Pilgrimage

Chapters

Chapter 1: Little Understanding
Chapter 2: The Forgetting Helms
Chapter 3: Giving Charge
Chapter 4: Him
Chapter 5: The Idea of Freedom
Prologue

Chapter 1: Little Understanding

1409 AC [After Chaos]

The Freedom Clouds

Equestria

Twilight Sparkle felt a shiver go through her body as lightning cracked through the crying clouds above, followed by a roar. She couldn't decide if it was a good shiver or a bad one, reminiscent of an old friend that could send chills of inspiration and adventure through her. She listened as the ensuing thunder faded, replaced by the pelting rain against her rain coat.

Her eyes, though, remained on the tombstone before her. The stone had been carved with her own magic, shaped like two thunderbolts hitting the ground at the same moment, the same place, and at their strike creating a pool of stone water that flowed across the ground for a few feet and bore the inscription Here rests the ashes of Rainbow Dash, 5th Leadpony, 3rd Company, friend, mentor, companion. The Element of Loyalty.

Other ponies stood around the grave, as still as gravestones themselves, staring at the recent grave amid the gray, cloudy burial grounds of the Cloudsdalian pegasi. It was one of the few storm systems the pegasi didn’t move from its resting place on the Dragonspine mountains far south of Canterlot, for it was a sacred, solemn place for their dead’s ashes to rest.

Burned to honor the sun, rest in cloud to honor their race, Twilight pondered with a distant appreciation, suppressing another shiver of grief. It was too soon for Rainbow Dash to pass; normal ponies could live a good 300-400 years, almost too many moons to count, should they be in good health. But Rainbow took the short and quick route in a Wonderbolt stunt that broke her neck and left her dead soon after.

The horror of it, the grief and surprise, took Twilight off her guard. She thought of herself as a reasoning, cool pony, unafraid of what she had already read and discussed with intelligent ponies. She knew everyone except for the alicorns would die. But now it touched her personally, and she didn’t know how to react save to fulfill Rainbow’s parents’ wish to make her tombstone and embed it in the Freedom Clouds.

To her right sat Fluttershy, who was curled up into a ball and whimpering her tender heart to pieces. Out of their Companionship of Six, Fluttershy and Rainbow had shared the closest friendship. Ever since Rainbow Dash had protected Fluttershy’s honor from bullies, Fluttershy had looked to Rainbow for protection and Rainbow to Fluttershy for compassion on the hard days. That and the many afternoons they spent gliding over Canterlot Vale and beyond, the times they had talked and laughed and shared their crushes of stallions and other secrets to each other, made the separation all the harder.

Twilight spread her near wing over Fluttershy, as the yellow mare hadn’t brought any rain gear for protection. The alicorn looked at her wing, stream-lined and strong from a century of flight, and still could not understand the injustice of Rainbow’s death. There was no revenge to be found – as illogical that course would have been to take – and no blame. It had simply happened.

The lavender pony didn’t dare try to tell this to Fluttershy. The shy mare had heard it all. Even Angelica bunny on her withers tried to stroke the pink mane and chittered silently to her master, but Fluttershy went on crying as if she heard nothing but news of Rainbow Dash's death.

The other Companions were present as well, heads bowed and tears silently flowing as Twilight’s spell kept them aloft on the cloud. Even boisterous Pinkie Pie painstakingly kept her mouth shut after all the screaming she had done.

“Of all the worst things…” Rarity murmured with half a heart, shadowed under her saddle-supported umbrella.

“I hear ya,” Applejack said, rivulets of water pouring off of her ranch hat.

“Rainbow,” Twilight whispered. “If you can hear us, we’ll always be friends…that magic will never disappear.”

The other pegasi began to disperse, drenched and miserable from death and storm. After twenty minutes or so, only the Companions remained. She wrenched her eyes from the tomb as a flash of white and color appeared through the rain. Long, slender legs hoof-shod in gold reached out and galloped across the cloud, stirring up wisps of vapor.

Celestia tossed her mane of sunlight and spectral colors in a stop, keeping her wings unfurled horizontally as Spike hopped from her back, his feet held aloft by her own spell. The little dragon had grown this last century, standing head-height to Celestia’s withers now. His frame had slimmed out some, though he possessed a familiar stockiness, and muscles rippled along his adolescent bones. His face had seemed to stretch forward a bit, giving him a more mature look.

The Companions, save for Fluttershy, bowed deep to the Princess of the sun.

“I apologize for being late,” Celestia said, allowing the rain to drench her pearly coat and seep through her flowing mane. She shook her head. “Being a Princess can cause inconveniences to occur…but not too many for this loyal subject….Rainbow Dash.”

“She didn’t want anyone to see her hurt,” Twilight said. “She wouldn’t have wanted a big ceremony after what happened.”

“Even though she loved those things,” Pinkie sighed.

With a twist of her stomach, Twilight remembered hurrying to the blue pony's side as she lay broken on the ground, and Rainbow's terrified eyes squeezing shut when even more ponies came to her side. She had screamed at them to go way. So strong and fast and powerful, so wonderful at successful and daring feats and acrobatics...the pegasus didn't want them to see her fail at her death.

Celestia and Spike approached the tomb, and the alicorn bowed her head to the stone. The tip of her horn gently clicked against the stone, and her horn lit up with her aura briefly before she pulled away, the magic vanishing. Twilight had a thought to ask about it, but stopped herself.

“Her pain is gone, her soul is at rest,” Celestia chanted softly. “Her wings to bear her upward, her body never to break again.”

Eyes sparkling, Celestia moved to Fluttershy and laid belly-down at the yellow pony's side. Twilight side stepped away as the white princess shaded Fluttershy with her own broad wing. Spike came to Twilight's side and rubbed her lavender shoulder. Twilight felt all the stress her muscles had built begin to melt into that friendly pressure, and she told herself she needed a massage if she visited the spa in Canterlot or Ponyville.

“I 'spose we better get back,” Applejack tried to suggest. “Do ya think the hot air balloon is still up, Pinkie?”

“It should be,” the pink earth pony said, trying to liven her trembling voice. “We better get to it before all this wind throws it away! I wouldn't be surprise if it was Dashy trying to tell us to leave.”

Rarity silently stepped away from the tomb, walking across the curve of the cloud to where the balloon was docked. Applejack and Pinkie Pie followed, heads bowed dejectedly. A bolt of lightning sluiced above them, and Pinkie jumped up three feet when it thundered. Twilight tried not to smile at her old friend, and then turned to those still present.

Fluttershy had ceased weeping, Spike now on her other side as he gazed hard at the tomb with water trickling over his hard amethyst scales. He leaned on his knees, working his jaw, and Twilight reclined next to him and embraced him with her wing.

“I...I wish I could have said sorry, for what I told her all that time back,” he gulped. “We haven't spoken to each other for five years.”

“Some...some things are hard to understand,” Twilight said, trying to comfort him and reason with herself all at the same time.

“I-I-I blamed her for everything!” he suddenly cried out. “I blamed her for ruining me, for ruining Rarity’s chances, for ---“”

“The past is done,” Celestia inserted, her strong soprano voice overpowering his remaining sorrow. “Rainbow Dash knew what happened, and what could have been done. Mourn not for things you cannot change.” Celestia turned her eyes to Twilight, and the Princess of magic tried not to step back further in her own grief and confusion. She suddenly wanted to be alone, to ponder the things whirling through her mind, to study them out until they all made sense. “Princess Twilight, we have an important meeting in the royal palace in about two hours. Will you be able to attend?”

“Yes, Princess,” Twilight said automatically. Even though I don’t want to.

“Fluttershy,” Celestia said, nuzzling the pegasus’ neck. “We need to leave before the storm worsens…you can come back whenever you like.”

Fluttershy squeaked an “okay” before climbing shakily to her hooves, trembling under her drenched pelt. Angelica hopped up between her ears and patted her head, and Fluttershy went cross-eyed trying to look at the rabbit.

“You’re right, Angelica,” she whispered. “Let’s go home and rest…I’m hungry.”

The Princesses watched Fluttershy jump straight up and arc down into the clouds, heading earthward. Celestia shook her fur heartily, spraying Twilight’s jacket with a fresh patter of water. Spike hopped onto Celestia’s back (as he was now too large for Twilight, even though she too had grown some since her ascension). Without a word, Celestia galloped across the cloud, wings flared, and caught a bubble of air, Twilight close behind with the wind rattling across her feathers.

