. Then when he finally paid, his son went joined the Bloodfeathers."
"Wait, you mean the Emperor's son is likely here in Mareitania?" Creme said in disbelief. "That sounds like the beginning of a political nightmare."
"If the Emperor hadn't disowned said son," Tootsie said flatly. "Don't you remember the big hoo-haa from a few years back when the Emperor broke the line of succession by naming his youngest daughter as the heir to the throne?"
"Can't say I do. I sort of shut myself off from the world for a while after Smile collapsed. After the bugbear incident..." Creme smiled tightly, "I was still smarting pretty hard from that."
"I think we all were," said Rocky. "It's all in the past now though, so we should focus on what we're doing now. Speaking of, Bon Bon?"
Bon Bon looked both ways up and down the isle to check that nopony was coming before saying what their objective was. "Demolition op. We're going to do what the entirety of the Night Guard and Wonderbolts couldn't."
"Oh, well that sounds easy," Rocky said sarcastically. "Especially since there's only four of us and our bare hooves."
"Griffon Intelligence is making a drop on behalf of Equis, containing everything we could need to complete our mission. We're to meet with them outside the city tonight."
"Outside the city where?" Tootsie asked.
"At the tank factory that was destroyed during the civil war. Apparently it's been abandoned ever since." Bon Bon put the tip of a hoof on Tootsie's map where the destroyed factory was located. "It's only a couple of miles away from Stalliongrad, so it shouldn't take long to get there. It's also the easy part."
"This sounds promising," sighed Creme.
"While the attack to destroy the tank factory was a failure, Princess Luna did throw the hull of a massive airship through it, damaging it heavily. Because of this there's likely to be an even heavier guard presence, and makes our mission more important because we also need to destroy any remains of the airship before the Mareitanians can learn anything from it."
"So we're going to be making a fireworks show to remember?" Rocky asked, brightening up considerably.
Bon Bon grinned back at him, "We'll be making a fireworks show they couldn't possibly forget, no matter how hard they try."
-0-0-0-
Tootsie let out a low whistle as they came up to the destroyed factory where they were picking up their supply drop. "Princess Twilight really did a number on this place," she said, looking at the collapsed chimneys, twisted metal, and burnt out remains of the factory. "It's almost terrifying what an alicorn can do when they're in the right mood."
"Or the wrong one," Creme said darkly as she noticed the rotted and half buried remains of a pony. "I can't believe they never came back to this place to clean up."
"Maybe it never occurred to the rebels to want to come back here since they had the pony that designed all this anyway," said Tootsie. She jumped up onto the broken remains of a chimney and steadied herself as the rubble shifted. "Unless you meant the Duke's forces, in which case I guess they simply didn't care."
"Getting utterly thrashed does have a way of straightening your priorities," Rocky agreed. "Who cares anyway? I just want to get out of here 'cause this place gives me the creeps. How long until the griffon gets here Chief?"
Bon Bon looked up at the sky and shrugged, "Heck if I know. It's not like flying is an exact science. Fleur said to be here around mid-afternoon, and we are, so that's all we can do."
"What if they got caught on the way here?" Creme asked nervously. "It's not like we can pull this mission off without that gear."
"We'd find a way," said Bon Bon. "Maybe we could steal explosives from the quarry north of Stalliongrad or something... " Bon Bon found herself short of words as she looked up at a wave of magic that swept through the sky, obliterating the clouds that had been omnipresent over the country since they had arrived, and leaving a clear and sunny sky. "What the fuck?"
"Well that can't be good," Rocky said quietly.
Tootsie swallowed as her eyes followed the wave of magic as it passed over them, "It would appear that the alicorn Faust has regained the use of her magic."
Bon Bon nodded vaguely, suddenly appreciating the power that Faust had been described as having. "Creme, get on the speaker stone to Fleur and tell her what we just saw. Now."
"Yeah," Creme said dazedly, before shaking it off and complying with Bon Bon's order. "I didn't even know that was possible."
"A whole new plethora of spells are probably opened up to you when you have that kind of power," said Tootsie. "This is bad. Like, really, really bad."
Bon Bon stamped a hoof at Tootsie's words, "Faust isn't our problem, so stop thinking about it. Only worry about it if the princesses can't stop her, in which case, we've lost anyway."
"Griffon at four o'clock," Rocky shouted as he spotted a laden griffon wobbling through the air towards them. "Wait, if he was flying over the city, why are we meeting here?"
Bon Bon ignored Rocky as the griffon came in to land roughly on the emptiest patch of factory floor he could find, and slid off the box that was strapped to his back. "Pleasant flight?" she asked, waiting for the counter reply. She also noticed he was wearing mismatched armour, and had twin daggers sheathed to his legs earth pony style, with the hilts pointing downward.
"What the fucking hell was that big magic thing?" the griffon gasped breathlessly.
"I said, pleasant flight?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, the weather were perfect," the griffon said as sarcastically as possible. "Now seriously, what the fuck were that?"
"That's was weather management Faust style," Bon Bon replied. "Now why are you dressed like a Bloodfeather? It's making me a bit nervous."
"Nah, I'm definitely with G.I. We're running our own op here for a little bit, trying ta find out why the Bloodfeathers are fighting for Mareitania."
"Oh? It's nothing to do with the Empire then?"
"Not in the slightest, now quit askin' 'cause I probably told you too much already."
"Are you sure it wasn't elements within the Empire that have an interest in seeing Equestria fall?"
"I. Don't. Know. Quit asking." The griffon growled and ruffled his feathers, "It's already bad enough that I'm having to be a glorified delivery boy without you delving into G.I operations. What's even in that box?"
"High powered explosives hopefully," Tootsie said as she pulled the crate open. Then she squealed happily, "With radio detonators! They're spoiling us! They even gave us short range communicators as well. Best Hearthswarming ever!"
"Just don't," Rocky said to the griffon as he gawped blankly at Tootsie. "She's really into this stuff."
"Riiiiight... anyway, is there anything you want to tell me for my own safety?"
"Not sure we're at liberty to say," Bon Bon said smoothly. "However, we advise you to avoid being around the tank factory tonight."
"For how long?"
"Up until the point there isn't a tank factory to go back to."
"Y'know, you ponies can be a lot less cute than you look."
"Ooooh," Rocky hissed. "Now, a pony can call another pony cute, but when a non-pony does it, it's kinda... y'know, not cool."
The griffon snorted a laugh, "Yeah, you can fuck right off with that crap. You ain't fooling nobody. Anyway, I better be off, so good luck with your crazy demo mission."
"And good luck with yours," Bon Bon said before the griffon took off. She watched him go for a while, then turned back to Tootsie, who was still grinning broadly. "Any other toys in there?"
Tootsie smiled a little wider and pulled a quartet of sleek back suits out of the box, "They gave us back our suits." She held one up to her nose and breathed deeply, "Aah... they still smell the same."
"I fucking hate those bloody gimp suits," Rocky grumbled quietly.
"And I never understood why," Tootsie said back.
"That's because you're not a stallion. All you get is a small case of camel toe, which is great, don't get me wrong, but not worth what it does to my own bits."
-0-0-0-
Bon Bon laid back in her hiding spot, flexing her right hoof back and forth, activating the spring loaded dagger that was strapped on there, making sure it still worked after how long it hadn't been used.
Shink.
Bon Bon uncurled her hoof, and the dagger slid back inside its housing. Originally designed with the intention of being able to punch through both the chitin of a changeling, along with what armour it might be wearing, she was sure the blade wouldn't have any problems with ponies and their armour.
If Lyra ever learnt the whole truth about me... Bon Bon sighed and pushed the thought away, and pressed a hoof to the small device hooked around her left ear, activating its microphone. "Check in please."
"Tootsie ready to go."
"Rocky is a go."
"Creme ready."
Bon Bon nodded with satisfaction as her teammates checked in, then looked at her watch. "Okay, it's coming up to twenty to one now. I'm giving us an hour to do this, which is well before the next shift change. If you have any complications, get in touch, and we'll try to sort it out."
"How deadly are we allowed to be?" Rocky asked.
"As deadly as you want. Anypony still alive in the area is only going to get caught in the explosion anyway. Just pick your fights wisely, and try not to get caught." Bon Bon held up her watch and kept and eye on it as it counted down the last minute until twenty to one. "And we're a-go. See you back at the rendezvous." -+
Bon Bon clicked the microphone back off, and heard the clicks of the others as they did the same. Then she stood, grabbed hold of the secured grapple in her hoof, and dropped backwards off the roof of the building she was on, rappelling swiftly down to the ground where she swiftly tugged three times on the rope, causing the grapple to go loose so she could pull it down after her. She'd always hated those things, as she never trusted when the intuitive spell woven into them to go off at the wrong time.
Her rope and grapple secured, she slipped across the street to the boundary wall of the factory while keeping an eye out for any guards. There seemed to be very few around the factory, and their daytime scouting had shown that most of the forces they'd brought to the city had either departed again, or were being used to patrol the entire city, instead of just the factory, which made things easier. There was also very few griffons, which helped even more since the sharp eyed griffons could spot her a lot easier than a pony could.
The coast appearing to be clear, Bon Bon backed off a dozen meters, then sprinted at the wall before jumping up and using her momentum to run up the wall far enough to hook a hoof over the edge and pull herself up on top. There were short spikes atop the wall, but were spaced out enough to not be a problem as she jumped down on the inside, keeping to the shadows.
The rear end of the Heavens Grace sat on the ground to the side of the factory, having broken off after impact while the rest of the ship sat lodged awkwardly inside the factory at a roughly forty five degree angle. Bon Bon wasn't the kind of pony to question the princesses, but couldn't Luna have seen fit to set the vessel on fire before she lobbed it at the factory? It would have negated at lot of the destruction work Bon Bon needed to carry out since she was in charge of making sure the airship was destroyed.
The sound of two voices coming closer made Bon Bon freeze, and she pressed herself deeper into the shadows as they came around the side of the factory towards her, a mare and a stallion, whom idly chatted back and forth as they patrolled.
"I'm telling you, those griffons are weird," said the stallion. "I'm not sure what possessed the Council to employ them."
"Thank the Lady they did though, right? Those fucking pegasi could do anything to us, and there was hardly a thing we could do to them."
"I guess, but why are we so in favour of griffons though? They're basically smart birds with cats asses, and that's it. My problem with them is that they have no loyalty to our cause, or any cause. All they do is fight for money, so what happens if Equestria makes a better offer?"
"They wouldn't do that," said the mare. "Surely once they see the reasons we fight, they'll want to fight as well."
"Or they won't have a choice once the brainwashing sets in," Bon Bon mumbled to herself once the two guards had moved on. Fanatical griffons was not something Bon Bon was keen to see in action, not when that same bloody-mindedness that went into acquiring riches was put into something else.
With the coast now clear, Bon Bon cautiously walked over to the broken off end of the airship, and slipped in through its opening, thankfully finding it deserted. It only took a minute to find a couple of suitable spots to place some explosives that should hopefully destroy it entirely. That done, Bon Bon put some thought into destroying the rest of it. Mostly in how to get up to it.
It didn't take long to conclude that the only way to do that was from inside the factory, so Bon Bon exited the fallen section of airship, and studied the outside of the factory for an unguarded way in. There were plenty of smashed out windows offering a way in, so she picked one a few floors above the ground, and tossed her grapple up to it before quickly climbing up.
There was a metal walkway inside the window which Bon Bon dropped onto, keeping her hoofsteps as light as possible to reduce the noise. As she'd thought, the front of the Heavens Grace reached the floor, although the very end was mostly smashed. It should be easy enough to get inside it from the ground, plant the explosives, and get back out again.
A quick flash of movement caught Bon Bon's eye, and she turned her head enough to catch the sight of Tootsie grab a guard from behind and bury her blade under his chin and into his brain, quickly silencing him. She dragged the body into the dark she'd been hiding in, then crept out to plant some explosives under the workbenches there.
Bon Bon smiled briefly, glad to see her team hadn't lost their edge over the last few years. Then she set her mind back to the task, and started walking around the walkway until she found some stairs leading down.
The factory floor was a mess of scaffolds, components, and half built machines, providing plenty of cover to sneak through towards the remains of the airship. Bon Bon stopped as a guard passed in front of her, idly humming to herself and not paying a massive amount of attention to her surroundings. Bon Bon was about to let her pass, then thought that the mare stood a chance of running into one of her teammates, and decided that a dead mare saw nothing. One alarm, and this was over.
Bon Bon kept low as she crept swiftly towards the mare, staying right behind her until the last moment, all while keeping an eye out for further guards. None came, so Bon Bon jumped forwards alongside the mare and thrust her weapon up under the mares chin. She flexed her hoof, shooting the blade out and killing the mare before she could make so much as a noise, then caught the body as it fell, pulling it sideways and hiding it in the hollow structure of a half built tank.
The coast remained clear for the rest of the distance to her destination, although she did see Creme planting some explosives around the foundry at the far end of the factory, the area suspiciously clear of guards. Bon Bon shrugged and carried on to the end of the airship touching the ground, a lot of which had been cut away to allow easy access, something that Bon Bon made happy use of.
Ropes had been set up down the central corridor of the airship, and thin strips of wood nailed to the floor, making it easier for ponies to traverse the steep floor made of lacquered wood. It also confirmed Equis's worst fear about the stranded airship in that the Mareitanians might try to copy it, either entirely, or to make smaller designs. Without the magic to negate the weight of the gondola, something this size would never fly, assuming that the Mareitanians could find the right way to construct and inflate the envelope. However, that didn't mean that other designs couldn't be based off of what they had conveniently sitting here.
As if she needed further proof of the Mareitanians intentions of the airship, Bon Bon found surveying equipment in some of the rooms she went in as she planted her explosives, left overnight to be picked back up the next morning. She was highly tempted to mess with it, but soon thought of how pointless that would be once they set the explosives off.
Bon Bon kept going until she reached the highest point of the airship, and she could see the night sky beyond. She could also see a griffon nestled in the end, curled up sleeping. Bon Bon didn't want to take a chance on it waking as she worked, so she crept up beside it, held her weapon next to its head, and curled her hoof, shooting the blade out, and killing the griffon without disturbing it. Not a move she was proud of, but one that was necessary.
The coast once again clear, Bon Bon planted the remainder of her explosives, and started the journey back down through the gondola. She exited through the cut open end, and looked left, seeing a raised room at the end of the factory that she assumed was some overseers' office. Not remarkable in itself, but there were candles lit inside the room, and a guard posted at the top of the stairs outside the door. That alone made it worthy of investigating. Even more so since there was still plenty of time on the clock.
