Black

By the time Winter landed in the gardens, the clouds had broken and the sun was beginning to set. During her flight, the scene had stabilized. The castle was still belching mottled smoke, but no less of it had been standing than when she'd last seen it on the news. There was a military cordon around most of the area – one which she had ignored, or perhaps which had ignored her. All sorts of uniformed fliers plied the air but didn't try to stop her approach.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack were literally the only ones inside that cordon and not inside the castle itself. They ran up to Winter as she dismissed her wings.

"It's all gone to hell!" the athlete greeted. "Listen, I know this looks really bad, but could you-"

Winter cut her off. "Not kill Twilight?"

Applejack nodded gravely. "Please. She's emotional right now is all." They looked back at the tower that had fallen down. "Shoot, Princess Celestia probably has everything under control right now. W-we can fix this." A rumbling noise reached their ears – apparently a little more of the structure collapsed. "And that. Whatever that was."

"I can't promise anything." She stalked off toward the nearest door, but only got a few steps before Rainbow whistled for her attention.

"Please, man. Twilight's our friend...and so are you. Try to talk her out of it or something, okay?"

"Again, I can't promise anything." Winter turned and moved away. A thought made her hesitate. "Before I go, I've changed my name to Winter. What you called me previously was something I stole from someone else. Now you know the correct thing to put on my grave."

"It ain't gonna come ta that!" Applejack insisted harshly. "This is all just a big ass temper tantrum!"

The pale woman issued a sad smile. "Hm. I thought this day would never come, either, but here we are."

Entering the castle, she found no severe damage to speak of, although some of the paintings had detached from the walls. A window or two was missing panes as well, but otherwise everything seemed to be in place. There was one thing missing, however: people. Any people. As she prowled the halls looking for Twilight, it became apparent that she and the librarian seemed to be the only ones still occupying the building. Upon wandering by the ballroom, however, her magical alarm went off. It felt like dozens of people all squished together in one spot. Confused, she opened the door and looked in.

At the other end of the long room was a small pile of random objects of all sorts. There were hammers and watermelons and alarm clocks and stuffed animals and shoes all clumped together in a corner, and yet many of these things were emitting the magical spark. Winter crept over to them and picked up a pomegranate. "You're not supposed to be this, are you?" she asked it, holding the thing to her ear as if listening for a voice. It didn't speak, but she felt something strange. Like the buildings she had changed back after Trixie's rampage in Ponyville, these altered objects had a confused aura about them. Unlike the buildings, however, that aura was accompanied by faint, voice-like whispers which grew and faded in volume with the vividness of their magical sparks. "Oh, you're telling me how to change you back." Gently, she set the fruit down and moved away. "I'm sorry. I can't help you right now. Maybe I can convince Twilight to undo what she's done."

For several minutes she wandered about, trying to detect the librarian's unique signature. Despite assuming she was still in the castle somewhere, that sensation was nowhere to be found. "Why can't I feel her any longer?" At that moment she was passing by the ornate throne room doors. She pushed them open to check the area and found Twilight, eyes glowing, seated on the throne. Near the base of the steps leading up to her were two multi-colored eggs. One was pastel green and blue and pink and white with gold accents; the other indigo and black and blue with silver accents. Winter blinked at the sight before fully entering. "Twilight? What are you doing?"

The librarian tapped her blue fingernails on the armrest in perfect rhythm. "I knew you would come." She waved her free hand at the eggs on the floor and flashed a cruel grin. "I heard from Pinkie that you tried to kill yourself. It got me so mad I...well, I made Celestia tell me the truth. You see what happened after that. I can't figure out what to do with them. If you're here for revenge, I certainly don't blame you."

Winter tilted her head. "I came for you, actually."

Twilight sighed and rose from her seat. "Oh, is that how this is going to go?"

She strode along the red carpet with fingers clenched. "Half of me is here to fulfill my purpose. The other half is hoping you're strong enough to give me my death."

