~Bide~

Chapters

Bury the Hatchet, Hire the Assassin
Old World Blues
The Handling of Public and Private Matters
Friendship Hurts
And Then There Were Three.
Secrets Revealed, Pasts Unconcealed
Because it could never be that simple.
The End...
...Never Comes Without a Beginning.
Schoolyard Crushes
Fire and Ice
Princess of Hope and New Beginnings.
Princess of Love.
Princess of Wishes and Beauty.
Princess of Friendship

Bury the Hatchet, Hire the Assassin

^~^Three Years Post-Coronation^~^

"Yes Luna?" answered Twilight as she entered the Night Alicorn's room, "You called for me?"

Luna turned from her spot and gave Twilight a warm smile.
"Yes, I had these items retrieved recently. I was hoping you might enjoy studying them and that they might give us a better understanding of our nation."

Mouth practically watering Twilight looked over the three items at her hooves with interest only she could match.
The first was an ancient looking book filled with odd symbols that she had never seen before in her life. After that was the shattered end of King Sombra's horn. The final item was the helmet that Nightmare Moon herself had worn when she had returned.

"I figured you would enjoy this task the most. But do be careful as to whom you disclose this to, as there are some who would prefer the past remain in the past."

Twilight simply nodded as she teleported herself and the three items into her room.

^~^Four Years Later^~^

Letting out a frustrated groan, Twilight slammed her head into the table before her with a bang loud enough to echo throughout her quarters. Yet again she found herself at a snag in her research.

Laying before her, in glass cases all their own, were the items she had gathered in her travels and work. There was a fang from Discord and Starswirl's actual hat. That had been a miraculous find indeed. Next to it was his apprentice, Clover's, staff. Sombra's horn followed by the Changeling Text which was a half deciphered history book. A vase that used to hold the first snowflakes of the winter season from a mare known as Snowdrop. The final piece was Nightmare's helmet. Still there was something missing, but she had an inkling as to what it was.

Just as she exited the lab a large purple and green form grabbed her and lifted her into the air.
"Twilight, you're out!"

Laughing slightly Twilight returned the embrace of Spike.
"I know I know, but it's important stuff. Sorry to keep you waiting though, how have you been?"

Spike began to regale Twilight with all the things he'd been up to since the two had gone their own ways. Laughing over a couple of jokes Twilight finished locking up her lab before turning to Spike.
"Hey, I need to go talk to Celestia for a minute, but if you could wait in my room that'd be great, see you in ten tops, I swear."

Spike nodded with a smile and stepped into the hallway.
"You got it Twi, and it's great to see you again, can't wait to tell you all about my travels."

Twilight watched Spike wander off with an almost motherly look before turning to walk the opposite way towards the throne room.

Upon entering the room Twilight found it was unusually empty with the exception of Celestia, as always, sitting in the throne at the head of the room.
"Tia! I was coming to tell you that I've come far in my research!"

Celestia merely raised a brow. Twilight understood that Celestia often had little interest in the past so when the Alicorn didn't seem too enthused it meant little to her.

"I literally only need two more items and I can unravel this. One old item from you, on from your sister!"

Celstia seemed lost in thought and remained pensive for a few minutes before regarding the smaller Alicorn with a sad smile.
"I had truly hoped you would be different. I told you to let go of the past Twilight."

Twilight gave Celestia one puzzled look before the throne room doors opened and a full mark of guards came in.

"Do not move you murderess! Any attempts at escape are to be considered further crimes against the nation and are punishable by death!"

Eye's widening Twilight stared at the soldiers in near shock.
"Murderess? Death? Guards, what are you on abou-"
Any further words were cut off as a magical suppressor was placed over Twilight's horn from behind. Turning about Twilight saw Celestia looking down at her regretfully.

"Twilight Sparkle, you stand accused of murdering Spike Pendragon-Sparkle. Guards, take her to the dungeons."

Before Twilight could put in a word the guards surrounded her, manacled her legs and wings and gagged her before dragging her away.

^~^~^~^

Minutes, hours, days, they all had blended together in the oppressive darkness of the cell that Twilight was in. She had received nothing but bread and water since her incarceration aside from proof that her dearest friend Spike was in fact dead. The Alicorn would have been fighting tears, but they just wouldn't come anymore. Instead she refused to move from her spot, only showing any indication she was even alive by eating.

Just then the door began to open and Twilight screwed her eyes shut due to the light now pouring in through the open door. Coming inside was none other than Celestia herself, and Twilight immediately tried to run to her mentor's side as she had always done when upset. This was counter productive to not jerking her neck, as an iron collar was fitted around her neck and chained into the wall.

"I am so very sorry Twilight. I never wished for this to happen. I believe the answers I seek are hidden in your research. The guards are here to escort the both of us to your lab."

Twilight looked up with hope in her eyes at Celestia even as the guards re-manacled her wings and hooves.
"Thank you Celestia, I knew you wouldn't believe I had done this."

The next ten minutes were spent in near silence as Twilight was led up through the hallways to her lab's door. Undoing each lock, whilst having three guards training killing spells on her should she attempt escape, Twilight hobbled back from the door as it slid open.
"There you go Celestia. I was researching Sombra, the Changelings and Nightmare Moon mostly, so I'd expect that whoever framed me has something to do with those three. You know...who...whoever killed..."
The drained unicorn could say no more as she devolved into tears.

Celestia cast a single glance down at the crying unicorn before nodding for her guards to enter. The six guards rushed through the door but found nothing. The entire lab had been wiped clean and there was no trace of anything left. While Twilight was too distraught to notice this, Celestia was livid. Lighting up her horn she shot a blast of magic into the laboratory and watched as everything inside was incinerated in the explosion.

Including her guards.

The explosion immediately grabbed Twilight's attention, but not nearly as much as Celestia as she hauled the poor unicorn up from her spot on the ground and roared into her face.
"Where are the items you whelp!?"

The mere shock of what just happened coupled with Celestia's sudden fury all joined by the loss of Spike and the false accusations sent Twilight over the edge as she started blubbering.
"I...I...d...don't know, what i...is go..go...going on?"

In a flash they were back in the cell and Celestia slammed the door shut before throwing up a sound dispelling barrier.
"Either you tell me what I want to and need to know, namely who you gave the artefacts to, or I start to take from you what you value the most."

When Twilight did nothing back shake some more Celestia decided to act. Her magic enacted and Twilight began to rub at her eyes as pressure formed there. It wasn't until Twilight could actually feel the pain as the magic pushed behind her eyes that she said anything.
"Stop! Please!"

Celestia stopped her magic from pushing forward, but left it uncomfortably prying at Twilight's eyes as she looked at the mare.
"Well?"

"W...Why are you doing this? I...I thought we-"

The sentence was ended by the most blood curdling scream that would have ever graced Canterlot Castle...

Had it not been for the sound proof barrier.

^~^An Undetermined Amount of Time Later^~^

"Twilight Sparkle," Celestia's voice rang out to the mare's ears, "Tell me, how are the sights? Your friends have been causing me no end of trouble by the way. I wanted to let you know that when I get a hold of them I'm going to make you listen to them die. I'll make sure they scream loud too, especially that little yellow shit!"

Twilight just smirked and braced herself.
"Oh, I'm sorry, is the Element of Kindness being mean to poor old Celly?"

Immediately Twilight's ears flinched against that sound of leather striking flesh. The only response that Celestia would receive for her trouble seeing how Twilight's nerves across her back had stopped working ages ago. Listening keenly Twilight detected the noise of Celestia breathing noisily after the strike.
"You do realise you can't physically hurt me like that any more, right? And of course you can't kill me, it's the only reason your dearest sister, Shining and Cadence and my friends haven't tried to kill you quite yet."
Using the growl as a cue, Twilight located where her former mentor was and carefully trotted over next to her and nuzzled into her side. She could feel the alicorn tense herself in discomfort.
"I still remember when you were kind and caring and loving."

Feeling the horn and the magic suppressor digging into her side uncomfortably Celestia pushed Twilight off of her just as the lavender alicorn knew she would.

"You should have listened to my warning Twilight..."

With that Celestia turned to leave, but not before Twilight called out one last thing.
"The smells, the wind....how nice of you to put me in my room in the tower."

The door slammed roughly and Twilight heard Celestia through the door order her immediate removal to the dungeons. She had other plans though. Reaching up Twilight nearly squealed with glee as the magic suppressor on her horn slid right off, inadvertently having been loosened by Celestia when she pushed her off from the nuzzle. Flexing her magic like any other muscle Twilight got to work thinking over a multitude of different spells she knew before settling on a combination of spells that gave her superb echolocation. Testing the spell three times Twilight then began practising other spells whilst maintaining the first. Once satisfied with the results the powerful mage reversed gravity's pull on her and began waiting on the ceiling.

It took but five more minutes for three guards, three well known guards, to come into the room looking for her. Dropping from the ceiling, Twilight hit two of the guards with spells that paralysed them before pinning the third on the ground.
"You three, I know you by smell..." Twilight gagged for a moment before continuing, "Guess who has magic now? Guess who can fight back now?"
Using magic to stimulate the two paralysed stallions and then using a spell to engorge their members to two times regular size the alicorn mercilessly ripped them off of the immobile stallions in front of the third she had pinned.
"You know," she whispered into the third guards ear, "You told me once that you wanted me to tell you how anal felt."
Driving the two dying guards members into the third was one of the moments Twilight had often fantasised about during her incarceration, and even as the third guard screamed as he began bleeding heavily Twilight couldn't find herself caring.
"A lot like what you're feeling now."

Regarding the dying guard callously, Twilight kicked him off from his grasp of her hindleg and promptly teleported from the room with nothing but a cloak for company.

^~^~^~^

It had been a long time since the barren, ashen wastes of the ruin of Ponyville had seen anything living, longer still since they had seen anything from the time since before it was razed. Today, though, it seemed to be receiving two such visitors from the olden times when it was a bustling township.

Sifting through the ash and mist was a slight pinkish hued young unicorn mare. Her horn harnessed the power of the wind to push the mist from her vision. Left and right but always towards the ground gazed the mare as she searched. As she seemed to draw closer and closer to her target her cutie mark, three gems, seemed to begin to glow brighter and brighter. Stopping suddenly, her horn began to glow brightly as she swept away layers and layers of ash to reveal a head stone laying flat against the ground.

"Hey sis, been a few months since I saw you last," sighed the mare, "Just thought I'd stop by....see if anything has changed much. Oh, mom's feeling better, and dad's back from his trip, so that's good!"
The enthusiasm in the mare's voice began to die down almost immediately as she looked back down at the headstone.
"Still, not the same without you here. Not anymore. Everything just seems darker, and I sometimes wonder if there's any hope left. After all this...Ponyville's gone, you're gone....I just wish there was some sort of sign or something. Anything to let me know that this isn't all just a waste of our existence"

Just then her ears perked and swiveled about at the sound of something landing heavily.

"What? Spike!" the mare heard a voice cry out.

Curious as to who was calling and why the pinkish mare pushed the mist from her view and continued along until she found a cloaked figure teleporting repeatedly about three metres high before falling right back down into the same spot. It was also apparent that's she was beginning to cry heavily.

Worried for the audibly upset cowled mare she made her way over.
"Are you okay miss?"

Starting slightly the cowled mare, turned around, the upper part of her face unrecognisable, but the muzzle showing a vivid lavender.
"Oh! Hello?, Who's there?"

It was then that the mare realised who her cloaked counterpart was. Her breathing nearly froze and her heart began to flutter in panic. Her horn lit up nearly of its own accord as her instincts kicked in and she sent a flurry of wind at the cloaked mare, the wind ripping the covering from her lavender form.
"Twilight Sparkle!"

The alicorn in question let out a cross between a yelp and a growl and erected a shield around herself.
"I don't know who you are, but you put a hoof near me and I'll tear it off!"

Erecting her own shield, the pink hued mare growled back.
"So, come to admire your handiwork? To take pride in the fact that you and your witch princess destroyed the town and murdered over half of its inhabitants?!"
Much to her surprise Twilight's shields faltered for a moment before failing completely as she dropped to her belly.

"I knew my coordinates were right....So it's all gone then ? Ponyville, the ponies? What about the Elements? My friends? Who is still alive?!" Twilight pleaded.

"You don't recognise me do you?"

For the first time Twilight turned her head to fully face the mare who gasped in response.

"You're eyes!"

Snorting in contempt, it was clear that Twilight would have been rolling her eyes by her general body motions if the orbs had still been in her skull.
"Yes, my eyes, or lack-there-of. 'My princess' as you obviously referred Celestia as stole them from me! And now? Now I know that Ponyville is gone but that is all."
In defeat Twilight lowered her head to the ground.
"For the first time in my life I don't know anything..."

In shock the mare, ignoring all common sense and instinct that told her to strike the alicorn down where she lay, moved to Twilight's side.
"You aren't the mare that has led the crusade against Luna, the Elements and Princess Cadence... No, you can't be... I'm, uh, Jubilee."

Noting that the strange mare was at her side with a hoof on her shoulder Twilight turned and did her best to face her, her echolocation spell acting poorly in the open ash plains.
"I...I'm sorry for everything that's happened but...I should probably go, you aren't safe near me, Celestia will surely come looking for me soon."

Jubilee thought it over pensively for a time. There were pros and cons no matter what she chose to do, but in the end it was the simple thought of her sister that reminded her of what the right thing was. Running a spell to search for any tracking spells over the blinded alicorn. Upon finding none she braced herself, knowing that her decision was a major one.
"You could...well, you could come back with me. I work with the resistance...and, well...you might find some old friends there."

"You don't sound too sure of that..." Twilight trailed off.

In response Jubilee shook her head.
"Honestly half of me wants to kill you right now, but there are...issues."

"Issues?"

"You aren't the right Twilight, or maybe you never were...I don't honestly know how to explain it, but to put it simply, you aren't the Twilight Sparkle that razed Ponyville to the ground after my sister called out Celestia on her wrong doings." Jubilee growled through gritted teeth, "And if you were the Twilight from then, well, after I tore her leg from her body, I'm pretty sure if you were her we wouldn't be having this conversation right now and I would be dead."

At a laugh from Twilight the pair stood and began to make their way out of Ponyville.

^~^~^~^

Hours, minutes, it meant little to a mare who couldn’t even judge the time by the amount of light in the sky. As such Twilight made due simply keeping a keen ear out for Jubilee’s hoof steps as she blindly followed after her new ‘acquaintance’.

“I did tell you that you should have your cloak up and stay behind me, right?” Jubilee asked for the third time.

Twilight let out a quick ‘mm-hmm’ as response before a nagging question came up.
“How do I know who you are who you say you are? How do I know you aren’t a criminal or murderer?”

Jubilee let out a humourless laugh.
“A, you don’t, B, how do I know you aren’t who you claim you aren’t, and C, haven’t you heard Celestia’s speeches? The resistance is a bunch of ‘murderers and criminals’. We’re about five minutes out by the way, and if push comes to shove, which I can guarantee it will, use only small personal protection spells. Anything flashy is liable to be reacted to lethally. Other than that I’ll try to keep everypony clm, but I swear you try anything funny and I will strike you down myself!”
“I understand.” replied Twilight in a flat tone. It wouldn’t be the first time she was under the scrutiny of one that thought her a threat.

Twilight could feel the ground go from rough stone to a carved out walkway beneath her hooves. Her acute hearing let her know that there were ponies stopping and whispering about her entrance, and she was glad she had her coak wrapped about her. Picking up a set of wing beats next to the hoof strikes that denoted Jubilee.

“Scout S-”

“Jubilee ma’am!”

“Ah I see, understood, Scout Jubilee report your findings!”

Twilight stood and listened to Jubilee relay numerous weather patterns, animal tracks and how the plant life looked. Pretty much everything up until finding a pony in Ponyville. It was then a larger, heavier sounding hoof steps stopped nearby.

“And this pony you found, is it the same pony standing cloaked before me?” sounded the male voice in a familiar timbre that was immediately recognised by Twilight.

“Knight Captain Armour, it is sir. I...er...It was a complicated situation sir, but I do believe that I may have just found something, or somepony as it were, that can aid us in our fight...provided we tread carefully.” Jubille explained as Twilight listened to the mare as she walked a full circle around her.

“Oh? And how does one pony do this?”

“Well sir, sh-”

“I could walk the whole castle blindfolded Shining Armour, a fact that you should remember well from when we were foals. That and I’m pretty sure I’ve already got Celestia all hot and bothered by the fact that I’m here and not in the tower.”

In seconds Twilgiht found herself slammed up against a wall via magic and had Shining Armour in her face.
“You disgusting little witch, what reason do I have to not kill you right now?!”

“Shiny wh-”

“Don’t you ‘Shiny’ me,” Captain Armour growled viciously, “What, you thought that after what you did you would just be able to walk up and say sorry?! No small wonder you hide under a cloak!”

Feeling she was going to regret asking with every fibre of her being, Twilight steeled herself and took a deep breath.
“Re...Remind me, what did I do?”

“What did you do? What didn’t you do?!” Shining roared as he grabbed the front of the cloak and lifted Twilight from the ground, “ You've ruined Equestria and attacked your friends, destroyed Ponyville too! Oh but that’s all the big stuff, but there’s a number of smaller more personal things, like destroying the knee joints in my left hindleg, or that your stupid little war has kept me from seeing Cadence a-”

“Kept you from shoving your cock in Cadence every night you mean?” Twilight retorted with an audible sneer.

“What?”

“Oh don’t play dumb BBBFF, you’re pissy because you haven’t gotten a good lay. What, you think I can't tell? After all, isn't that why you were always so keen to shove a book under my nose when you got home? Oh, and another thing, how dare you think that I would do any of those things! Now why don’t we go find mom and dad, Luna, Cadence and the girls and get this sorted out?”

“Nice try witch, but you messed up. You murdered our parents in a ‘public execution’, remember?” Shining replied smugly, as if he’d just caught the worlds most wanted villain. Which technically he had.

Twilight’s breathing hitched. Her brother being angry hadn’t scared her, the angry whispers and murmurs in the crowd didn’t phase her. But her parents...
“No! You’re just trying to get me to attack or something! She promised me, Celestia promised me! I...I didn’t do this BBBFF! Please, I didn’t...”

Twilights words faded into whimpers as Shining lifted her higher against the wall and pushed harder against her.

“You want me to believe you, then why don’t you look me in the eyes and swear that you didn’t do those things?” challeneged Shining Armour, “Look me in the eyes and tell me you didn’t have my mother decapitated after forcing her to watch my father be drawn and quatered!”

“I...I can’t look you in the eyes Shining...I do-”

“Of course you can’t, because all that lies in your eyes is deception and hate!”

With a harsh pull the Knight Captain tore the cloak from Twilight to reveal what lay beneath.

Twilight face was a mask of sorrow and pain, tears leaking from the sides of the two gaping holes where her eyes had once been housed. That wasn’t even the thing that horrified the onlookers the most, as thick ropy scars that criss crossed Twilight’s back and the twin brands over her cutie marks were clear to be seen by all.

In an instant Shining Armour had lowered the lavender alicorn to the ground and was looking at her cautiously.

“Twily, is that really you? Under all...that...is it the real you?”

Biting her upper lip to keep from breaking down Twilight nodded.

In moments Shining Armour’s hooves were back on Twilight, but this time in a tight hug.
“Oh Twily, I...I don’t even know what to say...You must hate me so much right now.”

When Twilight didn’t respond and only kept weeping into her brother’s shoulder while he turned to the crowd.
“I...can somepony take my little sister to a room so she can rest up? Please?”

For an even more agonising moment in his current state of shame and relief Shining feared that nopony would step forward to offer their help. That is until apink aura of magic wrapped around Twilight’s now sleeping form and Jubilee stepped out from the crowd.

“I’ll take her to my quarters sir. She can stay with me, I’ll make sure nopony tries anything too.” offered Jubilee as she ignored the shocked looks from the crowd.

“What?” called a voice from the crowd.

“She’s a murderer!” accused another.

“She killed your li-”

”I KNOW!’ Jubilee roared with a magically amplified voice, “I know ‘Twilight Sparkle, High Priestess of the Order of the Sun razed Ponyville and murdered my sister, but this is not that mare. I don’t know how or why two Twilight Sparkles exist, but they do, and this one has been beaten and tortured and we don’t even know why. Now, she’s coming with me back to my quarters, and the first pony I see raise a hoof to her is going to regret it. After all, you want to use my sister as any sort of justification then you’d better be damned sure you remember her last words!”

With that Jubilee marched off with a now sleeping Twilight in her aura.

^~^~^~^

Twilight laughed gaily at the anitcs of Pinkie reenacting Fluttershy’s stopping of the dragon all those years ago. Just as Pinkie finished she jumped towards Twilight with a large smile on her face and her hooves thrown out wide for a hug. As the pink mare came closer a hoof suddenly sturck Twilight’s jaw and distorted her vision. When she turned to face Pinkie she found the mare’s colours to be dark and her mane hanging limp.

“Murderer!”

Shocked Twilight turned to her other friends to find each one of of them glaring balefully at her.

Rarity was missing a large portion of fur on her chest and forelegs, replaced with burn scars and her mane was pulled back.
“Traitor!”

Applejack stood resolute, and ear missing and braces on both her hindlegs.
“Torturer!”

Next to Applejack was Rainbow Dash, her right eye missing.
“Whore!”

Finally Fluttershy came into the light. Her mane and tail were streaked with black and she had a nasty expression on her face. All around her where the corpses of dead animals. She stepped forward and slid a knife into Twilight’s chest.
“Monsterous bitch!”

As Twilight lay there bleeding out the form of Celestia appeared over her.
“You should have joined me Twilight, but now you are nothing but trash.”
With that Twilight layed there helplessly as the older alicorn turned and releived herself on Twilight’s prone form.
“You ruin everything Twilight. Our relationship, your friends’, your family. You killed Spike and your parents and ruined your friends. You have no use, nopony loves you.”

”Hey Twilight.”

“You will die alone with nopony caring.”

”Oi, Sparkle-ass! Wake up, it’s almost breakfast time and you need a shower.”

Twilight shot up with a startled cry, head twisting side to side as she began to realise she was awake, her proof being that she never dreamt and was still blind.
“Son of a protestant who... what the hell is wrong with you yelling at me like that?! And where am I?”

From the other room Jubilee yelled back.
“Finishing a quick shower.”

“Yeah,” questioned Twilight, “Well could you stop yelling? I can hear you fine if you talk normal.”

“Oh. Uh, I’m sorry I guess...”

Twilight just shrugged in Jubilee’s general direction.
“It’s fine, I magically amplified my hearing right after reclaiming my magic. I...I apologise for being in your bed, I probably smell terrible. Um, would you mind if I got a shower too?”

Jubilee just gave a laugh as she watched Twilight navigate her way from the bed to the bathroom. She was actually surprised at the unicorns mastery over echolocation spells too. Once the curtain for the bathroom was pulled it left Jubilee with figuring whether or not she should burn her bedding.

Twilight carefully felt around and set the water to a good temperature before lathering up with soap. It wasn't until she rinsed herself that she encountered a problem. She didn't know if she was completely clean yet. In response Twilight only scrubbed more and more until she accidently dropped the soap bar. Unsure of where it was Twilight didn't even have time to react when she stopped down on the slippery object and fell with a loud thump.

It seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back as memories of everything since her imprisonment coupled with her dream came crashing down on her. It was but seconds before Jubilee came through to the bathroom and found Twilight crying under the rapidly cooling spray of water.

"Hey, what's wrong Twilight?"

With a snort of derision the lavender alicorn punched the side of the tub with a growl.
"Everything! Everything is wrong! Ponyville is gone, my brother hates me, so do my friends! Everypony is afraid of me!"
At this point Twilight devolved from yelling to sobbing.
"I'm pretty sure my friends' lives have been permanently altered physically, my teacher is a homicidal maniac, my parents are dead...and I'm just some defiled blind mare that can't even clean herself..."

"Rainbow still believes in you. Loyalty and all that. She refused to believe that you'd turned evil, even went off on some whole rant about 'anyway' and 'anyways'." explained Jubilee.

It was enough for Twilight to ask about it.

"Yeah, Rainbow picked a fight with the High Priestess and during the fight the Priestess told her that her attempts to not harm her meant nothing 'anyways'. In that moment Rainbow went all out and tried, and failed, to kill the High Prieste-"

Jubilee's further words were cut off as Twilight threw her hooves around Jubilee's neck.
"By the moon she knows it wasn't me! I used to always get onto Rainbow for saying 'anyways' when the proper vernacular is 'anyway'. The imposter couldn't have known this, therefore used 'anyways' which Rainbow recognised I would never say!"