Keeping low, and moving from cover to cover, Bon Bon made her way closer to the office. The bored looking stallion standing guard hadn't so much as twitched a muscle the entire time, and Bon Bon wondered if he'd actually managed to fall asleep while standing up. The theory didn't hold though as she reached the bottom of the metal stairs and tapped a hoof on them before hiding. As she expected, the guard looked over to investigate.
"Who's there? If that was you again Dale, this shit ain't funny." Bon Bon stayed quiet, and the stallion snorted as he returned to his position. "Fucking assholes."
Bon Bon frowned quietly, unsure of how she was supposed get up the stairs and into the office without being spotted. She needed to take the guard out, but that was hard to do without getting spotted either. She sat there for a minute until she saw Rocky across the factory, hiding in the shadow from the airship's hull. She clicked on her microphone and very quietly whispered into it, "Rocky?"
It was a few moments until she got an answer, but eventually she heard a click, then Rocky himself. "Yeah?"
"Do you see the office at the end of the factory, by the main entrance?"
Another moment. "Yeah, I see it. Guard standing outside the door?"
"That's the one. I'm underneath the stairs, and I need to take the guard out. Any chance you can come over here and help me?"
"Sure, I was about to plant my last explosives and head out anyway. Give me a minute, and I'll be right there."
"Save one for the office."
"Can do."
Another click came over the radio, and Bon Bon clicked her own off and waited. She didn't see Rocky do anything, and was a little surprised when he appeared almost next to her. He gave her a friendly nod, then held up his remaining bomb for Bon Bon, who pushed it away, then pointed under the office, gesturing for him to plant it there.
He did as Bon Bon directed, pulling the strip of the package and sticking to the underneath of the office, then pressed a box with two gems in, and waited for one to turn green. That done, he returned to Bon Bon, who gestured for him to pick her up and lift her so she could reach the landing before the second flight of stairs leading to the office's door. It was also behind the guard where he hopefully wouldn't see them until too late.
Rocky crouched down, letting Bon Bon jump up onto his back, before standing and raising Bon Bon enough so she could grab the stairs and pull herself up. She crept up them slowly, thanking the small amount of padding the suits gave them on their hooves to reduce noise, and very quietly raised her right hoof so it was behind the stallions head, the blade pointed between where the neck armour and helmet met. Then she flexed her hoof.
The guard started to fall forwards, but Bon Bon grabbed him before he could fall off the stairs and draw attention. Where she was standing was already exposed enough without having him fall off the stairs in full armour, so stopping him was a priority, followed by propping him up against the wall so he at least looked like still doing his job.
"You okay?" Rocky whispered after a few moments of quiet clattering as Bon Bon tried to get the guard to sit and remain mostly upright.
"I'm fine," she grunted back. She finally got the guard in a halfway decent position, then moved back so she could see Rocky. "Stay out here and radio me if anything changes."
"Gotcha. Still don't know why we're doing this though, since we're blowing this place to pieces anyway?"
"Just-" Bon Bon couldn't deny that she had no real idea why she was doing this either. Sating her curiosity would hardly stand up to scrutiny as a reason, yet that was exactly what she was doing. It was no loss if it was nothing, so that had been enough reason to think 'why not?' "Just stay there. I'll be back soon."
The door opened with a low squeak, and released a waft of air that smelled mostly of candle smoke, which led Bon Bon to wonder if any ponies within were trying to kill themselves through smoke inhalation. Bon Bon poked her head in through the door, finding a single pony within, a pale yellow earth pony mare, who was slumped over the desk at the far end of the room. She was still breathing though, so if it was an attempt at self annihilation, it had failed.
Bon Bon ignored the sleeping pony for now, choosing to focus on all the sketches of the airship gondola, with cross-sections and all the other things that went on with this sort of thing. Bon Bon wasn't an expert, and made no claims to be. Tootsie would probably have been right at home though. All Bon Bon could get from it was that the Mareitanians had taken a strong interest in the remains of the Heavens Grace.
Bon Bon studied the drawings a little longer, but getting nothing from them she decided to move on. They'd be destroyed when the factory blew, so that wasn't an issue. Instead, Bon Bon decided to face the burning question of who the mare in the room was. She wasn't in a uniform, so there was no telling who she was, other than the mare making these designs. She did match the description of a pony that was given in their briefing. A very important pony in the Mareitanian government, whom Bon Bon was sure would be greatly missed for her technical knowhow rather than as a living, breathing pony.
It took Bon Bon several seconds of internal debate over whether to kill the mare, leave her to the bombs, or to wake her and ask some very pointed questions. She theorised that again she had nothing to lose by saying hello.
Bon Bon positioned herself ready to drop her weight on the mare in a way that would clamp her muzzle down against the desk, since she was like that already, stopping her from shouting. The last thing she needed was to get caught in the middle of an already unnecessary endeavour.
Bon Bon dropped on the mare, her left leg pressing down on the mare's muzzle, while her right leg grabbed the mare around the neck. The mare woke immediately, but held down like she was she could only emit a whine as she struggled to free herself in her confusion. "Stop fighting," Bon Bon hissed. The mare slowly stopped struggling, but became no less tense. "The guard outside the door is dead, so he can't help you. However, if you scream, or shout, I will be forced to kill you, understood?" The mare nodded weakly, tears falling. "Good." Bon Bon released some of the pressure on the mare's muzzle, "Who are you?"
"H-Honeydew. I'm the-"
"Chief engineer for the Mareitanian government. I thought as much. What are you doing here?"
"I've been instructed to make a blueprint of the ship that crashed here."
"So you could make your own?" Honeydew nodded. "How far into that are you?"
"I could build one, b-but I don't know how to make it fly. Please don't kill me."
"Stay quiet, and I won't have to."
"You're Equestrian, aren't you?" Bon Bon didn't answer. "Please, get me out of here and I will help you in this war however I can."
"You defected from the Duke's side during the civil war, didn't you? Now you want to defect again. Do you have an issue with loyalty?"
"I joined the rebels so I wouldn't have to build weapons. Then Faust came, and now I'm building nothing but weapons! Please, I don't want to be here any more!"
"Why aren't you going ga-ga over Faust like everypony else here? How are you immune to the magic forcing everypony to love her?"
"Magic? What magic?"
"You really don't know anything about that?" Bon Bon hummed as Honeydew shook her head. "Alright, I'm going to let you go. If you scream, I will kill you. If you try to run away, I will kill you. And if you try to attack me, I will kill you. Is that clear?"
"Yes."
Bon Bon released Honeydew, and took a step back as she sat up and massaged her muzzle. "So you really hate what they have you doing?"
"I do. I just wanted to live a life of peace, using my inventions to help ponies, not hurt them."
"Then do you at least realise that if you were to defect, again, that you'd only be building weapons for us to beat the Mareitanians with?"
"A victory for Equestria ends the war. A victory for Faust just means more conflict. Please, even if you don't use me to create weapons, I still know enough to make getting me out of here worth it!"
Bon Bon silently regarded the mare before her for several long seconds, trying to decide if it was worth the effort of getting her out of there. At the very least she could paint a better picture of the political landscape than they currently had.
"Alright, we're getting you out of here. But, if at any point you become a problem, I think you know what I'm going to do. For your sake, you best not be a problem, because getting you out of here is pretty far from my purpose here."
Bon Bon gestured towards the door, giving the hint that Honeydew should go first, mostly because Bon Bon didn't want the mare behind her. She also clicked her mic on and asked Rocky if the coast was clear.
"I honestly think most ponies in here are dead by now," Rocky replies blithely. "Can't say how long it'll be before ponies from outside start coming in though."
"Right, we best wrap this up then. Creme, Tootsie, if you aren't already getting out, do so. We're extracting a prisoner, and you don't need to get caught if this goes sideways."
"Wait," Creme said slowly, "we were taking prisoners? Since when?"
"Since just now. Trust me, this one might be worth the effort. See you at the rendezvous, over." A pair of clicks was all Bon Bon got back, but that was enough. She prodded Honeydew forwards through the door, and marched her down the stairs, past the still propped up guard, and down to where Rocky was waiting.
"I hope you know what you're doing Chief."
"You and me both. I think it'll be easier to use the tuck in and carry method to get her out of here."
"Aww, I hate that way. You always make me do the carrying."
"What's the tuck in and carry method?" Honeydew asked nervously. Bon Bon couldn't imagine how such a wet blanket of a mare ever achieved the statuses she did in both the Duchy, and the Republic. Still, she was valuable, and Bon Bon didn't really care either way.
"It goes a little like this," Bon Bon said soothingly, right before she punched Honeydew on the head as hard as she could, knocking Honeydew out. Bon Bon cursed and shook her hoof, trying to stop it throbbing. "Think I'm out of practice doing that."
"Worked like a charm though," Rocky said as he hoisted Honeydew up onto his back, and tied her forelegs together around his neck for extra security. "How are we getting out of here then?"
"Silently I hope." Bon Bon led the way, aiming to go back out the way she came in, and then use the rear of the airship to get over the boundary wall. A simple enough method, but getting caught created all kinds of problems, beyond the obvious ones. Trying to hide away with the chief weapons designer in Mareitania would probably trigger one hell of a marehunt as they tried to get her back. Not a desirable situation to be in.
The way back to the window was at least clear, and Bon Bon took a moment to listen out for any patrols before placing her grapple and rappelling down to the ground. A quick look around in all directions, including up, and Bon Bon gestured for Rocky to follow her down, Honeydew dangling off him like an afterthought as he descended.
A trio of rapid tugs brought the grapple down after them, and she led the way to the rear of the airship, slipping back inside it, and shushing Rocky as the sound of talking reached their ears.
"Guess we found the guards," Rocky said with a dirty grin.
Bon Bon rolled her eyes, and made her way through the airship, a blush growing on her cheeks as the two guard ponies changed from regular talking to talking dirty. It was at least a relief that they'd shut themselves in one of the rooms, leaving the stairs up to the top deck, and their way out, clear. All they had to do then, was jump the couple of meters between themselves and the wall.
"This would've been impossible if there were still griffons here."
"There was a griffon here, sleeping up there." Bon Bon pointed up at the broken off part of the airship that pointed up out of the factory. "I imagine there'll still be plenty of soldiers, griffon and otherwise, between us and the rendezvous."
"And here we are carrying a pony that's easily recognisable by them. What fun."
"Oh come on, it's not that far. We'll just have to stick to the quieter streets, like we would have anyway." Bon Bon sighed and set into something between a canter and a trot, that quickly carried them towards their destination, an abandoned building on the east of the city that Fleur told them about. It overlooked the old pegasus compound that had yet to be demolished, although why they hadn't thought to demolish it and build the tank factory there instead was anypony's guess, rather than demolish a functioning part of the city, even if they were slums.
Caution extended the length of the journey, but it was worth it as soldiers patrolled the city at regular intervals. The patrols weren't as heavy as Bon Bon had thought they might be though. She suspected that they knew that nopony was likely to attack them now, not after how things went last time. It would soon come as a surprise to them how wrong they were in that supposition.
The rendezvous was in darkness as they reached it, scurrying across the street and in through the half open door. They could hear the low talking of Creme and Tootsie above them, leaving Bon Bon relieved that they had also made it back. Honeydew was also starting to stir, having stayed out long enough for them to get away.
"Hail, Chief," Tootsie said cheerfully as Bon Bon and Rocky made their way up the half rotted stairs and into the room they were using. "So that's the pony you made such a big effort to extract?" she said as Rocky dumped the half conscious Honeydew onto the floor. "Who is she?"
"Honeydew," Bon Bon answered curtly, leaving Tootsie to work the rest out.
"Honeydew? As in the chief engineer of Mareitania, who designed the tanks and such? Oh wow, this day keeps getting better and better!"
"But why is she here?" Creme asked with a sniff. "I don't remember kidnapping prominent members of the Mareitanian government being on our to-do list."
"She wanted out, so we gave her out."
"You talked to her, didn't you? Why?"
"Because she knows stuff Creme, stuff that we might benefit from knowing. This way we get what we want, and so, possibly, does she."
"Possibly?" Creme chuckled darkly, "You have no idea if we can get her out of here, do you? You've already resigned yourself to the fact we might have to kill her anyway."
"I haven't resigned myself to anything, Creme, now shut your mouth before she hears you." Bon Bon turned her back on Creme as the mare still grinned unpleasantly, and untied the ropes from Honeydew's hooves, only to re-tie them to her back hooves in a way that completely immobilised her. Just in time as Honeydew grunted in pain and started struggling.
"Agh... ow."
"You okay there?"
"Rngh."
"Yeah, sorry about that whole hitting you thing." Bon Bon paused as Honeydew started to struggle against her bonds and cry. "Uh, could you stop that? I know it doesn't look good, but it's just a precaution until we know we can trust you enough."
Honeydew nodded and sniffed, trying to fight back her tears. "Okay," she squeaked in a mouse's voice.
"Good. Now I should probably tell you what's going to happen next. Firstly, there's going to be a massive explosion at the factory, destroying it, the airship, and Mareitania's ability to produce tanks. Then we're going to ask you some questions."
"You're going to destroy the factory?"
"We are. Is that a problem?"
"There are ponies in there."
"Wrong. There are soldiers in there." Bon Bon smiled weakly, "I'm afraid they don't get the same consideration as ordinary ponies. Not that it should bother us too much if that wasn't the case, since your Shades don't seem to have an issue with blowing up civilians."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"It's not important right now. Tootsie, the detonator please."
"Aww man," Tootsie whined, pulling the detonator out and tossing it to Bon Bon. "I wanted to push the button."
Bon Bon deftly caught the detonator and held it in front of Honeydew, "I push this button, and the factory explodes. Of course, if you're serious about wanting to get out of Mareitania, the honour is all yours."
Honeydew stared wide-eyed at the detonator, then shook her head. "I already have far too much blood on my hooves without being the one pulling the trigger directly. Destroy the factory by all means, but please don't make me do it."
Bon Bon smiled slightly, impressed that Honeydew could maintain her morals in the situation, weird as they were. She'd at least gotten the second best response she'd hoped for out of the trussed up mare. "Alright. Tootsie," Bon Bon tossed the detonator back to Tootsie, "the job's all yours."
"Aww yis!" Tootsie scrambled over to a window where she could see the factory. "Big boom in three, two, one!" Tootsie slammed her hoof on the button, and a split second later the entire city lit up in a flash, followed very shortly a deafening boom that swallowed all other sounds until it moved on, leaving behind the crash of the collapsing factory. "Ooh," Tootsie sighed as she fell to her rear, a broad smile on her face. "I think I'm going to need to wash my suit after that."
Bon Bon turned back to Honeydew as the thunder died down, only to find her looking the other way. "If I didn't know for a fact that Lady Twilight never enjoyed the acts her role as leader of the rebellion necessitated," she said sadly, "or that some of her friends refused to kill, I might be inclined to think all Equestrians are bloodthirsty killers."