In a few minutes they left the Freedom Clouds behind and glided over the Dragonspine ranges. Twilight breathed easily of the thin air, a gift bestowed on her when she became an alicorn – as a unicorn she would have been gasping with breath while levitating at this height. Spike didn’t seem to mind the height, breathing slowly as he took in the view of sunlight glistening against the western flanks of the mountains.

“Princess,” Twilight began with some hesitance. She paused, and then decided to finish: “Why is there death? Why…” Celestia glanced at her, pounding her wings once. “I just don’t understand why she had to die, and I keep living…”

“Do you not have what you wanted?” Celestia inquired softly. Twilight nodded.

“I always wanted to be like you, as much as I could,” the lavender alicorn agreed. “When I became an alicorn, it was confusing at first...but I realized how much more like you I was, and when I came to appreciate my position after coming back from the human world, I embraced it like a mare does her foal. There is nothing else like it! The eternal aspect excited me as well.” Twilight tilted slightly as a wind kicked up under her, and she adjusted her primary feathers so she would stay level with the white Princess. “But as time passed, I realized not everypony is eternal, and it has finally come and bit me on the nose.”

“Death comes to those who have not been chosen as we,” Celestia said. “You will find more answers at our gathering, Twilight. In fact, soon you will find many, many answers.”

“What is the meeting for?” Twilight demanded. Celestia chuckled, and Twilight tossed her head, her purple and pink forlocks dancing back. Celestia suddenly folded her wings partially and dove, multi-colored mane and tail whipping behind her. Spike yelped and grabbed at Celestia’s neck. Twilight laughed and stooped after them, forgetting for now her fears and doubts.

Chapter 2: The Forgetting Helms

Luna watched as the last fiery rays of the sun sank into the distant west. Her eyes lingered on that horizon, and both a foreboding and jumping excitement filled her heart. She turned her head away from the window and shifted on her seat, looking across the arched council chamber, formally known as the Council of the Princesses. Only Princess Cadance and Princess Twilight Sparkle occupied the chamber with her. All waited silently for Celestia to arrive, to begin a task so monumental alicorns only performed it once every one hundred years.

Luna eyed her companions. Twilight Sparkle stared at the table, brows furrowed, deep in thought as she normally was. She was the least in the know about this meeting, and Luna sensed some apprehension in her as well. She flicked her gaze to Cadance, who sat calmly with her head bowed, eyes closed. The Princess of the moon noticed how the Princess of love took deep breaths, and her ears were stiff. Nervous, but trying not to be, trying not to show it. Such was her way to appear strong to others.

Luna summoned her aura, the magic all unicorns and alicorns possessed, appearing as a blue glow about her horn, and commanded a pitcher of apple cider and four glasses to appear. With a soft pop they floated above the table, and she manipulated the pitcher to pour drinks for all four that would be present.

“Thank-you, Princess,” Twilight said, sighing. Cadance seemed not to notice her cup before her.

“Princess Cadance,” Luna said with some royal command. “Please, partake. You need not worry about the future, but only think of now.”

Cadance’s deep pink eyes snapped open, and she let out a heaving breath. Twilight watched her old sitter over the lip of her cup, ears folded partly back with some concern.

“Is it really that worrisome?” Twilight asked, trying to piece together the puzzle that was this unexpected meeting. Cadance chuckled.

“No, it’s nothing,” Cadance responded. Luna sensed the lie, but said nothing as the council door swung open, and her older sister paced in regally.

Luna’s spirit lifted to see the beautiful white mare, her mentor and friend, wings flared upward with her entrance, her eyes closed as if she always meditated everywhere she went. Celestia would lead the meeting with patience and understanding, as she always did; a thousand years of ruling mortal, impatient ponies could do that to a Princess. Princess Celestia closed the door as two royal guards took their posts outside, and she took a pillow next to Luna. She smiled at the cider and immediately lifted it up with her aura to drink.

“Shall we proceed, sister?” Luna asked, folding her hooves upon the table.

“Of course, Luna,” Celestia said gently. “The sun has set, and it time for another beginning.” She gave a comforting smile to Cadance, who bowed her head slightly, and then turned to Twilight. “Twilight, just under a hundred years have passed since you freed my sister from the awful darkness in her heart. It was the thousandth year since the Banishment, and it was a good year.”

“Yes it was, Princess,” Twilight agreed with some question in her voice. Luna was grateful that Celestia didn’t speak condescendingly about the past, only talked of it as it was, as if she had dreamed it and the nightmare was over.

“That year was also the year of what the alicorns know as Pilgrimage,” Celestia went on. “At the beginning of the year, while it was still winter, I and Cadance left on Pilgrimage. A hundred years later, it is time for Pilgrimage again.”

“Pilgrimage?” Twilight demanded. Her face turned hard again. “...I don’t recall ever reading about it, or hearing any stories of it.”

“It is a well-kept secret, my faithful one,” Celestia responded.

Her aura appeared, and a scroll wrapped in her magic appeared in the air. She unraveled it upon the table. It was a map of the continent. Luna immediately found Canterlot in the northeast, with Ponyville a little south, Sweet Apple Acres marked not too far from there. Cloudsdale took its prominent place in the sky about thirty miles southwest of Canterlot. Other major cities dotted the map, stretching far, far west to the border of Saddle Arabia and beyond.

“Pilgrimage is a most sacred thing to alicorns,” Luna went on to explain. “In Pilgrimage, which all alicorns traditionally undertake, we learn about the first alicorns, whom we call the Mighty Ones.”

Twilight observed the map for a moment, and then gave Luna and Celestia a quizzical look.

“Why not just write down their history, where all can access it?” the lavender alicorn asked. “Wouldn’t a….a Pilgrimage be too dangerous?”

“You have a generous spirit, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna allowed. “But there are some things not everypony is to learn unless they are privileged to, if they are given that gift.”

“In your own studies, Twilight,” Celestia said. “You have learned that everypony has a special gift, not just the talent expressed in their cutie mark. You learned that with your own friends...but would you just give those talents to anyone who has not earned it?”

“No, of course not,” Twilight agreed. “Everypony must learn at their own pace and time. Nothing can be forced. It defies what we call freedom.”

“That is why we cannot explain to everyone where the alicorn came from,” Celestia finished. “Not everypony is ready for such knowledge. It is a knowledge of power and sacred gift-giving. Our society has forgotten much of the histories, and we keep what they need to know, keep them out of ignorance as much as possible without causing disaster. Perhaps someday we will reveal our entire pasts to Equestria, but they are not ready for such knowledge. Do you understand?”

Twilight gave a firm nod.

“You, Twilight Sparkle, have earned this privilege,” Luna explained. “As have we. It is the inheritance of alicorns to go on Pilgrimage.”

Celestia began to mark different points on the map with spots of golden aura.

“We will visit ten sites, the same places our predecessors stepped hoof upon, to learn why they became as they did,” Celestia told all of them. “Traditionally, alicorns go alone unless they have a family unit as alicorns. All of us will go together.”

“Why go on Pilgrimage every one hundred years?” Twilight inserted. Luna glanced at her sister as both noted the doubt growing in the lavender alicorn’s voice. “Isn’t once enough?”

“So we will remember,” Cadance responded softly. “Twilight, I’ve only been once on Pilgrimage, and I hardly remember everything. But it is worth it.”

“It has been over a thousand years since my last Pilgrimage,” Luna hummed, a shiver crossing her indigo coat. “There are many things for me to see again.”

The four Princesses trekked down the paved walkway. Around them reared the magnificent spires of the palace, their colorful domes sparkling in the moonlight. Twilight was in a whirl of confusion about this whole Pilgrimage thing. Why was it necessary to begin with? She was content with who and what she had become, a Princess, a leader, a friend among friends. She had made the greatest accomplishment in her life creating new magic and fulfilling her destiny as a Princess. What more could there be?

None of the others had indicated where they were headed now. Twilight suppressed a yawn and shuffled her wings, ready for bed. That day had been physically and emotionally tolling, the thought of Rainbow Dash’s death still flying about her brain. She had found no answers about death at the meeting as Celestia had implied. Perhaps the Princess had meant something else; she could speak cryptically that way.

Celestia halted their group before a short tower with an unadorned roof and a single arched window. The white mare lifted her head skyward to peer at the stars, and then she bowed and touched her horn to the blank stone door. She summoned her aura and began to draw a golden line across the granite. Twilight watched her draw the constellation Equaria, the constellation nearest to the North Star. She finished drawing the pegasus mare and stepped back.