"See," smiled Jubilee, "You've got yourself a plan. Um, I know it might be forward of me to ask, but you want me to help you clean up?"

"I...That'd be great, and thank you Jubilee. Thank you for everything so far."

^~^~^~^

Celestia sat idly in her throne as a guard ran to her hooves and bowed.
"My Princess, the guards are ready to begin their search for the changeling imposter of High Priestess Sparkle. We but await the Priestess herself!"

"Ah, well done guard. Go join your stallions, High Priestess Sparkle will be out shortly."
Celestia watched as the guard ran to the doors and exited, waiting until the doors closed fully before moving. Once sure she was in the clear Celestia rose to her hooves and began walking towards the door. As she went her body seemingly began to melt until Celestia had become naught but a puddle sliding across the floor before it began to reform into the body of a lavender alicorn.

Exiting the doors onto the top of the steps, High Priestess of the Order of the Sun stood proud in her battle regalia as her eyes looked over all before her.

Author's Note

So this is the start of my new little project and the reason I have followers that will be annoyed the 'The Daughter of Drakensdale Hollow' and 'The Filly Angel' have not been updated.

Also, Celestia, the bad guy? Bitch please, I cannae do something that simple again, that was the plot for 'The Dog of the Lunar Republic', not '~Bide~'.

Anyway figured I'd take elements from a few different stories as well as a mix from my own imagination and form this clever little chapter.

I apologise for grammar issues, as it is in between 3 and 6 in the morning when I write.
Constructive criticism is always good too.

Old World Blues

Twilight was just finishing a piece of toast as Jubilee returned with seconds. It was kind of the mare, in fact there were many things that Jubilee had done that had been far kinder than Twilight would have expected.

As for Twilight, well she was looking quite differently. Her coat was a smoky black/grey depending on the lighting while her mane was a sparkling byzantine hue with silvery grey stripes. The burns over her cutie marks were amplified via magic so that her cutie mark appeared to be a dark outline of the sun. A light raven feather cloak rested over her shoulders and a lighter grey knitted foal's scarf with a golden stripe was wrapped around her orbless eye sockets.

All in all Twilight did not appear to be Twilight, which was the goal.

"So then Mavis," Jubilee smiled, "You seem to be settling in here, but why the odd name."

Mavis, or Twilight as it were, just huffed.
"I happen to like that name thank you kindly. And for the most part its great, well, except for the fact that I heard a mother turn my name into the boogeystallion to get her children to behave...But no, it's honestly better than I thought. Also, you can't make fun of Mavis, because Jubilee isn't your real name either."

In response Jubilee let out an odd laugh.
"Fair point...was a nickname my sister used for me, because of how happy I was all the time. Now I'm just trying to do right by her, you know? I mean...she's gone...obviously, nothing that can be done. But I feel like somepony should still carry on her thoughts and ideas. Her dreams..."

"And you decided to take it upon yourself?" Twilight questioned.

"Stupid," Jubilee sighed, "I know it's stupid."

Carefully, as not to bump anything she shouldn't, Twilight extended a wing in a friendly manner and laid it across Jubilee's back.
"I was thinking brave, caring and mature. Your sister seems like she was a good pony."

"One of the best. I've got a question though. What's your plan, because the way I see it, you have to avoid detection from Tia, make friends with the resistance, patch things up with everypony save for Shining Armour and then, with any luck, stop the war."

Before they could get any further Knight Captain Armour came skidding around the corner.
"Twilight, is that you?"

"Mavis now, but yes, why?"

With a worried expression plastered across his face Jubilee fidgeted nervously.
"The High Priestess Witch is on her way here. She doesn't know the full area nor the precise location, but it will only be so long until she carpet bombs the area with spells. Regardless, Scout, I need you to escort Twilight, er, Mavis, to Officer Dash. She's going to be your best bet for allies."

Before Shining could turn to head back to the troops he found himself caught in Twilight's embrace.
"BBBFF...you'd better make it back, because I swear if you die...I...I...I'll raise your fat ass from the d...dead and I'll kick the crap out of it."

Shining stopped the second the tears from 'Twilight' had started running down his chest. Even after yesterday he'd been sceptical, but that line was the same she'd given him when he'd left on his first tour of duty, albeit with less explicatives. Wrapping his own legs around Twilight, Shining ruffled her now byzantine mane.
"Hey Twily, of course I'll be back. Now, you go get your friends together, Scout S...Jubilee will take you to her. And Twilight...stay safe, I love you."
With that the Knight Captain turned tail and left to join his fellow soldiers.

"You going to be okay?"

Twilight turned to face Jubilee.
"I...yeah. No, but...yeah I have to be. Not for the first time the worlds depending on me, and I...I can't let this get in my way."

When Twilight didn't say anything more Jubilee decided that they should start heading out. Leading the alicorn away, the pair made their way down the back tunnel and disappeared into the dark.

^~^~^~^

After a few days of travel Twilight couldn't help but wrinkle her nose distastefully at the aroma she was smelling. She really couldn't place her hoof on it, but she knew she was not a fan of it. It was moments like this she cursed amplifying her other senses, but she knew that she needed them all to survive with out her eyes.
"Smells like crap..."

Jubilles gave a grunt of assent.
"We just entered the Gryphon Lands."

"Correction, smells like shit. I will never understand why their home smells of sulfur." Twilight groaned in annoyance, eliciting a light laugh from Jubilee before the mare quieted slowly. A comfortable silence settled pair as they both thought about whatever drifted into their minds.

For Twilight, she was thinking back to the day when she first realised she needed her friends, and how, like now, she was blind in a way to what she needed to see. And of course now she wasn't metaphorically blind, but truly blind. It certainly was a new perspective on most things too. In fact Twilight hadn't even gotten a chance to look over her new place in the unfamiliar world.

Obviously being 'Twilight Sparkle' was a bad idea, but then what did that make her? She was the real Twilight, but only she and her brother, possibly Jubilee too, knew that.So being Twilight was out of the question, and she'd already altered her appearance, but was that...would it be enough?

Twilight had to take on one of the most powerful beings she knew, and she had to have her friends help to do so. But Twilight Sparkle asking? It couldn't happen, it may not ever be able to happen again. The name Twilight Sparkle could very well go down in the history books as a genocidal maniac, and there wasn't a damn thing to be done about it. Twilight hadn't even realised she'd stopped walking until Jubilee prodded her.

"Hey, you good to keep walking or do you need a break?"

Unsure of how to answer, or even explain her troubles Twilight shrugged.
"I don't know anymore. I don't know my friends anymore...I don't know Equestria anymore...I don't even know who Twilight Sparkle is anymore."

Jubilee tilted her head slightly and though pensively before answering.
"Twilight Sparkle of course, I don't get what you mean?"

"When you hear the words Twilight Sparkle, do you think of me, or a murderess and High Priestess."

After a moments hesitation Jubilee responded.
"I wish I could tell you that it was you...but she took my sister...my town...my home..."

And that cemented it. Twilight Sparkle, Alicorn of Magic and Friendship, could not be Twilight Sparkle any longer. There were too many deeds, horrendous affronts to nature and ponykind, committed under that name for it to be redeemable in Twilight's eyes.

"I don't want you to feel guilty Twilight, it's just some things are-"

"-Impossible to forget. I understand Jubilee. I rarely think about reading anymore, because reading reminds me of seeing, seeing of eyes, eyes of my wounds, and my wounds of who gave it to me." the alicorn responded flatly, "So call me Mavis, as we agreed. I'll find a secondary name soon enough. Now, I'm sure we still have a lot of ground to cover."

Even though Jubilee knew Twi-Mavis was right, she felt that it might be better if the both broke for camp. After leading Twilight a ways off the path Jubilee began setting up a tent and other such needs. Once a fire was going and dinner was set out Jubilee looked up and saw Mavis eating rather forlornly.
"I'm sorry you couldn't keep your name. I...I feel kind of bad, like what I said drove you to decide you aren't Twilight Sparkle. I'm sorry."

Twilight just sniffled and shrugged.
"Not the name, the name can be cleared when this is all over. But...so much has changed. It keeps catching up to me in waves too, won't just hit me and be done. Spike when I first met you, being blind after that, now that I can't be Twilight anymore, at least not until the war is over..."
A brief silence settled over the two before Mavis continued.
"So, um, your sister, she seems like she had been a good pony. If you don't mind, I would like to hear about her."

Minutes of silence passed by before Jubilee finally managed to form any words.
"I...I would honestly rather not talk about it. It's like if I asked you about your scars and why you flinch away when any male steps close to you. I don't say that to be mean, it's just things I've noticed. I'm sure we both have things we'd rather not talk about, but...still...I don't want there to be a barrier between us, just a few places we don't go. So, you don't ask about my sister, I don't ask about when you were captive?"

The darkened alicorn nodded with a smile.
"Sounds fair. I do have a question though. What all happened since the beginning?"

Swallowing her mouth of food Jubilee went into explaining how after Twilight was declared a murderess her five friends and fellow Elements went to confront Celestia, Applejack calling out Celestia on being dishonest. At this point Luna had disappeared, nopony knew where she went. The Elements and Celestia had their disagreement, but before Celestia could have them detained Rainbow's Shadowbolts(having been dubbed too headstrong for the Wonderbolts, Rainbow formed the Shadowbolts under Luna's permission) came in and got them out, but not before Celestia shattered Applejack's pelvis.

After that was High Priestess Sparkle's campaign against Ponyville. When a brave filly called out the new Twilight and Celestia, the High Priestess deemed us all war criminals and destroyed the township. Numerous ponies died that day and it only fueled dissent against Celestia. Shining Armour came down a few months later to aid the resistance while Cadence directed relief missions from the Crystal Kingdom.

Applejack left with her sister to the Minotaurs after hearing they could help with her mobility issues and formed Applejack's Rangers, a group of Minotaurian elite fighters that specialise in guerrilla warfare that had been harassing Equestria's southern border for a good while now.

Rarity joined her family, all former military, and began training resistance soldiers. She had pulled her sister from the path of a mortar, suffering burns to her chest and forelegs.

Pinkie Pie disappeared after returning to her family rock farm. There had been no trace of her since she left.

Fluttershy, fueled by rage at the murder of every animal she'd come to know and love and then their subsequent skinning for clothing for the elite nobles became a master assassin. She hunted down every noble who'd had a product made from one of her friends and killed them, then buried the item in the back yard of each victim's house with a full headstone. She was now an assassin for hire against any of Celestia's forces.

Finally there was Rainbow Dash, who was not only the only one to believe that you and the High Priestess were two different ponies, but also the most active against Celestia. She got back together with her old friend Gildedheart, or Gilda as she prefers, and formed the Spectrum Crew, essentially the meanest, roughest toughest bastards to roam anywhere. Literally a cobbled together gang of gryphons, zebras and ponies with the odd diamond dog, the Spectrum Crew is not a group you want to get on the bad side of. After her initial fight with the High Priestess Rainbow suffered a devastating blow that took her right eye.

"That pretty much sums up the past six years right there. Your friends are up to whatever they're up to, and we're running around here. Obviously we're going to find Rainbow first, but I suspect we'll have to do some 'jobs' bfore they'll trust us near Rainbow." Jubilee laid out.

"Why wouldn't they trust us?"

Jubilee just laughed.
"Most active against Celestia. Means her real friends are few and far between."

At that Mavis couldn't help but flinch again, but pushed it to the back of her mind. She could have her teary eyed reunion after she got back to Rainbow Dash. In the meantime a loud yawn emanated from her mouth as she stretched out each limb.

Jubilee was quick to join in the infectious yawn as well before she turned and stepped into the tent and climbed into her sleeping bag. After a minute or so Mavis slid in through the tent flaps and curled up on the other side of the tent. Jubille didn't think about it at first, but literally right as her eyes began to shut she got it in her head to look over and find Mavis laying on the dirt with her wings wrapped around her.

It took all of single thought of her sister to have Jubilee wrap Mavis in a magical aura and lift her from the dirt. A couple seconds later the pink mare had shifted over and lowered her blind traveling companion down into her sleeping bag.

"Goodnight Mavis, Luna guide your dreams."

A warmth filled Twilight's chest at this and a few tears sprang unbidden to the corners of her eye sockets.
"Night Jubilee...and thank you, Luna guide your dreams as well."

^~^~^~^

Twilight landed roughly at the hooves of a score of guards. Every one of them had leers across their faces as they eyed the mare hungrily. Before she could object the guards were all over her, rubbing, prodding...

Twilight tried to make them stop, but her magic refused to work as she was violated over and over and over again. Tears began to pour from her eyes as her body was used at the whim of the guards with little care for how she felt. Minutes, hours, days, Twilight knew not how long she had been used, but as it ended it left the alicorn choking and gagging on the leftovers clogging her throat.

Curling up Twilight wished to never be touched again just as a hoof came to rest on her back near the base of her wings. Scared that some other guard was trying something she spun around and struck out.

"Ahh! Sunuvabitch!"

Ears shooting up, Mavis rose from her prone position and activated her echolocation to find Jubilee nursing what seemed to be a bloody nose. Worried, the smoky grey alicorn tentatively reach out with a healing spell and fixed any damage she might have done, but refused to face the injured unicorn.
"I...I apologise, I should have better control than that."

Rather than being berated Mavis found Jubilee was patting her back.
"Don't worry about it, you were having a nightmare and you freaked when I tried to wake you up. I do the same thing sometimes. Now, I let you sleep late, so we need to get up and get moving."

Twilight nodded dumbly as she magically began packing as much as she could. The rest of the clean up was spent in silence, as was the next thirty minutes of their trek until Jubilee finally spoke up. It wasn't anything major mind you, but Jubilee understood the importance of needing to talk about things. After she lost her sister she did a lot of stupid things while she tried to cope, and there was just something about Mavis that made her not want to see Mavis find herself trying to cope the same way she had.
"You probably don't want to talk about it, but I'm all ears if you need to talk about it."

For the next hour or so it would have seemed that Jubilee's offer had fallen upon deaf ears, as Mavis made no outward acknowledgement of the words. In her mind though was a hurricane of thoughts and emotions. A lot of Mavis' mind never wanted to go over what had happened to her while she was in captivity. While being blinded and abused was terrible, the daily comments and verbal jibes at the tortures were what hurt the most, and to make matters worse now that she was finally free, her hopes of being reunited with her family were destroyed, and her friends now hated the name Twilight Sparkle. It was like one last final blow after her escape, and it made her feel small and overwhelmed like she was no more than an ant in the world. And it hurt. At this point she hurt like nothing else in the world, and she felt so alone.

She knew nothing, and for the first time in her life, Mavis was completely uneducated as to what she was supposed to do, and there were no books that could help her this time.

That meant that she needed her friends more than ever...

"I...I think I would like to...to take you up on your offer Jubilee..."

The pink unicorn stumbled for a moment, not sure she'd heard Mavis right. When she looked back Jubilee didn't even need to see a pair of eyes to see a hopeful, if timid, expression on Mavis' face. It didn't take a genius to understand that Mavis was putting a lot of faith and trust into Jubilee, and it was definitely a new experience for her. Knowing that she had to tread carefully, Jubilee took a moment to decide what the safest path to follow was.

"You can just start wherever you want. I don't want you to be uncomfortable."

Letting out a rueful laugh Mavis couldn't help but give a sheepish smile.
"I think that I'm going to be uncomfortable with just about anything I mention."

On a whim, since it was what she used to do for her sister when her sister would have a rough day, Jubilee walked over and wrapped Mavis in a tight hug.
"Hey it'll all be okay. Just start with whatever you think is easiest."

Curling into Jubilee much like she would have with her mother Mavis began her tale.
"Well, it all started when my little brother Spike arrived back in Canterlot-"

^~^~^~^

"Boss, we got two ponies makin' their way to the city!"

'Boss', or Wyldfyre as she prefered to be called, eyed the gryphon as if to ask if there was anything else. Despite being a pony, she carried an air about her that made most gryphons wary to cross her.

"Well, one of 'ems is a unicorn, pink, three gems for a cutiemark. The other one is, well, a grey alicorn-"

"WHAT?!" sputtered Wyldfyre, "Alright, you just got a fun job, you're gonna go to the main base and let Warlady Spectrum know we got an alicorn headed our way. What else did you see about the alicorn?"

"Well, erm, she has wings and stuff, and her mane is like, really dark purple. Oh, and her cutie mark is a black sun, looks just like Celestia's."

Nodding affirmation at the new information Wyldfyre waved the gryphon off to go inform Warlady Spectrum before arching her hooves in front of her after slipping on some aviators.
"This is sure to be interesting..."

^~^~^~^

The revelation of all that Twilight had been through was a shock to Jubilee. She could scarcely believe that the alicorn could still be alive after all that, but then again if anypony could have pulled it off it would have been the Twilight Sparkle she used to know before all this started. Now, instead of the quirky lavender alicorn with five great friends and a smile, her eyes found a downtrodden and depressed stormy grey blind and beaten mare. What Mavis needed the most was friends, friends who would not judge her for the actions of her double.

Still holding the alicorn close to her chest, Jubilee leaned down and planted a light kiss on Mavis' brow just like she'd done when her sister was in need of assurance.
"You aren't alone any more Mavis. I swear that you won't be. We're going to find your friends, fix Equestria, and I'm going to be by your side the whole way."

In the grand scheme of things, over the entire history of Equestria, the gesture was infinitesimally inconsequential. The gesture would not lead a civilisation to a brighter future, nor would it revolutionise the world. It would not change the way ponies lived their lives, and it would not end the war. But in that one moment that singular action, no bigger than an atom to the universe, did something extraordinary.

Mavis straightened her shoulders and stood up from Jubilee, grim determination visible by the set of her jaw.
"I know what needs to be done Jubilee. We're, as in both of us, going to go gather my friends and we are going to find Luna, and we will end this!"

Any further serious conversation was cut off as Mavis' stomach grumbled loudly.

"But maybe we should start it with getting into the city first. We're honestly about ten minutes walk out, then however long it takes us to find the gate." amended Jubilee.

Nodding, Mavis rose to her hooves and gave one final affirmative nod to Jubilee to start leading her again. It wasn't until they were nearing the gate that Mavis realised something.

"How are we going to get to Dash? I doubt the 'Spectrum Crew' would let us waltz right on in to see her."

Thinking about it for a moment Jubilee settled on the only thing she could think of.
"Well, my crossbow and my Nech Tree leather scout armour makes me a prime candidate for being a mercenary or bounty hunter. As for you, you said you had that hyper advanced echolocation that you can run for about three hours before you tire out. You could easily pass for a mercenary mage. Most gryphons would immediately call you out for being blind, but as long as you can keep a cool and level head you should be fine."

Thinking about it for a moment Mavis hyper attuned her magic's sensitivity and began rummaging through their bags before pulling out the raven feather cloak, a sewing needle and black thread and a feather down filled black quilt. Setting the items down Mavis began to use her magic, now able to feel with the aura just as well as with her hooves the alicorn used her highly trained mind to form the image of what she wanted and what she had before getting to work.

Jubilee watched in poorly hidden amazement while Mavis went to work over the fabric and thread and it wasn't too long before the final product came to form. Mavis stood almost majestically, the scarf concealing her eye sockets hidden in the shadow cast by the new hood fixed to the raven feather cloak. All together it gave the alicorn a rather badass look.

"Most definitely going to be fitting the role of the sexy team mage." laughed Jubilee.

Mavis was infinitely grateful for her new hood at that moment as her cheeks lit up like fire. Using the laugh as her target source, the alicorn picked up a clod of dirt and tossed it playfully at Jubilee.
"I'm not that sexy, now shush, we need to act professional and...killery...um, we need to be acting like professional killers, yeah, so lets go." with that Mavis activated her advanced echolocation and started off towards the gate.

Jubilee stood still for a moment, lost in thought, before she cantered up and took up the spot as Mavis' lead again.

^~^~^~^

Wyldfyre took it upon herself to watch the pair as they made their way towards the guards at the gate. They didn't seem too troubling quite yet, but she had a good feeling that the one in the cloak, the alicorn, was bound to be the one they would need to look out for. Eyes sharp and unwavering behind her aviators, Wyldfyre contented herself to sit an watch from the roofs.

^~^~^~^

Mavis and Jubilee had waited in line for what seemed like ages now. It was a simple pattern where the(obviously not official) guards at the gate would ask name, business and faction. Mavis had already settled on using their current names, mercenary work and unaffiliated as their answers. Now she just had to hope that they wouldn't have too much trouble getting in.

Other than that Mavis had started using her higher sensitivity echolocation to study her surroundings. She was quick to notice that there were three groupings of gryphons, all separate from the others. The first grouping was what seemed to be your average civilian, nothing special at all. The second grouping was the largest, and each of the gryphons in that group had some sort of etched chest piece on that she couldn't get the full detailing on. The final group consisted of four gryphons, none of them having turned from watching her in various nooks and crannies. She was quick to note that they all seemed to have on berets with feathers in them.

The last group was who she was assuming were part of the Spectrum crew due to the feather being a shed pegasus feather.It let her know who to mouth off to and who not to. Sure, Jubilee may have planned one thing to get into the Spectrum Crew, but it was Shining Armour who had the experience with undercover work. And who was Shining Armour's sister? Precisely.

"Names, business in the city and who you're affiliated to."

Before Jubilee could answer she found her mouth unable to move, nor would her legs. Jubilee could do nothing as Mavis stepped forward.
"None of your business, nothing that matters to you and your mother when she's got the bits for it."

There were a number of gasps and hushed whispers in the ensuing silence as the gryphon guard got up in Mavis' face.
"You think this is a joke?!"

Mavis thought about it for a moment before smiling sincerely.
"A joke? Depends, are we talking about. If it's the fact that you're supposed to be a guard, or that you're supposed to be intimidating, yes. If it's about your mother, well, that's a yes too. She'd never have the bits to afford me."

The guard gave a guttural roar of anger and lunged at Mavis, exactly as she was expecting him to. This was when she made her move, teleporting the guard to where one of the Spectrum members were so he'd hit a wall, teleporting the Spectrum member in front of her and teleporting the 'spy' next to her off the roof. She then pulled the hood off and lifted one side of her cloak so that her 'cutie mark' the black replica of Celestia's own cutie mark branded on her, was visible to all.
"I am Mavis Raven, envoy of the Princess. I was told to seek out Rainbow Dash, and that is what I am doing. My friend and I are going to go find a nice restaurant to eat lunch at while you go get Rainbow Dash and bring her to us. Oh, and don't attempt anything, if I die there will be one very, very upset Princess. Also, tell Rainbow that I heard her grammar is doing well."
With that Mavis unfroze Jubilee and motioned for her to follow, which she did quickly, if only so she could chew out her blind companion as soon and they were around the corner.

"Are you absolutely of the walls fucking crazy?! You just told a bold faced lie to them, so if they catch that we're dead! Oh, and mentioning Celestia? Rainbow Dash is going to kill us now too!"

Unperturbed Mavis jabbed Jubilee in the side with a hoof.
"Okay, first, quiet down, second, find a good looking restaurant, third, I noted I was an envoy of a princess who would get upset if I died. A) I am a princess, B) I will be quite bothered if somepony kills me. Not a single lie was told. But seriously, find us a restaurant, I'm hungry."

There were a thousand things Jubilee wanted to do and say, but before any of them could make themselves known the mare's stomach growled lightly. Blushing Jubilee began casting her eyes around before noting an interesting looking place.
"O'Hanharan's Pub and Grille. How's that sound, we can discuss our executions with Rainbow Dash over a drink or two."

Ignoring the sarcasm in Jubilee's voice Mavis opted for a jibe that she knew the mare would recognise, despite it's personal relations.
"Wouldn't be the first time I got hammered while talking to somepony who wanted to kill me, would it?"

Jubilee didn't answer, but instead led Mavis inside and took a seat at the bar. The barkeep, a pale tan palomino pony with a ginger mane and bright green eyes leaned over the bar to them and smiled.
"Ohh an' wha' can I get the two angels tha' have graced my establishment."

"White wine and a lettuce and tomato sandwich." replied Jubilee.

The barkeep then turned his gaze to Mavis and stared at her for a good three minutes before Jubilee realised this and explained that Mavis was blind. It took another two minutes to get the barkeep to understand Mavis wasn't mad at him and to take her order.

"Two steaks, medium rare, and two tomato and lettuce sandwiches and three orders of hayfries. Four Guinneighss Black Lagers as well."