"None of us enjoy what we do-" Bon Bon told her.
"Except for the explosions," Tootsie interjected.
"Apart from those, but for the most part, we only do what we have to so others don't need to. Right now we need to fight because Faust seems intent on destroying Equestria, as I'm sure you well know."
"I don't know actually. I've only ever seen Faust once, and nothing about her felt right. It certainly didn't tell me her intentions. Honestly, I don't think the council really knows what she wants, but they seem happy enough to do as she asks. You said something about magic forcing everypony to love her?"
"I did. It's how she's forcing everypony to go along with what she wants, but that just makes me wonder how you're immune?"
"I don't know. I've been getting headaches a lot since Faust turned up, especially when I go to High Rock. Is that something to do with it?"
Bon Bon shrugged, "Could be I suppose? We're not the kind of ponies who know about that sort of thing, but it would be good to know if there are others that also seem to be immune like you?"
"I don't know. I've just been keeping my head down and doing the inordinate amount of work they've thrown at me. Questions tend to get a pony in trouble if you ask the wrong ones. I do know Daybreak's been acting a bit off since Twilight attacked him. He keeps trying to fight the Council over decisions, like about hiring the griffons to fight."
"Do you know how the griffons came to end up fighting here?"
"No, but I do know that we can't afford to pay them. Or at least that's what Daybreak tried to argue anyway. I guess it didn't work."
Bon Bon sighed, without knowing why. Getting the answer to the griffon mystery would have been nice, but alas it was not to be. "Alright, what do you know about the three mares and the dragon that was kidnapped from Equestria?"
"Them? They're at High Rock."
"And they're all alive?"
"As far as I know, yes. Are they important? I mean... yeah. Sorry, I guess they are if Faust wanted them."
"Do you know why Faust wants them?" Honeydew shook her head, which Bon Bon accepted, mostly because she knew why herself. "How big is Mareitania's army now?"
"I think there's over twenty thousand ponies in it now, I think? I don't really know, but it's more than there was during the rebellion."
"Does that include griffons?" Rocky asked. The way Honeydew cringed told him enough. "How many griffons are there?"
"A few thousand I think. It's not really my job to know these things."
"And how did you know our side was going to attack the tank factory?" Creme asked.
Honeydew shrugged, "Most of our military manufacturing takes place in Stalliongrad. It was the only real viable target for you after you burnt the shipyards in Brayside."
"What did you do with the bodies of our fallen?" Tootsie asked quietly, her excitement from the explosion having died down from the topics they were discussing.
Honeydew winced guiltily, "They were taken to Whiplash and... incinerated. There was some very mixed opinions about that, but ponies wanted revenge."
"What's the point in desecrating our dead?" Rocky grumbled angrily. "How is that revenge for anything?"
"I don't know okay? How was destroying our lumbermills in Hoovendale fair? That's a civilian target! And what was the point of releasing all the prisoners in Whiplash? Huh? Most of them have either been caught, or surrendered themselves anyway, so it was meaningless!"
"And what was the idea behind killing two dozen civilians with a bomb back in Equestria?" Rocky shouted back.
"Really?" Honeydew scoffed. "And just how many civilians do you think got killed just now from debris from your explosion? Or do they not matter compared to Equestrian civilians?"
"Enough!" Bon Bon shouted, cutting both of them off before they could argue more. "Rocky, not a word. Honeydew, we did not drag you out of there just for you to throw accusations at us. I could have killed you there, or left you to die in the explosion. I spared your life."
"Only because I'm useful to you!"
"Your use is yet to be determined, because so far you've not told us anything particularly useful to our cause."
"So put me to creating weapons then, because that's all I seem to get used for!" Honeydew cried, struggling against her bonds.
Bon Bon pursed her lips, holding back her irritation at Honeydew's sudden change of attitude. If it wasn't for the fact that Honeydew was right about her uses being more mechanical in nature, Bon Bon might have been more annoyed.
"Fine," Bon Bon said calmly. "I'm going to go talk to our superiors. Tootsie, Rocky, keep an eye on our guest. Creme, come with me."
-0-0-0-
"Do you think Honeydew is really worth this effort Chief? Do you really think she's willing to work with us?" Creme asked as she and Bon Bon sat side by side, waiting for orders from Fleur after she left to relay their findings to Muckraker and Eclipse.
"I don't know," Bon Bon admitted. "I'm starting to think I should have just left her where she was. We already have all the blueprints we need to build tanks back in Equestria, so I don't really think we need her for that. Maybe I'm just an idiot."
"A nice one at least. Merciful, as it were."
"That's not why I did it. I would have killed her there, but she asked me to get her out of there. She wants Equestria to win, because Faust winning means more war, although why she knows that when she doesn't know Faust's intentions is beyond me. Maybe she'll be more cooperative once she calms down."
"And if she doesn't help?"
Bon Bon shrugged, "That's up to her now." There wasn't much else to say on the issue, so Bon Bon was glad when the speaker stone crackled back to life a minute later.
"Can you hear me Bon Bon?"
"I can hear you Fleur."
"Good," Fleur sighed, "Although part of me hoped you wouldn't be because of what I have to tell you. Firstly, Muckraker wants to congratulate you on completing your mission, and for the small amount of information you gleaned from Honeydew. However, there's bad news."
"How bad could it be?"
"Your confirmation of Faust's magic returning earlier has upset some ponies. They're convinced that it means Faust's attack is imminent. Between that and the griffons, well, lets just say that extracting Honeydew isn't possible. Neither is extracting you, I'm afraid. Even if it were, her involvement would be to little, too late."
"Understood," Bon Bon replied evenly. "We always knew that was a possibility. What should we do with Honeydew?"
Fleur released a drawn out sigh, "Alright, before I say, I want you to know that these orders come from Eclipse with the support of Muckraker, not me."
"Understood," Bon Bon said back, shrugging at Creme, who merely shrugged back, neither of them sure what Fleur meant by that.
"They want you to kill her, to make sure she doesn't fall back into enemy hooves."
Bon Bon nodded sadly, "I understa-"
"Wait. That's their orders, not mine, although they are my superiors. I'm going to ask you to not do that."
"Really?"
"Really. While there are likely plenty of ponies who would say she deserves to die for creating what she did, I say she's done nothing to deserve such a calloused end, especially since she never wanted to be part of any of this in the first place. I believe that she could be a huge asset to you, and the future of Equestria, but that can only happen if she lives. Obviously I can't tell you to disobey orders, but ultimately you're there, and we are not, so the choice is yours in the end. I won't ask what you're going to choose to do, but if you should spare her, get back in touch with me so I can talk to her myself."
"Underst-" Bon Bon started to say, but the stone died before she could finish. Clearly this had Fleur more upset that she had let on, and knowing what she did, Bon Bon could sympathise.
"What are you going to do Chief?"
"I don't know. What would you do?"
"Me?" Creme thought about it for a few seconds, then sighed and shrugged, "Orders are orders. Frankly I suspect Eclipse and Muckraker know more about this sort of thing than Fleur does."
"That doesn't make them right."
"Are you seriously considering disobeying them?"
"I'm keeping my options open." Bon Bon stood and started making her way back to the others, her mind churning over the possibilities. If she was honest with herself she didn't actually want to kill Honeydew, but disobeying her superiors didn't exactly sit right either. She'd done that quite a lot today already.
"What's the news?" Rocky asked as they re-entered the room. Bon Bon ignored him at first, instead walking over to stand in front of Honeydew.
"Because of the return of Faust's magic, and the arrival of the griffons, we aren't able to arrange an extraction for Honeydew or ourselves. We're effectively stranded in Mareitania unless you fancy rowing back home in that inflatable dinghy."
"Not as such," said Rocky. "What are we going to do with her then?"
"To stop her falling back into the enemy's hooves, we've been ordered to kill her."
"Ah well, can't be helped," Rocky said as Honeydew whimpered and begged as she struggled even harder to escape her bonds.
"Please! Don't kill me! Ple-e-ease! I'm begging you!"
"However," Bon Bon continued, "Fleur has asked us herself that we spare her. She feels that Honeydew could be of use to us."
"Yes!" Honeydew shouted, jumping on the straw that had just been offered to her. "I swear, I'll do anything to help you, please, just don't kill me!"
"I haven't decided yet."
"Why not?" Tootsie asked as Bon Bon kept standing over Honeydew.
"Because while our paymasters are Equis right now, we are ponies of Smile, and Smile doesn't kill unless totally necessary. I don't know if this is necessary. Creme, activate the stone."
Creme did so, then passed the speaker stone over to Bon Bon. Within seconds Fleur answered with a flurry of words that went unanswered until she slowed down. "Bon Bon? Are you there?"
"I'm here."
"Oh good. Bon Bon, I really can't thank you enough for-"
"Slow down Fleur, I haven't decided anything. What I need first is a confirmation from both you and Honeydew that sparing her life is something we all want. Say hello to Fleur, Honeydew."
"H-hello Fleur."
"Hello Honeydew," Fleur said back. "I'm not sure if you remember me, since we had little to do with each other, but I'm one of the ponies that went to Mareitania with Twilight Sparkle to overthrow the Duke-"
"I remember you. Tall. White with pink hair. Had your leg burned in High Rock."
There was a short sigh of irritation from Fleur, "That's me. I'm working for the Equestrian Intelligence Service now, and, well, I'm pretty sure you've met the ponies I'm in charge of."
"You're the one telling them to kill me?"
"No, that's my superiors. I'm trying to convince the ponies with you to spare you. I know you hated building weapons for the Duke, and I know you probably hate doing the same for Faust."
"I do."
"Good. I also suspect you know quite a bit about Mareitania and it's current inner workings?"
"I know some, but I doubt there's any one pony that knows all of it."
"As long as you know enough. I'm not going to bother to ask you if you know what Faust's intentions are, because I think the only pony to know that is Faust herself. Instead I'm going to focus on what we know, which is that she wants to see Equestria, as it currently is, destroyed, and judging by the things she's doing to get what she wants, she seems perfectly happy to burn Mareitania along with it so long as Equestria is taken out of the picture. Obviously we don't want that, and I hope you don't either."
"I can't speak for the others, but I remember what Twilight Sparkle, yourself, and Equestria did for us. Until Faust came and warped things, Equestria was our friend."
"And we would like to be so again. Unfortunately, to do that we will have to stop Faust and win the war, which could be done easier if we eliminate Mareitania's ability to wage war-"
"Which is why you took out the tank factory?"
"Exactly. Unfortunately we can't destroy her source of soldiers, but perhaps we can destroy her means of arming them and suchlike. I imagine that through your position you know plenty of ways we could do that. The only question I have after that is if you're willing to betray your country to help us?"
"I already have once, hoping to build a new country that was better that the one the Dukes built. That didn't happen, and Mareitania ended up becoming something worse in other ways. I can assure you that I have no loyalty to a country that betrayed me. I do have something to ask of you once this is all over though."
"And that is?"
"A new life away from Mareitania, where I can forget all the things I've been forced to do throughout my life."
"Sounds do-able. You have a deal. Satisfied Bon Bon?"
Bon Bon nodded, a little unsure at first, but growing in confidence that if Fleur was wrong about this, Honeydew could still easily be killed. "I think so. What should our next move be?"
"Getting out of Stalliongrad, but I very much doubt that you can do that with Honeydew. While they're probably going to think that she died in the explosion, that doesn't mean that she won't get recognised, so your first move is to formulate a disguise for her. Get some coat dyes to change the colour of her coat and hair, try to cover up her cutie mark, and maybe get her a dress or something to cover it just to be sure. And, most importantly, think of a new name for her. Once that's all done, Honeydew is pretty much gone."
Honeydew snorted a bitter laugh, stirring up some dust on the floor around her. "That's all I ever wanted."
-0-0-0-
Bon Bon shifted her bags, making sure their contents were very much hidden since black, armoured full-body suits weren't common in Mareitania, and would probably get her in trouble. She was incredibly thankful that ponies weren't getting searched before they got on the train.
Standing beside Bon Bon, bare of bags, but wearing a light summer dress, was a pale blue mare with a lavender mane and tail, almost bouncing up and down in excitement. The only telling thing about her that something wasn't right was the faint briuses around her ankles from having been tied up, and the large one on her head. That was the only thing connecting her back to the yellow mare known as Honeydew.
"You're bouncing like an idiot Bluebelle, stop it before you draw attention."
"But I'm excited!"
"And there was a massive explosion here earlier, killing dozens, including a well known pony called Honeydew. Getting where I'm going here?"
"Ah." Honeydew stopped bouncing, her heart suddenly feeling heavy in her chest. "Sorry. I guess the thought of getting out of here made me forget."
"It's fine, but just try to keep it a bit subdued until we're back in Neigh Orleans."
"Okay." Honeydew shielded her eyes from the blast of steam the train released as it passed them and slowed to a stop. Bon Bon nudged her forwards after Rocky, Tootsie, and Creme had already boarded, hinting she should get on-board as well. She followed them to a seat, fighting back the grin that wanted to spill onto her face. For all it's strange occurrences, today couldn't have turned out better, so long as you forgot that it could've turned out a lot worse. |
The end of an era | 19. Pie family secrets are the weirdest | "Drill Sergeant Knocks? Why do we have to run for miles with a heavy pack on our back?"
"Pinkie Pie, why do you feel the need to ask me such silly questions?"
"I just think ponies would be happier if they didn't have to carry so much stuff. You're not carrying anything, so why are we?"
"Because I'm the Drill Sergeant, that's why. Now I suggest you fall back into formation with your sisters, and quit making my ear ache."
"Okey dokey Drill Sergeant Knocks!" Pinkie slowed her pace slightly until she slotted neatly back in between her sisters Marble and Maud, "Sorry girls, I tried."
"Nopony asked you to try," Limestone grunted from behind. "Frankly I have no idea what you were even thinking."
"I was thinking these packs are heavy, and that nopony wants to carry them."
Limestone tried to formulate a reply, but found she couldn't think of one that could effectively deal with how stupid Pinkie's line of thought was. Then she also realised that she was only enabling Pinkie's bizarre behaviour by taking it seriously, and gave up completely. "Just shut up Pinkie. You know exactly why we're doing this."
"Of course I know, but they've been training us harder for the last few days than they ever have before! I'm tiiiieeerd!"
"And? You want to cry more about that? Look at Maud, she's barely breaking a sweat, and Marble's not complaining."
"Don't... want... to... waste... breath!" Marble gasped while Maud kept her head down, running in her strange, almost mechanical way.
"This is what I'm talking about," Pinkie whined. "How is this helping us do anything? Are we supposed to wow the Mareitanians into defeat with our superior gear carrying skills? I don't think so!"
Limestone rolled her eyes, "That's what weapons training is for Pinkie."
"Well, obviously. I just don't see why we need to do this as well."