The drawing faded away, and the door swung inward. Celestia let Luna enter first, followed by Cadance and Twilight. The Princess of the sun brought up the rear, and the door closed behind her. Luna lit up her horn with a spark of sapphire light and took them up a spiral staircase.

They entered the top floor of the tower. It was an empty, round room, with only a set of pillows stacked off under the single window and a large brown chest at its center. Twilight moved to the chest immediately, curious and eager to learn what was in it.

“Don’t touch,” Celestia warned softly. “It has a protective spell on it that will seriously shock anyone and leave them asleep for a day.”

“Ouch,” Twilight hummed, stopping a good distance from the chest. Cadance came up and pressed her flank against Twilight, and the lavender alicorn shivered gratefully. This was all so strange.

“You’ll come to understand,” Cadance assured softly. Twilight found her throat was too tight to reply as Luna and Celestia stood on either side of the box. Celestia bowed her head once more and pressed her horn against the crossing metal braces of the lid box. Electricity danced around her horn, and the top split open and spread to either side.

Celestia used her aura to lift four curious pieces of work from the box. They were shaped like a pony’s head, with grooves for the eyes, mouth and nostrils, and a unicorn’s horn. Pieces of the things flared up at the rear of the headdresses. One was gold, one was some sort of black stone, one was made of diamond, and the last was made of brownish bronze.

“These are the Forgetting Helms,” Celestia announced. “Each pilgrim must wear theirs during the duration of the Pilgrimage. It will protect our identities while we are abroad; no pony will be able to recognize us for who we are.”

Pilgrim. Twilight immediately felt uncomfortable with the term. This was starting to sound too religious for her to care. She had to admit she had never studied much into religion before, used to having science and books and experiments explain things to her rather than a simple belief...although she also had to confess that she had had thoughts about death and afterlife, and what she could do to prove their existence should they exist at all.

But here these three ponies were before her, ready to take on an enormous task without question or second thought. All had been on Pilgrimage. Twilight took a deep breath and decided it would at least be worth a try, to see what was real and what was not. It comforted her greatly she didn’t have to do this alone.

“At the beginning of the first month next year, the first day of the first week, we will meet here at the sun’s setting, with all our clothing and bags and other preparations, and don the helms,” Celestia finished. “Then we will leave. Cadance, I trust you have already organized affairs in the Crystal Empire?”

“I have,” the pink alicorn said. “Shining Armor -- he doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, but he trusts I will be safe. I plan on spending the next three months with him before coming back.”

“I will take time in Ponyville,” Twilight added. She took a moment to gaze at Celestia and Luna. She wanted to say or ask something, something to explain more of the Pilgrimage, but simply couldn’t. Only time would be able to still her troubled heart.

Time. It was time to go back to Ponyville and say goodbye to her friends, and that thought warmed her spirit right back up, causing a self-knowing smile to spread across her muzzle.

Chapter 3: Giving Charge

A purple figure burst through the bottom of the cloud, leaving a trail of mist behind her as she flared her wings in the cool Fall air. She glanced up at the great cumulus heading south as the northern wind pushed it away, seeking warmer weather. She could tell the pegasus ponies were hard at work herding the Summer and Fall clouds away with their massive factory-produced winds to make way for the clouds that would bring in the snow.

Leaving Equestria. Twilight Sparkle’s heart hammered once at the thought before she propelled herself forward. Her wings made slight adjustments to the changes in air and speed, and wind whistled about her horn.

Below her was a patchwork of more clouds, and yet beneath them was a small, glistening city. Ponyville. No longer was it the quaint town she had lived in for several years, it had updated its cottages to tiled houses, its town hall and courthouse to four story buildings, and had expanded with more houses and ships. Yet for all of that, it seemed to maintain its homeliness and friendliness.

Twilight turned her head to scan the clouds some more and spotted a light yellow blip about a mile off to her right. She pounded her wings and galloped through the air, the movement coming naturally to her.

A few moments later the alicorn drifted down quietly as to not startle the pegasus mare. Twilight’s hooves alighted onto the cloud, and she approached Fluttershy from the side. Fluttershy was busy staring over the cloud edge at a flock of starlings weaving back and forth near some trees.

She glanced at Twilight.

“Oh, hey Twilight…” she murmured, starting to get up.

“No, stay,” Twilight urged. Fluttershy flopped down. The lavender mare laid against Fluttershy’s flank and eyed the birds below. “How are you, Fluttershy?”

“I’m...okay.”

Twilight looked at the way the pegasus laid back her ears and ducked her head under her long pink forelocks, trying to hide her pained expression.

“Thinking of Rainbow Dash?” Twilight said softly. Fluttershy was silent. “I’ve thought about her a lot too...but maybe she’s still flying about in her own way, in the wind as it crosses Equestria.”

Fluttershy’s whole body jerked, and she stared at Twilight.

“You mean like a ghost?” she demanded with a quaver in her voice.

“No, I mean...ah, I don’t know what I meant. I’m confused right now.”

Fluttershy took her turn to observe Twilight as the Princess of friendship let her eyes slide westward.

“You look...worried,” Fluttershy said. She tried to smile. “Don’t be worried, Twilight. At least...the rest of us are still here, as friends, always.”

Twilight smiled at Fluttershy’s kindness and climbed to her hooves, shaking herself. Her wings unfolded with the movement, and she flapped them a few times.

“I was on my way to Sugarcube Corner,” Twilight told her friend. “Want to come? I’ll race you!”

Fluttershy stood and stretched her wings as well before Twilight dove off the cloud, the pegasus in hot pursuit. They laughed as they spiraled around shredded banks of vapor, sunlight reflections from windows and metal from Ponyville reflecting onto their stomachs. Some ponies pointed as they recognized Twilight and Fluttershy, and foals and fillies gave high pitched whinnies as they passed over the elementary school playground.

Twilight passed between two hotels, wings tucked in tight, and felt a tug on the end of her tail. Fluttershy had bitten it and now pulled Twilight back. The alicorn barked out another laugh and flailed her hoofs, pretending to stall in mid air, as the yellow pegasus arced over her and dove for the porch of Sugarcube Corner.

Other ponies coming and going from the shop started as the alicorn landed heavily next to her friend, and they broke down into giggles.

“You win,” Twilight admitted as they entered the store. Her nostrils flared at the scents of frosting and cake and fresh bread and hard sugar, and she glanced around a store filled with several tables and patrons. Fluttershy made her own way to a table where Applejack sat speaking with Filthy Rich. Both were looking at a graph paper with numbers and pictures of apples and other produce, almost invisible among the crowd of ponies.

At the cashier’s counter, she saw a deep pink mane bobbing around as its owner rushed to please five customers all at once. Plates of waffles and crumpets and muffins and slices of cake popped up onto the counter, as well as jugs of hot and cold apple cider. Twilight felt and heard her tummy grumble, and she moved to the counter to get a place in line.

Twilight tried to ignore the multiple gazes of ponies as they combined the sight of her horn and wings and deduced that one of their Princesses had come for a visit. Some of the ponies ahead of her actually tried to get out of line, but she quietly insisted that they go first.

Reluctant to disobey, the ponies stood in line with legs quivering and nervous tilts of their heads. Twilight resisted a sigh, keeping her head high and her legs straight but loose, just as Celestia had taught her. Her very posture gave her confidence and radiated it, and the customer just ahead of her relaxed with a breath when she gave him a warm smile.

A few minutes passed before Twilight finally made it to the counter. Pinkie’s head shot up, her wild, frazzled hair bouncing.

“Twilight!” she shrieked, reaching out with her hooves and grabbing her cheeks. Ponies gasped. “Twilight, what took you so long? Here I thought my cookies were going to rot away and the nuts were going to go on strike, and the flour disappear, and ---”

“Ponkey!” Twilight gurgled. The Princess gasped as the pink earth pony released her, and she tried to smile. “I would love your cookies. In fact, I need to speak to all of you today; do you have some time?”

“Do I!” Pinkie cried, jumping onto the counter. She looked at the kitchen door. “Pound! Come here QUICK!”

A young pegasus stallion bolted out of the door, balancing a platter of tarts on his head.

“Is everything alright?!” he demanded, searching for trouble and flaring his tan wings to appear larger to a possible enemy.

“Oh, everything’s fine, I’m just going to go have a chat with Twilight,” Pinkie said innocently, hopping off the counter and making the floor shake with her landing. She waved a hoof. “Everyone, Pound Cake is in charge until I’m back!”