"Really?" Twilight fell into a peal of darkly-shaded laughter. Her wings spread as she sauntered down the steps to meet her challenger. "Not even the Princesses can escape my transmutation ability. What makes you think you have a-" A pale fist slammed into her jaw, deforming her cheek as she stumbled back. Like Winter, however, her power healed the injury with alarming speed. "Well, I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt until you broke my jaw. If you want to be put down so badly, Fuyu..."

"My name is Winter," she interjected, dropping into a ready stance. "Now shut up and fight me."

Twilight busted out laughing again. She snapped the fingers on her left hand and watched as Winter twisted and shrank into a decorative paperweight, then landed with a soft thud on the carpet. "No one on this planet can oppose me. That includes you." The final word barely escaped her lips before the pale woman suddenly unfurled from the item and stood up again. "Wh-wh...how did you undo my spell?!"

Winter flung two ropes of black and wrapped them around Twilight's throat, yanking her over closer. The momentum carried her right into another ready fist, which shattered her nose for thirty seconds before her innate magic repaired the damage. "Is this what the power of Princesses does to people? You sound just like Trixie did." she asked, grabbing the librarian by the hair and driving a knee into her stomach.

"Let me go!" Twilight used her augmented telekinesis to launch Winter away and into a column that cracked with the impact. "Fine. If you won't accept the mercy of becoming an object, I'll give you the death you seek!" Both hands lit up raspberry with the flames of her power. She cloaked the pale woman with magic and began to squeeze. "Enjoy eternity as a bloody paste!"

For the first time, Winter felt pain – genuine pain, as regular people knew it, burning and clouding her senses with agony. She could feel her bones beginning to crack as Twilight applied incredible force with her mind. A groan worked its way out before her throat was annihilated; the black goo simply couldn't keep up with the rate of injury she was experiencing. Slowly, her form became limp.

"That's it. Stop fighting. Let yourself go."

Before her eyes turned to jelly, the last thing she saw was the evil smile on Twilight's face, toothy and mocking.

This isn't my friend.

Her skull shattered around her brain, filling it with shards of bone. Consciousness ran away, leaving a black ring that encroached on the edge of her mind and eventually swallowed it whole. She wanted to say goodbye but had no mouth to do so. Her entire body was becoming nothing but a jumbled mess of flesh.

I can't even do the thing I was made for.

"Goodbye, Fuyu." Twilight squinted with concentration as she reached for the last bit of power needed to end her foe. She applied so much force that the black goo was now squirting from the pores of the pale woman's skin. After a moment she realized that her energy was sliding past the substance. "Wait...why can't I..." Growling, she focused her power against it instead of Winter. "Get off of her! Get off!" The magic soaked into it like a sponge. "No! Give it back!"

Like a conduit, the external gunk fed energy back into that which remained around Winter's spine and brain, trying to keep her alive. Her wounds began to heal as Twilight grew more concerned with trying to kill the goo instead of the woman who commanded it. In a minute her skeleton was fixed. In a minute more her muscles were reattached. In a third minute she could see again. The vision that greeted her was Twilight, snarling with rage.

"Die! Die!" she shrieked, emptying her magic into the goo, which continued to suck it up. That power, combined with what Winter already had, was like molten steel flowing through her veins. Every corner of her consciousness was lit by its blinding glow.

What is happening to me?

Once she had enough of her faculties back, she directed the goo outside her skin to reform itself. Her clothes fell away as the ebony wrapped itself around her arms and legs, forming a skintight suit that conformed to every crease and muscle in her body – even her individual fingers and toes. The process completed itself with a half-mask over her face that ended just below her nose. So clad, Twilight could no longer hold her. Winter sprouted wings to float herself back down to the floor.

"How?!" Twilight screamed, so hard her voice broke. Her eyes shone like the sun as she tried to latch on again. "Why can't I grip you?!"