"So you can run away from battle easier, Piggy Pie," said a rather unpleasant stallion from behind, followed by sniggers from his trio of equally unpleasant friends. "You and your freak sisters wouldn't stand a chance in a real fight, so I think it's good you're learning this."
"You're doing this too, asshole," Limestone said to the newcomer, a musclebound stallion named by the singular word Reps, who had gone out of his way to make life uncomfortable for most of the mares around him, but saved most of it for Pinkie and her sisters. "Guess they don't have much faith in your ability to not run away either."
"Pfft, please, they just want to make sure I'm ready for anything, including retreats."
"That's good," Pinkie said brightly, "If you're the best at retreating as well, we'll totally be able to follow your lead. Good thinking Reps!"
"Still not why we're doing this," Limestone grumbled as Reps glared at Pinkie.
"Your attitude is going to get you in serious trouble one day Piggy."
"Oh? Have you been talking to Drill Sergeant Knocks about me? He says that all the time!"
"He won't have to say it anymore once you fail training," Reps said as he ran forwards and roughly shoved Marble into Pinkie before running out in front of them where he kicked a pebble up off his rear hoof, flicking it right at Maud and striking her on the forehead. "Suck it freaks!" he shouted back, his friends dutifully sniggering at what he'd done.
"Maud!" Pinkie shouted as her sister staggered to a stop and clamped her hoof over a gash above her right eye. "Are you alright Maudie?"
"I'm fine Pinkie, thank you."
"This has gone too far now," Limestone growled. "If Knocks and the other Drill Sergeants won't do a thing about it, then I will!"
"But then you'll just get into more trouble than him," Pinkie pointed out.
"So I should just let him keep on calling us freaks? Should I do nothing about the fact that he just attacked Maud? Huh? Is that what you're saying Pinkie?"
"I'm not saying that, but fighting him will only make it worse."
"Only if I lose."
"You're not fighting him," Maud said before Pinkie could say anything back to Limestone. She released the pressure off her cut, and wiped her hoof on the grass before standing and adjusting her pack.
"And why, pray tell, aren't I fighting him?" Limestone asked sarcastically.
"Because you won't do it right," Maud replied, picking the pebble that was kicked at her up in her hoof and pocketing it.
"And what, pray tell, is the right way?"
Even though there was no visible change to Maud's expression, you could tell she was almost smiling as she answered Limestone. "Quickly," she said, "and with an audience."
-0-0-0-
The rumours spread quickly around the camp, and although the ponies spreading it were fairly reluctant to do so, the ponies hearing it were rather interested. Reps had made himself quite the reputation around camp, and while there were probably some who would like to see him beat up a mare much smaller than him, the vast majority wanted to see what happened in the hopes that he might lose miserably. After a few hours, the only ones who didn't know were either unaware of Reps' and Maud's existence, a member of staff, or Reps himself, which was probably why he was so caught out when Maud approached him that evening outside the communal washing area.
"I want to fight you."
"What?" Reps said dumbly, like she'd just walked up and politely offered to massage his prostrate.
"I said I want to fight you."
"And why the hell do you want to do that for, freak?"
"Because you're a bully, and I don't like bullies. You also hurt me earlier, and call my sisters and I freaks, like we're somehow more freakish than you are."
"And what? Now you're just going to fight me? Really? You've come here in the hopes of beating me, when in reality we both know I can pummel you into the dirt with my bare hooves."
"You can use a weapon if you want," Maud stated, thoroughly unimpressed by Reps' assertions than he can easily beat her.
Reps stared at Maud for an uncomfortably long time before he said or did anything, and Maud was going to offer her condolences to his brain cells for having to work so hard when they clearly weren't used to it.
"I can't tell if you're messing with me or not, so how about you get out of here before you get hurt."
Maud shifted her sight to around the both of them, finding quite a few ponies had turned up to see what happened. If she didn't make this happen a lot of ponies were going to be annoyed at her. "If you're scared to fight me, you can just say so."
"Like I could ever be scared of you."
"Fight me then, unless you're too chicken. I understand if you are since your tiny penis gives you and chickens a lot in common."
A hushed 'Oooh' went around the crowd at Maud's subtle burn, and Reps glared at them until they stopped. Then he made a mistake, and gave in. "Fine then, since you want this so badly, I will happily give you a good pounding."
"You can try to," Maud said, holding back her satisfaction at having goaded him into a fight. She backed away as he started to circle around her, and kept herself ready as he stopped and pawed at the ground, not feeling even slightly intimidated as he performed the pony equivalent of a cat fluffing its tail to look bigger.
"Yaaah!" Reps shouted, his hooves cutting into the dirt as he started his charge at Maud, hoping to beat her through mass alone. He was halfway to her when Maud pulled her hoof back and threw at him the same pebble he'd kicked at her earlier, striking him between the eyes with a crack that echoed around the camp. He didn't even have the time to shout in pain as he collapsed to the ground unconscious and kept sliding, stopping just before Maud's hooves.
"I won," Maud said factually as a shocked silence emanated from the crowd, punctuated seconds later by Limestone swearing, and Drill Sergeant Knocks swearing even louder.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing Maud?!"
"Fighting Reps," Maud said as Knocks pushed through the crowd to get to her. "I won," she reiterated, in case he hadn't realised.
"That? That wasn't a fight! That was a massacre!" Knocks nudged Reps, not getting so much as a groan from him. "Somepony get a medic!" he shouted, before checking that Reps at least had a pulse and didn't need a hearse more than a medic. "What did you do to him?"
Maud walked over to where the pebble had landed and picked it up to show the Drill Sergeant. "I threw this pebble at him," she said, being taken aback as Knocks dived for cover behind Reps.
"Fucking hell Maud! Don't point that thing at me!"
"It's only a pebble." Maud pocketed the pebble, intending to keep it. It reminded her of Boulder. "Am I in trouble Drill Sergeant?"
"You just knocked one of the other recruits out with a pebble! I- I... I can't even comprehend the amount of trouble you're in, that's how much trouble you're in!" Knocks stood and dusted himself off as a quartet of medics ran over and started fussing over Reps before rolling him onto a stretcher and carrying him away.
"I hope he's okay," Maud said, watching as they carried him away.
"Then you should have thought of that before knocking him out. Now come with me Maud, so you can tell me just why exactly you did that, and why I shouldn't immediately have you discharged."
-0-0-0-
Maud decided that the recruits really got the short end of the stick when it came to accommodations. They slept in tents, while Drill Sergeant Knocks, through the sheer luck of being himself, got both an office and room inside a genuine building. It took Maud a while to realise that it had been at least a couple of weeks since she'd had a solid roof over her head. She'd happily forego the experience if it meant she escaped having Knocks trying to set her alight through the power of silent glares. She simply stared right back until Knocks gave up to Maud's superior eyeballs.
"Why'd you do it Maud? So far I've had no trouble off you at all, which is something seeing as how you're a sister to both Pinkie and Limestone, so what possessed you to get into a fight with Reps like that?"
"He's a bully. He calls me and my sisters freaks." Maud pointed at the cut on her forehead, "He gave me that earlier."
"And why didn't you come to me instead of going off and knocking him senseless?"
"We have, a few times, but nothing ever happens. I assume it's because you're too busy with a lot of recruits, which is a shame because Reps' behaviour has a very detrimental effect on morale. That's probably why so many ponies wanted to see me do it."
"Ah yes, your little rumours you spread of what you were going to do," said Knocks, clinging onto that fact since he was fairly sure that Maud had just sassed him, but said it so flatly that he couldn't be sure. "Is there a reason you needed so many ponies to see it?"
"Yes. So he couldn't deny that it had happened."
"You really are stone cold Maud."
"If you'd heard the rumours we'd spread, and knew what was happening to be there, you could have stopped us at any time."
"I was ordered not to," Knocks admitted grumpily.
This time it was Maud that was surprised, although, to the casual observer, she didn't show it. Why would somepony order Knocks to let what had happened, happen? More importantly, who? "Who ordered you to do that?"
"Me."
Maud turned towards the voice, finding its owner sat in a pool of shadow beside the door. She didn't need to guess who it was though, as he was a white unicorn wearing purple armour, and could only be one pony she knew. "Shining Armour?"
"Good evening Maud," Shining said politely, moving from his spot to go stand beside Knocks behind the desk.
"You ordered the Drill Sergeant to not intervene?"
"I did."
"Why?"
Shining silently regarded Maud for a moment before quirking the corner of his mouth up in a faint smile. "Because you're Pinkie Pie's sister. Frankly, I wanted to see what you would do, a mare I've heard can break rocks with her bare hooves. You didn't disappoint. The fact that it had to happen to a petty bully like Reps only made it all the sweeter."
"You let him bully us?"
"Unfortunately, yes, and I'm sorry for that, but I wanted to see if what I've heard about you and your sisters from Pinkie was true."
"You could've just asked."
"That's different," said Shining. "While I have no doubt that what Pinkie said was true, I wanted to see what you'd do with such skills in a fight. The fact that you could knock a stallion the size of Reps out with a pebble half the size of your hoof is astounding. How'd you do it?"
"I threw it," Maud stated flatly, like it couldn't have been more obvious what she'd done.
"I realise that, but you must have a serious throwing leg to throw it hard enough to knock him out."
"I could've thrown it harder," Maud said, making Shining raise his eyebrows. "But that would have really hurt him. Reps also did some of the work by running towards me as well."
"I see." Shining went quiet again, then sighed heavily. "I'm not going to lie to you Maud, we, as in the military, are interested in what you can do, but weren't willing to invest time into it without proof of what you could do. You have now provided at least a sliver of proof."
"I don't understand captain."
"You've heard of the basic rules of pony on pony combat? You should have by now."
"Yes. Earth pony beats unicorn, unicorn beats pegasus, and pegasus beats earth pony."
"Very good Maud. Now disregard it, because on the field of battle, against forces just as capable as your own, that advantage is pretty much null. Overpowering unicorns with earth ponies becomes less effective when they have earth ponies to do the same, and the advantage we possessed by having pegasi has been undone by the Mareitanians employing griffon mercenaries to fight for them."
Maud's eyes widened, "Griffon mercenaries?"
"That's right. I'm not meant to tell you, but it's hardly going to remain a secret for long. I will ask you to keep it to yourself for now though."
"Of course."
Shining nodded his appreciation. "My point is, we are looking for every advantage we can get, and you could very well be an advantage if you can teach it to others. Can your sisters also do the same?"
"Pinkie's maybe a little out of practice, but Limestone and Marble can. I'm not sure we can teach it to others though. It's always been ponies in our family passing down the knowledge, so it might be a skill unique to our family."
"Can I at least ask you to try?"
"You can, but I only want to teach two or three to begin with, in case we can't teach it to others."
"We?" Knocks asked.
"My sisters and I. We will also have to be excused from some of the other training taking place here if we're to have enough time to do this. We'll also need somewhere secluded to train."
"You're in no position to make demands here Maud," Knocks began saying, before being interrupted by Shining.
"That'll be fine Maud. Do you have any ponies in mind to begin with?"
"There are three other earth ponies in our tent. I think we should start with them, to see if it's possible to teach what we can do."
"Excellent. I'll make the arrangements for you to begin tomorrow. For now you should go get some rest. Dismissed."
Maud saluted and left, quietly making her way back outside to where her sisters were clustered anxiously by the door. "Maud!" Pinkie shouted in relief as Maud left the building, "Are you okay? Did they kick you out?"
"No Pinkie, they didn't."
"Then what did they do?" Limestone asked.
It took a moment for Maud to answer, being unsure herself as to what happened. In the end, all she could about it was, "I'm not entirely sure."
-0-0-0-
"What's this about?" Azure Velour asked as herself, Sweet Deal, and Top Spin, were led by Maud and her sisters into the depths of a ravine a few miles from the training camp. "I mean, I'm all for getting out of training for the day, but not to go and get lost in a canyon somewhere."
"You're not getting out of training silly," Pinkie explained cheerfully. "Instead you're going to be doing a totally different kind of training."
"Just the seven of us? That doesn't make any sense."
"Actually it's the three of you that'll be training," said Limestone. "We're going to be teaching you."
The three unrelated earth ponies all looked at each other, at least finding comfort in that they all seemed as confused as each other. "Teach us what?" Sweet Deal asked.
Limestone grinned at them, with a little more aggression than needed. "You'll see. Trust me though, you'll like it."
Again the three ponies nervously eyed each other, "You do realise we're all straight, right?" Top Spin said without needing to imply what she was talking about.
"Actually, I'm pretty easy," said Azure. "That doesn't mean I'm okay with this though."
Limestone closed her eyes and growled, "We are not dragging you down here for... whatever it is you're thinking of."
"If only because you don't know anything about that to teach," Pinkie giggled.
"Shut up. All of you. Really. We haven't even begun and I'm getting a headache."
"I'd also like to point out that we're sisters," Marble quavered, her cheeks aflame from the naughtier aspects of the conversation. "Although I'm sure you already knew that."
"We ain't judging," Azure said with a grin. "You all know what they say about country ponies."
"That we hate city ponies for making up such stupid crap about us?" Limestone said, glaring specifically at Azure.
"Well, uh-" Azure awkwardly cleared her throat, "That's fair, I suppose."
"We're here," Maud said before the discussion could devolve further. She'd led them into the deepest part of the ravine, where she'd been told to take them by Shining Armour that morning. As further proof that it was the right place, Shining was already there, waiting along with two other ponies; a grey earth pony, and a light blue pegasus.
"Hi Shining! Hi Octavia! Hi Summer!" Pinkie said happily, bouncing over to hug each of them. "Its been ages since I've seen any of you!"
"We're not here for a social gathering Pinkie," Shining said with a hint of warning, although he couldn't help but grin.
"Oops! Sorr-y! Still though, why are you three here?"
"I'm here to observe," Shining said, "and I've pulled these two from training medics in case any of you get hurt."
"Although," Octavia said warily, "we would appreciate it if none of you got hurt doing whatever it is you're going to be doing. I'm still not great with..." Octavia shook her head, "Nevermind. Just try to not get hurt."
"Not get hurt doing what?" Sweet Deal asked, exasperated. "We still don't know why we're here! Although if this is official orders I'm happy to be here," she added as Shining frowned at her. "Sir."
"You all saw what Maud did to Reps last night?"
"Aw yeah!" Azure cheered, "That was awesome!"
Shining sighed internally at the apparent lack of discipline on display by Azure, but decided to look past it, this time. "I'm glad you liked it so much, because Maud and her sisters are going to teach you to do stuff like that."
"Seriously?" Top Spin gasped. "No offense sir, but I really don't think I can throw a stone that hard."
"It's not about how hard you throw it," said Maud.
"It's how you throw it," Limestone finished. "There's also a lot more to it than just throwing stones."