Twilight twitched her ringing ears, still wondering after all these years why Pinkie got so excited over the smallest things. Of course, that was one of the things she loved about her; she could laugh in the face of death itself and give strength to her friends.

Filthy Rich left Applejack’s table, shaking her hoof briefly before trotting out of Sugarcube Corner with the paper tucked into his saddlebag. Twilight led Pinkie Pie over to the table.

“Oh hey there, sugarcube,” Applejack said with a warm smile. “Didn’t expect ya down here so soon. What’s up?”

“I need to speak to everyone,” Twilight began. She glanced around, rotating her ears at the same time. “Where’s Rarity?”

“Why, she’s at her shop, of course.” The light brown pony tapped a hoof on the table. “She’s hasn’t spoken to anypony since that funeral. Ain’t been warm to any company of late.”

Twilight grimaced. She still had a situation on her hooves that needed to be dealt with before she left; who knew if she’d even come back alive? It was a terrible thought, and shouldn’t have been there since Celestia and Luna themselves had gone and come back from Pilgrimage dozens of times. But still, it was a possibility. She shook her head, returning to the present.

“Come on girls, let’s go for a visit,” the Princess urged. Pinkie whooped, bouncing on all four hooves at once towards the exit. The others followed in a much more reserved manner.

In about ten minutes they found Rarity’s boutique in its small green yard, now surrounded by other clothing shops and fabric stores, all trying to surpass the white unicorn’s superb talent in fashion and design.

A neon light sign in the window blared “Closed.” The ponies leaned against the windows to peer inside. The main floor was dark, with a fly buzzing around inside.

“Maybe in the back?” Fluttershy suggested.

The group rounded the store and found Rarity using her aura to move damp clothing onto a multitude of clotheslines. Although she had a mechanized dryer inside, some of her more delicate fabrics required air-drying; she also did it to take time to work out her thoughts, something Twilight had discovered soon before Rainbow Dash’s death.

The white unicorn jumped when they came into view, and two shirts fell onto the grass. She groaned and lifted them up, shaking off grass shavings.

“Need any help?” Twilight asked, trying to sound chip. She moved to the laundry basket.

“That’s kind of you, Twilight, but I have everything under control,” Rarity said firmly, lifting the basket and moving it closer to herself. The lavender alicorn cocked her head.

Somehow I doubt she has “everything under control,” Twilight thought with concern.

“So we’re all here!” Pinkie exclaimed, examining a pink silk skirt fluttering in a breeze. “What’dya want to talk about, Twilight?”

“Let us all sit together,” the Princess invited, gesturing with a hoof at a patch of soft grass away from the clotheslines. The companions save for Rarity headed for it. “Come, Rarity. This is very important.”

Rarity glanced at Twilight, and then set down her clothespins and clothes in the basket and slowly plodded to the group.

Once they had all settled, Twilight met their expectant eyes and was grateful for their support and love. She wouldn’t be the mare she was now without them.

“The beginning of next year, I’ll be leaving Canterlot,” the alicorn explained. “I’ll be gone for a long time, but I promise to come back.”

No matter what, she mentally added with a frown.

“Where ya going?” Applejack asked casually. Twilight flicked her ears.

“I’ll be traveling west. Far, far west.”

“Appleloosa?” came Applejack’s suggestion.

“Dodge Junction?” Pinkie ejaculated.

“Further than that. Farther than anypony here has ever gone.”

The Companionship murmured among themselves. Twilight admired them for their simple thinking, their innocence. It seemed that she kept thinking and thinking, reading and learning, and as a Princess, she had gotten to know both the dark and light parts of her society much more intimately. Her friends led simple lives in their trades and hobbies, and although they too learned day by day, Twilight had to learn at a quicker pace to keep up with her destiny...including Pilgrimage.

“However, I don’t want anypony here spreading word about it,” Twilight went on. “I trust all of you, and I didn’t want you to worry when for some reason I never visited or wrote, or if you went to Canterlot and I had vanished. Is everyone clear?”

“Why won’t you tell us where you’re going, dear?” Rarity said. Twilight sighed, laying her ears back.

“It’s...it’s sacred.”

The others glanced at each other. She half expected sarcastic comments over the idea, or more demands for explanation. However, they only nodded, accepting the cryptic answer, and Twilight smiled and relaxed her tense wings.

The ponies gave her hugs and nuzzles before heading out. Rarity moved back to the laundry, and Twilight waited for the others to go before she approached the white unicorn.

“I have a favor to ask, Rarity,” the alicorn started as Rarity magically clipped a shirt to the line. Twilight felt the atmosphere about them strain when Rarity didn’t reply. “Will you...keep an eye out for the others? Keep them together, should things begin to fall apart?”

Rarity met Twilight’s gaze, and then laid her ears back.

“You think I would let down my friends?” Rarity demanded. Twilight shook her head, taking a step back. “Just because ----just because I have before?”

Rarity growled and turned away. Twilight took her drama patiently.

“Rainbow Dash was just trying to protect you and Spike,” Twilight tried to explain. “Rarity, that jewel mine was a great find, but when you got involved with that jerk Sparkle Eye, who wanted to cheat you out of everything you found, Rainbow couldn’t stand for that. That’s why she destroyed the mine, and fought Sparkle and drove him out of Equestria.”

“I invested everything into that mine,” Rarity snapped, facing her back door. She stomped a hoof as she spoke. “She almost killed Spike, the...the fool! Why didn’t she check the mine, find he was still in there, just trying to earn me a little more profit...because he loves me?”

Twilight trotted up to Rarity’s side, head low as she tried to meet the unicorn’s eyes again, but Rarity kept them closed.

“Rainbow Dash wanted what was best for you...but she didn’t want a thug pushing you around and taking that mine and using the bits he would have gotten out of it to make you miserable,” Twilight argued. “He would have closed down your business, left you on the street. He wasn’t the pony for you, Rarity. He was a crook, a two-faced wild horse...she didn’t mean to hurt Spike.”

Twilight dared to press her muzzle against Rarity’s neck in a friendly gesture. The unicorn was tense, rock-still.

“At least you still have the boutique,” Twilight tried to amend. Rarity finally turned her own head and laid her cheek against Twilight’s neck. The alicorn Princess felt tears dampen her fur.

“I’m...I’m trying to forgive Rainbow Dash, the poor dear,” Rarity said. “She didn’t deserve the death the winds gave her that day. It’s all so sudden for me, Twilight. I just need more time.” She pulled away, bucking her head back and giving Twilight a small smile. “Of course I’ll look after the others. We’ll wait for you to come back...maybe I can persuade Pinkie Pie to give you a ‘welcome home’ party, hm?”

“I don’t think it’ll be hard to persuade her,” Twilight laughed. She gestured with a wing. “C’mon, Rarity, I’ll buy you a mug of cider.”

“Well, if you insist,” Rarity said with a wink, and together they left the yard and headed on over to Sugarcube Corner.

Chapter 4: Him

Celestia's breath steamed as she led her small family to the tower. She had lowered the sun and sent him on his way across the other side of the world, and Luna had begun the flight of her charge the moon into the winter sky. Twilight reigned, and the morning was yet to come.

That day had been full of celebration for the New Year. She had attended court gatherings and parties, and had given her last words of wisdom and counsel to her head advisor, Icy Breath, who would steward Equestria in her absence. She had eaten her favorite chocolate-chocolate cake for the last time for months to come, and met in private with the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony for some light chat and loving farewells.

When the sun set, the Princesses went to their own chambers and donned their traveling gear. Celestia and Luna provided Twilight with armored knee pads and a traveling horse blanket for the cold and hot days. Celestia gave Twilight horse-shoes with textured metal traction, similar to what the Princess of the sun and the others would wear. They had given her a list of what to bring, and what not to bring. Cadance had received similar instruction and gifts on her last Pilgrimage, and had kept them safe. When they were packed and fully dressed, they met in the main courtyard, and Celestia took them to the tower.

Celestia halted at the squat tower, and they continued to wait until the stars appeared in the sky. Celestia took a deep breath and absently called upon the sun's own aura to warm her, and she felt his power pulse throughout her veins. Twilight and Cadance stomped their hooves every so often, unused to remaining in the cold for so long. Celestia looked upon her family, smiling softly, and was grateful for their company.

She tilted her white head back, examining the constellations directly above Canterlot. She found a scattered formation of Brunhill the White Stallion, rearing towards the North Star, and turned to the door to draw him across the stone.