The barkeep nodded and set off to retrieve the orders, leaving Jubilee to talk to Mavis.

"So, any plan, any thoughts, anything at all? I mean, we literally just walked in, picked a fight, ordered an Officer and Crime boss and now we're sitting here waiting for them?! How do you even know Rainbow will agree to this?"

"I know Rainbow Dash better than you might think Jubilee, but she's not here yet, and I wanted to apologise for freezing you up back there." Mavis explained, "I know a lot of things about just about everything, and I know that sometimes a slow infiltration, which usually takes months for what we had planned, wouldn't work. We don't have the time for it anymore."

"Yeah, about that! You ca-"

"Well here we go now ladies! White wine and a sandwich for you there, and your two steaks for your gryphon friends are next to your sandwich missy."

Mavis used her sonar to let her know when the barkeep had wandered off before swapping her plate for one of the steaks and then wrapping the meat in the lettuce and tomatoes from the sandwich and chowing down. It was just as she finished swallowing her last peice that the establishment's door burst open and a number of beret wearing gryphons stepped in followed by Gilda and Rainbow Dash.

It was then that one of the guards turned to Rainbow.
"Вы уверены, что Вы должны встретить эту пену, босс?"

The rainbow maned mare thought over the question for a moment before turning to Gilda.
"Tell him that I will decide if these two are scum when I'm done talking to them, and yes, I am sure I will be talking to them."

Gilda relayed the message to the guards in Gryphsian before turning back to Rainbow's side only to have the polychromatic mare walk up and take a seat next to Mavis, Gilda taking up her own seat on the other side of Jubilee. Mavis gave both their respective meals, the sandwich and the steak, and their drinks before Rainbow spoke up.

"Okay, 'comrade', it's time we had a talk about what you're doing in my city, and why I shouldn't kill you now."

Author's Note

I reserve any and all rights to be annoyed with Twilight's current name change, since I repeatedly forgot that Twilight was Mavis throughout the typing of this story.

Next I would like to state now that many characters in this story that already exist, such as the real Twilight and also Jubilee and Wyldfyre, have adopted monikers that aren't their real names in order to protect themselves or loved ones. Each character should be revealed shortly after their intro with the exclusion of Jubilee.

Mavis eating a steak is explained next chapter.

Oh, and yes, the Gryphons are Russian. Deal with it.

Any thoughts, ideas, constructive criticism, have a hay day in the comment section below.

The Handling of Public and Private Matters

The room was deathly silent as Rainbow Dash glared daggers at Mavis. Gilda was off to the side, her own eyes filled with loathing.

It seemed that they were at an impasse.

"Your soldier shouldn't have touched me Rainbow...I'm...not a fan of being touched without my permission."

The soldier in question was currently draped unconscious over the bar. The other three soldiers were sprawled out across the floor. All of it had stemmed from when the gryphon currently out cold on the bar had walked up and gave Mavis a joking nudge whilst commenting that the mare sounded like she was a nice lay. After that it was all chaos as Jubilee and Mavis took down the guards. Now, as it currently stood, Mavis held Rainbow immobile in an aura of magic while Gilda had a knife at Jubilee's throat.

"Yet it happened, so here's how this works."
In seconds Mavis teleported Gilda into the air next to Rainbow, effectively immobilizing her, before dropping both her cloak and disguise.
"May I present her royal nopony really gives a fuck, Princess, not Priestess, Twilight Sparkle."
In her echolocation borne 'sight' Twilight was suddenly shocked to find Rainbow wrench herself loose of the aura's hold and throw herself at Twilight. The alicorn, moving purely out of fear of an imminent attack, curled into a tight ball on the ground. Twilight remained like this for at least a minute before soft blue hooves wrapped around her and she felt tears dripping onto her fur.

"I...we all...I thought you were dead...how?" Rainbow managed to choke out as she began to cry into Twilight's shoulder. For Twilight's part she just remained how she was and hugged Rainbow Dash back, tears of her own leaking out from the wet spots at the bottom of the scarf wrapped over her sockets.

Shaking her head speechlessly, Twilight didn't even know how to start. Thankfully it was settled when Jubilee looked out the window to find a large group of guards in the same chest pieces as the one Twilight, as Mavis, had angered earlier.
"So, not necessarily the most urgent thing in the world, but definitely up there, we've got some pissed of guards outside. Twilight, back to Mavis, Rainbow, Gilda, we got a way out?"

Standing up, Twilight re enacted her disguise and began powering her horn for a teleportation.
"When I'm like this, which is most of the time, I'm Mavis Raven. Twilight isn't a much loved name these days."

"Посланник сyka, бросьте себя теперь!"

Mavis froze, her magic sitting ready for use, her mouth turning down at the edges with a twitch.
"Cyka....cyka....Gildedheart, translate."

"It's just Gilda, and he said 'Bitch envoy, give yourself up now', why?"

"Cyka means bitch?"

When Gilda nodded Mavis growled indecipherably. Rainbow made to place a hoof on Mavis' shoulder and urge her to leave but Jubilee crossed her path and shook her head.
"You don't want to be a part of what's about to happen."

With that Mavis disappeared in a flash of light. Seconds later her voice was heard outside.
"Hello there, 'cyka'!"

^~^~^~^

Jubilee shifted as little as possible as she regarded Rainbow Dash cooly. The polychromatic mare was hanging on every word of Jubilee's story, as well as what Jubilee could tell her of Mavis' time in the past six years. Needless to say, Rainbow was less than pleased with many of the details of what the real Twilight Sparkle had endured. Honestly much of it caused Jubilee to cringe. It was one thing to hear the story told, but it was a whole other thing to have the words come out of your mouth.

For some reason the warmth at her side and chest gave her a sense of comfort as her eyelids began to grow heavy. Rainbow seemed to understand that the mare's consciousness was flagging. As Rainbow left the room Jubilee cast a glance down at the alicorn currently tucked into her right side under one of her hooves.

The last thought that passed through Jubilee's mind before sleep took her was how adorable Mavis looked as night fell outside.

^~^~^~^

Swinger spun in a tight circle with a large smile as he voice, melodious and crystal clear, rang out through the woods as she danced amongst her three friends Buccaneer, Recruit and Ratchet. Swinger's slightly swollen abdomen was visible through the dress she wore as she twirled in front of the other three, her tail lifted and brushing the trio's snouts suggestively.

"Swinger, Ah swear you keep twirlin' aroun' an' Ah'm gunna hold you down and show ya that we ain't no strangers in the night!" Ratchet half threatened, half promised. This just earned bedroom eyes from Swinger.

"Well, my hormones are supposed to be all over the place..."

Buccaneer yelped as Ratchet suddenly flipped him onto his back, but did nothing even as Recruit worked him with her hooves until he was at full attention.
"Well, come have a seat if your that horny Swinger...Ratchet and I have plenty we can do to ya!"

Ten minutes later the activities were still continuing when a letter popped into existence. Despite the thorough work Swinger was doing with her tongue and the dexterous show of skill from Ratchet's hooves, Recruit still managed to open the letter and read it.
"Well...Would you...look..at that...Spectrum...is...holy fuck...is wanting us... there..."

"Well sugarcube, Ah want ya here, an' here's where yer gonna stay until we pay you back. Hey, Buccaneer, come sheath that scimitar of yers here!" grinned Ratchet.

Recruit wasn't about to complain.

^~^~^~^

Eepy Squeak breathed softly, unheard as her wings, silent as an owl's, cut through the air. The mare neared the compound and still remained undetected, her all black outfit allowing her to blend with the starless sky well.

Further in the compound, currently outside the reach of the mare now landing noiselessly on the roof, patiently waited none other than Princess Luna. The princess in question was currently regarding the vast amount of security personnel watching over her at the time. They didn't bother her anyway, as she had been in the know of the assassin coming for her since Eepy Squeak had first set out. Steeling herself for the challenges she would face in but a hooful of moments Luna couldn't help but grin at the challenge as the guards steeled themselves at her sudden change in demeanour.

Back up in the dark corridors Eepy Squeak made her way silently through the halls. All was going good so far until a golden armoured guard rounded the corner and found himself face to face with a buttercream pegasus smiling demurely...

Even as she carved a second smile below the poor guard's chin and blinked against the arterial spray.

^~^~^~^

Mavis, by some miracle of a higher being, had managed to find the toilet before emptying any leftover contents of her stomach from yesterday's meal via mouth. Suffice to say that while steak, a food choice forced on her by Celestia during her captivity, didn't taste too terribly bad going down, coming back up was another matter entirely. Come five minutes later Mavis sat hunched over the toilet, her sensitive nose burning against the smell. Feeling around with her hoof, Mavis managed to get a hold of the handle and pull it down.

The silence that had been surrounding her was quickly chased away by the rushing water. Even after the flushing stopped Mavis still didn't get up, thoughts of what she had done the previous day plaguing her mind. For the guards in the tower, she knew what they did everyday, she could justify why she killed them. Those gryphons yesterday though, she didn't knew them, and yet she still tore them apart callously. Retching again, yet with nothing left to come out, Mavis whimpered while painfully rubbing her raw throat before setting her cheek on the rim of the toilet and closing her eyes at the feeling of the cool porcelain against her heated face.

How long she lay there was an unknown to Mavis, but she heard the bed squeak and the clop of hooves on the floor to let her know Jubilee was walking into the bathroom soon. No, not soon actually, she was walking straight in. In but moments there was a hoof rubbing comfortingly across Mavis' back.

"You okay? What are you doing in here?"

Mavis shook her head as much as it could with her leaning on the rim of the bowl.
"It's nothing..."

"So nothing is why is smells of throw up and you look like you got hit by a train?"

The alicorn winced at the description, her sensitive nose easily picking up the stench. Even then Mavis felt that she shouldn't push any more of her problems onto Jubilee. With another firm shake Mavis attempted to cement that nothing was wrong.

"Just tired, must've dozed off, sorry."

Cocking a grin Jubilee reached up and ruffled Mavis' mane.
"A princess waking up in a bathroom leaning over the toilet, what'll the public think when they find out their princess-"

"Is a murderous bitch trying to kill them all?" snarked Mavis, causing Jubilee to wince. "Or that the other Princess is missing, the third isn't doing anything to help them, just running the Crystal Kingdom, and the fourth is some blind wretch that can't control her temper?!"
At this point Mavis' entire body was shaking.
"I hate this! It's not fair, I never asked for this, I never wanted this! Now I'm public enemy number one for things I didn't even do! I've been beaten and tortured and blinded because of some STUPID-FUCKING-RELICS!"
Each yell was punctuated with a strike of a hoof against the tile floor as Mavis began to cry again.
"I'm supposed to help them...I'm supposed to be somepony they trust...I can't even control myself. You saw what I did to those gryphons. And those four from the Crew are hospitalised. I...I...can't even...control myself, much less a country..."

Jubilee heard all of Mavis' words and wrapped her forehooves gently around Mavis' shoulders and hugged the alicorn close to herself. The unicorn's body was now shaking in time with the sobs coming from her friend. Even still it didn't deter the unicorn.

"True, you have done things that most other's wouldn't, but you've also suffered and survived things that would kill a lesser pony. I...don't..." taking in a large steady breath Jubilee prepared herself to continue, "I don't think I ever truly believed it was you that attacked Ponyville. Not after what happened, not with how my sister died. You loved her too much, you two were far too close..."

Breaths hitched in both Jubilee's and Mavis' throats as thoughts of who died, or who might have died in Mavis' case, passed through their heads.

"But I just wanted you to know that even with everything happening, I don't think you're a monster." assured Jubilee, her hooves still wrapped around Mavis, "You're my friend now, and even though it's only been about a week, I know you as the Twilight Sparkle from before the war started. As the, somewhat dorky mind you, alicorn that lived in our library and performed magic shows for the foals, or taught the magic lessons to the younger unicorns. As the mare that would go out with her friends to eat as often as go out with her friends to stop a parasprite invasion. And you still are that mare. Just now instead of getting a little crazy and causing a town to fall in love with a doll, you get a little crazy a kill a bunch of punks who deserve it."

"So you think that some ponies deserve to die?!" Mavis sputtered indignantly.

After a moments thought Jubilee responded.
"For that group? Yes. While you slept Rainbow and I talked, a lot. Turns out that gang had been extorting stores, stealing, mugging ponies and to top it all off were attempting to form an indentured sex slavery ring, which you put an end to last night. So, yes, they deserved to die, also you're the talk of the town. You see, it was one thing for the Spectrum Crew to oppose the regime here, but you, a female, walked right in, insulted the son of the gryphon who ran the group, and then killed said gryphon. Everypony here, including the gryphons, are talking about the Alicorn that dares stand up for the public rather than tread over them!"

Deep inside her, Mavis felt the stirrings of something new, something she hadn't even felt upon meeting her friends again or escaping from Celestia.

Mavis felt hope.

^~^~^~^

Enough blood pooled to cover the entirety of the floor in inches of the crimson liquid. It rippled in ten spots, where the hooves and tail, now stained red with gore, interrupted the natural flow. Blue eyes on blue eyes stared in anticipation of each other as princess and assassin stood off.

"It has been a long time Fl-"

"You know I don't use that name anymore!" the assassin countered in a hardened voice.

The princess nodded.
"I know, and I still love you, do you understand that?"

The assassin gave a curt nod, but kept her features hardened.
"I know, but I have a job, and I need to be finishing it."

"So this is it then 'Eepy Squeak'?"

"Yes Luna, this is it."

The lunar alicorn's muscles twitched as she readied herself for the fight.

^~^~^~^

Rainbow Dash was busy until later that day, so in the meantime Mavis and Jubilee were wandering around acquainting themselves with the city. The first thing they noted was that there seemed to be no class or caste to the public. There were no 'rich ponies' houses' and no 'poor ponies' houses'. Instead every house seemed to look the same. The building that used to hold the government officials had its wall torn open and now housed a large bazaar, plans courtesy of some Saddle Arabians. The police station had been gutted and turned into a large theatre as well. From what it seemed, every sentient being in the city was more or less equal.

It was essentially a city sized pocket of past Equestria.

"So, I'm blind, where are we going?"

Jubilee rolled her eyes and snickered.
"Why do I have to choose where we're going? Why can't you choose?"

"Well, I'm blind..." Mavis trailed off with a roll of her hoof, "So there's that."

"I could just name of places. Like over there is Rumbler's Potato and Window Washing Supplies Shop." Jubilee countered.

"Who in the hay makes a Potato and...Nevermind, I just meant that you should quit being a baby and find us someplace to go for a bit. Believe it or not, I don't really want to walk around aimlessly all day."

"Well there is the bazaar." came a new voice from behind them. Mavis, having not had her echolocation on, skittered forward a bit and grabbed the pony and jerked her into the air. "Friendly! Friendly! It's me, Wyldfyre!"

For her part Mavis was already feeling terrible for reacting in such a manner, a feeling that Jubilee was quick to pick up on and decide to redirect.

"You know Wyldfyre, for such a smart looking pegasus you could have thought of something smarter than walking up on a blind alicorn with high magic levels and is most always on guard an startling her." admonished the unicorn seriously.

Immediately Mavis attempted to assert that it wasn't Wyldfyre's fault when the pegasi intervened.

"You're right, and for that I apologise. I forget how quiet flying can be when you're trained like I am." Wyldfyre announced, "And also, the real name is Spitfire, Lieutenant Spitfire actually. I run most of the grunts around here and keep them in line. I'm actually looking for four ponies in particular. You seen four ponies, three mares, one just showing pregnancy, the stallion dressed like a pirate?"

Even though she knew Spitfire meant no harm, Mavis was hard pressed not to facehoof since they just covered her being blind.
"Oh yeah, and the stallion was pretty much the submissive in the relationship, and it was kind of endearing the way the mares pushed him around even though he liked it?"

Spitfire blinked a couple of times in surprise.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"

At that Mavis lost it.
"I didn't, I was being a bit of a smart ass, cause, you know, I'm blind, I haven't seen anypony in a long time."
The grey alicorn was rolling on the ground at this point flat out laughing her head off. It didn't take too much longer before Jubilee found herself laughing as well, having seated herself as both their sides heaved.
"Oh no please, I'm dying!"
Slowly wet spots built up on Mavis' eye shroud as her laughter continued and she desperately sucked in air in between bouts of uncontrollable laughter. It took another good minute or so of laughter before Mavis or Jubilee could stand back up and even then there were a few giggles.
"I'm sorry Spitfire, that was just hilarious, or for me it was."

Spitfire, who had had a few chuckles at it herself, smiled wider.
"I'm sure, but now you have a crowd to address."

Jubilee had already taken note of the gryphons, Saddle Arabians, ponies and occasional Diamond Dog that had stopped to see why there was an alicorn laughing hysterically in the middle of the street.
"She's right, but if anything Rainbow told me is true then these are all most likely fans. You should say hi, or do something inspiring and such."

Mavis half wanted to run and hide, but knew it wouldn't do anything good. Instead she activated her echolocation and faced the crowd with a large smile. She was about to way hello when a small pony, a filly by the looks of it, came rushing out of the crowd and launched herself at Mavis, wrapping her in a big hug repeating 'thank you' over and over again. In response a Diamond Dog came out of the crown and meekly approached the three mares and filly.

"Micha, off the nice mare! What have I told you about strangers? I am terrible sorry milady," the Diamond Dog started bowing while the filly came and bowed next to him, "Micha didn't mean anything, she is just, how you say, energetic. Again, I apologise."

Mavis just shook her head with a smile.
"No, no it's fine, and stand please, I can't stand being treated special. I'm Mavis Raven, and I believe I've met your..."

"Daughter, Mi-Mavis."

"Daughter, but if I may ask, what is your name?"

"Boscovitch, I run a club in town." replied the now standing Diamond Dog.

Nodding, Mavis just now noticed an off fabric looking lump under Boscovitsh's right eye. Running a thermal overlay in tandem with her echolocation the alicorn picked up on a hotspot around the Diamond Dog's eye, most likely due to bruising.

"What happened to your eye Boscovitch?"

Under the scrutiny of the alicorn, Boscovitch stepped back slightly and lowered himself.
"It is nothing of importance ma'am, no need to worry yourself."

Contradictory to Boscovitch's words Micha dashed forward and hugged Mavis again.
"That's why I was thanking you! These big meanie gryphons used to come in and beat up daddy whenever they came by, but I heard that you made them go away! Now there won't be meanies to my daddy anymore!"

"That's right," chuckled Mavis, "No more meanies here."

Mavis then turned to the crowd with a large smile and amplified her voice so all could hear her.
"Alright then, turns out those jerks I took care of yesterday have been roughing up some of you guys? Well then, anyone who's got any current injuries, caused by them queue up. After all, aren't Equestria's alicorn princesses supposed to care for their subjects?"

A rousing cheer rose up from the crowd, and Jubilee stepped closer and gave Mavis a hug.
"Anything I said this morning ringing any bells?"

Caught up in the moment Mavis turned and gave Jubilee a peck on the cheek before her first 'patient' walked up to her.

^~^~^~^

Luna was painfully picking herself after being slammed through a wall as Eepy Squeak came careening through the hole with a powerful right hook. Luna closed her eye's tight as she pushed her sore body back to a standing position while using a powerful blast of magic to ground the pegasus attacking her.

"Still a strong fighter Eepy."

"And you still bounce back like a pro."

With that the pair continued their fight.

^~^~^~^

Joking around and rowdy as usual, Buccaneer, Ratchet, Recruit and Swinger entered their usual hang out, a slick nightclub on the edge of town. Upon entering, the quartet got a number of greetings and smiles, their presence being well known amongst the usual patrons. The barkeep immediately got them each a drink with a smile.

"On the house you four, the moon knows you all deserve it!"

Smiling back, the four took their drinks and went to go mingle.

^~^~^~^

Mavis let out a loud yawn as she finished up with her final patient, a rather sensitive one that Mavis was personally none too comfortable handling. Even then she had promised to help every pony, and this stallion in particular had done something that earned her a lot of respect.

Apparently he'd interrupted an attempted rape on a mare he didn't recognise, and when the mare got away the culprits beat him badly doing a number on his stallionhood as well as breaking his pelvis. Despite her wanting to have nothing to do with this, Mavis knew she couldn't just ignore him. Thusly she cast a numbing spell and had him wait until everypony else had gone before moving to a more private area. It helped to know that Jubilee had her back though.

The alicorn soon finished, and after a much appreciated thanks and refusal of payment, the stallion ran off and Mavis shuddered.

"That was really brave of you Mavis, since I know your background and all."

For her part Mavis just looked uneasy.
"I need a drink, lots and lots of alcohol, and some brain bleach."

Giving Mavis a playful shove, Jubilee led Mavis outside the shed and began wandering the streets in search of someplace that served alcohol. After an hour of wandering it was starting to get hopeless when they rounded a corner and Jubilee saw a large flashy building with a rather obnoxious name. Letting out snort of laughter, Mavis regarded her non-visibly impaired companion inquisitively.

"What is it Jubille?"

"Well, I found us a nightclub if you're okay with the music." Jubilee explained, then continued after a nod from Mavis, "It's called the Shit-Faced Shrike, and I couldn't help but imagine how somepony got a bird hammered."

Grinning, Mavis nudged Jubilee forward.
"Keep going, I feel like a shrike tonight."

Laughing at the alicorn's attitude, Jubilee led Mavis to the door and gave it a tug. The second it was open the intro guitar riff could be heard slamming against their ears. Seconds later the first line of the song was heard and Mavis cocked a cheeky grin at Jubilee.

"I ask myself the same question all the time, but I never give myself an answer."

Laughing, Jubilee led Mavis to the bar where a familiar voice greeted them.
"Jubilee, Mavis! You are here!"

Both mare's grinned at the tell tale accent of Boscovitch, which was a light tone often found on the southern borders of Stalliongrad. Mavis managed to take a seat and regarded the Diamond Dog.
"Well, you certainly took it to heart when I said treat me like anypony else."

"Da! What can I say? Out there your are a big time hero!, In here though? Well, you are still a big time hero, but I treat all my patrons like family. Here, grab anything you like, tonight it is on the house!" Boscovitch chuckled, "And before you refuse, just now that you have saved me over a thousand bits in 'protection money' dealing with the thugs!"

Giving a warm smile, Jubilee levitated some wine to herself and then proffered a Guinneighs to Mavis.

"Well, he definitely seems nice enough. I must say, I like him better boisterous and loud than scared to look in our direction." Jubilee commented off-hoofedly.

Mavis just shook her head.
"He wasn't that scared, was he? I mean, I hadn't incinerated his daughter for coming near me, so it couldn't be that bad."

Jubilee didn't give any answer, so Mavis assumed she had just grinned and let it go. It was also about that time that the music cut off and there was a tapping on what could only be a microphone. Everypony, save for Mavis, turned to face a stage where Bascovitch stood with a microphone.
"So, as you all know, this town's original four heroes are back in town!" Bocovitch called out as a spotlight lit up four ponies in the back corner, "Who I would like to call on stage so we can all see who they are!"
At that the four ponies walked onto stage.
"Recruit, Swinger, pregnant, I see congratulations are in order there, Ratchet and their husband Buccaneer! This herd has spent more time cleaning up the street than they've spent in this club! But now I want to introduce-"

"Jubilee, please tell me he isn't."

"Two new heroes to our fair city-"

"Don't worry Mavis, he is."

"Unicorn Jubilee and alicorn, that is right the rumours are true! Alicorn Mavis Raven, who spent all day today treating victims of the gang that she put down yesterday evening! And to top that all off, she treated everypony for free with a smile on her face, complete with lollipops for the children! Вы можете верить этому?!"

In response, Jubilee watched as Recruit stepped forward with a cocky grin on her face.
"I'll believe it all right, that is, if this hero comes up and greets me on stage. Besides, sounds like we owe her!"

Mavis tried to shrink back from the attention, but was grabbed by Jubilee.
"Come on Mavis, this will be great, I swear! Just pretend that you can't tell that they're looking at you."

"That's because I can't tell if they are looking at me!"

Jubilee laughed as she began guiding the alicorn up the stairs onto the stage.
"Great, you've got an advantage then!"

Laughing at the joke, Mavis enacted her echolocation and stepped up next to Boscovitch. Suddenly everyone in the room was intrigued in the blind alicorn on stage.

"Speech!" one patron suddenly yelled, others quickly joining in until there was a resounding chorus of 'Speech's that Mavis couldn't ignore. With a blush and much apprehension the alicorn took a microphone from Boscovitch and cleared her throat.