She didn't reply, but her attire did. "We gave our lives for this armor," it said, speaking with a thousand voices that bounced all around the room. "All that remains of our former selves is the woman who bears our souls. We will die long before we allow her to."

"I can't even perish correctly," Winter whispered, dismissing her wings. While Twilight grunted and shrieked, trying to turn her into various objects, or pick her up and slam her into something, she walked closer. "Turn them back, Twilight. I don't want to hurt you."

The librarian would have none of it. "She lied to me! She wanted to murder me! She didn't mean anything she said!"

Every time Twilight unloaded magic on Winter, the armor soaked it up and added it to her own pool. "Did she tell you that herself?"

"She tried to lie to me again!" Twilight finally gave up and backed up a step. "Fuyu, listen to me. She made us suffer so much! Don't you want your vengeance?"

We suffered?

"How did we suffer?" Winter asked, an angry edge in her voice. Her brain was still tingling from the influx of magic; she was thinking in ways that were still unusual to her but somehow, suddenly, felt natural. "Explain. How did you suffer? Tell me."

Twilight continued to retreat in the face of the pale woman's inexorable approach. "Nothing she ever told me was true! She was secretly holding you over my head the whole time! She was going to kill me! She hated me! She hated me!"

An influx of rage flooded Winter's thoughts, but it was not wholly her own. Much of it came from the black goo and mixed with her own growing bitterness. A hand lashed out and grabbed Twilight by the collar, pulling her until they were literally nose to nose. "Hated you? Is that all? Is that what passes for anguish in your mind, you insufferable little brat?" she asked, backed by a veritable chorus of voices from her attire. Her fist slammed into Twilight's face again, but she only let go so the woman could fall to her knees. A foot to the chest put her on her back against the stone. "Thousands of people were crushed alive to give me this goo!" She straddled Twilight's chest and punched her in the nose again, so hard the granite began to yield under her skull. "Did you ever kill children? I did. I killed people that begged me for mercy. I killed people that did nothing wrong besides be in the same place as I was at the wrong time!"

Every statement, then every word, was punctuated with a vicious blow that pushed Twilight's head deeper into the rock. Despite her healing almost as fast as the punches fell, she couldn't get the pale woman off of her.

There was only anger in Winter's heart, and she vented it on the one being that could take her punishment. "Suffering is all I brought to anyone! Now you come whining to me about your so-called agony?" Repeated blows to the face sunk Twilight's skull until the tip of her nose was level with the floor. "What happened to all those nights in the library where you told me she was like your second mother? When you told me stories of the things she did for you? You call the love and adoration of someone else suffering?!"

Winter raised her fist again and only then noticed that the librarian's eyes were closed, and that blood was pouring from her nostrils. She healed after a few moments, but the process was much slower than when her battering had begun.

"Please...I'm sorry," she sputtered, sounding like herself again. "I'm sorry..."

The pale woman was still overcome with the emotion supplied by her armor, but she stayed her hand. "Celestia told me I would do what needs to be done," she said, getting to her feet. Her mask slid away, leaving her face uncovered. "But I don't want to." She lifted Twilight with magic and set her on the carpet. "Please change them back."

She sat up and clutched at her head, trying to regain her senses. Her eyes were still glowing, but dimly – at least until she began thinking about her mentor. "I can't. They have to pay for what they did."

Teeth clenched, Winter prepared herself to fight again. Before she could get too ready, an idea appeared that stilled her mind. Her stance softened with melancholy. "I endured more than you did. Let me do it."

Breath hitching, the librarian stumbled to her feet and looked at the Princess eggs. "Yes. Of course." She changed Celestia back, stabilizing her with telekinesis until she could stand on her own.

Confused, she looked between Winter, her preternatural suit, and Twilight several times. "I see the superfluid worked. Is it...is it over?" she breathed, staring into her student's glowing eyes.

Twilight displayed another dark smirk. "For you, it is. Go on, Fuyu. Extract your pound of flesh."

"What are you talking about?" She looked down slightly as Winter stood before her. "What is going on here?"