In solemn accord they filed up the stairs, hooves tapping against stone and echoing upward, leading them to the Forgetting Helms. Celestia and Luna came to either side of the box, while Cadance and Twilight stood back a pace, and the sisters crossed their horns with a soft tap. Celestia felt the power of sun and moon dance across their heads, felt the force of her sister's love and her own intertwine in a magical harmony.

There were no words for the ceremony; the Princesses of sun and moon lifted their horns, and Celestia undid the lock on the chest. Each Princess lifted their respective helm with their aura and fitted it onto their heads. Celestia let the golden helm settle behind her ears, and sound became amplified ten times over. She felt something akin to static dance across her facial fur, and she gazed through the curved openings at her family.

Luna's eyes flashed bright white once as she acknowledged the magical power of her meteorite helm, as did Cadance's and Twilight's. Celestia tossed her head once, technicolored mane flying, glad to be wearing the pilgrim's helm again.

Celestia checked each of the other alicorns, touching their muzzles and greeting their horns with her own, and when she felt they were ready, she trotted down the stairs and galloped from the tower. The others thundered after her. Celestia wound through the streets, up and down ramps and stairs, navigating Canterlot with all the skill of a tracker. She knew the city like the back of her hoof. They ignored any ponies still on the streets, who could only stare at the alicorns that appeared as strangers to them. Celestia snorted as she spotted a launch platform reserved for airships, with two security ponies keeping watch.

Celestia didn't stop for them. She whipped past them, followed by blue, pink, and purple blurs. The security ponies cried out as she spread her wings, the feathers fluttering in chill night air. They didn't recognize the Princesses, of course. The magic of the helms cast a veil over their minds on sight, and all they saw were four alicorn mares of unknown origin. Celestia felt her hooves slam against the edge of the platform, and she pushed off. Moonlight glanced off her alabaster pinions and her helm. A bright sheen glared across her horn before she fell into the air and swooped to the west.

Air roared around the other alicorns in her wake, and they formed a diamond formation in the air.

"Princess," Twilight called as she took up the right side of the diamond. Cadance moved to the left, and Luna took the rear. "Where are we stopping first?"

"You will learn the name of each place as we arrive," Celestia replied patiently. She looked up at the stars, marking the exact path they would need to go. "It will take us a few days flight to reach the first marker."

Celestia drew her eyes downward and sighed. Below her was her beloved Equestria, each and every pony living in it known by name to her, for such was one of her gifts. Just as every sun's ray touched the face of every pony in the daytime, so did she see them in her mind's eye, and she loved them all. They passed over grasslands, rounding the flanks of the mountains, until Canterlot and its companion cities and villages were hidden in their vale. Celestia breathed in the scents rising from the earth and its inhabitants and loved it all.

They flew most the night without stopping. Their immortal bodies endured the frosty wind and mists they passed through without complaint. Celestia could hardly feel any cold, so used to it she had become. Each pony took turns in the lead position to break the wind for the others, with Luna last.

Celestia sensed a disturbance of feeling in their group, and glanced back at Cadance. Cadnce had been wide-eyed and trembling for the last three hours, although whenever someone looked directly at her she shook her head and forced her body to be still.

"Cadance, are you well?" Celestia inquired softly. Her niece shook her head habitually and flapped her wings back into a steady glide.

"I'm...worried, Celeste," Cadance whispered. "What if...he shows up?"

A flash of black and burning white eyes trampled across Celestia's inner eye, and she shivered and bowed her head sadly.

"I surely expect him to cross paths with us."

Cadance began to shake again, and Celestia worried she would get frozen-wing from shock and growing fear if they stayed up for much longer.

"Luna, let's find a spot to rest before I raise the sun once more," Celestia called. Luna nodded, and all alicorns set to searching the ground as they slowly descended.

Cadance was the first to land, and she shook herself with a low whinny when she came to a halt in the trees. She laid her ears back into her helm and didn't meet any eyes. Cadance closed her eyes, trying not to remember the darkness in her first Pilgrimage, but she did anyway.

"Alicorn blood seems to be running thin this generation..."

"Cadance?"

She turned to Twilight Sparkle, who cocked her head and shuffled her wings. Her good friend, now her little sister through her husband Shining Armor, came and stood at the pink alicorn's shoulder, snow crunching under her hooves.

"I'll be fine," Cadance told her, hoping it was true.

"Maybe we can brew up some tea before sunrise," Twilight suggested. "My body can stand the cold, but having something warm in the belly doesn't hurt either!"

Twilight went to go gather firewood, using her aura to draw out a notebook and quill from her bags. She planned on taking many notes of the places they passed and stopped at. Cadance forced herself to relax, lifting a hoof, breathing in, and pushing it out with the used air, and then turned to the elder Princesses.

Celestia and Luna were talking quietly to one another, silhouetted against the setting moon. Luna stomped her front left hoof and looked at the gazing Cadance, eyes glowing.

Cadance hated standing alone, and so moved to join them. Luna lowered her horn slightly to brush Cadance's horn for reassurance, and the pink alicorn took it gratefully. Luna was quiet, sometimes harsh, but she held just as much love for Cadance as Celestia and Twilight despite the relatively short amount of time they had known each other.

"Do you wish us to speak of this thing before sunrise, child?" Luna inquired. Cadance sighed and tilted her head down once. Celestia rested a hoof across Cadance's withers, and then all three came to the fire pit Twilight was busy digging up with her hooves.

Twilight moved over rocks with her aura, smiling as she placed them in a perfect circle. Cadance watched her shoot a magenta-pink spark from her horn, setting the thick logs inside the circle ablaze. The alicorns began to remove their helms and set them close by, melt snow for a place to lay down, and to pull out food-stuffs from their bags.

"Twilight Sparkle," Celestia began. "Before we continue on our journey, we have something of great importance to discuss."

All eyes turned to the white Princess.

"While on Pilgrimage, there is possibility of a great danger that threatened us when Cadance first went on Pilgrimage, over two hundred years ago," Celestia went on, melting some water and putting it into her metal kettle and waiting for the flames to burn to some embers. "There are many alicorns besides us that go on Pilgrimage, and we will no doubt cross paths with them. They are ones who mastered new and powerful magics, just as we have. As you know, Twilight, a new magic is also called an aspect, something that exceeds normal, although brilliant, talent. There are many aspects that have been discovered by these alicorns, and more yet to come.

"There was one alicorn Prince, part of the third generation of alicorns, created in the three thousandth year after the Mighty Ones changed, who mastered the aspect of electricity. He was one of a kind, an earth pony who learned to command lightning and power machines. Such magic in an earth pony was unheard of among ponykind, and is a mysterious and rare talent among them even to this day. This new magic enabled him to become an alicorn in the Way, just as you did, Twilight."

Cadance seemed to be drawn away as Celestia spoke, drawn into the flames of their little campfire, a portal into memory.

The streets were gloomy, with only the electric lamps to light the rainy path. Some windows were lit, with shadows moving in them. Cadance walked slowly, using her aura to keep the directions floating before her dry.

"Where is it?" she wondered under her breath, searching the signs hanging above various doors passing by.

The lights flickered. Cadance stopped, turning her ears and lashing her tail once. Water dribbled down her horn. The lamps simultaneously exploded. Lights in all the houses and inns suddenly went out.

"What was his name?" Twilight inquired. Cadance blinked her wide eyes at the flames.

"He calls himself Black Thunder," Luna said, picking up on the story in her alto voice. "He was well-named. Lightning and thunder are his realm. He would use lightning to clean the air in storms, and was able to control his aspect to such a degree that he could turn machines on and off within a three-hundred mile radius with just a thought and a spark of his aura."

Some calls broke out through the rainy air as ponies came onto the road to investigate, huddling under coats and umbrellas. The street patrols stood under the lamp poles in question, and a few tapped the poles with their hooves. No one had seen lightning hit them. A couple of ponies wheeled out a generator, taking it down the road to the electric plant to get it running again.

Cadance stayed where she was, summoning more magic to create a ball of light on the tip of her horn. She squinted as she saw another sphere of light drifting through the air towards her. It wove back and forth, its body crackling silently with white and blue energy.

It halted in front of her and exploded in a bright flash. She shrieked and fell back, quickly flaring her wings so she didn't roll on them. She heard metal groaning as it was ripped apart, followed by a wave of heat and the sound of clicking hooves. She blinked away the yellow dots floating across her vision, eyes darting behind her Forgetting Helm. She finally met a black face with glowing white eyes.

"Hello, alicorn."