"I..don't really have a speech ready, nor am I good at making them, but that's fine with me." Mavis started, "I have learned that there is much that can be said in the form of words, but that words aren't always enough. It's the actions that define who you are, not what you claim. I had a friend inform me just this morning that many are surprised to see an alicorn standing up for the public rather than stepping on them, so that is my plan. I'm going to find a way to sort this mess out, or I'll die trying. Simple as that. Um...have a nice night..."

The crowd didn't say anything at first, and there was a lot of whispering amongst them before the noise levels suddenly jumped as everyone began cheering. From her exit off the stage to her mild buzz a few hours later Mavis was being congratulated and given pats on the back. It all kind of blurred together in smile and laughter with the occasional funny story until Jubilee managed to find her again, having wandered off earlier. And by find, it is actually meant stumbled drunkenly back to.

"Hey Mavish...fun night..."

Mavis giggled slightly at the image in her head of Jubilee hanging off her side, a drunken blush on her face.
"Well hello to you too Jubilee. Had enough to drink have we?"

"Wha? I haven't had tha' mush..."

Giggling at Jubilee's antics, as she could see the unicorn waving around via echolocation, Mavis nudged her side and wrapped a wing around her.
"I'm heading out Bosco! Have a good night!"

The Diamond Dog grinned at the sight of Mavis leading Jubilee away and grinned.
"Da! You have a good night too Mavis, just not too much of a good one, eh?"

Mavis barely got Jubilee out the door before blushing furiously. Jubilee didn't help as she was rambling about all sorts of fun ponies could have at night, thankfully too drunk to actually think of sex.

"Oh...stargazing...Muffin liked stargazing..." Jubilee sputtered for a moment.

"Your sister again?"

After righting herself, with a lot of help from Mavis, Jubilee shrugged.
"Mmhmm...she was nice..gave lotsha ponies the...the beneh...buneh...be...she was nishe to a lotta ponies...like you, you're nishe to lotsha ponies too...and to me."

Mavis blushed suddenly at Jubilee's soft tone on the last line coupled with how close they were physically. She was about to do something about it when she felt Jubilee's breath tickle her ear.

"Yer really cute when yer ashleep...didja know that?"

Again Mavis was acutely aware of their proximity as her cheeks burned brighter. She made to pull away when a peck on the cheek made her stiffen., follow by another peck, and then a third peck at the edge of her mouth before Jubilee's lips descended upon hers. She both wanted to stop what was happening immediately, but felt a flare of warmth in her chest that calmed her. It was Jubilee after all. Not some random stallion, not a rapist, but her friend, her closest friend.

Purposefully letting her mind relax, Mavis allowed the kiss to continue for a time, their lips moving together in synch. It wasn't until she felt Jubilee's tongue flick lightly at her lips. In a rush Mavis pulled back as horrid memories of other things being forced through those same lips made themselves present, but it all ended as Jubilee's cheek met hers softly, the act comforting enough that when Jubilee swept in for another kiss Mavis didn't refuse. Again Mavis found Jubilee's tongue against her lips, but it was soft, as if asking for permission. Inching her own tongue forward, Mavis only just parted her lips enough to let her tongue meet Jubilee's tentatively.

Soft, fleeting prods continued for a time before Jubilee slid her tongue further, tickling at the back of Mavis' throat with a gentleness that she had never had the chance to experience before. In the moment Mavis teleported both of them straight to the room they were staying in. Jubilee pulled back from the disorientation and Mavis whimpered slightly. The noise seemed to shake Jubilee from her hormone and drink induced mindset enough to slur out and apology.

"M'sorry...I shouldn't've done that..."

Mavis shooked her head slightly and adopted such a face that, if Mavis still possessed eyes, would have been pleading yet apprehensive.
"Please...I think...with you anyway, I think that..."
Feeling as if her face was going to immolate, Mavis turned her head to the side as if to look away nervously.
"I think I want to try it, but a bit more...on my terms."

Careful, even though drunk, Jubilee pressed her lips to Mavis' for what would not be the last time that night as she introduce Mavis to what sex should truly be.

A trust formed bond between two ponies that truly care for eachother.

^~^~^~^

Eepy Squeak ripped a blade from her target as Luna let out a cry of shock. With a guttural cry that was surprising to hear from such a slender mare, the assassin thrust her blade a second time as Luna fell to the ground, yet was seemingly too late as a cyan blur slammed into Eepy Squeak's target. Not needing to worry about it anymore, and glad that the fight was over, the assassin offered a grim smile to the new entry.

"Rainbow, thank you for taking that gryphon down. I missed his heart with the first strike, and I was worried he would have hurt Luna." Eepy explained before offering a hoof to the alicorn, "Now, Luna, what was so important that you had to get captured for?"

In response Luna's horn glowed briefly before opening a zero space rift in which Luna removed two forms.
"I introduce the, still sleeping, ponies Clover the Clever and Knight Regent Sombre Winds. Now, we must flee to the Crystal Kingdom."

Author's Note

Before anyone grumbles, Mavis and Rainbow will talk more in the C.J., but in the meantime life moves on. Recruit, Swinger, Ratchet and Buccaneer will be involved with getting Mavis and Jubilee to the C.K. next chapter too. This just wasn't the chapter for it.

Eepy Squeak and Luna were fighting with not against eachother the whole time. Fun with words!

Oh, and the romance tag, it's in play now.

So, any guesses as to what's going on yet? Any at all? Oh, and if you've guessed Jubilee yet, feel free to give me a holler, just don't spoil it for everypony else.

Any issues and stuff like that, please let me know, but other than that I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

Friendship Hurts

Big Mama was just about as honest as you could get in describing the mare. She was big, the size of a Saddle Arabian, but with musculature to compete with most stallions. Some say it was genetics, some say magic, others say it was foods that she'd eaten in her southern travels, but one thing was for damned sure.

With the terrifying whir of gears during each step and the slight tremble of the earth with each connection of a hoof to the ground damn near everypony knew it too.

You never, ever, for any circumstance, in the world, ever, crossed Big Mama, the 'Mother Bucker'.

^~^~^~^

Jubilee woke up a little sore from the night's activities to find Mavis crying lightly into her bosom. Immediately worried, especially with Mavis' background, Jubilee wrapped her in a hug.

"Oh Maivs, I...I am so sorry if I'm at fault, I never should have done what I did last night."

Mavis just shook her head, smiling slightly despite the tears.
"No it isn't you. I...I don't know...I woke up and thought about what we did...and why..and I've never felt like this before. I woke up and was so happy...and then this! I'm probably the happiest I've been in years Jubilee, I just can't figure out why I'm crying about it..."

Jubilee couldn't help but giggle at the plucky alicorn's antics.
"I don't know whether to hold you close and comfort you, or hold you close and kiss you."

"You could do both." Mavis responded cheekily, her tears starting to dry up a bit.

Just then there was a knock at the door and both Mavis and Jubilee got up and headed over to see who it was. Mavis off-hoofedly remarked that it smelled like the quartet from the club, and sure as sugar they opened the door and all four ponies were there. The only difference was that the unicorn, Swinger, was in what appeared to be an armoured ball gown, the pegasi Recruit was in a chainmail vest and what appeared to be a leather and chainmail kilt, the female earth pony wore nothing but goggles and overalls, and the male earth pony had a goatee, bandana over his head, loose button up shirt and pantaloons making him look like a pirate.

Ratchet turned to Recruit with a frown.
"A'righ' here's yer twenty bits Recruit, guess you was right all 'long."

"See, I totally called that they boned! Smells the same and everything!" Recruit laughed back, much to Jubilee and Mavis' chagrin.

Suddenly Swinger got real close with a large smile plastered across her face.
"Oh my gosh, aren't you two just the cutest couple ever!"

Mavis visibly winced as the mare's voice cracked in her ears.

"Really, you two are just precious!"

Swinger was about to say something else when Jubilee sealed her mouth via magic.
"Kid, your voice cracks like a bitch, and Mavis has really sensitive ears. Also, what we do in private is our business, so unless you've got something to say, bugger off."

Swinger just shrugged and backed off with a nod to Ratchet.

"Right, so 'cordin' ta Spectrum, we're 'sposed ta take yew two to the Crystal Kingdom, so whenever ya'll're ready, we'll be in the lobby."

As soon as the door closed Mavis turned edgily.
"I swear if that unicorn talks the whole way there, I'm going to shove my hoof down her throat."

Jubilee didn't even try to stifle her laugh as they made their way to the bathroom to get cleaned up. Knowing she couldn't do it right herself, Mavis seated herself and smiled as Jubilee used her hooves to work the soap into her fur, building up a good lather. It didn't take long for the alicorn to realise she wasn't just damp from the water, especially as Jubilee's hooves worked lower. Fidgeting slightly, Mavis accidently let out a high pitched whine from her throat that drew Jubilee's attention. The alicorn's cheeks lit up when she realised Jubilee took notice, and it didn't help that she gave a giggle and moved her hooves to either cutiemark and rubbed gently on them. Despite trying to stop it another whine escaped Mavis' lips as Jubilee gave a long, sensual lick up the side of her neck.

"You know," Mavis managed breathlessly, "I thought it was terrible being fucked against your will, but not being fucked against your will..."

Jubilee listened to the words trail off into a desperate whimper for attention as another long lick went up the side of the alicorn's neck.
"Well, I guess I'll just have to amend that problem, won't I?"

Some twenty minutes later Mavis was laying comfortable in the base of the tub with Jubilee's hooves wrapped around her protectively.
"You do realise Jubilee, those four are probably waiting on us."

"And?"

"Dunno, I can't seem to care either. Not like their doing anything important anyway." Mavis shrugged and snuggled backwards into Jubilee more.

^~^~^~^

Luna growled angrily, she hated when plans got shifted last minute, and taking four ponies from their escape crew was definitely a last minute change she would have loved to skip.
"Tell me again Rainbow, where are those four? What was so important?"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and huffed.
"Making sure that two other ponies, one unicorn, one an alicorn that nopony recognises make it north safely. The alicorn came in, destroyed that one gang's leadership and then from what Wyldfyre told me before she headed up north healed every one in that city injured by the gang regardless of injury or circumstance. In short she's got the public's eye as well as power to back herself up."

"Good, because if that group is just wasting their time-"

^~^~^~^

"For the love of all that is holy, why are we just wasting our time?! There are thousands of things we should be doing right now rather than wait for the lovebirds to stop fucking each other silly. Like, I don't know, going to the Crystal Kingdom!" shouted Recruit.

"Well, I apologise that my being blind leads to longer showers. It must be such an inconvenience for you." Mavis growled as she came down from the stairs garbed in her raven feather cloak and hood.

"Yeah, well get better at being blind then, bitch." Recruit muttered angrily.

Mavis just scowled.
"I can hear just fine, punk."

"Good, then take my advice! You're slow as dirt, and if being blind is the problem, fix it!" Recruit growled.

"You know, you seem like a self entitled little shit, what makes you think you have any place to even try to tell me what to do?" Mavis roared back.

"I'm a general in the resi-"

"I'm a mother fucking pony princess! Don't even try to pull rank on me!" Mavis snapped, fully sick and tired of the new ponies already. Thankfully she'd calmed down enough that Jubilee was able to walk over and give her a quick hug, whispering about how it wasn't worth it to Mavis. Despite how much she really wanted to teach the uppity pegasus a lesson, Mavis realised that Jubilee was right, making more enemies wasn't going to help. Releasing a sigh, Mavis signaled for everypony to go so she could follow them.

^~^~^~^

The three guards looked in awe as the mare came closer. She was easily half a hoof taller than the tallest guard, and built like a workhorse. She had odd contraptions on her backs legs that whirred with each step.
"Halt, I need name, business and affiliation!"

"Applejack Apple of the Apple Clan, rescuing Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Luna as well as four other ponies, then takin' the lot of 'em to the Crystal Kingdom. Oh, and Ah'm affiliated to the resistance."

Before the stallions could say a thing the farm mare spun and bucked two of the guards, sending them flying through the air only to come crashing down some twenty odd hooves out.
"Ah advise you jest take that armour offa yerself and skedaddle."

^~^~^~^

"How are you doing back there?" questioned Jubilee as she looked back at Mavis' weary face. It both bothered and invigorated her to see the blind mare pushing herself so hard as to match the pace of the rest of them. Even when her echolocation spell failed from overuse Mavis kept going, tripping and stumbling all the way. To make matters worse was the frown that grew deeper and deeper with every snicker from the smart ass pegasus Recruit. When Mavis attempted to recover from a sudden stumble but tripped again, sending her crashing into some brambles, the pegasus burst out laughing hysterically.

Pulling her partner from the thorny branches Jubilee could see Mavis only just barely keeping her lips from quivering and that there were two damp spots growing at the bottom of the eye shroud. Angry beyond her own understanding, the unicorn spun around and whipped out her crossbow before unleashing a bolt just over an inch from Recruit's face, leaving it lodged in a tree trunk.
"I've had it up to here with your attitude kid! Course, you seem to be the kind of bitch to pick on somepony who's blind."

Anger coursing through her veins, Recruit turned around and whipped out a combat knife and lunged at Jubilee angrily.
"You want to fuck with me?!"

Only just dodging the swing Jubilee launched a second bolt that went wide and bounced off of the barding around Swinger's stomach. This seemed to enrage all four of the ponies and Jubilee found herself at a major disadvantage. Just as Recruit and Ratchet both launched themselves at Jubilee, Mavis stepped forward and formed twin batons of magic itself to block the incoming swings. Pushing the pair back, Mavis made a third baton to block a scimitar slash, but only just as her magic faltered slightly.

It was Mavis' attempt to block the fireball thrown from Swinger that made the alicorn realise just how much of her magic reserves she had used when the shield she constructed broke, exploding spectacularly and sending the mare flying backwards. It completely drained Mavis of all magic and exposed her for who she truly was as four voices rang out in shock.

"Twilight Sparkle!"

Before anypony could react Jubilee had launched two bolts at the quartet, one finding purchase in Buccaneer's chest, the second in Ratchet's side. As Recruit made to attack the two sides suddenly realised they had attracted the attention of a patrol of Equestrian soldiers. Thinking quickly, Swinger pulled out an enchanted orb and threw it at the hooves of herself and her friends, the four disappearing in a flash of magic.

Jubilee turned and ran desperately to Mavis' side, helping the now lavender mare to her hooves. Even still, they couldn't outrun the guards.

In seconds they were overtaken and Jubilee was beaten unconscious.

^~^~^~^

Applejack, Rainbow, Eepy and Luna had just met up, and Luna was about to pass Clover and Sombre to Applejack to carry, when four ponies appeared in a flash of magic. Luna immediately moved forward upon seeing that two of them were injured, and Recruit was so pissed she refused to speak, which left Swinger to relay what happened.

Once all was said and done Applejack told the four to stay with Luna and get across the border before heading off with Rainbow and Eepy in the direction of the nearest Celestia held outpost.

^~^~^~^

Mavis awoke to find her forehooves secured over her head uncomfortably. It took all of two second for Jubilee, strung up the same way, to call out to her.

"Seems we got caught, huh?"

Immediately thoughts of previous captivity tugged at Mavis' mind as she began wrenching and jerking at the chains and manacles, desperately trying to get free.

"It won't work, I tried already." Jubilee called out sadly.

Mavis gave a few more good tugs before giving up, knowing that she could do nothing. Tears began to dampen her shroud as she began to cry at the hopelessness of it all. It was also about this time a rather nasty looking stallion came in with a whip.

"The real Twilight Sparkle! Oh, Her majesty Celestia told me to keep an eye out for you. Well," the stallion secured a gag around Mavis' mouth and took a few steps back, "Shall we get started?"

^~^~^~^

I clenched the muscles in my back for the briefest of seconds before forcing them to relax. I could feel myself shaking as my teeth ground down into the bit that had been forced into my mouth. Already I was crying, and I knew it would only get worse, and all I could find myself hoping was that they would only hurt me, not Jubilee. I had myself fully readied when I heard something that I could only distinguish as a snort of derision from Jubilee.

"Please, that's your swinging stance? You look like a filly playing softball!" I heard Jubilee sneer.

I tried to warn her to shut up, but all that came out was an indecipherable muffled growl.

"Oh, a mouthy one? You didn't tell me you had such...strong willed... friend Twilight. I think I'll break her first!"

Upon hearing the stallions words I began screaming all manner of insults at him and every family member I had, but the gagged quelled any attempt I made to draw attention back to me. And then, as I heard the whip draw back in the air, time seemed to freeze for the slightest moment.
'No, no no!'

*Shhhh-CRACK*

Jubilee's scream of pain was like a red hot iron shoved into my ears. I began screaming desperately at the stallion through my gag and working my hooves furiously. It wasn't long before I felt blood running down my forelegs, but even then I didn't stop. For hours and hours it seems, I worked and worked against the gag and the manacles as Jubilee, my friend, my confidant, my lover as I saw her, was tortured next to me. And there was nothing I could do...

I could hear every scream, every cry, every whimper and every moan. Every statement to egg the stallion on when he would mention my turn. I slowly began to realise that Jubilee was trying to protect me, and the mere thought caused me to begin sobbing. She didn't need to protect me...I knew this pain, I was used to this pain. I was practically born of this pain, and in her own foolish attempts at chivalry she had subjected herself to things I would have given my life to prevent.

In that moment I felt useless and weak. I couldn't protect Spike, or my friends, or Ponyville. I couldn't protect myself, and I couldn't protect Jubilee. As my consciousness began to falter I heard a muffled crack and prayed it hadn't come from Jubilee.

Funny enough, I could swear I heard Applejack too...

^~^~^~^

Jubilee opened her eyes to find herself in Ponyville square watching her sister bounce along happily while humming. Jubilee knew this memory well, and knew that the only way to make it stop was to, as much as she hated it, go along with it, not that she was given a choice as her body moved forward on its own.

"Hey sis, do you think mommy and daddy would like this for dinner?"

Looking at the meal, Jubilee felt herself give a smile and a nod.
"I think that would be a great thing for dinner, Muffin."

Jubilee watched her sister bounce over and lightly hit her shoulder.
"Don't call me that in public, everyone will laugh at me!"

"Twilight never laughs." Jubilee countered with a smile.

Twilight was her sister's teacher and had recently taken Dinky on as her own personal student. On top of that, Twilight regularly taught Jubilee magic as well. But Jubilee knew what came next as lightning flashed through the sky and the High Priestess appeared, laughing cruelly. And like always, her younger sister Dinky stood firm to oppose her.

"Hey, you're not the real Twilight Sparkle! The real Twilight Sparkle is my teacher, and she'd never act like you!"

The High Priestess glared at the foal with hatred poorly masked. After the pair had exchanged a number of lighter spells, the Priestess suddenly turned to Jubilee and fired a new spell. Jubilee knew there was no way to dodge the attack, but before it could reach her, her sister threw herself in the way, absorbing the spell into her body. Jubilee watched as Dinky began to writhe in pain before her sister turned to face her.

Frozen, as was usual in this dream, Jubilee screamed Dinky's name as the unicorn filly enacted one final shield spell and gave her sister a sad, but loving smile.
"Tell mommy and daddy I love them, and I love you too, Sparkler..."

Jubilee screamed in anguish as the entirety of Dinky and the shield erupted into a fiery explosive inferno. As ash from the explosion fell, a single length of blonde mane drifted down to land on the horrified Jubilee's face.

"She...She...She loved you, and...you...you...you...you fucking monster!"

With a primal scream, Jubilee tore the Priestess' left hindleg from her body and began to beat the alicorn's head in until it was nothing but paste.

Then something new happened in the dream.

The Priestess turned her mangled head to face Jubilee as it's colours turned grey and it's eyes disappeared from its sockets as fangs grew out of it's mouth.
"I love you Jubilee!"
Then it lunged.

^~^~^~^

Applejack, along with Luna, Eepy, Rainbow and Rarity, stood outside the I.C.U room that held Jubilee. They had been having a lengthy conversation on many things, but right now was whether or not they should inform Twilight of Jubilee's current condition.

"Now listen ya'll, Ah'm all fer honesty, but Ah think we need to figure out what we're gonna do with tha mare before we start tellin' 'er that 'er friends half dead in a hospital room!"

At this Rainbow flew up into Applejack's face.
"Oh, so had you not been there to see the bolt in 'Blooms side we should have stayed quiet until after you were done being busy?"

"Tha's not tha same thing Ardee! Ah didn't kick four walls open jest so she could fret over another mare!"

"Oh but Applejack, I must concur that it is," countered Rarity, "Twilight is our friend, but the only pony she's had consistently since she escaped is Jubilee. We can't just hide that from her and think that she won't resent us for it later."

"Oh boo hoo hoo, Twilight might lose somepony. This is war, we don't get to waste our time like this, we don't have the time to waste!" snapped Fluttershy, "What about you love?"

Luna, as it had been for a while, had been listening to the key points of every argument keenly. The situation on how to deal with Twilight, the real Twilight, was a sensitive one to be sure. The fact of the matter came down to the fact that Luna needed Twilight to finish the research she'd started to try to defeat Celestia.
"We don't tell her anything. There are jobs that need to be done, and sadly Fluttershy is right, this is war."

"Next. Next. Next."

The group turned to look down the hall to find Twilight, in her grey guise, with an i.v stand rollling behind her while she held a doctor aloft by his mane.

"Next. Next. This one! This one right here holds Jubilee, I swear, just please don't kill me!"

The group then watched as Twilight dropped the doctor and walked inside.

^~^~^~^

Mavis moved carefully in the room, activating her magic as best as she could and watching the levels so her guise wouldn't fail. At least, it wouldn't fail like she did...

Tears were already dampening the shroud as Mavis grew nearer to the bed, and it the alicorn was practically sobbing as her echolocation showed all the machines hooked up, most of which she recognised were only ever used for patients that had undergone serious amounts of trauma. Hesitant at first, Mavis finally decided to use a thermal overlay to get a feel for Jubilee's injuries. In just moments a strangled cry ripped through Mavis' trachea as tears began to pour like waterfalls, bleeding through the shroud and running down her face.

Jubilee's fore head was above temperature, as were numerous lashings across her withers, back and haunches, but that wasn't what had horrified the alicorn. No, the worst injuries were the pair of heated 'tubes' running from the mare's pelvis up towards her stomach. Wrapping her hooves as best as she could around Jubilee's chest, Mavis leaned over and spent the next hour crying into her chest to the music of a street pianist outside.

^~^~^~^

It had been nine days since her arrival at the hospital and Mavis still had not left Jubilee's room, especially not after some strange mare had come in and claimed it was her job to clean every part of Jubilee! That had gone over just about as well as trying to make a rock float unaided in water.

Much like the past three morning Mavis meticulously worked over each hindleg, making sure that she didn't miss any spot and that she had cleaned as much of each single follicle. When she got to Jubilee's pelvis, her touch was feather soft, as the area was still inflamed and bruised, yet she made sure that every part of it was cared for and cleaned properly. She would then work her way up to the waist and chest with the damp rag. It was one of Mavis' favourite parts of the process, as she could feel every breath and heartbeat as if it were her own, and in a way it soothed her. From there she would clean down the forelegs, ending with a light kiss to each hoof as she finished.

After that a cooler, cleaner cloth would be used to lightly work over Jubilee's neck and face before Mavis would take a very soft bristled toothbrush and use her magic to help gently brush each of Jubilee's teeth properly. In fact, Mavis had become so methodical that some doctors had actually asked if they could watch, thinking they may learn something. Originally Mavis had refused, but relented on the one rule that nopony came in until she opened the door, which was after she had passed Jubilee's pelvic region and covered it with a sheet.

In fact Mavis had become so protective of Jubilee that some worried it was unhealthy. Thankfully she was still eating and sleeping, but some of the professionals were beginning to question whether or not the alicorn needed to be sedated. Still, none had put any serious thought to it after Mavis had nearly ripped a stallion nurses' leg off when she awoke to find him attempting to take a blood sample from Jubilee with out her consent.

Another thing that had become regular was Rainbow Dash visiting.

Every day Rainbow Dash would come in with lunch, dinner, and the next morning's breakfast pre packed for Mavis. It was just that simple that the hospital staff had come to accept it. That and it gave Mavis something to do other than hover over Jubilee listening for any sign of improvement.

"Hey egghead, sorry I'm late, the bakery was packed."

Mavis shrugged as if it didn't matter too much to her, which Rainbow figured it probably didn't.
"Food is food, whether it's late or not isn't that important."