She took both of the Princess' hands and spoke lowly. "I'm sorry, but I have no other choice." A subtle nod over her shoulder at Twilight followed.

The tears began to flow as she nodded in return. "I understand. Do...do what you think is necessary." The librarian growled; anticipating an attack, her hands lit up with raspberry flames again.

"Yes. What is necessary." Her right hand withdrew; she placed that arm to her chest, sprouted a blade of curved ebony from her palm, and whipped it across Celestia's throat.

Winter moved backward to stand with Twilight and watch. A surprised scream came out as a loud, long gurgle while Celestia tried to use her magic to seal the wound, but Twilight continuously interfered to keep her blood flowing. Streams of crimson flecked with gold stained her white dress, and within a minute she dropped to her knees and toppled over.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Twilight asked, hand outstretched as she kept her mentor's wound open.

Considering everything that had happened to her, a tiny bit of Winter's psyche was quite pleased with the situation. "A little bit," she admitted, her eyes never straying from Celestia's death throes.

"Just a little? Feels great to me." The librarian's hand fell to her side just after the Princess drew her last breath. Her corpse lay in the center of a large red puddle, which gleamed weakly with the evening light from the windows. Neither of them spoke or moved until Twilight abruptly loosed a wail of grief. Winter glanced over. No longer were her eyes glowing, nor did glorious lavender wings hang from her shoulders. She ran to her mentor and dropped onto her body, shrieking with horror. "This isn't what I wanted! This isn't what I wanted at all!"

Winter stepped forth as the librarian jostled Celestia, screaming repeatedly at her to get up. "It worked."

"Wh-why did you kill her?" she demanded, her white blouse soaked with blood. "Why didn't you kill me? You were supposed to kill me!" She went back to trying to rouse the Princess. "Please, please, please get up. Please, I'm so sorry. Please..."

She walked past them and up the steps, taking a seat on the golden throne. "I killed her to show you what you had."

"What does that even mean?!" Twilight screamed, flopping onto the floor and crawling to the steps. "She loved me! She didn't deserve to die!"

"That's why it worked. Anger caused you to lose control; regret gave it back. I killed her because I didn't want to kill you."

She had made it up a few steps before Winter's words delivered their full effect. She fell onto her stomach, sobbing with shame. "It's all my fault. It's my fault she died. I can't...I can't..."

"We all have our regrettable moments." Twilight's misery finally punched through and brought tears to Winter's eyes. She rose and move down to hug her. "Listen to me. I would have done anything to save you. You're my friend. I only have six."

"I wish you hadn't," she whimpered, clinging to the pale woman as hard as she could. "My heart hurts...so much..."

"Yes, I know. Think of how much more it would be hurting if I'd done nothing and allowed you to kill Celestia instead." A heavy sob from the librarian confirmed her suspicions. "Now you know why. My shoulders are used to bearing pain. Yours aren't."

Comparing her own reasons for having exploded against what Winter said was only making Twilight feel worse. She managed to squeeze even tighter. "I...you went through so much more than I have and you've never lost your temper like I did. I'm so...I'm so ashamed."

She starting patting the librarian on the head. "Do you know why you reacted so powerfully? Grief has never touched you. I could see that the first time we met. I had to let it touch you to save you, but I didn't want you to get crushed. Its full weight should be mine to hold, not yours." The Luna egg caught her sight and drew a sigh. "The damage may be done, but there are things you can still fix. Twilight, you have to change everyone back."

The librarian broke the hug so violently that she nearly toppled backwards down the stairs. "Oh no! How many other people did I hurt?!"

Winter's strong hands kept her from falling. "As far as I know? None. You left them all in a pile in the ballroom."

"R-right. I remember now. I didn't want anyone to...I just felt so betrayed. I wanted to make Celestia pay." She pointed a finger at the egg. "Come back. Oh, how am I ever going to explain this to her? Her sister's dead!"