"They had such machines back in that day..." Twilight pondered, tapping a hoof against her chin. Her head jerked up. "You mean he's still alive? Will we meet him? I would love to ask some questions concerning voltage levels in the engine of the ---"

"You don't want to meet him, Twilight," Cadance finally spoke, her voice almost squeaking. Twilight twitched her ears back, looking between the other Princesses.

"She is right, unfortunately," Celestia sighed. "Black Thunder became obsessed with his new power. He used it for good at first, but he let temptation get the better of him, and he began to harass ponies by lighting houses on fire, breaking important machinery, and destroying technology lost even to this day. His storms would last abnormally long, and no pegasi in the world could control them and fight them lest they were electrocuted.

"Then he did the unthinkable for a Prince. He began to use lightning to murder his own subjects. No one really knows why; he had been consumed by his own greed, he had a vendetta...anything is possible. He never said why. He was just so angry.

"His little ponies tried to fight back, but they lost quickly. He laid his entire kingdom to ruin. He didn't stop there. He sought out other kingdoms, sought out their Princes and Princesses, all to kill them and destroy what they had built."

"Not the ponies?" Twilight demanded, now gone rigid.

"A kingdom's greatest strength is their alicorn Prince or Princess, if they have one," Cadance said, feeling emotionally exhausted. She just wanted to sleep and forget the troubles of the past. "If he could kill their leader, the kingdom would fall apart. He had no real need to kill their subjects."

"The Mighty Ones, the first alicorns, flew against Black Thunder," Luna canted, waving a hoof in emphasis. "They fought him. He pretended to lose and begged forgiveness from the Mighty Ones, who stayed their hooves against his life. He took the opportunity in their dropped guard to attack, calling all the lightning he could muster upon them, and he slew them. The Old Ones --- gods, some call them --- brought the Mighty Ones into the Way upon their deaths, forever immortal and never to die again, it is said. Then they punished Black Thunder. He was cursed to forever wander the world, never to settle or find a home, and he would forever be alone. No friend or mate would he ever keep. He had betrayed the Old One's gift to him, to be an alicorn, and thus justice had to be satisfied."

"He is still out there?" Twilight asked, turning her gaze to the moon. The Princesses nodded.

"He preys on alicorn Pligrims," Celestia concluded. "Even cursed, he is still a killer...we must always stay together, no matter what."

"But if he could kill the Mighty Ones, then why not us?" Twilight said, voice trembling. She lifted her notebook and quill, but Luna's aura glowed and gently set them back down. Twilight looked at Luna with a grimace.

"His curse cost him some power. Though dangerous, lethal, even, more than one alicorn can drive him away. We will be safe, as long as we stay together."

The black stallion was nearly impossible to discern. His coat was like obsidian, turning him into a sort of ghost in the rain. Ponies screamed and ran away from his violent appearance, but he only reserved his attention for Cadance.

"You are the only one of this generation?" he questioned, his voice sliding like a snake's. He grunted and stomped a hoof near her shoulder, making her cringe. He bowed his head and snorted snot and steam into her face. "It seems alicorn blood is running thin this generation..."

A roar echoed down the street, and a blast of searing orange-white energy hit the black stallion in the flank. He coughed at his new wound and raised a shield, deflecting the fiery power as the Princess of the sun leaped into sight. He turned and met her horn with his. Their powerful horns grated with a shower of sparks.

Cadance climbed to her feet, knowing she had to do something. She called upon her aspect, the magic of love, and gathered it into her aura. As Celestia and the alicorn stallion sparred, she sidled and trampled side to side, trying to get a clear shot. The older alicorns circled and reared, lunging at one another. At last Celestia shoved him onto his back, and Cadance cried out as a beam of her own light blue energy rocketed at him. It enveloped him in a bubble. He shouted and flailed his legs, getting onto his hooves and shaking himself madly. He was trying not to feel the warmth and comfort in that spell, a spell Cadance was hoping would calm him down.

Instead his horn glowed bright white, shattering the young alicorn's spell, and he swooped out of sight into the rain. Cadance breathed hard, tears falling from her eyes. Celestia limped to her adopted niece and spread her wing over her. She murmured words of comfort to Cadance the alicorn of love couldn't remember now. She only saw that monster's eyes and his terrible smile.

Chapter 5: The Idea of Freedom

Heading west and veering the slightest south, the chill air warmed under Twilight's wings. They were nearing the border of Equestria, where towns and even farming fields were scarce. Here the realm of the sun and moon touched its neighbor Saddle Arabia, a country of desert and mystery Twilight had only visited once.

She quietly made notes in her composition book as she flew in rear position, using her magic to keep pages from fluttering every which way. She didn't write any of the story of Black Thunder, forbidden as it was, but only of her observations of the landscape. It allowed her to do some thinking, as well as keep an eye on the passing countryside.

Twilight felt something brush against her right wing, and realized that Luna was angling into rear position while Cadance took lead. The lavender unicorn tilted to left position and tucked her stationery inside her saddlebag.

"More writing, Twilight Sparkle?" the Princess of the moon inquired softly as she fell into rear position.

"I was also mapping," Twilight explained. "I've never flown over this particular area before."

"This was once the realm of a tyrant," Luna suddenly said. She pounded her indigo wings once to ride closer to Twilight's haunch and not have to yell over the wind. "Much of Saddle Arabia used to be ruled by a king pony who only had eyes for jewels. This country is rich in stone and metal, and has yet to be mined completely...but this pony enslaved his people, used them for his own ends."

"Not so different from King Sombra, then," Twilight hummed. As much happiness she had found in life, she was learning more and more of how dark the world's history had been, and she wondered just what she had gotten herself into.

"But such ponies never stand for long," Luna said. "Evil, chaos, darkness...they are always defeated by harmony."

Twilight thought about that for a moment, and was about to ask a question when she spotted another pony flying in the distance, to the right and in front of their position. They were headed in a direction that would cause the group to cross paths with the pony. Twilight suddenly had a horrible muse that the stranger could be Black Thunder, but as she squinted at the other pony, she saw that the pony was not black, but rather dark red.

"Ah, it is Gem Twinkle," Celestia noted with a smile. She broke out of formation and glided towards the stranger, and Cadance wavered in the air briefly before turning after her. Twilight shrugged and followed the other Princesses.

The stallion spotted them and leaned over to greet them in the sky. Twilight gaped at him. His entire body shimmered as if it were made of carefully layered garnets, flashing with a fiery hue in the sunlight. His mane stood up and was made of white crystals, as were the feathers of his wings, and his tail flowed behind him and sparkled like golden dust. Rising a foot and a half from his brow was his horn, as crystalline as the rest of him. A cutie mark of a burst of bright yellow and purple crystals decorated his haunches. His eyes were sapphire in color, and were gentle upon his fellow alicorns.

"Fellow pilgrims, I see," Gem Twinkle said, his voice a caressing whisper that still managed to carry strong to Twilight's ears. "But your magic blocks me from seeing who you are. Will you kindly remove the masks?"

Celestia used her aura to do so, and her complete trust in Gem persuaded the Twilight and the other Princesses to remove theirs. He brushed his wingtip against Celestia's.

"It is very, very good to see you again, Princess," he smiled. "I heard that one of the Princesses had a run-in with the Terrible One at the last Pilgrimage, and I feared that perhaps it was you."

"It was I, and my niece, Cadance," Celestia explained. Gem Twinkle curved his muscular neck to take a look at the pink alicorn. "We drove him away, though."

Gem Twinkle grunted, and his eyes fastened upon Luna. The Princess of the night returned his gaze evenly, staying a polite distance away. Twilight feared that he held animosity towards Luna because of her role as Nightmare Moon, but she could not say for certain.

"It is good to see the moon's master back on the wing," Gem finally said. His sincerity touched Twilight to the heart, and her curiosity began to pique.

"Who are you?" she asked. He laughed, ducking under the ponies and curving back up to Twilight's side. He exuded an aroma of cider and cinnamon.

"I am Gem Twinkle, Prince of the purest of rocks and stones, the most beautiful the earth beneath has to offer to ponykind," he explained with no boastfulness in his voice. He spoke of it simply as it was; Twilight was amazed at how these older alicorns were so sure of their identities, and it inspired her to learn more of herself. "I am the one who showed ponykind the magic of crystal and gem...one of my daughters used this magic to form a beautiful empire before I had to take my leave far to the south."

"The Crystal Empire?" Cadance gasped.