Moving to Mavis' side Rainbow began to pull out different things, tomato soup, potato and leek soup, rye bread, hay fries and a couple of glasses of milk. Once she had their food out she regarded her friend cautiously, as she always did when she brought up this kind of subject.
"You need to go out and stop keeping yourself cooped up in here. I get it, you worry about her, but I can get security posted, security you can trust, and you can come in every morning and night to take care of her, but this isn't healthy for you Egghead."

Ears drooping, Mavis swallowed her mouthful of soup before frowning.
"I...can't..."

"Because this was meant for you, wasn't it?" Rainbow deadeyed, "They had no reason to do this to her, and you looked like you'd been chewing on that bit hard and you tore up your legs bad too. But I'm right, aren't I? This," Rainbow gestured to Jubilee, namely her wounds, "Was supposed to be for you, but she stopped them, didn't she?"

Mavis' lip quivered against her will as she shuddered, tears sliding down her face, as she had tied the shroud around Jubilee's right foreleg as a kind of way to say that she was always there. A sharp cry emanated from the alicorn's throat as her face turned down shamefully. Rainbow quickly scooted forward and embraced Mavis tightly while stroking her mane.
"Hey, don't cry now on me Egghead, I'm still no good with all that emotion and shit."

"I'm sorry, Rainbow, I know you aren't good at this," Mavis mumbled, "I'm just full of mistakes lately."

"Hey! I make mistakes too y'know! Like with Scootaloo, I haven't seen her in nine days... Half of me is worried sick about her, a quarter is mad at her, and another quarter is mad at myself for being mad at her. She's 'Recruit' by the way...and I kind of went a little over board tearing into her for abandoning you and Jubilee. Especially with how we found you both..." Rainbow admitted, "She ran off, called me a traitor...I don't know if she's gonna come back, and the worst part is, I don't know if I want her to, not after how she acted."

Mavis winced, then stood suddenly.
"I...I think I will go for a walk Rainbow...would you mind watching Jubilee for me? And getting that guard? Actually, could you ask Applejack or Fluttershy? I don't know if I'd trust anypony else..."

"Oh, yeah, of course. You know I never leave a pony hanging if I can help it!"

Mavis' ears fell at the added words to that once signature line as she longed for the simpler days to return. Activating her echolocation she made her way out of the hospital and onto the streets. After asking once for directions, Mavis began making her way south towards the edge of town.
'Everything's changed because you couldn't keep it together. They all trusted you, and you let them down... Twilight doesn't deserve to stay, and Mavis is just a warped copy with the same flaws...'

^~^~^~^

High Priestess Sparkle amassed her strike team, and the plan was simple. The mare that had beaten her into mush was laid up in a hospital in the Crystal Kingdom, and while she still 'needed' the revolutionaries to try to find Twilight Sparkle, she could easily slip in and cause some havoc as well as kill the insolent wretch.

With a hauntingly evil grin, the priestess led her suicide squad towards the border before adopting a new look of a grey alicorn with a byzantine mane with a silver stripe running through it...

Author's Note

This chapter existed in three forms at first. The original was 6,236 words long and involved some things that will be involved later, so I can't say too much other than that neither Jubilee nor Mavis were captured and they didn't go to the Crystal Kingdom. The second was similar to this, only instead of running, Scootaloo, Pipsqueak, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle stayed to fight. Applejack was going to come save the day and they would meet up with Luna Dash and Fluttershy, but I didn't know how to handle Fluttershy's anger at 'Twilight' in that one, so I settled with this one, which instead is able to postpone dealing with Fluttershy and also allow for some one on one time with Rainbow to show how she's changed.

This version also allowed me to reveal all of Jubilee's past and who she really is, and what happened to her sister. Feel free to hate me for that one there, but it had to be brutal enough to cause Jubilee to rip a ponies leg off.

That in turn also allowed me to again exercise the fact that the antagonist is not Celestia, nor Twilight Sparkle. Feel free to lay your accusations out below.

Please let me know of any missed mistakes or glaring errors. I've worked the three forms of this nonstop since I ended the last chapter. Your proof? Well, this page still reads 21 like and 5 dislikes with 138 views and 8 comments....

And Then There Were Three.

Mavis was still walking south. She hadn't stopped at a block, nor at two. She'd kept walking past the gate and right down the road. It just seemed like the thing to do, to walk, to get away from it all. She hoped that Rainbow would wash down Jubilee carefully and respectfully, and deep inside she knew she could trust her most loyal friend to take care of Jubilee.

That was the hardest thing to think about though.

It wasn't Spike, her son/younger brother who she had loved dearly until his death. The dragon that had been the closest thing to a friend since entering Ponyville and had known all her secrets.

Nor her parents, who had never ever once not sent a letter to her once a week since she'd become Celestia's student, and those letters had persisted throughout her stay in Ponyville and even after her coronation. The very ponies that gave her life were gone, and yet that wasn't what troubled the alicorn's mind the most.

It wasn't even the vast changes in her friends.

No, it was Jubilee. Or Sparkler as it stated on the braille medical records, Sparkler Whooves. Mavis could still remember the filly, not as quick on the uptake as her younger sister, but still formidable in her own right. She could still remember when Dinky's father rolled into one day and stormed into one of Twilight's sessions with her personal student. When he'd yelled at Dinky, Sparkler charged up a blast of magic that not only catapulted him through the wall, but transmorgified the stallion into a hospital bed pan. It was then that Mavis had discovered that Twilight was not only dealing with one powerful unicorns, but two, possibly as powerful as she had been at that age.

Magical potency aside, it was the fact that last time Twilight had seen Sparkler, the unicorn was just becoming a mare, having just turned twenty while she was twenty-six, and now, though immortal, she was technically thirty four and Sparkler was twenty six!

Then there was the 'Twilight Conundrum'. Mavis did not feel like she was Twilight any more. Twilight was the awkward bookish, naive mare that had no idea how to talk to cute ponies. Twilight was the mare that loved Celestia like a mother and would never go against her. No, it was clear that for Mavis, Twilight was no longer the same mare she had become. It was actually a little sobering, knowing that a part of her had died and would no longer exist.

But then, wasn't that what it was to be an alicorn? Grow older, accept deaths? Did that mean that new parts of Mavis would grow and die with time? Would Mavis' personality itself shift and change before ceasing to exist? Was this what she was doomed to be? An ever shifting being with no true name or personality, just whatever fit the bill at the time? If 'Twilight Sparkle' could be thrown away so easily, her lavender fur extinguished, her cutie mark changed, could the same happen to Mavis? at any point in time? It all was beginning to give Mavis a massive migraine when she heard hoofsteps come up to her.

"High Priestess, I see you've altered your eyes already! I was ordered to come escort you into the town!"

Thinking fast, Mavis gave the best condescending grin she could.
"Oh, and how do I know you are who you say you are? Tell me, what are the exact details of your mission?"

"To infiltrate the town outpost, find the mare Sparkler Whooves, and then to report to you so you may go kill her High Priestess!"

With a flash of magic the stallions neck snapped and Mavis was away over his body running back to town.

^~^~^~^

Rainbow Dash was watching the clock. She'd sworn that she would take care of Jubilee until Mavis returned, and she meant it. The subtle click of the door let the pegasus know that Applejack had let the nurse in with the wet cloth. Upon entering the nurse looked uneasily at the new pony in the room and the distinct lack of the vicious and protective grey alicorn. It also seemed to both worry and relieve the haggard nurse.

"Don't worry about t too much. Mavis and I...talked, and she's out cooling down. I told her I'd take care of Sparkler for now, and Applejack is just there to make Mavis feel better about leaving."

The nurse seemed to accept the answer, but still took a jab at Mavis as she hoofed over the rag.
"Well personally I'm glad the uptight wretch is backing off."

Rainow glowered at the mare for a moment before turning a pointing a hoof to the comatose mare on the hospital bed.
"List her injuries."

"Wh-"

"Just list her injuries."

"Multiple lacerations ranging from her shoulders to her haunches, numerous contusions, lacerations on her fore ankles and has been the victim of a rather brutal rape." the nurse replied, flinching slightly as she mentioned the rape.

"And can you tell me why this happened?"

The nurse blinked in shock for a moment.
"I can imagine there would never be any valid reason for this!"

Shaking her head, Rainbow locked eyes with the nurse.
"Well there was. In an attempt to protect Mavis, Jubilee took every lashing meant for the alicorn, and then was raped. Jubilee suffered this to protect Mavis, and now Mavis feels guilty and is trying to both protect and pay Jubilee back. I agree, she's uptight, but she's scared and worried. Unlike us, she can't read all the medical records that we can. She's all of seen the patient records in braille but knows nothing else. She is scared out of her mind, and the only way she knows how to cope with that fear is currently unconscious in that bed. So yes, Mavis will rip a nurse's leg off if she feels it will keep one of the only things she still cares for in this world alive. It's called being loyal."

The nurse froze for a moment and Rainbow's words sank in before she turned and trotted out quickly.

^~^~^~^

Mavis was damn near exhausted. In her fear she'd 'blinked' all the way back to the hospital lobby. She would have done a straight teleport, but with the lack of her eyes she couldn't be sure of where she'd come out at. Instead she'd used multiple, rapid short distance telportations, or 'blinking', to minimise the chance of an accident. Doing her best to shake fatigue from her head, Mavis began using the most basic echolocation she could to rush up to Jubilee's room. Three I.V pole collisions, two torn curtains and four broken mesh doors later Mavis rounded the corner to find the vague ourline of a hulking mare that could only be Applejack laid out on the floor.

"Oh goddesses don't let me be too late!"

Throwing the door wide, Mavis garnered three bodies. Rainbow Dash was out cold in a chair. Mavis deduced both the pegasus and Applejack had been drugged. Jubilee was still laying in her hospital bed. Finally there was one more pony, a mare, standing over Jubilee with a knife, albeit frozen and seemingly staring at Mavis' sudden entrance. Throwing caution to the wind, Mavis teleported the knife to where the stallion had accidently ruined the plans at before growling menacingly.
"I don't know who you are, but I'm going to stop you, and I will kill you!"

In response the other pony cackled wildy before throwing itself into Mavis, causing both of them to roll back out the door. Though gifted in magic, Mavis was only just maintaining her guise as well as poor in physical combat. There was little the alicorn could do aside from yelp or grunt in pain as her attacker smashed her into walls and doors. Losing track of the number of items she'd been slammed into, Mavis' only reprieve was when she felt the other pony's grip release her as she went tumbling and skidding across the floor before slamming into a wall, knocking her breath out.

"Truly pitiful," the pony leered, "Did you really think you could stop me? Change your colours all you like Twilight Sparkle, but you can't change who you are on the inside."

Mavis whimpered as her sore and bruised muscles strained to lift her up off the ground.

"Add a cutie mark, but you still didn't have friends, add a few years of age, and you still couldn't take care of yourself!" continued Mavis' antagoniser, "Even as an adult you needed ponies to pull you from the fire! Your 'friends' the Elements had to save you from Nightmare Moon. I had to 'save' you from Discord. Cadence and your brother at the wedding, and your now dead little pet dragon from Sombre Winds! Face it Twilight, you can't do anything on your own, even your new friend in there has suffered because of you! Don't worry though, I'm going to go end that suffering. You just lay there and think about what you've done, 'High Priestess Sparkle'."

Mavis listened to the pony laugh jeeringly again, but was not about to stay down. Activating her echolocation, Mavis raced back to the room to find her opponent lifting the knife from earlier up off the ground. And much to the alicorn's glee, the pony was standing right in front of the window! Charging up a spell with the last vestiges of her magic, Mavis tackled the pony all while unleashing a powerful arcane electricity out of her horn to course through her adversaries body.

Wind whistling as they fell from the forty sixth floor of the building, Mavis began expanding her wings to slow her fall, but the other pony held tighter and leaned in close.

"Oh, so you still had some fire in you after all? Well that's okay, Twilight Sparkle, because there are a lot of curious ponies down there, that and your true colours are showing." laughed Mavis' aggressor as she began to melt in Mavis' hooves, "One more thing. Tree."

Without even enough time to gasp as her opponent melted away, Mavis slammed into a tree trunk forcefully before her body played pinball all the way down before she came to a sudden, painfully jarring, stop on the ground at the base of the tree. Whimpering in pain, Mavis attempted to stand when a spell slammed into her roughly, knocking her off her hooves.

"There she is!"

"Get her, kill her!"

"Kill the High Priestess! Kill her!"

Ears folding back in a desperate attempt to block out the multitude of screaming voices, Mavis quickly found herself under the barrage of sticks, stones and detritus littering the streets as the ponies of the city/outpost swarmed about her. Amongst the objects striking her coat, Mavis also slowly began to make out the sound of rain, which in turn activated, much to her relief, a self sustaining enchantment she'd placed one herself upon first escaping that activated it's own form of echolocation. Granted this did little other than allow her to 'see' the rope that was quickly yanked tight around her neck before the opposite end was thrown over one of the tree branches.

Reaching up with her hooves, Mavis began desperately tugging at the tightened noose before being roughly jerked up off the ground. Crying out as best as she could, Mavis' tear glands leaked profusely as she felt her airway restricted. It wasn't too long before Mavis began to her things as if underwater as her mind began to hover on the brink of consciousness. Before her eyes finally closed, she swore she felt like she was falling.

^~^~^~^

Nopony made a move towards the seething unicorn. Her mane was replaced with roiling flames, and any rain that fell within a metre of her was instantaneously evaporated. To add to the mare's dangerous appearance numerous metal needle head stuck out from her body, the plastic tubing having already melted away.

"You do not touch my fillyfriend!"

Everypony looked taken aback, none of them quite sure of how to handle the new addition, a flaming maned mare that looked ready to strike them all down. Well, none that is, until one stallion at the back lobbed a rock while yelling about how there was only one of her and all of them.

Rocks and trash came flying in from all directions as Jubilee did her best to ward them off, but the flames were faltering just like her energy, and the detritus thrown began to collide with her, sending waves of agony through her body as stitches tore and lash wounds were torn back open, causing rivulets of blood to snake down Jubilee's body.

Attempting to retreat, Jubilee was met with a painful strike from behind, whatever spell that had hit her sending her sprawling across the ground. She watched helplessly as an angry looking stallion reared up before her, ready to drive his forehooves into her face. Then the forehooves started arcing down...

*BYCHOW*

The stallion faltered and fell off to the left under the ear splitting retort that tore through the air. Every single rioter froze at the noise, realisation and fear written plain across their faces. For Jubilee, still laying on the ground, the crowds parted to reveal a large bipedal figure holding an odd looking stick in his right appendages grip that was smoking from one end. A long duster covered its body, and a cowpony's hat with upturned sides both adorned and obscured its head as it strode forward. Suddenly a gravely voice exited its throat, marking the being as male.

"Last I check, I was the law bringer in this town! Now, I've got no quarrel with those forming a posse to bring in a criminal, but execution without a proper trial? Well, one more of you punks put a limb near those two, and I'll put a thirty odd six in your skull."

As Jubilee watched the ponies scatter, the bipedal creature put the stick in a holster on its back before walking over and crouching next to her. One of its arms, ending with a claw, reached up to remove its hat, revealing a warm smile with two kind looking slitted emerald eyes.
"I think it'd be best if I got you and Twilight-"

"Mavis, she goes by Mavis..."

"Well, then you and...Mavis...back to the hospital, especially you."

Jubilee simply nodded before exhaustion took over and she fell back into slumber.

^~^~^~^

"Oww...I feel like I got bucked in the face by a manticore..." groaned Mavis as she tried sitting only to find that she was chained to the bed via padded collar. The alicorn immediately started working at it furiously with her hooves when a voice interrupted her.

"Mavis, you're awake!"

Mavis froze and began scanning her ears about when another pony hugged her lightly.
"It's just me, Jubilee. You have no idea how glad I am you're awake. I don't remember anything other than picking a fight with a guy with a whip, not my smartest idea mind you, and then nearly char broiling a bunch of assholes trying to lynch you."

At this Mavis shot straight up.
"Wait, so you saved me?! You've been out cold for over a week, what woke you up?"

"Well," Jubilee replied, jokingly hitting Mavis on the shoulder, "Some ass hat decided to open the window while it was raining. I can never sleep when I know it's raining, guess that goes the same for being comatose. But no, actually Rarity came by and said it had to do with magic and instincts, oh, and she enchanted the scarf I gave you to make you always appear as the Mavis I love so you aren't dependent on your own magic."

In seconds Mavis was straining against her collar as tears began dampening her shroud. Her hooves were wrapped around Jubilee's neck, and as she felt the bandaged, yet healing, marks of the lash she was overcome with guilt and remorse.
"You stupid foal, I should smack the tar out of you. You should have kept your mouth shut! I already have scars, a few more wouldn't have bothered me...But you..."
Mavis ran her hooves gently across Jubilee's back as Jubilee sat still and leaned closer.
"Goddesses Jubilee, I need you to promise me that you will never put your life on the line for me again! I'm tougher than you think, but...but I swear if I lose somepony close to me again...I...I can't say...I wouldn't make it Jubilee, do you understand that? I can't keep losing the ponies I love."

For Jubilee's part she half wanted to laugh off the mare's worries, but she knew exactly what Mavis was talking about. The night prior had been one of the worst things she'd experienced since her sister had been murdered. It was a soul chilling experience, to see how close a loved one could come to death. She felt Mavis plant a small kiss on her forehead, and then another on her brow, and another on the bridge of her nose trailing down to the tip, and then felt the alicorn's soft lips meet hers gently.

Mavis leaned forward and shifted to pull Jubilee down to where they could lie closer together only to be stopped by the sudden jerk of the forgotten collar. Any calm thought from just seconds ago deteriorated as Mavis began manically pulling and jerkin at the chain. She was still magically exhausted, so that wouldn't help. Suddenly a calming hoof wrapped around her shoulders.

"Don't worry, I've got this." grinned Jubilee.

With a sizzle of magic the unicorn cut right on through the collar and Mavis immediately began stretching her neck every which way to ensure there were no cramps.

"So, what is our plan exactly, I don't think that the townsponies like me." Mavis stated flatly.

Jubilee just pulled Mavis closer and placed a hoof on her lips.
"We don't worry about it, the girls are taking care of things right now anyway."

^~^~^~^

Sombre Winds grinned grimly from behind one of Clover's nigh impenetrable shield. As the smoke from the spell on shield explosions cleared, the soldier shot out from the haze and launched several offensive spells at the opposing forces. Three of the highly lethal spells struck home, tearing vicious holes in the defenses of the enemy platoon. This was followed up with Clover erecting another barrier as their enemies retaliated violently.

"Tis truly a jest of the goddesses, is it not Clover?" Sombre Winds called, "That such bitter enemies wouldst be comrades yet again tis night!"

Clover just grunted, leaving her focus to ascertain the needed calculations to regulate her shielding.

In response Sombre rolled to the left as Clover allowed the shields to collapse. From the resulting debris cloud strolled non other than Luna herself, now flanked by Sombre Winds on her left and a slender, dark, shadow like alicorn on her right.

All three fired off spells that quickly decimated their opponents.

From there it was a clear walk for Luna to approach the cage that the stallions had been guarding, regardin the two beings inside curiously.
"Ah, Starswirl, it has truly been a long time."

The bearded unicorn nodded before turning to introduce his captive companion, a crystalline mare of ice.
"Your majesty, this is Icene Myst, she is a wendigo and my newest friend."

^~^~^~^

The Sheriff grunted out hellos and good mornings as he walked down the street. Nestled on his back was a unique item called a rifle that Applejack had brought back from the south. The Minotaurian weapon fit him easily due to the similar upper body structures they shared. Still, today the Sheriff couldn't get his mind off of the mares he'd rescued the night before. Idly letting a claw life up, the Sheriff slid his duster coat open and felt at a scar in his chest.

"It has been a long time, but I suppose it was inevitable..."

With a grunt, the Sheriff turned to head towards the hospital when Luna's face appeared in a ghostly visage before him.
"You need to head north, meet us on the edge of the badlands."

"Not now Luna, I have other things to do."

"You don't get a choice, all of Equestria depends on this!" Luna snapped back, her expression hard.

The Sheriff glared daggers at Luna and shook his head.
"With who I just found in town, after what happened to me all those years ago? No, I need to get to the bottom of this. I need to figure out what is going on, and she's the only one I can ask that will answer me!"

Luna's face softened for a moment before she replied.
"I understand, Spike Pendragon, and I know you hurt, but there are things I am discovering that date back even further than mine and my sister's reign began, things that make little sense, but explain a great deal of things. I promise I will let you get your answers, but now is not the time for it."

With an annoyed groan, Spike, under the guise of the Sheriff, a travelling law keeper, turned and started trudging towards the gate.

^~^~^~^

Peregrine, or Skeleton Jack, was a pure black pegasi with abnormally large wings. He was also very good with his hooves, proving to be just as good with the paint brush that had graced his body with the skeletal structure painted on as it was with the vicious, jagged daggers that were sheathed under his wings.

He was currently standing in front of three prostrated guards, two who were cowering, another glaring at him contemptuously. His crew had already circled the group and had left them to talk to them.

"Ah see the three'ya 'r'still alive, s'good t'know seein' as Ah don' like ta' kill all of mah enemies. Sides, no' yer fault tha' ye don' know the truth!" Skeleton Jack half cackled like a mad pony. The colt himself was a bit of an oddity. He partied like a college student, fought like a forty year old veteran, yet hadn't even graced the age of seventeen yet. Even then, everypony in his crew both respected and loved him while his enemies feared and loathed him.
"Now th'Ah got alluh tha' said, Ah'd like ta be th'firs' ta welcome ye ta' mah ship, tha' Bleedin' Bitch!"

At this the two younger soldiers got an even more terrified look upon their faces while the older soldier scoffed.
"What, you think this is a game kid? Ponies die and your playing ship captain?"

"Ah take it yer mos'likely in charge'o these two younger soldiers?"

The older soldier gave a grunt of acknowledgement that spurred Skeleton Jack into driving one of his daggers into one of the younger soldiers throats, the ragged edge tearing terrifying chunks out of the neck and esophoguas.

"Well, now yer jes' down ta one! Ye don' make yer fun out'o mah ship's name! S'has ta' do with mah lady an' ye should know not ta' mess with a stallion's lady!"

Casting one shocked look at the now bleeding out soldier that he was in command over, the elder soldier started to sputter.
"Y...you..you've lost your mind!"

Moving his face within inches of the soldier, Skeleton Jack grinned maniacally.
"I've lost my family, my dog, my land and a few hairs and teeth, but not my mind...not quite yet anyway..."

As the golden armoured veteran looked with teary eyes at the body of his fellow soldier, and unbeknownst to most, his son-in-law, Skeleton Jack let out a hysterical laugh.

"A right bitch, innit? Watchin' a luv die, knowin' ya' can't do nothin' 'bout it? Alright luvly, let the stallion up 'fore 'Creaky' here star's blub'rin!"

At the call a flash of magic the 'dead' soldier was revealed to have been an illusion, the real one running from the side of a deadly beautiful mare with a hoof length mane and tale of silky silver. Her coat was a moonlight gold to match the same moonlight gold hue in her eyes as they made contact with Skeleton Jack's. With out looking from the object of her affection, the mare spoke.
"Your fear of losing him was something all these crew members have suffered on a day to day basis. But for now you will be escorted to the guest quarters. You are free to move about that level of the ship, but I swear now, if you attempt to leave the level forcefully, you will be put down. A four course meal will be delivered when you're all settled. Now scoot, enjoy your sleep. I have a somepony to do."

As the three soldiers were escorted away, Skeleton Jack and the mare, Luliana, made their way to the railing of the ship, a massive craft, one of a kind, that floated amongst the clouds powered by the ambient magics of the sun and the moon. The wind whipped wildly against them, and the deck shuddered and shook as it was wont to do, but the two stood firm.

"I heard, dearest Peregrine, that Twilight Sparkle of all ponies is wandering amongst the rebels now."

Peregrine nodded before replying in a fashion very much dissimilar to his original voice.
"As have I dear Lula. I fear our plans may have been rushed more than we had first prepared them to be."

Lulianna leaned in close to Peregrine and nuzzled him gently.
"For the family then?"

"First and foremost." Pergrine nodded.

"Indubitably" Lulianna smiled back with a sudden frisky grin.

Taking the hint Peregrine led Lulianna back to his quarters knowing full well that tomorrow's dawn could wait for a few hours.

And when it dawned, they would find Twilight Sparkle, and they would get what they needed.

Author's Note

Well, a bit different.