"Let me endure her wrath." Winter moved to stand, but Twilight forced her down.

"No. No, no, stop. Damn it, stop. I dug this hole for myself, and I'm going to face the consequences." As Luna returned to her proper form, Twilight got to her feet and went to meet her. "Luna? Luna. I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

"What...?" The young Princess looked at the body for a long while before the image actually became meaningful. "Sister!" she yelped, dropping down beside Celestia. "No! Why? What happened?!" She looked up at Winter on the steps. "Were you not able to stop her in time?"

"Yes, that's exactly what happened. I killed her. Fuyu didn't get here quickly enough." Twilight closed her eyes and awaited Luna's wrath. "I know what the punishment is. Let's not put the nation through a trial." When nothing happened, she let them open again. "Um...Princess Luna?"

"You are an awful liar." Winter and Luna were staring each other down, but hatred found no place on the visage of either. "You did what you had to? Is that what you're going to say to me?"

The pale woman was as unrelenting as the bitter cold that penetrated the air. "To save my friend, yes. I did."

Twilight literally threw herself at Luna and began to beg. "No! No! Fuyu's been through enough! Let her go! It's my fault she killed Celestia! If anyone's going to get punished it should be me!" She hung off her shoulders like a cloak and wept bitterly. "Please...I have to...to pay for what I've done." The familiarity of those words stung her in the heart until she could barely stand.

Luna turned just as Twilight began to fall and held her up. The look on her face was utterly inexplicable. "Any punishment I could conceive would fall far short of the pain you're putting yourself through now," she said lowly. "Are you happy? You got what you wanted."

Twilight shook her head viciously. "No. I may never be happy again. I've done something so awful I..." Her throat clenched and she broke down in tears again.

Winter and Luna shared another odd look before the latter gave Twilight a brief hug and spoke. "Welcome to our world. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to take my sister and...and..." Words failed; she ducked her head and skulked over to the corpse, lifting it into her arms with her magic. Twilight bowed deeply as the Princesses departed, showing respect the only way she knew how at that moment.

"Please forgive me," she whispered, unable to talk any louder. The following silence had a marked shift in undertone, but why remained a mystery to Twilight until Winter spoke again.

"Who am I supposed to ask for forgiveness?"

"Huh?" She looked back up at the pale woman and found her weeping again. "Fuyu..."

"My name is Winter," she said harshly. "All the people that died to make me who I am, the ones I destroyed to stay alive...where should I seek forgiveness for those? I don't know them. What am I supposed to do? Find out who their loved ones were and apologize?"

"Fu—Winter, no. Please don't hate yourself." Twilight's attempt to offer another hug was denied. "You've had the worst life ever, but you've handled it with such grace. I can't even fathom being in your shoes. You should be," she hesitated, fearing this was the wrong word, but went with it anyway, "proud."

Her fears seemed to be confirmed when she saw the hateful look in those icy eyes. But it quickly faded away, chased off by a sad smile. "You and the others have given me more misery than I could ever thrust upon you. Before I came to Ponyville, I didn't actually care about what I'd done. I'd burst into tears and then act like nothing happened. There was no connection." She raised a hand to stave off Twilight's regretful babbling. "No, wait. It's all right. You might have given me sadness, but you also gave me happiness."

"Yes." Twilight tried to smile as well, but couldn't. "But your past hurt you so badly that you tried to...you know. Why didn't you tell us you felt that way?"

"It only hit me after I spoke to Luna. The feeling was so sudden, I...I didn't think there was anything you all could do to help. Nobody knows what it's really like but me."

The librarian tackled Winter in an embrace. "Never think that way. You may be the only one of your kind, but you are not alone. We're here for you."

"Mm. As I said, we all have our regrettable moments." Winter picked up the smaller woman and made for the double doors. "Come on. There are people you need to save."