"The very same, Princess...I understand you rule in wisdom and love, as it should be." She lowered her head to him, and he turned to Twilight. "I am eager to learn of you...ah....?"

"Twilight Sparkle, Princess of friendship and magic."

The alicorns drifted into a draft of rising warm air, and began to circle in it. Cadance stayed near Gem and Twilight while the alicorn sisters turned below, their Forgetting Helms now resting in their bags.

"The very first of your generation," he observed. Twilight twitched her ears. "Just as Princess Cadance was the first of hers...and the last, unfortunately."

Here he nodded respectfully to Cadance, and she gestured with a hoof. Gem Twinkle grunted again.

"I keep hearing 'generation'," Twilight told him, ready to ask him a question, but he already sensed it.

"The generations are of alicorns, Twilight Sparkle," Gem explained. "A generation is made up of the number of alicorns created in a thousand-year period, blessed in the Way through spirit and the magic of the Mighty Ones and the Old Ones...you remember the Way?"

Twilight smiled.

"Like it was yesterday, sir."

"Please, Gem will be fine," he chuckled. He pulled away momentarily to barrel roll through the air. Celestia and Luna glanced at each other, and then dove after him with a chorus of laughter. Cadance and Twilight remained in the thermal, and Twilight watched in amazement as the three alicorns played, performing swooping and tight maneuvers through the air. Eventually Luna caught up to Gem, who gave her a loving horn-tap, and she laughed again.

"So which generation am I in?" Twilight wondered. Cadance took a deep breath, looking content.

"You're the eighth generation," Cadance explained.

The three alicorns now flew in line, moving in accord whenever they dove, shifting formation when they spiraled up or down, and finally breaking apart. The older alicorns rejoined Cadance and Twilight in the thermal.

"I must take my leave; my people await me in South Mareica," he explained. He exchanged horn taps with the mares, and before he went to turn out of the thermal, he snorted out a cloud of golden dust and met each of their eyes. "Black Thunder is also on the wing. Careful of him, and use the helms...until we meet again, my sisters."

Twilight watched with some remorse as Gem arrowed to the south.

"He must have completed Pilgrimage," Twilight said, "if he's already going home."

"Not exactly," Celestia explained, fitting her helm back on her head. "He will go on Pilgrimage later in the year, as he always does." The other ponies drew out their Forgetting Helms. "He must have had business in the north."

Luna gazed after Gem Twinkle, glanced at Celestia, and then her head hung low as they continued their journey west.

Across the mix of sand and desert brush, brown hills jutted into the late evening sky. Celestia led them down to a well-worn path. Twilight trotted as she landed, shuffling her aching wings closed. She yanked at a tuft of nearby grass to stave of the edge of hunger coming to her belly. Celestia observed the path, smelling some hoof marks imprinted into the dust. Luna was already walking towards the hills, with Cadance close behind.

Twilight watched her mentor closely. She knew it best to follow the lead of these ponies, rather than head out on her own for curiosity's sake. Celestia nibbled at a spot of unusually green grass, and she nickered happily

"Let's go, Twilight," she said gently, holding a wing out towards her. "We're safe here."

She trotted after her sister. Twilight smiled, liking how the Princess of Equestria broke out of her royal mold when she was away from all the formality and etiquette of Canterlot.

Twilight cantered after her, and all four broke into a graceful stride, stretching their legs. Twilight loved the firmness of the earth beneath, bearing her as she glided across it on her hooves. It brought back memories before she had wings, when she depended on her legs to get her just about everywhere; it was like having an old friend carry her.

The hills were falling into shadow as the sun touched the horizon. Twilight saw how the trail wended up into a narrow canyon. An arching gate of white stone marked the entrance into the canyon, carved with ancient pony runes. The alicorns halted at the gate. They watched as Celestia closed her eyes, her aura glowing upon her horn, and she stood still as she controlled the descent of her burning sun. Luna faced the opposite direction, her aura also flickering into existence. Twilight and Cadance hummed in pleasure as the sun sank below the western horizon and the moon peeked over the eastern horizon.

The sisters released their spells simultaneously and solemnly passed beneath the gate. Cadance and Twilight followed side-by-side, pressing their inner wings together as darkness embraced them completely. They heard a crackle, and a small flame danced at the tip of Celestia's horn and created an orb of light about them.

Twilight stomped a hoof as she stopped and stared at the canyon walls. The small light of the Celestia's horn sent a cascade of metallic colors across many archaic paintings and carvings along the rocks. Twilight saw unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, as well as many other creatures like birds, griffins, and minotaurs. Many of the pictures had a depiction of the sun above them as the creatures flew, ate, showed friendship and love, danced, and fought. Common among the engravings were a dark blue pegasus and a tan unicorn, sometimes separate, but most often together.

"I don't see the moon at all," Twilight whispered. "Nothing during the night."

"This place, this side of the world, use to be just the realm of the sun," Celestia explained. She turned her head sideways to simper at Twilight and Cadance. "The sun and the moon didn't used to move across the sky when the Mighty Ones came here."

The implication sent a tremor through her. One side of the world only light, the other only moonlit...until two very special ponies arrived and learned celestial aspects that forever changed the lives and history of ponykind. The sobering revelation gave Twilight even more respect for Celestia and Luna, and the Pilgrimage became not just a spiritual journey, but a very educational one; she found herself learning more than she had ever imagined she could know about her own kind. Twilight began to plod with the others once more, head hanging partway down.

Twilight looked at Cadance. If the moon and sun didn't used to move, did that mean there didn't used to be love? No, that couldn't be right; the murals proved that ponies had always had love in the world. It had just taken another pony to tame that aspect, tap into its magical potential, and use it to benefit multitudes in the horrible face of evil.

The line of thought made Twilight think about herself and what she had done. She had mastered the aspect of friendship, and that had become a literal power to defeat mighty foes...now that one of her friends was dead, did that mean that power would fade, or that it had totally disappeared? Twilight swallowed. Was she really the Princess of friendship, if she could not prevent the deaths of her friends?

Twilight was so swallowed up with this terrible muse that she didn't even notice the murals end and the carefully placed blocks of granite begin until Cadance nudged her shoulder against her. The canyon walls had transitioned into what appeared to be pony-made walls; Twilight observed the architecture and pulled out her notebook, making a few sketches of the bricks. The cracks were hair-thin, with no mortar. She quickly put her book and quill away when Celestia doused her magic-induced light.

Their hooves suddenly clicked across more stone rather than dirt, their shoes scraping slightly. Twilight peered past the sisters and saw another arched entryway, except that it led into a cave that gave off a green glow. The group halted outside this entrance, and Twilight saw another pony inside the cave near a wall, chipping at it with their hoof.

"We must wait for this pilgrim to come out before we can go in," Celestia explained. "Within, we will learn of the Call of Destiny, where the Mighty Ones began a pilgrimage of their own to learn something special."

Am I still special? Twilight wondered, picking at the stone with a hoof. I let Rainbow die. What friend does that?

Her logic argued that when Rainbow Dash crashed into the ground, she couldn't have helped anyway, that she knew little of the healing arts. It still bothered her that her powers hadn't let her forsee it somehow, or that somepony hadn't warned her about what might happen, or---

"Twilight?" Cadance whispered. "You're shaking...what's wrong?"

"What?" Twilight blurted, stomping her hooves to adjust her body back to normal. "I...nothing to worry about."

The others looked at Twilight momentarily before the other pilgrim made their way towards the exit. They stepped into the light of the moon, head erect and ears perked forward as they gazed gently upon the little family. The pony was a wonderful grass green, fur, mane and all. Her mane and tail appeared entangled with flowers and branches and vines, and her wings looked as soft as grass. Her cutie mark was a white circle with a white star and a black star. From beneath her hooves, Twilight spotted grass and flower buds growing from the solid stone, stopping at her knees as she stood observing them.

"Pilgrims," she acknowledged. "Be safe and well."

Celestia and Luna lowered her heads to the alicorn and bowed their knees, their manes dancing across the ground. Cadance and Twilight looked on in wonder. The stranger's shocking water-blue eyes turned upon Twilight.

"You have lost life, and you still have not let go," she said. It was not condescending or judgmental. There was understanding in that strong, vibrant voice. Twilight felt calm enter her, similar to when she met Gem Twinkle, and for some reason she was not surprised that this alicorn could read her thoughts and feelings. "Know this, you that have entered the Pilgrimage: life does not end here."

She walked past them, and with every step of her hoof, plants sprang into existence, and a smell of mist trailed in her wake. Twilight watched her disappear behind the canyon bend, and she let out a breath she had been holding in.