I'm definitely starting to make sides now. I figured it was about time the factions started getting shaped and formed.

Obviously there's the Jubilee/Mavis 'half side' as they partially stand alone. Next is Bob the Blob and the whole of the Equestrian military. Luna, Sombre Winds, Clover the Clever, Starswirl and Icene Myst make up their own group,. The Crystal Kingdom and the pirates/buccaneers/ whatever you wish to call Peregrine and Lulianna's lot.

Jubilee and Mavis, Luna's group and the 'Crew' will start getting focused on in each chapter as well, possibly lengthening chapters, and oh yeah also...

Spike's alive mother buckers! But if you want your explanation, you'll have to wait for next chapter(which will be delayed as I haven't a laptop at the mo) when Spike meets up with Luna.

I apologise for the delay everyone, and I can't wait to hear about your thoughts on this chapter and especially about me 'killing off' 'Twilight Sparkle'!

Secrets Revealed, Pasts Unconcealed

The veteran, Tower Shield, calmly watched as the two soldiers under his command fell into slumber. Namely to ensure that his son-in-law would be safe for his daughter. In the meantime he needed to find an escape so he could protect his soldiers and get them home. Currently that entailed messing with the screws over the vent grate for the air ducts. He didn't even notice the door opening until after Peregrine rolled him over.

The pegasus offered the veteran a glass while taking a seat.
"Mead, I find it calms the nerves. Oh, and before you bother asking, I am the Skeleton Jack, but this is how I sound when not in the field. You may recognize me? High up noblepony in her majesty's court?"

Tower blinked a couple of times before recognizing that the younger stallion was telling the truth.
"What makes a loyal pony like you turn against Celestia and the law?"

Nodding for the soldier to drink, Peregrine took a large swig of his mead before sighing.
"I wish to regale to you a tale of how I have come to be the double-life-leading swashbuckler you see before you. I...have not spoken of this to anypony else save for my love Lula, or Lulianna if you will. That is, if you care to hear it. You see, I don't like what I have to do. and that look on your face when you thought your son-in-law was dead. Truly horrendous. He told me, actually, that he was okay with dying provided I let you get back to your pregnant daughter. He felt he couldn't do better by them as opposed to you. Ah, but I'm getting carried away, first, introduce yourself."

The soldier gave a slight smile at the refined and cultured attitude of Peregrine Tower conceded.
"Tower Shield, unicorn defender of Celestia's army."

"Charming," Peregrine replied, shaking the soldiers hoof, "I am Peregrine Pie, bastard son to Pinkie Pie, Element of Harmony-Laughter. Now, let me tell you why I do what I do."

^~^~^~^

Spike booted in the door, immediately bringing his rifle to bear against the darkest figure in the room, despite the four other ponies in the room immediately taking defensive postures.
"YOU! You owe me a fucking answer! You said that I couldn't get her back, that I couldn't rescue her! You told me my mother was dead! But then who the flying fuck did I just rescue three days ago? Goddesses damnit Luna, you have things to answer for!"

The Lunar Diarch stared coolly down the barrel of the rare minotaurian made weapon.
"I do."

"Then fucking answer me!"

Eyes narrowing, Spike suddenly found his rifle gone as Luna trotted up to stare him down.
"You have yet to ask any proper questions, young one."

"Fine," Spike growled back, "What is going on?!"

At this Luna motioned for him to follow her. The dragon got about three steps in before Sombre Winds blocked his path, hoof lifted in a salute.

"Sir, I would like to formally thank you for my rescue from the mind control spell I had been ensnared with in the Crystal Kingdom. You did an amazing job for a child!"

This statement caused Spike to look at the other three ponies, immediately recognizing each of them, even Icene.
"You should all be dead, there is no way..."

"I kept them alive, well, with the exception of Icene Myst. Spike, meet Starswirl, Clover and Sombre Winds, vice versa. Now come Spike." Luna almost commanded.

As the dragon followed, Luna began her tale.
"Years ago, back when my sister and I first took power she left to take care of something. Upon her return she asked to 'scan' me and cast a spell I did not understand at the time. It wasn't until centuries later would I stumble upon my real sister in the form of a unicorn named Sunny Skies locked in the dungeon. At this point Starswirl had disappeared, and I myself had already locked 'Sombra' away and sealed Clover in stone for 'blasphemous' claims about Celestia being an imposter. How they discovered it was beyond my understanding at the time. Following clues, I discovered that the imposter had repeatedly been turning my real sister into a young unicorn and attempted to sequester her away as a student before her untimely death in the service of the crown."

Luna watched as recognition dawned on Spike.

"This time, my sister has come to form as the unicorn, now alicorn, known by us all as Princess Twilight Sparkle. Every adventure, every accident, every little time Twilight got into any trouble at all whatsoever was an attempt to kill her friends so the imposter could restart the cycle. But there was one thing the imposter didn't expect, and that was for 'Twilight' to connect with the Elements. You see, the imposters expected me to kill the occupants of Ponyville, she hadn't expected me to mellow during my time on the moon. Instead Twilight successfully made friends and conquered me, and I, while still under a mind control spell, my previous memories of the truth locked away, went right along with it."

"So, you're telling me that Twilight is actually Celestia?!"

Luna just shook her head somberly.
"No, Twilight might have been Celestia for a time, but for the amount of time this has been happening? No, Celestia is long since been dead. Twilight is who Twilight claims to be, and I will not force her to play the part of an older sister from a life she can't remember. What I can do, though, is find a way to fully unlock her powers again, and for that I need you. We'll be journeying to the dragon lands, Spike, and you will be needed for this venture."

Claw drifting up to the scar again Spike's eyes lowered shamefully.
"My primary heart was killed Luna, you know this, you saved me. But, I can't fight anymore on my secondary heart. I can't pump that much blood..."

Wrapping the young drake in a hug, Luna smiled warmly.
"No, but you have your rifle, and you have us. We will return, and the mare you saved, she is your real mother, that was no fake like the Priestess. But to make them all safe, to save the whole of Equestria as we know it, we need you."

"For my mother?"

"For your mother."

Spike grinned predatorily as his rifle appeared before him.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

^~^~^~^

"Which, in turn, led to my mother doing her best to make the lost stallion happy again. Keep in mind she was but nine years old and did not understand what coitus was, or what unprotected coitus led to. As such she had me at ten, and to protect their daughter, Pinkie's parents sent her to Ponyville while claiming that Grannies...portliness...hid the pregnancy. I lived with my grandparents and aunts." Peregrine explained tactfully.

"Ah, makes much more sense," Tower replied, "With all due respect to your Poppy, I was beginning to think of him as one of those kinds of stallions..."

Peregrine just waved a hoof.
"Oh pish and posh and all that. It's an understandable conclusion to draw, what with a ten year old filly getting pregnant on a rock farm with but one male. Regardless, back to the story. My mother was supposed to pick me up, and I was to be living with her, what with her successful business and stable living conditions. I must say, it was something I'd looked forward to for years. To finally live with my real mum. Well, as I was saying, she came right on in, huffing and puffing like she just ran a marathon. I ran up to her, and she immediately grabbed both Aunt Blinky and I and shoved us in the closet. Not two seconds later did the door burst in and I heard mother's friend Twilight start screaming things about being traitors and such. Ten minutes later when Aunt Blinky and I stepped out, everypony was turned to stone. After hearing about Priestess Twilight Sparkle, my aunt and I began climbing the social ladder while leading double lives. Aunt Blinky lives in a garden maze with our house in the middle. She cleans and cares for our stony relatives everyday. I run a successful trading business, most successful in the country for being only seventeen might I add, while running the piracy company, usually raiding my own caravans to cause as little damage as possible whilst still supplying the resistance."

"And that is why you refused to harm my son-in-law and I, because we have family, something you have been denied?"

"Precisely sir."

"But, now that I know, you can't let us go, can you?"

Again waving a hoof in the air, Peregrine let out a laugh.
"And what, keep you prisoner on this ship? No, we make land fall soon, and when we do you are all free to go where you please. I myself, along with Lula, will be returning to Canterlot ourselves. Though I will warn you, I have the majority of all the lawyers in Canterlot in my pocket, and ponies that have tried to oust me before are now the laughing stocks of the country."

Tower sat, mulling things over for a bit before deciding on what to do.
"I need a disguise, a good one. Sorry kid, but I'm sticking with you. You got real lucky that you snuck up on us before, but that won't happen again. You see, her Majesty has heard of a dread floating ship before, but it got dismissed as ptsd ravings. But you see, I'm the Defense Specialist for the whole military. First, I can help you, and second, when they hear I'm gone via giant floating boat, they will start taking things more seriously."

"And this is you, just swapping sides?" Peregrine countered skeptically.

"Yes," started Tower, "And no. I have a whole file of inconsistencies and other issues tucked away in my desk regarding the Crown's Army. You just...provide a way to investigate further before I finalize leaving the Army. I won't fight, but I will work with you as a faux business partner while I do more digging."

"Sounds good, I'll have Lulianna make you a false name, a glamour and false business records."

"And Peregrine."

"Yes?"

"Thank you...for sparing my family the loss."

Peregrine just smiled kindly and turned, looking back but once before exiting the room.
"You aren't the only one that would have lost something had I killed you three..."

^~^~^~^

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"But..."

"I know."

"Your eyes..."

"True, but irrelevant."

"If you fall?"

"Well then," Mavis countered with a saucy tone, "Go down to catch me. Maybe I like it when you save me."

"Every time I save you, you damn nearly die!" Jubilee countered back.

"And then?"

"And then what? We go get you checked on, one of us gets upset or mad, then...oh."

"Exactly. We have wild crazy make up sex." Mavis giggled, "So I jump and fly, we have congratulatory sex. I jump and almost die, we have make up sex."

Jubilee thought about it for a moment before shrugging.
"Fine, but if you jump before I'm down there I'll kill you."

Mavis couldn't help but let out a giggle as she heard Jubilee scamper off in the direction of the door. It had been two days since the night everypony found out the true story of what happened to "Twilight Sparkle" and how Mavis had fought off the evil clone/replica/imposter. It had taken some doing but when Fluttershy of all ponies had threatened to kill the first pony to raise a hoof against Mavis that had settled things. It was a well known fact that Fluttershy didn't kill anypony unless she was absolutely certain that they were guilty of something. Long story short, the assassin Eepy Squeak's word carried more authority for the rebels than the Element of Honesty herself.

At the moment though, all Mavis cared about was trying to relearn how to fly. She did have wings after all.

"Ready to catch you down here Mavis!"

Maivs grinned and launched herself up, casting a low frequency echolocation spell. The felt her wings power through the air. She felt weightless. She felt free. She felt unstoppable. She felt the clothing wire her low frequency echolocation spell didn't pick up halt her immediately.

Minutes later Mavis was standing next to Jubilee who was rubbing her mane humourously.
"There was a dress there silly."

In return Mavis just stuck her tongue out.
"I know that now."

All of a sudden Mavis felt herself get pulled into an alley way by Jubilee whose breathing and heartbeat had spiked dramatically. The unicorn was shaking slightly and after an advanced echolocation spell Mavis could 'see' she was crying.

"Hey, Jubilee, what's wrong?"

"I...I saw him, again..."

Hugging the crying unicorn close, Mavis nuzzled her briefly.
"Who? I swear if they hurt you I'll take care of it."

Jubilee shook her head and hugged Mavis tighter.
"My dad, I saw him this morning, sort of...I thought I was okay, you know? I didn't mean to!"

"Mean to do what?" asked Mavis carefully, "What happened this morning?"

"I...He...came up behind me...put his hooves over my eyes and said guess who...but all I could think was that it was a stallion...I panicked and threw him into a wall and ran." Jubilee sobbed, "I thought I was over this...I thought I didn't care, because I saved you...I just..."

Mavis just started running a hoof calmingly through Jubilee's mane.
"Hey. Hey, hey, hey, hey...it's not your fault. Goddesses do I know that it isn't your fault. You have every right to be scared, to be worried and confused. You were forced into a situation nopony should every be forced into, and what happened to you is both unforgivable and unforgettable, even if all you want to do is pretend it never happened. I know it hurts...hell, if I know a stallion is approaching me I have to remind myself I'm not chained down or I don't have a magical suppressor on me."

"B..but...he...he is my...d...dad..."

"I know, I know Jubes, and you want to trust him, I know. When my brother first encountered me...I...my body shut down...I expected to be raped...I'm not proud of it either, I hate it. It's a burden only ponies that have suffered like we have understand." Mavis cried, tears of her own running down her face, "But we need to tell him, and your mother. You can't fix this by keeping it to yourself. I mean, fuck, I had therapy sessions with the floor for the moons sake. But you have to talk about it to something, keeping it to yourself won't help. Okay? So how about it. I'll get you cleaned up, then we'll go find your mom and dad."

After a few moments of sniffling, Jubilee nodded slowly.
"Only as long as your their. I don't want to go alone."

"Always and forever. I am an alicorn after all."

^~^~^~^

Jubilee shuffled nervously at the door, but Mavis draped a wing over her back, almost immediately calming her. Yet even with the soothing presence of what had to be one of the strongest mares, if not the strongest pony she had ever met or known, at her side, Jubilee couldn't help gut wince at the both shocked and somewhat worried look on Doctor Whooves features. After all, it wasn't every day that your adopted daughter threw you through a cabbage cart, not to mention severely upsetting the vendor, whose cart apparently had a poor track record for avoiding accidents.

The cabbage stuff aside the situation was extremely tense, especially with the fact that General Derpy Whooves, complete with her sword sheathed at her side, had not stopped glaring at Mavis with her uncovered 'proper' eye.

"Well, dear, it seems that the rumours are true, explains why we received the letter we did this morning." Derpy stated too flatly, as if purposefully detracting all emotion from her voice.

The Doctor, for his part, just sighed and cast a worried, yet loving, look to his daughter.
"Sparkler, I see you're doing well, er...why don't you come in? Sit down and such?"

Jubilee nodded and moved to the furthest seat from her mother before attempting to help Mavis sit down. It was then that Derpy's cold, harsh tone rang out.

"She can stand!"

In response Mavis just smiled politely before teleporting a mass of cloud under her and allowing the natural cloud walking abilities she possessed take over. Jubilee, none to happy with how things were going, sat silently on the couch next to her fillyfriend. Derpy's forced 'calm' breathing was audible to all.

"Ah yes, so dear, Derpy informed me of why you had your outburst this morning. I...I wish terribly to hold you tight and tell you you'll be okay, and you will, it's just I believe I would be safe in assuming that you probably don't want...a pony of my...gender, a stallion that is...er...Oh Muffin, I'm so sorry..."

Jubilee watched as her father quickly reduced to tears before her.

"Go head. Move at your own pace though." Mavis reassured with a whisper.

Swallowing her fear, and swallowing in an attempt to get the fear induced lump out of her throat, Jubilee moved slowly towards her father, hesitantly putting her forelegs lightly around his neck in an awkward hug.
"I'm okay daddy. I just...I...I just need to, uh, work on a few things. I love you daddy."

It didn't take long for the awkward hug to evolve into that of a loving daughter and devoted father. The two cried into each other, the Doctor for all his fears and worries about his daughter, Jubilee for all the pain since her one day in captivity. Mavis watched the scene with a sad smile, both hope for the future, and sorrow for what was lost tugging at her mind. The alicorn also knew that Derpy was 'sneaking' up to stand behind her.

Keeping her voice low, Mavis vocally regarded the changed mare that stood behind her.
"Killing me won't bring Dinky back. Killing me won't even be true revenge. It will be a facade, a hollow victory. Sure, you've killed 'Twilight Sparkle', but not the one that took your youngest. My brother holds you in high regard Derpy. Lead your soldiers, and when I march against the mare that has been framing me, I'd better see your form with hooves grinding against her esophagus."

A noncommittal grunt coupled with the sound of saliva striking the floor told Mavis that Derpy understood.

"I don't like you. Change your colours all you want, but everything that makes you Twilight Sparkle is still there. You can't change who you are."

With a half smirk Mavis 'looked' over her shoulder as if she still had eyes.
"Twilight is dead Derpy, and if you can't change who you are, where is my mail from since my imprisonment?"

When Derpy's hoof falls left the room Mavis realised that she'd at least partially gotten through to the general. Regardless it was clear that death wasn't nearly the biggest threat of Equestrians. It was apathy and pain. 'Looking' back up, Mavis moved to the still embracing father and daughter with a smile.
"So, ice cream anypony?"

The Doctor and Jubilee both gave a slight smile and moved apart, their bond, if not fixed already, was on it's way to being whole again. Mavis just smiled, turning to head to the kitchen to invite Derpy on principle. The alicorn moved silently through to the kitchen, her ears picking up on the Doctor asking Jubilee exactly what was going on between Mavis and herself. And that Jubilee was exuberantly diving into the relationship they shared, despite the uniqueness of it.

Upon seeing Mavis enter the kitchen Derpy's grip on the kitchen knife she was using to cut carrots tightened, but nothing else beyond that.

"There are ponies I can talk to, thought I would let you know."

Derpy simply shrugged and resumed cutting the carrots.

"And all of this, I never wanted it to happen..."

"Which part..."

Mavis shook her head, surprised that Derpy had replied to her.
"Excuse me?"

"Which part did you not wish for?!" the grey pegasus snapped, "The death of my birth daughter? The deaths of over half of Ponyville? Ha, I remember being so happy to see you as an alicorn. The Alicorn of Friendship they called you, and expected you to bring in a new era of peace! What did you do instead?! Hid while the whole world burned. And escaping from Celestia? Really? Either your aren't really blind and faking it, or you are blind but faking friendship! Why should I believe that you simply escaped? If it was so easy, why did it take so long?! Celestia was like a mother to you, yet you expect me to believe that you were tortured? Raped? Beaten?"

Mavis attempted to get in a word, but both the sounds of the Doctor and Jubilee entering the room as well as Derpy's continuation of her tirade stopped the alicorn.

"Ah, and my other daughter! I love you Sparkler, I love you more than you could possibly understand. That is why I wish to kill this wretch. Her and her whole submissive complex!"

"Excuse me?!"
"Mother!"

"Jubilee, silence, Twilight, shut the fuck up." Derpy snapped cruelly, "What, you thought I wasn't keeping tabs on you? That necklace of your sends me back all the information I need to keep you safe Sparkler. And as for you Twilight. You sit there, you claim to have been raped. to have hated every moment of it, yet you like when my daughter ties you down, or gets a little rough. I'll bet you loved your stay in the castle."

"Mom, please, stop!" an embarrassed Jubilee begged as Mavis shuffled uncomfortably with a large blush and the beginnings of two wet spots on her eye shawl.

"Stop what? The truth? The fact that Twilight here likes when you spank her hard? Or when you bite her, get pushy, forceful even?!" sneered the death-honed and battle hardened general, "No, I refuse to believe that you were forced, I'll bet you spent all that time lifting your tail to every stallion that walked by. You probably moaned so loud for so many soldiers-"

"Shut up..."

"-Cried out for them to use you. Couldn't wait to feel their thick cocks in your snatch and your ass, or wrapped your tongue around their balls as you took them throat deep!"

"Shut up!"

"You screamed when they came I'm sure, and then begged for more! You are a whore, Twilight Sparkle! A cum dumpster, a slut, a sheath and nothing more! I would call your skank ass a murderess as well, but I believe I might insult a few ponies that way! And now you bend over and beg a plead from my family? What-"

"Please..."

"-are you going to do next, ask my husband to bury his dick in your ass for you, or-"

"Just...please..."

"-beg me to whip you until you have an orgasm? Or do you want the whole family in on the dea-"

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up!" Mavis screamed, tears pouring through her shawl with an odd mixture of red and green due to her shared embarrassment and disgust. Wrapping the general in her magic, Mavis lunged forward and started pummeling the immobilised pegasus, punctuating each word with a scream for Derpy to shut her mouth. It wasn't until Jubilee bodily pulled the alicorn from Derpy that anypony could see the damage.

Rolling to her side, Derpy spat out a wad of saliva, blood and teeth before coughing up some more blood. The mare's entire body was covered in bruises, dark spots on her torso showing were some ribs had broken and caused internal bleeding. Both wings also appeared broken as well as one of Derpy's forelegs. There were splashes of blood across the front of Mavis as Jubilee shoved her backwards.

For Mavis, it was nothing. She was panting from the exertion, crying from a mixture of anger, shame and humiliation. She could tell there was a lot wrong with Derpy as Sparkler lifted her up onto her father's back. The group then took off towards the hospital, Mavis keeping to the rear of the group.

All she could hope for was that Derpy would be okay.

Three hours later only the Whooves family were present. And Jubilee was fairly certain that Mavis would not be returning to her. After all, she had told the mare to leave.

All Jubilee had now were regrets.

^~^~^~^

"So, Spike, was it? Anyway, what's your story, the Princess seemed fairly dead set on having you along. You got some personal connection to Luna or something?" Myst probed innocently as she walked alongside the bipedal reptilian.

Shrugging, Spike swapped his rifle to his left shoulder so it wasn't between him and the icy mare.
"Luna saved me years ago after my primary heart was punctured. All dragons have two hearts, the primary used for a lot of the tougher activities such as flying, fighting and fire breathing while the secondary heart is there to make sure that everything gets oxygen. I use this rifle due to the primary not functioning."

Myst nodded and continued trotting silently for a time before looking back up at Spike.
"Luna saved me too. I was captured and put in a cell with Starswirl over there. Before meeting Starswirl I haven't gotten to meet any other nice living things in a long time."

"What about the other Wendigos?" asked Spike.

"I don't know. The last thing I ever remembered was two chilling red eyes before I was isolated in a cave until the soldiers came and captured me." replied a sombre Icene Myst.

"Red eyes, like ones that star into your soul? Pretty much froze your heart?"

Myst gave a chuckle at Spike's wording, nudging him playfully.
"My heart already is frozen. But yeah, a lot like that."

It was about time that the pair realised everypony had stopped walking and Luna had turned to face them.
"Alright, we have two more ponies to 'recruit'. First is Chrysalis. Now, you have been talking amongst yourselves, and so far you have all deduced that a pair of red eyes is the last thing you saw. That is because one being, older than myself or my sister, is behind all of this. In fact, that being is behind every single villain known to Equestria. Now, as we all know, Discord is dead, having given his life for his lover and unborn foal. So, after rescuing Chrysalis and gaining the Changelings to our cause, we have to rescue my own sister. That task, my friends, is going to be the hardest of all. After all this, my little ponies, we have to find, rescue, and liberate the mind of Princess Twilight Sparkle, long since forgotten as Princess Celestia Solare, sister to myself. That, my friends, will be the real challenge I'm sure."

At the back of the group a grunt could be heard as Myst did her best to catch a fainting Spike.

^~^~^~^

Jubilee laid alone in what had been hers and Mavis' room. She sighed as her hoof circled the bare sheets next to her.
"I'm sorry Mavis...I didn't mean it..."
As tears slipped down her cheeks, Jubilee hugged the nearest pillow to her chest.
"I do want to see you again, please come back..."

^~^~^~^

"All Nobles of Canterlot rise. This meeting has been called to discuss the fates of Fluer de Lis and the former 'Sir' Fancypants. Both ponies have been brought here on claims of seditious acts against the nation. Both have plead guilty. There is no denying the truth, so the task of discerning their fate comes down to us. Let us begin." called Prince Blueblood from his raised pulpit.

The next few hours were used by the many nobles in Canterlot to discuss when, where and how the pairs execution would take place. Yet Blueblood, having become far more useful as of late, couldn't help but notice the youngest noble in the room had not said a thing, but instead had been staring at the accused pair with an obscure look on his face.

"Order, please, it has come to my attention, Sir Peregrine, that you have yet to say anything to us about your thoughts. Would you mind sharing what you have been contemplating?" questioned the prince.

The young stallion looked about before clearing his throat.
"Ahem, yes, I do apologise, as you all know, yet another caravan of mine was hit recently. And, yet again, many of the captured workers were executed. True, it was hanging, magical sedation and beheading, much like what we do ourselves, but it had me thinking. Are we, the Nobles of Canterlot, the most elite ponies in the whole of Equestria with only set below Her Highness herself, better than our enemy? Our enemy wants to say that we murder the innocent, viewing themselves as the innocent party. As such, mayhaps it is not the best of ideas to execute them. While I am far from agreeing with their ideas, speaking openly against her Highness and such, if my employees are killed for working for us, then would we not be labelled just as bad, if not worse, for killing a pair who simply spoke up against Princess Celestia? Feel free to disagree with me however you like, but it is simply my own opinion."