"A lot, lot, lot more!" said Pinkie. "But it's super fun though. Maybe we should give them a demonstration?" Pinkie looked expectantly at Shining, who nodded his assent. "Awesome! You might want to stand back a bit though. Hey Limestone! Throw that rock the size of my head at me!"
"You sure? I know its been a while since you've done this sort of stuff."
"Nah, I totally got this!" Pinkie excitedly bounced on the spot, "Come on, throw it at me!"
"But you might get hurt!"
"Throw it you wimp!"
"Pinkie, I'm being serious!"
"Fine, but just remember that it's you that made me do this." Pinkie stopped bouncing and walked over to Marble, whispering something in her twin's ear. Marble choked, then blushed. "Go on then, tell her what I said."
"Uh... okay." Marble swallowed, "Limestone, Pinkie says to tell you you're fat."
Limestone scoffed at the insult, "You're going to have to try harder than that."
"And that you have a bad mane."
"Uh-huh."
"And that we all know about your unhealthy obsession with carving, uh... stallion parts, out of rocks when you think nopony's looking."
Limestone ducked her head and blushed furiously, "Fuck you so much Pinkie."
Pinkie grinned mischievously at Limestone, "Uh-oh, I think I might have gone too far. Shining, you might want to put a shield up for this." Pinkie stepped away from the others, still directing a grin at Limestone. "Come on Limestone! Show Pinkie your kung fu!"
"You asked for it!" Limestone reared back and launched the stone directly at Pinkie, who held her grin as it hurtled towards her. She bounced and flipped backwards, using a single hoof to kick the rock straight upwards, then flipped forwards as it came back down, using both her rear hooves to kick it right back towards Limestone.
Limestone punched the rock, shattering it into pieces around her hoof. She picked up some of the pieces, throwing them at Pinkie who easily dodged all but one, which she caught between her hooves mere inches from her face. Then she bit a chunk off it, chewed it up, and spat it out in her hoof. "Here comes a wet one!" she shouted, throwing the chewed up rock mush at Limestone.
"Don't be gross Pinkie!" Limestone shouted back, jumping out of the way before she got any of it on her. She stomped on the edge of a rock, flicking it into the air and catching it with her tail as she turned, whipping the rock towards Pinkie in a curve, narrowly missing Pinkie as she bent over backwards in a limbo move to avoid it.
"Boy, that was a close one!"
"You're not taking this seriously Pinkie!"
"Me? Serious? Perish the thought!" Pinkie scooped a rock up off the ground, and jumped into a pirouette to throw it at Limestone, just as Limestone threw a similar sized rock at Pinkie. The two rocks collided in mid-air with a deafening crash, exploding into dust with enough force to knock them both over.
"Truce!" Pinkie shouted weakly, pawing at her cheek with a hoof. "I think I got a rock splinter off that one. Ow. A little help please Marble?"
"I think I just had a horrifying insight into all your childhoods," Sweet Deal said once the dust had cleared. "Was that how you solved most of your disputes?"
"Nah," Pinkie shrugged as Marble wriggled the stone shard out of her cheek. "Mostly we just screamed at each other. Except for Marble, she was just too adorable to argue with."
"You bit a chunk out of a rock," Top Spin said in a small voice. "How? How is that possible?"
"That's the thing that gets you in all this?" Azure said to Top Spin. "Really?"
"It's not possible!"
"Clearly it is. Anyways, that was freaking awesome!" Azure clapped vigorously, "Woo! Encore!"
Shining joined in with the clapping, as did the others. "I have to say I'm impressed. I didn't even know that was possible, and I've seen some stuff. I do have to admit that I'm worried that you won't really be able to teach that kind of thing though. It looks more instinctive than skill based."
"We had to learn it too," Maud said to Shining, trying to reassure him. "Although our parents never taught us to be so combative with it."
"So it can be learnt?"
"Of course it can," said Pinkie. "It took me ages to learn, but I got there in the end once I found a way of doing it that I liked. The trick is for each pony to find their own way, although I guess there are some that just won't get it."
"Alright then, I'll leave it in your capable hooves." Shining stood and dusted himself off, then saluted them all. "Hopefully you'll have good news for me by the end of the day."
All of them saluted back, then waited for him to leave. "Dibs on teaching Azure!" Pinkie shouted, claiming her before anypony else could.
"I shall teach Top Spin," said Maud.
"Guess you're with me then," Limestone said to Sweet Deal.
"Who will Marble be teaching?" Octavia asked, seeing the youngest Pie sister sigh dejectedly.
"She can teach you Tavi," Pinkie said, dragging Marble over towards Octavia.
"Firstly Pinkie, it's Octavia. Secondly, I'm not a fighter, so have absolutely no need to learn how to punch through rocks."
"But it's totally a useful life skill. Besides, there's a lot more to this than just punching through rocks, and Marble's the best at that stuff. Just give it a go Octy, you might even like it."
"It's Octavia," Octavia growled. She looked at Marble, seeing the young mare smiling hopefully up at her, and completely gave in. "Fine, but I'm not doing any fighting."
"No problemo! Now come on Azure, I have some things I want to teach you."
"Uh, sure." Azure scrambled after Pinkie as the pink mare bounced away from the rest of them, then slowed to a trot as she caught up. "So, is there a reason why you wanted to teach me?"
"Because you're like me. You like having fun, and dancing, and parties, and all that stuff. That means that out of my sisters, I'm probably the best to teach you, because you'll probably learn like me."
"Okay, but surely you could have taught one of the others?"
"Well sure I could, but I think we assigned things pretty well. Maud is all about precision and striking the right spot, which would hopefully work fine with Top Spin since she's a tennis player and all. Limestone though, she's more like a mountain, but a small one mind you, all tough, stubborn, and unbending. She's also quite angry, but that's just her. Sweet Deal's an accountant or something like that, so she should know a thing or two about being stubborn."
"What's Marble then?"
"Heck if I know, but she's really into that crystal healing stuff, and does it better than anypony I know."
"How many ponies do you know that does that?"
Pinkie pointedly ignored the question, and stopped suddenly, liking the feel of the place she'd wandered off to. "Okay! This feels like a good place to begin."
"Alright," Azure said, unsure. "How do we do this?"
"When my parents tried to teach me this, they sat me and Marble down, and started by telling us 'you are the earth.'"
Azure nodded slowly, "Okay, good. What does it mean?"
"I have absolutely no idea. I think it was something to do with the earth being part of earth ponies, hence the name, but I never got it because earth ponies have all kinds of talents totally unconnected to the earth, like you. Your talent's dancing, am I right?"
"That's right, although I don't see how a talent in dancing is going to help."
"It totally will, at least when it comes to fighting because you'll be all fit and agile and stuff. Besides, do you really think my talent at throwing parties helps me do this in the slightest?"
"I guess not." Azure pursed her lips in thought, then nodded. "Alright, alright, I think I'm ready to do some crazy rock voodoo."
"Uh! This isn't rock voodoo! This would technically be closer to geomancy, at least according to Ogres and Oubliettes. Believe me, I looked." Pinkie searched about until she found two small rocks, then placed them on the floor in front of them. "Okay, step one is 'break a rock.'"
"Break a rock..." Azure repeated, failing to hide the sound of her disappointment. "Just... break a rock?"
"I know I said this'll be super fun, and it will be, but first you need to make that super special connection that'll help this all make sense. Trust me, once you can break a rock with your hoof, the rest of this will just sorta click, and then you'll be kicking rocks' butts in no time!"
"Okay, so, I just gotta break a rock. No biggy." Azure bit her lip as she thought about it, then struck a hoof at the rock. She yelped in pain and clutched her hoof to her chest as she completely failed to damage the rock in the slightest. "Ow!"
"Of course you're going to hurt yourself doing it like that."
"Then how am I supposed to do it?" Pinkie, never breaking eye contact with Azure, hit her own rock, reducing it to fragments. "And how was that any different to what I did?"
"Well, I broke the rock for starters."
"Oh come on!"
"You also didn't put any of yourself into it, you just... hit it."
"Of course I just hit it!" Azure yelled. "What else was I supposed to do?"
Pinkie held up her hooves, "Okay, lets stop with the angry shouting, and try to stay calm. Getting frustrated will only make this harder." Pinkie smiled as Azure sucked in a breath and exhaled slowly. "Great! Now how to put all this in a way a dancer might understand... hmm."
"Is that actually going to help?"
"Maybe?" Pinkie shrugged, "I don't know. Now shush, I'm trying to think."
"Uh-huh." Azure idly poked at her rock as Pinkie thought, not seeing as how there was any way she would be able to break it with her hoof. Whatever Pinkie and her sisters were, Azure wasn't like them.
"Ooh! I know! You know when you're in a club, and you're dancing away, throwing some crazy shapes and having a great time, but then the DJ throws down some phat beat you've never heard before, but you just gotta keep on dancing?"
"All the time."
"And in those situations you let your talent for dance take the lead?"
"Yeah."
"Great! Now do you also agree that there's a part of you that's part of the earth, and lets us do earth pony stuff? Just like pegasi can do air stuff, and unicorns magic stuff? Then there's alicorns which are a whole different ballgame again, with all that stuff amped up to eleven! And that's with out blending the different aspects of their inner magic."
"Pinkie, you're rambling."
"Yes I am, but do you agree there's a earthy part of you?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Good, now imagine that you're in that hypothetical club, and a mysterious new tune comes on, but instead of your talent taking over, your earth pony magic kicks in, and instead of busting moves, you bust rocks!"
"Are you saying I just need to focus my earth pony magic into my moves?" Azure deadpanned, adding air quotes around the 'earth pony magic.'
Pinkie nodded dreamily, "Yeah, maybe, but you have to do it in a way that works for you."
"Clear as mud," Azure muttered to herself. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, a beat starting to form in her head that she started to bob her head along to. Slowly but surely she started to feel something familiar as her talent for dance nudged at her, but she ignored it and looked deeper for that part of her that was always tied to the earth, that made them masters of it.
"Remember Azure, the heart of an earth pony is made of diamond. Well, not the literal heart, because we'd really have trouble living if that were true, but the... ahem." Pinkie blushed as Azure stared coldly at her, "Shutting up now."
Azure rolled her eyes and resumed nodding along to a beat only she could hear, building her focus on something she'd never really felt before, at least not in any depth. She had to admit she liked the feeling, and as the song in her head built into a crescendo, she focused that feeling into her hoof, striking the rock, and shattering it.
"Woah," Azure said dumbly as Pinkie clapped excitedly.
"Alright Azure! You did it! Now hold onto that feeling you had just before you broke the rock, because that is basically what made you do it." Pinkie placed another rock in front of Azure, "Now do it again."
The second time was much quicker, although still not quick, but the rock shattered with a satisfying crunch. "Dude! This is freaking awesome!"
"Feel like a proper earth pony now?"
"What?" Azure cocked her head as she thought about what Pinkie had said, and she had to admit she did feel a little more in touch with herself. "Huh... I guess I do."
"It's weird isn't it? Like you never realised there was something missing in the first place. Anyway, while you're doing awesome, I can't help but wonder if the others are having as much luck."
-0-0-0-
"Okay, so even if you can break a rock with your hooves, how does that translate into throwing a pebble hard enough to knock a stallion like Reps out?"
"It's the same process," Maud said to Top Spin's question, "only the end result is different. A precise hit can do a lot more than simply trying to overwhelm your target."
"Like the fractures in the rock," said Top Spin, referring back to Maud's earlier teachings. "Focus your energy on the right spot, and it just falls apart."
"Yes."
"That still doesn't explain how you threw that pebble hard enough to knock Reps out."
Maud picked up a stone and gave it to Top Spin, then turned her towards the canyon wall. "Try to break the cliff by throwing the stone at it."
"That's impossible."
"Try. Focus like you would to break a rock, and try."
Top Spin focussed and threw the rock as hard as she could, and as she expected it bounced off the cliff with no effect. "See? I knew that would happen!"
Maud wordlessly picked the stone back up and pressed it into Top Spin's hoof, "Try again, but this time aim for the best place." Maud pointed at a crack in the cliff, "Follow that fault up and you'll see the best place, then throw the rock at it, but not too hard. Be more accurate than powerful."
Top Spin sighed but nodded, "Alright then." She followed the fault upwards, finding it led to a small spider web of other cracks that all met at a single point that she figured had to be the weak spot. Her target chosen, she wound her hoof back, focused, and threw the stone. It bounced off the weak spot, then back to the ground.
"It still did nothing!" Top Spin whined, but Maud wasn't listening. She was looking at where Top Spin had thrown the stone at, watching the spider web of cracks grow bigger. Seconds later a small section of the cliff collapsed in a tiny land slide. "What? But I didn't throw it that hard."
"Exactly," Maud said sagely.
"Y'know, that still doesn't explain how you knocked Reps out."
-0-0-0-
"You're not getting this Sweet Deal," Limestone said, bored. And she was bored. Sweet Deal just had no idea how to go about this, and kept looking for an alternative way to break the rock, when there was only really one way.
"Look, maybe if I can find a weakness in the rock, I can break it easier."
"Yes, but it still won't work."
"Sure it will. All I have to do is find the right spot."
"There's one just below that orange spot on it," said Limestone. "It still won't matter though, because if you don't find that focus, you won't do a thing to it."
"Sure I will, just watch." Sweet Deal stuck her tongue out as she lined her hoof up and hit the rock on a small crack, doing absolutely nothing to it except make her hoof hurt, again. "Arrgh! Why won't this stupid rock break?!"
Limestone sighed, "Because you're not doing what I'm saying."
"Well, what if I try to-"
"No! There is no try to do anything! There is only one way to break that rock with your hoof, and you aren't doing it!"
"Maybe I can-"
"No! Gah!"
-0-0-0-
"So what is this exactly?" Octavia asked as Marble dropped a small pile of crystals she'd found in a pile in front of where Octavia lay on her stomach.
"There's a lot more to what we can do than the ability to break rocks," said Marble. "Although I guess that's more useful for fighting. Rocks also have other, better uses as well."
"Is this that crystal healing thing?" Summer asked from her spot sat nearby, watching the proceedings with interest. "Octavia always said that was a load of rubbish."
"Mmhmm, most of the time," Marble said, not denying it. "Rocks are just rocks, and aren't exactly known for their medical knowledge. But there are things rocks can do in the right hooves that are better. Now lie still."
Marble arranged six crystals down Octavia's back in a symmetrical pattern, getting each one in just the right place before doing the next. When she was satisfied, she took a deep, cleansing breath, focused herself, and tapped each crystal in turn with a hoof. "This might feel a little strange."
"What might? What did you... do-oooo..." Octavia fell silent as the muscles in her back lost all their tension and became little more than putty under whatever it was that Marble and her crystals were doing. "Oh my."