By the next morning, Winter and Twilight had repaired the damage to the castle and its occupants. The librarian had been released to the custody of her brother, who had arrived in the city overnight – by order of Luna, whom neither woman had seen since she carried her sister's body out of the throne room. Rainbow Dash and Applejack joined the siblings and the pale woman on a train back to Ponyville. It was the only place Twilight wanted to go.

Shining Armor poked at his little sister once they were seated. She had crawled into his lap and slumped against his chest. "You're getting a bit big for this, aren't you?" he joked. She looked up at him with hollow eyes. "I'm kidding. You don't have to move."

She groaned. "Good. I'm not going to."

"Mom and Dad said they were gonna meet us at the library. They're worried sick about you. I'm glad that old castle didn't get you hurt." His brow cocked at the strange looks Rainbow and Applejack – who also knew the truth – were tossing at each other. "Uh, you two all right?"

"Yeah," the athlete nodded. "Sure. No problems. Noooooo problems at all."

"Great. I'm glad you're all here with Twily. I've never seen her so upset. I wish Cadance were around, she could-" He looked down as Twilight choked back a sob. "Whoa! What's wrong?"

"This trip was supposed to be about Winter and I made it about myself. I'm the worst person ever," she droned, unable to look at anyone.

"Why? Not your fault the castle fell down." Unable able to figure out why his reassurances were making Twilight cry, he resorted to stroking her hair. "Now, now. It's fine. Everyone's okay. It's no big deal." He blinked when her crying got worse. "Am I missing something here?"

"Don't ask," Applejack said. "Just...don't ask. Please."

"Okay then. We'll save it for later." His attention finally went to Winter, seated across from him on the opposite bench and staring out the window. "Your Highness, I wanted to thank you for helping Twilight keep the rest of the castle stable. I have to admit, I was surprised to hear about another Princess, but Celestia sure seems to know how to pick them."

Her lips bent with faint disgust. "Yes, she certainly does."

"You should meet my wife sometime! Between you, Twily, and Cadance, we've got a little Adoptive Princesses club going!" Seeing that his cheerfulness had failed to break the ice, he frowned. "All right, look. I'm obviously lacking part of the story, but you girls don't have to feel like you need to hide anything from me. Twily's okay, everyone's fine, and that's all I care about." He pointed down at his uniform. "Trust me, being in the Army has made me used to not getting the whole picture."

Twilight hugged him, sighing with relief. "Thanks, big brother." She carefully slid off his lap and stood up. "All right, you three, we need to talk. Sorry. This is between us."

He waved and smiled. "Of course. I'll be right here if you need me."

The librarian lead the women to the other end of the empty train car, where they all huddled together on another set of benches. "This is driving me up the wall," she muttered angrily. "I hate myself. I'm going to hate myself until the end of time. Luna trying to cover everything up isn't helping me feel any better. I mean, did you see the headline in the Canterlot Times this morning?"

Winter nodded her agreement. "She might have concealed my existence, but hiding the death of a Princess is going to be impossible. I can't figure out what she's up to."

Applejack had been stowing some anger herself, and she let all of it go in one hissed rant. "I'm about fuckin' tired of bein' a part of a cover up that never seems ta fuckin' end," she said. "I coulda gotten killed. Rainbow coulda gotten killed. Apple Bloom...damn it. I can't even handle picturin' her hearin' about me dyin'. Fuck! If this shit keeps on happenin' I'm gonna slug Luna right in the mouth!"

Rainbow leaned back sarcastically and grinned. "And you say I cuss a lot?" The couple shared a wry smile. "In all seriousness, though, AJ's right. If there's more to this, then you guys have a right to know. We all do."

"Maybe not," Twilight whimpered, hunched over and hiding her face. "Celestia was right. I proved to be a danger to the whole world." She yelped when Applejack slapped her on the head.

Their eyes met just as the blonde was folding her arms. "Don't ya start. I ain't gonna listen to ya beat yourself up over this. If we all need ta take shifts so ya've got a shoulder ta cry on until ya feel better, fine. But I ain't gonna have any wallowin'."