Blueblood narrowed his eyes as he seemingly scrutinised Peregrine before leaning back with a smile.
"Ah, how I wish all of today's young were that wise. I can't help but agree, needless violence begets needless violence, and we are all better than the scum out there, are we not? I see a lot of me in you young Sir Peregrine, and as such I will relinquish this pair for you to do with as you see fit, I'm sure a bright up and coming mind like yours can find a just punishment. Oh, and may I ask who your friend is behind you?"

Peregrine just bowed and smiled.
"White-gold Concordat. He is here discussing mineral trading deals with me between the Zebricans and I."

"Well, best of luck in your venture then, Sir Peregrine, best of luck in-"

Anything the Prince meant to say was cut off as a thunderous explosion tore through the entry way doors, scattering the guards inside. Walking steadily and coolly out of the debris was a grey alicorn that nopony recognised, where her eyes should have been instead were two hollow holes. She wore a cocky and sure grin on her face as she hauled the nearest pegasi guard to her.

"Well, the hell are you waiting for? Bring me the queen bitch, Tia and I have business to attend to."

Author's Note

So, riddle me this.

Should I continue balancing the three arcs in one chapter, or should I do separate chapters for separate arcs?

Separate Chapters would prolly be shorter, but less jumbled, and if I continue with all in one, you can expect the chapters to start getting a bit bigger.

Ya'lls choice.

Oh, and yeah, love to hear the opinions on Tia Sparkle.

Finally, getting laptop back on 19th(provided there are no issues) so writing will pick up again.

Because it could never be that simple.

"Ohh, hate magic! Like you haven't tried that before!" Celestia cackled madly as she deflected a blast of magic from Mavis with ease, "I think the last time you tried that was when you saw me gut Dusk Star, your fiancee at the time!"

Mavis simply ignored the mare and sent out another volley of spells. So far their fight had raged for over and hour, and a good portion of the courthouse had been destroyed. Spilling out into the street, Mavis grinned as Celestia tumbled into the cobblestone path, her head making a sickening crunch as it struck a manhole. Even still the princess lifted herself from the ground, seemingly unharmed.

"You can't stop me, Sparkle, you haven't ever been able to stop me! For a thousand years you have tried, and yet you still fail! Why continue? Just let me destroy your pathetic resistance, wipe your memory, revert your age and we will start from scratch, just like always!"

Refusing to listen to the babbling of the mad princess, Mavis slammed the mare's head down repeatedly against the manhole it had already hit until Celestia finally broke free.

"Still some fight in your blind carcass? That's fine, you can both have this magical bomb, and the wonderful blame for destroying half of Canterlot along with it!"

With a evil grin Celestia set up a pulsing orb on unstable magic, then melted away. Mavis quickly moved in to investigate the 'bomb' and found that it indeed carried enough power to destroy not only just half, but at least two thirds of Canterlot. Two third of all the innocents there.

"Innocents..."

Mavis' mind flashed back to the last words Jubilee had said to her before she'd left.

"You got mad so you nearly killed her?! For what?! Mouthing off?! I was just going to slap her and leave, but....but... UGH! I guess this is what she was talking about, Twilight always killing the innocent...Leave, just leave, I don't want to ever see your face again..."

Knowing full well her next act would in all likely hood kill her, Mavis pull the orb of energy into her own body, every nerve alighting with pain as copious amount of white hot energy began arcing over her body. The alicorn fell to the ground, breathing shallowly and barely moving.

Funny enough, she swore she could see a bright white light.

^~^~^~^

*Thok thok thok*

"Go 'way!"

"Open the damned door Jubilee!"

"Fuck you Rainbow!"

"Applejack? Please?"

"You got it Ardee!"

"Alright! Fuck, I'll get the door, gimme a minute!"

A few thuds and a little bit later Jubilee threw the door open. Her eyes were red and puffy, her mane a mess, and she smelled like she hadn't bathed at all in the past week.
"The fuck do you want...and why is Eepy here?"

Rainbow just wore a cocky grin that let Jubilee know she wouldn't like the answer.
"We're off to save your girlfriend, and you're coming with. Come on, let's go."

"Wait, what?!"

Rolling her eyes Rainbow pushed her way into the house.
"Get washed, get your battle dress on. and get some supplies. We just got word that Mavis showed up in Canterlot, poicked a fight with Celestia and then promptly disappeared with a group of pirates on a floating ship. Needless to say, she's probably got herself into some sort of trouble."

With a nod Jubilee turned and disappeared into her bathroom.

^~^~^~^

Spike couldn't help but wear a smile as he carried a snoozing Myst on his shoulders. The pair had become fast friends in the past week, and when the ground in the Dragonlands grew to hot for her to walk on Spike hadn't hesitated in lifting her up. Even still, the young drake couldn't help but notice that Starswirl was almost always staring at him.

"What's up, you've been watching me since we entered the nation. You expect me to turn on you or something?"

With a chuckle and a shake of his head Starswirl answered Spike.
"In my time dragons were vicious cruel creatures. You aren't, and I've been watching you and Icene Myst. You're both cute together. Keep yourself safe on this venture, and keep her safe and I'm sure you'll have found a lasting companion."

"I.." Spike started, half wanting to defend himself but not finding the words, "I'm sorry dragons used to by such trouble in your time."

"Don't mind it colt, anyway, we seem to be lagging tally ho and what not."

Spike nodded and watched Starswirl trot forward, doing his best to carry himself and Icene at a quick pace. The bumping seemed to awaken the crystalline mare though, as she stirred on Spike's shoulder for a moment.

"Mmm, still walking?"

Shifting his eyes Spike cast a look over at the awakening mare.
"Yup, figure we'll be taking a break soon enough though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Luna is giving me one of those looks hehe." Spike replied, having to shift his weight and reached up and grab Myst before she could hop off of him.
"And you can stay right there, just because I'm moving slower doesn't mean I can't still carry you, that and we don't need you hurt on my behalf."

Giving a joking elbow to the dragon's neck Myst replied.
"Yeah, instead we're just gonna let you hurt your legs. Okay then."

"So long that I can use my arms. Besides, you're not th...er...at all heavy in anyway. Light as a snow drop." Spike insisted, hoping Myst hadn't caught his near slip up.

Giggling slightly, her cheeks turning a darker shade of icy blue, Myst leaned in a gave Spike a just slightly more than friendly nuzzle.
"Thanks, that was sweet of you to say."

Grinning like a goof Spike put a joking swagger into his step.
"Well, you know, that's me, all sweet and caring and stuff. Anyway, you have any idea why all these ponies are popping up from the past?"

At this Myst's features grew a bit more sombre, but she nodded.

"While I was captured with Starswirl he told me what was happening. Essentially way back then Luna had started having both nightmares and old dreams. After searching for a way to stop them for two or three years he finally made a connection between the start of Luna's dreams and the disappearance and supposed death of Celestia's most trusted knight, Nightshine. He did some digging and found out that Nightshine bore striking similarities to Celestia's old political adviser, Quick Quill, who in turn bore a resemblance to Daystar, a previous court mage. He also found that they all would just up and vanish, only to be replaced some ten years later with a new foal. It was then that he discovered the truth, that each of the new foals was actually one singular being, the original Celestia. Deducing that the false Celestia was in charge, Starswirl left his notes hidden before sealing himself in stone under the guise of a magical accident. This led his student Clover to accuse Knight Regent Sombre Winds of the accident, seeing as Starswirl and Sombre had had a falling out. To clear his name Sombre Winds found each of Starswirl's clues. Before he could reveal this though, he suddenly was stricken by the need for power, using dark crystals that thrived off of hate magic. Clover then sealed him away as well, but not before discovering the truth and taking it to Luna, who did not believe her and sealed her in stone for her heresy. Still, years went by and Luna started to pick up on these inconsistencies until she too was struck by an all consuming hatred. Thus Nightmare Moon was born and banished by the false Celestia. Of course then Twilight Sparkle can along, the latest recreation of the same mare. The false Celestia sent her to die at the hooves of Nightmare Moon, sent Trixie to bring an Ursa into town, sent the Parasprites, released Discord and pitted her against him, put Twilight up against Sombra too. At this point there were too many lives involved in Twilight's for her to simply go missing, so Celestia one upped it after Twilight the alicorn came close to discovering the truths about her origins. She framed Twilight for murder, claimed that her friends had tried to aid her in over throwing the throne and that they had re-corrupted Luna. Now we're here, trying to free Twilight from her curse."

Spike couldn't help but let the shock of it all still him as he realised that everything he'd thought he had known was all different. That Twilight Sparkle, his mother, had led so many lives before now. Sure he figured maybe one life every hundred years, but a new life every twenty to thirty years or so? It was ridiculous!
"So, how do we get Twilight back the way she is supposed to be?"

"That," Luna's voice rang out, "Is relatively simple, overcharge her with magic."

^~^~^~^

Mavis' eye's shot wide open, blinking rapidly against the almost too bright light that assailed them. Surprised at both the fact that she could see, and the fact that she oddly enjoyed the sensation of closing and opening her eyes. Feeling giddy, the mare rolled on the extremely comfortable bed that she was laying on. Getting a firm hoof hold, Mavis stood to find that she seemed taller. Running a quick scan she was able to ascertain that she was roughly in between Cadence and Luna's height.

"Am I...dead?"

Wandering about the wooden room Mavis took in many things, including that the vent on the wall next to the floor seemed to have been tugged or pulled at.

"Well, I guess so. I mean, I can see, I feel great...guess I'm dead."

Moving to the door, Mavis magically pulled it open and tried to walk through only to jerk her head back, rubbing the tip of her now lengthy horn ruefully.
"Ow, okay not dead, and damn that hurt."
Making her way through the door Mavis found herself in a large hallway that ended in a flight of stairs. She also realised that the floor seemed to be swaying slightly. Putting that thought to the back of her mind, Mavis was more surprised to find she was neither lavender nor grey, but a soft creamy white colour. Perplexed, the mare took a look at her mane and tail, then cutiemark. The former was now a moonlight yellow with two thin streaks of colour, one dusk pink, the other morning-like orange. Then there was the latter. It still held her star, but on one side of the star was a faint visage of the sun, while the tips of a crescent moon connected to the upper most and lower most tips of the original star.
"Odd...well, time to get back to being grey."

...

"Time to get back to being grey, come on now..."

....

"Then back to purple...maybe?"

...

'No? Okay then, certainly not the worst thing to happen to you, so...huh, new name then. Starlight? Nightstar? Starshine? Twinkle...hell no...Dawnbreak...Duskfall...'

"Fuck yes, that actually sounds awesome, Dawnbreak Duskfall, alicorn of...okay fuck, need to work on it."

New name and appearance in tow, Dawnbreak made her way up the stairs, muffled singing from above becoming clearer and clearer until she stood on the deck of a large ship surrounded by singing crewponies that were tossing barrels to each other.

"Twenty three barrels of mead in the hold, twenty three barrels of mead, toss one down, shift 'em 'round, twenty four barrels of mead in the hold!"

Walking amongst the deck the crew barely seemed to notice her as they started bring another barrel in off a dock made of clouds.

"Twenty four barrels of mead in the hold, twenty four barrels of mead, toss one down, shift 'em around tw-"

All singing stopped when Dawnbreak, who had accidentally walked into the path the barrel was to take down into the hold, had caught the barrel so it wouldn't hit her. Out of pure guess work Dawnbreak put on her best smile and tossed the barrel spinning into the air before guiding it fancily into the hold.
"Twenty five barrels of mead in the hold!"

Nopony made a noise for the first couple of seconds before every crew member broke out in a chorus of exuberant shouting, starting up the song again as they brought in barrel twenty six. As for Dawnbreak, she couldn't help but laugh at the attitudes of the ponies, any previous worries pushed to the back of her mind.

"Well, Concordat, it seems our new guest is faring quite well"

"I would agree Peregrine. Good to know she's okay, but the real question..."

"Ah yes, but mayhaps we should introduce ourselves first?"

At a nod from Concordat the pegasus stepped forward with a proffered hoof and a warm smile.
"I am Captain Sir Peregrine and this is my ship, the Bleeding Bitch, my friend is White-gold Concordat."

When Dawnbreak just looked like she was trying not to laugh Peregrine got a twinkle in his eye.

"Sure she's got a funny name, but when is a mare at her most dangerous? Well, during those four weeks in a year. The Bleeding Bitch'll either take a shine to you and treat you like a king, or will crush you into the dirt. All depends on how you handle her."

Dawnbreak laughed as she put two and two together and took the offered hoof.
"Dawnbreak Duskfall, and may I ask why I'm on this ship?"

At this Concordat stepped forward, offering his hoof as well.
"You're an enemy of the fake Celestia, so that makes you a friend to us."

"Oh," Dawnbreak muttered, kicking a hoof absently, "I guess that makes sense. Um, you two know anything of befor eI picked the fight? I know there are things there, but I can't seem to remember. I know there is a mare...I'm pretty sure I love her, but...I dunno. And I have friends, five of them, I love them like sisters, we're very close. And I remember, I was purple for a time once, and I think grey too...actually, I think I've been a lot of colours."

Upon noticing the two stallions staring at her questioningly Dawnbreak realised that perhaps she should save her ruminations for later. Taking Concordat's still awkwardly extended hoof and giving it a shake.

"So, ignore my previous mutterings, I'm just having some trouble remembering everything. That doesn't matter though, what does matter is that we find a way to take down Princess Celestia-nrgh!"

Dawnbreak's eyes rolled up to the back of her head for a moment as a memory or vision, she didn't know which, ran through her head.

"Don't worry, dear Lulu, I will go find what is troubling our little ponies, and then when I get back we can have your birthday party, I promise!"

"Hey there Princess Luna, can you believe I got promoted to High Archmage?!"

"Don't worry about what Celestia thinks. If she's half the big sister you say she is she won't have any problem with us. Now lay back and spread 'em."

"Your majesty, I was told by her Highness Princess Celestia that I am to be your personal guard."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to run into you your greatness! I was just reading this book assigned to you by your sister, Princess Celestia!"

"LUNA!" Dawnbreak cried out as her eyes shot wide, "Luna knows the answers, we need to find her!"

Both Peregrine and Concordat looked at the odd alicorn uneasily as she rose to her hooves.

"Ma'am, are you sure you're fit to travel...and make decisions?" Peregrine asked as tactfully as possible."

Dawnbreak walked up and down the length of the ship a few times before turning to the two stallions. Sweeping forward, she brought the two of them into tight hugs, but nothing too intimate. She then let them go, gave Peregrine a wink and moved to the helmsponies wheel and allowed her magic to flow, powering a spell that she somehow knew would lead her to Luna, and that she believed was from when she remembered guarding her.

"I hate to take your ship under my command Sir Peregrine, but this is more important than you might realise. You see, we need to find Luna, she knows things about me, she knows things about my past that I don't, and I'm sure that she knows how to stop the false Celestia!"

Peregrine tossed a sideways smirk at Concordat before nudging him.
"Well, she didn't kill us, now I just have to hope she doesn't take my ship haha!"

^~^~^~^

"I dunno but I think we may have made them just the slightest bit angry!" Spike yelled over the din caused by the drakelings, part bat part dragon beasts that were carnivorous and trying to make a meal of their party.

Using her ice magic as best as she could, Myst was throwing up shield and firing razor sharp shards of ice at any of the little beasts that came too close as she used Spike's belly as a platform, Spike himself laying on his back whilst firing upside down at the drakelings with his rifle.
"Really? What gave you that idea? Missed one, on your right!"

Just as Spike shot the drakeling out of the air Luna, Clover, Sombre Winds and Starswirl ran over to them and the unicorns all threw up a magical barrier while Luna tried her best to fight off any of the magic resistant pests caught inside the shield. Luna suddenly titled her head to the side, eyes going wide as her ears picked up on something. Throwing up a shield of her own, white hot flames suddenly roiled around them, crushing the shields of the unicorns and toasting any drakelings still flying around as well as raising the temperature enough for Spike to need to curl around Myst to protect her.

Once the flames cleared Luna dropped her shield and quickly levitated Myst from Spike's protective embrace to her side just as orange flames licked around the dragon for the briefest of moments, the traditional greeting of dragons. Standing and turning to face the gargantuan draconian features of their saviour Spike simply pulled the side of his duster over to reveal a scar where his primary heart should beat beneath.

"Misfortune seems to follow us all these days, young one. Fear not, unlike some, I take no offense to your grievous wound, and the mere fact that you still fight is more than enough proof that you are honourable. Ah, and Luna, a long time it has been since I last laid eyes upon you."

Luna smiled and gave a slight bow, levitating Myst back over to Spike.
"Stygian, I am glad to see you are faring well. Tell me, do you still preside over the brood?"

Stygian gave a rumbling laugh that sent tremors into the ground around him.
"A bit old for that am I. My hatchling presides over the brood these days. Now, I am curious, what brings you to the dragon lands?"

As Luna launched into her tale of what she had been up to for so long Spike and Myst sat off to the side, the former tearing his fire resistant duster into strips to wrap around the ever warming Icene Myst.

"How're you feeling?"

Myst shrugged with a slight smile on her face.
"Well, I for one never need ask how a snow ball feels in the middle of summer. Hey, you know of any nice cold climates? Think I'll need a vacation to the arctic after all this."

Giving a grin, Spike took out one of his three canteens of water and poured it out slowly from the dock of Myst's tail to her head, the cool water doing wonder for the mare.
"Hey, how about I take you up to the Crystal Empire? Saved the place, you know? Got a older brother that lives there too. So, how's this, once all this is said and done with, I'll take you there, show you around. It'll be one nice big vacation."

"Oh my," Myst asked in a joking tone, "Is some little dragon asking me out on a date?"

Rather than get flustered or embarrassed Spike just shrugged, a cocky grin on his face.
"Depends, if a little dragon was, would you say yes?"

Booping Spike on the nose, Myst got up and began walking towards the rest of the group, heat resistant enchanted leather wrapped around her hooves. About half way to the group Myst turned and gave Spike a wink.
"You coming? Sooner we get finished here the sooner I get that date."

Suddenly scrambling to his feet Spike quickly jogged to the side of Myst with a goofy grin on his face, waiting for Luna's next orders.

^~^~^~^

"Oh godessess no," Jubilee screamed as she tried to run out of the room, only for an aura of grey magic to reach out and drag her back into the room she tried to run from, "Somepony save me!"

^~^~^~^

Dawnbreak stood at the head of the ship, her mane flying back in the wind, her wings slightly outspread to catch the wind. Her eyes were closed, helping her concentrate over the many things plaguing her mind. Like how when she noticed a flaccid member earlier half of her wanted to write a thesis and the other half wanted to bend over and beg for it. Or when the singing stopped part of her wanted to continue the song, and maybe kick up a dance, while the other part wanted to thank them all for finally shutting the fuck up. It was as if there were a thousand warring ponies in her mind, all with their own sets of beliefs and Ideals, morals and codes. It was ultimately the most frustrating thing in the world.

Blocking out as much of the warring thoughts and emotions as she could, Dawnbreak opened her eyes, taking in the sights of clouds and the bright blue sky laying before them. It was then that a single voice ran through her mind. It was the 'lavender nerdy one'. It was happily proclaiming that it could see again. Something about the joy in the voice's...well, voice, made Dawnbreak smile as well. This she was okay with, a singular voice every now and again that was happy about something. One was proclaiming joy when she flew earlier, another when she simply walked from one end of the ship to another. It seemed that sometimes the simplest things she did would bring joy to somepony...or something anyway, seeing as she wasn't sure what the voices in her head were. Actually, maybe, just maybe she could talk back to them.

'Hey, hey, any of you voices hear me? I'm sorry if I seem a bit confused, but I really am. I don't have a clue what's going on. I just woke up, and I can hear you all.' Dawnbreak thought.

'Oh, that actually helps explain things!' called one voice, a phantasmic purple unicorn, the 'lavender nerdy one' called.

Another voice, coupled with it's own phantasm, a black earth pony mare, called out.
'It seems our body has died again, but that Amourfous was not present to block us this time.'

'I would guess that is correct, now, dear 'main voice', what, pray tell, is your name?' asked a scholarly looking pegasi.

'I'm Dawnbreak Duskfall...'

'Fitting.' called Twilight.

'Quite,' seconded another mare, 'I'm Stardancer, and I apologise for the...sexually driven thoughts...'

'Now now, she is probably quite confused. Let me explain some things.' the scholarly pegasus interjected, 'You, Dawnbreak, are cursed. A powerful being, Amourfous, took our place many many years ago and has systematically raised us, trained us, killed us, and restarted the process every thirty years for the last two thousand odd years. It seems this time things went down differently.'

'You can give me thanks for that!' hollered an eyeless grey alicorn.

'Moving on,' the the pegasus growled, 'What needs to be done now, is that we need you to find your long long lost sister Luna. She will allow us all to pass on to the afterlife, while you continue this life. Then you need to defeat Amourfous. Once that is done...well, you will be given a choice, but that is for another time. In the meantime, we will try to keep the other 600 or so voices quiet so you can do what you need to do, but if you ever have need of help, you have but to simply ask.'

As Dawnbreak 'exited' her mind she found Peregrine standing next to her, a sad expression on his face.
"Your personalities, they talk openly through you when you do that. I'm sorry for what you're experiencing, and I wanted to tell you that we've tracked Luna to the dragon lands. We're on our way there now."

"Oh, thanks," Dawnbreak smiled half heartedly.

"Will you be okay miss?"

"I...think so. There's just a lot to take in, and six hundred...technically I've been murdered or died some how roughly six hundred times, but each time it was a different me, and each of them have been denied passage to the Summerlands. It all rides on me, or the next me if I die, but it's still me...just, fuck everything!"

After taking a moment to catch her breath and cool down Dawnbreak sighed and turned to Peregrine.
"It's been a long two thousand years..."

Peregrine nodded, not really understanding, but doing his best to sympathise with the strange alicorn. He turned to leave when the touch of a wing caused him to stop short.

"And Peregrine, I hate asking but there's one more pony I need to find. The last two mes, Mavis Raven and Twilight Sparkle, they want me to find this mare, pink coat, purple mane, three gems for a cutie mark, goes by either Sparkler or Jubilee. They say it's important, and when they think of her...well, I want to find her too. She's important to us for some reason, just not anything I can understand at the moment."

"I'll...do my best, but I can't make any promises." Peregrine assured before walking away.

Letting Peregrine's words bounce around in her head for a time, Dawnbreak looked towards the open sky as the wind whipped around her.
"Funny, I hate promises...goodbyes too...don't know why."

Deep down inside her mind, too deep for Dawnbreak to understand or hear, a lone voice belonging to a white alicorn with a pink mane whispered in the dark.
"I know why."

^~^~^~^

"Od no, no, please, somepony get this thing off me!" Jubilee screamed desperately as she ran from one room to another. Lulianna, Blinky, Rainbow, Applejack and Fluttershy just laughed as the latter's daughter, Darla Discord, a silvery 'alicorn' with bat wings and antlers, chased her around begging for horsey rides.

Deciding that the young unicorn had had enough, Fluttershy swept up her daughter in a motherly embrace while everypony else got serious. Lulianna was the first to talk.

"You say you're looking for an alicorn nopony knows? Peregrine told me he's on his way to the dragon lands to find Luna under the guidance of an alicorn. Says that they thought she'd died after saving Canterlot, but apparently not. Your best bet is to run this intercept course." Lulianna explained, showing the route on the map.

Jubilee was the first to take note.
"And this route, this will get us close enough to hail the ship, so I can get back to Mavis!?"

When Lulianna nodded Jubilee grabbed her gear and was out the door.

^~^~^~^

Spike desperately poured the remnants of his canteens over Myst's body, the mare's breathing having become laboured and her face flushed a darker blue than usual. The wendigo's eyes were unfocused as she whimpered.

"It burns....ow...please, just...make it stop burning..."

Looking around desperately, Spike could find nothing in the cavern, not even the way they had first fallen into the cavern to begin with. What he did know was that the heat was even getting to him, and that meant it was far, far too hot for Myst.
"Just, just hold om for me, okay Myst? Think icy plains, blizzards, snow cones, fucking industrial sized freezers, just...hold on!"

Becoming desperate, Spike suddenly thought of one thing that may save Myst, but put his own life in harms way. All dragons could breath both fire and frost, through their primary and secondary hearts respectively, their secondary hearts were, in fact, meant to cool air to counteract fire breathing. Willing himself to try, Spike began blowing air over and over until he found himself so out of breath that he could barely even sit up.