"I think she likes it," Summer giggled.
"You can say that again. Mmmm."
"My mother taught me these things," Marble said as she tapped the crystals again. "The way the crystals resonate has some nice effects. She does it to keep my father's arthritis in check."
"Are you alright Marble?" Summer asked, seeing Marble sag a little as she kept tapping the crystals every now and again.
"I know it doesn't look like it, but this takes a lot out of you. A lot more than the whole breaking rocks thing does, but even that's tiring enough after a while."
"Just five more minutes," Octavia mumbled, not wanting what was happening to her to end. It did have to though, as a pained shout echoed through the ravine, followed by crying. "Shit." Octavia tried to stand, but found that her muscles really didn't feel like working right at that moment. "I appear to be unable to get up. Summer, do you mind going?"
"I'm on it." Summer picked up her medical kit and flew towards the source of the screams, finding a panicked Limestone standing over a pained Sweet Deal, who was rolling around on the ground clutching her right foreleg to her chest. "What happened?"
"She punched the rock!"
"You told me to punch the rock!"
"Not like that!"
Summer waved Limestone back with a wing and gently picked up Sweet Deal's injured leg. The hoof didn't appear to be injured, save for some rock fragments stuck to it, and the leg wasn't bend out of shape, so it probably wasn't broken. At worst it was fractured, or sprained, and there wasn't a lot she could really do about it right then. An assessment that Octavia agreed on once she was able to stagger over.
"I guess we better get her back to camp," said Octavia, pulling Sweet Deal up onto three of her hooves, and supporting her. "That also means todays session is over," she said to the rest of them, including Pinkie and Azure who had returned after hearing the screams. "There's no way we can let you continue without us being here."
Pinkie patted Limestone on the back as Octavia and Summer led the injured Sweet Deal away. "I guess she just didn't get it, huh?"
"Not at all. How about you Pinkie? Any luck with Azure?"
"Observe." Pinkie tossed a stone towards Azure, the purple mare swinging a hoof at it and shattering it. "I'm so proud!"
"Great, so I'm the one that can't teach," Limestone sighed. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"
"You mean Maud got Top Spin to do it was well?" Limestone nodded sullenly. "Awesome! Nice work you guys! Still though, what now? Is Shining Armour expecting us to teach this to all the earth ponies in camp? Because that's a lot of ponies. And I mean, a lot of ponies."
"Yeah yeah, I know." Limestone stretched and shrugged. "I guess we'll have to see what Shining Armour says about it."
-0-0-0-
Shining Armour stood over the edge of the ravine, watching the ponies below depart back to the camp. While he was disappointed that they hadn't been able to teach Sweet Deal, the fact that they were able to train Azure and Top Spin in just the basics over the space of a couple of hours was impressive. Perhaps it was only a fluke that they'd been able to find two ponies out of that small group capable of learning, and the chances of two out of three ponies being able to do it was actually much lower, but it was still possible.
"What do you think?" he asked the other pony he'd invited to observe, a dark blue alicorn with a wavy star filled mane. "Do you believe this is worth pursuing."
"Not on a large scale," said Luna. "There simply isn't enough time. But this may well be worth pursuing as a special unit with small numbers." Luna nodded as the nine ponies below went out of sight, "They are skilled though, and we need every advantage possible. Consider your Hard corps approved, Captain Armour, although a rethink on the name would be appreciated."
Shining grinned playfully, "No chance." |
The end of an era | 20. In the jungle | The jungle was... not nice, to politely describe it at its most basic. Other ponies might have described it as fucking horrible, and they would be exactly as right. A constant, oppressive heat seemed to suck all the energy from you, and that was besides the snakes, bugs, and other things that wanted to either eat you whole, or very slowly, depending on the size of their mouth. Everypony hated it. Of course, not all of them were ponies.
Mayfly was loving it in the jungle. Besides enjoying the heat, she was happy to see an unprecedented amount of green, at least to her, and thanks to her carapace, she had nothing to worry about from the myriad of biting insects, removing a large amount of the jungle's annoyances. But not all of them unfortunately, as one of them was Trixie, and her occasional bouts of singing.
"In de jungle, de mighty jungle, de lion sleeps toniiight! In de jungle, de mighty jungle-"
"For the last time Trixie," Twilight yelled at her unabashed blue friend, "There are no lions in the fucking jungle! Tigers, yes, and panthers, but no fucking lions, so knock it off!"
"I can't help it if whoever made that song didn't know the nuances of lions' lifestyles, just as I can't help it if this jungle brings something out in me that makes me want to-"
"Attract every pony eating predator to us?" Twilight said back before Trixie could start singing again.
"This one thinks Trixie's singing is not totally unpleasant," Mayfly said. "Is it not?" she asked, looking at the others for confirmation.
"Only if you enjoy the sound of cats getting strangled," Moondancer replied in a low grumble.
"Should I assume from your inflection that the sound of cats getting strangled is not actually pleasant?" Moondancer nodded once, making Mayfly sigh. "So many things to learn about ponies."
"You'll get there," Sunset said soothingly.
"At least one of us will get somewhere," Trixie groaned. "How have we seriously not found what we're looking for yet? How hard can it be to find one campsite in the fucking jungle?"
"You mean the jungle that has likely changed quite significantly in the last eight hundred years?" Twilight said sweetly. "Probably nigh impossible."
"Then why are we even trying? It's bad enough that Starswirl said it was to the north east of a temple here in the Tenochtitlan basin, then failed to mention which of the hundred fucking temples here that he was talking about."
"There are eight," Sunset corrected.
"Whatever! My point is that if it's still going to be impossible to find, why even bother trying?"
"This is the last place we're trying Trixie," said Twilight. "If we don't find it here, we'll give up and move on to Saddle Arabia."
"Fiiiiine... where is this last place?"
"The, now, destroyed Fortress of Talacon."
"What?!" Moondancer shrieked. "Are you even serious? That's from a Daring Do book!"
"Daring Do and the Ring of Destiny, I know. It is a real place though."
"Oh? Are you now going to tell me Daring Do is real too?"
Twilight laughed nervously, "Let's not go over the top here. It's perfectly normal for writers to use real world locations in their stories."
"Give me a break," Moondancer mumbled. "That was the weakest story of the lot anyway. That rainbow maned idiot 'helping' her just... ugh, no. That Wonderbolt must have paid a stupid amount to get that massive self-insert into one of A.K. Yearling's books."
Twilight wanted to argue with Moondancer, but felt there was no point, not unless she revealed Daring Do's existence. Even then the chances of Moondancer believing her was slim, so it just wasn't worth the effort, even if it meant protecting Rainbow's image.
"How do you even know where the Fortress of Talacon is?" Moondancer asked, as Twilight secretly fumed.
"I've been there."
"Uh-huh, and were you the one to destroy it?"
"Nope, but I was there when it happened."
"Sure you were."
Twilight shrugged, not wanting to discuss, or argue about it any further until they actually found the Fortress in all its broken glory. If she remembered correctly it wasn't too much further. It was a massive if though, having been a while since coming here, and having done a lot since then. Even then they still had to find the centuries old campsite Starswirl used in the hopes of finding a few broken shards of mirror, since hoping to find a whole mirror here was stupid enough to not even be worth considering.
-0-0-0-
"There we go, one destroyed Fortress of Talacon," Twilight said with a highly misplaced sense of pride as they made it to the small clearing the Fortress had around it. "Entirely real, and entirely destroyed, ending the threat of eight centuries of sweltering heat in the Tenochtitlan basin."
"Because it's not like it's hot enough here already," said Trixie.
"Exactly!" Twilight said happily, before thinking about what Trixie had just said. "You were being facetious weren't you?"
"Me? Noooo. I honestly think that building a giant thing like this with the express purpose of generating eight centuries of sweltering heat, in a mother-fucking jungle of all places, is totally a productive use of anyponies time. Good work ancient ponies, you really outdid yourselves."
Sunset grinned nervously at Twilight, "She does have a point."
"And? I'm not the one that built it, so why are you acting like I'm going to get upset over what you're saying?"
"I... don't know."
"Another thing," Trixie continued, "is why they built it to collapse if you removed the rings of whatever from the shrine thingy? What was the point of that? They wanted a failsafe for their device they built to raise the jungle temperature by a few degrees? Seriously, how do you guys even read Daring Do books if they have this amount of stupid in them. I'm sorry I ever asked what this was about!"
"Actually," said Sunset, "now I think about it, building something like this that's capable of changing the temperature of a large area like the Tenochtitlan basin, is quite impressive. It almost sounds like it was part of some ancient terraforming project, or something."
Twilight pointed a hoof at Sunset, "See Trixie, that is why Sunset would have herself a gold star if I had some to give out. Maybe I'll buy her a cookie when we get back to civilisation. Clearly there was a lot more to this than just some ancient scheme to raise the already too high temperature, even higher. How Auhizotl intended to misuse it was irrelevant to its intended purpose."
"Or so you hope," Trixie said smugly, "because you hate the idea of the ancient ponies building something so utterly pointless. And what do you mean 'how Auhizotl intended to misuse it?' He's fictional!"
Twilight grinned uneasily, "Oops? Guess I'm getting my books and reality mixed up now."
Mayfly squinted at Twilight, "This one suspects that the stupid pony is trying to hide something. Maybe this Daring Do pony being real?" She pouted at Twilight as Moondancer, Sunset, and Trixie laughed at her, while Twilight provided a rather disingenuous laugh herself. "I'm being serious."
"And that just makes it funnier," Trixie chuckled.
"There's no way Daring Do is real," Sunset said, agreeing with Trixie. "To be honest I'm surprised this place is real since it featured in a fictional story."
"Lending credence to this one's theory that the stupid pony is hiding something. Even now she stays quiet because she dislikes having to lie to defend herself."
Twilight giggled nervously, "Yeah... no. Let's just find the place to the northeast where the camp should be, then get out of here."
"Even now she's acting awkward and deflecting the issue. How are you not questioning her assertions?"
Moondancer rolled her eyes, "Look, Mayfly, there is literally no way that Daring Do, or Auhizotl, or any of that is real. The fact that A.K. Yearling used this collapsed temple in her book is her using real world locations in a fictional setting. Believe me, Daring Do isn't real."
Mayfly looked coolly from one pony to the next, and shrugged. "The right to say 'I told you so' has been reserved. I look forwards to making use of it."
"You'll be waiting a long time then," said Trixie. "Anyway, how about we get on and find that campsite, if we can, then get out of here before we all catch deadly tropical diseases." Trixie turned to Twilight, "Want to take a flap-flap up to see where we're going?"
"Flap-flap? Really?" Twilight shook her head ruefully, "Northeast is this way."
"Why does it feel like you're avoiding flying?" Trixie asked Twilight as she led them around the edge of the fortress. "Your feathers grew back days ago."
"Because I haven't needed to? Because my wings feel almost permanently wet?" Twilight said back. "Don't try and make something where there isn't anything Trixie. Now come on, hopefully it isn't too far away."
Feeling Trixie's eyes on the back of her head, Twilight led the way around the edge of the clearing before branching off back into the jungle once they reached the most north-easterly part of it. Twilight doubted they'd find anything, but whether it was out of some sense of obligation that was pushing her to look anyway, or something else again, she was determined to find the campsite.
Unless it was too hard to find, in which case she'd happily give up.
Her efforts were both rewarded and thwarted as they came upon a flat, open stretch of ground amongst the trees, with fresh running water and everything a campsite would need to survive in the jungle, suggesting it was quite likely the best place to serve as Starswirl's campsite. It was also occupied.
"Great," Twilight muttered as they spied on the collection of grass huts that made up the small village in the clearing. Ponies walked amongst the huts, their bodies daubed with colourful paints, and adorned with decorative grasses and feathers, just like their pointy looking spears. "These guys."
"You've met them before?" Sunset asked, overhearing Twilight's mutterings.
"Once. This may not surprise you, but they tried to kill me and my friends."
"And?" said Trixie.
"And at the time I wasn't used to such things, and I didn't even try to kill them back once."
"Oh the naïvete of youth," Trixie snickered. "So you think this is the right spot?"
"It's more or less in the right place, and has everything a campsite needs, which is probably why these ponies settled here."
"Unless they were here first, and Starswirl lived among them?" Trixie said hopefully.
"Unlikely," said Twilight. "Besides the fact that Starswirl wouldn't interfere with a tribe of indigenous ponies in such a way, I have plenty of reason to believe that these ponies aren't friendly enough to allow such a thing."
"Okay, so, now what?"
"I have no idea."
"Couldn't Mayfly disguise herself as one of them and go check it out?" suggested Sunset. "Sounds like the perfect job for her." All of them looked hopefully at Mayfly, who raised a chitinous eyebrow at them.
"Not possible."
"Why not?" Trixie asked.
"Close knit tribe of ponies very hard to infiltrate as they know each others mannerisms well enough to catch even a perfect facsimile, so imitating one is not an option. They are also likely to be hostile to ponies they don't know, which is a problem you are also faced with, so no different for me. Third problem is that I don't know what I'm looking for."
"It's a mirror," said Trixie. "Probably broken."
"Yes, but- Oh nevermind," Mayfly hissed to herself.
"Maybe it's a good time to try that fly-over thing," Trixie suggested to Twilight. "Just an idea."
"I'd rather them not know we're here," Twilight whispered back. "Maybe we could sneak in at night to have a look around. I don't know, let's get somewhere safe to- Ow!" Something stung Twilight's rear, and she whipped her head around to see what had bit her, instead finding a thin needle sticking out of it, coated with something green. "Mother fucker. Run!"
A further spray of needles flew towards them before they could even turn around to start fleeing, and several more needles landed on Twilight, while others landed on Sunset and Moondancer. Trixie, whether through luck or bad aim avoided getting hit, while Mayfly, through neither of those, was fine as the needles bounced right off her carapace.
"Tickles," she giggled, following after the others as they fled their invisible attackers, using their magic to pluck the needles from their hides.
Moondancer was the first to fall, her legs collapsing under her as they ran. Twilight turned back to help her, her own legs feeling like lead to the point that she could barely walk herself. Sunset also fell as her legs stopped working, and she whimpered in fear as she tried to crawl. Twilight tried to pick her up as well, but her focus on her magic faded from whatever toxins had coated the needles, and she dropped both of them.
"No, no, no!" Twilight moaned as even talking became hard, her jaw not wanting to move. Sunset looked at her, her eyes the only part of her able to move, and Twilight could see the screaming panic behind that Sunset's body was unable to display save for some rapid breathing.
"Twilight!" Trixie stopped to grab her fallen companions herself, but found she didn't quite have the strength to pick all of them up at once, and Mayfly was nowhere to be seen, so there was no help coming.