"What a great honor, sister," Luna breathed. "I have only met her once before."

"I believe we will have the further honor of meeting her again on this Pilgrimage," Celestia agreed, also looking upon the canyon turn. "She has just begun."

"Who was that?" Cadance gasped, apparently as awestruck as Twilight. Twilight felt all at once ashamed and delighted about what the green alicorn had said, and could not speak at the moment.

"That was Greenmane, daughter of the Sunlit Plains, Princess of life, of the first generation and student of the Mighty Ones," Luna canted. She paused. "The only one Black Thunder will not attack."

"With the aspect of life in her hooves, she could take life away from him with a blink of her eye," Celestia added. "Though she gives it more than takes, and only takes away that which creates disharmony."

"It is good to be her friend, and not her enemy," Luna finished. She tossed her head towards the entrance. "Shall we?"

Their steps echoed against the cave walls as they spread out, eyes taking in the multitudes of small, opaque stones jutting out of the walls. Twilight turned around once, her dusk-colored mane and tail twirling, and her eyes landed on a pedestal at the center of the cave. She sensed a strong energy surrounding the pedestal. She approached the pedestal and saw that the top of it was flat, with a mirror as large as a dinner platter embedded into the stone. The other alicorns stood on either side of her. Celestia tapped her horn against the mirror, and their reflections rippled and turned into different colors.

Twilight looked deep into the mirror as she saw the face of a pegasus stallion. His coat was as dark as Luna's, a beautiful night blue, and his eyes were pale. His mane stood up in a crest of white, his tail flowing behind him like snow. His cutie mark depicted a stratus cloud, with swirls of wind about it. She saw him enter a kingdom full of buildings belching smoke, with ponies hoof-cuffed as they tried to work stone and metal. They thirsted, they hungered, they cringed under a tyrant pegasus who wanted more and more, and used his massive army of armored pegasi to control the ponies.

The blue pegasus saw this. Twilight watched him fly over the kingdom, watched him look upon the suffering ponies, and knew he couldn't understand the full extent of their pain. But he wanted to understand, and he wanted to stop it. Twilight examined the mirror closely, but didn't see the tan unicorn the canyon murals had depicted.

"Where is she?" she wondered, her breath fogging the mirror briefly.

No one answered. The blue pegasus turned into the hills, although they had been larger then, and covered in trees. He entered the cave, where he found three ponies laboring to mine the green stone from the ground. He demanded of them the name of the pony king who had created this foul, polluted kingdom. They told him, and they told of their daily struggles, and of the loved ones they had lost either to starvation or to the hooves of the king's army.

The blue stallion declared that no king or queen should act that way, and he broke the bonds of the ponies with a stomp of his powerful hooves. He warned them to flee. In gratitude, they hung about his neck a chain with a pendant of the green stone.

"Turquoise," Cadance said reverently. "The stone of freedom."

Twilight understood from that day on, the blue pegasus would do anything to ruin the kingdom and free the ponies there in what would become Saddle Arabia. But he was also wise, and knew he didn't have the power or knowledge to combat such an evil, and not on his own.

He had been alone, then, and it panged Twilight's heart. He had needed friends, just as she did. The blue stallion left the kingdom behind.

Twilight thought the mirror-vision was over, until she saw the tan unicorn now trek into the hills. Her emaciated body bore a crimson mane and tail streaked with a band of silver, and her eyes were blue. Upon her bony hips was a simple depiction of four rain drops. She was not a free pony like the pegasus, though. She was shackled, and a worn, dented copper ring encircled her horn in a tight grip. Twilight knew that as long as a unicorn's horn touched copper, the unicorn could not spell-cast. The alicorns watched as this unicorn took her turn to mine in the cave.

While in the cave, she explained to her comrades a daring escape plan, for they didn't have any drivers to watch over them. They warned her and begged her not to go, but she fled into the hills, hoof-shackled as she was. By some miracle, none of the pegasus soldiers were able to catch her, and she vanished into the desert. Her intentions had been less clear to Twilight, and after some pondering, she understood that at the time, the unicorn had simply wanted freedom.

The mirror returned to their reflections. Twilight blinked rapidly as her nose tingled violently. She sneezed, backing away from the pedestal. She sneezed again and rubbed her nose with her leg. She shook her head, taking short breaths, and sneezed one last time. She grunted in exasperation. Luna tapped a hoof against her chin, staring at Twilight.

"A reaction to the mirror," Luna observed stoically. "Everypony is different the first time they look into a memory mirror."

"I fainted," Cadance admitted.

"I couldn't see for three days," Celestia hummed calmly.

"I couldn't walk for three days," Luna muttered. "I learned that having a blind pony and a crippled pony together, out here where it was rocky and unkempt, was not a good combination."

The alicorns went silent briefly, and then broke into soft laughter. The cave made their laughs bounce back and forth until it seemed the cave was full of ponies.

"What...what were their names?" Twilight asked, catching her breath and daring to take a look at the mirror. She didn't feel her nose itch this time.

"The pegasus was Bluewind," Celestia said, looking in the mirror with Twilight. "The unicorn was Raindrop. Bluewind's special talent was using massive amounts of wind to control weather systems, without the help of other pegasi....Raindrop could summon rain, even when there were no clouds. She could take moisture right out of the air and make it fall...the king of this lost city knew that this could give her a following of thirsty ponies, and so bound her magic, as you saw."

"Bluewind and Raindrop," Twilight told herself. "These are the Mighty Ones."

"Now, we must take a piece of turquoise, and be on our way," Luna informed them. Celestia nuzzled her sister, and together they approached a wall. Twilight jammed her hoof against a line of turquoise, scattering pieces of the sacred stone across the floor. She chose the largest piece and looked at its green-blue surface.

Freedom, Twilight whispered to herself, tucking the stone gently into a compartment in her saddle bag. Freedom was as flying, and she again thought of Rainbow Dash. Life didn't end here? Twilight decided to keep the words to herself, and hoped to find answers about Greenmane's counsel as they filed out of the cave and into the night. Even as last in line, she didn't take note of a dash of blue standing by the cave entrance that flitted away and vanished completely.

Prologue

Before her was a great edifice of white stone, white as snow in the hot black and yellow desert sands that tried again and again to climb up the walls. The pristine structure bore upon its face two alicorns rampant, their wings flared, front hooves reared, their horns crossing over each other to complement the arched doorway that led into a dark chamber. The princess peered into the depths of the archway and saw in there a small flame, flickering rebelliously against the constant desert wind howling about the temple.

It seemed as if she zoomed in to the flame, diving into its dancing form. A powerful magic was there. Powerful energy, as ancient as the world itself. The alicorn felt the energy radiating from the cistern of flame as her mind's eye entered it, as if she had entered a completely different temple, and she saw again the alicorns rampant, but they were alive. A stallion and mare in their eternal glory. Around them circled the twenty sacred constellations of Equestria, and from the bosom of each shone a great and mighty star. The alicorns sang. Their voices rung out of the flame and back into the alicorn mare who still stood without, her mind's eye returned to her body.

The song reverberated through her body and stretched across the desert and through the hazy blue sky. It echoed to the sun, whose deep, familiar tune reached back to the Mighty Ones in the temple. The alicorn listened to the sun and to the Mighty Ones, closing her eyes and standing calmly in the howling, scratching wind of the desert.

I can hear you sing, she thought out to Them. You make the sun and sky to sing because of the great deeds thou hast done. I am a great part of that legacy...your legacy, Mighty Ones. May the Old Ones bless you.

Still they sung, a wordless, wonderful tune that carried her spirit softly to soothing warmth and stillness. Though they spoke nothing, they told her one thing: the time of Pilgrimage was at hand. She knew it was time to bear their legacy onward to the new generation. The hundred years had passed. It was the next generation's turn to rise.

The alicorn mare's vision darkened, and when she opened her eyes, gone was the wind and searing desert heat. Came then her round chamber, with her soft bed about her, her many shelves of books and scrolls, her writing desk and quills. Night still enveloped Equestria, with Luna's full moon risen to guard the sleeping ponies. Celestia gazed at the silvery orb out her bedroom window, stretching her wings meanwhile, before she folded her pinions and laid her head back down for more rest. Even as she closed her eyes, she kept her ears up and alert, and could almost hear the sun singing on the other side of the world, beckoning her to the temple, beckoning her to the eternal flame that bore the knowledge of the Mighty Ones