Laying back, Spike brought Myst up to his chest, hoping to keep her comfortable. Still, though, the wendigo mare whimpered fitfully.
"It burns...I don't want it to burn...I don't want to die...please, I don't want to die...make the burning stop please...please..."

Despite his burning lungs, Spike stood up, his worry for his newest friend driving him to ignore the burning in his muscles as he lifted Myst up, cradling her like a small foal. Willing one foot in front of the other, the brave young drake powered forwa4rd as best as he could, felling Myst's heart beat weakly against his chest, growing weaker every second until...nothing...

Falling to his knees in anguish, Spike curled over the unmoving form of Myst as tears slipped from his eyes. As a guttural roar of emotional pain ripped through the dragon's heart and throat, he didn't even notice cool mist emanating from his maw.

Or the flash of green flames behind him...

Author's Note

That last bit? Cause I'm an asshole, can you tell?

Oh, and I do believe this chapter explains almost as much as the chapter before it, especially on why 'Celestia', or Amourfous(Amorphous, like a blob, geddit?), didn't wait for Twilight to finish her research.

And on that note, this is the final name change, there will be no others. Not a reversion to Twilight, nothing. Dawnbreak Duskfall is her name now, and there is no changing that, well, and technically Twilight and Mavis are both 'undead' as are about 600 others, their all stuck in Dawnbreak's head now. Dawnbreak is a new mare, but now she has the experience and brains of two thousand years worth of soldier, scholars, and in Stardancer's case, sluts.

The End...

Dawnbreak shot up into a sitting position, her breathing come out hard and fast as her heart beat spasmodically in her chest. Looking over at the clock, the mare realised that she had just succumbed to 'death' over four hundred times in less than a five minute nap. On one hoof she shuddered at the notion that so many had died so brutally, but on another it was interesting to see that so many of her previous incarnations had fought against Amourfous. That had made a total of 423 deaths due to fighting Amourfous, 127 deaths by accident, 28 due to assassins, 18 via planned accidents, which meant he still had four more deaths to cover.

First would be Moonprancer, a stunt flier and warrioress, Dawnguard, a vicious earth pony mare that acted guard for Amourfous under the guise of Celestia, Twilight, who was very odd out of the group, and lastly Mavis.

Laying back down, Dawnbreak closed her eyes and prepared herself for four more deaths, hopefully the last untimely ones she would have to endure.

^~^~^~^

When life has spent years giving you nothing but lemons, it's easy to start realising what a blessing the little things are. Getting to see a beautiful sunset, or being allowed to just wake up in the morning and take in that first breath of air. As such, it also meant that the big things that happened, the really good things, meant that much more. As such, the scene laid out before Chrysalis was so sweet a meal for her she literally felt that she was going to vomit.

As Spike howled in anger something in him had clicked and he'd began spewing frost from his mouth. While the ice didn't last long in the heated dragonlands, it did significantly lower the sweltering heat, and that had been enough for her to administer magically aided cardiopulmonary resuscitation to Myst.

And now the two were both awake.

And half of her changelings had already thrown up or left the room.

"Ahem, are you two quite finished? Or is it going to take me spewing over both of you to make you stop acting so damned sickeningly sweet."

Both Spike and Myst stopped their snuggling to realise that they were surrounded by changelings, somehow having not noticed before. Reaching over his shoulder, Spike wrapped his claws around his rifle stock only to find he couldn't pull it over his shoulder. Casting a look over his shoulder he saw it was firmly held with a aura of changeling magic.

"Please, if I wanted you two dead you would be dead, but something tells me an ancient creature and a dragon that was supposedly murdered by his mother don't appear by accident. Especially not with Luna sitting in my room with three other ponies that should be dead asking if we've seen you." Chrysalis growled.

Noting that Luna was apparently here, Spike stood and nodded, Myst standing at his side. The pair made to follow after Chrysalis just as the wall of the large cavern suddenly imploded inward, Spike wrapping himself around Myst as the latter threw a magic shield up around them as Chrysalis did the same.

The three looked over at the new hole in the wall to find a large ship floating next to a cliff face, pirates swinging across via ropes or landing if pegasi. And at the head of it all was a large alicorn and a young black pegasus.

"Chrysalis, the Twinkle Star in me says I should let you talk..."

Any battle plans Chrysalis had disappeared at the hearing of the name Twilight Twinkle, a very, very old friend of hers.

"But...the Twilight Sparkle in me says to rip your horn off..."

All previous relief aside, Chrysalis couldn't help but slump.
"Well, fuck..."

^~^~^~^

"So then, Luna," Dawnbreak asked after a time, "What exactly is going to happen here? I mean, I know you're going to release everypony and let them go to the Summerlands, but how does that work, especially since they're part of me?"

Luna continued weaving her spell for a few moments before she looked up.
"Well, simply put, I kill you, but I keep you heart pumping via magic. All of you will pass on, but 'He' will send you, Dawnbreak, back. Or at least that's how it should work. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Dawnbreak, despite the nervous sweating, nodded.
"There are six hundred ponies that have been trapped in this mind of mine, refused peace and forced to just exist with out purpose. Yes, I'm sure of this. Oh, and how are the others?"

"Bored, and Chrysalis isn't happy about the bump on her head, but is thankful she got hit, not torn in half." Luna smiled as she let the spell arc towards Dawnbreak in a flash of white.

^~^~^~^

Her eyes fluttering, Dawnbreak stood to find a hoofful of ponies standing around her. A few she recognised, Like the unicorns Twilight and Mavis, or the pegasus Moonprancer, though she didn't recognise the blue pegasus mare with the hazy eyes next to her. Then there was a stallion, far larger than any pony had ever been recorded.

"Ah, I see you are awake now, dear. I understand I have you to thank for releasing these wonderful ponies into my protection." the stallion smiled fatherly, "I am known as 'He'. I maintain the Summerlands and have been awaiting the arrival of these ponies for a very long time. As thanks, I have something to offer you. You may ask me three questions, three questions alone. After that I will return you to your body and you can resume your fight against Amourfous."

Looking about at the mares smiling at her, Dawnbreak nodded.
"Um, I guess my first question has to do with all of this. I mean, six hundred ponies? I thought we were just reincarnations of the same pony, not separate beings!"

"Ah, yes, I figured you would ask. Now, to answer this, imagine that there are a thousand parallel universe. Now imagine that every universe is the direct action of how you answer true or false questions on a test. In essence, for every decision there are universe that exist that are results of every possible answer. But on that same note, there are certain things that will never change, such as certain ponies. Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and the families of, as well as every single iteration of yourself were all slated to exist long, long, long ago, and nothing can change that."

"Oh," replied Dawnbreak, trying to wrap her head around the idea, "Okay, wow... Well, then as for question two, how do I defeat Amourfous?"

"Isn't that unfair?" jibed 'He'.

"Isn't ruining potentially perfect lives of over six hundred mares?"

"Touche, okay then, the fact of the matter is that you can't defeat Amourfous now. He has grown far too powerful over the last two thousand years. You can seal him away, but he will need to be resealed every five hundred years. That is all that can be done now, as it is far to late to destroy him."

"Oh..."

Dawnbreak kicked her hoof a few times before looking right at 'He'.
"I guess that's all then, I don't have any more questions."

'He' nodded, but spoke once more.
"Your plan, it could work, but you take yourself out of the equation that way. You, as Dawnbreak, will have never existed."

Smiling sadly, Dawnbreak just shrugged.
"I didn't exist a week ago, so I don't think it matters too much. Um, before I go, is there anything anypony wants me to take back. You know, to say to those that are left?"

Twilight stepped forward first.
"Do you think you could let everypony know that I'm sorry for letting it all get so out of hoof?"

"Oh, and tell Jubilee I'm sorry? And that I love her!" Mavis added.

"For Luna, could you tell her I miss her lots," called the hazy eyed blue pegasus, "I'm Snowdrop by the way."

"You guys got it!"

As Dawnbreak started to fade away one more mare, a white alicorn with a soft pink mane, stepped forward.
"Tell Luna Happy belated birthday for me!"

^~^~^~^

Amourfous grinned like a shark as he closed in on the caverns. Landing on the newly made hole of the caverns, the beast in the guise of Celestia chose to silently follow after the ponies he recognised as Blinky, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Darla, Rarity, Applejack, Lulianna and Jubilee."

^~^~^~^

Dawnbreak looked up as eight more ponies entered the room, one of them being a mare she recognised very quickly as Jubilee, who, coincidentally, was the first to speak.

"So, where's Mavis at?"

With a heavy heart Dawnbreak stepped forward, having literally opened her eyes back up five minutes earlier. She sighed, a slight frown tugging at her lips, as she spoke.
"It's a long story, Jubilee, but to put things simply, Mavis is dead. Luna, Snowdrop says she misses you, and your sister, your real sister, says happy belated birthday. Elements, Twilight wishes to apologise for all that's happened. As far as I know, six hundred mares have finally found rest today, and I have found that Amourfous can only be sealed."

"Or I could walk in here and kill you all!"

Dawnbreak spun just in time to see Amourfous, as Celestia, release a spell that engulfed everypony save for itself and Dawnbreak. When the light cleared there was nothing but skeletons and chitinous husks left behind in the room.

"Oops, did somepony want a heartfelt get-together? Guess not now, everypony is dead. Oh, and you're turn now too!"

Amourfous launched a blast of magic straight at Dawnbreak, who was too shocked to even move. Just as it was about to strike her time seemed to stand still for just a moment as the voice of 'He' filled Dawnbreak's ears.

"The answer to the third question you should have, but never asked."

As the magic just started to make contact with Dawnbreak, the alicorn mare's horn sparked to life, and in a burst of light the mare disappeared.

Looking at the room now devoid of life, Amourfous began to laugh madly.
"I did it, I fucking did it! They're all dead, and I now rule Equestria alone, nopony to oppose my power, nopony to stop me, nopony to-"

And then Amourfous disappeared as well...

Author's Note

"What do we want?!"

"TO LYNCH MEMORIAL!"

"When do we want it?!"

Well, preferably after I release the chapter after this one. If that's okay with you guys?

As for the future of this story? Well, it's actually drawing to a close, but there are going to be a fairly large number of chapters to do despite its soon coming end. What I mean by that is that Most chapters for the end I'm doing won't be much longer than this one. There is going to be the 'final fight' chapter, and then after that a number of epilogue chapters.

Enjoy! And yes, I just killed young lovers Spike and Myst, and Mamma-Shy and Darla. Oh, and Jubilee/Sparkler literally died seconds after finding out Mavis was dead...

And Luna is dead too....

And so id everypony else...

And Dawnbreak is gone...

I Am Memorial
^^^ This guy is a fucking dick!

...Never Comes Without a Beginning.

Amourfous smiled as he consumed yet another one of the helpless ponies that inhabited the land. It was such fun to torture or destroy the little things, but it longed for a more permanent position of power. This is why he had alerted one of the two alicorns that had recently taken up control over the nation. Its plan was simple. Kill, consume, or capture the alicorn that shows up and take their place. From there it could have access to what it wanted most, which was power.

At the sound of hoofbeats Amourfous turned to its right to find an alicorn trotting in.

"Ah, young alicorn, I see you were foalish enough to decide to challenge me."

"Yeah, no, bud, you fucked up."

Amourfous' eyes widened as he began to recognise that the alicorn before him was neither the day or night based young mares it had expected, but a different one with a cutie mark that bore a sun and a crescent moon linked by a nine point star.
"You aren't Celestia or Luna these ponies adore!"

"No, but you're about to wish to hell and back that I was." the mare responded with a low growl.

"Ha, no matter. I'll just destroy you and take your form! With your life experiences I'll just use you instead!"

Shooting a blast of magic at the alicorn, Amourfous was shocked when the alicorn threw the magic aside and slammed the blob-like pony form of it into a wall. Amourfous slid down the wall with a squelch before its 'hooves' touched back down and it fired off three more spells, each one being shrugged off.

"An issue with your plan, Amourfous, is that I know your secret! You can only take memories and experience from the actual host body, but not anything they learned via magical implantation!"

The alicorn mare then fired off another sizzling beam that slashed through Amourfous' right foreleg. It tried to regrow the limb but found that it couldn't operate those cells.

"But even if you beat me, you would only gain the confusion and pain of a lost week old mare, not anything worthwhile!"

Firing another beam, one that tore Amorfous clean in half, cutting right through the cells that made up its heart, the alicorn laughed.

"But you won't beat me, because at this time you don't have the power, but that's the thing. You've always needed something from something else. You can't grow more powerful unless somepony, or drake, or gryphon feels something for you. Me? I'm apathetic. I know little outside the fact that I'm not like you, and I'm not in agreement with your plans. Do you understand me, Amourfous? I feel nothing for you, and nopony else knows you exist. You are nothing, and have always been nothing. You are what ponies give you, shape, form, power through hatred or fear. You won't get that from me though, Amourfous, just a new beginning, but not for you. No, I give a new beginning for the citizens of Equestria, a new life that you will never exist in!"

Glaring down at the pitiful mess that had once had the potential to grow into an unbeatable monster, the alicorn mare fired one more beam, erasing him from existence.

"I grant them all a new beginning."

^~^~^~^

"Don't worry, dear Lulu, I will go find what is troubling our little ponies, and then when I get back we can have your birthday party, I promise!" Celestia smiled at her younger sister, Luna.

"But, what if something happens and you don't come back?" Luna countered, fearing what her elder sister might face.

"Your sister will be safe," countered a new voice neither alicorns, "Have assured that for the foreseeable future. Compiled in this folder are a list of things that I will need you to ensure happen but aside from that, all I really have to say is, happy birthday Luna."

As the alicorn turned to leave, she was stopped by the feeling of something holding tight to her hind leg. Craning her neck to see, the alicorn was surprised to find that Luna was embracing her, though the small filly had yet to notice that she was beginning to fade. Celestia came up and pulled her sister from the alicorn, but gave her a thankful smile.

"Thank you for helping us, and while you seem to know our names, we don't know yours."

The alicorn beamed, turned, and wrapped the two smaller alicorns in a large hug.
"Dawnbreak Duskfall, alicorn of hope and new beginnings."

As Celestia allowed the larger pony to hug her, she noticed Dawnbreak was slowly disappearing.
"Wait, what's happening to you!"

"I'm just going away for a bit, but don't worry, every time something good happens know that I'm there smiling and happy." assured Dawn.

Despite looking unsure, Celestia nodded.
"Just, don't say goodbye-"

"Cause you hate goodbyes...I do too."

And with that Dawnbreak Duskfall, alicorn of Hope and New Beginnings, having been alive for less than two weeks, faded from existence, leaving two stunned alicorns, and a radically altered history in the making.

^~^~^~^

"Luna, I'm just going to say happy birthday from out here!" yelled Celestia as Cadence, Shining Armour and Twilight stood behind her, red cheeked and snickering.

*Huff*"MhmmmMMMM" came the response, partially muffled through the doors.

Turning her head from the doors Celestia smiled an elderly sister smile, both exasperated, but happy for her younger sister.
"So, come back later then?"

"I'm cummmiinnngg!!!!"

Twilight stood looking at the door expectantly for a few moments, not even realising the other had opted for walking away until her older brother tapped her on the shoulder.

"Um, Twily, she meant she had...uh...peaked, if you catch my drift, she's not coming to the door."

Cheeks turning a furious shade of scarlet, the lavender alicorn scampered away from the door, determined to put as much space in between herself and Princess Luna and Princess Snowdrop.

Author's Note

Leave the song going!

Schoolyard Crushes

"Back off you three!" Sparkler yelled at the three colts, each larger than her, as she put herself between them and Dinky.

"Oh, what are you gonna do, orphan! Go tell your mommy on us? Oh wait, you don't have one!"

Gritting her teeth, Sparkler tried not to let any tears show. It didn't last long, though, as one of the colts shoved her down.

"Hey, why don't you pick on somepony your own size!"

Sparkler looked up to see a grey unicorn filly with a byzantine mane and an eye shawl standing ready behind the colts. The colts also turned and laughed.

"Oh, like you. Sorry, but there's a disadvantage here filly!, You're blind."

Three minutes later the colts were laying on the ground groaning as the blind filly offered a hoof to Sparkler.

"Hiya, I'm Mavis, new in town and stuff, gonna be starting my sixth year."

Brushing some dust off of herself, Sparkler beamed.
"Oh? I'm starting my sixth year too! Hey, I was just gonna take Dinky to Sugarcube Corner, you want to join us?"

Smiling wide, Mavis nodded.
"Sure, show the way!"

Fire and Ice

"Spiiiike!" Twilight called through to the kitchen, "I'm off for a walk around Ponyville, I need you to watch somepony the Princesses sent to stay with us!"

Spike, now two times taller than Twilight, entered the main room only to freeze at the sight of a dainty crystalline ice mare.
"Wow...you're pretty...er, I mean, uh, ahem, I'm Spike."

Cheeks flushing a slightly darker hint of blue, the ice mare nodded and did a slight curtsy.
"Icene Myst."

Twilight laughed, noting the way Spike was looking at Icene.
"Okay, well like I said, I'm out for a walk, Spike, why don't you show Icene around town, in fact, get some dinner while you're out, my treat. Oh, and Icene is a wendigo, or ice pony, so show off that breath you've got!"

As Spike and Icene Myst exited the door the latter turned to him.

"Breath?"

Spike shrugged for a second before pointing at a scar on his chest.
"Fell on a branch when I was younger, heart my primary heart. Means I can't breath fire, but I can do this!"
Spike blew a soft mist of ice out, using his claws to skillfully make a small replica of a flower that he presented to Icene.

The wendigo stared at the figure in wonder, holding it close.
"It's...it's beautiful!"

Flushing, Spike shrugged.
"Nothing special, I can do it anytime. Not many ponies find it too cool anyway. In fact, you'd be the first Icene."

"Oh no, I think it is amazing, and please, call me Myst."

Spike nodded, an the pair of them started walking around town, quickly becoming fast friends.

Princess of Hope and New Beginnings.

Dawnbreak Duskfall opened her eyes slowly to find 'He' looking at her with a grin.

"Well, well, looks like someponies had quite the ride for such a young age."

Looking around Dawnbreak realized she was in the Summerlands.
"I don't understand, you said I couldn't come here when I died?"

"I did say that, and it is true. Without living a life in Equestria, you can not come here."

Casting a look down, Dawnbreak shuffled nervously.
"So does that mean I just...disappear?"

'He' shook his head.
"For an alicorn of hope and new beginnings, you sure are making your own future look bleak. How about I lend you a hoof?"

'He' then turned around an gave Dawnbreak a might buck, sending her into the air so quickly that the mare's vision blurred to black.

^~^~^~^

Her vison focusing back in, Dawnbreak was just able to recognise she was falling in time to come to a smooth landing not three hooves in front of a lavender alicorn she swore she knew for some reason.
"Um, hi..."

"Oh, hello, you must be new to town...or very old, I didn't know there were any alicorns other than the princesses and I around." the lavender alicorn responded.

"Um, it's complicated."

"Oh, well, I'm Twilight Sparkle, alicorn of Friendship."

"Dawnbreak Duskfall, alicorn of Hope and New Beginnings."

Twilight eyed Dawn doubtingly.
"Alicorn of hope and new beginnings? How does that work."
As she asked this, Twilight tilted her head in an adorable fashion that Dawn couldn't help but notice.

"Um, not sure exactly how to explain it. How about me being hopeful for a trip out to dinner for...I dunno, a beginning of a new friendship or something?"

Eyeing the alicorn incredulously, Twilight couldn't help but laugh.
"Either you wen through a lot of work for a really cheesy pick up line, or you're being serious."

Realising how things came out, Dawn began laughing as well. As both alicorns attempted to recover from laughing, their eyes met for just a moment, and everything seemed to go silent. As soon as they realized what they were doing, they both pulled their gazes away with a faint hint of a blush gracing their cheeks.

Then Twilight looked back up.
"You know what? Sure, why not, heck, I'll even pay. Now, where are we off to?"

At the clueless look from Dawn, Twilight just giggled and nodded toward Ponyville.
"I know all the good places any way, I'll find us someplace decent."

"Okay, sorry for, you know, not really knowing my way around." Dawn awkwardly chuckled.

"Don't worry about it, I am curious though, what's your story? What'd you do to become the alicorn of Hope and New Beginnings?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Well," Twilight countered with a smirk, "If it's a good story, maybe I'll be up for a second date. Hope and all that."

Author's Note

What, you didn't actually think I'd do something mean or evil here, did you?

And not having a happy ending? Please.

Heck, I wouldn't like myself for it.

Princess of Love.

Making very good use of his free time, Starswirl the Bearded, untroubled by the lack of any sort of conflict or hidden plots in Equestria, was able to finish and achieve his greatest of creations, a spell, that when cast, would grant alicorndom to any who embodied a specific trait. Despite creating such powerful spell, Starswirl the Bearded opted to grow old, an in turn die, leaving his mantle to be taken up by Clover the Clever.

Clover became one of the most gifted archmages, but also one known to take the most time for themselves. As such, Clover followed her heart to the Crystal Kingdom, where she fell in love with the current leader there, Knight Regent Sombre winds. Together they pioneered a new branch of magic, the magic of love, and gave birth to a daughter.

The pairs daughter quickly became the most talented user of love magic known to the world, using her gift to spread love wherever she went. So gifted in this art did she become that Celestia and Luna were quick to grant the young mare a chance at alicorndom.

Many years later, both Clover and Sombre Winds passed peacefully together in their sleep, leaving their lands, the Crystal Kingdom, under the gentle, loving, guiding hoof of their daughter, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

Princess of Wishes and Beauty.

Despite the peace and love known throughout Equestria, Princess Luna soon grew to fear that she was less loved than her sisters Celestia an Cadence. This fear, while unfounded, was quickly dismissed at the small hooves of a blind Pegasus filly by the name of Snowdrop.

As Snowdrop aged at Luna's side, soon growing into a fine young mare, the pair fell into a deep loving relationship with each other. Quickly becoming inseparable, and with Snowdrop's amazing Talent for finding beauty in anything in the world, the only logical choice for the three princesses was to make her an alicorn.

When given the choice, Snowdrop took it after a brief discussion with Luna.

Becoming the Princess of beauty in everything, and the wishes of the nation, she worked alongside Luna. The pair would travel through the dream world each night, Luna soothing their sleeping subjects while Snowdrop learned of what would make the nation happiest.

The subsequent marriage, as well as the arrival of Snowdrop's make-a-wish organization would usher in a whole new era of peace and prosperity to Equestria, and it would make everypony believe things could never get any better.

They'd be wrong of course.

Princess of Friendship

For the mares Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack and Fluttershy, little would change.

Still performing the Rainboom, Rainbow Dash would become a young legend in flying amongst her peers, quickly rising in the ranks of the Wonderbolts until an accident would have her return home to Ponyville.

Fluttershy, having been rescued by Discord and his hammock by sheer coincidence, would become fast friends with the social pariah. The pair travelled the world, seeing all the animals to see, until one day Fluttershy realized she was preganant. The pair returned to Ponyville, a favourite town of Dicord's, where they settled down.

Despite becoming fast famous for her clothing line, Rarity wished for a more down to earth schooling for her younger sister. Moving her main store to a small town called Ponyville where she could make her clothes an Sweetie Belle could grow up in a more normal an stable environment.

Having birthed a small foal at the age of ten, Pinkie left home to try to get a stable household under her hooves. Quickly finding Ponyville, the pony soon opened a Premiere Party shoppe that quickly gained popularity. Uncaring of what the public might say, Pinkie Pie brought her son, Peregrine Pie, to live with her in Ponyville where he became close friends with a mare name Lulianna.

Her parents always there to guide her and her older brother, Applejack grew strong working her farm in Ponyville. Ever the hard worker, her [parents soon adopted the mare's saying, 'An honest day makes for honest pay.', as their company logo. In the capable hooves of the Apple family, the cider business boomed.

Twilight Sparkle, having been taken in by Celestia at a young age to be her personal student, flourished more than anypon expected. Despite this, the constant badgerins of a certain Prince Blueblood caused the mare to take a sabbatical to a town called Ponyville. There, for the first time in her life, Twilight made friends, specifically five of them, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy an Pinkie Pie. Using the chance, Twilight began new research into friendship magic, versing herself so well in it that upon her return to Canterlot, was granted alicorndom.

Twilight Sparkle became an instant favourite of Equestria, especially after halting her friends in full view of everypony, raising each to their hooves and statin with a smile, 'You bow to nopony, my friends.'.