"I'm not wallowing. I nearly killed Fu—Winter. If she had failed, where would we be right now?"

Imagining that was too heavy a weight for even all four of them to hold up. They sat quietly and listened to the rhythmic clack of the train wheels.

Rainbow, fidgeting under the silence, finally had to break it. "For what it's worth, I would have snapped too if one the people I loved the most said they had a plan to kill me."

Twilight, slumped over, offered a weak shrug. "Still doesn't justify what I did. I've changed the direction of the whole country."

"Y'all are awfully quiet over there," Applejack said, nudging Winter's shin with her boot. "Speak up. Ya have something ta say too, don'tcha?"

"What do you want to hear?" Her nerves were still raw from the interaction with her armor; it had left behind wisps of emotion that she took on as her own. One of these gifts was frustration. "I killed the Princess to save Twilight. When Luna decides what she wants to do with me, I will face those consequences." She rubbed at her eyes. "I don't know what else there is to say."

Rainbow waved her words aside. "Forget that. We wanna talk about before. Are you all right? Pinkie said you were trying to hurt yourself before you went to the orchard."

Despite all of the previous day's events, she quickly realized that nothing on her end had actually changed. She still felt as lost and unhappy as when Luna has confessed, but the rush of defeating Twilight blotted all that out. Decompression from the fighting brought her right back into the sullen muck, although it had lost some of its potency. "No. I still feel a lot like I did before coming back to Canterlot."

Twilight straightened and gave the pale woman a one-armed hug. "We'll work it out. Together."

Unconvinced, Winter shrugged away her embrace. "No. We won't. None of you will ever understand what's happened to me."

"Ain't no excuse ta keep it bottled up. Damn it, Fu, we're your friends. I know ya tend toward bein' quiet, but we're all here ta listen." Applejack waved her hat around to get the pale woman's attention before smiling. "We're in this together, ya hear me?"

Rainbow nodded and grinned. "Yeah. Even if the whole thing gives my headache a freaking headache."

Seeing that Winter was unwilling to address the subject any further, Twilight changed it. "Speaking of headaches, I wonder who's going to ascend the throne."

"It has to be Luna, right?" Something in the librarian's eyes made Rainbow question her own words. "You don't think so?"

"The throne of Equestria isn't subject to primogeniture. The ruling Princess leaves a last will and testament containing who she wishes to succeed her. It's weird, but that's how it's been done since the country was founded. She might name me as her successor. She could even name Winter."

Applejack blinked with disbelief. "Holy hell. Princess Twilight? Princess Fu?"

Winter was growing annoyed with the blonde. "You do realize that's not my name, right?"

"Sure. But it's your nickname, and it's gonna be your nickname 'til the day I finally keel over." She gave a friendly wink and smile. "Best get used ta it."

That put a smile on Winter's face, but she couldn't figure out why. "Very well."

Twilight groaned and stood up. "Anyway, I'm tired of thinking about this. I just want to get home, see everybody, and try to sleep." Tears began to flow. "If I can ever sleep again."

Their train ride home consumed most of the day's light. By the time Twilight stumbled through the library door and into her mother's arms, the sun was again creeping below the horizon. Winter stayed well clear of the crowd, watching as the librarian's family closed ranks around her and disappeared into the living quarters. Rainbow Dash and Applejack didn't stay long – the blonde wanted to go pick up her sister and see to the unoccupied orchard. Spike lingered, along with Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, in the public space. The pale woman stayed there too, trying to allow Twilight as much space as possible.

It became clear very fast that the four of them had no idea how she had emerged victorious. "You are something else, darling," Rarity praised, swishing a bottle of water in her right hand as she lounged in one of the boxy chairs. "Have you seen the news? Nobody suffered a scratch. I don't even know why I was worried."

"Yeah! Fufu saves the day again!" Pinkie bounced in her own seat happily. "You okay, though? I mean, about the whole what-Luna-said thing."