"Run!" Twilight hissed at Trixie through her near lifeless jaw.
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Run so you can come back and save us later!"
"Oh! Uh..." Trixie nodded, "Okay, good shout. I'll uh-" Trixie jumped back as more needles flew from the treetops, hitting a flimsy shield Twilight managed to put up instead. "Fuck! I'll come back for you!"
"I'm counting on it," Twilight sighed as Trixie ran as fast as she could. She twitched her eyes to the side as a shadow fell over her, cast by a large mare covered head to tail in greenish mud and bits of vegetation. Likely she was the one leading the ponies that attacked them. "Hi."
"Hah! Sinazo! Iningi lawo noma kunjalo."
"Yes I want fries with that," Twilight said back, not really understanding a word the tribal pony was saying as it sounded like babbling to her ears. "Are my friends okay?" she asked, knowing full well the pony probably couldn't understand her either.
"Ukhuluma ngani? Bah, ubani onendaba."
"Unophondo, namaphiko," said another tribal pony, lifting one of Twilight's limp wings with a hoof. "Uyini yena? Futhi kungani ebonakala ejwayele?"
The first tribal pony shrugged at the seconds question, "Angazi. Mhlawumbe Auhizotl uzokwazi."
"Wait, did you just say Auhizotl?" Twilight grinned nervously at the tribesponies, "There's no need to go bothering him. He won't have any interest in us. In fact, if you let us go, we can all forget this ever happened. Sound good?"
"Lona usakhuluma kanjani?" the second pony said to the first as more ponies turned up. "Kumele kube yinto enzima."
The first pony lightly smacked the second one with a hoof, "Yeka ukuba yisiwula! Babophe ukuze sikwazi ukuwabuyisela emzaneni."
"Hey!" Twilight shouted as the ponies started tying her and her friends up. "Get off of them!" Twilight tried to struggle, but it was like her body didn't even exist any more, she felt so little of it. She growled as something was painted onto her horn, then Moondancer's and Sunset's. She didn't need to guess what it was for, and struggled even harder as a stick was slotted between the ropes on her hooves, and she was hoisted into the air by two ponies.
"I hope you're planning something good Trixie."
-0-0-0-
"Think Trixie, Think!" Trixie cursed as she paced back and forth, "Stop thinking about trying to think, and actually think! Gah!" Trixie sat hard, despair overtaking her, "I don't know what to do!"
"You could try sneaking in."
"Yeek!" Trixie leapt to her hooves and turned on the spot to find Mayfly draped along a low, broken off branch, her pale blue, almost luminous eyes regarding Trixie. "You! Where the hell did you go?"
"I was with you the whole time."
"You were?"
"I was."
"Then if you're that stealthy, why didn't you just sneak into the village?!"
"Because I don't know what I'm looking for."
"It's a mirror! Or a broken one, with gems, and... stuff! It's not hard!"
"And if it was like the one in Badlands, it wouldn't even be that, so again, I wouldn't know what I'm looking for. This one doesn't fancy searching through their entire village looking for a scrap of mirror."
"Oh no? Well how does that one feel about rescuing our friends?"
"Indifferent mostly, because they are your friends, not mine."
Trixie stomped a hoof, "Don't give me that crap! You've been feeding off Sunset's affections for the last week, and I'm guessing some of those are probably for you."
"Only because the rest of you aren't exactly nourishing. She's the only one of you worth trying to feed from!"
"And? Were some of her affections for you?"
Mayfly opened her mouth to argue, then looked away. "Yes, but that doesn't mean I have to like her in return."
"Why not? She's aggravatingly likeable!"
"Changelings don't have friends."
Trixie cocked her head and squinted at Mayfly, "Is that so? Or is that simply what Chrysalis told you? The same pon- changeling that told you all you're not allowed to be individuals? I thought you'd decided to not follow her teachings anymore!"
Mayfly shrugged, "You don't befriend your food. Simple rule."
"Bullshit! Stop thinking like you're some kind of parasite, and start acting like you're a free thinking individual! Care for people! Have friends! Help them when they need it, and just enjoy being around them when they don't! And fucking hell, where is all this coming from? Twilight doesn't even talk like this!" Trixie shook her head rapidly, "Bleh, whatever. My point is that there is nothing stopping you from having friends, and being a friend."
Mayfly sniffed at the air, "You really do care for her, don't you."
"Platonically!"
Mayfly blinked at Trixie, "I didn't say it wasn't."
"And long may that continue." Trixie sighed harshly, "Are you with me or not?"
"Perhaps I might learn best about Thorax by doing as he did, so yes, I will attempt to make friends."
"Great! So you'll help me rescue them?"
"I shall."
"Also great!"
"What's the plan?"
Trixie threw her hooves in the air, "I have no idea!"
"You must have some idea of what to do?"
"No! Yes! One!" Trixie chewed anxiously on her bottom lip, "And it's one I'd really rather not have to do. Seriously, if we get captured again next week I'm going to start charging hazard pay.
-0-0-0-
Rickety wooden cages. Check. Nearby stone altar. Check. Skeletal remains of something that had probably died painfully on said altar. Check. So far everything was present and accounted for on the list of things Twilight needed to make this an authentic 'captured in the jungle' type Daring Do experience, save for one thing; a large monkey creature with a hand on his tail, known as Auhizotl. As soon as he turned up, things probably couldn't get worse.
Actually there was a large list of things Twilight could think of that would make this situation worse, and she hated the amount of effort she was putting into thinking of them. They really needed to stop getting captured.
Still, if there was one silver lining to this, the pins and needles she could feel in her trussed up hooves at least meant the paralysis toxin, or whatever it was on those needles, was wearing off. Sunset and Moondancer were also starting to make moaning noises, so them being okay was also pretty neat too. Now if Trixie could pull a rescue off, things would be just peachy.
"T-Twilight?"
"Hey Sunset, you okay?"
"Not really."
"Fair enough. Are you there Moondancer?"
"I've lost my glasses again. I really am starting to think I should put them on one of those necklace things, especially since I seem to have no magic again."
"Yeah, they painted something on our horns," Twilight said to Moondancer. "Smells a little metallic. Hopefully we can just wash it off."
"And when do you think we can do that?"
"As soon as Trixie and Mayfly rescues us."
Moondancer groaned loudly, "We're doomed."
"How are you being so calm about this?" Sunset asked.
"Because I... I just can't. Just kill me now because I'm so flipping tired of this. If we do make it out of this though, I can't wait to see how we get kidnapped next week."
"Not happening," Twilight said confidently. "After this, we're never getting kidnapped again."
"Because we'll be dead?"
Twilight rolled her eyes, "Because- Oh nevermind. Lets just lie here and hope Trixie gets us out of here before Auhizotl turns up."
"Again with the Auhizotl stuff!" Moondancer shouted, "He's not real!"
Twilight shrugged back as best as her bonds allowed, "You'll see." A loud crack echoed from the forest not too far away, and Twilight suspected that it was only Auhizotl that would have made it. "You'll see," she repeated. Twilight rested her head on the floor of her cage, noticing a stallion walking up to them wearing an elaborate headdress that marked him as either the chief, or the village shaman, mystic, or something along those lines. The most intriguing part though, was the bits of mirror and gemstones decorating his outfit. "Huh."
"Auhizotl, he come for you, soon." The pony said in poor Equestrian. "He tell us why you like great sun pony. Only she have wings and horn."
Twilight's expression went deadpan as she wondered just how many cultures Celestia had pervaded over the centuries. More than likely it wasn't intentional on Celestia's part, but it still irked her. There was other things that mattered more though.
"The shiny bits you're wearing, what are they?" Twilight resisted the urge to roll her eyes as the pony stared at her blankly, then pointed at one of the mirror fragments. "Yeah, those. Where did you find them?"
"Found here long ago. Once part of door to another world, but broken."
"So why do you wear them?"
"Much power, even after broken apart. Give bearer great strength and wisdom."
Twilight wasn't going to waste her breath on how wrong that was, since he wouldn't have understood it anyway. "Okay, thanks for telling me." The stallion stared blankly at her again, then shook his head and moved on to the alter, a low chanting coming from him as he prepared whatever he was doing. "Girls, I think I found the mirror."
"Oh good," Moondancer said sarcastically. "I was worried we were going to die here without ever finding out what happened to it. I'm so relieved."
"I have to admit that I'm with Moondancer on this," said Sunset. "The mirror seems a little low on our list of priorities."
"It'll be fine," Twilight insisted. "They're only really interested in me, so hopefully I can bargain for them to let you go."
"Fine by me," Moondancer mumbled.
"Moondancer!" Sunset gasped.
"What? She can't die! There is literally nothing she can't get over!"
"I'm pretty sure there is plenty she can't get over," Sunset said slowly. "I also think you have an unhealthy fixation on self sacrifice Twilight. But, since I'm in no position to refuse it, hopefully they'll buy it."
Another crash echoed through the jungle, much closer this time, and the shaman increased the volume of his chanting. "He comes! He comes! The great Auhizotl comes!"
"This should be good," Moondancer laughed. Her tone quickly changed as Auhizotl, in all his hulking, blue, simian glory, crashed out of the jungle at the far end of the village, then charged up through the middle of it to the alter. "I- I- I don't-"
"Why have you summoned me?!" Auhizotl screamed at the shaman, his words echoing around the jungle for several seconds afterwards.
The shaman dropped to the ground in submission, "I am sorry great one, but we found a special pony, and we thought you should know about her."
"A special pony..." Auhizotl loomed in close to the shaman and snorted, blowing his headdress off. "You brought me here... for a pony!"
"She has both wings and a horn, oh great one! Please, spare me your wrath!"
"Wings and a horn, hmm?" Auhizotl pulled back from the shaman, then spotted Twilight in the cage.
"Hi."
"So you are the alicorn these peasants dared summon me for." Auhizotl leaned in and sniffed Twilight, blowing her mane back and forth with each breath. "Wait, I remember you. You were with that cursed Daring Do as she destroyed the Fortress of Talacon!"
"Wait!" Moondancer gasped, "Daring Do's real as well?"
"Ignore her," Twilight sighed as Auhizotl moved to investigate Moondancer. "She's had a rough day."
"Hmm, they have no worth to me anyway. You though, with you I could gain the strength of a god!"
"And how do you intend that?"
Auhizotl leaned back in close to Twilight, "By devouring your heart, the heart of an alicorn, I will gain all the power I would ever need. Power enough even, to rival that of the Fallen Dark Empress Ketztwctl!"
"I see. Well, since the other two have no worth to you, I don't suppose I could convince you to release them?"
"You dare ask such a thing of me?" Auhizotl snarled.
"You did say that they were useless to you, so there is literally no harm in you releasing them. If you do, I'll come quietly."
"But I already have you at my mercy, so no, there will be no bargaining. These ponies did well to capture you for me, so as a reward they may keep the other two to do with as they wish."
Twilight closed her eyes, silently apologising to Sunset and Moondancer as Auhizotl called for the villagers to begin preparing a ritual. There would be no forgiving herself this time.
-0-0-0-
"You seem curiously unconcerned about your fate," Auhizotl said to Twilight as some of the villagers daubed her body with foul smelling paints. Not that she cared. She was too busy thinking about the fate of Sunset and Moondancer. "Do you not realise you are going to die?"
"Hmm? Oh. Oh no, death, my one weakness. Woe is me, etcetera, etcetera."
"Do you truly not care?"
"I'd care if I thought for one moment that what you were going to would actually kill me, instead of being a temporary inconvenience. Please Auhizotl, I'm begging you. Do what you want to me, but let my friends go."
Auhizotl reached over and grabbed Twilight's chin between a finger and thumb, forcing her to look up at him. "I have already spoken on this, and my word is final. I'm sure those two will make the villagers' celebration of my victory all the better."
Twilight jerked her chin out of his grip, and nodded to herself as she made a decision, "I'm going to kill you."
"Excuse me?"
"I said I'm going to kill you."
"But you will be dead!"
"Yeah, we'll see about that."
"Do you not realise what is happening here?"
"I understand perfectly well what is happening here. It's you, actually, that doesn't understand what it is you're doing, and soon enough, you'll fully understand the mistake you made when I drive my blade through your heart."
"You're deluded."
"Of course," Twilight continued, "it saddens me to have to kill off one of the major villains of the Daring Do series, but at this point I really don't care. However, if you were to release my friends, I might decide to spare you."
The villagers painting Twilight's body backed away as Auhizotl brought himself up to his full height and loomed over Twilight. "You dare threaten me? I could destroy you right now if I so wished! In fact, I'm tempted to kill your friends in front of you as a punishment for your impudence."
"For every hair you harm on their heads, your death becomes slower and more agonising than you could possibly imagine. Let. Them. Go."
Auhizotl picked Twilight up in his tail-hand, and lifted her until they were face to face. "I'm sure they'll make fine broodmares for the tribe, alicorn." He slammed Twilight down onto the altar, dazing and winding her. "Begin the ritual!"
Twilight soon found herself surrounded in a haze of incense and other, less pleasing fumes. Drums sounded semi-rhythmically around them, and the shaman chanted feverishly as the ritual commenced. The significance of it all was lost on Twilight, as she already knew it wouldn't work, but it was hard to argue when you have a wickedly sharp obsidian blade held tightly to your throat.
The ritual got louder and louder, building up into an obvious crescendo that likely heralded the blade being stuck into her ribcage. Painful, but as had been said plenty of times before, not particularly problematic in the long run. Twilight's concerns were still focused on Sunset and Moondancer far more than herself.
The drumming and chanting stopped, leaving only the sound of the many torches and fires burning around them. At least until Auhizotl started saying strange words in yet another language Twilight didn't understand. They were still just words though, and Twilight couldn't feel any build up of magic or anything as they continued to spill from Auhizotl's elongated maw. If there was, Twilight might have been a little more concerned.
The blade lifted from Twilight's neck, and was raised far above her, ready to be plunged down into her chest. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating the pain, and the new addition to her nightmares.
"Stop!"
Twilight's eyes snapped back open, and she, along with everyone else in the village, looked towards the source of the word. "Oh fuck me."
Trixie trotted slowly up through the village, her armour shining in the firelight, and her head held high with the confidence of a pony that knew what they were doing was incredibly stupid, but was going to do it anyway.
"I demand you release my friends!"
The village was silent for several seconds, then echoed with the sound of laughter as Auhizotl guffawed gleefully at Trixie. He slowed down and finally stopped, wiping a tear from his eye before turning serious again. "Grab her."
The shaman barked an order in his own language, and a dozen ponies jumped on Trixie, wrestling her to the ground and dragging her before Auhizotl.
"Was this your plan?" Twilight asked as Trixie struggled.
"Not exactly. The fact that this Auhi-whatever-feller is not only real, but standing right here, kinda fucked it up from the beginning."
