Pilgrimage

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.