Winter stared at the floorboards and shook her head. "Not really. I have a lot of regret over the people that died in my name."

Fluttershy raised her hand as if she were in school, only to squeak when everyone looked over. "Well, this may not help, but, um...most of them weren't your fault. A-actually, I don't believe any of them were. It's not like you wanted to hurt anyone. You had to. To survive."

"Small comfort," Winter replied, rubbing at her eyes. A few laughs from the kitchen drew their attention. "Sounds like they're having fun."

"I'm simply glad everything worked out." Rarity blinked as Spike walked over and gave the pale woman an abrupt hug.

"Thanks," all was he could say.

"Don't thank me just yet. You don't have the whole story."

"What do you mean?" He sat back down and leaned forward, as did the three women. "Twilight's okay. I mean, she looks exhausted, but she's okay." Winter's stoic mask made his heart rate increase. "She is okay, isn't she?"

"Physically? Yes. We fought, but her power healed those wounds. It's what I had to do to break her anger that will never be healed." Too unsettled to keep sitting, she got up and wandered to one of the large windows. Ponyville was still socked in with snow, tinted red and purple and blue with the evening sky. "I had to kill Princess Celestia to snap her out of it. She watched her die. That's how I won."

"A-a-a-are you gonna go to jail?" Pinkie asked. She had a hard time standing, her trembling was so bad. "Are you in trouble?"

Rarity, blanched with shock, had to set her drink aside. "Are you, darling?"

"I don't know. Luna sent me home with Twilight. I don't know what she's planning." She was surprised as they all gathered around her. "What?"

"This is very serious," Rarity said. "No matter what she decides, however, I—we will be with you."

"Even if it means we have to go to the slammer!" Pinkie cheered for a split second before getting droopy. "Wait, that's bad."

"I don't wanna go to jail," Fluttershy whimpered, hiding her mouth behind her oversized sweater sleeves.

Their fear was making Winter's blood boil. "None of you are going to jail." She glanced down at a steely-eyed Spike. "Yes?"

"Twilight loved the Princess so much. I don't know how she's gonna get over this." He looked away and placed a hand on his hip. "But you didn't kill her. That's what counts. Whatever I can do to convince Luna to leave you alone, I will."

Rarity swallowed and emitted a nervous laugh. "The good news is, I'm not sure Luna can imprison Winter, to be entirely honest. Still...this could be very prickly. Do Applejack and Rainbow Dash know?" The pale woman nodded. "Thank goodness. As soon as Twilight is settled, we need to formulate a plan."

"No need for a plan! Fufu stays here, we convince Lu that we can totally watch over her – not that she's dangerous at all! – and problem solved!" Pinkie wilted at their uncertain reaction. "R-right? Guys, seriously, she can't go to jail. She's been through waaaaay more than enough."

Fluttershy nodded forlornly. "Sure, but...what can we do?"

Winter lost track of their conversation; her focus went to Twilight and her family at the kitchen table, which she could see through the doorway. The librarian's face was marked with a particular kind of hopelessness even as she smiled – one with which the pale woman was quite familiar. It was the look she could feel on her own face whenever Twilight asked a question she couldn't answer. Her expression wasn't the main reason why she'd tuned out, though; the way her family behaved was fascinating, and in a way, infuriating. Winter knew friendship. She even knew, vaguely, what Rainbow Dash and Applejack had. What defied her was the love being shown between those four people, squished together at the too-small table. One thing about it was clear, however.

"I'll never have that," she said, cutting off Rarity as the dressmaker began to answer Spike's question.

"Hmm?" She looked in that direction, as did everyone else, and blinked. "Have what, darling?"

"A family."

A nearly endless stream of sympathetic words and noises did nothing for, her, nor did the group hug brought on by Pinkie. Their embrace felt as cold as the driven snow outside. Winter dropped her head and sighed, wrangling with the bitterness that sprouted again in her heart. In that moment she understood – a little, at least – why Twilight had snapped so badly.