"Okay, what were you really planning?" Trixie flicked her eyes towards the cage where an almost invisible Mayfly was chewing through the ropes tying Moondancer's legs together. Twilight almost squealed with joy, but held it in to not draw attention to what the changeling was doing. "So you had nothing then."
"Actually, I was going to challenge their leader to one on one combat for your life." Trixie grinned apologetically, "I may have underestimated his size."
"It was a noble effort Trixie, but the major flaw in your plan is that these ponies don't speak equestrian, so you probably couldn't have-"
"Silence!" Auhizotl shouted over them. "Not only have you ruined the ceremony, but you have wasted my time. Your punishment will be death."
"Wait! I challenge you to combat! Winner gets to keep the prisoners!"
Auhizotl coolly regarded Trixie, then grabbed her, lifting her up and slamming her down onto the ground. "I win."
"Best two out of three?" Trixie wheezed.
"You're an idiot Trixie," Twilight muttered.
"Idiot like a fox! Now!"
Twilight quickly looked around, along with most of the villagers, and Auhizotl, expecting something to happen, but it never did. Then she heard Trixie laughing.
"Oh wow, the looks on all your faces! I got you all good! Hah! Seriously though," Trixie's horn lit up and cut through the ropes holding Twilight down, "now!"
Twilight scrambled to her hooves and leapt off the altar before she could be stopped. A simple feat made much harder by how completely unprepared she was for it. She tried to grab Trixie and teleport away, but failed at both of those as she was reminded of the stuff on her horn. "Fuck-fuck-fuck!"
"Grab her!"
Twilight danced around the ponies that threw themselves at her, desperately trying to not get dragged down by them, wasting Trixie's rescue. Especially since Trixie's life was very much on the line now.
"Fly you idiot! Get out of here!"
"Oh yeah." Twilight spread her wings a flew out of reach of the ponies below, but didn't stop moving in case any of them decided to get clever with those paralysing needles again. Without her magic though, she was powerless to fight back, and helpless to save Trixie from her predicament. "Trixie!"
"Get out of here Twilight!"
"I'm not leaving you!"
"I meant, to draw the ponies away! Will you please stop being dense?"
"Oh that's hardly fair! I don't know what your stupid fucking plan is!" Twilight looped around the village, they flew into the jungle, slowly weaving through the trees.
"After her!" Auhizotl shouted, "Bring me back that alicorn!" The shaman shouted orders again, and the village quickly grew empty as the villagers chased after Twilight. Auhizotl turned back to Trixie, picking her up to bring her to his face. "I will get her back, and when I do, I will take great pleasure in destroying you in front of her. You will have died for nothing!"
"Don't count me out just yet." Point blank, Trixie blasted Auhizotl in the face with her magic as hard as she could, and found herself flying sideways as he roared in pain and tossed her away. She landed roughly on the ground, which was one of the few things her armour couldn't help with, but she still managed to get back on her hooves before Auhizotl could recover.
"I will kill you!" he roared, lumbering after Trixie, his face blackened and bleeding, but otherwise not particularly damaged.
"Yeah, yeah," Trixie grunted, running out of the way between some of the huts in the village. Auhizotl piled straight through them, not even caring that he was destroying his followers homes. Unfortunately this meant that he caught up very quickly.
Trixie tried to blast Auhizotl with her magic again, but running and trying to shoot something behind you was proving difficult, and very few of her attacks actually hit him, while those that did hardly even scratched him without the same power she put into her first attack. She grabbed a stone and lobbed it at him, but he easily batted it aside.
"What does it take to slow you down?!" Trixie ran back between the huts, Auhizotl hot on her heels as he smashed through the village, the shaman desperately pleading with Auhizotl to stop destroying their homes.
Trixie doubled back on herself, hoping to trick Auhizotl into thinking that she'd kept running straight. It didn't work though, and a hand smacked down on her, roughly hoisting her into the air where she was subjected to the full extent of his breath as he roared right in her face. "You will pay for what you've done!"
"How about we call this one a draw, then let the next round be the decider? Yes? No? Ahh!" Trixie squealed and struggled as Auhizotl started squeezing her, clearing planning on crushing her to death. It was working too, and she found herself out of options as her breath failed to come. Whispering an apology to Twilight, Trixie squeezed her eyes shut. When she reopened them, purple smoke poured from them.
A band of dark magic wrapped around the arm Auhizotl was using to hold Trixie, and he screamed as it constricted and easily sliced through flesh and bone, severing his hand in mere seconds. Trixie gasped for breath as she fell to the ground again, still wrapped in his twitching fist. She lifted it off her and tossed it aside, her head spinning from lack of oxygen, and the heady rush of dark magic.
She advanced on Auhizotl, who crawled back from her, his eyes filled with fear at the tiny pony who had managed to cut his hand off without so much as trying. "No! Please!"
"You'll get as much mercy as you were going to show us." Trixie raised her head sharply, her horn bubbling with the sickening mix of blacks, purples, and greens of dark magic. Shards of crystal jutted out of the ground, impaling upwards through Auhizotl's feet, pinning him in place as he howled with agony. She started to pull his good arm towards her, intending to pin that down as well, when another cry, this one of fury, reached her ears.
The shaman charged towards her, the obsidian dagger that was going to be used to kill Twilight clamped between his teeth. Trixie snorted and batted him aside with her magic, enjoying the power that let her dismiss him so easily. It was almost like it had never left her.
Trixie pulled Auhizotl's hand back out and pinned it down with a sickening crack of bones as he screamed feebly, trying to pull himself free. "Not much fun being on the receiving end, is it? I wonder how many ponies felt what you're feeling now as you carved them open upon that altar? I bet you weren't even merciful enough to make it quick."
"Please..."
"And how many pleas for mercy have you heard in your time? Exactly as many as you've ignored I imagine." Trixie formed a spear of dark crystal, and pointed it down at Auhizotl's head, "I think it's only fitting that the last you hear are your own." Trixie forced the spear down through his skull and into the ground, and stood watching until his twitches finally stopped.
"Trixie! I think I've lost them! Come on, let's get out of... here... Fucking hell." Twilight landed next to Trixie, the blue mare looking away as guilt shot through her. "Damn Trixie, you weren't messing around were you?"
"I'm sorry Twilight," Trixie mumbled. "I- I- He was- I had to-"
Twilight pulled Trixie into a hug and shushed her, "I'm not angry Trixie. I know you only did what you had to." Twilight held the hug as Trixie cried softly. "It's gonna be okay. Although I think we better get out of here."
"Before the villagers get back?"
"Well, that, and before we get burnt to death," Twilight said, gesturing back at the large amount of fire that was consuming the village after Auhizotl's rampage.
"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry I killed him."
"I'm not."
Trixie looked at Twilight with surprise, "But he's a character from those books you like so much! Those previously thought to be fictional books. Why aren't you mad?"
"Because I had every intention of killing him myself after all this." Twilight smiled softly at Trixie until she managed to pull at least half a smile back. "Come on, we better get moving." Twilight started to take off, then remembered something. "Actually, where's that shaman? He has something we need."
"Uh, I threw him over there somewhere." Trixie led Twilight in the vague direction she thought she had thrown the shaman, and eventually found him dead, his head impaled by the dagger he had been carrying. "Oh, whoops, I never meant for that to happen."
"It's fine. Well, maybe less so for him." Twilight started the process of removing the mirror shards with her magic, then looked up and sighed at her horn as nothing happened. "I really hope this stuff washes off. Trixie, could you do me a favour and strip all the mirror pieces and gems off his outfit."
"Ooookay..." Carefully, and with much consideration for the colour of her magic, Trixie quickly tore off all the bits Twilight pointed out. She picked up the pace as the sound of ponies in the jungle grew louder as the tribal ponies started to return to their burning village. As soon as she'd pulled the last bit off, Twilight grabbed her around the chest and took off. Just in time too as the tribal ponies poured in from the dark jungle.
"Y'know," Twilight snickered, "that six months of normality I moaned about is looking pretty good about now. Anyway, I don't suppose you found a safe place to hide out after saving us?"
"Yeah, it's by a waterfall, that way somewhere," Trixie said, pointing in the direction of the nearby river, while trying to not look down. "Hopefully Mayfly has got the others there already."
"Hopefully." Twilight smiled to herself, relieved that things had, sort of, worked out okay. There was one detail that still bothered her though. "Trixie, was that really your plan? Getting the others out sneakily while you fought the tribe's cheiftain for me?"
"Uh, yes? Maybe? I don't know. It all went wrong when that giant monkey showed up anyway."
"And the dark magic? Was that part of the plan?"
"...Yes, but only as a last resort. I really didn't want to do it Twilight, and I feel horrible now. I don't even know why I did what I did to whatshisface, when I could have just killed him." Trixie closed her eyes and sighed, "I hate how amazing it felt too. Nothing like when I first started using it back in Mareitania."
Twilight hugged Trixie a little closer, "While I'm not saying we should ignore it, how about we don't worry about it right now? Right now I think we should be happy that we're all alive and okay thanks to you and Mayfly."
"But Twilight! I fucked up and used dark magic again! I couldn't even go two months without going back to using it!"
"But you didn't want to use it."
"And? It felt amazing Twilight! Right now the only thing stopping me from using it again is how guilty I feel!" Trixie hung limply in Twilight's grip, barely keeping hold of the mirror fragments, "I feel like I failed you."
"Trixie, you saved us all, and only did what you had to to stop Auhizotl from killing you. I hate to say it Trixie, but the only pony feeling like you failed, is you. No I'm not saying that dark magic is something that you should go back to using, but considering the situation, using it is as a one off is perfectly acceptable."
"But what if I can't help but go back to using it more and more? What if I end up totally relying on it again? Do you really want me to go back to being like that?"
"Do you?" Twilight asked back.
"Not really."
"And that is why you won't. Trixie, your regular magic is a lot more powerful than it used to be, and I dare say you rival some of the more powerful magic users in Equestria now. Put simply, if you rely on your normal magic, and only keep the dark magic as a last resort in times of dire need, that's all it will ever be. Even I do that, although reluctantly."
Trixie shook her head sadly, "It's not that simple."
"I know, but this can be something we can work on. As I said, we can talk about this later, when you've had some time to think about it. Right now I just want to make sure the others are safe."
-0-0-0-
"Thank goodness," Sunset gushed as Twilight and Trixie swooped into the cave. "I was so worried."
Twilight placed Trixie on the ground, then grabbed Sunset in a hug, "Believe me, I was a lot more worried about what was going to happen to you and Moondancer if we weren't rescued. Are you okay Moondancer?" she asked the sullen pony sat further into the cave with her summonable glasses perched on her nose. Moondancer glared at her, then looked away again. "I'll take that as a reluctant yes, maybe?" Twilight sighed.
Mayfly walked up them, and spat into a cloth which she held up to Twilight. "Here, to clean your horn with. Apparently changeling saliva removes the paint stuff very easily."
Twilight squirmed internally at the thought of what was on the cloth, then gingerly took it and rubbed it on her horn. As Mayfly had said, it removed the paint easily enough, although it took a minute to get it off completely. "Thanks," she said to Mayfly. "And thanks again," she added, grabbing Mayfly in a tight hug.
Mayfly went cross-eyed, then sighed dreamily before coming back to her senses. "That was unexpected, in many ways. What is extra thank you and hug for?"
"For saving Sunset and Moondancer."
"Oh, well, it was Trixie that talked me into it, although I must say I can see her point on the benefits of friendship."
"Are you doing my job Trixie?" Twilight laughed, only to be met with silence. She released Mayfly to look for Trixie, and found her sitting outside the cave entrance, her head low. "Oh Trixie."
"What's wrong with her?" Sunset asked, following Twilight's gaze.
"She used dark magic to kill Auhizotl, and now she feels bad about it, even though it saved her life."
"What?! Moondancer shrieked. "She killed Auhizotl?"
"Well, yeah, he was going to kill her. He was also going to kill me and eat my heart, and give you and Sunset to the villagers as a reward for capturing us. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what horrible things that might have involved."
"But he's Auhizotl! He's like one of the biggest villains in Daring Do! It won't be the same without him!"
"So you're no longer bothered that he's real?"
"I- Graaaagh!" Moondancer leant forwards and grabbed her head in her hooves, then started rocking back and forth, muttering to herself.
Sunset raised an eyebrow at Moondancer, "Of all the things I thought might break her, that was not one I expected. Although I can understand her position on this. Anyway, I'm guessing that Trixie using dark magic isn't something we want?"
"It isn't something she wants either. I'll talk to her about it tomorrow, but for now I really think we should get some rest, and sleep off any lingering effects of that poison.
"It's not real! It's not real! It's not real!"
"And maybe you should have a small talk with Moondancer."
-0-0-0-
Sleep eluded Trixie, which bothered her immensely. Back during the civil war in Mareitania, she barely slept as a consequence of her heavy use of dark magic. It had been something that had mostly resolved itself during her time in hospital, but that seems to have counted for nought. One taste of dark magic after all these months, and here she was, staring at the ceiling while everyone around her slept reasonably peacefully, just like old times.
"This is bullshit," she whispered to herself, throwing open her sleeping bag and wobbling to her hooves. She headed towards the exit, taking great care not to wake anypony, and despite almost tripping over Mayfly who was near invisible in the dark, she made it out without incident.
The air was still warm outside, and the sky was filled with clouds and the low rumble of distant thunder. All Trixie wanted was to stare mysteriously at the moon as she brooded on her issues, but apparently she wasn't even allowed to have that tonight. What she really wanted though, was for Twilight to stop hiding from the issue of her using dark magic. Sure she'd promised to talk about it tomorrow, but Trixie was worried about it now.
Trixie snorted mirthlessly, "Worried's an understatement. Am I just doomed to forever use dark magic?" Trixie was immensely thankful that nothing answered.
Her attempt to stare wistfully at the moon thwarted, Trixie sat and stared over the edge of the where their little cave was hidden, watching the waterfall as it tumbled endlessly into the dark below. She felt like she could understand how that was, to forever fall into darkness without a choice. It was a horrible feeling.
Trixie's ears pricked as she thought she heard something, but when she turned to look there was nothing there. Snorting in irritation she turned back to watching the waterfall, the feeling that she wasn't alone not leaving her, even though there was nothing there.
"Stop it Trixie, there's nothing there," she said out loud to herself, but it didn't help. The feeling of being watched only grew, and no amount of reassuring herself stopped the feeling from getting stronger and stronger until it almost weighed her down, and the harder she ignored it, the worse it seemed to get.
"Ours..."
Trixie shrieked and span, lashing out with a hoof that passed through thin air because there was nothing there to hit. She was as alone as she was when she first came out here.
Trixie collapsed to her stomach and sobbed into her hooves, suddenly feeling very afraid for herself. |